RTHK: New clashes over anti-immigration rally in Sweden Swedish police said officers wounded three people on Sunday in the eastern city of Norrkoping as demonstrators protested plans by a far-right group to burn copies of the Koran. "Police fired several warning shots. Three people appear to have been hit by ricochets and are currently being treated in hospital", police said in a statement. The three who were injured were under arrest, police said, adding that their condition was not known. Sunday's clashes in Norrkoping were the second there in four days. On the first occasion, the demonstrators had protested against a rally by anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, led by the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan, 40. On Sunday, they rallied again to protest another gathering, which in the end Paludan abandoned. Four people were arrested among the approximately 150 participants, as protesters threw stones at officers and cars were set on fire, police said. According to health services quoted by local news agency TT, 10 people were hospitalised with minor injuries following the clashes and similar unrest in the neighbouring town of Linkpping, where far-right Hard Line also abandoned a demonstration. Paludan, who intends to stand in Swedish legislative elections in September but does not yet have the necessary number of signatures to secure his candidature, is currently on a "tour" of Sweden. He is visiting neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations where he wants to burn copies of the Koran. A lawyer and YouTuber, he has previously been convicted of racist insults. In 2019, he burned a Koran wrapped in bacon and was blocked for a month by Facebook after a post conflating immigration and crime. On Saturday, one of his rallies was moved from a district of Landskrona to an isolated car park in southern Malmo, the large neighbouring city, but a car tried to force the protective barriers. The driver was arrested and Paludan then burned a Koran. Hard Line's tour has sparked several clashes between the police and counter-protesters across the Scandinavian country in recent days. On Thursday and Friday, around 12 police officers were injured in the clashes. In the wake of the string of incidents, Iraq's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires in Baghdad on Sunday. It warned that the affair could have "serious repercussions" on "relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, both Muslim and Arab countries and Muslim communities in Europe". In November 2020, Paludan was arrested in France and deported. Five other activists were arrested in Belgium shortly after, accused of wanting to "spread hatred" by burning a Koran in Brussels. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-04-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese Wisdom in Xi's Words: People united are as strong as fortress Xinhua) 07:59, April 18, 2022 BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- "As long as the people from all ethnic groups across the country, under the Party's leadership, unite together with one heart and one mind and bravely and readily stand out for ourselves, we will definitely be able to overcome all the difficulties and challenges on our road ahead, and continue to create new impressive miracles." These were President Xi Jinping's words on March 5, when he joined national lawmakers from Inner Mongolia for deliberation. He used a Chinese idiom, which roughly translates to "people, if united, are as strong as a fortress," to urge Chinese people of all ethnic groups to work hard in unity. The idiom could be traced back to the Discourses of the States, a book believed to be from the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.-476 B.C.). It signifies that when people band together, they can overcome any difficulties. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that working hard in unity is the path the Chinese people must take to make historic achievements. Chairing a symposium with experts and scholars in June 2020, Xi noted that in the face of the sudden strike of COVID-19, all CPC members, the armed forces and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups have fought as one, made all-out efforts and put in place the most rigorous, comprehensive and thorough response measures. The nation's major strategic achievements in the battle against COVID-19, Xi said, speak to the enormous power of unity when all CPC members, the armed forces and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups pull together to tide over the difficulties. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Village Capital and The Lightsmith Group will accelerate 16 startups that are providing climate adaptation and resilience solutions in Asia and Africa. WASHINGTON & NEW YORK, April 18, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Village Capital and The Lightsmith Group ("Lightsmith") announced today that 16 startups were selected to participate in a new environmental accelerator called "ASAP", or the Adaptation SME Accelerator Project, focused on innovative climate adaptation ventures in Asia and Africa. The 16 startups were selected from more than 300 applicants and have developed technologies in water, agriculture, risk analytics, supply chain, infrastructure, and insurance that can support adaptation and resilience to climate change. During the ASAP accelerator program, the 16 companies will work with industry experts, investors, and ecosystem partners to develop the networks and tools they need to attract investment, grow their businesses, and increase their climate adaptation impacts. More information can be found here. "Through the ASAP Accelerator, we aim to help these entrepreneurs to scale their impact and connect to a global network working to develop solutions that address the impacts of climate change," said Brian Parham, ASAP Program Director at Lightsmith. ASAP is a grant-funded initiative led by The Lightsmith Group, in partnership with Village Capital, and with the support of the Global Environment Facilitys Special Climate Change Fund. Additional support is provided by Conservation International and the Inter-American Development Bank. The cohort is composed of: Asia Absolute Water (India), Agtuall (India), Aumsat Technologies LLP (India), Crop2X Private Limited (Pakistan), EF Polymer Private Limited (India), Hiraya Water (Philippines), Komunidad Global Pte Ltd (Singapore, Philippines), Ship60 (Vietnam) Africa Agromyx (Ghana), Cadel Consulting Ltd (Burkina Faso), Congretype (South Africa), Freezelink (Ghana), Kitovu Technology (Nigeria), Rwanda Bio Solution (Rwanda), Worldtech Consult (Ghana), ZR3I (Egypt) Story continues For more information, reach out to Ben Wrobel at Village Capital or Brian Parham at Lightsmith. About the Partners Village Capital & The Lightsmith Group Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. So far, VC has supported more than 1,400 early-stage startups and invested in more than 110 program graduates. The Lightsmith Group is an investment firm investing in companies that address critical societal needs. For more information, please see: www.lightsmithgp.com and for the ASAP project, please see: www.climateasap.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220418005281/en/ Contacts Media Contact Company name: Wing communications Contact Person- Shiva Bhavani Email: shiva@wingcomm.in Website: https://wingcomm.in/ Residents are encouraged to share their stories with the community to raise awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation and honor those that have given the gift of life CASPER, Wyo., April 18, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In honor of National Donate Life Month this April, Donor Alliance is inviting Wyoming residents to celebrate the gift of life by raising awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation at events across Wyoming. Ranging from the upcoming Wyoming Donor Dash event on April 23rd at the Tate Pumphouse to celebrations at Driver Services and hospitals across Wyoming, there are plenty of opportunities for Wyoming residents to honor the lives of donors, celebrate the lives of recipients and raise awareness for those still waiting for a lifesaving transplant. "Wyoming continues to make an incredible impact when it comes to residents who have signed up as organ and tissue donors," said Jennifer Prinz, president and CEO of Donor Alliance. "As we honor National Donate Life Month in Wyoming, were aiming to grow awareness and support of the generous gift of organ and tissue donation. In addition to raising awareness for this important cause and encouraging more people to sign up to become organ, eye and tissue donors, sharing the stories of our friends, family and neighbors gives hope to those on the waitlist." Wyoming Donor Dash 5K Walk/Run This years annual Wyoming Donor Dash returns to the Tate Pumphouse along the Platte River Trails. As the first running event in the spring season in the area, everyone is invited to join the annual 5k walk/run honoring and raising awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation in Wyoming. Taking place on April 23rd at 8 a.m., the Wyoming Donor Dash will feature a 5K walk/run, speakers including donor families and transplant recipients to share the impact of organ donation, and touching moments where attendees drop blue and green carnations into the North Platte River as the peaceful waters carry their blessings & prayers onward. Story continues This year, were honored to host two incredible mothers, Ashlee Ferre and Jaimie Robertson. Both are mothers of donors who will be on hand to share their stories and the impacts that their childrens gifts of life have had. Also sharing the impact of the gift of life is Jaimies sons heart recipient and his family. Beyond sharing their stories to encourage others to say yes to giving the gift of life, these strong mothers are also sharing their stories as an example of the incredible support of their community. Blue and Green Day In honor of Blue and Green Day on April 22, twenty-one of the states Driver Services offices in addition to hospitals across Wyoming are honoring the day with celebrations and office decorations. Additionally, on Monday, April 11th, Governor Gordon proclaimed it Blue & Green Day across the state by signing a Donate Life Blue & Green Day Proclamation. The Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center will also light up in blue & green lights to celebrate the gift of life on April 22. Wyoming residents are encouraged to join the celebration by dressing in blue and green to raise awareness for organ, eye, and tissue donation, honor those heroes who have given the gift of life and highlight the need for more registered donors. Share a picture on social media using #ShineALight to help raise awareness and give hope to the more than 1,500 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant in our communities. Donor Alliance is the federally designated non-profit that facilitates organ and tissue donation in Colorado and most of Wyoming. For more information about organ and tissue donation, please DonorAlliance.org. To sign up to become an organ, eye and tissue donor after death, please visit DonateLifeWyoming.org. About Donor Alliance Donor Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. As the organ and tissue procurement agency for Colorado and most of Wyoming, Donor Alliance serves more than 5.8 million residents and more than 100 hospitals. Donor Alliance adheres to the highest medical, regulatory and ethical standards, and meets every performance standard. By respectfully working with the families of organ and tissue donors, maintaining partnerships with hospitals, educating residents on the life-saving benefits of donation and inspiring them to sign up on the states donor registry, Donor Alliance is able to save lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Colorado and Wyoming boast some of the highest rates of donor registration in the country, which directly translates to more lives saved and healed through organ and tissue transplantation. Donor Alliance is one of 58 federally designated organizations of its kind in the United States. For more information visit DonorAlliance.org or the Donate Life Colorado or Donate Life Wyoming Facebook pages. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220418005447/en/ Contacts Geoff Renstrom The Fletcher Group 208.871.9280 geoff@fletchergroupllc.com Ryea ONeill Donor Alliance 307.577.1700 roneill@donoralliance.org ReportLinker Factors such as the changing nature of warfare, the militarization of police forces, the increasing incidence of drug trafficking, and terrorist activities, and the modernization of armed forces are driving factors assisting the growth of the ammunition market. New York, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Ammunition Market by Application, Caliber, Product, Component, Guidance Mechanism, Lethality, Region - Forecast to 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p04759534/?utm_source=GNW The ammunition market includes major players Lockheed Martin (US), General Dynamics Corporation (US), BAE Systems (UK), Elbit Systems (Israel), CBC Global Ammunition (Brazil), and Nammo AS (France), among others.These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. COVID-19 has affected the ammunition market growth to some extent, and this varies from country to country.Industry experts believe that the pandemic has not affected the demand for ammunition in defense applications. However, due to continuous lockdown and social distancing measures, there has been a decrease in the need for ammunition in civil and commercial applications. Small: The fastest-growing segment of the ammunition market, by the caliber Based on caliber, the ammunition market has been segmented into small, medium, large, and others.The small caliber segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of this segment can be attributed to increased use of small caliber ammunition by military and homeland security personnel, owing to less lethality of this ammunition. Bullets: The fastest-growing segment of the ammunition market, by product The bullets segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR.In recent years, an increasing focus has been observed to upgrade land forces and airforce inventory across the globe due to multiple reasons such as geopolitical tensions and air force applications. For instance, the US has ongoing F-35 fighter aircraft programs. Whereas the Indian air force is looking for multi-role aircraft to strengthen their armed forces, and hence new aircraft procurements will lead to an increased demand for related ammunition in the coming years. Defense: The fastest-growing segment of the ammunition market, by application The defense segment of the ammunition market has been classified into military and homeland security. The growth of the defense segment of the ammunition market can be attributed to the increased spending of countries on military modernization programs, as well as the rise in terrorist activities and civil disturbances in several parts of the world. North America: The largest contributing region in the ammunition market. The ammunition market in the North American region has been studied for the US and Canada.Major factors that are expected to drive the growth of the market in the region include rising instances of terrorism, which have led to increased use of ammunition by armed forces and a growing number of drug cartels in Central America. North American countries are awarding a number of contracts to major players of the ammunition market for the delivery of ammunition, thus driving the growth of the ammunition market in the region.For instance, In July 2020, Northrop Grumman Corporation secured a contract from the US Army to deliver the next-generation airburst cartridge for the 30mm XM813 Bushmaster Chain Gun. The Bushmaster Chain Gun will be installed on the Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV). Also, the company has secured a contract worth USD 93 million from the US Army for the manufacture of multipurpose munition technology for destroying targets such as lightly armored and infantry fighting vehicles. The break-up of the profile of primary participants in the ammunition market: By Company Type: Tier 1 35%, Tier 2 45%, and Tier 3 20% By Designation: C Level 35%, Director Level 25%, and Others 40% By Region: North America 20%, Europe 5%, Asia Pacific 45%, and Middle East & Africa 30% Major companies profiled in the report include Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), General Dynamics Corporation (US), CBC Global Ammunition (Brazil), Olin Corporation (US), Ruag Ammotec (Switzerland), BAE Systems (UK), Thales Group (France), Rheinmetall AG (Germany), Nexter KNDS group (France), Elbit Systems (Israel), Nammo AS (Norway), and ST Engineering (Singapore) among others. (28 Companies) Research Coverage: This research report categorizes the ammunition market basis of applications (defense, civil & commercial), caliber (small, medium, large, others), product(bullets, aerial bombs, grenades, artillery shells, mortars), component(fuzes & primers, propellants, bases, projectiles and warheads, others), guidance mechanism (guided, non-guided), lethality(lethal, less-lethal) in these segments have been mapped across major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.The scope of the report covers detailed information regarding the major factors, such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities, influencing the growth of the ammunition market. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been done to provide insights into their business overviews; solutions and services; key strategies; new product launches; mergers; and partnerships, agreements, associated with the ammunition market. Reasons to buy this report: The report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market with information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall ammunition market and the subsegments.This report will help stakeholders understand the competitive landscape and gain more insights to position their businesses better and to plan suitable go-to-market strategies. The report also helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them with information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. The report provides insights on the following pointers: Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on ammunition offered by the top players in the market Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product launches in the ammunition market Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative markets the report analyzes the ammunition market across varied regions Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the ammunition market Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, growth strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of leading players in the ammunition market Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04759534/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Auburn University has been awarded a $589,889, three-year grant for the first National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers project at Auburn, titled, Project-Based Learning for Rural Alabama STEM Middle School Teachers in Machine Learning and Robotics. This project will provide hands-on research experiences in robotics and machine learning/artificial intelligence, or ML/AI, for 30 STEM middle school teachers10 each yearand expand their knowledge of teaching these concepts through project-based learning as part of a six-week summer program. Part of a collaborative effort between the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, the College of Education and teacher participants who will engage with project team members in developing curriculum modules using the contents in ML/AI, the program is expected to reach approximately 1,200 students across several school districts in rural and underserved areas of Alabama. The students will gain valuable knowledge relevant to preparing them for an increasingly technological society. The project aims to provide the following experiences: Professional development activities and pedagogical approaches in the fundamentals of robotics and ML/AI and a novel platform for research and education of ML-based mobile robots Engage teachers and undergraduate students in hands-on research projects on ML-based mobile robots that match well with faculty mentors active research projects Collaboration with engineering and STEM education faculty to develop and implement project-based curricular modules Leadership professional development and mentoring skills via teacher leader academies Assist teachers to implement the RET curricular modules via academic follow-up. The project team from engineering includes Xiaowen Gong, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, who serves as the projects principal investigator, Daniela Marghitu (Co-PI), faculty and director of the Education and Assistive Technology Laboratory in computer software and science engineering, and Thaddeus Roppel (Co-PI), associate professor in electrical and computer engineering. Education project team members include Melody Russell (Co-PI), Alumni Professor of science education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, who will assist with the development of curriculum modules, as well as teacher professional development, and Chih-hsuan Wang, professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, who will serve as project evaluator. We really wanted to reach out to educators from Alabamas Black Belt region, which is traditionally underserved, and there is a high need for programs like this, said Gong. Every year, we will recruit 10 teachers and provide them with education and research activities directed by AU faculty members in electrical and computer engineering and computer science. We already have more than 10 AU faculty members signed up. Roppel, director of the Sensor Fusion Laboratory at Auburn, specializes in robotics and K-12 outreach. Roppel and Gong, along with a few other faculty members in electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Auburn, will be teacher participants mentors who provide research projects to the teachers. Marghitu will develop the comprehensive web portal of the project and will work with Russell on developing curriculum modules for the middle school classroom in collaboration with teacher participants. Marghitu will also organize, in collaboration with Gong and all Co-PIs, a one-week camp in which the teachers will practice teaching the RET curriculum modules. We hope this project will improve the content knowledge for students and teachers in underserved areas of Alabama through the development of innovative curriculum modules based on cutting-edge technologies, Gong said. This new component will not replace their existing curriculum, but we hope this will spark an interest in STEM-related education and inspire them to pursue this avenue as a career or education focus. Educators interested in applying for the program are encouraged to complete this preliminary questionnaire. General Hospital Days of Our Lives The Young and the Restless Want to know what happens next week on #YR? Here's a sneak peek! pic.twitter.com/IwL85YG71g Young and Restless (@YandR_CBS) April 15, 2022 The Bold and the Beautiful Steffy may be awake, but the challenges continue for the Forrester family. #BoldandBeautiful is new this week on @CBS. Watch the latest episodes on @paramountplus. pic.twitter.com/cOXIRqA0Ek Bold & The Beautiful (@BandB_CBS) April 17, 2022 This Week in Soaps history... April 21st-25th, 2008 This week on the US Daytime Soaps...Adam reached out to JR and asked him for help running the business. A bizarre occurrence left Adam rattled.Kendall and Zach burned down Tad's cabin. It was a symbolic gesture to put Kendall's night with Aidan in the past. Unfortunately, Zach had trouble letting go of it.Cassandra called Angie to let her mother know that she was headed to Pine Valley. Jesse, surrounded by family and friends, looked on as his coffin was exhumed and opened.Annie tripped and hit her head. She lied to Ryan about what happened.Erica decided to become a crusader for prison reform with plans to implement changes that would allow her fellow prisoners a real chance at rehabilitation. Erica landed in solitary confinement.Jack agreed to be Carmen's new attorney.Meg told Paul to get lost when he couldn't control his jealousy of Mike.Aaron and Sofie broke up because Sofie was spending time with Paul. Barbara told Sofie it was time to start her new career designing jewelry.Carly told Jack to move out.After Holden found Dusty's things, he told Lily something needed to change; Lily decided to go visit Iva, to try to get control of her life. Holden and Carly comforted each other about their marital situations and became better friends.Parker hurt his arm while skateboarding, and Jack was angry when he found out before Carly could tell him.Emily gave Casey a job as her administrative assistant, which became dangerous when a judge about whom Emily had written a negative story came to the office, intent on revenge. Margo was very angry about Casey's new job, and Emily fired Casey to keep the peace. Alison got into nursing school. Brad and Katie had their first fight but kissed and made up. A teenage girl told Brad that she was his daughter.Noah and Luke got a birthday present for Ameera and managed to find a moment to kiss. Ameera tried to seduce Noah, and when that failed, she wanted to return to Iraq. Luke and Noah convinced her to stay, and Luke decided it might be best if he moved in with them.At the court custody hearing, the judge decided to give Nick and Taylor shared custody of Baby Jack since Taylor received a good psychological evaluation. Brooke demanded that the judge listen to her argument that Taylor was not stable. Brooke whined that Taylor was carrying on with Brooke's son, Rick, and it was unhealthy. The judge told Brooke that she had no rights in the case, and that Rick appeared to be a positive influence.Stephanie surprised everyone with her decision to sell the Forrester mansion to Eric, and Stephanie gave Eric her blessing to live there with Donna.Storm broke into Ashley's house, and pulled a gun out while he spilled his guts about how he shot Stephanie, and framed his dad, Stephen, for the shooting. Katie showed up, and saw Storm with a gun. She tried to wrestle the gun away from Storm, and it went off, shooting Katie in the chest. At the hospital, the entire family gathered around to find that the bullet nicked Katie's heart, and she had little chance of survival. Brooke hoped for a miracle.Chelsea suffered from a post-operative infection and was re-hospitalized. While heavily medicated, Chelsea admitted to Daniel that she wished he were not her doctor so that they could enjoy a non-professional relationship.Philip warned Morgan that John was the cause of her father's problems. Marlena returned from her trip to find John preparing for a date with Nicole. John later admitted to Marlena that his date with Nicole was related to his business dealings with the Kiriakis men. John and Marlena forged ahead with their new relationship. John confirmed that Nicole was Philip's spy and told her to take a hike. Victor kicked Nicole and Chloe out of the Kiriakis mansion. Sami was still steaming at E.J. because he decided to represent Nicole.Ava continued with her plan to keep Steve, Kayla, Bo, and Hope captive until Kayla's baby was born. Steve told Ava that he would have sex with her and give her their own child if she released Kayla, Bo, and Hope, who all needed medical attention. Kayla was shocked to find Steve in bed with Ava. Bo, Hope, Kayla, and Steve finally escaped from the Vitale house, and Abe and Roman took a shaken Ava and some of her entourage into police custody.Stephanie told Max that she loved him and they almost made love. Angelo's point man cornered Stephanie at knifepoint and told her to leave with him or he would kill her.Philip argued with Victor about Chloe, and Nicole threatened Victor that she would reveal his secret if he didn't allow her to move back into the house. Nicole told Chloe that Victor had known of Brady's whereabouts all along.Ric took steps to get Anthony released and cleared of criminal charges. Claudia lied to Anthony, claiming that she had hired Ric. Anthony put a hit on Claudia. Jason was caught up in the hit and saved Claudia. Jason made it clear to Claudia that he would not rest until he found the person responsible for Michael's shooting. Ian realized that Jason was getting closer to discovering that he was the shooter. He quickly made plans to leave town.Nik decided to have the surgery to remove his tumor.Jax arranged for specialists from Europe to review Michael's case. The news was bleak.Anna Devane returned to Port Charles and learned that she was going to be a grandmother. Robin overheard Patrick talking about Anna.Johnny went to Sonny's with a gun to question him about Claudia's sudden disappearance.Lulu was a witness to a shocking scene.Nat tried to help Olivia recover. When Olivia collapsed and was taken to Cedars, Jeffrey decided to have her recuperate at Cross Creek. They signed divorce papers.Jeffrey tried to convince Ava to stop lying to Bill. Later, Ava found out that she was pregnant!Cassie had an awkward dinner with Harley and Cyrus. Harley told Cyrus that she felt like she was cheating on Gus, and asked him to move out. Harley went back to the Springfield Police Department, and was partnered with Marina. Harley caught Daisy selling fake ID's, and found out Cyrus was involved.Beth decided she wanted Alan, but Alan told her she couldn't have him until he was successful again.Frank offered Natalia and Rafe rooms at the boarding house (he didn't tell her he vacated his room for her).Dinah convinced Bill to help her take over Spaulding. She also made a sizable donation to the police department as long as Mallet remained chief.Josh returned from his convention unsure of what to do about Cassie. He told Cassie he'd be sleeping in Will's room for the time being.Starr changed her mind about having the abortion and left the clinic with Cole. Later, Cole asked Starr to run away with him.Clint received some damaging information about Calvin's sons.Antonio learned some heartbreaking news about Jamie.Natalie called Jared out on his jealousy.Cris had an explosive reaction to seeing John and Talia out.Dorian and Layla found Brody Lovett.Marcie was hurt when Adriana asked her to handle the guest book at the wedding; she had hoped that Adriana would ask her to be a bridesmaid.Bo learned that Clint hired Rex.Julian found out about the mishap surrounding his penis reattachment surgery and vowed to destroy Eve. Vincent continued to be a thorn in Eve's side. Viki tried to finish the job of killing Julian by using Esme. Viki overheard Eve telling a nurse that Julian could not have an erection because it would kill him, so Viki came up with the idea to use Esme to seduce Julian.Gwen and Rebecca plotted to send Little Ethan away to boarding school, but Ethan was against the idea. Consequently, Little Ethan pulled a prank on Gwen by turning her blue with a chemical from his chemistry kit.Gertrude (Theresa) and Pilar came to Little Ethan's defense by encouraging Ethan not to send him away to school.A jealous Fancy overheard Luis telling Pretty that she and her baby were the most important things in his life.Victor and Sabrina's feelings grew stronger, and they admitted that they were in love. Victoria continued to harbor resentment towards Sabrina, so she recanted her offer for Sabrina to be Reed's godmother.Felicia Forrester arrived in town for business and flirted with Nick every opportunity she had.Michael dropped his lawsuit against Jack because he did not want to follow in Gloria's footsteps. Jack was distraught because his father's ghost was no longer visiting him.Gloria and Jeffrey decided to get a divorce, but they finally gave in to their desire and made love. Jana taught Gloria about karma, so Gloria did charity work and even made plans to adopt a baby.Jill was furious over a change that Nikki and David had instated at Jabot.Karen moved out of Neil's apartment because she did not want be a surrogate grandma to Lily's baby. Lily turned down Cane's marriage proposal because she felt that he had only proposed due to the pregnancy.Amber and Daniel went out on an official date. Source 3 and Last week, U.S. natural gas futures notched their fifth weekly gain in a row, up 96% YTD and hit their highest settlement since October 2008. The front-month May contract (NG1:COM) jumped 16% for the week to settle at $7.30/MMBtu. The interesting part: investors are betting the surge will last for months, if not years. You can tell this by looking at trends in the nat. gas futures markets: futures due for settlement 10 months out are also trading above $7 on while the January 2024 contract is above $5, a clear indication of strong bullish sentiment running through the gas markets. A late-season blast of cold weather across the U.S. was a major reason for last week's surge. However, another major reason for the sustained increases that could continue is an "increasingly bullish fundamental backdrop as inventories are now sitting 23.9% lower than the same period last year, and 17.8% lower than the five-year average," as Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, has told MarketWatch. Last week, the U.S. government reported that gas in storage rose by 15B cf, less than half the normal rise of 33B cf, bringing total storage to 1.397T cf. This means that supplies are 439Bcf less than a year ago and 303Bcf below the five-year average. Combined with "strong demand so far in the spring 'shoulder season,' when supply is supposed to build substantially before summer demand picks up, has bolstered prices as supply is expected to remain well below average for the foreseeable future," Richey has said. The biggest reason, however, for the natural gas surge is that foreign countries are signing large deals to import U.S.-produced gas in the form of liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Europe wants American gas so that countries there can pivot away from Russian gas. With U.S. exporters set to meet with customers in Berlin this week, additional demand-related news could be coming from the likes of Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) and Tellurian Inc. (NYSE:TELL). Related: U.S. Natural Gas Prices Hit Highest Level In 14 Years As you might expect, natural gas equities have been flying: last quarter, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEARCA:UNG) and the United States 12 Month Natural Gas ETF (NYSEARCA:UNL) emerged as the best-performing ETFs across the entire U.S. market, notching returns of 57.9% and 53.3%, respectively. However, the American energy market has nothing on its neighbor to the north: Canada's famous Oil Patch. The Canadian energy market has been playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers: the country's energy benchmark, Horizons S&P/TSX Capped Energy ETF (HXE.TO), is up a roaring 101% over the past year, nearly 40 percentage points better than its American brethren and more than 4x higher the S&P/TSX Composite Index return. Horizons HXE seeks to replicate the performance of the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index, net of expenses. The S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index is designed to measure the performance of Canadian energy sector equity securities included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index. Over the past few years, a vicious one-two-three punch started with a gloomy long-term future outlook due to rampant fossil fuel divestments, climate change policies, and decarbonization, as well as shorter-term, but severe shocks from the COVID-19 crisis threw Canada's most important exports industry into an existential crisis. Meanwhile, the drumbeat of exits by foreign oil firms bailing on the unprofitable tar sands added an extra layer of gloom for an industry that's responsible for a fifth of Canada's exports. But with the oil and gas comeback, long-suffering Canadian energy stocks are looking like real bargains. Source: Y-Charts Here are some top Canadian gas stocks trading on the TSX and American exchanges. Many are mid-and small-cap companies, underscoring the strength of the bull market. 1. NuVista Energy Ltd Market Cap: $2.0B 12-Month Returns: 408.6% NuVista Energy Ltd .(OTCPK:NUVSF)(TSX:NVA) is a Calgary, Canada-based oil and natural gas company that engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas reserves in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The company primarily focuses on the condensate-rich Montney formation in the Wapiti area of the Alberta Deep Basin. NuVista is reaping huge dividends for its massive investments in the natural gas business. Last year, the company's adjusted cash flows more than doubled and allowed the company to pay down a significant amount of its long-term debt. The company is targeting a long-term sustainable net debt target of less than 1.0 times adjusted funds flow in the stress test price environment of US$ 45/Bbl WTI and US$ 2.00/MMBtu NYMEX natural gas, representing a target net debt level of $200 - $250 million. Related: Oil Prices Rally Back To Pre-Strategic Petroleum Release Levels 2. Birchcliff Energy Ltd Market Cap: $2.1B 12-Month Returns:239.9% Another Calgary-based energy company, Birchcliff Energy Ltd.(OTCPK:BIREF) (TSX:BIR) is an intermediate oil and natural gas company that acquires, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, light oil, condensate, and natural gas liquids in Western Canada. The company holds interests in the Montney/Doig resource play located approximately 95 km northwest of Grande Prairie, Alberta. Its asset portfolio also includes various other properties, including the Elmworth and Progress areas of Alberta. As of December 31, 2021, the company had interests in 200,712 net acres of undeveloped land, as well as proved plus probable reserves of 1,022 million barrels of oil equivalent. A couple of years ago, Birchcliff was struggling thanks to low natural gas prices and a high net debt position. But the situation has improved dramatically, and Birchcliff is taking advantage of the strong gas price to rapidly reduce its net debt. 3. Enerplus Corp. Market Cap: $3.3B 12-Month Returns: 157.4% Enerplus Corporation (NYSE:ERF)(TSX:ERF), together with subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and Canada. The company's oil and natural gas properties are located primarily in North Dakota, Colorado, Pennsylvania; and Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. As of December 31, 2021, the company had proved plus probable gross reserves of approximately 8.2 million barrels (MMbbls) of light and medium crude oil; 20.7 MMbbls of heavy crude oil; 299.3 MMbbls of tight oil; 56.2 MMbbls of natural gas liquids; 19.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of conventional natural gas; and 1,367.9 Bcf of shale gas. Last November, Jason Bouvier, analyst at Scotiabank, told the Financial Post that Canadian oil producers are "essentially printing money" at current oil and gas prices, and many would still have "still ample" free cash flow, even in a scenario of a drop in WTI to US$55. Bouvier said that average breakeven costs for small and mid-cap companies stand at a slightly higher US$43.50 per barrel, and identified Enerplus Corp. (NYSE:ERF) as one of Canada's energy companies with the lowest capex breakevens (including hedging gains). 4. Peyto Exploration & Development Corp Market Cap:$1.9B 12-Month Returns: 173.0% Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. (OTCPK:PEYUF)(TSX:PEY) engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the Deep Basin of Alberta. As of December 31, 2021, the company had a total proved plus probable reserves of 904 million barrels of oil equivalent. Last year, Peyto recorded a 121% increase in funds from operations amid a recovering natural gas market and rising production, allowing the company to hike its dividend by an impressive 1,400% from $0.04 per year to $0.60 per year. 5. Ovintiv Inc. Market Cap: $13.8B 12-Month Returns: 130.5% Ovintiv Inc.(NYSE:OVV)(TSX:OVV) is a Denver, Colorado-based company that, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids. OVV was founded and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and was the largest energy company and largest natural gas producer in Canada before it rebranded as Ovintiv and relocated to Denver in 201920. The company operates through USA Operations, Canadian Operations, and Market Optimization segments with principal assets in the Permian in west Texas and Anadarko in west-central Oklahoma as well as Montney in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta. Its other upstream assets comprise Bakken in North Dakota, and Uinta in central Utah; and Horn River in northeast British Columbia, and Wheatland in southern Alberta. Last month, Mizuho upgraded OVV to $78 from $54 (good for 45% upside to the current price), citing improving tailwinds. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The benchmark U.S. natural gas price soared by more than 7% early on Monday to hit the highest level since the second half of 2008, as Europe races to buy non-Russian gas after Putins invasion of Ukraine. At 10:18 a.m. ET, the front-month futures price at the Henry Hub had jumped by 6.37% at $7.755 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). Thats more than double the price of the U.S. benchmark compared to the start of this year. In the week to April 12, speculators increased their bullish bets for a second week, with buying concentrated in gold, grains, and natural gas, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said on Sunday. Last week, U.S. natural gas prices reached the highest close at $7.3 since 2008. Below normal temperatures and strong exports driving the current tightness with stockpiles now almost 18% below the usual level, Hansen noted. Higher demand for heating and record LNG exports left U.S. natural gas in storage at the end of the winter at its lowest level in three years, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Friday. Because of the higher withdrawals, by the end of March, the U.S. had the least amount of natural gas in underground storage in the Lower 48 states since 2019. A colder January 2022 and record-high U.S. LNG exports led to more withdrawals even though domestic production of natural gas increased, the EIA said. The U.S. is exporting record volumes of LNG as the United States looks to help European allies with non-Russian gas supply. In another bullish factor for natural gas prices, immediate demand in the United States is expected to be strong Monday through Wednesday, as chilly late-season weather systems track across the Midwest and Northeast with rain and snow showers, as well as cooler than normal lows of 20s and 30s, NatGasWeather.com noted on Monday. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A Caribbean medical school with Illinois ties has agreed to pay a $1.2 million settlement, after the Federal Trade Commission alleged that the school lied about its students success being placed into residencies and passing a medical licensing exam. St. James School of Medicine, which has campuses in Anguilla and St. Vincent, allegedly made misleading claims to attract students since at least 2018, according to the FTC. The school and other defendants neither admitted to nor denied the allegations, as part of the settlement order, which was approved Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Advertisement The settlement order applies to the school itself, as well as the schools Park Ridge-based operator Kaushik Guha, and Park Ridge-based Delta Financial Solutions, which provides financing for the schools students. Guha serves as executive vice president of operations of Human Resource Development Services, the Park Ridge-based parent company of the school. Guha said in a statement Monday that the school has added additional language and clarifications to its website wherever its medical licensing exam pass rates and residency placement rates are mentioned. Advertisement We have chosen to settle with the FTC over its allegations that disclosures on our website and in Deltas loan agreements were insufficient, Guha said in the statement. While we strongly disagree with the FTCs approach to this matter, we did not want a lengthy legal process to distract from our mission of providing a quality medical education at an affordable cost. St. James is a for-profit school that advertises itself as a lower-cost alternative to U.S. medical schools. Caribbean medical schools are typically for-profit institutions that have sometimes been criticized for having lower admission standards than U.S. medical schools. Guha, however, said in his statement that St. James provides a high-quality medical education at a tremendous value, opening the door to a medical career to students who would otherwise find it impossible to become a doctor. St. James claimed that nearly 97% of its students passed an important standardized test, called the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 Exam, when, in reality, only 35% of those who completed the necessary coursework to take the test passed it, the FTC alleged. The school also claimed that its students matched into residencies which is real-world training doctors undergo after they graduate from medical school 85% to 90% of the time, when the average match rate was actually 63%, according to the FTC. St. James lured students by lying about their chances of success, said Samuel Levine, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a news release Friday. The FTC also alleged that the defendants marketed financing for tuition and living expenses, but the financing contracts contained language that attempted to waive consumers rights under federal law and omit legally required disclosures. The settlement money will go toward refunds and canceling debt for students who financed their educations at St. James in the past five years. St. James enrolled about 1,300 students a year between 2016 and 2020, according to the FTC. lschencker@chicagotribune.com The results of Colombias 13th March presidential primary elections have shed light on who the leading candidates are for the countrys approaching presidential election on 29th May. Leader of the Historic Pact (Pacto Historico) coalition and ex-guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro stood out among his competitors by receiving 3 million votes, the largest number of votes received by any candidate during the primaries. Federico Gutierrez, former mayor of Medellin, emerged as his closest competitor, netting around 1.4 million votes. Political Polarisation The primaries also underscored a notable degree of political polarization among voters. Petros Historic Pact coalition obtained 5.8 million votes and Gutierrezs Team for Colombia (Equipo por Colombia) totaled 4.1 million, illustrating voters support for leftist progressive candidates and conservative-leaning candidates respectively. In comparison, the Hope Center Coalition (Coalicion Centro Esperanza) led by centrist candidate Sergio Fajardo received a total of 2.2 million votes. Fajardo himself secured only 72 thousand, trailing behind both Gutierrez and Petro. The apparent decline of Colombias political center is indicative of the Colombian publics thirst for socioeconomic change in the face of numerous challenges, both recent and long entrenched. In the recent past, Colombia experienced social unrest driven in part by the harsh economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw Colombias GDP shrink by 6.8% in 2020. Though the economy has seen signs of recovery, growing by as much as 13.2% in the third quarter of 2021, Colombias employment rate has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. Fatigue and anger at long-term issues including high income inequality, corruption, and Colombias ongoing struggle with guerrilla and criminal groups have also spurred demand for change. A Heated Electoral Battle Given his performance in the primary and voting intention polls, Petro is by far the leading presidential candidate. Gutierrezs good performance at the primaries, which came as a surprise given his lower ranking in a February voting intention poll than competitors like Fajardo, suggests that he will be one of Petros main challengers. Petro may also face some competition from independent candidate and former mayor of Medellin Rodolfo Hernandez, who came closest to Petro in the February poll with 13% to Petros 27%, ahead of both Fajardo and Gutierrez. However, its possible that the splitting of the anti-Petro vote among opponents such as Hernandez and Gutierrez could benefit Petros electoral prospects. Related: U.S. Natural Gas Prices To Spike As Exports Boom In Colombias 2018 presidential election Petro received 25% in the first round and 41% in the runoff. Despite performing better in this years primary than that of 2018, it remains unlikely that Petro, or any other candidate, will receive more than half of the votes in the first round of Colombias election on 29th May. Nonetheless, Petro is highly likely to move into the second round, scheduled for the 19th of June, as he did in 2018. It is harder to gauge who will garner enough votes to join him in the runoff, though Gutierrez or Hernandez are the most likely candidates. Gutierrezs opponents have argued that he represents a continuation of the politics of incumbent President Ivan Duque and the Democratic Center (Centro Democratico) party; this accusation is not entirely without justification given that Democratic Center candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga stepped down on the of 15th March to support Gutierrez. Consequently, Gutierrez may struggle to obtain support from Colombias youth and other groups eager for change. By contrast, Hernandez stands to gain among those tired of Colombias political establishment due to his status as a political independent and vocal anti-corruption platform. To shore up his chances for victory in the runoff Petro must make an effort to assuage the concerns of moderate voters in the face of polling reinforcing that, despite increasing identification with the political left, the majority of Colombians (60%) identify with the political center. The Elections Significance In the short term, uncertainty surrounding the elections outcome is likely to dampen foreign investment somewhat. If a more conservative candidate like Gutierrez or Hernandez wins the election it is probable that markets would react positively, or at least that any negative turns would be more subdued. On the contrary, a victory for Petro has the potential to create significant uncertainty and curtail investment in areas including Colombias energy sector as a consequence of Petros stated aim to roll back Colombian oil production. This policy, if implemented, would likely have serious economic consequences for Colombia given that oil is Colombias largest export good and that oil rents account for approximately 3% of Colombias GDP (as of 2019). Petro has also come under fire for his plan to move the savings of private Colombian pension funds into the state pension system (Colpensiones) and use the money to, among other things, provide a pension to 3 million elderly Colombians who do not currently receive one. Critics have described it as tantamount to the expropriation of Colombian workers savings and a move that would decrease investor confidence in Colombia. A victory for Petro would be an unprecedented development in Colombian history, where a leftist President has never been elected before. His election may lead to unrest among a subset of Colombias population, concerned that Petro will turn Colombia into a state like neighboring Venezuela or nearby Cuba. Such an outcome is not very probable as his party does not hold a majority in either house of Colombias Congress and Petro would need to build a coalition in both houses in order to implement his planned reforms. This, along with the stiff conservative opposition Petro would face, would likely result in the softening of several of Petros proposals. Nevertheless, a Petro victory would likely initiate a process of rapprochement between Venezuela and Colombia which, though it may upset those who argue that the Maduro regime should be isolated for its human rights violations, may also open up avenues for dialogue and humanitarian assistance. Colombias 2022 electoral developments have highlighted that the countrys political landscape is in flux, undergoing polarisation, and desperate for change. This political flux has been observed elsewhere in Latin America in recent years, with countries like Honduras, Peru, and Chile also experiencing elections that saw the election of often left-leaning candidates outside of the political establishment. Such a result in Colombia would confirm this trend and undoubtedly have a lasting impact on Colombias political and economic trajectory, as well as on inter-Latin American relations. By Global Risk Insights for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The visit at the beginning of this year of Qatars Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to the White House, and his meeting in March with German economy minister, Robert Habeck, point to the emirate continuing to navigate a relatively neutral course between the power blocs of the U.S. and its allies on the one side, and China and its allies on the other. These visits followed concerns in Washington that a series of developments, highlighted by OilPrice.com, indicated that Qatar was shifting decisively towards the China power axis, leveraged by its key proxy in the Middle East, Iran. This course for Qatar is intended above all else to keep it out of direct conflict with either side in the ongoing struggle between the superpowers and to allow it to maintain its status as a leading gas power through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capabilities. Given the current supply and demand dislocations in the oil and gas market, its timing is impeccable. For a considerable time, Qatar was the number one exporter of LNG around the world based around its 6,000 square kilometer North Dome site. This site, together with the neighboring 3,700 square kilometer area of Irans South Pars field, comprises by far the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world. By conservatives estimates, the entire 9,700 square kilometer site holds at least 1,800 trillion cubic feet of non-associated natural gas and at least 50 billion barrels of natural gas condensates. Despite this, for a period it lost the top spot to relative newcomer Australia, which shipped an estimated 77.514 million tonnes of LNG on an annualized basis from the countrys 10 LNG projects during 2019. The figure from Australia nonetheless marked an 11.4 percent increase on the 2018 number, driven mainly by production increases at the giant Darwin-based Ichthys LNG Project, and came as a reminder to Qatar that its global competition in the LNG sector had moved up a gear. Qatars response was to announce its intention to increase its LNG production capacity by 64 percent over the next seven years, to a new target of 126 million metric tons per year (mtpy) by 2027, up from its then-capacity of around 77 million mtpy. This superseded the longstanding target of 110 mtpy (although this remained an interim target for Q4 2025), in line with the discovery of further productive layers of gas deposits attached to the main North Dome site but located about 12 kilometers onshore from the coast onshore in Ras Laffan. According to Qatars Energy Minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, at the time, this would allow the emirate to move ahead with engineering work on two further LNG production facilities, with a combined capacity of 16 million mtpy (mega-trains). Prior to this expansion announcement, Qatar had revealed that it was already planning to build four new LNG trains. One key sticking point that had to be overcome in order to achieve these aims was to come to a workable accommodation with neighboring Iran on how the North Dome/South Pars site would be developed. From 2005 until the end of the first quarter of 2017 Qatar had placed a moratorium on the further development of its North Dome site in order to conserve its principal hydrocarbons (and indeed financial) resource but the resolve to continue with this self-imposed prohibition was finally removed for two key reasons. First, it was overtaken as the top global LNG exporter by Australia, and second, Qatars moratorium on its side of the supergiant gas field had only seemed to act as an accelerator on Irans development of its side of the 9,700 square kilometer site. This prompted frequent complaints from Doha that its neighbors no-holds-barred development of its South Pars site would damage the future recovery rate in Qatars own North Dome. Related: Mid-Cap Energy Stocks Are Outperforming Supermajors To seek to rectify this, senior figures from Irans Petroleum Ministry and Qatars Energy Ministry began a series of meetings to agree on a new North Dome-South Pars joint development plan, as analyzed in-depth in my new book on the global oil markets. These meetings covered two main areas, a senior source who works closely with Irans Petroleum Ministry told OilPrice.com. First, Iran agreed to stop the aggressive recovery tactics that it had been using along the border areas [demarcating South Pars and North Field] and second Qatar agreed to sit down with the Chinese and the Russians to discuss the future co-ordination of gas export destinations for Iranian, Qatari and Russian gas flows, marketing and pricing, he said. At that time, Iran and China were talking about expanding the scope of the previously agreed 25-year deal between them, and Russia was keen to ensure the smooth continuation of its own gas supplies to China [principally via the US$400 billion 30-year deal agreed in May 2014] and to ensure that Iranian gas did not take the place of Russian gas and influence in Europe, he added. These talks between Qatar and Iran and the subsequent plethora of deals between Qatar and China raised questions in Washington. These concerns had already been stoked by Qatars fractious relationship with key U.S. ally in the Middle East at the time, Saudi Arabia. Following the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar that ran from 2017 to 2021, the Qataris view of how it regards Saudi Arabias future is best evidenced by the fact that it pulled out of the Saudi-dominated OPEC in January 2019 after 60 years as a member. It is also a reflection of the delicate balancing act that Qatar needs to maintain between the Middle Easts two leading powers Saudi Arabia and Iran given not just the fact that it shares the North Dome/South Pars site with Tehran but also that it is geographically positioned directly between Saudi Arabia on its west and Iran on its east. Qatars negative view of Saudi Arabia is no longer an issue for the Biden White House, given that President Biden has vocally expressed a similarly dim view of Saudi Arabia, and is reflected in the fact that around the same time as the Qatari Emirs visit to Washington in January Biden designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally. Qatar is focused now on filling as many of the gas supply gaps left as a result of Russias invasion of Ukraine as it can. It is still producing around 77 million mtpy and its plans for 126 million mtpy by 2027 remain in place. It is also the majority owner of the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Texas with partner ExxonMobil, with the site having an authorized export capacity of up to 18.1 million mtpy and is expected to start up in 2024. In November, Qatar placed an order for six new LNG carriers with South Korean shipyards, aimed at handling its upcoming LNG expansion. This is part of a program announced last April that saw Qatar reserve LNG carrier construction capacity at three South Korean shipyards and Chinas Hudong Zhonghua shipyard through to the end of 2027 to build as many as 100 new LNG carriers in a program worth more than US$19.2 billion. By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Soaring prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal on the international markets have left Pakistan, the worlds fifth-most populous nation, with having to cut electricity supply to households and industry as the country in a deep political and economic crisis cannot afford to buy more of the expensive fossil fuels. Pakistanwhose population is the fifth largest in the world after China, India, the United States, and Indonesiastarted to feel the pinch of high energy prices as early as last autumn, when it was struggling to procure imported LNG for its power plants. Pakistans predicament came amid a global natural gas crunch and surging prices for the fuel in Europe and Asia, months before prices shot up again as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As global energy prices remain elevated and highly volatile with the Russian war in Ukraine, Pakistandependent on imports with relatively poor state financesis especially hard hit. The energy crisis, and the political crisis with last weeks ousting of Imran Khan as prime minister of the country, which has nuclear weapons, have combined to throw the Pakistani state budget and finances into disarray. Now Pakistan cannot afford to buy more LNG and coal, on which its power plants rely to generate electricity, Bloomberg reported on Monday. In the middle of last week, on April 13, a total of 7,140 megawatts (MW) capacity plants were shut either due to fuel shortage or technical faults, Miftah Ismail tweeted. Ismail has been picked to serve as a finance minister by new Prime Minister-designate Shehbaz Sharif. According to Bilal Kayani, Assistant Secretary General at the Pakistani party PMLN, foreign exchange reserves at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) amounted to just $10.8 billion on 8 April, a day before Imran Khan was ousted through the vote of no confidence. Thats less than 2 months of import cover. Reserves declined rapidly by $5.4 billion in just 5 weeks, Kayani said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) has declared force majeure on another key Libyan oil field, the 300,000 bpd Al Sharara, amid protests that had shut down production at two ports and the El Feel oilfield on Sunday. According to the NOC, a group of individuals put pressure on workers in the Al-Sharara oil field, which forced them to gradually shut down production and made it impossible for the NOC to implement its contractual obligations. The NOC said it was obliged to declare a state of force majeure on Al Sharara until further notice. Al-Sharara is Libyas biggest oilfield, and the move effectively suspends all Libyan oil production and exports. On Sunday, the NOC said that loadings of crude oil at two Libyan ports had been suspended amid anti-government protests that were interfering with oil industry operations. Loading from the Mellita terminal was suspended following a shut down in production at the El Feel oil field, with the NOC stating that individuals were preventing the fields workers from continuing production. Also on Sunday, the NOC shut down operations at the Zueitina export terminal over protests calling for the resignation of incumbent Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. The NOC has been eyeing a ramp-up in production to 1.4 million bpd for Libya, but a new political battle is setting the stage for potential return to civil war. Libya has been producing around 1million bpd since the beginning of this year. Two rival governments have now emerged in Libya, with incumbent Prime Minister Deibah refusing to step down for newly sworn-in eastern prime minister Fathi Bashaga, who last week said his forces would take over the capital Tripoli peacefully. The latest protests that have led to force majeure appear to be engineered by supporters of the Bashaga to gain control of the oil industry from supporters of the incumbent Dbeibah. Early on Monday, the initial force majeure declarations pushed oil prices higher, with Brent trading above $111 per barrel. With the latest force majeure declaration for Al-Sharara, oil prices are pushing higher still, with Brent at $113 at the time of writing (2:47pm EST) and WTI above $108. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Loadings of crude oil at two Libyan ports have been suspended amid anti-government protests that are interfering with the operation of the country's oil industry. The National Oil Corporation has declared force majeure on loadings from the Mellita terminal after production was suspended at the El Feel field. The field, NOC said, "was subjected to arbitrary closure attempts, due to the entry of a group of individuals and the prevention of the field's workers from continuing production, which was totally shut down on Sunday." Meanwhile, unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the Zueitina export terminal was also out of commission due to protests insisting on the resignation of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. The Libyan NOC has since confirmed the Zueitina force majeure. "The NOC regrets the situation and demands that the language of reason and wisdom prevail and to keep the oil sector away from conflicts, in order to preserve the remaining dilapidated infrastructure, due to the consequences of arbitrary closures and the scarcity of budgets over the previous years," the state oil company said. The news of the latest industry disruptions in Libya pushed oil prices higher, with Brent crude trading above $111 per barrel at the time of writing and West Texas Intermediate trading at over $106 per barrel. The latest disruptions come amid plans by the government to boost Libya's oil production to 1.4 million bpd, taking advantage of favorable international price trends. Libya has the biggest oil resources in Africa, but the political instability in the country has prevented it from not only fully utilizing it but even returning to production levels from before the civil war that toppled the Ghaddafi regime. Average crude oil production in the country was 1.2 million barrels last year, but this has fallen to about 1 million bpd since the start of 2022, Bloomberg reported. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: BOSTON (AP) Democratic leaders in the Massachusetts House released a nearly $50 billion state budget proposal Wednesday that would increase spending on areas like schools and local aid while sidestepping a series of tax breaks pushed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. The budget would expand state support for early education and child care programs, provide free school lunches for another year and strengthen workforce training and youth engagement programs. The plan is for the 2023 fiscal year that begins July 1. It would also require that jails and prisons make phone calls free for prisoners and their families. The proposal does not include any broad-based tax increases or fee hikes. The $49.6 billion budget plan would boost spending by more than $2 billion or 4.2% over the current years budget. Thats 2.9% or nearly $1.4 billion more than Bakers budget proposal unveiled in January. Not included in the House plan is a package of more than $690 million in proposed tax cuts suggested by Baker. One would eliminate income taxes for the states lowest-paid 230,000 taxpayers by raising the states adjusted gross income thresholds for no tax status to $12,400 for single filers, $24,800 for joint filers, and $18,650 for heads of households. Another would give renters a bigger tax break on their monthly payments. The state rent deduction is currently 50% of rent but capped at $3,000 a year. Bakers plan would increase that cap to $5,000, letting more than 880,000 Massachusetts renters keep approximately $77 million more annually. Democratic House Speaker Ronald Mariano didnt rule out revisiting Baker's proposed tax breaks before the end of the Legislature's formal session on July 31, but said House lawmakers didnt feel they were necessary now. Baker said the state can afford the tax cuts given its strong fiscal position. The House is expected to debate and vote on their budget proposal later in the month. Last up in the annual budget-writing process is the Senate, also controlled by Democrats. Once the House and Senate approve their separate versions of the spending plan, a special committee of House and Senate members will come up with a compromise version that will head back to both chambers for a final vote. That final version then heads to Baker's desk for his signature. Baker can issue vetoes, but Democrats have large enough majorities in both chambers to override any vetoes if they want. The goal is to have the new budget wrapped up before by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Dozens of Republican leaders in Ohio are mounting a last-minute effort to urge former President Donald Trump not to endorse Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in the crowded upcoming primary for an open Senate seat. A draft letter circulating among Republicans and obtained by The Associated Press calls on Trump to remain neutral in the race. It was written following a news report that Trump was going to endorse Vance, a step the former president has not yet taken. But the letter is a sign of anxiety among some Republicans about which candidate Trump may pick in advance of the state's May 3 primary. Vance has come under particular scrutiny from some of Trump's most loyal supporters for criticizing the former president in the past, something the Republicans highlighted in their letter. In bullet points, they remind Trump of Vance's past comments, including references to potentially supporting Hillary Clinton and comparing the former president to another opioid. We know there are many qualified candidates in this race who have stood up for the America First agenda over the years and have carried the Trump mantle over the years, again with the notable exception of JD Vance, they wrote. While we were working hard in Ohio to support you and Make America Great Again, JD Vance was actively working against your candidacy. The letter, signed by GOP party leaders, including a slew of county chairs, tells the former president that an endorsement that cuts against your support and legacy in Ohio will only serve to confuse or upset voters and may even suppress Republican turnout in the fall. Representatives for Trump and Vance, who has said he regrets his past comments, did not respond to requests for comment. David Johnson, chairman of the Columbiana County Republican Party, who helped to draft and circulate the letter, said the effort came together in a series of phone calls between party chairs Thursday. Johnson, who has endorsed former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken for Senate, said the letter has now been signed by between 40 and 50 people, including supporters of Timken, former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, Cleveland investment banker Mike Gibbons and state Sen. Matt Dolan. Two other candidates round out a seven-way primary to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. All of us think its just not a smart thing to do for winning that seat. Thats the objective, he said. Vance supporters, meanwhile, urged Trump to stick with him. President Trump would be making a fantastic choice by endorsing JD Vance, said Marshall Pitchford, the chairman of Ohio Right to Life. JD is 100% pro-life without exceptions. He will continue President Trumps pro-life victories in the US Senate. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Cubano sandwich at TriBeccas Sandwich Shop in Avondale can silence all conversation. Honestly, how is one supposed to pay attention to anything else while in the presence of such a jaw-droppingly gorgeous creation? From the lacquered brown hue of the crusty bread to the tempting combo of juicy roast pork and salty ham blanketed in gooey cheese, its easy to become transfixed and lose track of company. Yet, its also deftly balanced, with contrasting textures and an array of assertive flavors from salty and savory to acidic and slightly spicy. Advertisement Its also very untraditional. Like most beloved regional dishes, the traditional Cuban, or Cubano, sandwich contains only a handful of components, yet what precisely those are and how they are applied is fraught with controversy. Whole books are even written on the subject. Most versions of the pressed sandwich have Cuban bread, sliced ham, shredded roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, but restaurants in Tampa one of the places the sandwich first began popping up in the late 1800s enjoy adding salami, something that Miami detractors rail against to this day. (In a mostly funny, low-drama way.) Advertisement TriBeccas intentionally steers clear of those troubled waters. Were not trying to be a Cuban restaurant at all, says owner Becca Grothe, which explains why she swapped the traditional Cuban bread for a crackly ciabatta baked by pHlour Bakery in Chicago. And instead of plain mustard, the shop spreads on mustard butter and chipotle aioli, which is not even a little bit traditional. Im just trying to make a good sandwich with the best local ingredients possible, Grothe says. Shes not kidding about that last statement. In fact, one could make a good case for the specificity of calling this a Fairbury Cuban sandwich, since she gets the ham from Twin Oak Meats and the pork from Slagel Family Farm, both of which are in Fairbury, Illinois. Though the pickles are produced by Pickled Prince in Chicago, that company uses as much seasonal produce from Down at the Farms, a farmer-to-farmer marketing and delivery service that is, you guessed it, based in Fairbury. The Swiss cheese, on the other hand, comes from the distant lands of Wisconsin. One bite was all it took for me to fall for its charms. Turns out, thats true for everyone else involved. Becca Grothe and Cam Waron at their restaurant, TriBecca's Sandwich Shop, 2949 W. Belmont Ave., on April 1, 2022, in Avondale. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) As the story goes, Becca Grothe was working as a sous chef at Sunday Dinner Club, a weekly pop-up run by Josh Kulp and Christine Cikowski, when she decided to make a version of the layered and pressed sandwich. According to Kulp, who also co-owns Honey Butter Fried Chicken with Cikowski, it was a moment none of them can forget. Everyone once in a while, we eat something that makes us want to start a new project, Kulp says. One was eating honey butter on fried chicken, and then there was this one. After a brief stint as a pop-up at the Revival Food Hall and the usual pandemic-related delays, TriBeccas Sandwich Shop opened in Avondale in February, with Kulp and Cikowski helping on the business side. (The name is a play on Grothes first name and Tribeca, the absurdly expensive lower Manhattan neighborhood.) Look past the Cuban sandwich, and youll realize that TriBeccas biggest influence is the kind of comforting Midwest fare Grothe grew up eating. (Shes from Galesburg, Illinois, about 45 miles from the Iowa border.) This explains the shops version of the loose meat sandwich, which, lets be honest, is one of the most unfortunately named dishes in existence. Fortunately, its also known as a Maid-Rite, after the Iowa-based restaurant chain that serves them. TriBeccas MaidWrong starts with sauteed ground beef like most versions do (albeit with more of top-quality Slagel Family product) before once again leaving tradition far behind by adding Muenster cheese, a sweet onion mixture called agrodolce, and a steak sauce aioli affectionately known around the restaurant as A2. Its easily the best version of the dish Ive ever tried. The MaidWrong sandwich ($12) features ground beef covered with Muenster cheese, a sweet onion mixture called agrodolce, and a steak sauce aioli. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) TriBeccas also has two versions of the horseshoe, that cheesy Springfield, Illinois, specialty where a burger patty on toast is topped with crinkle-cut french fries and doused in cheese sauce. (At TriBeccas, you can also order it with tofu instead of beef.) Advertisement Its another personal dish for Grothe. My mom grew up outside of Springfield, Grothe says. So every time we go back to visit, we make sure to all go out and eat one. According to Kulp, Grothe has something of an obsession with cheese sauce, and it shows. The most important thing is that its not grainy, Grothe says. I hate it when its broken and grainy. To achieve the silky balance, she uses a pepperjack cheese spread from Pine River, which is based in Wisconsin. Personally, this is one of those absurdly heavy dishes that I only need once a year, though its well done for what it is. The real find is the crispy frosted cauliflower sandwich. Its based on a family recipe, though not one Im exactly begging to try. The crispy "frosted" cauliflower sandwich ($12). (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) It is sort of a side dish that my mom used to make, Grothe says. Shed take cauliflower and slather it in mustard and mayonnaise, top it with shredded cheese and microwave it. Fortunately, Grothe has taken those flavors, covered the cauliflower in panko, and fried it to create what is one of Chicagos best vegetarian sandwiches. I dont understand how the coating stays so miraculously crunchy, even if you get the sandwich to go. Side dishes wouldnt look out of place at a Midwestern potluck. The ranch broccoli salad tastes exactly like it sounds it would, with crisp, bright green florets in a punchy version of the dressing. The pepper jack also shows up in her spirited take on mac and cheese. Advertisement Ranch broccoli salad ($6) is a menu item offered at TriBecca's Sandwich Shop. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Desserts are limited to a crispy griddled rum cake and a creamy banana pudding cup. But theres also a separate dessert concept sharing space with TriBeccas called Tubers Donuts. These wild potato doughnuts are the brainchild of Cam Waron, Grothes husband. Each one starts with mashed potatoes folded into local flour and then fried in clarified butter. While you can get the Vanilla Iced, which is topped simply with a vanilla buttermilk glaze, you might find yourself tempted by the Fries in Your Frosty, which arrives with a chocolate ganache glaze and crunchy potatoes. The shop itself is bright, adorable and very small, with only one booth and a few bar seats by the window. Its understandable if you get your order to go. Instead of someone taking your order, you can either order online or from a computer at the counter, though Grothe is there to help if you have any questions. Sure, Chicago isnt exactly starved for sandwiches, but crafting multiple showstoppers using ingredients mostly sourced from within a few hours of Chicago is something else entirely and I, for one, am hungry for more. TriBeccas Sandwich Shop 2949 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago 773-878-2717 Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > tribeccas.com Advertisement Tribune rating: Very good Open: 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Thursday to Monday Prices: Sandwiches $11-$13; sides $4-$5; doughnuts $3.25 Noise: Conversation friendly Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible, and bathroom on first floor RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Budd is benefitting from President Donald Trumps endorsement and a super PAC's commitment to flood airwaves and mailboxes to help him as the May 17 Republican primary approaches. But rival and former Gov. Pat McCrory still has managed to stick close to Budd when it comes to head-to-head fundraising. Campaign finance reports for the first quarter show McCrory, the former governor, and current U.S. House member Budd collecting essentially the same level of contributions and other funds. McCrory's campaign said it raised $1.13 million through March 31, compared to $1.125 million raised by Budd., according to reports due Friday with the Federal Election Commission. McCrory also reported having more cash in his campaign coffers entering April $2.2 million compared to $1.9 million for Budd. Since early 2021 before either candidate had entered the race Budd has raised slightly more overall, FEC reports show. Budd has raised $4.24 million compared to $4.16 million for McCrory. Budds overall total contains $275,000 that he loaned his campaign. McCrory with a high name recognition from his time as governor from 2013 through in 2016 had outraised Budd in the second quarter of 2021. As word of Trump's June 2021 endorsement spread, Budd and McCrory's numbers were about even in the third quarter, and Budd outraised McCrory by about $220,000 in the fourth quarter. The candidates' fundraising may shrink in comparison to Club for Growth Action, a super PAC that has said it plans to spend $14 million on activity in the North Carolina primary, praising Budd and attacking McCrory. An FEC filing by the group said it had already incurred $4.7 million in independent expenditures in the race through February. The super PAC and Budd's campaign are barred from coordinating activities. Among other Republican Senate hopefuls, former Rep. Mark Walker's campaign totals remain well behind those of Budd and McCrory. He was also outraised in the first quarter by first-time political candidate Marjorie Eastman of Cary, FEC reports show. Walker reported collecting $105,000 in the first quarter and had $509,000 in cash available. Eastman, a combat veteran, raised $372,000 of which $160,000 were in a personal loan and had $441,000 in cash on hand, according to reports. The four candidates are among 14 seeking the GOP nomination. The top vote-getter must receive more than 30% of the vote to avoid a late July runoff with the second-place finisher. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in an 11-candidate field raised $3.66 million in the first quarter and had $5.1 million on hand entering April, according to her FEC report. Beasleys campaign had announced those totals earlier in the month, showing she is the most prolific fundraiser in the field to date. All of the candidates, including Libertarian Party nominee Shannon Bray, are seeking to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr. Budd has said Trump's endorsement which was on full display during a rally by the former president in Johnston County on April 9 has contributed to his recent surge in polls. McCrory has accused Washington-based Club for Growth of essentially buying support for Budd. The head of another Club for Growth affiliate that endorsed Budd calls him a principled and proven conservative, and said McCrory is too liberal. The ex-governor and other primary rivals have also criticized Budd for declining so far to participate in televised debates. Eastman, McCrory and Walker will attend a live GOP debate Wednesday evening sponsored by Spectrum News 1, the cable channel said Monday. Carolina Senate Fund, a super PAC supporting McCrory and opposing Budd, reported last week that it had collected $478,500 in the first quarter and had $752,000 entering April. In a separate filing, the organization said it had spent $117,000 on campaign mailers. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Sri Lanka's president acknowledged Monday that he made mistakes that led to the country's worst economic crisis in decades and pledged to correct them. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the admission while speaking to 17 new Cabinet ministers he appointed Monday as he and his powerful family seek to resolve a political crisis resulting from the countrys dire economic state. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. A severe shortage of foreign exchange means the country lacks money to buy imported goods. People have endured months of shortages of essentials like food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available. During the last two and a half years we have had vast challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt burden, and some mistakes on our part, Rajapaksa said. They need to be rectified. We have to correct them and move forward. We need to regain the trust of the people. He said the government should have approached the International Monetary Fund early on for help in facing the impending debt crisis and should not have banned chemical fertilizer in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. Critics say the ban on imported fertilizer was aimed at conserving the country's declining foreign exchange holdings and badly hurt farmers. The government is also blamed for taking out large loans for infrastructure projects which have not brought in any money. Today, people are under immense pressure due to this economic crisis. I deeply regret this situation," Rajapaksa said, adding that the pain, discomfort and anger displayed by people forced to wait in long lines to get essential items at high prices is justified. The Cabinet appointments follow weeks of protests over shortages of fuel and food and demands that Rajapaksa, his politically powerful family and his government resign. Much public anger has been directed at Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They head an influential clan that has held power for most of the past two decades. Thousands of protesters occupied the entrance to the presidents office for a 10th day on Monday. The president and prime minister remain in office, but some other relatives lost their Cabinet seats in what was seen as an attempt to pacify the protesters without giving up the family's hold on power. Many senior politicians and those facing corruption allegations were excluded from the new Cabinet in line with calls for a younger administration, though the finance and foreign affairs ministers retained their positions to assist with an economic recovery. Most of the Cabinet resigned on April 3 after protests erupted across the country and demonstrators stormed and vandalized the homes of some Cabinet ministers. Opposition parties rejected an offer by President Rajapaksa to form a unity government with him and his brother remaining in power. Opposition parties have failed, meanwhile, to gain a parliamentary majority. Last week, the government said it was suspending repayment of foreign loans pending talks with the International Monetary Fund. Finance Minister Ali Sabry and officials left for talks with the IMF on Sunday. The IMF and World Bank are holding annual meetings in Washington this week. Sri Lanka has also turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The gubernatorial campaign of State Sen. Brett Lindstrom released polling Monday that indicates an increasingly tight three-way contest for the Republican nomination. The poll was conducted before serious allegations against one of the front-runners sent a shockwave through the race. Polls released by two campaigns in mid-March already had suggested a three-way race, with Conklin Co. CEO Charles W. Herbster polling ahead of Lindstrom and University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen. The new polling, by 3D Strategic Research, was conducted for Lindstroms campaign April 10-12. It suggests the gaps among candidates narrowing as undecided voters peel off, with Herbster four points behind Lindstrom and Pillen. The ballot may be tied, but the momentum is clearly behind Brett Lindstrom, Lindstrom campaign spokesperson Pat Trueman said in a statement. Hes in the drivers seat for the final month of the campaign. The new poll found Lindstrom and Pillen each polling at 27% and Herbster at 23%, with 12% of voters undecided. Former State Sen. Theresa Thibodeau came in at 6%. According to a polling memo, the survey included 500 GOP voters, with respondents randomly selected based on how likely it is that they will vote in the May 10 primary. Of those, 60% were reached via a call on their cellphone and 40% via landline, according to the campaign. The overall margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 4.38 percentage points at the 95% confidence interval meaning the three front-runners all polled within the margin of error. On April 14, two days after the survey ended, the Nebraska Examiner published allegations from eight women, including a state senator, who said Herbster had groped them. Herbster has denied the allegations, which have sparked condemnation from many figures across Nebraskas political landscape. The Herbster campaign on Monday questioned the new polls credibility: There is no credible polling that we have seen throughout the campaign that has shown Brett Lindstrom any higher than third place, spokesperson Emily Novotny said in an email. This includes polling through the past weekend. The Herbster campaign declined to release any polling from the weekend, citing campaign policy. Deputy campaign manager Rod Edwards said its the campaigns policy not to publicly release specific polling data in the last 30 days of the campaign. A spokesperson for Pillen pointed out the candidates position in the Lindstrom campaigns poll: Jim Pillen is leading a tight race even in his opponents internal polls, the statement reads. We need a conservative governor, and one who will represent the whole state, not just Omaha. Randall Adkins, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said he thinks the latest poll shows the race is continuing to tighten as undecided voters make their picks. Given its timing in the context of the allegations against Herbster, however, Adkins said the data likely already is out of date. A poll the same firm conducted for the Lindstrom campaign March 7-9 indicated Herbster was ahead at 30%, followed by Pillen with 23% and Lindstrom with 20%. It showed 18% undecided and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points. The Herbster campaigns survey of 600 Republican voters March 8-10, conducted by supporter Kellyanne Conways KAConsulting, showed Herbster polling at 27%, Pillen at 18% and Lindstrom at 17%, with 35% of voters undecided. The margin of error for that survey was plus or minus 4 percentage points. Lindstrom is working with a significantly smaller war chest than the other top two candidates. Through April 5, he had spent more than $1.2 million. Pillen had spent nearly $4.8 million and Herbster, who has largely bankrolled his own campaign, had spent nearly $8.7 million. Both Lindstrom and Herbster have been targeted by third-party attack ads Gov. Pete Ricketts, Pillens most prominent backer, said he contributed money to the dark-money group that has attacked Herbster. Ricketts has said he did not fund a group targeting Lindstrom. <&rule> Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of people studying Ukrainian on Duolingo, a language learning website and mobile app, has increased by more than 500%. Most of those who are taking up Ukrainian are probably unaware that there is a long-running controversy about this particular form of speech. One side views Russians and Ukrainians as one people, and the opposing side does not. Unfortunately, there isnt a clear answer. The difference between a language and a dialect depends upon whom you ask. The linguistics angle Many linguists base their determination of language-or-dialect on whether forms of speech are mutually understandable. In simple terms, if two people are speaking different dialects of the same language, they can probably understand each other. However, if two people are speaking separate languages, they probably wont be able to understand each other. By this definition, Czech and Slovak could be viewed as dialects of the same language. The same goes for Indonesian and Malay. Some spoken forms look quite different when pen is put to paper. For instance, Serbian is written with a variation of the Cyrillic alphabet, like Russian, while Croatian uses a form of the Latin alphabet, like English. Nonetheless, many linguists would consider Serbian and Croatian to be dialects of the same language, because its the understandability of spoken forms that generally counts. Humans have been talking for a very long time, but weve only been writing things down for a few millennia. Plus, of the roughly 7,000 known living languages only about 4,000 have a writing system. Politics says something different For political scientists, the difference between a language and a dialect is not based on mutual understandability, but rather politics. For example, Hindi and Urdu are separate languages because the governments of India and Pakistan say they are, even though the colloquially spoken forms of the two varieties are strikingly similar. Max Weinreich, a Yiddish scholar, popularized the idea that a language is a dialect with an army and navy. In other words, a government can promote the view that a dialect is a separate language even if it isnt in linguistic terms. Moldova, for instance, argues that Moldovan is a separate language, even though it is nearly identical to Romanian. Although Romania has gotten upset about such linguistic rebranding, according to Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution, the countrys official language is Moldovan, and not Romanian. Thus the two are separate languages at least politically. Bestowing official status on a particular spoken form not only encourages its use in government, including the courts, but it also usually means that a spoken form will be taught in schools, thereby ensuring that future generations share a common language even if it was invented for nationalistic purposes. Cantonese is widely spoken in and around Hong Kong, yet it is often treated as a dialect of Chinese. However, spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually understandable. As such, in linguistic terms, these two forms of speech would not be considered dialects of a single language, but rather separate languages. In order to strengthen the power of the central government against separatist sentiment, the Chinese government has long promoted a language unification agenda. The intent is both to create a common way of communicating for the country but also to minimize the linguistic and cultural differences that exist among different communities. To help spread the adoption of Standard Chinese, as defined by the government, television and radio professionals are subject to strict requirements and can even be fined for using incorrect pronunciation. Throughout China, local forms of speech are being phased out as mediums of instruction in schools in favor of Mandarin. Many of these forms are now declining, and some are at risk of going extinct. Such efforts do not necessarily mean that these types of speech arent real languages in the linguistic sense. But politically, the difference between a language and a dialect is whatever China says it is. This is even reflected at the international level, as many organizations, such as the United Nations, recognize Chinese as being the form of speech standardized and promoted by the Chinese government. Resolving the conflict So, is Ukrainian a dialect of Russian or a separate language? Linguistically, Ukrainian and Russian are about as different as French and Portuguese. Although French and Portuguese both descend from Latin, theyve now diverged enough to make mutual understanding difficult. Similarly, while both Ukrainian and Russian share a common ancestor, their present-day spoken forms are now different enough that theres a strong linguistic case for them to be considered separate languages. Politically, however, whether Ukrainian is a dialect or language will, in part, depend upon how the war ends. If Ukraine remains an independent country that considers Ukrainian a separate language it is a separate language. If, however, Russia ends up controlling the entirety of Ukraine, thereby finishing the process that it began in 2014 with its annexation of Crimea, then Russia could promote the view that Ukrainian is but a mere dialect of Russian, to reinforce Ukraines diminished status as a part of Russia. In short, not only is Ukraines territorial integrity at risk, but so is the independence of a unique and distinct cultural community. [Youre smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversations authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.] This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/is-ukrainian-a-language-or-a-dialect-that-depends-on-whom-you-ask-and-how-the-war-ends-180849. Licenced as Creative Commons - attribution, no derivatives. Thank you! You've reported this item as a violation of our terms of use. Error! There was a problem with reporting this article. This content was contributed by a user of the site. If you believe this content may be in violation of the terms of use, you may report it. Report Abuse Log In to report Humble to hold election for three seats, charter changes The city of Humble will conduct an election in May for three of its five council seats. Nine amendments to the city charter will also be on the ballot. See cityofhumbletx.gov/city-elections for complete information. Four candidates are running for seats on the Humble City Council. One position is opposed; the other two candidates are running unopposed. Bruce Davidson, a CPA who has lived in Humble more than 24 years, is running unopposed for Place No. 3. Davidson was appointed to the council upon the resignation of Norman Funderburk, who ran (successfully) for mayor. He earned his bachelors degree in finance and accounting from the University of Houston and became a certified public accountant in 1991. He owns a local accounting firm in Humble. Paula Settle, running unopposed for Place No. 4, has lived in Humble nearly 50 years. Settle took office in January 2021 after winning a runoff election by one vote. A graduate of Humble High School Class of 1969, she has two adult daughters and three granddaughters. For the last 22 years, she has overseen the daily operations of Humble Machine Works. Settle is a member of the Humble Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, the Humble Police Academy Alumni Association and Humble Citizens on Patrol. David Pierce, currently serving on the council in Place No. 5 and as the mayor pro tem, is a company officer and has lived in Humble nearly 70 years. Pierce previously served eight terms on the Humble City Council before taking a 13-year break, then returned to the council when he was elected to Place 5 in 2015. Pierce is founder and chief executive officer of Humble Industries, Inc., manufacturing products for energy, oil and gas, water wells, tank trucks and mining in Humble for more than 32 years. Pierce received the Humble High Alumni Associations Mamie Morris service award, is a past honoree of the Humble Livestock Show and Rodeo, and a life member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Pierce is being challenged by Linda Greenan, a dispatcher, who has lived in Humble nearly 25 years. Greenan ran unsuccessfully against council member Charles Cunningham in the May 2021 election. Election Day is Saturday, May 7. Early voting is April 25- May 3. Voting will be conducted at the Humble City Hall. BLOOMINGTON The second of potentially six bench trials for a former Bloomington piano teacher accused of sexual assault of a child started Monday with testimony from one of the six accusers. Aaron M. Parlier, 41, of Mackinaw, was previously sentenced to 450 years in prison after a judge found him guilty last year of sexual assault and child pornography charges. The 38 felony sex charges were severed into separate trials for each victim. He is charged in Mondays trial with one count each of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child under 13 years old (Class X felony) and child pornography (Class 2 felony), and 10 counts of criminal sexual assault of a minor (Class 1 felony). Parlier is accused of committing the aggravated criminal sexual abuse charge from April 2015 to January 2018; the predatory criminal sexual assault charge from July 2009 to July 2010; and the criminal sexual assault charges from July 2010 to July 2013. He was arrested and charged in February 2018. The accuser who testified Monday said that she took piano lessons with Parlier from when she was roughly 6 to 12 years old. She said Parlier became a family friend and was a respected person in the community because of his piano teaching and his assistance tuning pianos for local concert halls and schools. They remained in contact for a few years after her lessons until she was about 15, she said. The relationship became inappropriate around age 8 or 9 when Parlier placed his hand down her shirt, the accuser said, and it continued to progress. Parlier engaged in sexual intercourse when the girl was about 11 years old, she said. She said the sexual acts happened more times than I could count, and that they were recorded because he recorded them or made me record them. She also testified that the sexual intercourse would occur at her home, in his car, in a back room of a piano store he worked at and at a Bloomington concert hall. Authorities learned of the misconduct through an essay that a separate girl wrote for a class in high school where she referenced having been sexually abused by her piano teacher, a prosecutor said. That report opened a floodgate, McLean County Assistant States Attorney Erika Reynolds said, adding that it led to a search warrant for Parliers computer which contained child pornography videos that prosecutors say he created. A December 2017 police interview with Parlier that was played in court revealed him telling authorities that he engaged in sexual acts with the girl around four to five times, but he did not tell police her age at the time. Parlier described in the police interview the first sexual interaction with the girl, which occurred in his vehicle. He accused her of touching him inappropriately and it escalated, and he said to police, To be fair, I didnt put up too much of a protest. The accuser testified Monday that Parlier bought her gifts, or whatever Id want, including a pet, in exchange for not telling anyone about their sexual relationship. Parlier bought her an engagement ring when she was a freshman in high school, she said. If convicted of the predatory criminal sexual assault charge, Parlier would be sentenced to natural life in prison. If he is not found guilty of predatory criminal sexual assault but is convicted of any other charges, Parlier faces up to an additional 216 years in prison. The bench trial was expected to conclude Monday after press time, but a ruling is expected later in the week. Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Question: Today is Tax Day in the U.S. In 2020, of the 50 states, Illinois was the state where residents paid the second-highest amount of taxes in America, superseded only by New Jersey. Is that still the case? Answer: Unfortunately, we've moved up to No. 1, the state with Americas highest tax burden, according to the website MoneyGeek. Covering all taxes income, sales, property, others the average Illinois household pays 16.8% of its income on taxes alone. On the other hand, as pointed out by the website, if people relied solely on taxes, Alaska would be overrun with new residents, as it pays no state sales tax, no income tax and its property taxes are low. And yet it remains one of the countrys least populated states. The atmosphere at the Assemblies of God Church, Salvation Chapel at Awudome Tsito was one of joy as they marked Easter Sunday which signified the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead. Clad mostly in white, they danced and sang praises unto the risen Lord. Some of the worshippers who spoke with the Ghana News Agency noted that the lifting of the restrictions on the Covid-19 was a major boost for this year's Easter. They contended that all their church activities during the period were held without any restrictions. Rev. Samuel Amegboe, Resident Minister of the Church in a sermon noted that the greatest problem facing humanity was not poverty, war, disease, or lack of shelter but sin. "Sin is the cause of all the woes we have to contend with," he said. The sermon, which was on the theme, "behold Jesus the Lamb of the world" was taken from John 1: 29, John 3: 16 and I John 3: 18. He said had God wanted to punish the sin of the world like Sodom Gomorrah, he would have created a new set of people all the time. Rev. Amegboe intimated that in dealing with the sin of the world, God had to sacrifice His only begotten son. He said the sacrifice freed mankind from the wrath of God and eternal condemnation. "It is also the remedy for the sin problem as it destroyed the work of Satan which is sin," he said. Rev. Amegboe continued that the sacrifice was also an escape route from sin. He advised Christians to seek pardon for their sins through Jesus Christ adding that rejection of Jesus was tantamount to contempt of divine rejection. Rev. Amegboe urged them to use the Easter season to reflect on the love of God and get reconciled with Him. He appealed to those in leadership positions to emulate Jesus Christ by sacrificing a little of their comfort for others. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Police recruits who were deployed to various parts of the country especially recreational centers for the Easter occasion were charged to exhibit high level of professionalism. Their deployment formed part of efforts to train them on the job as the Police administration seeks to increase the visibility. The Director-General of Police Administration, COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno told them not accept any gift. Dont accept any gift from anybody, nobody should say that he is drinking Coke and so he is giving you beer to drink, he is giving you Coke to drink, he said. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video He set a high standard for himself and his colleagues from the outset, with a sometimes brainy, sometimes brawny account of "Train" (from his "Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard" album). The solemn introductory passages attested to the control of Potter's work on tenor saxophone and the depth and poise of his thinking, but it didn't take long before he picked up tempo and fervor. Fast-flying passages alternated with sprawling lines; funk beats gave way to easy swing; nothing stayed the same for very long. When Potter topped it all of with an a cappella cadenza built on snippets of motifs we'd heard thus far, there was no question that a major performance was underway. A man from Kentucky, USA who was fired for having a panic attack that his bosses saw as 'violent' after he was thrown a birthday party at work against his wishes has been awarded $450,000 by a jury. Kevin Berling asked an office manager at the Gravity Diagnostics lab in Covington, Kentucky not to throw him a party because of his anxiety disorder in August 2019. When he found out that a party was planned for lunchtime, he spent the break in his car working on breathing techniques to quell his stress. According to NewYorkTimes, the next day, he had another panic attack in a meeting with two supervisors who talked to him about his 'somber behavior.' The company says he had clenched his fists, turned red and ordered his superiors to be quiet during the meeting, leaving them 'shaken.' Berling's lawyer says the closed fists were part of a coping maneuver to deal with the tense situation. 'They were absolutely in fear of physical harm during that moment,' Brazil, the company's co-founder, told the Times. 'They both are still shaken about it today.' He was sent home after the meeting. A couple hours later, he texted one of his superiors to apologize, according to a complaint filed in Kenton County Circuit Court. He was fired via email three days later. He then filed a disability discrimination suit a month later, in September 2019. On March 31, a jury awarded Berling $150,000 in lost wages and benefits and $300,000 for suffering, embarrassment and loss of self-esteem after finding that he had been discriminated against for his disability.Gravity founder Julie Brazil, who does not appear to have been involved in the party planning, says she stands by her decision to terminate him 'for his violation of our workplace violence policy.' Gravity founder Julie Brazil (pictured below) who does not appear to have been involved in the party planning, says she stands by her employees' decision to terminate him 'for his violation of our workplace violence policy.' A lawyer for the company says the company will challenge the verdict and may file an appeal. 'My employees were the victims in this case, not the plaintiff,' she said. Gravity Diagnostics is licensed in 'all 50 states' in the US and serves 'over 1,000 customers from small private practices to universities, to Fortune 500 companies,' according to its website. Berling had been working at the Covington lab for 10 months . His lawyer Tony Bucher says he had received 'outstanding' monthly reviews. The company itself in a statement said Berling was never given a bad review. His lawyer points to the amount of money Berling could have earned at his job had he not been fired, given that the COVID-19 pandemic sent the lab's value soaring. 'Based on his employment records, where would he be?' Bucher told LINK nky. 'There are people whose income has gone up at least 50 percent during that time. He lost a nice opportunity with that company.' The lawyer says the person responsible for scheduling the celebrations simply forgot to honor his client's request. 'She didnt do it to be mean. She said she would accommodate it and she just forgot,' he said. 'Basically what the argument was is he was fired for having a panic attack,' Bucher said. 'They made assumptions that he was dangerous based off of his disability and not off of any evidence that he was violent.' Brazil says her employees made the right choice to protect their co-workers. 'My employees deescalated the situation to get the plaintiff out of the building as quickly as possible while removing his access to the building, alerting me and sending out security reminders to ensure he could not access the building, which is exactly what they were supposed to do,' she told LINK nky. 'As an employer who puts our employee safety first, we have a zero-tolerance policy and we stand by our decision to terminate the plaintiff for his violation of our workplace violence policy,' Brazil said. 'My employees were the victims in this case, not the plaintiff. 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 " " Authorities gathered on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles after the discovery of Elisa Lam's body in the hotel's water tank. Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images When 21-year-old college student Elisa Lam was found dead in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel (now closed) in Los Angeles in 2013, the mysterious circumstances surrounding her case captured national attention. Her body was found after guests of the hotel complained about low water pressure and a strange taste, which led employees to investigate their water tanks. That's where they found Lam's body, floating naked, her clothes, watch and room key in the water beside her. Her cell phone was never found. The coroner listed her death as a drowning. Lam traveled to Los Angeles from Vancouver alone, and went missing from her Cecil Hotel room soon after she arrived. After a week searching for leads, the Los Angeles Police Department released a video of her last known whereabouts: security camera footage from inside the hotel's elevator. It was this video that sparked interest from amateur internet sleuths because of her seemingly strange behavior: Lam pushes the buttons for several floors at once, then appears to hesitantly poke her head into the hallway and look quickly back and forth before backing into the elevator and ducking into the corner. Advertisement The elevator door does not close. She pokes her head out again, then leaves the elevator altogether. She stands to the side and gesticulates strangely with her hands as if talking to someone, though no one else can be seen on the video. Finally, Lam leaves the scene entirely, and the elevator doors close. Some viewers think her behavior could be explained away as possible psychedelic drug use, while others say she could have been trying to hide from a pursuer. Her death has even been linked to the Korean elevator game, a ritual of pressing buttons on an elevator in a certain order to reach another dimension. The most plausible explanation is that Lam had bipolar disorder, and according to her autopsy, had only taken her prescribed stimulant medications but neither of her stabilizers. This may have led to a manic episode, which can cause some bipolar sufferers to experience hallucinations or psychosis. If Lam had a manic episode, it's possible she thought someone was following her, perhaps causing her to hide in the water tank for safety. This doesn't satisfy everyone, however. The hotel's water tanks are not easy to access; they are located on the roof of the Cecil, and only hotel staff keys unlock the doors to the roof. Lam could have used the fire escape to get onto the roof, but those trigger alarms and hotel staff say they never heard the alarms go off. Also, the openings to the water tanks are 10 feet (3 meters) up, and require a ladder to reach, but there were none around the night Lam ended up inside. The lid to the tank also was not hinged, leading some to wonder how the lid was closed if she got in of her own accord. Then there's the Cecil itself, a hotel with a storied and gory reputation. Notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez aka the Nightstalker lived there in 1984 while he killed 13 people. There were also several suicides, including one where the victim fell on top of a pedestrian, killing them both. This grisly past only helped fuel the paranormal theories, buttressed by Lam's unsettling behavior in the video. Even the footage itself is a focus of some conspiracy theorists, who allege that the time stamp in the bottom of the frame skips forward, as if a minute of footage were removed. It is also noted that at times while Lam appears to speak to someone, her mouth is pixelated, obscuring her words. Finally, in an even more bizarre coincidence, it was discovered that a tuberculosis drug was being studied nearby the Cecil. The name of the drug? LAM-ELISA. While nothing has been found connecting Lam or her death with the tuberculosis study, this was just one more in a series of strange circumstances that ensures that Elisa Lam's death will be a source of fascination and speculation for a long time to come. Advertisement Originally Published: Jun 27, 2017 Manila City Mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso, former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, and Senator Panfilo Lacson, all presidential candidates for the 2022 Philippine election, hold a copy of their signed agreement during a joint news conference at the Manila Peninsula, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines, April 17, 2022. The survey laggards arranged the Easter event to declare their intention of not quitting the presidential race. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David Who thought this was a good idea? Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Senator Panfilo Lacson, and former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, all survey laggards, held a press conference on Sunday (April 17) at an expensive hotel to claim that a certain presidential candidate allegedly approached their respective camps to ask them to withdraw from the presidential race. So, the three of them who were also joined by vice-presidential candidates Senate President Vicente Sotto and Willie Ong made a stance that they are not bowing down. This, they said, is them showing unity. It could have ended there... until Moreno opened his mouth. I am calling for [Vice President] Leni [Robredo] to withdraw [because] whatever [she is] doing is not effective against [former senator Ferdinand] Marcos. Withdraw, come and join us, he said. But Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales must be delusional to think that any of them will win should Robredo withdraw. In the latest Pulse Asia survey, Moreno fared 8%, Lacson 2%, and Gonzales 0% literally the size of an Easter egg. If we combine their ratings (and even if we add Senator Manny Pacquiaos 6% in the equation), they still would not match Robredos 24%. How did they arrive at the idea that any of them will win if Robredo backs out, especially after their recent display of bullying? Given yesterdays brouhaha, I believe many of Robredos supporters will shift to other more significant candidates should the vice president quit; if you ask me, choosing to vote for Ka Leody de Guzman will make more sense. Manila City Mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso, former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, and Senator Panfilo Lacson, all presidential candidates for the 2022 Philippine election, hold a joint news conference at the Manila Peninsula, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines, April 17, 2022. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David It was also funny when Gonzales said that the Filipinos should look past Number 2 referring to Robredo who currently ranks second in Pulse Asias survey and consider them instead. Why are they proposing to have a new Number 2 when the goal should be to have a new Number 1? If their real goal is to avoid a Marcos presidency, as Moreno said when he asked Robredo to withdraw, shouldnt they be ganging up on Marcos and not on Robredo? It is like competing your goal should be to beat the reigning champion and not the first runner up. Only a loser thinks that way. Focusing all your energy to beat the first runner up just does not make sense. Story continues Unless, of course, their goal is to let Number 1 win by pulling Number 2 down with them. We can never know. Moreno and Lacson must have been extremely hurt when IM Pilipinas and Partido Reporma left them for Robredo. Add to that that Robredo saw a surge while Moreno saw a decrease in their respective preference ratings (it is likely that the numbers that Moreno lost were among those that were added to Robredos, hence his unmistakable agitation towards Robredo). Their man egos must have been really bruised for them to resort to wonk-wonk bullying of the female candidate who is currently enjoying the momentum. The conduct displayed by Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales revealed an unfortunately common behavior in the countrys heavily patriarchal society: men always expect women to make space for them. Moreno and friends should be at the forefront of progress as aspiring national leaders. But alas, being at the expensive Manila Peninsula cannot even cover their disgusting sexism and misogyny. With three weeks left before the elections, it seems very obvious that we are already following a two-way race between Marcos and Robredo. This is most probably why Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales are desperately fitting themselves in the show, hoping to still look relevant all in the disguise of unity. Former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales speaks during a joint news conference with Manila City Mayor Francisco Isko Moreno Domagoso and Senator Panfilo Lacson, all presidential candidates for the 2022 Philippine election, at the Manila Peninsula, in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines, April 17, 2022. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David As the sadbois of Philippine politics (as described by netizens) were busy ganging up on the lone female presidential candidate in a press conference, Robredo was busy having lunch with the Sumilao farmers in Naga; the Sumilao farmers have been marching across the country to actively campaign for Robredo, who served as their lawyer back when they were fighting for their ancestral land that was being claimed by the giant San Miguel Corporation. Also, on the same day, Robredo shifted her campaign symbol from a pink rose to a flower bearing the Philippine flag's colors: red, blue, and yellow joined by the campaign colors of Robredo and her running mate Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan: pink and green. If anything, the change in their overarching campaign message shows that the pink rose has already bloomed to that of a Philippine flower more patriotic and more inclusive. Isn't that what unity is? Robredo capped off the night with a Facebook post addressing her supporters. She said in Filipino, 20 campaign days left. Let us not let our emotions take over. Let us refrain from saying hurtful words. Let us focus on the campaign person to person, heart to heart. We have a nation we need to fight for. I remained amazed by how graceful and calm Robredo responds to attacks characteristics that only persons with a sense of dignity and nobility have. That Facebook post was such a huge slap to Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales; their expensive press conference turned out to be all for naught. Instead of holding a presser, Moreno, Lacson, and Gonzales should have used that time and energy instead to focus on their respective campaigns and not on Robredos. But because of their recent theatrics, they have exposed that their male egos and toxic-masculine self-interests are hurt because a woman candidate is ahead by a wide margin in surveys. So, they resort to what a group of scared boys does in times of fear stand up and portray themselves as bullies. Sadbois and bullies. That is how you will be remembered. Juju Z. Baluyot is a Manila-based writer who writes in-depth special reports, news features, and opinion-editorial pieces for a wide range of publications. He covers cultures, media, gender, and the 2022 Philippine elections. The views expressed are his own. Watch more videos on Yahoo: CBCP president and Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David addresses the congregation during the Solidarity Mass for the Moral Choice special mass held at the Baclaran Church on Wednesday, April 6 2022, which was streamed live. Filipino bishops are urging the Catholic faithful to vote wisely on May 9. (SCREENGRAB: Baclaran Church YouTube channel) The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has urged Filipinos to vote with their conscience and fight disinformation as the May 9 general elections draws ever closer. According to Good News Pilipinas, CBCP president and Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David appealed to the faithful to not gamble away the countrys future in light of the national polls Delivering his homily during the Solidarity Mass for the Moral Choice at the Baclaran Church, which was streamed live on the CBCP Facebook page, Bishop David called on the Filipino electorate to choose the right leaders. The cleric also reminded them not to be neutral or indifferent to the plights of others, and to treat each other with respect regardless of political beliefs. Mag-ambag tayo sa pamamagitan ng pagtupad ng ating mga tungkulin. Hindi natin maitataguyod ang kinabukasan na wala tayo. Huwag nating iasa ito sa iba. Kailangang kasangkot at kabahagi tayo.( Let us contribute by fulfilling our duties. We cannot sustain the future without us. Let us not depend on others. We need to be involved.) The Bishop added, "Baguhin natin kahit unti-unti ang ating kulturang pampulitika. Kung mananatiling mababa ang pagtingin at pagkilos natin sa pulitika, hindi pag-unlad ang ibubunga nito. Huwag sana nating isugal ang ating kinabukasan." (Let us change even little by little our political culture. If we remain low in our view and actions in politics, it will not result in progress. Let us not gamble away our future.) As Christians, added the CBCP president, voters should seek the truth and not fall for deceitful lies and disinformation on social media. He said that social media trolls who peddle lies are no different from those who once called for Jesus Christ to be crucified. Bishop David also named several criteria to help voters choose their leaders. In addition to having honesty and integrity, a good leader will uphold and protect the democracy of the Filipino people, abide by the law, and respect human rights. Such a leader will also respect women and will combat illegal activities such as illegal gambling, illegal drug trade, illegal logging and illegal mining, he added. Common salt (NaCl) acts as an intermediary in the chemical vapor deposition growth of 2D molybdenum disulfide, speeding the process of its creation. Materials theorists at Rice University discovered that salt and a precursor form a eutectic, which has a lower melting temperature than either of them. Credit: Jincheng Lei/Yakobson Research Group Skipping ahead in a line is rude, but sometimes it's acceptable. Especially for salt. The Rice University lab of materials theorist Boris Yakobson shows why in its follow-up to a 2018 study that demonstrated how salt simplifies the formation of valuable 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) with a first-principles analysis of the process that could refine it even further. The theoretical study by Yakobson and colleagues Jincheng Lei, Yu Xie and Alex Kutana, all alumni of his lab, and researcher Ksenia Bets shows through the simulation of atom-level energies why saltparticularly iodized saltlowers the reaction temperature in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace necessary to form MoS 2 . It does so by helping to skip some steps and leap high energy barriers in conventional CVD growth to yield far more MoS 6 , an essential precursor to 2D MoS 2 . Their study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society focused on how salt lowers activation barriers to enhance the sulfurization of molybdenum oxyhalides, the gas feedstock in MoS 2 crystallization. MoS 2 is a natural compound known in bulk form as molybdenite, and in 2D form is highly coveted for its semiconducting properties, which promise advances in electronic, optoelectronic, spintronic, catalytic and medical applications. But 2D MoS 2 remains hard to manufacture in commercial quantities. The Rice team first entered the fray when labs in Singapore, China, Japan and Taiwan used salt to make a "library" of 2D materials that combined transition metals and chalcogens. Why it worked so well was a mystery, prompting them to call upon the Yakobson lab's expertise in modeling materialseven only theoretical onesfrom the ground up. Their comprehensive models show that while the international labs used chloride salts to make their library of materials, the iodide salts commonly found on kitchen tables are better at speeding up the synthesis of MoS 2 . "Fast and large-scale synthesis is imperative for the widespread application of MoS 2 ," Lei said. "We carefully studied the entire growth process, hoping to optimize it as much as possible. It turned out that by simply changing chloride to iodide, one could synthesize MoS 2 much faster while at even lower growth temperatures." This happens when salt and the precursor form a eutectic, a mixture of substances that melt and solidify at a single temperature that's lower than the melting points of the constituents. "After salt-assisted synthesis was shown to enable the growth of many more TMD (transition metal dichalcogenide) compounds than was possible beforehand and significantly improved growth conditions for previously synthesized ones, it became clear that there is something special about this process," Bets said. "Some experimental groups attempted to investigate further, but monitoring the molecular composition of the gas phase under growth conditions is not a simple task," she said. "Even then, you cannot see the whole picture. "We were very thorough, following up on Jincheng's work on the mechanism of conventional MoS 2 growth. We simulated all parts of the process, from sulfurization to the 2D crystal growth. This comprehensive approach paid off." In simulations, the Rice team directly observed the entire sulfurization process as oxygen and chlorine atoms were gradually replaced by sulfur in MoO 2 Cl 2 , a common precursor, under CVD conditions. The lab said the eutectic effect may be a common phenomenon in the CVD synthesis of 2D dichalcogenide monolayers, and thus worth continued study. Explore further Lab peers inside 2D crystal synthesis More information: Jincheng Lei et al, Salt-Assisted MoS 2 Growth: Molecular Mechanisms from the First Principles, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022). Journal information: Journal of the American Chemical Society Jincheng Lei et al, Salt-Assisted MoSGrowth: Molecular Mechanisms from the First Principles,(2022). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c02497 Computational model of gold nanoparticle functionalized with left-handed enantiomers of cysteine and phenylalanine. Credit: Andre Farias de Moura Vaccines can be made over 25% more effective by adding left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles as adjuvants, according to a study by an international collaboration in which Brazilian researchers took part. An article reporting the results is published in Nature. Three research groups collaborated on the study, one affiliated with the University of Michigan in the United States, and another with Jiangnan University in China. The Brazilian group was led by Andre Farias de Moura, a professor in the Chemistry Department at the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar) and a researcher with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP. The study did not involve COVID-19 vaccines because it began well before the pandemic. The researchers used vaccines developed to combat a specific influenza virus strain. While this is not the strain that is currently circulating in Brazil, in principle the results can be generalized for any type of vaccine, evidently with case-by-case complementary studies. The reason is that left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles are not the active ingredient, but an adjuvant that potentiates the recipient's immune response. "The key to understanding the contribution of these nanoparticles is the concept of chirality, which applies to an object or system that can't be superimposed on its own mirror image," Moura told Agencia FAPESP. Chirality, then, is a type of asymmetry. The term is derived from kheir, the Ancient Greek for hand, and the best example is precisely the difference between left hand and right hand. When we hold up our hands to a mirror, the hand we see on the right is our left hand and vice-versa. "Everything alive on Earth is chiral. Chiral molecules can have entirely different properties depending on whether they're left- or right-handed. The two chiral forms of the same molecule are known as enantiomers," Moura said. "A tragic example is thalidomide, a drug prescribed to pregnant women for morning sickness in the late 1950s and 1960s. It caused babies to be born with a range of malformations. One of the enantiomers in the substance had the expected therapeutic effect, but the other atrophied the limbs of the fetus." Nanoparticles Research in nanomaterials has advanced sufficiently to enable scientists to separate one enantiomer completely, Moura explained, and the study reported in Nature was based on this possibility. "We began with gold nanoparticles, which are symmetrical and lack chirality. They're achiral. We first induced chirality in them by having them interact with the amino acid cysteine, and then intensified the induced chirality by exposing them to polarized light using the amino acid phenylalanine as a light-harvesting antenna," he said. Chirality is measured in "g-factor" on a scale from minus two (-2) to plus two (+2). The procedure used in the study enabled the scientists to exceed 0.4 and resulted in three nanoparticles: the original achiral gold, the right-handed enantiomer, and the left-handed enantiomer. "Initially we tested the nanoparticles on human immune cells cultured in vitro and found that the chiral nanoparticles induced production of substances associated with an immune response even in the absence of an antigenany substance capable of triggering antibody production. This kind of reaction is exactly what an adjuvant does in a vaccine," Moura said. Next, the researchers tested the nanoparticles on the influenza virus. "We found that the enantiomers greatly enhanced the efficacy of the vaccine," Moura said. "Specifically, the left-handed enantiomer caused a 25.8% increase in efficacy compared with the right-handed enantiomer, and an even greater increase compared with the achiral nanoparticle." The knowledge is published and available to anyone who wishes to use it, Moura stressed. "It can be used by any producer of any type of vaccine, including vaccines for novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 or influenza. We aren't vaccine developers, but we're offering this basic knowledge as a novel technological platform for those who are," he said. Explore further Using chiral gold nanoparticles to enhance immune response More information: Liguang Xu et al, Enantiomer-dependent immunological response to chiral nanoparticles, Nature (2022). Journal information: Nature Liguang Xu et al, Enantiomer-dependent immunological response to chiral nanoparticles,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04243-2 Complex functional information hidden in amino acid sequence patterns are automatically learned by large-scale and self-supervised deep learning models Credit: Unsal et al Deep learningbased language models, such as BERT, T5, XLNet and GPT, are promising for analyzing speech and texts. In recent years, however, they have also been applied in the fields of biomedicine and biotechnology to study genetic codes and proteins. Bioinformaticians, genetics researchers and neuroscientists have been trying to infer the biological roles of genes and proteins for decades. To do this, however, they need to analyze extremely large and highly complex biological data. Researchers at Hacettepe University, Middle East Technical University and Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey, have recently carried out a study evaluating the potential of deep learningbased language models for studying proteins and predicting their functional properties. Their paper, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, provides a valuable summary of the advantages and disadvantages of different state-of-the-art approaches. "Molecular biology data can be modeled as a language (i.e., the language of genes/proteins), such that the sequence of a gene or protein can be thought of as a sentence with a specific meaning in natural language, and the semantics of this protein language is the specific biological, physical and chemical properties of these biomolecules," Tunca Dogan, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "Based on this idea, our work tries to build machine learning models that take language model-derived high dimensional numerical embeddings of proteins as input and predict their functional properties with high accuracy." In their paper, Dogan and his colleagues assessed the ability of different protein language modeling approaches to extract hidden patterns containing important clues about the functional properties of proteins. Their evaluations included all the most well-known natural language modeling architectures (i.e., BERT, T5, XLNet, ELMO, etc.), each of which can contain hundreds of millions or, in some cases, billions of parameters. "Self-supervised pre-training of these models requires huge resources," Dogan explained. "Thanks to valuable previous work on this topic, which aimed to pre-train protein language models using these architectures, we mostly focused on our secondary supervised training for predicting functional properties." In order to effectively assess the protein language models and compare their performances, the team first had to compile large and reliable testing datasets, each with a different difficulty level. Ultimately, they created four benchmark datasets that allowed them to investigate semantic similarities, ontology-based functional definitions, drug target protein families, and physical interactions between proteins. All of these are crucial biological mechanisms that are known to be closely linked to the occurrence and progression of genetically inherited diseases, such as different types of cancer. "Perhaps our most notable finding was that these deep language models are able to successfully learn the functional properties of proteins using the amino acid sequences as the sole input, which is quite a difficult problem," Dogan said. "These results are also consistent with the findings of recent protein structure prediction studies (e.g., Deepmind's AlphaFold2 and Baker Lab's RoseTTAFold), which uses the sequence as its input and predicts the 3D monomer structure with extremely high performance." In the future, the models evaluated by this team of researchers could help to enhance precision medicine interventions, for instance analyzing the molecular make-up of patients resulting from genomic variations to devise personalized treatments. While the results gathered by Dogan and his colleagues highlight the huge potential of deep learningbased protein modeling tools, existing methods will still need to be significantly improved before they can be integrated into real-life clinical decision-making systems. "We are now working on a new system to better represent proteins," Dogan added. "In addition to amino acid sequences, this system utilizes network-based data (i.e., known protein-protein interactions) and knowledge hidden in the unstructured biomedical texts (e.g., scientific articles) at the input level, together with integrative deep learning approaches. Our ultimate aim is to obtain a universal protein representation that can successfully be used in any biomedical or biotechnological modeling task." Explore further Researchers identify new medicines using interpretable deep learning predictions More information: Serbulent Unsal et al, Learning functional properties of proteins with language models, Nature Machine Intelligence (2022). Journal information: Nature Machine Intelligence Serbulent Unsal et al, Learning functional properties of proteins with language models,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-022-00457-9 2022 Science X Network The crew of the Xelo issued a distress call and sought shelter in Tunisian waters from bad weather before the vessel went down. Divers who inspected the hull of a tanker loaded with 750 tonnes of fuel that sank off southeast Tunisia detected no leaks on Sunday, officials said. The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo, which sank Saturday in the Gulf of Gabes, has settled on its side at a depth of almost 20 metres (65 feet), the environment ministry said. "No leak has been detected," it said in a statement. The inspection was carried out by divers accompanied by the ship's captain and engineer, said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in Gabes city that is investigating the sinking. The Xelo was travelling from Egypt to Malta when it went down. With the scene sealed off by Tunisia's military, the defence ministry released pictures showing the vessel submerged on its side. The crew of the Xelo had issued a distress call on Friday evening and sought shelter in Tunisian waters from bad weather before going down. Tunisian authorities rescued the seven-member crew, who received first aid and were moved to a hotel. Transport Minister Rabie Majidi said Sunday that rescue workers had checked during the operation that the valves were closed, and the team of divers ensured they were sealed and intact. A tanker carrying 750 tonnes of diesel fuel from Egypt to Malta sank Saturday in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia's southeast coast. "The situation is not dangerous, the outlook is positive, the ship is stable because luckily it ran aground on sand," he told reporters. The minister said the priority was to pump the diesel fuel and prevent any spillage or pollution. An Italian ship specialised in cleaning up marine pollution will be sent alongside a team of divers to aid with efforts, an Italian official said. As a precaution, protective booms have already been placed around the wreck. Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui has also been at the scene in the port of Gabes to follow up on the incident. Tunisian officials are investigating the itinerary of the tanker, which reportedly has Turkish and Libyan owners. The Tunisia branch of the World Wildlife Fund has expressed concern about another "environmental catastrophe" in the region, an important fishing zone. Divers from the Tunisian navy at the scene of the sunken Xelo vessel, off the Gulf of Gabes, in southeastern Tunisia. The tanker is 58 metres (63 yards) long and nine metres wide, according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com. It began taking on water around seven kilometres (four miles) offshore in the Gulf of Gabes and the engine room was engulfed, according to the environment ministry. Explore further Sri Lanka navy plugs fuel leak on fire-stricken tanker 2022 AFP El Yeso Dam, Chile. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Companies can go bankrupt due to poor business models, more successful competitors, or a decline in their target consumers. But as glacier retreat and droughts lead to lower river flows, hydroelectric power companies like Alto Maipo SpA ("Alto Maipo") are adding climate change to the list of culprits. On November 11, 2021, Alto Maipo, a Chilean subsidiary of the American Fortune 500 Company AES Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the state of Delaware for its highly controversial hydroelectric power project on the Maipo River, southeast of the capital city of Santiago. In its bankruptcy filing, the company claimed that decreasing electricity prices in Chile and the effects of climate change on its water supply make its current financial structure unsustainable. The filing follows years of intense pushback from environmentalists and residents in the Maipo Valley and Santiago over the company's diverting of the Maipo River, which is the main water supply for the city. Much of the scrutiny comes from concerns that the Maipo Valley is already overexploited by developers who have built mines, the El Yeso Dam, and several hydroelectric plants meant to subsidize miningfour of which are owned by Alto Maipo's American parent company, AES Andes. Construction of the Alto Maipo hydroelectric power project began in 2008 despite considerable opposition from residents of the surrounding valley and Santiago. The energy generated was meant to power mineral operations such as Los Pelambres, a copper mine north of Santiago. Costs of the project have ballooned from $700 million to over $3 billion. Scheduling and construction setbacks have pushed the expected finish date by more than 9 years. It is now projected to be completed this summer. The project was expected to generate an average of 2,213 GWh of energy per yearenough energy to power Dallas, Texas, three times overbut generated just half of that (1,100 GWh) in 2021 in large part due to droughts and shrinking Andean glaciers. The loss of revenue from decreased water flow was a key factor in Alto Maipo declaring bankruptcy last November in the face of fractional energy outputs from the project that are trending downward. While supporters of the project tout it as "run-of-the-river," this label is not accurate, according to Carl Bauer, a water policy professor at the University of Arizona. Run-of-the-river projects are hydroelectric projects that place the turbines and generating plants directly in the river so that water flows through without being removed or held in a reservoir. The Alto Maipo hydroelectric plant is "diverting water and piping it through tunnels, eventually returning it quite a bit downstream" unlike a true run-of-the-river project, said Bauer. The project diverts 43 miles of the river and its tributaries through a tunnel to turbines which generate electricity before returning the water to the river upstream of Santiago. Bauer notes this has significant environmental impacts and leaves areas of the basin entirely dry. This has led to considerable opposition from environmentalists, local communities in the Maipo Valley, and Santiago residents. Santiago's city government has not opposed the project, but Bauer says that this likely is due to the upstream location of the water's return, which leaves the urban water supply unaffected. Though Alto Maipo said in its bankruptcy claim that the droughts and low water flows were unexpected, critics such as NGOs No Alto Maipo and Ecosistemas have pointed out that the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) conducted in 2008 by Alto Maipo was flawed and incomplete. These organizations asserted that the ESIA used historical water flow data as a basis for the project rather than the current data at the time, leading to faulty projections in energy generation. Both movements are led by community coalitions and environmentalists that have opposed the Alto Maipo Project for over a decade. In 2017, No Alto Maipo and Ecosistemas filed a complaint with the International Finance Committee (IFC), a global development institution and large investor in Alto Maipo. Unlike entirely private bank groups, the IFC is the financial arm of the World Bank Group, a bank of the United Nations focused on helping developing countries. As a result, it is more open than private banks to addressing complaints and allegations against the recipients of its funding if they are shown to be in violation of the UN's policies. No Alto Maipo and Ecosistemas stated that Alto Maipo violated the IFC's policies on social and environmental governance, saying that the ESIA failed to acknowledge potential water shortages due to climate change. They added that the ESIA did not consider how the hydroelectric project would affect recreation, tourism, and drinking water in the valley. The IFC agreed with these charges, adding in their report that Alto Maipo did not properly consult affected communities. As a result, the IFC fully divested from Alto Maipo in May 2018. In the years before petitioning the IFC, as well as after, these groups organized large demonstrations, which have brought in people from dozens of organizations and professions. A 2010 demonstration included 300 muleteers from the mountain range around the Maipo Valley, a mass to pray for the water of the Maipo, and several Chilean senators and public figures. Other major demonstrations took place in 2013, 2015, and 2017 as well as a demonstration organized by women in 2019 and another led by local residents in 2020. More recently, a protest in 2021 brought together outdoor communities under the campaign "Save the Maipo," organized by Patagonia, an American outdoor clothing brand. Magdalena Gil, an environmental sociologist at the Catholic University of Chile and homeowner in the Maipo Valley, said that developers frequently fail to consider the full impacts of projects in the overexploited Maipo Basin. Hydroelectric plants, the El Yeso Dam, and mining operations put a strain on the water resources of the valley, which she notes has seen 15 years of drought and is "the number one tourist post in the metropolitan region." Gil told GlacierHub that the Alto Maipo hydroelectric plant should not be discussed as a stand-alone project. "We need to discuss the sustainability of the Maipo Valley, which is the sustainability of Santiago and its metropolitan region," she said. Currently, the bankruptcy claims are under review by the Delaware District of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Alto Maipo is planning to restructure itself in a way that would give most of the control of the company to its parent company, AES Corporation, and not give junior creditors any recoverya decision that is unpopular with those unsecured creditors. It argued on March 29 of this year that the courts should not allow the company to solicit creditor votes for its reorganization plan. Bauer is almost certain the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project will be completed one way or another at this point. Whether or not it is profitable in the face of droughts and shrinking glaciers is much less certain. But does that mean that in the face of worsening climate change all hydroelectric projects on rivers like the Maipo are doomed from the start? Not necessarily, according to Bauer. "Changing flows due to climate change will affect the economics and engineering of all water resource projects," he said. However, he added that groups can take advantage of extra water coming off glaciers that are retreating, either for hydropower or freshwater storage over the next few decades. By targeting areas where glaciers are producing more meltwater as they recede, groups can utilize short-term projects that are less intrusive and exploitative of the rivers they are built on, said Bauer. The bankruptcy of Alto Maipo demonstrates that developers need to use holistic, future-thinking approaches to renewable energy. Moreover, it shows the importance of prioritizing community voices in the face of climate change to protect vital economic, recreational, and municipal water sources like the Maipo River. Explore further Storms leave three million without water in Chile capital This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Nearly 70 years agoin its 1954 Brown v. Board decisionthe Supreme Court framed racial segregation as the cause of educational inequality. It did not, however, challenge the lengths to which states went to ensure the unequal funding of Black schools. Before Brown, Southern states were using segregation to signify and tangibly reinforce second-class citizenship for Black people in the United States. The court in Brown deemed that segregation was inherently unequal. Even if the schools were "equalized" on all "tangible factors," segregation remained a problem and physical integration was the cure, the Court concluded. That framing rightly focused on segregation's immediate horrorexcluding students from schools based on the color of their skinbut obscured an important fact. In addition to requiring school segregation, many states also had long segregated school funding. Some had used "racially distinct tax" policies that reserved separate funds for white and Black schools. Other states had moved school funding responsibility and control from state officials to local communities. Local officials could then ensure inequality without any specific law mandating it. Brown's focus on physical segregation inadvertently left important and less obvious aspects of local funding inequality unchecked. Those practices still drive underfunding in predominantly poor and minority schools. Through the University of South Carolina School of Law's Constitutional Law Center, since 2021 we have been documenting the historical connection between segregation and states' reliance on local school funding. In our view, until states stop relying so heavily on local school funding, the equal educational opportunities that Brown first sought will remain out of reach for K-12 students in the 21st century. What's wrong with local funding A large body of evidence shows "money matters." Increased spending improves college attendance rates, graduation rates and test scores. But, as a 2018 report revealed, school districts enrolling "the most students of color receive about $1,800, or 13%, less per student" than districts serving the fewest students of color. A more recent analysis further demonstrated that school funding cuts during the Great Recession disproportionately affected Black students and exacerbated achievement gaps. Most school funding gaps have a simple explanation: Public school budgets rely heavily on local property taxes. Communities with low property values can tax themselves at much higher rates than others but still fail to generate anywhere near the the same level of resources as other communities. In fact, in 46 of 50 states, local school funding schemes drive more resources to middle-income students than poor students. The local funding gap between districts mostly serving middle-income versus poor students in New Jersey, for example, is $3,460 per pupil. While state and federal programs often send additional funds to poor students, they are insufficient to fully meet the additional needs of low-income students. Missed opportunities to cure local funding In Brown v. Board, the court glossed over the history of school segregation and its nuances. The court said it was impossible to "turn the clock back to 1868," when the nation adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, or "even 1896," when the court authorized segregation. Instead, it declared that "we must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation." This pivot let the court tackle segregation on a slate scrubbed clean of history's mess. But it also deprived the court of any serious consideration of Southern states' complex and racially motivated system of local school funding. Later court decisions did not even recognize that a problem with local funding might exist. To the contrary, they put a preference on local funding over remedying inequality. In the 1973 case of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the court rejected a challenge to the inequality local school funding causes, reasoning that "local control" over school funding was "vital to continued public support of the schools" and "of overriding importance from an educational standpoint as well." A year later, in Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court blocked a desegregation remedy that would have spanned multiple districts. Finances and local autonomy were at the heart of the court's rationale. It wrote, "No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools." In its view, desegregation between districts would destroy that tradition and create a host of problems regarding local school funding. To be sure, those decisions did not preclude desegregation within individual districts. But the Court declared desegregation and school funding inequality that occurs between school districtsas opposed to within school districtsas largely beyond the reach of federal judicial power. Funding, control and segregation Our research reveals that during the South's Reconstruction, Black people and progressive whites saw state control as the solution to inadequate and unequal education. They adopted policies to that effect, many of which were enshrined in state constitutions rather than laws reversible by the legislature. Local communities were certainly important to the implementation of schools, but states like Texas and Virginia centralized school administration, school finance and a variety of other policies. Some states, such as South Carolina, placed the core issue of physical segregation under state control and prohibited it outright. Then, during the Jim Crow era, localism became the tool to reverse this progress and equality. States increased reliance on local taxation, gave local white officials discretion over state funds, and constitutionally secured segregation. Some went so far as to craft color-coded funding systems where white taxes funded white schools exclusively. Others, like South Carolina, achieved the same end by letting taxpayers select which of the segregated schools would receive their funds. Southern leaders openly linked local funding and control to the "wisdom" of segregation. The development of Northern local school systems was historically distinct. Yet, even in some Northern states, racial antagonism and concerns over segregation prompted pushes for local decision-making. More generally, some Northern states followed a trajectory similar to Southern states: Illinois, for example, imposed a statewide property tax for white education with supplemental local funding before the Civil War. Ironically, though, it ultimately became one of the states most dependent on local funding. Toward a more fair system While Brown v. Board declared school segregation itself unconstitutional, other related aspects of segregated schoolsparticularly the decentralization of school fundingcontinued unchecked after it. The longer those aspects remained, the more courts accepted them as a neutral aspect of delivering public education. An important step in remedying entrenched school funding inequalities is to first recognize that they are rooted in the history of Jim Crow segregation. Another potential step is to return to the more centralized approach of Reconstructionan approach that states during their progressive eras have long recognized. And this step makes good constitutional sense, too. After all, every state constitution places the ultimate obligation to fund and deliver public education on states, not local governments. Explore further School segregation tied to problem drinking among Black youth More information: Derek W. Black, Localism, Pretext, and the Color of School Dollars, SSRN Electronic Journal (2022). Derek W. Black, Localism, Pretext, and the Color of School Dollars,(2022). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4082368 This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. NEW YORK When I first saw Tracy Letts The Minutes in 2017 in Chicago, director Anna D. Shapiros sizzling Steppenwolf Theatre production felt like a takedown of Donald Trumps triumphalist America, too engaged in self-promotion to confront the unsavory aspects of its own origin story. Thanks to COVID-19, the shows move to Broadway took years, not minutes. Trump is gone, maybe. But this intense play now feels aimed not so much at Trumpism but at how small-town councils and school-board meetings are turning into war zones, their traditional reliance on Roberts Rules of Order supplanted not just by screaming matches but by quietly devastating executions of majority power. One community at a time. Advertisement As we all know, whatever side were on, small-town democracy is fast turning into a zero-sum American game. Each side is out for blood. Thats what The Minutes is about. In this play which features a Steppenwolf-heavy ensemble cast comprised of Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton, Jeff Still, the excellent newcomer Noah Reid as the town dentist and the scary playwright himself as the town mayor Letts is continuing the theme that dominates his best-known play to date, August: Osage County. Advertisement In that hit Broadway play (which became a movie), the playwright drew from his own familial and institutional history to suggest that the presence of a bunch of warring white academics on land once belonging to Native Americans was sufficiently delegitimizing as to rip apart a dysfunctional, modern-day family overly imbued with its own self-justifying mythology. Jeff Still as Mr. Assalone, Tracy Letts as Mayor Superba and Cliff Chamberlain as Mr. Breeding in "The Minutes" on Broadway at Studio 54 in New York. (Jeremy Daniel photo / HANDOUT) The Minutes, set in the council chamber of fictional Big Cherry (which feels like a town in Texas or Letts native Oklahoma) looks not at a group related by bloodlines, but by a collective determination not to examine a towns own past. That communal self-mythologizing is encapsulated in an origin story into which everyone buys, whether they are business people, retirees or the mayor himself. And, as the play progresses, the determination of this group not to allow themselves to be challenged grows more intense by the minute. Thats all you need to know. Letts has structured the work as a mystery: Reids dentist wants to know what has happened to the minutes of a previous meeting and why a potential whistleblower (played with earnest intensity by Barford) has disappeared. The clerk (dryly played by Mueller) appears to be on the dentists side. Surely the one Black guy in the room is an ally? Maybe the business guys? Maybe the goofy retiree, played by Pendleton, benign until his character is threatened? But the mayor, played by Letts with the menace of surety, knows how to execute the kind of collective power too much for any dentist. And that circling of the wagons is what you get to watch here, as performed by a cast with no weak links. For a play written some five years ago now, the work still retains remarkable currency. Its not as if American democracy suddenly is feeling more secure. And its another example of powerful Steppenwolf acting, not the showcase August: Osage County afforded, but a symphony of provincial low-burn tyranny, nonetheless. You might be put in mind of Shirley Jacksons The Lottery. Or Stranger Things. Or a grown up version of Lord of the Flies. As is typical with Letts, there is much noir humor. The character names alone tell you plenty: Mayor Superba (Letts), Mr. Carp (Barford), Mr. Oldfield (Pendleton), Ms. Innes (Brown), Mr. Breeding (Chamberlain); Mr. Assalone (Still); Mr. Hanratty (McCarthy) and, of course, Mr. Peel (back, Reid). Jessie Mueller as Ms. Johnson, Noah Reid as Mr. Peel, Jeff Still as Mr. Assalone, Tracy Letts as Mayor Superba and Cliff Chamberlain as Mr. Breeding in "The Minutes" on Broadway at Studio 54 in New York. (Jeremy Daniel photo / HANDOUT) I wish Shapiros powerful original production had not been obliged by all the COVID-19 chaos to move to Studio 54, a bigger theater than ideal and a space that diffuses some of the original intensity of the piece, especially since people moving on and off microphones is baked into the play. Still, The Minutes, which has a set from David Zinn that deliciously parodies small-town self-mythologizing, can survive that. Its an important play, a visceral theatrical experience, all about what has happened to retail American democracy and how this nation decides on which stories about itself it wants to believe. Advertisement The Minutes on Broadway at Studio 54, 254 West 54th St. New York; theminutesbroadway.com Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@chicagotribune.com Credit: CC0 Public Domain Along most of the historic South Florida coast, mangroves were nature's way of protecting the coast from waves and hurricanes. As development inched closer to the water, seawalls became the method of choice to separate land and sea. With 2 feet of sea level rise on the horizon by 2060, which is the right choice for extending the life span of cities like Miami? The scienceat least for pure flood controlsuggests the man-made answer wins out over nature's solution, with some caveats. Peter Sheng, a University of Florida researcher who's studied the protective value of mangroves in Florida, said they're an incredible tool when used correctly. In places like Cutler Bay, huge swaths of mangroves provide a barrier between the 10-foot-plus waves from hurricanes and populated areas. "If you have a narrow urban mangrove planter, it doesn't cut it," he said. "Three meters of mangrove does nothing. It's a token for the look. If you want to dissipate waves, you need at least 100 meters." This math was evident in the federal government's decision that the best method to protect Miami-Dade's coast from the punishing hurricanes of the future was a 20-foot wall stretching for miles along the coast, and not the dense mangroves and short seawall combination many residents brought up in public meetings. Ultimately, the county and its residents rejected the wall, sending the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the drawing board for a new solution that Miami-Dade residents will actually like, and one that is intended to protect them for decades to come. How do mangroves stack up? It's not that seawalls are better than mangroves 100% of the time, said Rik Gijsman, a coastal engineer and researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In a 2021 paper, he and other authors analyzed a decade's worth of research on how well mangroves work at reducing flooding compared to a seawall. "It's not an 'or' question. It's different systems and they can both be useful depending on the conditions locally," he said. "I think we need both and it depends on the local conditions, how to integrate the two." Rod Braun, climate strategy director for The Nature Conservancy, said mangroves have a long list of benefits, including erosion control, providing a habitat for the fish and other organisms that inhabit the bay, improving water quality and storing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming. And unlike a concrete wall, they actually form a stronger and higher barrier over time. "I think it makes it just a nicer place to live," he said. And seawalls have issues. When waves crash against the hard concrete, it carves away at the sand below, making it a less friendly place for sea creatures or plants. Combining the two, known as a hybrid approach, solves a lot of those issues. It's what the city of Miami suggested for the new coastline of Morningside Park, a 6-foot seawall in combination with mangroves and other landscaping. Then some residents complained that mangroves would ruin their view and they were removed from the project. But in the case of the Army Corps plan, which was designed to protect the county from the punishingly high waves associated with hurricanes and not just occasional flooding, the data show that even a hybrid approach might not be enough. Gijsman said studies consistently show that to cut huge waves down to size takes a lot of mangroves, an Everglades-sized amount of mangroves. "Mangroves will never provide full safety for real storm surges," he said. "To really attenuate the waves you need kilometers of them." The science is still out Yuepeng Li, a Florida International University researcher who's published multiple papers attempting to quantify exactly how much protection mangroves offer, said there are a lot of factors when it comes to figuring that out. It matters what species of mangrove you're talking about, and even the ratio of roots to branches makes a difference. Accounting for those variables, he said, it takes about half a mile worth of mangroves to lop off even one foot of storm surge. "Even one mile of mangroves, I don't think it will significantly decrease the surge," Li said. One of the reasons builders stick with seawalls over mangroves, Gijsman said, is that you can build a concrete structure exactly the same way every time and all but guarantee the same performance. "We've realized for a long time already that natural area contributes to flood protection, but it's not that simple to work with because nature is unpredictable, and as an engineer, you want to be on the safe side," he said. For instance, engineers can calculate what it would take to make a seawall crack and fail. When it comes to mangroves, they aren't as sure. That makes it difficult to provide the "return on investment" numbers agencies like the Corps rely on to make decisions. And as the world gets hotter, wetter and saltier, mangroves could perform worse. Best of both worlds When armoring the coasts, seawalls and mangroves aren't mutually exclusive solutions. Increasingly, planners are looking to combine both strategies. Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, an assistant professor with the University of Miami's college of engineering, said he's "all about the hybrid" of the twousing a seawall to protect against flooding and plants like mangroves to bring in the environmental benefits. But calculating those eco-friendly additions is much harder than simply seeing how much less flood damage a city faces with or without a seawall. Not everyone agrees on the value of having a few dozen fish around or a few pounds of carbon dioxide sucked out of the atmosphere. Rhode-Barbarigos said if planners change the question they ask at the beginning from "what offers the best flood protection?" to "what does the most good for this space?" then a hybrid solution is the clear winner. "What you're getting with the hybrid, I want to believe, is the best of both worlds and not the opposite," he said. Explore further Mangroves reduce flood damages during hurricanes, saving billions of dollars in property losses 2022 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Graphical abstract. Credit: Science of The Total Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154875 Plastic rubbish is everywhere and now broken-down microplastics have been found in variable concentrations in blue mussels and water within the intertidal zone at some of southern Australia's most popular and more remote beaches. Flinders University researchers warn that this means microplastics are now finding their way into human food suppliesincluding wild-caught and ocean-farmed fish and seafood sourced from the once pristine Southern Ocean and gulf waters of South Australia. "Our findings shed light on the urgent need to prevent microplastic pollution by working with the communities, industries and government to protect these fragile marine systems," says Professor Karen Burke da Silva, senior author of a new article just published in Science of the Total Environment. The Flinders University research team sampled varying levels of microplastics on 10 popular beaches across South Australia, from Coffin Bay and Port Lincoln on the West Coast to Point Lowly and Whyalla on the Spencer Gulf, to popular Adelaide metropolitan beaches along with Victor Harbor, Robe and Kangaroo Island. "Low to medium levels of microplastics (less than 5mm in size) measured in the common blue mussel (Mytilus spp.), a filter feeder affected by ecosystem conditions, were measured to analyze the main kinds of pollution affecting the environment, and single-use plastic was the main offender," Professor Burke da Silva says. Microplastics are ubiquitous in our marine environment and tend to be more abundant in mussel samples near larger towns and cities, with levels four times higher at Semaphore Beach compared to more remote Ceduna on Eyre Peninsula. "By investigating microplastic load in the mussel, we call attention to the implications of microplastic pollution on South Australia's unique marine ecosystems and on the local human food chain," says Janet Klein, the first author of the article. Microplastic contamination at Semaphore Beach and then Hallett Cove up to four times higher than tests run at Ceduna, and twice as high as Coffin Bay on Eyre Peninsula. Trillions of microplastic particles exist in the world's oceans, with the highest concentrations recently found in the shallow sea floor sediment off Naifaru in the Maldives (at 278 particles kg-1) and lowest reported in the surface waters of the Antarctic Southern Ocean (3.1 x 10-2 particles per m3). For the first time, the new Flinders University study measured the presence of microplastics in South Australia's coastline, in areas important both for shipping, fishing and tourism, along with other industries and local communities. Microplastic concentration in the SA intertidal water was found to be low to moderate (mean = 8.21 particles l1 4.91) relative to global levels and microplastic abundance in mussels (mean = 3.58 8.18 particles individual1), within the range also reported globally. Plastic types include polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), acrylic resin, polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) and cellulose, which suggests both synthetic and semi-synthetic particles from single-use, short-life cycle products, fabrics, ropes and cordage from the fishing industry. "The areas examined include some biodiversity hotspots of global significanceincluding the breeding ground of the Great Cuttlefish in the Northern Spencer Gulf and marine ecosystems more diverse than the Great Barrier Reef (such as Coffin Bay), so cleanup and prevention measures are long overdue," says Professor Burke da Silva. "Apart from the harvesting of blue mussels, we also need to consider the impact of microplastic particles entering other parts of the human food chain with microplastic pollution expected to increase in the future." The article, "Microplastics in intertidal water of South Australia and the mussel Mytilus spp.; the contrasting effect of population on concentration," has been published in Science of the Total Environment. Explore further Call to recycle plastic waste More information: Janet R. Klein et al, Microplastics in intertidal water of South Australia and the mussel Mytilus spp.; the contrasting effect of population on concentration, Science of The Total Environment (2022). Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Janet R. Klein et al, Microplastics in intertidal water of South Australia and the mussel Mytilus spp.; the contrasting effect of population on concentration,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154875 Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. Credit: NIAID (CC BY 2.0, 2016) Before being accidentally introduced to the New World by the 16th century slave trade, the yellow fever mosquito was a species native only to Africa. Highly adaptable, it has since become an invasive species in North America, but researchers at The Ohio State University may have found a way to squash the pesky population in its juvenile stages. Recently published in the journal Insects, a new paper describes how mosquitoes have evolved a natural resistance to some chemical insecticides, and offers an alternative called carbon black, a type of carbon-based nanoparticles, or CNPs. Study co-author and an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State, Peter Piermarini described CNPs as "microscopic" materials made out of organic elements. The study used a modified version of carbon black called Emperor 1800, which is often used to coat automobiles black. While CNPs are a relatively new scientific development, they have been considered as new tools to control various insect and pest infestations, he said. "If we can learn more about how carbon black works and how to use it safely, we could design a commercially available nanoparticle that is highly effective against insecticide-resistant mosquitoes," Piermarini said. The yellow fever mosquito, or Aedes aegypti, is a species of mosquito known for spreading not just yellow fever, but also diseases like the Zika virus, dengue fever and chikungunya fever. Adults rarely fly more than a few hundred meters from where they emerge, but their abundance leads to steady transmission of diseasesenough to claim tens of thousands of lives every year and hospitalize hundreds of thousands more people. Because of this, the mosquito is considered to be one of the deadliest animals on the planet. For this study, the researchers' goal was to figure out how toxic these nanomaterials could be to mosquito larvae, or the immature form of the insect. Contrary to popular belief, not all mosquitoes set their sights on turning our blood into their latest meal. Male mosquitoes subsist only on flower nectar; it's the females that will consume both flower nectar and blood in a bid to provide their eggs with enough protein to grow. When female mosquitoes are ready to lay their eggs, they return to standing pools of water, like lakes or birdbaths, to release them. After they hatch, these larvae will stay in the water for about a week until they reach adulthood, and take wing. To test whether Emperor 1800 would be effective in stopping that process, researchers worked with two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito inside the lab, one extremely susceptible to typical chemical insecticides, and the other, extremely resistant to them. By applying the carbon black nanomaterials to the water during the earliest stages of the mosquito's life cycle and checking in 48 hours later, they were able to determine that CNPs kill mosquito larvae both quickly and efficiently. "Given the properties of carbon black, it has the most potential for killing larvae because it can be suspended in water," Piermarini said. Their findings showed that the material seemed to accumulate on the mosquito larvae's head, abdomen, and even in its gut, meaning that at some point, the larvae were ingesting smaller particles of carbon black. "Our hypothesis is that these materials may be physically obstructing their ability to perform basic biological functions. It could be blocking their digestion, or might be interfering with their ability to breathe," said Piermarini. However, there was one thing that Piermarini found particularly surprising. When first suspended in water, carbon black appeared equally toxic to larvae of insecticide-resistant and insecticide-susceptible mosquitoes, but the longer the carbon black was suspended in water before treating them, it became more toxic to the insecticide-resistant larvae. "When you first apply the CNP solution it has similar toxicity against both strains," Piermarini said. "But when you let the suspension age for a few weeks, it tends to become more potent against the resistant strain of mosquitoes." Although they couldn't determine the reason behind the time-lapsed deaths, the study concluded that these new nanomaterials could be extremely beneficial to controlling the species when applied as a preventive treatment to mosquito breeding grounds. But before it can be utilized by the public, Piermarini said, carbon black needs to undergo rigorous testing to ensure it won't harm humans and the environment as a whole. Co-authors were Erick Martinez Rodriguez, a visiting scholar currently in the Ohio State Entomology Graduate program, Parker Evans, a previous Ph.D. student in the Ohio State Translational Plant Sciences Graduate program, and Megha Kalsi, a previous postdoctoral researcher in entomology. Explore further Larvicidal flavonoids inhibit key enzyme in yellow fever mosquitoes More information: Erick J. Martinez Rodriguez et al, Larvicidal Activity of Carbon Black against the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti, Insects (2022). Erick J. Martinez Rodriguez et al, Larvicidal Activity of Carbon Black against the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti,(2022). DOI: 10.3390/insects13030307 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Two weeks ago, President Joe Biden ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the country's petroleum stockpile for the next six months. The United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a collection of underground salt caverns, was created following the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, which was when the U.S. and other Western countries faced substantial petroleum shortages, fueling elevated oil prices. The oil crisis arose after Arab oil producers cut off exports to protest U.S. military support for Israel in its 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. The petroleum reserve was created to provide the American people with a supply that can be used in case of an emergency. The reserve, which is located in Texas and Louisiana, holds up to more than 700 million barrels of oil, but according to the U.S. Energy Department only holds 560 million barrels presently. This is the third time the Biden-Harris administration has tapped the reserve, but it's not the first time it's been touched within U.S. history. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush ordered the withdrawal of almost 34 million barrels during the Gulf War, but 17 million barrels were used at the time. Also in 2011, President Barack Obama authorized the release of 30 million barrels to balance out the disruption of supply from Libya. During Biden's State of the Union speech in March 2021, he ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil. In November 2021, he authorized another 30 million barrels in order to boost the oil supply. Now, Biden is tapping into the reserve again to combat the nation's current oil crisis and control the energy prices that were rising slowly, but have recently skyrocketed due to global leaders imposing sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. This is the largest release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in U.S. history and will decrease the amount of oil to 384.6 million barrels by the time the six months concludes, which ABC News reports is a 40% drop for the reserve since Biden took office in January 2021. But the question remains, should the president or any future president ever tap into the reserve, and is it really in the best interest of the American people? "We should not be giving an inch to the fossil fuel industry. And I wouldn't even be tapping into the reserves at this point," says Nada Sanders, distinguished professor of supply-chain management at Northeastern. "Once you dip into it, you have to replenish it. Replenishing it means the green light to drill morethe green light for the oil companies, and I find that to be extremely disturbing." The U.S. Energy Department reported that in 2021, the nation consumed an average of nearly 20 million barrels of petroleum a day. The president said it's unknown if gas prices will decline drastically, but he suggests in the coming months that it might be "anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon." "In terms of when one compares simple usage, what the usage is on a daily basis to the amount that will be released, what would it do? It would do nothing," Sanders says. "It's going to do nothing [for oil prices], but it's going to be really detrimental." NPR reports that Bob McNally, who's a consultant with a firm called Rapidan and who worked on crude oil issues under the George W. Bush White House, says, "I doubt that even this big of a release is going to keep crude oil prices, and therefore gasoline prices, from rising further. And that's because Russia is the world's largest oil exporter." The Associated Press reports that even if crude oil prices don't drop, Biden can argue that he at least tried by tapping into the reserve. "No one thinks that the effect on gas prices is going to be particularly large, so if those things are true, then it almost has to be purely political," says Nick Beauchamp, assistant professor of political science at Northeastern. Following Biden's latest order, the White House reported that it predicts that domestic production of oil is expected to increase by 1 million barrels per day this year and nearly 700,000 barrels per day next year. "They use up those barrels, and then they buy them again when prices go down a little bit. When this war [in Ukraine] is over they'll probably go down by a decent amount," Beachamp says. "On the other hand, no one knows whether the war will go on for two weeks, two years, or 20 years." Explore further Ecuador expands oil extraction from Amazon reserve Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain In October, a report released by the White House warned that "Climate change is an emerging threat to the financial stability of the United States." The intensifying impacts of climate change can jeopardize businesses in numerous ways. Extreme weather events disrupt operations, make resources such as water or energy scarce or more expensive, and increase the cost of insurance, posing financial risks for those who invest in companies unprepared to deal with these impacts. Other attendant climate, environmental, and social impacts also have financial repercussions. The loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services could cost the global economy $2.7 trillion by 2030 according to the World Bank. Sea level rise threatens real estate and coastal infrastructure. Increasing water scarcity around the worlda McKinsey study estimated that global water demand will exceed the available supply by 40 percent by 2030may disrupt supply chains and business operations. New regulations that drive a shift away from fossil fuels could introduce uncertainty into business decisions. And companies' reputations may suffer as investors increasingly favor more sustainable companies. So is it less risky to invest with sustainability in mind? And does sustainable investing actually help the planet? What is sustainable investing? Security and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler said that investors with over $130 trillion in assets under management have been asking for companies to reveal their climate risks. More and more investors, especially younger ones, want to invest in companies that take climate risks into consideration, and that are sustainable and socially responsible. They are demanding information about a company's relationships, how it conducts business, how it is governed, its supply chain practices, and its values. Sustainable investing is a strategy that seeks to ensure that companies produce positive social and environmental impacts as well as long-term financial gains. Such socially responsible investing is also called ESG investing because it considers the environmental, social, and corporate governance aspects of a business. Companies are given ESG scores based on these factors: Environmental: What impacts a company has on the environmentits carbon footprint, waste management, water use and conservation, and the clean energy and technology it uses. Social: How a company deals with human rights, racial diversity in hiring, the health and safety of employees and board members, and community involvement. Governance: How a company is governed or managedthe quality of management and the board, diversity, executive compensation, shareholder rights, transparency and disclosure, anti-corruption, and political contributions. The growth of sustainable investing In recent years, assets in sustainable mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have grown rapidly. From 2020 to the end of 2021, assets in these funds grew 52 percent to $362 billion. Broadridge Financial Solutions projects that ESG assets could reach $30 trillion by 2030. Despite this growth, however, sustainable investing does not necessarily yield greater returns. The authors of a new book on sustainable investing found no unambiguous evidence that sustainable investing out-performed traditional portfolios in the long run. Meanwhile as money pours into ESG funds, the world's environmental and social crises continue to worsen. So is sustainable investing actually helping to combat climate change and advance a sustainable society? Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, said, "What is being called sustainable finance, or what is expected of ESG investing is not what many of us would expect, which is an approach to investing that accounts for and minimizes negative impacts and brings positive impacts. There are a lot of different strategies, purposes, and approaches that are captured under the umbrella of sustainable investing or ESG investing. Those terms are often used interchangeably, but they don't all mean the same thing." Three types of sustainable investing For portfolio investors, there are three distinct approaches to sustainable investing, said Sachs. They are completely different in their goals, strategies, and effects on real-world outcomes. 1) Maximizing risk-adjusted returns The idea here is that if you account for environmental, social and governance factors, particularly their risks and opportunities, you can make better investment decisions, maximize returns, and minimize risk. For example, a major long-term threat to fossil fuel companies comes from increased social and political stigmatization of their activities. This stigmatization could lead to pressure on governments to levy a carbon tax or implement other regulations that would impact fossil fuel company finances and increase uncertainty about their profitability. But accounting for risks is no guarantee that there will be longer-term consequences such as stigmatization and government regulations that could influence company behavior. "Just accounting for those [ESG] risks in order to maximize returns is neither designed to, nor will it have an effect on real world outcomes," said Sachs. 2) Aligning portfolios with values This entails excluding certain types of investments or specifically including certain types of investments in a portfolio in accordance with one's values. The growing divestment movement aims to avoid investing in fossil fuel intensive companies with the goal of forcing them to leave fossil fuels in the ground (stranded assets) or pressuring them to reduce their carbon emissions or move into alternative energy sources. According to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitment Database, 1,508 institutions have committed to divestment. These include universities such as Harvard and Columbia, foundations such as the Ford Foundation, pension funds, faith-based organizations, and even governments. However, while these institutions are valued at over $40 trillion in total, this does not mean that they are divesting that amount of money. And despite the important symbolism and growth of the divestment movement, Sachs said that research suggests that at its present scale, it doesn't actually affect the cost of capital or the behaviors of targeted companies. This is because divestment doesn't take any money from the coffers of fossil fuel companies since the shares have already been issued; when divested, they are simply being bought by someone else. Moreover, "Even if the maximum possible capital was divested from fossil fuel companies, their shares prices are unlikely to suffer precipitous declines," revealed an Oxford University report. What could have an impact on company behavior, however, through adjusting the cost of capital, the availability of financing, and financing terms is if banks and private equity would divest. "Banks and private equity and those who are bringing new capital or underwriting capital, or determining the terms of capital, have more power to shift the cost of capital and the availability of capital, than do universities," said Sachs. However, most are not using their power to advance sustainability. A new report revealed that the world's 60 largest banks have put $4.6 trillion into the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement. U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America are responsible for 25 percent of this funding despite being members of the international Net Zero Banking Alliance committed to reaching net zero by 2050. 3) Active stewardship Shareholders of a company have power and influence over management and boards of directors and can take action. "Shareholders have the power to bring resolutions to ask management to take certain actions, and vote on others' resolutions. They do vote on directors, and that's one important way to hold directors accountable," said Sachs. "One could vote against any director that doesn't take sustainability concerns seriously." As an example, Engine No. 1, an activist investment firm, was able to install three directors on Exxon Mobil's board in an effort to pressure the company into reducing its carbon footprint and consider the risk of climate impacts on long-term shareholder value. It achieved this by getting the support of Exxon's large institutional shareholdersBlackRock, State Street and Vanguardasset managers who support the goal of net zero by 2050. "This type of 'sustainable investing' is critical and valuable," said Sachs. "If all owners of capital were active stewards of that capital and were pushing management for more responsible practices and more responsible board management, I think that would be really great. But in the universe of 'sustainable investing practices,' or ESG practices, that is a very small sliver of what is normally included under that umbrella." The challenges of sustainable investing Because ESG strategies are designed to account for how real-world crises affect companies so they can reap better risk-adjusted returns, ESG ratings do not reflect a company's impacts on the real worldthey rate how well a company is managing its risks. Moreover, it is hard to know exactly what a company's ESG score means because rating companies do not reveal what risks they are assessing or their methods of rating. Companies are being rated on certain aspects, but not on others, and they are being rated from a risk perspective, not from an impact perspective. Sachs cited Coca Cola as an example. "They get a double A rating as a top ranked sustainability company. Probably because they are managing their water risks, and maybe looking at their climate policies, maybe looking at their labor policies. But that rating doesn't account for the fact that the core producta sugar beverageis leading to the largest public health crisis that we currently face." Nonetheless, Coca Cola is considered a best-in-class company for beverages. To create ESG funds, ESG portfolio companies bring together best-in-class businesses with high ESG ratings based on hidden factors that don't account for the overall impact of the company. "This makes it difficult for investors who want to understand which companies are 'sustainable' or are doing well," said Sachs. "That information cannot be gleaned by this [these scores]." Some experts believe that sustainable investing actually inhibits climate action. Tariq Fancy, former sustainable investing chief at BlackRock, called sustainable investing a "dangerous placebo" because "it keeps government regulation to address the climate crisis at bay through feeding us yet another narrative in which our answers are solved by the 'free market' magically self-correcting." Sachs contends that the finance industry has helped delay government action to combat climate change because the private sector does not want regulations. Many businesses and financial sector entities are in fact lobbying heavily against the types of climate action sustainable investors want to see. The diverse, unregulated, and inconsistent practices of sustainable investing are also a huge challenge to its efficacy. There are no accepted definitions of what constitutes a sustainable investment and so far, there have been no consistent regulations requiring disclosure of climate risks, or any consistent approach to accounting for emissions. Aside from sowing confusion, this lack of clarity has also allowed for "greenwashing," when companies claim to be more sustainable than they actually are, whether intentionally or not. Influence Map a U.K. think tank, studied 723 equity funds using ESG claims in their marketing; more than 70 percent of the funds with ESG goals were not aligned with the goal of the Paris Agreementto keep global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels. More recently, Morningstar removed the ESG tags from 1,200 funds. More effective sustainable investing In March, the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) proposed a new rule that would require all U.S. publicly traded companies to disclose to the government and to their shareholders how the risks from climate change could affect their business. It would establish a framework for companies to report the climate risks they face in annual reports and stock registration statements. If the SEC rule is passed, its mandated disclosures about a company's governance, risk management, strategy with respect to climate-related risks, greenhouse gas emissions, climate goals, and transition plans, will force companies to back up any claims they make. SEC Chairman Gensler said, "if adopted, it [the proposed rule] would provide investors with consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information for making their investment decisions and would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers." Disclosure of this information would also give investors more leverage to compel businesses to change practices that contribute to climate change and likely spur companies to be more sustainable. Peter Drucker, an Austrian-American business leader, famously said,"You can't manage what you can't measure." As such, the SEC rule is an important step in the right direction, but it needs to be followed by action. Given the far-reaching implications of climate change, and the urgent need to curtail fossil fuel use and strengthen climate resilience, strong federal policies are essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "Once we identify the problems, they need to be regulated, because we shouldn't be looking to the market to self-regulate based on these disclosures," said Sachs. "We need real regulations that address climate change. We should not look to our portfolios to effect the change that we want. We should look to our government officials, and we should not be disabused into thinking that the private sector or the financial sector are going to solve these problems." If you are considering sustainable investing, understand the three strategies of investing and be realistic about the purposes, strategies, and outcomes of the ones you choose. Most importantly, be an educated and active investor. Do your homework in terms of how a company is managed, what its climate goals are, and what strategies it is using to achieve them, and actively engage its management. CERES, a nonprofit organization whose goal is changing corporate environmental practices, has developed tools investors can use to find out how companies are addressing climate change and water risks, how to assess company progress towards net zero goals, track shareholder proposals on ESG issues, engage with companies, and more; it also coordinates the Investor Network on Climate Risk to advance sustainable investment practices. "We have the opportunity to align the capital that we have, and the capital that many in our generation want to be mobilized, for good," said Sachs. "To actually think about what it would look like to mobilize it for good and determine the proper investment opportunities, I think, are some of the most important questions of our generation." Explore further New US rule requires publicly-listed firms to disclose emissions This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. The development of offshore wind energy in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast has looked like a juggernaut for a few years now. Thats consistent with the broad consensus on the value of the energy resource and its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Still, anytime government and political leaders are given something unstoppable costing vast sums and delivering more goodies to hand out than an Easter basket, the public and those more directly affected must be cautious. We said people and particular interests, such as commercial fishing and wildlife protection, should be reassured by the thorough environmental reviews and studies that will accompany the creation of this new industry. For example, NOAA Fisheries has been working with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and offshore wind developers to determine how projects might affect cod, black sea bass and other fish species and to protect them. The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection and the state Board of Public Utilities this spring said they will commission three studies on how offshore wind installations will affect wildlife, fisheries and habitats. With no apparent serious risks of harm evident from offshore wind projects around the world, we suggested, Americans should have a lot of confidence in their scientific institutions and government regulatory structure to minimize the downsides of offshore wind energy development, if any. We still think thats true, but a recent decision favoring an offshore wind company raises this question: Are the environmental benefits of offshore wind energy so great that theyll trump other environmental regulations? Last month, the DEP quietly put a notice in the New Jersey Register that it is changing coastal wetlands maps in Salem County in response to a request from PSEG Power, which with rsted is developing the leading Ocean Wind project off Atlantic City. The DEP will reclassify 150 acres of wetlands as uplands to accommodate the building of the New Jersey Wind Port to serve the offshore wind industry. The port will be adjacent to PSEGs three nuclear generating stations on the bay in Lower Alloways Creek Township. A reassessment found that the acreage no longer met the definition of coastal wetlands, the DEP said, thanks to a large amount of fill materials and an elevation above tidal flows. The fill includes Delaware River dredge materials, gravel and asphalt. PSEG had requested reclassification of 197 acres. The DEP said there would be no environmental impact from the change and pointed to the environmental benefit of reducing fossil fuel use with sustainable wind energy. The wetlands to uplands change also raised the eyebrows of the former and longtime director of New Jersey Sierra Club, Jeff Tittel. He told NJ Spotlight, We want the wind port to move forward, but what are they going to do to mitigate the impacts? Do we want to increase fill in areas subject to climate change and sea level rise? We can imagine lesser environmental considerations being overwhelmed by the ultimate goal of clean energy in a hurry. This isnt the time to start worrying that will happen, but a wetlands reclassification that typically is very hard to get suggests its a risk to watch out for. Market volatility, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and a high world demand for U.S. corn and soybeans are driving prices for farmers to record highs, local farmers say. But those same market conditions have sent the cost of farm inputs, particularly fertilizers, skyrocketing. Its a perfect storm on this whole price thing, Taylor Ridge farmer Tom Mueller said. If there is one area of American economy that is always affected by global issues, it is agriculture, he said. Brazil and Argentina didnt have as good a corn crop last year, and that has contributed to the price, he said. China is needing both more corn and soybeans. Corn for May delivery closed Friday at $7.90 per bushel on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 6 cents from Thursdays close. The last time corn was close to that was in 2012 when it reached $6.67 a bushel, according to statistics from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In October 2021, farmers were getting about $5.02 per bushel, according to the USDA. Soybeans for May delivery closed Friday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at $16.82 per bushel, up 6 cents from Thursdays close. Soybeans reached $14.1 per bushel in 2013. In October 2021, farmers were getting about $11.90 per bushel, according to the USDA. Just a few months ago I could sell corn off the combine for $5.50, Mueller said. I thought that was a good price, and then it was. I locked it in. I look kind of stupid now because now I could have gotten $2 more. Scott County farmer Robb Ewoldt said corn and soybeans were in demand for other things besides food and feed. Soybean oil is also being used for renewable diesel fuel, and jet fuel is being made out of soybean and corn oil, which blows my mind. But as prices to farmers have risen to record highs, so have the cost of fertilizers. War in Ukraine is only part of the issue. A number of supply-and-demand factors were already at work driving fertilizer prices higher. These include the global demand for fertilizer outpacing production, supply-chain disruptions and high production costs such as the high price for natural gas, which is used to make nitrogen products such as anhydrous ammonia. Mueller said a year ago, a ton of anhydrous ammonia cost him about $450. Its about $1,600 a ton now, he said. Ewoldt said an acre of crops required an average of 180-200 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, other popular fertilizers, such as potash and urea, also have doubled in the past year. Potash has risen from about $400 a ton to more than $800 a ton, while urea has risen from about $450 per ton to about $900 per ton. There are even transportation issues. Union Pacific is mandating reductions in shipping for companies that supply fertilizers to farmers for the time being. Kristen South, senior director of corporate communications and media relations, said in an email that the railroad was working with customers to address the impact of several disruptive events. To address the national supply chain issues, she said, the railroad is removing Union Pacific-controlled cars to ease congestion and asked customers to reduce their own growing inventories; adding 100 additional locomotives to the fleet; training 450 new employees, in a tight labor market, with more in the pipeline to graduate this summer; relocating approximately 80 crew members to support high demand areas; and partnering with customers to begin a metered approach in the coming days. This allows us to continue serving all customers while simultaneously working through a backlog of cars, restoring our ability to process volume an approach we successfully applied last year with West Coast intermodal traffic, South said. Ewoldt said Russia was a huge producer and exporter of nitrogen, potash and phosphorous. Theyre not exporting anything. No insurance company is willing to underwrite the shipping, he said. Russia also is not exporting any agriculture products, which arent sanctioned, because no insurance company is willing to take the risk. Ukraine also is a huge exporter of fertilizers on the world market, and of course, the war with Russia has stopped all that, he added. What Europe can no longer get from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which produce potash, Europe will then turn to other sources, such as the U.S. It could get to be a situation where those countries once supplied by Russia are going to be willing to pay a lot of money to U.S. producers, he said. Saskatchewan-based Nutrien announced in a news release March 16 that because of the war the company planned to increase potash production by about 15 million tons in 2022, with the majority of that produced in the second half of the year. Nutriens Interim President and CEO Ken Seitz said in the news release, The impacts of this conflict extend beyond Eastern Europe as a disruption in supply of key agriculture, fertilizer and energy commodities could have implications for global food security. Government policies in the U.S. have made their mark, too, Ewoldt said. The policies of our current president who doesnt want any investment in natural gas exploration means were out of luck finding more natural gas to keep our nitrogen and fertilizer prices down, he said. Ewoldt said that in the end, all the volatility and uncertainty would force farmers to be better, more efficient and to look for other fertilizers, such as using more manure. Farmers in the U.S. are expected to add more acreage to soybeans this year, and fewer acres to corn. According to the USDAs prospective planting report issued March 31, acreage for soybeans is up 4%, while corn planted acreage is down 4%. Ewoldt said a serious supply issue could come about when it came to wheat. Russia is the No. 1 exporter for wheat, but they cant ship any wheat, he said. Ukraine was the No. 4 exporter of wheat, but they will be an importer of wheat for the next five to 10 years because their infrastructure is shot. Middle Eastern countries that rely on wheat from Russia and Ukraine will suffer because there is no substitute for wheat, Ewoldt added. Wheat could potentially go up to six times its value, he said. Its a relatively low input, low fertilizer, high value commodity. Maybe you see a lot more winter wheat seeded this fall. Thats a real possibility right now. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Davenport-based company has started clearing ground in Rock Island for what it hopes will become the nations first vertical take-off and landing facility for battery-powered aircraft. Jake Pautsch, president and CEO of DIFCO, Inc., said site preparation had begun at 3050 3rd Ave. in Rock Island for the construction of an electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aerial facility. Called a vertiport, Pautsch envisions the facility eventually utilizing solar energy to power electric charging stations used for battery-powered aircraft. Doing so, though, requires approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which Pautsch said could take three to five years. Until then, he said plans are for the site to provide aerial medical transportation to local hospitals. The announcement of the project caught Rock Island city officials off guard. "This is a unique situation for sure. We typically do not see a developer announce a project to the media without a clear plan of action presented to the city first," Rock Island Interim City Manager John Gripp said. "The press release and media coverage was certainly a surprise to everyone, Gripp said. The team (city staff) has met and is in the process of contacting the development group to get more detailed information to fully understand and move the project forward. While a project like this will require the development group to work with several different agencies, staff fully supports development in Rock Island and looks forward to learning more about the project. Pautsch, an industrial real estate developer and helicopter pilot, stated in a news release that his company partnered with rotorcraft aviation company Hughes Aerospace and Five Alpha on the development in early 2021. A search of Hughes Aerospaces website did not find mention of the partnership. Once the facility is constructed, Pautsch said he intends to work with vendors to provide traditional helicopters, including any that might be used by area hospitals for medical transport. He said the site was perfect as a medical vertiport, with plans for an operator of hospital aviation as an anchor tenant. In a statement announcing the project, Pautsch said the vertiport will supply Quad City metro medical patients with safer and faster high-end access to aero-medical transport that would support both traditional rotorcraft as well as the rising, electric battery-powered eVTOL aircraft." "The site in Rock Island is perfect for power production and even better for aviation purposes," Pautsch said in an interview. "It's zoned for industrial (use), and it's centrally located between all four of the Quad-Cities. The location is phenomenal for this purpose." Asked for details about the vendor that would provide traditional helicopter service to the vertiport, Pautsch cited a non-disclosure agreement. The public announcement about the project did not mention a partnership with any local hospital system to supply Quad City metro medical patients with safer and faster high-end access to aero-medical transport. Todd Mizener, senior communications specialist for Genesis Health System, declined to comment on the announced project. When finished, Pautsch said the vertiport would include a 24,000-square-foot hangar and facilities for lease, refueling services, a pilot lounge, a prototype visual navigational aid beacon, and an area navigation (RNAV) instrumentation approach and departure egress. The facility will be named after Pautschs older brother, Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2009. Pautsch said he expected the vertiport to be operational for traditional helicopters within eight months to a year. "The power production we are building will be what charges the batteries for electric vertical take-off aircraft, he said. It's a new concept, but it's no different than a seaport for ships or (a) heliport. Vertiports are standalone facilities, while heliports are part of a larger facility like a hospital." To help with financing, Pautsch said his company secured $457,000 from the Illinois Power Agency to build a solar rig to power electric charging stations used for battery-powered aircraft. While federal approval to use such aircraft is years away, Pautsch said the solar energy powered by the site would be used in the meantime for "supplying the MidAmerican Energy power grid." Pautsch called the planned project "ahead of the times. Most people don't understand it yet, he said. "Think of it like a Tesla vehicle. They have batteries, that's how they are powered. Aircraft that are going to be battery-powered will be no different. Love 3 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Lifeline long has enjoyed a proclivity for fantasy novels and often has adapted them well. This one is trickier than most there are some issues of storytelling that present themselves here, not the least of which is the difficulty of keeping the audience engaged with the trajectory of what is a very complicated story, what with all the planets, supernatural characters and the rest. The problems flow mostly from not fully realizing the emotional landscape of the piece, from not sufficiently emphasizing the parts of L'Engle's world that mirror our own. She was, after all, an allegorist. Republican candidate Esther Joy King is crushing her 17th Congressional District competition in terms of fundraising with less than three months to go until the June 28 primary election. According to Federal Election Commission first-quarter campaign finance reports, King has raised nearly $2.2 million, far outpacing the leading Democratic candidate, former WQAD meteorologist Eric Sorensen, who has brought in $312,500. Nine candidates are vying for the seat soon to be vacated by outgoing U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, who announced last April that she would not seek a sixth term. The general election is Nov. 8. In addition to Sorensen, the crowded field of seven Democratic candidates who will face off in the June 28 primary are Rock Island County board member Angie Normoyle, Rockford resident and former Illinois state Rep. Litesa Wallace, Rockford Alderwoman Linda McNeely, Rockford Alderman Jonathan Logemann, Marsha Williams of Channahon and former cannabis lobbyist Jacqueline McGowan. King, an East Moline attorney, will compete against East Moline insurance broker Charlie Helmick in the Republican primary. Esther Joy King Of the $2.2 million in donations to King, more than $1.9 million come from individual donors. Among the largest donations is $17,400 from Jeffrey Jay, a physician and venture capitalist from Palm Beach, Fla.; $11,600 from philanthropists Daniel and Kathy Mezzalingua of Naples, Fla.; and $5,800 from Chicago billionaire and hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin. First-quarter reports show King spent $930,000 and has almost $1.5 million cash on hand. Of her expenditures, $887,000 went toward operating expenses. This is King's second attempt at running for Congress. She lost to Bustos in the Nov. 3, 2020, general election by 11,526 votes. Charlie Helmick Helmick has no revenue or expenses filed with the FEC, meaning he either has not met the minimum level or he is paying for everything out of pocket. The FEC requires a candidate to file a quarterly report when their campaign exceeds $5,000 in either contributions received or expenditures made. Helmick lives in East Moline and co-owns two Country Financial Insurance franchises with his wife, Shirley. Eric Sorensen Of the seven Democratic candidates, Sorensen is leading in terms of fundraising with more than $313,000 in revenue coming from more than 1,050 donors with an average contribution of less than $165. According to his FEC filing, Sorensen's largest donations include $5,800 from Stephen Schuler, an investment manager from Oak Park; $5,000 from Tom Skilling, a Chicago meteorologist; and $1,500 from Terence Kelly, president of an investment company in Madison, Wis. Sorensen has spent $124,572 to date and has $188,000 cash on hand. Joe Goldberg, campaign manager for Sorensen, attributed his strong fundraising to grassroots support in a news release. "Momentum continues to grow because voters know their trusted meteorologist is the best choice to represent them in Congress," Goldberg said. Sorensen has received three national endorsements: the National Weather Service Employees Organization; 314 Action; and the LGBTQ Victory Fund. Jonathan Logemann Logemann has raised $257,600, of which $243,000 has come from individual contributions. His largest donations include $5,800 from Marni George of Carbondale, Co.; $5,800 from Joseph Alsop, a venture capitalist from Beverly, Mass.; and $2,900 from Justin Fern, a Rockford real estate developer. Logemann reported $142,500 in expenses and $115,000 cash on hand. Logemann has received three national endorsements: VoteVets; Serve America PAC; and Democrats Serve PAC. Angie Normoyle Normoyle, who has received a national endorsement from Leadership Now, reported $160,670 in contributions, of which $30,000 is a personal loan to her own campaign. Other donations include $2,900 from Jenny Molyneaux, project manager for the Quad Cities Community Foundation; $2,900 from Julie Corey, owner of Corey Search Group in Barrington; and $1,000 from Cosette Shrader, a Bettendorf travel consultant. Normoyle reported $94,900 in expenditures and $65,800 cash on hand. Litesa Wallace Wallace reported $92,950 in first-quarter contributions, with $85,700 coming from individual donors. Wallace donated $28,000 to her own campaign, making her the single largest donor. Wallace reported $82,900 in expenses and $38,400 cash on hand. Wallace has received national endorsements from Democracy for America and Collective PAC. Marsha Williams Williams has raised $45,000, of which $5,000 was donated by Williams to her own political campaign, Friends to Elect Marsha Williams. Williams reported $25,700 in expenditures and $42,575 cash on hand. Jacqueline McGowan McGowan, of Palos Hills, is a former cannabis lobbyist and stockbroker. While living in California last year, she ran as a gubernatorial replacement candidate in case Gov. Gavin Newsom was recalled. First-quarter FEC reports show McGowan has $17,745 in contributions, $13,288 in expenditures and $4,500 cash on hand. Linda McNeely McNeely, is a Rockford alderwoman and businesswoman who owns the Rockford accounting and tax preparation service, Bias Terry McNeely & Associates. She has not filed any campaign disclosures with the FEC, indicating she has not raised or spent at least $5,000. According to the FEC, McNeely, Williams and McGowan currently have ballot objections pending against them related to a number of alleged invalid signatures and/or contested addresses on their petitions that could invalidate the minimum requirement of 400 signatures needed to remain on the ballot. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Mother Nature has repeatedly tricked us this year. Just when we thought spring was about to arrive, Old Man Winter decided to kick up a ruckus, demolishing any illusion we had about spring having arrived, a pattern that has been repeated several times. But now there are some signs that spring is (at least tentatively) arriving. A bush on campus not far from the building where my office is located is showing a few small white blossoms. Some daffodils in our yard are blooming. Migratory waterfowl and other birds have returned. White pelicans can be seen swimming around in the harbor at Sunset Marina, scooping up small fish with their long beaks with a pocket attached to their lower beak. I recently got a photo of a pelican that had scooped up a fish and was in the process of swallowing it. At Nahant Marsh in Davenport (one of my recently discovered favorite places) Northern shovelers, ring-necked ducks and other waterfowl, including Canada geese, are present in abundance. In one of the backwater areas near the Rock River, where I visit when shooting wildlife photos, blue-winged teal can be seen. Spring has to be coming when migratory waterfowl return. If Old Man Winter is to be resoundingly defeated, though, there is much that remains to be accomplished. The eagles have not yet returned to their huge 13-foot nest in a tree by one of the backwaters of the Rock River (the location of which I do not wish to disclose.) I fully expect that they will return when their biological clocks tell them that it is time to add to their family. White-breasted nuthatches have been checking out the birdhouses I put up in our back yard three years ago, birdhouses in which house wrens have nested. Nuthatches usually nest in cavities in trees or in abandoned woodpecker holes. Perhaps they are planning to upgrade their living accommodations by nesting in one of the birdhouses. We will have to see what happens in that regard. Ever-faithful robins are to be found in abundance on lawns and anywhere else where earthworms might work their way to the surface when it rains. Robins are good birds with few flaws of character, apart from eating strawberries from berry patches without having permission to do so. It will not be long until the wildflowers are blooming in Blackhawk State Park, among them Dutchmans breeches (Dicentra cucullaria,) jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllam) and red trillium (Trillium erectum.) This park is another favorite place that my camera and I enjoy visiting. The thousand or so daffodils of several different colors that we planted in the ravine behind our yard a few years ago will soon be blooming. Ditto for the magnolia tree by our driveway and the flowering crab on the other side of our backyard fence. Here on the Augustana campus, spring in its full glory will soon arrive when the dogwood trees, magnolia trees, redbud trees and other flowering trees burst into bloom. (Our campus is not closed to the public. Grab your camera and come on over when the sun is shining and the flowering trees are showing off their spring splendor.) Having been tricked several times by Mother Nature, I am reluctant to say that spring is here. Old Man Winter might still kick up a ruckus. He is as unpredictable as they come and very simply cannot be trusted. But with migratory waterfowl having returned and daffodils starting to bloom, spring cant be far away. Am I ready for spring? You bet I am. I trust that you are as well. Dan Lee, a regular columnist, is the Marian Taft Cannon Professor in the Humanities at Augustana; danlee@augustana.edu. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Tickets go on sale Friday for Celtic ThroneThe Royal Journey of Irish Dance. Celtic Throne returns to Rapid City for one performance at 7:30 p.m. June 13 at The Monument. Tickets range from $60 for adults to $30 for youths ages 4 through 12. For tickets and information, call 1-800-468-6463 or go to themonument.live. Celtic Throne is bringing a majestic musical score and a brand-new Irish dance production from Herbert W. Armstrong College and Armstrong Dance. According to a news release, Celtic ThroneThe Royal Journey of Irish Dance explores the ancient origins of Irish step dance and celebrates the millennia-long journey of a music-and-dance-loving people as they migrate from the ancient Near East to Ireland, Scotland, England and the United States. Infused with innovative choreography, dazzling costumes, spectacular lighting and projection, Celtic Throne is Armstrong Colleges largest production to date, the news release said. Celtic Throne combines a cinematic musical score with hard- and soft-shoe Irish dancing, all set against epic imagery of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, scenes from the British Empire and traditional America. The Armstrong Dance troupe is comprised of more than 30 Irish dancers from around the world, including Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States, ranging in age from 23 to just 5 years old. The troupe features students from the John Carey Academy, some of whom have competed in top Irish dance competitions, including Worlds, All Irelands, Great Britain and North American Nationals. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 An abortion clinic is set to open in Casper this summer. The clinic would be the only facility to offer surgical abortions in Wyoming, and opponents have begun to organize against it. Surgical abortions can end a pregnancy further in its term than abortions by medication. A Jackson doctor is currently the only provider of medical abortions in Wyoming. The Casper clinics Second Street facility is still under construction, but its founder says it should be staffed and ready to open by the summer if all goes according to plan. Its operated by Circle of Hope, a national health care nonprofit with a mission of providing reproductive care to underserved, rural areas. In addition to performing abortions, the clinic plans to offer family planning, OB/GYN and gender-affirming services. Casper will be the companys first location, but founder Julie Burkhart said the organization is planning on expanding across the country. The nonprofit lists a Washington, D.C. address on its website, but registered the Casper address with the Wyoming Secretary of States Office earlier this year. Casper is centrally located, so this clinic will be as accessible as possible to the majority of Wyomingites ... including people in the rural parts of the state, Burkhart said. Its also positioned to be accessible to people in nearby areas of South Dakota and Nebraska, she said. Protests planned Abortion is a divisive topic in Wyoming in this most recent legislative session, lawmakers passed three abortion-related bills through the committee stage, one of which became law. That bill would ban abortion in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. The clinic is working with a community advisory board of Wyoming residents from local churches, tribes and health care. There is a robust, diverse community of people in Wyoming who believe that people should be able access the health care they need, including abortion, said Rev. Leslie Kee of Caspers Unitarian Universalist Church, who sits on the committee. Opening this clinic is essential for those across our state who currently find that care is out of reach, including people living in rural areas, members of Native tribes, and those with low incomes. But others in Casper and around the state oppose the clinics opening. I dont think theres a market for it, said Michelle St. Louis, an anti-abortion Casper resident. We all know teenagers who chose to go through with their pregnancy, its not their first inclination to get an abortion. Most women dont want to do that. Several local residents are planning a prayer event outside the facility on April 21, and a life chain demonstration the following Sunday. A larger coalition from across Wyoming is coordinating a trip to Casper for the clinics anticipated opening in June, Park County Right to Life President Tim Lasseter said. The groups are planning a peaceful protest for the opening, Lasseter said, reaching out to churches and anti-abortion groups around the state. We expect there to be a large turnout, he said. Were not looking for confrontation, were just looking to let people know we disagree. Marti Halverson, president of Right to Life Wyoming, said the statewide group is planning multiple tracks of opposition to the clinic. The organization has some money were willing to put behind the effort, she said Thursday, but declined to specify what members were planning. You have 53 life-friendly legislators, a governor who says hes pro-life, Halverson said. This should be shut down tomorrow. Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Burns, opposes abortion and said the practice shouldnt be used as birth control. Bouchard himself was adopted as a baby, and said that since Americans are leaving the country to adopt children, there should be no reason to abort a fetus that could be adopted in the U.S. Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, is also an abortion opponent. Casper is the wrong place for an abortion clinic, he stressed. "The D.C. left-wing interests bringing this to Wyoming are wrongly and totally inconsistent with our Wyoming values," he said. Burkhart says shes no stranger to opposition shes operated reproductive health clinics in Washington, Oklahoma and Kansas. Her former boss, nationally known abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, was murdered in 2009 at his Wichita church. We do recognize that there are people in Wyoming who are opposed to what were doing, including many in the state legislature, Burkhart said. We hope that those who oppose our work will do so peacefully and without harassing or intimidating people seeking or providing reproductive health care. Existing services Surgical abortions can be performed later in a pregnancy than medical ones, which are limited to those who have been pregnant for 10 or fewer weeks. Until recently, one doctor in Jackson did provide surgical abortions though state health department statistics from recent years show very few were actually performed. But after the doctor sold his clinic to St. Johns Health in 2020 and resigned as a hospital contractor in October, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that hes barred from practicing there by a non-compete clause in the sale. Another Jackson-based doctor is now the states sole abortion provider, though her office only offers medical abortions. Because of legal restrictions and other barriers to abortion access, people sometimes need access to abortion care after that (10-week) period, Burkhart said. Chelseas Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to Wyomingites seeking abortions, has assisted 63 people so far in 2022. Their money helps cover the cost of the abortion medication, which starts at $350 for a mail-in dose. Nurse Cristina Gonzalez, who works with the fund, said they dont turn anyone away who needs help. (The Casper clinic) would increase access because its providing options to individuals in the state, not overwhelming one resource, Gonzalez said. Now, if youre outside that 10-week time frame, youre looking at having to go to Colorado. A Wyoming law passed in 2019 prohibits all abortions after viability, the point when a fetus could survive outside the womb. According to the health department, 91 abortions were performed by Wyoming providers in 2020 the first full year the state required providers to report statistics. One of those was reported as a surgical dilation procedure. Eighty-eight were medical, and the other two did not specify the method. Among those who received abortions in 2020, 48 (or 53%) were already mothers to at least one child. Four had four or more children. Every abortion during that year was performed before 10 weeks, though one did not report. More than half were performed before reaching six weeks of pregnancy. Gonzalez said most of the people Chelseas Fund helps are single working mothers who already have children. Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Vehicles lined up this past weekend with occupants ready to sign petitions to once again put a recreational marijuana measure on the state ballot. Campaign organizer Matthew Schweich said nearly 900 verified registered voters turned out for the drive-through petition event held Saturday and Sunday in a parking lot at 230 E. North St. in Rapid City. It was a major success, but we are not out of the woods yet, Schweich, of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, said Monday. We need more signatures, and then I think we will be in good shape. According to volunteers working Sunday, many of those who stopped by on Easter weekend were over 40 years old and upset with Gov. Kristi Noem for challenging the constitutionality of Amendment A, which was approved by 54% of the voters in November 2020. The state Supreme Court ruled in November 2021 that the amendment is unconstitutional since it addressed three separate issues recreational marijuana, medical marijuana and hemp after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the governor by Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and Rick Miller of the state Highway Patrol. We voted this in two years ago and Noem took it away from us, said one man who declined to identify himself. His wife, who said she was a lifelong Pennington County resident, echoed her husbands sentiments. Schweich and volunteers said that was a common theme heard throughout the weekend. What youre going to find are a lot of people here dont actually care a ton about cannabis. Theyre just so mad, he said Sunday morning. One lady said Im going to vote against this initiative when its on the ballot. I just believe in the initiative process so much that Im going to support you on the ballot. Jim of Rapid City, who also declined to identify himself, said he was upset with how Noem handled Amendment A and a medical marijuana ballot measure also approved by voters in 2020. Our governor has not been very cooperative. I mean slow walking it is an understatement, he said. Shes done everything to just push it off. I mean its the will of the majority of South Dakota. The Ohio native said he wants to see medical marijuana made more available after state lawmakers voted to make numerous modifications to the initiative that Noem later signed into law. I just got back after an eight-hour back surgery, my third one, at the Mayo Clinic, and Im familiar with drugs. Ive had two knee, three hips and three back (surgeries). I was an athlete who just broke down, he said. An alternative to pain pills is cannabis. The owner of Puffys medical marijuana dispensary, Kittrick Jeffries, was among those working Sunday to help with the steady stream of vehicles whose occupants included a number of aging Baby Boomers. "It's been really interesting to see the wide demographic of people that have come out and signed," he said. "You have a lot of advocates for the cannabis industry and then you have people that were upset with the overturned amendment." Schweich estimated Monday that the group has collected 14,300 of the 17,000 signatures needed to get the initiated measure placed on the November ballot. His goal is to submit 19,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office by the May 3 deadline. This was the second drive-through petition event held by South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws with the first being two weeks ago in Sioux Falls. Encouraged by the results, Schweich said the organization will hold drive-through petition events again this upcoming weekend at the same location in Rapid City as well as in Sioux Falls. In addition to collecting signatures, the organization is verifying if those who show up are registered voters in South Dakota. In order to do so, they only need to provide their first and last names and either their ZIP code or date of birth. With that information, the group can visit a portal on the Secretary of State's website to learn if an individual is a registered voter. No identification is required. If a voter is not registered, the organization will help with that as well. "The average turnaround is three or four minutes," Schweich said. "It's a very efficient system." You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 9 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 After serving more than 43 years as a prosecutor in South Dakota, United States Attorney Dennis R. Holmes announced Monday that he intends to retire, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. U.S. attorney is the chief federal law enforcement officer in their district and is also involved in civil litigation where the United States is a party, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. There are 94 U.S. Attorneys, one for each federal court district. Holmes began serving as acting U.S. attorney under the Vacancies Reform Act on Feb. 26, 2021, following the resignation of U.S. Attorney Ron Parsons. On Dec. 23, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Holmes U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota for 120 days. Holmes, a Custer native, began his career as a prosecutor in 1978 as a clinical law intern in the Pennington County State's Attorneys Office while still in law school at the University of South Dakota. The following spring, Holmes was offered a position by then newly elected South Dakota Attorney General Mark Meierhenry to serve as an assistant attorney general in the litigation division. Holmes spent nine years in the state attorney generals office handling a broad variety of criminal cases ranging from homicides to drug conspiracies. He also represented South Dakota in civil litigation, including jurisdictional challenges on Indian country issues. While in the attorney generals office, Holmes held the positions of head of the litigation division, deputy attorney general, and chief deputy attorney general. I was very fortunate to begin my legal career under the tutelage of Mark Meierhenry. Mark was a great lawyer and a mentor to so many South Dakota attorneys, Holmes said. In 1988, Holmes joined the U.S. attorneys office in Pierre where he handled primarily Indian country criminal cases and drug prosecutions. In 1995, Holmes moved to the Sioux Falls U.S. attorneys office to become the lead drug task force prosecutor for the District of South Dakota. During his 34 years as a federal prosecutor, Holmes prosecuted a wide array of federal criminal cases, including large-scale drug conspiracies, violent crimes, tax fraud, federal program fraud and environmental crimes. He received several awards for his work in the U.S. attorneys office, including the Directors Award for Superior Performance by an assistant U.S. attorney, Outstanding Performance Award from the Environment Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, the Bronze Medal Award from the Environmental Protection Agency, West Central Region Organized Crime Drug Taskforce Award for outstanding achievement, National Department of Justice Organized Crime Drug Taskforce Award for outstanding achievement, and Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Prosecutor of the Year Award. Holmes has served three times as acting U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota. Holmes also held the position of first assistant U.S. attorney for four different U.S. attorneys. He has been the criminal chief for the office for over 19 years. It has been an honor to work with so many dedicated law enforcement officials from state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies who toil every day to keep our communities safe. In my career I also have had the privilege of serving alongside many talented and devoted attorneys. I have always admired their professionalism and their dedication to public service, Holmes said. The U.S. District Court will appoint an interim U.S. Attorney on April 22. Holmes has agreed to remain with the office for a period of time to assist with the transition. Contact Shalom Baer Gee at sgee@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The large cow moose happily grazing the new buds off every bush within reach didnt seem to have a care in the world Monday morning. It didnt matter that people were hard at work just a few feet away at Hamilton's Geum Geospatial just across the street from the library or that other people were walking by on the nearby downtown sidewalks or that there was traffic on the streets. Just like every spring, moose are back in Hamilton. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Rebecca Mowry said she received her first report of a moose grazing in someones yard on the north end of town on Pine Street a week ago. She knew it wouldnt be the last. It seems like this time of year, the moose come into town looking for whatever is turning green, Mowry said. The biologist had already seen a cow moose down along the river, but she cant be sure if the one that showed up downtown Monday was the same one. "There certainly could be more than one," she said. Just like every other year, Mowry offers the same advice. When you see a moose in town, do your best to steer clear and no matter how tame it seems, please dont try to touch it. She wont tolerate that, Mowry said. They do become somewhat habituated to people and that can sometimes offer a false sense of security for some. People need to remember that moose are unpredictable. They have their limits and they can kill you with one kick. The odds are Mondays moose is pregnant. Generally, calves are born in late May or early June. When they have their babies, people need to be especially aware, Mowry said. That can make them even more dangerous. Just give them space. When you go and its dark, be aware that one might be hiding in the alley or laying down in your front yard. Most importantly, do not feed the moose. They do like to eat flowers and will nip the buds of those new young trees that people plant, she said. They seem to really like tulips. I spray mine with deer repellent, which seems to work pretty well. If you dont want your flowers eaten, try to protect them as best you can. Its not only moose that are making themselves know now that spring is here. FWP Bear Specialist Jamie Jonkel has been getting reports of black bears waking up in the Bitterroot from their long winters nap and looking for easy calories. There is a video circulating of a black bear yanking down a bird feeder at a home on the northern end of Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. On Facebook, people were reporting a bear and two cubs were seen recently at the Bitterroot National Forest's popular Bass Creek Recreation Area near the Larry Creek Group Site. As soon as we get some more green up, theyll start moving more, Jonkel said. If people have stuff in their yards, theyll hit that too. The black bears didnt move into the high country as much last summer as usual after a bumper crop of berries along the river bottom between Lolo and Stevensville kept them from heading up into the hills searching for huckleberries. Sadly, when they were down along the river, they also got gobs of food rewards from nearby homes, he said. They stumbled into garbage cans right and left. When bears come out of hibernation, it takes them a while to get moving. Once they find a roadkill or lion or any source of meat, it brings them out of hibernation, Jonkel said. In Missoula, we have reports on about 10 bears. About five are still lethargic. The other five are hitting green-up or, sadly, theyre getting into garbage. The first day of April is when Jonkel recommends that people prepare for the summer season of living with bears. Its time to take down the bird feeders, store all the bags of chicken feed in big steel boxes and move the dog food off the porch and into a garage or stout shed. Now is the time to button up, he said. And people living in the Bitterroot shouldnt forget that they could run into a grizzly anytime they venture into the woods. Last summer a grizzly that called the Clark Fork home took a walk-about in the East Fork of the Bitterroot and a large older male was documented in the Sula area. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The founder of car dealer CarLotz has found a new place to help guide the leadership of a Richmond-based company. Naborforce, a fast-growing company that provides a platform in which people can make money by helping aging adults with household chores or companionship, said April 12 that it has appointed Michael Bor, one of the founders of Richmond-based CarLotz, to its board of directors. We have been fine-tuning our playbook so we would be ready for explosive growth, and we are there, said Paige Wilson, the founder of Naborforce. We have been getting all the infrastructure in place, so we would be ready to accelerate growth, which is the perfect time to bring on Michael. Naborforce which was founded by local entrepreneur Wilson in 2018 has an online platform where aging adults or their family members can hire people in their own communities called Nabors to work part-time performing non-medical household chores such as laundry and shopping for aging and homebound people. For fees ranging from $25 to $33 an hour, the Nabors also provide occasional visits and companionship for people who need assistance or someone to check on them in their homes. Naborforce offers its service in Richmond, Williamsburg, Charlottesville and Williamsburg in Virginia, but it also has expanded its service to the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Charlotte areas of North Carolina, as well as Bethesda in Maryland. In March, the company expanded into the Atlanta area, and it has plans to expand into 10-12 more markets in the next year. Bor was not available for comment but in a statement said he had watched the growth of Naborforce over several years. Im thrilled to now join the board and work with this driven team of professionals to achieve great things for all the stakeholders involved, Bor said. Bor was the founding CEO of CarLotz, the Richmond-based retailer that sells used vehicles on consignment. Bor was instrumental in taking CarLotz public as its chairman and CEO. This month, he was replaced in those roles by Lev Peker, the former chief executive at CarParts.com, an e-commerce provider of automotive parts and accessories. But Bor will remain in a consulting role with CarLotz for a year. Paige Wilson is a talented founder building a marketplace that allows people to age safely in their own homes, something that is in demand now more than ever, said John Chadwick, founding partner of Nashville-based Claritas Capital, an investor in Naborforce. We believe Michaels strategic and operational experience building a large marketplace from the ground up will be a big asset to Naborforce during this period of significant growth, said Tania Grant, a principal with Claritas Capital and a Naborforce board member. A 25-year-old Petersburg man was fatally shot in his automobile early Sunday morning while driving southbound on Interstate 85, a short distance from the Squirrel Level Road exit. Virginia State Police said a light-colored vehicle was seen leaving the scene of the 2:27 a.m. shooting, which follows two others on local interstate highways last week. The victim of the Sunday shooting was identified as Raeqwon Curtis Hinton. According to state police, Hinton drove a black Chrysler 300 to a BP gas station off Boydton Plank Road in Dinwiddie County, where he died. LVIV, Ukraine Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraines east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. Advertisement The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. Advertisement No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The Ukraine militarys general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putins forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town. He added: We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. In this image provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Matti Maasikas, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. Zelenskyy submitted Ukraine's answers to a questionnaire from the European Union, the first step in his campaign to obtain accelerated EU membership. (AP) Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. Advertisement The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. Overnight and on Monday, Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. At least seven people were reported killed in the missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the regions governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Advertisement Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 50 miles from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. Advertisement It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagons assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. Advertisement The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nations largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on law enforcement authorities to investigate a potentially sinister motive for vandalism targeting a Virginia mosque. Vandals smashed a window and did other damage to the interior of the newly-constructed West End Islamic Center on Shady Grove Road in Glen Allen on Saturday. This was reportedly the second time vandals targeted the facility. The mosque released the following statement regarding the incident: The West End Islamic Center is a community-based center in Glen Allen, VA. We have worked with Henrico County officials and our neighbors for over ten years to assist in opening our doors just in time for our holy month of Ramadan. However, it is with great sadness that in just six months, West End Islamic Center has experienced two incidents of vandalism. The most recent occurred on Saturday, April 16, between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. We feel compelled to speak out against these expressions of hatred. An attack on any house of worship certainly feels like an assault on the community. Unfortunately, we were not able to capture the incident and perpetrators on security cameras. We nevertheless feel that this incident merits local, state, and federal authorities to investigate these events as a hate crime. The rights of all people of faith is a founding principle of America. This attack is incredibly hurtful. Its hard to imagine that someone would want to attack our place of worship. We do not know or understand the motivation of the person(s). What we do know is that love is stronger than hate, and the members of our mosque will stand together. We trust that our neighbors and friends will continue to stand with us and support our community as we worship during this holy month of Ramadan. We call on law enforcement to swiftly investigate this crime and increase patrols in the area until those responsible are apprehended, said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell. Because the attackers vandalized the mosque without stealing anything, law enforcement should also investigate a possible bias motive for this incident. Everyone in our nation, regardless of faith, must be free to worship without the threat of harassment or violence. Henrico Countys prosecutor said Sunday night that law enforcement is investigating. We dont know yet who the perpetrators are, but we are investigating thoroughly, Commonwealths Attorney Shannon Taylor said in a written statement. Should this be egregious, bigoted hate, it will not be tolerated in Henrico. She continued, During this holy month of Ramadan and during the Passover and Easter season, we are reminded even more of the importance of tolerance and brotherhood. The Virginia Department of Education provided more information to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, as ordered by a judge on April 8. The department had the option of appealing the order from substitute Richmond District Court Judge Jennifer Rosen or complying by providing more information, and the department sent an email Friday with the information. A Times-Dispatch reporter filed a petition in court against the department after the departments FOIA officer refused to comply with a provision of the law that requires public bodies when they withhold records under a discretionary exemption to identify with reasonable particularity the volume and subject matter of withheld records. Judge orders Va. Department of Education to provide more detail in FOIA request A judge in Richmond on Friday ordered the Virginia Department of Education to provide more specific information to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in response to a FOIA request the newspaper made for communications between state officials and a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. The department said it was withholding five emails from the newspaper as working papers of the governors office, but wouldnt specify the subject matter. The judge heard the case and ordered the department to provide the newspaper with the date of the withheld emails and the individuals included on the emails. The FOIA request had asked for correspondence between certain Department of Education officials and people at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., called American Enterprise Institute. Records showed that the department was receiving assistance from a research fellow there, but the relationship is murky. Jillian Balow, the new state superintendent of public instruction under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, issued a statement through a spokesperson that said she and her counterparts frequently engage with policy experts across the nation, many of whom are associated with non-profit organizations focused on improving outcomes for all students. During my years as a state superintendent and national officer of organizations such as the Education Commission of the States, Council of Chief State School Officers and Conservative Leaders for Education, Ive found it important to listen, learn, debate, and discuss issues with researchers, economists, education leaders, associations, policymakers, and others representing diverse viewpoints. The five emails the department opted not to turn over came on Jan. 25. Included on each of the emails was: Balow; Dicky Shanor, Balows chief of staff; Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz; Education Secretary Aimee Guidera; Deputy Education Secretary Sarah Spota; and Max Eden, the research fellow at American Enterprise Institute who has assisted the department. Youngkin and Balow are reversing K-12 diversity and equity policies that were promoted under James Lane, the superintendent of public instruction for Youngkins predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. More than a dozen media organizations are suing Youngkin over his withholding of emails sent to a tipline to which he encouraged people to report so-called divisive topics in K-12 schools. MADRID (AP) The phones of dozens of pro-independence supporters in Spain's northeastern Catalonia, including the regional chief and other elected officials, were hacked with controversial spyware available only to governments, a cybersecurity rights group said Monday. Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, said a large-scale investigation it had conducted in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups found that at least 65 individuals were targeted or their devices infected with what it calls mercenary spyware sold by two Israeli companies, NSO Group and Candiru. NSO said the allegation could not be related to NSO products. Candiru couldn't be reached for comment by The Associated Press. Almost all of the incidents occurred between 2017 and 2020, when efforts to carve out an independent state in northeastern Spain led to the country's deepest political crisis in decades. The former Catalan Cabinet that pushed ahead with an illegal referendum on independence was sacked. Most of its members were imprisoned or fled the country, including ex regional president Carles Puigdemont. NSOs Pegasus spyware has been used around the world to break into the phones and computers of human rights activists, journalists and even Catholic clergy. The firm has been subject to export limits by the U.S. federal government, which has accused NSO of conducting transnational repression." NSO has also been brought to court by major technology companies, including Apple and Meta, the owner of WhatsApp. Citizen Lab said its investigations into the use in Spain of Pegasus and spyware developed by Candiru another Israeli firm founded by former NSO employees started in late 2019 after a handful of cases targeting high-profile Catalan pro-independence individuals were revealed. Amnesty International said its technical experts had independently verified the attacks. The Toronto-based non-profit said it could not find conclusive evidence to attribute the hacking of Catalan phones to a specific entity. "However, a range of circumstantial evidence points to a strong nexus with one or more entities within Spanish government, Citizen Lab said. Spain's Interior Ministry said no ministry department, nor the National Police or the Civil Guard, have ever had any relation with NSO and have therefore never contracted any of its services. The ministry's statement said that, in Spain, all intervention of communications are conducted under judicial order and in full respect of legality. The prime ministers office didnt immediately respond to questions from AP. A spokeswoman with Ministry of Defense, which oversees Spain's armed forces and intelligence services, declined to clarify if it had contracted NSO or Candiru software. The government of Spain always acts according to the law, said the spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be named in the media. Pegasus infiltrates phones to vacuum up personal and location data and also surreptitiously controls the smartphones microphones and cameras, turning them into real-time surveillance devices. NSO Groups stealthiest hacking software uses zero-click exploits to infect targeted mobile phones without any user interaction. NSO Group claimed it was being targeted by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International with inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports and false" allegations that "could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons. "We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, an NSO spokesperson said in a statement. Citizen Lab said signs of a zero-click exploit not previously identified were found in infected devices of Catalans at the end of 2019 and in early 2020 before Apple updated its mobile operating system to patch vulnerabilities. Among the targeted individuals were at least three European lawmakers representing Catalan separatist parties, members of two prominent pro-independence civil society groups, their lawyers and various elected officials The revelations come as European Union lawmakers on Tuesday are holding the first meeting of a committee looking into breaches of EU law associated with the use of hacker-for-hire spyware. Four former regional Catalan presidents, including Puigdemont and his successor Quim Torra while he was holding office, were also subject to direct or indirect spying, the researchers said. Current Catalan President Pere Aragones, whose phone was infected, according to Citizen Lab, while he served as Torra's deputy from 2018 to 2020, said massive espionage against the Catalan independence movement is an unjustifiable disgrace, an attack on fundamental rights and democracy." Because the software can only be acquired by state entities, the Spanish government must offer an explanation, Aragones said in a series of tweets. No excuses are valid, he wrote. To spy on representatives of citizens, lawyers or civil rights activists is a red line." In a response to Amnesty International's formal request in 2020 for full disclosure on contracts with private digital surveillance companies, Spain's Defense Ministry said that information is classified, the rights group said Monday. The Spanish government needs to come clean over whether or not it is a customer of NSO Group, said Likhita Banerji, an Amnesty International researcher. It must also conduct a thorough, independent investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware against the Catalans identified. In a separate report also released Monday, Citizen Lab said it had also found evidence in 2020 and 2021 that the British prime ministers office was infected with Pegasus spyware linked to the United Arab Emirates. It said it found suspected infections at Britains Foreign Office linked to the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The group said it had informed the British government about the findings. Other countries where Citizen Lab and other public-interest researchers have confirmed Pegasus infections on political dissidents and journalists critical of governments include Poland, Mexico, El Salvador and Hungary. NSO Group claims it only sells Pegasus to government agencies to target criminals and terrorists, but hundreds of cases have been documented of its use against human rights and other activists, lawyers, reporters and their relatives. Frank Bajak in Boston and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Mississippi man charged in a fatal Interstate 81 crash that killed one person and seriously injured another in February waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Botetourt County General District Court on Monday. At about 4:20 a.m. on Feb. 8, a 2018 Chevrolet Impala clocked going 99 mph southbound by a Botetourt County deputy turned off the interstate at the mile marker 168 interchange, crossed the road and hit a parked tractor-trailer, state police said. The Chevrolet caught fire in the collision. One passenger died at the scene, and one was airlifted to a hospital. Errington Fitzgerald Stenson, 28, was the driver of the Chevrolet. He was also transported to a hospital but was released and returned to Mississippi before charges were filed against him. Stenson was arrested in his Mississippi hometown of Gulfport and charged with two felonies homicide and eluding law enforcement officers. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving. On Monday, substitute General District Court Judge David Spigle certified all three of Stensons charges to a Botetourt County Circuit Court grand jury, which is scheduled to review the charges in June. Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Gillian Deegan said Stenson likely waived his right to the preliminary hearing because the crash victims that would have been called to testify could not make it to the courthouse. None of the victims have ties to Botetourt County, Deegan said. The families of the deceased and injured passengers live in Mississippi, and the driver of the tractor-trailer that was hit in the accident lives in California. Stenson is being held at the Botetourt-Craig Regional Jail. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ROCKY MOUNT A Rocky Mount woman is dead and a man is facing two felony charges following a shooting in Rocky Mount on Thursday. Online court records show that Timothy Walton was jailed Thursday and charged with second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Larether Tanika Latrice Patterson, 37, of Rocky Mount, died in the shooting, according to a news release from the town. The Friday release stated that the other individual Heidi Pullum, 43, of Rocky Mount was still being treated at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. The investigation is still underway and additional charges are pending, the Friday release said. Walton has a number of previous misdemeanor and felony charges in Virginia, dating back to at least 1991. A news release from the town of Rocky Mount stated that Rocky Mount police responded to a shots fired call at 3:22 p.m. Thursday in the area of North Main Street and Circle Drive. According to the release, officers found two individuals with gunshot wounds, one of whom was pronounced deceased on site. The other individual was transported to the hospital in Roanoke. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A yearslong civil dispute involving Roanoke County, the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center and some county residents is scheduled to be heard by the Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday. Residents who live near the center, including local businessman Stan Seymour, have tried to sue both the county and the center unsuccessfully for years, with the feud stemming from the use of an easement on their private road that leads to the center. Roanoke County Circuit Judge Charlie Dorsey ruled in March 2021 that the neighbors have no standing to sue the center or the county for granting a special use permit allowing new construction at the center, a former residential property located at the end of a private drive off Coleman Road in residential Cave Spring. In 2018, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors granted the center permission to build a raptor aviary on its grounds. Seymour and other Coleman Road neighbors sued, and the circuit court ruled in the centers favor. Other neighbors involved in the lawsuit include Seymours wife, Jane, and Adrian Maver and his wife, Blaine Creasey. Multiple attempts to reach Stan Seymour were unsuccessful over the last few days, but he did speak to a Roanoke Times reporter about the case in late March after objections were raised by some on social media about the use of one of his Bojangles restaurants for a meet and greet with the Vinton Police Department. Unfortunately, me and my neighbor are financially well off, Seymour said. The county picked the wrong people to try to bully, he said. Seymour is the owner of six Bojangles restaurants in the Roanoke Valley. He maintains that the wildlife center hasnt abided by county code. They took the family residence and converted it to commercial operation. They have to drive across my neighbors property and my property. Theres no road access, so theyre bringing 60-plus cars a day across our property. County code does not permit it. But they allowed it. And that laid the ground for the state Supreme Court appeal, he said. The wildlife centers website acknowledges the complaints made by Seymour and other neighbors. Their aggressive actions suggest they want the center to shut down or forcefully move and have taken the center before Zoning, Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors over the centers existence, the website says. The centers property was zoned agricultural for decades before it was purchased by the center in 2013, which allows for a veterinary hospital to exist with that zoning. Roanoke County Attorney Peter Lubeck concurred with the centers messaging on land use Monday, stating the center fits within the countys permitted uses for the area. The timeline of when each party moved to the street begins with the Seymours in 2008, followed by the wildlife center in 2013 and then Maver and Creasy moving to Coleman Road in 2017, according to Lubeck. He also said the Seymours bought another lot closer to the wildlife center in 2017. Another lawsuit filed by Seymour and the other parties made its way through circuit court, this one focusing on the right for the center to operate at its current location, which was also thrown out in court. The state Supreme Court declined to hear that appeal in October, with its clerk writing that, upon review of the record in this case and consideration of the argument submitted in support of and in opposition to the granting of an appeal, the Court is of the opinion there is no reversible error in the judgment complained of. Accordingly, the Court refuses the petition for appeal. Lubeck is representing the county at Wednesdays hearing and attorney James Gilbert is representing the center, according to the Virginia courts website. Lawyers for the plaintiffs include James Cowan, Brian Wheeler, Daniel Chapman and Joseph Rainsbury, according to the courts website. Lubeck said he is hopeful the latest attempt to stop expansion of the wildlife center will be dismissed as it was last year in circuit court. We hope that the court will agree with the circuit court and find that no error was committed but also what the county would hope is for the neighbors to make peace with each other. Its always unfortunate when neighbors are having issues and that leads to contention and lawsuits. And from what I understand, the wildlife center isnt going anywhere, he said. The county attorney believes this should be the last legal proceeding in relation to the dispute if the plaintiffs appeal is denied. I think this is the last reasonable causible action they can bring, but its hard to predict, Lubeck said. If neighbors are not getting along theres still creative ways that they might try to challenge. Im not sure if I can predict what they would do. If Seymour and his neighbors win the appeal, the case would be kicked back down to the circuit court and tried based on the merits of the case, Lubeck said. He also noted that it could take the court up to several months to render a ruling. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLACKSBURG The Town Council has granted an open space easement to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation for roughly 205 acres of land on Brush Mountain, furthering plans to expand natural recreational amenities in an area near the Jefferson National Forest. The easement, which passed on a 7-0 vote this past week, keeps the property as forested land that can still be used for recreation purposes, Town Manager Marc Verniel said. The land, located just north of Meadowbrook Drive and the Heritage Community Park, is among three neighboring Brush Mountain properties that are slated to help grow the areas repertoire of outdoor amenities. The three properties will altogether encompass over 600 acres of mountain land and eventually house a total of 18 miles of multi-use trails, according to Verniel and documents on the recent easement. The work in that area launched several years ago when a local conservation group, the New River Land Trust, was awarded funding through the VOF to buy land on Brush Mountain. The money at the time originated from payments made by the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline to offset forest land impact caused by the projects construction. Prior to the measure approved this past week, the town during the fall accepted just over 190 acres of land thats formally referred to as Brush Mountain 1 and granted an open space easement to it to VOF. The easement granted this past week was for the nearby land referred to as Brush Mountain 3. The acquisition of Brush Mountain 2 is still being worked on, said Town Attorney Larry Spencer. The ongoing work on Brush Mountain has been touted by several town officials. Our partnership with the land trust and the different folks who have helped obtain these properties has just been an incredible resource, said Councilman John Bush, who is an avid cyclist. People are going to need places to hike, ride bikes and take walks. Maybe even ride horses. Bush said the work on Brush Mountain complements another popular outdoor destination that now provides a recreational connection between the town of Christiansburg and the Jefferson National Forest the Huckleberry Trail. Thats all connected, and thats just an amazing thing, he said. It just opens up the possibilities of the things you can consider and do. Outdoor recreational amenities also help draw people to the area, particularly young professionals being recruited by institutions such as Virginia Tech, Bush said. These are the sorts of things people are looking for, he said. The New River Land Trust secured funding from a variety of sources to acquire the Brush Mountain 3 property, according to the town. The funding included a $200,000 grant from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the MVP voluntary stewardship fund, $112,500 from the town and a $210,000 grant from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MADISON, Wis. The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday adopted Republican-drawn maps for the state Legislature, handing the GOP a victory just weeks after initially approving maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The court reversed itself after the U.S. Supreme Court in March said Evers maps were incorrectly adopted, and came just as candidates were about to begin circulating nominating papers to appear on this years ballot without being sure of district boundaries. Advertisement Democrats would have made some marginal gains under Evers plan, but Republicans were projected to maintain their majorities in the Assembly and Senate, according to an analysis from the governors office. Evers map created seven majority-Black state Assembly districts in Milwaukee, up from the current six. The map from the Republican-controlled Legislature had just five. Advertisement The Wisconsin Supreme Court had adopted Evers map on March 3, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it on March 23. The high court ruled that Evers map failed to consider whether a race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-black district would deny black voters equal political opportunity. Evers told the state Supreme Court it could still adopt his map with some additional analysis, or an alternative with six majority-Black districts. The Republican-controlled Legislature argued that its map should be implemented. The Wisconsin court, controlled 4-3 by conservatives, sided with the Legislature. The maps proposed by the Governor ... are racially motivated and, under the Equal Protection Clause, they fail strict scrutiny, Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Patience Roggensack, Rebecca Grassl Bradley and Brian Hagedorn. The Legislatures maps, they wrote, are race neutral and comply with the Equal Protection Clause, along with all other application federal and state legal requirements. Hagedorn, a conservative swing justice, initially backed Evers map but reversed himself once the matter came back before the court. In a separate concurrence, he wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court decision required the state court to adopt a race-neutral map, and the Legislatures maps are the only legally compliant maps we received. The courts three liberal justices Jill Karofsky, Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet dissented. Karofsky, writing for the minority, said the Legislatures maps fare no better than the Governors under the U.S. Supreme Courts rationale. If, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Governors addition of a Milwaukee-area majority-minority district evinces a disqualifying consideration of race, then the Legislatures removal of a Milwaukee-area majority-minority district reveals an equally suspect, if not more egregious, sign of race-based line drawing, Karofsky wrote. Advertisement Assembly Speaker Robin Vos tweeted praise for the ruling, saying Republicans have thought our maps were the best option from the beginning. Evers called the decision outrageous and said the court had backtracked on an earlier finding that the Legislatures maps unlawfully packed Black voters to reduce their voting power. Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks at Cumberland Elementary School, July 8, 2021, in Whitefish Bay, Wis. (Scott Bauer/AP) At a time when our democracy is under near-constant attack, the judiciary has abandoned our democracy in our most dire hour, Evers said. Republicans hold a 61-38 majority in the Assembly and a 21-12 advantage in the Senate. Even under the GOP map that the state court initially rejected, they were not expected to gain a supermajority that could override any Evers veto. The U.S. Supreme Courts ruling in the Wisconsin case marked the first time this redistricting cycle that it has overturned maps drawn by a state. The court has signaled it may significantly change the ground rules that govern redistricting. The courts involvement comes after its 2019 ruling that federal courts have no role in stopping partisan gerrymandering. Advertisement In February, it stopped a ruling by a panel of federal judges requiring Alabama to redraw its maps to give Black people a better shot at selecting their representatives, saying it may need to revise the long-standing case law that governs that. Its that case law that the high court referred to in the Wisconsin ruling. The court declined to block maps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. But four conservative justices wrote that they want to rule on the novel legal theory that state legislatures, rather than state courts, have supreme power in drawing maps. While the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Wisconsins legislative maps, it adopted the congressional maps as proposed by Evers. Republicans currently hold five of the states eight seats. That map made one of those GOP districts more competitive. Redistricting is the process of redrawing political boundaries based on the latest census. Mapmakers can create an advantage for their political party by packing opponents voters into a few districts or spreading them among multiple districts a process known as gerrymandering. Opened on Christmas Day 1882 by the Norfolk and Western Railway, the Tudor Revival hotel has been rebuild twice while hosting six U.S. presidents and two vice presidents, among other luminaries. The modern Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center was deeded to Virginia Tech by the railroad in 1989, then remodeled after a successful fundraising campaign called Renew Roanoke. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nations largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on law enforcement authorities to investigate a potentially sinister motive for vandalism targeting a Virginia mosque. Vandals smashed a window and did other damage to the interior of the newly-constructed West End Islamic Center on Shady Grove Road in Glen Allen on Saturday. This was reportedly the second time vandals targeted the facility. The mosque released the following statement regarding the incident: The West End Islamic Center is a community-based center in Glen Allen, VA. We have worked with Henrico County officials and our neighbors for over ten years to assist in opening our doors just in time for our holy month of Ramadan. However, it is with great sadness that in just six months, West End Islamic Center has experienced two incidents of vandalism. The most recent occurred on Saturday, April 16, between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. We feel compelled to speak out against these expressions of hatred. An attack on any house of worship certainly feels like an assault on the community. Unfortunately, we were not able to capture the incident and perpetrators on security cameras. We nevertheless feel that this incident merits local, state, and federal authorities to investigate these events as a hate crime. The rights of all people of faith is a founding principle of America. This attack is incredibly hurtful. Its hard to imagine that someone would want to attack our place of worship. We do not know or understand the motivation of the person(s). What we do know is that love is stronger than hate, and the members of our mosque will stand together. We trust that our neighbors and friends will continue to stand with us and support our community as we worship during this holy month of Ramadan. We call on law enforcement to swiftly investigate this crime and increase patrols in the area until those responsible are apprehended, said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell. Because the attackers vandalized the mosque without stealing anything, law enforcement should also investigate a possible bias motive for this incident. Everyone in our nation, regardless of faith, must be free to worship without the threat of harassment or violence. The great Russian chess master Garry Kasparov said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, It has taken a massive war to remind Europe and America that fighting for freedom is a global battle, and that giving it up inevitably weakens the forces of democracy at home. The tragedy unfolding across Ukraine nevertheless spawned the rebirth of values humanity had seemingly forgotten. The free world is increasingly admiring the brave resistance against aggression and the selfless courage and honor it demands. In the United States and globally, appreciation for the Iranian peoples four decades-long struggle for freedom and democracy is also coming into focus. It is rather odd that Russias perverse behavior in Ukraine has not deterred Western democracies from seeking its assistance to get Tehran to curb its dash towards nuclear weapons. Thousands of miles from Ukraine, however, bipartisan U.S. senators joined Ukrainian political leaders at a virtual conference to dissect Irans malign activities, its nuclear program, crimes it is committing against the people in Iran and its full support for the invasion of Ukraine. Throughout human history, tyrants, occupiers, and rights violators have promoted their own false narratives. Recent events in Iran and in Ukraine have damaged this narrative. In Iran, the regimes highest authorities have acknowledged that opposition forces in the country are a credible threat to the mullahs power while the peoples resistance in Ukraine threatens to overwhelm one of the most powerful armies in the world. While the world has turned its attention to Ukraine, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, told conference attendees, we cannot lose sight of the threat of the Iranian regime, as it remains one of the few countries to vocally back Russias completely unprovoked and devastating invasion of Ukraine. He decried the cooperation of tyrants in Iran and Moscow and said Iranian regime, continues to stand by Putin in the face of truly horrific actions leveraging its role in the talks in Vienna to again redirect attention away from the very real and immediate threat of Irans nuclear program. He blamed Irans President Ebrahim Raisi for the ongoing crimes the regime in Tehran perpetrates against the Iranian people, a person, who was actively involved in the forcible disappearance and extrajudicial killing of thousands of Iranian dissidents in 1998, and the brutal crackdowns against peaceful protesters. Senators, including Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, denounced Ebrahim Raisi, who was handpicked by the Supreme Leader, is notorious for his key role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, based on a religious decree issued by the Supreme Leader against the main Iranian opposition, the MEK. He expressed optimism about the resistance movement in Iran, led by a strong and dedicated woman [Maryam Rajavi], they continue to be a source of inspiration for the protesters in Iran who seek to end the tyranny. Such optimism is rooted in facts. Recently, for example, Iranian authorities erected a statue of terrorist operative Qassem Soleimani. Iranian resistance units set it on fire less than 24 hours later. And pro-democracy hacktivists took control over state media broadcasts, condemning Khamenei and praising the prospect of a democratic Iran. These, and the daily protests by teachers, industry workers, students and even political prisoners, point to instability for the regime. In a message to the conference, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, highlighted this resistance and said, Since 2018, there have been eight major uprisings in Iran involving 200 cities and hundreds of thousands of people. The parallels of the decades-long struggle of the people of Iran and the recent attacks on the sovereign and democratic people of Ukraine, are inescapable realities of our time, she added. We are witnessing the strong resistance of the people of Ukraine against the unjust invasion of their country, a resistance that I know is well appreciated by the people of Iran, Shaheen said. This sentiment was painfully illustrated by five Ukrainian political leaders who joined the confidence live from Ukraines war zone. Ms. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, urged Western democracies to impose a no-fly zone over her country, was not a surprise. But her eloquent expression of defiance resembling that of the revered World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill certainly was. There is only one way that you deal with a tyrant, you fight him, you fight until the end, you fight him until the last person standing, she said. In July 2021, Iranian resistance leader Mrs. Rajavi predicted that in the new era, the hostility and enmity between the Iranian regime and society will intensify. The new era to which she referred, began with the appointment of Ebrahim Raisi as President of the Islamic Republic. Raisis long history of crimes and current support for the carnage in Ukraine are not disparate facts. He is not only dramatically increasing the repression of dissent and exacerbating suffering in Iran, but also fanning a new era of hostilities in the entire region. Today, the US government must show support for the people and their resistance to tyranny in Iran and in Ukraine. Western democracies must reinforce their role as defenders of universal human rights principles by seeing that Raisi is brought to justice before international tribunals for crimes against humanity and genocide. Such an undertaking will rob the tyrants of the diplomatic veneer they will deserve. After all, what value does diplomacy have when terrorists and pariahs are afforded diplomatic cloaks? Meaningful pressure on tyrants signals much-needed and much-deserved support for what the Russian chess master aptly called a global battle, at a time when both Ukrainian and Iranian people are eager to defend democracy and freedom. Sadeghpour is political director for Organization of Iranian-American Communities United States, (https://oiac.org/). He lives near Falls Church. We did not expect to return to the matter of the proposed Henrietta Lacks statue, or the internet project that accompanies it, quite so soon. Yet Thursday, Roanoke Vice Mayor Trish White-Boyds delight was contagious as she shared that the private fundraiser to pay for both is teetering at the brink of $100,000. Achieving the ultimate goal of $160,000 could happen within weeks, she said. The internet project, Roanoke Hidden Histories, charged to the Richmond-based company Hidden in Plain Site, is already moving forward. The concept involves creating a virtual tour of sites significant to the history of Roanokes Black communities, modeled after the creators first project, which offers an online tour of places important to Richmonds Black history. Similar in spirit to Monticellos heart-wrenching permanent exhibition, The Life of Sally Hemings about the enslaved woman who, according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, was mother to six children by Jefferson Hidden in Plain Site: Richmond uses inventive interactive visuals and sound effects to take the viewer to places where the brutal slave trade was conducted, and places destroyed by urban renewal that in earlier decades were central to the citys Black culture. The presentation is beautiful, powerful, unshrinking and educational. There was a gap in terms of the history, of the voices that have been erased and the stories that we were traditionally told, said Dontrese Brown, Hidden in Plain Site founder and CEO. We felt like that if we can tell those stories then that would maybe close the gap. The project has received a $25,000 joint donation from the Carilion Clinic, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Fralin Biomedical Institute at VTC. We strongly believe that its important for health care providers to know the community in which they work, said Associate Dean David Trinkle. We are going to require that this website be visited by all incoming students to make sure they understand the racial history of the Roanoke Valley. All over the country, urban renewal and gentrification purged Black communities to make way for commercial development, with Roanokes own history an egregious example. The symbolism of staging the Hidden in Plain Site announcement at the Berglund Center might not have been readily apparent to those who arent aware that the site was once home to a residential Black neighborhood thrumming with life. Berglund Center will be one of the landmarks highlighted in the Hidden in Plain Site tour of Roanoke. The others are Old Lick Cemetery, an African-American cemetery dug up to make way for Interstate 581; Burrell Memorial Hospital, for 50 years the only hospital in Roanoke that treated Black patients; Henry Street, once a thriving Black business district; and Dreamland, a swimming pool and dance hall that stood where Washington Park lies now. The tour will also tell the unusual and disquieting story of Roanoke-born Lacks, whose cell samples were instrumental in enabling decades of major medical breakthroughs. This documentary will not only be educational and insightful, but it will be very instrumental in healing a broken community, White-Boyd said. In the process of uncovering and discussing the painful legacy of urban renewal, the project will help in healing past wounds and moving into the future with greater mutual understanding. You cant heal or move forward until you at least acknowledge that there were some pretty dreadful things that happened in this community. Roanoke has taken steps already toward that acknowledgement. Still, its long overdue. 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. DARLINGTON, S.C. State Rep. Robert Williams announced his reelection bid for the South Carolina House of Representatives District 62 Monday surrounded by friends, family, colleagues, and community members. State Rep. Robert Williams announced his reelection bid for the South Carolina House of Representatives District 62 Monday surrounded by friends, family, colleagues, and community members. Williams said his legacy speaks for him. He said he has served his constituents faithfully for 16 years and has proven he is willing to serve. I have done several things to secure my spot as a South Carolina House representative, Williams said. I have voted on major legislation for the people of South Carolina. We have put over $600 million in road infrastructure. We have created broadband laws to make sure rural areas in South Carolina have access to the internet. We have done things to boost teacher salaries and state employee salaries. Those are some things I have done to secure this position. Williams, a Democrat, said he has experience over his opponent. My opponent does not have the experience, Williams said. Certainly since I am there, I understand how things operate. I offer a little more knowledge than my opponent. My opponent has never had any statewide experience in terms of making decisions. I feel that what I have to offer is much more than my opponent who would be practically new to the position. Bryson Caldwell, a Hartsville city councilman and Democrat, will be challenging Williams in the June 14 primary. The general election will be held November 8. If reelected, Williams said he will continue to work hard and fight for the residents of South Carolina. He vowed to keep the oath he made over 16 years ago to his constituents. I will continue to work hard as I have done in the past as a commitment I made when I first got the position, Williams said. My commitment was to work hard, show integrity and to serve the people that elected me. This is the citizens seat and I represent the people. Roger Gore, a community member, said he supports Williams because he has represented them well in the past. Gore said Rep. Williams has a heart for the people and looks forward to campaigning for him. With anyone else we are taking a chance, Gore said. We know what we are going to get with him. We know that he is faithful to the people of South Carolina and that is something you dont find in politicians nowadays. He is always available and he gets done what needs to be done in the community and that is the main reason why I support him. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Purchases of new private home in Singapore rose to 654 units in March. (PHOTO: REUTERS/Edgar Su) By Faris Mokhtar (Bloomberg) Singapore home sales rebounded last month, signalling that demand is holding up even as the city-state seeks to cool a residential property boom. Purchases of new private apartments climbed to 654 units in March, Urban Redevelopment Authority figures showed Monday. Thats about 21% higher than the 542 units sold in the previous month. The figures suggest there is still appetite for homes in the city-state, especially among dwellers looking to upgrade from public to private units, after sales were subdued in the last couple of months. Authorities introduced cooling measures in December to address a lack of affordability along with the risk that households may struggle to pay their mortgages at higher rates. READ MORE: Home-Buying Frenzy Is Waning in Asias Most Expensive Cities Singapore Home Price Growth Slows as Curbs Take Effect Concerns over rising interest rates may push buyers to the market, said Christine Sun, senior vice president of research and analytics at OrangeTee & Tie. Singapores central bank last week further tightened its monetary settings as it seeks to fight cost pressures that threaten the recovery from the pandemic. Some on-the-fence buyers plan to lock in home loans before they climb higher as a steep hike in borrowing rates may eventually price some upgraders out of the market, Sun said. Home price growth slowed last quarter, suggesting the market was cooling on the back of the curbs, which came after a surge in prices last year. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Parishioners worship during Easter services on April 17, 2022, at Calahan Funeral Home in Englewood, a temporary home for Antioch Missionary Baptist Church two days after their historic building burned in a fire. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) The congregation gathered for Easter Sunday at a neighborhood funeral home. Some have been members of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church for more than 30 years. Others were inspired to join for the first time. All came to hear the message of resurrection. We are Antioch strong this morning, lead Pastor Gerald M. Dew said to more than 200 congregants at Calahan Funeral Home in Englewood, after a fire on Good Friday tore through their church. Advertisement It was accidentally set ablaze by workers using a propane torch, Chicago Fire Department officials said. No injuries were reported, but the roof caved in and the building, at 6248 S. Stewart Ave., was significantly damaged. Dew began his sermon by acknowledging the devastation felt on Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Advertisement Pastor Gerald Dew speaks to the congregation during Easter services on April 17, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) It was a dark Friday, it was a devastating Friday, hearts were broken on that Friday, tears were flowing on that Friday, and hopes were damaged on that Friday, Dew said. These are the emotions that we are so familiar with because we just experienced an awful Friday. We like Jesus are faced with stones, Dew said. But Easter and resurrection transcends the resurrection of Jesus and points to the obvious opportunity and possibility of our resurrection. Anthony Nichols, 63, has been going to Antioch Missionary Baptist Church every Sunday for the past three years. The pastor is a great pastor, a great teacher, a great leader, and what happened on Good Friday is not going to destroy the faith of Gods children, Nichols said. On Good Friday the church burned down, but we still rise. Antioch has a special place in Nichols heart because it is where he met his wife, Lorea Lewis 56 , who has been a member of Antioch for more than 25 years. When I first came to Antioch, I was part of another church, but then I met my wife and started going (to Antioch) every Sunday, he said. The couple met in February 2019 and within six months of dating, Nichols proposed to Lewis in the church. Nichols said he finds comfort that he can still feel the spiritual guidance of the church community although the church family cannot meet at the physical location. Advertisement Parishioners worship during Easter services on April 17, 2022, at Calahan Funeral Home in Englewood, a temporary home for Antioch Missionary Baptist Church two days after their historic building burned in a fire. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) My hope is that we can rebuild, Nichols said. God knows when youre trying to do the right thing, and Antioch teaches us to keep striving to be the best. Erston Harris , 58, said he joined the church as a member in 2012 but has been involved with the Antioch community for more than 30 years through family celebrations and mentorship programs. This is a tight-knit family, Harris said. We have to do the work of the Lord no matter what we do through the ups and the downs. Yvonne Reese, 68, said she had often passed by Antioch when going for a stroll to the store but had not attended a service there until Sunday. When I heard there was a fire, I ran down there but was told that we couldnt go near it, Reese said. " I came here today to support and will make sure to visit. Shirley Calahan, one of the owners of the funeral home where the Easter service was held, is not a member of Antioch but is one of the churchs biggest supporters. Advertisement Parishioners worship during Easter services on April 17, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) They are our neighbors in the community as well as our partners so we found it to be the right thing to do especially on this Resurrection Sunday, she said. Calahan said she hopes the funeral home and Antioch can continue their relationship to the next level. Were not sure what that next level looks like but whatever they need us to be or do, well be there to support, Calahan said. The sun will shine again in the light of the Antioch Church family, and they shall rise again. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a Black Texas death row inmate who says he was denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. (Photo: via Associated Press) The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a Black Texas death row inmate who says he was denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. (Photo: via Associated Press) The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by a Black inmate who was sentenced to death with the help of a Texas juror who was accused of making racially biased remarks during the jury selection. The justices ruled 6-3, tossing the appeal by Kristopher Love, who argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals improperly refused to consider his claim of racial bias and that he was ultimately denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. When racial bias infects a jury in a capital case, it deprives a defendant of his right to an impartial tribunal in a life-or-death context, and it poisons public confidence in the judicial process, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the courts dissenting opinion. She was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Kristopher Love, seen after his 2015 arrest, had appealed his death sentence citing racial bias among a member of his jury. (Photo: via Associated Press) Kristopher Love, seen after his 2015 arrest, had appealed his death sentence citing racial bias among a member of his jury. (Photo: via Associated Press) Love, 38, had filed an appeal after a then-prospective juror stated during the jury selection that people of non-white races are statistically more violent than white people, according to his petition. Loves defense team requested that this individual be removed from jury consideration but the court argued that the defense had already used up two extra peremptory strikes, which is when a potential juror is excused without a need for reason or explanation. The defense requested an extra peremptory strike but the request was denied, with the court stating that any error committed during the jury selection was harmless. That decision was plainly erroneous, retorted Sotomayor. An already-expended peremptory strike is no cure for the seating of an allegedly biased juror. The state court thus deprived Love of any meaningful review of his federal constitutional claim. Story continues The jury went on to sentence Love to death for a 2015 murder-for-hire plot that left a Dallas dentist dead. This followed the jury unanimously concluding that there was a sufficient probability that Love would commit future violent crimes and that life in prison would not suffice. The task of reviewing the record to determine whether a juror was fair and impartial is challenging, but it must be undertaken, especially when a persons life is on the line.Justice Sonia Sotomayor Sotomayor said she would have vacated the lower courts judgment and ordered Loves racial bias claim to receive proper consideration. The task of reviewing the record to determine whether a juror was fair and impartial is challenging, but it must be undertaken, especially when a persons life is on the line, she said. I would ensure that Loves claim is heard by the Court of Criminal Appeals, rather than leave these questions unanswered. I respectfully dissent. Loves attorney, John Tatum, expressed disappointment to Courthouse News. Obviously, I agree with the dissent that our legal system needs to cleanse itself of racial bias in jury selection and stop improperly using harmless error rules to block the application of laws we already have to protect the accused citizen from any racial bias in the application of criminal justice in this country, he said in an email to the news outlet. Tatum did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment. Love was sentenced in 2018 for the shooting death of pediatric dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher on Sept. 2, 2015. In this case, Love had been a gun for hire, paid by Brenda Delgado to kill Hatcher after Hatcher started a new relationship with Delgados ex-boyfriend, the court heard. Delgado was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison without parole for her role in the scheme. This followed her fleeing to Mexico while out on bail and Mexico stipulating that she wouldnt face the death penalty as part of her extradition agreement, according to Oxygen. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. 3.9%2736 21490 2.9915.2% 59 228010% 22 55 2530 2407 The past three years of Jennifer Robinson's life have been among the most stressful she's experienced, but the 30-year-old Lincoln woman has had no choice but to remain calm. Crying, coughing and straining are among the triggers that her son must avoid, so Jennifer has tried to serve as a soothing presence for Nathaniel since he was diagnosed with a rare condition. Moyamoya disease is a vascular disorder that can go from undetectable to life-altering in a matter of days, as it did for then-2-year-old Nathaniel in 2019. The family moved to Beatrice from Lincoln on Feb. 17 of that year, and had been in town for less than six hours before making its first trip to the emergency room. A doctor diagnosed Nathaniel with the flu. But the next morning, Nathaniel couldn't walk. So Jennifer rushed her son back to the hospital in Beatrice before he was taken by helicopter to Omaha. Jennifer, and her husband, Dalton, made the trip by car. "We were about 45 minutes behind him," Jennifer said. "And the very first thing the doctor said is, 'You need to sit down. This is very serious.'" Nathaniel had suffered a massive stroke that permanently damaged the left side of his brain. The sudden episode was brought on by moyamoya. Nathanial spent 45 days at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha and another month and a half at a rehabilitation facility before he could undergo extracranial bypass surgery, which restores blood flow to the brain surgery Jennifer was, at first, opposed to. "We had to do a family vote, because I was against the surgery after doing research, because it's not always 100% effective," she said. Dalton, though, was adamant that their son get the surgery, and Nathaniel underwent the procedure June 18, 2019. "And he's been thriving ever since," Jennifer said. The effects of Nathaniel's initial stroke are lifelong. His movement is forever limited by the attack on the left side of his brain. At 6 years old, he's not yet been to school, and he likely never will attend in a normal setting, Jennifer said. The stress of a classroom could trigger another episode. But Nathaniel is alive and doing relatively well. And the surgery has so far helped prevent further strokes or seizures. Now, the success of that surgery is being tested again. In June 2021, Dalton, an employee at Toppers Pizza in Lincoln, suffered a small stroke, and immediately the family suspected moyamoya. Experts say if you have a family member with the disease, your risk of having the condition is 30 to 40 times higher. "(Dalton's) was way more than advanced than our son's," Jennifer said this week. "The chances of making it that far, that advanced, is very rare." Dalton underwent brain surgery Wednesday, less than a year after his diagnosis at age 27 and three years since his son's major stroke ushered the unpredictable realities of moyamoya into the Robinsons' lives. In the hours after the procedure, Jennifer said Dalton's condition had already improved. But the reality of the family's situation an overstretched mother and an incapacitated father hung over Jennifer on Friday, even as she savored the success of Dalton's surgery. "There's still risk that it won't work," she said Friday, echoing the concerns she first had in 2019 as the family weighed the cost and potential reward of Nathaniel's surgery. "It's not always 100% effective. It's all up to his brain." This time around, Jennifer does not have Dalton to lean on. In his stead, she's turned to her mother, family members and Dalton's employer, Toppers, where management all the way up to the company's CEO have offered financial assistance and shared a GoFundMe page. The company first stepped in amid Nathaniel's battle with moyamoya in 2019, providing the Robinsons with meals and, at times housing, as their youngest son was treated in Omaha, said Jon Crowe, the franchisee who operates three Toppers locations in Nebraska. Crowe, who initially only knew the Robinsons through Jennifer's mother, a Toppers employee, grew closer with the family then. In 2020, Dalton took a job with Toppers in Lincoln. When he was diagnosed with moyamoya the next year, and as surgery loomed, the company looked for ways to help again, Crowe said. "But I was fearful that it just wasn't gonna quite be enough," he said. So Crowe flagged the company's CEO, Scott Gittrich, and asked for permission to share Dalton's GoFundMe page to franchisees and employees company-wide, Crowe said. Gittrich and his wife, Robin, donated $2,500 to the account, which had amassed $5,400 by Friday afternoon. Much of the funding has come from Toppers branches across the region. For the Robinsons, the company's generosity has served as a reason to celebrate amid an otherwise uncertain time. Jennifer will take any chance she can get to rejoice. She has to. "I find reasons to celebrate," she said, "because I always have that fear that this could be my last day with my husband or my son." Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SAC CITY, Iowa -- A months-long investigation into a string of rural Sac County burglaries has led to the arrests of two Lake View, Iowa, men. The Sac County Sheriff's Office on Friday arrested John Bogue and Nick Bogue and charged them with burglarizing the properties from Dec. 1 and March 4 and setting a fire that destroyed a house and two outbuildings in February. Authorities executing search warrants at properties owned by the two men found stolen property, including copper wiring and tubing that had been stolen and was apparently being broken down at John Bogue's home. Nick Bogue is accused of setting a Feb. 15 fire at 2673 Perkins Ave. in which an abandoned house and two outbuildings were destroyed. Officers had seized Bogue's phone and found video of the fires and also determined that John Bogue was present when the video was taken, according to a Sac County Sheriff's Office news release. When officers served a search warrant at Nick Bogue's home on March 10, they found methamphetamine that Bogue had attempted to flush down the toilet when law enforcement arrived. Nick Bogue, 41, was booked into the Sac County Jail on the following charges: three counts of second-degree arson and single counts of first-degree criminal mischief, third-degree theft and possession of a controlled substance. John Bogue, 34, was booked on two counts of third-degree burglary, three counts of second-degree arson and single counts of ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree criminal mischief. John Bogue's bond was set at $80,000, and Nick Bogue's bond is $43,000. The sheriff's office previously arrested Kennedie Ford, 26, of Lake City, Iowa, for her involvement in at least three of the burglaries after finding items reported stolen at her home. She has pleaded not guilty in Sac County District Court to three counts of third-degree burglary and single counts of first-degree theft, second-degree theft, ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree criminal mischief. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. According to court documents, Mefferd fired several shots from a 9mm handgun at Darin Fritz during the March 20 fight in a home in the 600 block of Sixth Street in Battle Creek. The two men were fighting when the woman pulled Fritz off of Mefferd, who then produced a handgun and fired at least one shot into an upstairs wall. The fight resumed, and Fritz was struck once in the lower right leg with a bullet. Mefferd fired at least four more times into the floor around Fritz and hit him in the head with the gun, court documents said. SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man found in possession of methamphetamine was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison. Donovan Lang, 27, pleaded guilty in November in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was sentenced to 90 months in prison. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Lang was a passenger in a vehicle on Aug. 15, when police found about 100 grams of meth wrapped in two or three purple latex gloves beneath his seat. Other matching gloves and a short knife were found in Lang's pockets. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Zelenskyy: Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has begun LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. Live Updates | Russians fight in streets of Ukrainian town KVIV, Ukraine A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. That's one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nation's Olympic team trains was targeted. Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy, he said. KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Florida judge voids US mask mandate for planes, other travel ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. The judge's decision freed airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements, resulting in a mix of responses. The major airlines switched to a mask optional policy, with some eliciting cheers from passengers when the changes were announced over loudspeakers. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement, and airports in Houston and Dallas almost immediately did away with their mandates after the TSA announcement. Los Angeles International Airport, the world's fifth-largest by passenger volume, also dropped its mandate but the Centers for Disease Control continued to recommend masking on transportation and I think that's good advice," LAX spokesman Heath Montgomery said. Sleepy passengers on a Delta Airlines flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean. Second arrest made in South Carolina mall shooting COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of a second man in connection with Saturday's shootout inside a busy shopping mall in South Carolina's capital, one of two mass shootings that rocked the state over the Easter holiday weekend. Marquise Love Robinson, 20, was taken into custody overnight and authorities are also seeking a third suspect, Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith, Columbia Police Chief W.H. Skip Holbrook said during a news conference. Both men face charges of attempted murder and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery. Nine people were shot and another six injured in the rush to exit Columbiana Centre in Columbia, authorities said, with no fatalities reported. Holbrook said one person remained in the intensive care unit Monday. Police said they did not believe the shooting was a random attack and that the three identified suspects knew each other. Holbrook said the men brought guns into the mall, with police seizing two handguns believed to be used in the shootout. Emotions took over, you had firearms that were introduced into the dispute, gunfire was exchanged and innocent people got injured in the crossfire, Holbrook said. Migrant crossings spike as US plans to lift curb on asylum WASHINGTON (AP) Migrants attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at the highest level in two decades as the U.S. prepares for even larger numbers with the expected lifting of a pandemic-era order that turned away asylum seekers. Immigration authorities stopped migrants 221,303 times along the Southwest border in March, a 33% increase from a month earlier, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Monday. The new figures were disclosed as the Biden administration comes under increasing pressure over the looming expiration of a public health order that enabled U.S. authorities to turn back most migrants, including people seeking asylum from persecution. The number of migrant encounters has gone up nearly every month since President Joe Biden took office, becoming fodder for political opponents who point to the increase as evidence that this administration is weaker on border security than its predecessor. A backlog of people waiting outside the country to seek asylum, as well as dire economic and political conditions in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, is partially responsible for the increase in migrants. Administration critics blame Biden, arguing his administration's moves to roll back Trump-era policies has encouraged people to come. Patrick Lyoya shooting raises issue of officer name release Patrick Lyoyas father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man. But the police chief in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he will only do so if the officer is charged in the April 4 shooting that followed a brief foot chase and a struggle over the officer's Taser. Eric Winstrom's department is among those across the U.S. that have faced scrutiny for withholding identities of officers in cases where Black people were wounded or killed during interactions with police. Some have said its to protect the officers from retribution. Others, like Grand Rapids, point to policies that prohibit the release of an officers name before charges are filed. Im asking for the law to release his face, his image and his identification because I would love to know the person who has killed my son. I have the right, Peter Lyoya said through a translator during an emotional news conference after video of the shooting of his son was released last week. Andrew Shannon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Peninsula Chapter and vice president for the SCLC Virginia State Unit, said police departments should treat officers who are under investigation like they would anyone else. Judge rules Amazon must reinstate fired warehouse worker A judge has ruled Amazon must reinstate a former warehouse employee who was fired in the early days of the pandemic, saying the company unlawfully terminated the worker who led a protest calling for Amazon to do more to protect employees against COVID-19. The dispute involving Gerald Bryson, who worked at an Amazon warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, has stretched on since June 2020, when Bryson filed an unfair labor practice complaint with The National Labor Relations Board, claiming Amazon retaliated against him. Later that year, the NLRB said it found merit in Brysons complaint that Amazon illegally fired him for workplace organizing. Amazon didnt accept the findings, and the federal board filed a formal complaint against the company, triggering a lengthy administrative court process. On Monday, administrative law judge Benjamin Green said Amazon must offer Bryson his job back, as well as lost wages and benefits resulting from his discriminatory discharge." Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment sent. Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel as tensions soar JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank. Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gaza's militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year's Eve. Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, targeting a weapons manufacturing site" for Hamas, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries. Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli violations in Jerusalem. Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago cant silence us from whats happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. EXPLAINER: What does Infowars bankruptcy filing mean? AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Alex Jones' company Infowars has filed for bankruptcy protection after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation lawsuits over his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. Jones filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas and told his listeners Monday he was totally maxed out financially. He urged his audience to contribute money or buy products off his Infowars website. Attorneys for Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets as juries later this year are set to determine how much he should pay in damages. Here's what to know: WHAT DOES ALEX JONES CLAIM? Shareholders await Musk's next move in Twitter takeover bid DETROIT (AP) Twitter has dropped a major roadblock in front of Elon Musks effort to take over the company, leaving investors to wonder about the mercurial Tesla CEOs next move. The social media company has adopted a poison pill defense that makes it difficult for Musk or any other investor to buy Twitter without the board of directors approval. Musk, who currently owns about 9% of the company, last week disclosed an offer of about $43 billion, or $54.20 per share. Twitters next likely move is to formally reject Musks offer, although it could negotiate. Musk has a number of options which also include talks with the board, sweetening his offer, or even triggering the poison pill, which experts say would be disastrous for the company. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Twitters board said it approved the defensive move to protect the company from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics. The board is leaving open the possibility of negotiating with Musk or another suitor. The filing says the shareholder rights agreement should not interfere with any merger or offer approved by the board. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Five people, including two on-duty Chicago police officers, were hurt during a three-vehicle crash on the Dan Ryan Expressway in the Bridgeport neighborhood early Monday, according to an Illinois State Police spokeswoman. Troopers were called to the area of Interstate 94 and West 31st Street around 3:45 a.m. after receiving information about a three-vehicle crash, one of which was a Chicago Police Department squad car, Trooper Jayme Bufford said in an email. Advertisement According to preliminary information, a vehicle coming up behind the squad car rear-ended it, leaving its driver and two on-duty police officers in the squad car suffering from injuries not considered life-threatening. A third vehicle with two occupants also was involved, but both people in the third vehicle also suffered injuries not considered life-threatening. Advertisement The first vehicle, a 2014 Black GMC Acadia, was driven by a man who was identified as 36-year-old Dwayne S. Harvey from Gary, IN, according to Bufford. Harvey, who was the sole occupant in his vehicle was cited for driving under the influence, along with other infractions, authorities said.. Harvey struck the second vehicle, a 2017 White Ford Explorer, causing the squad car to hit the third vehicle, a 2008 Silver Jeep Compass, which struck a concrete wall. LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town." He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 HELSINKI (AP) Swedish police said Monday that the riots that have shaken several cities and towns in the Nordic country are extremely serious crimes against society and suspect some protesters are linked to criminal gangs that intentionally target police. Sweden, a nation of 10 million, has seen unrest, scuffles, arson and violence since Thursday that has left some police officers and protesters injured. It was triggered by Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludans meetings and planned Quran burnings across the country. We suspect that those involved (in the riots) have links to criminal gangs, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg told a news conference on Monday, adding some of those criminal individuals are known to police. I have been in touch with the public prosecutor to prosecute these individuals. Swedens National Police Commander Jonas Hysing said Monday that 26 police and 14 individuals protesters or other people have been injured in the riots and 20 police vehicles destroyed or damaged. The latest riots broke out Sunday night in Malmo, Swedens third-largest city, as an angry crowd of mainly young people set fire to car tires, debris and garbage cans in the Rosengard district. Protesters threw stones and police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. A school and several cars were set on fire, but the situation calmed down early Monday. A total of 11 people were detained and three people arrested in Malmo. No serious injuries were reported. Since Thursday, in addition to Malmo, riots, unrest and violent clashes have been reported in Stockholm, the central city of Orebro, the eastern cities of Linkoping and Norrkoping and southern town of Landskrona. Police have been forced to use weapons in self-defense, Hysing said. Three people were hurt in Norrkoping on Sunday as they were hit by ricochets as police fired warning shots into a crowd of protesters. There is a lot to suggest that the police were targeted, Hysing said, adding that some protesters were suspected of attempted murder, aggravated assault and violence against an official. Both Thornberg and Hysing stressed that the main target for the rioters was Swedish police and society, not Paludan seen by many Swedes merely as an agent provocateur and his Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, which runs on an anti-immigrant, anti-Islam agenda. Thornberg, Swedens supreme police chief, said criminal individuals who took advantage of the situation with Paludans Swedish Easter tour and joined the riots, were the main suspects for the violent flare-ups of violence. The unrest escalated quickly after Paludans first demonstrations, which were met by counter-protesters in many places last week. We must put an end to this early. What we see here is a very serious crime, Thornberg said, referring to the riots. Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said Monday that he continues to have great confidence in the Swedish police despite the unrest over the weekend and pledged more resources to law enforcement. When you end up in these critical and aggressive situations, theres nothing else police officers can do but to put up a hard fight, Johansson told Swedish news outlets. We cannot accept that perpetrators commit this type of violence. Iraqs Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned Swedens charge daffaires over Paludans planned Quran burnings, reportedly saying that such activity could seriously endanger Swedens relations with the Muslim world. In Iran, dozens of students gathered Monday at Swedens embassy to protest Paludans planned Quran burnings. Chanting Insulters of Quran must be condemned! they also repeated traditional slogans such as Death to America!" and Death to Israel! Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this article. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Patrick Lyoyas father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man. But the police chief in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he will only do so if the officer is charged in the April 4 shooting that followed a brief foot chase and a struggle over the officer's Taser. Eric Winstrom's department is among those across the U.S. that have faced scrutiny for withholding identities of officers in cases where Black people were wounded or killed during interactions with police. Some have said its to protect the officers from retribution. Others, like Grand Rapids, point to policies that prohibit the release of an officers name before charges are filed. Im asking for the law to release his face, his image and his identification because I would love to know the person who has killed my son. I have the right, Peter Lyoya said through a translator during an emotional news conference after video of the shooting of his son was released last week. Andrew Shannon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Peninsula Chapter and vice president for the SCLC Virginia State Unit, said police departments should treat officers who are under investigation like they would anyone else. They always report who the suspect is and they report who the victim is, except in cases of rape, Shannon told The Associated Press. There should be no special treatment when law enforcement are involved in these types of matters. They should want to demonstrate transparency and openness so everyone can be fully apprised of the process. Lyoya was facedown on the ground when an officer shot him in the back of the head while straddling Lyoya. The officer had stopped Lyoya for driving with a license plate that didnt belong to the vehicle. The funeral for Lyoya, a native of Congo, is scheduled Friday in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. The Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver the eulogy. While Winstrom said he could not release the officer's name, he did release videos of the shooting, citing a need for transparency. The officer could be heard repeatedly ordering Lyoya to let go of his Taser, at one point demanding: Drop the Taser! Ben Crump, an attorney for Lyoyas family, planned to release results of an independent autopsy on Tuesday. Michigan State Police are investigating. The prosecutor who will determine whether the officer will face any charges has said not to expect a quick decision. A Grand Rapids police spokeswoman said Monday in an email that a person's name, age, other basic information and the charges against him can be released following an arrest or issuance of an arrest warrant. Not releasing the officers name is consistent with the procedure, Jennifer Kalczuk wrote. Such policies vary from city to city. Chicago, for example, changed how it handles such cases after Black teenager Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a white police officer in October 2014. In that case, it was prosecutors who released Officer Jason Van Dyke's name 13 months later, when he was charged with murder and video for the shooting was also released. On Monday, Federal authorities said they will not criminally charge Van Dyke. In response to criticism of how the McDonald shooting was handled, the city made changes. While police still will not release an officer's name unless he's charged, the agency that reviews those shootings does so regardless. City policy also requires that video be released within 60 days. Last year, within a month of two separate fatal shootings by police, including of a 13-year-old boy, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released officers' names. Prosecutors have said the officers won't face charges. Ephraim Eaddy, spokesman for the agency, said it has concluded that officers names cannot be held back because they are public servants. If the release of the names of the Chicago officers involved in the two 2021 shootings seemed to come quickly, the name of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot Jacob Blake several times in 2020 was made public in lightning speed. Three days after that shooting, the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a news release that included Officer Rusten Sheskey's name. The decision came after the Kenosha Police Department handed the investigation over to the states Justice Department for complete transparency, said Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik. Nosalik said he agreed with the decision. Had the department refused to release the name, Nosalik said he would have called to ask why. The public has a right to know ... and unless theres a logical reason like it might put the officers safety and his family in jeopardy, I dont see a reason why the name cant be released, he said. In fact, he said, the Kenosha police moved to extricate" Sheskey's family from their home after learning that they might be in danger, and suggested the same concern might be part of the reason why authorities in Grand Rapids have not released the officers name. Crump, the Lyoyas' attorney, said having the officer's name would allow the family to find out more about him. We want to know his history, Crump said last week. I can guarantee you, theyre going to do everything in their power to try to learn the history of Patrick to assassinate his character." Find the APs full coverage of the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Babwin reported from Chicago. Williams is a member of AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Charles Herbster received blunt condemnation from many Nebraska political leaders last week after reports that he allegedly groped multiple women, something the candidate vehemently denies. But with Herbster showing no signs of leaving the governors race and the state GOP saying it will stay out of the primary, it appears voters will ultimately determine the gravity of the claims. The Nebraska Examiner reported allegations from eight women who said Herbster, a Republican megadonor and CEO of Conklin Co. and other businesses, touched them inappropriately. Among the accusers: State Sen. Julie Slama, who has confirmed the Examiners reporting that Herbster reached up her skirt without her consent and touched her inappropriately at a political event in 2019. The Examiner did not name the other seven accusers and the Omaha World-Herald did not independently corroborate those accounts. Herbster has denied the allegations, threatened legal action, and called the story a dirty political trick being carried out by one of his chief competitors in the race, Jim Pillen, and Pillens most notable backer, Gov. Pete Ricketts. The campaign did not release any additional information Friday, but Herbster took to social media and, for at least the second time, drew parallels between his situation and that of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and former President Donald Trump. Condemnation of Herbster came quickly from many powerful figures across Nebraskas political spectrum, including from his competitors in the governors race, every female state legislator, former Gov. Kay Orr, Ricketts and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert. Like Ricketts, Slama and Orr have endorsed Pillen, while Stothert has endorsed state Sen. Brett Lindstrom. Nebraska GOP Chairman Dan Welch called the allegations serious in a statement Friday. Without casting judgment in this matter, the NEGOP condemns all forms of sexual assault and believes any allegation must be investigated appropriately, Welch said. Per the NEGOP Constitution, the party remains neutral in the governors primary. Republican voters will examine these allegations as they weigh all the candidates in the race as the May 10th primary approaches. But the party is poised to support Herbster, if he does win. The NEGOP will support our nominees for the general election, Welch said. Herbster, a Falls City businessman, and Pillen, a Columbus hog producer, were seen as early front-runners for the GOP nomination, each touting big war chests and prominent endorsements. Trump is Herbsters most prominent endorser. That support has largely defined Herbsters campaign since he received it. But perception of the primary has gradually shifted among some observers and insiders, who now see a three-way race between Herbster, Pillen and Lindstrom. Polling from two campaigns in mid-March showed Herbster with a lead over Pillen, whose lead over Lindstrom appeared to be narrowing the percentage of undecided voters and the margin of error in those polls suggested an open race. Scandal is never a good thing for a candidate, but its particularly damaging when its late-breaking, like this one, said Dona-Gene Barton, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor who has researched the lifespan of political scandals. The effects of scandals tend to fade pretty rapidly, she said, but it still takes time. Counties were able to start mailing early voting ballots for Nebraskas primary earlier this month. In-person early voting started Monday, and election day is May 10. Some voters have already mailed in their ballots. As of Friday, the Douglas County Election Commission had accepted 15,170 completed ballots, according to spokesperson Valerie Stoj. That's out of a total of 357,561 voters who were registered in the county. No political scientist or observer who spoke to the World-Herald on Friday said its a sure thing that the allegations reported last week will take Herbster out of the running, but many left that door open. We got our October surprise, political consultant and lobbyist Perre Neilan said. This widens the path for Lindstrom and Pillen. The allegations against Herbster are serious, said Paul Landow, retired political science professor and former executive director of the state Democratic Party. This is a very big, serious deal, he said. And its gonna be difficult for him to overcome it. It doesnt take a lot of voters to change what appears to be a close race, said John Hibbing, a UNL political science professor. Barton said in general elections, where people have stronger attachments based on partisanship, they may be more likely to discount the information though, in a primary, voters may have already formed attachments to the candidates. Certain voters could treat the allegations differently. Im sure that people who are strong Trump supporters, especially given Trumps history with regard to women, will not be turned off by this, Hibbing said. But its not at all clear that (Herbster) can win the primary with just those individuals. Political consultant Chris Peterson said in a text message that he doesnt think it will change Herbster voters minds, and it could even harden their support. There are still tens of thousands of persuadable voters up for grabs enough to decide the election, he said. If those voters havent sided with Herbster before now, after hes spent almost $10 million, the sexual assault allegations probably solidify their view of him. This doesnt mean Herbster cant still win, but, unless he effectively portrays himself as the victim, his path may have narrowed. That has to make Pillen and Lindstrom feel better about their positions, Hibbing said, and maybe even the leading Democrat, state Sen. Carol Blood. Especially if the Republicans should go ahead and nominate Herbster, he said. I think that would open up opportunities for the Democrats, which rarely happens in a statewide race in Nebraska. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 On Monday, the Supreme Court turned away an appeal from a Black man named Kristopher Love, whose death sentence was tainted by a jurors racism. By a 63 vote, the conservative majority refused to enforce precedents protecting capital defendants from racial bias, saving itself the trouble of formally overruling them. Once again, the Supreme Court exercised its power to change the law by doing nothing, furthering its quest to subvert the normal operation of law and speed up executions in America. Advertisement Racism pervades every aspect of the death penalty, but its not often as obvious as it was at Loves 2018 trial. Loves attorneys asked prospective jurors whether they believe that some races tend to be more violent than others in an attempt to smoke out illicit bias. One juror, Zachary Niesmanwho is whiteanswered yes, elaborating: Statistics show more violent crimes are committed by certain races. I believe in statistics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. During voir dire, Niesman doubled down on his beliefs. He told Loves defense attorneys as well as the state prosecutors that he belived the non-white races to be the more violent races. He claimed that news reports and criminology classes bore this out, but added that his views were based on statistics, not personal feelings towards one race or another. Niesman then insisted that he would be a fair and impartial juror with no bias against Love on account of his race. Advertisement Advertisement In Texas, defendants become eligible for capital punishment only after a jury has concluded that theyre likely to commit criminal acts of violence in the future. Niesmans belief that Love was a member of the more violent races therefore posed an obvious danger: As a juror, he might take Loves race into account when gauging his violent propensities, infecting the death sentence with an odious racial stereotype. Loves attorney moved to strike Niesman from the jury for causebecause of his biasbut the trial judge denied the challenge without explanation. The defense attorney then sought to use a peremptory challenge, which allows the exclusion of a prospective juror without any specific reason. But he had already used up his allotted peremptory challenges, as well as two extras that the trial judge had granted. The judge seated Niesman on the jury, which found Love guilty and likely to commit violent crime in the future. This finding rendered him eligible for the death penalty, which the judge imposed. Advertisement Advertisement On appeal, Love argued that his sentence violated the constitutional right to a trial by an impartial jury because one juror was racially biased. The all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled against him in a baffling decision. Writing for the court, Justice Mary Lou Keel reasoned that even if the trial judge should have struck Niesman for cause, his failure to do so was harmless. Why? The judge had already given Love two extra peremptory challenges. And despite the fact that his lawyer had used both additional challenges before questioning Niesman, their existence somehow rectified any potential error. Advertisement Advertisement To ensure that Donald Trump could execute as many people as possible, the conservative majority ignored or flouted federal law. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out on Monday, this decision is nonsensical from top to bottom. An already-expended peremptory strike, she wrote with palpable frustration, is no cure for the seating of an allegedly biased juror. The Texas courts deprived Love of any meaningful review of his federal constitutional claim by deploying a non sequitur. Yet only Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, voted to force the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reexamine Loves case and rule on his constitutional objections. The Republican-appointed justices let the injustice stand. Advertisement Advertisement In doing so, they blessed the lower courts defiance of precedent stretching back decades that prohibits jury bias by safeguarding a defendants ability to question and strike a biased juror. This constitutional right applies with special force against racial bias, which the Supreme Court has identified as a uniquely odious threat to the administration of justice. Nowhere is this threat to justice more pronounced than in capital trials, when the defendants life is on the line. As a result, the seating of a racist juror in a capital trial can never be harmless, as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals suggested; instead, it renders any judgment constitutionally unsound. Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that no amount of racism in the jury box is ever acceptable in a criminal trial as recently as 2017s Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado. Like Niesman, the biased juror in Pena-Rodriguez believed that racial minorities were more prone to violence. Like Niesman, the jurors bias may well have played a role in his decision to convict the defendant, who was Latino. But the Supreme Court looked very different in 2017; back then, a five-justice majority embraced its duty to enforce the Constitutions guarantee against state-sponsored racial discrimination in the jury system. Advertisement Advertisement To do so, the court created an exception to state laws that prohibit a verdict from being questioned on the basis of comments made during deliberation. When a juror comes forward with evidence of racism in deliberations, the court held, a states interest in the finality of verdicts must yield to the constitutional bar against racial animus in the justice system. Under precedents like Pena-Rodriguez, Loves appeal should have presented an easy case. At a minimum, Sotomayor wrote, the lower court should have meaningfully reviewed Loves allegations of racial bias rather than shrugging it off. But the Supreme Court has shifted far to the right over the last five years. It is apparent that six justices do not much care for precedents protecting criminal defendants from racist jurors, particularly in capital cases. After all, these same justices paved the way for the Trump administrations eleventh hour execution spree. Advertisement Advertisement To ensure that Donald Trump could execute as many people as possible before Joe Biden entered office, the conservative majority ignored or flouted federal law, often breaking the courts own rules in the process. They are certain that death row lawyers are using guerrilla tactics to delay executions and are increasingly willing to rewrite law on the fly in a bid to thwart them. What is the easiest way to rewrite the law? Simply stop enforcing it. Thats what the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did in swatting down Loves claim, and its what SCOTUS did on Monday by blessing the lower courts defiance of precedent. Overturning past rulings requires reasoning and fortitude. Its much easier to let precedent die without saying a word. For the vast majority of Americans, the IRS already knows what we owe in taxes. Instead of telling us, though, the IRS tasks us with filling out a slew of complicated forms and doing a bunch of arithmetic, which drives many people to tax-prep services. For years, ProPublica reporter Justin Elliot has been investigating the No. 1 tax prep software in the country: Intuits TurboTax. What he found is that while TurboTax advertised its filing services as free, millions of customers were in fact lured into paying for its products when they didnt have to. At the end of March, in part because of Justins work, the Federal Trade Commission sued Intuit. It filed an administrative complaint investigating TurboTaxs advertising, and it asked a judge for an injunction to stop TurboTaxs ads. On Sundays episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Justin Elliot about how Intuit built its TurboTax empire and muscled out what could have been an easy and truly free way to file your taxes online. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Lizzie OLeary: What kind of company is Intuit? What are its priorities? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justin Elliot: Intuit is a Silicon Valley company. They have two main businesses: one is Turbo Tax, and the other is accounting software called QuickBooks. People who have been doing their taxes for a while may recall that TurboTax was big even going back to the 90s, but back then it wasnt a website. It was an actual box that you would buy with CDs in it with this tax prep software that youd put on your desktop computer. Really the key moment that ushered in the contemporary paradigm of all of this came in the early 2000s. What happened? In the early 2000s, the George W. Bush administration decided to take a hard look at how tax prep worked. The Bush administration was looking at doing what a lot of other developed countries ended up doing, which is having the IRS create essentially its own version of TurboTax: tax prep software that you could get online, from the government, for free, that would be easier than filling out an actual paper tax return. And at that point, because TurboTax was already a very large and profitable line of business for Intuit, and there were other competitors in the industry whose profits were also threatened by this, the tax prep industry, led by Intuit, mobilized to stop the Bush administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because it was just such a threat to their bottom line? Exactly. In simplistic, competitive terms, if youre making a bundle of money on a product, you dont want the government to create a free version of that product because your business is going to be crushed. To keep the IRS from moving in on its business, Intuit amped up its lobbying machine. One line of argument was that the IRS shouldnt be in the business of being both the tax collector and the tax preparer, and Intuit seemed to offer a compromise. Advertisement Advertisement The industry led by Intuit, made a counteroffer to the Bush administration: a public-private partnership that became known as the free file program. At the heart of it was a simple quid pro quo: The IRS promised the industry that We, the government, will not create our own product. Therefore, the government is not going to get involved in competing in your market. But in exchange, you, the industry, have to create free versions of your software like Turbo Tax. And that has to be made available to a large number of Americans. It ended up being actually the majority of Americans that were eligible for what became known as the free file software offers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the next 20 years, Intuit tried to ensure that as few people as possible used the truly free version of its product. That might sound surprising given the marketing, which basically just repeats the word free so much so that it doesnt even feel like a word anymore. But you found in your reporting that when people went online to try to find the actual free version, it wasnt always possible. Whats going on there? Quite early on what happened was a highly confusing ecosystem sprung up in which there were multiple versions of tax prep software, including TurboTax, that had the word free next to them, but they were not the same. If you happened to start on the wrong free version, you might end up having to pay, even though you actually were eligible to get the software for free if you had started on the right version. For years and years, the majority of Americans, if they had found the correct IRS website, they could have actually filed using Turbo Tax or another competitors product for free. But instead, millions and millions of people used the commercial free versions, such as Turbo Tax free edition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How many millions of people? Its a great question. A Treasury inspector general tried to answer that question a couple years ago, after some of our reporting. The number they came up with for tax year 2019, was that roughly 14 million taxpayers paid for tax prep, even though they were actually eligible to get identical tax prep software for free, if they had just started from the right website. We did some back of the envelope math on that, based on the pricing, and its basically a billion dollars of extra revenue for the industry in just a single year. And this went on for like 20 years. So were talking about real, real money here. Advertisement You discovered in your reporting that TurboTax used code and web design to push people into its paid products. Often, nudging consumers was as simple as a font choice or color on the website, making the paid option slightly more prominent so you would be more likely to click on it. Turbo Tax also capitalized on how much Americans loathe doing our taxes and fear getting in trouble with the IRS. Over the years, Ive talked to a lot of engineers and designers at Intuit, and theres this marketing concept that they invoke internally called FUD, which stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. This is used in other marketing contexts, not just tax prep, but I think its particularly salient in tax prep because so many people are nervous about getting it wrong. The stakes of getting it wrong are very real. And so the company is betting that the fear, uncertainty and doubt of users is going to outweigh any annoyance they might have of having to pay 75 or a hundred bucks for something they thought they were going to get for free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were other things that Intuit did that I think crossed a line, and they actually stopped doing them after we wrote about them. A few years ago, when TurboTax was maintaining these two different editions that both had the word free in them (but only one of them was truly free), they actually added code to the backend of the website of the truly free edition that told search engines like Google not to include that website in Google results. So if you went to Google or another search engine and you put in TurboTax free you literally would never see the truly free edition because this code had been added to the HTML of the truly free version. Advertisement If youre someone who is listening to this and saying, Wait a minute, Ive used TurboTax in the past and I saw those ads and I went on the website. Is there anything these people should know or think about now? Theres a couple things. One is that a bunch of state attorneys general have been investigating Intuit for a while now on, on these issues. The other interesting thing thats going on that came out of our coverage is theres actually a bunch of private lawsuits that have been filed. And theres a law firm out in Chicago called Keller Lenkner that is pursuing kind of a novel legal strategy in which theyve filed tens of thousands of arbitration claims against Intuit for people who were in this situation where they paid for TurboTax, in some cases for years, even though they were eligible to get basically the identical product for free. Advertisement Advertisement The FTCs administrative complaint against Intuit will likely take some time, as the agency investigates whether Intuits ads were deceptive and broke the law. As for the injunction request, thats set to be heard in U.S. district court in Washington next week. We should note that Intuit voluntarily pulled its free, free, free TV ads on March 24. Advertisement Intuit has said theyre going to fight the FTC on this. A lot of the effects of this FTC action, to the extent there are effects, will depend on the outcome. If the FTC gets a judge to agree, to issue an order, making TurboTax stop these ads that the FTC says are deceptive. If theres some kind of settlement. What kind of costs, if any, are imposed on the company. You have to imagine that other companies in this space watch these sorts of things to figure out where the lines are. Advertisement I was wondering what the next steps might actually be, because right now were in this little window, pre-tax time, where theyre not supposed to run these ads. Is there another shoe that could potentially drop? Or is this a long process that gets played out in Washington? Advertisement Advertisement I dont think theres another shoe thats going to drop before Tax Day this year because these things do tend to be drawn out. But there is another major front here and thats the legislative front. Theres been proposals in Congress on and off for years, from people like Elizabeth Warren, to appropriate money to the for the IRS to do what it was thinking about doing back in the George W. Bush administration 20 years ago, which is to join many other developed wealthy countries in having an online filing process thats free and offered by the government to all of us as citizens. I dont think any of thats going to pass anytime soon, the way Congress looks right now, but its out there. Advertisement That brings me back to this line in one of your stories that has really stuck with me: Intuit recognized that its success depended on two parallel missions: stoking innovation in Silicon Valley while stifling it in Washington. It doesnt sound like a company that has spent a lot of money and time on lobbying is just going to roll over and say, OK, its 20 years later, IRS, you create your own program for this. Advertisement Advertisement Absolutely. And Intuits share price has soared over the last four or five years. It turns out its a really good business to be in if you just can put up a website and collect 75 bucks each from millions or tens of millions of people. The costs are really low at that kind of scale. Its an incredibly profitable company; the shareholders have really been enriched in recent years. If any legislation or administrative action by the executive branch has any chance of getting the government to do more in this area, youre absolutely going to see a lobbying fight. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Emeric Thokoly, an earl who was exiled after a failed rebellion in the 17th century, was born at Kezmarok Castle. A new bronze statue of the Kezmarok-born earl Emeric Thokoly is unveiled in Kezmarok on March 28, 2022. (Source: Mesto Kezmarok/Facebook) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Emeric Thokoly sits proudly on his horse outside Kezmarok Castle, eastern Slovakia. He won't be going anywhere, though. A new bronze statue of the Kezmarok-born earl, made by Hungarian sculptor Lajos Gyori and funded by Hungary, was officially unveiled on March 28. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement As the leader of anti-Habsburg uprisings, he fought for freedom of religion, Kezmarok Museum Director Erika Cintulova said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Historians characterise him as a man who managed to save the Lutheran Church in the most difficult times of its history, she added. For instance, Protestants could build schools and articular churches following the initial success of the rebellions against the then ruling Habsburg monarchy, who were Catholic, in 1681. Listen to the Spectacular Slovakia podcast: Listen to the Spectacular Slovakia podcast: What do Slovakia and Scandinavia have in common? Read more Two years later, Thokoly was exiled to the Ottoman Empire, todays Turkey, after one of his last rebellions against the Habsburg monarch Leopold I was crushed near Vienna. He died in the Turkish city of Izmit. Born and buried in Kezmarok His remains were moved to Kezmarok from Turkey in 1906 and today are buried in the New Evangelical Church in the Slovak town. The former earl was born at Kezmarok Castle in 1657. His family owned the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries and rebuilt it into a luxurious aristocratic residence. Emeric and his father were contradictory personalities. There were constant disagreements between local people and the owners of the castle, but the castle thrived during their time, Cintulova said. From next spring, more people will strip down and rest up in eastern Slovakia Read more The story of the aristocratic family is told in a special display in one of the castle's towers. Unfazed by U.S. sanctions and smear campaign, Xinjiang farmers more enthusiastic about cotton farming 08:03, April 18, 2022 By Sun Zhennan, Gao Han, Zhao Ge ( Xinhua * In defiance of economic bullying and vehement defamation by the United States against Xinjiang cotton, farmers there continue cultivating this crop and sowing the seeds for better lives across the region. * There will be 37.57 million mu of cotton plantation areas in Xinjiang in 2022, increasing 2 percent compared to 2021. * Cotton sowing is nearly 100 percent mechanized in Xinjiang. In terms of harvesting, machines accounted for over 80 percent of all the work in the region in 2021. Aerial photo taken on April 16, 2022 shows a tractor working in a cotton field in Daquan of Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) URUMQI, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The rumbling of tractors busy in the field on both sides of the Tianshan Mountains signals that cotton sowing is in full swing in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China. Jumay Hasan, of Uygur ethnicity, has planted cotton in Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture, for eight years. This year he plans to expand his plantation by 10 mu, meaning he will plant 130 mu (about 8.7 hectares) of cotton. "I earned 2,000 yuan (about 314 U.S. dollars) in profit from each mu last year," he said. "If things go well, I can get at least 20,000 yuan more this year." Jumay Hasan is just one of the countless farmers in the region who, in defiance of economic bullying and vehement defamation by the United States against Xinjiang cotton, continue cultivating this crop and sowing the seeds for better lives across the region. Tractors plow in a cotton field in Shiqiao Township of Usu City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 31, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge) UNFAZED AND CONFIDENT Despite U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang's cotton, Jumay Hasan is confident, and for a good reason. Shaya's high-quality cotton has an excellent reputation, earning it the accolade of the "hometown of cotton in China's Tarim Basin." Jumay Hasan's buoyancy on the crop is not isolated. Another Uygur farmer, Imin Anayet, who is also from Shaya, makes 2.5 million yuan a year from planting cotton. He also runs a farmers' cooperative, with 10,000 mu of contracted land, providing jobs for over 230 local farmers. According to estimates from the China Cotton Association, there will be 37.57 million mu of cotton plantation areas in Xinjiang in 2022, increasing 2 percent compared to 2021. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that cotton output in Xinjiang topped 5.1 million tonnes last year, accounting for 89.5 percent of the country's total cotton output. Moreover, the region has ranked first in China for more than 20 years in total cotton output, per-unit yield, planting area, and commodity allocation. "Xinjiang has unique natural conditions, abundant sunshine, and a long cotton growth cycle. It is not only the largest high-quality cotton production base in China but also globally significant," said Peng Changming, vice president of Xinjiang Cotton Association. An autopilot tractor works in a cotton field in Sangongdian Village of Ulan Usu Township in Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 16, 2022. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) ALL MACHINES, NO FORCED LABOR Regarding the groundless accusations from the United States, such as "forced labor," Jumay Hasan said, "How could it be possible? From plowing to harrowing, sowing to harvesting, it is nearly all done by machines." This year, he completed all his field work of sowing within five days, an impossible achievement had these tasks been completed manually. Abdugani Abdukeyum, a Uygur farmer in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, said, "We use a seeding machine guided by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to sow, which works precisely and efficiently." According to a report released by the Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance of Jinan University last year, cotton sowing is nearly 100 percent mechanized in Xinjiang. Moreover, in terms of harvesting, machines accounted for over 80 percent of all the work in the region in 2021, said the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Xinjiang. Muhtar Rohman, a Uygur agricultural machinery operator in Shaya, has witnessed the cotton industry's transformation from manual to mechanical firsthand. "I watched my parents toil on the field when I was young, and I remember wishing 'if only I had a machine to help them'," he said. In April 2021, he finally made his dream come true. Using the new cotton-picking machine, he helps farmers with their harvesting and now earns more than 100,000 yuan a year. Photo taken on April 16, 2022 shows a navigational autopilot equipment in a cotton field in Daquan of Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) COTTON BRINGS HAPPINESS The high mechanization rate has been propelled by the acceleration of large-scale cotton production regionally, which in turn has been driven by the expansion of farmers' cooperatives. By the end of 2019, Xinjiang was home to 26,424 farmers' cooperatives. According to the region's department of agriculture and rural affairs, on average, 2,000 new cooperatives were established every year from 2010 to 2019. Yelikat Kalimukan, a Kazak cotton farmer in Shiqiao Township, Usu City, said that the cooperative in his town helped him cut costs. "Our cooperative provides free high-quality seeds and affordable agricultural materials, helping us save around 80 to 100 yuan on each mu. This helps increase earnings for us small households," Yelikat Kalimukan said. Since joining a cooperative in 2020, Jumay Hasan says the technical expertise and mechanical services have paid off in dividends. "Last year, the yield per mu of our cooperative was 410 kilograms, and I earned 240,000 yuan totally," Jumay Hasan said. "Cotton brings us fortune and happiness!" (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke and his attorney Daniel Herbert leave the courtroom after Van Dyke's sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Federal prosecutors will not bring a case against the former Chicago cop who killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, U.S. Attorney John Lauschs office announced Monday. Jason Van Dyke has already been tried and convicted in Cook County court for McDonalds death, and federal law sets an extraordinarily high bar to prove criminal civil-rights violations in such a case more stringent than the state charges on which Mr. Van Dyke was convicted, according to a statement from Lauschs office. Advertisement Federal prosecutors would need to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Van Dyke willfully deprived Mr. McDonald of a constitutional right, the statement read. To do that, prosecutors would have to prove not only that Mr. Van Dyke acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids, but also that his actions were not the result of mistake, fear, negligence, or bad judgment. The decision not to bring federal charges was made in consultation with McDonalds family, according to the statement. Advertisement It is rare for federal authorities to announce that they have declined to charge someone. But in the wake of Van Dykes release from prison after a relatively short sentence, high-profile figures such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the head of the NAACP had called on the Department of Justice to consider bringing a case that could put him back behind bars. Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated battery by a Cook County jury in 2018; he spent a little more than three years behind bars for McDonalds death before his release in February. The 2014 shooting, captured on police video, sent shock waves from neighborhood streets to the mayors office at City Hall when footage was released more than a year later. Van Dyke withdrew his appeal of the Cook County conviction in fall 2020, so authorities decision not to charge on the federal level likely marks the end of his legal journey. The investigation into Van Dykes conduct was launched as a joint probe between state and federal authorities in April 2015. Then-Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarezs office charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder in state court in November of that year, while the federal investigation remained ongoing. Federal prosecutors could not simply charge Van Dyke with murder again, the statement from federal prosecutors noted. Rather, they would have to prove that he willfully violated McDonalds constitutional rights. Lauschs office stated Monday that if Van Dyke were convicted on federal charges, the federal judge would have to consider that Van Dyke had already served a prison sentence, and that he can no longer serve as a law enforcement officer. Given these factors, there is a significant prospect that a second prosecution would diminish the important results already achieved, the statement read. Van Dykes release from prison in February after less than four years in custody prompted many calls for federal prosecutors to charge him with civil-rights violations, or at least provide some closure regarding the federal probe that was launched after McDonalds shooting. Advertisement On Twitter, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said it would continue to apply pressure on John Lausch, the DOJ, and all the powers that be, until Jason Van Dyke is indicted. (Van Dyke) walking free sends a message to all those who struggle against police violence that this system is not concerned with true justice, the group wrote. The week of Van Dykes release, protesters including Jackson as well as McDonalds grandmother, Tracie Hunter, crowded near Federal Plaza downtown in a demonstration calling for Van Dyke to face federal charges. Several people who protested inside the courthouse were taken into custody and charged with misdemeanor civil contempt for violating the chief judges order governing demonstrations at Dirksen. Protesters call for federal civil rights charges during a rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago after former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was released from prison on Feb. 3, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) However, McDonalds great-uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, said that while he believes Van Dykes sentence was legally improper, most of the family does not support the effort to bring Van Dyke up on new charges. My hope is that Jason Van Dyke went to jail and was rehabilitated, he told the Tribune in an interview earlier this year. I hope he becomes a better man. If he gets 1,000 more years its not going to bring Laquan back, so we would be better served as a country and as a people if he became better. Our family, were not victims, and were not going to live our life as victims. We want to be better and not bitter. Advertisement The president of the national chapter of the NAACP sent a letter in February to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland saying the lack of resolution in the federal case, coupled with Van Dykes pending release, was clearly alarming to the Black community. We trust that you find the matters alarming as well and join with us in our call for closure of that federal grand jury investigation, wrote NAACP President Derrick Johnson. He also asked for Garlands commitment in moving forward with appropriate and applicable federal charges based on the evidence. Hours later, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth penned a letter of their own noting that the state conviction does not preclude the filing of federal charges, citing the recent cases against ex-Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged in both jurisdictions with the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. We urge the Justice Department to carefully and expeditiously complete its investigation, the senators letter concluded. Some of the calls for Van Dyke to be charged again came in reaction to his release after a relatively lenient sentence. Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan gave him 81 months in prison, but inmates can earn day-for-day credit for good behavior on many felony convictions, including second-degree murder, meaning Van Dyke only had to serve about half his sentence. Gaughan chose to sentence Van Dyke on the second-degree murder conviction not the aggravated battery counts meaning Van Dyke faced a lower sentencing range. Advertisement An effort by Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon and Attorney General Kwame Raoul to have the states highest court reconsider the sentence was ultimately unsuccessful. The states highest court declined to hear the petition by a 4-2 vote. The two dissenting judges both noted that Gaughan made his ruling relying on a dissenting opinion that stated the exact opposite of the majority, and the majority opinion is the law of the land. McDonalds killing, like many prior shootings by Chicago police, barely made news when it happened. But when gruesome dashcam video of the shooting was ordered released more than a year later, it sparked a firestorm of protests, prompted the firing of police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and allegations of a City Hall cover-up by Mayor Rahm Emanuels administration. Van Dyke became the first Chicago police officer to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting in half a century, and the fallout continued. A team of special prosecutors led by then-Kane County States Attorney Joseph McMahon was appointed to handle the Van Dyke case. And then-States Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her primary bid to Kim Foxx, who ran on a platform heavily criticizing Alvarezs handling of the McDonald shooting. mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com pfry@chicagotribune.com Advertisement jmeisner@chicagotribune.com The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a St. Louis-based natural gas companys appeal of a lower courts decision that could close a pipeline that runs through parts of Illinois and Missouri. The court rejected Spire Inc.s appeal without comment. Spire President Scott Smith pledged to continue fighting to keep the 65-mile (105-kilometer) pipeline up and running. Advertisement The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted approval for the pipeline in 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019. The Spire STL Pipeline connects with another pipeline in western Illinois and carries natural gas to the St. Louis region, where Spire serves around 650,000 customers. The Environmental Defense Fund sued in 2020, raising concerns that the pipeline was approved without adequate review. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that FERC had not adequately demonstrated a need for the project, vacating approval of the pipeline. Advertisement EDF attorney Erin Murphy said in a statement Monday that the lower court ruling found serious flaws in FERCs approval, including failing to assess the harms to ratepayers and landowners. As the case played out in court, FERC last year issued a temporary certificate allowing the pipeline to remain operational. The temporary order continues to stand while the agency considers Spires appeal to FERC seeking new approval of the pipeline. We are confident that when people have an opportunity to review the proven benefits of the STL Pipeline, they will agree that there is a critical need to keep this infrastructure fully operational to ensure continued access to reliable, affordable energy for families and businesses in the greater St. Louis region, Smith said in a statement. U.S. Homeland Security and Virginia Trucking Association are partnering with Virginia State Police to conduct Operation Safe Passage, a high-visibility, human trafficking prevention and public outreach initiative April 18-20. Motor Carrier Safety Troopers will be positioned this week at various truck stops, motor carrier service centers and rest areas across the Commonwealth to engage with drivers and to distribute educational materials to raise awareness about human trafficking, according to a release from VSP spokeswoman Corrine Geller. I am extremely pleased to see the Virginia State Police taking an aggressive and active stance towards addressing what has become a global pandemic, said said Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Bob Mosier in a statement. Virginia has no tolerance for the exploitation of any human being, and is committed to apprehending, prosecuting and bringing to justice anyone associated with this crime. With tens of thousands of commercial trucks and buses traveling through and across Virginia on any given day, this statewide initiative has extensive, life-saving potential, added Col. Gary T. Settle, Virginia State Police Superintendent. Commercial drivers can be our added eyes and ears when it comes to identifying the common indicators of human trafficking victims and perpetrators, he said. This campaign is about putting an end to a very serious crime that intentionally preys on vulnerable adult and juvenile populations. Homeland Security arrested 2,360 individuals nationwide in connection with human trafficking in FY21. From those cases, more than 720 trafficking victims were identified. According to Polaris, there were 179 reported cases of trafficking and 77 traffickers identified in Virginia in 2019, the release stated. HSI Washington, D.C. stands firmly behind our partners at the Virginia State Police as we engage in Operation Safe Passage, said Special Agent in Charge Ray Villanueva. Truck drivers are uniquely positioned to recognize potential victims of this crime and properly alert law enforcement when they witness suspicious activity, said Dale Bennett, President and CEO of the Virginia Trucking Association. They are family men and women, whose own children could be targeted for trafficking, so theyre able to talk to their peers and spread the message about human trafficking awareness. The trucking industry has a duty to help solve this problem, and we are committed to saving lives and protecting the communities we serve, he said. Anyone who suspects human trafficking is encouraged to report it by dialing #77 on a cell phone to reach the nearest VSP Emergency Dispatch Center or to call 911. Red-light cameras at Illinois 83 and 22nd Street which is in Oakbrook Terrace and Oak Brook in 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune) A longtime police officer-turned-mayor has become the latest suburban politician to be indicted on charges he accepted cash to allow red-light cameras into his town. Two years after resigning from office amid revelations of the federal investigation, Anthony Tony Ragucci was charged with wire and tax fraud in a case made public Monday. Prosecutors accused Ragucci of accepting thousand of dollars after the state in 2017 let his suburb, Oakbrook Terrace, put red-light cameras at a busy, but arguably safe corner outside a west suburban mall. Advertisement Former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci (City of Oakbrook Terrace) According to federal prosecutors, the year before the cameras became operational, Ragucci was paid off as part of a scheme in which the red-light camera firm paid a 14% commission on revenue generated on the cameras to another firm it had hired as a sales consultant to get village business. That consulting firms officials then paid a portion of the commission to Ragucci, first $3,500 a month, then an amount based on how much cash the cameras generated, prosecutors alleged. The then-mayor also directly accepted $12,500 cash from an official of the red-light camera firm as contracts were renewed, unaware that the official was secretly working with federal investigators on a wide-ranging corruption probe, prosecutors alleged. Advertisement Defendants who are charged by information rather than grand jury indictment typically intend to plead guilty. Ragucci could not immediately be reached for comment. The alleged payments were being made at a time the Tribune was investigating how Ragucci and red-light camera firm SafeSpeed were able to get cameras installed at the busy but relatively safe intersection of Illinois 83 at 22nd Street, a corner shared by Oakbrook Terrace and neighbor Oak Brook. Red-light cameras at the intersection of Illinois 83 and 22nd Street in 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) Oak Brook officials fought the cameras, saying the corner didnt need them, and the Illinois Department of Transportation had the final call because the cameras would be put on a state route. IDOT had previously deemed the corner too safe for cameras, then there were even fewer crashes, yet somehow IDOT reversed course to allow the cameras. That reversal came after the then-powerful Senate Transportation Committee, Martin Sandoval, intervened on SafeSpeeds behalf, as did another state senator, Tom Cullerton. The Tribune has previously reported that, before dying of COVID-19 in 2020, Sandoval admitted to accepted bribes from the SafeSpeed official, Omar Maani, who at the time was secretly working with federal investigators. Cullerton later admitted to taking part in a ghost payroll scheme and awaits sentencing. Ragucci had been a police officer in Oakbrook Terrace for 25 years before being elected mayor in 2009 and reelected twice, as he touted in an online biography that his quarter century with a badge prepped him for life as an Illinois mayor: There are few experiences better than law enforcement for learning about politics, the issues, the local businesses and what needs to be done. The charges against Ragucci came the same month that federal prosecutors pushed for a two-year sentence for former Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta, who admitted to taking a cash-stuffed envelope from Maani in exchange for Prestas support of lucrative SafeSpeed cameras there. SafeSpeed and its CEO, Nikki Zollar, have denied any wrongdoing, saying that any bribes offered by Maani occurred without the companys knowledge. Advertisement Court records did not list an attorney for Ragucci. A lawyer who had been representing him told the Tribune he no longer did. jmahr@chicagotribune.com Local dancers are ready to throw off their facemasks and throw down on the dance floor. Now that Covid restrictions have been scaled back, ballroom dancing has returned to Wytheville. And in the coming weeks, dancers will have several opportunities to swing, waltz and sashay. First, theres the April 22 Djoukil jazz and swing fundraiser for the Wytheville Department of Museums. Then, on June 25, Wythevilles Ballroom Dance returns after a two-year break at the Heritage Preservation Center. And at Formato Fine Arts on Main Street, you can take ballroom/swing classes every Wednesday from longtime dance teacher Nellie Groseclose. Groseclose first took lessons 28 years ago in Florida. Since then, the retired nurse has danced in Bristol, Roanoke and even overseas. Shes danced the Argentine Tango in Argentina. For 25 years, she has taught in the area, including Wytheville and Marion. Groseclose started a Wytheville chapter of the American Ballroom Dancers Association that was active until about six years ago. She said there are two types of ballroom dancing. The kind you see on television on Dancing with the Stars is more international and more competitive. Groseclose teaches a more social style of dancing. What I teach, you can dance anywhere, you can go to California or anywhere where anyone teaches ballroom dance and its the same steps, she said. At Formato Fine Arts, she teaches every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and concentrates on one dance per month. This month, its East Coast Swing. Its been my passion for the past 25 years to learn as much as I could and pass it onto other people, she said. Plus, I enjoy dancing. Id rather do it than anything. Jessica Thomas of Wytheville is taking lessons at the art gallery. I love to dance, she said. I love music; I like moving. I like to dance in general and in my bedroom when no one is looking. I love to watch swing dancing, but dont know much about it. Im excited to learn. Groseclose lives in Marion, where she also teaches small groups and private lessons in her home. She said its gratifying to see beginning dancers learn steps to a dance. Dancing is hard. Its like learning a foreign language, but one you get into it, it gets better. Its good to see how good they feel about themselves as they learn, she said. Its great to see how people feel about themselves. To be able to go out every weekend and go out dancing is a great thing. Wytheville resident Pam Umberger agrees. She took lessons from Groseclose two decades ago and is still dancing. She hosts the monthly ballroom dances at the Preservation Center. I had a couple of friends who did ballroom dancing, and I always wanted to dance more, she said. Nellie was offering dance lessons through the rec center. I signed up for beginning ballroom dance lessons. That was 20 years ago. Since I was a little kid, I just love dancing. Umbergers favorite dance is West Coast Swing because of its many variations. I also like the Samba; I like the way the movement feels, she said. At local dances, attendees dont have to worry if they dont have a partner because everybody dances with everybody, Umberger said. Especially the Wytheville dance. Its a very single-friendly dance. Umbergers first exposure to ballroom dancing came when she was in middle school and took lessons from Mary Walters, who taught ballroom dancing in the area for nearly 40 years. Walters, her daughter and granddaughter have played a prominent role in teaching all types of ballroom dancing over the years. Walters first took dance lessons at Jefferson High School in Roanoke. It was just a six-week course, but it ignited in her a passion to learn more and share her knowledge with others. After graduation, Walters taught dance at Powells Studio in Roanoke and eventually married and moved to Wytheville. More than 65 years ago, around 1955, she began to teach ballroom dancing to high school children in the basement of her home on North Sixth Street. I always said that more people had fun in our basement than any other place in Wytheville, said Walters daughter Naomi King, who grew up to also teach ballroom dancing, as did her daughter, Teresa Campbell. I have met so many people who say she (Walters) taught them to dance in her basement, Campbell said. King estimated that over the years there were maybe one or two people her mother couldnt teach to dance. But they all had fun, she said. The majority of people who learned to dance then learned from my mom, King said, adding that her mother taught throughout the region until April 1991. She died less than six months later in September 1991. She always said it (dancing) was the best medicine, King said, adding that she loved teaching her own classes. Her favorite dance is the waltz because of its grace and elegance. To go dancing on Friday night was a great way to relieve stress and play on the weekend, she said. King said she likes to start out teaching students either the foxtrot or East Coast Swing because they are danced to music in 4/4 time. Most music is in 4/4 time so you can do the foxtrot to it; its a versatile dance. If you learn those two dances, you can dance to 85 percent of music, she said. Waltz with its 3/4 time is a little harder to learn. Campbell grew up watching her mother teach and attending the Friday night dances that were held at places like the George Wythe Hotel (now the Bolling Wilson Hotel) ballroom. She followed in the fancy footsteps of her grandmother and mother and taught classes, too. I think its almost a form of communication, Campbell said. You have to communicate with your partner and listen. Its a challenge to dance with different people, to lead and to follow. King said dancing is a fun and creative way to exercise. The mother/daughter duo said they are considering teaching again, now that Covid restrictions are lessening and people are ready to have some fun. According to King, its usually the females you talk their husbands, boyfriends and friend into taking lessons, but after a few lessons, its the men who want to keep learning more. They are the ones who bring their wives back, she said. Here is some information on upcoming dances and classes: The April 22 Djoukil concert is a fundraiser for the Town of Wytheville Department of Museums (heritage and music education help with supplies for educational programming and Junior Appalachian Musicians program) and the Wythe County Historical Society and its campaign to renovate the former Spiller Elementary School. The WCHS plans to renovate the historic facility to provide educational and cultural opportunities for Wythe County residents. To reserve tickets for a night of jazz and swing with Djoukil from Lyon, France, call 276-223-3330. The concert is Friday, April 22, at 7 p.m. in the Wytheville Meeting Center Ballroom. Tickets are $50 and include hors d'oeurves, desserts and drinks. Beer and wine will also be available for purchase. Ballroom dancing returns to the Wytheville Preservation Center on Saturday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m. The center is located at 110 W. Spiller St. Music by Craig & Tammy Collins. A singles-friendly dance. Facemasks are optional. For information, call Pam Umberger at 276-228-5817. Nellie Groseclose teaches ballroom dancing at Formato Fine Arts, 100 W. Main St., on Wednesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. Cost is $10 per person per lesson. For information, visit Formato Fine Arts on Facebook or online at www.formatoart.com. To reach reporter Millie Rothrock, call 276-228-6611, ext. 573, or email mrothrock@wythenews.com. Twitter Inc. adopted a measure that would shield it from hostile acquisition bids, taking steps to thwart billionaire Elon Musks unwelcome offer. Twitter Inc. adopted a measure that would shield it from hostile acquisition bids, taking steps to thwart billionaire Elon Musks unwelcome offer to take the company private and attempt to make it a bastion of free speech. The board set up a shareholder rights plan, exercisable if a party acquires 15% of the stock without prior approval, lasting for one year only. The plan seeks to ensure that anyone taking control of the social media company through open market accumulation pays all shareholders an appropriate control premium, according to a statement Friday. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: Twitter enacted the plan to buy time, according to a person familiar with the matter. The board, which met Thursday to review the bid, wants to be able to analyze and negotiate any deal, and may still accept it. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer on Thursday offered $54.20 a share in cash for Twitter, valuing the company at $43 billion. Musk, who said it was his best and final offer, had already accrued a stake of more than 9% in Twitter since earlier this year. In addition to Musks offer, Twitter has been fielding takeover interest from other parties, including technology-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo, Bloomberg reported earlier Friday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are advising Twitter. A poison pill defense strategy allows existing shareholders the right to purchase additional shares at a discount, effectively diluting the ownership interest of the hostile party. Poison pills are common among companies under fire from activist investors or in hostile takeover situations. Under Twitters plan, each right will entitle its holder to purchase, at the then-current exercise price, additional shares of common stock having a then-current market value of twice the exercise price of the right. Musk didnt address the issue of the poison pill on Friday, but thanked the 73% of people in an online Twitter poll who showed their support for his takeover plan, and mulled that removing the character limit on tweets was long overdue. Love It Included in Musks securities filing disclosing the bid Thursday morning was a script of text he sent to the company. In it he said, its a high price and your shareholders will love it. At least one prominent investor, though, said the offer was too low and the market reaction appeared to agree. Saudi Arabias Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said the deal doesnt come close to the intrinsic value of the popular social media platform. Speaking later Thursday at a TED conference, Musk said he wasnt sure he will actually be able to acquire it. He added that his intent was to also retain as many shareholders as is allowed by the law, rather than keeping sole ownership of the company himself. Twitter shares dropped 1.7% in New York on Thursday, reflecting the markets view that the deal is likely to be rejected or to fall through. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the San Francisco-based company was considering a poison pill defense. Plan B Musk first disclosed his Twitter stake on April 4, making him the largest individual investor. At the TED conference, he indicated that he has a Plan B if Twitters board rejects his offer. He declined to elaborate. But in his filing earlier in the day, he said he would rethink his investment if the bid failed. If the deal doesnt work, given that I dont have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder, said Musk. Twitter, unlike Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., and other tech giants, doesnt have founders with majority voting control. That makes the company particularly vulnerable to activist investors and takeover interest. While its unclear what founder and board member Jack Dorsey thinks of Musks deal, he at least shares the opinion that Twitter might be better off private. As a public company, twitter has always been for sale. Dorsey tweeted. Thats the real issue. Allo Technology Sdn Bhd, an ICT service provider based in Cyberjaya and fully-owned by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has recently been awarded with the Broadband Telecom Company of the Year - Malaysia Award. The award was announced at the virtually held 2022 Asian Telecom Awards last month. As reported by national news agency Bernama, the award was in recognition for Allos responsive efforts in bridging the digital divide in Malaysia. Currently, Allo has provided fibre-optic passes to more than 180,000 home in Melaka, Perak, Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor. In case you're not familiar with the company, Allo provides a high-speed broadband service that supports the National Digital Network (Jendela) initiative by the federal government. The company bridges the digital and is targeting to have 7.5 million fibre-optic premise passes by year-end. Besides that, Allo is also providing broadband connectivity at an affordable rate by leveraging on TNBs fibre optic network in Peninsular Malaysia. Hence, it has helped to unlock opportunities for the underserved in suburban and rural communities. Speaking of which, Allo is working closely with multiple Retail Service Providers (RSPs) to provide High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) at a faster rate and better pricing in underserved areas. So far, it has formed strategic collaborations with Maxis, Astro, Digi, Celcom, U Mobile, Freshtel, and Redtone. What do you guys think of Allos achievements? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave for the latest tech news in Malaysia and beyond! Credit: CC0 Public Domain Imagine a future in which lonely people can interact with social bots, based on artificial intelligence (AI), to get the conversations and connection they crave. While it sounds intriguing, a small preliminary study suggests people may not be comfortable with AI companions that look and talk too much like real humans. "We think it may seem a little too creepy to have these embodied robots that act and look almost human," said Kelly Merrill Jr., lead author of the study and a doctoral student in communication at The Ohio State University. "People seemed to be more comfortable with AI companions that were voice-based, more like smartphones and smart speakers like Alexa or Siri." Merrill conducted the study with Jihyun Kim of the University of Central Florida and Chad Collins of St. Johns River State College. Their results were published recently in the journal Communication Research Reports. The researchers were interested in learning more about the role that the social presence and warmth of AI companions have on people's views of them. The study involved 106 college students who participated online. The students were only told the study was aimed at understanding their perceptions about technology. They watched a 5-minute clip that the researchers edited from an episode of the television show Black Mirror. While the focus of the actual episode ("Be Right Back") was somewhat different, the edited clip was designed to show a lonely woman, named Martha, talking to an AI companion named Ash. Some participants watched a clip in which Martha interacted with Ash only by voice. Others watched a clip in which Ash was represented as a realistic-looking robot that talked and interacted with Martha. After watching the clip, participants were asked whether they thought an AI companion like Ash would be useful to lonely people, and whether they would recommend Ash to lonely people. Participants rated Ash on social presence, which is how much he seemed like he was really with them. Ash was also rated on warmth, which was defined as the feeling of friendliness and intimacy. One hypothesis could be that people would like an AI companion that scored high on social presence, and that acted more like a human would, Merrill said. But in this study, that was only the case for the version of Ash that appeared just through voice. Participants who saw this version were more likely to recommend Ash as a companion if they rated it higher on social presence. But those who viewed Ash as an actual human-looking robot were not more likely to recommend Ash if they thought he had more social presence. The study didn't ask participants why, but the researchers believe it had to do with what scientists call the "uncanny valley." "People become uneasy when they see robots that come close to seeming human, but are slightly off," Merrill said. "In the clips, the actor playing the robot version of Ash did a good job of seeming slightly mechanistic and not quite human. It creeps people out, and that may be why more social presence in the embodied Ash didn't make people more likely to recommend the bot for lonely people." The study found that participants' views of how warm Ash seemedhis friendliness and intimacyhad no effect on whether they would recommend him to lonely people. That was true regardless of whether they viewed the robot version of Ash, or the voice version. "It may be that people think an AI companion for lonely people would be good for casual conversation, but should not be a replacement for a more intimate and deep friendship," Merrill said. Merrill noted that this was a preliminary investigation and much more work needs to be done on the interaction of social presence, warmth and AI companions. But this work suggests people right now prefer the familiar. "We already talk to disembodied AI through our smartphones and smart speakers, so we are used to that and comfortable with those kinds of interactions," he said. Explore further Could a virtual companion soothe social anxiety? More information: Kelly Merrill et al, AI companions for lonely individuals and the role of social presence, Communication Research Reports (2022). Kelly Merrill et al, AI companions for lonely individuals and the role of social presence,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/08824096.2022.2045929 Hypersonic missiles can change course to avoid detection and anti-missile defenses. Credit: U.S. Air Force Russia used a hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian arms depot in the western part of the country on March 18, 2022. That might sound scary, but the technology the Russians used is not particularly advanced. However, next-generation hypersonic missiles that Russia, China and the U.S. are developing do pose a significant threat to national and global security. I am an aerospace engineer who studies space and defense systems, including hypersonic systems. These new systems pose an important challenge due to their maneuverability all along their trajectory. Because their flight paths can change as they travel, these missiles must be tracked throughout their flight. A second important challenge stems from the fact that they operate in a different region of the atmosphere from other existing threats. The new hypersonic weapons fly much higher than slower subsonic missiles but much lower than intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. and its allies do not have good tracking coverage for this in-between region, nor does Russia or China. Destabilizing effect Russia has claimed that some of its hypersonic weapons can carry a nuclear warhead. This statement alone is a cause for concern whether or not it is true. If Russia ever operates this system against an enemy, that country would have to decide the probability of the weapon being conventional or nuclear. In the case of the U.S., if the determination were made that the weapon was nuclear, then there is a very high likelihood that the U.S. would consider this a first strike attack and respond by unloading its nuclear weapons on Russia. The hypersonic speed of these weapons increases the precariousness of the situation because the time for any last-minute diplomatic resolution would be severely reduced. It is the destabilizing influence that modern hypersonic missiles represent that is perhaps the greatest risk they pose. I believe the U.S. and its allies should rapidly field their own hypersonic weapons to bring other nations such as Russia and China to the negotiating table to develop a diplomatic approach to managing these weapons. How hypersonic missiles threaten to upend the relative stability of the current era of nuclear weapons. What is hypersonic? Describing a vehicle as hypersonic means that it flies much faster than the speed of sound, which is 761 miles per hour (1,225 kilometers per hour) at sea level and 663 mph (1,067 kph) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) where passenger jets fly. Passenger jets travel at just under 600 mph (966 kph), whereas hypersonic systems operate at speeds of 3,500 mph (5,633 kph)about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) per secondand higher. Hypersonic systems have been in use for decades. When John Glenn came back to Earth in 1962 from the first U.S. crewed flight around the Earth, his capsule entered the atmosphere at hypersonic speed. All of the intercontinental ballistic missiles in the world's nuclear arsenals are hypersonic, reaching about 15,000 mph (24,140 kph), or about 4 miles (6.4 km) per second at their maximum velocity. ICBMs are launched on large rockets and then fly on a predictable trajectory that takes them out of the atmosphere into space and then back into the atmosphere again. The new generation of hypersonic missiles fly very fast, but not as fast as ICBMs. They are launched on smaller rockets that keep them within the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Hypersonic missiles are not as fast as intercontinental ballistic missiles but are able to vary their trajectories. Credit: U.S. Government Accounting Office Three types of hypersonic missiles There are three different types of non-ICBM hypersonic weapons: aero-ballistic, glide vehicles and cruise missiles. A hypersonic aero-ballistic system is dropped from an aircraft, accelerated to hypersonic speed using a rocket and then follows a ballistic, meaning unpowered, trajectory. The system Russian forces used to attack Ukraine, the Kinzhal, is an aero-ballistic missile. The technology has been around since about 1980. A hypersonic glide vehicle is boosted on a rocket to high altitude and then glides to its target, maneuvering along the way. Examples of hypersonic glide vehicles include China's Dongfeng-17, Russia's Avangard and the U.S. Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike system. U.S. officials have expressed concern that China's hypersonic glide vehicle technology is further advanced than the U.S. system. A hypersonic cruise missile is boosted by a rocket to hypersonic speed and then uses an air-breathing engine called a scramjet to sustain that speed. Because they ingest air into their engines, hypersonic cruise missiles require smaller launch rockets than hypersonic glide vehicles, which means they can cost less and be launched from more places. Hypersonic cruise missiles are under development by China and the U.S. The U.S. reportedly conducted a test flight of a scramjet hypersonic missile in March 2020. Credit: The Conversation Difficult to defend against The primary reason nations are developing these next-generation hypersonic weapons is how difficult they are to defend against due to their speed, maneuverability and flight path. The U.S. is starting to develop a layered approach to defending against hypersonic weapons that includes a constellation of sensors in space and close cooperation with key allies. This approach is likely to be very expensive and take many years to implement. With all of this activity on hypersonic weapons and defending against them, it is important to assess the threat they pose to national security. Hypersonic missiles with conventional, non-nuclear warheads are primarily useful against high-value targets, such as an aircraft carrier. Being able to take out such a target could have a significant impact on the outcome of a major conflict. However, hypersonic missiles are expensive and therefore not likely to be produced in large quantities. As seen in the recent use by Russia, hypersonic weapons are not necessarily a silver bullet that ends a conflict. Explore further Hypersonic missiles are fuelling fears of a new superpower arms race This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. A phase map of an agglomerated particle in a common lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery electrode shows the charge distribution as it goes from 4% to 86%. FP refers to iron phosphate. Rice University scientists found that the FP phase spreads nonuniformly on an aggregate surface upon charging, rather than the expected even spread of lithium over the surface. The scale bar is 10 microns. Credit: Mesoscale Materials Science Group/Rice University If you could shrink enough for a fantastic voyage across a lithium battery electrode, you'd see the level of charge at every scale is highly uneven. This is not good for the battery's health. Rice University researchers who recognize the problem worked with the Department of Energy to view in great detail how the various particles in an electrode interact with lithium during use. Specifically, the Rice lab of materials scientist Ming Tang analyzed nano- and micro-scale interactions within lithium iron phosphate cathodes through modeling and imaging offered by the transmission X-ray microscopy capabilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. Their paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Energy Letters supports theories Tang and his colleagues formed several years ago that foresaw how lithium travels in the dynamic environment inside a typical commercial cathode. Being able to watch sealed cathodes charge and discharge at Brookhaven offered absolute proof. "Batteries have a lot of particle aggregates that soak up and give up lithium, and we wanted to know what happens on their surfaces, how uniform the reaction is," said Tang, an associate professor of materials science and nanoengineering. "In general, we always want a more uniform reaction so we can charge the battery faster." A study by Rice University materials scientists suggests that lithium batteries would benefit from more porous secondary (agglomerated) particles with better-aligned crystallites that don't limit lithium distribution. The scientists studied 3D transmission X-ray images of cycled battery electrodes to analyze the phase change between lithium iron phosphate (blue) and iron phosphate (red) on the surface of particle agglomerates that make up the electrodes. Credit: Mesoscale Materials Science Group/Rice University In images taken at Brookhaven's powerful X-ray synchrotron, the researchers saw that some regions inside the cathode were better at absorption than others. The ability to look at single or aggregated particles in 3D showed that rather than reacting over their entire surfaces, lithium favored particular regions over others. "This is very different from conventional wisdom," Tang said. "The most interesting observation is that these reaction regions are shaped like one-dimensional filaments lying across the surface of these aggregated particles. It was kind of weird, but it matched what we saw in our models." Tang said the lithium filaments looked something like thick nanotubes and were several hundred nanometers wide and several microns long. Animated GIFs of a phase-mapped secondary (aggregated) particle in a lithium iron phosphate cathode. Credit: Mesoscale Materials Science Group/Rice University He said stress between misaligned crystallites in the particle agglomerates prevents lithium from being uniformly inserted into or extracted from the aggregate surface because that will generate too large an energy penalty. Instead, lithium is forced to flow into or out of the aggregates at "hot spots" that develop the filament shape. What does this mean for battery performance? "This is a bad thing," Tang said. "Because the lithium can't go into the cathode uniformly, it slows down the intercalation mechanics. "What our study offers is some potential ways to help make lithium insertion or extraction more uniform on these aggregates or individual particles," he said. "Introducing some porosity in the particle agglomerates might sacrifice some energy density, but at the same time would allow lithium to go in more uniformly. That could allow you to get more energy at a given charge/discharge rate. Animated GIF of a phase-mapped secondary (aggregated) particle in a lithium iron phosphate cathode. Credit: Mesoscale Materials Science Group/Rice University "Another thought is if we can somehow align the orientation of these small particles so their maximum expansion is perpendicular to each other, they'll better accommodate lithium intercalation," he said. That would be a challenge for battery manufacturers, he admitted. "We don't have enough experience in synthesis to know how to make that happen," Tang said. "What we're providing is bait. Let's see if somebody bites." Rice graduate alumni Fan Wang and Kaiqi Yang are co-lead authors of the paper. Co-authors are Mingyuan Ge, Jiajun Wang, Jun Wang, Xianghi Xiao and Wah-Keat Lee, all of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; and Linsen Li of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Explore further Not so fast: Some batteries can be pushed too far More information: Fan Wang et al, Reaction Heterogeneity in LiFePO4 Agglomerates and the Role of Intercalation-Induced Stress, ACS Energy Letters (2022). Fan Wang et al, Reaction Heterogeneity in LiFePO4 Agglomerates and the Role of Intercalation-Induced Stress,(2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00226 Kai Xiang et al, Mesoscopic Phase Transition Kinetics in Secondary Particles of Electrode-Active Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries, Chemistry of Materials (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b05407 Journal information: ACS Energy Letters , Chemistry of Materials Customers peruse the record bins at Purple Dog Records in downtown Naperville for Record Store Day in 2021. The annual celebration of the independently owned record shop will be held April 23 this year. (Purple Dog Records) The first time Erin Gavins store, Purple Dog Records, participated in Record Store Day, she wasnt sure what to expect. Advertisement It was 2015, and she had just opened her Naperville store in 2014. We didnt know what to expect from it, just because it was such a new idea, she said. It ended up being the best sales day. Advertisement It was just kind of overwhelmingly great because we had all these people in our little store that were wanting these Record Store Day releases, said Gavin, owner and business operations manager at Purple Dog. We were just kind of blown away by how big this event really is. Record Store Day is an annual celebration of the independently owned, brick and mortar record shop. Conceived 15 years ago by those in the industry as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally, according to the official Record Store Day website, recordstoreday.com. It was thought of as a way to get people to come back to records stores, said Gavin, who will open her store two hours early for Record Store Day this year. It was around that time when vinyl was still just sort of coming back and record stores were unfortunately becoming less and less. And so it was a bit of a way to celebrate the independent store. And it just grew and grew. Held every April, (with the exception of the last two years that saw plans modified in response to the pandemic) this years celebration will be held April 23. To mark the occasion, each year sees a number of special releases from artists, many of which are only available at the independent record stores. It could be previously unreleased material, remastered albums or a special/limited edition. Thats the really cool about Record Store Day is that we get to have it first, before any big box store we only get them first for this day and then they get released elsewhere, Gavin said. Sometimes maybe not ever. Its pretty cool to have that. I just feel it really helps out indie stores. In order to participate, shops have to sign the Record Store Day pledge, she said. It promises they will not accept any preorders from customers, theres no holding back product, you dont buy to sell on eBay and you dont price gouge, Gavin said. I think for the most part its been a helpful tool. Advertisement While stores can place an order for a particular release, there is no guarantee how many if any at all that store will receive. You dont always get everything you order, Gavin said. In past years shes handed out a list of Record Store Day releases Purple Dog did get to those waiting in line for the store to open. Its like giving them a menu, she said. That way if customers are looking for a particular release, they know if the shop received it or not. To make it fair for all of the customers, Gavin limits purchases of Record Store Day titles to one copy per person. Advertisement And unfortunately youre going to find people who will buy this product and try to flip it on eBay almost immediately, Gavin said. (But) I have had several times where Ive given a record to somebody and they were just so happy to get it. Gavin said she tends to order what she knows will sell to her customer base. This year shes been fielding a lot of inquiries about a special Record Store Day version of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers double album. The special version includes two LPs pressed on silver vinyl, an exclusive poster and the sleeve printed on silver board. We try to get as many of the releases as we can. Sometimes it is difficult, but its pretty cool, Gavin said. Its a really nice day for people to come out and just experience independently-owned shops. The following stores are participating in Record Store Day 2022, many of which have special hours for the day. Check with your local store for its opening/closing times. Antioch Reef Records, 775 Main St. Call 224-788-5066, reefrecordsllc.com. Barrington Scratched Vinyl (formerly Rainbow Records), 119 Barrington Commons Court. Call 847-304-0721, scratchedvinylbarrington.com. Advertisement Batavia Kiss The Sky Records, 180 First St. Call 630-406-0086, kissthesky.net. Des Plaines Algonquin Records, 532 E. Algonquin Road. Call 847-827-0673, algonquinrecords.com. Downers Grove Windy City Records, 5224 Main St. Call 630-534-2794, windycityrecords.org. Elgin Rediscover Records, 9 S. Spring St. Call 847-961-8445, rediscoverrecords.com. Evanston Squeezebox Books & Music, 743 Main St. Call 847-943-9309, squeezeboxbooks.com. Vintage Vinyl, 925 Davis St. Call 847-328-2899, vvmo.com. Advertisement Flossmoor Conservatory Vintage and Vinyl, 1042 Sterling Ave. Call 708-960-0231, conservatoryvintageandvinyl.com. Forest Park The Old School Records, 7446 W. Madison St. 708-366-7588, theoldschoolrecords.com. Joliet Audiophils Records, 17 E. Van Buren St. Call 815-319-2143, audiophilsrecords.com. J&B Music, 3512 Caton Farm Road. Call 815-212-2979, jandbmusic.com. Lakemoor Reef Records, 821 IL Route 20. Call 815-271-5463, reefrecordsllc.com. McHenry Siren Records, 3902 Main St. Call 815-347-8363, sirenrecordsmchenry.com. Advertisement Vinyl Frontier Records, 4720 W. Elm St. Call 815-363-8230, facebook.com/VinylFrontierRecords. Naperville Purple Dog Records, 231 S. Washington St. #105. Call 773-682-7725, purpledogrecordsonline.com. Norridge Rolling Stones Music, 7300 W. Irving Park Road, Norridge. Call 708-456-0861, rollingstonesmusic.com. Oak Park Oak Park Records, 179 S. Oak Park Ave. Call 708-524-2880, facebook.com/179Rockshop. Vals Halla Records, 239 Harrison St. Call 708-524-1004, valshallarecords.com. Plainfield Black Dog Vinyl Cafe, 16108 S. Route 59. Call 815-733-6032, blackdogvinylcafe.com/. Advertisement Left Round Records, 24404 W. Lockport St. Call 815-556-8109, leftroundrecords.com. Wheaton Mile Long Records, 350 W. Front St. Call 630-474-4954, milelongrecords.com. Wilmette Hip Cat Records, 3540 Lake Ave. Call 847-920-0066, facebook.com and search Hip Cat Records. Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. Students at Creek View Elementary School were treated to a surprise guest earlier this month when Miss Texas 2021 Mallory Fuller stopped by the College Station school to encourage the students to ask for help when they need it to help them achieve their goals. With the help of Henry, the title elephant of Fullers first childrens book, Henrys Happy Heart, she walked the students through the physical, academic and emotional struggles Henry encounters, helping them determine what they would do to overcome those obstacles. The program focused on lessons about the importance of relationships and finding the people who can help them with their struggles, including a nurse if they were sick, a teacher if they needed help with their homework and the school counselor if their heart was blue like Henrys. The five phrases she imparted to the students were: help is available; everybody has bad days; never give up; relationships matter and you can do it. With a volunteer for each letter spelling H-E-N-R-Y, Fuller told the students that Olivia Rich, the third grader selected to represent the Y, could achieve her dreams if she remembers to have good friends, that everyone has bad days, to never give up and to ask for help if she needs it. Rich said the advice will be helpful as she strives to reach her goal of becoming an artist. Creek View Principal Mike McEver said the message meshes well with what campus officials tell the students and with the culture they try to create at the school about the importance of relationships, achieving goals and recognizing that it is OK to not be perfect. I think life brings challenges, and that if we just give up at the first time we face an obstacle, then really we're selling ourselves short, he said. And the kids need to know that it's not expected of them to get it on their first try and that were here as a school, as a community, to really come alongside them and help them reach whatever they want to achieve. Fuller also played her fiddle, telling the students she did not sound great when she started learning how to play the instrument, but she practiced and continued playing and got better. McEver said he hopes that and the fact that it took Fuller 10 years to achieve her dream of being Miss Texas resonated with the students. They hear this same message from their parents, their teachers, from their counselor, from us as administrators, they hear this message, but having a special guest kind of come in and tie it to a special event really allows them to remember this for a long time, he said. As Miss Texas, Fuller said, her full-time job is traveling throughout the state to speak to students and community members about her platform of suicide prevention. The reason for Henrys Happy Heart is to teach children how to ask for help with their emotions, just as they would if they were feeling sick or needed help on a homework assignment. Its really mental health in a kid-friendly way, she said. I hope that the kids here at Creek View were able to kind of take away the fact that there is no problem that is too big to be worked through, and that there are people who want to help, people who care about them. In addition to the students at Creek View, the 2020 Texas A&M graduate took her program to Cypress Grove Intermediate School. Suicide prevention is an important cause to Fuller, she said, and is her social impact initiative as Miss Texas. I actually lost a friend to suicide when I was in high school, and it was something that was so shocking because I am from a smaller town I'm from Fairfield, Texas and we never talked about suicide, she said. We didnt talk about mental health. We didnt talk about any of those things, so it was so shocking because we didnt know what to look for before it happened. We didnt know any of the warning signs. It was that loss of her friend in 2013 that led her to partner with his family and The Jason Foundation to help pass the Jason Flatt Act in Texas, which requires teachers to receive training in suicide prevention annually instead of just once. She hopes every time she talks to someone about her platform that she can help somebody who might be struggling or knows someone who is. Fuller ended her presentation by asking the students if they will ask for help if they need it, which the students responded with a resounding yes She said she hopes the presentation plants a seed in the students minds that they can carry forward with them that there are people to turn to for help. Over the years, Fuller said, she has heard from teachers who said the program led to important conversations between them and their students. It's really important to me that I am able to talk about it in a way that appeals to kindergartners, but I can also talk to seniors in high school about it, she said. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe A Chicago man was sentenced Thursday to over a century in prison after he was convicted last month of killing a 14-year-old girl and leaving her body in a dirty and trashed Gary alley. Despite a tough life, Takaylah Tribitt, of Chicago, was a survivor, prosecutors said previously. Nicknamed Ladybug, she was a sweet little girl, her aunt, Monique Tribitt, said last month. Advertisement Deonlashawn Simmons, 36, was charged in November 2020 with her Sept. 16, 2019 death, five days after they met at a Chicago birthday party. She was found in Gary not far from where his family lived, court documents stated. A judge sentenced him Thursday to 105 years in Tribitts death. He received 65 years on a murder charge and 20 years each on separate habitual offender and firearms enhancements. Advertisement Simmons maintained his innocence and said he would appeal. It wasnt just a fight gone wrong, it was a child, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Doug Shaw said Thursday. Her death was an execution, he said, noting she was shot once in the front of the head as her hands were bound behind her back. At trial, lawyers said Tribitt was a runaway at times who bounced from place to place. That was irrelevant to how she died, Shaw said. A Lake County forensic pathologist estimated the girl died a couple days before she was found, her hands bound under a jacket and face down, court records show. She had been sexually assaulted, he said. There were no signs of a struggle or strangulation, he concluded. I forgive you, but Im not going to forgive what you did, her mother, Laura Tribitt, told Simmons. You took a child away from us. She was a baby. Advertisement Shaw asked for the maximum 105 years because thats all the law allows us, he told Judge Natalie Bokota. The circumstances surrounding Tribitts death were some of the cruelest he had seen, he said. Tribitt was a defenseless child, Shaw said. At trial, prosecutors said Tribitt was at a birthday party on Sept. 8, 2019, in Chicago where a woman arranged for Simmons to take the girl home. Police were called at 9:10 a.m. Sept. 16, 2019, to the alley near Pennsylvania Street and 20th Avenue in Gary after a NIPSCO worker found her body while tagging poles, charges state. When interviewed by detectives, Simmons said he knew Tribitt and had a big brother relationship with her. He said he gave her rides, bought her pizza and McDonalds and paid for her hair and nails, charges allege. He denied he had a sexual relationship with her and said he didnt know how old she was, but knew she was young, court documents state. Advertisement Simmons said he couldnt explain how she was found near his relatives house in Gary. He said he hadnt been to Indiana since he had a falling out with his father in December 2017. Detectives countered that his phone was also near Cline Avenue and Interstate 80/94 on Sept. 14, about 2.5 miles from where the girl was found, according to court records. Later, he told investigators he had been in Fort Wayne, before saying he was in the area soliciting a sex worker at a Gary truck stop. At trial, prosecutors said the story was a lie. Shaw said Thursday Simmons had a history of abusing women, noting a presentence report concluded he had 25 children and only knew the names of nine. Defense lawyer Michael Campbell said Tribitts death didnt have signs of torture, mutilation or strangulation like other cases with the worst offenders. Tribitts death, while deeply tragic, was not different from any other homicide, he said. Advertisement Simmons criminal history was not as completely violent as prosecutors made it out to be, Campbell said. He asked for a 56-year sentence with five years served on probation. Simmons offered his condolences to the teens family and told Bokota he would appeal. She ordered a public defender to be appointed. With Tribitts hands bound and another cord found around her neck, she was trussed like an animal, the judge told him. She was discarded like garbage, Bokota said, with her voice breaking slightly. As his sentence was read, Tribitts family started clapping loudly. Advertisement No. No. No, Bokota said, cutting them off, asking them to maintain the courts decorum. A Mount Vernon woman was found dead Wednesday as authorities responded to a vehicle fire in Washington County. Genevieve Barciszewski, 75, was pronounced dead at 2:21 p.m. on Wednesday in St. Michael Cemetery near Radom, according to the Washington County coroner. The Washington County Sheriffs Office was investigating a vehicle fire that had been called in by a neighbor at 1:19 p.m., police said. The Ashley Fire Department responded to and handled the vehicle fire. At the time Barciszewskis body was found, her identity was unknown. Through dental records, her identity was discovered. An autopsy was conducted in OFallon on Thursday, however, the cause of death is pending awaiting the results of further tests. The sheriffs office received assistance in the investigation from the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Investigations Unit, the Illinois State Fire Marshals Office and the Washington County Coroner. The investigation is in its preliminary stages and is ongoing. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Festival will showcase the unique sound of our heritage. Recognizing the rising popularity of traditional music, which has been winning a growing fan base among Chinese audiences, especially young people, the National Center for the Performing Arts has launched a festival, Spring of Traditional Chinese Music. The opening concert, held on April 8, saw a performance by the China National Traditional Orchestra led by three conductors, Liu Sha, Lyu Jia and Li Xincao. "For the first time, we performed with conductors who have never performed with traditional Chinese musicians," says Zhao Cong, president of China National Traditional Orchestra, who is also a veteran pipa player. "When we discussed that idea with the NCPA, we were all very excited." Liu is the principal conductor of the orchestra. Lyu is the artistic director of the NCPA Orchestra and Li is the principal conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra as well as the orchestra's president. Each of the conductors chose music pieces they would like to perform. A piece from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), titled The General's Order, was conducted by Liu, Cloudy Mountains and Glimpses of Geese, a contemporary piece written by Wang Danhong was conducted by Lyu, and The Silk Road, also a contemporary work, composed by Jiang Ying was conducted by Li. "The sounds of traditional Chinese musical instruments are very different from Western musical instruments, which were totally new to me. The music pieces are also new to me. The whole process of doing rehearsals was very challenging, and a very interesting experience that I never had before," says Lyu, a classically trained musician, who has been leading the NCPA Orchestra for 10 years. "Those musicians are very sensitive to the sounds of their musical instruments and they helped me understand the music works as well as their musical instruments." Like their names suggest, traditional Chinese music works are very poetic, conjuring up pictures such as mountains and clouds, Lyu says. It took him weeks to study the background information of each music work he was going to perform with the orchestra. Besides Cloudy Mountains and Glimpses of Geese, he also performed the second movement of Ode to the Sun composed by Wang and Moonlight over the Autumn River composed by Hao Weiya, both contemporary pieces. "I felt like being introduced into a new world of music, which is totally different from the world I have been living in for decades. All of those musical instruments, like percussions, pipa and erhu, are very versatile," says Lyu. Like Lyu, Li is also a classically trained musician and he felt nervous before doing rehearsals with the orchestra. "The difference between playing music works of traditional Chinese music and Western classical music is like reading sentences with two different tones," says Li. "It's also like communicating with two people with different personalities. But music is all about emotions and expression, which is mutual." Li also performed composer Zhao Jiping's music piece Guo Feng with the orchestra during the concert. Li mentions that conductor Liu was very supportive throughout the rehearsals. They were both trained by Chinese conductor Xu Xin. Back in 1994, Liu, then a middle school student living in Jinan, Shandong province, read an article about Li, who won the first prize at a national conducting competition, from a music magazine. At that time, Liu, who was introduced to music by his father, a flutist and composer of Shandong Liuzi Opera Troupe, dreamed of becoming a conductor. "That article inspired me to pursue my dream as a conductor and also introduced me to conductor Xu Xin," recalls Liu, who wrote a letter to Xu, expressing his wish to be a conductor. To his surprise, Xu replied and invited him to Beijing to meet him at the Central Conservatory of Music, where Xu worked. In 1997, Liu was enrolled to study conducting at the school and joined the China National Traditional Orchestra in 2002. "I also like Western music, and to explore the musical language and compositional techniques the composers used. But traditional Chinese music offers a bigger world to me. As a conductor, I could have much more, like using 'mother tongue'," says Liu. From April 8 to 28, the festival will also have 10 concerts featuring Chinese traditional music orchestras, including the China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra, the Beijing Chinese Orchestra, the Traditional Chamber Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music Concert and the National Traditional Orchestra Academia China. Conductors including Hong Yongyan and Chen Bing will be featured. During the festival's closing ceremony, which will be held on April 28, the audience will enjoy a concert Night of Pipa. The China National Traditional Orchestra will perform with famous pipa soloists, including Wu Yuxia, Zhao Cong, and Yang Jing, under the baton of conductor Liu. According to Wang Luli, deputy director of the NCPA's Program Management Department, the idea of launching the Spring of Traditional Chinese Music came from the NCPA's popular event the China Orchestra Festival, which has been held twice a year since 2008 and aims to showcase and promote symphony orchestras and Chinese music. Wang says that the Spring of Traditional Chinese Music will also be held twice a year and will invite more conductors of symphony orchestras to work with traditional Chinese music orchestras. "Nowadays, young people are drawn to traditional Chinese music thanks to the social media platforms, where many talented musicians showcase their traditional Chinese musical instruments. We've seen the trend and want to show them more about traditional Chinese music," says Zhao Cong, who is keen on promoting traditional Chinese music with creative approaches, such as livestreaming. "Though the musical instruments we play with are from ancient China, the sounds we make could be very pioneering, which deserve to be enjoyed by more people." A man incarcerated at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution died on Sunday, the state Department of Corrections confirmed. Daniel Lee Harris was 57 when he died in the Torrington prison, according to the department. Harris was serving a life sentence after being convicted of first-degree felony murder and attempted sexual assault in 1995 in Weston County. He had attempted to assault a woman in a pickup, and when she said no, he hit her, pushed her out of the vehicle and drove away, court documents show. She died of hypothermia. He was born in South Dakota. Harris' is the fourth death in Wyoming prisons this year, and the third at WMCI in the same time period. The department conducts autopsies on those who die while in its care, but does not release cause of death and other health information to the public. Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 0 Angry 1 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. One person died and two were injured when a car rolled along U.S. Highway 30 near Kemmerer early Sunday morning, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reported. The car's driver, 20-year-old Braxton Gusman of Wisconsin, died after being thrown from the vehicle. The crash occurred about 5:20 a.m. Sunday while Gusman was driving a Chrysler 200 east on U.S. 30. The car crossed into the westbound lane and onto the shoulder, where it struck a post. Gusman turned back to the right, then overcorrected to the left, and the car drove off the road. It skidded before rolling two times. Gusman and a passenger in the front seat were both ejected during the crash, but the passenger survived. The highway patrol report a third person was also injured. The highway patrol suspects driver fatigue may have contributed to the crash. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 AS INFLATION rates climb throughout the Caribbean, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Cleviston Haynes is cautious about wage adjustments to match it. A wage adjustment to match inflation is really not the first best option for us, Haynes said at an inflation discussion hosted by the Central Bank of Barbados on Thursday night. Two police officers were among four people injured after a gunman opened fire at a bar in Cunupia early yesterday morning. The officers had responded to a report of a large gathering at the bar and minutes later a man fired at the officers and patrons. The shooter ran off and escaped. The incident occurred at around 4.40 a.m., at Big Timerz Bar, on the Southern Main Road. You are here: Business China's service outsourcing industry posted a steady expansion during the January-March period, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth about 488.1 billion yuan (about 75 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months, up 10.3 percent year on year. The executed contract value came in at 318.5 billion yuan during the period, with a year-on-year increase of 17.2 percent. Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside party to perform services or make goods typically undertaken by in-house employees. Of the total, offshore service outsourcing contract value rose 4.6 percent from a year ago to 264.8 billion yuan. Service outsourcing with members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership saw quicker growth, with the executed contract value rising 3.2 percent from a year earlier to 38.2 billion yuan in the January-March period. Within days of being appointed Minister of Public Utilities in August 2020, Marvin Gonzales declared the transformation of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to be his number one priority. In the 21 months since then, Minister Gonzales has gone through two acting CEOs, an executive director and is now on a third acting CEO at WASA. In an environment of turbulence, successive deadlines for implementing WASAs long-promised plan transformation has been missed. The second phase of the Kremlins so-called special operation will happen in Russian territory. The common Russians must accept one sad, and maybe terrifying fact: the war in Ukraine will not leave anyone untouched. These are not predictions, but a dry analysis of the tactics and psychology of the bunker-based government of the country, reports TSN. The second phase of the Kremlins so-called special operation will happen in Russian territory. Explosions and fires in the Russian Belgorod are only the beginning. The most important thing to realise is that Russians will be bombarding other Russians. One of the many pieces of evidence is a video of a missile launched from Russian territory recovered from a cars video recorder. But the Russian television viewers are unable to work out who is truly attacking them. The Skabeevs and Solovyevs of the media have forced the old mantra about the Ukrainians being at fault into their heads long ago, and it is difficult to change their minds. From the science-fiction scenarios of plague-carrying pigeons raised in made-up laboratories which are supposed to reach mother-russia any day now, to mortar mine, everything can be blamed on Ukrainians. It is sufficient only to remember the evacuation of all the schools in Belgorod under the premise of explosives in the buildings. And we have all seen a Ukrainian provocation, where a missile was launched with zero remorse at a train station in Kramatorsk full of women and children. The fact that the act was planned in advance was revealed by one of Kremlins Telegram channels, which recommended avoiding going to the train station before the attack. Then, a happy post about a successful strike against a target in Kramotorsk gave away the Russians once more. Only when Moscow realised that the bloody slaughter was being seen across the entire world did they change tact and claim that: the Ukrainians are bombarding themselves. But the marking on the missile fragments is identical to the marking on other missiles used by the Russians to bombard Ukrainian towns. So it is unsurprising that the Russian headquarters began a new information special operation. Its logic can break the mind of any healthy human being, but to the Russians, everything makes sense: the Russians came to liberate us, but we bastards decided to attack them for it. This nonsense is now being spouted as justification of the war by Putins propogandists. Hence, they have to torch cities, murder innocent civilians in their tens of thousands and hence the coffins of their soldiers. No-one outside of Russia believes this insane string of words, but for the Kremlin, the internal consumer is much more important. It needs to be fed by the hour with something new to increase the degree of hate towards Ukraine, truth or logic be damned. At the beginning, Putin justified his genocide of Ukrainians by the simple desire to prevent Ukraines joining NATO. Missile bases in Kharkhiv were used to scare the Russians. They said 700 kilometres is only five minutes away from Moscow. And no-one was worried by Latvia, which has long been a NATO member state, and which is much closer to Moscow in terms of Missile flight time. And in fact there is a NATO base there, based on an old soviet aerodrome. But what should terrify the Russians and what actually puts their homes under threat is the way Putin made his political career. Any maniac is given away by their tell-tales. Putin got himself into the Kremlin by means of a war which he began himself. Let us remind ourselves how before the second Chechnya war, houses all across Russia were blown up. Then too he began a special military operation against terrorism. This terrorism was truly special, as sometimes the Russian government announced news of explosions even before the explosions occurred. Decades have passed, but the Kremlin decided to avoid re-inventing the wheel. At least today, terrorism in Russia will give Putin new justification for his war in Ukraine, mass war crimes, the destruction of Russias own economy and the conscription of fresh cannon fodder. Otherwise, Russia would not be able to announce mass conscription. Despite the fact that the zombie-nation was able to replace the heads of the population with the television, the heavy losses of the Russian army is a pain which is difficult to cover up with words. So the Kremlin needs a new pain, and they are preparing their explosives. Read also: Before Charles Mingus soared as one of the most innovative and celebrated jazz musicians of the 20th century, he was getting his start in life right here in Southern Arizona. Mingus was born at Camp Little in April 1922, in Nogales, Arizona. His father, Charles Mingus Sr., was a staff sergeant and a Buffalo Soldier stationed there as part of the U.S. Army 10th Cavalry. Mingus was still quite young when his family moved from Nogales to Watts, California, where he would grow up, absorbing the musical influences of Duke Ellington on the radio and congregational songs from his local church, according to the website charlesmingus.com. His Southern Arizona origins had little impact on the musician he would one day become, but his name lives on in the state. And with the 100th anniversary of his birth this Friday, April 22, jazz fans across the region are ready to party. On Thursday, April 21, The Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress, will host a Mingus Celebration concert, featuring the Tucson Jazz Institute. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18-$23. Friday, April 22, Mingus Dynasty, a rotating band of elite jazz players, some of whom performed with Mingus back in the day, will play the venue. The group will be joined by alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, who worked with Mingus on-and-off from 1960-74. Set times are at 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door. The festivities will culminate with the Charles Mingus Centennial Jazz Festival, an all-day, free musical event to be held at the First Bank Yuma Nogales Business Center, 825 N. Grand Ave., in Nogales, on Saturday, April 23. The fest, running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will feature local and touring groups, including the Nogales High School Alumni Band and the Alan Lewine Xtet. Mingus Dynasty will headline starting at 3:30 p.m. The Mingus Dynasty swing through Arizona, which actually starts Thursday, April 21, with a performance at The Nash in Phoenix, was arranged and sponsored by Alan Hershowitz, husband of Yvonne Ervin, a tireless promoter of jazz music in Southern Arizona until her untimely death from complications after surgery in 2018. Ervin, who served as the founding director of the Tucson Jazz Society and launched the Tucson Jazz Festival, had long worked to raise the profile of Nogales as Mingus birthplace. She held the first Mingus festival in Nogales, a jazz event that straddled both sides of the border, in 1993, and had advocated for years toward the creation of a Mingus Memorial Park, an effort she saw come to fruition in 2017. The folks in Nogales asked me to help out with this years festival, Hershowitz said. They were going to do their usual mix of high school bands and things like that. I asked myself what Yvonne would have done. She would have put together a tour with some major people who we knew and had worked with before. Hershowitz reached out to his connections with Mingus Dynasty and to McPherson They were happy to participate. For the performers, Hershowitz said, it is about knowing (Charles Mingus and his) music so well, and coming to celebrate his centennial in Arizona, in the city where he was born. In addition to the music, the festival will include the dedication of a memorial wall to Mingus that will also pay homage to Nogales Black history, within Mingus Memorial Park, 10 W. Western Ave. The memorial wall features a likeness of Mingus on granite by Nogales artist Faith Posey, and mosaic works by artist David Fernandez and students from Nogales High School. Plaques lining the wall are dedicated to the citys Black community, past and present; the Buffalo Soldiers stationed in Nogales in the early 1900s; the citys segregated grammar school, the Frank A. Reed School, which closed its doors in 1952; Major George W. Biggs, a Nogales native and Tuskegee Airman, who died in 2020. The wall also has a plaque dedicated to Ervin. Sharon Urman, president of Santa Cruz Advocates for the Arts, the group that spearheaded the memorial efforts, said the project has been years in the making. It evolved from being a memorial dedicated just to Charles Mingus, to honoring the African American historical presence in the area, Urman said. It is more than just a passion project. It is about community pride. For more information on all of the Mingus centennial events, visit mingusamongus.com Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Chancellor, Richard Stuart Richard Stuart Chancellor, born on February 4, 1938 passed away peacefully on May 3, 2022 at 84 years of age. Stuart as the youngest of a large family with four brothers and a sister grew up in Midland, Texas. He spent his high school years at Culver .... Read more Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LVIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. Torture chambers are built there, Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians, he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine will begin in the near future. Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies, Zelenskyy said. All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions. KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Russia strikes Ukraine's big cities, bears down on Mariupol Elderly mother feels lost, seeks son's body in Ukrainian town of Bucha Prince Harry pays tribute to Ukrainian competitors as he opens the Invictus Games We pray for you: Ukrainian Jews mark Passover, if they can Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: WASHINGTON -- Ukraines foreign minister is describing the situation in Mariupol as dire and heartbreaking and says Russias continued attacks there could be a red line that ends all efforts to reach peace through negotiation. Dmytro Kuleba tells CBS Face the Nation that the remaining Ukrainian military personnel and civilians in the port city are basically encircled by Russian forces. He says the Ukrainians continue their struggle but that the city effectively doesnt exist anymore because of massive destruction. Kuleba says his country has been keeping up expert level talks with Russia in recent weeks in hopes of reaching a political solution for peace. But citing the significance of Mariupol, he echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in saying the elimination of Ukrainian forces there could be a red line that stops peace efforts. WASHINGTON President Joe Biden says hes praying on Easter for those living in the dark shadow of war, persecution and poverty. Biden released an Easter message Sunday in which he says hes also praying for peace, freedom and basic dignity and respect for all of Gods children. Biden didnt say which war he had in mind, but the president has been deeply involved in trying to force an end to Russias invasion of Ukraine. The American president says hes grateful that the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed many people around the world to celebrate by attending religious services and in-person family gatherings. He also acknowledges that the holiest day on the Christian calendar falls on heavy hearts for those who have lost loved ones and those among us living in the dark shadow of war, persecution and poverty. KYIV, Ukraine A regional official in eastern Ukraine says at least two people have been killed by Russian shelling. The Luhansk regions governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said that at least four others were wounded Sunday when Russia forces fired at residential buildings in the town of Zolote. Zolote is located near the front line in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas, where the Russian forces are preparing for a massive offensive. WASHINGTON Ukraines prime minister says the besieged city of Mariupol hasn't yet fallen to Russia and the Ukrainian forces there will fight to the end. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal appealed during a Sunday appearance on an American television broadcast for help for the approximately 100,000 Ukrainians who remain trapped in the eastern city without food, water, heat and electricity. He says some regions of Mariupol remain under Ukrainian control, and that Russia doesn't have full dominance over the city. Mariupol appeared on the brink of falling to Russian forces Sunday after seven weeks under siege. The Russian military gave a deadline for surrender to a few thousand Ukrainian fighters who were providing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, but the Ukrainians didn't submit. Shmyhal told ABC News This Week that Ukrainian forces are still fighting, including in the Donbas region, but we do not have intention to surrender. The prime minister says Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy, if possible. Shmyhal says surrender isnt an option, adding that we will not leave our country, our families, our lands, so we will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war. KYIV, Ukraine A Ukrainian health official says that at least five people have been killed in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv. Maksym Haustov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administrations health department, said that another 13 residents were wounded by Sundays shelling of Ukraines second-largest city. Rescuers have been working to help survivors after the shelling that hit residential and administrative buildings and caused fires. Officials said the center of Kharkiv came under shelling by multiple rocket launchers. KHARKIV, Ukraine Multiple rockets struck the center of the eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, according to AP journalists in the city. The barrage slammed into apartment buildings and left broken glass, debris and part of at least one rocket scattered on the street. Several apartments caught fire, with firefighters and residents scrambling to douse the flames. At least two bodies were seen, and four other people were injured, though the scale of the attack suggested the casualty toll could rise further. MOSCOW The Russian military has warned that Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol will be destroyed. The Russian Defense Ministry gave the Ukrainians at Mariupols giant Azovstal steel mill until 1 p.m. Sunday (1000 GMT) to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be guaranteed to keep their lives. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian military command had banned its troops from surrendering. He said the Russian military received the information from intercepted communications. Konashenkov warned that all those who will continue resistance will be destroyed. He claimed that along with Ukrainian troops, there are about 400 foreign mercenaries encircled at Azovstal, most of them from European countries and Canada, communicating in six languages, according to intercepts. Konashenkovs claim couldnt be independently verified. VATICAN CITY In an Easter Sunday message aimed at the world but heavily focused on Ukraine, Pope Francis raised two worries the risk of nuclear warfare and that other armed conflicts on the globe will go unnoticed. In a speech from the balcony of St. Peters Basilica, the pope quoted a declaration from scientists in the 1950s in which they posed the question: Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war? The pope has repeatedly made anguished pleas for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. In his Easter message, Francis lamented that so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing. He expressed hope that the war in Europe will also make us more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow in situations that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget. Among the places he cited were Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. He singled out Yemen, suffering from a conflict forgotten by all, with continuous victims. MILAN Italian Premier Mario Draghi is calling Ukraines resistance to Russias invasion heroic, depriving Russia of what it expected to be a rapid victory and setting the stage for a prolonged war. Draghi told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Sunday that what awaits us is a war of resistance, prolonged violence with destruction that will continue. There is no sign that the Ukraine population can accept a Russian occupation. Draghi noted that Italy remained close to the Ukrainian people, with the reopening of its embassy in Kyiv. The ambassador returned to the capital on Friday, and the embassy is expected to be fully operational on Monday. Draghi, who spoke to Putin before the war broke out and again at the end of March, said he has come to believe that speaking with the Russian leader is just a waste of time. Draghi said: I have the impression that the horror of the war, with its carnage, with what they have done to children and women, is completely independent of the words and the phone calls. KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines deputy defense minister says that the key port of Mariupol is holding despite the continuing Russian attacks. Hanna Malyar said Sunday that the defenders of the key Sea of Azov port have tied up significant Russian forces besieging the city. She described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine that prevents the Russian troops encircling the city from advancing to other areas of the country. Malyar said that the Russians have continued to hit Mariupol with air raids and were possibly preparing an amphibious landing to beef up their forces in the city. LONDON In his Easter sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called for Russia to declare a cease-fire and withdraw in Ukraine. The leader of the Anglican church said Easter is a time for peace and not blood and iron. Noting that in the Eastern Orthodox church followed by many in Russia and Ukraine Sunday marks the start of Holy Week the week leading to Easter he said let this be a time for Russian cease-fire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. Welby said God hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, and he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees. MOSCOW The Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in the besieged port of Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be guaranteed to keep their lives. The Russian Defense Ministry made the announcement early Sunday. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said that the Ukrainians encircled at the giant Azovstal steel factory were given until 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) to surrender. It was the latest such offer to the Ukrainian defenders of the key Sea of Azov port during a siege that has lasted for more than 1 months. Capturing Mariupol is a key strategic goal for Russia, allowing it to secure a land corridor to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. The fall of Mariupol would also free the Russian forces involved in the siege for a planned offensive in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. The giant Azovstal steel mill that covers an area of more than 11 square kilometers (over 4.2 square miles) is the last major section of Mariupol still under Ukrainian control. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that about 2,500 Ukrainian troops remain at Azovstal, a claim that couldnt be independently verified. The Ukrainian officials didnt mention any numbers for the city defenders. MOSCOW The Russian military says it has struck a military plant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital with missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday the military has used precision-guided air-launched missiles to attack the ammunition plant in Brovary outside Kyiv overnight. He said that other Russian air raids also destroyed Ukrainian air defense radars near Sievierodonetsk in the east and several ammunition depots elsewhere. The strikes were the latest in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraines weapons factories, air defense assets and other facilities as Moscow prepares for a massive offensive in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. SOFIA, Bulgaria Bulgaria has banned Russian-flagged ships from entering its Black Sea ports as part of expanded EU sanctions, the countrys Maritime Administration announced on its website on Sunday. All vessels registered under Russian flag, as well as all vessels that have switched their Russian flag, or flag or maritime register registration to any other state whatsoever after Feb. 24, are forbidden access to Bulgarian maritime and river ports, the authority said. Exceptions will be made only for ships in distress or seeking humanitarian assistance, or ships transporting energy products, food and pharmaceuticals to EU countries. KHARKIV, Ukraine Russias bombardment of cities around Ukraine on Saturday included an explosion in Kharkiv that destroyed a community kitchen. Associated Press journalists at the scene recorded the immediate aftermath of the apparent missile attack. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three people were killed and 34 wounded by missile strikes Saturday in that city alone. The kitchen was set up by World Central Kitchen, which is run by celebrity chef Jose Andres to establish feeding systems in disaster and war zones. Andres tweeted that the non-governmental organizations staff members were shaken but safe. The organization says it has now reached 30 cities across the country, providing nearly 300,000 meals a day. Andres said the attack in Kharkiv shows that to give food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience and resistance and that his groups chefs will keep cooking for Ukraine. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke Saturday with the leaders of Britain and Sweden about how best to help those defending Mariupol and the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the besieged city. Mariupols fate can be decided either through battle or diplomacy, he said. Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the blockade, he said in his nightly video address to the nation. Or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive. NEW YORK A Russian general whose troops have been besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried on Saturday in St. Petersburg after dying in battle, the governor said. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media identified as being among the forces battering Mariupol for weeks. Gov. Alexander Beglov released a statement saying Frolov died a heroic death in battle without saying where or when he was killed. Photographs on Russian news websites showed his grave at a St. Petersburg cemetery piled high with red and white flowers. Ukraine has claimed that several Russian generals and dozens of other high-ranking officers have been killed during the war. WASHINGTON Austrias chancellor said after meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow this past week that the Russian president is in his own war logic when it comes to Ukraine. Karl Nehammer told NBC in an interview that he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war. Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. He said we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine. Before arriving in Moscow last Monday, Nehammer had visited Bucha, Ukraine, the town outside of Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces. Nehammer told Meet the Press that he confronted Putin with what he had seen in Bucha, and it was not a friendly conversation. He said Putin said he will cooperate with an international investigation, on one hand, and on the other hand, he told me that he doesnt trust the Western world. So this will be the problem now in the future. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Ten people were shot at a teen spring break party in Dallas and several others were injured as they tried to escape the chaos. One of the injured, an 18-year-old man, later died of his injuries. The gunfire happened at The Space Dallas event venue. Joe Morgan, who was working crowd control, told reporters that he heard gunshots being fired from outside the venue and later saw people with gunshot wounds to the chest, arms and legs. PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) The former long-serving head of Montenegro's top court has been arrested for allegedly helping cover up her son's drug-smuggling operation, local media in the Balkan country reported on Monday. Vesna Medenica, who was the head of Montenegro's Supreme Court for 17 years, was arrested late on Sunday at the airport in the capital, Podgorica, according to state TVCG television. The report said Medenica's son, Milos, has been accused of cigarette and drug smuggling after Europol the European Union's law enforcement agency sent transcripts implicating him and also his mother. TVCG says both Vesna and Milos Medenica have denied the allegations published earlier in the local media. Montenegrin police are yet to issue an official statement. Montenegro has been told it must deal with widespread crime and corruption in order to move closer to desired EU membership. The small nation of some 620,000 people joined NATO in 2017 and is now seeking to become an EU member state. The Vijesti daily reported that in February, Europol delivered transcripts of encrypted phone conversations during which Milos Medenica planned drug transfer from Colombia and said his mother would protect him and his partners in the deal. Medenica headed Montenegro's Supreme Court until 2020. Montenegro is currently in a power vacuum after its pro-Serbian government fell in a no-confidence vote in February and a new one has not been formed yet. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Tom Gilbert Chief Photographer I joined the Tulsa World in 1988 after graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma. I lived in Saudi Arabia before graduating from Broken Arrow High School. I'm married to Karen Gilbert and have three grown children. Phone: 918-581-8349 Follow Tom Gilbert Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Marshall Brewing Co.'s proximity to the railroad prompted the idea for its newest beer, Slow Train IPA. Marshall's marketing director, Wes Alexander, tells us about Slow Train, which is What the Ale's beer of the week. "This is the first addition to our full-time lineup here at Marshall Brewing Co. since we introduced This Land Lager in 2018, and we are pretty excited to have an IPA," Alexander said. "This is a modern IPA." Marshall Brewing, 1742 E. Sixth St., is a traditional brewery brewing traditional ales and lagers. Slow Train IPA is moving toward a more modern realm. They have been experimenting with other beers in the taproom, their Oatmeal IPA and Tulsa 16 IPA, along with Green Country IPA, Ticker IPA and, more recently, El Gallo Macho. "These are all techniques, ingredients and styles that we've been working on, practicing the styles and flavor profiles that have been trending. We're really excited because we think all of that work is culminated in what we think is the future, Slow Train IPA," he said. "It's very bright," Alexander said. "It's citrusy, it's aromatic. Ours is 7% ABV and 25 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). So very, very low on hop bitterness. What really defines the character of this beer are the hops: cascade, citra and cashmere. "We primarily employ those hops through the dry hopping process, which creates this huge explosion of aroma. So that's really the first thing that you notice once you pop the top on a can or receive a glass of Slow Train IPA." Marshall blends five malts and oats for its grain build with Slow Train IPA. "It has a nice, almost sticky-sweet flavor profile to go along with the citrusy notes. And then it really has this unctuous rich but soft multi-flavor, really round in the mouth and really a fun IPA," he said. The trains cruise by Marshall Brewing's taproom blow their whistles four or five times a day. Now they have a beer to toast when that train blares its horn. The beer is available now at Marshall's taproom, but the official debut will be at this year's Tulsa Mayfest on May 6-8. Marshall will also be pouring the new IPA at Hospice of Green Country's Oysters and Ales on May 5. Tickets are available https://tinyurl.com/yann9wsh Past Beers of the Week: Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A leading Chinese economist proposed establishing a China-model-based structural monetary policy that is in line with the country's carbon peak and neutrality goals to help secure the country's competitive edge in a low-carbon world. Zhu Min, chair of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University, called on the central bank to step up structural tools in conventional macroeconomic policies so as to address the mismatch of the market, facilitate low-carbon transformation and maximize social utility. Speaking via video link at the 2022 Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum on Saturday, Zhu said China would need a brand-new financial model to achieve net-zero emissions. This brings about tremendous challenges as well as opportunities, he said. "Carbon neutrality is a paradigm shift, which indicates a change of people's way of working and living since the industrial revolution." According to Zhu, finance will play a crucial role in this regard. To achieve carbon neutrality, large-scale and long-term financing support will be needed. As all sectors of society begin to cut emissions, the valuation of high-carbon and low-carbon financial assets will be reshuffled. Efforts should also be made to forestall and defuse potential financial risks. In addition, Zhu urged that more financial support should be given to sci-tech innovation, especially in electrification, renewable energy, energy storage, electricity distribution network, and 5G technologies. "Sci-tech innovation is the basis of carbon neutrality," Zhu noted. In September 2020, China announced that it aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Since then, authorities and industries have scaled up their green efforts. For example, by the end of 2020, green loans and green bonds in China totaled $1.8 trillion and $125 billion, respectively, ranking as the world's largest and second-largest. Furthermore, the country's balance of green loans reached 11.6 trillion yuan, making China the world's largest green-finance market. The outstanding green credit of 21 major banks in China reached 15.1 trillion yuan at the end of 2021, accounting for 10.6% of their total lending. Carbon neutrality has fundamentally recreated China's economic growth model, Zhu said. "As the country's economy shifts from a high- to low-carbon paradigm, the upcoming energy revolution and economic innovation will reshape its entire manufacturing industry." WASHINGTON (AP) Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of former President Donald Trump's eldest son, met with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection Monday more than a month after she abruptly ended a voluntary interview with lawmakers according to a person familiar with the matter. Guilfoyle, 53, arrived Monday morning at the federal office building on Capitol Hill where the committee has been conducting its virtual and in-person interviews to sit down with lawmakers, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony. The committee investigating the attack had requested testimony and records from Guilfoyle, who spoke at the rally Trump held on the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, before the riot at the Capitol aimed at overturning Trump's election loss. Lawmakers say that Guilfoyle, who was a chair of the Trump Victory Committee, the fundraising arm of his campaign, also raised funds for the rally and was in direct contact with its key participants and organizers. Members of the nine-member panel issued a subpoena to Guilfoyle last month after she cut the voluntary interview short over her objection to the presence of lawmakers. The committee's decision to subpoena her was unusual, as lawmakers have tried to bring in most members of Trump's family on a voluntary basis. Joe Tacopina, an attorney representing Guilfoyle, did not respond to a request for comment Monday but has previously stated that his client "has done nothing wrong," and will testify truthfully to any question. The committee has said it has received a number of the documents it initially requested from Guilfoyle but is now looking to learn more about her meetings with the former president and members of his family in the Oval Office the morning of the attack. "Ms. Guilfoyle met with Donald Trump inside the White House, spoke at the rally that took place before the riot on January 6th, and apparently played a key role organizing and raising funds for that event," Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's Democratic chairman, said in a March 3 statement. Guilfoyle's appearance is the latest in a series of sit-down interviews the committee has conducted with those in Trump's inner circle in the past few weeks. On Tuesday, Stephen Miller, who served as a top aide to Trump, was questioned virtually for eight hours. The former president's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have also spoken to the committee in the past month, providing hours of testimony that members have cited as helpful to their probe. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A Vinita police officer and a Craig County sheriffs deputy fatally shot a man who reportedly threatened officers with a bow and arrow on Monday morning near Vinita. Before 7 a.m. Monday, Vinita police and Craig County Sheriffs deputies responded to a call that reported a large chunk of concrete on the railroad tracks near 4400 Road, just outside of Vinita, according to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation news release. Authorities found tracks leading from the railroad tracks to a residence on the 27000 block of South 4400 Road. They heard the suspect identified as Guy Walker making loud noises and going in and out of his house, according to OSBI. When law enforcement approached him, Walker reportedly pulled out a bow and arrow. The officers asked him to put down the weapon, but Walker refused and waved the bow and arrow in a threatening manner. Thats when the Craig County sheriffs deputy and the Vinita police officer shot Walker, killing him, the release states. No other injuries were reported, according to the release. A fourth abortion bill is likely this week to be signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, who promised to make Oklahoma "the most pro-life state." Other relevant statutes go back as far as 1910. OKLAHOMA CITY Gov. Kevin Stitt on Monday announced a mega legislation economic incentive package to lure a large manufacturer to Oklahoma. Stitt, who announced the effort during a Capitol news conference, was short on specifics, such as the estimated cost and company name, but said it was a huge Fortune 500 company. Stitt wants to expand Quality Jobs to 7.5 percent from 5 percent. It is typically a cap of 5 percent of payroll a company can receive for up to 10 years as an incentive to move into the state or to grow, said Brent Kisling, Oklahoma Department of Commerce executive director. Stitt also wants to expand the investment tax credit program to 3 percent from 2 percent. This is based on 2 percent of your capital expenditure you would make whenever you are building your facility, putting in private property or something like that, Kisling said. He is increasing that from 2 percent to 3 percent. The 2 percent is claimed against corporate liability on corporate income taxes. The governor is proposing a refund on that of 85 percent over the next five years, Kisling said. The tax credit program that is on the books now, the investment tax credit, if you build a $50 million facility and you qualify for that, you get a 2 percent tax credit for five years, Stitt said. And that is a direct credit off your adjusted gross income. Oklahoma is reportedly a site under consideration for a Panasonic electric battery factory in the MidAmerica Industrial Park near Pryor. We have an opportunity to land one of the largest factories in the entire country, just a humongous, humongous factory with billions and billions of dollars worth of investment, thousands of thousands of jobs, Stitt said. He said the state is targeting electric auto manufacturing. Canoo, an electric vehicle start-up, announced last year plans to build a factory at the park. Stitt said the incentive he proposed would apply to other projects with companies with thousands of jobs and billions in investments. If we can land some of these major, major companies and these major manufacturing facilities, it will have a generational impact on the state of Oklahoma, Stitt said. He said offering the package is possible because the state has been fiscally conservative and has the largest savings account in Oklahomas history. I am asking the legislature to put this package together, put this mega legislation package together, Stitt said. I am asking them with some of our savings to go ahead and fund this program for the mega legislation. This is our moment, right now. Stitt said he asking the legislation be done this week. It is our understanding the company needs to make a decision fairly quickly, Stitt said. Some other states have already passed some different legislation, so I am asking for this to be passed this week so we can put our best foot forward. Two legislative panels on Monday passed an incentive package for large companies, House Bill 4455, that did not contain the specific details outlined by Stitt. To qualify, a company would have to meet capital investment and job creation thresholds. In a statement after Stitts news conference, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said cities around the world seeing the greatest advancement in growth and improved quality of life are those focused on regional growth. As we seek to make Tulsa a globally competitive, world-class city, we strongly support transformational opportunities like this to expand northeast Oklahomas economy, he said. I want to thank Governor Stitt for his leadership in pursuing this, and hope Oklahoma legislators will join him in a chance to grow the wealth of our state. In Tulsa, we will continue working regionally to make this a win-win for enhanced quality of life and increased economic opportunity. World staff writers Kevin Canfield and Randy Krehbiel contributed to this story. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a warning against the consumption of the XZL Milk Fruit Jelly School Bag, a candy product imported from the UK, due to concerns over choking risk. The warning came after similar alerts from the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the Food Standards Agency of the UK. The product in question is packed in 600-gram bags and and its best before dates are September 1 and September 30, 2022. Interdragon International Trading Co. Ltd and Asia Oriental Market Ltd, its manufacturer and distributor, have also recalled XZL Milk Fruit Jelly School Bag in the UK because the product contains Carrageenan, Sodium Alginate and Konjac that are not permitted as ingredients in jelly candy making. Those gelling agents can impose a choking hazard due to the final product's consistency, solubility, shape, size and the manner of consumption. Each cube of jelly can be taken out of a cup or a capsule by taking off the cover and sucking strongly, so it may become stuck in the airway of an eater, the ministry explained. In the UK, notices have been displayed at all retail stores where the candy is available, explaining to customers why the product is being recalled and advising them what to do if they have bought it. Particularly, customers who have made a purchase are required to not eat the jelly, but return it to the stores for a full reimbursement. The Vietnamese trade ministry said that it is also reviewing scientifically the relationship between chemical and physical characteristics of the product, as well as different regulations between Vietnam and other countries regarding the issue before taking further actions. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Many kindergartens in Hanoi welcomed over 80 percent of students back on April 13 after a long shutdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The happiness of going back to school, however, is contrasted by the concern over a severe shortage of teachers, babysitters and security guards at preschools. Many teachers took on a better gig Quynh Nga, owner of a kindergarten in Thanh Xuan District, said that only one third of its old teachers returned to work on the reopening day. Many teachers have taken another job. Despite non-professional jobs, they have stable income and are not worried about being unemployed due to the pandemic, Nga shared, adding that as the date of the reopening was unknown, the kindergarten failed to check whether its old teachers wanted to return to work or employ new staff. As such, the citys decision to reopen kindergartens after the recent Hung Kings Commemoration Day holiday, which fell on April 10, perplexed many kindergartens. In many online kindergarten groups, private kindergarten owners frequently voiced their concerns over a serious shortage of teachers and workers. On April 13, the number of children returning to kindergartens accounted for some 62 percent of the total and would continue to rise in the following days, according to Truong Thu Ha, deputy head of the education and training division of Hoang Mai District. However, only 63.2 percent of kindergarten teachers registered to return to work on the day, said Ha. The number of teachers is just sufficient, but if the number of kindergarteners going back goes up, there will be a shortage of teachers for sure, said Ha. Similarly, according to the education and training division in Ba Dinh District, on April 13, nearly 80 percent of children in the district returned to kindergartens. If all school-age children had gone back to in-person classes, we would have faced a shortage of 215 teachers, said the head of the division. Meanwhile, statistics from the Hoan Kiem District education authorities indicated that some 30 to 40 percent of kindergarten teachers were considering quitting jobs. The principal of a kindergarten in the district said that some teachers had gotten another job and refused to return, while many others had taken a temporary job such as babysitting kids at home. These teachers might return to the kindergarten for work only after their current contracts expire. It will be hard to deal with the shortage of teachers as monthly salary levels are low at VND4-6 million (US$175-261). Besides, they spend 10 to 12 hours working and suffer much pressure. Meanwhile, if diseases break out, they are the first to be affected and become unemployed. Those who return to work at kindergartens certainly either love teaching or have yet to land a good job, said a manager of the Ong Viet kindergarten system in Hanoi City. Giving priority to children at disbanded kindergartens Le Duc Thuan, head of the Ba Dinh District education and training bureau, said that the district had seen five kindergartens and four classes at private ones disband after the pandemic. The students at these facilities will be transferred to others, putting further pressure on the teacher shortage. Another district, Nam Tu Liem, has seen some 10 classes dissolved, said Nguyen Thi Huong, head of the education and training division of the district. Children at disbanded kindergartens will be prioritized for moving to public facilities, said Huong, adding that parents can select to send their children to another private kindergarten. Statistics from education and training divisions showed that the number of kindergarteners back to in-person classes in each district accounted for 60 to 87 percent of the total, while the number of children aged five returning to kindergartens represented over 90 percent. Some children have failed to get back to kindergartens as their old schools were closed. Also, many parents remained hesitant to send their kids back to school due to the pandemic. I am sending my kid to a group of about five to seven children. The group has been maintained during the closure of kindergartens. One of the parents lent premises, while we hired two kindergarten teachers to teach and take care of the group. Everything is running smoothly, so I have yet to allow my kid to get back to school, shared by a parent in My Dinh, Nam Tu Liem District. Speaking at a working session at some kindergartens, Tran Thiet Cuong, director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, said that local education and training divisions were told to review the shortage of teachers facing public kindergartens. The department will report the results to the Hanoi government so the city can map out a plan for teacher recruitment. Job transaction sessions for preschool teachers Despite the relative stability of teachers at public preschools, many student-intensive schools are still facing a serious lack of teachers. therefore, Bac Tu Liem District is planning to team up with some units to hold job transaction sessions for preschool teachers in an effort to help schools fix a teacher shortage in the near future. Special welcome to kindergarteners On the day of reopening kindergartens, Hanoi witnessed preschools give various welcome ways with an aim to create a pleasant and friendly atmosphere for children. The Hoa Mi Kindergarten in Ba Dinh District asked its teachers and employees to dress as cartoon characters. Children could see and shake hands with numerous cartoon characters at the school gate, the school yard and the corridors leading to their classrooms. Meanwhile, at the Viet Trieu Kindergarten, female teachers were wearing colorful clothes and crowns as princesses with school welcome signs in hands to greet students and instruct them how to disinfect their hands. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Rescuers searched for dozens of people still missing in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province on Sunday after heavy rains in recent days triggered floods and mudslides that have killed more than 440 people. The floods have left thousands homeless, knocked out power and water services and disrupted operations at one of Africa's busiest ports, Durban. A provincial economic official estimated the overall infrastructure damage at more than 10 billion rand ($684.6 million). The province's premier, Sihle Zikalala, said the death toll had risen to 443, with a further 63 people unaccounted for. A search and rescue team use a dog to search for bodies in Dassenhoek near Durban, South Africa, April 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters In some of the worst-affected areas, residents said they were terrified by the thought of more rain, which was forecast to fall on Sunday. Some faced an agonising wait for news of missing loved ones. "We haven't lost hope. Although we are constantly worried as (the) days continue," Sbongile Mjoka, a resident of Sunshine village in the eThekwini municipality whose 8-year-old nephew has been missing for days. "We are traumatised by the sight of rain," Mjoka, 47, told Reuters, adding that her home had been badly damaged. A search and rescue team use a dog to search for bodies in Dassenhoek near Durban, South Africa, April 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters In a nearby semi-rural area, three members of the Sibiya family were killed when the walls of the room where they slept collapsed and 4-year-old Bongeka Sibiya is still missing. "Everything is a harsh reminder of what we lost, and not being able to find (Bongeka) is devastating because we can't grieve or heal. At this stage we are left feeling empty," Lethiwe Sibiya, 33, told Reuters. President Cyril Ramaphosa's office said late on Saturday he had delayed a working visit to Saudi Arabia to focus on the disaster. Ramaphosa will meet cabinet ministers to assess the response to the crisis. A general view of a mudslide which destroyed several houses during flooding in Mzinyathi near Durban, South Africa, April 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters KZN Premier Zikalala told a televised briefing that the floods were among the worst in his province's recorded history. "We need to summon our collective courage and turn this devastation into an opportunity to rebuild our province," he said. "The people of KwaZulu-Natal will rise from this mayhem." A view shows the remains of a building, which was destroyed during flooding leaving several people dead, at the KwaNdengezi Station, near Durban, South Africa, April 16, 2022. Photo: Reuters People find their late relative's church uniform in the rubble of a building, which was destroyed during flooding leaving several people dead, at the KwaNdengezi Station, near Durban, South Africa, April 16, 2022. Photo: Reuters The crews of China's Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-15 missions have been selected, and are carrying out relevant training and mission preparations, according to a press conference on Sunday. Both crews will stay in orbit for six months, and they will for the first time rotate in orbit to realize the uninterrupted manned residence, Huang Weifen, chief designer of the China manned space program's astronaut system, said at the press conference. The two crews, totaling six astronauts, will live together in orbit for five to 10 days. The Shenzhou-14 crew will cooperate with ground control to complete the assembly and construction of the space station, and gradually develop it from a single-module space station into a three-module combination. Huang said the Shenzhou-14 crew will enter the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules. They will also cooperate with ground control to carry out tests on the two-module complex, the three-module complex, the station's large and small mechanical arms, and the exit function of the airlock cabin in the lab modules, she said. They will use the airlock cabin to carry out extravehicular activities for the first time. Huang said the Shenzhou-15 crew will carry out several extravehicular activities; assemble, test and debug the payloads inside modules; and control the mechanical arms to install extravehicular payloads. They will also operate, manage and maintain the largest complex composed of three modules and three spacecraft. The two crews will undertake science popularization and other public activities, in-orbit scientific research experiments and engineering technology tests, and will collect flight mission data. They will also carry out in-orbit health monitoring, protective exercises, in-orbit training and drills, station platform inspections and tests, equipment maintenance, and station and material management, Huang said. STOCKHOLM -- Three people in the Swedish city of Norrkoping needed medical attention after being hit by police bullets during clashes between police and protesters following Quran burnings that caused riots in several Swedish towns over the Easter weekend. In some places counter-protesters attacked police ahead of planned right-wing extremist demonstrations. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has condemned the violence. "Three people seem to have been hit by ricochets and are now being cared for in hospital. All three injured are arrested on suspicion of crime," police said in an online statement, adding none of the injuries were life-threatening. Police said the situation in Norrkoping was calm on Sunday evening. People burn branches to block a road during a riot ahead of a demonstration planned by Danish anti-Muslim politician Rasmus Paludan and his Stram Kurs party, which was to include a burning of the Muslim holy book Koran, in Navestad, Norrkoping, Sweden April 17, 2022, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 17, 2022. Ulf Wigh/Wighsnews/Handout via Reuters Police and protesters have been engaged in serious clashes during the past days where several police have been injured and multiple vehicles have been torched. The violence began on Thursday after a demonstration organised by Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line. Paludan, who had permission for a series of demonstrations across Sweden during the Easter weekend, is known for Quran burnings. People walk during a riot ahead of a demonstration planned by Danish anti-Muslim politician Rasmus Paludan and his Stram Kurs party, which was to include a burning of the Muslim holy book Koran, in Navestad, Norrkoping, Sweden April 17, 2022, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 17, 2022. Ulf Wigh/Wighsnews/Handout via Reuters Smoke billows from a burning car during a riot ahead of a demonstration planned by Danish anti-Muslim politician Rasmus Paludan and his Stram Kurs party, which was to include a burning of the Muslim holy book Koran, in Navestad, Norrkoping, Sweden April 17, 2022, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 17, 2022. Ulf Wigh/Wighsnews/Handout via Reuters Read what is in the news today: COVID-19 Updates -- Vietnam reported 14,660 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the lowest number of daily infections in two months, according to the Ministry of Health. -- Children aged 5-11 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City got their first COVID-19 vaccine shot on Saturday and Sunday. Society -- Vietnamese carrier Pacific Airlines had to dispatch an empty plane from Ho Chi Minh City to Cam Ranh Airport in south-central Khanh Hoa Province to transport passengers, who had waited for three hours, from there to the southern metropolis late Sunday night as technicians were replacing the original aircrafts spare parts. -- A fire burned down a two-story wedding studio in Phu Nhuan District at around 7:00 pm on Sunday while another conflagration broke out at a 1,000-square-meter warehouse next to the dormitory of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on in District 11 and spread to the dorm at around 1:00 am on Monday. Both of the incidents caused no casualties. -- A commune-level deputy chairman in northern Hai Duong Province has been in critical condition due to traumatic brain injury after a group of gangsters attacked him while he was inspecting an illegal building project last Friday. Business -- The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a warning to consumers against using the XZL Milk Fruit Jelly School Bags candy products due to a risk of shortness of breath. Lifestyle -- Many churches and missionaries in Ho Chi Minh City held masses with the participation of a large number of foreigners living and working in the southern metropolis to celebrate Easter on Sunday. Sports -- Chelsea reached their third straight FA Cup final with a hard-earned 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium on Sunday to set up a showdown with quadruple-chasing Liverpool, Reuters reported. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The vice-chairman of a commune-level administration in Hai Duong Province, northern Vietnam suffered a serious brain injury after being attacked by thugs while performing his duty last week. Nguyen Xuan Thang, chairman of the Peoples Committee in An Thuong Commune, Hai Duong City, confirmed on Sunday that one of his deputies and some officials had been brutally assaulted by a group of thugs. On Friday, Ngan Giang HD Petroleum Company hired Nam Anh Transport Company to carry out the ground leveling process at its land plot in An Thuong Commune. As the location is located next to another land lot preserved for agricultural production that was not clearly marked, local authorities ordered the suspension of the ground leveling to make sure the activity did not affect the agricultural land. Although Ngan Giang HD Company agreed to follow the request, employees of Nam Anh Company continued to gather materials to prepare for the work. Chairman Thang and some officials decided to establish a checkpoint at the scene to ensure that their order was complied with. At 8:00 pm the same day, Nguyen Van Hanh, vice-chairman of the commune Peoples Committee, and Nguyen Tuan Anh, an official at the administration, took over the job. After chairman Thang left the site, Nam Anh Company resumed the ground leveling. Hanh and Anh tried to stop the work but ended up being attacked by a group of thugs. Vice-chairman Hanh suffered a traumatic brain injury and was unconscious following the assault. He was admitted to a local hospital and later transferred to an infirmary in Hanoi for surgery. Anh suffered injuries to his head and chest and is being monitored at home. The municipal Department of Public Security arrested several suspects to facilitate their investigation, according to chairman Thang. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A fire burned down a two-story wedding studio in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday night while another conflagration broke out at a 1,000-square-meter warehouse next to the dormitory of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in District 11 and spread to the dorm early Monday morning. Both of the incidents caused no casualties. The fire ignited the wedding studio on Ho Van Hue Street in Phu Nhuan District at around 7:00 pm on Sunday. Staff members immediately alerted each other and escaped the two-story building before the blaze grew and quickly engulfed the facility. As local efforts to put out the fire with fire extinguishers failed, firefighters arrived at the scene and doused it. Properties inside the studio were completely destroyed while the wall of the adjacent house was also damaged by smoke and fire. The scene of a fire at a wedding studio on Ho Van Hue Street in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre Meanwhile, many students staying at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11 were forced to evacuate as another fire broke out at a warehouse next door at 1:00 am on Monday. The fire spread to the dorm shortly after. Smoke rises from a fire at a warehouse next to the dormitory of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Video: Van Anh /Handout via Tuoi Tre It took 129 firefighters and 29 specialized vehicles more than two hours to completely extinguish the blaze. The 1,000-square-meter warehouse was totally destroyed. Functional forces are calculating the damage and investigating the cause of the incident. Smoke rises from a fire at a warehouse on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Photo: Handout via Tuoi Tre Smoke rises from a fire at a warehouse on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Photo: Handout via Tuoi Tre A fire truck is pictured at a warehouse on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Photo: Handout via Tuoi Tre Firefighters try to douse a fire at a warehouse on Lac Long Quan Street in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, April 17, 2022. Photo: Handout via Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A man was stabbed to death at his home in Ho Chi Minh City by another man who is believed to be his acquaintance on Sunday. Police in District 12 confirmed on Monday morning they were investigating the murder that took place at a house in Tan Thoi Hiep Ward. The victim was a 27-year-old man named V., who lived at the residence. Preliminary information showed that an unidentified man, around his 20s, rode a motorbike to V.s home on Sunday afternoon. He entered the house for a brief moment before leaving. V.s mother ran out of the house shortly after as she called for help. Nearby neighbors rushed into the residence and found V. on the floor with a stab wound. He was suffering from severe bleeding. The man was rushed to the hospital but eventually succumbed to his injury. Some eyewitnesses recalled seeing blood on the clothes of the suspect. After being notified, police in District 12 have initiated an investigation, examined the scene, and started a manhunt for the suspect. A source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper stated that the suspect seemed to be an acquaintance of the victim. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnamese carrier Pacific Airlines had to dispatch an empty plane from Ho Chi Minh City to Cam Ranh Airport in south-central Khanh Hoa Province to transport passengers, who had waited for hours, late Sunday night as technicians were replacing the original aircrafts spare parts. Flight BL6201 operated by Pacific Airlines was scheduled to depart at 7:15 pm on Sunday, according to a representative of the airline. However, the flight operator consecutively announced its delay until 9:00 pm and later an unspecified time, without informing passengers about the reason, one traveler named Huynh Minh Nhat told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. Its almost midnight and the airline merely announced another delay without specifying the reason and new departure time while were already so hungry and thirsty, said Nhat. It was not until 10:00 pm that the carrier provided us with meal vouchers. The Pacific Airlines representative later told Tuoi Tre that the airplane originally employed for flight BL6201 needed to have its spare parts replaced, leading to the delay. Passengers wait as their Pacific Airlines flight to Ho Chi Minh City is delayed at Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, April 17, 2022. Photo: Minh Nhat / Tuoi Tre After assessing the situation, the airline sent another plane carrying spare parts and engineers from Ho Chi Minh City to Cam Ranh. This aid plane departed Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 11:15 pm. After arriving at Cam Ranh Airport, the plane prepared for the transportation of flight BL6201s passengers to Ho Chi Minh City. Its new scheduled takeoff time was 1:00 am Monday. Meanwhile, the original aircraft stayed at Cam Ranh and had engineers replace its spare parts. Pacific Airlines sincerely apologizes to all affected passengers for this unexpected incident and hopes that passengers will sympathize with us, the representative said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Documentary special Palazzo di Cozzo, which profiles cult Italian-Australian businessman, Franco Cozzo, screens on ABC TV Plus next week. Cozzo built a furniture empire in Melbourne becoming famous and beloved for his distinct television commercials in which he would star in Northa Melbourne anda Footisgray. The Australian Dream. Italian Style. At just twenty-one years old, Franco Cozzo travels alone on the wave of post-war migration from Ramacca, Sicily, to Melbourne. He arrives on Australia Day, 1956. A classic migrant story, Franco has no money to his name, just a suitcase in hand, packed by a mother who has farewelled her one surviving child. The young Italian begins work as a door-to-door salesman in a rapidly expanding suburbia. It is a difficult reality, characterised by hard work and isolation. Keen to avoid a racist slur and door-in-the-face, Franco learns to target homes with lemon trees in the front yard to increase his chance of a sympathetic welcome; he has quickly become a savvy businessman. In two years, he will have opened his first furniture store and his wares are in vogue, elaborate neo-baroque and rococo pieces imported from Italy. But Franco wants to put his name in lights. Francos arrival in 1956 was auspicious, as it marked the year Australia introduced the great new mass medium: television. His trajectory was already tied up with the progress of the nation. By 1967 Franco funds and produces Carosello Australias very first non-English language television show that features fellow migrants crooning Italian pop-songs in their mother tongue. From here, it will be only a few years until he broadcasts the first iteration of the format that will truly make his name: the television advertisement. Megalo megalo megaloSe migliore mobile volete comprare, Franco Cozzo e dove andareBuy from Franco Cozzo! Franco speaks direct to camera, arms outstretched, as he rises from a studded chaise lounge. The tri-lingual catchphrase repeated in Greek, Italian and English becomes a refrain stuck in the head of generations of Melbournians and turns Franco Cozzo into a household name, and a very rich man. Mediterranean customers flock to Francos stores and the press begin to realise they have an entertainer on their hands. In many ways, Franco has made a caricature of himself. His mispronunciation of the English suburb names remains part of the popular vernacular to this day. These pop-culture references signal the evolution of the Mediterranean migrant in Australias collective psyche, from the butt-of-the-joke to the joker, from the cultural marker to the cultural producer. But Franco Cozzos name endures for another reason: an illicit myth. Francos first-born and only son, is convicted of selling drugs from the furniture store in the early nineties. Rumours abound and soon all of Melbourne has an opinion. Francos response: People are jealous. 2018: Franco is eighty-two years old and still works six days a week. He still sells the same furniture as when he opened his doors sixty years ago. And he is still beloved by Melbourne. Nobody seems to mind the rumours, in fact, they lap them up. Passers-by come into his stores for a photo or stop him on the street. But customers are dwindling. When someone with an eye for the elaborate furniture does enter, they are no longer Greek or Italian. They are the more recent migrants: African, Chinese, Arabic. They share a taste, but not a language, and Franco struggles to do business with those outside his community. Franco decided to put his iconic Footscray store on the market, but it is not so easy to let go. As he confronts the reality of his own mortality, hes not so sure about leaving his work and the public eye. A salesman and performer to the end, will Franco really be able to move on? Production credits: A Film Camp production, for the ABC. Principal production investment from Screen Australia in association with the ABC. Financed with support from Film Victoria. Theatrical Distribution by Sharmill Films. Written and directed by Madeleine Martiniello. Produced by Philippa Campey and Samantha Dinning. ABC Executive Producer Kalita Corrigan. 8:30pm Wednesday April 27 ABC TV Plus. Ukrainian folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra have been granted special permission by the countrys government to go on tour across Europe, in preparation for Eurovision. The band, which filmed their postcard in Israel and appeared at Israel Calling, will now perform live in Turn. The six-man band were initially runners-up to represent their country, when national selection took place in January. However, the original winner Alina Pash had previously visited Russian-controlled Crimea in 2015, and Ukraines national broadcaster, the national selection committee and Pash collectively decided she should not take part. Kalush Orchestra will go instead to this years Contest. The group were told just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Psiuk told the Times, The dates were very close so I had mixed feelings, but I am happy I can help my country with my music it is the biggest way I can be useful right now. People cannot think a lot about music now as there are much more important things to worry about how to survive, how to find food for your family. The band is now the favourite to win in May. The bands dancer will not be going to Turin next month, having joined the Kyiv defence forces. Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra couldn't film its Eurovision postcard in Ukraine, so they're filming it now at the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem after JAFI helped them travel here for "Israel Calling."@wiwibloggs @eurovisionwld pic.twitter.com/0vctBF46u5 Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) April 5, 2022 Source: Deadline Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has announced the unanimous support of the Italian parliament for the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the prospects of strengthening sanctions on Russia. "The decision to send weapons was taken in parliament almost unanimously ... Sanctions are necessary to weaken the aggressor, but they cannot stop the troops in the short term. For that we need to help the Ukrainians directly, what we are doing. Not to do so would be tantamount to telling them to surrender, accept slavery and submission - this goes against our European values of solidarity. Instead, we want to let Ukrainians defend themselves," Draghi told Italy's Corriere della Sera. The Italian prime minister called the Ukrainian resistance heroic and noted that "there is no sign that the Ukrainian people will put up with the Russian occupation." At the same time, he noted that the position of all NATO allies is still to avoid direct European involvement in the war. According to Draghi, he communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and when urged to discuss peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he was told that "the time for that has not come yet. And after the murders in Bucha in Kyiv region, the Italian prime minister came to the conclusion that dialogue with the Russian head of state was useless. "I'm beginning to think that those who say: you have no use talking to them, you're only wasting time," he said. The Prime Minister of Italy noted that the European Commission and all allies are convinced that the sanctions against Russia are effective. "Europe buys more than half of Russia's gas exports. The European Union's market power over Moscow is a weapon to be used... Europe continues to finance Russia by buying oil and gas, including at a price that has nothing to do with production costs. Imposing a ceiling on the price of Russian gas, as proposed by Italy, is a way to strengthen sanctions while minimizing the costs to us who impose them," he said. "We no longer want to depend on Russian gas, because economic dependence should not become political subordination. For this we need to diversify energy sources and find new suppliers ... Diversification is possible and feasible in a relatively short time, faster than we anticipated just a month ago," Draghi added. The Wentian and Mengtian lab modules will be sent into space this year, and will become the central working area for astronauts in orbit after China's space station construction is completed, according to a press conference on Sunday. The Wentian lab module will be launched in July and Mengtian in October, Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Agency, said at the press conference. Yang Hong, the chief designer of the space station system of the China Manned Space Program at the China Academy of Space Technology, said that both modules are equipped with experiment cabinets and an installation platform for extravehicular payloads. In the two lab modules, astronauts will be able to research space science, space materials, space medicine and space exploration. The Wentian lab module is equipped with the same astronaut living facilities as the Tianhe core module, including three sleeping areas, a toilet and a kitchen. Wentian and Tianhe can support six astronauts living in space during the rotations of two spacecraft crews. A small mechanical arm is installed on the Wentian lab module. It can be used alone or work with the larger robotic arm on the Tianhe core module to assist astronauts in extravehicular activities. An airlock cabin in the Wentian lab module will serve as the main exit-entry point for extravehicular activities once the construction is completed. The node cabin in Tianhe will then serve as a backup. To ensure the reliability of the space station, Wentian will act as a backup for the management and control of the space station complex if there is an issue with the core module. In the Mengtian lab module, a cargo airlock cabin and a deployed extravehicular platform will serve future extravehicular research projects. The science equipment that needs to be installed outside will first be sent to the space station by cargo craft, then transferred outside through the cargo airlock cabin, and then installed on the extravehicular platform by mechanical arms or astronauts. Yang said the Wentian lab module has completed integrated assembly and testing in Tianjin and is ready for launch. The Mengtian lab module has completed part of its integrated assembly and testing, and is currently undergoing further testing as planned. Zhong Hong'en, deputy chief designer of the China Manned Space Program's space utilization system, said that the container-free experiment cabinet and high-quality microgravity experiment cabinet in the Tianhe core module have achieved world-leading conditions to carry out frontier research. In addition to these cabinets, the space station will have another 12 experiment cabinets installed, said Zhong, who is also a researcher at the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Every cabinet serves as a miniature space lab. Three large payload hanging points and two experimental exposure platforms will also be deployed, along with the Xuntian space telescope, which will fly in the same orbit as the space station. Zhong said that the research facilities aboard China's space station will help researchers make breakthroughs in fundamental and cutting-edge scientific issues and promote China's space science research and applications to reach a new level. Hao Chun noted at the press conference that crewed spaceflights, which can promote economic and social development, are closely related to the national economy and the people's livelihoods. Hao said that the Beijing Winter Olympics adopted many aerospace technology achievements, from its opening and closing ceremonies to athlete training equipment. Since China launched its crewed space program 30 years ago, more than 4,000 technological achievements have been widely used in various industries of the national economy, driving technological innovation and industrial upgrading, Hao said. He said that more space technology progress will be transferred to civil fields to improve the lives of the people, such as using crystalized protein in space to develop new drugs that fight osteoporosis and muscle atrophy. In the future, China's space station will carry out scientific experiments and technology verification related to the life sciences, material science, microgravity fluid physics, aerospace technology and aerospace medicine, Hao said. "We believe that more space technologies will serve social and economic development and people's livelihoods," he said. The ruling Guinean military junta's determination to increase revenues from its bauxite and iron ore resources could hit China's efforts to make inroads into the West African nation. Despite assurances that the military would respect "existing regulations, contracts and investments" after Alpha Conde was removed as president in a coup in September, Guinea has been exerting more pressure on foreign mining firms. Most recently, it ordered foreign companies to construct local bauxite refineries and in March suspended operations at Simandou, the country's largest iron ore deposit. Chinese companies have vast investments in Guinea, which is the world's second largest producer of bauxite, a mineral used to make aluminium. About half of China's bauxite imports are from Guinea. 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. Simandou is one of the world's largest undeveloped iron ore deposits, and China sees the site as a source to help reduce its reliance on supplies from Australia. The Simandou project is Guinea's largest iron ore deposit. Photo: Rio Tinto alt=The Simandou project is Guinea's largest iron ore deposit. Photo: Rio Tinto> But Guinea's military rulers have toughened their stance towards multinationals, saying they want the country to earn more from its mineral resources. Last week, the junta ordered mining companies to present proposals and a timetable for the construction of refineries to convert bauxite into alumina within Guinea by the end of May. "Despite the mining boom in the bauxite sector, we have to admit that the expected revenues are below expectations, and you and we cannot continue this game of fools that perpetuates great inequality in our relations," junta leader Mamady Doumbouya said in a meeting with stakeholders in Conakry. Story continues Without providing specifics, Doumbouya warned that "penalties" would follow if the mining companies failed to meet the deadline. Bauxite miners have reportedly committed to developing refineries in the country, but not much has progressed. Anthony Everiss, a senior aluminium analyst at the commodities consultancy CRU Group, said Guinean leaders had been seeking ways to turn the nation's mineral wealth into a means of economic development. He said the junta's move comes at a time when Guinea's bauxite shipments to China are at an all-time high, surpassing six million tonnes in a single month for the first time. However, there currently was just one alumina refinery in operation, and it was built several decades ago, Everiss said. The announcement "is the first time Guinea's junta has shown its hand and is the strongest sign of intent yet that [it] is determined to pursue its policy of resource nationalism", Everiss said. "Guinea is now much more aware of the value of their resources" and has better control of the mining industry and exports, he said. CRU does not expect a greenfield alumina refinery to be built in Guinea before 2026. Technical limitations and higher capital costs in Guinea versus China may lead to disappointment in the government's expectations, it said. Map: SCMP alt=Map: SCMP> The consultancy estimates that six companies have planned 11 million tonnes per year of alumina refining capacity in Guinea. But unlike the significant progress in bauxite mining, movement on alumina refineries has been slow. Only the project by Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) has made some progress; all others are in early stages. Chinese firms including Chalco Guinea, Jinjiang Group Guinea, TBEA Guinea, Henan International Guinea and Zibo Rundi Guinea are in the early investment stage. However, analysts say it is unclear if this would have an immediate impact. "Presentation of plans would not automatically translate to aluminium production," said W. Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow with the Centre for Global Development and a former Liberian public works minister. He said most African governments harboured ambitions of moving up the value chain of their mineral exports, so the junta's announcement "is not surprising". Bauxite is not the only resource for which Guinea wants more royalties. The junta said that work at the Simandou iron ore project, where operations were suspended last month, had not progressed and that it was not clear how the mine contributed to national interests. The project has been hit by delays because of years of ownership disputes and slow progress on the 650km (400-mile) railway needed to transport the ore to Guinean ports. Simandou is divided into four blocks with an estimated 2 billion tonnes in commercial-scale, high-grade reserves. Anglo-Australian multinational Rio Tinto owns 45 per cent of Blocks 3 and 4; Aluminum Corp of China, or Chinalco, holds 40 per cent; and Guinea's government has the remaining 15 per cent. Blocks 1 and 2 were awarded in 2019 to SMB, a consortium formed by Singaporean shipowner Winning Shipping, Chinese aluminium producer Shandong Weiqiao, the Yantai Port Group and the Guinean transport and logistics company United Mining Supply. Australia supplies about 60 per cent of China's iron ore imports, but ties between the two countries have been strained since Canberra called for an international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus and banned China's Huawei Technologies from its 5G network. Anglo-Australian multinational Rio Tinto owns a large stake in the Simandou iron ore project. Photo: Reuters alt=Anglo-Australian multinational Rio Tinto owns a large stake in the Simandou iron ore project. Photo: Reuters> That dependence has been driven home in recent weeks with sanctions on Russia driving up the price of commodities, including Australian iron ore. Lauren A. Johnston, a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide, said the Guinean leaders were "simply taking advantage of contemporary global tensions and supply chain fears to get a better deal for Guinea". "Remember that countries like Morocco are gaining aspects of supply chain production that is moving from Ukraine. I guess Guineans also want to join the upgrade opportunism, as much as nationalism strictly. I think they are just thinking it's a good time to go for a marginally better deal for them," Johnston said. She said Chinese companies had always been relatively happy to move in the direction of local industrialisation. "This may be less true in terms of minerals processing - they have such scale at home it would be hard to compete," Johnston said. 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. Fans wait in front of O2 Academy in Glasgow ahead Louis Tomlinson's show tonight DEDICATED fans of singer Louis Tomlinson have travelled halfway across the world to see him play in Glasgow tonight. Some supporters have flown in from as far away as Australia, while others have missed family births just to get a glimpse of the star. Dozens of fans, equipped with blankets, hot water bottles and sleeping bags, camped out overnight in front of the O2 Academy in the city's Gorbals, where the singer is due to kick off his world tour tonight at 7pm. The former One Direction member has gained even more fame as a soloist with songs like Miss You and Always You. Some superfans went the extra mile to see their favourite artist. Glasgow Times: Louis Tomlinson's show starts at 7pm tonight Louis Tomlinson's show starts at 7pm tonight Glasgow Times: Queue in front of the O2 Academy ahead Louis Tomlinson's gig Queue in front of the O2 Academy ahead Louis Tomlinson's gig Glasgow Times: Some fans were waiting for 15 hours for the show to start Some fans were waiting for 15 hours for the show to start READ MORE: Glasgows Pollokshaws arcade street art project sparks plans for mural trail Kayo Juanaga, 24, travelled all the way from Tokyo to see the singer and has been camping out since 11am yesterday. She is following Louis around on tour, going to Manchester after tonight and then to London and Doncaster. Glasgow Times: Joao Valle age 20, left and Kayo Juanaga age 24 Joao Valle age 20, left and Kayo Juanaga age 24 Glasgow Times: Kayo Juanaga if fourth in the queue Kayo Juanaga if fourth in the queue Music-obsessed Georgia Paterson, 26, and Maree Muscara, 24, have flown 27 hours to be here, from Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. Maree is celebrating her birthday today and is happy to be spending it with the new friends she made in the line. Georgia said: "It's been freezing here, but fun. When we arrived, someone said 'do you want to sit down on our blanket?' And we said yes. "We heard that Glasgow crowds are good and Louis is just the best. "His shows are very intimate." Glasgow Times: Georgia Paterson age 26 from Sydney, left and Maree Muscara age 24 from Melbourne Georgia Paterson age 26 from Sydney, left and Maree Muscara age 24 from Melbourne READ MORE: Glasgow's Overdrive smashing stereotypes about boys in dance Others made similar sacrifices, like Joao Valle, 20, from Manchester, who has also been camping out since Sunday afternoon and is holding his girlfriend's place, who is staying at a hotel nearby. Story continues They travelled five hours for the gig, which will be his first time seeing the singer live. Charli Burns, 17, and Petra Hanusova, 20, met today and have been keeping themselves busy by listening to music and making bracelets for each other. Glasgow Times: Fans brought camping chair and blankets against the cold Fans brought camping chair and blankets against the cold Glasgow Times: Charli Burns age 17 holding her phone, ready to go 'blue for Lou' Charli Burns age 17 holding her phone, ready to go 'blue for Lou' They say the fan community is united and comes together to support each other and organise events. A special event 'Blue for Lou', organised by fans, encourages them to stick a blue piece of paper on their phone light and create a 'blue ocean' in the venues. It's a lovely sentiment that has been successful before. Alicia Hewitt, 18, Keira Campbell, 22, and Tess Couper, 20, came to the venue together at 3.30am this morning. When asked what the most difficult part of the process was, Keira said: "The rain was a bit of a downer." Tess added: "For me, getting out of bed. When I woke up, I was considering not even coming." But they say the 15-and-a-half-hour wait will be worth it to see their favourite artist. Alicia, who met the singer in person before, said: "It was nerve-wrecking. "He is so chill and down to earth, very kind and normal. "He would be great to go for a drink with." Glasgow Times: from left- Tess Couper age 20, Alicia Hewitt age 18 and Keira Campbell age 22 from left- Tess Couper age 20, Alicia Hewitt age 18 and Keira Campbell age 22 Glasgow Times: Fans holding up their signs, ready to go Fans holding up their signs, ready to go Allegra Santoro, 20, from Italy, learned how to crochet in the queue. She said: "It's not that difficult. I thought it would be worse. "I have just been watching YouTube videos." She met Valeria Sanchez, 19, who is from Peru but studies in the city, early this morning in front of the venue. They struggled with the cold weather and became great friends, bonding over their love for Louis, who they both adore since his One Direction days. Glasgow Times: Allegra Santoro age 20, left and Valeria Sanchez age 19 Allegra Santoro age 20, left and Valeria Sanchez age 19 Nahir Blacio, 17, travelled from Spain and missed the birth of her first nephew to attend the show. Camping since 8pm last night, she earned the number one spot for general admission, in a system made up by fans to keep track of the queue. Glasgow Times: Nahir Blacio age 17 Nahir Blacio age 17 She said: "I saw him live before in 2019, at a festival in Madrid. "I am most excited to hear the song Defenseless, which he first played at that festival, it was incredible and beautiful." China donates COVID-19 medical aid to Arab League Xinhua) 08:27, April 18, 2022 CAIRO, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China has donated a batch of medical aid to the Cairo-headquartered Arab League (AL) to support its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a joint statement released by the Chinese embassy in Egypt and the AL's secretariat on Sunday. The medical supplies, delivered to the AL general secretariat on Thursday, included face masks and other medical equipment. Liao Liqiang, Chinese ambassador to Egypt and representative to the League of Arab States, said China values its deep friendship with the Arab states, and is ready to strengthen cooperation with the AL in various fields and make joint preparations for the first China-Arab Summit, according to the statement. China supports the AL to play a greater role in promoting regional peace and stability, and is ready to work with Arab countries to build a China-Arab community of shared future, Liao said. For his part, AL Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki praised China for supporting the AL in the fight against the COVID-19 by sending medical supplies and vaccines. Member states of the AL are keen to strengthen their cooperation with China in various fields, including the Belt and Road Initiative, Zaki said, referring to the China-proposed global initiative with a vision to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road trade routes by land and sea. Member states of AL appreciate China's diplomatic efforts to find peaceful solutions to regional crises and safeguard both international and regional peace and stability, he added. The first China-Arab Summit to be held later this year will promote the development of the strategic partnerships between Arab states and China and serve the common interests of both sides, according to Zaki. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) The 2022 Paulson Prizes for Sustainability are now accepting applications until June 30, announced the Paulson Institute, in partnership with China's Tsinghua University on April 15. "The climate and biodiversity crises are two of the biggest challenges of our generation. The Paulson Prize for Sustainability is all about discovering the ideas and innovations that will make a difference in mitigating their impact," said Henry M. Paulson, Jr., founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute. "By shining a light on the most innovative and transformative green projects coming out of China, the Paulson Prize seeks to inspire the spread of sustainable solutions that can make our world more resilient and environmentally sustainable," he stressed. In 2013, the Paulson Institute launched the Prize to annually award projects in China that present innovative, scalable, and sustainable solutions to address the twin emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss. The main objective of the Prize is to lead the global sustainability transformation by inspiring new thinking and shining a light on projects that offer the most potential to meet these challenges, both in China and around the world. In its ninth year, the Paulson Prize awards one project in each of two categories: Green Innovation and Nature Stewardship. The Nature Stewardship award is given to projects centered around conservation and biodiversity protection. This category recognizes innovative and scalable projects that preserve and protect the natural environment, including restoring natural ecosystems in China, such as wetlands, forests, oceans, rivers, grasslands, and deserts. The Green Innovation category, as in years past, focuses on the built environment, including energy conservation, comprehensive utilization of resources, the circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and climate resilience. Yu Jiang, chief representative of the China Office & Managing Director for the Paulson Institute in Beijing, said in his speech addressing the launch ceremony that as the world's second-largest economy and one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, China advocates a green, low-carbon and ecologically-first development path. Therefore, its innovative solutions can serve as a reference for promoting the agenda for sustainable development. "We look forward to more enterprises, institutions, social groups, and non-governmental organizations actively participating in the application this year to promote the Chinese solutions to the world," Yu said. "We are at a pivotal time in the transition to a low carbon economy, where the capital, technology, and policy all must align to enable growth in green initiatives and industries at a significant pace and scale," said Tracy R. Wolstencroft, jury co-chair in Green Innovation, senior advisor to TPG Rise Climate, and former president and CEO of the National Geographic Society, "The Paulson Prize represents a unique opportunity for both public and private sector leaders in green innovation to receive international recognition, but also raise their profile with potential new partners, new investors, customers, and policymakers." "China has innovative models and practices in ecosystem restoration and protection. Through the Paulson Prize, we hope to bring these innovations to the rest of the world," said Ma Keping, Paulson Prize jury committee co-chair, chairman of IUCN Asia Regional Members Committee, and deputy director-general for the Biodiversity Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. More information is available via the link: https://www.paulsoninstitute.org/key-initiatives/prize/ PHILADELPHIA The frustration jumped off the Instagram page: "I have never ever seen this many people trying to dump their dogs," posted Jessica Mellen-Graaf of the Philly Bully Team dog rescue. Already swamped, her rescue team had received 20 requests in 48 hours from owners who wanted to give up their dogs. "We knew this could happen," she said. "I just don't think we thought it was going to be this bad." In the early months of COVID-19, the near-emptying of the nation's animal shelters was one of the few bright spots in a dark time. ASPCA data suggest over 23 million American households acquired a pet during the pandemic. But as pandemic restrictions receded, many are returning to the workplace or finding COVID has otherwise altered their circumstances. Animal advocates are now scrambling to find volunteers to foster homeless dogs. Fewer people want to adopt. And organizations say they're inundated with requests from owners to unload dogs they no longer want or feel able to keep. "It's hard right now," said Marta Gambone of Phoenix Animal Rescue in Chester Springs, Pa. Pet rescues and shelters help people giving up pets due to hardship, but Gambone and fellow advocates say a lot of the surrenders they're seeing now are a different story. They are dogs like Nate, a playful, one-year-old German shepherd turned over to Phoenix recently by his family. "He is smart as a whip, he's a great dog, but they surrendered him because they don't have time for him," Gambone said. "He's absolutely a COVID dog that somebody bought, and now that the people are going to work, they don't want to deal with him anymore." Many of these "COVID dogs" are big breeds a pet population that has become a challenge for animal shelters and rescues nationwide to foster or find homes, especially now. "People get a puppy because it's cute, but that puppy grows into a 100-pound Mastiff or Boerboel," Gambone said. "We've seen a lot of dogs that are not the right match being returned because they're getting a lot bigger and they're getting destructive at home because they're not getting the exercise they need." Angelica Giunta, president of Philly Rescue Angels, recently helped an owner who said he couldn't keep his young husky mix. "My life circumstances changed," said the husky's owner, a Philadelphia professional who didn't want to be named. Giunta found a husky rescue willing to help find a new home for that dog. No such luck for a young father-son shepherd pair another owner no longer wanted. "The rescues are so full. I hate asking other rescues. I know how they feel," Giunta said. "I'm at capacity right now." Especially upsetting to Mellen-Graaf of Philly Bully Team and fellow pet advocates is that many of these surrenders stem from lack of training a fixable problem that some groups will even help with. "A lot of what we're seeing is people struggling with their dogs having separation anxiety which totally makes sense," said Mellen-Graaf. "When they got these dogs, they were home all the time. They never taught the dogs to be alone, and they never bothered to crate train them. Now people are leaving their houses more often, and they're seeing this anxiety they unknowingly caused." During COVID, many new owners couldn't get a trainer, couldn't afford one or didn't know how to do it themselves. A lot of these pets ended up with behavior problems. Freddie Mercury, a young brown pit bull mix with pretty chestnut eyes and big, stick-up ears, was adopted from the Philly Bully Team as a happy, friendly puppy. But he was returned as a severely under-socialized young dog. The rescue paid for a board and train program for Freddie. "He had to relearn structure and boundaries all those things he wasn't taught as a puppy when he adopted," Mellen-Graaf said. "He's looking for a home now," she added. "He's a good boy." As tough as things are for private shelters and rescues, the situation ratchets up a whole other level at Philly ACCT, Philadelphia's open intake shelter where the mission is to take all dogs brought in, and where owner surrenders are way up. "It's just a game of musical chairs every day, and unfortunately the cost sometimes is these animals' lives," said Sarah Barnett, ACCT's acting co-executive director. "We're having to timestamp (schedule for euthanasia) dogs that I never imagined we would need to because these were dogs we thought would leave thought would get adopted." Open intake shelters around the country are over capacity, said the director. ACCT recently had more than 120 dogs in space meant for 70. Lengths of stay are way up, but there aren't enough foster homes or space in rescues and private shelters to give more ACCT dogs more time to find a home. ACCT tries to prevent surrender by helping owners keep their pets offering to pay for veterinary care or training classes, for example but lately, many seem less receptive. "People really have reached their breaking point," Barnett said. "There are different issues that are just making people hit their brink and not be open to help or assistance in the way they used to be." Meanwhile, ACCT has struggled with budget cuts as service demands have risen. "That's why everybody is reaching out to the public whether it's fostering, adopting or volunteering," Barnett said. "Anything." ACCT, for example, often waives adoption fees. Many shelters and rescues also offer help with veterinary care, training or other needs. Maddie Bernstein, PSPCA's Philly manager of life saving, says they've been getting at least 10 surrender requests a day instead of the typical one to three, she said. Cats are still finding homes, said Bernstein, echoing other shelter operators. It's dogs, and their higher care commitments, that are having a harder time. Normally, this would still be the slow season for animal surrenders. Summer, with vacations and other plans, is usually when foster homes and adopters get scarce. But now it's busy everywhere, said Mellen-Graaf of Philly Bully Team. "I just had one of our shelter partners in South Carolina text me: "Can you please take a litter of puppies? Please, please, please,'" she said. "I have nowhere to put them. But if they're going to be euthanized, I have to take them. I can't say no. They're puppies." What to do? "I'll find somewhere for them to go," she said. She just didn't know where. WATERLOO A Waterloo man has been arrested after he allegedly threatened to shoot up a house on Sunday. Authorities were called to a disturbance at the home at 413 Oliver St. around 3:30 p.m. Sunday as people were arriving for a family gathering for Easter. Witnesses said two people began arguing with residents at the home. A man threatened to shoot up the Oliver Street home and told a woman walking to the house that he was going to cut her natural gas line and set her house on fire, according to court records. Police arrested Terrence Fitzpatrick Hackett, 44, for first-degree harassment and threat of arson. Bond was set at $7,000. Kamay Julia Kelly, 23, was arrested for second-degree harassment. She was later released from jail. Court records state Kelly and a resident at the Oliver Street home have had ongoing problems. Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Indiana-based telecommunications company MetroNet has announced plans to bring gigabit-speed, 100% fiber optic service directly to homes and businesses in Waterloo. Metronet is the sixth-largest fiber-optic provider in the United States, offering service in eight states. The company operates or is in the process of building fiber networks in nearly two dozen Iowa cities, including Ames, Bettendorf, Davenport and Ankeny. According to a company press release, the two-year construction project will begin this summer, with the first customers receiving service before the end of 2022. Metronet is thrilled to soon deliver a future-proof internet infrastructure to Waterloo residents and businesses, said John Cinelli, Metronet CEO, in the press release. The company is capable of providing multi-gigabit speeds, including 5GB, in the very near future. When pre-construction activities begin, Waterloo residents will see Metronet trucks throughout the area. Residents will be notified by mail about construction in their neighborhood 30 days prior to starting. Additional messaging, such as yard signs, will also be provided about when construction is beginning in a neighborhood. According to the companys website, in Iowa MetroNet offers packages starting at $49.95 a month for 100 mbps, $59.95 for 200 mbps, $69.95 for 500 mbps and $89.95 for 1 gigabit. The 200 mbps and 500 mbps plans paired with whole home WiFi for 24 months are priced at $54.95/month or $64.95/month depending on the plan. Under some promotions the 1 gig package is $59.95/month for the first six months before increasing to $69.95/month for 12 months and then the regular price of $89.95/month afterward. Craig Zimmerman, market manager for MetroNet, said Waterloo is an excellent opportunity for us. Weve been extremely excited about working with the city and providing a choice for residents and businesses there. Zimmerman said while the exact price of the fiber build out in Waterloo isnt known yet, the Des Moines project cost around $70 million. The city of Waterloo has explored the creation of a municipal telecom utility for years. Voters in 2005 approved such a utility, but the effort stagnated. But it has recently sparked to life again. In November, the City Council unanimously approved a $2.5 million contract with Magellan Advisors to design and engineer a network of 309 miles of fiber-optic cable throughout the city. It will be paid for with American Rescue Plan funding. The design will provide a cost estimate for actually building the system. The city likely would then ask voters to approve a bond issue to help pay for construction, expected to cost tens of millions of dollars. Dubbed the fiber for the home plan, the design will allow businesses and homes connect to a municipal utility instead of Mediacom or CenturyLink. Noel Anderson, community planning and development director for Waterloo, said the work MetroNet is doing would essentially be competition for the city, but the city welcomes competition if it means expanding options for Waterloo residents and businesses. I think MetroNet would be a competitor if the citys not partnering with them, which the citys moving ahead with their own [plan], Anderson said. But I think more fiber options for the citizens and businesses of Waterloo will help the overall goal of providing a fiber city. Expansion of broadband access is mapped out in the citys 8 Big Ideas in 8 Years plan to further modernize and increase opportunities for Waterloo. The eighth point of this plan, Community of Opportunity, specifically highlights the importance of better Internet access. Meanwhile, Zimmerman says his company is ready for the competition. All the residents and all the businesses are going to have a choice, theyre going to have an option, and were hoping that all of them will recognize us as a great competitor, a great alternative, Zimmerman said. Were hoping to prove that we can provide better service and support, offer better speeds and therefore be a better value for the residents and the businesses of Waterloo. MetroNet will be hiring local sales and customer service professionals along with service technicians to support the Waterloo area. Those interested in joining the MetroNet team can visit MetronetInc.com/careers to search available positions and to submit applications. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Changing regulatory requirements along with staffing and marketplace challenges are causing Rosewood Estate to close. Amity Fellowserve-Iowa Inc., the nonprofit entity that has owned and operated the independent living facility since it opened in 1995, announced Monday that the closing will happen by this summer. The 70-apartment facility is open to people 55 and older. Currently, 48 people occupy 34 apartments in Rosewood Estate, located at 1117 Maxhelen Blvd. The building includes single- and double-occupancy apartments. It was a really difficult decision that the board of directors took really seriously, said Mike Young, the nonprofits attorney. Rosewood Estate has had the same operations since it opened 27 years ago, but regulations from the state of Iowa have changed, especially in the last few years. Those changes required a lot of expense, and when the pandemic hit those factors made it financially unsustainable. A news release cited COVID-19 for the staffing complications and marketplace challenges that led to the boards decision, among other factors. Before the pandemic occupancy was closer to 90% (of capacity), said Young. The challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it was difficult on the residents and the staff to navigate because it lasted longer than anyone anticipated. Regarding regulatory changes, the news release added that the costs of proposed mandates from the State of Iowa were becoming overly burdensome. Rosewood Estate has a unique structure, said Young. It is an independent facility where residents contract their own health care. The state of Iowa (has) approved that relationship since 1995 but recently indicated that it would have to operate more as an assisted living facility, which entails many more costs. When you factored in the pandemic and the change in the state regulations that is why the board felt this was the only choice, he noted. The news release said the leadership of Rosewood Estate is committed to ensuring that all residents as well as the 37 employees and contracted staff members are provided with alternative arrangements in an orderly and timely manner, with careful consideration given to the well-being of all stakeholders. The organization is working with the nearby Friendship Village Retirement Community, which currently provides management services at the facility, to accomplish this. Fortunately, Friendship Village is able to provide placement for all of the residents and all of the employees if they so choose, said Young. We realize not everyone will transfer over, but were grateful to offer that option to everyone because we hope that makes the move less disruptive. Services will continue at Rosewood Estate until alternative placements with Friendship Village or elsewhere can be identified for all residents, which is anticipated to be completed within 90 days. Rosewood Estate staff, as well as social workers from Friendship Village and UnityPoint HealthAllen Hospital, are assisting residents and their families as they examine the available options. What will happen to the building once operations cease has yet to be determined. The decision on the buiding will be made at a later time, said Young. Right now, the focus is assisting the residents and the staff who are impacted. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO --The Waterloo Noon Kiwanis will meet Tuesday at the Elks Lodge for a noon luncheon. Whitney Jensen, Winnebago Council development director, will provide updates on Scouting camps. The Waterloo Noon Kiwanis are celebrating 100+ years of service to the Waterloo Community . Service-minded individuals may attend meetings. Call Larry Cain at 319-231-9871 for the meeting RSVP. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Chinese lawmakers are considering a draft law revision to provide tougher rules against trafficking women. The draft revision to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women was submitted on Monday to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for a second reading. The draft proposes a "mandatory reporting and screening mechanism" to swiftly identify and handle crimes against women. Marriage registration organs, local governments, women's associations, and hotels shall report to the police if they suspect women are being trafficked or abducted, says the draft. Those who fail to perform the mandatory duties will be punished. Hotels that fail to report such law violations or crimes may have their business licenses revoked or fined up to 50,000 yuan (about 7,845 U.S. dollars). The draft revision underwent a first reading in December, after which the legislature posted the draft online to solicit public comments. Over 420,000 comments were submitted, a sign that the legislation has garnered wide public attention. Many comments called for prompt measures to identify and prevent law violations or crimes that infringe upon the rights and interests of women, including trafficking, according to Zang Tiewei, a spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee. The Ministry of Public Security in March kicked off a special operation that will run through year-end to crack down on the abduction and trafficking of women and children. A government work report made public during this year's "two sessions" in March also vowed to "crack down hard" on the trafficking and buying of women and children. Lawmakers will deliberate the draft revision in group discussions during the NPC Standing Committee session, which will be convened until Wednesday. What sort of nation is so sick in its soul and its soul so debilitated that it is to the point of permitting a degenerate US administration to carry the world to the edge of atomic holocaust? A country that fails to address it? Fail to question why we support radical groups all over the world? Fail to see the damage we do as a country to the world? Fail to care at all about anything? Fails to see how we involve religion as a tool of said degeneracy? The latest holiness of decisions, as we even involved the Pope, is significant in that virtually no one questions anything. The Pope is not capable to question, for he is corrupted deeply and answers to his handlers. Are we all corrupted so deeply that we only answer to our handlers also? A majority rule government, all hail a voter based system, a culminated lie which has carried us to the edge of nuclear and society breakdown. It has carried us to the edge of the abyss. It has carried us to the edge of the Armageddon and it is within view As we go down for the last time, why must we embrace the Jewish entertainer named Zelensky, he who was made president of Ukraine, who clearly hates the Ukrainian public of its citizens, who is the epitome of the west, whom has turned into a contemptible USA/EU public legend, and a gay sex poster boy image for the USA/EU as well It matters not to this western society that truth has been flowing and truth has been squelched by itself and that truth is showing the Ukrainians killing their own for years and years. And you fly the murderers flag, along side our own murdering flag and embrace the killers desires and send more weapons to the killers, to kill more citizens of its country and then look around and have the gall to say that Russia is killing these people.we have the gall to point at Russia and say that Russia is evil! Yet Russia is the only one trying to stop the world from becoming a devoid and soulless place of penitence for the wicked upon earth. As moths flitting from flame to flame in the dark, should we not embrace the light of good and turn from the light of evil? Such melancholy individuals we Americans are WtR By Russian_Village A survivor of six heart attacks and a brain tumor, a grumpy bear of a man, whom has declared Russia as his new and wonderful home. His wife is a true Russian Sweet Pea of a girl and she puts up with this bear of a guy and keeps him in line. Thank God for my Sweet Pea and Russia. Shout-out to the person who named the new Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy exhibition at the Legion of Honor. It's the clearest way to sum up the premier Chinese designer's work. Of course, "mind-blowing, heart-thumping, meticulously crafted, East-meets-West wearable art," works, too. Just opened and on view through September 5th, the show dazzles from top to bottom, gravity-defying headpieces to fanciful footwear and everything exquisite in between. Essentially, it's a celebration of the renowned couturier's remarkable work over the past 20 years. You'll find more than 80 pieces from Guo Pei's collections, which have graced runways around the globe, from Beijing to Paris. Plus, many of the designs have never been publicly displayed before. (We love a first to see moment.) The fashion designer is best known for lavish embroidery that draws on artistic Chinese traditions, unconventional design techniques, and exquisite craftsmanship. Her couture fantasy fuses the influences of Chinas imperial past with the grandeur of European court life, architecture, export art, and floral and botanical motifs. Themes that show up often in her magical designs include rebirth, Chinese legends, and religion. Installation of 'Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy' at the Legion of Honor. (Gary Sexton; courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) "In my life, there are two types of designsthe first type is very realistic and wearable. The other type of design is for me. These things are closer to art. My designs tend to be wild and whimsical, and I try a lot of new things. I am using clothes to tell a story, so its very similar to a play," Guo Pei explains. While the designer was looking forward to attending the museum's opening events, Covid restrictions in China made it impossible for her to travel. Still, she's thrilled that her first comprehensive exhibition has finally arrived. "As a creator and artist, there is no greater honor or privilege than to share my creativity with a wider audience. I am therefore honored and humbled that the prestigious Legion of Honor Museum is presenting a retrospective of my work. In doing so, I hope that it brings greater awareness and understanding of my lifes passion, and conveys Chinese culture, traditions and shows the new face of contemporary China," she says. So exactly who is Guo Pei and what's her story? Here's a condensed primer. The 55-year-old Beijing nativecrazy-famous in her home countryhas been dressing A-listers of all types for years. She came of age during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and graduated at the top of her class with a fashion-design degree from the Beijing Second Light Industry School in 1986. Guo Pei, Legend of the Dragon, Autumn/Winter 2012, Silk; embroidered with metallic threads, sequins, embellished with Swarovski crystals, rhinestones, metal wire. (Copyright Guo Pei / Asian Couture Federation. Photograph by Lian Xu; courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) After a decade working for major manufacturers, she set up her own atelier, Rose Studio. Today, it employs more than 500 skilled artisans who produce her elaborate creations. Some take, literally, thousands of hours and years to complete. In 2015, Pei became only the second native Chinese member of the prestigious Chambre Syndicate de la Haute Coutureallowing for her Paris haute-couture debut in 2016. Her Courtyard Collection won rave reviews and there have been many accolades since (i.e. making Time mag's 100 Most Influential People and Business of Fashion's BoF 500 lists). Undoubtedly, though, there is one moment that launched Guo Pei into another stratosphere of fame. It had a little something to do with a pop star named Rihanna and the Met Gala in 2015. When the "Diamonds" chanteuse stepped out in a GP-designed canary-yellow cape gown with detailed floral embroidery and a pooling train, it was instantly iconic. The memes flowed on social media. And turns out, having one's dress compared to omelets and other food items increases your street cred and recognition with Western audiences. Installation of 'Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy' at the Legion of Honor. (Gary Sexton; courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) While visitors won't get to see the dramatic RiRi gown, they're in for another surprise: the exhibit's unconventional format. Sure, there's a dedicated area on the museum's lower level where a cluster of small galleries display Pei's luxurious works. They're arranged by theme not chronologically, on the chicest mannequins we've seen. But these beauties are just the amuse-bouche. The scrumptious main course takes place upstairs in the permanent galleries. Guo Pei's showstoppers are placed en scene, next to paintings, antiquities, and decorative arts from various periodsMedieval Renaissance and Mannerist Art to 19th century European Art to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. These cleverly curated juxtapositions are truly delightful and thought-provokingand that's the point. "Displayed in a neoclassical architectural context at the Legion of Honor, amidst our collection of European art, Peis designs encourage our visitors to consider the rich historical ties between China and the West," says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Bottom line: There's much to see hereall fabulous, especially for fashion lovers. But even if you don't read one placard or listen to the excellent audio tour, Guo Pei's work is a feast for the eyes, heart, and mind. As long as you bring those along, you'll leave richer for the experience. // Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave. (Sea Cliff); advance tickets are recommended, tickets.famsf.org. Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg 13+ / Alamy Stock Photo En espanol Consumers deceived by a sprawling online scam promising easy access to government services like drivers license renewals and housing vouchers are in line for relief with the help of a federal lawsuit that secured more than $102 million in refunds for victims. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the launch this month of a process to reach people who did business with On Point Global, the umbrella entity for a network of Miami-based companies that operated more than 200 websites offering supposed shortcuts to government benefits and services. Stretto, the company handling the refund process, is contacting people misled by the multiyear scheme, which targeted consumers nationwide. If you made a payment or provided personal data such as your age, income, gender, or credit or debit card number to an On Point Global site, you have until July 17 to file a claim. Search ads led to phony sites The sites, with names like DMV.com, floridadriverslicense.org and my-food-stamps.org, used search engine advertising to target people looking for information about drivers license and vehicle registration renewals in their state, hunting and fishing licenses, and eligibility for federal aid such as Section 8 housing vouchers and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, according to the FTC, which filed suit against the operators in late 2019. But most cybercriminals arent tech geniuses like Jonathan was; theyre good at basic skills and willing to learn. Kim, for example, was a middle-aged bookseller from Denver who must have read too many crime thrillers and how-to computer manuals. Relying solely on what he learned from books, he became a successful cybercriminal until the law caught up with him. He spent four years in federal prison. Thomas had retired from a career as a mortgage officer before he decided there was easier money to be had from stealing over the web. He, too, ended up in prison. David was a career criminal check-kiting was his bread and butter until he discovered it was easier to steal as a cybercrook. Albert was a kid from Miami with computer skills who became very rich before he was caught and given a 20-year prison sentence. Ray was a retired Army officer who didnt begin his cybercrime career until he was 64. Shawn was an aspiring actor who was a natural at identity theft. These are just some of the people I know who got caught. Most high-tech scammers dont. But what we can learn from them is that there is no single profile of a cybercriminal other than they are motivated by what they believe will be easy money. What you can also take away from their stories is that the tech tools of criminality are relatively easy to find, buy and use. Order some computers and headsets, get top-grade internet service, buy and install the right software, teach your workers to use it and other online tools, and your boiler room can be up and running quickly. The dark web This underground part of the internet began as a project developed by the U.S. Navy to allow intelligence operatives to communicate with each other anonymously. Over time, the Navy made its Tor browser open source, meaning anyone could use the dark web, including you and me and for free. That has proven to be a jackpot for criminals. Because of its ability to keep users anonymous, tech specialists train scam artists how to use it to communicate, share information, buy stolen goods and services, and plot criminal activities. Telegram Thats the name of a secure, encrypted, private messaging app owned by Pavel Durov, a Russian billionaire. Telegram is notoriously unfriendly to law enforcement, and so it has become the new favorite meeting place of online crooks and scammers. MYKULYCHI, Ukraine On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadnt yet found a home. All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraines capital, Kyiv. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. Volunteers dug them up one by one on Sunday two weeks after the soldiers disappeared. This spring is a grim season of planting and replanting in towns and villages around Kyiv. Bodies given hurried graves amid the Russian occupation are now being retrieved for investigations into possible war crimes. More than 900 civilian victims have been found so far. All four bodies here were killed on the same street, on the same day. Thats according to the local man who provided their caskets. He bent and kissed the cemeterys wrought-iron crosses as he walked to the makeshift grave. The volunteers tried digging with shovels, then gave up and called an excavator. As they waited, they recounted their work secretly burying bodies during the monthlong Russian occupation, then retrieving them. One young man recalled being discovered by soldiers who pointed guns at him and told him Dont look up as he dug a grave. The excavator arrived, rumbling past the cemeterys wooden outhouse. Soon there was the smell of fresh earth, and the murmur, There they are. A woman appeared, crying. Ira Slepchenko was the wife of one man buried here. No one told her he was being dug up now. The wife of another victim arrived. Valya Naumenko peered into the grave, then hugged Ira. Dont collapse, she said. I need you to be OK. The two couples lived next to each other. On the final day before the Russians left the village, soldiers knocked at one home. Valyas husband, Pavlo Ivanyuk, opened the door. The soldiers took him to the garage and shot him in the head, apparently without any explanation. Then the soldiers shouted, Is anyone else here? Iras husband, Sasha Nedolezhko, heard the gunshot. But he thought the soldiers would search the homes if no one answered. He opened the door and the soldiers shot him too. The mens caskets were lifted out with the others, then pried open. The four bodies, wrapped in blankets, were placed in body bags. The lace-edged white lining of each casket was stained red where the head had been. Ira watched from afar, smoking, but stood by the empty caskets as the others left. All this land is in blood, and it will take years to recover, she said. She had known her husband was here. Nine days after his temporary burial, she came to the cemetery scattered with picnic tables, following the local custom of spending time with the dead. She brought coffee and cookies. I want this war to end as soon as possible, she said. The other bodies were a teacher and a local man who lived alone. No one came for them on Sunday. In the house next to the cemetery, 66-year-old Valya Voronets cooked homegrown potatoes in a wood-warmed room, still getting by without water, electricity or gas. A small radio played, but not for long because the news gets too depressing. A plate of freshly cut radishes rested near the window. A Russian soldier once came running and pointed his gun at her husband after spotting him climbing onto the roof to get a cellphone signal. Are you going to kill an old man? 65-year-old Myhailo Scherbakov replied. Not all the Russians were like that. Voronets said she cried together with another soldier, barely 21. Youre too young, she told him. Another soldier told her they didnt want to fight. Still, she feared them all. But she offered them milk from her only cow. I felt sorry for them in these conditions, she said. And if youre nice to them, maybe they wont kill you. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine SEOUL, South Korea North Korea has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon designed to boost its nuclear fighting capability, state media reported Sunday, a day before its chief rivals the United States and South Korea begin annual drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal. The 13th weapons test this year came amid concerns that North Korea may soon conduct an even larger provocation. That may include a nuclear test in an effort to expand the countrys arsenal and increase pressure on Washington and Seoul while denuclearization talks remain stalled. The official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un observed what it called the weapons successful launch. It released a photo showing a beaming Kim clapping his hands with military officers. KCNA said the weapon tested has great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the front-line long-range artillery units, enhancing the efficiency in the operation of (North Koreas) tactical nukes and diversification of their firepower missions. KCNA didnt elaborate, but its use of the words tactical nukes suggested the weapon is likely capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could hit strategic targets in South Korea, including U.S. military installations. The KCNA dispatch didnt say when and where the launch occurred. North Korea is trying to deploy not only long-range nuclear missiles aimed at American cities but also tactical nuclear weapons to threaten Seoul and U.S. bases in Asia, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. Pyongyangs purposes likely exceed deterrence and regime survival. Like Russia employs the fear it could use tactical nukes, North Korea may want such weapons for political coercion, battlefield escalation and limiting the willingness of other countries to intervene in a conflict, he said. Some observers said the weapon showed in North Korean photos suggested it might be a smaller, lighter version of its nuclear-capable KN-23 missile that has a highly maneuverable flight aimed at defeating missile defense systems. Others said it could be a new missile that combines the technical characteristics of the KN-23 and another short-range ballistic missile called the KN-24. South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it had detected two launches from the Norths eastern coastal town of Hamhung early Saturday evening. It said the missiles flew about 110 kilometers (68 miles) at an altitude of 25 kilometers (16 miles) and a maximum speed of Mach 4. South Koreas presidential office said officials have met twice this weekend to discuss the North Korean military activities. South Koreas military said later Sunday that its nine-day springtime drills with the United States will start on Monday. It said the allies decided to hold computer-simulated command post exercises that dont involve field training after reviewing factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the allies combined defense readiness. The exercises could further intensify animosities on the Korean Peninsula because North Korea has previously responded with its own weapons tests and fiery rhetoric. North Korea has started this year with a slew of weapons tests, including its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland since 2017. South Korea recently said it has detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before it entered now-dormant nuclear talks with the United States in 2018. A possible nuclear test by North Korea would involve a tactical nuclear warhead, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. He predicted that North Korea would push to mount a tactical nuclear warhead on the weapon tested this weekend and deploy such nuclear missiles near the border with South Korea. North Korea has a domestic imperative to make and perfect weapons ordered by Kim Jong Un last year regardless of what the U.S. does or doesnt do. The test also tells his people that their country is strong despite their apparent economic difficulties, said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at Washingtons Center for a New American Security. One reason for the political timing could be to protest anticipated U.S.-South Korea military drills. On Friday, Kim attended a massive civilian parade in Pyongyang that marked the milestone 110th birthday of his state-founding grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It appeared the country passed its most important national holiday without a highly anticipated military parade to showcase its new weapons systems. Kim may still hold a military parade on the April 25 founding anniversary of North Koreas army. But if that anniversary goes without a military parade again, some experts say that might mean Kim doesnt have new powerful missiles to display and that his next provocative step will likely be a nuclear test. ___ Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report. JERUSALEM Israeli police on Sunday entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalems Old City to secure the way for Jewish visitors to the flashpoint holy site, fueling clashes that left 17 Palestinians wounded, according to Palestinian medical workers. The unrest happened just two days after clashes with Palestinians at the same site. Violence in Jerusalem between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators a year ago escalated into an 11-day Gaza war. The hilltop compound housing the mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, while it is the holiest place for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The competing claims to the site have sparked numerous rounds of violence. This year the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Christian holy week culminating in Easter Sunday and the week-long Jewish Passover are all occurring at the same time, with tens of thousands of visitors flocking to the city after coronavirus restrictions have been mostly lifted. Israeli police accused Palestinians of defiling and desecrating a holy site, while Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to divide the sensitive holy site. What happened in Al-Aqsa Mosque is a dangerous escalation, the repercussions of which are to be borne by the Israeli government alone, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Police said they entered the compound to facilitate the routine visit of Jews to the holy site. They said Palestinians had stockpiled stones and set up barriers in anticipation of violence. Amateur videos circulating on social media appeared to show police officers using batons to subdue arrested Palestinians and clear people from the esplanade, drawing accusations they were using excessive force. In one video, an officer clubbed an apparently unarmed man as he stood next to a child. Omer Barlev, the Israeli minister in charge of the police, said it was important to ensure freedom of worship but we will not compromise when violence and terror take place. The police cleared Palestinians out of the sprawling esplanade outside the mosque itself early Sunday, while dozens of Palestinians remained inside the building chanting God is Greatest. Video released by police showed small groups of youths throwing stones, as well as fireworks being fired from inside the mosque. Palestinians reported brief clashes with Israeli police just outside the mosque compound, while police said Palestinians had thrown stones at buses outside the Old City. Paramedics said five people riding in buses received treatment for minor injuries in the attacks. Police released a video showing a crowd of youths pelting a passing bus with stones just outside the Old City. Another video from the police, taken inside one of the buses, showed Jewish families sitting on the floor of the vehicle as it continued on its way. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ordered additional security on public buses going to the Old City after a situation assessment with top defense officials. We are working to calm things down on the one hand and are taking vigorous action against violent individuals on the other, he said. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said 17 Palestinians were wounded, including five people who were hospitalized. Israeli police reported nine arrests. By midday, witnesses said police had moved out of the compound. Jordan, which serves as custodian of the holy site, issued a statement condemning Israels actions, saying they undermine all efforts made to maintain the comprehensive calm and prevent the escalation of violence that threatens security and peace. Under longtime understandings, Jews are allowed to visit the Temple Mount but are barred from praying there. For decades, Jews avoided worship there for religious reasons. Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years large groups of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited the site with police escorts, something the Palestinians view as a provocation. The number of visitors often rises during religious holidays. Palestinian officials said nearly 550 Jewish visitors entered the compound, compared to just a few dozen on most days. Such practices have fueled concerns among Palestinians that Israel is plotting to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound or partition it. Israel strongly denies such claims, saying it is committed to protecting freedom of worship for all. Clashes erupted at the site before dawn on Friday after police said Palestinians had hurled stones toward the Western Wall, an adjacent Jewish holy site. Police entered in force and clashed with dozens of Palestinians shortly after dawn prayers. Israel captured east Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war. The Palestinians want a future state in all three territories. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and is building and expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank. Hamas controls Gaza, which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group seized power there in 2007. A radical Jewish group recently called on people to bring animals to the site in order to sacrifice them for Passover, offering cash rewards for those who succeeded or even tried. Israeli police work to prevent such activities, but the call was widely circulated by Palestinians on social media, along with calls for Muslims to prevent any sacrifices from taking place. Israeli police accused Palestinians of spreading disinformation on social media, heightening the tensions. SANTA FE A Republican lawmaker is telling New Mexico school districts to defy state education rules and ignore newly overhauled K-12 social studies standards enacted by the states education department, calling them racially divisive. The standards were the first complete overhaul of history, geography, economics and social studies since 2001. In addition to race, they added sections, including LGBTQ history, the 9/11 attacks and personal finance. Some other states, however, have restricted the teaching of race in moves that New Mexico Republicans have cheered. They see the issue as a potent one in this years gubernatorial race. As local school officials, you are morally obligated to reject these standards and to proceed serving your community as the autonomous school official you were elected to serve as, wrote State House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, in the letter, shared last week by Republican officials. The letter marks an escalation in the politics of education in New Mexico because it urges school boards to ignore state rules codified by the Legislature and enforced by the education department. By law, the Public Education Department sets education standards. School districts are funded by the Legislature with the expectation that they follow them. Following a rulemaking process with public input, the education department increased the focus on Native American history, and required students to learn more about the role of privilege and race in public life. Education officials say the implementation of new standards in fall of 2023 will increase inclusivity in the classroom and prepare students to live in an increasingly multicultural society. About half of New Mexico is Hispanic and around 10% of residents are Native American. Its unclear what all-out defiance against the social studies standards Montoya is calling for would look like. School districts are free to choose their textbooks and the overall content of their lessons. For example, the standards require students to evaluate the role of race and racism in the acts of land redistribution during European and U.S. conquests of the Southwest. But school districts decide how students learn those concepts. Montoya, who is Hispanic, didnt elaborate in the letter and has not responded to a request for comment. Its also unclear how the state would respond if school leaders found a way to reject the standards outright. In a statement, education department spokeswoman Judy Robinson said that public schools are charged with implementing the standards through specific, locally designed curriculum, but declined to comment on what would happen if they didnt do that. School board leaders are elected locally but can be fired by the Public Education Department. It removed one school board last August after it voted to make masks and social distancing optional, directly contradicting Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams health order at the time. It removed another board over alleged violations of ethics and transparency laws. The ongoing battle over a proposed crematorium that has some neighbors fuming in the North Valley isnt dead yet, but it also doesnt seem to be getting anywhere. Since January, neighbors near the proposed site at 116 Mountain Park Place NW have voiced their opposition to the crematorium, arguing that while the street itself is zoned as light industrial, its surrounded by residential areas filled with living, breathing folks. Its also less than a half-mile west of Balloon Fiesta Park. Upset neighbors say they were blindsided by the plans and dont deserve to be assailed with toxic, smelly emissions from burning bodies that they fear could be worse than what wafts out from the animal crematorium a few doors down from the proposed site. But crematorium owner Michael Monach said his crematory is state of the art, efficient, safe and wont produce putrid, poisonous gases and hes got the documents and research to prove it. Bernalillo County officials say Monach has diligently followed the process to get his crematorium up, running and burning. But thus far, the cumbersome machinations of local government seem only to work to silence and aggravate both sides. The latest incident occurred April 12 at what was supposed to be an in-person Bernalillo County Commission meeting. Neighbors say they had planned to show up in force to support their appeal of the county Planning Commissions decision in March to approve a special use permit for the crematorium. We had a lot of people lined up, experts, photos, graphs, studies, said Pat Hauser, a member of the nearby Maria Diers Neighborhood Association. People took time off from work to be there. But hours before the meeting was to begin, they were informed it would instead be held online via Zoom because of an unexplained, last-minute COVID-19 concern. What a joke, neighbor Paul Searcy remarked. To understand the frustration, a little history. Monach said he had searched for a year for a properly zoned property for a crematorium and mortuary before finding the Mountain Park Place site, a shuttered plumbing business off Second and Alameda NW, in October. In November, he submitted his application to the Planning Commission for a special use permit and followed the notification process of nearby neighbors and businesses. Monachs application was scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Jan. 5, but a ransomware attack that infected the Bernalillo County computer systems shut down the meeting before his request could be heard. That was fortuitous, at least as far as neighbors were concerned, because many of them say they never got wind of the proposed crematorium in time. Monachs application hearing was rescheduled for Feb. 2, but neighbors complained they were still only learning about the crematorium and wanted more time to respond. Planning commissioners agreed, deferring action on the application until its next meeting March 2. But at that next meeting, neighbors and Monach were not given the chance to speak. Under the procedures of the commission, discussion was already closed. My thought was that the applicant would have an opportunity to reach out to the neighbors, which obviously he has done, Commissioner Joelle Hertel, who had made the motion to defer action from the February meeting, told her fellow commissioners. So my thoughts now are that we go to a vote. And that was that. The commission unanimously approved Monachs special use permit. Neighbors seethed, disagreeing that Monach had reached out to them. But Monach said he had tried to reach out, sending out 25 letters by certified mail. He received only one response. Im happy to educate the public and answer questions, but its like Im the black plague, he said. They dont want to talk to me. Neighbors appealed the permit decision, presenting 13 points against the crematorium, at least half alleging mishandling or misrepresentation by the Planning Commission and staff. That appeal was heard April 12 before the Bernalillo County Commission. The last-minute switch to Zoom impeded many neighbors and experts from attending. The commissioners themselves thwarted the rest of them. Commissioner Walt Benson, whose district includes the proposed crematorium site, asked that the matter be remanded back to the Planning Commission, this time allowing neighbors to comment. But the commission took no comments from the neighbors that day, the only discussion on the matter coming from a few of the commissioners, their comments arguably sympathetic to Monach. Benson and Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada bemoaned how long it took for loved ones to be cremated because of the backlog of bodies at operating crematories. Its kind of an emergency thing going on here, Quezada said. Commission Chairwoman Adriann Barboa remarked that she has lived next door to a crematorium all her life and has never noted bad effects. Barboas house, which she proudly touts as the same home she grew up in, is a half-mile south of Affordable Cremation and Burial, one of 30 crematories across New Mexico. Bensons motion to remand passed unanimously. Within minutes, the meeting was over. So its back to the Planning Commission on May 4. It feels like there is no value in taking this back before that board, Hauser said. Once theyve pulled the trigger they cant pull it back. I find this all so discouraging. Still, Hauser said he and others plan to strengthen their resolve to oppose the crematorium with the extra time theyve been given. Should that commission stick with its approval, the earliest an appeal can be heard is June. Should the appeal be denied, neighbors are discussing whether to take the matter to court. Should that happen, Monach said he intends to countersue. For seven months Ive been stuck in nowheresland, Monach said. I understand the neighbors concerns, but at the end of the day it boils down to their opinion and I dont agree with it. If only those opinions could be better shared. I obtained a copy of the neighbors 13-point appeal. Its a worthwhile read, too long to print in this column. My copy also includes Monachs written responses to each point. They, too, are worth reading. Imagine if this process allowed for such a give-and-take rather than two-minute morsels of public comments and five-minute rebuttals if either side gets even that. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian fighters holed up in a steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port. The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless, 7-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscows biggest victory of the war yet and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraines industrial east. As its missiles and rockets slammed into other parts of the country, Russia estimated 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the hulking Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 4 square miles and is laced with tunnels. Moscow gave the defenders a midday deadline to surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were guaranteed to keep their lives. The Ukrainians rejected it, just as they did with previous ultimatums. We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABCs This Week. He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, but we do not have intention to surrender. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent Easter greetings via Twitter, saying: The Lords Resurrection is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil. If Mariupol falls, Russian forces there are expected to join an all-out offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the eastern industrial region the Kremlin is bent on capturing after failing in its bid to take Kyiv, Ukraines capital. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter. An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministrys spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine as Russian troops prepare for battle in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory. Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraines military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault. After the humiliating sinking of the flagship of Russias Black Sea Fleet last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, the Kremlin had vowed to step up strikes on the capital. Russia said Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near Kyiv overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Explosions were also reported overnight in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets earlier this month killed at least 57 people at a train station crowded with civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. A regional official in eastern Ukraine said at least two people were killed when Russian forces fired at residential buildings in the town of Zolote, near the front line in the Donbas. At least five people were killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage slammed into apartment buildings and left the streets scattered with broken glass and other debris, including part of at least one rocket. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in an impassioned address marking Orthodox Palm Sunday, lashed out at Russian forces for not letting up the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. Russia also said that its forces shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets in the Kharkiv region and destroyed two Ukrainian command posts and a radar system for S-300 surface-to-air missiles in the city of Avdiivka, north of Donetsk city. Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the claimed losses. Malyar, the Ukrainian deputy defense minister, said the Russians continued to hit Mariupol with airstrikes and could be getting ready for an amphibious landing to reinforce their ground troops. Capturing the southern city on the Sea of Azov would allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets. The looming offensive in the east, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a vital piece of the country and a badly needed victory he could sell to the Russian people amid the wars mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by the Wests sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow this week the first European leader to do so since the invasion Feb. 24 said the Russian president is in his own war logic on Ukraine. In an interview on NBCs Meet the Press, Nehammer said he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war, and we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine. Without explicitly mentioning Putins decision to invade, Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in Ukraine, decrying this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. LVIV, Ukraine Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraines east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine militarys general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putins forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town. He added: We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the regions governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagons assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. ___ Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine AUSTIN, Texas Alex Jones company Infowars has filed for bankruptcy protection after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation lawsuits over his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. Jones filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas and told his listeners Monday he was totally maxed out financially. He urged his audience to contribute money or buy products off his Infowars website. Attorneys for Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets as juries later this year are set to determine how much he should pay in damages. Heres what to know: WHAT DOES ALEX JONES CLAIM? Infowars told the bankruptcy court it had estimated assets of $50,000 or less and estimated liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Creditors listed in the filing include relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut. Two other companies with ties to Jones, Prison Planet TV and IW Health, also filed for bankruptcy. An attorney for InfoWars did not return messages seeking comment but Jones has addressed the bankruptcy in recent days on his show. He has been banned from major social media platforms for hate speech and abusive behavior. We have less than $3 million cash and we need that money to operate, Jones said. WHAT IS JONES FACING? Jury selection had been set to begin next week in Austin in a trial to determine how much Jones should pay the families of Sandy Hook victims. He faces similar trials in Connecticut later this year. The plaintiffs in those cases have said they were subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones followers because he promoted the hoax conspiracy that crisis actors faked the shooting in an effort by the federal government to take away guns and restrict firearms. Jones has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Alex Jones is just delaying the inevitable: a public trial in which he will be held accountable for his profit-driven campaign of lies against the Sandy Hook families who have brought this lawsuit, said Christopher Mattei, who represents the families in a Connecticut lawsuit against Jones. Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, died in the Newtown school shooting, said he did not immediately know how the bankruptcy would affect his defamation lawsuit against Jones in Texas, It is what it is, Heslin said. Well see where it all goes. Hes tried everything to avoid everything. WHAT ARE JONES FINANCES? A separate lawsuit earlier this month accused Jones of hiding millions of dollars in assets. An attorney for Jones has called the allegation ridiculous. Last month, Jones was fined $75,000 for failing to appear for a deposition in a defamation case but a judge last week ordered the return of the money because Jones eventually showed up. The bankruptcy court filings claim that Jones has paid $10 million in legal fees. He claimed in court records last year that he had a negative net worth of $20 million, but attorneys for Sandy Hook families have painted a different financial picture. Court records show that Jones Infowars store, which sells nutritional supplements and survival gear, made more than $165 million between 2015 and 2018. Hes going to come under far more scrutiny under a bankruptcy court than in state court, said Sid Scheinberg, a bankruptcy attorney with Godwin Bowman in Dallas, which is not involved in the Jones case. WHAT EFFECT WILL THIS HAVE ON THE SANDY HOOK CASES? Filing for Chapter 11 puts civil litigation on hold while the business reorganizes its finances. It is not the first time a bankruptcy filing has affected a lawsuit filed by the Sandy Hook families. While suing gun maker Remington, which manufactured the AR-15-style rifle used in the school shooting, the company filed for bankruptcy twice. In the second case filed in 2020, Remingtons assets were eventually sold off to other companies. The 2020 bankruptcy delayed proceedings for a year in the Connecticut lawsuit, which sought damages against Remington for how it marketed its rifles. In February, the families of nine victims of the school shooting announced they had agreed to settle the case for $73 million. ___ Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. ANKARA, Turkey Turkey has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, that has left at least 19 suspected Kurdish rebels dead and has wounded at least four Turkish soldiers, Turkeys defense minister said Monday. Turkish jets and artillery struck suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and commando troops supported by helicopters and drones then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video posted on the ministrys website. Akar said the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK. The group maintains bases in northern Iraq and has used the territory for attacks on Turkey. At least 19 militants were killed while four Turkish troops were wounded during the offensive, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish militant group on the incursion and the defense ministry statement couldnt be verified independently. Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decades. The latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, was centered in northern Iraqs Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions. There was no information on the number of troops and jets involved in the latest incursion. Our heroic commandoes and maroon berets supported by attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, armed unmanned aerial vehicles arrived on the scene by land and by air and captured the determined targets, Akar said in a second video. Many terrorists were neutralized. At this point we have reached, all planned targets have been captured, he said. The Defense Ministry said the new offensive was launched after it was determined that the militants were regrouping and preparing for a large-scale attack. The offensive was carried out in coordination with Turkeys friends and allies, the ministry added, but didnt elaborate. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region, which controls the areas that were attacked. The Turkish minister said the incursion was targeting terrorists and that maximum sensitivity was being shown to avoid damage to civilians and cultural and religious structures. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, began an insurgency in Turkeys majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984. SEOUL, South Korea The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Washington and Seoul agreed on the need for a strong response to North Koreas recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country. Sung Kim flew to South Korea on Monday for talks two days after North Korea conducted a new type of missile test in its 13th round of weapons firing this year. Experts say North Korea wants to advance its weapons arsenal and wrest concessions such as sanctions relief from its rivals. Weapons tested include nuclear-capable missiles able to target both the U.S. mainland and its allies such as South Korea and Japan. There are concerns that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test soon to intensify its pressure campaign. We agreed on the need for a strong response to the destabilizing behavior we have seen from North Korea, Kim told reporters after meeting with his South Korean counterpart. (We) also agreed on the need to maintain the strongest possible joint deterrent capability on the peninsula. South Korean nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk said he and Kim shared concerns that North Korea will likely continue to engage in acts that raise regional tensions. He urged North Korea to return to talks. Kim said the allies have not closed the door on diplomacy with North Korea and have no hostile intent toward the country. He repeated his earlier statement that the United States is ready to meet North Korea anywhere, without any conditions. North Korea has so far rejected Kims outreach, saying the United States must first drop its hostile policy before talks can resume. Some experts say North Korea wants the U.S. to relax sanctions or suspend its regular military drills with South Korea, which it views as an invasion rehearsal. Earlier Monday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off their springtime computer-simulated command post exercise. North Korea has previously responded to such drills with missile tests and warlike rhetoric. North Korea said Sunday it tested a new tactical guided weapon a day earlier which would boost its nuclear fighting capability. Some analysts said the weapon is likely a short-range ballistic missile to be mounted with a tactical nuclear warhead capable of targeting South Korea. Last month, North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching the U.S. homeland in its first long-range weapons test since November 2017. U.S.-led diplomacy meant to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and political rewards remain largely stalemated since 2019. JERUSALEM Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank. Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gazas militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Years Eve. Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, targeting a weapons manufacturing site for Hamas, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries. Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli violations in Jerusalem. Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago cant silence us from whats happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. However, no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which has long been an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because the mosque stands on a hilltop where the Jewish temples were located in antiquity. Protests and clashes there this time last year helped trigger an 11-day Gaza war. Police said they were responding to Palestinian stone-throwing and that they were committed to ensuring that Jews, Christians and Muslims whose major holidays are converging this year could celebrate them safely in the Holy Land. Palestinians view the presence of Israeli police at the site as a provocation and said they used excessive force. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, ahead of the rocket fire, that Israel has been the target of a Hamas-led incitement campaign. The latest tensions come during the rare confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover. Christians are also celebrating their holy week leading up to Easter. Tens of thousands of visitors have flocked to Jerusalems Old City home to major holy sites for all three faiths for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security matters, have condemned its actions at the mosque. Jordan which serves as custodian of the site summoned Israels charge daffaires on Monday in protest. Jordans King Abdullah II discussed the violence with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, agreeing on the need to stop all illegal and provocative Israeli measures there, according to a statement. Jordan planned to convene a meeting of other Arab states on the issue. Israel has been working to improve relations with Jordan over the past year and has recently normalized relations with other Arab states. But the latest tensions have brought renewed attention to the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, which Israel has sought to sideline in recent years. The U.S. State Department urged all sides to exercise restraint, to avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo at the holy site. Spokesman Ned Price said U.S. officials were in touch with counterparts across the region to try and calm tensions. U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting on the tensions for Tuesday. In Israel, an Arab party that made history last year by joining the governing coalition suspended its participation on Sunday a largely symbolic act that nevertheless reflected the sensitivity of the holy site, which is at the emotional heart of the century-old conflict. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem which includes the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and is building and expanding Jewish settlements across the West Bank, which it views as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people. The last serious and substantive peace talks collapsed more than a decade ago. The Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over or partition the mosque compound. In recent weeks, calls by Jewish extremists to sacrifice animals there have circulated widely among Palestinians on social media, sparking calls to defend the mosque. Israeli authorities say they have no intention of changing the status quo, and police are enforcing a prohibition on animal sacrifices. Israel allows Jews to visit the site but not to pray there. In recent years large numbers of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited under police escort, angering the Palestinians and Jordan. Israel says police were forced to enter the compound early Friday after Palestinians stockpiled stones and hurled rocks at the gate through which Jewish visitors typically enter. That gate also leads to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Recent weeks have seen a series of Palestinian attacks inside Israel that killed 14 people. Israel has launched near-daily arrest raids and other military operations in the occupied West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing more. The military said Monday it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations across the territory overnight. In a raid near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives toward troops. Soldiers responded with live ammunition toward the suspects who hurled explosive devices, the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after being critically wounded. Two of the recent attackers came from in and around Jenin, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed. ___ Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Omar Akour in Jordan, Fares Akram in Hamilton, Canada; Matthew Lee in Washington and Jennifer Peltz at the United Nations contributed to this report. BEIRUT During a visit to Syria in 2017, Vladimir Putin lavished praise on a Syrian general whose division played an instrumental role in defeating insurgents in the countrys long-running civil war. The Russian president told him his cooperation with Russian troops will lead to great successes in the future. Now members of Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassans division are among hundreds of Russian-trained Syrian fighters who have reportedly signed up to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, including Syrian soldiers, former rebels and experienced fighters who fought for years against the Islamic State group in Syrias desert. So far, only a small number appears to have arrived in Russia for military training ahead of deployment on the front lines. Although Kremlin officials boasted early in the war of more than 16,000 applications from the Middle East, U.S. officials and activists monitoring Syria say there have not yet been significant numbers of fighters from the region joining the war in Ukraine. Analysts, however, say this could change as Russia prepares for the next phase of the battle with a full-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine. They believe fighters from Syria are more likely to be deployed in coming weeks, especially after Putin named Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who commanded the Russian military in Syria, as the new war commander in Ukraine. Though some question how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be brought in if more forces are needed to besiege cities or to make up for rising casualties. Dvornikov is well acquainted with the multiple paramilitary forces in Syria trained by Russia while he oversaw the strategy of ruthlessly besieging and bombarding opposition-held cities in Syria into submission. Russia is preparing for a greater battle in Ukraine and Syrian fighters are likely to take part, said Ahmad Hamada, a Syrian army defector who is now a military analyst based in Turkey. Syria observers and activists say the Russians have been actively recruiting in Syria for the Ukraine war, particularly among Russian-trained combatants. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that so far about 40,000 people have registered 22,000 with the Russian military and about 18,000 with the Russian private contractor Wagner Group. Around 700 members of al-Hassans 25th Special Missions Forces Division, known in Syria as the Tiger Force, left Syria over the past weeks to fight along Russian forces, Abdurrahman said. The numbers could not be independently confirmed. Pro-government activists posted videos over the past two weeks on social media showing members of the Tiger Force performing military drills including parachuting from helicopters. Russian officers appeared in one of the videos advising the paratroopers inside a helicopter as al-Hassan praised the young men by tapping on their heads. It was not immediately clear if the videos were new. Abdurrahman said there are also volunteers from the Russian-trained 5th Division; the Baath brigades, which is the armed wing of Assads ruling Baath party; and the Palestinian Quds Brigade, made up of Palestinian refugees in Syria. All have fought alongside the Russian military in Syrias war. The Russians are looking for experienced fighters. They dont want anyone who was not trained by the Russians, Abdurrahman said. The Tiger Force took credit for some of the biggest government victories in the 11-year conflict. It was involved in a monthslong Russian-backed campaign into the rebels last enclave, located in the northwest province of Idlib, which ended in March 2020 with government forces capturing a vital north-south highway though rebels remain in control of the enclave. Al-Hassan is one of Russias men and Russia will depend on him, said Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who runs the DeirEzzor 24, a Syria war monitoring group. Hundreds of fighters from the 5th Division and the Quds Brigade have registered at Russias Hmeimeem base in western Syria, which is leading recruitment efforts, and are waiting for orders, he said. In late March, a Russian-trained force known as the ISIS Hunters militia, which fought for years against IS, posted an ad calling on men aged 23 to 49 to come forward for screening, saying those who pass the test and are found suitable will be called on later. So far, about 100 men have registered their names in the southern province of Sweida, according to Rayan Maarouf of Suwayda24, an activist collective that covers IS activities in the Syrian desert. He added that they were promised a monthly income of no less than $600, a huge sum of money amid widespread unemployment and the crash of the Syrian pound. Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. had indications that the Wagner Group is trying to recruit fighters, mostly from the Middle East, to deploy in eastern Ukraines Donbas region. But he said there has been no specific information on numbers recruited. We just arent there yet to see anything real demonstrable when it comes to reinforcement, he added. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in early March that so far there are only very small groups trying to make their way from Syria to Ukraine, calling it a very small trickle. Retired Lebanese army general Naji Malaeb, who follows the war in Syria closely, said there is no indication so far of Syrian fighters traveling to Russia, but this could change as the war drags on. This all depends on what the Russians plan to do in the near future, Malaeb said. Syrian and Palestinian officials in Syria have played down reports of fighters heading to Ukraine. The Syrian government is likely wary of having Syrian fighters flock to Ukraine, opening opportunities at the front lines that its many opponents could exploit. In a potentially worrying sign for the Syrian government, Russia has significantly scaled down its operations in Syria since the war in Ukraine started, with fewer airstrikes targeting IS or opposition positions in Idlib. Any change in the posture of Russian forces or pro-regime militias creates security gaps that anti-regime actors including Turkey, ISIS, al-Qaida and Syrian opposition groups can exploit, the ISW report said. Muhannad Haj Ali, a former legislator and a commander with the armed wing of Syrias ruling Baath party said no Syrians have gone to fight in Ukraine and that he didnt expect any to go. He said he was certain Russia will win in Ukraine without any need for Syrians help. The way the operations are going is clear indication that Ukraine will not be another Afghanistan, he said. MADRID The phones of dozens of pro-independence supporters in Spains northeastern Catalonia, including the regional chief and other elected officials, were hacked with controversial spyware available only to governments, a cybersecurity rights group said Monday. Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, said a large-scale investigation it had conducted in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups found that at least 65 individuals were targeted or their devices infected with what it calls mercenary spyware sold by two Israeli companies, NSO Group and Candiru. NSO said the allegation could not be related to NSO products. Candiru couldnt be reached for comment by The Associated Press. Almost all of the incidents occurred between 2017 and 2020, when efforts to carve out an independent state in northeastern Spain led to the countrys deepest political crisis in decades. The former Catalan Cabinet that pushed ahead with an illegal referendum on independence was sacked. Most of its members were imprisoned or fled the country, including ex regional president Carles Puigdemont. NSOs Pegasus spyware has been used around the world to break into the phones and computers of human rights activists, journalists and even Catholic clergy. The firm has been subject to export limits by the U.S. federal government, which has accused NSO of conducting transnational repression. NSO has also been brought to court by major technology companies, including Apple and Meta, the owner of WhatsApp. Citizen Lab said its investigations into the use in Spain of Pegasus and spyware developed by Candiru another Israeli firm founded by former NSO employees started in late 2019 after a handful of cases targeting high-profile Catalan pro-independence individuals were revealed. Amnesty International said its technical experts had independently verified the attacks. The Toronto-based non-profit said it could not find conclusive evidence to attribute the hacking of Catalan phones to a specific entity. However, a range of circumstantial evidence points to a strong nexus with one or more entities within Spanish government, Citizen Lab said. Spains Interior Ministry said no ministry department, nor the National Police or the Civil Guard, have ever had any relation with NSO and have therefore never contracted any of its services. The ministrys statement said that, in Spain, all intervention of communications are conducted under judicial order and in full respect of legality. The prime ministers office didnt immediately respond to questions from AP. A spokeswoman with Ministry of Defense, which oversees Spains armed forces and intelligence services, declined to clarify if it had contracted NSO or Candiru software. The government of Spain always acts according to the law, said the spokeswoman, who wasnt authorized to be named in the media. Pegasus infiltrates phones to vacuum up personal and location data and also surreptitiously controls the smartphones microphones and cameras, turning them into real-time surveillance devices. NSO Groups stealthiest hacking software uses zero-click exploits to infect targeted mobile phones without any user interaction. NSO Group claimed it was being targeted by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International with inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports and false allegations that could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons. We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, an NSO spokesperson said in a statement. Citizen Lab said signs of a zero-click exploit not previously identified were found in infected devices of Catalans at the end of 2019 and in early 2020 before Apple updated its mobile operating system to patch vulnerabilities. Among the targeted individuals were at least three European lawmakers representing Catalan separatist parties, members of two prominent pro-independence civil society groups, their lawyers and various elected officials The revelations come as European Union lawmakers on Tuesday are holding the first meeting of a committee looking into breaches of EU law associated with the use of hacker-for-hire spyware. Four former regional Catalan presidents, including Puigdemont and his successor Quim Torra while he was holding office, were also subject to direct or indirect spying, the researchers said. Current Catalan President Pere Aragones, whose phone was infected, according to Citizen Lab, while he served as Torras deputy from 2018 to 2020, said massive espionage against the Catalan independence movement is an unjustifiable disgrace, an attack on fundamental rights and democracy. Because the software can only be acquired by state entities, the Spanish government must offer an explanation, Aragones said in a series of tweets. No excuses are valid, he wrote. To spy on representatives of citizens, lawyers or civil rights activists is a red line. In a response to Amnesty Internationals formal request in 2020 for full disclosure on contracts with private digital surveillance companies, Spains Defense Ministry said that information is classified, the rights group said Monday. The Spanish government needs to come clean over whether or not it is a customer of NSO Group, said Likhita Banerji, an Amnesty International researcher. It must also conduct a thorough, independent investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware against the Catalans identified. In a separate report also released Monday, Citizen Lab said it had also found evidence in 2020 and 2021 that the British prime ministers office was infected with Pegasus spyware linked to the United Arab Emirates. It said it found suspected infections at Britains Foreign Office linked to the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The group said it had informed the British government about the findings. Other countries where Citizen Lab and other public-interest researchers have confirmed Pegasus infections on political dissidents and journalists critical of governments include Poland, Mexico, El Salvador and Hungary. NSO Group claims it only sells Pegasus to government agencies to target criminals and terrorists, but hundreds of cases have been documented of its use against human rights and other activists, lawyers, reporters and their relatives. __ Frank Bajak in Boston and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. PHOENIX A suspect in the shooting of a Phoenix police officer and the subject of a manhunt for more than three days has been arrested. Authorities say 35-year-old Nicholas Cowan was found Sunday at a rental property in Scottsdale after receiving a tip from the public. Police spent several hours negotiating with him to surrender. Cowan was taken into custody shortly before 8 p.m. Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Williams says Cowan still had gunshot wounds from Thursdays shootout with the injured officer. Once he gets treated for those, he will be booked on several charges. Investigators believe several people helped Cowan hide from authorities. They have arrested 33-year-old Nicole Montalbano for aiding and abetting him. It was not immediately known Monday if she had an attorney to speak on her behalf. Phoenix police officers were speaking with Cowans girlfriend at a gas station Thursday regarding her domestic violence call when he arrived in his car. An officer was approaching Cowan when he shot her from inside his vehicle, police said. Another officer returned fire as Cowan continued shooting before fleeing the scene. The wounded officer is continuing to recover in the hospital. Cowan became the subject of an intense search by police and FBI. A $35,000 reward was issued for any information leading to his arrest. Last week, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian condemned the U.S. State Department for its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices which attacked China regarding its political system and human rights situation. Zhao stated that the U.S. government smears and denigrates China and consistently attacks other places around the world through such reports, in an "attempt to style itself as a judge and role model on human rights." Foreign policy "powered by" human rights Zhao's comments point to an important fact about how American foreign policy functions. The United States presents itself to its own public as a morally benevolent and superior country which acts as a force for good in the world. As a result, it disguises its foreign policy interests and goals in light of these moral inclinations, constantly seeking to frame a narrative of global struggle between "good and evil" or "democracy and authoritarianism" and claiming that freedom and liberty is under threat while ramping up mass hysteria. Taking hold in the mid-20th century with the Cold War, this narrative has long been consistent only the target has changed. In conjunction with this, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the era of U.S. unipolar hegemony, the United States has in turn frequently used human rights discourse in order to advance its geopolitical goals. Enemies of the United States are accused of engaging in "human rights abuses" and through a network of sponsored think tanks, scholars and media contacts, the U.S. successfully generates public support through various policy options by inciting public outrage and negative will, creating a discourse of something needing to be done. This has been utilized to promote wars, regime change and sanctions over the years. Hypocrisy and double standards Saying that the U.S. uses human rights as a pretext to legitimate its foreign policy interests through the lens of moral exceptionalism, Zhao further pointed out that "domestic human rights protection is an empty promise the U.S. has never fulfilled." This is true both at home and abroad. If a country is an ally of the United States, then its human rights abuses are ignored and effort is made to minimize coverage. However, on the other hand, the U.S. itself is not "benevolent" at home. This includes sporadic and daily gun violence, such as the recent shooting in a New York subway station, how the weaponization of anti-China sentiment has led to a surge in Asian hate crimes which have claimed multiple lives, as well as violence and discrimination against other ethnic minorities, and the inhumane treatment of migrants at the Mexican border. In addition, America's wars around the world have also been extremely costly and devastating in terms of their impact on human life. Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to the wholesale killing of civilians, such as a drone strike during the withdrawal from Kabul which killed several children, as well as the later freezing of Afghanistan's national financial reserves which has also contributed to poverty, famine and a humanitarian crisis. All of these events are a reminder that the ideology of "freedom" in America's understanding of the term does not necessarily equate with "human rights." That's not to mention the fact that up to 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19. What is freedom worth if there is no guarantee of life or protection? Ultimately, the U.S. is using talk of human rights and its own mythology of exceptionalism as a cover for its agenda of seeking hegemony. Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/TomFowdy.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. ST. LOUIS When Hurricane Ida hit last summer, a storm surge overwhelmed a levee and gushed into Ted Falgouts coastal Louisiana home, destroying his furniture and the beloved framed photos of his twin sons kissing him on their first day of school, then again when they graduated high school. That water was probably 60% mud, said Falgout, whos hoping relief is on the way for his community in Larose, about 30 miles southwest of New Orleans. As climate change makes hurricanes stronger and wetter and increases storm surges, cities on the Louisiana coast and Mississippi River are hoping President Bidens $1.2 trillion infrastructure package will provide badly needed funding to fortify locks, levees and other flood protections. But community groups and advocates fear smaller cities will struggle to navigate the maze of government programs and miss out on the rare chance to protect against rising waters and heavy rains. I think the agencies are still figuring a lot of this out, said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, which advocates for communities along the river. While many swaths of the country are at risk for flooding, the Louisiana coast has long been especially vulnerable and the Upper Mississippi is part of a region where flood severity is increasing faster than in any other area of the country. La Crosse, Wisconsin is among the cities trying to figure out how to benefit as infrastructure funds start rolling out. The citys levees were built after devastating flooding in 1965 and dont meet federal standards that would help lower insurance rates and make it easier for residents to fix up their homes without having to spend more to protect against floods, said Brad Woznak of SEH, a flood planning consultant for the city. Upgrading the levees would be so expensive its hard for the city to know how to get started, he said. But with this potential infrastructure bill funding, thats what I keep telling them dont rule anything out yet, Woznak said, noting that it could be a chance to pay for an initial evaluation for the project. Some advocates want agencies to make it easier for communities to learn about funding opportunities and ensure that simple applications from small towns will be able to compete against more sophisticated proposals from richer cities. They also want more clarity into how the Biden administration considers factors like economic and environmental inequality in its funding decisions. The Biden administration is asking states to make climate resilience a part of their long-term planning and encouraging projects that factor in flood risk. It tapped Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, to help coordinate the laws implementation and outreach to communities There needs to be a concerted effort by the administration and federal government to engage states and localities now, said Forbes Tompkins, a flood policy expert at Pew Charitable Trusts. The Environmental Protection Agency also said it will offer assistance to disadvantaged areas and states have money to help small communities access funding for drinking and wastewater projects. Rural communities are also getting special guidance on tapping into the money. But further complicating the scramble for funding is debate about the best approaches for protecting against floods. In addition to protections like levees and floodgates, Congress directed the Army Corps to more seriously consider natural solutions like the restoration of wetlands. Wetlands help absorb water before it can reach communities while restoring wildlife habitat, recharging groundwater and providing more green space, noted Olivia Dorothy of the conservation group American Rivers. After flooding in 2019 breached a levee in northwest Missouri on the Missouri River, for example, the levee was moved back to create more than 1,000 acres of floodplain and added wetlands. Dorothy said more natural protections are especially needed along the Mississippi. In Louisiana, Larose is among the small communities that were lucky enough to benefit from early funding from the infrastructure law because of a long-running project in the broader area. In January, the Army Corps allocated $379 million to continue work on a series of locks, levees and other structures that will help protect 150,000 residents in coastal Louisiana. Once completed, local officials said the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project will likely shield Falgouts home from another storm like Ida. For now, Falgout and his wife are living in their boathouse while their home is repaired. The property had escaped flooding in the past but Falgout said the shrinking Louisiana coast is making it more vulnerable. It would be a shame to walk away, he said. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Well, thats a buzzkill. The New Mexico 420 Fest recently went up in smoke when the Albuquerque Police Department denied the permits the group needed to host a cannabis-themed event on the streets of Downtown Albuquerque on Wednesday. A police spokeswoman said the department doesnt have the manpower to assist with shutting down Central Avenue for hours on a workday. Organizers for the festival said they have had to cancel the event this year because they are not permitted to block traffic off Central from Third to Seventh Street starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The event had been planned from 2 to 10 p.m., and vendors, bands, street food hawkers and artists were going to set up booths in the street. The events website described it as One day of Peace, Love, Music and Art. April 20 has long been an underground holiday of sorts. In fact, the term 420 pronounced four-twenty has become almost synonymous with marijuana in ganja lexicon. And organizers were hoping the event would hold added significance this year because earlier this month New Mexico became the 17th state in the country to legalize the sale of recreational cannabis. We didnt cancel it, APD canceled it, said Melissa Thompson, a spokeswoman for the festival. Thompson said that organizers are directing people who wanted to attend the festival to The Jam Spot, a private venue Downtown, where some of the cannabis-related vendors will set up booths. Thompson said organizers had expected to get the permits. They provided the Journal with documents showing at least one city department, Solid Waste, had green lit the event. She said organizers had been communicating with the city since June. The event has been held for several years before cannabis was legalized. But it was canceled the last two years because of the pandemic. The vendors werent going to sell marijuana, and people couldnt have used marijuana in public during the event, Thompson said. But Albuquerque polices refusal to shut down Central snuffed out the joint venture like it was, well, a joint. Thompson said the insurance package organizers obtained required that streets be blocked off for safety. This request was denied because the organizers wanted to shut down Central for most of the day in the middle of the work week, Rebecca Atkins, an Albuquerque police spokeswoman, said in an email. We have to shut down roads in the area at night because of traffic around the bars for public safety reasons. Shutting down Central on the same day would require more resources. WASHINGTON Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this weeks big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington but shell be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity will take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On Tuesday, Yellen will convene a panel of finance ministers, the international development banks and other institutions to talk about how they will use resources to address food insecurity. This years meetings run through Friday, and include a mix of virtual and in-person events. Russian finance officials are expected to attend several events virtually, according to a senior Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans for the meetings. Yellen will participate if a Russian minister is there for a session or two, but will not attend every session, the official said, adding that the presence of Russian officials should not stop the work the U.S. needs to do with members of the Group of 20 the worlds largest economies. There are some sessions the secretary will attend including the opening, which the Ukrainian finance minister also will attend. However, she wont be participating in a number of the G20 sessions if the Russians are participants. President Joe Biden has said Russia should be removed from the G20. Yellen is expected to use this weeks meetings to work with allies on efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia while mitigating spillover effects, to call for the implementation of a global minimum tax deal and to address food security issues. In addition, Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control this week is expected to issue clarifying language to make clear that trade in agricultural products is not barred under existing sanctions, in response to the food security crisis that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused. Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is also set to meet with Ukraines Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko this week. During a discussion Monday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Adeyemo reiterated the U.S. position that China has a chance to pressure Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine and would thereby avoid subjecting itself to secondary sanctions. China has in the past, and we expect them to continue to follow, the sanctions regimes that have been introduced by us and the coalition of sanctioning countries, Adeyemo said. Chinas business with the rest of the world is greater than its business with Russia. The U.S. and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There arent any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western effort, could do so, Yellen said in a speech at the Atlantic Council last week. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension as the U.S.. tries to cut off Moscows energy income. ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. SACRAMENTO, Calif. A Northern California woman pleaded guilty Monday to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI about it, leaving her motive unanswered in the carefully planned hoax that set off a massive three-week search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, offered no explanation for her elaborate hoax during the half-hour court hearing. I feel very sad, she said tearfully when Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb asked her how she was feeling. Were you kidnapped? he asked her later in the hearing. No, Your Honor, she replied. Did you lie to government agents when you told them you were kidnapped? Shubb continued. Yes, Your Honor, she responded. Papini agreed to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors reached last week and is scheduled to be sentenced July 11. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated to be between eight and 14 months in custody, down from the maximum 25 years for the two charges. She also agreed to pay restitution topping $300,000. That includes the cost of the search for her that covered several Western states, and the subsequent investigation into the two Hispanic women she said had kidnapped her at gunpoint. Papini was actually staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles (966 kilometers) away in Southern Californias Orange County. Three weeks later, he dropped her off along Interstate 5 nearly 150 miles (240 kilometers) from her home. She had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred brand on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. The married mother of two kept lying about it as recently as August 2020 when in fact there was no kidnapping, she admitted in her guilty plea. Papini has offered no rationale for why she did it. Her attorney, William Portanova, said last week that he doubts even she knows. He suggested a very complicated mental health situation, and said her long-delayed acceptance of responsibility and punishment is part of the healing process. Papini said Monday that she has been receiving psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution. Prosecutors say her faked kidnapping wasnt impulsive, and that she planned it for more than a year without her husband knowing. The former boyfriend told investigators they didnt have sex while she stayed with him. Papinis organization and planning would seem to make conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression an unlikely explanation, two mental health experts said independently. Both cautioned that they have not examined Papini and that many factors in the case remain unknown to the public. She may have expected that the kidnapping hoax would bring her fame and fortune, said Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a forensic psychiatrist and frequent expert witness who teaches at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. And she did benefit financially: Aside from the victim compensation, she must repay nearly $128,000 in disability payments. Separately, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family. As a possibly related factor, Lamoureux has researched the false hero or pathological hero phenomenon that takes advantage of societys treatment of victims as heroes. Those who fake their own victimization may be seeking recognition or popularity, and if mental illness is involved it may suggest a narcissistic or histrionic personality disorder. Another possible explanation is that she faked her kidnapping to avoid some other adverse consequence, he said, typically something like a divorce or being fired, though Papini was a stay-at-home mom. Lamoureux, who specializes in complicated criminal and civil cases, said manufacturing a crisis may be a way for those with fragile egos and poor coping skills to seek to prevent the bad outcome from happening. And there are such things as compulsive liars, as well as those who do not have a great distinction between fantasy and reality, sometimes because of an earlier trauma, said Dr. Ziv Cohen, founder and medical director of Principium Psychiatry in New York City. This case is unusual in that Papini had no clear motive and this is consciously creating some kind of false traumatic situation, said Cohen, who teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University. She harmed herself she wasnt actually abused by anyone. But for some pathological liars the motivation is simply in fooling others, he said, in this case perhaps her husband and investigators. These patients can sometimes remain quite mysterious and they often can deny their lies right until the end, Cohen said. They will persist and say in the face of all evidence that their version is true. Action taken by a passing truck driver helped defuse a struggle Saturday between a New Mexico State Police officer and an armed man on the shoulder of Interstate 40 in McKinley County. The officer fired at least one shot from his service weapon during the scuffle, injuring the man he found slumped over the wheel of a car beside I-40, State Police said in a written statement. The officer, who was not injured, was placed on standard administrative leave. The officer was dispatched about noon Saturday to check on a male driver slumped over the wheel of a brown BMW car. A scuffle ensued and the officer fired at least one shot, striking the man. A passing semi-truck driver stopped to assist and saw the man had a gun, police said. The truck driver threw the gun out of reach and helped the officer take the man into custody. The incident is under investigation by the State Police Investigations Bureau. The decision whether to file criminal charges will be made by the district attorneys office, police said. A Las Cruces police officer fatally shot a woman armed with a knife Saturday during an encounter at a Las Cruces residence, police said in a written statement. The shooting occurred after Las Cruces Police Department officers responded to a report about 6:30 p.m. Saturday that a woman armed with a knife was making threats to an occupant of a house in the 800 block of Fir Avenue. An officer encountered a woman who was armed with at least one knife, police said. The officer fired at least one round at the woman, who died at the scene. The shooting is under investigation by the Dona Ana County Officer-Involved Incident Task Force, composed of officers with the New Mexico State Police, the Dona Ana County Sheriffs office, the New Mexico State University Police Department, and Las Cruces police. You are here: World Flash UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday welcomed the creation of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said his spokesman. Guterres congratulated IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and the Executive Board for approving the new RST effective May 1, said spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement. "The RST builds in a long-term perspective and will support developing countries and vulnerable middle-income countries in addressing issues such as climate change and the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, while also improving resilience to future shocks," the statement said. "A long-term perspective is needed if we are to address not only the current three-dimensional crises but retain hope of rescuing the Sustainable Development Goals," it added. Credenc.com, an education lending fintech platform as part of being the associate sponsor of Lucknow Super Giants today, launched its new ad campaign with the punchline Potential Hai Toh Possible Hai. The campaign aims to highlight Credenc.coms brand promise of believing in each individuals potential and encouraging them to fulfill their aspirations. The ad campaign airs during this years IPL commercial breaks on Disney+ Hotstar featuring three marquee Lucknow Super Giants' players- KL Rahul , Quinton De Kock and Manish Pandey. The players will be seen discussing the importance of identifying ones potential to grow by drawing a parallel between how Lucknow Super Giants based the decision of picking players for their team based on the players potential, Credenc.com also basis its decision to offer education loans to students based on their merit and potential. The underlying message showcased in the commercial is that all students with potential can benefit from Credenc.coms potential based education loan. Speaking about the brands first ad campaign with the debutant team Lucknow Super Giants , Mayank Batheja, Co-Founder of Credenc.com said, Believing in students potential has been at the heart of our brands core offering, which we have tried to reflect through our first ad film. The punchline Potential Hai Toh Possible Hai highlights Credenc.coms brand promise of ensuring aspirants with potential will not be starved for funds for their higher education goals. The campaign is an organic extension to our brand strategy, which is centered around Basing their loan decision on students potential and not their parental income. Avinash Kumar, Co-Founder of Credenc.com also added, The film is an expression of situations that many of us may have faced in our lives, when someone gave us a chance by simply believing in our potential thats it, and nothing else. This campaign gave us the opportunity to reinforce in our customers the belief that they can depend on themselves because Potential Hai Toh Possible Hai Credenc.com is among one of the key sponsors of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group owned Lucknow Super Giants team for IPL 2022, where the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will sport the brands logo on the jersey sleeves. Credenc.com is a startup at the confluence of education and finance technologies. The companys fundamental belief is to provide access to finance for education. The most sustainable way of encouraging people to enhance their skills is by investing in education and thereby increasing their employability. A global specialist in the electrical & digital building infrastructure, Legrand is a 6.0 billion group based in Limoges, France. The group has manufacturing facilities in 90 countries and its products are sold in over 180 countries. Globally, Legrand is a leader in wiring devices and cable management with a global market share of over 20% and 14%, respectively. With an employee base of over 1,000 in India, the company is fast emerging as a leader in its core business by extending products and services that suit every segment in the local market. Headquartered in Mumbai, Legrand operates across India through 26 offices, 600 stockists, 11,500 retail outlets with three state-of-the-art manufacturing units, seven training centres and two R&D centres. In conversation with Adgully, Sameer Saxena, Director Strategy Marketing, Legrand India, speaks about the companys journey in India and how digital is becoming important to connect with both the B2B and B2C customers and engage with them continuously. Good investment has been made by the company in CRM and digital tools to nurture and strengthen their relations with a diverse customer base. Over the last decade, Legrand has become a leading brand in FMEG. How has the brand journey been for the last 10 years and how did you navigate during the pandemic? For over two decades, Legrand has lit up Indian homes with a wide range of switches and home automation. We have connected millions and have made possibilities future ready. Our global experience enables us to electrify but also provide smart touch to your home and offices through IOT, Home Automation, Power, protection, cable management and digital infrastructure range of products. Globally, Legrand leads in switches and cable management with a global market share of over 20% and 14%, respectively. We hold leadership position in switches and MCBs in India. The company also holds a prominent spot in IOT, Home Automation, Door Phones, power- protection products, Lighting management sensors, Cable management systems and Digital Infrastructure. The company is afast-emerging leader in its core business by extending products and services that suit every segment in the local market. We navigated on parameters of Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination & Reform during the pandemic. We prioritise the safety of our people along with a smooth business endurance. In the electrical switches category, the end customer trusts his electrician a lot. So, how do you educate your end customers to consider Legrand when it comes to electrical switches and products for home automation? Our consumer products IoT/ Connected switches, Home Automation, Door Phones, charging solutions require strong connect with customers. Legrands Digital marketing team plays a key role to connect with end consumer directly. We are making relentless efforts to educate our end customers through multiple platforms and performance. We are performing various marketing initiatives to attract potential customer and providing them virtual customer experience about our products and services. To maintain Legrands visibility, we engage into social media campaigns, digital marketing campaigns, advertising of products and services digitally. Also, PR tools play an important role in strategizing, enhancing to make any announcement/ initiative newsworthy for the media landscape. Modern trade models are spread across 25 locations in India through partnership models to make experience driven selling. We also provide experiential on-ground connect through our collaboration with UltraTech business solution stores to improve our reach to core target customers. What has been your overall marketing strategy for the India market for both the B2B and B2C customers? Any learnings you apply here from your global experience? At Legrand, we instill a digital approach to connect with our both B2B and B2C customers. We have invested in CRM and Digital tools to build and nurture relation with our diverse customer base. Marketing strategies for B2B customers largely focus on Knowledge series programs, webinars, e-mailer campaigns, B2B e-com portals, experience zones, and packaging partnership benefits on sustainability and tech features. While B2C is driven through end consumer connect channels, product/ brand advertising campaigns, lead generation, target-based marketing, B2C e-com, and on-ground showrooms. The electrical goods market has quite a few local brands in each region. So, how do you differentiate your products and position your brand? Legrand India as a brand is positioned with premium value proposition in market by its design and tech expertise. Disruptive technologies lead to transformational changes. In the current situation, everything is connected via Internet. The assimilation of interacted buildings is modifying the realityof how business operates. The IOT/ IIOT have a philosophical effect upon the future of business. Various businesses have investigated and estimated the impact of the IoT devices creating the opportunity as big as $397 billion by 2025. Innovative categories of services and products are being developed. In the current era of high-tech innovation, it is essential to maintain building efficiency and ensure uptime. We need to keep control on our buildings consumptions and how this will be beneficial to us. We are continuously upgrading and upcoming with innovations, there is no need to wait for a product to die out. India is a diverse market with growth coming from smaller towns. How have you penetrated the smaller towns and whats been your strategy for the smaller towns? Diversity is a conclusion of Indias past economic policies. A global specialist in the electrical & digital building infrastructure, Legrand has widespread presence across India, where it offers a wide range of products in the categories of Energy distribution, Wiring devices, Home Automation, and Industrial application products. Legrand India connects with small towns through trade programs, social media campaigns, on-ground activation events, and community connect initiatives. We aim to cater to employment opportunities for the electricians, local, regional, and national employers who are trained or freshers from the field of Electrical world. We have qualified over 7,500 electricians in the previous four years across 15 smart cities through our RPL program. We target to train 15,000 electricians by 2024. What has been your engagement strategy with your customers? How do you stay top of mind as a brand with your customers? As mentioned earlier, to stay on top of mind as a brand with our customers, we are further focusing on strengthening our Digital Business vertical. We are confident about driving digital-first approach in our industry. Industrys first digital approach will certainly be an additional contribution with our exclusive social media campaigns, digital marketing campaigns, advertising of products and services through digital mediums considering the current need of the hour. Additionally, PR tools play a vital role in strategising, enhancing, and making any initiative highly visible to our customers through media landscape. We engage with our customer and community as whole to Improving lives by transforming the spaces where people live, work and meet, with electrical and digital infrastructures and connected solutions that are simple, innovative and sustainable. The Melbourne-based premium fashion brand, Forever New is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Shivani Goel as Vice President, Marketing, starting April 2022. With a strong professional standing to back this leadership position, she would be spearheading brand communications across all channels, brand strategy, retail marketing & public relations with a focus on excellence in CRM, e-commerce dominance, influencer management, digital marketing, and the brand ambassador program. Pleased with this new induction, Mr. Dhruv Bogra, Country Head, Forever New, says, We are elated to have Shivani join our team at Forever New, and the experience and knowledge that she brings to the table is truly unparalleled. Influencers, as well as digital marketing, have become instrumental in the domain of marketing (more so, after the pandemic), and with Shivanis prior expertise in these fields, it would undoubtedly be an added bonus for the brand. With more than 18 years of exceptional prowess in the field of brand management, communication, and PR, Shivani was serving as lead - marketing communications & international expansion at cosmetics brand, Colorbar. She led brand campaigns, designed, and implemented curated concepts for brand launches, led the influencer marketing program, and partnered for brand expansion in international markets. Along with this, she has also steered the marketing forefront for organizations like Major Brands India Private Limited, whereupon she led marketing for a group of brands such as Mango, Aldo, La Senza, Nine West, etc., Koovs.com, and more. LEAD, Indias largest School EdTech company, has launched a new digital campaign that celebrates the contribution of teachers towards ensuring that every student achieves their true potential in life. Centered around the insight that teachers across India have to overcome myriad challenges that often go unnoticed, LEADs #OnlyTeachersCan campaign highlights the many ways that teachers put their students interests ahead of their own, to ensure the best quality education for every child. Conceptualised and produced by TBWA India, LEADs latest digital film Teacher Hona Asaan Nahi Hota is directed by Piplu Khan of Potlibaba Media House. Anupam Gurani, Chief Marketing Officer, LEAD, said, Each one of us carries what we have been taught in school throughout the rest of our lives. We use what we have learned during our early impressionable years to influence society and shape the future. LEADs #OnlyTeachersCan campaign is an ode to the 9.7 million teachers that are nurturing generations of learners across India. While the last two years have been especially difficult for teachers, LEAD has always stood by them and will continue to do so. Namrata Nandan, Executive Director, TBWAIndia, said, LEAD as a brand is committed to upgrade standards of education of India. LEAD understands that learning for children at schools is a fulfilling, immersive and result driven experience only with the constant, untiring efforts of the teachers. Through the last two years, teachers have learnt and upgraded themselves to ensure their students advance effectively despite the pandemic constraints. Acknowledging teachers for their excellence with this campaign #OnlyTeachersCan, LEAD continues to be a brand that stands for the noble and selfless efforts that teachers put in daily for the good of their students. Parixit Bhattacharya, Managing Partner, TBWAIndia, said, "They say teachers have a heart larger than the average human. We wanted to spotlight this truth by capturing the everyday struggles a teacher goes through to put extraordinary care into the lives of their students. Being an ally to teachers, LEAD artfully brings to life little moments of truth from the life of teachers across the length and breadth of the country." Piplu Khan, acclaimed director, said, I felt good about connecting the characters and showing how they go about their life every day. My job was to keep my craft balanced; in fact more than craft, it was about the soul, feelings & characters coming alive. I enjoyed making this film for TBWAIndia and LEAD, and feel that we succeeded in what we set out to do. A homage to teachers is needed at the moment and we should do everything we can to contributing to enhancing the teachers lives LEAD empowers more than 25000 teachers in over 4000 affordable private schools across India by providing tools and resources that make teaching simpler and more effective. LEADs teacher offerings and services include ready-made teaching and assessment materials, training and upskilling resources, and networking opportunities with peers across India. In August 2021, LEAD created another film with a spotlight on the challenges faced by school owners during the pandemic. The film underlined the valiant work of school owners who placed the academic future of our children above all else, ensuring uninterrupted learning as far as possible. School EdTech is a combination of educational best practices and technology-delivered solutions that enable quality learning in schools, and beyond. Macmerise, the go-to destination for celebrity & influencer merchandise brand, launches official Alan Walker merchandise in India at the Sunburn Festival 2022. Inspired by the Norwegian DJs popular Melting Rose Collection, fans across the country will enjoy a varied range of AW branded T-Shirts, Hoodies, and Masks available at the concert. Priced at INR 399/- onwards, the range will be available across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Delhi from 14th to 17th of April 2022 respectively. Excited about the launch, Sahil Shah, the Founder and CEO of Macmerise Celfie Design Pvt Ltd shared, We at Macmerise have always believed in making our offerings unique and exclusive which resonates highly with the moods and sentiments of the youth. Social Media has brought the world closer than ever before If one can enjoy a concert happening in one corner of the world from the comfort of their home in real-time, then theres no way they cant also shop. Our objective has been to make the world of merchandising more accessible and far-reaching to people across the country. The launch of the Alan Walker collection is one such example, where fans can shop, sport, and revel in their favourite artists official merchandising without burning a hole in their pocket. The veteran actor and director also recalls her eventful journey with the play, 'Hai Mera Dil' which has been performed for over 43 years. 'Hai Mera Dil', the long-running adaptation of the Broadway play 'Send Me No Flowers' by Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore will now be screened at Zee Theatre. This play has been performed for over 43 years and gave Prithvi Theater its first housefull show way back in 1978. It became synonymous with film and stage stalwart Dinesh Thakur who acted in the play and also directed it till he passed away in 2012. His wife and creative partner Preeta Mathur Thakur believes, 'Hai Mera Dil', is the perfect tribute to the man who lived and breathed theatre. Since 2012, Preeta has not only managed Ank Theatre Group which Thakur established in 1976 but has also been performing 'Hai Mera Dil' regularly. She is thrilled that the teleplay version produced by Nine Rasa, will now reach even those who have not watched the staged version. Preeta began acting in 'Hai Mera Dil' in 1993 and recalls, "Dinesh ji told me I didn't have to act and just had to behave as my character Usha would in a situation. This is the exact advice I now give to other actors when I direct them. Once actors shed their own personas, the play becomes very relatable to the audience and they feel they are watching real people who are just like them rather than performers. We have been constantly updating the play and adding contemporary reference points and that is why it appeals to all kinds of people, be they mill workers, army jawans, or an urban, well-heeled audience." Expressing her happiness that contemporary theatre today features fewer foreign adaptations and more original writing and adds, "The audience also has a much shorter attention span now. They don't want too much exposition and the plays have to be crisp and not too long. They want to see fresh stories and that bodes well for theatre which has suffered so much isolation and trauma during the pandemic. I am happy that teleplays, despite being shot on camera, retain the energy of the original play and get the TV audience to experience the vibration of a stage performance." About her own journey with theatre, Preeta says, " I started doing theatre in 1987-88 first with the Indian People Theatre Association (IPTA) and then with Dinesh ji's 'Ank'. What has remained unchanged for me is the emphasis on rehearsal and training. For me, even today the most enjoyable part of the theatre is the rehearsals. They bring out the best in you in a very friendly and informal atmosphere. What has also remained unchanged is that you cannot make a full-time career out of the theatre and need a backup plan. Most of us had 9-5 jobs when we started and today people do many creative things to be able to support their passion for theatre." Apart from Preeta and Aman Gupta,'Hai Mera Dil' also stars Atul Mathur, Shankar Iyer, Gunjan Sinha, Saurabh Chauhan, Jai Prakash Jha and Payal Jaiswal. It will be screened on Tata Play Theatre. Flash Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on Saturday called for efforts to break the stalemate in China-U.S. relations as the ice of a "new Cold War" is solidifying. Qin made the remarks when addressing the 25th Harvard College China Forum (HCCF) via video link. Noting that Harvard University has more than 1,000 Chinese students, the largest group in its international student community, he described this as a "vivid picture" in people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States. However, Qin said, the bilateral ties are faced with a "serious and complex situation," with dark clouds of misunderstanding and miscalculation between the two countries gathering and the ice of a so-called "new Cold War" forming. Both sides should carry out more "extensive, in-depth, frank and open" exchanges and dialogues, he urged, so as to use the power of facts and truth to break the so-called "general common sense" solidified by misunderstanding and prejudice, the persistent "political correctness" and the current coldness in ties that does not serve the interests of either country and runs against the will of both peoples. Qin said he hoped the forum can put wisdom and ideas together and bring about more "brainstorms" to help disperse the dark clouds of misunderstanding and miscalculation between the world's two largest economies. "I hope every single participant of the forum can become an icebreaker," he said. The theme of the 25th HCCF was "Extraordinary Times." Nearly 600 Harvard students, faculty members, Chinese overseas students and members from the business communities of the two countries attended the event. Founded in 1997, the Harvard College China Forum is North America's largest and longest-running student-run symposium on U.S.-China relations. The annual forum takes place every April at Harvard University. February 12, 2018 During a speech marking the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for a direct vote to end moments of political gridlock within the country, a controversial move that is certain to anger the countrys hard-liners. Citing a mostly unknown constitutional article, Rouhani said, If we have differences, we must refer to Article 59 of the constitution which says, in certain cases of passing laws or legislative acts on important social, cultural, economic or political issues, we must send it to a direct vote by the people. Rouhani continued, If we have differences on two issues, or the factions have differences, or they are fighting, bring the ballot box out and according to Article 59 of the constitution, whatever the people have decided, implement that. Our constitution has this capacity, and we must act within the capacity of our constitution. Rouhanis Twitter account also later tweeted this segment of the speech. Rouhani, who has been opposed by the countrys hard-liners and unelected officials since first taking office in 2013, has faced stiff resistance in introducing social and economic reforms, despite his re-election in 2017. His comments about a direct vote are an indirect criticism of the Guardian Council, a 12-member body that vets candidates who run in Irans elections and vets laws passed by Irans parliament. The supreme leader selects six members of the council. The other six are elected by parliament among nominees recommended by the head of the judiciary, who himself is appointed by the supreme leader. Unlike the hard-liners in unelected positions, Rouhani and other moderates and Reformists have relied on elections to stay in power. This is why in earlier parts of the speech, Rouhani asked the Guardian Council to make participation and running in elections easier. To protect the system and the revolution, we have no other path than the participation of the people. And if our revolution has remained, it is because of elections. He continued, We have to ease the path to elections for the people. Rouhani means the path to running as candidates, not necessarily voting, given that in Iran voting falls on a Friday, which is the equivalent of a Sunday in the United States. Rouhanis calls for a direct vote comes amid the news of arrests of a number of environmentalists in Iran, with one death so far while in custody. The family of Kavous Seyed Emami was notified Feb. 9 that the 63-year-old Iranian-Canadian professor died 16 days after his arrest. Tehrans prosecutor office told his family that he had hanged himself, which the family does not believe. Seyed Emami was the managing director of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation and a professor of sociology at Imam Sadegh University. Caught up in the round of environmentalists is Kaveh Madani, the deputy head of Irans Environmental Department, who had returned in part in answer to Rouhanis calls for Iranian professionals to return to the country. After reports surfaced of his arrest, Madani posted a video on his Instagram page to say that he is free and well. Regarding the arrests, Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said Feb. 11 that he did not have precise information regarding the arrests, but added that some activists have questionable connections, meaning likely with foreign governments and that their cases are under review. Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke** In anticipation of a possible U.S. Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and the state's radical attorney general, Democrat Dana Nessel, have launched a pre-emptive two-pronged attack on the existing state law that criminalizes most abortions. Last Thursday, Whitmer filed a lawsuit demanding judicial recognition of abortion as a protected right under the Michigan constitution. The same day, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the 1931 law, naming Nessel, in her capacity as attorney general, as a defendant. In transparent coordination with Whitmer and Planned Parenthood, Nessel, the same day, announced in an "impromptu" press conference her refusal to defend against Planned Parenthood's lawsuit. In a move described as "highly unusual," she also said "she will not even set up a conflict wall in her office to defend the case, not unless or until she is ordered by a court." Highly unusual, but not for Dana Nessel, who navigates the intricacies of the law the way a power mower navigates a field of daisies. Her long, loud advocacy for unrestricted legal abortion, which includes her campaign promise not to prosecute abortionists under the 1931 law if Roe is overturned, means she's got a glaring conflict of interest. The law she refuses to defend reflects the will of the people of the State of Michigan, speaking through their elected representatives. She's bound by the ethics rules not to represent a client the state of Michigan if that representation is "materially limited ... by the lawyer's own interests." At the very least, another attorney in her office should be allowed to defend the state's interest, independently of Nessel. But since her office is already handling the Whitmer lawsuit on Nessel's behalf, it's unlikely there's an assistant A.G. who has the guts to go against her. This tag-team approach, an example of collusive litigation, has become a Democrat specialty. You see it when activists file a "friendly lawsuit" against a state (or the federal government) with a Democrat attorney general, who then either settles in the activists' favor or refuses to defend the lawsuit, handing the activists what they want by default. We saw this tactic when Democrats changed voting rules in North Carolina in 2020 to tip the election. The extralegal changes, first imposed on the pretext of a COVID emergency, were made permanent by "a legal settlement agreement entered into by Democrat N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein and the majority-Democrat State Board of Elections with plaintiffs represented by well-known Democrat lawyer Marc Elias" a virtual "'one-party deal that circumvented the legislature.'" Then, last November, we saw Joe Biden's Department of Justice colluding with the ACLU, quietly negotiating a favorable settlement of their lawsuit on behalf of illegal aliens separated from their children at the border. The settlement would have paid $450,000 per individual or nearly a million dollars for a two-person family. Biden denied the negotiation at first, then excused it with something about the aliens deserving compensation. Public outrage forced the administration to abandon the deal, but it was clear that "cahoots" was the operative word describing "the arrangement between the ACLU and Biden's DOJ." Nessel's been in her own cahoots with the ACLU before this. As part of a nationwide war on Christian adoption agencies, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit to force Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services to stop contracting with agencies that declined, on religious grounds, to place children with same-sex couples. Because of a Michigan statute passed in 2015 that expressly prohibits state and local departments from forcing faith-based agencies to provide services that conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs, Nessel's predecessor in office properly fought back against the ACLU. But as soon as she took office, Nessel, who can fairly be described as a bigot when it comes to religious believers, refused to defend the case and ordered the health department to settle. The resulting agreement handed the ACLU the mandatory contract language they wanted, forbidding religious agencies from turning away same-sex couples. Nessel promptly issued an order that all adoption agencies had to place children with same-sex couples, which forced the nonprofit Catholic Charities to discontinue its adoption services completely. Even the liberal news media criticized Nessel for abusing her office, ignoring or "undermining laws she doesn't like" despite that "she's the attorney general, not the Legislature." (In this case, Catholic Charities finally prevailed. This past January, the adoption agency's federal lawsuit was resolved with an agreement providing that Michigan cannot cancel contracts because an agency doesn't place children with same-sex couples. Nessel's anti-religious hostility, amply documented in her public statements, left the state's lawyers no choice but to concede that Catholic Charities would "likely prevail" on its Free Exercise claim.) Nessel is claiming that her refusal to defend the Michigan abortion law, or prosecute anyone who violates it, lies within her "prosecutorial discretion as to whether to file charges against someone." We've seen similar claims from "Trojan horse prosecutors" who won state and local elections thanks to millions poured into their campaigns by George Soros. But these claims about prosecutorial discretion are bunk. Last summer, Senator Tom Cotton wrote that refusing to charge criminals for entire categories of crimes "transform[s] prosecutorial discretion into prosecutorial nullification." The power "to emphasize or deemphasize the importance and severity of certain criminal prosecutions" doesn't give them the power of "unilateral fiat to abolish laws they don't like. The legislative branch is solely empowered to repeal laws, not prosecutors." The last time Michigan voters were allowed to express their will on abortion was in 1972 when a super-majority of 60% voted down a ballot proposal to legalize it. The following year, Roe undid that. But later that year, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an opinion on an abortion case, acknowledging Roe but declining to overturn the state's anti-abortion statute. According to the justices, "[t]he public policy of this state is to be found in the declarations and deeds of its people," and therefore, "[i]t is the public policy of the state to proscribe abortion." If Roe is overturned, abortion will again be proscribed in Michigan. Unfortunately, Whitmer and Planned Parenthood filed their lawsuits knowing the majority-Democrat Michigan Supreme Court won't hesitate to strike down the abortion statute. Aside from that, after 50 years and millions of abortions, it's hard to imagine that a majority of Michigan voters would still support pro-life legislation the way they did in 1972. Regardless, as a general principle, and as the Michigan Supreme Court said in 1973, public policy has to emerge from the "declarations and deeds of the people" working through a democratic process. But power-drunk officeholders like Whitmer and Nessel, if they're allowed to get away with it, will impose their own policy preferences on the entire state, consulting nothing more than their own partisan agenda. T.R. Clancy looks at the world from Dearborn, Michigan. You can email him at trclancy@yahoo.com. Image: Dana Nessel for Michigan Attorney General via YouTube. The Biden administration, like all political enterprises, loves to take credit but is loath to confess mistakes. Biden is currently looking for someone, anyone, to take the fall far escalating gasoline prices. A favorite scapegoat is the oil and gas industry. According to many Democrats, the industry is a blight on humanity that must be canceled. High oil prices fit the DNC playbook, so be prepared to view morose montages displaying diabolical men drilling dirty oil wells. In an odd turn of events, these diabolical oil executives are being scolded because they aren't drilling oil wells as quickly as President Biden would like. Some Democrats accuse executives in the oil industry of being unpatriotic in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war (read: Putin's price hike). Industry executives would respond more favorably to a coherent energy policy than harassment by politicians. Government policies related to the COVID pandemic reduced demand for oil, so the industry stopped drilling activities. As the pandemic abated, and the economy improved, the Biden administration took office intent on canceling the oil industry. As demand for oil increased, the industry wasn't inclined to invest in drilling. Oil companies enjoyed higher prices after a difficult year, while lenders and investors, burned by the 2020 bust, resisted financing new ventures. The industry was content to earn money on existing production and hesitant to invest capital in the unfriendly environment the Biden administration had created. The Biden administration only recently began permitting oil and gas leases. When asked if the Biden's people would support increased oil production, the White House response was that "there are 9,000 oil leases the oil industry isn't tapping into currently." The White House talking heads would have you believe that oil leases are like juice boxes. You just push a straw through a predesigned hole and suck the contents out. It's likely that geologic testing has been done on many of the leases and it's been determined there are no producible volumes of oil under them. Other leases are remote from existing wells, requiring many miles of new roads and other infrastructure before an exploratory well can be drilled. If an exploratory well produces adequate volumes, planning is completed, and money is raised to drill wells on adjoining sites, assuring that the new field is managed profitably. Most wells produce oil, natural gas, and water. The oil and water flow into tanks. Both can be moved by truck, the oil moved to market and the water properly disposed of. Natural gas can be moved only through a pipeline. Millions of dollars may be spent on drilling, geologic logs, completion (fracking), roads, casing, cement, tubing, sucker rods, wellheads, tanks, heater treaters, etc., but no product can be delivered because the gas can't be moved without a pipeline. In the past, gas was often flared so the oil could be produced and sold immediately. This is now illegal because natural gas is too valuable to flare. On his first day in office, President Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL). Government officials and the media blithely state that the pipeline would not reduce gasoline prices because it doesn't add oil supply to global markets. Like most propaganda, there is some truth in these misleading statements, but the cancelation of the KXL created uncertainty and confusion in North American oil markets. Pipelines are the safest, most effective method of transporting oil and gas. Pipelines are the only secure method of transporting natural gas. There have been tragic accidents when oil is transported by rail. It costs $510 a barrel less to transport oil in a pipeline. The only good reason rail would be chosen to transport oil is because a pipeline doesn't exist. The KXL received a Presidential Permit in 2008. Refiners planned accordingly. Motiva, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell, operates a large refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. In 2008, Motiva began a $10-billion expansion to refine the heavy crude the KXL would deliver. President Obama canceled the KXL in 2015 "because it would not serve the interest of the United States." In 2020, President Trump approved the pipeline, setting the stage for Biden to cancel it again. If the original plan to build the KXL in 2008 had been followed, Canadian heavy crude would be refined on the Gulf Coast today. Motiva's investment is an example of government policies that hamstring the oil and gas industry, causing the cost of gasoline and other refined products to rise. A business cannot effectively plan future investments in an environment so unpredictable. The Biden administration's understanding of the oil industry is limited to knowledge related to sliding a credit card into a gasoline pump. The government would like to tell the oil industry how to manage and operate its businesses. To some extent, they do with policies and regulations. If the industry followed the direction of the government, gasoline would be selling for $25/gallon instead of $5, if at all. The government has set a new trap for the industry and consumers. The Biden administration has established a Task Force with the European Union with goals to deliver 15 billion cubic meters (BCM) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe in 2022 and 50 BCM thereafter until 2030. They also committed to reducing the demand for natural gas. While Democrat senators harangue oil executives about "ripping off the American people," the Biden administration has launched a Task Force intent on delivering huge amounts of American LNG to Europe that can't be delivered without the support of the industry the senators are haranguing. To add injury to insult, the White House fact sheet states that the government is committed to reducing demand for the LNG production it would like the industry to ramp up to support. The fact sheet looks more like a script for a woke sitcom than the goals of two governments. If the E.U. accepts the offer, it will likely create problems for American consumers. There is no reason to believe the oil and gas industry is sitting on large volumes of natural gas it can quickly liquefy and transport to Europe. Natural gas prices are already rising. The commitment to deliver LNG to the E.U. will likely cause consumer prices to rise further. Biden has painted himself into a corner. During his presidential campaign, he said he would eliminate oil. He is working hard to fulfill his promise. Unfortunately for the president and the Democrat party, the interests and security of the American people are entwined with the industry. The country needs more oil and gas to balance supply/demand realities. The government must establish an energy policy that will transcend administrative changes at the White House and the factional objectives that accompany them. The interests and security of the American people don't change because a new president sits in the Oval Office. The government must establish a reasonable energy policy that provides energy security for the American people. Image: lalabell68 via Pixabay, Pixabay License. Bruce Willis. The very name conjures a smile as it brings up scenes like the "negotiation" in The Fifth Element. There should be a picture of Bruce Willis next to the word elan in the dictionary. Although Bruce could handle serious roles, as he did in The Sixth Sense, and villains like in The Jackal, it is the happy-go-lucky persona of John McClane, who pops up under various names in Bruce Willis films, that has been a delight to watch. You always knew what you were getting with a Bruce Willis movie when he played an action hero: a reliable dose of adrenaline punctuated by his incredulous expressions and witty banter. Bruce has been forced into retirement by a diagnosis of aphasia, a condition that affects one's ability to communicate. When caused by an injury, it can get better, but considering that Bruce has left acting, he probably has the progressive kind. It seems a particularly cruel stroke of fate that this man whose quick tongue has had us in stitches for decades is now struggling to communicate. It also seems a time when anyone who could do a kindness for Bruce should step up. The powers that be at Disney do not see it that way. Bruce Willis is not a member of the alphabet community, he's a white man, and he's a devoted father to his children. He just doesn't qualify for any concern from Disney, which is sad because Disney owns Moonlighting, an early Bruce Willis TV series in which he played a private detective. Image: Bruce Willis in 1985 (edited). YouTube screen grab. Everything we love about Bruce Willis is in Moonlighting. His co-star, Cybill Shepherd, held her own in their repartee, and their chemistry was reminiscent of the greatest screen pairings, like Rock Hudson and Doris Day, or Cary Grant and, well, anyone. Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of Moonlighting, reached out to Disney to make the show available for streaming. The response? "Someone from the studio told him, 'Well, we don't see Disney+ that way' an apparent reference to the show's more PG-13 material not fitting with the family focus of the streamer's content at the time of launch." That was their excuse four years ago. Now it's that the show has so many songs, and there are licensing concerns. It would seem that Disney just doesn't want to spend the money to acquire the rights to the songs on Moonlighting. The company didn't mind spending the money for The Muppet Show, but, somehow, Moonlighting just doesn't seem that important. And that's a shame because, now that Bruce has been handed such a devastating diagnosis, it would be an act of pure charity, both to him and his loyal fans, to bring Moonlighting to streaming platforms so we can revisit just what it was that made Bruce so special, right from the very beginning. Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible. Conservative Marine Le Pen will face France's President Emmanuel Macron next Sunday in a runoff election for the presidency of France. Quite obviously, Le Pen's nationalism scares the transnationalists in Brussels and they have now retaliated. The U.K. Guardian reports: The European Union's anti-fraud body has accused Marine Le Pen and several of her party members including her father of embezzling about 620,000 while serving as members of the European parliament. France's investigative website Mediapart published a section of the new 116-report alleging that the MEPs misused EU funds for national party purposes. Le Pen in 2016 in the E.U. Parliament. Leaking this a week before the election qualifies as a dirty trick. Le Pen's Rassemblement National (National Rally) party spokesman complains: "Marine Le Pen contests this. She contests it without having had access to the details of the accusation. It's a manipulation; unfortunately, I'm not surprised," Bosselut told the French channel BFMTV. (snip) Bosselut said Le Pen had "not been summoned by any French judicial authority" and accused the European authorities of failing to send him or Le Pen the final report. The charges cannot be answered, and so hang there before the voters' eyes to drive away support for Le Pen. The example cited in the Guardian report is a conference charged to the E.U., on an E.U. topic, where party matters allegedly were also discussed. The E.U. has its own Deep State. Photo credit: European Union 2016 European Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The past week has seen three high-profile mass shootings that involved African-Americans. FBI statistics indicate that Blacks are disproportionately both perpetrators and victims of crimes across America. It doesn't have to be this way, but, just as America's Blacks were once victims of the Democrats' slavery and Jim Crow policies, they are currently the victims of Democrats' social and criminal justice policies. On April 12, 2022, Frank Robert James, a 62-year-old angry Black nationalist, fired 33 shots inside a crowded subway car. Thankfully, no one died, although 10 people received gunshot wounds, and 19 other people were injured in the panic. On April 16, 2022, a mass shooting took place at a mall in Columbia, South Carolina's state capital, leaving 14 people injured. It seems that the shooting was part of an ongoing dispute involving several shooters and some of the victims. The police have currently arrested Jewayne Price, a 22-year-old African-American man. For the time being, he's being charged only with unlawfully carrying a pistol, hence the low $25,000 bail and the ankle bracelet that allows him to go to work. On April 17, 2022, in the wee hours of Easter, at least nine people were shot at Cara's Lounge in Furman, South Carolina, a small town about 90 miles west of Charleston and 110 miles south of Columbia. Promotional material for an event that began the Saturday night before the shooting strongly indicates that this is a bar that African-Americans frequent, and it is a Black-owned venue. What's going on? First, although three incidents do not create data, these events are consistent with statistics for Black crime, especially Black-on-Black crime. As a recent American Thinker article noted, Blacks commit crimes at a rate nine to eleven times higher than the general population and are also victims of crime at a rate far disproportionate to their representation in the population. The FBI's crime statistics bear that out. In 2021, Blacks accounted for 273,595 offenders of violent crime and Whites for 270,229 offenders a tragedy, considering that non-Hispanic Whites are 57.8% of the population, whereas Blacks are only 12.1% of the population. You don't need to be a math genius to recognize a problem. Image: A Black-on-Black shooting at Houston's upscale Galleria mall. Twitter screen grab. The victims' race is equally problematic for Blacks, with Whites accounting for 367,792 victims and Blacks (again, 12.1% of the population) accounting for 245,706 victims. Worse, Blacks are preying on each other. Although it's certain that only a small percentage of Blacks are engaged in criminal activities the news stories routinely show that the bad guys have endless arrest records the American Black community still has a tragic problem, and I'm going to place the blame firmly where it belongs: on Democrats. As the Jim Crow Democrats' hold on Blacks slipped away in the 1960s, the LBJ/JFK/BLM Democrats' hold on Blacks mounted. Thomas Sowell explains that the Great Society and the end of Jim Crow did not raise Blacks out of poverty...because Blacks were already raising themselves out of poverty, with the rate falling from 87% in 1940 to 47% in 1960. "[M]ost black children [were] being raised in two-parent families in 1960," and the "murder rate among blacks in 1960 was one-half of what it became 20 years later[.]" What changed after 1960, just as Blacks were beginning to live the American dream? The Great Society. As John McWhorter explains in Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America, well-meaning White, Democrat college students fanned out to Black communities and essentially bullied Black families into taking welfare (the pitch was that Blacks were "owed" it), beginning the marginalization of Black men. In 2020, the Census revealed that "fewer than two-fifths of Black children were living with two married parents." Most lived with their mother, which is (sadly) an indicator of poverty, as well as increased crime among boys and promiscuity among girls. (A 2014 American Thinker article details more disheartening Black metrics, and my guess is that none has improved since then.) Democrats have also pushed on Blacks failing public schools without charter school alternatives; an end to discipline in schools for young Black students; defunded police, increasing Black crime victimization; a Soros-funded tolerance for criminal activity (the attitude on the left is that Blacks can't help themselves); and a hostility to faith that has affected Black church attendance, with COVID making it hard for the remaining faithful to attend church. Black leftists demand that Whites in government fix the problems in their community. In other words, they're demanding that the same people who destroyed their communities remediate them. That's just wrong. When there's a spiritual hole in a community, the solution must come from within. As Frederick Douglass wrote in 1857 when asked what should be done with Blacks when slavery ended, "Our answer is, do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them mind theirs. Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune. They have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone." What a pathetic article from USA Today! COVID vaccines are not meant to prevent all infections, experts say. Americans need to reset their expectations. Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY Sun, April 17, 2022, 4:30 AM Denny Mitchell couldn't believe he tested positive for the coronavirus in January. The 45-year-old from Houston never left the house without his mask, he avoided indoor dining at all costs, and most important, he was fully vaccinated. But he still got sick. "I was surprised because I was taking so many precautions," he said. It's no longer unusual to hear of someone getting COVID-19 even though they're fully vaccinated and boosted. Yet, many Americans are still shocked when it happens to them. It is essentially another attempt to blame the people instead of the government for their misperceptions. Could it be that Fauci, the CDC, and others told them that if they took the vaccines, wore masks, were socially distanced, and quarantined, they would be safe and that people who didn't take the vaccine wanted people to get sick and deserved to get fired? There are people who still believe that the disease resides on surfaces and that Plexiglas works to prevent it. Fauci & Co. even silenced people who blamed the Wuhan lab. The CDC and Fauci and others spread endless lies, yet they have never been silenced. Most of the media just repeated what they were told, with no questions asked. Anyone who dared question the vaccine, the lockdowns, the shutdowns of schools, the masks, the social distancing was silenced and called a conspiracy theorist. Two diversity advocates in the Scottsdale, Arizona school district were so eager to find racism lurking in a (highly successful) fundraiser that they accused a black D.J. hired for the event of wearing blackface. Evidently, the costume and/or hairstyle of the D.J. at the '70s-themed event triggered them somehow to accuse Koko Hunter, second from the right in the photo below, of the sin of racial impersonation of an African American via blackface: Twitter via the UKDM. According to the account in the U.K. Daily Mail, The two eager-to-be-offended diversicrats are Jill Lassen, co-chair of the Scottsdale Parent Council's diversity, equity and inclusion committee ...and... [Stuart] Rhoden ... an instructor at Arizona State University who also serves on the Scottsdale school district's Equity and Inclusion Committee. Photos via UKDM. Rhoden, who is black, questioned the PTA's acceptance of blackface, wherein a person, usually white, paints their skin to portray a black person. The practice has roots in early 19th century American theater and is now widely considered racist. In a Facebook post last week, he apologized to 'dude' for the mistake, only to then double-down and suggest that Hunter was wearing makeup to make himself look darker. 'Let me be clear, a Black man, apparently in Black face is an entirely different discussion than a White person. However I did not state that the person was White. 'It was assumed that was my intent, and perhaps it was, but nonetheless, looking on his FB page (photos below), it seems at the very least he is in darker make-up if not "Black face" or I am completely mistaken and it's the lighting of the patio,' Rhoden said. 'So here's what I want to say. I apologize to dude for the implication, but the sentiment still stands, Black face by anyone, in this day and age is problematic. I also apologize to folks who reposted and made other statements based on my assumption.' In my book, that's not a real apology. He doesn't know if makeup is used, but even if it were, so what? Lassen, who is white, had no choice but to go for utter self-debasement: It's a small but significant step forward in fighting the woke tyranny that has taken over so many campuses. A professor who stood up to a transgender bully and was punished by his public university, Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, sued, with support from the great organization Alliance Defending Freedom. After his suit was dismissed over "lack of standing," he appealed, won the right to a trial, and then settled with the university for a sum sizable enough to change policy and warn other schools not to join the bullies. Ashe Schow has the story in the Daily Wire: Shawnee philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether refused to address a male student who identifies as female by the student's preferred pronouns, instead referring to the student as "sir," saying that his evangelical Christian beliefs were behind his actions. "To accede to these demands would have required Dr. Meriwether to communicate views regarding gender identity that he does not hold, that he does not wish to communicate, and that would contradict (and force him to violate) his sincerely held Christian beliefs," Meriwether wrote in his lawsuit against the school after he was disciplined over the incident. The lawsuit also notes that Meriwether addresses students as "sir" or "Miss" to show respect[.]" If at first you don't succeed... In February 2020, a lower court dismissed Meriwether's lawsuit, writing "Plaintiff's refusal to address a student in class in accordance with the student's gender identity does not implicate broader societal concerns and the free speech clause of the First Amendment under the circumstances of this case." ...try, try again (at the appellate level): But in March 2021, an appeals court revived Meriwether's lawsuit and allowed it to continue. "A district court previously dismissed Meriwether's lawsuit for lack of standing. Friday's decision by a three-judge panel from the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals revives the lawsuit and sends it back to a lower court where Meriwether can make his argument that his First Amendment rights of free speech and religion and his 14th Amendment right to due process were violated," CNN reported at the time. Meriwether and SSU have now settled the matter. Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Meriwether, released a statement saying that the university "agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and Meriwether's attorneys' fees. Additionally, considering the 6th Circuit's ruling, the university is rescinding the written warning it issued Meriwether in June 2018." Further, "the university has agreed that Meriwether has the right to choose when to use, or avoid using, titles or pronouns when referring to or addressing students. Significantly, the university agreed Meriwether will never be mandated to use pronouns, including if a student requests pronouns that conflict with his or her biological sex," ADF noted. Perhaps the university was aware that an Ohio jury was not too sympathetic to another woke institution of higher education, Oberlin College, awarding 30-some million dollars to an aggrieved plaintiff, and decided to cut its losses. Let's hope the precedent has a chilling effect on other colleges and universities inclined to woke bullying. Putin's plan A and seemingly only plan was to invade Ukraine in two to three days, kill Zelensky and replace him with a Russian puppet, and expect the Ukrainians to welcome his tanks and poorly trained troops with open arms. Well, plan A failed, and now, after 51 days of tactical blunders in Ukraine, he has been almost totally humiliated. The retreat from the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv's surroundings was the first humiliating acknowledgment that Putin would not take over all of Ukraine, nor was the prospect of "liberating" Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk going to be a guaranteed cakewalk, now part of plan B. The military was an embarrassment, losing many generals and commanders with a top-down command structure that made them vulnerable in the combat field to ambushes and targeted strikes by the Ukrainian low-level command structure and the help of antitank javelins and NLAW weapons. Melting snow and a muddy countryside were also weather factors that caused the Russians to form long convoys along paved winding roads, which made the convoys sitting ducks for ambushes and destruction. Another key factor in the war is bad Russian troop morale. Most Russian troops went in thinking it was a peacekeeping mission, and some even thought that they were on a training mission. The longer the war lasts, the worse will the Russian troop morale get, since most Russian troops don't want to be fighting Ukrainians, with whom many have relatives and acquaintances. Many Russian troops are poorly supplied with food and armaments due to supply logistic problems, since almost none, including the generals and commanders, felt that the war would last as long as it has. After you surround a city that doesn't give up, your only recourse is to destroy it with artillery and tanks, causing massive civilian casualties, or starving the population into submission. Mariupol is a perfect example of a destroyed city with starving and dead civilians, which can truly be called an act of genocide or a horrendous war crime. Humiliation is one thing, but the annihilation of innocent civilians has turned into revulsion by world opinion on the matter. Yes, finally the world came to realize that Putin was a war criminal preying on weak and defenseless civilians thanks to inept military tactics. Humiliation on land also occurred at sea, where the proud, state-of-the-art, flagship cruiser Moskva was sunk by two Ukrainian missiles. To try to escape this humiliation, the official version of Russian propaganda was that the cruiser, the captain, and some crewmembers were destroyed by a fire. Tactical nuclear weapons in theory are used to take out clusters of tanks or entire battalions and not to destroy innocent civilians in cities. If Putin uses nuclear weapons on cities, then he will be the pariah of not only the world but also the Russian people, who have many relatives and acquaintances in Ukraine. Nuclear blasts leave radiation, which poisons the land. Does Putin really want a second (after Chernobyl) radiation wasteland in Ukraine? According to Russian propaganda, plan B is to take control of Donetsk and Luhansk and make these Ukrainian regions into sovereign states of Russia. That's easier said than done if the Russians continue to use the same military tactics that failed so miserably in Ukraine so far. It took the Russians months to prepare for the Ukraine invasion, and it will also take months to prepare for an invasion into eastern Ukraine, which will also fail miserably, using the same old tactics and top-down military command structure. In the meantime, many Ukrainian and Russian people will be struggling to survive, and this is a great tragedy, which is inescapable. It is obvious that Putin bit off more of Ukraine than he can chew, but the real result is permanent, irreversible humiliation for the rest of Putin's life. What should the West do? Continue supplying arms and humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine as long as the war lasts, and then arm Ukraine to the teeth when the war stops. Putin understands, fears, and respects only one thing, and that is the threat of superior military force or the threat of death or imprisonment by a tyrannical regime. It is possible that the war will end in a stalemate or never end, which all depends on how long both Russia and Ukraine can survive economically. Putin understands only one thing, and that is military victory, so arms shipments and humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine should not stop if a permanent peace is to be expected sometime in the future. Putin deserves total military humiliation, which he just may get if the West continues helping Ukraine win. Photo credit: Vic B Pixabay license. In the winter of 1803, residents of Hammersmith, which at the time was a small village on the outskirts of London, was terrorized by a ghost. Most of who had seen the specter described it as a figure covered in a large white shroud. Others said it sometimes wore a calf skin wrapped around its body and had large glass-like eyes. The ghost instilled fear among the villagers because the specter was not a mere apparition but appeared to be full of malevolent intent. It attacked and harassed people, often grabbing them as they tried to run. A pregnant woman was reportedly seized by the ghost while walking near the churchyard, which frightened her so much that she died of shock a few days afterwards. A driver of a wagon, pulled by eight horses and carrying 16 people, was so shaken by its appearance that he fled on foot, leaving the horses, wagon, and passengers at the scene. Thomas Groom, a brewer's servant, gave a vivid account of his encounter with the ghost: I was going through the church yard between eight and nine o'clock, with my jacket under my arm, and my hands in my pocket, when some person came from behind a tomb-stone, which there are four square in the yard, behind me, and caught me fast by the throat with both hands, and held me fast; my fellow-servant, who was going on before, hearing me scuffling, asked what was the matter; then, whatever it was, gave me a twist round, and I saw nothing; I gave a bit of a push out with my fist, and felt something soft, like a great coat. The Hammersmith Ghost frightening a woman. It was speculated that the ghost was the spirit of a man who had committed suicide some months previously and was buried in a local churchyard against conventional wisdom that such individuals should not be interred in consecrated ground, for their souls would not be able to rest at peace. But at some point, the villagers figured that ghost was actually a person covered with a white sheet who was deliberately scaring people, and decided to apprehend him. Several villagers armed with pistols began to patrol the streets. On one occasion, a member of the patrol saw the ghost and gave it a chase at which the apparition threw off its shroud and escaped. The white cloth, which was later recovered, evidenced that the ghost was a mischievous mortal being. On the night of January 3, 1804, 29-year-old excise officer Francis Smith was on patrol armed with a shotgun. Just after 11:00 PM, while walking down Black Lion Lane, Smith saw a white figure moving. Although the night was not quite dark, the hedges lining the lane made it impossible to see more than four yards. Smith called out to the approaching figure asking it to identify itself, but when the figure did not respond, Smith fired his gun. The figure in white clothing was actually a bricklayer named Thomas Millwood who was heading home after a visit to his parents and sister. Millwood was dressed in the normal white clothing of his tradewhite linen trousers, a white flannel waistcoat, a white apron, and white shoes. There was so much whiteness in his outfit that Millwood was already mistaken for a ghost on two previous occasions, and Millwoods wife had advised him to put on a large coat when going out in public to avoid being mistaken for the ghost again. Smith, realizing that he had shot dead a man, turned himself in to the police. Later, before the Court at Old Bailey, Smith stated, I did not know what I did; I solemnly declare my innocence, and that I had no intention to take away the life of the unfortunate deceased, or any other man whatever. Smith confessed to shooting Millwood but he stated that he genuinely believed it to be the ghost, and pleaded not guilty. But the judge advised the jury that lack of malice was not sufficient enough to acquit someone from murder because a person cannot kill another in the name of rashness and be excused for such a blunder. During the case, the judge Lord Chief Baron Sir Archibald Macdonald was very clear about his views: However disgusted the jury might feel in their own minds with the abominable person guilty of the misdemeanor of terrifying the neighborhood, still the prisoner had no right to construe such misdemeanor into a capital offence, or to conclude that a man dressed in white was a ghost In this case there was a deliberate carrying of a loaded gun, which the prisoner concluded he was entitled to fire, but which he really was not; and he did fire it with a rashness which the law does not excuse. In all the circumstances of the case, no man is allowed to kill another rashly. The jury returned with a verdict of manslaughter, but the judge was not happy. He maintained that under no circumstances of the case that he could reduce the crime from murder to manslaughter, because neither Smith acted in self-defense nor shot Millwood by accident, and that Millwood had not committed any offence to justify being shot. The judge instructed the jury to go back and reconsider their verdict. This time the jury delivered a guilty verdict and Smith was initially condemned to death. Later, taking into consideration the immense public sympathy that Smith garnered, the Crown granted Smith a full pardon and reduced the sentence to one years imprisonment with hard labor. The huge publicity that the case generated persuaded the true culprit to come forward. An elderly shoemaker named John Graham admitted that he had been pretending to be a ghost by using a white sheet to frighten his apprentice, who had been scaring Graham's children with ghost stories. Graham surrendered to the magistrates, who was unsure of the legal position and granted him bail. There is no record of Graham ever being punished. Although Smith managed to escape the gallows, there was widespread dissent among the public on the outcome of the case and the glaring flaw that it exposed in the legal code. Most people were displeased at the lack of defense available to an individual acting in good faith and believing that an action, including violence, was necessary but having misunderstood the situation. Over time the curious case of the Hammersmith Ghost was forgotten but the questions it raised in law remained open and continued to haunt legal proceedings for decades to come. This issue was not settled until the case of Regina v Williams came before the Court of Appeal in 1983. The appellant, Gladstone Williams, saw a man dragging a youth violently along the street while the latter shouted for help. Mistakenly believing that an assault was taking place, Williams intervened and injured the supposed attacker, who was actually attempting to apprehend a suspected thief. Williams was subsequently convicted of assault, but he appealed and his conviction was overturned. In the hearing of the case, the judge finally clarified the law in a statement: In a case of self-defence, where self-defence or the prevention of crime is concerned, if the jury came to the conclusion that the defendant believed, or may have believed, that he was being attacked or that a crime was being committed, and that force was necessary to protect himself or to prevent the crime, then the prosecution have not proved their case. If however the defendants alleged belief was mistaken and if the mistake was an unreasonable one, that may be a peaceful reason for coming to the conclusion that the belief was not honestly held and should be rejected. Even if the jury come to the conclusion that the mistake was an unreasonable one, if the defendant may genuinely have been labouring under it, he is entitled to rely upon it. In simple words, a mistake is defense only when it is reasonable. An unreasonable mistake can never be a defense. In Outlines of Criminal Law, Courtney Stanhope Kenny, gives an example of unreasonable mistake involving homicide and the supernatural. In 1880, at Clonmel in Ireland, a woman had placed a naked child on a hot shovel in the honest belief that it was a deformed fairy sent as a substitute for the real child, who would be restored if the changeling were thus imperilled. She was rightfully convicted and sentenced. Similar examples of unreasonable mistake would be witch burning. Although the case was apparently put to rest, the legend of Hammersmith ghost continued to linger, with some locals believing that the ghost returns to Hammersmith churchyard every fifty years. The last sighting was made in July 1955. References: # The Case of a Ghost Haunted England for Over Two Hundred Years, Library of Congress # The Hammersmith Ghost and the Strange Death of Thomas Millwood, Crime Magazine # The case of the murdered ghost, BBC Twitter has unveiled a lot of new features over the past couple of months, but none of them garnered as much attention as the coveted edit tweet feature. Shortly after Elon Musk bought 9.2% of the company, Twitter announced that it had been working on the feature since last year. Now, a contributor for 9To5Google was able to enable the edit tweet button on the web client. The ability to edit tweets is one of the most sought-after features when it comes to Twitter. Other social media/video-sharing platforms allow you to edit your posts like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, etc. Even business apps like Slack let you edit your sent messages. Twitter has always been a rebel in that regard. However, that might end, as someone was able to enable the edit tweet button Right now, its going to be some time before most people will start editing their tweets. Twitter said that its going to be testing the feature with its Twitter Blue users sometime soon. This means that paid subscribers will be able to edit their tweets at first. Were sure that Twitter wont keep it for paid subscribers like TweetDeck. Advertisement While the company is getting the feature ready for primetime, a 9To5Google contributor was able to enable the edit tweet button. Dylan Roussel posted a tweet showing some screenshots of the Twitter web client with a tweet displayed. The tweet reading Testing Edit! has its overflow (three-dot) menu open. Close to the bottom of the menu, we see an Edit Tweet option. On the next image, we see that same tweet in the actual editing process with text added. Unfortunately, the next image shows an error message. As is often the case with features enabled early, they just dont work. Since the feature is still in testing and not meant for anyone outside of the circle, the functionality just wasnt added yet. Uh oh! @Twitter's edit button can already be enabled. It doesn't work yet, but I'll keep an eye on it! pic.twitter.com/7hyCAxsSym Advertisement Dylan Roussel (@evowizz) April 16, 2022 If youre interested in trying out this feature, its still going to be some time, but you can subscribe to Twitter Blue. Its $2.99/month, and youll have access to the edit tweet button along with other exclusives. Boris Johnson goes into a new week ready to defend his premiership again as he prepares to insist to MPs there are bigger issues to focus on than the partygate saga. Despite being fined by the Metropolitan Police for his birthday bash held in the Cabinet room in June 2020, while coronavirus restrictions were in place, the Prime Minister is expected to tell MPs on Tuesday that this should not be the focus of politicians. Mr Johnson is reported to be preparing to make a statement in the Commons once MPs return to Westminster following the Easter recess. A group of police officers walk through Downing Street (Stefan Rousseau/PA) But it comes after a thinly-veiled reference to standards in politics by one of the Church of Englands most senior clergymen, the Archbishop of York. Using his Easter sermon on Sunday, Stephen Cottrell urged Britons to ask what sort of country they wanted to live in. He said: Do we want to be known for the robustness of our democracy, where those in public life live to the highest standards, and where we can trust those who lead us to behave with integrity and honour? The Times reported that Mr Johnson was set to focus on Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis, and a trip to India which will focus on defence and trade. As well as addressing MPs in the Chamber, The Times reported Mr Johnson would speak to a meeting of the entire Conservative parliamentary party on Tuesday evening. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, is also expected to decide if to allow a vote on whether to refer Mr Johnson to the Privileges Committee which would decide whether he had misled the House over his partygate explanations. Minister for Brexit Opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg (James Manning/PA) Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated the defence Mr Johnson may reach for on Sunday. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s The World This Weekend programme, he said: I think that when you hear what happened on the party for which he has been fined, many people would think that they were in accordance with the rules, when they were meeting people they were with every day, who happened to wish them a happy birthday, because that was the day it was. I think that was a perfectly rational thing to believe. Now the police have decided otherwise and the police have an authority. But he wasnt thinking something irrational or unreasonable, that that was within the rules. But Mr Johnson was also accused over the weekend of not only attending a leaving party for his former communications chief Lee Cain on November 13, 2020, but instigating the do. Downing Street declined to comment. On Sunday, crossbench peer and historian Peter Hennessey told BBC Radio 4s Broadcasting House programme that the country was in the most severe constitutional crisis involving a prime minister that I can remember, and it goes to the heart of the character of the Prime Minister. Reading from his diary entry from Tuesday, when Mr Johnson apologised after receiving his partygate fine, Lord Hennessey said the PM had shredded the ministerial code and was unworthy of the Queen, her Parliament, her people and her kingdom. Still reading from the entry, he added: I cannot remember a day where Ive been more fearful for the wellbeing of the constitution. However, Mr Rees-Mogg played down the constitutional significance of the ministerial code. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s The World This Weekend programme, he said: The ministerial code is not a legislative part of our constitution, it is a set of guidelines produced by the Prime Minister. He said that when Mr Johnson told MPs rules had been followed in No 10 during Covid restrictions: I think that the Prime Minister spoke to Parliament in good faith. Pupils researching topics for history projects online can be exposed to extremist content and Holocaust denial, teachers have warned. At the NASUWT teaching unions annual conference in Birmingham on Monday, member Rachel Minto said extreme far-right material could be accessed by pupils 24/7 with a few swipes of your phone. More worryingly, children can accidentally come across this material whilst innocently researching for school projects, she said. A Google search on the Holocaust can bring up information provided by a Holocaust denier as easily as legitimate or sound historical documentation, she told the conference. Ms Minto said research showed that childrens access to social media and smartphones means they are more at risk of being exposed to extremist material than ever before, with time spent online increasing exponentially during the pandemic. Gone are the days when far-right information and propaganda was confined to the back rooms of seedy pubs and clubs, she said. Ms Minto said she was increasingly alarmed and appalled by the gradual normalisation of far-right views. She added that a lack of challenge to these views by some politicians and the media is filtering into the psyche of our schools and into the homes of our pupils. This is intensified by the Governments continued attack on what they have termed the woke agenda and their reluctance to rally behind Black Lives Matter, she added. Teachers at the conference voted for the union to lobby governments to invest in new international education programmes to promote diversity, and to produce training for members to help them challenge far-right nationalism. NASUWT member Candida Mellow said she was appalled and sickened by the far right, and that as a teacher of French she was horrified that a cloaked neo-Nazi was standing for the French presidency. As a result of Brexit, we have lost a lot of our cross-border links and education programmes, and therefore the possibility of our young people to experience cultural differences, she said. We also need to actively educate our students about online infiltration of far-right messages. These insidious organisations use subtle tactics to indoctrinate very vulnerable children. Union member Nicholas Tones said that around seven years ago he had noticed that one of the accounts following his English departments Twitter account, belonging to a pupils parent, consisted only of retweets of far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. He reported this as a concern under the Prevent strategy. From the feedback that I sought afterwards, it seems there was a considerable delay by both the designated officer and the local authority in processing this concern and acting upon it, because, to misquote the late, great Sir Alec Guinness, this is not the radicalisation were looking for. He said those running Prevent had evolved somewhat since then, but only in the context of an increasingly toxic and polarised political environment. Another NASUWT member, Judith Bruce-Golding, who is black, said she had grown up on an estate which was the home of the National Front, and she had seen her sisters return from a school disco with ripped clothes after being chased by racists. Member Judith Bruce-Golding, from Birmingham, spoke of the power that teachers have to build a sense of belonging for all those children who are different in their classrooms, addressing delegates about the anti-far right motion at our Annual Conference today.#teachers #Schools NASUWT (@NASUWT) April 18, 2022 My sister came home in a bra, because they had been chased it was a tough time. When we think about anti-far right initiatives, to me it goes back to what gives people the right to look at someone else and think that they can go into their boundaries, and it made me think about, What have you been taught?' She said this had made her realise how much power we have as teachers to include and build that sense of belonging for all of those children who are different in that space. She said the union needed to discuss what it meant to decolonise a curriculum and undermine the far-right initiatives that may be embedded in our curriculum. Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said the union was alarmed by the incidence of far-right extremism and hate crimes in the UK. Over the last decade, the Government has peddled a hostile environment agenda which has created the conditions for hatred to flourish, he added. Official numbers of reported hate crimes have risen to more than 124,000 a year across England and Wales. Nearly three-quarters of these hate crimes were racially motivated increasing by 12% in just a year. Dr Roach added that schools are not immune, as children and young people are often exposed to hate speech on social media and elsewhere. He said more needed to be done to address the problem of extremist views in schools. Concerted Government-level action is urgently needed to support schools in tackling the problem and to support pupils and teachers who have been targeted and victimised, he said. Anti-racism must be central to the curriculum and schools and colleges must also be supported and equipped to provide a curriculum that challenges all forms of bigotry, prejudice and hatred. Jennifer Grey talks about "schnozzageddon," getting the nose job that left her unrecognizable, as well as her lack of chemistry with Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze and the fatal car crash she and then-boyfriend Matthew Broderick were involved in, according to two new interviews promoting her memoir. The actress wrote in Out of the Corner, out May 3, that she and Swayze didn't have the best relationship off-camera. However, that "friction" fueled the film, which came out in 1987. "The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together they weren't ... a natural match, right? we weren't a natural match," Grey told People magazine. "And the fact that we needed to be a natural match created a tension. Because, no, normally when someone's not a natural [match] ... both people move on, but we were forced to be together. And our being forced to be together created a kind of a synergy, or like a friction." Jennifer Grey had on-screen chemistry with Dirty Dancing co-star Patrick Swayze, but they didn't have the best relationship off-camera. (Photo: Jim Smeal/WireImage) The 62-year-old continued, "I actually just had a thought about Patrick," who died from pancreatic cancer in 2009. "I feel like if I could say anything to him now I would say, 'I'm so sorry that I couldn't just appreciate and luxuriate in who you were, instead of me wishing you were more like what I wanted you to be.'" When it was noted that America loved Swayze and wished their on-screen love was real he wasn't her type, as a co-star or otherwise. "The weird thing was, it's like, 'What's wrong with me?'" she said of their lack of personal chemistry. "I mean, I was not lacking," at the time dating her Ferris Bueller's Day Off co-star Broderick. "And he was married. and very in love with his wife. Whatever he was doing, I was not... I was very busy with Matthew. What could be more different?" Grey also spoke about getting a nose job in the early 1990s after years of her mother, actress Jo Wilder, urging her to and at the advice of three surgeons. It was more aggressive than what Grey expected, she told the New York Times, leaving her nose "truncated" and "dwarfed." She then needed a second surgery to "fine-tune" her proboscis. It left her unrecognizable to people who had known her for years, and photographers who used to hound her didn't recognize her. She referred to it as "schnozzageddon" to the news outlet. "The first time I had gone out in public," Michael Douglas who she had known for years didn't recognize her, she told People. "And it became the thing, the idea of being completely invisible, from one day to the next. In the world's eyes, I was no longer me." In her book she wrote, "Overnight I lose my identity and my career." The kicker was that her whole life she was "completely anti-rhinoplasty" despite her mother encouraging her to go under the knife. "The weird thing was that thing that I resisted my whole life," she said, adding she "was so upset with my mother for always telling me I should do my nose." So when she did it, "I really thought it meant surrendering to the enemy camp. I just thought, 'I'm good enough. I shouldn't have to do this.' That's really what I felt. 'I'm beautiful enough.'" She said her mother loved her, despite her telling her to change her appearance. "She loves me, loved me, always has, and she was pragmatic because she was saying, guess what? It's too hard to cast you. Make it easier for them," Grey said. "And then I did and she was right. [The feedback she was getting no longer was]: 'You're not pretty.' She said her parents, dad Joel Grey, both underwent plastic surgery themselves. "When I was a kid, I was completely anti-rhinoplasty. I mean it was like my religion,' she said. "I loved that my parents did it. I understand it was the '50s. I understand they were assimilating. I understood that you had to change your name and you had to do certain things, and it was just normalized, right? You can't be gay. You can't be Jewish. You know, you can't look Jewish. You're just trying to fit into whatever is the groupthink." Grey also spoke about the car accident she and Broderick were in just before the Dirty Dancing premiere. He was behind the wheel of a car in Northern Ireland when he crossed into the wrong lane and collided head-on with a mother and daughter, both of whom were killed. He suffered serious injuries; Grey had spinal surgery 30 years later as a result of the crash. Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey at the 59th Annual Academy Awards. (Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) The idea that the most traumatic tragedy, the most impactful experience of my life, was sandwiched..." with Dirty Dancing coming out and the accolades that came with it. "They are inextricably linked. The pleasure of that moment, that surprise arrival, it never felt good. It never felt like what Id hoped my whole life it would feel like... We were so young. And theres not a week that goes by that I dont think about it. That I don't think about the families. That I don't think about Matthew. It's just in me. It's part of my topographical map, the landscape of my life." Grey who was divorced from Clark Gregg last year told People that anyone looking for any further gossip about the tragedies can keep looking. "There was some very, very heavy stuff that went down that changed my life forever and there was no one to blame," she said. "And many people might think that I'm here to tell some long-held secret. None of that, it's just we had an accident. It was a pure and simple accident that was tragic. And it had very serious traumatic lasting effects on, I'm sure, Matthew and the family of the other women and me." Whatever you've heard or read, no, Julia Roberts has not insured her dazzling smile the one that audiences got to see again and again in hit romantic comedies like Pretty Woman, My Best Friend's Wedding and Notting Hill. "I mean, if my smile was insured," Roberts told the New York Times Magazine for a story published Friday,"there would be someone at my house on a nightly basis saying, 'You need to floss longer.'" Audiences will get to see Roberts's famous expression again this fall, when she co-stars with her friend (and regular co-star) George Clooney in Ticket to Paradise, her return to the genre after a long absence. In fact, she hasn't appeared in anything for four years. "People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that's gone by that I haven't done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one," she said. "If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend's Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it. They didn't exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker [writer/director of Mama Mia! Here We Go Again] wrote and directed." Julia Roberts stars alongside Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney in the 1997 movie My Best Friend's Wedding. (Photo: Everett Collection) There's also the matter of her family, which she keeps private and which she doesn't like to leave for just any reason. Roberts married cinematographer Danny Moder in 2002, with whom she shares three teenagers. "Here's the thing: If I'd thought something was good enough, I would have done it. But I also had three kids in the last 18 years," Roberts told the magazine. "That raises the bar even more because then it's not only, Is this material good? It's also the math equation of my husband's work schedule and the kids' school schedule and summer vacation. It's not just, Oh, I think I want to do this. I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker. For so much of my children's younger life they would see their dad go off and I would work a little, but they almost didn't notice. It was like I was only gone when they were napping or something. But as they get older, and particularly with my daughter, I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that it's meaningful to me so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with." In fact, Roberts "almost didn't do" the 2013 movie August: Osage County, for which she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar, because she didn't want to leave her family. Moder convinced her. "They were going to start filming right as our youngest son was starting kindergarten, and I was like, How could I miss this? I remember talking to Danny about it, and he said: 'At some point you were going to have to leave us to work. Wouldn't you rather roll those dice in a situation like this, where you have a good understanding of what you're going to be doing and the people you're going to be working with?'" For that one, she was part of an all-star cast that included Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale and more. Clooney was a producer. "He was right to push me," Roberts said of Moder, "because if he said, 'I don't know,' I would have been like: 'I don't either! I'm not going!' That's the female plight. That feeling of leaving is hard." Friends Julia Roberts and George Clooney promote their movie Money Monster at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. (Photo: Ian Gavan/Getty Images) Roberts's latest projects, both the reunion with Clooney and Gaslit, a Starz series out April 24, in which she plays Martha Mitchell, an unlikely figure in bringing down the Nixon administration during the Watergate scandal, are allowing her to live her "acting dreams." Her friend Sean Penn she calls him "the greatest dramatic actor, I think, of my generation" plays her husband, Nixon attorney general John N. Mitchell. And, don't worry, Roberts said her rom-com skills, which, if you don't count her minors parts in the Garry Marshall-directed lovefests of the 2010s, came back to her for Paradise. "I love to laugh and be funny. You get into that mode of those endorphins going off when you're clever and people going, 'Oh!' Then that becomes this automatic thing where you're always thinking in terms of creating fun," she said. "It's a joy to play in that sandbox. It has been a long time." And she said that the famous grin and the boisterous laugh for which she's known is still genuine. "If something's funny, I'm going to laugh," she said. "If something's not funny, nothing's going to make me laugh. I would probably get a lot further in my career if I had more control over those things." The family of a former British Army soldier reportedly captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine have called on his captors to uphold his rights as he appeared on Russian television asking to be exchanged for a pro-Kremlin politician. In footage reportedly broadcast on the Rossiya 24 state channel on Monday, Shaun Pinner addresses the Prime Minister and appears to ask for himself and fellow British prisoner of war Aiden Aslin to be swapped for Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been held in Ukraine. Hi Mr Boris Johnson, says the 48-year-old former Royal Anglian soldier, who appears tired in the video. Shaun Pinner, who served in many tours including with the United Nations in Bosnia, has allegedly been captured by Russian forces (Family Handout/PA) I understand that Mr Medvedchuk has been detained and we look to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin for Mr Medvedchuk. Obviously Id really appreciate your help in this matter and pushing this agenda. He also says he has been treated well and fed, watered. In a separate clip, Mr Aslin, 28, is seen saying: If Boris Johnson really does care like he says he does about British citizens then he would help pressure (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families. It is unclear if the men were speaking under duress. Mr Medvedchuk also reportedly asked to be exchanged in a video released by Ukraines intelligence service. Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, later said a prisoner exchange is possible. He told BBC Radio 4s PM programme it happens behind the scenes. Like I said, this is where the back channels come into place, he said. Its where the agencies do our work. We still have, despite Russia deciding to persona non grata many Government officials, there are still communications that take place. We still have an embassy operating. Thats where these discussions should take place, not in the open media. Earlier footage appeared to show Mr Pinner saying he was captured in Mariupol while fighting with the Ukrainian marines. He said he had been fighting in the besieged city for five to six weeks but was now in the breakaway region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. In a statement released by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Mr Pinners family explained how he became involved in the defence of Ukraine, which they said he considers his adopted country. The statement read: Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia. (PA Graphics) In 2018 Shaun decided to relocate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine military. Shaun enjoyed the Ukrainian way of life and considered Ukraine as his adopted country over the last four years. During this time, he met his Ukrainian wife, who is very focused on the humanitarian needs of the country. He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit. The statement continued: We would like to make it clear he is not a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. Our family is currently working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin, who is also being held by the Russian Army to ensure their rights as prisoners of war are upheld according to the Geneva Convention. Under the convention, prisoners of war must be treated humanely and protected from humiliating or degrading treatment. His relatives described Mr Pinner as funny, much-loved, well-intentioned and said they hoped for a quick resolution to allow the captured men to return to their families. Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this horrific conflict, the statement concluded. The FCDO condemned the exploitation of prisoners of war for political purposes and called on the Kremlin to treat all prisoners of war humanely. The department has been in contact with the families of Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin to support them. We know that the Kremlin is preparing fresh lies to account for atrocities on civilians in Ukraine. These attempts to cover up horrific acts of violence will not deter investigators. The UK is offering funding, personnel and military expertise to hold perpetrators to account. pic.twitter.com/DlH4btTn2F Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) April 16, 2022 However, the UKs ability to obtain information and provide consular services on the ground is severely limited because of the conflict. In another video, Mr Pinner, who is originally from Bedfordshire, appeared to be questioned by a Russian journalist about how he was captured. He left a factory hideout in Mariupol at 4am on Tuesday, he said in the heavily-edited clip, adding there was not much time to think. The Russian reporter then appeared to tell Mr Pinner his Ukrainian commanders wanted him to be killed. Mr Pinner spoke of his fear of capture in January, telling the Mail on Sunday: I fear for my life. The Russians will treat us differently if we are captured because we are British. This is always on my mind, that I will be captured. Mr Aslin, originally from Nottinghamshire, had been defending Mariupol with his unit during heavy fighting in recent weeks before having to surrender after 48 days due to a lack of food and ammunition. The Telegraph reported Mr Aslin enlisted in the Ukrainian army in 2018 and that he had previously fought against the so-called Islamic State in Syria. DETROIT (AP) A group of Tesla shareholders suing CEO Elon Musk over some 2018 tweets about taking the company private is asking a federal judge to order Musk to stop commenting on the case. Lawyers for stockholders of the Austin, Texas-based company also say in court documents that the judge in the case has ruled that Musk's tweets about having funding secured to take Tesla private were false, and that his comments also violate a 2018 court settlement with U.S. securities regulators in which Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million fines. Musk, during an interview Thursday at the TED 2022 conference, said he had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. He called the Securities and Exchange Commission a profane name and said he only settled because bankers told him they would stop providing capital if he didn't, and Tesla would go bankrupt. The interview and court action came just days after Musk, the world's richest person, made a controversial offer to take over Twitter and turn it into a private company with a $43 billion offer that equals $54.20 per share. Twitter's board on Friday adopted a poison pill strategy that would make it prohibitively expensive for Musk to buy the shares. In court documents filed Friday, lawyers for the Tesla shareholders alleged that Musk is trying to influence potential jurors in the lawsuit. They contend that Musk's 2018 tweets about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share were written to maniuplate the stock price, costing shareholders money. Now, lawyers say Musk is campaigning to influence possible jurors as the case gets closer to trial. Musk's comments risk confusing potential jurors with the false narrative that he did not knowingly make misrepresentations with his Aug. 7, 2018 tweets, the lawyers wrote. His present statements on that issue, an unsubtle attempt to absolve himself in the court of public opinion, will only have a predjudicial influence on a jury." The lawyers asked Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco to restrain Musk from making further public comments on the issue until after the trial. Chen gave Musk's lawyers until Wednesday to respond. Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Musk, wrote in an email Sunday that the plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking a big payout. Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have, he wrote. All that's left some half-decade later is random plaintiffs lawyers trying to make a buck and others trying to block that truth from coming to light, all to the detriment of free speech. But the shareholders' lawyers wrote that Chen already ruled that Musk's tweets were false and misleading, and that no reasonable juror could conclude otherwise. Judge Chen's order, issued April 1, was not in the public court file as of Sunday. Adam Apton, a lawyer for the shareholders, said it was sealed because it has evidence that Musk and Tesla say is confidential. It will stay sealed until the parties agree if anything should remain sealed, he wrote in an email. Our motion for TRO (temporary restraining order) accurately desribes the issues decided by the court, Apton wrote. After Musk's 2018 tweets, the SEC filed a complaint against him alleging securities law violations. Musk then agreed to the fine and signed the court agreement. Part of the agreement says that Musk will not take any action or make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis. If Musk violates the agreement, the SEC may ask the court to scrap it and restore the securities fraud complaint, the agreement says. A message was left Sunday seeking comment from the SEC. Spiro, on behalf of Musk, already has asked a Manhattan federal court to throw out the agreement. He contends the SEC is using the pact and near limitless resources to chill Musks speech. Court documents filed by Spiro say Musk signed the agreement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized its financing. The Commons Foreign Committee should consider expanding its inquiry into hostage taking to consider reports Ukrainians have been transported to Russia via filtration camps, its chairman has said. Tom Tugendhat acknowledged the committee began its investigation into state level hostage situations thinking of people like Nazanin (Zaghari-Ratcliffe), who recently returned to Britain after being detained in Iran for nearly six years. But sharing reports that over 674,000 Ukrainians have been moved to Russia since the war began, the Tory MP said: Reading this we should think about expanding our inquiry. The figure, which has been attributed to Russian officials, was tweeted by historian Dr Peter Caddick-Adams, who said: (Russia) claims that they were transported voluntarily. (Ukraine) says the process was involuntary, via filtration camps where documents were stolen, prior to forced removal to Russia. Mr Tugendhat quoted the tweet with the caption: We began an @CommonsForeign inquiry on hostage taking as foreign policy thinking of people like Nazanin (Zaghari-Ratcliffe). Reading this we should think about expanding our inquiry. We began an @CommonsForeign inquiry on hostage taking as foreign policy thinking of people like Nazanin Zaghari Radcliffe. Reading this we should think about expanding our inquiry. https://t.co/mJL3Z3gSgp https://t.co/opN4oJ8Yud Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) April 18, 2022 It comes after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss last month condemned the abduction and deportation of Ukrainians from the besieged city of Mariupol. A Ukrainian MP claimed at the time that her countrymen and women were being forced to relocate to distant parts of Russia to work in conditions akin to slave labour. The Foreign Secretary said she was appalled by the reports and vowed for Russian president Vladimir Putin to be held to account for his treatment of civilians during the invasion. Speaking to Times Radio, Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said that, according to information being shared by the ports mayor, citizens were effectively being relocated by Moscow. From what we know from the city mayor and the city council, is they are taking Ukrainian citizens, she said. They are sending them through what are called the filtration camps and then they are being relocated to very distant parts of Russia, where they are being forced to sign papers (saying) that they will stay in that area for two or three years and they will work for free in those areas. A Georgia man accused of running a cult that views him as God was ordered held without bail Friday after being charged with rape and false imprisonment. Eligio Bishop, who also goes by Nature Boy, was arrested late Wednesday and charged with rape, false imprisonment and three counts of prohibition on nude or sexually explicit electronic transmissions, according to online jail records from the DeKalb County Police Department. After receiving a complaint on March 30, the special victims unit began an investigation into Bishop, a spokesperson told the Daily News Monday. The specifics of the complaint are unclear. Bishop allegedly runs a small cult sometimes called the Carbon Nation, which previously centered around sexual and naturalist themes, according to 11Alive. But recently, social media posts from Bishop have shifted to focus on him, referring to himself as Th3 3God. Eligio Bishop Eligio Bishop A video posted by apparent followers on Instagram includes a jail cell call from Bishop in which he said he was he was trying to help people and is simply misunderstood. They want to crucify me, they want me dead, theres hate that surrounds me, you can feel it, just like any other prophet only me, Im the return of the Christ, he said. Its unclear when Bishop arrived in Georgia, but he and about 15 followers were kicked out of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama in 2019 for endangering and threatening the national security of those three countries, the Costa Rica Star reported at the time. Bishop, who was described as a former model, stripper and sex worker, forced followers to surrender their money, credit cards and bank account information in order to join his cult, according to the Star. In 2020, Bishop and 20 others were arrested in Hawaii for violating COVID-19 quarantine protocols. An Atlanta-area neighbor described multiple instances of abuse at Bishops house. Carbon Nation is his cult. Hes been whooping girls, beating girls, fertilizing girls, getting girls ready for marriage, the anonymous woman told WSB-TV. Erikka Carroll, one of Bishops first followers who moved from New York to Honduras to be with him in 2006 but left a year later, told 11Alive that the abuse, both physical and emotional, dated back to her days as well, but that hes gotten worse over time. He constantly says the same things over and over and over. You cant watch any other teachers, you cant read any other books, he wants everything to just be him. If you read how to brainwash somebody thats basically how you do it, she said. He (now) has the women fighting each other, hes putting his hands on the men. He always said he wanted a lot of wives. He wanted ten wives. After leaving the cult, Carroll checked herself into the hospital to get my mind right, she told the outlet, then began proper therapy. Washingtons geopolitical appetite has been growing By Global Times editorial (Global Times) 08:27, April 18, 2022 Peace talks Illustration: Liu Rui/GT In recent days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and State Department spokesperson Ned Price have expressed their views on when the Russia-Ukraine conflict might end. Sullivan said on Thursday that "fighting in Ukraine could go on for months or longer." Blinken and Price said that the clash could last through the end of 2022. There are indications showing that this is not so much a judgment by Washington as it is its real intent. This prediction is an extension of seven months from previous ones that generally argued that the conflict would end in May. After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, almost all Washington's practices have been to push the war into a prolonged one, and all kinds of mobilization and "efforts" have been made to this end. This prediction of Washington's, in effect, is telling Ukraine to go ahead and "we support you." Ukraine has been extremely exploited as a pawn. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict has lasted for more than 50 days, it became increasingly clear that "rescuing Ukraine" was just a "theater effect" that the US wanted to create ostensibly. Manipulating the pace and taking advantage of the chaos has been Washington's real purpose. The Pentagon on Wednesday hosted leaders of the top eight US weapons manufacturers to discuss faster production of weapons. The stocks of these military-industrial companies appear to be on the verge of another surge. The US military-industrial complex is the most direct and biggest beneficiary of the prolongation of the war. In addition, triggering maximum consumption to Russia, using the "Russia threat theory" to draw Europe to its side, and manipulating NATO to a greater extent are the "geopolitical dividends" tainted with blood that the US expects to gain from this war. Therefore, although US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is "World War III, something we must strive to prevent," the US' policies seem to have escalated the situation toward this direction. Shortly after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the two countries showed their attitude of wishing to reach a cease-fire through talks and they had engaged in several rounds of negotiations. During the fifth round, Russia and Ukraine got closer on their stances and released positive signals. However, Ukraine soon changed its attitude on core topics such as whether it will join NATO, and the talks fell into de facto deadlock. This may partly be due to Ukraine's negotiating tactics, but the root cause is known to all - as the things didn't go in line with Washington's script, the US stepped in to undermine the consensus and basis for negotiations. After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, people feared the advent of a "new cold war." But the current situation is heading toward a more dangerous scenario than merely a "new cold war." Because during the Cold War era, the two camps had reached an agreement that security was mutual. The two sides refrained themselves and kept a long-term peace during their military and ideological standoff. The current US policy of "defeating Russia" has gone further than "suppression" - and of course, the peace of Ukraine is clearly not within Washington's priorities. The current US is as hegemonic and arrogant as it was shortly after the end of the Cold War when it was the only pole in the world. Washington's geopolitical appetite has been growing as the Russia-Ukraine conflict goes on. US media reported that the US and its allies have begun planning for a "far different world" in which they "actively seek to isolate and weaken" Russia. The "security anxiety" hyped by the US has made neutral European countries like Sweden and Finland seek to join NATO. It has also pushed Europe and Russia into a downward spiral in terms of confrontation on security. Nevertheless, whether or not the US' strategy will end up boomeranging as much as its "democracy promotion," Russia has warned of "unpredictable consequences" of the US intent to divide the world. More dangerously, Washington, which has tasted blood in the Ukraine crisis, has an urge to take this approach global. People see that Washington is trying to make the most of the Russia-Ukraine conflict by linking it to the Indo-Pacific situation. On one hand, the US is proactively making NATO look eastward. On the other hand, it is sparing no efforts to make waves in the Asia-Pacific. The US has invited, for the first time, Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers to NATO foreign ministers' meetings, tried to rope Japan into AUKUS and intensified its political manipulation on the Taiwan question. Indulging in extreme geopolitical games, Washington is increasingly becoming the origin of chaos and wars - this should be watched and guarded against by all. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) After months of warning all travelers to avoid a long list of countries because of "very high" COVID-19 levels, the CDC has removed all countries from its "Do Not Travel" list. The federal agency on Monday removed 89 countries from its "Do Not Travel" list. The highest Level 4 designation will now be reserved for "special circumstances" reflecting a dangerous spike in COVID-19 cases, a new variant or health care infrastructure collapse. While the Level 4 list had at one point included well over 100 destinations, now there are no Level 4 countries. Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 classifications continue to be based on a 28-day incidence or case counts. Countries with a "high level of COVID-19" are considered Level 3. Travelers who are not fully vaccinated are still advised to avoid travel to these destinations, but the warning does not apply to fully vaccinated visitors. Travelers with weakened immune systems are urged to check with doctors before visiting. CDC LEVEL 4 WARNINGS: Do people care? Passengers in the interior of an airport. The CDC classifies countries with "moderate" COVID-19 levels into Level 2 and "low" COVID-19 levels into Level 1. Travelers should make sure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines before traveling to these destinations, according to the CDC. The agency said the new travel advisory system is meant to be "a more actionable alert" for travelers that helps them understand "when the highest level of concern is most urgent." The update comes less than a week after the CDC confirmed it would extend the federal mask mandate on airplanes and other public transportation through May 3. That decision, however, was challenged Monday when a federal judge in Florida voided the mandate. The State Department also said it would also adjust its travel advisories and will no longer automatically correlate its guidance with the CDC's travel health notice level. But if the CDC moves a destination to Level 4 because of COVID-19 risk, the State Department's travel advisory for that destination will also raise to Level 4. The update leaves about 10% of all travel advisories at Level 4. The State Department advises against travel for a number of risks, not just COVID-19. FEDERAL MASK MANDATE: Florida judge voids US mask mandate for planes, public transportation after CDC extension This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CDC removes 89 countries from 'Do Not Travel' list In response to the Department of Interior (DOI) announcement that it will begin issuing sale notices on Monday for new oil and gas leases, climate change activists and Indigenous advocacy groups are castigating President Biden for breaking a key campaign promise. Additional oil and gas drilling will damage local air and water in nearby communities and exacerbate climate change, a coalition of groups said in a statement Friday night following the DOI announcement. Candidate Biden promised to end new oil and gas leasing on public lands, but President Biden is prioritizing oil executive profits over future generations, said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth. Right now, fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters make up a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions at a time scientists are saying we must move urgently to cut emissions by at least half, said Dan Ritzman, a director at the Sierra Club. Not only does it devastate our planet, its a handout to Big Oil at the expense of average Americans, who will bear the brunt of its societal, health and financial ramifications. President Biden speaking in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) With conservative climate models predicting that we have less than 30 years to radically change our relationship with oil and gas, the future rests in the United States hands, said Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, an Alaska native advocacy organization. We can no longer commodify our land and water. The lease sale follows an injunction issued by a federal judge in Louisiana, who ruled that Bidens Jan. 27, 2021, executive order pausing new federal oil and gas leasing violates laws governing federal land management. The DOI plans to auction off oil and gas leases on 145,000 acres of public lands in nine states across the West, the first such sale since Biden took office. The department is instituting new rules that will apply to this sale and to others, moving forward, that will increase environmental scrutiny and mitigation requirements and raise the below-market royalty rates that DOI has been charging. In November, the DOI issued a report finding that the prior federal fossil fuel leasing program did not get a fair return for taxpayers and didnt adequately consult surrounding communities. Some environmentalists criticized the report for failing to examine how federal fossil fuel leasing contributes to climate change, but the DOI pledged to factor greenhouse gas emissions into future decisions about where to drill. The lease sales will incorporate many of the recommendations in the Departments report, including ensuring Tribal consultation and broad community input, reliance of the best available science including analysis of [greenhouse gas] emissions, and a first-ever increase in the royalty rate for new competitive leases to 18.75 percent, to ensure fair return for the American taxpayer and on par with rates charged by states and private landowners, the department said in a statement. Pump jacks in Eddy County, N.M. (Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images) For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of Tribal Nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands, said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in the same DOI statement. Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans resources for the benefit of all current and future generations. An administration official defended the lease sale on a Monday morning background press call rehashing the Biden administrations environmental agenda in advance of Earth Day. This is the direct result of a court injunction, said the official in response to a question from a reporter about the forthcoming auction. The secretary of interior still has some remaining discretion, and she has used that discretion to reduce 80% of the areas to lease, to increase the stringency of environmental safeguards and to boost the return to taxpayers." During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to end federal fossil fuel leasing. No more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period, he said while campaigning in New Hampshire in February 2020. But last Junes federal district court ruling in Louisiana, siding with Republican attorneys general from 13 states, overturned that order. In November, the DOI held the largest offshore oil drilling lease auction ever in the Gulf of Mexico. The Biden administration is appealing that decision, but climate activists argue that it could fight harder to stave off new lease sales while the appeal is pending. Drew Caputo, vice president for litigation at Earthjustice, told Yahoo News in November that the administration should have sought a stay from the appeals court of the district court order, requested an expedited ruling and withdrawn offshore areas from leasing under the presidents authority using the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Unused oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico near Port Fourchon, La. (Lee Celano/Reuters) Environmental advocates also argued in a lawsuit that the offshore lease auctions environmental analysis had been done unlawfully. This January a federal judge agreed with them and voided those sales. Caputo speculated last year that the administration was intentionally not fighting the ruling with every means at its disposal because theyre, I think, thinking, Well, we need to give a little' on fossil fuel development in response to high gasoline prices. With prices at the pump surging even more since Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the White House is certainly doing everything within its power to ease fuel costs. The president has called on oil and gas producers to boost short-term supply by drilling on the 9,000 currently unused federal leases and asked Congress to pass a bill that would assess a fee on unused leases. (American Petroleum Institute president Mike Sommers countered in a statement that the percentage of producing leases is at a two-decade high.) In addition to releasing 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months, Biden recently lifted a rule that bans gas stations from selling corn-based ethanol during the summer and directed subsidies toward making the biofuel more widely available. While Republicans and the fossil fuel industry have attacked the president over high gas prices, claiming that the absence of new leases is to blame, energy industry experts say that leases sold, or not sold, since Biden took office have no connection to current oil prices because it takes years for a lease to create production. The administration official on Mondays press call said, Leasing that will result in production five or 10 or 15 or 20 years from now is not [a response] to the market were seeing now. Instead, the White House is urging Congress to pass Bidens proposals for renewable energy production and electric vehicle deployment, which an outside analysis found will reduce U.S. demand for oil by the end of this decade more than twice as much as the amount of oil the United States imports from Russia. The 100-megawatt MGM Resorts Mega Solar Array in Dry Lake Valley, Nev. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) The American Petroleum Institute did not issue a statement about the new leases, nor did it respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News. Jeff Eshelman, the chief operating officer of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, told the New York Times that the administration is sending a mixed message. This administration has begged for more oil from foreign nations, blames American energy producers for price gouging and sitting on leases, Eshelman said. Now, on a late holiday announcement, under pressure, it announces a lease sale with major royalty increases that will add uncertainty to drilling plans for years. Global temperatures are on the rise and have been for decades. Step inside the data and see the magnitude of climate change. YEREVAN, APRIL18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received today the United States Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Andrew Schofer, the PMs Office said. During the meeting the Armenian PM highlighted the role of the United States as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country and welcomed the visit of Mr. Schofer, which, he said, will enable to discuss the situation in Nagorno Karabakh and the ongoing processes in this respect. The sides emphasized the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in the comprehensive settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The humanitarian problems, as well as the possibility of launching talks with Azerbaijan around a peace treaty were also touched upon. In this respect the Armenian PM highlighted the mediation role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship and the Co-Chair countries. YEREVAN, 18 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 18 April, USD exchange rate down by 0.09 drams to 471.35 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.42 drams to 509.11 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.08 drams to 5.97 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.77 drams to 614.07 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 5.68 drams to 29751.59 drams. Silver price down by 0.08 drams to 388.78 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams. A special bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the accused to surrender in a week's time New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. A special bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli also asked the accused to surrender in a week's time. The top court on April 4 had reserved its order on a plea of farmers seeking cancellation of bail to Mishra. Earlier, the high court had granted bail to him. On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area. Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre's now-repealed agricultural reform laws. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine have been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country A woman is taken to an ambulance after being injured in a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Kyiv: Multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early Monday as the country was bracing for an all-out Russian assault in the east. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to fight absolutely to the end in strategically vital Mariupol, meanwhile, where the ruined port city's last known pocket of resistance was holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. AP staff witnessed the explosions in Lviv, which has been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country and was considered to be a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Facebook that five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding to the blasts. He said more details would follow. With missiles and rockets battering various parts of the country, Zelenskyy accused Russian soldiers of torture and kidnappings in areas they control. The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory of the war. But a few thousand fighters, by Russia's estimate, were holding on to the giant, 11-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) Azovstal steel mill. We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed Sunday on ABC's This Week. He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, but we do not have intention to surrender. Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the city's patrol police, told Mariupol television. He said they are hiding from Russian shelling and from Russian soldiers. Capturing the city on the Sea of Azov would free Russian troops for a new offensive to take control of the Donbas region in Ukraine's industrial east. Russia also would fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, depriving Ukraine of a major port and prized industrial assets. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, after its attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, failed. We are doing everything to ensure the defense of eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation. As for besieged Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope of military rescue. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians there are basically encircled. He said they continue their struggle, but that the city effectively doesn't exist anymore because of massive destruction. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by Ukrainian estimates. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians had taken shelter. An estimated 100,000 people remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Drone footage carried by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed mile after mile of shattered buildings and, on the city's outskirts, the steel complex, from which rose towering plumes of smoke. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine. Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraine's military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault on the Donbas. After the humiliating sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, the Kremlin had vowed to step up strikes on the capital. Russia said Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near Kyiv overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets earlier this month killed at least 57 people at a train station crowded with civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. At least five people were killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage slammed into apartment buildings. The streets were littered with broken glass and other debris. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in an impassioned address marking Orthodox Palm Sunday, lashed out at Russian forces for not letting up the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. Zelenskyy called the bombing in Kharkiv nothing but deliberate terror. In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy also appealed for a stronger response to what he said was the brutality of Russian troops in parts of southern Ukraine. Torture chambers are built there, he said. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. He again urged the world to send more weapons and apply tougher sanctions against Moscow. Malyar, the Ukrainian deputy defense minister, said the Russians were pounding Mariupol with airstrikes and could be preparing for an amphibious landing to reinforce their ground troops. The looming offensive in the east, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly needed victory to sell to the Russian people amid the war's mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by Western sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow this past week the first European leader to do so since the invasion Feb. 24 said the Russian president is in his own war logic on Ukraine. In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Nehammer said he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war, and we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine.'' Zelenskyy also marked Easter on Sunday, saying on Twitter: The Lord's Resurrection is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil. The Cabinet appointment came as the island-wide protests continued to force the resignation of the president and his family Protesters take part in a demonstration against the economic crisis at the entrance of the president's office in Colombo on April 17, 2022, demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the country's crippling economic crisis. (ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP) Colombo: Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa became the only member of the family to retain a Cabinet position in his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa's new Cabinet of 17 ministers appointed on Monday, as the island nation was facing the worst economic crisis. Earlier this month, Sri Lanka's entire Cabinet -- aside from President Gotabaya and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa -- resigned from their posts after thousands of people defied a countrywide state of emergency and curfew and joined street protests denouncing the government. The previous Cabinet had to make way for the president to form a unity cabinet with the Opposition members. The Opposition, however, declined the offer. Rajapaksa swore in a 17-member Cabinet on Monday in addition to the three ministers he had earlier appointed. That meant no place for the oldest member of the family Chamal Rajapaksa, Mahinda's son Namal Rajapaksa, both of whom were Cabinet ministers and the nephew Shasheendra who was a state minister. The Cabinet appointment came as the island-wide protests continued to force the resignation of the president and his family for mishandling the economy. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from the UK in 1948. The economic crisis also triggered a political turmoil in the island nation with citizens holding nationwide street protests for weeks over lengthy power cuts and shortage of fuel, food and other daily essentials and demanding the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. People continued to be in fuel and gas queues while the power cuts which were not imposed during the weekend on account of the traditional Sinhala and Tamil new year returned on Monday. The state power entity said there will be four and a half-hour power cuts on Monday. Adding to public woes is the Lanka Indian oil company (LIOC) announcement of further price hikes for petrol and diesel with effect from Sunday midnight. The LIOC raised fuel prices for the fourth time since February. A spokesman for the LIOC said the price hike was necessary due to the depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee. Sri Lanka rupees had fallen by over 60 per cent till March 7 when the flexible exchange rate was announced. The price of Octane 92 has been raised by over 10 per cent to a record high of 338 rupees per litre while diesel at 289 rupees per litre has seen a 35 per cent increase. by Gerolamo Fazzini The co-founder of Milans Catholic University of the Sacred Heart will be beatified on 30 April. She was very involved in evangelisation, especially in China, where she played a role in the founding of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an important female religious congregation that is still active. Milan (AsiaNews) - Armida Barelli (1892-1952) will be proclaimed Blessed in Milan on 30 April. A laywoman, she founded the Italian Catholic Womens Youth (GFIC)[*] and was co-founder of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (UCSC[]). An important but little-known aspect of her life was her ties with Catholics in China. An article published in the PIME magazine Mondo e Missione helps rediscover her, focusing on the help she gave, from Italy, to Bishop Eugenio Massi, OFM, in northern Shanxi, in founding the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a female religious congregation that is still among the largest in China. A small seed bore much fruit, particularly in the Diocese of Xi'an, from where the congregation sent nuns to many other parts of China. The missionary aspect in Armida Barellis life and work deserves the same attention as the other entities which she founded and led, said Mgr Claudio Giuliodori, UCSC general ecclesiastical assistant and former bishop of Macerata (2007-2014), Matteo Ricci's diocese. Born in Milan in 1882, Armida Barelli was sent to study in 1895 at the boarding school run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Cross in Menzingen, German-speaking Switzerland where she earned a diploma in education and German. In 1900, at 18, greeting her fellow graduates, she asked a thoughtful question: What will become of us in 10 years? For me, I shall either be Sister Elisabetta, missionary in China, or mother of twelve children. Providence had other plans in store for her. Yet the anecdote is important for it underscores an apostolic tension that flourish within a few years. The idea of China was already present in her youth, Bishop Giuliodori notes. When Benedict XV issued his apostolic letter Maximum Illud in 1919 to revive the missionary commitment of the universal Church, Barelli followed with a major initiative, namely the foundation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Bishop Massis portrait of the first superior is interesting. She is a 28-year-old young saint, Filomena Wang, daughter of a rich Mandarin. She spoke French well, knew how to draw, play music, sew, weave, knit, and embroider. She is endowed with a true spirit of apostolate and sacrifice, and is providential for the foundation, management and life of the charity. She never worries about the congregations poverty; on the contrary, she encourages us by saying: Don't worry, monsignor, at least in the beginning sacrifices must be made. We are all happy with this poverty, and we want to profess it not only with the spirit but with the facts. The foundress was Chinese, Mary Wang Wenqing, to whom Bishop Massi and Father Ding Wutiao, a Spanish Franciscan, gave strong support, said Sister Judith Hu Xiaozhe, former superior general, speaking about the founding of her congregation. She too acknowledges a special relationship of friendship between the congregation, Barelli and UCSC. The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart has a long historical relationship with us, although it is a famous university while we only have a small institution. The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus also experienced the storm of the years of persecution after Maos seizure of power. From 1952 until 1980 the congregation was forcibly disbanded. Eleven nuns were arrested and jailed, others returned to their homes, some ended up doing hard labour, several were publicly tried and endured physical punishment, but they always remained faithful to God and the Church. When the situation began to gradually improve for the Church, the congregation re-emerged, and today the Sisters are involved in pastoral care, evangelisation, welfare and healthcare. Their presence is making its mark in the local Church and Chinese society. Due to new requests, in 2019 we renovated a small abandoned building at the Wen Qing Centre, turning it into an apostolate house, to commemorate the GFCI. We called it the Minda House, and in July 2021, we registered the Minda Social Work Service Centre in the Xincheng, a district in Xi'an. We named it in Armidas honour. [*] Gioventu femminile cattolica italiana. [] Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Turkeys Constitutional Court upheld two rulings by the European Court of Human Rights against the governments failure to respect certain rights. One father started the legal battle against the mandatory Islamic education course for his daughter. Turkeys right-wing and government officials slam the decision. Few expect the ruling to be implemented. Istanbul (AsiaNews) Turkeys Constitutional Court recently upheld two rulings by the European Court of Human Rights that criticised Turkey for imposing mandatory Islamic religious education on minors. For the country, this is a major if not an historic decision in terms of religious freedom, given past controversial cases and President Recep Tayyip Erdogans support for nationalism and Islam. The justices ruled that forcing children and teenagers to attend religious classes against the will of their parents is a clear violation of their rights. Still, few expect the government to accept the decision and adapt its policies to the courts ruling. The affair follows a long legal battle started more than a decade ago by Huseyin El, who fought to prevent his daughter, Nazli Sirin El, from attending Islamic classes. The school principal wanted the fourth grader to take the mandatory class because she was neither Christian and Jewish. Non-Muslims are exempt for from the exemption, but Nazlis family is Alevi, a branch of Islam whose members meet in places of assembly called cemevi rather than in mosques. We argued that forcing a parent to reveal or document his faith is also a violation of Constitutional Article 24, which says no one can be forced to reveal religious beliefs and convictions, Els family lawyer Esra Basbakkal told Al-Monitor. A lower court had ruled in favour of the student 13 years ago based on Turkish laws and international conventions, but the Ministry of Education appealed to the Council of State, which overturned the decision. Eventually, the case reached the Constitutional Court in 2014. Eight years later, Turkeys top court ruled that forcing pupils to attend mandatory religious class violates their human rights and their familys right to choose the educational path for their children. This is a delayed decision, but it is a step in the right direction, said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer familiar with El and two similar cases taken to the ECHR. Local courts often ignore the ECHR decisions, but they now have to heed the Constitutional Court's. Reactions to the courts decision are mixed. Among right-wing circles and within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the response has been negative; however, no senior government officials, including President Erdogan, have yet to make any comment. The courts decision was a scandal, this according to ultra-right-wing daily Yeni Akit. Branding religion lessons for the youth of these lands shaped by Islam as a human rights violation is nothing but treason. Our people would not allow such treachery, said AKP lawmaker Mehmet Akif Yilmaz, a member of the Turkish parliaments education commission. Religious education was optional until the military coup of 1980. The junta led by Kenan Evren changed that with the aim of controlling radical or fanatical ideas and enshrined it in the 1982 constitution. However, the classes offered ended up promoting Sunni Islam causing unease among secular students and parents, who demanded more history of religions and fewer Islamic teachings. The evolution of mandatory religion in schools is a sign of the gradual withering away of secular values in education, compared to earlier republican administrations. This trend accelerated when the AKP came to power in 2002 and reformed the school system in 2012 adding more optional courses on the Quran, the Life of the Prophet Mohammed and Basic religious knowledge. Son enough, in most schools, these courses became mandatory for lack of alternatives. For lawyer Basbakkal, the best thing would be to make them optional again but, given the current governments outlook, this seems very unlikely, however desirable it might be. In fact, last September the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) announced plans to introduce mandatory Quranic courses to pre-schoolers and implemented pilot courses in a number of cities. by Stefano Vecchia The apostolic vicar of Taytay and former auxiliary bishop of Manila, beloved by the downtrodden, spoke to AsiaNews about the situation in his country ahead of the 9 May election. Human rights are increasingly seen as a burden. Extrajudicial executions call for justice. He personally supports Leni Robredo. Speaking about the war in Europe he said: What the Russians are doing in Ukraine, China could do to us. Milan (AsiaNews) The Philippines will go to the polls in a few weeks, on 9 May, to elect President Rodrigo Dutertes successor, as well as many local officials. Bishop Broderick Pabillo, former auxiliary bishop and later apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Manila, has been one of the strongest and most courageous critics of many of Dutertes policies and of the limits of democracy and rights in his country. Since August 2021 he has served as the apostolic vicar of Taytay, on the island of Palawan. AsiaNews has spoken to him to take stock of the situation in the Philippines in light of this very delicate vote. The Philippines is approaching major elections, not least because they come at the end of a long pandemic that hit the archipelago hard. What can you tell us about this and what are the pandemics consequences for Filipinos? The pandemic has shown us how we are all connected to one another. No one is safe unless everyone is safe. In many places, especially the less accessible islands and mountain areas, the level of vaccination remains low; here it was not possible to reach the population and inform them adequately about the pandemic. During the pandemic we also heard of cases of corruption involving the Department of Health and Pharmally, a company defended by President Duterte. We dont have enough money to buy vaccines and protect our healthcare workers, yet corruption involves billions. Obviously, bad governance has been amplified by the pandemic. Inevitably, an election of this importance raises many issues and touches many problems by casting a new or different perspective on them. Other issues that have come to the fore during the election campaign include the obvious lies aimed at revising our past. Social media have played a major role, especially with regard to the Marcos dictatorship. Then we have extrajudicial killings in the name of the war on drugs and the labelling of all opponents and progressive groups as communists. In all these situations there is a lack of transparency and the culture of impunity is evident. No one is held responsible for the abuses committed. In addition to the pandemic, the May vote touches other issues such as the economy, democracy, and human rights. How do you see the situation and how will the elections affect the future? The economy is falling behind and the country is heavily indebted. Human rights abuses are increasingly seen as a burden on the progress of government projects, especially the rights of the poor, workers and indigenous peoples. Politics is undermined by pressure on the political opposition and progressive groups. The mechanisms for balancing powers are being dismantled. The Supreme Court has been tamed with the removal of its chief justice, while government representatives on the Control Commission and the Commission on Elections have links to Duterte, as well as the armed forces and the police. The Philippines needs leaders who dont owe anything to the outgoing president, who are independent and courageous in pointing at Duterte and acolytes for their abuses. Along with the industriousness and resilience of Filipinos, two things draw international attention to the Philippines. The first is the historical revisionism concerning the dictatorial rule of Ferdinand Marcos and the second is the recognition of the struggle for human rights and democracy by the population as evinced by the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Maria Ressa. How do you explain this apparent dualism and how do you see the role of the Catholic Church in what appears to be a permanent struggle for rights, peace and democracy? As a people, surely Filipinos are resilient, but there is a limit to their patience. The Duterte administration has exploited this patience. The growth in support for Leni Robredo (the only candidate today able to challenge Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, son of the former dictator) as shown by her large election rallies, indicates that people want a change of course, away from an administration that is based on lies, arrogance and intimidation. The Church is calling for the current administration to be held accountable. Its abuses should be investigated, that justice may be done, especially for the thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings. We are also facing rampant corruption, which is the cause of the countrys debts. And we need strong leadership to maintain our independence from China without falling into the hands of the Americans. What are the main issues that voters and candidates should have in mind and who among the candidates could best respond to the needs and expectations of the population? Human rights, care for the environment, the economy, abuses by the military, and dependence on China are some of the problems that should be prioritised. We should defend our territory from the Peoples Republic of China, especially in the Western Philippine Sea (which the Chinese call the South China Sea). We should also have programmes that can actually lift people out of poverty. Usually, choosing a candidate was the lesser evil, but not this time. Leni Robredo and her camp do not come from political dynasties, have not been touched by corruption and have a reputation for transparency and sincerity in their service to the poor and commitment to human rights. I really hope they win, despite not having the financial resources of other experienced politicians. How is the Catholic Church following the electoral process and how is it directing Catholics in relation to the May vote? As a Church we call for respect for the vote, and we explain that voting is one way to show love for the country and not to be misled by those who try to buy votes. We also ask people to be active and support good candidates in the election campaign. One last question: How does the Philippine population see the war in Ukraine and the suffering of so many in what is also a show of militarism and authoritarianism, contempt for rights and life? What the Russians are doing in Ukraine, China could do to us. If we let the Russians act with impunity, the Chinese will feel encouraged to do the same with us or Taiwan, so we join the condemnation of Russias invasion. Unfortunately, just as Putin controls what Russians think through control of mass media, so does Xi Jinping in China. That said, all Filipinos are directly affected by the economic consequences of rising commodity prices triggered by the war. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. While no one can deny that South Korean brands Hyundai and Kia are getting better with their designs, some pixel masters think they continue with their philosophy of styling for the sake of styling. Alas, at least Marouane Bemblis opinion was swayed by the new 2023 Palisade and its more geometric, architectural approach.As such, we are not at all surprised that so quickly after its official presentation at 2022 NYIAS there is at least one cool virtual transformation looking to take things to the next digital level. Thus, Russia-based pixel master Nikita Chuicko, better known as kelsonik on social media, quickly decided to give the upgraded 2023 Palisade his signature CGI treatment.Fans of his prior exploits already know that we are talking about the fake, imagined Shadow Line makeover that is usually bestowed on highly popular real-world entries into the automotive market. For anyone else, this is a dark chrome-delete style transformation that usually does not go unnoticed or travel alone. Instead, the author also thinks a lowered suspension along with a new set of aftermarket wheels might do equal wonders.And we tend to agree as the 2023 Hyundai Palisade along with the 2023 Kia Telluride and the recent Jeep Wagoneer L and Grand Wagoneer L family were clearly among the SUV star attractions of the East Coast automotive show... and for plenty of good reason! However, there is just one final mention regarding this quick Palisade makeover: it would have been entirely suited if we were also told there were a few extra ponies under the (291-hp) 3.8-liter GDi hood, as well. AWD kW Before the grand unveiling, Toyotas luxury car brand has dropped another teaser pic that shows a two-tone example under the starry night sky. Truth be told, however, its not something that we havent seen before, as there are numerous images circulating online, including a few leaks that Lexus would likely want everyone to forget.The introduction of the RZ 450e isnt a surprise at all, as Lexus has been teasing it for a few months now. Its design and underpinnings wont be a surprise either, as it will look like a more expensive take on the bZ4X and Solterra, and will be built around the same e-TNGA architecture. Apart from the different front and rear ends, Lexus battery-electric crossover should set itself apart from its cousins by featuring extra gear, more safety systems, and perhaps additional soundproofing.It will also be more expensive, with the Toyota bZ4X starting at $42,000 for the XLE and $47,700 for the Limited trim level, excluding the $1,215 destination charge, and dealer fees. The all-wheel drive system is a $2,080 option here, adding a second electric motor that bumps the output from 201 to 214 hp, while also dropping the 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) sprint time from 7.1 to 6.5 seconds.The bZ4Xs EPA-estimated range is 252 miles (406 km) for the front-wheel drive models and 228 miles (367 km) for theversions. Recharging its battery at a 6.6connection takes around 9 hours, depending on the outside temperature. We dont know yet if the Lexus RZ 450e will have identical power levels, but it should offer similar performance and driving range. If youre passionate about aviation technology , you could enjoy a truly unique experience this summer, at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Hampshire, UK. During the event, which will take place in July, Boom is offering a bespoke experience where guests will find out more about the companys latest advancements, especially related to Overture.This is possible due to the recent launch of a multi-year partnership between Boom and American Express. To inaugurate this collaboration, American Express Platinum Card members will be able to purchase tickets for this bespoke event designed by Boom, centered around its flagship supersonic airliner.It will include exclusive access to the Boom Supersonic chalet, up-close views of all the aircraft on the airfield, and an immersive tour of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Operations Center that will feature U.S. military aircraft. Plus, it will provide access to a private tour and dinner reception hosted by the former chief pilot of British Airways Concorde fleet, Captain Mike Bannister, at Brooklands Museum.Most importantly, American Express Card Members are promised unique access to Overture once its launched. The first aircraft is set to roll out in 2025, conduct its first flight in 2026, and enter service by 2029. Overture will not only fly at supersonic speeds, but it will become the worlds first large commercial aircraft to be emissions-free from the beginning, as it will run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).American Express Ventures became an investor for Boom last year. United Airlines already purchased 15 Overture supersonic aircraft, and the company is also backed by the U.S. Air Force. For example, Porsche's Exclusive Manufaktur division is one of those services that may turn your dream car into a reality. As the company's representatives explain, ever since the early days of the firm, company cars were painted in a choice of a few shades of green. One customer who had an allocation for a 911 Speedster decided to select one of those shades.While the Porsche company cars were painted in shades like Olive green, Emerald green metallic, Oak green metallic, or Brewster green, the latter is the one that was preferred by Dr. Wolfgang Porsche.Not only that, but the shade was also appreciated by a 911 Speedster customer, who decided to have a green Porsche in the same shade as Dr. Porsche's 993 Turbo S.In case you were wondering, this particular shade has the code 22B, and its name is Brewster green. It is an understated shade that is rather rare in the Porsche range. Unlike more conventional choices, this one almost fades to black in certain lighting situations, which makes it a fascinating look.The same customer also owns a 991.2 generation 911 Turbo S, which was painted Brewster green, while a 911 GT3 Touring owned by the same unnamed customer has been taken a bit further, with green inside and out. The 911 GT3 Touring that the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur division customized for this client had green leather and green carpets, among other things.The 911 Speedster was personalized after the first two bespoke Porsche orders that this unnamed customer made. For the 911 Speedster commission, the customer traveled to Zuffenhausen for an in-person configuration process.After the customer analyzed all the options presented by the team, the decision was made to have a Brewster green exterior, as well as a Noto Green leather interior. The latter was an inspiration from a 911 GT3 Touring that was customized earlier for the same client. Unlike that one, everything was trimmed in leather.That means that the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur division went on to cover the seats, steering wheel, and door cards in leather. Normal stuff so far, right? Well, they went ahead and covered the sun visors, vent slats, edges of the floor mats, the fuse box cover, and even all the trim elements in Noto Green leather. Suddenly, this is no longer just a 911 Speedster.To top it all off, the wheels were painted to match the body, but have a contrasting pinstripe in Silver, while hiding yellow brake calipers. The result is stunning, but it is not for everyone, and the owner is well aware of this aspect. As a note, he cannot see himself ever parting with the vehicle, and that says it all. The E190-E2 is a medium-range jet that was first introduced in 2013 at the Paris Air Show but which started sporting the surprising TechShark livery in white and blue last year. Recently, it was admired on a three-day tour in Vietnam, where it showcased its performance and efficiency. Embraer sees Vietnam as an economic powerhouse and even released a White Paper on the potential of its future air connectivity. Embraer s E-jets had already accomplished a lot in Vietnam since 2020 when they started operating here. This includes the launch of the first direct connection between Hanoi and Con Dao, as well as the first jet service from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh to Dien Bien Phu. The E190-E2 is meant to support air connectivity in the country even more.Thanks to its short runway performance , it can operate in regional airports that were limited to larger aircraft until now. And thanks to its fuel efficiency, it can significantly lower costs.Described as an efficient alternative to larger aircraft, the E190-E2 is a single-aisle jet with up to 114 seats, featuring the manufacturers two-by-two seating. It boasts the latest technology, an upgraded version based on the first-generation E-jets.Powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW1900G GTF engines, it promises an impressive range of up to 2,850 nautical miles (3,279 miles/5,278 km) and a top speed of Mach 0.82 (629 mph/1,012 kph).This jet also claims to offer a higher level of passenger comfort and more room for luggage. Like all new-generation aircraft from the major players in this industry, it was designed for greater fuel efficiency and reduced noise. Until all-electric or hydrogen-electric aircraft will be able to conduct regular commercial operations, these upgraded models are as eco-friendly as possible with conventional propulsion systems. UPDATE (April 19) While the Mountain View-based search giant hasnt released an announcement in this regard, the Ukrainian military forces were among the first to notice the change and announce it publicly.The high-resolution satellite imagery now available on Google Maps allows pretty much anyone online to inspect Russias top-secret locations, including not only naval facilities but also military bases, flight-testing centers, intercontinental ballistic missile firing positions, and airbases close to key locations such as Kursk.Furthermore, the data reveals the aircraft carrier cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, as well as several ammunition storage bases near Murmansk.By default, Google (and other mapping service providers as well) is working with governments across the world to blur the location of secret sites, including military locations that cant be exposed on Google Maps, Google Earth , and other mapping platforms owned by the company.Google, however, has been among the largest tech giants to protest against the war in Ukraine. The company has blocked purchases on Google Play following the international sanctions against Russia.While Google Maps exposing the location of top-secret Russian military locations is big news for Internet users, the online debate right now comes down to whether such data can help the Ukrainian troops or not.The topic, however, is extremely complex, and any assumption would be pretty much just a guess. Some believe Ukraine is already in possession of such intel, either collected using its own systems or received from other states, while others remind us the country is currently focused on defending its borders, and the location of Russian bases doesnt help much anyway.In the meantime, Google has remained completely tight-lipped on the unblurred images available on Google Maps.: Google has offered a statement, explaining that it didn't make any changes regarding the blurred images in Russia. Beluga is the brainchild of Italian company EuroLink Systems, a technology solutions manufacturer that has been on the market for almost 30 years. The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is the result of three years of research and testing and its a multi-mission-ready mini drone with AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities. With it being designed in Italy, it's no wonder it has an elegant look to it. It also features low noise propellers for silent operation, and comes with an IP67 rating, meaning it is waterproof, and dust and sand resistant.It is available in three versions, depending on the purpose it has to serve: a military version, a surveillance and rescue version, and a fast transportation one.Beluga is easy to use and deploy, with EuroLink claiming it only takes two minutes to get it ready for flight. When unfolded, the drone has a 98 cm (38.5) frame size, is 63 cm (24.8) long, and has a maximum height of 45 cm (17.7). It has a maximum take-off weight of 10 kg (22 lb).With a maximum payload of 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), Beluga can reach a top speed of 112 kph (70 mph). It is a high-endurance UAV capable of flying for one hour with the aforementioned payload. Built for a variety of working environments, the mini drone can operate at temperatures between -22 and +55 degrees Celsius (-7.6 to +131 Fahrenheit).EuroLink designed Beluga to be highly adaptable and configurable, so it can be set with a variety of sensors and gimbals. Depending on the configuration you choose and extra features you opt for, you can use the drone for anything from surveillance, search and rescue and military missions to precision agriculture, fire detection, 3D mapping, luxury yachting, and so much more.EuroLink plans to launch Beluga at this years AUVSI Xponential event in Orlando, Florida, which will take place between April 25 and April 28. While we have no pricing info for the versatile mini drone yet, visitors will be able to see the UAV in person at stand 2060. Those who cant attend the event can take a better look at it in the video below. The decision was made on a lawsuit Tesla investors have against Elon Musk seeking damages from his disastrous tweet. While the trial by jury is set to happen in May, this decision already shows Musk will have a hard time escaping a negative outcome.When he mentioned the price he was willing to pay for each share, it immediately struck some people as a bad joke. Musk frequently brings up the numbers 69 (a reference to the sexual position) and 420 (April 20, a celebration day for smoking cannabis) in his tweets. He priced the Tesla Short Shorts at $69,420 and also joked the Model S would cost $69,420 in October 2020.The problem is that joking about the stock market has massive implications, especially if you run a company you are tweeting about and have millions of followers on Twitter. People may take you seriously, and that can affect the stock price. On August 7, 2018, a Tesla share was worth $68.77 when the market opened and closed at $75.91. The perspective of selling it at $420 must have sounded extremely attractive.In a recent TED interview, Musk said he was serious about taking Tesla private and that he had the funds to do so. According to Reuters , Judge Edward Chen did not think that was the case, hence his ruling. The filing also stated that the court held that he recklessly made the statements with knowledge as to their falsity.Ironically, Musk also said that he was forced to settle with SEC because Tesla would go bankrupt immediately if he did not do so. That makes the funding secured claim even less credible. At the time, the Tesla CEO said Saudi Arabias PIF (Public Investment Fund) would provide the money for the operation, something sources close to the fund denied to Reuters Secretly making the 110V mobile connector a $400 option sparked a lot of Twitter outrage. Price hikes for new cars like the Model S Plaid have been understood and accepted by fans and customers, but eliminating this cable and the adaptors it came with from the standard package caused a lot of anger and dissatisfaction in the Tesla community. Elon Musk listened and confirmed the new price for the accessory will be $200.But the plot thickens. While almost everyone thought this product strategy change would apply only to new Tesla vehicle orders, it appears that Elon Musks company is taking the charger out from the package that was usually available for buyers up until now. Keep in mind that customers that are not next to a Supercharger or dont have a charger installed at home already wont be able to charge their EVs. It looks like Tesla pulled an Apple here, even though its hard to imagine what would a $200 option mean for the financial results of the carmaker at the end of the fiscal year.The Tesla Sales Advisor contacted by a person thats in line to have their car delivered to them also answered the following question So the answer is that I wont get the mobile connector even though it was supposed to be included when I placed the order? with As it appears thats correct.Teslas not stopping here. Model S and Model X customers from the UK and other markets cant lock in a certain price for the vehicle they want. The ordering process says, pricing and options will be finalized as delivery approaches. The American automaker considers the order as a pre-order for which the deposit can be refunded until the final price has been discussed and agreed upon by both parties.It looks like Tesla is facing some supply chain issues, and its profit margins projection might not look that good considering recent price hikes for raw materials and international transport of goods. Musk previously said his car company might be forced to enter the mining game for raw materials.Now it seems that GMs President Mark Reuss was right about Tesla being forced to raise prices to levels not liked by existing or potential customers. Its happening already, even though his comments were made in February this year.But theres still hope that there are some mobile connectors put aside for several customers that are scheduled for deliveries this month. The situation may vary across the board, so you should contact Tesla to figure this out. 6x6 Force Motorsport may be renowned for crazybuilds but they equally do not shy away from playing the customization game for affluent, big star clients. Sure, a first-ever menacing-looking, still-in-progress 2022 Toyota Tundra 6x6 may sound enticing for off-road enthusiasts but bear with us, as VIP rides can be equally attractive in their own distinctively elegant way.Especially when two of the most hyped ultra-luxury rides out there get wrapped and modified for a single client! Nick Rivera Caminero, better known professionally as Nicky Jam, is well known not only for his reggaeton wonders or Latin trap gems but also for his lavish lifestyle and propensity for owning the absolute best whips available at the moment.For example, not long ago, we could see him alongside his significant other ride away in a Maybach 62 S on the way to a private jet flight, but he also owns a newer Mercedes-Maybach S-Class limousine. Only that back when he treated us to a glimpse of the luxurious interior on the way to a Miami, Florida concert, he did not allow the exterior to shine equally glorious and outrageous.And he might have had a particularly good reason for that: the Maybach was not yet personalized according to all his wishes. Well, perhaps that is a thing of the past now that Force Motorsport has broken the cover with Nicky Jams two latest whips that were added to the modified collection. They both feature a contrasting yin and yang black-and-white style, though there is no chance to mistake one for the other.On the left side of the hero photo, we have a two-tone Maybach S 580 featuring a distinctive half-black/half-white treatment, smoked accents, and chrome-deleted accents. As far as we can tell, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan on the right features the same icy white wrap style as the Mercedes but ponders a subtler contrasting game with blacked-out trim and matching dark aftermarket wheels. The name says it all Cloud 9 was born to become the ultimate pleasure craft for blissful vacations in the most wonderful locations. From the start, it had everything it needed to be a total success built by a world-famous shipyard, with an exterior and interior created by acclaimed Italian designers, it featured the best of everything.The 201-foot (61.5 meters) superyacht was delivered to its first owner just last year. It was the first hull of Sanlorenzos 62Steel series. According to the Italian brand, the metal yachts in this range blend a classic design with technical innovations and an ingenious layout that would typically be found on much bigger models.The exterior created by Francesco Paszkowski and the interior envisioned by Margherita Casprini refined the idea of a metallic, masculine look. The owners suite stands out situated on its own deck, it unfolds over 2,314 square feet (215 square meters), offering stunning 180-degree views thanks to the full-height windows and island berth. In addition to his-and-her bathrooms, a private study, and a walk-in wardrobe, sliding glass doors lead to the owners private terrace with a swimming pool and a lounging area.Cloud 9 was allegedly built for the Syrian-born British businessman Ayman Asfari, who built his fortune through Petrofac, an oilfield services giant. According to Forbes, the billionaire enjoys spending a lot of time onboard his yacht on the French Riviera.But if he was indeed this superyachts initial owner, he seems to be ready for the next one. Burgess Yachts announced the sale of this almost-new vessel, with a last known asking price of 59 million ($63.6 million). Described as a Sanlorenzo repeat client, the mogul most likely has his eyes on a new model. In the world of the super-rich, luxury toys come and go with ease. Previewed by last years Concept XM , the 2023 BMW XM will be the brands first standalone M car since the iconic M1, so it has a lot of weight on its shoulders. As you can see for yourselves, it wont win any beauty contests, as it is far from being an attractive proposal in the super crossover segment.It has a front end similar to that of the facelifted X7 , with a split-light signatureg and big kidney grilles. The hood has a muscular shape, and so do the side skirts, and rear fenders. The sloping roofline ends with a small spoiler, and it has thin taillights, and stacked exhaust pipes, just like the show car.A clear indication that we are indeed looking at an electrified prototype is the yellow sticker applied to the rear windscreen. Speaking of it, it will pack a twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 engine, backed up by an electric motor and a small battery pack. The combined output and torque should be rated at 750 hp and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm), which will make it the most powerful BMW M model ever. With the battery fully charged, it might be able to travel for a maximum of 50 miles (80 km).As we already mentioned in the intro, the 2023 BMW XM is understood to be a few months away from being shown to the world. It will come to life at the companys Spartanburg facility, in South Carolina, and from there, it will be shipped to global markets. ICE If youre driving an internal combustion engine () vehicle, a hybrid (mHEV), or a plug-in hybrid ( PHEV ), then you surely noticed the fuel prices increasing a bit. It feels like its a trend that began in January 2022, and it doesnt plan on going out of fashion anytime soon. One can only hope theyll stop at some point and come back down.But mechanics are sounding the alarm. Theyve seen lots of cars recently that share a common problem - unwanted attention. This pricing situation, unfortunately, is prompting some people to steal gas. Theyre not siphoning it out like youd imagine them doing it. Thieves are smarter nowadays. They dont even try to force the filler cap. They drill into the gas tank!The video down below shows how you can wake up in the morning with no gasoline or diesel for your car. Through a tiny hole, they get every last bit of fuel.Its not something you want to experience. Replacing a fuel tank costs somewhere between $1,260 and $1,410 without taxes and fees, so its understandable why auto mechanics want you to park carefully overnight.Given the supply chain issues almost every industry is facing at the moment, youd also have to wait for a spare part. There are also instances when repairmen can just fill that hole, but this is just a temporary measure. You will eventually have to get a new gas tank.In light of recent events, some people are even prepared to leave their gas caps unlocked just to not be forced to replace their cars gas tanks.If your area is not well-lit or filled with surveillance cameras, then you should avoid filling up to the brim with fuel. Do it as a precautionary measure until things settle down in the price per gallon department. Put just enough to keep you safe from such wrongdoings. Paying more for gas or diesel is something the West Coast and Illinois are experiencing far more than the rest of the country. California and Nevada are topping the charts, while Kansas and Missouri are still at $3.6 per gallon ($0.95 per liter). As a fun little fact, people living or visiting the European country of Denmark are paying 2 ($2.1) per liter for gas. It amounts to 7.5 ($8.1) per gallon. SUV The wings triumphant for the Hyundai brand in North America might as well come in the form of the 2023 Hyundai Palisade. While the Pallasaides may not have been Hyundai's star attraction at the Jacob K Javits Center this year, it's safe to say it's what the brand expects to be their number one selling product in the U.S. Domestic market.Hailing from the same size category as the Kia Telluride, Chevy Tahoe, and Ford Explorer makes for some of the stiffest competition in any market segment globally. But when the tarps were taken off what was to be revealed as the 2023 Palisade, the reaction from the press led us to believe people have more than a fair amount of faith in the Hyundai brand as an SUV maker.Credit to them, Hyundai made an effort with the 2023 Palisade to differentiate itself from vehicles from Germany, the U.S., Japan, and even fellow South Korean automakers that occupy the same market space. The broad yet angular hood and front grille employ some truly classic SUV styling cues.In an era where wacky-looking headlamps make crossover and full-sized SUVs look ugly on the regular, the modular arrangement of the LED headlamps and all their accompanying lights make for an interesting, unique front fascia. There's more traditional full-sized SUV boxy goodness to be had along the sides and back end of the new Palisade.All these iconic SUV dimensions encapsulate a cabin that wouldn't feel out of place in a German or Japanese luxury car. Exact seating capacity numbers will depend on the exact trim package. The Limited and Calligraphy editions have second-row captain's chairs that take up room where the eighth seat sits in the SE and SEL models, reducing passenger room to seven souls.There are enough features present on the new Hyundai Palisade to satisfy every occupant who finds themself inside. Prime among these is a 12-inch Apple Car Play and Android Auto compatible infotainment and navigation screen with Bluetooth connectivity and Sirius XM satellite radio compatibility as standard equipment. With seven USB ports present and the ability to connect two simultaneous Bluetooth devices at the same time while inside, this is the perfect family road trip machine.Said road trip will have its miles consumed in earnest by a 3.8-liter V6 engine jetting 291 horsepower and enough torque to tow 5,000 pounds (2267.96 kg) comfortably with the dealer option tow hitch. It's good for Zero to 60 in 6.9 seconds and has an average fuel economy of 19 (12.4 l/100 km) in the city and 24 mpg (9.8 l/100 km) on the highway. Not great by any means, unless your idea of bad fuel economy is a 1980s Ford LTD. With the price of 87 octane still hovering around $4.00 a gallon in most U.S. states, whoever takes ownership of one of these Hyundai SUVs is going to feel it at the pump, at least in the short term. But outside of shoddy fuel economy numbers, there's a lot to like when it comes to the new Palisade. Stepping into the driver's seat opens the door to a world of plush leather upholstery, crisply sharp LCD screens, and enough cupholders to constitute a small movie theater.The inside of the 2023 Hyundai Palisade is a genuinely lovely place to sit. Especially when you consider what the interiors of Hyundai SUVs of old were like to sit in for even small lengths of time. In a year where the New York Auto Show had to reduce the number of brands on display due to health crisis restrictions, it was the perfect opportunity to give a few extra cubic feet of space to an SUV Hyundai expects to be their bread and butter.With prices ranging from around $35,000 for the most basic base model to $42,000 for the brand new XRT package and up to $49,000 for the top-of-the-line Caligraphy Package, there's a trim level with the 2023 Palisade to fit just about anybody's budget.But what are your thoughts on the new 2023 Hyundai Palisade? Is it just another big, bloated walrus of a family SUV, or is it the new hottest family hauler machine to come out of the 2020s? Let us know in the comments down below.Check back soon for more from our coverage of the 2022 New York International Auto Show here on autoevolution. Palmdale, CA (93550) Today Plenty of sunshine with gusty winds developing this afternoon. High 67F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 39F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Artur Vanetsian, who leads one of those parties, began a nonstop sit-in Yerevans Liberty Square on Sunday evening. He remained camped out there together with a group of loyalists on Monday. Nikol Pashinians regime is preparing to abandon Artsakh (Karabakh), Vanetsian said in a video appeal to supporters. They have started propagating the notion that Artsakh can be a part of Azerbaijan. Unless there is an uprising in Armenia, unless we try to oust Nikol Pashinians regime that process will definitely take place. Pashinian said last Wednesday that the international community is pressing Armenia to lower a bit the bar on the question of Nagorno-Karabakhs status and recognize Azerbaijans territorial integrity. He signaled Yerevans intention to make such concessions to Baku, fuelling more opposition allegations that he has agreed to Azerbaijani control over Karabakh. Vanetsian, who headed Armenias National Security Service from 2018-2019, pledged to present a more detailed plan of actions late on Monday. The objective is clear: so that people gather here in large numbers to take the situation under control, said Sos Hakobian, the spokesman for his Fatherland party. No political force, no individual can single-handedly solve very serious problems facing our country. Fatherland makes up, together with the former ruling Republican Party (HHK), the Pativ Unem bloc, one of the two opposition forces represented in the Armenian parliament. The HHK did not immediately join Vanetsians sit-in. Leaders of the other parliamentary opposition bloc, Hayastan, voiced support for the protest when they visited Vanetsian in the square on Sunday and Monday. One of them, Aghvan Vartanian, spoke of a multipolar opposition push for regime change. He said Hayastan will unveil soon with its own plan of actions. This is just the beginning, Vartanian told reporters. Every day you will witness such actions across the country. Im sure that they will be coordinated and will eventually develop into a powerful movement. The U.S. has for decades co-headed the OSCE Minsk Group together with France and Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that Washington and Paris have stopped cooperating with Moscow because of the war in Ukraine. U.S. and French officials have not denied that. During their separate meetings with the visiting U.S. mediator, Andrew Schofer, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reportedly emphasized the role of the co-presidency of the OSCE Minsk Group in the long-running efforts to settle the Karabakh conflict. The Armenian governments press office cited Pashinian as telling Schofer that the U.S., Russian and French diplomats should mediate upcoming negotiations on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Moscow signaled late last week that it will act alone in mediating those talks. It said that Igor Khovaev, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, will now work as Lavrovs special envoy on fostering the normalization of relations between the two South Caucasus states. The issue is expected to be high on the agenda of Pashinians talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled for Tuesday. The Armenian premier will fly to Moscow on an official visit. The U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said last Thursday that Washington stands ready to engage bilaterally and with likeminded partners to help Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a comprehensive peace deal. I cant speak to the role that Russia might play in this, Price told reporters when asked whether the U.S. is indeed avoiding joint mediation efforts with Russia. A Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 war for Nagorno-Karabakh commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, for its part, to use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo shipments to Russia and Iran. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal calls for a special corridor that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan via Armenias Syunik province. He has said people and cargo passing through it must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Yerevan maintains, however, that the deal envisages only conventional transport links between the two countries. In written comments to RFE/RLs Armenian Service sent on Monday, Pashinians office said the prime minister believes that the so-called Zangezur corridor demanded by Baku would jeopardize Armenias territorial integrity. Pashinian and Aliyev discussed the matter during their trilateral meeting with European Council President Charles Michel held in Brussels on April 6. Pashinian said after the talks that Baku and Yerevan continue to disagree on practical modalities of restoring bilateral transport links. But he said the two sides will keep trying to find solutions. Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to restore Armenian-Azerbaijani rail links during their previous meeting with Michel held in December. But they failed to patch up their differences on the status of the Syunik highway for Nakhichevan. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Plenty of sunshine. High 67F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 44F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. FILE - Travelers walk through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday, April 1, 2022 in Seattle. On Monday, April 18, 2022, a federal judge in Florida voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation saying it exceeded the authority of U.S. health officials. Click here to read the full article. Hip-hop star Keith Grayson the East Harlem graffiti tagger, radio disc jockey, mixtape master, MC battle referee and recording artist better known as DJ Kay Slay died Sunday, due to complications from a four-month battle with COVID-19. He was 55. Slays death was confirmed by Hot 97 and the DJs family Monday morning. Our hearts are broken by the passing of Keith Grayson, professionally known as DJ Kay Slay, read a statement from the Grayson family. A dominant figure in hip-hop culture with millions of fans worldwide, DJ Kay Slay will be remembered for his passion and excellence with a legacy that will transcend generations. In memory of DJ Kay Slay, our family wishes to thank all of his friends, fans and supporters for their prayers and well wishes during this difficult time. We ask that you respect our privacy as we grieve this tragic loss. Slays radio family, New Yorks Hot 97 (where he held the 1 a.m. Drama Hour slot), sent out a prepared statement that read, Hot 97 is shocked and saddened by the loss of our beloved DJ Kay Slay. We cherish the many memories created through the 20-plus years he dedicated to the Drama Hour. A cultural icon, Kay Slay was more than just a DJ; to us he was family and a vital part of what made Hot 97 the successful station it is today. Our hearts go out to his family, friends and fans worldwide and we will always and forever celebrate the Drama Kings legacy. Slays legacy is enhanced by his lifelong dedication to old-school hip-hop vibes, sound and personal pride turned into bravura across each of his recordings. Like DJ Khaled with an abrasive New York edge, Slay brought together the best and brightest MCs of his (and any) time) for Streetsweeper mixtapes featuring the likes of Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar. Long before DJ Khaled came up with incessantly yelled catchphrase such as We the best or Another one, DJ Kay Slay was filling his Streetsweeper mixtapes with vocal segues popping-into-the red:, aka his signature loudmouth voice-overs. If anyone is responsible for the mainstream success of the mixtape with a personal touch, it may be DJ Kay Slay and his Streetsweeper series, including his first two early-2000s major-label albums, Streetsweepers Volumes 1 & 2, released through Columbia Records after he was signed by the late Chris Lighty. Slays rise to acclaim in New Yorks hip-hop community came first in the late 1970s through his unique graffiti writing throughout the East River Projects where he was raised. Known by the tags Dez and Dezzy Ded, Grayson produced work formidable enough to be featured in directors Tony Silver and Henry Chalfants famed 1983 documentary Style Wars, alongside other famous taggers of the time such as Paze and Futura. Style Wars was aired on PBS in 1984, and won a Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, all of which brought Dez national recognition. At the same time that he was busy writing graffiti, Grayson watched, with curiosity, the skills of fellow NYC turntable wizards such as Kool DJ Red Alert and Grandmaster Flash. Without intending to become a DJ (It was something to do that was fun and that I enjoyed doing, said Grayson in a 2019 Forbes interview), he fell in love with turntablism, eventually getting in on the spinning action. This came after he spent time in prison upon being indicted and jailed for felony possession of narcotics. After getting out of stir, and proclaiming himself drug-free, Kay Slay worked odd jobs in order to build his own studio space in Harlem, and by the 2000s, he quickly became on of the Big Apples brightest DJs and MC battle referees. Starting with mixtapes such as Say What You Say, Slay tapes became a home for freestyles from the likes of Eminem, Xzibit, Swizz Beatz, Jadakiss, Fat Joe and Camron. What truly boosted Kay Slays profile was being in the middle of the very real feud between New Yorkers Jay-Z and Nas. After famously winning the bragging rights to being the first DJ to spin Ether Nas dis track on his song by 2001 album, Stillmatic, and a response to Jay-Z s Takeover dis towards Nas and Prodigy DJ Kay Slay became the go-to spinner for battle raps, including the Ja Rule-bashing Eminem/50 Cent/Busta Rhymes remake of Hail Mary. Kay Slays Streetsweeper mixtapes became so popular for their rude battles and his brusque voice-overs that he got swooped up by Columbia for the major label take on the Streetsweeper series. Losing none of his charm or street cred by going major, he made The Streetsweeper, Vol. 1 (2003) and The Streetsweeper, Vol. 2 (2004) hard, rough enterprises filled with legends of the street such as Fat Joe, Scarface and Wu-Tangs Ghostface Killah. While both albums went top 10 on Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, Kay Slay began hosting The Drama Hour on Hot 97, and even became the head of A&R for Shaquille ONeals label DEJA34, the home to Slays third album, The Champions. Since that heyday, DJ Kay Slay continued mixing and releasing wild albums such as 2017s The Big Brother (whose Cold Summer track featured Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller), 2019s Hip-Hop Frontline and December 2021s The Soul Controller all through the Streetsweepers/Empire label the latter coming out right before his hospitalization for COVID began. The year 2021 also saw the release of his Rolling 110 Deep track which featured over 100 rappers such as Ice-T, KRS-One, Kool G Rap and more dropping verses. Slay even turned his talents to publishing, as he was the CEO of Straight Stuntin Magazine, a quarterly focusing on hip-hops top rappers and most active models. For DJ Kay Slay, the good hustle never stopped. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Robert Lempert, Pardee RAND Graduate School and Elisabeth Gilmore, Carleton University (THE CONVERSATION) Its easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, its now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of theauthors of a recent international climate report, we also see reason for optimism. The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discuss changes ahead, but they also describe how existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people adjust to impacts of climate change that cant be avoided. The problem is that these solutions arent being deployed fast enough. In addition to push-back from industries, peoples fear of change has helped maintain the status quo. To slow climate change and adapt to the damage already underway, the world will have to shift how it generates and uses energy, transports people and goods, designs buildings and grows food. That starts with embracing innovation and change. Fear of change can lead to worsening change From the industrial revolution to the rise of social media, societies have undergone fundamental changes in how people live and understand their place in the world. Some transformations are widely regarded as bad, including many of those connected to climate change. For example, about half the worlds coral reef ecosystems have died because of increasing heat and acidity in the oceans. Island nations like Kiribati and coastal communities, including in Louisiana and Alaska, are losing land into rising seas. Other transformations have had both good and bad effects. The industrial revolution vastly raised standards of living for many people, but it spawned inequality, social disruption and environmental destruction. People often resist transformation because their fear of losing what they have is more powerful than knowing they might gain something better. Wanting to retain things as they are known as status quo bias explains all sorts of individual decisions, from sticking with incumbent politicians to not enrolling in retirement or health plans even when the alternatives may be rationally better. This effect may be even more pronounced for larger changes. In the past, delaying inevitable change has led to transformations that are unnecessarily harsh, such as the collapse of some 13th-century civilizations in what is now the U.S. Southwest. As more people experience the harms of climate change firsthand, they may begin to realize that transformation is inevitable and embrace new solutions. A mix of good and bad The IPCC reports make clear that the future inevitably involves more and larger climate-related transformations. The question is what the mix of good and bad will be in those transformations. If countries allow greenhouse gas emissions to continue at a high rate and communities adapt only incrementally to the resulting climate change, the transformations will be mostly forced and mostly bad. For example, a riverside town might raise its levees as spring flooding worsens. At some point, as the scale of flooding increases, such adaptation hits its limits. The levees necessary to hold back the water may become too expensive or so intrusive that they undermine any benefit of living near the river. The community may wither away. The riverside community could also take a more deliberate and anticipatory approach to transformation. It might shift to higher ground, turn its riverfront into parkland while developing affordable housing for people who are displaced by the project, and collaborate with upstream communities to expand landscapes that capture floodwaters. Simultaneously, the community can shift to renewable energy and electrified transportation to help slow global warming. Optimism resides in deliberate action The IPCC reports include numerous examples that can help steer such positive transformation. For example, renewable energy is now generally less expensive than fossil fuels, so a shift to clean energy can often save money. Communities can also be redesigned to better survive natural hazards through steps such as maintaining natural wildfire breaks and building homes to be less susceptible to burning. Land use and the design of infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, can be based on forward-looking climate information. Insurance pricing and corporate climate risk disclosures can help the public recognize hazards in the products they buy and companies they support as investors. No one group can enact these changes alone. Everyone must be involved, including governments that can mandate and incentivize changes, businesses that often control decisions about greenhouse gas emissions, and citizens who can turn up the pressure on both. Transformation is inevitable Efforts to both adapt to and mitigate climate change have advanced substantially in the last five years, but not fast enough to prevent the transformations already underway. Doing more to disrupt the status quo with proven solutions can help smooth these transformations and create a better future in the process. [Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletters to understand the world. Sign up today.] This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-transform-how-we-live-but-these-tech-and-policy-experts-see-reason-for-optimism-180961. TUPELO, Miss. (AP) A man died during the weekend after a fight at a north Mississippi restaurant, authorities said. News outlets reported that officers responded to a call early Saturday about an assault at Steele's Dive in Tupelo. Tupelo Police Maj. Chuck McDougald said officers found emergency medical responders treating Leonard K.C. Cooper, 31, of Fulton. Cooper was taken to the emergency room at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, then transferred to Region One Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Lee County Coroner Carolyn Green said Cooper died Saturday night at the hospital in Memphis. His body was being taken to the Mississippi crime lab in Pearl for an autopsy. McDougald said a person was taken into custody Saturday and initially was charged with aggravated assault. WTVA-TV reported Cooper died a short time later. Police did not immediately release the name of the person charged. McDougald told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that detectives would confer with the district attorneys office about the possibility of charging the person with homicide. Sarjono Kartosuwiryo (holding microphone), whose father founded the Islamic State of Indonesia militant group, talks to journalists in Jakarta after he and 13 other ex-members pledged allegiance to the Indonesian state, Aug. 13, 2019. A group known as the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) was plotting to overthrow the government before the next general election, police claimed Monday, saying they obtained documents related to the alleged conspiracy by interrogating 16 suspects arrested in West Sumatra last month. Members of the group, founded seven decades ago, had drawn up plans, acquired weapons and undergone training to create chaos and establish a caliphate system of government, officials said, but declined to give more information or say whether the plot was still active. The evidence we found shows that NII is trying to overthrow the sovereign government before the 2024 elections, said Senior Commissioner Aswin Siregar, head of operational support at Densus 88, a police counter-terrorism unit, told reporters. However, according to a former NII member, the group is not capable of pulling off an attack at that level. The announcement by police followed the arrest of the suspected NII members at two locations in West Sumatra province in March. Officers found documents outlining the groups mission to replace the nations founding ideology known as Pancasila and the secular government with a caliphate by fomenting chaos, Aswin said. The suspects admitted that they had been ordered to acquire weapons to prepare for an attack, Aswin said. When BenarNews contacted him, Aswin declined to provide details about the reported evidence or the suspects statements. Along with West Sumatra, West Java and Bali have been NII hotbeds, according to police. The group has an estimated 1,125 followers in West Sumatra, 400 of whom are active members, Aswin said, but declined to give an estimate for the number of NII members across the country. Independence fighter and Muslim activist Sekarmaji Marijan Kartosuwiryo, a friend of the countrys founding president, Sukarno, proclaimed the Islamic State of Indonesia in 1949. The NII, also known in Arabic as Darul Islam, and its armed wing, the Islamic Army of Indonesia (TII), waged an armed rebellion against Jakarta until the Indonesian government suppressed it in the 1960s. Kartosuwiryo was executed in 1962 after Darul Islam declared a war against the government and tried to assassinate President Sukarno in 1961. In 2019, Kartosuwiryos son, Sarjono, who pledged allegiance to the Indonesian state, said about 2 million NII sympathizers are spread across the country. Analysts, meanwhile, said the NII movement spawned militant groups in Indonesia, including Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda that authorities blamed for a series of deadly attacks in the 2000s, including the 2002 Bali bombings. NII is a conveyor belt to terrorism, said Noor Huda Ismail, founder of the Institute for International Peace Building (IIPB). Some NII factions are even more hardline than JI, such as the Serang group in West Java, Noor Huda told BenarNews. Islah Bahrawi, executive director of the Indonesian Moderates Network, told an online discussion last week that NII plans were motivated by the Talibans success in taking over the government in Afghanistan last year. Ideologically fluid The group has no qualms about working with JI and Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a domestic militant network affiliated with Islamic State (IS), the international terror organization based in the Middle East, Islah said. Indonesian courts have declared both JI and JAD illegal organizations. At the moment, the NII is unique because it is ideologically fluid. They will embrace those that have the same goal, to make Indonesia an Islamic state, Islah told BenarNews, adding it has been recruiting children. Our findings show that half of their recruits are teenagers, many under 15 years old, he said. A former JI militant, Malaysian Nasir Abbas, said the NII group had recruited children for years through Islamic boarding schools and has instilled in them an ideology that glorifies the Islamic caliphate. The children were taught to reject the government and were not allowed to salute the Indonesian flag or sing the national anthem. Former NII member Al Chaidar, on the other hand, said police had exaggerated the threat posed by the organization. NII doesnt have that kind of capability. Theyre not sophisticated yet. Theyre not like JI or JAD, Chaidar told BenarNews. He cast doubt on police claims that the group recruited minors and wanted to emulate the Talibans success in Afghanistan. Only one faction is happy with the Taliban victory. The remaining [factions] have not said anything about it. They are also not militarily trained, Chaidar said. Survivors of the 58 people, including 32 journalists, massacred by the Ampatuan clan in November 2009, react to the guilty verdicts outside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, Philippines, Dec. 19, 2019. A hard-hitting radio broadcaster was killed by unknown gunmen in the southern Philippines on Good Friday as the air waves were shut down for Holy Week, police said Monday. If the killing of Jhannah Villegas, 38, in Maguindanao province turns out to be related to her work, she would be the 24th Philippine journalist to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016. Villegas may have made some enemies because of her work, provincial police spokesman Capt. Fayed Cana told BenarNews. Her death could be related to her work, said Cana, adding that investigators have asked local leaders to help identify those responsible. Villegas was attacked at her home on Friday in Datu Anggal Midtimbang town by three unknown armed men who shot her at close range, Cana said. She was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. Villegas worked as a reporter for community newspaper Sagad and Bugso as well as a block timer broadcaster for Radyo Ukay in Kidapawan city, North Cotabato province and Energy FM 106.7 radio in Manila. A block timer is an independent journalist or broadcast producer who buys airtime to air programs on radio or television. Villegas was known as a critic of local officials, friends and colleagues said. She also headed Mindanao Balita, an online news blog covering local political events across the region. Saudi Akmad, the victims husband, said his wife had received a death threat on Thursday night, hours before she was killed. To the friends of my wife, lets wait for the result of the police investigation, Akmad said, adding he and his wife were planning to travel to a nearby city to visit a relative when she was shot. Journalists killed The Philippines is considered one of the worlds most dangerous places for journalists. Jaynard Angeles, 36, who had worked as a political commentator and station manager for Radyo ni Juan, was gunned down in January in front of a car-repair shop in Tacurong city, also in the south. The suspects escaped and remain at large. Angeles predecessor at the radio station, Benjie Caballero, was shot in Tacurong in October 2019 and died in a hospital two months later. In December 2021, Jesus Malabanan, a journalist who helped the Reuters news agency cover the governments war on drugs, was shot and killed last month in the central Philippines. Two months earlier, journalist Orlando Dinoy was fatally shot six times by a suspect who entered his home in the southern Philippines. Since 1992, about 90 Philippine journalists have been killed because of their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That figure includes 32 journalists who were among 58 people killed in 2009 in the biggest single-day attack on the working press in the Philippines. The journalists were massacred by armed followers of the Ampatuan clan as they accompanied relatives and supporters of a rival who was filing his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao in the south. During his six-year term, Duterte often vowed to protect journalists, but has been at the forefront of attacking critical reporting. His congressional colleagues revoked the license of ABS-CBN Corp., the countrys largest television network. Maria Ressa, who heads the online news site Rappler, was convicted of cyber libel, but remains free on appeal. She shared a Nobel Peace Prize last year with a Russian journalist for their efforts in championing the free press. Thai police help a comrade who was injured when a bomb they were trying to defuse exploded in Lahan, a village in Pattani province, southern Thailand, April 15, 2022. Updated at 2:22 p.m. ET on 2022-04-19 The leader of a separatist group sidelined from Deep South peace talks said Monday it would not take part in negotiations with Bangkok if independence is off the table. The comments came days after the Patani United Liberation Organization carried out twin bombings that killed a villager and injured three police, disrupting a Ramadan-time truce agreed between the Thai government and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the regions main insurgent group. PULO is ready to talk, but not under the framework of the Thai constitution, Kasturi Mahkota, the groups leader, told BenarNews via text messages. [P]ULO will not talk or negotiate under the framework of the Thai constitution because PULO wants freedom from Thailand. Under the constitution, the kingdom is considered indivisible. At the end of direct peace talks that Malaysia brokered between BRN and the Thai government on March 31 to April 1, the Thai delegation said both sides agreed that future discussions would be done under the Unitary State of Thailand in accordance with the Constitution. That has raised questions about whether BRN the largest of the Deep Souths armed insurgent groups has abandoned its cause of fighting to break free of Bangkok and establish a separate state in the mainly Malay Muslim border region. On Friday, the day the twin bombings rocked Sai Buri district in Pattani province, Kasturi said that PULO had carried out the attack because it was excluded from the current Thailand-BRN talks. PULO was sending a message that Thailand must negotiate with all groups, Kasturi told BenarNews on April 15. When asked on Monday if his group would mount more attacks to ratchet up pressure on the Thai government, he replied, [W]e cannot tell you about the strategy. Before Thailand opened direct talks with BRN in January 2020, two branches of PULO as well as BRN and two other rebel groups were represented on MARA Patani, a panel that negotiated with the Thai side. Kasturi was one of the PULO representatives on the panel. Those talks, which began in 2015, were also facilitated by Malaysia but fizzled out after the BRN started talking directly with Bangkok in January 2020. On Monday night, BenarNews asked a source with BRN to comment on Kasturis assertion that PULO would not negotiate with Thailand under the Thai constitutional framework. For other Patani movements that wish to negotiate with the Thais, they can put forward their terms and conditions to the Thai themselves, the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, told BenarNews via a text message. BRN never stops other Patani movements to negotiate with the Thais. And when asked whether the constitutional issue could cause a rift between BRN and other rebel groups, he replied: During the MARA Patani negotiation with the Thais in 2015, it was also done based on the 2013 General Consensus under the Thai constitutional framework. If Im not mistaken, PULOs Kasturi was there with MARA Patani. There was no Dialogue under Thai Constitution written in the agreed terms of reference (TOR) for talks between Thailand and MARA Patani, Abu Hafez, a spokesman for the group, said in a post on Facebook responding to Mondays report by BenarNews. Hence the dialogue was NOT under Thai Constitution, he said. Kasturi Mahkota heads the main faction of PULO that was formed through the merger of the MKP and DSSP factions, he said. A third faction, PULO-P4, operates on its own. It is not clear how many armed men PULO has. A supporter, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation, claimed that for the past five years, PULO had trained more than 2,000 combatants, including those with expertise in rocket attacks. BenarNews could not verify the number independently, but a Thai security source, who also was not authorized to speak to the media, said PULO had only a few dozen foot soldiers in its ranks. The attack on Friday was the first one claimed by PULO since 2016. Thailand: We talk informally to all sides Meanwhile, two senior Thai military officials said it was too soon to tell whether PULO would be invited to peace talks but said the army was stepping up security measures after Fridays attack. Whether we will consider including PULO in the future, its up to the [Thai] Peace Dialogue Panel who, in general, wants to talk to all groups, Lt. Gen. Kriangkrai Srirak, the Thai Armys commander in the Deep South, told reporters Monday. The secretary of the Thai peace panel said talking with PULO was possible. The ... peace-talk policy has it that we talk informally to all sides who volunteer to talk, on all topics, and at any place, Lt. Gen. Thira Daehwa told BenarNews on Monday. There is a question whether PULO is ready to talk. If not [we] have to step up security measures .... Senior Thai officials have also said that Fridays attack in Pattani would not derail the ongoing talks with the BRN. The last round of in-person talks ended with both sides agreeing to a 40-day period of non-violence that would last till mid-May and cover the fasting month of Ramadan. It seems two peoples organizations are fighting each other, Hisbullah Muso, a resident of Pattani, told BenarNews, referring to PULO and BRN. They built forces to fight each other, [which is] no good. There were rifts [among the rebels] for a long time, even though they say they fight for the people. The government, however, should talk to PULO should it want to achieve peace, he said. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. He voted to enact Act 250 in the House in 1970, and afterwards opposed the State Land Use Plan. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bennington Banner. As the daily locally transmitted COVID-19 cases still number in the thousands and the total number of infections shot up to 200,000 in mid-April, Shanghai experienced its worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. The Omicron variant, which has caused large number of infections in Shanghai, can lead to severe cases and even death, thus not just a tough flu as some people mistakenly refer to it, according to medical experts. Data show more than 50 million people aged 60 or above belonging to the most vulnerable group in China have not been fully vaccinated against COVID. In the fight against the virus, the most important human right is the right to life and health, said Zhong Nanshan, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. He then further explained, Since we cant allow widespread infections lead to massive numbers of deaths among senior citizens, we still have to stick to the dynamic zero-COVID policy. Staff members of the online grocery platform Meituan Maicai sort and pack ordered groceries in east China's Shanghai on April 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) If China relaxes its epidemic prevention, the resulting surge of infections might paralyze the medical system, cautioned Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission (NHC). The dynamic zero-COVID policy has proven to be the most effective strategy after multiple rounds of hard battles with highly contagious variants, said Ma, according to a Xinhua report. Early this year, many countries loosened their COVID containment restrictions, with the consequence being spikes of severe cases and deaths. In Japan, the accumulated deaths caused by COVID-19 from January to March totaled 10,000. In the U.K., since the country announced the plan for living with COVID in February, its epidemic situation has worsened continually with the weekly newly added COVID-19 cases rising to nearly 5 million. On April 6, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said his announcement of scrapping obligatory isolation for people infected with COVID was a mistake and sent the wrong signal. "Corona is not a cold," Lauterbach wrote on Twitter, "So there must continue to be isolation after infection, ordered and supervised by health offices." Data has shown that Chinas dynamic zero-COVID policy has effectively contained the virus and ensured continuation of normal life and production in most parts of the country. Being among the first countries that initially brought the pandemic under control and registered a positive economic growth, China logged a GDP growth of 8.1 percent in 2021, the highest among major economies in the world. Despite the COVID-19 resurgence, investment in China is expected to expand steadily according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). To underpin the countrys development in 2022, special attention is being given to investment. Official data shows that the national investment in fixed assets increased 12.2 percent year on year in the first two months, 7.3 percentage points higher than last year. Investment in manufacturing and infrastructure has spearheaded that growth. According to a recent NDRC press conference, local government special bonds will play an important role in spurring investment growth this year. In addition, low-carbon projects, emerging industries, and a new type of urbanization will be the key areas for potential investment. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 resurgence has not dampened foreign investors confidence in the Chinese market. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, increased by 25.6 percent year-on-year to RMB 379.87 billion in the first quarter of the year according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC). FDI in high-tech manufacturing grew 35.7 percent over the same period of 2021, while that in the high-tech service sector rose 57.8 percent year-on-year. Facing mounting pressure induced by the COVID-19 flare-ups in the country which have impacted normal operation and personnel mobility in certain regions, foreign firms still hold optimistic outlooks about Chinas sustainable development. According to a Xinhua report, undeterred foreign corporations are advancing new projects in China. The Germany-based technology group Heraeus is pushing forward nearly 10 projects worth around US $200 million in several locations around China. Meanwhile, the Fuling Industrial Food Park, a joint venture with an investment of RMB 7 billion by Europe-based Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) and Chinese enterprises DONLINK Group and HAID Group, also broke ground in Guangzhou on March 30. Meanwhile, according to MOC spokesperson Shu Jueting, a special working group for key foreign-funded projects has been set up by the Ministry in cooperation with local authorities to help relevant firms ride out difficulties. "We are helping foreign enterprises, especially those in areas hit hard by COVID-19, to solve problems they encounter in the resumption of work and production, personnel entry into China, as well as logistics and transportation," said Shu. A range of favorable policies are creating more space for foreign companies development in China, such as the trimmed negative lists for foreign investment and implementation of national treatment. During his inspection tour of south Chinas Hainan Province on April 10-13, President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the development of Hainan into a free trade port with Chinese characteristics and global influence, once again showing the countrys determination to further integrate with the world. Xi also encouraged Hainan to build the free trade port into a shining Chinese model in the world, thus making the province a paradigm of the countrys reform and opening-up in the new era. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Community News Editor / Librarian Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989. On April 19, 1775, near 10 a.m., Joseph Palmer, a member of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, wrote a short letter detailing the arrival of British troops in Cambridge and the ensuing battle that happened at Lexington. Palmer, then stationed at Watertown, sent the express rider (named Israel Bissell in numerous copies of the letter) to "alarm the country quite to Connecticut." The letter, now known as the Lexington Alarm, first traveled to Worcester, where, under the order of the city's Committee of Correspondence, it was copied, attested to by Col. Foster, a delegate and Town Clerk Nathaniel Balding, and dispatched with express riders. News of the battle at Lexington spread as the letter made its way through Connecticut and into Rhode Island. Five days later, the letter had made its way to New York City, some 345 miles away. It continued from there to New Jersey and to Philadelphia, arriving on April 26, as members of the Second Continental Congress had just started to arrive. That letter, and the name of the express rider who carried it, should have faded into history and most likely would have, had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow not penned a poem about Paul Revere and his famous midnight ride. Not wanting to let Boston get all the credit for rousing the country to its feet, a rider who appeared to travel farther than Revere was stirred up nearly 141 years later, when the tale of Connecticut-born Israel Bissell was told. In this heroic tale, Bissell, later a resident of both Middlefield and Hinsdale, gallops from Massachusetts to New York City in less than a week, warning all he passes that the British have arrived and attacked Lexington. But was this rider Israel Bissell the same one who lived out his days in Hinsdale? This has been a subject of debate for some time, with credit now, erroneously, being given to another rider, Isaac Bissell of Suffield, Conn., despite evidence favoring Israel Bissell. (It should be noted the name Isaac Bissell appears in some later transcriptions of the Lexington Alarm, as does the name Tryal Russell.) The earliest documentation of Israel Bissell's ride found by this reporter appear in the Hartford Courant on July 23, 1916, in a column, "Famous Ride of Israel Bissell: How the East Windsor man carried the news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord from Watertown, Mass. to Philadelphia." In it, the author recounts the tale of how the Continental Post Riders were established in March 1774 by the patriot printer William Goddard (misspelled Coddard in the column), of which (the author claims) the most trusted riders were "Israel Bissell of Connecticut, Cornelius Bradford of New York and Paul Revere of Massachusetts." It may be this column that sparked the legend of Bissell's five-day, 345-mile trip and spurred numerous individuals to celebrate him, not Revere, as the true champion of the spreading the alarm. By 1929, an article in "The Minute Man" credited the ride to an Israel Bissell of East Windsor, Conn., who years after the war, moved first to Middlefield and later to Hinsdale, where he is buried. That fact, repeated in a May 1932 Berkshire Eagle article, drew the attention of Phillip Mack Smith. In a letter to the editor he wrote: "Upon the appearance of this article in 'The Minute Man' in April 1929, I made inquiry as to his authority of the identity in question, and he replied, citing 'The History of Middlefield, Mass.,' which was written by my brother, Edward Church Smith and myself. In justice to us, may I say, wherever the long distance ride is mentioned in that volume it is stated that Israel Bissell of Middlefield and Hinsdale was 'probably' the man who made the ride." Smith continued on in the letter that the brothers were uncertain as to which Israel Bissell made the ride. There was the Israel Bissell of Middlefield and Hinsdale, who lived in East Windsor in 1775, and his father, of the same name. Both Bissells served during the Revolutionary War. The younger, noted as Israel Bissell Jr. in some records, but not all, served in Capt. Stoughton's muster in June 1775 and in Capt. Wolcott's muster in 1776. "The question, therefore, is, did Israel Sr., aged 55, or his son, Israel, aged 23, make the remarkable ride?" Smith wrote. Nevertheless, East Windsor and Hinsdale were happy to celebrate their patriotic son, who received numerous accolades over the ensuing decades, including a graveside marker, placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, detailing his feat. Hinsdale named a park in his honor and hosted an annual 5K race bearing his name. There was even a postage stamp and cancellation stamp issued by the U.S. Post Office. The unsung hero, as many articles called him, became a favorite story for the press to recycle around Patriots' Day for the next 80 years or so. That was until 2007, when Stockbridge historian Lion Miles made a case against Israel Bissell. (He had done so many times in previous years, but the 2007 letter to the editor in the March 26, 2007, issue of The Berkshire Eagle is of significance. That letter, along with a 2004 iBerkshires.com column by Miles are cited most often by historians crediting Isaac Bissell with the ride.) In the 2007 letter, Miles wrote: "There are absolutely no 'authenticated records' that a man named Israel Bissell did anything at all during the American Revolution and there is no documentary proof that he even was a post rider. The entire ridiculous story is based on the misspelling of the actual rider's name in a newspaper account that was carried throughout the colonies by a series of established express riders, all the way to South Carolina." He also chided anyone for believing a lone rider could travel from Waterford to Philadelphia in six days. He further contends in the letter that the rider's real name was Isaac Bissell, based on documents held by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Maryland and in the Massachusetts Archives at Columbia Point. "He rode only as far as Hartford, as the original order reads ... He signed the documents clearly as Isaac Bissell." (This letter may be one sent by the Committee of Safety on April 20, 1775.) Earlier, in 2004, Miles claimed the post rider was Isaac Bissell based on a letter from the rider to Palmer, requesting payment for a post delivery in April 1775. Miles wrote: "In March 1776, he petitioned Col. Palmer for help and wrote [sic], 'Sir you may Remember when Lexinton Fite was you gave me an Express to Cary to Hartford in Connecticut which I did,' adding, "I think I Earn my money.' He signed with the clear signature, "Isaac Bissell of Suffield." (Massachusetts Archives, vol 303, p. 162.)" In the past dozen years since Miles wrote his letter, institutions across the country have brought their historical collections online, providing researchers from afar the ability to view original source documents. And thus, given this reporter the ability to make a case for Israel Bissell. As to Mr. Miles' claim that there are "no 'authenticated records' that a man named Israel Bissell did anything at all during the American Revolution," we point out there are several Revolutionary War documents that can be viewed on FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com and Fold3.com that prove otherwise. There are several muster rolls showing both Israel Sr. and Israel Jr. among the ranks of Connecticut musters in 1775 and 1776. And on Fold3, a document from Capt. Wolcott's muster shows payment of 30 shillings to Israel Bissell for his service in 1776. As to his claim that Israel Bissell's name does not appear on the actual Lexington Alarm, but was a misspelling repeated in a newspaper article, there is proof that Bissell's name does appear on numerous hand written copies of the document. There are several copies of the Lexington Alarm that can be viewed online. One held by the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington, clearly states the bearer of the letter as Israel Bissell. It's a copy-of-a-copy, written by Daniel Tyer Jr. Tyer made the copy when it arrived in Brookline, Mass., on April 19, 1775, from a copy received by express and penned by Balding in Worcester. (Thus, if the rider's name was incorrectly transcribed, it would have happened in either Worcester or Brookline.) A copy of the alarm, held in the digital archive of the New York Public Library, transcribed from numerous copies prior being transcribed by the chairman of the committee of safety in Elizabethtown, N.J., still bears the name Israel Bissell, as does a broadside held by the Library of Congress, printed on April 23, 1775, in New York City. The broadside speaks of the news of the battle arriving by two vessels from Newport, R.I., and by an express by land. The Lexington Alarm, passed on from Providence, R.I., and copied numerous times over, also bears the name of Israel Bissell. As for the matter of Isaac Bissell being paid for his ride, which is held high as the proof that he was the Lexington Alarm rider, it's much more likely he received his payment of two shillings for delivery of another letter sent by the Committee of Safety on April 20. One can view the April 26, 1776 resolve to pay Isaac Bissell's payment "for his riding express to Hartford, Conn. in April 'last past'" on FamilySearch.org. "The journals of each Provincial congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of safety" on archive.org, contains the acts ordering his request be considered and the transcription of a letter (on page 518) dispatched by the Committee of Safety on April 20, 1775, to the governments of the colonies of Connecticut and New Hampshire. This is the letter Isaac Bissell most likely delivered and requested two shillings payment for. As Miles points out, Isaac Bissell only went to Hartford as his letter instructed, something that wasn't part of the Lexington Alarm letter. As the surviving copies of the Lexington Alarm fail to give the direction to bring the note to Hartford, it is safe to surmise Isaac Bissell was not charged with carrying the letter dispatched from Watertown on April 19. Making it more likely than not that Israel Bissell delivered the letter from Watertown to Worcester. But what of the claim that Israel Bissell traveled further and faster than Revere? An amazing story, if it was possible to travel 70 miles a day without resting. If possible, Bissell would have needed to ride at least one Narraganset, a now extinct breed of race horse that could travel a mile in 2 minutes time and could, according to accounts, travel 100 miles in a day. But, as the alarm letters show, the word was spread far and wide by a system of express carriers carrying copies. Most likely Bissell rode from Watertown to Worcester, where Col. Foster, a delegate of the state's Second Provincial Congress was stationed, as well as two notable members of the Constitutional Convention, John Adams and John Hancock (who, having been spirited away from Concord ahead of the British arrival, thanks to a famous alarm, were headed to Philadelphia.) But at the end of the day, does it really matter if the tale of Israel Bissell, of Middlefield and Hinsdale, is 100 percent true if it excites enough people to celebrate the founding of our country and the patriots who risked life and limb for it? Why not let Israel Bissell be the folk hero we need? This story originally ran April 19, 2019. MOSCOW - Consideration of proposed fee increases at Idahos four-year institutions is on the agenda of an Idaho State Board of Education meeting in Moscow this week, April 20-21. Earlier this year, the presidents of Idaho's four-year institutions pledged not to request undergraduate resident tuition increases for the third consecutive year. However, the institutions are requesting increases in mandatory consolidated fees. The mandatory consolidated fee is comprised of four standardized fee categories. Earlier this year, the Board revised its policy to allow students to opt-out of fees that support certain student activities, clubs and organizations. Also on the meeting agenda: University of Idaho students and faculty will have an opportunity to have a discussion with the State Board on topics of interest as part of the University of Idaho community forum. Consideration of a temporary rule to use enrollment, instead of attendance to calculate funding for public schools. If approved, the temporary rule would expire after the Legislature adjourns sine die in 2023. Authorization to appoint a hearing officer to consider an appeal filed by Another Choice Virtual Charter School. Board members will also elect officers to lead the Board until April 2023. The meeting will take place in the Pittman Center, 2nd floor ballroom at 709 Deakin Avenue starting Wednesday, April 20 at 9:00 a.m. (PDT) and resuming the following morning Thursday, April 21 at 8:00 a.m. (PDT). The meeting will be carried via livestream at https://www.uidaho.edu/news/ui-live The meeting agenda and materials are posted on the State Board of Education website: https://boardofed.idaho.gov/event/board-meeting-moscow-3/ * In defiance of economic bullying and vehement defamation by the United States against Xinjiang cotton, farmers there continue cultivating this crop and sowing the seeds for better lives across the region. * There will be 37.57 million mu of cotton plantation areas in Xinjiang in 2022, increasing 2 percent compared to 2021. * Cotton sowing is nearly 100 percent mechanized in Xinjiang. In terms of harvesting, machines accounted for over 80 percent of all the work in the region in 2021. Aerial photo taken on April 16, 2022 shows a tractor working in a cotton field in Daquan of Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) by Xinhua writers Sun Zhennan, Gao Han, Zhao Ge URUMQI, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The rumbling of tractors busy in the field on both sides of the Tianshan Mountains signals that cotton sowing is in full swing in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China. Jumay Hasan, of Uygur ethnicity, has planted cotton in Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture, for eight years. This year he plans to expand his plantation by 10 mu, meaning he will plant 130 mu (about 8.7 hectares) of cotton. "I earned 2,000 yuan (about 314 U.S. dollars) in profit from each mu last year," he said. "If things go well, I can get at least 20,000 yuan more this year." Jumay Hasan is just one of the countless farmers in the region who, in defiance of economic bullying and vehement defamation by the United States against Xinjiang cotton, continue cultivating this crop and sowing the seeds for better lives across the region. Tractors plow in a cotton field in Shiqiao Township of Usu City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, March 31, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge) UNFAZED AND CONFIDENT Despite U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang's cotton, Jumay Hasan is confident, and for a good reason. Shaya's high-quality cotton has an excellent reputation, earning it the accolade of the "hometown of cotton in China's Tarim Basin." Jumay Hasan's buoyancy on the crop is not isolated. Another Uygur farmer, Imin Anayet, who is also from Shaya, makes 2.5 million yuan a year from planting cotton. He also runs a farmers' cooperative, with 10,000 mu of contracted land, providing jobs for over 230 local farmers. According to estimates from the China Cotton Association, there will be 37.57 million mu of cotton plantation areas in Xinjiang in 2022, increasing 2 percent compared to 2021. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that cotton output in Xinjiang topped 5.1 million tonnes last year, accounting for 89.5 percent of the country's total cotton output. Moreover, the region has ranked first in China for more than 20 years in total cotton output, per-unit yield, planting area, and commodity allocation. "Xinjiang has unique natural conditions, abundant sunshine, and a long cotton growth cycle. It is not only the largest high-quality cotton production base in China but also globally significant," said Peng Changming, vice president of Xinjiang Cotton Association. An autopilot tractor works in a cotton field in Sangongdian Village of Ulan Usu Township in Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 16, 2022. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) ALL MACHINES, NO FORCED LABOR Regarding the groundless accusations from the United States, such as "forced labor," Jumay Hasan said, "How could it be possible? From plowing to harrowing, sowing to harvesting, it is nearly all done by machines." This year, he completed all his field work of sowing within five days, an impossible achievement had these tasks been completed manually. Abdugani Abdukeyum, a Uygur farmer in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, said, "We use a seeding machine guided by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to sow, which works precisely and efficiently." According to a report released by the Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance of Jinan University last year, cotton sowing is nearly 100 percent mechanized in Xinjiang. Moreover, in terms of harvesting, machines accounted for over 80 percent of all the work in the region in 2021, said the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Xinjiang. Muhtar Rohman, a Uygur agricultural machinery operator in Shaya, has witnessed the cotton industry's transformation from manual to mechanical firsthand. "I watched my parents toil on the field when I was young, and I remember wishing 'if only I had a machine to help them'," he said. In April 2021, he finally made his dream come true. Using the new cotton-picking machine, he helps farmers with their harvesting and now earns more than 100,000 yuan a year. Photo taken on April 16, 2022 shows a navigational autopilot equipment in a cotton field in Daquan of Shawan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) COTTON BRINGS HAPPINESS The high mechanization rate has been propelled by the acceleration of large-scale cotton production regionally, which in turn has been driven by the expansion of farmers' cooperatives. By the end of 2019, Xinjiang was home to 26,424 farmers' cooperatives. According to the region's department of agriculture and rural affairs, on average, 2,000 new cooperatives were established every year from 2010 to 2019. Yelikat Kalimukan, a Kazak cotton farmer in Shiqiao Township, Usu City, said that the cooperative in his town helped him cut costs. "Our cooperative provides free high-quality seeds and affordable agricultural materials, helping us save around 80 to 100 yuan on each mu. This helps increase earnings for us small households," Yelikat Kalimukan said. Since joining a cooperative in 2020, Jumay Hasan says the technical expertise and mechanical services have paid off in dividends. "Last year, the yield per mu of our cooperative was 410 kilograms, and I earned 240,000 yuan totally," Jumay Hasan said. "Cotton brings us fortune and happiness!" (Video reporters: Aman, Gao Han, Sun Zhennan, Zhao Ge; video editors: Jia Xiaotong, Mu Xuyao) TAIPEI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of new local COVID-19 cases in Taiwan rose to 1,390 on Sunday, the island's disease monitoring agency said on Monday. It was the fourth consecutive day that new local cases surpassed 1,000, the agency said, noting that Sunday also saw 90 new imported cases. To date, Taiwan has reported 35,983 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 26,144 were local infections. I spoke this week with a mother who pulled her children out of school in 2020 to give homeschooling a try. Through remote learning, she saw, for the first time, what her children were actually learning and doing in school and realized that the amount of academic time was quite small. She had always been curious about homeschooling but felt intimidated. When she caught a glimpse of her childrens classroom learning, she realized that she could easily match, if not exceed, the school's academic expectations while providing greater overall freedom for her childrens learning and development. When her childrens school reopened for full-time, in-person learning, this mom decided to continue homeschooling. Now, she is even happier with her decision, especially as homeschool classes and activities resume their pre-pandemic vibrancy. New data analyzed this week by the Associated Press confirm that this mothers experience is a common one. Homeschooling rates surged during the 2020/2021 academic year to more than 11 percent of the overall US K-12 population, but many education observers expected that most of those families would return to school once classrooms reopened for in-person learning. That hasnt happened. Homeschooling numbers this year dipped from last years all-time high, but are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels, the Associated Press reported. It evaluated data from 18 states and found that while homeschooling numbers rose 63 percent in the 2020/2021 academic year, they only dropped by 17 percent this school year, remaining significantly elevated. The largest demographic driver of the homeschooling surge in 2020/2021 were black families who unenrolled their children from school for independent homeschooling. The US Census Bureau found that the number of black homeschoolers increased fivefold between spring and fall of 2020, from 3.3 percent to 16.1 percent. Black children were overrepresented in the homeschooling population compared to the overall K-12 public school population. The sustained rise in homeschooling numbers this year reflects the larger theme of parent revitalization regarding their childrens education. During our LiberatED podcast conversation this week, leading school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis explained that parents have been empowered and emboldened over the past couple of years. Theyve woken up to the problems of the government-run school system and theyre pushing for real solutions. Homeschooling is one such solution, particularly as it evolves to encompass much more than traditional home-based, parent-led learning. Homeschooling has become the educational foundation upon which new co-learning models have sprouted, including microschools, pandemic pods, hybrid schools, and interactive, online learning communities. The education disruption that parents encountered in 2020 was a challenge, but it led millions of them to retake the reins of their childrens education and chart a new learning path. Many parents now find this new path to be more satisfying than the old one, and they arent turning back. CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian arts patron and former diplomat Carrillo Gantner has described himself as a "panda hugger," and put his memories of China into a book. "I wanted to express some frustration and disappointment that the excellent relationship that we had with China, which has been worked on and developed by so many good people on both sides for over 40 years ... has collapsed in the last several years," he told Xinhua. A professional actor and director who had been the Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China in the 1980s, and an Adjunct Professor at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University, the 77-year-old was dearly known as Lao Gan by his Chinese friends. During the past half a century, Gantner witnessed many events marking friendship between China and Australia. He was involved in the negotiation on bringing two pandas from China to Australia, and directed a play for the Shanghai People's Art Theater "Xiang Ru Fei Fei", or A Stretch of the Imagination, which was performed by famous Chinese actor Wei Zongwan. In retrospect, he said that culture, in all dimensions including performing arts, visual arts, education, language, history and sports, brings people more closely together. "It teaches them about the other," he said. "When you know something about the other, people are less fearful. It reminds people that we share a common humanity, and a desire to live in peace and friendship." "So cultural exchanges can remove the politics and let us deal at a human level directly and openly," he added. Gantner makes no effort to conceal his love for Chinese culture, as traditional Chinese painting scrolls and sculpture of contemporary Chinese artist could be found easily in his Melbourne office. His wife Ziyin was daughter of the late President of the China National Theater for Children Fang Jufen, and he has almost visited China every year. He noted that during the past several years cultural exchanges between China and Australia were seriously affected as well, not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by the current relationship between the two countries. "There's little happening and I feel frustrated and sad," he said, adding that only five or six years ago, these cultural exchanges were vibrant. He wrote to his friends in China, and both sides believed that China and Australia have to come to new understanding. So in his books he offered suggestions in this respect. "Firstly, we need to take a longer term view of the relationship," he said, before explaining that Australia worked through short electoral cycles, and it's three years officially between elections. "So governments take a short term view," he said. "They're trying to appeal for short term electoral advantage and for votes in this country ... So they sometimes say things that are not helpful to the relationship." Secondly, he believed that "a level of courtesy and respect that is due between countries has not always been shown", and called for having discussions in more productive ways such as senior level meetings or through diplomats. He noted in his new book that sometimes Australian interests were not identical to those of the United States, and described Australia's current position as "America's shoeshine boy in the South Pacific." "I personally would be much happier if Australia had a more independent foreign policy," said the author. Also, he said that if Australia was critical of China, it should be consistent, not just singling out one country for criticism. His other suggestions include increasing financial support for academic scholarship in terms of studies on China and developing Chinese language skill at all levels of education, as well as more personal connection of officials. "When I was at the embassy in the mid 1980s, Bob Hawke, the (then) prime minister, came twice during my three years there, and the Chinese leadership were coming to Australia regularly," said Gantner. "So there was a very strong personal basis for the relationship. That sort of strong personal connection is immensely valuable." The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Australia. "We should celebrate that in a big way," said the former diplomat, regarding the anniversary as an opportunity to "reach new agreements and open new doors." For instance, he said that a group of senior people in the performing arts from the major art centers and the major Australian festivals could be sent back to China. People from other areas could get involved as well. One of his children was a senior ICU doctor at a major hospital in Melbourne, which, a few years ago, reached an exchange agreement with a hospital in Shenzhen of South China's Guangdong Province. His son used to visit Shenzhen to help train doctors, and Gantner believed he would be happy to go again. Despite the difficulties right now, the senior artist was optimistic. "Ups and downs are always in any bilateral relationship, but generally, it (the China-Australia relationship) was enormously positive for this country, and I like to think for China also to enjoy it," Gantner said. "It's only in a very short space of time really that the relationship has gone off the rails," he continued. "If it can go off the rails quickly, I hope it can get back on the rails quickly as well." TEHRAN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A new wide-body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has passed flight tests "successfully" and has become operational, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday. The drone, named "Gaza," has a wingspan of 21 meters, weighs 3.1 tonnes, and can carry a payload of 500 kilograms. According to the report, the flight endurance of the drone is 35 hours for 2,000 kilometers, and it has a service ceiling of 10,688 meters. It has the capability of carrying 13 bombs and can reach a velocity of 350 kilometers per hour. Gaza can be employed in various combat, surveillance, rescue, and relief, as well as reconnaissance missions. Advertisement Advertise With Us CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Brandon Friendship Centre '60s Scoop programming co-ordinator Debbie Huntinghawk and cultural support worker Deborah Tacan pose for a photo. A local initiative centred on family healing has planned a series of events this week aimed at supporting 60s Scoop survivors. A special drumming session, "Awakening Our Hearts," will take place at Princess Park Friday to honour Earth Day from noon to 1 p.m. The drum circle is part of the Brandon Friendship Centre (BFC) Healing the Family Within, but the event is for everyone in the community, said co-ordinator Debbie Huntinghawk. There is a prophecy that when 8,000 drums are played together, major healing of Mother Earth, Indigenous people and every living being in the world will take place, she said. The beats will create unity, respect, love, compassion, happiness and peace around the world. "Eight-thousand drums are for the healing of Mother Earth, the healing of hearts and for ancestral wisdom. Eight-thousand drums for the survival, for the respect, for the self-determination, freedom, justice, the peace and dignity and of every Indigenous people in all the countries in the world." The event will also serve as an opportunity to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic and the heartache of witnessing the invasion of Ukraine, said Deborah Tacan, a cultural support worker at the Brandon Friendship Centre. "We think were powerless, but you know what, were not. Our voices are strong and we can use that through our drums, through our songs, through our rattles," Tacan said. "Anything that we do that helps connect us." It is important to honour Earth Day because Mother Earth needs healing, Huntinghawk said. "If we dont look after her now, then there will be nothing left for our kids or our grandkids. We have to start." Participants are encouraged to bring a drum or rattle while to the event. Healing the Family Within will also be hosting a series of sharing and healing circles to help 60s Scoop survivors and their families on their healing journeys. The sharing circles will take place on April 20, April 27, May 4 and May 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. "Theyre giving their pain a voice," she said. During the circles, survivors can share their stories and experiences as part of their healing path. The final event, "The Wiping of the Tears," will take place on April 28 at 6 p.m. at 205 College Ave. It will be hosted by Brandon Friendship Centre cultural worker Frank Tacan. "The Wiping of the Tears" is an important ceremony, Frank said. When someone has lost a loved one, traditionally, the community would take care of the family as they mourn and grieve the person that has died. When people arrive at the ceremony, they are wiped off with an eagle fan or eagle feather and if they are still crying, their tears are wiped off. Frank said there is a need to let tears go so people can move forward. During the ceremony, an elder will fill a canupa (pipe) and pray for those coming in who will be standing on a buffalo robe. As the person mourning stands on the robe, they are cared for by the people around them. "People are starting to let go, but they dont know how. Standing on that buffalo robe is so sacred, it overwhelms you and the tears come," Frank said. "It helps them grieve." Many people are grieving for more than one person and this adds to the mourning as they have been unable to properly honour dead loved ones due to COVID-19 public health restrictions for the past two years. Everything comes together in the form of spirituality during the ceremony, he added, and it serves to wake up the spirit within individuals that are mourning and grieving. When people take this step in the grief process, they can start their journeys of healing. He hopes the ceremony inspires people to be more open, talk about their life stories and honestly share how they have healed. "These ceremonies really help you. For instance, if you are grieving for multiple people, you go on a vision quest and release that or you go to the sun dance and dance and release that; same with the sweat lodge," Frank said. "We have to wake up that spirit so healing can happen." ckemp@brandonsun.com Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp When Pope Francis comes to Canada in late July, he is not expected to visit Manitoba. Advertisement Advertise With Us AP PHOTO/ALESSANDRA TARANTINO Pope Francis on his popemobile drives through the crowd of faithful at the end of the Catholic Easter Sunday mass he led in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, on Sunday. The Pope is expected to visit three Canadian cities this summer, none of which are in Manitoba. When Pope Francis comes to Canada in late July, he is not expected to visit Manitoba. According to a report published by CBC, the three locations on the list for his four-day trip during which he will apologize to Indigenous people for their experience at Roman Catholic-operated residential schools are Quebec City, Edmonton and Iqaluit. The report cited confidential sources who were not authorized to speak publicly. The sources also said the trip, which was being planned before the March 28-April 1 meetings between the Pope and delegates from the First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, will be funded by the Canadian Catholic Church. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for Indigenous people across Canada to hear the Pope. Vatican advance teams have already scouted the three cities in preparation for the trip, according to Metis National Council President Cassidy Caron. If the Pope goes to Edmonton, it is possible he will deliver an apology at Lac Ste. Anne, a pilgrimage located 78 kilometres west of the Alberta capital. The pilgrimage is popular with Metis and Indigenous people; at his April 1 audience with delegates in Vatican City the Pope said he hoped to "be with you" on St. Annes feast day, July 26. In a statement, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) would not confirm the locations, saying any official announcement about dates and locations will come from the Vatican. As for the trip itself, the CCCB said "The Canadian bishops are grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation to visit Canada on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation." It went on to say "We have had meaningful conversations with Indigenous people, about the timing, focus and themes of the visit." The CCCB has also been in conversation with the federal government, knowing the national importance of such an event, it added. "Given the Holy Fathers advanced age and desire for simple, modest visits, we can expect the Canadian visit to reflect this reality in both the length of the pilgrimage as well as the geography of such a visit, given the size of Canada. We can anticipate that the visit to Canada will be very different than those of the past," the CCCB added. Regarding costs, until it has confirmation of dates, locations, and scope of the visit, the CCCB is "unable to provide detailed information on the budgeting for this trip," said Jonathan Lesarge, government and public relations adviser. "There is widespread enthusiasm around the pilgrimage from the bishops of Canada, other members of the Catholic community, and Canadians more broadly," he said, adding the CCCB is confident of its ability to raise the necessary funding for the Popes trip. Any costs for the papal visit "will be on top of the $30 million being raised to support healing and reconciliation projects across Canada," he added. Winnipeg Free Press Its been nearly a century since psychiatric nursing was established in Western Canada with Brandon one of two hubs in Manitoba. Advertisement Advertise With Us Its been nearly a century since psychiatric nursing was established in Western Canada with Brandon one of two hubs in Manitoba. Celebrations for that milestone and a look at the future begin May 5 with an online webinar titled "Psychiatric Nursing and Practice Our History, Our Future." The event features five registered psychiatric nurses (RPN) sharing their research and experiences in the profession. The host will be Mallory Schmitz, RPN and mental health nurse educator at Selkirk Mental Health Centre. This is the first part of a two-part event. Registered psychiatric nurses work in a variety of settings and bring with them a wide array of competencies and skills in clinical, research, education and administration domains. Their work is constantly evolving as new treatments and discoveries are made and developed. "Its much different than what it was 100 years ago," Beverley Hicks, a retired psychiatric nurse and one of the presenters, said. "This is a teaser for next year and we will be saying that in 2023, we will have a bigger event." The committee planning the event is still working on exact details, Hicks said, and will be releasing them as soon as they are available later in the year. Part of the reason is COVID-19 is still an obstacle for live events. This presentation marks not just an anniversary, but highlights the importance of mental health in Brandons history. Hicks said the psychiatric hospital and nursing school were both major employers for the city well into the 20th century. For the May 5 event, each presenter will focus on a different topic. Hicks said she is presenting on the history of psychiatric nursing in Western Canada, focusing on the establishment of the first psychiatric hospitals in Selkirk and Brandon in 1921, then the graduation of the nurses in 1923 from the psychiatric nursing school in Brandon. Manitoba was the first western province to have dedicated psychiatric hospitals, according to Hicks. The other four papers look at the current state of psychiatric nursing and the future. Each presenters paper will give an overall assessment of the profession as it is and where it could be going in the western part of the country. A look at the trauma nurses face in their profession and what can be done to reduce incidents and provide more support will be presented by Kyla Webb, RPN, from the University of Saskatchewan. With many psychiatric nurses working in acute care with aggressive patients, the risk of physical and mental trauma is high. There are gaps in care and training for nurses and she will present ideas on how to better prepare nurses in undergraduate programs. Karen Batson, RPN and assistant professor at the University of Brandon, will present her work focusing on anti-racism and cultural safety education. As an Indigenous person, she is researching the effects of colonialism and how cultural awareness can help improve outcomes for Indigenous patients, as well as how teaching can be changed to meet a wider range of diverse backgrounds. A more holistic approach that involves spiritual care will be the focus of the presentation by Karen Scott Barss, RPN, faculty member of the School of Nursing at Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Saskatoon. She will discuss integrating a spiritual dimension to nursing for a more holistic approach to health care and education for patients and nurses alike. The challenges women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder face in the health-care system will be the topic presented by Racheal Ligali, RPN, from British Columbia. The focus will be on how women empower themselves, focusing on four women who volunteered for a research project. Her talk will look at the findings of the research to help professionals gain a better understanding of this segment of the population to deliver meaningful and supportive care. To register for the event, log on to Eventbrite and type in https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/webinar-psychiatric-nursing100-tickets-296397491877?keep_tld=1. kmckinley@brandonsun.com Twitter: @karenleighmcki1 Nearly two months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, but a Brandon University professor says the worst is yet to come. Advertisement Advertise With Us Nearly two months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, but a Brandon University professor says the worst is yet to come. This is why Kelly Saunders, a political scientist who teaches at BU, is urging for greater action from western allies to put an end to the conflict and re-establish the global economy. Despite the Russian army shifting much of its attention and resources to the easternmost regions of Ukraine, Saunders said the world needs to be on high alert after the beginning stages of the war. Ukraine so far has demonstrated its strength against Russian forces. "I think Russia was surprised," Saunders said about the Kremlin announcing the Russian army had significant losses by early April. "Thats indication of the fact that Russia did not expect the kind of resistance and sheer determination on the part of Ukraine that they experienced. I think they thought it would be a far easier takeover." She said the Russian military regime led by President Vladimir Putin believed its own rhetoric with the idea that Ukrainians would welcome Russia as a liberating force, as opposed to the exact opposite attitude that has been shown on the ground in Ukraine. With much of the conflict taking place in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine in part to the Russian military regrouping, Saunders said she believes the war could continue for much longer and thinks the Russian leader is determined to achieve a large-scale victory. "The worst is yet to come." The mindset and motivation behind Putins goals to annex Ukraine been festering since the Russian leader witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union. "If you want to bring back the Soviet empire, then no question, Ukraine is the feather in the cap, its the keystone to rebuilding that empire," Saunders said. Based on its adjacent location to the Crimean Sea and a hub for agricultural development, Saunders said you can draw a straight line back to 2014 when the world witnessed the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Countries aligned with NATO and the West must draw a red line in the sand and force the Russian regime to withdraw troops a lack of willingness that failed to take place eight years ago, Saunders said. "We in the West have to reconcile ourselves with the fact that we did not take strong enough action. "Our reluctance to engage with [Putin], I think has directly and bluntly enabled conditions for things to fester to the point where they are today." In what she describes as the next chapter of the Cold War, Saunders said the big question of implementing a no-fly zone over Ukrainian skies is still a contentious issue. In a previous article published by the Sun, she explained the idea of a NATO-aligned country intercepting a missile should they not be voluntarily removed by Russia, would significantly ramp up the escalation of war. Over the past two months, she said, its clear to see that projective missiles have brought the most success to the ever-changing Russian army in terms of how much destruction it has been able to facilitate. She offered this is a question that should still be on the table, suggesting it would bring Ukraine some immediate relief. Instead of implementing a no-fly zone, the effectiveness of economic sanctions issued by the Canadian federal government and other NATO-allied governments have made life more difficult for the everyday Russian citizen over other parts of the Russian economy, according to the professor. "Youre hurting the average Russians themselves more than youre hurting the billionaires," she said. "(Lets remember) Russians are not to blame for this conflict, its the Putin regime." Saunders, a second generation Canadian with Ukrainian heritage said in this day and age, it is hard to imagine a conflict of this magnitude in Europe following the horrors of the Second World War with a disregard for human life, rights and sovereignty. She said the terror seen on a daily basis for Canadians watching abroad is a stark reminder of the conflict at hand. "Surely weve learned something as a civilization and as a human race, yet here we are again," she said. "The sheer atrocity of it has caught a lot of Canadians off guard. How can you not be moved by what you see is happening?" FILE Kelly Saunders, a political science professor at Brandon University, says the worst is yet to come in the war between Russia and Ukraine. In her time following current events, teaching, and keeping up with geopolitical discussion, she said Canada has responded to the conflict in Ukraine in ways that she has never seen before. "We are the largest diaspora country outside of Ukraine and Russia, the largest Ukrainian population is in Canada," she said. "I think were all touched by this, by both the brutality of it and the sheer closeness between our two countries and were seeing that play out." Over the past few weeks, she expects to see the federal government welcoming more Ukrainian refugees to Westman and across the country as Canada as announced they will be trying to expedite the normal processes for refugees fleeing from a place of crisis. She said it will require a massive effort to have Brandon and other Canadian cites welcome the individuals and ensure they have a place to stay, access to language instruction, jobs and other safeties involved in a situation changing by the hour. "That is going to cost money, but it also requires all of us to open up our homes and our communities to welcome these individuals that are fleeing for absolutely no fault of their own," she said. "We have a wonderful Ukrainian community here that has rallied around the cause and has fundraised significantly to support the war effort and humanitarian effort back in Ukraine." In terms of feeling a pinch at the gas pumps and witnessing the price of groceries rise all across the country, Saunders said Russias contributions of oil, gas, wheat and vegetable oils for example have greatly shifted the balance of the global economy, as more countries stray from having trade relations with the nation in a domino effect. It is a reminder of the fact that we are all interconnected as part of a global economy. "All the more reason why I think we need to find a stronger and effective solution to bringing this crisis to an end in Ukraine to put more pressure on Putin to withdraw the Russian forces to not only return to peace in that region but also in terms of reestablishing more balance in the global economy," she said. Saunders said addressing the rise in price of gasoline and food in the Canadian marketplace can wait until enough pressure is put on the Putin regime to end the genocide taking place on a daily basis in Ukraine. In terms of the Russian end game, the optimistic belief for Saunders suggests there has to be a breaking point for the Russian army. "We are already hearing stories about Russian soldiers refusing to fight, and abandoning their posts so to speak that are trying to get the truth out to their families back home that Russians have been lied to and have been mislead about why this war was necessary in the first place," she said. She pointed to the Russian governments false message of Russians serving as liberators and Ukrainians representing neo-Nazism as an example. On the other hand, Saunders said the goal to annex Ukraine has been Putins ambition since day one, and the Russian president has incredible personal fortune that he can tap into. "The vast majority of Russians do continue to support him simply because they dont know any different," she said. She is concerned that if NATO countries continue to resist the implementation of a no-fly zone and only support Ukraine through financial aid and armaments, this will only create more fodder for Putin to continue the war. "I think were dealing with an individual who has a narcissistic personality and so when youre dealing with someone like that, the normal norms of self-reflection and critical thinking that would go into ones actions are not in play here," she said. "Unless we can find a way for him to exit and save face, I think the war is only going to continue." Whereas another leader may cut their losses after rolling the dice, Saunders said Putins lack of rational thinking has taken a back seat to that ambition of his to restore the Russian empire. She offered something may have to give in the part of Ukraine to end this conflict. This could include two options. The first being to allow Russia to continue its illegal annexation of eastern Ukraine, and the world declaring it a neutral territory. Similar to Crimea, the professor explained both countries could claim the region is theirs, it would be continue to be occupied territory but designated neutral under international law. The second being for Ukraine to say it will not seek membership into NATO and remain a neutral country for military purposes a demand Putin has said is an absolute necessity for him. She believes Ukraine needs to be able to maintain the integrity of its own boundaries. "To ask Ukraine to chop up parts of its territory, to tie its own security hands are incredibly high asks on parts of the west," she said. "It might be the only way for Putin to claim a victory in that regard." For more of our conversation with Dr. Kelly Saunders, you can listen to the third episode of Sunny Side Up, a Brandon Sun podcast. jbernacki@brandonsun.com Twitter: @JosephBernacki Tasha Layton's - 'How Far' | Turning Point Media Relations NASHVILLE, Tenn.How Far, the long-awaited full-length debut from one of Christian musics leading female artists, Tasha Layton, is set for release May 13 from BEC Recordings. Produced by GRAMMY and Dove Award winner Keith Everette Smith, the definitive 10-song set brims with soaring ballads and bright pop gems, putting Laytons signature vocals front and center to extol themes of Hope and encouragement. Anchored by Laytons #1 single Look What Youve Done and her 2020 breakout hit Into the Sea (Its Gonna Be OK), How Far showcases four newly recorded selections, including the debut single and title-cut set to impact radio April 29. A victorious anthem of assurance that Gods grace cannot be outrun, How Far proclaims: A million miles of my mistakes still couldnt keep Your love away/However far away I am from home/thats how far Your love will go. "The whole album is summed up in the message of the title track, 'How Far,'" Layton shares. "It's about how God continues to reach out and pursue us even when we run from Him. It was God's love for us that propelled Him to give His life on the cross. Arms stretched open widethat's how far He will go. Layton co-wrote nine of the projects 10 tracks, and How Far also features songwriting contributions from such names as Matthew West, We Are Messengers Darren Mulligan, Matt Hammitt, Aaron Shust, Ethan Hulse and Andrew Bergthold (We The Kingdom), among others. Additional highlights of How Far include the shimmering synth-pop opener Help Me Let Go; Catch My Breath, a plea for respite amidst the stress of life; and a new rendition of the worship anthem Joy Comes In The Morning, which Layton originally recorded with Franklin, Tennessees Church of the City worship team. I didn't shy away from any hard emotions with these songs, and I really tried to lean in and hear what God had to say about each of them," Layton says of How Far. "My hope is that listeners feel a sense of freedom in this album, understanding that God meets us even in the darkest of hours. The album speaks to God's intimate involvement in our lives, from the mundane to the biggest moments, throughout each and every season. God is in all of those things with us. He cares; He's kind; and He's working all things out for our good." Laytons 2021 smash hit Look What Youve Done reached the pinnacle of Billboards Christian Airplay chart and earned her recognition as one of the publications Top 5 female Christian artists of the year. She has been featured on ABCs GMA3: What You Need To Know, discussing how past struggles have shaped her life and inspired her music; and Layton served as co-host of the 52nd GMA Dove Awards Pre-Telecast last year. Her six-song holiday EP This Is Christmas bowed in October and her guided prayer journal, "Boundless: Moving Freedom From Your Head To Your Heart," also released last fall. In 2020 Layton was first named one of Billboards Top 5 female Christian artists of the year on the heels of her breakthrough single Into The Sea (Its Gonna Be OK), which was among the biggest hits at Christian radio that year. Prior to her solo career, Layton appeared on Season 9 of American Idol and spent four years as a back-up vocalist for pop superstar Katy Perry. A South Carolina native, her voice has been heard in productions for Disneyland and Cirque du Soleil; she has served as an instructor at the National Praise and Worship Institute at Nashvilles Trevecca Nazarene University; and Layton is featured in pro-audio company TC Helicon's book, "The Ultimate Guide to Singing." For further information, visit tashalayton.com, becrecordings.com or turningpointpr.com. Follow Layton on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Greater Sydneys only disease-free and growing koala population is under threat by the construction of a housing estate in its habitat without promised safeguards in place, scientists warn. Earthworks for the first of a two-stage 5000-home development between the Nepean and Georges rivers near Campbelltown, by Lendlease, began in January after being approved in 2019. The plans for the two-stage development, known as Figtree Hill and Mt Gilead, included koala underpasses and corridors of a specified width, as well as protections for crucial food and habitat trees. A female koala from the Campbelltown population that was rescued from the side of a busy road awaits release in 2017. Credit:Cole Bennetts However, Lendlease has yet to secure approval for the underpasses, and scientists fear other changes made since the plan was approved could harm the population of about 500 disease-free animals. Koala ecologist Dr Steve Philips said he understands that koala corridors may now be constructed to an average rather than minimum size, which could create pinch points that prevent the animals from using them. Ku-ring-gai Council bills itself as the green heart of Sydneys verdant north shore, but residents angered by illegal tree removal have prompted the council to investigate what more it can do to curb illegal felling. Councillor Simon Lennon said he spoke to a group of about 50 Killara residents who had complained about the destruction of a grove of beautiful, very tall, very healthy trees last year on private land but visible to the neighbourhood. John David Chia was fined $40,000 for instructing arborists to remove 74 trees surrounding his Roseville property. Credit:Google Earth Studio They are very angry and very distraught, Lennon said. Theyre people who follow the law and theyre understandably distraught when other people appear not to. Lennon said he couldnt give more details about the incident as the councils lawyers were investigating the razing of the trees and considering prosecution. Pharmacists and GPs say action needs to be taken on the wastage of COVID-19 vaccines, as thousands of doses expire amid dwindling numbers of people getting boosters and children being vaccinated. The federal Department of Health estimated that there were more than 13 million COVID-19 vaccines on hand at sites across Australia, including 11.5 million at pharmacies and GPs. The figure factors in a wastage rate of roughly 10 per cent. GPs and pharmacists are calling for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in Australia to be donated or for booster eligibility to be expanded. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen About 300,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses are administered every week. Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey said he had contacted the department to ask that the eligibility criteria for winter booster doses be expanded so that vials would not be left to expire. Moorabbin Airport has been accused of squeezing out aviation users and degrading its capacity as a working aerodrome in favour of commercial development. Federal Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce took the unusual step last month of rejecting property giant Goodman Groups plans to bulldoze aircraft hangars to make way for commercial sheds at the south-east Melbourne airport following uproar from pilots, aviation operators and the City of Kingston council. Rob Simpson, owner of Simpson Aeroelectrics, at Moorabbin Airport. Credit:Simon Schluter However, airport users, including pilot schools, charter operators and aircraft maintenance firms, fear the decision is only a temporary respite from Goodmans efforts to sideline them. Theyre a property development company with an airport problem, said Rob Simpson, who owns maintenance provider Simpson Aeroelectrics and is president of the Moorabbin Airport Chamber of Commerce. The long-term risk here is that they squeeze us that hard until there is nothing left. The biggest private investor in Western Australias power system wants the state government to be clearer about when coal-fired power stations in Collie will shut down, to give the market time to respond and keep the lights on. Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery said the retirement of coal-fired power was necessary but needed to be done in an orderly fashion that allowed time for controlling the price, maintaining reliability and reducing emissions. Yandin wind farm, WAs largest, is operated and part-owned by Alinta Energy. Credit:Erin Jonasson Alinta owns the large Loy Yang B coal-fired power station in Victorias Latrobe Valley but in WA has invested in wind and gas-fired power. When Engies Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley closed with little notice in 2017 the east coasts power system, the National Electricity Market, was thrown into chaos. A medical worker prepares an artificial limb at the Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in Gaza City, March 27, 2022. The hospital is considered the only one in Gaza specializing in electric upper limb production and fitting. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) by Sanaa Kamal GAZA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Ibrahim Haboob, a doctor from Gaza who lost his left hand in an accident 21 years ago, has finally fitted with a bionic hand. "I am so happy that I was finally able to use my hand, open it, close it, and hold all kinds of things without feeling embarrassed," Haboob told Xinhua during his hospital visit for prosthetic rehabilitation. "It is not easy for anyone to accept his disability, especially if that person deals with people on a daily basis the way I do," said the physician in dermatology, also a father of four. "I felt that something was missing, and there were pity looks from around, so I fitted with a cosmetic prosthetic hand," he recalled. Haboob is among the 40 recipients of upper-limb prostheses from the Qatar-sponsored Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in Gaza, which was established in late 2019. "For weeks, patients were trained on how to use their new bionic hands," said Ahmed al-Absi, head of the hospital's artificial limbs department. The prosthesis was custom-built to fit the residual limb and was connected with the user's brain through sensors that detect muscles' electrical signals and translate those signals into movement, according to the doctor. At the clinic's reception, some patients pick up a plastic disposable cup with their bionic hands and take water from a dispenser without squeezing the flimsy cup out of shape. "I use it for everything ... eating, drinking, and many other daily tasks," said Fatima al-Nimr, another bionic hand recipient who lost her left hand to a traffic accident eight years ago. "I had been thrown into many embarrassing situations, especially when I need to use both hands," recalled the 31-year-old woman from Gaza. "We are working to provide an integrated treatment circuit for people who need prosthetic limbs, which is divided into three stages: psychological and physical rehabilitation of the patient, the production of the limb, and its installment," al-Absi explained. In Gaza, there are about 49,000 persons with disabilities, or 2.4 percent of the total population, according to official statistics. The hospital, which is considered the only one in Gaza specializing in electric upper limb production and fitting, hopes to exempt more of the local disabled population from traveling abroad for treatments, according to al-Absi. A medical worker prepares an artificial limb at the Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in Gaza City, March 27, 2022. The hospital is considered the only one in Gaza specializing in electric upper limb production and fitting. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Embattled Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves has declared she is not going anywhere and lashed her critics for vile bullying after more of her inflammatory comments on transgender issues were unearthed and Liberals lobbied privately to dump her. My opponents, parts of the left media and twittersphere have been unrelenting in calling for me to be disendorsed because of past statements, she wrote in an email to party members on Monday evening which was obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. I have been bullied in the most vile way and received death threats. Im not going anywhere, as the prime minister said yesterday. Katherine Deves hid from journalists by being driven straight into a garage for a party fundraiser on Monday. Credit:James Alcock On Monday, Deves attended a $65-a-head fundraiser at the Mosman home of Liberal Party member Michelle Verbloot, where she went to extraordinary lengths to hide from the Herald and The Ages reporter and photographer. Three cars were moved from the homes driveway so Deves could be driven straight into the garage; she remained in the vehicles back seat until the roller door was closed. NSW Liberal Party vice-president Mary-Lou Jarvis attended the fundraiser but declined to comment. Labor will launch a sweeping review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in a pledge to make the $30.8 billion system deliver better services to more than 500,000 people if it forms government, warning that money is being wasted while Australians are denied help. The overhaul would begin with a review of excessive contracts with consultants including lawyers who are making crucial decisions about service plans for vulnerable Australians, holding out the promise of a streamlined service for people in need. Federal Labor will on Tuesday promise a review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Credit: Louie Douvis Labor disability services spokesman Bill Shorten will unveil the plan on Tuesday with a promise to bring forward a review meant to be conducted by the Productivity Commission next year and to ensure Australians with a disability are given a voice in the inquiry. It should have the rigour of a Productivity Commission review but the voice of people with a disability in the design of it, so we will talk to the disability sector before we set it up, he said. Liquor licensing in NSW will be scrutinised to expose links between access to alcohol and domestic violence, with the states regulator shifting its gaze to areas with high saturations of bottle shops. The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has for the first time commissioned research investigating the impact of alcohol availability on domestic violence and assault in NSW. Authority chair Philip Crawford said the research will test whether historic links between pubs and alcohol-related violence have left the regulator blind to more pernicious domestic violence fuelled by consumption in the home. The NSW regulator will investigate links between alcohol availability and domestic violence and assault over time. Credit:James Davies The eight-month project by La Trobe University, examining a seven-year period, will explore how many liquor licences can be granted to venues and stores in an area before crime rates start to climb. Victorias triple-zero call service was blindsided by the Omicron emergency after wrongly assuming that COVID-19 infections would keep falling after the Delta wave. A two-page document released to The Age after a freedom-of-information request shows the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) had to upgrade its expectations at the last minute to handle record call numbers after failing to prepare for the highly contagious variant. Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes and ESTA interim CEO Stephen Leane speak to the media in March. Credit:Chris Hopkins As The Age previously reported, people had died in the preceding months waiting for the understaffed triple-zero service to answer their calls. ESTA forecast demand for the month of January in November, basing its preparations on the belief COVID-19 infections were falling at the end of the Delta wave. The forecast designed to roster call-takers and prepare for a spike in demand was refined in early December. Many others, however, have continued their work, including those in the South of France sending invoices to the company that controls Sechins yacht. La Ciotat Shipyards is still writing out invoices for mooring fees, for instance, though a company spokesman said they didnt know who would pay the bill. Authorities are thought to have not told suppliers about the vessels legal status. Loading Sechins yacht had been undergoing refurbishment by yacht company MB92 when it was impounded. Asked about who would pay for the work, a spokesman for MB92 told Reuters: We are still waiting for formal notification from customs that will clarify the official status of the vessel. Benjamin Maltby, a shipping lawyer at Keystone Law, says the owners are still on the hook for these sorts of bills. Ownership hasnt been transferred, only possession. The yachts are said to be beneficially owned by people who have been sanctioned, so they are unable to pay their bills, he says. It is not only crew or refurbishment that must be paid for, but a number of services that are essential to keep the yachts in good condition. Maltby explains that someone is needed to occasionally run the yachts equipment, to make sure it doesnt fall into disrepair. The ships are barred from moving to a new port but will need to be run out of the harbour to test their engines. He says: Yachts need very intensive maintenance. They need to be washed down on a daily basis. The yachts are kept scrupulously clean, and they are taken out of the harbour quite regularly so that the machinery like the engines and the air conditioning units are all run up to normal operating temperatures. If those technical systems arent used, then they will break down. Ultimately, the authorities cant allow the yachts to completely disintegrate as they could pose an environmental risk. Loading It would be completely irresponsible to not maintain the yachts. If you dont look after a boat properly, the metals that come into contact with the water will be eaten away. And this would take some time but eventually the boat will sink. This is obviously a massive pollution risk because they are holding tons of fuel, Maltby says. A sanctioned oligarch, however, is unable to pay for the services required to maintain their vessels even if they wanted to. What happens next likely lies in the hands of the court. With the companies piling up debts, the suppliers could apply to a court to demand payment. In the world of yachting, demanding payment from a company is called an arrest any sale could be for a fraction of a yachts value. Its similar to the winding-up of a company, says Maltby. If you arrest a vessel because youve supplied goods to the owner who hasnt paid, and security isnt put up for payment, you can ask the court to seize and sell the yacht. And you will benefit from the proceeds after the court fees and legal fees have all been paid off. Generally, the yacht would be auctioned, or there would be a sealed bid tender process and you would get your money back. But the yacht itself would not achieve anything like its true market value. An auction of an oligarchs superyacht would no doubt garner huge attention. Ocean Independences Huerzeler says his clients would love to go to such a high-profile event for a cut-price deal on a valuable asset, but warns that any buyer is taking on huge risks such as potential legal battles years down the line if an oligarch tries to take their yacht back. A lot of our clients are hoping for an auction. People are very interested in buying these yachts and they are hoping they can get some good offers on the market, he says. Loading But Im personally very sceptical. There arent that many people who can and want to buy such a huge yacht. I dont see people popping up to buy an asset with such an extreme running cost as well. And they will want proof of ownership who is going to feel safe buying that yacht? He added: We are not giving up any of our territories. Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine. Credit:AP A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after levelling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. But Aofficials quoted by The New York Times did not see the offensive as being full-scale, and were well short of the anticipated large-scale offensive. According to the Times, Defence Department spokesman John Kirby said, We still consider what were seeing to be a piece of shaping operations, that the Russians are continuing to set the conditions for what they believe will be eventual success on the ground by putting in more forces, putting in more enablers, putting in more command and control capability for operations yet to come. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the regions governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometres from Poland, a NATO member. A worker walks through what remains of the premises he worked at after it was hit by a Russian missile in Lviv. Credit:Joe Raedle/Getty Images Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some TV presenters have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Members of the Ukrainian military walk amid debris after a shopping centre and surrounding buildings were hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv on Saturday. Credit:Getty Images Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the previous 24 hours, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. General Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. Damaged and burnt vehicles are seen at a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, as smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal during heavy fighting. Credit:AP A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagons assessments of the war, said there were now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. Loading The official also said that four US cargo flights had arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of an $US800 million ($1 billion) package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on US 155-mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The two volume set of Ukraines answers to the European Union questionnaire on Ukraines application to join the EU handed over by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. Credit:UPPO/AP The US defence official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. Loading In other developments, Zelensky submitted a filled-out two-book questionnaire to Matti Maasikas, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, in Kyiv, on Monday, in the first step towards obtaining membership in the European Union a desire that has been a source of tension with Moscow for years. And so, in April 2015, one day before his 26th birthday, Turcich left the home he shared with his sister and mother, armed only with a sleeping bag, an extra pair of shoes and a few essential items. Tom Turcichs dog fell ill in South America. Its been an epic adventure ever since, he says, filled with highs, lows and extraordinary challenges. The pair were held up at knifepoint in Panama; survived the heat and humidity of the unforgiving jungle in Costa Rica; and attended the wedding of strangers in Uzbekistan. They ended up stuck for months under COVID lockdown in Azerbaijan, beholden to a virus that also derailed Turcichs plans to visit Australia due to the countrys strict border closures. And they savoured every day - even the moments when Turcichs body almost failed him. The height of the adventure was when we were crossing the Andes, and Sav and I did this very, very difficult first day of walking, he says, as he re-lights a cigar that one of the locals in Ohio had come out to give him after learning that the pair were passing by. Tom Turcich camping on his journey. I was exhausted, and we were 20 miles from an Argentine border town, and as I started pushing our cart, my legs just gave out on me and I collapsed and fell in the sand. But it was this beautiful moment where Im just laying there, looking at this incredible landscape, and Savannah comes and sits next to me. Instead of panicking, I was able to take in just how far wed come - and how far Id pushed myself. Turcich started his journey solo, in a scene reminiscent of Tom Hanks fictitious character, Forrest Gump, who decided to go for a little run after losing his friend (and greatest love) Jenny, only to end up crisscrossing North America on a three-year adventure. The pair had a sponsor to help fund the early stages of their travels, before starting a Patreon to source more money for the trip when they got to Europe. Savannah arrived about four months into the journey, after Turcich found himself struggling to sleep as he camped out on his own, often waking up multiple times a night to the sounds of strange noises in the distance. Tom, in the background on the left, and his dog Savannah. I just started thinking: man it would be nice to have a dog, so I could turn off that part of my brain, he says. So I got her from a shelter in Austin. Shed been found on the side of the highway with her sister, and was just a puppy at the time - probably about three or four months old - so this has been the only life she knows. There were, however, perilous moments along the way, like the time the pair made their way through Chiles Atacama - the driest desert in the world - and Savannah began sneezing blood. Unbeknown to Turcich, she had been bitten by a tick in Peru. Loading Fortunately, he was able to make his way to the closest road to wave down some motorists who took the pair to a nearby town. They spent a sleepless night together as Savannah kept bleeding, before Turcich was able to convince another stranger to take him to the nearest city the following day, where she received the veterinary treatment she needed to stay alive. I have so much respect for just how tough and stoic she is, he tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Whats the big fuss about Solomon Islands? Why is the most senior Indo-Pacific official in the entire US government making an urgent 14,000-kilometre trip this week to visit a fly-speck country with half the population of Adelaide and one tenth its economy? We know that the Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare intends to sign a new security agreement with China. A draft of the secret deal leaked three weeks ago. It specifies that China would be allowed to send security forces to Solomons at the request of the Solomons government. Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:SMH This was a matter of grave concern said New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the time. Scott Morrison said that it was indeed an issue of concern for the region. But, on Sunday, Australias Foreign Affairs Minister, Marise Payne, seemed to suggest that the problem had been solved. The ABCs David Speers asked her: Prime Minister Sogavare says he is still planning to go ahead with it, he says it wont involve a military base. Do you believe him? Westpac and ANZ have both lifted fixed rates again, as the cost of fixed-rate funding continues to surge. After increasing fixed rates on April 7, Westpac hiked its rates again for a second time in a week. While the majority of the changes from Australias second-largest lender were hikes, the bank has also trimmed its one-year fixed rates. ANZ, meanwhile, has hiked its one- to five-year fixed rates by up to 0.6 percentage points. RateCity.com.au compiled Westpac fixed rate changes for owner-occupiers: Rate type Old rate New rate Change 1-yr fixed 3.24% 2.79% -0.45% 2-yr fixed 3.49% 3.69% 0.2% 3-yr fixed 4.04% 4.19% 0.15% 4-yr fixed 4.29% 4.39% 0.1% 5-yr fixed 4.59% 4.59% 0% Note: Above rates are for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest on a package rate RateCity.com.au also compiled ANZ fixed rate changes for owner-occupiers: Rate type Old rate New rate Change 1-yr fixed 2.99% 3.29% 0.3% 2-yr fixed 3.39% 3.99% 0.6% 3-yr fixed 3.89% 4.39% 0.5% 4-yr fixed 4.29% 4.69% 0.4% 5-yr fixed 4.49% 4.89% 0.4% Note: Above rates are for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest. Sally Tindall, RateCity.com.au research director, said there was no clear end in sight for fixed rate hikes. The fixed rate hikes have picked up again in pace and severity, Tindall said. [The] increases from ANZ are in some cases up to 0.6 percentage points, while CBAs hikes were up to 0.9 percentage points. These arent minor adjustments from the big banks, theyre sizable hikes as markets price in higher funding costs. Tindall said that with the percentage of new fixed lending nosediving to 28%, these hikes are likely to continue to push more borrowers back to variable rates when their fixed term ends. The majority of big four bank rates now start with a four, she said. Its crazy to think that just 12 months ago, Australias three largest lenders were offering fixed-rate options starting with a one. NAB is now the only big four bank offering a three-year rate under 4%, however, its unlikely to last beyond the month. A farmer harvests strawberries at a field in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 11, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul provinces have always been close to the heart of the world's opium, and later heroin, trade. Poppy cultivation has been outlawed, but not for the first time. Almost every government in Afghanistan's war-torn history has tried to do the same. The perennial problems the country's leaders face are very few means of alternative ways of making a living in the undeveloped mountains, and that the profits of the trade are simply much more than are to be found in other, legal, pursuits. "Strawberries could be a suitable alternative to poppies if agriculture authority supports farmers," said agriculture official Mohammad Allah Nuri. Demand for strawberries is high and pretty constant, prompting farmers in Dand, Arghandab and Zhari districts to switch plantation. "We have planted more than 50 acres (of strawberries) over the past three years and the process is on the rise," Nuri said. "Farmers can harvest 150 kg of strawberries from one acre. At the local bazaar, strawberries sell for about 200 afghanis (2.5 U.S. dollars) per kg." Kandahar, which is already famous for growing pomegranate, apricot, peach and grape, growing and exporting strawberries would further earn popularity for the southern province. "I grow strawberries on five acres in Zhari," farmer Aziz Ahmad Ahmadi told Xinhua recently. "I earn up to 500,000 afghanis (about 5,688 U.S. dollars) from my land each year." The poppy ban will force the farmers to seek alternatives, and the provincial directorate for agriculture will provide support, said Nuri, adding that some farmers in Kandahar have also switched to beekeeping and honey production. Farmers harvest strawberries at a field in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 11, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua) A farmer shows freshly-picked strawberries at a field in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 11, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua) Farmers show freshly-picked strawberries at a field in Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 11, 2022. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua) major Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, on Monday signed a deal with Wheels Ltd (MFCWL) to launch an exclusive hybrid ecosystem for its used business. The phygital (physical plus digital) platform will facilitate an exchange and proper disposal and purchase of old commercial vehicles. With the entry into this segment, aims to streamline the used vehicle market by leveraging its digital ecosystem, its existing and potential channel partners for physical interactions in over 700 parking yards spread across the country, and other advanced technologies. Through effective and efficient processes, the company will bring in more transparency into this space thereby increasing options to reduce the number of old vehicles plying across the roadways of India, a statement said on Monday. The customers will also have access to other value added services like iALERT telematics solution, Driver SAATHi skilling solution, valuation, breakdown services and fuel solutions through various digital solutions offered by . It is a great moment for us on this association of AL with MFCW to provide larger option of our customers with combined strength of our knowledge in CV and MFCW strength on the yards, digital ecosystem. We believe this relationship will provide enhanced value to our customers, said Sanjeev Kumar, Head -- MHCV, . Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kalyankumar Sidram Hatti, Head UV Business, said, We are glad to associate with MFCW in this new initiative of providing greater value to the customer as one step solution be it disposal. Exchange or hybrid (mix of both). This initiative is another step of Ashok Leyland in strong belief of collaboration, innovation, combined strength of physical & digital presence in the spirit of Aapki Jeet. Hamari Jeet.. Its our pleasure to collaborate with Ashok Leyland to expand their pre-owned vehicles business. eDiiG is the largest used vehicle auction platform and we are glad all leading OEMs see great value in partnering with us, said Ashutosh Pandey, chief executive officer, MFCWL Pre-owned or re-purposed vehicles sector is experiencing exponential and consistent growth since the beginning of the pandemic due to the increase in the waiting period for vehicles and financial challenges. Through facilities like exchange, disposal, hybrid, and special vehicle inspection, the platform aims to become the first choice amongst the customers considering an exchange of their vehicles. This will create an opportunity for Ashok Leyland to reach as many fleet and single truck owners across India, as possible, the statement added. from India increased 43 per cent in FY22, with India leading the segment with dispatches of over 2.3 lakh units, as per the latest data by industry body SIAM. The total passenger vehicle (PV) exports stood at 5,77,875 units in 2021-22 fiscal, as compared to 4,04,397 units in 2020-21. Passenger car shipments saw 42 per cent growth at 3,74,986 units, while utility vehicle exports rose 46 per cent at 2,01,036 units during the last fiscal, the data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Exports of vans rose to 1,853 units in 2021-22 fiscal, from 1,648 units in the 2020-21 fiscal year. India (MSI) led the vertical last fiscal, followed by Hyundai Motor India and Kia India at second and third positions, respectively. MSI, the country's largest carmaker, exported 2,35,670 PVs last fiscal, an over two-fold increase, as compared to 94,938 units in the 2020-21 fiscal year. MSI's top PV export markets include Latin America, ASEAN, Africa, the Middle East and neighbouring regions, while its top five export models comprise Baleno, Dzire, Swift, S-Presso and Brezza. MSI Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi noted that the company's exports increased on the back of robust demand as well as better availability of semiconductors for export oriented units. "Our total production for the domestic market was restricted because of the semiconductors shortage. Fortunately, we could get more semiconductors for (units meant for) the export market," he noted. Elaborating further, MSI Executive Director Corporate Affairs Rahul Bharti told PTI that over the years, the carmaker has developed a healthy export market globally. "In the past two years, there was a renewed effort to make a quantum increase in our exports... We increased our product offerings, our sales and service network reach and adopted innovative ideas to go closer to the customer," he noted. The Suzuki - Toyota alliance was also helpful in increasing customer reach, Bharti said. Hyundai Motor India's foreign dispatches stood at 1,29,260 units during the last fiscal, up 24 per cent from 1,04,342 from 2020-21. Similarly, Kia India exported 50,864 units across global markets in the period under review, as compared to 40,458 units in 2020-21. Volkswagen India exported 43,033 units in FY22, as compared to 31,089 units in FY 21. Renault India shipped 24,117 units last fiscal, while Honda Cars chipped in with 19,323 units. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For Vipluv, 24, a job offer from the leading company BYJU's was like a dream come true. He, along with four-five of his friends, joined Byju's as Business Development Trainee-Sales in February this year for a monthly stipend of about Rs 15,000. After a six-week training, he was promised Rs 45,000 as salary at a location of his choice -- which was Agra or Noida in his case, as he had relatives there to support him on his first stint out of his home-town. To his shock, after the training period was over, he was asked by the HR team to join Lucknow as his next location, on a salary of just Rs 25,000. "I decided to quit as it was impossible for me to survive in Lucknow at Rs 25,000. Neither the location or the salary that was promised to me were agreed to. All of my friends resigned as none wanted to go to the locations where they had to struggle to survive," Vipluv told IANS. As India reopens amid 'hybrid normal' and schools and colleges return to normal, platforms see a significant dip in the demand for and some of such firms have either shut shops or fired employees in recent days. BYJU's is also facing the heat to keep up with the changing times. Reliable industry sources told IANS that its global expansion plans have not yet reached the scale it had planned. Most notable startup under its umbrella that is facing trouble is online coding platform WhiteHat Jr, bought in July 2020 for $300 million. With WhiteHat Jr, BYJU's aimed to take coding to the world from India, hiring teachers on contractual-basis. The fact is that the platform earned just Rs 12.34 crore and Rs 11.07 crore from its Australia and UK markets, respectively. WhiteHat Jr posted a massive Rs 1,690 crore loss in the financial year 2021, while generating an operating revenue of Rs 484 crore in the same period. The platform's losses skyrocketed in FY21 and its expenses reached Rs 2,175 crore -- compared to Rs 69.7 crore in FY20. Sources close to the company told IANS that WhiteHat Jr has asked its nearly 3,000 sales and support employees to report to either Mumbai or Gurugram (out of its 5,000-strong workforce that includes teachers which are on contractual-basis hence not full-time employees), from April 18. It has also shut its schools division that last year targeted to take its flagship coding curriculum to 10 lakh school students by the next academic year. WhiteHat Jr's also forayed into teaching music online, offering Guitar and Piano. It later launched a specially-curated course to offer immersive learning opportunities for music aspirants across all age groups. However, this move has also yielded no fruitful results to date, said sources. In a statement, a WhiteHat Jr spokesperson told IANS that as part of its back-to work drive, "most of our Sales and Support employees have been asked to report to Gurugram and Mumbai offices from April 18." "Our teachers will continue to work from home. We understand that some of our employees may voluntarily choose not to return to work, in Gurugram and Mumbai. In such cases, the employees are advised to get in touch with HR for next steps," the company added. Sensing the changing education landscape, BYJU'S recently launched 80 physical tuition centres and plans to increase it to 500 in 200 cities by 2022, providing employment to around 10,000 people, including teachers. BYJU's has always been on an acquisition spree. It has acquired several heavyweights, like Aakash Educational Services Ltd and Great Learning. In July 2021, it acquired Epic! for $500 million; US-based Osmo for $120 million in January 2019 and in July 2017, it acquired TutorVista, Edurite from Pearson. Last month, it announced a new partnership with QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, to launch a new business and state-of-the-art research centre in Doha. According to the company, the future of education will bring the best of the online and offline world together. "Learning eventually will combine asynchronous online elements with synchronous elements. For us, India will continue to be a major focal point, as we go deeper into the country to create value in our learners' lives," a company's spokesperson told IANS. "We have and will continue to grow through both organic and inorganic routes. Overall, our products are global, localised to every country and personalised to every learner," the spokesperson noted. However, the winds of change in the edtech space are set to affect the edtech giant too. Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, has reportedly financed his recent $400 million investment in the company through a debt he raised from multiple international banks, as the edtech giant plans for an IPO. It is a rare gesture to see a founder invest in a startup that is about to file for an IPO. The stark truth is that the lay-off season has begun in the Indian startup ecosystem. Edtech platform Unacademy recently laid off nearly 600 employees, contractual workers and educators -- about 10 per cent of its 6,000-strong workforce across the group. In a nightmare for nearly 1,000 employees, homegrown edtech startup Lido Learning which is backed by top entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, apparently shut operations in February, forcing its workforce to seek help via social media platforms. How far can BYJU's avoid a strong headwind in the online education space? Time will tell us shortly. (Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has taken over the probe into the case of coins worth Rs 11 crore going missing from the vaults of the branch in Mehandipur Balaji in Rajasthan, officials said on Monday. State Bank of India (SBI) had approached the Rajasthan High Court seeking a probe into the matter as the missing amount was higher than Rs 3 crore, the threshold for seeking a probe by the agency. On the high court's directions, the has taken over the FIR earlier registered by the Rajasthan Police. The matter came to light after the branch decided to carry out counting of money after a preliminary enquiry indicated discrepancy in the cash reserve at the bank. A Jaipiur-based private vendor was roped in to carry out the counting of coins worth over Rs 13 crore, according to branch account books. The counting revealed that over Rs 11 crore worth of coins were missing from the branch. Only 3,000 coin bags carrying about Rs 2 crore could be accounted for and were transferred to the RBI's coin holding branch. It is also alleged that the employees of the private vendor who was doing the counting were threatened in the night on August 10, 2021 at the guesthouse where they were staying and were asked to refrain from the counting, the FIR has alleged. (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 (ED) on Monday attached assets worth Rs 758 crore belonging to direct selling company Enterprises Pvt. This is in connection with a probe by the agency which revealed that Amway is running a pyramid fraud in the guise of direct selling multi-level marketing network, ED stated on Monday. It added that the company accused of running a multi-level marketing scam. According to the agency, the company has collected an amount of Rs 27,562 crore from its business operations between 2002-03 and 2021-22. Of this, it paid commission of Rs 7,588 crore to its distributors and members in India and in the US during during this period. The attached properties include land and factory building of Amway at Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu, along with plant & machinery, vehicles, bank accounts and fixed deposits. ED had provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs 411.83 Crore and bank balances of Rs 345.94 crore from 36 different accounts belonging to Amway. Probe revealed that Amway has brought Rs 21.39 crore as share capital in India between 1996-97 and 2020-21, the company has remitted a sum of Rs 2,859.10 crore as dividend, royalty and other payments to its investors and parent entities. Britt Worldwide India Pvt Lts and Network Twenty One Pvt Ltd have also come under the agency's lens. They provide training services and products to Amway. They played a major role in promoting the pyramid scheme of Amway by conducting seminars for joining members under the guise of sale of goods by enrolment of members in the chain system. The promoters are conducting mega conventions and flaunted their lavish lifestyle and used social media to lure gullible investors," ED said. ED further observed that that the prices of most of the products offered by the Amway are exorbitant as compared to alternative popular products of reputed manufacturers available in the open market. The new members are not buying the products to use them, but to become rich by becoming members as showcased by the upline members. The reality is that the commissions received by the upline members contribute enormously in hiking the prices of products," ED pointed out. Amway's entire focus is about propagating how members can become rich by becoming members, it said. UrbanPiper, a one-stop restaurant management platform, said that it has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global, and new investors and . A slew of reputed angel investors also participated in the funding round including Pankaj Chaddah (Shyft), Ankit Nagori (Curefoods), Saahil Goel and Vishesh Khurana (Shiprocket), Khadim Bhatti and Vara Kumar (Whatfix). The company plans to use the funds raised to scale its product and engineering teams, strengthen its platform capabilities, as well as broaden its offerings to enable more services to restaurants. The new-age restaurant management platform is already live in over 27,000 restaurant locations across eight countries, including India and West Asia. It currently processes 14 million orders per month, which equates to approximately $750 million of estimated order value annually. UrbanPiper plans to launch in more regions across India, MENA and EU with the aim of onboarding over 200,000 restaurant locations on the platform in the next two years. The restaurant industry is growing at an exponential rate, offering us a huge opportunity to create value and shape the next generation of restaurant businesses. With this investment, we will continue to widen UrbanPipers offerings to meet many more digital opportunities in the restaurant ecosystem, along with bolstering our platform capabilities, said Saurabh Gupta, CEO, UrbanPiper. We are grateful to see both and come together and participate in this round; a huge validation that what we are building is adding a lot of value to the food ecosystem. The company, which has ove 150 employees in India, plans to increase its headcount in the country to 250 in the next year. A B2B software platform, UrbanPiper aims to become a single window to help restaurants run their entire operations. It aims to bring a suite of digital offerings together to ensure all the commerce workflows for a restaurant can happen seamlessly in a simple and intuitive way. Owing to its scalability and reliability, UrbanPiper counts several marquee restaurant chains such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, Cure Foods, Taco Bell and Rebel Foods among its user base. It currently processes over 18 per cent of all online food orders placed each month in India, and has achieved 10X growth over the past two years. Founded by Saurabh Gupta, Anirban Majumdar, and Manav Gupta in Bengaluru, UrbanPiper is building a full-stack restaurant management platform that helps restaurants operate and scale their businesses with minimal hassle. Currently, a restaurant signs up with an average of 6-10 different online channels/aggregators making it challenging to manage multiple tablets/dashboards. Through UrbanPiper, restaurants can integrate all these aggregators onto a single dashboard and connect it with their points of sale resulting in a 70 percent decrease in order failure. "UrbanPiper is one of our key partners enabling us to seamlessly engage with restaurants and scale faster through their point-of-sale solutions, said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, . Addressing specific needs, the team has always found ways to bridge gaps by creating a win-win for both restaurants and Swiggy. We are excited about the market potential and look forward to scaling our partner network with their continued support. Another investor, Shraeyansh Thakur, Principal, Sequoia India, said the restaurant ecosystem is evolving rapidly with changing consumer needs. Due to pandemic-led disruptions, merchants now increasingly want to adopt digital channels and upgrade their operations. UrbanPiper is at the forefront of this digital transformation and is strategically positioned to build infrastructure connecting digital players to merchants in the F&B ecosystem, said Thakur. Sequoia Capital India is excited to deepen the partnership with the UrbanPiper team as they build further on their mission to empower restaurants globally, and welcome and Swiggy to this partnership. Foodtech giants such as Swiggy and Zomato which have raised huge funding rounds recently are making acquisitions and forming strategic partnerships to tap the opportunities thrown by Indian food market which is expected to double to around $344 billion by the year 2025. This month Bike taxi platform Rapido, raised $180 million in its latest Series D round. Led by new investor Swiggy, the round also saw investment from TVS Motor Company, along with existing investors, Westbridge, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Ventures, partaking in the fundraise. The company's valuation after the fundraise was $830 million. Last month, Zomato Ltd was set to take control of Blinkit after the food aggregator extended a $150 million emergency loan facility to the quick commerce startup, in a transaction that valued Blinkit between $700 million and $800 million. In an interview, Saurabh Gupta, CEO, UrbanPiper, said that he was already in touch with Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal. We were closing the Series B funding round with our current investors. We felt if there is an opportunity to work closely with the partners (like Swiggy and Zomato), who also feel that there is a value that we are adding to the ecosystem, it might be interesting to (bring them on board). However, both Swiggy and Zomato which compete with each other wanted to know if the other company is going to invest in UrbanPiper or not. From day one, we were very clear, if one of the (Swiggy or Zomato) is not interested to invest in UrbanPiper and then we will not do the deal with any one of them, said Gupta. The idea is to create a better ecosystem for each other to grow. The government is considering a proposal to have a regulator for the so-called skill gaming industry, following concerns about money laundering. The industry is in support of any such move, claiming it would remove uncertainty around the sector and also boost investments, while safeguarding player interests. While the government is exploring options for regulating such entities, it is of the view that the responsibility should not be given to any financial sector regulator because the job may not fit its core competency, according to people in the know. Confirming such talks, ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor More than 1.67 lakh were incorporated in the country in the last financial year compared to 1.55 lakh new registered in the year-ago period, according to the (MCA). In a statement on Monday, the ministry said the increase is significant considering that number of incorporated during the financial year 2020-21 was the highest in any of the previous years. "The incorporations during FY 2021-22 are 8 per cent more than the incorporations during FY 2020-21. While MCA had registered 1.24 lakh companies during FY 2018-19 and 1.22 lakh companies in 2019-20, respectively, it had registered 1.55 lakh companies during FY 2020-21," it said. The ministry, which is implementing the Companies Act, 2013, among other legislations, has been taking various initiatives in efforts to reduce procedures and save time as well as cost in terms of starting a business in the country. In the last financial year, the maximum number of companies were incorporated in the business services (44,168) segment, followed by manufacturing (34,640), community, personal & social services (23,416), and agriculture & allied activities (13,387). The states having the highest number of registrations were Maharashtra (31,107 companies) followed by Uttar Pradesh (16,969), Delhi (16,323), Karnataka (13,403) and Tamil Nadu (11,020). (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.) JOHANNESBURG, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 443 people have died as a result of rains in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province last week while 63 persons were missing, a local official said on Sunday. "The past days have been focused on immediate rescue missions and efforts aimed at saving lives and surveying the damage. While this still continues as a priority, the work to lift the province out of this rubble is intensifying," Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Premier Sihle Zikalala told media. Zikalala said South African police and national defence forces have deployed pilots and crews to help with the rescue operations. A number of areas experienced water disruptions while most areas experienced electricity disruptions, Zikalala said, adding a total of 8,329 houses were partially damaged, 3,937 completely destroyed, and 13,556 households affected. He said that the flood was among the worst catastrophes in the province so far. "The loss of life, destruction of homes, the damage to the physical infrastructure, the demolition of public buildings, and the consequent damage to services combined to make this natural disaster one of the worst ever in the recorded history of our province," Zikalala said. Ltd.s chief executive officer says the company can navigate its way through any immediate disruptions to the global economy and tap into long-term demand for its services as its seeks to reach $50 billion in sales by the end of the decade. TCS, the largest player in Indias $227 billion tech services industry, must deal with a host of challenges, from Covid outbreaks in China that are disrupting supply chains to the war in Ukraine as it upends the geopolitics of Europe. The company also provides tech services and support to thousands of in the U.S. and beyond that are adopting hybrid labor strategies, with employees working both from home and the office. The long-term demand environment is very strong, Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Gopinathan told Bloomberg in an interview at headquarters in Mumbai. Were leaning forward, were betting on growth. Gopinathan, a soft-spoken veteran who joined the company two decades ago and often wears blue formal shirts, is known to be good with numbers and fostering client relationships. Indias outsourcing industry was built on helping replacing their own pricey technology workers with lower cost -- and typically higher skilled -- specialists from the likes of TCS, Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. But easy growth from labor arbitrage has largely disappeared, forcing Gopinathan and his peers to move into more sophisticated offerings, such as cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. ALSO READ: Operating profit margins of TCS, Infosys decline to two-decade low last month revamped its internal structure with specialized groups as part of a wider move to win business from startups as well as large global enterprises. That overhaul, Gopinathan said, was executed in less than a month. We are extremely agile in the way we reorganize, he said. We are more micro-focused on the customer sets that we have and the opportunities we have. TCS is Asias top outsourcer and a cornerstone of Tata Group, the Indian conglomerate with dozens of in everything from salt to automobiles. The tech services company closed out its fiscal year ending in March with revenue of more than $25 billion. Rising labor costs are a challenge. Last week, TCS reported a 7.4% increase in fourth-quarter profit to Rs 9,930 crore ($1.3 billion), short of analyst estimates, as expenses to hire and retain talent cut into margins. Startups are beginning to compete with giants like TCS for the programmers and developers needed to run their businesses. Some of the newcomers are luring talent with the likes of BMW motorcycles or three-day work week -- something the much-larger outsourcers have resisted. TCS employs nearly 600,000 people and aims to hire more than 40,000 graduates in the fiscal year through March 2023. Gopinathan calls the current scramble for employees transitory and argues that, ultimately, nobody will be able to pay more for talent than TCS because it enjoys the highest structural margins. If you look at this industry, we enjoy the benefit of occupying the high point on the profitability side; everybody else is benchmarked below us, he said. So, no, I dont see a threat to our position. Gopinathan, chief financial officer before his promotion, said he does get questions about why TCS is determined to hire and expand, given the apparent challenges in the global economy. Im getting a lot of debate that everybody else is saying the outlook is bad --how come you are positive? We are reacting to whats there he said. That is not to say that we are living in a bubble, he added. We are betting on that growth knowing that even if we turn out to be wrong, we will then step back and reset. Quick commerce delivery partner Zepto has begun a pilot for 10-minute delivery of snacks, saying it is not getting into food delivery. "We launched the Zepto Cafe format as a pilot a few weeks ago, and we've seen an incredible response from customers. We're going to continue tweaking the model for quite some time so we can perfect the customer experience and unit economics before scaling," said Aadit Palicha, chief executive officer and cofounder of Zepto. "Let me clarify that we are not doing food delivery. This is a Cafe format, with ready-to-drink coffee, chai, and packaged snacks (like biscuits and sandwiches). We don't want to get distracted from our core business by building a complex supply chain for food delivery, where it's difficult to control quality," he said in a statement. Zepto, which was founded by Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in 2020, last year raised $60 million at $255 million valuation last year from investors. Zepto, to stand out in the food technology market, focuses on 10-minute grocery deliveries stored in dark stores within kilometres of their destination. Palicha defended the 10 -minute model that Zepto has created in the grocery delivery segment saying that it is not risky for delivery agent. In response to a tweet by entrepreneur Anand Mahindra asking how delivery partners will be treated, Palicha said: "The avg [average] distance of a Zepto delivery is 1.8 km. To travel 1.8 km in 10 minutes, one has to drive at <15 kmph. Thats why Zepto has 3.1x lower accidents on avg [average] compared to a regular biker on the road." Zepto will compete with Zomato, which recently said that it has started a pilot of 10-minute food delivery in Gurugram in Haryana. A 30-year-old man who went missing during in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone city has become the first fatality of violence but his death has raised allegations of cover-up, with the kin of the deceased accusing the police of keeping his death under wraps for eight days. The body of Ibresh Khan was kept at a government hospital in Indore for eight days after it was found in Khargone's Anand Nagar area as the freezer facility was not available in Khargone, police said on Monday. A police officer said that Ibresh Khan died due to serious injuries to his head caused by stones. had broken out in Khargone city on April 10 during a Ram Navami procession, leading to arson and stone-pelting, leading to the clamping of curfew. Superintendent of Police Siddharth Choudhary had received a bullet injury during the violence. "An unidentified body was found the next day (April 11) of communal violence in the Anand Nagar area of Khargone," In-charge Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohit Kashwani told reporters. He said since there was no freezer facility available in Khargone, the body was kept at the Indore government hospital after postmortem. Kashwani said the family members of Ibresh Khan registered a missing person complaint on April 14. "Ibresh Khan's body was handed over to his family members on Sunday after they identified him", he said, adding that further investigation is underway. Kashwani said that Ibresh Khan died due to serious injuries to his head caused by stones. However, kin of Ibresh Khan, a resident of the Islampura area, alleged cover-up by the police. Ibresh's brother Ikhlaq Khan claimed that the deceased was seen in the custody of the police by some people on April 12. He alleged that the police informed him about Ibresh's death and the whereabouts of his body only after he threatened to go to the media. Ikhlaq Khan alleged that Ibresh had gone to provide food for 'Iftar' (evening meal eaten by Muslims during Ramadan fasting) in the Anand Nagar area when he was hit by a stone. "The people in Anand Nagar attacked my brother with weapons and crushed his head with a stone," he alleged while speaking to reporters. Ikhlaq Khan also claimed that Ibresh Khan was seen in the custody of the police by some people on April 12 but these witnesses are not ready to depose. "A policeman came to me on Sunday night and told me that Ibresh's body is kept in Indore," he said. Ikhlaq Khan claimed that the condition of Ibresh's body indicates that he was brutally attacked. "While his one eye was broken there were cuts on his face and legs," he said. Ikhlaq Khan alleged that the police kept the family members in the dark about the whereabouts of his brother for eight days. "They didn't disclose the whereabouts of my brother even after registering a missing person complaint. The police informed me about my brother's body only after I threatened to go to the media," he claimed. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government of has faced the wrath of the Central government after it stopped providing daily updates on Covid-19 for the past four days. Once the numbers eventually became known, the country reported a 90 per cent increase in fresh cases and a 165 per cent increase in positivity rate during the past 24 hours. The Centre has now asked to update Covid numbers on a daily basis. The Union Health ministry told the state principal secretary Rajan Khobragade in a letter that the state reported numbers after a gap of four days (From April 14-17) on Monday, due to which Indias key monitoring indicators like cases, deaths and positivity were impacted. On Monday, added 914 new cases and 213 deaths, due to which Indias overall new cases spurted to 2,183, while deaths rose by 214. This was against 1,150 new cases and four deaths on Sunday. The last time Kerala had shared the numbers with the Centre was April 13, which according to the local media, followed a rapid fall in daily cases. The last time India saw over 2,000 cases was on March 19, when the tally hit 2,075. Quick and continuous update of data will assist in India's fight against Covid pandemic and will help not only in tracking and monitoring but will also help in defining the strategies and plans at the Centre, state and district levels, the letter written by Centre health department said. It was Kerala that reported the first Covid case in India on January 30, 2020, when a Thrissur-native student from China was diagnosed with Covid. Since then the state had been continuously reporting Covid cases on a daily basis. India's Active caseload currently stands at 11,542, with a recovery rate of 98.76 per cent. The daily positivity rate was seen at 0.83 per cent and weekly positivity Rate at 0.32 per cent. In the last 24 hours, 2,61,440 tests were conducted in the country. "Daily and diligent reporting of data is critical to arrive at a meaningful understanding of pandemic in districts, state and national level and ensure that any anomalies, surge or emerging trends can be captured in a timely manner. This is especially relevant as it is a highly infectious disease and also has an associated risk of emergence of new variants," the letter added. The rise in the number of cases in Delhi is also a cause of concern for the country as the national capital region contributed 517 fresh cases as compared to 461 cases on Sunday. Though several states had relaxed Covid restrictions, including the compulsory usage of masks, the sudden spike in cases have led to a cause of concern among many. An eight-member forensic team on Monday reached Jahangirpuri to collect samples in connection with the communal violence that occurred on Hanuman Jayanti in the capital. Besides taking photographs of the buildings from where the stones were pelted, the team will also collect forensic samples from the ground. The team is likely to furnish its report within a week. "It has reached the mosque where started. Staff posted with Jahangirpuri Police Station is accompanying and briefing it besides helping it collect evidence, " said a senior police official. On Saturday, the clashes broke out between the two groups when the Shobha Yatra procession was passing through the road just next to Kusal Cinema Hall, on the opposite side of which is a mosque. According to the FIR lodged at the Jahangirpuri police station, the procession was passing off peacefully, but at around 6 p.m., when it reached outside a mosque, the accused Anshar came there with his 4-5 associates and started arguing with the participants of the yatra. The argument soon turned violent and both the sides started pelting stones at each other. "I, Inspector Rajiv Ranjan Singh, tried to pacify the situation and separated the two groups, however, within some time, they again started pelting stones after which I informed the Police Control Room about the development," read the FIR. Soon after this, more police force reached the spot along with senior officials, however, by that time the mob had turned completely violent. The mob pelted stones on the police force and also fired shots at them. At least 8 policemen were injured.To contain the situation and disperse the crowd, the police fired 40-50 tear gas shells. Amid the pandemonium, one scooty was torched and 5-6 cars were vandalised. The police normalised the situation with the help of paramilitary forces and at around 8 p.m. in the evening the situation was under control, yet tense. Later, the area became the epicentre of the heavy police deployment, with the road, where the violent clashes took place, extensively barricaded from all sides. On Sunday, the situation was under control and an adequate number of police force was deployed there to avert any untoward incident. The police said that area domination, foot patrolling and deep deployment has been ensured to assure people and to maintain law and order in the area. Special Commissioner of Police, Dependra Pathak, said that the is currently on the top level of alertness. "Our priority is to curtail rumours," the senior police officer said while speaking to reporters. Meanwhile, the personnel of carried out preventive patrolling and area domination throughout the night in the backdrop of violent clashes. is also in talks with the members of the Aman committee. Court-monitored probe demanded A letter petition has been filed before the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana urging him to take suo motu cognizance of the Jahangirpuri in Delhi. Advocate Amritpal Singh Khalsa in a letter asked the to exercise its epistolary jurisdiction and constitute a committee headed by a sitting judge of the top court, to conduct an impartial probe into the . The letter stated that the "Delhi Police investigation so far, has been partial, communal and directly shielding perpetrators of the violence." The lawyer added that the role of the Delhi Police in the 2020 riots has belittled them and has weakened the faith of the people in them. The letter stated, "This court admonished Delhi Police in their failure to stop violence in 2020." This is the second time that riots have erupted in Delhi in two years, and on both occasions, members of the minority community are only to be blamed, he added. Of the 21 accused persons arrested in the case, 14 were produced before the Rohini court on Sunday, which sent two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to police custody for one day. The remaining were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Delhi Police Commissioner visit injured SI Delhi Police Commissioner on Sunday late night visited a sub-inspector's residence who sustained a bullet injury during the violence in Jahangirpuri, and assured him of full support from the department. Sub-Inspector Meda Lal of Jahangirpuri Police Station had suffered the injury during the violent clashes. Asthana enquired about Lal's well-being and said that the entire Force is proud of his courage displayed at the site of violence. One more accused has been arrested in connection with clashes that broke out in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests so far to 21. Two juveniles have also been apprehended in the connection with the incident that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and a civilian. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the district police are jointly probing the incident, said Ravindra Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. Four security personnel were injured after naxals opened fire on a camp in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, a senior official said on Monday. A group of naxals opened fire on the Jaigur camp situated under the Kutru station limits late Sunday night, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI. The rebels fled after the security forces retaliated, he added. Four jawans, three of them belonging to the district police and another from the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF), sustained injuries in the firing," the IG said. The injured personnel were shifted to the Bijapur district hospital and later two of them, Head Constables Tukeshwar Dhruv and Om Prakash Diwan Dhruv of the district police, were airlifted to Raipur for further treatment, he said, adding that all of them were stated to be out of danger. (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.) Maestro Ilayaraja's praise for Prime Minister and comparing him to Dr B R Ambedkar is witnessing both opposition and support in the social media while president JP Nadda has hit out at harsh criticism. The celebrated Tamil composer, in his foreword to a book 'Ambedkar & Modi, Reformer's Ideas, Performer's Implementation', by Bluekraft Digital Foundation, has made the comparison and lauded pro-women initiatives like the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao'. The criticism in social media since Saturday against Ilayaraja could be summed up as ideological, which claim that Modi cannot be compared to Ambedkar as the former is committed to Hindutva while the latter is a reformist leader who dedicated his entire life for the upliftment of the oppressed people. Supporters defend the praise for Modi saying the maestro has only pointed out a fact that both the Prime Minister and Ambedkar went on to succeed against all odds through sheer work and despite belonging to socially disempowered sections of society. Also, they say Ilayaraja commending Modi for schemes aimed at welfare of women, including a legislation against triple talaq, would have made Ambedkar proud. The war of words spilled over to the political arena with the coming out in full support to the renowned musician. Supporters of Left parties and pro-Tamil and Dalit outfits are among those who have opposed in social media Ilayaraja comparing Modi with Ambedkar. The ruling DMK said no one from the party has expressed any opinion on the maestro's comment on Modi. The DMK is also not inclined to spell out any view on the matter, said party MP and organising secretary R S Bharathi in a statement. Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai, on his twitter handle, posted a letter of his party chief Nadda to the people. In the letter, Nadda, in reference to Tamil Nadu and without naming Ilayaraja, says: "In Tamil Nadu, elements aligned to the ruling party in the State have left no stone unturned in verbally lynching, smearing and humiliating one of India's tallest music maestro just because he has views not palatable to one political party and their allies. Is this democratic? One can have different views and yet co-exist happily but why take to insults?" On BJP leader and Union Minister L Murugan's remark that Ilayaraja has the freedom of expression to praise Modi, the DMK said the Minister should understand that others with a different viewpoint have the same right to make criticisms. The DMK warned Murugan to not drag the DMK into the issue. Meanwhile, Ilayaraja's son Yuvan Raja (Yuvan Shankar Raja) in a Instagram post said he is a 'Dark Dravidian, Proud Tamizhan' seen by some people as a remark against the right wing. Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, in a tweet, said, "Music Celebrity iconic legend Thiru. @ilaiyaraaja is the pride of TamilNadu & India. His expression from bottom of his heart saying #Modifullfillsambedkardreams is Welcome. as it reflects million brilliant fair minds."BlueKraft Foundation, on its website, says "The book is a prism that reflects upon the multitude of contributions of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in the nation-building process. Many of his ideas and interventions continue to define our governance paradigm, especially with PM at the helm ensuring that his legacy is revived.""The book studies the points of intersection of India's development story under Prime Minister and the ideals of Babasaheb. It also highlights the striking parallels between the two towering personalities that succeeded against all odds and worked to dismantle stifling social structures that they themselves experienced from close quarters. (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 (CII) said that India has lost a visionary industry leader, as it expressed sadness at the demise of chairman N Sankar in Chennai on Sunday. In a statement issued on Monday, T V Narendran, President, CII, said, "India has lost one of its visionary industry leaders. N Sankar worked tirelessly for over five decades in ensuring trust in business and leading by example in setting high standards for ethical business in the country. As a successful entrepreneur, Sankar pioneered various joint ventures, focused on international business, diversified business portfolios and implemented best-in-class manufacturing practices to make Sanmar a truly global company. Sankars farsighted vision not only contributed to the success of his business, but also contributed to the growth and development of major industry sectors, particularly the manufacturing sector in South India, said Suchitra Ella, Chairperson, CII Southern Region. The passing away of Mr Sankar is a great loss to Indian Industry and his passion for Indias progress will live on as his strong and impactful legacy in times to come, CII said in a statement. The Parliamentary Standing Committee that deliberated on the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 for last four months is set to submit its report by April 24, its chairman announced on Monday. The amendment that proposes to introduce Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix species in the Bill has been welcomed by many of the stakeholders while the amendment in connection with 'vermin' has drawn a lot of criticism. Congress leader and former Environment Minister said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment, Forests & Climate Change adopted its report on the proposed amendment Bill. "The report strikes a fine balance b/w Govt's aims and valid concerns of conservationists. Itall be submitted before Apr 24 deadline and then made public," he tweeted. Earlier in March, the Committee held meetings with different states on the issue of the proposed amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act. Prior to that, the Committee had already interacted with conservationists, scientists and various Institutions. After an appeal was sent out to the stakeholders for sending in their suggestions and objections to the Committee, it had received over 70 responses from experts and institutions on the proposed amendment. Ramesh had earlier stated that the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has not been based on widespread consultation and also that it is poorly drafted and has huge shortcomings. There has been widespread outrage against the proposed amendments and activists have been critical of the government's intention and the hurried manner in which it was set to be passed since it was introduced in the in December last year. It was a protest letter by to the Lok Sabha speaker that ensured that the amendment Bill was sent to the Standing Committee. (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.) Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (C) lights the Independence Flame during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) by Gretinah Machingura HARARE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. Mnangagwa said the main event in Bulawayo, in fulfillment of the government's decision to decentralize the national celebrations, was historic and extraordinary. The celebrations also carried an added significance in that it was the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that the nation held a large, physical gathering in Bulawayo and other provinces throughout the country to commemorate Independence Day, Mnangagwa said. While forging ahead with efforts to build the nation for common prosperity, Mnangagwa stressed the need for national unity for Zimbabwe to achieve its development goals. "As we celebrate 42 years of our country's independence, let us never allow divisive tendencies, greed and the pursuit of unpatriotic self-centered political gains to weaken our bond of unity, peace, love and harmony. Individually and collectively we have a duty to wholeheartedly serve and work hard for the development and prosperity of our beloved motherland, Zimbabwe," Mnangagwa said. He said in unity, Zimbabwe is rising with no one and no place being left behind as the country marches forward towards its vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income country by 2030. Mnangagwa said the country's independence from Britain in 1980 was achieved through the collective effort by all the people of Zimbabwe, including the gallant heroes and heroines who sacrificed their personal freedoms in order to liberate the country. "Let us not grow tired but keep marching forward with joy, great optimism, determination, zeal and focus on unity, peace and freedom. Good times lie ahead and the fruits of our labor will be there for all to enjoy," Mnangagwa said. He said despite various challenges over the past 42 years including sanctions, Zimbabwe had made tremendous progress in many areas of which it is proud. The country had also learned invaluable lessons from its 42-year journey which will make its actions more targeted for coordinated and balanced development, the president said. Mnangagwa said more economic production was required and to this end, the Zimbabwean government will remain unwavering in its commitment to creating opportunities in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism, infrastructure, healthcare, education, sciences and information communication technologies, among other sectors. Zimbabweans at home and abroad, Mnangagwa said, have a sacred obligation and responsibility to help in building the nation, riding on the abundant business and investment prospects in the economy. Zimbabwe hoped for an adequate grain harvest this year despite mixed fortunes due to the impact of mid-season drought and recurrent tropical cyclones in some provinces. Mnangagwa said it was important for Zimbabwe to lay a sound infrastructure base for sustainable socio-economic development, and as such infrastructure development and expansion were being speeded up across all provinces. The mining sector had immense potential to spur socio-economic development and due to responsive strategies, Zimbabwe was on course to achieving the target of a 12 billion U.S. dollars mining industry by 2023, the president said. "Recently, our country assumed the Vice Chairmanship of both the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme and the African Diamond Producers Association, subsequently becoming Chair in 2023. These portfolios will be leveraged to achieve maximum value from our diamond mining sector," Mnangagwa said. He said the development of rural industrialization is being prioritized, leveraging the various unique resources within communities. Total exports were projected to grow by 10 percent this year, Mnangagwa said, adding that the number of foreign airlines coming into the country had increased from three in 2017 to 17 in 2022. Mnangagwa urged the nation to remain alert to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that in order to protect children from the pandemic, parents and guardians should facilitate the vaccination of children from 12 years and above. The celebrations ran under the theme: "Zimbabwe @ 42, Leaving No One and No Place Behind." Dancers perform during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) Dancers perform during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (Front) holds a torch before lighting the Independence Flame during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) Members of Zimbabwe Defense Forces parade during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (C) inspects Zimbabwe Defense Forces during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) Members of Zimbabwe Defense Forces parade during the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on April 18, 2022. Zimbabwe marked its 42nd independence anniversary on Monday with President Emmerson Mnangagwa presiding over the national celebrations in the second largest city of Bulawayo, the first time in the history of the country that such celebrations have been held outside the capital Harare. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua) A day after Navnirman Sena chief reiterated his warning to take down loudspeakers from the by May 3, the state Home Department on Monday stated that the use of loudspeakers at the religious sites will only be allowed with due permission. State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil will hold a meeting with the Director General of Police to instruct him to direct all police commissioners and officers on the matter, said the sources. In wake of the ongoing loudspeaker row in the state, Thackeray on Sunday said that the Muslims in the country should understand that "religion is not above law and country" while also asking them to take down loudspeakers from . "We don't want riots in . No one has opposed the offering of prayers. We want the loudspeakers that are put up in the and are illegal in the entire country should be taken down. If you do it on loudspeaker, then we will also use loudspeakers for it. Muslims should understand that religion isn't bigger than the law. After May 3, I will see what to do," Thackeray said. The MNS chief asked the Hindus to "wait till May 3" and play Hanuman Chalisa thereafter in front of the mosques that "don't take down the loudspeakers". "I only have to say to the Hindus across India to wait till May 3. And after that, play Hanuman Chalisa in front of all such mosques that don't take down the loudspeakers," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister on Monday ordered an inquiry into how the state has a whopping of Rs 3 lakh crore and where was the money spent. "We will inquire as to where the money was spent and will order recovery into where this money was spent. This was the public money," Mann said in a tweet. As per official figures, the total outstanding debt of as on March 31 was projected at Rs 2,52,880 crore, which is 42 per cent of the GSDP for 2020-21 and the outstanding debt is likely to be Rs 2,73,703 crore in 2021-22, which is 45 per cent of the GSDP. Twenty per cent of the annual budget is being spent only to pay the interest on the loans. As per the latest findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the state's financial crisis is set to worsen with the debt likely to reach Rs 3.73 lakh crore by 2024-25. The government officials told IANS that the state's debt has increased by Rs 1 lakh crore in the past five years under the previous Congress government, largely owing to populism. Responding to the Chief Minister's decision, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) welcomed the decision to order a probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt acquisition but said the inquiry should not be used to divert attention from fulfilling the promises made to the people of the state. It also demanded a probe into all advertisements released by the AAP government in the last one month in office. "We are all for a free and fair probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt accumulated by the state but this probe should not be used as an excuse to delay fulfilling the promises made to the people," senior leader Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement here. He said the previous Congress government had used the excuse of empty treasury to renege on all promises made to the people. "Despite knowing the reality of the financial position of the state before taking over the reins of the state, the Chief Minister has now come up with an excuse to probe the reasons behind this position. "The SAD feels the probe should not come in the way of fulfilling the government promise to distribute Rs 1,000 to all women in the state, besides ensuring 300 units of free power per month to all domestic consumers immediately." Cheema said the Chief Minister should also order an inquiry into the advertisements released by the state during the last one month in office. "As per reports, taxpayer money is being used to spread the propaganda of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) across the country. Advertisements are being released in regional languages by the AAP government to project its alleged achievements in South India and even poll-bound states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Crores have been spent for this purpose which does not benefit or Punjabis in any manner whatsoever," he added. Fulfilling its major pre-poll promise, the AAP government on April 16 announced 300 units of free electricity from July 1 in the state. It said the rates of industrial and commercial units would also not be hiked, besides continuing free electricity for the agriculture sector. The government further announced to waive off bills up to 2 KW load till December 31, 2021. Punjab is the second state after Delhi to provide free power to the people in the country. --IANS vg/pgh (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a relief to over thousands of home buyers of Amrapali Group of Companies who have booked their flats under the subvention scheme, the on Monday directed the banks that their accounts shall not be treated as Non-Performing Assets Accounts and no penalties shall be charged from them for default of payment The top court said that the banks will be liable for the principal amount and the interest over it. A Subvention Scheme in the present case is a legal agreement made between the home buyer, the developer Amrapali Group of Companies, and the banks providing the home loan. Under the scheme, the buyer did not have to pay any amount in the form of during the No period till the completion and possession given to the home buyer. Around 10, 000 home buyers have availed the subvention scheme but due to the acts of omission and commission on behalf of Amrapali Group of Companies, they were saddled with the liability of paying the EMI towards the loan without even getting the passion of their flat. A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Bela M Trivedi said, Considering the facts and circumstances on record, in our view, the interest of the flat buyers would be subserved if the accounts of defaulter flat buyers who have availed the subvention facilities shall not be treated as 'NPA account', nor shall their CIBIL score are maintained as zero level. It said that no banks shall impose a penalty for default committed by the flat buyers and added that the banks shall however be entitled to the principal as well as interest over it. It added that the liability of home buyers shall arise from the date when possession is handed over and they shall discharge their liability at that time else banks can take appropriate action. The top court said that as and when individual buyers will approach their respective lender Banks, their accounts will be regularised and any balance payment will be disbursed by the Banks towards a court-monitored account. The bench in its detailed order noted the difficulties faced by the home buyers but said that once the possession of the flat is given to the respective flat buyer, he shall be liable to pay the EMI towards the loan as per the agreement. The bench also noted the concern of home buyers pointed out by advocate ML Lahoty and advocate Anchit Sripat that an extended portion of a flat in the Zodiac project has fallen two days ago. The bench said that the project was constructed by an earlier builder but NBCC which is overseeing the construction of the stalled project will look into the issue and ensure that it does not happen again. The top court also noted the submission that appropriate documentation between the consortium of banks and Greater Noida authority has been completed and around Rs, 1350 crore will be infused for the construction of stalled projects of Amrapali Group. On April 4, the top court was informed that a consortium of seven banks have granted final approval to infuse Rs 1,500 crore out of which Rs 150 has been directly paid to National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC). On March 28, the top court had directed the Bank of Baroda-led consortium to effectuate disbursal of Rs 1,500 crore for the construction of stalled real estate projects of Amrapali Group. It had noted that six banks -- Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sindh Bank, and UCO Bank -- have granted in-principle approval for the disbursal of funds, while Indian Bank was about to give the final approval. On March 21, the top court had said its number one priority is to ensure that every Amrapali home buyer gets a flat. The top court was told by the court receiver that initially they had issued a list of around 8,000 flats that were not claimed by any buyer or which were booked under bogus names or were undervalued. On February 21, the NBCC assured the top court that the construction of stalled projects of Amrapali Group will be of good quality and independent experts will assess the safety and quality standards. The NBCC had earlier told the top court that at present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 in Greater Noida are under execution involving 45,957 units with a sanctioned project cost of Rs 8,025.78 crore. The apex court in its July 23, 2019, verdict had cracked the whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing land leases. Former group directors of Amrapali -- Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya, and Ajay Kumar -- are in prison on the top court's order. The court had directed a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into alleged money laundering by realtors, providing relief to over 42,000 home buyers of Amrapali Group with the verdict. The top court, which is trying to bring in funds for the stalled projects, had then directed the state-run NBCC to complete the stalled projects of Amrapali Group. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday said that his government is contemplating to call an all-party meeting on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exemption bill, depending on the action taken by Governor R.N. Ravi. He said that there were speculations in the media that the Governor was about to forward the bill to the President. Speaking on the floor of the Assembly under Rule 110, he noted that it was already 70 days since the Assembly passed the bill again and sent it to the Governor after it was returned by him. "We might convene an all-party meeting if required and discuss the next steps that we have to take." The Chief Minister said that he did not have any personal grudge against the Governor but said that his party had no choice but to boycott the 'At Home' event since the Governor had not forwarded the bill passed unanimously by the Assembly. "Governor R.N. Ravi is a good person to interact with and we have a very cordial relationship. During personal interactions, he has praised our work and had even praised us in his speeches," he said, but added that "a Bill passed unanimously by an Assembly that was celebrating its centenary and lying unattended in Raj Bhavan is an insult to each and every citizen of Tamil Nadu". He said that the Governor accorded utmost respect to the DMK government and the DMK also has all respect towards the Governor but added that the Governor not forwarding the Bill passed unanimously by the Assembly to the President was an affront to the dignity of the Assembly and thereby the people of . --IANS aal/vd (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tax consultants have started receiving number of calls from their clients both corporate and individuals seeking clarity over changes in the reassessment regime. Meanwhile, extreme declined by 12.3 percentage points to 10.2 per cent in 2019. Scroll further down for more on these and other top stories this morning. New tax regime: Big unexplained expenditure may lead to I-T review Tax consultants and chartered accountants have started receiving a flurry of calls from their clients both corporate and individuals seeking clarity over changes in the reassessment regime made during the recently concluded Budget Session of Parliament. Tax experts apprehend the amendments may lead to the income-tax (I-T) department sending out more notices. The new provisions, effective from April 1, have extended the scope for tax sleuths to reopen the past assessments. Read more here Extreme fell sharply in 2011-19: World Bank paper Extreme declined by 12.3 percentage points to 10.2 per cent in 2019, from 22.5 per cent in 2011, according to a working paper of the World Bank. The paper, authored by economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide, showed the reduction in abject poverty in rural areas was more pronounced during the period review than in urban areas. The paper showed that rural extreme poverty dropped by 14.7 percentage points during this period, while urban deep poverty fell by 7.9 percentage points. Read more here We will regain 50% market share gradually: CEO Indias largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, has a new captain in the boardroom. Hisahi Takeuchi takes charge at a moment when the company is going through a structural change where it is revamping its product planning to arrest the slide in market share and after years of shying away from EV, electric mobility, it has committed to its first electric vehicle by 2025. Read the interview here Govt plans regulator for skill to curb money laundering The government is considering a proposal to have a regulator for the so-called skill gaming industry, following concerns about money laundering. The industry is in support of any such move, claiming it would remove uncertainty around the sector and also boost investments, while safeguarding player interests. Read more here Power engineers warn of energy crisis in 12 states, seek govt action The depleting coal inventory of domestic thermal power plants has prompted public sector power engineers to warn of an impending energy crisis in 12 states. According to All India Power Engineers Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey, the power crisis could worsen owing to the low coal stock to fire thermal power units. Read more here Tripura Chief Minister will meet Union Home Minister on Monday evening over state issues. Notably, Tripura has crossed the average covering 50.32 per cent of rural households with tap connections under the (JJM) scheme, said the state and Sanitation (DWS) Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Saturday. Taking note of the state's performance, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has rewarded the Tripura government Rs 100 crore, Chowdhury added. Tripura has urged the Bangladesh government to felicitate industries to set up units in Tripura to take the existing business relations between both countries to a new height. Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also happens to be the Finance Minister of the state, observed that both the countries will be equally benefited if Bangladesh Industries open manufacturing units in the state given the relaxations granted by the Government of India. Meanwhile, President JP Nadda will be visiting Tripura for a two day-visit to address a state conference of the party and to review the party's organizational progress. Although dates are yet to be finalized, preliminary works to turn the maiden visit of Nadda after being appointed as the president a success are underway, sources informed. (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 Uttar Pradesh government on Monday made it compulsory for people to wear a face mask in public places in capital Lucknow and six NCR districts amid a rise in Covid cases in some adjoining states, an official said. The increase in Covid cases has had an impact on the districts falling under the national capital region (NCR). Keeping this in mind, the government has made use of masks mandatory in public places in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Baghpat as well as capital Lucknow, an official spokesperson said here. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who issued the directive on Monday, has asked officials to identify people in these districts who have not been fully vaccinated yet and administer the jab to them on priority while getting those with Covid symptoms tested, he said. In the last 24 hours, 65 new Covid cases have been confirmed in Gautam Buddh Nagar, 20 in Ghaziabad and 10 in Lucknow, the official said, adding that the chief minister has ordered close monitoring of the situation. In view of the improving COVID-19 situation, the Uttar Pradesh government had given relaxation in wearing face mask earlier this month. In the genome sequencing of samples of Covid positive patients in NCR, only the variant of Covid has been confirmed, the official said. According to experts, it is possible that the number of Covid cases may rise in the coming days but the chances of patients needing hospitalisation or becoming very serious are slim. However, people should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, the official said. At present, the total number of active Covid cases in the state is 695. In the last 24 hours, over 83,000 tests were done of which 115 new corona cases were confirmed, he said. During the same period, 29 people were treated and discharged from hospitals, he added. The official pointed out that the progress of the Covid vaccination campaign in the state is satisfactory, but there is a need to accelerate the vaccination of children. More than 86.34 per cent of the state's adult population has received both doses of anti-Covid vaccine while over 94 per cent of adolescents in the 15 to 17 age group have received their first dose, he said. The chief minister also said people should be made aware about the importance of booster dose, the official said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CNG price in Delhi on Monday stood at Rs 71.61 per kg amid a hike in in fuel costs by state-owned companies to offset the economic impact of the Ukraine war. The CNG price in Ghaziabad, Noida, and Greater Noida has been raised to Rs 74.17 per kg. In Gurugram, CNG now costs Rs 74.94 per kg. The price of in the national capital now stands at Rs 105.41 a litre and diesel Rs 96.67 a litre. On Monday, various auto-rickshaw and taxi unions went on a strike, demanding a CNG subsidy and a fare revision in the wake of rising . Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh General Secretary Rajendra Soni said a protest would be held outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in Civil Lines to press for the demands. Auto and cab drivers' unions have been demanding a hike in fare and slashing of to offset the impact of rising . They refused to call off their strike despite an announcement by the that a committee would be formed to consider a fare revision in a time-bound manner. There are over 90,000 autos and more than 80,000 registered taxis complementing the public transport system in the city. Meanwhile. the has not made any fresh allocation of natural gas from domestic fields to the city gas sector, sending CNG and piped cooking gas prices to record highs but the ministry insisted that allocations have not been stopped and providing more for the sector would lead to cut in supplies to industries like power and fertiliser. Despite a decision of the Union Cabinet to give 100 per cent gas supply under 'no cut' priority to the city gas distribution sector, current supplies are at March 2021 demand level. This has driven city gas operators to buy high priced imported LNG to make up for the shortfall, leading to a record spike in prices. India's increased by 37.01 per cent to USD 18.79 billion during April 1-14 on the back of healthy growth in sectors like petroleum, gems and jewellery, according to a preliminary data of the commerce ministry. during April 1-14, 2021, stood at USD 13.72 billion. Imports during the period rose by 12.24 per cent to USD 25.84 billion, the data showed. Imports excluding petroleum increased in the said period by 18.24 per cent against the same period of 2021-22. While the total during 2021-22 increased to a record high of USD 419.65 billion, imports too soared to USD 611.89 billion, leaving a trade gap of USD 192.24 billion. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Finance Minister will attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which begin on Monday in Washington DC. She will also attend the meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank chiefs, finance ministry said. According to a statement by the Ministry of Finance, Sitharaman will also meet President David Malpass on the sidelines of the summit. She will hold bilateral discussions with her counterparts from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, South Africa, and others. During her official visit to the United States, the Finance Minister will also hold one-on-one meetings with the chief executives from semiconductor, energy, and other priority sectors. As reported earlier, the agenda at the IMF- Spring meeting is likely to focus on how the world's nations can negotiate the impact on supply chains and commodity prices due to Russias invasion of Ukraine. With severe lockdowns in China due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, the joint resolution at the end of the summit will also be on the need to continue to invest in health infrastructure. However, a key global issue, cryptocurrency regulations, will not feature in the agenda and is unlikely to be discussed on the sidelines as well. Sitharaman and Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran are expected to represent the government at the IMF- Spring meeting, which will take place in Washington DC from April 18 to April 24. Ukraine will clearly be the main focus of discussions. The participating nations will discuss the impact the war has had on global supply chains and commodity prices, and how world powers can work together to negate these effects, said an official. The official said that a major part of the joint statement at the end of the summit may focus on Russias invasion of Ukraine. Another important set of discussions will be on further IMF quota reforms, the person added. Additionally, there could also be talks regarding Indias upcoming Presidency of the . LUSAKA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's new ambassador to Zambia Du Xiaohui has arrived in Zambia to begin his tour of duty with a pledge to further strengthen the friendly ties the two countries have enjoyed over the years. The new envoy arrived on Sunday and was received by representatives from Zambia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as well as officials from the embassy, according to a statement posted on the embassy's website. The envoy said the China-Zambia friendship has stood the test of time and is deeply rooted in the hearts of the two peoples, adding that China-Zambia relations have become a benchmark for China-Africa friendship and a model of South-South cooperation. The statement said Ambassador Du and his colleagues will uphold the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, forge ahead courageously with people from all walks of life, endow the China-Zambia traditional friendship with new connotations of the times, and work to bring benefit to the two countries and peoples. Du becomes China's 16th ambassador to Zambia since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1964. India exported goods worth $18.79 billion during the first two weeks of April, up 37 per cent compared to the same period last year, as external demand continued to remain robust, according to commerce departments preliminary data. Excluding petroleum products, the growth in this period was 23.64 per cent over the same period of 2021-22. Imports grew at a faster pace, with the value of inbound shipments at $25.84 billion, up by 12.24 per cent over the same period of 2021-22. Trade deficit was at $5 billion. Imports, excluding petroleum products, which comprises the lions share in Indias import basket, also increased in this period by 18.24 per cent over the same period of 2021-22. During the previous year, India surpassed the $400-billion target for merchandise exports, ending the year with over $419 billion, growing by nearly a fifth. The department of commerce is yet to set the target for this fiscal year, but meetings with promotion councils and the external affairs minister is also underway to finalise the target. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had last week said the final call regarding the target will be taken by the Prime Minister. While there could be some disruption in exports due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, government officials are confident that the free trade pacts signed with Australia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) will augur well for India and boost exports further. Similarly, India also reached the target of $250 billion in case of service exports, despite the pandemic causing disruption in the tourism and hospitality sector. The target for services exports is now set at $300 billion. India's exports witnessed an astounding growth of 291% from $1,177 million in FY14 to $4,600 million in FY22, said the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Monday. As per Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) data, India exported to 121 countries across the globe. export jumped 65% in 2021-22 corresponding to previous year. The growth was achieved despite logistical challenges posed by COVID19 pandemic in the form of high freight rates, container shortages, etc, the ministry said. Highlighting the historic achievement in a tweet, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that Modi governments policies were helping farmers increase their income by tapping global markets. According to the DGCI&S data, India had exported sugar worth of $1,965 million in FY20, which rose to $2,790 million in FY21 and $4,600 million in FY22. In 2021-22 (April-February), India has exported sugar worth of $769 million to Indonesia, followed by Bangladesh ($561 million), Sudan ($530 million) and U.A.E ($270 million). India also exported sugar to Somalia, Saudi Arab, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal, China, etc. Indian sweetener has also been imported by USA, Singapore, Oman, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Germany, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Israel, Russia, Egypt, etc. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka account for nearly 80 per cent of the total sugar production in the country. The other major sugarcane-producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana, and Punjab. "Notably, India is the worlds second-largest sugar producer after Brazil. Since 2010-11, India has consistently produced surplus sugar, comfortably exceeding the domestic requirements. The record exports would enable the sugar producers to reduce their stocks and would also benefit the sugarcane farmers, as the increased demand for Indian sugar is likely to improve their realizations. The significant rise in agri-exports is also seen as a testimony of the governments commitment to increase farmers income by boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products of the country," the ministry said. In order to ensure seamless quality certification of products to be exported, APEDA has recognized 220 labs across India to provide services of testing to a wide range of products and exporters. APEDA organizes participation of exporters in the International Trade Fairs, which provides a platform to the exporters to market their food products in the global marketplace. APEDA also organizes national events like AAHAR, Organic World Congress, BioFach India etc. to promote agri-exports. In 2019, APEDA led a delegation of exporters to Indonesia to organised road shows and had meetings with relevant authorities. Thereafter, export to Indonesia picked up and today they are the highest importer of sugar from India. Even after record exports, the closing stocks at the end of sugar season 2021-22 (October September) would be at a comfortable level of 73 lakh tons As and SpaceX CEO puts pressure on the board of to let him acquire the micro-blogging platform for $43 billion, its Co-founder has finally broken the silence, labelling the board as "consistently the dysfunction of the company". Dorsey, who left in November last year -- handing over the baton to Indian-origin -- remains a board member until next month with his 2.2 per cent share. Reacting to a user, Dorsey said late on Sunday: "It (the board) has consistently been the dysfunction of the company". The former Twitter CEO also agreed with venture capitalist Gary Tan, who posted that a badly run board "can literally make a billion dollars in value disappear." When another Twitter user asked Dorsey if he was allowed to speak publicly about the board, he replied, "No". Musk had said that "With Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares!" "Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders," the CEO posted. Dorsey's firm Block (earlier Square) is currently working on hardware crypto wallet, a device to help people "safely own and manage their Bitcoin". Meanwhile, Musk has said that the Board of Twitter should be more concerned about other potential bidders than him who has made a fair offer to acquire 100 per cent of the micro-blogging platform for $43 billion. He was reacting to a follower who said that the Twitter board has threatened to dilute their shareholder's stake in the company which is a sort of criminal negligence. "In fairness to the Twitter board, this might be more of a concern about other potential bidders vs just me". With 9.2 per cent stake, Musk is one of the largest shareholders in Twitter. Asset management firm Vanguard Group disclosed last week that its funds now own a 10.3 per cent stake in Twitter which makes it the largest shareholder. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who rejected Elon Musk's offer, has about 5.2 per cent share in Twitter. The board of Twitter has adopted the 'poison pill' strategy to stop Musk from forcefully buying it. (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.) Companies tied to far-right radio host Alex Jones filed for in an effort to settle litigation brought by relatives of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. Three entities, including one that holds the rights to website Infowars, sought Chapter 11 protection in Victoria, Texas, on Sunday. Each estimated liabilities of as much as $10 million, according to court filings. Chapter 11 filings allow a business to keep operating while working on a turnaround plan and pause pending civil litigation. Lawyers set up a trust that would pay people suing the companies, and Jones handed over his equity in the entities to the trust. The units in have no purpose other than to hold assets which may be used by other entities and their only liabilities are the litigation claims, according to court papers. Free Speech Systems LLC, the ultimate parent company of Infowars, which Jones still owns, isnt part of the filing. Jones and his companies last year were found liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of Sandy Hook victims after Jones called the shootings a hoax. A trial in Connecticut to determine the size of the damages has yet to take place. He was also found liable in similar proceedings in Texas. By establishing a trust to settle legal claims in bankruptcy, Joness companies are following a controversial playbook used by other corporations facing significant lawsuits. Companies including opioid maker Purdue Pharma LP and youth organization Boy Scouts of America have sought Chapter 11 protection to settle thousands of cases and streamline payouts to victims claiming harm. Jones put $725,000 of his own money into the trust to cover the costs of the Chapter 11 filings. Additional funds, including $2 million cash, could flow into the trust as a result of the bankruptcy, according to court papers. Two former bankruptcy judges -- Russell F. Nelms and Richard S. Schmidt -- are overseeing the trust. The trust is a way to ensure litigation creditors can be paid in full, rather than get uneven payouts simply due to the timing of trials, lawyers for the companies said in court papers. Jury selection for the Texas trial is set to begin next week, while the Connecticut trial is still months away. Lawyers representing Jones and his businesses have said the Texas defamation lawsuit was strategically filed to silence their free speech on matters of public interest. Judges in Connecticut and Texas issued default judgments against Jones after he failed to turn over documents including financial information. Lawyers representing Jones have argued the plaintiffs probe into the financial ties between Jones and his various entities is akin to a collections action and a fishing expedition. In March, lawyers representing relatives of Sandy Hook shooting victims sought an arrest order for Jones after he skipped a court-ordered deposition, citing health reasons. Jones appeared for the deposition after facing hefty fines. The main case is InfoW LLC, 22-60020, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas. Strong reactions continue in against Pakistani military's air strikes and rocket attacks on Afghan provinces, with many blaming for violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty, Tolo News reported. The Ministry of Defence called the attack tyrannical and warned that no country should provoke . "No country should test the Afghans. Should not make the Afghans take a similar step. Throughout history, Afghans proved that they never stay without a response towards any aggression," said Inayatullah Khwarazimi, a Defence Ministry Spokesman. On Friday evening, the Pakistani air strikes targeted civilians in Esperai district in Khost, killing dozens of people. A large number of Nangarhar residents gathered in Ghanikhil district in the provinces on Sunday to protest the Pakistani air strikes on Afghan soil. The protest in Nangarhar follows a huge rally held by the residents of Khost on Saturday evening where they chanted anti- slogans, Tolo News reported. Some residents of Shiltan district in Kunar also confirmed the death of five people as a result of Pakistani military attack in the district. The attacks were condemned by the Islamic Emirate and top Afghan politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai who called it violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty and norms and a crime against humanity. The Permanent Mission of to the UN in a statement "strongly" condemned the attack and called it an "aggression against the territorial integrity of Afghanistan" and a "flagrant breach of law". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday summoned the Pakistani envoy in Kabul over the attacks in Khost and Kunar provinces. "Along with the IEA Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, the session also included Deputy Defence Minister Alhaj Mullah Shirin Akhund where the Afghan side condemned the recent attacks," the Ministry said in a statement. The Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the said over 40 people, including women and children, were killed in the air strikes. (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.) Paris prosecutors are studying a report by the European Union's fraud agency accusing French far-right presidential candidate and other members of her nationalist party of misusing public funds while serving in the European Parliament. The report was disclosed by French investigative news site Mediapart days before Le Pen faces incumbent in a runoff election Sunday that could determine Europe's future direction. Le Pen's party National Rally seeks to diminish the EU's powers. Party lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut denied any wrongdoing, and questioned the timing of the Mediapart publication, just before the presidential runoff. Macron, a pro-EU centrist, leads Le Pen in polls ahead of Sunday's vote, though the race is tighter than when they faced off in 2017. EU fraud agency OLAF submitted its report last month to the Paris prosecutor's office, which is in the course of analysing it, the prosecutor's office said on Monday. No formal investigation has yet been opened, and no further details were released. According to Mediapart, the OLAF report found that Le Pen, her firebrand father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and other party members who served in the European Parliament used 617,000 euros of public money for fictitious reasons, notably for the benefit of companies close to the party. The fraud office is reportedly seeking reimbursement of the funds and potential fraud and embezzlement charges. OLAF accused party members of grave violations and said the inappropriate behaviour of members of National Rally formerly called the National Front imperiled the reputation of the Union's institutions, according to Mediapart. OLAF didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday, a holiday in Belgium and several European countries. It's not the first time Le Pen and her party were accused of misusing EU funds. Among several legal affairs that have dogged her party, Le Pen was handed preliminary charges in 2018 based on a separate investigation by OLAF accusing National Rally members of using aides on the European Parliament's payroll for the party's political activity. Le Pen, who served in the European Parliament from 2004-2017, met with supporters on Monday in the Normandy town of Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. She and Macron face a crucial debate on Wednesday. (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.) Nationalist leader Marine Le Pen on Monday brushed off allegations that she and several of her party members misused hundreds of thousands of euros of European Union funds, with less than a week left before she stands in the final round of the French presidential election. These dirty tricks from the European Union, a few days before the second round, Im very used to them, Le Pen said during a campaign stop in Normandy. I obviously and absolutely dispute these accusations. The Paris prosecutor said it received a report detailing alleged abuse of funds between 2004 and 2017, when Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament, from the European anti-fraud office OLAF on March 11 and is reviewing it. French investigative outlet Mediapart first reported on the OLAF report on Saturday. Le Pens lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, denied any wrongdoing in an interview with BFM TV. Le Pen is set to face President Emmanuel Macron in the election runoff on April 24. According to Mediapart, several political expenses claimed by Le Pen and in her party were fictitious. They include promotional gear for a conference in 2014, payments to various contractors and organizations, personal wine purchases and funding for other party events unrelated to parliamentary responsibilities. Le Pen would personally be liable for about 137,000 euros ($148,000) and her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, for roughly 303,000 euros, according to Mediapart. The total amount of alleged fraud is more than 617,000 euros. A spokesperson for OLAF said the agency finalized its investigation in September 2021 with recommendations and sent its final report to the European Parliament and to French and Belgian judicial authorities. The probe involved several persons, both natural persons and economic operators. The spokesperson added that final case reports are not made public by OLAF. Opinion polls point to a victory for Macron in the final runoff ballot on April 24, and the gap between him and Le Pen has slightly widened over the past week, according to a compilation of surveys. But its still likely to be a much tighter race than in the 2017 election, when Macron defeated her by more than 30 percentage points. Oil rose on Monday in choppy trade, with Brent crude topping $113 a barrel, as outages in deepened concern over tight global supply and the Ukraine crisis dragged on, offsetting concern over slowing Chinese demand. Adding to supply pressures from sanctions on Russia, Libya's National Oil Corp on Monday warned "a painful wave of closures" had begun hitting its facilities and declared force majeure at Al-Sharara oilfield and other sites. "With global supplies now so tight, even the most minor disruption is likely to have an outsized impact on prices," said Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose $1.37, or 1.2%, to $113.07 at 1332 GMT, not far from the highest since March 30 of $113.80 hit earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained $1.48, or 1.4%, to $108.43. The Libyan developments offset concern about demand in China, where the economy slowed in March, taking the shine off first-quarter growth numbers and worsening an outlook already weakened by COVID-19 curbs. "Some Asian investors booked profits as they became worried about slowing demand in China," said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities. Data on Monday also showed China refined 2% less oil in March than a year earlier, with throughput falling to the lowest since October as the surge in crude prices squeezed margins and tight lockdowns hurt demand. Oil surged to the highest since 2008 in March, with Brent briefly topping $134. There are concerns of deeper supply losses looming. Russian production declined by 7.5% in the first half of April from March, Interfax reported on Friday, and EU governments said last week the bloc's executive was drafting proposals to ban Russian crude. Those comments came before an escalation in the Ukraine war. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck Lviv early on Monday and explosions rocked other cities as Russian forces kept up their bombardments after claiming near full control of the port of Mariupol. (Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) (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.) CAIRO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Stephanie Williams, adviser to the United Nations (UN) secretary-general for Libya, stressed here on Monday the importance of finding a political solution to break the political impasse in Libya. "The Libyan lawmakers agreed to continue the discussion on the establishment of a legislative and constitutional framework for the presidential and parliamentarian elections," Williams said on the last day of a UN-brokered meeting attended by members of Libya's eastern-based House of Representatives or the parliament, and the Tripoli-based High Council of State (HCS). The meetings, which started in Cairo last week, were held amid "a consensus atmosphere," according to Williams. A new round of talks is scheduled to be held in Cairo in May, according to Shaban Abu Setta, an HCS member who attended the meeting. According to an earlier statement released by the UN Support Mission in Libya, the meetings were aimed at determining the constitutional basis for the upcoming elections. Libya expected to hold presidential elections on Dec. 24, 2021. However, the elections were postponed indefinitely because of technical and legal issues, according to the High National Elections Commission. In March, Williams announced an initiative to form a joint committee of the House of Representatives and the HCS to reach a firm constitutional basis to hold national elections as soon as possible. PRI GEN INT .DALLAS FGN56 US-MASS-SHOOTINGS wave rattles communities large and small in US Dallas (US), Apr 18 Three mass shootings in the U.S. over the Easter holiday weekend capped a monthlong spate of gun violence that has touched both big cities and small, rural communities across the nation. The gunfire has rattled large population centers such as Dallas, Pittsburgh and Sacramento, California, as well as much smaller communities, including Hampton County, South Carolina, which has a population of 18,000, and Dumas, Arkansas, which is home to about 4,000 people. A look at some of the major shootings: DALLAS, March 19 Ten people were shot at a teen spring break party in Dallas and several were injured as they tried to escape the chaos. One of the injured, an 18-year-old man, later died of his injuries. The gunfire happened at The Space Dallas event venue. Joe Morgan, who was working crowd control, told reporters that he heard gunshots being fired from outside the venue and later saw people with gunshot wounds to the chest, arms and legs. DUMAS, Arkansas, March 19 More than two dozen people were hurt and one man was killed when two people got into a gunfight during a car show that's part of an annual community event. Innocent bystanders were sprayed by gunfire, among them several children, two of whom were under the age of 2, Arkansas State Police Col. Bill Bryant said. DALLAS, April 3 One person was killed and 15 were wounded by gunfire during a concert at an outdoor field. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 29, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said. One person fired a gun into the air, then an argument broke out and another person fired in the crowd's direction, Garcia said. The event didn't have a permit, he said. SACRAMENTO, California, April 3 Six people were killed and 12 wounded outside bars located a few blocks from the state Capitol in a gunfight involving at least five shooters from rival gangs, Sacramento police said. More than 100 rapid-fire gunshots echoed through the streets as terrified patrons ran for their lives and were hit by bullets. Police said they identified at least five gunmen, but there may have been more. Police said at least two gangs were involved. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, April 10 A shooting inside a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids left a man and a woman dead and 10 others wounded. More than 100 people were inside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge at the time, police said. Officers helped treat the people who were wounded and used their squad cars to rush several of the victims to hospitals. NEW YORK CITY, April 12 A gunman set off smoke bombs and opened fire in a crowded subway car in Brooklyn, wounding 10 commuters and leaving the train car and a subway platform splattered in blood. After a 30-hour manhunt, police arrested a suspect near a McDonald's on Manhattan's Lower East Side after a tip led them there. Part of the evidence in the case includes YouTube videos in which the suspect rants about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. COLUMBIA, South Carolina, April 16 A gunman opened fire at a busy shopping mall in South Carolina's capital city, wounding nine people, police said. Five other people were injured while trying to flee the Columbiana Centre. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73, but none of their injuries was considered life-threatening, Columbia Police Chief W.H. Skip Holbrook said Saturday. Investigators believe those responsible knew each other, and that others were hurt when they began shooting at each other. HAMPTON COUNTY, South Carolina, April 16 A shooting at a nightclub wounded at least nine people. The attack happened at Cara's Lounge in Hampton County, according to South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division. Hampton County is located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston. PITTSBURGH, April 17 Two teenage boys were killed and at least eight people were wounded when a shooting broke out during a party at a short-term rental property. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said there was gunfire both inside and outside the rental home, potentially back and forth. Bullet casings found at the scene indicated handguns and one rifle were used, he said. Police believe there were multiple shooters. (AP) IND IND 04190023 NNNN (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.) By Yuka Obayashi and Alex Lawler TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) -Oil edged lower on Monday as worries over slowing demand in balanced support from concern over tight global supply and the deepening Ukraine crisis. China's slowed in March as consumption, real estate and exports were hit, taking the shine off faster-than-expected first-quarter growth numbers and worsening an outlook already weakened by COVID-19 curbs and the Ukraine war. fell 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $111.51 a barrel at 0825 GMT, sliding from the highest since March 30 of $113.80 hit earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was down 19 cents, or 0.2%, at $106.76. "Some Asian investors booked profits as they became worried about slowing demand in China," said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities. Data on Monday also showed refined 2% less oil in March than a year earlier, with throughput falling to the lowest since October as the surge in crude prices squeezed margins and tight lockdowns hurt demand. Oil surged to the highest since 2008 in March, with Brent briefly topping $134, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine added to supply concerns due to sanctions on Russia and buyers avoiding Russian oil. Adding to supply-side pressure, Libya's National Oil Corp on Monday declared force majeure at Zueitina oil port and warned that "a painful wave of closures" had begun hitting its facilities. Libya had halted production from its El Feel oilfield on Sunday. Russian production declined by 7.5% in the first half of April from March, Interfax reported on Friday, and EU governments said last week the bloc's executive was drafting proposals to ban Russian crude. Those comments came before tensions grew in the Ukraine crisis. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck Lviv early on Monday and explosions rocked other cities as Russian forces kept up their bombardments after claiming near full control of the port of Mariupol. "Continued war between Russia and Ukraine with no signs of a ceasefire fuelled supply fears, especially as demand is expected to pick up as driving season nears in the northern hemisphere," said Chiyoki Chen, chief analyst at Sunward Trading. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Alex Lawler; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister will take USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) forward with new vigour, vitality and in a rejuvenated manner, ensuring multifaceted development of the flagship project of China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a top leader of the ruling PML-N has said. Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), made the remarks on Sunday while discussing the future of the Pakistan- relations and future cross border collaboration in China's CGTN programme The Hub' with Wang Guan. "In the first day in office as Prime Minister, met the Chinese Acting Ambassador and told her that Pakistan considers as Pakistan's closest friend and strongest partner and we will take the CPEC forward with new vigour, with new vitality and in a rejuvenated manner," he was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune newspaper. Mushahid said that has a very old and long standing relationship with . When the BRI was launched, the CPEC was its centrepiece, and that was taken forward by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif was then the chief minister of Punjab. Mushahid said that under the new government, there would be a broad based acceleration in the Pakistan-China relations in all domains. "China is number one, in terms of a foreign policy priority, which the prime minister made clear when he listed the list of countries and his formulation has been very warmly welcomed in China. So, we have no doubt," he added. Mushahid said that China is the only country for which there is across-the-board national consensus, and the entire political leadership considers it to be Pakistan's number one friend. "So, China friendship is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy, and I see this relationship being further developed and taken to new heights of development, he added. In response to a question about continued momentum in the CPEC projects, he said that the first phase of the CPEC was completed when Nawaz Sharif was in power. "The second phase is bigger. And you will see perhaps acceleration in the field of agriculture, in the field of Information Technology, in the field of tourism, and also infrastructure, especially the railway project, he added. He said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had already announced during his visit to Karachi that his government would expand the CPEC. So, there would be multifaceted development of the CPEC. Mushahid said that the CPEC framework also united the federation of Pakistan through infrastructure and energy projects and it had resolved a lot of problems. "So, we feel CPEC is the character of a better tomorrow for the people of Pakistan, Mushahid was quoted as saying by the paper. The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China's ambitious multi-billion-dollar BRI. The BRI is a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched by President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Monday requested to support the planned revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project to end the woes of hundreds of thousands of commuters in the country's largest metropolis. Stressing that KCR would be a "gift for the people of Karachi" and bring great dividends, Shehbaz took the opportunity of the inauguration of a mass transit bus project here to convey his request to Chinese President Xi Jinping to "reconsider supporting KCR for Karachi". Sharif, in his request to Beijing, underlined that the project's completion would create great feelings for among the people of Karachi as well as the rest of Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying. The original KCR was commissioned in 1964 to help Railways employees commute from their homes in the east of the city to the city and cantonment railway stations. It was expanded over time and eventually evolved into a 44km loop connecting the Karachi port and commercial areas around the city centre. The revived KCR project is expected to revamp the public transportation system of the metropolitan city of Karachi. Sharif, who was appointed Prime Minister a week ago, also expressed gratitude towards its "all weather friend" for "strengthening Pakistan's economy" and supporting it on all forums. Islamabad Metro Bus Service project on a stretch of 11 kilometres from Peshawar Morr to Islamabad Airport will benefit nearly 50,000 commuters every day. The project was supposed to be launched in 2018 but was delayed. Sharif was, however, quick to blame the delay of the launch of the project on the previous government led by Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party and its "lack of will to serve people." He recalled various mass transit projects launched in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) previous tenure. Sharif also promised the people that his government will ensure the quick implementation of all the projects of public importance. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's forces have destroyed an ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev region, the Russian Defence Ministry said. "During the night, high-precision air-based missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near Brovary (city) in the Kiev region," Ministry Spokesman, Igor Konashenkov told a daily briefing on Sunday. He added that 29 militants, including foreign mercenaries, were eliminated during the rescue of Russian hostages from a mosque in Mariupol city in eastern Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported. The Ministry said Russian forces have destroyed 134 aircraft, 249 anti-aircraft missile systems, 470 unmanned aerial vehicles, 2,290 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 254 multiple rocket launchers, 992 field artillery and mortars, and 2,166 units of special military vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian forces. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Prime Minister is facing new allegations on Monday around partygate, the scandal surrounding government officials breaching coronavirus rules with illegal lockdown gatherings, and will be hoping to escape some of the heat when he leaves for India on Thursday. Johnson has already been fined for one such party, for his birthday in June 2020, when his wife Carrie brought a cake to the Cabinet Room and has also been fined along with UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak. However, according to UK media reports, Johnson is believed to have been linked with around six out of the 12 lockdown parties under police investigation. The Sunday Times' quoted a source as saying that a leaving drinks gathering for Number 10 Downing Street's outgoing director of communications, Lee Cain, in November 2020 was allegedly "instigated" by Johnson. "He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him," the source was quoted as saying. It has led to renewed Opposition calls for Johnson, 57, to step down. Labour Party Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said that "if the latest reports are true", it means "not only did the Prime Minister attend parties, but he had a hand in instigating at least one of them". Rayner accused him of deliberately misleading the British people at every turn. She added: "While the British public was making huge sacrifices, was breaking the law. "The Prime Minister has demeaned his office. The British people deserve better. While Labour has a plan for tackling the cost-of-living crisis, Tory MPs are too busy defending the indefensible actions of ." While Downing Street has maintained it would not comment on the issue until Scotland Yard's investigation into the matter is concluded, Johnson will be hoping to deflect attention from the issue when Parliament returns after its Easter recess on Tuesday with other pressing matters. The conflict in Ukraine and his scheduled two-day visit to India, starting with Gujarat on Thursday, will be among the issues he is expected to focus on in Parliament. As we face threats to our peace and prosperity from autocratic states, it is vital that democracies and friends stick together. India, as a major economic power and the world's largest democracy, is a highly valued strategic partner for the UK in these uncertain times, Johnson said, ahead of his visit from April 21 to 22. My visit to India will deliver on the things that really matter to the people of both our nations from job creation and economic growth, to energy security and defence, he said. The visit this week, Johnson's first as UK Prime Minister, will begin in Ahmedabad on Thursday with investment announcements in key industries in both the UK and India. He will then proceed to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, when the focus will be on India-UK strategic defence and diplomatic and economic partnership. According to officials on both sides, Johnson will also use his India visit to drive progress in the ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations launched earlier this year. Libya closes biggest oilfield; warns of more shutdowns Libyas oil production has fallen by more than half a million barrels a day as a wave of political demonstrations engulfs the OPEC members energy industry. The Sharara field in the west of the country, which can pump 300,000 barrels each day, was closed after protesters gathered at the site demanding Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah quits, according to people familiar with the matter. That came after the nearby El Feel deposit, with a daily capacity of 65,000 barrels, was halted for the same reason. The countrys output is down by 535,000 barrels a day and is bound to fall further, one of the people said. Daily production was 1.1 million barrels as of Sunday, according to another person. Bloomberg Turkey launches fresh offensive in north Iraq Turkey has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, that has left at least 19 suspected Kurdish rebels dead and has wounded at least four Turkish soldiers, Turkeys defense minister said Monday. Turkish jets and artillery struck suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and commando troops supported by helicopters and drones then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video posted on the ministry's website. Akar said the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK. PTI Sweden links riots to gangs that target police Swedish police on Monday said they consider the violent riots that have shaken several cities and towns in the Nordic country extremely serious crimes against society and suspect some protesters are linked to criminal gangs that intentionally target police. Sweden, a nation of 10 million, has seen unrest, scuffles, arson and violence since Thursday that has left some police officers and protesters injured. It was triggered by Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan's meetings and planned Quran burnings across the country. We suspect that those involved (in the riots) have links to criminal gangs, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg told a news conference on Monday. PTI Macrons lead over Le Pen widens ahead of election Emmanuel Macron regained some momentum over far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, as France enters the final week of a closely-watched election. Two polls released Monday showed Macrons lead over Le Pen growing slightly. He would beat the nationalist leader 56-44 per cent in Sundays runoff, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Info and Le Parisien, compared with 55.5-44.5 per cent two days earlier. A separate survey by Ifop-Fiducial for LCI, Paris Match and Sud Radio placed Macron ahead in the runoff, with 54.5 - 45.5per cent of voting intentions, up from 53.5-46.5 per cent. Bloomberg (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.) Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mette Knudsen, in his meeting with Chairman of Afghan Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar pressed for representative governance, the need for dialogue at all levels, and access to for girls and boys in . Knudsen also held discussion with Muslimyar over the role of the Mission in (UNAMA). Taking to Twitter, UNAMA said that the UN envoy affirmed continued UN commitment to work in support of the people of . "I had an official meeting with Mette Knudsen in this meeting. We discussed the effective role of @UNAMA in Afghanistan, Girls and boys education, recent @UNGeneva conference on the humanitarian assistance to Afghans and many other important Afghan inclusion issues," Muslimyar tweeted. During the meeting with Muslimyar, UNAMA's deputy head discussed representative governance and the need for dialogue at all levels. Earlier, during a briefing of the Diplomatic Corps on April 6, Knudsen highlighted that the Taliban's decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools has negatively impacted the attitude of the global community towards them. The have issued a decree banning female students above grade six from attending their classes in schools. 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 to condemn the Taliban's decision to deny Afghan girls the opportunity to go back to schools. Meanwhile, the envoys and representatives of the European Union, US, and the European countries in a joint statement have also said that the aid to Kabul will depend on Afghanistan's ability to ensure access to for girls at all levels, said a media report. In the joint statement, the envoys and the representatives have said that the type and scope of " donor assistance will depend, among other things, on the right and ability of girls to attend equal at all levels," reported TOLOnews.The joint statement further stressed that the progress towards normalized relations between the and the community will depend mostly on Kabul's actions and delivery on commitments and obligations to the Afghan people and to the international community. (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.) Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down under pressure from and is now under de-facto house arrest, The Wall Street Journal reports. Saudi Crown Prince Al Saud allegedly handed a written decree to Hadi on the sidelines of the talks in Riyadh, which set out provisions for the delegation of powers to the presidential council, the newspaper said on Sunday citing Saudi and Yemeni officials. Prince Mohammed told Hadi that other Yemeni leaders had agreed that it was time for him to relinquish power, according to the officials. Saudi officials pressured Hadi to step down and threatened to release evidence of his alleged corrupt activities, The Wall Street Journal said. One Saudi official told the newspaper that Saudi authorities have largely confined Hadi to his home in Riyadh and restricted communications with him. These claims were nonetheless refuted by some other officials. Earlier this month, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down after seven years of war in the country and handed over his power to the newly created presidential council, which consists of eight political leaders, including the separatist South Yemeni Transitional Council governing in the south, but excluding the Houthis. The council's formation was announced following inter-Yemeni consultations in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh, where the Saudi leadership called on the council to initiate talks with the Houthis to establish peace in Yemen, which had been torn by violent conflict for years. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. Torture chambers are built there, Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighbourhoods, against ordinary civilians, he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern will begin in the near future. Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. Everyone in Europe and America already sees openly using energy to destabilize Western societies, Zelenskyy said. All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions. (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.) rose on Monday to their highest since mid-March, as the uncertainty surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict dampened risk sentiment and drove investors towards the safety of . Spot gold was up 0.8% at $1,989.65 per ounce, as of 0723 GMT, hitting its highest since March 11. U.S. gold futures were up 0.9% at $1,993.40. Seems like there is a bit of risk aversion in the market, with some overhang from the Russia-Ukraine situation, said Ilya Spivak, a currency strategist at DailyFX, while cautioning thin liquidity could possibly exaggerate price action. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck Lviv early on Monday and explosions rocked other cities as Russian forces kept up their bombardments after claiming near full control of the strategic southern port of Mariupol. is considered a safe store of value during times of political and economic crisis. While another test of $2,000 is likely the path of least resistance for gold, $2,100 is the bigger, more potent figure to keep an eye on, as there are some meaningful peaks there that would need to be overcome to make the case for lasting gains, Spivak said. Restraining advances in zero-yield gold on Monday, yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note firmed to their highest since December 2018. [US/] Spot gold may rise into a range of $1,998 to $2,012, as it has pierced above a resistance at $1,984 per ounce, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. [TECH/C] China's economy slowed in March as consumption, real estate and exports were hit hard, taking the shine off faster-than-expected first-quarter growth numbers and worsening an outlook already weakened by COVID-19 curbs and the Ukraine war. Spot silver rose 0.7% to $25.85 per ounce, platinum gained 1.7% to $1,006.27, and palladium climbed 1.4% to $2,400.60. (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.) COLOMBO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana said on Monday that the country will take steps to stabilize the economy including strengthening public finance. Siriwardana made the remarks as the Sri Lankan government sent a delegation to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to seek assistance. Figures show that around 125 billion Sri Lankan rupees (384 million U.S. dollars) of banknotes were printed in April and the government spending has also increased despite escalating foreign exchange shortages. The government has to carefully manage resources and reduce the budget deficit as it has caused many problems across the economy, Siriwardana said. The official added that the government does not have enough revenues and that it is no longer in a position to get foreign loans. "The entire deficit has to be financed domestically. Given that there are limited domestic resources, the central bank is compelled to find the money," he told reporters. The Sri Lankan government decided last week to suspend repayment for all debts for an interim period till it has an orderly and consensual debt restructuring program supported by the IMF. Shares of dipped 6 per cent to Rs 102.20 on the BSE in Monday's intra-day trade after 85.56 million equity shares allotted to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) got listed on the stock exchanges today. "85,559,435 equity shares of Rs 2 each, allotted to QIBs pursuant to qualified institutional placement (QIP), are listed and admitted for trading on the exchange with effect from Monday, April 18, 2022," BSE said in notice dated April 13, 2022. had raised Rs 865 crore at Rs 101.10 per equity share through QIP. The placement issue price of Rs 101.10 per equity share represents a discount of 4.96 per cent to the applicable floor price of Rs 106.38 per equity share calculated in accordance with applicable SEBI regulations. The fund raise resulted in an overall 15.8 per cent dilution for current shareholders, the company said in a press release. The institutional placement was launched on April 7, 2022 and had witnessed a strong response from both existing as well as new institutional investors including global and domestic funds, with nearly around 50 per cent of the demand from new investors and 70 per cent plus of the book allocated to long only investors, the company said. proposes to maintain sufficient liquidity and use the net proceeds for various purposes, including but not limited to capital expenditure (including acquisition of land, land development rights or development rights), long-term working capital, refinancing/repayment/pre-payment of the borrowings of the Company and/or its Subsidiaries and general corporate purposes. However, the market price of Indiabulls Real Estate almost halved or down 48 per cent from its 52-week high level of Rs 195.90 touched on November 9, 2021. The (SAT) has granted an interim relief to former MD & CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in the Himalyan Yogi case. The tribunal has directed Ramkrishna to deposit Rs 2 crore within six weeks. If such an amount is deposited, the balance amount shall not be recovered during the pendency of the appeal, SAT members Tarun Agarwala and Meera Swarup. On February 11, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had imposed a penalty of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna for alleged governance lapses. The market regulator had also directed NSE to forfeit Ramkrishnas excess leave encashment of Rs 1.54 crore and the deferred bonus of Rs 2.83 crore. Sebi had directed NSE to retain and deposit the same in its investor protection fund. SAT has directed NSE to deposit Rs. 4.73 crore towards leave encashment and deferred bonus of the Ramkrishna in an escrow account instead of depositing it in the investor protection fund. SAT has also directed Sebi to submit its reply within four weeks. Ramkrishnas counsel CS Vaidyanathan contested Sebis decision to impose penalty under the Section 23A of the Securities Contracts Regulation Act (SCRA). He argued that provision came into effect in January 2020 and couldnt be applied retrospectively. As a result, imposing a penalty under this section was incorrect and could not be sustained. Vaidyanathan also said that the principles of natural justice have been violated as Ramkrishna was not given an opportunity to cross examine the submissions made by certain witnesses before passing of the final order. The whole time member proceeded to pass the impugned order without granting an opportunity of hearing which was violative of Article 14 Constitution of India, he argued. Vaidyanathan further argued that Sebi had no power to interfere in the autonomy and internal management of NSE. Ramkrishna in her petition has also said that she had merely sought advice from her spiritual guru. Sebis order, she has argued, had nothing to indicate that she was merely following directions of the guru and not applying her mind or reasoning. The petition also argues that Sebis order doesnt mention a single instance where information pertaining to the exchange was misused or has caused loss to any of the stakeholder. The SAT bench said it will consider all these arguments during the next hearing, which is likely to take place on June 30, 2022. In a 190-page order issued on February 18, Sebi had penalised NSE, Ramkrishna, and her predecessor Ravi Narain for governance lapses in appointing Anand Subramanian as the exchanges group operating officer (COO) and advisor to Ramkrishna. The order also made public email exchanges between Ramkrishna and a purported Himalayan Yogi which showed that the unknown person had significantly influenced the decision making at NSE. Shares of crashed 7.5 per cent to Rs 252 apiece on the BSE on Monday as investors booked profit in the stock, post the company's announcement of rasising Rs 4,000 crore for its platform. At 12:03 PM, the stock was 5.6 per cent down at Rs 257.7 per share as against a 2.13 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. On Thursday, the Tata group's power unit on Thursday said it was raising Rs 4,000 crore (or $525 million) from a consortium of investors, including BlackRock and Mubadala, to scale up its business. The investor group will get a 10.53 per cent stake in for the money injected by way of equity and compulsorily convertible instruments, said. READ HERE The company has entered into a binding agreement with the Blackrock-led consortium to invest in the subsidiary at a base valuation of Rs 34,000 crore ($ 4.5 billion). The objective, it said, was to create a comprehensive energy platform. The post-money base equity valuation is Rs 38,000 crore for a 10.53 per cent equity stake in TataPower Renewable Energy, while the pre-money valuation is Rs 34,000 crore. However, the final shareholding will range from 9.76 per cent to 11.43 per cent at the time of final conversion into equity shares, depending on the actual FY23 TPREL EBITDA performance, which would translate to an equity valuation of Rs 35,000 crore for a 11.43 per cent stake and Rs 41,000 crore for a 9.76 per cent stake. Moreover, as per the new structure, TPREL will comprise TPWR's entire green energy portfolio, ranging from utility scale project, EPC, solar rooftop, solar pump, solar manufacturing to EV charging. It has an existing debt of Rs 1,600 crore and, thus, the enterprise value of TPREL comes to Rs 50,000-54,000 crore. Also, going ahead, all green energy-related new business segments, viz. battery energy storage or green hydrogen business, will also come under this new TPREL platform. According to Manoj Dalmia-Founder and Director at Proficient Equities, the deal, at base case, is valued at 14.7x FY23E EV/Ebitda which will set benchmarks for valuation of the renewable energy business. "This is better valued than INvIT which is likely to be valued at 8x FY23 EV/Ebitda. The stock can be bought or can be accumulated at current levels as the breakout that took place earlier was with a good volume, while the overall rise in energy consumption and prices remains promising. Out target price stays at Rs 313," he said. However, those at HDFC Securities opine that while the deal is better than the earlier monetisation plan through InvIT (which was likely to be valued at ~8x FY23 EV/EBITDA), it is below our expected equity value of Rs 4,500 crore for the entire renewable portfolio. "Accordingly, we have cut our target price to Rs231 from Rs 277, by assigning the implied equity value to its renewable portfolio, as per the proposed deal. Eventually, we downgrade our rating on Tata Power to SELL from REDUCE," the brokerage said in a report. Mahindra Lifespace Developer on Monday announced that it has purchased 11.5 acres of land in Pimpri, Pune. The land is estimated to have a developable potential of approximately two million square feet of saleable area and a gross development value of around Rs 1,700 crore. Mahindra Lifespace expects to launch the first phase of the project within the next twelve months Arvind Subramanian, Managing Director & CEO, Mahindra Lifespace Developers said, Pimpri is one of the thriving hubs of Pune with a growing demand for high-quality residential and commercial spaces. This latest land acquisition will be our fifth project in the micro-market. It comes on the heels of the acquisition of 3.26 acres that we concluded in March 2022 and signals our intent to deepen our presence in the locality. Mahindra Lifespace Developers, incorporated in 1999, it is engaged in the business of development of the real estate, residential facilities and commercial complexes. The realtor reported consolidated net profit of Rs 24.86 crore in Q3 FY22 as against net loss of Rs 9.68 crore in Q3 FY21. Net sales dropped 62.6% to Rs 24.34 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Shares of Mahindra Lifespace Developers were trading 2.55% lower at Rs 372.60 on BSE. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of car manufacturer gained 0.92% to Rs 7,540.25 in a weak market after the company announced increase in prices across models owing to increase in various input costs. The weighted average increase across models is in ex showroom prices for Delhi will be around 1.3%. The new prices will come into effect from 18 April 2022. Meanwhile, the Nifty 50 index was trading 272.45 points or 1.56% lower at 17,203.2 amid weak global cues. Maruti Suzuki India is a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan. The principal activities of the Company are manufacturing, purchase and sale of motor vehicles, components and spare parts. The company reported 47.8% decline in the net profit to Rs 1041.80 crore on a 0.2% fall in the net sales to Rs 22,186.20 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NBCC (India) said that it has secured the total business of Rs 981.17 crore in the month of March 2022. Out of the total contracts received, order worth approximately Rs 500 crore was received from the Union Territory of Ladakh. Further, the company secured work orders worth Rs 52.73 crore from the Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE). The University of Delhi had awarded the company with contracts worth Rs 418.16 crore. The company has also secured a work order of Rs 10.28 crore from MSTC. NBCC (India) provides civil engineering construction services. The Government of India held 61.75% stake in NBCC (India). The company's consolidated net profit declined 11.12% to Rs 83.04 crore on a 5.11% fall in sales to Rs 1971.98 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. The scrip fell 1.86% to currently trade at Rs 39.65 on the BSE. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Welspun Corp rose 1.39% to Rs 214.45 after the EPC company secured 26 KMT line pipe order from North American customer. The said order will be executed from company's US facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. Welspun further added that the order win is an indication of a revival in the oil & gas business outlook in North America. The company said it is confident of many such opportunities. Welspun Corp is a one-stop service provider offering end-to-end pipe solutions. The company's consolidated net profit slumped 70.21% to Rs 61.38 crore on a 6.78% decline in revenue from operations to Rs 1,298.89 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Windlas Biotech surged 12.34% to Rs 265.40 after the company concluded its European Union GMP Inspection carried out by National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition, Hungary for the Plant-IV situated at Dehradun with zero critical observations. Windlas Biotech, a domestic pharmaceutical formulations contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry in India, had undergone this inspection from 11 to 13 April 2022. On 16 April 2022, Windlas Biotech also received certificate of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) from SAHPRA (South African Health Products Regulatory Authority). The company had undergone the inspection audit from 20 to 29 September 2021. Windlas Biotech is amongst the top five players in the domestic pharmaceutical formulations, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry in India, in terms of revenues. The company operates three distinct strategic business verticals (SBVs): CDMO Services and Products (contributing 84.66% of total FY2021 revenues), domestic trade generics and over the counter (OTC) brands (10.22 % of total) and, lastly, exports (5.12 % of total). The company provides comprehensive range of CDMO services ranging from product discovery, product development, licensing, and commercial manufacturing of generic products (including complex generics) with a focus on improved safety, efficacy and cost. Windlas Biotech's consolidated net profit dropped 32.3% to Rs 8.31 crore on a 0.3% rose in net sales to Rs 117.59 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. The markets were closed on Thursday, 14 April 2022 on account of Mahavir Jayanti / Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti. The stock eschanges were also shut on Friday, 15 April 2022 on account of Good Friday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Poverty in India is 12.3% lower in 2019 compared with 2011. The poverty headcount rate has declined from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019. According to policy research working paper of World Bank, poverty reduction was higher in rural areas as against urban India. Rural poverty dropped by 14.7% while urban poverty declined by 7.9% during 2011 to 2019. According to the study, farmers with small landholding sizes have experienced higher income growth. Real incomes for farmers with the smallest landholdings have grown by 10% in annualized terms between the two survey rounds in 2013 and 2019 compared to a 2% growth for farmers with the largest landholding. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener will be in the city on April 21, and will give a message of "new age politics" to the people of Karnataka, ahead of assembly polls next year, party leaders here said on Monday. He will be attending a convention of farmers', women, youth and people from various sections of the society, on the invitation of Rajya Raita Sangha chief and farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar. Kejriwal's visit to the state comes as is preparing to make its presence felt in Karnataka, during the 2023 Assembly polls. Convener Prithvi Reddy said is the platform for people who fight for farmers' cause, and wants to get such people elected to Vidhana Soudha, to solve the issues faced by the farming community. "It will be a historic day. So far farmers of the state have voted various parties to power, but have only obtained false promises and cheating in return. Farmers of the state have now decided to enter themselves and shape their future. After studying all the parties, they today feel that only AAP is working to solve issues after understanding the difficulties faced by the people," he said. Kejriwal will also be sharing insights on how common people can create a "revolution" that was created through AAP in Delhi and Punjab, and how it can be replicated in Karnataka, and about starting a "new age politics" of common people, he said, adding that several inductions into the party is likely to take place on the occasion. Farmers' convention will be held at the College grounds on April 21 at 11 am. Former IPS officer, Bhaskar Rao, who recently joined the AAP said, youth and progressive thinking people are waiting to hear Kejriwal's message, as the state is preparing for "new age politics" that will be in sharp contrast to the money, muscle and caste powered political atmosphere that exist. "AAP is giving a honest and corruption-free administration in Delhi and Punjab, such a government is required for the state too," he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) WELLINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand recorded 6,242 new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the country's Ministry of Health said in a statement. Of the new community infections, 453 were detected in the largest city of Auckland, which saw a great decline in infections from last week, according to the ministry. In addition, 41 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry. Currently, 553 patients are being treated in New Zealand hospitals, including 23 in intensive care units. The ministry also reported 11 more deaths from COVID-19. New Zealand has reported 828,906 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. The country is currently at the second-highest Orange setting under its COVID-19 Protection Framework. Under Orange there are no indoor capacity limits and the seated and separated rule for hospitality venues lifts, when bars, cafes and restaurants are able to fill up again. However, people are required to wear a face mask in many indoor settings. After the on Monday cancelled the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, and directed him to surrender within a week, stepped up its attack on the Centre and questioned when will MoS home Ajay Mishra Teni be terminated. General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "When will PM sack the minister from his council, when will stop protecting people who have ditched farmers?". A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the Allahabad High Court to examine afresh whether Mishra should be granted bail or not. The bench noted that the victims have been denied a chance of effective hearing and the high court overlooked relevant considerations. It further added that the tearing hurry shown by the high court merits the setting aside of bail order and remanded the matter back to high court for fresh consideration. The bench said the high court order cannot be sustained and is thus set aside. Earlier, the apex court had objected to the high court order giving credence to "irrelevant" details in the FIR and post-mortem reports to grant bail to Mishra. On April 4, the Uttar Pradesh government told the that Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, where eight people lost their lives, was a grave offence, but no untoward incident happened after Ashish Mishra, prime accused in the case was granted bail, and he was also not a flight risk. --IANS miz/shb/ (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.) Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday told news agencies that in recent tests, the countrys new air-defence system had successfully intercepted and destroyed a range of incoming projectiles - from mortars and missiles to drones. Were talking of a new laser-based interception system, called Iron Beam. Gantz has said that the system would be operational soon, and will be deployed around Israels borders over the next decade. The new system is designed to complement a series of air-defence systems, such as the Iron Dome, already deployed by the country to defend against enemy mortars, anti-tank missiles and drones. So, what is so special about this system, when many other nations are also pursuing such technology and effective anti-missile defence systems also exist? The answer could lie in the cost of operation. has repeatedly claimed that its Iron Dome defence system is a great success. It reportedly has a 90 per cent interception rate against incoming rockets. However, the system is expensive to deploy. According to a news agency, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that someone in Gaza can fire a rocket towards for just a few hundred dollars, it costs tens of thousands of dollars for the Iron Dome system to intercept that rocket. Bennett has claimed that the Iron Beam is the worlds first energy-based weapons system that uses a laser to shoot down UAVs, rockets and mortars at a "cost of $3.50 per shot". At the current exchange rate, that amounts to Rs 267 Indian per shot. Its unclear how many shots on target might be needed to bring, say an enemy UAV down, if it were hardened against energy weapons. But it is still a significant achievement. In most Indian metros, you cant get a decent pizza for that amount. While sources differ on precise details, the Iron Beam is believed to have a maximum range of up to 7 kms and is capable of destroying missiles in around four seconds after its twin fibre-optic lasers make contact with their target. The Iron Dome uses Tamir missiles to bring down rockets or missiles aimed at Israeli targets. Those missiles cost big dollars. Instead, the new system can light up a target with laser beam for a fraction of what the Iron Dome costs. Dried-out sections of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are being refilled, meaning the entire waterway is connected for the first time in a century. The Grand Canal, which is more than 1,700 kilometers long, runs through six provincial-level regions and serves as an important transportation artery. With a history of more than 2,500 years, it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014 May 09, 2022 07:10 PM Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Kiev region Xinhua) 09:08, April 18, 2022 MOSCOW, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia's forces have destroyed an ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday. "During the night, high-precision air-based missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near Brovary (city) in the Kiev region," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a daily briefing. He added that 29 militants, including foreign mercenaries, were eliminated during the rescue of Russian hostages from a mosque in Mariupol city in eastern Ukraine. The ministry said Russian forces have destroyed 134 aircraft, 249 anti-aircraft missile systems, 470 unmanned aerial vehicles, 2,290 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 254 multiple rocket launchers, 992 field artillery and mortars, and 2,166 units of special military vehicles belonging to the Ukrainian forces. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) SINGAPORE, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew 7.7 percent year-on-year in March, following a 17.6-percent growth in January and 9.4 percent growth in February, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, said on Monday. It is the 16th consecutive month for Singapore's NODX to see year-on-year growth. In a breakdown, the electronic NODX increased 11.5 percent year-on-year in March, following an 11.6-percent increase in February. The non-electronic NODX grew 6.8 percent year-on-year in March, compared to an 8.8-percent increase in the previous month. On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, Singapore's NODX decreased by 2.3 percent in March to 17.2 billion Singapore dollars (about 12.66 billion U.S. dollars), after the previous month's 2.9-percent decline. Singapore's non-oil re-exports (NORX) grew 11.4 percent year-on-year this March, following a 19.5-percent growth in the previous month. Both electronic and non-electronic NORX grew. Enterprise Singapore said that Singapore's total trade grew 17.6 percent in March, following a 20.9-percent expansion in the preceding month. In a breakdown, the total exports increased 13.9 percent, and the total imports grew 21.9 percent. ISLAMABAD, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani government has granted India's request to extend the time period for overland transportation of humanitarian assistance from India to Afghanistan which expired on March 21, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said. "As a manifestation of our sincere efforts towards addressing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, it has been decided to grant two months' extension to facilitate completion of the transportation," the ministry said in a statement Sunday night. The Indian government had recently requested for extension in the period to complete the transportation process, it added. Pakistan approved that in November last year "as a special gesture to the Afghan people," the transportation of 50,000 metric tons of wheat and lifesaving medicines as humanitarian assistance, the statement said. The transportation, as per the arrangement, would be carried out from Attari-Wagah border with India to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border "on exceptional basis for humanitarian purposes," it added. Relations between Pakistan and India deteriorated after India lifted the special status for the Indian-controlled Kashmir in August 2019. Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic relations and suspended trade relations and train service with India in response. After leaving OCA, Bell worked at the Phillips-Gutkin studio in Winnipeg, which made commercials for Canadian television. It was there he met long-time friend and colleague Jane Shattuck. In 1957 Bell left Winnipeg for Europe, stopping in New York City on the way to see sample reels at the big Madison Avenue commercial studios. While there, he met Bill Tytla at Playhouse Pictures who encouraged him to absorb the fine art of Europe and then go work at Disney. For a time, Bell worked near London at the Edric Radage commercial studio before traveling across Europe. He was back in the U.S., Los Angeles specifically, and working in the Disney Research Department by February 1958. In the following years, he animated on the Mister Magoo television series at UPA, Bob Clampetts Beany and Cecil television series, and the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts with Chuck Jones at MGM. Bell worked with Jones and Abe Levitow at MGM on features and television specials such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Pogos Special Birthday Special, Horton Hears a Who, and The Phantom Tollbooth. He worked at Levitow/Hanson Films on B.C., The First Thanksgiving, television commercials, and the Sesame Street series. Thirty years to the day after he started at Disney (Feb. 10, 1958), Bell returned to the studio as an assistant animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), reuniting with old friends Richard Williams and Jane Shattuck (now, Jane Baer). Bell worked at Disney until he retired on April 18, 1999. During that time, he contributed to many of the key films of the period known as the Disney Renaissance including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, and Tarzan. Bells work on behalf of the animation art form was as significant as the work he did in animation. He was a co-founder of ASIFA-Hollywood and was a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 18 years. During that time, he resisted attempts within AMPAS to eliminate the Short Films branch and members. Ultimately, the unit was expanded under his watch to become the Short Films and Feature Animation branch. Bells large network of friends and colleagues would characterize him as a gentleman and a gentle man. He was always good-natured and optimistic. His great gift was his ability to listen and empathize. Complete strangers would come away from meeting him feeling that they had made a new friend. After a long and healthy life, Bell found himself in hospital for a week in March, but remained optimistic about getting home. He died of heart failure on March 28. Bell is survived by his long-time partner Arnoldo Archila. Steve Hulett, with The Animation Guild, IATSE local 839, produced a series of interviews with notable animators for the TAG blog. The interview with Bell was done in 2011 and posted in two parts. They can be listened to on the unions blog: Part I and Part II. Animator Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, who worked with Bell at Disney, produced the following visual interview about Bells life in 2018: Photo at top John Canemaker Photo: File Photo Late season snow could impact some long weekend travellers in the B.C. Interior. Environment Canada has issued special weather statements for Rogers Pass on the Trans-Canada Highway, as well as Kootenay Pass and Paulson Summit on Highway 3. Light snow is forecast to begin late Monday afternoon and taper off Tuesday afternoon for Kootenay Pass and late Monday evening for Rogers Pass. Up to 15 centimetres is possible in some areas. The snowfall could hit right as some people are coming home to B.C. from Easter road trips to visit family and friends in other provinces. Anyone returning on Highway 1 should also be aware that Kicking Horse Canyon is set to close again on Tuesday at noon after construction closures were halted for the long weekend. If you miss the deadline, youll have to take the longer route along Highways 95 and 93. #BCHwy1 east of #GoldenBC at #KickingHorseCanyon Phase 4 is fully open for the Easter Long Weekend until Tues (April 19) at noon. Then it's closed until the Victoria Day Weekend. Plan for an additional 1.5 hrs travel time on the Hwy 95/93 alternate route: https://t.co/53UZ0t4YZy pic.twitter.com/yqMR8EfAED BC Transportation (@TranBC) April 17, 2022 Kicking Horse Canyon will again open for the Victoria Day long weekend in May, and then there will be no daytime stoppages due to construction from June 1 to mid-September. Photo: The Canadian Press A man suspected to be a Russian collaborator is detained during an operation by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Russian forces launched missile attacks on the western city of Lviv and pounded a multitude of other targets across Ukraine on Monday in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses ahead of an all-out assault on the east. At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of black smoke rose over a city that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons and foreign fighters joining the Ukrainian cause. The attacks came as Russia continued building up troops and artillery in the east and south for the expected start of a new ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland. In other developments, a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Russia's estimate, remained holed up at a mammoth steel mill in Mariupol, the last known pocket of resistance in the devastated southern port city after seven weeks of bombardment. The holdouts ignored a surrender ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a filled-out questionnaire in the first step toward obtaining accelerated membership in the European Union a desire that has been a source of irritation to Russia for years. Zelenskyy, though, has offered to drop any effort to join NATO, one of the Kremlin's key demands. The Russian missile strikes on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto mechanic shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. Lviv has also been seen as a relatively safe place for the elderly, mothers and children trying to escape the war. A hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting in other parts of the country was among the buildings badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv," said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. "There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to a military air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found lying with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the countrys ability to resist a major offensive in the Donbas, whose capture has become the Kremlins main goal since its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. The Russian military said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Over the weekend, Russia also claimed to have destroyed Ukrainian air defense radar equipment. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia is waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. We are doing everything to ensure the defense of eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation on Sunday. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. Ukraine halted civilian evacuations for a second day on Monday, saying Russian forces were shelling and blocking the humanitarian corridors. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Ukraine had been negotiating safe passage from cities and towns in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, including Mariupol and other areas in the Donbas. The government of the Luhansk region in the Donbas said four civilians trying to flee were shot and killed by Russian forces. Vereshchuk warned Russia on social media: "Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all involved for war crimes. The Russians, in turn, accused neo-Nazi nationalists in Mariupol of hampering the evacuation. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukrainians estimate 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Moscow eight years ago. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, it could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. Meanwhile, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who was arrested last week on a treason charge appeared in a video offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of Mariupols trapped defenders and civilians. Ukraines state security services posted the video of Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was not clear whether Medvedchuk was speaking under duress. Putin repeated his insistence that the Western sanctions blitz against Russia has failed. He said the West has not managed to provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores, though he acknowledged a sharp increase in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose 17.5%. Photo: The Canadian Press Pope Francis holds a Paschal candle as he presides over an Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, April 16, 2022. A Metis group from Manitoba was flying to Rome on Monday ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP /Alessandra Tarantino A Metis group from Manitoba was flying to Rome on Monday ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican later this week. The delegation from the Manitoba Metis Federation on Thursday will be the first to meet the head of the Roman Catholic Church since he apologized to Indigenous people for the deplorable conduct of church members involved in residential schools. The Pope apologized at the Vatican early this month following a week of meetings with Metis, Inuit and First Nations delegates. The Manitoba Metis Federation had a separate meeting organized with Francis. Delegates include residential school survivors, elders and youth. David Chartrand, the federations president, says many Metis are deeply connected to the church. Now that His Holiness has issued an apology to all Indigenous peoples, we can focus our meeting on the relationship between the Red River Metis and the Catholic Church past, present, and future, Chartrand said in a news release Monday. Some bishops will be accompanying the Manitoba Metis delegates to the Vatican. It is the desire of all the Bishops in Canada to move forward with reconciliation and to build strong relationships with Canadas Indigenous Peoples, Richard Gagnon, Archbishop of Winnipeg, said in a news release. An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, more than 60 per cent of which were run by the Catholic Church. On April 1, the pontiff stood before a room of nearly 200 Indigenous delegates and asked for God's forgiveness for the actions of the Catholic Church. "I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry," Francis said in Italian. "And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon." Francis also said he would come to Canada, possibly this summer. Chartrand said he will request the Pope come to Manitoba to understand why we need to renew our relationship, particularly in our small and remote communities, many of which the church is a central part of. A Catholic priest played a significant role in Metis leader Louis Riels founding of what would become Manitoba. Rev. Noel-Joseph Ritchot led the delegation Riel sent to Ottawa to negotiate the provisional governments entry into Confederation. Riel himself was Catholic but also wrote about his issues with the church. The Manitoba Metis Federation organized the separate meeting with the Pope after the group withdrew from the Metis National Council in 2021 following years of internal conflict. The Metis National Council was part of the larger delegation earlier this month. Photo: The Canadian Press FILE- The Twitter icon is displayed on a mobile phone in Philadelphia on April 26, 2017. Twitter said in a statement Friday, April 15, 2022, that its board of directors has unanimously adopted a poison pill defense in response to Tesla CEO Elon Musks proposal to buy the company and take it private. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Twitter's board of directors says it adopted a poison pill defense in order to protect the social media platform from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics. The company announced the move Friday and provided more details in a regulatory filing early Monday. On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed an offer to buy the company for $43 billion, or $54.20 per share. He currently owns about 9% of Twitter shares. A rights agreement enacted by the board would give shareholders as of April 25 the right to buy one one-thousandth of a share of preferred stock for each common share they own, at a price of $210 if any person or group of investors acquire 15% or more of the companys shares without board approval, Twitter said in a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The preferred stock would have the same voting rights as a common share. It would give existing shareholders more votes, making it harder for an investor to take control of the company. The filing does not specifically mention Musk. "The effect of the agreement may be to render more difficult or discourage a merger, tender or exchange offer or other business combination involving the company, the filing said. Despite the poison pill defense, the board is still leaving open the possibility of negotiating with Musk or another suitor. The filing says the rights agreement should not interfere with any merger, offer or other business combination approved by the board. Twitter's board hasn't formally rejected Musk's offer. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said it was interesting that Twitter first filed the shareholder rights plan before turning Musk down, but he expects the rejection to come in the next 24 to 48 hours. Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board, Musk tweeted on Thursday. He also said: If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty. The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale. Twitter said in a filing Thursday that Musk offered to buy the company for more than $43 billion. Musk said Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company in order to build trust with its users and do better at serving what he calls the societal imperative of free speech. Musk called the offer final, although he provided no details on financing. Such details could improve his chances of buying the company. Musk likely could raise some of the money by borrowing billions using his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX as collateral. Shares of Twitter rose nearly 3% to $46.38 in Monday morning trading, still $7.82 shy of Musk's offer. That's a sign that investors are skeptical of whether Musk can pull off the deal. Musk revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that hed been buying Twitter shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31, ending up with a stake of about 9%. Only Vanguard Group controls more Twitter shares. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York federal court alleged Musk illegally delayed disclosing his stake in the social media company so he could buy more shares at lower prices. On Twitter Monday, Musk wrote that board members would get no pay if his offer is successful. That would save Twitter about $3 million per year, he wrote. Circuit Court Clerk Larry Henry, Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean and Juvenile Court Clerk Gary Behler offered their support Greg Beck for District 5. "I am writing to lend my support for the re-election of former commissioner Gary Beck," said Mr. Henry. "Mr. Beck has proven to be a loyal and dedicated individual in both his personal and professional life. "Having known him for 18 years, I can honestly say that he is a person that leads by example and works hard for his district. "During my time on the County Commission I found Mr. Beck to be easy to communicate with others to reach a common goal." Mr. Dean said, "Being able to work with Greg Beck during his time on the County Commission has given me the confidence if elected again, he will do a great job. "Our county needs his kind of leadership and stable commitment in these changing times. I am glad to say I support Mr. Beck's return to the County Commission." "Mr. Beck has a heart for the youth of our country and will go the extra mile to help curb the tide of youth violence in our area," said Mr. Behler. "Commissioner Beck was not afraid to take risks with the creation of a summer work program for school-aged kids. "Mr. Beck managed a good rapport as commissioner and was always willing to listen to the concerns of his fellow elected officials. "His years of experience and history of goodwill makes him the obvious choice for the County Commission seat for District 5." A suspicious person was reported at the 404 Homes Apartments on Tunnel Boulevard. Someone was reported to be inside an apartment that was vacant. Police spoke with a man who was in the vacant apartment. He told police he had permission to be in the unit. After speaking with the maintenance worker and property manager, it was clear to police that the man was not allowed to be in the unit. The man was removed from the property and trespassed. He was told that if he returned to the property he would be taken to jail for trespassing. * * * An employee at The Chattanoogan Hotel, 1201 Broad St., told police that another employee, who was no longer on scene, told her that guests observed a black male grab a "package" from behind the check-in desk and leave with it. The employee said no hotel staff observed the incident take place and she could not definitively determine who the package was for. She said once hotel management arrives in the morning, they will review security footage and notify officers of any further findings. * * * Police responded to a report of a car window shattered in the Republic Parking lot at 1401 Market St. Police found a silver 2012 Ford Fiesta, IL tag, with the driver's side front window shattered by a brick. The brick was still lying on the dash. The window had not been completely broken out. There were no signs of anything being opened or gone through. * * * A disorder was reported at a residence on Blackford Street. A woman told police she had been letting her uncle live with her. She said they had gotten into a verbal disagreement. The uncle also said they had gotten into a verbal disagreement and would call police back out if needed. * * * A disorder was reported at the Hamilton Inn, 2717 Rossville Blvd. Police found a man standing outside room 131. He and another man were in a verbal argument before police arrived on the scene. The first man was told to get his stuff from room 131 and leave the premises. * * * A man on Camden Street told police that someone had broken into his car and stolen a bag of new clothes that he had just purchased. * * * A woman at the Market Street Lofts told police that sometime overnight, someone broke into her 2019 Subaru Forester and rummaged all through it. She said her vehicle was locked, but found no damage. She says she does not know how entry was gained. She said there are no security cameras that cover the parking lot. She knows a $100 gift card was taken, but she is not sure if anything else was stolen, as she had to leave and go to work. * * * A man on Greenview Drive told police that morning he received a text message from someone saying he had failed to appear for jury duty and there was a bench warrant outstanding for his arrest. He said the message went on to say this could be cleared up by him sending $500. The man said he caught immediately that this was an attempted scam. He wanted a report made so police would be aware of this scam. * * * A woman told police that her friend had attempted to steal her car while she was inside the Mapco gas station at 4711 Brainerd Road. She said he only ceased his attempt after she began yelling for people to call the police. She added that he then made threats to damage her car at a later date. The "friend" was no longer on scene when police arrived. The woman declined to press charges against him for the attempted theft. * * * A man on Belle Vista Avenue told police he had a tenant who he had to evict and when she left she took the new refrigerator and stove. He said he bought both items for around $400-$500 each, but knew to replace them would cost him around $600-$700 each. The man said he wanted to make a report for the theft to give to his lawyer, but did not wish to press charges at this time. He was unable to provide a date of birth or address for the former tenant, but said he would have the renter's file for police when he found it and if he needed to press charges. At this time he does not have proof that the former tenant took the property, just that she was the last person known to be in the house. * * * A man at the Quality Inn, 7013 Shallowford Road, told police he let a friend borrow his incarcerated mother's Jeep Liberty. He said he was informed by the friend that someone else had possession of the vehicle. He said while at work, he observed a black male pull up to his place of employment with his mother's Jeep. Police identified the driver and he handed the keys over to the man and both of them left the scene. * * * A man told police that he loaned his girlfriend his Ford F-150 truck two months ago and she has refused to give the vehicle back. The man located his vehicle on Walnut Street. Police spoke with a woman in the Hamilton County Courthouse and she said that she had traded for the Ford F-150. Police explained to her that if the owner did not sign the title of the vehicle over to her, he can still list the vehicle as stolen. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is expected to sign Senate Bill 1610 this week that could crack down on homeless encampments and roadside panhandling. An extension to the Equal Access to Public Property Act of 2012 introduces a $50 fine and/or doing community service for camping on public property. The bill has passed in both chambers of the Tennessee Legislature. The purpose of the bill is to allow local governments if they so choose to use an enforcement mechanism that would penalize solicitation or camping on public property. Local government will decide whether to enforce the law. Solicitation on roadways or exit ramps would become a Class C misdemeanor while unauthorized camping on any public property could be a Class E felony, subject to as many as six years in prison. Where the story got legs came last week when Frank Niceley, Republican Senator from Strawberry Plains, invoked Adolph Hitler into a lively debate. Heres an excerpt from a report from Knoxville television WATE website by reporter Gregory Raucoules: * * * EAST TENN. SENATOR INVOKES HITLER DURING DEBATE Homeless camps on public land risk felony in Tennessee bill Frank Niceley, a Republican senator from Strawberry Plains who represents Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson and Union counties, expressed support on April 13 for the bill by contending that people experiencing homelessness can still change their fortunes and lead productive lives. He underlined his assertion by reminding his fellow lawmakers that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was also once homeless. I wanna give you a little history lesson on homelessness. In 1910, Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practice his oratory and body language and how to connect with the masses and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books. So a lot of these people, its not a dead-end. They can come out of this. These homeless camps and have a productive life or in Hitlers case a very unproductive life. I support this bill. A request to Niceley from WATE 6 On Your Side for additional comment was not returned. Opponents of the bill argued the bill does not address the causes of homelessness and could make it more difficult for people experiencing homelessness to find work if they have a felony conviction on their records. The bill was passed in both the Tennessee House and Senate; it will next go to Gov. Bill Lees desk. Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi party who started World War II with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and led the genocide of millions of Jews, lived in a hostel for the homeless in Vienna from 1910-1913. The comments have since been covered by major news outlets across America and in the U.K. A clip of the comments shared by Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) on Twitter has been viewed nearly 2 million times. Niceley was first elected to the Tennessee House in 1988 and reelected in 1990. He was elected to serve in the 104th General Assembly in 2004 before subsequent reelections in 2006 and 2008. He has served in the Tennessee Senate since 2010. royexum@aol.com Its my belief that you cant fix a problem by making the problem worse. Thats what TN Senate Bill 1610 does, as it has been written and passed in both the State Senate and House of Representatives. Forget about what Senator Frank Nicely said. Although in part it was crass, its also been taken out of context. Surely Senator Nicely could have used a different example than Hitler; regardless, its not a one size fits all. Perhaps he should have talked more about what caused Hitler, one of the most evil men to walk the face of this earth, to be homeless and do the atrocious deeds which cost millions of lives to be lost. I estimate that Planned Parenthood is the only one to snuff out more lives. Fining/punishing someone who doesnt have any money or locking someone up who needs a roof over their head and a hot meal is counterproductive and will only exacerbate the problem with the cost going to the taxpayers. Realizing that the root problem in most cases is a mental disorder, and then providing mental health care, will be the first step in solving the problem., We have ignored mental healthcare far too long. Funding for mental health, both in Tennessee and across the United States, has lagged behind most other health services. Allowing our veterans to be homeless is unconscionable. PTSD is real and nobody wants to suffer from it. It has different degrees of severity and most cases take a trained and skilled professional to help the victim connect the dots to work past it. Governor Lee, please hold off on signing this Senate Bill 1610 until it address the root cause. Give Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly a call and ask what he is doing here. Although I didnt support his election, I support what he is trying to do for our homeless. He hasnt ignored the problem, rather he has taken steps to correct it. Lets do the same thing as the great State of Tennessee. J. Pat Williams The U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corporation, in partnership with multiple state and local responders, refloat the Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay, the United States, April 17, 2022. A giant container ship named the Ever Forward with more than 4,000 containers aboard was refloated on Sunday more than a month after it ran aground on the East Coast, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship -- which became stranded in the Chesapeake Bay on March 13 after departing the Port of Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia -- was freed around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) following a 35-day salvage operation. (U.S. Coast Guard/Devin Erfourth/Handout via Xinhua) WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A giant container ship named the Ever Forward with more than 4,000 containers aboard was refloated on Sunday more than a month after it ran aground on the East Coast, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship -- which became stranded in the Chesapeake Bay on March 13 after departing the Port of Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia -- was freed around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) following a 35-day salvage operation. This came after two unsuccessful refloat attempts, as well as days of dredging and removal of 500 containers from the 334-meter Ever Forward. "The vastness and complexity of this response were historic, as an incident like the Ever Forward grounding, in type and duration, is a rare occurrence," Captain David O'Connell, commander of Coast Guard Sector Maryland-National Capital Region, said in a statement. The Ever Forward will be towed to the Annapolis Anchorage Grounds for inspection, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The ship will be reloaded with the containers that had been removed and continue its voyage to its next port of call in Norfolk. The Ever Forward is operated by Evergreen Marine Corp., whose Ever Given got stuck in Egypt's Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway for days and causing delays in global shipping. The U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corporation, in partnership with multiple state and local responders, refloat the Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay, the United States, April 17, 2022. A giant container ship named the Ever Forward with more than 4,000 containers aboard was refloated on Sunday more than a month after it ran aground on the East Coast, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship -- which became stranded in the Chesapeake Bay on March 13 after departing the Port of Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia -- was freed around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) following a 35-day salvage operation. (George Mason University Department of Police and Public Safety/Handout via Xinhua) The U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corporation, in partnership with multiple state and local responders, refloat the Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay, the United States, April 17, 2022. A giant container ship named the Ever Forward with more than 4,000 containers aboard was refloated on Sunday more than a month after it ran aground on the East Coast, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The ship -- which became stranded in the Chesapeake Bay on March 13 after departing the Port of Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia -- was freed around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) following a 35-day salvage operation. (George Mason University Department of Police and Public Safety/Handout via Xinhua) Cody Sims, CRPC, AAMS, AWMA, financial advisor and franchise owner with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., has celebrated 27 years with Ameriprise Financial. Since 1995, Mr. Sims has served clients of the Chattanooga area, along with clients across the U.S. "My mantra is Good business is always personal,'" said Mr. Sims. "That statement embodies my philosophy and practice and guides me every day. I am pleased to serve our community by helping clients achieve their financial goals. It is a privilege and an honor to be part of the Ameriprise Financial family. As a specialist, I appreciate the opportunity to serve clients who require more complex financial/investment planning. My team and I enjoy meeting with them to thoroughly understand their goals and review their current financial situation. The time invested beforehand is essential to design the optimal plan that addresses their specific needs, in both the short and long term. Im persuaded that a financial plan is never just about the numbers, its about understanding a persons hopes and dreams for their future, helping them plan for and live in retirement with confidence and eventually leave a legacy they can be proud of. As a financial advisor and franchise owner, Mr. Sims provides financial advice that is anchored in a solid understanding of client needs and expectations through one-on-one relationships with his clients, said officials. For more information, please contact Mr. Sims at 648-2900. Their office is at 412 Georgia Ave., Suite 210. In 2004, Larry was still teaching high school in Colorado and Carol was broker for her real estate firm in Denver when it occurred to us that we might want to consider a change in location for our retirement. After much research and a few boots-on-the-ground trips, Larry and I joined the halfbacks and moved to Chattanooga. We ended up in East Brainerd buying a house that had been listed by Sabrena Turners firm, Sabrena Realty. Carol had already obtained her Tennessee real estate license and Sabrena and her brother Brent kindly worked with us, allowing us to write our own offer to purchase. We were told to place the envelope containing the offer in a particular mailbox around the corner from what was to be our new home. That turned out to be Brenda Turners homeSabrenas mothers house. So, you see, Sabrena and her family were our first contacts 15 years ago. We became fast friends and when all was said and done, Sabrena offered Carol a place to hang her license, although Carol decided to stop her real estate practice shortly thereafter. And we had many good reasons to talk across the fence as we watched Brendas grandchildren grow up there on weekend visits. Naturally, in the real estate business, politics seems to always play a part. Forward from those early times in our relationship, politics did enter the conversation and Sabrena held leadership roles in the local realtor association. It so happened that Larry lived in District 4 of Chattanooga, and Larry was interested enough (and mad enough) to actually run for Chattanooga City Council and won and he began to serve in 2013. Sabrena supported Larry in 2013. During that time when Sabrena was campaigning for her first term as District 7 commissioner, we were all in support of Rep. Mike Carters bill to end forced annexation and Sabrena was a founding member of the Hamilton County Citizens Against Annexation. Mike Carters bill passed and that stopped Mayor Littlefields threat to annex swaths of the county into the city. More, Sabrena ran and won the commissioner spot that next year. Larry supported her in 2014 and 2018. Not only did considerable overlap in the addresses of their particular city and county districts exist, but also they enjoyed considerable opportunity to work together on behalf of the citizens represented. Larry and Sabrena periodically hosted community meetings in various churches within their districts, and invited other elected officials, T-DOT officials, etc. to participate as appropriate for public updates on various issues and projects. At these meetings, questions from the audience were also taken. Memorable examples beyond the annexation matter included the widening of East Brainerd Road and improving the intersection of East Brainerd Road and Ooltewah-Ringgold Road. Of course, these projects take years to unravel, but the public warmly appreciated the results of Sabrena and Larrys work; they maintained communication with people who signed up for updates, and next meetings. They demonstrated that good government can work for the good of all. It was a privilege to be a close spectator as their well-oiled machine whirred. Sabrena married the wonderful Mark Smedley in 2011, and she stayed on as county commissioner for a second elected term and eventually became chairwoman. Wisely, she continued her education and obtained a Masters in Business Administration, opened more businesses, and raised her young children beautifully as a single parent the majority of the time. What more could one want in a mayor of Hamilton County? She has already proven her capabilities, set appropriate priorities, prepared herself for more responsibilities, and has consistently demonstrated readiness to meet tough challenges head-on. Shes her own self-made entrepreneur and public servant. If you dont vote for Sabrena Smedley for mayor of Hamilton County, dont come crying that the trade schools never happened, that the needed school board funding was not there, that the intentional future development you thought would be there disappeared into the mist. Voting for anyone else means that you think that any joe can just step up into that position with absolutely no direct preparation and successfully meet the needs of the entire county. Think again. People, get smart. Sabrena is the only Hamilton County mayor candidate who is truly ready for prime time. Larry & Carol Grohn Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Norma McGee Ogle was appointed to the bench by Governor Don Sundquist in 1998. It was a career move that wasnt on her radar, despite that fact that judgeship runs in her family.It was something that I had not really thought too much about because my husband (Circuit Court Judge Rex Henry Ogle) was a trial judge, Judge Ogle said. I thought that that might preclude any attempt on my part. There was an opening on the Court of Criminal Appeals, and I received calls from several friends, including then Judge Gary Wade. He encouraged me to apply, and I thought about it and decided to do it. If I applied and I wasnt successful, then I knew I had at least tried.If you are wondering what its like having two judges in the family, you may want to ask the Ogles son.Our son laughs and says that he could never win an argument growing up, Judge Ogle said.We dont really talk about our work at home. I think after a full day of work, the last thing we want to talk about is what weve done that day. We just try to relax with other things.Even though Judge Ogle tries not to bring her work home, shes truly enjoyed every minute on the bench.I have loved the work, Judge Ogle said. To paraphrase Lou Gehrig, I feel like Ive been the luckiest person on earth. The work is interesting, and I have wonderful colleagues. It makes it so much easier. We are able to discuss our cases. We can disagree without being disagreeable. We have a wonderful support staff. The Court of Criminal Appeals has the reputation of being the most collegial court and it is. I know other people would disagree with me on that. I think it is the collegiality of the judges on this court that really make the difference.If theres anyone who can question a judge and get away with it, its her mother. Judge Ogle recalls a humorous moment during a case that received a lot of media attention.I had to reverse a high profile case and I had gone to visit my parents, Judge Ogle said. My mother had heard on the news that this case had been reversed. She said, I wonder what judge did that. I had to say, It was your daughter. My mother is a wonderful person and she snapped right back and said, Well, you did what you had to do.One thing is for sure, the work of a judge is never boring. Judge Ogle said she is always learning and she recommends new judges do the same.Appreciate the experience of your colleagues because the good thing about being part of an appellate court is youre not there by yourself, Judge Ogle said. Youre one of three people. You can talk about the issues, make decisions together or disagree. I love to learn and I hope I never quit learning. Thats one thing about being on this court is you never stop learning.Because there arent many people who have the opportunity to sit on the bench, Judge Ogle advises new judges to enjoy it, appreciate it and just be glad to be there. Before you know it, it will be time to retire.I will miss the people I work with, Judge Ogle said. I have a wonderful support staff, the people in the clerks office. Ive had opportunity in the east to work with Judge Montgomery, Judge Tipton, Judge Thomas, Judge Wade and Judge Witt, Jr., who is not retiring and will be a great resource for the two new judges coming. Theyve just been wonderful, especially when I was a new judge, who came in and had so much to learn.Moving forward, Judge Ogle would like to see more female judges. She was fortunate to follow Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey and former Justice Penny J. White, crediting both women with preparing her for the job.When I came to this court, for several years, I was the only female on the court, Judge Ogle said. I really do want to encourage women to apply to all the appellate courts. Weve come so far, but were still, except for the Supreme Court, were a very small minority on the intermediate courts. My hope is that in the future well see more women apply.As for retirement, Judge Ogle believes making that transition will be easy.I dont tend to sit at home and do nothing, Judge Ogle said. I have a granddaughter, who just turned five, who I want to spend more time with. I also want to spend more time with my family and do volunteer work to stay busy. Judge Ogle plans to retire on June 30, 2022.Prior to Judge Ogles appointment to the bench, she was a private practice attorney in Sevierville, from 1979-1998. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tennessee in 1974 and received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1977.Judge Ogles memberships and community service include: Member, Board of Judicial Conduct, 20152018; Tennessee Bar Association, Sevier County Bar Association and Knoxville Bar Association; Commissioner and chairperson, Tennessee Human Rights Commission, 19951998; Member, State of Tennessee Local Planning Advisory Board, 19971998; Member and chairperson, Sevier County Board of Education, 19821994; Advisory Board, Walters State Community College, 1997present; Sevier County Library Foundation. Nightfall, Chattanoogas longest-running outdoor summer concert series will celebrate its 35th season this year with a 15-week season of free outdoor concerts held at Miller Plaza beginning Friday, May 27, and continuing every Friday through Sept. 2. Shows begin at 7 p.m. and end at approximately 9:30 p.m. In additional to music on the Miller Plaza stage, Nightfall features food trucks, local artisan vendors and lawn games in Miller Park. The finals for this years Road to Nightfall competition will precede the beginning of the Nightfall season with a show at Miller Plaza on May 6 beginning at 7 p.m. The top four bands from the April preliminary RTN rounds will each perform a 30-minute set to compete for the chance to be a Nightfall headliner on Aug. 26. The RTN finals at Miller Plaza will not involve road closures or the use of Miller Park, since it is not a part of the regular Nightfall season. During the Nightfall regular season starting May 27, most weeks will adhere to Nightfalls regular format of having a 7 p.m. local opening band, followed by an 8 p.m. national headliner of various genres. However, there are three nights that will serve to highlight local talent, as a way to celebrate and support Chattanooga bands. Nightfall 2022 Schedule: May 27 Cha Wa / Killakeyz (opener) June 3 Teddy Thompson Band / Ryan Oyer (opener) June 10 Wildernmiss / Summer Dregs (opener) June 17 This date will include a co-bill of two different Chattanooga bands: Opposite Box 7pm/ The Original FBI 8:25 pm June 24 Lakou Mizik / Steely Bruno (opener) July 1 Blackcat Zydeco featuring Dwight Carrier / The Scarlet Love Conspiracy (opener) July 8 Yam Haus / Jason Lyles (opener) July 15 Boulevards / Amber Fults (opener) July 22 The Abrams / Barefoot Nellie (opener) July 29 This date will include a co-bill of two different Chattanooga bands: Call Me Spinster 7pm/ Drew Sterchi & the Blues Tribe 8pm Aug. 5 Joslyn and the Sweet Compression / Rishard (opener) Aug. 12 OConnor Lee (band) / New Dismembered Tennesseans (opener) Aug. 19 Magnolia Boulevard TN Ruminators Aug. 26 2022 Road to Nightfall Winners (TBD) Sept. 2 Miko Marks / Butch Ross (opener) With band performances held on the Miller Plaza stage, the renovated Miller Park provides space for activities such as outdoor games, food trucks, artisan vendors and family activities on the grassy lawn. Registration for artist booth space can be found at http://www.nightfallchattanooga.com/nightfall-registration-form. Motorcycle parking will be allowed in the one block of Market Street between 8th Street and M.L.King Boulevard. Fun new features include roller skating with the Moonlight Rollers on the second Friday of each month, and a car display from the River City Corvette Club on the fourth Friday of every month in the block of M.L.King between Market and Broad. Other additions in that block will regularly include a video game bus and occasional vintage clothing (check Nightfallchattanooga.com to stay informed about special features each week). Nightfall bulk discount beer and wine tickets will again be available this year at each show, offering a 20 percent savings on a packet of 20 beer and wine tickets. Food trucks and non-alcoholic drink concessions are also available on site. No outside food or beverages are allowed to be brought in to Nightfall since concession sale are a primary funder of Nightfall. Known for its family-friendly environment as well as being recognized nationally for the quality of its musical programming, Nightfall is a family-friendly concert series that brings the Chattanooga community together in the heart of the city. Nightfall is made possible this year thanks to sponsorships from Mich Ultra, Fletcher Bright Company, Southeast Bank, Village Volkswagen, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Southern Honda Powersports, U.S.Xpress, T-Mobile, Chambers Welding & Fabrication, Lass & Lion, and Chattanooga Whiskey. In-kind support comes from NPR/Music 88.1, ChattanoogaNow, Ruby Falls and River City Company. Nightfall is locally produced by Chattanooga Presents. For more information on this free community concert series, call 304-5835 or visit NightfallChattanooga.com for a complete, interactive website that includes music samples by each headliner, as well as other important information for first-time attendees. A controversial project to rezone property at 1023 South Seminole Dr. from O-1 Office District and C-2 General Commercial to R-3 Apartment district failed to get approval at the East Ridge City Council meeting. Around a dozen residents who live near the site spoke in opposition to the project that had been tabled at earlier meetings from March 10 and 24. One speaker said they realized that this was the last opportunity the homeowners had to protect their neighborhood from a massive change. There is overwhelming sentiment that the community is against this project, said Edgar Shaw. The Chattanooga Regional Planning Agency had recommended that the site hold only 10 units. The complex proposed by the owner, represented by Kenny Custer with ASA Engineering, would have had 72 units. Three years ago an 80-unit apartment complex had been proposed, using the same studies, and was also denied by the city council. Concerns that were expressed by many of the homeowners in the neighborhood included statistics from Realtor.com showing that with the increase of rentals in an area, that the value of homes decline and the crime rate could go up. How the increased density in the city, which already is one of the most densely populated in Hamilton County, could benefit East Ridge was questioned. Higher density does not mean a better quality of life, said one speaker. Daily traffic that would enter and exit on South Seminole Drive would likely be increased by 144 vehicles daily assuming two per unit. And the hilly terrain obstructs visibility of on-coming traffic according to another speaker. The road is already being used as a main route from Georgia into Tennessee with heavy traffic that empties onto Ringgold Road near what already is considered a dangerous intersection where 38 accidents occurred from 2015-2019. The intersection is very near the Bachman Tunnel where the average is 9,645 vehicles per day in the eastbound lane. The property has been used to retain stormwater and residents and business owners feared that replacing the vegetation with parking lots and impervious roofs would cause flooding and runoff issues. Another reality is that if rezoning had been approved, it would open the door to the developers who would not be required to build what had been presented to the council and to the public. Once zoning is changed, the developers would be able to build any quality of multi-family units they wanted to. It is easy to do a dog and pony show said speaker Ed Turner. The project would not necessarily end up being luxury apartments renting for $2,200 - $2,500 per month, that overlooks Toms Carpets, he said. Another speaker questioned the code of ethics of a $1,600 contribution that the developer of the apartments made to Vice Mayor Mike Chauncys Hamilton County Commission campaign, suggesting that the vice mayor should recuse himself from the vote. City Attorney Mark Litchford replied that campaign donations are not a conflict of interest unless there is a direct financial gain. This was done in the light of the day, said the Vice Mayor. Direct answers were not provided at the public meeting that was held earlier regarding this project, said Council Member Jacky Cagle. He said he left the meeting confused because it was not clear when the traffic study had been done and there was no mention of water run-off. Additionally, he said the owner could build whatever they wanted once it was rezoned. A motion made by Council Member Andrea Witt was seconded by Vice Mayor Chauncy who both voted to approve the rezoning. The request failed with Mayor Brian Williams and Council Members Jacky Cagle and Ester Helton in opposition. East Ridge City Manager Chris Dorsey reported that the new Pioneer Frontier playground opened April 2 with a good turn-out. But he said there have already been several issues with unruly behavior there as was experienced last year after school hours. He would like it to be known that there will be increased police presence at the park during that time. He said that the new dog park is open for use although the play equipment has not yet been delivered. It is expected sometime in May or June. The East Ridge Council authorized the city to proceed with negotiations with BP Constructions proposal to revitalize the adjacent properties located at 4214 Ringgold Road and 1501 Tombras Avenue. The proposal includes removing all existing structures from the former McBrien Elementary School site and be replaced by a mixed-use development. The vote means the city recognized the proposal made in response to the Request for Proposal. That will allow renegotiations with the developer which presented only conceptual drawings that are considered to be flexible. Mayor Brian Williams said he would like to see more open space in the plan, that could be used for community events much like the space at Cambridge Square. The mayor led a discussion about resurfacing roads in East Ridge. A study has been done to rate every road from the worst to the ones in best condition. The city has earmarked $750,000 for road work this year. The council committed to spending $500,000 to start making repairs. To make the money go farther, the mayor proposed spot paving. This would not be just filling potholes, but would repair or replace sections of the roads that are in the worst condition. The roads will be grouped into areas so the company that does the work can make efficient use of where the equipment will be used. The East Ridge city code was amended with a prohibition of cooking and devices that use open flames on balconies of apartments. These will not be allowed to operate within 10 feet of combustible materials. Delays caused by the labor and materials shortages have caused the need for an extension in time that the two new liquor stores in the city were given to complete construction and open. Two extensions have already been given, one in November, 2021 and another in February 2022. Now the city will be adding two additional three-month extensions if they are needed. A resolution was approved for a variance to the citys sign ordinance that will allow a reduction of the front setback for a monument sign at 6801 Ringgold Road for a Marriott Towne Place Suites hotel that is being built on Frawley Road. The developer Dynamic Group requested the variance because with the requirements of the sign ordinance, the monument sign would have been behind a hill, making it difficult for travelers to identify the location. Due to the COVID pandemic, the voting location in East Ridge was moved two years ago, to Camp Jordan Arena. This year it will be moving back to the community center along with the sites for political campaign tents that will be erected. The council approved a resolution to have the candidates tent locations the same places they were before 2020. The council also approved the purchase of a new attachment for the street departments boom mower. And a contract with HHM Certified Public Accountants was approved for auditing services for the coming year. 90 Day Fiance Season 9 couple, Jibri and Miona, may already be married, according to a Serbian interview conducted in 2020. The many inconsistencies in this couples storyline make fans question the TLC shows validity. Miona and Jibri, 90 Day Fiance Season 9 | TLC Jibri claims Miona is coming to the US on a K-1 visa On the premiere episode of 90 Day Fiance Season 9, which aired on April 17, audiences are introduced to Jibri and Miona. Jibri, a 28-year-old from Rapid City, South Dakota, moved home after living in LA, California. In the episode, Jibri introduced 23-year-old Miona as his fiancee. He explained that she would be coming to the United States for the first time on a K-1 or fiance visa. As fans know, the K-1 visa allows the non-US citizen in the relationship to come to the US with the intention of getting married in 90 days. Jibri and Miona discuss where they will have their wedding. Miona has her heart set on a beach wedding. And she made it clear that a wedding on the prairies of South Dakota isnt an option because she is only going to get married once. However, some new information might confirm that Miona and Jibri could already have married pre-2020. Serbian interview refers to Miona as Jibris wife In an interview for a Serbian outlet, Telegraf, Jibri talks about the struggles of being a Black man in America after George Floyds death and the unrest that followed. The interviewer refers to Jibri by his self-appointed Serbian name, Jovan Crnovic. Miona and Jibri, 90 Day Fiance Season 9 | TLC In the 2020 interview, Jibri talks about how much Serbia means to him. He said, But then when I came here this has been my second home. He then reveals that hes already married to Miona. Jibri said, My wifes Serbian, and my lifes Serbian, and everything Serbian to me is right. He explained that he brought his grandmother and two cousins to Serbia on one of his many trips to the country. Which many fans found odd, considering that his mother, Mahala Bach, has yet to meet her sons fiancee, Miona. This begs the question of which part of Jibri and Mionas storyline is true and which part is made up by production. 90 Day Fiance fans question the shows credibility After finding out that Jibri and Miona could already be married, many 90 Day Fiance fans discussed the shows credibility. One fan posted on Reddit, I know the producers and the couples create situations for some drama effect. I know it is not all real, but the case of Jibri and Miona is next level. Many 90 Day Fiance fans wondered why TLC agreed to feature this couple knowing they are possibly already married. One fan speculated, Wonder why TLC chose their story then. Maybe TLC had these couples chosen before COVID? Anything besides it being scripted I want it to be real to me. Could this be another example of TLC frauding? Unfortunately, many 90 Day Fiance fans believe that might be the case. Either way, fans will have to keep watching this season to find out the truth. New episodes of 90 Day Fiance Season 9 airs Sundays on TLC and discovery+. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Season 9: All About Jibris Space Punk Band Black Serbs For a while, movie stars Chris Pratt and Anna Faris seemed to have the ideal marriage. They were affectionate and quirky and appeared to have a lot of fun together. Although the couple went their separate ways, for a while, they seemed as though they were living the sort of happily-ever-after that comes at the end of a rom-com. However, the end of the relationship was more similar to how their characters parted in the movie that brought the actors together. Anna Faris and Chris Pratt met on a movie set (L-R): Actors Anna Faris and Chris Pratt arrive at the premiere of Columbia Pictures Passengers at Regency Village Theatre on December 14, 2016 in Westwood, California. | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic The relationship began classically for a Hollywood couple. Chris Pratt and Anna Faris met in 2007 on the set of the movie Take Me Home Tonight. Faris was still married at the time to fellow actor Ben Indra. Although she and Pratt insisted that they didnt become romantically involved at the time, she filed for divorce from Indra shortly after they met. By the time the movie premiered in 2011, everything had changed. Faris and Pratt got engaged in 2008, and they were married in 2009. Although they said they didnt start dating during the filming of Take Me Home Tonight, Pratt did credit their time on set with sparking their relationship. This is a pretty spectacular moment for us, he said at the premiere (via PopSugar), to be able to come to this movie that we met on and fell in love making. Their marriage fell apart Pratt and Faris welcomed a child together, Jack, in 2012. Although the couple appeared happy in the years after Jack was born, Pratt started to move into leading man roles. Along with that came rumors that he wasnt always faithful. In 2016, he took some time off work to spend time with Faris. However, the couple announced in 2017 that they were separating. Their divorce was final the following year. In Take Me Home Tonight, Faris portrayed Wendy, while Pratt played her boyfriend, Kyle. The pair get engaged early in the film, but Kyle doesnt support Wendys dreams. She breaks up with him at the end of the movie. Faris later spoke about why she and Pratt split. It had to do, in part, with their careers. I dont think we did a great job of eliminating competitiveness, she said on her podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified. Pratt and Faris both moved on It didnt take long for Chris Pratt and Anna Faris to find love again. Pratt started dating Katherine Schwarzenegger, and in 2019, he proposed to her. Faris said that he texted her with the news shortly after the engagement, and she was so happy for him that she even offered to officiate their wedding. The following year, Pratt and Schwarzenegger had a daughter together. Although there was some drama around a social media post that Pratt made at the time, Faris insisted she was happy that Jack had a sibling. According to People, Faris quietly eloped with cinematographer Michael Barrett in 2021. The two have been together for a while, having met in 2017 while they were working on the movie Overboard. RELATED: Anna Faris Reveals What Went Wrong (Partially) With Chris Pratt Marriage On April 3, 2022, Miami Police responded to a domestic dispute involving a popular social media model and a man whod been stabbed. Media outlets quickly reported on the couple in question, Courtney Tailor and her boyfriend Christian Obumseli. Sadly, Obumseli died from his injuries. Followers of Tailors Instagram, OnlyFans, and Youtube accounts want to know what happened. Everyone else simply wants to know who Courtney Tailor is and why she fatally stabbed her boyfriend. Who is OnlyFans and Instagram model, Courtney Tailor? Courtney Tailor, an OnlyFans and Instagram model | Courtney Tailor via Youtube Tailor is accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death, although she does not face criminal charges at the time of publication. Her boyfriend Christian Obumselis family lawyer said Tailor, real name Courtney Clenney, stabbed him, reports Heavy. Tailor is a fitness influencer and model. Shes popular on social media platforms such as OnlyFans and Instagram, where youll find photos of her in revealing clothing. Beyond her over two million followers on Instagram, the 25-year-old appeared in a 2015 music video for rapper G-Eazys hit song Me, Myself and I. She also appeared in a couple of movies prior to that. You can see photos of Tailor if you subscribe to OnlyFans. On this adult subscription service, Tailor claims to be a Texas transplant, though she is a Michigan native. Today, she is best known for a video captured from a neighboring apartment building. The video shows her on the floor in handcuffs, covered in blood, while talking to the police. What we know about the April 3 incident involving Courtney Tailor and Christian Obumseli Obumseli recently moved to Miami from Texas and was living with Tailor in the One Paraiso apartment building in Edgewater. The 27-year-old worked for a software company and studied communication at Texas Tech, reports Heavy. Beyond this, not much is known about Obumseli or the tragedy that occurred between him and Tailor, which is still under investigation. However, according to The Sun, neighbors say the couple frequently had intense arguments that required police involvement. Ashley Vaughn, a friend of the couple, said, Weve seen her hit him. Ive never seen him hit her. Although Obumselis Instagram posts portray them as a loving couple, Tailors lawyer, Frank Prieto, says otherwise. He stated that she was defending herself at the time of the incident. Tailor also cited involvement with sex trafficking via her lawyer. Obumselis family says this is not true. They set up a GoFundMe page in Obumselis honor and imply that Tailor is getting off easy because she is rich and white. However, some sources report a neighbor witnessing Obumseli hit Tailor a week prior to the incident. Where does the case stand now? Allegedly, when the police showed up at the apartment, Tailor began talking about killing herself, according to the Sun. Therefore, the police did not immediately file charges against Tailor because they detained her under the Baker Act. The Baker Act is a Florida-based process that means law enforcement or others may force treatment for mental illnesses on someone who is a danger to themselves or others. Former Florida state representative Maxine Baker sponsored the act in 1971. To be held on the Baker Act, a person must be mentally or emotionally impaired and unable to control their actions or understand reality, yet will not willfully submit to examination. In a situation like this, the person, Tailor, would be held for 72 hours. A clinical psychologist or physician must examine the person during that time. After the examination, one of four things will happen: The person will be released if not charged with a crime, released for outpatient treatment, consents to voluntary placement in a treatment facility, or involuntarily forced by a circuit court to enter a treatment facility. At this time, the police have not filed charges. The media recently spotted Tailor out with her father in Miami. RELATED: Angela Simmons Reveals The Hardest Part About Surviving Domestic Abuse Jennifer Lawrence became an international star with her authoritarian-defying badass Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series. But her seemingly straightforward physical appearance in the franchise was actually more complicated to create than it would seem. By the time she was done filming Catching Fire, Lawrences hair was so badly damaged she had to almost completely start over. Read on to find out what Lawrence (and her hair) went through to recreate Katniss look. Jennifer Lawrence | Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Jennifer Lawrence did not want dark brown hair When Lawrence and director Gary Ross sat down to figure out Katniss hair color, they ended up with very different opinions. Lawrence, a natural blonde, really wanted to pick the lightest brown that was under consideration, but that didnt vibe with the visual style Ross had in mind. Committed to creating a much more earthy tone than other Hollywood tentpoles, Ross looked at six different brown wigs on Lawrenceand ultimately chose the darkest brown. Although Lawrence might have been able to wear a wig for shoots, she agreed to dye her hair for the role to ensure an authentic look. But the dark brown hair was only part of the process. According to Cosmopolitan, they settled on a very specific type of braid that had hidden benefits for filming. Not only did the braid look practical for the character, but it could be easily picked up by the camera when shooting from any angle. With her dark brown hair and now-famous braid, the hair team was able to mask how difficult the process was to transform Lawrence into Katniss. Lawrence had a hair crisis after shooting Catching Fire Just as she was becoming one of the highest-paid actors in the world, Lawrence was quietly trying to control a hair disaster. In the middle of shooting Catching Fire in late 2011/early 2012, Lawrence was up for a Best Actress Oscar for The Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence can be seen accepting the award at the Academy Awards with mostly brown hair and a splash of blonde. Only days after winning her Oscar, Lawrence was back on set in Hawaii wrapping up her scenes in Catching Fire, which again required her to dye her hair dark brown. By the time she finished the shoot, her hair was badly damaged from all the bleaching from brown to blonde, and re-dyeing in such a short span. Ultimately, Lawrence had to convert her long brown locks into a short blonde pixie cut, allowing her to start from scratch and regrow her natural blonde hair. Katniss also wasnt the only role that required Lawrence to dye her hair around that time. Just after finishing the first Hunger Games in 2011, she dyed her hair jet black for The Silver Linings Playbook, only to have the look scrapped and redyed before filming began. According to the New York Times, the person who nixed the look was now-disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Trusting the beauty experts works for Lawrence Despite being an international movie star, Lawrences beauty routine is surprisingly low-key. According to a Harpers Bazaar profile, Lawrence keeps it simple and listens to the experts for anything beyond regular upkeep. That is especially true with her hair. Im so bad with hair! she admitted, adding that she mostly likes to straighten her natural curls and trusts her L.A. stylist to deliver the uneven and choppy look she likes. With top-tier stylists at her side whenever she wants, Lawrence has been very adventurous when it comes to trying new hairdos. As broken down by Vogue, shes gone back and forth between being a blonde and brunette, worn extensions plenty of times, and even dazzled with her pixie cut when she was forced to experiment. From a simple side part for Parisian fashion shows to the princess-like chignon she wore when winning her Oscar, Lawrence has covered nearly the full spectrum of hairstyles in a decade in the spotlight. Beyond hair, Lawrence makes sure to exfoliate every night and wear sunscreen wherever she goes, but she also rarely wears makeup if shes not heading to an event. And when she does, she would much rather trust her face to a pro. Since I often get it done professionally, Im probably better off staying away from my face, she said. Lawrence will again be a blonde for her starring role in the upcoming Bad Blood, a drama about fallen biotech titan Elizabeth Holmes from director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Dont Look Up). RELATED: Dont Look Up Star Jennifer Lawrence Was In Absolute Misery Filming 1 Scene With Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothee Chalamet It Was Hell TLCs Little People, Big World brought Amy and Matt Roloffs family to the forefront. Though only Zach Roloff and his wife, Tori Roloff, remain filming the show with Amy and Matt, the couple has four children. More recently, Amy gave fans a peek at her visit with her daughter, Molly Roloff. So, where is Molly Roloff now in 2022? Heres what we know. Little People, Big World star Amy Roloff visited Molly Roloff for Easter 2022 Amy Roloff and Matt Roloff | Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire Today, Amy and Matt Roloff are the driving force behind Little People, Big World, but such wasnt always the case. When the show began, Amy and Matt showcased what their family looked like. Both Amy and Matt are little people, as is Zach Roloff. But Zachs twin, Jeremy Roloff, as well as Molly Roloff and Jacob Roloff, were born of average height. With the show returning to TLC in 2022, it looks different from when it first began. And fans rarely see much of Molly in the public eye. Amy posted a photo to Instagram on April 17, 2022, of her visiting Molly for Easter. Easter weekend in Spokane, Amy captioned the post. Nothing better than hanging out with some of my kiddos and grandson and praising the Lord. Hallelujah! The photo shows Amy taking the selfie outdoors with Molly, Mollys husband, Jacob, Jacobs wife, two dogs, and a baby carriage. Where is Molly Roloff now? Quitting #LPBW certainly hasn't hurt Molly Roloff's net worth. https://t.co/wg1cufD3OE In Touch Weekly (@intouchweekly) February 20, 2022 So, where is Molly Roloff now? At 28 years old, shes married to Joel Silvius and still living in Spokane, Washington, where Amy visited her. Amy visits Molly from time to time, and it seems Molly also comes to Helvetia, Oregon, to spend time with her mom. They live about five to seven hours apart. In Touch Weekly reports Molly is a Senior Accountant External Reporting at Nordstrom. While she currently lives in Spokane, she also reportedly went to school there. She attended Whitworth University in Spokane. So, will Molly make any future appearances on Little People, Big World? While shes no longer a series regular, theres a chance shell make a cameo for major events. Unfortunately, fans shouldnt expect her, Jeremy Roloff, or Jacob Roloff to return to reality TV full-time. Did Jacob Roloff have a baby? He and his wife have a baby carriage in the Easter photo with Amy Roloff Is Jacob Roloff the heir to Roloff Farms? #LPBW's Matt Roloff gifted his youngest a vintage car and praised his work after Jeremy and Zach voiced interest in taking over the family farm. https://t.co/uaPEG4aGCx In Touch Weekly (@intouchweekly) January 18, 2022 Aside from Molly Roloff, Amy also visited with Jacob Roloff, given the Easter 2022 photo. So, does Jacob Roloff have a baby now? He does. He and his wife, Isabel Rock, welcomed their first child in December 2021. They married in 2019. Our birth story didnt go as planned; as we know life rarely ever does, Isabel posted on Instagram on Dec. 11, 2022. These past few weeks have shown me what true surrender and trust looks like. I have never been more hands on my knees afraid, and I have also never known a love so big. Seeing Jacob as a father is the most heartwarming thing I have ever witnessed. Being a mother is the most myself I have ever felt. While Jacob Roloff will never return to Little People, Big World, he has a good relationship with Molly and Amy. Additionally, recent rumors suggest Matt Roloff wants him to take over Roloff Farms, though well have to wait and see what occurs there. Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! RELATED: Little People, Big World: Jeremy Roloff Says He Didnt Want to Associate With the Show When He Left, Says It Did Damage WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Two minors died and eight more people were injured after shots were fired at a house party in Pittsburgh, a major city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, early Sunday morning. The shooting took place shortly after midnight during a party at a rental property, with as many as 200 people in attendance, many of them underage, according to police. Two male victims -- both juveniles -- died at the hospital, police said, and eight more people were being treated for gunshot wounds. A police release initially said nine others were injured, but Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert told reporters on Sunday noon that the number was later revised. Police also said initial investigation revealed as many as 50 rounds were fired inside, prompting some party-goers to jump out of the windows, and several more shots were fired outside the home. The investigation is ongoing. Andrew Weinstein, an attorney and advocate for ending gun violence, tweeted on Sunday that people might not have heard about the shooting "because it's the sort of thing that happens every single day in America." "It's long past time we did something about that," Weinstein added. The Pittsburgh party shooting was only one of several mass shootings that have been reported across the United States over the weekend. In the state of South Carolina, two separate mass shootings on Saturday afternoon and early Sunday have left at least 23 people injured in total. In Syracuse in the state of New York, five people were shot, including one man fatally, in a commercial area early Saturday. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh told reporters that this incident touched a nerve in this community. "I've heard from a lot of people who are concerned," Walsh said. "Everybody goes downtown. Everybody can relate to that. Everybody has stood where this incident has occurred." Over 22,000 people have died or been injured due to gun-related incidents in the United States this year, according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive. Many cities around the United States have been experiencing "a pretty significant increase in shootings and homicides," a trend that started in the spring of 2020, according to Christopher Herrmann, assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, specializing in crime analysis. Americans' concern about crime and violence has edged up in the past year, and for the first time since 2016, a majority of them -- 53 percent -- said they were worried "a great deal" about crimes, according to the latest data from Gallup. When a celebrity dies, like Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, its easy to focus on the fan reaction. Everyone looks back on their past work and wonders what they could have done if they were still around. Machine Gun Kelly remembered Hawkins children, however, and had a few sweet words to say to them. Machine Gun Kelly | Jason Kempin/Getty Images Taylor Hawkins death shook up the music world News of Hawkins death on March 25 came as a shock to many. He was only 50 years old and was on tour in South America at the time. It seemed like everything was going right for Hawkins, and then we learned that he was gone. Hawkins was found in his Bogota, Colombia hotel room. After announcing his passing, the Foo Fighters officially canceled their Grammy Awards performance. As of this time, their future tour dates are also canceled as the group mourns. Even so, Hawkins still had a role to play at the Grammys. Billie Eilish wore a black T-shirt with Hawkins picture on it during her performance. The 2022 Grammys host Trevor Noah would later play a touching tribute video during the time slot when the Foo Fighters were originally scheduled to play. The Foo Fighters won three awards that night. These were for the Best Rock Performance (Making a Fire), Best Rock Song (Waiting On a War), and Best Rock Album Medicine at Midnight. Machine Gun Kelly reached out to Taylor Hawkins children Hawkins was on the Howard Stern Show quite a bit, so when Machine Gun Kelly appeared on the show on March 28, it was only natural to discuss Hawkins death. Howard mentioned how much he enjoyed having Hawkins on the show. He really enjoyed talking to Hawkins, and remembers him as a kind soul. Machine Gun Kelly agreed. As it turns out, he got to spend some time with Hawkins in Paraguay just two nights before his death. The Foo Fighters and Machine Gun Kelly were supposed to perform at a festival together. The event was canceled due to bad weather, however. This didnt stop the Foo Fighters from having a good time, and they invited Machine Gun Kelly and his entourage along to their hotel rooftop. Machine Gun Kelly remembered how Hawkins made sure to speak to everyone, including his personal assistant. He took the extra time to really get to know everyone. When discussing Hawkins children, Machine Gun Kelly said, I really want to thank him and let his kids know that he made us feel so confident in ourselves and loved, and your father [was] a great, great man, and we were all lucky to know him. The Mainstream Sellout tour is on The show must go on, and Machine Gun Kelly released his sixth full-length studio album Mainstream Sellout on March 25, the day of Hawkins death. He was on the Stern Show to promote this album and said the title is sort of a way to poke fun at himself and the people who think that hes new to the scene. Mainstream Sellout currently has a user score of 5.5 on Metacritic. Many of the reviews referenced the similarities between this album and Tickets to My Downfall. According to Machine Gun Kellys site, the tour will begin in Austin, Texas on June 8, and will then move across the U.S. until it wraps up in Cleveland, Ohio on August 13. Machine Gun Kelly will then travel overseas to Germany, Czechia, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ireland, and finally to the Netherlands where the tour will end on October 12. RELATED: Red Hot Chili Peppers Pay Tribute to Taylor Hawkins and Kurt Cobain on the Howard Stern Show Mayim Bialik is still alternating guest hosting duties with Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!, though she has plenty of other projects in the works. Recently directing her first feature film As They Made Us, Bialik also wrote the script and admitted she thought of her formerThe Big Bang Theory co-star when she fleshed out a specific character. Mayim Bialik | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images As They Made Us highlights family relationships As They Made Us was released in theaters and on streaming services on April 8. The story centers on Abigail (Dianna Agron), a divorced mother of two, who is trying to handle her familys complex dynamics while caring for her ailing father (Dustin Hoffman). Abigails estranged brother (Simon Helberg) has broken off contact with the family due to their mothers (Candice Bergen) highly abrasive personality. Coming to terms with the dysfunction in her family, Abigail attempts to heal the rift between her brother and parents before her dad passes away. Loosely based on her own family of origin, Bialik commented on how the films cast members gave stellar performances. This is an unbelievable cast, each of them individually, but then also as a family, Bialik told Variety. I just love so much how they function together, and how they didnt function, as the roles required. RELATED: Mayim Bialik Called Directing These 2 Hollywood Icons Surreal and Intimidating Mayim Bialik considers herself Simon Helbergs biggest fan Bialik expressed her gratitude for her former TBBT co-star taking on the character of Nathan, knowing how Helberg would nail the role. It was very, very special to work with Simon, Bialik said. I basically wrote with him in mind, but I never thought he would do this movie. It also was very important to have someone who knew me when my father passed away, who knew my family, and it felt like having a friend there. Though the Jeopardy! guest host knew she had her work cut out for herself calling the shots for two Hollywood heavyweights in Hoffman and Bergen, Bialik was most apprehensive giving Helberg direction. I would say Im Simon Helbergs biggest fan, Bialik told the Daily Beast. It was a bigger challenge than even directing Dustin or Candice or Dianna, because this is someone who I looked up to so much and who inspired me for the decade that he and I worked together on Big Bang, and now I have to turn around and try and approach him as his director. Calling Action! was new for Mayim Bialik Bialik is no stranger to show business. Starring on the big screen as a child actor in the film Beaches and later on TV in NBCs sitcom Blossom, Bialiks transition to directing had her tackling some new tasks. I was extremely nervous I was terrified, she admitted to Variety. And it literally didnt even occur to me that Im the one who has to yell, Action. I remember there was this notion of like, How do I want to say it? There was this definite notion of being terrified for at least the first week. Bialik leaned on some tips from fellow directors to help her stay on her toes throughout the filmmaking process. I spoke to the director Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), she remarked. She told me let no one in the edit bay whos a producer, except me, and that was really good advice. I used David Mamets book on directing as sort of my guide. I had a wrote down my favorite quotes and posted them on the clipboard that Id take to set and I would literally touch the book every morning before Id leave the hotel room. As They Made Us is now playing in theaters and on streaming services. RELATED: Is Jeopardy! Guest Host Mayim Bialik Married? Disney+s new series Moon Knight is a different take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Until now, the streamers Marvel offerings directly tied into the movies. While this may still happen with Oscar Isaacs newly-introduced hero, the show is yet to crossover with other MCU properties past references. However, if a big crossover occurs, the director sees him as a problem for the other heroes of the universe. Oscar Issac as Moon Knight | Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios What is Moon Knight? According to IMDb, Moon Knight pits Isaacs titular character against a cult with roots in Ancient Egypt. However, Isaacs protagonist, Marc Spector, has a problem. He lives with dissociative identity disorder and switches between personas while forgetting his time between them. As such, a man who begins as a museum employee quickly latches onto his own secret identity. The show aims not only to introduce a new character but shine a light on an actual mental health condition. On top of that, Ethan Hawkes Arthur Harrow is a religious zealot and cult leader who worships the Egyptian goddess Ammit and serves as a worthy foe. Meanwhile, Spector attempts to make sense of his new existence. In a new twist, Disney started this series not in the shadow of other events, but in a corner of the cinematic world that, until now, we havent seen. However, should Moon Knight crossover with the bigger universe, he might bite off more than he can chew. If Moon Knight meets Avengers Moon Knight co-director Mohamed Diab spoke with Inverse about the characters role in the greater MCU. While the series stands alone through two episodes, everyone looks forward to the seemingly inevitable crossover with the big-screen cast. With this in mind, Diab sees that potential collaboration is the bane of the collectives existence. I could see Marc and Steven driving the characters of the MCU crazy. Marcs speaking to someone with complete seriousness, and suddenly he turns into Steven, or Moon Knight turns into Mr. Knight. I think it would be amazing, Diab told Inverse. While the on-screen world is yet to reach that point, executive producer Grant Curtis told the website that theyve already plotted Moon Knights ultimate role inside the greater universe. Moon Knight is very much in the MCU, Curtis told Inverse. Curtis continued, saying, The observant viewer is going to hear and see those Easter eggs we drop that do explain that and confirm that We looked at the very first comics he appeared in, in 1975, and we looked over the years of storytelling, over the decades of Moon Knight stories, [and asked] what are the themes and tones that were gravitating towards as storytellers? We never intentionally tried to make this standalone. Thus far, it has kept that feel. However, the MCU is in the middle of its longest, most comprehensive overhaul, and Isaacs introduction could play out in many ways. What will happen next? Oscar Isaac is just the latest massive star to join the universe, but his inclusion, alongside Hailee Steinfeld in Hawkeye, shows just how ambitious future plans may be. The MCU is still recovering from Endgames universe-changing events, and every series from WandaVision to Moon Knight has added intrigue to the post-blip world. Whether this plays into the multiverse or Moon Knight happens to fight alongside one of the established characters remains to be seen. However, if the first few episodes are any hint, Isaacs time in the MCU could establish his role as one of the most iconic since Robert Downey Jr. kicked off the MCU in 2008s Iron Man. RELATED: Moon Knight: Layla Could Fight as Marvels First Major Female Moon Knight If Khonshu Gets His Way Apple TV+ has fans enthralled with the Korean diaspora story based on a novel, Pachinko. It follows four generations of a family led by a female protagonist named Kim Sunja. Actor Kim Min-ha plays the teenage version of the character in Pachinko. Kim embodies her characters journey to seek a better life and, in Pachinko Episode 6, gives birth to the next generation. To get an accurate scene, the actor studied labor intensively. [Warning: This article contains spoilers for Pachinko.] Kim Min-ha as Sunja in Pachinko Episode 6 | via Apple TV+ Sunja is in a foreign land and gives birth to her first child in Pachinko Fans who have kept up with Sunjas emotional story are well aware of her battle living in Japan. In previous episodes, she left a Japan-occupied Korea and moved to Japan with her husband. Before her marriage and travel, Sunja is pregnant with Koh Hansus (Lee Min-ho) child. Fans know the drama-filled and tense meeting Sunja had with Hansu before leaving for Japan. She made it very clear the child was hers and not Hansus. Sunja proclaimed the child would be hers to raise alongside her new sweet and understanding husband. The trip to Japan by boat was hard on Sunja and the baby, but they made it through. As a foreigner in Japan, pregnant and without her mother, Sunja has difficulty adapting and holding on. In Pachinko Episode 6, it is time for Sunja to have her child and push her into a new chapter of her life. Fans were awestruck by actor Kim Min-has ability to deliver an emotional and realistic labor scene she spent time preparing for. Kim Min-ha spent time watching labor videos for Pachinko Episode 6 This scene is important because Sunjas taken initiative. So she's going to sell the pocket watch that Hansu gave to her to get money to pay off Yosebs debt. Justin Chon, Director of #Pachinko pic.twitter.com/EqeyDQVUUh Apple TV+ (@AppleTVPlus) April 13, 2022 RELATED: Thirty-Nine: The Sweet Reason Why Jeon Mi-do Cried at Son Ye-jins Wedding Wearing a padded pregnancy belly on set is one thing. It is another to act out a convincing birthing scene on screen. In Pachinko Episode 6, Kims character gives birth to her first son. To prepare for the role, Kim did a lot of research to get it right. According to her interview with Deadline, Preparing for that scene, I had to watch a lot of documentaries and a lot of videos on YouTube. I wanted to see a lot of live moments of women in labour. And then I asked a lot of things to my grandmother. Any fan who went to high school and took Health Education would recall the graphic nature of birth videos. While it may seem extreme to some, it helped Kim get a better perspective of how to act out the scene that took two days to film. It was kind of tough. But also, it was my first experience, and I really wanted it to be live, and not pretending. It was also very challenging for me. But also a whole new experience, said Kim. The actor even reveals her mindset, and research made her feel as if she was really pregnant on set. Kim Min-ha stars as Sunja in weekly episodes of Pachinko RELATED: Squid Game: Why Park Hae-soo Says K-Drama is The Most South Korean Story Pachinko is a weekly limited series that is close to its finale. The series has two episodes left in Sunja and her familys diaspora story of survival and reconnecting with your ancestral roots. Kim plays the leading role as a teen Sunja with Oscar-winning actor Youn Yuh-jung as an older version of the character. In the role of Sunjas husband is actor Steve Sanghyun Noh as Baek Isak. Jin Ha plays the role of Sunjas grandson Solomon and actor Soji Arai as her son Mozasu, who owns pachinko parlors. Pachinko is available to stream on Apple TV+ and airs new episodes every Friday at Midnight EST or 9 pm PST. RELATED: Twenty-Five Twenty-One: Nam Joo-hyuk Improvised One of His Characters Most Heartbreaking Scenes Selling Sunset is back with season 5. That means all new properties, plenty of Oppenheim Group drama, and even heartbreak. Heres what fans of the Netflix series have to look forward to in new episodes of Selling Sunset. Heather Rae Young, Amanza Smith, Vanessa Villela, Davina Potratz, Chrishell Stause, Maya Vander, Christine Quinn, Mary Fitzgerald, Emma Hernan | Nino Munoz/Netflix Selling Sunset Season 5 features more luxurious properties in the Hollywood Hills Selling Sunset first debuted on Netflix a year before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but it became a source of escapism for viewers in future seasons. The new episodes are no different, giving fans a dose of the property porn they crave. From the lavish $23,995,000 property on Blue Jay Way in Los Angeles to the Mount Olympus property listed at $2,995,000, the prices are what youd expect to see from the agents on Selling Sunset. But the layout of these properties continues to amplify season over season. This time around, theres even more homes designed to entertain. One episode features a house that looks like it could be the backdrop of a TikTok video. The homes potential to be rented out for content creation is even commented on. Whether you watch the show and lust over these houses, investigate to get decor ideas for your own home, or both, Selling Sunset Season 5 is full of lavish LA properties. But thats not all this season has to offer. Christine Quinn brings new blood and new drama to The Oppenheim Group The drama from the Selling Sunset Season 4 finale lives on. Previously, Christine Quinn was on the outs with her Oppenheim Group colleagues, and that trend continues in season 5. Now that Christine has burned bridges with Mary Fitzgerald, Chrishell Stause, and Emma Hernan, shes forced to turn to external sources for camaraderie. She finds a friend in newcomer Chelsea Lazkani. Season 5 of #SellingSunset featuring newcomer Chelsea Lazkani will premiere on April 22nd. pic.twitter.com/FNsDGIu1Rd Affinity Magazine (@TheAffinityMag) March 23, 2022 Jason Oppenheim and Chelsea have a history he sold her husband Jeff Lazkani a house before (a process that involved showing Kanye Wests home, to which Jeffs mom said: It looks like a lonely narcissist lives here.) Chelsea knowledge of Manhattan Beach intrigues Jason. But her call it like it is personality will intrigue Selling Sunset fans. Chelseas willing to befriend anyone at The Oppenheim Group adds to the drama in season 5. Selling Sunset Season 5 details Jason Oppenheim and Chrishell Stauses brief relationship Jason and Chrishell went public with their relationship when the cast went to Italy in the summer of 2021. Season 4 concluded with a teaser of the two getting together, but we get a closer look at their relationship in season 5. After some soul searching, Jason acknowledged he wasnt not ready to have kids. Instead of continuing in their relationship, Jason and Chrishell publicly separated in December 2021. Selling Sunset fans will get an even closer look at the couples split in season 5 of the Netflix series. Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim | Netflix Their breakup, albeit heartbreaking, is handled with grace and compassion. Oddly enough, it serves as a palette cleanser to the ongoing drama between the women of The Oppenheim Group. Watch all 10 episodes of Selling Sunset Season 5 on Netflix beginning April 22. RELATED: Selling Sunset Star Heather Rae Young Opens Up About Fertility and Her Journey to a Little El Moussa With Tarek The exciting new Hulu miniseries, The Dropout highlights the relationship between Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) and her COO Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews). Holmes was recently convicted of fraud, and Balwanis case is currently in court. But whats become of their romance? Heres a breakdown of Holmes and Balwanis relationship timeline and where they stand today. Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos CEO in an interview | David Orrell/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images) Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani met in 2002 The real-life couple at the center of The Dropout is no longer dating. The two met in Beijing, China in 2002, when Holmes was 18 and Balwani (who was married at the time), was 37. Holmes was in China studying Mandarin through Stanford at the time. And when she first spoke to Balwani, she was impressed by his business acumen and success. I understood that hed been a really successful businessperson, that he worked with Bill Gates in the early days of Microsoft, Holmes said during her 2021 trial via Vanity Fair. I talked to him about wanting to start a company, and a company that I tried to build in high school, and I asked for his advice. Upon their return to the United States, Holmes and Balwani kept in touch via email. And in 2005, after Holmes dropped out of college to start Theranos, she started living with Balwani in Palo Alto. Holmess defense will try to prove that sure, maybe she ran a highly lucrative scam for over a decade, but she didnt know it was a scam at the time. Her legal argument essentially amounts to throwing her former partner and boyfriend Ramesh Sunny Balwani, under the bus. pic.twitter.com/Jb6WEzPfFZ Morning Brew (@MorningBrew) August 31, 2021 Sunny Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 and left in 2016 Balwani officially became Theranos COO in 2009. And by then, he and Holmes were in a serious relationship. As reported by Vanity Fair, the government released hundreds of texts the couple sent to each other while they were dating. Balwanis texts to Holmes were doting and loving, while Holmes messages were shorter and far less affectionate. There is no love for me like yours, Balwani wrote in one text. Which is why its hard to breath [sic] without your breath near me. Holmes reply to most posts like this was a simple Ditto. But in 2016, Balwani left Theranos. And according to Holmes, things ended because of a failed government inspection of their labs. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes testified she was abused by her former romantic partner Ramesh Sunny Balwani and that the relationship had a pervasive impact on her life during the time when she is accused of committing fraud https://t.co/c5CjuOp6hs pic.twitter.com/uNksgKUHuJ Reuters (@Reuters) November 30, 2021 I had gone into that inspection thinking that we had one of the best labs in the world, and the findings from that inspection were so fundamentally different than what I had believed, Holmes said during her trial, blaming Balwani for the failure. He wasnt who I thought he was, and I realized if I was going to fix the issues and allow the company to see through its potential, I had to do that without him in the company. Elizabeth Holmes accused Sunny Balwani of abuse during her 2021 trial During her 2021 trial, Holmes blamed many of Theranos failures and frauds on Balwani. And she also accused her former COO and boyfriend of abuse. He would tell me not to sleep much, eat only foods that would make me pure and would make me have the most energy possible in the company, Holmes said, as reported by Vanity Fair. #Update: Back in court for the trial of Sunny Balwani. Former Theranos employee and whistleblower Erika Cheung is on the stand, testifying that employees removed data from tests to make results look better. pic.twitter.com/IGYxfQKJja scott budman (@scottbudman) March 30, 2022 He would get very angry with me, she added. And then he would sometimes come upstairs to our bedroom and force me to have sex with him when I didnt want to because he wanted me to know that he still loved me. Holmes was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. She faces a $1 million fine and up to 80 years in prison. Balwanis trial began in March 2022. He is facing the same charges as Holmes. RELATED: The Dropout: What Is the Real Elizabeth Holmes Net Worth? Bill Murray is a fan favorite for many since he is best known for being a part of movies like Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II (1984 and 1989), and Groundhog Day (1993). In more recent times, he was Baloo in the live-action movie The Jungle Book (2016) and as Boss in the Isle of Dogs (2018). However, of all the movies that Murray has been involved with, the one people are most interested in is his cameo appearance in Zombieland. Although Murray was only in the movie a short time, there have been rumors and suspicion that Murrays own home was in the movie. Bill Murray | Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Fans want to know, Was Zombieland filmed at Murrays real house? We have the long-debated answer! Bill Murray in Zombieland Zombieland is a horror-comedy that was released in 2009. The setting is post-apocalyptic and after a strain of mad cow disease mutated and affected people, ultimately turning people into zombies. The survivors are focused on survival, knowing that at any moment they, or those close to them, could be killed. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a lonely college student, who chooses to leave the safety of his dorm in Texas and head to Ohio to see if his family is alive. Along the way, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and the two pair up. Next, they meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). They are con artists who take the guys weapons and their vehicle. To counter it, the guys find another vehicle and go after the girls, which ends in a truce between all four people. They set off toward California after Columbus learns his family is likely dead where they ultimately end up at Pacific Playland, attacking many zombies and finding themselves in the process. Is the zombie apocalypse close to home for Murray? After the group reaches California, and before they take on a multitude of zombies, they reach Hollywood. It is here that Murray makes his cameo appearance. Murray plays a fictionalized version of himself and a survivor of the zombie apocalypse. He is staying in his Beverly Hills mansion and acts like a zombie to trick real zombies into thinking he is one of them. It is Tallahassee who suggests visiting the Murray mansion, which leads to Murray, while watching Ghostbusters, being killed by Columbus. For years people have wondered whether Murrays home was the one in Zombieland. Although Murray owns many homes, he did not ever own the Beverly Hills mansion shown in Zombieland. In fact, the mansion itself isnt even in Beverly Hills, but in Atlanta, Georgia where it is a part of the Buckhead neighborhood, according to CBR. This doesnt lessen its value, though. It is a massive home with reportedly nine bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, seven full kitchens, two gyms, a wellness center, a cigar room, and a ballroom. Where does Murray actually live? Murray is a very private person, but it is rumored and shown on CelebAnswers that he has homes in New York, Massachusetts, California, and South Carolina. It is also noted that he spends a lot of his free time in Charleston where he enjoys visiting Harolds Cabin, a small cafe, which he co-owns with John Schumacher. According to Explore Charleston, Murray has also been spotted supporting the Charleston RiverDogs, dining with friends at Husk restaurant, relaxing during happy hour at Kudu Coffee & Craft Beer, sipping mint julep at The Gin Joint, and living on Sullivans Island, which is just minutes outside of Charleston. RELATED: Bill Murray: 9 of His Greatest Roles Cherokee Nation citizen Falon Wilson of Chelsea received the Olan Isbell Merit Award honoring the founder of Professional Oklahoma Educators. Wilson is a counselor at Chelsea High School. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 CAIRO, Egypt, April 18, 2022 (Morning Star News) The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Alexandria has declared a priest who was stabbed to death on April 7 a martyr, while Egypts most influential Islamic institution condemned the attack. Archbishop Arsanious Wadid, 56, priest of the Virgin and St. Paul Church in the Karmouz neighborhood of the Meharam Bek District in Alexandria, was walking on the city promenade when the assailant stabbed him three times in the neck with a knife, according to local press reports. The priest was distributing Ramadan gifts to passers-by on the walkway with a group of youths from the church, according to Alarabiya.net. He was stabbed by a man described only as a 60-year-old beggar as he was returning to a bus taking them back to the church site. The assailant fled but was apprehended by citizens and restrained until police arrived. Wadeed was transported to Mostafa Kamel Military Hospital, where he died from his wounds upon arrival. Authorities reportedly said that after questioning the assailant was found to be mentally unstable, a common assertion after attacks on Christians in Egypt. Officials said a motive for the attack had yet to be determined. The criminal court placed the assailant under medical examination to check his assertions that mental instability made him lose control of his actions, according to Ahram Online. During his interrogation, the defendant confessed to intentionally killing the victim, but later changed his confession saying that he had arrived in Alexandria a few days prior in search of work and stayed overnight on public roads, claiming that the knife in his possession was just for self-defense, the outlet reported. He also claimed that he was not aware of what he was doing on the day of the incident until he was arrested. Furthermore, he said that he suffered from mental disorders about 10 years ago, after which he was admitted to a mental health hospital to receive treatment, and that he sometimes loses control of his actions. The Public Prosecution was also questioning the attackers family. Blood samples were taken to check if he was under the influence of narcotics during the attack. The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Alexandria declared Wadid a martyr. The Coptic Orthodox Church described the killing as exceptional, and does not reflect the general situation in Egypt, and a failed attempt to destabilize security, and praised rapid action by state agencies to block any sedition. Archbishop Moussa Ibrahim, the official church spokesperson, told Sky News Arabia that the incident was an exception as such incidents have completely stopped and that it was a failed attempt to destabilize security. He claimed that the country was stable and secure, adding that the attack will not stop our movement forward. Archbishop Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, also condemned the killing, tweeting, In clerical attire in a public space with no one else attacked, it can be safely assumed that Father Arsanious Wadid was targeted as a priest. With a suspect in custody, we wait to see whether investigations rule this to be an individual event or part of a known wider phenomenon. Evangelical and Catholic churches stated that the brutal crimes against Christians will not undermine Egypts unity and strength, according to Egypt Today. Al-Azhar, the worlds most influential Sunni Islam institution, condemned the attack in a statement on Facebook. Al-Azhars Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyeb said such attacks might instigate religious wars. The Grand Imam affirms that homicide is a major sin that arouses Gods wrath and is punishable in the afterlife, read Al-Azhars statement. Christians make up more than 10 percent of Egypts population in Muslim-majority country, and attacks on Christians are common. Wadid was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 by the late Pope Shenouda III, former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Egypt was ranked 20th on Open Doors 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Oleksii Liskonih Szofia Boros voted for Victor Orban. The young evangelical mother of two has her misgivings about the man who has been accused of undermining democracycurtailing press freedom, undercutting the independent judiciary, and changing election rules to give an advantage to his political party, Fidesz. But in the end, it was pretty simple to support him for reelection on April 3. Evangelical Christians support the majority of Orbans policies and positions, even if we dont really admire the way he goes about his politics, she said. I voted for him because he is a conservative Christian standing up against a liberal Europe. Evangelicals arent a big or politically organized voting bloc in Hungary. Only a few evangelical groups are established enough to achieve recognition from the national government, including the Baptist Union, the Hungarian Methodist Church, the Hungarian Pentecostal Church, the Church of the Nazarene, and the charismatic Faith Church, whose pastor endorsed Orban during a Sunday service. About half the people in the country consider themselves Catholic, a quarter has no religious affiliation, and 16 percentincluding Orbanidentify with the Reformed Church in Hungary, which is part of the mainline World Council of Churches and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Eighty percent of the country identifies as Christian, but only about 15 percent of Hungarians attend church on a weekly basis. But a lot of Hungarians, it turns out, feel like Boros. They wanted a conservative Christian prime minister committed to defending what they see as a Christian culture and its Christian values. The Fidesz campaign was built on a few very clear, concise and targeted messages, Hungarian pastor and Calvary Chapel church planter Attila Nyari toldEvangelical Focus. They were focusing on identifying the enemiesthe EU, George Soros, the UN and Muslim migrantsfor the Hungarian people and then positioning Orban as the saviour and protector of the nation. Nyari told CT that most evangelicals in Hungary thanked God for Orbans victory. The Calvary Chapel pastor and Lausanne Movement chief of staff said he was personally saddened by the outcome but he thinks hes in the minority. Fidesz got about 53 percent of the vote and secured a two-thirds majority in parliament. Orban won reelection for the fourth time and has four more years in office. The few weeks before the election were dominated by debates about the Russia-Ukraine conflict and whether Hungary should get involved. But the longer arc of the campaign focused on economic support for families and protecting Hungary from liberalism, multiculturalism, and LGBT ideology. Orbans administration froze the price of fuel and some basic food products and instituted new welfare benefits for families with children, retired people, and people under 25. The prime ministers party also put a referendum on the ballot asking people if they wanted to protect children from education about sexual orientation or media content that portrays or promotes gender reassignment. The referendum failed to meet the threshold requirement of 50 percent, but may have succeeded in mobilizing some voters. Orban has styled his political program as a defense of Christian liberty. He argues that Hungary has historically been a Christian island in a sea of foreign threats, such as Soviet Communism and German Nazism. Today, he says, it must be defended against Islam, immigrants, globalism, and liberalism. According to Carolyn Gallaher, professor in the School of International Service at American University, Orban connects to voters through his identification as a Christian and legitimizes his political views by saying they are synonymous with Christianity. His invocations of faith are less about specific issues than powerful symbolism. The prime minister was once an atheist. But on the way to power, Orban reconnected with his Calvinist roots and underwent a religious transformation in the 1990s, even remarrying his wife in a church and having his children baptized. His Christian identity has become key to his political ego and his vision for Hungary. He talks about the nations Christianness as he argues for instituting restrictive immigration policies, aiding persecuted Christians in Africa and the Middle East, and amending the constitution to define marriage as solely a relationship between a man and a woman. Orban does not shy away from fighting the culture war, wrote Rod Dreher, the American Orthodox author of The Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies. Dreher traveled to Hungary for the election and cheered for Orbans victory. I have been saying for the past year that US conservatives should come to Hungary to learn from Orban and Fidesz, he wrote for the American Conservative. Orban is not a small-government Anglo-Saxon conservative. He believes in using the power of the state to strengthen families, the basis of any health society. But the most important thing US conservatives can learn is how to use political power to fight the culture war. The Conservative Political Action Conferenceseen as a bellwether for American conservativeswill hold its next meeting in Hungary in May. Orban is scheduled as the keynote speaker. Even as he wins acclaim from conservatives internationally, though, some evangelicals at home have turned against Orban. The Christian opposition has been dismayed by what they see as his abuses of power, his politicization of Christianity, and a coarse nastiness. Orban has used dehumanizing language for migrants and refugees, calling desperate people fleeing Syria invaders and poison." One of his fiercest critics is Gabor Ivanyi, a Methodist minister who runs one of Budapests homeless shelters and was once Orbans pastor. Ivanyi has been locked in a years-long conflict with the prime minister, accusing him of betraying the democratic ideals he once held and misusing the idea of Christian liberty to grasp power. Ivanyis religious organization, the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship, was raided by federal agents in February. Critics of the Orban government say it was politically motivated. Ivanyi is not the only prominent Hungarian Christian who criticizes the prime minister on religious grounds. Orbans leading opponent in the election was Peter Marki-Zay, a Catholic who regularly spoke of Orbans many sins. Marki-Zay represented an impossibly broad coalition of political groups, who were only really united by their opposition to Orban. But he nonetheless returned to religious themes when he made his argument. He said Fidesz embraced the love of power instead of the power of love and a true Christian could not vote for Orban. The Catholic politician was barred from national television, however, and was only able to give that speech to a small group of supporters. Some evangelicals who dont support Orban, such as Nyari, are especially dismayed at how this last election has made politics seem so important. Nyari told CT he is happy to have a mix of political views in his church and thinks its healthy for evangelicals to have a diversity of views. Hes disheartened, though, by how divisive the last election has been, pointing to tensions that have emerged in his own community. He senses deep wounds on both sides. I see the validity of the vocation and the work politicians do, but Christians need to remember that they are not the ultimate authority, Nyari said. If we place too much emphasis on the importance of politics, we might be overconfident or might become hopeless if the other side wins. Neither is a genuine faith response. Evangelicals are just a small fraction of Hungarian voters, according to the pastor. But they wrestle with a real temptation to put too much faith in politics. Personal relationships in our everyday lives, serving, and prayer have way more power to shape a countrys future than its politics, he said. Christians in India arrested during Maundy Thursday service Police in northern Indias Uttar Pradesh state arrested dozens of Christians celebrating Maundy Thursday in their Evangelical church after a mob of radical Hindu nationalists surrounded the building and locked the doors in retaliation for the alleged forced conversions of Hindus to Christianity. At least 36 Christians were arrested from a church belonging to the Evangelical Church of India denomination in Hariharganj area of Fatehpur City based on a police complaint under Uttar Pradesh states anti-conversion law filed by a member of the Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christians Concern reported. This is a perfect portrayal of Jesus suffering 2000 years ago. We know Jesus endured, and we will, ICC quoted a member of the congregation as saying. Maundy Thursday is an occasion when Christians gather to celebrate Jesus final Passover with His disciples, His commandment to love one another, and His service to others through the washing of feet. According to Indias PTI news agency, the arrests were made over allegedly illegal religious conversions of 90 people in the last 40 days in the [Fatehpur] district. Sadly, Uttar Pradesh is one of the harshest states in India regarding religious freedom violations, ICC President Jeff King said. When the Indian authorities validate the actions of a violent mob by jailing the mobs victims, they are sending a message that criminal activity is approved by the authorities whenever it targets religious minorities. This type of legal posture only worsens the religious freedom climate and further increases the vulnerability of Christians to more violence. The VHP, the group that filed the complaint, is known for attacking minorities, including Christians. Anti-conversion laws are inherently subjective, and perception-based, therefore completely restricting the rights of Christians to public expressions of their faith, King added. While Christians make up only 2.3% of Indias population and Hindus comprise about 80%, the countrys anti-conversion laws presume that Christians force or give financial benefits to Hindus to convert them to Christianity. Some of these laws have been in place for decades in some states. Radical Hindu nationalist groups frequently use the laws to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks on them under the pretext of an alleged forced conversion. For Indias Christians, 2021 was the most violent year in the countrys history, according to a report by the United Christian Forum, which recorded at least 486 violent incidents of Christian persecution in the year. The UCF attributed the high incidence of Christian persecution to impunity, due to which such mobs criminally threaten, physically assault people in prayer, before handing them over to the police on allegations of forcible conversions. Police registered formal complaints in only 34 of the 486 cases, according to the UCF. Often communal sloganeering is witnessed outside police stations, where the police stand as mute spectators, the UCF report states. Hindu extremists believe that all Indians should be Hindus and that the country should be rid of Christianity and Islam, an Open Doors fact sheet explains. They use extensive violence to achieve this goal, particularly targeting Christians from a Hindu background. Christians are accused of following a foreign faith and blamed for bad luck in their communities. Prosecutor asks to withdraw death penalty for murderer at center of Supreme Court prayer case A district attorney in Texas filed a motion to withdraw the death penalty for an inmate at the center of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed him to have a Baptist minister lay hands on him during his execution. Last Thursday, Nueces County District Attorney Mark A. Gonzalez filed a motion in district court requesting the withdrawal of the order setting [John Henry] Ramirezs execution date and recall the death warrant. In 2008, Ramirez was found guilty of brutally murdering 46-year-old Corpus Christi convenience store worker Pablo Castro in 2004. Ramirez reportedly stabbed the clerk around 30 times and was apprehended in Mexico over three years later. He was recently issued an execution date for this coming October. The undersigned District Attorney for Nueces County has the firm belief that the death penalty is unethical and should not be imposed on Mr. Ramirez or any other person while the undersigned occupies the office in question, read the motion. The Assistant District Attorney who most recently moved for an execution date in this cause was not aware of my desire in this matter and did not consult me prior to moving for an execution date. Ramirez's attorney, Seth Kretzer, was confident that the death penalty will be withdrawn. He told local media outlet KRIS 6 News that if the moving party no longer wants that result, it would seem to be very unusual that a judge says, Oh no, you must have it. Ramirez filed a complaint last year when he was denied a request to have a pastor pray audibly and lay hands on him while being executed via lethal injection. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of Ramirez, reversing an earlier ruling and remanding the case for further legal proceedings to find a solution that respects his beliefs. Given the current record, respondents have not shown that a total ban on audible prayer is the least restrictive means of furthering their asserted interests, wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority. Roberts also rejected the governments rule that clergy inside cannot be allowed closer than three feet from a prisoner being executed in the name of preventing interference. We do not see how letting the spiritual advisor stand slightly closer, reach out his arm, and touch a part of the prisoners body well away from the site of any IV line would meaningfully increase risk. And that is all Ramirez requests here, Roberts continued. We think that preventing accidental interference with the prisons IV lines is a compelling governmental interest. But we also think it is one reasonably addressed by means short of banning all touch in the execution chamber. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that Ramirez has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence lawfully imposed by the state of Texas. This Court now affords yet another chance for him to delay his execution," wrote Thomas. "Because I think Ramirezs claims either do not warrant equitable relief or are procedurally barred, I respectfully dissent." Before being heard before the nation's high court, Ramirez's case received the backing of several faith groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Seventh-Day Adventist General Conference, among others. Street preacher cleared of hate speech charges for preaching from the Bible A court in the U.K. has cleared a 72-year-old Christian street pastor of all charges a year after his arrest for purportedly causing alarm and distress in London by preaching about the biblical definition of marriage, which police said was hate speech." Uxbridge Magistrates Court acquitted Pastor John Sherwood of the Penn Free Methodist Church in north London, whose defense was centered on Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act. The trial was quite remarkable in that there was so much Scripture quoted in it. Pastor Sherwood was determined to impress upon the prosecution that everything that he ever preaches upon is grounded in the final authority of Gods word, the Bible, Sherwoods colleague, Pastor Peter Simpson, who was with Sherwood at the time of his preaching, told Conservative Woman U.K. Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act states: Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority. At the trial, the public gallery was full with Christians showing their support for a man of God who is willing to stand up for the truths of Scripture, Simpson was quoted as saying. And after the trial, Pastor Sherwood recited words of the hymn, To God be the glory, Great things he hath done. Last April, Sherwood had been speaking on Genesis 1:27-28 in the northwest London town of Uxbridge, arguing that marriage is between one man and one woman, when he was approached by police officers and told that three complaints had been received about his preaching. The police accused him of causing alarm and distress to members of the public and arrested him. On April 23, 2021, Sherwood was held overnight at a police station. In September, he was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which outlaws threatening or abusive words or behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, according to Christian Today. Sherwoods arrest was captured on video and condemned as brutal by the campaign group Christian Concern. A police officer spoke to Simpson at the time and ordered him not to offend people who identify as gay by quoting from the Bible, even though there is no law protecting people from being offended. I responded that the police would have no objection whatsoever to a Pride parade being held in Uxbridge, yet that would be highly offensive to Bible-believing Christians, Simpson wrote at the time. The officer did not appear to appreciate the logic behind this argument. Police officers urged Sherwood to come down from a step ladder he was preaching from as he respectfully informed police he has freedom of speech and people have the freedom to ignore him and continue walking if they disagree with his statements, Simpson wrote. Sherwood resumed preaching and spoke of the precious right to freedom of speech, which is traced back to the Magna Carta in 1215 and the Bill of Rights in 1689. Onlookers again accused him of making homophobic statements and hate speech. The officers proceeded to pull the pastor down from the ladder as he resisted arrest and seemingly lunged at an officer as multiple officers handcuffed and arrested him. A lady in the crowd was heard saying, its a Christian country, let him speak, while Simpson noted that others in the crowd had accused him of hate speech. Ukrainian President Zelensky urges Biden to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism As the Russian invasions of Ukraine continues with mounting civilian casualties and fear that the Kremlin might resort to tactical nuclear weapons in the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged President Biden to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Zelensky made the request to blacklist Russia while speaking to Biden on the phone, and the White House is said to be reviewing the state sponsor designation, which allows the U.S. to adopt the most aggressive sanctions, according to media reports. Four countries North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba are on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The discussion about the state sponsor designation was a very brief part of the call, which was mainly about Ukraines urgent appeals for more weapons and energy sanctions against Russia, NBC News reported, citing anonymous administrative sources. We have put in place the most unprecedented sanctions and export controls with over 30 countries across four continents, a source was quoted as saying. As usual, were not going to comment on any one specific option, but we will continue to consider all options to increase the pressure on Putin. Sources also told The Times (U.K.) that Biden is keeping the move under consideration, and observers believe Russias history under President Putin might fulfill the criteria for the designation. Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, which aired Sunday, Zelensky warned that Putin could use nuclear or chemical weapons against Ukraine. Not only me all of the world, all of the countries have to be worried because it can be not real information, but it can be truth, Zelensky told CNN. Chemical weapons they could do it, for them the life of the people [is] nothing. We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think. Since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, its estimated that at least 1,982 civilians have been killed and 2,651 have been injured as of an April 15 update from the United Nations. Among those killed are 162 children. Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, the U.N. said, adding that the actual number of casualties is likely to be considerably higher. Late Sunday, the Qatari government-run news outlet Al Jazeera quoted the Crimean Human Rights Group as saying that the Russian military had forcibly removed around 150 children from the shattered Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The children were likely taken to the temporarily-occupied Donetsk region and the Russian city of Taganrog, an advisor to Mariupols Mayor Petro Andriushchenko was quoted as saying. In the last known pocket of resistance inside besieged Mariupol on Sunday, about 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries holed up in a steel plant ignored Russias ultimatum that they surrender or face destruction by Russian forces, The Guardian reported. Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraines military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault, it said. The British newspaper also reported that Ukraine had completed a questionnaire required for the European Union to begin to decide on its membership. More than 280 priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church and over 400 ministers of Evangelical churches in Russia have called for reconciliation and an immediate end to Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The economics of Judas' betrayal Many of you probably remember hearing the story of how Mary of Bethany anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume and how Judas objected to it. The account appears in John 12. What you probably did not hear was an explication of the important economic themes in that passage. Preachers tend to underestimate the importance of economic themes in the Bible. Few have training in finance or economics, and a mental block was formed earlier in Church history when theologians began to mix biblical theology with pagan philosophy, which tended to be contemptuous of commerce. But the Bible is about real life, and real life involves economics. Your work, your spending, and your decision to read (or not read) this article are economic in nature. Some Christians, given to displays of pious one-upmanship, are quick to decry any biblical discussion about economics. But all that does is insulate the economic aspect of life from Christ's lordship. The most ostentatiously "spiritual" are still buying and selling like the rest of us; they just don't want Jesus to talk about it. However, He does. Mary uses an expensive jar of nard, a spice imported from the East, which we are told is worth 300 denarii, amounting to almost a year's wages. Judas raises an objection to the expense, and the Bible alludes to the fact that he will later hand Jesus over, which we know he did for money. If Judas' 30 pieces of silver refer to the same coinage Judas claims the gift of perfume is worth (which is quite plausible given that denarii were silver), then Judas betrayed Jesus for a mere tenth (a tithe) of the amount Mary gave to Jesus to honor Him. Judas' betrayal of Jesus came cheap. On the other hand, it is possible that the temple elite paid him in Tyrian shekels, which were worth about 120 denarii, but even that is still less than half of Mary's offering. Her sacrifice to the glory of Christ is more than Judas' reward for betraying Him. All this detail about money is there in the Bible, plain to see, even if some expositors and preachers have grown used to skimming over these details as though such things are insufficiently spiritual to warrant attention. Judas opposed this extravagant use of expensive perfume, claiming that he did so out of concern for the poor. The Bible makes clear that he didn't care about the poor but was a thief who embezzled from the common purse, which he held on behalf of the disciples. In this, Judas is a perfect stand-in for the Judean elite with which he is aligned. The aristocracy, centered in Jerusalem and the temple, were engaged in economic exploitation. Money was concentrated in Jerusalem by way of the temple tax, forced tithing and currency manipulation enforced by government mandate. The religious elite "devoured widows' houses." The high priest was supposed to help the poor, but what really happened is that money was centralized into a common purse and then stolen from by the ruling class. The difference between Judea and Judas was merely one of quantity, not quality. They both had the same economic model, only Jerusalem's was on a much larger scale. This background becomes clearer once one takes into account the research that indicates Judas might well have been the only Judean (as opposed to Galilean) among the 12. Early in the Gospels we see Jesus recruiting disciples in the region of Galilee. We are not told the geographic origin of all of the 12, but all of the those whose origin is given are from the north, from in or near Galilee. We see no recruitment of any from Judea. Furthermore, later, after Judas is no longer part of the picture, after the Ascension in Acts 1:11, the angels address the apostles, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?" So the apostles, other than Judas, were "men of Galilee." But what about Judas? While scholars disagree, the most common explanation for the epithet "Iscariot" is that it identifies Judas' city of origin. Ish is Hebrew for man and Kerioth was a town in Judea. Judas' father Simon is identified as Simon Iscariot, which means that it is not likely a nickname or title given by Jesus (such as "son of thunder"). Furthermore, some texts actually say "from" (apo) Kerioth. The ancient world didn't have the same pattern moderns do of first name and last name. It was common to have name and city of origin, for example "Jesus of Nazareth." In addition, Judas tries to align himself with the temple elite. He conspires together with them to betray Jesus. That at least suggests an alignment of views. Also, his name is consistent with such an alignment, Judas Maccabeus having been the founder of the regime that ruled Jerusalem at the time. All this taken together builds a case that Judas was a Judean in origin and in political sympathies, who presents the readers with a small-scale representation of the Judean economic model: centralization of wealth with the implied aim of caring for the poor, but in reality stealing from the common purse. This might well help the reader to understand the statement by Jesus in response and rebuke to Judas: "the poor you will always have with you," which is often taken as a statement for all people at all time. However, it parallels quite closely the warning given to Israel in Deuteronomy 15, "For the poor shall never cease out of the land" because of Israel's disobedience to God. This might explain why Jesus switches from singular, "leave her alone" to plural "the poor you shall always have with you," which is not clear in English, but is in the original Greek. If this is the case, Jesus is condemning the Judean elite by extension in His rebuke of Judas. Poverty is not fated; it was there because the ruling class disobeyed God, not because poverty was inherently inevitable. This, then, is a glimpse of Judas economics, concentrations of wealth and power ostensibly for the good of all, but in reality for the good of a few. Remember that when someone who administers the common purse for a group, or for a whole nation, rebukes others in the name of the poor. Parent dressed as Easter bunny distributed condoms to elementary school students in Texas A Texas elementary school has distanced itself from a parent who dressed up as the Easter bunny and passed out condoms to students last week. Tammy Thompson, the principal of Gullett Elementary School in Austin, Texas, sent a letter to parents informing them that a parent dressed as an Easter bunny passed out condoms to children during dismissal time Thursday. Fox 7 Austin obtained the letter, which read: This afternoon during dismissal, a Gullett parent visited campus dressed as the Easter Bunny and handed out plastic eggs. Some of those eggs contained candy, and some students were also given unopened condoms. Please know that this was not a planned event, nor sanctioned by the school, and we have spoken with the parent about the inappropriate nature of their activity," Thompson added. "We value parent participation and always request that you work with campus staff to best support our students." Located in northwest Austin, Gullett Elementary School serves more than 500 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Austin Independent School District website. A school district spokesperson told local news outlet KXAN that the district is "working to review our safety protocols to ensure this does not happen again." The spokesperson characterized the occurrence as an incredibly careless and inappropriate action of a parent. Although the parent was told to leave the school campus, the individual continued to give out the Easter eggs on a nearby public sidewalk. While Austin Independent School District maintains that the distribution of condoms was an accident, other school districts in large U.S. cities have strived to make condoms available to young children as part of sex education. In 2020, the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education passed a policy requiring schools to make condoms accessible to students as young as fifth grade. Under the policy, all but a dozen of the districts 600 schools would have condoms on campus, including several that educate small children. Conservative groups criticized the policy in Illinois largest city. Maryanne Mosaz of the sexual risk avoidance advocacy group Ascend stressed that children are not cognitively, emotionally or physically ready to handle these kinds of acts." Meg Kilgannon of the Family Research Council agreed that children can never meaningfully consent to sex acts. In addition to Austin ISD, a much smaller school district made headlines for what it asserted was the accidental exposure of young children to condoms. In 2019, Sullivan County Schools in Tennessee sent a flyer advertising a three-day clinic providing free birth control including implants, IUDs, pills, condoms, and more home with second-grade students. The school district assured concerned parents that it did not realize that the flyer, which advertised free dental, medical and vision services on the other side of the sheet, contained a second page promoting free birth control. The distribution of Easter eggs containing unopened condoms to elementary school students comes when some public schools in the U.S. face intense pushback for embracing sexual education curricula that some parents feel are inappropriate for young children. Austin Independent School District is not immune to the controversy. Earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to Austin ISD contending that district violated state law by holding a Pride Week encouraging schools to plan activities that engage, educate and inspire students concerning LGBTQIA+ issues. Paxton wrote that Texas law requires that [b]efore a student may be provided with human sexuality instruction, a school district must obtain the written consent of the students parent. Today, I sent a letter to @AustinISD for their curriculum and lesson plans that constitute human sexuality instruction governed by state law. The Texas Legislature has made it clear that when it comes to sex education, parentsnot school districtsare in charge. pic.twitter.com/pVZ4Sj8GMF Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) March 22, 2022 By hosting Pride Week, your district has, at best, undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent, he maintained. Or worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop. Either way, you are breaking state law. In response to Paxtons letter, AISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde posted a message on Twitter stating, I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks. Throughout the week, the district added several pictures of elementary schools participating in Pride Week festivities to its Twitter feed. I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks. https://t.co/fNGiaoNM3q Dr. Stephanie S. Elizalde (@AustinISDsupt) March 23, 2022 Franklin Graham preaches in Ukraine: Easter is about more than just egg hunts and bunny rabbits Evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse, preached an Easter sermon in Ukraine, urging believers not to lose sight of the true meaning of the celebration. As thousands have reportedly died and over 11 million have been displaced from their homes since the invasion began at the end of February, the 69-year-old Graham preached his pre-recorded Easter sermon from Lviv in western Ukraine. Fox News broadcasted the event, which featured music from the Ukrainian Easter Choir. Graham grieved that the world is continuing to become more violent and secular. Many politicians and educators scoff at those that worship the Lord Jesus Christ. They make fun. They dont believe, Graham said. For many, Easter has become Easter egg hunts and bunny rabbits and candy. But, may we never forget the true meaning of Easter, and that is the price that was paid for the redemption of your soul." The head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association assured that the price was "paid by God" and "Easter is about Gods love for mankind." God created the world and everything in it. He made us man and woman. And he placed the first man and woman in a perfect world," he added. "There was no sin in this world that God created. He intended for man to live, but God has laws." And we know from the Scripture that the first man and woman chose to disobey God. And as a result sin came into the world. And sin has infected the entire human race, he continued. According to Graham, Bible states that every human has sinned and that all humans have come short of "God's standards for His glory." "And there is a penalty for sin. And its death," he warned. "The entire human race is under a death sentence from God because of our sins. But yet, God had a plan to save us from our sins." What does that strange concept [of sin mean]? Well, the Bible says, telling a lie is a sin. Have you ever lied? Of course, you have. All of us have lied. The Bible says all men are liars. It's true. Stealing is a sin, Graham stated, adding adultery, murder, hatred, bearing a false witness and pride as other examples of a long list of sinful behavior. Although God is "holy and just," Graham stated that "sin separates humans from God." It breaks fellowship with God. All of us fall short of God's standards. And the Bible says in Isaiah: all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are as filthy rags, Graham said. The Bible says: There is no one righteous; no, not even one. So what can man do? How can we be saved? Graham asked hypothetically. Graham said many people believe a false notion that they can work to earn their salvation by making enough money, building a building, being kind or going to church a few times a year. No, there is nothing that you can do. You see, it's only through Jesus Christ and Him alone, Graham said, referring to salvation as a gift from God. The Bible says: It is by grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Good Works cannot save your soul. It just can't do it." In His plan to "redeem" mankind, God sent His Son, Jesus, from Heaven to earth "for the purpose of taking our sins" by dying on a cross. Graham pointed listeners to the Bible verse John 3:16. By Jesus Christ shedding His blood for us, He was redeeming our souls to God. But we have to be willing to accept it by faith, Graham said. He stated that Jesus was falsely accused and beaten beyond recognition. "Religious leaders falsely testified against Him. The Roman government wanted to appease the crowd. They knew He was innocent. They knew there were religious leaders who were jealous of Him. So what did they do? They just gave in to the mob and gave into the crowd." Graham stressed that Jesus "went willingly to the cross." "He went there for you and for me. He was mocked when he hung on that cross. And Jesus stayed on the cross, Graham said. And while He was on the cross, God poured upon his Son your sins and my sins, the sins of mankind, sins past, sins present, sins future. That's us today." We're the ones who deserve to go to the cross. We're the ones that deserve death," he said. "Jesus never sinned. And as a sinless person, He was able to take our sins. He was buried in a tomb." As many in Ukraine may have "lost hope this Easter," the preacher said many wonder "what to do and where to go." He urged them to fix their minds "on eternity in heaven with God and having belief and faith in Jesus." He has risen, just as He said. He is not here. He is risen. This is the greatest news that has ever been proclaimed that Jesus Christ is alive. The tomb is empty. He's not here. He's alive. He is risen, as He said He would, Graham said. If we repent and turn from our sins and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, God will forgive our sins, and we can have that hope that we will be saved and forgiven and be with God for eternity in Heaven. How do we have eternal life? It's not by works, but it's by God's grace, and it's through faith in His Son Jesus Christ." He remarked: "This is Easter. It's about a risen Savior. It's about an empty tomb." "Other religions are notable, and you can go and visit their tombs. Some of them are gorgeous, a lot of marble or granite. Jesus' tomb is empty. He is not there. He is risen, just as the angel has said." Graham's speech comes as the North Carolina-based Samaritans Purse has about 160 workers and volunteers on the ground in Ukraine meeting the physical and spiritual needs of those displaced from their homes by the Russian invasion. About half of [the displaced people] have gone out of the country, the other half are here inside Ukraine with no place to go and living with friends or relatives and some cities that converted factories or abandoned buildings into warehouses with beds where they can keep them, Graham said. And this is a difficult time for Ukraine. So much suffering in this country and Samaritans Purse [has] responded." Samaritans Purse, which works in regions of the world struck by tragedy, war and natural disasters, has several field hospitals and clinics established to help the people in Ukraine. Samaritan Purse also has established food distribution centers. Chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association are ministering in hospitals and praying for Ukrainians. I think it's important for this Easter that we remember the people of Ukraine and that we pray, Graham said. New York subway shooter called on Jesus to kill all white people in online rant The online rants of a suspect who wounded more than 20 people in a mass shooting at a New York subway station last week show that he was obsessed with a race war and even called on Jesus to kill white people. Frank R. James, a 62-year-old suspect who called the police hotline to turn himself in amid a citywide manhunt, was found to have posted a meme that said, O black Jesus, please kill all the whiteys, according to reports. James' online posts also appear to show that he liked watching CNN and supports communism and Fidel Castro. He also adheres to a racist ideology of black supremacy, which was earlier identified as black identity extremism." The FBI told the New York Post that the ideology no longer exists even though the man who killed six people and injured over 60 others at a Christmas parade and the suspect who killed a Capitol Hill police officer last April both espoused the same supremacist beliefs as James. James, who detonated a smoke grenade before firing 33 shots on the Manhattan-bound N train on April 14, posted material on social media linked to the ideology, the Post added. White people and black people, as we call ourselves, should not have any contact with each other, he says in a YouTube video under the user name prophetoftruth88. James also believed a race war would follow Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a rant shared by The Post Millennial. James was arrested in Manhattans East Village neighborhood last Wednesday with the help of tip-offs given to police by the public, along with the suspect himself notifying police about his exact location. Five people who provided critical information that helped lead to James' arrest will share a $50,000 reward, police said, according to The Guardian. James was spotted by bystanders, and he, too, called the NYPD, telling them that he wanted to turn himself in, ABC 7 reported, citing a police source. I think youre looking for me, the caller allegedly said. Im seeing my picture all over the news and I'll be around this McDonalds. However, James had disappeared by the time police reached the location. The police received more calls from the public, who told them they thought the suspect was down the block. The police were able to spot James and arrested him without incident. ABC 7 also said that James was known to the NYPD and had a rap sheet that spanned from 1992 to 1998 with nine prior arrests. James also supported Black Lives Matter and claimed he had a mental illness and that the citys mental health service was a horror show, according to The Post Millennial, which added that he believed humanity would be exterminated due to the damage done to the environment. Pastor says 200K Easter egg drop is church following Pauls example by finding ways to share the Gospel A multisite nondenominational church based in Kentucky held multiple Easter egg drops on Sunday, dropping approximately 200,000 Easter eggs for nearly 3,000 children to collect. 7 Hills Church, a congregation with locations in Florence, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, held multiple egg drops after services on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Kyle Waid, an associate pastor at 7 Hills Church, told The Christian Post that nearly 3,000 children took part in the egg drops, and more than 700 volunteers helped organize the events. Every year, 7 Hills Church tries to make fun Easter memories for families. Over the years, weve dropped eggs out of hot air balloons, had professional sky divers, fireworks, and even shot people out of cannons, said Waid. Many churches host Easter egg hunts, with some holding them off site and with tens of thousands of eggs being available for children to search for and gather into baskets. In 2015, for example, the New Jersey-based Liquid Church held what was reportedly the largest Easter egg hunt in the state that year, with approximately 100,000 eggs being hidden for children to find. Although technically a secular practice, Waid defended the idea of churches holding Easter egg hunts, quoting 1 Corinthians 9:22, in which St. Paul wrote, "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." Our church carries that same mission. We have become all things to all people with the same goal as Paul: that someone would receive the message of Jesus, Waid said. The egg hunt is an afterthought. The goal is to reach people. Following every Easter service, we hand out admission tickets to the egg hunt. Its our hope that through the 10 minutes of hunting eggs, families can create a fun memory together. Its our prayer that through the hour and 15-minute service, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, sisters and brothers can find a forever friend in Jesus. To add to his point, Waid explained that 7 Hills Church recorded almost 500 salvations during Easter weekend, while also noting that Lead Pastor Marcus Mecum has always invested heavily in the next generation, including making church for children fun and engaging. Battling through our moods Everyone at times experiences feelings of disappointment, discouragement and dejection. Circumstances in our personal life, as well as world events, can cause us to feel overwhelmed and despondent. Oswald Chambers wisely wrote, We have to battle through our moods. Christians are in the unique position of having one foot in the world, and one foot already in Heaven. After all, believers have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6). In other words, our soul is now in direct relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In addition, believers have direct exposure to the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Sometimes when a Christian feels oppressed and under attack," it is the result of spiritual warfare with demons. It is hard for us to fully appreciate how dejected Christs first disciples must have felt after Jesus was crucified and buried. It was so unexpected, in spite of the fact that the Lord had told them: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life (Matthew 17:22-23). Christs disciples assumed what most Jews continue to assume today: the Messiah will arrive with great fanfare and establish an earthly kingdom. Instead, Jesus Christ came humbly as a suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1-12). Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world, (John 18:36) and, The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). Needless to say, believers have a lot going on inside of them. Christ is now on the throne of our heart, while our moods are nevertheless a present reality as well. Some of our moods are rooted in our physical makeup; others are rooted in our emotional makeup; and still others are rooted in the spiritual dynamics we are encountering in our life. And of course, many times our moods are a combination of all three: physical, emotional and spiritual. It is often next to impossible for us to discern exactly why we are feeling a certain way at a particular time. Sometimes an attack is simply emotional turbulence, while other times there are actually demons tempting us and trying to upset our peace in Christ. Spiritual warfare is a daily reality for believers. This is why it is so important for us as Christians to follow this prescription for peace: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-12). These demons are just as real as the Lords holy angels who are "sent to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Our emotions can run hot and cold, but Gods salvation story is set in stone even in the midst of our emotional inconsistencies and spiritual attacks. Therefore, it is critical to anchor our life in the historical events of the cross and the empty tomb. The death of Jesus was a glorious victory over Satan and his army, (Colossians 2:15) and the resurrection of Christ was Gods exclamation point in history! Jesus said, Because I live, you also will live (John 14:19). Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35). This includes trouble, hardship, demons, fluctuating moods and unpredictable emotions. It is helpful to confront any feelings of despair we experience with the certainty of Christ's redemptive work at the cross, as well as with Gods Word which is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). In order to stand strong against demonic attacks, we need to remember: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). Scripture meditation, Scripture memory and prayer are supernatural weapons which empower us to stand strong in the Lord when our mind and emotions are threatened by discouraging thoughts and feelings of dejection. And the greatest weapon we have been given is the Gospel message of our salvation! (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8,9) Jesus endured the agony of crucifixion so that we could be given the free gift of everlasting life in Heaven (Hebrews 12:2; Romans 6:23). Just because you are a Christian doesn't mean you wont continue to experience a wide range of moods. Emotional instabilities and psychological pressures are just two of the many disconcerting consequences of mans fall into sin. Our brief and fragile life on Earth is certainly a far cry from the perfect ecstasy we will experience continually in Heaven. As Scripture reminds us, What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14). And our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17). Sometimes we simply need to speak to our soul, which is so prone to becoming discouraged. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God (Psalm 42:5). The Lords willingness to help us in the midst of our emotional storms and spiritual attacks provides an anchor for our soul and a stabilizing influence for our emotions. The following prayer can help us battle through our moods by the Grace of God: Jesus, I am a sinner who struggles not only with my sins but also with moodiness at times. I need you, Lord, to be the anchor for my soul and for my emotions. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Come into my life today, dear Lord, with your power, peace, forgiveness and salvation. Wash away my sins. Cleanse me of my evil thoughts and wicked behavior. I want to live for you, Lord, rather than for sin. Change my heart, O God, and make it ever true. Deliver me from a spirit of discouragement and despair and fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I know you are alive, Lord Jesus. Renew my spirit whenever I start to feel like I am coming under attack, and whenever I start to become overwhelmed by my emotions or by troubling circumstances in my life. I want to feed my soul everyday with your precious Word. Protect me in the midst of attacks from the spiritual enemies of my soul. Thank you, Jesus, for your amazing grace in my life and for being the Rock of my salvation. Amen." Substitutionary atonement: Jesus died for us The prophet Isaiah said it so beautifully, hundreds of years before Jesus death: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). What a message! We sinned. He died. We deserved the punishment. He took it on Himself. That is the meaning of the cross. As expressed by Peter, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds ... For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18a). Or in the words of Paul, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:9). The perfectly righteous one died for the totally unrighteous ones, taking our place on the cross. And did it all because of love. That is Gods heart for a sinful human race. Rather than wiping us out, He sent His Son to die for us and offer us new life. That is the Grace of God a holy God who had even reason to destroy us yet chose to offer us mercy instead. As a teacher of the Jewish Scriptures, Paul understood that the heart and soul of the sacrificial system was substitution, an innocent animal dying for the guilty Israelite. As described in Lev. 17:11, it was a matter of life for life. Thats why the shedding of blood was so important (see also Heb 9:22). And thats why, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would lay his hands on the scapegoat and confess the sins of Israel over that goat. The animal would then be sent into the wilderness, while the blood of another goat would be killed to provide expiation (meaning atonement and cleansing) for the nation. As stated in Leviticus 16, the High Priest is to put [the sins of Israel] on the [scape]goats head and send it away into the wilderness by the man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on it all their wrongdoings into a desolate land, and he will release it there (Lev. 16:21-22). One goat would be killed, shedding its blood to bring atonement and cleansing to the nation. The other goat would be driven out into the wilderness to symbolically carry away Israels sins. But on the cross, Jesus literally carried our sins away and willfully shed His blood to wash us clean. And by the power of that cross and the efficacy of that blood, we can be forgiven and delivered and washed clean. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians after listing a number of sinful behaviors and lifestyles, And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11). Or as he wrote to the believers in Rome, What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin's domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law's requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4). But why did the Savior have to die such a horrific, barbaric, humiliating, degrading death? Why the cross? Its because His death on the cross shows us just how ugly our sins are. Its because the cross shows us the terrible price that must be paid for sin. Its because the cross shows us the extraordinary, mind-boggling, totally humbling, incredibly massive love of God. And when Jesus rose us from the dead, He declared victory over all the powers of darkness and provided our justification and vindication. He died for us, meaning that we died with Him, so that we could also rise to new life in Him. That is the power of the cross. That is the reality of the resurrection. And that is why Paul could write, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). Thats also why John could say, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. He continued: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:8-2:2). As one who received the Lords cleansing mercy and liberating grace more than 50 years ago a mercy and grace that have been with me every day since I urge you not to live in your sins another moment. Jesus took your place on the cross a place we all deserved so that you could have a place with Him forever. Call on Him today to save you from your sins, and let that new life begin right now. What will it be? The bigger issue behind the 'What is a woman?' question The recent refusal of now-confirmed Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to answer the question, what is a woman? is just one symptom that is part of a much larger disease infecting our society. In the same way, I tell men who struggle with a porn addiction that porn isnt their true problem, the what is a woman/transgender debate is just one small manifestation of a bigger thing. At its root, the foundational ailment producing our multiple higher-level maladies is a rejection of God and His true reality for one that is a self-created and false actuality. The willful king of the bedroom Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor describes our current situation as a battle between the mimesis and poiesis worldviews. The first sees reality as having a purposeful order and design (teleology), which provides meaning and thus sees humans as needing to discover that meaning and conform to it. The second sees the world as nothing more than undirected raw material out of which stabs at transient meaning are attempted by the individual. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out which worldview has society in its grip at the moment. The signs are unmistakable and include everything from the what-is-a-woman dispute to cancel culture. For example, many pull their hair out as they see cancel culture claim victim after victim and wonder how it came to be so dominant in society. Tracing its birth up to our current end result isnt all that difficult. Dismissing God and His design for humanity, millennials and others like them built their own poiesis realities from the comfort of their childhood bedroom. Using all their social media apps, they were able to remove any offending opinion with a click, block texts and news sources that challenge their position, instantly unfriend people, and build a safe space that professor Carl Trueman says, allows the individual simply to be himself, unhindered by outward pressure to conform to any greater realitythe individual is king. He can be whoever he wants to be. Consequently, the willful king (cf. Dan. 11:36) of the bedroom had no problem crying out, Off with their heads! to silence anyone they didnt like. The problem is, once they left their bedrooms, they naturally wanted to continue their years-ingrained private filtering process and impose it publicly with like-minded mobs First Amendment, free speech, and rights of other people be damned. And, voila, cancel culture. The poiesis worldview and privatized reality-creating that birthed cancel culture can also be blamed for the identity debates we see. It used to be firmly understood that a person could privately pretend to be whatever they wanted to be, however, the rest of us were under no obligation to publicly join them. No more. The devils original question Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn identified the cause of societys primary disease years ago in his speech that many called "The Great Forgetting": Todays world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: This is the Apocalypse! Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it Men have forgotten God; thats why all this has happened. For those embracing the poiesis worldview, the practical process of forgetting God involves posing the devils original question, has God said?, responding with a definitive no, and proceeding to substitute their own subjective reality in place of Gods objective truth. Has God really made humans only male and female (Gen. 1:27)? They respond no, with the end result being increasingly bizarre identities being proclaimed such as people who now identify as animals like a hippopotamus. Has God said, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 2:24)? They say no, and so we see the strangest of unions being formed like that of an Australian woman who married a bridge. Has God said that because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil (Ecc. 8:11)? They answer no, and so you end up with, as Ann Coulter so well describes, city after city being turned into feces-smeared murdertopias that make Charles Bronsons Death Wish look like The Sound of Music. Puritan John Owen calls the process, a deifying of our own imaginations. Along a similar line, Charles Taylor dubs thinking like the above, the social imaginary, which he defines as taking various practices and personal intuitions and making them not only possible but going so far as to bestow upon them a sense of societal legitimacy through political strong-arming. Of course, anyone disagreeing with the subjective realities composed in the social imaginary is immediately and publicly attacked in ad hominem fashion with all the latest -phobia labels. The sad fact is, the torches and pitchforks crowd carrying out the assaults rarely ever consider the truth that such dissenters are not afraid of those with whom they disagree, but rather they are afraid for them. So, take your pick of whatever debate is currently raging (e.g., what is a woman?) or the proclamations of the oddest identities. You can trace them all back to the rejection of God and His objective reality for a subjective one where people take His place, become self-creators, and substitute their social imaginary for His actual reality. What does 'God is good, God is great' really mean? God is good, God is great, we say in a childhood prayer. Cute words, but what do they actually mean? And what do they mean for us today? God Almighty in Scripture is translated from the Hebrew words El Shaddai. What gets lost in translation is that this literally means the God who is all-sufficient or the God who is enough. During a pandemic with job losses, health crises, shortages, and difficulties at every turn these words mean that people who know God can put their trust in Gods greatness because God is great. Today, as from the start, God is our El Shaddai. In Genesis Chapter 17, God changed Abrams name to Abraham in order to change his identity to become a father of nations. For the same reason, he changed Abrahams wifes name from Sarai, which means survive, to Sarah, which means princess, or mother of nations (Genesis 17). With the name change came a change in depending on self and self-sufficiency to depending on God and his all-sufficiency. From Bible days to today, God has always been completely sufficient. He is Almighty. He is all-powerful. His capabilities and capacity are without precedent and without end. He is never diminished. God is never tired, drained, overwhelmed or depleted in any way. Nothing is too hard for God. Nothing is impossible with El Shaddai, our God Almighty. God is all-sufficient and He is our sufficiency. So, if He is sufficient for the struggles we may face today, how do we get more of that sufficiency in our lives? And if hes our sufficiency, why would we ever live on the level of insufficiency? Ill give you four reasons. First, people tend to look at what we have instead of what God has. When Jesus told the disciples to feed a crowd of 5,000, Philip said they didnt have bread sufficient for the size of the crowd. But Jesus blessed what they did have and the crowd was fed, with 12 baskets left over. We often fail to see Gods greatness in our lives because, like Philip, we allow our own insufficiencies to define us. Thats not to say we should feel sufficient in ourselves. Knowing were insufficient is the very thing that pushes us to depend on God. When we do, the greatness of our El Shaddai defines us, not our insufficiencies. Sensing his insufficiency, a rich young ruler asked Jesus, What do I lack? Jesus told him to sell all and follow Him. The story illustrates that we must choose Jesus over possessions and that we cannot rely on possessions. The rich young ruler became sad. He didnt realize when he was asked to give things up that He was talking to someone who had access to everything. Like the rich young ruler, we can get hung up on what we have and who we are instead of trusting what God has and what God can do. Second, we often dont ask. We have not because we ask not, the Scripture states (James 4:2). Americans have left $3 billion in gift cards unspent, uncashed, and unutilized. Thats an astonishing waste. Kind-hearted people spent $3 billion on gifts they thought would bless or help another person, and the person receiving the gift just never used it. Jesus paid the price with his life to connect us to the Father, the El Shaddai, so that in our insufficiency, we would have sufficiency. We should make use of what He gave us. We serve an amazing God. Dont be afraid to ask. Third, we fail to expand our capacity to receive. How do we expand? Through generosity. When Jesus fed 5,000 people, he used a little boys loaves and fish. That boys gift of everything he had prepared the way for miraculous multiplication. I like the way the Message Bible translates the principle. The world of the generous gets larger and larger the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller (Proverbs 11:24 MSG). God is not against people being wealthy. He is against people being stingy. Generosity starts with the small bit you have now in your hand. Jesus states that whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much (Luke 16:10). Living a generous lifestyle expands you. And when youre expanded, theres simply more room for God to pour in His El Shaddai greatness. Fourth, we live with the wrong mindset. Some of us come from families, situations, communities, and nations that are steeped in a poverty mindset. By breaking the poverty mindset, our El Shaddai, the Father of eternity who owns everything, will bless us with what we need. At times, we think small. We think God is not able to bless. We develop an orphan mindset. We feel abandoned by our Heavenly Father. Some people even live with a slave mindset. God wants us to break that off. Were each living the most exciting life in the entire world because were following the Master, the El Shaddai, the all-powerful ruler and king. We all have today what the rich young ruler passed up. We have what he couldnt fathom. Were living through a pandemic, sure, and yet were living through it with the all-sufficient God. Its time to focus on what God has in His hands, not on what is in your hand. Ask God for every small thing you need. Dont be afraid to name it. Let go of some of what you have, and live generously in order to move into what God has for your life. And get into Gods Word so your mind can let go of a poverty mindset and embrace Gods abundance, Gods power, and Gods strength. There is no lack in our God who is all-sufficient. The truth has never changed. God is good. And God is great. Queen Elizabeth II expected to miss Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel Queen Elizabeth II will not be attending the Easter Sunday worship service in Windsor this year after missing the Maundy Thursday service for only the fifth time in her 70-year reign. The 95-year-old British monarch, who also serves as head of the Church of England, will be unable to attend services, The Guardian reported, speculating that it was due to health-related issues. While Buckingham Palace did not disclose an official reason for not attending the services at St. Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle, Elizabeth has had to pull out of other events in recent months due to mobility problems, The Guardian added. Since the queen was not able to attend the Maundy Thursday service, Prince Charles oversaw the service tradition of giving what is known as Maundy money to people who had provided Christian service" over the last year by caring for the elderly or assisting those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years and since the death of her late husband, Prince Philip, the Queen has been delegating some of her annual duties to other members of the royal family. For the first time, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall stood in for the queen at Thursday's church service. Last month, Charles also stood in for the queen at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. The four other times the queen missed a Maundy Thursday service include 1954 when the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt. Rev. Michael Gresford Jones, stood in for her, and after giving birth to two of her children (1960 and 1964), and in 1970 when she was on tour in New Zealand in her official capacity as reigning monarch. In February, Elizabeth tested positive for COVID-19, with Buckingham Palace reporting that she was experiencing "mild cold-like symptoms, yet still performed light duties in her role as queen. She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines, stated the palace, as reported by the BBC reported. In 2020, at a time when much of the world had initiated lockdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Elizabeth gave her first official Easter address in which she championed the hope found in Jesus Christ. The discovery of the risen Christ on the first Easter Day gave His followers new hope and fresh purpose, and we can all take heart from this. We know that coronavirus will not overcome us, she said. As dark as death can be particularly for those suffering with grief light and life are greater. May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future. Born April 21, 1926, in Mayfair, London, Elizabeth became queen in 1953, with her setting the record for longest-reigning monarch in British history in September 2015. Inside Hook Whats the opposite of traveling in time when you reach 88 miles per hour? One Tesla driver reportedly learned the answer to this question in a nerve-wracking manner. Heres a hint: it involved his cars display simply ceasing to function when his speed came to 83 miles per hour. You know, exactly what youd like to have happen when youre making your way down the highway at a high speed. An ABC report has more information on the incident, which befell Javier Rodriguez as he was traveling through Riverside County, California. As he drove, he told ABC, he realized that the cars switches and buttons were no longer working, and the cars display had frozen. He also perceived what he referred to as a weird scent and an increase in the interior temperature. I was nervous that if I were to brake a whole lot that I wouldnt be able to gain the speed again to keep up with traffic and get around cars, Rodriguez told ABC. I was nervous somebody was going to slam into me. As Jalopnik notes, Rodriguez eventually got his car off the road safely. Eventually, it rebooted and seemed to resume its normal functions. Rodriguez was not taking any chances, however, and had the car towed. Tesla repaired it, but didnt provide much detail on what had gone wrong. According to what Rodriguez told ABC, the automakers report stated that they had [d]iagnosed and found poor communication from charge port door causing power conversion system to shut off in order to protect on board components during drive. Whether this was a unique event or evidence of something more alarming remains to be seen. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Christianna McAfee never dreamt of being queen when she applied to join the 74th Neches River Festival this year. It was her first time participating, and her focus was on the scholarship opportunities offered. Im going to UT Austin, and I need all the money I can raise to afford all four years, the Beaumont United senior said, adding Im also a big girly girl. I love dressing up, being a pretty princess. This was just a great opportunity to be myself and also make some money for college. First, she had to face a panel of nearly a dozen judges and in two minutes impress them, explaining why she should be selected for a scholarship and a spot on the court. A nearby clock ticked off the seconds as McAfee faced the panel who, referencing her lengthy resume, fired question after question. They asked me things like how I manage my time, what are my inspirations, three words to describe myself, what are my biggest accomplishments, McAfee recounted. I never did anything like that before, she added. Its my personality to go out and meet a lot of people. So, going into the interview, I literally was just myself. I talked to them like Ive been knowing them for years, and it worked out in my favor. McAfee answered six questions before the timer buzzed, an impressive feat as most only make it through three or four questions, she said. On April 9 McAfee stood on stage at the Julie Rogers Theatre with some 150 princesses, over 30 duchesses and their escorts for the 74th coronation ceremony. You dont know anything until the night of the coronation, she said. You walk in and get presented by your escort, and if they tell you to stop, that means you won either Miss Congeniality or best escort or you get your scholarship, she said. No one told McAfee to stop. She didnt get one of the half-dozen scholarships awarded this year. I was pretty sad, she said, after regrouping with the princesses and duchesses backstage. I thought, Man, I thought I was gonna get a scholarship. The group retook the stage for the court selection. They called the name of the First Duchess, then the third lady in waiting, the second lady in waiting, then the first. When they called the third lady, I got a little feeling. I was like, Wait, is something bad about to happen? What is going on? McAfee recollected. Then, she heard her name called as the 74th Neches River Festival queen, a glittering tiara placed atop her head and red satin sash embroidered in gold placed across her shoulders by Ashley Messina. When they called me, it was just shock, complete shock, she said. I didnt get a scholarship, but I did get something much better. Being a queen opens up so many more opportunities. Ive met so many people already, contacts that I would not have imagined having, and I just know that theres more to come, she said. Its a fairy tale ending McAfee never envisioned when she submitted her application. Going into Neches, honestly when I say I was just looking for a scholarship, I wasnt thinking about court," she said. "I wasnt thinking about even getting up to that level ... Its a big family tradition. The past two queens were sisters. They were expecting their third sister to win this year. Its just a very generational thing. I never expected to be the person to break something generational like that, McAfee said. That wasnt the only barrier she broke. McAfee is the first Black queen in the festivals 74-year history. History made and writing her own story, grandmother Juanita McAfee posted to Facebook following the coronation. McAfee wasnt thinking about making history as she processed to the Civic Center for the post-coronation ball with several litter girls in tow, all holding up the heavy robe trailing behind her on the trek. The kids were so sweet, so amazing. I had my scepter and they said, can you do hup 2, 3, 4? as we march? We were pretty rowdy, she recalled. The boisterous group arrived at the ball and immediately hushed per her request. Just knowing that they just saw me as the queen, thats what really meant a lot to me. They werent looking at me like, Oh, shes the first Black queen. Im just the queen, and that was really inspirational, McAfee said. Its inspiration she hopes to spread when she visits her moms elementary school classroom. Its a school thats predominantly Hispanic, Asian and Black. And the little girls are like, they dont believe that Im real, and so I am going there to visit and prove to them, Yeah, Im from Beaumont, Im little old me and Im the queen. I got here. I got a crown. I got to be in this fairy tale and you can, too,' she said. Just showing them that Im achieving something great and knowing that Im doing this, you can do this. Thats my whole goal right now just letting them know that they can do it. McAfee will have plenty of opportunity to fulfill that goal. While she hasnt received her official duties yet, she knows it will include many appearances, especially with children. Since its creation in 1949, the Neches River Festival has focused on celebrating our greatest natural resource, the Neches River, through a variety of riverfront activities, like boat races, ski shows, a regatta on the downtown Beaumont boat docks, a parade, royalty court and more, according to the NRF website. The perhaps greatest area of emphasis for the past years has remained unchanged. The NRF celebrates our youth, the site says. From here on, its all for the kids. Thats the core of this festival, for them to see tradition and feel at home in something, McAfee said. It was part of the allure for her to join and has its own rewards. My favorite thing about Neches is even if you dont win, you still get to be a princess, you still get to have that experience. You dont get excluded from anything, McAfee said. But somebody has to be the new queen, and McAfee believes it was her resume that helped earn her the crown. Her accolades include being the varsity cheer captain and making the All-American cheer team this year. McAfee is also class president, a role I love most in my life, because I got to give my classmates everything I hoped for for my senior year and what they wanted for their senior year. She was named Miss Beaumont United and most spirited at a recent senior banquet and before that was crowned homecoming queen, something she'd dreamed of since she was a kindergartner, when she would make drawings of herself wearing the crown. McAfee also has held several jobs since she turned 16 and is a paid member of the Timberwolf Network a student media organization that runs the jumbotron at Beaumont Memorial Stadium and other multimedia production for the Beaumont ISD. Academically, she is a National Merit Scholar, a part of the Texas First Program at UT Austin and was one of 70 students across the state awarded a $48,000 impact scholarship to UT Austin. And those are just the highlights of the resume that caught the NRF panels eyes. I think that they just wanted to acknowledge that, acknowledge the growth that could come from me, and the potential that I have to grow, McAfee said. Its the start of a resume that will only lengthen when she and classmates graduate this spring the first class to attend Beaumont United as freshman and then graduate four years later and McAfee enters UT Austin this fall. Shell already have several college credits under her belt, having completed six dual-credit classes at Lamar University by the end of the semester. That thirst for knowledge will serve her well when she heads to Austin pursuing a major in Communications and Leadership with a minor in business. Im a talker, and I love to lead others by example. So, the Communication and Leadership program at UT is just the perfect fit for me. It will teach me how to talk to others properly and efficiently to get things done without being rude, to have a positive outlook and to talk to others how youd want to be talked to," she said. "Thats really the whole thing with communication leadership - how to be a better leader." Eventually, she plans to attend law school and become a multi-disciplinary professor of law, business and communication while working her way up the post-secondary administration ladder. McAfee wants to change the classroom and eventually the whole campus. I want students to see me and say, Hey, President Chrissy or Dean Chrissy knows me. McAfee says she has even loftier goals in the educational field, but I dont want to say what they are, because I dont want to jinx it, she said with a smile. For now, those goals are McAfee's personal stars, upon which she'll gaze and work to reach in good time. Brandon Bell/Getty Images A Tampa, Florida-based federal judge on Monday issued a ruling voiding national mask mandates on airplanes and public transportation, declaring the policies as overreaching on the part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The judge's 59-page ruling outlined a litany of reasons for the decision, ultimately opting in favor of a full nullification of the policy. The decision has left airports scrambling to clarify their individual standards regarding mask usage. According to KPRC 2's Aaron Fernandez-Wische, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports have opted to continue requiring masks for travelers inside their facilities until they are provided "official guidance" directing otherwise. Arriving at Londons Gatwick Airport for his EasyJet flight to Malaga, Spain, with his wife and 12-year-old daughter on April 4, Alasdair Crawley said it was like walking into the mayhem of the aftermath of a soccer game. The 49-year-old plumber from East London described long, unruly lines of angry passengers trying to determine the status of their flights and families sprawled out across the floor eating, drinking and sleeping to get through long delays. First, our flight was canceled and rebooked for a day later, so we lost the first night of our hotel, and then when we arrived for our new flight, it was delayed by three hours, Crawley recalled this week from his hotel balcony in Spain. Its bliss to be here, but honestly, if I knew I had to go through the shambles at the airport again, I would have probably chosen to stay at home in my garden. Crawley was not alone in his urge to seize the moment or in encountering chaos when he did. Over the past two weeks, travelers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have endured long lines at airports, flight delays or cancellations, and plenty of frustration. Thousands of Britons have flocked to airports for the start of the Easter vacation season, which coincided with governments across Europe dropping coronavirus restrictions. But in the past two weeks, more than 1,000 flights have been canceled across Britain, upending vacation plans for tens of thousands of passengers. On April 9 alone, British Airways and EasyJet canceled more than 100 flights. In the United States, low-cost carriers such as Southwest and Spirit were also forced to cancel flights earlier this month after technical glitches and bad weather. Additionally, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines announced reductions to spring and summer flight schedules, with JetBlue reducing its May flight capacity between 8% and 10% and saying it plans to make similar cuts to its summer schedule, while Alaska cut 2% of its flight schedule through June. The cuts came at a time when travel demand has come roaring back, with some airlines and airports reporting the highest passenger numbers since the start of the pandemic. Londons Heathrow Airport received 4.2 million passengers in March, a more than sevenfold jump from a year ago. In the United States, passenger traffic in recent months has reached nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Transportation Security Administration. When Europe lifted its restrictions, that was an invitation to come back, said Janice Riley, 54, an American basking in the sunshine in the old town of Geneva early this past week. Rileys trip to France and Switzerland had been smooth so far but she said she was willing to get stuck or face disruptions for the sake of going somewhere. I just had an itch to travel and see friends and family, and taking that risk has been worth it, she said. It is the moment the travel industry had been waiting for the great comeback, despite rising prices and the uncertainty over the war in Ukraine. But it seems like the new normal for travelers may be chaos driven by the continued spread of variants and subvariants of the coronavirus and travel operators who are still unable to cope with the volume of demand. Were in for a very bumpy and turbulent two months ahead, said Paul Charles, CEO of The PC Agency, a London-based travel consultancy firm. Easing of restrictions, booming demand and a rise in cases The freedom to travel after two years of stringent rules caused a sudden surge in demand for European travel. The International Air Transport Association, which represents nearly 300 airlines, expects total passenger numbers in Europe to reach 86% of 2019 figures in 2022 and make a full recovery in 2024. The biggest issue, said Charles, the travel consultant, is that many travel companies were not prepared for demand to snap back so quickly and are now scrambling to recruit staff. The labor shortfall is now being seen in the fact that companies cannot operate as normal, he said. During the height of the pandemic, tens of thousands of jobs were slashed across the aviation industry, and now many airline and airport workers are reluctant to come back to jobs that can offer long hours and low pay. The uncertainty over the future of the pandemic has also pushed people in the industry to seek more-secure career opportunities. Stories of unruly passengers, often long commute times and job uncertainty, as seen with COVID-19, could be off-putting for many currently seeking work, said Ralph Hollister, a travel and tourism analyst at the data analytics firm GlobalData. Hollister said a lack of staff in security roles has contributed to the disruptions experienced at British airports, adding that the time it takes to vet and train people means that the issues will not be resolved soon. The issues have been compounded by a record surge in coronavirus cases across Europe, particularly in Britain, which has dropped all of its coronavirus requirements for masking, testing and vaccination. Early this month, the government reported that 1 in 13 people were infected with the virus, and the World Health Organization said virus restrictions in several countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Britain, were relaxed too quickly, causing cases to rise. Coronavirus infections have also been rising in parts of the United States as highly contagious omicron subvariants spread. In an echo of what American carriers faced as omicron spread, EasyJet said hundreds of its cancellations occurred because of coronavirus-related crew absences. British Airways has also been struggling with staff sickness but said a majority of its flights continue to operate as planned. On Tuesday, EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said he would have expected to see the spike in COVID-19 infections across the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe to have dropped by now, but that has not happened yet. Until that moment in time, well continue to monitor the situation, he said. Still, the airline has flown 94% of its planned schedule in the past week, the highest number of flights operated since 2019, and is confident it will be able to return to a near pre-pandemic schedule by the summer, Lundgren said. Time is running out For American travelers, one of the biggest concerns is the predeparture coronavirus test required to return home, which they feel could mean theyd be stuck overseas if they test positive. Among major Western tourist destinations, the United States is a holdout in continuing to require a negative test to enter; the Netherlands, Ireland and Jamaica all recently dropped the requirement. The U.S. travel industry has been pushing the Biden administration to drop both the testing requirement and its mask mandate for planes and other public transportation. The American Society of Travel Advisors, or ASTA, said the inbound testing requirement is the single biggest barrier to the full recovery of the international travel system. On Wednesday, the United States government announced that it would extend a mandate requiring travelers to wear masks on public transport, including on airplanes and at airports, for another two weeks. It has not addressed the future of the pre-arrival test requirement. Demand for travel among American travelers for European destinations is recovering but has been dimmed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February. In a recent survey of 1,300 Americans by the travel app TripIt, 33% of respondents said they would take a trip abroad by June. The travel booking site Hopper said that, in March, 15% of international bookings on its site were for U.S. travel to Europe, down 6% since the invasion. In 2019, United States travel to Europe accounted for 30% of international bookings on the site. I put this trip off in 2020 and then again in 2021, but Im in my 70s and time is running out, said Richard Zelinka, a lawyer from Naples, Florida, discussing a visit to France he has planned for June. At a certain point, health issues will prevent me from traveling, and you just dont know what will happen in the world next year. When Crawley, the plumber from East London, emptied the majority of his savings account to book the trip to Spain, he told his wife that it was time to let go and live again, he said. I didnt want to wait for the next bit of bad news or a new COVID variant or World War III to start. It felt like now or maybe never. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Authorities have an identified a 10-year-old boy who was fatally shot in downtown Minneapolis. KSTP-TV reported Monday that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Amare Rasaun Mayberry-Campbell of Andover was shot Friday evening in an apartment building. SARAJEVO, Bosnia (AP) Regardless of how the Russian war in Ukraine ends, getting justice for human rights abuses suffered during the conflict will inevitably be a long and painful process for those who survive to tell of the atrocities they witnessed. That's the message from survivors of Bosnias 1992-95 internecine war, who have dedicated the ensuing years to the re-telling and re-living of their trauma in hope of bringing those responsible to justice and setting the historical record straight. For me, it is personal. I am still searching for the remains of my brother. I cannot move on. I cannot focus on something else and leave that behind, said Edin Ramulic from the northwestern Bosnian town of Prijedor. Ramulic was 22-year-old university graduate when, in April 1992, he and his male relatives, including his older brother and father, were rounded up by Bosnian Serbs, along with thousands of other non-Serb civilians from Prijedor and surrounding villages, to be deported from the area, imprisoned, tortured or killed. More than 3,000 non-Serbs including 102 children were killed in Prijedor. Some were executed in their homes or in the streets, others in three prison camps where prisoners were subjected to including beatings, rape, sexual assaults and torture. Ramulic's brother, uncle and four cousins did not survive the camps. Much like the graphic evidence of killings and torture in Bucha, outside Kyiv, that emerged earlier this month after Russian forces withdrew from the area, the discovery by international journalists of the camps in Prijedor in August 1992 provoked global outrage and calls by world leaders for those responsible to be held to account. A process was put in motion by the United Nations Security Council to establish a special U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. When it was set up in The Hague in 1993, it was the first international court to investigate and prosecute allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since the tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II. At first nobody thought it would work, the investigators access to crime scenes in Prijedor and elsewhere in Bosnia was blocked for years, and political leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and neighboring Serbia continued to deny human right abuses and hide documents and those indicted. Justice was slow to come. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were fugitives from international justice until the late 2000s when they were tracked down in Serbia. But by the time it shut down in 2017, the tribunal had convicted 83 high-ranking wartime political and military officials, most of them from Bosnia. It also transferred a mountain of evidence and cases against lower-ranking suspects to their home countries in the Balkans. Desperate to find information about the fate of their loved ones and force the world to acknowledge their suffering, survivors like Ramulic changed their lives, setting up support groups for potential witnesses, collecting information about missing persons and commemorating the victims. Ive spent countless months of my life in different courtrooms (as a witness), listening to defense counsels trying to deny the evidence, Ramulic said. It sometimes happens that the people you know are guilty are set free because of the lack of evidence, but it is worth it, he added. Ramulic still does not know where his brothers remains are or exactly who killed him and how, but the court sentences, some of which he had helped bring about, are the most valuable thing that we have, because the evidence-based truth contained in them cannot be forever ignored and denied. In Munira Subasic's former life, before the war, she was a shopkeeper, wife and the mother of two sons. Nothing prepared her for what she would become after losing her husband and a son in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 men and boys died. It was the only episode of Bosnias war to be legally defined as genocide. Amid their frantic search for their missing loved ones, Subasic and a number of other women created an organization, Mothers of Srebrenica, and engaged in street protests and other direct action to stay in the public eye and demand that mass graves be found, remains identified and those responsible for the massacre brought to justice. To date, almost 90 percent of those reported missing from the fall of Srebrenica have been accounted for. We knew the names of the killers, we collected them and shared the information with prosecutors, we visited every mass grave site, we searched for information about where others might be. We have been breathing down everyones neck, demanding justice, Subasic said. Mothers of Ukraine will have to do the same, she added. Subasic, along with dozens of others, testified before the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia, helping put behind bars close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials, collectively sentenced to over 700 years in prison. To get there, however, Subasic and other women of Srebrenica had to overcome the pain of constantly confronting people who tried to hide that our children ever existed, who basically claimed that we were never mothers, that we never gave birth to anyone." Russias denials of massacres its soldiers are now obviously committing in Ukraine sound to me the same as Srebrenica genocide denial, Subasic said. But if survivors are persistent, the truth will prevail. As for absolute justice, in Bosnia it remains elusive. The Bosnian war killed 100,000 people, most of them civilians, and upward of 2 million, or over half of the countrys population, were driven from their homes. Three decades since it started, some 7,000 of the war missing remain unaccounted-for and the Bosnian judiciary has a backlog of over 500 unresolved war crimes cases, involving some 4,500 suspects. As the years pass and witnesses and suspects age, fall ill or die, many of the cases that remain open will likely never reach trial. Jasminka Dzumhur, Bosnias human rights ombudsperson, was appointed last month by the U.N. Human Rights Council to serve as a member of its three-person commission to investigate possible human rights violations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is very important that we know from experience what information is important to establish the evidence of human rights and humanitarian law abuses and what facts can later help relevant judicial bodies to prove individual criminal responsibility for such violations, said Dzumhur. The commission is not a body that shall establish criminal responsibility for possible human rights violations and war crimes (in Ukraine), but it is a mechanism for gathering of facts that can help establish individual criminal responsibility, she added. Still, Dzumhur warned that it was important for survivors of human rights abuses and possible war crimes in Ukraine to understand that their path to justice will be long and uncertain, that it will demand many sacrifices from them and that along the way they are unlikely to find many allies" who will be as committed as they are to the pursuit of truth. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that he will call a special session of the legislature to address rising property insurance rates in the state. The Republican governor said the special legislative session will occur in May and focus mainly on the reform of the property insurance market" but could address other topics. He said he would sign a proclamation this week containing meeting dates and additional details. DeSantis said the goal on property insurance would be to bring some sanity and stabilize and have a functioning market. The announcement comes amid growing consensus among lawmakers to address spiking rates and other problems in the state's property insurance market. Attempts to pass legislation around property insurance failed during the regular legislative session in the GOP-controlled statehouse earlier this year. After months of public outcry, newspaper headlines, and Democrats raising the alarm all session long, the Governor has finally addressed the growing homeowners insurance crisis," said Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican who has been pushing for a special session on property insurance. Joseph Petrelli, president of Demotech, a company that rates the financial stability of insurers, said one prime factor driving up Floridas homeowner rates is state court rulings that have made it highly profitable for lawyers to sue insurance companies even if the amount won is relatively small. Petrelli added that Florida's premiums are also driven up by its rules governing roof replacement, with the state requiring that any roof incurring damage of 25% or more in a storm or other event must be fully replaced. But Amy Boggs, a St. Petersburg attorney who chairs the Florida Justice Association's property insurance committee, disputed Petrelli's contentions. She said one problem is that the insurance companies are claiming they aren't profitable, but their financial records are not made public so it is impossible to test the veracity of their claims. She said the Legislature passed a law last year limiting attorney fees, so that is no longer an issue. For roofs, she said, if insurance companies are not going to have to fully cover older roofs, they should be required to tell consumers how much they are covering and how much that will decrease the premium. She said the only reason the number of lawsuits in Florida is high is that insurance companies often try to stiff their customers out of tens of thousands of dollars. She said in one recent case she handled involving a home destroyed in Hurricane Irma, the property insurer tried to pay about $2,000, saying the damage was caused by flooding that its policy didn't cover. She said arbitrators disagreed and ordered the company to pay $233,000. No one is suing over a couple thousand dollars, Boggs said. Separately, lawmakers are returning to the statehouse this week for a special session on congressional redistricting. ARMSTRONG, Iowa (AP) A former Armstrong police officer has been charged with dozens of crimes, making him the latest in a string of former town officials to face criminal charges in the last 14 months in a wide-reaching corruption case. Former Armstrong officer Benjamin Scheevel was charged earlier this month with 84 felony and misdemeanor counts some dating back to 2016, radio station KILR reported. The counts include stalking, involving at least two women, non-felonious misconduct in office, assault and unauthorized dissemination of criminal history data. He also faces counts of obstruction, theft and tax evasion. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida lawmakers will return to the Capitol Tuesday to begin a special session to approve a new congressional map after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the previous GOP-backed boundaries that preserved minority districts. The work should be easy, given that Republican leaders have already conceded the once-a-decade process to DeSantis. Much to the dismay of Democrats and voting rights groups, House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson told lawmakers last week that neither chamber was going to try to draw a new map, but rather vote on the heavily pro-GOP map DeSantis gave them. They're giving up their right to make a decision and they are relenting to a governor who is essentially a narcissistic autocrat, said Democratic state Rep. Michael Grieco during a Monday news conference. The map DeSantis submitted would likely create more Republican seats than the maps approved by the Legislature. It would also likely reduce Black representation in Florida's delegation from four to two. While DeSantis, who is a potential 2024 presidential candidate, said his map is race neutral, Black lawmakers say it is racist. To Gov. DeSantis, I'm not going to call what you're doing a culture war anymore, I'm going to call it just what it is: It's a racist tactic that you're doing. And you know what you're doing, Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones said at a news conference with other Black elected officials and community leaders. He said it will be an incentive to get people to vote when DeSantis is up for reelection in November. When you come for one of us, you come for all of us, and we will not allow you to dilute our districts with representation for your own political gain. You lose, Jones said. The governor's communications office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Florida is adding a 28th congressional district because of population growth over the decade. The vote this week on the DeSantis map won't be the end of the process since it will be the focus of legal challenges. Qualifying for federal office will run from June 13-17. It won't be the only special session held this year. DeSantis on Monday said he would sign an order this week to bring the Legislature back in May to address rising property insurance rates. The League of Women Voters of Florida said the DeSantis map violates the state constitution, which requires contiguous districts that don't benefit or hurt a political party, incumbent or candidate. It also says districts can't be drawn to reduce minority access to elect representatives. But DeSantis argues that since the provision was passed by voters in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled race can't be a primary factor in drawing districts. The League of Women Voters of Florida issued a news release calling on lawmakers to find courage and do their jobs instead of conceding to DeSantis. The legislatures irresponsible plan to capitulate to the aggression of the Governor nullifies the constitutionally mandated separation of the three branches of government and is moving in the direction of an autocracy," said league President Cecile Scoon. HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) A former Mississippi Department of Corrections probation officer faces up to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of embezzlement for taking more than $4,000 from people who were trying to pay court-ordered fines and fees. Dendrick Hurd, 28, entered the plea Monday, a day before his trial was set to begin in Forrest County Circuit Court, the Hattiesburg American reported. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) A knife-wielding woman robbed a Taco Bell restaurant in North Carolina by climbing through the drive-thru window and grabbing a cash drawer, police said. Winston-Salem police said in a news release that the unidentified woman fled in a brown sport utility vehicle after robbing the the fast-food restaurant on Saturday afternoon. PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) The former long-serving head of Montenegro's top court has been arrested for allegedly helping cover up her son's drug-smuggling operation, local media in the Balkan country reported on Monday. Vesna Medenica, who was the head of Montenegro's Supreme Court for 17 years, was arrested late on Sunday at the airport in the capital, Podgorica, according to state TVCG television. BATH, Maine (AP) U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Monday made her first public appearance since contracting COVID-19 earlier this month, visiting Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works with the the Navy's top officer. Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, joined Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, in touring the future USS Carl M. Levin and visiting with crew members. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Sensors on a Florida amusement park ride had been adjusted manually to double the size of the opening for restraints on two seats, resulting in a 14-year-old boy not being properly secured before he slipped out and fell to his death, according to an initial report released Monday by outside engineers. The average opening for restraints on the seats on the 430-foot (131-meter), free-fall amusement park ride located in the heart of Orlando's tourist district was 3.3 inches (8.3 centimeters). However, the opening of the restraint for the seat used by Tyre Sampson, upon inspection, was as much as 7.1 inches (18 centimeters), and the one for another seat was as much as 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters), according to the report commissioned by the Florida Department of Agriculture, which is investigating the accident. Sampson was only 14 but already 6 feet, 5 inches tall (195 centimeters) and well over 300 pounds (136 kilograms) when he slipped out of his seat as the ride plunged to the ground at speeds of 75 mph (about 121 kph) or more. The restraint opening was over 6 inches (15.2 centimeters) at the start of the ride with Sampson in the seat but could have expanded to as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) from the extra weight, the report said. An inspection showed that sensors used to activate safety lights on the two seats, indicating the harness safety restraints were in place, had been adjusted to allow for the wider openings. The safety lights on Sampsons seat and on the rides control panel were illuminated; if they hadn't been, the ride would not have started. As the ride slowed down, Sampson slipped through a gap between the seat and safety harness, the report said. As part of the investigation, two individuals one 6 feet, 3 inches (190 centimeters) tall, the other 6 feet, 5 inches (195 centimeters), and both weighing between 200 and 300 pounds (90 to 136 kilograms) were positioned in the seat with openings ranging from 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters). They slipped through the restraint, the report said. The cause of the subject accident was that Tyre Sampson was not properly secured in the seat primarily due to mis-adjustment of the harness proximity sensors, said the report from Quest Engineering and Failure Analysis, Inc. The Orlando Free Fall ride, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, didn't experience any electrical or mechanical failures, the report said. The release of the report marks the initial phase of the investigation into the teen's death, and we are far from done," Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said at a news conference in Orlando. Fried said the 30-seat ride, located on a busy strip of International Drive in the heart of Orlando's tourist district, would remain closed indefinitely. The report said there were many other potential contributions" to the accident and that a full review of the ride's design and operations was needed. In a statement, an attorney for the amusement ride's owners, Orlando Slingshot, said the company had followed all protocols, procedures and safety measures provided by the ride's manufacturer. Orlando Slingshot has fully cooperated with the State during the initial phase of its investigation, and we will continue to do so until it has officially concluded," said Trevor Arnold, the attorney. ___ This story has been edited to correct the name of the ride to Free Fall, not FreeFall. ___ Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Patrick Lyoyas father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man. But the police chief in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he will only do so if the officer is charged in the April 4 shooting that followed a brief foot chase and a struggle over the officer's Taser. Eric Winstrom's department is among those across the U.S. that have faced scrutiny for withholding identities of officers in cases where Black people were wounded or killed during interactions with police. Some have said its to protect the officers from retribution. Others, like Grand Rapids, point to policies that prohibit the release of an officers name before charges are filed. Im asking for the law to release his face, his image and his identification because I would love to know the person who has killed my son. I have the right, Peter Lyoya said through a translator during an emotional news conference after video of the shooting of his son was released last week. Andrew Shannon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Peninsula Chapter and vice president for the SCLC Virginia State Unit, said police departments should treat officers who are under investigation like they would anyone else. They always report who the suspect is and they report who the victim is, except in cases of rape, Shannon told The Associated Press. There should be no special treatment when law enforcement are involved in these types of matters. They should want to demonstrate transparency and openness so everyone can be fully apprised of the process. Lyoya was facedown on the ground when an officer shot him in the back of the head while straddling Lyoya. The officer had stopped Lyoya for driving with a license plate that didnt belong to the vehicle. The funeral for Lyoya, a native of Congo, is scheduled Friday in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. The Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver the eulogy. While Winstrom said he could not release the officer's name, he did release videos of the shooting, citing a need for transparency. The officer could be heard repeatedly ordering Lyoya to let go of his Taser, at one point demanding: Drop the Taser! Ben Crump, an attorney for Lyoyas family, planned to release results of an independent autopsy on Tuesday. Michigan State Police are investigating. The prosecutor who will determine whether the officer will face any charges has said not to expect a quick decision. A Grand Rapids police spokeswoman said Monday in an email that a person's name, age, other basic information and the charges against him can be released following an arrest or issuance of an arrest warrant. Not releasing the officers name is consistent with the procedure, Jennifer Kalczuk wrote. Such policies vary from city to city. Chicago, for example, changed how it handles such cases after Black teenager Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a white police officer in October 2014. In that case, it was prosecutors who released Officer Jason Van Dyke's name 13 months later, when he was charged with murder and video for the shooting was also released. On Monday, Federal authorities said they will not criminally charge Van Dyke. In response to criticism of how the McDonald shooting was handled, the city made changes. While police still will not release an officer's name unless he's charged, the agency that reviews those shootings does so regardless. City policy also requires that video be released within 60 days. Last year, within a month of two separate fatal shootings by police, including of a 13-year-old boy, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released officers' names. Prosecutors have said the officers won't face charges. Ephraim Eaddy, spokesman for the agency, said it has concluded that officers names cannot be held back because they are public servants. If the release of the names of the Chicago officers involved in the two 2021 shootings seemed to come quickly, the name of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot Jacob Blake several times in 2020 was made public in lightning speed. Three days after that shooting, the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a news release that included Officer Rusten Sheskey's name. The decision came after the Kenosha Police Department handed the investigation over to the states Justice Department for complete transparency, said Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik. Nosalik said he agreed with the decision. Had the department refused to release the name, Nosalik said he would have called to ask why. The public has a right to know ... and unless theres a logical reason like it might put the officers safety and his family in jeopardy, I dont see a reason why the name cant be released, he said. In fact, he said, the Kenosha police moved to extricate" Sheskey's family from their home after learning that they might be in danger, and suggested the same concern might be part of the reason why authorities in Grand Rapids have not released the officers name. Crump, the Lyoyas' attorney, said having the officer's name would allow the family to find out more about him. We want to know his history, Crump said last week. I can guarantee you, theyre going to do everything in their power to try to learn the history of Patrick to assassinate his character." _____ Find the APs full coverage of the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya ____ Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Babwin reported from Chicago. Williams is a member of AP's Race and Ethnicity team. If youve ever planted a seed in your garden to watch it grow, you know how difficult it can be to create the right conditions to help it thrive. Maybe the plant needs more water, or has too much. Maybe the soil around your house isnt fertile enough, so you add potting soil. Farmers make similar decisions while planting new crops each spring. Just like the choices you make from season to season impact how plants grow in your garden, the stewardship practices we use on our farms matter, too. In agriculture, a sustainable future intertwines with environmental stewardship. Farmers improve soil health and water quality using innovative solutions on their farms. They support clean energy solutions that benefit air quality and produce more with fewer resources. Farmers invest in soil health, water quality One way Illinois farmers explore new crop production techniques is through work with researchers, universities and industry partners. Each year, farmers host on-farm trials through the Illinois Farm Bureau Nutrient Stewardship Grant Program to develop new management practices that protect the land. These studies help growers in each county learn more about the production capabilities of soil in their regions. In its seventh year, the program has committed over $150,000 to support more than 20 projects across Illinois. Based on voluntary efforts, such as planting cover crops to replenish nutrients in the soil and reduce surface runoff, farmers continue to make increasingly positive impacts on our natural resources. The goal is to balance maximum crop, and ultimately food and fuel, production with land management decisions that safeguard farmland for future generations of farm families. Renewable fuels benefit consumers, environment While stewardship is important, so is agricultures contribution to cleaner energy solutions like biofuels. Illinois farmers produce millions of gallons of corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel annually. The supply of these alternative fuels is essential to a strong domestic fuel supply in the U.S., a fact highlighted by supply chain disruptions in recent years. More biofuel production means more affordable, environmentally friendly solutions Americans can depend on. Growing a bright future with fewer resources Protecting the environment also means growing more food and raising more livestock with fewer resources than ever before. Without the technological advancements and climate-smart practices used in modern agriculture, farmers in 1990 would require more than 100-million more acres to grow what we do today. Thats significant because the number of acres used in production agriculture decreases each year, while demand for food, fuel and fiber increases exponentially. Livestock farmers have also found new ways to do more with less by improving barn construction and reimagining waste management. Farmers who raise pigs, dairy and beef cattle often recycle the nutrients found in animal manure back into crop production on their farm. Many growers have also tapped into the benefits of using cover crops by using them to replenish their soils between corn and soybean rotations and repurposing them as forage for livestock. Agriculture, environmental needs are connected As Illinois farmers take to the fields to plant fresh crops this spring, its only fitting that Earth Day is also right around the corner. While this years celebration officially takes place on April 22, farmers make decisions every day to balance the needs of crops and livestock on their farms. Their work supports a steady supply of ag products that people rely on and protects the integrity of farmland they hope to one day pass on to the next generation. This op-ed was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com. Guebert is the Illinois Farm Bureau president. MADISON, Wis. (AP) Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican elected to four terms starting in the 1980s, announced Monday that he will not run again in a bid to take on the Democratic incumbent in the battleground state. A campaign by the 80-year-old Thompson would have put him on the ballot for the first time in a decade and 24 years after his last win. The winner of the Aug. 9 Republican primary will advance to face Gov. Tony Evers. Thompson contemplated seeking yet another comeback in his unparalleled career in Wisconsin politics that spans more than half a century, even meeting last month with former President Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss it. Thompson told The Associated Press that Trump encouraged him to run, but Thompson's family was against it. Thompson said Trump didn't disparage any of the other Republicans who are running, and Thompson held out the possibility of endorsing one of them. I want a Republican governor and I want to win," Thompson said. Thompsons entry would have shaken up an already crowded Republican field that includes former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, businessman and former Marine Kevin Nicholson and state Rep. Timothy Ramthun. Last week, Madison businessman Eric Hovde decided against a run. Ramthun has openly advocated for decertifying President Joe Bidens win, even though Republican leaders and attorneys have said that would be illegal. Kleefisch and Nicholson also have supported Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and they have pushed to eliminate the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. Kleefisch served eight years as lieutenant governor under Scott Walker between 2011 and 2018. Nicholson ran for U.S. Senate in 2018, losing the Republican primary to Leah Vukmir. She went on to lose to Baldwin. None of the other Republican candidates immediately returned messages seeking comment on Thompson's decision not to run. Thompson last ran for office in 2012, when he won a Republican primary for U.S. Senate but then lost the general election to Democrat Tammy Baldwin. Before that, Thompson won election four times as governor the most in state history and served from 1987 until 2001. He left that year, midway through his fourth term, to become then-President George W. Bushs secretary of health and human services. Thompson has never been far from politics, briefly running for president in 2007 and in March completing a 21-month stint as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System. I want to run," Thompson said Monday. "I still want to run. My brand of politics is different. I wanted to articulate my brand of politics. Ultimately, Thompson said his family was united against him mounting yet another campaign his fifth for governor. We had a family meeting and it was unanimously opposed by all of them," Thompson said. "I decided to go along with them. I just cant run a campaign if your wife and children were all opposed to it and they were. Thompson political career began in 1966, when he was first elected to the state Assembly. He served there for 20 years before spending the next 14 as governor. He was U.S. health and human services secretary from 2001 to 2004. His last two bids for public office failed. Thompson dropped out of the run for president in August 2007, five months before any state voted after his candidacy failed to generate momentum. While he won the 2012 Senate primary, he came out of it broke and eventually lost to Baldwin by more than 5 points. BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) Ukraine on Monday rejected as baseless and false the accusations made by Serbias president that Ukraines secret service is behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed that the foreign intelligence services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union nation are doing that." The pro-Russian Serbian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials have alleged that the threatening bomb hoax emails had been sent to Serbia from either Ukraine or Poland. His (Vucics) statements about Ukraines alleged involvement in bomb threats to Serbian air carriers flying to Russia are false, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement. The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline besides Turkish air companies which has not joined EU flight sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Several Air Serbia flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg have been delayed or had to return to Belgrade after the anonymous bomb threats. Vucic said although the flights to Russia are not making a profit because of frequent returns to their base in the Serbian capital, the flights will continue as a matter of our principle. Serbia voted in favor of three U.N. resolutions condemning Russias bloody carnage in Ukraine, but has so far rejected joining international sanctions against its allies in Moscow. Ukraines Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed disappointment that Serbia, a candidate to join the EU, has not yet supported the 27-nation blocs sanctions against Russia. Tough sanctions and unity of the democratic world can stop this war, Nikolenko said in a statement. We call on Belgrade to stand up for the truth and fully join in supporting Ukraine and upholding the values on which a united democratic Europe has been founded. ___ Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UNITED NATIONS (AP) Yemen's Houthi rebels have agreed to rid their ranks of child soldiers, who have fought by the thousands during the country's seven years of civil war, the United Nations said Monday. The Houthis signed what the U.N. described as an action plan to end and prevent recruiting or using children in armed conflict, killing or maiming children and attacking schools and hospitals. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rebels committed to identifying children in their ranks and releasing them within six months. One of the Houthis top diplomats, Abdul Eluh Hajar, signed the agreement. Representatives from the U.N.s childrens agency posed with Houthi officials for the media at a ceremony to mark the agreement in Yemens capital, Sanaa. The Houthis called it a plan to protect children. Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is operating in exile, made similar commitments in several documents signed since 2014, the U.N. said. Virginia Gamba, the U.N.'s top official looking out for children in war zones, called the Houthis' move a positive and encouraging step, but she noted that the most difficult part of the journey starts now." "The action plan must be fully implemented and lead to tangible actions for the improvement of the protection of children in Yemen, Gamba, who signed in New York as a witness to the Houthis commitment, said in a statement. The U.N. says nearly 3,500 children have been verified as recruited and deployed in Yemen's civil war. However, a senior Houthi military official told The Associated Press in 2018 that the group had inducted 18,000 child soldiers into its army by then, and former child soldiers told the news cooperative that boys as young as 10 were recruited. At the time, a Houthi military spokesman denied any systematic recruiting of people under 18 and said there were orders to reject children who tried to join up. More than 10,200 children have been killed or maimed in the war, the U.N. says. It's unclear how many may have been combatants. Yemens civil war erupted in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sanaa and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power. War monitors estimate the conflict has killed over 14,500 civilians and 150,000 people when combatants are included. The fighting also created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The warring sides agreed earlier this month to the first nationwide truce in six years. The two-month pact was timed to start during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and raised hopes about building momentum for peace. Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi stepped aside last week and said a new presidential council would run the exiled government and lead negotiations with the Houthis. Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries welcomed the leadership change after years of infighting among anti-Houthi factions. A Houthi spokesperson dismissed the development as an illegitimate decision made from afar. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Prompted by a court order, federal wildlife managers have issued a new draft plan for managing Mexican gray wolves in the Southwestern U.S. in an effort to address illegal killings of the endangered predators. The plan calls for millions of dollars to be spent over the coming decades on more education, outreach, increased law enforcement patrols and other projects to boost the wolf population across its historic range in Arizona, New Mexico and in Mexico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that Mexican wolves saw their numbers increase for another consecutive year but that overall growth of the population has been tempered in part by human-caused mortalities, which include illegal killings and being struck by vehicles. The draft made public last week is meant to address the longstanding concerns of environmentalists who claim the agency is not doing enough to ensure the recovery of the species. While encouraged by the proposed changes to address what they call conflict hot spots, some environmentalists say pressure on the wolves will continue until the recovery area is expanded and the predators are allowed to roam. Bryan Bird with Defenders of Wildlife said his group believes the revisions should have considered an expansion northward into the Grand Canyon and southern Rocky Mountains. Though the proposed revisions improve this imperiled animals chances at survival, Defenders remains concerned the plan still fails to prescribe what is needed for full recovery of the worlds most endangered subspecies of wolf, he said in a statement. Meanwhile, federal and state managers still struggle to curb wolf-livestock conflicts. Ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico say wolves continue to kill cattle despite efforts to scare the animals away from herds using tools that range from flagging along fence lines, riders on horseback, pasture rotations and even diversionary food caches. Under the plan, the wolf recovery team would do more outreach in local communities to improve hunter, trapper, rancher and public awareness and tolerance." That would include handing out materials with biological information about the animals and conflict reduction techniques. Wildlife managers also want to increase law enforcement patrols in areas identified as mortality hot spots to help with public education, the deterrence of illegal killing and the investigation of wolf mortalities. We added this action because we expect the presence of increased law enforcement to have a chilling effect on the intentional illegal killing of Mexican wolves, officials stated in documents supporting the revisions. Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity noted that fewer than 10 people have pleaded guilty to illegally killing wolves and that many of the cases go unsolved. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, about three-quarters of documented Mexican wolf deaths in the recovery area between 1998 and 2020 were attributed to human causes. Illegal killing counted for 119 of the 216 documented mortalities. Vehicle strikes were a distant second, and many causes of death were listed as unknown. Wildlife officials say modeling used for the recovery plan suggests that the Mexican gray wolf population could grow or remain stable as long the mean mortality rate is less than 25% and if mortality among pups remains low at 13%. Officials describe the current rate of human-caused wolf deaths as excessive. The Fish and Wildlife Service expects recovery of the species to take between 25 and 35 years, with the estimated cost nearing $203 million. The agency's estimates show that the price tag for reducing human-caused mortalities of Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. is expected to top $6 million over the next 25 years, with expenses likely increasing each year. Loren Patterson, president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said in an email Monday that the wolves are putting the livelihoods of family ranchers at risk. Although the association doesn't condone illegally killing a wolf, he said ranchers are disappointed that the Fish and Wildlife Service isn't supporting those whose herds are being "significantly and detrimentally impacted by these predators. When the wolf was originally introduced as an experimental/non-essential population, the (Fish and Wildlife Service) claimed to be working with the rurally impacted communities and ranchers, but the agency has completely abandoned us, he said. In the recovery plan, federal officials vowed to continue to seek additional funding for programs designed to offset the wolves direct and indirect costs to ranchers. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HAMPTON, S.C. (AP) Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a shooting at a nightclub early Sunday that wounded at least nine people. It was the second mass shooting in the state and the third in the nation during the Easter holiday weekend. The shootings in South Carolina and one in Pittsburgh, in which two minors were killed early Sunday, also left at least 31 people wounded. No one was reported killed in the violence at Caras Lounge in Hampton County, roughly 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston, according to an email from South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division, which is investigating the shooting. A phone call to the nightclub was not answered. In Pittsburgh, two male youths were killed and at least eight people wounded when shots were fired during a party at a short-term rental property. The vast majority of the hundreds of people at the party were underage, the city's Police Chief Scott Schubert told reporters. The Allegheny County Medical Examiners Office identified the two victims as Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, both 17. Investigators believe there were multiple shooters, and Schubert said police were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes spanning a few blocks around the rental home. The two shootings come just a day after gunfire erupted at a busy mall in the South Carolina state capital of Columbia, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Sunday's nightclub shooting. Nine people were shot, and five people sustained other kinds of injuries while trying to flee the scene at the Columbiana Centre, Columbia Police Chief W.H. Skip Holbrook said Saturday. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73. None faced life-threatening injuries. We dont believe this was random, Holbrook said. We believe they knew each other and something led to the gunfire. The only person arrested in the mall shooting so far is Jewayne M. Price, 22, one of three people initially detained by law enforcement as a person of interest. Price's attorney, Todd Rutherford, told news outlets Sunday that his client fired a gun at the mall, but in self-defense. Rutherford said Price faces a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol because he legally owned his gun but did not have a permit to carry a weapon. Columbia police said on Twitter that a judge agreed Sunday to let Price leave jail on a $25,000 surety bond. He was to be on house arrest with an ankle monitor, police said. It was unprovoked by him. He called the police, turned himself in, turned over the firearm that was used in this, and gave a statement to the Columbia Police Department, Rutherford said, according to WMBF-TV. That is why he got a $25,000 bond. Police said the judge will allow Price to travel from home to work during certain hours each day. Price is forbidden from contacting the victims and anyone else involved in the shooting. South Carolina residents age 21 or older can get a weapons permit, which as of last year allows them to carry weapons openly or concealed. They must have eight hours of gun training and pass a background check that includes fingerprinting. The three Easter weekend mass shootings are in addition to other gun violence in recent days. Last week, a gunman opened fire in a New York subway car, wounding 10 people. A suspect was arrested the next day. Earlier this month, six people were killed and 12 others wounded in Sacramento, California, during a gunfight between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy downtown area just blocks from the state Capitol. One week ago, a shooting inside a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, left a man and a woman dead and 10 people wounded. And last month, 10 people were shot at a spring break party in Dallas and several others were injured as they tried to escape the gunfire. Just over two years ago, after putting my sons to bed, I began writing about something that was weighing on me and I couldnt get off my mind. It was the increasing amounts of Methamphetamine I was seeing being used in our community and the affects it was having in the lives of those addicted to it. Especially, the lives of children of those hooked by this illegal drug. I write to you again with things not being any better, but regrettably worse than they were before. In the past month, between the Mecosta County Sheriffs Office and the Big Rapids Police Department, we have arrested 15 people for possession or delivery of Methamphetamine. One of these people nearly ran over one of our deputies, who thankfully escaped with minor injuries. Our patrol unit wasnt so lucky, ending up with enough damage where it is considered a loss by our insurance company. We also arrested a 25-year-old mother for possession and for Operating Under the Influence of Drugs (Meth) Felony Possession of Meth, Felony Delivery of Meth. She had her 2-year-old son, unbuckled, with her in the vehicle, who was turned over to family members. While investigating a motor vehicle theft, we detained and arrested a 15-year-old juvenile male who was responsible, along with some adults, for a theft of another vehicle and breaking and entering in Isabella County. During our contact with the juvenile, he was found to be in possession of meth, and admitted to using it for an extended period. In fact, of the 88 people currently in our jail at the time of this article being written, 45 of them are directly or indirectly in relation to meth charges. Methamphetamine, usually referred to by its shorthand "meth," is a central nervous system stimulant. Meth can be snorted, smoked, injected, or taken orally, and its highs are characterized by an increase in energy and an elevated mood state. It is closely related, in both chemical structure and effect, to amphetamines, but meth has stronger affects. Observing the lives of meth users, I have seen certain habits and tics that they exhibit. They tend to have fixations with flashlights, and some I have dealt with locally that are addicted are regularly scraping out vehicles, or endlessly disassembling and reassembling them again. THE RISE OF P2P METH The one pot method, with Ephedrine being the key component used by those cooking it at local levels, is a thing of the past. It has taken a backseat to the much stronger and mentally incapacitating, P2P (phenyl-2-propanone) meth, which is predominantly manufactured in Mexico, imported into the United States, making its way north and east to Mecosta County and other communities throughout Michigan and the United States. The legalization of marijuana in Michigan and other states in our country have contributed to the rise in Mexican cartels being a big part in the meth epidemic in the United States. As some states legalized marijuana, Mexican pot revenue faltered. Many producers switched to making meth and found it liberating. Marijuana took months to grow, but with crystal meth, its a shorter period to produce, wasnt as bulky to cross the border with, and in the end, much more profitable, partially due to its addictive nature. Drugs, like Heroin, Methamphetamine and Fentanyl, have become popular because they are a fix that becomes a vice for people. They are a fix for emotional and physical pain. A fix for the pressure our society places on people, sometimes to live the all-American dream. A life they are not successful in achieving. In the last three years the state of Michigan has ranked in the top four in both the use of Methamphetamine and Fentanyl-Cut Methamphetamine. Its scary that a deadly drug is made that much more deadly. Due to the amount of meth the drug cartels can produce, and the demand for it, the cost of it has lowered in the past few years. Another concerning result of the P2P and Meth, was how quickly the drug took its toll on those using it. The Ephedrine meth tended to damage people gradually, over the years. With the switchover to P2P meth, that damage seemed to accelerate, especially damage to the brain. Listening to jail calls and interviews, just at the local level, the meth business and society is a widespread one with users having multiple sources to go get their fix. This goes far beyond the national and international level with how the drugs get to our small, rural community. There are typically a lot of hands involved in the drug getting to Mecosta County from the Mexican border. According to Sam Quiones, a journalist, who chronicled the growing Methamphetamine crisis in America through his 2021 book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, from 2015 to 2019, the Mexican military raided some 330 meth labs in Sinaloa, Mexico, alone. Arrests were rare, according to a person involved in targeting the labs. Far from being a deterrent, the raids showed that no one would pay a personal price, and more people entered the trade as a result. At one point in 2019, DEA intelligence held that, despite all the raids, at least 70 meth labs were operating in Sinaloa, each with the capacity to make tons of meth with every cook. BREAKING THE CYCLE Additional concerns associated with the continued use of meth, is the abundance of people needing or requiring rehabilitation, through a court order or otherwise, and at clinics. A lot of these clinics were initially for those suffering from alcohol and opioid addictions, now have begun to be regularly used for those seeking help for meth. A lot of the people receiving the rehabilitation are also homeless, due to the drug consuming their life. Breaking the cycle of recidivism is difficult with all drugs. The counseling and continuum of care required to support the broader life changes necessary for addiction recovery are often absent. You add to this, the addicts going back to hanging out with the same group of people who helped lead them to the place they are in their lives, and it is a recipe for the recidivism they continue to deal with. Most concerning, currently and in the future, is how the P2P meth is quickly causing steep deterioration in mental health. The symptoms include violent paranoia, hallucinations, conspiracy theories, isolation, massive memory loss, jumbled speech. Methamphetamine is a neurotoxin it damages the brain no matter how it is derived, but P2P meth seems to create a higher order of cerebral catastrophe. People in their 30s and 40s with no prior history of mental illness seemed to be going crazy. The degree of mental-health disturbance, the wave of psychosis is something we as a society havent seen before. Although we are fighting an upward battle, there are things we as a community can do to fight Methamphetamine addiction and the toll it takes on families and our community. These things will help those addicted and resorting to criminal acts to supply their habit. The first step in treating methamphetamine addiction is usually medical detox. Overuse and abuse of methamphetamine increases your tolerance, which can lead to physical dependence and, upon deciding to quit, some terrible withdrawal symptoms. There are treatment methods that are still in the preliminary stages that can be used after the detox has occurred, but it is still too soon to gauge the effectiveness of these. In the end, it is our federal government who needs to take a more focused and closer look at stopping the P2P meth from entering our country. It takes our community being unified in combating the drug and educating everyone to not even start using it, to avoid the addiction cycle. Gov. Greg Abbott may have ended additional inspections of commercial trucks entering Texas from Mexico, but experts say the week-long border security policy still resulted in huge economic losses for the state. Abbott ordered the "enhanced safety inspections" in protest to President Joe Biden ending Title 42, a border policy that allowed federal agents to quickly deport migrants attempting to enter the country citing COVID-19 restrictions. The heightened vehicle checks, which Abbott claimed would help combat smuggling, led to extended wait times at the border and delayed shipments of products ranging from avocados to auto parts. Economist Ray Perryman, president and CEO of the Waco-based Perryman Group, told the Dallas Morning News that Texas lost an estimated $477 million per day as a result of the enhanced border security checks, citing preliminary data he plans to issue in a new study. "Our economies are so interdependent that a policy like this makes us more inefficient and forces us to lose some of the benefits of cross border trade," Perryman told the Dallas Morning News. "So my message to Governor Abbott is we need to do everything we can to encourage the smooth flow of goods and services across the border rather than something else." Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, told CNN that losses to fruit and vegetable producers as a result of the brief policy are estimated to be more than $240 million and that consumers could expect to spend more to make up for the losses. "It's a bad time to be adding this to consumers' pockets to pay out their pocketbook," Jungmeyer said. Dante Galeazzi, president of the Texas International Produce Association, told CNN that about $9 billion worth of free produce crosses from Mexico into the Lone Star State each year. Galeazzi said that for the past week, businesses and goods were "being used as bargaining chips" and that it could take "a week or longer, up to probably three weeks, before the supply chain realigns." Galeazzi predicted that the policy would leave some store shelves in the fruit and vegetable departments empty starting this past weekend. Brent Erenwert, CEO of Brothers Produce, told KHOU 11 that Houstonians would also start to see higher prices at the store soon. Mexico reportedly lost $100 million due to the disrupt in trade, according to Jose Diaz Briseno, a Washington correspondent for Mexican newspaper Reforma. Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticized the inspections and accused Abbott of using the policy to gain support from voters. "Legally they can do it, but it's a very despicable way to act," Lopez Obrador said at a Monday news conference, according to Reuters. After striking deals with leaders of four Mexican states that border Texas, Abbott announced Friday that the additional inspections would be suspended for the time being, but threatened to close bridges if trafficking spikes across the border. "As we are speaking this moment, all these bridges are opened back up to normal trafficking," Abbott said during a news conference. "And so, all the goods that used to go from one country to the other at a very rapid pace, they are moving at that rapid pace as we speak right now." WFO AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, April 17, 2022 _____ SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio TX 708 PM CDT Sun Apr 17 2022 ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Uvalde and northeastern Zavala Counties through 800 PM CDT... At 708 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over Uvalde, moving southeast at 30 mph. HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and penny size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Uvalde, Knippa and Uvalde Estates. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio stations and available television stations for additional information and possible warnings from the National Weather Service. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 800 PM CDT for south central Texas. LAT...LON 2922 9986 2935 9976 2920 9941 2905 9941 2895 9949 TIME...MOT...LOC 0008Z 305DEG 26KT 2924 9976 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.75 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ALLOWED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 135 TO EXPIRE FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS IN LOUISIANA THIS ALLOWS TO EXPIRE 14 PARISHES IN NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA CALDWELL GRANT JACKSON LA SALLE LINCOLN OUACHITA UNION WINN IN NORTHWEST LOUISIANA BIENVILLE CLAIBORNE DE SOTO NATCHITOCHES RED RIVER SABINE IN TEXAS THIS ALLOWS TO EXPIRE 2 COUNTIES IN NORTHEAST TEXAS PANOLA SHELBY THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ARCADIA, BERNICE, CARTHAGE, CENTER, CLARKS, COLFAX, COLUMBIA, COUSHATTA, DRY PRONG, FARMERVILLE, GIBSLAND, GRAYSON, HAYNESVILLE, HOMER, JENA, JONESBORO, LOGANSPORT, MANSFIELD, MANY, MARTIN, MIDWAY, MONROE, MONTGOMERY, NATCHITOCHES, OLLA, PLEASANT HILL, RINGGOLD, RUSTON, STONEWALL, WINNFIELD, AND ZWOLLE. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather An overview of economic class immigration for Pakistanis who want to move to Canada. How to immigrate to Canada from Pakistan An overview of economic class immigration for Pakistanis who want to move to Canada. How to immigrate to Canada from Pakistan An overview of economic class immigration for Pakistanis who want to move to Canada. How to immigrate to Canada from Pakistan An overview of economic class immigration for Pakistanis who want to move to Canada. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A There are a number of ways to move to Canada depending on your circumstances in Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the top source countries of new immigrants to Canada. In 2021, more than 8,400 Pakistan citizens moved to Canada, making it the tenth-largest source country overall. It is also in the top 20 source countries of international studentsabout 3,400 came to Canada in 2021. In 2020, Pakistan was the fourth leading country of citizenship of invited Express Entry candidates. Further, the latest available census data indicates there are about 202,000 Canadians with Pakistani ancestry. The largest share of the Pakistan diaspora lives in Ontario, especially Toronto, Mississauga, and Milton. On the west coast, Vancouver also has a large Pakistani community. Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration In this article, we are going to focus on economic immigration to Canada. Economic immigration refers to people who are assessed by the government on their ability to establish themselves in the Canadian labour market. You may be eligible for family class immigration if you have Canadian family members such as a spouse or common-law partner. If you are coming to Canada for safety reasons, you may be able to immigrate as a refugee. The best way to immigrate to Canada will entirely depend on your goals. There are more than 100 economic immigration pathways available. Choosing one is like finding the right key to a lock. We are going to focus on some of the most popular permanent residence pathways, and a few temporary residence options that help you get to Canada while increasing your chances of a successful immigration story. Express Entry Express Entry is the federal governments application management system for Federal High Skilled immigration programs and some Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). It is essentially an online reservoir of immigration applications and is sometimes called the Express Entry pool. In order to get a profile in the Express Entry system, you need to be eligible for one of the Federal High Skilled programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP). Being eligible for these programs also opens you up to become eligible for Express Entry-aligned PNPs. It is not necessary to be in Canada in order to be eligible, nor do you necessarily need a Canadian job offer. When you submit your profile, you are given a score out of 600 based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). You get CRS points for factors such as education, age, language proficiency in English or French, and skilled work experience (note skilled work is a designation on Canadas National Occupational Classification (NOC) system). You can get an additional 600 points if you are awarded a provincial nomination through a PNP. The absolute maximum number of points Express Entry candidates can get is 1,200. About every two weeks, Canadas immigration departmentImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) holds invitation rounds where Express Entry candidates are invited to apply for permanent residence. During these Express Entry draws, the top-scoring candidates receive Invitations to Apply (ITAs) and have 60 days to respond with a complete application for Canadian immigration. This is the final step before an immigration officer renders a decision on a permanent residency application through Express Entry. Provincial Nominee Program Another popular immigration pathway, the PNP offers pathways to permanent residency for people who can support regional labour market priorities. The PNP allows Canadian provinces to create their own immigration programs. They may be more fine-tuned to address the needs of Canadian provinces and territories. Almost all of Canadas provinces and territories participate in the program, except for Nunavut and Quebec. The province of Quebec instead operates its own immigration program. There are two types of PNPs: enhanced programs, which are aligned with Express Entry; and base programs which are managed by the provinces independently. Enhanced programs pull from the Express Entry pool of candidates. If you receive a provincial nomination through one of these PNPs, you get 600 CRS points added to your overall score. This award will push you to the top of the pool, priming you to receive an invitation to apply for permanent residence in a subsequent Express Entry draw. Base PNPs can be an option for people who are not eligible for Express Entry. To immigrate through a base PNP, you apply to the province, and if you are eligible, get a nomination. With your certificate in hand, you can then apply for permanent residence to the federal government. Other federal immigration programs Canada offers a number of other immigration programs tailored to the countrys needs for labour. If you would like to immigrate to one of the four Atlantic provinces on the east coast of Canada, the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) might be for you. Designated employers from the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick can hire foreign workers through the program. Workers themselves get an individualized settlement plan into their new community. There are also immigration options for caregivers, agri-food workers, and people who wish to immigrate to rural and northern regions in Canada. Temporary residence options You can get temporary residence by visiting, studying, or working in Canada. Study and work experience in Canada may open the doors to more immigration options. Research has also shown that immigrants who have professional experience in Canada before immigration tend to make more money and have higher instances of employment. Study in Canada Canada is one of the worlds leading destinations for international students, hosting more than 600,000 students from all over the world. International students are attracted to Canadian schools for their high quality of education; opportunities to work during the school year, academic breaks, and after graduation; as well as the pathways to permanent residency that become available to international student graduates. There are more than 1,500 Designated Learning Institutions in Canada, which accept international students. Graduates of these institutions may be able to go on to get an open work permit, and stay in Canada for up to three years after graduation. In order to study in Canada, you first need to be accepted to a Canadian school. Once you get your letter of acceptance, you can then apply for a study permit. After graduation, international students may be able to stay in Canada for up to three years (depending on the length of the study program) on a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP). To be eligible, international students must have studied full time in person for at least eight months. Those who studied online between the spring of 2020 and August 2022 can still use that time toward PGWP eligibility. Student Direct Stream Students from Pakistan who wish to study in Canada may be eligible to get a study permit faster through the Student Direct Stream (SDS). Canada aims to process all SDS study permit applications in 20 days. To submit an application for a Canadian study permit through the SDS, you must: provide a copy of a letter of acceptance from a Canadian Designated Learning Institution; present a confirmation document for your upfront medical exam; prove that you have a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) of $10,000 prove that tuition fees for the first year of study are paid; show proof that you either completed studies at a Canadian curriculum high school or show proof of a language test results demonstrating an IELTS score of 6 in English or NCLC 7 for French; and submit the application at a Visa Application Centre (VAC). If you are approved, you will get a letter of introduction and a temporary resident visa to come to Canada. You will then present it to a visa officer upon arrival in Canada. Pakistan citizens cannot be residing in another country at the time of applying for a study permit through the SDS program. Canadian work permits In order to work in Canada, you usually need a work permit. Certain people who are coming to Canada for work but not enter the labour market may be eligible to work without a work permit, but these are special circumstances. Canadian work permits are divided into two broad programs: the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP). The main difference from the workers perspective is that TFWP permits require a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) whereas IMP work permits do not. It is the employers responsibility to complete the LMIA, as it shows the federal government that hiring a certain foreign worker will have a neutral or positive impact on the Canadian labour market. IMP work permits do not require LMIAs as the work that the employees do through them adds a significant benefit to the country, or is part of a reciprocal agreement between Canada and another country. An example of an LMIA-exempt work permit would be an Intra Company Transfer for those who work in multi-national companies. For the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, one example might be the Global Talent Stream. Intra-Company Transfer Intra Company Transfers may be an option for companies that have a location in Pakistan and Canada. Executives, managers, and staff with specialized knowledge who work for multi-national companies may be able to move from Pakistan to work at a parent company, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in Canada. ICT work permits are initially valid for one year and may be eligible for renewal. Both the company and the transferee must meet certain criteria to be eligible for the ICT. For example, employees must have been continuously employed (via payroll or a contract) by the company that plans to transfer them to Canada in a similar full-time position for at least one year in the three-year period immediately preceding the date of the initial application. The company itself must already be doing business in Canada. There are separate criteria for start-ups. Namely, start ups need to demonstrate the company can financially support the start-up costs of the operation and has the ability to compensate employees, among other criteria. Global Talent Stream Tech workers may be eligible for two-week work permit processing through the Global Talent Stream. In order to be eligible, workers either need to be hired by a Canadian employer that has a designated referral partner, or going to work in an in-demand tech occupation. Eligible tech occupations include computer information systems managers, computer engineers, mathematicians, information systems analysts and consultants, among others. Conclusion In 2022, Canada aims to welcome a record 431,645 newcomers. That number is only on its way up over the next three years according to the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan. In Canada, immigration is often seem as a benefit to the economy, population growth, and Canadas identity as a multicultural nation. Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Experts speak highly of China's successful Shenzhou-13 mission Xinhua) 09:19, April 18, 2022 BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign media and space experts have paid particular attention to China's successful Shenzhou-13 manned mission after three Chinese astronauts completed their six-month space station stay and returned to Earth safely on Saturday. The experts highlighted the astronauts' work in space, including two spacewalks, more than 20 science experiments and two live educational lectures. They also expressed expectations for future cooperation with China. Philippe Coue, a French specialist in Chinese astronautics, described the mission as "faultless" in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday. Noting several "world firsts" were completed and numerous experiments conducted during their half-year flight, he extended his "congratulations to the crew for advancing astronautics in China." As for the educational lectures delivered from the Tiangong space station, Molly Silk, a doctoral researcher of Chinese space policy at the University of Manchester in England, told the Space.com news website that the real-time interactive event "highlights the reality of the country's technological achievements and displays the competencies and utility of its space program." "Such an event serves to enhance national pride and to encourage young citizens to pursue science-based careers," she said. The Shenzhou-13 crew has completed the longest-ever spaceflight in Chinese history, marking the last flight mission to verify critical technologies of the Chinese space station and an important milestone in China's space industry, said Pui Jeng Leong, a media veteran in Brunei, adding it lays a solid technology foundation for further building the Tiangong station. "China has made such incredible advances, and I just enjoy watching their developments and hope to see us all working together more in the future," Don Thomas, a retired NASA astronaut, recently told Xinhua. Despite the political divergence between countries, Thomas believes that astronauts from different countries share the same identity -- space travelers from Earth. "It would be my goal that definitely all the space-exploring countries of the world can work together on some projects in the future, maybe building a joint base on the moon or a base on planet Mars," Thomas said. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Organizations that continued full speed ahead with their digital transformation initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic are able to ruminate on what went right and what they would have done differently, with the benefit of hindsight. Some of what theyve gleaned comes as no surprise: A successful digital transformation requires executive buy-in, constant communication with business units, and of course, financial commitment. A newly released report from Deloitte supports that, noting that a straightforward, compelling north star narrative is critical to success for 38% of executive respondents. A leader also needs to devote time and energy to drive a transformation forward. When a chief transformation officer contributed an additional 15% of their time, the probability of success improved by approximately 16%, according to the study. In terms of financial investment, half of the survey respondents indicated that their organizations invest between 1% and 5% of annual revenue on transformation programs. But there are lesser-known, less obvious attributes of a successful digital program. CIOs and other IT leaders share seven secrets of how to get digital transformation right. 1. They speak a common language While its critical for tech leaders to communicate throughout a digital project, its also important to communicate appropriately, says Rich Nanda, US strategy and analytics offerings leader, at Deloitte Consulting. Rich Nanda, US strategy and analytics offerings leader, Deloitte Consulting Deloitte Consulting In many organizations, we commonly see IT leaders in these discussions move too quickly to discussing technical requirements, Nanda says. The challenge with this approach is that companies end up in what we refer to as the digital trap. They lead with a single technology AI, cloud, or currently the metaverse, [which] is in a hype cycle. By narrowing the focus too quickly, IT leaders miss the opportunity to ensure their digital program is aligned with their enterprise strategy as a north star, Nanda says. They run the risk of miscommunication and misaligned business, technology, and operational strategy across the CXO team. Tech leaders should have a common language that clearly defines their companys digital imperatives, with related value measures, that allows the organization to align on strategy across the C-suite and to communicate the strategic value they hope to achieve from it, Nanda says. From there, they can use the latest technological advancements in AI or advancing ecosystem accelerators such as industry cloud to help accelerate their ability to change in service of that strategy, he says. This will elevate digital trust. 2. They use dashboards to monitor value Companies that make effective use of dashboards are more likely to succeed at digital transformation, according to a new brief from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. Dashboards should be used to monitor the value of an initiative and how value is created, measured by organizational and individual capabilities that support digital transformation, and tracked over time, according to the research brief. CISR researchers recommend staying persistent on dashboard usage given that, like most cultural shifts, there will be resistance to their introduction. They also advise communicating the dashboards value consistently since that will drive effective dashboard use, both to increase adoption and to improve company performance on key dashboard metrics, the brief says. 3. They invest in their teams to spur innovation Digital transformations typically include the adoption of cloud-based and third-party tools and services. When that happens, your team members become managers of services rather than creators of them, observes Evan Huston, chief digital officer at Saatva, a luxury sleep company. To free up internal resources for innovation, Saatva has moved from using traditional quality assurance to crowdsourced QA all over the world, which gives the company an army of testers, Huston says. Our internal QA team now focuses 100% on automated testing and managing the queue from the crowdsourced operation. These changes shake up the skills you need on your team, creating a gap that your organization needs to fill with hiring or re-training. Being aggressive with training has also been particularly effective in getting more from IT talent on hand, he adds. High IQ people have the capacity to learn complex new skills if you invest in them. Your organization can both avoid turnover costs and preserve corporate memory. By investing in your employees, and freeing them up to handle higher-level tasks, IT leaders can greatly accelerate what their teams are capable of accomplishing. 4. They vet vendors thoroughly and write detailed RFPs Today, VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio, Texas, has a new, AI-powered chatbot that answers questions 24/7 and a mobile app that customers can use to buy bus passes. These accomplishments didnt come without a lot of angst for VIAs Vice President of Technology and Innovation Steve Young. Steve Young, vice president of technology and innovation, VIA Metropolitan Transit VIA Metropolitan Transit The long and short of it is, VIA partnered with the wrong partner, Young says. The provider was terrible they changed platforms on us and things didnt work on the [original] bot, he recalls. Although Young talked to some people before hiring the provider, he acknowledges that officials could have dug deeper and found people the company didnt refer them to for references. Even if a vendor has had success with previous products, technology changes so frequently, its important to vet not just the company but the specific product, Young says. The chatbot platform was a new product for this particular company, so while we heard good things about the company, sometimes you vet the company but not the product, especially when its new to the market, Young says. The company was a relatively new provider of the chatbot platform. Theres a danger in adopting quickly, he says. Its a pitfall. Saatvas Huston agrees, saying hes learned to choose namesake platforms over niche solutions even if they cost more. Benefits that are often overlooked are ease of IT audits, better SLAs, superior security and compliance, and more talented engineering staff likely maintaining the namesake platform. VIA also had a partner issue with the mobile pass provider it worked with. The challenge there was more about needing a partner that could move at the speed we wanted to move at, Young says. VIA had a lot of requirements and spent a lot of time waiting for the partner to respond. When they sought a new tech partner, once again VIA wanted to find a vendor with stability and a history of proven performance. We wrote a slim RFP that described what VIA officials envisioned in a mobility payment platform. The RFP also stipulated that VIA wanted a partner with a strong platform with proven integrations with other third parties. As much as Young wants to support small and midsize businesses, he says he has to think about the risk to the business and their customers. He has learned the importance of getting creative in writing an RFP to get a better response from bidders. Whereas in the past, VIA shied away from writing long-winded proposals, officials had better luck telling a story of what you want rather than itemizing in detail what you want to see because you might not end up with as good a bid as you want, he says. 5. They collaborate by any means possible Honeywell is in the midst of an aggressive digital transformation in every one of its business units and functions. Sheila Jordan, chief digital technology officer, is spearheading those efforts and presently overseeing 42 active transformational programs at Honeywell. Jordan was hired 60 days before the lockdown began and was immediately tasked with shifting tens of thousands of employees to work from home. Sheila Jordan, chief digital technology officer, Honeywell Honeywell That meant everyone in the company had to learn to use collaborative technologies such as Zoom, even senior leaders who hadnt used them before, she says. Now, those technologies have become ingrained in Honeywells culture. Jordan says she saw decision makers using collaborative tools for demos and presentations, and then inadvertently applying [them] to solve other problems. That led to new ways of using video, such as to meet with vendors, and it also led to the creation of a customer advisory board as more and more people became comfortable with collaborative technology. Video can only go so far, though, Jordan admits. As we return back to the office, theres been a demand to shake peoples hands, she says, and people are meeting people for the first time in two years, which is important. But they are re-considering whether they should get on a plane for a one-hour meeting when video is so effective. 6. They recognize agile is more than just a framework Charles River Laboratories, an early-stage drug research organization, is not only building new technologies but transforming the way employees work. For example, IT is ingraining an agile way of working into its culture, says Mark Mintz, corporate senior vice president and CIO. Our objective is to bring technology to market more quickly in more iterative pieces and quickly work to identify and solve problems, he says. ITs approach is to launch betas, test and learn from them, then improve and offer more features and capabilities. Mark Mintz, corporate senior vice president and CIO, Charles River Laboratories Charles River Laboratories This involves changing people, culture, and technologies, he says. Even the best technologies dont implement themselves. You need highly skilled people who are continuously learning and developing new processes and understanding new technologies to get the most out of them. But having great people only gets you so far. If theyre not collaborative or if theyre not given a safe space to experiment and not empowered to use their skills, you wont get benefits from the technologies, Mintz says. Given the nature of its business, Charles River is implementing cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning. But IT is also deploying APIs and microservices and thinking about and designing flexible architecture. That is critical because it enables us to move at scale, Mintz says. Security is also paramount, he adds. Where I spend most of my time is on the people and culture side getting those people and making sure we grow our talent and create the best culture and environment, he says. Frankly, then its getting out of their way and removing impediments and letting them do what theyre good at. In the process of learning agile some 10 years ago, Mintz says he has come to realize that its not just a framework and a methodology. Frankly, people who look at agile as a framework are missing the impact, he says. Agile is identifying what the right problem is. he says. Then, if you break it down into small pieces, you can quickly iterate so youre never going too far off the right path, and in a customer-centric approach, you are constantly checking in with the customer. Its the leaders role to create the space for [the team] to be able to test and learn, he says, and remove impediments that slow them down. Its not the leaders job to tell them what to do. 7. They invest in cloud experimentation When Arup started its digital transformation, the global engineering firm made a big push to bring in all 1,800 employees in the Americas region so everyone would feel involved, says John DiCamillo, CIO of the Americas region. John DiCamillo, CIO of the Americas region, Arup Arup The UK-based company deployed a design methodology that focuses on four Ds: discovering a problem, defining the challenges, developing the answers, and delivering the solution, DiCamillo says. Leadership felt there should be a vehicle for people to look at new ways of doing things, and now, people can request money to try something new in the cloud, whether an automation activity or the creation of a tool, he says. DiCamillo found that people were shying away from provisioning cloud services because they had to figure out how to pay for time in Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. So he decided to provide seed money for people to go play and understand how to do high-performance computation in the cloud and use technology to improve upon inefficiencies. Employees can request anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars up to $25,000. The only caveat is employees have to produce a value report at the end that identifies the ROI, whether in time savings, new efficiencies, new skills they gained, or potential reuse in other areas or other projects, he says. The seed money has led to the creation of tools to replace manual efforts, DiCamillo says. Engineering firms love Excel spreadsheets, but at the end of the day, those formulas can be replaced by code, he says. It has also led to new ways of working. Leveraging high-performance computing, for example, has enabled delivery on projects in hours instead of days, he says. As organizations continue their transformation journeys, leaders say theyve learned so many other secrets. Honeywells Jordan sums it up by saying make it simple, predict, be smarter, be more relevant, and surprise and delight. VIAs Young says he has learned you have to be willing to screw up. You have to be willing to admit something didnt work out and pick up and move on. We might think a customer wanted something and they dont. Its so easy in IT to get set in our ways. Transformation is a constant process because the pace of change and growth continue to accelerate, he says. Its a mistaken view that the journey ends. We always need to be looking at the next things to do better to serve employees and customers. The pandemic was the greatest change engine ever and theres no going back. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has come a long way since its inception in 1824, but its core mission remains the same: to save lives at sea. Volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, where the non-profit operates some 238 lifeboat stations and 240 lifeguard units. Over its almost 200-year history, lifeboat crews and lifeguards are said to have saved over 140,000 lives. RNLI CIO Claire Deuchar RNLI/Nathan Williams The charitys CIO and strategy director, Claire Deuchar, is charting a long-term direction that goes beyond traditional IT cycles. She is restructuring her technology delivery team with strategy and data professionals able to look 30 years into the future, prioritising diversity, neurodiversity, and mental health in her IT department and looking to support volunteers experiencing economic hardship and political pressure. An IT team looking to the future Deuchar was appointed in 2018 as CIO, her first job as a senior IT executive after holding procurement and product roles in the energy and fast-moving consumer goods sectors. Its been a choppy ride, however, with the global pandemic impacting the RNLIs financial performance, volunteering support, and talent attraction and retention. Amid all of this, she has had to maintain the non-profits six objectives, according to its 2020-2024 strategy: Keep RNLIs people safe Focus on what will save the most lives in or near the water Work with the partners the RNLI influences for improved safety on or near the water Ensure people love being part of the RNLI Raise the funds RNLI needs and spend donors money wisely Enable a sustainable and secure future. Deuchar has restructured the charitys IT operations and digital delivery team to include a long-term strategy manager to investigate the non-profits pathway for the next 10 to 30 years (RNLI assets, such as buildings and boats, have a 50-year lifecycle). She has also appointed heads of data evidence and insights and data operations and applications. The former will look at life-saving analysis and work with fundraising and marketing departments, whereas the latter will ensure the charity has the right speed and management of data. The new roles complement existing IT leaders in the team, including the head of IT services and security and the head of digital technology change. Deuchar describes her own role as being the standard spectrum of CIO duties but, much like her expanding team, with a growing emphasis on data and insights. She says better information can help the RNLI support those who are most at risk, as well as inform communications, marketing, and fundraising teams about whats required to improve awareness and gain new supporters. We know that data underpins everything that we do, she says, noting that the RNLI has historically struggled to report to volunteers and users, particularly around lifeboat maintenance and downtime. COVID-19 hits financials and volunteers, but there are positives Government COVID-19 lockdowns have had a harsh impact on the non-profit sector and what the RNLI has experienced has been extensive and painful. Charitable donations bobbed up and down, financial results took a hit, and government guidance on social distancing meant volunteer support has at times been restricted. According to RNLIs financial reports, local authorities contribute 20% of the 20 million needed to pay for a normal lifeguard season, with the remaining 16 million coming from donations. At the end of the summer lockdown in the summer of 2020, the charity expected a multi-million shortfall in funding by the end of the year, mainly because it was forced to stop many of its fundraising activities. COVID has impacted every organisation in ways that were unimaginable, says CIO UK 100 member Deuchar. The key thing for us is that we continued to save lives throughout the pandemic period. Our volunteers continued to go on shouts [rescue calls] and rescue people [on boats and beaches], even when we were in lockdown. Our lifeguards continued to support and rescue those in need on our beaches. We saw that the beaches were 30% busier during the pandemic than they had been in previous years. Deuchar says there were positives to emerge from an increase in lifesaving service demand for the technology team. The pandemic accelerated network upgrades (more than 30% of RNLI stations suffer from poor broadband connection) and experimented with VR and mixed reality platforms such as Microsofts HoloLens to improve the maintenance of equipment. Deuchar says that while her team had to re-sequence work, theyve received widespread praise across the organisation, and worked collaboratively with other departments to help digital income grow by 300%. The visibility of our technology, data and digital teams underpinning the organisation has improved, and I would say that some of the priorities of our projects have been enhanced as a result of that, she says, adding that 75% of the change agenda is now led by the technology team. Improving team culture, neurodiversity, and mental health Deuchar has been building an open and inclusive culture at the RNLIs IT department. From bringing the team together once a week to celebrate achievements to putting a focus on mental health and neurodiversity, its all part of a wider cultural shift. In Deuchars team, the RNLI ethos of OneCrew shines through. Some members of her team are neurodiverse, while others have mental health issues. Deuchar has looked to support them all through the pandemic through a raft of unorthodox and unregimented weekly meetings. I was very conscious that everyone, particularly from a technology perspective, was going to be under a lot of pressure. Her once-a-week catchups have been varied, starting with five-minute yoga sessions and tai chi, to inspiring talks from minority communities. A former deaf RNLI volunteer recently returned to talk to the team, accompanied by her Labrador. Mental wellbeing has now been included in the organisations annual people survey for the first time. I wanted to make sure that for every single call that we had together, we just had a few moments that were around our wellbeing, inclusion, and diversity, Deuchar says. A new data academy and hybrid IT infrastructure As Deuchar builds out her team to focus on data and insights, data literacy becomes critical. Working with apprenticeship provider Multiverse, Deuchar has launched a data academy, which she describes the course as a three-tiered programme that lasts between one and two years and offers RNLI staff formal data skills and qualifications in everything from data science to business intelligence (BI). The modules are business relevant and therefore have the added advantage of directly supporting the organisation as individuals learn, Deuchar says. The individuals put themselves forwards with line manager endorsement and have an assessment by Multiverse to confirm that they are being targeted at the appropriate level. This CIO is not resting on her laurels. She suggests that there is work to do on data literacy, training, and architecture, citing one example of collecting data from smart cameras on beaches. Weve got a lot of data on those cameras. How should we be using that from a training perspective? How do we want to be managing that data? What should we be thinking of when were thinking about VR, from a training perspective for our volunteers? The charity has a hybrid IT infrastructure and is undergoing cloud migration. A Microsoft-based organisation, the RNLI is using Dynamics AX for ERP, Dynamics for CRM, Sitecore for CMS/website management, and is looking to consolidate its raft of cloud providers to improve data and finance management as well as operational efficiency. We are currently defining our future data architecture, which is an exciting step for us. This will enable us to ingest and more effectively manage big data. For the year ahead, Deuchar is not battening down the hatches. Theres a further planned network upgrade, more experimentation with HoloLens, AI and smart signage on beaches, as well as a focus on talent attraction and retention. Theres a new digital programme, which will include a sprinkling of ERP, but supporting her team remains the main priority. Its about engaging and leading my team to be brilliant. And to set the organisation up for the future. Primeste notificari pe email Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele Concurs prelungit de selectare a unui expert/experta sau grup de experti in consolidarea capacitatilor centrelor regionale de suport in afaceri ale intreprinderilor sociale (Hub-uri) Raspunsul la criza refugiatilor: Apel de propuneri, lansat de MAD-Aid in parteneriat cu Camera de Comert Britanica din Moldova For decades, terrorists who kidnapped Americans operated outside the reach of US law. The conviction last week of isis member El Shafee Elsheikh in the kidnapping and murder of four Americansamong them journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloffis a landmark victory for justice that should change the way the US responds to future kidnappings. The lessons to be drawn from the deaths of Foley, Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller have been debated inside the US government since a November 2014 meeting between Jims mother, Diane, and President Barack Obama. At that meeting, Diane Foley told the president that the US had failed hostage families by shunting them from agency to agency and threatening to prosecute anyone who tried to pay a ransom to bring their children home. The president, moved by Foleys appeal, ordered a comprehensive review of US hostage policy. It involved multiple government agencies, consultations with experts, and the families themselves. The result was a whole new structure for hostage response, which has led to vast improvements in the way that families are treated. But there was one policy that Obama would not change. I am reaffirming that the United States government will not make concessions, such as paying ransom, to terrorist groups holding American hostages, Obama proclaimed at the end of the review process. Doing so, Obama argued, would make it likely that more Americans would be kidnapped. Despite some tinkering around the edges during the Trump administration, the no-concessions policy remains a bedrock principle of US hostage response. But last weeks conviction of Elsheikh by a federal jury in Virginia suggests an alternative path, using a strategy that has worked with tremendous success at the domestic level. Journalists have an obvious stake in the debate over hostage policy because of the nature of their work in conflict zones. Nearly 20 percent of all Westerners kidnapped by non-state actors around the world are journalists, according to a 2015 West Point study. The number is much higher in certain contexts, such as during the 2013 shift in the Syrian civil war, when jihadist groups began actively searching for victims. For decades, the strategy in the case of domestic kidnapping has been to save the life of the hostage first and then go after the kidnappers and bring them to justice. The success of this approach is the reason kidnapping for ransom is an almost nonexistent crime in the United States, as I discovered while researching my 2019 book We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnappings, Hostages, and Ransom. Sign up for CJR 's daily email In 1932, following the public uproar over the abduction of the Lindbergh baby, kidnapping was made a federal crime. One of the key strategies that the FBI has used is known as ransom-as-lure. Using money stashed around the country at Federal Reserve branches, the FBI has employed ransom payments both to secure the release of the hostage and to apprehend the kidnappers. They have to pick up the money somewhere, former FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner told me. Kidnapping for ransom is a very hard crime to pull off successfully. But when an American is kidnapped outside the United States, the US government has historically taken a very different approach. If the kidnapping is carried out by a designated terrorist groupas was the case with the Americans kidnapped by isis in Syriathe US will not negotiate and has sometimes pressured families not to do so. The result is that nearly 75 percent of Americans taken hostage by terrorist groups are killed by the captors. This compares with roughly 20 percent of European hostages, whose governments often pay ransoms. The American no-concessions approach could be justified if it made Americans safer, as President Obama argued. But there is little evidence that this is the case. Numerous studies have concluded that kidnapping is largely a crime of opportunityterrorist groups generally nab foreign hostages without checking passports. Brian Jenkins, a former US Green Beret and current Rand Corporation analystand one of the nations leading experts on hostage policyput it this way: The most powerful determinant of whether or not there will be further kidnappings is not the policy of the government, but the fate of kidnappers or their organization. If kidnappers are apprehended and appropriately punishedthen kidnapping will decline. If this is not done, then it does not make any difference what the policy is. While bringing terrorist kidnappers to justice is exceedingly difficult, the conviction of Elsheikh shows it is possible. The families of the American hostages killed by isis lobbied three administrations relentlessly, persuading Attorney General William Barr to agree not to pursue the death penalty, allowing the British government to provide evidence essential to winning Elsheikhs conviction. The lesson from the Elsheikh conviction is that the US should adapt the approach that has been used to eliminate kidnapping for ransom as a crime in the United States to international hostage cases: focusing first on winning the release of kidnapped Americans through all reasonable means, and then doing everything possible to punish the perpetrators. Accountability is essential to deter hostage-taking and wrongful detention of American citizens, said Diane Foley and her husband, John, in a statement published following Elsheikhs conviction. Through this trial, the US has shown there can be justice. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Joel Simon is a fellow at Tow Center for Digital Journalism. His next book is The Infodemic: How Censorship Made the World Sicker and Less Free co-authored with Robert Mahoney. When Bobbi Dempsey was finding her footing in her career as a freelance journalist, in 2000, she could feel a stark distance between herself and her editors. They assumed, for instance, that her town in agrarian Pennsylvania, where she lived and worked, had high-speed internet. (Back then, it did not.) Or theyd tell her to use a certain app, despite the fact that she only had a flip phone; smartphones were too costly. The first few times she had to travel to report, she didnt have a credit card, just a debit card, and couldnt book a hotel or cover a security deposit. Dempsey, whos now fifty-two, felt that she was fighting a constant battle to prove the value of covering a random rural area, from a reporting standpoint. Her opponent, she felt, was a kind of editorial bias, financial but also cultural. Shed long wanted editors to make clear that they value the insight that I and other writers with our experience can offer. But these sorts of endorsements were few and far between. Similarly, Alex Miller came across systemic barriers ten or so years ago, when he was an aspiring reporter in New York City. Miller, a Navy veteran, moved in to a shelter when he could no longer afford housing. As he attended college in the city, he continued to write, publishing pieces that included an op-ed for the New York Times about his experiences with poverty and homelessness. Nevertheless, the slow pace of magazine and newspaper payments often stymied his ability to pay his bills promptly. In time, Miller says, some of the interpersonal interactions he had with editors compounded the injury. After Miller submitted an autobiographical essay in which he reflected upon his mothers paranoid schizophrenia and the poverty of his youth, he says an editor wrote me a book to tell me how terrible my piece was, that it was one of the worst, and she had been doing this for fifteen years. The feedback was demoralizing for Miller; at the time, he was working securitythe latest in a series of jobs that had included giving out amNewYork on the subway, working as a server at a pizza joint, and doing maintenance at the Veterans Administration hospital in the Bronx. He was also recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder connected to his time in the Navy. You can fall into a depression, if you dont have a support group, as a freelancer, says Miller, who is now thirty-five and contributes to publications including Wired and Newsweek. (Disclosure: after I wrote this piece, my nonprofit decided to support some of Millers articles.) Negative encounters with editors like those described by Miller and Dempsey are not unusual in the media business. As I see it, those encounters owe in part to a disconnect between ranking editorial staffers at legacy media outlets and reportersoften freelancersfrom less privileged backgrounds. Elite journalists tend to graduate from the same small cohort of colleges; a 2018 study published in the Journal of Expertise found that only a handful of select schools feed the mastheads of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, suggesting the importance of networks. Many are the beneficiaries of what has been called journalisms professionalizationa process, media professor Silvio Waisbord wrote, that entails a unified project of occupational differentiation and the definition of common skills, norms, and ethics. Many were trained to abide by the professions legacy norms in journalism schools or in newsrooms. These are places whose demographics still fail to match the audiences they strive to serve. In addition, the terms often on offereducational debt and frequently meager wagesprevent plenty of would-be journalists from joining the profession. Ironically, even as the economic fortunes of the news media have declined precipitously, as a social group the status of journalists has increased, Daniel Kreiss, a professor of media studies, wrote. Journalists are highly educated, urban, and cosmopolitan elites when compared with the publics they serve. A number of independent contributors, meanwhile, do not meet that description. Most news coverage isnt created with people experiencing poverty in mind, Heather Bryant, a journalist and founder of Project Facet, has said. That is frequently made clear when outlets want to run sensitive and authentic stories concerning class. In a 2018 essay for Journalists Resource, Bryant and Denise-Marie Ordway, both reporters who grew up in poverty, called for our industry to consider prioritizing a journalism for and with people over coverage about people. But coverage for and with people isnt possible without building class awareness into the editorial process from end to end. Sign up for CJR 's daily email How might our industry better engage with financially stressed journalists, and better serve less privileged audiences? Street papersthe dozens of publications across the country created by and for unhoused people, such as Bostons Spare Change News or Seattles Real Changeoffer some instructive examples. Alejandro Ramirez, the former editor in chief of Spare Change, says he found himself occasionally applying extra hands-on efforts in order to guide contributors through the editorial process. Contributors sometimes required editing in nontraditional ways, Ramirez saysdown to taking a handwritten story and transforming it into a typed article. The goal, he says, was to publish them. Of the lessons he took from his role, Ramirez says, the most important was simple, if all too rare: pay writers on time. The papers vendorsthose who sold and contributed to itcould use that fifty dollars an article, he says. Kevin Howley, a media studies professor at DePauw University, described street newspapers to me as acts of communicative democracy whose aim is to broaden the range of voices in media and create fairer public spheres. (In their capacity as the voice of the poor, street papers seek to engage reading publics in a critically informed dialogue over fundamental issues of economic, social, and political justice, Howley wrote in a 2003 paper.) They often take advocacy positions and feature first-person reporting from those experiencing povertyeditorial decisions not necessarily undertaken by legacy publications. And they are participatory in ways that many legacy publications still are not. Assigning and editing with class sensitivity means news outlets are reconsidering some of journalisms fundamental elements. This includes not only hiring reporters who have had non-traditional life experiences but giving them more leeway for personal expression, supporting their experiential expertise. Reporters who are struggling economically have told me in conversation that they want editors and managers to recognize their lived experiencerecognition that, in turn, might help many outlets see beyond their own class limitations and better engage issues of class and poverty in their coverage. In order to do so, assigning editors must think through the realities their contributors might confront each day, and how those realities may differ from their own. In some cases, it might mean countering an impulse toward tough love editingan approach that may not work for every writer, or even for most writers. Those who cover issues intersecting with financial stress, and whose own lives include it, dont need grit to work in journalism; they need thoughtful approaches. Careful editing and fact-checking isnt just about being meticulous; it should also retain the capacity for empathy, for the duration of the editorial process. In others, it might mean reevaluating payment practices. Like most news outlets, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP), the nonprofit news organization I direct, usually pays writers after their pieces are published. We have learned that, in a number of cases, we need to offer at least half a reporters fee and travel expenses up front. Some of our writers cant afford to pay for their hotel rooms, or even their rent, in advance. Sure, weve been burned a couple of times. But weve come to think of those moments as part of a process of caring for freelancers and putting our trust in them. By and large, it has worked out for us. In still other cases, it might mean expanding our notions of expertise. We might rethink who the expert is in an expert quote, and try to find these authorities outside of established institutions, or established journalistic practice. (As Ramirez said of his work at Spare Change, if you want to cover the housing crisis, for example, you need to talk to someone who has been searching for housing their entire adult life.) Currently, EHRP is collaborating with a number of other nonprofits to create a journalist-facing database of experiential expertsan effort were calling Working Sources. The people in our forthcoming database arent just specialists by virtue of the time theyve spent at think tanksthey may have worked as daycare providers or labor organizers, or have experience with drug addiction or housing insecurity. Working toward inclusion can feel Sisyphean. But the outcomes can be rewarding. Dempsey says shes started to see editors pay more attention to the knowledge that comes from her own struggles; she recently published an article on free dental care for the poorest Americans in The New Yorker. (The article was supported by EHRP.) She admits that she still has to do a lot of code switching to work in media. Still, she says, she takes heart in the stories she is able to tell, because people like me finally see their stories being portrayed. She adds: Readers are amazed and so appreciative: they are glad to know that they are not so alone. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Alissa Quart is the executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a journalism nonprofit devoted to covering inequality. The author of five nonfiction books (including Bootstrapped, forthcoming in August 2022) and two poetry collections, she has also contributed to the New York Times, The Guardian, and the New York Review of Books, among other publications. MIAMI (AP) Seawalls, despite more natural innovations like living shorelines, arent going anywhere in Florida except up. With thousands of miles of coastline facing two feet of sea level rise by 2060, some cities and counties, including Miami-Dade, are already calling for raising the standard heights of seawalls. And many of the seawalls to come in the decades ahead promise to be different not only stronger and more durable, but better designed to both absorb waves and reduce damage to the adjacent sea or bay bottom. One new approach in development by the University of Miami is even specifically designed to provide habitat for corals, mangroves and other marine life. Weve got to stop doing things the way we have for the last few decades, said Esber Andiroglu, an associate professor at the University of Miami focused on building the seawalls of the future. This is a time for innovation, Hes among the university scientists and private companies designing new technology to improve seawall construction, which is likely to be a booming business in coming decades. By one estimate, it could cost $75 billion to raise and repair every existing wall in Florida by 2040. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger The first thing youd notice about the brand new seawall alongside North Bay Villages Treasures on the Bay Condominium is that its higher than it used to be. The other major change is impossible to detect because its encased in concrete. About 50 feet of the seawall cap isnt interlaced with the usual steel rods, known as rebar, that reinforce the vast majority of buildings. Instead, it uses bars of glass fiber reinforced polymer. Its twice as strong as steel, weighs about 75% less and most importantly, it doesnt corrode. Thats a common weakness with rebar used in projects exposed to salty air and water. Its why so many older coastal buildings start to sport menacing cracks if left unattended. Reinforcement with fiber polymers would completely take that problem away, said Andiroglu, who designed the new seawall. The polymer rebar is well-tested, he said, and increasingly used by the Florida Department of Transportation on projects vulnerable to salt air. The upfront cost is about 10% to 15% higher than steel, he said, but over the long term it will be cheaper because it has a far longer life span 100 years or more, some studies suggest. And the price is likely to decrease as its use becomes more common. Seawalls designed like LEGO bricks also could help reduce the costs of raising them in the future. Andiroglus lab is experimenting with modular pieces that could be added to as needed. That could be handy as rising sea levels push coastal building codes higher. People always say `but if I built it too high Im wasting my views, and `its not going to happen during my lifetime, he said. Modular functions allow people to add height to seawalls as its happening. It will also break down the financial burden across decades. Coral Friendly Concrete The primary ingredient of seawalls concrete is also ripe for change. Its a big contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, which exacerbate climate change, and it can deteriorate in humid, salty environments like South Florida. Concrete is pretty much the most used material in the world, said Prannoy Suraneni, an assistant professor at UM dedicated to coming up with better concrete _ not just for engineering but also for the environment. Suraneni said its relatively simple to switch out ingredients in concrete to make it more durable. There is already an option called ultra-high-performance concrete, and builders across the country are starting to use it more but it doesnt solve every problem, especially on the environmental side. How we make concrete resilient or coral friendly, that is a lot more challenging, he said. Research already shows that a seawall with a variety of textures will attract different forms of marine life better than a completely smooth wall. His team is also studying how the chemical composition of different concrete mixes alkalinity and other additives encourages healthier growth of marine life, a still unresolved question. Perhaps the most revolutionary change would be using saltwater, rather than fresh water in concrete seawalls a change that would cut costs and would be especially valuable in countries where drinking water is depleted. After several years of research and experiments, Suraneni said hes confident that seawater can be used in concrete, as long as the steel rebar inside is also swapped out. Steel and salt just dont mix. There is zero question you can use seawater in concrete. The main issue is the steel we use in concrete is likely to corrode, he said. So dont use steel in these circumstances. Use glass fiber reinforced polymer. Introducing Seahive While seawalls protect land, they arent so good for marine life. When a wave comes crashing into a mangrove forest, or even a pile of rocks, it breaks up that force. But when a wave crashes into a straight seawall, all that energy gets funneled straight down, scouring the adjacent sea bottom and sea life. In Miami-Dade, thats why new seawalls are required to have a pile of rocks _ known as riprap _ at their base. In some spots, the rocks are piled high enough to peek out of the water, and mangroves and other coastal plants will root there. Thats what inspired a group of UM scientists to design a riprap replacement, designed with mangroves and other plant life in mind. They call it SEAHIVE, a reference to the six-sided tubes that stack up to look like a beehive honeycomb. Think of it as an airbag. It dissipates the energy by allowing the water inside, said Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, an assistant professor at the University of Miamis college of engineering and head of the research team at SEAHIVE. After three years of testing the structures in water tanks, the team is moving on to pilot projects in the real world. One will be placed near a seawall in North Bay Village, another will be offshore in Miami Beach as an artificial coral reef, and a third will be debuted this summer in Pompano Beach for a snorkel park project called Wahoo Bay. The plan is to plant mangroves and coral on the SEAHIVE structures in the sunken park so residents _ especially kids _ can swim up and experience nature firsthand. We expect the major attraction will be school groups, said Rob Wyre, chairman of Shipwreck Park, creator of another snorkel park in Broward County. Its a blank canvas insofar as whats going to happen on the education side. Once theyre in place, Rhode-Barbarigos said his team will measure everything from how fish and plants react to how good of a job the structures do at breaking up waves. To guard against corrosion and crumbling, theyll be built with the same plastic polymers as the North Bay Village condo seawall. If all goes well, he said this technology could be an easy-to-deploy solution for waterfront South Florida cities. We wanted something which is robust, which is easy to implement, easy to manufacture, approachable, he said. You can always push the envelope to really high-tech later. We need the low-tech solution so we can have sustainable, equitable development. PHOENIX (AP) Arizona victims of long-ago child sex abuse can proceed with lawsuits against groups like the Boy Scouts of America after the state Supreme Court rejected claims that a state law extending victims right to sue was unconstitutional. Arizona is among many states that have reacted to child sex abuse in recent years by allowing victims of even decades-old abuse to sue groups that didnt protect them from predators. That has led to lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church, Scouts and others. The high court last week rejected appeals by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and its affiliates in central and southern Arizona of lower court rulings that found a 2019 law extending the statute of limitations was constitutional. The rulings appear to be the first to directly address whether the Arizona law is legal, according to Phoenix attorney Robert Pastor, who represents victims in the two cases the high court considered. Those lawsuits allege that the group that connects youth called Littles with adult mentors known as Bigs did not properly oversee the Bigs. The cases involved two men who abused boys, one in 1983 and one in the 1970s, court filings show. The men are not defendants. Child USA, a national group that pushes for so-called revival laws that allow old cases to be pursued in court, urged the high court to uphold the trial court rulings. It noted Arizona was among more than 30 states enacting legislation since 2002 allowing such lawsuits, most in recent years. A ruling against (the laws) revival window would have negative ramifications for all the child sexual abuse survivors throughout Arizona who are embracing the window in pursuit of long overdue justice, the groups filing said. The Utah Supreme Court in 2020 threw out its revival law, but other states have upheld them, including the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2015 in a case involving a Roman Catholic priest. Arizonas high court considered appeals from decisions by two Maricopa County Superior Court judges who rejected Big Brothers Big Sisters arguments that the Legislature violated its due process rights by extending the statute of limitations. The judges said in rulings issued last year that courts have long held that changing a statute of limitation for non-criminal claims is within the rights of legislatures. The lawsuits were put on hold while the group appealed, but now can proceed. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America spokeswoman Dvon Williams said the group does not comment on litigation. The CEO of the Southern Arizona chapter, Marie Logan, declined to comment on the suits, and calls and emails to the affiliate in Phoenix were not immediately returned. Arizonas 2019 law provided a one-time window for victims of long-ago child sex abuse to sue beyond the existing two-year statute of limitations that began once they turned 18. That window closed at the end of 2020. It also created a much longer time for more recent victims to sue after they turn 18, allowing lawsuits to be filed up to age 30. The lawmaker who pushed the law said he was pleased with the court rulings. I never had any concerns that it wasnt constitutional, said Republican state Sen. Paul Boyer, whose insistence on the law held up the state budget in 2019. I would have loved the window to have been open longer and I would have loved to have it higher than age 30, but it was a compromise. Pastor, the attorney who represents the two unidentified men suing over abuse by their Bigs, said Thursday that hell now be able to find out how much Big Brothers Big Sisters knew about child predators who he says used their organization to groom and victimize children. He said groups like Big Brothers Big Sisters provide vitally needed support for children, but must be vigilant about keeping predators from using them to find victims. What we know as litigators advocating for survivors is that perpetrators will seek out volunteer opportunities in these organizations, because perpetrators need access to children, Pastor said. In addition to the cases Pastor is pursuing against Big Brothers Big Sisters, lawsuits have been filed in Arizona against the Boy Scouts of America, the Roman Catholic Church, the state Department of Child Safety and schools and universities, he said. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. BOSTON (AP) Multiple U.S. government agencies issued a joint alert Wednesday warning of the discovery of a suite of malicious cyber tools created by unnamed advanced threat actors that are capable of sabotaging the energy sector and other critical industries. The public alert from the Energy and Homeland Security Departments, the FBI and National Security Agency did not name the actors or offer details on the find. But their private sector cybersecurity partners said the evidence suggests Russia is behind the industrial control system-disrupting tools and that they were configured to initially target North American energy concerns. One of the cybersecurity firms involved, Mandiant, called the tools exceptionally rare and dangerous. In a report, it called the tools functionality was consistent with the malware used in Russias prior physical attacks though it acknowledged that the evidence linking it to Moscow is largely circumstantial. The CEO of another government partner, Robert M. Lee of Dragos, agreed that a state actor almost certainly crafted the malware, which he said was configured to initially target liquified natural gas and electric power sites in North America. Lee referred questions on the state actors identity to the U.S. government and would not explain how the malware was discovered other than to say it was caught before an attack was attempted. Were actually one step ahead of the adversary. None of us want them to understand where they screwed up, said Lee. Big win. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which published the alert, declined to identify the threat actor. The U.S. government has warned critical infrastructure industries the gird for possible cyberattacks from Russia as retaliation for severe economic sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Officials have said that Russian hacker interest in the U.S. energy sector is particularly high, and CISA urged it in a statement Wednesday to be especially mindful of the mitigation measures recommended in the alert. Last month, the FBI issued an alert saying Russian hackers have scanned at least five unnamed energy companies for vulnerabilities. Lee said the malware was designed to be a framework to go after lots of different types of industries and be leveraged multiple times. Based on the configuration of it, the initial targets would be LNG and electric in North America. Mandiant said the tools pose the greatest threat to Ukraine, NATO members and other states assisting Kyiv in its defense against Russian military aggression. It said the malware could be used to shut down critical machinery, sabotage industrial processes and disable safety controllers, leading to the physical destruction of machinery that could lead to the loss of human lives. It compared the tools to Triton, malware traced to a Russian government research institute that targeted critical safety systems and twice forced the emergency shutdown of a Saudi oil refinery in 2017 and to Industroyer, the malware that Russian military hackers used the previous year to trigger a power outage in Ukraine. Lee said the newly discovered malware, dubbed Pipedream, is only the seventh such malicious software to be identified that is designed to attack industrial control systems. Lee said Dragos, which specializes in industrial control system protection, identified and analyzed its capability in early 2022 as part of its normal business research and in collaboration with partners. He would offer no more specifics. In addition to Dragos and Mandiant, the U.S. government alert offers thanks to Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and Schneider Electric for their contributions. Schneider Electric is one of the manufacturers listed in the alert whose equipment is targeted by the malware. Omron is another. Mandiant said it had analyzed the tools in early 2002 with Schneider Electric. In a statement, Palo Alto Networks executive Wendi Whitmore said: Weve been warning for years that our critical infrastructure is constantly under attack. Todays alerts detail just how sophisticated our adversaries have gotten. Microsoft had no comment. AP writer Alan Suderman contributed from Richmond, Virginia. About the photo: A joint cybersecurity advisory released by the Department of Energy, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. The agencies issued the joint alert Wednesday announcing the discovery of malicious cyber tools capable of gaining full system access to multiple industrial control systems. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Ten people were shot and two others injured in a shooting at a busy shopping mall in South Carolinas capital that authorities do not believe was a random attack. Three people who had firearms have been detained in connection with the Saturday afternoon shooting at Columbiana Centre, Columbia Police Chief W.H. Skip Holbrook said. He said at least one of those three people fired a weapon. We dont believe this was random, Holbrook said. We believe they knew each other and something led to the gunfire. Authorities said no fatalities have been reported but that eight of the victims were taken to the hospital. Of those eight, two were in critical condition and six were in stable condition, Holbrook said. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73, he said. Daniel Johnson said he and his family were visiting from Alabama and were eating in the food court when they first heard shots ring out and started seeing people running. Johnson said people were screaming for their children and spouses, knocking over tables in the food court as they fled. Everybody was trying to get outside, Johnson said. When I was coming out, you could see baby strollers turned over, peoples phones and left keys. It was kind of a hectic situation. Johnson said he gathered his wife, daughter and son and began heading toward the exit after letting the crowd clear out for a bit. My biggest thing was _ and not to sound selfish _ was to make sure that our family was OK and to get them out safely because this is not something that we love to do for Easter weekend. Heavy police presence continued in the area hours after the shooting, though officers began letting more traffic through the streets surrounding the shopping centers and strip malls that are usually packed on weekends. Officers were also stationed outside a nearby hotel designated as a reunification area for people at the scene of the shooting and their families. Workers from a couple of stores remained clustered in the mostly empty parking lot Saturday evening, waiting for police to let them back inside to retrieve their car keys and personal belongings so they could leave. They said they did not hear or see anything during the shooting but followed the malls alert system and were evacuated by police shortly after. They declined to give their names, citing company policies. Todays isolated, senseless act of violence is extremely upsetting and our thoughts are with everyone impacted, Columbiana Centre said in a statement. We are grateful for the quick response and continued support of our security team and our partners in law enforcement. The shooting is the latest in a rash of shootings at or near malls across the country. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head Wednesday outside Brooklyns Atlantic Terminal Mall. His injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Officials said he was with a group of boys when they got into a dispute with a second group. On Tuesday, a Southern California shoe store owner mistakenly shot a 9-year-old girl while firing at two shoplifters at the Mall of Victor Valley, police said. And earlier this month, police said six people were killed and 12 others wounded in Sacramento, California, during a gunfight between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy area near the Downtown Commons shopping mall and the state Capitol. About the photo: Authorities stage outside Columbiana Centre mall in Columbia, S.C., following a shooting, Saturday, April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) Authorities have lifted some evacuation orders for a mountain community in drought-stricken southern New Mexico as firefighters worked Saturday to contain a wind-driven blaze that killed two people and destroyed over 200 homes. The evacuation orders lifted late Friday covered about 60% of the estimated 4,500 people ordered to leave their homes since the fire started Tuesday, Village of Ruidoso spokesperson Kerry Gladden told The Associated Press on Saturday. Evacuation estimates were previously reported to be around 5,000 people. The big story is were in a re-population mode, Gladden said earlier during a media briefing. Those evacuation orders remaining in effect may be lifted in coming days, officials said. Those waiting to return included Barbara Arthur, the owner of a wooded 28-site RV park that had wind damage but didnt burn. We feel blessed, said Arthur, who on Saturday was staying at a motel and preparing taco ingredients to take to another RV park for dinner with people displaced by the fire, including some of her tenants. Arthur said the fire came within a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) of her park and that she saw flames while evacuating. Its the scariest thing Ive ever been through in my 71 years of living, she said. Bob Moroney, who works for a company that manages nightly rentals at Ruidoso River Resort, said three different groups, roughly 15 people overall, were displaced by the fire and are staying in units at the complex. These are literally people that left for work in the morning and never went back home, he said, adding that for many, their homes are total losses. Theyre just down to chimneys and foundations at this point. Moroney, a qualifying broker for Keller Williams Casa Ideal, said that for now, the displaced are just trying to decompress as they figure out insurance and other next steps. Fire incident commander Dave Bales said crews worked to put out hot spots and clear lines along the fires perimeter to keep the fire from spreading. The fire has no containment but Bales expressed a mix of satisfaction with work done so far and prospects for coming days. Weather conditions Saturday appeared favorable with reduced wind and increased humidity, Bales said. We have lines in. We just want to make sure they hold in that wind, he said. The fire and the winds that spread it downed power lines and knocked out electricity to 18,000 customers. Electricity has been restored to all but a few dozen customers, said Wilson Guinn, a Public Service Co. manager. But people returning to their homes needed to be cautious and call utility officials if they encounter downed lines, Guinn said. We may have missed something, Guinn said. Dont try to touch them, fix them, roll them up, whatever. Gladden, the village spokesperson, said residents also need to be aware that the strong winds earlier in the week may have damaged trees that could still fall or lose limbs. Its important that what started this whole event was a significant wind storm, she said. Hotlines lit up Friday afternoon as residents reported more smoke, which fire information officer Mike De Fries said was caused by flare-ups within the interior of the fire as flames found pockets of unburned fuel. The fire started in the neighborhood and then spread to more remote areas, De Fries said Saturday. Authorities are investigating the cause. What you have here in Ruidoso are stretches where homes are destroyed, multiple homes are destroyed within neighborhoods, De Fries said. And then there is the clear evidence and the trail of the fire as it progressed further north and west and in some cases neighborhood to neighborhood as it burned through the Village of Ruidosos north and east side. Authorities have yet to release the names of the couple who died. Their bodies were found after worried family members contacted police, saying the couple had planned to evacuate Tuesday when the fire exploded but were unaccounted for later that day. As of Saturday, the fire had burned 9.6 square miles (25 square kilometers) of timber and brush. Hotter and drier weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. The problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. There are other blazes in the state, including the smaller Nogal Canyon fire to the northwest of Ruidoso. That fire was caused by downed power lines, De Fries said, and has burned six homes and eight outbuildings. People have been ordered to leave the area. We are right now in a time, even though its very early in the year, where places like New Mexico have had extra stretches of just extremely dry weather, De Fries said. Combining that with some winds, and you can see by the number of fires that are taking place and number of new starts every day and each week that fire conditions are a big concern. Ruidoso a decade ago was the site of the most destructive wildfire in New Mexicos recorded history when more than 240 homes burned and nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers) of forest were blackened by a lightning-sparked blaze. While many older residents call Ruidoso home year round, the population of about 8,000 people expands to about 25,000 during the summer months as Texans and New Mexicans from hotter climates seek respite. About the photo: The remains of a home left after a wildfire spread through the Village of Ruidoso, N.M. on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Officials say a wildfire has burned about 150 structures, including homes, in the New Mexico town of Ruidoso. (Alexander Meditz via AP) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. India is biggest digital ID provider With 1.3 billion Aadhaar card users, India tops the list of countries with the most digital ID users. A digital ID is a digital copy of a physical ID like Aadhaar, a driving license, or a passport. Globally, there are 4.2 billion digital ID users, a number expected to reach 6.5 billion by 2026, according to Juniper Research. Most government-funded schemes in India are linked to Aadhaar card numbers for verifications. Juniper Research found that COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of digital identity adoption by over 50%, emphasizing its importance, especially in government services. The report recommends that government partner with digital identity vendors with diverse identity datasets to ensure an inclusive digital transformation in e-governance. It expects digital identity vendors revenue globally to exceed $53 billion by 2026, up from $26 billion in 2021. India in talks with US to harness AI opportunities India and the US have held an inaugural AI dialogue to discuss opportunities for joint innovation in new domains. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. Following the India-US ministerial dialogue, Singh released a statement saying, Our extensive engagement has yielded important results. Some of these include commencing the defence space and defence artificial intelligence dialogues in near future. The parties also discussed a possible deepening of collaboration between the two countries in domains including science and technology in the US-India Joint Technical Group (JTG), space, AI, and cybersecurity. Global capability centres surge in India As the pace of digital adoption increases, there has been a surge in the number of global capability centres (GCCs) set up in India. According to Nasscom, as of financial year 2020 India was home to over 1300 GCCs employing more than 1.3 million workers and contributing $33.8 billion in gross revenue. The industry organisation said that 25% of the Fortune 500 and 15% of Fortune 2000 companies have a presence in India. 3M, Airbnb, Zoom Video Communications, Pratt & Whitney, Tredence, Rolls Royce, Bosch Global Software Technologies have all recently set their GCCs in the country. US retailer Lowes was the latest to announce the launch of a GCC, its second in India. Recently, crypto exchange platform Coinbase also announced its plans to set up GCC in India. The rise in the number of GCCs can be credited to the growing demand due to the increased focus on automation and digitalization after the pandemic. TRAI submits 5G recommendations The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has submitted its recommendations to the government on how 5G spectrum should be auctioned to network operators. The auction is expected to happen later in 2022. The report titled Recommendations on Auction of Spectrum in frequency bands identified for IMT/5G, was expected to be submitted in February 2022, but was eventually filed in mid-April. In its report, TRAI recommends the reserve price for all 5G spectrum be set at 70% of the valuation previously arrived at. It recommended that the spectrum for 5G be auctioned in the bands already used for mobile communications in India, and also in the new spectrum bands of 600 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz, and 24.25-28.5 GHz. The telecom body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) whose members include Airtel, Jio, and Idea however wasnt happy with TRAIs recommendation and said the spectrum pricing was still too high. COAI had presented arguments and concerns about the high reserve price based on global benchmarks and recommended lowering the price by 90%. Air India revamps its IT plans Tata Group recently acquired Air India and now plans to improve its IT infrastructure. With the upgrade, Air Indias chairman N Chandrasekaran aims to bring business accountability to the airline to save costs and improve efficiency. Technology firm Amadeus will be taking over the development of Air Indias passenger services system, which includes functions such as flight schedules, ticket reservations, and ecommerce, as the airlines existing agreement with SITA ends in June. Amadeus will upgrade Air Indias IT to a single platform of advanced technology for frictionless bookings, helping agents efficiently upsell and add-sell for a better mix of high-value fares. The company expects the tech upgrade will save it crores of rupees in the next few years. A four-day workweek could be mandated for some California employees should a proposed bill be passed by the states legislature. The bill, introduced by two Assembly members, Cristina Garcia (D-Dist.58) and Evan Low (D-Dist. 28), would amend existing legislation in the state and reduce the typical workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours. Work in excess of 32 hours would be paid at a rate of at least one-and-a-half regular pay, and, most significantly, the Assembly Bill 2932 would require employers to pay employees the same amount for 32 hours as they would for 40. This would enable staff to work the equivalent of four eight-hour days, rather than five. The change would apply to businesses with more than 500 workers, with certain exemptions, including having a collective bargaining agreement with a union. Similar rules have been proposed at the federal level by US Rep. Mark Takano, (D-CA.), who last year proposed legislation that would also shorten the workweek from 40 to 32 hours. "After two years of being in the pandemic, we've had over 47 million employees leave their job looking for better opportunities," Garcia said in an interview with CBS News. "They're sending a clear message they want a better work-life balance they want better emotional and mental health, and this is part of that discussion." The California Chamber of Commerce opposes the new measure on the grounds that it imposes a tremendous cost on employers and includes provisions that are impossible to comply with, exposing businesses to litigation under the Private Attorneys General Act. The bill would also discourage job growth in the state and likely reduce opportunities for workers, said Ashley Hoffman, policy advocate at the California Chamber of Commerce, in a letter to Low. Thomas Lenz, a lecturer at the USC Gould School of Law, told Computerworld the legislation may create cost and operational hurdles for employers struggling to meet staffing goals. He added that, should the legislation pass, employers with over 500 employees might consider scaling back their operations to minimize risk and potential exposure. Though calls for a four-day week are not new, the idea has gained momentum in recent years, partly driven by businesses rethinking working practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. While critics say it will create complexity and incur additional costs for employers, supporters of the idea highlight improved worker well-being in four-day week trials, even leading to higher productivity. Numerous companies are currently conducting trials, including Kickstarter, Qwick and Unilever. Hospitality gig-work platform Qwick, for example, began trialling a shorter workweek earlier this month. At Qwick, workers will switch from their typical five-day, 38-hour week to 32 hours a week spread over four days. (They would get the same pay as for a five-day week.) The trial applies to Qwicks full-time staffers and will run until July, when the company will evaluate whether it was a success. However, the number of companies that have switched permanently to a four-day week remains low and it is unclear whether recent momentum will lead to mainstream adoption. Last month, job posting site Indeed told Computerworld that less than 1% of job postings on March 11 included the term four-day week.. A Gallup survey of full-time U.S. employees in March 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic upended many business practices indicated that only 5% put in four days a week, with 84% working five days (and 11% working six days a week). Many four-day week initiatives are aimed predominantly at office workers, rather than other parts of the workforce such as those in service industry jobs. The California bill would affect all non-exempt employees. 04/18/2022 Photo (c) Laser1987 - Getty Images American Airlines CEO Robert Isom says the airline is all ready to go for the 2022 summer travel season. In a meeting with pilots, Isom said travelers can count on American to manage the expected increase in passengers for both the summer and beyond. The airline has had to deal with some bumps in recent months, including issues with fuel shortages, system-wide cancellations brought on by bad weather, and issues with pilots. However, Isom says thats all in the past. People really need to feel like they have control of their itineraries and we give them control by making sure they get to where they want to go on time. I just cant be any more blunt about it than that, Isom told pilots during a company town hall, according to CNBC. Other airlines are really struggling. Isom didnt call any other airline out specifically, but he may be talking about JetBlue and Alaska Airlines. Earlier this month, both companies said they were pulling back on their normal flight schedules. For JetBlue, that cut was sizable 8% to 10% at least through the end of May. The company is hoping to minimize the impact of seasonal weather interruptions and air traffic control disruptions going forward. Airlines offer more to keep consumers happy Airlines will need to be on top of their game in the coming months to satisfy the throngs of people who are returning to the skies. Many carriers are already taking extra steps like upgrading mileage programs or offering enticing fares to keep travelers happy. Despite an extension of the face mask mandate, the Transportation Security Administration reports that it is already seeing more people going through security. Passenger screenings jumped to 2.3 million people this past Friday, up 57% from a year ago. The gravitational pull in Western Hemisphere comes not from US, but from China, which offers markets, money, investment But in our own hemisphere, the gravitational pull comes not from the United States in decline, but from China on the rise, offering markets, money, investment -- and a governing model: capitalism with Chinese characteristics. If the national security establishment has its way, the United States wont let our neighbours choose their own orientation. It will push propaganda, reinforce corrupt elites and threaten or impose sanctions for those who dont fall in line with a model that has failed repeatedly across the hemisphere. Hypocrisy is common in international relations. The Russians and Chinese, for example, constantly invoke international law, even as they trample it when they deem it necessary. The United States champions a rules-based order, in which we make the rules and hold ourselves exempt from them when desirable. The principle of respecting nations and their right to choose their own path is a good one. The countries of our own hemisphere wish we would practice it as well as preach it. --- *Editorial director, publisher of the Nation, president of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord (ACURA), writes a weekly column at the Washington Post, is a frequent commentator on U.S. and international politics for Democracy Now, PBS, ABC, MSNBC and CNN. Twitter: @KatrinaNation. This article is distributed by Globetrotter in partnership with The Nation Another example of this view comes from Post contributing columnist Robert Kagan , who argues in Foreign Affairs that the United States should embrace its role as a global hegemon. This is a duty, not a choice, he writes: A militarily, economically, and culturally powerful country exerts influence on other states by its mere presence, the way a larger body in space affects the behavior of smaller bodies through its gravitational pull. The United States is entangled because what it offers is genuinely attractive to much of the world.But in our own hemisphere, the gravitational pull comes not from the United States in decline, but from China on the rise, offering markets, money, investment -- and a governing model: capitalism with Chinese characteristics. If the national security establishment has its way, the United States wont let our neighbours choose their own orientation. It will push propaganda, reinforce corrupt elites and threaten or impose sanctions for those who dont fall in line with a model that has failed repeatedly across the hemisphere.Hypocrisy is common in international relations. The Russians and Chinese, for example, constantly invoke international law, even as they trample it when they deem it necessary. The United States champions a rules-based order, in which we make the rules and hold ourselves exempt from them when desirable. The principle of respecting nations and their right to choose their own path is a good one. The countries of our own hemisphere wish we would practice it as well as preach it.--- The Russian invasion of Ukraine is in many ways bigger than Russia, its bigger than Ukraine, State Department spokesman Ned Price recently declared . There are principles that are at stake here Each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze. The United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated last year, does not recognize spheres of influence, adding that the concept should have been retired after World War II.Those are noble but empty words -- because they obviously do not apply to the Western Hemisphere. Take Cuba, which continues to suffer under an embargo that has been enforced for 60 years. That, plus the pandemic and President Donald Trumps reversal of Obama-era liberalization -- a crackdown sustained by the Biden administration -- has bludgeoned the islands economy. Food and medicine are scarce ; many young and entrepreneurial Cubans are leaving the island in droves . The pressure contributed in large measure to the protests that stunned the island last July.Yes, the one-party regime remains and still represses much dissent. But the embargo and related policies have failed for six decades and 11 presidents. Cubans are still applauded for their humanitarian efforts, dispatching doctors to help in disasters across the developing (and developed) world. The United States and Cuba cooperate in efforts to police drug trafficking and limit terrorism. Yet the embargo continues punishing the Cuban people until they get rid of the government the United States does not approve of. So much for choosing their own path.Cuba is not alone. The United States has imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua for sustaining regimes Washington opposes. Even the recent sanctions on Russia, says Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, the senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, are designed such that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia So Venezuela will start feeling the pressure; Nicaragua will start feeling the pressure; as will Cuba.At the same time, the national security establishment is raising alarms about growing Chinese involvement in the Western Hemisphere. China is now Latin Americas leading trade partner , as well as a leading source of direct investment and financing. Interested in security access to commodity exports, China assisted the region after the 2008 financial crisis, with investments that generated jobs and helped decrease poverty in the region. During the pandemic, the Chinese rushed vaccines (of questionable effectiveness, it should be noted) into the region and provided continued demand for products.All this raises fears about Chinas support for what are castigated as populist governments from Argentina to Venezuela. Already armchair strategists are scoping out how to respond to the threat posed by Chinese trade, investment and financing. Evan Ellis, a professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, penned a report for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies entitled Preparing for Deterioration of the Latin America and Caribbean Strategic Environment, which suggested the United States doesnt have the resources to compete with China on investments and aid to the region.To make up the deficit, Ellis chillingly argues for an aggressive U.S. military buildup in the region, a propaganda offensive to discredit any governments friendly to China, potentially promoting resistance movements against Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence, and, of course, sanctions for those who stray. The professor did not mention the principle of allowing nations to choose their own course. The first curious thing about it is that the substance Batman injects himself with is green -- which is also the color of a drug Batman briefly dabbled with in the comics. In 1991, after failing to save a kidnapped girl because he wasn't strong enough to lift some boulders, Batman starts taking a drug called "venom" that basically turns him into Popeye after eating spinach. At first, the drug comes in the form of green pills, but then the scientist who created it synthesizes a stronger liquid formula. Batman feels like he's become much more effective at crime-fighting since he's been taking venom; the only problem is that it's also been driving him psychotic. DC Comics Whereas he's usually a paragon of mental health. Continue Reading Below Advertisement If the substance in the movie was venom, that would explain why Batman loses his mind when he injects it; for a moment there, it really looks like he's gonna beat Riddler's online buddy to death until the cops intervene. In the comics, after realizing he's become addicted to venom, Batman locks himself up in the Batcave for an entire month to kick the habit. Venom's creator dies in the same storyline, but later on, his formula is used to perform experiments on prisoners on the Caribbean island of Santa Prisca. The only one of those prisoners to survive the experiments escapes the island and starts wearing a costume rigged with a series of tubes that let him shoot up more venom whenever he wants. Oh, and he also starts calling himself Bane and gets obsessed with "breaking Batman," literally. Fun fact: according to the DC Wiki, using venom might cause impotence. But the movie itself is one of the most truly unhinged literary adaptations of all-time. For one thing, Branagh provides us with a detailed traumatic backstory for Poirot s mustache. Yeah, the film opens, not in Egypt, but in the trenches of World War 1, where Poirot witnesses the death of his commanding officer who has a big, crazy mustache. 20th Century Studios So Poirot grew his facial hair purely in tribute to his fallen friend? Not so fast just moments later, an injured Poirot wakes up in a military hospital with a grotesque scar that, somewhat improbably, occupies a distinctly mustache-shaped area on his upper lip. We're pretty sure the exact same thing happened to Tom Selleck. 20th Century Studios Continue Reading Below Advertisement He also associates this event, and specifically the resulting mustache, to the tragedy of his one lost love; the ex-fiancee that got away even though in the flashback, she seems both perfectly fine with the scar, and is even the one who playfully suggests that he should grow a mustache. In the end, Poirot signifies that he is ready to love again by shaving his trademark stache which, again, his ex was seemingly totally cool with. 20th Century Studios Agatha Christie spent more than five decades hammering out Poirot novels and never felt the need to delve into the cartoonishly tragic events that led to her detectives signature look. Thats almost as dumb as having to explain where Han Solo got his last name. This mustache stuff is so crazy, we havent even had time to mention the scene in which Armie Hammer awkwardly dry-humps multiple women on the dance floor of a 1930s jazz club. ST. LOUIS (AP) Eric Greitens stepped aside as Missouri's governor in 2018 amid a scandal involving accusations of blackmail, bondage and sexual assault. As he attempts a political comeback this year with a U.S. Senate bid, his ex-wife has said Greitens physically abused her and one of their children. It once took far less to end a political career. But at a recent meeting of the St. Charles County Pachyderm Club in a largely Republican area of suburban St. Louis, GOP voters engaged in genuine debate over whether they'd support Greitens in the August primary. Bob Sullentrup, the club's 70-year-old president, dismissed Greitens as damaged goods." Hes going to get creamed, he said. That baggage will follow him. Others, including several women, weren't so sure. Sharon Kumnick of Weldon Springs said she'd vote for Greitens if he's the GOP nominee, noting everybody's divorce, when they want more than is offered, is contentious." Tina Maloney, a real estate investor from St. Charles, said Greitens should stay in the race. I dont think just because youre accused of something in this day and age that you should drop out, Maloney said. This is what they always do, she said, citing the sexual assault allegations that emerged against Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearing. It shows character to fight, Maloney added. That sentiment is reinforcing Greitens' refusal to leave the race, posing the latest test of the GOP's openness to men accused of physical or sexual abuse. Greitens is convinced that by casting himself as a conservative fighter in the mold of former President Donald Trump, he can win the Republican nomination for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat even though many of his political benefactors abandoned him and the party's establishment wishes he would just go away. I am going to win, Greitens said in an email, calling his ex-wife's accusations false and a political hit job. Indeed, Trump is perhaps the GOP's best example that candidates can power through abuse allegations. He won the 2016 campaign despite accusations of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women. In this year's midterms, Herschel Walker is poised to become the GOP's nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia despite making repeated threats on his ex-wife's life. A Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska, Charles W. Herbster, was accused last week of groping several women. Sean Parnell, a Republican who sought a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, is the rare example of a candidate who ended his campaign after allegations of abuse. He only did so after losing a court fight over custody of his three children. The string of allegations concern some Republicans who worry that the party will rally behind candidates who will be unable to win the general election, when moderate voters often play a more decisive role. With the Senate evenly divided, the GOP cant afford to lose what would otherwise be a safe seat. That anxiety has deepened in Missouri after Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune whose family history is deeply intertwined with the state, entered the Senate race last month as a Democrat. Many in the party have unified behind Valentine as the best chance to flip the seat. In her personal capacity, Pat Thomas, the state GOP's treasurer, has called on Greitens to leave the race. She said Valentine's entrance makes it even more urgent for someone other than Greitens to emerge as the nominee. I am certainly concerned that (she) could be a problem, Thomas said. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar, was considered an early front-runner in the crowded Republican primary to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt. But his campaign was rocked last month when his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, filed a sworn affidavit as part of a child custody case that accused Eric Greitens of displaying such unstable and coercive behavior in 2018 that others took steps to limit his access to firearms. In the affidavit, Sheena Greitens said he once knocked her down, took her wallet, keys and phone, and prevented her from leaving their home with their two children. She also accused Eric Greitens of striking their eldest son and pulling him around by his hair, among other claims. Eric Greitens says that's all false. And he, his allies and his attorneys have used hardball tactics to try to discredit her. In statements, interviews, a press conference and on social media, theyve portrayed Sheena Greitens as a liar with a documented history of mental illness. They've also accused her of working in conspiracy with a web of Republican figures to take down Eric Greitens' candidacy, among them Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., longtime Republican operative Karl Rove and Greitens' former 2016 campaign manager Austin Chambers, who has staunchly defended Sheena Greitens. Everyone smelled right away that this was a political hit job, Eric Greitens said. His attorneys have filed subpoena requests seeking phone records from Sheena Greitens, her sister, as well as Rove and Chambers, whose attorneys derided the effort an abuse of judicial process by a floundering campaign. But Eric Greitens says that if the allegations against him were true, there is no way his ex-wife would have agreed two years ago to a court-approved parenting plan. An affidavit she filed at the time stated that it was in the best interest of the children for the parents to share joint custody, a discrepancy that he argues amounts to perjury in light of her most recent statements accusing him of abuse. Sheena Greitens says she told multiple lawyers, therapists, and our mediator, in 2018 and afterward about the abuse allegations. She also says she will provide evidence in court, including pictures and documentation of their communications. The parenting agreement came at the time she was moving to Texas for her job. I had to make concessions that I did not want to make," she said in a court filing. Ultimately, she says that her ex-husband's current behavior feels like a repeat of 2018, when he resigned rather than go under oath to respond to allegations made by his former hairdresser, who testified that he blindfolded and restrained her in his basement, assaulted her and appeared to take a compromising photo to pressure her to keep quiet about an affair. He has acknowledged the affair, but has denied taking pictures. When his political future is at risk, he becomes erratic, unhinged, coercive and threatening, Sheena Greitens stated in a recent court filing. He accuses me of things that are untrue and generates conspiracy theories about me collaborating with his enemies when I have done no such thing. For now, the political fallout from the episode is uncertain. There are signs the dispute could galvanize the pro-Trump base. Many online conservative outlets have sided with Greitens while criticizing his ex-wife, a college professor at the University of Texas who specializes in Asian affairs. And Greitens' campaign says they saw a dramatic uptick in donations since the allegations were made public, taking in over $100,000 in 14 days. But he's also drawn harsh condemnation from many leading Republicans in Missouri. Sen. Josh Hawley, who served as Missouris attorney general when Greitens was governor, said in a statement that if you hit a woman or child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate. Its time for Eric Greitens to leave this race. Greitens leading opponents had stern words, too, calling on him to to be jailed, drop out or seek help. But not everyone was quick to fully condemn. Gov. Mike Parson said he believed Sheena Greitens, but stopped short of urging Eric Greitens to end his candidacy. The Missouri Republican Party also hasnt taken a stand on Greitens future. Thomas, the state partys treasurer, said the best thing he can do is suspend his campaign. She also noted that while Greitens accused the woman he had an affair with as well as his ex-wife of lying, theyve both made their statements under oath which Eric Greitens has not done. Why hasnt he gone under oath? Thomas asked. If he had nothing to hide and wanted to put this all to bed, why doesnt he do that for his supporters? ___ Slodysko reported from Washington. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) A Louisiana House panel advanced a proposed state operating budget Monday that includes $148 million for pay raises for teachers and school support staff and $104 million for increases for higher education, but strips a proposed $100-per-month increase in state supplemental pay for local police and firefighters. Still up in the air as the $38 billion state operating budget and related budget bills left the House Appropriations Committee on Monday was the future of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' proposal to allocate $500 million in one-time revenue toward a new Mississippi River bridge at Baton Rouge, a project one administration official said could eventually cost roughly $2.5 billion. The initial bridge funding, the school pay raises and $100 million in higher education funding including more than $31 million for faculty pay increases were among priorities Edwards laid out in his annual budget proposal earlier this year. The proposals were made as lawmakers, after facing years of tight budgets, prepared to debate how best to spend higher tax revenues and an influx of more than $2.8 billion in one-time revenue $1.4 billion from federal pandemic aid, $700 million of surplus from the 2021 fiscal year and $853 million higher-than-planned revenue for the current year. As the committee prepared to move the budget legislation to the full House for a planned Thursday debate, chairman Jerome Zeringue, a Houma Republican, touted the education raises along with increased funding for early childhood education initiatives, clean water programs, and a $500 million allocation to refurbish the state unemployment trust fund. That allocation, backers said, will prevent Louisiana businesses from facing a jump in unemployment insurance costs to replenish a fund that was drained when the coronavirus pandemic led to major job losses. But the committee approved an amendment stripping the increase in supplemental pay for parish and municipal police and firefighters. Rep. Jack McFarland, a Jonesboro Republican, said the proposed increase, along with other legislation that could add more local level emergency workers to those already getting supplemental pay, could eventually put financial strains on the state. Granted theyre worth more than what were providing," said Zeringue. "But this is a recurring expense and we need to look at trying to engage and involve local governments as well to support their local fire and police. Rep. Dustin Miller, a Democrat from Opelousas, expressed hope that the supplemental pay increase might be restored to the budget after a state panel, the Revenue Estimating Conference, meets to make its official revenue projection, which could mean more money coming in. As for the bridge, Republican legislative leaders have been slow to back Edwards' proposal, saying the money could sit for years without being used while plans for the bridge take shape. Zeringue said Monday that House and Senate leaders are discussing the issue. Meanwhile, among the legislation the panel advanced Monday was a proposal to create a Revitalizing and Developing Infrastructure in All of Louisiana fund. Zeringue described the RADIAL fund as a place to park the non-recurring revenue Edwards wants to use for the bridge while discussions are underway. Edwards' top financial official, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, repeated the administration's contention that the money needs to be dedicated to the bridge now. He said site recommendations for the bridge are expected in the coming months. He said committing $500 million to the project would help the state seek competitive grants. I like the concept of the RADIAL fund, I just hope that the Mississippi River bridge is not a spare tire, said Dardenne. The executive order mandating masks in Connecticut health care facilities expired Friday, leaving some public health experts concerned amid rising COVID rates. The order, extended in January, required masking in hospitals, outpatient health care settings and some congregant settings such as homeless shelters. Simultaneously, statewide COVID rates have been on a slow if steady incline. Our trajectory is not good. That makes me all very uneasy as masks are coming off, said Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. Now is not the time to rescind mask mandates. The state reported Monday that 4,280 new COVID cases had been identified over the previous seven days out of 64,592 tests for a positivity rate of 6.63 percent. COVID-realted hospitalizations increased 41 over the same time period to 145 statewide. The University of Connecticut announced this weekend that students and staff would be required to wear masks in school settings, citing a substantial rise in COVID-19 positivity rates both in the state of Connecticut and on UConns Storrs campus and the potential risk this poses to the remainder of the in-person semester and commencement. Gov. Ned Lamont, speaking Monday at an event in Bridgeport, said while he understands the step UConn is taking, he does not think broader mandates are necessary, either for the state or Connecticuts cities and towns. I think the municipalities know their constituents really well, know what they need to do to make them feel safe and be safe. Well leave that discretion up to them, Lamont said. I understand what UConn is doing and it makes all the sense in the world. A lot of those kids live in very tight congregate settings. When asked if Connecticut towns should follow the example of Philadelphia, which announced earlier this month that a city-wide mask mandate would be reinstated, Lamont said no. I think its their judgment what makes people comfortable. For me, were outside, its springtime, were boostered, he said. I think people know how to keep themselves safe, thats good enough for me. Setting makes the difference, according to Dr. Ulysses Wu, Hartford HealthCares chief epidemiologist In a private bubble such as a college it kind of makes sense, he said. Its kind of a bubble community. Wu said organizations and businesses in where people live, eat, work and recreate in close quarters should consider mandating masks. I do believe there are businesses that could benefit from that, he said. Even churches. Where people are going to be clustered, it would kind of make sense. In mandating masks, UConn joined other colleges and universities in the northeast, including Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. UConn is doing what I think many places should be doing, Roberts said. Yale New Haven Health requires masks in clinical settings, though Yale University has not followed suit, Roberts said. Hartford HealthCare also requires masks. The Friday expiration of the executive order mandating masks in clinical settings could mean a lack of uniformity among health care settings, Roberts said. We have heard that other health care facilities have been similarly frustrated, he said. I think were going to see increased cases over the next couple of weeks, Roberts said, though he believes it wont be nearly as bad as it was over the holidays. We said cases may rise further, in part because of BA.2, the more infectious omicron subvariant, but also because of family gatherings for Easter and Passover. Im curious to see in about seven days what the case positivity is, he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate FAIRFIELD While the pandemic has seen the price of houses skyrocket, often with bidding wars breaking out over homes, apartments are also seeing a corresponding rise in price, officials say. A desirable location to live and raise a family, officials say Fairfields apartment market is quite competitive. The question of whether that market is affordable though, is a subject of debate. Trey Bickers, a real estate salesperson with William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, said the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Fairfield right now is approximately $2,000 a month. A comittee member of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerces Fairfield Emerging Leaders Organization, he said the people who move into apartments in town are often young professionals such as himself. Bickers said the age range of people renting has expanded, as people sell their homes because of the hot housing market, but are waiting to buy elsewhere. In my apartment building, its a new building, and they have people there who never would have imagined themselves in an apartment building again, he said. They needed to live somewhere, but they wanted to unload the house. Carol Martin, the executive director of Fairfields Housing Authority, said the price of apartments in town has grown to a level where it is locking out many people on the lower level of the income scale. The market has just been really crazy, she said. Theres a huge demand and theres not enough supply. Both Bickers and Martin said they have seen an increase in the number of people looking for an apartment because the apartments they previously rented were in houses that were being sold to people who planned to live there. There are a lot of folks in Fairfield who want to stay in Fairfield because they have children, Martin said. Now theyre trying to find another apartment and are nowhere near the price range they need to be in. As Fairfield looks to build more affordable housing, but in a way not governed by state statute 8-30g, which allows developers to ignore certain local zoning rules if building affordable housing, officials say the apartment landscape has been changing. The average costs of an apartment Bicker said the median monthly cost of an apartment in town, from what he has seen, is approximately $2,000 although it varies by location and condition. He noted that his rent is approximately $2,300. But that also includes utilities except for electric, he said. Most rentals in town dont include that. Apartment buildings give you a little bit more as far as thats concerned. Bickers said a lot of the newer apartment buildings have other benefits included such as gyms and rooftop grills, which renters get in return for their cost. But, he said, rent prices are up compared to where they were before the pandemic. Some things are up $500 a month, not necessarily just a one-bedroom, maybe $500 or more over the past couple years, he said. Bickers said rent varies depending on the part of town, adding rent in the north part of Fairfield is going to be a little bit less than the beach area. The closer you are to shopping, commuting, amenities and the beach, the rent is going to go up, he said. Martin said the housing authority runs a voucher program, which subsidizes housing costs for people with low incomes. She said the vouchers allow the families she serves to be more competitive in the housing market, but the program has especially competitive since the pandemic started. The vouchers come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which set the amount their worth based on payment standards recommended to them by local housing authorities. Martin said they requested an increase of 150 percent, but noted HUD gave them 120 percent. If HUD regulates, that, and your market, like here in Fairfield, goes way above what those ceiling limits are that HUD sets, you basically have a piece that you cant use, she said. Martin said her organization has asked HUD to raise that ceiling in light of growing costs. She said they use a master listing service, which shows housing and apartment stock in any given area, to assess what the average costs of housing are. In 2021, Martin said, the authority requested a payment standard of $1,815 for a studio apartment, $2,190 for a one-bedroom and $2,745 for a two-bedroom. Notably, those figures are not the cost of rent, Martin said, but the maximum amount of subsidy HUD would contribute. She said people in the voucher program pay 30 percent of their gross adjusted income. Therefore, she said, if a landlord accepted an applicant with a voucher, the most they could charge is that number plus the 30 percent. The actual average costs of apartments in Fairfield, Martin said, are her payment standards plus hundreds of dollars. Martin said the payment standard data she was referencing was based on the zip code of her office, which is in the east side of town. She said the figures for places like the beach area or Southport are even higher. Of course, Martin said, a landlord could charge any price for the apartment, but if they charged more it would lock out a certain segment of the population. Can people afford it? The authority opened up the wait list for its housing choice voucher program for two weeks in the summer of 2020 the height of the pandemic. In two weeks, we got 7,600 pieces of paper for folks looking for housing, she said. If we were accepting it with people being able to do it from their phone, we would have gotten four times the amount. Martin said 250 applications were accepted for the wait list, adding that corresponds to the amount of vouchers the authority thinks it can put on the street in the next six or seven years. She said families with vouchers are having trouble leasing up apartments. Fairfield has become largely unaffordable for people of lower income, Martin said, adding that pre-COVID, it had a more robust rental market. But, she said, the pandemic has led to more people moving away from New York into Fairfield County, driving prices up. That supply shrunk up, so what happened to the rentals that were remaining? she said. Well, its your classic economics. The people that are still landlords looking to rent are increasing the rent because they can. The market will pay it. Martin said the rising costs means that people like the working middle class cannot afford to live where they are employed. Theyre having a hard time finding an affordable rent in town, she said, adding the pandemic has sort of ended the robust rental market. We are getting to be like Trumbull and Weston and Easton and Westport. Our rental market is shrinking. Bickers said most of the people he sees renting are young working professionals, which he considers a good thing as they might decide to buy a house in town. He said they generally come into town to be in a beach community with good schools, while still being in proximity to New York City. Fairfield exists as a sort of middle ground in terms of rent in the area, Bickers said, adding it is lower compared to Westport but higher compared to Bridgeport. When developers go through the process of applying to build apartment buildings, they often say the project would provide housing for Fairfields workforce, such as its teachers and police officers. Officials say many members of those professions can and do live in Fairfield. Bob Smoler, president of the Fairfield Education Association, said more teachers live in Fairfield than any other town in the state, adding that a third of Fairfields teachers live in town. You probably have a thousand educators overall that live in Fairfield, he said. Its about 300 something that work and live in Fairfield, but theres 120 teachers who live in Fairfield but work in Westport and another bunch that work in Trumbull. Smoler said Fairfield has a unique characteristic of being both affordable and having a good school system. He said it is largely affordable for teachers, although he is not sure how many of them are renting. A lot of teachers have their homes in Fairfield houses, he said. Fairfield police Lt. Mike Paris said traditionally, officers of the Fairfield Police Department have lived outside of the town, but he could not say for certain that it was because of affordability. Most recently, we have seen new officers rent in town for convenience, but it is kind of split down the middle, he said. I have not heard anyone specifically say that they cannot afford the rent in town. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) A co-owner of a Southern California shoe store who allegedly wounded a 9-year-old girl while shooting at shoplifters has been charged with assault with a firearm, authorities said Monday. Marquel Michael James Cockrell, 20, was scheduled for a San Bernardino County Superior Court video arraignment in Rancho Cucamonga, a prosecution press release said. Other charges include discharging a firearm with gross negligence and carrying a loaded firearm that was not registered to the defendant. It was not immediately known if Cockrell has an attorney to speak on his behalf. The shooting occurred April 12 at the Mall of Victor Valley in the high desert city of Victorville. Cockrell chased two shoplifters and fired shots that instead hit the 9-year-old female victim, Victorville police said in a statement. The girl, Ava Chruniak, suffered three gunshot wounds, including two in an arm, said her grandmother, Robin Moraga-Saldarelli. One of the bullets fractured an arm bone. Police said Cockrell fled and was later arrested in Nevada's Clark County. He was subsequently extradited and held in custody in California, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office said. Ava was released from the hospital April 14 but will require an operation to repair nerve damage, KCBS-TV reported last week. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate About 1,524 people in Connecticut died from drug overdoses in 2021, according to the latest data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. This is more than the population of the towns of Canaan, Colebrook, Union or Warren. Its 150 more fatal overdoses than in 2020. This increase can be attributed to the prolonged isolation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the rise in the use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, according to Art Mongillo, a spokesperson for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes fentanyl as a synthetic opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. While fentanyl is prescribed for pain, the CDC said most cases of fentanyl-related overdoses are linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl, sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous, the CDC added. Fentanyl played a factor in 86 percent of Connecticuts overdose deaths last year, putting the states total higher than the national average and prompting officials to stress the need to continue to monitor the drugs prevalence on the illicit market. Fentanyl continues to kill In an April 6 letter to law enforcement agencies, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram addressed a nationwide increase in fentanyl-related mass overdose incidents so far this year, citing examples in Florida, Texas and Colorado in which people thought they were ingesting cocaine. Milgram said at least seven confirmed incidents have been reported across the nation, leading to 59 overdoses and 29 deaths in the last two months. Christopher Boyle, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health, said while multiple overdoses do occur in Connecticut where two or more people are taking drugs together and overdose the state has not seen anything on a large-scale like what was described in the DEA letter. Milgram called fentanyl highly addictive, adding that it is found in every state in the nation. She said drug traffickers mix fentanyl with other drugs, in powder and pill form, to drive up addiction and attract repeat customers. Pills that may look like Adderall, Xanax or oxycodone could be pressed to resemble the prescriptions, but really contain other chemicals like fentanyl or methamphetamine. As of December 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized 20.4 million fake pills that were often laced with fentanyl. Of the pills that contained fentanyl, 42 percent contained a potentially lethal dose. Only a very small amount of fentanyl is considered potentially deadly about 2 milligrams, or enough to fit on the tip of a pencil. DPH is trying to get the message across that when illicit drugs are obtained from the street, it is very likely that those drugs contain fentanyl, Boyle said. We have evidence that drugs such as cocaine and counterfeit pills such as Vicodin or Percocet also have fentanyl in their contents, among other contaminants. Boyle said individuals ingesting illicitly obtained drugs should use harm reduction methods and assume that fentanyl is in their drugs. Milgram said many victims in the mass overdoses incidents thought they were ingesting cocaine. Connecticut is no different. The OCME data showed that 561 deaths were tied to both cocaine and fentanyl last year, up from 447 in 2020. Fentanyl has quickly become the leading cause of fatal overdoses in Connecticut in the past decade. In 2012, fentanyl was involved in about 4 percent of that years 357 overdose deaths. By 2015, overdose deaths rose to 728, fentanyl being involved in about a quarter of them. In the next year, fentanyl was involved in more than half of the years 917 overdose deaths. Rising overdose rates Data from the CDCs National Center for Health Statistics, released in November 2021, indicates there were about 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States between April 2020 and April 2021. That number was a 28.5 percent increase from the 78,056 deaths during the same 12-month period a year prior, the data showed. Statewide, overdoses killed 1,038 people in 2017, 1,017 in 2018, 1,200 in 2019, 1,374 in 2020 and 1,524 in 2021. Fentanyl is the driving force and is overwhelmingly responsible for these increases, said Dr. James Gill, the states chief medical examiner, on Wednesday. Fentanyl is so potent that it is very difficult to dose it accurately. The people who sell drugs on the street are not chemists or pharmacists. Preliminary data from DPH shows there have already been 166 overdose deaths in 2022 144 of which involved fentanyl or a fentanyl analog, accounting for about 87 percent. While the overall number of overdose deaths have risen, Mongillo noted that the percent increase year over year in Connecticut isnt as big as it used to be. From 2019 to 2020, there was a 14.5 percent jump, while the jump from 2020 to 2021 was 11 percent. Overdose events with more than one victim are not entirely uncommon in Connecticut. Boyle cited an incident at a Hartford magnet school earlier this year that led to the death of one student and a similar incident in New Haven at the correctional facility. The Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for additional information regarding the overdose incident at a New Haven facility. While the state hasnt seen any mass overdose incidents recently, that wasnt the case a few summers back. One day in August 2018, the New Haven Green turned into a makeshift triage center for scores of individuals overdosing on a batch of synthetic marijuana laced with fentanyl, officials said. At least 71 people overdosed in the Elm City during that mass overdose incident, with first responders scrambling to keep up with everyone falling ill with symptoms. More recently, Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford was closed for several days for decontamination in January after a seventh-grader fatally overdosed on a substance that contained fentanyl. Authorities said the 13-year-old boy died after he was rushed to the hospital in grave condition following his overdose on the drug inside the school during gym class. Two other seventh-grade students were also hospitalized after police said they came into contact with the substance. Those two students recovered. Keeping people alive One expert said the 13-year-old boys death highlighted the importance of making naloxone available at schools. Hartford school officials confirmed after the boys overdose that the district did not have the drug supplied or staff trained in its use prior to the incident. Officials said the district would explore the possibility of getting it in schools. Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, is the opioid overdose-reversal drug used by first responders for years. It is administered in cases of suspected opioid overdoses and comes in an easy-to-use nasal spray. The state Department of Education surveyed 178 school districts in February and found that 107 of them or roughly 60 percent had the medication on hand in at least one school within those districts. Seventy-one districts said naloxone was not available in any schools. To combat the rising number of overdoses, DMHAS has prioritized the distribution and access of naloxone. Naloxone can be prescribed by a primary care provider, family doctor, any doctor who is able to prescribe an opioid, and certain pharmacists. The drug can also be provided through certain organizations and harm reduction and needle exchange programs. These needle exchange programs provide sterile needles and syringes as a way to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. They also facilitate the safe disposal of used syringes and connect people to services and programs such as substance use disorder treatment programs. Needle exchange programs additionally provide fentanyl test strips, which use a minuscule amount of the drug to check if it has fentanyl. Medication assisted treatment has provided a more long-term solution. This treatment uses medications such as methadone, Suboxone and Vivitrol to reduce cravings and manage pain and withdrawal symptoms. The treatment also includes counseling and behavioral therapies to help combat opioid use disorder. This treatment approach has been shown to improve survival, increase retention in treatment, decrease illicit opiate use and other criminal activity among people with substance use disorders, increase patients ability to gain and maintain employment, and improve birth outcomes among women who have substance use disorders and are pregnant, Mongillo said. As of Monday, there were 11 beds available at medically monitored withdrawal management facilities, according to the DMHAS Addiction Services Availability website. Mongillo said DMHAS is continuing to expand its harm reduction efforts, which are important in directly lowering the number of overdose deaths. This includes media campaigns and information that address issues related to stigma and asking for help. Whatever we can do to create low-barrier treatment opportunities in the community is also an important strategy, he said. Signs of a possible overdose include loss of consciousness, slowed breathing and narrow pupils. Call 911 if you suspect an individual is suffering from an overdose. To find treatment or other resources, call DMHAS access line at 1-800-563-4086. Help is available 24/7. GUILFORD Police have released the name of a person who was found dead Thursday after an hourslong armed standoff at a Fitch Hill Road home. Guilford police identified the deceased person as 51-year-old Guilford resident Keith Neal in an update Friday morning. The agency said the investigation into the incident remains active. Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad has taken over the probe, Guilford officials said. Firefighters were dispatched to Durham road around 12:30 p.m. that day after a 911 caller reported a structure fire, according to police. But when fire personnel arrived on scene and found smoke coming from the structure, they were confronted by Neal with two long guns, Chief Warren Butch Hyatt said. The fire department kind of backed out of the scene and that male left the area in a vehicle, Hyatt said Thursday morning during a press conference, before Neals identity had been released to the media. Police were notified, and soon after received a phone call from someone stating Neal had gone to an address on Fitch Hill Road, where a relative lived. Police said officers tried to negotiate with Neal to surrender and let the relative, who was being held hostage, go. A regional SWAT team and the state police Emergency Services Unit were also called to the scene. The incident stretched on for 18 hours, and only ended after Guilford police said the captive relative was rescued by state troopers. Neal was found dead inside the home at the time. Guilford police said Thursday the states Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigating the cause and manner of Neals death. WASHINGTON (AP) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington but she'll be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity will take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On Tuesday, Yellen will convene a panel of finance ministers, the international development banks and other institutions to talk about how they will use resources to address food insecurity. This year's meetings run through Friday, and include a mix of virtual and in-person events. Russian finance officials are expected to attend several events virtually, according to a senior Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans for the meetings. Yellen will participate if a Russian minister is there for a session or two, but will not attend every session, the official said, adding that the presence of Russian officials should not stop the work the U.S. needs to do with members of the Group of 20 the world's largest economies. There are some sessions the secretary will attend including the opening, which the Ukrainian finance minister also will attend. However, she wont be participating in a number of the G20 sessions if the Russians are participants. President Joe Biden has said Russia should be removed from the G20. Yellen is expected to use this weeks meetings to work with allies on efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia while mitigating spillover effects, to call for the implementation of a global minimum tax deal and to address food security issues. In addition, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control this week is expected to issue clarifying language to make clear that trade in agricultural products is not barred under existing sanctions, in response to the food security crisis that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused. Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is also set to meet with Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko this week. During a discussion Monday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Adeyemo reiterated the U.S. position that China has a chance to pressure Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine and would thereby avoid subjecting itself to secondary sanctions. China has in the past, and we expect them to continue to follow, the sanctions regimes that have been introduced by us and the coalition" of sanctioning countries, Adeyemo said. China's business with the rest of the world is greater than its business with Russia. The U.S. and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There arent any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western effort, could do so, Yellen said in a speech at the Atlantic Council last week. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension as the U.S.. tries to cut off Moscows energy income. ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. STRATFORD A local man was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday for his role in stealing multiple cars, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Connecticut. Edwin Cordero, 21, previously pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of a stolen vehicle in September, officials said. After his sentence, he will be subject to supervised release for three years. Officials said state police determined that Cordero and others have stolen numerous motor vehicles, and used the stolen vehicles to travel throughout Connecticut and to neighboring states to steal other vehicles and the valuables inside, including credit cards, cellular telephones, and firearms. Authorities said that Cordero and others frequented upper middleclass neighborhoors to go car-checking, in which they would check if doors were unlocked and then steal cars or items inside the vehicles. Cordero and another man stole a Porsche Panamera from a Westport residence on Dec. 1, officials said, then, after police in Westerly, R.I., saw the stolen vehicle, fled at speeds of 86 miles per hour, officials said. On Dec. 2, officials said, Cordero and the other man stole a Dodge Challenger from a residence in Milford. After being pursued by Stratford police, with the other man driving and Cordero in the passenger seat, the Challenger rammed a car stopped at a red light at an intersection, drove up on the sidewalk and through the red light, and then struck a second vehicle, causing the second vehicle to flip onto its roof, officials said. (The other man) drove the damaged Porsche onto I-95 into Bridgeport, where he and Cordero were apprehended as they attempted to enter another stolen Audi A4 that was parked on Gregory Street. A search of the stolen Audi revealed approximately 13 key fobs for other vehicles, and a search of the Porsche revealed five cellphones, officials said. In addition, Cordero possessed a key fob for the stolen Dodge Challenger, which was subsequently located parked on Main Street in Bridgeport, and the other man) possessed two stolen credit cards. Cordero and the other man have agreed to pay $75,198.45 in restitution to at least seven owners of vehicles they stole and/or damaged, officials said. This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Connecticut State Police and the Stratford, Milford, Stonington, Westport, Bridgeport, New Haven, Meriden, Darien, Old Saybrook, and Westerly (R.I.) Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan, officials said. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) An Alabama judge has dismissed a capital murder charge, ruling that a man acted under the state's Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to use deadly force in self-defense. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May issued an order Saturday tossing the charge against Samuel Bernard Smith, 23, of Birmingham, AL.com reported Monday. Kirby Kermit Davis, 32, was shot to death Dec. 20, 2018, at a Birmingham apartment complex where Smith was living. Smith was arrested in early 2019 and has been out of jail since last year. May ruled that Smith had the right to defend himself because he was robbed and kidnapped by four men, including the one he killed. Under Alabama law, a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and is in any place where he or she has the right to be, has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground, the judge wrote. Prosecutors argued Smith was not eligible for a Stand Your Ground defense because he was engaged in an unlawful activity by selling marijuana at the time of the shooting. They said he did not have the legal right to secure the premises with a loaded gun. The law specifies a person may not use deadly force while engaged in criminal activity. During a Stand Your Ground hearing, Smith testified that he was home when he received a random call from a childhood friend about buying marijuana. He said he told the friend he did not have marijuana to sell. He testified that he hesitantly agreed to sell some marijuana after the friend and other people showed up at his apartment later. The judge wrote that according to testimony, Smith took a pistol and a sample of marijuana to see a person he was told was waiting with money in the parking lot. Smith testified that all four men brandished weapons and the driver said Smith was being robbed. Smith testified that at least two men went through his pockets, taking the marijuana and his gun. The judge wrote that the men discussed taking Smith back to his apartment to rob him of the remaining marijuana. Once at the apartment, three men pushed Smith down and ran downstairs to the waiting vehicle. Smith said he grabbed a gun from someone else in his apartment and went outside to make sure the assailants were gone. He said they were getting into the vehicle and began shooting in his direction. Smith said he returned fire. The shootout continued until the vehicle slowed down, struck an object and stopped. Three men ran away. Davis was pronounced dead at the scene. May wrote that Smith had the right to defend himself but the question regarding this issue hinges on whether the defendant had a legal duty to retreat. May said it could be argued that Smith's intent to sell the marijuana was under duress. Because Smith was robbed at gunpoint and the marijuana forcibly removed from his pockets, the judge ruled Smith was not engaged in an unlawful activity. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIRUT (AP) During a visit to Syria in 2017, Vladimir Putin lavished praise on a Syrian general whose division played an instrumental role in defeating insurgents in the countrys long-running civil war. The Russian president told him his cooperation with Russian troops will lead to great successes in the future. Now members of Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassans division are among hundreds of Russian-trained Syrian fighters who have reportedly signed up to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, including Syrian soldiers, former rebels and experienced fighters who fought for years against the Islamic State group in Syrias desert. So far, only a small number appears to have arrived in Russia for military training ahead of deployment on the front lines. Although Kremlin officials boasted early in the war of more than 16,000 applications from the Middle East, U.S. officials and activists monitoring Syria say there have not yet been significant numbers of fighters from the region joining the war in Ukraine. Analysts, however, say this could change as Russia prepares for the next phase of the battle with a full-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine. They believe fighters from Syria are more likely to be deployed in coming weeks, especially after Putin named Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who commanded the Russian military in Syria, as the new war commander in Ukraine. Though some question how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be brought in if more forces are needed to besiege cities or to make up for rising casualties. Dvornikov is well acquainted with the multiple paramilitary forces in Syria trained by Russia while he oversaw the strategy of ruthlessly besieging and bombarding opposition-held cities in Syria into submission. Russia is preparing for a greater battle in Ukraine and Syrian fighters are likely to take part, said Ahmad Hamada, a Syrian army defector who is now a military analyst based in Turkey. Syria observers and activists say the Russians have been actively recruiting in Syria for the Ukraine war, particularly among Russian-trained combatants. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that so far about 40,000 people have registered -- 22,000 with the Russian military and about 18,000 with the Russian private contractor Wagner Group. Around 700 members of al-Hassans 25th Special Missions Forces Division, known in Syria as the Tiger Force, left Syria over the past weeks to fight along Russian forces, Abdurrahman said. The numbers could not be independently confirmed. Pro-government activists posted videos over the past two weeks on social media showing members of the Tiger Force performing military drills including parachuting from helicopters. Russian officers appeared in one of the videos advising the paratroopers inside a helicopter as al-Hassan praised the young men by tapping on their heads. It was not immediately clear if the videos were new. Abdurrahman said there are also volunteers from the Russian-trained 5th Division; the Baath brigades, which is the armed wing of Assads ruling Baath party; and the Palestinian Quds Brigade, made up of Palestinian refugees in Syria. All have fought alongside the Russian military in Syrias war. The Russians are looking for experienced fighters. They dont want anyone who was not trained by the Russians, Abdurrahman said. The Tiger Force took credit for some of the biggest government victories in the 11-year conflict. It was involved in a monthslong Russian-backed campaign into the rebels last enclave, located in the northwest province of Idlib, which ended in March 2020 with government forces capturing a vital north-south highway -- though rebels remain in control of the enclave. Al-Hassan is one of Russias men and Russia will depend on him, said Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who runs the DeirEzzor 24, a Syria war monitoring group. Hundreds of fighters from the 5th Division and the Quds Brigade have registered at Russia's Hmeimeem base in western Syria, which is leading recruitment efforts, and are waiting for orders, he said. In late March, a Russian-trained force known as the ISIS Hunters militia, which fought for years against IS, posted an ad calling on men aged 23 to 49 to come forward for screening, saying those who pass the test and are found suitable will be called on later. So far, about 100 men have registered their names in the southern province of Sweida, according to Rayan Maarouf of Suwayda24, an activist collective that covers IS activities in the Syrian desert. He added that they were promised a monthly income of no less than $600, a huge sum of money amid widespread unemployment and the crash of the Syrian pound. Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. had indications that the Wagner Group is trying to recruit fighters, mostly from the Middle East, to deploy in eastern Ukraines Donbas region. But he said there has been no specific information on numbers recruited. We just arent there yet to see anything real demonstrable when it comes to reinforcement, he added. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in early March that so far there are only very small groups trying to make their way from Syria to Ukraine, calling it a very small trickle. Retired Lebanese army general Naji Malaeb, who follows the war in Syria closely, said there is no indication so far of Syrian fighters traveling to Russia, but this could change as the war drags on. This all depends on what the Russians plan to do in the near future, Malaeb said. Syrian and Palestinian officials in Syria have played down reports of fighters heading to Ukraine. The Syrian government is likely wary of having Syrian fighters flock to Ukraine, opening opportunities at the front lines that its many opponents could exploit. In a potentially worrying sign for the Syrian government, Russia has significantly scaled down its operations in Syria since the war in Ukraine started, with fewer airstrikes targeting IS or opposition positions in Idlib. Any change in the posture of Russian forces or pro-regime militias creates security gaps that anti-regime actors including Turkey, ISIS, al-Qaida and Syrian opposition groups can exploit, the ISW report said. Muhannad Haj Ali, a former legislator and a commander with the armed wing of Syrias ruling Baath party said no Syrians have gone to fight in Ukraine and that he didnt expect any to go. He said he was certain Russia will win in Ukraine without any need for Syrians help. The way the operations are going is clear indication that Ukraine will not be another Afghanistan, he said. GREENWICH - After Easter services on Sunday morning, there was something special for the kids at Second Congregational Church in Greenwich. Kids set out to hunt for candy-filled Easter eggs scattered across the church lawn. There were also live bunnies and goats on hand to pet. On Easter, Christians around the world celebrated their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, returning on the third day after he died on the cross. The Easter bunny and eggs are a common springtime symbol, a motif for new life. STAMFORD - Church members gathered at St. John's Lutheran Church in Stamford on Sunday morning for Easter services, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Churches marked the day with a variety of different Easter services, including sunrise and outdoor services, throughout the city, the nation and the world. The Rev. Dr. Duane Pederson led the service at St. John's. On Easter, Christians around the world celebrate their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, returning on the third day after he died on the cross. Major lakes in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau see significant water increase Xinhua) 09:21, April 18, 2022 BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have discovered that the total water volume of ten major lakes across the endorheic region of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau increased by 58.5 cubic kilometers between 1979 and 2016. Rainfall, glaciers and snow meltwater, lake surface evaporation, and soil freezing-thawing are the major contributors to the water increase, according to a recent research article published in the journal Science Bulletin. The endorheic area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau contains more than 60 percent of the total water storage of lakes in the region. The complex topographic conditions and the interactions among the cryosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere in the high altitude area limit understanding of most lake basins of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The researchers selected ten large lakes with an area of more than 500 square kilometers and quantitatively evaluated the variation of lake water storage and its driving factors in the endorheic region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which provides important scientific support for analyzing the hydrological process of the lake basin and the role of the cryosphere in lake expansion. The researchers came from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) As a non-believer, I am ill-placed to debate Christian ethics with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, so it's best to stick to the facts when responding to his Easter sermon. From his pulpit yesterday, the Archbishop denounced as 'ungodly' the Government's plans to send to Rwanda those migrants landing on our southern shore in dodgy vessels organised by peoplesmuggling gangs. Welby (whom I first met, and immediately liked, when he was an oil company executive) pontificated that the Government's scheme, agreed with the Rwandan authorities, 'cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was revealed first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and the strong'. But isn't the main aim of the Government's plan to break the (immensely profitable) business model of the people-smugglers? This is a business that trades in lives without scruple, something that was appallingly demonstrated a few months ago when 27 people drowned after one of those boats sank. Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby spoke in his Easter sermon (pictured) about the Government's new migrant scheme with Rwanda, calling it 'ungodly' and said it was 'sub-contracting our responsibilities' The idea of the Rwanda scheme is to prevent traffickers profiting and dangerously smuggling people into the UK (pictured: migrants sit in a dinghy as they cross the English Channel) Hazardous The Government's idea is that if those paying the traffickers realised they would end up in Central Africa, they would be much less likely to risk that hazardous trip across the Channel. So my text for the day is from the Christian Science Monitor, headlined 'Huge profits fuel smuggling routes across the English Channel'. It argued that 'at a minimum, smuggling organisations this year (2021) have netted 69 million for the crossing. That's 2 million per kilometre.' Since that was published, numbers have only increased, and significantly. As for what Archbishop Welby calls 'the rich and the strong', the fact that those dinghies charge around 7,000 per passenger, and almost 70 per cent of those on board are men between the ages of 18 and 40, suggests they are not the poorest and certainly not the weakest. It does seem a bit, well, random, to choose Rwanda as a destination. But it is certainly less attractive as a refuge for asylum seekers (the Government's unstated point, otherwise it would not have any value as a discouragement). However, the fact is that those in the boats had already safely arrived in France. I know the French can be annoying, but theirs is a civilised country, no less than our own. Asylum seekers, whatever their problems in their country of origin, are as safe in France as they would be here. Archbishop Welby does not address that, nor the fact that his own church has been wilfully naive in this matter. That is partly because it has a special sympathy for refugees, stemming from the Gospel story itself Jesus's family having been warned to leave Bethlehem for Egypt to avoid the child's possible slaughter by the forces of King Herod. How this admirable sympathy can be exploited was demonstrated by the case of Emad Al Swealmeen, who blew himself up very near Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral just before 11am on Remembrance Sunday last year. His bomb had been packed with nails and screws; had it gone off as and when intended, there would have been carnage. People-smugglers advertise claims that converting to Christianity will help lead to a successful asylum claim. Pictured: Emad Al Smealmeen (right) at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral with the bishop Right Reverend Cyril Ashton Swealmeen was one of hundreds of asylum seekers from Muslim countries who had been confirmed as Christians in that cathedral. The Home Office had regarded this as something of a scam: when conversion to Christianity is regarded as genuine by a tribunal, asylum is granted on the grounds that 'apostates' are at deadly risk if they are returned to their country of origin. Not surprisingly, people-smugglers placed advertisements on Instagram claiming that conversion to Christianity is a way of achieving a successful asylum claim 'in the shortest possible time, with the lowest cost'. Swealmeen had arrived here in 2014 claiming to have come from war-torn Syria. This was found not to be true: his family was from Jordan. It was after having lost this case at a tribunal that Swealmeen 'converted' to Christianity in 2017. This, too, didn't convince the Home Office, yet somehow he was able to remain in this country up until the moment he detonated his bomb (and had returned to regular prayer at his local mosque). I am not saying that Swealmeen was anything other than highly unusual and untypical. But his case also demonstrated the extreme difficulty the system has in removing asylum seekers shown to have no legitimate reason to remain. Which, in turn, is a great advertisement for the business model of the people-smugglers. While there has been large amounts of criticism, polls about the Rwanda migrant deal in the UK have found the scheme to be rather popular. Pictured: Home Secretary Priti Patel in Rwanda Popular This is something of which the public seems to be aware. That might explain why the Government's somewhat startling plan is rather popular (at least, judged by polls that have been carried out). And it is less startling than it seems in the sense that Denmark has been negotiating an identical deal with Rwanda. The scheme also has a failed British precedent. In 2003, Tony Blair's administration attempted to negotiate the transfer of asylum seekers here to an African country (Tanzania). The proposal was rejected by the Tanzanian government. Then there is the fact that at the height of the Syrian civil war in 2016, the EU negotiated a scheme in which so-called 'irregular' migrants attempting to reach Greece would be sent back to Turkey. Just as the British Government is proposing to pay Rwanda a fee, so the EU nations combined to pay the Turkish government 6 billion in return for it agreeing to take those seeking asylum within their territory. What do you think about that, Archbishop Justin? Who's actually lost his moral authority? One of the first Tory MPs off the blocks to call for Boris Johnson to resign, after news of the Downing Street 'lockdown parties' emerged, was Andrew Bridgen. This was hardly surprising. Bridgen has a desire for publicity extraordinary even by the standards of his trade. He declared back in January that he didn't need to see the result of any investigation 'to know that for me, Boris Johnson has lost the moral authority to lead the country . . . He should do the honourable thing and depart.' North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen has been found to have 'lied' by a High Court judge Those of us familiar with Bridgen's role in the grotesque attempt (at millions of pounds of public expense) to prove the late Sir Edward Heath to be a child-abuser already knew he was not a person to be taken seriously as a moralist. Now we discover that a High Court Judge, no less, has determined that Bridgen is a liar. This stems from a legal action brought by the MP relating to his family's potato business (which turns over almost 30 million a year). Bridgen had asked Inspector Helena Bhakta, the commander of the neighbourhood policing team for his constituency of North West Leicestershire, to investigate what he claimed was a fraud against him by his brother, Paul. The MP later told the court he had not made such a request 'as it would not have been proper'. But Inspector Bhakta produced her own contemporary notes from October 16, 2017: 'As NPT commander I have regular contact with Andrew Bridgen over constituent matters. Today he asked me to call him. On doing so, he informed me that he suspects his brother is committing fraud.' Judge Brian Rawlings concluded that Bridgen's denial, under oath, of making this call was deliberate dishonesty. He also declared that Bridgen had 'lied' in claiming to have been dismissed as a director of his family company, rather than quitting voluntarily, 'in the hope that this may reduce the settlement that he had to pay his wife in his divorce'. Judge Rawlings's devastating conclusion was that any assertions by Bridgen required confirmation by an independent witness, or documentary evidence, before they could be trusted. Perhaps it is Andrew Bridgen's own unfortunate constituents who should ask him to 'do the honourable thing and depart'. For anyone gauging the true economic carnage caused by the pandemic, look no further than our deserted high streets. One in seven shops around the country now lies empty, many having failed to recover from the ravages of lockdown. Not only has such devastation resulted in painful job losses, it has blighted once- thriving town centres. So government plans to force landlords to let out retail units that have been vacant for longer than six months through compulsory rental auctions is enormously welcome. One in seven shops around the country now lies empty, many having failed to recover from the ravages of lockdown. Shuttered shops are seen above in Manchester in May 2020 Such a move would provide opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs, create jobs, and provide much-needed income for other small businesses in the area. For years, life has been sucked from our once-bustling town centres, with high street firms crippled by soaring rents and extortionate business rates. Cafes and restaurants which managed to survive Covid are struggling as thousands of workers refuse to return to the office, particularly among the civil service where, we revealed on Saturday, many spend less than 40 per cent of their week in the office. Meanwhile, bricks and mortar traders still face increased competition from online behemoths which not only face fewer overheads, but also pay a pittance in tax. True, shopping at a click of a mouse is now a fact of modern life. But the Government must continue to do all that it can to nurture our traditional retailers or risk Britain becoming a nation of ghost towns. Unholy intervention The Archbishop of Canterbury has once again entered the political arena by using his Easter sermon to denounce the Government's plans to resettle asylum- seekers in Rwanda as 'ungodly'. Justin Welby is, of course, entitled to his opinion. But was it wise to risk alienating conscientious Anglicans by attacking a policy which, as our recent poll showed, has proved popular? Justin Welby is, of course, entitled to his opinion. But was it wise to risk alienating conscientious Anglicans by attacking a policy which, as our recent poll showed, has proved popular? Most reasonable people recognise that if we are to stop the hundreds of migrants who continue arriving here each day aboard unsafe dinghies, there needs to be a powerful deterrent to them doing so. Not only will it prevent drownings, it will help undermine the vile human trafficking gangs who've made millions exploiting these desperate people. The Government needed to act. Doing nothing would have been the real sin. Saving the starving The Kremlin's campaign to starve innocent Ukrainian civilians is an act of true wickedness. But thanks to kind-hearted Mail readers, who have donated an incredible 11million to our Mail Force refugee campaign, hundreds of thousands of aid boxes are now on their way to help feed desperately hungry victims of Putin's evil war. It is not just the Mail which is thrilled by this extraordinary act of generosity. Already Boris Johnson and President Volodymyr Zelensky have praised these donations which for thousands of Ukrainians will come as a godsend. Now Sir Keir Starmer joins the applause, hailing your efforts as 'wonderful'. As the PM pointed out, your compassion is truly humbling. We salute you. Petrochemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, clearly no slouch when it comes to science, has handed ministers evidence which claims fracking could provide enough energy to power the UK for the next 50 years. The Government's attitude toward fracking remains bewilderingly blinkered, cowered by the shrill eco-lobby. But considering our dog's dinner of an energy policy, aren't Sir Jim's proposals at least worth considering? The sister of murdered journalist Lyra McKee has made a fresh appeal for information to bring her killer to justice. Vigils were held in memory of the 29-year-old in Belfast and Londonderry on Monday, the third anniversary of her death. The Irish journalist was shot while covering rioting in Derry in 2019, she had been stood by an armoured police Land Rover when she was wounded in the head. Her friends and family today visited the spot at Fanad Drive in Derry where she died. No one has yet been convicted of her murder. An extremist group styling itself the New IRA has previously claimed it was responsible for killing the journalist and author. Her sister Nichola Corner told the vigil in Derry that her family are still waiting for justice. Lyra McKee's sisters' Nichola Corner (left) and Joan Hunter (right) stand with Ms McKee's partner Sara Canning (centre) during a vigil on the third anniversary of her death Lyra McKee's sister Nichola Corner speaking during a vigil attended by members of the National Union of Journalists and said the family is still waiting for justice The vigil took place on on Fanad Drive in Derry, where Lyra was murdered 'Three years ago our sister Lyra McKee was murdered here in this city, and still three years on, we are waiting for justice for Lyra, the person who pulled the trigger of the gun that led to her death still walks these streets, and while they walk these streets, these streets will not be safe for the people of this city,' she said. 'We appeal to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for our sisters' death, we appeal to them to come forward. It's never too late. 'We want to thank all the people who have come to honour Lyra and to remember her as a journalist, as a human being and as a person who loved this city. We hope that you'll continue to keep Lyra in your hearts and in your minds in a very dignified way.' Prayers were said by local priest Father Joseph Gormley at the scene, and wreaths were placed. Ms McKee's partner Sara Canning recalled the night of her death. 'When I think of that night, my memory of being here is very short because we were only here for eight minutes,' she said. Family and friends of Lyra McKee laid wreaths on the spot where Ms McKee was shot three years ago 'If I came here at night-time, I think I would have a massive anxiety attack, but during the day I don't recognise it. It is a different street to me, which is the only reason I can be here. 'I grew up in Northern Ireland, I had seen many a riot and it was no different to most riots. It was just when I heard the crowd make a noise that I had never heard a crowd make before I thought, "There is something going to happen here", and I turned to Lyra to say we need to move and she wasn't there. 'Then I looked down and she was on the ground. From then on, it was a blur of action and getting her into the back of the (police) Land Rover and the Land Rover went tearing off down the street with them working on her. That was the horror of that night. 'It has completely destroyed us, (Ms Canning and Lyra's family). Physically, trauma has an impact. Mentally, trauma has an impact. Lyra is incredibly important to us. She made all of our lives much better. 'I didn't have Lyra in my life for very long, not as long as her sisters, but she made every part of my life better for the time she was in it, and I wanted her in my life for the rest of my life.' In Belfast, a new banner in memory of Ms McKee was unveiled on the steps of St Anne's Cathedral where then Prime Minister Theresa May, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Irish president Michael D Higgins were among those who attended her funeral in 2019. Police have also made a fresh appeal for information to bring those responsible for Ms McKee's murder to justice. Detectives said they have made 30 arrests and nine people have been charged, three with murder and six with public order offences, in relation to the shooting of the author. As a feminist quite an extreme one at that I should be pleased by the posters suddenly appearing all around the London Underground saying: Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and is not tolerated. Im sure that Detective Superintendent Sarah White meant well when she said that men who stare at women on trains (its very rarely the other way around) are starting to show behaviours that are unhealthy. I have wholeheartedly supported Transport for Londons ongoing initiative to stamp out sexual harassment on public transport. Their campaign, launched last October, aims to protect women from a litany of horrors, including up-skirting, cat-calling, touching and flashing. All good and necessary. But looking at someone? Really? I have wholeheartedly supported Transport for Londons ongoing initiative to stamp out sexual harassment on public transport. But looking at someone? Really? Picture: Knightsbridge Underground Station How will this be proved? How will it be enforced? Will fellow commuters be called upon to attest to the evil-eye-balling? What about daydreamers like myself whose gaze has fixed randomly on some stranger while my thoughts are miles away on a beach somewhere with my actual squeeze? In an oddly phrased bit of double-think, DS White, talking about the new campaign, explained: Its human nature to stare at things. However, its very different when someone is staring, leering, or theres a sexual motivation. We want to know about that staring because that is the behaviour that suggests to me that someone is thinking about a sexual behaviour that supports that staring. We will record them as crimes and we will investigate them and we have had successful prosecutions in that field. In fact, last month did see the successful prosecution of a man who was jailed for 22 weeks by magistrates in Reading for staring intensely at a woman on a train. The court was told how Dominik Bullock continued to stare at her after she asked him to stop, then barred her exit when she told him to move. After he was identified on CCTV, Bullock was found guilty of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress. His case does sound pretty unpleasant, but why not just try catching actual rapists rather than wasting time on crimes not yet committed? Now, dont get me wrong; Im not saying that protracted leering is a joke and it certainly isnt something women should have to learn to laugh along with. I was not always the brazen broad I now am; as a shy adolescent I would set off for school half an hour early in summer in order to avoid being called out to by men on building sites as I scurried by in my blue gingham school dress. It would be a rare woman indeed who has never felt the fear of being alone in a train or Tube carriage with a strange man. But criminalising the act of looking at someone? How can that be the answer? So-called micro-aggressions simply should not be treated with such magnitude; in a recent book I had to read for work, for example, a young writer put being asked to Give us a smile, love! by a passing man in the same category as being given an STD, when writing about the woes women suffer. Posters (pictured) installed on trains, say: 'Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and is not tolerated' These should not be matters for the police! Just like misgendering and other internet thought crimes, its far too easy to criminalise events which dont actually harm anybody. The police are not there to prevent offence or hurt feelings they are there to tackle the actual dangers faced by the public. They are there to stand between the lawless and the populace; to clear up the blight of knife crime in our countrys capital which sees the streets run red with the blood of our young people. They are there to hold to account the rapists and abusers many, sadly, from within their own ranks who rarely seem to be properly punished for the outrages they commit against women. It is abundantly clear that their hearts arent really in actually fighting sexual violence. Sexual crimes against women are rocketing, to the point where Dame Vera Baird, the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, told a police association conference last year that sexist police are putting male brotherhood above the protection of women and girls from sexual and physical violence. Police in England and Wales recorded 63,136 rape allegations in the year to September 2021 the highest recorded annual figure to date. So-called micro-aggressions simply should not be treated with such magnitude - these should not be matters for the police. Picture: Commuters on the Jubilee line But these led to just 1,557 prosecutions, compared with 2,102 in the previous 12 months. Over the past four years, rape prosecutions in England and Wales have fallen by 70 per cent. No wonder Dame Vera had claimed in 2020 that we are seeing the decriminalisation of rape due to the dismally low prosecution rates. Meanwhile, the newly elected president of the police Superintendents Association, Paul Fotheringham, has inexplicably stated that police constables should also be allowed to work from home in future in order to improve diversity the belief being it would encourage more women with young children to join the force and rise through the ranks. What a grotesquely surreal situation weve reached when the police could sit at home waiting to hear from women about men looking at them in the wrong way while fellow officers look the other way or even laugh as their colleagues joke about a murdered woman or make vile comments about the sexual allure of female victims of crime. This is the sort of behaviour police need to be looking at. Urgently. Prosecuting men for staring wont make women safer. But prosecuting rapists and sex abusers will. Its time we stopped banging on about rape culture and started pursuing rapists. Products featured in this Mail Best article are independently selected by our shopping writers. If you make a purchase using links on this page, MailOnline may earn an affiliate commission. Spring is finally here, and with warmer weather on the way for us all, it's the perfect time to add some sunshine to your wardrobe. And according to scores of Amazon shoppers, the Amazon Essentials Women's Surplice Maxi Dress is the perfect addition. Priced from just 22.50 the throw on and go maxi dress is a handy transitional piece, catering to spring chills and warm sunny days. An answer to spring's unreliable weather, the Amazon Essentials Maxi dress can see you through outdoor pub sessions, BBQs, and weekend walks. And with shoppers quick to call it the 'most flattering and comfortable dress' and 'so comfy and soft', it's a highly recommended buy. Scoring points for practicality, comfort and style, the Amazon Essentials Maxi dress can cover all manner of sins, making you feel put together in one quick move Amazon Essentials Women's Surplice Maxi Dress Available in 13 colours and patterns, the short-sleeve V-neck maxi dress is incredibly comfortable thanks to its loose fit and soft viscose elastane blend. The ankle-length design is ideal for spring days, while the simple yet flattering v-neck design can be dressed up and down depending on the occasion. Shop Spring's temperamental weather can leave you guessing as to what to wear but a maxi dress can be a reliable option, offering both coverage and spring appeal. If you're looking to add a new dress to your everyday rotation, the Amazon Essentials Women's Surplice Maxi Dress is comfy, stylish and comes highly recommended by more than 1,400 Amazon shoppers. Available in 13 colours and in sizes XS to XXL, the pull-on dress has impressed shoppers thanks to its quality and forgiving design that can be dressed both up and down. Thanks to the viscose and elastane blend, the form-flattering maxi dress has been designed to give you the freedom to move. If you hate dresses that hug and cling to your body, then this is a floaty alternative that still flatters your shape. While simple, the Amazon Essentials Maxis no-frills, no-fuss design makes it an appealing option to many body types. The neck-lengthening, waist-cinching design and short sleeves is a flattering, fail-safe option to have in your closet. In short, it's a versatile dress you can throw on for any occasion, it can be dressed up with wedges or down with trainers or sandals for an effortless day to night look. The pull-on design is a great option for the days you want to prioritise comfort but still want to look put together One impressed shopper left a five-star review for the Amazon Essentials Women's Surplice Maxi Dress, writing: 'This is a jersey like stretch material and falls beautifully when wearing. Its quite long for a shorty like me but nothing a pair of heels can't sort out. 'It is good for casual wear or can be glammed up for evening wear. Great value for money.' Another agreed, adding: 'This dress looks absolutely amazing on! Literally just like the picture. I am 5.3, and it came to ankle length, perfect. Am a UK 10 and the fit is superb. I have just ordered in every other colour! Dress up, dress down, will look great either way, very happy!'. A third penned: 'Got so many compliments for this dress. It's easy-breezy and falls very nicely. I am 5 foot 3 inches, and I wear these with 3-inch heels to be comfortable. The neck is quite revealing, but I don't mind it.' Royal fans went wild over 'adorable' Mia Tindall after she was caught looking shy during yesterday's Easter Sunday service at Windsor. Mia, the eldest daughter of Zara and Mike Tindall, was filmed meekly walking forward with a bowed head to shake hands with the Dean of Windsor, The Right Revd. David Conner, following the service at St George's Chapel, Windsor. Mia, who wore a floral dress and dark blue headband, then quickly walked away after her shy moment. Her mother and father smiled as they spoke to the vicar while Mia seemed ready to head home. In the footage, Mia, eight, daughter of Zara and Mike Tindall, meekly moved forward with a bowed head to shake the Dean of Windsor, The Right Revd. David Conner's hand Mia, who wore a floral dress and dark blue headband, then quickly walked away after her shy moment Mike, Zara and Mia attend the traditional Easter Sunday church service at St George's Chapel yesterday, accompanied by other members of the Royal Family Mia joins her mother and father at yesterday's Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle Mia's shy moment was in stark contrast to her visit to the Burnham Horse International Horse Trials in north Norfolk, where she was seen giggling and tearing across the grass with her little sister Lena in a series of high-spirited photographs (pictured) Mia's shy moment was in stark contrast to her visit to the Burnham Horse International Horse Trials in north Norfolk, where she was seen giggling and tearing across the grass with her little sister Lena in a series of high-spirited photographs. But she was on her best behaviour yesterday as she joined her parents and other members of the Royal Family for the service. Her mother Zara, 40, looked polished in a 350 polka dot navy dress from L.K. Bennett, which she paired with nude heels. She seemed to match with her husband, who donned a blue suit for the important event in the royal calendar. The couple left their younger children Mia, three, and Lucas, one, at home. Mia was on her best behaviour yesterday as she joined her parents and other members of the Royal Family for the service At yesterday's Easter Sunday service, Zara sported a polka dot navy dress from LK Bennett paired with nude heels Zara seemed to match with her husband, who donned a blue suit for the important event in the royal calendar The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by their two eldest children, Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, six. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall chose not to attend after they represented the royals at a Maundy Thursday event at the same chapel. Other royals attending yesterday's service included Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex with their children, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn. And Princess Eugenie walked alongside Peter Phillips and his children Savannah and Isla. The Queen did not attend the traditional event due to mobility issues, instead marking the occasion in a small chapel inside Windsor Castle. And Meghan and Harry spent the day cheering on athletes at the Invictus Games in The Hague after visiting the Queen in Windsor on Thursday. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by their two eldest children, Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, six Princess Eugenie walked alongside Peter Phillips and his children Savannah and Isla Prince Albert of Monaco appeared 'tense' as he tried to signal his position as 'family protector' while posing with Princess Charlene and their children in their Easter family portrait, a body language expert has claimed. The couple were pictured with seven-year-old twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques in their first appearance together since November. Body language expert Judi James told FEMAIL that the Albert, 64, likely wanted to signal 'resilience and strength' but instead stood 'awkwardly' in the background. Judi pointed out that while Albert was not fully touching his wife, he placed his hand on son Jacques's shoulder as a 'gesture of parental reassurance'. Meanwhile Charlene, 44, demonstrated her 'loving bond' with daughter Gabriella, signalling how her relationship with her children has remained strong despite her spending months apart from her family. Charlene first had a 10-month absence in her native South Africa, where she contracted and was hospitalised for a serious sinus infection that delayed her return to Monaco. After her return to the principality in November, Charlene left almost immediately to receive treatment for 'exhaustion' at a Swiss clinic. The photos were shared just days after Albert tested positive for a second time. Prince Albert of Monaco appeared 'tense' as he tried to signal his position as 'family protector' while posing with Princess Charlene and their children in their Easter family portrait, a body language expert has claimed The portrait, which was released just three days after Albert tested positive for Covid, showed 'relaxed' Charlene, 44, demonstrating her 'loving bond' with daughter Gabriella while Albert places a hand on son Jacques's shoulder as a 'gesture of parental reassurance' The photos were shared by Charlene on her Instagram page with the message 'Happy Easter' 'Here, Alberts tense-looking body position and facial expression suggest a desire to signal strength and to show himself as a protector of his family,' Judi, analysing the image. 'His body language looks rigid, from his incongruent smile to his part-kneeling, part-standing body position and his slightly puffed chest seems to signal resilience and strength. 'Alberts splayed arms look like a partial, encompassing hug. His right hand reaches behind his wife without touching but his left is firmly on his sons shoulder in a gesture of parental reassurance. 'Charlene and her daughter look much more relaxed together, posed in a very loving hug. 'The daughter leans into her mothers lap with a look of natural affection and rapport, looking happy for the cuddle. Even their head tilts and smiles look mirrored to suggest close, loving bonds.' Pictured: The last time the family were pictured together was in November 2021 in Monaco The portrait marks the first time the Monaco royals have been seen together as a family since Charlene returned to the principality following her treatment. She faced a variety of health problems, including what the palace has previously referred to as a 'state of profound general fatigue'. The Monaco palace has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality's ruler Prince Albert, who were wed in 2011, following the princess' long absence. 'She was clearly exhausted, physically and emotionally. She was overwhelmed and couldn't face official duties, life in general or even family life,' Albert told People magazine in November. Zimbabwean-born Princess Charlene was hospitalised after collapsing in September in South Africa, where she had been living for several months. 'This family pose is similar to the pose they first adopted when Albert took the twins to visit their mother in South Africa', said Judi. Judi James noted the image had the same forced, awkward feel as the family photos taken in South Africa last year, including the one above Pictured: Princess Charlene of Monaco was finally reunited with her husband Prince Albert and her children Twins Jacques and Gabriella after three months apart in August 2021 'Back then it was accompanied by some over-kill poses of intense affection rituals between Charlene and Albert, with her emotional, clinging hugs and head-pressing rituals looking anything but reassuring. 'Here though we have a similar grouping to the family photo taken in SA, with Charlene sitting on the ground with her children, looking playful and tactile as Albert poses awkwardly in the background.' She underwent surgery in October for an ear, nose and throat infection after checking in under a pseudonym in a Durban hospital, a palace source said at the time. Friends previously told Page Six that the mother-of-two 'almost died' while she was in her home country, while her husband spoke out to say she is suffering from 'exhaustion, both emotional and physical'. A palace statement released on December 23 revealed Albert and the couple's children were planning to visit Charlene during the Christmas holidays, as well as asking for the family's privacy to be respected. In Charlene's absence, Albert continued to perform royal duties with their twins Jacques and Gabriella. Pictured, with their aunt Princess Caroline during the Sainte Devote Celebrations in January It added that the princess 'is recuperating in a satisfactory and reassuring manner, although it may take a few more months before her health has reached a full recovery.' Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins Gabriella and Jacques in 2014. Charlene returned to her husband and twins Jacques and Gabriella in November following almost a year in South Africa. While on a solo charity trip to the country, she contracted a severe sinus infection which prevented her from travelling. She subsequently needed surgery to treat the medical condition, which again delayed her return to Monaco. In the weeks after her arrival, Charlene remained absent from public duties. Albert later revealed the family reunion had gone 'pretty well' in the first few hours, but it then became 'pretty evident' that Charlene was 'unwell.' Albert was pictured attending Prince Philip's funeral service alone in Westminster last month He said the former Olympian 'realised she needed help', adding: 'She was overwhelmed and couldn't face official duties, life in general or even family life.' Albert explained: 'I'm probably going to say this several times, but this has nothing to do with our relationship. I want to make that very clear. These are not problems within our relationship; not with the relationship between a husband and wife. It's of a different nature.' He went on to tell a magazine her current state was a result of 'several factors which are private'. Albert continued: 'She hadn't slept well in a number of days and she wasn't eating at all well. She has lost a lot of weight, which made her vulnerable to other potential ailments. A cold or the flu or God help us, COVID.' He said it is 'not cancer-related or personal relationship issue' and later said she is suffering from 'exhaustion, both emotional and physical'. He later confirmed Charlene has been admitted to a treatment facility for undisclosed medical issues, as she works through a period of ill health. The location of the facility was not confirmed, though several sources claim it is in Switzerland. However friends of the princess spoke out to suggest the issues were more physical than Albert appeared to suggest. Speaking to Page Six, a source described as the royal's friend said: 'It is unfair that she is being portrayed as having some kind of mental or emotional issue. 'We don't know why the palace is downplaying that she almost died in South Africa.' The source explained the royal had a severe ear, nose and throat infection, which resulted in 'severe sinus and swallowing issues stemming from an earlier surgery'. Elsewhere friends of Princess Charlene gave Tatler a rare insight into what the royal is really like, insisting that the former swimmer is a force to be reckoned with. One source rubbished any public perception that Charlene is 'naive' and trapped in an unhappy marriage with Albert, saying: 'I don't for one second think she did not know what she was doing when she married him.' But one warned the mother of Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, seven, is not the type to be blindly controlled by the Monaco royal household. 'Charlene is no Princess Di.' one said. 'She may come across as being extremely naive, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is very good at keeping her smarts under wraps.' Doubts about the central relationship of Monaco's royal family are not new. Several residents living in the narrow medieval alleys of Monaco Ville confirmed to MailOnline that before she left for South Africa Charlene was spending most of her time outside the Palace, living in a modest two-bedroom apartment above an old chocolate factory about 300m away, rather than in the 12th Century Palace itself. 'We often saw her outside the Palace and she would usually be alone or with a bodyguard,' said one source, 'but she was never with Albert - it was obvious she chose to spend most of her time in the apartment rather than the palace.' Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins Gabriella and Jacques in 2014. Born in Rhodesia- a previously unrecongised state in Southern Africa colonised by the British, she relocated to South Africa aged 11. She had a successful swimming career and went on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, as well as representing South Africa at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games and winning a silver medal in the 4 100 m medley relay in the latter competition. However the pair's marriage has made numerous headlines over the years, with a third paternity suit emerging in December 2020. Soon afterwards Charlene famously shaved half her head in the style of a punk rocker. Months later she left for South Africa. The allegations in December 2020 claimed that Albert had fathered a love-child (which would be his third, if proven) with an unnamed Brazilian woman during the time when he and Charlene were already in a relationship. He has also fathered two other children outside of wedlock. Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, who is now 29 and the result of Albert's affair with an American estate agent, and Alexandre Coste, 18, whose mother is a former Togolese air hostess. Both children were struck off Monaco's line of succession in return for vast financial settlements. Zara Tindall turned to the Duchess of Cambridge for her Easter Sunday style inspiration, opting for a 350 L.K. Bennett frock that looks just like a designer dress owned by Kate. Zara, 40, cut a polished figure in the silk 'Mathilde' dress as she joined husband Mike, daughter Mia, eight, and senior royals at St George's Chapel, Windsor. The dress features a navy and white polka dot print, cream frilled collar, long sleeves and cream buttons, much like the Duchess' 1,750 polka dot dress by Alessandra Rich. The L.K. Bennett style has proved a hit with stars including Amanda Holden, Holly Willoughby and Lorraine Kelly. Meanwhile the original Alessandra Rich design has been spotted on Sarah Jessica Parker, Ivanka Trump and Meghan Markle's actress BFF Abigail Spencer, who wore the sophisticated frock to the Sussexes' wedding in May 2018. Zara Tindall turned to the Duchess of Cambridge for her Easter Sunday style inspiration, opting for a 350 L.K. Bennett frock that looks just like a designer dress owned by Kate L.K. Bennett's 350 silk 'Mathilde' dress features a navy and white polka dot print, cream frilled collar, long sleeves and cream buttons, much like a 1,750 polka dot dress by A-list favourite designer Alessandra Rich. Pictured, Holly Willoughby in the L.K. Bennett dress in January 2021 (left), and Amanda Holden in the high street number in September 2021 The Alessandra Rich design was worn by Kate Middleton, Ivanka Trump and Meghan Markle's actress BFF Abigail Spencer, who wore the sophisticated frock to the Sussexes' wedding in May 2018. Pictured, the Duchess of Cambridge on a visit to Bletchley Park in 2019 Zara joined husband Mike, eight-year-old daughter Mia, an other members of the Royal Family for the Easter service at St George's Chapel, Windsor, yesterday. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were accompanied by their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte for the occasion, which coincided with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's appearance at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands. Kate wore light blue, as did her daughter, who held William's hand as she walked to the chapel in the grounds of the castle. Prince George, like his father, wore a suit and tie. The eight-year-old future king shook hands with the Dean of Windsor, the Right Rev David Conner, as they left the service, with William wishing him a happy Easter. Behind the Cambridges were the Earl and Countess of Wessex with their children, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn. Zara joined husband Mike, eight-year-old daughter Mia, an other members of the Royal Family for the Easter service at St George's Chapel, Windsor, yesterday The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by Zara Tindall, the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal, and her husband Mike Zara Tindall shakes hands with Dean of Windsor, The Right Revd David Conner (L) as she leaves with Mike Tindall (R) Princess Eugenie walked alongside Peter Phillips and his children Savannah and Isla. The L.K. Bennett style comes in a shorter, midi length, making it a more wearable option than the longer Alessandra Rich design. Holly Willoughby wore the high street frock on This Morning last year, pairing it with classic black pumps. Lorraine and Amanda have both opted for similarly simple styling, allowing the dress to remain the focus of the outfit. Shoppers have been going wild for the 1930s-inspired dress, with several stellar reviews insisting the 'striking' gown was 'beautifully made' from material which feels 'lovely to wear'. ITV host Lorraine Kelly was spotted wearing the dress last week. The frock is inspired by the 1930s 'with a fun Seventies' twist', comes in navy or blue with a classic polka dot print Laura Javid, the wife of Health Secretary Sajid Javid, was seen wearing the L.K. Bennett version at the Tory Party conference in Manchester 'Got so many compliments wearing this dress', wrote one shopper. 'I'm a big fan of L.K.Bennett's dresses, so far the best buy.' Another said: 'Love the material, love the style & love the fit. It feels so lovely to wear and it is very striking. It is makes me feel me feel very feminine.' The dress closely resembles the one made by London-based designer Alessandra Rich who has become one of the royal's favourite designers in recent years. Kate has worn the 1,750 navy and white polka dot midi on a number of previous occasions, including for Prince Charles's official 70th birthday portraits in November 2018. The style was famously worn by Meghan Markle's close friend and former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, left, to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding in May 2018 (pictured) Christie Brinkley, left, was first to be seen in the dress, in April 2018. Right, Sarah Jessica Parker put her own spin on the style in May 2019, cinching the waist with a crystal-encrusted belt, layering it with a floral print navy edge-to-edge coat and white stiletto heels Ivanka Trump used a white belt to accentuate her trim waist and paired the dress with killer blue heels as she was pictured leaving her home in July 2018 The style was famously worn by Meghan Markle's close friend and former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding in May 2018 and became an A-list favourite the following summer. One of the first to be seen in the dress, model Christie Brinkley, 64, stepped out in it in April 2018, wearing the shirt-style collar open-necked and teaming it with a trench coat. Sarah Jessica Parker put her own spin on the style, cinching the waist with a crystal-encrusted belt, layering it with a floral print navy edge-to-edge coat and white stiletto heels. Ivanka Trump accompanied her father on a visit to Iowa in July 2018, choosing to woo Mid-West voters with the modest number, accessorising it with a knotted white patent belt. The Queen's right-hand woman has revealed the monarch had a moment of quiet reflection when she returned to Windsor Castle after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Angela Kelly, who has been the Queen's stylist for more than 30 years, shares her insight on the difficult period in Her Majesty's life in an update to her memoirs, The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe. 'I helped her off with her coat and hat and no words were spoken. The Queen then walked to her sitting room, closed the door behind her, and she was alone with her own thoughts,' Kelly writes of the moments after the funeral in an extract published by Hello! magazine. Kelly, who is also a personal assistant, was among the trusted aides who formed part of HMS Bubble - the core royal household who stayed with the Queen and Prince Philip during lockdown. The Queen's right-hand woman has revealed the monarch had a moment of quiet reflection when she returned to Windsor Castle after the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, pictured Angela Kelly, pictured in 2018, recounted how the emotionally charged moment unfolded in an update to her memoirs The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe, which will be released on May 12 ahead of the Platinum Jubilee It meant they were also by the monarch's side in the days after her husband died, and she said goodbye to him at the small funeral. Writing on the day the Duke of Edinburgh died, Kelly said the atmosphere among staff staying in Windsor was 'sombre,' and that only a few members of staff were told the news, after the members of the royal family were told first. On the day of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in Windsor, members of staff were allowed to stand outside the Augusta Tower door, opposite St George's Hall. 'The Queen's dressers, pages, chefs, housemaids, footmen and Castle attendants all stood to attention as The Duke of Edinburgh's coffin was carefully placed onto the Land Rover that he had specially designed for the day,' Angela recalls. She added that staff members were visibly grief-stricken and that there thoughts must have been with the Queen as she said goodbye to her husband of 73 years. Angela also added that fellow members of staff felt the pain of the valet walking behind the Duke's coffin during the funeral procession, because it was 'it was hard to watch our own friends saying goodbye to their amazing boss.' Angela Kelly was by the monarch's side in the days after her husband died, and she said goodbye to him at the small funeral. Pictured, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 2020 The Queen and three-times-divorced Miss Kelly - a Roman Catholic crane driver's daughter from Liverpool - have spent the past 20 years forging an intriguingly close relationship. The dresser's influence now extends to the younger Royals - with Prince George christened in a lengthy robe made by Miss Kelly, who learnt sewing from her mother and aunt. She is so close to the Monarch that she has written two books with the Queen's approval and lives in a grace-and-favour home in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The Queen has been spotted 'nipping in for tea'. Ms Kelly rarely gives interviews but she once disclosed: 'We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, make-up, jewellery.' Kelly was given the Queen's blessing to publish the first edition of The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe in 2019 This revised edition, which will be released ahead of the Platinum Jubilee, also covers the first public engagements post-lockdown and looks ahead to the celebrations in June. The title, published on May 12 by HarperCollins, reveals some of the behind-the-scenes tricks used for the monarch's attire. She sews in extra layers of lining to cushion the impact of beading and crystals on the Queen's back when events require glamorous gowns. Tiny weights are also put into day-wear hemlines in case of windy weather and fabrics that crumple or could potentially develop messy loose strands are avoided. Ms Kelly, who has the same size feet as the Queen, wears in the monarch's handmade new shoes to ensure they are comfortable when first used. Advertisement President Emmanuel Macron's campaign to be re-elected as France's president is currently on shaky ground, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen breathing down the 44-year-old's neck after the nation went to first-round polls on April 10th. As politicians past and present will attest, image is vital in securing the fickle affections of voters, and the Frenchman is clearly using everything in his sartorial arsenal to woo the French into striking a cross for his party - La Republique En Marche! - when the second round takes place on April 24th. Last month, Macron, who is married to wife Brigitte, 69, hit the headlines after he swapped out his usual slick-suited style for a more 'war room' look, with many stating he'd been inspired by the khaki and camouflage fatigues worn by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. Some suggested that perhaps the mannerisms of history's most famous leaders had given Macron a few ideas along the way too. During the last French presidential election of 2017, Mr Macron celebrated his first-round voting win by throwing his hands in the air in the 'V for Victory' sign...a gesture made famous by Churchill some 80 years earlier. In one recent photo, Macron has his eyes closed and is rubbing his furrowed brow in a manner that echoes President John F Kennedy's desperate body language during a fraught phone conversation in the early 1960s. A new collection of snaps - as the final walkabouts begin - hint that he's taken more than a little inspiration from some of Hollywood's most macho stars in a bid to present himself as France's most desirable future leader - including Tom Cruise in 80s hit Top Gun and Jamie Dornan during his 50 Shades of Grey era. A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio, three years senior in age to Mr Macron, in particular seems to have provided a muse - Macron was pictured topless on a jet ski pounding through the waves in 2020, a pursuit DiCaprio has often been snapped doing - although often with a twentysomething squeeze tucked behind him... All about the image as polling day - round two - approaches on April 24th: French leader Emmanuel Macron pictured thrashing through the waves around Porquerolles island in the South of France in August 2020. Right; Titanic and The Revenant star Leonardo DiCaprio pictured wearing a similar wetsuit vest on an Italian holiday a year earlier - with American model Camila Morrone tucked behind him Milk Tray Macron! The French leader adopts a suave look in 2019 that Christian Gray - the racy protagonist Jamie Dornan played in Fifty Shades of Gray would have been proud of. Did the polo-necked president catch the 2015 film? Right: Belfast star Dornan, a certified Hollywood hearthrob, pictured sporting a similar sartorial look in Los Angeles in November last year Belfast star Dornan, a certified Hollywood hearthrob, pictured sporting a similar sartorial look in Los Angeles in November last year Macron the Messiah? Raising his hands aloft in victory this month, the 44-year-old Amiens-born French president had more than a whiff of The Wolf of Wall Street about him Jordan Belfort, who inspired The Wolf of Wall Street film after pleading guilty to stock market fraud in 1999, was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 blockbuster Macron channel Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. (left in 2009) by lifting his arms up at a rally (right last week in France) Macron Balboa! The President has also been compared to US actor Sylvester Stallone - known for his role as boxer Rocky Balboa Feel the need for speed? The president, with doting wife Brigitte walking close behind him during a beach walk in the glitzy seaside town of Le Touquet last week, donned aviator shades, a high collar-jacket and navy scarf in a look that screamed fighter pilot. Right: Tom Cruise made aviator shades a symbol of macho style after he wore them to play Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in 1986 fighter pilot movie Top Gun Red carpet president? Nothing says global status like a selfie crowd! Macron appears to be revelling in pressing the flesh during this walkabout in Hauts-de-France during an attempt last week to bolster support for his La Republique en Marche (LREM) party - but such celebrity fawning might seem more appropriate in Los Angeles Hollywood leading man Brad Pitt shows Macron how it's done as he mingles with fans during the premiere of the motion dramatic comedy Once Upon A Time ...In America in 2019 A celebratory birthday bottomless brunch took a hilarious turn after a woman ended up getting wedged upside down behind a restaurant sofa - with her friends on hand to capture the moment. Lindsey Clark, 40, from North Shields, ended up offering the ultimate 'bottoms up' after she tried to grab the coat of her friend at the end of the particularly refreshing brunch. Clark had been reaching for the jacket of a pal while out for the 47th birthday of her friend Julie Jackson, who'd chosen a prosecco-filled celebration at the TwelveTwentyFive restaurant in the North Tyneside town. Scroll down for video Easter legs! Lindsey Clark, 40, got wedged, upside down, at the TwelveTwentyFive restaurant in North Shields after leaning over a sofa to retrieve her friend's jacket Characterful Clark, pictured in a vibrant satin shellsuit, was unable to get out from the back of the restaurant sofa...and her pals were on hand to capture the moment There she is! The reveller was put back on her feet - not her head - by two members of staff from the North Shields restaurant Going viral! More than 2,000 people have already viewed the comedy moment, which was filmed by Clark's friends and put on Facebook However, whether it was down to gravity - or just lashings of sparkling wine - the 40-year-old suddenly found herself tipping over, leaving her legs and heeled feet sticking out from the corner of the dining room. Seizing the opportunity to record the hilarious moment, Lindsey's friends snapped away before seeking help from two of the restaurant's staff members. After a battle that involved tugging on her shins, the 40-year-old was eventually placed back on the sofa, fortunately smiling. Lindsey's friend, support worker Julie Jackson, from Newcastle, explained how the birthday bash ended in her friend going head over heels. How it started, how it's going: A glamorous-looking Lindsey Clark at the start of the birthday brunch...and a couple of hours later after losing a fight with the restaurant's sofa How the brunch began: Friend Julie Jackson elegantly takes a sip from her prosecco as she celebrates her 47th birthday And before the brunch was out; the 40-year-old had taken an unexpected sofa dive Right way up: After a battle that involved tugging on her shins, she was eventually placed back on the sofa, fortunately still smiling Although Clark has yet to break her silence on going viral on social media, her friend Julie Jackson said she'd seen the funny side The group reported that the staff 'were all lovely' - and Jackson admitted 'It's not a birthday I'll forget.' Right: An employee goes to retrieve the coat Clark couldn't reach She said: 'We were drinking all sorts but a lot of prosecco. My other friend's jacket fell behind the sofa so Lindsey reached down to get it and fell behind the sofa. 'She was stuck for about ten minutes in total.' The rescue mission saw the group praise the employees for finding a way to free Clark from behind the couch. Jackson went on: 'The staff were all lovely, they could have been funny about it but they were really nice. It's not a birthday I'll forget.' Close: The two friends competing together in the Great North Run Jackson added that her friend didn't mind the attention, saying: 'She's always wanted to be famous, although I don't think this is how she expected it to happen.' Julie shared the hilarious video on her Facebook, where it has already racked up more than 2,000 likes. Although the victim of the sofa dive has yet to break her silence on the matter, Jackson said her friend had seen the funny side. She said: 'I didn't expect to get that reaction. Lindsey finds it hilarious, it's just a bit of a laugh. 'She's always wanted to be famous, although I don't think this is how she expected it to happen.' Viola Davis' portrayal of Michelle Obama is being mercilessly ridiculed by fans - who called her 'constant duck face' in the new Showtime series an 'insult' to the former first lady. Oscar-winning actress Viola, 56, starred as Former President Barack Obama's wife, 58, in the first episode of the brand new 10-part anthology drama The First Lady - which premiered on April 17 and follows the lives of Michelle and other well-known first ladies. However, many people are roasting The Help star for pursing her lips throughout much of the biopic, and some viewers found her constant use of the facial expression disrespectful to the former first lady. Viola is now facing severe backlash for the role, which sparked a firestorm of responses from people on social media. Although Michelle has been known to purse her lips, one viewer called Viola's 'exaggerated' portrayal 'unnecessary and border-line insulting.' Viola Davis' (pictured) portrayal of Michelle Obama is being mercilessly ridiculed by fans - who called her 'constant duck face' in the new Showtime series an 'insult' to the former first lady Oscar-winning actress Viola (left), 56, starred as Former President Barack Obama's wife (right), 58, in the first episode of the brand new 10-part anthology drama The First Lady Many people are roasting Viola (pictured) for pursing her lips throughout the biopic, and some viewers found her constant use of the facial expression disrespectful to the former first lady Another disgruntled social media user claimed that the director 'needed to serve time' for 'making' Viola do the 'duck face' so much in the show, while someone else said the people who worked on it should be 'fired.' 'The director that made Viola Davis do that duck face may need to serve time,' wrote one person. 'I love Viola Davis but the entire team of people behind all of this should get fired,' said another. 'Why didn't anybody stop you? Why could they not even give you an actual make up artist? How will you ever face Michelle Obama after this?' 'Viola Davis needs to be stopped,' agreed another. 'Shes over doing the Michelle Obama face.' 'Viola Davis' face must have been so tired in that movie,' joked a different user. Someone else said: 'I'm embarrassed and legitimately surprised that everyone who saw Viola Davis make that face let it stand. Including Viola Davis! Like... Why?' 'Viola Davis is one of the best actresses to ever hit the scene but that damn Michelle Obama biopic is a comedy simply because of that face she be making,' read another tweet. 'If Viola Davis is making that face the whole movie, idk if Im gonna be able to hold it together,' one user admitted. Viola is now facing severe backlash for the role, which sparked a firestorm of responses from people on social media 'I feel like, they couldve just found someone who looks more like Michelle rather than have Viola Davis contort her face like this,' read another message. '#TheFirstLady is good so far. But I dont understand what Viola Davis is doing. Her acting choices are so distracting,' shared someone else. 'She could be great in that part if she just relaxed her face.' 'Viola Davis was definitely the right choice for the Michelle biopic but they making her do that face Michelle does too often. That makes it seem like a whole joke film...' wrote one user. 'So Viola Davis is gonna do that "something smells funny" face as Michelle Obama through the whole movie?' asked another. A different person said, 'If I were Michelle Obama Id be offended by Viola Davis. At the very least Id think her lips thing was unnecessary and boarder line insulting.' The 10-part series is also set to focus on Betty Ford (who will be played by Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (who will be played by Gillian Anderson). Before the show came out, Viola - who also produced the series - admitted that she had 'anxiety' and 'stress' over playing Michelle, due to the high expectations that come with portraying a person beloved by so many. Although Michelle (right) has been known to purse her lips, one viewer called Viola's (left) 'exaggerated' portrayal 'unnecessary and border-line insulting' Another social media user claimed the director 'needed to serve time' for 'making' Viola do the 'duck face' so much. Viola is pictured in the show left, while Michelle is pictured right Before the show came out, Viola (pictured in the show) admitted she had 'anxiety' over playing Michelle, due to the high expectations that come with portraying a person beloved by so many 'I'm glad it's over!' she said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week. 'I mean, the stress... Because everybody likes - loves - Michelle Obama. 'They know what she sounds like, they know what she looks like. And I'm like, "I don't want Michelle Obama calling me, cussing me out."' When the talk show host asked Viola if she had reached out to Michelle about the role, she added, 'I am hiding from Michelle. I'm hiding. I'm hiding in my house. I'm not sending her nothing.' 'That's the kind of thing where you have to prostate yourself on the floor and just go, "OK, Michelle, I messed up."' While the 56-year-old didn't speak to Michelle during or after the making of the series, she has spoken her before but she told Deadline that she's keeping most of the contents of their conversation private. 'Whats dramatic about Michelle Obama? Ill tell you whats dramatic,' she told them. 'She is a black woman and the first black woman in the White House built by slaves, someone who literally was perceived to be overly masculine, not feminine, angry, hostile, and I will share one thing that she said to me. When asked if she had reached out to Michelle (right) about the role, Viola (left) said, 'I am hiding from Michelle. I'm hiding. I'm hiding in my house. I'm not sending her nothing' Viola (left) previously said of portraying Michelle (right), 'What I wanted to do was honor her and not the perception of what black women are supposed to be' The 10-part series is also set to focus on Betty Ford - who will be played by Michelle Pfeiffer (left) - and Eleanor Roosevelt - who will be played by Gillian Anderson (right) ''She said, "Im not even an angry person." Isnt that something? Listen, I am sort of an angry person, but shes not. 'And so what I wanted to do was honor her and not the perception of what black women are supposed to be.' Viola said they employed artistic license throughout the show - like when Michelle uses the n-word in a conversation with her husband about racist attacks. 'We use creative license because we all know that Michelle Obama is someone who does not like politics, the viciousness of it,' she explained. 'And so it was an imagined conversation. And I did push for those words to be used because I know that those are the words that black people use in private. 'We do. We use those words in private, especially to drive something home, and Michelle Obama is from the South Side of Chicago. 'So I felt it was imagined but I felt good about it being something that could have happened.' Products featured in this Mail Best article are independently selected by our shopping writers. If you make a purchase using links on this page, DailyMail.com may earn an affiliate commission. Spring dressing means ditching your heavy knits and padded layers in favor for more lightweight and flirty silhouettes. As we turn towards flirty florals and playful prints, we can also lean into this on-trend shade of mint weve spotted on the always-elegant Kate Middleton. She showed off her fashion prowess on a recent royal tour of the Bahamas wearing this Self-Portrait midi dress that has quickly shot to the top of our wish list! This look has a nipped in waist with a v-neckline that leads to a pleated midi skirt. Perfect for these warmer months! Self-Portrait chiffon midi dress This midi length chiffon dress has a vintage feel with its elegant hemline, nipped in waist and summery short sleeves. Proving this minty shade can dress up any spring ensemble. This midi length chiffon dress has a vintage feel with its elegant hemline, nipped in waist and summery short sleeves. Proving this minty shade can dress up any spring ensemble. Perfectly paired with flats for a casual afternoon, or dressed up for a formal outing with high heels, this is truly a versatile dress. London-based label Self-Portrait has become a go-to for the fashion pack looking for feminine and timeless designs. Shop The Duchess of Cambridge radiated beauty in this Self-Portrait chiffon midi dress while visiting the Bahamas This particular shade of mint has been a strong trend this season as well, with celebrities like Lady Gaga, Doja Cat and Jennifer Lopez all wearing the minty hue. Youll be joining a stylish group! Kates midi length also works so well going from a casual setting to even more formal occasions. Simply style it with flats for a weekend brunch with the girls or elevate it with pumps for a more formal function. But if youre not keen on the $510 price tag, here are six ways to get the look for less. Nora Anis Miquela midi dress Wolf & Badger carries an array of independent brands that pack a punch when it comes to leading fashion trends. We really fell for this puff sleeve belted dress. The feminine silhouette and dramatic sleeves make this a perfect go-to for these warmer months. The sexy neckline ensures you can stand out by adding a glimmering pendant or sparkly earrings and finish the look with espadrille heels. Shop Boohoo woven puff sleeve dress We can always count on Boohoo for a great bargain and this mint colored dress doesn't disappoint. This gauzy dress has a shorter hemline but encompasses the timeless feel of Kate's dress. The cinched in waist ensures you have a form-flattering fit but the billowy sleeves make sure it has that effortlessness we love about Kate's dress. This gauzy dress has a shorter hemline but encompasses the timeless feel of Kate's dress. Shop Ever New puff sleeve dress at Asos One of the best features of this dress is the eye-catching bow detail at the back of the dress that has a thick ribbon strap. The smock dress lends to a more casual vibe that is perfect for those weekends spent enjoying the sunshine. This Asos pick will quickly become your favorite dress this season. The square neckline is very flattering leading to a tiered midi skirt and puff sleeves. Shop Shein puff sleeve midi dress The round neckline accents a short sleeve midi dress with a flared hemline. Priced at a modest $20 this dress will allow you to splurge a bit with your accessories. Elevate the look with gold earrings to nail Kate's effortless style. Fast-fashion giant Shein has aced another dress with this chic look-alike mint dress. Shop Alexia Admor August midi dress The draped sleeves make this dress quite flirty and the midi hem give it the right amount of impact to get Kate's look for less. Style it with a bold clutch bag for the perfect look. The dress has the perfect shade of mint and priced under $80 makes this a no-brainer option this season. A classic draped fit & flare midi dress is a perfect option for brunch with the girls. Shop The course offers a weekend in France's Champagne region and a 500 cash prize for the most stylish lady - with 'vintage sparkle' this year's theme Racegoers were back at the famous course for the event for the first time since before the pandemic The 150th Irish Grand National takes place at 5pm on Easter Monday at the Fairyhouse Racecourse Advertisement Racegoers attending the final day of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival - home to the Irish Grand National - might have been forgiven for taking their eyes off the runners and riders, such was the explosion of spring colour amongst the spectators. The finale of the three-day festival, which began on Saturday, and sees the 150th National play out this afternoon at 5pm, saw race fans at the County Meath course putting on their Easter Monday best. There were groups of sweet schoolchildren in pastel shades, many wearing bonnets and flat caps, as well as all-out glamour from spectators who donned a rainbow of bold colours. Clearly keen to dress up to the nines in the first Irish Grand National meet with a full crowd since before the pandemic, racegoers accessorised their brightly coloured frocks with eye-catching feathered fascinators, wide-brimmed hats and floral headwear. Despite mostly grey skies over the emerald course, there were bursts of sunshine, leaving people reaching for their sunglasses as they posed for selfies. On the notoriously demanding course, the largest event in the Irish racing calendar saw a prize fund of 500,000 euros up for grabs. And when the horses return to their stables, there's a most stylish lady competition in the offing too, with this year's theme 'vintage sparkle'. The winner will waltz away with a weekend in the Champagne region of France and 500 in cash. The Fairyhouse selfie is back! Racegoers at the 150th Irish Grand National appeared delighted to be able to dress up again for the biggest event in the Irish racing calendar on Easter Monday Floral headwear - in vibrant spring colours - caught the eye of spectators at the famous racecourse in County Meath, Ireland We're still off school! Children dressed in pastel colours - accessorised with bonnets and flat caps - on the third day of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival Red is the colour: One racegoer matched her hair shade with her plunging dress for the day out - which offers a prize to the most stylish lady Make mine a Guinness! This reveller goes for a brace of Ireland's favourite tipple Back to work tomorrow: the drinks flowed on the final day of the Easter celebration, with many spectators posing for photographs on social media Iberique Du Seuil, ridden by Jack Kennedy, proved successful during the Donohue Marquees Juvenile Hurdle, ahead of the Irish Grand National this afternoon Despite mostly grey skies over the emerald course, there were bursts of sunshine, leaving people reaching for their sunglasses - including this well-dressed chap Ditching the classic dark suit, many of the male guests at the race opted for more interesting takes on the whistle and flute, with bright colours and checks on the sartorial menu Pretty as a picture: one young spectator dons a horse-themed bonnet - and yellow dress - to mark the occasion Ladies in lavender: Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin mingles with two very glamorous spectators in the sunshine Taoiseach Martin appeared to be enjoying a day meeting those who'd travelled to County Meath for the spectacle Selfie opportunities a go-go: many sharp-suited attendees captured their days out on social media. Right: A spectator outstretches an arm to capture a moment in the sunshine Smile lads! Not all those attending opted for smart clothes - with ripped jeans making an appearance too This lady fulfilled the vintage sparkle brief, with her companion offering up a Peaky Blinders-esque ensemble The event attracts record crowds to the Fairyhouse racecourse, with the winner of the National scooping 500,000 euros Fuchsia flutter: This lady looks radiant in a bright pink trouser suit and completes the look with a nude heel and unique green and pink pillbox hat A feathered fascinator and a red lip - this stylish spectator wore a show-stealing headpiece with her blonde hair neatly braided A rainbow of spring brights: bold colours dominated the event's fashion colour palette with trouser suits also a popular choice Advertisement One Wisconsin couple got a bit carried away hanging cutesy signs around their home, going way beyond the cliched 'live, laugh, love' and erecting a sign that reads 'Welcome to Poundtown' directly above their bed. The unidentified couple is now selling the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house in Onalaska, but kept all of their signs including the PG-13 one in place when staging the home for real estate photos. The bizarre design choice particularly in a home with children has left social media users in stitches. One Wisconsin couple got a bit carried away hanging cutesy signs around their home, going way beyond the cliched 'live, laugh, love' and erecting a sign that reads 'Welcome to Poundtown' directly above their bed The master bedroom in the 3,600-square-foot home is otherwise normal-looking, done in grays and whites with a homey feel, although it features several other signs, including one that says 'his only' It's not the only sign in the bedroom - there are several others, including one that reads 'this is us' - but it's the only sexually-charged one in the whole home Signs in the master bathroom read 'where there is imperfection, there is an abundance of beauty,' 'brush your teeth,' and 'please seat yourself' above the toilet The master bedroom in the 3,600-square-foot home is otherwise normal-looking, done in grays and whites with a homey feel. But above the headboard which itself has an intricate carved design is a rectangular black-and-white sign that reads: 'Welcome to POUNDTOWN.' It's not the only sign in the bedroom there are also ones reading 'his only' and 'this is us' but it's the only sexually-charged one in the whole home. While signs that the couple favors can often be found in stores like HomeGoods, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, and Michael's, it seems unlikely that the 'poundtown' sign was found at any of these places. Etsy does have several signs with those words but in different fonts. This couple may have had theirs custom-made. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house has been listed in Onalaska for $420,000 Meanwhile, the rest of the home is positively brimming with similar decor, including lots of signs in the living room The kitchen is chock full of signage as well, including 'eat' and 'the kitchen is for dancing.' The bread box is also labeled 'bread' in big letters They also have the word 'pantry' hanging over the pantry, lest they forget what it is The dining room is decorated with a sign reading: 'Work hard and be nice to people' Meanwhile, the rest of the home is positively brimming with similar decor, including signs in the master bathroom that read 'where there is imperfection, there is an abundance of beauty,' 'brush your teeth,' and 'please seat yourself' above the toilet. The living room appears to have the most signs of all, including 'gather' and 'gather together,' as well as both a sign and a pillow that say 'blessed.' There is another 'this is us' sign, plus ones that read 'welcome to our beautiful chaos,' 'you, me, and the kids,' 'party of five,' and 'welcome to our crazy fun loud happy home.' Also abundant in the home are freestanding ampersands, symbols that stand for the word 'and.' It's unclear what context they are being used in in the home. The kitchen is chock full of signage as well, including 'eat,' 'the kitchen is for dancing,' and the word 'pantry' over the pantry. The bread box is also labeled 'bread' in big letters. In the girls' room is a sign reading 'she has fire in her soul and grace in her eyes' The boy's room has signs that say 'be kind & brave,' 'nap, build, destroy, repeat,' and 'adventure awaits' The young boy's room also features several pieces of art, as well as decorative baskets for toys In the children's playroom there are signs reading 'play' and 'let's eat' Presumably, the children don't understand the sign above mommy and daddy's bed The dining room is decorated with a sign reading: 'Work hard and be nice to people.' The entrance has signs reading 'welcome,' 'welcome home,' and 'we're so glad you are here', as well as a pillow reading 'our nest,' while the mudroom has signs reading 'home sweet home' and 'since little fingers touch our floors, please leave your shoes at the door.' There are also two bedrooms for three children, who presumably don't understand the sign above mommy and daddy's bed. In the girls' room is a sign reading 'she has fire in her soul and grace in her eyes,' while the boy's room has signs that say 'be kind & brave,' 'nap, build, destroy, repeat,' and 'adventure awaits.' The house, which was listed this week by Spencer Hegenbarth of RE/MAX, is already earning quite a bit of attention on social media since images were shared by Zillow Gone Wild. The house, which was listed this week by Spencer Hegenbarth of RE/MAX, is already earning quite a bit of attention on social media since images were shared by Zillow Gone Wild The entrance has signs reading 'welcome,' 'welcome home,' and 'we're so glad you are here', as well as a pillow reading 'our nest' The mudroom has signs reading 'home sweet home' and 'since little fingers touch our floors, please leave your shoes at the door' The guest bedroom also has signs, while ampersands, symbols that stand for the word 'and,' litter the home Plenty of commenters were more in awe of the whole effect than just the poundtown sign 'Love, laugh, poundtown,' wrote one. 'This kitchen is made for dancing, and this bed is made for pounding,' commented another. 'I know a lot of people are fixed on the bedroom sign there, which is of course extremely distasteful, but whole house feels weird and fake to me,' wrote another. In fact, plenty of commenters were more in awe of the whole effect than just the poundtown sign. 'What in the Chip and Joanna Gaines is going here,' wrote one, while another said, 'This house talks too much.' 'I like to think this is the work of a house stager who is going through some sort of crisis,' quipped one more. A socialite who was married four times including to a former Conservative Cabinet minister, his cousin, and two acting legends has died aged 85. Elizabeth Aitken Harris, nee Rees-Williams, passed away at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital at 11.10pm on Good Friday after a long illness, her son Jared Harris has revealed. The daughter of the first Baron Ogmore, a Labour Cabinet minister in the 1945-51 Attlee Government, was married to former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken, his cousin Peter Aitken, Irish acting legend Richard Harris and Oscar-winner Sir Rex Harrison. While she was best known for her many marriages, she ran a highly successful PR firm and often graced the society pages. Elizabeth Harris Aitken (pictured) passed away at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital at 11.10pm on Good Friday after a long illness aged 85 The socialite was married four times. First to Irish acting legend Richard Harris. The pair are pictured here on their wedding day in 1957 She married her first husband Richard best known for playing King Arthur in Camelot and Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films in 1957, aged just 22. Their wedding reception was at the House of Lords and they lived in a one-bedroom flat in Paddington. She had studied at RADA, where she met many future stars, including Peter O'Toole, Alan Bates and Albert Finney. Before this, she attended convent school in Switzerland she was one of the last debutantes to be presented to the Queen at Court in 1954. With Richard she had three sons Damian, Jared and Jamie, who followed in their fathers footsteps to work in Hollywood as actors and directors. Elizabeth proposed to Richard - something considered very progressive at the time - and they were married 11 years, but Richard's wild lifestyle and constant travelling due to work led to infidelity and eventually a divorce in 1969. The actor died aged 72 in 2002 after suffering from Hodgkin's disease. In 1971, she remarried another actor - Sir Rex Harrison - who won an Oscar for his eponymous role in Doctor Dolittle and was himself married six times. Her son Jared, who is known for his role in Mad Men and Chernobyl, later described meals at the dinner table with his step-father, who died in 1990, as 'excruciating'. In 1971, she remarried another actor - Sir Rex Harrison (pictured) - who won an Oscar for his eponymous role in Doctor Dolittle and was himself married six times Here Elizabeth and Rex are pictured at Heathrow airport awaiting a flight to Nice with her son Jamie Harris in 1972 Elizabeth is pictured here with her third husband stockbroker Peter Aitken who she married in the 1980s Her memoir Love, Honour And Dismay published in 1976, when she 40. She cheekily dedicated the book 'to RH', the initials shared by both of her movie-star husbands. Her second marriage also didn't last, and in the 1980s she married stockbroker Peter Aitken, the cousin of cabinet minister Jonathan, with whom she had a steamy affair with in the 1980s. After the the five-year unsuccessful marriage she went on to marry her third husband's cousin - Jonathan Aitken after a chance encounter in 2001, after just nine months of romance. The former Tory Cabinet Minister, who was famously jailed for 18 months after being convicted of perjury in 1999, proposed with a diamond and aquamarine ring to over dinner in 2002. They had met years prior when Elizabeth was single again after her 1975 divorce from Rex Harrison. In those days, Jonathan was a devastatingly handsome politician with a wandering eye, a ruthless streak and ambitions to be prime minister. After five unsuccessful years of marriage to Peter, Elizabeth had a steamy affair with his cousin former Tory Cabinet Minister, Jonathan Aitken, whom she is pictured with here Elizabeth picture at The Royal Court Ball in London, in 1984. Her memoir Love, Honour And Dismay published in 1976, when she 40 They lived together for two years, but she knew that in the end he'd break her heart. He was too driven, too vain and too selfish. 'I had three children, two divorces behind me, and I was older than Jonathan. I wasn't exactly ideal wife material for an up-and-coming young politician. I knew we hadn't a future, so I got out,' she previously said. He married Lolicia Azucki and they had two daughters and a son. He later discovered that he had a third daughter, Petrina, by his affair with Soraya Khashoggi. Jonathan became a glittering political star but in the late Nineties scandal brought him down. In 1999 he was made bankrupt and sent to prison for 18 months for perjury over an unpaid bill at the Ritz in Paris. He was released in 2000 and went to Oxford for two years to study theology. Elizabeth and Jonathan Aitken pictured in 2003 at The New Saatchi Gallery Opening Night party in London After the the five-year unsuccessful marriage she went on to marry her third husband's cousin - Jonathan Aitken after a chance encounter in 2001, after just nine months of romance. They are pictured together in 2003 Meanwhile Elizabeth had also been through traumatic times. She went to live in America and married Jonathan's cousin, Peter Aitken, on the rebound. Four years later, they had an acrimonious divorce. During this time, she lost almost all her money in badly advised investments. She returned to London knowing that she had to get a job. Ultimately, she began her own successful PR company. On the morning of the wedding, Elizabeth had lunch at the Ritz with her three sons, where they gave her a pearl necklace before walking her down the aisle. 'It was so important to me that all our children felt part of the wedding and that nobody was losing anybody. The family was getting bigger. Nobody was going out; everybody was coming in,' she told the Daily Mail in 2002. The couple spent two nights at the Ritz on their honeymoon before flying off to Paradise Island, Nassau, and the house where Richard Harris lived for 30 years. Elizabeth and her sons invariably spent Christmas there, and in his will Richard left the house to the four of them. They are pictured in 2003 Welsh socialite Elizabeth is pictured in 1972 - while harried to Rex Harrison - with her two dogs The wedding invitations were written from their couple's six combined children - Alexandra, Damian, Jamie, Jared, Petrina, Victoria and William,' said the engraved card, 'invite you to the marriage of Elizabeth Harris and Jonathan Aitken. The reception was held at Carlton House Terrace and the guests included an eclectic mix of ex-lovers of both bride and groom. Jonathan's three most famous mistresses, Soraya Khashoggi, Carol Thatcher and Lady Antonia Fraser, were all invited but only Antonia accepted. However, many eminent politicians were there, including Michael Howard, Norman Tebbit, Malcolm Rifkind and Nicholas Soames. There were also a few ex-cons who'd done time with the bridegroom in Belmarsh Prison. They spent two nights at the Ritz before flying off to Paradise Island, Nassau, and the house where Richard Harris lived for 30 years. Elizabeth and her sons invariably spent Christmas there, and in his will Richard left the house to the four of them. While in prison, Jonathan became a born again Christian and after leaving studied theology at Oxford for two years, during which time he rekindled his romance with Elizabeth. While in prison, Jonathan became a born again Christian and after leaving studied theology at Oxford for two years, during which time he rekindled his romance with Elizabeth. The couple are pictured at Emilia Fox's wedding in 2005 Mr Aitken, now a prison chaplain, lead the Easter Sunday service at HMP Pentonville in accordance with his late wife's wishes. The couple are pictured together in 2003 'I'd committed myself to not having any new relationships. I wasn't ready for one. 'Also, I was at Wycliffe Theology College in Oxford, which was full of very keen future Anglican vicars and monks training for the Ministry. 'Having a girlfriend wouldn't exactly have been frowned upon, but it wouldn't have fitted my mood,' he previously said. Writing on social media about his mother's passing this weekend, son Jared wrote: 'She woke up singing, she went quietly in the night, we should all be so lucky for the life lived in between, for the life nurtured, for the families championed, for us it was you, always you, you were always there for us.' Mr Aitken, now a prison chaplain, lead the Easter Sunday service at HMP Pentonville in accordance with his late wife's wishes. Her funeral will be held on a date to be announced at St Matthew's, Westminster. The founder of a charity that supports parents who have lost babies duet to stillbirth or neonatal death has said its 'vitally important' that Cristiano Ronaldo and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez 'come together' and 'help each other through' such a devastating time after the loss of their son. The Manchester United star, 37, announced in October 2021 that he was expecting twins with his partner Georgina, 28. Today, the couple shared the devastating news that their 'baby boy has passed away'. Founder and Managing Director of the Lily Mae foundation Ryan Jackson said that the couple 'will be in shock' over what happened, and that it's 'vitally important' the pair are 'open with their feelings'. 'The death of a baby is devastating whether that be through stillbirth, neonatal death, during labour, miscarriage or termination for medical reasons,' he said. Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez, 28, have announced the death of their newborn son during birth in a heartbreaking social media post Georgina is pictured alongside Cristiano Jr., clutching his father's Manchester United shirt after his return to Manchester was announced last year. The Lily Mae Foundation has said it is vitally important that they talk and come together to help each through such a devastating experience 'Many of the feelings that Cristiano and Georgina will be feeling at the moment are that of devastation, feeling lost, isolated, alone, feeling that the floor has been pulled away from you and questioning, why us? 'The loss of a baby is a unique experience but differs from the normal grief felt when we lose a close friend or relative. We don't grieve a life that has passed where that individual has fulfilled so much. 'We grieve a lifetime of a missed opportunity and memories that we planned to make with our baby. 'At this moment in time both Cristiano and Georgina will be in shock and disbelief of what has happened. 'They have still got to care for their daughter which I can only imagine is extremely tough following the loss of this son. 'It is vitally important that they talk and come together to help each other through such a devastating experience. A statement from the couple confirmed the death of their baby boy as 'the greatest pain', but said their baby girl survived Georgina shares daughter Alana, three, with Cristiano, and the Manchester United star also has son Cristiano Jr., 11, and twins Eva and Mateo, four 'Being open with each other about their feelings it's really important as everybody grieves differently at a different pace. 'Being in the public eye, I can only imagine how difficult this will be. I would guess that they will have a huge support network around them including the medical staff and bereavement midwife that will allow them to make memories of their baby boy. 'These are memories that they will treasure forever. 'The devastating impact of baby loss and its effects on bereaved parents are still to this day a stigma amongst society. 'Research shows that men grieve loss as intensely as women yet the social stereotype that men should be strong and bottle up their grief is stopping bereaved men accessing and getting the support they need. The Lily Mae Foundation, which supports parents and families who have tragically lost a newborn says that there is still stigma surrounding the devastating impact of baby loss and its effects on bereaved parents In June 2017, the then-Real Madrid star surprised fans with the news he'd welcomed twins Eva and Mateo through a surrogate, and just one month later he and Georgina announced they were expecting their first child together. Alana was born in 2018. Georgina is pictured with Eva, Mateo and Alana, while pregnant with the couple's twins 'The support that we offer as a charity can be found at lilymaefoundation.org where we have a podcast called 'still parents' and other support programmes to help parents and families following the loss of a baby. A statement from the couple confirmed the death of their baby boy as 'the greatest pain', but said their baby girl survived. 'It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away. It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel,' the announcement read. 'Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness. 'We would like to thank the doctors and nurses for all their expert care and support. Georgina is seen while pregnant with twins. Ronaldo and Georgina announced the pregnancy in October 2021, but only one of the twins has survived 'We are all devastated at this loss and we kindly ask for privacy at this very difficult time. 'Our baby boy, you are our angel. We will always love you.' Georgina shares daughter Alana, three, with Cristiano. The Portuguese international also has son Cristiano Jr., 11, and twins Eva and Mateo, four. The charity, which supports parents and families who have tragically and traumatically lost a baby to Stillbirth or to Neonatal Death explain that being open with each other about their feelings is really important as everybody grieves differently at a different pace. Manchester United, Ronaldo's current club and the team where he cemented his status as a premier league legend, posted on Instagram: 'Your pain is our pain. Sending love and strength to you and the family at this time.' Meanwhile, Ronaldo's sister Katia Aveiro released an emotional open letter in which she said 'our little angel is already on daddy's lap,' in reference to the pair's father, Denis, who passed away in 2005 after a battle with alcoholism. Since meeting in 2016, Georgina has followed five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo from Madrid to Turin and then Manchester, as he left Real Madrid for Juventus and United.. Ronaldo's oldest son Cristiano Jr. was born in the United States in 2010 but immediately taken back to Madrid to be raised in Spain. The identity of his mother is unknown. In June 2017, the then-Real Madrid star surprised fans with the news he'd welcomed twins Eva and Mateo through a surrogate, and just one month later he and Georgina announced they were expecting their first child together. The support that The Lily Mae Foundation offer as a charity can be found at lilymaefoundation.org where they have a podcast called 'still parents' and other support programmes to help parents and families following the loss of a baby. A 27-year-old woman has revealed how doctors dismissed a three-centimetre growth on her left ovary as unimportant just eight months before she was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. Looking back Sophie Pugh realises 'all the signs were there': she had crippling period pain, a sore lower back, a sore upper leg and later severe abdominal pain, bloating and then difficulties going to the toilet. The once passionate weightlifter is now fighting to keep up her positivity after having to stop working, abandon her passion for fitness and face the reality that if she survives the cancer she may never realise her lifelong dream of becoming a mum. Speaking to FEMAIL the disability carer said the initial growth was picked up when she went to the doctor over extremely painful periods. Sophie Pugh, 27, found out she has stage-four ovarian cancer last month Thhe young woman is determined to fight the cancer which has spread to her lungs 'They were so bad that I would drop to the ground, and super heavy, I went to get them checked twice and was told I had polycystic ovaries. 'The second time when they found the growth instead of scarring I was told they didn't act on them until they were over four centimetres,' she said. 'They didn't think it was important.' Before this diagnosis she had been sent home from the ER with 'food poisoning' when she experienced excruciating abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Two months later when her lower back started to hurt, six months before she was diagnosed, she assumed she had 'pulled something' after completing a 100kg dead lift at the gym. 'It would start aching when I was in the car for any longer than 20 minutes,' she explained. But she still assumed it was nothing, as there was no history of cancer in her family and doctors had previously pointed polycystic ovaries as the cause of her pain. Three months before her diagnosis she went back to the doctor when she experienced pain in her left quad, the same side as the growth on her ovary. 'He told me I wasn't stretching after the gym properly, which I knew I was because I stretch for 20 minutes before and after each session, we now know it was a symptom of the cancer,' she said. She put it to the back of her mind and decided not to head to the doctors when the pain escalated. The young woman went from going to the gym every da for about three hours to being breathless walking around the block WHAT SYMPTOMS DID SOPHIE EXPERIENCE? 1 - Excruciating period pain 2 - Lower back pain when sitting 3 - Pain in her upper legs 4 - Extreme bloating 5- Pain in her lower abdomen 6- Discomfort using the toilet 7- 'Stop-go' urination 8- Heavy periods 9- Diarrhoea 10- Breathlessness Advertisement 'I was trying to do some incline crunches at the gym and it felt like hot knives were being pushed into my lower abs,' she said. 'Then I was lying in bed and my cat jumped on my stomach and I just cried in pain and my partner told me I had to go to the doctor.' That same day she noticed she had pain when she used the bathroom and 'stop-go' patterns when she tried to pee. She was rushed from her GP's to the hospital's ER with 'suspected appendicitis' and left four days later with her cancer diagnosis. The cancer has grown rapidly, from the time she was diagnosed to the time doctors cut it out it had gone from ten to 15 centimetres and spread to her lungs. This means the cancer is 'stage-four' which is typically terminal, but this is where Sophie says she is 'one of the lucky ones' because her cancer reacts well to chemo. 'It is very unlikely for me to have this cancer because it is typically found in children,' she said. 'But it also has a much higher cure rate, if I had been diagnosed with normal ovarian cancer I would be a complete mess because it would likely mean I would be terminal,' she said. Although the diagnosis and need for speedy treatment does mean Sophie's lifelong dreams of becoming a mum are at risk. 'I have always dreamed of becoming a mum, since I was like 14, but wanted to do it right. Wanted to have a career and my own house, which I have now,' she said. She said she always wanted to be a mum but thought she should 'do it right' so built her business and got her first home - but now she may never be a mum 'I just hope that my chances for that life aren't ruined.' Sophie will take a special treatment designed to 'put the right ovary to sleep' before she starts chemo. 'Some doctors question whether it will work but if I don't try and then I can't have kids later I will kick myself,' she said. She starts five rounds of chemo next week and says it could take six months of the gruelling treatment to kill the cancer. She won't be able to work much in that time so her friends have started a Go Fund Me to help with costs. THE OFFICIAL SYMPTOMS OF OVARIAN CANCER: Abdominal bloating Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly Frequent or urgent urination Back, abdominal or pelvic pain Constipation or diarrhoea Menstrual irregularities Tiredness Indigestion Pain during intercourse Unexplained weight loss or gain Source: Cancer Council Advertisement 'At the moment my boyfriend is paying for all my bills but his own house will be finished soon and I don't want him to be paying his mortgage on top of mine,' she said. The couple have been together for seven months but Sophie is convinced 'he is her person'. This is the second time the young woman has faced having to rebuild her life in the face of tragedy. Six years ago she was the passenger in a car accident which killed her best friend and left her with physical injuries and depression. She decided to start her own business as a disability carer after her recovery which involved skin grafts and countless surgeries. Working for herself means she has no sick pay to fall back on now she has lost her ability to work. 'I keep kicking myself because I looked at insurance through my super and thought I would get onto it later, then a month later I was told I had cancer.' Despite all of the obstacles in her way the young woman remains hopeful. She revealed her scar after the operation to remove the 15centimetre tumour from her left ovary and says the disease caused bloating and pain 'I am trying to keep busy, even though I am starting to feel tired,' she said. Just weeks ago she was running 5kms per day with her dog and spending another three hours at the gym. 'I am starting to feel it in my lungs now and get puffed going around the block.' She hopes to recover from chemo quickly so she can 'get back to life' including her clients at work who she has been caring for for over two years. 'I have looked after some of them for five years, they are family,' she said. Looking forward to an afternoon nap this Easter Monday? Try squeezing your muscles first to increase the benefits of your snooze. People who intentionally tensed and then relaxed their large muscle groups before they drifted off had 125 per cent more deep sleep and an improved sleep pattern in their nap compared with those who had instead listened to relaxing music, researchers found. The team, from the University of California, Irvine and Princeton University in the US, studied 50 people as they lay down for a 1pm nap. People who intentionally tensed and then relaxed their large muscle groups before they drifted off had 125 per cent more deep sleep. File image Half followed a ten-minute recording of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). The other half listened to ten minutes of Mozart music. Researchers found the two groups showed different sleeping brain rhythm patterns. Lead author Dr Katharine Simon said: We found that those who engaged in PMR prior to sleep showed greater right-sided sleeping brain rhythm activity from the start which we expect to see in more well-rested individuals. The findings were published in the Journal of Sleep Research. Dr Simon explained: Brain waves can be a proxy for how much restorative sleep your brain needs. So in essence, PMR before the nap supported some of the restorative needs that sleep typically takes care of. This doesnt mean one doesnt need sleep, but instead that PMR can bias the nap to be filled with more deep sleep. Thus PMR may provide pre-sleep restoration benefits typically occurring during sleep and possibly let sleep focus its support on other functions such as memory formation or emotional health. The team, from the University of California, Irvine and Princeton University in the US, studied 50 people as they lay down for a 1pm nap. File image Dr Simon said PMR is something people can easily try at home before their nap. This is why we are so excited by this result, she said. There are numerous scripts that are free online, one can watch videos, or listen to audio versions. All will walk you through the steps of tensing specific muscles in your body i.e. making fists and squeezing them tightly for 10 seconds and then relaxing them. This causes the muscle to become more relaxed than prior to the initial tensing. We hope that our results demonstrate that individuals can easily engage in pre-sleep muscle relaxation which will bias their nap to be filled with deep sleep, benefitting their overall health and cognition. Advertisement Fewer than half of people living in parts of London, Birmingham and Leeds have had their first Covid jab, official statistics show. Harehills South, a neighbourhood of Leeds famed for crime and anti-social behaviour, has the lowest uptake rate. Only 38.5 per cent of over-12s living in the district have already accepted their first dose invite. Rates stand below the 50 per cent threshold in 13 other wards dotted across the country. For comparison, uptake rates are above the 90 per cent mark in a fifth of England's 6,700-plus districts. Experts today claimed the 'disappointing' data which MailOnline has placed into a handy search tool that you can use showed No10's jab strategy did not succeed in persuading the most deprived areas to come forward for a jab. Britain's landmark inoculation drive has been credited with saving tens of thousands of lives, keeping pressure off of the NHS and consigning the darkest days of the pandemic to history. Vaccine data, compiled by the UK Health Security Agency, is based on the percentage of over-12s who've been jabbed. Uptake figures are based on population data from the National Immunisation Management Service, which holds inoculation records for the entire country. UKHSA bosses break the statistics down into several geographical regions, including one known as middle-layer super output areas. MSOAs are home to around 8,000 people each. UKHSA bosses break vaccination uptake statistics into several geographical regions, including one known as middle-layer super output areas. MSOAs are home to around 8,000 people each. Harehills South (shown in top right map) has the lowest first jab uptake rate (38.5 per cent), followed by Waterloo Road in Wolverhampton (bottom left map, 44.4 per cent), and Stamford Hill North in Hackney (bottom right map, 46.1 per cent) WHAT PARTS OF ENGLAND HAVE THE LOWEST COVID VACCINE UPTAKE? Harehills South, Leeds: 38.5% Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton: 44.4% Stamford Hill North, Hackney: 46.1% Headington, Oxford: 46.3% Ayresome, Middlesbrough: 47.9% South Tottenham, Haringey: 47.9% Harehills North, Leeds: 48% Stamford Hill South, Hackney: 48.1% Boston Central & North, Boston: 48.2% Edge Hill, Liverpool: 49.1% Advertisement Harehills South has the lowest first jab uptake rate (38.5 per cent), followed by Waterloo Road in Wolverhampton (44.4 per cent), and Stamford Hill North in Hackney (46.1 per cent). Other areas that fall below the 50 per cent threshold include Headington in Oxford (46.3 per cent), Ayresome in Middlesbrough and South Tottenham in Haringey (both 47.9 per cent). For comparison, first dose uptake rates stand as high as 94.7 per cent in Whickham in Gateshead and Whitley Bay North in North Tyneside. The overall figure for the UK which began rolling out jabs in December 2020 sits at 92.1 per cent, according to No10's coronavirus dashboard. However, the Government itself acknowledges how the uptake rates can be slightly out of sync because the NIMS population statistics are not perfect. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it is 'definitely disappointing' that there are still pockets of the country with low uptake, despite 'overall high vaccine coverage'. He said: 'I suspect many of these areas are areas of relatively high deprivation and/or have a high proportion of ethnic minorities. 'It is disappointing that the UK vaccine effort did not manage to do better in persuading these communities to take up the vaccine.' There is not likely to be 'much increase' in vaccine coverage among the least immunised parts of the country in the coming weeks and months, Professor Hunter said. He added: 'Now we are getting past the Omicron peak, the large majority of unvaccinated individuals have already had the infection and will have acquired immunity so we are not at the beginning with these populations. 'I would still encourage people to still come forward for vaccination even if they have had an infection as hybrid immunity does seem to offer the best protection.' Dr David Strain, a medical lecturer at the University of Exeter, told MailOnline the low uptake rate in some parts of the country is likely down to the perception of the vaccine, with 'insufficient efforts' made to make information about the benefit and safety of the jab accessible to all. He said it is 'worrying' that the lowest uptake has occurred in the regions with the most ethnically diverse populations, as these are 'the same populations that appear to have done worse out of acute Covid infections and therefore have the most to gain'. Nearly 53million first Covid jabs have been dished out in the UK since the pandemic began, with 92.1 per cent of over-12s now having had their first dose since the first was administered on December 8 2020 Some 49.6million people, or 86.2 per cent of over-12s, have come forward for their second dose, which is given four weeks after the first injection More than 39million booster doses have been given to Britons, with around 970,000 doses given in a single day in December as the country bolstered its immunity in the face of the Omicron wave Around 45,000 Covid vaccines were dished out per day in the week to April 10, as thousands of Britons continue to come forward for their first, second and third dose, as well as getting jabbed as part of the spring booster campaign and the rollout to five to 11-year-olds More than nine in 10 over-12s in the UK have had their first dose, 86.2 per cent are double-jabbed and over two-thirds are boosted 'As long as the rhetoric continues that 'Covid is over', however, it will remain difficult to persuade these populations that have a historic distrust of rapidly developed treatments that this is both safe, efficacious and remains the best way to keep your entire family safe,' Dr Strain said. With so many cultures celebrating, such as Easter, Ramadan and Passover, it would be 'an ideal time to call on religious and community leaders to remind that Covid it is by no means over and the vaccines are the single best source of protection', he added. Vaccines have been credited for drastically blunting the threat of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the Covid pandemic. Before jabs came onto the scene, Britain suffered numerous days where over a 1,000 people were dying from the virus. But now, even with infection rates hitting pandemic highs, deaths haven't breached 300 a day similar to levels seen with bad flu outbreaks. Top scientists have also credited the numerous waves Britain has had to endure and the milder nature of Omicron for the country being able to drop all restrictions and 'Live With Covid'. Britain is currently rolling out fourth doses to over-75s, care home residents of all ages, and people with weakened immune systems like some cancer patients. These groups are eligible for the spring booster if it has been six months since their first booster shot. Health chiefs are also planning to dish out another round of booster doses this autumn. It could see millions more adults offered an extra vaccine. The vaccination rollout was expanded earlier this month to include five to 11-year-olds in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already offered the jabs to this age group. No10's vaccine advisers said the move will stop 'a very small number of children from serious illness and hospitalisation'. NHS hospitals now have fewer spare beds than at any point of the Covid pandemic, according to an analysis. Just 4,405 beds or 4.8 per cent of England's entire capacity were unoccupied as of April 12. Experts today warned the 'unsustainable pressure' would have a knock-on effect on attempts to tackle the millions of patients waiting for care. Data shows 14,000 beds are occupied by Covid-infected patients, even though half aren't actually unwell with the virus itself and have incidentally tested positive while being treated for other reasons, such as a broken leg. Health chiefs have already called for the return of face masks and social distancing to relieve overwhelmed wards, who are also being hit by staff absences. Another 20,000 beds are being taken up by 'bed-blockers' medically fit patients who have nowhere to be discharged to. The pressure comes as the health service desperately tries to get a grip on the care backlog that has built-up over the pandemic. Just 4,405 beds or 4.8 per cent of England's entire capacity were unoccupied as of April 12, according to NHS England data Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust thinktank, argued that hospitals were currently working at 'an unsustainable level of occupancy'. He told the Financial Times: 'No hospital system can run at that level of occupancy outside of very short periods of crisis.' Mr Edwards warned the newspaper which carried out its own analysis that the pressure would 'certainly mean that planned [operations] will have to be postponed or cancelled at short notice'. The FT found that only 5.4 per cent of beds were kept free in the week ending April 12, on average. This was significantly fewer than the 9.2 per cent seen during the darkest days of the second wave last winter, when hospitals purposely created a space in the event of a virus resurgence. The UK has fewer beds than other major European nations and the vast majority are kept for general and acute care, such as treating illnesses and injuries. Bed capacity dropped during Covid as hospitals were forced to keep patients further apart in an attempt to stop the virus spreading. NHS bed capacity was slightly boosted through Nightingale hospitals and the use of private wards, although both capacity sources were barely utilised. The graph shows the NHS England waiting list for routine surgery, such as hip and knee operations (red line), hit a record high 6.18million in February. The figure is 46 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels and 1.3 per cent more than in January. Official figures also revealed that the number of patients forced to wait more than two years (yellow bars) stood at 23,281 in February, which is 497 patients (two per cent) less than one month earlier NHS England's most up-to-date monthly performance figures show University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust had the worst waiting times in February, with just 41.3 per cent of patients waiting less than 18 weeks. Under the NHS's own rulebook, all patients have the right to start treatment within that timeframe. University Hospitals Birmingham was followed by the Countess of Chester Foundation Trust (42.3 per cent), Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust (45.3 per cent), Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust (46.1 per cent) and University Hospitals Leicester Foundation Trust (47.4 per cent) Volunteers will drive 999 patients to hospital in ambulances under NHS-funded plan Volunteers will be sent to drive patients who call 999 to hospital in a bid to tackle soaring waiting times. The NHS-funded scheme will be piloted by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) within weeks. The plan is aimed at patients who should get an urgent response within two hours, classed as 'category 3', and who need help because of mobility problems. LAS said trained volunteers already respond to 999 calls in their own car alongside ambulances. But it confirmed such volunteers, who are trained to use defibrillators, would now be deployed in ambulances for lower category calls in some instances. Ambulance response times have hit the worst levels on record with average waits of over an hour for heart attack and stroke patients in March, compared to a target of 18 minutes. Advertisement Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers, an organisation that represents hospital trusts, warned the NHS given 150billion every year before the National Insurance hike of April kicked in was 'facing major difficulties'. '[The] NHS has been working really hard to improve discharge and flow, but finding this difficult,' he wrote on Twitter. Mr Hopson added that trusts need the 'right funding, size of workforce, support for social care, and capacity' to meet growing demand. Health leaders in an NHS Providers board meeting last week said this was the 'most sustained period of pressure they had seen in their careers', he claimed. Waiting lists for elective procedures such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery soared during the pandemic, hitting a record of 6.2million in February. This included just under 300,000 who were stuck in the queue for over a year, often in agony. Leaked Government forecasts suggest the situation will only get worse, with waiting lists set to keep growing for the next two years to 10.7million, or one in five people in England. At the same as attacking the thousands of patients whose treatment was cancelled in the pandemic, hospitals are having to battle with an influx of virus patients. Up-to-date statistics show, however, that fewer than half of all 'Covid' patients are primarily being treated for the respiratory illness. It means that only 6,400 beds are currently occupied by patients needing medical attention for the virus itself. NHS data shows a record 22,506 people had to wait more than 12 hours in March from a decision to admit to actually being admitted (yellow bars). The number is up from 16,404 in February, signalling a 37 per cent month-on-month jump, and is the highest since records began in August 2010. And just 71.6 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es last month, the lowest percentage in records going back to November 2010 (red line) NHS England statistics laying bare the pressures being felt in A&E show fewer than half of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in March at the worst-performing trust. North West Anglia Foundation Trust (49.7 per cent) was followed by the East Cheshire Trust (55.2 per cent) and Mid Cheshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (56.2 per cent) NHS England data shows medics took an average of one hour, one minute and three seconds last month to respond to emergency calls, such as heart attacks, strokes, burns and epilepsy, in March. The figure is up from 42 minutes and seven seconds in February and is the longest time on record (red bars). It is also more than triple the NHS target of 18 minutes Admissions have slowed down over the past week, however. The NHS says infected patients still pose a workforce challenge because they need treatment in wards segregated from patients without the virus. Mr Hopson also argued the bed-blocking crisis was 'placing even more strain on bed capacity'. Experts claim the numbers are being driven by the crisis in social care, which Covid has worsened. The sector was already short of 100,000 carers before the pandemic kicked off. Thousands of social care workers were also forced to leave the industry when No10 brought in its own controversial vaccine mandate. Many bed-blockers are elderly patients who cannot go back to their homes because extra support is not available, or find nursing home places. It can have a knock-on effect and cause overcrowding in casualty units because the lack of space means patients cannot be moved onto wards. The most up-to-date statistics also reveal A&E performance plummeted to its worst ever level in March with 22,506 patients left waiting 12 hours to be treated. Ambulance response times have also drastically worsened, leaving heart attack and stroke patients to routinely wait over an hour for paramedics to arrive. Scientists are investigating whether a vaccine for cancer can be developed using the same mRNA technology as in COVID-19 jabs. A team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has begun testing jabs that can recruit the immune system to latch onto and kill cells that are replicating uncontrollably, stopping the disease in its tracks. The potential vaccines are being heralded as a 'game-changer' that could help overcome America's second-biggest cause of death. Research comes as part of a larger movement to incorporate mRNA technology into more forms of treatment after the long-unused technology emerged during the pandemic due to its ease of development and manufacturing. Zachary Hartman (pictured), an assistant professor in immunology at Duke University, North Carolina, said: 'If we can roll this out in the clinic for cancer, we think it could be a game-changer' 'If we can roll this out in the clinic for cancer, we think it could be a game-changer,' Dr Zachary Hartman, an assistant professor in immunology at Duke, told WGHP. The mRNA shots, manufactured by Pfizer, which partnered with the German-based BioNTech, and Moderna, proved to be one of the most effective developed. While the technology was discovered decades ago, it largely went unused before the pandemic brought it to the forefront of vaccine development. What is a cancer vaccine? Are any available? A cancer vaccine aims to recruit the immune system to fight off the illness. Cancer is not triggered by a virus, but occurs when cells start dividing un-controllably due to a mutation. These cells may have a unique antigen on their surface compared to healthy ones. Cancer vaccines display this to the immune system, sparking an immune response. Scientists say this then leads to the immune system hunting out and killing cancerous cells. Only one cancer vaccine for prostate cancer is available to date. It involves white blood cells being extracted from the body and exposed to antigens from cancerous cells. These are then re-administered where scientists hope they will fight off the illness. But the treatment, available to late stage cancer patients, does not appear to lead to tumors shrinking and only gives men who receive it a few additional months to live. Advertisement Now, companies and scientists are further exploring how to use mRNA, and whether it can hold the answers to solving some of medicines biggest mysteries. ''Remember, people were expecting that a successful vaccine would provide protective immunity to about 50 percent of patients,' Hartman said of the mRNA Covid shots. '(But) the first two mRNA vaccines provided over 90 percent protection, a remarkable achievement.' Currently only a jab against prostate cancer for those with the disease is available, which prolongs patients' lives by a few months. Hartman believes that mRNA could change the way cancer is treated. 'I think that within my lifetime we will see cancer as a more managed disease,' he told the North Carolina-based local news station. 'Were going to turn the dial and be able to treat more and more of these kinds of cancers in the coming years and decades to where its not quite the same sentence it was 20 or 30 years ago. 'I dont think well ever be able to rid the world of cancer, but I think we will be able to prevent a lot of cancers and then a lot of cancers that well be able to catch early and treat, well have very effective treatments.' Duke University scientists are currently testing an mRNA vaccine for breast cancer which leads to the body making many more proteins, potentially triggering a stronger immune response. It is currently in Phase II trials, and being tested on 39 women. Results are expected later this year. Scientists have been developing vaccines to prevent cancer or treat the disease in patients that already have it for years. Unlike Covid, cancer is not triggered by a virus but when cells start dividing uncontrollably due to mutations. These cells may have a unique protein on their surface compared to others that are healthy. Scientists say a jab against cancer would work by exposing the body's immune system to this protein. It is hoped this would lead to the body's defenses hunting out and killing cancer cells, stopping the disease. But some scientists warn a cancer vaccine may never work because for patients their immune system is normally already heavily weakened. They also warn that in some cases cancer cells may not look different from healthy cells in the body, meaning cancer jabs could not be used. Only one cancer vaccine against prostate cancer has been approved for use in the U.S. to date. Vaccine manufacturer Moderna is trialing mRNA vaccines for flu and HIV (stock image) It is specially tailored for each patient, and made by extracting white blood cells and mixing them with proteins from prostate cancer cells. The white blood cells are then re-administered into the body. The treatment is currently only available for late-stage cancer patients. It has has not been shown to stop the illness or lead to tumors shrinking, but can prolong patients' lives by a few months. Scientists hope that by developing mRNA-based shots against cancer they may be able to develop better shots. mRNA jabs use part of a genetic code called messenger RNA, or mRNA, and would work by tricking the body to produce a harmless part of cancer cells. This will help the body to recognize them as a potential danger, and hunt out cells with this. Duke scientists are yet to reveal which cancer they are targeting with their mRNA shots, or whether their jab will aim to prevent or treat cancer. The technology is also being explored elsewhere as well, with leading vaccine manufacturer Moderna entering trials for a flu shot, and even an HIV vaccine with an mRNA base. Cancer is the second biggest killer in the U.S., leading to more than 600,000 fatalities every year. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, behind almost a quarter of fatalities, followed by cancer of the colon and rectum and pancreas. Covid vaccines using mRNA technology have made up the bulk of those dished out across the U.S. Developed by Pfizer and Moderna, the jabs have been given to millions of people across more than 82 countries. Initial studies showed the jabs were up to 95 percent effective at preventing illness with Covid. But protection from them was found to wane over time. Embattled big pharma company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) paid out another large settlement this week, this time shelling out nearly $100 million to settle a West Virginia lawsuit over the firm's role in the opioid epidemic. The payout allows the company to avoid a larger suit filed by state officials against pharmaceuticals companies it alleges played a role in the Mountain State's drug overdose crisis - which is by far the worst in the nation. J&J is alleged to have over-marketed opioid drugs in the state - allegations that follow it and many others around the country - and pushing doctors to over-prescribe the highly addictive drug. This settlement is just a small part of the turmoil the company is currently facing, with it facing nearly 40,000 lawsuits for selling baby powder products with cancer-causing chemicals and allegations that it paid doctors to perform human experiments on prisoners in past decades emerging in recent years. Johnson and Johnson paid a $99 million settlement to West Virginia over its alleged role in exacerbating the state's opioid issue. The company did not admit fault as part of the payout (file photo) J&J, and other major pharma companies, are accused of leveraging their relationships with doctors to over-prescribe highly-addictive opioids (file photo) As part of the settlement, J&J does not admit any liability or wrong-doing for its role in the opioid crisis. The company also paid out a $5 billion settlement earlier this year to clear state and local level lawsuits from around the country. Not included in that suit, West Virginia chose to sue J&J on its own, adding it to a suit that also included Teva Pharmaceuticals and Allergan. West Virginia previously reached a $26 million settlement with Endo International Plc, which had also been a defendant in the ongoing trial. The Mountain state is suffering worse than any other from America's drug epidemic, which kills more than 100,000 people every 12 months, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Most recent CDC data, released earlier this month that includes a 12 month period from November 2020 to 2021, found that 1,519 West Virginia residents died of a drug overdose during that period. At 84.9 deaths per 100,000 residents, West Virginia is recording by far the most deaths per capita - Tennessee coming in second at 56.4 per 100,000 residents - and more than triple the national overdose rate. The embattled J&J has also faced thousands of lawsuits over allegations that its talc-based baby powder product was contaminated with asbestos (file photo) US records more than 106,000 drug overdose deaths in 12 months, CDC reports An estimated 106,854 Americans died of a drug overdose from November 2020 to 2021, according to a CDC report. It is the sixth consecutive monthly report that has set at all-time record, and the eighth straight with over 100,000 deaths reported. Opioids, and specifically synthetic versions of the drug like fentanyl, are most at fault. Just over 80,000 deaths are believed to have been caused by opioids, which synthetic opioids making up around 70,000 of them. The 106,000 mark is a slight increase from the 105,000 deaths recorded from October 2020 to 2021 in a report published last month. It is also a 16 percent increase year-to-year. The overdose crisis, which has been most prominently associated with the opioid epidemic, emerged as a result of a variety of factors over the past two decades. Relationships between doctors and pharmaceutical companies were blamed for a surge in prescriptions of the highly addictive painkilling drugs, leading to many becoming dependent, and turning to the black market to purchase illicit versions. Advertisement West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said on Monday that the settlement, which also resolves lawsuits by local governments, would allow the state to quickly fund programs intended to address opioid addiction and its fallout in the state. 'We can save lives this year, and that's what we're going to do,' Morrisey said at a news conference. J&J finalized a nationwide $5 billion opioid settlement in February, which largely resolved state and local government opioid lawsuits against the healthcare conglomerate. West Virginia was one of five states that did not join that settlement at the time. The state would have received about $50 million had it joined the earlier agreement. Morrisey said the increased recovery from J&J vindicated the decision not to join the nationwide settlement. The New Brunswick, New Jersey, based company, that has since pulled its opioid products from shelves, has been described as the 'Kingpin' behind the opioid epidemic in previous lawsuits. 'We believe that Johnson & Johnson is the Kingpin behind the opioid crisis that has caused the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans and created a generation of people addicted to opioids in our state,' Mike Hunter, former Oklahoma attorney general said. 'The evidence is clear that they must be held accountable for the public nuisance they caused and ordered to abate it.' Its opioids are not the only products J&J has had to remove from shelves after facing a mountain of lawsuits. J&J faced nearly 40,000 lawsuits in recent years over allegations that its talc-based baby powder product was contaminated with asbestos - a cancer-causing chemical tied to mesothelioma and other cancers. It has since been pulled from shelves in the U.S., and the company was able to settle some of the suits by attaching liability to a Texas-based shell company and file for bankruptcy. Mounting suits have not hurt the company much financially, though. According to an analysis by Fierce Pharma, J&J is still the largest pharma company in the world, with revenue even growing by 14 percent last year. The worldwide distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines, along with many other consumer products, have proved to be a boon for the company. Global deaths from antibiotic-resistant 'super-bugs' have surged 600 percent in just five years, one expert warns. Scientists have been sounding the alarm over bacterial infections resistant to current treatments for years, and calling on people to use the medicines less often. But now Dr Christopher Murray, a University of Washington physician who co-authored a Lancet paper on the emerging crisis, has warned fatalities are rising. Murray estimated earlier this year that up to 5 million people globally have died with infections resistant to the drugs. This was up from the 700,000 global deaths with the infections estimated five years earlier in a landmark UK report. Dr Christopher Murray estimated earlier this year that up to 5million people died with infections resistant to antibiotics globally in 2019 Speaking on the University of Chicago's 'Big Brains' podcast, Murray said 'even for people in the field' it was a surprise how big the number was. 'There was a very influential study called the O'Neill report for the UK Government on the risks of anti-microbial resistance,' he said. 'And they had started off with some numbers for 2015, they were quite a bit smaller, only 700,000 deaths. WHEN SHOULD YOU TAKE ANTIBIOTICS? Antibiotics may be used to treat bacterial infections that are unlikely to clear up on their own, may infect others, or pose serious risks. They are needed most when someone suffers from sepsis, pneumonia, a urinary tract infections (UTI), sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhoea or meningococcal meningitis. But they are also frequently being used to treat illnesses such as coughs, earache and sore throats. Experts recommend against this, saying these cases normally clear up by themselves. Taking antibiotics encourages harmful bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means that the medicines may not work when you really need them. Research in 2017 showed that 38 per cent of people still expect an antibiotic from a doctor when they visit with a cough, flu or a throat, ear, sinus or chest infection. Advertisement 'Our 5 million number is the one that's comparable to their 700,000 number.' Murray's estimate was based on data from surveillance systems, studies and hospital surveys from more than 200 countries. These were then fed into a statistical model, to estimate the number of people dying with the diseases globally, in a similar way to the report from UK experts. He suggested that around one million deaths were directly triggered by the resistant infections. Murray also suggested that pneumonia deaths may double if the the super-bugs become widespread enough. 'If you take all (pneumonia patients coming) to U.S. hospitals, even the ones who get hospitalized, the case fatality rate is less than 5 percent, depends on the bug, but on average for them all,' he said. 'Whereas in the pre-antibiotic era, it wouldve been a much higher number. 'Look, antibiotics are life saving drugs, they can have or reduce your case fatality rate by 80, 90 per cent, a good antibiotic, and so are truly life saving.' Antibiotic resistance is considered by scientists to be one of the top health threats in the world, alongside climate change and terrorism. This is because it allows bacteria to evade common and once effective medicines, leaving doctors unable to treat once curable diseases. Dr Chris Murray, from Washington University, warned about the rise Antibiotics work by attacking dangerous bacteria such as E.coli which can trigger kidney failure in serious cases and killing them to stop an infection. But if the medicines are used too often, bacteria can become resistant, making the treatments ineffective. Bacteria can also become resistant if incorrect doses are taken or if they are exposed to low levels of the antibiotic. These may be insufficient to kill them but enough for them to adapt to survive the drugs. When this happens stronger antibiotics must be used to stop the illness, but this runs the risk bacteria will also evolve resistance to these as they begin to be used more often. About 2.4 million antibiotic-resistant infections are now thought to occur in the U.S. every year, estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. This leads to about 35,900 deaths from these illnesses, up half from the 23,000 estimated in 2013. Resistant strains health officials are keeping tabs on include C.difficile which can trigger permanent damage to the large intestine and gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease. A primary challenger to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is accusing the outspoken lawmaker of ignoring her constituents while 'throwing bombs' at both parties in Congress -- and Greene's opponent claims to have some support on Capitol Hill. A battle is brewing in Georgia's 14th Congressional District, where two candidates for the House of Representatives are strikingly similar in policy -- but Greene's challenger believes the lawmaker has a 'pattern' of ignoring her voters. And they're competing over who can be a better representative of Donald Trump's values in Congress, setting up an unusual battle in a faction of the GOP outside of the greater war for the party's future. The former president swept the district in 2020 by more than 48 points over Joe Biden. Businesswoman Jennifer Strahan conceded 'there's certainly going to be some overlap in terms of things that we believe or stand for' with the GOP incumbent. But she told DailyMail.com she's heard frustrations from numerous voters within Greene's district who feel largely unattended to -- including multiple former members of the military. 'We have one veteran who's reached out to her office, I think 10 or 11 times, and hasn't been able to get a response. And then obviously, we've heard others,' she said. Greene dismissed Strahan's campaign against her and claimed it was the congresswoman's aides she was insulting. After being accused by her primary opponent of neglecting her constituents, Greene told DailyMail.com: 'No one knows or cares who this naive candidate is but everyone knows and loves my staff. Im proud and truly grateful for all of the hard work my staff has accomplished and couldnt do it without them' Jennifer Strahan is a healthcare advisory firm executive who bills herself as a 'no-nonsense conservative' alternative to Greene's 'celebrity' stunts 'This no-name candidate is not insulting me, shes insulting my staff who are well known and loved by everyone all over our district. My staff have been serving people long before this clueless woman even moved to Georgia,' the representative told DailyMail.com. 'No one knows or cares who this naive candidate is but everyone knows and loves my staff. Im proud and truly grateful for all of the hard work my staff has accomplished and couldnt do it without them.' She accused the first-time candidate of 'spreading lies.' 'This candidate is taking pitiful advice from her DC consultants and not making any friends in NW GA by attacking my well-known and beloved staff in her desperate attempts for attention. She needs to stop lying and she owes my staff an apology,' Greene said. Strahan's campaign blasted Greene for 'hiding behind her staff' through the lengthy statement. 'Rep. Greene's refusal to take responsibility for her own failures is not surprising and is also exactly why Georgians are sick of her embarrassing behavior. She can hide behind her staff, but everyone knows leadership is from the top down. When real people are having problems and not being heard or helped, its something that should be addressed,' Strahan's spokesman said. He added: 'Spare us the drama and do your job.' Strahan's campaign on Thursday shared an audio clip with DailyMail.com from a morning town hall in which she can be heard asking a voter, apparently another veteran, whether he's reached out to Greene's office for aid. 'She will not help,' the man can be heard saying. Strahan said in an interview afterwards, 'It's a pattern. It's not just like one off things here or there. I mean, people aren't able to get what they need.' 'We've heard others that have said they've had to go to -- to their dismay -- the Democrat senators in the state to be able to get the services they need, because they can't get it here in our district. And that's just a shame,' the primary contender said. Greene's office disputed the accusations, claiming she's done multiple town halls with 150 to 200 people in attendance and that she's processed 804 cases for residents of the Peach State's 14th District since being sworn in in January 2021, including more than 100 with the Veterans Affairs Department. Georgia state GOP Rep. Matt Barton said outreach to constituents from Greene's office has been 'outstanding' and 'super responsive' in his experience. Barton told DailyMail.com he has not heard any information about Strahan's outreach. Service provided by members of Congress to constituents who request it is known as casework. Casework is not a required part of a lawmaker's job, but it's commonly an expected part of voters outreach. Both claim to be representatives of Donald Trump's policies. Strahan claimed Greene can't enact them because no one in Congress takes her 'seriously.' Meanwhile Greene secured Trump's endorsement earlier this month 'If this aspiring politician knows of a veteran who needs help, but hasn't attempted to connect them with our office, she's holding their welfare hostage to score political points,' a spokesman from Greene's office told DailyMail.com. But Greene was also blasted recently for comparing military enlistment to 'throwing your life away' because of President Joe Biden's foreign policy. 'I know a lot of young people dont want to have anything to do with that. Its like throwing your life away,' she said on Lou Dobbs' podcast on Saturday. 'Not to mention how theyve been forced to take the vaccine and the ones that didnt want to take it have been discharged. Who wants to be treated that way?' She claimed the Biden administration's Pentagon was a 'disaster' and blamed the 'woke ideology' of the 'sick and satanic left' for its state. To Strahan, whose brother is a Marine and grandfathers served in the military, Greene's comments were 'absolutely' personal. 'I will always support our military and servicemen and women. You know, these are problems that we see across the board, where again, she says one thing, but then she says another, so she speaks out of both sides of her mouth,' she said of her opponent. Frustration with Greene does not end with the heavily rural district's constituents, according to Strahan, who claims to have had 'conversation' about her campaign with federal lawmakers. She told DailyMail.com without naming names that she's seen 'support' among federal lawmakers who she suggested are tired of Greene's public-facing firebrand politics at the expense of working together to pass legislation. Strahan (pictured campaigning in Georgia's 14th District) also said she has 'had a lot of conversation' with current GOP lawmakers who want her to unseat Greene Asked if she gets the sense they would prefer someone like her as a colleague, Strahan said that was 'absolutely' the case. 'I have had a lot of conversation with current representatives and senators -- and a lot of support -- because at the end of the day, again, she throws as many bombs on the Republican as the Democrat side,' Strahan said of Greene. 'She's not there to work with colleagues. And that doesn't mean just by working with individuals -- even if you disagree with them -- doesn't mean you're sacrificing your values or your beliefs, but you have to be able to have those tough conversations around really important issues.' A cornerstone of Strahan's campaign has been Greene's lack of committee assignments -- which outside of House-wide votes, mostly freezes her out of the federal legislative process. House Democrats plus 11 Republicans voted to strip her of her positions on the budget committee as well as the committee on Education and Labor for her history of pushing baseless conspiracy theories online and promoting violence against leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the freshman GOP lawmaker was sworn in. But Greene's office pointed out to DailyMail.com that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in March that he would restore her assignments if Republicans won back the majority in this year's midterms. McCarthy had 'said, multiple times, the 118th Congress will see Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene back on committees, even better ones than she had before,' Greene's spokesman said. 'She is looking forward to serving with Republicans in the majority.' Greene was even asked to take part in an invitation-only Congressional delegation being led by McCarthy, sources on Capitol Hill told DailyMail.com. The congresswoman also clinched Trump's all-important endorsement earlier this month, when he praised her as a 'warrior' who 'doesn't back down.' Strahan, however, doubts that Greene is putting the ex-president's America First policies in action. 'I support President Trump's policies, and I feel like he did a lot of things that were very beneficial,' she said. 'We need to make sure that we're sending someone to Congress who can actually promote and protect those policies that brought a lot of strength and good back to our country. We don't have that right now, because no one takes our current representative seriously.' Like Strahan, Greene had never held elected office when she was elected on a wave of pro-Trump support in areas the former president won during the 2020 election -- which he overall lost to Biden. Marcus Flowers, an Army veteran, is the top fundraising opponent to Greene. He's running as a Democrat to challenge the incumbent Republican in November's midterm elections and has raised nearly $4.7 million toward that goal in 2021 But since then she's managed to rake in a massive war chest, raising nearly $7.5 million during her first year in office and ending 2021 with roughly $3.5 million cash on-hand. Available data for her challenger, however, shows Strahan only just began fundraising in July. In that time she's received $106,561.40 in donations, with the majority in itemized individual contributions. She's ending the year with most of it on-hand, just over $60,000. While the 35-year-old executive is the second-largest Republican fundraiser challenging Greene, four Democrats jostling for the opportunity to face Greene in November outpaced Strahan's efforts. They're led by Democrat Marcus Flowers, who raised nearly $4.7 million last year. A poll conducted earlier this year showed Strahan trailing Greene by a large but not insurmountable gap -- until respondents read some of the incumbent's statements. In January, 450 likely voters in Georgia's 14th district were asked who they would vote for in the May 24 primary by a TargetPoint poll obtained by Jewish Insider. At first, Greene held a large lead with 59 percent of support compared to 30 percent who backed Strahan. Survey participants were then told about 'a number of anti-Jewish statements' made by Greene as well as comments supporting the Nation of Islam, according to the outlet. The statements managed to level out support to 41 percent per candidate. According to internal polling from Greene's re-election campaign, the congresswoman was the leading choice for 73 percent of 'definite voters.' That survey claimed to have only shown 3 percent of support for Strahan. A TikTok star at the centre of a shocking acid attack is a former in-law of one of Sydney's most notorious underworld figures. Jenny Elhassan, 32, had acid thrown in her face by three men as she left a restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown on Friday while live-streaming to followers. Ms Elhassan's sister Alia was formerly married to convicted drug smuggler Steven Elmir, once regarded as of Sydney's most feared underworld figures. Police are also investigating potential links between her attackers and the notorious Alameddine crime family accused of several recent underworld hits. Elmir was recently sentenced to up to 24 years behind bars for his role in a conspiracy to import nearly two tonnes of illicit drugs from the Netherlands in 2017. Jenny Elhassan (pictured) had acid thrown in her face by three men while leaving a restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown precinct on Friday night Known by the codename 'Mr Worldwide', he was one of nine men arrested over the sting which included Michael Ibrahim, the brother of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim. He spent two years in custody in Dubai for a 'civil debt' he was unaware of before he was extradited back home by Australian Federal police. Elmir will spend a minimum 14 years behind bars and isn't eligible for parole for another nine years. It's understood police are planning to question rapper Ali 'Ay Huncho' Younes over allegations he was involved in the attack on Ms Elhassan, the Daily Telegraph reported. Younes was previously linked to the Alameddine family. He was also reportedly close friends with Ms Elhassan and invested $200,000 into helping her establish her TikTok fame before a bitter falling out. Younes, who is currently on bail for charges of affray, assault and participate in a criminal group has denied any involvement in the attack on Ms Elhassan. His lawyer claimed police are yet to speak to Younes. 'I have spoken to my client, he vehemently and strenuously denies any involvement in the terrible incident,' Abdul Saddick told the publication. Jenny Elhassan is the former sister-in-law of convicted international drug smuggler Steven Elmir (pictured) It has also emerged Ms Elhassan isn't cooperating with police as she doesn't want her attackers punished, amid fears the incident may escalate. 'In cases like this where the victim is reluctant to assist investigators it makes the job harder,' Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett said. 'But we will get to the bottom of this public attack.' The new details emerged after it was revealed Ms Elhassan had taunted an unknown person hours just before the attack, saying 'I'm not scared of you... come for me' The eerie message from a clip filmed earlier that day, she talked about getting threatening phone calls and addressed a person directly. 'Back off, back off I'm not scared of you. I don't give a f***. I'm making sure everything is public. If you wanna come for me, come for me.' TikToker Jenny Elhassan (pictured) taunted an unknown person by saying 'Come for me', just hours before she was attacked in central Sydney In another clip filmed before she was attacked by three masked men who jumped out of a black SUV, Ms Elhassan said she had a 'bounty' on her head. After being attacked at the Old Town Hong Kong restaurant in Haymarket at around 11pm on Friday, she was rushed to hospital with burns to her right eye, forehead and neck. . Before the incident Ms Elhassan also posted another clip containing a recording of her speaking to a police officer, who confirmed 'they are coming after you'. A TikTok star claimed she was threatened with 'an attack' if she did not delete a podcast naming a man before acid was sprayed in her face in a terrifying ambush. He also warned her to stay in busy public areas for her own safety. 'While I was streaming someone came into my life and told me I better take the podcast down of [his] name or there is going to be an order on me,' Ms Elhassan said in a video before the ambush. It understood the 'order' was a targeted attack which may have been arranged for a payment, but the young mum refused to remove the post she was threatened over. 'I will drop your name for the rest of my life ... I could not give a f***,' she fumed. 'Get the po po's [police] involved, get the lawyers involved get the prime f***ing minister involved, nothing is going to stop me.' Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Jenny Elhassan detailed the threat in a video prior to the horrific incident which saw her rushed to hospital with burns to her right eye, forehead and neck late on Friday night Jenny Elhassan, the young mother who had acid thrown in her eyes on Friday, admitted she knows the identity of at least one of her attackers but didn't want to name them Ms Elhassan added that she would take the man to court if the 'order' was carried out - to 'make sure you have nothing'. A far more subdued Ms Elhassan broke her silence on Saturday, hours after a man threw acid in her face, admitting it would be 'better for me' if she did not escalate. 'I feel like I just want it to blow over, I don't want anything to escalate,' she told Channel Ten. 'I feel like if I just let it blow over it will be much better for me.' The young mother said she knew the identity of at least one of her attackers but didn't want to name them. Ms Elhassan was dining at the popular Dixon Street eatery moments before she was set upon Ms Elhassan filmed another video in her hospital bed showing the extent of damage to her face with burn marks on her neck and above her eyebrow Restaurant staff handed Ms Elhassan bottles of water before she poured the liquid over her face Police confirmed a HAZMAT crew attended the scene at 11.15pm and the woman was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital for treatment of facial injuries. The day after the attack she showed burn marks on her face and neck and in another video described the excruciating pain in her right eye. 'I still feel like there's a knife stuck in my eye,' Ms Elhassan said. She also added that she was relieved her six year old daughter did not witness the horror unfold, and believes her eyes were only saved by her designer sunglasses. NSW police are on the hunt for three men who fled along Dixon Street. The vicious attack was captured in her livestream, in which she is heard screaming for water seconds afterwards. She also claimed to have needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation administered by her sister, Alia, for 10 minutes because she passed out from the acid attack. Footage shows Ms Elhassan howling for water and begging for help from her terrified sister Alia Jenny Elhassan, 32, was dining at the Old Town Hong Kong restaurant on Dixon Street at Haymarket, in Sydney, at 11pm on Friday Footage shows Ms Elhassan howling for water and begging for help from her terrified sister. 'I can't see,' she says. 'Alia I can't breathe. Come give me mouth to mouth.' Restaurant staff handed Ms Elhassan bottles of water before she poured the liquid over her face. Ms Elhassan filmed another video in her hospital bed showing the extent of damage to her face with burn marks on her neck and above her eyebrow. She said she was wearing sunglasses at the time, but the 'black acid' still managed to get into one of her eyes. 'See the burn marks on my neck, the burn marks across my head and my eyesight,' she said. Police set up a crime scene and called in the NSW Fire and Rescue HAZMAT crews for assistance NSW Ambulance inspector Andrew Bibb said: 'When paramedics arrived, this patient was very distressed and appeared to be struggling to breathe. 'Her face was quite swollen as a result of the chemical substance which was also impacting her vision. 'A chemical burn to any part of the body is extremely concerning let alone to a person's face. 'Of all the injuries paramedics attend, burns can be the most painful and difficult to manage.' Two decades after Hartlepool prison officer John Darwin attempted to fake his own death in a canoeing 'accident', ITV are airing a dramatised version of the bizarre events. The 'Canoe Man' had attempted to disappear in 2002 in order for his wife Anne to claim life insurance money before being caught out in 2007 and jailed for six years for the fraud. After his disappearance in March 2002, a large-scale search involving the scouring of 62 square miles of coastline looked to have confirmed the worst, as only a single paddle and then the wreckage of his kayak was discovered. After they had served half of the six-year jail sentences they were handed for their crimes, the couple divorced - with Darwin remarrying and moving to the Philippines and his ex-wife getting a job with the RSPCA. Above: Darwin with his second wife Mercy Mae, 48 For much of Darwin's missing five years, he had been living in secret in his own home in the seaside resort of Seaton Carew, where he shared a bed with his wife. And when family and friends visited and his sons returned from the inquest into his alleged death Darwin hid in a bedsit next door that was accessed through a passageway hidden behind the door of a fake cupboard. Darwin later admitted that he would carry out DIY on the front of his family home and even walked around his area disguised as an old man even as his two now grown-up sons Anthony and Mark continued to grieve for him thinking he was dead. The couple even lied to their own children as they attempted to claim pension, benefits and insurance to clear nearly 700,000 before they were caught. After her release from prison, Anne Darwin (pictured left this week) moved to a village near York and was able to get a job with the RSCPA thanks to qualifications she gained in prison. Right: Darwin with his second wife on their wedding day After spending five years laying low, John and Anne were rumbled after John pretended to have amnesia when turning himself in at a London police station - only for a photo of him and Anne in Panama to emerge. In 2008, after the scandal made national headlines, John was found guilty on deception charges and jailed for six years and three months. Anne was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for fraud and money-laundering charges. During their time in prison, the couple divorced with John citing 'unreasonable behaviour' as a reason for the split. John moved to Manila and remarried after the divorce to Filipino woman Mercy Mae Avila Darwin, 48. The couple made headlines earlier this year when Ms Darwin said her husband, who is now 71, was 'on his way' to fight in Ukraine and has 'good life insurance' in case it all goes wrong. The couple live outside Manila, with Darwin continuing to receive the UK state pension. His wife is said make a living running clothes stalls in the capital. After her release from prison, Anne Darwin moved to a village near York. She works for the RSPCA after getting IT and business qualifications while in prison. She was also able to reconcile with her two sons after one had branded her a 'hideous, lying b***h' and has been on holidays with them. John was jailed for six years and three months after admitting eight deception charges, wife Anne was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for fraud and money-laundering. When Darwin disappeared after taking his canoe out to sea, there was bafflement that he could have got into difficulty because the sea was said to be 'like a millpond'. The former prison officer paddled out to sea in a canoe near his family home at Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, before ditching the vessel to give the impression that he drowned. Pictured: The wreckage of the canoe that was discovered in the days following his disappearance For much of Darwin's missing five years, he had been living in secret in his own home (pictured), where he shared a bed with his wife. And when family and friends visited and his sons returned from the inquest into his alleged death Darwin hid in a bedsit next door that was accessed through a passageway hidden behind the door of a fake cupboard Just under a year after he disappeared, Darwin turned up at his family home looking 'an absolute mess', his wife said. She claimed that she had really believed he was dead before he turned up. In 2016, Mrs Darwin penned a tell-all book (pictured) about her life with her husband 'Although I was pleased he was still alive, I think deep down a part of me was always angry,' she said. 'To think of what he put us all through. He had basically come back expecting me to forgive him.' She claimed that she wanted to report what he had done but he then threatened to say she had been involved from the start, so she was 'trapped'. Mrs Darwin then agreed to become complicit in the scam and even agreed not to tell their two sons that their father was alive. At the inquest into his disappearance in April 2003, Mrs Darwin was able to have her husband declared dead, even though the seven years that is usually needed after someone has gone missing had not yet passed. Once their life insurance money was paid out and their mortgage paid off, Darwin spent time either with his wife in their family home or next door in the property they also owned that was split into several bedsits. The couple then decided to move abroad, with Darwin, who had stolen the identity of a dead baby named John Jones, opting for Panama as their destination. The family home was sold and the couple spent several months together in Panama after they had bought a 50,000 two-bed apartment in a suburb of Panama City. They also hoped to open a canoeing centre for eco-tourists. But Darwin then wanted to return to the UK because, Mrs Darwin said, he missed his sons. He said he would claim to have suffered amnesia. Darwin walked into a police station in December 2007 and said he thought he was a 'missing person' but said he could not remember anything that had happened in the past five years. When their two sons were called to the police station to be reunited with their father, the couple had to pretend to be astonished as they too saw each other again. None of the Darwin family were involved in making the drama, though the script was based on court documents, police interviews and media (file photo of John) Anthony (left) and Mark Darwin leave Teesside Crown Court after giving evidence against their mother at her 2008 trial Mrs Darwin said that her husband told her: 'Hello Anne, is that really you, are you all right?' After the couple's fraud was exposed and they were released from prison in 2011 after serving half of their sentences, their marriage came to an end. Mrs Darwin attempted to justify her actions in a book that was released in 2016. She said in an interview with The Guardian that year that deceiving her sons was 'unforgiveable'. She said her sons initially refused to see or talk to her, after one had testified against her at her trial. 'I was totally shocked by how dark and full of anger they were. To see that was absolutely horrendous. It jolted me. I could easily have buckled then and there,' she said. She said she is now reconciled with both of her sons and has been on holidays with them and their families. Asked if her sons were in touch with their father, she said 'that's a private matter for them'. Mrs Darwin was said to live in a 'small but comfortable flat' in a village outside York. Canoe fraudster John Darwin leaves Teesside Crown Court in 2014. A judge previously ordered he should repay 679,073 For much of Darwin's missing five years, he had been living in secret in his own home, where he shared a bed with his wife. Undated handout photo issued by Cleveland Police of CCTV from Kirkleatham Police station when John Darwin was taken into custody Undated handout photo issued by Cleveland Police of CCTV from Hartlepool Police station when Anne Darwin was taken into custody Mrs Darwin is pictured left in 2007, after she had been arrested following her return to Britain. Right: The mother-of-two is seen this week John and Anne Darwin are seen in a family photograph with their sons Mark and Anthony. The couple deceived their sons when they colluded to gain life insurance and pensions payouts She works for the RSPCA after getting IT and business qualifications while in prison. Darwin and his second wife moved last year from Manila to a property around 30 minutes away. Mrs Avila Darwin sub-lets a clothing stall in Manila's market and also runs another retail business, while Darwin lives off his state pension. She told The Mirror last year: 'I have a new business. I've had it for three years now. Boom. Making money. Mrs Avila Darwin told the newspaper this week about her husband allegedly going to Ukraine to join troops fighting against Russian forces. When questioned about the danger, she said: 'Yes, dangerous for the Russian when he shoot them. 'He will have a bullet proof vest and good life insurance, good for me.' Her comments come ahead of an ITV drama about John and Anne Darwin's fraud. The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe airs in April. Coles has been mocked for selling hot cross buns from its bakery over Christmas - but without the cross. A shopper picked up a six-pack of hot cross buns from his local store in Sydney on Saturday and noticed the buns only had a single line down the middle. The man mocked the supermarket giant's holiday fail after posting a photo of the buns with the caption, 'you had one job, Coles'. The Sydney-based shopper opened his six-pack of hot cross buns to find the buns were missing a crucial element - the cross Hot cross bun aficionados pointed out that the man was about to eat a batch of 'not cross buns' instead. Australians offered suggestions on the alternative holiday the baker was celebrating when they created the cross-less buns. Another user suggested Covid was the cause for the baking omission as the person who was meant to pipe the horizontal line called in sick. Bakers were quick to defend the Coles worker and simply said the oversight was due to a 'brain fart' brought on by mass production. 'Definitely brain fart. I always manage one or two trays where I do this around this time of year. Also baker,' one commented. 'I did this job for a while - you end up crossing tens of hundreds in an hour and something goes wrong at some point', another comment read. The Spiced buns with sultanas, currents and raisins are an Easter holiday treat loved by Australian's across the country Coles told Daily Mail Australia it hoped customers were not too 'cross' and could forgive the oversight. 'From Perth to Parramatta, Coles bakers have been working hard to make millions of delicious hot cross buns for Australians to enjoy over the Easter long weekend,' it said. 'With the excitement of an early morning visit from the Easter bunny, it looks like one of our egg-sellent bakers may have forgotten to add the final cross on this tasty pack of buns. 'We hope our customers aren't too 'cross' and can forgive the oversight during this busy period.' Anthony Albanese's election hopes took a hit after a significant blunder during the first week of campaigning, but the margin of error in the latest opinion poll indicates it's not over yet. Both Mr Albanese and Scott Morrison suffered a series of gaffes in recent days but a poll conducted by Resolve Political Monitor found the prime minister's approval rating actually improved. Despite recapturing the lead as preferred PM, analysts said he was not a sure bet and opinions were likely to continue flip-flopping ahead of the May 21 election. There is a 2.6 per cent margin of error within the latest data. Just 1,404 people participated in the polling over the course of one week. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence the general public should have that the poll result would reflect the opinions of the entire population. Anthony Albanese's election hopes took a hit after a significant blunder during the first week of campaigning but the margin of error in the latest opinion poll indicates it's still too close to call Despite Mr Morrison's personal popularity rising, the Resolve Strategic survey indicates Labor would win 51:49 in a two-party preferred vote Poll Who would you prefer to be Prime Minister? Scott Morrison Anthony Albanese Undecided Who would you prefer to be Prime Minister? Scott Morrison 105 votes Anthony Albanese 81 votes Undecided 10 votes Now share your opinion Despite Mr Morrison's personal popularity rising, the Resolve Strategic survey indicates Labor would win 51-49 in a two-party preferred vote. But 27 per cent of voters said they were still not committed to voting for one party over the other despite the election being in just five weeks. These swing voters could throw polling statistics out of the window come election day. Mr Albanese's popularity plunged from 37 per cent to 30 per cent following a string of gaffes in recent days but he still has five weeks left to change voters' minds. 'Every trend has gone the Coalition's way in this latest poll vote, leadership, policy, performance so the electorate is judging that the government won the first week of the campaign,' Resolve director Jim Reed told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'The calling of the election has moved voters from judging the government's term to a choice between the parties and particularly their leaders. It was incredibly damaging for Albanese to trip up on critical issues at precisely that point.' Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese hugs Reverent Rosemary Wynter during a visit to the All Souls' Anglican Church on Day 7 of the 2022 federal election campaign, in Bangalow But Mr Morrison hasn't had a flawless campaign, either. On Sunday, he repeatedly referred to a journalist as Mr Speaker, appearing to forget he was no longer in parliament. About 44 per cent of voters surveyed believed Mr Morrison was doing a good job as prime minister while 47 per cent rated his performance as poor. His performance rating of minus three points is a significant improvement on the minus 14 recorded two weeks ago. When asked about the Opposition Leader, 35 per cent said Mr Albanese was doing a good job while 44 per cent rated his performance as poor, which saw his net rating slump from minus four points to minus nine. Around 44 per cent of voters surveyed believed Mr Morrison was doing a good job as Prime Minister while 47 per cent rated his performance as poor The campaign got off to a bad start last Monday when Mr Albanese admitted to reporters he didn't know the current unemployment or the Reserve Bank cash rate. Several days later, he was forced to clarify that off-shore immigration centres would remain after he earlier declared he would turn back people smuggling boats. According to the TAB, the Labor party is still the most likely to cinch the election, but the odds are widening. The Coalitions odds narrowed from $2.90 on April 1 to $2.25 on Sunday while Labor's odds widened from $1.42 to $1.65. As with the margin of error in polling surveys, voters have been urged not to place too much weight on the odds from betting agencies, The Australian Financial Review reported. The Prime Minister attended church with his family before hitting the campaign trail in the marginal western Sydney seat of Parramatta, which included a visit to The Childrens' Hospital at Westmead The 2019 federal election discredited political betting markets, which strongly predicted Bill Shorten to lead Labor to a victory over Scott Morrison's Coalition. That year, Labor appeared to win the opinion polls, but they still lost where it counts - in the polling booths. Methodologies have changed in that time and appear to be more accurate after correctly predicting the South Australian election, but it's still not a sure bet. Mr Albanese spent Easter Sunday campaigning on the NSW far north coast and later appeared at the Byron Bay Bluesfest to welcome Jimmy Barnes to the stage. He was initially met with deafening boos from revellers before receiving cheers as he promised a funding boost for the arts sector and got Barnes to the stage to perform. The Prime Minister attended church with his family before hitting the campaign trail in the marginal western Sydney seat of Parramatta, which included a visit to The Childrens' Hospital at Westmead. Priti Patel has vowed to overhaul Britains flagship deradicalisation programme after a series of high- profile failures. The Prevent counter-terrorism scheme has faced intense criticism for failing to identify a succession of extremists who went on to commit horrific murders. In the most recent case, it emerged last week that Ali Harbi Ali, the murderer of Sir David Amess, was dismissed as a terrorist threat by experts just months before he bought a knife to hunt down MPs. Sir David's killer Ali Harbi Ali - who was sentenced to a whole life order - had been referred to the programme in 2014 but a year later it was concluded he no longer posed a threat Now Miss Patel has pledged that things need to change once she has been handed the findings of a long-awaited independent review of Prevent. The Prevent review is really important to me, the Home Secretary said. I cant pre-judge that review. But it is quite clear to me from my own observations that there are things that need to change. The review, commissioned by Miss Patel in January last year, is being conducted by William Shawcross, the former Charity Commission chief. It is understood to be near completion. Prevent was set up in 2006, and was designed to combat Islamist extremism as well as other threats, including far-Right fanatics and those with mixed or unstable ideologies. Confidential referrals can be made to Prevent by anyone who is concerned about a persons behaviour, including faith groups, schools, colleges, and even friends and relatives. The UK's flagship anti-terror strategy is being undermined by a politically correct emphasis on right-wing extremism over more dangerous Islamist radicalism, critics have said - as a review prepares to overhaul the 'broken' system A documentary to be shown tonight reveals that out of the 13 terror attacks in the past five years which left 14 dead and 128 injured seven offenders were known to the scheme. A former teacher of Ali told Channel 4s Dispatches she warned the authorities he could pose a risk seven years before he murdered Sir David last October. She said: They just said, We dont think hes a threat. We dont think hes worth taking on any further. We think hes going to be all right. A report by counter-terrorism think-tank the Henry Jackson Society last year found Prevent had been skewed away from the key threat posed by Islamist terrorism. It accused officials who oversee the scheme of allowing its work to be swayed by false allegations of Islamophobia. As a result, it claimed, anti-terror resources were being diverted from the principal terror threat to the UK Islamist extremism. The think-tanks Dr Alan Mendoza said: This shake-up could not come soon enough... Priti Patel should be congratulated for cutting through the Home Office bureaucracy to make it happen. 'Her reforms must be allowed to restore Prevent to its founding purpose cracking down on terrorism. Dispatches: Are We Losing the War on Terror? is on Channel 4 at 7.30pm tonight. The first international cruise ship allowed in Australian waters in two years has sailed into Sydney ahead of a return for the $5 billion cruise industry. P&O Australia's Pacific Explorer arrived in Sydney Harbour on Monday morning in preparation to accept vaccinated guests from May 31. Cruise liners are once again allowed to carry passengers in Australia after a ban put in place in March 2020 as the Covid pandemic began was lifted on Sunday. Ponant cruise line's Le Laperhouse will soon follow and sail between Darwin and Broome from April 28 during the peak Kimberley tourism season. P&O Cruises Australia's flagship Pacific Explorer enters Sydney Harbour displaying a banner emblazoned across her front on Monday (pictured) The first international cruise ship to return to Australia since March 2020, P&O's Pacific Explorer, sails into Sydney Harbour on Monday (pictured) 'This is the culmination of two years of hope and optimism and a lot of hard work,' a tearful Carnival Australia and P&O Cruises Australia chief executive Marguerite Fitzgerald said. The Pacific Explorer was marooned in Cyprus during the pandemic and will spend six weeks being re-provisioned while the 600-strong crew is trained up. The first voyage will be a four-night cruise between Sydney and Brisbane. 'This is a symbolic moment for Australia,' Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said. 'The pictures of the ship arriving will send the message around the world that Sydney is open for business - not just for cruising but for all tourism.' NSW, Queensland, and Victoria outlined testing and vaccination rules for both international passengers and crew, paving the way for the return of the ships. Tasmania and SA are still reviewing their rules and ships are restricted to smaller domestic vessels carrying up to 99 passengers. Interstate cruise ships with up to 350 passengers are allowed to dock in Western Australian and the Northern Territory with international liners to follow later in 2022. The ship had an escort of three tug boats which sprayed water into the air (pictured) Cruise Lines International Association said the lifting of the ban would be followed by a 'carefully managed resumption of operations'. The industry in 2019 supported about 18,000 jobs and generated about $5billion in direct and indirect revenue for the Australian economy, CLIA managing director of Australiasia Joel Katz said. The cruise industry fell under much scrutiny early in the pandemic. A day before the ban on the ships was brought in on March 19, a group of 2,700 passengers from the Ruby Princess were allowed to disembark in Sydney Harbour. The results of Covid tests on some passengers were still pending with 600 passengers later confirmed to have the virus, many of whom had since travelled interstate. An inquiry found NSW Health had responsibility for the passengers and largely absolved Border Force officials. The ship will spend six weeks being re-provisioned while the crew is trained up before the first voyage on May 31 The Queensland Government is particularly relying on the cruise industry to boost the economy with a number of infrastructure projects. These include a recently completed upgrade at the Port of Brisbane, a $127million project to widen and deepen the Cairns shipping channel, and a $232million upgrade to the Port of Townsville 'It's reassuring that cruise ships have improved their ventilation systems and will follow enhanced cleaning practices onboard,' Tourism Minster Stirling Hinchcliffe said. The re-opening of Australian waters to international cruise ships coincides with more than 41,000 new Covid cases reported across the country on Sunday. Home Secretary Priti Patel has fired back at The Archbishop of Canterbury after he declared in his Easter speech this morning the UK must not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' in reference to the migrant crisis. Writing a joint article in The Times with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta, the Home Secretary reiterated that her controversial plans were 'bold and innovative' in response to the religious leader who slammed the move. In the joint article, Ms Patel and Mr Biruta said: 'We are taking bold and innovative steps and it's surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions. 'The UK and Rwanda stand together in their efforts towards promoting a new, fairer and more effective global asylum system... Allowing this suffering to continue is no longer an option for any humanitarian nation.' On Sunday morning, Justin Welby told his Easter sermon congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal. Boris Johnson's government said it would help to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the Channel, which has faced immediate and heavy criticism from politicians and charities. Mr Welby said the 'serious' ethical questions' over sending asylum seekers abroad cannot 'stand the judgment of god'. Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) has fired back at The Archbishop of Canterbury after he declared in his Easter speech this morning the UK must not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' in reference to the migrant crisis The Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured today) blasted the government's Rwanda plan for asylum seekers as the 'opposite of the nature of God' Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 15, 2022 On Sunday morning, Justin Welby told his Easter sermon congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal He was joined in his sentiments by Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell who called it 'depressing and distressing'. But Tory MPs have called the Archbishop of Canterbury's stinging intervention over the government's plan to send thousands of migrants with a one-way ticket to Rwanda 'clumsy'. Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, a committed Catholic, said the government is not 'abandoning' migrants but taking on a 'very difficult responsibility' with the 'intention' of doing good' which he said is important within Christianity. Other Tory MPs John Redwood, Mike Wood and Tom Hunt also blasted Mr Welby's comments with Mr Hunt saying the Archbishop should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues. Mr Welby also called for a ceasefire in the Russian war on Ukraine and spoke of his concern for families struggling during the cost-of-living crisis and for those bereaved by Covid-19. In his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the UK has a 'national responsibility' as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' In his 8.10am sermon, the Archbishop said: 'The resurrection of Jesus is not a magic wand that makes the world perfect. 'But the resurrection of Christ is the tectonic shift in the way the cosmos works. It is the conquest of death and the opening of eternal life - through Jesus, a gift offered to every human being who reaches out to him. 'Not just for individuals but setting a benchmark for all of society because God is lord of every society and nation.' He will continue: 'Let this be a time for Russian ceasefire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. 'This is a time for resetting the ways of peace, not for what Bismarck called blood and iron. Let Christ prevail. Let the darkness of war be banished. 'And this season is also why there are such serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas. 'The details are for politics and politicians. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. 'It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was announced first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. 'And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures on the cross.' He also said the love of god and hope triumphs over 'nightmares' and 'global power'. Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 17, 2022 Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme. Mr Cottrell said: 'It is so depressing and distressing this week to find that asylum seekers fleeing war, famine and oppression from deeply, deeply troubled parts of the world will not be treated with the dignity and compassion that is the right of every human being, and instead of being dealt with quickly and efficiently here on our soil will be shipped to Rwanda. 'We can do better than this. We can do better than this because of what we see in Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, with a vision for our humanity where barriers are broken down, not new obstacles put in the path. 'After all, there is in law no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker. It is the people who exploit them that we need to crack down on, not our sisters and brothers in their need. We don't need to build more barriers and cower in the darkness of the shadows they create.' Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell (pictured) said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme The Member of Parliament for Ipswich Tom Hunt said Mr Welby's comments were 'wrong headed' and he should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, said could the Archbishop 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions' Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. 'Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He said '90% of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. The Brexit opportunities minister also suggested the Government's immigration plan creates an 'opportunity for Rwanda'. He said: 'What is being done is providing an opportunity for Rwanda because it will provide Rwanda, a country that needs support and has gone through terrible troubles... and the Rwandan story is almost an Easter story of redemption, isn't it? 'Of a country that suffered the most appalling and horrific genocide and is now recovering and therefore the UK supporting it must be a good thing. 'It helps people come through legitimate routes and I think the aim of the policy - within Christianity intention is always very important - and the intention of the Government is to do good. 'It is to help those in genuine need of asylum and to make it harder for crime to prosper, and that I think, is fundamentally important.' The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times.' Pictured: So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Mr Reese-Mogg had previously stated he 'took his whip from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church rather than the [Tory party's] Whip's Office'. The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times. 'To do so on Easter Sunday feels very wrong. Archbishop of York views particularly wrong headed. Claims he's in tune with majority of the public.' John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions'. He said in a Tweet: 'I thought the Easter message was love conquers all. We should forgive and reconcile. Could the Archbishop help do that instead of sharpening political divisions? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages?' Mike Wood MP also told GB News: 'They were unwise comments This will help to reduce the tragic losses at sea that we've had.' It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured in Rwanda on Thusday, that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal' It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal'. But issuing a rare ministerial direction compelling the plans to go ahead despite the concern, Ms Patel said that 'without action, costs will continue to rise, lives will continue to be lost'. The Home Office insisted the UK has a 'proud history' of supporting those in need and that Rwanda is a 'fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers'. The policy has enjoyed some support from Conservative MPs, who say the issue of small boats crossing the Channel is high on the priority list for constituents. Ms Patel said she expects other countries to follow the UK's example, suggesting Denmark could be among those to reproduce the Government's 'blueprint', while the Home Office insisted its approach is not in breach of refugee agreements. Boris Johnson's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has today been slammed as an 'egregious breach of international law' and 'really unacceptable' by the United Nation's refugee agency. Pictured: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the command room at the 'Maritime rescue coordination centre' in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022 Speaking about the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic, the Archbishop Mr Welby also said: 'In the UK we might be waking up to lighter mornings and warmer days. 'But families across the country are waking up to cold homes and empty stomachs as we face the greatest cost-of-living crisis - we have known in our lifetimes. 'And because of this, they wake up with fear. 'Further afield people are waking up to horrors they never imagined possible. 'Last month president Zelensky gave a speech in which he said 'the end of the world has arrived'. 'Ukrainians have woken up to the end of the world as they knew it. 'Now they are awakened by the noises of war and the sickening reality of terror. They wake up to mortal fear.' Reflecting, on Mary waking up when Jesus was crucified, he said she awoke 'grim' with 'anger' at disciples for running away and her 'misery' at the future. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby performs the Washing of The Feet ceremony during the Maundy Thursday service at the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Kent, 'Be strong and have courage in your hearts': Boris Johnson addresses Ukrainians in his Easter message as he highlights triumph of good over evil and life over death By ELMIRA TANATAROVA FOR MAILONLINE Boris Johnson addressed Ukrainians in his Easter message today, remarking that 'Christ's message of hope the triumph of life over death and good over evil will resonate this year perhaps more than any other'. The Prime Minister, who is now banned from entering Russia following the Kremlin's sanctions on a dozen other British government members and politicians, told Christians around the world to 'be strong and have courage in your heart'. He added: 'Easter tells us that there is light beyond the darkness, that beyond the suffering lies redemption.' Moscow has meanwhile accused Britain, with Johnson making a surprise visit to Ukraine last week, of 'deliberately aggravating the situation surrounding Ukraine, pumping the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the behalf of NATO' and threatened to expand its sanctions list 'soon'. The prime minister also tweeted out an Easter message in Ukrainian today, following a post yesterday in which he vowed to send more aid to Volodymyr Zelensky. It said: 'I updated my friend @ZelenskyyUa this afternoon on further military aid we will provide to Ukraine in the coming days. 'The UK will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians have the resources they need to defend their country from the ongoing Russian onslaught.' Keir Starmer's message also touched on the conflict and themes of overcoming adversity. The Labour leader said, in his address to 'Christians around the world': 'I know you draw inspiration from the life of Jesus and the Easter story which is a message of overcoming adversity and of hope. Of light overcoming darkness. 'And at this pivotal time, when Europe is at war and people are facing greater poverty at home, hope is more important than ever. 'Thank you and Happy Easter.' Yesterday Pope Francis called for 'gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war' in an Easter vigil homily in St Peter's Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Ivan Fedorov was abducted and held for five days by Russian troops after they occupied Melitopol, a strategic southern city. Francis noted that while 'many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights...nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death'. He did not refer directly to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but he has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace. Francis also addressed Mr Fedorov and Ukrainian legislators Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rusem Umerov, who sat all together in the front row. He said: 'In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. 'We can only give you our company, our prayer.' Francis added that 'the biggest thing you can receive: Christ is risen'. He spoke the last three words in Ukrainian. The messages of hope come as Zelensky last night warned that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons to bring a catastrophic end to its invasion of Ukraine. He urged the world to 'prepare' for the worst by stocking up on anti-radiation medicine and building air raid shelters. The comedian-turned-war time leader made the doomsday warning during an interview with national media, before sharing the clip via his Telegram channel. He made a similar announcement on Friday, when he said it could not be ruled out that Vladimir Putin would use tactical nukes, as his war against Ukraine continues to stall. On Saturday Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a stark reminder that the whole country remains under threat. Today Ukraine and Russia failed to agree about humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said. 'We have not been able to agree...about ceasefires on evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,' she said on her Telegram account. She added that the Ukrainian authorities have asked for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops from the besieged port of Mariupol. Advertisement He added: 'Such a sense of helplessness will have been common this morning. 'Many will be awakened in refugee camps separated from loved ones on the front line, grieving for those missing, raped, abused or killed wondering how to cope. 'For many in this country, the news from Ukraine is terrible but the rising cost of power and fuel, of basic foods, will be the first and overwhelming thought of the day. 'For others it will be the continued deep sense of loss of someone from Covid, or during Covid, to whom they could not say a proper farewell. 'The news might move on but grief does not. 'Others will be struggling at work or feel a deep sense of injustice at the way they've been mistreated by friends, families or employers.' Reflecting on what the resurrection means for us as individuals, the Archbishop will say: 'In dying for us, [God] sees and knows the wounds that cause us so much pain. 'He hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, [and] he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees. 'Closer to home, he sees the humiliation of the grandparent visiting the food bank for the first time, the desperate choice of parents in poverty and the grief and weariness of the pandemic.' On Saturday, a peer suggested that the Government's plan may breach the Geneva conventions, a peer has suggested. Former child refugee and Labour peer Alf Dubs said ministers would face opposition in the Lords over the plan unveiled by Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week. In an interview with The Guardian, Lord Dubs said the Government was attempting to 'ride roughshod' over international agreements. He said: 'I think it's a way of getting rid of people the Government doesn't want, dumping them in a distant African country, and they'll have no chance of getting out of there again. 'I think it's a breach of the 1951 Geneva conventions on refugees. You can't just shunt them around like unwanted people.' It comes as it was reported that Ms Patel took the rare step of issuing a ministerial direction to overrule concerns of civil servants about whether the concept will deliver value for money. As part of the plan designed to curb migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, those who are deemed to have entered Britain by unlawful means since January 1 may be sent to Rwanda where they will be permitted to apply for asylum in the African country. According to the Daily Telegraph, the claimed use of the ministerial direction by the Home Secretary was only the second deployment of the power within the Home Office in the past 30 years. The Home Office declined to comment on the matter when approached by the PA news agency. Speaking to Times Radio on Saturday, shadow prisons minister Ellie Reeves said: 'The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) has come out really, really strongly condemning the Government's proposals, as have many organisations, and it seems the Government's own civil servants have expressed huge misgivings about the plans, which seem to be completely misguided.' The Labour politician said: 'The Government is going to be paying 120 million upfront before any asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda. 'Asylum seekers are saying it won't deter them from crossing the Channel. 'We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis so it doesn't seem the right way to be spending money on an unethical and unworkable scheme that won't deter people from coming over.' She later added: 'The whole system needs looking at again, so rather than making sweeping statements - these announcements that are completely unworkable and incredibly expensive - what the Government actually needs to do is get to grips with the system and put in place a system that actually works, increase prosecutions and clamp down on criminal gangs.' But Ms Patel said Denmark could be among those to reproduce the UK Government's 'blueprint'. 'There is no question now that the model we have put forward, I'm convinced is world class and a world first, and it will be used as a blueprint going forward, there's no doubt about that,' Ms Patel said. 'I would not be surprised if other countries start coming to us direct on the back of this as well.' The Home Secretary said Copenhagen was in talks with Rwanda as well, adding the Council of Europe 'have also basically said they are interested in working with us'. The Home Office denied its approach was in breach of refugee agreements. But Lord Dubs, who came to the UK from then Czechoslovakia on one of the Kindertransport trains in 1939, told The Guardian there would be legal challenges and opposition by peers. 'If (Ms Patel) says she'll get rid of the lefty lawyers' claims, well, I think she may have another thing coming. My understanding is that they're going to have real difficulties in getting this through anyway,' he said. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (left) carries a wooden cross during the Walk of Witness at St Mary's Church, Sellindge, Kent, as he carries out his Holy Week engagements Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent to Rwanda while their applications are processed. Pictured: A map detailing the plan proposed by the Prime Minister On Friday, the United Nations also criticised the proposal as an 'egregious breach of international law'. Gillian Triggs, a UNHCR assistant secretary-general, said the agency 'strongly condemns outsourcing the primary responsibility to consider the refugee status.' Put to her that Australia had effectively deployed a similar tactic to cut migration numbers, Ms Triggs said: 'My point is, just as the Australian policy is an egregious breach of international law and refugee law and human rights law, so too is this proposal by the United Kingdom Government. 'It is very unusual, very few states have tried this, and the purpose is primarily deterrent - and it can be effective, I don't think we're denying that. 'But what we're saying at the UN refugee agency is that there are much more legally effective ways of achieving the same outcome.' She said attempting to 'shift responsibility' for asylum seekers arriving in Britain was 'really unacceptable'. A view of facilities at Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of the capital city Kigali, in Rwanda - where migrants shipped from Britain will initially be taken Ms Triggs pointed out that Israel had attempted to send Eritrean and Sudanese refugees to Rwanda, but that they 'simply left the country and started the process all over again'. 'In other words, it is not actually a long-term deterrent,' she added. In response to the UNHCR, the Home Office insisted to the MailOnline that 'Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers.' It noted that the UNHCR has previously sad the country is safe for refugees. 'Under this agreement, Rwanda will process claims in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention, national and international human rights laws, and will ensure their protection from inhuman and degrading treatment or being returned to the place they originally fled,' the Home Office's statement said. 'There is nothing in the UN Refugee Convention which prevents removal to a safe country,' it added. More migrants arrive in UK on Easter Sunday despite risk they face being deported to Rwanda as Priti Patel slams 'synthetic outrage' at plan Ms Patel announced plans to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwands this week But a boat with around 20 migrants aboard was brought into Dover, Kent, today Men, women and young children were brought ashore wearing life jackets It comes a day after a further 252 migrants attempting to make the journey Home Secretary slammed 'synthetic hysteria' amid criticism of the new plans By Jamie Philips More migrants have arrived in the UK today, despite the risk of being deported to Rwanda - as Priti Patel slams 'synthetic outrage' at the plans. The Government announced this week it plans to provide failed asylum seekers, including those crossing the Channel in small boats, with a one-way ticket to the African country, where they will have the right to apply to live permanently. But a boat with around 20 migrants on board was brought ashore into Dover, Kent, on Easter Sunday after being intercepted by Border Force officers. Men, women and young children were all wearing lifejackets as they were brought into the port this morning to be processed. Windy conditions in the Channel are expected to prevent large numbers attempting the treacherous crossing today. It comes a day after the Royal Navy and Border Force intercepted a further 252 migrants attempting to make the treacherous journey. Despite choppy conditions in the 21-mile wide Dover Straits, seven flimsy dinghies made the dangerous voyage and were rescued in British waters. As of Saturday, the latest figures now mean 6,263 migrants have already been detained so far this year in 193 small boats. Men, women and children were brought ashore in Dover, Kent, by Border Force officials on Easter Sunday Three men are escorted off a boat on Sunday. Around 20 are understood to have been intercepted in the Channel Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured speaking to the media in Rwanda), has slammed 'synthetic outrage' at her plans A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel on Easter Sunday Latest figures now mean 6,263 migrants have already been detained so far this year in 193 small boats Young children were among the migrants intercepted as they tried to make the Channel crossing today The migrants were pictured in life jackets and wearing face masks as they were escorted off the boat by Border Force officers A woman and young child are helped off a boat after attempting to cross the Channel on Sunday How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work? Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda Initial agreement worth 120million over five years Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa Initially based at hostel in Kigali Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists Privately owned, the East African nation's government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property Memorandum of understanding (MOU) says Government will screen asylum seekers 'without delay' after arrival in the UK All requests will require approval from Rwanda before relocation Nation can refuse to take people with criminal records People who cross the Channel in small boats will undergo initial checks at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover Further checks at a processing site in Manston, Kent. Where their claim is deemed inadmissible, they may be removed to a 'third safe country'. Royal Navy to lead Channel policing role, helping Border Force from today PM attacked 'a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers' who have thwarted previous action PM: 'Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.' Advertisement In 2021 that figure was not reached until July 10, while 1,713 people have been arrived this month alone. Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday slammed the 'synthetic outrage' over the Rwanda plans. She also accused political opponents of treating exploited migrants with contempt and slammed 'shameful' human rights lawyers for profiting from traffickers sending groups to the UK in flimsy dinghies, The Sun reports. Ms Patel said: 'All I've heard the last couple of days is a typical hysterical reaction from the Left, particularly through their social media echo chamber. 'All they have to offer is synthetic outrage. Labour doesn't have a plan. They don't care about Britain's interests or UK taxpayers who foot the bill. 'They are showing complete contempt for democracy and the wishes of the British people who have been crying out for years for action to fix our broken asylum system and tackle illegal migration.' A Government source told the Mail on Sunday that after striking a dramatic deal, the Home Secretary wants to spread the word internationally and let 'people know the rules have changed and if you arrive illegally to the UK, you can be deported to Rwanda'. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that 'anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since 1 January, may now be relocated to Rwanda'. A 100,000 information campaign will use social media to reach people in 'source countries' in their own languages. Jacob Rees-Mogg also suggested today that migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are 'supporting organised crime'. The Cabinet minister, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby earlier said 'sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God'. Reacting to the sermon, Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He added that '90 per cent of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. Mr Rees-Mogg continued: 'They are in doing so not only risking their lives but supporting organised crime. What we need to do is focus on legal routes into this country of which there are quite a number.' The new deal expected to be the subject of legal challenges was presented to Cabinet Ministers on Wednesday by Ms Patel and the Prime Minister. The Rwandan government will receive 120 million in investment from the UK with the cost of housing each migrant for three months estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. Ms Patel issued a ministerial direction, only the second in the department for 30 years, to force through the policy after objections from Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft. A man is escorted at a port in Dover after being intercepted attempting to illegally cross the Channel Senior Home Office civil servants have expressed dismay at the cost. One said: 'It will be astronomical. The legal bill alone will be huge.' Last night, the Home Office published an exchange of letters between Ms Patel and Mr Rycroft in which he called for a ministerial direction as he could not justify the policy's value for money. The package also includes a new immigration centre for 500 men at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. Speaking after Saturday's crossings, Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove MP said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' One of the suspects who allegedly opened fire in a South Carolina shopping mall as part of a gunfight that left 14 people injured will be allowed to return to work with an ankle monitor while on house arrest after being released on bail. Jewayne Price, 22, was arrested Sunday and charged with unlawfully carrying a pistol in connection with the shooting at Columbia's Columbiana Centre mall. Columbia police said on Twitter that a judge agreed to let Price leave jail on a $25,000 surety bond. He is currently on house arrest with an ankle monitor and may go to work at certain times - though authorities did not say where he is employed. Price's attorney, Todd Rutherford, admitted Sunday that his client fired a gun at the mall, but said it was in self-defense. Price was only charged because he did not have a permit to carry a weapon, Rutherford said. Price is one of three suspects arrested in the aftermath of the shooting. The other two men were released after it was determined they weren't involved, police said. Victims at the shooting Saturday ranged in age from 15 to 73. Nine people were shot and five others suffered injuries, including broken bones lacerations and a head injury, while attempting to flee the mall for safety. The US has been rocked by three mass shootings during Easter weekend - two of them in South Carolina - that have left two fatalities. South Carolina authorities are investigating a shooting at a nightclub early Sunday that wounded at least nine people. A shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which two minors were killed early Sunday, left at least 31 people wounded. Jewayne Price, 22, was arrested Sunday and charged with unlawfully carrying a pistol in connection with the shooting at Columbia's Columbiana Centre mall. His bond was set at $25,000 on Sunday Victims at the Clumbiana Centre Mall shooting Saturday ranged in age from 15 to 73. Nine people were shot and five others suffered injuries, including broken bones lacerations and a head injury, while attempting to flee the mall for safety Columbia police said on Twitter that a judge agreed Sunday to let Price leave jail on a $25,000 surety bond. He was to be on house arrest with an ankle monitor and allowed to go to work at certain times Following his arrest on Sunday, Price was held in custody at the Lexington County Detention Center before his 2 p.m. bond hearing at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He was later released from custody and will be forced to wear an ankle monitor. DailyMail.com has reached out to the City of Columbia Police Department for comment. Price's lawyer added on Sunday that his client had been set a relatively low $25,000 bond because he was cooperating with authorities. 'It was unprovoked by him. He called the police, turned himself in, turned over the firearm that was used in this, and gave a statement to the Columbia Police Department,' Rutherford said, according to WMBF-TV. Police said the judge will allow Price to travel from home to work during certain hours each day and that he is forbidden from contacting the victims and anyone else involved in the shooting incident. Nine people were shot and five other people sustained injuries while trying to flee the scene at Columbiana Centre, Columbia Police Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook said. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73. None faced life-threatening injuries. The 73-year-old victim continues to receive medical treatment, but the other victims have been released from local hospitals. Officials are still looking for two other suspects believed to be connected to the shooting. 'We don't believe this was random,' Holbrook said. 'We believe they knew each other and something led to the gunfire.' Police said the judge will allow Price to travel from home to work during certain hours each day and that he is forbidden from contacting the victims and anyone else involved in the shooting incident Columbia Police Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook said officials 'don't believe this was random' and alleged the suspects knew each other People could be seen sitting in the mall in the aftermath of the shooting (left), and blood was left on the floor (right) Price was detained as one of three people initially identified as persons of interest in Saturday's shooting at Columbiana Centre. Shopper Daniel Johnson said that he and his family were eating in the food court when they first heard shots ring out and started seeing people running. Johnson said people were screaming for their children and spouses, knocking over tables in the food court as they fled. 'Everybody was trying to get outside,' Johnson said. 'When I was coming out, you could see baby strollers turned over, people's phones and left keys. It was kind of a hectic situation.' A preliminary examination of ballistic evidence collected from the scene indicated that at least two different firearms were used by two suspects. Police believe the shooting was an isolated incident between the suspects and likely stemmed from an ongoing conflict. After turning himself in on Sunday, Price was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon, and his pistol was seized. South Carolina residents age 21 or older can get a weapon permit that, as of last year, allows them to carry weapons openly or concealed. They must have eight hours of gun training and pass a background check that includes fingerprinting. Price's lawyer said he legally owned his gun, although he did not have a permit to carry it. In 2018, Price had been previously arrested and charged in connection with the murder of 17-year-old Amon Rice, who was shot dead in Hopkins, South Carolina. It is unclear whether those charges have been dropped. At least two mass shootings happened in South Carolina over the weekend: One in Columbia at a shopping mall and another at a restaurant in Hampton County In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two minors were killed and at least eight people when shots were fired during an Airbnb party, where the 'vast majority' of the hundreds of people were underage. The shooting occurred at around 12:30 a.m. at the intersection of Sussman Street and Madison Avenue Video posted online showed underage partygoers in an argument before shots were fired at an Airbnb early Sunday morning in Pittsburgh The South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division is also investigating a shooting at Cara's Lounge in Hampton County, roughly 80 miles west of Charleston, early Sunday. It was the second mass shooting in the state and the third in the nation during the Easter holiday weekend. Nine victims were shot while the venue hosted an 'Easter Bash' featuring exotic dancers and live music, according to an event flyer posted on Facebook. There are no reported fatalities and information about the victims, the shooter, or a motive has not been released. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two minors were killed and at least eight people were injured when shots were fired during an Airbnb party at the intersection of Suismon Street and Madison Avenue early Sunday. Police said there were more than 200 people inside the Airbnb at the time, many of whom were underage, when multiple gunmen opened fire. As many as 50 shots were fired inside the apartment, authorities initially said, prompting some attendees to jump out the windows. At least two of those partygoers sustained broken bones and lacerations from the jump, according to WTAE. Officials said at a news conference later they now believe there were a total of 90 shots fired in what Police Chief Scott Schubert described as a 'very chaotic scene.' The three Easter weekend mass shootings are the most recent in a string of shootings in the US. Last week, a gunman opened fire inside a New York subway car, injuring 10 people. A suspect was arrested the next day. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head Wednesday outside Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal Mall. His injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Officials said he was with a group of boys when they got into a dispute with a second group. On Tuesday, a Southern California shoe store owner mistakenly shot a 9-year-old girl while firing at two shoplifters at the Mall of Victor Valley, police said. One week ago, a shooting inside a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, left a man and a woman dead and 10 people wounded, authorities said. Earlier this month, police said six people were killed and 12 others wounded in Sacramento, California, during a gunfight between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy area near the Downtown Commons shopping mall and the state Capitol. And last month, 10 people were shot at a spring break party in Dallas and several others were injured as they tried to escape the gunfire, police said. The adult son of famed author Paul Auster admitted to giving his 10-month-old baby Narcan after a prosecutor said the infant died because it had ingested enough heroin and fentanyl to 'render an adult unconscious. Daniel Auster, 44, said he woke up on November 1 to see daughter Ruby's 'lips blue and eyes stiff' and tried to save her using the opioid overdose treatment. Officers later arrived to find the baby lifeless, transporting her to a local hospital before doctors there pronounced her dead. He said he had been using heroin that day and gave the baby the treatment 'in case I f--ked up' according to Assistant DA Tien Tran, who spoke at Daniel's arraignment in Brooklyn Sunday. Auster faces charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and child endangerment in connection with her death. Tran said that Ruby was found with the alarming amount of fentanyl and heroin in her body, though police have yet to determine how they got in her system. Daniel Auster also admitted to authorities that he kept 'glassine packets of heroin' in his bathroom. Daniel Auster's daughter, Ruby (pictured above), was found lifeless in his Park Slope home In many of the photos, Auster can be seen posing with his little girl, or cuddling her Daniel's father, Paul Auster, is probably America's best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair's relationship appears to be estranged An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found Ruby died of acute intoxication caused by the combined effects of fentanyl and heroin. The case was later ruled a homicide after police conferred with the Kings County District Attorneys office. Auster is currently awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. His Instagram page is full of pictures of his daughter and her mother, and in many of the photos he can be seen posing with his little girl, or cuddling her. Daniel Auster, 44, was arrested on Friday night on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide Auster's Instagram page is full of pictures of his daughter and her mother Daniel Auster was taking care of his 10-month-old daughter Ruby at his Park Slope home when 911 was called It is not the first time Daniel Auster has had a brush with the law. During his teenage years, Daniel started going to clubs in New York City and became heavily involved with drugs, according to The New Yorker. At the age of 18, in 1996, when he was eighteen, Daniel was present in the apartment when a drug dealer by the name of Andre 'Angel' Melendez was famously murdered by Club Kid Killer' Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter, and his roommate, Robert Riggs. Daniel was given $3,000 of Melendez's money in exchange for his silence. He later pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and was given five years probation. Club Kid Killer' Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter is pictured. On Christmas Eve, 2020, Alig died from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 54 Daniel Auster is pictured in a photo with his father Paul, in a shot from his teenage years Daniel is pictured with his father as a young boy in a touching photo posted to his Instagram, entitled 'Me and pops' The troubled son of New York author Paul Auster, Daniel, has been charged in relation to his infant daughter's drug overdose death Daniel would regularly post photos of his wife and daughter, Ruby, before her death last year The trio dressed up for Halloween in a scene from the Wizard of Oz with Daniel as the heartless Tin Man and his wife as Dorothy He also has a string of other arrests including several drug possession in 2008 and 2010. In 2009 he was charged with petit larceny and possession of stolen property. Daniel's father, Paul Auster, is probably America's best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair's relationship appears to be estranged. Daniel's mother, Paul Auster's first wife, is writer Lydia Davis. During Auster's 1995 film, Smoke, which starred Harvey Keitel and William Hurt, about the lives of people who frequented a Brooklyn tobacconist shop, Paul's son Daniel played the role of a book thief. Paul Auster's second wife Siri Hustvedt, left, who is also a writer, never speak about their stepson, Daniel. The pair are pictured in 2016 Although real-world contact between Daniel and his father appear to be non-existent, Auster has written Daniel into his work. In his 2004 novel, Oracle Night, the book is narrated by a writer called Trause whose son is a drug addict who terrorizes his stepmother. During a 2006 Guardian interview, Paul Auster's second wife Siri Hustvedt who is also a writer, declined to speak about her stepson. 'Yes. You know, I'm not going to talk about any of that, no. No.' she said with her eyes beginning to water. 'You know, I am married to a writer, and this - writing - is an odd enterprise. It's something we both support very strongly. I've always been behind Paul, and he's always been behind me. I have a very strong family.' It appears that the family deal with Daniel's troubled past and uncertain present by writing about him in their own fiction. Father and son farmers Norman and Chris Bell are hoping theyve got their paws on a fine sheepdog after shelling out a record 2,600 at auction for Silver the collie a new record for an unbroken, unweaned pup. The pedigree pup will eventually work on the farm near Skipton, North Yorkshire. Silver the superpup was sold recently at an auction at just two weeks of age and is still with her mother and siblings in the village of Garth, mid-Wales. Breeder David Bevan, 45, said Silver would remain with her Collie family until about nine or 10 weeks of age and then head off north to live in Yorkshire. Silver the superpup was sold recently at an auction at just two weeks of age and is still with her mother and siblings in the village of Garth, mid-Wales The new owners will soon be training Silver to herd their cows and lambs on the 165-acre farm at Cowling, near Skipton. They bought the tiny puppy as a long-term investment. The odds are that there money has been well spent as Silver comes from the very best stock. Her father also sired Kim, a border collie who last year smashed the world record for the most expensive sheep dog when she was sold for 27,100 aged one. The new owners will soon be training Silver to herd their cows and lambs on the 165-acre farm at Cowling, near Skipton Silver will start to be trained at six months of age and by her first birthday should be a fully-fledged working dog enjoying life in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Chris Bell, 34, said: We have an old working dog who is ready for retirement and so she will take over. We bought her so young because of her very good pedigree, but its still a bit of a gamble. The farmers hope Silver will work with them for a decade before its time for the next generation to take over. A Nasa plan to beam Earths location into outer space could inadvertently trigger an alien invasion, Oxford scientists have warned. The binary-coded Beacon In The Galaxy message will broadcast information about the solar system, Earths surface and humanity to a part of the Milky Way identified as the most likely home of extraterrestrial civilisations. It is an updated version of the Arecibo message, which sent similar information into space in 1974 using a radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Researchers fear the risk of a hostile alien invasion outweighs the opportunities of the probe However Anders Sandberg, a senior research fellow at Oxfords Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), warned sharing such information presents a risk. He told The Daily Telegraph that, although the chance of the message reaching an alien civilisation was low, it has such a high impact that you actually need to take it rather seriously. He said the giggle factor surrounding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence meant that many people just refuse to take anything related to it seriously, which is a shame because this is important stuff. Dr Sandberg also said given the difficulty of traversing interstellar space, a message received even by a very advanced civilisation might amount to little more than a postcard saying, Wish you were here. Oxford researcher Anders Sandberg said hostile aliens could send more than just a postcard The message will be beamed to a part of the Milky Way where extra-terrestrial life is likeliest Toby Ord, Dr Sandbergs colleague at the FHI, made similar arguments in The Precipice, a book published in 2020 in which he analysed the existential risks and future of humanity. Dr Ord said the main question is over the ratio of peaceful civilisations compared to hostile ones. He added: We have very little evidence about whether this is high or low, and there is no scientific consensus. Given the downside could be much bigger than the upside, this doesnt sound to me like a good situation in which to take active steps toward contact. A region of the Milky Way containing a rich collection of nebulas (image captured in 2019) The planned message, which will end with an invitation for aliens to respond, includes basic mathematical and physical concepts to establish a universal means of communication, followed by information on the biochemical composition of life on Earth. It will also broadcast the solar systems location in relation to major clusters of stars, as well as digitised depictions of the solar system, the Earths surface and male and female humans. Nasa does not plan to send the message itself but proposes instead that it be broadcast from Chinas Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope and the SETI Institutes Allen Telescope Array in northern California. The projects team of researchers said that communication is an incredibly intriguing development in the scientific exploration of the cosmos. Fallen TV star Andrew O'Keefe is struggling to adjust to his new life behind bars and has become a demanding 'prima donna', prison staff claim. The disgraced host of Deal or No Deal was labelled 'self-entitled' as he grapples with his new lifestyle at Silverwater Correctional Complex, in western Sydney. O'Keefe is on remand after he allegedly grabbed an ex-sex worker by the throat in January. He is expected to remain behind bars until his case is heard on July 28. The 50-year-old is being held in a two by three-metre cell, confined to his room between 3pm and 7am, given one hot meal a day, and forced to share the prison with warring bikies and other criminals as he awaits trial. Andrew O'Keefe is struggling to adjust to his new life behind bars and has become a demanding 'prima donna', prison staff claim The disgraced host of Deal or No Deal was labelled 'self-entitled' as he grapples with his new lifestyle at Silverwater Correctional Complex, in western Sydney 'He's demanding,' a prison source told Daily Telegraph. 'Constantly asking for this and for that he's a real prima donna. 'I don't think he's come to terms with the fact that he's (on remand).' His dinner is heated up from a chill pack and given to him at 3pm. It is the only hot meal O'Keefe eats during the day. The 50-year-old, like the rest of the inmates, is given his night 'rations' of milk, cereal, seven slices of bread and sachets of coffee and prison-issue tea bags. His prison cell includes a metal bunk, open steel toilet, jug and sandwich maker. O'Keefe is only allowed to spend $150 buying goods from the prison every month. He can buy basic necessities including stationery, toiletries and hygiene products and some groceries. Confectionary, drinks and snacks and 'culturally friendly' food are also among the options. NSW Police allege the former White Ribbon ambassador attacked a 38-year-old woman on January 25 after meeting her at his unit on Kent Street in Sydney's CBD. The 50-year-old is currently being held in a 2m by 3m cell, confined to his room between 3pm to 7am, given one hot meal a day and forced to share the prison with warring bikies and other offenders waiting for trial (pictured, a shared cell in Silverwater) O'Keefe has pleaded not guilty to six charges including intentionally choking a person without consent, three counts of common assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm O'Keefe pleaded not guilty to six charges including choking a person without consent, three counts of common assault, and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm. The one-time Channel Seven star entered a guilty plea in February to a single possession charge over 1.5g of marijuana. The drug charge relates to the January incident in which police allege a violent struggle, but O'Keefe claims he acted in self-defence. Over a 17-year career with Seven, O'Keefe hosted Weekend Sunrise and game shows The Chase Australia and Deal or No Deal. He was axed by the network in January 2021. Ministers will introduce legislation this week to protect shoppers' money in savings clubs. It will prevent scandals like Farepak a Christmas savings club that collapsed in 2006, owing 37million to around 100,000 consumers. Savings clubs allow shoppers to pay for goods in instalments throughout the year, instead of in one go. These savings are currently not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. But new laws will mean the clubs must safeguard the cash, so even if the company goes bust, shoppers' money will still be protected. Consumer Minister Paul Scully, pictured, is set to announce plans that would safeguard money invested in savings clubs by consumers Consumer minister Paul Scully said: 'Now more than ever, families' hard-earned savings need to be protected. 'New laws will crack down on dodgy dealers who have no plans in place to protect shoppers' savings if their business goes to the wall.' He added: 'We're seeing rising costs caused by global pressures around the world, which is why we're taking action worth over 22billion this year to help UK families with the cost of energy bills and ensure people keep more of their money. 'We'll make sure scandals like Farepak never happen again, where thousands of families, many on low incomes, lost all they had saved for Christmas.' Many UK supermarkets and other businesses have a Christmas savings club, allowing customers to top up an account throughout the year and receive products and services in time for Christmas. Analysis from the Bank of England has shown the average family spending around 740 extra in December. The law will apply to Christmas savings clubs and other prepayment schemes that are forms of savings club. Ministers will also explore if there are other sectors posing risks to shoppers making prepayments, and whether similar protections are needed. When Farepak went bust in 2006 it owed 37million to around 100,000 consumers who had to wait years for partial payment Shoppers frequently make substantial prepayments in advance of events or work taking place, leaving them exposed to risks if the organisation they are doing business with becomes insolvent. Examples of things frequently pre-paid for include weddings and home improvements. When the Christmas savings club Farepak collapsed in 2006 it owed 37million to around 100,000 consumers. The consumers, many of them on low incomes, had saved an average of 400 with Farepak, and some had saved 2,000. They waited six years for payment. Although they eventually obtained around 50 pence in the pound, 70 per cent of this came from compensation funds set up to meet hardship. The number of unemployed men aged 50-64 is at its highest since records began 30 years ago, research suggests. Between December 2021 and February this year 1.47million were 'economically inactive', according to a study by Rest Less. Since the pandemic 179,000 have left the jobs market entirely but one in five would not rule out returning. Rest Less dubbed the findings a 'wake-up call for employers'. Stuart Lewis, Rest Less chief executive, said the findings 'should send much-needed alarm bells ringing amongst those who can help'. The number of unemployed men aged 50-64 is at its highest since records began 30 years ago, research suggests He said since the pandemic some 'have chosen to leave the workforce before they reach state pension age' and others 'have fallen out of the jobs market unexpectedly due to poor health, caring responsibilities or redundancy', leaving them financially and emotionally unprepared for retirement. With soaring cost of living, he said he is 'particularly worried' about the latter group. He said older workers face challenges including less workplace training, age discrimination in the recruitment process and being 'significantly more likely to end up in long term unemployment' once unemployed. Mr Lewis added that offering flexible working, all-age apprenticeships and training 'are most likely to attract this experienced generation back into the workplace and tap into all the benefits of a multigenerational workforce'. Mr Lewis said: 'Progressive employers who invest in measures such as flexible working, all age apprenticeships and retraining and upskilling for employees of all ages are most likely to attract this experienced generation back into the workplace and tap into all the benefits of a multigenerational workforce.' A Government spokesman said: 'Older workers are a huge asset to our economy and there are currently over nine million workers aged over 50 on employer payrolls - an increase of more than 370,000 compared to a year ago. 'Our Plan for Jobs is helping hundreds of thousands of older workers to retrain, build new skills and get back into work, including through our '50 Plus: Choices' offer. 'Across our Jobcentres we're helping people take stock of their skills, health and wealth when planning their next career move, with our 400,000 funding boost for midlife MOTs, and the advice and support of our older worker champions.' Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy blasted the Biden administration's handling of the war in Ukraine, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'probably' wouldn't have invaded the country if America had sent arms to Kyiv sooner. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, McCarthy, who was part of a group of bipartisan House members who traveled to Poland earlier this month, said he witnessed the Ukrainian people's 'fortitude' in the face of the 'devastation' that Russia is causing in Ukraine. 'This is going to get stronger and rougher, and what really needs to happen is Ukraine is not asking for American men and women to fight,' the California Republican said on Fox News Sunday. 'All theyre asking for is the weapons to defend themselves.' 'If we would have taken those actions earlier instead of waiting until after Russia invaded, they probably never would have invaded, had we done that sooner,' he said. Scroll down for video Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, pictured, blasting the Biden administration's handling of war in Ukraine during an appearance on Fox News Sunday McCarthy, pictured, claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'probably' wouldn't have invaded the country if America had sent arms to Kyiv sooner Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a video conference call with permanent members of the Russian Security Council Last week, the Biden administration announced it was delivering $800 million in additional military assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total amount to $2.6 billion, Fox News Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel said on Sunday. McCarthy added that he didn't feel that Putin respected the sanctions the US and its allies have threatened to impose on Russia prior to the invasion on February 24. 'Ukraine was craving the ability to defend themselves. Had we moved the weapons to Ukraine earlier, that they could defend themselves, it would have saved thousands of lives and probably the decision of Putin not to enter,' McCarthy told Emanuel. 'And then after Putin entered, we had President Biden tell us, "Well, the sanctions take a long time to work,"' McCarthy said. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy thanks Army soldiers from California for their service in Poland The Defense Minister of Poland Mariusz Baszczak, left, welcomes Leader McCarthy, right, and US lawmakers to his residence in Warsaw US President Joe Biden speaks at the Alumni-Foundation Event Center of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 14, 2022 McCarthy also took Biden to task for turning down an offer from Poland to ship MiG-29 fighter jets to a US air base in Germany, so that the US could transport them to Ukraine. The Republican House leader also slammed the president for refusing to protect Ukrainian airspace with a NATO no-fly zone. Meanwhile, the Biden administration said both actions would have likely escalated the war. McCarthy also pointed out how the US could learn from its experience in dealing with the invasion, and noted how Taiwan is facing similar pressure from mainland China. 'What we need to do is learn from here, provide the weapons to Ukraine, but also look to the future of what China is doing,' he said. A cemetery worker takes a rest from working on the graves of civilians killed in Bucha during the war with Russia, in the outskirts of Kyiv A woman carries her belongings as she walks pasts destroyed buildings following bombardment in Ukrainian town of Borodianka, in the Kyiv region The body of a civilian lies covered in the street after a Russian rocket attack hit a residential building on April 17, 2022 in Kharkiv, Ukraine 'Taiwan has been waiting more than a year for weapons they've already purchased to defend themselves. Let democracies defend themselves.' China has recently began ramping up its military presence in the South China Sea, with the belief that Taiwan, which is democratically governed, is a part of its territory. Earlier this month, the State Department approved a sale of $95 million worth of military equipment to Taiwan. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, that would make for the third arms package since Biden took office in January 2021. Healthy Australians under 65 will not need to get a second Covid booster before winter but may have to get one by Christmas, virus experts predict. Latest studies out of Israel, where much of the population has two boosters, found a fourth dose restored waning antibodies from the third shot. However, it only provided a modest increase in immunity against Covid infection with the main benefit being protecting against severe illness. Eligibility for a fourth vaccine dose is being considered by nations worldwide with the US drug regulator only approving the second booster shot for people aged over 50 last month. New data from infectious disease experts show a fourth Covid vaccine only offers a small and fleeting increase in protection against Covid for people under 65 Australia so far recommended the fourth dose to people over 16 who are severely immunocompromised, Australians over 65, indigenous Australians over 50, and residents in aged or disability care facilities. However, former co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and infectious disease physician Professor Allen Cheng said that was unlikely to be expended any time soon. Data from recent testing showed mixed results with some indicating the effects of a second booster shot fade quickly while others showed it offered vital extra protection to the elderly. Dr Cheng recommended people over 65 should receive the booster but said it was unlikely the fourth dose would be of much use to anyone else yet. 'For everyone else, what the evidence suggests so far is that giving another dose in the younger people protects them a little bit more, but that effect is probably quite short term,' he told The Age. Dr Cheng believed about 30 per cent of Australians have been infected with Covid since the beginning of the pandemic and those who received their third shot between December and January would be protected this winter. Former co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and infectious disease physician Professor Allen Cheng recommended people over 65 receive the booster However, a second booster could be rolled out to all Australians by the end of the year as immunity wanes further. Australian infectious diseases expert Professor Paul Griffin said a fourth dose would likely be recommended if a new Covid variant emerged or a massive increase in cases again depleted medical supplies. 'At the moment the fourth dose is being recommended for those highest risk groups for very good reason because of their higher risk of severe disease, but also their ability to not respond as strongly to the vaccine so far,' he said. 'But for most of the population, those things don't hold true and they're still benefiting from very good protection from a third dose.' Associate Professor James Trauer, who leads the epidemiological modelling team at Monash University, said a fourth dose, if offered, should not be mandatory. 'At some point with the vaccine mandates we've really got to say that it's like three doses is enough to be considered fully vaccinated,' he said. Advertisement Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russian forces are carrying out 'torture and kidnappings' - and called on Western allies to reinforce Ukraine's weapons arsenal. In a nine-minute video address shared on Facebook tonight, Zelensky said southern Ukraine had been ravaged by Russian torture squads. He said: 'Torture chambers are built there. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.' Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. 'This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians,' he said. On an offensive in the east, Zelensky added: 'We are doing everything to ensure defense. We are in constant contact with partners. We are grateful to those who really help with everything they can. 'But those who have the weapons and ammunition we need and delay their provision must know that the fate of this battle also depends on them. The fate of people who can be saved. Earlier, in a CNN interview, he said it was vital Ukraine held Donbas, or Russia could press on to take Kyiv. He said: 'This is why it is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle ... it can influence the course of the whole war.' Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. 'Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies,' Zelenskyy said. 'All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions.' His words come as the last defenders of Mariupol ignored Russia's 'surrender or die' warning and vowed to fight until the end. The Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Goncharenko, told BBC News: 'I spoke with them [the last fighters] yesterday, and I know that they're going to fight until the end.' Russia gave Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to 'surrender or die', urging them to lay down their arms by 6:00 am Moscow time (0300 GMT) and to evacuate before 1:00pm, on Sunday after the Russian Defence Ministry claimed their troops had cleared the urban area of the city - with only a small unit of Ukrainian fighters remaining in the giant Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern port. The fighters ignored the demand. Earlier on Sunday Zelensky told CNN he hopes Biden will visit Kyiv to see the war for himself Earlier on Sunday Zelensky had called for US President Joe Biden to visit his country and said he believes the commander-in-chief will make the trip. The wartime leader also said his government had 'substantial evidence' that Russia's troops are committing genocide in Ukraine, as more and more western leaders accuse autocrat leader Putin of war crimes. Zelensky was asked by CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper whether there are 'any plans' for Biden to come see the situation for himself. 'I think he will,' the Ukrainian president answered. He added on CNN of Biden's potential visit: 'It's his decision of course, and about the safety situation.' 'But I think he's the leader of the United States, and that's why he should come here to see.' Late last week Biden confirmed that his administration was discussing a possible Kyiv trip by a senior official and was 'making that decision now.' He told reporters that he wanted to go himself. Russia warned of 'unpredictable consequences' after the U.S. announced the latest in a series of aid packages for Ukraine this time including helicopters, 155 mm howitzer long-range artillery, and Switchblade drones as part of the $800 million effort. The Russian embassy in Washington fired off a two-page diplomatic note or demarche, dated Tuesday, to the State Department in protest. It was titled, 'On Russia's concerns in the context of massive supplies of weapons and military equipment to the Kyiv regime.' Zelensky said: 'Those who have weapons we need and delay must know fate depends on them' Autocrat Russian leader Putin is reeling from a series of humiliating losses in Ukraine Meanwhile the situation in war-torn Mariupol became ever bleaker over the weekend as local forces ignored Russia's chilling 'surrender or die' ultimatum. Kremlin forces told Kyiv fighters to lay down their arms by 6:00 am Moscow time (0300 GMT) and evacuate before 1:00pm, on Sunday. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed their troops had cleared the urban area of the city - with only a small unit of Ukrainian fighters remaining in the giant Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern port. MP Goncharenko referred to the continuing siege of Mariupol as 'a real genocide' and said it was considered that 'more than 20,000 people' have been killed in the port city. President Zelensky said the Kremlin 'is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there' and asked the West for more heavy weapons immediately to have any chance of saving the port city on the Sea of Azov as Russian air strikes continue. 'Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the blockade,' he said, 'or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive.' Were it to fall, it would be the the first major city to be taken by Russian forces since the invasion began on February 24. In Kyiv, renewed Russian air strikes hit an armaments factory, despite Moscow shifting its military focus to gaining control of the eastern Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. 'During the night, high-precision, air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunitions factory near the settlement of Brovary, Kyiv region,' Russia's defence ministry said, the third such air strike near the capital in as many days. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russian forces to allow evacuations from Mariupol, which Moscow's forces claim to have brought under their control, though Ukrainian fighters remain holed up in the city's fortress-like steelworks. Earlier, Mr Zelensky had told Ukrainian journalists that the situation in Mariupol, which has come at a horrific cost to trapped and starving civilians, could scuttle attempts to negotiate an end to the war. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had been driven out of most of the city and remained only in the Azovstal steel mill, where tunnels allow the defenders to hide and resist until they run out of ammunition. The Russians already control what is left of the city after weeks of bombardment. Striking the steel plant to take the rest is part of Russia's preparations for the anticipated assault in eastern Ukraine. President Zelensky has admitted the situation in Mariupol remains 'extremely severe' and called on the west to provide the country with heavy weaponry Moscow gave Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to 'surrender or die' by 3am GMT on Sunday after the Russian Defence Ministry claimed their troops had cleared the city - with only a small unit of Ukrainian fighters remaining in the giant Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern port. Pictured: Illich Steel and Iron Works in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine Experts say the fall of Mariupol, seen as strategically vital for Russian plans to attack eastern Ukraine , is inevitable. But holdouts in their underground bases hope to make conquering the Sea of Azov port as hard as possible for the attackers. Pictured: An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian's army tank fires in Mariupol Ukrainian fighters are putting up a hellish last stand in tunnels under an abandoned Stalingrad-esque Azovstal steel plant (pictured) in Mariupol as Russian forces close in on the besieged port city. Pictured: The Azovstal Steel and Iron Works facility Experts say the fall of Mariupol, seen as strategically vital for Russian plans to attack eastern Ukraine , is inevitable. But holdouts in their underground bases at the steelworks (pictured) hope to make conquering the Sea of Azov port as hard as possible for the attackers . Pictured: The view from inside the Azovstal Steel and Iron Works facility The Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Goncharenko (pictured), told BBC News that the last defenders in Mariupol won't surrender to Russia. He said: 'I spoke with them yesterday, and I know that they're going to fight until the end' But despite the offer, there have been no reports of soldiers laying down their arms with Kyiv yet to respond to the statement - as Russian air strikes continue on Mariupol, according to Ukraine's military Russian servicemen (pictured) on Tuesday secured Mariupol's Drama Theatre which was destroyed in a missile strike on March 16 At least 300 people died when Mariupol's drama theatre (pictured, Russian servicemen secure the destroyed building) was targeted in a Russian missile strike, despite being marked 'children' Mariupol's partially destroyed drama theatre which was hit on March 16 by a Russian airstrike as part of an intense campaign by Moscow's forces who are trying to take the city Service members of pro-Russian troops load rocket-propelled grenades into an infantry combat vehicle amid fighting near the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol Crosses are placed at a burial site of local residents killed in Mariupol as Russian forces continue a brutal siege of the city Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine, has seen the worst fighting of the seven-week-long war. Home to 400,000 people before Russia's invasion, the city has been reduced to rubble by Russian shelling An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andriushchenko, said on Telegram that despite Russia's ''surrender corridor' for the remaining troops' in the city, 'our defenders continue to hold the defence'. Andriushchenko added: 'During the fighting, the occupiers shelled private residential houses with heavy artillery again.' Experts say the fall of Mariupol, seen as strategically vital for Russian plans to attack eastern Ukraine, is inevitable. But holdouts in their underground bases hope to make conquering the Sea of Azov port as hard as possible for the attackers. The urban landscape of the Azovstal steelworks where Ukrainian forces, who took refuge at the site following reports Russia had used chemical weapons, plan to take on the invaders seems almost tailor-made for guerrilla warfare, with sprawling rail lines, warehouses, coal furnaces, factories, chimneys and tunnels. The maze-like area is a metal works complex, Azovstal, owned by Metinvest, which has been the focus of urban fighting in Mariupol, just like the nearby Azovmash factory which makes rail components, cranes and other large metal structures. Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine, has seen the worst fighting of the seven-week-long war. Home to 400,000 people before Russia's invasion, the city has been reduced to rubble by Russian shelling. Over 20,000 civilians are believed to have been killed, tens of thousands remain trapped in the city, and countless numbers have fled. It is one of a number of sites were international investigators believe war crimes have taken place - including the bombing of a maternity war and of a theatre sheltering hundreds of people. Capturing Mariupol would allow Russian forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland and the focus of the anticipated offensive. Ukraine's deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, said on Sunday that Mariupol's defenders have tied up significant Russian forces besieging the city. She described the city as a 'shield defending Ukraine' that prevents the Russian troops encircling the city from advancing to other areas of the country. Ms Malyar said that the Russians have continued to hit Mariupol with airstrikes and appeared to be preparing an amphibious landing to beef up their forces in the city. Meanwhile, scattered Russian attacks elsewhere in Ukraine were an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat from an invasion now in its eighth week. A view shows a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol A woman sits on a bench at a bus stop, which was damaged during a Russian assault in the southern port city of Mariupol People take belongings out of a residential building, which was destroyed during the conflict in the port city of Mariupol People walk past a residential building, which was destroyed during a Russian assault in the southern port city of Mariupol Tanks of pro-Russian troops drive along a road during Ukraine-Russia conflict near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine In Kyiv, renewed Russian air strikes hit an armaments factory, despite Moscow shifting its military focus to gaining control of the eastern Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea Russia says it blew up a Ukrainian munitions factory near Kyiv overnight using cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea (pictured being launched) Moscow says the factory was used to manufacture the same kinds of missiles that were used to sink the Moskva, its Black Sea flagship, on Thursday After failing to capture Ukraine's capital and the humiliating loss of the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, Russia's military command vowed to step up missile strikes on the capital, Kyiv. The Russians said they hit an armoured vehicle plant on Saturday, a day after targeting a missile plant. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday's strike killed one person and wounded several. He advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return. 'We're not ruling out further strikes on the capital,' he said. 'If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it's safer, do it.' Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the plant was among multiple Ukrainian military sites hit with 'air-launched high-precision long-range weapons'. Meanwhile, it was claimed that Vladimir Putin believes he is winning the war in Ukraine according to Austrian leader Karl Nehammer, whose comments were published this weekend as more rockets rained down on Kharkiv on Easter Sunday. The latest barrage of missiles to hit the besieged city of Kharkiv has left at least five people dead and more than a dozen injured, Ukrainian officials have said. The bombardment of rockets slammed into blocks of flats and left broken glass, debris and the part of at least one rocket scattered on the street. Firefighters and residents scrambled to douse flames in several buildings that caught fire. Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region's health department confirmed the deaths following a series of strikes that AFP journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and tore roofs from buildings hit in the attacks. Like Mariupol, the north-east city of Kharkiv has been an ongoing target of Russian aggression since the early days of the invasion and has seen conditions deteriorate ahead of the eastern offensive. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met Putin last week in Moscow, said he thinks the Russian president believes the war is necessary for his country's security. 'I think he is now in his own war logic,' Nehammer said in an interview with NBC's 'Meet the Press', portions of which were released Saturday. I think he believes he is winning the war.' Bring our boys home: Family of British man paraded on Russian TV after he was captured defending Mariupol call on Kremlin to 'ensure his rights' as they pray for quick release for him and fellow Brit PoW BY WILL STEWART AND KAYA TERRY FOR MAILONLINE The family of a British prisoner of war captured in Mariupol have pleaded with the Kremlin to secure his rights after he was seen being taunted by a Russian TV reporter. Ex-British Army soldier Shaun Pinner, 48, who is a Royal Anglian veteran, was today paraded on propaganda TV in Russia in a heavily-edited clip and was told his Ukrainian commanders wanted him to be killed as he fled a factory hideout in Mariupol. Now, his family have released a statement in response to his capture, explaining how he became involved in the defence of Ukraine against the Russian invasion while calling for Shaun's Russian captors to adhere to the Geneva Convention's regulations regarding the treatment of POWs. 'Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia,' the statement read. 'In 2018 Shaun decided to re-locate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine Military. 'Shaun enjoyed the Ukrainian way of life and considered Ukraine as his adopted country over the last four years. During this time, he met his Ukrainian wife who is very focussed on the humanitarian needs of the country. 'He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit. At the end of 2022 his 3 year contract is due to end and he was planning to enter a humanitarian role within Ukraine.' The statement continued: 'We would like to make it clear he is not a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian Legislation. 'Our family is currently working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin who is also being held by the Russian Army to ensure their rights as Prisoners Of War are upheld according to the Geneva Convention. 'Shaun is a funny, much loved well intentioned Husband, Son, Father, Brother and Friend to many. We are hoping for a quick resolution to allow Shaun and Aiden to return safely to their families and we ask for privacy at this difficult time. 'Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this horrific conflict.' Shaun Pinner, who served with the Royal Anglians and enlisted in the Marines in Ukraine after marrying a woman from the country, was captured by Russian forces while he was defending the besieged city of Mariupol The 48-year-old was interviewed by Andrey Rudenko (left) who is a pro-Kremlin journalist Pinner, who enlisted in the Marines in Ukraine after marrying his wife Larysa who is from the country, was told he could now be seen as an anti-Putin hero by the outside world. He is heard saying there was 'panic' as he was held after ending their siege in an industrial area of the blitzed city. His capture comes after Russia seized 28-year-old former care worker Aiden Aslin on Tuesday. He had also been fighting in Ukraine in the same trenches outside Mariupol as Pinner. 'We were in the factory area of Mariupol,' he said in a newly released clip of an interview made in captivity. 'It was Tuesday morning. It was decided we move from the factory, but we did not know exactly where. At about 4am we left the factory.' There was 'not much time to think,' said Pinner. After this, his words were subtitled in Russian but his original speech was not audible. Shaun Pinner, 48, was serving as a Marine in Ukraine, defending the key strategic port of Mariupol Pinner served with the Royal Anglians and enlisted in the Marines in Ukraine after marrying his wife Larysa (pictured right), who is from the country According to the subtitles, Pinner said: 'It was very dark. We took the injured with us. 'Mortar and artillery shelling began, military aviation worked. Panic began. Everyone started running in different directions. 'My commander seems to have disappeared. I still don't know what happened to those who were there with me.' Interviewer Andrey Rudenko - a well-known Russian war reporter on pro-Kremlin state TV - claimed without citing direct evidence that his Ukrainian commanders wanted him and others killed by Vladimir Putin's forces so they could be hailed as heroes in the propaganda battle against Moscow. 'The servicemen of the 36th brigade say their command specially sent them to be killed in order to make heroes out of them later,' Pinner was told. Rudenko told an exhausted-looking Pinner: 'You didn't have a single chance to reach this settlement Zachatovka, since Russian and DPR troops were everywhere.' In the event, he and other defenders were captured. He reportedly told his Russians captors that 'he doesn't want war and wants to go home' During the interview, Pinner was told he could be seen as an anti-Putin hero by the outside world According to the subtitles, Pinner said: 'It was very dark. We took the injured with us. 'Mortar and artillery shelling began, military aviation worked. Panic began. Everyone started running in different directions' (Pictured: Pinner with his wife Larysa) Pinner is heard replying to the claim that his Ukrainian commanders wanted him and others fleeing the factory to die: 'I had no idea. You know more than me. I don't particularly know anything' The report also quoted Pinner as saying - though his words were not audible in this broadcast: 'I had no idea, we were abandoned. 'I do not know who took such a decision. I do not know anything about the fate of the injured, who were left there. 'I do not know what happened to the dead bodies.' In an earlier interview, Pinner had identified himself and said: 'I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. 'I was captured in Mariupol. I am part of 36th brigade, 1st Battalion Ukrainian Marines 'I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and now I am in the Donetsk People's Republic.' Brit fighter Shaun Pinner has been captured by Russian forces after surrendering in Mariupol. He was paraded on Russian television looking clean-shaven with no visible wounds. He said on the broadcast: 'I am Shaun Pinner' In another clip suggesting he is caught up in Russia's propaganda campaign against Ukraine and the West, he reportedly said that 'he doesn't want war and wants to go home'. Pinner now faces interrogation by the Russian Investigative Committee. The committee is seen as an equivalent of the FBI and is run by Alexander Bastrykin, a university classmate of Vladimir Putin. 'This is the second Englishman caught in Mariupol.' His fate in the hands of the Russians and the separatist authorities in Donetsk remains uncertain. Prior to being captured in Ukraine, friends and family left well-wishes on Shaun's Facebook page, where he had snapped a selfie in which he was dressed in combat garb, adorned with the Ukrainian flag. 'Stay safe bro, love you,' read one comment from sister Cassandra. Other well wishers commented: 'Thinking of you brother and those with you,' while another one said: 'Respect matey, stay safe, move fast keep low.' His capture comes after Russia seized 28-year-old former care worker Aiden Aslin on Tuesday. He had also been fighting in Ukraine in the same trenches outside Mariupol as Pinner. There is concern for his safety amid fears that he could treated as a spy by the Kremlin. An image uploaded to his social media shows Aiden, 28, bruised, beaten and in handcuffs A second image, posted by a pro-Russia Telegram account, was closer to captured Aiden's cut In early March, around a week after Vladimir Putin launched his brutal invasion of Ukraine, Pinner gave a hard-hitting dispatch from near the front line, describing the situation as 'chaos'. At the time, he said he had endured a 'week of intense fighting'. Pinner also confirmed a number of his squad had died in the early days of the war, saying : 'We've lost a couple of guys today'. Mr Pinner filmed the dispatch as Vladimir Putin's men laid siege to Kyiv and other major Ukranian cities. In the video he does not reveal his location for security reasons. Since then, Russian forces have pulled back from the Kyiv region to refocus their efforts on the east of the country. The first British fighter captured in Mariupol was former care worker Aiden Aslin. Russia's state TV channels have broadcast suspect footage of Aslin being questioned by his captors after he was also forced to surrender in Mariupol. Mr Aslin, 28, joined the Ukrainian marines four years ago. He has dual UK-Ukrainian citizenship and a Ukrainian fiancee, yet Russia appears determined to brand him an enemy agent rather than a prisoner of war. The distinction is significant as under Russian law, those suspected of espionage face interrogation and lengthy prison sentences. Whereas POWs are released at the end of hostilities, convicted spies may remain behind bars, perhaps until an exchange of agents can be arranged. Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine, has seen the worst fighting of the seven-week-long war. Home to 400,000 people before Russia's invasion, the city has been reduced to rubble by Russian shelling Experts say the fall of Mariupol, seen as strategically vital for Russian plans to attack eastern Ukraine , is inevitable. But holdouts in their underground bases hope to make conquering the Sea of Azov port as hard as possible for the attackers. Pictured: An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian's army tank fires in Mariupol Service members of pro-Russian troops load rocket-propelled grenades into an infantry combat vehicle amid fighting near the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol Mr Aslin, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, was paraded on TV with his face bruised. It is thought he is being held in a military detention facility. Footage shows him being questioned by one of his captors off camera and he supposedly agrees with the suggestion that 'those who stood with you [in Ukraine], they are killers'. It remains unclear whether the recording was doctored for political purposes. But last night Mr Aslin's brother Nathan Wood said: 'People should not believe anything the Russians say or are making my brother say. He is being held against his will and forced to say whatever they tell him to. 'Anything that comes out of my brother's mouth now, and the mouths of his Russian captors, are lies.' Both Pinner and Aslin are believed to have been captured while fighting with Ukrainian soldiers to defence Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine. The city has seen the worst fighting of the seven-week-long war. Home to 400,000 people before Russia's invasion, the city has been reduced to rubble by seemingly indiscriminate Russian shelling. Russian forces have in recent days made advances in Mariupol and issued a chilling warning to the final troops defending the besieged city. Russian servicemen (pictured) on Tuesday secured Mariupol's Drama Theatre which was destroyed in a missile strike on March 16 At least 300 people died when Mariupol's drama theatre (pictured, Russian servicemen secure the destroyed building) was targeted in a Russian missile strike, despite being marked 'children' Russia gave Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to 'surrender or die', urging them to lay down their arms by 6:00 am Moscow time (0300 GMT) and to evacuate before 13:00pm, on Sunday after the Russian Defence Ministry claimed their troops had cleared the urban area of the city - with only a small unit of Ukrainian fighters remaining in the giant Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern port. In a statement, the defence ministry said: 'The Russian Armed Forces offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries from 6am (Moscow time) on April 17, 2022, to stop any hostilities and lay down their arms. All who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared.' But with the last Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol refusing to surrender and accept Russia's now-expired ultimatum, the Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Goncharenko, told BBC News the last defenders will 'fight until the end'. He said: 'I spoke with them yesterday, and I know that they're going to fight until the end.' It comes as there was deadly shelling in Kharkiv over the weekend, which led to five people being killed and 13 injured, according to regional health officials. Connerjack Oswalt had gone missing from Clearlake, California in September 2019 at the age of 16-years-old Police bodycamera footage captured the emotional moment a mother from California was told her autistic teenage son had been found alive three years after he was reported missing. Connerjack Oswalt disappeared from Clearlake, California on September 28, 2019 at the age of 16 - but he was found earlier this month outside a gas stations store near Park City, Utah, more than 700 miles away from his old home. It's unclear what the teen had been up to for the three years he was missing - and the situation remains under investigation. Oswalt, who was diagnosed with autism in 2014, was spotted by Summit County Sheriff's officers, who saw him shivering late at night in the cold. They had received reports from residents that the boy had been wandering the area with a shopping cart for several weeks. The young man initially refused help, but he changed his mind when police revisited him last Saturday. Oswalt was found shivering outside a store gas station earlier this month Police offered to let him warm up by sitting in the front of their patrol car The boy was picked up by police in Utah 700 miles away from where he went missing 'You look like you're shivering,' the officers said as they approached. 'You cold? You want to come sit in his car and warm up for a minute? We can't have you sitting in front of the door here all night.' The officers offered the teen a seat in their patrol vehicle to warm up while they asked questions as to his identify. He also agreed to have his fingerprints scanned. Oswalt tells the officers that he doesn't want to be taken anywhere but to sit in the car to warm up. For whatever reason, the Connerjack 'either refused or was unable to give them his name' but the Summit County police force made sure he got the care he needed. One of the officers also set about searching the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database. Utah police then searched through missing persons records and found a match Another of the photos original shared by worried parents in 2019 Days later, the boy's stepfather made the journey to Utah to verify his identify for himself. Bodycam footage shot by the police shows the man sitting in a police interview with the boy's mother on speaker phone. She describes a 'very distinctive birthmark on his neck', which police confirm they found. Police show then show the man a picture of the original missing poster from three years earlier and ask him to compare it to an image shot the previous week. Mother, Suzanne, and stepfather Gerald Flint, are overjoyed at finding their son A police bodycam captured the moment the boy's stepfather confirmed it was him The stepfather's reaction is visceral and he immediately becomes emotional at realizing it is the teenage boy they lost years earlier. On the other end of the line, the Oswalt's mother asks, 'Is it him?' ''A little bit older, but yeah!', he responds. 'Oh wow! My sweetheart's alive!' she cries the mother can be heard shouting before breaking down in tears of joy, knowing her son has finally been found. 'Oh my God!' Oswalt is now receiving care and is expected to reunite with his mother soon. 'My sweetheart's alive!' Oswalt's mother, Suzanne exclaimed before breaking down in tears Mother, Suzanne, told CBS: 'We searched all over California. Were just grateful that hes safe and hes alive and we have our son back. Thats the most important thing ever for us.' Oswalt's stepfather, Gerald Flint, added: 'Honestly, Im still dumbstruck by the situation. We've had a lot of false hope over the last two-and-a-half years.' Flint drove from Idaho Falls, where the family had moved to since his disappearance, to Park City to carry out the in-person identification. Commenting on the moment Oswalt was reunited with his family, Sheriff Justin Martinez said: 'There wasnt a dry eye in the room. Theyve been reunited with this individual they havent seen for three years when he was 16. Hes now 19.' 'As weve dealt with this individual he has never been aggressive towards law enforcement but hes been resistant towards law enforcement,' Martinez told FOX 13 News. A TikTok star who was allegedly sprayed with acid while livestreaming claims she was asked sinister questions on social media just before the attack. Jenny Elhassan, 32, said a fake account demanded to know where she was before she was attacked outside Old Town in Haymarket, Sydney, on Friday. Three masked men jumped out of a black car before one of them allegedly threw acid onto her and the group fled. Ms Elhassan suffered burns to her right eye, forehead, and neck and was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital. 'I still remember when I was live streaming there was someone in my comments, a fake account, that was asking me where I was,' she said in a TikTok video on Sunday. 'They were also asking me why I had my sunglasses on indoors and they were telling me to take my sunglasses off and I said no to them.' Jenny Elhassan, 32, said a fake account sent her sinister questions before she was sprayed with corrosive liquid outside Old Town in Haymarket, in Sydney, on Friday Ms Elhassan went on to recount her experience and believed God was looking down on her during the attack. 'I do feel like God was watching down on me,' she said in the video. 'Number one: my daughter wasn't with me, she was in my mother's care. Number two: I was wearing sunglasses for some odd reason at 11 o'clock at night. 'Number three: there was a paramedic onsite that was off-duty. Number four: my sister was telling me to wash my face. She knew exactly what was happening.' The social media star did not address revelations she is a former in-law of one of Sydney's most notorious underworld figures. Ms Elhassan's sister Alia was formerly married to convicted drug smuggler Steven Elmir, once regarded as one of Sydney's most feared underworld figures. Police are also investigating potential links between her attackers and the notorious Alameddine crime family accused of several recent underworld hits. A TikTok star who was livestreaming before she was sprayed in the face with acid revealed she was asked on social media for her whereabouts before the attack Elmir was sentenced to up to 24 years behind bars for his role in a conspiracy to import nearly two tonnes of illicit drugs from the Netherlands in 2017. Known by the codename 'Mr Worldwide', he was one of nine men arrested over the sting which included Michael Ibrahim, the brother of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim. He spent two years in custody in Dubai for a 'civil debt' he was unaware of before he was extradited back home by Australian Federal police. Elmir will spend a minimum 14 years behind bars and isn't eligible for parole for another nine years. It's understood police are planning to question rapper Ali 'Ay Huncho' Younes over allegations he was involved in the attack on Ms Elhassan, the Daily Telegraph reported. Younes was previously linked to the Alameddine family. Three masked men then jumped out of a black car before one of them allegedly threw acid onto her and the group fled (pictured, Old Town at Haymarket in Sydney) Jenny Elhassan (pictured) had acid thrown in her face by three men while leaving a restaurant in Sydney's Chinatown precinct on Friday night He was also reportedly close friends with Ms Elhassan and invested $200,000 into helping her establish her TikTok fame before a bitter falling out. Younes, who is currently on bail for charges of affray, assault and participate in a criminal group has denied any involvement in the attack on Ms Elhassan. His lawyer claimed police are yet to speak to Younes. 'I have spoken to my client, he vehemently and strenuously denies any involvement in the terrible incident,' Abdul Saddick told the publication. It has also emerged Ms Elhassan isn't cooperating with police as she doesn't want her attackers punished, amid fears the incident may escalate. 'In cases like this where the victim is reluctant to assist investigators it makes the job harder,' Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett said. 'But we will get to the bottom of this public attack.' The new details emerged after it was revealed Ms Elhassan had taunted an unknown person hours just before the attack, saying 'I'm not scared of you... come for me' Jenny Elhassan is the former sister-in-law of convicted international drug smuggler Steven Elmir (pictured) The eerie message from a clip filmed earlier that day, she talked about getting threatening phone calls and addressed a person directly. 'Back off, back off I'm not scared of you. I don't give a f***. I'm making sure everything is public. If you wanna come for me, come for me.' In another clip filmed before she was attacked by three masked men who jumped out of a black SUV, Ms Elhassan said she had a 'bounty' on her head. After being attacked at the Old Town Hong Kong restaurant in Haymarket at around 11pm on Friday, she was rushed to hospital with burns to her right eye, forehead and neck. . Before the incident Ms Elhassan also posted another clip containing a recording of her speaking to a police officer, who confirmed 'they are coming after you'. A TikTok star claimed she was threatened with 'an attack' if she did not delete a podcast naming a man before acid was sprayed in her face in a terrifying ambush. He also warned her to stay in busy public areas for her own safety. 'While I was streaming someone came into my life and told me I better take the podcast down of [his] name or there is going to be an order on me,' Ms Elhassan said in a video before the ambush. It understood the 'order' was a targeted attack which may have been arranged for a payment, but the young mum refused to remove the post she was threatened over. 'I will drop your name for the rest of my life ... I could not give a f***,' she fumed. 'Get the po po's [police] involved, get the lawyers involved get the prime f***ing minister involved, nothing is going to stop me.' Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Jenny Elhassan detailed the threat in a video prior to the horrific incident which saw her rushed to hospital with burns to her right eye, forehead and neck late on Friday night Jenny Elhassan, the young mother who had acid thrown in her eyes on Friday, admitted she knows the identity of at least one of her attackers but didn't want to name them Ms Elhassan added that she would take the man to court if the 'order' was carried out - to 'make sure you have nothing'. A far more subdued Ms Elhassan broke her silence on Saturday, hours after a man threw acid in her face, admitting it would be 'better for me' if she did not escalate. 'I feel like I just want it to blow over, I don't want anything to escalate,' she told Channel Ten. 'I feel like if I just let it blow over it will be much better for me.' The young mother said she knew the identity of at least one of her attackers but didn't want to name them. Ms Elhassan was dining at the popular Dixon Street eatery moments before she was set upon Ms Elhassan filmed another video in her hospital bed showing the extent of damage to her face with burn marks on her neck and above her eyebrow Restaurant staff handed Ms Elhassan bottles of water before she poured the liquid over her face Police confirmed a HAZMAT crew attended the scene at 11.15pm and the woman was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital for treatment of facial injuries. The day after the attack she showed burn marks on her face and neck and in another video described the excruciating pain in her right eye. 'I still feel like there's a knife stuck in my eye,' Ms Elhassan said. She also added that she was relieved her six year old daughter did not witness the horror unfold, and believes her eyes were only saved by her designer sunglasses. NSW police are on the hunt for three men who fled along Dixon Street. The vicious attack was captured in her livestream, in which she is heard screaming for water seconds afterwards. She also claimed to have needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation administered by her sister, Alia, for 10 minutes because she passed out from the acid attack. Footage shows Ms Elhassan howling for water and begging for help from her terrified sister Alia Jenny Elhassan, 32, was dining at the Old Town Hong Kong restaurant on Dixon Street at Haymarket, in Sydney, at 11pm on Friday Footage shows Ms Elhassan howling for water and begging for help from her terrified sister. 'I can't see,' she says. 'Alia I can't breathe. Come give me mouth to mouth.' Restaurant staff handed Ms Elhassan bottles of water before she poured the liquid over her face. Ms Elhassan filmed another video in her hospital bed showing the extent of damage to her face with burn marks on her neck and above her eyebrow. She said she was wearing sunglasses at the time, but the 'black acid' still managed to get into one of her eyes. 'See the burn marks on my neck, the burn marks across my head and my eyesight,' she said. Police set up a crime scene and called in the NSW Fire and Rescue HAZMAT crews for assistance NSW Ambulance inspector Andrew Bibb said: 'When paramedics arrived, this patient was very distressed and appeared to be struggling to breathe. 'Her face was quite swollen as a result of the chemical substance which was also impacting her vision. 'A chemical burn to any part of the body is extremely concerning let alone to a person's face. 'Of all the injuries paramedics attend, burns can be the most painful and difficult to manage.' Anthony Albanese could not answer exactly how many nurses would be needed to fulfil his election promise of 50 urgent care clinics across Australia - just hours before Scott Morrison failed to answer a basic economy question correctly. When put on the spot during a press conference in Brisbane on Monday morning, the Labor leader gave a vague answer about every clinic having different needs. 'Each place is different. We know for example the melanoma institute will use that funding of $14 million to employ additional nurses. That will allow them to employ 35 additional nurses,' Mr Albanese said. Mr Albanese has promised all 50 clinics will be up and running in 2023 if he is elected prime minister on May 21. 'We know that it's a challenge but we also know that we have an obligation regardless of who's in government to train more nurses, to train more doctors,' he said on Monday as he kicked off the second week of official campaigning. A local reporter accused him of failing to provide the 'finer details' of the plan. He argued clinics would be run by GPs and nurses who would be able to determine their exact staffing needs at a later date. Anthony Albanese could not answer exactly how many nurses would be needed to fulfil his election promise of 50 urgent care clinics across Australia Labor critics are seen near where Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese holds a press conference after inspecting a street affected by recent flooding Mr Albanese wasn't the only politician to make a blunder on Monday. Just hours later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was talking to reporters in Perth about the cost of living when he wrongly stated that Australians on welfare get $46 a week. The actual figure is $46 a day. Jason Clare, Labor's housing and homelessness spokesman, highlighted the gaffe on Twitter. 'Today Scott Morrison got the Jobseeker rate wrong,' Mr Clare wrote. 'Not by a little - he was out by $276 a week.' Despite Mr Albanese's blunder, he did have the facts at hand regarding the Coalition's perceived failings during natural disasters and crises. 'What we saw from the federal government, whether it be bushfires, floods or the pandemic... a real pattern of behaviour,' the opposition leader said. When put on the spot during a press conference in Brisbane on Monday morning, the Labor leader gave a vague answer about every clinic having different needs 'Scott Morrison, after the election in the 2019-20 bushfires, went missing. And he failed to act soon enough, and he only acted when the political pressure was really put on. 'On floods we saw again a political response rather than a human response. Rather than looking at people who were going through a really tough time and saying, 'What can we do to help?' Mr Albanese was in Brisbane meeting with flood victims who have not yet been able to return to their homes. Labor senator Murray Watt, who stood by Mr Albanese's side during the conference in Brisbane, also addressed Queenslanders directly saying residents in the Sunshine State had more reasons than most to abandon the Coalition. 'Why is it [that] wherever Queenslanders need Scott Morrison the most, he always turns his back whether it's Covid, whether it's floods, whether it's infrastructure or anything else,' Mr Watt said. 'It's about time Queenslanders and all of Australians had a prime minister who's prepared to work with the whole country, bring the whole country together, not pit state against state and mate against mate.' Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese greets local kids as he inspects a street affected by recent flooding On the first official day of campaigning last week, the Labor leader was asked if he knew what the interest rate was, but dodged the question. The rate has been at a historic low of 0.1 per cent since November 2020. Mr Albanese was later asked what the national unemployment rate was. He tried to guess but got it wrong. 'The national unemployment rate at the moment is... I think it's 5.4... sorry. I'm not sure what it is,' he said. The unemployment rate is 4 per cent, the lowest since 2008. Shadow Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was able to answer both questions correctly. On Monday, Ms Gallagher came to Mr Albanese's defence again, saying he was determined to have 'real interactions' ahead of the May 21 poll. 'I think that this election campaign, you have to keep it real,' she told ABC TV. 'You can't just have stage-managed, controlled events like the prime minister is having where nobody gets to see anybody.' She said her advice to Mr Albanese was to stay focused on the things that matter. 'We've got a nine-year-old tired government who has let aged care fall into disrepair, who haven't acted on climate, who have had a series of rorts and waste. 'Our plan is about dealing with all of the waste and rorts and mismanagement and focusing on what matters... Medicare, helping people with cost of living pressures and actually dealing with the climate crisis.' Prime Minister Scott Morrison's popularity is back on the rise as he and his wife Jenny greeted children at The Children's Hospital at Westmead Meanwhile in Perth on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked to rule out future cuts to Medicare if he is re-elected. 'I thought Anne Ruston, who I announced [as health minister] yesterday, should we be successful at the election... said yesterday there would not be any cuts. And I would repeat that today,' he said. 'I was clear about that yesterday. And why can I say that? Because under our government, we went from $19.1 billion in expenditure on Medicare to $31.4 billion. So we took a bulk-billing rate from 82.2 per cent to 88.8 per cent. 'The reason we have been able to achieve that is the same reason we can invest in the ships behind us. Because we have been running a strong economy, and we know how to manage a budget.' Labor jumped on comments Ms Ruston made back in 2014 about the viability of Medicare to express concerns her appointment as health minister could spell the end for subsidised public healthcare. 'This is a health minister now designate, if they're successful in the election, who we know will undermine Medicare,' Mr Albanese said in Brisbane. Ms Ruston was quick to assure the public there was no threat to Medicare. Anthony Albanese's election hopes took a hit after a significant blunder during the first week of campaigning but the margin of error in the latest opinion poll indicates it's still too close to call Mr Albanese's election hopes took a hit after a significant blunder during the first week of campaigning, but the margin of error in the latest opinion poll indicates it's not over yet. Both Mr Albanese and Scott Morrison suffered a series of gaffes in recent days but a poll conducted by Resolve Political Monitor found the prime minister's approval rating actually improved. Despite recapturing the lead as preferred PM, analysts said he was not a sure bet and opinions were likely to continue flip-flopping ahead of the May 21 election. There is a 2.6 per cent margin of error within the latest data. Just 1,404 people participated in the polling over the course of one week. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence the general public should have that the poll result would reflect the opinions of the entire population. Despite Mr Morrison's personal popularity rising, the Resolve Strategic survey indicates Labor would win 51-49 in a two-party preferred vote. But 27 per cent of voters said they were still not committed to voting for one party over the other despite the election being in just five weeks. These swing voters could throw polling statistics out of the window come election day. A current candidate for Brooklyn district leader - and outspoken 'rapper' - has reiterated his anti-police stances after an expose revealed his long history of verbal attacks on the NYPD. Thirty-seven-year-old Noah Weston, also known by the stage name 'Soul Khan,' doubled down on his remarks calling NYPD officers 'useless pigs' after the New York Post published a story on his anti-cop views. '[E]verything I said was accurate and I would say it again,' Weston tweeted on Sunday evening. The Post article dove into Weston's many comments criticizing the New York City Police Department, including tirades that branded officers as 'f****** pigs' and 'sacks of s***' who have failed egregiously to solve the Big Apple's incessant crime woes. Weston, a California native who is part of a rap group known as Brown Bag All Stars, has also hinted that NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, is exacerbating the city's homelessness crises with his policies. 'The greatest threats in this city are Eric Adams and the NYPD,' Weston tweeted on Saturday in response to a post about officers clearing a homeless encampment. Weston has also called Adams a 'morally grotesque piece of s***.' The rapper, who is running for a district leader position in Brooklyn's 46th Assembly District, has also blamed cops for spreading COVID among vulnerable populations by refusing to wear masks, as well as the department's alleged use of violent and racist tactics. 'It is genuinely more productive to wipe your a** with money than to spend it on cops,' Weston tweeted in May, while another tweet read 'f*** the f****** pigs til the day their misbegotten lives end abolish these ogrish sacks of s***.' Thirty-seven-year-old Noah Weston, known artistically as 'Soul Khan,' doubled down on his remarks calling NYPD officers 'useless pigs' after the New York Post published an article on his anti-police views Weston, a California native who is part of the hip-hop group Brown Bag All Stars, also hinted that NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, was exacerbating the spike in crime The Post article dived into Weston's many comments criticizing the New York City Police Department, blaming officers for failing egregiously to solve the Big Apple's incessant crime woes The rapper, who is running for leader in the 46th Assembly District, has largely blamed cops for refusing to wear masks, spreading COVID among vulnerable populations and using violent and racist policing 'cw: police brutality. F*** the f****** pigs til the day their misbegotten lives end abolish these ogrish sacks of s***,' Weston has also tweeted Weston has also called Adams a 'morally grotesque piece of s***' In a video posted late February announcing his bid for office, Weston ventured to say that the Democratic party had to be built from the ground up. 'From the indifferences and broken promises of Joe Biden, to the callousness and cruelty of Mayor Eric Adams, the Democratic Party has failed us, and we deserve better,' Weston said in the video. Long before dabbling in politics, Weston opened up about his mental health struggles and urged his followers to vote for Bernie Sanders. 'I've been thinking a lot about my daily routine, which usually includes taking a pill that keeps me from getting too hopeless...so a sad day doesn't turn into my last.' 'People like me need Medicare for all. The fact of the matter is that there is one person who has the vision and, yes, the plan to get us there and that's Senator Bernie Sanders....Vote Bernie,' Weston said in 2020 ahead of the Democratic Presidential nominee primaries. The very opinionated rapper often shares his views on social media and has said in the past that he does not believe the police department can be reformed and must instead be abolished. 'Bless the jury, f*** the pigs, and keep fighting [to] abolish, not reform,' he tweeted after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted for the 2020 murder of George Floyd. After the Post's piece was published on Sunday, Weston, who identifies as queer, claimed to have received threatening messages telling him to 'pray for his gay to go away or else.' '[O]kay we need to talk about the police's toxic fandom,' he tweeted along with a picture seemingly showing the messages. Weston has ventured to say that the Democratic party has to be built from the ground up More recently, Weston took issue with the NYPD's response following a shooting in which 23 people were shot or otherwise injured when suspect Frank James, 62, opened fire and detonated gas devices inside a subway car last Tuesday '[S]eems like a more reliable and involved mental health care system would have done more to prevent this shooting than 11 billion dollars in wasted police funding,' Weston also said on Twitter Weston alluded that cops 'helped the shooter escape,' because they didn't have working radios 'It is genuinely more productive to wipe your a** with money than to spend it on cops,' Weston tweeted in May More recently, Weston took issue with the NYPD's response following a shooting in which 23 people were shot or otherwise injured when suspect Frank James, 62, opened fire and detonated gas devices inside a subway car last Tuesday. Weston alluded that cops 'helped the shooter escape,' because they didn't have working radios. 'We do bring up NYPD being useless at a time like this because the cops helped the shooter escape, didn't have working radios, and didn't prevent this but will use it as a pretext to hurt and kill people,' Weston tweeted Tuesday. After the shooting, a witness told The New York Times that a uniformed officer at the Sunset Park subway station where the victims were found said his radio was not working and asked passengers to call 911. Weston also claimed that 'Frank James did more than the NYPD to locate Frank James.' James had evaded officers for nearly 30 hours before calling cops on himself roughly 12 minutes before his arrest at a First Avenue McDonald's on Wednesday. '[S]eems like a more reliable and involved mental health care system would have done more to prevent this shooting than 11 billion dollars in wasted police funding,' Weston also said on Twitter. The district leader hopeful credited 'real community members' for James' arrest. 'Real New York community members, not cops, supported each other in meaningful, healing ways through this. Remember that,' he wrote. Meanwhile, southern Brooklyn assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr., told the Post Weston's verbal attacks made him a less than ideal candidate. 'He's not fit to be an elected party official using language like that. More than 99 percent of police officers are trying to help our community,' Abbate told the outlet. 'He should remain a rapper. On second thought, I don't think he's fit to be a rapper. He's smearing society.' New York City Assembly primaries will be held on June 28, while the general election is set for November 28. In the aftermath of the shooting last week, it was revealed that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been warned multiple times there were not enough cops on the subway (File photo) A New York Police Officer of the anti terrorism unit patrols the 36th St. subway station, a day after a shooting incident took place in the Brooklyn borough of New York City In the aftermath of the shooting last week, it was revealed that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been warned multiple times there were not enough cops on the subway. After 10 people were shot in the most recent attack to rock the city, Adams vowed to double the number of police out patrolling the system. The number of crimes in the subway has jumped 55 percent from the same period last year, according to data. As of last week, workday ridership on the subway is still at about 60 percent of what it was before the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020 with 3.3 million riders using the system. The mayor pledged to ramp up the uniformed cops out and about as he spoke from COVID isolation. Adams, a former cop, has vowed to reduce violence in the city with a crime-fighting plan that includes bringing back a version of the plainclothes anti-gun unit. Earlier this year, more than 200 cops from the NYPD's Neighborhood Safety Team were sent to patrol 30 key areas where shootings have risen alarmingly. Previous iterations of the unit were disbanded in 2020 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio amid anger at policing sparked by the murder of George Floyd and concerns they accounted for a disproportionate number of shootings and complaints. The surging crime wave, which according to the latest NYPD statistics shows no signs of abating, has seen an uptick in almost all major crimes this year. For the year through April 10, major crimes are up 44 percent from the same period in 2021, with felony assault up 19 percent and robberies rising 48 percent, the latest NYPD data show. Murders have ticked down 11 percent, but other crimes are well up, with shooting incidents rising 8 percent, burglary up 31 percent, and grand larceny auto soaring 77 percent. Major crimes, meanwhile, are up overall, by nearly 50 percent. Two men are dead and another pair were hospitalized in critical condition after their boat capsized on the Long Island Sound on Sunday, with rescuers reporting that a language barrier initially prevented them from locating the distressed vessel. Authorities received a distress signal off Shippan Point in Stamford, Connecticut around 10:30 a.m. Easter morning, according to the Stamford Fire Department. Officials said they pulled two unconscious and unresponsive men from the water, alongside another two, who were semi-conscious. None of the four boaters were named as of Sunday night. Officials said a language barrier and conflicting reports of the boat's location prevented first responders from determining the exact location of the boat at first. Scroll down for video Pictured: the location in the Long Island Sound, off Shippan Point in Stamford, Connecticut, where the boat and boaters were eventually located on Easter Sunday The Long Island Sound, pictured, where two men were killed and another two hospitalized after their boat capsized on Sunday Two of the men were rushed by fireboat to an ambulance waiting onshore in nearby Darien, while the other two boaters were taken to several Stamford EMS ambulances waiting at West Beach in Stamford. One victim was taken to Norwalk Hospital, where he was pronounced dead 'after lengthy life-saving efforts were made,' while the other three were transported to Stamford Hospital, officials said. A second boater was later pronounced dead at a still-undisclosed hospital. The boaters were reportedly unable to return to shore in their 12-foot long vessel because of rough 3-4 foot swells and strong northwesterly winds. Officials said the boat was still being carried off shore by the wind and tide when one of the boaters made their last cell phone call to a family member prior to the vessel capsizing. The vessel was eventually located after Stamford Emergency Communications Center personnel tracked that call by usual 911 cellular tracking software. Authorities deployed five marine rescue boats to the area in response to the incident. Emergency responders quickly found the four men in the water and debris believed to be from the capsized boat once arriving in the area where the last phone call was tracked. The surviving boaters were reported to be in critical but stable condition, according to the Stamford Fire Department. The rescue was a coordinated effort from several local police and fire departments, including Darien, Noroton, Greenwich as well as the US Coast Guard, authorities said. The incident is currently under investigation by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Conservation Police. A North Carolina medical school put one of its students 'on leave' after she tweeted about purposefully missing a man's vein while drawing his blood - an act apparently meant to punish the patient, who mocked her for wearing a pronoun badge that said 'She/Her.' In a statement, Wake Forest University simply claimed the trainee doctor, Kychelle Del Rosario, had made an 'inaccurate statement' on social media. 'Wake Forest School of Medicine has completed a thorough review of the patient encounter with our medical student who recently made an inaccurate statement on social media,' the school wrote in a statement to 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' producer Gregg Re on Friday. 'The review determined that the student had no intention to harm the patient and followed Medical Center protocols The School and the student have agreed upon her taking an extended leave. During this time the student will not participate in any patient care activities.' The university has not stated how long the 'extended leave' will be nor have they explained how they determined nature of the stabbing of the patient was accidental. Wake Forest has also refused to state if the patient involved had been contacted about the incident. Wake Forest University School of Medicine defended Kychelle Del Rosario (pictured) despite her apparent admission to purposefully missing a man's vein during a blood draw The university has not elaborated on length of leave but the medical school said a probe found her claims on Twitter did not accurately reflect the incident The trainee doctor sparked outrage last month after she implied she had deliberately injured a man who mocked her by missing his vein during a blood draw. She now claims she did so accidentally, and says a more qualified medical professional made the second blood draw attempt in line with existing procedures. Wake Forest said an investigation found Del Rosario's claims on Twitter did not reflect the incident, adding she had followed the guidelines correctly. They did not comment further on how they had established the facts of the case. Meanwhile, a statement by the student hinted she would be back working after she had 'reflected' on her 'social media use as a professional'. The school was condemned for its slowness to respond to the scandal, and has yet to comment on the liability issues it could face if it does let Del Rosario loose again. Wake Forest University School of Medicine said an investigation found Del Rosario's claims on Twitter did not reflect the incident, adding she had followed the guidelines correctly. Above, the school's Dean, Julie Freischlag The institution said an investigation found her claims on Twitter (pictured) did not reflect the incident, adding she had followed the guidelines correctly It comes as fellow students rallied around her and slammed the victim, with another future doctor, Ewen Liu, even claiming the missed injection was 'karma-tic' for him mocking her. Del Rosario, a fourth-year student, was widely condemned for claiming on Twitter to have purposefully missed the patient's vein so she would have to jab him twice. She suggested her attack was justified because the victim - who has not been named - laughed 'loudly' at her She/Her pronoun pin. Wake Forest University School of Medicine said it reviewed the incident as soon as it was made aware of her tweet. It said in an updated statement from earlier in April: 'Our documentation verifies that after the student physician was unsuccessful in obtaining the blood draw, the student appropriately deferred a second attempt to one of our certified professionals. 'The student did not attempt to draw blood again.' The spokesman said she had followed the guidelines correctly after an investigation. Del Rosario added: 'I am writing this as an apology for a very irresponsible tweet that I sent on Twitter that I highly regret. 'For the event mentioned in the tweet, I was performing a blood draw on a patient and during our conversation they had shown dismay at my pronoun pin. 'I calmly shared my thoughts about pronouns and did not escalate the situation further. 'When I was doing the blood draw, I missed the first time due to my inexperience as a student, and per our policy, my supervisor performed the successful blood draw the second time. 'During this encounter, I never intended to harm the patient. I am truly sorry for poorly representing our school and our health system. 'I will reflect on responsible social media use as a professional and my duty to care for all my patients, regardless of any differences of belief.' Del Rosario was slammed online last month after tweeting she had messed up the injection on purpose due to the patient mocking her Wake Forest School of Medicine (pictured) did not respond to request for comment. DailyMail.com was also unable to reach Del Rosario The medical school said it was aware of the incident and would address it with Del Rosario Del Rosario was slammed online last month after tweeting she had messed up the injection on purpose due to the patient mocking her. She wrote: 'I had a patient I was doing a blood draw on see my pronoun pin and loudly laugh to the staff 'She/Her? 'Well of course it is! What other pronouns even are there? It?' I missed his vein so he had to get stuck twice.' The medical student wiped all her social media pages when the university said it was looking into the post. Despite the malpractice, students from Wake Forest University backed Del Rosario and hit out at the victim. Ewen Liu, also a medical student, said: '[I] heard this story firsthand weeks ago and [it] seems like [people] are misinterpreting (understandably from the phrasing). 'To clarify, the missed stick was COMPLETELY an accident and just seemed 'karma-tic'. 'She is kind and professional and would never harm anyone intentionally.' She later deleted the post. Ewen Liu, also a Wake medical student, said: '[I] heard this story firsthand weeks ago and [it] seems like [people] are misinterpreting (understandably from the phrasing)' Meanwhile in an op-ed for student publication Old Gold and Black, Sophie Guymon - a psychology sophomore from San Francisco - claimed the response was 'excessive'. She wrote: 'Twitter users were quick to condemn Rosario for purportedly violating the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm and ''assaulting'' a patient over ''[differences] in political beliefs'', while failing to offer any substantive or nuanced criticism of the bigotry expressed by her patient. 'The crux of the issue at hand is not the conduct of Del Rosario, but the bigotry expressed by her patient.' She added: 'Alleging that she attacked her patient simply because she disagreed with a remark they made and chose to tweet about it is an unwarranted logical fallacy.' But Guymon was blasted in the comment section of her post, with former alumni who went on to become doctors saying it was 'a disgrace'. One woman, called Christina, posted: 'She is a disgrace to the profession of medicine. 'She certainly alluded to purposefully missing the draw so he would be stuck twice. Her apology is very staged and hollow. 'She should be dismissed. We physicians will always encounter people who are not kind and we need to treat them equally. 'The person making excuses for her obviously has an agenda and is displaying poor judgement as well. Truly disgusting.' Meanwhile in an op-ed for student publication Old Gold and Black, Sophie Guymon (pictured) - a psychology sophomore from San Francisco - claimed the response was 'excessive' Del Rosario's original tweet was made in response to a post from Ghanaian-American physician, cartoonist and author Shirlene Obuobi MD addressing transphobia. Obuobj, who identifies as cisgender, said she has worn a she/her pronoun badge for a year to help patients and colleagues. In a thread addressing transphobia, Obuobj wrote those 'who fall under the trans umbrella feel a little more comfy.' She added: 'In the last few weeks, several cis patients have berated me for it.' Del Rosario appears to have been an active advocate for the trans community. Last year, she wrote an essay arguing against the 'Bathroom Bill' that sought to get people to use public restrooms corresponding to their gender assigned at birth. The medical student argued 'policies like these have consequential impacts on the health of transgender people'. She also shared how she was a leader for Safe Zone in Medicine, which she said was 'an organization run by health care trainees whose goal is to educate health professionals about the needs and disparities in LGBTQ+ healthcare.' She went on: 'This role prepares me to become a trustworthy doctor and advocate for the transgender communitya population which the medical field has harmed greatly in the past.' 'It also allows me to train other health care professionals who aim to improve their practice to be more welcoming and gender-affirming.' She argued she was 'outraged and disheartened' by the 'countless horrors' trans patients experience in the health care system, alleging many will not seek medical care 'due to fear of discrimination and mistreatment'. Del Rosario appears to have deleted all her social media accounts apart from her LinkedIn profile since her post sparked outrage across the country. It says she graduated in 2017 from the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in cognitive science with concentrations in neuroscience and biology. She was 'aspiring to become a medical doctor.' Her biography also indicated she worked as a Scribe for ScribeAmerica in several general pediatrics clinics through Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, as well as at two dental facilities. Former Olympian Zali Steggall has dodged questions on transgender women competing in female sport. The bronze medal-winning skier turned politician holds the seat of Warringah on Sydney's north shore and is competing with local lawyer Katherine Deves. Ms Deves, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's hand-picked challenger, is under heavy pressure after numerous anti-transgender comments resurfaced. Ms Steggall was asked by reporters on Monday if she would have raced against transgender competitors during her ski event in Japan in 1998. The Independent MP brushed aside the question saying there were 'bigger issues' to focus on, including harassment and equal pay and media coverage. Warringah MP and ex-Olympian Zali Steggall has remained silent on transgenders competing in female sport as Katherine Deves is slammed over more tweets Her comment comes as Liberal candidate Katherine Deves draws more backlash from unearthed tweets comparing trans rights to Nazism and the Stolen Generation 'Sporting bodies from national federations to clubs, support (existing legislation and rules) as providing the right flexibility and framework to respond sensitively and carefully, prioritising the wellbeing of all involved and fairness for all athletes,' Ms Steggall told Daily Telegraph. 'We are talking of an incredibly small number of athletes.' Ms Deves hours earlier drew more backlash from unearthed tweets comparing transgender rights to the Nazis and the Stolen Generation. Senior government officials have already begun to distance themselves from Ms Deves including Foreign Minister Marise Payne, and she may be dis-endorsed from running for the marginal seat. In April 2021, Ms Deves tweeted about a trial where a Canadian father was taken to court for not supporting his teenager transitioning. 'This will go down in history as akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich,' she wrote. 'I do not like to invoke Nazism but the parallels are remarkable and deeply sinister. 'We can only hope that when society comes to its senses, it's redeemed by trials similar to the Nazi wife and the border guards.' The father was arrested after violating a court order by publicly speaking about the transition of his child. The teenager was born female, but transitioned to being identified by male pronouns. In April 2021, Ms Deves tweeted about an overseas trial where a Canadian father was taken to court for not supporting his teenager transitioning In September 2021, Ms Deves criticised a decision by a Western Australia court to dismiss an appeal by parents whose transgender child was put into foster care NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Peter Wertheim attacked Ms Deves over the tweet. 'It appears Ms Deves has a history of making inappropriate and ill-considered statements comparing modern day events to the horrors of the Nazi era,' they said. 'While Ms Deves' recent apologies are welcome, it is well and truly time Ms Deves declares that such comparisons have no place in public debate in Australia. 'We invite her to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum to learn what life under Nazism was really like, and to understand how her comments trivialise some of the worst evils in history.' Ms Deves in September 2021 criticised a decision by a Western Australia court to dismiss an appeal by parents whose transgender child was put into foster care. 'Australia has a very dark history of children being taken from their families by the state (because) bureaucrats thought they knew better,' she wrote. 'Don't we owe it to lessons of the past, such as our shameful Stolen Generation scandal, to stop the destruction of families for flawed beliefs?' Foreign minister Marise Payne has distance herself from Ms Deves, saying she does not share her views Ms Deves also authored a submission to Save our Women's Sport where she suggested trans children diagnosed with 'gender dysphoria' were simply on the autism spectrum. 'There is a growing group of concerned parents who have suffered already due to this policy - ordinary, caring, diligent parents whose children have come to believe 'transitioning' is a solution to their problems,' she wrote. 'Many children 'diagnosed' with 'gender dysphoria' have pre-existing mental health issues; are on the autism spectrum; or are simply gender non-conforming and would likely grow up to be gay or Lesbian if they are left alone.' Ms Deves' views have caused friction within the Liberal party with Prime Minister Scott Morrison facing mounting pressure to dump the candidate. Foreign Minister Marise Payne distanced herself from Ms Deves, saying she did not share her views. NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Peter Wertheim attacked Ms Deves over the tweet 'As the prime minister said yesterday, in public life, we do have to be very careful about the way we express our opinions. Most importantly, we have to exercise sensitivity and respect,' Payne said on Sunday. 'And in this case, in the case of the massively complex and extremely challenging issues that accompany any individual's decisions about transition and transgender issues, overwhelmingly that has to be the approach that we take one of sensitivity and one of respect. And that is my view.' South Australian senator Anne Ruston joined in to slam the 'absolutely unacceptable' comments made by Ms Deves. 'We are a broad church and people are entitled to their points of view,' she said. 'We don't live in an echo chamber. We need to accept that people have differing views, but the views that were expressed by Ms Deves were clearly unacceptable.' A charity kitchen in Ukraine run by celebrity chef Jose Andres' was struck and destroyed by a Russian missile strike Saturday - but the blast apparently won't stop the organization's workers from cooking. The World Central Kitchen in the Kharkiv, a northeastern Ukrainian city, was hit and four of the workers at the kitchen were wounded, according to the nonprofit. Andres, 52, who founded the World Central Kitchen in 2010 during the Haiti earthquakes, addressed the strike on Twitter. 'The @WCKitchen team and our fellow Ukrainians are unnerved but safe after a missile attack on a restaurant in Kharkiv,' he wrote. While members of their team were wounded, Andres reiterated the organization's commitment to feeding the hungry in Ukraine. 'Giving food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience, resistance and we will continue cooking,' Andres added. Another leader for WCK said Sunday that injured staffers were 'doing well' and that the team was already planning its move to a different location in Kharkiv. As Russia's invasion of Ukraine heads toward its third month, a charity kitchen run by celebrity chef Jose Andres' (pictured) organization was struck by a missile Saturday The World Central Kitchen in the Kharkiv, a northeastern Ukrainian city, was hit and four of the workers at the kitchen were wounded, according to the nonprofit Several workers are wounded while the rest immediately begin to rebuild and return to cooking No one was killed at the restaurant, but chief executive Nate Mook was on site and confirmed that one person had been killed from the missile strike. 'Just a tremendous amount of carnage left behind for no reason. In this area, there are offices there are residences. People live here. People work here people cook here and it's absolutely horrific brutality,' Mook said in a video he posted from the area. The video showed devastation all over the neighborhood, including cars that had been burned and other destruction. No one was killed at the restaurant, but chief executive Nate Mook (pictured) was on site and confirmed that one person had been killed from the missile strike U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with chef Jose Andres from World Central Kitchen as he visits Ukrainian refugees at the PGE National Stadium, in Warsaw, Poland March 26 'Truly in awe at the bravery of our @WCKitchen partners!' he wrote. 'The work doesn't stop!' The World Central Kitchen is currently operating in close to 30 Ukrainian cities and they say they've been serving about 30,000 meals per day. A professor at Boston University called Republicans 'the party of white supremacy' and not the 'party of parents,' despite the GOP 'branding' themselves as such. Ibram X. Kendi, Boston University's Andrew W. Mellon professor in the Humanities and Director of the Center for Antiracist Research, took aim at the GOP in an op-ed for The Atlantic, citing Republican opposition to critical race theory as a reason why they're 'clearly' not the party of parents. 'This Republican Party is not the party of any group of parents, but the party of white supremacy,' Kendi wrote. 'The Republican Party is clearly not the party of parents. The Republican Party is certainly not the party of parents of color. But is the Republican Party even the party of white parents?' '(They are) not the party of parents raising white kids. The Republican Party is not the party of parents raising girls, raising trans kids, raising kids of color, raising queer kids, raising poor kids, raising immigrant kids.' 'The Republican Party is making it harder for all of these kids to learn about themselves and their histories,' Kendi went on to write. Pictured: Ibram X. Kendi took aim at the GOP, citing Republican opposition to critical race theory as a reason why they're 'clearly' not the party of parents Kendi, pictured, called Republicans' efforts to 'brand' themselves as the 'party of parents' based on a 'myth' A protest against critical race theory at Scottsdale Unified School District (above), which took place before a digital school board meeting at Coronado High School in Arizona '(The GOP) is stripping parents and educators of their collective ability to protect vulnerable children from being indoctrinated byor victimized bythe scourge of white supremacy.' Kendi called Republican efforts to 'brand' itself as the 'party of parents' a 'myth,' on the scale of 'the great lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.' He added that the party has built that reputation on 'false conceptual building blocks.' Kendi also noted in his editorial that it's a common refrain among Democrats that 'Republican politicians care about white children,' though he claims that '[banning] anti-racist education is harmful to white children' as well. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pictured, promotes the 'Stop Woke Act' on December 15, 2021 DeSantis displays the signed Parental Rights in Education, aka the Don't Say Gay bill, flanked by elementary school students during a news conference on March 28, 2022 According to Kendi, if Republican politicians indeed care about white children, 'they would not be ignoring or downplaying or defending or bolstering the principal racial threat facing white youth today.' That threat, according to Kendi? 'White supremacy.' 'Instead of focusing on this very real threat, Republican politiciansto justify Floridas Dont Say Gay lawhave cited QAnon conspiracy theories about public schools being overrun by child predators who are "grooming" children to be gay,' Kendi wrote. 'A spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis reframed the "Dont Say Gay" bill as an "anti-grooming" bill. But if QAnon Republicans really cared about white children, then they would be worried about white-supremacist grooming.' 'This is the grooming that parents of all children should be worried about.' Opponents of the academic doctrine known as Critical Race Theory protest outside of the Loudoun County School Board headquarters, in Ashburn, Virginia A person wears a QAnon sweatshirt during a pro-Trump rally on October 3, 2020 in the borough of Staten Island in New York City Kendi went on to say that 'anti-racist education' based on frameworks like critical race theory ultimately protect 'all children' and not just white children.' 'The Republican Party is making it difficult for individuals to learn about history,' he added. 'This is anti-racist education, and it protects white childrenall childrenagainst the growing threat of white supremacists, as I demonstrate in my upcoming book,' Kendi wrote. Last month, Florida legislature passed the controversial 'Stop WOKE Act,' a bill introduced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in December in an effort to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools and workplaces across the state. The bill codified a ban put in place by the state Department of Education earlier last year on the controversial topic in K-12 schools, as well as enacting new restrictions on private workplaces. Jon Mark Wilson, 58, from Missouri has been jailed for ten years after admitting to trying to hire a hitman to murder a boy hes accused of molesting A man from Missouri who was accused of molesting a child has now been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for attempting to hire a hitman to kill the victim in advance of any possible trial. Jon Mark Wilson, 58, pleaded guilty last September for setting up a murder-for-hire plot, according to the Department of Justice. Unbeknownst to Wilson, he was dealing with an undercover agent the entire time and ended up paying $2,000 to an ATF officer to 'carry out the murder.' Wilson decided to have his alleged victim murdered after the young boy's family had brought a child abuse case against him in Pettis County, Missouri. The case is still making its way through the courts, according to the Department of Justice. But instead of waiting to face justice, Wilson decided he would rather have his alleged victim killed in the hope the molestation prosecution would be dropped with the victim unable to testify. He set about contacting a hitman to carry out the murder, prosecutors said. The person whom Wilson contacted went straight to the police. Authorities then went and helped arrange a fake 'setup' meeting between Wilson and an undercover officer which saw him driving almost 100 miles from Sedalia, Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas in January 2019. Unbeknownst to Wilson, he was dealing with an undercover agent the entire time and ended up paying $2,000 to an ATF officer to carry out the murder He agreed to front $2,000 in advance of the killing and a further $5,000 in cash once the job was complete. Wilson also gave the undercover officer a photo of the victim according to court documents seen by Fox News. Wilson told the undercover agent he would like to kill the victim's mother also, but did not have the money. 'It's the only choice I got,' he lamented to the agent. He also said that following the child's death, he hoped the mother would end up taking her own life too. Wilson bought 25 shotgun shells which he gave to the undercover officer to carry out the killing. No sooner was the meeting complete, Wilson was arrested when a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper who had been lying in wait pulled him over as he drove away. Australian families living in Shanghai are becoming increasingly fearful of Covid lockdown policies that include separating children from their parents. The policy - described by some expats as 'inhumane' - is part of a draconian elimination strategy by the Chinese Communist Party. People who test positive to Covid, including children, are removed from their homes and placed into government quarantine centres - even if they're asymptomatic. Shanghai has been in a strict lockdown since March, but reported 24,820 new cases on Sunday. That number accounts for about 95 per cent of all cases identified in China in the 24 hour reporting period. The city of 25 million people has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Covid-infected children are being separated from their parents in Shanghai amid a fresh outbreak of the virus Australian father-of-two Norman Lau, who has lived in Shanghai for almost two decades, said he's terrified of the separation policy In the same month, health authorities in Shanghai reported 305 infected children aged six and under in their quarantine facilities. Australian father-of-two Norman Lau, who has lived in Shanghai for almost two decades, told ABC he is terrified of the separation policy. 'The risks of quarantine, separation from family... are even scarier than the risk of contracting Covid itself,' Mr Lau said. He has two children aged 11 and 14. For Ender Waters, a dual Australian-American citizen, the hardline stance is driving expats away from China. He arrived in September 2020 after spending six months enduring lockdowns in Melbourne. Several children in a metal-barred cot are wheeled through the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre as they are separated from their families after having contracted Covid Shanghai health officials have defended a policy of separating babies and young children from their parents if they test positive for Covid-19 , amid growing frustration at the city's zero-Covid policies Unlike Melbourne's on-again-off-again lockdowns, Mr Waters has noticed food scarcity in Shanghai. 'That was never the case in Melbourne, we [could] always go to the grocery store and get food,' he said. The English-language teacher was among a group of expats that signed a petition against the separation of Covid-infected families. The petition was removed from the internet within two days. 'I think it's a very inhumane policy,' he said. In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, people with mild and symptomatic cases of COVID-19 quarantine at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in Shanghai, Friday, April 1, 2022 Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, brushed aside the fears of local parents. 'If the child is younger than seven years old, those children will receive treatment in a public health centre,' he said last week. 'For older children or teenagers... we are mainly isolating them in centralised (quarantine) places.' Ms Wu claimed the policy was integral to virus 'prevention and control work'. 'We have made it clear that children whose parents are also positive... can live in the same place as the children,' she added. A Covid patient inside one of the quarantine centres filmed the reported inhumane conditions in their facility in a bid to raise public awareness. In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a medical worker conducts antigen testing for an elder resident in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, April 3, 2022 More than 200 patients, including young children, shared four toilets with no showers at the makeshift isolation hub on a vacant office floor. President Xi Jinping insisted China sticks to the elimination policy, known as 'dynamic Covid clearance'. For Shanghai, the policy means converting schools, recently finished apartment blocks and exhibition halls into quarantine centres, the largest of which can hold 50,000 people. Diplomats from more than 30 countries have written to the Chinese foreign ministry urging authorities not to continue the brutal policy. 'We request that under no circumstances should parents and children be separated,' said a letter written by the French consulate in Shanghai that was addressed to the foreign affairs office of Shanghai on March 31. Those residents who test positive to Covid are being forced to remain in quarantine warehouses until they can produce two consecutive negative PCR tests In a separate letter to the Chinese foreign ministry dated the same day, the British embassy in Beijing said it was concerned by 'recent instances when local authorities have sought to separate minors who tested positive for Covid-19 from their parents' and requested assurances that this would not happen to diplomatic staff. The French consulate and British embassy both said they were writing the letters on behalf of other countries, including including Australia and New Zealand, after hearing about difficulties caused by Shanghai's lockdown. Australian Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher described the situation as 'very upsetting'. 'Along with other governments with [a] presence in Shanghai, Australia has raised our concerns directly with the Chinese authorities, including about access to food, medical services, or the airport,' he said. Advertisement Images have emerged which appear to give a first glimpse at Russia flagship Moskva after it was blown up by Ukrainian missiles last week before it sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea. The pictures, which seem to have been taken from a rescue vessel alongside the stricken Russian warship, show damage its left side along with flames burning below deck and a thick pall of black smoke rising into the sky. Moskva is shown sitting low in the water, leaning to the port side, and appears to have deployed its lifeboats with no crew visible on board. Its rear helicopter door is also open, suggesting the aircraft has taken off. There also seems to be a firefighting ship behind the vessel which is spraying jets of water into the air. Multiple black marks scar the port-side of the ship, including several near deck-level where smoke appears to have streamed out of portholes and left marks on the paint. But there are also dark marks close to the waterline that don't match the position of portholes and suggest the ship has sustained external damage. The images are largely consistent with Ukrainian descriptions of the sinking - that the Moskva was hit by two missiles on its port side which sparked a fire and caused it to roll - and contradict Russia's account which was that the ship suffered a fire and internal explosion in rough seas. Video has also since emerged which appears to show two rescue vessels approaching the burning ship - one to the left side and one to the right - in which a Russian voice can be heard speaking. One man says 'what the f*** are you doing?' before the short clip ends. Analysts and experts who reviewed the images say they do appear genuine. It is unlikely that Russia will confirm the authenticity of the pictures, amid a near-total information blackout around the sinking which is a huge embarrassment to Vladimir Putin's beleaguered armed forces. Moscow did stage what appeared to be a parade of crew members in the port of Sevastopol - in occupied Crimea - on Sunday, during which the captain of the warship and between 150 and 250 members of its crew were shown on camera alongside Black Sea Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov. The Moskva typically carries up to 510 sailors, and there was no word on the whereabouts of the remaining crew or their condition. But horror accounts of the sinking have started to emerge from conscripts serving on board the ship, with one telling his parents that at least 40 members of the crew were killed with 'many' left missing or maimed with lost limbs after the strike. Hundreds are thought to have died as the vessel went down. Images have emerged which appear to show the Russian warship Moskva heavily damaged and on fire in the Black Sea shortly before it sank last week The pictures seem to contradict Russian accounts of the sinking, after Moscow claimed the warship sank in choppy seas while being towed to the port of Sevastopol following an explosion on board A short video clip also appears to show the listing battleship, with a voice heard saying - in Russian - 'what the f*** are you doing?' before the seconds-long clip cuts out The images show what appears to be damage to the left-hand side of the vessel close to the water line, smoke and fire damage along its left-hand side, missing lifeboats and open helicopter bay doors - suggesting the aircraft has taken off. A rescue ship also appears to be behind the stricken ship, spraying water jets Moskva (pictured last leaving port on April 10) got into trouble on April 14 while sailing around 60 miles off the coast of Odesa - Ukraine's largest port - before Moscow confirmed she had sunk on April 15 Parents of another conscript say they have found out some 200 were wounded - many with horrific burns and other major injuries. Elsewhere in Ukraine today, at least six people were killed and another eight wounded - including a child - after five Russian cruise missiles struck the western city of Lviv in the early hours. Two people also died and four were wounded in Monday attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk - regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram - and an air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital Kyiv. In the country's second city of Kharkiv, at least five people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes just 13 miles from the Russian border. Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed four arms and military equipment depots in Ukraine overnight with Iskander missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Monday. Russian forces had hit 315 Ukrainian targets in total overnight, it added. To the south of Kharkiv, Ukraine also claimed to have carried out several successful counter-attacks near the city of Izyum, where Russia is mounting its forces for an anticipated assault on the wider Donbas region. Attacks pushing east out of Kharkiv seized territory around the towns of Bazaliyivka, Lebiazhe, and Kutuzivka - Ukrainian officials said - which would cut off an important Russian supply route from Belgorod to Izyum. Another attack further to the east claimed to have captured territory around Borova, also cutting supply lines and leaving Russian forces at Izyum in danger of encirclement. Street battles were also reported in Kreminna, near the city of Severodonetsk, as Russian forces try to push out from occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. Speaking about the sinking of the Moskva, one mother who spoke to Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta - which is now operating outside the country having been gagged by Putin - said: 'I first heard from him only on 15 April, two days after the incident.' 'My son said the cruiser was hit from the land, from the Ukrainian side, because the fire on board would not have started without a reason. There are people who were killed, wounded and missing. 'My son called me as soon as they were given phones [after being rescued]. Their documents and phones were on the cruiser. He called me, and he cried over what he had seen. It was horrendous. Clearly not everyone survived.' She said: 'Most of the wounded have limbs torn off, because of the explosions from both the missiles and the detonated ammunition. My son was crying when he called me on 15 April. 'He said: 'Mamochka (tender for mum), I never thought I'd get into such a mess during supposedly peaceful times. I won't even tell you the details of what I've seen, it was so horrendous.' The mother said: 'I don't want to share his name because I am scared to damage my son. They signed non-disclosure agreements before boarding the cruiser. Please understand me, I am terrified. I am petrified, and I don't know how I will wait for my son to return.' Mark Tarasov, 24, a conscript who went missing after the Moskva cruiser was taken out by Ukrainian missiles last week Mark Tarasov (left), 24, a Russian conscript who went missing after the Moskva cruiser was sunk last week. He is seen here posing with his mother Ulyana and father at the railway station, when he left for the service Yegor Shkrebets (first from the right), 20, a conscript who is missing after the Moskva cruiser sank. He is seen here posing with other sailors at Moskva cruiser, 4 days before the tragedy. Among them is another missing conscript, Mark Tarasov, 24 Yegor Shkrebets, 20, a conscript who went missing after the Moskva cruiser was destroyed last week Russia has remained tight-lipped about the fate of Moskva's crew, but on Sunday released this footage which it claimed showed the ship's complement on parade in Sevastopol Footage showed the ship's captain - Anton Kuprin (centre) - parading in front of his men, which were estimated to number between 150 and 250. Moskva typically carries up to 510 men, and Russia did not say what had happened to them Anton Kuprin (left), captain of the Moskva, salutes Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the commander in charge of Russia's Black Sea Fleet which the vessel led as the flagship 2014: Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on-board the Moskva with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Moskva was a Soviet-era guided missile destroyer that was designed to taken on US aircraft carriers with large amounts of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles She indicated that the Defence Ministry is stopping the survivors from going home, perhaps to prevent accounts of the calamity for Putin reaching the outside world. 'How the hell did you allow the Moskva to be sunk?': TV anchor dubbed 'Putin's voice' rages at Russian navy A leading Russian TV presenter known as 'Putins voice' expressed cold fury at the sinking of the Black Sea flagship Moskva. It appeared that Vladimir Solovyov was articulating the Kremlin leaders own anger when he launched a full-frontal attack on the Navy in a nationwide broadcast. 'I am furious about what happened to the Black Sea Fleets flagship, Moskva,' said the state TV anchor, sanctioned for his links to Putin. 'I am simply furious.' 'And yes, we say it was quite old, and went through repairs and, yes, this series of ships has vulnerabilities. 'I get it. 'But tell me this: how did you manage to lose it Explain me, why the hell you were in that particular area of the Black Sea, at that time?' The loss of the Moskva is the biggest single humiliation for the Russian war effort in a campaign that Vladimir Putin hoped would see Ukraine roll over and submit to his hegemony in a matter of days. Solovyov raged: 'And I dont care what exactly happened - if indeed [it was] the two Neptune missiles as the Ukrainians said. 'Anyway, since when was a combat ship scared of a missile strike, since it has a defence system? 'So, was something not activated? 'Okay. Even if it was hit with two missiles, and it ignited the ammunition 'What happened to your fire fighting system?' His rant contrasted with recent Sunday evening where he has lauded the Russian war machine and heaped blame on the West, for example accusing Britain of choreographing the massacre in Bucha, claiming the horrors were staged and had nothing to do with Putins forces. His blast echoes other whispers that Putin was left incandescent by the loss of the Moskva. The Kremlin went into denial over the sinking and it is still unclear how many perished, with estimates that it runs into the hundreds. Footage of some of the rescued crew lining up on a Sevastopol parade ground - broadcast on Saturday - failed to clarify the matter. It showed perhaps 150 sailors, including an officer who closely resembled 1st rank Captain Anton Kuprin, commander of the Moskva, who the Ukrainians claimed had been killed in the sinking. Yet the date the Defence Ministry footage was filmed was unclear. So too was the fate of sailors not present from a crew which is believed to number 510. Solovyov appeared to have been given license to hit out at the navy - indicating that the Kremlin is seeking to find a culprit for the catastrophic loss of the cruiser. There are suggestions that Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, has been detained or suspended over the loss of the flagship. Advertisement 'I've no idea how I'll live through this while waiting for my son to return, waiting for him to finish his service. It's awful. And the [state] media, of course, doesn't give any details. Why? Because the Ministry of Defence doesn't want to admit defeat by Ukraine. It doesn't want to admit that such a cruiser sank.' Separately, a father has vowed to find out the truth about his conscript son Yegor Shkrebets, 20, a ship's cook on the Moskva, now missing presumed dead. Dmitry, from Yalta in annexed Crimea, said: 'It was reported [by Russian state media] that the entire crew had been evacuated. It is a lie. A blatant and cynical lie. My son is a conscript, and as I was informed by the immediate commanders of the cruiser Moskva, he is not among the dead and wounded and is included in the list of missing. 'A conscript who was not supposed to take part in hostilities is listed as missing.missing on the high seas. After my attempts to clarify the data on the incident, the cruiser commander and his deputy stopped communicating. 'I asked directly: How come you, the officers, are alive, and my son, a conscript soldier, died?' The father said: 'They tried to tow the cruiser to Sevastopol, but on the way it suddenly sank. Keep thinking for yourselves. I, Dmitry Shkrebets, the father of this conscript Yegor Shkrebets ask everyone who is not afraid and not indifferent. 'Spread this appeal of mine wherever you have the opportunity so that the bastards do not hush up this terrible tragedy. Take care of your children, take care of each other. And I will devote my whole future life to ensuring that the truth wins in this story. A man whose son was taken away in such a vile way is not afraid of anything. 'Thank you for not being indifferent. Soon they will delete this post again, so copy it.' He implies that his earlier post was deleted by the VK - Russian social media - administration. Yegor's mother Irina Shkrebets told The Insider and said that she and her husband had been to a hospital in Skalistaya Bay, where they brought the wounded from the cruiser. According to her, there were about 200 injured sailors. Irina said: 'We looked at every burned [young sailor]. I cannot express how hard it is, but I didn't find mine. There were only 200 there, and there were more than five hundred on the cruiser. 'Where are the others? We turned to Krasnodar, and other [cities], called everyone, but we couldn't find him.' Her son had been conscripted in August and was involved in the incident when the Moskva took Snake Island early in the war. After the Moskva was sunk, she said: 'We went to the unit. The commander came out, threw up his hands and said: "I won't tell you anything." 'I said: "Where is my son?", and he said: "Well, somewhere in the sea." My husband began to argue: "What does it mean in the sea? Where have you been?" But unit commander refused to answer. These commanders were not on the ship.' The parents tried to get an answer from the FSB - the Russian Federal Security Service, the main domestic security agency. 'We arrived at the FSB in Sevastopol, where even a man refused to come out - they were standing behind the fence,' she said. 'My husband shouted: "Come out and call the police. Let me punch you in the face." 'He didn't even come out, behind bars he showed his hands criss-cross, to say goodbye, that's all. This is the service of the navy and the FSB of Sevastopol.' They tried to get the authorities to show them the list of the dead and missing, but were refused. A commander who was on the ship also contacted Irina. She recalled: 'I said: "Can you at least tell me how my son died?" And he said: "I don't know anything, they were at the supply post. We had missiles all over the cruiser." He could not say and somehow did not say that a missile had actually hit the cruiser.' Media outlet Agentstvo identified another conscript Mark Tarasov, 24, who was called up after studying at university. His mother Ulyana Tarasova, 47, posted on her social media accounts on April 17: 'My son, Tarasov Mark, went missing on the Cruiser Moskva.' Her son graduated from St. Petersburg State Transport University and was called up in autumn 2021, she said. She posted pictures from the railway station when she saw him off to military service. Taras himself posted pictures with the caption: 'See you in a year'. Agentsvo got in touch with the woman - a friend - who was pictured with Taras on one of the farewell pictures. She confirmed that he had gone to service in the navy. Earlier, Taras - now presumed dead - had travelled to Portugal, Sweden and Greece. Naval chief Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov, 60, admitted at the weekend that there had been conscripts on board - despite assurances from the Kremlin that they would not fight in the war. LVIV: Five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes hit the city early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began. Pictured: Smoke rises after 5 aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko shared this picture from Lviv on Monday, showing thick black smoke rising from a burning building near a railway track Firefighters at work in the immediate aftermath of a Russian shelling in Kharkiv, 17 April 2022 MARIUPOL: A view shows a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says it's vital not to lose sight of how to pay for health and welfare as voters head to the polls on May 21. The incoming federal government will have a role in assessing at least three coal mines in Queensland. Renewable energy and phasing out fossil fuels are key issues in many seats, with a new wave of independents arguing for stronger action on carbon emissions cuts. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (pictured) has said Australia needs more coal mines to pay for the rising cost of Medicare, social security, and welfare The Greens are also aiming to pick up a number of new Senate seats by campaigning on more ambitious climate action. Throwing his support behind more coal development, Mr Joyce said a coalition government would invest in 'the things that make us money'. 'Medicare and social security have to be paid for,' he told the Seven Network on Monday. 'We are the side that is brave enough to say that we make it from iron and coal and gas, and if we lose sight of that we're not making the money that can support all of the vital economic and social infrastructure so important to this nation.' Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned that a vote for the so-called teal independents was a vote for instability. 'You just don't know what you are going to get,' he told reporters in Perth. 'The great risk of voting for an independent in one of those contests is that you throw the parliament into chaos and uncertainty.' Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese (pictured) said his party's position on mining development was clear. If coal mines 'stack up' environmentally and commercially, Labor would welcome the jobs new mines would create Mr Morrison, who is due to address the mining industry in Perth on Tuesday, said he would continue to back the industry. 'It's why I'm always here (in WA) trying to ensure we're cutting the red tape and green tape that can frustrate the resources industry,' he said. Labor leader Anthony Albanese said his party's position on mining development was clear. 'You have appropriate environmental approvals and if coal mines stack up environmentally and then commercially, which is a decision for the companies, then they get approved,' he told reporters in Brisbane. 'Labor would welcome any jobs that would be created from that. 'It's important because of the way that the (environmental protection) act works that we don't pre-empt the environmental approvals process, and that that is able to take place independently of government intervention because that's what the act requires.' The incoming federal government will have a role in assessing at least three coal mines in Queensland's Galilee Basin Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said her party would welcome a debate on economic management. 'This is a government that actually doubled the debt before COVID-19 hit,' she said. 'The Morrison government and the Howard government are the two highest taxing governments in the last 30 years.' She said the Morrison government had admitted low wages were a deliberate design feature of its economic management. 'We want to lift that (cost of living) burden to make sure that they have good jobs and a pay rise and cheaper childcare and cheaper healthcare and an easier life.' Greens leader Adam Bandt said the decision on three new coal mines in Queensland's Galilee Basin would be a key test for the next government. 'If you open new coal mines, you're not serious about climate,' he said. The Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which provides independent updated information on the economy and budget ahead of the election, is due to be released this week. Ben Fordham has blasted a 'knucklehead' Labor MP after he shared a clip of himself holding an edited photo of Scott Morrison on fire. Julian Hill posted a video on social media to push young Australians to enrol to vote for the upcoming election before targeting the Liberal party's track record on issues such as climate change, housing affordability and education. Hill held up a poster of Scott Morrison throughout the clip before flipping it over to an edited image of the Prime Minister with flames underneath, telling viewers to vote if they want to 'burn the Morrison government'. 2GB radio host Ben Fordham called out Hill for the video message on his radio show on Easter Monday. Ben Fordham has blasted a Labor MP, referring to him as a 'knucklehead,' after he shared a clip of himself holding an edited photo of Scott Morrison on fire 'I think people need to be aware of the some of the language they use around election time and some of the images they use as well because we've noticed something that's been posted by the Labor MP Julian Hill,' Fordham began. The broadcaster urged the person 'overseeing the media campaign that's been pushed by out there by Julian Hill' to check his 'social media feeds this morning'. 'Julian Hill has put out a social media message encouraging people to enrol [to vote], but he's used an image of Scott Morrison on fire,' he continued. Fordham then played out the Labor MP's video message on the radio and proceeded to slam the edited picture of Scott Morrison. 'Julian Hill thinks it's appropriate to show a politician seemingly on fire. He has a very strange sense of what's right and what's wrong.' 'We don't need knuckleheads like Julian Hill promoting this kind of thing,' Fordham added. Ben Fordham (pictured) slammed Hill for the video message on his 2GB radio show on Easter Monday, saying, 'We don't need knuckleheads like Julian Hill promoting this kind of thing' Hill (pictured) posted the original video to his personal Twitter to encourage young Australians to enrol to vote before targeting the Liberal party's track record on issues such as climate change, housing affordability and education Hill posted the original video to his personal Twitter where he is seen holding up an image of Scott Morrison smiling on one side. 'Here's one way to wipe the smirk off Smirko's face over Easter. There's one thing this bloke is terrified of. And that's young Australians enrolling to vote,' he said. The politician told his followers the Morrison government has 'attacked and neglected young people' and listed areas where the government has dropped the ball. 'No action on climate change; wrecking housing affordability; making education and TAFE and university harder and more expensive; wage cuts; wage theft; casualised and insecure work,' Hill claims. The politician tells his followers that the Morrison government has 'attacked and neglected young people' as he lists areas where the government has dropped the ball He concludes his video message by encouraging his viewers to vote against the Morrison government as he flips his placard over to the picture of Morrison on fire. 'If you think Australia deserves a better future. If you want to wipe the smirk off this bloke's face on election day. If you want to burn the Morrison government, don't delay, vote today'. Around 600,000 Australians are not enrolled to vote, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. Australians have until 8pm on Easter Monday to enrol to vote. Advertisement Vladimir Putin sent up strategic nuclear-capable bombers into the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the calamitous sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea last week. Videos from today and Saturday caught four of the aircraft - used to carry nuclear bombs - over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine. The Defence Ministry in Moscow had not immediately announced the purpose of the mission. The Tu-95s have been used a number of times to strike targets in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons, notably Kh-55 and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. The super-loud Tu-95 is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today, and the plane first flew 70 years ago. Putin has deployed the Tu-95s to buzz Britain at moments of high tension, for example in February this year when the Royal Air Force scrambled Typhoon fighters to escort two Bears off northern Scotland. In February, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on high alert, and threatened NATO allies with 'consequences greater than any you have faced in history' should they intervene in the Ukraine conflict. The show of force came as five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes left at least seven people dead and eleven more injured in Lviv early Monday, the regional governor has said, as multiple Russian attacks rocked Ukraine overnight. The strikes were a rare fatal attack on the city 40 miles from the border with Poland that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began almost two months ago, on February 24. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. Videos from today and Saturday caught four of the aircraft - used to carry nuclear bombs - over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine. In Lviv, footage showed plumes of thick, black smoke rising over the city after a series of explosions shattered windows and started fires, while one video filmed by a civilian appeared to show a cruise missile flying overhead. 'At the moment, we are able to confirm that seven people have died. We also know that 11 people are injured. A child is among them,' the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said in an update on the strikes on social media. 'Three victims are in critical condition,' he added. A hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting further east was among the buildings badly damaged in overnight missile strikes, according to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who put the toll at six dead and 11 wounded. 'The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,' said Lyudmila Turchak, 47, who fled with two children from the eastern city Kharkiv. 'There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.' Two people also died and four were wounded in Monday attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk - regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said - and an air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital Kyiv. In the country's second city of Kharkiv, at least five people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes just 13 miles from the Russian border. Scroll down for video Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine The Tu-95s have been used a number of times to strike targets in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons, notably Kh-55 and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. The super-loud Tu-95 is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today, and the plane first flew 70 years ago Pictured: A Russian Tu-95 'Bear' aircraft, pictured near Britain in February this year when the Royal Air Force scrambled Typhoon fighters to escort two of the aircraft away from northern Scotland Five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began. Pictured: Locals watch on as firefighters battle a blaze after a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile on April 18, Lviv Pictured: Smoke rises from the destroyed building in Lviv on Monday, which was struck by a Russian missile attack Pictured: Responders work to fix a railway line in Lviv after a nearby building was destroyed in a Russian missile strike, April 18 Pictured: Smoke rises after 5 aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 Smoke rises after missile strikes, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Lviv, Ukraine April 18, 2022 Smoke rises after five aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022. The region's governor said that the strikes had killed at least six people Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko shared this picture from Lviv on Monday, showing thick black smoke rising from a burning building near a railway track Smoke is seen on the horizon after Russian missiles struck the area on April 18, 2022 in Lviv Russia's defence ministry said its forces had destroyed four arms and military equipment depots in Ukraine overnight with Iskander missiles, and hit 315 Ukrainian targets in total overnight, the TASS news agency reported. The military said missiles struck more than 20 military targets across Ukraine overnight - including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. Meanwhile, it said warplanes conducted 108 strikes on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims couldn't be independently verified. However, according to Euan MacDonald - a reporter for the New Voice of Ukraine - one of the Lviv strikes hit a tire servicing centre, and another landed near a railway station. He said it appeared Russia was trying to stop the flow of western weapons being delivered to Ukraine to bolster its resistance. Russia has insisted it is not targeting civilians in its invasion - despite thousands of deaths and mounting evidence on the contrary. On April 1, a double-Russian missile strike hit Kramatorsk train station, killing dozens of evacuees. The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to 'destroy' the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the remaining forces in Mariupol prepared Monday for a final defence. Monday also saw reports of a Ukrainian counter-attack near the eastern city of Izyum, close to the Russian border and where Moscow's forces are said to be building up in preparation for an assault on Donbas. Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the country's ability to resist a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland. General Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News the strikes were part of a 'softening-up' campaign by Russia ahead of a planned ground offensive in the Donbas. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, after its attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, failed. 'We are doing everything to ensure the defense' of eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation on Sunday. The president vowed to 'fight absolutely to the end' in Mariupol - a strategically vital port city and where the last known pocket of resistance was holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the city as it works to win control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. But Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian fight-or-die ultimatum Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. Elsewhere, the first images of the sunken Russia flagship Moskva after it was blown up by Ukrainian missiles last week and before it sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea have emerged. The pictures, which appeared to have been taken from a rescue vessel alongside the stricken warship, showed damage its left side along with flames burning below deck and a thick pall of black smoke rising into the sky. The images are largely consistent with Ukrainian descriptions of the sinking - that the Moskva was hit by two missiles on its port side which sparked a fire and caused it to roll - and contradict Russia's account which was that the ship suffered a fire and internal explosion in rough seas. MARIUPOL: Tanks of pro-Russian troops drive along a road during Ukraine-Russia conflict near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 MARIUPOL: A view shows a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 The first images of the sunken Russia flagship Moskva after it was blown up by Ukrainian missiles last week and before it sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea have emerged Yehor, 7, stands holding a wooden toy rifle next to destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022 Ukrainian interior ministry sappers collect unexploded shells, grenades and other devices in Hostomel, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022 A Ukrainian interior ministry sapper collects unexploded shell in Hostomel, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022 People take shelter after an air raid siren sounded on April 18, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine People take shelter after an air raid siren sounded on April 18, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine A view of sandbags placed at windows for further protection as civilians take refuge in shelters after the second siren has sounded following the multiple Russian missile strikes hit Liviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 After the humiliating sinking of the Moskva, the Kremlin had vowed to step up strikes on Kyiv - with Russia saying on Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near the capital overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets earlier this month killed at least 59 people at a train station crowded with civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. In Lviv, twenty-one-year-old resident Andrei said he was sleeping when the sirens began wailing at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT). 'I slept through the first three strikes, but then when the last one hit, it was like my windows were about to break, and the furniture moved,' he said. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak wrote on Twitter: 'Five powerful missile strikes at once on the civilian infrastructure of the old European city of Lviv. The Russians continue barbarically attacking Ukrainian cities from the air, cynically declaring to the whole world their 'right' to kill Ukrainians,' he added. The head of Ukraine's national railways Alexander Kamyshin said that some of the site's infrastructure had been damaged and there would likely be delays to services, but no passengers or staff were injured. Lviv in late March was hit by series of Russian strikes that targeted a fuel depot and injured five people. On March 18, bombardments hit an aircraft repair factory near Lviv's airport. No injuries were reported. Russian cruise missiles on March 13 targeted a major military base about 25 miles north west of Lviv, killing at least 35 people and injuring 134. A view of graves for people killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at a cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 18 Oleg, 48, holds a candle during the funeral of his brother-in-law, Roman Vered, 53, who according to his family was killed by Russian soldiers and recently identified in Kyiv's morgue, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 18, 2022 The coffin of Roman Vered, 53, who according to his family was killed by Russian soldiers and recently identified in Kyiv's morgue, is seen before his burial, as a gravedigger drinks water amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 18, 2022 Relatives and friends attend a funeral ceremony for a man who was killed by Russian soldiers in Bucha on March 17, at the municipal cemetery in the recaptured city of Bucha of Kyiv area, Ukraine, 18 April 2022 In recent weeks, Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas region to move west to escape the expected large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. 'Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas,' Zelensky said in an evening statement. CNN anchor Jim Sciutto reported on Monday morning that a Ukrainian official had said the eastern town of Kreminna, near Luhansk, had been lost to Russian forces. He said the official told him that Russian soldiers had opened fire on a civilian car as they tried to flee the area, killing four people. Further south, Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state. 'The city still has not fallen,' Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. 'There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end,' he told ABC's 'This Week'. 'We will not surrender.' While several large cities were under siege, he said, not one - with the exception of Kherson in the south - had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been re-captured. Ukraine's government said it had halted humanitarian evacuations for the second day, saying Russian forces were targeting civilian evacuation corridors. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday that Russia was shelling and blocking the humanitarian evacuation routes. The humanitarian evacuations have been repeatedly paused since the war began after civilian convoys came under shelling. According to Vereshchuk, the government had been negotiating passage from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other towns, as well as from the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the region were shot to death by Russian forces. Lugansk governor Gaiday said he had proceeded with evacuations. 'At our own peril and risk, we took out several dozen people anyway, but it's already dangerous,' he told Ukrainian media. The UN World Food Programme says that more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine and lack water and heating. And Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the city was on 'the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe', saying they were compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there. 'We will hand everything over to The Hague. There will be no impunity.' People walk past a destroyed tank during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 A woman cries while walking down a street, which was damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 A man walks near a residential building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 In Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope of military rescue. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS' 'Face the Nation' on Sunday that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians there are basically encircled. He said they 'continue their struggle,' but that the city effectively doesn't exist anymore because of massive destruction. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by Ukrainian estimates. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians had taken shelter. An estimated 100,000 people remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Drone footage carried by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed mile after mile of shattered buildings and, on the city's outskirts, the steel complex, from which rose towering plumes of smoke. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a 'shield defending Ukraine.' He said the Russians were pounding Mariupol with airstrikes and could be preparing for an amphibious landing to reinforce their ground troops. Firefighters at work in the immediate aftermath of a Russian shelling in Kharkiv, 17 April 2022 Smoke rises from a building as first responders arrive at the scene of Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on April 17, 2022 A man walks into his burning building after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022 The mayor of Bucha - a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead civilians sparked international condemnation and war crimes accusations - said Russian troops had raped men as well as women and children there. Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed 'genocide' - a term President Emmanuel Macron has avoided. 'I talked to him yesterday,' Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on Friday but broadcast Sunday. 'I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. He'll come and see, and I'm sure he will understand.' Zelensky, describing the situation in Mariupol as 'inhuman', has called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons. But Russia has warned the United States this week of 'unpredictable consequences' if it sent its 'most sensitive' weapons systems to Ukraine. Its defence ministry claimed Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane in the Odessa region, carrying weapons supplied by Western nations. On Sunday, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had destroyed ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts. Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd, he added. Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region's health department, confirmed the five deaths there following a series of strikes that AFP agency journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from buildings. 'The whole home rumbled and trembled,' 71-year-old Svitlana Pelelygina told AFP as she surveyed her wrecked apartment. 'Everything here began to burn. I called the firefighters. They said, 'We are on our way, but we were also being shelled.'' Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in an impassioned address marking Orthodox Palm Sunday, lashed out at Russian forces for not letting up the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. A man walks near a residential building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 People take belongings out of a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 A view shows the bodies of civilians killed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 Service members of pro-Russian troops gather in a street during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 The Ukrainian flag flutters between buildings destroyed in bombardment, in the Ukrainian town of Borodianka, in the Kyiv region on April 17, 2022 UN food agency seeks safe access in Ukraine war zones The United Nation appealed Friday for access to Ukrainians trapped in war zones, saying those besieged were starving to death. The Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP), which has been operating in Ukraine since the start of the conflict, says it has delivered food assistance to 1.4 million people. It has not been allowed access to conflict zones, including the southern port city of Mariupol whose population of 100,000 is surrounded by Russia's army, and the heavily-shelled Mykolaiv east of Odessa. 'We're calling on everyone to give us the access we need to reach the people in besieged cities,' WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement. 'It's one thing when people are suffering from the devastation of war. It's another thing when they're being starved to death.' WFP said it was preparing to deliver food to 2.3 million people this month, but needed safe access. In areas around the capital Kyiv where the Russian army has retreated, such as Bucha and Irpin, the agency is distributing pasta, rice, cooking oil and canned meat to civilians. More than 7 million people are displaced inside Ukraine with the normal supply chains to deliver food to the population 'broken down in many areas,' WFP said. Reporting by AFP Advertisement Zelensky called the bombing in Kharkiv 'nothing but deliberate terror.' In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy also appealed for a stronger response to what he said was the brutality of Russian troops in parts of southern Ukraine. 'Torture chambers are built there,' he said. 'They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.' He again urged the world to send more weapons and apply tougher sanctions against Moscow. In the eastern city of Kramatorsk, Orthodox Palm Sunday granted its residents some respite before the expected Russian onslaught. In the Orthodox Svyato-Pokrovsky church, around 40 people - mostly women wearing colourful headscarves - attended the service. 'It's very hard and scary right now,' said a congregant as she arrived at the red-brick church topped with four gleaming domes. One young mother, Nadia, said she refused to be evacuated for fear of travelling alone with her two children and leaving her relatives in Kramatorsk. 'We don't go to the basement each time there's a (bomb) siren. It's too stressful for them (the children),' she said. 'We have our spot in the basement just in case, but we prefer to stay in the house if possible. We dim the lights.' And in Kharkiv, the city's metro stations are now home to residents of the eastern metropolis fearful of the battle raging above. Those impromptu living spaces have become host to makeshift stages, where poets and puppeteers work to lift spirits. 'A person cannot live only with war,' Serhiy Zhadan - a literary celebrity in poetry-obsessed Ukraine - said. 'It is very important for them to hear a word, to be able to sing along, to be able to express a certain emotion.' The looming offensive in the east, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly needed victory to sell to the Russian people amid the war's mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by Western sanctions. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow this past week - the first European leader to do so since the invasion Feb. 24 - said the Russian president is 'in his own war logic' on Ukraine. n an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Nehammer said he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war, and 'we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine.' Boris Johnson's government is embroiled in a deepening battle with the Church of England today over his plan to send Channel migrants to Rwanda. Former archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams today became the latest high-profile ecclesiastical leader to attack the 120million programme that would see economic migrants arriving in the Uk illegally sent to Africa. He joined his successor and the incumbent Archbishop Justin Welby, and Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell in questioning the morality of the plan, labelling it 'sinful'. However ministers have hit back at the church leaders, accusing them of throwing criticism without suggesting a viable alternative to halt the small boats carrying thousands of people across the Straits of Dover. Dr Williams was today asked about the scheme in a Times Radio interview. 'Is the policy sinful? I think, in a word, yes,' he told the broadcaster. 'I think that without commenting on the motivation, or moral standing, of any individual involved, the policy itself seems to me to be not in accord with, with what I understand about God.' Archbishop Justin yesterday used his Easter Sunday sermon to launch a scathing criticism of Home Secretary Priti Patel's deal, signed in Kigali last week. On Sunday morning, the Archbishop told his Canterbury congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal. But it sparked a hardline response from Ms Patel and other ministers, who invited him to come up with with a better idea or stop carping from the sidelines. Ms Patel resurrected the row on Easter Monday, using an opinion piece in the Times to attack her critics. Without naming the head of the Church of England in a joint article with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta, she wrote: 'We are taking bold and innovative steps and it's surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions.' Minister Greg Hands was even more direct on a round of interviews today. Asked about Welby's intervention he told Sky News: ''I think what others, the critics of this plan, need to do is to show what their solution would be.' The Government has said the 120million, five-year plan would help to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the Channel, which has faced immediate and heavy criticism from politicians and charities. It would see economic migrants who arrive in the Uk illegally handed a one-way ticket to Rwanda to start a new life there . Mr Welby said the 'serious' ethical questions' over sending asylum seekers abroad cannot 'stand the judgment of god'. Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) has fired back at The Archbishop of Canterbury after he declared in his Easter speech this morning the UK must not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' in reference to the migrant crisis The Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured today) blasted the government's Rwanda plan for asylum seekers as the 'opposite of the nature of God' Dr Williams was today asked about the scheme in a Times Radio interview. 'Is the policy sinful? I think, in a word, yes,' he told the broadcaster. Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent to Rwanda while their applications are processed. Pictured: A map detailing the plan proposed by the Prime Minister Minister Greg Hands was even more direct on a round of interviews today. Asked about Welby's intervention he told Sky News: ''I think what others, the critics of this plan, need to do is to show what their solution would be.' Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 15, 2022 On Sunday morning, Justin Welby told his Easter sermon congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal Non-EU migration to UK soars after Brexit The number of non-EU migrants coming to Britain to work and study has rocketed since the implementation of post-Brexit immigration rules, Home Office figures have shown. From 1 January 2021, following the end of the Brexit transition period, those coming to the UK from the EU to work or study have required a visa. In total in 2021, there were 239,987 work-related visas granted. This was a 110 per cent increase on 2020 (114,528 visas) and 25 per cent higher than 2019 (192,559), which was the final full year before the Covid pandemic. However, of those work-related visas granted in 2021, only 30,514 (or 13 per cent) were granted to EU nationals, as well as those from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The highest number of work visas granted in 2021, by nationality, were to Indians (70,099 visas), Ukrainians (20,783), Filipinos (14,281) and Nigerians (11,589). The top EU nationalities granted work visas in 2021 were French (4,618), German (3,693) and Italians (2,921). Last year also saw a huge increase in the number of foreign students granted UK visas. Advertisement He was joined in his sentiments by Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell who called it 'depressing and distressing'. But Tory MPs have called the Archbishop of Canterbury's stinging intervention over the government's plan to send thousands of migrants with a one-way ticket to Rwanda 'clumsy'. Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, a committed Catholic, said the government is not 'abandoning' migrants but taking on a 'very difficult responsibility' with the 'intention' of doing good' which he said is important within Christianity. Other Tory MPs John Redwood, Mike Wood and Tom Hunt also blasted Mr Welby's comments with Mr Hunt saying the Archbishop should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues. Mr Welby also called for a ceasefire in the Russian war on Ukraine and spoke of his concern for families struggling during the cost-of-living crisis and for those bereaved by Covid-19. In his 8.10am sermon, the Archbishop said: 'The resurrection of Jesus is not a magic wand that makes the world perfect. 'But the resurrection of Christ is the tectonic shift in the way the cosmos works. It is the conquest of death and the opening of eternal life - through Jesus, a gift offered to every human being who reaches out to him. 'Not just for individuals but setting a benchmark for all of society because God is lord of every society and nation.' He will continue: 'Let this be a time for Russian ceasefire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. 'This is a time for resetting the ways of peace, not for what Bismarck called blood and iron. Let Christ prevail. Let the darkness of war be banished. 'And this season is also why there are such serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas. 'The details are for politics and politicians. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. In his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the UK has a 'national responsibility' as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 17, 2022 Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell (pictured) said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme The Member of Parliament for Ipswich Tom Hunt said Mr Welby's comments were 'wrong headed' and he should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, said could the Archbishop 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions' Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's previous forays into politics The Most Reverend Justin Welby used his Easter Sunday sermon to launch a scathing criticism of Home Secretary Priti Patel's deal to deter Channel migrant crossings by packing them off to Africa. His remarks sparked a hardline response from Ms Patel and other ministers, who invited him to come up with with a better idea or stop carping from the sidelines. But it is not the first time Welby has used a sermon to wade into political debate in recent years: Welby warns MPs over language Welby clashed with Boris Johnson and other MPs when he called on the Commons to avoid using inflammatory language. He said it was 'extraordinarily dangerous for politicians to use careless comments' in a polarised and volatile' society after the Prime Minister was criticised for using words such as 'surrender' over Brexit. Archbishop speaks on Covid rules Welby warned MPs against Covid restrictions being imposed centrally and said he was 'deeply concerned' about the impact of the 'rule of six' on family life. He said the Government had 'determined the daily details of our lives' during lockdown in a way 'few of us have experienced', as he argued instead for localism. Welby leads colleagues against Brexit Internal Market Bill Mr Johnson was again on a collision course with Welby over Brexit as he led five Anglican archbishops in warning that the proposed Internal Market Bill would ride roughshod over the Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU in 2019 and potentially put peace in Northern Ireland at risk. Calls for public inquiry into handling of the pandemic The archbishop piled the pressure on Boris Johnson to launch a public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic, saying the time for an independent probe 'must be coming close'. Blasts Government plans for NI rise Welby blasted ministers' plans to increase national insurance, saying it could pose a 'serious problem' for low-income workers. He said that privileging wealthy pensioners over the poorest young people posed 'a very serious moral question'. And he slammed the policy as one that was not 'people-centred'. Speaks out against Assisted Dying Bill Welby also spoke out against the Assisted Dying Bill - tabled by the independent peer Baroness Meacher to give patients of sound mind with six months or less left to live the right to die by taking life-ending medication. Urges leaders to reach climate change agreement And just a month earlier, at the COP26 Summit, he said leaders would be 'cursed' if they did not reach an agreement on climate change. Called for support for refugees He used his Christmas sermon last year to preach a message of support to volunteers helping refugees. He said that the Christmas story of Joseph and Mary searching for shelter demonstrates the need to treat those 'who risk everything to arrive on the beaches' with compassion. Advertisement 'It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was announced first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. 'And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures on the cross.' He also said the love of god and hope triumphs over 'nightmares' and 'global power'. Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme. Mr Cottrell said: 'It is so depressing and distressing this week to find that asylum seekers fleeing war, famine and oppression from deeply, deeply troubled parts of the world will not be treated with the dignity and compassion that is the right of every human being, and instead of being dealt with quickly and efficiently here on our soil will be shipped to Rwanda. 'We can do better than this. We can do better than this because of what we see in Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, with a vision for our humanity where barriers are broken down, not new obstacles put in the path. 'After all, there is in law no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker. It is the people who exploit them that we need to crack down on, not our sisters and brothers in their need. We don't need to build more barriers and cower in the darkness of the shadows they create.' Mr Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. 'Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He said '90% of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. The Brexit opportunities minister also suggested the Government's immigration plan creates an 'opportunity for Rwanda'. He said: 'What is being done is providing an opportunity for Rwanda because it will provide Rwanda, a country that needs support and has gone through terrible troubles... and the Rwandan story is almost an Easter story of redemption, isn't it? 'Of a country that suffered the most appalling and horrific genocide and is now recovering and therefore the UK supporting it must be a good thing. 'It helps people come through legitimate routes and I think the aim of the policy - within Christianity intention is always very important - and the intention of the Government is to do good. 'It is to help those in genuine need of asylum and to make it harder for crime to prosper, and that I think, is fundamentally important.' Mr Rees-Mogg had previously stated he 'took his whip from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church rather than the [Tory party's] Whip's Office'. The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times. 'To do so on Easter Sunday feels very wrong. Archbishop of York views particularly wrong headed. Claims he's in tune with majority of the public.' John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions'. He said in a Tweet: 'I thought the Easter message was love conquers all. We should forgive and reconcile. Could the Archbishop help do that instead of sharpening political divisions? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages?' Mike Wood MP also told GB News: 'They were unwise comments This will help to reduce the tragic losses at sea that we've had.' The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times.' Pictured: So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured in Rwanda on Thusday, that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal' It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal'. But issuing a rare ministerial direction compelling the plans to go ahead despite the concern, Ms Patel said that 'without action, costs will continue to rise, lives will continue to be lost'. The Home Office insisted the UK has a 'proud history' of supporting those in need and that Rwanda is a 'fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers'. The policy has enjoyed some support from Conservative MPs, who say the issue of small boats crossing the Channel is high on the priority list for constituents. Ms Patel said she expects other countries to follow the UK's example, suggesting Denmark could be among those to reproduce the Government's 'blueprint', while the Home Office insisted its approach is not in breach of refugee agreements. Boris Johnson's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has today been slammed as an 'egregious breach of international law' and 'really unacceptable' by the United Nation's refugee agency. Pictured: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the command room at the 'Maritime rescue coordination centre' in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022 Speaking about the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic, the Archbishop Mr Welby also said: 'In the UK we might be waking up to lighter mornings and warmer days. 'But families across the country are waking up to cold homes and empty stomachs as we face the greatest cost-of-living crisis - we have known in our lifetimes. 'And because of this, they wake up with fear. 'Further afield people are waking up to horrors they never imagined possible. 'Last month president Zelensky gave a speech in which he said 'the end of the world has arrived'. 'Ukrainians have woken up to the end of the world as they knew it. 'Now they are awakened by the noises of war and the sickening reality of terror. They wake up to mortal fear.' Reflecting, on Mary waking up when Jesus was crucified, he said she awoke 'grim' with 'anger' at disciples for running away and her 'misery' at the future. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby performs the Washing of The Feet ceremony during the Maundy Thursday service at the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Kent, 'Be strong and have courage in your hearts': Boris Johnson addresses Ukrainians in his Easter message as he highlights triumph of good over evil and life over death By ELMIRA TANATAROVA FOR MAILONLINE Boris Johnson addressed Ukrainians in his Easter message today, remarking that 'Christ's message of hope the triumph of life over death and good over evil will resonate this year perhaps more than any other'. The Prime Minister, who is now banned from entering Russia following the Kremlin's sanctions on a dozen other British government members and politicians, told Christians around the world to 'be strong and have courage in your heart'. He added: 'Easter tells us that there is light beyond the darkness, that beyond the suffering lies redemption.' Moscow has meanwhile accused Britain, with Johnson making a surprise visit to Ukraine last week, of 'deliberately aggravating the situation surrounding Ukraine, pumping the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the behalf of NATO' and threatened to expand its sanctions list 'soon'. The prime minister also tweeted out an Easter message in Ukrainian today, following a post yesterday in which he vowed to send more aid to Volodymyr Zelensky. It said: 'I updated my friend @ZelenskyyUa this afternoon on further military aid we will provide to Ukraine in the coming days. 'The UK will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians have the resources they need to defend their country from the ongoing Russian onslaught.' Keir Starmer's message also touched on the conflict and themes of overcoming adversity. The Labour leader said, in his address to 'Christians around the world': 'I know you draw inspiration from the life of Jesus and the Easter story which is a message of overcoming adversity and of hope. Of light overcoming darkness. 'And at this pivotal time, when Europe is at war and people are facing greater poverty at home, hope is more important than ever. 'Thank you and Happy Easter.' Yesterday Pope Francis called for 'gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war' in an Easter vigil homily in St Peter's Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Ivan Fedorov was abducted and held for five days by Russian troops after they occupied Melitopol, a strategic southern city. Francis noted that while 'many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights...nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death'. He did not refer directly to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but he has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace. Francis also addressed Mr Fedorov and Ukrainian legislators Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rusem Umerov, who sat all together in the front row. He said: 'In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. 'We can only give you our company, our prayer.' Francis added that 'the biggest thing you can receive: Christ is risen'. He spoke the last three words in Ukrainian. The messages of hope come as Zelensky last night warned that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons to bring a catastrophic end to its invasion of Ukraine. He urged the world to 'prepare' for the worst by stocking up on anti-radiation medicine and building air raid shelters. The comedian-turned-war time leader made the doomsday warning during an interview with national media, before sharing the clip via his Telegram channel. He made a similar announcement on Friday, when he said it could not be ruled out that Vladimir Putin would use tactical nukes, as his war against Ukraine continues to stall. On Saturday Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a stark reminder that the whole country remains under threat. Today Ukraine and Russia failed to agree about humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said. 'We have not been able to agree...about ceasefires on evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,' she said on her Telegram account. She added that the Ukrainian authorities have asked for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops from the besieged port of Mariupol. Advertisement He added: 'Such a sense of helplessness will have been common this morning. 'Many will be awakened in refugee camps separated from loved ones on the front line, grieving for those missing, raped, abused or killed wondering how to cope. 'For many in this country, the news from Ukraine is terrible but the rising cost of power and fuel, of basic foods, will be the first and overwhelming thought of the day. 'For others it will be the continued deep sense of loss of someone from Covid, or during Covid, to whom they could not say a proper farewell. 'The news might move on but grief does not. 'Others will be struggling at work or feel a deep sense of injustice at the way they've been mistreated by friends, families or employers.' Reflecting on what the resurrection means for us as individuals, the Archbishop will say: 'In dying for us, [God] sees and knows the wounds that cause us so much pain. 'He hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, [and] he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees. 'Closer to home, he sees the humiliation of the grandparent visiting the food bank for the first time, the desperate choice of parents in poverty and the grief and weariness of the pandemic.' On Saturday, a peer suggested that the Government's plan may breach the Geneva conventions, a peer has suggested. Former child refugee and Labour peer Alf Dubs said ministers would face opposition in the Lords over the plan unveiled by Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week. In an interview with The Guardian, Lord Dubs said the Government was attempting to 'ride roughshod' over international agreements. He said: 'I think it's a way of getting rid of people the Government doesn't want, dumping them in a distant African country, and they'll have no chance of getting out of there again. 'I think it's a breach of the 1951 Geneva conventions on refugees. You can't just shunt them around like unwanted people.' It comes as it was reported that Ms Patel took the rare step of issuing a ministerial direction to overrule concerns of civil servants about whether the concept will deliver value for money. As part of the plan designed to curb migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, those who are deemed to have entered Britain by unlawful means since January 1 may be sent to Rwanda where they will be permitted to apply for asylum in the African country. According to the Daily Telegraph, the claimed use of the ministerial direction by the Home Secretary was only the second deployment of the power within the Home Office in the past 30 years. The Home Office declined to comment on the matter when approached by the PA news agency. Speaking to Times Radio on Saturday, shadow prisons minister Ellie Reeves said: 'The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) has come out really, really strongly condemning the Government's proposals, as have many organisations, and it seems the Government's own civil servants have expressed huge misgivings about the plans, which seem to be completely misguided.' The Labour politician said: 'The Government is going to be paying 120 million upfront before any asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda. 'Asylum seekers are saying it won't deter them from crossing the Channel. 'We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis so it doesn't seem the right way to be spending money on an unethical and unworkable scheme that won't deter people from coming over.' She later added: 'The whole system needs looking at again, so rather than making sweeping statements - these announcements that are completely unworkable and incredibly expensive - what the Government actually needs to do is get to grips with the system and put in place a system that actually works, increase prosecutions and clamp down on criminal gangs.' But Ms Patel said Denmark could be among those to reproduce the UK Government's 'blueprint'. 'There is no question now that the model we have put forward, I'm convinced is world class and a world first, and it will be used as a blueprint going forward, there's no doubt about that,' Ms Patel said. 'I would not be surprised if other countries start coming to us direct on the back of this as well.' The Home Secretary said Copenhagen was in talks with Rwanda as well, adding the Council of Europe 'have also basically said they are interested in working with us'. The Home Office denied its approach was in breach of refugee agreements. But Lord Dubs, who came to the UK from then Czechoslovakia on one of the Kindertransport trains in 1939, told The Guardian there would be legal challenges and opposition by peers. 'If (Ms Patel) says she'll get rid of the lefty lawyers' claims, well, I think she may have another thing coming. My understanding is that they're going to have real difficulties in getting this through anyway,' he said. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (left) carries a wooden cross during the Walk of Witness at St Mary's Church, Sellindge, Kent, as he carries out his Holy Week engagements On Friday, the United Nations also criticised the proposal as an 'egregious breach of international law'. Gillian Triggs, a UNHCR assistant secretary-general, said the agency 'strongly condemns outsourcing the primary responsibility to consider the refugee status.' Put to her that Australia had effectively deployed a similar tactic to cut migration numbers, Ms Triggs said: 'My point is, just as the Australian policy is an egregious breach of international law and refugee law and human rights law, so too is this proposal by the United Kingdom Government. 'It is very unusual, very few states have tried this, and the purpose is primarily deterrent - and it can be effective, I don't think we're denying that. 'But what we're saying at the UN refugee agency is that there are much more legally effective ways of achieving the same outcome.' She said attempting to 'shift responsibility' for asylum seekers arriving in Britain was 'really unacceptable'. A view of facilities at Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of the capital city Kigali, in Rwanda - where migrants shipped from Britain will initially be taken Ms Triggs pointed out that Israel had attempted to send Eritrean and Sudanese refugees to Rwanda, but that they 'simply left the country and started the process all over again'. 'In other words, it is not actually a long-term deterrent,' she added. In response to the UNHCR, the Home Office insisted to the MailOnline that 'Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers.' It noted that the UNHCR has previously sad the country is safe for refugees. 'Under this agreement, Rwanda will process claims in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention, national and international human rights laws, and will ensure their protection from inhuman and degrading treatment or being returned to the place they originally fled,' the Home Office's statement said. 'There is nothing in the UN Refugee Convention which prevents removal to a safe country,' it added. More migrants arrive in UK on Easter Sunday despite risk they face being deported to Rwanda as Priti Patel slams 'synthetic outrage' at plan Ms Patel announced plans to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwands this week But a boat with around 20 migrants aboard was brought into Dover, Kent, today Men, women and young children were brought ashore wearing life jackets It comes a day after a further 252 migrants attempting to make the journey Home Secretary slammed 'synthetic hysteria' amid criticism of the new plans By Jamie Philips More migrants have arrived in the UK today, despite the risk of being deported to Rwanda - as Priti Patel slams 'synthetic outrage' at the plans. The Government announced this week it plans to provide failed asylum seekers, including those crossing the Channel in small boats, with a one-way ticket to the African country, where they will have the right to apply to live permanently. But a boat with around 20 migrants on board was brought ashore into Dover, Kent, on Easter Sunday after being intercepted by Border Force officers. Men, women and young children were all wearing lifejackets as they were brought into the port this morning to be processed. Windy conditions in the Channel are expected to prevent large numbers attempting the treacherous crossing today. It comes a day after the Royal Navy and Border Force intercepted a further 252 migrants attempting to make the treacherous journey. Despite choppy conditions in the 21-mile wide Dover Straits, seven flimsy dinghies made the dangerous voyage and were rescued in British waters. As of Saturday, the latest figures now mean 6,263 migrants have already been detained so far this year in 193 small boats. Men, women and children were brought ashore in Dover, Kent, by Border Force officials on Easter Sunday Three men are escorted off a boat on Sunday. Around 20 are understood to have been intercepted in the Channel A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel on Easter Sunday Latest figures now mean 6,263 migrants have already been detained so far this year in 193 small boats Young children were among the migrants intercepted as they tried to make the Channel crossing today The migrants were pictured in life jackets and wearing face masks as they were escorted off the boat by Border Force officers A woman and young child are helped off a boat after attempting to cross the Channel on Sunday How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work? Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda Initial agreement worth 120million over five years Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa Initially based at hostel in Kigali Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists Privately owned, the East African nation's government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property Memorandum of understanding (MOU) says Government will screen asylum seekers 'without delay' after arrival in the UK All requests will require approval from Rwanda before relocation Nation can refuse to take people with criminal records People who cross the Channel in small boats will undergo initial checks at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover Further checks at a processing site in Manston, Kent. Where their claim is deemed inadmissible, they may be removed to a 'third safe country'. Royal Navy to lead Channel policing role, helping Border Force from today PM attacked 'a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers' who have thwarted previous action PM: 'Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.' Advertisement In 2021 that figure was not reached until July 10, while 1,713 people have been arrived this month alone. Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday slammed the 'synthetic outrage' over the Rwanda plans. She also accused political opponents of treating exploited migrants with contempt and slammed 'shameful' human rights lawyers for profiting from traffickers sending groups to the UK in flimsy dinghies, The Sun reports. Ms Patel said: 'All I've heard the last couple of days is a typical hysterical reaction from the Left, particularly through their social media echo chamber. 'All they have to offer is synthetic outrage. Labour doesn't have a plan. They don't care about Britain's interests or UK taxpayers who foot the bill. 'They are showing complete contempt for democracy and the wishes of the British people who have been crying out for years for action to fix our broken asylum system and tackle illegal migration.' A Government source told the Mail on Sunday that after striking a dramatic deal, the Home Secretary wants to spread the word internationally and let 'people know the rules have changed and if you arrive illegally to the UK, you can be deported to Rwanda'. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that 'anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since 1 January, may now be relocated to Rwanda'. A 100,000 information campaign will use social media to reach people in 'source countries' in their own languages. Jacob Rees-Mogg also suggested today that migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are 'supporting organised crime'. The Cabinet minister, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby earlier said 'sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God'. Reacting to the sermon, Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He added that '90 per cent of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. Mr Rees-Mogg continued: 'They are in doing so not only risking their lives but supporting organised crime. What we need to do is focus on legal routes into this country of which there are quite a number.' The new deal expected to be the subject of legal challenges was presented to Cabinet Ministers on Wednesday by Ms Patel and the Prime Minister. The Rwandan government will receive 120 million in investment from the UK with the cost of housing each migrant for three months estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. Ms Patel issued a ministerial direction, only the second in the department for 30 years, to force through the policy after objections from Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft. A man is escorted at a port in Dover after being intercepted attempting to illegally cross the Channel Senior Home Office civil servants have expressed dismay at the cost. One said: 'It will be astronomical. The legal bill alone will be huge.' Last night, the Home Office published an exchange of letters between Ms Patel and Mr Rycroft in which he called for a ministerial direction as he could not justify the policy's value for money. The package also includes a new immigration centre for 500 men at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. Speaking after Saturday's crossings, Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove MP said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' Security personnel keep vigil after clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday, at Jahangirpuri in New Delhi, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (PTI Photo/Shahbaz Khan) New Delhi: A day after clashes broke out during the Hanuman Jayanti procession at Jahangirpuri C Block in north Delhi, an uneasy calm prevailed Sunday in the violence-hit area. The police claimed the situation is now completely under control and adequate forces have been deployed to avert any untoward incident. Further investigations in the case are under way. The Delhi police has, meanwhile, arrested 21 people for the clashes, and two juveniles have also been apprehended over the violence. The police said the 21-year-old man who allegedly fired the bullet that hit a sub-inspector was also among those arrested. Of the 21 people arrested, five are Hindus and the remaining 16 are from the Muslim community. The Delhi police also arrested Ansari, a 35-year-old resident of Jahangirpuri, for alleged involvement in the conspiracy over the communal clashes. The police said Ansari was arrested after his name came up during the investigation. The accused were identified as Salim alias Chikna (36), Zahid (20), Anshar (35), Shahjad (33), Mukhtyaar Ali (28), Mohammad Ali (18), Amir (19), Aksar (26), Noor Alam (28), Mohammad Aslam (21), Zakir (22), Akram (22), Imtyaz (29), Mohd Ali (27), Ahir (37), Sheikh Saurabh (42), Suraj (21), Neeraj (19), Suken (45), Suresh (43) and Sujeet Sarkar (38). All are residents of Jahangirpuri. Three firearms and five swords have also been recovered from the possession of the arrested persons, said Usha Rangnani, Northwest district deputy commissioner of police. The accused were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon),149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy), 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 27 of the Arms Act. The police also recovered a country-made weapon from Mohammad Aslam, a resident of Jahangirpuris CD Park slum cluster, which he allegedly used to open fire during the clashes on Saturday evening. One of the accused persons, identified as Aslam, opened fire that hit a sub-inspector of the Delhi police. The pistol used by the accused during the commission of crime has been recovered from his possession, said Ms Rangnani. She added that Aslam was also found to be involved in a case registered at the Jahangirpuri police station in 2020 under Sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. During the investigation, another accused, Salim, was also arrested. Salim was found to be previously involved in a robbery and attempt to murder case in Jahangirpuri. The DCP also said overall nine people, including eight police personnel and one civilian, were injured during the clashes and are being treated at the Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital. The police sub-inspector who received the bullet injury is said to be now stable, recuperating at the hospital. The senior police officer said further investigations were under way. In order to maintain law and order and area domination, foot patrolling and deep deployment have been employed by the police in the area. To carry out intensive rooftop surveillance through aerial patrolling in the communally sensitive areas, the police has been using drones since Sunday morning. The Delhi police also beefed up security in and around C and D blocks near the mosque. Most Hindus live in D block while most Muslim live in C block. Barricades have been put up and police personnel are deployed at every 200 metres. Despite the security arrangements, the shops around the mosque were all shut. But the shops and markets near the Jahangirpuri Metro station were functioning as usual on Sunday. According to Deependra Pathak, special commissioner of police, law and order (Zone 1), efforts are being made to identify the other accused with the help of CCTV cameras and other video footage. Drones and facial recognition software are being used to identify those involved in creating the ruckus. All mobile footage and CCTV cameras installed in and around the vicinity are being scanned to identify the culprits and trace them, said Mr Pathak. According to the first information report (FIR) filed at Jahangirpuri police station, at around 6 pm the Shobha Yatra procession was passing off peacefully but when they reached outside a mosque, a man, Anshar, came there with his associates and started arguing with the participants of the yatra. The argument soon turned violent and both the sides started pelting stones at each other. Inspector Rajiv Ranjan Singh, tried to pacify the situation and separated the two groups, however, within some time, they again started pelting stones after which the inspector informed the police control room about the development, reads the FIR. According to the police, there was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes between the two communities. At least nine people, including eight policemen, were injured while one vehicle was torched and around five to six cars were vandalised in the clashes in Jahangirpuri Saturday evening. To contain the situation and disperse the crowd, the police fired 40-50 teargas shells. C Block locals said the participants in the Hanuman Jayanti procession were chanting Jai Shri Ram and raised other provocative slogans. Some of the people forcibly entered the mosque and tried to install flags in the premises. They were threatening us with swords and even pelted stones. They were not from the area. Here everyone knows each other and we live in peace, said Shamsad, who lives near the mosque. Wahid, a resident of C Block, said people in the procession were carrying weapons, including guns, swords and sticks. A video of the incident, in which members of the yatra can be seen carrying swords and sticks, was also doing the rounds of the social media. Mukesh, a shopkeeper from C Block near the mosque, said those who tried to disrupt the peace in the area must have been outsiders. I have been living here for the last 35 years but have never seen such violence in this area. Hindus and Muslims live here peacefully. The people who were in the procession must be outsiders, and not Jahangirpuri locals, Mukesh said. China has at last confirmed deaths from its biggest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus first appeared in Wuhan over two years ago, stating only three elderly people have died so far, all aged 89 to 91 with underlying health issues. Beijing insists that its zero-Covid policy of hard lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines has curbed fatalities and avoided the public health crises that have engulfed much of the rest of the world. But some have cast doubt on official figures in a nation with low vaccination rates among its vast elderly population. Hong Kong, in comparison, has attributed nearly 9,000 deaths to Covid-19 since Omicron first surged there in January. Unverified social media posts have also claimed unreported deaths - typically before being scrubbed from the internet. The three reported victims 'deteriorated into severe cases after going into hospital', according to an official Shanghai government account. China has released figures stating that only three elderly residents have died so far in its latest Shanghai Covid-19 outbreak which has seen millions placed into strict lockdown China insists its zero-covid policy is working, justifying the lockdown. Hong Kong by comparison has attributed nearly 9,000 deaths to Covid-19 since Omicron surged in January Clips soon emerged on social media of residents scuffling with hazmat-suited police and bursting through barricades demanding food The city's health commissioner on Sunday noted that 62 percent of residents aged over 60 had two vaccine doses, while only 38 percent in the demographic had three. The eastern business hub has groaned under a patchwork of restrictions since March, with many of the city's 25 million residents confined to their homes as daily caseloads topped 25,000 - a modest figure by global standards but virtually unheard of in China. Many inhabitants have chafed under the curbs, flooding social media with complaints of food shortages, spartan quarantine conditions and heavy-handed enforcement, and circulating footage of rare protests faster than government censors can delete them. But officials have remained inflexible, vowing to continue isolating anyone who tests positive regardless of whether they show signs of the disease. Asymptomatic infections have driven the surge, with nearly 90 percent of the more than 22,000 new cases on Monday displaying no illness, according to the municipal health commission. China last reported new Covid-19 deaths on March 19 - two people in the northeastern rustbelt province of Jilin - the first such acknowledged deaths in more than a year. China's ruling Communist Party has touted its hardline pandemic approach as proof that it places human life above material concerns - unlike many Western democracies, which it argues have sacrificed lives by failing to stop the virus. Beijing has also acknowledged that dropping restrictions could let the pathogen run amok through its creaking and under-resourced healthcare system, potentially causing millions of deaths. The fast-ageing nation's hundreds of millions of elderly are a particular concern. Official figures show vaccination rates lag significantly among those over 60 - a group more likely than others to develop severe disease if they contract the virus. But experts say political considerations are also at play, with the party staking a degree of its legitimacy on crushing emerging outbreaks in a year that will likely see President Xi Jinping secure a precedent-busting third term in office. 'This is a sensitive and critical year for the regime,' said Lynette Ong, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. 'China has always given so much prominence to social stability, and a health crisis is a potentially big disrupter.' The bleak footage was recorded by an older woman staying at the cramped quarantine centre Those concerns may have continued to motivate officials in Shanghai, who have zealously implemented lockdown curbs 'to the point that it becomes silly' even as the highly transmissible Omicron strain refuses to be quelled, Ong said. Videos on social media have illustrated creeping desperation in the city, with clips showing residents scuffling with hazmat-suited police and bursting through barricades demanding food. Internet users have also blasted the filmed killing of a pet corgi by a health worker and a now-softened policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents. Other posts - not verified by AFP - and overseas media outlets have previously said that elderly patients in the city had died after contracting Covid-19 even as no fatalities appeared in official figures. City health official Wu Qianyu said at a Monday press conference that the 'direct cause' of the three confirmed deaths was 'underlying disease'. Authorities ordered 39 households in one development to leave their homes so their flats could be used to house infected patients, according to Zhangjiang Group, the developer of the housing complex Dozens of buildings in the city have been converted to make-shift isolation hubs as local officials struggle to contain record daily infection rates, which have breached 25,000 in recent days. Separate clips posted online seems to show police pinning angry protestors to the ground and forcibly restraining them in both Shanghai and Haining, located 125km southwest. Residents stuck in Shanghai, which has been locked down since April, have flooded social media with complaints of food shortages and over-zealous officialdom which has forced them into an ineffective state quarantine. Footage has even shown desperate citizens bursting through barricades demanding food. Cases began rising in Shanghai in late March and have surpassed 25,000 in recent days. The city first implemented a phased lockdown from March 28, with just parts of the city being shutdown. Chilling clips show people being dragged to the ground by PPE-clad police after being ordered to leave their homes, according to social media posts A full city-wide lockdown was implemented on April 3 as cases continued to rise. Despite the drastic action, the vast majority of virus cases detected each day are in people with no symptoms. Shanghai, often described as China's economic engine room, has officially reported no deaths in this outbreak. Social media has been flooded with complaints of food shortages, while protests have kicked off against the strict measures. Videos circulating online show residents outside a compound shouting at ranks of officials holding shields labelled 'police', as the officers tried to break through their line. In one clip, police appear to make several arrests as the residents accuse them of 'hitting people'. The incident was triggered after authorities ordered 39 households to move from the compound 'in order to meet the needs of epidemic prevention and control' and house virus patients in their apartments, according to Zhangjiang Group, the developer of the housing complex. An elderly man in Haining, Zhejiang, around 125km from Shanghai, is pinned to the ground by PPE-clad police for going outside, in breach of Covid restrictions Some Shanghai residents have poured their anger at the handling of the virus onto the internet. They have ripped into authorities for allowing food shortages as well as heavy-handed controls, including a now-softened policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents. Other videos and audio clips have indicated increasing desperation among city inhabitants, including some showing residents bursting through barricades demanding food. In one unverified viral video, a drone flying through a residential area broadcast a message urging residents to 'control your soul's desire for freedom'. Shanghai health official Wu Qianyu said on Thursday that there were only nine severe Omicron cases, mostly among older patients with underlying health conditions. Yet authorities have vowed the city 'would not relax in the slightest', preparing over a hundred new quarantine facilities to receive every person who tests positive. Pressure on the city to bring its outbreak under control is mounting from above, with President Xi Jinping warning on Wednesday that strict virus measures 'cannot be relaxed' and proclaiming that 'persistence is victory,' in a speech published by state media. An 18-month-old girl was allegedly punched out of her mother's arms by a woman who then tried to stomp on her in a horror incident at an Easter Show festival in Perth. Police were called to the event in Wanneroo the city's north on Sunday where it's alleged a woman punched the young girl from her mother before attempting to hit her again on the ground. The mother, Natalie Linthorne, told The West 'thankfully we pulled her back up' before she the woman could attack her again. 'Her little boy was told he wasn't allowed to go on the bumper car ride because he was too young and they had no one to go with him,' Ms Linthorpe said. An 18-month-old girl was allegedly punched out of her mother's arms by a woman who then tried to stomp on her in a horror incident at an Easter Show festival in Perth 'And it was the end of the day and (staff) said 'no we're sorry'. 'Then she started up at the carnival worker, yelling and screaming at him. . . saying every swear word under the sun at him and some very racist remarks as well. . . then she punched him in the face.' The incident allegedly occurred near the festival's dodgem car ride on Sunday afternoon in front of shocked guests. 'She jumped the barrier then approached me saying don't touch my kids... every swear under the sun... she then smacked my 18-month-old daughter out of my arms and punched her to the ground,' the mother said. 'She just ran at me screaming 'don't you touch my daughter your stupid slag'. . . and then she saw Sienna. 'Hit her out of my arms, punched her in the stomach, she's fallen to the ground, thank god it was soft grass. And then she went to step on her but thank god another woman pulled her back. '(The attacker) attempted to step on (my daughter). Thankfully we pulled her back up before she could.' Police were called to the event in Wanneroo (pictured) the city's north on Sunday where it's alleged a woman punched the young girl from her mother Police are urging anyone who was in attendance to come forward as they continue their investigations. 'Wanneroo Police are investigating an incident at the Wanneroo Showground on Saturday,' a police spokeswoman said. 'The incident is believed to have occurred around 2.25 pm. An unknown woman allegedly struck a child.' Heartbreaking audio has emerged of the moment a mum realised her young son had been killed in a horror house fire. Max Chirila, 6, was unable to escape the blaze that engulfed his family's home in Clayfield in Brisbane's north in the early hours of Monday morning. His life was tragically cut short two weeks shy of his seventh birthday. His parents and little brother managed to escape in time as neighbours woke to the sound of 'deafening screams'. Chilling footage of the flames ripping through the home captured the desperate cries of Max's mum Karen after she realised she couldn't go back in to save her son still trapped in his bedroom at the back of the home. 'No! No!' she's heard screaming. 'He's gone! He's gone! He's gone!' Her shattered husband Ovidiu was also seen at the scene in a wheelchair being comforted by firefighters and friends before breaking down in tears. He had managed to escape the blaze on a broken leg suffered in a recent scooter accident. A tragic house blaze in Brisbane's north claimed the life of six-year-old Max Chirila (pictured with mum Karen) A six-year-old boy has died after a fire ripped through a home in Brisbane 's north Max was just two weeks from celebrating his seventh birthday before he was killed in the blaze at the Barlow Street home in Clayfield at 4am on Monday Another distressed family member was seen collapsing to the ground in grief and shouting, 'Maxie, Maxie my boy'. Max's devastated father returned to the scene on Monday afternoon, where he was consoled by family and friends. He inspected bouquets of flowers and heartfelt tributes left by locals, including a school hat left by one of Max's classmates at Ascot State School. 'Hope you sleep well in heaven Max,' a gutwrenching note read. Max has been remembered by friends and family as a bright and lovely young boy who loved Lego. The family told Nine News they feel like they've lost their entire world in a split second. Neighbour Jenn Davidson recalled Ms Chirila's confronting screams and her harrowing devastation when she realised she was unable to go back in to rescue her son. 'When she realised she couldn't go back in to save him, it's something that I'll never, ever forget,' she told reporters. The tragedy has rocked the tight-knit community which have rallied around the heartbroken family. 'They're a lovely local family,' a shocked neighbour told the Courier Mail. 'The flames were metres and metres in the air and then we heard screaming. It was a bit confronting. Really awful.' Another added: 'They were very nice people, quiet and beautiful neighbours.' Max's heartbroken dad Ovidiu sobbed for his son as he was consoled by firefighters at the scene Six-year-old Max, pictured with his father Ovidiu has been remembered as a bright and lovely young boy who loved Lego. Max's mum was heard screaming for her son still trapped inside the burning Clayfield home An online fundraiser has already raised more than $20,000 within hours. An unimaginable tragedy has occurred with the loss of young,' the page states. 'Hoping to raise as much money as possible to assist the family and show that our community is with them at this terrible time.' Firefighters battled the blaze for 45 minutes before extinguishing the flames and discovering Max's body in a bedroom. Firefighters are still trying to ascertain the cause of the blaze. It's understood the fire may have been sparked by a possible electrical fault with charging batteries. 'The crews did the best they could when they arrived, and we had 26 firefighters here who worked tirelessly to get it under control,' Superintendent Paul Durston said. 'The fire developed and gets very hot internally and then the windows fail and all the air comes in and the fire starts to enrage quite quickly.' Karen Chirila and her husband (pictured) were gearing up for Max's seventh birthday Superintendent Durston said fire crews were 'distraught'. 'They [the crews] made their way down the hallway to the back of the house where the fire is believed to have started, and then from there worked their way back extinguishing the fire,' he said. Neighbours said they heard 'deafening screams' and sounds of explosions as the fire ripped through the house. 'The fireball was metres, and metres, and metres in the air,' one said. 'We heard the screaming and it was a bit confronting, and really awful.' Another added: 'I looked out and all I could see was smoke. It was thick'. Neighbours said they heard 'deafening screams' and sounds of explosions as the fire ripped through the house The mother and four-year-old were treated for minor injuries while the father was treated for burns to his hands The family were described as 'nice people' and 'beautiful neighbours'. The mother and four-year-old were treated for minor injuries while the father was treated for burns to his hands. None of the family members required treatment at hospital. Queensland Police launched an investigation into the cause of the fire. 'At this stage due to the damage of the house, we haven't been able to ascertain any cause of the fire,' Superintendent Durston said. Boris Johnson will try to claim he did not break lockdown rules this week, despite paying a 50 Partygate police fine for breaking lockdown rules, as he faces an explosive confrontation with MPs. The Prime Minister is expected to address the Commons tomorrow in his first appearance in Parliament since he became the first serving prime minister to break the law while in office. But ahead of a statement likely to provoke uproar from the opposition and unhappy Tories alike, friends have suggested he will continue to insist that he did not break his own laws, despite apologising and paying the fixed-penalty notice (FPN) last week. Mr Johnson has been accused of misleading the Commons over the lockdown-busting gatherings in Downing Street after he was fined for attending a birthday party thrown in his honour in the Cabinet Room in June 2020. Yet he is expected to press on in defence of the gatherings in the Commons, reiterating that in his view no restrictions were broken while seeking to sweep Partygate under the rug by focusing on the war in Ukraine and the government's new energy strategy. A Downing Street source told The Times that Johnson would 'of course apologise again' in his statement before MPs tomorrow, but will say 'we need to continue to focus on the huge priorities we need to deliver for our people,' in reference to the energy plan and Ukraine. A close ally of the Prime Minister said that while he accepted 'mistakes were made' he would tell MPs there was 'always an exemption for work and people were working in close proximity in No 10 for very long hours'. But Mr Johnson's allies fear the worst is yet to come, with the June 2020 event thought to be the least problematic of those being investigated by police - raising concerns there is a 'low bar' that could see him face further fines. It comes amid further worry that Mr Johnson was pictured drinking at other events being probed - including 'instigating' one session by pouring the booze himself. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries waded into the row today, accusing the PM's critics of focusing on 'uneaten cake' at a time when there were major events happening around the world. But Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'This appears to be the PMs latest pathetic attempt to defend the indefensible. 'Boris Johnson defied his own law and then lied and lied and lied. While the British public were making huge sacrifices, he was rule-breaking.' Prime Minister Boris Johnson is defiant in his position that he did not break coronavirus rules according to his closes allies, despite being slapped with a fine from the Met Police for his involvement in the Partygate scandal Mr Johnson (pictured with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky) is expected to press on this week in defence of the gatherings in the Commons, asserting that no rules were broken while seeking to sweep Partygate under the rug by focusing on the war in Ukraine and the government's new energy strategy A group of police officers walk through Downing Street, in Westminster, London, during a protest outside the gates A protester holds up a placard of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak outside Downing Street Energy minister Greg Hands said Boris Johnson will 'have his say' on Partygate in Parliament this week. He told Sky News: 'The Prime Minister will be speaking to Parliament ... this week. 'I do strongly back the Prime Minister,' he said. 'I think the Prime Minister is getting on with the job, he's delivered, and the Government has delivered, in anything from the vaccination programme through (to) the strong support for Ukraine. 'There is a police investigation going on and we'll have to see what develops, but as I say the Prime Minister will be in Parliament this week, explaining and facing questions from MPs about what has happened.' Understood to be of particular concern is the gathering to send off then director of communications Lee Cain on November 13, 2020 - an occasion the Prime Minister is understood to have been at the forefront of. The PM is believed to have gathered staff around the press office table, which contained bottles of alcohol, before toasting Mr Cain - all captured by a photographer. His presence at the forefront of the event would likely contradict statements made to the Commons. Another insider said: 'This was the usual press office Friday evening wash-up drinks. Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. 'He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.' Downing Street said it will not be commenting on the pictures, but denied the Prime Minister had organised the leaving drinks. A Cabinet Minister told The Mail on Sunday that Tory MPs might not 'hold the line' if Mr Johnson was fined again, adding: 'If he gets two, three or four fines, people can lose their nerve quickly.' MPs are expected to vote on Thursday on whether a parliamentary committee should look into claims that he misled Parliament over Partygate. Sources say Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is likely to allow two requests from opposition MPs for a so-called contempt motion into Mr Johnson's conduct. But Mr Johnson is expected to push his colleagues to ignore Partygate and focus on the upcoming local elections which take place on May 5. Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg played down allegations that Mr Johnson breached the ministerial code over Partygate amid criticism of the Prime Minister from a respected historian. Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, pictured, has played down allegations that Boris Johnson breached the ministerial code over Partygate Cabinet minister Mr Rees-Mogg insisted that the ministerial code has little 'constitutional significance'. 'The Ministerial Code is not a legislative part of our constitution it is a set of guidelines produced by the Prime Minister (pictured),' he told the BBC. 'I think that the Prime Minister spoke to Parliament in good faith' Lord Hennessy, a crossbench peer, claimed Mr Johnson had 'shredded the ministerial code' and was 'unworthy' of the Queen, 'her Parliament, her people and her kingdom'. The professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary, University of London also said he 'cannot remember a day where I've been more fearful for the wellbeing of the constitution'. But Cabinet minister Mr Rees-Mogg insisted that the ministerial code has little 'constitutional significance'. 'The Ministerial Code is not a legislative part of our constitution it is a set of guidelines produced by the Prime Minister,' he told the BBC. 'I think that the Prime Minister spoke to Parliament in good faith.' The code states: 'Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the Prime Minister.' At the weekend, Caroline Nokes became the latest Tory backbencher to insist the PM should go, revealing she has not withdrawn the letter of no confidence she submitted earlier this year. Sue Gray will not publish her report into lockdown parties at Downing Street until all police fines have been handed out. The Met will not confirm the interview stage of its investigation is complete in case new evidence makes further interrogations necessary and yet more fines are issued Mr Johnson will face MPs once more tomorrow and is still planning to visit India at the end of the week for defence, security and economic talks with the country's prime minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile it emerged that Sue Gray will not publish her report into lockdown parties at Downing Street until all police fines have been handed out. The Met will not confirm the interview stage of its investigation is complete in case new evidence makes further interrogations necessary and yet more fines are issued. As a result, the Gray report is unlikely to be released before May 5, the date of the local elections. The former ethics chief wants to publish the potentially explosive dossier as soon as possible after April 26, when the House of Lords returns from its Easter break. Today an exclusive poll for the MoS has Labour 11 points ahead of the Tories the highest lead Deltapoll has recorded since the 2019 Election. Alex Jones' InfoWars website has filed for bankruptcy after he was found liable for damages in a trio of lawsuits last year for falsely claiming 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that left 28 dead was a hoax. The far-right website and Jones' two other companies on Sunday filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in the face of multiple defamation lawsuits. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation matters and allow companies to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational. Jones claimed the shooting, in which 20 children and six school employees were shot dead at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, was fabricated by gun-control advocates and mainstream media. Sandy Hook families in late March rejected Jones' offer to settle their defamation lawsuit and reopened the case. Jones had offered to pay $120,000 to each of the 13 plaintiffs to settle the case. Each of the plaintiffs turned down the settlement offer in court documents, saying, 'The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook.' Alex Jones' InfoWars website has filed for bankruptcy after he was found liable for damages in a trio of lawsuits last year for falsely claiming 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that left 28 dead was a hoax Sandy Hook families in late March rejected Jones' offer to settle their defamation lawsuit and reopened the case. Jones had offered to pay $120,000 to each of the 13 plaintiffs to settle the case According to Sunday's court filings, InfoWars listed its estimated assets in the range of $0-$50,000 and estimated liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million. In the aftermath of the massacre, Jones said on his InfoWars platform that the shooting was 'completely fake' and a 'giant hoax.' The platform claimed the families involved were all 'crisis actors' hired to perpetuate a government agenda to increase gun control. On December 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty of those killed were between the ages of six and seven years old. Lanza fatally shot his mother at their home before going to the school, and later killed himself as police arrived. Families of the victims launched a defamation lawsuit against Jones in 2018, claiming that he profited by spreading lives about the murders of their loved ones. The Texas-based host has since said that he believes the shooting took place. Jones has disputed their claims, but failed to turn over documents and financial records to support his stance after ordered todo so in court leading judges in Connecticut and Texas to return default judgements against him. Jones' lawyers have claimed the suits were filed strategically to silence his and his entities' right to freedom of speech on matters of public interest. 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 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 Jones was ordered to pay damages to the families in October 2021 and a trial will be held in August to decide how much he will need to pay to the families. Jones was due to sit for a deposition March 23 and 24 in Austin, Texas, where his InfoWars empire is based. He did not show. Judge Barbara Bellis in Westbury, Connecticut, did not accept Jones' excuses for missing the deposition. Jones said that he was suffering from medical issues including vertigo. Doctors were concerned that his health issues could be a heart condition. Jones said he was merely suffering from a sinus infection. Bellis' opinion was that Jones was not too sick to sit for the deposition. Records show that Jones recorded episodes of his InfoWars show on March 23 and March 24. Both episodes were close to four hours in length. Jones paid a $25,000 fine for missing a deposition on April 1. On April 4, he paid a further $50,000. Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families asked Bellis to issue an arrest warrant due to Jones' no show. Eventually, Jones sat for the deposition in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 5 and 6. Following those appearances, Bellis decreed that the $75,000 should be repaid to Jones 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 People gather at the scene of a mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut Earlier in April 2022, some of the families involved in the lawsuit launched a new legal claim against Jones. In this suit, the families are accusing Jones of attempting to hide assets in shell companies that are operated by family members. The purpose of this move is to make Jones appear broke, the suit alleges. During a break in his deposition for the lawsuit, Jones spoke to News12 Connecticut about 'cancel culture' and alleged that he was a victim of the 'corporate media.' He accused the 'media' of not publicizing his apologies to the families of the Sandy Hook victims. Jones said that 'powerful Democrat law firms' were attempting to shut down InfoWars. One of the plaintiffs' lawyers in the Sandy Hook story is the son of Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Matt Blumenthal. Matt Blumenthal, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan, is also an elected member of the Connecticut House. In a 2019 deposition in the case, Jones alleged that he was suffering from a form of 'psychosis' when he made claims that Sandy Hook was staged. He said that he was in a place where he felt every news event was staged because of the 'trauma of the media and the corporations lying so much.' Jones, a vocal supporter of former US President Donald Trump, was previously subpoenaed by the House of Representatives committee probing the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. Priti Patel has vowed to overhaul Prevent in the wake of David Amess' murder amid concern the flagship anti-terror strategy focuses too much on right-wing extremism instead of its more dangerous Islamist equivalent. The initiative has faced intense criticism for failing to identify a succession of extremists who went on to commit horrific murders. In the most recent case, it emerged last week that Ali Harbi Ali, the murderer of Sir David Amess, was dismissed as a terrorist threat by experts just months before he bought a knife to hunt down MPs. Critics have repeatedly said Prevent had been skewed away from the key threat posed by Islamist terrorism. As a result, it claimed, anti-terror resources are being diverted from the principal terror threat to the UK Islamist extremism. Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to overhaul the much criticised Prevent strategy Sir David's killer Ali Harbi Ali - who was sentenced to a whole life order - had been referred to the programme in 2014 but a year later it was concluded he no longer posed a threat Ian Acheson, Senior Advisor at the Counter Extremism Project, agreed Prevent needed to change. He tweeted today: 'As the Home Secretary says and some of us have been saying for a while, Prevent has morphed into a strategy that awards a (convenient) completely false equivalence between Islamist and XRW threat and is swamped by mission creep. Time for a reset.' Meanwhile, Lord Carlile of Berriew, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation who previously led the review of Prevent, told the Times that Prevent had an 'overemphasis on right-wing extremism' because of an 'overemphasis on not being anti-Muslim'. The Henry Jackson Society's Dr Alan Mendoza said: 'This shake-up could not come soon enough... Priti Patel should be congratulated for cutting through the Home Office bureaucracy to make it happen. 'Her reforms must be allowed to restore Prevent to its founding purpose cracking down on terrorism.' Reading attacker Khairi Saadallah, 27, (left) was assessed by Prevent officials but found to have 'no fixed ideology', according to reports. Sudesh Amman, who stabbed two people in Streatham, south London, last February. However, a panel decided his case did not require intervention Usman Khan, 28, (left) who stabbed two young graduates to death after a prisoner rehabilitation event on London Bridge, had come into contact with Prevent officers who had 'no specific training' in handling terrorists, an inquest heard. Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan was also referred to the anti-terror scheme 20 months before he planted a device on the Tube that injured 50 people during rush hour in 2017 Now Miss Patel has pledged that 'things need to change' once she has been handed the findings of a long-awaited independent review of Prevent. 'The Prevent review is really important to me,' the Home Secretary said. 'I can't pre-judge that review. But it is quite clear to me from my own observations that there are things that need to change.' The review, commissioned by Miss Patel in January last year, is being conducted by William Shawcross, the former Charity Commission chief. It is understood to be near completion. Prevent was set up in 2006, and was designed to combat Islamist extremism as well as other threats, including far-Right fanatics and those with 'mixed or unstable' ideologies. The UK's flagship anti-terror strategy is being undermined by a politically correct emphasis on right-wing extremism over more dangerous Islamist radicalism, critics have said - as a review prepares to overhaul the 'broken' system Confidential referrals can be made to Prevent by anyone who is concerned about a person's behaviour, including faith groups, schools, colleges, and even friends and relatives. A documentary to be shown tonight reveals that out of the 13 terror attacks in the past five years which left 14 dead and 128 injured seven offenders were known to the scheme. A former teacher of Ali told Channel 4's Dispatches she warned the authorities he could pose a risk seven years before he murdered Sir David last October. She said: 'They just said, 'We don't think he's a threat. We don't think he's worth taking on any further. We think he's going to be all right'.' Dispatches: Are We Losing the War on Terror? is on Channel 4 at 7.30pm tonight. A leading Russian TV presenter known as 'Putins voice' has expressed cold fury at the sinking of the Black Sea flagship Moskva. It appeared that Vladimir Solovyov was articulating the Kremlin leaders own anger when he launched a full-frontal attack on the Navy in a nationwide broadcast. 'I am furious about what happened to the Black Sea Fleets flagship, Moskva,' said the state TV anchor, sanctioned for his links to Putin. 'I am simply furious.' 'And yes, we say it was quite old, and went through repairs and, yes, this series of ships has vulnerabilities. 'I get it. 'But tell me this: how did you manage to lose it Explain me, why the hell you were in that particular area of the Black Sea, at that time?' Leading Russian TV presenter known as 'Putins voice' said he was 'simply furious' after the sinking of Russia's flagship, the Moskva Russian state media has officially stated the Moskva sunk during rough seas despite reports it was attacked by Ukrainian missiles while close to the shoreline in Sevastopol Russia released an undated video claiming to show survivors of the attack over the weekend. It is still unclear how many perished, with estimates that it runs into the hundreds. Ukraine claimed the missile attack on the warship killed all 500 on board including captain The first images of the sinking of the Moskva emerged on Monday capturing the moments after the Ukrainian missiles sunk the cruiser The loss of the Moskva is the biggest single humiliation for the Russian war effort in a campaign that Vladimir Putin hoped would see Ukraine roll over and submit to his hegemony in a matter of days. Solovyov raged: 'And I dont care what exactly happened - if indeed [it was] the two Neptune missiles as the Ukrainians said. 'Anyway, since when was a combat ship scared of a missile strike, since it has a defence system? 'So, was something not activated? 'Okay. Even if it was hit with two missiles, and it ignited the ammunition 'What happened to your fire fighting system?' His rant contrasted with recent Sunday evening where he has lauded the Russian war machine and heaped blame on the West, for example accusing Britain of choreographing the massacre in Bucha, claiming the horrors were staged and had nothing to do with Putins forces. His blast echoes other whispers that Putin was left incandescent by the loss of the Moskva. The Kremlin went into denial over the sinking and it is still unclear how many perished, with estimates that it runs into the hundreds. Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the current commander of the Russian navy, met with surviving members of the Moskva's crew in Sevastopol An officer of the Russian Navy, Vice Admiral Igor Osipov holds the rank of admiral since 2021, and is commander in chief of the Black Sea Fleet since 2019. Rumors began circulating of his arrest following the attack on the flagship A mourning ceremony for those killed aboard the Moskva cruiser was held in Sevastopol on April 15, 2022 Footage of some of the rescued crew lining up on a Sevastopol parade ground - broadcast on Saturday - failed to clarify the matter. It showed perhaps 150 sailors, including an officer who closely resembled 1st rank Captain Anton Kuprin, commander of the Moskva, who the Ukrainians claimed had been killed in the sinking. Yet the date the Defence Ministry footage was filmed was unclear. So too was the fate of sailors not present from a crew which is believed to number 510. Solovyov appeared to have been given license to hit out at the navy - indicating that the Kremlin is seeking to find a culprit for the catastrophic loss of the cruiser. There are suggestions that Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, has been detained or suspended over the loss of the flagship. Vladimir Putin is pictured next to president of Egypy Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on board the Moskva cruiser in August 2014 Putin was said to have been enraged upon hearing of the destruction of the ship The sinking of the flagship has been called the biggest single humiliation for the Russians since the war in Ukraine began Yesterdays parade was overseen by the head of the navy Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov, 60, with Osipov nowhere to be seen. Highly-paid Solovyov is sanctioned by the West and his two Italian villas targeted by protesters. The open air pool at one of his Lake Como retreats was filled with red dye to resemble blood. Paving stones and walls were also smeared red. Graffiti reading 'Solovyov killer' was sprayed at the entrance. His other villa was targeted with burning tyres hurled over the exterior wall. The attack on the Russian Navy is in stark contrast to his earlier invective concerning the Bucha horror. In this case, he told state-funded Rossiya 1: 'It's primarily the British who are working there. The Moskva cruiser was shown on video during the mourning ceremony. Russian media said it sank as it was being towed to port after a fire broke out on board 'Apparently this whole provocation was planned by the British.' The scene was contrived to send a message saying look at the atrocities of Russian troops, here are civilians shot and killed, he claimed. 'And the corpses are lying right along the road, but for some reason only one road.' He warned Russian viewers that 'we are blatantly being led to the Yugoslav scenario. 'We are now being played the Srebrenica scenario. 'We will be accused of genocide very soon. 'Everything is being done for that. 'Now they are using a plot that is unfolding before our eyes.' Seeking to divert blame for Putins forces, he claimed that in Bucha 'there was no permanent control of Russian troops - it changed hands all the time.' Grant Shapps has become the second MP to host a Ukrainian family, as thousands of refugees continue to grapple with Home Office red tape in a bid to make it to the UK. The Transport Secretary revealed yesterday that he had taken in a 'three-generation' family, as well as their dog named Max, to live with him in his Hertfordshire home. The Tory MP previously said he was taking in a six-year-old boy, his mother and his 75-year-old grandmother. The family will make use of one his children's bedrooms while they are away at university. Mr Shapps wrote on Twitter: 'Whilst their country goes through the turmoil of Putin's war, our country stands resolutely with the people of Ukraine.' Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has become the second MP to host Ukrainian refugees, after he welcomed a three-generation family and their dog in his Hertfordshire home yesterday. Pictured: Grant Shapps, his wife Belinda and their three children It comes as Home Office figures reveal 56,500 visas had been issued to Ukrainians as of last Wednesday, with 25,100 of those coming through the 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme while the remaining 31,400 have family members already living in the UK. Of the 25,100 visas issued after Brits offered to open their doors to fleeing families, only 3,200 - 13 percent - had arrived in the UK as of last week. Meanwhile, a larger proportion - 42 percent, or 13,200 - of visa-holders from the parallel scheme had arrived, possibly due to fewer background checks needing to be done when the visa sponsor is a family member as opposed to a stranger. The first MP to welcome a Ukrainian refugee into their home, Robert Jenrick, criticised Home Office red tape, complaining that the visa-approval process had been too lengthy. Mr Jenrick, the MP for Newark, told Choppers Politics, The Daily Telegraphs podcast: Truth be told, it has been a bumpy start. 'It has taken too long to get visas. For us it took about three weeks to get all three visas approved. Mr Jenrick is hosting 40-year-old Mariia and her two children Khystyna, 11, and Bohdan, 15, in his constituency home in Newark, Nottinghamshire. He continued: I do think the process has been overly bureaucratic and I think the Home Office often falls into this trap. There were simple things that we could and should have done from the outset, like having the form in Ukrainian, for example.' Some 13,200 people had arrived under the Ukraine family scheme but only 3,200 had made it to the UK under Homes for Ukraine sponsorship since Monday, April 11, provisional data published on the Home Office's website showed The first MP to welcome a Ukrainian refugee into their home, Robert Jenrick, 40, said that he found it emotional and humbling when he finally met the refugees on Monday 11 April Last month, the Government announced the launch of the Homes for Ukraine scheme which will pay families 350-a-month to take in those fleeing Russian brutality for at least six months. Within hours of launching, the website for registering interest had crashed and subsequently more than 200,000 people signed up to the programme. Some 13,200 people had arrived under the Ukraine family scheme but only 3,200 had made it to the UK under Homes for Ukraine sponsorship since Monday, April 11, provisional data published on the Home Office's website showed. A MailOnline investigation last week revealed how kind-hearted Brits' attempts to take in a Ukrainian had been frustrated by senseless bureaucracy. Revealed: Home Office forms asking Ukrainian fathers on front line to give consent for children to go to UK and seven-year-olds if they are a threat to national security as families reveal red tape nightmare EXCLUSIVE: Brits share their frustrations with bureaucratic sponsorship forms Schoolgirls, as young as seven, were asked if they are national security threats Fathers conscripted to fight were made to fill out consent forms for their kids Furious row has erupted over delays for Homes for Ukraine scheme's progress Has your application been delayed? Email Jacob.Thorburn@mailonline.co.uk British families frustrated by Home Office red tape have revealed their fury at a 'broken' Homes for Ukraine application process that sees children asked if they are security threats and fathers fighting on the front line made to fill out consent forms. Kind-hearted hosts from across the UK have told MailOnline of how their efforts to open their homes have been hit with snags as thousands of desperate refugees remain stuck in limbo. Has your Homes for Ukraine application been hit with delays? Email Jacob.Thorburn@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement The Government has come under fire for the slow processing of visa applications as Ukrainian evacuees, some as young as seven and travelling just with their siblings, are stuck in neighbouring countries with little money and no food or spare clothes. Of further concern to hosts is the cumbersome 50-page application process, which asks schoolchildren to divulge if they have ever been considered a threat to the national security of the United Kingdom. Some hosts claim their sponsorship forms were 'lost', while other horror stories reveal visa applications for the same family saw one half allowed to come to the UK, while the other half were left waiting for a reply for a week. Meanwhile, another host from Manchester told MailOnline how the pair of Ukrainian girls his family hope to sponsor were asked, as part of the visa application, to attach a letter of consent from their father - who was conscripted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the start of the war. Of further concern to hosts is the cumbersome 50-page application process, which asks schoolchildren to divulge if they have ever been considered a threat to the national security of the United Kingdom Another host from Manchester told MailOnline how the pair of Ukrainian girls his family hope to sponsor were asked, as part of the visa application, to attach a letter of consent from their father - who was conscripted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the start of the war Dr Paul Murray, a consultant scientist based in Bristol, hopes to house Ukrainian lawyer Yevheniaa Filippova, her son Lev, nine, and daughter Nelly, two, who are fleeing from port city of Odessa. Dr Paul Murray, a consultant scientist based in Bristol, has called on senior ministers and civil servants to quit He thinks senior ministers and civil servants should offer their resignations in the face of the 'national embarrassment' that is the Homes for Ukraine visa scheme. 'These are women and children who are vulnerable and need protecting', he told MailOnline. 'The incompetence is astounding. It is time for some senior civil servants and ministers to go. Dont they understand the situation for these refugees? 'The constant messaging of "we are simplifying the process", and "they dont need to go to a visa centre" is all bull****. This family break down in tears every time they call me because theyre stuck. This system is broken, and it's absolutely ridiculous. People must lose their jobs over this.' Ukrainian lawyer Yevheniaa Filippova, 39, and her daughter Nelly, 2, fled the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea, which has come under fire from Russian rockets in recent weeks Lev, nine, and Nelly have fled invading Russian troops in the west of Ukraine Other examples of the bureaucratic web that has delayed countless Homes for Ukraine applications have come to light in recent days. Compliance manager Andy Johnston and his family first submitted their applications to house two Ukrainian girls, Oleksandra, aged 15 and Anastasiia, 19, in their Manchester home four weeks ago. The girls' father was signed up to stay and fight for the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the start of the Russian invasion, meaning the sisters had to travel to Poland alone. Because Oleksandra doesn't own a passport, she was asked to travel to a visa processing centre hundreds of miles away in Warsaw, where she provided her evidence on March 31. Compliance manager Andy Johnston (pictured) and his family first submitted their applications to house two Ukrainian girls in their Manchester home four weeks ago Ukrainian refugees Oleksandra, and Anastasiia, 19, (right) are stuck in Poland with their supply of money, food and clothes rapidly running out Included within Oleksandra's forms was a question asking her to provide a letter of consent for her travel, authorised by a parent or guardian, before she could come to the UK. But as they wait for the results of her application, the girls are now stuck in Poland with no money, food or spare clothes, Andy explains. 'It's a really worrying situation', he tells MailOnline. 'We sent them some money to help them get to Poland, and now we're going to have to send them some more to help support them with the essentials. 'It has been 26 days since our initial priority application was submitted and we've not had any updates on their applications at all. It's shocking really.' Responding to the parental letters of consent, a Government spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The safety and wellbeing of asylum seeking children is paramount. Due to safeguarding requirements, unaccompanied minors are not currently eligible for the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.' Home Secretary Priti Patel has been forced to apologise over delays to the visa scheme. Earlier this week, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Home Secretary was 'looking very closely at this to look at whatever else can be done to remove any barriers'. He told Sky News: 'Well obviously it's different for countries that are bordering the Ukraine, because people fleeing a war like this obviously will cross the nearest land border, and that's why countries like Poland and Hungary obviously are getting more of those refugees coming in. 'We've made some changes already, making clear for instance that those with a Ukrainian passport don't need to attend an appointment in person, and I know that Priti Patel's looking very closely at this to look at whatever else can be done to remove any barriers as and when those arise.' In only six weeks of war in Ukraine, close to five million children have been forced to flee their homes and immigrate as refugees to neighbouring countries. Pictured: Ukrainian mothers in Krakow, Poland attend a protest against the killing of children in Ukraine Home Secretary Priti Patel last week apologised 'with frustration' over the amount of time it was taking for Ukrainians to arrive in the UK under current visa schemes Ruth Girardet, a leadership coach who lives in London, faced multiple hurdles before her refugees' claims were accepted and describes the application system as 'utterly broken'. She filled out sponsorship forms for a Ukrainian mother and her two daughters, aged seven and 11 on March 21. Within one of the pages on the 50-page application, the questionnaire asks the schoolchildren if they have ever been considered a threat to the UK's national security. 'I was astonished. The system is utterly broken', she told MailOnline. To compound her frustration, Ruth was told by the office of her MP, Emily Thornberry, that documentation for the third and final visa had been 'lost'. After enquiring about this, the final visa was eventually processed and accepted five days later, but the group only had one permission to travel form for the children. That delay meant they were stuck in Poland and were told by border officials that their UK visas were ready to go, but they were not authorised to print them. Ruth Girardet, a leadership coach who lives in London, faced multiple hurdles before her refugees' claims were accepted and describes the application system as 'utterly broken' Several of those who offered their homes to Ukrainians within the first few days of the Homes for Ukraine scheme opening say they feel left behind as they claim more recent applications appear to be fast-tracked ahead of theirs. Senior civil servants, including Second Permanent Secretary Simon Ridley, who worked on the Government's Covid Task Force, and policy expert Louise Horton were understood to have been parachuted in to help streamline the process. A Home Office hotline and separate email address were initially set up to deal with the thousands of incoming requests, but have since become less responsive, several hosts have said. In some cases, hosts say that their applicants' visas letters were due to arrive within two days - but are still yet to materialise weeks later. The first four days appear to be the biggest hurdle, people who applied when the scheme first launched are being left behind, while those applying now are getting through quicker', Ruth adds. Thats shocking because those applying first were the ones who are most in need and in danger.' Her frustration is being shared by other prospective hosts hundreds of miles away. Businessman David Steward slammed the government's 'failed' efforts to house Ukrainian refugees - comparing their plight to the 1940s generation of Brits who leapt into action to save more than 330,000 British soldiers stranded at Dunkirk. He says conversations with the Ukrainian family he had been trying to sponsor have become more difficult to face as he hears the deafening blare of air raid sirens in the background. 'The opportunity to help those fleeing a land war in Ukraine is this generation's Dunkirk Little Ships moment. 'The government are either hindering it with an under-resourced, hopeless system, or are actively obstructing it.' A government spokesman told MailOnline: 'We continue to process visas for the Homes for Ukraine scheme as quickly as possible, but accept progress has not been quick enough. 'The Home Office has made changes to visa processing the application form has been streamlined, Ukrainian passport holders can now apply online and do their biometrics checks once in the UK, and greater resource has gone into the system. 'UK Visa and Immigration caseworkers are working as quickly as possible to process applications, but it is absolutely essential to ensure that issues of human trafficking are addressed and that safeguarding processes are in place to ensure children are travelling with their parents.' An ex-army soldier talks to a Ukrainian refugee mother and child at the Polish/Ukraine boarder. (His face has been pixelated to protect his privacy) Pictured: Suspected sex traffickers at the border with Ukraine, who could be looking for women. (Their faces have been pixelated for legal reasons) It comes as the United Nation's refugee agency warned Ukrainian women and children should not be matched with single male hosts over fears they could be exploited. A spokesperson for the UNHCR said: 'Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation and violence already experienced.' Those concerns were echoed by the UK's Charity Commission who want to 'raise awareness of the risk of sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment of those in need of assistance'. Unbound Now, a network of anti-human trafficking agencies, say they had seen lone men try to lure women into vehicles at the Ukraine-Poland border. 'It's a challenging situation at the moment,' concedes a spokesman for the charity. A young mother has been left desperately searching for a new home after becoming 'stranded' when her partner was killed in a crash. Tomeeka Tomlinson was 16 weeks pregnant when she was left with no house and no transport following the death of her partner from a motorbike accident in June last year. The 19-year-old soon had to find a new home and began the arduous journey of applying for a rental across Brisbane, Queensland. She has called Queensland's rental crisis 'shocking' and claims she's been rejected from 280 rental properties so far. Young mother Tomeeka Tomlinson (pictured) claims she's been rejected for a rental 280 times as she desperately searches for a new home in a market crucially short on rental properties Tomlinson told the Courier Mail she 'started looking for rentals' eight months ago but was 'continuously knocked back'. 'I have applied for over 280 houses around Redbank Plains, Redbank, Goodna, Augustine Heights, Springfield, Riverview, Yamanto, Brassall and so many more including [National Rental Affordability Scheme] NRAS applications,' she revealed. Tomlinson currently lives at her overcrowded family home with her young son, now six-months-old, as she continues sending out applications. She said the 'state of the rental crisis' in Brisbane is 'shocking' and has made her feel worried about her future. 'The amount of house inspections I've had to drag myself and my son to, it seems the rental market at the moment is leaving struggling families with children in need of housing on the streets,' she added. It comes just weeks after a homeless single mum revealed she was at her wits' end after also being rejected from rentals almost 300 times. Tomlinson says the 'state of the rental crisis' in Brisbane is 'shocking' and has made her feel worried about her future It comes just weeks after a homeless single mum Shikera Maher (pictured) revealed she was at her wits' end after also being rejected from rentals almost 300 times House rent rises during the past year SYDNEY: Up 17.1 per cent to $766.70 a week MELBOURNE: Up 6.5 per cent to $547.10 a week BRISBANE: Up 19.5 per cent to $570.80 a week PERTH: Up 13.7 per cent to $575.70 a week ADELAIDE: Up 15.6 per cent to $494.40 a week CANBERRA: Up 16.4 per cent to $768.30 a week DARWIN: Up 4.7 per cent to $611.10 a week HOBART: Up 4.5 per cent to $511 a week Source: SQM Research median weekly house rents data showing annual increases in the year to March 12, 2022 Advertisement Shikera Maher and her four teenage children from Ipswich spent March and February living in her car while they searched for somewhere to live. Before that, Ms Maher and her children - aged 13, 15-year-old twins, and 18 - were living with friends for weeks at a time. But the domestic violence survivor said the constant moving was too hard given the size of the family and how most of her friends live in small houses or units. The family use friends' bathrooms to take daily showers 'I don't wish the situation on anyone, not even my worst enemy,' Ms Maher told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's not a way to live, driving from one park to another because we can't stay in the same place.' 'I've asked countless time whether it's because my application.' The hundreds of rejections have mostly not been explained to her. Owners and agencies just had other, preferred applicants who could pay higher rent for their properties. She said it's not a lack of funds that is the problem. 'I have the money to pay the rent and bond,' Ms Maher said. 'It's a very hard situation. We have to hang blankets on the car windows at night so people don't look in,' she said. 'I sleep in the driver's seat, the 18 year-old is in the front with me while the other three sleep in the back seat with all of our belongings.' 'There are many meltdowns a day and constant fighting being stuck in the car all day.' The family lived in their car (pictured) after being rejected almost 300 times for rental properties in the Ipswich region The family is looking for a four-bedroom house in Ipswich, which on average costs $430 per week to rent in the area, with a bonds of around $1043. Ms Maher is not eligible for public housing, she said, because she owes a debt she has not yet paid after one of her children, who was then aged 8, 'smashed' their last place provided by the department in 2012. Ms Maher and her family are on a waiting list for crisis accommodation but are yet to secure anything. She pleaded for landlords and real estate agents to have empathy for single parents and low income earners 'All we want is a roof over our heads and for our family to be safe again, even if the kids have to switch schools,' she said. Purple Cow Real Estate Springfield Lakes director Andy Nutton told the Courier Mail that the number of homes available for rent is far outweighed by the number of people looking for a home. 'Some factors influencing the shortage in supply is a reduction of investors entering the market or investment properties being sold to owner-occupiers in the recent property boom, as well as pressures in the building industry causing delays to new builds being available,' he said. Nutton claims that a 'high level of migration' into the sunshine state has also pushed demand as well. Widespread flooding in Queensland has been a major factor in the critical shortage of homes. (Pictured: Flood affected properties in Ipswich in March) Another major factor in the critical shortage of homes is the recent flooding and wild wet weather that devastated Brisbane and parts of Queensland. Many residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the floods have either moved into, or are seeking, new places to live temporarily. 'Flooding in big cities like Brisbane, as well as in regional areas, mean that many homes have become uninhabitable or require a lot of work,' says Ray White's chief economist Nerida Conisbee. 'More people will require rental accommodation, as well as there now being fewer rental properties.' Conisbee added that Australia's rent costs were also now increasing at the fastest pace since the Global Financial Crisis 14 years ago. May's Stormont election is a 'battle for Northern Ireland' itself, with a Sinn Fein win likely to lead to a reunification referendum, the Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has warned. In an Easter message to party colleagues, he repeated a claim that if the republicans become the largest party it would help it deliver on its objective of a vote on joining the republic. Sinn Fein has said that its focus in the election is on pressing health and economic issues in Northern Ireland, such as the cost-of-living crisis and spiralling hospital waiting lists. Sir Jeffrey has, however, maintained that the republican party will be emboldened to press for a referendum if it displaces the DUP as the largest party following the May 5 poll. Opinion polls suggest that Sinn Fein will become the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly after May's vote, amid divisions within unionist ranks and within the DUP itself. Unionist rivals have accused him of trying to scare the unionist electorate into voting DUP to consolidate his party's support in the wake of a series of opinion polls that have indicated it is trailing behind Sinn Fein. But yesterday, in a tweet to mark the 106th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, said: 'We must look beyond the division of our island, and seize the opportunities ahead of us to build a new and united Ireland. 'Now is the time to build a new Ireland, that ensures equality and prosperity for all.' In an Easter message to party colleagues, he repeated a claim that if the republicans become the largest party it would help it deliver on its objective of a vote on joining the republic. Yesterday, in a tweet to mark the 106th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, said: 'We must look beyond the division of our island, and seize the opportunities ahead of us to build a new and united Ireland' In his message to DUP members, Sir Jeffrey claimed the election will 'set the direction of the country for the next decade'. 'This election is the most important for a generation,' he wrote. 'Voters have a clear choice between our plan for fixing health, helping working families with the cost-of-living crisis, and growing our economy within the Union, and Sinn Fein's divisive border poll plan. 'The election outcome will decide if Northern Ireland goes in the right direction or the wrong direction. 'Over the last week, I have been focusing on constituencies where unionism is only chasing one seat. 'I have been reminding the people in those areas that voting for parties that can't win will risk the seat. Despite what some people say, you can split the vote too thinly in a PR election. 'I am also reminding them that this is a battle for Northern Ireland.' Last month the DUP warned Boris Johnson he had 40 days to save the Union ahead of the May 5 poll. The call came from MP Ian Paisley Jnr, who said he must use the time to get rid of the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol altogether, not simply pause it by invoking article 16 of the agreement. The protocol avoids a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland by effectively keeping the North inside the EUs single market. But it requires checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, fuelling tensions in Unionist ranks. HYDERABAD: The alumni association of Mahbub College conducted an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the state of affairs in the college, as reported in these columns on April 14, and resolved to fight to save the institution. They held the meeting outside the secretarys office in the college. The association expressed shock over members of the college managing committee locking the office of the secretary and the conference hall attached to it, and also instructing their staff not to cooperate with the alumni. Even the local police were alerted to disrupt the scheduled meeting. It proved that they are on the wrong side and caused financial irregularities leading to huge loss of revenue to Mahbub College, they said. During the meeting, the alumni expressed dissatisfaction over the state of affairs of the college administration. They resolved to protect the institution and its members, who they said were arbitrarily removed without following due constitutional provisions and procedure of law. The move amply speaks of their (impugned members) mala fide intention to capture power with an eye on the prime properties of Mahbub College, including its centenary campus in Secunderabad, stated the alumni. They said they would vehemently fight with the illegitimate members of the managing committee until the institution got justice. Meanwhile, the college claimed that the report which appeared in this newspaper on April 14 was not true. A GMB debate on government plans to send migrants to Rwanda descended into chaos today after a minister was bizarrely grilled on whether he would send Jesus to the African country. Presenter Adil Ray posed the weird question to Tory MP Greg Hands on Good Morning Britain as more migrants have flocked to the UK after dangerous journeys over the Channel on the bank holiday weekend. That is despite the risk of being deported to Rwanda, a scheme the Government hopes will stop migrants falling victim to people smugglers and instead use legal methods to gain entry. The Government announced last week it plans to provide failed asylum seekers, including those crossing the Channel in small boats, with a one-way ticket to the African country more than 4,000 miles away. It has said the 120million five-year plan would help to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the Channel, which has faced immediate and heavy criticism from politicians and charities. Although migrants will be able to apply to live in Rwanda permanently, there has been huge backlash against the plans to send migrants to the country. Just four years ago Rwandan police shot dead 12 refugees as they protested a UN cut to food rations and the country is marred by the 1994 genocide that saw 800,000 people murdered, many of them hacked to death in their own homes. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, branded the scheme as 'ungodly', while the UN called it 'unacceptable'. Minister Greg Hands previously told Sky News of Welby's intervention: 'I think what others, the critics of this plan, need to do is to show what their solution would be.' As Brits across the country celebrate Easter, Good Morning Britain's Adil Ray (left) reminded the Tory minister Jesus was also a migrant, meaning if he arrived illegally in the UK he would likely face being sent to Rwanda Greg Hands was faced with a bizarre question as to whether the Tories would send Jesus to Rwanda if he arrived in the UK Members of the Border Force escort migrants back to dover after they was picked up in the English Channel this morning Border Force officials helped migrants who were desperate to reach Britain's shored GMB's Adil Rey said on the show this morning: 'Here we are celebrating Easter this weekend. 'The life and times of Jesus Christ who himself was a refugee. 'Under this scheme, Priti Patel's and Boris Johnson's government scheme, if he arrived in the UK today, Jesus would be sent to Rwanda.' He asked Mr Hands: 'Would you send Jesus to Rwanda?' The Minister replied: 'We can debate the Easter story and what happened or did not happen to Jesus. 'The point is this is the government's policy 2,000 years later.' He added : '2,000 years later 28 thousand people have made an illegal journey from France to the UK, between two entirely safe countries, and 27 people have died'. Twitter users were quick to hit out at the presenter. Social media user Stephanie said: 'Would you send Jesus to Rwanda lol, what a stupid question.' Meanwhile Martyn Murphy said: 'JESUS to Rwanda is the deal I wasn't expecting to hear this morning' and Andrew Poyntz-Roberts criticised Ray's 'ridiculous questioning'. The Rwanda plan is a move similar to an approach adopted in Australia and Home Secretary Priti Patel has defended the plans, using an opinion piece in the Times to attack her critics. In a joint article with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta, she wrote: 'We are taking bold and innovative steps and it's surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions.' While Priti Patel said criticism of her plans was 'synthetic outrage', two boats with dozens of migrants on board were brought ashore into Dover, Kent, on Monday after being intercepted by Border Force officers. Two large dinghies were detected with around 90 people crammed on board and were brought into Dover Harbour on the Border Force vessel Hurricane. Men, women and young children were wearing life jackets as they were brought into the port this morning to be processed. Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent 4,000 miles away to Rwanda while their applications are processed. Pictured: A map detailing the plan proposed by the Prime Minister A young child was among a group of migrants brought in to Dover, Kent, after a small boat incident Under a scheme designed to crack down on migrants landing on British shores after crossing the Channel in small boats, the UK intends to provide those deemed to have arrived unlawfully with a one-way ticket to Rwanda A group of migrants were saved from a small boat in the Channel today and brought to Dove More than 6,000 migrants have been detained after making the dangerous journey this year Each migrant was given a life jacket and taken to Dover, Kent, for processing These migrants face being sent with a one-way ticket to Rwanda, which is more than 4,000 miles away The UN has branded the proposed scheme as 'unacceptable' while the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was 'ungodly' A record 28,395 migrants reached the UK illegally last year by taking small boats across the Channel, a 200 per cent increase on 2020's tally A view of facilities at Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of the capital city Kigali, in Rwanda - where migrants shipped from Britain will initially be taken Windy conditions in the Channel were expected to prevent large numbers attempting the treacherous crossing over the Easter weekend. On Saturday the Royal Navy and Border Force intercepted a further 252 migrants attempting to make the treacherous journey. Despite choppy conditions in the 21-mile wide Dover Straits, seven flimsy dinghies made the dangerous voyage and were rescued in British waters. So far this year 6,342 people have been rescued in 195 boats. A total of 28,526 migrants made the treacherous crossing 2021 - significantly higher than the 8,410 who arrived in 2020. In 2021 that figure was not reached until July 10, while 1,713 people have been arrived this month alone. Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, has said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' The Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured today) blasted the government's Rwanda plan for asylum seekers as the 'opposite of the nature of God' On Sunday morning, Justin Welby told his Easter sermon congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal In his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the UK has a 'national responsibility' as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured speaking to the media in Rwanda), has slammed 'synthetic outrage' at her plans How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work? Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda Initial agreement worth 120million over five years Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa Initially based at hostel in Kigali Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists Privately owned, the East African nation's government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property Memorandum of understanding (MOU) says Government will screen asylum seekers 'without delay' after arrival in the UK All requests will require approval from Rwanda before relocation Nation can refuse to take people with criminal records People who cross the Channel in small boats will undergo initial checks at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover Further checks at a processing site in Manston, Kent. Where their claim is deemed inadmissible, they may be removed to a 'third safe country'. Royal Navy to lead Channel policing role, helping Border Force from today PM attacked 'a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers' who have thwarted previous action PM: 'Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.' Advertisement Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday slammed the 'synthetic outrage' over the Rwanda plans. She also accused political opponents of treating exploited migrants with contempt and slammed 'shameful' human rights lawyers for profiting from traffickers sending groups to the UK in flimsy dinghies, The Sun reports. Ms Patel said: 'All I've heard the last couple of days is a typical hysterical reaction from the Left, particularly through their social media echo chamber. 'All they have to offer is synthetic outrage. Labour doesn't have a plan. They don't care about Britain's interests or UK taxpayers who foot the bill. 'They are showing complete contempt for democracy and the wishes of the British people who have been crying out for years for action to fix our broken asylum system and tackle illegal migration.' A Government source told the Mail on Sunday that after striking a dramatic deal, the Home Secretary wants to spread the word internationally and let 'people know the rules have changed and if you arrive illegally to the UK, you can be deported to Rwanda'. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that 'anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since 1 January, may now be relocated to Rwanda'. A 100,000 information campaign will use social media to reach people in 'source countries' in their own languages. Jacob Rees-Mogg also suggested today that migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are 'supporting organised crime'. The Cabinet minister, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby earlier said 'sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God'. Reacting to the sermon, Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He added that '90 per cent of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. Mr Rees-Mogg continued: 'They are in doing so not only risking their lives but supporting organised crime. What we need to do is focus on legal routes into this country of which there are quite a number.' The new deal expected to be the subject of legal challenges was presented to Cabinet Ministers on Wednesday by Ms Patel and the Prime Minister. The Rwandan government will receive 120 million in investment from the UK with the cost of housing each migrant for three months estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. Ms Patel issued a ministerial direction, only the second in the department for 30 years, to force through the policy after objections from Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft. Three men are escorted off a boat on Sunday. Around 20 are understood to have been intercepted in the Channel A woman and young child are helped off a boat after attempting to cross the Channel on Sunday Senior Home Office civil servants have expressed dismay at the cost. One said: 'It will be astronomical. The legal bill alone will be huge.' Last night, the Home Office published an exchange of letters between Ms Patel and Mr Rycroft in which he called for a ministerial direction as he could not justify the policy's value for money. The package also includes a new immigration centre for 500 men at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. Speaking after Saturday's crossings, Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove MP said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' What's your plan then, Archbishop? Ministers continue to berate Church of England leader Justin Welby after he branded Rwanda migrant removal plan 'ungodly' BY DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR AND CHARLOTTE MCLAUGHLIN AND CHRIS JEWERS AND DAVID AVERRE FOR MAILONLINE Boris Johnson's government was locked in a furious battle with the Archbishop of Canterbury today after he blasted plans to send economic migrants to Rwanda. The Most Reverend Justin Welby used his Easter Sunday sermon to launch a scathing criticism of Home Secretary Priti Patel's deal to deter Channel migrant crossings by packing them off to Africa. But it sparked a hardline response from Ms Patel and other ministers, who invited him to come up with with a better idea or stop carping from the sidelines. On Sunday morning, the Archbishop told his Canterbury congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal. Ms Patel resurrected the row on Easter Monday, using an opinion piece in the Times to attack her critics. Without naming the head of the Church of England in a joint article with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta, she wrote: 'We are taking bold and innovative steps and it's surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions.' Minister Greg Hands was even more direct on a round of interviews today. Asked about Welby's intervention he told Sky News: ''I think what others, the critics of this plan, need to do is to show what their solution would be.' The Government has said the 120million, five-year plan would help to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the Channel, which has faced immediate and heavy criticism from politicians and charities. It would see economic migrants who arrive in the Uk illegally handed a one-way ticket to Rwanda to start a new life there . Mr Welby said the 'serious' ethical questions' over sending asylum seekers abroad cannot 'stand the judgment of god'. Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) has fired back at The Archbishop of Canterbury after he declared in his Easter speech this morning the UK must not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' in reference to the migrant crisis The Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured today) blasted the government's Rwanda plan for asylum seekers as the 'opposite of the nature of God' Minister Greg Hands was even more direct on a round of interviews today. Asked about Welby's intervention he told Sky News: ''I think what others, the critics of this plan, need to do is to show what their solution would be.' Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 15, 2022 On Sunday morning, Justin Welby told his Easter sermon congregation that the UK has a duty as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' after anyone who arrived in Britain illegally since January 1 could be relocated to Rwanda under a new deal Non-EU migration to UK soars after Brexit The number of non-EU migrants coming to Britain to work and study has rocketed since the implementation of post-Brexit immigration rules, Home Office figures have shown. From 1 January 2021, following the end of the Brexit transition period, those coming to the UK from the EU to work or study have required a visa. In total in 2021, there were 239,987 work-related visas granted. This was a 110 per cent increase on 2020 (114,528 visas) and 25 per cent higher than 2019 (192,559), which was the final full year before the Covid pandemic. However, of those work-related visas granted in 2021, only 30,514 (or 13 per cent) were granted to EU nationals, as well as those from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The highest number of work visas granted in 2021, by nationality, were to Indians (70,099 visas), Ukrainians (20,783), Filipinos (14,281) and Nigerians (11,589). The top EU nationalities granted work visas in 2021 were French (4,618), German (3,693) and Italians (2,921). Last year also saw a huge increase in the number of foreign students granted UK visas. Advertisement He was joined in his sentiments by Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell who called it 'depressing and distressing'. But Tory MPs have called the Archbishop of Canterbury's stinging intervention over the government's plan to send thousands of migrants with a one-way ticket to Rwanda 'clumsy'. Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, a committed Catholic, said the government is not 'abandoning' migrants but taking on a 'very difficult responsibility' with the 'intention' of doing good' which he said is important within Christianity. Other Tory MPs John Redwood, Mike Wood and Tom Hunt also blasted Mr Welby's comments with Mr Hunt saying the Archbishop should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues. Mr Welby also called for a ceasefire in the Russian war on Ukraine and spoke of his concern for families struggling during the cost-of-living crisis and for those bereaved by Covid-19. In his 8.10am sermon, the Archbishop said: 'The resurrection of Jesus is not a magic wand that makes the world perfect. 'But the resurrection of Christ is the tectonic shift in the way the cosmos works. It is the conquest of death and the opening of eternal life - through Jesus, a gift offered to every human being who reaches out to him. 'Not just for individuals but setting a benchmark for all of society because God is lord of every society and nation.' He will continue: 'Let this be a time for Russian ceasefire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. 'This is a time for resetting the ways of peace, not for what Bismarck called blood and iron. Let Christ prevail. Let the darkness of war be banished. 'And this season is also why there are such serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas. 'The details are for politics and politicians. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. In his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the UK has a 'national responsibility' as a 'Christian country' to not 'sub-contract our responsibilities' Migrants wait to disembark at the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover, Britain, April 17, 2022 Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell (pictured) said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme The Member of Parliament for Ipswich Tom Hunt said Mr Welby's comments were 'wrong headed' and he should be wary of 'clumsily intervening' into political issues John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, said could the Archbishop 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions' Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's previous forays into politics The Most Reverend Justin Welby used his Easter Sunday sermon to launch a scathing criticism of Home Secretary Priti Patel's deal to deter Channel migrant crossings by packing them off to Africa. His remarks sparked a hardline response from Ms Patel and other ministers, who invited him to come up with with a better idea or stop carping from the sidelines. But it is not the first time Welby has used a sermon to wade into political debate in recent years: Welby warns MPs over language Welby clashed with Boris Johnson and other MPs when he called on the Commons to avoid using inflammatory language. He said it was 'extraordinarily dangerous for politicians to use careless comments' in a polarised and volatile' society after the Prime Minister was criticised for using words such as 'surrender' over Brexit. Archbishop speaks on Covid rules Welby warned MPs against Covid restrictions being imposed centrally and said he was 'deeply concerned' about the impact of the 'rule of six' on family life. He said the Government had 'determined the daily details of our lives' during lockdown in a way 'few of us have experienced', as he argued instead for localism. Welby leads colleagues against Brexit Internal Market Bill Mr Johnson was again on a collision course with Welby over Brexit as he led five Anglican archbishops in warning that the proposed Internal Market Bill would ride roughshod over the Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU in 2019 and potentially put peace in Northern Ireland at risk. Calls for public inquiry into handling of the pandemic The archbishop piled the pressure on Boris Johnson to launch a public inquiry into the handling of the Covid pandemic, saying the time for an independent probe 'must be coming close'. Blasts Government plans for NI rise Welby blasted ministers' plans to increase national insurance, saying it could pose a 'serious problem' for low-income workers. He said that privileging wealthy pensioners over the poorest young people posed 'a very serious moral question'. And he slammed the policy as one that was not 'people-centred'. Speaks out against Assisted Dying Bill Welby also spoke out against the Assisted Dying Bill - tabled by the independent peer Baroness Meacher to give patients of sound mind with six months or less left to live the right to die by taking life-ending medication. Urges leaders to reach climate change agreement And just a month earlier, at the COP26 Summit, he said leaders would be 'cursed' if they did not reach an agreement on climate change. Called for support for refugees He used his Christmas sermon last year to preach a message of support to volunteers helping refugees. He said that the Christmas story of Joseph and Mary searching for shelter demonstrates the need to treat those 'who risk everything to arrive on the beaches' with compassion. Advertisement 'It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was announced first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. 'And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures on the cross.' He also said the love of god and hope triumphs over 'nightmares' and 'global power'. Echoing Mr Welby over his thoughts on the migrant scheme, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said at York Minster 'we can do better than' the Rwanda scheme. Mr Cottrell said: 'It is so depressing and distressing this week to find that asylum seekers fleeing war, famine and oppression from deeply, deeply troubled parts of the world will not be treated with the dignity and compassion that is the right of every human being, and instead of being dealt with quickly and efficiently here on our soil will be shipped to Rwanda. 'We can do better than this. We can do better than this because of what we see in Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, with a vision for our humanity where barriers are broken down, not new obstacles put in the path. 'After all, there is in law no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker. It is the people who exploit them that we need to crack down on, not our sisters and brothers in their need. We don't need to build more barriers and cower in the darkness of the shadows they create.' Mr Rees-Mogg, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. 'Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He said '90% of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. The Brexit opportunities minister also suggested the Government's immigration plan creates an 'opportunity for Rwanda'. He said: 'What is being done is providing an opportunity for Rwanda because it will provide Rwanda, a country that needs support and has gone through terrible troubles... and the Rwandan story is almost an Easter story of redemption, isn't it? 'Of a country that suffered the most appalling and horrific genocide and is now recovering and therefore the UK supporting it must be a good thing. 'It helps people come through legitimate routes and I think the aim of the policy - within Christianity intention is always very important - and the intention of the Government is to do good. 'It is to help those in genuine need of asylum and to make it harder for crime to prosper, and that I think, is fundamentally important.' Mr Rees-Mogg had previously stated he 'took his whip from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church rather than the [Tory party's] Whip's Office'. The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times. 'To do so on Easter Sunday feels very wrong. Archbishop of York views particularly wrong headed. Claims he's in tune with majority of the public.' John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to 'forgive and reconcile' instead of 'sharpening political divisions'. He said in a Tweet: 'I thought the Easter message was love conquers all. We should forgive and reconcile. Could the Archbishop help do that instead of sharpening political divisions? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages?' Mike Wood MP also told GB News: 'They were unwise comments This will help to reduce the tragic losses at sea that we've had.' The MP for Ipswich Tom Hunt took to Twitter to blast Mr Welby, saying: 'The leaders of the Church of England should be wary about clumsily intervening into complex political issues at the best of times.' Pictured: So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? Why does he want to live with law breaking and dangerous voyages? And Mr Redwood also wrote: 'So what is the Archbishop's proposal on how to stop the lucrative and illegal trade by people traffickers? It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured in Rwanda on Thusday, that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal' It comes as an exchange of letters published by the Home Office on Saturday night showed the department's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned Home Secretary Priti Patel that although the policy was 'regular, proper and feasible', there was 'uncertainty surrounding the value for money of the proposal'. But issuing a rare ministerial direction compelling the plans to go ahead despite the concern, Ms Patel said that 'without action, costs will continue to rise, lives will continue to be lost'. The Home Office insisted the UK has a 'proud history' of supporting those in need and that Rwanda is a 'fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers'. The policy has enjoyed some support from Conservative MPs, who say the issue of small boats crossing the Channel is high on the priority list for constituents. Ms Patel said she expects other countries to follow the UK's example, suggesting Denmark could be among those to reproduce the Government's 'blueprint', while the Home Office insisted its approach is not in breach of refugee agreements. Boris Johnson's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has today been slammed as an 'egregious breach of international law' and 'really unacceptable' by the United Nation's refugee agency. Pictured: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the command room at the 'Maritime rescue coordination centre' in Dover, Britain, April 14, 2022 Speaking about the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic, the Archbishop Mr Welby also said: 'In the UK we might be waking up to lighter mornings and warmer days. 'But families across the country are waking up to cold homes and empty stomachs as we face the greatest cost-of-living crisis - we have known in our lifetimes. 'And because of this, they wake up with fear. 'Further afield people are waking up to horrors they never imagined possible. 'Last month president Zelensky gave a speech in which he said 'the end of the world has arrived'. 'Ukrainians have woken up to the end of the world as they knew it. 'Now they are awakened by the noises of war and the sickening reality of terror. They wake up to mortal fear.' Reflecting, on Mary waking up when Jesus was crucified, he said she awoke 'grim' with 'anger' at disciples for running away and her 'misery' at the future. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby performs the Washing of The Feet ceremony during the Maundy Thursday service at the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Kent, 'Be strong and have courage in your hearts': Boris Johnson addresses Ukrainians in his Easter message as he highlights triumph of good over evil and life over death By ELMIRA TANATAROVA FOR MAILONLINE Boris Johnson addressed Ukrainians in his Easter message today, remarking that 'Christ's message of hope the triumph of life over death and good over evil will resonate this year perhaps more than any other'. The Prime Minister, who is now banned from entering Russia following the Kremlin's sanctions on a dozen other British government members and politicians, told Christians around the world to 'be strong and have courage in your heart'. He added: 'Easter tells us that there is light beyond the darkness, that beyond the suffering lies redemption.' Moscow has meanwhile accused Britain, with Johnson making a surprise visit to Ukraine last week, of 'deliberately aggravating the situation surrounding Ukraine, pumping the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the behalf of NATO' and threatened to expand its sanctions list 'soon'. The prime minister also tweeted out an Easter message in Ukrainian today, following a post yesterday in which he vowed to send more aid to Volodymyr Zelensky. It said: 'I updated my friend @ZelenskyyUa this afternoon on further military aid we will provide to Ukraine in the coming days. 'The UK will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians have the resources they need to defend their country from the ongoing Russian onslaught.' Keir Starmer's message also touched on the conflict and themes of overcoming adversity. The Labour leader said, in his address to 'Christians around the world': 'I know you draw inspiration from the life of Jesus and the Easter story which is a message of overcoming adversity and of hope. Of light overcoming darkness. 'And at this pivotal time, when Europe is at war and people are facing greater poverty at home, hope is more important than ever. 'Thank you and Happy Easter.' Yesterday Pope Francis called for 'gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war' in an Easter vigil homily in St Peter's Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Ivan Fedorov was abducted and held for five days by Russian troops after they occupied Melitopol, a strategic southern city. Francis noted that while 'many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights...nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death'. He did not refer directly to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but he has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace. Francis also addressed Mr Fedorov and Ukrainian legislators Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rusem Umerov, who sat all together in the front row. He said: 'In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. 'We can only give you our company, our prayer.' Francis added that 'the biggest thing you can receive: Christ is risen'. He spoke the last three words in Ukrainian. The messages of hope come as Zelensky last night warned that Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons to bring a catastrophic end to its invasion of Ukraine. He urged the world to 'prepare' for the worst by stocking up on anti-radiation medicine and building air raid shelters. The comedian-turned-war time leader made the doomsday warning during an interview with national media, before sharing the clip via his Telegram channel. He made a similar announcement on Friday, when he said it could not be ruled out that Vladimir Putin would use tactical nukes, as his war against Ukraine continues to stall. On Saturday Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a stark reminder that the whole country remains under threat. Today Ukraine and Russia failed to agree about humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said. 'We have not been able to agree...about ceasefires on evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,' she said on her Telegram account. She added that the Ukrainian authorities have asked for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops from the besieged port of Mariupol. Advertisement He added: 'Such a sense of helplessness will have been common this morning. 'Many will be awakened in refugee camps separated from loved ones on the front line, grieving for those missing, raped, abused or killed wondering how to cope. 'For many in this country, the news from Ukraine is terrible but the rising cost of power and fuel, of basic foods, will be the first and overwhelming thought of the day. 'For others it will be the continued deep sense of loss of someone from Covid, or during Covid, to whom they could not say a proper farewell. 'The news might move on but grief does not. 'Others will be struggling at work or feel a deep sense of injustice at the way they've been mistreated by friends, families or employers.' Reflecting on what the resurrection means for us as individuals, the Archbishop will say: 'In dying for us, [God] sees and knows the wounds that cause us so much pain. 'He hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, [and] he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees. 'Closer to home, he sees the humiliation of the grandparent visiting the food bank for the first time, the desperate choice of parents in poverty and the grief and weariness of the pandemic.' On Saturday, a peer suggested that the Government's plan may breach the Geneva conventions, a peer has suggested. Former child refugee and Labour peer Alf Dubs said ministers would face opposition in the Lords over the plan unveiled by Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week. In an interview with The Guardian, Lord Dubs said the Government was attempting to 'ride roughshod' over international agreements. He said: 'I think it's a way of getting rid of people the Government doesn't want, dumping them in a distant African country, and they'll have no chance of getting out of there again. 'I think it's a breach of the 1951 Geneva conventions on refugees. You can't just shunt them around like unwanted people.' It comes as it was reported that Ms Patel took the rare step of issuing a ministerial direction to overrule concerns of civil servants about whether the concept will deliver value for money. As part of the plan designed to curb migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, those who are deemed to have entered Britain by unlawful means since January 1 may be sent to Rwanda where they will be permitted to apply for asylum in the African country. According to the Daily Telegraph, the claimed use of the ministerial direction by the Home Secretary was only the second deployment of the power within the Home Office in the past 30 years. The Home Office declined to comment on the matter when approached by the PA news agency. Speaking to Times Radio on Saturday, shadow prisons minister Ellie Reeves said: 'The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) has come out really, really strongly condemning the Government's proposals, as have many organisations, and it seems the Government's own civil servants have expressed huge misgivings about the plans, which seem to be completely misguided.' The Labour politician said: 'The Government is going to be paying 120 million upfront before any asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda. 'Asylum seekers are saying it won't deter them from crossing the Channel. 'We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis so it doesn't seem the right way to be spending money on an unethical and unworkable scheme that won't deter people from coming over.' She later added: 'The whole system needs looking at again, so rather than making sweeping statements - these announcements that are completely unworkable and incredibly expensive - what the Government actually needs to do is get to grips with the system and put in place a system that actually works, increase prosecutions and clamp down on criminal gangs.' But Ms Patel said Denmark could be among those to reproduce the UK Government's 'blueprint'. 'There is no question now that the model we have put forward, I'm convinced is world class and a world first, and it will be used as a blueprint going forward, there's no doubt about that,' Ms Patel said. 'I would not be surprised if other countries start coming to us direct on the back of this as well.' The Home Secretary said Copenhagen was in talks with Rwanda as well, adding the Council of Europe 'have also basically said they are interested in working with us'. The Home Office denied its approach was in breach of refugee agreements. But Lord Dubs, who came to the UK from then Czechoslovakia on one of the Kindertransport trains in 1939, told The Guardian there would be legal challenges and opposition by peers. 'If (Ms Patel) says she'll get rid of the lefty lawyers' claims, well, I think she may have another thing coming. My understanding is that they're going to have real difficulties in getting this through anyway,' he said. On Friday, the United Nations also criticised the proposal as an 'egregious breach of international law'. Gillian Triggs, a UNHCR assistant secretary-general, said the agency 'strongly condemns outsourcing the primary responsibility to consider the refugee status.' Put to her that Australia had effectively deployed a similar tactic to cut migration numbers, Ms Triggs said: 'My point is, just as the Australian policy is an egregious breach of international law and refugee law and human rights law, so too is this proposal by the United Kingdom Government. 'It is very unusual, very few states have tried this, and the purpose is primarily deterrent - and it can be effective, I don't think we're denying that. 'But what we're saying at the UN refugee agency is that there are much more legally effective ways of achieving the same outcome.' The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (left) carries a wooden cross during the Walk of Witness at St Mary's Church, Sellindge, Kent, as he carries out his Holy Week engagements She said attempting to 'shift responsibility' for asylum seekers arriving in Britain was 'really unacceptable'. Ms Triggs pointed out that Israel had attempted to send Eritrean and Sudanese refugees to Rwanda, but that they 'simply left the country and started the process all over again'. 'In other words, it is not actually a long-term deterrent,' she added. In response to the UNHCR, the Home Office insisted to the MailOnline that 'Rwanda is a fundamentally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers.' It noted that the UNHCR has previously sad the country is safe for refugees. 'Under this agreement, Rwanda will process claims in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention, national and international human rights laws, and will ensure their protection from inhuman and degrading treatment or being returned to the place they originally fled,' the Home Office's statement said. 'There is nothing in the UN Refugee Convention which prevents removal to a safe country,' it added. An eight-year-old girl has been hospitalised after being bitten by an adder during an Easter family picnic at a West Midlands beauty spot. The child, who has not been named, had her hand swell and was given two IV's of anti-venom after the snake attack near her home in Birmingham. She was with her parents enjoying Easter Saturday when she spotted the adder, and put her hand out towards the UK's only venomous snake. The adder struck and the girl were taken straight to hospital by her family after her hand swelled and she was given two IV's of anti-venom. Around 100 people are bitten by adders every year, which become more active in April and May during their breeding season, but no one has died since 1975. An eight-year-old girl, pictured, has been hospitalised after being bitten by an adder during an Easter family picnic at a West Midlands beauty spot The child, who has not been named, had her hand swell (pictured) and was given two IV's of anti-venom after the snake attack near her home in Birmingham Around 100 people are bitten by adders every year, which become more active in April and May during their breeding season, but no one has died since 1975. Pictured: The adder that bit the eight-year-old girl How to spot an adder An adult female adder, also known as the European viper The adder is the UK's only venomous snake, so you may want to know how to spot one. It is a relatively small, stocky snake that prefers woodland, heathland and moorland habitats. They can be identified by their greyish colour if male and reddish-brown colour if female. Adders have a dark and very distinct zig-zag pattern down the back, and red eyes. Adders hibernate from October, emerging in the first warm days of March, which is the easiest time of year to find them. The Adder's breeding season starts in April/May and then the young emerge in August/September. Unlike most snakes, female Adders do not lay eggs but give birth to live young. Source: British Trust for Ornithology/ Wildlife Trusts Advertisement Her father David Rathbone told BirminghamLive: 'She had been alerted to the snake's presence by one of our party, and being a plucky girl, she investigated the striking-looking reptile with her finger. 'Unusually, the snake did not retreat but struck at her finger. 'She gave out a 'yelp', at which point I grabbed her hand and sucked hard at the wound on the tip of her index finger. The snake still did not retreat. 'The snake also struck at my hand forcing me to whip my hand out of range.' After the girl began to complain of pain and her hand ballooned, he took her from the beauty spot, Kinver Edge, a National Trust property, to Kidderminster hospital. Thinking she needed more care, the minor injuries team rushed her to Birmingham Children's Hospital by ambulance. Mr Rathbone said she was given the 'intravenous infusion of anti-venom serum' and became 'quite ill' with the strong drug. His 'very brave girl' is now feeling a lot better and is fine but is a 'little fed up' with missing out on an Easter egg hunt. She remains in hospital under observation but it is hoped she will return to school soon. People have spotted many more adders lately in the UK with breeding season starting during this period and ending in May, according to the British Trust for Ornithology. Hannah Thompson, from Lewes, who filmed a snake in Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex, shared a video on social media of an adder wriggling around in the open. Hannah Thompson, from Lewes, who filmed a snake in Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex, pictured, shared a video on social media of an adder wriggling around in the open. Just by a cliff edge, the East Sussex snake (pictured) can be seen slithering. While a woman can be heard on the video saying 'it's quite worrying' What to do if you are bitten by an adder Around 100 people get bitten by adders in Britain every year, but no one has died from one since 1975. The adder is not normally a danger to humans, except to very young, ill or old. It is more likely to slither way than bite a human, unless trodden on or picked up. If bitten, medical attention should be sought immediately The worst effects of the snake's bite are normally nausea and drowsiness, severe swelling and bruising around the bite. For some a snake bite can trigger a severe reaction, known as anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock. Advertisement One social media user said:'Wow. It's absolutely beautiful. 'Love the video, so lucky.' Another said: 'There have been a lot of sightings locally already this year, and no doubt more since the weather is warmer. 'Be careful with your dogs and keep a lookout.' Adders have been spotted at the South Downs National Park in previous years, with officials urging dog walkers to watch out for the snakes. A spokesman for the park said: 'We've had reports of an increased number of adder sightings in the national park, which is excellent news. 'Although adders are usually shy, they are venomous, and dogs should be kept on the lead on access land just to be on the safe side.' A spokesman for The Sussex Wildlife Trust said they can 'be spotted basking in the sunshine in woodland glades and on heathlands'. He said: 'They spend the winter in hiding until the first days of spring, when the earth starts to warm and the adders awaken. 'Males emerge first and will spend several weeks basking, often returning to the same spot each day. 'Most have a distinctive dark zigzag stripe along the length of their spine and are silvery-grey, while the larger females are brownish. He added: 'An adder bite is a very rare occurrence, and can be painful, but is almost never fatal.' Jake Closier's hand after he was bitten by a venomous adder on a beach in Norfolk One of the around 100 people bitten every year by adders was an eight-year-old boy who recently was also rushed to hospital earlier this month after an adder bite caused his hand to swell up 'five times the normal size'. Jake Closier was on a day trip to the beach when he was attacked by the venomous snake. He was with dad Kenny, 33, and mum Sophie, 32, at popular beauty spot Hemsby beach in Norfolk, when the snake launched at him while he played in the sand dunes. Sophie initially thought the bite was from a harmless grass snake but realised something was wrong when Jake's hand went 'completely hard'. The boy is now safe and well after the adder struck. Adders are not normally a danger to humans, except to very young, ill or old people, and is more likely to slither way than bite a human, unless trodden on or picked up. Mr Rathbone agreed saying he hopes the incident with his eight-year-old daughter warns others to be careful while walking. If bitten, medical attention should be sought immediately. The worst effects of the snake's bite are normally nausea and drowsiness, severe swelling and bruising around the bite. For some a snake bite can trigger a severe reaction, known as anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock. And the bites can have a more serious effect on dogs. Natasha Allen gave birth to her daughter Brooke in 2019 A Primark manager is suing the retail giant for sex discrimination for not letting her have Thursday evenings off to care for her child - while male colleagues with children had only an 'informal' obligation to work on that day. Natasha Allen, who worked at the Primark store in Bury from 2011, was asked to 'guarantee her availability' to work the late shift on Thursday because the store did not have enough senior staff to cover her absence. Departmental manager Miss Allen, 29, gave birth to her daughter Brooke in 2019 and argued the insistence on working those evenings was unfair because she was the principal carer for the child. The clothing chain rejected her request for flexible working, and Miss Allen resigned in September 2019 and took her case to an employment tribunal, arguing that 'the requirement for department managers to guarantee availability to work late shifts... put women at a particular disadvantage compared to men'. A panel ruled that Miss Allen, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, had not been discriminated against because the firm's insistence that managers work evening shifts applied to men too. The tribunal focused on the Bury store, where there were five other department managers, two of whom had childcare issues. As they were both men the panel decided 'women were not at a particular disadvantage', and dismissed her claims. But Miss Allen has now won the right for the case to be heard again after the President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Mrs Justice Eady, dismissed the findings, ruling that the male managers' circumstances were different because their requirement to work Thursday evenings were 'informal' and not contractually obliged. Natasha Allen, who worked at the Primark store in Bury from 2011, was asked to 'guarantee her availability' to work the late shift on Thursday because the store did not have enough senior staff to cover her absence (pictured: Primark in Bury) Justice Eady added: 'Even if there had been a contractual requirement on (them) to work the Thursday late shift... their circumstances were materially different to those of (Miss Allen) and they should have been excluded from the pool. 'I do not say that the (original tribunal) was bound to adopt a broader, UK-wide, pool instead, but the error in the approach to its task means that there is no obvious logic to the pool that it did select. 'This is, therefore, a case where the conclusions must be set aside in their entirety.' She ordered the case of indirect sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal to be heard again. The hearing was told Miss Allen had sole responsibility for looking after with only 'limited support' from her mother. Because of this, she made an application for flexible working to change her contractual hours before returning from maternity leave. Although Primark had been prepared to agree that her working hours would not include late shifts on other days, the hearing was told she would still be required to be available to work Thursdays from 10.30am to 8.30pm. She was told: 'Whilst on the majority of days your reasoning that there are other managers who could cover this late shift is true, on a Thursday we do not have sufficient flexibility in the management team to accommodate this request as only two of the six current managers are able to work this shift.' This was insufficient to meet her concerns and, upon her appeal also being refused, in September 2019 Miss Allen resigned. Miss Allen argued at the original tribunal in Manchester in October 2020 that 'the requirement for department managers to guarantee availability to work late shifts... put women at a particular disadvantage compared to men'. She added: 'The particular disadvantage was the difficulty or practical impossibility of working evenings while having child care responsibilities.' To decide whether this requirement to work evenings was discriminatory, the original tribunal compared Miss Allen to other managers 'who potentially have to work the Thursday [late] shifts, however convenient or inconvenient to them it was'. In her appeal, Miss Allen claimed the tribunal had made a mistake in comparing her to just those managers in the store where she worked as the requirement to be available to work late shifts applied to department managers across the UK. The appeal heard there had been 'no proper engagement with that aspect of the case' and 'no explanation of its decision to discount this wider pool (of comparators)'. Advertisement Sweden has arrested 26 people after weekend clashes between police and protesters rallying against plans by a far-right group to burn copies of the Koran, police said on Monday. Eight people were arrested in the city of Norrkoping and 18 people were detained in the neighbouring city of Linkoping, police said in a statement. On Sunday, clashes erupted in both cities for the second time in four days over rallies by anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, led by the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan. A bus burns as a police officer watches on after riots overnight in Malmo, in the south of Sweden, sparked by an anti-Islam Danish politician carrying out Koran-burning stunts around the country Cars burn on the streets of Malmo, in southern Sweden, late on Sunday night after riots sparked by a far-right Danish politician who has been on a 'tour' of the country Dozens of people were also arrested in the towns of Norrkoping and Linkoping, hundreds of miles to the north of Malmo (pictured), after similar rioting took place there Police said officers wounded three people after firing warning shots during Sunday's clashes. Paludan, a lawyer and a YouTuber who intends to stand in Swedish legislative elections in September but does not yet have the necessary number of signatures to secure his candidature, is currently on a 'tour' of Sweden. The 40-year-old is visiting neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations where he wants to burn copies of the Muslim holy book Koran as Muslims observe the holy month of Ramadan. In Malmo, where he burned a Koran on Saturday, fire erupted in a school overnight, officials said. Hard Line's rallies have sparked several clashes between the police and counter-protesters across the Scandinavian country in recent days. On Thursday and Friday, around 12 police officers were injured in the clashes. In the wake of the string of incidents, Iraq's foreign ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires in Baghdad. It warned that the affair could have 'serious repercussions' on 'relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, both Muslim and Arab countries and Muslim communities in Europe'. Police say their officers were targeting by people throwing rocks and fireworks in Malmo, on the fourth straight night on unrest sparked by a far-right Danish politician A local watches a car burn in an immigrant area of the city of Malmo, in the south of Sweden, during another night of unrest sparked by Koran-burning stunts during Ramadan A controversial election candidate slammed over her anti-transgender remarks has broken her silence to fire a defiant message to her critics. Katherine Deves has vowed to stay on as the Liberal candidate for the northern Sydney seat of Warringah as more controversial posts are unearthed and continue to divide the party. She shut down her social media and was forced to apologise last week after historic tweets emerged of Ms Deves describing transgender children as 'surgically mutilated and sterilised and compared lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's sport to standing up against the Holocaust. Ms Deves broke her silence in an email to Liberal supporters on Monday night to reveal the barrage of bullying and death threats she's copped in recent days. The mother-of-three then boldly declared she 'wasn't going anywhere.' Candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves has divided the Liberal party over her controversial comments 'My opponents, parts of the left media and twittersphere have been unrelenting in calling for me to be disendorsed, because of past statements,' the email states. 'I have been bullied in the most vile way and received death threats. I'm not going anywhere, as the Prime Minister said yesterday.' Poll Should Katherine Deves should remain the party's candidate for Warringah? Yes No Unsure Should Katherine Deves should remain the party's candidate for Warringah? Yes 491 votes No 98 votes Unsure 6 votes Now share your opinion Ms Deves also addressed the saga over being 'hand-picked' by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 'How I was selected was not my decision. It was not how I wanted to come to represent you,' she wrote. 'As you know, at the time I was appointed, I was preparing myself for a fair contest in a preselection. I want to echo the sentiments of our [electorate] president, that depriving you of that is against our values.' She issued the email hours after attending a private party fundraiser at a home on Sydney's lower north shore, where Ms Deves went to desperate lengths to hide from the waiting media. Ms Deves is running in the northern beaches seat previously held by former prime minister Tony Abbott, who has called for an end of the 'pile on' of a 'brave woman.' She also has the backing of a second former prime minister, John Howard. 'Mr Howard strongly supports Ms Katherine Deves. She is the endorsed Liberal candidate,' a spokesman told news.com.au. Katherine Deves (pictured with her family) has vowed she's 'not going anywhere', despite growing calls within the Liberal party for her to be disendorsed But not all Liberal figures agree, amid growing calls for Ms Deves to be disendorsed led by NSW treasurer Matt Kean. There are also unconfirmed reports from multiple sources North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman asked the prime minister's office to dump Ms Deves, Guardian Australia reported. There are now calls for NSW Liberal President Chris Stone to urge Ms Deves to step down amid fears her controversial comments will haunt the campaign. 'It is apparent to me and others in the Party I speak with that, unfortunately, Katherine Deves needs to be replaced as the candidate for Warringah,' Neutral Bay branch president Simon Moore wrote in an email to Mr Stone. 'Her numerous statements about transgender people are offensive and can't be condoned. 'They are not in line with broader community sentiment, particularly in Warringah. Whilst she has apologised for these statements, they are so recent and numerous that they will continue to haunt the campaign, not just in Warringah but elsewhere.' A host of Liberal figures have rallied behind Ms Deves in recent days, including Mr Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Senator Jane Hume and assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar. It comes after more controversial tweets were unearthed comparing transgender rights to the Nazis and the Stolen Generation. In April 2021, Ms Deves tweeted about a trial where a Canadian father was taken to court for not supporting his teenager transitioning. 'This will go down in history as akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich,' she wrote. 'I do not like to invoke Nazism but the parallels are remarkable and deeply sinister. 'We can only hope that when society comes to its senses, it's redeemed by trials similar to the Nazi wife and the border guards.' Five months later, Ms Deves slammed a decision by a Western Australia court to dismiss an appeal by parents whose transgender child was put into foster care. 'Australia has a very dark history of children being taken from their families by the state (because) bureaucrats thought they knew better,' she wrote. 'Don't we owe it to lessons of the past, such as our shameful Stolen Generation scandal, to stop the destruction of families for flawed beliefs?' Katherine Deves broke her silence on Saturday to admit the controversy had taken a toll on her Deves has since apologised for some of her posts, saying that her comments were 'not acceptable'. 'My advocacy for the rights and safety of women and girls is well known, and I stand by my desire to ensure we protect the safety of women and girls and our entire community,' she said in a statement. 'However, the language I used was not acceptable, and for that I apologise.' Ms Deves broke her silence on Saturday to upload a happy snap with her family but admitted the last week had taken its toll. 'The last few days have been hard. I'm incredibly thankful for the support of my beautiful family during this time,' she wrote. Likewise, I appreciate the incredible messages of support I've received from the people here in Warringah and from around Australia.' I'm standing up for Warringah to help deliver on issues that affect our daily lives - those that affect everyone, from individuals, to families, to the elderly. I want Warringah to be the home my three daughters deserve; a place where everyone has a voice, and not one that seeks to 'cancel' those with whom we disagree.' A speech and language therapist has been suspended after he told a colleague treating a suicidal patient suffering from Multiple Sclerosis to 'just give her the pills'. Reverend Eric Foggitt made numerous 'weird' and 'inappropriate' comments to his colleagues and would assign them 'sexual subtypes' using a bizarre system called the Enneagram of Personality. A misconduct hearing was told he was a 'dominating individual who micromanaged his team and would say shocking things to keep his staff off-guard or to provoke a reaction'. Mr Foggitt had an 'obsession' with the personality diagram, and would use it to stereotype his staff in order to 'manipulate' them. The married father of three has now been suspended for a year after his colleagues at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust made complaints about his strange behaviour. Reverend Eric Foggitt, a speech and language therapist who worked at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, has been suspended after he told a colleague treating a suicidal patient suffering from Multiple Sclerosis to 'just give her the pills' Mr Foggitt has published books about the Enneagram of Personality and describes himself as a teacher and therapist who 'works with individuals, groups and churches to promote spiritual insight and development, using the wisdom of the Bible and the Enneagram'. Born in Paris to a British father and French mother, he has lived in Edinburgh and Amsterdam and is the minister at St. Andrew's Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian church in Brussels, Belgium. The misconduct committee heard he worked for the trust between November 2012 and January 2019 as a Band 8 Team Manager of the speech and language therapy team. 'Colleague 2', who made the complaint, said they were discussing a patient who was suicidal and suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, when he said 'just give her the pills'. She told the committee they were discussing MS being a 'horrible disease' and Mr Foggitt 'did not say it in a malevolent way but rather in a compassionate way' as MS was a degenerative disease whereby the person afflicted often develops depression and anxiety. Colleague 2 also mentioned Mr Foggitt's 'prolific use' of the Enneagram of Personality, a system of classifying personality types based on a nine-pointed star-like figure within a circle. In this, each of the nine points represents a personality type and its psychological motivations - such as the need to be right or helpful - which are said to influence a person's emotions, attitudes and behaviour. She said Mr Foggitt telephoned her and encouraged her to research the Enneagram of Personality, saying he wanted to introduce it in the department and invited her to his flat after a team dinner to discuss her research. She said she found his invitation 'odd' and her nervousness became heightened at the flat because he started asking her personal questions. The committee heard he told her inappropriate things, that he had been abused as a child and a colleague 'fancied her'. She said he appeared to be 'testing her reactions' to 'analyse' them so he could apply the Enneagram of Personality to her. She said all she wanted to do was make an excuse and leave but did not feel able to because of his seniority to her. The committee ruled: 'It was highly irregular and inappropriate for a male Senior Band 8 in his late 50s to invite a newly qualified and young female Band 5 back to his flat alone. 'Whilst there was no suggestion of any sexual motivation, it put him in a compromising situation and put her at a significant disadvantage. 'It was a significant breach of trust and the power imbalance meant that Colleague 2 felt compelled to agree to his invitation. 'The discussion involved highly inappropriate comments, which appeared to be designed to enable the Registrant to pigeonhole Colleague 2 according to the Enneagram of Personality.' Colleague 2 told the committee the Enneagram of Personality includes the 'sexual subtype' personality and Mr Foggitt told her she had this subtype 'because he had to break off eye contact with her when in a discussion'. The committee noted: 'It was clear from her evidence... that [Mr Foggitt] was a dominating individual who micromanaged his team and would say shocking things to keep his staff off-guard or to provoke a reaction. '[Other employees'] evidence was consistent and gave a picture of [him] as a senior manager with an obsession with the Enneagram of Personality, and who would use it to stereotype his staff in order to manipulate and micromanage them.' The committee heard Mr Foggitt also made inappropriate comments to another female colleague who was gay, by showing her a YouTube video of a young girl speaking at a rally against gun violence in America and asking if she thought the girl was gay. The colleague told the committee this had 'come out of the blue and that there was no context at all'. She said she was 'taken aback' when he then asked her if she 'fancied' the girl in the video. She said he 'made her so shocked and uncomfortable that she had to walk away'. The misconduct committee heard Mr Foggitt worked for the Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust between November 2012 and January 2019 as a Band 8 Team Manager of the speech and language therapy team. Pictured: Southend University Hospital The committee noted this was an example of Mr Foggitt using 'shock tactics to extract a reaction from his staff and other people' as a way to 'control them and predict their actions'. The same female employee told the committee she was hit twice by a lorry on the M25 while driving home and texted Mr Foggitt the day after to say she was quite shaken up and was not sure she could actually make the drive to work next day. He replied to say she should try to come in, without asking how she was. She told the committee she then had to drive her damaged car to the office the next day and that it was a 'terrifying drive'. When she arrived at work, Mr Foggitt just said 'so you survived then'. The committee ruled he 'acted without empathy or even with the concern reasonably expected of a competent manager' but had not breached any professional boundaries with this comment. Mr Foggitt was suspended for a year by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service, after it ruled striking him off would not have been 'proportionate'. After the hearing, a Church of Scotland spokesperson told the Edinburgh Evening News: 'We are shocked and saddened that one of our ministers has been found guilty of misconduct and suspended by the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service. We have just learned of this matter and will be following up with the presbytery and the minister.' Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has switched tactics from policy announcements to attacking the coalition government, as Labor takes a hit in the polls. Scott Morrison is ahead as the choice for preferred prime minister with 38 per cent, against 30 per cent for Mr Albanese, a sharp turnaround on the Labor leader's 37-36 margin of two weeks ago. The Resolve Strategic poll for The Sydney Morning Herald-The Age also showed Labor's primary vote down four points to 34 per cent, with the coalition up one to 35 per cent. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese (pictured) has switched tactics from policy announcements to attacking the coalition government, as Labor takes a hit in the polls Starting the second week of the May 21 election campaign in Brisbane, Mr Albanese blasted the prime minister over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters over the past two years. 'What we saw from the federal government, whether it be bushfires, floods or the pandemic is a real pattern of behaviour,' he said, after speaking with flood victims in the Brisbane suburb of Auchenflower. 'He only acted when the political pressure was really put on.' Mr Albanese warned voters to expect health cuts if the federal government is returned to power, calling the government's future health minister Anne Ruston a threat to accessible medical care. 'This is a health minister, now designate ... who we know will undermine Medicare, who has said that the current model is not sustainable, who has said that Medicare funding is just putting things on the credit card,' he said. 'This is another example of what we can expect if Scott Morrison is re-elected.' Mr Albanese blasted the prime minister (pictured here in 2020 during the bushfires) over his response to natural disasters over the past two years The Opposition Leader also slammed Scott Morrison over the Covid-19 pandemic before telling voters to expect health cuts if the government is re-elected When the $7 patient co-payment was included in the 2014 coalition budget, Senator Ruston told parliament Medicare was not sustainable without it. Senator Ruston said the government had since been clear it would not be making funding cuts to Medicare. 'We absolutely have guaranteed Medicare in law,' she told ABC Radio. Mr Morrison, who was in Fremantle to unveil a $124 million investment in two new Evolved Cape Class patrol boats, ruled out future cuts to Medicare. 'She (Senator Ruston) said yesterday there wouldn't be any cuts and I'll repeat that today,' Mr Morrison said on Monday. 'I introduced the legislation to guarantee Medicare and to guarantee the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 'Because if you can't manage money, which people know Labor can't, the consequences of that is essential services suffer.' Mr Morrison told reporters under his government, Medicare expenditure rose to $31.4 billion, and the bulk billing rate rose by more than six per cent. Mr Albanese called the government's future health minister Anne Ruston (pictured) a threat to accessible medical care Mr Morrison, who was in Fremantle to unveil a $124 million investment in two new Evolved Cape Class patrol boats, ruled out future cuts to Medicare The prime minister was forced to clarify comments about the JobSeeker rate. During his press conference on Monday, Mr Morrison said the rate was $46 a week, when the unemployment benefit was $46 a day. When questioned about it, Mr Morrison said he had misspoke. During the first week of the campaign, the prime minister had attacked the opposition leader for failing to name the unemployment rate. Mr Morrison will spend two days in WA before heading to Brisbane for the first leaders' debate with Mr Albanese. The prime minister also unveiled a plan for first-time homeowners who can't put together the minimum 20 per cent deposit themselves. From July 1 they would be able to secure a government-funded guarantee for homes valued at up to $150,000 more than the current cap. With the polls pointing to a potential hung parliament, Mr Morrison was asked whether he would rule out a deal with so-called 'climate independents' who are largely challenging sitting Liberal MPs. 'A vote for those independents is a vote for uncertainty, a vote for instability,' he said. Harry and Meghan's bodyguard spent 14 years in the secret service keeping George Bush and Barack Obama safe after Clint Eastwood thriller In The Line Of Fire inspired him. Houston-born Christopher Sanchez has been spotted at the Sussexes side throughout their visit to the Invictus Games at the Hague. His role has seen his advise and protect a number of different people - including even high-wealth oil and gas execs targeted by Greenpeace. As the son of a fireman, Mr Sanchez was no stranger to service and had originally joined the Texan city's police force after leaving school and university. But after three years working as a patrol officer in some of the community's toughest areas he finally achieved the long-held dream that drove him since childhood. It had been 1993 when the teenager watched the thriller where Clint Eastwood took on John Malkovich's evil character as he tried to assassinate the president. Something in the film further stirred the young Mr Sanchez's sense of duty and less than a decade later he had taken on the film hero's real life job. He recalled: 'When I was still in High School when I watched the movie In The Line Of Fire with Clint Eastwood. 'I was enamoured with the whole secret service mantra and the mystique of the secret service. Secret service agent Christopher Sanchez with Barack Obama in Moneygall, Ireland, in 2011 Mr Sanchez looks over as Meghna and Harry greet a fan, who has a cuddly toy in her hand Clint Eastwood staring in the film In The Line Of Fire inspired Mr Sanchez to the Secret Service 'I applied and wanted to become a special agent. That was the only government agency I applied for, it was the only one I wanted to work for. I spent 14 great years as a special agent. Speaking to the Always Moving Forward podcast - presented by former British soldier Glen Burton - he spoke of how it had transformed his life. Mr Sanchez - now the Vice President of security firm TorchStone Global - said the job had been tough but an incredible honour. He said: 'I spent five years on the presidents details and I was lucky enough to be there during a transition, so I spent the last two-and-a-half years with President Bush and the first two-and-a-half years of President Obama. I was just grateful to be a part of it. When you get up to the actual details its such a grind that from a mental standpoint and from a physical standpoint it takes a toll on you. Thats the reason why they cycle gents out after four-and-a-half years. Before then the only place I had travelled to was Mexico. When I went up to the secret service that was my footprint and my way into international travel. In the secret service one of the big things is that you get the job done no matter what it takes. You get to invite the family to a Christmas party in the White House. The Duchess of Sussex being shadowed by Christopher Sanchez, a former bodyguard to President Obama Sanchez spent five years as part of the US Secret Service, spending two-and-a-half years each with Barack Obama and George W Bush Meghan getting into a Land Rover Defender at the Invictus Games with Sanchez - a former Secret Service agent - following behind You take pictures with the president, the family and whatnot. About the fourth time we were going my youngest son and youngest daughter go Dad do we have go to the White House again?!"' Pictures of the Obamas on official visits - including to Ireland - show Mr Sanchez clearly visible and in a commanding role. In one image he can be seen hand resting on the president's The Beast car awaiting for the principal to return to the vehicle. But he appears to have turned to private security after spending two years in the field office post his White House detail. He said he joined Torchstone after a family friend approached him when the firm was going to expand in 'risk mitigation in the oil and gas industry in Houston'. Harry and Meghan have spoken out against the same sector and have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint But due to their nature as private security, Torchstone works with a number of individuals and companies. Mr Sanchez added in the interview: In working with entertainers the advance work and intelligence work are huge, as well as the guys on your team. When you start working with private families maybe not well-known but maybe high net individuals, the intelligence aspect becomes more important. Where are we travelling? Where are we going? Whats taking place on social media? What kind of assessment can we do to make these guys safe? Theres somebody who knows who you area. There is an activist group that is going to be targeting you in some aspect. If you are oil and gas or if you do pipelines on the ocean or something, Greenpeace are always going to be on you. Thats something you have to be prepared for. One of the things that we always talk about is we have to make out clients look good as they are performing. As we supplement executive protection teams, we have to make out clients look good, thats one of the major roles we take pride in. How do we make that client look exceptional in front of their supervisors, in front of their company, in front of their business. Schoolchildren using the internet for their history homework are being sucked into far-right propaganda, extremist content and Holocaust denial, teachers have warned. Rachel Minto, a member of the NASUWT teacher's union, told its annual conference in Birmingham on Monday that extreme far-right material could be accessed by pupils '24/7 with a few swipes of your phone'. 'More worryingly, children can accidentally come across this material whilst innocently researching for school projects,' she said. 'A Google search on the Holocaust can bring up information provided by a Holocaust denier as easily as legitimate or sound historical documentation,' she told the conference. Ms Minto said research showed 'children's access to social media and smartphones means they are more at risk of being exposed to extremist material than ever before', with time spent online increasing exponentially during the pandemic. 'Gone are the days when far-right information and propaganda was confined to the back rooms of seedy pubs and clubs,' she said. Rachel Minto, a member of the NASUWT teacher's union, told its annual conference in Birmingham on Monday that extreme far-right material could be accessed by pupils '24/7 with a few swipes of your phone' (stock image) Ms Minto said she was 'increasingly alarmed and appalled by the gradual normalisation of far-right views'. She added that a lack of challenge to these views by some politicians and the media 'is filtering into the psyche of our schools and into the homes of our pupils'. 'This is intensified by the Government's continued attack on what they have termed the woke agenda and their reluctance to rally behind Black Lives Matter,' she added. Teachers at the conference voted for the union to lobby governments to invest in new international education programmes to promote diversity, and to produce training for members to help them challenge far-right nationalism. NASUWT member Candida Mellow said she was 'appalled and sickened' by the far right, and that as a teacher of French she was horrified that a 'cloaked neo-Nazi' was standing for the French presidency. 'As a result of Brexit, we have lost a lot of our cross-border links and education programmes, and therefore the possibility of our young people to experience cultural differences,' she said. 'We also need to actively educate our students about online infiltration of far-right messages. These insidious organisations use subtle tactics to indoctrinate very vulnerable children.' Union member Nicholas Tones said that around seven years ago he had noticed that one of the accounts following his English department's Twitter account, belonging to a pupil's parent, consisted only of retweets of far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson. He reported this as a concern under the Prevent strategy. 'From the feedback that I sought afterwards, it seems there was a considerable delay by both the designated officer and the local authority in processing this concern and acting upon it, because, to misquote the late, great Sir Alec Guinness, this is not the radicalisation we're looking for.' He said those running Prevent had 'evolved somewhat' since then, but only in the context of an increasingly 'toxic and polarised' political environment. Another NASUWT member, Judith Bruce-Golding, who is black, said she had grown up on an estate which was the home of the National Front, and she had seen her sisters return from a school disco with ripped clothes after being chased by racists. 'My sister came home in a bra, because they had been chased it was a tough time. 'When we think about anti-far right initiatives, to me it goes back to what gives people the right to look at someone else and think that they can go into their boundaries, and it made me think about, 'What have you been taught?'' Ms Minto said research showed 'children's access to social media and smartphones means they are more at risk of being exposed to extremist material than ever before', with time spent online increasing exponentially during the pandemic (stock image) She said this had made her realise 'how much power we have as teachers to include and build that sense of belonging for all of those children who are different in that space'. She said the union needed to discuss what it meant to decolonise a curriculum and undermine the far-right initiatives that 'may be embedded in our curriculum'. Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said the union was 'alarmed by the incidence of far-right extremism and hate crimes in the UK'. 'Over the last decade, the Government has peddled a hostile environment agenda which has created the conditions for hatred to flourish,' he added. 'Official numbers of reported hate crimes have risen to more than 124,000 a year across England and Wales. 'Nearly three-quarters of these hate crimes were racially motivated increasing by 12% in just a year.' Dr Roach added that 'schools are not immune, as children and young people are often exposed to hate speech on social media and elsewhere'. He said more needed to be done to address the problem of extremist views in schools. 'Concerted Government-level action is urgently needed to support schools in tackling the problem and to support pupils and teachers who have been targeted and victimised,' he said. 'Anti-racism must be central to the curriculum and schools and colleges must also be supported and equipped to provide a curriculum that challenges all forms of bigotry, prejudice and hatred.' The sister of Shaun Pinner, one of two British fighters being held by Russian forces after being captured in Ukraine, has hinted that his family has been in discussions about a prisoner swap. Cassandra Pinner, 43, confirmed earlier today that Shaun's family is aware he has appeared in Russian videos asking for a prisoner exchange, after releasing a statement last night petitioning Russian forces to treat Shaun well in captivity. Shaun and Aiden Aslin, who had been serving in the Ukrainian marines, were captured by Putin's troops in the city of Mariupol last week and were dragged on state TV today to ask for a prisoner swap for Kremlin ally Viktor Medvedchuk. 'We have been made aware that Shaun is in another video asking for a prisoner exchange,' Cassandra said today. 'A prisoner exchange is a move that is being considered, not necessarily with Viktor Medvedchuk, but it's something being discussed.' Medvedchuk - known both as the 'prince of darkness' and Putin's 'grey cardinal' - is one of Ukraine's richest men and the Russian strongman's closest political ally in the country, having helped exert Kremlin pressure in influential circles in Kyiv. The tycoon - worth an estimated 480million - was re-arrested in Kyiv last week while allegedly trying to flee the country, having escaped from house arrest during the early days of the war. Pinner and Aslin spoke after being prompted by an unidentified man who showed them the footage of Medvedchuk's wife begging for his freedom, and were almost certainly speaking under duress. A Home Office source condemned 'the exploitation of prisoners of war for political purposes.' Shaun Pinner (left) and Aiden Aslin (right), Britons serving in the Ukrainian marines who have now been captured by Russia, appeared on state TV today An unidentified man showed Pinner a video of Viktor Medvedchuk's wife begging for his release, before Pinner appealed to Boris Johnson to facilitate the swap The same man also showed the video to Aslin, who also requested a prisoner swap for Medvedchuk - who is Putin's closest ally in Ukraine 'I understand the situation,' Pinner, who looked tired and nervous, said after being shown the video in which Oksana Marchenko appealed directly to families of Aslin and Pinner to pressure Johnson to act. Pinner, who appeared to be speaking without a script, said: 'I'd like to appeal to the government to send me back home, I'd like to see my wife again. 'We look to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin for Mr Medvedchuk. Obviously I would really appreciate your help in this matter.' Pinner also delivered a message to his wife, telling her 'I love you', while also insisting that he is being taken care of by Russian troops. The unidentified man was then shown speaking to Aslin, who was sat on a chair wearing a T-shirt bearing the emblem of Ukraine's far-right Azov battalion, in a different location. 'I think that Boris needs to listen to what Oksana (Medvedchuk's wife) has said,' said Aslin, who also looked nervous. 'If Boris Johnson really does care about British citizens like he says he does then he will help.' Appearing to speak from a script, he also described the actions of Ukrainian troops in Mariupol - accusing them of kidnapping and arresting civilians. There is no way to confirm the information, which is similar to previous denunciations that Aslin has been forced to make on camera. Oksana Medvedchuk's appeal was posted to YouTube on Satruday, in a direct appeal to the British Prime Minister to try and persuade his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to exchange Medvedchuk for the two British prisoners. 'Dear Mr Prime Minister Johnson,' she said. 'I appeal to you for help in exchanging my husband, who was illegally detained by Kyiv authorities for political reasons and false accusations for citizens of your country Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner who surrendered to the armed forces of the Russian Federation in Mariupol. 'Mr Prime Minister, you have a great influence of President Zelensky, if you are not indifferent to the fate of your subjects, help their family and friends return Aiden and Shaun help me return Victor. I am grateful for your attention.' Separately, Ukraine's SBU intelligence service released a video of Medvedchuk who asked to be swapped too. Medvedchuk addressed Putin and Zelensky, asking to be exchanged for the defenders of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and any civilians allowed to leave. Pinner and Aslin spoke after being prompted by an unidentified man who showed them the footage of Medvedchuk's wife - Oksana - begging for his freedom, and were almost certainly speaking under duress. Pictured: The footage the British prisoners were shown Aiden Aslin Born: 1994, Newark-on-Trent Worked as: Care worker Combat experience: Travelled to Syria in 2015 to fight for the Kurds in a western-backed alliance against ISIS He made headlines on his return to the UK in 2016 when he was arrested, charged with terrorism offences, and then kept on bail until all charges were dropped following protests Aslin then returned to Syria in 2017 to help in the fight to re-take the city of Raqqa, which had been the de-facto capital of ISIS's terror-state Journey to Ukraine: After being arrested in the UK a second time trying to return from Syria via Greece, Aslin moved to Ukraine after falling for a woman from the city of Mykolaiv Having heard about Ukraine's fight against Russia in Donbas from Ukrainian volunteers in Syria, he was persuaded to join the military and in 2018 signed up as a marine Aslin completed three tours of the frontline and was dug into trenches in the Donbas in late February when Putin's troops stormed across the border in a second invasion He ended up falling back to the nearby city of Mariupol where he fought for weeks under siege, before being captured last week after his unit ran out of ammunition Advertisement Shaun Pinner Born: 1974, Bedfordshire Worked as: A British Army veteran, having served for years in the Royal Anglian regiment Combat experience: Fought 'many' tours including in northern Ireland, according to his family, who said he also served with United Nations missions in Bosnia Journey to Ukraine: Pinner moved to Ukraine in 2018 which he made his 'adopted home' and decided to put his military training to use fighting Russian-backed rebels in the country's eastern Donbas He became engaged to a Ukrainian woman and worked his way into the marines, where he had been serving for the last two years Pinner's three-year contract with the marines was due to end at the end of this year, his family said, when he wanted to become a humanitarian worker in the country Pinner was helping to defend the frontlines in Donbas when Putin's invasion began on February 24 His unit of marines ended up hooking up with the Azov Battalion - members of the national guard with links to neo-Nazis - who were defending the city of Mariupol from the Russians He was captured in Mariupol last week and paraded on state TV Advertisement Ukraine released a video of Viktor Medvedchuk - a pro-Russian politician under arrest in Kyiv - begging for his freedom around the same time the video of Aslin and Pinner emerged Medvedchuk (left) is known as the 'prince of darkness' and Putin's 'grey cardinal' because of his close ties to the Kremlin and years of advocating on Russia's behalf in Ukraine Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's 'prince of darkness' Viktor Medvedchuk is a hugely controversial figure in Ukraine because of his close ties to Moscow. Known in Ukraine as the 'prince of darkness' or 'grey cardinal' - meaning a shadowy political player - he claims to be so close to Putin that the Russian leader is godfather to his youngest daughter, Darya. A businessman who amassed his fortune through investments in the media, natural resources and energy, Medvedchuk rose through the political ranks at a time when Ukraine was known for backroom deals and corruption. As a close ally of Putin, Medvedchuk entered parliament in the late 1990s and for three years in the early 2000s was head of the presidential administration. Known as a power-broker between Kyiv and Moscow, he was courted variously by pro-Russian Ukrainian leaders who wanted closer ties and pro-Western governments who hoped to make use of his access to the Kremlin. Medvedchuk was a bitter critic of the Euromaidan protests which erupted in late 2013 and ended with the toppling of political ally Viktor Yanukovych - a pro-Russian politician who fled the country after his brutal repression of the protests failed. After Putin invaded Ukraine, seized Crimea, and backed breakaway governments in the Donbas region in 2014, Medvedchuk was appointed negotiator on behalf of the breakaway regions in talks with the government. He was also sanctioned by the US for his alleged role in the annexation of Crimea. He had been under house arrest since 2021 on treason charges over accusations that he tried to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea and hand Ukrainian military secrets to Moscow. Advertisement Three days after Russia moved its forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukraine said Medvedchuk had escaped from house arrest. He had been placed under house arrest in May 2021 and charged with high treason and later with aiding terrorism. The pro-Russian figure, who says Putin is godfather to his daughter, has denied wrongdoing. Zelensky had proposed to exchange Medvedchuk, 67, for Ukrainians currently being held in Russia. Asked about a potential exchange last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Medvedchuk was 'not a Russian citizen' and said he did not know if he wanted Moscow to interfere in his case. On Monday, Peskov promised to 'communicate' any response to the idea from Putin. Pinner is a British Army veteran who served with the Royal Anglians before marrying a Ukrainian woman. He subsequently enlisted in the Ukrainian marines. Aslin is a former care worker who went to Syria in 2015 to fight for Kurdish forces, who were leading a western-backed coalition in the war against ISIS. After two tours of Syria, Aslin - who has Ukrainian citizenship - became a member of the country's military and ended up serving in the marines. Both he and Pinner were guarding trenches in Ukraine's east when war with Russia broke out in late February, and ended up joining the defence of the nearby city of Mariupol when it was surrounded and besieged by Putin's men. Aslin, who tweeted under the name 'Cossackgundi', was captured first - with family members using his Twitter account to say he had been forced to surrender after running out of ammunition. He was subsequently pictured in detention by Russian troops, having apparently been beaten across his face. Pinner was then reported captured at the weekend, and was paraded in front of TV cameras for the first time on Saturday. 'I am Shaun Pinner. I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. I was captured in Mariupol,' he told the camera. 'I am part of 36th brigade, 1st Battalion Ukrainian Marine. I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and now I am in the Donetsk People's Republic.' Shaun Pinner, 48, was serving as a Marine in Ukraine, defending the key strategic port of Mariupol On Sunday, Mr Pinner's family released a statement in response to his capture, explaining how he became involved in the defence of Ukraine against the Russian invasion while calling for Shaun's Russian captors to adhere to the Geneva Convention's regulations regarding the treatment of POWs. 'Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia,' the statement read. 'In 2018 Shaun decided to re-locate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine Military. 'Shaun enjoyed the Ukrainian way of life and considered Ukraine as his adopted country over the last four years. During this time, he met his Ukrainian wife who is very focussed on the humanitarian needs of the country. 'He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit. At the end of 2022 his 3 year contract is due to end and he was planning to enter a humanitarian role within Ukraine.' The statement continued: 'We would like to make it clear he is not a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian Legislation. 'Our family is currently working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin who is also being held by the Russian Army to ensure their rights as Prisoners Of War are upheld according to the Geneva Convention. 'Shaun is a funny, much loved well intentioned Husband, Son, Father, Brother and Friend to many. We are hoping for a quick resolution to allow Shaun and Aiden to return safely to their families and we ask for privacy at this difficult time. 'Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this horrific conflict.' Pinner served with the Royal Anglians and enlisted in the Marines in Ukraine after marrying his wife Larysa (pictured right), who is from the country He reportedly told his Russians captors that 'he doesn't want war and wants to go home' Since both men were enlisted in the regular Ukrainian military before surrendering, they are protected by the Geneva Convention which states they should not be mistreated or abused. However, Russian state media has described both men as foreign mercenaries - meaning soldiers who are not part of an official military - which has sparked fears the pair have been or will be tortured. Angela Wood, Aiden's mother, has already spoken of her fear that her son will be abused - telling Sky News: He's not a mercenary, he's not a volunteer, he did not go out there in the last month and think 'I'm going to fight, I'm going to get glory.' 'He has been out there four years and he is a legitimate Ukrainian marine.' Shannon Tinegate, Mr Aslin's sister, told the channel that she spoke with him in Mariupol shortly before he surrendered and he did not have any of the facial injuries he was seen with on TV. Medvedchuk is a hugely controversial figure because of his close ties to Moscow. He claims to be so close to Putin that the Russian leader is godfather to his youngest daughter, Darya. A businessman who amassed his fortune through investments in the media, natural resources and energy, Medvedchuk rose through the political ranks at a time when Ukraine was known for backroom deals and corruption. As a close ally of Putin, Medvedchuk entered parliament in the late 1990s and for three years in the early 2000s was head of the presidential administration. Aiden Aslin is pictured in military gear. Born in Newark in 1994, he worked as a care worker before deciding to join the YPG, the US-backed militia which had spearheaded the fight against ISIS in Syria, to fight jihadists in 2015 Aiden Aslin smiles for the camera. He was persuaded of Ukraine's cause against Russia and moved to the country in 2018 Aiden Aslin is pictured circled left in this image taken from social media in Ukraine Oksana Marchenko, the wife of jailed oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, held a press conference last week begging for her husband to be released Known as a power-broker between Kyiv and Moscow, he was courted variously by pro-Russian Ukrainian leaders who wanted closer ties and pro-Western governments who hoped to make use of his access to the Kremlin. Medvedchuk was a bitter critic of the Euromaidan protests which erupted in late 2013 and ended with the toppling of political ally Viktor Yanukovych - a pro-Russian politician who fled the country after his brutal repression of the protests failed. After Putin invaded Ukraine, seized Crimea, and backed breakaway governments in the Donbas region in 2014, Medvedchuk was appointed negotiator on behalf of the breakaway regions in talks with the government. He was also sanctioned by the US for his alleged role in the annexation of Crimea. He had been under house arrest since 2021 on treason charges over accusations that he tried to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea and hand Ukrainian military secrets to Moscow. Speaking on Wednesday, Zelensky offered Medvedchuk in a prisoner swap deal. 'I propose to the Russian Federation to exchange this guy of yours for our boys and our girls who are now in Russian captivity,' the president said in a video address posted on Telegram in the early hours of the morning. 'And may Medvedchuk be an example for you. Even the former oligarch did not escape. What can we say about much simpler criminals from the Russian hinterland? We will get everyone.' On Tuesday night, Zelensky posted a picture online of a dishevelled-looking Medvedchuk with his hands in cuffs and dressed in a Ukrainian army uniform. 'A special operation was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine. Well done!' Zelensky wrote on Telegram, announcing Medvedchuk's capture. Security agency chief Ivan Bakanov said agents had carried out a 'lightning-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation to detain' the Russia-friendly lawmaker and leader of the 'Opposition Platform - For Life' party. Chilling video shows Putin's Tu-95 nuclear bombers flying near Ukrainian border as Russian rockets kill at least six in Lviv Vladimir Putin sent up strategic nuclear-capable bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the calamitous sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea last week. Videos from today and Saturday caught four of the aircraft - used to carry nuclear bombs - over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine. The Defence Ministry in Moscow had not immediately announced the purpose of the mission. The Tu-95s have been used a number of times to strike targets in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons, notably Kh-55 and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. The super-loud Tu-95 is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today, and the plane first flew 70 years ago. Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine Five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began. Pictured: Locals watch on as firefighters battle a blaze after a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile on April 18, Lviv Pictured: Smoke rises after 5 aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 Putin has deployed the Tu-95s to buzz Britain at moments of high tension, for example in February this year when the Royal Air Force scrambled Typhoon fighters to escort two Bears off northern Scotland. In February, ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on high alert, and threatened NATO allies with 'consequences greater than any you have faced in history' should they intervene in the Ukraine conflict. The show of force came as five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes left at least seven people dead and eleven more injured in Lviv early Monday, the regional governor has said, as multiple Russian attacks rocked Ukraine overnight. The strikes were a rare fatal attack on the city 40 miles from the border with Poland that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began almost two months ago, on February 24. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. Videos from today and Saturday caught four of the aircraft - used to carry nuclear bombs - over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine. In Lviv, footage showed plumes of thick, black smoke rising over the city after a series of explosions shattered windows and started fires, while one video filmed by a civilian appeared to show a cruise missile flying overhead. MARIUPOL: Tanks of pro-Russian troops drive along a road during Ukraine-Russia conflict near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 MARIUPOL: A view shows a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 Firefighters at work in the immediate aftermath of a Russian shelling in Kharkiv, 17 April 2022 'At the moment, we are able to confirm that seven people have died. We also know that 11 people are injured. A child is among them,' the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said in an update on the strikes on social media. 'Three victims are in critical condition,' he added. A hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting further east was among the buildings badly damaged in overnight missile strikes, according to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who put the toll at six dead and 11 wounded. 'The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,' said Lyudmila Turchak, 47, who fled with two children from the eastern city Kharkiv. 'There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.' Two people also died and four were wounded in Monday attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk - regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said - and an air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital Kyiv. In the country's second city of Kharkiv, at least five people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes just 13 miles from the Russian border. Russia's defence ministry said its forces had destroyed four arms and military equipment depots in Ukraine overnight with Iskander missiles, and hit 315 Ukrainian targets in total overnight, the TASS news agency reported. The military said missiles struck more than 20 military targets across Ukraine overnight - including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. Meanwhile, it said warplanes conducted 108 strikes on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims couldn't be independently verified. A view of graves for people killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at a cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 18 The coffin of Roman Vered, 53, who according to his family was killed by Russian soldiers and recently identified in Kyiv's morgue, is seen before his burial, as a gravedigger drinks water amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 18, 2022 However, according to Euan MacDonald - a reporter for the New Voice of Ukraine - one of the Lviv strikes hit a tire servicing centre, and another landed near a railway station. He said it appeared Russia was trying to stop the flow of western weapons being delivered to Ukraine to bolster its resistance. Russia has insisted it is not targeting civilians in its invasion - despite thousands of deaths and mounting evidence on the contrary. On April 1, a double-Russian missile strike hit Kramatorsk train station, killing dozens of evacuees. The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to 'destroy' the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the remaining forces in Mariupol prepared Monday for a final defence. Monday also saw reports of a Ukrainian counter-attack near the eastern city of Izyum, close to the Russian border and where Moscow's forces are said to be building up in preparation for an assault on Donbas. Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the country's ability to resist a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland. General Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News the strikes were part of a 'softening-up' campaign by Russia ahead of a planned ground offensive in the Donbas. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, after its attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, failed. 'We are doing everything to ensure the defense' of eastern Ukraine, Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation on Sunday. Feature: Former Australian diplomat's memory, wishes for better China-Australia relationship Xinhua) 09:46, April 18, 2022 CANBERRA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian arts patron and former diplomat Carrillo Gantner has described himself as a "panda hugger," and put his memories of China into a book. "I wanted to express some frustration and disappointment that the excellent relationship that we had with China, which has been worked on and developed by so many good people on both sides for over 40 years ... has collapsed in the last several years," he told Xinhua. A professional actor and director who had been the Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China in the 1980s, and an Adjunct Professor at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University, the 77-year-old was dearly known as Lao Gan by his Chinese friends. During the past half a century, Gantner witnessed many events marking friendship between China and Australia. He was involved in the negotiation on bringing two pandas from China to Australia, and directed a play for the Shanghai People's Art Theater "Xiang Ru Fei Fei", or A Stretch of the Imagination, which was performed by famous Chinese actor Wei Zongwan. In retrospect, he said that culture, in all dimensions including performing arts, visual arts, education, language, history and sports, brings people more closely together. "It teaches them about the other," he said. "When you know something about the other, people are less fearful. It reminds people that we share a common humanity, and a desire to live in peace and friendship." "So cultural exchanges can remove the politics and let us deal at a human level directly and openly," he added. Gantner makes no effort to conceal his love for Chinese culture, as traditional Chinese painting scrolls and sculpture of contemporary Chinese artist could be found easily in his Melbourne office. His wife Ziyin was daughter of the late President of the China National Theater for Children Fang Jufen, and he has almost visited China every year. He noted that during the past several years cultural exchanges between China and Australia were seriously affected as well, not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by the current relationship between the two countries. "There's little happening and I feel frustrated and sad," he said, adding that only five or six years ago, these cultural exchanges were vibrant. He wrote to his friends in China, and both sides believed that China and Australia have to come to new understanding. So in his books he offered suggestions in this respect. "Firstly, we need to take a longer term view of the relationship," he said, before explaining that Australia worked through short electoral cycles, and it's three years officially between elections. "So governments take a short term view," he said. "They're trying to appeal for short term electoral advantage and for votes in this country ... So they sometimes say things that are not helpful to the relationship." Secondly, he believed that "a level of courtesy and respect that is due between countries has not always been shown", and called for having discussions in more productive ways such as senior level meetings or through diplomats. He noted in his new book that sometimes Australian interests were not identical to those of the United States, and described Australia's current position as "America's shoeshine boy in the South Pacific." "I personally would be much happier if Australia had a more independent foreign policy," said the author. Also, he said that if Australia was critical of China, it should be consistent, not just singling out one country for criticism. His other suggestions include increasing financial support for academic scholarship in terms of studies on China and developing Chinese language skill at all levels of education, as well as more personal connection of officials. "When I was at the embassy in the mid 1980s, Bob Hawke, the (then) prime minister, came twice during my three years there, and the Chinese leadership were coming to Australia regularly," said Gantner. "So there was a very strong personal basis for the relationship. That sort of strong personal connection is immensely valuable." The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Australia. "We should celebrate that in a big way," said the former diplomat, regarding the anniversary as an opportunity to "reach new agreements and open new doors." For instance, he said that a group of senior people in the performing arts from the major art centers and the major Australian festivals could be sent back to China. People from other areas could get involved as well. One of his children was a senior ICU doctor at a major hospital in Melbourne, which, a few years ago, reached an exchange agreement with a hospital in Shenzhen of South China's Guangdong Province. His son used to visit Shenzhen to help train doctors, and Gantner believed he would be happy to go again. Despite the difficulties right now, the senior artist was optimistic. "Ups and downs are always in any bilateral relationship, but generally, it (the China-Australia relationship) was enormously positive for this country, and I like to think for China also to enjoy it," Gantner said. "It's only in a very short space of time really that the relationship has gone off the rails," he continued. "If it can go off the rails quickly, I hope it can get back on the rails quickly as well." (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) The party will relentlessly pursue those responsible for driving Sai Ganesh to his death. (Representational Image) HYDERABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday renewed its demand for a CBI probe into death by suicide of its Khammam activist S Sai Ganesh. The party will relentlessly pursue those responsible for driving Sai Ganesh to his death. The BJP legal cell will visit Khammam on Tuesday on a fact-finding mission into the circumstances that led Srinivas to take the extreme step. The legal cell team will also visit Ramayampet where a mother and son Gangam Padma, and Gangam Santosh had committed suicide in a lodge in Kamareddy town blaming local TRS leader and Ramayampet municipal chairman Jithendar Goud, and six others for pushing them to death. These decisions were taken at a meeting attended by state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the partys legal cell convener Ravindra Vishwanath, joint convener Rama Rao, senior advocates Anthony Reddy, N Namoji, Karuna Sagar, Krishna Rao, Aravind Reddy, and Shashidhar Reddy. The meeting also condemned the series of attacks on BJP cadre by TRS leaders and harassment by police personnel. We are warning the police. They should act in an impartial manner. Otherwise, we will initiate legal action against police officials responsible for such attacks, Sanjay said. Police are searching an armed and dangerous felon that remains on the run after he and another convict escaped from a Virginia mental hospital on Easter. Austin Preston Leigh, 31, and Bryant Marcus Wilkerson, 29, broke out of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg on Sunday morning. It is unclear what the pair were being treated for there at the time. Leigh, who had outstanding drug-related charges, was apprehended by police in Chesapeake, about 60 miles away from the hospital, around 5.45pm and is currently being held without bond at the Chesapeake City Jail. Authorities say Wilkerson remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous. He is wanted on felony probation charges and a warrant for escaping from a mental hospital. Leigh told police he is unaware of his fellow escapee's current whereabouts. Austin Preston Leigh, 31, (left) and Bryant Marcus Wilkerson, 29, (right) broke out of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg on Sunday morning. Leigh was apprehended Sunday evening, however Wilkerson remains at large 'State and local police departments are still actively searching for Wilkerson, and still seeking the public's assistance in any information leading to his capture,' Virginia State Police Sgt. Michelle Anaya told WTVR. She encouraged anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact authorities. A Virginia-based legal analyst claims it is 'extremely rare' for people to escape a mental health hospital, especially a facility like Eastern State which was the first psychiatric hospital in America, dating back to 1773. 'Eastern State is one of the largest hospitals in the Commonwealth that is utilized for restoring people charged with crimes to a competent state to stand trial,' Ed Booth told WVEC. 'You wind up there because a judge has you evaluated as a defendant and the doctor has come back and said that this particular defendant is not competent to stand trial.' The pair escaped from Eastern State Hospital, the nation's first-ever psychiatric hospital. After being apprehended, Leigh told police he was unaware of Wilkerson's current whereabouts He also noted that people can also be sent to the facility on temporary orders if authorities deem they need a mental health examination. 'There are also people who are sent there on like temporary detention orders when someone is found that they need to be hospitalized but they're not charged with a crime,' the analysts explained. Eastern State Hospital, located about 50 miles outside of Richmond, is one of five state-run mental health facilities in Virginia. Last month a man escaped from Central State Hospital, about 30 miles from the state's capital city, for the second time in three years. The hospital houses the state's only maximum security mental health unit. Central State opened in 1870 and was the first psychiatric institution in the U.S. for black people. The facility became integrated in 1968. A man with a severe nut allergy was served them three times in a week by British Airways cabin crew despite warning they could kill him. Brodie Chapman, 19, was flying with the airline from London to Vancouver when he was served the potentially fatal foods. He said he told cabin crew on his flight to Canada that he was allergic to nuts but despite that he was given a bag of cashews shortly before takeoff and then a walnut cake during the flight. On his return flight, he said he needed to inject his Epi-pen after suffering an allergic reaction in mid-air when he ate fruit served on top of nut-filled granola. Brodie Chapman, 19, was served nuts by British Airways cabin crew three times in a week despite having a major allergy On his flight to Canada, Mr Chapman was given a bag of cashews (stock image) shortly before takeoff and then a walnut cake during the flight. On his return flight, he needed to inject his Epi-pen after suffering an allergic reaction in mid-air when he ate fruit served on top of nut-filled granola The travel manager, who said he informed British Airways of his allergy two days before flying and also told staff before boarding each flight, told the Sun on Sunday: 'I was in tears because no one seemed to be taking my condition seriously. 'It was terrifying. I kept telling staff I was allergic to nuts, yet they kept giving me them. If I'd eaten them, I would be dead.' British Airways said it had apologised to Mr Chapman and was discussing how to make it up to him. A spokesman for the airline told MailOnline: 'The safety of our customers is always our priority and were investigating how this could have happened. 'Weve been in contact to apologise and discuss how we can make it up to our customer. 'We hope this will go some way to restoring faith in British Airways and allow us to show the level of care we strive to provide for our customers.' Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, whose daughter Natasha was just 15 when she died on a British Airways flight to Nice in 2016 after having an allergic reaction to a Pret sandwich, said Mr Chapman's experience was a 'terrifying insight into the world of an allergy sufferer on a plane'. She added: 'When you are trapped 36,000 feet up and having a serious allergic reaction, that plane is potentially your coffin.' Following Natasha's death, Mrs Ednan-Laperouse and her husband Nadim set up the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, and campaigned for a change in the law which requires all food retailers to display full ingredient and allergen labelling on every food item made on the premises and pre-packed for direct sale. A 29-year-old man is being held on suspicion of trying to murder two police officers in the heart of Westminister. The suspect - who was armed with a knife - confronted two Ministry of Defence Police officers on Horse Guards Parade. He had to be Tasered and restrained before being arrested and detained on suspicion of attempted murder. The MOD referred all enquiries to the Met Police, who said the alleged attack was not being treated as terrorism-related. Shortly before 2.30pm police reopened Whitehall to traffic and pedestrians and the only sign of what had happened was blue tape outside the entrance to Horse Guards. Police at the scene in Westminster this morning after the man was arrested just after 8.30am A bomb disposal device was also seen, but there was no mention of it from police investigating One employee at a nearby souvenir stand said:' I heard a lot of noise and looked outside, and the police and army were on the street. 'They seemed to be looking at a bike that was nearby and someone said they were checking out a suspicious parcel on it. 'A while later one of those robots came down to look but you couldn't see very clearly what was happening as police had moved everyone back.' A waitress at Caffe Concerto which is close to the scene said:'We had only been open for an hour or so and had a few customers for breakfast when the police came in and told everyone to stay inside. Whitehall was cordoned off with police tape while detectives probed what had happened The scene in Whitehall after the police swopped on the scene two hours ago in central London 'They just said there had been an incident and it was safer to stay indoors but then ten minutes later they came back and told us everyone to leave because there was a suspicious package.' A number of government buildings and the MOD Main Building is at Horse Guards, as well as army barracks. The Met said: An investigation has been launched following an incident at Horse Guards Parade in Westminster on Monday morning. 'At around 8:50am, a 29-year-old man, who was armed with a knife, confronted two Ministry of Defence Police officers. 'Taser was deployed and the man was restrained by officers. There were no reports of any injuries. 'He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of an offensive weapon and remains in custody at a central London police station. 'The incident is not being treated as terror-related. 'An investigation is under way. Met officers will continue to liaise closely with the Ministry of Defence Police as it progresses. Anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has other information which could assist officers, is asked to call 101, providing the reference 1730/18APR. Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. A Sheriff in Oregon has called for urgent solutions to violent crimes as offenses including murder soared 30 per cent in a year after the city's council cut the police budget by $15million in 2020. Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese warned in an open letter published on Friday that 'without action, we can expect worse to come' as he said 'the data reflects... record-high levels of gun violence, traffic fatalities and overdose deaths'. The liberal Pacific Northwest 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. But the state capital is on track to tie or surpass the record in 2022 with 25 homicides reported in in January, February and March this year - the same number for the period in 2021. It comes despite Portland City Council's decision in November to refund the police service, adding back $5.2million to the force's budget after more than $15million was cut in 2020. Reese works in Multnomah County, a police district encompassing much of Portland city and rural communities up to the state border with Washington. Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese has called for urgent solutions to violent crimes as offenses including murder soared 30 per cent in a year after the city's council cut the police budget by $15million in 2020 Reese wrote that at the start of the month, there were 102 people being held in Multnomah Country jails on murder-related charges - the highest number since the mid-1990s. 'This is not the only serious threat to public safety, however,' he wrote. 'Record-high levels of traffic fatalities and overdose deaths are jeopardizing personal safety and devastating families and social support networks.' Robberies have increased 56 per cent year-on-year, rising from 234 in January to March 2021 to 366 for the same period in 2022. Similar rises took place in drug crime numbers which rose 30 per cent this year up 146 in 2022 on 108 in 2021 and assault cases which were up six per cent year-on-year. Reese called for 'urgent action' and pointed to the rise in the number of people held in County jails on serious charges - up to around 370 in 2021 from less than 330 in 2020. He said a response should be 'collective' and 'include a wide umbrella of programs and services from across the community' - and listed five possible solutions. 'Increase gun dispossession efforts and remove firearms from individuals prohibited by law from possessing them. 'Engage in focused traffic enforcement in high-crash corridors to reduce reckless and impaired driving. Base the deployment strategy on time-of-day and day-of-the-week when traffic fatalities and gun violence are most likely to occur and overlap. 'Create and fully staff multi-disciplinary teams of responders using our successful Homeless Outreach & Programs Engagement (HOPE) team model to address livability concerns. 'Increase accessibility to funding for neighborhood and community groups helping to reduce justice-involvement among youth and communities of color. 'Increase resources for specialty teams, similar to MCSOs Special Investigations Unit, focused on investigating criminal organizations that are flooding the community with illegal firearms, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl.' The Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations after Portland politicians embraced calls to defund the police. A total of $15million was initially chopped from the city's budget, with progressive Portland prosecutors also blamed for the spiraling crime for refusing to charge 70 percent of people arrested by the city's police. The record violence comes despite the police department introducing 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 per cent of victims are killed through gun violence. The unit was initially met with backlash, as some believed the police were reviving the Gun Violence Reduction team, which was accused of racial profiling, but Police Chief Chuck Lovell assured the public the team would focus on guns, not gangs. The holistic approach has yet to yield results. In addition to the surging murder rate, the city has also seen a significant number of shootings in the first two months of the year, totaling 264, up from the 190 during the same time last year. Gun-related injuries are also up - 68 compared to 64. Portland saw a dramatic increase in shootings and murders after Floyd's death. The city saw a 250 percent increase in murders within the first six months of Floyd's death and shootings rose almost 175 per cent. In 2019, there were only 36 murders throughout Portland, but that increased to 57 in 2020 and 92 in 2021 - breaking the historical record. Violent crime has risen across the board throughout the Rose City, with assaults, kidnappings and rape all seeing sharp increases. The total number of crimes rose from 9,600 in 2020 to 10,200 in 2021, an almost six percent increase. Tony Blair has called for seven in 10 young people to go to university - saying a rise from 53 per cent to 70 per cent is key to the UK competing with 'high-innovation economies' like South Korea and Japan. The former Prime Minister, 68, set a target of 50 per cent during his leadership in 1999 amid concern from critics that it would lead to those with low academic ability undertaking unsuitable courses. There were also questions over whether the graduate job market could support so many people, with a large number of students ending up in non-professional jobs. But Blair now wants to see the figures rise further over the next two decades to tackle the UK's productivity crisis. It would see the number of young people in further education increase to 60 per cent by 2030 and up to 70 per cent by 2040, The Times reports. Analysis in a report by the Tony Blair Institute this week has found that reaching the figure would boost the economy by five per cent over the next generation by 'significantly' increasing the rate of productivity growth. Record numbers of students were accepted into their first choice university in August last year, despite Covid significantly impacting results, while the UK reached the 50 per cent landmark for the first time in 2019. Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of The Sutton Trust, warned the taxpayer would end up footing the bill for a lot of student loans as he said 'too many kids are going to university'. Celebrity chef Raymond Blanc also said students would be 'better off' applying for apprenticeship schemes. Tony Blair (pictured) set a target of 50 per cent in 1999 amid concern from critics that it would lead to those with low academic ability undertaking unsuitable courses Record numbers of students were accepted into their first choice university in August last year, despite Covid significantly impacting results He said: 'Mr Tony Blair is saying that seven out of 10 teenagers should go to university. I say that as many would do better to sign for an apprentiship (sic). Never so many crafts, industries have been so short of staff definately (sic) true to our industry.' But the targets do have the backing of Lord Johnson - brother of the Prime Minister and the former universities minister. In a foreword to the report, he said: 'We still don't have enough highly skilled individuals to fill many vacancies today. And as we continue to mature as a knowledge economy, more jobs will be generated in sectors that disproportionately employ graduates. 'High-innovation economies, like South Korea, Japan and Canada, understand this and have boosted higher education; participation rates in these countries are already 60 per cent and 70 per cent.' The new report also says the government are sceptical over the importance of higher education, with former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson previously describing Blair's 50 per cent target as an 'absurd mantra'. The report adds: 'The country faces a set of profound economic challenges in the years ahead that will require many more highly skilled workers possessing a combination of the technical and "soft" skills that higher education is best able to provide.' The report has the backing of Jo Johnson, brother of the Prime Minister, who says 'we still don't have enough highly skilled individuals to fill many vacancies today' Will Tanner, director of think tank Onward, said the target was misguided as half of students are ending up in non-graduate roles. David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, has also previously spoken out about encouraging students to opt for apprenticeships over degrees. He has also called for 'shift in culture' in which employers invest more in people. RIvert Halfon, Tory chairman of the Commons Education Select Committee, said there should instead be a 50 per cent target for students to do degree apprenticeships in which they can 'earn while you learn' with the 'guarantee to get a good job at the end'. Nicola Sturgeon escaped with a telling off from police today after being pictured without a mask on during an election trail stunt at the weekend. Scotland's First Minister was investigated by Police Scotland after being seen without a face cover during an SNP local election campaign visit to a barber shop on Saturday. While England dropped its mask mandate weeks ago, Scotland only removed the law requiring face coverings today. If found to have broken the law, Miss Sturgeon would face a 60 fixed penalty notice, and there were calls for her to quit if that happened - as she insisted Boris Johnson should have done after his Partygate fixed-penalty notice. But this afternoon, Police Scotland revealed that officers had spoken to the First Minister 'to remind her of the importance of wearing a face covering when there is a legal requirement to do so'. 'Given the circumstances of this incident, Police Scotland is satisfied that no further action is necessary. This is in line with our proportionate approach throughout the pandemic,' it said in a statement. Ms Sturgeon apologised this afternoon, saying: 'I accept that not wearing a face covering even for a few seconds was an error on my part and I am sorry for that.' She has been vocal this week in demanding that Boris Johnson quit after being handed a 50 fine for breaking his own Covid laws. And today Ms Sturgeon was facing similar demands. Now you see it: Nicola Sturgeon seen wearing a mask in the barber shop in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, on Saturday. The legal requirement to wear a face mask in indoor settings in Scotland moves into guidance today Now you don't! Ms Sturgeon without the covering as she poses for a picture with another customer First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been reported to the police after being seen not wearing a mask during a visit to a barbers in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, on Saturday Former Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne tweeted: 'Nicola Sturgeon is a very honourable lady and will do the right thing and show by example by resigning first thing tomorrow morning.' There was more controversy today after Scotland's chief medical officer Jason Leitch appeared to defend the First Minister, despite being a civil servant who is supposed to be impartial Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said: 'Sturgeon walked into a barbers without a mask, breaking the rules she's spent two years intoning at us from behind her podium. 'How's that ''Send Boris a message'' going? And former Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne tweeted: 'Nicola Sturgeon is a very honourable lady and will do the right thing and show by example by resigning first thing tomorrow morning.' There was more controversy today after Scotland's chief medical officer appeared to defend the First Minister, despite being a civil servant who is supposed to be impartial. Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, told Good Morning Scotland: 'My understanding is it was a matter of seconds. She realises the place is crowded, puts her face covering on. Which is actually what we're asking people to do. 'The guidance is if you are in a crowded area inadvertently or deliberately, then put a face covering on and that will protect you and others.' Scottish Conservative MSP Craig Hoy said it was inappropriate for a civil servant to defend the First Minister's actions. He said: 'These kinds of questions should be left to politicians to answer. Instead, SNP ministers are in hiding and Jason Leitch is blurring the lines between ministers and government officials. 'Mr Leitch is also misrepresenting the Covid laws as they stood when Nicola Sturgeon clearly broke them at the weekend. 'Face mask use was still in law until today but Mr Leitch backed up Nicola Sturgeon's excuse that she only had to put the mask on when in a crowded space. 'If the SNP had listened to us weeks ago and changed face mask rules from law to guidance, he and Nicola Sturgeon would have been correct. 'But they failed to do this and Mr Leitch should not be confusing the public, or doing the SNP's job for them, by trying to defend Nicola Sturgeon in this manner.' A video posted on social media appeared to show her not wearing a mask during a visit to a barber's in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, on Saturday. Police Scotland confirmed it had received a complaint and said it was being assessed. The SNP said the First Minister was invited into the barbers during an outdoor visit on the street. A party spokesman said: 'Within a few seconds, she realised she hadn't put her mask back on and immediately put it on.' Ms Sturgeon has previously said she is confident most people will continue to wear masks after the rules ease. People no longer have to wear face masks on public transport or in most indoor public spaces in Scotland from today. The Scottish Government is still strongly recommending people continue to don them where appropriate as Covid-19 continues to spread. Meanwhile people without symptoms of the virus are no longer being asked to take regular lateral flow tests as of April 18 as part of changes to the test and protect system. Free lateral flow devices (LFDs) for twice weekly routine testing are no longer available for the general population. However the tests will continue to be free for any purpose for which testing continues to be advised - for clinical care, health and social care workers and for people visiting vulnerable individuals in care homes or hospitals. A spokesperson for the SNP said the First Minister, pictured here during local election campaigning at Dundee Law on Friday, 'immediately put it on' upon realising she wasn't wearing her mask Speaking on Saturday, she said: 'I'm not saying every single person will (continue to wear masks), people will make their own decisions. 'But I think, just as the vast majority of people have abided by all that we've asked of them over the last two years - not because politicians have been asking or the law necessarily has required it - because people understand that the best way to protect themselves and protect those they love is to abide by these really sensible, basic precautions against the spread of a virus.' The First Minister said Covid-19 was 'still out there', adding: 'Wearing a face covering is a bit of protection you can give, not only to yourself but to the people you might be around - including people who might be more clinically vulnerable.' A weekly Covid-19 survey produced by the Office for National Statistics found that around one in every 17 people in Scotland had Covid-19 in the week up to April 9, a drop on recent weeks. Until the end of April, people with symptoms should still isolate and get a PCR test. From April 30, test sites will close and people with symptoms will no longer be advised that they need to seek a test. The public health advice for people who feel unwell will be to stay at home until they feel better, to reduce the risk of infecting other people. The Greens say Australia's approach to burgeoning relations between China and the Solomon Islands is 'actually racist' and wants to decrease spending on defence. Senator Jordon Steele-John told The Australian they 'absolutely oppose' further inflaming tensions with China and accused Liberal and Labor of turning the country into 'an American aircraft carrier'. The young MP said concern over the China-Solomons relationship was 'paternalistic and actually racist'. 'We must have an independent foreign and defence policy, which allows us to work with our neighbours to de-escalate,' he told the publication. The Greens say Australia's approach to burgeoning relations between China and the Solomon Islands Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said in response the Greens should be included in the country's classified briefings to better understand its 'insane' approach to relations. He said the Greens' methodology would see the country 'effectively turn Australia into a non-aligned neutral (state) with a defence budget about the level of New Zealand's. 'And that would make us ripe for the picking in terms of China's attempts to dominate the region and our island neighbours. 'It's crazy stuff but also dangerous in the sense that if the Greens were controlling the balance of power in parliament somewhat, they would have to be educated about this issue.' There are calls for the Greens to be included on meetings about classified information to help shift their 'insane' approach to global relations Defence Minister Peter Dutton said their thinking was 'dangerous at exactly the wrong time'. 'We've got the Greens out today who if Mr Albanese is to be prime minister would be in government with the Greens talking about closing down Pine Gap, stripping billions of dollars from the Australian Defence Force,' he said. 'As you've seen the Greens out today saying that they see no threat from China militarising ports in the Indo-Pacific I mean we are going to need more surface fleet vessels. We are going to need more submarines. We are going to need more assets in the sky. Defence Minister Peter Dutton believes the country should continue to increase defence spending in response to China 'There's more investment that we're making with industry partners ... in drone technology, in autonomous vehicle technology. 'All of that is going to be part of the defence picture over the course of the next few years, the next couple of decades as well.' A spokesperson for ALP said the China-Solomons deal would have 'serious implications' for Australia. 'Australia should be the partner of choice for our Pacific partners to address shared challenges but the Morrison government's failure to deliver real climate action has undermined this,' he said. 'Labor supports AUKUS and recognises the Defence budget will need to grow'. A Ukrainian millionaire contacted Kyiv's military to bomb his own house after he spied Russian invaders using it as a military base to fire rockets on the property's webcam. Businessman Andrey Stavnitser handed over coordinates to the house in the outskirts of the capital once he realised it was housing military targets, sacrificing the beautiful home he had only just finished building to destroy 12 Russian vehicles. It was kind of an obvious decision for me, there is not much you can do nowadays to help military, and that was one of the opportunities that I had, he told Good Morning Britain. Andrey Stavnitser had only just finished building his home in Ukraine before it was invaded by Putin's forces, who captured and interrogated his security team Stavnitser, who realised the troops were using his house as a base to launch rocket attacks in Kyiv, sent coordinates to the Ukrainian military and asked them to bomb his own home Stavnitser was forced to flee his home in Ukraine when Vladimir Putins troops invaded the village and occupied his home on March 5 Stavnitser had left security behind to guard his home, but the Russian forces captured and interrogated the security team after stripping them naked. He later heard the Russians were looking for Nazi messaging on their phones, which they destroyed after failing to find evidence of Nazification in Ukraine. After a few days of capture, the Russian forces released the security guards, sending them out into the woods where they walked for days through the wilderness without being found. As their phones were destroyed, they were unable to contact anyone. Eventually, they reached shelter, and soon got in contact with their employer the man whose house had just been invaded. The Russians were using the house as storage for the other possessions they had stolen from the Ukrainian village, pilling up laptops and iPads as they looted the surrounding homes Although all other cameras in the house were disabled, the troops had missed a webcam which broadcast the fact that the home was being used by military targets back to Stavnitser If you were to ask me two months ago, what would I feel if there were hostile military people inside my house, I would have said fury and anger, said Stavnitser. However, this is not what I felt. I felt disgusted, dirty, looking at some guys walking inside my house.' After speaking with his security team and hearing they had survived, the millionaire came up with an idea. He began to check each camera in the house individually, but to his disappointment found most of them destroyed. But the Russians had missed one. A small webcam was still operating, unbeknownst to the Russians, allowing Stavnitser to spy on the invaders now occupying his home. What he saw was throngs of military uniforms. As well as taking his possessions, Russian troops were using it as a warehouse to store stolen good from neighbouring Ukrainians piling TVs, laptops and iPads into the rooms. To his horror, he saw military vehicles passing by a window, including a BM-21 Grad rocket launcher system. With a range of 40 kilometers, he realised his home was being used as a staging ground to fire rockets into Kyiv and kill his fellow countrymen. After that, he said the decision was simple. He passed the coordinates to the Ukrainian military and told them to attack. Stavnitser said it was a simple decision to tell the military to bomb the 'beautiful' home he had finished because 'we are safeguarding Europe, adding he wanted to do everything he could The air strike destroyed 12 military vehicles, including a BM-21 Grad rocket launcher system that could have been bombing Kyiv earlier in the invasion He was able to count the destroyed vehicles from the webcam after the bombardment was over. Approximately 12 military vehicles were destroyed. Its not about money, its about effort put into the house, he added. I just finished building it. It was a beautiful house, actually. [But] I want to do everything possible to help Ukraine win because we are safeguarding Europe. The millionaire knows the Ukrainian president Zelensky personally and had worked with him when the government was developing a Covid-19 strategy for the south of Ukraine. He said he is proud to have a president like Zelensky and thanked Britain for its support during the war, calling on the country to ramp up its weapons shipments and military support for Ukraine. A woman was blindsided after receiving an eye-wateringly expensive fine for driving just 6km/h over the speed limit, all because she was driving a company car at the time. Jane Agirtan, who lives in Melbourne, posted her stunned reaction to the $3,635 fine she got in the mail to TikTok. The former local council candidate questioned the logic behind the fee in the caption of her post, writing, 'a bit excessive, no?' She received the expensive fine in the post, with $3,635 owed for driving just 6km/h over the speed limit Many respondents in the comments section pointed out that the exorbitant fee was due to the fact that she was driving a company car. Drivers caught speeding in a corporate vehicle are charged with a body corporate infringement notice, which results in a higher fee that will cost at least $3,000. The fine is then reduced once a company nominates the driver who was caught speeding in the vehicle. 'You obviously drive the company car. Put down who is driving and will be a standard fine,' wrote one user. 'It's to stop people abusing corporate cars. If you pay it you won't lose points. If you nominate the fine will be like normal,' added another. A few others suggested the woman 'not speed' after she showed a separate fine she received in January where she was charged a similar amount for driving 6km/h over the speed limit again. Melburnian Jane Agirtan (pictured) posted her stunned reaction to the $3,635 fine she got in the mail to TikTok. The former local council candidate questioned the logic behind the fee, writing, 'A bit excessive, no?' Many respondents in the comments section of Jane's TikTok pointed out that the exorbitant fee was due to the fact that she was driving a company car Fines Victoria addresses speeding fees for corporate vehicles on its website, writing, 'when you receive a fine for a company vehicle you must nominate the driver responsible for the offence, so that demerit points can be applied to their licence.' 'For some offences, companies will initially receive a company fine over $3,000. This larger amount is to encourage the company to nominate the responsible driver.' The nominated driver will then 'receive a new fine under their name, and the penalty payable will be at the individual rate and should be significantly lower'. Netflix is losing billions of dollars a year because of illegal password-sharing 'marketplaces' that offer access for just $1, experts have claimed. The popular streaming app is missing out on up to $6.25billion annually as customers use the services to dodge the $19.99 a month premium account fee. But the firm last month launched its first major counteroffensive to password sharing by letting watchers add up to two other users for just $2 in some countries. Netflix is not the only website to be hit by the scams, with HBO Max and Disney+ subscriptions also being ripped off by dodgy so-called marketplaces. It comes as the battle for eyes ramps up as the market is flooded with streaming services offering the biggest shows and movies on the planet. But subscribers are facing frequent price hikes, which is feared to be pushing younger viewers with less money to illegal password-sharing sites. One website was illegally offering Netflix in Ultra HD for ten days for just $1, slashing the usual price of $19.99 a month. Meanwhile another listed HBO Max - which airs Succession and Mare of Easttown - for $1.09 a month instead of the normal $14.99. And a Disney+ subscription was being touted for just 90 cents, when a legitimate monthly plan would be $7.99. Ken Gerstein, who is vice president of sales at NAGRA and advises firms on antipiracy measures, said its now reached a 'tipping point'. He told The Sacramento Bee: 'We've seen an increase over the past few years, especially under Covid, because more people were subscribing to streaming services versus traditional pay TV. 'One of the behaviors we've seen is that with subscription stacking, it started to become expensive for consumers, and pirates have seen an opportunity in credential theft or credential hijacking.' Big-budget shows and competing for eyes... why has Netflix ramped up prices? Netflix this year ramped up the prices for its subscription service. Its standard plan went up by $1.50, to $15.49, its basic plan went up by $1 to $9.99 and its premium plan went up by $2 $19.99. The move in January raised its stock price but infuriated watchers. Experts claim it is trying to offset slower growth with a higher costing product in the US. Andrew Hare, from media consulting firm Magid, told CNN: 'They clearly believe they still have the pricing power to do so and that they provide an exceptional value for the money. 'Raising prices is just one lever they can continue to pull right now, though I'm not sure for how much longer.' Meanwhile others believe Netflix is spending huge sums creating content across the world but it is not being justified by the US market. Mark Zgutowicz, a senior analyst with Rosenblatt Securities, added: 'We're estimating that Netflix will spend $17 billion [in 2021] globally and that's [coming] off $12 billion in 2020, which happened to be a down year because of Covid.' Advertisement The pandemic saw a spike in password sharing as people spent more time at home with fewer things to do. The main culprits were younger watchers, people aged 18 to 24, the Advertising Research Foundation found. Experts said this could be to do with them being on lower wages and looking to save much-needed cash. Meanwhile Netflix recently hiked its subscriptions, with its standard plan up by $1.50, to $15.49, its basic plan up by $1 to $9.99 and its premium plan up by $2 $19.99. Streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ were the most targeted - rather than sites like ESPN+ - due to the wide range of shows, industry insiders claimed. As much as 36 per cent of Netflix users share their password with at least one member of their family and 13 per cent with a friend they do not live with. Meanwhile 32 per cent and 13 per cent do the same for their Disney+ subscription respectively, according to researchers. Despite the dodgy methods, customers appeared delighted with the deals, with some saying 'five stars again,' 'excellent,' 'all good'. Password sharing has become a huge problem for streaming giants, with losses estimated to be up to $25billion a year, according to one Citi analyst. Netflix is reportedly shouldering 25 per cent of this amount, meaning it is losing out on around $6.25billion a year. The streaming giant launched its first big fightback in the war against password sharing last month by offering discounts to add users in some countries. It has trialed rolling out the features - allowing two additional users for $2 or $3 per person - for customers in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. And last year it brought in a warning when logging in that people should not use the password of someone they do not live with. Netflix is reportedly shouldering 25 per cent of this amount, meaning it is losing out on around $6.25billion a year (file photo) It comes amid fears that confusion over when people can share access to accounts has led to the spike in dodgy websites. Netflix director of product innovation Chengyi Long said: 'As a result, accounts are being shared between households impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.' She added the tests in southern America would be checked before being used in other countries. The actions has been long in the making, with the firm previously appearing to endorse password sharing in 2017 by tweeting: 'Love is sharing a password.' But as the competition for customers and profit margins heats up Netflix has pushed back against the idea. The company is expecting slower subscriber growth in the coming months compared to rocketing membership in previous years. It said it is likely to pull in 2.5million new viewers in the first quarter of this year, down from four million in 2021. Netflix has been approached for comment. Both the rival groups are food recipes bloggers and are putting the blame on each other for abusing them, by misleading their followers. (Representational Image: Youtube) HYDERABAD: In a weird incident, two groups of women bloggers staged a protest in front of the office of Madhapur deputy commissioner of police (DCP) demanding arrests of each other on Monday. The two groups - Hyderabad Amma and SRK Saibaba Channel of bloggers on YouTube earlier had a tiff over abusive comments on each others blogs. Later, four members of the Hyderabad Amma submitted a representation to Madhapur DCP K. Shilpavalli, stating that their rival group of bloggers posted abusive remarks in their comment box. Both the rival groups are food recipes bloggers and are putting the blame on each other for abusing them, by misleading their followers. Both the groups alleged that they were diverting followers to their blogs to increase likes and followers on YouTube. Its a silly issue, like a group of women fighting to collect water from a public tap, an officer from Cyberabad police said. This rivalry has been going since December 2021,the police officer added. "We have registered a case and our cybercrime team is investigating to trace the IP number of both the bloggers," K. Narayan Reddy, inspector of Bachupally police station said. A 53-year-old woman with a learner's permit sent her Range Rover ploughing into eight tombstones at a cemetery in Melrose, Massachusetts, during a much needed driving-practice session on Saturday. The woman was honing her driving skills on the weaving roads of the Wyoming Cemetery in the company of a licensed relative when the accident occurred. Nobody was hurt in the accident, though the same can't be said for the memorials of the dearly departed, at least eight of which were damaged and dislodged by the runaway car. The 53-year-old student driver lost control of the white Range Rover when she mistook the gas for the brakes. Up to eight tombstones were damaged in the accident, and the car was towed At around 2:30pm the woman confused the gas pedal for the brake and sent the the car flying into the row of tombstones, according to Lieutenant David Mackey of the Melrose Police. 'No crime involved, just an unfortunate accident with a considerable amount of damage,' Mackey said. Pictures from the scene show a smashed-up white Range Rover beached on top of a pile of tombstones and surrounded by shredded earth and debris from the car. The entire front bumper is torn from the car, the left side of the vehicle is crumpled, and the front left tire is lying on the grass alongside a sideways tombstone. The tombstones were all put back in place by the public works department according to Melrose police, though repairs for the damaged stones could be costly they said Mackey said that the car needed to be towed from the scene. The gravestones were put back in place by the public works department, though Mackey said it could be costly to repair the damaged stones. 'It was an older woman who just never learned to drive, apparently just recently got her permit, and probably shouldn't have,' Mackey said, 'What can you do? Accidents happen.' A driver who called a French traffic warden an 'immigrant' and told her to 'get out of the country' during an astonishing on-street row has been fined 200 after pleading guilty to committing a hate crime. Lee Parker, 55, launched the tirade at Melissa Marques after she told him to stop parking in a loading bay in Worcester. Parker reacted by telling Mrs Marques to 'shut up and move on' before driving around corner and parking on double yellow lines instead. Ms Marques followed Parker, who had been out shopping with his wife at the time, and told him to move on once more. But a court heard Parker, who was looking to withdraw cash after his wife forgot her debit card, then flew into a rage and told Ms Marques: 'Who are you talking to? 'You're an immigrant. Where are you from you immigrant? Get out of the country.' Parker also abused a member of the public who intervened, before driving away following his outburst on July 7 last year. He was later arrested. Lee Parker (pictured), 55, launched the tirade at Melissa Marques after she told him to stop parking in a loading bay in Worcester On Thursday (April 14), Parker admitted racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates' Court. Eleanor Peart, prosecuting, told the court: 'This matter is a hate crime. 'The officer had asked Mr Parker to move the vehicle and he was immediately rude to her, telling her to "shut up and move on" before he parked around the corner on double yellow lines, followed by the officer.' A member of the public intervened on behalf of the traffic warden and was insulted using a homophobic slur. Parker also told him: 'You're lucky there are people about,' before driving off. The court heard that when Parker was interviewed by police he also abused an officer, calling him a 'prat'. Miss Peart said: 'He was confrontational, saying it was boring and a waste of time to him. 'He left and called the complainant an immigrant - not before squaring up to the police officer and calling him a prat.' On Thursday (April 14), Parker (pictured) admitted racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates' Court Ms Marques has since left the job, saying how she regularly had 'members of the public abuse her'. Fergus Maxwell, mitigating, said: 'Just because an offence is racially aggravated, it does not necessarily mean it's a hate crime. I don't think it's a hate crime.' He added that Parker was stabbed ten years ago and had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ever since. Mr Maxwell said: 'Ten or 11 years ago he was the victim of a very serious attack which resulted in him ending up in ICU. 'He almost lost his life in a totally unprovoked attack.' Parker, of Birmingham, was fined 200. He was also ordered to pay compensation of 100, costs of 135 and a victim surcharge of 34. A Minnesota couple visiting family in Mexico were killed by a gang on motorbikes earlier this month. Miguel Angel Abrego Hurtado, 49, and his wife, Leticia Carrillo Arellano, 49, were killed while driving their truck in Puerto Escondido on April 7. Friends and family are shocked and grieving the tragic loss of the couple, who they describe as 'kind' and 'hardworking' people, who were 'the glue' to their close-knit family. The couple, who are from Coon Rapids, Minnesota traveled to Puerto Escondido in early April to visit family. Friends said they were also in the middle of building their dream home. Atif Suleman, a family friend said: 'They've been building this place in Mexico, and putting all of their earnings into building that house,' Kare11 News reported. Friends and family described Leticia Carrillo, 48, and Miguel Abrego, 49, as a couple who radiated love, light and joy. Friends and family members said they were 'the true definition of 'Till Death Do Us Part.' Their children will now need financial assistance to cover transportation of their bodies from Puerto Escondido to their hometown, funeral arrangements, attorney fees, counseling, and everyday living expenses for them to thrive A video posted to social media appears to show Miguel Angel Abrego Hurtado, slumped over the steering wheel of his truck following the shooting The Mexican news outlet, The Oaxaca Post reported the couple were driving in their truck, a black double cabin truck, that had Minnesota license plates, along federal highway 200 Oaxaca-Puerto Escondido on April 7. Before reaching Zicatela beach, a group of unknown individuals traveling on a motorcycles caught up with the truck and shot them several times before fleeing. Expresa Oaxaca posted a video on Twitter that shows what appears to be an image of Miguel deceased slumped over the steering wheel of the vehicle. On Friday, the State Attorney Generals Office from Oaxaca, told the news outlet the group of armed individuals attacked and executed a man and a woman on the coastal highway. Family members have been told that Mexican police are investigating, but some have expressed anger that they are not getting the answers and the information they need, from the authorities. The couple's niece, Yazmin Carrillo said: 'We dont have that peace of mind.' The couple leave behind two children: Miguel, 21, a college student, and an 18-year-old daughter, Diana, who is set to graduate high school in May. Maya Khakural, a close friend of the couple, said: 'They were loving people, loving parents and one of the most amazing human beings Ive ever met,' WCCO reported. Captain John Stahnke of the Coon Rapids Police Department told the DailyMail.com that his department, and the Anoka County Sheriff's office, which investigate all deaths in Anoka County, do not have jurisdiction to investigate the matter since it occurred in Mexico. A photo of the family together in happier times (left to right) daughter Diana, 18, a senior at Coon Rapids High School; mother Leticia, 48; son Miguel, 21, a college student, and father Miguel, 49. The couple traveled to Mexico in early April to visit family. Friends and family members said they were in the midst of building their dream home before the murder A man is seen slumped over in the truck the couple were driving in when they were targeted A map of the location where the bodies of Miguel Angel Abrego Hurtado, 49, and his wife, Leticia Carrillo Arellano, 49, were killed while driving their truck in Puerto Escondido on April 7. 'Much like the rest of our community, the Coon Rapids Police Department is deeply saddened by this incident,' Stahnke said. 'We encourage people to focus on helping the couples children that are left behind and forced to navigate the future without their loving parents.' Friends and family members said they were 'the true definition of Till Death Do Us Part.' Their children will now need financial assistance to cover transportation of their bodies from Puerto Escondido to their hometown, funeral arrangements, attorney fees, counseling, and everyday living expenses for them to thrive. A GoFundMe has been created to help their family get through the unimaginable tragedy. 'For reasons beyond our understanding, someone's senseless act ripped Miguel and Leticia away from this world,' Diana Carrillo, and organizer of the fundraiser, wrote. Carrillo added: 'It is not enough to say we are shocked and hurt, we are utterly devastated.' As of Monday afternoon nearly $32,000 has been raised towards their goal of $75,000. On April 13, The U.S. Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs, issued a travel advisory listing areas where travelers should 'exercise increased caution, and Oaxaca was listed as one of the areas due to a high level of crime. Advertisement The jury in Johnny Depp's defamation trial was shown dramatic pictures of injuries to his face which his security guard claimed were caused by Amber Heard. Depp's security guard Sean Bett took the stand Monday and described taking photos of the actor as 'evidence' after Heard allegedly assaulted him. The first incident happened in March of 2015 and Bett said that Depp had a 'swollen cheekbone and eyelid' - a picture was shown to the jury. He said: '(Depp) needed it as evidence in case Miss Heard tried to make allegations towards Depp. I was emphatic, that's a serious mark.' The second alleged abuse by Heard happened in December 2015 and they 'got into an argument and she scratched him', Bett said, pointing to his nose. He said: 'He had scratch marks around his nose area. On one of the sides of his face and the cheek area.' The court was shown three photos, the first of which shows a laceration on the left side of Depp's nose and a red scratch mark on the forehead, Bett said. The second showed scratch marks on the right hand side, according to Bett. The third photo shows a scratch to the lower right part of the chin. Depp appeared in court with a new look Monday morning. The 58-year-old actor had his locks pulled back in a sleek ponytail and wore dark shades. His ex wife Amber Heard, 35, appeared with her blond curls swept to the side and wore a black suit. Depp's security guard Sean Bett took the stand Monday and described taking photos of the actor as 'evidence' after Heard allegedly assaulted him Johnny Depp's defamation trial saw dramatic pictures of injuries to his face which his security guard claimed were caused by Amber Heard At some point they had 'another argument, she struck him in the face', Bett said, but Judge Penney Azcarate ordered that testimony be struck from the record as it was hearsay. Bett said: 'He had scratch marks around his nose area. On one of the sides of his face and the cheek area' Bett claimed that on April 21, 2016, on Heard's 30th birthday at the apartment there was another blow up because Depp was late when a meeting overran. According to Bett, when Depp arrived Heard had a 'look, you could tell she was upset that he was late.' At some point they had 'another argument, she struck him in the face', Bett said, but Judge Penney Azcarate ordered that testimony be struck from the record as it was hearsay. During his testimony Bett testified of his admiration about his boss' ability to hold his drink. Bett said that the actor became 'too cool for school' after a few drinks. He said: 'He goes into that Jack Sparrow mode. He's very likeable whether he drinks or doesn't drink. 'I've seen him slightly intoxicated. It's the same as if he had a glass of sparkling water. He's very low key, he's easy to get along with. 'He handles alcohol a lot better than I would.' Bett recalled an incident around 2012 or 2013 when Heard made disparaging comments about men to a friend. He said that while driving her around Heard told a friend: 'All men are idiots, you shouldn't trust that guy.' Heard turned to Bett and said: 'Sorry Sean, not you, I didn't mean that.' Bett described how Depp and Heard went from being 'loving, almost high school couple giddy towards each other' to arguing all the time. One time while driving Heard to her penthouse after a row with Depp, Bett told her: 'This can't continue, you're going to kill each other or be in jail.' Heard said: 'I love him, I'm not going to lose him.' Bett said that Heard and Depp's relationship devolved into 'constant bickering.' One time Bett claimed that he overheard Heard saying to Depp: 'He's a fat a**. F**k you Johnny, and you too Sean' - it was not clear who the 'fat a**' was. Bett said that he was that the night in May 2016 that was the final confrontation between Depp and Heard at their penthouse apartment before they divorced. Bett and Jerry Judge, a former Depp employee, heard the 'screaming and shouting coming from Miss Heard' while they waited outside. Bett said he and Judge 'immediately' ran inside and Heard had a 'look of surprise' on her face. He said: 'She shouted this is the last time you do this to me. Depp looked at her and said what the hell are you talking about? 'Judge tapped Depp on the arm and said boss, let's leave. We exited the front door.' Asked if Heard had any injuries or redness on her face, Bett said no. Less than a week later Heard filed for a divorce from Depp and a restraining order including a photo of her face with a bruise on it. She claims that it was caused by Depp the night that Bett was there when Depp hit her with a mobile phone. Security guard Sean Bett claimed that on April 21, 2016 on Heard's 30th birthday at the apartment there was another blow up because Depp was late when a meeting overran Bett said that Heard and Depp's relationship devolved into 'constant bickering.' One time Bett claimed that he overheard Heard saying to Depp: 'He's a fat a**. F**k you Johnny, and you too Sean' - it was not clear who the 'fat a**' was Bett and Jerry Judge, a former Depp employee, heard the 'screaming and shouting coming from Miss Heard' while they waited outside. Bett said he and Judge 'immediately' ran inside and Heard had a 'look of surprise' on her face. He said: 'She shouted this is the last time you do this to me. Depp looked at her and said what the hell are you talking about? 'Judge tapped Depp on the arm and said boss, let's leave. We exited the front door.' Asked if Heard had any injuries or redness on her face, Bett said no Earlier, Depp's personal nurse has told how she witnessed Amber Heard instigate arguments and follow Depp around, refusing to give him space to cool down. The court heard from Debbie Lloyd, Depp's personal nurse who recounted her medical notes of their first meeting in June 2014. On October 20, 2014 Lloyd's medical notes stated Depp told Lloyd that he felt he was in a 'no-win situation' with Heard. Notes stated: 'Patient is feeling exhausted and wants to stay home but does not want to upset fiance so instead they were going to dinner. October 23, notes stated that Depp was 'agitated' that Heard was using the term 'mania' to describe his behavior because it would 'excuse her from any fault during arguments.' Depp was 'upset by this label.' Lloyd told the court that arguing with Heard was a 'trigger for Depp emotionally.' She said that 'at times she would try to instigate him,' referring to Heard. Lloyd said she saw this on more than one occasion. She told the court: 'I remember an argument, being there he was going from room to room trying to remove himself from the situation and she would follow him from room to room and not give him his space.' Asked if she saw Heard doing this on other occasions, Lloyd said: 'Yes.' A note from a consultation on March 7, 2015, shortly before the finger incident, reads: 'Patient discussed feeling of anger and sadness about relationship. 'Patient was encouraged to stay away from wife as (the) relationship is toxic. Patient expressed verbal understanding and why they need to separate.' Lloyd said that she thought the relationship was 'toxic' based on conversations they had together. Depp and Heard would stay together until the following May before she filed for divorce. Lloyd was asked about an incident on March 23, 2015 and the court heard texts between Heard's sister Whitney and Heard's nurse Erin Boerum. Whitney said that Heard was 'finally asleep. When asked by Boreum if Heard was safe, Whitney said: 'No, she's not. She keeps saying she wants to kill herself.' Lloyd said that all she recalled about that day was that Heard and Depp got into a 'fight' in their apartment. Asked if she saw Heard throwing anything at Depp, Lloyd said no. She said: 'I saw Johnny push over one of Amber's clothing racks' The notes stated that Depp initially took opiates after some dental work and became 'dependent' upon them. The notes stated: 'Patient fearful of coming off opiates but knows it is what he needs to do. 'Patient expressed emotional trauma which causes him depression and anxiety.' Lloyd was not sure what the trauma was, she told the court. The medical notes said of Depp: 'Patient expressed fears of never feeling normal without his drugs.' Lloyd's notes described a visit to Depp's house at 3.30am on September 22, 2014 when he was 'sitting with bloody knuckles.' Depp admitted he 'punched a white board in the kitchen' after a fight with Heard, the notes stated. According to the medical notes Depp was 'texting a friend explaining why he didn't show up to play music and fiancee got upset that he was not giving her enough support and the fight escalated from there.' The notes say: 'Patient refused to lie down as he didn't want fiancee to think he didn't care by falling asleep'. Lloyd's notes from October 14, 2014 state that Depp was filming a movie when he 'kicked in the door of his trailer and refused to speak to the director.' The notes state: 'Patient verbally aggressive to another person on set so no apparent reason.' The court heard from Debbie Lloyd, Depp's personal nurse who recounted her medical notes of their first meeting in June 2014 Depp appeared in court with a new look Monday morning. The 58-year-old actor had his locks pulled back in a sleek ponytail and wore dark shades Johnny Depp sent texts to his doctor saying Amber Heard is 'as full of s**t as a Christmas Goose,' the jury heard on the fourth day of his $100million defamation trial Courtroom spectators listen at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia on April 18, 2022 The court watched pre-recorded video deposition from Dr. David Kipper, a Beverly Hills doctor who treats celebrities for addiction and whose previous clients have included Ozzy Osborne. Depp hired him to treat him for opioid addiction in May 2014 and engineered a plan whereby he would detox on his island in the Bahamas. Kipper was asked about texts he exchanged with Depp. On March 7, 2015, Depp wrote, 'Hi f*ck man had another one. I cannot live like this. She is as full of s**t as a Christmas Goose. 'I'm done. NO MORE!!!! Constant insults released from a malicious evil and vindictive c*nt!!!!! You know what's far more hurtful than her venomous and degrading educational ranting??? Her hideously and purposely hurtful tirades and her goddamn shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love above all.' Depp and Heard are seen in September 2015 in Venice, Italy - the same year a blowout fight in Australia took place Dep continued: 'Here's the real deal mateher obsession with herself is far more important. She is so f**king ambitious!!!! She's so desperate for success and fame. That's probably why I was acquired, mate. She has hammered me with what a sad old man has been I am. 'I'm so very sad.' Dr. Kipper was asked about a text from Depp on July 5 2015 in which Depp ranted about Connell Cowan, an LA-based psychologist who treated Heard. Depp said that Cowan should be 'stripped' of his medical license and 'spray painted while handcuffed to a stop sign.' Dr. Kipper said he didn't recall the text but could see it written down. In another message to Dr. Kipper sent on July 24, 2015, Depp ranted about how Heard was 'condescending' to him by telling him 'hippie s**t.' Depp said that Heard told him things like: 'Your fear is so visible, what are you scared of.' He said that it 'makes me want to rampage against anyone wearing Birkenstocks.' Dr. Kipper first started treating Depp in May 2014 and told the court that his initial diagnosis for him was: 'ADHD, Bipolar 1, depression , insomnia, chronic substance abuse disorder, chronic reflux.' Dr. Kipper said that during a consultation in person with Depp and Heard in June 2014 in Boston she made no mention about Depp being violent. Asked if he would have documented it if she had mentioned it, Dr. Kipper said: 'Yes.' The court heard Kipper's notes read out which said: 'Amber has a strong family history of drug and alcohol abuse and is particularly sensitive to his (Depp's behaviors and potential for abuse).' Asked if 'abuse' meant substance abuse, Dr. Kipper said yes, not physical abuse. Dr. Kipper said that by 'particularly sensitive' he meant: 'Having grown up in that environment she's used to seeing the trauma that it inflicts and is not only able to recognize it but also it affects her. She has the ability to understand what that looks like.' Dr. Kipper said that this was information that Heard told her himself. Dr. Kipper admitted that he is still Depp's personal physician and is paid a monthly retainer by him - the invoices were shown to him but the figures were not read out Heard's lawyers have previously said that Depp pays his doctors $150,000 a month, but it is not clear if this referred to Dr. Kipper. The court heard Kipper's notes read out which said: 'Amber has a strong family history of drug and alcohol abuse and is particularly sensitive to his (Depp's behaviors and potential for abuse) Evidence was submitted into evidence. These are : Dr. David Kippers initial 2014 consultation with Depp and subsequent progress notes Under questioning from Depp's lawyers, Dr Kipper said that he began to treat Heard some time after August 2014 when Depp did a detox on his private island in the Caribbean. One of Depp's lawyers asked Dr Kipper: 'Did she (Heard) ever seek treatment for injuries as a result of domestic abuse?' Dr. Kipper said: 'No she did not.' Depp's lawyer asked: 'Did she ever seek treatment for injuries caused by Mr Depp?' Dr. Kipper said: 'No she did not.' Asked if Heard ever told him that Depp abused her, Dr. Kipper said: 'No she did not.' Dr. Kipper said he 'never' witnessed Depp physically abusing Heard and never saw any such injuries on her. Dr. Kipper told the court that at Depp's request he flew to Australia in March 2015 while he was filming the latest installment of the Pirates film series. It was there that Heard and Depp had a fight. She claims that he cut his own finger off during the row while Depp claims she sliced it off by throwing a bottle at him. Dr. Kipper described the grisly search for the tip of Depp's finger carried out by the actor's security guards in the moments after the fight. Dr. Kipper said that he tended to Depp's wounds while he sat in a car outside the property he was staying in. Dr. Kipper said: 'I did go in (to the property). After I saw him I went in to instruct one of the people with him to look for the tip of the finger hoping we could put it back. 'It was found.' Dr. Kipper said a man called 'chef' found it. He said: 'He said he found it in the kitchen area', where Depp and Heard had been fighting.' Dr. Kipper said that Heard was 'certainly upset' but she did not seek any medical attention from him and did not have any visible bruises. These photos were previously shown in court from May 2016 of Amber Heard with an apparently bruised cheek As part of Depp's defamation case against Heard, he included images of his own bruised and battered face (pictured ) following Heard's alleged attack Llloyd wrote that Depp appeared 'agitated' and was 'short' towards her. Lloyd's notes stated that Depp had a desire to 'escape' from his drug use. In a text to Lloyd sent afterwards, Depp told Lloyd he was 'confused as f***' and that Heard said 'nothing of the wrap party's existence', referring to a party that Heard attended. Depp wrote: 'How will I look at her when she gets back professing her undying love. All a f****** lie' On November 11, 2014, Depp texted Lloyd: 'I'm feeling so f*****. Why was she at the goddam wrap party until 5am? Lies are so clear now. What was so interesting to keep her there so goddam long. I must have truth. She wants a change and is going to change. 'Help. I don't know what's real and what's paranoiac jealousy.' Lloyd was present in Australia when Depp cut his finger after the fight with Heard. She said that inside the house she saw 'some writing on the wall and I remember a smashed TV.' Lloyd said: 'I remember looking for his finger in the downstairs area. It was the pool table entertainment room.' The court watched pre-recorded video deposition from Dr. David Kipper, a Beverly Hills doctor who treats celebrities for addiction and whose previous clients have included Ozzy Osborne. Depp hired him to treat him for opioid addiction in May 2014 and engineered a plan whereby he would detox on his island in the Bahamas According to Lloyd, Ben, the house manager of the property, found the fingertip and brought it to the ER. She could not recall if the digit was put on ice or other details of how it was preserved. Lloyd was asked about medical notes from an April 13, 2015 visit to see Depp. According to the notes, Depp told Llloyd that the 'majority of issues with wife have been from him using drugs and alcohol.' The notes state: 'Depp states he will no longer sneak / use and wants to enjoy clarity.' After the episode in Australia Dr. Kipper withdrew his care for Depp which meant that Lloyd stopped working for him too - they appear to have patched things up later on. In a text to Lloyd, Depp wrote: 'Never heard of anyone being fired by their physician before. So I'm kinda proud of that. 'Even attempting saying thank you to to you would be like a monkey trying to f*** a football. It's just simply impossible'. On another occasion Depp texted Lloyd: 'If you like you can give me some morphine to see if my tongue and penis touch.' Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded barbs Monday as they returned to campaigning for the French presidency ahead of a prime-time debate that is likely to prove decisive ahead of Sunday's second-round run-off. The two rivals held low-key events after a brief Easter pause as they paced themselves before Wednesday's face-off, when the centrist Macron will defend his record over the past five years against his combative far-right rival. It will be a rematch of their debate in 2017, when the same two finalists clashed at the same stage of the campaign, but which most analysts say was handily won by Macron, who was making his first-ever attempt at public office. Le Pen, making her third run for the presidency, insists she is better prepared this time around. 'I'm very confident, and I think I'm going to win,' the National Rally candidate said during a visit to the sunlit village square in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge in Normandy, western France. French president Emmanuel Macron waves to the public in his car in front the polling station in Le Touquet, Northern France. The president is set to face off against Marine Le Pen in a live debate on Wednesday Le Pen said she hoped Wednesday's debate will be carried out calmly free of 'insults, fake news and excesses,' in what could be a sign of things to come as the political battle lines are drawn 'I hope this debate is carried out calmly... I hope it won't be what I've been hearing for the past week, a series of insults, fake news and excesses,' she said. 'She knows her programme perfectly, and she knows very well how Macron is going to try to attack her,' Le Pen's close ally Louis Aliot, the far-right mayor of Perpignan in southern France, told France Inter radio. The latest opinion polls suggest that Macron has the edge, giving him scores of 53 to 55.5 percent against 44.5 to 47 percent for Le Pen. But allowing for margins of error, Macron knows there is no room for complacency, and polls have often underestimated the results of far-right candidates in the past - most notably in 2002, when Le Pen's father Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the presidential run-off against Jacques Chirac. A poster of French President and candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron with the phrase 'social traitor' written on it, in Paris was pictured alongside graffitied posters of Marine Le Pen Photos taken in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge shows campaign posters for Le Pen. Macron is said to have the edge of Le Pen, according to opinion polls Despite the intensity, polls said a fourth of the French electorate may not vote at all, with the election result largely resting on what percentage of leftwing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon's supports turn up to the ballot box Macron took aim at Le Pen's proposal to hold constitutional referendums on tougher immigration laws and her plan for 'national priority' for French citizens for jobs and welfare benefits, and to create the possibility for citizens' initiatives to propose and vote on legislation. 'She is implying that once elected, she believes she's above the Constitution since she can decide not to respect it by changing the rules,' he told France Culture radio in an interview published Monday. But instead of focusing on immigration and the threat of Islamist extremism, Le Pen has insisted mainly on her plans to tackle rising prices, a key element of her strategy of presenting a more moderate face to voters. Her team has played down in particular a proposed ban on the Islamic headscarf in public places, with Le Pen acknowledging that it was a 'complex problem' that would require parliamentary debate, and that 'I'm not obstinate.' Le Pen's team has also hit back at a report that the European Union's anti-corruption body OLAF had accused her and senior colleagues of embezzling more than 600,000 euros ($650,000) of EU funds during their time as euro-deputies. Her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, expressed suspicion at the timing of the release of the story, first revealed by the investigative website Mediapart on Saturday. The European Union's anti-corruption body OLAF accused le Pen and senior colleagues of embezzling more than 600,000 euros - her campaign team said the timing was suspicious Macron is taking aim at Le Pen's policies ahead of the debate, notably her promise to hold constitutional referendums on tougher immigration laws Polls suggest that up to a fourth of the French electorate might not vote at all on Sunday, and much will also depend on the decisions of the millions of leftwing supporters of Jean-Luc Melenchon, who finished in a close third place in the first round on April 10. The results of a survey Sunday carried out Melenchon's France Unbowed party showed that only a third of those who voted for him will back Macron in order to block a far-right presidency under Le Pen. The rest preferred to return a blank ballot, or said they would just stay home. Melenchon, who is poised to loom large on the left ahead of parliament elections in June in which Macron is hoping to renew a majority if re-elected, has pointedly refused to urge voters to back Macron, saying only that 'not a single vote' should go to Le Pen. Christophe Castaner, the leader of Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) group in parliament, attempted to play down the significance of the survey. But he also warned: 'Not to choose, is to accept you are playing Russian roulette.' Advertisement Dozens of migrants flocked to Britain today as there were warnings attempts to deter illegal crossings could lead to a short-term surge. Two boats with dozens of migrants on board were brought ashore into Dover, Kent, on Monday after being intercepted by Border Force officers. The Government announced last week it plans to provide failed asylum seekers, including those crossing the Channel in small boats, with a one-way ticket to Rwanda. The two large dinghies were detected with around 90 people crammed on board and were brought into Dover Harbour on the Border Force vessel Hurricane, as so far this year 6,342 people have been rescued in 195 boats. Men, women and young children were wearing life jackets as they were brought into the port this morning to be processed. Dozens of migrants flocked to Britain today as there were warnings attempts to deter illegal crossings could lead to a short-term surge A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel Migrants picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel, are pictured on a UK Border Force boat entering the marina in Dover, on April 18 A young child in a yellow animal onesie was among a group of migrants brought in to Dover, Kent, after a small boat incident Under a scheme designed to crack down on migrants landing on British shores after crossing the Channel in small boats, the UK intends to provide those deemed to have arrived unlawfully with a one-way ticket to Rwanda A group of migrants were saved from a small boat in the Channel today, given orange-red life jackets and brought to Dove Windy conditions in the Channel were expected to prevent large numbers attempting the treacherous crossing over the Easter weekend. On Saturday the Royal Navy and Border Force intercepted 252 migrants attempting to make the treacherous journey. Despite choppy conditions in the 21-mile wide Dover Straits, seven flimsy dinghies made the dangerous voyage and were rescued in British waters. More than 6,000 migrants have been detained after making the dangerous journey across the Channel so far this year A man gestures as migrants arrive at Dover Marina after being picked up by the border force in the Channel on April 18 The Government announced last week it plans to provide failed asylum seekers, including those crossing the Channel in small boats, with a one-way ticket to Rwanda Two large dinghies were detected with around 90 people crammed on board and were brought into Dover Harbour on the Border Force vessel Hurricane Each migrant was given a life jacket and taken to Dover, Kent, for processing. However, even migrants arriving today could face being sent to Rwanda Migrants who are sent with a one-way ticket to Rwanda would face a flight more than 4,000 miles away to the African country The UN has branded the proposed scheme as 'unacceptable' while the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was 'ungodly' A total of 28,526 migrants made the treacherous crossing 2021 - significantly higher than the 8,410 who arrived in 2020. In 2021 that figure was not reached until July 10, while 1,713 people have been arrived this month alone. Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, has said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' A record 28,395 migrants reached the UK illegally last year by taking small boats across the Channel, a 200 per cent increase on 2020's tally Migrants travelling to the UK on small boats will be put on jets and sent 4,000 miles away to Rwanda while their applications are processed. Pictured: A map detailing the plan proposed by the Prime Minister A view of facilities at Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo, the Gasabo district of the capital city Kigali, in Rwanda - where migrants shipped from Britain will initially be taken How will the new Rwanda migrant scheme work? Cross-channel arrivals assessed and anyone deemed an economic migrant rather than a refugee is sent to Rwanda Initial agreement worth 120million over five years Failed immigrants urged to start new life in Africa Initially based at hostel in Kigali Hope House is currently being used as budget accommodation for tourists Privately owned, the East African nation's government is understood to be in negotiations to lease the property Memorandum of understanding (MOU) says Government will screen asylum seekers 'without delay' after arrival in the UK All requests will require approval from Rwanda before relocation Nation can refuse to take people with criminal records People who cross the Channel in small boats will undergo initial checks at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover Further checks at a processing site in Manston, Kent. Where their claim is deemed inadmissible, they may be removed to a 'third safe country'. Royal Navy to lead Channel policing role, helping Border Force from today PM attacked 'a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers' who have thwarted previous action PM: 'Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not. We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.' Advertisement The Government has said the 120million five-year plan to send migrants to Rwanda would help to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the Channel, which has faced immediate and heavy criticism from politicians and charities. Although migrants will be able to apply to live in Rwanda permanently, there has been huge backlash against the plans to send migrants to the African country that is more than 4,000 miles from Britain. Just four years ago Rwandan police shot dead 12 refugees as they protested a UN cut to food rations and the country is marred by the 1994 genocide that saw 800,000 people murdered, many of them hacked to death in their own homes. Yet Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday slammed the 'synthetic outrage' over the Rwanda plans. She also accused political opponents of treating exploited migrants with contempt and slammed 'shameful' human rights lawyers for profiting from traffickers sending groups to the UK in flimsy dinghies, The Sun reports. Ms Patel said: 'All I've heard the last couple of days is a typical hysterical reaction from the Left, particularly through their social media echo chamber. 'All they have to offer is synthetic outrage. Labour doesn't have a plan. They don't care about Britain's interests or UK taxpayers who foot the bill. 'They are showing complete contempt for democracy and the wishes of the British people who have been crying out for years for action to fix our broken asylum system and tackle illegal migration.' A Government source told the Mail on Sunday that after striking a dramatic deal, the Home Secretary wants to spread the word internationally and let 'people know the rules have changed and if you arrive illegally to the UK, you can be deported to Rwanda'. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that 'anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since 1 January, may now be relocated to Rwanda'. A 100,000 information campaign will use social media to reach people in 'source countries' in their own languages. Jacob Rees-Mogg also suggested today that migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are 'supporting organised crime'. The Cabinet minister, speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme, said he disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury's interpretation of the Government's new immigration policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby earlier said 'sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God'. Reacting to the sermon, Mr Rees-Mogg said: 'I think he misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve, and that it isn't an abandonment of responsibility, it is in fact a taking on of a very difficult responsibility. 'The problem that is being dealt with is that people are risking their lives in the hands of people traffickers, to get into this country illegally. Now, it's not the illegal bit of it, it is the encouragement of people traffickers that needs to be stopped.' He added that '90 per cent of people coming are young men who by coming via people traffickers are jumping the queue for others'. Mr Rees-Mogg continued: 'They are in doing so not only risking their lives but supporting organised crime. What we need to do is focus on legal routes into this country of which there are quite a number.' The new deal expected to be the subject of legal challenges was presented to Cabinet Ministers on Wednesday by Ms Patel and the Prime Minister. The Rwandan government will receive 120 million in investment from the UK with the cost of housing each migrant for three months estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. Ms Patel issued a ministerial direction, only the second in the department for 30 years, to force through the policy after objections from Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft. Senior Home Office civil servants have expressed dismay at the cost. One said: 'It will be astronomical. The legal bill alone will be huge.' Last night, the Home Office published an exchange of letters between Ms Patel and Mr Rycroft in which he called for a ministerial direction as he could not justify the policy's value for money. The package also includes a new immigration centre for 500 men at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. Speaking after Saturday's crossings, Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove MP said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. 'Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough. 'Through our Nationality and Borders Bill, we're cracking down on people smugglers and fixing the broken system by making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introducing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for those who facilitate illegal entry into our country.' Powerful spyware linked to a United Arab Emirates operator - which could have allowed 24-hour surveillance of messages, photos and calls - was found on a device connected to Number 10's network, it has been claimed. The alarming cyber security breach is said to have occurred on 7 July 2020, almost a year into Boris Johnson's time as Prime Minister. According to researchers, the Israeli-created spyware known as Pegasus was also suspected to have infected phones connected to the Foreign Office on at least five occasions between July 2020 and June last year. These were linked to operators in the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The infection of a Number 10 device was revealed by an investigative journalist working for the New Yorker magazine. They reported that several phones were tested at Downing Street, including the PM's, but that officials from Britain's National Cyber Security Centre were unable to locate the infected device and the nature of any data that may have been stolen was never determined. 'When we found the No10 case, my jaw dropped,' John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab centre at the Univestity of Toronto, told the magazine. He claimed the UK had been 'underestimating the threat from Pegasus' and had been left 'spectacularly burned'. Bill Marczak, another senior researcher, added: 'We suspect this included the exfiltration of data.' Powerful spyware known as Pegasus was used to infect a device connected to the network at 10 Downing Street, it has been claimed Boris Johnson visited the UAE last month in an attempt to encourage Middle Eastern states to ramp up their production of oil - as Western nations look to wean themselves off Russian supplies Pegasus was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and is known to have the capability to infect billions of phones running either iOS or Android operating systems. Once Pegasus is on a person's device, it can copy messages that are sent or received, harvest photos, record phone calls, or even secretly film the user through the phone's camera, or record conversations by activating the microphone. Israeli bug that secretly takes over your phone Pegasus spyware gives hackers a terrifying level of access to a mobile phone without the victim having the faintest idea it has been hacked. A malicious user can extract data including passwords, contacts, browsing history and social media posts, tell where the phone is, where it has been and whether it is on the move. The hacker can also see incoming or outgoing calls and, perhaps most chillingly, access the device's camera and microphone to take pictures or listen in on conversations remotely. The creators of Pegasus Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group Technologies have long boasted that the spyware worked like a 'ghost', tracking the movements of targets without leaving a trace. To avoid being spotted through racking up data charges on phone networks, the software transmits files only when the device is using Wifi. When unable to do this, it collects and stores data in an encrypted software programme but is designed to never use more than 5 per cent of space on an infected phone. It can be installed on some Apple and Android devices and is believed to have exploited three security weaknesses in iPhones. One method involves sending a text message that provides a link to a website. If clicked on, malicious software is delivered to the phone. NSO Group has claimed it keeps strict control over how its powerful software is used. Its staff can shut it down at any time or look at the information being collected. But insiders told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that oversight was 'non-existent'. The newspaper also said that if an infected phone entered Israel, Iran, Russia, China or the US, Pegasus wiped its software from the device. Advertisement It could also potentially be used to pinpoint where someone is, where they've been, or who they've met. Citizen Lab also found the suspected Foreign Office infections. Ron Deibert, its director, wrote in an article on the lab's website that because the Foreign Office has many staff overseas, the suspected infections could have related to 'devices located abroad and using foreign SIM cards'. He added this was 'similar to the hacking of foreign phone numbers used by US State Department employees in Uganda in 2021'. A government spokesperson said they do not routinely comment on security matters. In November, the US added NSO Group to a trade blacklist and accused them of selling spyware to foreign governments that used the equipment to target government officials, journalists and others At the time, the Israeli company said it was 'dismayed' by the decision and insisted its technologies 'support US national security interests' Following today's claim that Pegasus was used to infect a Number 10 device and phones at the Foreign Office, an NSO Group spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The information raised regarding these allegations are, yet again, false and could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons. 'NSO continues to be targeted by a number of politically motivated advocacy organisations, like Citizens Labs and Amnesty, to produce inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports based on vague and incomplete information. 'We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit.' A month earlier, in October 2021, the High Court in London found that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, ordered the hacking of the phone of his ex-wife, Princess Haya of Jordan. The court said that Pegasus software was used in a bid to infiltrate the phones of Princess Haya, some of her staff and two of her solicitors. NSO Group was said to have ended its contract with the UAE following the disclosure. The timing of the revelation about spyware on a No10 device - associated with an operator linked to the UAE - comes little more than a month after Mr Johnson visited the region. The PM used the trip to try and encourage both the UAE and Saudi Arabia to ramp up their production of oil as Western nations look to wean themselves off Russian supplies. Pegasus was also suspected to have infected phones connected to the Foreign Office, which at the time was run by then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, on at least five occasions between July 2020 and June last year A government source said: 'We speak regularly with partners and work closely with allies to tackle threats, improve resilience and raise any concerns where they arise.' In April last year, the PM was at the centre of another security scare after it was revealed his personal mobile phone number had been freely available on the internet for the past 15 years. At the time, former national security adviser Lord Peter Ricketts warned that hostile foreign states or criminal gangs could have accessed the PM's personal number. Earlier this year, Mr Johnson blamed getting a new phone for his failure to disclose WhatsApp messages with a Conservative peer, in which they discussed the controversial funding of his Downing Street flat refurbishment. The PM offered a 'humble and sincere apology' for not sharing the messages - in which he described his Downing Street residence as 'a bit of a tip' - with an investigation into the flat refurbishment being headed by Lord Geidt, his independent adviser on ministers' interests. In a letter to Lord Geidt in January, Mr Johnson said: 'You appreciate the security issues faced at the time meant that I did not have access to my previous device and did not recall the message exchange.' Shocking footage has emerged showing the moment a young boy was attacked by a bulldog outside a busy cafe. Andy Bracek and his son Teddy, 6, were at Tommy's Italian in Currumbin on the Gold Coast at 8am on Sunday when the incident unfolded. In CCTV footage, Teddy can be seen walking over to pat the British bulldog when it suddenly latched on to his leg. The child attempts to flee when the dog leaps up, appearing to bite his arm. Andy Bracek and his son Teddy, 6, were at Tommy's Italian in Currumbin on the Gold Coast at 8am on Sunday when the incident unfolded Mr Bracek then runs over to protect his son. The owner is then seen grabbing the leash, attempting to restrain the animal. As Mr Bracek is consoling the young boy the dog once again launches at the child before it is dragged away. Mr Bracek has been left fuming over the incident. He told the Courier Mail his son had asked the owner if it was okay to pet the dog, and the owner had said it was fine. He said when the dog first jumped up he thought it was playing but launched into action when he heard his son scream. 'The owner then made a f**king half-assed effort to restrain the dog,' he said. 'To be honest in that moment I felt like smashing the dog's head in.' As Mr Bracek is consoling the young boy the dog once again launches at the child before it is dragged away He said he is frustrated that the owner then fled the scene. 'If he came back and sorted it everything would've been okay but I'm p*ssed off and disturbed that this man has put his dog's welfare before a child's.' Teddy suffered a deep gash to his forearm. He was taken to Griffith University Hospital where he underwent surgery. The council has been notified and investigations are ongoing. Advertisement Harrowing images have emerged that show a woman screaming over the body of her elderly father in a street in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine after he was killed in an airstrike this morning. The blonde woman can be seen wailing over her father's bloodied body lying on a verge of grass while being restrained by a man behind her. Another woman can be seen staring over the body in apparent shock, still holding a piece of fabric and a loaf of bread in one hand. Other images show the woman being comforted by emergency medical personnel as the elderly man's body is removed from the park in a black body bag in the background. At least five people were killed and 20 wounded in shelling in the city, which is just 13 miles from the Russian border, this morning. Prosecutors said one shell fell on a children's playground. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain - she was found lying with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Moscow has launched a sustained bombing campaign in recent days, pounding key Ukrainian cities in retaliation for the humiliating sinking of Russia's Black Sea fleet flagship, the Moskva, last week. Russia ended its northern offensive at the end of last month, cancelling the push to take Kyiv and refocussing the campaign on Ukraine's eastern flank with Kharkiv, home to 1.4 million before the war prompted mass evacuations, now one of the major cities standing in the way of the Kremlin's advance. On Sunday six people were killed by shelling on the central residential district of the metropolis, whole neighbourhoods of which have been gutted by repeated blasts. Many of the remaining residents have retreated to underground metro stations to live half-lives, waiting out the war above. Harrowing images have emerged that show a woman screaming over the body of her father in a park in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine after he was killed in an airstrike this morning The blonde woman can be seen grasping her hair in shock as she wails over her father's bloodied body lying on a verge of grass while being restrained by a man behind her A woman is consoled by emergency medical workers in the middle of a park in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, as they remove the body of her father after he was killed during shelling in the city on Monday morning Medical workers and first responders carry the body of an elderly man killed in Russian shelling this morning as Moscow's botched invasion of Ukraine continued today Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region's health department, confirmed the five deaths there following a series of strikes that AFP agency journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from buildings. 'The whole home rumbled and trembled,' 71-year-old Svitlana Pelelygina told AFP as she surveyed her wrecked apartment. 'Everything here began to burn. I called the firefighters. They said, 'We are on our way, but we were also being shelled.'' Meanwhile on Sunday, six people were killed by shelling on the central residential district of the city - and spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had destroyed ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts. Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd, he added. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, in an impassioned address marking Orthodox Palm Sunday, lashed out at Russian forces for not letting up the bombing campaign on such a sacred day. Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky called the bombing in Kharkiv 'nothing but deliberate terror.' In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy also appealed for a stronger response to what he said was the brutality of Russian troops in parts of southern Ukraine. 'Torture chambers are built there,' he said. 'They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.' He again urged the world to send more weapons and apply tougher sanctions against Moscow. People watch as a woman wails as she mourns the loss of her father after he was killed in a Russian airstrike on Kharkiv this morning Emergency medical personnel prepare a black body bag for the corpse of an elderly man killed during shelling this morning in Kharkiv Medical workers hug a woman as she cries while they remove the body of her father from a park in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, this morning A woman is consoled by emergency medical workers in the middle of a park in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, as they remove the body of her father after he was killed during shelling in the city on Monday morning Russian forces launched missile attacks on the western city of Lviv and pounded a multitude of other targets across Ukraine on Monday in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the country's defenses ahead of an all-out assault on the east. At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of thick black smoke rose over a city that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for large numbers of civilians fleeing intense fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlin's increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major conduit for NATO-supplied weapons and for foreign fighters joining the Ukrainian cause. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, meanwhile, vowed to 'fight absolutely to the end' in strategically vital Mariupol, where the last known pocket of resistance in the seven-week siege consisted of Ukrainian fighters holed up in a sprawling steel plant. The holdouts ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday. The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyy, said the Russian missile strikes hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto mechanic shop. He said the wounded included a child, and emergency teams battled fires caused by the attack. Lviv is the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine. It sits roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, and last week its Foreign Ministry issued a formal note of protest to the US and its allies. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. Lviv has also been seen as a relatively safe place for the elderly, mothers and children trying to escape the war. But a hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting in other parts of the country was among the buildings badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. 'The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,' said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. 'There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.' Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the country's ability to resist a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland. The Russian military said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It claimed its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and warplanes conducted 108 strikes on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Over the weekend, Russia also claimed to have destroyed Ukrainian air defense radar equipment. Smoke rises from a building as first responders arrive at the scene of Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on April 17, 2022 Firefighters at work in the immediate aftermath of a Russian shelling in Kharkiv, 17 April 2022 A man walks into his burning building after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022 Pictured: Smoke rises from the destroyed building in Lviv on Monday, which was struck by a Russian missile attack Pictured: Smoke rises after 5 aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 Smoke is seen on the horizon after Russian missiles struck the area on April 18, 2022 in Lviv A 15-year-old boy has been arrested for allegedly setting fire to his Georgia home, and killing his 10-year-old sister in the process. Zoe McCue, 10, was found dead trapped inside her windowless bedroom after a fire broke out at her family's single-story Beaver Road home in Loganville shortly before 5am on Sunday. Gwinnett County firefighters have since said they believe the fire was intentionally set, and police are investigating the girl's death as a homicide. It is unclear what led to that assessment. They have already arrested the girl's 15-year-old brother - who has not been named as he is a minor - in connection with the fire after he was found safe from the fire at another location hours later. He is now facing charges of felony murder, malice murder and arson for the fire, as police and fire department officials continue to investigate the blaze, which also destroyed the McCue family's home and killed their two cats. DailyMail.com has reached out to the Gwinnett County Fire Department for more information. Zoe McCue (pictured) was found dead inside her Georgia home after a fire broke out at around 5am on Sunday. Authorities have now arrested her 15-year-old brother in connection with the fire, which they believe was set intentionally Gwinnett County firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire in Loganville to find it engulfed in flames The house suffered extensive damage throughout its front half and the attic Gwinnett County firefighters arrived on the scene of the single-story home shortly before 5am on Easter Sunday to discover it engulfed in heavy flames. 'Once our crews arrived on [the] scene, we had heavy fire involvement throughout the entire front of the structure,' Lt. Justin Wilson told FOX 5. 'It was just hidden away from a small wood line.' A mother-of-five and two of her children had already escaped the home before fire crews arrived, officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while the father and a teenage sibling were at work when the fire broke out. But fire department officials were soon told that two children - a 15-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl - were believed to have been stuck inside the home. 'Multiple aggressive search attempts were executed to locate the missing children,' Wilson said in a statement, adding: 'After the fire was brought under control, a 10-year-old female victim was located deceased in [a] room used as a bedroom without window access.' Firefighters then continued to sift through the debris for hours looking for the boy, before he was found safe at around 9am at another location. He did not appear to have any injuries, officials report. That boy, who has not been named as he is a minor, was arrested just a few hours later after officials said they determined the fire was intentionally set - but no charges against him have been announced and a motive is not yet known. Family members have said smoke alarms were installed throughout the home, but did not activate when the fire began. 'At this time, it has been determined the fire was set intentionally by a sibling of the deceased victim,' a police spokesperson said, adding: 'This is still an active investigation and is being treated as a homicide. 'Gwinnett police detectives are working closely with arson investigators throughout the duration of this investigation.' William McCue, the girl's father who was at work when the fire broke out, told FOX 5 News that Zoe liked to be in charge William McCue, the patriarch of the family, was at work at the local Waffle House with his teenage daughter at the time of the fire when a coworker broke the news to him. 'I went over to her, and she told me I had to go home, there was a fire,' he recounted to FOX 5. 'I tried to get a hold of my wife, and she answered the phone and said "Come home." When he arrived, he said he saw the devastation, with their family home suffering from extensive damage throughout its front half and the attic. He remembered Zoe as a young leader. 'She kind of like takes the lead and be in charge,' he told the news station. 'She's a handful of a 10-year-old and wants to be the boss of everybody. That's little Zoe.' A GoFundMe has now been set up for the family to rebuild and pay for Zoe's funeral, as the family and their two dogs receive help from the Gwinnett County police chaplains and American Red Cross. But William said the family really needs 'prayers, love and support. That's what I ask for. 'We've got a wonderful community, and I thank God for the type of people who are out here.' Dr. Mallikarjun Reddy of Nirmal had joined the party during the ongoing Bandi Sanjays (in picture) Praja Sangram Yatra. DC Image ADILABAD: In a significant sign of the times, many local leaders aspiring to contest the coming assembly polls from Boath, Adilabad and Nirmal assembly constituencies are joining the BJP in the erstwhile Adilabad district. BJP district leaders are encouraging more and more local-level leaders to come and join the party in the hope this would help them too to perform better in the next polls. News is also making rounds that senior BJP leaders are encouraging men with strong financial backgrounds to join the party so as to fund the election and other expenses of the party in future. Recently, two rank outsiders joined the BJP in the presence of the state party president Bandi Sanjay, district BJP president Payal Shankar and Adilabad MP Soyam Bapurao. Hints are that the BJP does not want to give more than one ticket to any family. Chakati Dasharath, a government employee who was working in the land records department quit the job and joined the BJP recently. He is seeking a party ticket from Boath constituency reserved for STs. Dasharath is a native of Dhanora village in Boath. Chilkuri Jyotireddy, a close relative of late MLA Vaman Reddy also joined the party reportedly with an eye on the Adilabad seat. Dr. Mallikarjun Reddy of Nirmal had joined the party during the ongoing Bandi Sanjays Praja Sangram Yatra. Reddy was in the BJP earlier but quit it when another doctor, Swarna Reddy, joined the party just before the last assembly elections. Later, Swarna Reddy of Nirmal joined the TRS. The number of new entrants as BJP ticket-seekers for the assembly elections is growing in Boath, Adilabad and Nirmal constituencies. Senior BJP leaders are encouraging new entrants from the Reddy community with a view to weakening the existing leaders from the same community and take advantage of the situation in the Adilabad constituency. It is learnt that Balaram Jadhav, who joined the BJP and financially backed the party, would seek the ticket from the Boath. District BJP leaders promised him the ticket and then took financial support for the party, one source said. Former Nirmal municipal chairman Appala Ganesh joined the BJP party and aims to contest the next elections from Nirmal. This apart, NRI Kandi Srinivas Reddy, aspiring for the Adilabad MLA seat, is likely to join the party in the presence of a top national BJP leaders. US Customs and Border Patrol intercepted 23 people on a federal terror watchlist crossing the southern border during 2021, including men from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Data obtained by Fox News via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that four of the apprehensions took place in the Rio Grande Valley Sector and four others were reported by Del Rio Sector. Border patrol officers assigned to the El Centro Sector and San Diego Sector each reported four arrests. There were three apprehensions made by El Paso Sector agents while Yuma Sector and Tucson Sector each recorded two arrests. A 21-year-old Saudi national with ties to a Yemeni terror group was stopped for illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border in Yuma, Arizona, on December 18, 2021. At least 23 people whose names appear on a U.S. government terror watch list were arrested by border patrol agents throughout 2021 for illegally crossing the southern border Two men aged 26 (left) and 33 (right) from Yemen were taken into custody earlier this year after they illegally crossed from Mexico to the United States and wee found to be on the FBI's terror suspect list According to the network, the 23 people were taken into custody between January 20, 2021 and December 30, 2021. Their names matched those that appeared on the Terror Screening Database, which has information on the people who are either proven or alleged of having been involved in terror activities. In March, Republican Representatives James Comer and John Katko urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas to publicly release the numbers of migrants who were stopped at the southern border and whose names are listed on the Terror Screening Database. 'It is no secret that terrorists and other bad actors attempt to exploit weakness in border security and vetting to enter the United States,' the lawmakers wrote. 'Reporting indicates that multiple individuals with terrorist ties have been recently apprehended after illegally crossing the border, and that such encounters may be increasing. The American people deserve to know whether President Biden's weak border policies are allowing terrorists to enter our homeland.' U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Sector busted a 21-year-old Saudi Arabia terror suspect on December 18. While the man's name was not released, the sector confirmed him 'as a positive match linked to several Yemeni subjects of interests.' In a shocking twist, the suspect was donning a volunteer paramedics jacket from an ambulance company in Central Oneida County, New York. Border officers assigned to the El Centro Sector also took into custody a two Yemeni men who were on the FBI's terror watch list in California earlier in the year. A 33-year-old suspect was apprehended January 29 approximately at 1:10am local time after he tried to cross the border illegally about three miles west from the Calexico Port of Entry. Agents discovered a cellular phone sim card hidden inside the insole of his shoe. A second individual, 26, was picked up by agents on March 30 at approximately 11:30pm. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has warned that Israel will be targeted by his countrys armed forces if it makes 'the tiniest move' against Iran. He spoke as talks stalled in Vienna over a deal to rein in Irans nuclear capabilities, which Tehran says are used for peaceful purposes. Israel opposes a deal, saying it does not do enough to curb Irans nuclear programme or its military activities across the region. Israeli officials have said they will unilaterally do what is necessary to protect their country. Mr Raisi addressed Israel directly during a speech at an annual parade of Irans armed forces. 'If the tiniest move by you happens against nation of Iran, centre of the Zionist regime will be destination of our armed forces,' Mr Raisi said, referring to Tel Aviv. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned Israel against making the 'tiniest move' against his country as talks over nuclear arms development come to a head Iran celebrated its national army day on Monday, a country which views military power as a deterrent. The army has managed to improve its capabilities despite US sanctions Talks in Vienna have stalled over a deal to rein in Irans nuclear capabilities. Tehran blames Israel for sabotaging its nuclear sites and assassinating its scientists to slow down production He did not elaborate but said Iran watches any move by Israel 'closely'. Iran has not recognised Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the pro-West monarchy and brought Islamists to power. It supports anti-Israeli militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Mr Raisi said that Irans military power is a deterrent and that the army has managed to improve its capabilities despite years of sanctions on the country over Tehrans nuclear programme. Mondays parade showcased jet fighters, helicopters, drones and air defence systems as well as tanks, missiles and naval vessels. Israel in recent years improved relations with neighbouring Arab nations in the Persian Gulf, which has angered Irans leaders. Tehran has blamed Israel for the sabotage of its nuclear sites and assassinations of its nuclear scientists. The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago when former president Donald Trump withdrew the United States and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded its nuclear work. US intelligence agencies believe Iran had an organised military nuclear programme until 2003. Iran insists its programme is aimed at generating power and for medical purposes. Former US president withdrew from the nuclear agreement entered into by former president Obama and resumed sanctions in Iran, which president Biden now seeks to resume Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on Monday that he'd 'love' to run against Donald Trump in a Republican presidential primary even if he was 'crushed' in the race. Kinzinger, one of the former president's loudest critics in Congress, announced last year that he would retire from the House of Representatives at the end of his current term. As for his political future, the Illinois Republican and Air Force Veteran told HuffPost that it would be 'fun' to call Trump's 'garbage' out in a campaign -- but gave no inclination that he's putting his hat in the ring for 2024. 'I would love it. I really would,' he said of running against the ex-leader. 'Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is.' He added, 'I think it'd be fun.' The interview notes that Kinzinger is aware that even running for state office would be difficult, with candidacies for governor or Senate being long shots after he was censured by the Illinois Republican Party for helping Democrats investigate Trump's ties to the January 6 Capitol riot. As for running for the White House, the military veteran said: 'I'll make a decision when we get there if there's a need and desire.' 'Its truly not anything Im planning right now, but Im not going to rule it out,' Kinzinger explained. Kinzinger (center) is one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. The other is the panel's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (right). Both were censured by the Republican National Committee for their work 'Look, if were in a position, if its just terrible candidates and the countrys in a worse place? Maybe. But theres no grand plan right now.' Trump is widely seen as the favorite for the GOP nomination in the next presidential cycle, though he has not formally declared his candidacy. He has, however, dropped numerous hints that supporters will be 'very happy' with his decision. Kinzinger would face an uphill battle against the ex-president, who polls double-digits above any potential opponent in multiple surveys of likely GOP voters. The next-most popular would-be candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is also closely tied to Trump. On Monday Kinzinger also confessed to being happy to leave Congress -- at least for now. 'Im exhausted of the same arguments, the same kind of performative politics,' he said. Kinzinger said he'd love to face the former president in a GOP primary even if he was 'crushed' 'I dont know. Maybe I would have run for governor. Maybe I would have run for Senate. Who knows? But yeah, my time in the House is, mercifully, coming to an end.' Kinzinger is one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, the other being the panel's vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). The committee has said it plans to hold explosive public hearings soon, that will likely involve testimony about Trump's ties to the insurrection. Both Cheney and Kinzinger's political careers have suffered a beating for their work on the Democrat-led committee, and by extension their criticism of Trump. The pair was censured by the Republican National Committee earlier this year, a highly unusual move against two sitting members of Congress. When Kinzinger announced his retirement in October, Trump celebrated via a statement from his Save America PAC. '2 down, 8 to go,' the ex-president gloated, referencing the 10 House Republicans who voted for his impeachment after the Capitol riot. A total of four lawmakers from that group have so far announced their retirements. Cheney is currently facing a Trump-backed primary challenge who also has the support of GOP leadership in the House. Kinzinger would have faced a tricky re-election battle himself if he chose to stay in office. Illinois' newly redrawn district map gives the state one less seat in Congress. The current race would have pitted him against another sitting Republican, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.). LaHood did not vote to impeach Trump, though in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack he said 'Some of the things he said at that [Stop the Steal rally] clearly incentivized and encouraged people to go up there, and that's part of the problem.' Despite his apparent enthusiasm for a potential head-to-head with Trump in 2024, Kinzinger last month called for the former president to be disqualified from running for high office again. He was responding to a Trump interview with far-right broadcast Just The News, in which the ex-president called on Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin to 'release' dirt on Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings in Eastern Europe. Trump made the comment just weeks after Putin ordered a brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that's since displaced millions and seen countless civilians slaughtered. Maryland Democrat Raskin accused Trump of trying to pull off a 'self-coup' and said he was 'prepared to seize the presidency' if rioters who broke into the Capitol on January 6 were successful in stopping Congress 'No former President should ever ask an evil man like Putin for a favor like Trump did just yesterday,' Kinzinger said. 'This is absolutely undermining the national security of this country and should be disqualifying for any re-election.' Earlier on Monday, another member of the Capitol riot committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), suggested the former president's part in the insurrection will play a central role in the panel's upcoming public hearings. 'This was a coup organized by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election,' Raskin told The Guardian, NPR and Reuters in joint interview. 'We're going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by Mike Pence's refusal to go along with that plan.' He said Trump 'was prepared to seize the presidency' on January 6 last year if rioters succeeded in taking over the Capitol and stopping a Joint Session of Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory. Raskin said in the interview taken Thursday that the country does not 'have a lot of experience with coups, and explained that Trump's actions were different because they 'did not involve the military or other faction attacking the president.' 'It's what the political scientists call a self-coup,' he said. 'It's a president fearful of defeat, overthrowing the constitutional process.' The top brass toll from Vladimir Putins brutal war in Ukraine continues to rise, with the death of another colonel. Colonel Ivan Grishin, commander of the 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade, died from abdominal shrapnel wounds. He was killed near Kharkiv. The news comes amid reports from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that 20,600 Russian servicemen have been killed in the war. Colonel Ivan Grishin, Commander of the 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian Army's tactical air defence unit, is reported to have been killed in Ukraine Just days ago, Russia lost its eighth general since the invasion of Ukraine in the latest blow to Vladimir Putin's botched war. Major General Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms unit, was given a military funeral in St Petersburg. It's not known how or where he died, but the timing of his funeral suggests Frolov was killed in the past few days. His 8th Combined Arms Army was fighting in Kherson, near Crimea last month when commander Andrei Mordvichev was killed. Referring to Grishin, Artem Malashchenkov, an MP from Smolensk, said: 'Sleep well, dear friend, your death will not be in vain.' 'The men will continue your work and fulfil all the tasks of the special military operation.' The politician said: 'I have no words for how hard it is to lose friends. Ivan was a real colonel - in the brigade his name was "Dad".' A father of two sons, he was 'an honest, sympathetic and very strong-willed person, a real colonel, a good family man - even writing about it hurts, I cant believe it', according to a memorial. Meanwhile, the youngest known soldier in the campaign, only identified from his DNA, has also died. Roman Akimov, 18, from Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, 'died heroically while performing his military duty during the special operation to liberate Donbas,' said his local district administration. His grieving parents Evgenia and Ivan were handed his posthumous Order of Courage, awarded on the instructions of Putin. His mutilated remains were only identified by DNA and it took three weeks before his parents were informed of his death. Another casualty was Roman Akimov, 18, the youngest known Russian serviceman to die in the Kremlin's war in Ukraine Roman Akimov, 18, is from the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. On Monday he became the youngest serving member of the Russian army to die. It took three weeks for Akimov's parents to be informed of his death as a DNA test had to be carried out in order to identify him The boy's parents Evgenia and Ivan were handed his posthumous Order of Courage, awarded on the instructions of Vladimir Putin, for his actions in Ukraine 'The last time we called him was on 15 March,' said his sister Natalia. 'He said he was alive and well. 'And then we lost contact. 'Only on 10 April did we learn that Roman had died on 17 March. 'This was confirmed after the DNA was taken.' His bereft mother posted his picture and a poem saying: 'I will never forget you, I swear, I promise. 'I had no time to say so many words to you. 'Forgive me for all the bad things. 'I wish I could hug you tightly. 'I wish I could say goodbye to you properly, looking into your eyes for the last time. 'Knowing firmly that you are calm there and heaven keeps you in peace.' Putin has now lost eight generals and at least 35 colonels - though the true numbers may be higher. There have been claims that Ukraine is specially targeting the top brass to undermine morale in the Russian forces. A British man accused of murdering his terminally ill wife has today had his trial in Cyprus adjourned until June , as the prosecution rejected an appeal to lessen the charge against him to assisted suicide. David Hunter, 74, is accused of the mercy killing of his 75-year-old wife Janice in December last year. The couple were married for 56 years, and she had been suffering from terminal leukaemia since 2016. Mr Hunter's lawyers today called for the adjournment of proceedings as they had not received all evidence submitted to the court, such as the medical examiner's forensic report. David Hunter (left), 74, is accused of the mercy killing of his 75-year-old wife Janice (right) last year. The couple were married for 56 years, and she had been suffering from terminal leukaemia since 2016. He is currently being held in Cyprus Hunter is represented by UK-based firm Justice Abroad, which said on Monday that the Cypriot prosecutor had rejected their request to drop the murder accusation in favour of the lesser charge of assisted suicide. 'We have been informed by the prosecution that these submissions have been rejected, but no reason was given,' Michael Polak of Justice Abroad said in a statement. 'We will continue to request that the prosecution take the principled decision so that we can bring David back home to his daughter in the United Kingdom as soon as possible.' The criminal court in the southwestern coastal city of Paphos on Monday adjourned Hunter's trial until June 16. Mr Hunter will die in prison if found guilty of murder. Due to the seriousness of the charge - which carries a life sentence - the court ruled that the defendant should remain in prison until his next hearing. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife. Mr and Mrs Hunter, pictured here on their wedding day, had retired to Cyprus before she was diagnosed with Leukaemia It is believed to be the first case involving assisted suicide in Cyprus. Hunter is a former miner from Northumberland, England, who retired to Cyprus with his wife, Janice. They had been together for 56 years and were teenage sweethearts. Janice Hunter was terminally ill and suffering from leukaemia since 2016. She was losing her sight, couldn't eat or drink and had constant diarrhoea that meant she needed nappies but was only given paracetamol by doctors. 'This was a terminal disease that had taken the life of her sister, and the pain she was under was getting worse,' said Justice Abroad. 'When she died in their flat in Paphos in December 2021, David Hunter was left stricken with grief, and he tried to end his own life.' According to Paphos police, the Briton 'confessed to killing his 75-year-old wife by blocking her nose and mouth with his hands'. He told police she was ill with leukaemia and that he 'could not see her suffer anymore'. David Hunter (right) poses on holiday with wife Janice (centre) and their daughter Lesley (left) Yesterday, tender love letters emerged that show the devotion of a British pensioner to the wife he is accused of murdering. The Daily Mail saw the last anniversary cards the couple wrote to each other months before Mrs Hunter's death, in Paphos, on December 18. They prove the family's insistence Mr Hunter was deeply in love with his wife and would never do anything to harm her. On the envelope of his card, the retired miner wrote: 'When I look up and see you, my world is filled with pleasure. 'Through all the years we've shared, you have been my greatest treasure.' Inside, another poem he penned reads: 'I love you today as I have from the start, and I'll love you forever with all of my heart.' In a message to her husband, Mrs Hunter writes: 'Another year for being with the best husband in the world. Love you forever, Janice xxx.' Tear-jerking letters exchanged by the pair proving their devotion were passed to the Daily Mail He has since told his daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, 49, that his wife made her wishes to die clear and talked about it every day in the last six weeks of her life. 'To begin with, he tried to dissuade her, then he said he would go with her,' she said. 'He loved her so much... I'm horrified they were so desperate they thought that dying together was the only way out.' Lesley, who works in financial advice, has been appealing for the charge to be downgraded through UK-based law firm Justice Abroad. Speaking to the Daily Mail last month, Mrs Cawthorne said she still supports her father despite what happened and the pair had been inseparable. 'He always said that from the moment he saw her, he never looked at another woman,' she said. 'They laughed together, always had something to say to each other; they never left one another's side. 'Dad is a good man. He doesn't deserve to die on his own in a foreign prison. He is so lonely. After 56 years with Mum, it's like missing a limb. Another moving letter from David to Janice says: 'I love you today as I have from the start' The loving daughter said her father has claimed Janice was 'talking about it (ending her life) daily'. 'To begin with, he tried to dissuade her, then he said he would go with her,' she said. 'He loved her so much. He has nightmares now when he can still hear her screaming in pain, and they had to deal with that on their own. I'm horrified they were so desperate they thought that dying together was the only way out.' The tragic events came to light when Mr Hunter rang his little brother in the UK after Janice's death to say he had taken an overdose of pills, and asking him to 'look after Lesley'. His brother contacted police in the UK, who in turn contacted Interpol and they helped arrange an emergency response in Cyprus. The former colliery worker was rushed to hospital in Paphos, where he spent four days in intensive care before being transferred to a psychiatric hospital. The Cypriot parliament is discussing whether to legalise euthanasia, a taboo subject among the majority Greek Orthodox community of the island. But even prison guards have taken pity on Mr Hunter who retired to the island from Northumberland with his wife and privately told his daughter that they believe he should not be facing murder charges. It comes after Cypriot prosecutors charged a British woman with making up a rape claim there. The 21-year-old went from victim to accused after police coerced a 'confession', but she was acquitted this year after pressure from the UK media. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-bring-david-home If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org. Multiple unvaccinated Boston Red Sox players, including pitcher Tanner Houck, will miss the team's upcoming series with the Toronto Blue Jays due to Canadian travel restrictions, team manager Alex Cora confirmed Monday. The Red Sox begin a four-game series April 25 in Toronto, where the Canadian government requires visitors to have received a second COVID-19 vaccine dose (or one Johnson & Johnson dose) at least 14 days prior to entry. Cora also announced Monday that catcher Kevin Plawecki and two Red Sox staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Plawecki is vaccinated, Cora said. It is not yet known which other players may be unvaccinated. Houck told the Boston Globe this weekend that he is not vaccinated and will not pitch in the series at Toronto. Right-hander Tanner Houck told the Boston Globe this weekend that he is not vaccinated and will not pitch in the series at Toronto Red Sox manager Alex Cora also announced Monday that catcher Kevin Plawecki and two Red Sox staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Plawecki is vaccinated, Cora said 'I think it's a personal choice for everyone whether they get it or not,' Houck told the Globe before Sunday's 8-1 win against the Twins. 'So, that's all I really got to say on it.' Asked Sunday if he expected to be missing other players, Cora replied, 'Yeah.' 'We knew it beforehand, so we'll plan accordingly,' Cora said. Plawecki, 31, is batting .100 (1 for 10) with one RBI and four strikeouts in four games this season. Houck, 25, is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA through two starts. He has struck out seven and walked six in nine innings. Alex Cora (pictured) said two Red Sox staffers also tested positive for COVID-19 this week A similar situation is unfolding in the NBA, where Philadelphia 76ers forward Matisse Thybulle was declared ineligible for at least Games 3 and 4 of team's first-round playoff series with the Toronto Raptors because of Canada's restrictions on foreign travelers who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Thybulle, 25, said last week that he's received just one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. 'I'm not fully vaccinated,' Thybulle said after the 76ers clinched the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a win over the Detroit Pistons. 'This was a decision I made a long time ago. I thought a lot about what I'd say here. Essentially, I made this choice and I thought I could keep it to myself, I could keep it private, but people are always going to wonder why.' Around 97 percent of NBA players are vaccinated. A Ukrainian woman who fled Kyiv on the day Russia invaded said she is 'very excited' to be launching her own hairdressing business in south-east London. Since February 27, Elena Lishchun has been staying with her daughter, Anna Walker, who has lived in the UK for seven years and helped find Ms Lishchun a place to work near her home in Greenwich. Ms Lishchun, 56, has worked as a hairdresser her 'whole life' in Ukraine and said she feels 'lucky' to be able to rent a chair at Headcase Barbers in Greenwich Creekside. 'My whole life I've been working as a hairdresser, I love my work and that's the only thing I've ever considered doing,' Ms Lishchun said. Elena Lishchun has posted on Instagram about the chair she is renting at Headcase Barbers in Greenwich Creekside Elena Lishchun, 56, has been staying with her daughter, Anna Walker, 33 and British son-in-law 'I haven't seen any negative sides of me moving here, everyone's been welcoming and supportive and sharing their support. 'I'm just very determined and focused to find work because I'm used to work ... I'm very excited.' Ms Lishchun, originally from Donetsk, Ukraine, had been living in Kyiv for three and a half years prior to the Russian invasion. Her daughter, who works in HR and has a child with her British husband, was originally able to house Ms Lishchun through a visitor's visa, which they have now switched to a visa under the Ukraine Family Scheme. 'She never wanted to do anything else, she finds a lot of pleasure in (hairdressing),' Ms Walker, 33, said. 'We started to look at where she could rent a chair and set up her own client base and her own business, as opposed to be employed by a salon because mainly because of her language issues. Ms Walker, who works in HR and has a child with her British husband, was originally able to house Ms Lishchun through a visitor's visa, which they have now switched to a visa under the Ukraine Family Scheme 'Luckily, we were able to find a place that would rent out a chair where she can continue working.' Ms Walker said they found a salon managed by a Ukrainian man who is willing to offer a chair to Ms Lishchun. On her Instagram page, Ms Lishchun explains that she has more than 30 years experience hairdressing and will leave customers 'looking your best for your professional and personal life'. She adds: 'At the moment my English is very limited, but I am starting classes soon. In the meantime, Google translate is my friend when communicating.' Her mother will be starting English classes to help grow her clientele as local people have offered courses for free. 'The biggest gap is the English and the understanding of English - that's the only problem I see but I'm going to start classes ... I never thought I would need English in my life at this level,' Ms Lishchun said. 'There are local people who offer courses for Ukrainian refugees for free here in Greenwich and the community has been extremely supportive with everything,' Ms Walker added. Ms Lishchun said she has left behind family, friends, and a one-year-old apartment in Kyiv. She plans to return to Ukraine as soon as possible and still wanted to work the morning Russia invaded on February 24. 'I actually woke her up in the night because she was sleeping like really tightly and she couldn't hear that the war had started,' Ms Walker explained. 'We called her and we said, 'Get your get your things ready, you need to get on the move because the war has started'. 'And she said, 'I need to wake up at seven to go to work. It's a very busy day for me today.' Ms Lishchun said she has left behind family, friends and plans to return to Ukraine as soon as possible Ms Lishchun already has a few bookings with friends and family, but added that many Ukrainians coming to the UK might not be so lucky finding work. 'I'm lucky, but other people might not be as lucky,' she said. 'It will be more difficult for them to settle in. 'The situation will be different for people who have family here and people who are coming on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.' Ms Walker added she has found it 'really, really comforting' for her mother to have access to medication and a GP here in the UK. 'The most important point for me was that she was safe,' she said. 'But obviously once she was here, we welcomed a lot that she's able to stay here, she's able to work here, she's able to get the NHS support as well. 'We have a little bit more of a positive outlook on the future.' Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday bestowed an honorary title on a brigade widely thought to be responsible for war crimes and mass killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence intelligence directorate (SBU) earlier this month identified the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of the 35th All-Russian Army as the primary unit responsible for the horrific scenes now synonymous with Russia's war in Ukraine. The 'butchers of Bucha' left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, and Ukrainian authorities are still working with an international team of forensic experts to examine the bodies and gather evidence of war crimes. But a presidential decree signed today by Putin has recognised all members of the brigade for their 'mass heroism' in defending 'state interests'. 'For mass heroism, valour, tenacity and courage shown by the personnel of the brigade in combat operations to protect the Motherland and state interests, I decree the title 'Guards' upon the brigade,' Putin's letter read. The honours were bestowed despite Ukrainian intelligence suggesting the brigade has already redeployed to eastern Ukraine to the front lines of the conflict. The SBU suspects Russian leaders sent the brigade to the hottest spots in the hope they would be killed and therefore unable to testify in any future war crime tribunals. Putin's decree of honours for the brigade was made on the 54th day of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, which has forced 12 million people to flee their homes or country and sparked Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday bestowed an honorary title on a brigade widely thought to be responsible for war crimes and mass killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha (Ukrainian investigators exhume bodies from a mass grave in the grounds of the St Andrew church in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, on April 8, 2022) The 'butchers of Bucha' left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, and Ukrainian authorities are still working with an international team of forensic experts to examine the bodies and gather evidence of war crimes A presidential decree signed today by Putin has recognised all members of the brigade for their 'mass heroism' in defending 'state interests'. 'For mass heroism, valour, tenacity and courage shown by the personnel of the brigade in combat operations to protect the Motherland and state interests, I decree the title 'Guards' upon the brigade,' Putin's letter read EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, visits a mass grave in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8. An international team of forensic experts are working with Ukrainian authorities to exhume the dead Azatbek Omurbekov (right) is the commander of Russia's 64th separated motorised rifle brigade - the unit thought to be behind the torture and slaughter of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha. In November, he received a blessing from the Orthodox Church In early April, the Ukrainian defence ministry said the unit occupied the town of Bucha, which lies just outside the capital Kyiv, and committed heinous crimes against the civilian population before withdrawing to Belarus. The brigade's commander is Lieutenant Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, who has earned the nickname of the 'Butcher of Bucha' for the civilian massacre carried out by the men under his leadership. After the departure of Russian troops, bodies of civilians, some with their hands tied, were found scattered in the streets, while Ukrainian authorities discovered a series of mass graves containing hundreds of corpses. A majority of people in Bucha died from gunshot wounds, Ukrainian police said last week, declaring that more than 500 bodies have been found so far. The SBU has in recent weeks worked with cyber police and thousands of researchers to obtain the ranks and passports details of members of the brigade, in an attempt to bring them to justice. But there are fears the men who committed the crimes will die on the frontlines before they can be arrested and brought to justice. A report published on the Ukrainian MoD's website earlier this month said the brigade is being sent to the 'hottest spots', likely around Kharkiv, Izyum and the Donbas, in the hope that they will be killed before they are forced to testify in a war crime tribunal. 'Another goal of the rapid return of the 64th Brigade to Ukrainian territory is the quick 'disposal' of unnecessary witnesses,' the report read. 'That is, redeployment to a part of the war front where they will have no chance of surviving, thus making it impossible for them to testify in future courts.' Galyna Bondar, mourns next to the grave of her son Oleksandr, 32, after burying him at the cemetery in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday, April 16, 2022 Nadiya Trubchaninova, 70, cries next to the body of her son Vadym, 48, who was killed by a Russian Army gunshot last March 30, during his funeral in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday, April 16, 2022 Putin's decree of honours for the brigade was made on the 54th day of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, which has forced 12 million people to flee their homes or country and sparked Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II The honouring of the butchers of Bucha came just one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for US President Joe Biden to visit his country and declared Ukrainian authorities have 'substantial evidence' that Russia's troops are committing genocide in Ukraine. Zelensky was asked by CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper about whether there are 'any plans' for Biden to come see the situation for himself. 'I think he will,' the Ukrainian president answered. He quickly added: 'It's his decision of course, and about the safety situation.' 'But I think he's the leader of the United States, and that's why he should come here to see.' Late last week Biden confirmed that his administration was discussing a possible Kyiv trip by a senior official and was 'making that decision now.' He told reporters that he wanted to go himself. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki backtracked on the president's comment just hours later during a taping of the Pod Save America Podcast. Zelensky said he understood there are concerns about the 'safety situation' but claimed the president of the United States should see the conflict firsthand Dead bodies litter the streets near Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, after Russian forces withdrew from the region - leaving evidence of 'war crimes' in their wake Wreckage of war .and bodies lie in the streets of Irpin and Bucha, recently liberated from invading Russian troops in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukraine on April 3, 2022 Psaki said it's true Biden was 'ready to go.' But, she added, 'we are not sending the president to Ukraine' -- a policy line that senior administration officials have held consistently through Russia's war. It comes after a slew of NATO leaders descended upon Kyiv in recent weeks, some even seeing the horrors found in the capital's suburbs after Kremlin troops' retreat firsthand. Multiple American leaders, including Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, accused Putin and his soldiers of 'genocide.' British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it 'doesn't look far short' of the heinous crime. 'I have the same opinion as President Biden, and I immediately saw what was happening here. Especially what happened in Bucha and in the east of our country,' Zelensky said in his Sunday interview. 'I speak about this because Russia calls it a military operation, and not a war. But look what happened in Bucha. It's clear that is not even a war -- it's a genocide.' A convicted murderer and known gang member has vowed in a leaked phone call to get woke Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon's name tattooed to his face after his charges were greatly reduced. Luis Angel Hernandez, who is currently serving time for shooting and killing a delivery person for a marijuana delivery service during an armed robbery in 2018, had faced sentencing enhancements which would have added to his prison sentence. But when Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon took office in 2020, he implemented a directive barring prosecutors from applying these enhancements in nearly all cases, no matter the circumstances - and all of the sentencing enhancements lobbied against Hernandez were dropped. In a leaked phone call from prison exclusively obtained by FOX News, Hernandez could be heard praising Gascon for the change, saying: 'I'm going to get that n*****'s name on my face. That's a champ right there. 'F****** Gascon,' Hernandez could be heard saying in the audio, which was featured in a Tucker Carlson series about the rising crime in the City of Angels. 'That's the n***** right there, bro. He's making historic changes for all of us, bro.' Luis Angel Hernandez, who is currently serving time for shooting and killing a delivery person for a marijuana delivery in 2018, had faced sentencing enhancements which would have added to his prison sentence - but they were overturned under woke District Attorney George Gascon's policies He said in a leaked phone recording obtained by FOX News he plans to get Gascon's name tattooed to his face Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Fox News Privacy Policy Hernandez had originally faced sentencing enhancements for being a gang member, using a firearm in the commission of a crime and for the 'special circumstance' of committing murder during an armed robbery for the 2018 incident. 'This s*** looking real good,' Hernandez says, noting: 'Now we got a new DA in LA so they're going to drop a gang of, um, like my gun enhancement, my gang enhancement. 'My gang enhancement is 10 years, fool, for being a gang member,' he says. 'And then the gun in the commission of a crime. 'I'm just grateful, fool. Like I got good news off that s***. 'They're like "You coming home, blood." They already told me, my lawyer told me "You're coming home,' Hernandez says. It is unclear who he is speaking to. He initially faced life in prison without parole, FOX News reports, which has also been barred by Gascon's woke directives to prosecutors, and is now eligible for youthful offender parole - which would limit his time in prison to just 25 years. It is unclear how old Hernandez was when he committed the murder, which he has pleaded guilty to. DailyMail.com has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for more information. But Hernandez is not the only convicted criminal who has praised Gascon's woke policies in recent months. In February, FOX News obtained and published audio of a convicted transgender sex offender named Hannah Tubbs gloating about the light punishment she received after she was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor at a Denny's restaurant. Tubbs, who was born James Tubbs, was a minor at the time, and under Gascon's policy of never transferring minors to adult court, Tubbs received a two-year sentence - and was placed in a juvenile facility for women. And in another leaked video obtained by FOX, convicted murderer Phillip Dorsett was seen drinking prison moonshine and toasting the woke district attorney. 'Right here with my cellie,' he says in the video. 'Some white lightning, a little cup, boom. Celebrating us going home on this Gascon directive. Whoop.' Dorsett is serving a 40-year prison sentence for the 2005 execution-style murder of a rival gang member, FOX reports. Gascon (pictured) came into office in the heavily Democrat city in December 2020 and immediately embarked on a progressive justice reform agenda Another convict, Hannah Tubbs, formerly known as James, 26, (pictured in 2014) was sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility for assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's bathroom in 2014 Gascon, a 67-year-old former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, took over as district attorney in the heavily Democrat city in December 2020 and immediately embarked on a progressive justice reform agenda. He has been vocal about his belief that the criminal justice system needs to focus more on intervention and rehabilitation, blasting 'tough on crime' policies as racist and a failure. And following his first 100 days in office, he touted the changes he has made to the city's justice system - including limiting the use of sentencing enhancements like the ones lobbied against Hernandez. The California penal code has more than 100 enhancements that could add time to a convict's sentence depending on the situation, most of which date back to when California was facing soaring crime in the 1980s and 1990s. But under Gascon's reign, the use of those enhancements have been greatly reduced, with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 5,138 enhancements during his first three months - a 71 percent drop when compared to the same time the year before, when former District Attorney Jackie Lacey was in power, according to LAist. Under Lacey, prosecutors filed 715 gun enhancements between December 2019 and February 2020 under the state's '10-20-Life' law, which adds 10 years to a sentence if you use a gun during the commission of a robbery or any other crime. The law also adds 20 years if the suspect discharges the gun, and 25 years if they wound someone in the process. In Gascon's first three months in office, however, prosecutors filed only 106 gun enhancements - an 85 percent decrease. Without these enhancements, Gascon projected at a news conference last March that criminal defendants charged in his first three months in office could spend at least 8,172 fewer years in prison - though he noted it could be much higher. He touted that as progress at the news conference, saying: 'There generally is no correlation between the length of a sentence and the likelihood that someone will not commit crimes.' He has also enacted new bail reform laws that allow repeated offenders to be released back into society without facing severe or lengthy punishment for their crimes. And in December, Gascon expanded a program to drop criminal proceedings against juveniles charged with a range of felonies under a 'restorative justice' approach, which focuses on mediation between the offender and the victim. Eligible candidates for the REDY program could avoid criminal charges if they participate in programs to 'address the underlying issues that contribute to criminal behavior, such as mental health needs or substance use,' the DA's office said at the time. It seeks to 'expand opportunities for young people to be connected with services that support their development while offering opportunities to take accountability for their actions through a process that also supports those who have been hurt and their needs.' Gascon claimed in a statement that the program 'will help repair the immense harm that criminal behavior inflicts on our community by giving crime victims the opportunity to actively participate in the restorative justice process.' Violent crimes are up 7 percent so far in 2022 when compared to the same time period in 2021 But according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics, violent crimes are up 7 percent so far in 2022 when compared to the same time period the year before, with robberies up 17.7 percent and aggravated assaults up 4.4 percent. Burglaries are also up 4.7 percent compared to the same time period last year, and motor vehicle thefts are up 9.1 percent. Gascon has since released a PSA teaching residents how to lock their cars to avoid having them stolen, and in March the Los Angeles Police Department warned residents not to wear their pricey jewelry after people had their watches and jewelry snatched straight from their bodies by brazen thieves. 'Over the last year there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public. If it is visible, it can be a target,' the LAPD statement said last month. The warning was met with incredulity from some, who asked why the police force isn't doing more to round up thieves. 'So we're supposed to give up everything, because they allow these criminals to walk the streets, instead of putting them in prison, where they belong?' one critic said. 'What's wrong with this picture?' another asked. Matthew Adams, 18, was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on March 31 at a traffic stop. He is being charged with seven counts of robbery and two gun enhancements, according to police, and could face up to more than 20 years in jail if found guilty. He was released from jail four times this year due to the city's lax bail laws Adams is seen as the main suspect of several other robberies taking place all across L.A. with most of them taking place in Hollywood, between January and March of this year. Two robberies were also reported in Burbank and in the neighborhood of West L.A. At least some of the crimes in the city are being committed by repeat offenders, officials claim. LAPD Capt. Jonathan Tippet said at a news conference he is 'absolutely frustrated' over an uptick in robberies - in part because some of the jailed suspects are getting released and reoffending while awaiting trial due to the city's lax bail laws Last month, LAPD Capt. Jonathan Tippet said at a news conference he is 'absolutely frustrated' over an uptick in robberies - in part because some of the jailed suspects are getting released and reoffending while awaiting trial due to the city's lax bail laws. In March, he said, three men in the city were arrested as suspects in armed follow-home robberies that began in January - including one was involved in eight separate follow-off robberies over a sixth-month period starting last fall, during which he was released seven times due to the city's lax criminal policies. Matthew Adams, 18, was arrested for a seventh time in 2022 on March 31, accused of attacking two UCLA students outside one of the university's dorms, and taking their expensive watches as well as an iPhone, adding up to more than $145,000 in goods, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) statement confirmed. Adams also is being linked to at least four other follow-home-style robberies in Hollywood, Burbank and West L.A. The three are accused of identifying victims wearing expensive items and following them from a public location to a more private one, where they'd mug the targets. Ideal spots included upscale restaurants, and clubs in the Hollywood area. Victims would be tracked back to their apartments or hotels, police said. The two other men, Eric Wilson and Jayon Sparks, also were arrested in connection with the robberies, police said. Efforts are now underway to oust Gascon, with more than 600 deputy district attorneys throughout LA County endorsing his recall during an Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) meeting. Two prosecutors - Maria Ramirez and Victor Rodriguez - have also said they are suing their boss after they claim they were demoted for making complaints about his policies, according to Fox News. Advertisement Thandiwe Newton's husband cut a solitary figure today as speculation grew that he and his wife have split just days after she was allegedly sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3. The A-list actress, 49, and film director Ol Parker, 52, reportedly parted, following claims that she had a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum, amid growing concern around her behaviour. Mr Parker, who has three children with the Hollywood star and who wrote and directed the 2018 musical film 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' remained alone at their 1.5 million London home with the shutters down on each window, out of synch with neighbouring homes enjoying the Bank Holiday sunshine. The movie man only ventured out to collect a DHF parcel delivery and was shoeless, unshaven and dressed in a grey T-shirt and jeans. He also had two rings in his left ear. Behind him in the front window for all to see was a neon lit sign which read 'Dream'. Asked about reports of his marriage split, the 52-year-old said: 'I don't want to say anything, thank you.' He has been married to the BAFTA winning actress since 1998. The couple share three children, Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight. Thandiwe Newton's husband Ol Parker remained alone at their 1.5 million London home with the shutters down on each window, out of synch with neighbouring homes enjoying the Bank Holiday sunshine In February, Thandiwe came under fire for a 'cringey' and 'patronising' interview to promote the movie God's Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to 'darker-skinned actresses' for 'taking their roles' The movie man only ventured out to collect a DHF parcel delivery and was shoeless, unshaven and dressed in a grey T-shirt and jeans. He also had two rings in his left ear. Behind him in the front window for all to see was a neon lit sign which read 'Dream' The couple's 1.5m London home. Asked about reports of his marriage split, the 52-year-old said: 'I don't want to say anything, thank you' Eight weeks ago he completed directing his latest movie 'Ticket to Paradise' which stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Mr Parker, who has less then 5000 Twitter followers compared to his wife's 178,000, posted the message: 'We just wrapped on 'Ticket to Paradise'. 'I got lucky again with an extraordinary cast and crew. Beautiful people and times x.' Ms Newton is said to be entering rehab in Arizona, according to reports Colleagues have become increasingly worried about the actress, 49, with sources describing her as 'acting strange on set', 'always ranting and raving', and being 'very highly strung'. There are now claims she is 'heading to rehab', according to Page Six, which reported a source as saying: 'Her apparent breakdown caused so much disruption, it became clear she couldn't play the role. 'There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed she even brought her two pet rabbits to her hotel for emotional support.' In February, she came under fire for a 'cringey' and 'patronising' interview to promote the movie God's Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to 'darker-skinned actresses' for 'taking their roles'. In the film she plays a grieving black professor who confronts two white hunters on her property. But Thandiwe told Sky News she considered not taking the role due to concerns about 'colourism'. Beginning to well up, the actress said she 'wanted to apologise every day to darker-skinned actresses'. She said: 'It's been very painful to have women who look like my mum feel like I'm not representing them. That I'm taking from them. Taking their men, taking their work, taking their truth. I didn't mean to.' Thandiwe, who reverted to the African spelling of her name after previously going by 'Thandie', has been married to Ol Parker since 1998. The couple share three children, Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight. Ms Newton has been described as being 'very demanding' and behaving like an 'absolute diva' on the set of Magic Mike 3, according to one crew member. 'Everyone on set found her challenging to work with,' they told The Sun. 'She's an absolute diva. I've watched her have a go at the first assistant director, her costume girl. She's always ranting and raving about something.' Family: The couple share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019) Split? Thandiwe Newton has allegedly separated from her husband Ol Parker and is likely headed to rehab according to a new report (pictured with Ol in 2018) A spokesman claimed she stepped away from the film - to be replaced by Selma Hayek - because she needed to deal with family matters. But it has been reported her position became untenable after she fell out with co-star Channing Tatum, 41, on set in Paddington, west London. It was claimed they had an unimaginably vicious argument over Will Smiths behaviour at the Oscars, when he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage. An unnamed crew member said: They fell out over the debacle at the Oscars. I was on set... It was a tense exchange of words, but suddenly it escalated Channing got into this car and he disappeared. However, this account of events has not been corroborated by anyone else. An insider added that she fired her UK agent of three decades as her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help. Gaby is considered one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, representing stars including Matthew McConaughey and Minnie Driver over her thirty year career at powerhouse agency William Morris. Ms Newton has reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks. The insider said of her next steps: 'Thandiwe's team wants her to go to rehab for mental health support. She was supposed to leave immediately for a facility, they tried for a Malibu rehab, but they couldn't take her. Arrangements are now being made to go to a facility in Arizona, if she agrees to go.' Thandiwe with Channing Tatum on the set of Magic Mike 3 in London EXCLUSIVE: Channing (pictured with his girlfriend Zoe Kravitz) is seen for the first time since his co-star Thandiwe exited Magic Mike 3 following claims of an 'on-set bust-up' A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson said: 'Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures' Magic Mike's Last Dance to deal with family matters.' The statement came after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident. The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington. A source said: 'Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandiwe Newton is the number two star. But 11 days into shooting and it's all over. 'They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation. 'After the row he just went, 'I am not working with her anymore'. Him being a producer, it's his movie, so she's off the movie.' Bengaluru: Amid the demands for the Cabinet expansion ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections next year, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said that a meeting on the matter will be held in New Delhi in which the party high command will take the decision. Speaking to the reporters, Bommai said, "The BJP president JP Nadda has stated that a meeting will be held in Delhi. The party high command will take a call on Cabinet expansion or reshuffle." Earlier on Sunday, during his two-day visit to the state, Nadda held a meeting with the state core committee of the party in the presence of the Chief Minister and discussed organisational issues. Recently, Bommai during his two-day visit to the national capital had met the party's top brass, including the national president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The cabinet expansion of the eight-month-old government has been stated to have been the top agenda during the meeting. Upon his return from New Delhi, the Chief Minister had termed his visit "successful". Notably, Bommai, who also belongs to the politically influential Lingayat community, was sworn in as the Chief Minister on July 28 last year after his predecessor BS Yediyurappa stepped down from the post. Karnataka is scheduled to go to the polls next year, for which Bommai has blown the bugle in the Vijayanagar convention on Sunday. "We will seek a positive mandate from farmers, women and weaker sections for our good governance, enforcing law and order, and nationalist agenda. We will go to the people with our performance report card," Bommai said. Donald Trump is once again taking a swing at New York's Attorney General Letitia James, suggesting on Monday that the Democrat official focus on 'saving' her state amid a rising crime wave rather than her high-profile tax fraud probe into his family business. He sent out a bizarre Easter Sunday message directed at James as well, calling her 'racist' in both. James said she 'will not be bullied' by Trump in a fiery reply on Monday afternoon. 'With the horrible Subway Shootings and Violent Crime in New York being at an all-time high, where people are afraid to walk the streets, the racist and highly partisan Attorney General of New York State, failed Gubernatorial candidate Letitia James, should focus her efforts on saving the State of New York and ending its reputation as a Crime Capital of the World,' Trump said through his Save America PAC. He was likely referencing a mass shooting in New York City's Brooklyn borough that saw 10 passengers wounded by gunfire on a subway train car and more than a dozen others injured in the ensuing chaos. The suspect, Frank James, was charged in a federal court -- meaning his case is out of the state attorney general's jurisdiction. But instead of focusing on crime in the Empire State, Trump accused James on Monday of spending 'millions of dollars and utilizing a large portion of her office in going after Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization (for many years!), who have probably done more for New York than virtually any other person or group, including employing many wonderful people and paying millions and millions of dollars in taxes.' New York Attorney General Letitia James (right) has a frequent target of attacks from Donald Trump (left) ever since her office launched a tex fraud investigation into his family real estate empire Trump released a lengthy statement on Monday taking aim at James and calling her a 'racist political hack' He said of her probe, 'This never-ending Witch Hunt must stop.' 'We dont need racist political hacks going after good, hardworking people for highly partisan political gain,' the tirade continued. 'The people of our Country see right through it all, and wont take this Radical Left sickness anymore. Make New York Great Again!' James responded less than two hours later, 'Like all Americans, Donald J. Trump is entitled to defend himself in court.' 'However, this attorney general will not be bullied or intimidated by the former president,' she continued. 'The courts have ruled time and time again that the offices investigation into Mr. Trump and his financial dealings is legitimate and lawful, and Attorney General James will continue to follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead. Nothing will dissuade her from pursuing justice.' Crime in New York City has been on the rise for months, a troubling pattern as city officials including Mayor Eric Adams look to welcome residents and tourists back to a normal way of life resembling pre-pandemic times. A significant portion of blame has also befallen Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, with critics claiming his upheaval of certain city crime policies -- including pivoting away from prosecuting minor offenses -- have contributed to the rise in violent incidents. Trump also knocked James for last week's mass shooting in a Brooklyn, New York subway car. The suspect who police arrested in the matter has been charged in federal court, however, which is out of James' purview Overall crime in all of New York City is up 44.26 percent from this time last year, and 27 percent from this time in 2020, according to the New York Police Department's most recently available data ending on April 10. The number of shooting victims has risen by 9.3 percent from April 2021 and 70.4 percent from April 2020. There have, however, been fewer murders reported so far this year -- 103 in 2022 compared to 116 in 2021, an 11.2-percent drop. Last year the city cut its longstanding ties with the Trump Organization over the former president's responsibility in the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. James, who has been investigating whether the Trump family real estate empire has been deliberately misleading in financial documents in order to obtain favorable loans and other business deals, dropped out of this year's New York governor's race earlier this year. The announcement came the same day her office subpoenaed the former president and his two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. All three have been waging a court battle against James to avoid sitting down with her prosecutors. Trump mocked James for leaving the gubernatorial race in both his Monday and Sunday statements. Trump's second Easter statement mocked James for withdrawing from New York's gubernatorial race. The first paid tribute to 'Radical Left Maniacs' 'Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James,' he said through his Save America PAC on Sunday. 'May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!' It's not clear why Trump targeted James specifically in the back-to-back written attacks. DailyMail.com has reached out to James' office for comment. Earlier this month, she accused Trump of deliberately missing a court-ordered deadline to produce documents relevant to her investigation. James in a court filing asked a judge to hold the ex-president in contempt and fine him $10,000 for every day he does not comply. 'The judges order was crystal clear: Donald J. Trump must comply with our subpoena and turn over relevant documents to my office,' James said in a statement. 'Instead of obeying a court order, Mr. Trump is trying to evade it. We are seeking the courts immediate intervention because no one is above the law.' Trump has lashed out at James' probe as a politically motivated 'witch hunt' on numerous occasions, and also attacked Manhattan DA Bragg for a parallel criminal investigation he's overseeing into the Trump Organization. A senior Pentagon official said on Monday the Department of Defense must behave more like Elon Musk's Space X to drive innovation and stay ahead of adversaries as he announced his departure. Preston Dunlap, the Pentagon's first chief architect officer, said the 'world's largest bureaucracy' needed 'structural change.' He laid out a nine-page playbook as he announced his resignation after three years in the post at the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Air Force, where he oversaw a $70 billion budget for research, development and acquisition. His is the latest departure among senior officials who have warned that the U.S. risks losing its technological edge over competitors such as China. Dunlap said the Pentagon needed to put aside internal turf wars and projects that amounted to reinventing the wheel, and focus instead on tapping the private sector, defending the country and staying apace with China. Musk's satellite launch company, he said, provided him with an example during his three-year tenure. 'By the time the government manages to produce something, it is too often obsolete; no business would ever survive this way, nor should it. Following a commercial approach, just like Space X, allowed me to accomplish a number of "firsts" in DoD in under two years,' he wrote in a statement posted to LinkedIn. Preston Dunlap, the Pentagon's first chief architect officer, announced his departure on Monday with a nine-page memo urging the Department of Defense to move faster in developing and acquiring technology or risk losing its edge over competitors Dunlap said Elon Musk's SpaceX had served as an example for getting things done SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from California with a top secret payload. Its first-stage booster is seen here returning to base - using technology that gave the company an advantage over competitors in the satellite launch industry Success included linking U.S. sensors and networks around the world in real time, and the use of AI algorithms. But he said the U.S. was in danger of losing its global advantage. 'Were falling behind the commercial base in key areas, so we've got to catch up,' he told Bloomberg News. His warning came after the Pentagon's first ever chief software officer resigned last year in protest at the slow pace of technological transformation in the U.S. military, claiming the failure to respond to China winning the Artificial Intelligence battle was putting the U.S. at risk. Nicolas Chaillan, 37, told the Financial Times after resigning: 'We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years.' 'Right now, it's already a done deal it is already over in my opinion,' he added. 'Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal.' He blamed sluggish innovation, the reluctance of U.S. companies such as Google to work with the government on AI and extensive ethical debates over the technology. Chaillan described Monday as a 'bad day for America' with news of Dunlap's departure. 'This is bad. Really bad. I've officially lost hope,' he posted on Twitter. 'We lost all innovators and best talent... I don't see anyone close to being able to replace Preston.' Last year Nicolas Chaillan said he resigned as the Pentagons first chief software officer because he could not stand watching China overtake the U.S. Concerns have also been raised at the way the U.S. is falling behind China and Russia in developing hypersonic weapons - capable at traveling at more than 25 times the speech of sound and evading conventional missile defense systems. In his departure message, Dunlap said driving change was not so different to accelerating a rocket to 25,000 miles per hour - the speed needed to escape earth's gravity. 'Similarly, driving innovation and change in a large organization - let alone the largest organization on the planet, the Department of Defense - is hard. But not impossible,' he wrote. 'There are any number of forces at work in a large organization: Friction, sand in the gears, the frozen middle, bureaucracy, tradition, culture, stovepipes, analysis paralysis, risk aversion, programing and budgeting, and so on. 'The system is generally set up to pull everyone and every idea down to the status quo. 'Driving change requires defying gravity.' Earlier this month, the director of the Pentagon's tech hub said the slow pace of developing or buying technology was a 'glaring weakness.' 'But now we're in a serious tech competition with China and they're not waiting for our democratic timeframes,' Michael Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee. This is the shocking moment a Cuban mother and her son were rescued by Mexican immigration agents while they attempted to cross the Rio Grande River to reach the United States border in Texas. The woman and the child were trekking across the waterway with two other individuals when they got stuck in the middle of the river in the Coahuila town of Benito Juarez on Friday. The four migrants had struggled to stay afloat before the agents with the National Institute of Migration went into the river to help them back to riverbank. An agent with Mexico's National Institute of Migration escorts a Cuban woman and her son after they got stuck in the middle of the Rio Grande River while they were trying to reach the United States border in Texas on Friday Mexican immigration agents accompany a Cuban migrant and her son moments after they were pulled out from the Rio Grande River near the Coahuila town of Benito Juarez on Friday An agent with Mexico's Institute of Migration walks into the Rio Grande River to stop four migrants from reaching the U.S. border through the dangerous water. A woman from Cuba accepted his advice and returned to the shore with her son while two other individuals decided to go further into the river Footage recorded by digital news outlet ABC Media showed one of the border officers carrying the little boy as his mother waded through the water that was above her knees. The second agent pleaded with the two other migrants to follow him back to the shore, but they rejected his advice and continued further into the Rio Grande River. Moments later, the force of the rivers current increased and the two individuals were seen swimming downstream as two U.S. Border Patrol agents tracked their movement. The mother and her son were both found to be in good health after undergoing a medical exam and were placed in custody of the National Institute of Migrations Ciudad Acuna border station. According to data released by the immigration agency Sunday, 115,379 migrants have been intercepted in the country between January 1 and April 13. At least 15 percent were identified as minors. Mexico's National Institute of Migration said the Cuban woman and her son were found to be in good health A woman from Cuban and her son were rescued from possibly drowning in the Rio Grande River and escorted to the waterway's shore in Mexico while two other migrants refused to return and were swept by the river's current as they got near the U.S. border in Texas Of the 115,379 migrants who were stopped for illegally crossing over Mexicos southern border with Guatemala, at least 21,965 were from Honduras while 21,965 were from Guatemala and 15,907 had come from Cuba. In addition, 8,270 were identified as Nicaraguans and 6,931 were Salvadorans. At least 40,352 were residents of other countries, including 6,188 were from Europe and Asia. At least 25,768 of the encounters, which the National Institute of Migration labels as rescues, were registered in the southern state of Chiapas, which borders with Guatemala. This is the terrifying moment a Russian rocket narrowly misses a Ukrainian woman walking down the street carrying her shopping. The incident allegedly took place in Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine, amid widespread reports from Ukrainian officials that cities across the country were hit by missiles on Sunday night. Although the missile explodes just yards away from her near a bin, the woman eventually gets back up and walks away from the scene. Two other people can also be seen in the background and avoid being hit by the explosion, which was reportedly caused by Russian ordnance. This is the terrifying moment a Russian rocket narrowly misses a Ukrainian woman walking down the street carrying her shopping in Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence released the images along with a short statement saying: 'Kharkiv. Two months ago, no one in Ukraine could have imagined something like this. 'Now it is becoming commonplace for many Ukrainians.' The images were also shared by the Ukrainian Armed Forces who said that they showed a 'strike on a strategic military trash can'. The Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that no one was killed in the footage. The incident took place amid widespread reports from Ukrainian officials that cities across the country were hit by missiles on Sunday night Although the missile explodes just yards away from her near a bin, the woman eventually gets back up and walks away from the scene Fighting in Ukraine has shifted to the east of the country and there have been reports of civilian fatalities overnight due to Russian missile strikes. The authorities reported that six people are so far said to have died and 13 were injured in Kharkiv alone. A child is also believed to be among the victims, although it was unclear if they had been injured or killed. The Governor of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, 41, has stated that the city of Mykolaiv is under continued rocket attack by Russian forces. Five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began. Pictured: Locals watch on as firefighters battle a blaze after a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile on April 18, Lviv Pictured: Responders work to fix a railway line in Lviv after a nearby building was destroyed in a Russian missile strike, April 18 At least five missile strikes have been reported in the western city of Lviv which, until recently, was deemed to be a relatively safe city. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said yesterday that at least 202 children have so far 'died due to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine'. The Prosecutor General's Office added: 'More than 563 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation. 'These figures are not final, as work is underway to establish them in places of active hostilities, in the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.' They added: 'The bombing and shelling by the Russian armed forces damaged 1,018 educational institutions, 95 of which were completely destroyed.' Michigan Sen. Gary Peters joined a growing chorus of Democrats who are working to stop the Biden administration from ending Title 42 as migrant crossings have already soared to the highest in two decades. The Michigan Democrat, who chairs both the Homeland Security committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told The Hill that he has privately raised concerns with Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas and other administration officials. President Biden announced the Title 42 policy will be allowed to expire on May 23. He told a group of reporters he wants to give the Biden administration time to detail a plan for handling the impending onslaught an end to Title 42 is expected to bring, but said they should rethink the decision to end the pandemic immigration restriction absent an adequate plan. 'Unless we have a well thought out plan, I think it is something that should be revisited and perhaps delayed. I'm going to defer judgment on that until I give the administration the opportunity to fully articulate what that plan is. But I share concerns of some of my colleagues.' Michigan Sen. Gary Peters joined a growing chorus of Democrats who are working to stop the Biden administration from ending Title 42 as migrant crossings have already soared to the highest in two decades Mayorkas put out a statement on April 1 saying that once Title 42 expires migrants will be processed under Title 8, and said DHS was pursuing a 'whole-of-government' approach to deal with a potential surge, including increasing resources and officers at the border. Peters joins a number of Democratic senators who have gone up against their own party over Title 42, a Centers for Disease Control policy that border officials rely on to immediately expel migrants. It was first enacted by President Trump in March 2020. Five Democrats - Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona; Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire; Jon Tester of Montana; and Joe Manchin of West Virginia - co-sponsored a bill with Republicans earlier this month to temporarily block the Biden administration's plan to end Title 42. The amendment is expected to be tacked on to a new Covid-19 relief package. In addition to those five, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who are all up for re-election in competitive races, have come out against ending Title 42. Kelly and Hassan even traveled to the border last week, using public appearances at the U.S-Mexico line to question the Biden administration's plan. 'Right now this administration does not have a plan. And it's going to be, to be honest, it's going to be a crisis on top of a crisis,' Kelly told reporters. Thousands of migrants are camped out in Mexico near the U.S. border waiting for Title 42 to end on May 23 Migrants of different nationalities walk peacefully through the main avenues, in the city of Tapachula in Chiapas, Mexico, 16 April Department of Homeland Security officials are expecting up to 18,000 migrants per day once Title 42 is lifted Hassan released a statement after the trip saying she would 'keep pressing the administration for a comprehensive plan to strengthen border security and deliver additional resources to the border, which is especially important given its recent announcement to end Title 42.' Immigration is sure to be a front-and-center political cudgel in the upcoming midterm elections as Republicans look to take back control in Congress. At the same time Biden was under intense pressure from progressives to end the policy they see as inhumane. Peters, who is in charge of strategizing ways for Democrats to maintain power, said he hoped to hear from the secretary on Title 42 'in the near future' and defended his liberal colleagues' right to 'raise questions' over the policy undoing. 'This is a very serious issue. They need to ask questions. I'm asking those questions as well and we'll look forward to hearing directly from the secretary in the near term,' he said. A total of 21 states are suing the Biden administration over the planned rollback of Title 42, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said it is currently bracing for up to 18,000 migrant encounters a day as caravans make their way northward to storm the border when the policy is lifted. The number of migrant crossings at the Mexican border surged to the highest number in over two decades last month, surpassing 200,000 for the third time of the Biden administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) submitted figures to a court revealing that 221,303 migrants attempted to enter the country unlawfully last month, before the expected onslaught triggered by the end of Title 42. The newly revealed March figures show the highest number of crossings in a single month since President Biden took office. The last time border agents encountered more migrants was in February and March of 2000. In March 200, 220,063 There were nearly 60,000 more encounters in March than February, when 165,000 tried to cross. The Biden administration announced that Title 42, the pandemic-era restriction under which most migrants are currently expelled. In March, about half, 109,549 migrant apprehensions, were expelled under Title 42. About 111,000 migrants were allowed to request asylum under regular immigration procedures. Those who are not expelled are detained, deported under the expedited removal process or released with a notice to appear before a judge. The figure does not represent the total number of migrants but rather the number of apprehensions. Many migrants try to cross again after they've been expelled. It also does not account for the number of people who evade detection and successfully cross into the U.S. Migrant families traveling with minors are not usually processed under Title 42 and are generally released with court notices, and sometimes tracking devices. Recently it was revealed that the Biden administration was giving migrants smartphones with tracking software inside upon their release. In March 65,771 were either released with a court date or granted humanitarian parole. Just over 24,000 migrants were sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, and roughly 9,000 remained in ICE detention as of April 3. The leader of an alleged polygamist cult has been arrested on rape, and false imprisonment, police said. The man identified as Eligio Bishop, 40, who often refers to himself as '3God' and 'Nature Boy' of the cult 'Carbon Nation,' was arrested on April 14, officials said. The arrest follows a Wednesday night raid at Bishop's Georgia home in Decatur, Georgia around 6 p.m. Officers from the Dekalb County Police Department and detectives executed search and arrest warrants, a spokesperson the Dekalb County Police told DailyMail.com. An investigation was launched by the 'special victims unit' after they received a complaint concerning Bishop on March 30, according to a police spokesperson. He has been arrested for numerous charges including rape, false imprisonment, and prohibition on nude or sexually explicit electronic transmissions. Eligio Bishop, 40, was taken to the DeKalb County Jail on charges of rape, false imprisonment, and sharing sexually explicit content on social media. He is being held without bond Cult leader Eligio Lee Bishop (center with cult members) known as 'Nature Boy' who refers to himself as 'God' and 'believes in nudism, polygamy, and refraining from bathing' was among 21 people was arrested on April 14 after officers from the Dekalb County Police Department, detectives and a tactical team swarmed his Georgia home Additional charges include prohibition on nude or sexually explicit electronic transmissions, police said. It is unclear what the complaint accused Bishop of, sources said. A police spokesperson added: 'There is no additional information at this time.' Bishop is currently being held at DeKalb County jail. He was denied bail during a Friday court appearance, due, in part due to his alleged crimes. The alleged rape and false imprisonment occurred on March 24, according to DeKalb County jail records. Three days later, Bishop allegedly sent explicit pictures in messages without the subjects consent, the Daily Beast reported. Carbon Nation member, Daylin Armstead told Fox5Atlanta: 'We teach sexual education and we believe in nudity. And so thats one of the charges thats trying to be brought against my chief thats for revenge porn, but the female that was here, the woman that was here, she gave consent to actually release it for sexual education, its not just like porn, its for educational purposes. It is not clear if Bishop has retained legal counsel. Eligio Lee Bishop, the 40-year-old leader of the 'Carbon Nation' cult, was arrested in June 2020 for violating emergency orders to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Hawaii On Thursday, several of Bishop's followers posted a video on Instagram that includes a jail cell call in which he explains to his supporters, that he was 'trying to help people' and is simply 'misunderstood,' the Daily News reported. 'They want to crucify me, they want me dead, there's hate that surrounds me, you can feel it, just like any other prophet, only me, I'm the return of the Christ,' he said. The self-professed cult leader, who 'believes in nudism, polygamy, and refraining from bathing' was a former model, stripper and sex worker. He allegedly forced followers to surrender their money, credit cards and bank account information in order to join his cult, sources said. His other identities include: 'The Messiah Demigod' and 'Master Chief' on his Facebook account. Carbon Nation members including Bishop (above) were kicked out of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua back in December after being branded a 'threat to national security' Bishop with one of his female followers, whose identity is not revealed. Bishop refers to himself as 'The Messiah Demigod' and 'Master Chief' and leads the cult that believes in nudism, polygamy, defecating at the base of trees and requires all members to hand over all their money and credit cards In June 2020, Bishop was among 21 people arrested for violating emergency orders to quarantine for 14 days on arrival on the Big Island, Hawaii. The cult was also kicked out of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua back in December after being branded a 'threat to national security'. In 2006, Erika Carroll, who identified herself as one of Bishop's first followers, when the cult was called 'Melanation,' said she moved from her home in New York to Honduras. She told 11Alive News the physical, emotional, abuse she endured, 'If you read how to brainwash somebody thats basically how you do it, the victim, said in part. He [Bishop] has the women fighting each other, hes putting his hands on the men. He always said he wanted a lot of wives. He wanted ten wives. Bishop said that she was given the name 'BP' since she was one of the original members of the group. She shares how her self-confidence was compromised along the way. 'When I got there I felt I had a pretty good self-esteem and self-confidence, but after every day being there and told, "Youre not doing this right, you're so wrong," when I left, I felt like my self-esteem was so low. I had no confidence," she said She described a typical day as a member of the cult. 'Wed have to sit in these long meetings, hed say wed be facing our demons while doing that. But basically hes just projecting onto you what he has going on inside of him,' she recalled. Carroll told the news outlet that after she left the cult in 2007, she said admitted that she need to do some healing. She said she went to a hospital, and then went for therapy, as she told the news outlet, 'to get my mind right.' A female neighbor from the Atlanta-Georgia area, who asked not to be identified, told WSB-TV the bizarre events and cult-like activities, that took place at his home. 'Hes been whooping girls, beating girls, fertilizing girls, getting girls ready for marriage, the woman said. A federal judge in Florida has struck down the national mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation, arguing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstepped its authority. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the CDC improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking. Judge Mizelle said the CDC had exceeded its authority with the mandate, had not sought public comment and did not adequately explain its decisions. It has triggered a huge wave of violent clashes on planes across the US among passengers who want to be masked and others who've removed the coverings. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the CDC improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking The judge sent the issue back to the CDC. It was not clear whether the judge's order would take immediate effect and the Transportation Security Administration's order for the mask mandate appeared to still be in effect. The TSA and Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment. The White House and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not immediately comment. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the ruling a 'disappointing decision' during her briefing Monday afternoon and advised Americans to continue wearing masks on public transport. 'The CDC continues recommending wearing a mask in public transit,' Psaki said. The ruling could create confusion on airplanes where the mask mandate has caused a surge in incidents and altercations between airline officials enforcing the mandate and passengers rejecting the demand they cover their faces. The Federal Aviation Administration said that since January 2021, there have been a record 7,060 unruly passenger incidents reported - and 70% involved masking rules. Airlines for America had last week urged the Biden administration 'to lean into science and research, which clearly support lifting the mask mandate. It makes no sense to require masks on a plane when masks are not recommended in places like restaurants, bars or crowded sports facilities.' The group, which represents major U.S. passenger airlines, did not have an immediate comment on Monday's ruling. United Airlines told its employees Monday that the mask mandate 'remains in effect for both customers and employees, despite the decision by a federal judge on Monday that stuck down the federal mask mandate.' 'We await additional information from the federal government on whether it will challenge the ruling or rescind the order,' United wrote in a memo to employees. 'Until that time, the airport mask policy remains unchanged.' A man wears a mask in San Diego Airport, San Diego, California Monday after a federal judge strikes down the mask mandate for public transportation Passengers exit a train at 30th Street Station as the indoor mask mandate is reinstated to prevent the spread of COVID-19, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday In Judge Mizelle's 59-page ruling Monday, Mizelle suggested that the mandate - in which non-complying travelers are 'forcibly removed from their airplane seats, denied board at the bus steps, and turned away at the train station doors' -- was akin to 'detention and quarantine,' CNN reported. Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected to it in the lawsuit. The judge said 'a limited remedy would be no remedy at all' and that the courts have full authority to make a decision such as this even if the goals of the CDC in fighting the virus are laudable. 'Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate,' she wrote. It is unclear when or how quickly the ruling will be implemented at airports or train stations across the country or if the Justice Department will attempt to block the ruling and file an appeal, CNN reported. There was no immediate word on whether the government will appeal. People wait to board an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle from San Diego Airport, San Diego, California on Monday The mandate requiring face masks on airplanes, the subway, trains, buses and other forms of public transportation, was recently extended by the CDC until May 3, 2022 United Airlines told its employees Monday that the mask mandate 'remains in effect for both customers and employees, despite the decision by a federal judge on Monday that stuck down the federal mask mandate' The mandate requiring face masks on airplanes, the subway, trains, buses and other forms of public transportation, was recently extended by the CDC until May 3, 2022. This is to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. The mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate. Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January. The mandate extension is to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. It is unclear how quickly the ruling will be implemented at airports or train stations or if the Justice Department will attempt to block the ruling and file an appeal, CNN reported The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 by two plaintiffs and the Health Freedom Defense Fund, described in the judge's order as a nonprofit group that 'opposes laws and regulations that force individuals to submit to the administration of medical products, procedures and devices against their will.' Earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned airline passengers not to be a 'jerk' as record fines were levied on two unruly passengers. 'Look. It's one thing to be grumpy on a flight. I feel that way sometimes,' Buttigieg said during an appearance on ABC's The View. 'But yeah, it's another thing to endanger flight crews and to endanger fellow passengers. We have no tolerance for that. The FAA is actually getting ready to announce record fines on people who have done this.' 'If you're on an airplane, don't be a jerk,' he advised. 'Don't endanger your fellow passengers.' The FAA imposed its zero-tolerance mandate when unruly passenger incidents escalated around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Incidents remained elevated after President Joe Biden's administration imposed a mandate requiring passengers to wear masks on airplanes and in airports because of COVID-19 cases in February 2021. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned airline passengers not to be a 'jerk' as record fines were levied on two unruly passengers on Friday On Monday, the CDC dropped its 'Do Not Travel' COVID-19 recommendations for about 90 international destinations. Last week, the CDC said it was revising its travel recommendations and said it would its reserve Level 4 travel health notices 'for special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts.' The countries and others regions dropped to 'Level 3: High,' which still discourages travel by unvaccinated Americans, include the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Turkey, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Russia. Kidnap liar Sherri Papini sobbed in court Monday as she admitted faking her own abduction then lying that she'd been kidnapped by two Latina women in 2016. The 39-year-old from Redding, California offered no explanation for her elaborate hoax during the half-hour court hearing Monday. She answered only 'Yes, Your Honor,' and 'No, Your Honor' in a trembling voice as Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb outlined the charges and evidence against her. 'I feel very sad,' she said tearfully when Shubb asked her how she was feeling. The mother of two who claimed she was kidnapped in 2016 before suddenly reappearing three weeks later almost 200 miles away from where she was last seen, claimed she was held captive for 22 days by two Hispanic women during that time. Sherri Papini of Redding leaves the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, right, in Sacramento, Calif., on April 13. On Monday, Papini pleaded guilty Papini sobbed during Monday's court hearing as she admitted staging the elaborate con The fraudster's antics were likened to the plot of smash-hit thriller Gone Girl Papini's antics were eerily similar to those of the main character in Gillian Flynn's smash-hit thriller novel Gone Girl, which was later turned into a thriller starring Rosamund Pike as a vanishing wife. Police say she was instead with her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, who she tricked into harboring her by claiming she wanted to escape her abusive husband. She had been charged with lying to federal investigators and fraudulently obtaining $30,000 from the state's victim compensation board. In a deal with prosecutors reached last week, Papini agreed to plead guilty. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated to be between eight and 14 months in custody, down from the maximum 25 years for the two charges. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 11. Papini also agreed to pay restitution topping $300,000. That includes the cost of the search for her that covered several Western states, and the subsequent investigation into the 'two Hispanic women' she said had kidnapped her at gunpoint. In a statement issued through her attorney, Papini apologized for the pain she caused her family and friends. 'I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me. 'I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done,' Papini said in the statement, as reported by ABC10. 'I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done.' Papini had told a wild tale of having been abducted and held captive by two gun-wielding Hispanic women, but no arrests were ever made in a seemingly motiveless crime that baffled investigating officers. Despite her detailed account of the abduction to authorities, skepticism had long surrounded the claims. The married Papini was finally arrested last month following the six-year investigation once it came to light that she had actually spent the time she claimed to have been kidnapped at the residence of an ex-boyfriend. After her arrest she struck a plea deal with prosecutors in which she agreed to plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud and lying to a law enforcement officer - charges that carry maximum sentences of 20 years and five years, respectively. Papini appeared before Chief Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman last week for an arraignment on charges of one count of making false statements and one count of mail fraud Sherri Papini is seen after she was released from Sacramento County Main Jail in March When Papini was found, she had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred 'brand' on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. She had told cops that the two Hispanic women had branded her on one shoulder, had cut her long blonde hair short and had broken her nose. 'She appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight. She had been branded on her right shoulder, although the exact content of the brand was indistinguishable. 'Papini's nose was swollen, she had bruises on her face, rashes on her left arm and left upper inner thigh as well as other parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, burns on her left forearm, and bruising on her pelvis and the fronts of both legs.' The married mother of two kept lying about it as recently as August 2020 when in fact there was no kidnapping, she admitted in her guilty plea. Papini has offered no rationale for why she did it. Her attorney, William Portanova, said last week that he doubts even she knows. He suggested 'a very complicated mental health situation,' and said her long-delayed acceptance of responsibility and punishment is part of the healing process. A 'missing' sign for Sherri Papini, near the location where she was believed to have gone missing. Papini, whose disappearance and mysterious reappearance set off a frantic three-week search more than six years earlier has admitted it was a hoax Sherri Papini (shown with husband Keith and children Tyler and Violet before her abduction) Sherri Papini with her husband Keith on their wedding day. The 22 days she claimed she was kidnapped she in fact spent with an ex-boyfriend, James Reyes Papini said Monday that she has been receiving psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return - more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution. 'It is a mistake to assume mental illness is the cause of unusual behavior,' said Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a forensic psychiatrist and frequent expert witness who teaches at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. There could be a rational, if mysterious, explanation, Lamoureux said, though he cautioned that he has not examined Papini and many factors in the case remain unknown to the public. Prosecutors say her faked kidnapping wasnt impulsive, and that she planned it for more than a year without her husband knowing. The former boyfriend told investigators they didnt have sex while she stayed with him. James Reyes told police that Papini caused self-inflicted injuries while staying with him, including hitting herself to create bruises and burning herself on her arms James Reyes, the ex-boyfriend who hid Sherri Papini, was spotted by DailyMail.com for the first time since her arrest in March The area where Sherri Papini was found near the I-5 freeway outside of Yolo, California Papini's organization and planning would seem to make conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression an unlikely explanation, said Lamoureux, who specializes in complicated criminal and civil cases. She may have expected that the kidnapping hoax would bring her 'fame and fortune,' he said. And she did benefit financially: Aside from the victim compensation, she must repay nearly $128,000 in disability payments. Separately, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family. As a possibly related factor, Lamoureux has researched the false hero or 'pathological hero' phenomenon that takes advantage of society's treatment of victims as heroes. Those who fake their own victimization may be seeking recognition or popularity, and if mental illness is involved it may suggest a narcissistic or histrionic personality disorder. Another possible explanation is that she faked her kidnapping to avoid some other adverse consequence, he said, typically something like a divorce or being fired, though Papini was a stay-at-home mom. Lamoureux said manufacturing a crisis may be a way for those with fragile egos and poor coping skills to seek to prevent the bad outcome from happening. A famed author's son claims his baby daughter died of a fentanyl overdose after he took heroin then went to take a nap with the child by his side while his wife worked, a court heard. When Daniel Auster, 44, woke up, on November 1, the infant, Ruby, was 'blue, lifeless and unresponsive,' he told cops, according to his criminal complaint. Desperate to revive her, the suspect - whose dad is author Paul Auster - administered Narcan, the treatment to revive overdose victims, 'in case I f---ked up.' The vivid account allegedly given to the NYPD by Auster was shared by Assistant District Attorney Tien Tran said at his arraignment hearing on manslaughter charges on Sunday. The infant's mother, Zuzan Smith, told police that the child was awake and alert when she left her in Daniel Auster's care and went to work. A criminal complaint obtained by DailyMail.com states that Daniel Auster told police that shortly after Smith left their home, he injected heroin and then got into bed for a nap with the child by his side. When he woke up from his nap, she was 'blue, lifeless and unresponsive', the complaint states. The prosecutor said that the girl had enough drugs in her system to 'render an adult unconscious.' Video after the criminal court hearing shows a stunned Daniel Auster lead by police to an awaiting ambulance for undisclosed medical treatment Saturday night. Daniel Auster admitted to doing heroin then falling asleep with his daughter in his care. When he awoke she had ingested enough drugs to 'render and adult unconscious' He's been charged with manslaughter, child endangerment and criminally negligent homicide Auster, pictured here being led to court for his arraignment, gave the 10-month-old girl Narcan to revive her after he awoke to find her 'blue, lifeless and unresponsive' Auster, 44, refuses to face the cameras after he was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child after his infant daughter ingested his heroin while he napped It's still unclear how the girl ingested the drugs, but Auster confessed that he kept heroin in his bathroom. His lawyer, James Godfrey, told The New York Times that his client had recently gotten sober and was in drug treatment. 'This case is painfully tragic, and Mr. Auster remains devastated over the loss of his beloved daughter Ruby,' the lawyer told the paper. 'Substance use disorder is an issue that countless families reel from each year, and we caution the public to refrain from making any rush to judgment and to respect the family's privacy at this difficult time.' Daniel Auster's daughter, Ruby (pictured above), was found lifeless in his Park Slope home In many of the photos, Auster can be seen posing with his little girl, or cuddling her Daniel's father, Paul Auster, is probably America's best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair's relationship appears to be estranged An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner a few days later found Ruby died of acute intoxication caused by the combined effects of fentanyl and heroin. The case was ruled a homicide after police conferred with the Kings County District Attorney's office. It's unclear why it took five an a half months to bring charges. Auster, who works as a landscaper, posted photos of his child and the mother, Zuzan Smith on his Instagram page before jetting off to Mexico and Columbia in January where he seem to be backpacking like a college kid and taking in several raves. A video on the apartment rental sight StreetEasy shows the interior of the one-bedroom apartment , including the bright white walls and the hardwood floors of the bedroom where the child died. The bathroom, with a clawfoot tube and white tile floor was where Auster said he kept his drugs. The 600-square-foot unit is currently on the market for $2,130 a month. Daniel Auster, 44, was arrested on Friday night on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide Auster's Instagram page is full of pictures of his daughter and her mother Daniel Auster was taking care of his 10-month-old daughter Ruby at his Park Slope home when 911 was called It is not the first time Daniel Auster has had a brush with the law. During his teenage years, Daniel started going to clubs in New York City and became heavily involved with drugs, according to The New Yorker. At the age of 18, in 1996, when he was eighteen, Daniel was present in the apartment when a drug dealer by the name of Andre 'Angel' Melendez was famously murdered by Club Kid Killer' Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter, and his roommate, Robert Riggs. Daniel was given $3,000 of Melendez's money in exchange for his silence. He later pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and was given five years probation. Club Kid Killer' Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter is pictured. On Christmas Eve, 2020, Alig died from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 54 Daniel Auster is pictured in a photo with his father Paul, in a shot from his teenage years Daniel is pictured with his father as a young boy in a touching photo posted to his Instagram, entitled 'Me and pops' The troubled son of New York author Paul Auster, Daniel, has been charged in relation to his infant daughter's drug overdose death Daniel would regularly post photos of his wife and daughter, Ruby, before her death last year The trio dressed up for Halloween in a scene from the Wizard of Oz with Daniel as the heartless Tin Man and his wife as Dorothy He also has a string of other arrests including several drug possession in 2008 and 2010. In 2009 he was charged with petit larceny and possession of stolen property. Daniel's father, Paul Auster, is probably America's best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair's relationship appears to be estranged. Daniel's mother, Paul Auster's first wife, is writer Lydia Davis. During Auster's 1995 film, Smoke, which starred Harvey Keitel and William Hurt, about the lives of people who frequented a Brooklyn tobacconist shop, Paul's son Daniel played the role of a book thief. Paul Auster's second wife Siri Hustvedt, left, who is also a writer, never speak about their stepson, Daniel. The pair are pictured in 2016 Although real-world contact between Daniel and his father appear to be non-existent, Auster has written Daniel into his work. In his 2004 novel, Oracle Night, the book is narrated by a writer called Trause whose son is a drug addict who terrorizes his stepmother. During a 2006 Guardian interview, Paul Auster's second wife Siri Hustvedt who is also a writer, declined to speak about her stepson. 'Yes. You know, I'm not going to talk about any of that, no. No.' she said with her eyes beginning to water. 'You know, I am married to a writer, and this - writing - is an odd enterprise. It's something we both support very strongly. I've always been behind Paul, and he's always been behind me. I have a very strong family.' It appears that the family deal with Daniel's troubled past and uncertain present by writing about him in their own fiction. Licht - who's promised a more news-centered approach to the notoriously left-leaning network - fills a void left by CEO Jeff Zucker, who resigned in February Licht was tapped by Discovery CEO - and now head of new megacompany company Warner Bros Discovery - David Zaslav for the role in February Incoming CNN boss Chris Licht has announced hes quitting Twitter once he assumes the role of CEO of the news network next month, following the station's incorporation into Discovery last week. 'May 2 will be my first official day in the office at CNN & my last day on Twitter,' longtime Late Show head Licht said in a post to the social media platform Monday. Licht, 50, added: 'Twitter can be a great journalistic tool, but it can also skew whats really important in the world. 'Im logging off & looking forward to working with the incredible team at CNN.' The declaration from Licht, who served as the lead executive of programming at CBS and the showrunner for Stephen Colbert's primetime show on the network for the past six years, comes just over a week after the highly publicized, $43 billion merger merger between CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc., finalized on April 8. Incoming CNN boss Chris Licht, pictured here at the Vanity Fair Oscar afterparty in March, has announced hes quitting Twitter once he assumes the role of CEO of the news network next month, following the station's incorporation into Discovery last week 'May 2 will be my first official day in the office at CNN & my last day on Twitter,' longtime Late Show head Licht said in a post to the social media platform Monday. The decision from the TV titan coincides with reports Licht was tapped by Discovery CEO - and now head of new megacompany company Warner Bros Discovery, which now owns Warner properties HBO, Warner Bros, and CNN - David Zaslav for the position in February. Licht - who has promised a more news-centered approach to the notoriously left-leaning network with him at the helm - fills a void left by longtime CEO Jeff Zucker, who was forced to resign from the company after it was revealed he was romantically involved with also-ousted CNN marketing head Allison Gollust. If he makes good on his promise, Licht - the brain behind MCNBC morning stalwart Morning Joe - would leave behind an account boasting 26,900 followers, and more than 2,700 tweets. The decision from the TV titan coincides with reports that he plans to push hosts like Don Lemon and Jim Acosta away from opinionated reporting that became especially prevalent during Donald Trump's election campaign and presidency. Licht instead seeks to return to the station's roots as a hard-hitting news source, insiders close to the network said last month, following the exec's publicized appointing by CEO Zaslav. The declaration from Licht, who served as the lead executive of programming at CBS and the showrunner for Stephen Colbert's primetime show on the network for the past six years, comes just over a week after the highly publicized, $43 billion merger merger between CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc., finalized on April 8 Under Licht, the sources said, viewers can expect to see fewer partisan panels with outspoken anchors such as former Trump aide Alyssa Farah. In his post Monday, which has already amassed nearly 3,000 likes as of Monday afternoon, Licht did not mention any planned social media guidelines for CNN staffers ahead of his takeover, nor did he provide any additional details surrounding his decision to sever ties with the platform. After being announced as Zucker's successor, Licht sent a memo to his future staff that teased changes the exec plans to implement once in the big seat. 'I look forward to getting to know all of you and hearing your candid thoughts and feedback,' Licht wrote. 'Our viewers demand the truth from us, and I want to learn the truth from you. Together, we will double-down on what's working well and quickly eliminate what's not.' In the bulletin, Licht said his one directive as incoming president is to ensure that it 'remains the global leader in news' as the network's parent company merges with Discovery - emphasizing the word news in capital letters. Last month, Zucker, Licht's predecessor, resigned in February under pressure from new boss Zaslav for violating corporate policy by not disclosing the nature of his consensual romance with second-in-command Allison Gollust, his friend and colleague of over 20 years. As he stepped down from his position, Zucker admitted he was 'wrong' not to have told the company about the relationship. Gollust subsequently left the network following a third-party investigation into 'issues associated with Chris Cuomo and former Governor Andrew Cuomo,' then-WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in a statement at the time. Zucker and Allison Gollust had worked together for 20 years. The pair claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic but others say it far predates COVID, and was common knowledge for as many as eight years. Licht (left) has been the showrunner and executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert since 2016. He was above with Stephen Colbert at the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California According to sources cited by Rolling Stone in February, the pair breached journalism ethics to help Cuomo behind the scenes in the same way that younger brother Chris did. Chris Cuomo was fired from CNN for helping Andrew through a sexual misconduct scandal and in the messy fallout from his departure, the affair between Zucker and Gollust has surfaced. The two were due to take on senior roles within the new company, under the leadership of Zaslav. Zaslav then tapped Licht for the new role, a move by Discovery brass that seemingly sought to put multiple embarrassing scandals, including the one surrounding the network's former star anchor Cuomo, in the rearview. Kilar has since been nixed from the new company, one of several casualties in a stream of layoffs stemming from the highly publicized merger, valued at $43 billion. Earlier this month, a firing spree reportedly overseen by new boss Zaslav saw the departures of nine top Warner executives, the week the merger was finalized. The nine departures included CEO Kilar, Warner Bros chief Ann Sarnoff, and HBO Max general manager Andy Forssell. Other staffers included in the mass layoffs were WarnerMedia CRO Tony Goncalves, CTO Richard Tom, CFO Jennifer Biry, Executive Vice President Jim Cummings, CIO Christy Haubegger and WarnerMedia general counsel Jim Meza. All were top members of Kilar's management team. Sources have since claimed that 'paranoid' WarnerMedia and CNN staff are preparing for another round of redundancies in May, when Licht takes the reigns, expecting the new CEO to trim the companies even further. 'I've never seen such paranoia. It's bad, it's crazy,' a source from within the company told The Wrap this month. 'These people are palpably nervous.' Late last month, the network refused to deny reports that staffers are bracing for more firings next month due to subpar subscription signups for its CNN+ streaming service, which was unveiled last week with less-than-stellar results, drawing fewer than 10,000 daily users.' Lichts decision to leave Twitter comes as media outlets seek to better interact with readers and circumvent squabbles concerning partisanship and politics that have become prevalent in the press in recent years. Earlier this month, The New York Times announced new guidance for reporters stating that the usage of social media was optional and vowed to work with journalists that are targeted by commenters online. Several of CNNs premier anchors, including liberal talking heads Lemon and Acosta, have marked presences in the social media sphere, and constantly engage readers and push back on other outlets and personalities - such as Fox News and its TV talent - who criticize the networks often partisan coverage of current events. Licht, sources said, seeks to rectify this model once he enters the hot seat, and has already engaged in talks with Fox about a rumored 'ceasefire' between the two networks, which regularly criticized another, often via social media. Upon appointing Licht in February, Zaslav called the CBS alum 'a highly principled individual who is trusted, hard-working and makes every organization stronger, more innovative and more cohesive.' The tweet comes as Elon Musk attempts to take over Twitter and the social media giant adopts a 'poison pill' defense that makes it difficult for Musk or any other investor to buy Twitter without the board of directors' approval. BJP state president Bandi Sanjay during waves to the crowd on the fourth day of Praja Sangrama Yatra on fourth day in Jogulamba Gadwal district on Sunday. (Photo by Arrangement) Hyderabad: The BJP has demanded an explanation from Chief Minister K Chandra-shekar Rao as to why the state government was not releasing Rs 70 crore for modernisation of the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) that could irrigate tens of thousands of acres in Jogulamba-Gadwal district. BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is on his Praja Sangrama Padayatra in the district, on Sunday, said the Chief Minister, who spent Rs 1 lakh crore to get water to his farm house from Godavari river, has not found it fit to invest Rs 70 crore for RDS that can irrigate nearly 1 lakh acres in the Jogulamba-Gadwal district. Bandi declared that if the BJP comes to power in TS, he will ensure RDS is completed and 1 lakh acres come under the plough. He said the Chief Minister must tell the people why he does not care for those living in the district and the cause of his neglect of this region. He is also not taking any action when the AP government is taking water away through the Sangameswara project. The CMs silence is a great betrayal of Telangana. The kind of injustice he is allowing to be perpetrated on Telangana was not even witnessed in the region during the days of united Andhra Pradesh, Bandi said. The BJP, he said, will also ensure irrigation to the tail-end areas in the district, and that a chilli market will be established in Alampur. Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov complains no one in Washington D.C. will talk to him since his country invaded the Ukraine Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov complains in a new interview that no one in Washington D.C. will talk to him since his country invaded the Ukraine. Antonov said he can't get meetings at the White House, State Department or with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. And he also complains one of the diplomats being expelled by the U.S. after Russia invaded Ukraine is his cook. Even more shocking, he tells Politico he can't even get Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone - the two men haven't spoken since Antonov arrived in Washington in August 2017. They haven't even spoken since Putin's invasion of the Ukraine - although Antonov referred to it as a 'special military operation,' which is in line with Kremlin demands. And he does say he speaks with the Russian government in Moscow even if it's not Putin he talks to. He argues any call with Putin would 'give an opportunity to FBI to listen to everything what Mr. Putin could say [to] me?' He says he has 'technical' contact with President Joe Biden's administration but complains it is only with low-level staff and no one at a senior administration official level. He notes that lawmakers on Capitol Hill refuse to meet with him. He argues this can't continue and the U.S. and Russia need to work together on issues like climate change and covid. 'We are doomed to cooperate on various issues,' Antonov said. 'It's impossible to imagine even under such circumstances that problems of strategic stability, climate change, coronavirus, fighting against terrorism, fighting against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction could be solved without active engagement of the United States and Russia.' The Russian Embassy in Washington has around 170 diplomats and staff but since May 2021, around 100 employees have been expelled or will soon be pushed out, embassy officials estimated. One of those, Antonov complains, is his cook. 'What kind of problems my cook can create for security of United States if he stays here?' Antonov said. Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov says that senior officials in President Joe Biden's administration won't talk to him, leaving him to only deal with low level staff Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov also said he hasn't spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since he came to Washington D.C. in August 2017 Antonov, 66, is a former military officer and replaced Sergey Kislyak as ambassador on August 21, 2017 by presidential decree. He has a reputation as a hardliner and tough negotiator. He has been called a 'bull terrier' on relations with the West. His past postings include time at the Russian defense ministry and in its foreign affairs division. In his sit down with Politico, Antonov echoes many of the Kremlin's talking points: Russia is carrying out a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to purge the country of Nazis and other bad actors and to ensure the Ukraine is not becoming a staging ground for NATO. He also denies of reports of atrocities in Bucha or that Russian forces have used some type of chemical weapons. He describes himself as upset when he sees the images of bodies in the street from Ukraine. 'It goes without saying that war is not a good thing for United States, for Ukraine and for Russia,' he said. But he slammed the United States for its harsh financial sanctions, which have been placed on Putin, several senior Russian government officials, wealthy oligarchs and Russian banks. Antonov, himself, has been sanctioned by the U.S. government. 'You steal our money,' he said. And asks, with sanctions, 'how is it possible to trust you?' In 2021, after Biden called Putin as a 'killer' in an interview with ABC News, Moscow recalled Antonov for roughly three months. He returned to the Embassy in Washington after Biden and Putin held a summit in Geneva in June 2021. Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov after a bilateral meeting between Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the United States Department of State in December 2019 But when asked why the world should trust Russia going forward, Antonvo said it is possible for the U.S. and Russia to be partners again. 'You have to decide who we are for you,' Antonov said. 'Whether we are partner for you, whether we are rival for you, whether we are opponent, or I don't want even to use this word, 'enemy.' 'As for me, I'm still sure we should be partners,' he adds. 'Previously, I would say that we are partners. Now we are not partners. It's a pity.' A man who is refusing to leave his New York City apartment after the building was sold last year suspects that his new landlords are trying to force him out with unnecessary construction and a noisy air filter. Ahmet Nejat Ozsu, 51, has been living at the Eagle Court building in the city's Upper West Side for 16 years. He pays $3,350 a month for a 700 square-foot one-bedroom apartment with a private deck on the top floor, though he owes over $13,000 in back rent. In June, the Naftali Group bought the building for $70 million and told all tenants to move, the New York Times reports. Attorneys and real estate experts believe the building will likely be torn down, with all 128 units replaced with a luxury tower that would house no more than 11 mega-units worth as much as $40 million. Only 16 of the building's apartments are still occupied, but Ozsu is on a 'crusade' to stay, his attorney told DailyMail.com. The software developer - who was unemployed from October 2021 until March - says he needs at least another year at his new job to save up and move somewhere else, but some speculate that he could be holding out for a million-dollar payout. Naftali has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the stubborn tenant and even offered him $30,000 to leave. The developer has started construction across from Ozsu and placed a surveillance camera and a noisy air filter outside his unit, which it claims is 'actually for his health and safety.' Ozsu and his landlord are now embroiled in a standoff after Ozsu applied for pandemic-era rental assistance. If approved, it could delay his eviction for years. Software developer Ahmet Nejat Ozsu, 51, is refusing to leave his Upper West Side apartment after his building was bought last year because he needs more time to find new housing Ozsu has been living at the Eagle Court in the city's Upper West Side for 16 years. He pays $3,350 a month for a 700 sq ft one-bedroom apartment with a private deck on the top floor Ozsu's lawyer, Adam Leitman Bailey, told DailyMail.com that Naftali is 'bullying' his client, who needs time to find a new place to live. 'His view is now that he's standing up for all New Yorkers who couldn't afford a high-priced lawyer,' Bailey said. 'And he's gonna stay there for as long as he's legally allowed to be there, number one.' Ozsu says he has been harassed with a loud air filter. 'It sounds like a jet,' Ozsu told the Times. 'It feels like it's at the back of your head all the time.' Bailey believes it's nothing but an act of pressure. 'It's just sitting in front of his hallway,' he told DailyMail.com. 'Even though they're demolishing the building, they're doing construction in front of the hall.' The attorney says he's working with government officials to obtain a Certificate of No Harassment against the building's owners. The document would prevent Naftali from demolishing the building until three years have passed since the landlord's last used intimidation tactics. Ozsu says the building's new owners have installed a loud air filter that sounds like a 'jet' in order to intimidate him into leaving his unit, which he owes more than $13,000 of back rent on The developers have also placed a camera outside his unit in the nearly empty building. An attorney for Naftali says the camera is for 'general security issues' after a dispute involving Ozsu and building staff Naftali attorney Y. David Scharf said: 'There has been no harassment, period, full stop.' He has accused Ozsu of holding out for a million-dollar payout Aside from the $25 million lawsuit against Ozsu, Bailey says the developers also came for him. In a cease and desist letter provided to DailyMail.com, the developer's attorney, Y. David Scharf, threatened to sue Bailey for 'coordinating a media attack' against the developer and allowing reporters to go inside. 'I've never seen this before,' Bailey told DailyMail.com. 'You can't stop a reporter from coming out.' For the tenant at the center of the dispute, the issue is simple. 'It's two things: I have the right to be here, and I have no place to go,' Ozsu told the Times. Scharf, the developer's attorney, says there has been no retaliation against Ozsu, who they claim is only after a million-dollar payout. 'There has been no harassment, period, full stop,' he told the Times, adding that the camera installed outside the tenant's unit is for 'general security issues' arising from an incident between Ozsu and building staff. 'Through counsel, he has made it clear he's holding out for a ransom of north of a million dollars,' Scharf said. Ozsu moved into the building in 2006 after it was recommended by a friend. He moved to his current top floor unit the year after. Ozsu moved into the building in 2006 after it was recommended by a friend. He moved to his current top floor unit the year after and is now in a 'crusade' to stay, his lawyer says Former tenants described it as a friendly and open living environment where neighbors interacted often. 'It was like Melrose Place, without the sexual scandals,' one told the Times, recalling how Ozsu would invite neighbors over for cookouts by leaning over his private deck. One former resident said some tenants accepted financial settlements to end their leases early and move on. Another said she left early because it no longer felt like home as people emptied out. Ozsu tried to pay $13,600 in owed rent this week, but his building's legal team said it would reject the payment, according to court filings that are part of their $25 million lawsuit against him. Former tenants described a friendly atmosphere, with Ozsu often inviting his neighbors up to his deck for cookouts. The building is likely to be replaced with a luxury tower that will only have room for 11 units, down from the current 168 Though Naftali hasn't filed any formal plans for a new project, the firm is building a 13-story tower on the Upper East Side with space for businesses and just 11 luxury condos worth between $8.5 to $40 million. Bailey, the tenant's attorney, says the best case scenario would be to delay the demolishing of the building 'for years as a result of the harassment.' Amid a hot real estate market, Naftali could decide that it's cheaper to pay Ozsu off and begin construction than to wait for him to leave. In 2005, a longtime resident of the Mayflower Hotel scored a $17 million buyout and a promise of a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park for $1 a month after he refused to move out. A third of the payout went to his attorney, David Rozenholc. 'I've settled three cases already this year, which is a quick pace,' Rozenholc told the Times. A Chicago man will most likely die in prison after being sentenced to 105 years for executing a 14 year-old runaway girl found dead in an alleyway after a sex attack. Deonlawshawn Simmons, 36, was found guilty in March 2022 of murdering 14-year-old Takaylah Tribbitt and dumping her body in an alleyway in Gary, Indiana. He was jailed April 14. The victim, who had run away from home and met Simmons - who claims to have fathered 25 children - just five days prior to her death, was found with her hands bound behind her back. Tribbitt had been sexually assaulted multiple times prior to her death, authorities said. One report described the alley where she was found as being 'trash-filled.' Tribbit's injuries were not consistent with a struggle, investigators said. Deonlawshawn Simmons, 36, told investigators that although he knew his victimTakaylah Tribbitt, there relationship was not sexual. Simmons said that he gave her rides and paid for her to get her nails and hair done It's believed that Simmons met Tribbitt at a birthday party five days before she was murdered. During the trial it emerged that Tribbitt told a friend that she had been communicating with a man named Deon Lashawn via Facebook. Tribbitt was described as a runaway. It was the shelter where she had been living that raised the alarm when she went missing. The area where Tribbitt's body was found was described as being close to where members of Simmons' family live. Simmons' lawyer, a public defender, said that his client plans to appeal his sentence. His lawyer wanted to the judge to impose a 56-year sentence in the case with five years suspended. Takaylah Tribbitt was described as a runaway who was living in a Chicago homeless shelter at the time of her death. Tribbitt was referred to as a 'defenseless child' Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Doug Shaw referred to Simmons' crime as an 'execution.' The 105 year sentence was the maximum allowed by law. Shaw had earlier called the victim a 'defenseless child.' During the investigation, Simmons told investigators that he fathered 25 children but that he only knew nine of them by name, reports The Times of Northwest Indiana. The Times report also says that Simmons had been adamant that he had nothing to do with Tribbitt's death. He said that when the teen was killed, he was having sex with a hooker at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana. The alleyway where Tribbitt was found dead was described as being 'trash-filled' in one report. Simmons denied that he was in the area when the killing took place. His cell phone data linked him to the scene Simmons cell phone was linked to the area at the time when Tribbitt was killed. DNA analysis was also used to by detectives to establish a case against Simmons. Simmons was not arrested until over a year after Tribbitt was killed. The Times reported at the time that he was taken into custody in Chicago by the U.S. Marshal service and extradited to Indiana. When he was interviewed, Simmons said that he knew Tribbitt and would give her rides, pay for her to get her hair and nails done and bought her food. Simmons denied that their relationship was sexual. In April 2022, The Chicago Sun-Times reported that although there has been a slight decrease in the amount of homicides this year compared to last, other crimes are on the rise. While the city of Gary, once regarded as the murder capital of the United States in the 1990s, saw a 15% fall in violent crime between 2019 and 2020, according to an Axios report. The ex-boyfriend of a murdered Florida mom was pictured smirking in his mugshot as he faces charges in her disappearance. Marcus Spanevelo, 34, was booked into custody at the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office in Florida at around 11.05pm on Sunday, two weeks after he was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Cassie Carli, 37, the mother of his child. The couple had been fighting for custody of their 4-year-old daughter, Saylor, when Carli went missing on March 27. Her body was later found in a shallow grave close to a barn in St Clair County, Alabama, just hours after Spanevelo was arrested on April 2 in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was charged at the time with tampering with evidence and destroying evidence in connection with his alleged disposal of Carli's phone - and giving false information concerning a missing person. Now that he has been extradited back to Florida, sheriff's office officials say he is also being charged with obstruction of justice for refusing to submit to a DNA test - and further charges are expected. 'Once the autopsy is done, and you see the charges filed, you'll understand,' Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said at a news conference on Easter Sunday, according to FOX News. 'I think he's either going to spend the rest of his life in prison, or he's going to get the needle,' he said, referring to the death penalty. 'Hopefully the needle.' Spanevelo is expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday. Marcus Spanavelo, 34, was pictured smirking in his mugshot after he was extradited back to Florida over the weekend. He is charged with obstructing justice in the disappearance of Cassie Carli, 37, with whom he shares a daughter Cassie Carli's body was found in a shallow grave in Alabama on April 2 following a week-long search. Her daughter, Saylor, had earlier been found safe in Birmingham Carli's body was found in a shallow grave at a barn in Alabama following a nearly week-long search on April 2, near where Spanevelo had been renovating a house. She had last been seen on March 27 heading over to Juanita's Grill - a beachfront restaurant near where she lived in Navarre Beach, Florida - to pick up Saylor from her ex. The young girl was later found safe in Birmingham, Alabama. Carli's father reported her missing the next day, after he said he received suspicious text messages from her phone, telling him that she was having problems with her phone and her car. Carli's father, Andrew, quickly replied: 'I'm freaking out ... call me as soon as you get this message,' Andrew wrote to his daughter. He then received an answer from his daughter's number, which read: 'I'm sorry, car was acting up and I broke my phone. Marcus is working on it. I will stay at his place tonight.' Raeann, Carli's sister, and her father did not believe that it was Carli who sent that reply as he was reportedly abusive to Carli. 'If she was having troubles she would never seek help from him, that's just crazy,' Raeann said in an interview with The Sun, referring to Spanevelo. 'She would walk next door to the restaurant before she asked him for anything.' She said she then took to Facebook Messenger to ask her sister's ex where her niece, Saylor, was: 'Is saylor with you? Please marcus... this is NOT like my sister! She has been doing great & was supposed to start a new job!! I hope you will at least cooperate with the police/let them know you have Saylor. she is now a missing person.' Marcus answered: 'Saylor is with me...she wanted to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere in Destin with saylor..I told her I wouldn't let saylor go like that..to give me an address and I'd take them to it...yeah, cops already called me and might call again for more question...if they do, I will...apparently everybody will be asking me that...so I'll just copy and paste what I told your father.' What ensued was a nearly week-long search for Carli, with investigators finding her vehicle nearby, with her purse still inside it. They were later able to find Saylor safe with her father in Birmingham, and he was arrested days later in Lebanon, Tennessee. He had tried to fight extradition back to Florida, FOX News reports, but eventually signed the waiver on Wednesday. A bizarre text message sent from Carli's phone on the night she was reported missing was sent to her father's phone Spanevelo failed to provide any details about Carli's location, but reassured Raeann that their daughter, Saylor, was safe Carli and Spanevelo had reportedly had an abusive relationship prior to her disappearance last month. They originally met in 2018 and soon fell into a serious relationship; Carli got pregnant two months after the pair started dating. But soon Spanevelo became 'extremely abusive' and scared Carl previously told The Sun, claiming: 'He was never physical with her or put his hands on her, but he knew she feared him and I think he used that against her. But he would also be kind to her sometime and try to get her to bring her to guard down.' She claimed that Spanevelo had tried to 'isolate Cassie away from the family and tried to turn Cassie against her, claiming she was not a good role model for Saylor. 'He'd tell her "Your family doesn't love you. They're all messed up. I love you. I know what's best for you, listen to me,'" Raeann told the outlet. By the time she was five months pregnant, Raeann said, 'There were just too many red flags. 'She would tell us, "he's controlling me; he's trying to manipulate me; I don't want to be with him."' And after Cassie gave birth to Saylor, Raeann said things only got worse. She claimed Spanavelo attempted to plant recording devices in her apartment, tracked her phone and tried to monitor her movements and who she was speaking to. 'I think he thought that if he could hear her doing anything she may not [be] supposed to be doing, then he'd try to use it against her and try to make false reports to [Child Protective Services] to get Saylor taken away from her.' In fact, Spanevelo 'filed dozens of false police reports' and phoned child protective services 'so many times, I nearly came to know most of the staff by name,' Carli once wrote in a Go Fund Me page, 'Help Cassie with Legal Fees.' Raeann said Carli had originally wanted them to be able to co-parent, Raeann said, but she grew increasingly afraid of Spanavelo and even asked her father, Andrew, to come with her to the custody exchanges - and bring his concealed carry weapon. But the victim's father, Andrew, had stopped attending child custody exchanges with his daughter long before Carli went to pick up Saylor on March 27. Carli had been engaged in a bitter custody battle with Spanavelo for their daughter, Saylor, prior to her disappearance on March 27 Carli's sister said she had recently gotten her life back together, and had started a new job at a local military base Her body was found in a shallow grave at a barn near where Spanavelo renovated a home Raeann also claimed Carli had just been trying to get her life back in order at the time of her death. She had just landed a new job at a local military base, Raeann said, and Spanavelo was attempting to win her back. 'My sister was finally in the best place before her passing, and she got that job, which she really enjoyed,' Raeann said. 'And it could be that he thought, "Wow, she's never ever going to want me or let me have my way so I've got to do something about it.' St. Clair County Coroner Dennis Russell said he has already conducted an autopsy on Carli's body, the results of which have not yet been publicly released pending the completion of a toxicology report, which could take months. But Sheriff Johnson said in a news conference earlier this month that the body appeared to be intact and there were no obvious signs of trauma. He added that Spanevelo has not been cooperative with authorities during the investigation, saying: 'Since we've been dealing with him, he's been acting like a real dirt bag. I don't see that changing. The United States military will start training Ukrainians on using howitzer artillery in the coming days, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Monday. President Joe Biden last week announced another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, sending for the first time heavy artillery systems ahead of an expected Russian assault in eastern Ukraine. Minutes after Kirby made the announcement Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia had begun the 'battle of Donbas.' Kirby said the training would happen outside of Ukraine. 'I'm going to refrain right now from talking about who's going to be doing the training and exactly on what timeline,' he told reporters during a briefing. 'I think as we get closer to things, we may be able to talk a little bit more about it. 'But there is a plan now that we are beginning to execute and we think that that training can happen in the next several days.' He said the plan was to train personnel who would then be able to take their knowledge home to then train soldiers in Ukraine. And he said the training would not take long. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. will begin training Ukrainian troops in how to use howitzer artillery in the coming days The U.S. is sending 18 howitzers to Ukraine in its latest aid package. British troops are seen here using 55mm self-propelled howitzers in Saudi Arabia in 1991 'They understand how to use artillery, and ... we don't believe will take very long or require much detailed training to get them up to speed on American howitzers,' he said. Four planes delivered aid over the weekend - and a fifth was due to arrive on Monday. The U.S. has already revealed that Ukrainian forces have been trained in how to use Switchblade drones - single use, Kamikaze drones that crash into their targets. Kirby said the latest aid package included 18 howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds. 'Artillery is a specific item that the Ukrainians asked for, because of the fighting that they expect is going to occur in the Donbas,' he said. Moscow has withdrawn its troops from the advance on Kyiv after weeks of fierce resistance. And the Kremlin said Donbas was now its main goal. Earlier a senior defence official said Russia had sent 11 battalion tactical groups into Ukraine since late last week - raising the total to 76 in southern and eastern Ukraine. Pictured: Smoke rises after 5 aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022 Five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began. Pictured: Locals watch on as firefighters battle a blaze after a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile on April 18, Lviv In an evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said the offensive had begun. 'We can now say that Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbas, for which they have long prepared,' he said. Kirby said Ukraine had asked for howitzers as it prepared for the Russian attack. 'But the terrain lends itself to the use of artillery to long range fires, as we call it,' he said. 'And we know that the Russians also believe the same thing because we're seeing them move artillery units into the Donbass as well. 'And so we want to give the Ukrainians every bit of advantage that we can.' Meanwhile five 'powerful' Russian missile strikes left at least seven people dead and eleven more injured in Lviv early Monday, the regional governor has said, as multiple Russian attacks rocked Ukraine overnight. The strikes were a rare fatal attack on the city 40 miles from the border with Poland that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the Russian invasion began almost two months ago, on February 24. Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin sent up his strategic bombers in the skies over Western Russia today amid huge pressure on the Kremlin over the sinking of the Moskva flagship in the Black Sea. Videos from today and Saturday caught four of the aircraft - used to carry nuclear bombs - over the Kaluga region, between Moscow and the Ukrainian border. The planes are believed to be Russian Tu-95s, known as Bears, and appeared to be flying in striking distance of Ukraine. The Tu-95s have been used a number of times to strike targets in Ukraine with non-nuclear weapons, notably Kh-55 and Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. The super-loud Tu-95 is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today, and the plane first flew 70 years ago. In Lviv, footage showed plumes of thick, black smoke rising over the city after a series of explosions shattered windows and started fires, while one video filmed by a civilian appeared to show a cruise missile flying overhead. A haunting photo shows an 18 year-old girl standing on a remote road in Mexico shortly before she vanished without a trace. Authorities in the northeastern Mexico state of Nuevo Leon are continuing the frantic search for Debanhi Escobar after she disappeared following a night of partying with two girl friends in the city of Escobedo on April 8. At one point, Escobar got into an argument with one of her friends, who contacted a taxi driver, identified only as 47-year-old Jesus, to arrange to drop her off at her residence Along the way a heated discussion ensued between Jesus, who was known and trusted by the girls, and Escobar. He has since been arrested on drugs charges, with his apprehension believed to be linked to the disappearance. Jesus, whose rideshare app was turned off during the trip, left Escobar stranded on the side of the highway that leads to the Tamaulipas border town of Nuevo Laredo and took a picture of her which he sent to her friends around 5am on April 9. In the photo, Escobar is wearing a crop top and a skirt, and has her back turned away from Jesus while looking down the road. Debanhi Escobar was photographed by a ride share app driver identified as 47-year-old Jesus Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on April 9 after he abandoned her on the side of a road after an argument. The 18-year-old girl was later picked up by a security camera entering a nearby trucking company site but was not seen exiting it Debanhi Escobar went out to party with two girl friends April 8 in Escobedo, Mexico, before she was reported missing after failing to return home Jesus, a 47-year-old ride share app driver in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was taken into custody last Tuesday and questioned over the disappearance of Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old who he was driving home April 9 before he abandoned her on a road and took a photo of her that was sent to two of her friends, including one who had reached out to him so that he could drive her home Jesus, who in the past had been investigated for harassment and attempted kidnapping of women, was taken into custody for possession of narcotics last Tuesday and questioned by the Nuevo Leon State Office of the Attorney General over the incident with Escobar. The prosecutor's office has not officially charged Jesus with Escobar's disappearance. Over the weekend, Mario Escobar told Mexican news network Telediario Monterrey that he had seen more footage from more than 15 surveillance cameras that were obtained by the Office of the Attorney General and held out hope that they will find her. One of the security cameras showed Escobar entering the site of Alcosa Transportes Internacionales, a trucking company, moments after Jesus abandoned her. However, she was never seen exiting the cargo company site. Authorities in Mexico have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Debanhi Escobar's whereabouts Debanhi Escobar is said to have gotten into an argument with her two girl friends during a night of partying April 8 in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. One of them contacted a ride share app driver identified as Jesus, who was off duty, to driver Escobar home. However, a heated discussion ensued during the ride to her home and she was abandoned on the side of a road. A security camera later captured the moment she entered a trucking company site, but she was never seen exiting it Surveillance camera footage reviewed by Mexican authorities revealed Debanhi Escobar entered the premises of a trucking company after she was abandoned by the taxi driver 'It is Debanhi,' Mario Escobar said, as quoted by La Jornada newspaper. 'We already have some photographs. The videos are being analyzed. The prosecutor's office is working and we are waiting to have some results very soon.' Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia and state security chief Aldo Fasci told the distraught father that authorities in the states of Baja California, Durango and Tamaulipas have joined in on the search for his daughter. 'We hope to find that light at the end of the tunnel, to have that happy ending,' Mario Escobar said. A $5,000 reward has been offered for information that will help authorities locate Debanhi Escobar. A 15-year-old female student has been killed after being stabbed by a male intruder at a high school in California. The girl, who has not been named, died in hospital after the apparently random attack by a man in his 40s at Stagg High School in Stockton. The site was plunged into lockdown and the suspect was arrested and taken away by cops. Stockton Unified School District said the motive for the stabbing late this morning was 'under investigation'. A 15-year-old female student has been killed after being stabbed by a male intruder at a high school in California The woman, who has not been named, was allegedly attacked by the man at Stagg High School in Stockton (file photo) It tweeted: 'Stagg High School is currently under lockdown for the safety of all staff and students. 'A trespasser approached the campus and stabbed a student. The suspect is in custody and the victim has been transported to the hospital. 'The motive for the attack is under investigation.' The man drove to the school and went through a campus gate, police said. He attacked before security and staff could stop him, Stockton Unified School District Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. said. 'We definitely will be re-evaluating' campus security, he said. Cops said the attack did not appear to be random and they recovered a weapon from the scene. Brazen tourists have left locals furious after risking their lives to snap a daredevil selfie at a famous Sydney landmark. Many people seeking the perfect social-media photo flocked to Wedding Cake Rock over the Easter break, reaching the picture-perfect site by a walking track in the Royal National Park just south of Cronulla. One such photo of a pair of tourists at the edge of the corroding sandstone cliff was posted to Reddit on Monday and quickly sparked debate. Many questioned why visitors would flaunt safety regulations and take such a risk all for the sake of a soon-forgotten upload to social media sites like Instagram. Brazen tourists have left hundreds of residents furious after risking their lives to snap a daredevil selfie at a famous Sydney landmark (pictured, visitors at Wedding Cake Rock) A sign on the metal fence clearly states the rock could plummet into the sea and discourages visitors from walking on the 'unstable' cliff edge (pictured) 'People are willing to risk their lives for a good insta,' one user wrote. 'Those pics are to die for,' another said. 'Are you kidding me? You literally went around a fence with signs that say cliff is unstable to do this,' a third agreed. 'You guys need to be caught and fined. You put other lives at risk for your stupid photos. Lives of the SES, police, police rescue just to name a few.' The tourists who pose for the pictures know they are breaking regulations as there are signs up warning them of such, and they need to climb a 1.6metre fence erected in 2016 to keep people away from the fatal 40metre drop. Even those who felt confidence in their balance near the edge could not account for the risk of the rock crumbling underfoot. In 2015, a geotechnical report found Wedding Cake Rock could collapse at any moment 'without warning' into the ocean, the ABC reports. The picturesque white cliff can only be accessed by climbing a 1.6metre fence erected in 2016 in an effort to keep people away from the 40metre drop (pictured, a man sits at the edge) Tourists were subsequently banned from climbing onto the rock after experts found it had developed cracks on two sides and could detach from the cliff. A sign on the metal fence clearly states the rock could plummet into the sea and discourages visitors from walking on the 'unstable' cliff edge. 'No access onto Wedding Cake Rock - max penalty $3000,' the notice reads. French student, Fabien Ardoin, 23, who was believed to have been posing for photographs died at Wedding Cake Rock in 2014. According to his Facebook page, the student was living in Sydney at the time of his death and described himself as an international model. Police recovered his body after a grueling search operation around 6.30pm in early June, 2014. They were called to the scene around 10.30am. Visitors were banned from climbing onto the rock in 2015 after experts found it had developed cracks on two sides and could detach from the cliff In 2015, a geotechnical report found Wedding Cake Rock could collapse at any moment 'without warning' into the ocean below, a 40metre drop (pictured, a man on the landmark) Mr Ardoin had been bushwalking through the National Park with a group of seven friends from Wollongong University, including his girlfriend, when he slipped down an embankment. It was first reported that the man had fell about 10 metres after losing his grip while hanging from a sandstone ledge during a morning walk. Police later confirmed the Frenchman fell around 40 metres. The following year, two men were winched to safety after falling over the ledge. The NPWS has introduced hefty fines of up to $3,300 in hopes to deter people vaulting the fence and stepping out onto the cliff (pictured, a woman on the landmark) In 2018, rangers from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) were forced to ask for assistance with 'site compliance' by members of the NSW Police. The NPWS has introduced hefty fines of up to $3,300 in hopes to deter people vaulting the fence and stepping out onto the cliff. The safety fence erected in 2019 reportedly cost the NSW Government $281,000. 'Unfortunately, some people chose to disobey the warning signs and climb over the old fence to take selfies for social media and we have been forced to take further action,' (NPWS) area manager Shaun Elwood said in a statement in June, 2019. 'The better barrier will be made of high-grade stainless steel with an inward tilt to make it harder for people to climb. The Royal National Park is a the world's second-oldest national park and features heritage attractions, spanning 16,000 hectares (pictured, a woman sits on Wedding Cake Rock) 'New safety signs will also inform visitors of the imminent danger of the rock collapsing.' Mr Elwood reminded visitors to stay safe for the sake of their loved ones and carefully consider the consequences of breaking the rules. 'People should also spare a thought for our staff and the emergency services people who put their lives at risk to undertake dangerous rescues and retrievals should something go wrong,' he said. Anthony Albanese has shot down suggestions former prime minister Kevin Rudd could become Australia's next ambassador to the US if Labor wins the election. The opposition leader rubbished reports he told some senior party colleagues he is 'in favour' of appointing Mr Rudd the the plum diplomatic post. 'Complete nonsense,' he said on radio on Tuesday morning when asked. 'Yesterday it was Kevin Rudd wasn't going to be on the campaign, he'd gone missing in action Seriously, [the media] needs to get over the obsession.' Anthony Albanese has remained a huge supporter of Kevin Rudd, and reportedly told senior Labor colleagues he was 'in favour' of appointing the former PM as Australia's ambassador in Washington if Labor win the election Mr Albanese said he expected Mr Rudd would help out in Labor's election campaign at some point but he didn't yet have any appearances planned. 'We have no plans at this time [but] I'd always be happy to be seen with Kevin Rudd, Paul Keating or Julia Gillard,' he said. The report claimed senior Labor leaders who supported sending Mr Rudd to Washington believed he had solid credentials as a former foreign minister and had experience on the world stage. If Mr Rudd was given the gig, he would report directly to Penny Wong, Labor's spokeswoman for world affairs. But others in senior Labor ranks warned his appointment could pose problems due to his 'status' as an ex-PM and his hunger for maintaining a large public profile. They worried his appointment would be a mistake if he continued to speak out on policy independently, beyond serving the interests of the Australian Government. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd could become Australia's next ambassador if Labor win the upcoming federal election 'He'd be seen as Australia's prime minister in Washington,' one senior critic inside Labor told The Australian. 'It could be a disaster.' Former treasurer Joe Hockey held the position shortly after serving in Tony Abbott's Coalition government, and the role is currently filled by Arthur Sinodinos. Since being voted out as prime minister, Mr Rudd has been a strong critic of Scott Morrison's government and continued to speak out independently on policy. That includes loudly backing a royal commission against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Mr Rudd has pledged to campaign in 20 seats for Mr Albanese during the next five weeks of campaigning. Earlier this year, he blasted Mr Morrison in a foul-mouthed tweet supporting free rapid antigen tests for everyone. Mr Rudd said: 'Morrison is RATf**king Australians. This is American-style health policy, putting private profits ahead of public safety. 'It's a recipe for massive undetected spread among those least able to pay. Mass-testing saves money by taking pressure off hospitals.' The plan to give Mr Rudd the top job in Washington has reportedly divided senior leaders in the Labor party He has also made comments questioning Australia's alliance with the US. In 2019, Mr Rudd suggested Australia could not rely on the US in the long-term. 'Australia must also look to mid-century when we may increasingly have to stand to our own two feet, with or without the support of a major external ally,' he said. The ex-leader has said the nation must plan for a 'big and sustainable Australia', adding it was what he advocated while in office. Mr Rudd explained it meant comprehensive action on climate change and environmental sustainability, while also doubling the population. 'Only a country with a population of 50 million later this century would begin to have the capacity to fund the military, security and intelligence assets necessary to defend our territorial integrity and political sovereignty long term,' he said. 'This is not politically correct. But it's yet another uncomfortable truth.' Mr Rudd has said he feared Australia would be left behind. 'For too long we have been complacent in anticipating and responding to the profound geo-political changes now washing over us with China's rise,' he said. The anguished parents of sailors missing after missiles struck a Russian warship have demanded of Vladimir Putin: Where are our sons? They want the Kremlin to admit how many died when the Moskva sank amid claims of a cover-up last night. Moscow insists almost all the vessels 514 crew were rescued. Yegor Shkrebets, 20, a conscript who went missing after the Moskva cruiser death. Posing with his father Dmitry Shkrebets. Yegor Shkrebets posing with other sailors at Moskva cruiser, 4 days before the ship sank. Among them is another missing conscript, Mark Tarasov, 24 Russia has remained tight-lipped about the fate of Moskva's crew, but on Sunday released this footage which it claimed showed the ship's complement on parade in Sevastopol Anton Kuprin (left), captain of the Moskva, salutes Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the commander in charge of Russia's Black Sea Fleet which the vessel led as the flagship Footage showed the ship's captain - Anton Kuprin (centre) - parading in front of his men, which were estimated to number between 150 and 250. Moskva typically carries up to 510 men, and Russia did not say what had happened to them 2014: Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on-board the Moskva with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi As a dramatic video and images emerged last night showing the warship on fire following the attack, Kremlin officials also released footage of a supposed ceremony for survivors. But the clip appears clumsily doctored, with the same sailors seeming to appear multiple times and the tree foliage suggesting the film was made at a different time of year. Yesterday, at the risk of being censured or even arrested, desperate parents of crew members broke their silence. They fear the death toll from the Moskva is at least 40 and could be much higher. Western military sources have suggested it could be in the hundreds. Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles fired by Ukraine struck the ships port side, targeting her engines and starting a propellant fuel fire. The first image of the guided missile cruiser Moskva of the Russian Navy that sank on April 15 The images show what appears to be damage to the left-hand side of the vessel close to the water line, smoke and fire damage along its left-hand side, missing lifeboats and open helicopter bay doors - suggesting the aircraft has taken off. A rescue ship also appears to be behind the stricken ship, spraying water jets Moscow says a fire onboard caused ammunitions to explode and the vessel sank as it was being towed in a storm Moscow, however, says a fire onboard caused ammunitions to explode and the vessel sank as it was being towed in a storm. The ship was the Russian Navys command and control centre in the Black Sea, coordinating missile strikes on cities in southern Ukraine. Huge plumes of black smoke can be seen towering above the listing vessel following Wednesday mornings attack. She sank later that day. Irina Shkrebets, whose son Egor was a chef, described searching hospital wards crammed with severely burned sailors. She said: I looked at every burnt kid. I cant tell you how hard it was, but I couldnt find mine. There were only 200 people [in the hospital] and there were more than 500 on the ship. Where were the others? I asked a navy commander for information but he said, I wont tell you anything. Moskva (pictured last leaving port on April 10) got into trouble on April 14 while sailing around 60 miles off the coast of Odesa - Ukraine's largest port - before Moscow confirmed she had sunk on April 15 Mark Tarasov (left), 24, a Russian conscript who went missing after the Moskva cruiser was sunk last week. He is seen here posing with his mother Ulyana and father at the railway station, when he left for the service Moskva was a Soviet-era guided missile destroyer that was designed to taken on US aircraft carriers with large amounts of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles Egors father Dmitry said his son was a conscript who should not have been sent to a warzone and vowed to dedicate his life to discovering what happened. He said: The cruisers commander and his deputy stopped communicating after my attempts to clarify the details of the incident. I asked them directly, Why are you officers alive and my son, a conscript, has died? I ask everyone who is not afraid, not indifferent, to spread this appeal of mine. A man whose son was taken away in such a vile way is not afraid of anything. The mother of another sailor said many crew were listed as missing, rather than dead, to spare the Kremlin embarrassment over losing so many personnel. She said: There are dead, there are wounded, there are missing. My son was crying when he called me to say what he saw. It was terrifying. Clearly not everyone made it alive. A lot have lost limbs. A Russian TV presenter also raised questions about the Moskva. During his prime time show Vladimir Solovyov said: Explain to me how you managed to lose it. Why did your fire extinguishers not work? The ship burned from the inside out. Last night, former Royal Navy officer Rear Admiral Chris Parry said the Moskva had not been properly prepared for action and suggested the internal fire could have been contained. The absence of the ships life rafts and the positioning of its crane in the footage indicate rescue boats were launched. The missiles hit the Moskva amidships, destroying her propulsion and electrical power systems. These compartments would have given off the largest radar signature. As the warship was constructed in Ukraine, its attackers may have been able to study its schematics. Her sister ship, laid up at Mykolaiv port, shares the same layout. Hyderabad: All India Congress Committee (AICC) Telangana state in-charge Manickam Tagore made it clear that there would be no alliance with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the upcoming Assembly and Parliament elections. Rumours about the possibility of the Congress having ties with the TRS were totally false, he tweeted on Sunday. The Congress wont move back an inch from our commitment to save Telangana from the TRS and the BJP, Manickam Tagore said. Let this be crystal clear to those spreading rum-ours, he said. He also called upon party leaders to be prepared for the Congress rally in Warangal on May 6 during the visit of former AICC president Rahul Gandhi. Meanwhile, the Congress has decided to mobilise around five lakh people for the public meeting to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi in Warangal. People, particularly farmers, will be mobilised from undivided Warangal and neighbouring Khammam, Karimnagar and part of Nalgonda districts. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy has taken the meeting as a prestige issue and is leaving no stone unturned to make it a grand success. It is for the first time after Revanth became state party chief, Rahul Gandhi is addressing a public meeting in Telangana. TPCC has chosen Warangal for Rahul Gandhi's meeting, as the city is the second biggest in Telangana after Hyderabad. However, the party has a strong base in various Assembly constituencies in Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda districts. Aiming to highlight problems being faced by the farmers in the TRS rule, the Congress has named its Warangal meeting as Rythu Sangharshana Sabha. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, TPCC working president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud said arrangements for Rahul Gandhis meeting in Warangal would start within a couple of days. He said distressed farmers' issues would be highlighted in the meeting and the Congress would expose the lapses of the TRS government. Jacob Rees-Mogg has ordered Cabinet ministers to end Whitehalls work from home culture as official figures revealed how few staff are back in the office. Two years on from the start of the Covid pandemic, many government departments are not even at half their capacity. Several key ministries including the Foreign Office and Department for Education had on average less than a third of staff in the office over the first week in April, data shows. Jacob Rees-Mogg has written a letter to the Secretaries of State saying that 'significant progress is needed to get offices back to full capacity Now, in a letter to the Secretaries of State, Mr Rees-Mogg, the minister for government efficiency, said significant progress was needed to get offices back to full capacity. Critics of home working claim it makes staff less productive and creative, damages career prospects and harms the economies of town centres. While the number of staff at their desks in Whitehall has increased in recent weeks, it remains well below pre-pandemic levels despite the end of Covid curbs. The Department for Education had just 25 per cent of staff in the office in the week beginning April 4 although officials said the school holidays meant it was not representative. Despite multiple pressures on the Home Office, including migrant crossings and processing visas for Ukrainian refugees, on average only 42 per cent of staff were at their workplace. The Foreign Office, a key department responding to Russias aggression in Ukraine, saw just 31 per cent of staff in its King Charles Street building that week. And despite the cost of living crisis, the Department for Work and Pensions had just 27 per cent of its civil servants at their desks. Astonishingly, the figures could overestimate the numbers in the office as some departments recorded the figures by asking security staff to click people in and then loosely adjusted the figures to account for lunch breaks. Other departments used data from pass readers. The figures suggest that a plea issued by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay three months ago for departments to return to full occupancy fell on deaf ears. In his letter to Cabinet ministers, Mr Rees-Mogg wrote: We must continue to accelerate the return of civil servants to office buildings to realise the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working and the wider benefits for the economy. 'To deliver this, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and I urge you to issue a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office. He also said the figures show we have significant progress to make. Tory MPs urged Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to bang the desk to get civil servants back into Whitehall. Staying put: Many are still avoiding the office in favour of their home working set-up Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, of the 1922 Committee, said: There are severe signs of the civil service not being as effective as it should be and I think thats because for the bulk of the period they need to be back at work. But the FDA civil service union accused Mr Rees-Mogg of micro-managing. It added: Ministers should be concerned with what is being delivered by civil servants, not where their desk is. A government spokesman said: Ministers have been clear that departments should make maximum use of office space and progress is being monitored. On Saturday, the Daily Mail revealed that departments allowed staff to work in the office for only two days a week. When civil servants were sent home in the first lockdown, it led to backlog Britain as motorists, travellers and new parents were left waiting months for vital documents that could not be processed remotely. One mandarin, Sarah Healey, admitted she enjoyed being at home so she could ride her Peloton exercise bike. The Bishop of Odessa yesterday hailed the generosity of Mail readers for showing Ukraine that it is not alone as it struggles with the horrors of war. Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk thanked supporters of the Mail Force appeal, which has raised a phenomenal 11million since Russias invasion. Mail Force is using 4million of the money donated by kind-hearted readers to send half a million boxes of food aid to starving families in eastern Ukraine. The huge sum has been matched by the Ukrainian embassy in London. Some 20 tons of supplies which have already reached Poland from the UK are on their way to Ukraine by freight train. Bishop Szyrokoradiuk, 65, who oversees the Roman Catholic Diocese of Odessa-Simferopol including much of southern Ukraine and Crimea, said: We are very grateful to the readers of the Mail for their cooperation because we know that Ukraine us not alone. Britain is our countrys best friend and we consider Boris Johnson as a brother. He is a very strong and tough man. The people of Britain have done a lot for us so we are praying for them. Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk, pictured, has thanked supporters of the Mail Force appeal, which has raised a phenomenal 11million since Russias invasion He added: In Mariupol we hear that there are lot of people blocked in their basement without food and without water. For the people in these Russian-occupied territories, food and hygiene is their number one demand. His praise came amid a fresh chorus of support for the food campaign, launched in the Mail on Sunday, including a call from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace for readers to keep giving generously. The generosity of Mail readers is an extraordinary show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, Mr Wallace said. As well as getting vital aid to vulnerable people, the campaign will show Russia that the world is united in support for Ukraine in the face of Putins aggression. I would urge readers to keep giving whatever they can to this momentous effort. Fellow Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg added: Since 1896 Daily Mail readers have been the heart and soul of our nation. Once again their generosity is called upon and once again the call is answered as they come to the aid of the brave Ukrainian people who suffer at the hands of Putin. The latest support follows praise from Boris Johnson and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who has thanked Mail readers for their generous support. Supplies are a top priority for the Ukrainian government, with Vladimir Putin accused of attempting to starve innocent civilians. The boxes, made with help from nutritionists, can feed one person for a week. They are packed with 14 items including tinned fish, pasta, rice and porridge. Millions of items of food have been sourced by the Confederation of British Industry and consultants Accenture from manufacturers and supermarket giant Morrisons. None of those involved in the project will make any profit. Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday that more than 5million people have now fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion on February 24. Distribution of boxes of food aid is taking place from Oakland International in Leicester This includes 4,934,415 Ukrainians and nearly 215,000 people from other countries mostly students and migrant workers. It is one of the fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crises ever. Mail Force, a registered charity, was set up during the pandemic to supply personal protective equipment to NHS workers. It also funded 26,000 laptops for underprivileged children whose education was impacted by lockdown. The Mail Force campaign to help refugees of the war in Ukraine was launched after the Russian invasion. Since then, ordinary Ukrainians have thanked Mail readers for their support. Natalya Boyko, 61, a cook from the city of Bucha who is now in Kyiv, said: The Daily Mail readers who collected this money that they earned themselves have made themselves stand out by giving to us. It is impossible to put it into words, but great respect to them. May God protect them. Alongside food boxes, Mail Force has donated almost 4million to charities including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Care International, The Halo Trust, AMAR Foundation, Refugee Council and Refugees at Home. Every penny donated is used to help Ukrainians in need. A New York-based private equity giant whose founder allegedly had links to Jeffrey Epstein has held talks over backing a deal to buy Twitter, reports say. Apollo Global Management bosses have discussed supporting an offer to purchase the social media giant with equity or debt, insiders claim. The firm, whose ousted founder Leon Black allegedly had work ties to Epstein, may firm up Elon Musk's $43billion bid or help another buyer, they said. It comes as the billionaire and wealthy firms circle Twitter amid expectation it could be sold. The Tesla founder is joined by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LP and Wall Street heavyweights such as Morgan Stanley in reportedly showing an interest. Apollo Global Management (pictured, its New York HQ) bosses have discussed supporting an offer to purchase the social media giant with equity or debt, insiders claim Jeffrey Epstein (left), Pepe Fanjul and Leon Black (right) attend a film screening in New York in 2005. Since publication of this photograph, we are informed that Mr Fanjul only met Epstein on one occasion and before Epstein was charged. We are happy to make this clear Sources told the Wall Street Journal bosses at Apollo Global Management had been in talks about weighing into the Twitter fiasco. But they were unsure of who the private equity firm would back, whether they would help Musk or support another backer. Apollo hit the headlines in 2020 when one of the largest public pension funds in the US froze new investments amid Black's alleged business links to Epstein. The Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System halted cooperation after reports emerged Black had paid the financier $50million since 2008. PSERS told the FT at the time its investment team had informed Apollo it would not consider any new investments until further notice. Twitter on Monday filed its 'poison pill' plan with the SEC as it cemented its attempt to block Musk from executing the $43 billion hostile takeover. The document says: 'In connection with the adoption of the Rights Agreement, on April 15, 2022 the Board approved a Certificate of Designation of Rights, Preferences and Privileges of Series A Participating Preferred Stock (the ''Certificate of Designation'') setting forth the rights, powers and preferences of the Preferred Stock. 'The Certificate of Designation was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware on April 18, 2022.' The strategy, announced on Friday, triggers a dilution of company shares if any shareholder builds up a 15 per cent stake without the board's approval. But it does not prevent Twitter from accepting Musk's offer or entering negotiations with him or other potential buyers. Yet it will stop the billionaire from putting pressure on the board by buying up ever more shares on the open market. Twitter said its 'poison pill' plan is 'similar to other plans adopted by publicly held companies in comparable circumstances'. Leon Black, chairman and chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management LLC, is pictured in 2008 Poison pill plans use the threat of dilution to dissuade takeovers The Twitter board, meeting on Thursday afternoon, decided to combat Musk's takeover bid with a so-called 'poison pill' provision that would prevent the Tesla CEO from increasing his stake in Twitter. Also known as shareholder rights plans, poison pills typically trigger an automatic stock dilution through a flood of new shares if a corporate raider's ownership stake grows too large. For instance, if a single shareholder hits 15 per cent ownership, a poison pill could be designed to allow every other shareholder to buy a new issue of shares at a discount. Knowing such a plan could be triggered, raising the cost of a takeover astronomically, the bidder would be disinclined to pursue a takeover without the board's approval. In Twitter's case, the idea of such a plan would be to prevent Musk from increasing his 9.1 per cent stake in order to pressure the board to accept his deal. Advertisement It said: 'The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium.' It means if Musk or any other person or group acquires at least 15 per cent of Twitter's stock, the 'poison' pill will be triggered. Every other shareholder aside from Musk would be allowed to purchase new shares at half the market price, which stood at $45.08 at the closing bell on Thursday. The flood of half-price shares would effectively dilute his ownership stake, making it massively more expensive for him to build up a controlling position. Twitter said its board had voted unanimously in favor of the plan, which will remain in effect until April 14, 2023. Its board is led by chairman Bret Taylor. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and co-founder Dorsey also hold board seats. Rounding out the board are: MasterCard executive Mimi Alemayehou, private equity investor Egon Durban, karaoke tycoon Martha Lane Fox, former Google exec Omid Kordestani, Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, venture capitalist Patrick Pichette, 1stDibs CEO David Rosenblatt, and former banker and diplomat Robert Zoellick. Despite Twitter's latest move, Musk could still defy the board and take over in a proxy fight by voting out the current directors - though this strategy could take years. Musk previously responded to reports the board was mulling a 'poison pill' plan by tweeting: 'If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty.' Elon Musk (pictured last week) has tweeted 'Love Me Tender' as he hinted at the possibility of a hostile takeover of Twitter Twitter's board is led by chairman Bret Taylor, who is also the co-CEO of business software giant Salesforce Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (left) and co-founder Jack Dorsey (right) also hold board seats If the board were to reject Musk's tender offer, he could then approach the shareholders, who may accept the offer. Musk could also employ a proxy fight in which opposing groups of stockholders attempt to persuade other stockholders to let them use their shares' proxy votes. Twitter's San Francisco headquarters is pictured in July 2021 A Stanford professor, a banker and tech giants ... who is on Twitter's board? Chairman Bret Taylor CEO Parag Agrawal Co-founder Jack Dorsey MasterCard exec Mimi Alemayehou Private equity investor Egon Durban Karaoke tycoon Martha Lane Fox Ex-Google exec Omid Kordestani Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li Venture capitalist Patrick Pichette 1stDibs CEO David Rosenblatt Ex-banker Robert Zoellick Advertisement 'The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale,' he added, apparently referring to potential shareholder lawsuits. Musk sent shockwaves through the tech world on Thursday with an unsolicited bid to buy the company. He said the promotion of freedom of speech on Twitter as a key reason for what he called his 'best and final offer'. The world's richest person offered $54.20 a share, which values the social media firm at some $43 billion, in a filing with the SEC on Thursday. Musk said at a conference hours later he was 'not sure' he would succeed and acknowledged a 'plan B' but refused to elaborate. But he hinted in a filing that a rejection would make him consider selling his shares. Musk last week disclosed a purchase of 73.5million shares - or 9.2 percent - of Twitter's common stock, which sent its shares soaring more than 25 per cent. The board's 'rights plan' kicks in if a buyer takes 15 per cent or more of Twitter's outstanding common stock in a transaction not approved by the board. Musk said he 'could technically afford' the buyout while offering no information on financing. But he would likely need to borrow money or part with some of his mountain of Tesla or SpaceX shares. Despite saying he wanted to take the company private, he said the firm would keep up to 2,000 investors - the maximum allowed. Some investors have already spoken against the proposal, including businessman and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Morningstar Research analysts echoed this, saying, 'While the board will take the Tesla CEO's offer into consideration, we believe the probability of Twitter accepting it is likely below 50 percent.' Cities and towns in eastern Ukraine have been rocked by fresh explosions as Russia stepped up its all-out assault on the Donbas region last night. After weeks of having their assaults on Kyiv thwarted at every turn, Putin's commanders are now refocusing their efforts on the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, along with other regions of Ukraine's eastern flank, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday dubbed 'The Battle of the Donbas'. Ukrainian media outlets and Telegram channels reported a series of explosions along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling taking place in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk throughout the evening. Local officials and media also said explosions were heard in Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. 'We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time. A large part of the Russian army is now dedicated to this offensive,' Zelensky said in his daily presidential address last night. 'No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. I am grateful to all our fighters, to all our heroic cities in Donbas, Mariupol, as well as to the cities in the region of Kharkiv that are being held.' The coming battle is viewed as pivotal to deciding the ultimate fate of Ukraine - and perhaps of Russia as well. Russia retreated from Kyiv more than two weeks ago after failing to seize the capital, and has spent the days since massing forces in the east in an attempt to restart its failed invasion and score its first major battlefield victory. Most troops are gathered at Izyum, a city spanning the Donets River some 70 miles to the south of Kharkiv, for an expected push south towards Mariupol. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Russia's large-scale offensive in the eastern Donbas region had begun Russia unleashed a barrage of artillery fire on eastern Ukraine overnight as its offensive in the east got underway, with troops seizing the village of Kreminna. But Ukraine has also launched counter-attacks east of Kharkiv and near Izyum to cut Russian supply lines After weeks of having their assaults on Kyiv thwarted at every turn, Putin's commanders are now refocusing their efforts on the Donbas region that pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014 Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, as Ukrainian troops defending the city make their last stand against Russia The Ukrainian flag flutters between buildings destroyed in bombardment, in the Ukrainian town of Borodianka, in the Kyiv region on April 17, 2022 A man walks near a residential building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022 If Mariupol falls to Russian forces - which is expected to take place in the coming weeks - these troops are likely to begin pushing north to join up with the Izyum force in a pincer movement. The aim is to surround Ukrainian soldiers dug into trenches along the old Donbas frontline, where they have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014. If the Russians can pull off the manoeuvre, then those troops - known as the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) and thought to comprise a large portion of the Ukrainian army - will be cut off from supplies and vulnerable to surrender. Should Russia succeed in surrounding and forcing the surrender of JFO troops, then it would provide a huge propaganda boost to the Kremlin and one of its stated war aims - the 'liberation' of Donbas from Ukrainian control. Depending on how many troops Russia loses in the process, the victory could also prompt Putin to reposition his forces for fresh attacks against Ukrainian cities to the west - Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and possibly Odesa and Kyiv. Such a move would drag the war out for many months - possibly years - and put the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign state under threat. But if Ukraine emerges victorious, it would deal a hammer blow to Russia's invasion plans and deny Putin any conceivable path to victory. As happened with the stalled offensive around Kyiv, defeat for Russia would leave its occupying forces vulnerable to Ukrainian counter-attacks and could prompt a retreat back into rebel-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, and into Crimea. Depending on how many troops Ukraine has left after the battle, it could also open up the possibility of attacks into those previously-occupied regions with the aim of returning them to Ukrainian control - which Zelensky has stated as one of his aims. Such a catastrophic loss would be difficult even for Putin's regime to explain to the Russian people, and it is open to debate whether he could survive the backlash. Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak called Russia's fresh assault 'the second phase of the war' and assured Ukrainians that their forces could hold off the offensive. 'Believe in our army, it is very strong,' he said. Shortly before Zelensky's address, the regional governor of the eastern Luhansk region Sergiy Gaiday also announced the beginning of Russia's much-anticipated attack. 'It's hell. The offensive has begun, the one we've been talking about for weeks. There's constant fighting in Rubizhne and Popasna, fighting in other peaceful cities,' he said on Facebook. Russian shelling killed at least eight civilians in eastern Ukraine on Monday, according to local authorities. Gaiday said four people died as they tried to flee the city of Kreminna in Luhansk, which Russian forces captured on Monday. In the neighbouring region of Donetsk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said four other civilians died after Russian bombardment, while a man and a woman were also killed in Kharkiv when shells hit a playground near a residential building. An aerial view shows a residential building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 18, 2022 Local residents walk in a courtyard near a block of flats heavily damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 18, 2022. Ukraine estimates that 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol (residents gather in a Mariupol courtyard, April 18) A Ukrainian commander alleged that Russian 'bunker buster' bombs, designed to penetrate thick armour and kill targets underground, are dropping despite the presence of a large civilian population in the Avostal steel factory (pictured) The latest Russian rockets tipped the amount of damage dealt to Ukrainian infrastructure beyond $85bn, according to the Russia Will Pay campaign - a project developed by Kyiv's School of Economics in conjunction with the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Ministry of the Economy. 'In 54 days of full-scale war, Russia has damaged Ukraine's infrastructure by $85 billion,' the statement read. 'Over the past week, the direct losses of Ukraine's economy due to the destruction and damage of civilian and military infrastructure increased by $4.45 billion,' the project declared. Ukraine's top security official, Oleksy Danilov, said Russian forces attempted to break through Ukrainian defences 'along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions' on Monday morning, but were pushed back. Meanwhile in Mariupol, the commander of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard, Denys Prokopenko, alleged Russian planes had began to deploy 'bunker busters' to kill the last Ukrainian fighters and civilians sheltering in a steel plant - the scene of the city's last stand against the invaders' onslaught. Prokopenko said in a video message that the bombs, designed to penetrate thick armour and kill targets underground, are dropping despite the presence of a large civilian population in the Azovstal steel factory. 'Russian occupational forces know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory,' he said. Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade in Mariupol, appealed for help in a letter to Pope Francis, saying women and children were trapped among fighters in the city's steel works. 'This is what hell looks like on earth... It's time (for) help not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands,' the letter said, according to excerpts tweeted by Ukraine's Vatican ambassador. At least 1,000 civilians were hiding in underground shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant, the city council said. Ukraine estimates that 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol. A large Russian offensive in the Donbas region had been predicted by Ukraine's army for weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he launched the military operation to save the region's Russian-speaking population from a 'genocide' carried out by a 'neo-Nazi' Kyiv regime. Putin recognised the independence of two self-proclaimed separatist republics in Donetsk and Lugansk shortly before the full-scale Russian invasion began on February 24. Russian troops move into Mariupol as they continue to try and take the city from Ukraine to free up forces for attacks in the Donbas A large Russian offensive in the Donbas region had been predicted by Ukraine's army for weeks (Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he launched the military operation to save the region's Russian-speaking population from a 'genocide' carried out by a 'neo-Nazi' Kyiv regime Colonel Ivan Grishin, Commander of the 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian Army's tactical air defence unit, is reported to have been killed in Ukraine His army's assault on the Donbas regions comes as Ukraine's armed forces declared more than 20,000 Russian troops have died since the start of the invasion. According to the latest figures, a total of 20,600 Russian servicemen have been confirmed dead by the Ukrainian authorities, while even the most conservative Western estimates, given at the start of the month, put the Russian death toll between 7,000-15,000. As the war entered its 54th day yesterday, Ukrainian authorities also announced that Colonel Ivan Grishin, commander of Russia's 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade, was killed amid fighting near Kharkiv. His death pushed the number of Russia's high-ranking military commanders to have died on the frontlines to 35. In light of Russia's startling losses and their new assault on the Donbas, the head of the infamous Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries is believed to have made the trip to Ukraine to oversee his men's deployment in the east. Members of the mercenary group were thought to have arrived in Ukraine as early as late March, but now there are fears that around 1,000 Wagner group fighters could be stationed there. The group, which has been used by the Kremlin as a proxy in various armed conflicts around the world, carries a reputation for brutality and human rights abuses and goes by the motto: 'Death is our business and business is good'. Now the group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin - a man known as 'Putin's Chef' - is now believed to be on the ground in the Donbas to oversee operations, though the wealthy friend of Putin is not a military veteran. 'Prigozhin, who has no military experience and is the financier and organiser of Wagner Group rather than its military commander, is likely in Donbas to co-ordinate recruitment and financing of Wagner Group operations rather than to command combat operations,' said the Institute for War Studies, an American think tank. Meanwhile, the United States military is set to begin training Ukrainians to operate howitzer artillery in the coming days, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Monday. In light of Russia's startling losses and their new assault on the Donbas, the head of the infamous Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries is believed to have made the trip to Ukraine to oversee his men's deployment in the east. There are fears that around 1,000 Wagner group fighters could be stationed there Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. will begin training Ukrainian troops in how to use howitzer artillery in the coming days The U.S. is sending 18 howitzers to Ukraine in its latest aid package. British troops are seen here using 55mm self-propelled howitzers in Saudi Arabia in 1991 President Joe Biden last week announced another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, sending heavy artillery systems to Ukraine for the first time as Zelensky's military gears up to defend the Donbas. Kirby said the training would happen outside of Ukraine. 'I'm going to refrain right now from talking about who's going to be doing the training and exactly on what timeline,' he told reporters during a briefing. 'I think as we get closer to things, we may be able to talk a little bit more about it. 'But there is a plan now that we are beginning to execute and we think that that training can happen in the next several days.' He said the plan was to train personnel who would then be able to take their knowledge home to then train soldiers in Ukraine. Back in Kyiv, Zelensky met with European officials yesterday as he handed over Ukraine's answers to a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on membership for Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed the questionnaire to Zelensky during her visit to Kyiv on April 8, pledging a speedier start to Ukraine's bid to become a member of the EU following Russia's invasion of the country. In this image provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky poses for a photo with Matti Maasikas, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, after submitted the two-volume set of Ukraine's answers to the European Union questionnaire on Ukraine joining the EU, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022 Zelensky poses for a photo with Matti Maasikas, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, after handing over the questionnaire 'Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,' Zhovkva told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Sunday evening. Zelensky was pictured handing over the questionnaire and speaking with members of the EU delegation on Monday. The European Commission will need to issue a recommendation on Ukraine's compliance with the necessary membership criteria, Zhovkva added. 'We expect the recommendation... to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states.' Zhovkva added that Ukraine expects to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting. The European Council is to meet June 23-24, according to the Council's schedule on its website. 'Next, we will need to start accession talks. And once we hold those talks, we can already talk about Ukraine's full membership in the EU,' Zhovkva said. Adorned with fresh flowers and lit candles, dozens of new graves have emerged in battle-scarred Irpin after the Russians withdrew from the outskirts of Kyiv. Poignant drone footage has captured row upon row of burial sites marked with wreaths balanced against each other and dates, following the start of the invasion of Ukraine in late February. Among them lies the coffin of Roman Vered, 53, who, his family say, was killed by Russian soldiers in the town which saw intense fighting in the first month of war. Mr Vered's body was recently identified in Kyiv's morgue and he was finally laid to rest yesterday in the expanding cemetery, where more graves were being prepared by gravediggers. A view of more than 250 graves for people killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at a cemetery in Irpin, Kyiv The coffin of Roman Vered, 53, who according to his family was killed by Russian soldiers, is seen before his burial Tetiana Vered (left), 53, mourns the death of her husband, Roman Vered, 53, as she stands with Anna Proidenko, 57, Since Russian troops withdrew from Irpin and other towns around the Ukrainian capital, increasing evidence has emerged of war crimes including the killing of innocent civilians. Ukrainian investigators have examined 269 dead bodies in Irpin since the town was taken back from Russian forces in late March, a police official said, as workers dug fresh graves on its outskirts. The town, which had a pre-war population of about 62,000, was one of the main hotspots of fighting with Russian troops before they pulled back from Ukraine's northern regions to intensify their offensive in the east. Forensic work is being carried out to establish the cause of death for many of the civilians and soldier who were killed 'As of now, we have inspected 269 dead bodies,' said Serhiy Panteleyev, first deputy head of the police's main investigation department, at an online briefing. He said forensic work was ongoing to determine the cause of death for many of the victims, sharing photos of severely charred human remains. He said seven sites in Irpin where civilians were allegedly shot have been inspected, without giving further details. Russia denies targeting civilians and has dismissed allegations its troops committed war crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine. The roommate of a gay rights activist who was found dead in a Florida landfill earlier this year has been arrested and charged with his murder. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Steven Yinger, 36, on charges of first-degree murder for the grisly killing of Jorge Diaz-Johnston, 54, the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who had been missing since January 3. About a week after his disappearance, Diaz-Johnston was discovered in a trash pile at a landfill in Baker, Florida, roughly 60 miles east of the Alabama border, Tallahassee police announced on January 12. The indictment charges that Yinger strangled Diaz-Johnston before moving his body and stealing his BMW and iPhone. Yinger is currently being held without bail. Yinger was also charged with tampering with evidence, theft of Diaz-Johnstons possessions and fraudulently using Diaz-Johnstons personal information, according to the Washington Post. The killing reportedly happened after a falling-out between the roommates after Yinger allowed a meth addict friend to stay in their home for an extended period of time. Jorge apparently tried to have Yinger removed from the apartment as a result - which authorities say may have caused Yinger to snap, court documents state. A man identified in court records as 'Raheem' told police he thought it was strange Yinger had still been living at the apartment, especially after Jorge was reported missing. Court documents also state that Yinger told a several different stories regarding Jorge's whereabouts around the time of his death. Scroll down for video Pictured: mugshot for Steven Yinger, 36, who is currently being held without bail in connection to the death of his roommate, gay rights activist Jorge Diaz-Johnston Jorge Diaz-Johnston, pictured, was discovered in a trash pile at a landfill in Baker, Florida, roughly 60 miles east of the Alabama border, Tallahassee police announced on January 12 Yinger, pictured, reportedly strangled Diaz-Johnston before moving his body and stealing his BMW and iPhone He told Raheem that Jorge had gone to Don's house because the couple had gotten back together, however Don told police was not true. Yinger also told his girlfriend that Jorge was in Miami, yet she noted it was odd when she heard Jorge's phone ring at the apartment the men shared on January 5, several days after he went missing. Diaz-Johnston's body was found the same day a missing persons report was filed by concerned family. Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz mourned his brother in a heartfelt post after the body was discovered. 'I am profoundly appreciative of the outpouring of support shown to me, my brother-in-law Don, and my family after the loss of my brother, Jorge Diaz-Johnston,' former mayor Diaz, 68, wrote of his brother at the time his body was discovered. 'My brother was such a special gift to this world whose heart and legacy will continue to live on for generations to come.' Diaz-Johnston had been married to his husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, 51, since March 2015. They were among five other same-sex couples who sued the Miami-Dade County Clerk's Office in 2014 after they were denied the ability to get married, and then were among the first to get married the following year. Yinger was also charged with tampering with evidence, theft of Diaz-Johnstons possessions and fraudulently using Diaz-Johnstons personal information Pictured: A landfill in Baker, Florida, roughly 60 miles east of the Alabama border, where Jorge Diaz-Johnston, the brother to former mayor of Miami, was discovered in a trash pile Jorge Diaz-Johnston, 54 (right), was found dead on Friday in a Florida landfill. He and his husband Don (left) are pictured waiting to speak to the media and supporters after a court hearing on gay marriage in 2014 Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, pictured, brother to slain Diaz-Johnston, speaks as he introduces Democratic presidential candidate, former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg, in 2020 'I am profoundly appreciative of the outpouring of support shown to me, my brother-in-law Don, and my family after the loss of my brother, Jorge Diaz-Johnston,' Diaz wrote of his brother 'There are just no words for the loss of my beloved husband Jorge Isaias Diaz-Johnston,' Don wrote at the time Jorge's body was discovered. 'I can't stop crying as I try and write this. But he meant so much to all of you as he did to me. So I am fighting through the tears to share with you our loss of him.' The two were married shortly after winning the high-profile court case in March 2015, however the couple were going through a divorce and living apart at the time of Jorge's death, according to court documents. 'For us, it's not just only a question of love and wanting to express our love and have the benefits that everyone else has in the state, but it's an issue of equality, and it's a civil rights issue,' Jorge Diaz-Johnston said at the time, according to NBC Miami. He had been married to his husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, 51, since March 2015 They were among five other same-sex couples who sued the Miami-Dade County Clerk's Office in 2014 after they were denied the ability to get married Pictured: Diaz-Johnston and his husband, Don Daniella Levine Cava, the current mayor of Miami, praised Diaz-Johnston's for his advocacy role for LGBTQ rights in the city. 'In Jorge Diaz-Johnston, we lost a champion, a leader, and a fighter for our LGBTQ community,' she tweeted. 'His tragic loss will be felt profoundly by all who loved him, as we honor his life and legacy.' Elizabeth Schwartz, who represented the six couples in the case, noted how hard they two had to fight just to marry, only for it to end in tragedy. 'They fought so hard for their love to be enshrined and to be able to enjoy the institution of marriage, and for the marriage to end in this way - in this gruesome, heartbreaking way - there are no words,' Schwartz said. The civil service jobs website is still advertising 64 vacancies involving partial or total working from home, the Daily Mail can reveal. The 64 remote roles include sensitive positions with GCHQ, the Government's intelligence and security organisation, and with counter-terrorism at the Home Office. A security expert warned of the 'absolutely enormous' risks that could be posed by civil servants in these areas working from home, especially at a time of 'grave international danger'. Multiple civil service jobs, including some with sensitive positions with GCHQ, have been advertised as working from home (file photo) The roles advertised include a counter-terrorism insight adviser and the deputy head of the economy and society resilience team at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The latter role would involve working 'on the front line of protecting the country from cyber-attacks', according to the advertisement. Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, said it would be 'extremely easy' to hack into a homeworker's broadband line, because domestic wi-fi connections don't have the same security protection as those in offices. He added: 'There are some things that you simply cannot do from home and I would say working for any intelligence organisation is one of them. Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, has warned 'absolutely enormous' risks that could be posed by civil servants in intelligence roles working from home 'In general, Russian intelligence would be very interested in anybody working from home who worked in the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, the Ministry of Defence, or the Home Office. 'The worst thing that could happen, at the current moment, is that our military security secrets could be revealed, including precisely what we're giving to Ukraine. 'Those are the sorts of things that you could get access to if people were working from home because you don't have the same security that you have in the office.' Professor Glees added: 'Secret discussions must be face-to-face discussions.' One of the men who admitted to supplying the fentanyl-laced pills that caused rapper Mac Miller's overdose death was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison Monday. Ryan Michael Reavis, 39, admitted in 2019 to being the middle man in deals to provide the rapper with counterfeit oxycodone, though he maintains that he had no idea the pills were laced. Miller, born Malcolm James Miller, died in September of 2018 at the age of just 26. Reavis was sentenced to 10 years and 11 months in prison, a little more than what probation officers recommended but less than the 12-and-a-half years prosecutors sought. United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II read out the sentence after prosecutors read aloud a heartbreaking victim statement from Karen Meyers, Miller's mother. 'My life went dark the moment Malcolm left his world,' she said while holding back tears, according to Rolling Stone. 'Malcolm was my person, more than a son. We had a bond and kinship that was deep and special and irreplaceable. We spoke nearly every day about everything - his life, plans, music, dreams,' the statement said. 'He would never knowingly take a pill with fentanyl, ever. He wanted to live and was excited about the future. The hole in my heart will always be there.' Meyers also remembered her late son's laugh as 'infectious and bright' and said his music 'spoke to many people all over the world.' Mac Miller, 26, was found unresponsive in his Studio City home on September 7, 2018, having consumed a fatal cocktail of alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl Cops say 36-year-old Ryan Reavis (above) worked as a middle man for the transaction between Walker and Pettit, who then sold the drugs to Miller Miller was found dead by his assistant at his Los Angeles home on September 7 2018 The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Coroner ruled a lethal combination of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol as the cause of the rapper's death. Reavis reportedly asked for only five years in custody before he was sentenced, adding in a statement, 'This is not just a regular drug case. Somebody died, and a family is never going to get their son back. 'My family would be wrecked if it was me. They'd never be all right, never truly get over it. I think about that all the time. And I know that whatever happens today, I'm the lucky one because my family is here and I'm here and I'll be with them again. I feel terrible. This is not who I am.' A sentencing memo from Reavis' defense team noted that Reavis is 'a heroin and opioid addict who delivered drugs to support his own addiction. He was not a supplier or an importer, nor was he connected to any larger criminal conspiracy.' Prosecutors in the case read a statement from Karen Meyers (pictured left), Miller's mom, before the sentencing was announced Miller was found unresponsive at his home (above) in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles on September 7, 2018 and later pronounced dead at the scene Stephen Andrew Walter admitted last October to supplying Reavis with the fentanyl that killed Miller. Walter accepted a plea deal carrying a 17-year prison sentence. A case against Cameron James Pettit, the third drug dealer charged in Miller's overdose, is still pending. Miller made his last public appearance in front of an intimate crowd inside Hollywood's Hotel Cafe on September 3, 2018, just four days before his death. His foray into music stardom was spurred when he taught himself to play guitar, bass, piano and drums as a young child growing up in Pittsburgh. Eventually trying his hand at rap music, Miller Skyrocketed to superstardom with his debut mixtape K.I.D.S. (Kickin Incredibly Dope S***) in 2011, earning him a recording contract with Rostrum Records. In the months before his sudden death, Miller - who regularly spoke publicly about his battles with addiction and mental health - was enjoying a resurgence in his career with his fifth album, Swimming, which would later earn him a posthumous Grammy nomination for best album. Miller's name also regularly featured in gossip columns and magazines throughout much 2018, following his high-profile break-up with pop star Ariana Grande in May last year. He was arrested later the same month after he drove his car into a utility pole, fleeing from the scene and later testing positive for alcohol. Miller's name also regularly featured in gossip columns and magazines throughout much of 2018, following his high-profile break-up with pop star Ariana Grande (right) last May News of his death stunned the music fans and fellow artists alike, with thousands flocking to pay tribute to the 26-year-old many labelled an 'inspiration'. 'I dont know what to say Mac Miller took me on my second tour ever. But beyond helping me launch my career he was one of the sweetest guys I ever knew,' artist Chance the Rapper tweeted, adding: 'Great man. I loved him for real. Im completely broken. God bless him.' Days afterward, Ariana Grande broke her silence to pen an emotional ode to her ex-partner on Instagram. 'I adored you from the day i met you when i was nineteen and i always will. i cant believe you arent here anymore. i really cant wrap my head around it. we talked about this. so many times. im so mad, im so sad i dont know what to do,' she began, accompanied by a video of the pair together. 'You were my dearest friend. for so long. above anything else. im so sorry i couldnt fix or take your pain away. i really wanted to. the kindest, sweetest soul with demons he never deserved. i hope youre okay now. rest.' Two British men have been charged in the US after they allegedly defrauded wine collectors in a 76million Ponzi scheme. Andrew Fuller, 55, and his business partner Stephen Burton, 57, are said to have offered investors huge returns backed by cellars that included the costly Californian wine Screaming Eagle. But many of the expensive wines did not actually exist, according to court papers filed in New York. Their company, Bordeaux Cellars, allegedly held thousands fewer wines than loan documents had purported, including wine from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in Burgundy and Chateau Lafleur in Bordeaux. Stephen Burton, 57, (pictured) has been charged in the US after he allegedly defrauded wine collectors in a 76million Ponzi scheme along with Andrew Fuller, 55 Both men used multiple aliases to con investors out of more than $99million (76million) and used the proceeds from the loans to make fraudulent interest payments to other investors in a scheme, which ran from June 2017 to February 2019, it is alleged. The court documents state that the fraudsters were operating a Ponzi scheme, in which any returns on investments are funded from other investors deposits. In papers lodged with the eastern district court of New York, US district attorney Breon Peace said: Unlike the fine wine they purported to possess, the defendants repeated lies to investors did not age well. These defendants duped investors by offering them an intoxicating investment opportunity collateralised by valuable bottles of fine wine that turned out to be too good to be true. The pair are also said to have forged aristocratic connections for the Bordeaux Cellars scheme. Mr Peace even alleged Fuller had renamed himself James Wellesley the surname of the Dukes of Wellington for the scheme. Burton and Fuller are charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. The two men, who both have previous convictions for fraud, were in charge of Bordeaux Cellars London and the Hong Kong-based Bordeaux Cellars, with Burton serving as chief executive and Fuller as chief financial officer. Mr Peace even alleged Fuller (pictured) had renamed himself James Wellesley the surname of the Dukes of Wellington for the scheme They told investors they were acting for wine collectors whose cellars already included bottles such as Screaming Eagle, a cabernet sauvignon rated 99 on the 100-point scale by the wine expert Robert Parker. A 1992 vintage of the wine was sold for $500,000 (384,000) at a charity auction in 2000, making it the most expensive bottle in the world at the time. Fuller, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, appeared at Westminster magistrates court on April 8 via video link from Wandsworth prison in south London as part of extradition proceedings. His extradition case was adjourned to this Friday. In 2013, he was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting charges including fraud and forgery over a property scheme. Burton was arrested at a hotel in Kent on Valentines Day 2019. He later pleaded guilty to possession of false identity documents and money laundering and was sentenced to four years imprisonment. He has since been released and is understood to have fled the country. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has switched tactics from policy announcements to attacking the coalition government, as Labor takes a hit in the polls. Scott Morrison is ahead as the choice for preferred prime minister with 38 per cent, against 30 per cent for Mr Albanese, a sharp turnaround on the Labor leader's 37-36 margin of two weeks ago. The Resolve Strategic poll for The Sydney Morning Herald-The Age also showed Labor's primary vote down four points to 34 per cent, with the coalition up one to 35 per cent. Starting the second week of the May 21 election campaign in Brisbane, Mr Albanese blasted the prime minister over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters over the past two years. Scott Morrison will continue to campaign in crucial marginal seats in Western Australia this week as his popularity surges ahead Anthony Albanese will target Scott Morrison's disaster response as the campaign week rolls on 'What we saw from the federal government, whether it be bushfires, floods or the pandemic is a real pattern of behaviour,' he said, after speaking with flood victims in the Brisbane suburb of Auchenflower. 'He only acted when the political pressure was really put on.' Mr Albanese warned voters to expect health cuts if the federal government is returned to power, calling the government's future health minister Anne Ruston a threat to accessible medical care. "This is a health minister, now designate ... who we know will undermine Medicare, who has said that the current model is not sustainable, who has said that Medicare funding is just putting things on the credit card," he said. 'This is another example of what we can expect if Scott Morrison is re-elected.' When the $7 patient co-payment was included in the 2014 coalition budget, Senator Ruston told parliament Medicare was not sustainable without it. Senator Ruston said the government had since been clear it would not be making funding cuts to Medicare. 'We absolutely have guaranteed Medicare in law,' she told ABC Radio. Mr Morrison, who was in Fremantle to unveil a $124 million investment in two new Evolved Cape Class patrol boats, ruled out future cuts to Medicare. 'She (Senator Ruston) said yesterday there wouldn't be any cuts and I'll repeat that today,' Mr Morrison said on Monday. 'I introduced the legislation to guarantee Medicare and to guarantee the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 'Because if you can't manage money, which people know Labor can't, the consequences of that is essential services suffer." Mr Morrison told reporters under his government, Medicare expenditure rose to $31.4 billion, and the bulk billing rate rose by more than six per cent. The prime minister was forced to clarify comments about the JobSeeker rate. During his press conference on Monday, Mr Morrison said the rate was $46 a week, when the unemployment benefit was $46 a day. When questioned about it, Mr Morrison said he had misspoke. During the first week of the campaign, the prime minister had attacked the opposition leader for failing to name the unemployment rate. Mr Morrison will spend two days in WA before heading to Brisbane for the first leaders' debate with Mr Albanese. The prime minister also unveiled a plan for first-time homeowners who can't put together the minimum 20 per cent deposit themselves. From July 1 they would be able to secure a government-funded guarantee for homes valued at up to $150,000 more than the current cap. With the polls pointing to a potential hung parliament, Mr Morrison was asked whether he would rule out a deal with so-called "climate independents' who are largely challenging sitting Liberal MPs. 'A vote for those independents is a vote for uncertainty, a vote for instability,' he said. HYDERABAD: BJP Telangana state president Bandi Sanjay Kumars padayatra on Monday faced resistance from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) workers at Vemula village in Itikyal mandal of Jogulamba Gadwal district, leading to some tense moments and resulting in damage to some cars, even as party workers from the two sides indulged in fisticuffs. Sanjay, speaking at Vemula after the TRS workers attempt to obstruct his Praja Sangrama Yatra, declared such attempts will not stop him. He said he would continue with his padayatra and highlight failures of the TRS government in the state. BJP national vice-president D.K. Aruna told reporters that the police had prior information about the plans of TRS workers to obstruct Sanjays Praja Sangrama Yatra, but did nothing to prevent the incident. It may be recalled that before starting his padayatra on April 14, Sanjay had said that he had information that TRS workers would attack him to stop him from his march. On Monday, during the clash, some TRS workers rushed towards Sanjay but were prevented by the police from reaching the BJP leader. But before the TRS workers could be moved away from Sanjay and other BJP leaders and workers taking part in the padayatra, TRS workers pelted stones, resulting in damage to a few vehicles. Workers from both sides threw stones at each other. All vehicles that were damaged belonged to BJP workers, Aruna said. She said irrespective of the provocations, the BJP workers would stay disciplined and not fall into the TRS trap of reacting to such acts by the ruling party workers. Our padayatra is a peaceful one and will remain peaceful, she said. The party's floor leader in the Assembly, Raja Singh, said the attack by the TRS workers on Sanjay was a clear indication of failure of the government, and added that if an MP and state party leader of the BJP could not be provided protection in Telangana, the fate of the common people could only be imagined. If such incidents recur, the consequences would be severe, Raja Singh warned. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Joe Biden remains confident that 88-year-old Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein can do her job. 'Yes, she's a longtime friend, a proud public servant, and someone he has long enjoyed serving with and working with,' Psaki told DailyMail.com at the press briefing. Feinstein, one of the longest-serving senators, had long been renowned in Washington for an issue-focused passion and quick wit, but now people who have worked with the California lawmaker for years say she has difficulty recognizing them and repeats the same few talking points. On Thursdsay, Feinstein said she wouldn't step down from her position before it ends in 2024, despite democratic colleagues saying they're concerned she's 'mentally unfit to serve.' Feinstein, 88, said she 'regularly' meets with leaders and isn't 'isolated,' after four senators - three of them Democrats - a California Congress member, and three former staffers said that her short-term memory is deteriorating. 'I see people. My attendance is good. I put in the hours. We represent a huge state. And so Im rather puzzled by all of this,' she told the San Francisco Chronicle. The senator said no one had brought up these concerns to her directly. 'No, that conversation has not happened,' she told the Chronicle. 'The real conversation is whether Im an effective representative for 40 million people.' Psaki wouldn't say whether the president reached out to Feinstein to signal his support after the initial San Francisco Chronicle report was published last week. 'I don't have any updates on private conversations,' she said. Talk has been floated of persuading her to resign before her current term ends in 2024. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Joe Biden remains confident that 88-year-old Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein can do her job Senator Dianne Feinstein, 88, said she won't step down from her position before it ends in 2024, despite democratic colleagues said they're concerned she's 'mentally unfit to serve' She said she 'regularly' meets with leaders and isn't 'isolated,' after four senators - three of them Democrats - a California Congress member, and three former staffers said that her short term memory is deteriorating A staffer from another senator's office has also been quoted saying they've seen their boss go out of their way to re-introduce themselves to Feinstein before speaking to her. 'We've got an 'Emperor's New Clothes' problem here,' an unnamed California lawmaker said, referencing a fable about fearing to speak truth to power. 'I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn't resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone,' they said. The member of Congress described an hours-long conversation in which they had to reintroduce themselves to the veteran senator multiple times and circling back to the same questions without any indication she knew they'd already covered it. The lawmaker said: 'She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that's why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that.' That and the other interactions described in the report occurred before the death of Feinstein's husband in February of this year. These so-called 'memory lapses' are punctuated by days where Feinstein is 'nearly as sharp as she used to be,' the Chronicle reports. 'But some close to her said that on her most difficult days, she does not seem to fully recognize even longtime colleagues.' One Democrat senator said: 'It's bad, and it's getting worse.' The 88-year-old senator (pictured in 1977) is widely seen as a trailblazer in California politics Feinstein was reportedly 'composed' during future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings in March, though the Chronicle also notes she 'repeated comments' about Jackson's composure during the grilling. A Capitol Hill staffer said a 'joke' has emerged about the 40million-strong state's representation in the Senate: 'We've got a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein's office.' But it's also got people in Congress worried the octogenarian can 'no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work' to represent her constituents. 'It's really hard to have a micromanager who is not fully remembering everything that we've talked about,' said one ex-staffer, who described a situation in which Feinstein allegedly delayed the progress of an important investigation because, the aide believed, she could not fully comprehend it. 'My biggest concern is that it's a real disservice to the people of California.' The report notes that Feinstein is seen with at least one staffer at all times in the Capitol, and that she's dramatically decreased the pace of her public appearances. California's senior senator has not held a town hall in more than four years, the Chronicle stated, and she often declines lengthy interviews with journalists. Freshman Senator Alex Padilla, who was appointed to replace Vice President Kamala Harris and is running for re-election this November, has reportedly done 18 public town halls last year and 250 media interviews. Feinstein's office told the Chronicle that she's attended numerous public events in the years-long gap but that they ceased in 2022 because of her husband's death and the COVID-19 pandemic. She was serving as the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's first female president when she gained national attention for leading the city through the infamous 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected in California politics (pictured in 1992) Feinstein in 1971, when she was running for Mayor 'The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me, flying back and forth to visit my dying husband who passed just a few weeks ago,' Feinstein told the Chronicle in a statement though rejected a live interview. 'But there's no question I'm still serving and delivering for the people of California, and I'll put my record up against anyone's.' Campaign filings that cover 2021 show Feinstein only raised $5,566.33 across that entire year, a low number for someone with her years-long ties in top political circles in Washington and California. Padilla raised $7.8million across the same period. Feinstein's fellow octogenarian senator, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, raised $1,001,415.87 last year. Leahy is retiring at the end of his term in 2022, though it's common for veteran lawmakers to keep raising money for their party and colleagues in active campaign accounts until they leave office. The 88-year-old senator is widely seen as a trailblazer in California politics. She was serving as the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's first female president when she gained national attention for leading the city through the infamous 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected in California politics. After winning a 1992 special election, Feinstein became the first woman to represent the Golden State in the Senate. Former Senator Barbara Boxer, 81, was sworn in as the second shortly after. Boxer retired in 2017 and was succeeded by Harris. Her seniority has also given Feinstein some of the most powerful committee assignments in the chamber, including on the Judiciary and Select Committee on Intelligence, giving her access to sensitive information and some of the most influential decisions in Congress -- which also gives staffers pause given her advanced age, the report claims. Still, other Democrats defended Feinstein as sharp and as focused as ever. California's junior senator Padilla said he'd 'heard some of the same concerns' but brushed them off when asked by the Chronicle. 'But as someone who sees her multiple times a week, including on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I can tell you shes still doing the job and doing it well,' Padilla said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was elected to California's Congressional delegation just five years before Feinstein in 1987, blasted the discussions surrounding her peer's mental acuity as 'unconscionable.' 'Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate,' Pelosi said, adding that Feinstein was 'constantly traveling' across the country to fulfill her duties. It's 'unconscionable that, just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades and after decades of outstanding leadership to our City and State, she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held,' Pelosi concluded. But the Democrat lawmaker who described their awkward hours-long conversation with Feinstein summarized the delicate discussion about the senator's future compared with her long history of serving the country. 'It shouldnt end this way for her. She deserves better,' they said. However, they added that 'Those who think that they are serving her or honoring her by sweeping all of this under the rug are doing her an enormous disservice. Up to 500,000 Brits are suffering from psychosis, fatigue and loss of eyesight after recovering from coronavirus, MPs have been told. Campaigners have even warned some doctors are dismissing many of the symptoms of 'long Covid' as being 'all in their heads'. The founder of the Long Covid Support Group, Claire Hastie, said the lasting effects of the illness had left her wheelchair-bound. Another member of the 15,000-strong group, a doctor, revealed that he was unable to walk up one flight of stairs without getting out of breath. Ms Hastie, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March, claimed data from the King's College London symptom tracking app shows that up to 500,000 people in the UK are currently suffering from the long-term effects of Covid-19. Most coronavirus patients will recover within a fortnight, suffering a fever, cough and losing their sense of smell or taste for several days. However, evidence is beginning to show that the tell-tale symptoms of the virus can persist for weeks on end in 'long haulers' the term for patients plagued by lasting complications. Up to half a million Brits are suffering from psychosis, fatigue and loss of eyesight after recovering from coronavirus, MPs have been told Nine in 10 coronavirus patients from ICU in Wuhan still suffering serious lung damage A new study has found that the 90 per cent of coronavirus patients treated in intensive care in Wuhan - the place in China where the virus broke out - are still experiencing lung damage. Research (seen by The Times) by the intensive care director at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Peng Zhiyong, found that patients had a lack of energy and couldn't walk far. And almost half of the patients have developed depression because they can't return to normal life. Dr Peng is doing a year-long study following 107 patients who suffered pneumonia and were intubated during the crisis. After three months he found 90 per cent still had lung damage. He also found that about 10 per cent of people had lost the antibody that could fight off the virus. And less than half of the people had managed to return to their jobs. Up to 50 per cent were depressed. Advertisement Survivors have described feeling like there is a 'slab of concrete' on their chest, and have struggled to complete everyday tasks, such as emptying the dishwasher, without feeling extremely tired. Previously fit people told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus how their lives had been turned upside down by a horde of lasting symptoms. Ms Hastie described how she used to cycle 13 miles to work but can no longer walk 13 metres and is now largely confined to a wheelchair with her children providing much of her care. She said: 'Many people in our group to this day are being told by their GPs that it's caused by anxiety and it's all in their heads. 'It can cause anxiety but it is not caused by anxiety. The science needs to catch up with us.' Another member of the Facebook support group, an anaesthetist and intensive care doctor, said he was now unable to walk up just one flight of stairs without feeling chest pain and shortness of breath. Dr Jake Suett said: 'I was doing 12-hour shifts in ICU. It's a high-pressure situation, you have to be able to be active. I was going to the gym three times a week regularly. 'And now a flight of stairs or the food shop is about what I can manage before I have to stop... if I'm on my feet then shortness of breath comes back, chest pain comes back.' The APPG were also told that an online survey of 1,800 people found that many employees felt pressured to go back to work even though they didn't feel they could while suffering from long-term symptoms. Pictured is Claire Hastie - founder of the Long Covid Support Group Ms Hastie said that people in her Facebook group, which now has 15,327 members, have been told they'll never work again. She gave an example of a Pilates teacher who doesn't know if and when she'll ever be able to work again, adding: 'People are being pressured back by employers who, understandably, don't understand this.' One Long Covid activist, Robin Gorna, revealed that her three children aged between 11 and 16 had suffered from long-term symptoms and one took four months to recover. And one member of the APPG, Labour MP Andrew Gwynne, said that he was still suffering from coronavirus symptoms after 18 weeks. Talya, 27, said the shortness of breath she has experienced since having Covid-19 in April feels like a 'concrete slab on her chest' NHS will set up 'virtual wards' to treat people with long-term illnesses caused by coronavirus in their own homes Patients recovering from coronavirus will be treated online from their own homes because there is no funding for new rehab clinics, according to health officials. NHS England said rehabilitation will 'largely be provided in existing physical facilities' and in some cases patients will be treated virtually in their own homes. But the Health Service Journal (HSJ) said no capital funding was made available for more facilities - and spaces are currently limited. Instead, a virtual ward - the yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk website - will be used to treat the majority of people recovering from severe coronavirus symptoms. The Government confirmed a further 500 million in revenue funding over the rest of this year for Covid rehab services - meaning health workers' salaries and the costs of existing buildings will be met. But no more buildings can be built, or renovated for the purpose, because capital funding - which is for long term projects - has not been made available. Ruth Ten Hove, director at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, told the HSJ: 'The message we have been given is that people can now do their rehab online (through a new NHS website). 'We were involved in the website and it can get good outcomes. But it's not for everyone and using that alone will widen health inequalities and digital exclusion.' An NHS spokesman said the decision not to allocate capital funding was made because patients can access treatment online. Advertisement He said that he struggles to ask just one Parliamentary question on Zoom and then is forced to spend the rest of the day in bed. British scientists have already launched an investigation into the long-term impacts of Covid-19 in search of answers to thousands of people's problems, which has been referred to as 'this generation's polio'. The Department of Health has announced that up to 10,000 people will be involved in a study to look at how people who catch the coronavirus fare long-term. Growing evidence suggests that even people who only get mildly sick may suffer long-lasting health effects including lung damage. The UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has warned that Covid-19 patients could be left with 'extreme tiredness and shortness of breath for several months'. The study, led by researchers and doctors in Leicester, will look at how people's mental health is affected by illness and whether factors like sex or ethnicity affect how well someone recovers from Covid-19. Patients in the study, which will receive 8.4million in funding, will have medical scans, blood tests and lung samples so experts can look at how they are affected. It comes as the NHS has announced it's launched a long-term recovery service called 'Your Covid Recovery', which will offer online advice to the public and more specialised physio and mental health support to some patients from this summer. Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said: 'As well as the immediate health impacts of the virus it is also important to look at the longer-term impacts on health, which may be significant. 'We have rightly focused on mortality, and what the UK can do straight away to protect lives, but we should also look at how Covid-19 impacts on the health of people after they have recovered from the immediate disease.' Researchers from Italy have reportedly found that almost 90 per cent of patients discharged from a Rome hospital after recovering from coronavirus were still experiencing at least one symptom two months after coming down with the illness. The APPG also heard from a group of grieving relatives who have lost family members to coronavirus. Jo Goodman, who represents a group of 1,450 bereaved family members, is urging the Government to consider a Hillsborough disaster-style inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus response. Advertisement From Star Trek to Back to the Future, smart glasses have been staple features in blockbuster movies for years. Now, the wearable is becoming more and more popular in reality, with brands ranging from Facebook to Huawei bringing out their own smart glasses in recent years. Snap the company behind the popular app, Snapchat first dipped its toe into the smart glasses world back in 2016, and has since launched three generations of Spectacles. Last year, Snap also unveiled its next generation of Spectacles, which are its first to feature augmented reality (AR). While the glasses are not for sale, MailOnline's Shivali Best visited Snap's offices in London this week to test them out herself. And by Snap's estimations, it might not be long before the smart glasses become the norm, with the tech giant estimating they'll become as popular as smartphones 'within five to ten years.' Last year, Snap unveiled its next generation of Spectacles, which are its first to feature augmented reality (AR) While the glasses are not for sale, MailOnline's Shivali Best visited Snap's offices in London this week to test them out herself What are AR and VR? Virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of an environment or situation. It immerses the user by making them feel like they are in the simulated reality through images and sounds. For example, in VR, you could feel like you're climbing a mountain while you're at home. In contrast, augmented reality layers computer-generated images on top of an existing reality. AR is developed into apps to bring digital components into the real world. For example, in the Pokemon Go app, the characters seem to appear in real world scenarios. Advertisement Snap is probably best known for its Face Lenses (who can forget the flower crown and animal ears that took over social media in 2016?), but actually has a huge range of AR experiences available. These include 3D effects, World Lenses that bring objects to life around you, and Connected Lenses that allow multiple users to explore AR experiences together in real time. While these lenses are currently accessed through the Snapchat smartphone app, the next generation Spectacles allow content creators to overlay these Lenses directly on to the real world. The Spectacles feature dual 3D waveguide displays and a 26.3 field of view, which realistically place Lenses right before your eyes. Dual stereo speakers add audio to these experiences, making them even more realistic, while two built-in cameras allow you to record exactly what you're seeing. At Snap's London HQ, MailOnline's Shivali tested the next generation Spectacles with a range of Lenses. The Solar System Lens placed the eight planets and the Sun before my eyes, allowing me to walk between them and see their relative size and key features as if they were right there. Meanwhile, the Magic Forest Lens could sense where I was looking, placing a blanket of AR flowers across the floor when I looked down, and allowing a cartoon butterfly to 'land' on my hand when I held it out in front of me. The Magic Forest Lens could sense where I was looking, placing a blanket of AR flowers across the floor when I looked down, and allowing a cartoon butterfly to 'land' on my hand when I held it out in front of me The Solar System Lens placed the eight planets and the Sun before my eyes, allowing me to walk between them and see their relative size and key features as if they were right there The Zombie Attack Lens was slightly less fun, showing a terrifying zombie chasing after me, combined with creepy groans blasting through my ears as it neared me! While similar experiences are already available through existing headsets, such as Microsoft HoloLens 2, most of these are quite chunky and tethered. In contrast, Snap's Spectacles weigh 0.3lbs (134 grams) and aren't restricted by any cables albeit with just 30 minutes of use per charge in their current iteration. In the near future, Snap sees the smart glasses becoming essential everyday items for people. The Zombie Attack Lens was slightly less fun, showing a terrifying zombie chasing after me, combined with creepy groans blasting through my ears as it neared me In the near future, Snap sees the smart glasses becoming essential everyday items for people. For example, they could allow runners to race against themselves from a previous run to improve their times, or let history buffs explore iconic landmarks and see how they've changed over time Snap's Spectacles weigh 0.3lbs (134 grams) and aren't restricted by any cables albeit with just 30 minutes of use per charge in their current iteration For example, they could allow runners to race against themselves from a previous run to improve their times, or let history buffs explore iconic landmarks and see how they've changed over time. However, for now, only a lucky few content creators are able to get their hands on them. 'We've offered the new Spectacles to a select group of creators around the world to learn alongside us and push the boundaries of AR,' Snap said. 'Through Spectacles and Lens Studio, these creators have already brought their imaginations to life, with the world as their canvas.' Six new species of frog some smaller than the diameter of a 1p coin have been identified by scientists. The miniature amphibians were spotted living across a variety of habitats in Mexico and have only just been described because they bear a striking resemblance to other close relatives. Scientists who helped to identify the six new Craugastor species say they should be classed as endangered and have called for them to be better protected. New discoveries: Six species of frog some smaller than the diameter of a 1p coin have been identified by scientists. The frogs are among the smallest in Mexico, with Craugastor candelariensis (pictured left) the smallest Some of the frogs, which live in Mexican forests, are as short as 13 millimetres WHAT ARE CRAUGASTOR FROGS? The Craugastor is a large genus of frogs in the family Craugastoridae, which has over 110 species. In terms of the six new discoveries by experts at the Natural History Museum, they belong to the group Craugastor mexicanus. These are endemic to Mexico and have a natural habitat that is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Many of the frogs in this family are threatened by habitat loss, leading to fears that they could become extinct if urgent action is not taken. Two of the new species found have small adult body sizes less than 18mm, researchers said. However, despite their tiny size they are not the current record holders for the smallest amphibians. For many years, the world's smallest frog was thought to be the Brazilian gold frog (Brachycephalus didactylus), which measures just 8.6 millimetres long and was discovered in the 1970s. But in 2012, Paedophryne amanuensis was found in Papua New Guinea, with males measuring an average of just 7.7 millimetres long. Advertisement Dr Jeff Streicher, the senior curator for amphibians and reptiles at the Natural History Museum, was involved in describing the species. 'As part of a chapter in my PhD dissertation, I was working on these small, direct developing frogs from Mexico,' he said. 'My supervisor and I were interested in them because they are really abundant, whereas many frogs are quite hard to find. 'Despite this, taxonomists have not studied the group very much because they are very variable in their size and colouration, so it felt like a special challenge. 'As often happens, I had many different things I was working on, and this chapter of my PhD never quite got to where I wanted it to be. 'Since beginning work at the museum, I found students who shared my passion for these frogs, and so finally, 12 years later, we've been able to make sense of some of the species' relationships in this group.' In total, six new species were described, bringing the total number of the Craugastor species in Mexico to 12. These include C. bitonium, named after its two-tone colour pattern, along with others named for the local area. 'It's difficult to pick a favourite, but C. cueyatl stands out as it is named for an Aztec word for frog,' Dr Streicher said. 'It felt good to honour the rich and deep human history of the Valley of Mexico, as the Aztecs would probably have been aware of this species. 'I'm also still blown away by C. candelariensis, which is named for the locality we found it in, as males can be just 13 millimetres long. 'It is probably the smallest frog in Mexico, and I find it fascinating that a frog can be so small as an adult.' The miniature amphibians were spotted living across a variety of habitats in Mexico and have only just been described because they bear a striking resemblance to other close relatives One species, C. portilloensis, is even smaller at just over 11 millimetres long, but as the specimens are not fully grown it is difficult to assess how much bigger these frogs could get. However, despite their tiny size none of the new discoveries break the record for the smallest known amphibians. For many years, the world's smallest frog was thought to be the Brazilian gold frog (Brachycephalus didactylus), which measures just 8.6 millimetres long and was discovered in the 1970s. But in 2012, Paedophryne amanuensis was found in Papua New Guinea, with males measuring an average of just 7.7 millimetres long. The Craugastor frogs of Mexico and Guatemala live in a variety of different forests from mountain woodland to rainforest. They span a range of different sizes and colours, with many species living side by side. This means that the miniature frog species may have been mistaken for the juveniles of larger relatives, researchers said, and so they set out to reassess the amphibians and discover just how many species there actually are. Some are classified at the lowest level of conservation concern, but others are endangered. The Craugastor frogs of Mexico and Guatemala live in the leaf litter of a variety of different forests from mountain woodland to rainforest They face threats including damage to their habitats and chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease which is decimating amphibian populations across the world. PhD student Tom Jameson, the study's lead author, says, 'Even in the last decade, many of their populations seem to be declining. 'A lot of these small bodied frogs are probably quite micro-endemic, so they don't have a great ability to disperse. 'As amphibians, they desiccate quite easily, so if their habitats change through land use change or even natural events such as landslides, they may not be able to move away.' The researchers said all six frogs should be classed as endangered, or listed as 'data deficient', so that their conservation status can be better assessed in future. The new species were described in a research paper published in the journal Herpetological Monographs. Advertisement If you don't have the nerves for a roller coaster, try this 'stroller coaster' instead. SpaceWalk is a traversable sculpture located in the hills of Hwanho Park in the city of Pohang, South Korea, that is 80ft (24.6m) from the ground at the top of its loop, the highest point. The 333m- (1,092ft-) long steel track has LED lights built into the handrails and steps. When evening falls, these lights start to glow, giving the staircase the appearance of a cloud formation against the night sky. Incredible photographs reveal the roller-coaster-shaped SpaceWalk staircase in South Korea The traversable sculpture is located in the hills of Hwanho Park in the city of Pohang The creators' aim, as the name suggests, is to give visitors the feeling of a 'walk through space'. To climb the surreal installation which can hold up to 250 people at once - visitors ascend a central access stair, before choosing to follow the track in one of two directions. One pathway is a gentle climb, while the other is steeper. Video footage recorded by one visitor shows how both routes end at metal barriers at the beginning of the staircase's eye-catching loop, there to indicate that the inverted part of it is out of bounds. SpaceWalk is 80ft (24.6m) from the ground at the top of its loop, the highest point To climb the surreal installation, visitors ascend a central access stair, before choosing to follow the track in one of two directions. One pathway is a gentle climb, while the other is steeper The highest point that visitors can reach is 65ft (20m) above the ground. Making the climb, visitors are rewarded with a magnificent view of the Pohang cityscape and nearby Yeongil Bay. SpaceWalk is also intended as an observatory the perfect place from which to observe the surrounding area, the night sky, and the sunrise and sunset. The 333m- (1,092ft-) long steel track has LED lights built into the handrails and steps. When evening falls, these lights start to glow, giving the staircase the appearance of a cloud formation against the night sky The installation is designed to accommodate 250 people at once. It was created by Hamburg-based artist duo Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth Making the climb, visitors are rewarded with a magnificent view of the Pohang cityscape and nearby Yeongil Bay SpaceWalk is described as the perfect place from which to observe the surrounding area, the night sky, and the sunrise and sunset 'This imposing artwork plays a subtle game with the concepts of speed and acceleration,' Mutter and Genth say The Hamburg-based artist duo behind the design, Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth, explain: SpaceWalk references the local mythology of the Pohang region and the prominent Korean tradition of watching the skies.' They add: With its characteristic curves and loops, [it] initially puts one in mind of a roller coaster however, this imposing artwork plays a subtle game with the concepts of speed and acceleration.' This isnt the first fantastical roller-coaster-shaped structure that the pair has dreamt up. Back in 2011, Mutter and Genth rose to prominence after they unveiled the fairground ride-esque Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain in Duisburg, Germany. It's still a major attraction today. Access to SpaceWalk is free to all. For more information, visit www.phaenomedia.org. From the Crawleys to the Carsons, after six seasons and a blockbuster film, the characters of Downton Abbey have landed themselves a spot in the hearts of the nation. Now, prepare for more glitz and glamour than ever before as a new film, Downton Abbey: A New Era hits cinemas on April 29, and you can book your tickets here now! Following on from the events of the first critically-acclaimed movie, and set in a glittering era charting the rise of the silver screen, prepare to see classic Hollywood glamour at its finest, but with a British twist. Your favourite characters, new faces and a trip to the French Riviera: Prepare to be swept away by the glamour of Downton Abbey: A New Era when it's released in cinemas on April 29 With a new film comes a new story from award-winning writer Julian Fellowes, produced by Gareth Neame, with brand new characters as well as those familiar faces we've come to know and love. And for the first time the characters will also be experiencing a tropical change of scenery as they head to the stunning South of France for an unforgettable holiday. Downton Abbey: A New Era, sees the beloved Crawley family head to the French Riviera to uncover a mystery at a villa bestowed to the Dowager Countess of Grantham, while back in England an ambitious director also ruffles feathers as he plans to make a film at Downton. Are you ready to lose yourself in the glitz and glamour of the Crawley's world once more? Here's why we love Downton Abbey: A New Era and why you should book your tickets now. The return of familiar faces Fan favourite Violet Crawley, played by the formidable Dame Maggie Smith, still reigns supreme at Downton Abbey, with her unrivalled razor sharp wit. Dropping a bombshell, the Dowager Countess of Grantham reveals that a gentleman she once 'spent a few days with' has gifted her a house in the South of France, and treats her loved ones to a trip abroad to experience a place she fell in love with years ago. While everyone is bewildered by her decision to accept such a gift from a man she supposedly hardly knew, the Dowager Countess is quick to quip: 'Do I look as though I'd turn down a villa in the South of France?' And her loveable stubbornness still hasn't subsided... When a film crew descends upon Downton to film a moving picture on their stunning grounds, far from being swept up in all the glamour, she instead jokes: 'I should have thought the best thing about films is that you can't hear them. Even better if you couldnt see them either.' A former flame? The trailer opens with fan favourite Dame Maggie Smith saying as Violet: 'I've come into the possession of villa in the South of France. Years ago, before you were born, I met a man' While the Dowager Countess may be keen to keep her cards close to her chest, her son Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham - played by Hugh Bonneville - is on a mission to uncover more about his mother's mysterious past. After his mother's announcement that she has inherited a villa from a male suitor, it sets the stage for speculation around her secret relationship. The Earl pushes for more information on why they were invited to the villa - but will he get the answers he desires? On a mission: While the Dowager Countess may be keen to keep her cards close to her chest, her son Robert Crawley played by Hugh Bonneville, is on a mission to uncover more And it's not just the Earl of Grantham keen to uncover more information, with Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) keen to discover more about the Dowager Countess' history, after finding a portrait of her as a young woman inside the lavish French home. It wouldn't be Downton without exploring the complicated relationships between upstairs and downstairs, and Carson gets called from retirement once more to lend an expert hand. He can be seen proclaiming 'the British are coming' as the group make their way to the South of France, no doubt relieved that he is in charge of keeping order once more. And don't fret, as the rest of the original cast of Downton Abbey are all back too, including Allan Leech - who plays the beloved Tom Branson, and Laura Carmichael - who plays the headstrong Marchioness of Hexham, previously known as Lady Edith Crawley. Exciting: Mr Carson makes a welcome return having revived his role as stately butler (pictured with wife Elsie, played by Phyllis Logan) Brand new characters to fall in love with As well as the Downton residents we've come to know and love, Downton Abbey: A New Era sees the introduction of a host of new characters, and with them some added drama and mystique. Hugh Dancy makes his debut as Jack Barber, an ambitious director shooting a movie at the Downton residence. Despite receiving a mixed reception from the famous household, Jack isn't afraid to ruffle some feathers with his determination to shoot a movie for the ages. A dashing arrival: Hugh Dancy makes his debut as Jack Barber, an ambitious director shooting a movie at the Downton residence An unrivalled experience: With Downton Abbey: A New Era showing exclusively at cinemas, you have the chance to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Downton on the big screen Yet it isn't just the Downton residents he has his work cut out with, as Jack is tasked with keeping his unpredictable actors in check. One of these tempestuous stars is none other than Myrna Dalgleish, expertly portrayed by English rose Laura Haddock. The uber-glamorous movie star is prone to a tantrum or two, as demonstrated when she smashes a vase on set - but hey, that's showbusiness! It's clear that Myrna has no trouble finding her voice - but at what cost to the other stars? Here comes trouble! Myrna Dalgleish, expertly portrayed by English rose Laura Haddock, is the ultra-glamorous movie star prone to a tantrum or two, but hey, that's showbusiness! Dominic West also makes his debut as dashing leading man Guy Dexter, who stays in the stately home while shooting the movie. Yet while Guy could have his pick of the female suitors, could it be that he has his eye on someone else entirely? Also be sure to look out for the magnificent Nathalie Baye. While you'll have to watch the movie to find out what role she'll take on, we can guarantee it'll be worth the wait. All we know is it won't be smooth sailing, with inflated egos and a director trying to get to grips with new technology, throwing up a few hiccups along the way. One to watch: Dominic West makes his debut as dashing leading man Guy Dexter, who stays in the stately home while shooting the movie A change of scenery The iconic Downton Abbey remains as impressive as ever, and the backdrop for the filming of a moving picture. Yet for the first time, the family are also set to travel abroad. They make their way to the stunning sights of the sun-drenched French Riviera in order to explore the villa gifted to the Dowager Countess of Grantham. A far cry from the grounds of Downton, they experience the balmy summer days and idyllic seaside views in the South of France. With temperatures raised and inhibitions loosened, could this getaway be just the tonic that the Crawleys need? Mixing it up: The Crawleys make their way to the stunning sights of the sun-drenched French Riviera to explore the Dowager Countess of Grantham's home A chance to lose yourself in the magic With Downton Abbey: A New Era showing exclusively at cinemas, you have the chance to truly immerse yourself in the spectacular world of Downton on the big screen. Combining stunning locations, with a perfect mix of heart-warming, funny and emotional moments, its a rare chance to sit back, relax and enjoy pure escapism at the cinema. A Carnival Films production, directed by Simon Curtis, written by Julian Fellowes and produced by Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge, Downton Abbey: A New era is undoubtedly the cinematic event of the year, and one not to be missed! Mark Hoppus is getting back out into the public following his year-long battle with lymphoma cancer. Looking like a large weight had been lifted off his shoulders, the Blink-182 bassist and co-vocalist looked happy and healthy as he walked with his wife and friends out of a restaurant in West Hollywood on Saturday night. During a brief interview with a TMZ photographer, the rocker shared his optimism for his life moving forward, declaring that he's 'glad to be here' and 'I'm just getting back out into it.' Mark Hoppus looked happy and healthy as he walked out of a West Hollywood restaurant with his wife Skye Everly on Saturday night, sharing that he's 'glad to he here' During his slow walk back to his parked vehicle, the Feeling This star revealed that he's looking forward to getting back with his band. 'I most wanted to get back out into the studio and get back to playing music, and get off of my couch,' he said with a big beaming smile on his face. When asked if he had new music to release, he shot back, 'Hopefully soon. We'll see if I can write something happy this time.' The photographer then asked him if he any lessons to share with the rest of us: 'Enjoy each and every day.' Celebrating life: The Blink-182 bassist and co-vocalist shared that he wanted to 'get off my couch' and 'get back out into the studio and get back to playing music'; he is seen with his son Kourtney and Travis talk: Hoppus, 50 revealed that he believes Kourtney Kardashian is the one for his dummer Travis Barker during the brief interview and that he' very happy for them' And lastly Hoppus weighed-in on his Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker's burgeoning relationship with Kourtney Kardashian. 'Do you think Kourtney is the one for Travis? 'Yes I do,' the All The Small Things musician said, before his wife Skye Everly interjected and joked, 'I think I'm the one for Travis,' which got a laugh from everyone. Hoppus ended the brief chat by saying he was 'very happy' for Travis and Kourtney. Fight for life: The musician's health scare began back in April 2021, when he was diagnosed with stage four diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, which was followed by chemotherapy treatments that resulted in him losing his hair His health scare began back in April 2021, when he was diagnosed with stage four diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, which is one of the most common subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The California native, 50, went public with his cancer diagnosis in a June 23 tweet, saying, 'It sucks and I'm scared, and at the same time I'm blessed with incredible doctors and family and friends to get me through this.' Occasionally giving his fans updates, he would open up more about his treatments during a Twitch livestream in July, where he vowed to be focused on 'beating this cancer.' And that's exactly what happened after losing his hair during chemotherapy treatments in the proceeding months. 'Cancer free': Hoppus first revealed that he was in remission and 'cancer free' last September; the rocker is pictured with his wife of 22 years and their son Jack By late September, Hoppus shared he was remission. 'Just saw my oncologist and I'm cancer free!!" he wrote, adding, 'Thank you God and universe and friends and family and everyone who sent support and kindness and love.' He went on to share that he needed to get 'scanned every six months' as part of his ongoing treatment. With that time frame in mind, it's likely he got another 'cancer free' result in late March or early April. This past January, Hoppus revealed to his band's legion of fans that he was finally back in the music 'mindset.' 'Just want to say that I'm very grateful to be back in the mindset of "Oh! That's a cool idea for a song lyric, I should write that down." I haven't felt that in eight months,' he wrote at the time, alongside a hand prayer emoji. The band: Hoppus and Blink-182 last released their eighth studio album, Nine, in September 2019; the bassist is pictured with Barker and guitarist and co-vocalist Matt Skiba Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body's germ-fighting network. The lymphatic system includes the lymph nodes (lymph glands), spleen, thymus gland and bone marrow. Lymphoma can affect all those areas as well as other organs throughout the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. Forming in 1992, Blink-182 is now widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Along with drummer Travis Barker and guitarist and co-vocalist Matt Skiba, the band released their last studio album Nine, which was their eighth, in September 2019. Madonna was in full on Easter spirit on Sunday, as she took to her Instagram to share her family's festive celebration of the holiday. The megastar, 63, donned a colorful pair of bunny ears as well as a green fishnet cleavage-baring crop top for the occasion, which she paired with tie-dye pants. The pop sensation painted eggs with her son David Banda, 16, daughter Mercy James, 16, and twins Stelle and Estere Ciccone, nine. Easter: Madonna was in full on Easter spirit on Sunday, as she took to her Instagram to share her family's celebration of the holiday Not present for the Easter fun were her two older kids Lourdes Leon, 25, and Rocco Ritchie, 21. 'The Easter Bunny says Love First,' she wrote on the sweet images, along with bunny and hatching chick emojis. The Material Girl had her long blonde tresses plaited into four thick braids, held with silver hair clips. Celebrating: The megastar, 63, donned a colorful pair of bunny ears as well as a green fishnet cleavage-baring crop top for the occasion, which she paired with tie-dye pants Not one to opt out of wearing bling, she sported a chunky silver cross as well as a multitude of other chains around her neck. The star also accessorized with a pair of white-rim eyeglasses and a variety of gold bracelets. Some of the photos shared by the star were notable for their heavy use of filters - an increasingly common feature on Madonna's social media platforms. The performer's youthful looks were called into question earlier this year when her social media followers said she looked like a teenager thanks to her taut complexion. Madonna's children embraced the Easter fun too. David happily snapped a photo of the whole brood together, as they wore pink and blue bunny ears while the twins modelled T-shirts with the emblem 'Love First'. All together: The pop sensation painted eggs with her son David Banda, 16, and daughters Mercy James, 16, and twins Stelle and Estere Ciccone, nine Happy family: David happily snapped a photo of the whole brood together, as they wore pink and blue bunny ears. Some of the photos shared by the star were notable for their heavy use of filters - an increasingly common feature on Madonna's social media platforms Tender look: Madonna gave her daughter a tender look as they worked on their crafts together Goofing off: Mercy stuck out her tongue at the camera while posing next to her brother Love first: Meanwhile the twins matched in white T-shirts with the emblem 'Love First' as well as pink hair beads The doting mom had all the necessary supplies to provide her brood with an artistic experience, including paint, glue, and glitter packets. The mother-of-six proudly shared photos of the final results, showing off a colorful selection of eggs, some with drawings and others in glitter. The Queen of Pop also shared a heartwarming video on her Instagram, with the caption, 'Couple of crazy Bunnies.' The video showcased the entire family painting and having dance breaks in--between. Cute: The Queen of Pop also shared a heartwarming video on her Instagram, with the caption, 'Couple of crazy Bunnies'Dance break: Having fun: The video showcased the entire family painting and having dance breaks in-between Drink: The star enjoyed a cold drink while showing off her moves At one point Madonna showed off her blue glitter egg, which had a blue flower on top of it. 'Chic and glamorous,' she said, proud of her handywork. Meanwhile Mercy took a more simple approach, simply writing her last name 'James' on it. At another point Madge had a dance-off with David, whom she recently got matching tattoos with, as the family continued on in their celebrations. Madonna adopted David in 2006, when he was just 13 months old, while she funded an orphanage in Malawi. Like her brother David, Mercy James was also adopted in Malawi, in 2009. The icon adopted twins Stella and Estere in 2017, when they were both 4-years-old. The girls are both also from Malawi. Who's the better dancer? At another point Madge had a dance-off with David, as the family continued on in their celebrations Final results: The mother-of-six proudly shared photos of the final results, showing off a colorful selection of eggs, some with drawings and others in glitter Madonna is currently in the process of working on a biopic of her life and recently revealed she was holding auditions for the project. The singer-songwriter announced last September that she is co-directing and co-writing the forthcoming film, which she has described as a 'visual autobiography.' Cressida Wilson, an American playwright known for the film Secretary (2002) and The Girl On The Train (2016), is reportedly working on the script with Madonna, according to NME. Insiders say current drafts of the script culminate with her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour, however this storyline may change as developments to the plot continue. The film will require the actress to partake in singing and dancing sequences, and whoever ends up landing the coveted role will need to undergo a month's worth of rigorous training in preparation for filming. Madonna is heavily involved in the biopic as director and producer - parted ways with original screenwriter Diablo Cody last year. Julie Goodwin has revealed how she regained her will to survive after being hospitalised in a psychiatric unit. The MasterChef Australia star says that during her harrowing battle with depression, in 2020, and earlier this year when she said she had spent a five-week stay in a mental health facility, she found comfort in her granddaughter, Delilah, one. The 50-year-old chef told this month's Australian Women's Weekly: 'In the midst of that really awful time I had decided that I was done. Struggle: MasterChef Australia star Julie Goodwin (pictured) has revealed that she found comfort in her granddaughter, Delilah, one, during her harrowing battle with depression, in 2020, and earlier this year when she said she had spent a five-week stay in a mental health facility 'I had nothing left to do, my work here was done. That's where I found myself. That landed me in hospital a bunch of times. 'So, I'm trying to figure out if my life here is not done, then what the hell is it? Delilah is obviously a massive part of that. She's a tiny little human who I want to be around for,' she continued. 'But you know, I can't live my whole life for her. And I've just got to work out what the rest of it is for.' Family: Delilah is the daughter of Julie's son, Tom. The chef announced Delilah's arrival on Instagram last year, while posing alongside the newborn and her husband Michael (left) Doing it for Delilah: She told this month's Australian Women's Weekly: 'She's a tiny little human who I want to be around for' Delilah is the daughter of Julie's son, Tom. The chef announced Delilah's arrival on Instagram last year, while posing alongside the newborn and her husband, Michael Goodwin. Julie sent shockwaves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink-driving twice over the legal limit. Shock: Julie sent shockwaves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink-driving twice over the legal limit. Pictured arriving at Gosford Local Court in 2018 She was caught after trying to evade a police breath test. After fronting up at court with her husband and acknowledging it was 'an error in judgment' and 'accepting full responsibility', Goodwin was fined $600 and disqualified from driving for six months. She later revealed she had been suffering from depression, for which she had sought treatment at a psychiatric facility. The revelation in February this year came 13 years after Goodwin beat runner-up Poh Ling Yeow with her hearty home recipes in 2009. The much loved champion returns to the show's 'Fans & Favourites' season on Monday at 7pm on Channel 10. For confidential support contact Lifeline 131 114 Hey Dad! star Sarah Monahan has revealed she's currently living a simple life on a sprawling Texas ranch, after dreaming about moving there since she was a child. The Australian actress, 45, told New Idea on Monday that she and her husband Matt have set up camp in an old Winnebago and a 1972 Airstream caravan on a 40-hectare ranch, after previously residing on a boat moored in Florida. In the same interview, Sarah said she refused to reveal the exact location of her peaceful haven, in fears her former Hey Dad! co-star and convicted paedophile Robert Hughes might track her down. Happy: Hey Dad! star Sarah Monahan, 45, (pictured) has revealed she's currently living a simple life on a sprawling Texas ranch, after dreaming about moving there since she was a child. Pictured last week 'He may be getting out soon - I don't want him knowing where I live,' she said of Hughes, now 73, who abused her behind the scenes of the TV sitcom. Hughes played Sarah's on-screen father on the show from 1987 to 1994. She was six years old when she joined the cast. Hughes was jailed for a maximum of 10 years and nine months in 2014 after a jury found him guilty of 10 charges relating to sexual and indecent acts against four girls in the 1980s and 1990s. Abuse: Sarah (centre, front) was a victim of paedophile Robert Hughes (left, front) on set of Hey Dad!, which began airing in 1987 The actor, who has renounced his Australian citizenship and faces immediate deportation to his native UK upon release, was denied parole in 2020 and 2021. It was reported in February 2022 that he will remain in prison for child sex offences after a decision on his parole was delayed. Hughes has continually maintained his innocence, insisting he is the victim of false allegations. Coming home: Sarah revealed that she will be heading back to Australia later this year to attend his parole hearing as she and his other victims fear he might be freed. Pictured on set with Hughes His non-parole period of six years finished in 2020 and his sentence expires on January 6, 2025. Sarah revealed that she will be heading back to Australia later this year to attend his parole hearing, as she and his other victims fear he might be freed. 'We have never done it The other girls and I are going to do it because we think they're going to let him out this time,' she said. Home: Sarah and her husband Matt have set up camp in an old Winnebago and a 1972 Airstream caravan on a 40-hectare ranch in Texas, after previously residing on a boat moored in Florida Living her life: Sarah is pictured on her ranch with her beloved dog, Teddy 'I want him to see that I'm actually not scared of him. I'm not nervous about doing it. I think I used to be, but I'm not these days.' Elsewhere in the interview, Sarah revealed she misses her home country of Australia and would love to move back home in future if she could 'get work and afford to live in Sydney'. If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or family violence, call 1800RESPECT or visit www.1800respect.org.au While an UNSC of a smaller number of nations is desirable to make the UN effective, it must also reflect world realities and be representative of its diversity. (AFP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has again made a strong pitch for a permanent seat for India in the United Nations Security Council, saying it should get it as a right for its immense contribution to global peace. Those days are gone when India had to beg. Now we want our right. No other country has such moral authority, said Mr Modi. That will happen sooner or later, particularly if India regains its sharp climb on the economic ladder and as a military power. But the question that must also be addressed, apart from the UNSCs expansion, is what kind of a permanent membership will India get or should take? While the UN was fashioned by the Second World Wars victors, its birth had its origins in the darkest days when leaders of nine occupied nations in Europe met British and Commonwealth representatives in London on June 12, 1941 and signed a declaration pledging to work for a free world. On January 1, 1942, these nations consulted signed what came to be known as the United Nations Declaration, and approving the aims of the Atlantic Charter. This was the first time the phrase United Nations was used. But the creation of the UN organisation to preserve world peace had to wait till October 30, 1943, when Britain, China, the USSR and the US signed the Moscow Declaration on General Security. Its signatories continuously met from August to October 1944 in Washington DC, and fashioned a basic plan for an international peacekeeping organisation. The centrepiece of this plan was a Security Council in which the US, USSR, Britain, China and France would be permanent members. Fifty nations met in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, 12 days before Germany surrendered and four months before Japan was defeated, to consider this plan. After much deliberation the differences, mostly over the veto power demanded by the Big Three US, USSR and Britain were papered over and on June 26, 1945 all 50 nations signed the Charter and the UN formally came into being. The UN now has 192 members. The Cold War and the balance of power between the two superpowers ironically enough served as a guarantor of peace and security of nations that came under accepted spheres of influence. With the world poised a button push away from Armageddon, the UN, and especially the Security Council, became a ready forum to facilitate constant dialogue between the superpowers and it served this purpose admirably. True, it didnt prevent regional wars from erupting constantly since 1945 there have been 244 wars and armed conflicts: 53 civil wars; 43 involving the US; and eight ongoing civil wars but it did prevent a general war of ruinous dimensions. Both superpowers usually heeded the UN because the other was there. The veto powers ensured one bloc couldnt override the interests of the other one. The veto came to be used 252 times since 1946. It was used the most in the UNs first decade (1946-55) when it was exercised 83 times, with the USSR alone using it 80 times. This dropped off to 31 and 26 respectively from 1956 to 1965. The West, led by the US, used the veto oftener since 1966 (115 times, compared to 15 by USSR). Since 1996, Russia hasnt exercised the veto even once, while the USA used it six times and China twice. This presumably reflects the shape of todays world order. As an immediate response to a destructive world war, the UN reflected the reality and ethos of that age. Nothing reflected this more than the composition of the Security Councils permanent members. Four of the five were white nations. The other 10 members of the Security Council are elected members from various regions. These members are without the veto and with little voice or clout. Their plight is best illustrated by the admission by a former Colombian representative, Luis Fernando Jaramillo, that even as Security Council president (1992-94) he was forced to stand outside the chamber where the Permanent Five were meeting and beg for pieces of information as a personal favour from the permanent representatives as they were leaving. While the single veto doesnt reflect a desirable level of democratisation, to have a Security Council of elected equals will only render it more ineffective and irrelevant. Even within the Security Council, the ability of some countries to have their way makes it vulnerable to unwise choices. In the early 2000s, US ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering snarled near an open microphone at Yemens ambassador al-Ashtal after his country voted against the US on Resolution 678: That is the most expensive vote you ever cast. The following week, the US suspended its $100 million aid package for Yemen. Thus, while an UNSC of a smaller number of nations is desirable to make the UN effective, it must also reflect world realities and be representative of its diversity. Africa and Latin America are not represented in the Permanent Five. The Islamic world too doesnt find a place. India, which has a fifth of the worlds population and the worlds third largest GDP in PPP terms, doesnt find a place. Europes biggest economy, Germany, is excluded. On the other hand, with two members, Britain and France, Western Europe is over-represented. With Russia added, Europe has three members. This is clearly not a satisfactory arrangement. Indias diplomacy for the past many years has increasingly focused on securing permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Partly in response to this and similar pressures from Japan, Brazil and Germany, we now and then hear of proposals to make some of these bigger nations permanent members, but without veto powers. This will be unfortunate, as rather than making the UN more democratic, it will make it even more stratified. What we need to seek is reform of the UN by eliminating single vetos, while at the same time ensuring that the Security Council does not become victim to the tyranny of a simple majority. Instead of a single veto being able to derail its intentions, a certain minimum threshold, say of three or four members, should be required to thwart a majority of the Security Council. This will prevent the P-5 from insisting world affairs can only be shaped to their liking. Only an expansion of its permanent membership, accompanied by its internal reform, will assure the Security Council a more secure place in world affairs. Dave Hughes' 2Day FM breakfast radio show has long suffered in the ratings. And on Monday, the comedian, 51, admitted it's been an uphill battle cracking into Sydney's radio market since its conception last January. 'The Sydney market is very established and there are breakfast shows that have been on in Sydney for a decade or more, they've got rusted-on audiences,' Dave told The Australian. Challenge: 2Day FM's Dave Hughes, 51, (pictured) has admitted cracking Sydney's radio market has been a challenge after his breakfast show has struggled in the ratings 'We're starting a breakfast show on a network that had been playing music for two years before we came on, so we were starting from nothing really in terms of trying to get people to change their habits.' Ed hosts 2Day FM's breakfast slot alongside comedian Ed Kavalee and presenter Erin Molan. In August, the show tumbled to an all-new low in the ratings, slipping down 0.9 points to a 2.4 per cent market share. Struggle: 'The Sydney market is very established and there are breakfast shows that have been on in Sydney for a decade or more, they've got rusted-on audiences,' Dave said Two years prior, 2Day's previous breakfast offering of Grant Denyer, Ed and Ash London also recorded the same low numbers. The breakfast show has since clawed back, and this month celebrated their best result in three years with a 4.2 per cent audience share. It comes after Dave recently relocated to Sydney to host his breakfast show. Based in Melbourne with his wife Holly Hughes and their three young children, Dave told The Daily Telegraph in December Holly 'freaked out' about the far from 'ideal' arrangement. Ed hosts 2Day FM's breakfast slot alongside comedian Ed Kavalee and presenter Erin Molan 'The truth is I will be buying a property in Sydney in the next month or so and I will be up there a lot but we will still be splitting our time between Melbourne and Sydney.' Dave started his radio career in 2001, alongside Kate Langbroek and Dave O'Neill on Nova's Hughesy, Kate and Dave breakfast show. In 2014, the radio show relaunched on the KIIS Network but it was axed two years later. In 2018, Dave and Kate joined the Hit Network replacing Australian comedy duo Hamish Blake and Andy Lee. She has racked up over 2,000 'likes' on OnlyFans since joining the adults-only subscription site in December. And Married at First Sight's lesbian bride Amanda Micallef, 34, gave fans a glimpse at what's behind her paywall on Sunday as she stripped down to lingerie for a sizzling bedroom selfie. The image, which was posted to Amanda's personal training business page on Instagram, showed the fitness fanatic posing in nothing but Calvin Klein underpants and a flesh-coloured lace bra. Like what you see? Married At First Sight's Amanda Micallef, 34, unveiled her muscular physique as she posed in lingerie for a sultry bedroom selfie on Sunday - months after joining OnlyFans as a 'dominant lesbian' Flexing her muscles, the brunette struck a coy expression as she wrote in her caption: 'Happy Easter Everyone!!! Spread the love this weekend'. She completed her sultry look with a full face of makeup, including bronze eye shadow, bold eyeliner and false lashes. Amanda shot to fame in early 2020 as the first ever lesbian bride on Married At First Sight. 'If you like a dominant woman, you'll enjoy my dirty talk': In her OnlyFans bio, Amanda previously described herself as a 'dominant' lesbian In her OnlyFans bio, Amanda previously described herself as a 'dominant' lesbian. 'I'm here to explore the fantasies for the married, bi-curious or lesbian submissive woman,' she wrote. 'If you like a dominant woman, you'll enjoy my dirty talk, my suggestive photos, and what may happen on the DMs. I also run a relationship podcast, see below to subscribe!' she added. Raunchy: Her bio has since been updated, as it now reads: 'Better than Netflix and far more juicier than MAFS' Her bio has since been updated, as it now reads: 'Better than Netflix and far more juicier than MAFS.' 'I'm that little cherry on top... eat me first. Guaranteed responses! Just message me! Get to know me for only $3. Yes, I have X-rated videos. Just ask for them!!!' it continues. Amanda also works as a podcaster, having interviewed Australia's biggest OnlyFans star Renee Gracie on the show just weeks before deciding to join the raunchy platform herself. She's not shy! 'I'm that little cherry on top... eat me first. Guaranteed responses! Just message me! Get to know me for only $3. Yes, I have X-rated videos. Just ask for them!!!' it continues During their chat, Renee revealed that she was making up to $500,000 a month on the site. A number of Married At First Sight stars have made the move to OnlyFans recently, including Stacey Hampton and Mishel Karen. Jessika Power claims to have made more than $470,000 in her first four months on the site, while Ines Basic earned $80,000 in her first few weeks. Money maker! Jessika Power claims to have made more than $470,000 in her first four months on OnlyFans Oh my! Mishel Karen, 51, has also started performing hardcore porn on OnlyFans Amanda made LGBTQ+ history last year when she became one-half of the first ever lesbian couple in the history of Married At First Sight. Unfortunately, her marriage to bartender Tash Herz turned out to be a disaster. Despite initially appearing to being a good match, the franchise's first lesbian couple quickly went downhill on their honeymoon. Since their split, Tash has gone on to get engaged to Canadian screenwriter Stephanie Fabrizi. Jennifer Garner stepped out on Sunday to greet friends bringing her birthday gifts. The Alias alum wore a black hooded sweatshirt that said 'no limit' as she smiled and waved. She added a pair of black leggings and sneakers as she hugged pals who stopped by to celebrate her 50th birthday. Birthday girl: Jennifer Garner stepped out on Sunday to greet friends bringing her birthday gifts The mom-of-three added a pair of dark sneakers with light blue accents while walking outside her home in Los Angeles. She pulled her dark hair back into a low and fuss-free ponytail as she beamed. The longtime entertainer skipped makeup and layered long black leg warmers over her skintight leggings. Three friends - one male and two female - dropped by to bring the star flowers, joining the list of gifts from loved ones. Laidback look: The Alias alum wore a black hooded sweatshirt that said 'no limit' as she smiled and waved Friendship: She added a pair of black leggings and sneakers as she hugged pals who stopped by to celebrate her 50th birthday Reese Witherspoon also showed her gal pal affection with a personally baked cake to ring in her 50th year. She documented the process via an Instagram Reel video shared with her 27.6 million followers on Sunday. She wrote in the caption, 'Did you know it's a National holiday? Nope not Easter / not Passover. 'You guys .....It's JENNIFER GARNER'S birthday! In her honor, here is an episode of #PretendCookingShow.' She added, 'I love you @jennifergarner!!!! Enjoy a humming bird cake made with a secret ingredient!' Birthday post: As for Jennifer herself, she also appeared on the photo-sharing app to acknowledge her special day As for Jennifer herself, she also appeared on the photo-sharing app to acknowledge her special day. The light-hearted beauty posted a video of a series of furry animals running around and leaping excitedly. 'Waking up on my birthday,' the caption on the mashup of video clips said. Jen didn't use words in the caption of her post, but dropped a festive party horn emoji. The snippet was viewed over one million times and fans and friends joined in the comments section to wish her well. Early party: Ahead of her April 17th birthday the media personality enjoyed an early celebratory meal with friends Ahead of her April 17th birthday the media personality enjoyed an early celebratory meal with friends. During the gathering the star was surprised by an unexpected voice recording from Donny Osmond as he sang to her personally. However, that surprise was nothing compared to her shock when Osmond, 64, stood behind her, in the flesh, and began to sing. She stood up from her seat and hugged him briefly before asking, 'I'm so hot, can I just take my sweater off?' before removing her gray knit-sweater. Surprise! During the gathering the star was surprised by an unexpected visit from her childhood crush Donny Osmond Osmond presented her with a cake that read '13 Going On 50! Love Donny,' a reference to her hit film 13 Going On 30. The pair sang a duet of Osmond's classic song Make The World Go Away, a song he and his sister Marie Osmond originally performed. Garner got really into it, ad-libbing noises and closing her eyes as she sang with the Utah native. The mother of three shared her enthusiasm on Instagram, writing in the caption, 'My first (pre)birthday surprise was a doozy the one and only, legend in his own time, object of my childhood adoration and devotion @donnyosmond showed up to knock my purple socks off.' Bethenny Frankel spent part of her Easer Sunday with her 11-year-old daughter Bryn, coloring holiday eggs. Her busy day began with a visit to the beach in The Hamptons on a brisk morning with the sun shining and temperatures hovering in thee 40's Fahrenheit. Later, the television personality and entrepreneur decided to go out on a shopping spree, making stops at a Kmart and Walgreens, all while decked out casually in gray sweatpants and a matching top. Holiday shopping: Bethenny Frankel, 51, kept it casual in the fashion department when she headed out to do some last minute Easter shopping at Kmart and Walgreens in East Hampton, New York on Sunday Seemingly in need of some last minute Easter shopping, Frankel, 51, came out of Walgreens in East Hampton, New York carrying a bag full of items in her left hand and her phone in the other. With a chill in the spring air, she kept warm by wearing a furry white jacket over her sporty ensemble, along with a pair of slip-on shoes. She wore her dark tresses long, straight, and pushed back off her face with a pair of sunglasses that she wore on the top of her head. Casual and sporty: The television personality and entrepreneur stepped out in gray sweatpants with a matching top, a fully white jacket and sneakers On the go: After picking up some assorted items, The Real Housewives of New York City alum appeared to make her way back to her home After picking up some assorted items, The Real Housewives of New York City alum appeared to make her way back to her home. Her morning started with a drive to the beach, which included a brief stop to admire a few turkeys that were showing their full feathered colors at the time. Once she made it to her destination, Frankel spent a bit of time admiring the vast ocean and all its glory and beauty. Holidays: The New York City native revealed she likes to 'create rituals year after year' that 'last a lifetime' in the caption of a video of herself and her daughter Bryn making Easter eggs Turkey time: The Real Housewives Of New York City alum stopped to admire some turkeys during her drive to the beach in The Hamptons Mother nature's wonders: Frankel confessed it was a beautiful sunny morning despite being in the 40s Fahrenheit Smelling the roses: The Skinny Girl entrepreneur admired the vast ocean on Easter morning Decked out in bunny ears, the New York City native took to her Instagram page and shared a video clips of herself and Bryn making Easter eggs, among other holiday traditions. 'Some bunny loves me.I make every holiday a memory and create rituals year after year,' she wrote in the caption, adding, 'These small moments have meaning that lasts a lifetime. Happy Easter to you and your family. Make it meaningful. Xo.' Her Instagram posts also included talking to her camera phone about a lip balm that she bought while out on her shopping excursion. She also showcased a colorful necklace that read 'mama' in the middle of it that was likely made by her young daughter. Easter Sunday: Frankel spent much of her Easter at her home in New York Social media: Frankel spent time chatting with her 2.5 million Instagram fans and followers Cute: The proud 'mama' showcased her necklace likely made by her daughter Jimmy Rees, also known as Jimmy Giggle, has spoken out about the devastating moment his newborn son almost died after undergoing a routine medical procedure. The Giggle and Hoot performer, 34, was forced to pull out of Dancing With The Stars in 2019 after his seven-week-old son Mack suffered complications while getting a tongue-tie fix. In an interview with TV Week on Monday, the comic revisited the nightmare moment before thanking one woman who worked at the hospital who he says 'saved his life'. Every parent's worse nightmare: Children's entertainer Jimmy Rees, 34, (right) has recalled the horrifying moment his newborn baby almost died after undergoing a routine medical procedure three years ago. Pictured with his wife Tori, their twin sons Mack and Vinny and older son Lenny The little tot, who has a twin brother named Vinnie, was having a standard tongue-tie fix when a main blood vessel was accidentally cut. Mack experienced an incredible amount of blood loss (due to a complication in the procedure) and was rushed to the intensive care unit. 'There was one lady at Gosford Hospital who had clocked off for the night, the head ENT [ear, nose and throat specialist] there,' Jimmy recalled in the interview. Horror: Mack, who has a twin brother named Vinnie, was having a standard tongue-tie fix when a main blood vessel was accidentally cut. Pictured: Mack in March 2019 'She got a call saying, 'There's a seven-week-old baby coming in and he's in critical condition because he's bleeding profusely,' and she went, 'What, from a tongue tie?' 'She just turned her car around, went straight back to the hospital, and saved his life, I guess.' Jimmy said he and his wife Tori still occasionally keep in touch with the heroic staff member, 'and just give our sincere thanks to her all the time'. Hero: 'There was one lady at Gosford Hospital who had clocked off for the night, the head ENT [ear, nose and throat specialist] there,' Jimmy recalled in the interview. 'She just turned her car around, went straight back to the hospital, and saved his life, I guess' Jimmy made the difficult decision to leave Dancing With The Stars, on which he was a contestant at the time, to be by his son's side. He says the tot has since recovered well, but the parents are keeping an eye on his speech to see how it develops. The couple are also proud parents to son Lenny, six. The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe Rating: Doctor Who Rating: What a tempting fantasy to tell the neighbours youre going to Bournemouth or Blackpool for a week and then simply drop off the radar with a hefty tax bill unpaid. Dont tell me youve never thought about it? The notion usually hits me on holiday, after an hour too long in the sunshine outside a cafe. Why go back? Why not just... vanish? Sanity returns when the sunstroke wears off. The most fascinating aspect of John Darwins story, dramatised over four nights in The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe (ITV), is that he went through with it. Darwin staged his own disappearance, paddling his kayak into the sea off Hartlepool in County Durham and leaving his wife Anne to report him missing. For three weeks, he lived rough before sneaking back home and living secretly in a spare room. The deception was so brazen that the Darwins did not only convince the police, the Press, their creditors and their insurers that John was dead. Even their two adult sons believed it. Monica Dolan is Anne Darwin and Eddie Marsan is John Darwin (pictured) in the ITV drama The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, which Christopher Stevens gave a five star review for Christopher Stevens said Eddie Marsan's depiction of John Darwin is superb, he balances Darwin's 'heartless' behaviour while still making him likeable to the audience From start to finish, the whole plan was insane. Chris Langs hilariously deadpan script captures the sheer stupidity of it, while convincing us that to the Darwins, deeply in debt, every step was unavoidable. They were being frogmarched by fate. I am most certainly not mad, Anne, declared John indignantly. What I am is a man who thinks outside the box. The marvellous Eddie Marsan is superb as prison officer John, as delusional as he is devious a man who, in the words of his wife, would buy a Range Rover he couldnt afford and spend 3,000 on a personalised number plate, and all before wed got the gas connected. Throwback of the weekend: Ventriloquist Jamie, 13, did a brilliant song-and-gags act with his puppet Chuck on Britains Got Talent (ITV), with a classic end-of-the-pier routine. He even sang a Sammy Davis Jr number. And he taught himself from YouTube videos! Vaudeville is back in style. Advertisement Intriguing as it is to contemplate, his crime is thoroughly unpleasant and heartless. Setting out to defraud the insurance company, he ends up robbing his own sons of their family. Marsan makes sure we understand what a nasty, manipulative piece of work Darwin is. He bullies and belittles his wife, and thinks nothing of the fact she is risking prison to support his blundering plot. But he also makes the man a tiny bit likeable, just because he is so pathetic. Planning what to pack in his rucksack, he decides on a sleeping bag and a tent... and Kendal Mint Cake. Somehow, he feels this last detail guarantees success. The whole sorry mess is seen through Annes eyes. Monica Dolan ensures we never feel angry or disgusted with her, even when shes lying point-blank to her children. Dim but loyal, full of common sense but without a shred of self-confidence, she thinks of herself as a woman who grabbed hold of a rope trailing from a hot air balloon. Now she darent let go. Thats the sort of adventure that might whisk away Jodie Whittaker in Doctor Who (BBC1). There has never been an incarnation of the time-traveller from Gallifrey who has been less in control of events. Doctor Who's returned to screens for a 'slow and confused' episode Her companions, Mandip Gill as grumpy Yaz and John Bishop as insipid Dan, would probably just stand and watch her go, while explaining to each other in lumpen dialogue whats happened. Despite its generous budget for special effects, and the return of the Sea Devils who were a favourite foe of the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, this one-off episode was painfully slow and confused. And as the Doctor blurted out her affection for Yas, another basic rule of the series was chucked aside. Time Lords (or Time Ladies) are not supposed to fall in lust with their human companions. Think of the age difference . . . several thousand years. Thats just creepy. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas have celebrated their first Easter Sunday since welcoming their first child three months ago. The couple, who married in 2018, enjoyed a romantic brunch for two on an outdoor patio which they shared with their followers on Instagram. Nick and Priyanka announced in January they'd welcomed a baby girl via surrogate, with DailyMail.com later revealing the couple's child was born 12 weeks premature at Southern California hospital Holiday: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas have celebrated their first Easter Sunday since welcoming their first child three months earlier 'Happy Easter from us,' the pair wrote in the caption of a series of holiday snaps posted on Chopra's Instagram page. Nick and Priyanka, who are yet to show their baby daughter, were seen posing alongside an arched bush adorned with large bunny ears. The Matrix Resurrections actress, 39, opted for a mustard-yellow skirt and crop top combination along with a pair of open-toe heels. Family time: The couple, who married in 2018, enjoyed a romantic brunch for two on an outdoor patio which they shared with their followers on Instagram Familt time: This was the couples first Easter Sunday with their baby daughter, whom they welcomed via surrogacy in January Bright and sunny: The Matrix Resurrections actress opted for a mustard-yellow skirt and crop top combination along with a pair of open-toe heels They also posed for a selfie under those bunny ears, as well as for individual shots of themselves. Chopra leaned her head on her hand and flashed a big beaming smile for the camera, while her husband was pictured sitting at their restaurant table with a tropical drink in front of him. The Quantico star also snapped a photo of an Easter-inspired cup cake and a small bunny that sat on top of the table with the caption: 'Easter Sunday.' Nick and Priyanka have been keeping life with their new daughter fairly under wraps, after welcoming the arrival 12 weeks early. In a joint statement, Nick and Priyanka revealed their good news via Instagram, writing: 'We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate' Colorful: The Jonas Brothers star looked stylish in a colorful collared shirt with black pants as he enjoyed a tropical drink at the restaurant They requested privacy for their new time as parents in the post too, writing: We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much.' She also recently shared a glimpse into their nursery, posting a picture of a host of soft toys in their home. Chopra and Jonas tied-the-knot in two ceremonies one Hindu and one Christian to honor each of their cultures at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, India, in front of more than 200 guests in 2018. Sweet: Chopra also snapped a hot of the Easter-theme cupcake she had for dessert Nick and Priyanka's baby arrived at 27 weeks at a Southern California hospital outside LA, where she'll remain until she is healthy enough to return home with her parents, a source close to the couple told DailyMail.com in January. According to the insider, the A-list couple had been wanting to have a baby together for 'quite sometime,' but their schedules had gotten in the way of their family planning. They eventually contacted an agency to explore their options and were connected them with a woman in SoCal who they believed was a good match. 'Priyanka doesn't have any fertility issues preventing her from having a baby, but she is 39 now so it's not getting any easier,' the source said. Alone time: Nick and Priyanka have been keeping life with their new daughter fairly under wraps, after welcoming the arrival 12 weeks early Early: Nick and Priyanka's baby arrived at 27 weeks at a Southern California hospital outside LA, a source close to the couple told DailyMail.com in January 'Their busy work schedules also mean that it's difficult for them to physically be together to conceive when she is ovulating, so some time ago they went down the surrogacy route. 'This is the woman's fifth surrogacy. They met her and really liked her. 'The baby had been due in April but the surrogate ended up giving birth on Sunday, so she was very premature,' the insider added. The source continued: 'Priyanka had been trying to get her filming all done before the baby was due in April - but obviously this has completely thrown her plans. 'There were rumors and speculation that the marriage was in trouble and that they might divorce, but that's total nonsense. Nick and Priyanka are very happy together.' Love Island Australia star Tayla Damir has revealed why you should never trust what you see on social media again. Posting to Instagram on Monday, the model, 25, shared a series of unedited selfies alongside subtly edited versions of each image. In her caption, Tayla described the insidious way social media images are destroying Instagram users' self esteem. Smoke and mirrors: Love Island's Tayla Damir, 25, exposed the shocking truth about 'perfect' Instagram selfies in an eye-opening Instagram post on Monday. In her post, Tayla uploaded series of unedited selfies alongside subtly edited versions of each image. Pictured left is the original image, and right is the edited image 'I have seen many people comparing their before and after photos using editing apps. I was mortified to see how easily an app could change someone's entire appearance,' the former Miss Universe WA finalist wrote. 'I was instantly frustrated. The frustration didn't come from people using these apps. It came from the lack of education around what these apps can do to one's self-esteem,' she continued. The brunette beauty, who has admitted to suffering from body image issues in the past, said she often struggles to know 'what is real and what is fake on social media'. 'Between face filters, editing apps and photoshop, it's nearly impossible to understand what people truly look like': In her caption, Tayla described the insidious way social media images are destroying Instagram users' self esteem. Pictured left is the original image, and right is the edited image 'Between face filters, editing apps and photoshop, it's nearly impossible to understand what people truly look like.' Tayla explained that she'd doctored the photos in her post using a popular editing app, and was dismayed by the results. 'While editing the pics on the right as examples, I had moments myself where I felt critical and compared myself to the edited photo. These filters are affecting our body image and self-esteem,' she declared. 'I had moments myself where I felt critical and compared myself to the edited photo': Tayla explained that she'd doctored the photos in her post using a popular editing app, and was dismayed by the results. Pictured left is the original image, and right is the edited image 'We as a generation have the problem of filters making us more insecure, so we use the filter as a solution,' added Tayla. While Tayla insisted that she doesn't condemn people for editing photos, and is merely concerned about the lack of transparency and education. 'Its so important to realise that there will always be editing in the world of social media. Im not saying your whole feed is a lie, and every photo you see is altered,' she wrote. 'Don't allow your mind to trick you': While Tayla insisted that she doesn't condemn people for editing photos, and is merely concerned about the lack of transparency and education. Pictured left is the original image, and right is the edited image featuring an app-generated smile 'This is more of a reminder that some images you see can be easily tweaked like this, and it is important that you are aware of that and don't allow your mind to trick you into thinking you too should look this way,' she wrote. The model ended her post by remind her fans that they are 'beautiful just the way they are' and that social media is often simply 'smoke and mirrors'. Tayla has been open about her struggles with body image, disordered eating and self esteem. Food for thought: In January, the reality star told fans during an Instagram Q&A that she 'always knew' she had a 'bad relationship with food', and said it was her fiance Nathan Broad who was the first person to point out her unhealthy habits In January, the reality star told fans during an Instagram Q&A that she 'always knew' she had a 'bad relationship with food', and said it was her fiance Nathan Broad who was the first person to point out her unhealthy habits. 'I always knew I had a bad relationship with food and the way I saw my body,' the reality star wrote. 'No one ever pulled me up on it properly so I just kept going with my bad ways.' Explanation: Tayla said it wasn't until Nathan (left) 'called her on her sh*t ' that she was able to get the confidence to do better for herself and her body Tayla said it wasn't until Nathan 'called her on her s**t ' that she was able to get the confidence to do better for herself and her body. 'I was so fed up with the voice in my head and knew I had to change something otherwise that voice would probably be my undoing eventually,' she wrote. 'Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments when the voice pops up but instead of internalising it I share what I am thinking and talk through it.' Results: 'Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments when the voice pops up but instead of internalising it I share what I am thinking and talk through it.' Tayla said discussing the issue helped her feel like she was 'taking the power back' from the voice. It isn't the first time Tayla has spoken about conquering her body image issues after winning Love Island Australia. The star previously spoke about how, after winning the show, it was a low-point for her body-positive journey. 'What should have been a high point in my life, was not': Tayla previously spoke candidly about conquering her body image issues after winning Love Island Australia in 2018 'I remember back to December 2018 and what should have been a high point in my life, was not,' she wrote on Instagram, referring to the period after her Love Island Australia win. She added: 'I was emotionally drained, far too skinny, malnourished, broken, grieving and investing the remainder of my energy into the wrong people.' Tayla has also previously spoken out about her battle with anxiety and depression. For mental health support, please call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14 in Australia, or call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK. Selin Mengu is a name most Australians won't be forgetting anytime soon. Following her recent rise to fame on Married At First Sight, the 33-year-old's new career as an influencer seems to be flourishing. Selin cut a stylish figure over the weekend as she attended the Rip Curl Pro event at Bells Beach in Torquay, Victoria. Stepping out: Married At First Sight's Selin Mengu, 33, (pictured) cut a stylish figure in leggings and a printed jumper as she attended a Rip Curl Pro event in Victoria The Sydney mother-of-one oozed confidence as she posed in a Ripcurl sweater that was tucked up to show off her toned midriff. She styled her look with a pair of ankle high boots and black leggings. Selin was seen posing with celebrity fashion stylist Jamie Azzopardi, who looked stylish in a black Ripcurl hoodie which he teamed up with jeans and a large jacket. All smiles: The Sydney mother-of-one oozed confidence as she posed in a Ripcurl sweater that was curled up to show off her toned midriff Primped: She styled her look with a pair of ankle boots The unlikely duo looked happy and relaxed as they wrapped their arms around each other while walking off towards the beach. At one stage the pair were joined by artist Stella Rafter, models Leah Perkins and Kristian Gaupset. Daily Mail Australia understands she has already been inundated with offers from social media talent agencies racing to sign her up, as soon as her contract allows. Friend: Selin was seen posing with celebrity fashion stylist Jamie Azzopardi, who looked stylish in a black Ripcurl hoodie which he teamed up with jeans and a large jacket Hanging out: The unlikely duo looked happy and relaxed as they wrapped their arms around each other while walking off towards the beach Influencer pals: At one stage the pair were joined by artist Stella Rafter, models Leah Perkins and Kristian Gaupset Selin currently boasts 49,199 Instagram followers and will no doubly take advantage of having professional help turning her 15 minutes of fame into a lasting career. It comes after her time with 'husband' Anthony Cincotta came to an abrupt end after they both decided to write 'leave' during last week's commitment ceremony. 'The time was up for Anthony and I in the experiment, we both decided it was the best thing we could do to end it and are civil,' she said speaking of experience. Selin explained that the highlight of the experiment was being selected to put herself out there and learn that it isn't selfish to find love. Chrissy Teigen shared adorable pictures of her children on Easter to her Instagram page. The 35-year-old model dressed Luna, six, and Miles, three in their Easter outfits. Luna wore a pastel rainbow stripe tiered dress in shades of pink, yellow, green and lavender. Cute: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend , 43, shared adorable pictures of her children on Easter Adorable: The 35-year-old model dressed Luna, six, and Miles, three in their Easter outfits Chrissy shares Luna and Miles with husband John Legend, 43. Miles was dressed in a coordinating outfit with distressed blue jeans and a shirt with mutli-colored dinosaurs. The Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert performer posted 'Easter Sunday' next to the photo on social media. Family: Luna wore a pastel rainbow stripe tiered dress in shades of pink, yellow, green and lavender Chrissy sent a message to those of Christian and Jewish faiths writing, happy easter and chag sameach from my little chickadees!' (sic) Chag Sameach is Hebrew for Happy Holiday and is often used as a Passover greeting. The hashtag #chagsameach began trending when the Ukrainian foreign minister used it in a Passover greeting, writing, 'Happy Passover to all Jewish communities in Ukraine and around the globe celebrating. Life and freedom are Ukraines two most important values. Let us all be united in protecting them and bringing peace to Ukraine. Chag Sameach!' on Twitter. Passover and Easter fell on the same weekend and Muslims began celebrating Ramadan on April first. It's the first time in more than 30 years that the three Abrahamic religions have marked these sacred holidays at the same time. A tisket, a tasket: Six-year-old Luna had lots of luck filling her basket during the family's traditional egg hunt No fear: The kindergartner showed no trepidation in burrowing through the underbrush in search of the brightly decorated eggs The Legend kids seemed to have fun marking their holiday with a traditional Easter egg hunt. Young Luna showed no trepidation in burrowing through the underbrush in search of the brightly colored eggs. Later, they played on a not-so-traditional rock climbing wall. Up the wall: After the egg hunt, Luna decided to take a turn on the climbing wall, wearing fuzzy yellow slippers instead of sneakers Instead of sneakers, the kindergartner chose to show her skills wearing a pair of fuzzy yellow slippers. It's been a busy time for the family filled with lots of adventures. They recently returned from a Spring Break vacation to Hawaii, and then a trip to Disneyland to celebrate Luna's birthday. Four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke shared an incredibly rare snap of his youngest daughters - Indiana, 10; and Clementine Jane, 13 - enjoying Easter festivities on Sunday. The Texas-born 51-year-old - who boasts 2.7M Instagram/Facebook followers - captioned his family slideshow: 'Mother Nature doing its thing. Happy Easter and Spring everyone.' Ethan - last believed to be living in a $3.9M six-bedroom home in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill - posted a snap of chicken statues perched on a grassy field of white and yellow flowers. Family: Four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke shared an incredibly rare snap of his youngest daughters - Indiana, 10; and Clementine Jane, 13 - enjoying Easter festivities on Sunday Hawke also shared a video of sheep and lambs peacefully grazing in the distance. The Reality Bites alum fathered little Indiana and Clementine from his 13-year marriage to his former nanny Ryan Shawhughes, whom he originally met through his literary agent. The 39-year-old Columbia University grad - who was raised in the same town as Ethan - now works as a producer on many of his projects. 'There were never any scandalous thoughts or actions back then. In the years that followed, my marriage [to Uma Thurman] disintegrated due to many pressures, none of which were remotely connected to Ryan,' Hawke assured The Guardian back in 2009. The Texas-born 51-year-old - who boasts 2.7M Instagram/Facebook followers - captioned his family slideshow: 'Mother Nature doing its thing. Happy Easter and Spring everyone' Upstate? Ethan - last believed to be living in a $3.9M six-bedroom home in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill - posted a snap of chicken statues perched on a grassy field of white and yellow flowers Peaceful: Hawke also shared a video of sheep and lambs grazing in the distance 'I know people imagine some kind of Sound Of Music type love affair, but the truth is by the time Ryan and I were falling in love, it had been a long while since I had employed her.' In 2005, The Guilty actor's Gattaca leading lady fueled rumors that he might have had an affair with model Jen Perzow when Oprah Winfrey asked if 'there was some betrayal of some kind.' 'There was some stuff like that at the end,' the 51-year-old Oscar nominee admitted. Still going strong! The Reality Bites alum fathered little Indiana and Clementine from his 13-year marriage to his former nanny Ryan Shawhughes (L, pictured March 22), whom he originally met through his literary agent Team: The 39-year-old Columbia University grad - who was raised in the same town as Ethan - now works as a producer on many of his projects Hawke (pictured in 2002) told The Guardian in 2009: 'There were never any scandalous thoughts or actions back then. In the years that followed, my marriage [to Uma Thurman] disintegrated due to many pressures, none of which were remotely connected to Ryan' 2020 family portrait: Before their five-year marriage ended in 2005, The Guilty actor and the 51-year-old Oscar nominee welcomed 20-year-old son Levon and 23-year-old daughter Maya 'We were having a difficult time, and you know how the axe comes down and how people behave and how people express their unhappiness. Our marriage failed. I should take full responsibility for the failure of my own marriage.' Before their five-year marriage ended in 2005, Ethan and Uma welcomed 23-year-old daughter Maya and 20-year-old son Levon. Hawke currently plays religious zealot/cult leader Arthur Harrow in Jeremy Slater's critically-acclaimed six-episode MCU series Moon Knight, which airs Wednesdays on Disney+. 'The Friendly Type': Ethan plays religious zealot/cult leader Arthur Harrow in Jeremy Slater's critically-acclaimed six-episode MCU series Moon Knight, which airs Wednesdays on Disney+ Hitting US theaters this Friday! Hawke will next portray King Aurvandil War-Raven in Robert Eggers' critically-acclaimed Viking epic The Northman alongside Nicole Kidman (R) The A Bright Ray of Darkness author will next portray King Aurvandil War-Raven in Robert Eggers' critically-acclaimed Viking epic The Northman - hitting US theaters this Friday - alongside Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgard, and Anya Taylor-Joy. Ethan also directed a six-hour documentary on the late married Hollywood power couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward called The Last Movie Stars, which premieres later this year on CNN+. The doc features readings of old interviews and journals by George Clooney, Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Billy Crudup, Sam Rockwell, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Zoe Kazan. Alicia Clark wrestled with her physical and psychological wounds on Sunday's mid-season premiere of Fear The Walking Dead on AMC. The episode titled Follow Me opened with Alicia [Alycia Debnam-Carey] in a sepia-toned landscape leading a pack of survivors. A loud voice beckoned to her, 'Padre, follow me. Padre. Follow me' and she approached a lone figure that turned out to be a zombie who wheeled around and attacked her. Mid-season premiere: Alicia Clark wrestled with her physical and psychological wounds on Sunday's mid-season premiere of Fear The Walking Dead on AMC She then woke up in a bedroom with her prosthetic arm on a bedside table after her limb was severed following a zombie bite. Alicia stumbled around in the home as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played loudly in the background. She called out, but nobody answered and then followed dirty footprints on the carpet. Alicia saw a man with his back to an approaching zombie and yelled out to warn him before breaking his stereo. Dream sequences: The episode titled Follow Me opened with Alicia [Alycia Debnam-Carey] in a sepia-toned landscape leading a pack of survivors The man turned around in time to kill the zombie and then yelled 'What did you do! What did you do!' at Alicia as she passed out. She woke up to find herself in the care of deaf musician Paul. 'You're gonna have to speak a lot slower if you expect me to read your lips,' Paul told her. Hearing loss: 'You're gonna have to speak a lot slower if you expect me to read your lips,' Paul told her Paul revealed that she had been out for two days and he found her passed out in a barn while making a food run. He asked her if she was sick because she'd been running a constant fever. 'I wasn't in a barn. I was on my way back... To the people I was staying with. I must've passed out. But I wasn't in a barn. A girl saved me,' Alicia said. Child savior: 'I wasn't in a barn. I was on my way back... To the people I was staying with. I must've passed out. But I wasn't in a barn. A girl saved me,' Alicia said 'I didn't see a girl,' Paul told her. Alicia tried to make a quick exit, but Paul insisted that she should stay and help him fix his stereo. Paul shared that his home was soundproofed to keep zombies away and he could play music as loud as he wants. Quick exit: Alicia tried to make a quick exit, but Paul insisted that she should stay and help him fix his stereo 'I thought you said you hadn't heard anything in months,' Alicia reminded him. Paul told her that Beethoven when he first started going deaf 'destroyed every piano they put in front of him, just smashed the keys like his fingers were sledgehammers.' 'Why?,' Alicia asked. 'Just 'cause you can't hear music don't mean you can't feel it,' Paul answered. They were then interrupted by Arlo and two of his companions who were searching for Alicia. Search mission: They were then interrupted by Arlo and two of his companions who were searching for Alicia Paul agreed to hide her and she evaded Arlo by concealing herself under Paul's piano. 'She has a habit of getting people hurt,' Arlo said after describing Alicia with her lost arm and fevers to Paul. 'You see her, you give me a call,' Arlo said as he gave Paul a radio to keep in contact. Hidden away: Paul agreed to hide her and she evaded Arlo by concealing herself under Paul's piano Arlo then looked at a photo of Paul posing with other musicians. 'Deaf musician. Aint that a bitch? Apprecite your time,' Arlo said as he walked out. Paul later quizzed Alicia about Arlo and she explained how they used to live at the same place before it went bad and he blames her. Good questions: Paul later quizzed Alicia about Arlo and she explained how they used to live at the same place before it went bad and he blames her They later reached an agreement in which Alicia would help fix Paul's stereo in exchange for his help in finding her friends. Alicia told Paul while they were out how she needed Arno and his people to topple Victor Strand and take over his tower community. 'He wasn't happy to see me. He said I shouldn't be leading anyone anywhere. And...honestly, he's probably right,' Alicia said. Paul then confessed that the bagpipes were a gift for his wife and he felt guilty for criticizing her arrangement of Ode To Joy on the pipes before her death in the nuclear bomb blast. Late wife: Paul then confessed that the bagpipes were a gift for his wife and he felt guilty for criticizing her arrangement of Ode To Joy on the pipes before her death in the nuclear bomb blast They were interrupted again by Arlo who pushed Alicia toward a truck full of zombies who had believed in her Padre community plan. She was rescued by Paul who came out firing a gun and shot Arlo in the hand. Paul dangerously tried to retrieve a stereo but Alicia got him into a vehicle and safety. Zombies waiting: They were interrupted again by Arlo who pushed Alicia toward a truck full of zombies who had believed in her Padre community plan He explained that he needed the music to drown out the sounds of his wife dying. Alicia revealed that she's been tormented by her own dream. 'You asked me why I thought Padre was the place I had to take everyone. That's why,' she said. Recurring dream: 'You asked me why I thought Padre was the place I had to take everyone. That's why,' she said 'That must have been some dream,' Paul said. 'I told them I knew what I was doing, where I was going, and I didn't. You know, it was just a dream,' Alicia said. Paul insisted that she must have heard the voice for a reason. Alicia told Paul that he should stay away from her, but he instead agreed to help her stop Arno. New plan: Alicia told Paul that he should stay away from her, but he instead agreed to help her stop Arno He called Arno on the radio and told him to come to his house after dark. Paul cranked up the Beethoven when Arno showed up to attract zombies and a gunfight broke out between them. Alicia and Paul fought off zombies and Arno was able to shoot Paul in the stomach. Perfect timing: Alicia was about to be fed to zombies before Paul showed up and saved her Paul told Alicia that she was destined to follow her dream and help her people. He then stayed behind and played the bagpipes to give Alicia cover to escape. Paul played Ode To Joy as Alicia ran away from the house until a gunshot rang out and the music stopped. Alicia then woke up and was being taken care of by Morgan Jones [Lennie James]. Familiar face: Alicia then woke up and was being taken care of by Morgan Jones [Lennie James] She asked for the little girl who helped her and Morgan said there was no little girl. Alicia then realized the person in her dreams was herself. Fear The Walking Dead will return next week on AMC. Freeze the Fear's Wim Hof has credited plunging into the cold with bringing him 'back to life' following the death of his wife. The sportsman, 62, who is noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures, is the star of the new BBC One reality series Freeze The Fear with Wim Hof, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Lee Mack. The series sees celebrities including Tamzin Outhwaite, Professor Green, Strictly's Dianne Buswell and Patrice Evra exposed to cold water therapy with the help of 'Iceman' Wim. Help: Freeze the Fear's Wim Hof has credited plunging into the cold with bringing him 'back to life' following the death of his wife Speaking to The Sun, the Dutch athlete told how he was left with 'no money' and 'deep agony' following his wife's suicide. He said: 'I truly realised the benefit of the cold when I was grieving the death of my wife, Olaya, in 1995. 'She had depression and spiralled into darkness. I was left alone with four kids to look after and no money, dealing with deep emotional agony yet needing to be strong for my children. 'The children made me survive but it was the cold that brought me back to life. It healed me.' Heartbreaking: The Dutch athlete told how he was left with 'no money' and 'deep agony' following his wife's suicide but said his children 'made [him] survive' (his wife Olaya pictured) Show: The sportsman who is noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures, is the star of the new BBC One reality series Freeze The Fear with Wim Hof, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Lee Mack Wim added that cold water led him to 'stillness' and gave him a chance to 'rest, restore and rehabilitate'. The athlete has set Guinness World Records for swimming under ice and prolonged full body contact with ice. Wim's passion for the cold has rubbed off on the celebrities he trained in Freeze The Fear with Professor Green saying he now has cold showers every day since doing the show. Meanwhile, presenter Holly Willoughby said she has adopted Wim's breathing techniques to help manage anxiety and stress. Challenge: The first task of the series saw the stars plunge themselves into a pool of water in the ice. Pictured, Strictly Come Dancing pro Dianne Buswell felt the benefits immediately Celebrities spent six weeks with Wim in northern Italy, carrying out a series of challenges that are designed to help them 'freeze the fear'. All the celebrities took part for different personal reasons, and are hoping they will emerge from the experience feeling happier, healthier and stronger The first task of the series saw the stars plunge themselves into a pool of water in the ice. Emerging from the ice, Alfie Boe said: 'It's emotional. You connect with everything in the past, you connect with all of the things you wanted to change about yourself.' Tough: Wim Hof offered the celebrities advice as they plunged into the water (pictured). The programme is hosted by Holly Willoughby and Lee Mack (right) Dianne Buswell added: 'It's so exhilarating when you put your head under.' 'My blood feels champagne bubbly,' gasped rapper Professor Green. Next the celebrities had to hike through the snow to a rocky outcrop and abseil back down to camp, where they are staying in a single luxury yurt. Throughout each task they are given words of encouragement by Hof, who believes withstanding the cold is all about 'awakening the deepest part of the brain' and becoming 'the alchemist in your own body'. Freeze The Fear With Wim Hof airs on BBC One on Tuesdays at 9pm. They're preparing to celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary next month. And Jimmy Barnes has shared a loved-up Instagram post to wife Jane Mahoney in which he praises his wife's cooking. The 65-year-old rocker posed on a beach with his hands on Jane's shoulders and declared 'there's no place like home'. Long time loves: Jimmy Barnes (right) has shared a loved-up Instagram post to wife Jane Mahoney (left) in which he posed on a beach with his hands on Jane's shoulders He added 'it doesn't get much better than @jane13barnes' steak and chips. I did hope to bring back some sunshine and here it is'. In a second image he posed while holding up a steak on a plate and a bowl of wedges. Jimmy and Jane married in 1981, and have four children - son, Jackie, and daughters, Mahalia, Eliza-Jane and Elly-May. Tasty: In a second image he posed while holding up a steak on a plate and a bowl of wedges In his memoir, Working Class Man, Jimmy revealed it was a case of love at first sight when he first met Thai-born Jane back in 1979. 'I'd met a lot of girls in my life, but no one had ever stopped me in my tracks like that girl did. 'She was way out of my class, but I loved her from the minute I saw her. Jane would change my life,' he wrote. In action: Rock legend Jimmy, 65, gave his all as he took to the stage at the Byron Bay Bluesfest on Sunday (pictured) However, at the time Jimmy - then aged 23 - was dating his housemate Bernadette, and was also linked to a woman named Jan who he had been 'seeing on and off for a long time'. Despite this, Jane became the musician's girlfriend shortly after, and they promptly moved in together. The family lived in France for much of the 1990s, before returning to Australia and taking up residence in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Star attraction: The rock legend entertained the crowd after he was introduced by opposition leader Anthony Albanese The post comes as Barnes lent his star profile to the Byron Bay Bluesfest on Sunday. The rock legend entertained the crowd after he was introduced by opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Mr Albanese was initially met with some boos from revellers before receiving boisterous cheers as he promised a funding boost for the arts sector. Jimmy dressed casually in a black ensemble as he took to the stage at the annual music festival held over the Easter long weekend. On the campaign trail: Mr Albanese (pictured) was initially met with deafening boos from revellers before receiving cheers as he promised a funding boost for the arts sector Grounded: Meanwhile, despite his fame, Jimmy remains humble and described celebrity as 'nothing' in an interview with Truly Aus back in May 2020 Meanwhile, despite his fame, Jimmy remains humble and described celebrity as 'nothing' in an interview with Truly Aus back in May 2020. 'When it comes to celebrity, the rest of the world just wants to see you fall. Fame? Money? Yes it can make life easier, but happiness is really all we have,' he said. 'You have to remember to enjoy the journey. Success is doing what you love. I love to sing, and I am lucky to be able to do that, and to travel the country. 'I have been travelling this country since 1973 and there's nothing I enjoy more.' Sam Burgess is getting into the jerky business. The former NRL star, 33, spoke to The Daily Telegraph on Monday revealing he has partnered with brother Luke for the business. The two brothers have joined forces with Dan and Hans Vanderdonk to become part owners of Orara Valley Jerky from Coffs Harbour. All business: Former NRL star Sam Burgess, 33, (pictured) has revealed his shock new career move into the jerky business as he returns to the spotlight following personal battles The venture was started in 2007 by Dan and Hans parents, with the foursome now giving it a renewed push in the hospitality space. 'I had never really had jerky before but I tried Dan's and I was obsessed. I would dream of it and wake up at midnight to eat some,' Sam said. The star went on to admit he would eat so much he got a 'sore jaw' before asking Dan if he could get onboard with the business. Brothers in business: The former NRL star, 33, spoke to The Daily Telegraph on Monday revealing he has partnered with brother Luke for the business. Pictured with their mother, Julie 'I asked Dan if I could get on board and grow the business because I wanted to get the product out there,' he added. As well as the two sets of brothers, Axemen player Ryan Gill is also onboard. The boys already have a distribution deal with Global Foods. The boys are now selling more than 12,000 bags of the jerky each week, up from 900 before the Burgess boys got involved. Success: The boys are now selling more than 12,000 bags of the jerky each week, up from 900 before the Burgess boys got involved. Sam here with kids: Billy, two, and Poppy, four It comes after a tumultuous time for Sam who was cleared by the NRL of domestic violence last month raised by his ex Phoebe in a series of newspaper articles. Phoebe had accused the retired South Sydney star of domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse during their marriage, which ended in acrimony in late 2019. The allegations were published in The Australian newspaper in October 2020 and denied vehemently by Burgess at the time. Personal: It comes after a tumultuous time for Sam who was cleared by the NRL of domestic violence last month raised by his ex Phoebe in a series of newspaper articles Having spent more than 12 months looking at the claims New South Wales Police confirmed its investigation was over last October in a 12-word statement. 'Following extensive inquiries, no further police action is expected to be taken' it read. Phoebe has said she wanted to expose a toxic culture in the NRL which she claimed included covering up bad behaviour by players, particularly against women. Troubles: Burgess underwent a stint in rehabilitation last year and appeared on SAS Australia (pictured) where he admitted infidelity with a woman in Melbourne in 2017 Sam appeared on the last season of SAS Australia where he admitted infidelity with a woman in Melbourne in 2017. Sam and Phoebe married in 2015, separated in late 2018 and resumed their relationship in early 2019. They split permanently on October 2 that year and later divorced. The former couple shares custody of daughter Poppy, four, and Billy, two. Channel Ten's panel show The Project has had to reshuffle their hosts after star Carrie Bickmore stepped away earlier this month. And the long time presenter has revealed she and her family are 'settling in to the UK now' - after a few stops along the way. In a Sunday Instagram post, Bickmore, 41, showed herself, her partner Chris and their kids loaded up at Melbourne airport, ready to fly out for their international adventure. On their way! In a Sunday Instagram post, Carrie Bickmore (left) showed herself, her partner Chris (second from right) and their kids Oliver, Evie and Adelaide loaded up at Melbourne airport, ready to fly out for their international adventure 'Our adventure is well underway can't wait to share what we've been up to over the past few weeks travelling,' the caption began. 'We've packed it in [visiting France, Switzerland and Austria] (perhaps too many stops for our little people!) and we've seen the most incredible places,' Carrie continued. 'Settling in to the UK now,' she concluded, before dubbing the trip '#britmorefamilyadventure or the Chriswolds's family adventure as Chris calls it'. Next steps: The long time Project presenter has revealed she and her family are 'settling in to the UK now' - after a few stops along the way Bickmore first revealed her grand plans with partner Chris Walker and their kids last month. '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.' '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. Time away: Bickmore first revealed her grand plans with partner Chris Walker and their kids last month. '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' Carrie explained '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 also said she had been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek, 56, who spent two years living in Bologna, Italy, with her family. Meanwhile Waleed Aly and Lisa Wilkinson were noticeably absent from The Project in the wake of Carrie's move, but have since returned. Married At First Sight star Seb Guilhaus has found an unlikely ally in his ex-wife's former friend Cyrell Paule, amid backlash for joining Only Fans. Cyrell, who was on-again/off-again friends with Seb's ex Elizabeth Sobinoff, defended the personal trainer on Instagram on Monday. Cyrell, 33, appeared to take aim at the sexism of the backlash Seb, 33, was receiving from followers and fans of the show. Annoyed: Married At First Sight's Seb Guilhaus has found an unlikely ally in Cyrell Paule (pictured) who slammed 'sexist' backlash on Monday to the star's 'choice' to join Only Fans 'When it was other MAFS contestants joining OFs we praised them, called them strong, empowering, independent,' Cyrell wrote. '[We would say] It's her body, her choice... now a man does it but we don't agree... Guess what... It's HIS body, HIS choice,' the star added. Cyrell went on to explain she would not make an Only Fans herself but valued personal choice. 'It's easy to just ignore things you may not agree with rather than make unwanted comments,' she finished, bluntly. Sexist? '[We would say] It's her body, her choice...now a man does it but we don't agree...Guess what...It's HIS body, HIS choice,' Cyrell wrote of the backlash Seb announced himself and new girlfriend Ania are joining adult subscription site OnlyFans as a couple. He unveiled the news on Sunday alongside a photo of the scantily-clad pair sharing a steamy kiss. He captioned the image: 'So Ania and I did thing. O.F. Coming soon.' Making bank: Cyrell didn't mention anyone by name by former co-star Jessika Power (pictured0 has become one of the biggest earners on OnlyFans, pulling in more than $200,000 from the site OnlyFans is a subscription-based adult website where content can range from something as innocent as a suggestive selfie, all the way to hardcore pornography. It's not yet known what sort of content the pair will be creating. Shortly after the announcement, personal trainer Seb was quick to defend the couple's career move in a candid comment. Saucy: Seb revealed that he and his new girlfriend Ania are joining adult subscription site OnlyFans as a couple. He made the announcement alongside this raunchy photo of the pair 'Hahaha I thought this might be a little contentious,' he began. 'Sorry to shock everyone. 'I don't see anything wrong with being empowered sexually with someone I'm close to, and hopefully empowering others to embrace a very important part of life. 'I definitely haven't changed as a human being, just adding a little spice, a new life experience it is of course everyone's prerogative to decide what this means to them.' He added that it is 'upsetting' the some critics have been quick to judge the couple's decision, adding: 'It's like having a favourite sporting team and dumping them after they lose a single game. Defence: Shortly after the announcement, Seb was quick to defend the couple's career move in a candid comment 'In this case no one is being hurt and no one is being forced to explore this lots of love everyone.' Seb went public with his girlfriend Ania in August 2021. But he revealed a month later that the pair had actually met over a decade prior, when he was just 23. Explanation: 'In this case no one is being hurt and no one is being forced to explore this lots of love everyone,' he added. Pictured with Ania Seb said that he had a massive crush on her but didn't let her know because he was 'ultra-insecure, shy and gorky'. Seb explained that while they had great chemistry, a combination of life getting in the way and mis-timing was to blame they never decided to pursue a relationship. 'I was so attracted to her physically and our conversations were always super deep and interesting,' he wrote. Old pals: Seb went public with his girlfriend Ania in August 2021. But he revealed a month later that the pair had actually met over a decade prior, when he was just 23 (left) 'My lack of groundedness, confidence, and probably my inability to express how I felt meant we didn't fully connect then.' Seb said that after a chance encounter earlier last year the pair were able to reconnect and that he was brave enough to ask for her number. 'We both have massive trust issues but we make each other feel safe,' he said. Reconnected: Seb said his inability to express how he felt meant that they didn't fully connect - until they were reunited 10 years later. Pictured recently 'We both communicate in a strange slightly twisted way but understand each other perfectly.' He finished the post writing, 'I really like you beautiful girl'. Seb confirmed he was dating again almost eight months after his split from former Married At First Sight co-star Elizabeth Sobinoff in January 2021. 'Ania is a beautiful girl with a heart of gold and we are just starting to get to know each other,' he told Daily Mail Australia at the time. Bucks Fizz star Jay Aston broke her silence on Sunday after her daughter was hospitalised with bacterial meningitis, with a new photo released by the family showing Josie, 18, in hospital. Josie was rushed to intensive care and put in an induced coma after her organs began to fail last month, and is still currently in a specialist kidney unit. Speaking to Loose Women on Monday, Jay admitted 'we nearly lost her' while a newly released photo shows Josie hooked up to machines in hospital and with the meningitis rash covering her face and body. Emotional: Speaking to Loose Women on Monday, Jay admitted 'we nearly lost her' and broke down in tears as she broke her silence on her daughter's Josie meningitis Over the weekend, her mother, 60, took to Instagram to share an update with her fans about her daughter's condition. Alongside a selfie the teenager had taken prior to becoming ill, Jay wrote: 'My wonderful daughter Josie Cant wait to get you back home!! One day at a time Angel xxx' Fans rushed to the comments to 'send love and prayers' to the teenager as well as 'get well soon' messages. Jay noticed a rash on Josie's arm on March 22 after her daughter called her and said she felt unwell after sitting in the garden. Hospitalised: Bucks Fizz star Jay Aston broke her silence on Sunday after her daughter was hospitalised with bacterial meningitis, with a new photo released by the family showing Josie, 18, in hospital Devastating: Over the weekend, her mother Jay, 60, took to Instagram to share an update with her fans about her daughters condition (pictured in 2019) The star recognised the rash and Josie's other symptoms of a headache, neck pain and a temperature which didnt come down with paracetamol as meningitis as her husband Dave Colquhoun, Josies father, had contracted it 19 years earlier. She rushed her to hospital, which doctors later said saved Josie's life, and within an hour Josies entire body was covered in the rash. The following day, when her lungs began to fail, she was taken to intensive care where she was put into an induced coma, given oxygen and treated with antibiotics. Josie remained in the coma for five days, with Jay sleeping beside her bed in a chair, until doctors took her out of the coma, but there was no improvement. After five days Josie opened her eyes and after a day she began to speak. She was transferred to a specialist unit at Kings College Hospital in London after doctors realised her kidneys had been damaged. She currently undergoing blood transfusions and kidney dialysis. She also still has a rash on her forehead and knees and has been warned she will have permanent scars on her legs where the rash caused the skin to blister and fall off. Speaking on Loose Women on Monday, an emotional Jay admitted: 'We nearly lost her,' as she described how quickly her daughter's condition deteriorated. Terrifying: Her mother broke her silence alongside a selfie the teenager had taken prior to becoming ill, Jay wrote: 'Cant wait to get you back home!! One day at a time Angel xxx' Tears: Speaking on Loose Women on Monday, an emotional Jay admitted: 'We nearly lost her,' as she described how quickly her daughter's condition deteriorated 'She got into my bed and she didn't seem well. She started to get a high temperature, she couldn't get the temperature down. She had an aching neck, joint pain, I thought maybe she had flu.' 'I called 111 and they send "we'll send an ambulance" this was about 6.45pm. 11pm, no ambulance, I'm starting to panic... her eyes were glassy, I gave her medication to keep her temperature down. At 3am she said "mum I'm not right". If she'd gone in her own bed, I don't think I'd have a daughter.' 'At 3am, I turned the lights on and said "let's have a look at you"... my husband had meningitis 19 years ago. She was the silver lining of nearly losing my husband... I saw the rash on her arms. I knew then what it was and I thought "not again'. Her rash was like a blotch. I drove her to A&E and an ambulance man was having a sandwich, he got her in a wheelchair and pushed her through... she was on a drip.' 'Within one hour she was covered in the rash, literally everywhere. She was petrified. A day and a half later all her organs were failing. We need to put her in a coma, she was in a coma for 5 days. She said 'mummy I will be awake on Mother's Day'... she didn't wake up on Mother's Day, but she woke up two days later.' Fighter: Fans rushed to the comments to 'send love and prayers' to the teenager as well as 'get well soon' messages (the mother and daughter pictured in 2021) 'I said 'did you hear us talking to you?'... and she said no 'I don't remember anything'. She said 'I was floating in the universe... she said why am I still asleep, I want to go home, she said I need to text my mum'... that was when she woke up.' Jay also opened up about her daughter's condition to The Mirror, saying: 'Its been absolutely devastating. We were told it was 50/50 whether she would pull through. We still dont know when shell be coming home. 'I sat by her bedside night after night willing her to make it. I couldnt believe this was her fate, because shes such a lovely person. Shes outgoing, kind, good-willed and full of life. It just felt so cruel. Ive been doing a lot of praying. Shes my world were ridiculously close. I just couldnt imagine being without her.' Bacterial meningitis usually occurs when bacteria enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain and spinal cord. It is much more serious and rarer than viral meningitis, and one in 10 cases are fatal. Possible side effects include brain damage, hearing loss and amputation of the affected limbs. Heartbreaking: Jay opened up about the 'devastating' illness and said she was told it was '50/50 whether she would pull through' (pictured 2019) Jay has gone through her own health issues, undergoing seven operations - including having part of her tongue removed - to cure her mouth cancer in 2018 and battling Covid in 2021. Despite this, she said that the fear of losing her daughter made this the 'worst month of my life' and insisted she would 'swap places with her in a heartbeat.' Jay says Josie still has a lot of recovery time to go, and wants her story told so people know the dangers of the infection, which can be spread through sneezing, coughing and kissing. She is hopeful that Josie will be released from hospital this week, but for now is just grateful she is alive, knowing how close she came to losing her. Advertisement James Lock and Chloe Sims were seen standing next to an ambulance as their Easter Sunday night out in London appeared to take a dramatic turn. The TOWIE stars, aged 35 and 40, were seen standing in the crowd outside Jin Bo Law bar on Aldgate High Street as ambulances were parked outside the venue. Blue lights were seen flashing on an ambulance car as Chloe and James chatted with other partygoers and stood in front of the emergency vehicles. Night out: James Lock and Chloe Sims were seen standing next to an ambulance as their Easter Sunday night appeared to take a dramatic turn Emotional: James, 35, appeared to wipe a tear from 40-year-old Chloe's face in one picture The night out appeared to have taken a dramatic turn as one picture appeared to show James wiping Chloe's face. It is understood that neither James or Chloe were involved in the emergency incident, which saw a partygoer taken ill. Other photographs showed the animated pair talking with others as a man who appeared to be a security guard stood behind James. Another snap showed Chloe flashing a smile at James and placing her hand on his arm as the pair appeared to be getting on well. Drama: The TOWIE stars, aged 35 and 40, were seen crowding outside Jin Bo Law bar on Aldgate High Street as ambulances were parked outside the venue Security: A man who appeared to be a bouncer, as he wore a yellow arm band and stood behind James Tension: Blue lights were seen flashing on an ambulance car as Chloe and James chatted with other people and stood in front of the emergency vehicles Ambulances: The night out appeared to have taken a dramatic turn as James appeared animated while chatting to people Chloe and James were joined for their night out by James English, who the reality TV star has been training with on Celebrity MMA, as they took to social media to share videos of them dancing. Chloe had posted videos on social media with her sister Demi at Jin Bo Law bar earlier in the evening and the siblings later went on to nightclub Tape London. She looked dressed for a fun-filled night out as she flaunted her ample assets in a figure-hugging white mini dress, which she paired with over-the-knee black boots. She kept warm in a smart black coat while she wore her golden tresses in a straight fashion for the Easter Sunday outing. Incident: Other photographs showed the animated pair talking with others as a man who appeared to be a security guard stood behind James Evening: James cut a casual figure in cream trousers and an olive shirt, while he kept comfortable in a pair of New Balance trainers Pals: Chloe looked dressed for a fun-filled night out as she flaunted her ample assets in a figure-hugging white mini dress, which she paired with over-the-knee black boots Drama: James appeared wide eyes as he gathered around other pals as they chatted in front of the bar James cut a casual figure in cream trousers and an olive shirt, while he kept comfortable in a pair of New Balance trainers. As the night came to an end, James and Chloe were seen getting into a taxi together at around 11.30pm, according to a source. MailOnline has contacted James and Chloe's representatives and Jin Bo Law for comment. Ambulances: James spoke with another man as a security guard appeared to be talking to the pair next to the ambulances Tense: Blue lights were flashing as James spoke with Chloe and other friends Stress: James ran his fingers through his hair, while he chatted with pals Group: James and other men could all be seen chatting to each other as they stood on Aldgate High Street Group: James stuck with Chloe as they joined their friends and chatted outside the venue Conversation: James pointed as he chatted with his friends outside the rooftop bar, where an incident seemed to have occurred James' night out with Chloe comes after rumours that he has rekindled his romance with ex-girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou following his split from Megan Barton-Hanson. Last week, James was spotted leaving Yazmin's Essex home after spending the night with Yazmin, 27, and filming now-deleted Instagram stories of him wearing just his boxer shorts from her kitchen. Yazmin and James insisted their toxic relationship was over for good last February before the reality bad boy's fling with ITVBe co-star Chloe Brockett, 21. What happened? Chloe cut a smart figure as she stood in the road alongside James and other pals A source close to Yazmin expressed to MailOnline their fears regarding the couple's reconciliation, believing the reality star is better off without James in her life. They said: 'James and Yazmin getting back together is worrying they seem to be addicted to each other, but it never ends well. 'They've had their good times but that has always been overshadowed by huge rows and public fallouts. 'Whenever James is single, he seems to make his way back to Yazmin and she welcomes him with open arms.' Incident: Neither James or Chloe were involved in the incident Blue lights: The night seemed to have taken a dramatic turn as partygoers crowded outside the venue All smiles: But Chloe appeared to be unfazed by the incident as she laughed while chatting with friends Incident: James was not involved in the incident, which saw someone collapse Emergency: Blue lights were seen flashing as crowds of bargoers stood outside the venue in Aldgate It comes weeks after Megan was reportedly left terrified after her hotel room door was 'kicked in' during a heated row with ex-boyfriend James. According to The Sun, the Love Island star alerted the hotel staff who dialled 999, with police spotted arriving by onlookers at the hotel shortly after. Megan had been staying at the 350-a-night Courthouse Hotel in central London, after she enjoyed a date with another reality star at the same club where James was also partying. Megan was leaving a nightclub at 1.30am with Life On Marbs star Adam Graham shortly after her ex James arrived with a mystery women. Romance: James' night out with Chloe comes after rumours that he has rekindled his romance with ex-girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou following his split from Megan Barton-Hanson Heading home: As the night came to an end, James and Chloe were seen getting into a taxi together at around 11.30pm, according to a source Cab: James got into the taxi alongside Chloe as the pair got on well Things then reportedly took a serious turn hours later, when it is believed that TOWIE star James was informed of Megan's room number. A source told the publication: 'At one point, the hotel door was kicked. There was a lot of shouting. Megan was shocked. It was all very aggressive'. The source believed James was handed a key by staff after he showed them photos of himself and Megan. The insider added: 'This all happened in broad daylight in a busy hotel. It was very dramatic and Megan's hotel door was damaged in the chaos.' He's played Karl Kennedy on Neighbours for a whopping 28 years. And actor Alan Fletcher has revealed just how he's been able to keep sane while working on the high-pressure soap for almost three decades, in a gushing Sunday Instagram post. The 65-year-old credited his long time co-star Jackie Woodburne, 66, who plays his wife, Susan Kennedy, on the show, for his longevity. How does he do it? Alan Fletcher (pictured) has revealed just how he's been able to keep sane while working on Neighbours for almost three decades, in a gushing Sunday Instagram post 'One of the most asked questions I receive is "how have I managed to work on the same show for almost 28 years?", began Alan's post. 'Here is the answer. Working with #jackiewoodburne makes every day at work creative and fun.' 'There are many reasons to be sad about @neighbours ending and losing this artistic collaboration will be front and centre amongst them. Hail the Queen!' He signed off, 'Please watch #neighbours to the end because the finish is going to be very special. @channel10au @channel5_tv'. His secret weapon: The 65-year-old credited his long time co-star and TV wife Jackie Woodburne (right) for his longevity Co-stars: Jackie plays his wife Susan Kennedy on the show. Pictured on the show The finale of the long-running Australian soap will air on Monday, August 1, after fans were shocked earlier this year to learn it would be ending. The episode will be broadcast on the same day in Australia and the UK, where the show is aired on 10 Peach and Channel 5 respectively. The Australian broadcaster last month confirmed the series was being axed after an incredible 37 years on the air. Farewell, Ramsay Street: The finale of Aussie soap opera Neighbours (cast pictured) will air on Monday, August 1. The episode will be broadcast on the same day in Australia and the UK The last episode will be filmed in Melbourne in June. Channel 10 and production company Fremantle previously told MailOnline: 'It is with sadness that after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes broadcast, we are confirming that Neighbours will cease production in the summer. 'Following the loss of a key broadcast partner [Channel 5] in the UK, and despite a search for alternative funding, we currently have no option but to rest the show. 'Everyone at Neighbours has been overwhelmed by the love and support from the audience since the news came out. 'The show has brought a sunny slice of Australia into the homes of millions of viewers around the world launching the careers of dozens of household names along the way. 'But as this chapter of Ramsay Street comes to a close, we promise to do everything we can to give the show the send-off it deserves.' Iconic: The Australian broadcaster last month confirmed the series was being axed after an incredible 37 years on the air Stars including Kylie Minogue, who found fame as Charlene Robinson on Neighbours before launching a successful music career, have mourned the loss of the show that helped launch their careers. The pint-sized pop star tweeted: 'I'll be forever grateful for the experience and the friends I made on Neighbours. 'We had no idea how big the show would become and how passionately viewers would take it to heart. Pure love! I can still hear Madge calling CHARLENE!!!!' 'Grateful': Stars including Kylie Minogue, who played Charlene Robinson on Neighbours before launching a music career, have mourned the loss of the show that helped launch their careers. Pictured are Kylie and Jason Donovan, who played Scott and Charlene, in 1988 Channel 10 also said in a statement the axing of the show was a 'difficult decision'. 'Today, Fremantle confirmed that Neighbours will cease production in June, after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes,' a network spokesperson said. 'This difficult decision came after the search for an alternative UK broadcast partner proved unsuccessful.' Tough call: Australian broadcaster Channel 10 said the axing of the show was a 'difficult decision'. Pictured: Ryan Moloney, who plays Toadie Rebecchi 'A much-loved stalwart of our program schedule for over 35 years it has been a staple of Australian television drama, and Australian cultural exports,' the rep added. 'Ramsay Street, Erinsborough, is a cul-de-sac recognised all over the world and has been home to Scott and Charlene, Des and Daphne, Dr Karl and Susan, Dee and Toadie, Aaron and David and many, many more neighbours. 'Network 10 thanks the cast, crew, all the production team and Fremantle for bringing the perfect blend of soap and sunshine to audiences in Australia and around the world.' Many Hollywood stars, including Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth, began their careers on the show, which premiered in Australia in March 1985. Former MasterChef Australia winner Julie Goodwin has made her return to the TV cooking competition on Monday night. Julie, 51, who won the series 13 years ago, was one of the most anticipated faces to reappear this season on Fans Vs Favourites. The lovable grandmother offered a comical response when asked by the judges how she was feeling about being on the show. Iconic: MasterChef star Julie Goodwin, 51, (pictured) offered some frank words as she made her much-anticipated return to the TV competition on Monday 'Oh, I'm brickin' it,' Julie said, with the kitchen erupting in laughter. 'Everyone's brickin' it that you're here!' affable judge Andy Allen replied. 'So I'm glad that you're brickin' it. Tell me more about that.' Too funny: 'Oh, I'm brickin' it,' Julie said, with the kitchen erupting in laughter. 'Everyone's brickin' it that you're here!' affable judge Andy Allen replied Julie said she couldn't deny her nerves as she returned to the competition after many years off the television. 'I'm, like, fizzy with excitement. My guts are doing strange things,' she said. Julie said she was 'grateful' to make her return to the show. Exciting: 'I'm, like, fizzy with excitement. My guts are doing strange things,' she said. Julie said she was 'grateful' to make her return to the show after so many years away 'I'm so grateful, so grateful, to be back here. It's...it's amazing. It's an amazing feeling. I'm on quite a high,' she said. She finished by praising what a deep learning experience the cooking competition is for all the new home cooks cast this season. Julie has spoken about her ups and downs since appearing on the show, including her harrowing battle with depression. Return: She finished by praising what a deep learning experience the cooking competition is for all the new home cooks cast this season. Pictured: Judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong, and Jock Zonfrillo Julie revealed she spent a five week stay in a mental health facility, while speaking to the Australian Women's Weekly. The star said she found comfort in her granddaughter, Delilah, one. 'In the midst of that really awful time I had decided that I was done,' Julie told the publication. Family: Julie has spoken about her ups and downs since appearing on the show, including her harrowing battle with depression. Pictured with husband Michael (left) and Delilah 'I had nothing left to do, my work here was done. That's where I found myself. That landed me in hospital a bunch of times. 'So, I'm trying to figure out if my life here is not done, then what the hell is it? Delilah is obviously a massive part of that. She's a tiny little human who I want to be around for,' she continued. Delilah is the daughter of Julie's son, Tom. Doing it for Delilah: She told this month's Australian Women's Weekly, 'She's a tiny little human who I want to be around for' Julie sent shockwaves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink-driving twice over the legal limit. She was caught after trying to evade a police breath test. After fronting up at court with her husband and acknowledging it was 'an error in judgment' and 'accepting full responsibility', Goodwin was fined $600 and disqualified from driving for six months. Shock: Julie sent shockwaves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink-driving twice over the legal limit. Pictured arriving at Gosford Local Court in 2018 She later revealed she had been suffering from depression, for which she had sought treatment at a psychiatric facility. The revelation in February this year came 13 years after Goodwin beat runner-up Poh Ling Yeow with her hearty home recipes in 2009. For confidential support contact Lifeline 131 114 Advertisement Channing Tatum has been seen for the first time since his Magic Mike 3 co-star Thandiwe Newton exited the film following claims of an 'on-set bust-up.' The actor, 41, was seen heading to lunch with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, 33, at the 34 Restaurant in Mayfair, after Thandiwe was replaced by Salma Hayek in the film. It was also reported on Sunday that Thandiwe, who denied she was axed due to an on-set row, has separated from her husband Ol Parker after 24 years of marriage. EXCLUSIVE: Channing Tatum has been seen for the first time since his Magic Mike 3 co-star Thandiwe Newton exited the film following claims of an 'on-set bust-up' Quit: The actress, who has reportedly separated from her husband Ol Parker, recently denied claims she was sacked from her leading role over an on-set row (pictured during filming) Channing, who had been filming Magic Mike 3 in London, stepped out hand-in-hand with girlfriend Zoe to enjoy an Easter lunch with friends. The actor cut a downcast figure during the unexpected break from production, which came after Thandiwe exited the film last week. Thandiwe has denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with Channing. Sighting: Channing was seen heading to lunch with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, 33, at the 34 Restaurant in Mayfair Sad: The actor cut a downcast figure during the unexpected break from production, which came after Thandiwe exited the film last week Supportive: Channing, who had been filming Magic Mike 3 in London, stepped out hand-in-hand with girlfriend Zoe to enjoy an Easter lunch with friends According to a new report in Page Six, staffers on the movie became worried about her health during filming in London, with her agent flying in from Los Angeles to try and 'smooth things over'. The publication reports that Thandiwe has been suffering with emotional and family problems after separating from her husband Ol, 52, with whom she shares children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight. Ol is a British filmmaker who previously wrote and directed the 2018 musical film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Split? It was reported on Sundat that Thandiwe has allegedly separated from her husband Ol Parker and is likely headed to rehab (pictured with Ol in 2019) Family: The couple share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019) Together: Zoe (left) joined beau Channing (right) for lunch in the capital after Magic Mike 3's leading female role was recast 11 days into filming A source said: 'Thandiwe had been acting strange on set, she has been very highly strung. Her apparent breakdown caused so much disruption, it became clear she couldn't play the role. 'There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed she even brought her two pet rabbits to her hotel for emotional support.' A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson previously said of her departure from the movie: 'Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures' Magic Mike's Last Dance to deal with family matters.' Drama: According to a new report, staffers on the movie became worried about Thandiwe's health during filming, with her agent flying in from Los Angeles to try and 'smooth things over' Gone: A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson previously said Thandiwe had departed the film to 'deal with family matters' The insider added that Thandiwe fired her UK agent of three decades as her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help. Thandiwe has reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks. The insider said of her next steps: 'Thandiwe's team wants her to go to rehab for mental health support. 'She was supposed to leave immediately for a facility, they tried for a Malibu rehab, but they couldn't take her. Arrangements are now being made to go to a facility in Arizona, if she agrees to go.' MailOnline contacted representatives of Thandiwe Newton for comment at the time. At odds: Last week reports said the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing, which was said to be 'unimaginably vicious', was over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars Clash: The statement comes after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident Thandiwe exited Magic Mike's Last Dance after 11 days of filming with Channing due to a 'family matter'. Last week The Sun reported the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing, which was said to be 'unimaginably vicious', was over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson said: 'Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures' Magic Mike's Last Dance to deal with family matters.' The statement comes after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident. Leaving: The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington and culminated with Channing driving off set in his car Shocking: A source said: 'After the row he just went, ''I am not working with her anymore''. Him being a producer, it's his movie, so she's off the movie' The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington and culminated with Channing driving off set in his car. A source said: 'Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandiwe Newton is the number two star. But 11 days into shooting and it's all over. 'They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation. 'After the row he just went, ''I am not working with her anymore''. Him being a producer, it's his movie, so she's off the movie.' Recast: Thandiwe's role in the film will now reportedly be played by Salma Hayek (pictured in February) The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film's director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn't take a side in the argument. A spokesperson for Thandiwe told MailOnline: 'This report is completely inaccurate.' The original Magic Mike movie premiered in 2012 and was loosely based on Channing's experience working as a stripper in Tampa, Florida. A sequel followed in 2015. Neutral: The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film's director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn't take a side Channing confirmed that he would reprise his role for Magic Mike's Last Dance in November on 2021. In a recent interview with PEOPLE he spoke about the importance on the movie having a lead female character. 'I want to have an equal, if not even more centralized female character for Mike to really play off of and almost to... I don't want to say, [to have her] take the baton, but really let the movie be about a female's experience and not Mike's experience, because it has been so much about Mike and the guys' experiences. 'These movies are very, very female-forward. At least that is our intention.' Julie Goodwin shocked MasterChef viewers on Monday night as she made her big return to the show after her arrest for drink driving and mental health struggles. The cook, 51, was charged with drink driving twice over the legal limit four years ago, and later revealed she had been suffering from depression for which she sought treatment at a psychiatric facility. Julie was wracked with nerves as she presented her Lebanese Shish Tawook dish to judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo, and fans said she looked 'stressed'. The mother of three, who won her season back in 2009, was shaking though most of the episode and even cut her finger. Nervous: Julie Goodwin shocked MasterChef viewers on Monday as she made her return to the TV show after her arrest for drink driving and mental health struggles. The star was wracked with nerves as she presented her dish to judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo Julie fought back tears as she explained she felt a rush of the adrenaline while finding her her feet in the kitchen after several years of struggle. 'I loved it, and I felt that fantastic adrenaline rush, but also those nerves, man, they just came back like no time had passed at all,' she told the judges. She clasped her hands nervously as she awaited their judges response to her dish. Judge Jock was quick to offer her some encouragement. Stressed: The mother of three, who won her season back in 2009, was shaking though most of the episode and even cut her finger Reaction: Viewers remarked on how 'nervous' and 'stressed' Julie looked during the episode 'You're a competent cook, clearly, right? I just want to talk about what I'm feeling from you, watching you cook today and watching you stand now,' Jock said. He said he thought since Julie was first ever winner of the show, she felt she wasn't as good as other winners who came after her. Julie agreed, saying it had been playing on her mind. Delicious: The star presented Shish Tawook to the judges alongside fattoush, flatbread and toum (pictured) Jock comforted her by telling her, 'I need you to just let it wash through your brain. You're not an OG. You're a winner. 'But what you are, more importantly, is a classic. Okay? And classics never get old. Classics are very hard to beat.' Julie was clearly taken aback by the encouragement. 'I need you to just let it wash through your brain. You're not an OG. You're a winner': Judge Jock Zonfrillo said he thought since Julie was first ever winner of the show, she felt she wasn't as good as other winners who came after her Melissa called the dish 'everything it should have been' and said 'everything had a place'. Andy described the trio of judges as a 'tight-knit family crowded round fighting for a chance to get the last skewer'. 'Julie, you have every bit as much chance of your name on that trophy again. And with food that tastes that good and looks that good... I'm banking on it,' Jock said. Icon: 'Julie, you have every bit as much chance of your name on that trophy again. And with food that tastes that good and looks that good...I'm banking on it,' Jock said The champion chef was then given a round of applause. Julie sent shock waves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink driving twice over the legal limit. She was caught after trying to evade a police breath test. After fronting up at court with her husband and acknowledging it was 'an error in judgment' and 'accepting full responsibility', Julie was fined $600 and disqualified from driving for six months. She later revealed she had been suffering from depression and spent five weeks in a mental health facility. Julie spoke about about her harrowing battle with depression in an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly back in 2020. Winner: Judges Andy Allen (left), Melissa Leong (centre) and Jock Zonfrillo all loved the dish She said she found comfort in her granddaughter, Delilah, one. 'In the midst of that really awful time I had decided that I was done,' Julie told the publication. 'I had nothing left to do, my work here was done. That's where I found myself. That landed me in hospital a bunch of times. 'So, I'm trying to figure out if my life here is not done, then what the hell is it? Delilah is obviously a massive part of that. She's a tiny little human who I want to be around for,' she added. Julie famously beat runner-up Poh Ling Yeow on the popular cooking show with her hearty home recipes in 2009. For confidential support contact Lifeline 131 114 MasterChef Australia continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10 Julie sent shock waves through the showbiz world four years ago when she was charged with drink driving twice over the legal limit. Pictured arriving at Gosford Local Court in 2018 Battle: She later revealed she had been suffering from depression and spent five weeks in a mental health facility. Amid her mental health battle, she said she found comfort in her granddaughter, Delilah, one Advertisement Thandiwe Newton's apparent split from her husband Ol Parker comes just days after she was allegedly sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 after a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum - amid growing concerns about her behaviour. Colleagues have become increasingly worried about the actress, 49, with sources describing her as 'acting strange on set', 'always ranting and raving', and being 'very highly strung'. There are now claims she is 'heading to rehab', according to Page Six, which reported a source as saying: 'Her apparent breakdown caused so much disruption, it became clear she couldn't play the role. 'There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed she even brought her two pet rabbits to her hotel for emotional support.' In February, Thandiwe came under fire for a 'cringey' and 'patronising' interview to promote the movie God's Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to 'darker-skinned actresses' for 'taking their roles'. In the film she plays a grieving black professor who confronts two white hunters on her property. But Thandiwe told Sky News she considered not taking the role due to concerns about 'colourism'. Beginning to well up, the actress said she 'wanted to apologise every day to darker-skinned actresses'. She said: 'It's been very painful to have women who look like my mum feel like I'm not representing them. That I'm taking from them. Taking their men, taking their work, taking their truth. I didn't mean to.' Thandiwe, who reverted to the African spelling of her name after previously going by 'Thandie', has been married to Ol Parker since 1998. The couple share three children, Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight. Split? Thandiwe Newton has allegedly separated from her husband Ol Parker and is likely headed to rehab according to a new report (pictured with Ol in 2018) Thandiwe with Channing Tatum on the set of Magic Mike 3 in London EXCLUSIVE: Channing (pictured with his girlfriend Zoe Kravitz) is seen for the first time since his co-star Thandiwe exited Magic Mike 3 following claims of an 'on-set bust-up' Thandiwe has been described as being 'very demanding' and behaving like an 'absolute diva' on the set of Magic Mike 3, according to one crew member. 'Everyone on set found her challenging to work with,' they told The Sun. 'She's an absolute diva. I've watched her have a go at the first assistant director, her costume girl. She's always ranting and raving about something.' A spokesman claimed Thandiwe stepped away from the film - to be replaced by Selma Hayek - because she needed to deal with family matters. But it has been reported her position became untenable after she fell out with co-star Channing Tatum, 41, on set in Paddington, west London. It was claimed they had an unimaginably vicious argument over Will Smiths behaviour at the Oscars, when he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage. An unnamed crew member said: They fell out over the debacle at the Oscars. I was on set... It was a tense exchange of words, but suddenly it escalated Channing got into this car and he disappeared. However, this account of events has not been corroborated by anyone else. An insider added that Thandiwe fired her UK agent of three decades as her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help. In February, Thandiwe came under fire for a 'cringey' and 'patronising' interview to promote the movie God's Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to 'darker-skinned actresses' for 'taking their roles' Gaby is considered one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, representing stars including Matthew McConaughey and Minnie Driver over her thirty year career at powerhouse agency William Morris. Thandiwe has reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks. The insider said of her next steps: 'Thandiwe's team wants her to go to rehab for mental health support. She was supposed to leave immediately for a facility, they tried for a Malibu rehab, but they couldn't take her. Arrangements are now being made to go to a facility in Arizona, if she agrees to go.' MailOnline has contacted representatives of Thandiwe Newton for comment. Thandiwe exited Magic Mike's Last Dance after 11 days of filming with Channing due to a 'family matter'. A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson said: 'Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures' Magic Mike's Last Dance to deal with family matters.' The statement came after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident. The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington. A source said: 'Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandiwe Newton is the number two star. But 11 days into shooting and it's all over. 'They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation. 'After the row he just went, 'I am not working with her anymore'. Him being a producer, it's his movie, so she's off the movie.' Quit: The actress, 49, recently denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum Family: The couple share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019) The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film's director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn't take a side in the argument. A spokesperson for Thandiwe told MailOnline: 'This report is completely inaccurate.' The original Magic Mike movie premiered in 2012 and was loosely based on Channing's experience working as a stripper in Tampa, Florida. A sequel followed in 2015. Channing confirmed that he would reprise his role for Magic Mike's Last Dance in November on 2021. The film is set to premiere exclusively on HBO Max. The release date has yet to be announced. In a recent interview with PEOPLE he spoke about the importance on the movie having a lead female character. 'I want to have an equal, if not even more centralized female character for Mike to really play off of and almost to... I don't want to say, [to have her] take the baton, but really let the movie be about a female's experience and not Mike's experience, because it has been so much about Mike and the guys' experiences. 'These movies are very, very female-forward. At least that is our intention.' Report: It was claimed the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing was 'unimaginably vicious' (Channing pictured centre in Magic Mike, 2012) Recast: Thandiwe's role in the film will now reportedly be played by Salma Hayek (pictured in February) Born in London, Newton grew up in Penzance, Cornwall, where her parents her dad is white British, her mother black, from Zimbabwe sent her to a Catholic school. She said of her school years: 'I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns'. She went on to study at Cambridge University, where she read anthropology. She has said she fell in love with her husband Ol at first sight, dumping her boyfriend at the time to be with him when they met in 1997. At the time Ol was a screenwriter and had penned In Your Dreams, which featured the actress. 'It's very unusual to have writers around on set because directors don't want them there. But they love having Ol around. He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,' she told InStyle Magazine. 'I'd never experienced that before. Up until then, my relationships had always been more based on people wanting to be with me. When I met Ol, I was dating a really sweet, lovely man and I had to leave him straight away, even though I wasn't even going out with Ol'. 'But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else. We got married about two years later.' She went on to marry Ol in 1998, with the actress gushing in a 2016 interview about their home life with their three children that the director is 'Soooo calm.' 'And we laugh, because I take the p**s out of him,' she added at the time. 'You know: shoulder-shrugging: 'It's OK, babe.' And he takes the p**s out of my What would you describe it as? Highly emotional. As I'm thinking, the words will come. I don't stop and think.' In a 2019 interview Thandiwe revealed she lost acting roles because she spoke out about sexual abuse in the past. When she was 16 she was groomed by director John Duigan, who was 39 years old at the time. The violations by Duigan lasted five years, two of those years were termed a 'relationship' after he sought Newton's parents' blessing for her to be his girlfriend when she was 18, while asking her to hide their previous intimacy which began when she was just 16. Two years after meeting Duigan, at the age of 18, another director told the actress to intimately touch herself during an audition. Newton obliged, as there was also a female casting director present. Love: The actress has said she fell in love with her husband Ol at first sight, dumping her boyfriend at the time to be with him when they met in 1997(pictured in 2019) But years later, she discovered the unnamed man had kept her tape and was playing it at poker games for other Hollywood elite. Following the violating discovery, Thandiwe began to fight the abuse and call it out - an act that cost the actress many jobs. 'I was very aware of the climate of sexual abuse that was going on around me, so I became the person you didn't want to hire because I would call it out,' she told Marie Claire in 2019. 'In retrospect, I can see many instances where not only would I not be employed, but other actors and actresses would not necessarily want to be associated with me.' 'Probably the worst thing about having your innocence rocked is what stays with you. The sense of worthlessness, shamethese things are very hard to move on from. But you can,' she told the outlet. The star said she terminated a contract with a publicist who begged her to stop talking about being sexually abused because it was 'not good for your reputation'. In 1996 Thandiwe sought help after suffering from an eating disorder, which she explained stemmed from her previous sexual abuse. 'I was lying in bed, so thin, and my heart was beating against my ribcage so hard that I could see it, and my friend Jessica called. I said 'Jessica, I'm worried I'm going to die.' And that was it. I suddenly realised there was something very, very dangerous and dark within. She said, 'You've got to go and talk to somebody'' she told Vogue in 2021. Family: She went on to marry Ol in 1998, with the actress gushing in a 2016 interview about their homelife with their three children that the director is 'Soooo calm' (pictured with two of their children Ripley and Nico in 2016) The star has previously been open about subscribing to the The Hoffman Process, a form of therapy also embraced by the likes of Katy Perry and Sienna Miller. Retreats and courses help attendees 'unlearn' negative behaviors and thereby begin a journey of 'self-understanding'. Justin Bieber described his experience of The Hoffman Process in a 2019 Vogue interview, explaining: 'You sit on a mat, you put a pillow down, and you beat your past out of it. I beat the fact that my mom was depressed a lot of my life and my dad has anger issues. Stuff that they passed on that I'm kind of mad they gave me'. In a revealing interview in 2021, Thandiwe revealed that she was becoming disillusioned with acting, telling Vogue UK: 'I find that acting takes more and more away from me, because I'm more connected to myself than I've ever been, whereas before I was delighted to get an excuse to go off to another personality.' 'I couldn't wait to get away from myself, truly, I had such low self-esteem. Acting was where I felt whole.' The actress was previously credited as Thandie Newton before she reverted to the original spelling of her name three decades after it was misspelled in her first film. She revealed that Thandie was a careless misspelling in the credits of her first movie the 1991 Australian film Flirting, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor and it has stuck ever since. 'That's my name. It's always been my name. I'm taking back what's mine,' she told British Vogue in April 2021. Danniella Westbrook looked sensational as she shared an stunning snap to Instagram of herself and her longtime pal Francine Lewis at GB News on Sunday night. The actress, 48, showed off her incredible sense of fashion as she posed in a yellow patterned blouse ahead of her appearance on the TV channel. She styled her golden tresses swept over to one side in a straight fashion while she bolstered her good looks with a bronzed make-up palette. Wow! Danniella Westbrook looked sensational as she shared an Instagram snap of herself with her longtime pal Francine Lewis at GB News on Sunday night Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent impressionist Francine Lewis looked effortlessly chic in a white blazer and wore her brunette locks loosely. The friends of 21 years appeared together on GB News to voice their opinions on scientists developing the male contraceptive pill. On the show, Danniella controversially admitted she doesn't think it is a man's 'job' to take contraceptive medication. She said: 'I think you can trust a man to do anything but I don't think it's their job to do it is? I think its a woman's job.' Opinions: She appeared on GB News to voice their opinions on scientists developing the male contraceptive pill, where she said it isn't a man's 'job' to take contraceptive medication When asked if she thought that was sexist, she added: 'Maybe I am sexist, I think there's certain things done for a woman and certain things for a man. Why would a guy want to go out and take the pill?' It comes after Danniella booked herself five surgeries to correct her 'collapsing' face due to a previous cocaine addiction and osteoporosis. Earlier this month, Danniella stepped out with a bandage over her nose, leaving fans convinced that she had already had her nose surgery. But the dressings came after she had skin removed for biopsies to determine whether she is fit for the upcoming procedures. Operations: It comes after Danniella booked herself five surgeries to correct her 'collapsing' face due to a previous cocaine addiction and osteoporosis The star recently revealed her plans to have a rib inserted into her face after years of drug abuse caused her nose to collapse. She previously underwent a rib insertion procedure in 2018, after osteoporosis rotted away her cheekbones and gums and, after spending the last year getting lip filler and Botox, in addition to surgery on her face, she is hoping to get back to her best. The television personality has previously had five reconstructive operations but she is still targeted by cruel online trolls over her appearance. Previously talking about her operation to correct the 'rotting' bones in her face, she said she would have her rib placed under her visage. She also voiced her fears after booking herself five surgeries to correct her 'collapsing' face. Concerns: She also voiced her fears after booking herself five surgeries to correct her 'collapsing' face She told The Sun: 'I've spent the last seven years trying to get someone to fix my face. They kept refusing or wanting to charge me 500,000. 'Before Christmas I couldn't breathe because I had a cold. There was a build up of fluid and after I fell asleep I couldn't wake up properly and ended up in ICU. 'That's why I'm doing this. I need this surgery to survive. It's not for vanity, this is about my health. It harbours my lifestyle on a day to day basis.' Danniella confessed she prays, 'Please let me wake up,' every time she's knocked out with anaesthetia due to her 'love' of plastic surgery - which saw her splash out on no less than six boob jobs. Elsewhere, newly engaged Danniella said there will be 'many sleepless nights' once her secret jailbird fiance David is released from prison. Before: Danniella confessed she prays, 'Please let me wake up,' every time she's knocked out with anaesthetia due to her 'love' of plastic surgery (pictured on EastEnders in the 1990s) He is currently serving time in prison for counterfeit goods and engaging in a 'fight with someone', by her own admission. She detailed her relationship with her convict boyfriend and their future X-rated plans together. WHAT IS OSTEOPOROSIS? Osteoporosis is a disease where bone density is lost leaving patients prone to fractures. Usually, old bone tissue is broken down and replaced with new tissue. Osteoporosis occurs when the breaking down of bone outpaces its replacement. Bisphosphonates are clinically proven to reduce the risk of fractures by increasing bone mass and mineral density as well as filling pits created by overactive bone cells. The drugs bind to the surface of bones, blocking bone removal. Because longer-term treatment can sometimes have side-effects, the doctor may suggest a break from treatment after three to five years. Advertisement She kept quiet on her romance until recently, when she denied dating the father of former The Only Way Is Essex star Grace Andrews and instead revealed her mystery man is behind bars - and on Thursday she admitted he had proposed from prison. With less than a year until David is a free man, the actress is already planning some risque business for the pair of them. And while she has never released a picture of him or talked about his crimes, she has said she won't marry him until he it a free man. After revealing they had already slept together in Spain, Danniella confessed to the Daily Star: 'There's nothing like that going on now though, they listen in to all your phone calls and screen the emails and photocopy all of the letters so we can't risk anything rude on there as all the screws will see it first. 'But there will be many sleepless nights on my gorgeous new bed once he's out.' A smitten Danniella has insisted she will wait until David has been released to tie the knot but they have discussed the prospect of a Maldives wedding as early as next year. She said: 'I've got a big ring that was made for me, and I wore it into the jail and David said, "it was lovely but it's not big enough", so there is a bigger one coming. 'He has asked me to marry him but I told him to wait until he gets home. He asks me all the time, he even asked me at the jail. He didn't get down on one knee or anything but he's like, "we are getting married you know."' Liverpudlian David is 20 years her junior and the pair were previously in a 'tumultuous' relationship after meeting each other other in Spain five years ago. Yet despite their 'up-and-down' romance, Danniella explained: 'We just stayed in touch and he went to jail early 2019 and he got 9 years 9 months. He's home next year though, he's got 11 months to go.' It could be third time lucky for the former Celebrity Big Brother housemate, who has been married twice before. Her first marriage was to van driver Ben Morgan in 1998, but they divorced nine months later. In 2001, the star married businessman Kevin Jenkins, almost four months after the birth of their daughter Jodie. They divorced in 2020. Charlotte Dawson has revealed she's suffered a miscarriage, after learning she was pregnant with her second child last month. The reality star, 29, took to Instagram to pen a heartbreaking post, admitting she and her fiance Matt Sarsfield were 'over the moon' to be expecting again, and despite the loss they hope that 'one day they will have their own rainbow baby.' Charlotte shared a snap of her son Noah holding her positive pregnancy test, alongside a lengthy post detailing her sad loss. Sad: Charlotte Dawson has revealed she's suffered a miscarriage, after learning she was pregnant with her second child last month In the post's caption Charlotte wrote: 'Hi my darlings, I finally feel ready to post this.. I mean I don't know when there is a good time to post this. 'It's been an extremely tough week mentally but also obviously physically I am heartbroken beyond words.. and I know I'm never quiet on here, & always so open and honest with you guys so it's been a shock to you all.. 'I keep getting lots & lots of messages worrying about us all, asking why I'm being quiet & if Noah is ok.. Noah is absolutely fine.. he's amazing. Tragic: The reality star took to Instagram to pen a heartbreaking post, admitting she and her fiance Matt Sarsfield were 'over the moon' to be expecting again Candid: In the post's caption Charlotte said she had shared her pregnancy with loved ones after discovering the news on Mother's Day Upsetting: Charlotte also shared a video of the moment she told her son Noah he was going to have a sibling, beaming as she held the positive pregnancy test in the clip 'I'm the one that's not OK... unfortunately I've suffered with a miscarriage. Obviously our families & close friends have known about me being pregnant, but didn't announce anything until I got further down the line.. I was so excited to share our happy news with you all. 'Noah's little brother or little sister, as you can imagine Matthew & I were absolutely over the moon our little family was going to be growing. 'I also found out on mother's day which was just so special. But sometimes it's just not meant to be, I really thought it was but it just wasn't this time. Miscarriages are so common & not spoke about enough. 'We are so heartbroken right now have no words and just don't feel up to posting being my happy silly self right now... also please can people stop sending Matthew & I nasty messages about our parenting skills. 'I clearly show and say far too much, we are bloody good parents and Noah is so loved and is our life. Tragedy: In her post, Charlotte wrote that she and Matt had been through an 'extremely tough week,' and despite their loss hope that 'one day they can still have their rainbow baby' 'Not OK': It comes after Charlotte took a break from social media last week, simply telling her followers that she had received some 'awful news' 'And these horrible forums talking about us, these trolls are just awful but they won't win.. any nasty vile comments I get on here about this you will be getting blocked and reported. 'Thank you for all your love & support always, I don't ever want to let go of Noah.. I feel so lucky to have Noah, one day we will get our rainbow baby' Alongside the post, Charlotte also shared a video of the moment she told her son Noah he was going to have a sibling, beaming as she held the positive pregnancy test in the clip. It comes after Charlotte took a break from social media last week, simply telling her followers that she had received some 'awful news,' but noting her son Noah was 'absolutely fine.' The tot was rushed to A&E last week after banging his head on a table at a wedding. Scary: At the time Charlotte reassured her followers that Noah was 'absolutely fine', after he rushed to hospital days earlier after banging his head on a table at a wedding reception 'Receiving so many messages why i've been quiet and is Noah ok.. Noah is absolutely fine, he's amazing. It's me that's not ok,' Charlotte wrote. 'We have just had some awful news and just trying to come to terms with it. Will be back soon. Love you all X' Charlotte welcomed Noah with fiance Matt in January 2021, recently enjoying a family holiday to Dubai. The parents posted a host of sun-soaked snaps from the getaway, as they stayed at the luxurious Atlantis, The Palm. Charlotte flaunted her incredible figure on the holiday in a host of swimwear, after recently losing over three stone. If you have been affected by this story, you can seek advice at www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk or by calling 01924 200 799. Sunrise star Sam Mac has revealed he believes his pregnant girlfriend will give birth to a girl. The 40-year-old expectant father spoke to New Idea magazine on Monday and guessed the baby's gender. Sam said he had a 'gut instinct' Bec was carrying a girl, but she believes the couple are having a boy. Guess: Sam Mac, 40, has revealed he believes his pregnant girlfriend Rebecca James is carrying a girl during an interview with New Idea, after announcing the couple are pregnant. Both pictured 'We're both so happy,' says Sam of the pregnancy. 'I'm over the moon and can't wait for that moment to meet the little one.' Sam announced he was going to be a first-time father on Instagram a little over a week ago. Sweet: 'We're both so happy,' says Sam of the pregnancy. 'I'm over the moon and can't wait for that moment to meet the little one' Sam shared a sweet image of Rebecca holding an ultrasound to her stomach, saying the pair were absolutely delighted with the pregnancy. 'Wowsers! Mini Mac coming soon. Bec just can't wipe the joy off her face,' Sam wrote. Rebecca added: 'Well this escalated. See you in September baby Mac'. Daddy: Sam announced he was going to be a first-time father on Instagram a little over a week ago The couple then shared a heartwarming video of them surprising their loved ones with the news, with Rebecca lifting her top to show the baby scan. The happy pair purchased a home in Sydney's inner west together in October. 'We bought a bloody house! In Sydney! Already drinking our way through the pain as we calculate the stamp duty #Pray4Us,' Sam wrote. Joy: 'Wowsers! Mini Mac coming soon. Bec just can't wipe the joy off her face,' Sam wrote They're homeowners! Sam's post comes after the couple announced they purchased their first property together in October In the accompanying image, the new homeowners were overjoyed as Sam carried a set of keys in hand, while Rebecca gripped onto a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne. Sam and Rebecca first went public in March last year, and spent much of their relationship in different states due to the Covid pandemic. 'She's just so calm, down-to-earth, and caring, as well as being absolutely beautiful,' he told Stellar of his girlfriend in April. In two weeks time the Strictly stars will take to the stage for Strictly Come Dancing - The Professionals UK Tour. And the show's stars Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Dianne Buswell and Gorka Marquez were all spotted leaving rehearsals for the upcoming performance in London on Monday. Karen, 39, looked incredible as she rocked a new curly hairstyle on her highlighted blonde and raven locks. Busy day: Strictly's Karen Hauer debuted curly locks and flasheed her abs as she joined her fellow professionals leaving dance rehearsals in London on Monday The Venezuelan-American pro dancer flashed her toned abs in a black crop top and matching leggings as she enjoyed the sunny weather outside of the studio. Karen added a long silver pendant necklace and opted for a large pair of sunglasses while sporting just one black leg warmer with white trainers. Fellow dancer Katya dressed up as she exited the practice in a pair of towering wedged Adidas lace up heels. Absolutely amazing: Karen, 39, flashed her toned abs in a black crop top and matching leggings as she as she enjoyed the sunny weather outside of the studio Hot to fox lock: Karen, 39, looked incredible as she rocked a new curly hairstyle on her highlighted blonde and raven locks (pictured right in October) The 32-year-old Russian dancer showcased her incredible legs in a short black mini skirt which had a dazzling star print on. Katya opted for a white and black shirt which she tucked half into the petite skirt before adding a oversized black denim jacket. She swept her dark locks up into a ponytail leaving strands out at the front to shape her face while sporting a large mirrored pair of sunglasses. Stunning: Katya Jones, 32, dressed up as she exited the practice in a pair of towering wedged Adidas lace up heels and showcased her incredible legs in a short mini skirt Fashionista: The Russian dancer opted for a white and black shirt which she tucked half into the mini skirt before adding a oversized black denim jacket Dianne seemed in high spirits as she rocked a colourful Nike T-shirt over a pair of fishnet tights. The red headed dancer swept her vibrant locks up into a high ponytail as she opted for a blue jacket and a par of white trainers. The 32-year-old Australian dancer carried her personal belongings in a large orange backpack and a shopping bag. Colourful: Dianne Buswell, 32, seemed in high spirits as she rocked a bright Nike T-shirt over a pair of fishnet tights Stepping out: Cutting a casual figure, Gorka Marquez, 31, sported a grey short sleeved T-shirt showcasing his impressive tattoo collection on his arm Cutting a casual figure, Gorka, 31, sported a grey short sleeved T-shirt showcasing his impressive tattoo collection on his arm. The Spanish dancer looked ready for home as he threw his jumper over his shoulder while wearing black trousers and a pair of Vans. The twinkle-toed stars posed for a selfie with director Jason Gilkison and their other co-stars including Kai Widdrington and Nadiya Bychkova who have recently taken the next step in their relationship. Selfie: The twinkle-toed stars posed for a selfie with director Jason Gilkison and their other co-stars (left to right - Neil Jones, Jake Leigh, Dianne Buswell, Kai Widd, Gorka, Michael, Nadiyam Katya, Luba Mushtuk, Karen) The couple moved in together after going Instagram official with their romance last week. They are thought to have been dating since January following Nadiya's split from her ex-fiance Matija Skarabot. A source said: 'Moving in together was the obvious next step for Nadiya and Kai. Theyve grown so close and it just made sense. 'Kai helped Nadiya move in her belongings this week and theyre excited about making their property feel like a shared home.' Khloe Kardashian took to Instagram on Monday morning to share a birthday tribute to her older sister Kourtney Kardashian who has turned 43-years-old. But the image choices the Good American designer made were not the kindest. In several of the photos, Kourtney looks her worst, which is a stark contrast to the sexy swimsuit photos Kim shared. Not pretty: Khloe Kardashian took to Instagram on Monday morning to share a birthday tribute to her older sister Kourtney Kardashian who has turned 43-years-old. But the image choices she made were not the kindest; from 2005 Khloe, 37, almost seemed to want to make the eldest Kardashian look bad. One showed the college graduate with straws in her nose, which is a drastic difference from the slick, well groomed image she likes to present to her fans. The POOSH founder is also seen with bulging eyes, which is not the best image of her. And yet another image showed Kourtney with her head back as a waiter feeds her a shot of booze. The two were seen fighting on the final season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. These photo choices seem to prove they are still on rocky footing. Aww, now this just isn't nice: The POOSH founder is also seen with bulging eyes, which is not the best image of her Khloe explained in her caption the photos were from their trip to Cabo many years ago as she added a sassy 'you're welcome.' Khloe snapped: 'Found these epic pics from 2005 in Cabo. youre welcome.' But her post was for the most part gushy: 'Happy birthday Kourt! Happy birthday to one of the loves of my life! 'Ive never seen you so happy. Your happiness is to the point that other people start foolishly smiling simply because they feel this incredible energy radiating off of you. It looks great on you boo. Bottle it up and never stop drinking your love potion. Proof Kourt is a party girl: And yet another image showed Kourtney with her head back as a waiter feeds her a shot of booze 'Every single year I love to profess my love to you. Every single year I make sure to remind you just how special you are to me. You are my best friend, my soulmate, my everything. Words dont do our bond justice. If you know us than you know our relationship. 'You know how much I love and adore you. How much I look up to you. You know how happy I am to see you as you are today. 'Kourt, I pray this birthday is one of your best ones yet. You have taught me that Life only gets better if you allow it to. You have taught me to live life to the fullest and to act as if no one is watching. This one is better but not by much: Kourtney looks a little out of it on the far left, but so does Kim (center). Khloe, far right, however, is glamorous and radiant 'In the wise words of the birthday girl my vibe right now is just living life. Never stop baby girl!' But Kim Kardashian shared stunning images. Kim was the first to hit her keyboard at 6 am as she posted images of the two in royal blue swimwear while in the ocean. In her caption, the 41-year-old SKIMS founder said that her older sister has taught her so much in life. Happy birthday! Kim Kardashian, right, shared sizzling photos of Kourtney on Monday Ladies who swim: Kim had on a blue SKIMS suit while Kourtney was in a one piece 'Each year around the sun with you I learn and grow and evolve more because of you!' began the ex-wife of rapper Kanye West. 'Thank you for teaching me to always go for it and follow my heart even if no one else understands,' added the siren who is starring with her family in the Hulu show The Kardashians this year. And Kim ended with: 'They just arent on our growth path lol Happy Birthday!' Babe watch: In her caption, the 41-year-old SKIMS founder said that her older sister has taught her so much in life Thanks Kourt: 'Each year around the sun with you I learn and grow and evolve more because of you!' began the ex-wife of rapper Kanye West Then she brought up Kourtney's newfound glow thanks to her relationship with fiance Travis Barker. Kourtney has seemed to be in a much better place since she started dating the drummer; when she was with baby daddy Scott Disick she was often in a sour mood due to his serial infidelity and partying. Together Kourtney and Scott have three kids: Mason, 12, Penelope, nine, and Reign, seven. 'Happiness looks so good on you,' remarked Kim as she ended with, 'I love you so much!!!' Dive time: 'Thank you for teaching me to always go for it and follow my heart even if no one else understands,' added the siren who is starring with her family in the Hulu show The Kardashians this year The law student also shared several flashback photos with Kourtney from when they were younger, partying in Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The little ones were seen dressed up for the holidays and playing at home. Other family members include Khloe, Kendall, Kylie and Rob. Party twins: The law student also shared several flashback photos with Kourtney from when they were younger, partying in Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles 20s spirits: In some of these images Kim and Kourtney looked different in their 20s Momager Kris Jenner shared flashback photos of Kourtney; one image showed her in a light blue dress. 'Happy birthday to my beautiful daughter @kourtneykardash!!!' began the girlfriend of Corey Gamble. 'You are my first born little angel and my very special best friend from the moment you were born.' Long before fame she was a sweet child: Momager Kris Jenner shared flashback photos of Kourtney; one image showed her in a light blue dress Mommy and me: 'Happy birthday to my beautiful daughter @kourtneykardash!!!' began the girlfriend of Corey Gamble With papa: Lawyer Robert Kardashian, who helped defend OJ Simpson during his murder trial, is seen holding Kourtney She then raved about what a great person Kourtney is. 'You are such an amazing daughter, mommy, sister, cousin, auntie and fiance!!!!!!' she wrote. 'I am so very proud of the woman you are and I thank God every single day for choosing me to be your Mommy.' said the TV producer. She continued: 'I am so blessed and grateful to be on this journey of life with you and I love you more than I can ever explain you are my heart Happy Birthday sweet girl .' Christmas time: She then raved about what a great person Kourtney is. 'You are such an amazing daughter, mommy, sister, cousin, auntie and fiance!!!!!!' she wrote When she was a teen: Kourtney had razor thin eyebrows in the 90s as a teenager Jennifer Grey is opening up about her infamous decision to get a nose job at the height of her career in the early '90s, and how she felt she wasn't a 'natural match' for her Dirty Dancing co-star Patrick Swayze. The 62-year-old actress would go on to have two rhinoplasty surgeries after finding worldwide recognition in the 1987 box-office smash where she played Baby Houseman - but her new look left her unrecognizable, with the actress now admitting that it led to her 'losing her identity and her career overnight'. Speaking about the reaction to her altered appearance, Grey recalled attending a premiere shortly after she'd undergone her nose job - revealing that her actor friend Michael Douglas had no idea who she was because she looked so different. 'That was the first time I had gone out in public,' Grey tells PEOPLE in an interview to promote her new memoir, Out of the Corner. 'And it became the thing, the idea of being completely invisible, from one day to the next. In the world's eyes, I was no longer me. Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey has detailed her regret at getting two nose jobs after starring in the hit 1987 movie, saying the rhinoplasties led her to 'lose her identity and her career overnight' (pictured left at the Dirty Dancing premiere and right in October 2021) The actress, pictured in the movie alongside Patrick Swayze, has revealed that her mother encouraged her to get a nose job so she would be 'easier' to cast in movies However Grey (pictured in 2019) says that the plastic surgery had the opposite effect, essentially leaving her unrecognizable 'And the weird thing was that thing that I resisted my whole life, and the thing I was so upset with [was] my mother for always telling me I should do my nose.' She added: 'I really thought it was capitulating. I really thought it meant surrendering to the enemy camp. I just thought, 'I'm good enough. I shouldn't have to do this.' That's really what I felt. 'I'm beautiful enough.'" It has long been understood that Grey's decision to get a nose job effectively finished her career in Hollywood, preventing her from ever reaching the same heights of that one bona fide hit movie on her resume. In her book, Grey touches on being shunned from Hollywood, writing: 'I spent so much energy trying to figure out what I did wrong, why I was banished from the kingdom. That's a lie. I banished myself.' She adds of the consequences of her nose job: 'Overnight I lose my identity and my career.' No chemistry: Jennifer also talks about how she wasn't a 'natural match' for her co-star Patrick Swayze (pictured together in 1987) However, Grey recalls in the interview how everyone from Andy Warhol would comment on her nose shape pre-surgery, with the artist remarking that her father, Oscar-winner Joel Grey, had also got his nose done. 'There was only one thing [Warhol] said to me, about me. And it was like, "And, you know, I would look at Jennifer. I would wonder, you know, why was her Um, her dad got a nose job. Why wouldn't he make sure she had one too", or something like that.' She continued: 'It's like everywhere I went, I'd be like, "Wait. Excuse me. I'm a person with other features and other amazing characteristics. Why is everyone so hung up on the nose?" But it was Grey's mother, actress Jo Wilder, that really put the idea in her head as a young girl about changing her appearance. Both her parents underwent rhinoplasty surgery and Grey hints that it was down to her mother not wanting them to look Jewish in order to be cast in a wide range of roles. 'She was saying, "Guess what? It's too hard to cast you. Make it easier for them." And then I did and she was right. It wasn't like, 'You're not pretty.' It's like, 'Guess what? If you don't want to be an actor, okay. But if you wanna be an actor...' Opening up: Grey, 62, has written her memoir titled Out of the Corner, a reference to the famous line 'Nobody puts baby in the corner' 'But when I was a kid, I was completely anti-rhinoplasty. I mean it was like my religion. I loved that my parents did it. I understand it was the 50s. I understand they were assimilating. I understood that you had to change your name and you had to do certain things, and it was just normalized, right? 'You can't be gay. You can't be Jewish. You know, you can't look Jewish. You're just trying to fit into whatever is the group think.' Elsewhere in the interview, Grey talks about her late Dirty Dancing co-star Patrick Swayze, who died in 2009 at the age of 57 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Admitting they shared zero chemistry during filming, Grey said: 'The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together a natural match, right? And we weren't a natural match. And the fact that we needed to be a natural match created a tension.' Looking back, the star wishes that she could have gone about the filming differently with the actor. 'I actually just had a thought about Patrick. I feel like if I could say anything to him now I would say, 'I'm so sorry that I couldn't just appreciate and luxuriate in who you were, instead of me wishing you were more like what I wanted you to be.'" In her memoir, Grey also talks about dating Matthew Broderick in her early twenties, and later with actor Johnny Depp. Life-changing role: The hit film catapulted Grey to stardom, but her career never quite recovered from her changing her appearance with rhinoplasty surgery She talks about the 'serious traumatic lasting effects' of a fatal car accident in 1987 in Northern Ireland, where Broderick was driving and two people lost their lives. 'There was some very, very heavy stuff that went down that changed my life forever and there was no one to blame,' she said. On Depp, Grey hints at electric chemistry, saying: 'There was some heat. It was a f***ing bonfire.' She adds: 'I've never seen a guy like this. And energetically, what it was like being with him, it was like, "Oh, I'm being totally, totally compensated for the s*** I just went through.' In 2020, Grey announced that was divorcing her actor husband Clark Gregg after 19 years of marriage. 'After 19 years together, we separated in January, knowing we'd always be a family who loves, values and cares for each other,' she wrote at the time. 'We recently made the difficult decision to divorce, but we remain close and are deeply grateful for the life we've shared and the wonderful daughter we've raised. - jennifer & clark p.s. totally crying as we post this.' The couple's divorce announcement came just weeks before what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary. Jennifer and Clark married July 21, 2001 and share daughter Stella, 20, together. China's property investment up 0.7 pct in Q1 Xinhua) 10:36, April 18, 2022 BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's investment in property development rose 0.7 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday. During the period, property investment stood at around 2.78 trillion yuan (about 435.44 billion U.S. dollars), NBS data showed. Investment in residential buildings went up 0.7 percent year on year to about 2.08 trillion yuan in the January-March period. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) News Details Auto major Stellantis goes for Qualcomm's digital-framework for its cars Date: 18-04-22 Global Auto maker Stellantis who owns 14 brands of cars such as Jeep, Fiat, Chrysler and Opel is going for Qualcomm's Snapdragon automotive digital framework, named by Qualcomm as "Digital Chassis". Autnomous Driving and ADAS is part of this Digital Chassis. Stellantis has a clear plan to digitise and electrify its new models of cars yet to be launched. Stellantis said it has a plan to have 98% of its vehicles in Europe and North America to get electrified by 2025. Stellantis already has integrated Level 2 autonomous driving in some of its vehicles. Qualcomm's Snapdragon Cockpit Platform is part of this digital chassis. Stellantis plan to merge all software domains into high performance computers powered by Snapdragon chips. Our technology collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies is another example of how we are identifying industry leaders to work alongside our passionate and talented internal teams as we transform our vehicles through a software-defined approach. This will ultimately better meet the needs of our customers lifestyles through safe, personalized, and always-connected features, said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO. Qualcomm Technologies broad experience in automotive and scale as a semiconductor leader will enable us to vertically integrate key elements of our new platforms and more closely manage the complete electronics supply chain to provide access to the best technologies enable the fulfillment of Stellantis volume potential and achieve our Dare Forward 2030 ambition. Qualcomm is honored to expand our work with Stellantis to redefine vehicles in the 21st century by bringing Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions to their future vehicles, said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. By creating open, scalable, and comprehensive automotive platforms that encompasses semiconductors, systems, software, and services, we are empowering Stellantis, as well as the broader automotive ecosystem, to lead the transformation to the digital era of automobiles. Stellantis to use Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms to power the in-car communication and infotainment systems for STLA SmartCockpit, which is being designed and engineered in partnership with Amazon for cloud and content access services and Foxconn for manufacturing. Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms feature HD graphics, voice-control and more. Snapdragon Cockpit is said to have highly intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) features,such as Over-the-air (OTA) updates, Personalized experiences, and Improved user experiences. The first application to be launched in its Maserati brand named vehicles to power the next generation Stellantis infotainment system. Doctor Who fans descended into a frenzy following Sunday's Easter Special, as the time traveller confessed her love for her female companion Yasmin. In emotional scenes after defeating the villainous Sea Devils, the heroine admitted that 'if it was going to be anyone, it'd be her,' but noted that she could never act on her feelings because of her immortality. Following hints that the pair would finally address their growing feelings, the touching scene sent Who fans into a frenzy, with one even admitting they were 'absolutely sobbing' after watching the scene. At last! Doctor Who fans descended into a frenzy following Sunday's Easter Special, as the time traveller confessed her love for her female companion Yaz During the episode, which saw The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her companions Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) transported to 19th Century China, the trio were tasked with battling the iconic Sea Devil villains. In a standout moment, The Doctor transported the TARDIS to the bottom of the ocean leaving both herself and Yaz in awe of the stunning underwater views. As the Time Lord quipped: 'Not a bad date, am I?' Yaz could be seen gazing at her in the emotionally-charged moment. Love is in the air! In emotional scenes after defeating the villainous Sea Devils, the heroine admitted that 'if it was going to be anyone, it'd be her' While Yaz later came dangerously close to confessing her feelings, it was The Doctor who made the move first, telling her companion: 'Dates are not something I really do. I mean I used to. Have done. And if I was going to, believe me: it would be with you. 'I think you're one of the greatest people that I've ever known If it was going to be anyone, it'd be you. But I can't.' Questioned by Yaz, she added: 'There's no point. Time always runs out,' alluding to her immortal state, famously noted by The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) in response to his growing feelings for companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). Love is in the air! In a standout moment, The Doctor transported the TARDIS to the bottom of the ocean, before she quipped: 'Not a bad date am I?' So much romance! Yaz could be seen gazing at her in the emotionally charged moment In the episode's final scene, the pair once again addressed their growing feelings, with The Doctor telling Yaz: 'I can't fix myself to anything, anywhere, or anyone. I've never been able to. That's what my life is. 'Not because I don't want to, because I might. But if I do fix myself to somebody, I know sooner or later it'll hurt Can we just live in the present of what we have, while we still have it?' Making a wish on a skipping stone, she added: 'I wish this could go on forever.' It can't happen: While Yaz later came dangerously close to confessing her feelings, it was The Doctor who made the move first Tragic: While she noted that Yaz was 'one of the greatest people she had never known,' they could never act on their feelings due to her immortal state The vindication that Yaz's feelings for The Doctor were reciprocated sent die-hard fans into a frenzy, with many flooding Twitter with their reaction. One wrote: 'that thasmin beach scene is actually one of my favourite scenes in chibnalls whole era,' while another added: 'nah, last night's ep actually happened? thasmin is canon? thirteen reciprocates? what timeline do we live in?' 'IF IT WAS GOING TO BE ANYONE ITD BE YOU. EXCUSE ME WHILE I DIE,' one hysterical fan tweeted. It's happening! The vindication that Yaz's feelings for The Doctor were reciprocated sent die-hard fans into a frenzy, with many flooding Twitter with their reaction A fan tweeted: '13 said if she'd date anyone it'd be Yaz.... she just told Yaz she loves her too OH MY GOD.' 'Absolutely sobbing omg. Love them #Doctorwho #Thasmin,' a hysterical fan added. Fans have been calling for Doctor Who to address the time traveller's growing feelings for Yaz, marking her first same-sex relationship with a companion. Coming soon: Following the episode, Doctor Who teased the return of two former companions in the spellbinding trailer for its centenary special (pictured in-character) Following the episode, Doctor Who teased the return of two former companions in the spellbinding trailer for its centenary special, airing later this year much to the excitement of fans. The titular character, played Jodie Whittaker, is told that she is going to die in the gripping footage, having announced her departure from the iconic role last year. She'll be joined by Aussie air stewardess Tegan Jovanka (Sophie Aldred) who starred alongside Sylvester McCoy in the late 80s, as well as Ace (Janet Fielding) having worked with Tom Baker and Peter Davison earlier in the same decade. Return: The Doctor will be joined by an Aussie air stewardess Tegan Jovanka (Sophie Aldred) who starred alongside Sylvester McCoy in the late 80s Usual favourites including the Daleks and Cybermen feature in the 30-second extravaganza while the Doctor is seen regenerating in another clip, despite being told it would be the 'end of her existence'. The sci-fi drama hit the small screen in 1963, however the BBC is celebrating one hundred years since its launch as a radio station in October 1922. Current Time Lord Jodie's role comes to an end this autumn with a regeneration episode after she became the first ever female Doctor in 2017. Doctor Who will return later this year for BBC's Centenary Special. Gemma Oaten has revealed she's been rushed to hospital after her kidneys went into 'distress' The Emmerdale actress, 37 - who is also currently battling COVID-19 - said she had experienced a 'scary day' but was now in 'safe hands'. She shared an update with her followers on Twitter, posting a photo of her from her hospital bed, giving a thumbs up. Hospital dash: Gemma Oaten has revealed she's been rushed to hospital after her kidneys went into 'distress' Alongside, she wrote: 'In hospital and in safe hands. Scary day. Signing off for sleep after more tests. Much love.' Her fans and friends flooded her with support and well wishes, while she explained her admission was caused by her kidneys, not Covid. Gemma thanked everyone for their kind messages and shouted out the NHS staff, while vowing she would 'fight back'. She added: 'Hopefully Ill be able to go home in a few days. I have Covid but this is actually to do with my kidneys being in distress. 'Poorly': The Emmerdale actress, 37, - who is also currently battling Covid - said she had experienced a 'scary day' but was now in 'safe hands' 'Really scary but the NHS services have been a lifeline for me today. So poorly and stress hasnt helped but will fight back.' Her hospital dash comes after Gemma revealed she thought about taking her own life as she battled anorexia like her late pal Nikki Grahame. Former Big Brother star Nikki died in April last year at the age of 38 after she relapsed with her anorexia, which she had suffered with from since the age of 18. Speaking to Fabulous magazine last week, Gemma said her battle with anorexia started when she was 10 years old, which led to bulimia in her teens'. Get better soon: Her fans and friends flooded her with support and well wishes, while she explained her admission was caused by her kidneys, not Covid She admitted: 'It could so easily have been me... an eating disorder doesnt care whats right or wrong. When it gets hold of a person, it will do everything it can to destroy them.' Gemma continued: 'People go to the extreme lengths of taking their own lives, because not being here is easier than being here. 'I know that because Ive had that in my own life. At one point, I planned to take my own life, but my dad called out my name as I was about to do it and pulled me back from the brink.' Reality star: Former Big Brother star Nikki died in April last year at the age of 38 after she relapsed with her anorexia, which she had suffered with from since the age of 18 Last month Gemma spoke to MailOnline, where she said she is concerned mental health services are unable to cope with the amount of people who need help, adding it's 'nonsensical' to let people suffer. She explained: 'Look at Nikki Grahame. We are nearly up to the anniversary of her passing. It is such a postcode lottery. 'There are some areas in the UK that are spot on. And some parts of the country that are absolutely shocking. There are far too many areas where CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services) cant cope. 'Even adult mental health services cant cope. It is like the blind leading the blind and that is what happened with Nikki. 'She was left to get to a point where there was a point of no return. Even when she was on deaths door she was still fighting. 'Her family and friends were still fighting for her to get treatment. And to me I look at the situation about the system and I am appalled. I worry things havent changed. 'It was such a difficult situation because we were in the heart of lockdown. I cant speak for Nikki or the family but from my understanding that really didnt help.' For support with an eating disorder contact SEED on hello@seed.charity, 01482 718 130 or visit https://seed.charity/. Jessica Chastain is not resting on her laurels after taking home Best Actress at this year's Academy Awards ceremony for her role in the Eyes Of Tammy Faye. The actress, 45, bundled up in an Army green jacket over a blue turtleneck as she shot a scene for a new untitled movie in New York City on Monday. The 355 star added gray pants with a greenish tinge to her look and tall black combat boots. Back at it: Jessica Chastain isn't resting on her laurels after taking home Best Actress at this year's Academy Awards ceremony Her red hair whipped wildly around her face, and she seemed to bring her hands up to her face to brush it away. The California native's young co-star donned a dark green jacket over a reddish-brown shirt with 1970s-esque stripes crossing over her middle. She added a pair of blue jeans to the look and gray shoes as well. Her dark red hair was parted in the middle and curled, touching the top of her back. Bundled up: The actress, 45, bundled up in an Army green jacket over a blue turtleneck as she shot a scene in New York City on Monday The It Chapter Two actress didn't take much time off after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in late March. She took home the award for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, in which she played Tammy Faye Bakker, the wife of Jim Bakker. The pair preached at a megachurch in the 1970s and 1980s before Jim ended up in prison for financial crimes. Chastain's nomination was her third Oscar nomination but just her first win. She was previously nominated as Best Supporting Actress in The Help and Best Actress in Zero Dark Thirty. She won the award over Kristen Stewart for Spencer, Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, Penelope Cruz for Parallel Mothers and Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos. On to the next thing: The It Chapter Two actress didn't take much time off after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in late March Playing a real person: She took home the award for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, in which she played Tammy Faye Bakker, the wife of Jim Bakker The Juilliard alum's career isn't slowing down at all. She recently completed filming on The Good Nurse, a film about serial killer Charles Cullen who allegedly murdered as many as 300 patients in 16 years while working as a nurse. Eddie Redmayne will play Cullen while Chastain will star as Amy Loughren, a fellow nurse that helped the police take him down. She currently has two other films in pre-production. The first, titled The Division, is set in an apocalyptic near future where a team of professionals is sent in to save as many people as they can from a deadly virus in New York City. The other movie, Mothers' Instinct, follows two men living charmed lives until a tragic accident completely uproots everything they hold near and dear. Fellow Oscar winner Anne Hathaway will work with Chastain on that movie. After giving birth to her first child last year, Lala Kent has announced she will be getting her breasts done later this week. The Vanderpump Rules star, 31, revealed she will be going under the knife on Friday in celebration of the paperback edition of her memoir, Give Them Lala. 'I want to celebrate. I'm going into surgery to have my boobies done on Friday,' she said on Behind The Velvet Rope podcast with David Yontef. 'I will be taking my new boobs out to celebrate': Lala Kent announced she will be going under the knife on Friday in celebration of the paperback edition of her memoir, Give Them Lala 'I'll be down for a little bit, but the second that I'm up and at 'em, I will be taking my new boobs out to celebrate my national bestseller book,' she added. Lala said her breasts were 'huge and amazing' during her pregnancy but was warned by other mothers that her child would change all of that. 'I've wanted them redone for a while, and then when I was pregnant, oh my gosh, they were so huge and amazing!' she added. 'Other moms told me, "That baby's gonna suck the life outta them,"' she said. 'When I was pregnant, oh my gosh, they were so huge and amazing!': Kent shares daughter Ocean with her ex-fiance Randall Emmett Right now, Lala thinks her breasts are 'cute' but 'sit a little differently' following the birth of daughter Ocean and subsequent breastfeeding. 'I'm just ready to get them up there, maybe a little bigger. I'm gonna get my groove back,' she explained. Earlier this year, Lala talked getting her breasts done after splitting from fiance Randall Emmett. 'By the sound of it, it may sound like Im getting my boobs done for men, but its getting my boobs done for me,' she said on her podcast Give Them Lala. She said she had even had a consultation for the surgery. 'I'm gonna get my groove back': Right now, Lala thinks her breasts are 'cute' but 'sit a little differently' following the birth of daughter Ocean and subsequent breastfeeding 'Once I do get my boobs done, I probably still wont be [ready to date], but Im excited for that for me because its like the bounce back,' she explained. 'Theres nothing hotter than a hot mom.' This is not the first time Lala has had a boob job. Years ago, Lala went under the knife for her breasts but was so unhappy with the results she attempted to sue the surgeon. 'I'll never give out his name. He botched me so badly,' she told Zwivel, a plastic surgery site, five years ago. 'I hate him forever. Whenever someone says, "I love your boobs. Who did you go to?" I tell them to never go see that plastic surgeon. I tried to sue him a thousand and one times, and no one will take my case. I waited too long.' Showing some skin! Kent put her cleavage on display in an image she posted promoting season nine of Vanderpump Rules last year 'I could still get them fixed. I went in three different times in six months, just on one side, for them to be even,' she said. 'Finally I was like, I cant do any more. It was too much. It was horrible. He was in Utah. Maybe Los Angeles is the best place for breast surgery.' Lala is single again after calling off her engagement with movie producer Emmett. Since then, she has been taking note of who is - and isn't - being a loyal friend amid her separation. Back on the market: Kent is single again after splitting from movie producer fiance Randall During a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Lala revealed she severed ties Vanderpump Rules co-star Tom Schwartz, 39, after discovering he had recently met up with Randall, 51. 'I learned that Schwartz hung out with that person [Randall] the other day. So, I cut him out,' she said after she was asked who her most and least supportive friends in the break-up had been. Lala also said her co-stars Scheana Shay and Katie Maloney were the 'most supportive' of her after the separation while she also counted Tom Sandoval as her 'least supportive' friend in the split. 'Sandoval has yet to even ask me like, if I'm okay or acknowledge it at all,' she explained. No neutral zone: The 31-year-old revealed she had severed ties with Tom Schwartz after learning he had recently hung out with her ex Andy mentioned that Lisa Vanderpump had admitted to seeing Randall after the split. 'It seemed notable that LVP is still buddies with your ex,' Randall said. 'That kind of came up at the reunion, that she had seen him recently and stuff.' 'I don't know if she's seen him recently, I know when everything was happening, he was trying to reach out to her,' Lala explained. 'And I'm not the type of person to say, like, you have to pick a side. But in this situation, if you don't pick my side or you remain Switzerland, I want nothing to do with you.' He's known for belting out pop anthems with his band Spandau Ballet. And Martin Kemp, 60, looked every inch the performer on Sunday evening as he took to the stage at the River Rooms in Stourbridge, West Midlands. The musician entertained the audience as he hyped them up and mixed together classic anthems on the decks with large black headphones on his head. Legend: Martin Kemp, 60, looked every inch the performer on Sunday evening as he took to the stage at the River Rooms in Stourbridge, West Midlands Martin turned heads in a vibrant pink leopard print shirt which he teamed with a pair of whited jeans and a black belt. He beamed with the spotlight on him, while opting for a clean shave and styled his silver tresses up straight. The star looked in high spirits as he pranced around the stage, returning to his pop star roots. Upbeat: The musician entertained the audience as he hyped them up and mixed together classic anthems on the decks with large black headphones on his head Performer: The star looked in high spirits as he pranced around the stage, returning to his pop star roots The performance comes after Martin's celebrity son Roman has told how he heard 'loads of voices' and couldn't stop crying when he contemplated taking his own life in 2019. The presenter, 28, had a candid discussion about mental health and said he 'couldn't stop worrying about everything' during that period of his life. Speaking on Steven Bartlett's Diary Of A CEO podcast, Roman said he contemplated jumping in front of a train after he came off antidepressants. Looking cool: Martin turned heads in a vibrant pink leopard print shirt which he teamed with a pair of whited jeans and a black belt Fame: Martin is known for belting out pop anthems with his band Spandau Ballet - Tony Hadley, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, John Keeble, Steve Norman, Brielpoort, Deinze, Belgium (pictured left to right in 1985) He said: 'When you're in that zone, in an absolute spiral, everything goes into a blur. All I know I was in my house sat in my pants and I couldn't stop crying. 'I couldn't stop worrying about everything. My head was going like a whirlwind. I was worrying about stuff that wasn't even logical. 'I can't describe what my brain was telling me. Anything that could have been a problem in my head, was a problem. 'You're thinking you look bad, you've not done this, your tax bill, are you ever going to do this... loads of voices. 'At that point I thought, 'I don't know what to do'. The only thing I could think of was, 'OK, I'll take my own life. That's the only way to stop this.' Roman said his mother Shirlie happened to call him at this time and kept him on the phone until she was able to get home. He said: 'My mum called me. She kept me on the phone for about an hour. In my head I was like, 'I'll just go to the train station and jump in front of a train.' Candid: Roman Kemp has told how he heard 'loads of voices' and couldn't stop crying when he contemplated taking his own life in 2019 'That's honestly what went through my head. My mum got there within an hour. It's a strange place to be. They call it a mental breakdown for a reason. Those moments are so intense that your mind implodes.' Speaking further about suicidal ideation, Roman said: 'The problem is no matter what pain you're going through in your head or sadness, you don't get rid of that by taking your own life. 'All you are doing is, you are transferring it to everyone around you.' Jennifer Lawrence and her husband Cooke Maroney enjoyed dinner at Chi Spacca in Los Angeles with friends on Sunday evening. After spending their first Easter with their baby, whose name and gender they have yet to reveal to the public, the lovebirds appeared relaxed on a rare night off from their parental responsibilities. For the occasion, the Oscar-winning actress, 31, paired a flowing cream dress with a structured black jacket and a scarf around her neck. Night out: Jennifer Lawrence and her husband Cooke Maroney enjoyed dinner at Chi Spacca in Los Angeles with friends on Sunday evening The Hunger Games star wore her golden blonde tresses in a low ponytail and had minimal makeup on. Meanwhile, her husband cut a casual figure in a black jacket over a light grey crewneck sweatshirt, dark-wash pants and sneakers. Their latest sighting comes just days after the lovebirds, who wed during a private ceremony in Rhode Island back in 2019, were seen taking their baby out for the first time on a hike with his parents. Stylish as ever: For the occasion, the Oscar-winning actress, 31, paired a flowing cream dress with a structured black jacket and a scarf around her neck Having fun: After spending their first Easter with their baby, whose name and gender they have yet to reveal to the public, the lovebirds appeared relaxed on a rare night off from their parental responsibilities The actress first sparked pregnancy rumors in early September after she was captured out in New York City with a noticeable baby bump. Shortly after, a representative for Lawrence confirmed she was expecting her first child. Sources close to the actress revealed to People that she has wanted to start a family for a long time, and finally found the right partner to have kids with. Bump: Jennifer showed off her pregnancy curves in a glittering floor-length fringed gold gown at a premiere for her film Don't Look Up in November last year 'She loves married life, and they have a solid foundation for a baby. She is very happy and looking forward to being a mom,' the source added. Jennifer and Cooke, a 37-year-old art gallery director, tied the knot on October 19, 2019 in front of pals Adele, Cameron Diaz, and Emma Stone in attendance. Their wedding had 150 guests, including Kris Jenner and her boyfriend Corey Gamble, Amy Schumer, Emma Stone and Ashley Olsen. Pregnancy: In September, a representative for Lawrence confirmed she was expecting her first child; Jennifer pictured in December 2021 For her rehearsal dinner, Jennifer and Cooke hosted a clambake on Rose Island under a white tent, with Cameron Diaz, Sienna Miller, Joel Madden and Nicole Richie seen arriving. The actress was first linked to Cooke after they were introduced by mutual friend Laura Simpson in spring 2018, and by February 2019, the blonde beauty was spotted wearing an engagement ring. Before getting married, Lawrence was romantically linked to actor Nicholas Hoult, Chris Martin and Darren Aronofsky. Critically-acclaimed actor Bob Odenkirk has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. The actor, 59, who is an Emmy and SAG award winner, was feted at a ceremony unveiling the star in Hollywood on Monday. Odenkirk's star was placed next to the one belonging to his Breaking Bad co-star Bryan Cranston, and is the 2,720th plaque to be constructed on the Walk Of Fame since its completion in 1961, according to CBS News. Scroll down for video He's a true star! Critically-acclaimed actor Bob Odenkirk has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame A slew of Odenkirk's Better Call Saul co-stars were in attendance, rooting him on. Jonathan Banks, Patrick Fabian, Tony Dalton, Giancarlo Esposito, Rhea Seehorn, Giancarlo Esposito, Patrick Fabian, and Michael Mando all posed with their co-star before his newly minted star. He was also joined by Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould. David Cross, who starred in the sketch show Mr. Show with Bob and David with Odenkirk, had the actors in stitches as he delivered a speech in his honor. The red carpet welcome! Odenkirk proudly posed by his newly minted star Showing their support! The actor was joined by his Better Call Saul team Odenkirk was looking sharp for the occasion in a navy blue suit, black tie, and pair of sunglasses smartly tucked into his front pocket. The ceremony fell on the day Better Call Saul was set to premiere season six. It marks the final season of the hit series. A spin-off of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul debuted in 2015 and has earned numerous awards and nominations, including 39 Emmy nominations. Oh yeah! Giancarlo Esposito, who stars in Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, shook hands with Michael Mando What a crack up! David Cross had Odenkirk in stitches as he gave a speech in his honor Suits him! Odenkirk was looking sharp for the occasion in a navy blue suit, black tie, and pair of sunglasses smartly tucked into his front pocket Showing his support: Cross and Odenkirk previously had their own sketch show, Mr. Show With Bob And David Odenkirk is less than a year removed from suffering a heart attack last July as he was filming Better Call Saul in New Mexico, and was subsequently rushed to a nearby hospital. In February, Odenkirk spoke with The New York Times about the harrowing incident, recalling how it happened after an all-day shoot on the AMC series. He told the paper: 'I'd known since 2018 that I had this plaque buildup in my heart. One of those pieces of plaque broke up.' The Emmy-winning actor said that he ventured to an area near co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian and began riding on an exercise bike when he tumbled to the floor following the heart attack. Seehorn and Fabian signaled for help and health safety supervisor Rosa Estrada and assistant director Angie Meyer performed CPR on the actor, prior to medics giving him three shocks with an automated defibrillator to restore his pulse. Cheering him on: Banks congratulated his co-star at the event Star-studded! Carol Burnett was among the celebs in attendance She jetted off to Honolulu, Hawaii, for a sun-soaked Easter vacation. And P.E Nation co-founder Pip Edwards was in holiday mode on Sunday as she showed off her incredible bikini body at Waikiki beach. The 41-year-old displayed her flawless figure in a patterned two-piece as she walked out of the ocean with a big smile on her face. Wish you were here? Pip Edwards was in holiday mode on Sunday as she showed off her incredible bikini body at Waikiki beach in Honolulu, Hawaii She beamed for a series of sunny Instagram snaps while drawing attention to her flat tummy and lean legs in the skimpy swimwear. A day earlier, the activewear mogul had gone surfing in a retro-style one-piece. And on Friday, she had rocked another revealing bikini while enjoying a relaxing day by the pool at her oceanfront hotel. Beach babe: She drew attention to her slim waist and lean legs in the skimpy swimwear Stunning: A day earlier, the activewear mogul, 41, had gone surfing in a retro-style one-piece The Bondi-based businesswoman credits her incredible figure to Pilates. Pip is a regular at Fluidform Pilates, a movement method by Kirsten King that is popular in Sydney thanks to its celebrity clientele. 'I spent a lot of time in my early thirties doing weight training and HIIT workouts,' she once said. 'Not moving from here': On Friday, she had rocked another revealing bikini while enjoying a relaxing day by the pool at her oceanfront hotel 'I had a bad injury and kept training with it and then I hit a wall and realised that I needed to look after my body.' 'A friend then recommended a really good Pilates instructor who specialises in rehab Pilates,' she continued. 'Now I make sure that I fit Pilates classes into my schedule three times a week and it's changed my life.' They were crowned Dancing with the Stars champions during the finale on April 3. And one day later, Grant Denyer, 44, and his dance partner Lily Cornish, 22, enjoyed breakfast together in Sydney's Darling Harbour to celebrate their big win. The pals were all smiles as they waltzed down the street before sitting down for a bite to eat, still giddy from their victory the night before. Breakfast of champions! A day after winning Dancing with the Stars, Grant Denyer (right) and his dance partner Lily Cornish (left) went for breakfast together in Sydney's Darling Harbour Lily looked stunning in an ankle-length white dress and brown boots, which she teamed with an over-the-shoulder bag. She wore a touch of makeup to accentuate her striking features, and styled her hair in a gentle beach wave. Meanwhile, father-of-three Grant looked cool and casual in a white T-shirt, dark jeans and brown boots. High spirits: The pals were all smiles as they waltzed down the street before sitting down for a bite to eat, still giddy from their victory the night before Giggly: Grant burst into laughter as Lily showed him something on her phone The pair looked deep in conversation as they sat at the table, enjoying healthy green smoothies and what appeared to be celebratory espresso martinis. The TV host, who first won DWTS in 2006, had walked home with the coveted mirrorball trophy alongside professional dancer Lily a day earlier. Grant, who is married to wife Chezzi Denyer, said after his win: 'This show means the world to me, I absolutely love it. 'If I wasn't dancing or hosting it, I would be changing the light bulbs in the roof. Lovely: The pair looked deep in conversation as they sat at the dinner table, enjoying healthy green smoothies and what appeared to be celebratory espresso martinis Stunner: Lily looked stunning in an ankle-length white dress and boots, which she teamed with an over-the-shoulder bag Style: She wore a touch of makeup to accentuate her striking features, and styled her hair in a long beach wave Chic: Grant looked cool and casual in a white T-shirt, dark jeans and brown boots 'I vowed 15 years ago to never dance again because it was the best memory of my life, I thought I could never top that so why would you even bother.' As well as a shiny trophy, Grant won $20,000 for his chosen charity, The Smith Family. The six finalists were Courtney Act, David Rodan, Deni Hines, Grant Denyer, Kris Smith and Ricki-Lee Coulter. Grant and Lily's journey on DWTS was somewhat tarnished after New Idea published a front-page story on October 18 which falsely accused the pair of having an affair. The magazine included photos of Grant with his hand on Lily's thigh in between rehearsals for Dancing with the Stars: All Stars in Sydney. Champions: The TV host, who first won Dancing with the Stars in 2006, had walked home with the mirrorball trophy alongside his professional Lily a day earlier Passion for dance: Grant, who is married to wife Chezzi Denyer, said after his win, 'This show means the world to me, I absolutely love it' While the photos were accompanied by the headline 'Grant Denyer Caught Out', the full set of images was later released, and offered a more complete picture of what happened. The original article insinuated Grant and Lily were cheating on their respective partners - a claim the Denyers strongly denied - but the photos themselves actually suggested a platonic relationship. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting any infidelity took place. For example, while Grant did place his hand on Lily's thigh at one stage, it wasn't necessarily an intimate gesture. One photo appears to show him patting the young woman's leg in a fatherly manner, which is what he maintains happened. They did it! Grant and Lily were crowned DWTS champions during the finale on April 3 False claims: Their journey on Dancing with the Stars was somewhat tarnished after New Idea published a story on October 18 which falsely accusing them of having an affair There were other moments when they acted like ordinary friends and colleagues. Shots of them looking chummy at the boat party and linking arms outside were seemingly cropped to make it appear as if they were alone. In reality, they were surrounded by their co-stars, including the likes of former Bachelorette Angie Kent and The Morning Show host Kylie Gillies. Grant later admitted he'd 'embarrassed' his family, telling 2Day FM's The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin the pictures actually showed him consoling his friend after she had received some sad personal news. The images, he said, were taken by a paparazzo just moments after he and Lily had finished speaking to his wife Chezzi over FaceTime. 'It's such a horrible, made-up story that's embarrassing for everyone,' he said. Close: Lily (right) is close friends with Grant (left) and his wife Chezzi (centre). The trio shared this defiant photo after the false claims were reported 'We'd just been on the phone to Chezzi, we had been FaceTiming It had been a bit of a tough day and Lil had a bit going on in her personal life.' 'It's not up to me to divulge what it [the personal issue] is but I was just giving her a bit of a pep talk and fatherly advice,' he added. 'I just gave her a tap on the leg and she sort of leaned in for a bit of a hug after a chat and that's the photo on the [New Idea] front page.' Lily also addressed the New Idea story herself, sharing a post to Instagram thanking her fans for being so understanding. 'Thanks everyone for the kind words and messages. I really appreciate the amount of love that has come out of this yucky / disrespectful situation. Killing it with kindness,' she wrote. Grant and his wife had categorically denied the New Idea report the week it was published in a series of social media posts. Chezzi posted screenshots of the article on Instagram and blasted the magazine for fabricating such a 'gross and mean' story. She went on to claim the photographer who took the photos had apologised to her for the images being 'taken out of context'. Retraction: In December, New Idea apologised to Lily, Grant and his wife Chezzi after publishing the false story. Lily reposted the publication's apology on Instagram (left) and also hared a 7News Sydney report on New Idea's retraction She also pointed out that Lily's long-term boyfriend Jock White had been pictured visiting her during rehearsals for DWTS. Grant later issued his own blistering statement, calling the article a 'brutal' attack on a '22-year-old kid' and a 'dad of three girls'. In December, New Idea apologised to Lily, Grant and his wife Chezzi after publishing the false story. The tabloid reached a confidential settlement with the Denyers after they called in the lawyers over the front-page article that suggested Grant was romantically involved with Lily. The publication printed an apology in its print edition and online, acknowledging the story was false and that Grant and Lily never had an affair. The apology read: 'On 18 October 2021, [publisher] Are Media and New Idea published an article that conveyed that Grant Denyer was having an extra-marital affair with his Dancing with the Stars: All Stars dance partner, Lily Cornish, and that his wife, Chezzi was heartbroken as a result. The article was false. 'Are Media and New Idea acknowledge that Grant Denyer and Lily Cornish are not having an extra-marital affair. They have never had an affair. 'Are Media and New Idea regret publishing the article. 'Are Media and New Idea wish to sincerely apologise to Grant Denyer, Chezzi Denyer and Lily Cornish for the hurt and embarrassment caused by the article.' Shanghai officials say just three people have died from Covid-19 since the megacity's outbreak began China said Monday that just three people have died from Covid-19 in Shanghai since a gruelling lockdown began last month, despite recording hundreds of thousands of cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in the eastern megacity. Authorities said the first deaths from China's biggest outbreak since the virus wave in Wuhan over two years ago were three people aged 89 to 91, all of whom had underlying health issues and had not received Covid vaccines. Beijing insists that its zero-Covid policy of hard lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines has averted fatalities and the public health crises that have engulfed much of the rest of the world. But some have cast doubt on official figures in a nation with low vaccination rates among its vast elderly population. Shanghai health officials noted Sunday that less than two-thirds of residents over 60 had received two Covid jabs and less than 40 percent had received a booster. Unverified social media posts have also claimed unreported deaths -- typically before being scrubbed from the internet. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has attributed nearly 9,000 deaths to Covid-19 since Omicron first surged there in January. The three reported victims in Shanghai "deteriorated into severe cases after going into hospital", according to a government account, with city health official Wu Qianyu telling a Monday press conference that "underlying disease" was the direct cause of death. The eastern business hub has simmered under lockdowns since March, with many of its 25 million residents confined to their homes as daily caseloads have topped 25,000 -- a modest figure by global standards but virtually unheard of in China. Many inhabitants have flooded social media with complaints of food shortages, spartan quarantine conditions and heavy-handed enforcement, circulating footage of rare protests faster than government censors can delete them. Shanghai, China's largest city, has been under a patchwork of lockdowns since March But officials have vowed to continue isolating anyone who tests positive regardless of whether they show signs of the disease -- with asymptomatic infections accounting for nearly 90 percent of the more than 22,000 new local cases on Monday. China last reported new Covid-19 deaths on March 19 -- two people in the northeastern rustbelt province of Jilin -- the first such acknowledged deaths in more than a year. - Political play - China's ruling Communist Party has touted its hardline pandemic approach as proof that it places human life above material concerns -- unlike many Western democracies, which it argues have sacrificed lives by failing to stop the virus. Beijing has also acknowledged that dropping restrictions could let the pathogen run amok through its under-resourced healthcare system, potentially causing millions of deaths -- particularly among the elderly, who are at risk of developing more severe disease. But experts say political considerations are also at play, with the party staking popular legitimacy on crushing emerging outbreaks in a year that will likely see President Xi Jinping secure a precedent-busting third term in office. Some of Shanghai's 25 million residents have chaffed at the inflexible virus restrictions "This is a sensitive and critical year for the regime," said Lynette Ong, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. "China has always given so much prominence to social stability, and a health crisis is a potentially big disrupter." - Desperation - Those concerns may have motivated officials in Shanghai to zealously implement curbs "to the point that it becomes silly", even as the highly transmissible Omicron strain refuses to be quelled, Ong said. Videos on social media have illustrated creeping public desperation, with clips showing residents scuffling with hazmat-suited police and bursting through barricades demanding food. Internet users have also blasted the filmed killing of a pet corgi by a health worker and a now-softened policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents. Other posts -- not verified by AFP -- and overseas media outlets have previously said that elderly patients in the city had died after contracting Covid-19 even as no fatalities appeared in official figures. The United States Embassy in Beijing said Monday it had "reconfigured operations" to assist more than 40,000 Americans in its Shanghai consular district. Chinese officials accused Washington of making "groundless accusations" about its Covid policy earlier this month after the surge prompted the consulate to evacuate non-essential staff. BEIJING (AP) - Shanghai authorities on Monday reported the first COVID-19 deaths in the latest outbreak in Chinas most populous and wealthiest city. All three people who died were elderly, had underlying diseases such as diabetes and hypertension and had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, city Health Commission inspector Wu Ganyu told journalists. "After entering hospital, their conditions grew worse and they died after attempts to save them were unsuccessful," Wu said. The deaths raise to 4,641 the number of people that China says have succumbed to the disease since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. While China has an overall vaccination rate of around 90%, a low rate among the elderly remains a concern. Only 62% of Shanghai residents over age 60 have been vaccinated, according to the latest data available. Some experts say China needs to raise that rate before it can safely live with the virus. While highly contagious, the omicron BA.2 variant driving the Shanghai outbreak is less lethal than the previous delta variant. However, China's low death toll from COVID-19, which is blamed for more than 988,000 deaths in the United States, has raised questions about how China's authoritarian and often highly secretive government counts such fatalities. Commuters wearing face masks to help protect from the coronavirus look out from a crowded traveling bus during the morning rush hour, Monday, April 18, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) Most of Shanghais 25 million residents are being confined to their homes for a third week as China continues to employ a "zero-tolerance" strategy to curb the outbreak, demanding isolation of anyone possibly infected. China on Monday said 23,362 people had tested positive for the virus over the previous 24 hours, most of them showing no symptoms and almost all of them in Shanghai. The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, although officials have warned that the city doesn't have its outbreak under control. Shanghai, which is home to China's biggest port and most important stock exchange, appeared unprepared for such a massive undertaking. Residents have run short of food and other daily necessities while enduring lockdown conditions, and tens of thousands of people put under medical observation have been sequestered in crowded facilities where lights are always on, garbage bins overflow, food is inadequate and hot showers nonexistent. Anyone who tests positive but has few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Concerns have risen about the economic impact of the government's hard-line policy. Chinas economic growth edged up to a still-weak 4.8% over a year earlier in the first three months of 2022 as lockdowns cut production in major industrial cities. Official data showed growth accelerated from the previous quarters 4%. At a meeting Monday, Vice Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, pledged increased spending to stabilize supply chains and provide financial support for health workers and others on the pandemic front lines. While the ruling Communist Party has urged more targeted prevention measures, local officials have routinely adopted stringent regulations, possibly for fear of being fired or penalized over outbreaks in their areas. In the city of Wenzhou, which has seen only a handful of cases, authorities have authorized rewards of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,800) for information about people who falsify their health status, online news site The Paper reported. People wearing face masks to help protect from the coronavirus walk by a wall displaying propaganda posters as they head to work at the Central Business District during the morning rush hour, Monday, April 18, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) HYDERABAD: More skeletons seem to be tumbling out of Osmania Universitys closet after a recent food poisoning incident that rocked the campus, following which students protested against the worst services offered in the hostels by varsity management. Tension prevailed at Osmania University after the food poisoning incident on the campus from Thursday night. Students of Centenary Girls Hostel on the varsitys main campus staged a protest on Thursday night after many hostel inmates allegedly fell ill after consuming food from the hostel mess. Ambulances were summoned to the hostel about four to five times on the day. This triggered the protest by angry students, who were already fed up with several other issues. About 100 students, both from the Centenary Hostel as well as those from other hostels, protested on the street around 8.30 pm. The varsitys vice-chancellor Prof Ravinder and the warden of the hostel then met the students, who explained to them the many issues they faced in the hostel, and assured to resolve them, after which the students dispersed around midnight. The inmates have a long list of complaints regarding facilities in the hostel. They allege that washrooms are not cleaned for long durations and dustbins are not cleared, leading to unbearable stench. Even one-and-a-half months after offline classes began and most students returned to hostels, they still do not have any network or WiFi facility in the hostel. To make any call, they have to step out of the hostel. When this was brought to the Vice Chancellors notice, he promised to hold a meeting soon to address it. Though the management started bus facilities for students to reach colleges, considering the hot weather, students of this hostel have been provided only two buses, which can accommodate only 150 students, and the timings are erratic. Most of us are still walking to colleges, says a student. The students dont even have enough space to sleep, as four students are crammed into a room that only has three cots and they have asked us to adjust with three cots, but how is it possible? asks the student. Strangely, sensor based lights a needless luxury have been installed in the rooms and are in fact troubling the students, as they suddenly switch on or off. Even water is not coming from about 40 taps in the hostel, they allege. Earlier, on March 27 and 28, students of a different block of girls hostel protested on the streets over several basic issues, after students allegedly found a worm in food served in the mess. A security personnel stands next to a damaged vehicle after incidents of stone throwing in some areas of Old Hubballi late on Saturday evening, in Hubballi district, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (PTI) Hubballi: A large number of people allegedly went on a rampage damaging many police vehicles, a nearby hospital and a Hanuman temple in the old town of Hubballi and injured some police officers on duty over a social media post in the early hours of Sunday, police said. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 has been clamped in Hubballi city, police added. "Around 40 people have been arrested and some FIRs have been registered. Twelve of our officers on duty were injured and some police vehicles were damaged. We have taken all precautionary measures so that such incidents do not occur again. We will not spare those who have taken law into their hands," Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Labhu Ram told reporters. According to him, someone had posted a social media post, which others took objection to and lodged a police complaint. Subsequently, the person was arrested after a case was registered. Not satisfied with the action, some people started gathering around the police station. They were persuaded and later dispersed from the spot. Around midnight, a large number of people once again started gathering around the police station, the officer said, adding that their leaders were summoned to the station and apprised about the action taken so far. However, the mob outside the station was not ready to listen to them and they went on a rampage, Labhu Ram said, adding that the mob damaged some police vehicles as they resorted to stone pelting. In this incident, about a dozen police officers have sustained injuries, the police commissioner said. "We will not spare those who took law into their hands. We have taken all preventive measures to stop repetition of such incident," Labhu Ram said. Speaking to reporters in Hosapete, the district headquarters town of the newly carved Vijayanagara district, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said some police officers have sustained injuries, including the inspector of Old Town police station. "A police officer is in a serious condition. Some people involved in the attack have been arrested. It was a pre-planned attack. The miscreants wanted to create Devara Jeevanahalli and Kadugondahalli like incident in Hubballi," Jnanendra said. The Home Minister was referring to the 2020 riot in Bengaluru where about 4,000 Muslims set on fire the residence of Congress MLA from Pulakeshi Nagar assembly constituency in Bengaluru R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy and his sister over a social media post by his relative. The mob then torched many vehicles and set the DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations afire. In that incident, four people were killed including three in police firing. Reacting to the Hubballi rampage, senior BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal demanded that the government should act tough against the miscreants in a way that they should never think of repeating the incident. Hyderabad: All the seven accused including six Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leaders and a police inspector, who are alleged to have abetted the suicide of a realtor and his mother, are likely to surrender before the police in connection with the case. A senior political leader is understood to have made consultations with the Kamareddy district police officials to make it easier for the accused to surrender. A day after real estate businessman Gangam Santosh and his mother Padma died by self immolation at a hotel room in Kamareddy, the case was handed over to a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) rank officer in Kamareddy to investigate. DSP Somanatham has initiated a probe by collecting clues. Police officials associated with the investigation team said all the seven accused Ramayampet municipal chairman Palle Jitender Goud, market committee chairman V. Prudvi Raj, S. Yadagiri, Thota Kiran, K. Krishna Goud, S. Swaraj and police inspector T. Nagarjuna Goud - were still absconding. Maintaining silence over the speculations that the accused were trying to surrender before the police or a court of law, the officials said the accused switched off their mobile phones and were absconding. We have intensified probe based on the seriousness of the case and obtained clues such as selfie video and suicide notes from the scene of incident. We have also collected data from the mobile phone of Santosh and verified. We will send them to a forensic lab to examine and after getting a report, we will take action, police officials said. Meanwhile, speculations are rife over a political leaders involvement in allegedly influencing the Kamareddy police for making the accused surrender. With political leaders involved in the case, the Medak police officials said they would assist the Kamareddy police by providing information about the accused as the case was being probed by the Kamareddy police. The victims Santosh and Padma were residents of Gandhi Road of Ramayampet in Medak district. As part of the investigation, Kamareddy police officials sought the complaints lodged by Santosh against the seven accused earlier and the status of the registered cases. Friends and relatives thronged the residence of Santosh and Padma at Gandhinagar road in Ramayampet for consoling the family members on Sunday. The Medak police assured us to take stern action against the accused. If the police fail to fulfil their promises, we will initiate a protest against the police for not taking action, Anjaiah, Santosh's father, said. As precautionary measures, the police provided security to the residences of the accused in Ramayampet to prevent untoward incidents. Delhi Police personnel detain a person, after clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday, at Jahangirpuri in New Delhi, Monday, April 18, 2022. (PTI) Bricks were allegedly thrown at the Delhi Police Crime Branch team at C-block in Jahangirpuri here on Monday where they were probing the violence case. "The recent media report of fresh stone pelting is an exaggeration of facts. It was a minor, one-off incident. Legal action is being taken. One person has been detained," Delhi Police said. Rapid Action Force and police had been deployed in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri area. Earlier on Monday, Delhi police commissioner, Rakesh Asthana said that the police are monitoring social media to curb the spread of misinformation in the wake of the violence that erupted in the Jahangirpuri area, while also stating that action will be taken against culprits attempting to disturb the peace. "Some people are trying to disturb peace through social media posts. We are monitoring social media closely, and legal action will be taken against those who are found spreading misinformation. The public should not pay heed to rumours," Asthana had said. Asthana also said that action will be taken against any person found guilty in the violence. "Action will be taken against any person found guilty irrespective of their class, creed, community and religion," he had said. The police commissioner further informed that nine people sustained injuries in the violence, which included police personnel who were deployed on the duty. "So far 23 accused have been arrested. Nine people including police personnel and one civilian received injuries during the incident," Asthana had said. Talking about the investigation into the incident, he said the police are doing an analysis of the CCTV footage of the incident and digital media. "Analysis of CCTV footage and digital media is being done. Forensic Science Laboratory teams have visited the scene of crime today," Asthana had said. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the district police are jointly probing the incident, said Ravindra Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. Heavy security has been deployed in the violence-hit area to prevent any untoward incident. A TRS councillors son and another man were on Monday detained by the Kodad police for allegedly kidnapping and gang-raping a woman. (Representational Image: DC) HYDERABAD: Close on the heels of suicide incidents in which three persons died at two different places in Khammam and Kamareddy districts following the alleged harassment of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leaders, a TRS councillors son and another man were on Monday detained by the Kodad police for allegedly kidnapping and gang-raping a woman. Though the incident happened on Friday night, it came to light on Monday when the family members of the victim approached the police, seeking action against the two accused. According to Kodad Inspector Narasimha Rao, the two accused - Sai Kiran Reddy and Sheik Pasha - are friends and residents of Kodad town. The duo lured a known woman for a long ride. The accused took the woman in an auto to an abandoned house on Friday night. In her complaint, the victim said the accused offered soft drinks laced with sedatives. After she consumed a soft drink, she slipped into sleep. "Later, the accused assaulted her sexually. When she woke up on Saturday morning, the victim realised that she was gang-raped by the accused. As she tried to resist the accused, the accused assaulted her physically. The victim was made to drink a soft drink laced with sedatives by the accused. Later, the accused abandoned the victim at an isolated place. The locals passing by noticed the victim and identified her as a resident of Kodad town. Upon informing parents, they came to the spot and rescued the victim with the assistance of the police," he said. In the incident, the victim suffered bleeding injuries. Based on the complaint, the police registered a gang-rape case and detained the two accused. The victim was shifted to the hospital for treatment. It was reported that the accused confessed to having committed the offence. The victim's family members demanded that the police take stern action against the accused. The police seized mobile phones of the accused and verified call data as part of the investigation. Another 25,000 government schools are getting a facelift in phase 2 with a spend of Rs 11,267 crore. (Representational Image/ DC) Vijayawada: The innovative Mana-Badi Nadu-Nedu programme in Andhra Pradesh has brought revolutionary changes in more than 15,000 government schools in its first phase. This is helping in an additional enrollment of nearly two lakh students. Another 25,000 government schools are getting a facelift in phase 2 with a spend of Rs 11,267 crore. This would switch the ambiance of the government education system to a level that will match with the standards of well-run corporate schools. Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy is giving top priority to the modernisation of schools under Nadu-Nedu (Then and Now). This is showing good results as a majority of parents are satisfied with the way government schools have been modernized and are shifting their children to state schools from private schools. Only two years are left for the YSRC government before the next polls. Hence, the chief minister is keen on completion of the modernisation drive in 25,000 government schools, to bring them on par with private and corporate schools. This, he hopes, would encourage a large number of parents to support the YSRC in the 2024 elections. Nearly 44 lakh students are studying in the government schools in AP. Hence, the ruling party aims to increase enrolments in the next two years through modernization of all state schools. The Mana-Badi Nadu-Nedu was started on 14 November 2019, under which ten elements of infrastructure were developed in the schools. Modernisation of toilets with continuous water supply, safe drinking water, necessary repairs to schools, setting up of fans and tube lights for each room, furniture for students and teachers, green chalkboard, painting, English Lab, retaining wall and kitchens have all been arranged. This changes the dull looks of government schools and turns them into modern educational institutions. The government provides English-Telugu dictionaries along with uniforms, school bags, text books, notebooks, workbooks, belts, socks and shoes to the students. Further, English-medium teaching, Amma Vodi and introduction of CBSE syllabus have all turned into a boon to students. As a result, parents are preferring government schools to private schools. This is helping them save on education expenditure for better financial management, a teacher noted. Private sector employees S Chandrasekhar and K Balamurali said that the government schools have been totally reformed in AP on par with the corporate schools in the state. There is no donation, no fee and no extra charges in the government schools. Further, the uniform, dictionary, shoes, socks, textbooks, notebooks, belt and a school bag with Amma Vodi and the offer of English medium are is a big boon to children from ordinary families. Political observers note that nearly 44 lakh students studying in government schools and their parents play an important role in the 2024 assembly elections. Hence, Jagan Reddy aims to complete the modernisation process in the rest of 25,000 government schools too at the earliest, they noted. Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana said APs Nadu-Nedu is the first-of-its kind programme in the country that turned government schools into top-class educational institutions. CM Jagan emphasized on completing the phase-2 of Nadu-Nedu works in 25000 schools, along with 468 junior colleges, soon. Hence, measures were initiated to speed up the works at an expenditure of Rs 11,267 crore, he said. More than 15,000 government schools modernized under the innovative Mana-Badi Nadu-Nedu programme in AP Now, another 25,000 government schools are getting a facelift in phase 2 with a spend of`11,267 crore; switching the ambiance of the government education system. The enrollment in government schools in the state was 42.83 lakh by 2014-15 and it had dropped to 37.21 lakh by 2018-19. The enrollment has reached back to 43.44 lakh by 2020-21. English medium, free provision of all necessities including uniforms, text/note books, shoes, dictionary, school bag, belt, socks with Amma Vodi and CBSE syllabus were attractions in AP. This helped provide good education to children without any expenditure. YSRC government engaged in modernisation of 25K government schools under Nadu-Nedu; benefits to come in 2 years When the priests were chanting Vedik hymns and the temple authorities were offering prasadam and a Lord Hanuman portrait to the minister, the monkey came in and sat pretty on the minister. (Image by Arrangement) ANANTAPUR: There were some interesting moments at the five-centuries-old historic Lord Nettikanti Hanuman Temple at Kasapuram in Gutakal rural mandal of Anantapur district on Monday. A monkey hopped in and perched itself on the Women and Child Welfare Minister Ushasri Charan while she was participating in the rituals there. The monkey, harmless to humans, shared the temple prasadam with the minister with its own hand, much to the curiosity of the devotees and the security staff that accompanied the minister. This was when she was being accorded a felicitation and traditional asheervadam at the temple when the daily ritual started in the morning. Charan, who took charge as minister recently, visited the temple for darshan of Lord Hanuman. The idol had been consecrated by Vijaynagar Empire and the Rajguru of Sri krishna Devaraya as part of the setting up of 732 hanuman temples across South India. At Kasapuram, only one eye of the Lord is visible. The Kasapuram temple is believed to drive away ghosts that cause problems for the devotees. Ushasri Charan, MLA from Kalyandurg, arrived at the temple along with her family members and security cover. After she had darshan of Lord Nettikanti Hanuman, the temple priests blessed the minister and took her closer to Hanuman idol. When the priests were chanting Vedik hymns and the temple authorities were offering prasadam and a Lord Hanuman portrait to the minister, the monkey came in and sat pretty on the minister. The temple authorities convinced the minister and her security that the monkey was being friendly to the devotees and caused no harm to anyone. The monkey perched itself on the woman minister till the completion of the traditional rituals. The monkey accepted prasadam and offered it to the minister with its own hands. Soon after its exit from the spot, a video of the scene went viral on social media. Temple authorities told DC, More than 100 monkeys live in the temple premises, but this is the only monkey that is friendly to humans and causes no harm. It visits the garbhagudi of Lord Hanuman in the early hours of the day. The priests have to put Sindhura Thilakam on its forehead and offer it prasadam. It eats the prasadam and returns from the garbhagudi. The monkey appears in a traditional attire with sindhuram on its forehead. Priests said the temple is famous for its rituals to drive away ghosts from the vicinity of the affected people. Hence, a large number of people with some complaints are brought to the temple by their relatives. "We had a similar experience with the same monkey during our visit to the temple last month," devotees Rishitha and Harshitha said. Some farmers have already sold paddy to middlemen as they are unable to stock paddy after harvesting. AP HYDERABAD: With the paddy procurement by state government agencies in vogue, inter-state borders have been put on alert to prevent entry of paddy from neighbouring states. The state government has set up checkposts on the state borders with AP, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, some farmers have already sold paddy to middlemen as they are unable to stock paddy after harvesting. There is no godown facility in villages and no space for farmers in their houses. After the governments announcement on paddy procurement, farmers rushed to harvest the produce. HYDERABAD: Around 3,000 party leaders and representatives from across the state are expected to attend the 21st Foundation Day celebrations of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on April 27, TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao has said. Speaking to reporters after inspecting the Hitex Convention Centre at the HICC in Madhapur on Sunday, Rama Rao said the foundation day will be celebrated like a festival across the state. In addition to the TRS plenary meeting on April 27, the day will also see the TRS party flag being hoisted by all the 12,769 party branches in villages and in 3,600 locations in various cities and towns, he said. The convention in the city will take stock of the development in the state so far under the TRS and new plans and decisions for further development will be discussed during the event. Rama Rao said all TRS leaders invited to the convention will be issued invitation cards and only those who have been called should make plans to attend the event. The TRS was born to represent the self-respect of the people of Telangana state and its identity, Rama Rao said, adding a meeting will be held with TRS leaders from the GHMC area on Monday as part of the preparations for the party plenary. HYDERABAD: A planned visit to Khammam on Monday by minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao has been indefinitely put off, his office announced here on Sunday. The postponement was necessitated because of a parliamentary committee meeting on e-commerce, and unveiling of the state governments Space Technology Policy, his office said. It may be recalled that Khammam has been on a boil with Opposition parties on the warpath since Saturday following the death of a BJP activist S. Sai Ganesh who committed suicide alleging harassment by the police who, according to the deceased, had foisted 16 false cases against him at the behest of transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar. The BJP leaders have been camping in Khammam. Modi also asked people to join the next episode of his monthly radio address on April 24. (PTI) New Delhi: Ahead of this months Mann ki Baat radio address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday shared a magazine based on the last episode of his monthly radio programme. The 38-page digital magazine contains key points highlighted by the Prime Minister. Modi also asked people to join the next episode of his monthly radio address on April 24. Here is an interesting magazine on last months #MannKiBaat in which we discussed diver-se topics like Indias exports jump, Ayurveda start-ups, water conservation and traditional fairs. Do join the next episode on the 24th, tweeted the Prime Minister. The radio programme Mann ki Baat is aired on All India Radio on the last Sunday of every month, through which Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with the nation. In the last edition of the programme, the Prime Minister had mentioned how India had achieved the export target of $400 billion, which he had said that signifies the countrys growing economy but more than that it is linked to Indias potential. During his address, Modi had also called upon start-ups in the health sector especially those in the Ayush sector to put their content online in all languages recognised by the United Nations and not just remain restricted to English. Underlining that the Ayush manufacturing industry is reaching around Rs 1.4 lakh crore, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that Ayush start-ups from India with better quality products will reign all over the world. He had also mentioned some of the start-ups and the tremendous work they have been doing in the sector. Urging the listeners to save every drop of water and also recycle and reuse water whenever possible, the Prime Minister had asked children to be at the forefront of water conservation efforts. Visakhapatnam/Vijayawada: Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy would meet Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar here on Tuesday. The one-on-one meet will be held at a private facility. This has created a buzz among the citizens that there would be chances of cooperation between the two states in fields like industry, particulary in Vizag which is tagged as the IT Capital of Andhra Pradesh. Prior to the meet, IT minister Gudivada Amarnath met the Haryana CM and accompanied Khattar on his visit to the Lord Narasimha Swamy Temple in Simhachalam here. The IT minister said that the meet between the two CM was meant to be a friendly gesture. As per the schedule, Jagan will start from Gannavaram airport at 10.25 am and reach Visakhapatnam at 11.05 am. He will proceed to Pema Wellness Resort at Rushikonda here at 11.50 am and meet the Haryana CM. Jagan will leave Visakhapatnam at 1.25 pm and arrive at his residence at Tadepalli at 2.30 pm. The Haryana CM is in the city for the last few days on a personal tour which lasts till April 20. India landed on the list, the USCIRF report said, because of discrimination against Muslims through the law (it cited CAA and NRC), restrictions on propagation and violence on the issue of cow slaughter the lynchings. (Representational Image/PTI) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, is an independent and bipartisan US federal government agency. It monitors the right to freedom of religion abroad and makes policy recommendations to the US President, the secretary of state and the US Congress. And then it tracks the implementation of these recommendations. Independent means it is not part of the US federal government and bipartisan means that both major parties, Democrats and Republicans, have representation on the body. In 2020, USCIRF put India on a shortlist of 13 nations which were of particular concern. The other nations are Pakistan, Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. India landed on the list, the USCIRF report said, because of discrimination against Muslims through the law (it cited CAA and NRC), restrictions on propagation and violence on the issue of cow slaughter the lynchings. The USCIRF recommended that the US government impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals assets and/or barring their entry into the United States under human rights-related financial and visa authorities. It may be remembered that after the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat, the states chief minister was put on a US visa ban list, and that was because of the USCIRFs recommendation. The decision to put India on the list came with some dissent. USCIRF commissioners Gary Bauer (a Republican) and Tenzin Dorjee (a Tibetan refugee) wrote that they were concerned by what was happening in India but the US should not sanction India but instead engage with it. The recommendation for sanctions was not taken up by the administration. In 2021, the USCIRF again retained India on the countries of particular concern list, saying that religious freedom in India continued down negative territory. It cited the pogrom in Delhi, the States violence against CAA protests, the suspension of work by Amnesty International India (of which I am part) under State attack and the acquittal of all in the Babri Masjid case, among other things. Once again it recommended sanctions against Indian government officials and agencies. Once again, this recommendation was not taken up by the new Biden administration. This time nobody in USCIRF dissented. One commissioner, Johnnie Moore wrote: I love India. I have floated early in the morning down the Ganges in Varanasi, walked every alley in Old Delhi, stood in awe of the architecture in Agra, sipped tea next to the Dalai Lamas temple in Dharamsala, circled the shrine in Ajmer, and looked in awe at the Golden Temple. All along the way, I have met Christian brothers and sisters who serve the poor selflessly, often in difficult circumstances. Of all countries in the world, India should not be a country of particular concern, or CPC. It is the worlds largest democracy and it is governed by a pristine Constitution. It is diversity personified and its religious life has been its greatest historic blessing. Yet, India does seem to be at a crossroads. Its democracy still young and freewheeling is creating through the ballot box difficult challenges for itself. The answer, of course, is for Indias institutions to draw upon their rich history to protect their values. India must always resist allowing political and intercommunal conflict to be exacerbated by religious tensions. Indias government and people have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose from preserving social harmony and protecting the rights of everyone. India can. India must. Next month, the USCIRF will make its recommendations for 2022. It is in this background that we should examine the comments made by the US secretary of state a few days ago at a press conference where S. Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh were present. Antony Blinken said: We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values, and to that end we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials. Our government was upset enough by this for Mr Jaishankar, after he returned to India, to say that India was also concerned by the human rights situation in the United States. This was seen as a great comeback, and perhaps it was. But it does not address the issue that is building up in the US. Given the events of the past few months, it is possible and perhaps even likely that India will remain on the list of nations that the US government will be asked to engage with and sanction on human rights. For us as a sovereign nation, we can swallow what is said about us and ignore it or push back vocally as Mr Jaishankar did. However, we must be prepared for this to continue. The world is not blind to what is happening in India today and it is uncomfortable with it. Indias outstanding reputation as a democracy and a friendly and well-meaning nation can no longer cover up the daily events which tarnish it. Naturally, we can assure the world that what is happening is an aberration and that the government is against it, but that is not what we have chosen to do. We have chosen this path that we have taken. For this reason, there will be many in Mr Jaishankars ministry who are waiting to see what the USCIRF says next month, and what it recommends and whether, this time, the US administration chooses to again ignore or to act. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday claimed that 40 lakh Indians died during the coronavirus pandemic due to the government's "negligence" and once again demanded that all families of the deceased be given Rs four lakh compensation each. Taking to Twitter, Gandhi shared the screenshot of a New York Times report which claimed that India is stalling the WHO's efforts to make global Covid death toll public. "Modi ji neither speaks the truth, nor lets others speak. He still lies that no one died due to oxygen shortage!" Gandhi charged in a tweet in Hindi along with the screenshot of the report. "I had said earlier also due to the negligence of the government during Covid, not five lakh, but 40 lakh Indians died," the former Congress chief said. "Fulfil your responsibility, Modi ji give compensation of Rs four lakh to every (Covid) victim's family," Gandhi said. Read | Centre questions WHO's methodology to estimate Covid-19 mortalities India on Saturday questioned the World Health Organization's (WHO) methodology to estimate Covid-19 mortalities in the country, saying using such a mathematical modelling cannot be applied to estimate the death figures for such a vast nation of geographical size and population. The Union Health Ministry issued a statement in response to the article titled 'India Is Stalling WHO's Efforts to Make Global Covid Death Toll Public' dated April 16, saying the country has on several occasions shared its concerns with the global health body over the methodology used. The Congress has been alleging that the government has not released the actual Covid-19 death figures and has demanded a compensation of Rs four lakh to the family members of the deceased. According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday, the death toll from Covid has climbed to 5,21,751 with four fresh fatalities. Watch latest videos by DH here: Hindutva leader Sadhvi Rithambara has urged every Hindu couple to produce four children and dedicate two of them to the nation, and said India will soon become a "Hindu Rashtra". Referring to Saturday's communal violence in Delhi's Jahangirpuri, she said those who "attacked" the Hanuman Jayanti Shobha Yatra (procession) are jealous of the progress made by the country. "Those who are trying to divide Hindu society through political terrorism will be razed to dust," she said. Also Read | VHP's Sadhvi Saraswati asks Hindu youth to carry swords, cites atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits Addressing a Ram Mahotsav programme at Nirala Nagar here on Sunday, she said Hindu women follow the principle of "Hum Do, Hamare Do" (having two children). "But I would like to request all Hindu couples to produce four children each. Of these, two should be dedicated to the nation, while the rest two will be for the family," she said. She went on to add, "Soon, India will become a Hindu Rashtra. She also said a Uniform Civil Code should be implemented in the country, so that there is no population imbalance. "If there is a population imbalance in the country, the future of the country will not be good," she told PTI on Monday. Asked if she has urged parents to dedicate their children to the RSS, she said, "Yes. I have asked them to dedicate them to the RSS. Make them VHP workers and also dedicate to the nation." Rithambara has been associated with the Ram temple movement. She is also the founder of Durga Vahini, the women's wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Check out latest DH videos here Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, triggering speculation about possible Opposition unity in the union territory that may see an Assembly election soon after delimitation. Mehbooba is understood to have discussed the current political scenario in the country with Sonia at the latter's residence here. This is Mehbooba's first meeting with Sonia in some time. The meeting assumes significance as the Opposition is brainstorming on how to wage a united fight against the BJP. Amid speculation that Kashmir may see an election soon after the delimitation exercise, it is expected that the Opposition may explore possibilities of a united fight against the BJP. Earlier, several parties including Congress, National Conference, PDP and CPI(M) among others had come together to fight local body polls but differences had cropped up among the allies. Mehbooba has earlier said it is the Congress that has kept the country safe so far while accusing the BJP of taking efforts to create more Pakistans inside the country. She had formed a government with the support of the BJP in 2016 but had to resign after the saffron party withdrew support. She was put under house arrest along with other Opposition leaders after the Narendra Modi government took away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Check out DH's latest videos Ocugen Inc, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin partner in the US and Canada, has announced that it would also commercialize the Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico. With the amended deal, Pennsylvania based Ocugen's Covaxin rights now encompass all of the North American continent. COVAXIN is already authorized for emergency use in adults by the health regulators in Mexico, and has been submitted for Emergency Use Authorization for children aged 2-18 years, Ocugen Inc and Bharat Biotech said in a statement on Monday. Last year, Bharat Biotech and Ocugen Inc had announced a definitive agreement to co-develop, manufacture, supply, and commercialize Covaxin for the United States and Canada markets. As per the deal, Ocugen and Bharat Biotech would share the profits from Covaxin sale in a 45:55 ratio. Also Read: Whats the new Omicron XE variant and should you be worried? However, the US Food and Drug Administration last week put on hold the Phase-2/3 clinical trials of Covaxin in the US. The USFDA call was based on the US firm's decision to voluntarily implement a temporary pause in dosing participants of the jab, following the WHO's observations on Covaxin plants in India. On 2 April, the World Health Organisation revealed that it has suspended the supply of Covaxin through the UN procurement agencies, and recommended that countries using the vaccine take action as appropriate. The suspension is following WHO inspection of Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities in March, and the need to conduct process and facility upgrade to address recently identified deficiencies in good manufacturing practices (GMP). Bharat Biotech said that it is addressing the GMP deficiencies and is developing a corrective and preventive action plan for submission to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and WHO. In the interim and as a precautionary measure, the Hyderabad based company has indicated that it will suspend production of Covaxin for export. As a consequence, supply will be interrupted for the foreseeable future, the WHO had said in a statement. However, the world health body said that the risk assessment to date does not indicate change in the riskbenefit ratio. The data, available to WHO, indicate the vaccine is effective and no safety concerns exist WHO had issued Emergency Use Listing for Covaxin in November. Were excited to commercialize COVAXIN in Mexico, as authorities there have made conquering this pandemic a major priority. After meeting with Mexicos Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, in Delhi, we are encouraged by the role COVAXIN can play in Mexicos continuing efforts to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic. COVAXIN is currently under review by COFEPRIS (Comision Federal para la Proteccion contra Riesgos Sanitarios) for emergency use among children between 2 and 18 years of age, and Ocugen is prepared to collaborate with the public health community to help their efforts, said Dr Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Ocugen, Inc on Monday. BBV152 or Covaxin is co-developed by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research. Watch the latest DH Videos here: India is assessing the implication of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on its security environment as well as supply of military hardware from both the warring nations. The assessment of any impact of Russia-Ukraine war is on the agenda, as the Indian Army commanders assembled for a four-day-long conference in New Delhi on Monday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also expected to interact with the commanders during the conclave, which is being led by Chief of Army Staff Gen M M Naravane. The commanders are expected to assess impact on supply of defence equipment and spares from both Russia and Ukraine and discuss ways to deal with any disruption in supply and services in the wake of the conflict between the two nations, sources told DH on Monday. India's dependence on Russia for military hardware was built over decades. A 2020 report by the Stimson Centre based in Washington DC estimated that 90 per cent of defence equipment, weapons and platforms presently used by the Indian Army had originated from Russia. Nearly 86 per cent of the defence equipment currently in military service in India had origins in the former Soviet Union nation. Also read: US warns 'consequences' if India aligns with Russia Russia, according to the sources, might not be able to deliver the second unit of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to India on time due to its military operations in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the United States and other western nations on it. However, some training equipment and simulator for the second unit have already arrived. Russia had in December 2021 delivered the first of the five S-400s India procured for $5.43 billion. New Delhi, however, is more worried about disruptions in supply of spares from Ukraine, particularly for some of the tanks and missile systems currently being used by the Indian Army and for gas turbine engines of some of the Indian Navy warships. The commanders, according to the sources in New Delhi, are expected to review the situation along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC), where soldiers of the two nations are still engaged in a stand-off that started two years ago with the communist countrys Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) amassing large number of troops along the disputed boundary between the two nations, prompting counter-deployment by the Indian Army. New Delhi has been assessing the possibility of China trying to take the advantage of geopolitical churning triggered by Russia-Ukraine conflict and stepping up its belligerence, not only along the disputed boundary between the two nations in the Himalayas, but also in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. The commanders over the next few days will review the Indian Armys preparedness to respond to any bid by the Chinese PLA, not only along the western sector, but also in the middle and the eastern sector of the long disputed boundary between the two nations. A spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence said that the senior leadership of the Indian Army would review the operational situation along the active borders during the conference, apart from assessing threats in the entire spectrum of conflict. The commanders would also analyse capability voids to further focus on capability development and operational preparedness plans, added the spokesperson. Check out DH's latest videos: Home Minister Aaraga Jnanendra has said that the Old Hubballi incident would have become another DJ Halli and KG Halli violence in Karnataka if police had not handled the situation cautiously. Speaking to media persons here on Monday, he said, there was a conspiracy to disrupt communal harmony there. But police brought the situation under control by arresting those who had indulged in violence. They have also arrested a boy who uploaded an offensive animated video as his WhatsApp status. He said police are nabbing those responsible for violence based on the CCTV footage and other evidence. Over 80 people have been arrested so far. Their intention was to create communal tension in Karnataka. He said leaders of all communities can sit together and talk to resolve the issue. More than eight people were injured in the Hubballi violence. Head constables and inspector-cadre staff were severely injured. He said he interacted with them in the hospital and they are out of danger. He said eight to 10 vehicles were damaged and the perpetrators vandalised the Hanuman temple. It is unfortunate that violent incidents were reported across India on 'Hanuman Jayanti'. But the government would take suitable steps in this regard, he added. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Released: April 18, 2022 The Delaware County Recorder of Deeds Office is now offering a free property fraud protection tool, called FraudSleuth, that provides Delaware County property owners with automatic alerts to help safeguard against property fraud. FraudSleuth is a software-based monitoring tool that alerts property owners when any documentsuch as a mortgage, deed, or mortgage satisfactionrelated to a specific parcel is recorded under that parcels ID. Similar to how credit monitoring services track consumer purchases and payments, FraudSleuth tracks properties and automatically alerts owners to possible fraudulent activity. FraudSleuth is currently used by many counties in Pennsylvania with local governments working to combat an uptick in property fraud and increased calls from residents for assistance. "While it has been relatively rare in Delaware County, various other jurisdictions have experienced an increase in title theft and deed fraud over the past couple of years, explained Robert A. Auclair, Esq., Recorder of Deeds. So, as a proactive, protective measure, our office has made this free monitoring service available to all property owners in the county." To begin using FraudSleuth, property owners need to visit the Recorder of Deeds Online Services website, accessible at delcopa.gov/deeds, and create a profile for the property they wish to monitor. Profiles are quick and easy to create, requiring a limited amount of information, including the property owners name, the parcel ID number, and an email address (where the owner wishes to have their alerts sent). If a property owner wants to monitor multiple properties, then multiple profiles will need to be created; one for each property. To create a new profile from the Recorder of Deeds Online Services website: Create a New User Account Create a New User Account Click Preferences Click Preferences Click Configure FraudSleuth Profile Click Configure FraudSleuth Profile Click Add Profile Click Add Profile Input the Profile details (including your name and the parcel ID) Input the Profile details (including your name and the parcel ID) Click Save to complete the process. When a document is recorded against the information on file with the Delaware County Recorder of Deeds office, the email generated by FraudSleuth will include matched data, including the document type, the document reference number, and the recording date/time of the matching document. The document can then be viewed on the Recorder of Deeds Online Services website. Residents should be aware that an alert does not mean that fraudulent activity has occurred. Legitimate transactions involving the property owner, bank, and other entities will also trigger an alert, and it is the property owners responsibility to monitor the alerts and take action if the activity is suspicious. If the property owner receives an alert regarding activity that appears fraudulent or suspicious or inaccurate, property owners can contact the Delaware County Recorder of Deeds office at (610) 891-4152 or contact the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Unit (CID) at (610) 891-4161. Lyra McKee, the young journalist shot dead by a New IRA gunman in Derry, was remembered today on the third anniversary of her killing. Members of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) gathered on the steps of the Guildhall to remember their colleague who was killed while watching rioting on Fanad Drive in the Creggan area of the city on April 18, 2019. Among those in attendance were the 29-year-old's sister, Nichola Corner, and partner, Sarah Canning, who both renewed their appeals for information to bring the gunman to justice. Today's vigil coincided with a renewed appeal by the PSNI for information. Detective Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan said: Our thoughts are very much remain with her family, partner, friends and colleagues. Lyras family not only continue to mourn for her but also for her mother, who sadly passed away after Lyras murder. "To date, as part of our ongoing investigation, we have made 30 arrests and nine people have been charged, three with murder and six with public order offences. The investigation into Lyras murder remains very active and I would like to thank the community for their response and support throughout our investigation. I want to re-state the commitment of the police service to work with the community as we collectively seek to release communities from the influence of terrorists. While grateful for the considerable public support we have received, we still need the publics help. If anyone has any information about the events which led up to Lyras murder, and they have yet to come forward, please contact detectives in absolute confidence by calling 101. Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers charity completely confidentially 0800 555 111. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE (AP) The White House said last Friday that President Joe Biden will travel to the Pacific Northwest this week, visiting both Portland and Seattle in his first visit to the region as president. Additional details are expected in the coming days, but The Seattle Times reported the White House said this Friday's visit in Seattle will center on the administration's efforts to continue bringing down costs for American families and building a more resilient economy. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An apartment complex at 9527 Interlake Ave. N. recently sold for nearly $5.6 million, according to King County records. The seller was 9527 A&D LLC, which acquired the property in 2018 for a bit over $4.6 million. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An industrial property at 1620 S. 92nd Place sold for a little over $7.5 million, according to King County records. The seller was Sea King Industrial Park LLC, which had owned the property for decades. . . . Holcim weighs sale of cement business in India: report Holcim Ltd, the worlds biggest cement manufacturer, is considering to exit its India business through a sale of assets, including Ambuja Cement and ACC Ltd, according to a report. The report, quoting unidentified sources, said the Swiss giants focus on core markets is the main reason behind the move to exit India, about 17 years after the Swiss giant entered the country. Holcim is currently gauging interest in its controlling stake in Ambuja", reports cited people familiar with the matter as saying. Ambuja Cement has a market value of around $9.6 billion, and Holcim holds a 63.1 per cent stake in Ambuja through Holderind Investments Limited while Holderind Investment directly holds another 4.48 per cent stake in ACC. A report in the Economic Times said Holcim is in early-stage negotiations with JSW and Adani Group, among others, to explore their interest levels". The report also quoted sources as saying that felers have also been sent to other Indian cement operators, including Shree Cement. Global cement companies who have circled around India for long are also expected to be tapped, since taking over both Ambuja and ACC will catapult any player to the second position with a combined pan India capacity of 66 million tonnes per annum in the highly competitive, fragmented and price sensitive market," said the organisation in the report. In 2015, Holcim had merged with its French rival Lafarge to create European building materials giant LafargeHolcim. Post merger, Holcim was forced to undergo multiple restructurings in order to abide by anti-trust regulations across the world. This was done by divesting assets in several areas, including Europe and Asia. Holcim Group has also recently been on a spree to sell off its non-core assets so as to reduce debt and diversify through acquisitions. In September last year, Holcim sold off its Brazilian unit for $1 billion and is also in talks to divest its business in Zimbabwe, Bloomberg reported. The news of Holcim selling Ambuja Cements and ACC comes at a time when Ambuja said it expects demand in the cement industry to grow over 7 per cent in 2022, adding it is well-braced" to meet the requirements. The growth would be helped by factors such as infrastructure growth, demand for housing, increase in rural incomes and industrial growth, the company had earlier said. Holcim entered India in 2005 and gradually built synergies in ACC and Ambuja Cements, although without a full-fledged merger. In May 2017, ACC and Ambuja Cements announced plans for a merger. In the following year they informed the bourses that they are not proceeding with the plan. In 2018, ACC and Ambuja Cements entered into master supply agreements for the supply of cement, clinker and raw materials such as fuels, fly ash, slag and gypsum and also spare parts. Aditya Birla groups UltraTech Cement is the countrys largest cement maker with a capacity of 117 million tonnes. The combined capacity of ACC and Ambuja Cements is over 65 million tonnes. As of Wednesday, the market capitalisation of Ambuja and ACC when combined stood at Rs 1.14 lakh crore ($15 billion) with Ambuja alone being at Rs73,349 crore ($9.7 billion). The companys shares have increased by 16 per cent since 6April, on anticipation of a possible merger. Infosys exits Russia to end UK political and tax row Indian IT services giant Infosys has announced it will quit Russia, after finding itself at the centre of a political storm in the UK because of its business connections with Russia. Infosys, whose founder Narayana Murthy's daughter is married to top UK politician quit Russia to ending the political and tax row involving millions of dollars. Infosys, which has so far held off without revealing its intentions regarding Russia, on Thursday said the company will pull out of Russia. CEO Salil Parekh. Parekh told investors during Wednesday's Q4 2022 earnings call that Infosys has around 100 employees in Russia, all working for global clients. But, he said, Infosys has no engagements with Russian entities. Parekh said Infosys has decided to move the work performed by staff in Russia to other unspecified locations. He did not elaborate. Infosys also donated $1 million towards Ukrainian relief efforts and said it is "launching a programme to digitally re-skill up to 25,000 individuals." That decision comes after the company's Russian entanglements became a hot topic in the United Kingdom, the residence of Akshata Murthy, herself a successful entrepreneur and fashion designer, and daughter of N R Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosysm is married to Rishi Sunak, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer a cabinet post equivalent to US treasury secretary, or treasurer in other parliamentary democracies. Akshata Murthy currently owns almost one per cent of the services giant a stake worth around $1 billion. The issue of Infosys's failure to join the exodus from Russia was blown up by British media, which started to ponder whether it was appropriate for the chancellor to benefit from Infosys's ongoing activities in Russia. Spoiler alert: most thought the connection was inappropriate in a "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion" kind of way. It developed into a scandal after it emerged that Akshata Murthy, while residing in the UK, was officially domiciled in India and therefore did not pay UK taxes on income earned in other countries. Last week, Akshata Murthy revealed she had re-arranged her affairs to pay more tax in the UK. However, with Infosys deciding to exit Russia, her income cannot now be linked Russia. Infosys, meanwhile, reported strong Q4 and full-year results. Quarterly revenue was , up 18.5 per cent year on year at $4.28 billion. Full year revenue rose 20 percnt to $16.3 billion. Operating profit jumped $430 million. With multi-year deals topping $100 million the company expects 13 to 15 per cent revenue growth for FY 22-23. BlackRock-Mubadala consortium to invest Rs4,000 cr in Tata Power Renewable Buy-out fund BlackRock Real Assets, together with UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company, will invest Rs4,000 crore (about $525 million), for a 10.53 per cent stake in Tata Powers renewable energy subsidiary, Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited. The BlackRock Real Assets-Mubadala consortium has entered into a binding agreement with Tata Power to invest $525 million, by way of equity or compulsorily convertible instruments, for a 10.53 per cent stake in Tata Power Renewable. The investment takes Tata Power Renewables base equity valuation to Rs34,000 crore, while the final shareholding of the equity funds will range from 9.76 per cent to 11.43 per cent on conversion. The first round of capital infusion into Tata Power Renewables is expected to be completed by June and the rest by the end of the year, the companies said in a joint statement on Thursday. The Tata Power Renewables platform will house all clean energy-related businesses of parent Tata Power Co Ltd, including those in utility-scale solar; wind and hybrid generation assets; solar cell and module manufacturing; engineering, procurement and construction contracting; rooftop solar infrastructure; solar pumps and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the companies said. I am delighted to welcome BlackRock Real Assets and Mubadala to join us to take the renewables business to the next level of growth. The collaboration will support us to pursue exciting opportunities that lie ahead in the coming decades," Praveer Sinha, CEO and managing director of Tata Power Co., said in the statement. With one of the largest portfolios of solar and wind assets in the country and a very experienced management team, Tata Power Renewables is at the forefront of Indias ambition to secure greater energy stability for its citizens while positioning its economy for a low carbon future. Indias success in transitioning its energy economy will be crucial to the worlds ability to meet its climate goals," BlackRocks global head of real assets, Anne Valentine Andrews, said in the statement. With around 4.9 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy assets, Tata Power Renewables ranks among Indias largest clean energy firms. It plans to grow its portfolio to 20GW. At the COP26 summit in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to meet 50% of Indias energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030, cut Indias carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. At the entrance, a dappled marble corridor led to the sitting room with its red designer armchairs and sofas, which opened out into the kitchen. From there it continued across parquet floors to the sleeping area, where there were two bathrooms and a bedroom with a double bed. In a box room by the entrance, our transatlantic suitcases were ready to fly to America, where we were to land at the end of the year to start our life in Texas. I believe poetry looked me up in that period because our son had just been born. For that reason it was easy to find us at home, where we passed him from one pair of arms to another, unprepared, exhausted and elated. Proudly gleeful if he eventually fell asleep on our chests, pleading for mercy if he cried without end. Brian Kennedy who is making a return to the Oriel Centre, Dundalk Gaol on Saturday 7 May shared his delight with his fans about his return to Dundalk, saying he is "very excited about this special wee venue. Up close & Personal!" In what will be an uplifting and joyful performance, Brian Kennedy will share more stories about his recent adventures. Over the last number of weeks he fundraised for the Red Cross Ukraine Appeal through his online performances of the Seaview sessions. During his last visit to the Oriel Centre, his audience was treated to tales of his antics in London with Eddi Reader, his adventures with Riverdance in New York and his cancer battle. After the show Brian delighted all those looking for selfies with him by gamely posing alongside them and bantering away with everyone on their way out. The Oriel Centre is the perfect venue to showcase Brians vocals (and sense of humour!). Tickets are 30 and limited tickets are available for the Oriel Centre and online at www.orielcentre.ie. Other dates coming up in the Oriel Centre include acclaimed violinist Vladimir Jablokov on Saturday 11 June and Cork legends The Frank & Walters on Saturday 22 October. Tickets available from www.orielcentre.ie There was a large turnout, despite the inclement weather conditions, for Sinn Feins annual Easter commemoration at St Patricks Cemetery, Dowdallshill on Sunday, which was addressed by Dundalk TD Ruairi O Murchu. The deputy said it was the first time since 2019 that republicans had been able to gather in such numbers for the Easter commemoration which, he said, "allowed people to give the proper dignity and respect, in person, to our patriot dead". In his speech, Deputy O Murchu said that Ireland has "changed utterly" and is "a very different place than it was, even in 2019" He said that there was now "a real opportunity that should not be squandered to deliver what men and women, for generations, have fought for a united Ireland". Referencing the war in Ukraine, the Dundalk TD said: "I am very glad that people in Ireland and around the world are now understanding the difficulties that people face in relation to self-determination, invasion, colonisation and oppression". He said that annually, "fraternal greetings" are sent by republicans at Easter to Catalans, Basques and to Palestinians and this year, he wanted to send fraternal wishes to the people of Ukraine who are suffering under Russian aggression. Deputy O Murchu said it was important to "remember the sacrifices and struggle that people have gone through. The Ireland we live in is still far from perfect, but it is a better place because of the sacrifices of those who have gone before us. One hundred years ago, we were going through a revolutionary period where there was great hope, but it was followed by a civil war where that hope was dashed. "We ended up with two conservative states an apartheid state in the North where nationalists were treated like second class citizens, and a conservative state in the South that has, to this day, absolutely failed its people and has done nothing but stand on the side of vested interests, big business and not on the side of the people". He said the elections in the North, on May 5, provided an opportunity to change politics in the North and Michelle ONeill as First Minister would be followed by Mary Lou McDonald as Taoiseach of a Sinn Fein government for the people, delivering the republican objective of Irish unity, all about equality where there is no room for hate. The Louth TD said: "We have all seen the terrible tragedy in Sligo recently and thats not good enough. We want an Ireland that is a voice for justice, not just domestically, but internationally also". An Tain Arts Centre are thrilled to announce the launch of Threading the Tain, an inter-county community, visual arts project, where 5 tapestries have been created to celebrate the Tain Bo Cuailnge. Funded by Creative Ireland and produced by An Tain Arts Centre in association with Creative Spark, each tapestry depicts scenes from the great epic that relates to each of the five counties that the Tain March Festival march through tracing the route of the Tain, namely Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath, Meath and Louth. A variety of textile techniques have been used in the creation of the tapestries, including dyeing, painting, felting, applique, faux chenille, hand embroidery, quilting and hand and machine sewing. The project was helmed by Louth based artist Sophie Coyle and Sophie has worked closely with archeologist Paul Gosling and Mel O Loan from the Tain March Festival, to determine which parts of the epic to include in the tapestry. The project was guided by a textile artist in each county who have led a group of community sewers in creating each panel. The artists are Frances Crowe Roscommon, Catherine Gray Longford, Claire Delabre Westmeath, Ina Olohan Meath and Una Curley Louth. Over 40 volunteers took part in the project and when placed together the five tapestries portray the overall story of the Tain, while each piece stands alone as an individual artwork. The project is a further development of the relationship between An Tain Arts Centre and the Tain March Festival. Mary Claire Cowley, of An Tain Arts Centre and Project Manager of Threading the Tain says The project has very much been inspired by the passion for the Tain demonstrated by Paul Gosling and Mel O Loan and all the team at the Tain March Festival. This has been a wonderful opportunity for us as counties bound by the ties of the Tain to come together in this collaborative, historical celebration of our identity and culture through craft and we are delighted to be launching Threading the Tain in conjunction with the Tain March Festival 2022. Starting on the 10th June in Cooley, this years Festival will trace the route of the Brown Bull as it made its way to from Cooley to Connaught. Over three weekends the Festival will visit key sites in Cooley, Dundalk, Ardee, Teltown, Kells, Mullingar and will finish in Roscommon Town on the 26th June. Threading the Tain will be available to view as a five-piece artwork by the public at An Tain Arts Centre, Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth from Saturday 23rd April until Saturday 11th June, coinciding with the start of the Tain March Festival. The Tapestry will then go on display in Roscommon for the end of the festival on the 26th June. Each piece will then be returned to its relevant County to go on semi-permanent display. A new crime drama starring Cork actress Siobhan McSweeney will start on Virgin Media One tonight. 'Redemption' was created by Sean Cooke and features a leading Irish cast led by Paula Malcomson. The six-part series begins just as McSweeney bids farewell to her role in Derry Girls as Sister Michael, with the beloved comedy currently airing its final season. Starring alongside McSweeney and Malcomson in Redemption is Ian Lloyd Anderson, Moe Dunford, and, Keith McErlean. The show centres around a detective who comes to Ireland to help Gardai find out the truth about her daughter's death. "In episode one, we meet Liverpool-based DI Colette Cunningham (Paula Malcomson) as she gets an unexpected call from Dublin. A body has been found, and Colette is listed as next of kin to which she knows nothing about," Virgin Media said. "She takes the next ferry to Dublin to learn that it is her daughter, Kate, who disappeared 20 years ago. Consumed by grief, Colette resolves to stay in Ireland to work for the Garda, while also piecing together the truth about Kate's death." McSweeney is also currently starring in 'Holding', a four-part series based on Graham Norton's book of the same name that was filmed in Cork. Redemption' airs Mondays at 9pm on Virgin Media One. CORK City Council has set its sights on expanding the amount of places and spaces for art in the city over the next five years. The strategic priority - one of five identified by the council - is set out in the Draft Arts and Culture Strategy 2022-2026, currently in its final consultation stage. In the draft plan, Michelle Carew, the councils Arts Officer, said after the difficulties of the pandemic and notwithstanding ongoing challenges, the development of the new strategy is optimistic and affirmative. Ms Carew said the priorities identified in the draft plan have been informed by a robust programme of research and consultation. One of the priorities outlined in the draft plan is space for art a goal which the council says demands innovative short and long-term solutions and the collective efforts of stakeholders, including the council, the arts and culture sector, private developers, government and statutory agencies. Over the next five years, alongside the planned major capital developments of the Events Centre and Crawford Art Gallery, we will explore and advance opportunities to augment space for art sustainably across the city. In particular, we will pursue the recognised potential for arts and culture in the regeneration of the city centre, the draft plan stated. As part of this goal, Cork City Council has said it will work towards the development of a flagship arts creation facility in the city. Other priorities identified in the plan are: to encourage and enable more people across all communities to access and enjoy art; to build on the tradition of outdoor arts in Cork city; to advance the culture and conditions that make Cork a city for artists; and an aim to invest in people, knowledge and advocacy to encourage the pursuit of arts and culture in the city. Observations or submissions regarding the Draft Arts and Culture Strategy 2022-2026 can be made before midday on Thursday, May 5. This can be done in writing: Arts and Events Section, Community, Culture & Placemaking Directorate, Cork City Council, City Hall, Anglesea Street, Cork City, T12 T997; or visit www.consult.corkcity.ie. MORE than 500 second-level teachers from schools all over Ireland will come together in Corks Clayton Hotel Silver Springs tomorrow, April 19, for the ASTIs three-day Annual Convention. Our first face-to-face Convention in three years, it provides the perfect opportunity for the ASTI to re-ignite our key pre-pandemic education campaigns. In 2021, the OECD report Education at a Glance ranked Ireland in last place out of 36 countries in terms of government expenditure on second-level education as a percentage of GDP. In Ireland, the chronic and on-going lack of investment in schools has resulted in large classes, lack of access to specialist services (such as Guidance Counselling and psychological supports), skeleton management structures in schools, high teacher workload and teacher shortages. Over the coming days, delegates at the ASTI Convention will debate these issues in detail. Pandemic lessons The pandemic, including periods of school closures highlighted the important role schools play in the lives of children and young people. In March 2020, teachers and their students had to transition to remote teaching and learning overnight. While school communities all over the country rose to this challenge, the 2020 lockdown exposed and worsened significant educational inequalities. Since then, the ASTI has called for every possible step to be taken to ensure schools can be kept open in a safe manner, so that disruption for students is minimised. We acknowledge that additional funding and resources made available to schools during this period has helped schools in their efforts. However, if schools are now to ensure students can move on from the pandemic, we cannot go back to pre-pandemic levels of staff and funding. At the very least, the extra resources given to schools during the pandemic must become permanent. Making teaching attractive Second-level schools have been experiencing difficulties recruiting teachers for a number of years. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic. This is extremely concerning. As stated above, students have already suffered as a result of disruption due to the pandemic. A recent survey by RED C, commissioned by the ASTI, found that most schools (93%) have experienced difficulties recruiting teachers in the current school year. A majority of schools (55%) currently have unfilled vacancies; indeed (84%) per cent of principals surveyed said they have experienced situations where no teacher applied for an advertised post in their school this year. Now that the students are back in their classrooms, they need their teachers. Much more needs to be done to ensure that teaching is made attractive again. Entry into second-level teaching is a demoralising experience for young teachers due to unequal pay and precarious contracts. At the ASTI Convention delegates will call for an end to unequal pay. Other motions at Convention will seek to tackle the cost of qualifying as a teacher. Second-level teaching normally requires a degree and a Professional Master of Education (PME). For the majority of teachers this means a qualifying period involving approximately six years. The cost of the PME over two years is estimated to be in the region of 10,000 - 15,000. Student teachers are required to undertake classroom teaching practice, but do not receive any pay/ allowance. The high cost of qualifying together with a two-year time commitment, impacts on the attractiveness of teaching as a career and is a barrier to diversity within the profession. Teaching conditions Teachers working conditions influence students learning conditions. A recent global report found that teacher workload increased during school lock downs and did not reduce when schools re-opened. This is very concerning for a career that is already known for stress and burnout. Teaching is a highly relational activity. Teachers teach up to 200 students a week. In Ireland second level teachers spend more time in the classroom with their students than the OECD average. As well as this, teachers undertake at least the same level of non-teaching duties as their OECD counterparts. Leaving Cert Our Convention takes place just weeks after the surprise announcement by the Minister for Education Norma Foley on her plans for Senior Cycle and the Leaving Cert. Teachers know only too well that changes to education policy can have far reaching implications for students, the education system and society. Teachers voice is key to any curriculum change process, as is the use of sound scientific research and evidence. Our Convention will allow teachers from all over Ireland to give their views on the Ministers plans and discuss how they will respond. The spotted tree frog was already recovering from local extinction when the Black Summer wildfires of 2019 to 2020 raged through New South Wales (NSW) in Australia. Of 250 to 300 frogs once released into the wild, only about 10 survived. But now, the critically endangered species is receiving yet another lease on life. The government has released 80 spotted tree frogs into Kosciuszko National Park. Releasing these 80 Spotted Tree Frogs back into the wild despite all the setbacks this species has faced is a reminder to have optimism about the conservation work were doing, because its clearly making a positive difference, NSW Minister for Environment James Griffin said in a press release. The spotted tree frog (Litoria spenceri) is a medium-sized amphibian that lives alongside mountain rivers in the Australian states of NSW and Victoria, according to the Victoria state government. The females are slightly larger than the males, growing to around 60 millimeters in length, and have a dappled olive-gray and green skin that helps them blend in with streamside vegetation. The Spotted Tree Frog is fundamental to the maintenance of ecosystem health in the NSW upland rivers where it lives, Department of Planning and Environment senior threatened species officer David Hunter said in the press release. It occupies many streams where they are the only frog species, and tadpoles of this species consume nutrients and algae in large numbers. They are also food for other species such as snakes, birds, mammals and predatory invertebrates, playing an important role in the food web. Australian Museum amphibian biologist and conservationist Dr. Jodi Rowley told The Sydney Morning Herald that the frogs were bioindicators, meaning that it is possible to use them as a proxy for the overall health of their environment. They are the glue that sticks ecosystems together. In places where frogs have had dramatic declines there are nothing that steps up to fill that role, she said. There are irreversible changes: the streams are full of algae because the tadpoles arent there to eat it, animals that rely on frogs waste away. We need frogs. However, the frogs have been struggling for years because of chytrid fungus. Scientists have called this amphibian-targeting fungus the most destructive pathogen ever, and it has already driven 90 species to extinction in the last 50 years. The spotted tree frog itself became extinct in NSW in 2001 because of the disease, but the NSW Governments Saving our Species program and the Amphibian Research Centre in Melbourne worked together to breed the frogs and re-release them beginning in 2015, the NSW government said. In Victoria, the species is no longer found in half of the sites it previously inhabited, and the government says it will go extinct without help, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. In addition to the fungus and threats from the climate crisis such as bushfires, the frogs also face pressure from introduced predators like cats and foxes. However, scientists are hopeful that they can give the frogs the support they need. To have these 80 frogs back in the wild, and hopefully thriving and helping boost their population numbers, is fantastic, Rowley told Australias ABC News. Its one of the most threatened frog species in Australia and its holding on, just clinging on, thanks to these amazing conservation works. With their branches reaching up like knobby arms with tufts for fists, western Joshua trees are an iconic part of the California desert ecosystem, and environmental advocates want to make sure they stay that way in the face of development and the climate crisis. To that end, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a petition in 2019 to grant the trees protections under the California Endangered Species Act as a threatened species. But, on Wednesday, Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists argued that the trees were not imperiled enough to qualify. While the Department recognizes the threats faced by the species, and the evidence presented in favor of the petitioned action, the scientific evidence that is currently possessed by the Department does not demonstrate that populations of the species are negatively trending in a way that would lead the Department to believe that the species is likely to be in serious danger of becoming extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range in the foreseeable future, the report authors concluded. The western Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is one of two species of Joshua tree that lives in the California desert, according to CBD. Currently, the trees are relatively widespread and abundant in the state, the department wrote. However, environmental advocates are concerned that this will not always be the case. A 2019 study found that Joshua Tree National Park would lose almost all of its namesake trees by the end of the century if nothing is done about the climate crisis. Warmer temperatures have already forced the trees to migrate towards higher elevations in the park, and trees in the warmer, lower areas are reproducing less. Currently, the western Joshua trees entire range is experiencing severe drought, the Los Angeles Times reported. Further, advocates are worried that desert development, including for renewable energy, will put additional pressure on the species. We should take care of these trees now, before we have fewer options to work with, California State University Northridge evolutionary geneticist Jeremy Yoder told the Los Angeles Times. After CBD filed its petition in 2019, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to grant the trees candidate status in 2020, meaning that they were legally protected while their status was reviewed, CBD explained. This made it illegal to kill a Joshua tree without a permit. California wildlife officials just proposed open season on Joshua trees, CBD conservation director Brendan Cummings, who lives in Joshua Tree, said in a CBD press release. Before state protections took effect, developers were bulldozing these beautiful, fragile trees by the thousands to build roads, warehouses, power plants, strip malls and vacation rentals. If Joshua trees are to have any hope of surviving in a warming world, we have to stop the widespread killing of them. The departments decision does not necessarily mean the trees dont have a chance to retain these protections. Instead, the commission will review their advice and issue a final decision by June. However, the Los Angeles Times pointed out that the state of California has never protected a species purely based on the threat of the climate crisis. Only one species has gained protections on a federal level for this reason the polar bear. The states upcoming decision on protecting Joshua trees is a litmus test that will show whether its climate leadership is real or just empty rhetoric, Cummings said in the release. The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced its plans to resume oil and gas drilling on federal lands, which would violate one of President Joe Bidens big campaign promises. The Interior Department said in a press release that it planned to auction off drilling leases across 225 square miles in nine states Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Alabama, Nevada, North Dakota and Oklahoma, reported the Associated Press. About 30 percent less land is being offered than officials had nominated for sale in November, and 80 percent less than the oil and gas industry had initially proposed. As gas prices have increased since Russias invasion of Ukraine, Biden has been under pressure to expand oil production in the U.S., while also facing calls from fellow Democrats to take action to reduce fossil fuel emissions in the country. The government plans to charge greatly increased royalty rates for companies to drill and conduct an assessment of the climate impact of developing the land, reported Reuters. The new royalty rate will be 18.75 percent, up from 12.5 percent. It is the first time royalty rates have been increased since the 1920s, said the Associated Press. How we manage our public lands and waters says everything about what we value as a nation, said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, as Reuters reported. The Department of the Interior press release said that the Bureau of Land Management will issue its sale notices for upcoming lease sales, as well as the final environmental assessments, today. The Interior Department said that many recommendations from its November 2021 Report on the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program will be incorporated into the lease sales, including community input and consultation with Tribes. For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of tribal nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands, Haaland said, as reported by The New York Times. Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans resources for the benefit of all current and future generations. The announcement drew a confused response from the oil industry. Its a mixed message and strangely incoherent, said CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Jeff Eshelman, as the New York Times reported. This administration has begged for more oil from foreign nations, blames American energy producers for price gouging and sitting on leases. Now under pressure, it announces a lease sale with major royalty increases that will add uncertainty to drilling plans for years. The lease sales drew criticism from environmental groups, who denounced them as heedlessly dismissive of the climate crisis. The Biden administrations claim that it must hold these lease sales is pure fiction and a reckless failure of climate leadership, said public lands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity Randi Spivak, as reported by Reuters. Its as if theyre ignoring the horror of firestorms, floods and megadroughts, and accepting climate catastrophes as business as usual. Uncertainty looms large over the future of Odisha medical students who returned from war-torn Ukraine last month. Hence, together, they have urged Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, Government of India to accommodate them in Indian medical colleges on humanitarian grounds. Around 100 students met the Union Minister while he was visiting capital city Bhubaneswar on April 16, Saturday and submitted a memorandum to him seeking admission to medical colleges in the country. Sharing that their academics has been affected due to the ongoing war, the students said uncertainty looms over the completion of their education. After their return to India, Poland and Hungary governments had allowed the students to continue their medical education in their countries till things normalise in Ukraine. In the memorandum, the students informed that medical fees and the cost of living in countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are more than double of Ukraine. "The quality of medical education in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is not good. In the European countries, we will again have to learn the local language and affording the medical fees is next to impossible now having already spent a lot of money in Ukraine," they said in the memorandum. From over 22,000 medical students who India brought back from Ukraine after the Russian invasion on February 24, around 500 are from Odisha studying in various medical colleges including those in Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Sumy. Earlier, Kandhamal MP Dr Achyuta Samanta had urged the Centre to formulate a special strategy for the Ukraine returnee students. There are 605 medical colleges in India, of which 325 are in the private sector. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, to come up with a concrete policy for assigning students to different medical colleges in India. So far, students who have graduated from medical colleges in Ukraine are allowed by the National Medical Commission to complete their internship in India provided they clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination. Edinboro geologist and European colleagues produce major taxonomic revision of fossil lobsters A team of scientists led by an Edinboro University Geosciences professor has completed a major reclassification of a group of clawed lobster and shrimp species. The group is characterized by very unusual claws with long, slender fingers bearing needle-like denticles. Dr. Dale Tshudy, a paleontologist, teamed up with European crustacean paleontologists Matus Hyzny (Slovakia), Martina Kocova Veselska (Czech Republic), and John W.M. Jagt (Netherlands) and recently published a taxonomic revision of the extinct clawed lobster genus Oncopareia and many other, unrelated species. My research over 37 years has produced several neat discoveries and a number of firsts, said Tshudy, who has taught at Edinboro since 1992. For me, the current paper is right there among them a favorite as contributions go. Tshudy began the reclassification process in 1987 as part of his Ph.D. dissertation on lobster evolution examining first-hand every known species. He then spent three weeks touring European museum collections and borrowing specimens from all over the world. Over the next few years, researchers found links that were missing when the fossils were originally discovered and classified dating back to the 19th Century. It was a train stop in Brussels, Belgium, that sparked this current study. In a dust-covered box in the basement of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Tshudy found what would be the nucleus of his research for the next three decades. What was supposed to be a quick visit to compare a published description from 1849 with the museums holotype specimens a single type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based turned out to only befuddle Tshudy. Something wasnt right. Tshudy had the whole collection shipped to him at Kent State University in Ohio for further examination. After weeks of study, he discovered that the fossil lobster species described and illustrated in 1849 as Oncopareia bredai was in fact an accidental composite of two very different lobster species. As Tshudy describes it like the head of a deer and the back of a cow. And this species was unchecked and unconfirmed, then perpetuated in the literature for the next 150 years creating a convoluted mess, a taxonomic nightmare, Tshudy explained. Compounding the confusion was what scientists call convergent evolution the process whereby distantly related organisms independently evolve similar traits to adapt to similar necessities in the claws of these crustaceans. These unrelated species were often erroneously considered related because of their nearly identical claws. Tshudy worked on this group from 1990 to the present, collaborating with marine biologists and paleontologists in Europe and Asia and publishing solutions in parts along the way. In 2016, he recruited Hyzny, Veselska and Jagt to help in completing a comprehensive revision of this group, reclassifying the original specimen and many others. The team presented their findings in 2018 at the 9th International Crustacean Congress in Washington, D.C. In April 2022, their manuscript was accepted for publication. The original species was based on specimens found in dinosaur-age fossils from western Europe. Related, and very similar-looking, species of lobster are known today from the deep oceans. Related fossil specimens are also known from dinosaur-age rocks worldwide. Tshudys work in crustaceans didnt stop with the scientific paper. In the fall of 2021, he was invited to coauthor a segment in Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, which Tshudy describes as every paleontologists desk reference. Tshudy has now published 28 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and books. Photo: The remedied illustration of Oncopareia bredai, completed by Dr. Dale Tshudy and his European counterparts. Egg prices rising due to bird flu and Russia's invasion into Ukraine As Russia's invasion into Ukraine affects grain exports to Europe and the Middle East, severe outbreaks of avian flu in the United States and France are also limiting global egg supply and hiking costs for the food staple, Reuters reported. Consumers who rely on eggs as a low-cost source of protein and a replacement for more costly meat are more affected. In the US and Europe, demand for eggs spikes around the Easter and Passover holidays. According to Reuters' assessments of federal and state government statistics, bird flu has killed more than 19 million egg-laying hens on commercial US farms this year, the largest outbreak since 2015, wiping out roughly 6% of the country's flock. Meanwhile, France is facing its biggest bird flu outbreak ever, with almost 8% of egg-laying hens being killed. Entire flocks of chickens are killed when they become infected by bird flu to stop the spread of the virus. The deadly virus and the Ukraine conflict are the newest issues for egg producers, who are already dealing with labour shortages and rising energy and livestock feed costs. Higher egg prices cut into bakeries' and food industries' revenues, which are already struggling to keep up with rising wheat and other commodity costs. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, world food prices rose about 13% in March to a new record high, as the conflict in Ukraine, a key supplier of wheat and maize, pushed up grain prices. Producers predict egg costs to remain high for some time since bird flu affected farms will take months to reopen. Work at facilities that turn shell eggs into goods like dry eggs and liquid eggs used in culinary items like cake and pancake mixes and egg sandwiches are also hampered by infections. Marcus Rust, CEO of Rose Acre Farms, the second-largest egg producer in the US, said the product industry is in a general panic, adding that the company lost around 1.5 million egg-laying birds at a bird flu-infected Iowa farm, which also shut down a processing unit. With the culling of two flocks containing more than 5 million laying hens, Iowa, the top egg-producing state in the US, has suffered greatly. Nebraska state said on Wednesday that it will cull a flock of over 1.7 million laying hens. In comparison to Europe, where farms are smaller, the impact on the US food sector was expedited by the sheer size of major chicken firms. According to data provider Urner Barry, wholesale prices for large eggs in the United States Midwest hit US$3 per dozen in March, the second-highest amount ever, up roughly 200% from a year earlier on the spot market. Prices stayed below the all-time high of US$3.09 per dozen achieved at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, egg products such as liquid whole eggs are at all-time highs, according to Urner Barry. Wholesale shell egg prices in France have increased by 69% year over year, according to the French farm office FranceAgriMer. As a result, customers may see an increase in the price of egg-based foods. Jean-Philippe Puig, CEO of French agri-food business Avril, which owns sauce producer Lesieur, said it is tough when you make mayonnaise and egg costs rise. He said they need to approach supermarkets and persuade them to accept a price increase. According to US official statistics, during the country's worst-ever avian flu outbreak in 2015, the US increased egg imports from nations such as France, Italy, and Spain to improve supply. Because of the outbreaks in Europe, analysts believe that imports are no longer a realistic alternative. The emergence of war, not only virus outbreaks, is affecting Middle East buyers' supply chains. Santosh Kumar, an egg importer for Farzana Trading in the UAE, said he hasn't heard of any shipments from Ukraine entering the UAE in the last two weeks. Farzana is importing eggs from Turkey. According to figures from Ukraine's federal statistics department, the country produced 14.1 billion eggs in 2021. According to the French egg industry association CNPO, output reached 16.2 billion eggs a year ago, above the 15.7 billion produced in France, the EU's top egg producer. In recent years, Ukraine has surpassed the US as the EU's primary egg producer, accounting for almost half of all imports. Middle Eastern nations who bought Ukrainian eggs before the conflict are looking for replacements in Europe, according to CNPO vice president Loic Coulombel. He said bird flu is an issue in France, but it's also a problem throughout Europe as there are no other European countries with the volume to make up for the gap. Coulombel said to cope with high egg prices, French food manufacturers will likely reduce output of some processed goods or change their recipes. The CNPO produces about 1 million eggs in the Brittany and Normandy regions of France. Liz Rehberg, owner of The Bakery in Green Bay, Wisconsin state, US, said the price of 15 dozen eggs had risen from US$26 to US$45 in recent weeks. She's debating whether or not to raise her rates or lower the size of her baked goodies. - Reuters Aviagen North America supports Mississippi State University's new poultry feed mill Aviagen North America recently pledged financial support earmarked for a new poultry feed mill to be located at the Mississippi State University (MSU) H. H. Leveck Animal Research Center. MSU is one of the six universities in the United States with stand-alone poultry science departments. The new modern facility with leading-edge features and equipment will produce biosecure feed for the university's research flocks, as well as nutrition trials and feed formulation trials. Located on MSU's Poultry Science research farm, the mill will include a 4,950 square-foot process area, a 2,250-square-foot bagged ingredient and finish feed storage area and an additional 2,720 square feet in ancillary support areas. It will provide hands-on training for MSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students, as well as continuing education opportunities for industry mill managers. Additionally, the feed mill will also be used for research in the university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Dr. Kelley Wamsley, associate professor of nutrition and feed manufacture for MSU's Poultry Science department, said: "We pride ourselves in providing our students with practical, hands-on learning experiences to complement classroom learning. This investment allows us to do that, increasing student preparedness for employment upon graduation, while also allowing us to better serve the poultry industry through enhanced research and feed milling workshops." "Our Poultry Science graduates enjoy 100% job placement, which means we are doing our part in preparing them for careers of making a difference in the exciting world of poultry," said Mary Beck, former head of MSU Poultry Science department. "We share with Aviagen a commitment to the future of our industry, and we thank them for this generous contribution to our state-of-the-art feed mill." "Aviagen is honored to contribute to MSU's Poultry Science Research Farm and the great development and innovation that takes place there," said the president of Aviagen North America, Marc de Beer. "Training our next generation of leaders is among the most important work we can engage in. Our motto at Aviagen is "to breed the best, we need the best" and MSU and Aviagen have the common goal of securing the sustainability of the industry by finding and encouraging creative up-and-coming professionals. "These future leaders have a passion for feeding the world with affordable, nutritious chicken meat, while creating efficiencies that promote the sustainability of our environment and the economic sustainability of poultry growers around the world." - Aviagen Kazakhstan to restrict wheat exports until mid-June Kazakhstan will limit exports of wheat and flour until June 15, Agriculture Minister Yerbol Karashukeyev said. In 2021, the country harvested more than 16.4 million tonnes of grains and pulses, a decrease of 18.2% compared to 2020, when Kazakhstan's harvest was 20.06 million tonnes. The decrease is due to drought in some regions of the country last year. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Agriculture also revised the wheat export outlook upward for the 2021-2022 marketing year to about 7-7.3 million tonnes. - Italian Trade Agency Bird flu confirmed in US states of Pennsylvania and Utah The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed bird flu cases in a commercial chicken flock in Pennsylvania state and another among backyard flock in Utah, as the virus has spread to more than 30 US states, Reuters reported. In early April, the USDA said it was looking into developing a bird flu vaccine as the country copes with its worst outbreak of the virus since 2015. More than 20 million chicken and turkeys in commercial flocks have been killed due to bird flu since February 2022. The USDA said bird flu samples were tested and confirmed at the Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory and Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, both part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. Additional surveillance and testing will be conducted by federal and state officials. The US has shunned vaccines in the past over concerns that importers will impose a ban on US poultry imports if they cannot distinguish infected birds from vaccinated ones. The US is the second biggest poultry meat exporter in the world. The country exported US$$4.2 billion worth of poultry and poultry product exports globally in 2020. Bird flu outbreaks have been reported in Asia and Europe, and the USDA is working with other countries in developing a vaccine for the virus. Key importers such as China has banned poultry shipments from US states with reported outbreaks. - Reuters USDA: China's 2022 pork imports expected to fall close to 20% China's pork imports are forecast to decline nearly 20% this year, pushing global trade lower and more than offsetting a recovery in demand among other major importing countries as they recover from COVID-19-related disruptions, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said. As growth in other markets will not offset the decline in China, most major pork exporters will experience a second consecutive year of contracting shipments. Last year, as China recovered, imports were 20% lower than the record levels of 2020, Previously, the country's import demand for pork surged in the wake of supply deficits caused by African swine fever and in 2020, imports nearly quadrupled. As a result, hog sectors around the world expanded production, shifted products out of their domestic markets and redirected pork from other destinations. The European Union, the top pork supplier to China and the world's largest exporter, is forecast to see exports decline 5% to just under 4.8 million tonnes this year. Exporters in the EU are expected to find some relief from lower China demand in the form of stronger demand in the United Kingdom, where imports are projected 7% higher in 2022. The EU will also boost shipments to Japan, South Korea and Australia countries to which EU exports declined in recent years as sales shifted to China. Competitive EU carcass prices compared to US and firm demand will propel higher shipments to these markets in 2022. US pork exports are forecast 6% lower year-over-year. China's demand for US product was among the first to come under pressure, with US shipments to this important market falling during every month of 2021 compared to the previous year due to high US prices and retaliatory tariffs. These factors are expected to persist in 2022 causing further declines in US market share. Partially offsetting losses in China, demand for US pork is expected to grow in Mexico. Going forward, Colombia and the Dominican Republic are expected to grow further, although more slowly than last year as high US prices create headwinds. Canada's exports are expected to decline modestly in 2022, sliding 1% year over year. Like the United States, Canada faces headwinds in China. Currently, the majority of Canadian pork production remains suspended from China due to reported COVID-19 cases at several plants. However, most cases occurred months ago and do not necessarily represent active outbreaks. Tight supplies in the US Canada's top export market will help offset declines to China. Of the four largest exporters, only Brazil saw overall shipments grow in 2021 on strong production gains, competitive prices and a weak real. Even exports to China increased year over year as Brazil boosted its share in that market to 16%. In 2022, Brazil is expected to sustain aggregate exports, seeing modest growth of less than 1%. In China, Brazil will likely capture a larger portion of a shrinking share due to more competitive pricing than other major exporters. Meanwhile, Brazil continues to perform well in Vietnam and the Philippines and demand is growing in neighboring Argentina and Uruguay. - USDA USAPEEC and USPOULTRY hold opening ceremonies for new office in Georgia, US The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) and US Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) recently held individual ribbon-cutting ceremonies for their newly renovated office space in Tucker, Georgia, the United States. The space is owned by The Coop Group, LLC, a partnership of USAPEEC and USPOULTRY. Jim Sumner, president of USAPEEC, said:"We are so pleased to call these fine offices our new home. Co-owning this marvelous building suits our needs now and helps to assure our future so that we can continue to serve the growing export needs of the US poultry and egg industry." Sumner added: "It is fitting that we were joined for the ribbon-cutting ceremony by members of the board of the Central American Poultry Export Quota, as USAPEEC's share of the building's construction costs was entirely financed through revenue generated by chicken export sales conducted under the Central American Free Trade Agreement." - USPOULTRY RTHK: Air strikes hit western Ukraine city of Lviv Air strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Monday, as Russia pounded targets across the country and massed forces for an expected all-out assault in the east. The air strikes in Lviv came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas bordering Russia. Russia's defence ministry said it had hit 16 military targets at various locations across Ukraine. Following the attack on Lviv, black smoke billowed from the gutted roof of a car repair shop in the northwest of the city as air raid sirens wailed. "Fires were set off as a result of the strikes. They are still being put out. The facilities were severely damaged," Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. In the south, Russia continued its push to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukranian forces prepared for a final stand. Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the strategic city, defying a Russian ultimatum for remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. Russian state TV on Monday broadcast a video of what it described as "Britons" captured fighting for Ukraine and demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiate their release. The two haggard-looking men asked to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian tycoon close to President Vladimir Putin, who was recently arrested in the pro-Western country. Ukraine then aired its own video featuring Medvedchuk calling for his exchange in return for an evacuation of civilians and troops from Mariupol. "I want to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to exchange me for Ukrainian defenders and residents of Mariupol," he said in the video published by Kyiv's security services, wearing black clothes and looking directly into the camera. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops attacked the former Soviet state on February 24. While several large cities were under siege, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, not one with the exception of Kherson in the south had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been re-captured. Capturing Mariupol would allow Russia to have a land bridge between the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and the two Moscow-backed separatist statelets in Ukraine's east. In the east, Ukrainian authorities urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. "Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas," Zelenskyy said. Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday said the coming week would be "difficult". "It may be the last time we have a chance to save you," he wrote on Facebook. Heavy bouts of shelling also resumed in the country's second city of Kharkiv on Monday morning. The shelling comes a day after at least five people were killed and 20 wounded during a string of strikes in the city just 21 kilometres from the Russian border on Sunday. More than 4.9 million Ukrainians have fled their country, the United Nations said on Monday warning of the risks of women and child refugees being exploited. "Refugees from Ukraine, the vast majority women and children, face increased risks of sexual exploitation, abuse and human trafficking," the UN refugee agency said. Ukraine officials also said on Monday they were halting the evacuation of civilians from frontline towns and cities in the east for a second day, accusing Russian forces of blocking and shelling escape routes. "In violation of international humanitarian law, the Russian occupiers have not stopped blocking and shelling humanitarian routes," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on social media. But Lugansk governor Gaiday announced earlier that he had proceeded with evacuations. "At our own peril and risk, we took out several dozen people anyway, but it's already dangerous," he told Ukrainian media. During an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he had invited his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed "genocide" a term Macron has avoided. "I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide." Zelenskyy, describing the situation in Mariupol as "inhuman", has called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons a request he frequently airs. But Russia has warned the United States this week of "unpredictable consequences" if it sent its "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Shanghai tackles logistics bottlenecks amid virus resurgence Xinhua) 10:51, April 18, 2022 Liu Zengyu, a delivery man from Jiangxi Province, delivers goods in Shanghai, April 15, 2022. Recently, Hema Fresh, a Chinese fresh items' supermarket, has organized aid teams from more than 20 cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Hefei and Wuhan to support Shanghai in the delivery of living supplies. [Photo/Xinhua] SHANGHAI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai is working hard to overcome bottlenecks in logistics and help e-commerce platforms increase production and transport capacity amid strong COVID-19 flare-ups. The megacity of 25 million people reported 3,590 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 19,923 local asymptomatic carriers on Friday, the municipal health commission said on Saturday. "The epidemic rebound in Shanghai has caused severe pressure on online shopping, bearing in mind that many delivery persons are under closed-off management and some large warehouses have been temporarily closed," said Liu Min, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, at a press conference on Saturday. "Shanghai is going all out to restore transport capacity," Liu said. A total of 42 non-epidemic-hit warehouses of Shanghai's e-commerce platforms have resumed operations so far, with more than 18,000 delivery drivers completing about 1.8 million orders per day. Also, supermarkets and other offline stores of key suppliers are gradually resuming business. As of Friday, 1,011 non-epidemic-hit stores of major supermarkets had opened. The number of employees had increased by 37 percent compared with the previous period. To further improve the efficiency of distribution, some supermarkets in the economic hub have launched a variety of supply packages involving necessities such as rice, noodles, vegetables, fruits and toiletries, which will be delivered to local communities through third-party logistics companies after residents report their needs to neighborhood communities or place orders on the supermarkets' apps, Liu said. The city has strengthened health testing for anti-epidemic workers including delivery people, providing convenient testing services. Shanghai adopts a "2+2" testing mode for logistics workers, requiring them to take two antigen tests every other day, and one antigen test and one nucleic acid test the following day. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Government gun confiscation attempt: 122 killed By Mark Alexander web posted April 18, 2022 In the bowels of New York's subway system, crime has surged 65% . The city's new mayor, Eric Adams, had to walk back his assertion that there was an undue "perception of fear" about the subway system after a woman was shoved in front of an oncoming train. Former NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir set the record straight: "Perception often is reality, and if you happen to be one of the victims it's certainly reality." That reality struck hard again last Tuesday in the borough of Brooklyn, as an assailant injured 10 people in a premeditated attack, five of whom are in critical but stable condition. After setting off a smoke bomb in a transit car to obscure his actions, the black male suspect , Frank James, fired a weapon into the crowd of morning commuters. The attack has the imprint of a hate crime, given the suspect's racist social media rants except the notion of a " black supremacist " weaponized by Marxist Black Lives Matter radicals does not fit the Left's profile of a "hate crime." It's a deadly irony that in a city that ranks at the top of those with the strictest gun control laws in the nation, the bad guy had a weapon, but none of the law-abiding citizens could defend themselves against the assault and stop him. Where weapons are outlawed, only outlaws have weapons, which explains why the deadliest large cities in the nation including Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Baltimore, and Washington, DC are those with the most restrictions on firearms, and all under the control of Democrats. The week before, armed thugs assaulted and killed six individuals in Sacramento, but before the blood had dried and a more detailed narrative could emerge, Joe Biden blamed the deaths and injuries on "gun violence" in our nation's urban centers rather than the assailants. Predictably, he used the assault to promote his Second Amendment deconstruction agenda , opportunistically claiming : "America once again mourns for another community devastated by gun violence. ... We know these lives were not the only lives impacted by gun violence last night. ... We must do more than mourn; we must act ... to implement my comprehensive gun crime reduction strategy." Despite Biden's superhero crime fighter facade, " gun violence " was not the cause of death in Sacramento any more than it was the cause of yesterday's injuries in New York. It is just a manifestation of the violent criminal problem the Democrats have propagated for seven decades . If Biden really wanted to address what he calls an "epidemic of violence," he would make the epidemic of black-on-black assaults and murder in America his administration's highest priority. But he won't. He is too busy promoting his " white supremacy " bogeyman. Fact is, almost half of new gun owners are women , and there has been a surge of legal firearm purchases by black citizens . Furthermore, after the election of Biden, there were more than 18 million firearms purchased by all Americans in 2021. There has also been a significant increase in the issuance of carry permits as support for gun rights grows . But Biden is busy vilifying all of them. It is notable that last year, the week before our Patriots' Day commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord a case study of consequences when tyrannical governments attempt to disarm the people Biden announced six incremental executive orders aimed at the Left's ultimate goal of deconstructing and repealing the Second Amendment . He declared then, "No amendment to the Constitution is absolute." Likewise, last week, Biden announced his leftist ATF nominee and more gun control regulations , specifically his intent to "ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," and "ghost guns" two perennial anti-2A straw men and one brand-new one to be trotted out to undermine the first civil right of all Americans, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." James Madison's Supreme Court appointee, Justice Joseph Story, noted: "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." In honor of our upcoming Patriots' Day, April 19th, and with Biden's latest effort to infringe on the rights of the people as a backdrop, let's take a brief stroll down the path that gave rise to our Republic and recall the first time central government tyrants attempted to confiscate weapons from grassroots Americans Patriots . On December 16th, 1773, "radicals" from Boston, members of a secret organization of American Patriots called the Sons of Liberty, boarded three East India Company ships and threw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This iconic event, in protest of oppressive British taxation and tyrannical rule, became known as the Boston Tea Party . Resistance to the Crown had been mounting over enforcement of the 1764 Sugar Act, 1765 Stamp Act, and 1767 Townshend Act, which led to the Boston Massacre and gave rise to the slogan, "No taxation without representation." The 1773 Tea Act and resulting Tea Party protest galvanized the colonists in opposition to British parliamentary acts, which they believed violated their natural, charter, and constitutional rights. In response to the rebellion, the British enacted additional punitive measures, labeled the "Intolerable Acts," in hopes of suppressing the burgeoning insurrection. Far from accomplishing their goal, however, the Crown's countermeasures led colonists to convene the First Continental Congress on September 5th, 1774, in Philadelphia. By the spring of 1775, civil discontent with their royal rulers was growing, and American Patriots in Massachusetts and other colonies were preparing to cast off this yoke. On the evening of April 18th, 1775, General Thomas Gage, acting as the Crown's military governor of Massachusetts, dispatched a force of 700 British Army regulars with secret orders. These troops, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were to arrest 53-year-old Boston Tea Party leader Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Provincial Congress President John Hancock, and merchant fleet owner Jeremiah Lee. But what directly tied Gage's orders to the later enumeration in our Constitution's Second Amendment of the innate "right to keep and bear arms" was the primary mission of his Redcoat brigades. They were charged with undertaking a preemptive raid to confiscate arms and ammunition stored by Massachusetts Patriots in the town of Concord. Patriot militia and minutemen, under the leadership of the Sons of Liberty, anticipated this raid, and the confrontations with British regulars at Lexington and Concord proved to be the fuse that ignited the American Revolution. Near midnight on April 18th, a prominent 41-year-old Boston silversmith, Paul Revere, who had arranged for advance warning of British movements, departed Charlestown (near Boston) for Lexington and Concord in order to warn John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other Sons of Liberty that the British Army was marching to arrest them and seize their weapons caches. Revere's Ride was memorably captured by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. ... One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country-folk to be up and to arm. After meeting with Hancock and Adams in Lexington, Revere was captured, but his Patriot ally, Samuel Prescott, continued to Concord and warned militiamen along the way. The Patriots in Lexington and Concord, with other citizen militias in New England, were bound by "minute man" oaths to "stand at a minute's warning with arms and ammunition." The oath of the Lexington militia read thus: "We trust in God that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause." In the early dawn of April 19th, those oaths would be tested with blood. Under the command of 46-year-old farmer and militia Captain John Parker, 77 militiamen assembled on the town green at Lexington, where they soon faced Smith's overwhelming force of seasoned Redcoats. Parker did not expect a battle, but his orders were: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Within close musket range from the Patriots' column, British Major John Pitcairn swung his sword and ordered, "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels!" Not willing to sacrifice his small band of Patriots on the green, as Parker later wrote in a sworn deposition, "I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire." But his Patriots refused to lay down their arms. Then, under Pitcairn's orders, as Parker testified, "Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us." Ten other Patriots were wounded. As the American militia retreated toward Concord with the British in pursuit, their ranks grew to more than 400. In Concord, the British divided in order to search for armament stores. Before noon, the second confrontation between regulars and militiamen occurred as 100 British light infantry from three companies faced the ranks of militia and minutemen at Concord's Old North Bridge. From depositions on both sides, we know that the British fired first, killing two and wounding four. This time, however, the militia commander, Major John Buttrick, ordered, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!" And fire they did. The volley commenced with what poet Ralph Waldo Emerson later immortalized in his Concord Hymn as "The Shot Heard Round the World." With that shot, farmers, laborers, landowners, and statesmen alike brought upon themselves the sentence of death for treason. In the ensuing firefight, the British suffered heavy casualties. In discord, the Redcoats retreated to Concord proper and, after reinforcing their ranks, marched back toward Lexington. During their Concord retreat, the British took additional casualties in sporadic firefights. The most notable of those was an ambush by the reassembled ranks of John Parker's militia, which became known as "Parker's Revenge." Despite reinforcements when they returned to Lexington, the king's men were no match for the Patriot ranks. The militia and minutemen inflicted heavy casualties upon the Redcoats along their 18-mile tactical retreat to Boston. By day's end, the Patriots had suffered 49 killed, 39 wounded, and five missing. The British casualties totaled 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 26 missing. Upon hearing of those first shots in what would become an eight-year struggle for American Liberty , Samuel Adams declared to fellow Patriot John Hancock, "What a glorious morning this is!" Indeed it was, and it has remained so with every sunrise over our free nation since. Thus began the great campaign to reject tyranny and embrace the struggle to secure individual Liberty. "The People alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it," wrote Samuel Adams. Two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress, under its president, John Hancock, declared on June 12th, 1775: "Congress ... considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state ... do earnestly recommend, that Thursday, the 12th of July next, be observed by the inhabitants of all the English Colonies on this Continent, as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, that we may with united hearts and voices, unfeignedly confess and deplore our many sins and offer up our joint supplications to the All-wise, Omnipotent and merciful Disposer of all Events, humbly beseeching Him to forgive our iniquities ... It is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship and to abstain from servile labor and recreations of said day." Why would that first generation of American Patriots forgo, in the inimitable words of Sam Adams, "the tranquility of servitude" for "the animating contest of freedom"? The answer to that question Liberty or Death defined the spirit of American Patriotism then, just as it defines the spirit of American Patriots now. We, today, are the ideological descendants of those who once pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Just as our forebearers were, we must be willing to " support and defend " Liberty as enumerated in our Declaration of Independence and enshrined in our Constitution . In 1776, George Washington wrote in his General Orders, "The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die." Of that resolve, two centuries later President Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation." Indeed, the time is always at hand when American Patriots must reaffirm whether we are to be free men or slaves. Patriots, through the trials we face now, stand firm and fast , and remember who YOU are, brothers and sisters and who WE are together. During the American Revolution, musicians, particularly drummers, were a primary means of communicating and expediting battlefield orders. While the Continental regulars wore blue coats with red cuffs, drummers wore red coats with blue cuffs in order to be more visible on a battlefield. In the words of George Washington , "Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind." Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post. In an increasingly divided world, the UK needs to show that it is a reliable and robust member of the community of liberal democracies: one that follows through on its commitments and lives up to its stated values. In the year since the release of the Integrated Review a comprehensive articulation of the UKs national security and international policy the UK has taken important steps to pursue its four broad international priorities. It used its G7 presidency in 2021 to bring together a wider community of countries including allies in the Indo-Pacific that are committed to defending their own liberal democracies and to supporting others who adhere to a common set of values. This G7 Plus is better able to challenge China in the development of critical technologies and global infrastructure, and has delivered a more powerful and concerted response to Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 than might otherwise have been expected. The UK has also been a leading contributor to the defense of the liberal democratic community, its second main objective. In the crisis with Russia over Ukraine, the UK has lived up to its ambition to be the leading European ally within NATO, and has been one of the most robust supporters of the embattled government in Kyiv in its struggle to resist the invasion and ensure Ukraine remains a sovereign country. It provided critical military assistance to Ukraine in the lead-up to Russias invasion, strengthened its military presence in the Baltics, and implemented coordination mechanisms and exercises among the northern European group of countries that form part of the Joint Expeditionary Force. During 2021, the UKs deployment of a carrier strike group to the Indo-Pacific, and a series of bilateral exercises and new security agreements, underscored the countrys parallel strategic tilt to the region. The UK cannot persistently bring the same resources to bear in the Indo-Pacific as in Europe, but it has deepened its commitments to its allies in the region within the constraints of its resources. The governments record has been more mixed on its third objective, of promoting global resilience to the challenges of climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and their impacts on poverty and inequality. The UK presided over a successful lead-up and conclusion to the November 2021 COP26 summit in Glasgow. But it failed to mobilize the G7 to deploy Covid vaccines in anywhere close to the numbers needed by the most vulnerable low-income countries. Combined with the governments severe and sudden cuts to its ODA spending, the UK contributed to a growing divergence between the worlds richest and poorest countries during 2021, with all the risks this holds for the future. In terms of the Integrated Reviews fourth objective, of ensuring the UKs international economic policy supports the welfare of British citizens, the government can point to its successful renegotiation on a bilateral basis of all the trade deals the UK previously enjoyed with third parties as an EU member. The subsequent opening and completion of negotiations on a small number of new bilateral agreements, along with steps to pursue regulatory innovation in the financial, digital and biotechnology sectors, represent an important down-payment on the ambition to be a science and technology superpower, and on ensuring the UK remains one of the worlds more competitive economies. In contrast, UK relations with its neighbors in the EU remained fragile and fractious throughout 2021. The UK focused its positive agenda almost exclusively on NATO and on bilateral relationships in Northern and Central Europe. At the start of 2022, there was a clear risk that relations with the EU would get worse before they get better, given the still rising barriers to the two sides trade and broader economic interaction following the UKs exit from the European Single Market and Customs Union. But the urgent need to coordinate an effective response to Russias invasion of Ukraine affords an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between the UK and the EU around the fundamental values and security interests that unite them, as well as the deep economic interdependence that will always connect them. This means that the UK government needs to develop a positive agenda with the EU as an institution, and not just with individual EU member states or other selective groupings, as it has done recently with the Visegrad Four, for instance. Given the EUs central role alongside NATO in responding to the grave threat from Russia, and the Biden administrations support for closer coordination between the two institutions, the UK could try to link its ideas for upgrading NATOs Strategic Concept in 2022 with the EUs new Strategic Compass and member states growing commitments to strengthen Europes defense capabilities. Allowing frictions to continue over bilateral trade and the Northern Ireland Protocol would pointlessly undermine these opportunities and weaken both sides at a moment of acute danger. The continuing centrality of the US, alongside the EU, to the UKs long-term security and economic well-being was captured in the signing, by President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson, of a new Atlantic Charter, just ahead of the G7 Carbis Bay Summit in June 2021. And, most recently, the close UKUS coordination on military and intelligence support to Kyiv in the lead-up to Russias invasion of Ukraine has served as a reminder of one of the special aspects of this bilateral relationship. Even so, the UK needs to be wary of being over-reliant on the US relationship for its future. The Biden administration is investing far more effort than its predecessors in strengthening the US relationship with the EU, including in economic and regulatory areas that cut to the heart of the UKs own interests. The UK will inevitably be excluded from certain aspects of closer USEU cooperation, as the worlds two largest markets coordinate better on everything from digital trade to carbon border taxes, to ensure that their collective economic and political strength can stand up to challenges from their autocratic rivals. This deepening of the USEU relationship has been accelerated by the EUs unexpectedly strong response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, and its willingness to coordinate with the US on common steps. If the US does turn away from the EU in the future for instance as a result of a change in the political environment in Washington between now and 2024 this will present more rather than fewer problems for the UK, as it would also signal a retreat by the US from the global priorities that the UK shares with the Biden administration as well as the rest of Europe. For both these reasons, the UK needs to think truly globally when it talks about a community of liberal democracies. Having been at the centre, during its G7 presidency, of the initiative to link up the G7 with members of the Indo-Pacific Quad, the UK would benefit from investing continued effort in turning this nascent G7 Plus into a more stable and persistent grouping: one that is capable of and willing to build an open, transparent and sustainable global economy, protect the foundations of its members own liberal democracies, and lend support to those countries committed to the same values and outcomes. Strengthening the coordination mechanisms and common purpose of this larger grouping could also help lessen the risks of the UK being sidelined by growing USEU cooperation. Instead, the G7 Plus could become a vehicle for the UK to pursue its international priorities as a more equal partner alongside a wider community of allies. The UK also now has the flexibility to negotiate and strike some new trade deals and sectoral arrangements with countries whose comparative advantages are complementary to those of the UK, some of which are struggling to make progress with the EU. Although the net benefits of these deals will not compensate in the near term for the loss of barrier-free trade with the EU, they will help some specific businesses and sectors. But perhaps more importantly, given the current geopolitical context, they will strengthen the UKs diplomatic voice and geo-economic presence in parts of the world that are increasingly important to its foreign policy. This means that the UK needs to focus its trade strategy in 202223 on those countries and regions that could be important partners in the intensifying division between Russia and China on the one hand, and the G7 Plus on the other. Completing entry to the CPTPP would send an important signal in this respect. So would undertaking trade deals with countries outside the UKs network of liberty, such as Egypt and Vietnam, which could yet be drawn into a network of autocratic states. Finally, having promoted itself as a leading contributor to the resilience of the poorer members of the international community, the UK needs to live up to its commitments, whether on climate finance, on transfer of medical know-how, or on sustainable infrastructure investment. The disruptive spillovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, compounded now by spiking prices of essential commodities due to the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, constitute a huge shock to the most vulnerable parts of the world. Leaders and citizens in the worst-affected countries will not forgive the UK and other developed democracies if they do not support them through this turmoil. The UK is especially open to charges of hypocrisy following the severe cuts to its foreign aid budget in 2021, as well as its poor record on refugees and asylum policy. These are not the hallmarks of a truly global Britain. As the UK endeavors to make its mark as a more autonomous global actor post-Brexit, justifiable accusations of double standards and evidence of hypocrisy will be deeply damaging not least for its much-valued soft power. Conversely, there will be few more precious assets in the future for Britains influence in the world than a reputation for being a reliably robust member of the community of liberal democracies, and one that follows through consistently on its commitments. Global Britain in a Divided World Research Paper by Robin Niblett Chatham House / The Royal Institute of International Affairs. The Research Paper can be downloaded here LIBYA Despite rumors that Russias infamous Wagner Group will fight in Ukraine, Western analysts expect the paramilitary organization to stay in conflict-torn Libya. The shadowy paramilitary group tied to the Kremlin, has played a significant role in Libya, supporting renegade military commander Khalifa Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the countrys civil war. Observers had recently begun wondering whether the Wagner forces would be withdrawing from Libya to shift their focus on supporting Russias invasion of Ukraine. Although the Kremlin might need to adjust and reconfigure its mission in the North African country, there is good reason to expect the Russians to continue their campaign there. Before 24 February, there was no indication that the clandestine Russian mission [in Libya] was withdrawing, shrinking, or anything of the sort, according to Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher specializing in Libya. While there are some unconfirmed reports that Russian mercenaries have been withdrawn from the country to fight in Ukraine, the majority have remained. But experts suggest that sustaining a military presence in Libya is key to Russias agendas elsewhere on the African continent, especially in the Sahel region. You clearly have reliance on the perennial and permanent character of the Russian footprint in Libya. It wasnt about to shrink, says Harchaoui. RWANDA The controversial agreement with Rwanda that the United Kingdom unveiled on Thursday (14 April), which will see thousands of asylum seekers sent to the East African country to have their applications processed, is likely to spark legal challenges. The two governments say that the partnership will disrupt the business model of organized crime gangs and deter migrants from putting their lives at risk. Under the program, which will see the UK pay Rwanda 150 million, potentially thousands of asylum seekers arriving in the UK will be flown one way to Kigali, where their cases will be dealt with. While in Rwanda, they will be entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, with equal access to employment and enrollment in healthcare and social care services. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the scheme would save countless lives from human trafficking. We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system, he said, adding that our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not. However, the agreement is very likely to face a legal challenge, with NGOs and human rights lawyers arguing that the outsourcing of asylum claims without appropriate legal protections breaks international law. Denmark has a similar arrangement, also with Rwanda, for which it changed national law to allow it to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside the EU. In response, the European Commission expressed concerns that the Danish law could breach EU law. The UN High Commission for Refugees has warned that outsourcing asylum claims would leave the UK in breach of its international obligations. MALI Although the European Unions recent decision to limit the training of Malian soldiers is correct and long overdue, the bloc also must not forget Mali and leave it to its own devices, argues Dirke Kopp in an opinion published in Deutsche Welle. For months there has been serious doubt over the sincerity and transparency of the Malian transitional governments policies. Since the military coup detat, there have been no signs that the army is interested in returning the country to democracy anytime soon. All efforts by the West African trade bloc ECOWAS and the international community have run aground. The relationship between Mali and former colonial power France is at an all-time low. In contrast, Malis cooperation with Russia, and especially with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, seems to be running smoothly. The recent atrocities against Malian civilians and current images from Ukraine give an indication of what these soldiers and the regular Russian army are capable of doing yet another reason why the EU should not train Malian soldiers or security forces. However, it is critical that the EU does not completely end its activities in Mali. Instead, the bloc should continue to advise security forces and train them on the rules of warfare in the interests of observing human rights. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbocks recent visit to Mali, is therefore timely and sends a strong signal, because talking to Malis new rulers is crucial. Germany has a better reputation in Mali than France and has been perceived as a key ally ever since it recognized Malis independence. Baerbock should use this advantage to convince Malis government that Russias assistance comes at a cost, and that it risks entering into new form of dependency: One that will trample on the human rights of ordinary Malians. The Knot Worldwide, a global digital wedding planning company & the parent company of WeddingWire India, has announced that Jenny Lewis, former Head of US & Canada Marketing for Uber Technologies, Inc. has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer. Lewis will lead all marketing, insights, and editorial initiatives for The Knot Worldwide and its 19 global brands across 16 countries. The Knot Worldwide, a global leader in lifestage brands and wedding planning, is used by millions of engaged couples each year to plan weddings that are uniquely their own. The company has most recently scaled its eCommerce offerings, which include The Knot Registry, The Knot Invitations, WeddingWire Invitations, and more, the company said. Lewis, an expert in scaling two-sided marketplaces and growing and advancing the visibility and impact of well-known brands, was most recently the Head of US & Canada Marketing for Uber and UberEats. As one of Ubers earliest marketing hires, she helped transform the start-up into an iconic household name. Over the course of her 7+ years with Uber, Lewis was the driving force behind a number of product and brand-defining initiatives, including UberPOOL and the brands COVID-19 response campaign. Before Uber, Lewis worked at Undertone Advertising and Fox Networks Group (FX, National Geographic Channel, Fox Sports), where she developed co-marketing strategies with Fortune 500 brands such as MillerCoors and Volkswagen. She is a graduate of George Washington University with a B.A. in Political Communication, the company said. As a global leader in weddings, The Knot Worldwide has achieved longstanding success in providing couples and guests with an unmatched all-inclusive wedding planning solution, while supporting small businesses through its global marketplaces. As the number of weddings around the world will hit an all-time high this year, Im thrilled to join this talented leadership team at such a pivotal moment when our services are needed more than ever, said Lewis. I look forward to further developing and implementing a strategy that supports our global growth plans, eCommerce business objectives, and above all, provides couples with an unparalleled experience during one of the most important moments of their lives. It is a great honour to welcome Jenny Lewis to The Knot Worldwide family. She is a highly experienced, seasoned business leader responsible for building one of the most well-known global marketplace brands: Uber, said Tim Chi, Chief Executive Officer of The Knot Worldwide. I am confident that Jennys consumer-centric approach to full-funnel marketing and ability to anchor a brands relevancy with current and prospective consumers will drive innovation for the millions of engaged couples and hundreds of millions of wedding guests that we serve each year in the $200 billion global wedding industry. Anam Zubair, Associate Director of Marketing- WeddingWire India, said, Jenny joins us at a pivotal time when the market opportunity is immense. She brings on board a wealth of experience from managing brands like Uber, where she has been instrumental in driving growth. This empowers The Knot Worldwide and WeddingWire India to identify new growth opportunities and derive actionable insights from an audience that is extremely digital-savvy. We are certain that with Jennys leadership, well be able to make WedTech an indispensable part of every Indian consumers life. Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) PRESS RELEASE April 18, 2022 Using Humor In Business To Lead, Featuring Jan McInnis on The Entrepreneur MBA Podcast On today's podcast, Jan McInnis and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions, a leading provider of interest only business lines of credit, discuss using humor in business to lead. Business leaders who have mastered the art of humor in administration effectively engage their workers in the most creative way to promote productivity and efficiency. That's to say, knowing how to make your employees laugh at the workplace will positively impact your business. Employees feel motivated and animated when they're in their best mood. And there's no other way to foster employees' happiness than the use of humor in the workplace. Listen to the Podcast or read summary by clicking here: Using Humor In Business To Lead About Jan McInni, from The Work Lady Jan McInnis is a keynote speaker, comedian, Master of Ceremonies, and comedy writer. She has written for Jay Leno's The Tonight Show, the Jerry Springer Show and many others. For over 25 years, she's traveled the country sharing her unique and practical tips on how to use humor in business. She's been featured in The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for her clean humor, and she's the author of two books: Finding the Funny Fast How to Create Quick Humor to Connect with Clients, Coworkers, and Crowds, and Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom From Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs.Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom From Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs. About Stephen Halasnik, The Entrepreneur MBA Podcast and Financing Solutions Financing Solutions is a leading provider of small business lines of credit. The credit line is fast, easy, inexpensive, and costs nothing to set up making it great for emergencies or opportunities. Stephen Halasnik, Managing Partner of Financing Solutions is also the host of the popular, The Entrepreneur MBA Podcast If you would like to learn more about the line of credit program, please visit Business Line of Credit Here or call at 862-207-4118. From mental illness and a cult to Christian ministry and political office By Rachel Alexander web posted April 18, 2022 A young man turned his life around after getting involved in a cult and suffering from schizophrenia, and now later in life is a leader in Christian ministry and running for Phoenix City Council. Nick Griemsmann has gone through a lot, but through the grace of God he was able to turn his life around and now helps others. He recently wrote an autobiography called Becoming Gods Friend . Griemsmann wasnt raised as a Christian, and having trauma as a young boy no doubt set in motion some bad things. He developed addictions and dropped out of high school. He found a job working as a bartender at Barcelonas, a nightclub in Scottsdale, Arizona, but realized after a while that the party lifestyle was unfulfilling. But he then went to the other extreme, deciding to become a monk. His attempt failed, as he ended up walking around hot and thirsty in the New Mexico desert, never making it to the monastery. The onset of schizophrenia was starting. However, he still yearned in his heart for God. When he was 22, he found a flyer on his car from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. It said they provide a place for people to stay, which sold him. He called and spoke to a woman there on the phone, who prayed for him during their conversation. He could feel something changing inside of him that was supernatural. However, they wanted him to move to Arkansas, and his parents warned him that it was a cult. He moved anyway and it was the beginning of a deep, dark experience. He was taught that if he ever left that ministry, it would blasphemy the Holy Spirit, which can never be forgiven, and he would go to hell. They said his family and friends were of the devil and instructed him to cut them off. Alamo claimed he was one of the final two witnesses written about in the book of Revelation. His teachings were so disturbing, frequently focused on hell, that Griemsmann would see people shaking while listening to his messages. Cult members were required to attend church every night. Griemsmann started having spiritual hallucinations, likely brought on by a lack of sleep from the rigorous work schedule, which consisted substantially of long hours placing flyers on cars. He eventually tried to leave the cult, and voices in his head told him to loudly pray at the airport, which he did until the police took him to a mental hospital. Another time the voices told him to take his clothes off in public if he wasnt ashamed of Jesus, which he did. During this time, a psychiatrist told him that he would be catatonic in 10 years and had no hope for recovery. Finally, God intervened in his life, and he was able to leave the cult for good and seek treatment. He became involved with several regular churches in Phoenix, and eventually felt a spiritual force leave him. With the help of his family and supporters, he weaned off all medication for schizophrenia in 2007 despite the fact that he was told that it was incurable. He found a job helping others with the exact type of mental health problems hed gone through. As for Alamo, he was eventually prosecuted for the sexual exploitation of women and girls and died in federal prison. Griemsmann started a ministry called The Fathers Friends . He wrote a book called Defeating Mental Illness about his journey, which did well and he was invited on large Christian TV shows to talk about it. He learned that letting go of carrying the burdens of others is vital to ones own emotional well being. He also discovered that Individuals do not end up with a big issue like schizophrenia randomly. It usually has been built inside the person over time through continued lies, trauma, substance abuse, etc. His interesting journey continued, taking a trip to Juarez, Mexico, with others and discovering through prayer that some people experienced the miracles of healing. He became an assistant pastor in Phoenix. He started livestreaming street evangelism in Harlem, New York and Europe. Later on, he traveled to remote villages in Pakistan, where his team prayed to heal people miraculously. He did big events ministering in Kenya, where he continued to preach the Gospel and pray for sick people. Some reported healings of what he used to have, schizophrenia. Griemsmann talks about the negative aspects of life that hes had to learn to deal with and overcome as Misters. For example, Mr. Condemnation keeps a person stuck in negative mindsets and emotions, inside a spiritual prison. He makes you feel like you are never good enough for God or anyone. Others include Mr. Discouragement, Mr. Self-Righteous, Mr. Fear, Mr. Anxiety, Mr. Lust, Mr. Addiction, Mr. Mental Illness, Mr. Rejection and Mr. Anger. What worked for him was not focusing on the bad, like making a list of all your sins. Instead, he focuses on spiritual freedom, and teaches others to look for the good, since the fruits of the Spirit are positive attributes; love, joy, peace, kindness, etc. Griemsmann's journey has now taken him into politics, taking on incumbent Democrat Phoenix City Councilman Carlos Garcia in District 8. Although the district leans heavily Democrat, its a nonpartisan race and Garcia has a hostile relationship with Phoenix Police. When Garcia was pulled over by the police for driving a car with suspended license plates, he tried to intimidate the police by pulling rank. Political consultant Stan Barnes told KNXV that "the councilman is anti-police officer, and he's playing it out in real time for all of us to see." Griemsmann wants to represent everyone, and says , I am a supporter of the Phoenix police. Due to his background with not only overcoming schizophrenia and his vast ministry experience, but also his past career as an administrator in behavioral healthcare, he can be a real champion for solving homelessness, community safety, healthcare, education, and helping the incarcerated transition back into society. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative . She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home Therapists aren't permitted to reveal anything about their patients because they are constrained by confidentiality and ethics. But that's not always the case and sometimes they can reveal everything they know in specific circumstances. When can they tell all they know and to whom? There is a belief among the general public that everything that is said in a therapy session remains between the therapist and the client. Currently, Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard are embroiled in a defamation suit that Depp brought against Heard and for which he is seeking $50 million in damages. To support his case, Depp has asked one of his therapists to come to the trial and to discuss aspects of his therapy and drug addiction treatment. This is one of the cases where a therapist may reveal whatever the client has indicated they have approved. One thing that a patient holds, and which is theirs alone to release, is something called privilege. If a therapist is asked to reveal information, they may not do so because of confidentiality, but if the patient indicates their willingness, it means the patient has exercised their right of privilege. Licensed therapists are held to ethical standards by both licensing boards as well as professional organizations and the standards clearly outline what is permissible and what is not. For instance, any licensed therapist may reveal and is mandated to reveal, any instance of ongoing domestic violence, abuse, neglect of children, or abuse of the elderly or people with disabilities. Should a child still be in a situation of abuse, even if the therapist does not know this for a fact but suspects it, it must be reported to authorities. Other instances where confidentiality does not hold is in future crimes or a danger or suggestion of danger to the self or others. Anyone hinting that they are considering suicide must be taken seriously and should be referred for additional assistance at that point. In some states, the person might be involuntarily held on a psychiatric unit for a discrete period of time, often about three days. In the case of intention to harm others, there is a classic case that involved the University of California and a student, who was in therapy with a school counselor. He indicated that he was having violent thoughts about a young woman student, Tatiana Tarasoff, who he had dated and suggested that he might want to kill her. The actions taken by the school therapist did not result in warning the young woman or her family or other appropriate authorities and she was murdered. We now have a duty to protect and to warn intended victims of crimes. Courts may also call a therapist to testify in a case and under certain circumstances, the therapist who refuses may be sent to jail. If a patient is involved, the therapist might request that the patient exercise their right of privilege so that the therapist might comply with the court order. In cases of married couples, all that is needed is one member to exercise the privilege and the therapist may reveal whatever material is germane to the case. Anyone wishing to have more information on this aspect of therapeutic constraints should consult an attorney. The defamation case of Depp heard has already indicated that Heard alleges Depp physically abused her while they were married. The belief that everything said in a therapeutic environment is secret, therefore, is open to question and each therapist has a responsibility to inform the new patient about the boundaries of confidentiality and privilege either at the first session or in a written outline of it at that time. No one should be expected to walk into a therapy session and feel that anything and everything that they discuss will never be provided to anyone else, even a legal authority. This is not the case and clients must be made aware of this immediately. Therapists who are naive or foolish enough to reveal information about their patients in any setting other than a supervisory one or a legal situation can be sued for this action. The San Antonio Symphony board terminated its contract with Music Director Emeritus Sebastian Lang-Lessing on Friday, cutting ties after 12 with the man who had been the public face of the orchestra and its staunchest advocate. The dismissal of Lang-Lessing, an internationally renowned conductor whose tenure coincided with the opening of the symphonys new home in the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, is the latest turn in more than six months of discord between the musicians and management. Ten concerts have been canceled and five postponed. Musicians are on strike and have lost their health insurance and other benefits, and both sides have filed charges with the National Labor Relations board. Lang-Lessings firing came after it was announced that he would conduct a pair of concerts May 12 and 13 by the striking musicians of the San Antonio Symphony at First Baptist Church. The concerts are part of a series being presented by the recently formed nonprofit MOSAS (Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony) Performance Fund independent of the San Antonio Symphony. Lang-Lessing was scheduled to conduct two of the three classics series concerts remaining on the San Antonio Symphonys 2021-22 season. One of those concerts is on May 13, the same date as a concert by the striking musicians. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of 3 TOM REEL Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Robin Jerstad, Freelancer / For the Express-News Show More Show Less Corey Cowart, executive director of the San Antonio Symphony, said Lang-Lessings decision to conduct those MOSAS concerts violated a radius clause in his contract with the symphony. According to a letter Cowart sent on Friday to symphony board members and staff, the symphonys standard contract for guest artists like Lang-Lessing states that Artists shall neither make nor announce any appearances in San Antonio, Texas within 60 days prior to or following the performance dates of the concerts. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Symphonys season may end before 6-month-old strike is resolved When it was announced that he was conducting concerts that were not with the San Antonio Symphony, that were with another organization, he was in breach of his contract, Cowart said, and thats when the symphony board decided to terminate his contract. Since the strike began, the symphony has been canceling or postponing concerts in small blocks, sometimes just days in advance. Unless the strike ends before May 13, the San Antonio Symphony concert scheduled for that day would be canceled. Lang-Lessing said on Monday thats why he does not believe he was in breach of contract. One concert can only happen if the other one doesnt happen, he said. That was the whole condition that was always made clear. He said the provision in the contract is related to attendance. If I come to San Antonio and conducted the Houston symphony or the Austin symphony, that would be a violation of the contract because it basically would be taking audience away from the concert they are promoting. Lang-Lessing still plans on conducting the concerts at First Baptist Church. Its very important, especially during a labor negotiation, that the music keeps playing, he said. It keeps our patrons lined up and engaged, and thats what we need for the future. The symphonys musicians went on strike Sept. 27 during contentious contract negotiations with the Symphony Society of San Antonio, the nonprofit that runs the orchestra. The strike was called in response to the Symphony Societys decision to impose a contract on the musicians that cut their pay and the number of full-time musicians. The musicians and the board began working with federal mediators in February and have met three times so far, most recently on March 8. On ExpressNews.com: Striking San Antonio Symphony musicians, board at odds on orchestras financial health Lang-Lessing said the termination of his contract was a minor detail in a way bigger problem. Frankly, the musicians havent been paid in the last six to seven months, and its a way bigger problem than my contract being canceled at the last minute by an administration desperate to do anything they can do to repudiate someone who is supporting the musicians. Lang-Lessing served as music director for the San Antonio Symphony from 2010 through 2020. During that time, he oversaw the symphonys move in 2014 from the Majestic Theatre to the Tobin Center, a venue designed to showcase live music. His programming innovations included commissioning new works and programming festivals designed as deep dives into the works of individual composers such as Tchaikovsky and Strauss. He brought an international perspective to the job, having worked with opera companies in Paris, Los Angeles, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm and having served as artistic director of Opera National de Lorraine and music director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. At the time of his firing, he was in the second year of a two-year contract as music director emeritus and guest conductor. Cowart said Lang-Lessing served as an advocate for the organization as music director emeritus, but the guest conducting dates were his primary responsibility. The symphony has worked with artistic advisers on tasks typically carried out by a music director such as auditions and planning seasons. Cowart went to work for the symphony in 2019, near the end of Lang-Lessings tenure as music director. He said he has heard from both musicians and symphony patrons that as Lang-Lessing led from the podium and hired and auditioned many of our principal players that the quality, the sound of the ensemble has absolutely improved. That is something that we hope are next artistic leader continues as well, Cowart said. Lang-Lessing is not ready to say that his association with the San Antonio Symphony has come to an end. The future only can tell, he said. The big question is whether we have a symphony in San Antonio in the future. Cowart said the symphony is doing everything it can to resolve the strike so it can resume presenting live music in the spring. We think thats the best way to help musicians who have been on strike to negotiate a contract we can all agree to, he said. Wed hope others involved would be invested in that goal as well. As of late afternoon Monday, the symphony had not canceled its May classic series concerts and was working to hire replacement conductors for those concerts Lang-Lessing was scheduled to conduct. Editors note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Corey Cowarts name. Staff writer Deborah Martin contributed to this report. jkiest@express-news.net | Twitter: @en_salife KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, sank Thursday after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow's invasion. Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva but no attack. U.S. and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the blaze. The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital, Kyiv. In his nightly video address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to the sinking as he told Ukrainians they should be proud of having survived 50 days under attack when the Russians gave us a maximum of five. Listing the many ways Ukraine has defended against the invasion, he noted those who showed that Russian warships can sail away, even if its to the bottom of the sea. It was his only reference to the missile cruiser. The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port. Russia earlier said the flames on the ship, which would typically have 500 sailors aboard, forced the entire crew to evacuate. Later it said the blaze had been contained. The Moskva had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russias firepower in the Black Sea. It's also a blow to Moscow's prestige in a war already widely seen as a historic blunder. Now entering its eighth week, the invasion has stalled amid resistance from Ukrainian fighters bolstered by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations. During the first days of the war, the Moskva was reportedly the ship that called on Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender in a standoff. In a widely circulated recording, a soldier responded: Russian warship, go (expletive) yourself. The Associated Press could not independently verify the incident, but Ukraine and its supporters consider it an iconic moment of defiance. The country recently unveiled a postage stamp commemorating it. The news of the flagship overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow's forces have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war at a horrific cost to civilians. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that 1,026 Ukrainian troops surrendered at a metals factory in the city. But Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraines interior minister, rejected the claim, telling Current Time TV that the battle over the seaport is still ongoing today. It was unclear how many forces were still defending Mariupol. Russian state television broadcast footage that it said was from Mariupol showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers. One man held a white flag. Mariupol has been the scene of the some the war's worst suffering. Dwindling numbers of Ukrainian defenders are holding out against a siege that has trapped well over 100,000 civilians in desperate need of food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told AP in an interview Thursday that people are being starved to death in the besieged city. Mariupols mayor said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had died and the death toll could surpass 20,000, after weeks of attacks and privation left bodies carpeted through the streets. Mariupol's capture is critical for Russia because it would allow its forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland and the target of the coming offensive. The Russian military continues to move helicopters and other equipment together for such an effort, according to a senior U.S. defense official, and it will likely add more ground combat units over coming days. But its still unclear when Russia could launch a bigger offensive in the Donbas. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukraine in the Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia seized Crimea. Russia has recognized the independence of the rebel regions in the Donbas. The loss of the Moskva could delay any new, wide-ranging offensive. Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the Odesa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused serious damage. Russias Defense Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, without saying what caused the blaze. It said the main missile weapons were not damaged. In addition to the cruise missiles, the warship also had air-defense missiles and other guns. The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks stationed near the coast, and, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. That would have put the Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire began. Launched as the Slava in 1979, the cruiser saw service in the Cold War and during conflicts in Georgia and Syria, and helped conduct peacetime scientific research with the United States. During the Cold War, it carried nuclear weapons. In 1989, the Slava was supposed to host a meeting off Malta between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George H.W. Bush, but gale-force winds moved the talks to the docked cruiser Maxim Gorky. On Thursday, other Russian ships that were also in the northern Black Sea moved further south after the Moskva caught fire, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments. Before the Moskva sank, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraines defense minister, told AP its removal would mean we can only have a sigh of relief. While the U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraines claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan called it a big blow to Russia." Theyve had to kind of choose between two stories: One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them, Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington. Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and has lost potentially thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed untold numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee. It has also further inflated prices at grocery stores and gasoline pumps, while dragging on the global economy. The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the war helped push the organization to downgrade economic forecasts for 143 countries. Also Thursday, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of sending two low-flying military helicopters some 11 kilometers (7 miles) across the border and firing on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo, in Russia's Bryansk region. Russias Investigative Committee said seven people, including a toddler, were wounded. Russias state security service had earlier said Ukrainian forces fired mortar rounds at a border post in Bryansk as refugees were crossing, forcing them to flee. The reports could not be independently verified. Earlier this month, Ukrainian security officials denied that Kyiv was behind an air strike on an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, some 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the border. ___ Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine A six-second video of a man firing a handgun equipped with what appears to be an extended magazine outside two Galleria restaurants is the latest burst of gun violence to unfold at the high-end Houston mall. The gunman fires at least two rounds outside the malls Shake Shack with the nearby Joey Uptown visible across the way and spins around to flee, according to footage shared widely on social media. The short, blurry clip shows people running, yelling and scrambling to get away from the gunfire. On HoustonChronicle.com: Rusk woman dies in motorcycle accident on Easter Sunday Police are investigating whether the video is connected to a shooting around 7 p.m. Saturday in which a man was shot in the leg and critically wounded, officials said. The video, which was shared across multiple social media platforms by different users, gained more than 3.1 million views from one Twitter post alone. Graphic warning: This content contains graphic material that may be harmful or traumatizing to some audiences: The shooting happened in the 5000 block of Westheimer Road. Police found a man with a gunshot wound to the leg and he was taken to a hospital in critical condition. What prompted the shooting was not known, police said. No arrests have been made. Mayor Sylvester Turner said he discussed the shooting and mall security Monday with Chief Troy Finner. The Galleria is probably the last place anyone would want to do anything illegal, Turner said, adding that the venue is packed with security cameras, inside the mall and out in the parking lots and garages. He expects private security and HPD patrols to increase at the mall. The Galleria issued a statement Monday afternoon. The Galleria takes seriously its role in ensuring a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for its shoppers and work environment for its employees and tenants, according to a portion of the statement. Our security program is extensive and contains numerous measures designed to deter crime and respond quickly to incidents. That includes a large security patrol comprised of Houston Police Department, private security and K9 weapons detection, along with ample surveillance throughout the property. In the afternoon, a security guard driving a cart cruised through a parking lot on Westheimer Road and three mounted patrol officers trotted past storefronts on horseback. While the video caused a stir on social media, people at the Galleria on Monday seemed unfazed by the weekend shooting. Shoppers streamed in and out of an entrance near the crime scene carrying bags and pushing strollers while cars packed garages and lots. Christian Santamaria, 21, strolled into the mall with his girlfriend to visit the Samsung store for a new phone. He said he had not heard about the shooting before a reporter informed him. It doesnt really bother me, he said with a shrug. Most of the time (shootings are) targeted. Sia Ngevao walked into the same entrance to exchange a blazer at H&M. She said she had heard about the shooting and was trying to get in and out of the mall. I mean, honestly, with anywhere that you go, theres always going to be that risk of something like that going on or happening, she said. You just have to be careful and vigilant. It doesnt matter where you are. Several other patrons said they were visiting from out-of-town and had not heard about the shooting. One valet driver said he was working on Saturday when he heard gunshots from across the parking lot. It was a busy moment, though, so he quickly returned to work and was not worried, he said. Violence at the highly-trafficked mall which Simon Group says has more than 30 million visitors annually and which accrued about $1.03 billion in sales before the pandemic has happened in the past. The shooting comes within a month of another Galleria shooting in which a man was killed. Police responded on March 19 to a parking garage at 5150 Hidalgo Street and found the man, Joseph Lockhart, under a vehicle, believing that he was shot during a robbery and then run over by a driver also fleeing the gunfire. Court records reveal that Lockhart may have stolen several boxes of Apple Air Pods, which police found scattered and covered in blood in the parking spot where he was shot. Police arrested Roderick Moore, of Elkhart, on a capital murder charge in Lockharts death. Moore told a roommate that he made a deal to buy the Air Pods at a discount from Lockhart but that he planned to rob him instead, according to court records. He thought Lockhart was reaching for a gun during the robbery and shot him, the records continued. A third roommate was with Moore at the time of the shooting but he has not been charged with a crime. Moore remains jailed on a $750,000 bail. Police have also warned in the past of crime rings targeting patrons in the Simon and Calpers-owned Galleria and surrounding area for high-end jewelry and other goods. Law enforcement in 2021 arrested multiple people accused of following shoppers leaving posh stores to their homes and robbing them. Police officials did not have readily-available statistics on crime at the shopping mall. Houston, like many other U.S. cities, experienced a rise in violent crime during the pandemic. The worst of that crime, however, has since diminished, officials said. Stopping crime is the joint responsibility of elected officials, the police department, businesses and citizens, and we remain committed to doing our part, The Galleria continued in its statement. We are grateful for the continued support of the City of Houston, Houston Police Department and their officers. Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Major Assaults & Family Violence Division at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS. Homeowners across Texas are experiencing sticker shock this month as home values skyrocket, but experts have one message: Dont panic just yet. Appraisal notices started trickling in over the past few weeks, and the latest estimates have raised home values by hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases. The increases are just the latest reflection of Texas competitive housing market, as the state continues to experience rapid population growth. It goes up every year, but this is the biggest and I'm sure I'll remember this for the rest of my life, said Martha Valiquette, a realtor from San Antonio whose home value increased by $110,000 this year. Shes already protested the estimate and is now helping others do the same. Home values are used to calculate state property taxes, and Texans will likely face bigger tax bills later this year. In Houston, the average price of a single-family home climbed to $400,000 for the first time, and in San Antonio, median home sales have surpassed $300,000. Asking prices for homes are increasing beyond anything you have likely ever seen, the Bexar Appraisal District officials said in a statement this week. Fewer properties offered for sale and high demand for housing means price increases that shatter records. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Texas already has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, relying heavily on that revenue because the state does not tax income. Only six states Wisconsin, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Illinois and New Jersey have higher property tax rates, according to the personal finance website WalletHub. But, experts say, its not over until its over. Appraised home values are just the first steps before property taxes are calculated, and homeowners have the opportunity to protest their quotes. Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer All Texans should remember that their actual property tax bill is based on two factors, said Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst at the nonprofit Every Texan. The first is the taxable value of the home, which is based on the appraisal and can be adjusted via protest and various exemptions. The second is the tax rate set by local governments and other taxing units. Just because your value goes up, you still do not know what your tax bill is going to do until the whole process is finished, Lavine said. In the immediate future, homeowners should get a plan and protest their appraised value if they have a case, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who has championed several property tax relief measures in recent years. Most big counties have an online appeals system, where residents can upload evidence that their appraised value doesnt match what they were quoted. That could include recent home sales in the area that fall below the value, for example, or estimated costs to repair damage to the home. If youre lost, ask a realtor or consult your local appraisal district for help. We have gone through similar boom cycles in Texas as far back as the as far back really as the 1980s, Bettencourt said. Things can get spectacularly hot, like they are now, but it will cool off. The key thing is take action this year. Don't let these higher values submit if you know for sure that you're overvalued. There is a silver lining, Bettencourt said: As home values hit record levels, tax rates will come down. The state Legislature approved an overhaul of property tax policies in 2019, slowing tax increases in the years following but not completely eliminating them. Plus, most homeowners are eligible for a homestead exemption, which offers a $25,000 break on school property taxes. Texas law also caps year-over-year increases to a homesteads taxable value at 10 percent. And finally: Before the final tax bills are computed, Texans can head to the polls on May 7 to vote on additional property tax relief. Bettencourt authored the two proposed constitutional amendments, which passed both chambers last summer with bipartisan support. Proposition 1 would approve the tax cuts for elderly and disabled homeowners beginning in 2023, while a second measure seeks to raise the states homestead exemption to $40,000. The first proposal would offer relief for about 1.8 million seniors and 180,000 homeowners with disabilities, amounting to roughly $220 million in savings in 2024, Bettencourt said. The increased homestead exemption for schools, meanwhile, would save homeowners about $176 annually starting this year, he added. Actual savings would vary depending upon local tax rates. cayla.harris@express-news.net If you read about Gov. Greg Abbotts about-face at the border, your head must be spinning. First, he slowed northbound traffic from Mexico by ordering the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop every commercial truck and inspect it. It duplicated what U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement already does and created miles-long waits at the border. After criticism from the left and right, Abbott reversed course, declaring victory by getting what he called commitments from Mexican governors for increased border enforcement. Its political spin. Views & Voices: Get the weeks best commentary from the Express-News Editorial Board and more delivered to your inbox. Sign up for the free Views & Voices newsletter. When asked if the inspections resulted in any drug seizures, he chose to answer a different question in his head instead. Texas DPS troopers inspected more than 6,000 trucks and found 20 percent had correctable safety hazards, Abbott said, noting brake, light and tire issues because those are the only issues within DPS purview. The Washington Post reported it blithely: Abbott said he anticipated that these inspections had saved lives. He offered no evidence to support that claim, nor was that part of his plan. A photo of Chihuahua Gov. Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan might have captured another moment of political spin. Taken in Austin and published on the Texas Standards website, Campos was pictured sitting next to Abbott as he announced the end of his border charade. A photographer caught the Chihuahua governor in a side-eye look of exasperation. A cartoon bubble over her head might as well have said, Im in Austin for this? The news site El Paso Matters offered context about Abbotts claim to have secured security measures from her. It reported that those measures may not be any different than those in place since September 2021 and have been part of the state of Chihuahuas existing policies. Campos expression reminded me of the one Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nervously flashed in 2019, when he was asking for U.S. military aid that was being held up by the Trump administration. In that cringe-worthy moment, former President Donald Trump suggested Zelensky investigate corruption in his country. It was a request to dig up dirt on his presidential rival, Joe Biden. Abbott might have claimed victory in having reached border security agreements with Mexican governors, but as the New York Times reported, that aim was never mentioned in Mr. Abbotts roll out of the inspections last week. Instead, he had said the inspections were part of a broad response to the Biden administrations announcement that it would be ending a Trump-era policy of turning back most migrants at the border under an emergency public health rule, known as Title 42. Critics will say Abbott failed, that his nine-day border circus won him no new re-election support. Theyre essentially saying his political spin was successful, too. Abbotts campaign strategists eventually may see that this episode galvanized their voters, even Latino conservatives and some Latino Democrats whove become as anti-immigrant as the rest of the Republican Party. Abbott, the candidate, will claim victory because he collected positive news coverage opposing the lifting of Title 42. Such coverage will show legal asylum seekers, inaccurately called illegal immigrants, being dropped off in Washington, D.C., conveniently in front of a building housing Fox News offices. This was part of Abbotts stunt. On Wednesday, a chartered bus in Texas transported 24 migrants to the nations capital, followed by 14 Thursday and 30 on Friday. His re-election commercials will use some of the language he has used in the last few weeks. Texas is tired of being the unloading dock for illegal immigrants crossing the border. Its all political spin, political posturing. His was a stunt, a charade, a mess. All show. News sites comfortable with profanity put another four-letter word before show. All of it fits. Abbott created a crisis at the border so that Abbott could solve it. It risked jobs, paychecks, produce sections and higher prices. Heres what to remember. Abbott has threatened to reinstate DPS inspections. Theyll happen when a poll shows the race tightening between him and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke. Thats because Beto can run statewide. eayala@express-news.net The Texas Education Agency released statewide standards for how school districts should remove and prevent obscene content from entering Texas public school libraries. In the agencys model policy, there is an emphasis that parents should have a role in how books are selected. The agency says that districts should make new selections readily available for parents to review. School librarians or staff should be encouraged to ask parents what their children can and cannot read. The new guidelines suggest that school boards have final approval of all new books and that a committee should be put in place to review books if parents file a formal request for reconsideration. To avoid obscene content in libraries, the agency reminded school districts that state law spells out that handing out inappropriate materials to minors is a crime. Texas librarians, school administrators and public education advocates have denied allegations that there are inappropriate or pornographic materials in school libraries or that theyre handing out such content. The standards are to be used as guidance for school district officials as they develop new procedures or alter their policies for selecting or removing library books. School districts, which are largely independent governmental entities and run by locally elected trustees, are not required to adopt the agencys recommendations. The TEAs new standards come about five months after Gov. Greg Abbott directed that agency, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and State Board of Education to develop such guidelines. In his directive, Abbott cited two memoirs about LGBTQ characters, which include graphic images and descriptions of sex, that were found in some Texas school libraries. There have been several instances recently of inappropriate materials being found in school libraries, TEA commissioner Mike Morath said last week in a letter to Abbott. This model local school board policy will serve as a helpful guide to school boards as they create the policies for their school district libraries. In his letter, Morath said that his agency worked with the states library and archives commission and the SBOE chair to develop the guidelines. Shannon Holmes, executive director of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, warned school district officials to be wary of what policies they decide to adopt. Holmes said they should listen to their communities and not to be taken away by the politics surrounding the situation. As we have said since these latest book controversies began, elected school boards have for decades had the means to work with educators and parents to determine what library content meets the needs of their local communities, Holmes said. Last week, Barry Perez, spokesperson for the San Antonio areas Northside Independent School District, the states fourth-largest district, said officials there dont yet know if the guidance will affect them. But he said the district already has long-standing protocols to deal with concerns about books or any instructional materials. We will continue to follow these protocols and address any specific concerns on a case by case basis and with thoughtful consideration of students interests, age, maturity, and reading skills level, Perez said in a statement. The TEA was directed to create such standards after parents around the state caught Abbotts attention as they called for certain books with depictions of sex to be removed from school libraries. As Abbott seeks a third term in office, he has made parental rights in education a priority issue promising a parental bill of rights amendment to the Texas Constitution even though parents already have a myriad of rights when it comes to their childrens education. Those include Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, which depicts the authors journey of discovering their gender identity and sexual orientation. It includes a few pages of explicit illustrations depicting oral sex. Another book challenged and removed was Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, which depicts racism in a Texas town but also makes reference to anal sex. While these books were being challenged and debated in school board meetings during the fall, state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, sent a list to school districts in October of some 850 books including Kobabes asking for information about how many are available on their campuses. Krauses list includes several books that discuss race, sexuality and puberty. Most were written by women, people of color and LGBTQ authors. Disclosure: The Association of Texas Professional Educators has been a financial supporter of the Texas Tribune, Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune s journalism. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Fairfield, MT (59436) Today Partly cloudy early, then mostly cloudy and windy this afternoon. High 52F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. Low 31F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. How the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict differ By Amb. Alan Baker web posted April 18, 2022 The tragic Russia-Ukraine conflict, with the broad panoply of humanitarian, political, and legal issues that have arisen and continue to arise, has given vent to several not-unexpected phenomena in manipulative propaganda principally aimed at vilifying Israel. Many political groups, organizations, politicians, and columnists seeking to further their own political agenda or to adapt the facts of the situation to such an agenda appear to be bending over backward to seek, invent, or generate similarities between the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, on the one hand, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, on the other. There appear to be several factors driving this phenomenon. First and foremost is the fear that the Russia-Ukraine war, with the daily footage of vast, mass violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes, might be overshadowing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and removing it from the forefront of international attention, relegating it to a lesser status. Secondly, there is the concomitant fear that the international community, witnessing in real-time the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, might indeed come to realize the utter transparency and hollowness of its long and tedious preoccupation with Israel. Such obsession has been stoked artificially and ceaselessly by a well-polished propaganda campaign and by manipulating international organizations led by the UN and its specialized agencies. Moreover, they have left a legacy of hundreds of politically generated resolutions aimed at singling out and delegitimizing Israel. Recently, prominent human rights groups, like Amnesty International, have published scathing reports alleging that Israel has an apartheid regime. Thirdly, it is likely that the high-intensity Russia-Ukraine armed conflict will sooner or later come to some form of termination or hiatus, while the Israeli-Palestinian low-intensity battle will almost certainly continue to simmer with renewed and periodic outbreaks of violence and terror. To prepare the international arena for such an eventuality, those same propagandists are seeking to utilize the shock, indignation, and sensitivity of the international community in the face of the massive Russian violations of international law to establish a convenient platform from which to generate and direct comparisons with Israels treatment of Palestinian terror and violence. While one might hope that the international community would not be so easily duped by false attempts to equate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the war in Ukraine, such an assumption cannot be made when it comes to Israel. Therefore, those regular purveyors of anti-Israel propaganda will exploit the present wave of international indignation in the context of the Ukraine war to rejuvenate and revitalize their campaign to delegitimize Israel whatever the means. Clearly, attempts to equate Israels actions in the territories in response to Palestinian terror and violence with Russias massive international-law violations in Ukraine would be unrealistic, presumptuous, and manipulative. However, such attempts have already begun and must be rejected outright. The differentiation between the Russia-Ukraine situation and the Israeli-Palestinian issue is clear and unmistakable. It must be impressed upon the international community and media in such a manner as to prevent false manipulations directed against Israel. Russia is conducting an open, high-level war of aggression, with an indiscriminate and massive bombardment of civilian population centers, schools, hospitals, and railway stations, as well as religious and cultural centers and monuments, in violation of the basic and widely accepted norms and principles of international humanitarian law. Russia is employing cluster bombs and other forms of weaponry in violation of international conventions and protocols prohibiting such weaponry. Russia has caused masses of refugees, consisting of a significant percentage of Ukraines civilian population, to leave their homes, towns, and villages. Russias violations of international law are the subject of litigation against it by Ukraine in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Similarly, violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian leadership and military commanders are documented in numerous complaints submitted to the International Criminal Court by state members of the international community. Absolutely No Comparison between Russia and Israels Conduct Ongoing and future attempts to compare or equate the Russian mode of operation and massive violations of international law in Ukraine with Israels actions to defend its population from Palestinian terror attacks are patently lacking bona fides and the most basic sense of fairness and proportion. The motivation behind such attempts is insincere, superficial, false, and deceitful. Those who attempt to manipulate international awareness by equating Russian aggression and war crimes with Israels actions to defend its population are driven by an overriding and irresponsible penchant to vilify, defame, and delegitimize Israel. They come to the international community with unclean hands. Israel does not conduct any high-level war of aggression against its Palestinian and other neighbors, nor does it employ prohibited and inhumane weaponry. Furthermore, Israel does not willfully and deliberately target civilians or civilian concentrations or attack religious, cultural, educational, and medical sites. Israel faces ongoing terror that includes periodic, massive rocket attacks against its civilian population and continuous excavation of offensive tunnels under its sovereign territory to conduct attacks within its towns and villages. Israel is faced with attacks by incited Palestinian individuals in its towns and villages inspired by terror organizations whose purpose of existence is to terrorize Israels population. Hamas parade of rockets in Gaza, May 2021. Israel legitimately responds in self-defense by selectively and proportionately targeting only those specific military targets, tactical terror headquarters and facilities, rocket emplacements, and ammunition-storage facilities that serve the military aim of the terror organizations. As part of their tactical operating procedure, Palestinian terror organizations, commanders, and operatives conceal themselves within and under civilian homes, medical facilities, schools, commercial buildings, office blocks, and mosques. They use and abuse the civilian population as human shields in violation of all humanitarian norms and principles. The Palestinian mode of operation includes using civilian facilities schools, hospitals, clinics, mosques, and private homes as weapons storage facilities and rocket emplacements. In addition, they use high-rise commercial buildings as tactical, operational, and communications headquarters, all to shield their facilities from Israeli targeting procedures. Such cynical abuse of humanitarian norms is perhaps seen most starkly in the vast web of tactical tunnels that the Palestinian terror organizations have constructed underneath Palestinian towns, civilian roads, and significant facilities. Israel is obliged by its military doctrine to avoid civilian casualties despite such Palestinian tactics. Before any military action and often while prejudicing its own tactical advantage, Israel provides early warning to civilians so that they may distance themselves. The Palestinian terror groups regularly and openly engage in environmental and agricultural terror in violation of international humanitarian and ecological conventions and norms by using illegal weaponry, launching exploding kites and incendiary balloons, and releasing toxic smoke and fumes at Israels civilian population and agricultural areas. Despite such Palestinian abuse, Israel goes to considerable lengths to strictly observe all relevant international norms, principles, and conventions in coping with such Palestinian violations. Unlike the situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel does not target Palestinian public utility facilities, power plants, or locations and monuments of religious, cultural, or historical significance. Israel enables a constant flow into Palestinian areas of thousands of trucks carrying supplies, food, provisions, medicines, and materials through the various border passage points. Palestinian political tactics include manipulating and abusing the International Criminal Court by openly attempting to turn it into an international political organization devoted to delegitimizing Israel in violation of its Statute. They do this by referring hundreds of trumped-up complaints to the Court despite the questionable legal status of such complaints as well as legal doubts over the Palestinians own status before the Court. It is clear from the above that attempts to draw a comparison between the massive and brutal actions of the Russian military in Ukraine and the international reactions thereto and Israels response in defending its civilian population from ongoing Palestinian terror are artificial and contrived, to the extent of being inherently willful and malicious. All self-respecting national parliamentary institutions and leaders and responsible media organizations are urged to reject out of hand such fake attempts to delegitimize Israel. Amb. Alan Baker is Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center and the head of the Global Law Forum. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. He served as legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Israels ambassador to Canada. Home Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Rajkummar Rao has made his place in the industry as someone who picks movies with the most unique stories and adds life to them with his acting prowess. In more than a decade-long career, he has picked impactful movies such as Shahid (2012), Kai Po Che (2013), and Newton (2017). Meanwhile, he has also picked some comedic marvels such as Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana (2017, and Stree (2018), to name a few. The actor recently got critically acclaimed for his latest release Badhaai Do, which is a comedy-drama directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni. The movie throws light upon two actors in a lavender marriage. It has also been reported that he has finished shooting for his next movie, Bheed, directed by Anubhav Sinha. A recent update about the actor is that he will be collaborating with Anubhav Sinha for his untitled directorial next. The anthology will be highlighting short stories set against the backdrop of the pandemic. Rajkummar Rao will be playing a pivotal part in the anthology. The short films are by Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta, and Ketan Mehta among others. A leading daily reported that a source said, When Anubhav shared the premise of his short film with Raj, it resonated with him. The director felt Raj is someone who connects with the movie on a personal level. Casting is key for Anubhav, and he almost always knows from the get-go who he is envisioning in the role. He felt Raj was the perfect choice for the part, Director Sudhir Mishra has also reportedly roped in Taapsee Pannu and Parambrata Chatterjee for his short film. Commenting on this, Taapsee said that she is thrilled to work with Sudhir Mishra in a socio-political drama that spans two generations. GUANGZHOU, China, April 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 131st Canton Fair has hosted the first "Discover Canton Fair with Bee and Honey" event on April 15 on Facebook, attracting over 183,000 viewers worldwide. The mascot hosts Bee and Honey presented China's top household appliance and electronics manufacturers to global audiences. "The idea of this promotion event series is to focus on the needs and demands of buyers and bring attention to key exhibition sectors, brand enterprises and local industrial clusters. Through social media, we are able to promote the exchange and interaction between exhibitors and buyers and showcase the power and charm of 'Intelligent manufacturing in China,'" said Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair. Six top household appliances companies interacted with Bee and Honey at the trade promotion livestreaming: Beijing Puppy Vacuum Cleaner Group Co., Ltd. presented its latest intelligent cordless vacuum product that has won the Red Dot Design Award. Its vacuum products have accumulated 1,012 patents at home and abroad, the products are now sold in 86 countries and regions. presented its latest intelligent cordless vacuum product that has won the Red Dot Design Award. Its vacuum products have accumulated 1,012 patents at home and abroad, the products are now sold in 86 countries and regions. Whirlpool ( China ) Co., Ltd. highlighted its intelligent tilting washing machine that brings convenient and high-efficiency user experience. highlighted its intelligent tilting washing machine that brings convenient and high-efficiency user experience. Shenzhen Sky Dragon Audio-Video Technology Co., Ltd. specializes in sound products; it can also customize audio solutions according to customers' needs. specializes in sound products; it can also customize audio solutions according to customers' needs. Guangzhou Havit Technology Co., Ltd. has participated in 30 Canton Fairs. The brand showcased high-tech new products including Bluetooth earphones, smart riding glasses and smart watches. has participated in 30 Canton Fairs. The brand showcased high-tech new products including Bluetooth earphones, smart riding glasses and smart watches. Guangzhou Conwide Technology Co., Ltd. has 20 years of experience in the innovative R&D of coffee machines and is a top 10 coffee machine supplier in China . has 20 years of experience in the innovative R&D of coffee machines and is a top 10 coffee machine supplier in . Guangdong Vanward New Electric Co., Ltd. is a leading household appliance manufacturer specializing in water heaters, kitchen appliances and hot water systems. "This event has made it easier for customers to participate virtually and better helped Whirlpool (China) to reach global buyers and audiences, breaking through the limits of time and space and allowing global customers to experience Whirlpool products comprehensively," said Wang Yu, deputy director of OEM business department of Whirlpool (China) international trade company. Chen Minling, sales director of Sky Dragon, said that the livestreaming event is of great benefit for the company to enhance its reputation internationally, and it's hoped that through this event, more potential buyers can understand the company better and bring in more foreign trade orders. Khashing Cai, a buyer from the Philippines, is participating in the Canton Fair for the first time. He commented that although many people cannot attend the offline exhibitions due to the pandemic, promotion events like this can provide the opportunity to learn about China's high-end companies, and he will explore more companies and their products further online. The Canton Fair will continue to host seven "Discover Canton Fair with Bee and Honey" events from April 16 to 22. Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email for more opportunities. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1798341/131st_Canton_Fair_hosts__Discover_Canton_Fair_Bee_Honey__trade.jpg Hyundai Motor to become the first automaker to enter the community-based NFT market, including a website and channels on Discord and Twitter Hyundai Motor today released a short film introducing its NFT universe 'Metamobility Universe,' which reflects the 'Metamobility' concept revealed at CES 2022 Hyundai Motor to issue 30 limited NFTs celebrating the release of a short film that reveals its collaboration with 'Meta Kongz,' the NFT brand Profits from the sale of Hyundai NFTs will be used for the project's management and community members SEOUL, South Korea, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor Company today announced that it is entering the online community-based Non-Fungible Token market in collaboration with the 'Meta Kongz' NFT brand. Hyundai Motor is the first automaker to enter the NFT market with its own NFT community, including the Hyundai NFT official website and channels on Discord and Twitter. The Hyundai NFT community will provide its users with the Hyundai brand experience in the metaverse by sharing NFTs depicting its mobility solutions. The Hyundai NFT Discord and Twitter channels opened on April 15, and the official NFT website is scheduled to open in May. By providing dedicated channels for the Hyundai NFT community, the company will continuously manage the asset value of its NFTs. The online platforms will provide an open 24/7 communications channel between the company and community members, with real-time updates on the asset value of its NFTs. Today, the company released a short film introducing the Hyundai NFT universe concept 'Metamobility Universe,' which reflects the 'Metamobility' concept revealed at CES 2022. In the film, the 'Meta Kongz' gorilla character drives in both a classic PONY and modernly reinterpreted heritage series PONY from Earth to the Moon, visualizing how mobility solutions can transcend time and space. The film at the end also teases a shooting star-shaped NFT that will be released in May. Hyundai Motor will also issue 30 limited editions 'Hyundai x Meta Kongz' NFTs on April 20 to commemorate the release of the film. Hyundai NFT projects will be continued throughout the year to keep expanding the Hyundai NFT Universe. Profits from the sale of Hyundai NFTs will be used for the project's management and community members. "The Hyundai NFT Universe will extend the Hyundai brand experience, especially with MZ generation, in a completely new way, further reinforcing our commitment to innovation in both the real world and in the metaverse," said Thomas Schemera, Hyundai Motor's Global Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience Division. "We are extremely excited to introduce 'Metamobility' through our own NFTs and start this journey with 'Meta Kongz'." Hyundai Motor Company shared its vision of a 'Metamobility' concept at CES 2022 with the goal of pioneering a smart device-metaverse connection that will expand the role of mobility to virtual reality (VR), ultimately allowing people to overcome the physical limitations of movement in time and space. For more information, please visit: http://globalpr.hyundai.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1797067/1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1797068/2.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1797069/3.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1761625/Hyundai_Motor_Group_Logo.jpg Mountain V Oil & Gas is a privately held Oil & Gas Operator headquartered in Bridgeport, West Virginia that invests and owns over 1,600 wells across the Appalachia, as it embarks together with Controlled Capital on its latest Drilling Program in Gilmer and Clay County, West Virginia New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - April 17, 2022) - The future of sustainable energy is looking brighter than ever in the Appalachia with Mountain V Oil & Gas these days, as the Company recently announced the completion of construction on its first well in a 33 horizontal well drilling program in the Appalachia, as the company now prepares to drill. Controlled, established in 2017, is a Global Private Equity Advisory Firm headquartered in New York, NY. To-date, Controlled Development Partners has advised on over $550.0M in executed debt and private equity transactions. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8520/120658_41a3666384e46b62_001full.jpg "We recognize the difficulty in predicting what will happen tomorrow, especially as we rise out of a global pandemic, amongst an administration change within our Nation, and conflict amongst Global Leaders," says Mike Shaver, President and Owner of Mountain V Oil & Gas. "But when greater forces overexert their control over what appear to be simple inputs to a greater economic equation - for example, control over things like oil production levels, or excessive taxes on privately owned non-operated mineral leases - it only pushes companies and investors like us further towards a privatized market. We are extremely supportive of increasing private ventures similar to our latest drilling program - ventures that are community driven, and for the betterment of America, and our economy." "We are already seeing overwhelming support from many High Net Worth Individuals, Single and Multi Family Offices, Private Equity Funds that are eager to reap the long term positive cash flow and the short term tax benefits associated with financing drilling programs that are sponsored by highly experienced Private and Public oil and gas operators in the Appalachia, the Permian Basin, and the Gulf Coast across Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Texas, and Western Louisiana, respectively," says Josh Cohen, President and Owner of Controlled Capital, an advisor to Mountain V Oil & Gas. The latest development onsite with Mike Shaver, President and Owner of Mountain V Oil & Gas, a private company that owns over 1,600 wells across the Appalachia and is headquartered in Bridgeport, West Virginia To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8520/120658_41a3666384e46b62_002full.jpg "This isn't so much about the poker game our Global Leaders play over the price of oil. This is about utilizing our nation's resources in the most environmentally conscious, and economically efficient and impactful way. This is about creating jobs, creating viable investment opportunities to both private and public investors to create generational wealth. This is about providing purpose for tens of millions of Americans," says Cohen. For more information, visit www.controlledcap.com. With media inquiries, please contact Public & Investor Relations, Controlled Development Partners: (917) 584-7042 or info@controlleddev.com. ABOUT MOUNTAIN V Oil & Gas Mountain V Oil & Gas is a privately held Oil & Gas Operator headquartered in Bridgeport, West Virginia that invests and owns over 1,600 wells across the Appalachia, as it embarks together with Controlled Capital on its latest Drilling Program in Gilmer and Clay County, West Virginia ABOUT CONTROLLED CAPITAL: Controlled, established in 2017, is a Global Private Equity Advisory Firm headquartered in New York, NY. To-date, Controlled Development Partners has advised on over $550.0M in executed debt and private equity transactions. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120658 TOKYO, Apr 18, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu today announced a key development in its global innovation strategy with the establishment of a new research center, "Fujitsu Research of India Private Limited" (hereinafter FRIPL), on April 1, 2022. FRIPL represents the latest addition to Fujitsu's global R&D network and will focus on research and development into AI and machine learning technologies, as well as quantum software.As one of its first key initiatives, FRIPL will embark on joint research with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad(1) and the Indian Institute of Science(2) to promote innovation in leading-edge AI technologies. The joint research activities will initially focus on improving the accuracy and resilience of AI and machine learning technology. R&D with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad will focus on AI technology to discover causal relationships with higher accuracy, while collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science will center on technology to automatically generate AI through autonomous training in response to various environmental changes.Vivek Mahajan, Chief Technology Officer (Corporate Executive Officer, SEVP) Fujitsu Limited, comments: "Innovation has a growing role to play in solving societal and environmental challenges. As one of the world's leading technology companies, Fujitsu plays a key role in driving innovation, and we will harness technologies like AI and quantum to contribute to solutions to these issues. These efforts require access to top talent. Strengthening our presence in India will allow us to tap into the enormous potential offered by world class researchers with local institutions and universities that drive global software technology development. We look forward to conducting more agile and challenging joint research together to deliver a more sustainable future for humanity."A new research hub to drive innovation in strategically critical fieldsFujitsu has established FRIPL as a new research center focusing on AI and quantum software to enhance software technologies essential for R&D in key technology areas. Fujitsu will continue to hire exceptional talent in this field in India and aims to boost the number of its researchers to 50 by fiscal 2024. Moving forward, the Fujitsu Group will expand its research fields into security and other areas and will conduct world-leading software R&D in collaboration with Fujitsu's wider global network of research centers in areas including Japan, Europe, and the United States with the aim of creating software for global distribution.Name of the research center: Fujitsu Research of India Private LimitedLocation: Bangalore, IndiaDate of establishment: April 1, 2022President: Hirotaka Hara (EVP, Fujitsu Limited)Fujitsu's joint research projects with local Indian universities at FRIPL1. Joint research with the Indian Institute of Technology HyderabadFujitsu will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad on research into AI technology to discover causal relationships with higher accuracy. This technology combines the technology of Fujitsu's AI for scientific discovery(3) for high speed discovery of cause-and-effect relationships between large volumes of data with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad's expertise in geometric statistical theory. The new technology will allow researchers to extract complicated causalities(4) that could not be processed with existing technologies until now to discover causal relationships with high accuracy from a wide range of data. In this way, Fujitsu and the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad aim to provide an effective tool for innovative discovery and contribute to a wide range of fields including drug discovery and new material development.2. Joint research with the Indian Institute of ScienceFujitsu will collaborate with the Indian Institute of Science on research into technology to automatically generate AI through autonomous learning in response to various changes.Within their joint research, the parties will leverage Fujitsu's knowledge in adaptive machine learning (including reinforcement learning) and the Indian Institute of Science's leading expertise and technology gained through research on advanced deep learning with the aim to conduct R&D on an automatic deep learning model generation method that is able to make highly accurate predictions without trial and error intervention by experts.In this way, Fujitsu and the Indian Institute of Science aim to contribute to the autonomous evolution of AI, with the aim of realizing an AI that can be applied in areas that require constant responses to environmental changes including automated operation of large-scale systems and management decision support to maximize business KPIs.(1) Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad:Hyderabad, India; Director: Prof. B.S. Murty(2) Indian Institute of Science:Bangalore, India; Director: Prof. Govindan Rangarajan(3) AI for scientific discovery:AI technology developed by Fujitsu that is able to discover new theories from on-site data.(4) Complicated causality:Characteristic causal relationships that cannot be represented by linear functions.About FujitsuFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 126,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$34 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. OSAKA, Japan and TOKYO, Japan, Apr 18, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Shionogi & Co., Ltd. and NEC Corporation, today announced the execution of a strategic research collaboration agreement for the development of a novel hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine. NEC OncoImmunity, an NEC subsidiary that specializes in artificial intelligence-driven biotechnology, is also participating in this research collaboration.Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chronic infection with HBV results in a high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. About 300 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide, and hepatitis B resulted in an estimated 820,000 deaths in 20191. Although the widespread use of hepatitis B vaccines in infants has considerably reduced the incidence of new chronic HBV infections under the age of 5, the number of new infections by other routes continues to increase2.Interferon (IFN) and nucleotide analog therapy are currently used in the treatment of hepatitis B. However, treatment with IFN has a high frequency of side effects, and nucleotide analog therapy has a high recurrence rate if treatment is interrupted, so it is necessary to take drugs for a lifetime3. Therefore, the unmet medical need for safe and highly effective drugs that can finally achieve a complete cure for hepatitis B is high.Isao Teshirogi, President & CEO, Shionogi said:"Shionogi has been engaged in the research and development of infectious diseases for over 60 years. As a leading infectious disease company, we are taking on the challenge of protecting people from the threat of infectious diseases and realizing total care. One company, and even the entire pharmaceutical industry on its own, can only go so far in dealing with a global pandemic like COVID-19. We will further enhance our contribution to global health by integrating NEC's AI technologies while leveraging our strengths."Nobuhiro Endo, Chairman of the Board, NEC Corporation said:"NEC is committed to our vision of 'Orchestrating a brighter world,' and we are delighted to collaborate with Shionogi to realize this vision through the development of novel treatments for patients. The innovative AI technologies of the NEC Group have the potential to overcome several challenges in what is usually a long and labor-intensive drug discovery process. Through this new partnership with Shionogi, a recognized leader in the field of infectious disease, we aim to maximize the contribution of our AI to accelerate the pace of drug discovery, and thereby to contribute to society."By fusing Shionogi's drug discovery capability, focused on the infectious disease field, with NEC's expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), the companies will accelerate the progress toward a new therapeutic vaccine. Going forward, the companies will continue to actively expand such joint research into other infectious diseases where unmet medical needs remain.About Shionogi & Co., Ltd.Shionogi is committed to "Protect people worldwide from the threat of infectious diseases" as our key focus. We are not limiting ourselves to the research and development of therapeutic medications, but are also focused on the total care of infectious disease, through detection and forecast, prevention, diagnosis, and treating exacerbations, as well as the infection itself. For more information, please visit https://www.shionogi.com/global/en/.About NEC CorporationNEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of "Orchestrating a brighter world." NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.About NEC OncoImmunity ASNEC OncoImmunity AS is an AI-driven biotechnology company that has developed proprietary machine learning-based software which addresses the key knowledge gaps in the prediction of bona fide immunogenic neoantigens for personalized cancer immunotherapy, in addition to infectious disease vaccines. The AI technology can be used to identify optimal neoantigen targets for truly personalized cancer vaccines and cell therapies in a clinically actionable timeframe, and also facilitate effective patient selection for cancer immunotherapy. For more information, visit NEC OncoImmunity AS at https://www.oncoimmunity.com/.Source: NEC CorporationCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Finvasia today announced that it has appointed Tajinder Virk as the interim Chief Executive Officer for ZuluTrade. He will replace the previous CEO from the company, effective immediately. "Tajinder has been instrumental in building upon Finvaisa's success and has an impressive track record in delivering growth for our group companies," said Sarvjeet Singh Virk, CMD Co-founder Finvasia. "We have seen Tajinder (A.K.A. Natty) in action first hand and have the utmost confidence that his deep financial experience and leadership skills will drive results and accelerate ZuluTrade's business in this interim role." Tajinder Virk is the CEO of Finvasia Group of companies and is an exceptional leader with deep familiarity with all aspects of the business that allows him to develop and lead the execution of the group's strategic vision, assess risks and guide the group's growth. He has worked with some of the largest investment banks and hedge funds on Wall Street and has managed multibillion-dollar funds for major US banks, before co-founding Finvasia. At ZuluTrade, Tajinder will work closely with the team to deliver on the business expansion plan. Commenting on the appointment, Tajinder said, "Finvasia is known for its innovative business approach and for its ability to create value for its clients. We see ZuluTrade as the largest Social Wealth Management platform that will bring more asset classes and industry participants together under a single platform. "ZuluTrade is among the largest and the original social trading platforms that revolutionised copy trading in 2008. ZuluTrade 2.0 will maintain its legacy of being broker neutral, so it has no conflict of interest with its investors. We will be offering a variety of asset classes, encouraging more investors, leaders and brokers to join the platform whilst creating a conducive environment for them to grow their wealth," he continued. Finvasia's board has simultaneously commenced a formal search for a permanent CEO for ZuluTrade who can deliver on the Group's expectations for future ready products while maintaining its core values and cultures. About ZULUTRADE (https://www.zulutrade.com) ZuluTrade is the original social trading platform that revolutionised copy trading in 2008. It offers a massive database of Algo signals and strategies currently available across the market, catering to both advanced and novice investors alike. It's a broker neutral platform that has catered to over 2.5 million clients in over 100 countries and supports over twenty-six languages. About FINVASIA (https://finvasia.com) Finvasia is a multi-disciplinary, multinational organisation that owns and operates over a dozen brands across financial services, technology, real estate and healthcare verticals. Finvasia Group has managed funds for some of the notable hedge funds of Wall street, launched the first and only commission free ecosystem for financial products in India and is now aggressively expanding its presence in the European market. The Group has provided technology to some of the notable listed and unlisted financial services entities across the globe. Furthermore, its healthcare division recently launched a medically proven diabetes reversal program in India and has engaged scientists from various specialised fields in an effort to build nano and micro medical devices that will cater to the future of medical engineering. In the last 13 years, Finvasia has catered to a few million clients in over 180 countries directly or via its subsidiaries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220418005251/en/ Contacts: Media: Sandy Samra ssamra@finvasia.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - CENTR Brands Corp. (CSE: CNTR) (FSE: 303) (OTCQB: CNTRF) (the "Company") announced today that it completed non-brokered private placement financings (the "Financings") on April 13 and April 14. Pursuant to the Financings, the Corporation issued an aggregate of C$4,554,643.60 of units of the Company (the "Units") at an issue price of $0.65 per Unit. Each Unit is comprised of one common share (a "Common Share") and one common share purchase warrant of the Company (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $1.50 per Warrant Share for a period of three years following the date of issue, subject to a redemption timing adjustment in certain events. Certain founding shareholders and insiders of the Company participated in the Financings and subscribed for a total of 3,128,640 Units, which is a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The issuances to the insiders are exempt from the valuation and the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the Financings as the details of the Financings and the participation therein by related parties were not settled until shortly prior to closing and the Company wished to close on an expedited basis for sound business reasons. A further closing of the private placement on similar terms is expected to be completed within the next few weeks. The net proceeds of the Financings will be used for growth-oriented production, continued expansion of the recently launched online channel, new product innovation, and general working capital. The Company paid a finder's fee in connection with the sale of certain of the Units to subscribers introduced to the Company by finders. About CENTR Brands Corp. CENTR Brands Corp. is one of North America's leading functional beverage companies, and maker of the #1 selling CBD beverage brand in the United States, according to Brightfield Research. CENTR develops and markets non-alcoholic, functional ingestibles for the global market. The Company produces CENTR and CENTR Sugar Free, both sparkling, low-calorie CBD beverages as well as CENTR Instant, a family of on-the-go, adaptogen-based CBD powders. Visit www.findyourcentr.com and follow on Instagram at @findyourcentr. Find Your CENTR means living our most fulfilled lives and finding your heart in the everyday chaos. For further information, contact media@findyourcentr.com. Consumers that do not yet have a local CENTR Brands retailer can visit CENTR's online store at: www.findyourcentr.com/shop. On behalf of the Board, CENTR BRANDS CORP. /s/ Joseph Meehan Joseph Meehan, Chief Executive Officer This press release may contain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information . Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's intentions regarding its objectives, goals or future plans and statements, including with respect to the intended use of the net proceeds of the Financings and the proposed sale of additional Units of the Company on similar terms as the Financings. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120683 KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 18, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - PLS Plantations Berhad today announced their receipt of Silver3 ratings by RAM Sustainability for its principal plantations and trading segments, reflecting some gaps and the early stages of the Company's ESG practices that are crucial for reforestation and plantation-related sectors.The sustainability ratings by RAM Sustainability, a leading provider of independent ESG analytics, captures the Company's corporate sustainability performance based on all the environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes, as well as relevant international and domestic guidelines by Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) Climate Change and Principle-based Taxonomy (CCPT).PLS Plantations' Independent Non-Executive Chairman, Tan Sri Nazir Razak said, "This rating sets the baseline for the Company, in providing clear forward strategy in terms of our priorities and focus areas, across our business and operations, especially in areas for improvement. Equally as important, it offers our stakeholders - investors, regulators, business partners, suppliers, and clients - an objective and transparent assessment of our commitment to sustainability and responsibility as a reliable supplier, business partner, and an employer. PLS Plantations is working hard to execute against our strategy towards becoming Malaysia's leading sustainable, agrofood provider in the coming years."RAM Sustainability's Chief Executive Officer, Promod Dass said, "PLS Plantations is establishing a starting point for its ESG journey by subjecting itself to the rigors of a sustainability rating and positioning that transparency is a priority even though it points to its high ESG risk profile - for this it must be commended, and we look forward to monitor its sustainability progress. We hope that this will set a precedent for more companies to embark on their sustainability journey and aspire to achieve the highest ratings."As part of the Company's turnaround journey, PLS demonstrates strong commitment to expand on its corporate governance framework and policies, especially in areas of sustainability governance, pending a dedicated group-wide framework and policies to govern the Company. As a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP), PLS Plantations' vision is to contribute to the nation's food security and positive socioeconomic impact through initiatives in supporting local farmers, specifically the B40 and indigenous communities. The Company commits to produce quality products and services evidenced by the various certifications obtained such as the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification for its plantation segment. The Company's trading business has received Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Malaysia Good Agricultural Practices (myGAP), HALAL and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certifications, among others and has dedicated policies to manage human resource and human rights including the Good Social Practices Policy, Occupational Safety and Health Policy, Child Labour Policy and Sexual Harassment Policy.For more information, or to download the complete the PLS Plantation's RAM Sustainability rating report, please click here. https://www.ram.com.my/pressrelease/?prviewid=5964About PLS Plantations BerhadPLS Plantations was incorporated in Malaysia in 1987 and was listed on the Second Board of Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 1994. Currently listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, PLS and its subsidiaries are involved in the management and operation of forest, oil palm and durian plantations, as well as the processing, distribution and sale of durian products.Forward-Looking StatementsThe statement included in this press release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statement generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "plan," "seek," or "believe." These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future event. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statement, including, but not limited to our ability to win additional business. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future result, level of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements apply only as of the date of this press release; as such, they should not be unduly relied upon as circumstances change. Except as required by law, we are not obligated, and we undertake no obligation, to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements that might reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release or those that might reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.Media Contact:Cheong Sue FyennNarro CommunicationsE: suefyenn@narrocomms.comT: +6016 910 7625PLS Plantations Berhad: https://plsplantations.my/PLS Plantations Berhad: 9695 / [BURSA: PLS]Source: PLS Plantations BerhadCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global jewelry market size is expected to reach USD 518.90 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2022 to 2030. The luxury goods industry continues to drive the market for jewelry, amid challenges concerning varying economic trends. Key Insights & Findings from the report: The ring product segment held the largest revenue share in 2021. The segment stood as the most popular product amongst end users as consumers' interest is growing in the intricate designs and details of the rings. Moreover, they are perceived as elegant and stylish statement-making jewelry among both men and women, which is supporting the growth of the segment. The gold material segment is projected to register the fastest growth rate over the forecast period. In 2020, the jewelry industry used over 1,400 metric tons of gold accounting for more than one-third of all gold demand worldwide. Asia Pacific held the largest revenue share in 2021. Highly populated and developing economies of the region including China and India generate humongous demand for jewelry boosting its consumption and revenue. Additionally, the high significance of jewelry in Indian culture, improving living standards, rising per capita income and spending power, and the rising influence of social media on consumers are fueling the growth of the market in Asia Pacific . Request a free sample copy or view report summary, "Jewelry Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Necklace, Ring, Earring, Bracelet), By Material (Gold, Platinum, Diamond), By Region (North America, Europe), And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research. Jewelry Market Growth & Trends The demand for jewelry is increasing as the world is recovering from a recession and the global financial crisis of 2008. Over the past few years, consumer preference has turned to branded jewelry. This trend is more prominent among the emerging upper middle class or wealthy consumers, particularly in Asia Pacific, for whom branded jewelry is a status symbol. According to the World Gold Council, India and China accounted for more than 50% of the global gold jewelry demand in 2018. Most consumers buy jewelry from international or established brands as they offer authentic and trustworthy products and unique designs. E-commerce is another important trend in the industry. Most consumers in this market prefer to research online before purchasing any product, and many make purchases from online portals for convenience. Technological advancements have been transforming the jewel industry, from mining and discovering precious metals to cloud solutions and e-commerce platforms. Computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing, and augmented reality (AR) are among the most notable technologies that have been prompting the growth of the industry in recent years. From a distribution standpoint, the emergence and popularity of these technologies have been aiding jewelry manufacturers around the world to realize higher profit margins in retail outlets. A key trend that has been gripping the jewelry industry over the years is the transformation of the shopping experience using technology. For instance, in June 2017, YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP, an Italian online fashion retailer, partnered with Lumyer Inc., a U.S.-based app developing company, to launch an AR camera app designed to enable users to try on jewelry, sunglasses, and handbags in virtual reality. The rising number of double-income households in emerging economies such as India, China, and Brazil have resulted in increased spending on luxury goods, including jewelry. Spending on luxury products is expanding at a more substantial rate in tier-II cities in India than in tier I cities. According to American Express, high-end spending in tier II cities between 2013 and 2018 grew 30 times faster than that in tier I cities. The rise in luxury spending in tier I and tier II cities is due to strict measures by the Indian government, such as an increase in excise duty on gold and diamond, demonetization, and a rise in taxes on luxury items to curb black money. Jewelry Market Segmentation Grand View Research has segmented the global jewelry market on the basis of product, material, and region: Jewelry Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030) Necklace Ring Earring Bracelet Others Jewelry Material Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030) Gold Platinum Diamond Others Jewelry Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030) North America U.S. Europe Germany France Asia Pacific China India Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa & Saudi Arabia List of Key Players of Jewelry Market Tiffany & Co. Louis Vuitton SE Signet Jewelers Limited Pandora Jewelry, LLC H.Stern Richemont Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited Malabar Gold & Diamonds SWAROVSKI GROUP GRAFF Check out more related studies published by Grand View Research: Costume Jewelry Market - The global costume jewelry market size is expected to reach USD 39.2 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.5% in the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing fashion consciousness, increasing number of working women, and rising disposable income are some of the factors for the market growth. The global costume jewelry market size is expected to reach by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.5% in the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing fashion consciousness, increasing number of working women, and rising disposable income are some of the factors for the market growth. Precious Metal Market - The global precious metal market size is estimated to reach USD 362.1 billion by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2020 to 2027. Rising demand for precious metals in industrial applications is likely to positively influence the market growth. - The global precious metal market size is estimated to reach by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2020 to 2027. Rising demand for precious metals in industrial applications is likely to positively influence the market growth. Diamond Market - The global diamond market size is anticipated to reach USD 123.83 billion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 3.0% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is mainly driven by strong jewelry demand from emerging economies. Browse through Grand View Research's Clothing, Footwear & Accessories Industry Research Reports. About Grand View Research Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research Helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: 1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com Grand View Compass | Grand View Pipeline Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Gratomic Inc. ("Gratomic", "GRAT" or the "Company") (TSXV:GRAT)(OTCQX:CBULF)(FSE:CB82) is proud to welcome Fernando Luis Pereira Calha to the executive team. Mr. Calha will be stepping onboard as the Company's new Director of Graphite Sales and Business Development. Mr. Calha is experienced in strategic operations and business to business development in the field of technical solutions, with a focus on measurable and sustainable results. He is also experienced in complex contract negotiations, strategic marketing, Business Units management and has extensive knowledge of Mining and O&G commissioning projects. This new addition to the team has a strong and diverse educational and working background that makes him the optimal candidate for this position. Given his MBA in Business Management, Master's in Occupational Health, Safety and Hygiene, Diploma in Mechanical and Production Engineering and Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering coupled with his extensive working background, Mr. Calha is more than equipped to represent Gratomic as Head of Graphite Sales and Business Development. With substantial expertise in international markets, extensive experience leading start-up of businesses and establishment of new product lines complimented by his vast experience in strategic marketing and "go-to-market" planning, the Company believes Mr. Calha to be well-suited to his new position with Gratomic. Mr. Calha will be responsible for establishing a working relationship between Gratomic and its targeted end users through tailored product offerings and price strategies aimed at seizing the largest possible share of that market by ensuring that the Company has a complete and up-to-date understanding of the existing players and their unique specifications and requirements. He will manage the daily contacts with existing and potential customers, as well as the negotiation and execution of strategic supply contracts and offtakes. He will also liaise with institutional market entities, ensuring that Gratomic is always up to date with the latest developments. About Gratomic Gratomic is a multinational company with projects in Namibia, Brazil, and Canada. The Company is focused on becoming a leading global graphite supplier and aims to secure a strong position in the EV (Electric Vehicle) battery supply chain. With the continued development of its flagship Aukam project and further exploration on the Company's Capim Grosso property, Gratomic sets itself apart by seeking out unique top-quality assets around the world. True to its roots, the Company will continue to explore graphite opportunities displaying potential for development. The Company ranked third place in the top 10 preforming mining stocks on the 2022 TSX Venture 50. Large quantities of high-quality vein graphite have been shipped for testing to confirm its viability as an anode material. Gratomic is confident that the test results will provide a unique competitive advantage in its desired target markets. The Company will continue to update the public on the status of these tests and will provide results as soon as they become available. The Company has formed a collaboration agreement with Forge Nano. With its patented ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) coating, this cooperation with Forge Nano is a key element to support Gratomic's strategies towards the value-added phases of production of graphite for anode applications, namely micronization, spheronization and coating, making Gratomic graphite a preferred choice for use in lithium-ion batteries. For more information: visit the website at www.gratomic.ca or contact: Arno Brand at abrand@gratomic.ca or (416) 561- 4095 Subscribe at gratomic.ca/contact/ to be added to our email list. For Marketing and Media information, please email: info@gratomic.ca "Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). SOURCE: Gratomic Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697605/Gratomic-Welcomes-New-Director-of-Graphite-Sales-and-Business-Development Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - Keon Capital Inc. (TSXV: KEON.H) (the "Company") is pleased to announce its intention to complete an arm's length private placement of up to 2,000,000 Common shares at $0.25 per share for gross proceeds of $500,000 (the "Private placement"). The proceeds of the private placement will be used to repay approximately $148,268 of loans and trade payables. The balance will be used for general working capital purposes. In conjunction with, and contingent upon the completion of, the Private Placement, the Company also proposes to issue 951,576 Common shares at a deemed price of $0.25 per share to settle Company debts of $237,874, including certain amounts owing to Company insiders (the "Debt Settlement"). The issue price of $0.25 per share represents an approximate discount of 25% to the Company's last closing share price of $0.325. The completion of these transactions remains subject to customary conditions, including the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). To the extent that the transactions constitute a related party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions the issuer intends to rely on applicable exemptions from the formal valuation and shareholder approval requirements. The shares issued upon closing of the Private Placement and the Debt Settlement will be subject to a statutory 4-month hold period. There are no finder's fees or commissions payable in connection with these transactions. John Watson will, upon closing of the transactions, resign from the Board of the Company. John McCleery has agreed to accept an appointment to fill the resulting Board vacancy. Mr. McCleery has been involved in the junior capital markets for over 40 years, primarily in the resource sector. He has served as a director of several reporting issuers and has been a catalyst behind various start-up and early-stage companies. On behalf of the Board of Directors "William Murray" President, CEO and Director Tel: (604) 288 2553 Email: willi.murray@outlook.com Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to, among other things, the proposed completion of the Private Placement and the Debt Settlement transactions, the intended use of proceeds of the Private Placement, and an anticipated changes to the Company's board of directors. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Readers are urged to refer to the Company's public disclosure record available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120678 PS5 restocks are expected to pour down in the United States for this week. Many retailers with the likes of Target, Walmart, and Amazon might reveal some supplies on their shelves starting from Monday, Apr. 18 to Sunday, Apr. 24. Here's what you need to know about the highly-anticipated console drops in the United States. PS5 Restock Updates For April 18 to 24 Since the launch of PlayStation5 units, Sony sees its demand quickly climbing on the charts. It appears that the popularity of this next-gen console is not showing any signs of slowing down. With the arrival of many games on the platform, such as "Ghostwire: Tokyo" and "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands," it should be noted that several people are looking forward to playing them in a new unit. According to Gaming Intel's recent report, select retailers are rumored to be releasing PlayStation5 units this week. Since these are only speculations, it's always important to take them with a grain of salt. Target PS5 Restock For Target customers, expect that no restocks will be coming from the store. It should be noted that the last restock date for this retailer took place last Apr. 15. For some time, reports say that there are some PS5 supplies in Target's warehouses. The restock has already arrived at the retailer a week prior, so we assume that there will be no second drop for this week. Related Article: PS5 Restock: Target Hints on Potential Drop Soon, But Here's More Antonline PS5 Restock Another known retailer that you need to watch out for is Antonline. It was on Apr. 8 when this store last replenished its PS5 stocks. Gaming Intel wrote that the retailer might not be releasing new units for this week since it already dropped some bundles on Apr. 14. For those who are unfamiliar with Amazon drops, the store has an irregular pattern when it comes to this. Sometimes, it holds surprise drops twice a month. A "no restock" scenario can also happen in several months. Best Buy PS5 Restock Best Buy is rumored to be unveiling some stocks this week. There might be a potential in-store drop in select locations in the US. If it happens down the line soon, expect it to be exclusive to TotalTech members. Amazon PS5 Restock The Mar. 30 drop for Amazon was timely for those who missed the previous restock events from other shops. Truly, it's been a massive happening that every aspiring console owner should not miss. Amazon shows an obvious pattern when it comes to holding PS5 restocks. It usually does it on or after the 20th day of a month. With that being said, we could see that Amazon has a slim chance of dropping consoles from Apr. 18 to 24. Walmart PS5 Restock Many users have been annoyed by the left-and-right canceled orders of PS5 units from Walmart. This series of events kicked off last Mar. 14. We might see a potential drop on this store on Thursday, Apr. 21 at around 12:00 P.M. or 3:00 P.M. ET. GameStop PS5 Restock The last store that could reveal a surprise drop is GameStop. If the rumor is true about this retailer, the next PS5 drop could happen on Saturday, Apr. 23. PS5 Restock in the UK HITC reports that Very and Amazon UK might be the next retailers to drop PlayStation5 consoles in select regions for UK-based customers. Read Also: PS5 Controller Could Adopt an Increased PC Support Soon, New Leak Suggests This article is owned by GameNGuide Written by Joseph Henry SHERMAN OAKS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Petroteq Energy Inc. ("Petroteq" or the "Company") (TSXV:PQE)(OTC PINK PQEFF)(FSE:PQCF), an oil company focused on the development and implementation of its proprietary oil sands extraction and remediation technologies, provides an update with respect to the extension of the all-cash takeover-offer (the "Offer") of Viston Swiss United AG (the "Offeror"), which announced that the time for acceptance of the Offer has now been extended until 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on June 17, 2022. The Offer is being extended in order to allow additional time for the Offeror to obtain clearance under U.S. national security regulations, which is a condition to the Offer. Except for the extension of the Offer, all other terms and conditions of the Offer continue to remain in effect and unchanged. Petroteq's CEO and CTO, Vladimir Podlipsky Ph.D. stated, "Pursuant to our announcement on February 25, 2022, in which we indicated our willingness to assist Viston with the CFIUS filings and following discussions between representatives of the Offeror and Petroteq, the Offeror's U.S. counsel engaged with representatives of Petroteq in order to jointly prepare the Notice. On April 6, 2022, the Offeror and Petroteq pre-filed the Notice with CFIUS. We will continue to assist Viston with its CFIUS filings. The Board still believes that the immediate cash value offered to Shareholders under the Viston Offer is more favorable to Shareholders than the potential value that might otherwise result from other alternatives reasonably available to Petroteq. The Petroteq Board of Directors unanimously recommended acceptance of Viston Offer on January 04, 2022 and voted unanimously on January 26, 2022 to tender its shares also." Subsequent to Viston's press release several major Petroteq shareholders contacted us to express their continued support for the tender offer. Cantone Asset Management, LLC and its affiliates, which hold and have tendered approximately 120,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock have also indicated that they continue to view the Offer as the best near-term alternative and support the Offer. Common Shares Tendered to Offer Kingsdale Advisors, the Depositary and Information Agent for the Offer, has advised the Offeror that, as of 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on April 14, 2022, approximately 598,439,128 Common Shares had been validly tendered to the Offer and had not been validly withdrawn. Based on Viston's understanding of the share capitalization of Petroteq, the tendered Common Shares represent approximately 78.835% of the currently issued and outstanding Common Shares and approximately 75.875% of the Common Shares, measured on a fully diluted basis. For or More Information and How to Tender Shares to the Offer Shareholders who hold Common Shares through a broker or intermediary should promptly contact them directly and provide their instructions to tender to the Offer, including any U.S. dollar currency election. Registered shareholders that hold Common Shares in their own name need to complete a Letter of Transmittal and send, along with share certificates or DRS statements to the Depositary at the address listed on the Letter of Transmittal. For assistance or to ask any questions, Shareholders should visit www.petroteqoffer.com or contact Kingsdale Advisors, the Information Agent and Depositary in connection with the Offer, within North America toll-free at 1-866-581-1024, outside North America at 1-416-867-2272 or by e-mail at contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com Background to Viston's Press Release and the CFIUS Condition Viston United Swiss AG, together with its indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary, 2869889 Ontario Inc. has issued a press release on April 14, 2022 providing an update with respect to filings made with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in connection with its all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Petroteq Energy Inc. (TSX-V: PQE; OTC: PQEFF; FSE: PQCF), and has announced that it will mail a notice of extension dated April 14, 2022 (the "Notice of Extension") to the registered shareholders of Petroteq, extending the time for acceptance of the Offer to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on June 17, 2022. The Notice of Extension will also be filed on Petroteq's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. CFIUS is a group of Cabinet-level officials in the U.S. government who are authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States, in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States. On January 6, 2022, the Offeror made a voluntary declaration filing (the " Declaration ") with CFIUS. The Declaration was made for the purpose of securing a clearance by CFIUS that the Offeror's acquisition of Common Shares pursuant to the Offer and the subsequent second-step acquisition by the Offeror of any Common Shares not acquired by it in the Offer (the " Transactions ") as reflected in (i) a written notice from CFIUS that the Transactions do not constitute a "covered transaction" under relevant government regulations, (ii) a written notice from CFIUS that it has completed its assessment, review, or investigation of the Transactions and has concluded all action under Section 721 of the U.S. Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the " DPA "), or (iii) an announcement by the President of the United States, made within the period required by the DPA, of a decision not to take any action to suspend or prohibit the Transactions (each of (i), (ii), or (iii) being a " Clearance "). On February 24, 2022, Viston announced that following the expiration of the assessment period, CFIUS notified the Offeror that it was unable to complete action under the DPA and grant a Clearance on the basis of the Declaration. Accordingly, Viston and the Offeror determined to file a voluntary notice (the " Notice ") with CFIUS seeking a Clearance, in order to satisfy the conditions to the Offer. Viston and the Offeror commenced the preparation of the Notice with the objective of preparing the Notice on an expedited basis, submitting the Notice to CFIUS and commencing the 45-day notice review period as soon as practicable. About Petroteq Energy Inc. Petroteq is a clean technology company focused on the development, implementation and licensing of a patented, environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction and reclamation of heavy oil and bitumen from oil sands and mineable oil deposits. The versatile technology can be applied to both water-wet deposits and oil-wet deposits - outputting high-quality oil and clean sand. Petroteq believes that its technology can produce a relatively sweet heavy crude oil from deposits of oil sands at Asphalt Ridge without requiring the use of water, and therefore without generating wastewater which would otherwise require the use of other treatment or disposal facilities which could be harmful to the environment. Petroteq's process is intended to be a more environmentally friendly extraction technology that leaves clean residual sand that can be sold or returned to the environment, without the use of tailings ponds or further remediation. Additional Information In connection with the Offer, Petroteq has filed with Canadian securities regulators a Directors' Circular dated November 6, 2021 (the "Directors' Circular") and a Supplement to the Director's Circular dated December 29, 2021 (the "Supplement"). Petroteq has also filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") the Board's Solicitation/ Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 dated November 6, 2021 (the "Schedule 14D-9") which includes the Directors' Circular as an exhibit, and an amendment to the Schedule 14D-9 dated January 4, 2022 (the "Schedule 14D-9/A") which includes the Supplement as an exhibit. Any additional amendments to the Schedule 14D-9 filed by Petroteq that is required to be mailed to shareholders, will be mailed to shareholders of Petroteq. SHAREHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO READ THESE AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED WITH CANADIAN SECURITIES REGULATORS OR THE SEC IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN CERTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Shareholders will be able to obtain the Supplement, the Directors' Circular, the Schedule 14D-9/A, the Schedule 14D-9, and any amendments or supplements thereto, and other documents filed by Petroteq with Canadian securities regulators and the SEC related to the Offer, for no charge: on SEDAR under Petroteq's profile at www.sedar.com; on EDGAR at www.sec.gov; or www.petroteq.com. Any questions and requests for assistance may be directed to Petroteq's Information Agent, Shorecrest Group Ltd. (North American Toll-Free Phone: 1-888-637-5789; e-mail: contact@shorecrestgroup.com; outside North America, banks and brokers call collect: 647-931-7454). For more information, visit www.Petroteq.energy. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Words such as "may," "would," "could," "should," "potential," "will," "seek," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, including: the plan to proceed with construction of a 5,000 bpd extraction plant sands processing facility and related infrastructure; and the expectation that the plant, once completed, would be capable of yielding 8,000 tons of sand per day with a target of EPA Tier 1 quality for the resulting sand; are intended to identify forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to extract oil or sand from the identified reserves. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation: the technology performing as expected; availability of labor and parts; adequate capital raising efforts; and Petroteq's ability to execute on its operational plans. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet the Company's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of the Company to differ materially from its expectations. Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation: the risk that SITLA will not approve the assignment of the Asphalt Ridge NW Leases to TMC Capital; that full scale commercial production may engender public opposition; changes in laws or regulations; the ability to implement business strategies or to pursue business opportunities, whether for economic or other reasons; status of the world oil markets, oil prices and price volatility; oil pricing; litigation; the nature of oil and gas production and oil sands mining, extraction and production; uncertainties in exploration and drilling for oil, gas and other hydrocarbon-bearing substances; unanticipated costs and expenses; loss of life and environmental damage; risks associated with compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations; and directors; risks related to COVID-19 including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents, filed with United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov (including, without limitation, its most recent annual report on Form 10-K under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), and with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward- looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. CONTACT INFORMATION Petroteq Energy Inc. Vladimir Podlipsky Interim Chief Executive Officer Tel: (800) 979-1897 SOURCE: Petroteq Energy Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697778/Petroteq-Energy-Inc-Provides-Update-on-the-All-Cash-Takeover-Offer-of-Viston-United-Swiss-AG VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Searchlight Resources Inc. ("Searchlight" or the "Company") (TSXV:SCLT)(OTC PINK:CNYCF)(FSE:2CC2) is pleased to announce the initial results of the high-resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric surveys on the Company's Duddridge Lake Uranium - Copper project, located approximately 75 kilometers northwest of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Highlights Radiometric uranium survey highlights known Duddridge Lake Uranium Deposit Survey also highlights other uranium targets within Duddridge Lake claims Duddridge Lake claim area expanded to 191.8 square kilometres In September 2021, Special Projects Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, completed high-resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric surveys covering approximately 42.9 sq km of the Duddridge Lake claims. Preliminary radiometric results have highlighted the known Duddridge Lake Uranium Deposit (Map 1) and multiple additional potential uranium targets. The aeromagnetic survey has outlined a 5-kilometre long geophysical target which includes the Duddridge Lake Uranium Deposit and similar geology along strike (Map 2). "The Duddridge Lake project hosts a suite of Critical Elements including copper, cobalt, and vanadium in association with a known uranium deposit. In past exploration the focus has been on uranium, though we see potential for a multi-metal exploration focus", says Stephen Wallace, Searchlight's CEO The Duddridge Lake project is accessible by an all-season gravel road (Highway 910) to within 12 km of the deposit, with direct access by winter road and ATV trail in summer. The Uranium Deposit hosts a historic 43-101 inferred resource estimate of 227,880 tonnes, with a grade of 2.14 lbs/tonne U3O8, completed by Fission Energy Corp ("Fission") in 2007. Additionally, Fission had sampled 39 boulders in the deposit area with results of up to 1.91% uranium and 0.69% copper, plus 0.14% cobalt and 0.55 % vanadium (see press release https://searchlightresources.com/news/2018/searchlight-resources-acquires-cobalt-vanadium-property-in-saskatchewan/). The Duddridge Lake Uranium Deposit is described as stratabound uranium and copper mineralization with abundant polymetallic mineral occurrences associated with basal quartz conglomerate and carbonaceous-bearing lenses in red bed (hematitic) arkosic metasediments. Map 1. Uranium results (ppm) from 2021 airborne radiometric survey, overlaid on bedrock geology, Duddridge Lake Project Map 2. Uranium results (ppm) from 2021 airborne radiometric survey, overlaid on Total Magnetic Intensity (nT), Duddridge Lake Project Data Source The 43-101 technical report titled "Report on the Duddridge Lake Uranium Property, Northern Saskatchewan, NTS 73O/9", was submitted by Stuart C. Fraser, P. Geol. on June 15, 2007. The Duddridge Lake Uranium deposit technical report was not commissioned or completed by Searchlight and therefore is being treated as a historical resource estimate under 43-101 disclosure. The historical resource estimate used "inferred mineral resource", which is a category of NI 43-101. As a result, Searchlight considers the historical resource estimate as reliable as well as relevant as it represents a key target for work to be done by Searchlight. Searchlight has not undertaken any independent investigation of the resource estimates, nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the resources, and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as a current resource. Qualified Person Stephen Wallace, P.Geo., is Searchlight's Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. About Searchlight Resources Inc. Searchlight Resources Inc. (TSXV:SCLT, US:CNYCF, FSE:2CC2) is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on Saskatchewan, Canada, which has been ranked as the top location for mining investment in Canada by the Fraser Institute. Exploration focus is on gold and battery minerals throughout the province, concentrating on projects with road access. Exploration focus is on gold, uranium and battery minerals throughout the province. Searchlight holds over 1,395 square kilometres of claims in Saskatchewan. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Stephen Wallace" Stephen Wallace, President, CEO and Director SEARCHLIGHT RESOURCES INC. For further information, visit the Company's website at www.searchlightresources.com or contact: Searchlight Resources Inc. Alf Stewart, Chairman (604) 331-9326 info@searchlightresources.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. SOURCE: Searchlight Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697773/Searchlight-Resources-Identifies-Uranium-Targets-from-Airborne-Survey-at-Duddridge-Lake-Project RC DRILL PROGRAM UPSIZED TO 5,575 FEET VACAVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Athena Gold Corporation (OTCQB:AHNR)(CNSX:ATHA) ("Athena" or the "Company")is pleased to announce the successful completion of its reverse circulation ("RC") drill program (the "2022 Drill Program") at its Excelsior Springs project (the "Excelsior Springs Project" or the "Project") in Esmeralda County, Nevada (see news releases dated March 30, 2022, March 8, 2022 and February 9, 2022). The 2022 Drill Program was upsized to 5,575 feet from the originally planned 5,000 feet and was completed in early April 2022. A total of 11 vertical and angle holes were completed on both the patented and unpatented claims comprising the Project, ranging from depths of 350 to 900 feet. All RC samples were shipped to American Assay Laboratories, an independent laboratory, in Reno, Nevada on April 6, 2022 for analysis and the results are pending. The 2022 Drill Program was designed to better delineate and expand known mineralization along strike at the Excelsior Springs Project, aggressively test target areas and further substantiate that the Project is a regional-scale, intrusion-related, gold-bearing, hydrothermal system. John Power, Athena's President & CEO commented, "Our 2022 RC drill program was completed as planned at the Excelsior Springs Project. Our drilling contractor and our consulting technical team did an excellent job. We are encouraged by intersections of mineralization and alteration in several drill holes, and we will anxiously await results from the assay lab." Figure 1. RC drilling at the Excelsior Springs Project, Nevada Quality Assurance and Quality Control Statement Procedures have been implemented to assure Quality Assurance Quality Control (QAQC) of drill hole assaying being done at an ISO Accredited assay laboratory. All intervals of drill holes are being assayed and samples were securely stored for shipment, with chain of custody documentation through delivery. Mineralized commercial reference standards and coarse blank standards were inserted every 20th sample in sequence and results will be graphed to assure acceptable results, resulting in high confidence of the drill hole assay results. When laboratory assays are received, the QAQC results will be immediately evaluated and graphed to analyze dependability of the drill hole assays. As the Excelsior Springs Project advances, additional QAQC measures will be implemented including selected duplicate check assaying on pulps and coarse rejects at a second accredited assay laboratory. All results will be analyzed for consistency. About the Excelsior Springs Project The Excelsior Springs Project mining claims cover an area of 3.5 km2 including the historic Buster mine, which had estimated historical production of 18,000 tonnes (T) at 37.3 grams gold per tonne (g Au/T) gold to a maximum depth of 70 m. The Excelsior Springs Project is located in the Walker Lane tectonic zone of southern Nevada, which hosts a number of large historic gold mines. Total gold production from the Walker Lane tectonic zone has exceeded 20 million ounces (Moz) including notable deposits by Goldfields (5 Moz), Bullfrog (2 Moz), Tonopah (2 Moz), Mineral Ridge (1.5 Moz) and Comstock (8 Moz Au, 200 Moz Ag). The reports of past production on the Excelsior Springs Project are historical in nature and may not accurately indicate the extent or grade of mineralization present at the Excelsior Springs Project. Although the Company believes the source of the historical information to be generally reliable, such information is subject to interpretation and cannot be verified with complete certainty due to limits on the availability and reliability of raw data and other inherent limitations and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that the Company has no interest in or right to acquire any interest in any of the above-mentioned properties, other than the Excelsior Springs Project, and that the mineral deposits, and the results of any mining thereof, on adjacent or similar properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Excelsior Springs Project or any potential exploitation thereof. From the mid-1980s through 2011, several exploration companies conducted drilling programs at the Excelsior Springs Project, primarily on the patented claims, that began to define the near-surface Buster Mine gold zone. Gold mineralization at the Excelsior Springs Project occurs within an east-west trending zone that is 200 to 400m wide and at least 3 km long. Gold mineralization discovered at the Excelsior Springs Project to date occurs in quartz vein stock-works and silicified zones in hornfels and calc-silicate altered country rock and is generally close to porphyry dykes. The best mineralization (grade and thickness) is found in altered sediments immediately above porphyry dykes that have intruded along existing east- and east-northeast trending faults. Some mineralized stock-work vein zones are shallow and have a relatively flat plunge, making them amenable to open pit mining methods. Most historical exploration at the Excelsior Springs Project has focused on a 2.5 km long section in the central part of the Buster zone where mineralization is at or near the surface. Surface mapping and an Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey conducted by Zonge International Inc identified multiple zones of silicification that correlate well with the known mineralization. Many of the silicified zones defined by the IP (resistivity highs) surveys have not been tested by drilling and remain targets for future exploration. Qualified Person John Hiner, Licensed Geologist and Registered Member of SME (Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration), a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis of this press release and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Hiner is not independent of the Company as he is a director of the Company and holds stock options in the Company. About Athena Gold Corporation Athena is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit and to conduct its exploration program on the Excelsior Springs Project, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, approximately 45 miles southwest of Goldfield, Nevada. For further information about Athena Gold Corporation and our Excelsior Springs Gold project, please visit www.athenagoldcorp.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors John Power Chief Executive Officer and President Contact: Phone: John Power, 707-291-6198 Email: info@athenagoldcorp.com Cautionary Statement to U.S. Investors This press release references NI 43-101, which differs from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can legally extract or produce. Pursuant to SEC Industry Guide 7 under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves. Currently Athena has not delineated "reserves" on any of its properties. Athena cannot be certain that any deposits at its properties will ever be confirmed or converted into SEC Industry Guide 7 or any successor rule or regulation compliant "reserves". Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the historic Buster Mine gold zone will ever be confirmed or converted into reserves or that it can be economically or legally extracted. The SEC has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules to modernize the mineral property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These amendments became effective February 25, 2019, with compliance required for the first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and historical property disclosure requirements for mining registrants that were included in SEC Industry Guide 7 will be rescinded from and after such date. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the results from the 2022 Drill Program, future results from exploration, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "potential", "scheduled", or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that there will be investor interest in future financings, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration and development of the Company's projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the exploration and development of the Company's projects and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the inability of the Company to obtain the necessary financing required to conduct its business and affairs, as currently contemplated, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in future financings, accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, including of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and other factors and risks that are discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the SEC and disclosed in the final long form prospectus of the Company dated August 31, 2021. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this press release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law. SOURCE: Athena Gold Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697703/Athena-Gold-Completes-Drilling-Program-at-Excelsior-Springs-Gold-Project-Esmeralda-County-Nevada Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - ION Energy Limited (TSXV: ION) (OTCQB: IONGF) (FSE: 5YB) ("ION" or the "Company") is excited to provide an operational update, while our team conducts site visits in Mongolia. ION Energy's CEO, Ali Haji, is in Mongolia for strategic site visits from April 16th to 26th, in anticipation of sharing plans with the market for our pending drilling programs. He will be accompanied by senior technical team members, including: ION Director, Enkhtuvshin Khishigsuren, with 30 years of Mongolian mineral discovery experience, Don Hains, P.Geo, MBA, Lead Technical Advisor, and Dr. Mark King, PhD, PGeo. "Now that borders are fully open, I'm delighted to have foremost industry experts see our projects firsthand and work with our Mongolian team to kick off the next phase of our fully-funded exploration programs. Our preliminary results have reinforced the long-term lithium potential at our Baavhai Uul project and Urgakh Naran projects, as we strive to play a pivotal role in Asia's battery metals supply hub. I'm really excited to provide updates from Mongolia, over the coming days," says Ali Haji, CEO & Director of ION Energy Ltd. This visit also provides ION's CEO the opportunity to personally thank the dedicated exploration team members for their commitment and flexibility since the onset of the pandemic, in furthering our maiden drilling program at the flagship Baavhai Uul lithium brine site, while keeping each other safe and healthy. ION's Exploration Programs: This in-country visit is a significant milestone for ION Energy, after two years of pandemic-related delays and border closures. The following highlights how the Company plans to advance each of these programs: TEM Geophysics; and Hydrogeological Sampling Figure 1. Baavhai Uul and Urgakh Naran Projects' Site Visit. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6906/120728_2e5ccbe094873a90_002full.jpg Figure 2. Urgakh Naran 2022 Exploration Plans: Already Commenced To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6906/120728_2e5ccbe094873a90_003full.jpg "Live from Mongolia": 15 minute Shareholder Summit - April 25th : Save the Date, and Join Us on April 25th at 8:30 am EST. ION Energy's CEO will provide a quick update following the site visits, and you'll have an opportunity to ask him questions about our next key milestones. Register HERE. About ION Energy Ltd. ION Energy Ltd. (TSXV: ION) (OTCQB: IONGF) (FSE: 5YB) is committed to exploring and developing Mongolia's lithium salars. ION's flagship, 81,000+ hectare Baavhai Uul lithium brine project, represents the largest and first lithium brine exploration licence award in Mongolia. ION also holds the 29,000+ hectare Urgakh Naran highly prospective Lithium Brine licence in Dorngovi Province in Mongolia. ION is well-poised to be a key player in the clean energy revolution, positioned well to service the world's increased demand for lithium. Information about the Company is available on its website, www.ionenergy.ca, or under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. For further information: COMPANY CONTACT: Ali Haji, ali@ionenergy.ca, 647-871-4571 MEDIA CONTACT: Siloni Waraich, siloni@ionenergy.ca, 416-432-4920 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, potential mineralization, exploration and development results, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from ION Energy's expectations include, among others, uncertainties relating to availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, risks related to international operations, the actual results of current exploration activities, delays in the development of projects, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as future prices of lithium, and ability to predict or counteract potential impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on factors relevant to the Company's business. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120728 RICHMOND HILL, ON / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Helix BioPharma Corp. (TSX:HBP) ("Helix" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing unique therapies in the field of immuno-oncology, based on its proprietary technological platformDOS47, is pleased to announce that Artur Gabor has been appointed as the Company's Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. The Company is also pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its Board of Directors (the "Board"). Jerzy Leszczynski, Christopher Maciejewski and Jacek Antas have been appointed to the Board effective immediately. These appointments are designed to improve the Company's independence, diversification and corporate governance with an aim of strengthening the Company's future growth capabilities. Jerzy Leszczynski is a shareholder of the Company, has spent more than 35 years developing businesses and has served in the capacity of board member of various real estate development companies. Mr. Leszczynski obtained his Masters of Science in Chemistry from the Warsaw Institute of Technology. Christopher Maciejewski is a consultant to an international flight medicine transport service. Prior to this role, Mr. Maciejewsi served as the Chief Medical Officer of MedEvac Canada, a leading non-emergency patient transfer company. He has spent more than thirty years building and leading businesses in medical field, specifically within air ambulance transport. Mr. Maciejewski has an extensive educational background and attended Silesian University in Wroclaw, Poland where he studied Applied Medical Manual Sciences. Mr. Maciejewski is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Jacek Antas has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry holding various positions in sales and consulting. Mr. Antas obtained a master's degree from the Warsaw School of Economics and has served as a board member of various companies throughout his career. "It's a pleasure to welcome these three distinguished members to join the Board of Helix. I look forward to working closely with them on Helix's next growth chapter" said Artur Gabor, Chief Executive Officer. About Helix BioPharma Corp. Helix BioPharma Corp. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing unique therapies in the field of immune-oncology for the prevention and treatment of cancer based on our proprietary technological platform DOS47. Helix is listed on the TSX under the symbol "HBP". For more information, please contact: Helix BioPharma Corp. 9120 Leslie Street, Suite 205 Richmond Hill, Ontario,L4B 3J9 Tel: 905-841-2300 x 233 Frank Michalargias, Chief Financial Officer ir@helixbiopharma.com Forward-Looking Statements and Risks and Uncertainties This news release contains forward-looking statements and information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements and information that are not historical facts but instead include financial projections and estimates, statements regarding plans, goals, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to the Company's future business, operations, research and development, including the Company's activities relating to DOS47, and statements regarding expected improvements to the Company's independence, diversification and corporate governance and the Company's expectations regarding strengthening its future growth capabilities. Forward-looking statements can further be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "ongoing", "estimates", "expects", or the negative thereof or any other variations thereon or comparable terminology referring to future events or results, or that events or conditions "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved, or comparable terminology referring to future events or results. Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that are also uncertain. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward- looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Forward-looking statements, including financial outlooks, are intended to provide information about management's current plans and expectations regarding future operations, including without limitation, future financing requirements, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Certain material factors, estimates or assumptions have been applied in making forward-looking statements in this news release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements contained in this news release as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including without limitation; the risk that the Company's assumptions may prove to be incorrect; the risk that additional financing may not be obtainable in a timely manner, or at all, and that clinical trials may not commence or complete within anticipated timelines or the anticipated budget or may fail; third party suppliers of necessary services or of drug product and other materials may fail to perform or be unwilling or unable to supply the Company, which could cause delay or cancellation of the Company's research and development activities; necessary regulatory approvals may not be granted or may be withdrawn; the Company may not be able to secure necessary strategic partner support; general economic conditions, intellectual property and insurance risks; changes in business strategy or plans; and other risks and uncertainties referred to elsewhere in this news release, any of which could cause actual results to vary materially from current results or the Company's anticipated future results. Certain of these risks and uncertainties, and others affecting the Company, are more fully described in the Company's annual management's discussion and analysis for the year ended July 31, 2021 under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" and Helix's Annual Information Form, in particular under the headings "Forward-looking Statements" and "Risk Factors", and other reports filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com from time to time. Forward-looking statements and information are based on the beliefs, assumptions, opinions and expectations of Helix's management on the date of this new release, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement or information should those beliefs, assumptions, opinions or expectations, or other circumstances change, except as required by law. SOURCE: Helix BioPharma Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697809/Helix-Biopharma-Corp-Announces-Appointment-of-Permanent-CEO-and-Independent-Board-Members As per DelveInsight analysis, the Common Warts market will experience a significant impact in the coming years owing to the rising research and Common Warts prevalence along with the emergence of novel therapies from key Common Warts companies such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, and others. LAS VEGAS, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's Common Warts Market Insights report provides a comprehensive understanding of current treatment practices, Common Warts emerging drugs, market share of individual therapies, and current and forecasted Common Warts market size from 2019 to 2032, segmented into 7MM (the United States, the EU5 (the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany), and Japan. Key Takeaways from the Common Warts Market As per DelveInsight's estimates, the Common Warts market size was USD 720.03 million in 2020 which is further expected to increase by 2032 in the 7MM. in 2020 which is further expected to increase by 2032 in the 7MM. The US accounted for the maximum Common Warts market size compared to EU5 countries and Japan in 2020. in 2020. The leading Common Warts companies such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others are developing therapies that are expected to launch their drugs in the Common Warts market in the coming years. and others are developing therapies that are expected to launch their drugs in the Common Warts market in the coming years. Key Common Warts therapies in the pipeline include Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, expected to bring a positive shift in the Common Warts market along with others. expected to bring a positive shift in the Common Warts market along with others. The key driver for the surge in Common Warts market size is the rise in the Common Warts prevalence in the 7MM. For further information on how the emerging therapies would shift the Common Warts market landscape download the sample at Common Warts Market Outlook Common Warts Overview Common Warts, also known as Verruca Vulgaris, are caused by non-malignant strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV Common Warts are typically benign lesions with a low risk of malignant transformation. They appear on the skin as rough, painless papules that can be grey or flesh-colored and are found in various body areas. Other HPV subtypes associated with cervical cancer are not the same strains that are linked with the causes of Verruca Vulgaris. Common Warts can be distinguished from other common types of warts, including genital, filiform, and plantar warts. Common Warts on hands and Common Warts on fingers are the most common, but they can also be found on the knees, ankles, arms, and legs. The Verruca Vulgaris symptoms include small, fleshy, grainy bumps, Flesh-colored, white, pink, or tan, Rough to the touch, Sprinkled with black pinpoints, which are small, clotted blood vessels. Common Warts Epidemiology Segmentation As per DelveInsight, the total Common Warts prevalent cases were approx 2.7 million cases in the 7MM in 2020. Among EU5 countries, Germany has the highest Common Warts prevalence, while Spain had the lowest in 2020. The Common Warts Market Report proffers epidemiological analysis for the study period 2019-2032 in the 7MM segmented into: Diagnosed prevalent cases of Common Warts Gender-specific Prevalence of Common Warts Know how the epidemiological trends are going to look like in 2032 for the 7MM by downloading at Common Warts Epidemiological Insights Common Warts Market Common Warts account for nearly 70% of all viral warts and are more common in school-aged children. Despite the high incidence rate, the Common Warts treatment landscape is limited and ambiguous. Even though the majority of warts disappear on their own, some require treatment. The goal of treatment for Common Warts is to either destroy the wart or to stimulate an immune system response to fight the virus. It is possible that Verruca Vulgaris treatment will take weeks or months. Warts tend to recur or spread even after treatment. Salicylic acid, freezing (cryotherapy), laser treatment, and other antiviral products such as 5-flourouracil, imiquimod, and others dominate the current Common Wart treatment landscape. Furthermore, the current Common Warts market for wart-specific treatment is extremely limited. However, a few market participants have pipeline products in the disease indication. These include Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, and others. Discover more about Common Wart treatment at Best Treatment for Common Warts Common Warts Pipeline Therapies and Key Companies Candin: Nielsen Biosciences VBP-245: Veloce BioPharma VP-102: Verrica Pharmaceutical CLS006: Maruho Co., Ltd. A-101: Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. Discover more about therapy set to grab substantial Common Warts market share at Drugs for Common Warts Common Warts Market Dynamics The current market landscape, governed with salicylic acid does not provide an opportunity for curing the warts, thus the recurrence is high. This challenge is dubbed as the Common Warts market driver for the continuing and future developmental activities for the indication. The Common Warts market's growth can be further attributed to the rising prevalence of human papillomavirus infections, recurrence of warts, and development of new products. Moreover, increasing awareness regarding warts is expected to foster market growth during the forecast period. Major pharmaceutical players are committed to developing the current pipeline to address the unmet needs and improvise the current Common Warts treatment landscape, further bolstering the overall revenue generation during the forecast period. As a result, the dynamics of the Common Warts market are anticipated to change in the coming years owing to the increasing awareness, the rising research and Common Warts prevalence along with the emergence of novel therapies. The expected launch of these therapies will fuel the Common Warts market size during the forecast period (2021-2032). Know more about which pharma player in the Common Warts market is set to emerge as the trendsetter at Common Warts Companies Scope of the Common Warts Market Report Study Period: 2019-2032 2019-2032 Coverage: 7MM [ The United States , EU5 ( Germany , France , Italy , Spain , and the United Kingdom ), and Japan ] 7MM [ , EU5 ( , , , , and the ), and ] Key Common Warts Companies: Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others Key Pipeline Therapies : Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, and others : Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, and others Therapeutic Assessment: Common Warts current marketed and emerging therapies Common Warts current marketed and emerging therapies Common Warts Market Dynamics: Common Warts market drivers and barriers Common Warts market drivers and barriers Competitive Intelligence Analysis: SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG Matrix, Market entry strategies SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG Matrix, Market entry strategies Unmet Needs, KOL's views, Analyst's views, Common Warts Market Access and Reimbursement Discover more about the future Common Warts market share of treatment therapies at Verruca Vulgaris Treatment Market Table of Contents 1. Key Insights 2. Report Introduction 3. Common Warts Market Overview at a Glance 4. Executive Summary 5. Disease Background and Overview 6. Management and Treatment 7. Epidemiology and Patient Population 8. Patient Journey 9. Emerging Therapies 10. Current Marketed Therapies: Generics 11. Other Topical Agents 12. 7MM Common Warts Market Analysis 13. Common Warts Market Outlook 14. Common Warts Market Drivers 15. Common Warts Market Barriers 16. KOL Views 17. Unmet Needs 18. SWOT Analysis 19. Appendix 20. DelveInsight Capabilities 21. Disclaimer 22. About DelveInsight Get in touch with our Business executive at Healthcare Due Diligence Services Related Reports Common Warts Pipeline Common Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Common Warts companies involved such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, among others. Common Warts Epidemiology Forecast Common Warts Epidemiology Forecast to 2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical, and forecasted Common Warts epidemiology in the 7MM. Warts Market Warts Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Warts companies such as Maruho, Aclaris Therapeutics, among others. Genital Warts Market Genital Warts Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2030 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Genital Warts companies such as Verrica Pharmaceuticals, Novan Inc., G&E Herbal Biotechnology, among others. Genital Warts Pipeline Genital Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Genital Warts companies involved such as ViroXis Corporation, bioRASI, LLC, Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc., Orgenesis, among others. Warts Pipeline Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Warts companies involved such as Cytovation, Novan, Verrica Pharmaceuticals, among others. Other Trending Dermatological Reports Atopic Dermatitis Market Atopic Dermatitis Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Atopic Dermatitis companies such as Sanofi, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Japan Tobacco and Torii Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly and Company, among others. Rosacea Market Rosacea Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Rosacea companies such as Sol-Gel Technologies, Maruho Co., Ltd., AOBiome LLC, CAGE Bio Inc., among others. Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections Market Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections companies such as Basilea Pharmaceutica, MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, TenNor Therapeutics Limited, among others. About DelveInsight DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant, and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports Pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance. Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve. Connect With Us at LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter Contact Us Shruti Thakur info@delveinsight.com +1(919)321-6187 www.delveinsight.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082265/DelveInsight_Logo.jpg NANJING, China, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In April 2022, the English cultural and tourism magazine "Jiangsu Glimpses", produced by the "Charm of Jiangsu" Global Communication Center, has launched a new spring version which recommends interesting spring folk customs, beautiful museums and fun routes in Jiangsu. What winter takes from here, spring will give it back. This classic verse by Heine is especially evident in "Charm of Jiangsu". After a winter of dormancy, the flowers on the Meihua Mountain in Nanjing are budding, the Biluochun tea stretches on the Xishan Mountain in Suzhou, the Artemisia Selengensis and Kalimeris Indica emerge from the ground, and the puffer fish also feel the warmth of the spring river. When spring comes to Jiangsu, people will see the beautiful flowers, tea and food of spring. It has become a habit for Chinese tourists to come to Jiangsu to see flowers in spring. The city flower of Nanjing is the plum blossom, which glows on the Meihua Mountain near the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum; Yuantouzhu scenic spot of the Taihu Lake is one of the three major cherry blossom viewing spots in the world, also a story of Sino-Japanese friendship; Rape Flower in Taizhou Xinghua Duotian is one of the four major flower seas in the world; Yancheng Dafeng Holland Flower Sea is known as the "Best tulip scenic spot"; Yangzhou Marco Polo Flower World has the world's largest flower carpet; "Natian Flower Sea" is located in Santai Mountain National Forest Park, Suqian, Jiangsu, which includes 612 flower fields that are "stitched" together... Spring comes and grows on the branches of these flowers, releasing the unique fragrance of spring in the south of the Yangtze River. Tea is another gift that comes with the spring of Jiangnan. Every bud sprouting in spring awakens on mountains in Jiangsu, making the spring scenes tastable and admirable. Many teas with poetic names are all from Jiangsu, such as Suzhou's Biluochun tea, Nanjing's Yuhua tea, Liyang's white tea, Yixing's Yangxian tea, Yangzhou's Lvyangchun tea and Maoshan's Changqing tea. During this period, the tea field can not only produce quality teas but also is a nice place for tourists to go for a walk. Tea trees are pickier to choose their planting sites than humans. Nowadays, people follow the footsteps of looking for tea and enjoy one-stop services in Jiangsu including transportation, accommodation, sightseeing, and food. In addition to the tea fields, tourists can also walk into the surrounding tea houses, scenery parks, picturesque villages, modern tea factories and tea museums. In the spring of Jiangsu, tourists must not miss the fresh food such as Qingtuan and Preserved and Braised Fresh Meat. In addition, Huai'an Kaiyang Cattail, Yangzhou Puffer and River Clam from the "City of Gastronomy" as well as seasonal wild vegetables such as Toona sinensis, Kalimeris Indica and Artemisia Selengensis are very suitable to enjoy in spring. For the beautiful and interesting spring scenery of charming Jiangsu through appreciating and tasting, please visit the English cultural and tourism magazine "Jiangsu Glimpses": https://www.jnsheji.cn/book/UxknPlftgI. Attachments: Jiangsu Glimpses.jpg (http://asianetnews.net/Download.asp?ID=419291) Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1798664/Jiangsu_1.jpg COLORADO SPRINGS, CO / ACCESSWIRE / April 18, 2022 / Fortitude Gold Corp. (OTCQB:FTCO) (the "Company") reports preliminary production results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 of 9,875 gold ounces. Fortitude Gold is a gold producer, developer, and explorer with operations in Nevada, U.S.A. offering investors exposure to both gold production and dividend yield. During the first quarter the Company processed ore from its Isabella Pearl mine including high- and low-grade ore stockpiles. Mine operations in the first quarter focused primarily on waste removal of the phase one open-pit layback. With phase-one now complete, the Company is now focused on phase-two mining with access to the mine's high-grade Pearl zone over the next three years. The Isabella Pearl deposit's average proven and probable gold grade at December 31, 2021 was estimated at 3.75 grams per tonne gold. The Company maintains its 2022 production Outlook targeting 40,000 ounces of gold (a range of 36,000 to 40,000 ounces). The production Outlook assumes no disruptions from the COVID-19 global pandemic or unforeseen operational challenges. Full financial results for the first quarter will be available at the time the Company files its quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Fortitude Gold Corp.: Fortitude Gold is a U.S. based gold producer targeting projects with low operating costs, high margins, and strong returns on capital. The Company's strategy is to grow organically, remain debt-free and distribute substantial dividends. The Company's Nevada Mining Unit consists of five high-grade gold properties located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt and a sixth high-grade gold property in west central Nevada. The Isabella Pearl gold mine, located on the Isabella Pearl mineralized trend, is currently in production. Nevada, U.S.A. is among the world's premier mining friendly jurisdictions. Cautionary Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. If you are risk-averse you should NOT buy shares in Fortitude Gold Corp. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding the Company's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to the Company on the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, the scope, duration, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mining operations, Company employees, and supply chains as well as the scope, duration and impact of government action aimed at mitigating the pandemic may cause future actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. Also, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Contact: Greg Patterson 719-717-9825 greg.patterson@fortitudegold.com www.Fortitudegold.com SOURCE: Fortitude Gold Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697812/Fortitude-Gold-Reports-Preliminary-First-Quarter-Production-Of-9875-Gold-Ounces The Company provides additional guidance on the Automotive sector West Jordan, Utah--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (OTC Pink: FLXT) is pleased to announce significant growth in glove orders from several top virtual reality leaders, Manus VR, Neofect, and Gloreha. Flexpoint's Bend Sensor continues to be highly sought after as the Virtual Reality (VR) market accelerates and the demand for innovative medical equipment grows. Flexpoint continues to make advances in implementing its technology developed to be used in the Automotive manufacturer's vehicles with the ability to be licensed to other manufacturers. The Company believes this will add significant revenue in 2022 and further expand the patented Bend Sensor's capabilities. "We are pleased with the reception of our sensor technology in so many varied and diverse applications. We have experienced a significant upturn in sensor orders over the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 and expect that this trend will continue throughout the balance of 2022 and into the future," stated Flexpoint's President, Clark More. He continued, "During the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of this year we have received and delivered orders for approximately 2,900 gloves and over 33,000 additional sensors totaling approximately $130,000 in revenue, plus orders for additional gloves and sensors to be delivered this year. We have also received additional orders to continue development of sensors for automotive manufacturers." About Manus VR - https://www.manus-vr.com/ Well known industries and companies are currently using the virtual reality gloves. Manus gloves featuring Flexpoint's Bend Sensor are assisting in virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality experiments that, for example, train astronauts how to maneuver through the International Space Station in a zero-gravity environment. The value key customer relationships such as BMW, Audi, and Airbus which utilize Manus VR gloves with Flexpoint's Bend Sensor technology to test drive future models before production has even started. Volkswagen uses Manus VR gloves to give the feeling of a real steering wheel to experience what happens if an accident were to occur. Manus VR has many clients of large industries such as Netflix, Google, and Rolls Royce. Manus VR is widely known for its role in virtual reality gaming and can allow the hands of the user to feel like and be used as controllers. The Manus VR glove will revolutionize the VR market. It is poised to play a huge role in the on-going virtual reality revolution. Manus VR believes in open innovation through sharing knowledge and experience. The possibilities of the Manus VR gloves are virtually endless and extend far beyond virtual reality. About Neofect - https://www.neofect.com/us Partnering with healthcare organizations and improving patient satisfaction and therapy compliance with turnkey telerehabilitation models. Clinical partners include Medstar Health, NYU Langone Medical Center, Stanford Healthcare, Department of Veterans Affairs, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Genesis; just to name a few. A med-tech company helping stroke survivors and people with spinal cord injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, or neurological conditions regain independence and live fuller, more active lives. Its game-based rehabilitation solutions deliver more engaging, quantifiable therapy to improve cognitive, hand, arm, and leg function, while its robotic orthosis creates an artificial grip to increase hand mobility. About Gloreha - https://www.gloreha.com/ Gloreha devices are the most advanced, effective and user-friendly combination of technology to support motor rehabilitation of the upper limb and neurocognitive recovery. Serving patients, doctors, therapists: through therapies and protocols that accompany all stages of the rehabilitation process, Gloreha devices promote the functional recovery of patients and their reintegration into daily life. Gloreha is the result of a synergistic, motivated and original approach. A group of 11 SMEs from the industrial area of Lumezzane, Brescia (Italy) decided to start a unique and innovative experience, leading to a powerful network of companies, research facilities, Italian and European rehab centers. Idrogenet represents the foresights of those 11 companies which wanted to go beyond their traditional borders, challenging themselves by investing in R&D, focusing on innovative markets. About Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) is an innovative technology firm specializing in developing products that feature the Company's patented Bend Sensor and related technology. The Bend Sensor is a groundbreaking sensing solution that is revolutionizing applications in the automotive, safety, medical and industrial industries. The Bend Sensor single-layer, thin film construction cuts costs and mechanical bulk while introducing a range of functions and stylistic design possibilities that have never before been available in sensing technology. Flexpoint's technology and expertise have been recognized by the world's elite business and academic innovators for over 17 years. The company is setting a new standard for sensing solutions in the "smart" age of technology. Please visit https://www.flexpoint.com/ for more information. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" and involve both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such uncertainties include, among others, certain risks associated with the operation of the company described above. The Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. Contact Information: Flexpoint Sensor Systems Clark Mower, President 801-568-5111 Brokers and Analysts Chesapeake Group 410-825-3930 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120764 Russia's invasion of Ukraine not only has human and infrastructure casualties but also various environmental effects as experts warn of Moscow's potential nuclear armaments that could lead to further disaster. When the war began, Narhiza Shkrobotko, who was living in Orikhiv, which was a small-scale city found roughly 100 miles northwest of Mariupol, said she saw a flash of bright light when shells fell in the region. She feared the worst because she was living about 70 miles from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Russia's Potential Nuclear Attacks In an interview, she shared that she was very scared at the time because of what could happen to the nuclear power plant. The 22-year-old resident said she immediately started trying to get on the internet and figure out if there was any threat to her region. While she found out that the light she saw was not what she feared, it revealed something similarly frightening. Russia's military forces were responsible for attacking the power plant, with Mar. 3 reports say that it went up in flames due to fighting Ukrainian troops. Moscow's forces gained control of the area and the situation was left precarious, as per USA Today. Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a warning that every nation worldwide should take the war seriously and prepare for the possibility that Russia will move forward with the use of nuclear weapons. In an interview, the official said that he and other world leaders should be worried about the horrifying idea. Read Also: Militant British National Captured in Mariupol Claims That Pro-Ukraine Soldiers Abandoned Civilian Welfare as the Russians Stormed the Port City Furthermore, Zelensky said that Moscow could easily use either nuclear or chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine because President Vladimir Putin did not value the lives of its citizens. The Ukrainian president's message is a dramatic shift from his remarks last month. At the time, he said that Putin's threat of using nuclear force if Western nations got involved was simply a "bluff." According to The Hill, the Ukrainian president's comment came after Putin ordered that his country's nuclear forces be put on higher alert after Zelensky called for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country. In early March, he said that if Russia did use nuclear weapons, it was more than just murder, it was "suicide." Effects on the Environment The warnings of the environmental crisis are due to animals and nature being part of the casualties of Russia's attacks. The Black Sea Biosphere, which is located on the southern coast of Ukraine, is a haven for migrating birds. There are more than 120,000 birds that spend the winter in the area, including several rare species; the white-tailed eagle, red-breasted merganser, and black-winged stilt. Furthermore, many endangered species make the reserve their home, including the sandy bind mole rat, the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, and even rare flowers. A deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources in Ukraine, Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi, said that the reserve was not being occupied by Russian forces. The official said that there was currently no information or details on the environmental losses that have occured since Russia's war. Military activity has already caused fires large enough to be seen from space, causing many to express concern regarding the destruction of critical bird breeding habitats, the New York Times reported. Related Article: Russia Expresses Irritation, Warns of 'Unprecedented Consequences' if US Keeps Helping Ukraine in War @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - The Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE" or "the Exchange") today announced its market statistics for the month of March 2022. March 2022 Operating Statistics Trading volume of CSE-listed securities totaled 2.0 billion shares; Trading value of CSE-listed securities was $1.0 billion; CSE issuers completed 71 financings that raised an aggregate $346 million; and The CSE welcomed listings from 13 new companies, including two fundamental changes of existing issuers, bringing total listed securities to 770 as at March 31, 2022. "The Canadian Securities Exchange was built largely on the back of the mining industry, so we are delighted by the recent strength in this sector," said Richard Carleton, CSE Chief Executive Officer. "During the month of March, mining companies on the CSE completed more financings and raised more capital than CSE-listed companies from any other sector. The activity was highlighted by Asante Gold Corp.'s $102.3 million financing, which represented the single largest financing completed by any of our mining issuers since 2016. With commodity prices booming and investor demand for mining securities remaining strong, our mining issuers are positioned for continued strength in the months ahead." What's On at the CSE With COVID-19 restrictions being eased across Canada, the CSE is excited to co-host the Capital Markets Comeback Tour! The tour, which is co-hosted by irlabs, features in-person investor events in Canada's four most populous cities: Vancouver (May 11), Calgary (May 12), Montreal (June 1), and Toronto (June 2). The events provide an opportunity to see interviews with top-tier public companies, speak with their senior management, and mingle with those peers in the investment community that you haven't seen outside of Zoom in two years. Registration and further details are available here. The CSE is pleased to be a silver sponsor of the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, a premier gathering of cannabis entrepreneurs and investors, to be held on April 20-21 in Miami, Florida. The in-person event features a wide range of interactive panels and presentations featuring the biggest names in the cannabis sector, one-on-one meeting booths, a new exclusive VIP lounge, and much more. Richard Carleton will speak on a panel on April 20 titled, "Companies Building Global Opportunities." Please click here for more information. Attendees are invited to stop by the CSE's booth and connect with members of the team. The CSE is also pleased to be attending and co-sponsoring the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, presented by Cambridge House International on May 17-18. The in-person conference features more than 225 commodity investment opportunities and a diverse line-up of high-profile speakers, including former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Please click here for more information and to register. Richard Carleton will be speaking at the Scotiabank FinTech Conference, taking place at the bank's Toronto headquarters on May 17. Participants will hear from leaders in one of the world's most dynamic and rapidly-growing industries, and learn about exciting investment opportunities. New Listings in March 2022 Albert Labs International Corp. (ABRT) - Fundamental Change GeneTether Therapeutics Inc. (GTTX) Gold Tree Resources Ltd. (GTX) Voltage Metals Corp. (VOLT) - Fundamental Change Nirvana Life Sciences Inc. (NIRV) Cosa Resources Corp. (COSA) Westmount Minerals Corp. (WMC) Buscando Resources Corp. (BRCO) Tactical Resources Corp. (RARE) Gander Gold Corporation (GAND) Recharge Resources Ltd. (RR) Cannibble Food-Tech Ltd. (PLCN) Labrador Uranium Inc. (LUR) About the Canadian Securities Exchange: The Canadian Securities Exchange is a rapidly growing stock exchange focused on working with entrepreneurs to access the public capital markets in Canada and internationally. The Exchange's efficient operating model, advanced technology and low fee structure help companies of all sizes minimize their cost of capital and maximize access to liquidity. The CSE offers investors in Canada and abroad access to a multi-sector collection of growth companies through a liquid, reliable and highly regulated trading platform. The Exchange is dedicated to entrepreneurship and has established itself as a leading hub for discourse in the entrepreneurial community. STAY CONNECTED WITH THE CSE ============================= CSE TV on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/csetv HashtagFinance Podcast: https://blog.thecse.com/pe-podcasts/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canadianexchange/ Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/canadian-securities-exchange Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianSecuritiesExchange/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSE_News Blog: https://blog.thecse.com/ Website: https://thecse.com/ Contact: Richard Carleton, CEO 416-367-7360 richard.carleton@thecse.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120783 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 18, 2022) - Kovo HealthTech Corporation (TSXV: KOVO) (the "Company" "Kovo") - a leader in healthcare technology and Billing-as-a-Service ("BAAS") - provided a Board of Directors update today. The Company announced that Steve Parry and Miriam Tuerk have resigned from the Company's Board of Directors. The Company thanks them for their service and wishes them well in their future endeavours. Directors Harp Gahunia, Dr. Peter Bak and Greg Noble will continue to serve on the Company's Board of Directors. About Kovo HealthTech Corporation and US Healthcare Billing-as-a-Service Kovo HealthTech Corporation is a growing healthcare technology company that specializes in Billing-as-a-Service offering SaaS-style recurring revenue contracts and software for US healthcare clinics, hospitals and private practices. Kovo helps healthcare providers digitally track and manage complex patient care registration, services, billing and payments in a seamless way, using its industry-leading OneRev technology platform. Kovo and its subsidiaries are now processing more than $250 million CAD in total annual billing claims to allow its 1700+ healthcare provider clients to focus on offering quality care. To learn more about Kovo and to keep up-to-date on Kovo news, visit www.kovo.co. For more information: Greg Noble, CEO investors@kovo.co 1-866-558-6777 Manish Grigio manish@kovo.co Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/120734 Students get short of time too many times in college that they dont get to write their essays by themselves. Instead, they outsource it to online writing services such as UK assignment writers. Thankfully, there have been many of these services online, so students take their time to choose the best one rather than sit down with the time-consuming task in their hands. If you can choose a good assignment writing service, you can be sure that youll get the value for your money on every assignment. What to consider when hiring professional assignment help service Before you hire writers from online writing services, there are certain things that you have to consider. First, make sure they have a good market reputation before hiring them. Check their track records and be sure that they produce quality content. The fact that you want to submit a high-quality assignment to get the best grades means that you have to check the number of years theyve been providing this service to be sure they have enough experience. Once youre sure that these things are in place, you can go ahead to hire them and enjoy the benefits of a professional assignment help service. Benefits of a professional assignment help service Youre bound to enjoy several advantages by hiring writing professionals. Some of these are: Saves effort and time A significant advantage of professional writers for students is that they help the students save a lot of time. This may come in handy for students when they are overwhelmed with work and are short on time. This also ensures that you have more time to face your studies, partake in extra-curricular activities, and face other chores more efficiently. With help from these professionals, you can improve the balance between your studies and other tasks, which invariably saves you from stress. So, when youre sure you dont have enough time to research a topic and work on it properly, it may be better to hire a professional and let them do it for you. You get an expert guide. Many students struggle to write. Its important to realize that writing is a skill, and not everyone is blessed with this skill. In some cases, you may not even understand the topic or its concept, making it impossible to think, research, or write anything valuable about it. Hiring a professional ensures that you get expert help and advice on how to write your essays. With their help, you may be able to write future essays with impeccable quality. They can guide and put you through because of their level of experience and expertise in essay writing. Timely delivery All student assignments come with deadlines, and failure to meet these deadlines may attract punishments. With your hands complete as a student, outsourcing your assignments to professionals ensures that you can submit high-quality work within a given deadline. Professional writers stick to the agreed deadline, which helps you meet your lecturers set deadline. You have a template for the future. You may not be able to speak personally with the professional to get further guidance from them to help you write your essays. However, the assignments they write for you are enough templates to follow in the future. For instance, when you have to handle the writing technicalities of case studies or a business report, going back to the copy of the assignment they helped you with can be the template for you to write yours and do it excellently. Studying the assignments from professional assignment writers gives you more ideas on how to write your future assignments. This works best for technical assignments, which you can use as a sample or template for other assignments youre doing by yourself. Thorough research Professional writers take their time to carry out thorough research when working on an assignment. They also have the expertise to know what and where to look out for during their research to produce excellent work. These professionals also use modern devices to ensure they deliver high-quality content to their clients. Before sending you a completed assignment, it goes through different quality checks to ensure it has everything necessary and provides the correct answers to the questions. So, youre sure to have high grades on their assignments. Plagiarism-free content Plagiarism is an important concept when discussing essays and assignments for students because it is considered a criminal offense in many quarters. However, many students dont know this, and they still engage in it intentionally or not. In addition, some students dont learn to use sources while writing their essays without plagiarizing them, which is a big problem. However, you can be sure that youre getting plagiarism-free work with assignment writers. Every assignment they do is unique and original for each of their clients. Apart from their ability to write without plagiarizing, they also use several modern tools to check their work and ensure that no part of it is plagiarized before sending it to their clients. This is a primary reason why many students outsource their assignments to them. It helps them solve their problem with plagiarism. Conclusion Students hiring a professional writer to help with their assignments have been ongoing for many years now, and many students and graduates have benefitted from it. However, it has become even more common in previous years because of the flurry of activities students now deal with. Thankfully, it continues to be beneficial for students, and some of its benefits are discussed in this article. Coda Payments, a Singapore-based independent platform for digital content monetization, raised $690m in funding. Backers included Smash Capital, Insight Partners, and Singapores sovereign-wealth fund GIC. Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP, and other existing shareholders retain equity positions in Coda moving forward. The company intends to use the funds for international expansion. Led by Neil Davidson, Executive Chairman and Co-founder, Coda Payments operates Codashop, an independent source for games and in-game currencies. Coda also offers Codapay, which allows publishers of digital content to accept the same range of 300+ payment methods available on Codashop on their own websites, and xShop, which allows publishers to distribute their products through a range of e-commerce and other consumer-facing platforms. FinSMEs 18/04/2022 EX-Fusion Team Photo, from left to right: Kenjiro Takahashi, Takayoshi Norimatsu, Kazuki Matsuo, Yoshitaka Mori, Koichi Masuda EX-Fusion Inc., an Osaka, Japan-based startup aimed at commercializing laser based fusion energy, closed a pre-seed round funding of 130m Japanese yen. The pre-seed round was led by ANRI, a Tokyo based venture capital firm, along with Osaka University Venture Capital (OUVC) and was the first company funded within ANRIs latest ESG specific fund. The funding enables the company to accelerate the development of the continuous target supply system (CTSS) and the laser target tracking system (LTTS), both fundamental systems for the commercialization of laser powered nuclear fusion reactors. By combining the two systems, EX-Fusion aims to demonstrate the feasibility of high frequency repetition laser plasma experiments using high power pulse lasers and to demonstrate the ability to continuously generate neutrons in sequential laser fusion reactions. Co-founded by Kazuki Matsuo, postdoctoral research fellow at University of California San Diego, Shinsuke Fujioka, professor at the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University, and Yoshitaka Mori, associate professor at the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, EX-Fusion company aiming to develop the first commercial laser based nuclear fusion reactor for power generation. The company is collaborating with the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE) at Osaka University, the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries (GPI) as well as multiple private sector corporations in its development of these technologies. The joint development project with ILE involves the development of the CTSS, which will allow for material targets to be placed inside the fusion reaction chamber continuously, consistently and congruently against the high powered pulse laser system. The collaboration with GPI will be focused on developing the LTTS, which will allow for real-time alignment of multiple lasers such that it can direct the energy at maximum efficiency towards the reactor target. FinSMEs 18/04/2022 Expertia AI, a Bengaluru, India-based deeptech virtual recruitment platform, raised $1.2m in seed funding. The round was led by Chiratae Ventures and Endiya Partners with participation from Entrepreneur First and angel investor Archana Priyadarshini. The company intends to use the funds for assembling a team of AI Researchers and Software Engineers and creating brand, product awareness in the Indian market. Founded in 2021 by Akshay Gugnani, Research Scholar from IBM and MIT and serial entrepreneur Kanishk Shukla, Expertia AI offers a hiring solution to SMEs to automatically source and identify Top 10 candidates from a pool of applicants invited from 25 plus job boards. Businesses are encouraged to connect their company website with their Expertia Career Page to collect all applicants to a smart centralized talent pool, helping them find relevant profiles across all open positions instantaneously. The company today has over 500 companies, 1000 recruiters and over 100k professionals actively using the platform to automate sourcing of qualified candidates and relevant jobs. FinSMEs 18/04/2022 South Carolina police said that a second shooting in the state in the last two days has resulted in nine people getting injured at a restaurant after an incident at a mall that already left 14 residents injured. The latest horrific shooting occurred on Sunday morning at Cara's Lounge in Furman, South Carolina. The area of the crime was roughly 50 miles northwest of Columbia, said the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The agency said it received a request from the Hampton County Sheriff's Office to lead the investigation of the incident. South Carolina Shootings Authorities said that the circumstances leading up to the shooting incident were not yet clear and police did not release further information or details. The previous incident, a shooting at a mall in Columbia, happened the day before and ended with 14 people being injured. Police said that the victims of the first shooting were trying to flee the area when the gunman started firing at people. The victims of that incident ranged in age from 15 to 73 years old and police said they have arrested a 22-year-old on a charge of unlawful carrying of a pistol, as per ABC News. The suspect that the police arrested was identified to be Jewayne M. Price and was one of three people initially detained as a person of interest. Currently, he is still in police custody and is expected to be charged with other crimes in the near future. Read Also: Brooklyn Subway Shooting Suspect Arrested After Frantic Manhunt: "There Was Nowhere Left For Him To Run" Among the victims, only the 73-year-old is still being given hospital treatment while the others have already been released or will be released shortly. The first attack, police said, was not a random shooting. According to NPR, Columbia Police Chief W.H. "Skip" Holbrook said that his department believes that the armed people arrested knew each other and something resulted in the shooting. The latest incident had no fatalities but two of the injured were in critical condition. A Separate Incident The two incidents in South Carolina also come after a horrific mass shooting in Brooklyn, New York was considered to be the worst crime on the subway in decades. The suspect in the shooting was described to be wearing a gas mask when he removed a canister from one of the bags he was carrying and let smoke billow out into the subway car he was in. Then, the man quickly pulled out a handgun and started indiscriminately shooting at other passengers, which the conductor was unaware of while he was in the second car. A teacher on his way to school in the Williamsburg section, Eric Acevedo, was standing at one of the stations, 45th Street. He then noticed the lights in the second car of the train suddenly go dark. He then heard three shots and saw one of the windows shatter, quickly looking at the stranger beside him and saying, "That doesn't sound good." Passengers in the car immediately tried to flee but found the exits at the front and rear locked. One of the people inside, a woman, shouted that she was pregnant and another man, identified to be 27-year-old Houaru Benkada, went to assist her after she was knocked aside by the panicked passengers. The incident left people lying on the floor bloodied and seething in pain as the suspect was quick to make his escape, the New York Times reported. Related Article: Brooklyn Subway Shooting: Person of Interest Frank James Has Ties to Milwaukee; $50,000 Reward Offered for Any Info to Arrest the Suspect @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Edible Brands President, Cheikh Mboup, Accepted into Forbes Business Council Forbes Business Council Is an Invitation-Only Community for Successful Business Owners and Leaders April 18, 2022 // Franchising.com // ATLANTA - Cheikh Mboup, President of Edible Brands, LLC. has been accepted into the Forbes Business Council, the foremost growth and networking organization for successful business owners and leaders worldwide. Cheikh was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience in retail, franchising and economics. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors. Through challenging and unprecedented times, Cheikh has served as a source of guidance for business leaders. In 2020, Cheikh was featured in Forbes for his leadership and Edible Arrangements ability to quickly pivot its business model to respond to the coronavirus. We are honored to welcome Cheikh Mboup into the community, said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Business 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, Cheikh will serve as a point of reference for other business leaders in America, giving feedback on the current economic trends and advice on how to tackle micro and macro-economic challenges. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum and at members-only events. Cheikh 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. Im honored to have been selected to be a part of the Forbes Business Council, said Cheikh Mboup, President of Edible Brands. I look forward to working alongside this remarkable community of industry leaders, sharing best practices and developing the next generation of business leaders. 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. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com. About Edible Brands Edible Brands is the parent company of Edible, a leading retailer and e-commerce provider as well as the world's largest franchisor of stores offering all-natural fruit, snacks, dipped treats and fresh fruit arrangements with more than 1,000 locations worldwide. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been recognized as an industry leader, ranking first in its category in Entrepreneur magazine's annual "Franchise 500," Entrepreneur's Top 40 of "Fastest Growing Franchises" and "America's Top Global Franchises" as well as being included among the "Inc. 5000" list of the fastest growing privately-held companies. Edible fresh fruit arrangements, chocolate Dipped Fruit, fresh fruit smoothies, fresh produce boxes and other treats can be ordered through any local Edible store or online at edible.com. Edible is now licensing its products in retail destinations. SOURCE Edible ### Media Contact: Elizabeth Diamond All Points PR Cell: 971-217-2866 ediamond@allpointspr.com Add to Request List Added Request Information Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Greenberg is the second Fred Hutch luminary to serve in the leadership of AACR. Dr. Nancy Davidson, executive vice president for clinical affairs and senior vice president and director of the Clinical Research Division, was AACR president for the 2016-2017 term. She holds the Raisbeck Endowed Chair for Collaborative Research. After joining Fred Hutch in 1976, only a year after the Seattle research center opened its doors, Greenberg has played pivotal roles in understanding how the human immune system can be harnessed to eliminate cancer. Holder of The Rona Jaffe Foundation Endowed Chair, he is an internationally recognized expert in T cells, infection-fighting blood cells that can be reprogrammed to target cancers even more effectively. Immunotherapy as a treatment strategy is exploding, he said. The trajectory since the start of the millennium has been just remarkable. What we are doing is engineering cells to create an immune response that never existed. We could not have dreamed of doing many of these things a decade ago and we were dreamers 10 years ago. They were different dreams then, and theyre getting better. Greenberg will have to squeeze in his new leadership role with his work as a bench scientist, professor and head of the Hutchs Program in Immunology. At the top of his list: a 'Bio-Hub' As AACR president-elect, he will sit on the board of directors for the next three years, serving first as president-elect, then as president, and finally as immediate past president. He will use this period to shape the organizations policy and advocacy work, pushing for several initiatives close to his heart. At the top of his list is for AACR to develop or support development of what he called a Bio-Hub that would make it easier for scientists at smaller institutions to access the advanced technologies that are driving the latest breakthroughs in cancer research. Those of us at wonderful centers like Fred Hutch generally get access to new technologies relatively quickly, but it is hard for any individual institution to keep pace with new developments. A Bio-Hub would allow people to have access to validated technologies so that all labs, in more places, can essentially move more quickly, he said. Wider access to technologies would also expand access for patients to the medical advances that flow from research, and Greenberg said another top priority for him is to promote diversity and inclusion in training, research and access to care. 'We want to be part of the solution' The problem we have in academic research is that weve been very ineffective at recruiting and engaging minorities. Its unfortunate, but Id say its something the vast majority of us have never paid adequate attention to, he said. The events of the last few years have made a lot of us wake up and look into the mirror and say, Am I part of the solution or part of the problem? And the answer is that, whatever we think we were, we want to be part of the solution. In the same way, he said, the research community has an obligation to ensure that the advantages that come from participation in clinical trials should be available to minority groups. Underlying this is a trust issue, he said. For painfully good reasons, these populations are not very trustful of scientific institutions, and we need to change that. The lack of trust in science is not limited to minority communities, which is underscored by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to assume thats our failure, that weve not communicated adequately, Greenberg said. One of the things Im talking with AACR about is to find ways we can communicate more effectively and create programs to train research academicians to do so. A return to in-person meetings Greenberg will be assuming a leadership role at a time when everyone is hoping that the world is emerging from the pandemic. COVID-19 disrupted cancer research efforts, and understandably made immunocompromised patients more reluctant to participate in trials that require multiple visits to medical centers. I think the research community performed admirably during the pandemic, he said. He noted that, for safety reasons, there were times when only two or three people could work in labs. Experiments with mice were curtailed, and many cancer researchers appropriately turned their skills and attention to the desperate work of finding ways to prevent and treat COVID-19. During the years ahead in leadership roles at AACR, Greenberg said he looks forward to the return of in-person academic conferences, such as the current annual meeting. Personal interaction with other scientists, he said, provides important feedback. It generates excitement and new ideas. The Zoom culture of the past two years does not allow presenters at scientific meeting to read the audience, to sense whether their ideas are getting through. He observed that, like most people, scientists thrive on social contact. It is something I think all of us in science have greatly missed, he said. SEATTLE April 6, 2022 A new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that women receiving certain common therapies for breast cancer may be at increased risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, other cardiovascular events, and death. Study authors say that even though more women are surviving breast cancer because of the increased effectiveness of treatments, the linkage of cancer therapy to increased cardiovascular events means researchers must now focus on understanding potential mechanisms and toxicities to develop clinical strategies protecting the heart health of breast cancer survivors. We hope to raise awareness that women who are breast cancer survivors must receive comprehensive, ongoing follow-up care and monitoring for cardiovascular risk, and scientists and clinicians must prioritize research that will reduce this risk, said Dr. Heather Greenlee, a public health researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and lead author of the JCO article. Greenlee and senior author Dr. Marilyn Kwan, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, led another recent study, also published in JCO, that reported an association between breast cancer treatment and the development of cardiovascular risk factors. This paper takes the additional step of reporting an association between treatments and the risk of cardiovascular disease itself, Dr. Kwan said. Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women in the U.S., is emerging as a major health concern of breast cancer survivors. Although researchers know that many breast cancer therapies can be toxic to heart tissue, little is known about the underlying mechanisms or other factors that may be involved or how to address them. Most research in the field has focused on single breast cancer treatments and small samples of patients, but this study, part of the ongoing, prospective Pathways Heart Study at KPNC, included 13,642 women with breast cancer and 68,202 women without breast cancer who were of a similar age, race, and ethnicity. The patient follow-up period was up to 14 years, with an average of seven years. The Pathways Heart Study is funded by the National Cancer Institute. Using data from KPNC electronic health records, the researchers found that the risk of developing different types of cardiovascular disease in breast cancer survivors compared to women without breast cancer varied by the specific treatment or treatments they had received. These included commonly used chemotherapies, endocrine therapies and radiation therapy. For chemotherapies, the researchers focused on anthracyclines, such as Adriamycin, and the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, because both are widely used for breast cancer treatment and are known to be toxic to the heart. Radiation therapy analyses included radiation to either side of the body, with special attention paid to radiation on the left side, which has been associated with increased risk of heart disease. Endocrine therapy was grouped by those receiving aromatase inhibitors versus those receiving tamoxifen because the two therapies work differently to reduce the cancer-promoting effects of estrogen and have different effects on the cardiovascular system. Among findings: Women who received anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab had high risk of heart failure or cardiomyopathy, compared to women without a history of breast cancer. The highest risk was seen in women receiving both drugs. High risk of heart failure or cardiomyopathy was also seen in women who had received radiation therapy and aromatase inhibitor therapy, relative to women without a history of breast cancer. Although degree of risk varied with different forms of treatment, the researchers found that women undergoing breast cancer treatments had elevated risks for stroke, arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, venous thromboembolic disease (blood clots in deep veins), cardiovascular disease-related death, and death from any cause compared to women without a history of breast cancer. Although this analysis did not investigate treatment combinations across different therapy types, doses or durations, the researchers plan to address these specifics in future studies. There are more than 3.8 million women survivors of breast cancer now living in the U.S., and that number is growing rapidly. But while improvements in treatments are extending the lives of breast cancer patients, survivors are facing new risks from heart disease. Although this study represents a significant step in helping us recognize the effects of cancer treatments on cardiovascular health, much more work lies ahead in understanding the mechanisms leading to disease and developing new strategies to protect our patients, said Dr. Jennifer Specht, a breast cancer specialist who treats patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Additional authors from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Kaiser Permanente Northern California (Oakland), Oakland Medical Center (California), Walnut Creek Medical Center (California), Xiamen University (China), and Columbia University Irving Medical Center (New York) contributed to the article. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute R01CA214057 and U01CA195565. The researchers declare no additional disclaimers or potential conflicts of interest. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.21.01736 # # # Media Contacts: Kat Wynn 206.667.2210 kwynn@fredhutch.org At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutchs pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nations first cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Womens Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Moscow claims that Ukrainian casualties are more than Kyiv wants to admit, as foreign media emphasizes Russian deaths. According to Russian authorities, the total number of deaths is 23,367 combatants, including all services. They are the army, national guard, and foreign mercenaries fighting the Russians on active fronts; and experiencing unreported losses. Kyiv Conceals Actual Casualties Nothing much is known about the losses of Kyiv that have been confirmed since February 24, when the Kremlin allowed the special operation in Donbas; the Ministry of Defense released it last Saturday, reported the Daily Telegraph. Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov reported the numbers that included 4000 casualties, with foreign mercenaries and neo-Nazis from the notorious Azov and Aidar regiments involved in the Mariupol offensive. Adding that documents show that Kyiv's losses are not made up that would soon be published with detailed information. Konashenkov claimed the proof of Ukraine's losses that would be published to show how the enemy's troops were decimated. Ukraine claims that it has lost between 2,500 and 3,000 soldiers throughout the country. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Zelensky claimed that the Russian military had suffered up to 20,000 deaths that were not verified. Moscow heavily disputes Zelensky's claims. Russian officials admit it had lost just over 1,350 troops. He called out the Ukrainian leader who is keeping the actual number of fatalities that would be a blow to the morale of the ultranationalists and neo-Nazis fighting in parts of the country. Assaults Ukraine targets Moscow says that it executed high-precision missile strikes on six Ukrainian military equipment sites and seven troop strongholds during the day, according to Konashenkov, as Russian air aircraft demolished 67 troop and equipment sites, cited AA. They are included in the Ukrainian casualties. Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Children: Does the Ukraine President Have Kids? Soldiers near Odesa shot down a Ukrainian military transport jet, which had armaments delivered by the West to fight Russian forces. Foreign arms shipments would be deemed as targets, said officials. US President Joe Biden approved an $800 million shipment of heavy weapons for Ukraine early this week, comprising artillery and helicopters. A flight of weaponry from this shipment was due to come to Ukraine within a day, based on a CNN report last Friday. According to the Russian general, the launching of high-precision attacks last Friday and Saturday morning to destroy a military vehicle manufacturing plant in Kyiv and a military repair depot in the city of Nikolaev located in southern Ukraine. Overnight, 16 targets, comprising Ukrainian military formations, weapons and ammunition stores, and radar sites, were struck, he claimed. In retaliation for Ukraine's bombardment of Russian territory, Moscow warned earlier this week that it would escalate such strikes and target "decision-making centers" in Kyiv and disputed that such strikes on Russian soil had occurred. Strikes have ramped up as a response to the loss of the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, just after fire broke out on board and spread to munitions storage. Kyiv claims to have launched an anti-ship missile at the warship. Volodymyr Zelensky will contest Moscow and its figures on the Ukrainian casualties as it will amount to the low morale of their forces. Related Article: Vladimir Putin Calls Bucha Massacre Accusations False, Belarus Claims Evidence Was Staged To Discredit Russia @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Creativity has always been a part of Dr. Vida Hendersons DNA. Not literally, perhaps, but it has repeatedly shown up in her many endeavors. There were the years of dance lessons ballet, tap and jazz before she went on to college to become a pharmacist; the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing she earned while toying with the idea of leaving pharmacy work to teach poetry. Theres her love for Cajun cooking not surprising, she hails from Louisiana and creating low-carb versions of her favorite desserts. And then theres her science. Im really interested in learning more creative ways to disseminate and use science, said the public health researcher who came to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from Chicago, where she earned a Ph.D. in community health services. Im not interested in science that just sits on a shelf. In whatever I do the programs and interventions I want it to be of use and usable and actually help somebody in some way. The former pharmacist discovered the importance of public health when Hurricane Katrina hit her home, New Orleans. Henderson lost everything her home, her clothes, her neighbors. I literally had a car, a pair of jeans and shoes and two tank tops, she said. I went to live with my parents and worked remotely. But when I came back to New Orleans, it opened my eyes. Henderson worked with community groups to create makeshift pharmacies out of trailers amid the destruction. It was this collaboration that inspired her to go back to school. I dont think I even knew then what public health was, she said. But I saw that the social environment impacts everything mental health and physical health. I decided to go into health communications research and community-based participatory research. There, her artistic predisposition played a role, as well. The writer and creative person in me had an affinity for qualitative methods, she said. (Qualitative refers to research that gathers non-numerical data via first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, etc.). I basically get to ask people questions and learn about them. One of the reasons I love health communication research is because you get to be creative to write scripts and videos and narratives. TUESDAY Academy for Lifelong Learning, 9:30 a.m., online. Hilary Boudet, associate director of graduate programs at the School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, will present "Personal Experience with Extreme Weather and Views on Climate Change." Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change, yet it is unclear what role personal experience with such events plays in shaping public policy. Based on both surveys and interviews in impacted communities, results indicate that extreme weather events can promote action, but not always. Climate policy change is often limited post-event because rescue and recovery processes can be overwhelming. Boudet teaches courses on energy, climate and society. ALL invites nonmembers to attend one or two classes at no charge to see if they are interested in becoming a member. Email admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org if you are interested. "Illuminating... Advance Care Planning," noon, online. The first in a three-part series, "Illuminating Series about Advance Care Planning." Workshops can be taken individually or consecutively. Learn how to start the conversation with loved ones about your end-of-life wishes, which forms are necessary and right for you, and what do to with your estate and financial situation. No cost. Registration: 541-757-9616 or outreach@luminahospice.org. Academy for Lifelong Learning, 1:30 p.m., online. Kimberly Halsey, associate professor of microbiology at Oregon State University, will present "Scaling from a Single Cell to the Globe." The ocean's food web is fueled by a diversity of single-celled plants called phytoplankton. Researchers study how different groups of phytoplankton respond to the environment. Understanding these behaviors allows quantitation of phytoplankton growth at regional and global scales. Researchers find a large group of phytoplankton growing much faster than previously thought by scavenging fuel from surprising sources. Information about group-specific behaviors reveals how phytoplankton distributions are shifting in response to climate change. ALL invites nonmembers to attend one or two classes at no charge to see if they are interested in becoming a member. Email admin@academyforlifelonglearning.org if you are interested. WEDNESDAY Meet-up with Helen Higgins, Benton County Commissioner Democratic primary candidate, 4:30 to 6 p.m., outside, Woodstock's Pizza Parlor, 1045 NW Kings Blvd., Corvallis. Drop by and meet Helen, share your questions, learn what a county commissioner does, and hear why she is stepping forward to serve Benton County in the county commissioner role. Beverages available at Woodstocks. Information: votehelenhiggins@gmail.com. FRIDAY Music a la Carte: "Double-Reed Divas with Molly Myers," noon, lounge, Memorial Union, 2501 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis. The Double Reed Divas from Vancouver, Washington are a chamber ensemble of the Oregon Chamber Players. Performers are Victoria Racz, oboe/oboe d'amore/English horn; Ann van Bever, oboe/oboe damore/English horn; and Dagny Rask-Regan, oboe/English horn/bassoon/piano. This concert will include music ofFrancois Gossec, Amy Beach, Elizabeth Aitkens, Timoteus Racz and others. Joining the Divas for this performance will be Oregon State University music senior Molly Myers, playing a double-reed arrangement of Gustav Holsts Second Suite in F. Information: erin.sneller@oregonstate.edu. Items for this calendar are pulled from the user-generated calendar that runs on our websites. For further information, write to jane.stoltz@lee.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 At least three people in the Swedish city of Norrkoping required medical attention after being injured by police bullets during violent riots over far-right politicians threatening to burn the Quran and pour "pork blood" on the holy book. The incident occurred over the Easter weekend with some counter-protesters attacking police ahead of planned right-wing extremist demonstrations. In a statement, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has condemned the violence. Violent Swedish Protests In an online statement, police said that three citizens were struck by bullets that ricochet and noted that the victims were transferred to a hospital and were being treated. Law enforcement officials said that the three people were arrested on suspicion of a crime. They also added that the injuries were non-life-threatening. Police said that the situation in the Swedish city was relatively calm on Sunday evening after they had been engaged with protesters in serious clashes in the days prior. At the time, several police officers were injured and protesters torched several vehicles in the area, as per Reuters. The violent riots began on Thursday after a demonstration organized by the leader of the Danish far-right political party "Hard Line," Rasmus Paludan. The official had permission for a series of demonstrations across the country during the Easter weekend and is known for burning Qurans. Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Experts Warn of Environmental Disaster Aside From Radiation Due to Crisis Anti-muslim and far-right political party Stram Kurs also planned to hold a demonstration in the town of Landskrona. However, they announced a change to the venue and made it to the city of Malmo due to protesters throwing stones and setting fires on cars, tires, and garbage cans in the original area. According to Fox News, a spokesperson for the police in southern Sweden, Kim Hild, said that authorities were not planning to revoke permission for the anti-Muslim demonstrations. They cited that they did not breach the threshold to deny free speech. Anti-Muslin Demonstrations The protesters included up to 100 mostly young people who put up a barrier fence in order to obstruct traffic, said Swedish police. Video footage and photographs from chaotic scenes in Orebro showed police cars on fire and citizens hurling objects at officers who were wearing riot gear. Hild said that the right of protesters "to demonstrate and speak out weighs enormously, heavily, and it takes an incredible amount for this to be ignored." Law enforcement personnel were believed to have used pepper spray after being forced to disperse protesters in the area who turned violent. Paludan was also struck by a stone on his leg during the chaotic protests but police reported no serious injuries at the time. Clashes have also occurred in Stockholm and in the city of Linkoping since Thursday. The areas affected were all where Stram Kurs either planned to have or had conducted demonstrations. Paludan, who is a Danish lawyer who also holds Swedish citizenship, set up Stram Kurs or also called Hard Line in 2017. The party's website says "Stram Kurs is the most patriotic political party in Denmark" as it is known to run on anti-immigration and anti-Islam agenda, the Associated Press reported. Related Article: Russia Warns of Nuclear Force Amid Finland, Sweden Talks To Apply for NATO Memberships @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. By Douglas Helm | 3 weeks ago It seems the four space tourists who recently went to the International Space Station are going to have to extend their space vacation a little longer. Earlier this month, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully launched three passengers and a former NASA astronaut into orbit. This marked the first time that an all-private crew funded by private companies went to the ISS. The mission was put together by SpaceX and Axiom Space and was meant to go for ten days. It looks like the mission has now been extended to about 12 days instead. Fortunately, it looks like the private crew aboard the International Space Station isnt too broken up about the development. In fact, during a live-streamed event where the crew answered questions from kids at NASAs Space Center in Houston, they mentioned that they would be willing to go to the Moon next. While the Moon is a much bigger and costlier target than the International Space Station, this is undoubtedly the way that space tourism is heading. The crew members aboard the current mission around spent a whopping $55 million per person to head up to the ISS, so the cost of the Moon trip would presumably be a lot higher. Plus, there isnt currently a spacecraft ready to take civilians to the Moon. So, it looks like these eager tourists will just have to enjoy the two extra space days theyre getting. As of now, the private crew on the International Space Station is scheduled to undock on Tuesday and land in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. A successful landing will mark the end of the first all-private, private-funded voyage and will help prove the possibilities of the rapidly developing space tourism industry. Axiom Space, one of the companies behind this mission, is even keen to develop a space station of its own. While visiting the ISS must be one of the coolest experiences out there, the station is designed for research, observation, and exploration. Presumably, the Axiom station will be designed with tourism in mind, making it quite a different experience than the ISS. Hopefully, they wont be charging $55 million dollars a trip by then. NASA has already approved Axiom for their next private space mission, so clearly, the collaboration between the government agency, SpaceX, and the growing space tourism company is something that will continue to grow in the future. With SpaceX continually developing more feasible means of space travel with more affordable production, NASAs years of research and technology, and the money and innovation that Axiom brings to the table, the future of commercial space flights and space hotels may be sooner than we all think. SpaceX, for their part, continues to test and develop the Starship spacecraft which is designed to carry crew and cargo. This is a much bigger and more powerful craft than the Dragon and will presumably be used to take human tourists and astronauts to space stations, the Moon, and even Mars. So, if your dream is to visit space, you might get your wish soon if you have the cash to cover it. A Kentucky employee was awarded $450,000 by a jury last month for lost wages and emotional distress after he was fired days after suffering from a panic attack over a surprise birthday party at his workplace. The individual, identified as Kevin Berling, was a staff member at a medical laboratory, the Gravity Diagnostics in Covington, Kentucky for about 10 months when he talked with his office manager, asking not to be thrown a birthday party because he had an anxiety disorder. Unwanted Birthday Party The victim's lawyer, Tony Bucher, said that the surprise birthday party was planned by other employees at the workplace while the office manager was away. He said that the situation quickly spiraled out of control. When Berling learned about the planned lunchtime celebration for his birthday, which was supposed to include birthday wishes from colleagues as well as a banner decoration, he had a panic attack. He decided to instead celebrate his birthday inside his car and eat his lunch meal during break time, as per The Seattle Times. The planned birthday party resulted in the deterioration of his relationship with his coworkers due to him maintaining distance. The following day, Berlin was called in for a meeting where his superiors "criticized" him for how he handled the party, causing him to have another panic attack. Read Also: South Carolina Convict the First To Be Executed by Firing Squad in the US in More Than 10 Years Bucher said that at that point, his client started to employ other coping techniques that he has been working on for several years with his therapist. Berling explained that he started hugging himself and asked his superiors to stop. According to Fox Business, the worker's superiors then sent him home for the remainder of the week and sent him a letter the following Monday. The document revealed that he was being informed that he had been fired from his position with the company. Berling then sued his workplace for disability discrimination and retaliation. $450,000 Compensation Berling's supervisors said that they confronted him about his "somber behavior" following the surprise birthday party. But in a court filing, the company said that the firing of the worker was because he became "violent" in the meeting and scared the supervisors who told security not to let the employee return. The jury in charge of the trial that lasted two days reached a verdict on Mar. 31 that concluded Berling had experienced an adverse employment action because of disability. They awarded him $150,000 in lost wages and benefits and another $300,000 for suffering, embarrassment, and loss of self-esteem. However, the judge in charge of the case has not yet entered a judgment regarding the verdict of the jury. On Saturday, a lawyer for Gravity Diagnostics, John Maley, said that the company would file post-trial motions that would challenge the verdict on legal grounds. It would assert that one juror had violated court orders about obtaining information outside the trial. Furthermore, Maley said that the case of Berling did not meet the standard for a disability claim because did not disclose his condition to the company and that he had not met the legal threshold to qualify as having a disability, the New York Times reported. Related Article: Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial: Marriage Counselor Shares Heartbreaking 'Mutual Abuse' Between Ex-Couple @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NEW YORK, April 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided. AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) Class Period: April 30, 2021 August 31, 2021 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 6, 2022 AbbVie is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The company's revenues will come under significant pressure in the coming years when its best-selling drug, Humira, will lose patent protection in 2023. Accordingly, AbbVie's future revenue and earnings depend in large part on its ability to develop new sources of revenue to offset Humira's lost sales. Rinvoqan anti-inflammatory drug manufactured by AbbVie and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other diseases by inhibiting Janus kinase (JAK) enzymeswas touted as one such drug. Rinvoq was initially approved in the United States to treat only moderate to severe RA. However, AbbVie was actively pursuing additional treatment indications and, in 2020, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve Rinvoq for the treatment of several other diseases. As is relevant here, Rinvoq is similar to other JAK inhibitor drugs, including Xeljanz, manufactured by Pfizer Inc. When the FDA approved Xeljanz in 2012 for the treatment of RA, it required an additional safety trial to evaluate Xeljanz's risk of triggering certain serious side effects. Beginning in February 2019, the FDA repeatedly warned the public that the safety trial indicated that Xeljanz's use could lead to serious heart-related issue, cancer, and other adverse events. Notwithstanding the similarities between Rinvoq and Xeljanz, during the Class Period, Defendants assured investors that Rinvoq was far safer than Xeljanz and not subject to the same regulatory risks. However, investors began to learn the truth about Rinvoq's significant risks on June 25, 2021, when AbbVie revealed that the FDA was delaying its review of expanded treatment applications for Rinvoq due to the safety concerns associated with Xeljanz. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $1.76 per share, or approximately 1.5%, from a close of $114.74 per share on June 24, 2021, to close at $112.98 per share on June 25, 2021. Then, on September 1, 2021, the FDA announced that final results from the Xeljanz safety trial established an increased risk of serious adverse events, even with low doses of Xeljanz. As a result, the FDA determined that it would require new and updated warnings for Xeljanz and Rinvoq because Rinvoq "share[s] similar mechanisms of action with Xeljanz" and "may have similar risks as seen in the Xeljanz safety trial." The FDA also indicated that it would further limit approved indications for Rinvoq as a result of these safety concerns. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $8.51 per share, or more than 7%, from a close of $120.78 per share on August 31, 2021, to close at $112.27 per share on September 1, 2021. After the Class Period, on December 3, 2021, AbbVie announced that the FDA had updated Rinvoq's label to require additional safety warnings and limit marketing of Rinvoq to only its use after treatment with other drugs has failed. On January 11, 2022, Defendants admitted that these changes to Rinvoq's label would negatively impact sales, forcing the Company to reduce its long-term guidance for Rinvoq's sales in 2025. The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, about the company's business and operations. Specifically, Defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) safety concerns about Xeljanz extended to Rinvoq and other JAK inhibitors; (2) as a result, it was likely that the FDA would require additional safety warnings for Rinvoq and would delay the approval of additional treatment indications for Rinvoq; and (3) therefore, Defendants' statements about the company's business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis, As a result of the Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the significant decline in the market value of AbbVie's securities, AbbVie investors have suffered significant damages. For more information on the AbbVie class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/ABBV Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) Class Period: March 24, 2022 April 1, 2022 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 13, 2022 Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and Space-X, and according to Forbes, the richest person in the world, started to acquire shares of Twitter beginning in January 2022. By March 14, 2022, Musk had acquired more than a 5% ownership stake in Twitter, requiring him to file a Schedule 13 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within 10 days, or March 24, 2022. Musk did not file a Schedule 13 with the SEC within the required time and instead continued to amass Twitter shares, eventually acquiring a 9.1% stake in the Company before finally filing a Schedule 13 on April 4, 2022. By the time Musk filed the required Schedule 13, revealing his ownership stake in Twitter, the Companys share rose from a closing price of $39.31 per share on April 1, 2022, to close at $49.97 per share on April 4, 2022 an increase of approximately 27%. Investors who sold shares of Twitter Stock between March 24, 2022, and before the actual April 4, 2022 disclosure, missed the resulting share price increase as the market reacted to Musks purchases. By failing to timely disclose his ownership stake, Musk was able to acquire shares of Twitter less expensively during the Class Period. For more information on the Twitter class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/TWTR About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contact Information: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. Brandon Walker, Esq. Alexandra B. Raymond, Esq. (212) 355-4648 investigations@bespc.com www.bespc.com DHAKA, Bangladesh, April 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recently, Jarafa announced the launch of their reseller and wholesaler marketplace in Bangladesh. Jarafa fundamentally works as a reselling platform . Both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Customers) business models are maintained by Jarafa. Simply put, resellers, and wholesalers will be able to communicate clearly through Jarafa. Then, anyone can sell and buy products from any part of the country. Jarafa's main goal is to connect wholesalers and resellers with the help of its website and app, so all they have to do is click to make money. Also, Jarafa will be offering a loan program in near future since bank loans and other sources of funding are dicult to come by at the primary level. Furthermore, wholesalers and resellers stand to gain a larger marketplace to sell their products and earn a lot more than before without having to incur any additional costs. Md. Fahad, CEO of Jarafa states "The Jarafa team will work tirelessly and sincerely to facilitate the creation of a social commerce ecosystem that is safe and secure. By using this strategy, digital commerce and entrepreneurship will both be boosted to a larger extent. With the best technical and nancial support available to our resellers and wholesalers, Jarafa hope to reach a strong and stable position in the next 2-3 years." He continues, "Jarafa's chief mission is to develop an eCommerce environment that will allow digital businesses to grow and expand throughout the country. Ultimately, Jarafa aim to become a one-stop tool that helps businesses sell their products through Facebook and other social media platforms." Shortly, Jarafa will act as a buffer between wholesalers and resellers, providing them with the best support and management systems to help them expand their businesses. In the near future, Jarafa hopes to have a full inventory of business products. Jarafa holds the belief that each seller has a talent for a specic type of product. And by providing specic products to a variety of entrepreneurs, Jarafa's motto is to evolve as a comprehensive business platform. With Jarafa.com, users can dream big, work hard, and play harder to grow quickly, and gain a competitive edge in their eld. Jarafa can help users start and grow an online business by providing the following services: Investment-free marketplace. Wholesale pricing on high-quality products. Cash on delivery (COD) is available. Ensuring the fastest delivery system. Invest in and start users' own product line with a small loan. Suppliers, resellers, customers, couriers will be getting individual sites (free domain), a dashboard to operate all the things. Individual payment gateway will be provided to respective suppliers, resellers, customers, and couriers. Jarafa aimed at making users' dreams come true by providing individual websites for users. Having said that, get their small business going with Jarafa, and make themselves protable effortlessly. About Jarafa: The company is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jarafa.com was founded knowing that small businesses are the backbone of Bangladesh's economy, contributing to 80% of its gross domestic product. In spite of this, these businesses still operate oine and have not been successful online. It is Jarafa's belief that the Bangladeshi economy will truly be digitized once small businesses become successful online, and they are dedicated to helping those businesses succeed. To digitize Bangladesh; Jarafa is offering resellers a free complete e-commerce website to gain the trust of the customers. This way, resellers can also do business without making any investment. Jarafa hope that this will lead to a lot of entrepreneurial activity in the e-commerce sector and will play a key role in reducing unemployment in this country. It's worth mentioning, ThemeLooks .com will be working as a technology partner with Jarafa.com. Moreover, despite attracting many middle-class housewives (ranging from 25 to 45), this platform is reaching a group of young and old, regardless of their gender. On the other hand, suppliers can offer their products at a commission rate of zero percent (0%). Furthermore, Jarafa offers its own dashboards as well. With this feature, suppliers can easily monitor their daily sales, product inventory, and income from their phones. Entrepreneurs and traders will become more interested in product production, which will lead to the creation of new businesses. Over time, the company realized most online retailers were those who don't own physical shops but love to sell products through social networks. Clearly, small businesses will continue to operate in this manner in the future. Together, the team developed a marketplace that democratizes social commerce and makes it possible for anyone to start a business. Today, according to estimates, their products have assisted more than 100K entrepreneurs. Together with the government, Jarafa strives to eradicate unemployment, create a credible and secure e-commerce market system, and establish a digital Bangladesh. Media Contact Company: Jarafa Email: fahad@jarafa.com Website: https://jarafa.com/ Address: 965/1/A, East Shewrapara, Mirpur, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh SOURCE: Jarafa Dublin, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Molecular Diagnostics at the Point of Care: By Application, Technology, Place, Product and by Country, with COVID-19 PoC Breakout and Executive Guides" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Make investment decisions and valuations with confidence using the latest data andfive year market forecasts. The COVID-19 pandemic is ushering in a new world of point of care diagnostics. Infectious disease Dx is changing and will change more in the future. Can a rapidly growing market expand even faster? Find out all about it in this comprehensive report on Molecular Diagnostics at the Point of Care. Are targeted tests for specific pathogens going to be obsolete? Will diagnostics replace physicians? Will Point of Care testing move into the Physician's Office or even the Home? How much Covid-19 testing is being done at the Point of Care? Point of Care testing is proving itself in the market. Players are reporting double-digit growth. Lowering costs, improving outcomes and even helping in the battle against Anti Microbial Resistance. Learn about this market including the issues and outlooks. The two key trends of Point of Care Testing and Molecular Diagnostics are merging with spectacular success. It could possibly displace most frontline test protocols AND save money at the same time. Key Topics Covered: Market Trends Factors Driving Growth New Genotypes Creating New Markets Aging Population a Boon for All Diagnostics Developing World Driving ID Dx Growth Point of Care - Why Centralization is Losing Steam Self Testing The Need for Speed The COVID Pandemic Factors Limiting Growth Lower Costs Infectious Disease is Declining Wellness Hurts Economic Growth improves Living Standards Instrumentation and Automation Instruments Key to Market Share The Shrinking Machine Multiplex, Point of Care and The Speed Factor Diagnostic Technology Development The Sepsis Testing Market - A New Direction? POCT/Self Testing as a Disruptive Force The Genetics Play - One Test for All Known Infections Antibiotic Resistance Genes - Simplifying Diagnostics Molecular Dx - Infectious Disease Recent Developments Home Test Company Prenetics to go Public Roche to Acquire TIB Molbiol to Expand Infectious Disease Portfolio Lucira Health Posts Revenue Growth on OTC C19 Test BforCure Preparing Multiple Panels for Point-of-Care qPCR Platform Talis Biomedical Discusses Point-of-Care Roche to Acquire GenMark Diagnostics for $1.8B Pandemic Pushes Handheld qPCR Devices Closer to Commercialization Hologic to Acquire Mobidiag Lucira Health Focuses on User Friendly Approach to Home Testing Infectious Disease Dx Firm Talis Biomedical Raises $254M in IPO Fluidigm Plans 'Durable' Diagnostics, Clinical Business Thermo Fisher Scientific to Acquire Mesa Biotech for Up to $550M Mammoth Biosciences Developing Pathogen Detection Tech Illumina, IDbyDNA Developing Sequencing-Based Respiratory Tests Scanogen Developing 90 Minute Infection Test Malaria Assays Use CRISPR for Point-of-Care Multispecies Detection FDA Provides Self Testing SARS-CoV-2 EAU Guidance Mammoth Biosciences Announces Rapid, CRISPR-Based COVID-19 Diagnostic Genetic Signatures Gets CE Mark for Coronavirus Molecular Test Qiagen Respiratory Panel with Coronavirus Receives CE Mark Lumos Diagnostics Closes $15M Series A Funding Fusion Genomics to Assess NGS-Based Respiratory Tract Infection Assay New Genomic Tests Diagnose Deadly Infections Faster Biotia Raises $2.4M Seed Round STDs resurge in US Ares Genetics signs R&D agreement with leading global IVD corporation Cell-Free DNA Used for Infectious Disease Testing One BioMed Raises $5M Profiles of Key MDx Companies Abacus Diagnostica Abbott Diagnostics Accelerate Diagnostics Ador Diagnostics Akonni Biosystems Alveo Technologies Applied BioCode Aus Diagnostics Beckman Coulter Diagnostics Becton, Dickinson and Company Binx Health Biocartis bioMerieux Diagnostics Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH Cepheid (now Danaher) Chembio Co Diagnostics Credo Diagnostics Biomedical Cue Health Curetis N.V. / Curetis GmbH Diagenode Diagnostics Diascopic Diasorin S.p.A Eiken Chemical Enzo Life Sciences, Inc Eurofins Scientific Fluxergy Fulgent Genetics Fusion Genomics Genedrive Genetic Signatures GenMark Dx Grifols Hibergene Diagnostics Hologic Illumina Immunexpress Inflammatix Invetech Janssen Diagnostics Karius Lexagene LightDeck Diagnostics Luminex Corp Lumos Diagnostics Mammoth Biosciences Maxim Biomedical Meridian Bioscience Mesa Biotech Millipore Sigma Mindray Mobidiag Nanomix Operon Oxford Nanopore Technologies Panagene Perkin Elmer Primerdesign Prominex Qiagen Gmbh Quantumdx Quidel Roche Molecular Diagnostics Saw Diagnostics Seegene Siemens Healthineers Sona Nanotech SpeeDx T2 Biosystems Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc Veramarx Veredus Laboratories Vir XCR Diagnostics The Infectious Diseases - Market Analysis by Disease HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus (AIDS) HBV - Hepatitis B HCV - Hepatitis C HPV - Human papillomavirus Influenza CTGC - Chlamydia/Gonorhea Tuberculosis MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus VRE - Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus Blood Screening COVID-19 Pandemic Diagnostics Risk Management - Spark and Spread Dx Technology - Nucleic Acid-Based Dx Technology - Immunoassay & Serology Time to Market and Preparedness Issues Unrecognized Role of Multiplex in Pandemic Management Industry Overview Players in a Dynamic Market Academic Research Lab Diagnostic Test Developer Instrumentation Supplier Distributor and Reagent Supplier Independent Testing Lab Public National/regional lab Hospital lab Physician Office Labs and Clinics Audit Body Certification Body The Clinical Laboratory Market Segments Traditional Market Segmentation Laboratory Focus and Segmentation Industry Structure Hospital Testing Share Economies of Scale Hospital vs. Central Lab Physician Office Lab's Physician's and POCT For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/58d1bq EU to provide another 50 mln euros of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Moldova Xinhua) 11:46, April 18, 2022 BRUSSELS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) is allocating a further 50 million euros (about 54.03 U.S. dollars) of humanitarian aid to people affected by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a EU statement issued on Sunday. Some 45 million euros (about 48.63 dollars) of the funding is allocated for humanitarian projects in Ukraine, and 5 million euros (about 5.4 dollars) to projects in neighboring Moldova, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict. The new funding, which brings the EU's total humanitarian aid funding in response to the conflict to 143 million euros (about 154.53 dollars), will address the most pressing humanitarian needs by providing emergency medical services, access to safe drinking water and hygiene, shelter and protection, cash assistance and support against gender-based violence, according to the statement. "As heavy fighting and missile strikes continue to destroy critical civilian infrastructure, humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain extremely high," the EU said in the statement. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan called the conspiracy of illegal regime change a plot by the US administration that is at odds with him. He expressed anger at the US, which had a hand in the contested no-confidence vote. The entanglement of Pakistan with China in his regime has always been a big issue; especially now that he supports Putin makes the ousting more relevant to the west. Pakistan Regime Change Last April 9, when the no-confidence vote went down, knocking Khan from power, reported the Express UK. According to the opposition parties, the reasons are below-par performance in the economy and social indicators, poor governance, and dealing with a political opponent; another is a poorly executed economic and foreign policy. But he still believes the move to oust power is from foreign backers that want necessary changes in the country for the west's benefit. Last March, he claimed that his government got a cable from diplomatic sources on March 7 that underlined that a US-instigated move is in motion to replace him as the Pak PM, cited the Dawn. Identified as the sender of the contentious letter is Donald Lu, the assistant Secretary of State for the South and Central Asian Affairs but was denied. Lu remarked the US is looking at Islamabad and the country as if trying to insinuate but added that America does not have any issue with the rule of law. Khan Loses No Confidence Voted Ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Khan posted on social media after a rally for his supporters in Karachi was held last Saturday; he gave thanks to supporters and said a coup to displace him from office was an illegal regime change. Read also: Xi Jinping: 5 Things To Know About China's President He thanked the people of Karachi for their turnout and support for the jalsa. Added that it's the fight for freedom and the right for a sovereign Pakistan that is under threat from a US-initiated regime change conspiracy. He said those working with Washington and corrupted mafia of politicians doing the bidding of the US. In the rally, the ex-PM alleged the government led by Shehbaz Sharif had a plan of pushing his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party out with foreign money. Pakistan's High Court on Thursday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to decide on the foreign funding case, which has been ongoing since November 14, 2014, noted the Business Standard. The ex-PM mentioned the corruption cases directed against the Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz); the party of Mr. Sharif must be included. A move to reconcile with India and other tensions was in progress, but an emphasis on the relationship between Islamabad and New Delhi is in the works. He told the people who wanted to work with all countries during the rally not to be against them. One of his goals is to forge peace with Europe, India, the US, and the world. He is against slavery and all for friendship. Last Saturday, the Karachi rally gathered about 30,000 people to show solidarity with the deposed leader. Several Pakistani agencies give the numbers of 30,000-35,000 were at the PTI rally, but some added it was 60,000 to 100,000 attending the jalsa. Imran Khan, the ex-Pakistan Prime Minister, said the illegal regime change authored by the US was to get him out of the office and install someone loyal to western interests. Related Article: Pakistan Might Lose Two Strategic Islands Due to Chinese Debt Trap @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. BURLESON, Texas, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lost Oak Winery, a family-owned and operated winery located in Burleson, Texas, is putting the Lone Star State on the map with their wine, which - they are proud to proclaim - is "100% Texas." Founded by Gene Estes in 2006, Lost Oak Winery is located on the banks of Village Creek, with three cultivated vineyards, stately oak trees, and winding walking paths. The winery found success in relatively short order, winning a double gold medal in the San Francisco Chronicle competition in 2012. Mind you, it was a victory that also led to a big change - originally known as Lone Oak, the competition led them to discover that a Sonoma vineyard had already trademarked that name - but at the same, the winery was able to start a new chapter with a big win. A great deal of Lost Oak's success can be placed on the shoulders of one woman: Roxanne Myers, president of the winery. In fact, to simply say that she's the president doesn't do her contributions justice, since she has a hand in every aspect of the winery from the Tasting Room all the way to the top of the company. Over the course of the last 13 years, Myers has helped increase Lost Oak's sales by 600%, enabling the winery to expand into the Hill Country by developing a robust event business. "Texas is now the fifth-largest wine-producing state next to California, Oregon, Washington and New York," said Myers. "Texas wineries are now contributing more than $13.1 billion of economic value to the state, and you can rest assured that Lost Oak is doing everything we can to raise those figures even higher, including shipping our products straight to consumers." Among Lost Oak's more notable wines: 2020 Shiraz Reserve , recently won double gold in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Shiraz is a mix of ripe red berries and soft oak notes with flavors of mocha and caramel. , recently won double gold in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Shiraz is a mix of ripe red berries and soft oak notes with flavors of mocha and caramel. 2019 Gewurztraminer , a deep inhale reveals aromas reminiscent of flowers and flavors of lychee and hints of ripe pineapple. , a deep inhale reveals aromas reminiscent of flowers and flavors of lychee and hints of ripe pineapple. 2019 Mourvedre Rose , featuring aromas of spring flowers and honeydew mixed with a hint of minerality. , featuring aromas of spring flowers and honeydew mixed with a hint of minerality. 2021 Sauvignon Blanc , with an overwhelming aroma of Bosc pear and a hint of citrus. , with an overwhelming aroma of Bosc pear and a hint of citrus. 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon , featuring aromas of black cherries, currants, and a hint of licorice. , featuring aromas of black cherries, currants, and a hint of licorice. 2019 Texas Duet, a 50/50 blend of Muscat and Gewurztraminer with an aroma of wildflowers and sweet spices. About Lost Oak Winery: Inspired by founder Gene Estes' creativity and passion in the art of winemaking, Lost Oak Winery was founded in 2006 in Burelson, Texas. The family-operated, woman-owned winery specializes in French-inspired wines that are 100% Texas. Lost Oak has continued its lengthy legacy with awards for its leadership role in the dedication to and support and promotion of the Texas wine industry, including their longtime affiliation with the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. For more details about Lost Oak Winery: Website: https://www.lostoakwinery.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LostOakWinery/ Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lostoakwinery/ CONTACT INFORMATION: Tiffany Kayar tiffanyPR@newswiremail.io Related Images Image 1: Lost Oak Winery Lost Oak Winery This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Pune, India, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. lime market size is anticipated to reach USD 2.46 billion by 2028 and exhibit a CAGR of 1.8% during the forecast period. The rising demand for calcium hydroxide by the steel industry is anticipated to boost the market growth in the coming years. Fortune Business Insights has presented this information in its report titled U.S. Lime Market, 2021-2028. The market size stood at USD 2.14 billion in 2020 and USD 2.17 billion in 2021. Additionally, the surging demand for several manufacturing applications, including the production of bioplastics, sugar, paper & pulp, glass, and others, is predicted to bolster the market growth in the forthcoming years. Segmentation- On the basis of type, the market is bifurcated into hydrated lime and quick lime. On the basis of application, the market is fragmented into water treatment, mining & metallurgy, building material, agriculture, and others. Report Coverage- It includes key market developments and information on different market segments. It assesses the COVID-19 pandemics impact on the market. It assimilates key market drivers and restraints. It profiles the rankings of key market players accordingly. It provides a comprehensive market assessment. Request a Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/u-s-lime-market-106592 List of Key Market Players- Carmeuse (Belgium) Lhoist Group (Belgium) Graymont Limited (Canada) Mississippi Lime Company (U.S.) United States Lime & Minerals Inc. (U.S.) Linwood Mining & Minerals Corporation (U.S.) Minerals Technologies Inc. (U.S.) Cheney Lime & Cement Company (U.S.) Pete Lien & Sons Inc. (U.S.) Valley Mineral LLC (U.S.) Brookville Manufacturing (U.S.) Drivers & Restraints- Rising Demand for Cleaner Steel to Amplify Market Growth Lime plays a vital role in the steelmaking process. It impacts productivity, metallurgical properties, steel quality, and total production costs. The market is being driven by the high demand for cleaner steel by the automotive and construction industries. Additionally, the rising architectural development further augments the demand for steel, thereby fueling the U.S. lime market growth. Lime is also used in treating industrial and mining wastewater. It maintains the pH levels of the wastewater and removes nitrogen, phosphorous, and other such toxins. This creates high product demand for various applications and amplifies the U.S. lime market growth. The stringent government regulations implemented to treat and limit water contaminants are further helping the market expand. Additionally, lime is vital for several manufacturing applications, including the production of bioplastics, sugar, paper & pulp, glass, and others. This is predicted to fuel the market growth in the forthcoming years. However, the high carbon emissions that arise during production may hamper the market growth. Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-lime-market-106592 Regional Insights- Expanding Construction Industry to Fuel Regions Growth The market size in the U.S. was USD 2.14 billion in 2020. The high product demand from various end-use industries is a key factor boosting the U.S. lime market share. The expanding construction industry and rising infrastructural development are stimulating the market's growth. Moreover, the improvements of water treatment plants by companies located in the region are expected to complement the market growth. The major consumers of the product have been construction, environmental, and chemical & industrial markets. According to the U.S. governments Mineral Commodity Study, approximately 16.9 million tons of lime were manufactured in the U.S. in 2019 and was estimated to be approximately 16 million tons in 2020. Competitive Landscape- Key Players Emphasize Expansions to Gain Competitive Edge The market comprises several key players, including Lhoist Group, United States lime & Minerals Inc., Carmeuse, and Mississippi Lime Company. The key players emphasize investments and expansions to acquire a competitive edge in the market. For instance, Carmeuse Overseas commenced the construction of a greenfield lime plant, Chaux de la Teranga, in Bandia Senegal in May 2020. The plant is estimated to have 250 tons/day capacity. Key Industry Developments- November 2020: Lhoist North America opened a new distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., for dolomitic quicklime for the steel industry. The company aims to fulfill the rising demand for high purity steel in the steel industry. Inquire Before Buying This Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/queries/u-s-lime-market-106592 Detailed Table of Content: Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions Executive Summary Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Key Insights Key Emerging Trends For Major Countries Key Developments: Capacity Expansions, Acquisitions, Partnerships, etc. Latest Technological Advancement Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis U.S. Lime Market Average Sales Price Lime Production Cost Analysis Qualitative Insights on Impact of COVID-19 on Global Lime Market Supply Chain Analysis & Challenges due to Covid-19 Steps taken by Government / Companies to Overcome this Impact Potential Challenges and Opportunities due to COVID-19 Outbreak TOC Continued! Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/u-s-lime-market-106592 About Us: Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Address: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. 9th Floor, Icon Tower, Baner Mahalunge Road, Baner, Pune-411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US: +1 424 253 0390 UK: +44 2071 939123 APAC: +91 744 740 1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Dublin, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Military Simulation and Training Market by Application (Army, Aviation, Naval), Type (Live, Virtual, Constructive), Platform (Land, Maritime, Airborne), Solution, Environment (Synthetic, Gaming), Technology & Region - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Military Simulation and Training market size is forecasted to grow from an estimated USD 9.2 billion in 2022 to reach USD 12.2 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2022 to 2027. Increasing defense spending in the world and new technological developments to help strengthen military capabilities and efficiency is expected to drive the market for Military Simulation and Training across the globe. Increasing geopolitical tensions across regions and overall strengthening activities across the world are triggering the defense spending across these regions. This, in turn, is pushing manufacturers and system component providers to design and manufacture more high technology, high resolution, military simulators for defense personnel to get trained upon. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant damage to the economic activities of countries across the world. The manufacture of digital battlefield products, including systems, subsystems, and components, has also been impacted. Although military simulation and training products for defense applications are of prime importance, disruptions in the supply chain have halted their manufacturing processes for the time being. Resuming manufacturing activities depends on COVID-19 exposure, the level at which manufacturing operations are running, and import-export regulations, among other factors. While companies may still take orders, delivery schedules may not be fixed. Most key players in the Military Simulation and Training markets like Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Raytheon Technologies (US), and Rheinmetall AG(Germany) have declared that business has largely be returned to normal but acknowledged the impact of cost and schedules on most programs. Based on platform, the land segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period. The growth in demand for military vehicles across the land, sea, and aerial platforms would drive the market growth. Several countries are modernizing their military fleets by inducting newer generation vehicle platforms. This is generating a simultaneous demand for simulation-based training for the military personnel on these platforms, thereby propelling the market prospects of the related military simulators. Based on Application, Aviation makes the largest share of the market during the forecasted year. The aviation segment is expected to have a larger market share in the forecasted year. This is majorly due to the complexity and risk involved in aircraft compared to the other end users. For example, a single mistake by pilots on board a military aircraft while landing or take-off will cost the lives of people on board and result in the loss of sophisticated military property and compromise the mission. Such complexity has forced the military authorities to incorporate simulator-based training for pilots. Moreover, the increasing adoption of newer generation aircraft that incorporate complex technologies in the military may require training for pilots to familiarize themselves with the latest equipment and systems. In such situations, providing hands-on experience may be difficult due to high-cost involvement. In such cases, the simulators act as the preferred option North America is projected to make the largest share of the market during the forecasted year. The rising orders to replace the old navy fleet with new ones from the US and Canada and the rise in export of goods are the major factors driving the demand for new ship commanders and crew. This also leads to increased demand for military training systems. According to Boeing Technician Outlook 2019, North America is anticipated to require more than 193,000 aircraft technicians and maintenance crew between 2019 and 2038. This is anticipated to fuel the demand for maintenance crew training across the region during the forecast period This region is expected to lead the market from 2021 to 2026, owing to increased investments and the adoption of advanced military simulators for all the platforms by countries in this region. Market Dynamics Drivers Acceptance of Virtual Pilot Training to Ensure Aviation Safety Need for Cost-Cutting Technique in Pilot Training Reduction in Military Budgets of Developed Economies Restraints Longer Product Lifecycle Lack of Interoperability Opportunities Development of Simulators for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Simulators for Air Accident Investigation Challenges Stringent Regulatory Approvals Minimization of Weight and Size to Maintain Advanced Features Companies Mentioned Avion Group Avt Simulation Bae Systems plc Bohemia Interactive Simulations Booz Allen Hamilton Cae Inc. Cubic Corporation Eca Group Elbit Systems Ltd Frasca International, Inc. Indra Sistemas Sa Inveris Training Solutions Kongsberg Maritime Leonardo Spa Lockheed Martin Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation Precision Flight Controls, Inc. Raytheon Technologies Rheinmetall Ag Saab Ab St Engineering Textron Thales Sa The Boeing Company Virtra Vstep Bv For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2fgwvd Attachment New York, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the heels of a visit to the White House, President Samia Suluhu Hassan visits NYC for a royal tour: The World Premiere of Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and Travel Editor Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanias first woman to lead her nation, arrives in New York on the heels of a visit to the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris. President Samia will be in New York for the World Premiere of Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour, in New York on Monday, April 18 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as well as also attending the Los Angeles premiere on Thursday, April 21 at Paramount Theatre at Paramount Pictures Studios. "This is a very special, up close and personal journey to and through a country, seen through the eyes of its leader" says producer and host Peter Greenberg. "It's an all access pass, a deep immersion into the history, culture and the environment at a critical time in Tanzania's history." And the President was Greenberg's tour guide as they crisscrossed the entire country, from her small fishing village in Zanzibar to soaring over Mt. Kilimanjaro; from the expanse of the Serengeti to the Tanzanite mines, from searching for the big five to investigating the country's anti-poaching efforts. Please find link to the trailer of Tanzania: The Royal Tour here: TANZANIA: THE ROYAL TOUR TRAILER Since taking office in March of 2021, one year ago, President Samia has embraced an ambitious economic development plan, encouraging women-run business, and strengthening health care, most importantly reversing her predecessors Covid denial and making vaccines available to the public. Another principal objective is the promotion of tourism, with the goal of increasing the number of international travelers from the current 1.5 million to 5 million within the next 5 years, by showcasing Tanzania as a vibrant tourist destination and the many investment opportunities that are offered in her country. The Presidents visit to the US also affords her the opportunity to promote Tanzanias economic development and investment opportunities. Tanzania is an extraordinary destination with 500 miles of coastline along the Indian Ocean dotted with the fabled spice islands and Zanzibar just off its mainland. The country's cultural and natural assets are incomparable, seven destination wonders are UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Kilimanjaro National Park, home to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain; Serengeti National Park; Ngorongoro Conservation Area; Selous Game Reserve; Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara; Kondoa Rock-Art Sites and Stone Town of Zanzibar. Tanzania: The Royal Tour, produced in partnership with Chicago PBS station WTTW, premieres on public television stations across the country beginning April 18, 2022 (Check local listings for times). Tanzania: The Royal Tour will also be available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ beginning April 19, 2022. Please find YouTube coverage of President Samia at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris. PRESIDENT SAMIA VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/15/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-and-president-samia-suluhu-hassan-of-tanzania-before-bilateral-meeting/ https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/president-samia-travels-to-us-3782176 Select images of Tanzania can be viewed and downloaded here. For more information contact: Sally Fischer Public Relations sfpr@sallyfischerpr.com The Bradford Group: karenh@bradfordglobalmarketing.com Attachment Richmond, Va., April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring education savings deals! Its Financial Literacy Month, and Virginia529 has launched its Jump$tart Your Savings giveaway to help families make the first step in preparing for their childrens future. Open a new Invest529 account from April 18, 2022 to April 30, 2022 and use the gift code SAVE25APRIL2022 to receive a bonus $25 contribution to your account. Whether youre saving for your own education or the education of a loved one, Virginia529 wants to help make your dreams a reality! Invest529 accounts can be used to fund qualified higher education expenses at schools nationwide and even overseas. Plus, they can be used at eligible public or private universities, graduate schools, apprenticeship programs and private or religious K-12 schools, among other qualified uses. Setting up an account takes 15 minutes, and it makes a lifetime of difference in your familys future. Read the Jump$tart Your Savings terms and conditions and get the details at Virginia529.com. About Virginia529: Attachment Deerfield Beach, Fla., April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corey Benish has joined JM Family Enterprises, an $18 billion privately held company, as the new chief technology officer (CTO). Technology is at the core of how JM Family offers value to its partners and improves the experience of its associates, and Benishs addition to the leadership team will help the company aggressively pursue its digital future to the benefit of these stakeholders. A former consultant for two of JM Familys subsidiaries, Benish will transition to leading the parent companys focus on digital product management and supporting existing capabilities in IT strategy, architecture and governance in his new full-time capacity. After several months of collaboration, we are eager to officially welcome Corey to JM Family. He has already proven his value, bringing business acumen, technological expertise, leadership skills and strategic vision to our digital strategy projects, and we are excited to further develop our technology roadmap under his guidance, said Chad Couch, senior vice president and chief information officer for JM Family. An accomplished CTO with 25 years of experience across several industries, including involvement in B2B and franchise operations, Benish will bring a wealth of knowledge and valuable understanding to this role. Throughout his career, Benish has helped organizations realize enterprise value through digital products and services and held several senior technology roles at companies such as ABC Financial Services, Planet Fitness, National Dentex Corporation and AGA Medical Corporation. He currently owns his own consulting company, CGNB Associates, which strives to help businesses understand their technology landscape, defining strategic technology roadmaps and driving execution to achieve new digital capabilities. Benish earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and attended the Executive Education program at Columbia Business School in New York. In addition, Benish was a long-time Child Sponsor for Compassion International, sponsoring a child through their graduation. About JM Family Enterprises, Inc. JM Family Enterprises, Inc. was founded by automotive legend, Jim Moran in 1968. It is a privately held company with $18 billion in revenue and more than 4,000 associates. Rooted in automotive and united in its strong culture and core values, JM Family is in the business of helping other businesses succeed. As a long-term partner, it is invested in its companies, associates and its communities. Driven by exceptional performance, current subsidiaries are in the automotive, financial services and franchising industries. Its family of companies includes: Southeast Toyota Distributors, the worlds largest independent distributor of Toyota vehicles; JM&A Group, a company committed to improving automotive dealers performance by offering Finance & Insurance products and services, dealership training and consulting; World Omni Financial Corp. (dba Southeast Toyota Finance), a captive financial services company driven to delivering an exceptional dealership and customer experience for Toyota customers in the Southeast; JM Lexus, one of South Floridas leading Lexus dealers; and Home Franchise Concepts, a multi-brand franchise network consisting of Budget Blinds, Tailored Living, Concrete Craft, AdvantaClean, Kitchen Tune-Up, Bath Tune-Up, Two Maids & A Mop and Aussie Pet Mobile. JM Family has earned various awards for its culture, products and services, including 24 consecutive years on Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Interact with JM Family on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Attachment MELBOURNE, Fla., April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apis Cor , the company that 3D prints buildings, today announced the construction industrys only Affordable Housing Cooperative Program (AHCP) for the design, development and production of low-cost, 3D-printed homes. Apis Cor, recognized for developing the first robots and equipment capable of 3D printing full-scale buildings completely on site, is launching the AHCP with Eden Village , SMASH , and VPG Enterprise . Planning and defining the cost requirements, environments, and community needs of each project has begun. AHCP partners will break ground and 3D-print their first homes in 2023. Affordable housing is a complex problem and it differs from city to city and state to state, said Anna Cheniuntai, CEO and Co-Founder of Apis Cor. We know 3D-printing technology can be adapted to satisfy a wide range of needs, environments and specific building design and cost requirements. We created a cooperative program to innovate and scale the construction of affordable 3D-printed houses to contribute to society. We believe Apis Cors 3D-printing technology is the future of construction. Working with Apis Cor to design and develop a 3D-printed home that can be replicated makes it possible to provide a private home to a very needy person, said Thomas Dalton, M.D., co-founder, Eden Village Wilmington, N.C. We can build houses faster, at a much lower cost and with less waste. Furthermore, 3D printing opens the horizons for alternative and eco-friendly materials. Over the next five years, more than 4,100 new units are needed to meet growth in Wilmington, NC. University of North Carolina at Greensboros Center for Housing and Community Studies reports half of all rental households in the county are cost-burdened, meaning they pay a disproportionate share 30% or more of their income on housing. Apis Cors novel 3D-printing technology and advanced materials are the future of construction, said Michael Merideth, co-founder VPG Enterprises and VPG Construction. A well-designed 3D printed home is resistant to environmental hazards that we deal with such as mold and is resilient to natural disasters we see happening on a more frequent basis. New Orleans will need to build 17,006 affordable units by 2029 to accommodate the citys current population, according to the 2021 HousingNOLA annual report card. In a market where land is prohibitively expensive like Miami, and where there are limited funds for housing production, the 3D printing technology of a company like Apis Cor is the kind of market disruption that could finally provide conscious builders with the means to meet the extraordinary demand for affordable housing in the county, added Madriz. Miami-Dade Affordable Housing Framework states that Miami needs 215,000 new units of affordable housing by the year 2030. We are excited to provide people with the opportunity to join us in reimagining how construction works for affordable housing, commented Cheniuntai. We have a wealth of 3D-printing knowledge to offer our partners. About Eden Village, Wilmington, North Carolina Eden Village of Wilmington, NC will be a 31-unit tiny home community specially designed to provide permanent homes for chronically homeless individuals including patients of a local hospital. Many patients of the medical center experience chronic illness, which are treatable but require consistent living circumstances to improve treatment results. www.edenvillagewilmington.org About VPG Enterprise / VPG Construction VPG Construction is a division of VPG Enterprise, a real estate development, construction and management group with a portfolio that includes over $12 million in residential real estate assets. VPG looks at creative development solutions around construction methods, deal structures and financing mechanisms to provide high quality housing in New Orleans. http://veriusgroup.com/ About SMASH-Miami Struggle for Miami's Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH) is a community land trust building power for housing justice to make housing a human right in Miami. Their leadership led to the Miami Housing Justice Agenda, a platform of values and policy proposals that, if adopted, would fulfill SMASH's vision for a Miami where housing is a human right and everyone has a home. The agenda's values and policies are the product of four years of community engagement, research and best practices and is the product of a coalition of different community organizations and policy experts including Miami Homes for All, The Greater Miami Housing Alliance, Florida International University Metropolitan Center, University of Florida Shimberg Center, City of Miami Connect Capital Initiative, Homes for All National, Grassroots Global Justice, Climate Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network and Gulf South Green New Deal. SMASHs goal is to get 1.5 Million Miami-Dade residents (half the county population) to pledge their support to the Miami Housing Justice Agenda by the year 2030. https://smash.miami/ About Apis Cor Founded in 2016 by Nikita and Anna Cheniuntai, Apis Cor is an American technology corporation headquartered in Melbourne, Florida that develops advanced technologies and materials for construction 3D-printing. The company holds the Guinness Book World Record for the Largest 3D-Printed Building on Earth and is proud to be a resident of the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network. A successful participant in NASA's "3D Printed Habitat Challenge" Apis Cor was awarded top honors in several categories. Apis Cor is backed by Alchemist Accelerator, the premier accelerator for Enterprise startups, and At One Ventures, a VC and private equity firm which supports deep tech ventures that are a net positive to nature and the planet. Learn more about 3D-printing construction technology at: www.Apis-Cor.com. Media Contact: Heidi Groshelle Groshelle Communications heidi@groshelle.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ef7a16af-fa02-42d2-9c32-5f2af95ceee0 Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exactitude Consultancy, the market research and consulting wing of Ameliorate Digital Consultancy Private Limited has completed and published the final copy of the detailed research report on the Dental Imaging market. We have been studying the market from the past 10 years and this is our 6th edition of the report. It took us around 3 months to complete the research and finally make it available in the market for sale. Some of our key findings from the research are as follows: High sugar consumption is one of prominent reasons for dental cavities; with a steady increase in disposable income, sugar products are being consumed at an accelerated rate in the form of packaged foods and desserts. This has caused a noticeable increase in dental issues, therefore incrementing the need for dental imaging. The rising demand for cosmetic dentistry, the growing affordability of imaging systems, and the need for rapid and accurate diagnosis are the other major factors driving the growth of this market. Key Market Key Players: During our course of research, we have studied the key market players around the globe along with some prominent local players. We made a detailed list of the all the available players that we could find through our research and have included those mentioned below in our list: Dentsply Sirona, Danehar, Henry Schein, Cefla, Carestream Dental, Planmeca Oy, Morita Group, Acteon Group, Vatech, Imageworks Corporation, Planet DDS, Ace Dental Software, Rayscan, Dentimax, Abeldent, etc. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/764/dental-imaging-market/#request-a-sample New and Latest market trends: - Intraoral Cameras Market - The global intraoral cameras market size is estimated to be valued at USD 1.90 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 3.75 billion by 2029, recording a CAGR of 8.9%. - Extraoral Imaging Systems - Extraoral X-ray systems is anticipated to hold the maximum share of 28.7% in 2022, expanding at rate of nearly 8.0% during the forecast period. - Cosmetic Dentistry Market The cosmetic dentistry market is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period due to the growing consumer awareness and rising focus on aesthetics, increasing prevalence of oral health disorders - Dental Lasers Market - The global medical laser market size is estimated to be valued at USD 3.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 9.0 billion by 2029, recording a CAGR of 10.3%. - Cone Beam Computed Tomography- The CBCT systems available in the market are capable of providing panoramic images. In addition, the low radiation footprint of these systems makes them suitable for placement in dental practices, hence providing high-quality images of regions of interest. - In August 2021, Vatech, a global dental imaging device manufacturer, reports that it launched an e-commerce platform for the sales and distribution of dental supplies in India. This move is part of Vatechs broader strategy to diversify its business interests in countries. Recent Market Developments: DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (Dentsply Sirona) will introduce a series of innovations designed to significantly enhance digital workflows with benefits for dentists, dental labs and patients globally. A special highlight of this event will be interviews with Googles SVP Engineering Urs Hoelzle and Dentsply Sirona CEO Don Casey, who will be announcing a new collaboration between the two technology companies Danaher Corp. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the Gendex division of Dentsply International Inc. for approximately $102.5 million in cash. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Vatech announced that it has received U.S. FDA approval for its Green X (model PHT-75CHS) premium ConeBeam Computed Tomography system. The system is a four-in-one system that combines panoramic, cephalometric, computed tomography and 3D modelling capabilities. Affiliates of Carestream Dental LLC (Carestream Dental) has announced that they have entered into an agreement to sell Carestream Dentals Scanning Technology business to Envista Holding Corporation (Envista), a leading global dental products company for $600 million. The Scanning Technology business is composed of Carestream Dentals intraoral scanner equipment (CS 3600, CS 3700, and CS 3800) and related software. Report Scope & Segmentation: Attributes Details Base Year 2021 Historic Data 2019-2020 Forecast Period 2022-2028 Regional Scope Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa By Type Imaging Devices Intraoral X Ray Devices Extraoral X Ray Devices Other Technologies Intraoral Software By Deployment Cloud On Premise CAGR 9.5% Customization Scope 15% Free Customization Delivery Format PDF and Excel through Email Inquiry for Discount here: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/764/dental-imaging-market/#inquire-for-discount Regional Analysis: - North America led the global dental imaging market in terms of demand share of 33% in 2018. Factors responsible for the dominance of the region is the considerable efforts by American Dental Association along with wide application of dental imaging in various sectors such as diagnostic, therapeutic, cosmetic, and forensic. Diagnostic segment is can grow at a CAGR of 6.50% through to 2025. - Asia Pacific is expected to project a comparatively higher dental imaging market growth by the end of 2026. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to register a significant CAGR during the forecast period owing to increasing prevalence of oral diseases and rising awareness about dental health care. - Europe is anticipated to grow at significant CAGR owing to with the presence of well-established healthcare facilities coupled with increasing demand for advanced healthcare systems among the aging population. U.S. is the leading country to have most installed units of MRI systems per million populations, at roughly 44 MRI systems per 100,000 people, just behind Japan which has 55 systems per 100,000 people. Market Segment Analysis - The dental implantology segment held the largest revenue share of over 25.0%. Dental restoration with implants is an advanced dental treatment as it provides patients with functional and aesthetical options for tooth replacement. - In 2020, the dental clinics segment dominated the market with a revenue share of over 65.0% and is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028. The majority of patients visit private practices due to the accessibility to specialists. Based on end use, the market is segmented into hospitals and others and dental clinics. You can read more about our report and also ask for a sample of our report before purchasing by registering on the link below BIGS premium flower line and Hash-Wrapped Smoke are latest offerings from Californias No. 1 selling cannabis brand per Headset SALINAS, Calif., April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lowell Herb Co., one of the best-selling and most talked-about cannabis brands in the Lowell Farms Inc. (CSE:LOWL; OTCQX:LOWLF) portfolio, is expanding its award-winning product lineup with the debut of its BIGS flower line and the all-new Hash-Wrapped Smoke. BIGS encompasses premium flower offerings at 7g, 14g and 28g, an expansion for the brand in the flower category. Each bag of BIGS contains Lowells finest artisan flower, grown sustainably at the companys mixed-light greenhouse in Monterey County, California. Simultaneously, Lowell is expanding into the infused pre-roll category with the Hash-Wrapped Smoke, a classic Lowell pre-roll thats been artfully wrapped in premium pressed bubble hash, creating a smooth, bold smoke with every draw. Both products hit retailer shelves on the heels of Lowell Farms most recent earnings report, in which the company took the lead as Californias largest seller of packaged flower, data is based on reported retail sales from analytics company Headset the No. 1 ranking driven by sales of Lowell Herb and House Weed, Lowell Farms premier flower brands. With every product innovation, we not only show that were listening to our consumers, but were challenging ourselves to grow as a company, and thats something we welcome and embrace, says Lowell Farms Inc. Chairman of The Board, George Allen. These products that were introducing are the result of our teams unending commitment to high quality cannabis, and we look forward to seeing them on store shelves. More information about Lowell Farms, Inc. brands can be found at lowellfarms.com. ABOUT LOWELL HERB CO. Lowell Herb Co. is one of the fastest-growing, most talked about cannabis brands in North America. Its signature product, Lowell Smokes, has elevated the perception of cannabis consumption. Lowell Herb Co is part of the extensive Lowell Farms portfolio of award-winning brands. Lowell Farms, a California-based vertically-integrated cannabis company, grows artisan craft cannabis with a deep love and respect for the plant and prides itself on using sustainable materials, from seed to sale. For more information, visit www.lowellfarms.com and follow on Instagram @lowellfarms. ABOUT LOWELL FARMS INC. Lowell Farms Inc. (CSE:LOWL; OTCQX:LOWLF) (the Company) is a California-based cannabis company with advanced production capabilities supporting every step of the supply chain, including cultivation, extraction, manufacturing, brand sales, marketing, and distribution. Lowell Farms grows artisan craft cannabis with a deep love and respect for the plant, and prides itself on using sustainable materials from seed to sale to produce an extensive portfolio of award-winning originals, including Lowell Herb Co, House Weed, MOON, and Kaizen, for licensed retailers statewide. Lowell Farms Inc. Media Contact pr@lowellfarms.com Lowell Farms Inc. Investor Relations Contact Bill Mitoulas 416.479.9547 ir@lowellfarms.com Lowell Farms Inc. Company Contact Mark Ainsworth ir@lowellfarms.com Forward-Looking Information and Statements This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Companys beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein may include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives, including as a result of the described acquisition, and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information and statements. This forward-looking information and statements reflect the Companys current beliefs and are based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; operating and development costs; competition; changes in legislation or regulations affecting the Company; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; the available funds of the Company and the anticipated use of such funds; favorable production levels and outputs; the stability of pricing of cannabis products; the level of demand for cannabis product; the availability of third-party service providers and other inputs for the Companys operations; lack of qualified, skilled labor or loss of key individuals; and risks and delays resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A description of additional assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Companys disclosure documents, such as the Companys annual information form filed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider has reviewed, or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of, the content of this news release. Concurrently, the Company is launching a non-brokered private placement NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES CHICAGO and TORONTO, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wesana Health Holdings Inc. (Wesana or the Company) (CSE: WESA; OTCQB: WSNAF), a data-driven life sciences company focused on developing the novel therapies of tomorrow and delivering new care paradigms today, is pleased to announce that following the completion of a successful Pre-IND meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration (the FDA), the Company is exploring the opportunity to expand its lead indication for SANA-013 to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) following the completion by the Company of a non-brokered private placement (the Placement). Consistent with the positive feedback received from the FDA, Wesana is also exploring the opportunity to accelerate the development of SANA-013 by initiating a Phase 1b/2a human study for MDD in H1 2023. In contrast to the current development pathway for SANA-013 with TBI associated anxiety as the lead indication, currently targeting the launch of a Phase 1 study in Q4 of 2022 in a healthy human patient population, the revised development pathway would allow the Company to bypass the healthy patient population study and research an MDD affected patient population directly as part of a Phase 1b/2a study. Daniel Carcillo, Wesanas founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, Given the positive feedback from FDA regarding SANA-013, there is an opportunity for Wesana to optimize the drug development program to focus on the broadest indication for our novel formulation and protocol and to de-risk future clinical development. MDD is a chronic, recurring, and debilitating mental disorder leading it to be one of the most burdensome illnesses on a global scale. Patients suffering from MDD are frequently and significantly impaired from an occupational and social function standpoint resulting in severe economic costs. With approximately 264 million people suffering from depression globally, according to World Health Organization data in 2020, the market size is currently estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.9% to US$16 billion by 2026.1 Mark Wingertzahn, Wesanas Chief Scientific Officer, said, Pursuing an indication such as MDD will allow for a streamlined development path with the opportunity, if successful, to help millions of people worldwide. Non-Brokered Private Placement In connection with the above, the Company announces that it is proceeding on a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of up to USD$3,000,000 (approximately CAD$3,785,400) (the Placement). The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Placement towards evaluating expanding the indication for SANA-013 to MDD and initiating a phase 1b/2a human study in H1 2023 as an alternative approach to the current development pathway, research, and development activities following such evaluation and general working capital and corporate purposes. Pursuant to the Placement, the Company is offering Subordinate Voting Share Units (each, an SVS Unit) at a price of CAD$0.73 per unit and Multiple Voting Share Units (each, an MVS Unit) at a price of CAD$36.50 per unit. Each SVS Unit will consist of one Subordinate Voting Share of the Company (an SVS) and one Subordinate Voting Share purchase warrant (an SVS Warrant). Each SVS Warrant will be exercisable by the holder thereof to acquire one additional SVS for a period of 36 months from the date of issue at an exercise price of CAD$0.90 per SVS. Each MVS Unit will consist of one Multiple Voting Share of the Company (an MVS) and one Multiple Voting Share purchase warrant (an MVS Warrant). Each MVS Warrant will be exercisable by the holder thereof to acquire one additional MVS for a period of 36 months from the date of issue at an exercise price of CAD$45.00 per MVS. Certain subscriptions under the Placement may be subject to finders fees. The Placement may be closed in multiple tranches and is not subject to a minimum offering. Securities issued under the Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws. The Placement is subject to certain conditions including compliance with the rules and policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. No securities may be offered or sold in the United States or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer or sale would be unlawful absent registration under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom or qualification under the securities laws of such other jurisdiction or an exemption therefrom. About Wesana Health Wesana Health helps people transcend barriers in mental health and performance. We innovate in care development through our therapies and patent-pending protocols, and in care delivery through activating a new multidisciplinary, technology-supported clinical model. Learn more at www.wesanahealth.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws with respect to the Company, including, but not limited to: the initiation of the Companys currently contemplated Phase 1 clinical trials in Q4 2022, exploration of initiation of a Phase 1b/2a human study in H1 2023 as part of a revised accelerated development pathway, exploration of MDD as the lead indication for SANA-013, completion of the Placement in accordance with the currently contemplated terms and timeline (if at all), the expected size of the Placement, the use of proceeds of the Placement, and any other statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future plans, intentions, levels of activity, results, financial position, operational or financial performance or achievements. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, will, projects, or believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events, results or conditions may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Except for statements of historical fact, information contained herein constitutes forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made. Certain assumptions that influence successfully initiating its currently contemplated Phase 1 clinical trials in Q4 2022 include: (i) third parties who assisted the Company with the pre-IND submissions will continue to satisfy deadlines on deliverables within anticipated timeframes; (ii) the pre-IND guidance will continue to support that a drug development plan and future clinical trials are going to be acceptable to the FDA; (iii) the Company and its consultants can efficiently and timely address any additional correspondence, submission of additional materials or information pursuant to any ongoing requests as they may arise during the course of their review following the filing of submissions; (iv) additional pre-clinical studies will be commenced and completed on a timely basis and results will be supportive and as anticipated; (v) the Companys pre-clinical studies (animal pharmacology and toxicology testing) generate data and analyses to support an FDA decision that it is safe to proceed with human trials of the Companys formulation; and (vi) the Company is able to maintain a GMP supply source necessary to conduct in-human clinical trials. Certain assumptions that influence successfully expanding the lead indication for SANA-013 to MDD include all of the assumptions in the above and (i) the board of directors of the Company (the Board) makes a determination, based on the readiness of the overall research and development plan, capital resources and internal procedures of the Company, to approve the expansion of the lead indication to MDD; (ii) the Companys current capital and proceeds from the Placement will be sufficient for developing the updated IND submission package and updated IND enabling studies; (iii) the broadened indication and the future clinical trials are going to be acceptable to the FDA; (iv) the Company and its consultants can efficiently and timely address any additional correspondence, submission of additional materials or information pursuant to any ongoing requests as they may arise resulted from the broaden indication; and (v) additional pre-clinical studies required for MDD will be commenced and completed on a timely basis and results will be supportive and as anticipated. Certain assumptions that influence the successful initiation of a Phase 1b/2a human study in H1 2023 as part of a revised accelerated development pathway include: all assumptions above and (i) the Board makes a determination, based on the readiness of the overall research and development plan, capital resources and internal procedures of the Company, to approve the revised project objectives; and (ii) the Companys current capital and proceeds from the upcoming Placement will be sufficient for the accelerated study timeline. Although management believes that the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, the reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Certain risk factors include but are not limited to the ability of the Company to complete the Placement upon the contemplated terms and timeline (if at all); research and development of drugs targeting the central nervous system being particularly difficult; failure to comply with health and data protection laws and regulations; delays in pre-clinical and clinical testing resulting in delays in commercializing; inability to file investigational new drug applications or clinical trial applications to commence clinical trials in a timely manner; difficulty enrolling patients in clinical trials; competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies; violations of laws and regulations resulting in repercussions; psychedelic inspired drugs possibly never being approved as medicines; regulatory or political change; reliance on third parties to plan, conduct and monitor preclinical studies and clinical trials; requirements of commercial scale and quality manufactured drug supply; negative results from pre-clinical and clinical trials or studies of others; negative operating cash flow and going concern; the detrimental impact of future losses and negative cash flow from operations; requirements for additional capital; lack of product or service revenue; unfavourable publicity or consumer perception; not achieving publicly announced milestones; reliance on the capabilities and experience of key executives and scientists; disruptions due to acquisitions or collaborations; risk of product liability claims; COVID-19; litigation; conflicts of interest; limited operating history; general economic, market and business conditions and other risk factors including those found in the Companys annual information form dated September 3, 2021 filed on the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and discussed in the Companys other public filings available on SEDAR. Forward-looking information is provided and made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by applicable law. Investor Relations: Keenan Gentry Email: IR@wesanahealth.com Phone: 702-329-8038 Media Contacts: Isadora Forman Email: media@wesanahealth.com Phone: 917-653-4613 1Source: Emergen Research, 2020 Pakistan's military air raids over Afghanistan, which targeted the eastern provinces of Khost and Kunar on Saturday, have caused several casualties, which have risen to at least 47, officials said. The director of information and culture in Khost, Shabir Ahmad Osmani, said that the dead victims included 41 civilians who were mainly women and children. The official added that 22 other people were wounded by the airstrikes near the Durand Line in his province. Pakistan Air Raids Two other Afghan officials confirmed the increased death toll in Khost while a third one said on Saturday that six other people were killed in Kunar province. The largest news channel in the region showed images of children's bodies who were reportedly killed during the airstrikes. Furthermore, the media outlet showed protests involving hundreds of residents in Khost that were condemning Pakistan and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans. On the other hand, the Pakistani military has not made any comments regarding the attacks. But on Sunday, Islamabad's foreign ministry urged the Taliban authorities in Kabul to take "stern actions" against armed fighters attacking Pakistan from Afghan soil, as per Aljazeera. Since the Taliban insurrection group took control of Afghanistan last year, border tensions between the country and Pakistan have risen. Islamabad officials claimed that militant groups have been carrying out frequent attacks from Afghan territory. On the other hand, the Taliban group has denied that they were harboring Pakistani militants, saying they were also frustrated by a fence that Islamabad erected along their 2,700-kilometer border. Before the airstrikes, there were reports that Pakistan's military forces fired rockets into Afghan territories. Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Experts Warn of Environmental Disaster Aside From Radiation Due to Crisis According to France24, an official with the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Khost, Mohammad Najibullah, was the one who revealed the increased death toll in the province. He also noted that 24 of the victims who were killed were all part of one family. A spokesman for the Taliban government released a statement on Twitter that said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan "strongly condemns Pakistan's attacks on refugees in Khost and Kunar." The official, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the IEA calls on the Pakistani side not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues to avoid the same mistake. Afghanistan's Response Mujahid added that problems between the two regions should be resolved through political means and not military aggression. Taliban authorities summoned Pakistan's ambassador on Saturday to go to Kabul in order to express their disapproval of the attacks and give him a diplomatic demarche to deliver to Islamabad. In a Sunday statement, Pakistan's foreign office said that the country had repeatedly requested the newly-formed Afghan government in the last few months to secure the Pak-Afghan border region. They argued that terrorists were using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan. Pakistani Taliban, otherwise known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, have made a stronghold in the area between the two countries for decades. The group, which is a banned militant group in Pakistan, drew its strength from some of the same ideological and religious moorings as the Afghan Taliban, the New York Times reported. Related Article: India: Defense Minister Sends Strong Message on China Threat, "Zero-Sum Game" of USA @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is just around the corner and that means that Formula 1 is about to start the European part of the calendar. For British viewers it is therefore familiar times again, although this weekend we see the qualifying already on Friday. Grand Prix in Imola For the third year in a row, F1 is calling on Imola for a GP. The historic circuit was deemed too small and narrow by the sport's leadership after 2006, but when the sport became distressed the circuit jumped into a hole. The coronavirus turned out to be an ideal opportunity for Imola to put itself back on the map. Read more Olav Mol speaks out on criticism of Viaplay Indeed, when F1 was shy about the number of circuits in 2020 and wanted to stay mainly in Europe because of all the travel restrictions, Imola was not too shy to step in. In 2020, the first Emilia Romagna GP was organized and that return to Italy was a success. In 2021 the circuit was requested again and even in 2022, now that all countries have returned to the calendar, Imola can also be admired on the calendar. F1 back in Europe For Ferrari, this will be a unique opportunity to showcase the fast F1-75 to the Tifosi and win in front of their own fans. This has to happen on a special weekend though, as the GP in Imola is the first weekend of this season where a Sprint is organized. So that also means that qualifying is already held on Friday. The weekend at the circuit of Imola starts on Friday with the first free practice at 1:30pm local and therefore 12:30pm UK time. Qualifying is Friday afternoon at 4pm. On Saturday, the second free practice is at 11:30am, followed by the Sprint at 3:30pm. The race on Sunday starts at 2pm. Timetable for the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Friday First free practice: 12:30-13:30pm Qualifying: 4-5pm Saturday Second free practice: 11:30am-12:30pm Sprint: 3:30-4:30pm Sunday Race: 2-4pm Helmut Marko has good news for fans of Max Verstappen. According to the Austrian, Honda has indicated that the problems with Verstappen's engine have been resolved for the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and the engine will 'just' be used one more time. Another failure for Verstappen For Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, the Australian Grand Prix ended in a big disappointment. For the second time in 2022, the Dutchman had to park his RB18 on the side of the track due to a problem with his car. Where after the Bahrain GP was pointed to a problem with the fuel supply, the problem would now again have to do with the fuel. Read more What time will the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Imola 2022 start? Verstappen himself was harsh after the Australian GP: this could not and should not happen and the Red Bull driver did not even have to talk about prolonging the title. Christian Horner was also fed up with the situation and Helmut Marko also found it unacceptable. The latter, however, has now received good news from Japan. Good news from Honda Although Red Bull Racing runs with Red Bull Powertrains, it is in fact still a Honda engine and the engine factory in Milton Keynes is not yet ready to the extent that the power source itself can be scrutinized. At Sakura, that has been done and Marko informs the Austrian ORF that Honda has assured him that the problems will be fixed before the next race. The second piece of good news is that the fire at the rear of the Red Bull car was not able to do any major damage to the reigning world champion's engine. Again, according to Marko, there was nothing wrong with the engine, but this time with the fuel line. That would have cracked under great pressure causing the leak. For Verstappen, it is to be hoped that his failure in Bahrain was the last of this season. Mika Hakkinen is a good example, because in 1999 he also crashed out twice in the first three races and still became world champion. However, there are not many more examples, so Verstappen and Red Bull are warned: another DNF could just mean the end of the title race in 2022. Read more Sprint in Imola: these are the new rules for the sprint races in 2022 A White House official said on Sunday that Americans above 60 years old should get a second booster or a COVID-19 vaccine, citing the latest data from Israel showing that getting a fourth vaccine significantly lowered infections and deaths among the elderly. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, made the remarks on a Fox News program weeks after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized second booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for people 50 and older. The decision, according to the FDA, was made to boost dwindling protection against severe illness when the more contagious subvariant of Omicron, known as BA.2, became the virus's prevalent strain in the US, The New York Times reported. When asked if Americans should get a second booster shot, Dr. Jha cited Israeli data showing a fourth shot provided substantial protection, especially against the serious condition, in individuals beyond 60. Dr. Jha said that Israel's data is "pretty compelling" for individuals above 60 years old. It indicated those who received a second booster shot four months after their first booster showed a "substantial reduction" in infections and fatality. Hence, he recommends it for the American elderly. "it's dependent on risk profile - talk to your doctor, it's much more of a close call. But for people over 60, I think people should be getting that second booster," Dr. Jha said. Should Americans Worry About The Latest COVID-19 Variant? When asked how concerned Americans should be about BA.2, he replied that while cases are increasing, hospital admissions are still low, implying that government officials must "pay close attention" to determine the severity of the variant's risk, per The Independent. Dr. Jha also defended the CDC's decision to prolong the federal mask mandate for travel. He explained that the additional 15 days will help health authorities determine the severity of the cases. The medical expert said it was still unclear if BA.2 will produce a more severe disease than earlier viral variants and subvariants. Cases are increasing, although hospitalizations are "at the lowest level during the pandemic," The FDA is still waiting for vaccine producers to provide data on whether vaccines for kids under the age of five are safe and effective. Dr. Jha expressed optimism that the FDA would be able to reach a decision within the next two months. Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Experts Warn of Environmental Disaster Aside From Radiation Due to Crisis The Pandemic Is Still Here The new boosters - the fourth round of shots for most vaccine recipients - of the Pfizer Inc /BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc vaccines are to be provided at least four months after the last dosage, per the US Food and Drug Administration. They are designed to provide increased protection against severe infection and hospitalization. The decision to provide second boosters in the United States comes as several scientists have expressed alarm about the highly infectious and newly predominant BA.2 Omicron subvariant, which has caused an increase in COVID-19 cases in other nations. In an interview with NBC 10 News, Dr. Jha told the public that "The pandemic is not over" that is why adults need booster shots. "That is completely necessary when you look at what's happened with omicron, particularly. A booster is essential," Dr. Jha said. Related Article: Kentucky Employer Fined $450,000 Over Surprise Birthday Party That Triggered Worker's Anxiety Disorder @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Boris Johnson is expected to insist once more that he felt he was obeying lockdown regulations, despite the fact that police fined him for doing so. After accepting a 50 fixed penalty notice last week, which implies police reasonably suspect he committed a criminal infraction, the Prime Minister has been accused of "taking the people for fools." Most Britons Regard Boris Johnson as a "Liar" It comes as a JL Partners survey for The Times today indicated that 72 percent of 2,000 Britons have an unfavorable impression of Boris Johnson, with "liar" being the most regularly used word. Boris Johnson will make a statement to Parliament at 3.30 p.m. tomorrow, followed by a meeting with Tory MPs where he'll apologize. Nonetheless, while the conflict in Ukraine is raging, he will try to downplay the fact that he has become the first-ever Prime Minister to be penalized for disobeying the law. "Mistakes were made," a close supporter of the PM told The Times, but he would assure colleagues that "there was always an exception for work," and that "people were working in close proximity at No10 for extremely long hours." Nurses who did not socialize at work and families who lost loved ones would be outraged by the new defense, allowing meetings only if they are "reasonably required for work." The PM was fined for a birthday celebration in No10's Cabinet Room, and insiders believe he might face further penalties for three more gatherings, Mirror reported. While acknowledging that mistakes were made, a close supporter of the Prime Minister said he would remind MPs that there was always an exception for work and that individuals at No 10 worked in close quarters for lengthy periods of time. However, Johnson's supporters believe the worst is yet to come since the June 2020 event is regarded as the least troublesome of those under investigation by authorities, prompting worries that there is a "low threshold" that might result in him facing more fines. Johnson was also seen drinking at other parties under investigation, even inciting one session by pouring the wine himself. Today, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries weighed in on the debate, accusing the PM's opponents of focusing on "uneaten cake" at a time when serious international events were taking place. Read Also: Russia Expresses Irritation, Warns of 'Unprecedented Consequences' if US Keeps Helping Ukraine in War Boris Johnson Faces New Partygate Claims Boris Johnson will have his say on Partygate in Parliament this week, according to Energy Minister Greg Hands. The meeting to send off then-director of communications Lee Cain on November 13, 2020 - an event the Prime Minister is said to have been at the forefront of - is seen to be of special significance. Before toasting Cain, the PM is said to have assembled colleagues around the press office table, which held bottles of alcohol - all of which were filmed by a camera. His appearance at the event's forefront would undoubtedly contradict remarks made in the House of Commons. Downing Street refused to comment on the photos but disputed that the Prime Minister had scheduled the farewell cocktails. On Thursday, MPs are scheduled to vote on whether or not a parliamentary committee should investigate charges that he lied to Parliament over Partygate. According to sources, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is set to grant two requests for a so-called contempt motion investigating Johnson's behavior from opposition MPs. Johnson, on the other hand, is expected to press his colleagues to disregard Partygate and focus on the impending municipal elections on May 5. Meanwhile, in the wake of a distinguished historian's criticism of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg batted down charges that he broke the ministerial code over Partygate, as per Daily Mail. Related Article: New Book: Jill Biden Screamed, Kicked Out Priest During President Joe Biden's Suffering From Brain Aneurysm @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Monday was a particularly festive day at the Nathaniel Witherell. Boisterous conversations took place in the main dining hall, where salad Caprese, chicken, steak and cheesecake were served. The occasion was a salute to the volunteers who give of their time and help out at the town-owned nursing home and rehabilitation facility. It was a long-delayed thank you to several dozen volunteers who assist with transporting patients within the facility, as well as recreation, grooming, religious services, educational programs and many other tasks and activities that make life a little more pleasant and enjoyable for the seniors who live there. The volunteer appreciation lunch had been put on hold over the past two years, with the COVID19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of many volunteer-related activities at the Witherell. The luncheon event marked the commemoration of National Volunteer Week. It was nice to see a good crowd and a tasty spread, said Mary Tate, the volunteer coordinator at the Witherell. They ate well, she said. They deserved it. The town facility has been reopened to volunteers programs since the early part of 2022. Were in welcome-back mode, Tate said, who was hoping to thank returning volunteers and eager to find new ones. Previous to the pandemic, the facility had about 100 volunteers working on its roster. Now the number is at about 40, she said. It was nice to have a good lunch, said volunteer Sharon Graham, but the rewards of volunteering far exceeded the meal she was served Monday afternoon. Graham said she was looking for volunteer opportunities after she retired from a career managing a large outpatient medical facility in New York City. I wanted to volunteer. My life is wonderful Im healthy, Ive got a wonderful marriage. And I wanted to give back and to be busy, and I wanted to be involved, she recalled. A friend told her about opportunities at the Witherell, and it was a good fit, she said. Graham describes herself as a people-person, and said she likes to keep an active schedule, so her volunteer work in patient transportation was exactly the right kind of work for her. Busy, busy, busy, said Graham, a Norwalk resident. She said she has been having interesting and fulfilling encounters with patients and staff for the past five years. So many stories, and the long-term people are wonderful, the volunteer said. You get to appreciate the therapists, the nursing assistants. You get to meet family, its just a joy. Like Graham, another volunteer, Jim Santora, said he felt a sense of loss when he couldnt do his volunteer work at the Witherell during the pandemic. During COVID, I realized how much I needed this place, said Santora, who has a long history of volunteering in the community as a driver and a tutor for young people. It was terrible not being able to come here. Santora, a Greenwich resident, helps people get to the Catholic Mass that is celebrated at the facility, as well as ushering during the service. He also helps run a conversation group on current events at the Witherell. Tate, the volunteer coordinator, said volunteers in a range of fields are welcomed, and there is no minimum commitment. The average is a couple of hours a week, she said. We are very flexible. Whatever they want to give us, we will take. The big lunch Monday afternoon was a nice way to get back to normal, by meeting and talking with the other volunteers, said Santora. It feels like home in a way, he said, And you get more than you give, thats what its all about. rmarchant@greenwichtime.com CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized Monday with Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the drugmaker's role in perpetuating the opioid crisis in the state that has long led the nation in drug overdose deaths. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said during a news briefing that he believes West Virginia's settlement is the largest in the country per capita with Johnson & Johnsons Janssen, which has faced opioid litigation in dozens of communities throughout the U.S. The attorney general said the figure is reflective of the severity of the opioid crisis in West Virginia. We think it represents a major step forward to start to get money in the door to help West Virginians who have been devastated by the opioid epidemic, Morrisey said from his state Capitol office. The settlement was announced at the start of the third week of testimony in the state's case against Janssen, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.s Allergan and their family of companies. The companies are accused of downplaying or failing to mention the risks of addiction associated with opioid use in West Virginia while overstating the prescription drugs benefits. In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson and Janssen said the settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the company. The company's actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important opioid prescription medications were appropriate and responsible, a news release read. The company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the U.S., according to the release. Morrisey said West Virginia's cities and counties could start seeing the settlement money within 45 days. The money will be used to help communities combat the opioid crisis. Meanwhile, he said the trial against Teva and Allergan is continuing as scheduled. We will have no delay in our pursuit of accountability against Teva and Allergan and well be back in court now, he said. Filed in 2019, the state's lawsuits accuse the companies of creating a public nuisance and violating the states Consumer Credit and Protection Act. Attorneys for the companies said during opening statements earlier this month that their individual products in question had considerably less than 1% of the market share in West Virginia, were medically necessary prescriptions and could not have contributed to the states opioid problems. But pharmaceutical marketing expert Matthew Perri testified that he painstakingly reviewed thousands of pages of marketing materials from the companies. He described a paradigm shift from the late 1990s to early 2000s in which the companies transitioned from marketing opioids as drugs designed for terminal cancer patients to drugs aimed at treating long-term pain. Perri testified that marketing materials used by sales representatives described drugs as safe and highly effective at controlling pain and improving functionality and quality of life for patients. It took down the barriers that were there, and effectively lowered the bar for the prescription of opioid medications, he said. Opioids could be prescribed sooner in the treatment process, with less worry. Dr. Katherine Keyes, director of Columbia Universitys Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program, testified last week that the influx of prescription opioids into communities was the main driver of the states drug crisis more than poverty, job loss and other economic stressors. The economic conditions were the kindling, but the opioid suppliers were the gasoline that was poured directly on that kindling, Keyes said. Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state's former health officer, testified during a video deposition shown earlier this month that the opioid epidemic got so bad, the state was having trouble finding foster parents to care for children. He said it also led to increases in public health problems such as Hepatitis B and HIV cases and neonatal abstinence syndrome, a withdrawal in newborns caused by exposure to drugs in the womb. Gupta, who is now the White House drug czar, recorded his testimony before he was named to his White House position last fall. Before the trial started, Morrisey's office announced the state settled part of the lawsuit involving another defendant, Endo Health Solutions, for $26 million. State and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities have filed more than 3,000 lawsuits involving the opioid epidemic in state and federal courts. In November, a California judge ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Endo International, Teva and others, saying local governments had not proven in a lawsuit that the companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. Nationwide settlements were completed in February by Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson over their role in the opioid addiction crisis. That cleared the way for $26 billion to flow to nearly every state and local government in the U.S. West Virginia previously reached settlements in separate lawsuits, including $37 million with distributor McKesson in 2019, and $20 million with Cardinal Health and $16 million with AmerisourceBergen in 2017. In Charleston, a separate bench trial wrapped up last summer in a federal lawsuit accusing AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of fueling the opioid crisis in Cabell County and the city of Huntington. That judge has not indicated when he will rule. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TOKYO (AP) Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said Monday his country has joined the international community in implementing tough sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but that does not mean it has abandoned its traditional neutrality. Cassis and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed in talks in Tokyo that Russia must be held accountable for attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. Kishida, in opening remarks at their meeting, said Russias invasion undermines the foundation of the international order not only in Europe but also in Asia. Now is the time for the international society to unite more than ever, he said. Cassis, who is also foreign minister, said at a separate news conference that Switzerland strongly denounces war and urged Russia to immediately halt its invasion. He said Switzerland, which does not belong to the European Union, fully backs EU sanctions against Russia and implemented a fifth round of measures last week. But that does not mean his country has abandoned its policy of neutrality, he said. Supplies of war material would not be compatible with neutrality. Participation in military alliances would not be compatible with neutrality. Using ones own territory to transport or fly over war material to war would be incompatible with neutrality. On the other hand, condemning any action that strongly violates our values, which are in the constitution, that is compatible with neutrality, he said through a translator. Japan also was quick in joining the United States and European Union in imposing sanctions against Russia because Tokyo fears the impact of its invasion on East Asia, where China has been increasingly pushing its own territorial claims. Japan has frozen the assets of hundreds of Russian individuals and groups and banned new investment and trade, including exports of goods that could be used for military purposes. Japan also announced plans to phase out imports of Russian coal. Cassis told reporters that he understood through his talks with Japanese officials about Japan's harsh security environment. Japan is a neighbor of Russia and also faces the threat of North Koreas missile and nuclear development, tensions with China and disputes over history with South Korea. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KVIV, Ukraine A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. That's one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nation's Olympic team trains was targeted. Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy, he said. ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: 'No surrender: Ukrainians fight on in Mariupol steel plant Russia renews strikes on Ukraine capital, hits other cities Syrian fighters ready to join next phase of Ukraine war Bosnians warn Ukrainians: Its a long journey to justice Mother, grandmother weep over 15-year-old killed in Kharkiv Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: KVIV, Ukraine Russian forces are attacking along a broad front, over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putins forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia, they said. The occupiers attempted to break through our defenses, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities this is Kreminna and another small town. He added: We are not giving up any of our territories. Russia also bombarded the relative safe haven of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles, while its artillery hit an additional 315 targets and its warplanes conducted 108 strikes. The claims could not be independently verified. ___ KVIV, Ukraine Russia has begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on a Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainians are refusing to surrender, the commander of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard said Monday. Denys Prokopenko, whose soldiers have been holding out against Russian forces in the key southern port city, said in a video message that the bombs are dropping even though civilians are sheltering in the plants tunnels. Russian occupational forces, and their proxy ... know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory, he said. Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in. The U.S. said nearly a dozen Russian battalion tactical groups have been tied up trying to defeat them. The head of the citys patrol police, Mikhail Vershinin, told Mariupol television on Sunday that many civilians including children are hiding in the plant, seeking shelter from Russian shelling and forces occupying other parts of the city. Ukraine estimates that 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Russia on social media that refusing to open humanitarian corridors will justify war crimes trials. The Russians, for their part, said neo-Nazi nationalists have hampered evacuations. ___ KVIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has launched its long-feared, full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraines east, Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, he said in a video address. Zelenskyy said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics recognized by Russia. The Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after failing to storm. After withdrawing from the capital, it began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for what could be a climactic battle. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. ___ UNITED NATIONS The United Nations humanitarian chief said it seems the time is not quite ripe yet to establish a cease fire to get humanitarian aid into Ukraine, but he held out hope as the Orthodox Easter holiday approaches this weekend. Maybe there will be some ripeness, Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths said at a news conference on Monday. After traveling to Kviv and Moscow for high-level meetings with Ukrainian and Russian officials this month, Griffiths told The Associated Press he had sensed little trust between the adversaries and was not optimistic. Griffiths called for Russia and Ukraine to return to talks aimed at ending the war and for much, much more willing acceptance, primarily of the Russian federation, to allow convoys in and convoys out. For now, lets get aid to people where they need it, Griffiths said. The U.N. says 12 million people have been uprooted by the war, with about 5 million of them pouring across borders and the rest seeking safety elsewhere in Ukraine. ___ BERLIN Germanys employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. They say a boycott would lead to factory shutdowns and job losses in the blocs largest economy. A rapid gas embargo would lead to loss of production, shutdowns, a further de-industrialization and the long-term loss of work positions in Germany, said Rainer Dulger, chairman of the BDA employers group, and Reiner Hoffmann, chairman of the DGB trade union confederation. Their joint statement Monday to Germanys dpa news agency comes as European leaders discuss possible new energy sanctions against Russian oil, following a decision April 7 to ban Russian coal imports beginning in August. Ukraines leaders say revenues from Russias energy exports are financing Moscows destructive war on Ukraine and must be ended. That wont be easy to do. The EUs 27 nations get around 40% of their natural gas from Russia and around 25% of their oil. ___ Ukraine rejected as baseless and false the accusations made by Serbias president that Ukraines secret service is behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed that the foreign intelligence services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union nation are responsible. The pro-Russian Serbian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials alleged that the threats were being sent from Ukraine or Poland. Ukraines Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nilolenko on Monday called the allegations false. The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline besides Turkish air companies that has not joined EU flight sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. ___ BRUSSELS The European Unions top diplomat condemned Russias indiscriminate and illegal attacks on Ukraine on Monday as the country experienced the most intense missile strikes in weeks. Josep Borrell, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a statement that the EU supports the work of the International Criminal Court and other efforts to ensure accountability for human rights violations. There can be no impunity for war crimes, said Borrell, who called for Russia to immediately cease hostilities and withdraw forces from Ukraine. ___ WASHINGTON The Pentagon says Russia has added artillery, ground combat forces and other capabilities in recent days ahead of a new ground offensive in the Donbas region in Ukraine. A senior U.S. defense official said the number of combat units known as battalion tactical groups in eastern and southern Ukraine has grown to 76 from 65 last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal U.S. military assessments of the war. Its difficult to know at this stage of the war, but that could add up to 50,000 to 60,000 Russian troops, depending on how developed the groups are. The official said that if Russian forces succeed in fully controlling the southern port of Mariupol it could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas region. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with weapons and other materials, part of $800 million in assistance announced last week. The official said training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. Army and Marine Corps 155mm howitzers is set to begin at an undisclosed location outside of Ukraine in the next several days. The U.S. pledged 18 howitzers to bolster Ukrainian forces in the Donbas fight, and these trainees can in turn train more soldiers inside Ukraine. AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. ___ KVIV, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has formally submitted Ukraines answers to a questionnaire from the European Union, the first step in his campaign to obtain accelerated EU membership. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when presenting the questions to Zelenskyy in early April that a preliminary decision on Ukraines candidacy could come in weeks. Ukraines drive to join the bloc has been a provocative issue with Russia for years. The people of Ukraine are united by this goal -- to feel they are an equal part of Europe, Zelenskyy said Monday as he handed two thick binders of Ukrainian responses to Matti Maasikas, the EUs envoy for Ukraine. ___ SARAJEVO, Bosnia Survivors of war crimes committed during Bosnias war 30 years ago say the victims of human rights abuses in Ukraine can learn from their experience, which was lengthy and painful. It took decades to arrest and try the wartime Bosnian Serb leaders, and more than 7,000 people still remain unaccounted-for. But the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia eventually convicted 83 high-ranking political and military officials and transferred a mountain of evidence against lower-ranking suspects to their home countries for prosecution. The guilty were collectively sentenced to over 700 years in prison. Munira Subasic helped create Mothers of Srebrenica to demand that bodies be identified and those responsible brought to justice. To date, almost 90 percent of those reported missing from the fall of Srebrenica have been accounted for. Russias denials of massacres its soldiers are now obviously committing in Ukraine sound to me the same as Srebrenica genocide denial, Subasic said. But if survivors are persistent, the truth will prevail. ___ BEIRUT Kremlin officials boasted early in their war on Ukraine that thousands of experienced fighters from the Middle East would join Russian forces. Military analysts say only a small number appears to have arrived in Russia for training before being deployed to the front lines, but they say that could change as Russia prepares for a full-scale offensive. U.S. officials and activists monitoring Syria say the Russians have been actively recruiting. Rami Abdurrahman leads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He reported that about 40,000 people have registered so far with the Russian military and with Wagner Group, which is a Russian private contractor. Rayan Maarouf of Suwayda24, an activist collective that covers IS activities in the Syrian desert, said fighters were promised no less than $600 a month. Thats a huge sum of money amid widespread unemployment in Syria. Analysts say fighters from Syria are more likely to be deployed in coming weeks, especially after Gen. Alexander Dvornikov was named war commander. Dvornikov is well acquainted with the paramilitary forces Russia trained in Syria. Though some question how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be brought in if more forces are needed to besiege cities or to make up for rising casualties. ___ MOSCOW Russias President Vladimir Putin says that the barrage of Western sanctions against Russia has failed. Putin said Monday that the West expected to quickly upset the financial-economic situation, provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores. He added that the strategy of the economic blitz has failed. The Russian leader spoke in televised remarks during a video call with top economic officials. Putin noted that Russia has withstood the unprecedented pressure, arguing that the ruble has strengthened and the country has recorded a historic high trade surplus of $58 billion in the first quarter of the year. Instead, he contended that the sanctions backfired against the U.S. and its European allies, speeding up inflation and leading to a drop in living standards. Putin acknowledged a sharp hike in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose by 17.5% as of April on a year-to-year basis and directing the government to index wages and other payments to alleviate the impact of inflation on peoples incomes. ___ KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraines deputy prime minister said Russia can be prosecuted for war crimes over its refusal to allow humanitarian corridors for civilians trapped in the city of Mariupol. Earlier on Monday, Iryna Vereshchuk had said no evacuations were possible for the second day in a row because of Russian attacks on civilian convoys. Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all involved for war crimes, she wrote on her Telegram and Facebook channels. Vereshchuk called again on Russia to allow safe evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, especially the Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is laced with tunnels. According to Vereshchuk, the government had been negotiating passage from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other towns, as well as from the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the region were shot to death by Russian forces. The Russians, in their turn, have accused the neo-Nazi nationalists in Mariupol of hampering the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. __ KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines state security service has posted a video of a Ukrainian politician held on a treason charge offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of Mariupols trapped civilians, while two British men who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol appeared on Russian media asking to be part of an exchange. The video of Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was posted Monday. In it, he appeals to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by name to consider the exchange. Medvedchuk was detained last Tuesday in a special operation carried out by Ukraines state security service, or the SBU. The 67-year-old oligarch had escaped from house arrest several days before the hostilities broke out Feb. 24 in Ukraine. He is facing 15 years to life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist organization for mediating coal purchases for the separatist Russia-backed Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine. The British men identified themselves as Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin. In one video, Pinner asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be exchanged. Pinner had deep circles beneath his eyes and appeared exhausted, but said he and Aslin had been treated appropriately. Ukrainian officials have said Kyiv wants try Medvedchuk and ultimately exchange him for Ukrainian prisoners. The circumstances of the videos were unclear. The two videos were released within an hour of each other. ___ ROME Italian officials will go ahead with an energy-deal trip to Africa this week as part of Premier Mario Draghis efforts to quickly reduce the countrys heavy reliance of Russian gas, but he wont be going because he has tested positive for COVID-19. The premiers office, announcing the infection, said on Monday that Draghi has no symptoms. The mission to Angola and Congo, set for Wednesday and Thursday, will instead see the government represented by its ministers of foreign affairs and of ecological transition. Italy buys almost 40% of its gas from Russia. Draghi is determined to drastically reduce that reliance in the next two or three years, in large part by sealing deals with other energy producing countries. Draghi recently traveled to Algeria to make such an agreement as part of the strategy. ___ MADRID -- Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says Spain will reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in a few days. Following similar decisions by several European neighbors, Sanchez said the reopening will show again the commitment of the Spanish government and Spanish people with the Ukrainian people. Spain is with Ukraine and we are against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, Sanchez said in an interview on Spains Antena 3 television. This is a war by Putin against what the European Union stands for. Spain closed the embassy within hours of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. ___ KYIV, Ukraine Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said seven people were killed and another 11, including a child, were wounded by Russian strikes in the western Ukrainian city. Plumes of thick black smoke were seen by Associated Press journalists in Lviv, rising over the city amid multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles strikes. Lviv Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said there were four Russian missile strikes, three of which hit military infrastructure facilities and one struck a tire shop. He said emergency teams were putting out the fires. Oleksandr Kamyshin, the chairman of the Ukrainian rail service, said the strikes hit near railway facilities. He said train traffic has resumed with some delays, and he vowed to restore the damaged network. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine has been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country, and is considered to be a relatively safe haven. ___ MOSCOW The Russian military says it has struck over 20 Ukrainian military targets with missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday that precision-guided air-launched missiles destroyed 16 military facilities, including five command headquarters, a fuel depot, three ammunition depots and concentrations of Ukrainian military vehicles and personnel in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. Konashenkov said the military also fired Iskander land-based missiles to destroy four ammunition depots and three groups of Ukrainian troops near Popasna and Kramatorsk in the east and Yampil in central Ukraine. He said that the military used artillery to hit 315 Ukrainian targets, and Russian warplanes performed 108 strikes targeting Ukrainian troops and military equipment. Konashenkovs claims couldnt be independently verified. ___ LONDON Britains defense ministry says the continuing siege of Mariupol is tying up Russian forces and slowing its advance ahead of a planned major offensive in eastern Ukraine. In a daily intelligence update, Britains military says concerted Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and materiel, slowing Russias advance elsewhere. The Sea of Azov port city has been devastated in weeks of Russian pummeling. Britain says large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed and there are significant civilian casualties. Britain accuses Russia of using tactics of all-out war on civilian areas similar to its attacks in Chechnya and Syria, despite Russian claims at the start of its invasion that Russia would neither strike cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population. ___ LVIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. Torture chambers are built there, Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians, he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine will begin in the near future. Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia targeting its entire banking sector and oil industry. Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies, Zelenskyy said. All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions. Three people have died, including a child, after two separate boating accidents in Connecticut late within the past week, according to public officials. Authorities have not yet released the names of the people who died in the two incidents, which occured at opposite ends of the state Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. The accidents come after the state saw an uptick in the number of fatal boating incidents during the pandemic. In 2020, there were five fatal recreational boating accidents in Connecticut, up from one in 2019 and two in 2018, according to national statistics compiled by the U.S. Coast Guard. Statistics for 2021 and early 2022 were not immediately available, but last year also notably saw two deaths involving personal watercraft the states first since 2012. On Friday afternoon, authorities were called to Wyassup Lake in North Stonington when a vessel capsized, officials said. The lake sits just north of the town of about 5,000 people in eastern Connecticut. Officials said four people were onthe boat when it overturned. They were hospitalized, but a child who had been onboard later died. The second incident was reported around 10:21 a.m. Sunday morning when authorities were notified of a small boat in distress in Long Island Sound off of Shippan Point in Stamford. Stamford fire officials said the operators of a 12-foot boat were unable to return to shore due to the wind and rough seas. The boat was being carried by the tide and wind away from Stamford when the last cell phone call was made to a family member from one of those onboard the small vessel, the fire department said. First responders were hampered in determining the exact location of the boat due to a language barrier and conflicting initial reports of the boat's last known location. Stamford Fire Chief Trevor Roach said it was unclear exactly what kind of boat the men were on because by the time fire personnel arrived, the vessel had sunk. The only thing sticking above the water were their heads, the chief said Monday. Roach said equipment showed the water temperature hovered just above 50 degrees. By the time the boats operators were pulled from the waves, they had hypothermia and were unable to be interviewed about what had happened, he said. Authorities from Stamford, Darien, Greenwich, the U.S. Coast Guard and the states Environmental Conservation Police all responded to the scene. Stamford officials said authorities were able to get the vessels last known location using cell tracking software. When fire and police rescue boats arrived at the scene, they located debris believed to be from the missing vessel, and then spotted the four missing men. Roach said the software, Carbyne, allows 911 operators to send a caller a link, which emergency services can then use to get live video from the persons phone, as well GPS data. The location data is able to pinpoint someone to within about 50 meters, he explained which on the Sound is pretty good. DEEP officials said all four men were wearing life jackets. They were transported to local hospitals. Two of the men recovered from the water were pronounced dead at the hospital, officials said. It was not immediately clear what specifically caused the deaths. Roach said this time of year, the department has to rescue a kayaker or other boater at least once a year. About once every other year, the incidents turn fatal. People have to remember that even though Long Island Sound may look like a pond, its not a pond, Roach said. He added: This time of year is really dangerous out there because people dont understand how cold the water is and how quickly that will take your energy away. Once you get offshore - they were a mile offshore - help takes a long time to get to you. Safe boating In Connecticut, operators of motorized boats in most circumstances are required to posses a Safe Boating Certificate. The license is also required to sail larger sailboats that dont have a motor. Operating a personal watercraft requires an additional license as well. DEEPs website includes the following tips for self-propelled meaning paddled or rowed boats. First, boaters going out on the water should always wear a life jacket, also known as a personal flotation device, or PFD. State law requires life jackets to be worn from the beginning of October through the end of May, and children 12 and under are also required to wear a life jacket. DEEP says if boaters capsize, they should stay with the vessel. In rough water, its a good idea to kneel in the bottom of the boat for stability, rather than sitting up on the seats. Wear proper clothing, including a hat. If you end up in the water, do not remove your clothes. They help you float and protect you against hypothermia, the agency says. Among the major causes of accidents, according to DEEP, are improper loading or overloading of a vessel, disregarding weather or water conditions, failure to lookout, capsizing or falling overboard, and people failing to wear a life jacket. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to Santa Fe campaign disclosure requirements stemming from a failed city ballot initiative in 2017 to tax sugary beverages. The 10th District Court of Appeals in Denver last year rejected the lawsuit from the Albuquerque-based Rio Grande Foundation that sought to shield future financial contributions from public disclosure in defiance of requirements enacted by the city of Santa Fe. That ruling now stands. The failed city ballot initiative would have shored up spending on early childhood education. It was marked by millions of dollars in campaign spending. The Rio Grande Foundation issued an online video that was critical of the soda tax proposal, prompting an investigation into possible violations of the citys campaign finance code. The foundation complied with a city order and disclosed two relatively minor donations of $7,700. Later it sought to invalidate the city regulations, citing a chilling effect on political contributions and, thus, free speech. The appeals court said the Rio Grande Foundation failed to show that speech would be silenced by the citys campaign finance regulations. Foundation President Paul Gessing said Monday that the group will more carefully consider restrictive local campaign finance rules if (and) when we choose to engage in efforts to educate voters on local ballot measures like Santa Fes soda and sugary drinks tax. The citys defense was supported by several advocacy groups for transparency in political spending, including the Brennan Center for Justice, New Mexico Ethics Watch, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause. Special interests often run elections ads that are deliberately misleading, and todays ruling means Santa Fe voters will be able to weigh the credibility of those ads and cast an informed vote, Paul Smith, a vice president at the Campaign Legal Center that served as defense counsel, said in a statement. Week 15 in review: OnePlus 10 Pro on sale in the US, Vivo X Note, X Fold official The OnePlus 10 Pro is now available in the US. It costs $900 for the 8/128GB model and OnePlus offers aggressive trade-in deals. T-Mobile is the official carrier for the OnePlus 10 Pro, but you can get it from third-party retailers like Amazon and T-Mobile. Speaking of OnePlus, it's unveiling a new smartphone next week. The OnePlus Ace will become official in China on April 21. Reports claim it's a rebranded Realme GT Neo3 or a OnePlus 10R. We'll know for sure next Thursday. vivo unveiled the X Note and X Fold smartphones for the Chinese market. Both feature flagship cameras and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. The vivo X Note brings a very big 7.0-inch 1440p 120Hz AMOLED display, 50MP main camera, 8MP 5x periscope, 12MP 2x zoom, and a 48MP ultrawide camera. There's a 5,000mAh battery with 80W charging. The vivo X Fold has a 6.53-inch display on the outside and an 8.03-inch unfolding one on the inside - both 120Hz. It has the same overall camera specs - 50MP, 8MP 5x, 12MP 2x, and 48MP ultrawide, though its main camera has a smaller sensor than the X Note. The X Fold has a smaller 4,600mAh battery too. The base vivo X Note (8/256 GB) starts at CNY 6,000 ($940/865/71,400), while the X Fold is available in Black, Blue, and Grey for CNY 8,999 (1,300/$1,415). No word yet on global availability. Poco's next affordable flagship is the F4 GT and it's launching on April 26. It uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with 12GB of RAM, has a 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED, and a 4,700mAh battery. Those are the highlights of the week. Check out the full list of our popular stories below and see you next one! OnePlus Ace official launch scheduled for April 21 The phone looks a lot like the OnePlus 10R renders. 7" vivo X Note with SD 8 Gen 1 unveiled, SD870-powered vivo Pad follows The vivo X Note has a 21:10 display with 120 Hz refresh rate on the front and a quad camera with ZEISS lenses on the back. vivo X Fold arrives with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, flagship cameras The vivo X Fold is going on sale in China and it's cheaper than a Galaxy Z Fold3. Xiaomi 12 Lite full specs leak This will be the next member of the 12 family. nubia Red Magic 7 Pro in for review The Red Magic 7 Pro has 16GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and a hidden selfie camera. T-Mobile US is bringing back the Unlimited Google Photos storage At full resolution too. This deal will be paired with a Google One subscription. Former Xiaomi India director under investigation for breaching foreign exchange laws Manu Kumar Jain is under scrutiny for fund flows between the parent company and its Indian division. ReefCloud, used to monitor coral reefs around the world, was developed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science in collaboration with Palau International Coral Reef Center; Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji; the International Coral Reef Initiative; University of South Pacific; Queensland University of Technology; Marine Ecology Consulting and Maldives Marine Research Institute and CO2 Consulting. Russian President Vladimir Putin would only pursue the use of nuclear weapons in a situation wherein he sees an "existential threat" to the country or regime, according to a foreign policy expert and ex-Moscow official. Former Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev said in an interview with Fox News that if Russia feels threatened "in their hearts existentially" when NATO forces move into Moscow, that is the moment when Putin will "resort to nuclear weapons." However, Kozyrev claimed that "there is no existential threat to Russia under present conditions." After failing to seize Kyiv after a month-long campaign in northern Ukraine, Russia has shifted its strategy in recent weeks. The Russian military claimed to have completed phase one of its mission and would now focus on securing the Donbas region, which some have dubbed a "consolation" for the "sacrifice." Putin's Latest Threat to NATO Putin recently reaffirmed his nuclear threat after Finland and Sweden's announcements that they may apply for NATO membership in June when the current member nations meet in Madrid. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies warned NATO that if Sweden and Finland become members of the US-led military alliance, Russia will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in the European exclave of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania. According to Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, Russia had deployed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad even before its invasion of Ukraine started. He said that the international community is aware that "nuclear weapons have always been kept in Kaliningrad," and Russia uses it as a threat, as per an Al Jazeera report. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow would bolster its land, air, and naval forces in the Baltic Sea if Sweden and Finland became NATO members. Medvedev, a former Russian president, said that "the balance must be restored," and the Baltic region would no longer be "nuclear-free." The Russian official expressed his hope that Finland and Sweden would be enlightened. They would have to live with nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles close to home if they didn't, he warned. Read Also: Pakistan Attack Death Toll: Afghanistan Suffers at Least 47 Casualties due to Military Air Raids Zelensky Warns Nations To Prepare for Russia's Use of Nuclear Weapons Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that all nations must prepare for Russia's use of nuclear weapons in its attack on Ukraine. He said that there is a chance that Putin will use nuclear or chemical weapons because he does not care about Ukrainian lives. "Chemical weapons, they should do it, they could do it, for them the life of the people, nothing. That's why," Zelensky said. However, the Ukrainian leader emphasized that the world should not be afraid, "be read" instead. "But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think," Zelensky noted. United States authorities have warned that if Putin is pressed against the wall, he may resort to using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. CIA Director Bill Burns said the US had seen no indication that Vladimir Putin is planning to take such action so far but that the agency is keeping a close eye on the possibility. Related Article: Easter Sunday Message: Pope Francis Blasts "Darkness Of War," Urged Faithful To Pray For Ukraine @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, masks will no longer be required outdoors and there are no limits on social gatherings or requirements for social distancing, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero announced in a video released by Adelup on Monday evening. View the governor's video message here: https://bit.ly/3MdB1EO or at COVID-19 Recovery Update: Monday, April 18, 2022 - YouTube. "To those of you who wish to continue the practice of wearing masks outdoors, and observe your own social gathering and social distancing preferences, whether in your businesses or your homes, I encourage you to do so, based on your circumstances and comfort level," the governor said. If Guam's COVID-19 numbers continue to remain low, indoor mask requirements will be lifted on May 3. Between Saturday and Monday, there were 38 new COVID-19 cases reported, not including cases that were previously reported over the weekend, according to the Department of Public Health and Social Services. Eight new cases were from the Department of Defense. There also were 10 people hospitalized on Monday, including one child. Nobody was in intensive care or on a ventilator. Nine of those who were hospitalized were vaccinated, and one was not. The governor said although restrictions are being lifted, the public health emergency remains in effect, and COVID-19 continues to pose a threat to communities around the world. "Because we remain in a public health emergency, our government can also continue delivering critical services and relief to people in need, particularly those in underserved communities," she said. The governor encouraged people to get vaccines and boosters. More than 136,000 Guam residents have received vaccines, more than 57,000 have received their first boosters, and more than 1,300 have received their second boosters. "With the summer and travel season fast approaching, I want to remind our people that even beyond the pandemic, vaccines are a crucial component of saving lives. While 96% of our eligible population has rolled up their sleeves to get fully vaccinated, immunity is waning, especially for our manamko. The CDC, along with our administration and Public Health, urges immunocompromised individuals 12 years and older to get their second booster shot if it has been four months or more since your first booster." Especially as mask requirements are lifted, "I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you take the responsible step of keeping current with your vaccinations and boosters," she said. The Guam Police Department and Guam Crime Stoppers are asking for the communitys help finding a stolen Wanco trailer light tower taken from Morrico Equipment last week. During a morning walkthrough of Morricos Ypao Road facility in Tamuning April 11, a cut was seen in the fence, according to Trina Cruz, marketing and communications director for Atkins Kroll, Morricos parent company. That prompted us to assess surveillance footage and assess inventory, and we did come across surveillance footage that showed a vehicle tampering with the gate at about 5:30 a.m. and then attaching the trailer light cart onto the individuals vehicle and driving off, Cruz explained. The vehicle seen driving off with the trailer light was a dark blue Toyota Highlander, and according to Guam Crime Stoppers, was headed toward Tumon. Since then, Cruz said security measures at Morrico had been significantly enhanced and the missing trailer light has not hurt operations. We are still able to conduct business, Cruz added. Morrico is offering a cash reward of $2,000 for information that will lead to an arrest. If you have information on the burglary, call GPDs dispatch at 671-475-8615/6/7. The first Solar Orbiter images have been publicly shared by both NASA and ESA on May 30, 2020. The High Resolution Imager in the EUV (HRIEUV) telescope captured a high-resolution image from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The appearance of the Sun at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, which would be in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, is depicted in these images. The Sun's upper atmosphere, known as the corona, can be visibly seen in these magnificent images taken at a temperature of approximately one million degrees. The First Solar Orbiter Images As NASA reports, on May 30, 2020, the HRIEUV telescope captured a slew of high-resolution images from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, which was operated by the European Space Agency and NASA. There are a plethora of small flaring loops, bright spots that erupt, and dark, moving fibrils visible in these images. The images of the sun reveal certain "campfires" surrounding it. In capturing the images, the Solar Orbiter was approximately halfway between the Earth and the Sun, putting it closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope had ever been before in its history. This term refers to the prevalent features of the solar surface that have been revealed for the first time by these images and have been given the term "campfires." As solar theories suggest, these are omnipresent miniature eruptions that could have been attributed to the high temperatures of the solar corona as well as the origin of the solar wind. This became a rare opportunity for ESA to be able to observe features in the solar corona that were only about 250 miles across. According to ESA, the high-resolution imager HRILYA telescope, which is a component of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument on the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft, was used to capture these images of the Sun. As stated by the agency, "The images show the solar surface at a particular ultraviolet wavelength that is produced by hydrogen, the most abundant chemical element in the Universe." The wavelength is known as Lyman-alpha and has a wavelength of 121.6 nm. Read Also: Life on Mars? NASA Discovers Abundant Water Source In The Red Planet NASA and ESA's Solar Orbiter Mission The Solar Orbiter mission, which was launched by the European Space Agency on February 10, 2020, made its first close approach to the Sun in mid-June, capturing breathtaking images of our nearest star. The orbiter has six remote-sensing instruments that capture the Sun and its surroundings and are carried aboard the Solar Orbiter. As a bonus, it also has four in-situ instruments that keep an eye on the environment around the spacecraft while it's in space. Daniel Muller, ESA's Solar Orbiter Project Scientist, stated that witnessing the results gathered by the Solar Orbiter mission is just the beginning. "Solar Orbiter has started a grand tour of the inner Solar System, and will get much closer to the Sun within less than two years. Ultimately, it will get as close as 42 million km, which is almost a quarter of the distance from the Sun to Earth," said Muller. The Solar Orbiter is a space mission that is the result of an international collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA. Holly Gilbert, Director of the Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA, stated that these first data are already demonstrating the power of a successful collaboration between space agencies as well as the utility of a diverse set of images in unraveling some of the Sun's mysteries. There were contributions to the science payload and/or the spacecraft from nineteen European Space Agency Member States, as well as from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The satellite was built in the United Kingdom by the prime contractor, Airbus Defence and Space. Related Article: NASA Announces Earendel: The Farthest Star Ever Captured by Hubble Haiti - FLASH : State of epidemiological alert in Haiti due to a highly contagious disease The Ministry of Public Health (MSPP) has activated the "epidemiological alert" system, after detecting a skin infection considered "highly contagious", which is similar to scabies https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36434-haiti-flash-a-form-of-highly-contagious-skin-infection-detected-in-several-areas-of-the-country.html This was reported on Sunday by a source from the Ministry's Epidemiology Department, who clarified that the alert included border health centers. Sunday the Dominican Ministry of Health indicated that it remains vigilant to any situation that could trigger an alert in the country regarding the skin infection reported in Haiti. According to the Ministry, so far the Dominican Republic has not recorded any cases similar to those reported in Haiti explaining that the Ministry had activated the sentinel surveillance plan in the areas most at risk in hospitals and at border crossings to act immediately if any type of situation related to this disease is detected. It clarified that he had not yet received any national notification from the Epidemiological Surveillance System, concerning the suspicious skin disease of unknown origin circulating in Haiti. However, he clarified that information has been received from Dominican consulates in Haiti regarding an increase in cases of skin infections in the Haitian population. For its part, the Dominican Society of Dermatology wanted to be reassuring and asked the population not to be alarmed by this first news, assuring that the Dominican Republic had highly qualified specialists to respond to all skin infections. Preventive measures recommended by the Haitian Ministry of Health : According to the information available. There is no confirmation of the parasite that causes this infection, but the measures for its control are the same as for scabies: 1. Avoid direct contact with an infected person; 2. Boil bedding; 3. Disinfect clothing, sheets, pillows and bath towels; 4. Ventilate spaces 5. Wash with clean water; 6. Above all, avoid scratching your skin despite the urge. Counting on the cooperation of everyone, the Ministry invites the population to be vigilant in order to curb the spread of this infectious disease." See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36434-haiti-flash-a-form-of-highly-contagious-skin-infection-detected-in-several-areas-of-the-country.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Arrest of 2 alleged murderers of police officer Phillin Maurice Sunday, April 17, 2022 early in the morning, agents of the Intervention Brigade of the Police Station of Les Cayes (South Dept.) proceeded to the arrest of Augustin Ergi (23 years old), and Saint-Pierre Ricardo alias "Ti Blade" (30 years old) at Boulevard Quatre Chemins. They are accused of involvement in the assassination of police officer Phillin Maurice on February 25 in Martissant. Bahamas : 67 Haitians intercepted off Anguilla Cay Friday, April 15, 2022, the crew of the cuter Charles Sexton of the United States Coast Guard during 2 separate interceptions, transferred 67 Haitians and 15 Cubans to the authorities of the Bahamas, after the United States Coast Guard (USCG) rescued them near Anguilla Cay (Bahamas). 7th edition of the Fintech Summit The 7th edition of the Fintech Summit will be held on April 29, 2022 around the theme "E-money to accelerate the new economy in Haiti" Did you know ? The Haitian National Pantheon Museum (MUPANAH) houses a sarcophagus where the symbolic remains of the founding fathers are kept, and a rich collection of a thousand works of art, decorative art objects, historical documents and archaeological pieces. Agriculture : Workshop on meteorology A two-day workshop was organized by the Hydro-Meteorological Unit on the interpretation and use of meteorological information for the agricultural sector, food and nutrition security. 500 new teachers About 500 new teachers will join the staff of the Ministry "In total, since 2014, I am pleased to announce the appointment of about 800 graduates of the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS)" declared the Minister of National Education Nesmy Manigat, during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Bernard Reform https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36351-haiti-education-celebration-of-40-years-of-the-bernard-reform.html HL/ HaitiLibre By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/04/17 On April 15th actors Chun Woo-hee and Shin Ha-kyun of "The Anchor" appeared on the SBS Radio program Choi Hwa-jung's Powertime to discuss the movie. The mystery thriller from writer/director Jung Ji-yeon deals with an anchorwoman who receives an ominous phone call threatening to boost her career at the expense of others. Chun Woo-hee plays the anchor, while Shin Ha-kyun plays a mysterious psychiatrist connected to a murder. Advertisement Chun Woo-hee claimed to have been a big fan of Shin Ha-kyun for quite some time, and said she was shaking at the chance to work with him, her impression only improving upon seeing his working manner. Shin Ha-kyun made similarly positive comments about Chun Woo-hee, saying that she was great to work with. Apparently Shin Ha-kyun was cast first, and was curious about who would be cast as the leading lady. He had heard great things about her reputation. Shin Ha-kyun also wondered how approachable Chun Woo-hee would be, and found out that she was quite bright and friendly, despite her at-times serious reputation. Elsewhere, Chun Woo-hee also confirmed suspicions that she had her hair cut for the role. Chun Woo-hee normally has long hair, but felt that anchorwomen typically have short hair. Since filming "The Anchor" Chun Woo-hee has since grown her hair out again. Chun Woo-hee said she was a fan of the mystery thriller genre. She also describes the process of acting as fun, noting that others have observed this about her ever since she appeared in "Sunny - 2010" in a supporting role. Chun Woo-hee described the challenge of being an actress as fun to her. On that note, "The Anchor" had relatively little prep time. For a filming period of six months, Chun Woo-hee only had about twenty days of pre-production. Chun Woo-hee said that she worked hard with a real announcer during that time to get her pronunciation and manner correct for the role. To close, Chun Woo-hee descibred "The Anchor" as a good popcorn movie while Shin Ha-kyun hoped that people would come out to see it. "The Anchor" will be released in South Korean theaters on April 20th. Written by William Schwartz ___________ "The Anchor" is directed by Jung Ji-yeon, and features Chun Woo-hee, Shin Ha-kyun, Lee Hye-young-I, Kim Hyung-suk-I, Eun Sol, Park Se-hoon. Release date in Korea: 2022/04/20. By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/04/17 The mathematics-based cram school corporation Seven Edu recently released the results of an online poll of various students. Between March 17th and April 11th, Sevenedu asked 9082 students which celebrity they think would be best able to comfort them on Black Day. Kim Seon-ho was the resounding victor of the poll, with 8841 students, 97% of all respondents, choosing him as their preferred companion for the day. Advertisement Black Day is a companion holiday to Valentine's Day and White Day in South Korea. People who did not receive chocolates on either of those days eat black noodles, or Jajangmyeon, by themselves. Kim Seon-ho had also previously won a Seven Edu poll regarding Valentine's Day chocolates, albeit by a much closer margin. Kim Seon-ho has not appeared in any projects since a scandal last year where he was accused of bullying an ex-girlfriend into having an abortion. Kim Seon-ho acknowledged the legitimacy of the accusation and apologized for it. The ex-girlfriend also accepted his apology. His last project was "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" which was popular enough to make the accusation a major issue. Kim Seon-ho is currently expected to make his return with the film "Sad Tropics" by director Park Hoon-jung. Written by William Schwartz Time to upgrade! Microsoft advised customers to switch to a newer version to reduce their exposure to security risks as its Office 2013 version is approaching its end support by April 2023. End support means that users will no longer receive Office 2013 software updates from Microsoft Update or receive phone or chat technical support. There will be no further updates to support content and most online help content will be retired. Also, users will no longer be able to download Office 2013 from the Microsoft website. The tech company will stop providing several services to Office 2013 license owners, including technical support, bug fixes, and security patches for new issues once the end of support is reached. What Will Happen to Microsoft 2013 After April 2023? After April 2023, all of the Office 2013 apps will continue to function. However, users could expose themselves to serious and potentially harmful security risks. In a statement, Microsoft told customers that after five years of "mainstream support," and an extra five years of "extended support," Office 2013 will never have neither kind of support come 2023. Per the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, security updates for Office 2013 will no longer be available at that time. "After Office 2013 reaches the end of support, Microsoft won't provide any new security updates, and the continued use of Office 2013 after April 2023 may increase your organization's exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations," Microsoft said. Another issue is customers connecting Microsoft 365 with an Office 2013 client might experience performance or reliability issues because Office 2013 is no longer a supported client since October 2020. Read Also: Microsoft Woke Feature Launching For Appropriation, Inclusivity of Word Choices Like Whitewash, Blacklist and More! Microsoft 2013 Users' Options for Upgrade Microsoft recommended to users to upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps, the subscription version of Office that comes with many Microsoft 365 and Office LTSC 2021. Microsoft said that clients can upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps, which are designed to receive regular updates, and will help users stay current by getting security updates and Microsoft's latest features. The Microsoft 365 Apps come with many Microsoft 365 and Office 365 enterprise and business plans. Users can install full versions of Office apps on multiple devices. According to Microsoft, alternatively, if an organization requires a static, unchanging product, consider moving to Office LTSC 2021. Office LTSC 2021 is sold via a volume license agreement as a one-time purchase. It can only be installed on one computer per license. Microsoft 365 Apps are updated regularly with new features while Office LTSC 2021 has the same features it came with on its launch date, in September 2021. Users should prepare an upgrade plan after exploring their options and deciding to switch to a newer version on compatible devices such as system requirements for 365 Apps and LTSC 2021. "Because Microsoft 365 Apps comes with many enterprise Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) plans, you should review the capabilities of your current plan as part of planning an upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps," Microsoft explains. Microsoft 365 can be downloaded for free by students and educators at eligible institutions. This included Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and now Microsoft Teams, plus additional classroom tools. Users just have to use their valid school email address. Related Article: Microsoft Finally Responds To Outcry, Allows Office 2013 To Transfer Computers SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council is redeploying staff to ensure Ukrainian refugees moving to the district get the support and help they need. It has started to call the households that have applied to be hosts under the Governments Homes for Ukraine scheme. Council officers will make home visits to help hosts prepare for the arrival of the families that have fled the war in Ukraine. This is part of a county-wide system that will provide wraparound care for the refugees, such as offering help with healthcare needs, mental health counselling, schooling and finding work. The council is working closely with the health sector, other local councils, the Government and the voluntary sector. It has also set up a special helpline for hosts and their guests to call for help or advice in the coming weeks and months. The number is 01235 422600 or email communitysupport@southandvale.gov.uk Council leader David Rouane said: We continue to stand with our communities and offer our support to those fleeing a terrible war and a humanitarian crisis. Our residents and businesses have been so generous in coming forward to support our Ukrainian guests. We echo that and are dedicating specialist resources to ensure our guests immediate needs are met. The council is working in partnership with neighbouring Vale of White Horse District Council. FOR Queen Annes School in Caversham, residential trips are well and truly back, with students heading off in the UK and further afield this past term. In early January, the schools A-level art students travelled to St Ives in Cornwall. Across three days the students worked with local artists, visited galleries and took advantage of the picturesque surroundings by creating experimental works whilst visiting the beaches and exploring the towns cobbled streets. The schools first trip abroad since before the pandemic, meant there was great excitement for the French trip to Paris. Visiting famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe was high on everyones list along with perfecting their French as they soaked up the citys culture. As the school prepared for the Easter break, the music and art trip to New York and ski trip to Austria were underway. Visiting New Yorks galleries gave the art students great inspiration for their works and the choir had the opportunity to perform in St Patricks Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, an experience they certainly wont forget. Meanwhile, the students on the ski trip were enjoying the fantastic snow conditions of the Austrian alps. For more information about Queen Annes School visit www.qas.org.uk The New Year's letter from Square Enix president, Yosuke Matsuda, expressing his enthusiasm towards a future involving NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and blockchain games, received scrutiny from gamers worldwide. The letter from Matsuda has caused an outcry over the controversial nature of NFTs which brought the gaming community into debates of whether it's good for the future of the industry or not. However, despite the backlash that Square Enix received, Matsuda remains hopeful about his NFT and blockchain technology prospects. Gamers Unhappy With Matsuda's Move Square Enix faced a lot of backlash when Matsuda published his New Year's letter expressing his plans to explore NFTs and blockchains. Gamers were disappointed with Matsuda's decision as most gaming fans have supported companies who have chosen to stay away from NFTs and blockchain. Matsuda's "play-to-earn" concept was also criticized by gamers. Points of his letter which talk about blockchain technology being the torch-bearer of self-sustaining game growth received disapproval. Game developers and publishers have already expressed their skepticism with regard to such technology. Companies like Valve and its subsidiary, Steam, have already banned them on the popular store. Gamers are unhappy that Square Enix is planning to tap into the market in 2022, a move that they deemed to be quite too quickly. This happens while many of their games suffer from a lack of resources. There are still advantages and disadvantages in incorporating blockchain technology. While it may revitalize user-generated content by incentivizing them, many believe it will also cause much trouble between developers, independent creators and consumers. Read Also: Sony's State of Play: Square Enix Showcases Multiple New Games - Is 'Final Fantasy XVI' One of Them? Matsuda Remains Hopeful With His Prospects In a report of PCGamer, Matsuda has reiterated his previous hopeful tone about blockchain and NFTs. "If, instead of relying on goodwill, we can also provide incentives to those who contribute to development by utilizing technologies such as blockchain, there is a possibility that innovative and interesting content can be created from the ideas of users," he said in an interview with Yahoo Japan. In his New Year's letter, Matsuda expressed that he believes that cloud gaming, AI, and blockchain games will be major areas of growth for the industry in 2022. He said that blockchains are built upon the premise of a token economy and therefore hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth. In Matsuda's view, NFTs will incentivize contributions and inspire more user-generated content in games. "I believe that this will lead to more people devoting themselves to such efforts and to greater possibilities of games growing in exciting ways. From having fun to earning to contributing, a wide variety of motivations will inspire people to engage with games and connect with one another. It is blockchain-based tokens that will enable this." Matsuda said. He also shared that by designing viable token economies into their games, they will enable self-sustaining game growth. "It is precisely this sort of ecosystem that lies at the heart of what I refer to as 'decentralized gaming,' and I hope that this becomes a major trend in gaming going forward," he added. Matsuda further said that as a "major strategic theme for us starting in 2022," the Square Enix portfolio of games will consist of both "centralized" and "de-centralized" games. Related Article: Square Enix Loves NFT, NFT Games, and Metaverse; But Fans Hate It After having three failed fueling attempts, the Artemis 1 team canceled the initial date for the fourth fueling attempt to return the moon rocket to NASA's Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to replace the damaged valve and fix the leaky umbilical. Prelude to Artemis 1 Setback NASA said in a media advisory on Sunday, April 17, that the agency will hold a media teleconference on Monday at 3 p.m. EDT to discuss the status of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The Orion spacecraft's next wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the Artemis I lunar mission will also be on the agenda. Three important officials will participate in the teleconference that will be streamed live on the agency's website: (1) Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, (2) Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director at NASA Exploration Ground Systems program in Kennedy, and (3) Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA Headquarters, As previously reported, "NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft were just officially positioned last month at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This means that NASA Artemis is getting closer to starting the lunar mission." Artemis is divided into three missions: Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis III. NASA is currently in the early stages of Artemis I. Before the agency announces the launch date, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will be tested for launch preparations, a process known as the "wet dress rehearsal." First Failed Fueling Attempt of Artemis 1 According to Space.com, the wet dress rehearsal began on April 1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The loading of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants into the SLS, as well as the execution of many simulated launch countdowns, were scheduled to tie things up in around 48 hours. However, Artemis 1 crew members ran into many issues that caused those steps to be delayed, and they were forced to stand down to make room for the private Ax-1 astronaut mission, which launched on April 8 from KSC's Pad 39A aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Read More: NASA's Artemis 1 Moon Mission: Rollout of New Rocket To Launch Pad Delayed Until March Second Failed Fueling Attempt of Artemis 1 The second wet dress rehearsal of Artemis 1 was held on April 12 but in a modified format this time. After detecting a defective valve on the mobile launch lower supporting the Artemis 1 stack, the team chose to fuel only the SLS core stage, not its upper stage. Third Failed Fueling Attempt of Artemis 1 On April 14, technicians started fueling the core stage as scheduled, but they had to stop after discovering liquid hydrogen leaking from one of the "umbilical" cables connecting the mobile launch tower to the SLS. The Artemis 1 Team Canceled the Planned Fourth Wet Dress Rehearsal The Artemis 1 team initially intended to launch another tanking attempt as soon as Thursday, April 21, but they just opted to return the Artemis 1 stack to KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building to replace the damaged valve and fix the leaky umbilical. NASA hopes to launch the mission this summer but won't announce an official launch date until the wet dress is completed and the data has been examined. During the teleconference on April 18, the agency will provide additional information about the status of the Artemis I Moon Mission. Related Article: NASA To Hold Press Conference After Third Failed Attempt at Fueling Artemis 1 Spontaneous response for Hindu Rashtra Convention organized by HJS at Sonipat (Haryana) HJS for unification of Hindus and establishment of Hindu Rashtra Sonipat (Haryana) : Hindus are being converted systematically. Guru Gobind Singhs children and the ten Sikh Gurus sacrificed their lives for protection of the nation and Dharma, but they refused to convert to jihadi religion. We should remember this history and unite as Hindus by discarding all limitations created by castes and creed as it is the need of the hour, stated Sadguru Maharshi Om while addressing the Hindu Rashtra Convention organized by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on 3rd of April 2022 here. The Convention was graced by Sadguru Dr. Charudatta Pingale, the national Guide of HJS with his presence. A good response was received from devout Hindu activists to this Convention. They resolved to work with unity for the establishment of Hindu Nation. Some dignitaries attending the Convention Shriram Senas Suresh Chawla, VHPs advocate Mohan Kaushik and advocate Santaram Singh; Gou-rakshak and Navadurga Temples trustee Shyam Sundarji, Narendra Surve of HJS, Pandit Shyamsundar Sharma, Shri Ramkanwar Malik, and Devendra Singh from Panipat. The thoughts of devout Hindu activists are keeping the fire of sacred fire of Hindu Rashtra Convention, burning !- Sadguru Dr. Charudatta Pingale, national Guide, HJS Hindu Rashtra Convention is a sacred fire which has been kept burning by the thoughts of devout Hindu activists. Today, selfish and egoist political leaders come together for gaining power, then, if Hindus working selflessly for protection of Hindutva come together, we can definitely establish the Hindu Nation. Presently, there is false propaganda about Hindu and Hindutva being two different things to brand Hindus as terrorists. Brief introduction of Sadguru Maharshi Om Sadguru Maharshi Om is originally from Gannaur (Haryana) and presently staying in Florida in the USA where he propagates Sanatan Dharma. Wake up and stop destruction of Hindus in Sonipat ! advocate Mohan Kaushik, VHP Today, the condition of Hindus in Mewat, Haryana is similar to that of their brethren in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kashmir. Out of 534 villages of Mewat, there is no Hindu left in 200 villages. A similar condition is being created even at Sonipat. We have to wake up to stop such elimination of Hindus. Hindus have to be awakened ! Ramkanwar Malik Today, the condition of our country and Sanatan Dharma has become lifeless. There is a lot of indifference amongst Hindus. They need to be awakened and united. Everyone should go to a temple at least once a week ! Devendra Singh, Pathari, Panipat Temples are of utmost importance in Sanatan Dharma; therefore, Hindus should go to a temple near their house, at least once a week and offer service by cleaning etc. Performing havan at temples on the day of Poornima once a month will purify the atmosphere. Allowing religious fanatics to remain in India after the partition was a grave mistake ! Shyamsundarji, Gou-rakshak and Trustee of Navadurga Mandir India was divided on the basis of religion and the religious fanatics, who had demanded division, were allowed to remain in India; therefore, various problems are faced by this country today. Hanuman Mandir could be saved due to unity amongst Hindus ! advocate Santaram, VHP The Highway Authority had planned to demolish Hanuman Mandir while constructing a bridge in Sonipat. We tried hard, but they refused to listen. The temple could, however, be saved due to the ceaseless efforts of all activists and the unity of Hindus. Hindu traders should boycott all halal-certified products ! Narendra Surve, HJS Halal certificate is being sold on a large scale in India. The money collected from it is used by Jamiat Ulama- i- Hind Halal Trust for extending help to terrorists, which is very dangerous for Hindus. Hindu businessmen should, therefore, boycott all halal-certified products. Actor Park Hae-soo / Courtesy of Netflix 'Squid Game' actor reflects on busy year of acting By Kwak Yeon-soo Park Hae-soo cannot remember a busier period of acting in his 15-year career. In the span of just one year, he went from being a bit of a late bloomer to a global sensation all thanks to the success of "Squid Game," which took the world by storm and became the most-watched show on Netflix. After making his debut through the musical, "Mister Lobby," in 2007, Park experienced a wave of success following his breakout role in tvN's "Prison Playbook" (2017). He even earned the nickname, "Netflix employee" after appearing in four Netflix series and movies: "Persona," "Time to Hunt," "Squid Game" and the latest, "Yaksha: Ruthless Operations." The 40-year-old has attended several awards ceremonies, such as the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, to see his colleagues bring home trophies and meet some of Hollywood's biggest stars. "It's extraordinary. I am thankful for the opportunity to present original Korean content to audiences globally," he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Park talked about the global boom of Korean cultural content, adding how TV series and films can induce change in people's preferences. "I think international audiences are impressed by the original plots and screenplays of Korean cultural content. They also respond to how stories depict the reality of human condition. In the past, major Hollywood studios would say they are looking for Asian actors. But now, they specifically want Korean actors," he said. Actor Park Hae-soo in a scene from the film, "Yaksha: Ruthless Operations" / Courtesy of Netflix Chinese enterprises hold Job Fair 2022 in South Africa 17:01, April 18, 2022 By Chang Liu ( People's Daily Online Chinese Ambassador Chen Xiaodong address the job fair. (People's Daily Online/Chang Liu) JOHANNESBURG, April 17 (Peoples Daily Online) -- Chinese enterprises in South Africa recently held Job Fair 2022, which aims to offer job opportunities to local residents in Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa, attracting over 1,000 job seekers to the event on April 14, 2022. In his speech, Chinese Ambassador Chen Xiaodong said that the Job Fair is a concrete initiative and effort to implement the consensus reached between Chinese and South African presidents. For instance, this event has set its aims on achieving win-win results. It not only creates jobs for South Africans, but also provides an opportunity for Chinese enterprises to hire local talents and pursue localized development. Chinese-invested enterprises have pledged to provide 20,000 jobs directly to South Africans in the next three years in support of the African countrys socioeconomic development, writing wonderful chapters in China-South African win-win cooperation and common development. According to Chen, by the end of 2021, China's investment in South Africa totaled over 25 billion US dollars, which has created over 400,000 local jobs. Thulas Nxesi, South African Presidents Special Representative and Minister of Employment and Labor thanked the Chinese side for making this event happen. He hailed the job fair as a new milestone for China-South Africa friendship as it brought hope in helping to reverse the low level of economic growth and high unemployment rate in South Africa. He expressed his wishes that Chinese enterprises might pursue stronger cooperation with their South African counterparts in order to create much-needed job opportunities and help eliminate unemployment and poverty. Alvin Botes, Deputy Minister of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), said that the job fair demonstrates Chinas efforts to support South Africas objectives in eradicating the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, and provides evidence of the depth of the two sides comprehensive strategic partnership. The friendship between China and South Africa has gone beyond political and diplomatic engagements, and has yielded fruitful "win-win" outcomes in economic and social cooperation, which has delivered benefits to the two peoples. Chen Longjian, Executive Vice President of the South Africa-China Economy and Trade Association, said that Chinese enterprises have invested in a wide range of industries in South Africa. The job fair is also characterized by diverse positions with highly technological content that involves highly specialized fields, laying a solid foundation for South Africa to cultivate and build up its reserve of all kinds of talents. The Association is committed to making the job fair a well-known long-term event that can continue to provide more jobs for South African job seekers as well as boosting the local economy. Representatives of employees working at COSCO shipping company and candidates applying for jobs at the fair were also given a voice on the podium. They spoke about their personal experiences and thanked China for helping South Africa fight against the pandemic and strive for its post-COVID economic recovery. They praised Chinese enterprises outstanding achievements in localization, which has been deeply felt by many families in South Africa. Moreover, they were charmed by Chinese culture and were able to develop a global vision while working at Chinese companies. Ambassador Chen and the two ministers witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between the South Africa-China Economy and Trade Association and the Training Department of South Africa Higher Education Department, as well as visiting the booths of different companies and witnessing the signing of job contracts between Chinese enterprises and South African youths. Nearly 1,300 participants, including government officials, representatives from the South Africa-China Economy and Trade Association, representatives of Chinese enterprises, students from local universities and vocational colleges, job applicants, as well as Chinese and foreign journalists attended the fair. The job fair was streamed live via YouTube and other social media platforms, attracting nearly 50,000 views. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) "Bohwasubo: The Restoration and Conservation of the Kansong Collection" is a new exhibition that kicked off Saturday at the Kansong Art Museum's historic "Bohwagak" venue in Seongbuk District, northeastern Seoul, after a seven-year hiatus. Yonhap By Park Han-sol The Kansong Art Museum, known as the oldest private institution in Korea that boasts a historic collection of over 16,000 cultural artifacts, finally reopened its "Bohwagak" venue in Seongbuk District, northeastern Seoul, on Saturday after a seven-year hiatus. Founded in 1938 by Chun Hyung-pil (1906-62), an affluent philanthropist who went by the penname Kansong and dedicated his fortune to collecting and preserving the country's rare treasures during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial era, the museum has held biannual exhibitions since 1971, free of charge. It was 2014 when its aging venue became dormant, with all of the subsequent shows for the next five years being held temporarily at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in central Seoul instead. The latest exhibition, titled "Bohwasubo: The Restoration and Conservation of the Kansong Collection," marks the beginning of the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation's efforts to increase transparency and start its operation anew, according to Chun In-keon, museum director and grandson of Chun Hyung-pil. This pledge came after the institution was embroiled in a recent series of controversies involving some rare relics in its collection. Notably, the foundation made headlines in 2020 and again earlier this year after putting a total of four state-designated Buddhist treasures and national treasures up for auction for the first time in the nation's history. The foundation cited its chronic financial woes that have been worsened by the payment of inheritance taxes for thousands of non-state-designated artifacts as well as the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for its decision to bring the priceless Buddhist sculptures under the hammer. Chun In-keon, director of the Kansong Art Museum and grandson of its founder Chun Hyung-pil / Yonhap "It was truly a heart-wrenching decision to make like cutting off my own arm," Chun said, with his voice quivering momentarily, during Friday's press conference. He added that unlike other established private art museums, Kansong Art Museum is not backed financially by a parent company and does not have a fixed income source. Following a string of unprecedented efforts made to manage its escalating debt turning the Hangeul handbook of "Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon" into limited-edition non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as well as selling off two Buddhist treasures in 2020 to the National Museum of Korea and one national treasure last month to a cryptocurrency-based entity named The Heritage DAO the museum is ready to start a new chapter with more stabilized, sustainable operations in place. "The museum can say for certain that it will never put any of the items in its collection, whether they be state-designated treasures or not, up for auction in the future," Chun stated firmly. The only surviving first edition of "Maeheonjip" (1452), a collection of prose and poems composed by early Joseon-era scholar Kwon Wu / Courtesy of Kansong Art Museum Meanwhile, the "Bohwasubo" exhibition has been organized not to call attention to a particular artist or genre, but to turn the spotlight on the artifacts that have undergone a careful restoration process over the last two years after being subject to damage due to Kansong's outdated resources and facilities, according to research director Baek In-san. Thirty-two works on view, chosen carefully from some 150 items that have been restored since 2020 with funding from the Cultural Heritage Administration, along with the museum's newly built storage space and conservation laboratory, reflect the foundation's shifting focus to the artifact preservation process. Unveiled to the public for the first time will be the only surviving first edition of "Maeheonjip," a collection of prose and poems composed by early Joseon-era scholar Kwon Wu (1363-1419), who was also the teacher of King Sejong when he was a young prince. Shin Saimdang's "Grapes," one of 30 paintings included in "Haedong Myeonghwajip" compiled by Kim Kwang-guk during the late Joseon Kingdom / Courtesy of Kansong Art Museum "Haedong Myeonghwajip" consists of iconic paintings by the likes of Shin Saimdang (1504-51), Jeong Seon (1676-1759) and Sim Sa-jeong (1707-69), which had been compiled by collector Kim Kwang-guk (1727-97) during the late Joseon Kingdom. "Although they are not national treasures, they still make up a group of invaluable artifacts that have unfortunately remained in a blind spot for long in terms of conservation," Baek said. "Bohwasubo" runs through June 5 at the Kansong Art Museum. The exhibition will then be followed by an extensive renovation of the aged Bohwagak building, which was listed as the country's Registered Cultural Heritage in 2019. As the revamp is scheduled to take up to two years, the ongoing show marks the last chance to view the venue in its original shape and form. Seen above is a commercial bank's sales office in Seoul on Nov. 23, 2021. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung With the government lifting its years-long social distancing rules on Monday, financial firms are expected to take phased steps to normalize their work-from-home systems. Banks and most financial companies in areas such as securities and insurance have been relying on remote work systems ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020. But after the country decided to ease almost all social distancing restrictions except for mask mandates most financial companies are holding internal talks on how and when to normalize their own rules. According to the industry, banks here are discussing details on the agenda with relevant organizations such as the Korean Financial Industry Union and the Korea Federation of Banks. Most commercial banks are widely expected to put a gradual end to their pandemic-era remote work systems in line with the government's latest decision but details are subject to change, as mask mandates remain in place, according to industry officials. "Workers at banks and most financial institutions will have to go back to their offices in line with the lifting of the social distancing rules," an official from a major commercial bank said. Shinhan Bank said Monday it would update quarantine rules on April 25 by resuming normal operations of its sales offices without any entry restrictions. But the lender decided to maintain its current workforce management policy by making 30 percent of its employees work from home. Other lenders are also expected to take phased steps to normalize the operation of their sales offices and put a gradual end to the pandemic-era measures. Starting from late 2020, commercial banks here started reducing operating hours of their sales offices by one hour amid then-reviving fears of infection here. It remains unclear when they will extend the operation hours, as it requires discussion with the aforementioned organizations, which the industry expects will take at least a couple of months. Officials from the securities industry also said they are reducing the proportion of employees working from home. "Securities companies are moving to minimize the number of officials telecommuting," an industry source said. "But no immediate policy change has been made as of now, as it has been only less than a day since the lifting of the social distancing rules." But the official hinted at the likelihood that most securities companies will soon normalize their operations unless infection cases skyrocket in the next few weeks, as more countries are adopting so-called "living with COVID-19" policies. "For the past two years, the social distancing rules have been eased and reinforced from time to time in line with the number of infected cases," the official said. "Most companies are keeping a wait-and-see attitude this time again, leaving open the possibility of resuming social distancing once again, even if chances appear slim for the scenario to become a reality this time." Lonavala, popularly known as the city of caves or the jewel of Sahyadri is a small town located more than 2,000 feet above sea level in the Sahyadri range in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is one of the most visited hill stations in the country due to its tropical climate and pleasant weather all year round, as well as its strategic location 60-80 kilometers from key metropolitan cities in the state such as Mumbai and Pune. Moreover, the town is surrounded by dense forests, magnificent waterfalls, tranquil lakes, green valleys boasting spectacular views, caves, and forts, which have made Lonavala a sought-after destination for camping, trekking, sight-seeing, bird watching, and adventure sports. Even before the pandemic, Lonavala has always been a popular destination for weekend getaways, given its proximity and excellent connectivity by road and rail to Pune and Mumbai. The town is situated at a convenient drive-able distance of a little over an hour from Pune and about 90 minutes from Mumbai, and the travel time between the cities is expected to reduce by 25 minutes once the MSRDCs Missing Link project, an under-construction eight-lane access-controlled highway, is completed by February 2023. Its no wonder then that the destinations appeal increased manifold post the pandemic. As Indians discovered the joys of road trips to escape their 'COVID blues', Lonavala saw a surge of visitors once restrictions were eased after the first and second waves of the pandemic. While cities such as Mumbai and Pune suffered due to the restrictions on travel, the hospitality industry in Lonavala thrived, owing to the towns strategic location, and the growing popularity of the work-from-home concept, as well as staycations, working to its advantage. Lonavala, thus, became one of the most booked destinations in the country during the monsoon of 2021. Lonavala with its scenic beauty and picturesque views also attracted those wishing for a destination wedding, thus resulting in a colossal surge in social MICE demand once restrictions were eased. Although smaller in size, hotels in Lonavala hosted almost as many wedding events as they did before the pandemic and were mostly sold out during auspicious dates throughout the year. The growing demand and high occupancy have helped hotels drive higher average rates in the last two years, with the market average rate observing an approximate 20% jump over pre-pandemic rates in FY2022, which is also 20%-25% higher than metropolitan markets such as Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru. Going forward, corporate MICE demand is also expected to recover as corporates return to the work-from-office or a hybrid work model. From homestays and villas to hotels and resorts, Lonavala has something for everyone, offering accommodation across all price points. The towns popularity has also encouraged a vast majority of people to build their second homes. Therefore, those on a budget as well as people looking for a more luxurious getaway have a variety of options to choose from. Hotels in Lonavala also offer varied product offerings, from expansive resorts with villas, to tent-like rooms creating a camping experience, treehouses with views, etc., emphasizing their focus on experiential tourism. Lonavalas terrain is also well suited for adventure activities and hotels have curated an array of activities to attract adventure and wellness enthusiasts. Maharashtras new Adventure Tourism Policy and infrastructure development are expected to promote Lonavala as an adventure destination going forward. Traditionally, independently operated hotels have dominated the Lonavala hospitality market, accounting for almost 75% of the total quality hotel supply of 2,060 keys as of December 2021. Realizing the latent potential in the market, several hotel brands such as the Hilton and the Fern have entered the market in the last few years. The Radisson Resort and Spa Lonavala too opened its doors in July 2021. Moreover, an additional branded supply of almost 250 keys is in pipeline in Lonavala over the next couple of years. So far, independently operated hotels have been able to retain their dominance creating significant competition to the branded supply, owing to their long-term presence in the market, established goodwill over the years, and flexibility in accommodating guest requirements. As the Lonavala hotel market continues to grow with the support from the governments tourism policies, infrastructure initiatives, booming demand, and the addition of quality supply, the market dynamics are expected to shift. View source This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Seagulls loomed overhead like vultures as crews aboard the Isabella, a massive Greece-owned cargo ship, began untethering it from the dock of Cheniere Energys facilities in Port Arthur. One by one, they dove beak-first into the white water that bubbled from underneath the ship as its rudders began to turn, churning up a buffet of shellfish fresh for the taking. As the Greek ship began its journey out of the Sabine-Naches Waterway, Chenieres crews piped another 173,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas into another cargo ship, Flex Endeavour. Soon, it would finish loading and begin its 12-day journey to Europe, where supplies of gas are desperately low. Sabine Pass was already bustling when Russia invaded Ukraine, jeopardizing relationships between European countries and Russia, which had been their primary supplier of natural gas. Now, roughly 75 percent of its cargoes are bound for Europe, the Houston-based company said, up from 38 percent a year ago. On Houstonchronicle.com: Europe's tensions with Russia could be a boon for Gulf Coast gas Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The regions liquefied natural gas industry is playing a leading role in meeting Europes energy needs vindication for a segment of the industry working to justify expensive liquefied natural gas projects. Last month, the Biden administration issued two emergency orders allowing Cheniere to export an additional 0.72 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas as the administration scrambles to help Europe find alternative sources of gas. Cheniere is the largest LNG exporter in the U.S. and its Sabine Pass facility is the worlds second-largest LNG hub. Still, the market is calling for more LNG than Cheniere and its peers can provide, Cheniere CEO Jack Fusco said last month, saying his companys LNG production is maxed out. At the Chenieres Beach Highway facility, Anatol Feygin, the companys chief commercial officer, pointed to 500 acres on the other side of Lighthouse Road. That is penciled in as an expansion opportunity, he said. Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer On HoustonChronicle.com: How Shells new Gulf platform will make money at almost any oil price While Europe is interested in LNG now, in the short term, Feygin said his company believes Asia will be the main driver of the kind of long-term growth needed to justify a potential expansion at Sabine Pass. But there are fish in the European sea as well, he said. Across the waterway, Exxon and Qatar Petroleum are making headway on Golden Pass, a project that could, if finished, make and export 18.1 million metric tons of LNG per year. A spokesman for that project said the first production is scheduled to come online in 2024. amanda.drane@chron.com amanda.drane@twitter.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Houstons vast fossil fuel sector gets most of the focus when it comes to conversations on combating climate change, but another sector probably deserves more scrutiny - real estate. Decades of urban sprawl and lack of zoning invited Houstonians to spread out and build new. Billboards advertise neighborhoods with mini-mansions and room to run. Homebuilders race to build new houses to meet soaring demand for a slice of the American Dream. Commercial tenants flock to newly-built spaces pushing developers to continue the carbon-intensive work of new construction. But newer isnt always better. And even though everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas bigger isnt always better either. While real estate is making strides in sustainability, its not time for the industry to pat itself on the back. At least thats my impression after perusing a landmark report from the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summarizing research from hundreds of scientists about the how the world can curb greenhouse gas emissions. The report, released this month, has three major takeaways for real estate: People need to consume less space. The planet cannot provide an infinite supply of McMansions; New building construction is extremely carbon intensive and should be avoided when possible by re-purposing existing buildings; and Stricter building codes can force developers to make more energy efficient choices during new construction. Buildings account for 31 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally, so there is a big opportunity for the real estate industry to help. A lot can be done without adding significant costs to construction, argues Jesse Keenan, an editor of the U.N. report and real estate professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. We have the tools that we need, Keenan said. We don't need massive advances in technology to decarbonize the built environment. On HoustonChronicle.com: Why electrification may not be a simple solution to cut carbon emissions The report advocates for re-configuring unused commercial buildings for residential use to accommodate growing housing needs. For new construction, small details from how a window is sealed to the color of the roofing material can augment larger investments such as efficient air conditioning systems and appliances, the report suggests. But possibly the most effective tool is to take up less space. Not only do larger spaces require more energy for heating and cooling, but they use more construction materials, which generate their own emissions. North Americans consume just under 700 square feet per person in residential space, about double whats consumed in Europe, according to the report. Energy efficiency gains from design changes and technological advances are essentially offset by buildings taking up more space. That means we have to change our consumer preferences, Keenan said. You could have a super energy efficient mega mansion in Houston or the suburbs, but its still a mansion. You're still over-consuming space. Globally, between 1990 to 2019, carbon emissions from buildings jumped 50 percent, according to the report, despite advances in energy efficiency. More than half of the increased emissions from residential buildings can be blamed on people consuming more space, the report suggests. Keenen said stricter building codes would force the real estate industry to change faster but building codes are a notoriously politicized topic, particularly for a city famous for its light touch regulation. Building codes are getting more stringent, but Houston lags behind cities such as Austin, which often trails behind California, said Maria Perez, sustainable design director for the architecture firm Gensler and chair of the U.S. Green Building Councils Texas chapter. When Perez started in sustainable design in Texas 20 years ago, she would often try to convince developers to consider greenhouse gas emissions for new construction. They wouldnt always buy it. On HoustonChronicle.com: In downtown Houston, a prominent developer's new office tower is breaking ground in carbon emissions Now, thats no longer the case. More developers are considering emissions in response to demand from tenants and investors, she said. Green building certifications for new construction have become the norm rather than the exception, Perez said. In Houston, developers such as Hines, Trammell Crow and Skanska are leading the push to build more sustainability, while projects such as Lovett Commercials POST HTX highlight the benefits of adaptive reuse, said Rives Taylor, global design resilience director at Gensler. While not every building can be efficiently repurposed a lot depends on the age of the buildings and its existing bones Taylor said there are plenty of opportunities to breath new life into older buildings here. We need to be repositioning everywhere and if we build new, lets build it to be durable, Taylor said. marissa.luck@chron.com Verizon Wireless is raising wages and offering thousands of dollars in bonuses to new Houston-area employees, the company announced Monday. Verizon said Monday its new starting wage of $20 per hour will be applied to all new and existing customer-service employees. Locally, the company is offering sign-on bonuses of $2,500 for new retail specialists and $3,500 for assistant managers at some of its Houston-area stores. A Verizon spokesperson said the companys new sign-on bonuses are being offered in the most competitive markets as a way to attract and retain the best talent. Texas minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal rate. The telecommunications giant is the latest company to raise wages as workers across the nation demand better pay and benefits, including increased health care coverage or an option to work remotely, that have grown since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In December, Verizon competitor T-Mobile hiked wages for its 75,000 U.S. employees to $20 an hour, citing ongoing labor shortages that worsened as coronavirus spread. The companys customer-service employees make around $26 an hour under the new rules, according to CBS News. Other major companies to recently hike hourly wages include Bank of America, which increased wages to $21 an hour last year; and USAA, the nations 29th-largest bank, which also increased most wages from $16 to $21, giving its workers roughly the equivalent of a $44,000 annual salary in addition to benefits. Chipotle also reset its starting wages from around $11 to $18 an hour a year ago amid an ongoing, nationwide labor shortage that economists say has given job seekers more bargaining power. In one survey from this year, about 40 percent of Houston-area employers said that prospective hires have increasingly stopped communicating with them a trend that one local economist credited to the ongoing tightness of the labor market thats increased as more Americans reassess their careers and work-life balance because of the pandemic. President Joe Biden also has hiked wages to $15 an hour for the nations roughly 370,000 federal employees and federal contract workers. As of this year, 30 states have set minimum wages that are higher than the federal rate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. robert.downen@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When Jimmie Captain first laid eyes on Ashley Turner at his mothers retirement party, a nearly inaudible Damn, shes gorgeous escaped from his lips. Captains mother, a former Houston Police Department sergeant, smiled knowingly at her son. She overheard, he recalls with a laugh. You know how moms are. Months passed, and he kept thinking about the beautiful woman he spotted across the room. After mustering enough courage, Captain eventually sent Turner a message on Instagram to thank her for attending the party. I never really expected anything out of it, he says. My first thought was, This is the mayors daughter. Shes not going to respond. But I wanted to shoot my shot. Not only did Mayor Sylvester Turners daughter reply, she shared her digits, too. They started texting. Every so often, Captain would call his crush so she could hear his voice. He says he was thinking on the fly. She says they were building a friendship. Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha It wasnt this big romantic thing. I knew he liked me, but we took our time to get to know each other, Turner explains. My guard had been up. We wanted to make sure it was right, so we pursued each other with the right intentions. The more time Captain spent with Turner, the more he realized how down-to-earth she was. Their first date was a drive-in movie, which the two hardly watched instead, they cracked jokes and laughed the whole time. Shes this laid-back and funny chick. The feelings grew as much as I tried to fight it, he says. Captain had reservations. He describes himself as very private, whereas the object of his affections was very much in the spotlight. The public eye was never something Id been exposed to. I stay behind the scenes and was hesitant because of who she is and who her father is. His ambivalence to attention was a plus in Turners eyes. She liked that hes more introvert than extrovert. They guarded their feelings early on in the courtship. We made it more about ourselves at first, because the minute you add other people into the fold, it gets complicated, she explains. By the time we made it official, I was very clear I dont want to date just to date. Jimmie is very sweet and kind anyway, but it made him move more intentionally. They watched hundreds of movies together. Captain says he can recite movie lines like he quotes the Bible. Other times, he would sweep Turner away for quick trips to Galveston Island where the couple would walk the beach or visit Cajun Greek Seafood. Its still one of our favorite things to do, she shares. In Houston proper, the duo spent every Sunday trying a different restaurant for brunch. They even made a schedule to stay organized. It didnt take long for them to fall in love. Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha Falling in love I suspected it halfway through the first year. Hes different, Turner says. I couldnt really put it into words. I had always prayed about the kind of man I wanted to end up with. Captain says he couldnt help himself. Her smile is so intoxicating, its hard to pass up. I love that woman. They made the relationship official in December 2018. A few months later, Captain met his girlfriends father for the first time at RodeoHouston. It wasnt too overwhelming, but in my eyes its still the mayor, he recalls. This is the man who runs the fourth largest city America and heres little old me coming out of the blue, you know? Id admired him for so long, knowing his story and where he came from. It was a privilege to be in his presence and with his daughter. Their plans to revisit the rodeo again the following year were dashed by the pandemic. Fortunately, those many months spent at home only strengthened their bond. For my personal relationship, COVID was one of the best things that couldve happened, Turner says. It gave us time to pause. There were no more social outings and gave us a moment to spend so much time together. We were really able to solidify what we wanted to do and hone in on our relationship. Over a trip to Fredericksburg wineries in October 2020 she looked at him and knew: Hes the one. It was just a matter of when, not if. Captain felt it, too. By November, hed begun shopping for a ring as unique as his future bride and, scheduled a very important meeting to ask a certain public servant for permission to marry his daughter. I have a daughter, so I know how much Ash means to him, Captain says. (The mayor) said he would be honored that Id be his new son-in-law. I was so nervous. Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha Ashley Turner and Jimmie Captain say I Do at The Citadel Houston. Photo by Aisha Khan with Ama. Turner and Captain both describe her personality as inquisitive. So the groom threw in some misdirection with his proposal. He wanted it to be a surprise. Will you 'Marry Us?' On Jan. 29, her birthday, Captain organized an intimate family dinner with all of Turners favorite foods but didnt propose. She thought he might pop the question a few weeks later on Valentines Day, and didnt suspect a thing when her mom organized a birthday motorcade after the couple volunteered with friends the following day. Captains vehicle was the last in line. I bought a sign that read, Marry Us with pictures of my daughter. My hatchback was open and plush roses covered the trunk of the car. It took a few minutes for Turner to register what was happening. Through tears she said, Yes! Then began their 14-month engagement. I love planning. If it was a love language, that would be mine, the bride shares. Piecing together a large wedding during a pandemic proved challenging. As usual, the couple found silver linings throughout the process. The most fun part is that this is the first project you do together, Turner says. I had a very present and active fiance, he attended every single meeting with me except one. I felt like our wedding truly emulated and looked like both of us because we made decisions together. Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha / Aisha Khan with Ama by Aisha Ashley Turner and Jimmie Captain say "I Do" at The Citadel Houston. Photo by Aisha Khan with Ama. The bride told their wedding planner she didnt want her big day to look like a gala. On March 12, the duo exchanged vows before 424 guests at Citadel Houston. Turner wore a custom gown designed by Julie Ihe of NMA Couture; her groom dressed in an Allen Johnson tuxedo. Julie and I would joke about one of the first times I brought Jimmie around. She said, Girl, Im going to end up making your wedding dress. Just watch, Turner says. When the ceremony doors opened, and Captain saw his brides crystal bodice and cascading train, he broke down. This time, she surprised him by reciting vows to his daughter, too. That was so special, I never saw it coming. I was already in my feelings just looking at her, the groom says. It felt like I was in a movie. Everyone partied and I enjoyed every single minute of that. It pretty much signified who we are as a couple: fun-loving and we love people. I wouldnt take anything back from that it was perfect. amber.elliott @houstonchronicle.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) More late-season snow and rain was predicted for California on Monday. A dry start to the day was expected to give way to showers in the Central Valley and mountain snow by evening and continue into Tuesday, the National Weather Service's Sacramento office said. Four weeks into spring, winter weather advisories will be in effect Tuesday above 6,500 feet (1,981 meters) on the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada and in the greater Lake Tahoe area. Travelers were advised to expect snow and difficult conditions, including reduced visibility. Total snow accumulations on the west slope will range from 4 inches to 7 inches (10-18 centimeters), with localized amounts up to 10 inches (25 centimeters), forecasters said. In the Lake Tahoe area, ridgetop winds will gust up to 100 mph (161 kph). Forecasters said the greatest impacts will be felt on higher passes such as Donner Summit, Echo Summit and Mount Rose Summit. Up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of snow accumulation was expected on the lake shoreline. Last week's snow total topped 3 feet (0.9 meter) in some mountain areas as of Saturday, UC Berkeleys Central Sierra Snow Lab reported. The spring snow follows an extremely dry winter, and experts say it will not alleviate California's drought. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIJING (AP) Chinas economic growth edged up to a still-weak 4.8% over a year earlier in the first three months of 2022 as industrial cities shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, threatening to disrupt global trade and manufacturing. Growth in the world's second-largest economy crept up from the previous quarters 4% following a slump triggered by tighter controls on use of debt by Chinas vast real estate industry, government data showed Monday. Compared with the previous quarter, as other major economies are measured, growth slowed to 1.3% from 1.4%. More pain will come" in the current quarter, Iris Pang of ING said in a report. Further impacts from lockdowns are imminent." The slowdown hurts China's trading partners by depressing demand for oil, steel, consumer goods, food and other imports. Oil prices, which spiked after Russias attack on Ukraine, have fallen back somewhat on expectations Chinese consumption will weaken. The flow of industrial goods has been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, a business center with 25 million people, and other industrial cities. Global automakers and other manufacturers have reduced or stopped production. The disruption "will weigh on activity in April and into May, if not longer," Tommy Wu of Oxford Economics said in a report. That is "likely to have a significant impact on global supply chains. First quarter economic growth was below the ruling Communist Partys annual target of 5.5%. Forecasters have said that will be hard to meet without large government stimulus spending. Retail spending, factory output and investment in factories, real estate and other fixed assets rose. The national economic recovery was sustained and the operation of the economy was generally stable, said a government statement. China's latest infection numbers are relatively low, but Beijing is responding to its biggest outbreak since the 2020 start of the pandemic with a zero-COVID policy that aims to isolate every person who tests positive. The ruling party already was promising tax refunds and other aid to businesses to pull the economy out of a slide that began in mid-2021. Last week, Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader, called for quicker action to get help to struggling entrepreneurs. Forecasters say Beijing is moving cautiously and using targeted stimulus measures instead of across-the-board spending. Chinese leaders worry that might push up politically sensitive housing costs or corporate debt they worry is dangerously high. Retail sales rose by a modest 3.3% over a year earlier in the first quarter after demand was dampened by a government appeal to the public to avoid traveling and large gatherings during Februarys Lunar New Year holiday, normally a period of big spending on gift-giving, banquets and tourism. Factory output rose 6.5% and investment in factories, real estate and other fixed assets increased 9.3%, possibly reflecting official orders to banks to lend more readily. Last week, regulators injected an extra 500 billion yuan ($80 billion) into the pool of money for lending by reducing the amount of deposits commercial banks are required to hold in reserve. The agency that runs the Shanghai port says operations are normal. But companies say the volume of cargo it handles has fallen. Other cities affected by suspensions of access include Tianjin, a port and petrochemical center east of Beijing; Shenzhen, a finance and tech center near Hong Kong, and the manufacturing centers of Changchun and Jilin in the northeast. Smaller cities also have suspended access, closed businesses, ordered residents to stay at home or imposed other controls. Economists have warned spring planting by Chinese farmers who feed 1.4 billion people also might be disrupted. That would hurt economic activity and boost demand for imported wheat and other food, potentially pushing up already high global prices. China rebounded quickly from the pandemic in 2020, but activity weakened last year as tighter controls on borrowing by real estate developers hit construction, which supports millions of jobs. That made consumers nervous about spending and investors anxious about possible defaults by developers. Investors are waiting to see what happens to one of Chinas biggest developers, Evergrande Group, which has struggled since last year to avoid defaulting on $310 billion owed to banks and bondholders. Smaller developers have collapsed or defaulted on debts after Beijing reduced the amount of borrowed money they can use. Chinese officials have tried to reassure investors, saying the impact on lending markets and the economy can be contained. Economists say a potential Evergrande default should have little effect on global financial markets. ___ China National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn A motorcycle accident on Easter Sunday left the male driver injured and killed his wife in Montgomery County. The couple was heading north on Interstate 69 just past Roman Forest Drive when the rear tire of his 2007 Yamaha motorcycle separated, causing the man to lose control and crash, authorities said. Tire parts were found just over 300 yards away. An off-duty paramedic was on the scene and started life-saving efforts. The 45-year-old female from Rusk, a city nearly three hours north of Houston, died at the scene. Her husband was taken in stable condition to Kingwood Hospital. Neither were wearing helmets. The accident occurred around 6 p.m. and the freeway was closed for almost two hours as DPS investigated. Roman Forest, Montgomery County Sheriff, Patton Village, and Splendora assisted with traffic control as did TxDOT. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is also assisting in the investigation. The driver of the motorcycle had no insurance, expired registration, and a suspended driver's license. Montgomery County Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack responded to the scene for the inquest and ordered Eickenhorst Funeral Directors to take the victim to the Montgomery County Forensic Center for an autopsy. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung speaks during a regular shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Seoul, March 24. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group By Lee Min-hyung Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung will visit Europe sometime in May to attract more capital from overseas investors and raise awareness of its group-wide efforts in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) management. Cho is one of the top-ranking financial officials most actively participating in overseas investor relation activities. The last time Cho visited Europe was in November 2021 when traveled to the United States, the United Kingdom and France to explain the lender's future growth plans and latest ESG achievements. The Shinhan chairman traveled abroad despite restrictions and lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting his strong willingness to attract more foreign capital and help rev up the firm's stock price. Cho is also widely expected to share Shinhan's ESG vision during his trip to Europe. "Nothing specific over his itinerary to Europe has been confirmed," an official from Shinhan said. "But this is part of his efforts to enhance communication with overseas investors and share Shinhan's ESG initiatives." In early November, Cho made headlines by becoming the first leader among Asia's private financial firms who delivered a speech at the U.N. Climate Change Conference. He used the opportunity to speak about Shinhan's drive for low-carbon management during the Finance Day event of the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. At that time, Shinhan introduced its flagship Zero Carbon Drive. Shinhan declared the drive to deal with looming fears of global climate change and join the international trend of embracing ESG management. All eyes are on whether Cho's upcoming trip to Europe will help boost the lender's stock price at a time when Shinhan is placing top priority on enhancing its shareholder value by offering quarterly dividends starting last year, for the first time among major commercial banks here. "Shinhan will push for a set of policies that meet the expectations of the market and shareholders by regularly offering quarterly dividends and buying back its shares," Cho said during the regular shareholders' meeting in March. Regarding Abbott buses first group of immigrants to D.C., arriving in front of the Fox News headquarters, (April 13): The law is about to catch up with Gov. Abbott and his migrant busing initiative not just any law, but the law of unintended consequences. His threat of sending migrants voluntarily to Washington, D.C. will probably attract, not deter, migration into Texas. Many migrants come only if they already have personal contacts at their destination. The unaccompanied minors coming in before COVID were not being cast by their parents to an uncertain fate. Rather, most were trying to reach someone, usually a relative but sometimes a friend, who was already in the United States. For people with contacts on the East Coast, free transportation to D.C. will sound like a dream come true. Abbott is actually providing an incentive for more asylum-seekers to come to Texas. And you and I will pay their bus tickets in addition to the two billion dollars of our taxpayer money already wastefully spent on the Texas National Guard deployed uselessly along the border. Walter D. Kamphoefner, Bryan Given that Abbotts ridiculous ploy to bus immigrants to Washington, D.C., is to boost his re-election, his campaign not Texans should pay for those expenses. He continues to waste money on his pet projects to the detriment of the Texas budget. Since he is trying to buy votes with this rather than actually come up with an immigration policy that works, he should be held accountable. He has two senators and a load of U.S. representatives sitting on their butts, complaining about everything and not doing a single thing. I think their salaries ought to be withheld until they come up with a solution. Scott Weeden, Houston Doing their job Regarding Second migrant bus arrived in D.C. overnight, Gov. Greg Abbott says, (April 14): Florida residents can count on Gov. Ron DeSantis to protect the interests of the state, as he tells bused migrants from Texas to D.C. not to come to Florida. DeSantis won't allow Florida to be burdened with immigrants, some of whom come with nothing but the clothes on their backs and might expect handouts. They need food, shelter, clothes, medical care, an education and money to live. Since the federal government is doing nothing to secure the border, its up to the individual states. And it appears as though DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are in the moral minority the only ones with enough spine to take their gubernatorial responsibilities seriously. JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, Fla. As I read that Abbott's first busload of immigrants was sent to Washington D.C., I smiled. Surely they are there to do the jobs that native-born U.S. citizens won't such as legislating a coherent immigration plan that will serve us all. Move over, Lyin' Ted! Sean Kelly McPherson, Houston With all the clamor about Texas Gov. Abbott busing immigrants to Washington, D.C., I think we are missing the more important point. Why in the world is the federal government and the Biden administration not doing their job and enforcing the border? As I recall, President Biden took an oath to protect our borders. Does that mean nothing? Gov. Abbott should never have to deal with this problem. It is the federal government's responsibility to control the border, and Bidens lack of any decent effort at enforcement makes him unfit for office. Same if the president were a Republican. We citizens are tolerating way too much lack of responsibility and performance from our elected officials, and we should vote out all of them who refuse to do their job. Bob Fowler, Point Blank Homeowners across Texas are experiencing sticker shock this month as home values skyrocket, but experts have one message: Dont panic just yet. Appraisal notices started trickling in over the past few weeks, and the latest estimates have raised home values by hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases. The increases are just the latest reflection of Texas competitive housing market, as the state continues to experience rapid population growth. It goes up every year, but this is the biggest and I'm sure I'll remember this for the rest of my life, said Martha Valiquette, a realtor from San Antonio whose home value increased by $110,000 this year. Shes already protested the estimate and is now helping others do the same. HOUSTON HOW TO: Protesting your home's appraisal value can lower your property taxes. How to protest in the Houston area. Home values are used to calculate state property taxes, and Texans will likely face bigger tax bills later this year. In Houston, the average price of a single-family home climbed to $400,000 for the first time, and in San Antonio, median home sales have surpassed $300,000. Asking prices for homes are increasing beyond anything you have likely ever seen, the Bexar Appraisal District officials said in a statement this week. Fewer properties offered for sale and high demand for housing means price increases that shatter records. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Texas already has some of the highest property taxes in the nation, relying heavily on that revenue because the state does not tax income. Only six states Wisconsin, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Illinois and New Jersey have higher property tax rates, according to the personal finance website WalletHub. But, experts say, its not over until its over. Appraised home values are just the first steps before property taxes are calculated, and homeowners have the opportunity to protest their quotes. All Texans should remember that their actual property tax bill is based on two factors, said Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst at the nonprofit Every Texan. The first is the taxable value of the home, which is based on the appraisal and can be adjusted via protest and various exemptions. The second is the tax rate set by local governments and other taxing units. Just because your value goes up, you still do not know what your tax bill is going to do until the whole process is finished, Lavine said. In the immediate future, homeowners should get a plan and protest their appraised value if they have a case, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who has championed several property tax relief measures in recent years. Most big counties have an online appeals system, where residents can upload evidence that their appraised value doesnt match what they were quoted. That could include recent home sales in the area that fall below the value, for example, or estimated costs to repair damage to the home. If youre lost, ask a realtor or consult your local appraisal district for help. We have gone through similar boom cycles in Texas as far back really as the 1980s, Bettencourt said. Things can get spectacularly hot, like they are now, but it will cool off. The key thing is take action this year. Don't let these higher values submit if you know for sure that you're overvalued. There is a silver lining, Bettencourt said: As home values hit record levels, tax rates will come down. The state Legislature approved an overhaul of property tax policies in 2019, slowing tax increases in the years following but not completely eliminating them. Plus, most homeowners are eligible for a homestead exemption, which offers a $25,000 break on school property taxes. Texas law also caps year-over-year increases to a homesteads taxable value at 10 percent. And finally: Before the final tax bills are computed, Texans can head to the polls on May 7 to vote on additional property tax relief. Bettencourt authored the two proposed constitutional amendments, which passed both chambers last summer with bipartisan support. Proposition 1 would approve the tax cuts for elderly and disabled homeowners beginning in 2023, while a second measure seeks to raise the states homestead exemption to $40,000. The first proposal would offer relief for about 1.8 million seniors and 180,000 homeowners with disabilities, amounting to roughly $220 million in savings in 2024, Bettencourt said. The increased homestead exemption for schools, meanwhile, would save homeowners about $176 annually starting this year, he added. Actual savings would vary depending upon local tax rates. cayla.harris@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Attorney General Ken Paxton and Republicans in the Legislature are taking aim at Houston ISD, arguing that the districts COVID sick day policy violates state law. This academic year, Houston ISD is offering 10 additional days of paid sick leave to employees who are vaccinated against the coronavirus but test positive during the school year. Unvaccinated staff, however, must use personal leave time if they are infected. In a nonbinding opinion last week, Paxton said the policy likely constitutes a vaccine passport, the documentation certifying a persons vaccination status shown in exchange for entry or services. The GOP-led Texas Legislature last year outlawed such requirements for both private businesses and public agencies, and Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar executive order banning the practice last summer. A court would likely conclude that, by offering additional paid leave only to those employees showing proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a medical exemption, the Houston Independent School Districts COVID-19 paid leave policy violates the executive order, Paxton wrote. BREAKING NEWS: Florida judge voids U.S. mask mandate for planes, other travel Tejal Patel, a spokesperson for Houston ISD, said Paxtons opinion does not change the implementation of the districts paid leave policy. The last day of classes is just about seven weeks away. No court has ruled that the districts policy of awarding additional leave days to vaccinated employees violates the executive order, Patel said. The district continues to evaluate its COVID protocols in our efforts to maintain a safe learning and working environment. The Texas Education Agency, which issues public health guidance for all school districts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It's up to the TEA to look at enforcement rules and to prevent this from occurring, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who solicited the attorney generals opinion. This is a simple fairness issue. Houston ISDs board approved the additional sick time in August, alongside a program to offer a $500 stipend to employees who showed proof of vaccination. Since then, the district has added the extra sick leave to its reopening plan. COVID-19 paid leave (up to 10 days for the 2021-2022 school year) will be available to exempt and non-exempt employees who are fully vaccinated, as well as those who are medically unable to be vaccinated, the plan states. Proof of vaccination or medical exemption must be submitted to qualify. Any additional time off beyond the COVID-19 leave days granted to qualifying employees will be processed from an employees leave bank in accordance with Board Policy. By December, nearly 20,000 employees had submitted their vaccination cards. The district has about 24,000 staffers. cayla.harris@express-news.net The claim: Joe Biden is giving smartphones away to illegal border crossers. This is an impeachable offense. Nick Adams Adams, a conservative pundit, has made the claim twice this month on Facebook. PolitiFact rating: Half True. The smartphones given to immigrants detained by ICE are used to track them with a pre-installed application after they are released from custody. The phones cannot be used for anything else. The same monitoring program has been used by past administrations, including the Trump administration. Discussion Former Trump attorney Jay Sekulow and son Jordan used similar language in discussing the smartphones on their Facebook show. These posts imply that immigrants who cross the border into the United States illegally are given something akin to an iPhone by the federal government for personal use. Although smartphones are being distributed to immigrants, they cannot be used for other purposes, like going on Facebook or calling friends. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin shared photographs on Twitter a day before Adams tweet that reportedly showed the type of phone given to people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Melugin said he was told by sources that detainees are given these phones by the government to track them and allow them to communicate with ICE. A spokesperson for ICE confirmed that the agency gives smartphones to some immigrants who have been detained after entering the country illegally. The phones come with some caveats. The devices do not have the capability to make personal phone calls, check social media or browse the internet, the spokesperson said. Instead, the phones are pre-loaded with an application called SmartLINK as a way to track immigrants who have been released from detention and are awaiting a deportation hearing. SmartLINK is part of ICEs Alternative to Detention program to closely track non-detained noncitizens at varying levels of supervision, using several different monitoring technologies, ICEs spokesperson said. The app requires someone to check in with immigration officials either by uploading a selfie or answering a call from their case manager, according to the Associated Press. The application was first used in 2018 to keep track of about 5,000 people, the AP reported. Now, ICE uses it to keep tabs on more than 125,000 immigrants. More Information 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 Not all immigrants detained by ICE get a government-issued device, the agencys spokesperson said. If a noncitizen acquires their own personally owned smartphone, the SmartLINK application can be loaded onto that device, the spokesperson said. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the smartphones during a briefing on April 8, saying its one of several ways the government can track someone after being released from detention. Yes, there is telephonic reporting, she said. There is SmartLINK, which enables participant monitoring via smartphone. Theres the Global Positioning System. These are the range of means with modern technology that we monitor. Adams claim about the phones being an impeachable offense for Biden doesnt hold much water, either. The Constitution says a sitting president can be removed from office if they are convicted of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Adams doesnt provide a reason as to why the issuance of smartphones is grounds for impeachment. Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, defended New York states bail law amid charges by Republicans and others that changes to it in 2020 are contributing to rising violent crime. "Cities in notoriously tough on crime states like Texas and Florida saw a more significant increase in violent crime than cities in NYS," she said in a statement. Changes to the bail law were intended to make the system fairer. Advocates said poor people should not remain in jail awaiting trial simply because they cannot afford to post bail, while those who can afford it are released. We wondered if Peoples-Stokes was correct. Did cities in Texas and Florida, where bail laws did not change, also see bigger increases in violent crime? Because Peoples-Stokes said "cities," we looked at the four violent crime categories -- murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- in the 10 largest cities in each state during 2020. This is the most recent year with the most complete data available, and we looked at data reported by city police departments and published by the public safety division of each state government. In general, murders and aggravated assaults increased, while rapes and robberies did not. But we found no clear pattern in the state data among the cities in each state. Murders Murders went up 34% in Buffalo and 17% in Yonkers. In New York City, they went up 46.7%, slightly more than the 45% increase in Rochester. There are cities in Florida and Texas where the percentage increase was roughly the same or even higher than the New York cities. In Houston murders increased by 45%. In Fort Worth, they went up 59%. Murders rose 42% in Miami and 76% in Fort Lauderdale. But in San Antonio, the increase was only 20%. And in some cities in all three states, the number of murders fell. In El Paso, for example, the number of murders went down by 30%. When we calculated the overall increase among the cities in each state -- disregarding cities that had just a few murders, where a small increase would lead to a large percentage increase -- the increase in New York state came to 46%, compared with 31% in Texas and 22% in Florida. According to Pew Research Center, which used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, murders rose by 30% between 2019 and 2020 across the country. Pews analysis showed that on a statewide basis, per 100,000 people, New Yorks increase in murders was higher than the increases in Florida and Texas. The number of homicides per 100,000 remains lower in New York, at 4.7 at the end of 2020, than in Florida, 7.8, and Texas, 7.6. Robberies Robberies fell in all 30 cities, except for San Antonio, Austin and Tampa. New York City reported a 1.6% decline in robberies. Nine of the 10 Florida cities posted bigger percent declines. Eight of the Texas cities had bigger percentage declines. Aggravated assaults Overall, the data showed a percentage increase in aggravated assaults in the 10 cities we looked at in each of the three states. In New York, the overall increase was 4%, less than the 21% increases in Florida and in Texas. Rapes The number of reported rapes fell in most cities in each of the three states. Nine of the 10 Florida cities had fewer reported rapes, as did nine of 10 Texas cities. Rapes fell in seven of the 10 New York state cities. The percentage decline in rapes in New York was 19%. Rapes declined in the Florida cities by 15% and in the Texas cities by 17%. Evidence cited We approached Peoples-Stokes office for evidence of her claim, and her staff sent several sources, including a report from November 2020 regarding violent crime rates through Sept. 30, 2020, from the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit organization whose members are high-ranking police officials. The report found a 66% increase in homicides and a 39% increase in aggravated assaults in Fort Worth while El Paso saw a decrease in homicides of 66%. Tampa had an increase in aggravated assaults of 35%. There was no mention of New York cities in the report. To Peoples-Stokes point about the effect of bail law changes in New York, other investigations have found that among people who were released under the 2020 bail changes, few committed violent offenses after release. Our ruling Peoples-Stokes said that "cities in notoriously tough on crime states like Texas and Florida saw a more significant increase in violent crime than cities in NYS." It is true some cities in Texas and Florida that saw greater increases in some categories of violent crime than cities in New York state between 2019 and 2020. The percentage increase in aggravated assaults, considered a violent crime, grew more in large cities in Texas and Florida than it did in New York. But there are also cities in New York state that had greater increases than cities in Texas and Florida. Statewide, the increases in murders per 100,000 people was greater in New York than it was in Texas and in Florida. Her claim is partially accurate, but leaves out important context. We rate this Half True. Sources Texas Politics Abortion access is already nearly impossible in Texas. Its about to get a lot harder. Nationwide, there are about 36 million women of reproductive age who are considered in danger of losing access to abortion in their home states. One in five, or about 7 million of them, live in Texas. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Sales of equity-linked securities (ELS) in South Korea declined by more than half in the first quarter from three months earlier amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. The total value of ELS products stood at 12.4 trillion won (US$10.1 billion) in the January-March period, down 51.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository. The tally is also down 36 percent from the same period a year earlier. ELS refers to hybrid securities whose returns are linked to the performance of underlying equities, including a stock index. In the first quarter, the global surge of COVID-19 cases weighed on investors' appetite for risky assets around the world, leading to losses in major stock indexes. Uncertainties over the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy tightening added to the losses. Sales of ELS tracking South Korea's KOSPI 200 nose-dived 52.7 percent from three months earlier, and those based on the SP 500 fell 4.3 percent. The sales of ELS tracking Hong Kong's H index decreased 13.6 percent, and those of Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped 13.3 percent. ELS products worth 7.7 trillion won were redeemed in the three-month period, falling 62.4 percent from the previous quarter and down 68.6 percent from a year earlier. The outstanding value of ELS products amounted to 62 trillion won as of end-March, adding 7.6 percent from three months earlier and 11.2 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap) Top 8 ways to earn Passive Income from music Releasing music and touring can get you some decent money, however there are even easier ways to make some extra cash. Here are 8 different ways you can make passive income with your music. by Randi Zimmerman from the Symphonic Blog. As an independent artist, we understand youre wearing a million different hats at once. Youre making music, managing your schedule, touring, and so much more all at the same time. That being said, its important that youre making as much money as possible to support your endeavors without burning yourself out. To do that, having passive sources of income can make a huge difference. In this post, well give you 8 ways to earn passive income as an independent musician. 1. Subscription Revenue Income made from subscription based services is a great way to get more money on a consistent basis as an artist. This gives you income directly from fans who love to support your work. All this is is essential a monthly subscription to whatever you want to offer your fans, whether that be exclusive music, behind-the-scenes content, or whatever else you have to give. There are a couple ways you can do this, but one of the most popular ways is through Patreon. With Patreon, you can host exclusive content just for your subscribers who pay a monthly fee for access to it. Patreon does take a 5 to 12 percent commission of monthly income from creators, and they also take a 2.9% plus $0.30 processing fee on donations over $3 and 5% plus $0.10 fee on donations of $3 or less, so definitely keep that in mind if you decide to use them. 2. Sync Licensing When we talk about sync licensing in the music business, were referring to the act of synchronizing a piece of music with any form of visual media. This includes movies, TV episodes, commercials, video games, etc. When your music is features in any of these places, you get paid. Easy as that. How does it work? Once you get picked up for a placement, you may have an advance and backend royalties. Typically, advances are paidout directly while backend royalties are paid out to the societies youre registered with, aka ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. You earn performance royalties every time your music is performed or played publicly. (TV and radio royalties fall under that category.) As long as your songs are registered with a performing rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, you are eligible to collect performance royalties. To make it easy for you, you can actually do this through us, too. With Symphonic, you can get started with sync licensing through our in-house sync licensing division, Bodega Sync. Once accepted, your music is pitched to supervisors and advertising agencies, we negotiate licensing deals, complete all the paperwork, and make sure you get paid properly. 3. YouTubes Content ID YouTubes Content ID is a digital fingerprinting system that content creators (and musicians) like you can use to easily identify and manage their copyrighted content on YouTube. When you do this through Symphonic, that means you would upload your music to us and we go ahead and upload it to YouTubes Content ID system. When that happens, any song that is uploaded is compared against audio and video files that have been uploaded by many users all over the world. How can this make you money? If a match is found, we will, by default, monetize that video that has been matched and claimed thus bringing you more royalties and ensuring that your works arent being illegally shared and monetized by others. 4. Instagram & Facebook Similarly to Content ID with YouTube, our partnership with Facebook does the same thing on Instagram and Facebook. We upload content into Facebooks systems in order to scan for anyone using that same content. Then, the content is available for use on Instagram and Lip Sync Live and Instagram Stories. Then, we also deliver your content to Rights Manager for FB/IG allows us to monetize your sound recording catalogue through reels, music stickers, and ad-supported posts and more. (Click here to learn how to claim this content with Symphonic.) 5. TikTok Just like with the above two, you can do this on TikTok as well. Here at Symphonic, we have a partnership with TikTok that allows our clients to deliver their tracks onto TikTok for creators to use in their videos. That means whenever anyone uses your music in their videos, you get paid. To get this done with us, click here. 6. SoundCloud Monetization With SoundCloud, you have the benefit of a large community of like-minded artists to get insights from and to collaborate and connect with within a positive community of creatives. SoundCloud is notoriously by musicians, for musicians and its not a bad idea to use that to your advantage. Symphonic can monetize your tracks and profile on SoundCloud and also deliver your catalogue to SoundCloud Go. To make sure youre making money here, click here to sign up for Soundcloud Monetization. 7. Teach Online Courses Dont be humble Youve got skills. Mad skills, in fact. Teach others how to master your craft by teaching online courses through websites like Skillshare or Teachable. If youve got the time, this is a great way to not only improve yourself through the repetition of practice, but get paid and teach others how to better themselves. Its a win-win. 8. Merch Would we really be doing this post justice is we didnt mention the OG here? Selling merch is a great way to make more money on the side without having to overexert yourself. Odds are you already have some merch available online. If thats the case, it doesnt hurt to make sure youre driving as much traffic as possible here. You can ensure this in a couple ways. To wrap it all up Trust me, I understand it sucks to have to focus on anything other than just making great music. However, anyone whos been in this game for a minute knows the hustle is a part of the process. Making more money on the side helps you support the things you need to move forward as an artist. Whether that be to buy better equipment, reinvest in yourself, step up your advertising, or whatever else, earning passive income is a great way to do so. Good luck! Share on: Veteran Spotlight: Marine Cpl. Pete Belmonte Cpl. Peter Belmonte joined the Marines right after graduating from Drury High School. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. My Veteran Spotlight feature this week is about a graduate of Drury High School. Peter Belmonte served his country in the Marine Corps from 1989 to 1994. A mere 10 days after his graduation, he was standing on Parris Island. "It was a real shock. Everyone arrives in the dark. In basic, you're there for one week and your drill instructors are still in school so you don't get the full brunt. But they make up for it," he recalled. Belmonte, a corporal, did however, remember one of his drill instructors that was the real deal. "His name was Tyronza Conard ... the epitome of what a Marine should be. He caught me looking at him one day and said, 'get your eyeballs off me!' Then came up to me and leaned in and said, 'You're not going to be one of my problems are you?'" Belmonte smiled. He continued, "The first day they call Mount Suribachi. They throw all your stuff into the middle of the room, then you have to climb it." After graduating basic training of 13 weeks, he went on to Marine Combat Training to become an infantryman and eight weeks of Infantry School. Belmonte was then sent to Security Forces School ( A "dismal swamp" as he remembered it) where he studied small arms and learned close quarters battle. He was stationed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for a year and a half, where many of his duties and responsibilities were top secret. When asked about the holidays and being away from home, Belmonte laughed and said, "you work. We had 65 Marines on ship. We worked." After his duty on the Ike, he was assigned to a Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion in Norfolk, Va., where he was involved in numerous security related missions, including some that were high level. He described the base in Norfolk as "enormous. Just like a city." I asked Belmonte if he had a mentor and he came back with an extremely poignant insight. "All Marines have a mentor. It's usually the rank in front of you. You also need to know the Marine behind you. Every Marine is taught to be a leader of sorts ... think about the battlefield, attrition ... a Marine is taught to push forward, always strategic movement," he said. After breaking his leg, Belmonte was put into an administrative position. "In 1994, I was trying to extend my time as I wanted to make the Marines a career but got an honorable medical discharge, and was awarded the Good Conduct Medal. It was a giant letdown not to be able to make it a career. I wanted to be a helicopter pilot and go to school. Downsizing the military killed my career," he recalled. His thoughts on service brought out his true passion on being a Marine. "It's an emotional tie to something. One of the most glorifying things I think I've done in my life. You're not part of a team, you're part of a brotherhood. You get what you put in. It's a necessity, an obligation and honor. A Marine runs toward the bullets," he said as he showed me the tattoos he has of two fallen Marine comrades, Chad Germain and Aaron Weisenbrun. He is currently the executive chef at the Williams Inn. Corporal Pete Belmonte, thank you for your service to our great country. The U.S. special representative for North Korea arrived in Seoul, Monday, for talks with his South Korean counterpart and other officials on the Kim Jong-un regime's recent missile launches and the possibility of additional provocations. Ambassador Sung Kim began a five-day trip here amid heightened tensions following the North's test of a purported tactical guided weapon over the weekend and of an intercontinental ballistic missile launch (ICBM) last month. "It's great to be back in Seoul to continue our close coordination on DPRK developments," Kim told reporters upon arrival. DPRK stands for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Later in the day, Kim is set to meet with Seoul's chief nuclear envoy, Noh Kyu-duk, at the foreign ministry. The two sides will probably exchange their views on the North's weapons test Saturday and the overall security condition on the Korean Peninsula. Kim is also expected to meet officials from President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team to coordinate North Korea policy. Observers say Kim could meet Kim Sung-han, a former vice foreign minister and key member of the transition team's foreign policy subcommittee, and Foreign Minister nominee Park Jin. Jung Pak, U.S. deputy special representative for the North, is accompanying Kim. (Yonhap) Name: Sarah Bennett Company: Mercator Group Job title: CIO Date started current role: July 2021 (joined company 2007) Location: Crowborough, East Sussex Sarah Bennett is the CIO of Mercator IT Solutions. She has worked in IT for over 20 years as an administrator and has helped develop Mercator into a multi-million dollar IT consulting company. Her passion is to improve employee retention and wellbeing while helping the company grow. What was your first job? My first job was as a teenager working at a private stables. My first full-time job was in the mail order department of a publishing house. I took orders for books and magazines and entered them onto their system. (It was called Paragon and was a DOS programme!) Did you always want to work in IT? Absolutely not! I have a BA Hons in Dance (with Geography) and my original intention was to be a dance teacher for secondary level pupils but I fell out of love with education when I started my PGCE and was on placement it became evident very quickly that it was less about the teaching and the love of your subject and more about the admin and what you were and were not allowed to do. What was your education? Do you hold any certifications? What are they? I have GCSEs and A-Levels (Geography, Chemistry and Physics) and as mentioned before, I have a BA Hons in Dance (with Geography very much there to keep me in a salary if I became injured or too old). I dont currently hold any professional certifications but this is something I am looking to do. I like to attend seminars (or more recently webinars) and learn in that way, I dont believe that everything needs a certificate look at the certifications I do havepurely looking at those you wouldnt think I could do the job I do and yethere I am. As an organisation we place equal value, or possibly more, on demonstrable knowledge rather than certification. We encourage apprenticeships and on-the-job learning because for some people this is the best way to learn. Explain your career path. Did you take any detours? If so, discuss. I got my first taste of the world of technology when I got a job for a web design/development company. I created the writing and sometimes worked on FrontPage and Dreamweaver to lay things out. I then worked for an IT recruitment company as an administrator and worked my way up to being the Contracts Manager there. I was responsible for reading contracts, adjusting clauses in our own contracts and learning about changes in legislation which affected the industry. It was there that I met the Founders of Mercator. I left the company to have one last attempt at using my dance degree again but I always regretted making the change. When I received a call a couple of years later asking me to come and work for Mercator as the first employee admin, accounts, contracts (in short, everything that wasnt sales), I jumped at the chance. That was 14 years ago and I really havent looked back. What business or technology initiatives will be most significant in driving IT investments in your organisation in the coming year? Mercator is growing at quite a pace both here and in the US. One of our key initiatives will be to ensure that our global locations are aligned in terms of infrastructure and procedures and to ensure that all procedures are able to be scaled up significantly. What are the CEO's top priorities for you in the coming year? How do you plan to support the business with IT? The CEOs top priorities will be scaleability. In 2020 I helped to move the company completely over to the Cloud, both with our licenced CRM and our internal systems. These were followed by the release of our bespoke timesheet and self-billing system. This system has been developed further to include additional functionality and a reporting function. This system is an ongoing project as we are growing and the system needs to grow with us. In addition to this we are developing new systems to automate some of the manual processes. It is going to be incredibly important for us to identify inefficiencies and the potential for human error. These areas are manageable when you are small but need to be addressed prior to any significant growth. This year will be about making all of our processes scaleable. Growth for Mercator is happening both sides of the Atlantic and so we will also be concentrating on replicating our infrastructure, systems and procedures in the US in order that the US entity is able to scale at the same pace as the UK. Does the conventional CIO role include responsibilities it should not hold? Should the role have additional responsibilities it does not currently include? I think the role of the CIO varies greatly depending on the company. Traditionally it is a technical role but the emphasis should probably be on understanding business needs: the mission of the CEO, what customers want from your business and the requirements of the staff to reach those goals. The technology is what links these things. I would say that people management, the ability to link the needs of anyone with an investment in the company (be that financial or otherwise) and some of the softer skills are more important than technical skills. The CIO needs to be a creative thinker and a problem solver. The responsibilities that fall within that scope will also depend on the particular person in the role; at the end of the day you make the most of the talent in front of you, whether that is part of the conventional role or not. Are you leading a digital transformation? If so, does it emphasise customer experience and revenue growth or operational efficiency? If both, how do you balance the two? We completed an internal digital transformation in 2020 but digital delivery is what we do day in day out for our clients. In terms of customer experience versus efficiency, the timesheet system was a classic example of both elements being important. The system had to be simple to use from the users point of view and the UI had to be clutter-free but as a result it made life easier for employees working on the back-end of things and for the accounts department timesheets and invoices rolled in much more quickly and reduced man-hours in the accounts department and our clients found the approval process and project tracking easier. Our external projects continually strive to achieve a positive outcome for both experience and efficiency they are never mutually exclusive. Describe the maturity of your digital business. For example, do you have KPIs to quantify the value of IT? Whilst we are a relatively mature digital business we dont tend to set KPIs. We take a more holistic view of our projects the main aim is that they are successful. What does good culture fit look like in your organisation? How do you cultivate it? Cultural fit is one of the most important things at Mercator after the initial screening or technical test it is the thing we look the hardest for. For Mercator that means mucking in, wanting to be part of something and being happy to invest yourself in the company. We never see our staff as numbers on the payroll. We want to be part of their journey as well as have them be part of ours. Its common to hold social events within a company but possibly what is less common is the ability for a more junior member of staff to put forward their ideas and not have them shot down. Everyone here has something to add and it doesnt matter how far up the pay scale they are, if they have an idea we want to hear it. We also foster an everyone is approachable philosophy; senior staff are not off limits. This kind of environment gives everyone a voice and if everyone has a voice they are more likely to feel part of something. Part of our culture is to give staff the ability to make a decision (whatever level that may be at). When they feel comfortable making a decision it moves the company on and prevents procrastination. We nurture an active involvement in the business. As a result we have an excellent staff retention rate and impressively our staff return rate is also high. What roles or skills are you finding (or anticipate to be) the most difficult to fill? User Research seems to be a difficult area at the moment. Its hard to find a User Researcher who has done the job before at the level we require. It has become a more and more competitive space as other companies have begun to recognise its value in digital transformation projects. What's the best career advice you ever received? The best career advice I received was from the CEO Concentrate on the things you are good at and surround yourself with people who have the skills you dont together you will make a great team. Do you have a succession plan? If so, discuss the importance of and challenges with training up high-performing staff. There is no formal succession plan in place but we like to hire from within so that any heads of department or leaders have a really good understanding of the culture of the company and our client relationships. They can then be the voice that filters downwards to newer employees. What advice would you give to aspiring IT leaders? Dont be afraid to put forward your ideas to those above you but dont take it personally if they arent used; you may have sewn a seed for later use even if they arent put into action straight away. Dont be afraid to challenge the senior team a healthy discussion is incredibly important in business and the CEO isnt always right (but equally neither are you so make sure you listen to your team). What has been your greatest career achievement? My greatest achievement is being part of Mercator from the start. I joined after 1 year of trading and have helped to grow it to the business it is today. We have come from a team of 3 to a multi-million pound group of global companies. Not many people can say they have been part of that kind of journey. Looking back with 20:20 hindsight, what would you have done differently? Looking back I think the obvious thing would be to have come at my career from a different angle. Ive taken a very scenic route to get to where I am and if I had known I was going to do this role I would have taken a more direct (and possibly certificated) route. That said, the journey is just as important as the destination and I think I would have met some barriers if I had taken the conventional route for a CIO. I also think I would be in a different company environment as a result and Im not sure that would really suit me. I think on balance that means I wouldnt have done anything differently! HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, made the new Nokia G50 even more accessible to Filipino fans through Globe Telecom, Inc.s exclusive GPlan 1499. Better for the pocket and better for the planet, the Nokia G50 has a superior build quality, modern features and timeless design that lasts at an accessible price point. Its software security updates that keep the phone fresh for years let fans enjoy their phone for much longer. GPlan with Nokia G50 Exclusively, the Globe plan 1499 with Nokia G50 5G offers customers unlimited calls and texts to all networks and landline, 10GB all access to data and 3GB GoWifi access monthly within the 24-month contract. The plan also includes three months subscription for standard VIP access to IQIYI. We are thrilled to have the Nokia G50 5G available across all the postpaid plans at very accessible cash outs. Powered by Globes pioneering mobile 5G network, this amazing handset will allow customers to experience mobile data connectivity in new and more exciting ways. Truly, a partnership made for greater. Coco Domingo, Vice President of Globe Mobile Postpaid & International Business. The future-proofed Nokia G50 Staying true to its roots, the Nokia G50 has the build quality Nokia phones are known for and features a classic, timeless design. Whether used for upskilling with online videos or absorbing scenes from ones favorite show, the content on Nokia G50s screen will be crisp and clear with its 6.82 HD+ display. It also features a 48MP triple lens camera with AI smarts, to fully equip fans to capture lifes moments from natures wonders to times with loved ones in any lighting setup. The Nokia G50 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Mobile Platform, boasts a two-day battery life and 18W fast-charging technology. And for extra reassurance, the Nokia G50 also comes with one-year warranty for parts and services at no extra cost. Built with the future in mind, the Nokia G50 is already prepared to welcome Android 12 and beyond, so fans can always have access to the most modern features. The monthly security updates are guaranteed for at least three years, so users best ideas and favorite moments are protected for complete peace of mind. Handled in a Finland-based data center, user data is protected by strict European regulations with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as foundation. Availability Exclusively on Globe, the Nokia G50 5G is available in stunning Ocean Blue color variant and comes in 6/128GB. Check out full details and offerings here: Nokia G50 GPlan 1499 or visit the nearest Globe store in your area. It was about a year into running her superfood-product startup, Golde, that Trinity Mouzon Wofford started getting calls from investors. She'd launched the company in 2017 at the age of 23, with her own funding, and with just a hand from her high-school sweetheart, who'd become her partner in life and business. "At that point, I had already run the business completely on our own terms for over a year. It didn't quite make sense to me just yet ... to be responsible for someone else's millions of dollars," Mouzon Wofford told Inc.'s What I Know podcast. Once she became accustomed to saying no, it came easier. Meanwhile, Golde began to scale slowly, finding customers through local New York City shops, cafes, and spas, who then came back to the company's website to find the products they loved -- a turmeric latte blend or superfood face mask -- and buy them directly. It was almost as if the founder had backed into a successful DTC business. "We had no marketing budget whatsoever," Mouzon Wofford says. "And frankly, if we had it, we wouldn't have known what to do with it. But we did have this profitable channel where our products sat on these incredible shelves. We got the right eyes on us." Before long, larger retailers started calling. But with a tiny staff and limited production abilities, Mouzon Wofford knew that jumping on a large deal could exceed the company's abilities. "It's a big undertaking!" she says. "There's no harm in telling a retailer, 'Not right now,' and making sure you are ready." For example, when Mouzon Wofford began meeting with Target buyers, she took it slow. She wanted to learn what pricing structure, packaging, and products would fit best at the national chain. She went through Target's accelerator program, and redesigned a line of products specifically to fit price points ideal for mass retail. (A $14.99 price tag was her goal.) Mouzon Wofford says taking her time not only enabled her to think through the product assortment, pricing, and strategy -- but also allowed her to gain assurance that the retailer was committed to her new category of superfood and beauty products, find out how shelf space was allocated, and then figure out what her commitments would need to be. Today, it is easy to recognize this leading automobile manufacturer by its signature three-ellipsis logo. But in 1936, when it was starting out its motor division, Toyoda held a public competition for designing its initial logo. Not only did they pick a design from over 27,000 entries, it also led to a spin-off in the company's name. That's how Toyoda, originally an automatic looms company named after its founder Kiichiro Toyoda, became Toyota, the automobile behemoth we know today. That's crowdsourcing. And while it may sound like a modern buzzword, the above example shows that its roots go deep in history. With the power of social media and a world that is more connected than ever, crowdsourcing is far more prevalent today. You can harness the power of a crowd to do almost anything, including naming a business, raising funds, designing a product, writing content, and much more. So what's the catch? And why are there so many horror stories about crowdsourcing today? It boils down to how well you execute your crowdsourcing campaign, and if you have the tools you need to manage your project correctly. After managing over 30,000 successful crowdsourced naming projects, my company and I have developed a few key strategies that can maximize the success of your next crowdsourcing project. 1. Give enough background information. As a brand, you know what you want out of a crowdsourcing campaign better than anyone else. Always assume that the crowd knows nothing about who you are. So start from scratch. What must you tell them? What should they know about your product or service? What solution are you looking for? These questions help define the background. For example: If you're looking to name your fashion business, you can't be vague and hope that the crowd will be able to fill in the gaps. A lot of people think they can start a branding project by just explaining their industry and the age of their audience. For example, "We are a fashion brand selling to young adults." But clearly, this isn't enough. Think of the vastly diverse brands in the market today that sell to this audience. If you work with a crowdsourcing community to come up with a name, you cannot expect them to build your entire brand story. Similarly, you cannot raise funds through the crowd with a vague idea. The crowd won't fund a "trendy fashion brand" -- they need much, much more. 2. Avoid controversy in your brief. A crowdsourced project starts by passing your ideas to the crowd, often in the form of a digital in-depth brief. The goal of the brief should be to eliminate any ambiguity about the campaign and state details in a clear and succinct manner. So while writing the brief, at every stage ask if it's clear or if anything sounds vague? Read it out loud, and get feedback from others. Also, consider if anything in the brief could be controversial in terms of race, religion, sex, nationality, etc. For example: In 2013, Durex announced the launch of its emergency delivery app named Durex SOS to deliver condoms to couples wherever they were. As part of the campaign, it asked the crowd to vote on which city they should begin this service in. The audience resorted to their usual trolling and chose the final outcome as Batman, Turkey to match to the superhero's name. But it turned out that Batman is a small conservative city, not ideal for the service Durex was trying to sell. As a result, the campaign was stopped. To avoid such mishaps, try to visualize your campaign end-to-end from the point of view of someone who isn't related to the business. What hurdles might you run into? What do you need to avoid them? Define all such elements clearly in the brief. 3. Communicate, clarify, and correct. Ensure that there are ample opportunities and avenues to engage with the community at multiple stages. This could mean answering their questions, clarifying your objective, providing additional information, etc. For example, during a design project, you might decide to go another direction visually or change the tone from formal to casual. Timely communication with the community can save the campaign and help you accomplish your renewed goals. Set regular milestones around when you plan to engage with the community. 4. Don't slack on feedback. One of my company's clients, a large hotel chain, liked a name that had been submitted by a creative. While the campaign was still underway, we gave specific and actionable feedback to the individual who had come up with the name. We told them what we liked, what worked for us, and why we liked it. Using our feedback, the creative pitched nine other names, which too brilliantly hit the mark. None of these other names would have been possible if we didn't give feedback midway. Give appropriate, actionable, helpful, and detailed feedback when someone submits their suggestion. In doing so, you help them be seen. This encourages them to be more invested in the project, come back with better ideas, and perhaps even remember your brand. There's power in numbers, and crowdsourcing can help you mobilize that power. Yet by no means is it a passive process where you, as a brand, can pass the baton to the community entirely. We outline the various trends surrounding women and work in India. From the glass ceilings and skewed employment statistics to unjustifiable pay gaps, the odds in the Indian employment landscape are inevitably against women. We establish a rationale as to why in the long-term, gender discrimination at the workplace is detrimental to Indias economic growth objective, both at micro and macro levels. Lastly, we list the various laws in place in India for protecting womens rights at the workplace. Sustained periods of high economic growth since the early 1990s, characterized by the New Economic Policy that liberalized the business landscape, allowed India to effectively leap from the much dreaded Hindu rate of growth and bring significant changes to the lives of the Indian workforce. However, the growth trajectory has been lopsided towards a preferred gender. Be it the crystallized glass ceilings, the unexplainable pay gaps, unconscious biases, or lack of basic amenities like separate toilets, India is still a long way from realizing its much hyped demographic dividend. It is surprising to see that Indias female labor force participation rate (LFPR), which refer to women who are either working or looking for a job, has not only stagnated at much below the global average of 47 percent for several years but has declined considerably in recent years. Despite experiencing structural improvements to their lives, such as decline in fertility rates and expansion of womens education, Indias female LFPR is on a downward track. As per World Bank estimates, the female labor participation rate in India fell to 20.3 percent in 2019 from more than 26 percent in 2005 and 31.9 percent in 1983. This is much lower, even when compared with 30.5 percent in neighboring Bangladesh and 33.7 percent in Sri Lanka. This decline in female LFPR can be attributed to various factors like obligations towards the performance of domestic duties, conservative social norms, and the lack of flexible work models. It is also observed that household constraints trump financial need and individual preferences for job choice among women. This bleak scenario of womens workforce participation having slid towards regression could, however, take a positive turn. The COVID-19 and post-pandemic hybrid work models could become game-changers for many women offering flexible and more innovative work options with increasingly empathetic work cultures. Such new work models may improve gender diversity at work, in traditional organizations as well as in the gig economy. Indias female labor force participation: Trends and analysis According to annual bulletin of Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) 2019-20 data, the female labor force participation in India is way below that of males. In FY 2020, while the male participation rate stood at 56.8 percent, this ratio was merely 22.2 percent for females. The latest quarterly PLFS surveys suggest a further decline. In the January-March 2021 quarter, this stood at 16.9 percent, with states like Himachal Pradesh (29.6), Andhra Pradesh (23.1), Tamil Nadu (24.2), Kerala (19.5), and West Bengal (19.5) being some of the top performers. The state of Bihar remained the worst performer with a 4.4 percent participation rate, following Delhi at 8.8 percent and Uttar Pradesh at 9.7 percent. Juxtaposed to the male workforce participation rate during the same period, which was 57.5 percent, the stark gender inequality is evident. Annual Labor Force Participation Rate in India (in percent) (FY2018-20) Female Male All FY 2017-18 17.5 55.5 36.9 FY 2018-19 18.6 55.6 37.5 FY 2019-20 22.2 56.8 40.1 State-Wise Female Labor Force Participation Rate (in percent) According to Current Weekly Status for Different States (January 2020 March 2021) (All Age Groups) State January-March 2020 April-June 2020 July-September 2020 October-December 2020 January-March 2021 Andhra Pradesh 21.6 18.3 20.2 20.7 23.1 Assam 15.1 13.8 13.7 14.2 14.2 Bihar 6.2 6.0 5.3 5.3 4.8 Chhattisgarh 18.5 16.6 16.4 17.5 17.2 Delhi 13.7 11.6 9.1 9.3 8.8 Gujarat 16.0 14.5 15.1 15.8 16.6 Haryana 15.9 13.5 14.3 15.8 14.4 Himachal Pradesh 22.7 27.9 28.3 26.7 29.6 Jammu and Kashmir 22.1 20.5 19.5 18.7 18.7 Jharkhand 12.8 10.4 10.4 10.6 11.3 Karnataka 18.5 18.1 19.2 19.0 19.7 Kerala 21.8 18.2 20.4 20.5 20.5 Madhya Pradesh 15.5 13.0 13.4 13.2 13.8 Maharashtra 19.5 17.3 18.3 18.2 18.5 Odisha 15.4 15.2 16.6 14.4 15.2 Punjab 17.5 14.8 12.0 14.6 15.8 Rajasthan 13.2 9.6 9.9 10.8 12.0 Tamil Nadu 25.2 22.4 23.3 23.7 24.2 Telangana 21.8 20.2 19.8 21.3 20.5 Uttarakhand 14.0 12.8 13.9 14.5 14.8 Uttar Pradesh 8.8 8.8 9.3 9.0 9.7 West Bengal 20.8 17.8 19.8 19.7 19.5 India 17.3 15.5 16.1 16.4 16.9 A further analysis reveals a greater rural-urban divide within already existing complexities. As per annual bulletin of 2019-20 PLFS survey findings, the rural female workforce participation was 24.7 percent while the corresponding urban rate was 18.5 percent. This rural-urban divide is not as high with respect to males. The male participation stood at 56.3 percent and 57.8 percent in rural and urban areas, respectively. Another noticeable trend is that the female labor force is vulnerable to maximum distortions and impact in the face of adversity. The recent quarterly PLFS statistics suggest a considerable decline in female LFPR post the COVID-19 pandemic. The participation rate, which was 17.1 percent before the pandemic hit, fell to a record low of 15.5 percent in the April-June 2020 quarter when strict movement curbs were imposed. A research paper by Azim Premji University on the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indias labor market said that compared with men, women were seven times more likely to lose work during the nationwide lockdown and eleven times more likely to not return to work subsequently. Occupational and sectoral analysis of female workforce participation Occupational trend statistics reveal that female employment in professional and technical roles is much higher in urban areas as compared to males. However, their participation in legislative, official, and managerial roles remained much lower at 11.7 percent as compared to males (17.8 percent) in urban areas. In rural areas too, female participation remained higher than males in technical and associate professional roles at 2.9 percent as compared to 2.1 percent among males. At the same time, female participation in official, managerial, and professional roles remained low. Occupation Wise Participation of Workforce as per PLFS 2019-20 (in percent) Occupation Rural Urban Male Female Male Female Division 1: Legislators, senior officials, and managers 6.3 percent 4.0 percent 17.8 percent 11.7 percent Division 2: Professionals 2.0 percent 1.7 percent 8.8 percent 13.7 percent Division 3: Technicians and associate professionals 2.1 percent 2.9 percent 6.1 percent 11.7 percent An investigation into the statistics of the Indian workforce according to employment type reveals that in urban areas, the share of salaried / wage earning females in is more than males. In rural areas, participation of self-employed females is higher than that of males. Employment in casual labor is almost at par for both the genders in rural areas, while it is slightly higher for males in urban areas. Another interesting trend to note is that in rural areas, female workforce participation is the maximum in agriculture, followed by manufacturing, construction, trade, and the hospitality industry. Whereas in urban areas, female workforce participation is the maximum in manufacturing, followed by hospitality, construction and transport, storage and communications. Within the self-employed category, where the employment share of females is highest at 63 percent in rural areas, these figures are misleading as most women are employed as unpaid family workers in family farms and family businesses, engaging in activities like taking care of livestock etc. According to the PLFS, North-East Indian states rank among the highest in percentages of females holding managerial positions, with Meghalaya topping the list, followed by Sikkim and Mizoram. These states are followed by Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. In terms of literacy rate and professions involving technical roles, females from Northeast India show the highest percentages across India. The states which have fared the worst in terms of female workers in the managerial position are Assam, followed Haryana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Uttarakhand. Sikkim tops the list of states with the highest ratio of females to males among professional and technical workers with 120.2 percent, followed by Meghalaya (101.5 percent) and Kerala (91.6 percent). Female entrepreneurship in India Given the numerous kinds of barriers that women face in obtaining and retaining suitable jobs, entrepreneurship provides an alternate avenue to productive participation in the workforce. However, India is not performing well on the index of female entrepreneurship either, with only 21.49 percent of total establishments and 13.41 percent of non-agricultural establishments in India being owned by women. There are several structural barriers that exist, including limited avenues for women to enter only select business domains. But the most noteworthy barrier is posed by accessibility to finance for setting up businesses, with around 70 percent of women surveyed across four cities citing access to credit as a barrier. Gender wage disparity in India Statistics suggest a significant pay disparity exists between males and females who are engaged in similar kinds of jobs. The tables below provide a comparative perspective of wages earned by female workers and their male counterparts. Wage Earnings for Regular Salaried Employees in India as per PLFS (2019-20) Male Female Rural INR 13,900 14,300 INR 8,500 12,100 Urban INR 19,200 21,600 INR 15,300 17,300 Average Wage Earning per day for Casual Labor Engaged in Work other than Public Works in India as per PLFS 2019-20 Male Female Rural INR 297 315 INR 185 209 Urban INR 375 391 INR 243 265 Average Gross Earnings During Last 30 Days from Self Employment Work in India (July 2019 June 2020) Male Female Rural INR 9,200 10,100 INR 4,600 5,000 Urban INR 14,500 17,800 INR 6,900 7,700 The cost of gender discrimination at the workplace Indias growth story will continue to remain unsustainable unless it is inclusive and converts the potential of gender minorities into actual jobs. The data sets hinting at declining female labor force participation and hiring biases are concerning not only from the point of view of womens liberation and autonomy but also from an economic perspective. Inequality and discrimination have adverse impacts on economic growth. A positive correlation between discrimination and economic growth exists and operates through the following linkages: Selection distortion effect of employment discrimination: Increased discrimination in the labor market would lead to a decline in the employment chances of the gender minorities, thus not incentivizing them to attain better education, which would in turn lead to a decline in average productivity/ability of workforce, thereby depressing overall economic growth. Increased discrimination in the labor market would lead to a decline in the employment chances of the gender minorities, thus not incentivizing them to attain better education, which would in turn lead to a decline in average productivity/ability of workforce, thereby depressing overall economic growth. Measurement effect of employment inequality: A number of case studies conducted have shown that women are found to underreport their work, especially household domestic workers and petty agricultural workers. This might be a result of the prejudiced notion of Sanskritization, where imposing restrictions on women is sought to achieve upward caste mobility; many high caste women are not allowed to work outside. Thus, much of female labor goes unrecorded in the system of national accounts. Greater access to education will lead to substitution of unrecorded female labor with recorded female labor by not only changing their mindset but also but also by increasing their productivity, making female labor more visible and thus responsible for increased economic output. A number of case studies conducted have shown that women are found to underreport their work, especially household domestic workers and petty agricultural workers. This might be a result of the prejudiced notion of Sanskritization, where imposing restrictions on women is sought to achieve upward caste mobility; many high caste women are not allowed to work outside. Thus, much of female labor goes unrecorded in the system of national accounts. Greater access to education will lead to substitution of unrecorded female labor with recorded female labor by not only changing their mindset but also but also by increasing their productivity, making female labor more visible and thus responsible for increased economic output. Discrimination against equally productive individuals in managerial positions: This would lead to a decline in equilibrium wages, which would further decrease the cut-off level of talent leading to a decline in average level of entrepreneurship and thus a decreased innovation level. It also implies a decline in female education due to structural disincentives; because of reduced wage earnings, women may choose to reduce their investment on education or upskilling. Indian laws and policies governing womens rights and protections in the workplace Legal Provisions Protecting Rights of Women in Workplace Enactment Protective provisions The Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 In case the workplace has more than 10 employees, this Act mandates the employer with to develop a complaint mechanism and provides for the establishment of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). The ICC must consist of at least: Four members, with a senior woman employee as the Chairperson Two members from amongst the employees, with preferably a woman with experience in social work or legal knowledge A third-party member preferably affiliated with a non- governmental organization. In case the workplace has less than 10 employees, complaints may be filed at local complaints committee (LOC) established at the district level. Requires the employers to organize workshops and awareness programs for sensitization against sexual harassment and to provide assistance to the complainant who wishes to proceed with a police complaint. The Act also provides for speedy resolution of the complaint. The aggrieved woman is required to file the complaint of sexual harassment within three months of the incident, extendable to further three months in certain situations. The ICC is required to complete the inquiry within 90 days of receipt of the complaint. While the investigation is underway, the complaint may be transferred to another workplace or granted leave for a period of up to three months. The complainant must make a written request for the same. On completion of the inquiry, a report will be sent to the employer or the District Officer (for workplaces with few than 10 employees), who are then obliged to take action on the report within 60 days. Provides remedies to the victim in form of compensation, as assessed suitable by the ICC. The factors considered by ICC in determining this compensation amount include the level of mental trauma, pain, suffering, emotional distress, medical expenses incurred, financial status of the respondent, loss in career opportunity due to the incident. The ICC is also authorized to penalize the accused with heavy financial deductions, in case the allegation is proved legible. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 Provision regarding safeguards against sexual harassment of women workers at their work places. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 The Maternity Benefit Act provides for following benefits: 26 Weeks of maternity leave out of which eight weeks before the expected date of delivery for up to two surviving children. For more than two children and for adopting/commissioning mothers, 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. One month maternity leave to a woman worker suffering from illness arising out of pregnancy, delivery, premature birth of child (miscarriage, medical termination of pregnancy or tubectomy operation). Two nursing breaks of 15 minutes until the child attains the age of 15 months. Medical Bonus of INR 3500 if no prenatal confinement and post-natal care is provided by the employer free of charge. Light work for 10 weeks. Immunity from dismissal during absence while in pregnancy. No deduction of wages of woman entitled to maternity benefit. Option of work from home Facility of creche if 50 or more employees are working in the establishment The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 Payment of equal remuneration to men and women workers for same or similar nature of work protected under the Act. No discrimination is permissible in recruitment and service conditions except where employment of women is prohibited or restricted by or under any law. Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, read with Employees State Insurance (Central) Regulation, 1950 The benefits available under ESI Scheme include Medical Benefit Sickness and extended sickness benefit Maternity benefit o 26 weeks of paid leave for up to two children o 12 weeks for more than two children adopting and commissioning mothers. o Six weeks for miscarriage. o Additional moths leave for sickness arising out of pregnancy. o Medical bonus of INR 5000 Disablement benefits Dependent benefits Funeral benefits The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966 Provision of creches: In every industrial premises wherein more than thirty female employees are ordinarily employed, there shall be provided and maintained a suitable room or rooms for the use of children under the age of six years of such female employees. Such rooms shall: Provide adequate accommodation Be adequately lighted and ventilated Be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition The charge of such creches must be women trained in the care of children and infants. Additionally, the State Government may make rules like requiring the provision for free milk or refreshment or both for such children etc. The Contract Labor (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 Provision of separate rest rooms or alternative accommodations for women employees at every place wherein contract labor is required to halt at night. Provision of separate reserved portion of dining hall and service counter. Provision of separate washing places and latrines for women to secure privacy. Provision of creches where 20 or more women are ordinarily employed as contract labor. The Factories Act, 1948 Provision of creches in every factory wherein more than 30 women workers are ordinarily employed. Employment of women in factory is prohibited except between the 0600 1900 hours IST. However, in exceptional circumstances, employment of women is permitted up to 2200 hours IST. Employment of women is also prohibited/restricted in certain factories involving dangerous operations No women shall be allowed to clean, lubricate or adjust any part of prime mover while it is in motion No women shall be employed in any part of a factory for pressing cotton in which a cotton opener is at work The Mines Act, 1952 Mine management are required to frame Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) in connection with the deployment of women at night hours. The Act requires the provision of adequate facilities and safeguards regarding the occupational safety, security and health of women employees in mines, as the timing restrictions on their deployment have been lifted. The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 Provision of creche The Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act,1979 The Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976 These Acts mandate the appointment of women member in the Advisory and Central Advisory Committee. The Iron Ore Mines, Manganese Ore Mines and Chrome Ore Mines Labor Welfare Fund Act, 1976 The Lime Stone and Dolomite Mines Labor Welfare Fund Act, 1972 The Mica Mines Labor Welfare Fund Act, 1946 Key employment and unemployment indicators SEPC Chairman Sunil H Talati said that sectors that will be benefited immensely from the pact include telecommunications, computers, information, travel, research and development, and professional and management consulting services. Services exports to Australia are expected to more than double to USD 5 billion in the next five years on the back of the trade pact signed between the two nations, the Services Exports Promotion Council (SEPC) said on Friday. SEPC Chairman Sunil H Talati said that sectors that will be benefited immensely from the pact include telecommunications, computers, information, travel, research and development, and professional and management consulting services. India and Australia on April 2 inked an economic cooperation and trade agreement (ECTA) to boost economic ties. SEPC expects exports to reach USD 5 billion by 2027 from the current USD 1.9 billion, Talati said. He added that the council will be the nodal organisation for creating and promoting business opportunities for Indias services sector in Australia in the given framework of the pact. SEPC will be organising a series of activities and outreach programmes on ECTA followed by sector-specific business delegations to Australia, he added. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal led one of the largest trade delegations to Australia shortly after the signing of the pact. The delegation comprised industry representatives from most of the Export Promotion Councils and senior government officials. Sri Lanka has been facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948. Amid food, medicine and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts, many believe that China's "debt-trap diplomacy" is behind the crisis, said a media report, as mentioned in ANI. gr.china-embassy.org Also Read: Friend Or Foe? Before $2.5 Billion 'Help', China Had Rejected Sri Lanka's Loan Rescheduling Appeal China's Debt-Trap Policy Writing in Channel News Asia (CNA), a Professor of Economics at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, R Ramakumar, highlighted that China's debt-trap policy is singularly responsible for the dire economic situation of Sri Lanka. "Many believe that Sri Lanka's economic relations with China are the main driver behind the crisis. The United States has called this phenomenon debt-trap diplomacy," the report said. The report further stated that debt-trap diplomacy is where a creditor country or institution extends debt to a borrowing nation to increase the lender's political leverage - if the borrower extends itself and cannot pay the money back, they are at the creditor's mercy. Defaults over China's infrastructure-related loans to Sri Lanka, especially the financing of the Hambantota port, are being cited as factors contributing to the crisis, the report noted, as per ANI. The construction of the Hambantota port was financed by the Chinese Exim Bank. The port was running into losses, so Sri Lanka leased out the port for 99 years to the Chinese Merchant's Group, which paid Sri Lanka USD 1.12 billion, the report said. Also, the island nation relies on the import of many essential items, including petrol, food items and medicines. Most countries will keep foreign currencies on hand in order to trade for these items, but a shortage of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka is being blamed for the sky-high prices, Ramakumar said. The economic crisis and slump are blamed on currency shortages caused by the travel ban imposed during the Covid-19 epidemic. This has resulted in the nation's inability to purchase sufficient fuel, resulting in an extreme shortage of food and essential commodities such as heating fuel and gas. Sri Lanka On The Edge Of Humanitarian Crisis According to the United Nations Development Programme, Sri Lanka appears to be on the edge of a humanitarian crisis as its financial troubles grow. According to World Bank estimates, 5 lakh people in Sri Lanka have fallen below the poverty line since the onset of the crisis. Seeking $4Billion From IMF This Week Amidst all this, Sri Lankan officials are expected to arrive in Washington this week to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sri Lanka is reportedly seeking up to $4 billion this year to help it import essentials and pay creditors. Now it remains to be seen how much money IMF extends to the crisis-hit island nation, to help it come out of the crisis and rebuild its economy. Also Read: How Russia-Ukraine War Is Pushing Debt-Ridden Sri Lanka Towards A Possible Default For the latest financial and economic content, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here. The Han River Park in southern Seoul is crowded with people, April 17. (Yonhap) On the first day of the lifting of all COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, small business owners said they are looking forward to seeing as many customers as before the pandemic. All social distancing rules, except a mask mandate, were lifted this week, allowing restaurants, cafes and other small businesses to operate freely without a curfew and limits on the size of private gatherings. "Group reservations of 10 to 20 people keep coming in as companies resume after-hour dinners," an employee of a Korean barbecue restaurant in central Seoul said. A 58-year-old cafe owner in the busy district of Gangnam welcomed the government's decision, saying she hopes to see all tables at her cafe full with customers as they were before COVID-19 broke out. "I could feel more people hanging out at night from last week. I hope I can recover my store's sales soon," the owner said while busily preparing fruit juices to sell, adding the biggest change is that people now have no fear of having private gatherings. Some, however, were still uncertain whether the economy will fully recover due to the prolonged virus situation. The Maine House voted Thursday to give the states tribes the same rights enjoyed by Native Americans elsewhere across the country, a first step in an effort to uphold the tribes sovereignty. The 81-55 tally marked the first legislative vote in the process of restoring rights forfeited in the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, which made the tribes subject to state law. The vote, which tribal leaders watched from the gallery, followed emotional testimony from supporters who said the change was long overdue. The time to change this is now, for the Wabanaki tribes rightly deserve and should enjoy the same rights, privileges, power and immunities as other federally recognized tribes, said Rep. Rena Newell, a nonvoting Passamaquoddy representative to the Legislature. Some critics, however, pointed out that there could be unforeseen difficulties from the change. As it stands, tribal reservations in Maine are treated like municipalities under state law. The historic vote came hours after the Senate gave final approval to a separate bill allowing the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point to regulate its own drinking water. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has concerns about parts of the bill, including conflicts between jurisdictions. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, said she was concerned the tribal lands in Maine are not contiguous, and that there could be conflicts over environmental rules in towns across the state. Future lawmakers will be bound by any mistakes in the new language, she said. There are serious unknown consequences on natural resources and wildlife management, land and water access, and liability, she said. Most lawmakers spoke about righting a historical wrong that dates back more than four decades. The Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Maliseet traded some rights to the state authority under an $81.5 million settlement that was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. The Mikmaq are subject to similar terms under their own agreement, adopted in 1991. In the years since, the state and tribes have butted heads on environmental, fish and wildlife rules. And the states tribes have not benefited from changes in federal law, their supporters said. Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, an independent from Friendship, Maine, became emotional as he spoke of the need to adopt the law to ensure tribes are treated the same as others, especially all theyve endured since the arrival of Europeans who took Native Americans land and killed many of them. When we steal something of this magnitude, we have to give a little bit of it back to make it right, he said. Assistant House Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, said the proposal was the result of years of work. Throughout the history of Maine and the United States, we have amended our laws over and over again to correct past wrongs, improve our democracy and protect the rights of those previously left behind. Let 2022 be the year that we correct the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, she said. Associated Press writer Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Maine The owner and operator of an Arlington, Massachusetts-based insurance agency has been convicted by a federal jury in Boston of fraudulently receiving government disability benefits. Patrick Quinn, an ex-Marine who said he was disabled due to several service-related physical injuries and post-traumatic stress (PTS) disorder, was convicted on April 12 of two counts of theft of public funds and two counts of making false statements. The guilty verdict came after a six-day jury trial. According to the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Quinn was arrested and charged in December 2019. According to prosecutors, since January 2012, Quinn has stolen more than $420,000 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) by falsely claiming that he was unable to work due to a disability, when in reality, he owned and operated his own insurance agency. Prosecutors said evidence presented at trial indicated that Quinn was self-employed as the owner and operator of Shannon Francis & Quinn Insurance, which later became Quinn Group Insurance Agency, since at least March 2003 contrary to his claims to the VA and SSA. Quinn also served as the president, treasurer, secretary and director of Insurance Management Consultants, Inc. from 2000 through 2007, despite telling the VA and SSA that the company fired him in 2005. In his defense, Quinns lawyers argued that the VA and SSA regulations that prosecutors relied upon are unconstitutionally vague, debatable and uncertain as to what constitutes substantial gainful activity and that the regulations fail to give notice to a veteran like Quinn of how they might apply to his situation. Quinns lawyers have petitioned for an acquittal and have indicated they will be asking for a new trial. Prosecutors told jurors that while claiming disability, Quinn operated his insurance firm and regularly received payments ranging in amounts of $6,500 to $15,000. They said he grew his business significantly through acquisitions of nine smaller insurance agencies at various times between 2012 through 2019. Prosecutors provided a timeline of Quinns benefit claims. In October 1995, shortly after being discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps, Quinn applied and was approved for disability compensation benefits with the VA based on a series of physical injuries and, later, post-traumatic stress disorder. In March 2005, Quinn applied for Individual Unemployability (IU) benefits with the VA, which are paid to individuals who are unable to maintain substantially gainful employment as a result of their service-connected disabilities. In the application, Quinn claimed that his PTSD prevented him from securing or following any substantially gainful occupation and that he had become too disabled to work. In support of his application, Quinn submitted a letter from his purported final employer, Insurance Management Consultants, Inc., claiming Quinn was let go due to his erratic behavior and was no longer employed at the firm. While receiving IU benefits, Quinn completed and returned four VA employment questionnaires, in each of which he attested he had not worked during the previous year, according to prosecutors. Similarly, in November 2005, Quinn applied and was approved for disability insurance benefits with Social Security, this time claiming he had become unable to work due to his disabling condition in September 2004. In June 2006, Quinn applied for childs insurance benefits, which are paid to the dependent of a disabled individual receiving disability insurance benefits, on behalf of his minor child. Social Security beneficiaries are obligated to report if they return to work to the SSA. In May 2018, Quinn reported to the SSA that he had not worked since May 2006. The SSA continued to pay benefits to Quinn and his son based on this report. Attorneys Tracy A. Miner and Christina N. Lindberg, of the Boston firm Miner Siddall, represented Quinn. This is not a typical benefits fraud prosecution, Quinns lawyers wrote in seeking acquittal. No one disputes that Defendant Patrick Quinn is a military veteran suffering from a number of significant disabilities and for years received specific service-connected disabilities that the VA evaluated and rated based on their severity and impact on Defendants ability to function. The regulations on which this prosecution hinge involve whether or not he was engaged in substantial gainful activity and are unconstitutionally vague, highly debatable, and so uncertain that people of average intelligence are forced to guess at their meaning. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns has scheduled sentencing for Aug. 17, 2022. The charge of theft of public funds provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of making a false statement provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Source: U.S. Attorney for District of Massachusetts Topics Fraud Massachusetts Preliminary economic losses from natural hazards billion during the first quarter of 2022 totaled $32, of which less than 50% (or $14 billion), was covered by public and private insurers, according to a report published by Aon. Although the first quarter of the year is typically the quietest, the report said, Q1 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year to record more than US$10 billion in insured losses, said the report titled Global Catastrophe Recap Q1 2022. Secondary Perils Responsible for Growing Share of Disaster Claims: RMS Some of the most significant natural hazard activity during the quarter occurred in: Western and Central Europe windstorms (Dudley/Ylenia, Eunice/Zeynep and Franklin/Antonia), Australias east coast floods, the Japan earthquake on March 16, and the severe convective storms (SCS) seen in the United States in March. The Asia Pacific (APAC) region accounted for the highest percentage of Q1 economic losses at $15-plus billion, followed by the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at $8 billion and the United States at $6 billion. (Economic losses, or the overall costs of natural catastrophes to economies, include the insurance price tag). Aon explained that these Q1 totals will likely be revised upward, perhaps considerably, in the coming weeks and months, as this type of loss development is standard and expected in the aftermath of larger scale events. For public and private insurers, the $36 billion in Q1 weather-related insured losses in 2021 and 2022 represented the second-highest two-year total on record second only to 2020 and 2021, which tallied $40 billion and was primarily driven by the $25 billion of losses seen in Q1 2021, said Aon. In third place was $33 billion for Q1 events in 1990 (dominated by major European windstorm events) and 1991. The two-year record for all natural hazards (including earthquakes, tsunamis, etc) remains 2010 and 2011 at $98 billion. Windstorm Eunice Diving into some of the quarters costliest events, Aon said Storm Eunice/Zeynep, which hit during the period Feb. 18-19, was the costliest windstorm to affect the European Union since 2010, with insurance claims of approximately 4.0 billion ($4.3 billion). (The UK Met-Office and the Irish National Meteorological Service Met Eireann named the storm Eunice, while the Free University of Berlin named the storm Zeynep). Seventeen lives were lost during Windstorm Eunice. Eunice/Zeynep was one windstorm in a series during the period Feb. 16-21 that also included: Dudley/Ylenia and and Franklin/Antonia. Japan Earthquake The magnitude-7.3 earthquake that shook Japan on March 16 is likely to cost insurers more than $2 billion, with economic losses well into the billions of U.S. dollars, said Aon, recalling that the event occurred just days after the 11th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011. Four people lost their lives, and 244 others were injured. Damages included ruptured water pipes, disruption to infrastructure such as railway and utility poles. At least 10,414 homes sustained some level of damage. The earthquake additionally left several manufacturing facilities closed. Some of these locations included microchip maker Renesas Electronics and electric components maker Murata Manufacturing, which was expected to further disrupt the current global supply chain crisis, said Aon in its report. Severe Convective Storms The month of March featured numerous SCS outbreaks that resulted in deadly tornadoes, very large hail, and strong straight-line winds across the central, eastern, and southern United States, said Aon, noting that Iowa, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama were the hardest hit. The combined cost of Q1 U.S. SCS activity was expected to result in a multi-billion-dollar loss for the insurance industry. The country is well on its way to recording its 15th consecutive year with insured SCS losses topping $10 billion, the report continued. There were at least 290 tornado Local Storm Reports (LSRs), of which 222 have thus far been unofficially confirmed via National Weather Service (NWS) surveys, said Aon, quoting data from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). This was well above the Doppler radar era (1990-2020) average of 83 and marked the first time that the month of March surpassed the 200-tornado threshold. In total, there were at least 354 tornado LSRs in Q1 (and 265 unofficially confirmed), with 12 tornado-related deaths, Aon continued. The strongest tornado of the year to-date was a long-tracked EF4 tornado with up to 170 mph (275 kph) winds in Iowa on March 5, which was one of at least 14 confirmed tornadoes in the state on that day. The twister resulted in extensive damage in Madison County near the town of Winterset along its 70-mile (112 km) path. Aon said this represented the second-longest tornado path observed in Iowa since 1980. Australias East Coast Floods An historic period of torrential rainfall affected broad swaths of Australias East Coast during the latter half of February through March, with parts of New South Wales and Queensland being among the hardest hit, according to Aon. Substantial flooding was seen in the greater Brisbane and Sydney metropolitan areas in addition to other localized communities in each state. As of April 8, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said that at least 173,346 claims had been filed with an estimated value of A$2.43 billion (US$1.81 billion). These totals will continue to increase and agriculture will see additional insured losses, added Aon. Australias Bureau of Meteorology said several areas set numerous one-day (24-hour), monthly, and quarterly rainfall records, said the report, noting that many of these records were set in locations with more than 100 years of observational data. The overall economic toll including uninsured or underinsured damage will be well into the billions of U.S. dollars, resulting in one of Australias costliest flood-related events, the report said. Climate Change The first quarter is typically the quietest of the year, though 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year to record more than $10 billion in insured losses, commented Steve Bowen, managing director and head of Catastrophe Insight for Aons Impact Forecasting team. In terms of climatic trends, the Aon report said that January 2022 was the sixth-warmest January on record, while February was the seventh warmest, and March was the fifth warmest. Aon quoted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which compared global records dating back to 1880. In our Q1 study, we highlighted the final, released findings of the IPCCs recent Sixth Assessment Report, which stated that projected climate-related losses are likely to escalate with every additional increment of global warming, Bowen added. (The IPCC is The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.) This will further compound overall risk levels on a global scale. Adaptation, planning and strategic implementation need to be three fundamental aspects to climate change preparedness, as they can lead to significant societal and ecological protection as communities navigate this increasing volatility. Secondary Perils The growing impact of secondary perils, such as winter weather, flooding, and severe convective storm, have accounted for a significant portion of the overall quarterly economic cost, explained Aon. This reinforces the question as to whether the term secondary peril has become obsolete because the losses associated with these perils are impacting more populated communities with increasing intensity and resulting in higher loss costs. Photograph: Cleanup efforts are underway in Winterset, Iowa, on Sunday, March 6, 2022, after a tornado tore through an area southwest of town on Saturday. Photo credit: Bryon Houlgrave/The Des Moines Register via AP. Topics Natural Disasters Aon Maria Caceres an Indiana travel agent was sentenced last week to 30 months in federal prison following her conviction of wire fraud, to which she had previously plead guilty. According to court records, the 56-year old Caceres was employed by Seven Corners, a travel insurance business located in Carmel. Between May 2011 and September 2016, Caceres prepared and submitted thirty fraudulent insurance claims to Seven Corners totaling more than $650.000. As part of the scheme, Caceres and her accomplices created fictitious names under which they purchased insurance policies from the victim company. Caceres and her accomplices created false email addresses in the name of a hospital in Venezuela and submitted claims to the victim company for purported emergency medical services provided to the fictitious individuals during international travel. The U.S. Department of Justice says none of these expenses were ever incurred and Caceres had created artificial customer accounts and false documents in support of the claims. As a result of the fraud, the victim company paid over $588,000 to accounts controlled by Caceres accomplices. Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana and FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young. As part of the sentence, Judge Young ordered that the defendant be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for one year following her release from prison. Caceres was also ordered to pay over $496,000.00 in restitution. Source: U.S. Department of Justice Topics Agencies Fraud Indiana The family of a Black man who was fatally shot by a white Indiana police officer in 2019 is appealing a federal judges dismissal of their wrongful death lawsuit. Eric Logans relatives argue in their appeal filed last week in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that the judge was incorrect to dismiss the suit and that he should have considered evidence regarding former South Bend police Sgt. Ryan ONeills credibility and policing standards, the South Bend Tribune reported. Some of the decisions that were made by the judge in weighing the evidence in this matter, were outside his purview, said Brian Coffman, an attorney representing the ONeill family. That is up to a jury to weigh those facts and decide what actually happened in this incident. Logans family sued the city of South Bend and ONeill over the June 2019 shooting. ONeill said the 54-year-old Logan refused his orders to drop a knife as the officer investigated a report of a person breaking into cars. Last September, U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty dismissed the suit, ruling that ONeill acted reasonably when Logan moved toward him with a hunting knife raised over his head. The familys lawsuit said ONeill used excessive force and that Logan had thrown the knife before the officer shot him twice. A special prosecutor ruled that ONeill, who resigned weeks after Logans killing, was justified in the shooting. ONeill was sentenced in October 2020 to probation after pleading guilty to a charge related to an earlier on-duty sexual encounter. The fallout from Logans killing snarled then-Mayor Pete Buttigiegs presidential campaign. Buttigieg, who is now President Joe Bidens transportation secretary, had to step away from the campaign trail to face angry residents at an emotional town hall in South Bend. Topics Lawsuits Indiana Protecting local Boy Scouts of America councils and troop sponsoring organizations from future liability for child sex abuse claims is critical to the national groups reorganization plan, BSA attorneys told a Delaware bankruptcy judge April 12. Attorneys opposing the plan countered that liability releases for non-debtor third parties are neither fair nor necessary, and that they infringe on the rights of abuse survivors to seek compensation for their abuse. The Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, petitioned for bankruptcy protection in February 2020, seeking to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a settlement trust for abuse victims. Although the organization faced about 275 lawsuits at the time, more than 82,000 sexual abuse claims have been filed in the bankruptcy case. The reorganization plan calls for the Boys Scouts and its 250 local councils, along with settling insurance companies and troop sponsoring organizations, to contribute some $2.6 billion in cash and property and assign their insurance rights to a settlement trust fund for abuse victims. More than half that money would come from the BSAs two largest insurers, Century Indemnity Co. (a Chubb company) and The Hartford. Those companies would contribute $800 million and $787 million, respectively. In exchange, the parties contributing to the settlement trust would be released from further liability for sexual abuse claims dating back decades. The local BSA councils are not debtors in the bankruptcy, but Boy Scouts attorney Jessica Lauria argued that they are inextricably intertwined with the national organization and deserve to be protected from future lawsuits in exchange for contributing to the compensation fund. There can be no doubt that there is an identity of interests, and frankly an extreme interconnectedness, between the local councils and the national organization, Lauria said. Sponsoring organizations similarly are closely tied to BSA and local councils and critical to their operations, she added. Richard Mason, an attorney for the local councils, told Judge Laura Selber Silverstein that without the liability releases, the compensation fund basically evaporates. Absent approval of the BSAs plan, the local councils would face massive litigation and would be forced to seek bankruptcy protection themselves, endangering the future of Scouting and the ability of abuse survivors to obtain compensation, Mason added. But opponents questioned why the liability releases for local councils and sponsoring organization are needed in order for the BSA to emerge from bankruptcy. They noted that the Boy Scouts proposed a plan last year under which the settlement trust would be funded only by the national organization, and only for claims made against it. Under that plan, the councils and local sponsoring organizations would make no contribution and would have no protection from liability for abuse claims. Debtors said that was workable, feasible, Silverstein noted. So why is it necessary to have this elaborate, interconnected, intertwined plan for the Boy Scouts? Lauria replied that BSA-only plan may have been feasible when first proposed, but that it was never optimal. She also noted that the BSA has spent some $100 million more on professional fees in the bankruptcy since then and cant afford to fund a settlement trust on its own at this point. Edwin Caldie, an attorney representing scores of alleged abuse victims in Guam, argued that the BSAs current plan unfairly strips them of their rights to pursue abuse claims against Catholic church officials. The Guam group includes creditors with claims against the Archdiocese of Agana, which sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 amid a flood of child sex abuse claims. Many of those claims involve the late priest Louis Brouillard, who was also a BSA Scoutmaster and who was accused of molesting more than 100 children. The BSA plan would channel claims against the Guam diocese into the proposed BSA settlement trust without the consent of survivors and unfairly deprive them of the ability to pursue BSA insurance policies, Caldie said. Caldie accused the settling insurers of using extortionist tactics in negotiations with the Boy Scouts to obtain liability releases to which they would not be entitled under the policies they issued. He also rejected the notion that a relatively small number of survivors should not be allowed to interfere with approval of a reorganization plan supported by tens of thousands of other claimants. From a common sense perspective, the BSA made a decision to shun and silence survivors of child sexual assault for decades and did not report their perpetrators for decades, Caldie said. . The Guam survivors are not terribly comfortable with `greater good arguments now, especially made buy the BSA. Closing arguments on whether the judge should approve the BSA plan are expected to conclude Wednesday. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Trends In his first letter to Amazon shareholders, CEO Andy Jassy offered a defense of the wages and benefits the company gives its warehouse workers while also vowing to improve injury rates inside the facilities. Jassy, who took over from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as CEO last July, wrote the company has researched and created a list of the top 100 employee experience pain points and is working to solve them. Were also passionate about further improving safety in our fulfillment network, with a focus on reducing strains, sprains, falls, and repetitive stress injuries, he wrote. The company is set to face two shareholder votes next month tied to workplace injuries. One calls for an independent audit into the working conditions and treatment of its warehouse workers, while the other seeks to assess whether Amazons policies give rise to racial and gender disparities in its workplace injury rates. The retailer had argued against both proposals, but U.S. securities regulators disagreed and allowed the resolutions to stand. A report released this week by Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of four labor unions, found Amazon employed 33% of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, but was responsible for 49% of all injuries in the industry. Jassy pushed back on the report during an interview with CNBC Thursday morning, saying it was not accurate. He further wrote in the shareholder letter that the companys injury rates can sometimes be misunderstood, saying it has operations jobs that fit both the warehousing and courier and delivery categories. Offering his own data, Jassy acknowledged the companys warehouse injury rates were a little higher than the average compared to other warehouses, but lower than average compared to Amazons courier and delivery peers. This makes us about average relative to peers, but we dont seek to be average, Jassy wrote. We want to be best in class. Union organizers in Staten Island, New York and Bessemer, Alabama have often rallied workers while pointing to the companys injury rates. The nascent Amazon Labor Union, which won the union election in Staten Island earlier this month, is now seeking to negotiate with the retailer for a union contract. But Amazon has rebuffed those attempts and is seeking to re-do the election. Jassy didnt mention the union push in his letter, but said the company offers robust benefits, and has increased hourly wages in the past few years. When asked about the union win during the interview, he said it was employees choice whether they want to join a union but believes theyre better off not doing so. He argued unions could slow down change, and believes workers are better off having direct relationships with their managers, an argument the company has made in the lead-up to the union elections to persuade its employees not to unionize. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Amazon Foreign Minister nominee Park Jin speaks to reporters at his temporary office in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap South Korea, US nuclear envoys discuss North Korea issues By Kang Seung-woo Foreign Minister nominee Park Jin suggested, Monday, that the new South Korean government will turn away from the Moon Jae-in administration's inter-Korean peace initiative amid escalating threats from North Korea. Stressing the importance of cooperating with the U.S. in handling Pyongyang's provocations and promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the nominee said he expected to meet with the U.S. nuclear envoy, who arrived in Seoul earlier in the day for talks with his South Korean counterpart and officials of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition committee. Park, a four-term lawmaker of the conservative People Power Party who is recognized as an expert on relations with the U.S., led the ROK-U.S. Policy Consultation Delegation to Washington, D.C., earlier this month. During their visit, the delegates met with key senior officials of the Joe Biden administration such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Kurt Campbell, the White House policy coordinator for Asia. The incoming administration's departure from President Moon Jae-in's Korean Peninsula peace process has been highly anticipated since the election campaign, during which Yoon slammed "fruitless" peace efforts highlighted by South Korea's push for a declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, and heralded a major shift in dealing with its northern neighbor. Despite South Korea's repeated calls for the end-of-war declaration, North Korea has remained unresponsive. "The Moon administration made efforts to improve inter-Korean ties in its own way, but North Korea did not respond to them properly. Since the Hanoi summit between the U.S. and North Korea in 2019 ended without a deal, the North has increased nuclear and missile threats without returning to dialogue," Park told reporters. Park said the Korean Peninsula was at the end of its rope after failing to rein in the belligerence of the Kim Jong-un regime. "We cannot stop North Korea from repeating military provocations only with a conciliatory stance and I think it is time to practically change our peacemaking policy toward North Korea," he added. Park's remarks came shortly after North Korea announced, Sunday, it had test fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, Saturday, to boost its nuclear fighting capability, with its leader observing the launch. The reclusive state has conducted multiple missile tests so far this year, including the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, crossing Washington's unofficial "red line" against North Korea's saber-rattling. "While the international community has imposed sanctions on the North Korean missile launches, there is a need to keep the provocations in check," Park said. "The Yoon administration will pursue a balanced policy toward North Korea, which will use a pressure and persuasion approach to the North Korea denuclearization," he added. With the incoming president scheduled to take office, May 10, U.S. President Joe Biden is highly expected to visit Seoul before attending the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) summit in Tokyo, slated for May 24. Given that the president-elect vowed to engage in diplomacy that places alignment with the U.S. at the center of its foreign policy priorities, the envisaged summit may focus on reviving the bilateral alliance, which Yoon believes has been damaged over the past five years under the Moon administration, which balanced improving inter-Korean ties along with the country's alliance with the U.S. Noh Kyu-duk, right, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, shakes hands with his U.S. counterpart Sung Kim during their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap Berkshire Hathaway didnt require Alleghany to pay any breakup fee in the event another potential acquirer topped an $11.6 billion deal price that Warren Buffett offered to CEO Joseph Brandon in early Marchafter some casual conversation at a dinner meeting. Reports of the March 7 dinner meeting, and of what the Alleghany Corporation board characterized as Buffetts highly unusual move to exclude a termination fee, are set forth in a proxy statement that was filed on April 11. The Board discussed that the absence of a termination fee was highly unusual and favorable to the Company because termination fees made it more expensive for alternative [acquirers] and could discourage bidders from submitting proposals during a go-shop period or thereafter during the no-shop period, the filing says, revealing what went on during a March 17 videoconference at which board members weighed the pros and cons of selling to Berkshire. The St. Patricks Day videoconference was the third one held after Buffett and Brandon met over dinner in New York. Three days later, on March 20, Berkshire and Alleghany executed the merger agreement and they jointly announced it to the world in a press release the following day. Behind the scenes, Goldman Sachs, Alleghanys financial adviser, did, in fact, go shopping. The financial firm started reaching out to 23 potential strategic bidders and eight potential financial sponsor bidders on March 21, according to the filing. The go-shop period ended at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on April 14. Besides the breakup fee, also absent from Buffetts deal proposal was need for any due diligence. Instead, he said his offer would be subject to both parties moving quickly to negotiate and announce a transaction, during that first dinner meeting with Brandon and a subsequent meeting with Brandon and Alleghany Chair Jefferson W. Kirby in Omaha, Neb., on March 12. Buffett made his case for a quick cash deal of $850 per share of common stock, after some casual conversation at the March 7 dinner meeting and again in Nebraska less than a week later, noting that there was no need for Berkshire to get any third-party financing to move forward. The $850 price per share would be reduced for the fee payable to Alleghanys financial adviser, which turned out to be $1.98 per share, putting the final price at $848.02. The filing doesnt reveal much debate over the deal price, although it does note that Kirby asked Buffett to up the price once, after Brandon had exited the March 12 meeting. Kirby proposed that Buffett should either raise the $850 price per share or eliminate the deduction for the fee payable to Goldman Sachs. Buffett rejected any change to his original offer. Other back-and-forth proposals came from the legal representatives on both sidesWillkie Farr & Gallagher LLP for Alleghany and Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP for Berkshirewith Willkie proposing a 35-day go-shop period instead of a 25-day period. Willkie also proposed to eliminate Buffetts ability to match a competing offer and advanced some proposals about a reverse termination fee and time frames related to hiccups in regulatory approvals. The 25-day go-shop period and the right for Buffett to match a superior proposal were ultimately agreed. What attracted Buffett to make an offer to Alleghany in the first place? While it is known that Brandon previously worked with Buffett as chair and chief executive officer of Berkshires subsidiary General Re Corporation, and while Buffetts annual reports often refer to his quests for elephant-sized acquisition targets, the April 11 filing gives only a brief reference to how or why the dinner meeting came about: Mr. Brandonsent Mr. Buffett a copy of the annual letter to [Alleghanys] stockholders, which accompanied the Companys annual report, as the Company had done from time to time in prior years. Following receipt of the annual letter from Mr. Brandon, on February 25, 2022, Mr. Buffett suggested that they get together in New York or Nebraska. The filing does not explain why Alleghany sent Buffett a copy of the annual letter in prior years. The section detailing the background of the merger, however, does begin with a typical disclosure noting that Alleghanys board and senior management team regularly review and assess potential opportunities for business combinations, acquisitions, dispositions, and other financial and strategic alternatives as part of their ongoing evaluation of the companys operations and the business environment. Over the past few years, the Board has evaluated, and senior management has had conversations with third parties regarding, a disposition, spin-off and/or initial public offering of each of the Companys Transatlantic Holdings, Inc., RSUI Group, Inc. and CapSpecialty, Inc. businesses, the filing says, referring to the insurance and reinsurance operating subsidiaries. After receiving Buffetts offer, Alleghanys board and management teams still had to consider potential alternatives to the status quo or a deal with Berkshire, weighing the possible values and execution risks involved with selling or spinning out individual businesses. One risk the board considered after Goldman Sachs reviewed these options during the March 17 videoconference was the risk that Buffett would pull his offer if Alleghany contacted other potential acquirers. That risk was brought to light by Buffetts past statements that Berkshire avoids auction processes and Berkshires track record of not participating in auctions, the filing said, also referring to the risk of a leak from outreach to other suitors and the impact of such a leak on the process for signing of a definitive agreement. Deciding that the risks outweighed the potential benefits of contacting other potential acquirers prior to signing the merger agreement, Alleghany waited to solicit and consider superior proposals from alternative acquirers until after the merger announcementwith no worries about having to pay Berkshire a termination fee if better deals showed up. Deal Valuation Setting out the reasons why the board unanimously recommends that the stockholders of the Company vote FOR the proposal to approve and adopt the merger agreement and the merger, the list starts with the deal value. Here, the filing notes that the $848.02-per-share offer is 25.3 percent higher than the closing price of Alleghany common stock on March 18, 2022 (the last trading day prior to the boards approval of the merger agreement), and 29 percent above the volume-weighted average closing share price of Alleghany common stock during the 30 days prior to the boards approval of the merger agreement. In addition, the resulting valuation is 1.26-times Alleghanys book value at Dec. 31, 2021, the filing says. Among the other reasons listed are these: Berkshire is paying cash, which provides certainty of value and liquidity to Alleghany stockholders immediately upon closing, especially when viewed against the risks and uncertainties inherent in the Companys businesses, including long-term business and execution risks and uncertainty in global economic conditions. Berkshire stockholders dont have to approve the deal. Berkshire has a successful track record of acquiring other companies, and the financial wherewithal to do the deal without any financing conditions. The section of the proxy filing presenting Goldman Sachs analysis of the fairness of the deal price sets out more price comparables and discloses the methods used to assess the fairness. For example, the disclosure reveals that the $848.02 per-share offer is 38.8 percent higher than the price at which Alleghany was trading on the day of the Buffett-Brandon dinner. The deal price falls within the ranges calculated by Goldman for most of the methods of analysis described, including a dividend discount analysis with implied values of $599-$807 per share. It is above the range of a present value of future share price analysis which gives implied values of $567-$791 per share. Another analysis involves comparing the 1.26-times price-to-book value multiple of the Alleghany deal to multiples for several property/casualty insurance and reinsurance deals announced since 2014. Eleven such deals are listed with price-to-book multiples ranging from 1.02-times (Renaissance Res acquisition of Tokio Millenium Re) to 1.57-times (AIGs deal for Validus Holdings). Goldman Sachs narrows the reference range for its analysis down to one that extends from 1.12-times to 1.36-times, corresponding to the 25th- and 75th-percentile ratios. The resulting range of implied values is $756-$914 per share. According to a list shown in the filing, deals with price-to-book multiples higher than Berkshires deal include SOMPO Holdings deal for Endurance Specialty announced in 2016 (1.36-times) and AXAs deal for XL Group (1.51-times) among others. On the other end, Apollo Global Managements deal for Aspen Insurance Holdings (1.12-times) and RenRes deal for Platinum Underwriting Holdings (1.13-times) had lower multiples, according to information in the filing. Related stories Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has proposed fining five homeowners insurance companies a combined $764,750 following targeted market conduct examinations of their insurance activities between August 27, 2020, and June 30, 2021, a period in which hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta made landfall in Louisiana. The five examinations found 44 instances of improper activities and/or business practices that were noncompliant with the Louisiana Insurance Code. Violations were found in the areas of claims handling, complaint handling, and operations and management. The five companies for which the LDI has proposed fines are United Property & Casualty Insurance Company, GeoVera Specialty Insurance Company, FedNat Insurance Company, Maison Insurance Company and Allied Trust Insurance Company. The LDI retained Risk & Regulatory Consulting, LLC to assist with the examination. All five examination reports were adopted on April 11, 2022. The devastation and impact of the 2020 hurricane season was overwhelming, but that doesnt excuse the activities we discovered in our market conduct examinations of these five insurers, said Commissioner Donelon. I strongly encourage our states insurance industry to take note of the unacceptable behavior we found and know we will continue to pursue appropriate fines and regulatory action against any insurer that is not meeting their obligations. United Property & Casualty has a proposed fine of $250,000 after the examination found 10 instances of improper activities and/or business practices, including failing to conduct an on-site review of the underwriting and claims processing operations of its managing general agent; forcing policyholders to pursue litigation to recover amounts due under their insurance policy; failing to make payment within the required timeframe following the submission of satisfactory proof of loss; and other violations. GeoVera has a proposed fine of $183,000 after the examination found 9 instances of improper activities and/or business practices, including failing to make payment within the required timeframe following the submission of satisfactory proof of loss; utilizing multiple desk adjusters in a way that delayed the claim investigation and settlement; and other violations. FedNat has a proposed fine of $173,500 after the examination found 10 instances of improper activities and/or business practices, including failing to make payment within the required timeframe following the submission of satisfactory proof of loss; utilizing multiple desk adjusters in a way that delayed the claim investigation and settlement; and other violations. Maison has a proposed fine of $115,000 after the examination found 5 instances of improper activities and/or business practices, including failing to make payment within the required timeframe following the submission of satisfactory proof of loss; utilizing multiple desk adjusters in a way that delayed the claim investigation and settlement; and other violations. Allied Trust has a proposed fine of $43,250 after the examination found 10 instances of improper activities and/or business practices, including failing to make payment within the required timeframe following the submission of satisfactory proof of loss; failing to respond to claim inquiries and requests within 14 days; and other violations. The companies have 30 days from the date of the adopted examination report to appeal the LDIs findings. Source: LDI Topics Carriers Louisiana Windstorm The King Insurance brokerage firm has acquired Ameriway Insurance Co., based in Fernandina Beach, Florida, the companies announced. Ameriway provides commercial and personal lines coverage and was founded by Charles Hayes. He will continue to run the operation until his retirement, King noted in a news release. King was founded in 1974 in Gainesville, Florida, and provides property/casualty and employee benefits products. It has continued to expand in recent months with a number of acquisitions. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies Florida Nebraska The Town of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Washington said that a fire that burned through a block of businesses last week was intentionally set. City officials said the fire that started early on April 7 originated from a deck behind Crystal Seas Kayaking and was determined to be arson, KING-TV reported. Officials said the cause was determined by a National Response Team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The regional ATF and the San Juan County Sheriffs Office are continuing to search for suspects. Four businesses Herbs Tavern, Crows Nest Coffee Shoppe, Crystal Seas Kayaks and the Windermere Real Estate were destroyed. Officials say the response by emergency crews kept the damage from being worse. No injuries were reported. The Town of Friday Harbor said it is working with building owners to ensure the safe reopening of structures. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Washington Arson Its Margarita Monday, Im not taking responsibility! this was the warning given to me by a friend in the food world when I picked her brain for ideas on where to dine on a Monday night. I was entertaining an old school friend who was back from the US and my friends suggestion of 777 Mexican restaurant was a good one: her warning related to the fact that many a Monday evening diner in 777 has not woken up until Wednesday thanks to the mayhem that is Margarita Monday. John Farrell opened 777 back in 2012 and it has thrived since a new outdoor area called Afuera opened last year and a new Taco room is about to open any day now. 777 is a rather joyous place and I defy you to leave without a smile on your face, whether it is Margarita Monday or just a Tuesday As most Dublin restaurants are closed on Mondays, 777 is the place Dublins hospitality industry congregates and you know how fussy they can be I spotted a couple of talented chefs I know feasting on tacos and margaritas. 777s menu is short and suited to sharing: Botanas (Snacks), Taquitos (rolled fried tacos), Tortillas and Tostados, as well as larger dishes from the wood-fired grill. This is not a restaurant for quiet contemplation as the music is loud and the atmosphere verging on raucous in other words it is perfect for banishing Monday night blues. We began inevitably with Margaritas. Margarita Monday means that two cost 16 rather than 12.50 each. This rather wondrous classic cocktail surely needs no introduction but this simple blend of Tequila, Triple Sec (orange flavoured liqueur) and lime juice is not nearly as reliable as it should be in the cocktail bars of Ireland. 777 uses Don Julio Blanco Tequila which helps and they deserve their reputation of serving the best in the city. I opted for a slight variation with the addition of cilantro and jalapeno to add a little heat and depth to the zingy fresh cocktail and it took a lot of restraint to not keep ordering. John Farrell opened 777 back in 2012 and it has thrived since a new outdoor area called Afuera opened last year and a new Taco room is about to open any day now. Tortilla chips and dips were good and kept hunger at bay while we sipped our margaritas. The first dish to arrive was Tuna Sashimi (15) on crisp tostadas and the soy dressed tuna tasted fresh and lively while pickled cucumber, Chipotle mayonnaise and crispy onions lifted the flavours further. Next came Bacalao (12) fresh cod in a light tempura batter with pickled red onion, jalapeno and cabbage served on a corn tortilla with Chipotle mayo. The contrast between the soft tortilla, crisp batter and yielding tender fish was delightful while the sauce held it all together and the taco sang as one. 777s menu is short and suited to sharing: Botanas (Snacks), Taquitos (rolled fried tacos), Tortillas and Tostados, as well as larger dishes from the wood-fired grill Pulled Pork and Chorizo taco with cheese and Habanero was a little more fiery but easily bearable, Beetroot Hummus meanwhile was perfect for dunking tortilla chips into and lining the stomach a little. Iberico Pork (25) with Quince Chutney and Chimichurri sauce was rich, meaty and smoky tasting thanks to the wood fire grill while a large grilled Chicken Thigh was tender and moreish. Baby Back Ribs were the only disappointment as the meat did not fall off the bone as I felt it should, and the Guava Glaze seemed out of place. Bottles of Mexican Victoria beer (6.50) washed down the later parts of our meal. This fine, malty, Vienna style lager is imported by 777 and is a world away from the likes of Sol and Corona. There are just three white wines and four reds on offer so Id stick with cocktails and beer. Dinner for Two including Margaritas, Beers, Tostados, Taquitos, Wood Fired Pork and Chicken plus Sides, Dips and Dessert cost 168 We finished the meal with a fruity lively Pina Colada Sorbet and Leche Frittas (7) a sort of Dulce de Leche cake with good quality vanilla ice-cream that helped lift the intense sweet caramel flavours. Service throughout the evening was impeccably handled by the charming (and glamorous) Dana, ably assisted by Hannah and Thais. Staff clearly love working in 777 and their enthusiasm is infectious. 777 is a rather joyous place and I defy you to leave without a smile on your face, whether it is Margarita Monday or just a Tuesday. The Tab: Dinner for Two including Margaritas, Beers, Tostados, Taquitos, Wood Fired Pork and Chicken plus Sides, Dips and Dessert cost 168 The Verdict: Food: 8/10 Drink: 8/10 Ambience: 9/10 Service: 9/10 Value: 8/10 In a Sentence: 777 is a whole lot of fun with tasty food for sharing, excellent cocktails and a joyous atmosphere perfect for banishing Monday Night (or any night) Blues. Antonio Canova was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor who died, aged 64, 200 years ago this year. He is best-known for his marble sculptures, such as Psyche Revived by Cupids Kiss and Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, which are now in the Louvre in Paris and Apsley House in London respectively. Canova never set foot in Cork in his life, and yet his work is familiar to anyone who has ever visited the Crawford Art Gallery, where a collection of his casts, commissioned by Pope Pius VII and gifted to the city by the Prince Regent of Great Britain and Ireland, is on permanent display. How the Canova Casts made their way from the Vatican to London and then on to Cork is the stuff of legend. Pius VII was incarcerated by Napoleon for many years, explains Dr Michael Waldron, assistant curator of Collections at the Crawford. After Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, Pius was released, and he campaigned for the return of the art taken by Napoleon from Rome. Canova was already a well-known artist, and Pius sent him to Paris to retrieve the Vatican artworks from what is now the Louvre. It wasnt possible to bring them all back to Rome, so part of Canovas job was to select what would be taken. Britain helped with returning the artworks, and Pius expressed his gratitude by commissioning Canova to make plaster casts of a number of his own sculptures and many more of the Vaticans antiquities. There were over 200 in all, including full-scale figures and friezes. The Canova Casts were often used for educational purposes, as seen in this picture from 1956 when the Crawford was Cork's School of Art. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive The casts were shipped to London as a gift to the Prince Regent, the future George VI, but almost at once, the problem arose of where to accommodate them. For a time, they languished at the Custom House on the Thames, near St Pauls Cathedral, before being moved to a pavilion in the gardens at Carlton House, the Prince Regents London residence. The Prince then offered them to the Royal Academy, but was rebuffed, on the basis that the academy already had a fine collection of casts and could not find room for any more. The story goes that a Corkman, working as a porter at the Royal Academy, heard the casts could be had for the asking. He got word to William Hare, Viscount Ennismore and Listowel, who happened to be President of the Cork Society for Promoting the Fine Arts. Hare in turn approached the Prince Regent, who was only too happy to gift them to Cork. He had them shipped within weeks. On November 7, 1818, a local newspaper called The Southern Reporter heralded the casts arrival in Cork. There were, it reported, as many as 219 figures, busts, torsos, reliefs and fragments. The casts were installed at the former Apollo Society theatre on Patrick St, where they came to be used for drawing instruction by the tutors from the newly established Cork School of Art, whose students included Daniel Maclise and Samuel Forde. In time, ownership of the casts passed to the Royal Cork Institution, and in 1832 they were moved to the old Custom House, what is now the Crawford Art Gallery. Some of the Canova Casts in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Picture: Crawford Art Gallery Throughout the 19th century, and up to the 1970s, the casts continued to be used in teaching drawing from observation. They were not always cared for as well as they might have been. Some crumbled away, others disappeared, and their number has dwindled to the point where there are now just twelve of the original casts. The survivors include three that were copied from Canovas original marble sculptures; The Goddess Concordia, The Mother of Napoleon the Great, and Bathing Venus. Of the nine others, most were cast by Canova and his assistants from Roman or Greek sculptures from antiquity. There are rumours that other works from the Canova collection may have found their way into homes around Cork. Waldron would love to see them if there are. There should be an amnesty, to bring them in, he says. The surviving casts have been cleared and mended on a number of occasions. Most recently, this work was done by conservator Eoghan Daltun, who observed that the fig leaves covering the genitalia on Adonis, Apollo Belvedere, the Belvedere Torso, and the figures in Laocoon and His Sons appear to have been added some time after their arrival in Cork. In June 2019, in an event billed as The Fig Reveal, these modesty coverings were removed. The occasion was recorded for inclusion in Mary Beards BBC television series, The Shock of the Nude. Mary helped Eoghan remove Apollo Belvederes fig leaf," says Waldron. "We didnt know what to expect, but a 1971 Irish hapenny was found inside it, which confirmed that the fig leaf was not part of the original cast. We removed the fig leaves from the other sculptures too; they seem to be a lot older, and may date to Victorian times. Weve kept them all as archival objects, and well exhibit them from time to time. The casts continue to enthrall visitors to the gallery. Artists like Dorothy Cross and Vivienne Roche would have encountered the casts in the 1970s when the Crawford was still a college as well as a gallery. Art students still come in to sketch them; they still have a life for people. They have an international dimension, but theyre also very much part of the history of Cork. The distance between Portland, Oregon and Tralee, Co Kerry, is approximately 4,600 miles, as the crow flies. But Thomas Stofiel rarely travelled in straight lines. In Episode 2 of our two-part documentary series, we find the former American Army Reservist in Tralee, residing as an asylum seeker in Atlas House. Lee Eun-hae, left, and Cho Hyun-soo arrive at Goyang Police Station in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, April 16. Yonhap Prosecutors are expected to seek formal arrest warrants as early as Monday for a woman and her boyfriend accused in the drowning death of her husband in 2009 for a hefty life insurance payout, according to officials. Lee Eun-hae, 31, and her lover, Cho Hyun-soo, 30, were detained Saturday on charges of getting Lee's 39-year-old husband to jump into a river in a valley in Gapyeong, 60 kilometers east of Seoul, even though he was unable to swim, and then letting him drown. Investigators suspect they committed the crime for 800 million won ($650,000) in insurance money. Lee and Cho were also accused of attempting to kill the husband that year by food poisoning with pufferfish toxin in February and trying to drown him at a fishing spot in May, the officials said. Prosecutors at the Incheon District Prosecutors Office said they would apply for court warrants to formally arrest the two suspects for further questioning. The two had been on the run since going into hiding in December ahead of prosecution questioning. In late March, police put them on their wanted listed and made their identities and photos public. Law enforcement authorities are required to secure an arrest warrant to further detain a suspect, 48 hours after the suspect's initial arrest, or release the suspect. Prosecutors are conducting a forensic analysis on a mobile phone found at their hiding place and trying to verify if anyone provided help to the two while they were on the run. (Yonhap) About festivals they were never wrong, the early Christians. How well they understood the need for release and redemption after the long, bleak winter months. They didnt create the annual rhythms of deprivation and excess, but they pinned them to the mind of the faithful just as Patrick pinned the pagan to the earth with a misplaced crozier. The festivals are scattered throughout the year like promises, sometimes transactionally: You deprive yourself of goodies during Advent or Lent and then the Church lets you off the leash at Christmas and Easter. Midwinter and early spring festivals existed before Christianity hung a story on each but what a story it was, in each case. Christmas was the legend of a frightened young pregnant girl, a kindly inn-keeper, a star in the sky, and three wise men following it. Easter had the stone rolling back and the glad tidings of a risen Christ. Not to mention the crucial intervention of one of the Apostles, Thomas, who wasnt having any of those glad tidings until he experienced what would today be described as scientific proof. The 21st century probably approves more of Doubting Thomas than did others, down through the years, who paid attention to what the gospel writer John said about the episode. Having insisted on seeing, if not poking about in, the wounds proving the now-living man was who he said he was, Thomas was satisfied. Then, according to to the Gospel of St John: Jesus saith unto him: Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Caravaggios painting of Doubting Thomas is pretty disgusting, not to mention unhygienic, with the apostle poking his index finger into the wound in the side of Jesus to prove to himself that its real. The man whose body is being so invaded has laid a gentle hand on the forearm of the finger-poker, allowing viewers of the painting to go: See the wound of the nail in his hand from the crucifixion? The wound is where generations of Christians expect the wound to be right in the middle of the back of the hand. Except that it couldnt have been there. Nail two hands through their palms to the cross pieces, hoist the cross upright, leave the man there, and he will fight to breathe. Literally. He will try to raise himself up to give his ribcage room to expand and, if he does, will put his entire body weight on the nails in his hands. Which, in turn, will cause the nails to tear through the tendons between the fingers so that he would fall away. It couldnt, in other words, have been done the way tradition suggests it was done. That alternative view surfaced first and most forcefully when a photographer created negative images of the Shroud of Turin which allowed viewers to see more than was visually possible for visitors to the shrine of the shroud. The negatives showed a man stilled in death after self-evident suffering, his hands meeting at his groin. The negatives, closely examined, didnt show the nail wounds where they should have been, but much higher, as if the nails had been driven through the bones of the victims crossed wrists. Those convinced of the authenticity of the linen shroud as being the cloth laid under and over Christ in his tomb were encouraged by the absence of obvious wounds in the centre of the dead mans hands, seeing it as proof that the shroud was some kind of holy photograph, preserved over two millennia. If it was just a medieval forgery, as sceptics argued, why didnt the medieval forger put the wounds where he or she would have expected them to be? The Shroud of Turin is always relevant at Easter. The shroud draws [people] to the tormented face and body of Jesus, said Pope Francis after hed seen it, and, at the same time, directs [people] toward the face of every suffering and unjustly persecuted person. Thats not to say His Holiness believes the stretch of burned and torn cloth is actually that which surrounded the body of Christ from Good Friday until Easter Sunday. The Catholic Church tiptoes around the Shroud, fascinated by its almost hidden image, respectful of modern scientific tests which suggest it goes no further back in history than the 15th century, during which century, goes the theory, some genius artist (unknown at the time) came up with a method of painting (unknown at the time) to create an image of beauty and sadness while remaining anonymous and never claiming the work as their own. The Church also pays attention to critiques suggesting that the right arm in the image is longer than it should be, with the implication that the artist elongated it for modesty purposes. The latest nicely-timed input to this story has been written by a former consultant neurologist who, on his retirement from medicine, became a priest. Fr Patrick Pullicino noticed something about the right arm and shoulder, and has published a paper proposing that the shoulder was dislocated, the arm moved so far out of the socket that it looks longer, whereas in fact it is the same length as the other but starts lower down because of the dislocation. That dislocation, he suggests, writing in highly technical terms in a Catholic medical publication, would match the account in the gospels of Jesus falling under the weight of the crucifix, which would have been considerable. Fr Pullicino points to abrasions on the back of the Shroud figure and suggests they indicate that the cross-carrier had to shift the instrument of executions from his right shoulder to his left after the dislocation made it impossible to carry it on that side. However, Fr Pullicino goes further in his postmortem analysis, maintaining that being crucified while suffering a dislocated shoulder (quite apart from the exquisite extra pain that would have inflicted) would have abraded and finally ruptured the mans subclavian artery. That, in turn, would have led to internal bleeding, which would have been the immediate cause of death and would also explain why blood and water issued from the dead mans side when a Roman soldier drove the tip of his lance into the hanging mans body. Pullicino s proposition resonates instantly with people who always believed in the Shroud and is instantly dismissed by those who always regarded it as a beautifully-executed fake. But it speaks to others, too. To collapsed Catholics who may believe this man existed and was crucified, without believing that he was God. To people fascinated by the scientific argument presented, in offputtingly scientific terms, by the former neurologist. And to unbelievers who apprehend the importance of myth, of legend, and of art, who are unpersuaded of any prophetic link but reminded, nonetheless, of the agony inflicted on a human being, many centuries ago, who claimed to be more than a man. It is now 54 days since Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine on what it pleases him to call a special military operation and what the rest of the world knows to be a bloody act of invasion which has changed the balance of power in Europe for at least the next decade and, quite possibly, forever. On that dire Thursday at 5.30am Moscow time (3.30am in Ireland) and citing Article 51 of Part 7 of the UN Charter, the Russian leader acted, he said, to support the Donetsk Peoples Republic and the Luhansk Peoples Republic. He called for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine. We are now perilously closer to open conflict between Nato and the old Soviet empire than ever before, and the gap has narrowed over the weekend. Forensic examiners confirm that genocide is taking place. US congressmen are drawing comparisons with the Korean War, which lasted for three years. Putin, warns the US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, is unlikely to change course unless he is faced with an overwhelming military defeat. Before that happens, we face the battle of the Donbas where more Russian artillery and airpower will be brought to bear. In the UK, long-term plans are under way to store enormous gas and hydrogen reserves under the Irish Sea as part of the European strategic response to the stranglehold that Russia has on energy supply and to enable part of that capacity for this winter. Within the next three months, the EU has to decide if it is willing to cut off its fossil fuel funding for the Russian war machine, or desert the Ukrainians. That decision lies in Germany. The sinking of the Moskva, Russias Black Sea flagship, with the loss of an untold number of crew an event reminiscent of the destruction of the Belgrano in the Falklands 40 years ago is another indication that war will not end soon. It prompted a diplomatic note from Russia, a demarche, to the US warning it not to send more arms to Ukraine or face unpredictable consequences. US president Joe Biden this weekend authorised an additional $800m of support including helicopters, aerial and marine drones, long-range howitzers, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. In Londons Trafalgar Square on Good Friday there was a reconstruction of a crucifixion with a shouting crowd, a brutal centurion, the sound of the hammering of nails and cries of death. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, said: The images from Ukraine are no pageant. They show us the stark reality of evil at work in power and ruthlessness, targeting the weak and the innocent in acts which cry to heaven for justice. Those cries are about to become louder. Ukraine has vowed to fight absolutely to the end in Mariupol where the ports last-known pocket of resistance is holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukrainians would keep fighting in the ruined city, as Russian missiles and rockets also battered other parts of the country. Witnesses reported multiple explosions in the city of Lviv early on Monday. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine have been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country, and the city was considered to be a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said that five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding. The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory of the war. But a few thousand fighters, by Russias estimate, are holding on to the giant four-square-mile Azovstal steel mill. We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war, Mr Shmyhal vowed on Sunday. He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible but we do not have intention to surrender. Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the citys patrol police, told Mariupol television. He said they are hiding from Russian shelling and from any occupying Russian soldiers. A building damaged during fighting is seen in Mariupol. Picture: AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov Capturing the city on the Sea of Azov would free up Russian troops for the expected new offensive to take control of the Donbas, in Ukraines industrial east. It also would allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, since its attempt to take the capital Kyiv failed. We are doing everything to ensure the defence of eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation. As for besieged Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope of military rescue by Ukrainian forces any time soon. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Sunday that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians there are basically encircled. He said they continue their struggle but that the city effectively does not exist any more because of massive destruction. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by Ukrainian estimates. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian air strike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theatre where civilians were taking shelter. An estimated 100,000 people remained in the city out of a pre-war population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Drone footage carried by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti on Sunday showed mile after mile of shattered buildings and, on the citys outskirts, the steel complex from which rose towering plumes of smoke. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine. Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraines military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault on the Donbas. After the humiliating sinking of the flagship of Russias Black Sea Fleet last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, the Kremlin has vowed to step up strikes on the capital. Russia said on Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near Kyiv overnight with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets earlier this month killed at least 57 people at a train station crowded with civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. Burma Civilian Deaths Continue in Kayah State Amid Heavy Fighting Two women killed in junta shelling in Padanye village, Loikaw Township, on April 7. / Shwe Loikaw Humanitarian Association An estimated 205 civilians have been killed by Myanmars regime in the anti-junta stronghold of Kayah State after five more people were shot dead this month. After almost a year of armed resistance against regime forces in Kayah State, heavy fighting continues in Loikaw, Demoso, Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships. On April 5, a man was shot dead while riding a motorbike with another person in Hpruso Township. Another dead body was found on April 11, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group, which records junta atrocities in the state. Banyar, the groups director, said: Two people died immediately and four family members were injured after artillery hit their house in Pa Hike Nyin village, Loikaw Township, on April 6. Another two civilians were shot dead on a Hpruso Township road while walking to a village. Since January there have been about 53 civilians killed. The most common form of death came through being detained, tortured and killed by troops and artillery strikes were the second most common. Our organization only collects civilian deaths and injuries because of junta attacks. We dont include deaths in displacement camps because of illness, said Banyar, who only uses one name. Kayah State is a fiercely contested resistance stronghold because of its proximity to the capital, Naypyitaw. Repeated fighting and heavy artillery strikes are reported across the state and over 200,000 people have fled their homes. Fighting in the state capital, Loikaw, ceased in early February but broke out again in the citys Chi Kel and Hta Ta Ma wards on April 14. Intense fighting has been reported in Htar Lae and Nan Phe villages in Hpruso Township and about four regime forces, including battalion commander Win Htike Soe from the 66th Light Infantry Division, apparently died in a Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) mine attack. According to the KNDF, about 58 regime and 10 resistance troops had been killed so far this month. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the numbers. You may also like these stories: About 20 IDPs Test Positive for COVID-19 in Camp in Myanmars Karen State Myanmar Rohingya Genocide Case Is Legitimate, Gambia Tells UNs Top Court Cobra Gold Military Exercise Kicks Off in Thailand Without Myanmar Burma Explosives For Myanmar Resistance Group Seized in India Explosives Seized in Mizoram. / Assam Rifles One of Indias premier investigating agencies is probing the seizure of a large quantity of explosives believed to be intended for a Myanmar-based resistance group fighting the military regime. The explosives were seized in January close to the India/Myanmar border in Siaha District in Indias Mizoram State, after the Assam Rifles intercepted a vehicle with explosives packed in around 100 cardboard boxes. Over 2,421 kilograms of explosives, as well as 1,000 detonators and 4,500 metres of detonating fuse, were recovered from the vehicle, along with 73,500 Indian Rupees and 935,500 Kyats. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is under the administrative control of Indias Home Ministry, subsequently seized incriminating documents and digital devices during searches at two locations in Mizoram, after the case was registered last month in Indias capital New Delhi. During the course of the investigation, police arrested three people including a Myanmar national, according to the first information report registered by NIA. He had fled his home in Myanmar and had been camping in a border district in Mizoram. The government is of the opinion that a scheduled offence under the 2008 NIA Act has been committed and having regard to the gravity of the offence, its international linkages and ramifications on national security, it is required to be probed by the investigating agency. In a similar incident last year, the Assam Rifles recovered a large haul of war-like stores being smuggled to Myanmar and apprehended two people. The items seized included 63 sacks of an explosives substance weighing a total of 1.3 tonnes, 3,000 special detonators, 925 electric detonators and 2,000 meters of fuse. Officials were of the opinion that the explosives were intended to be smuggled from Mizoram to Myanmar for use against the Myanmar junta. The operation was carried out by the Assam Rifles in the Farkawn road track junction area of Mizoram after a tip-off. The recovered items and apprehended persons were handed over to the Indian police. Since last years coup, refugees from Myanmars Chin State have been fleeing to neighboring Mizoram State. The Myanmar military has launched brutal crackdowns on suspected strongholds of the resistance movement across Chin and elsewhere in the country. Some 29,532 refugees are currently sheltering in Mizoram, according to the Mizoram government. Siaha District alone is sheltering 9,464 refugees, including women and children, while Champhai District has 7,810 refugees. The Mizoram government has begun the process of issuing them with identity cards. While the central government had ordered that Indias borders be closed to refugees from Myanmar, the Mizoram government has welcomed them on the grounds of close ethnic ties with Chin people. Rajeev Bhattacharyya is a senior journalist in Assam, India You may also like these stories: EU Adds More Myanmar Companies, Regime Officials to Sanctions List Junta-Appointed Chief Minister Attacked For Sixth Time in Upper Myanmar Myanmar People Urged to Join Six Twos Revolution General Strike Against Regime Burma Myanmar Political Prisoners not Among 1,600 Freed in New Year Amnesty Prison officials stand guard as they prepare for the release of prisoners outside of the Insein Prison in Yangon on April 17, 2022. / AFP YANGONFamilies of detained Myanmar protesters had their hopes dashed Sunday after political prisoners were not included in some 1,600 people released by the junta to mark the Buddhist New Year. The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since Daw Aung San Suu Kyis civilian government was ousted last year in a military coup, which sparked huge protests and a deadly crackdown. State television announced that 1,619 prisoners, including 42 foreigners, had been pardoned and will be released to mark the new year an annual tradition that last year saw 23,000 prisoners freed. A prisoner released from Yangons Insein prison told AFP that political cases and protesters were not among those released, with authorities only freeing criminals. Crowds in front of the prison slowly left on Sunday afternoon. More than 100 people had gathered hoping to be reunited with loved ones, AFP correspondents said. Among them was a woman waiting for her 19-year-old nephew, sentenced to three years imprisonment for incitement against the military. He was young, and he may have some feeling to fight, she said, declining to give her name. I wish all young children will be released including my nephew. They all were innocent. Aye Myint, whose 19-year-old daughter was serving three years on a political charge, had hoped she would be released. Now, she has been more than one year in prison, Aye Myint said. Subdued holiday At around midday, a prison officer confirmed that about 160 prisoners including six women prisoners had been released from Insein, without giving more details. There was no mention of the Australian economist Sean Turnell, a former Suu Kyi advisor who was arrested shortly after the coup. He is currently on trial for allegedly breaching the official secrets act, which carries a maximum 14-year jail sentence. The exact details of his alleged offence have not been made public, though state television has said he had access to secret state financial information and had tried to flee Myanmar. The country typically grants an annual amnesty to thousands of prisoners to mark the Buddhist New Year, usually a joyous holiday celebrated in many parts with water fights. But this year, with the bloody military crackdown on dissent, the streets in many major cities have been silent as people protest junta rule. You may also like these stories: EU Adds More Myanmar Companies, Regime Officials to Sanctions List Junta-Appointed Chief Minister Attacked For Sixth Time in Upper Myanmar Myanmar People Urged to Join Six Twos Revolution General Strike Against Regime Burma Myanmar Regime Leader Awards Himself Two Highest Honorary Titles Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in 2018. / The Irrawaddy Myanmars junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, whose regime has killed more than 1,700 civilians, has awarded himself two honorary titles which are traditionally given to those who make huge contributions to the country. On Sunday, to mark Myanmars new year, the regime announced its honorary titles and medals for outstanding work for the country during the 75 years since independence. Min Aung Hlaing gave himself the two highest titles Sadoe Thiri Thudhamma and Sadoe Maha Thray Sithu. The list was dominated by dictatorial figures. Ne Win, the first military dictator who led the 1962 coup, was posthumously named Agga Maha Thray Sithu, the second-highest honor. Former military dictator Than Shwe, who picked Min Aung Hlaing as his successor as commander-in-chief, was given the same title. Former president and general U Thein Sein was not mentioned as he already had the Agga Maha Thray Sithu. Former brigadier general Kyaw Zaw, a central figure in the independence struggle and establishment of the armed forces, has previously only received a lower Thray Sithu honor. He was one of the 30 comrades who led the struggle against British colonial rule and the Kuomintang invasion. Former prime ministers U Nu and U San Yu and the leader of the 1988 military reshuffle Senior General Saw Maung were awarded the Agga Maha Thiri Thudhamma and Agga Maha Thray Sithu on Sunday. However, former military intelligence general Khin Nyunt, who was purged by Than Shwe in 2004 and now suffers from Alzheimers, was overlooked. Former lieutenant generals Aye Ko and Tun Yi, who were Ne Wins deputies, were both awarded the Maha Thray Sithu. Former vice-senior general Maung Aye, Than Shwes deputy, received no award on Sunday. The current juntas acting president, U Myint Swe, was awarded the Sadoe Thiri Thudhamma. Late influential Buddhist monk Myaing Gyi Ngu Sayadaw U Thuzana, Karen National Union chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe, Restoration Council of Shan State leader Yawd Serk and some other leaders of ethnic armed groups were given Wunna Kyawhtin medals for their outstanding performances, which is normally given to leading artistic and literary figures. U Hla Maung Shwe, a former adviser to the Myanmar Peace Center, was given the Wunna Kyawhtin medal. Many artists, including some from the colonial era, were given posthumous medals. The regime also awarded honorary titles on March 27, Armed Forces Day, which marks the anniversary of armed resistance against Japanese occupation. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Regime Backs Russias Invasion of Ukraine Myanmar Junta Threatens to Disband Two Major Parties After They Refuse to Submit Financial Records Cambodian, Malaysian PMs Call on Myanmar Junta to Implement ASEAN Consensus Burma Myanmar Regime Soldiers Tempted to Defect by NUGs Cash Offer An armored personnel carrier and army trucks seen in Naypyitaw on the first day of the coup in 2021. / The Irrawaddy Over two dozen enquiries about defecting from the Myanmar military were made within a week of Myanmars shadow government offering huge cash incentives to the regimes troops to defect with a military plane, navy vessel, tank or armored personnel carrier. The civilian National Unity Government (NUG) said that between 20 to 30 enquiries were made to Peoples Embrace, a Facebook page set up to help the juntas soldiers and police to defect. However, the NUG didnt specify whether the enquiries came from pilots, sailors or army personnel. Thats the number [of people] who have just contacted Peoples Embrace. There are also others who have directly contacted some NUG ministers and others close to the NUG, said U Nay Phone Lat, a member of the shadow governments media team, on Saturday during a press conference held on the first anniversary of the NUGs formation. When asked if the NUG has prepared airfields for pilots fleeing with planes, he said the NUG could not reveal that sort of information. Peoples Embrace declined to confirm whether those who contacted them were pilots or other personnel due to possible repercussions for those planning to defect. We are thoroughly reviewing the requests to see if they are genuine or not. Its likely that there will be some defections soon, he added. On April 7, in an unprecedented move to encourage more defections as well as to protect civilians from junta airstrikes, the NUG offered huge cash incentives of up to half a million United States dollars to military regime pilots and sailors who have been fighting their compatriots since last years coup. The NUG said it will pay US$500,000 to airmen or sailors who defect from their units with a military airplane or navy vessel. A US$300,000 per vehicle reward will go to anyone who causes serious damage to a parked jet fighter, military helicopter, logistics plane or warship, or to anyone who is able to destroy one while it is being used in a military mission. Among the other incentives is a US$100,000 reward for anyone who can sabotage a jet fuel storage tank, blow up a regime armor or weapons factory, or defect with a tank or armored personnel carrier. The Myanmar military has responded to popular resistance against its rule with airstrikes and artillery and tank attacks in many part of the country. Since its coup against the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government in February 2021, the junta has faced ever-growing resistance across the country. Elected lawmakers from the NLD and their ethnic allies set up the NUG in April 2021 to challenge the military regimes legitimacy. Many Myanmar people regard the NUG as their legitimate government and many Western countries have shown support for it, although they have stopped short of offering official recognition. The NUGs monetary offer comes at a time when the regime is struggling with a growing number of defectors, as soldiers face popular hatred for their brutal suppression of the anti-regime movement. Nearly 3,000 soldiers have defected from the Myanmar military since the coup including some battalion commanders, the highest rank among those to defect so far. Making matter worse for the military, Australia has agreed to accept army defectors. Since last year, the NUG has been trying to build trust with Myanmars ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to fight together against the junta. Established EAOs such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army have openly engaged with the NUG by fighting alongside the NUGs armed wing, the Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs), against junta troops. Other EAOs support the NUG unofficially, said the NUGs media team. During Saturdays press conference, the NUG, which is largely reliant on donations from the public, said that they have spent more than half their funding on the PDFs and have been able to arm them to some extent, but they are still in need. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Rohingya Genocide Case Is Legitimate, Gambia Tells UNs Top Court Cobra Gold Military Exercise Kicks Off in Thailand Without Myanmar EU Adds More Myanmar Companies, Regime Officials to Sanctions List Burma Myanmars Civilian President Demands Deeper International Support Myanmar's pro-democracy supporters marched from the White House to the Capitol in Washington DC in support of the parallel civilian National Unity Government a year after its formation. / Save Myanmar The acting president of Myanmars National Unity Government (NUG), Duwa Lashi La, called on the international community to double support for Myanmars people to save lives and help create a federal democratic union. Formed as a parallel government on April 16 last year, largely by elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy and their ethnic minority allies, the NUG has enjoyed popular support at home and abroad. A majority of Myanmars people see it as their legitimate government, while the regime has branded it a terrorist organization. In his state of the union address to mark a year since the NUGs formation, Duwa Lashi La expressed gratitude for the international communitys diplomatic support in isolating the illegitimate junta and imposing targeted sanctions. However, I would like to stress the urgency, he said. Each day the military murders and tortures more innocent men, women and children. As the world is witnessing the atrocities and crimes committed by the Russian military in Ukraine, we too are witnessing the tyrannical military in Myanmar committing similar atrocities and crimes against the entire population for over a year, he said. Since seizing power on Feb. 1 last year, the regime has slaughtered at least 1,756 people, many of whom were engaging in anti-regime activism. The regime has killed numerous children and elderly people in its escalated terror campaign. Rights groups have reported more than 100 child deaths since the coup. The regime has burned down at least 9,187 civilian homes, with the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region suffering the heaviest damage, according to the independent research group Data for Myanmar. Amid rising violence the NUG declared a peoples war on Sept. 7 last year against the regime, taking the armed struggle to another level. Support our efforts to enable the people to defend themselves from atrocities. The people can and will win. Lives will be saved if you provide support, the ethnic Kachin acting president said. He also called for support for the civil disobedience movement and Peoples Embrace program, which helps military defectors to resettle. According to the NUG, around 10,000 police and military defectors have left their posts through the Peoples Embrace. The international community can help stop further bloodshed by providing aid and asylum to those who have sought refuge through Peoples Embrace, he added. On Saturday, the NUG reported that its armed wing, in the numerous peoples defense forces, and ethnic allies, controlled around half of the country, particularly rural areas, as well as positions around several major cities. Duwa Lashi La said the NUG has built trust and cooperation with many ethnic armies and is working to build unity with all ethnic organizations. We shall make every effort to protect the people from the brutally violent assaults of the juntas forces. At the same time, we will continue working to free people and territory under the domination of the military council. I am convinced that we will succeed in the end, and the people will win back the entire country. You may also like these stories: Myanmars Escalating Conflict Threatens ASEAN Stability Myanmar Regime Sacks 120 Striking Staff from State-Run Broadcast Service Myanmar Nationals Fleeing Military Regime Turned Back From India An elementary school teacher has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of inducing more than 100 teenage girls to film sexually exploitative material, and of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old, a court reported Monday. The man, in his 30s, who had taught at an elementary school in Seoul since 2012, was indicted on charges of possessing 1,910 items of sexually abusive content filmed by about 120 teenagers he met through social media between 2015 and 2021. He was also found guilty of having sexually assaulted the then 13-year-old girl at a motel in 2020. "The accused made the victims a subject of sexual desire using their lack of sexual self-determination and the ability to protect themselves," the court said. "The case is more shocking, because the accused was an elementary school teacher who taught children of similar ages as the victims," the court added. The court also ordered the man to complete 80 hours of sexual offender treatment, a five-year identity disclosure, and banned him from working with children for seven years. (Yonhap) Patching of vulnerabilities is the security industry's equivalent of thoughts and prayers, a prominent American security expert has said during a debate on the topic "Patching is useless" at a recent online conference named Hack At The Harbor. Dave Aitel, 46, a former NSA computer scientist who ran his own security shop, Immunity, for many years, said the remedies proposed by security vendors and big technology companies had served to lull people into a false sense of security all these years and ensure that all the old problems still remained. His reference was to the standard phrase offered by politicians whenever there is a mass shooting in the US and there are calls for action on guns. The status quo is maintained because of the influence that the arms industry has. Aitel spoke for the motion while his opponent, Phillip Wylie, a well-known offensive security expert and a tech evangelist at CyCognito, argued that patching was not totally useless, but one of the many tools in a defender's armoury. Wylie's arguments were somewhat nuanced, while Aitel used clear, concise phrases, with the occasional touch of wicked humour. Thewas organised byon 8 and 9 April. Aitel posted a YouTube clip of the debate on Twitter on 18 April. The debate on Patching is useless. Phillip Wylie is at the top right, the moderator is on the top left, and AItel at the bottom. Aitel pointed out that if there were vulnerable devices on a network, then they should be removed and substituted with others, rather than being continuously patched. During his time with Immunity which he sold to Cyxtera Technologies in 2019 Aitel said many of his customers had been big financial firms and he had advised that any contracts they signed with software vendors also contain a clause that would enable them to walk out of contracts if any software proved to be overly buggy. He said this could be a way to prevent big companies from being forced to continue to use security solutions even though they were a constant source of grief. Aitel likened patches to orange juice a common part of breakfast in the US pointing out that for many years people had believed that it was the most useful part of one's morning meal. In the end, it had been found to be a source of too much sugar and something that made people obese, he added. He had harsh words for Microsoft and other big software vendors whom he said had done little to actually mitigate the problems posed by poor-quality software. He also criticised PHP for its numerous security problems. Aitel was no less severe on Linux, noting that the biggest contributor to the kernel was the Chinese telecommunications vendor Huawei Technologies, which he claimed had been indicted by the US, and asking how one could rest content if so many patches were coming from a company of this kind. On the positive side, he had praise for ChromeOS, an operating system that is produced by Google, and recommended the use of Chromebooks rather Windows machines. Aitel called for vulnerability management, advocating the government as the best entity to handle this. His argument was that no other entity had sufficient power to push back against the lobby of the big software vendors and the security industry. Surprisingly, the audience vote to determine the winner of the debate came down on Wylie's side, with 56% of those present supporting his stance. Quantum computing startup Q-CTRL has released Black Opal Pro, an upgraded and expanded version of its world- first interactive quantum computing learning platform. Black Opal Pro adds new modules and features to the basic version announced in November 2021, which Q-CTRL says already has 3,000 registered users. The announcement of the Black Opal Pro release came on World Quantum Day, an international initiative dedicated to promoting the public understanding of quantum science and technology around the world. In honor of World Quantum Day, Q-CTRL announced that it will be offering two Black Opal Pro annual subscriptions for the price of one from April 14-20. Black Opal serves to build the quantum technology community by allowing anyone to learn quantum computing in minutes a day, irrespective of their backgrounds - andiIt supports engineers and developers wanting to enter the field as well as analysts, consultants, investors, and public servants who are seeking to understand how this technology will disrupt their industries. Black Opal is an ideal tool to help users build real intuition for a field many have heard of, but few truly understand, said Q-CTRL Founder and CEO Professor Michael J. Biercuk. We see that building and supporting a community is essential for the success of the quantum industry where our team leads global innovations. We need educated and empowered future team members, investors, and policymakers who can really understand the opportunity that quantum computing presents. With Black Opal, we combined our expertise in quantum computing with our prowess in product design to help anyone go from zero background to programming quantum computers. Accessible on any browser, Q-CTRL says Black Opal reduces the barrier to entry into the complex and fast-growing field of quantum computing by allowing users to complete modular, hands-on tasks. Its a highly intuitive, modern learning platform that leverages visualization, interactivity and animation, so anyone can learn quantum computing. Black Opal users are also invited to join an existing online community that presents them with the opportunity to engage with fellow learners, says Q-CTRL. According to Q-CTRL Black Opal aligns with the goals of major governments, national science foundations, academic institutions and companies around the world regarding the need to attract and train a new quantum workforce. In February 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policys (OSTP) National Quantum Coordination Office (NQCO) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) released the National Strategic Plan for Quantum Information Science and Technology Workforce Development, which recommends a series of actions and community opportunities to grow the quantum workforce through expanded training and education at all levels, including early K-12 education and outreach. This effort directly identifies the need for quantum education to expand the quantum workforce. Available as an annual subscription at only $9.99 per month, Q-CTRL says Black Opal Pro delivers content built by true global leaders in quantum technology at a price point much more accessible than university courses. The platform allows users to now tackle intermediate and advanced skills, taking them through reading and interpreting quantum circuits, understanding the spooky quantum concept of entanglement, composing algorithms, and even writing code to program real quantum computers. Users earn shareable skills badges, and can practice the skills theyve learned in freeform circuit and coding sandboxes. Q-CTRLs basic version of Black Opal remains free and allows users to build intuition for the fundamentals of quantum information. All features of the basic version are included in Black Opal Pro. The Tech Council of Australia is dedicated to supporting the growth of Australias technology industry, with a goal to contribute $250bn to GDP from tech-related activity by 2030, said Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder. Q-CTRL's Black Opal is a perfect example of how the local tech sector can contribute to this mission. Combining modern software product design with the team's world leading depth of expertise in quantum computing has delivered a real solution that can give Australian businesses a leading edge. We're excited for this product to become a pioneering effort in how the tech industry can help lift the resilience and diversity of the broader Australian economy. Q-CTRL says that based on the laws of physics at the tiniest sizes, quantum computing is projected to transform our world by allowing us to solve problems that were previously impossible across fields - from medicine and chemistry to finance, AI, and more. This potential is estimated at up to $850 billion per year by the Boston Consulting Group. Ideal for anyone aged 16 and older, Black Opal was designed by Q-CTRLs team of quantum computing experts to make learning quantum computing fun and interactive. For more information or to purchase a Black Opal Pro subscription click here. To learn more about Q-CTRL, visit q-ctrl.com. Elon Musk: his money is the same colour as that of all billionaires. The objections to Elon Musk buying Twitter can be distilled down to one simple thing: his policies will remove the objections to the return of Donald Trump to the platform. Which for the mainstream in the US and hence the mainstream in all acolyte countries means the end of civilisation as we know it. Trump is a loose cannon. But then he has as much right to tweet out what he wants, provided that it adheres to the rules of the platform. The degree of hypocrisy around opposition to Musk can be seen in the fact that nobody has any objection to Jeff Bezos owning the Washington Post which, incidentally, has been one of the more vociferous voices opposing Musk's Twitter bid. Im going to leave Twitter if Elon Musk takes over is the new Im going to move to Canada if Trump wins. Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) April 14, 2022 Neither have these virtuosos anything to say about Mark Zuckerberg and his ownership of both Facebook and Instagram, platforms which have spewed more wrong information in their existence than has been spread for the whole of the 20th century. And what about Rupert Murdoch and all the havoc he has casued around the world through his various media organs? And as for Sergei Brin and Larry Page, who have presided over Google and YouTube, and all the censorship seen on those two platforms? Why, that is all good because it is part of the mainstream. How about eBay owner Pierre Omidyar and his funding of The Intercept? And before one forgets, one has never heard any objections to Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, who forced upon the world a mediocre computer operating system known as Windows, one that has caused more woe for the world than even COVID-19. US President Joe Biden shakes hands with an imaginary human being. No, all these billionaires are fine and dandy. But Musk is a tool of the devil. He doesn't fit into anybody's definition of what a "good" human being; no, the man is inherently "evil". These ridiculous arguments have been articulated because one cannot claim Musk does not know how to run a business. No, that will really not wash; he has founded and runs two successful companies, Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk got the entire ruling class to publicy come out against free speech. Incredible. thebradfordfile (@thebradfordfile) April 15, 2022 Voices have also been raised questioning whether he has the money to buy Twitter which, according to his own offer, should be about US$43 billion (A$58 billion). Most of his money is tied up in the two companies he runs. But then, if he has sufficient assets and he is said to be worth in excess of US$250 billion it should not be too difficult to raise that amount towards the purchase of Twitter. That is a non-argument. As to free speech, I really think it varies; one man's free speech is another's racism. the old argument about shouting "fire" in a crowded cinema comes to mind. But what has remained with me over the years is something which Arjen Lentz, a techie from the free and open source community, told me many years ago: "In the Netherlands, freedom of speech is bound by the liberties of people around you; so I can exercise my liberties as long as they don't hurt the people around me. It is not absolute. I can't shout anti-Semitic abuse not that I would, I'm Jewish myself or other racial abuse because that hurts other people. I can't shout about religious opinions which hurt other people around me. In the USA, you can." Musk is unpredictable. But then so are many businessmen; one never knows what they will do from one day to the next. It is laughable that a country which is willing to accept a president who shakes hands with non-existent people is making a fuss about Musk owning a social media company. Another furphy is the objection by employees. Since when did employees decide who should own a company they work for? Given that Twitter has about 7500 people working for it, there will definitely be some who hate the owner, and yet continue to work there because they get a decent pay packet. Remember, no Twitter employee is being asked to cut down on urine breaks and pee into a bottle something for which Bezos has been unmasked. If Musk has been emboldened to make a bid for Twitter, then one can only blame the management which has shown blatant bias in censoring individuals who do not fit in with the thinking of the mainstream. One of the latest to suffer has been former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, an American patriot if ever there was one. The system used to throw people off Twitter is simply crazy. Why, Twitter once even banned me, a person who has at best 100 followers and one who has never sought to use it as a marketing tool. That makes the rules of the platform more of a joke than it would be otherwise. I am one of the few who joined Twitter to listen to others, with most of those I follow being tech types. You do get some very good stories via Twitter, I must say. When I sent one of my rare tweets, poking fun at a suggestion by former Trump official Mike Pompeo, that the people who served as sources for a story that the CIA was planning to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange should be held to account, my account was locked. I had to delete the tweet in order to gain access to my account again. The Twitter board has a duty to put the offer to its shareholders and follow their verdict. CEO Parag Agrawal has already put in place a so-called poison pill allowing other shareholders to buy shares at a discount to prevent Musk from increasing his ownership beyond 15%. He currently holds 9.2%. Musk has hinted that he has a Plan B to buy the company, if his bid is rejected. One hopes for the good of the platform, that he succeeds. Today Sunny skies. Becoming windy late. High 87F. W winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Tonight Partly cloudy. Gusty winds diminishing after midnight. Low 58F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Tomorrow A few clouds early, otherwise mostly sunny. High 84F. WNW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo / Yonhap President Moon Jae-in agreed to meet with Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo on Monday after turning down the resignation offer Kim submitted in protest of the ruling Democratic Party's push to strip the prosecution of its investigative powers, an official said. Kim tendered his resignation on Sunday in protest of the DP's push for legislation that would leave the prosecution with no authority to conduct investigations on its own, as part of efforts to reform the powerful agency that has long been accused of abusing its power for political and other purposes. Before offering to resign, Kim had earlier requested a meeting with Moon, though no meeting took place. On Monday, presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said Moon decided to turn down Kim's resignation and instead meet with him later in the day. A presidential official explained that Moon did not accept the resignation because the prosecutor general's term is guaranteed and because he wants to hear Kim's opinions as the head of the executive branch. Kim, who was appointed by Moon, has more than a year left in his two-year term. His resignation offer came less than a month before Moon is set to leave office at the end of his five-year term. Moon's decision is seen as an attempt to stop the row between the prosecution and his party from escalating. Under his administration, the prosecution's investigations have been reduced to six categories of crimes, with the rest being assigned to the police, as critics have accused the prosecution of abusing its powers. Kim requested a meeting with the president last week to discuss his opposition to the proposed legislation. A Cheong Wa Dae official suggested the issue should be discussed with the National Assembly, saying "now is the time for legislation." (Yonhap) Staff Writer Jonathan Roberts is a reporter and photographer for the Johnson City Press covering Jonesborough, healthcare and higher education. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and has been with the Press since 2019. Plateau residents value education, urbanization Xinhua) 17:06, April 18, 2022 XINING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Qiao Shujuan's new home is just 2 km from her school. If the 12-year-old girl's family was still living in their old village, that journey to school would be around 60 km. Qiao's hometown is Minzhu Village, Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, in the city of Haidong, northwest China's Qinghai Province, where the average altitude is more than 4,000 meters. Now they have moved to an urban area within the same county, making life much easier. "We wanted to provide better education for our children, so the family decided to buy a house elsewhere in the county," said Qiao Mingsheng, the father. The senior Qiao receives dividends by leasing his farmland in the village and runs a small shop in town. "We get a bigger income now than we got by planting crops in the past," he said. Sitting in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the city of Haidong has nearly 200,000 hectares of cultivated land, making an average per capita area of 0.2 hectares. Yuan Fude, a village official of Yangjia Village in Haidong, said an increasing number of villagers have settled down in towns or cities in recent years, with children's education being the main reason for moving. The situation is similar in the pastoral area. Tazang, a herdsman from Laiyang Village, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is now taking care of 13 children from the village who are attending schools in the town. Herders from 16 households in Laiyang Village set up a cooperative and built bungalows for their children in the town. Some of them take care of the children in the town, some stay and graze sheep and cattle in the village, and others take part in the processing and selling of mutton and beef. "In the past, children in the village dropped out of school at a very young age in order to help their families graze livestock. But now, more people attach importance to education for their next generation and send their children to schools in cities and towns. They also move there to take care of their children," said Tazang. An increasing number of villagers deep in the mountains are moving to cities and towns for their children's education, which has also changed the pattern of urbanization on the plateau, said Liu Changyuan, Party chief of Haidong's Yaozhuang Village, which has seen the majority of residents move to the town. Census data shows that, by the end of 2020, the urban population of Qinghai Province was over 3.5 million, and the urbanization rate of permanent residence hit 60 percent, increasing by 41 percent and 15 percentage points, respectively, compared with the figure for a decade ago, which reflected the rapid development of the province's urbanization. Although rural residents are flocking to cities and towns, those staying in the rural areas also see new opportunities. "There is a lot of vacant farmland, so I rented land and started to develop sheep breeding on a large scale," said Zhao Longfa, a villager in Xiexia Village. A villager named Wei Wenhong also rents around 100 hectares of land to grow potatoes, forage grass, oats and beans. "I earned more than 200,000 yuan (about 31,391 U.S. dollars) last year," Wei said, adding that he plans to expand the land to grow more vegetables and open a starch factory in the future. Prior to engaging in agriculture on a large scale, Wei used to be a migrant worker, toiling in logistics, with an income of only around 60,000 yuan every year. (Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun) The main opposition People Power Party and minor opposition People's Party agreed to merge Monday in line with an earlier deal between President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and his coalition partner Ahn Cheol-soo. The two parties approved the merger at their respective Supreme Council meetings, both sides said, and will jointly field candidates for the June 1 local elections. The merger was part of a broader agreement between Yoon of the PPP and Ahn, the leader of the People's Party, under which Ahn dropped out of the presidential race, just days before the election, to back Yoon's campaign. The two sides are expected to officially announce their merger later Monday. The People's Party was founded by Ahn in February 2020. The combined party is expected to keep the PPP's name and be headed by PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok. The three lawmakers currently belonging to the People's Party will now represent the PPP, raising its number of seats to 113 in the 300-member National Assembly. The merger talks were briefly suspended as Yoon and Ahn apparently clashed over the nomination of Cabinet members but were finalized after the two patched up their row last week. (Yonhap) President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Kim Oh-soo, prosecutor-general, in Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo President Moon Jae-in rejected Prosecutor-General Kim Oh-soo's resignation on Monday, in an apparent move to prevent a full-scale conflict between the prosecution and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which is seeking to reform the prosecution to remove its investigative powers. Kim told the president the concerns shared by prosecutors about the consequences of the DPK-led reform bill, if approved, during their meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae in late afternoon. Moon expressed his trust in Kim and asked the top prosecutor to finish his term of appointment without stepping down, saying that he has no reason to resign because he's not responsible for the current situation. Although Moon was wary of the confrontation between the DPK and the prosecution, the president was basically on the same page with the DPK regarding the bill, and noted the need for reforms. The DPK argues that the reform bill is necessary to rein in the prosecution's overreaching authority both to prosecute and lead investigations, while the main opposition party, the People Power Party (PPP), along with the prosecution, argue that the bill seeks to deprive prosecutors of their investigative powers. "People have trust in the investigative capability of prosecutors, but it is also true a stark reality that they have doubts over the fairness of investigations. Forcible investigation and prosecution are the most powerful powers the state has, so victims or suspects cannot help but question the fairness," Moon was quoted as saying. "Looking at past history, it is difficult to say that prosecutors' investigations have always been fair and that is why the need for legislation and systemization has arisen. The prosecution needs to make ceaseless efforts for reform and self-scrutiny," he said. Moon added that reforming the prosecution should be conducted for the purpose of serving the people, and that the National Assembly's passage of the reform bill has the same purpose. Kim offered his resignation a day earlier in protest of the DPK's efforts to pass a reform bill aimed at separating the prosecution and investigative powers that Korea's prosecution has. Presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee speaks during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap The top prosecutor has been aggressively protesting the reform bill, citing its possible side effects. "A new legal system that may seriously affect people's rights requires public consensus and agreement between the ruling and the opposition parties," Kim said in a statement announcing his resignation. After the March 9 presidential election, which ended in a razor-thin victory for Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party, the DPK accelerated its efforts to pass the bill, as it believes that the prosecution's power will grow to an excessive degree under the president-elect, who is the former prosecutor-general. Yoon turned himself into a political heavyweight without having any political experience, thanks to and public support he gained during his stint as the prosecutor-general. While he was originally appointed by President Moon, he then used his authority to launch investigations into some of the Moon administration's top officials. The DPK decided to call a vote on the bill this month at the National Assembly, where it holds the majority 172 seats in the 300-member Assembly. The bill will then be tabled at the final Cabinet meeting under President Moon Jae-in on May 3, before Yoon is sworn in on May 10. As the move has drawn strong opposition from Yoon's People Power Party (PPP), other prosecutors and Kim, Moon appears to have rejected Kim's resignation in order to entice the DPK and the prosecution to discuss the bill. Despite Moon's efforts to prevent a full-scale conflict, the DPK is expediting its efforts to pass the bill before Yoon steps into office. "Kim's resignation was meaningless and irresponsible," DPK floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun said Monday. "The resignation contains no self-reflection on the prosecution's inappropriate exercising of its authority, and turns a blind eye to Yoon's efforts to control the prosecution. He is trying to break the legally-set prosecutor-general's term in order to protect the prosecution's privileges." The PPP is seeking to block the DPK's efforts to pass the reform bill in the National Assembly through a filibuster, which the latter is looking to end with the help of the minor progressive Justice Party. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. It took nearly seven years for the Special Criminal Court (CPS) created by a 2015 law to try crimes under international law and serious human rights violations perpetrated since 2003 in the Central African Republic (CAR) to announce its first trial. Starting April 19, three defendants from the 3R (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation) armed group will be tried before this mixed court sitting in Bangui for acts committed in May 2019 in Lemouna and Koundjili, in the northwest of the country, including killings and other inhumane acts constituting crimes against humanity, according to the courts statement . This first trial comes five months after the humiliating episode of the arrest and release of Hassan Bouba, current Minister of Livestock. A former number two in the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC) rebel group, Bouba is believed to be responsible according to an investigation by the conflict-fueled money-tracking NGO The Sentry for the November 2018 attack on an IDP camp in Alindao, 500 km east of Bangui, which resulted in the deaths of at least 112 villagers, including 19 children. The Bouba case By 2017, Bouba had joined the government as a special adviser to CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Later, he would have become the interface between the UPC leadership and Bangui diplomacy, according to Nathalia Dukhan, an investigator and analyst at The Sentry. Arrested on November 19 by the CPS on several charges, including crimes against humanity for murder, inhumane acts and cruel treatment such as torture, Bouba was initially taken by Central African special forces to Camp de Roux, the central prison in Bangui. But a few days later, there was a twist of fate: Bouba was exfiltrated from the prison in which he was awaiting his hearing, and taken back by the presidential guard to his home in the PK5 neighborhood, according to several eyewitnesses. The unit in charge of extracting him [to bring him to court] was prevented from accessing his place of detention, the CPS said in a statement. In a context of general indignation from civil society, the Minister of Livestock and Animal Health even received, a few days later, the Order of Merit from the President of the Republic. Then he resumed his work at the Ministry located a few hundred meters from the headquarters of the CPS. Overview of the first public hearing of the CPS on December 17 in Bangui. Maxence Helen The Court is instrumentalized Interviewed by Justice Info, Jean-Bruno Malaka, spokesman for the Special Court, said that the Bouba case demonstrated to everyone what the CPS is capable of and allowed it to register more than 261 complaints, including 107 in 2021. But this arrest revealed above all the dysfunctions of the Court. I am not aware of this type of interference with justice in other contexts, says Patryk Labuda, assistant professor of international criminal law at the University of Amsterdam. The Court is instrumentalized, and the governments actions show that it doesnt always find desirable the presence of the Court, which is supposed to be independent, he says. Arrests depend on the goodwill of the state, confirmed a source close to the CPS, who said that a national judge and military police in charge of arrests have received threats from the government. In addition to this lack of independence from the state, there are problems within the court. The relationship between nationals and internationals is difficult to establish. In addition, Central African judges are under pressure from the government, said a source close to the institution in Bangui who prefers to remain anonymous. Lack of transparency It also took the CPS many years to assemble its judges. On February 2, the last two judges of the appeals chamber, Frenchman Olivier Beauvallet and German Volker Nerlich, were sworn in in Bangui. The establishment of this jurisdiction follows a certain procedure, we have not had all the means since its creation, it took time to recruit international judges, explains the spokesman of the CPS. The notable absences of Special Prosecutor Toussaint Muntazini, a senior prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have added to the weakness of the CPS. The prosecutor has health concerns and is rarely present, which hinders investigations and proceedings, said an anonymous source close to the CPS. The prosecutor is on leave, the spokesperson tried to reassure. The CPS is also often criticized for its lack of transparency. In December 2021, Amnesty International denounced the courts lack of transparency and stated that it remained very difficult, if not impossible, to find information on the status of ongoing proceedings. Pre-trial detentions are a sensitive example. The court refuses to disclose the identity of its detainees, a situation unheard of in international justice. The CPS spokesman assures that there are currently 14 people in pre-trial detention and that nine detainees have been released for having reached the regulatory and reasonable time limit for their detention, which is one year. Pre-trial investigations are covered by secrecy, says the president of the CPS, Michel Landry Louanga. We are in a situation of crisis, of conflict, we have victims and witnesses who need to be protected. Publicizing the investigations puts the lives of these people in danger. In the Central African Republic, the main perpetrators of crimes are still there, in society, he said in an interview with Justice Info. Budgetary tension The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (Minusca) is among the main donors to the CPS, along with the European Union, the United States, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Netherlands. Despite the importance of its mandate, the Special Criminal Court has a relatively small budget compared to other hybrid judicial institutions that try international crimes, warned the NGO Human Rights Watch in an April 12 article, noting that the financial situation of the CPS is complex and reflects the increased difficulties that justice efforts for serious crimes in different countries have faced in recent years when it comes to finding adequate operating resources. If the European Union does not renew its funding for the coming year, the CPS will die, said a UN source, who preferred to remain anonymous, in early 2022. The Court needs about 12 million dollars a year to function but we only manage to mobilize 6 to 8 million from scattered donors, explains this same source. The Central African Republic, devastated since 2013 by civil war, is still experiencing a latent conflict where there are neither winners nor losers. Despite the war, our investigators have infiltrated these [war] circles to be able to push forward the proceedings and that is a feat, reassures the president of the Court. Usually, people work in post-conflict contexts where the perpetrators of these crimes are in a weak position, but this is different. Recommended reading Hassan Bouba: a rebel minister before the Special Court Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to destroy the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared Monday for a final defence. Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city as it works to wrest control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. But Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. Ukrainian authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas, Zelensky said in an evening statement. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraines unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24. The city still has not fallen, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. Theres still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end, he told ABCs This Week. We will not surrender. While several large cities were under siege, he said, not one with the exception of Kherson in the south had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been re-captured. Last chance to save you Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday said the coming week would be difficult. It may be the last time we have a chance to save you, he wrote on Facebook. Russian forces continued to shell the eastern Lugansk region and two people died in the town of Zolote, he told Ukrainian media earlier in the day. And five powerful Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting since the invasion began almost two months ago. Two people also died and four were wounded in attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram and an air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital Kyiv. In the countrys second city of Kharkiv, at least five people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes just 21 kilometres (13 miles) from the Russian border. Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv regions health department, confirmed the deaths there following a series of strikes that AFP journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from buildings. The whole home rumbled and trembled, 71-year-old Svitlana Pelelygina told AFP as she surveyed her wrecked apartment. Everything here began to burn. I called the firefighters. They said, We are on our way, but we were also being shelled.' In the eastern city of Kramatorsk, Orthodox Palm Sunday granted its residents some respite before the expected Russian onslaught. In the Orthodox Svyato-Pokrovsky church, around 40 people mostly women wearing colourful headscarves attended the service. Its very hard and scary right now, said a congregant as she arrived at the red-brick church topped with four gleaming domes. One young mother, Nadia, said she refused to be evacuated for fear of travelling alone with her two children and leaving her relatives in Kramatorsk. We dont go to the basement each time theres a (bomb) siren. Its too stressful for them (the children), she said. We have our spot in the basement just in case, but we prefer to stay in the house if possible. We dim the lights. And in Kharkiv, the citys metro stations are now home to residents of the eastern metropolis fearful of the battle raging above. Those impromptu living spaces have become host to makeshift stages, where poets and puppeteers work to lift spirits. A person cannot live only with war, Serhiy Zhadan a literary celebrity in poetry-obsessed Ukraine said. It is very important for them to hear a word, to be able to sing along, to be able to express a certain emotion. Catastrophe Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has urged Russian forces to let people flee besieged Mariupol, saying that humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to escape would not open on Sunday after failing to agree terms with Moscow forces. But Lugansk governor Gaiday said he had proceeded with evacuations. At our own peril and risk, we took out several dozen people anyway, but its already dangerous, he told Ukrainian media. The UN World Food Programme says that more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine and lack water and heating. And Ukraines Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the city was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, saying they were compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there. We will hand everything over to The Hague. There will be no impunity. The mayor of Bucha a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead civilians sparked international condemnation and war crimes accusations said Russian troops had raped men as well as women and children there. Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed genocide a term President Emmanuel Macron has avoided. I talked to him yesterday, Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on Friday but broadcast Sunday. I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. Hell come and see, and Im sure he will understand. Zelensky, describing the situation in Mariupol as inhuman, has called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons. But Russia has warned the United States this week of unpredictable consequences if it sent its most sensitive weapons systems to Ukraine. Its defence ministry claimed Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane in the Odessa region, carrying weapons supplied by Western nations. On Sunday, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had destroyed ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts. Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd, he added. burs-oho/cwl Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday bestowed an honorary title on a brigade accused by Ukraine of war crimes and mass killings in the town of Bucha. The announcement was made on the 54th day of Moscows military campaign in Ukraine, with thousands killed and 12 million people fleeing their homes or country in the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. A decree signed by Putin gave the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the title of Guards for defending the Motherland and state interests and praised the mass heroism and valour, tenacity and courage of its members. In early April, the Ukrainian defence ministry said the unit occupied the town outside the capital Kyiv and committed war crimes. The Ukrainian defence ministrys Intelligence Directorate published the names, ranks and passports details of members of the brigade, saying they will face justice. A majority of the people killed in Bucha died from gunshot wounds, Ukrainian police said last week. After the departure of Russian troops, bodies of men dressed in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied, were found scattered in the streets, according to AFP. The Kremlin has rejected accusations that Russian forces were responsible for killing civilians near Kyiv and suggested images of corpses were fakes. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday lauded a brigade accused by Ukraine of committing atrocities near the capital Kyiv as his forces pounded targets across the country, killing at least seven people in the western city of Lviv. The air strikes in Lviv came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of wanting to destroy the entire eastern region of Donbas where Russian forces were massing for an expected all-out assault. Despite widespread condemnation of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Putin appeared to double down on Monday. He signed an official decree bestowing the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the title of Guards for defending the Motherland and state interests and praised the mass heroism and valour, tenacity and courage of its members. The Ukrainian defence ministry has accused the same outfit of committing war crimes while occupying the suburb of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, where residents were shot dead, some with their hands bound. The European Union condemned Russias indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian civilians following the strikes on Lviv. Its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pointed to particularly heavy attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine and an offensive against second city Kharkiv, where officials said Russian shelling killed three people. Attacks on Lviv and other cities in western Ukraine show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlins senseless onslaught, Borrell added. Seeking to strengthen ties and accelerate admission to the 27-nation bloc, President Zelensky said Ukraine hoped to receive EU candidate country status within weeks. On Monday, he handed the EUs envoy to Kyiv, Matti Maasikas, a two-volume response to a membership questionnaire brought by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in March. We will receive support for this work, become a candidate for admission, and then the next final stage will begin, Zelensky told Maasikas, in a video of the meeting on social media. Our people mentally have been in Europe for a long time, he added. No safe places Russias defence ministry on Monday said it had hit 16 military targets at various locations across Ukraine. Among the targets was a depot near Lviv that Moscow said held weapons recently delivered to Ukraine from the United States and European countries. Following the attack on Lviv, black smoke billowed from the gutted roof of a car repair shop in the northwest of the city as air raid sirens wailed. Fires were set off as a result of the strikes. They are still being put out. The facilities were severely damaged, Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. Lviv has largely been spared the Russian bombardment that has rained down on other parts of the country since Russia invaded on February 24. The city and its surroundings have instead become a relatively safe haven for those seeking to escape the fighting further east. Today we understood clearly that we dont have any safe places in Ukraine. Its very dangerous, a bank employee who gave her name as Natalia told AFP after the strikes. Prisoner swap In the south, Russia continued its push to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukrainian forces prepared for a final stand. Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the strategic city, defying a Russian ultimatum for remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. Russian state TV on Monday broadcast a video of what it described as Britons captured fighting for Ukraine and demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiate their release. The two haggard-looking men asked to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian tycoon close to President Vladimir Putin, who was recently arrested in the pro-Western country. Ukraine then aired its own video featuring Medvedchuk calling for his exchange in return for an evacuation of civilians and troops from Mariupol. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraines unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24. Capturing Mariupol would allow Russia to have a land bridge between the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and the two Moscow-backed separatist statelets in Ukraines east. They have to be pushed back In the east, Ukrainian authorities urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas, Zelensky said. Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday said Monday that Russian troops had captured the nearby town of Kreminna in a major attack overnight. The Russian army has already entered there, with a huge amount of military hardware Our defenders have retreated to new positions, Gaiday said in a statement on social media. Four civilians had died as they tried to flee Kreminna, he added. Ukraines security and defence council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said the attack had been part of a general Russian push against Ukraines defences. Fortunately, our military is holding on, he added. Four other civilians died in Russian bombing in Donetsk, said regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Heavy bouts of shelling resumed in the countrys second city of Kharkiv Monday morning, according to an AFP reporter on the ground, killing at least three people. It came a day after another five were killed and 20 wounded during a string of strikes in the city just 21 kilometres (13 miles) from the Russian border. On the edge of Kharkiv over the weekend, Ukrainian forces huddled in fortified positions surrounded by earth blemished with craters where they stared down the Russian lines. The longer they stay in one place, the more they entrench, and the harder it will be to knock them out, a sergeant using the call sign Oreshek told AFP. They have to be pushed back. Ukraine officials also said on Monday they were halting the evacuation of civilians from frontline towns and cities in the east for a second day, accusing Russian forces of having blocked and shelled escape routes. burs-ds/imm/jj The European Union on Monday condemned the indiscriminate bombing of civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine, after deadly strikes hit the western city of Lviv. The EU condemns the continued indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure by Russian armed forces, said a statement by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. He noted particularly heavy attacks in the east and south of Ukraine and the ongoing offensive against the countrys second city, Kharkiv. Attacks on Lviv and other cities in western Ukraine show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlins senseless onslaught, the statement added. Air strikes on Lviv killed at least seven people, officials said. The city had become a refuge for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict in areas further east and for foreign diplomats. Borrell said the EU supported measures to prosecute those suspected of atrocities in the invasion. There can be no impunity for war crimes, his statement said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier accused Moscow of wanting to destroy the entire eastern region of Donbas bordering Russia. He said on Monday that he expected Ukraine would acquire EU member candidate-status within weeks. But the complex process typically takes years and EU member states are divided on Ukraines application. Russia has launched a major offensive into eastern Ukraine, authorities in Kyiv said, opening a new phase of its invasion after being thwarted in efforts to capture the capital. The United States is due to hold a video meeting with allies Tuesday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, where Moscows military campaign has refocused on the eastern region of Donbas, partly controlled by pro-Kremlin separatists since 2014. We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram late Monday. No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. Ahead of the widely anticipated advance, Ukrainian authorities had urged people in Donbas to flee west to escape. The second phase of the war has started, Kyivs presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said. Control of Donbas would allow Moscow to create a southern corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula. In the south of the region, Russia continued its push to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol, where the last remaining Ukrainian forces have taken a final stand. But despite the desperate situation in the city, a senior US Defence Department official said Mariupol is still contested. Russia has also added 11 battalion tactical groups consisting of, among other things, artillery, helicopters, and logistical support to its forces in east Ukraine, the official added, bringing the total to 76 in the country. Monday also saw the first shipments of a new US military aid package arrive at Ukraines borders to be handed over in its fight against the Russian invasion. The United States on April 13 unveiled an $800-million tranche of equipment for Ukraine, including helicopters, howitzers and armoured personnel carriers. Strikes across Ukraine Moscows forces on Monday pounded targets across the country, killing at least seven people in the far western city of Lviv. Lviv has largely been spared bombardment since Russia invaded on February 24, and the city and its surroundings had become a haven for those seeking safety from the war zone. But today we understood clearly that we dont have any safe places in Ukraine. Its very dangerous, a bank employee who gave her name as Natalia told AFP after the strikes. Russias defence ministry said Monday it had hit 16 military targets across Ukraine. Among the sites struck was a depot near Lviv that Moscow said held weapons recently delivered to Ukraine from the United States and Europe. Shortly before Zelenskys address, the regional governor of the Lugansk region Sergiy Gaiday also announced the beginning of Russias much-anticipated attack. Its hell. The offensive has begun, the one weve been talking about for weeks. Theres constant fighting in Rubizhne and Popasna, fighting in other peaceful cities, he said on Facebook. Russian shelling killed at least eight civilians in eastern Ukraine, according to local authorities. Gaiday said four people died as they tried to flee the city of Kreminna in Lugansk as Russian troops moved in. The Russian army has already entered there, with a huge amount of military hardware Our defenders have retreated to new positions, Gaiday said in a statement on social media. But Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovich said Russian forces had not conquered the city. Nearby, in the village of Novodruzhesk, weary locals have borne the brunt of the fighting. We are bombed everywhere. Its a miracle that were still alive, said Nadya, 65, her voice trembling. We were lying on the ground and waiting. Since February 24 weve been sleeping in the cellar. Theres no more water, electricity, nothing. Weve got no more money, no more petrol we cant leave. Ukrainian officials on Monday halted the evacuation of civilians from frontline towns and cities in the east for a second day, accusing Russian forces of having blocked and shelled escape routes. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday there would be no humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians in the country for a third consecutive day because there has been no agreement from the Russian side. Vereshchuk previously said that Russias refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will, in the future, be grounds for prosecuting all those involved in war crimes. The Mariupol city council has reported there are over 1,000 civilians trapped in shelters under the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian forces are waging a desperate last stand against the Russians. (They are) mostly women with children and the elderly, they said on Telegram. Heavy attacks President Vladimir Putin has said he launched the military operation on February 24 to save Russian speakers in Ukraine from a genocide carried out by a neo-Nazi regime. He recognised the independence of two self-proclaimed separatist republics in Donetsk and Lugansk shortly before the invasion began. On Monday, Putin lauded the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade which is accused of committing atrocities near Kyiv bestowing battle honours on them for heroism and valour, tenacity and courage. Ukraine has alleged the brigade is guilty of war crimes while occupying the suburb of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, where residents were shot dead, some with their hands bound. The European Union condemned Russias indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian civilians following the strikes on Lviv. Its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pointed to particularly heavy attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine and an offensive against second city Kharkiv, where officials said Russian shelling killed three people. Attacks on Lviv and other cities in western Ukraine show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlins senseless onslaught, Borrell added. Seeking to strengthen ties and accelerate admission to the 27-nation bloc, Zelensky said that Ukraine hoped to receive EU candidate country status within weeks. On Monday, he handed the EUs envoy to Kyiv a two-volume response to a membership questionnaire brought by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in March. burs-bgs/oho/dva Main opposition conservative People Power Party chief Lee Jun-seok, second from left, and minor opposition conservative People's Party chief Ahn Cheol-soo, second from right, pose holding a joint statement, during a press conference officially announcing the merger of the two parties, at the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, Monday. Screenshot from SBS' YouTube account By Jung Da-min Main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) chief Lee Jun-seok and minor opposition conservative People's Party chief Ahn Cheol-soo officially announced the merger of the two parties, Monday, holding a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul's Yeouido area. "The People Power Party and the People's Party declare an agreement as follows for the birth of a better Korea and laying the foundation for a joint government based on the proposal for candidacy unification declared in the 20th presidential election," read a joint statement that was signed by the leaders of the two parties. Earlier in the day, the PPP and the People's Party held Supreme Council meetings with their members, respectively, to approve the merger of the parties. The unified party will use the name, "PPP," and conduct nominations for candidates to run for the June 1 local elections. The unified PPP is planning to accept additional applications from those in the People's Party who wish to run in the local elections, as the PPP had already started its nomination process. The merger of the PPP and People's Party came about a month and a half after Ahn Cheol-soo, then-presidential candidate of the People's Party, announced his candidacy withdrawal so as to unify with Yoon of the PPP. Once unified, the conservative bloc and Yoon were able to beat their main rival, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), by a razor-thin margin in the March 9 presidential election. "Both parties have formed a policy platform task force to lead constant change and reform (of politics) and propose new policy platforms," read the statement. The merger of the PPP and the People's Party came four days after a dinner meeting between Yoon and Ahn, where they reaffirmed their united efforts for the success of the upcoming Yoon government. Earlier, there had been speculations of a possible rift between Yoon and Ahn over Yoon's nomination of his first ministers, which occurred last Thursday. As none of the Cabinet nominations included any of Ahn's picks, Ahn had called off his scheduled appearances the same day, in what appears to have been an expression of his frustration over Yoon's Cabinet nominations. Adding to the speculations of a possible conflict between Yoon and Ahn, was the resignation of Rep. Lee Tae-kyu of the People's Party from his post on the planning and coordination committee of Yoon's presidential transition committee on April 11, a day after Yoon's first round of Cabinet nominations. Although the two sides are trying to settle their conflict, the merger of the parties is still imperfect, with some members of the People's Party still remaining against the idea of forming such a coalition with Yoon or the PPP. Rep. Kwon Eun-hee, who had led the People's Party as the floor leader, had opposed both the merger of the parties as well as Ahn's presidential candidacy withdrawal. Kwon has said she cannot accept the idea of the merger when it only helps to entrench further the nation's political system, which is led primarily by the two major parties, thereby limiting the voices of minor parties. She had requested that the party revoke her membership in it so that she could continue her legislative activities as an independent lawmaker after the merger. However, as she was elected as a proportional representation lawmaker of the People's Party, she cannot maintain in her lawmaker position if she withdraws her membership from the party. "I have confirmed party leader Ahn's decision on my request for dismissal," Kwon said, adding that she will be leaving the unified party later in early June. Leading Scotch whisky maker Chivas Brothers said it aims to double exports to India if New Delhi lifts whisky tariffs, the UKs top priority in bilateral trade talks ahead of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons visit to India this week. Require. India is the worlds largest whisky consumer and the second largest export market for Scotch whisky. But British industry has accused India of hampering growth in the country of 1.4 billion people with a 150 percent tariff on imported wine. New Delhis levy on British whisky makers has become a sore point in the UK-India trade relationship and at the heart of trade talks that began earlier this year. Johnson will travel to India this week and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he looks to advance talks and expand security cooperation in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Jean-Etienne Gourg, chairman of Chivas Brothers, part of Frances Pernod Ricard group, told the Financial Times that the odds of a trade deal have never been higher. Scotch only a small part of all the whiskies people enjoy [in India], he said. The medium-term goal is to at least double the size of the market. And with the size of the population of the middle class, I see a very large appetite. It should be one of the top markets. Trade between the UK and India was worth 18.5bn in 2020, but stand still over the past ten years. This compares to 38bn in trade between the UK and Belgium in the same year. India currently accounts for 1.2% of UK exports it is the UKs 21st largest export market and UK companies currently sell more to countries such as Singapore, Sweden and Norway. London and New Delhi agreed last year to establish a comprehensive UK-India strategic partnership to boost investment and jobs as part of a plan to double trade by 2030. But analysts remain sceptical that a long-discussed free trade deal will be reached in time to finalize the 2024 British and Indian elections. New Delhi has long demanded easier access to British visas for Indian students and skilled workers, sparking political controversy in the UK. Trade Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told the Financial Times in January that everything is on the table, including immigration, as countries seek to hammer out a deal. Samlow, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, said Britain had given India a lot of what they wanted on immigration after Brexit, and a trade deal between the two countries was now possible. The lifting of the so-called secondary cap on skilled workers coming to the UK in December 2020 and the UKs decision to put Indian workers on an equal footing with their EU counterparts was a pivotal moment. However, India is expected to push more of its students and workers into the UK for trade talks, some Conservative MPs and immigration hawks at the Home Office. Boris Johnson can do that, but it will involve some fights with the Home Office, Low said. However, he warned that any trade deal between India and the UK could initially be pretty shallow. He added that given New Delhis refusal to criticize Russias invasion of Ukraine, politics is not suitable for an early and ambitious trade deal. admired Indian authorities have long been wary of opening up domestic industries through free trade agreements, but the country recently signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates and an interim agreement with Australia. Most Indian whisky is locally produced, and the high taxes and fees imposed on imported liquor are an important source of revenue for Indian authorities. But the country has also long been hostile to the alcohol industry, with some states banning it altogether. The Scotch Whisky Association said lowering tariffs must be a priority in trade negotiations and said it hoped the two countries could reach an interim early harvest deal before a full trade deal. "Our Blues" episode 4 opens the story of a ship captain and a haenyeo (female diver) who are both scared to take a step closer despite being drawn to each other. In the latest episode, fans and viewers experience a heart-fluttering watching experience with Kim Woo Bin and Han Ji Min. Keep on reading to know more! 'Our Blues' Episode 4: Lee Young Ok Opens Up To Park Jeong Joon "Our Blues" episode 4 begins with Lee Young Ok (Han Ji Min) enjoying her free time at the bar. She is drinking a cold beer and dancing to the music. A man who is obviously into her keeps on insisting that they should go to a motel, but Young Ok is still sober to entertain his queries. Thankfully, Park Jeong Joon appears to pacify the drunk man. He also walks Young Ok home to ensure her safety, which makes it more obvious that Jeong Joon likes her, too. To his surprise, Young Ok suddenly talks about her past relationships and how she ended up in Jeju Island after living in Seoul for a while. Because he did not know what to say, he kept quiet and listened to her stories. Jeong Joon became interested in Young Ok even more. Meanwhile, a clinically depressed Min Seon Ah (Shin Min Ah) gets into an altercation with her irate husband. He seems to have no care about her mental stability. Lee Young Ok Gets In Trouble With Her Co-Workers As a haenyeo (female diver), Young Ok has to wake up early to make a living. She dives in deep waters to collect abalones, conches, and other sea life to sell in the market. Young Ok already has a bad reputation in the haenyeo community as her own coworkers do not like her, and even spread rumors about her. While the other female divers already climbed back to their boat, Young Ok has not resurfaced yet which totally inconvenienced the others. Because of this, Young Ok's reputation has been tainted even more, amplifying her coworkers' hatred for her. On the other hand, high school classmates Bang Young Joo (Noh Yoon Seo), Bang Ho Sik's (Choi Young Jun) daughter, alarms Jung Hyeon (Bae Hyung Sung), Jung In Kwon's (Park Ji Hwan) son, about their possible pregnancy. Park Jeong Joon Takes One Step Closer To Lee Young Ok Despite being warned not to fall for Young Ok, Jeong Joon's fascination towards the older woman becomes stronger. When Young Ok visited her small bus for a cup of cold tea, Jeong Joon bares his soul and bravely asks her out. Young Ok tells him that he'll only get hurt because of the endless rumors that come with being with her. However, Jeong Joon braced himself, and asked her to be careful with his heart as long as she can. Because of their mutual feelings and understanding, they seal their new relationship with a kiss full of longing. KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Donations for humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine will be collected during a performance in Kelowna on May 14 at the Community Theatre of the Ukrainian-Canadian dance troupe Cheremosh. Health minister nominee Chung Ho-young speaks during a press conference held in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap The office of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that whether the health minister nominee is fit for office should be determined after his confirmation hearing, despite calls for withdrawing the nomination over suspicions he used his position to get his children into a medical school. The nomination of Chung Ho-young, a former chief of Kyungpook National University Hospital, has become the hottest political issue after allegations surfaced that he used his position to help his daughter and son gain admission to the university's medical school and exempt his son from active duty military service. Chung rebutted the allegations in a press conference Sunday, saying he welcomes an investigation by the education ministry and will send his son to receive another medical exam at an institution designated by the National Assembly. He also offered to take all responsibility if the allegations turn out to be true. In the face of mounting calls from the Democratic Party and other critics for immediate withdrawal of the nomination, Yoon has said that "clear facts about irregularities" should first be confirmed if he is going to take action about the nomination. "I think it would be good if we could decide whether he is fit in the eyes of the people at the parliamentary confirmation hearing," Bae Hyun-jin, Yoon's spokesperson, said during a press briefing. "We cannot say that our personnel vetting system is perfect from the people's perspective. However, I will say that we are doing our best to carry out a vetting that is more detailed than that of any previous administration's transition team," she said. When asked if Yoon made any comment on Chung's press conference, Bae said he did not and that he is "calmly" monitoring the situation. Transition Committee Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo said what's most important is to sort out the truth. "I don't know the details," he said during a meeting with reporters. "In any case, wouldn't the most important thing be to clearly determine the truth so that the people have no suspicions?" (Yonhap) A Kilkenny farmer has scooped one of the top national awards in grassland farming. Peter Brophy, from Paulstown, has been named as the runner-up in the Dairy Enterprise Category at this year's awards. Paul was accompanied by his wife Jane and daughter Caroline for the presentation. They are pictured above with sponsors Eamon O'Reilly, AIB, Liam Woulfe, Grassland Agro, Martin Heydon T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Padraig Walsh, FBD Insurance & Chairman Teagasc Grass10 stakeholder committee, Aidan Brennan, Irish Farmers Journal, Liam Herlihy, Teagasc Chairman & Prof. Frank O'Mara, Teagasc Director. Now in its fifth year the awards recognise and reward the top grassland farmers in the country who are growing and utilising more grass on their farms in a sustainable manner. The awards are supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with an overall prize fund of 20,000. The Overall Winner of the Grassland Farmer of the Year 2021 is Colin Doherty, Adare, Co Limerick. The winners were announced at the Teagasc Animal and Grassland, Research and Innovation centre, Moorepark, County Cork Speaking at the awards ceremony, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Martin Heydon T.D. congratulated all of the 10 finalists on their achievements in grassland management. He said: As finalists you are joining a group of top class grassland farmers, and I would particularly like to congratulate Colin Doherty on winning the overall Grassland Farmer of the Year Award. Its an achievement you can be really proud of. It is clear that initiatives such as Grass10 and the Grassland Farmer of the Year are to the fore in helping farmers achieve the most they can from the natural resource they have on their farm, which is grass. The Grassland Farmer of the Year awards are part of the Teagasc Grass10 campaign which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Teagasc, AIB, FBD Insurance, Grassland Agro and the Irish Farmers Journal. The 1st year of Phase II of the programme has been completed with a continued focus on improving nutrient management and efficiency on farm and clover incorporation. Runners-up Dairy Enterprise Runner-up - Peter Brophy, Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny Dairy Enterprise Runner-up - Daniel Rundle, Ardee, Co. Louth Dairy Enterprise Runner-up - Jim Conway, Cahir, Co. Tipperary Drystock Enterprise Runner-up - Shane Moore, Athleague, o. Roscommon Category winners: Young Farmer Category Philip Tyndall, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford Mixed Soils Category Sean ODonnell, Ballina, Co. Mayo Clover/Sustainable Farming Category Brendan Walsh, Cahir, Co. Tipperary Innovation in Grassland Brigid Carroll, Gorey, Co. Wexford Enterprise Category Winners: Drystock Category Aidan Maguire, Navan, Co. Meath Dairy Category Colin Doherty, Adare, Co. Limerick Overall Winner of the Grassland Farmer of the Year 2021 - Colin Doherty, Adare, Co. Limerick Speaking on behalf of the competition judges, Aidan Brennan Irish Farmers Journal said: One thing that we looked at this year was clover establishment and management. We also focussed on sustainability, particularly the environmental footprint, but also Health and Safety. There was a massive uptake of low emission slurry spreading and protected urea among the contestants. The fact that the average grass growth among the finalists was 13.4 tonnes of Dry Matter per hectare just shows that you can be very efficient while also being very sustainable. Padraig Walshe, dairy farmer and chair of the Teagasc Grass10 stakeholder committee said: Grass10 is a very important programme for the promotion of best practise in grassland management. Its about transferring the research and innovation out onto farms. These awards are a celebration of this. It is very important to recognise the excellence achieved and we look forward to holding farm walks later in the year, so the messages get out to more farmers. Speaking at the awards ceremony, Teagasc Chairman Liam Herlihy said: Congratulations and very well done to all the farmers who are finalists today. You are all exceptional farmers doing an excellent job and today is a day to acknowledge this. Your focus on grass growth, grass measurement, and the grass management skills is acknowledged through these awards. In relation to the Grass10 programme, the focus in Phase II, is to challenge four main areas. These areas are specifically; Moving Grassland Knowledge out to the industry; Continuing to increase the usage of PastureBase Ireland; Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency on grassland farms in 2022 and increasing the emphasis and adoption of White Clover in grassland swards. Professor Frank OMara, Teagasc Director said; Grass is the bedrock of our beef, dairy and sheep enterprises. It is what gives us our competitive advantage from an economic and environment perspective. The judging panel for the Grassland Farmer of the Year competition consisted of John Maher, Teagasc Grass10; Bryan Doocey, AIB; John OLoughlin, Grassland Agro; Aidan Brennan, Irish Farmers Journal; Bridget Lynch, Teagasc; Colin Heaney, FBD and Liz Hyland DAFM. To read more about each of the finalists and the winners visit https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/grassland-farmer-of-the-year-2021/ Prosecutors sought formal arrest warrants Monday for a woman and her boyfriend who stand accused of causing the 2019 drowning death of the woman's husband for a hefty insurance payout, officials said. Investigators suspect they committed the crime for 800 million won (US$650,000) in insurance money. Police also launched an investigation into suspicions of Lee's ex-lovers who died while snorkeling in Thailand in 2014 and in Incheon in 2010 due to a car accident at Seokbawi Rock. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Mostly sunny and windy. High around 95F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 71F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. By Kim Jae-heun Kering Chairman Francois Henry Pinault spoke highly of Lotte Department Store by saying he "has never seen any other global retailer with such experience (in the luxury business)" during his visit to Seoul last week, according to Lotte officials, Monday. Kering is a French-based multinational corporation specializing in luxury goods. The company owns well-known designer brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent. Pinault met with Lotte Department Store CEO Jung Joon-ho and shared his opinions on the local retailer's luxury business team. Pinault is said to have been amazed by the luxury team's expertise in the field during the meeting. "I have faith in the company's drive for change (in business) led by brand experts from the chief executive officer to branch managers. I want to form a good, long-term partnership with the new Lotte Department Store and cooperate with it," Pinault said. After CEO Jung joined Lotte Department Store on Dec. 1, 2021, he scouted former Chanel Korea and Givenchy Korea President Lee Hyo-wan to lead the retailer's luxury business. He also formed a team with experts who had built careers at Louis Vuitton, Shinsegae and Samsung Engineering & Construction (Samsung E&C) before coming to Lotte. Samsung E&C owns Samsung Group's fashion affiliate. After meeting with Pinault, Jung told all of his employees online that he had a great meeting with the Kering chairman and that he is optimistic about what lies ahead. Jung recently revealed his goal of targeting Shinsegae and take away the title of being the No. 1 department store in Gangnam, Seoul, in the next three years. Currently, Shinsegae Department Store is the top player in the tony district with annual sales of 2.4 trillion won ($19.4 billion). Lotte Department Store's Gangnam branch is far behind with just 251.2 billion won worth of sales in the same period. Lotte said it will invest 547.6 billion won to renew its major branches including those in Sogong-dong, Jamsil and Gangnam this year. Here's what you need to know: Monday, April 18 New seclusion and restraint policy to go to CPS board for approval By Kim Hyun-bin The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), are scrambling to host U.S. President Joe Biden during his expected visit to Korea in May as the country's two leading business lobby groups compete for prominence under the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration, according to industry officials, Monday. "KCCI and the FKI are the two major lobby groups and one of them is most likely to become the representative economic group for the Yoon administration and all eyes are on who will be selected," said an industry official familiar with the matter. The FKI Chairman Huh Chang-soo recently sent Kim Bong-man, head of the International Cooperation Office, to the U.S. to meet with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, while discussing possible preparations for Biden's visit to Korea. FKI Chairman Huh Chang-soo "If President Biden comes, there may be a meeting between U.S.-Korea business officials. When Kim visited the U.S., we expressed our opinion about wanting to host the possible presidential visit." an FKI official said. "At that time, The FKI and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce discussed a wide array of issues including customs issues between the two countries and supply chain disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis." In the past, the FKI used to play the representative role for large business groups, but its influence has diminished since being embroiled in a national corruption scandal in 2016, which put former President Park Geun-hye behind bars. Due to the incident, the four leading conglomerates Samsung, Hyundai, SK, and LG withdrew their memberships from the FKI. After President Moon Jae-in took office, the lobby group suffered the humiliating blow of being excluded from key business events hosted by Cheong Wa Dae. However, the FKI is actively seeking to recover its status as the leading business lobby group and hopes to work closely with the incoming Yoon administration. KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won A traveler walks through the George Bush Intercontinental Airport on December 03, 2021 in Houston. A federal judge in Florida struck down on Monday the CDC mask mandate for travelers . The biggest risk to the global economy no one is talking about Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo / Yonhap Malaysia expressed support Monday for Korea's bid to join a mega free trade deal in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Seoul's trade ministry. Malaysia's Senior Minister and International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali voiced support for Seoul's envisioned entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) during a virtual meeting with Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo. Last week, Korea announced its decision to join the pact and is working to submit an application this month. "The Malaysian minister welcomed Korea's planned application for the CPTPP membership and shared his country's ratification procedures for the agreement," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a release. The CPTPP involves 11 nations, including Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Vietnam, and accounted for around 15 percent of the world's total trade volume of $5.2 trillion as of 2020. So far, seven out of the 11 member nations, including Malaysia, Canada, Australia and Vietnam, have voiced support for Seoul's push to win membership. The four nations who haven't done so are Japan, Singapore, Chile and Peru. During the meeting, the two sides also exchanged opinions on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which the U.S. has sought to launch in the Asian region amid an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry. Yeo told the Malaysian side that Korea "is positively reviewing" the participation in the framework, as the platform is expected to help strengthen the region's economic competitiveness and achieve sustainable growth, according to the ministry. He also voiced hope for enhanced cooperation with Malaysia in supply chains, clean energy and other issues within the framework and via various other cooperation mechanisms. (Yonhap) South Korea called in Iran's ambassador Monday after a conservative Tehran newspaper claimed Iran must block Seoul ships in Strait of Hormuz. Korea's deputy foreign minister, Yeo Seung-bae, summoned Iranian Ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari and conveyed concerns about a published contribution in the Kayhan newspaper that Iran should block Korean ships in the strait due to disputes over Tehran's assets frozen here under U.S. sanctions. During the meeting, the Iranian envoy said the newspaper's contribution was not in line with Tehran's official stance and briefed Yeo about Iran's stance over the matter, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps seized the MT Hankuk Chemi over environmental pollution allegations on Jan. 4 last year. The ship, which was traveling from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, was carrying 20 crew members, including five Koreans. The ship was released about three months later, but speculation had persisted that the seizure could be linked to Iran's anger over its $7 billion frozen in Korea under U.S. sanctions. (Yonhap) A group of farmers and fishermen hold a rally protesting the government's move to apply for membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) at the Gwanghwamun Government Complex in Seoul, April 8. Korea Times file Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki attends a meeting at the Gwanghwamun Government Complex in Seoul, April 8. Korea Times file Membership application due this month, negotiations may take years By Lee Kyung-min Joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be a tall task for the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration, as it will require effective leadership and communication skills to coordinate the diverse range of interests from those of export firms to those of agricultural workers according to market watchers, Monday. Whether and how well the business-friendly Yoon administration wins the support of farmers and fishermen in fear of the permanent loss of their livelihoods will define the success of its economic policy directives under the president-elect, whose top advisers are trade and business experts with strong convictions about market-driven growth. The outgoing Moon Jae-in administration has not broached the politically divisive issue over the past few years, mindful of voters in rural regions, where Korea becoming a member of the mega trade deal involving 11 member countries could mean the outright abandonment of traditional farming and fishing industries, already long sidelined to prioritize the country's rapid export-oriented growth of the last 60 years. The 11 member countries of the CPTPP are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The Moon administration was criticized by some for the swift ratification of the less invasive trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes 15 member countries the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Some viewed that the ratification was due to diplomatic pressure from China, while others saw it as an attempt to diversify Korea's export market so it can become be less dependent on China. By Choe Chong-dae Since the dawn of civilization, dogs have been the animals most tightly attached to humans, almost like family members, due to their unconditional affection, outstanding intelligence and unflagging loyalty. Dogs seem to understand the minds of their human masters perfectly and follow them regardless of their age, gender and other aspects. Moreover, the dog is traditionally considered an auspicious animal for driving away evil spirits. As in many countries, Korea has native breeds of dogs that are strongly associated with its history and traditional culture. Three of them, the Sapsaree, the Jindo and the Donggyeongi, have been designated Korean cultural heritage and were featured on commemorative stamps issued by the Korea Post last October. Together with the Pungsan, those breeds are considered worthy of preservation because of their distinctive characteristics. In Korea, the Sapsaree dog is viewed as a symbol of luck bringing good fortune to people. It appears in a wide range of cultural genres since it has been closely related to the joys and sorrows of common people. In particular, the dog is mentioned in several Korean traditional folk songs. In a popular traditional ballad written by Cho Myeong-am and composed by Kim Young- pa, which was sung by Lee Hwa-ja and recorded on SP records in 1939, the lyrics say: "Hey! Hey! Hey Sapsaree! If you hear a leaf making a sound, you bark. Hey! Hey! Hey Sapsaree! Please light a 'cheongsachorong' (a traditional Korean lantern with a red-and-blue silk shade), don't bark when my beloved comes." Buddhism was in full bloom in Korea in the early eighth century, during the Silla Kingdom. At that time, a group of eminent Korean monks and scholars journeyed to China to undertake higher studies, during the Tang Dynasty. Most of them returned to Korea and brought about remarkable progress in Buddhism. One of them, Kim Kyo-gak (696-794), a son of King Seongdeok, became a monk and decided to return to China at the age of 24, together with his beloved Sapsaree dog. Kim achieved personal milestones and great fame after his lengthy practice of asceticism at a hermitage on Mount Jiuhua in Chizhou, Anhui Province. One day, he was saved by his brave Sapsaree dog as a tiger was threatening him. The monk lived until the age of 99, teaching his disciples about the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, called Jijang Bosal in Korea. Many believed Kim Kyo-gak was a reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, who was compassionate toward sinners, and some referred to him as the Ksitigarbha King, since a bodhisattva is a deity according to the Buddhist tradition. The Buddhist teachings of Kim Gyo-gak and the story of his dog have been spread widely in China and Japan. After Kim Kyo-gak passed away, a shrine was built on Mount Jiuhua to preserve his body and commemorate his remarkable accomplishments in Buddhism. The shrine became the cradle of the Jijang faith and many people from all over the world make pilgrimages there to pay their respects to the Silla prince who became a monk, the life of whom is strongly associated with his devoted Sapsaree dog. Thanks to the special efforts of scholars and academic researchers, indigenous Korean dog breeds have been saved from extinction and gained recognition. I hope the Sapsaree, Donggyeongi, Jindo and Pungsan dogs can gain the full recognition they deserve as native Korean dog breeds. Choe Chong-dae (choecd@naver.com) is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is the president of Dae-kwang International Co. and director of the Korean-Swedish Association. Ukrainian servicemen attend an Orthodox Palm Sunday service at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, April 17, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP-Yonhap Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia, Sunday, and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port. The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless seven-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow's biggest victory of the war yet and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine's industrial east. Capturing the southern city would also allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets. As its missiles and rockets slammed into other parts of the country, Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is laced with tunnels. Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the city's patrol police, told Mariupol television Sunday. He said they were hiding from Russian shelling, and from any occupying Russian soldiers. Moscow gave the defenders a midday deadline to surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were ''guaranteed to keep their lives.'' The Ukrainians rejected it, just as they've done with previous ultimatums. ''We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,'' Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC's ''This Week.'' He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, ''but we do not have intention to surrender.'' As for besieged Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope Sunday of military rescue by Ukrainian forces anytime soon. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS' ''Face the Nation'' that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians in Mariupol are basically encircled. He said they ''continue their struggle,'' but that the city effectively doesn't exist anymore because of massive destruction. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent Easter greetings via Twitter, saying: ''The Lord's Resurrection is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil.'' If Mariupol falls, Russian forces there are expected to join an all-out offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is bent on capturing after failing in its bid to take Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. A man walks past a residential building, which was destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 17. Reuters-Yonhap The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians' estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter. An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. ''All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,'' Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum. Samsung Heavy Industries CEO Jung Jin-taek, right, and his counterpart from Seaborg, hold a copy of a signed memorandum of understanding, Thursday. Courtesy of Samsung Heavy Industries By Lee Kyung-min Samsung Heavy Industries and Doosan Enerbility, the plant building and energy affiliates of Samsung Group and Doosan Group, respectively, are accelerating their nuclear energy businesses, buoyed by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's pledge to elevate the much criticized energy source as a new national growth driver, according to industry watchers, Friday. The move toward rapid business expansion abroad is the latest in the incoming administration's energy policy directives, defined by the early and full scrapping of the nuclear phase-out policy spearheaded by President Moon Jae-in. President-elect Yoon said that Korea should embrace nuclear energy for a stable supply of power to lower production costs for businesses and to meet the short-term energy demands of households for heating and air-conditioning. Samsung Heavy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Seaborg, a Danish next-generation nuclear reactor developer, Thursday, to develop floating nuclear power plant barges, a high-tech cooperation integrating the Samsung affiliate's shipbuilding capabilities and the Danish firm's Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR) technology. The Seaborg-developed CMSR uses highly efficient fission energy to generate electricity without producing greenhouse gases. The reactor is far smaller in size compared to large nuclear power plants and is suited for broader use with fewer limitations. Safety concerns from radioactive waste being released into the sea due to meltdowns or explosions are dispelled, due mostly to how the fuel is mixed into a molten fluoride salt, which also acts as the coolant and can shut down the reactor in cases of an emergency. This is why the Danish firm says its products provide significant safety benefits. Samsung Heavy said that the fuel salt will cool down and turn into solid rock immediately after coming into contact with the atmosphere, containing all the radioactive material within itself. Also eliminating a wide range of accident scenarios is the fact that the reactors can be operated at near-atmospheric pressures. Similarly, Doosan Enerbility, formerly Doosan Heavy Industries, is seeking to win advance orders to build nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic. The Doosan officials attended a meeting organized by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a state-run power company, Thursday, to discuss business strategies to win the project involving the construction of a nuclear reactor with a power capacity of 1,200 megawatts in 2029. The Czech government is considering building three more nuclear power plants. The project led by Doosan Enerbility is joined by KHNP, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), two other KEPCO affiliates and Daewoo Engineering and Construction. The Doosan affiliate is speeding up cooperation with NuScale Power, a leading U.S. firm specializing in small modular reactor (SMR) technology. SMRs are the next generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller and produce less output. Seoul National University economics professor Lee In-ho said that a revival of the nuclear energy business is long overdue and added that it will help map out a long-term energy strategy. "Pushing for renewable energies while excluding nuclear energy use was not viable in the first place. It is time for a more balanced approach without demonizing or glorifying any particular energy source," he said. People queue to join an Easter meal organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio in solidarity with refugees, displaced persons and the homeless, at the social canteen in the Trastevere neighborhood in Rome, April 17. EPA-Yonhap The head of the UN refugee agency hoped Sunday that peace would prevail over war, with more than 4.8 million Ukrainians having fled their country since the Russian invasion. "As Christians celebrate resurrection on this somber Easter Sunday, we must stubbornly hope that in the days, months and years to come the methods and language of war will not prevail over those more difficult, more complicated that lead to peace," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi. UNHCR said 4,869,019 million Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded on Feb. 24 up 32,574 from Saturday's total. The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 215,000 third-country nationals largely students and migrant workers have also escaped to neighboring countries, meaning more than five million people in all have fled Ukraine since the war began. It is one of the fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crises ever. More than 2.75 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland. Nearly 740,000 reached Romania. UNHCR figures show nearly 645,000 Ukrainians fled in February, with nearly 3.4 million doing so in March and more than 830,000 leaving so far this month. Women and children account for 90 percent of those who escaped, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military call-up and unable to leave. Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have been forced from their homes, including those still inside the country. Beyond the refugees, the IOM estimates 7.1 million people have left their homes but are still in Ukraine. "In this season of renewal, our thoughts are with all those who have been forced to flee their homes and have had to rebuild the life they left behind," the UNHCR said. Before the invasion, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in the regions under government control, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist-controlled regions in the east. Here is a breakdown of how many Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to UNHCR: We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Jason Soderland, left, and Rebecca Dixon of architectural firm RQAW, Fishers, present samples of the brick that will be used in the construction of the new Steuben County judicial center on Monday before the Steuben County Board of Commissioners. The red brick will be the main field and the lighter brick is an accent that will create bands around the building. Seated at the desk from left are commissioners Lynne Liechty, Wil Howard and Ken Shelton. Firefighters from eight area departments responded to a Monday morning house fire at 2161 C.R. 28 between Waterloo and Corunna. The fire started in the kitchen area and was contained to that room, but the rest of the structure sustained smoke and heat damage. From March 31 to April 14, StarPlay held a poll to discover which K-pop idols have the most charming deep voices. Keep on reading to see the top ten rankings! The winner of the poll wins one Seoul Station CM board video advertisement and online news PR. 10. (G)I-DLE Yuqi Yuqi received 848 votes (0.06%), ranking in tenth place. The female idol is known for her husky, low-pitched voice. She once confessed that she used to be bullied for her voice but now considers it her greatest weapon! Her attractive voice is definitely recognizable in all (G)I-DLE songs. 9. Oh My Girl Yubin (Binnie) Yubin, also known as Binnie, received 2,776 votes (0.21%), ranking ninth. Yubin's voice is known for its natural timbre, which Oh My Girl fans love. Throughout the years, Yubin has proved herself as a vocalist, and while her official position is as a sub-vocal, she has acted more as a lead vocal in recent comebacks. 8. STAYC J Ranking in eighth place is J, who received 3,748 votes (0.29%). During STAYC's appearance on MMTG, J revealed that she modeled her unique voice type off Dua Lipa, a popular Western artists. She practiced and became comfortable with the voice, which is now part of STAYC's identity. 7. SEVENTEEN Wonwoo Wonwoo received 11,780 votes (0.90%), ranking in seventh place. Out of all of the rappers in SEVENTEEN, Wonwoo has the deepest voice, so it is easily distinguishable from the other members. His voice is also one of the most dynamic, which allows him to pull off SEVENTEEN's range of concepts. 6. EXO D.O. D.O. ranked in sixth place with 13,045 votes (1.00%). You may be surprised to see D.O. here because he can pull off falsettos. This just proves he is an agile vocalist! However, D.O. is most comfortable with his lower register, proving that the idol has a naturally deep voice. 5. MAMAMOO Moonbyul Ranking in fifth place is Moonbyul, with 19,597 votes (1.50%). While the other three members of MAMAMOO are sopranos, Moonbyul stands out with her husky alto range. Though she debuted as a rapper, she has started releasing more vocal-heavy solo songs, proving her versatility as an artist. 4. BTS V V ranked in third place with 49,208 votes (3.77%). As BTS continues to rise in fame, the more V is recognized for his baritone singing voice. In addition, the idol is often praised for his vocal range and husky tone, with many saying V's deep voice is a critical element in BTS's sound. 3. MONSTA X I.M I.M received 62,051 votes (4.78%), ranking in third place. I.M is known for his low-tone rapping, which helps set him apart from Joohoney, who is MONSTA X's high-tone rapper. Over the years, I.M has garnered a solid fanbase thanks to his smooth, silky, and sexy rapping! 2. ITZY Ryujin Ryunin ranked in second place with 412,279 votes (31.55%). Ryujin is known for her strong lower vocal range, which allows her to stand out from her members, who all have higher range voices. Her deep, masculine voice suits her girl crush image, and MIDZYs love it. 1. Stray Kids Felix Ranking in the first place is none other than Felix, who received 730,840 votes (55.93%). His voice is arguably the most recognizable among fourth-generation male idols due to how deep it is. The Stray Kids member is a bass baritone, which is considered rare in K-pop. His raspy vocals will definitely leave a mark in your mind! Who is your favorite K-pop idol? Tell us in the comments below. For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns This Written by Alexa Lewis Ukraine on Monday aired a video showing Viktor Medvedchuk, a detained pro-Russia tycoon and ally of President Vladimir Putin, seeking to be exchanged in return for an evacuation of civilians and troops from the besieged port city of Mariupol. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state and pro-democratic country on February 24. "I want to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to exchange me for Ukrainian defenders and residents of Mariupol," he said in the video published by Kyiv's security services, wearing black clothes and looking directly into the camera. Medvedchuk, who escaped from house arrest after Russia's invasion and was detained last week, said the troops and residents there "do not have the possibility of a safe exit through humanitarian corridors". Medvedchuk is one of Ukraine's richest people and is known for his close ties to Putin. He is also a politician. He says Putin is the godfather to his youngest daughter, Darya. The Kremlin had earlier rejected the idea of exchanging him for Ukrainians detained by Russia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky floated the idea of a swap. Separately on Monday Russian state TV broadcast a video Monday of what it described as "Britons" captured fighting for Ukraine demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiate their release. The two men shown in the video asked to be exchanged for Medvedchuk, who had been accused of treason and attempting to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea and of handing Ukrainian military secrets to Moscow. (AFP) Turkey has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Turkey's defense minister announced early Monday. Turkish jets and artillery struck suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and commando troops supported by helicopters and drones then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video posted on the ministry's website. Akar said the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK. The group maintains bases in northern Iraq and has used the territory for attacks on Turkey. Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decades. The latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, was centered in northern Iraq's Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions. There was no information on the number of troops and jets involved in the latest incursion. ''Our heroic commandoes and maroon berets supported by attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, armed unmanned aerial vehicles arrived on the scene by land and by air and captured the determined targets,'' Akar said in a second video. ''Many terrorists were neutralized.'' ''At this point we have reached, all planned targets have been captured,'' he said. The Defense Ministry said the new offensive was launched after it was determined that the militants were regrouping and preparing for a ''large-scale attack.'' The offensive was carried out in coordination with Turkey's ''friends and allies,'' the ministry added, but didn't elaborate. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which controls the areas that were attacked. The Turkish minister said the incursion was targeting ''terrorists'' and that ''maximum sensitivity'' was being shown to avoid damage to civilians and cultural and religious structures. There was no immediate statement from the Kurdish militant group. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, began an insurgency in Turkey's majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984. (AP) Sonipat (Haryana) [India], April 18 (ANI/ OP Jindal University): The OP Jindal Global University (JGU) signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Spain in the presence of His Excellency Jose Maria Ridao Dominguez, Ambassador, Embassy of Spain in India, and Alfonso Perez-Hernandez Egart, First Secretary, Embassy of Spain. The agreement under the auspices of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Spanish Ministry of External Affairs (MAEC) will especially benefit the Jindal School of Languages and Literature (JSLL), which shall host a native Spanish language lecturer to teach Spanish language, culture and literature. This long-term academic engagement of a native Spanish speaker (lector or lectora) with specialised training in teaching Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) shall benefit students of JSLL as they gain a richer and more complete experience of Hispanidad (Hispanicity). JGU has the distinction of being the only private university in India and one of a select group of 12 universities in India and Sri Lanka partnering with the government of Spain for Spanish language teaching. Also Read | Jahangirpuri Violence Case: Delhi Police Crime Branch To Investigate Case of Communal Clashes. Students are currently being admitted to the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme for 2022-2025. These students will work with the Spanish lector/lectora and other JSLL faculty on language skills such as pronunciation and improve their communicative and socio-pragmatic competencies. The Founding Vice Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University, Professor (Dr) C Raj Kumar welcomed the development and said, "The MOU demonstrates the commitment of JGU and JSLL to advancing the study of Hispanic literatures and cultures in India. JSLL is proud to join the burgeoning field of Hispanic studies in India. The number of Spanish speakers in the world today exceeds 500 million. Students in JSLL will be able to make the most of the wide-ranging teaching expertise of Indian and foreign faculty members possessing the highest level of language training and proficiency." Also Read | Delhi University Recruitment 2022: Apply for 92 Assistant Professor Vacancies, Check Details Here. Professor (Dr) Denys Leighton, Dean, Jindal School of Languages and Literature, JGU remarked on the academic significance of the programme: "We are thankful to the Spanish government and are excited about having a native speaker of Spanish trained in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. JGU is currently the only Indian private higher education institution to be part of this programme of Spain's Agency for International Development Cooperation and one of about ten participating institutions in India and Sri Lanka. Students of the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme will receive excellent instruction by Indian and international Hispanists at JGU and will benefit from a rich learning environment. We will also work to ensure that students of the programme have a meaningful Study Abroad experience in a Spanish-speaking country as part of their course of study at JGU. This will be an added value for our students." Professor (Dr) Mohan Kumar, Dean of International Affairs and Global Initiatives, JGU commented, "It is a matter of great pride for JGU to have this formal arrangement with the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi under the MAEC-AECID Spanish Assistantships at Foreign Universities programme. I am sure learning Spanish from a native Spanish Language Specialist will expand the learning horizons of our students and help them in their careers and further education pursuits." Over the course of the three-year programme, JSLL students shall acquire a solid grasp of Spanish grammar and linguistic nuances that will enable them to communicate effectively in Spanish and explore the treasure trove of literary texts and cultural products of Spanish. Along with the development of linguistic competency, the programme fosters meaningful engagement with literature, cinema, music and other arts of Spain, Latin America and the wider Hispanosphere. The B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme curriculum is designed with a high degree of electivity so that the students may tackle courses in language, literature, communications, and cultural studies offered through many schools of the university. Students will complete several internships to gain exposure to organisations and enterprises engaging with Spanish-speaking clients, and they will apply skills learned from their courses and other academic activities. This MOU is in addition to 22 other agreements and instruments of cooperation signed by JGU with prestigious higher education institutions in Spanish-speaking countries - including University of Granada, University of Salamanca, University of Chile and the National University of Colombia. JGU learners of Spanish will have unique opportunities to experience Hispanidad through linguistic and cultural immersion. Academic credits earned by JGU students from the foreign universities will transfer to JGU for completion of the students' degrees. The B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme of JSLL is the only such undergraduate degree programme in India to incorporate study abroad as an integral part of the undergraduate learning experience. Special workshops at the JGU campus and extracurricular activities will ensure thorough linguistic training so that students attain the B2 proficiency level under the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Students of the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme will enter a vibrant community of learners and scholars dedicated to exploring the Hispanosphere. This story is provided by OP Jindal University. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/OP Jindal University) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bijapur (Chhattisgarh) [India], April 18 (ANI): Four police personnel were injured after Naxals opened fire on a police camp in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, an official said on Monday. According to IG Bastar (Chhattisgarh) P Sundarraj, the incident took place late Sunday evening at Jaigur Camp under the Kutru police limit in the Bijapur district. Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Writes to PM Narendra Modi, Urges for Meaningful Ties With India. All injured personnel were brought to the district hospital, out of which two were airlifted to Raipur for better treatment, Sundarraj said. Three out of four injured are from District Police force Bijapur and one from 4th Batallion Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) Also Read | Sensex Sharply Declines by 970 Points in Early Trade Due to Rising Inflation. Further details are awaited. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) India logged 2,183 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,30,44,280, while the active cases declined to 11,542, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll climbed to 5,21,965 with 214 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. Also Read | India Reports 2,183 Fresh #COVID19 Cases, 1,985 Recoveries and 214 Deaths in the Last 24 Latest Tweet by ANI. The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said. A decrease of 16 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. Also Read | China Reports 2,723 New Local COVID-19 Cases. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.83 per cent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.32 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,10,773, while the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.21 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 186.54 crore. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. (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, Apr 18 (PTI) CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat and the party's Delhi state committee secretary K M Tewari have alleged that the Ram Navami procession taken out in Delhi's Jahangirpuri was armed, with several men carrying "swords, lathis and firearms", days after communal violence broke out in the area. In a letter to the Delhi police commissioner, the duo have also raised questions over the role of the force in the incident. Also Read | Prime Minister Narendra Modi Visits Command & Control Centre for School in Latest Tweet by ANI. "Video evidence aired on several television channels, along with eyewitness reports to our fact-finding team, is conclusive evidence that the procession taken out by members of the youth wing of the Bajrang Dal was armed, with several men carrying naked swords, lathis and also, shockingly, firearms. "These weapons were openly flaunted and brandished during the procession. The police have stated that the procession had police permission. Did the police give permission to carry arms? In fact, the processionists who carried arms had clearly violated the Arms Act, which has stringent provisions of imprisonment for such violations," the letter read. Also Read | Delhi High Court Junks PIL To Remove Election Symbol From Ballot Papers. It also said from the police commissioner's statements to the media, it is unclear whether those carrying arms during the procession were identified or not. "If so, whether they have been arrested under the relevant provisions of law, including the Arms Act. It is also unclear from your statement whether there is any investigation into the role of the police. "Who is accountable for allowing an armed procession to stop in front of a mosque, shouting provocative and aggressive slogans at the exact time when the prayers to break the Roza fast were scheduled to begin? Such deliberate acts of omission and commission by the police have directly resulted in the ensuing incidents," the letter written by the Left leaders read. While both the leaders raised the issue of injuries suffered by police personnel during the violence, they also asked if senior officers had followed due diligence in the matter. "...if adequate police arrangements had been made, if action had been taken against weapon-carrying processionists, if the procession had not been allowed to stop in front of the mosque -- the incidents would not have taken place. It should be noted that there have never been incidents of a communal nature in this area earlier. Two communities have lived together in harmony. This is further evidence that the events were manufactured by outsiders in the procession in the name of shobha yatra," the letter read. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders also said they have information that male police personnel raided houses in C block at night and "manhandled and beat up women". "This is against all norms and rules laid down, which forbid male police personnel to touch a woman. Further, on the 17th (April), when our members along with others had met Additional DCP Kishen Kumar at the Jahangirpuri police station, they were shocked to find that leaders of the BJP were holding a press conference within the compound of the thana. This is highly irregular and strengthens the apprehension of an entirely partisan and biased police role in the present case," the letter read. The leaders appealed to the commissioner to take action against the police personnel who allowed weapons to be carried during the procession, who were responsible for the lack of adequate arrangements, who allowed the procession to stop in front of a mosque and those conducting a "one-sided, biased" investigation. "You have stated that people from both communities have been arrested. We stand for the arrest and punishment of all those guilty. However, the overwhelming majority of arrests is from the minority community, whereas the course of events shows that the main provocations and planning for the incidents were done by the organisation which held the procession -- an affiliate of the Bajrang Dal as stated by the police. "The Crime Branch, to whom the investigation has been handed over, is under the overall jurisdiction of the very police force which in the case of the Jahangirpuri incident is responsible. It is for this reason that the CPI(M) has demanded a time-bound judicial inquiry or an impartial investigation. In the meanwhile, we request you to take action against the police responsible," the letter read. (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], April 18 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced every village and town in the country is becoming open defecation free under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of the Centre and said that it is a proof that public participation can fill new energy in the development of the country. "How public participation can fill new energy in the development of a country, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a direct proof of this. Be it the construction of toilets or disposal of waste, preservation of historical heritage or competition for cleanliness, the country is writing new stories in the field of cleanliness today," PM Modi tweeted in Hindi. Also Read | National Green Tribunal Seeks Report on Illegal Tree Felling in Sarai Kawaja Village in Faridabad. The Prime Minister also informed that under the programme, toilets were built in more than 11.5 crore houses nationwide. Adding further PM Modi said that be it the construction of toilets or disposal of waste, preservation of heritage or competition for cleanliness, the country is writing new stories in the field of cleanliness today. Also Read | Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi Attacks Centre Over Appointment of UPSC Chairman Who Have Close Ties With RSS. The programme has made more than 58,000 villages and 3,300 towns open defecation free. PM Modi announced the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2014. He launched the second phase of the programme on October 2, 2021. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) On April 13, 2022, Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank announces the change of address of Hung Phu branch with details as follows: - Old address: Ground floor, Finance Bank Building, Quang Trung Street, Hung Phu Ward, Cai Rang District, Can Tho City. - New address: No.01-02 Area A2, Can Tho Trade Center, Hung Phu Ward, Cai Rang District, Can Tho City. New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) Asserting that new stories are being written in the field of cleanliness, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan shows how public participation can fill new energy in the development of a country. Taking to Twitter, the prime minister shared a graphic detailing the achievements under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan such as construction of toilets in over 11.5 crore households and more than 58,000 villages as well as over 3,300 cities becoming open defecation free. Also Read | Navi Mumbai Shocker: FIR Against Man for Threatening Woman Friend Over Disclosing Their Relationship. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan directly demonstrates how public participation can fill new energy in the development of a country, Modi said in a tweet in Hindi. "Be it construction of toilets or disposal of waste, preservation of historical heritage or competition for cleanliness, the country is writing new stories in the field of cleanliness today," he said. Also Read | Shanghai Reports 2,417 Confirmed and 19,831 Asymptomatic COVID-19 Cases. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], April 18 (ANI): Following the violence that erupted in the Bhagwanpur area of Haridwar during a religious procession on Saturday, a police official said that 11 people have been arrested so far while also asserting that the situation is now peaceful. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Yogendra Singh, told ANI that sufficient force has been deployed in the village. Also Read | Pakistan: CPEC To Advance Under PM Shehbaz Sharifs Watch, Says Pak Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed. "Eleven people have been arrested. Sufficient force is present in the village. Meetings are being held with the people. The situation is peaceful," he said. Meanwhile, the procession in the village was being conducted on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti when the incident reportedly occurred in the late-night hours leaving numerous people injured. Also Read | African Swine Fever in India: 16 More Pigs Die in Mizoram, Toll Rises to 770 in State. "Stones were pelted by unknown persons and the search operations have begun to arrest the miscreants. Yes, injuries have been reported but no police personnel was injured in the incident. Over 60 police personnel have been deployed in the area," said the SSP on Sunday. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 18 (ANI): A day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray reiterated his warning to take down loudspeakers from the mosques by May 3, the state Home Department on Monday stated that the use of loudspeakers at the religious sites will only be allowed with due permission. State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil will hold a meeting with the Director General of Police Maharashtra to instruct him to direct all police commissioners and officers on the matter, said the sources. Also Read | Navi Mumbai Shocker: FIR Against Man for Threatening Woman Friend Over Disclosing Their Relationship. In wake of the ongoing loudspeaker row in the state, Thackeray on Sunday said that the Muslims in the country should understand that "religion is not above law and country" while also asking them to take down loudspeakers from mosques. "We don't want riots in Maharashtra. No one has opposed the offering of prayers. We want the loudspeakers that are put up in the mosques and are illegal in the entire country should be taken down. If you do it on loudspeaker, then we will also use loudspeakers for it. Muslims should understand that religion isn't bigger than the law. After May 3, I will see what to do," Thackeray said. Also Read | Shanghai Reports 2,417 Confirmed and 19,831 Asymptomatic COVID-19 Cases. The MNS chief asked the Hindus to "wait till May 3" and play Hanuman Chalisa thereafter in front of the mosques that "don't take down the loudspeakers". "I only have to say to the Hindus across India to wait till May 3. And after that, play Hanuman Chalisa in front of all such mosques that don't take down the loudspeakers," he said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday stayed the takeover of the land of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur initiated by the Uttar Pradesh Government for nonadherence to certain conditions on which the land for the institution was granted to a trust run by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in 2005. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C T Ravikumar issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and others on the appeal filed against the Allahabad High Court order. Also Read | Semicon India 2022: PM Narendra Modi to Inaugurate 3 Day Conference in Bengaluru on April 29. The High Court had in September last year dismissed the petition filed by Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust seeking quashing of a report submitted by Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in March 2020 on the constructions over the land as well as the order dated January 16, 2021, by Additional District Magistrate (Administration) Rampur for vesting of the land in the state. Both Azam Khan and his son Abdullah are currently lodged at Sitapur district jail and are facing several cases. Also Read | Jahangirpuri Violence Case: Delhi High Court Asks Police To Produce Juvenile Accused Before Juvenile Justice Board. Citing the SDM's report, the high court had said a mosque was constructed over the land which was only for educational purposes, and thus, is a violation of the permission granted by the state government. The high court had said that no interference was required in the order passed by the ADM to initiate proceedings under Section 104/105 of the UP Revenue Code, 2006 for vesting of University's land in UP Govt i.e. taking over the land given to the Trust. In 2005, the then Samajwadi Party government enacted the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Act, paving the way for the creation of the university. Thereafter, the state government granted permission to the Trust to acquire 400 acres of land against the ceiling of 12.5 acres (5.0586 hectares) for the establishment of the University while imposing certain conditions, one of which was that the land will be used only for educational purposes. According to law, if such a condition is violated, the permission granted by the state government stands withdrawn. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Agartala, Apr 18: A middle-aged woman suspected of having an extramarital relationship has been allegedly beaten up and forced to marry her "lover" in Tripura's Khowai district, police said on Monday. The alleged incident took place at Madhya Krishnapur in Teliamura police station area on Saturday night, following which the woman has been hospitalised, an officer said. "We will send a team to meet the victim to know the actual incident. The police has not received any written complaint yet, but there will be an inquiry into the alleged incident," Teliamura Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Sonacharan Jamatia told PTI. The woman told reporters that on Saturday night, 15 people led by her husband took her to a paddy field on suspicion of her having an extra-marital affair and thrashed her mercilessly following which she lost consciousness. Ahmedabad: Woman Makes Sister Marry Lover To Hide Extramarital Affair Her alleged lover was also roughed up. A purported video that went viral on social media showed the woman, after regaining consciousness, being forced by villagers to exchange garlands with her alleged lover amid ululation. It also showed some youths compelling the man to apply vermillion on the woman's forehead. Karnataka Shocker: Daughter Kills Her Mother To Cover Up Affair With Cousin Brother The woman's husband confessed before the media that he and his family members beat her up for her alleged relationship with a man of the same village. "After the incident, I took her to Teliamura hospital for treatment, and I spent the whole night there. The police visited my residence," he said without sounding repentant. Tripura Commission for Women (TCW) Chairperson Barnali Goswami condemned the alleged incident. "In a civilised society, we can't tolerate such gruesome torture on a woman. Forceful marriage between a married woman and a man is not a natural practice. We will send a team to meet the victim to know the actual sequence of events," she said. London [UK], April 18 (ANI): A large number of Afghans living in the United Kingdom protested outside the Pakistan embassy in London against recent airstrikes in parts of Khost and Kunar provinces in Afghanistan. On the night of April 15, Pakistani aircraft launched airstrikes into Afghan territory killing more than 40 civilians. Also Read | US Shooting: 2 Dead, 8 Injured After Shooting at House Party in Pittsburgh. Following the incident, the Taliban summoned Pakistan's ambassador Manssor Ahmad Khan to convey concerns to the Pakistan government over the incident. A protester said, "Pakistan army has killed more than 100 Afghan civilians - they were children, they were women, they were elderly people - they were not terrorists." Also Read | Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Says 'Russian Troops Inflicting Deliberate Terror'. The protesters called Pakistan a terrorist state and shouted slogans like "We want justice from the United Nations" and urged the international community to hold Islamabad responsible for genocide in Afghanistan. The demonstration organized by All Afghan Protection CIC also raised the issue of the inhumane treatment of Afghan refugees by Iran. The protesters gathered at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Knightsbridge, before marching to demonstrate outside the High Commission for Pakistan, where they demanded an end to Pakistan's interference and killing of Afghan civilians. Similar demonstrations were also held in Paris, France. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington [US], April 18 (ANI): A Chinese airline has resumed commercial flights on Boeing 737-800 jets, the same model that crashed last month killing all 132 passengers and crew members on board, The Hill reported on Sunday (local time). In a statement on Sunday, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) said that it has conducted numerous systematic tests to resume commercial flights on the Boeing model. Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War: Estonia Bans Russian Ships from Entering Countrys Ports. Last month, a China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Flight MU5735, with 132 people aboard, was enroute from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it plunged from cruising altitude and crashed. Also Read | Shehbaz Sharif Govt to Retract from Decision on Fuel Hike in Pakistan. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had announced that a team of US investigators had departed for China to probe the causes of an airliner crash that killed all 132 people on a Boeing 737-800 operated by China Eastern Airlines on March 21, "NTSB team has departed for China to participate in CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China's) B-737 accident investigation," Sputnik reported citing NTSB's statement. The US investigators will limit interactions with those outside of investigation similar to the safety protocols at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games earlier this year, the NTSB 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) Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], April 18 (ANI): Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, accompanied by a high-level delegation and his spouse Kobita Jugnauth, arrived in Rajkot of Gujarat on Monday as part of his eight-day visit to India. The Mauritius Premier is arriving in India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also Read | Indian Parliamentary Delegation Led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to Visit Vietnam, Cambodia from April 19 to 25. "Glad to receive Honourable PM of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth at Rajkot. Extended heartiest welcome for his visit to Gujarat where he will be taking part in important programmes that will further strengthen ties between maritime neighbours," Minister of AYUSH, Sarbananda Sonowal, said in a tweet. Tomorrow, Jugnauth will participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar. Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Says His Speedy Work Will Frighten Imran Khan. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Jugnauth will also participate in the Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, along with PM Modi. The Mauritius PM will also pay a visit to Varanasi apart from his official engagements in Gujarat and New Delhi. "India and Mauritius enjoy uniquely close ties, bound by shared history, culture, and heritage. The upcoming visit will further strengthen the vibrant bilateral ties," MEA said. Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Secretary to the Cabinet of Mauritius NK Ballah in New Delhi and said the bilateral cooperation between the two countries was "progressing from strength to strength". Earlier in January, PM Modi and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth had jointly inaugurated the India-assisted social housing units project in Mauritius virtually. They also launched the Civil Service College and 8 MW Solar PV Farm project in Mauritius that is being undertaken under India's development support. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Peshawar, Apr 18 (PTI) Unknown gunmen shot dead two excise and narcotics department officials in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, police said. Officials said militants shot at the officials on the Daraban Kalan Bypass Road in DI Khan district. Also Read | Indian Parliamentary Delegation Led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to Visit Vietnam, Cambodia from April 19 to 25. The bodies were shifted to DI Khan Hospital. Police and rescue teams rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. A search operation has begun to nab the culprits. Also Read | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Says His Speedy Work Will Frighten Imran Khan. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano-starrer The Batman was released in theatres last month on March 4, 2022 and had its digital release on April 18, 2022. Streaming on HBO Max where its available and on Book My Show Stream in India, the Matt Reeves helmed DC film released to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. The Batman sees the Caped Crusader go on a journey to stop the Riddler who has been murdering corrupt politicians in Gotham City. However, unfortunately, within a few hours after its release digitally on OTT platforms The Batman leaked online. The movie is now available for streaming on torrent sites. Theres an HD print of the film available to watch online. The Batman Movie Review: Matt Reeves & Robert Pattinson Deliver the Definitive Version of DCs Dark Knight! (LatestLY Exclusive). Search engine platforms are flooded with keywords such as The Batman movie download, The Batman movie download in 720p HD, The Batman movie in 1080 HD download, and so on. The film is available for download on Torrent websites and other channels. Keywords like The Batman Full Movie Download, The Batman Tamilrockers, The Batman Tamilrockers HD Download, The Batman Movie Download Pagalworld, The Batman Movie Download Filmyzilla, The Batman Movie Download Openload, The Batman Movie Download Tamilrockers, The Batman Movie Download Movierulz, The Batman Movie Download 720p, The Batman Full Movie Download 480p, The Batman Full Movie Download bolly4u,The Batman Full Movie Download Filmyzilla, The Batman Full Movie Watch Online, and more are being used by people to watch the pirated version of the film. Watch The Trailer: However, this is not the first time, a movie has been leaked or surfaced online for free watch. As almost all film becomes the victim to this mess, it's very sad. In the past, many strict actions and restrictions were taken against these sites, but even after getting blocked, the sites rebound elevating piracy and illegal download options. The cyber cell needs to take serious action regarding this. This really needs to be stopped with hard steps. The Batman: New Look at Barry Keoghan's Joker Revealed in a Deleted Scene From Robert Pattinson's DC Film! (Watch Video). For the unversed, The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne aka Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Selena Kyle aka Catwoman and Paul Dano as Edward Nashton aka The Riddler. Apart from the leads, they movie also stars Andy Serkis, John Turturo, Jeffrey Wright and Colin Farrell. The Batman is currently playing in theatres and streaming on HBO Max and Book My Show streaming. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2022 03:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Aizawl, April 18: At least 16 more pigs died of African Swine Fever in Mizoram with the toll due to the disease rising to 770 in the state in a little over two months, an official said. At least 124 pigs have been culled to prevent the spread of the infection since February this year, he said. Besides, 205 pigs have died due to suspected African Swine Fever. At least 17 villages in Aizawl, Champhai, Lunglei and Saitual districts have been affected due to the outbreak, animal husbandry and veterinary department joint director Dr Lalhmingthanga said. The state government is making efforts to prevent the spread of the pig disease as per the 'National Action Plan for Control, Containment and Eradication of African Swine Fever, he said. Mizoram has already banned the import of pigs and pork products from other states after ASF cases broke out this year. Altogether 33,417 pigs had died due to the outbreak of ASF last year, causing monetary losses to the tune of Rs 60.82 crore. The infectious disease was reported for the first time in the state in March last year. New Delhi, April 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed grief over loss of lives in a road accident at Gauriganj in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi. Taking to twitter he said: "The road accident in Gauriganj is very shocking. I express my deep condolences to families who lost their kin in this accident." He also prayed for speedy recovery of those injured. As many as six people were killed and four were injured when a jeep and truck collided near Babuganj Sagra in the Gauriganj Kotwali area of Uttar Pradesh's Amethi on Sunday night. Lakhimpur Kheri Violence Case: SC Cancels Ashish Mishra's Bail, Directs Him To Surrender Within a Week. According to Amethi police officials, the people were returning from a wedding when the incident took place. The injured were taken to the local hospital for treatment and further investigation into the incident is underway. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2022 05:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). A girl suffered burn injuries after two unidentified men attacked her with acid in Bihar's Rohtas district on Monday. The victim, Shilpi Kumari is a resident of Dhangai village under Vikramganj subdivision. The incident took place when the girl was going with her brother to visit a relative in Bikramganj. When they reached S College turning, two bikers wearing helmets overtook them and the pillion rider threw a bottle of acid on the girl's face. Shilpi was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. A doctor at the hospital said that she suffered burn injuries on half the face. The acid damaged the skin badly and the treatment is currently underway. Amritsar: Woman Lawyer Escapes Unharmed in Acid Attack; Search On To Nab Accused. "We have registered an FIR against two unidentified persons based on the statements of the victim and her brother. They have given the registration number of the bike. Efforts are on to identify them," said KM Sharma, an investigating officer of the case. Bhopal, April 18: Over 150 people have been booked for allegedly attempting to disrupt peace in Madhya Pradesh's Neemuch district. The development came two days after members of the Muslim community in Neemuch protested against the BJP-led state government accusing it of biased action in Khargone and Barwani districts following communal violence. As per the official information, on Friday (April 15) after offering Namaz, a large group of people staged a protest against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led state government. They raised slogans against the chief minister the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Meanwhile, they also allegedly called Mishra a 'terrorist' during the protest. The district police registered a case against the protesters and booked them for disrupting peace in the town (Neemuch). Out of total, 11 have been booked by name whereas, others are unidentified, as per the police. Jahangirpuri Violence Case: Delhi Police Crime Branch To Investigate Case of Communal Clashes. "Protesters have been booked under section 188 (disobedience to order dully promulgated by public servant) for violating prohibitive orders under section 144 of the CrPC," said Neemuch district police. The police said action has been taken to get the bond filled by the protesters to ensure that such incidents would not be repeated in the district. "We are monitoring the situation day and night to ensure peace in the town," police official added. Jahangirpuri Violence: Even Women Were Carrying Stones, Says Injured Delhi Police Sub-Inspector Arun. The protest was against the state government's demolition drive wherein several houses have been bulldozed following communal clashes that broke out in Khargone and Barwani districts on April 10. Since then, the state police have imposed curfew in riot-hit areas and also 144 imposed in other parts of the state. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2022 12:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mumbai, April 18: A special court here on Monday extended the judicial custody of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik till April 22 even as the NCP leader complained of ill health. Malik was produced before Special Judge R N Rokade, designated to hear cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir: Quake of Magnitude 3.4 Hits Kishtwar. The NCP leader stepped into the witness box and told the court that he has been unwell due to kidney ailments and that he has a swelling in his legs. Malik further said that whenever he complained of pain in his legs, the jail authorities only gave him painkillers. "I want a permanent solution to my medical problems," Malik said. Malik's lawyer Kushal Mor told the court that the minister's plea filed before the Supreme Court challenging his illegal arrest and seeking immediate release is likely to be heard on April 22. Special Judge Rokade then extended Malik's judicial custody till April 22. Malik was arrested on February 23 by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides. The NCP leader was in ED's custody till March 7 before he was sent to judicial custody till March 21, which was later extended till April 4. On April 4, his custody was extended again till April 18. New Delhi, April 18: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday sought to draw Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attention to the condition of some schools in Gujarat, saying during a visit, he found that toilets were broken and students did not have any desks. The senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also shared on Twitter pictures from his visit to these schools that showed children sitting on the floor of classrooms. Sisodia had visited two state-run schools in Bhavnagar, the Assembly constituency and hometown of Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani, last week. The deputy chief minister's tweet came in response to one by Modi in which he stated that he will be visiting the Vidya Samiksha Kendra in Gujarat on Monday. "Upon reaching Gujarat tomorrow, I will visit the Vidya Samiksha Kendra. This modern centre leverages data and technology in order to improve learning outcomes. I will also interact with those who are working in the education sector," Modi had said in a series of tweets on Sunday, sharing details of his three-day visit to Gujarat. Gujarat: Grand Welcome Awaits Mauritius PM Pravind Kumar Jugnauth at Rajkot Airport. Replying to Modi's tweet, Sisodia said, "Prime Minister! You may not see from the modern centre of Vidya Samiksha Kendra the picture of these schools, where there is no desk to sit, there are cobwebs like those in closed junkyards, toilets are broken... I have personally seen such schools in the constituency of the education minister of Gujarat." After his visit to the Bhavnagar schools, Sisodia had claimed they were in a bad shape and guest teachers were managing them on a salary that is renewed every month. Seeking to highlight the Delhi model of education during his visit ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, he had said the ruling BJP had done little to improve the condition of government-run schools despite being at the helm for the last 27 years. Two days after returning from Gujarat, Sisodia wrote to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel and Vaghani asking them to keep political differences aside and visit Delhi's government schools to witness the AAP's model of governance. After its stupendous victory in the Punjab polls, the AAP is gearing up to contest all 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections by presenting itself as a viable alternative to both BJP and Congress. To woo the voters, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is showcasing changes it has brought in the education sector in Delhi and promising to replicate them in Gujarat, the home state of Modi and a BJP bastion, where elections are due in December this year. The Achalpur violence broke out on the heels of the Jahangirpuri communal clash in Delhi on Saturday. Currently, a curfew has been imposed under Section 144 and a large police contingent has been deployed. However, tensions are still brewing in Achalpur -- the second most populous in Amravati district after Amravati, after the incident. Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday suggested that the actions taken by President Joe Biden's administration towards Ukraine led to the Russian invasion. Speaking to "Fox News Sunday," McCarthy pointed out what Ukraine needs amid its war with Russia, claiming that the conflict will get stronger and that all they need are weapons to defend themselves, per New York Post. "If we would have taken those actions earlier instead of waiting until after Russia invaded, they probably never would have invaded, had we done that sooner," McCarthy underscored. McCarthy also suggested that if Biden and his administration moved the weapons to Ukraine earlier, Zelenskyy's country would have defended itself and they might have been able to save thousands of lives. The Republican House leader further noted that he does not believe the sanctions imposed by President Joe Biden and the allies of the U.S. allies were not feared by President Vladimir Putin. McCarthy then slammed Biden for refusing to safeguard the airspace of Ukraine airspace with a NATO no-fly zone, as well as turning down an offer from Poland to ship Soviet-era MiG-29 jets to the U.S. airbase in Germany so that they can transport them to Ukraine, according to the Post. The Biden administration defended itself from rejecting such a move, contending that it could lead to an escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine. READ NEXT: Ukraine-Russia War: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Reiterates His Country's Need for Weapons; U.S. Responds to Plea Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy Wants Pres. Joe Biden to Visit Ukraine McCarthy's comments came on the same day the pressure for President Joe Biden to visit Ukraine is heightening after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed that he wanted the U.S. chief executive to go to his country. Speaking to CNN's "State of the Union," Zelenskyy said that he expects Biden to go to Ukraine to see the effect of Russia's invasion, The Hill reported. "I think he will. And I think he - but it's not - I mean, it's his decision, of course. And about the safety situation, it depends. I mean that. But I think - I think he's the leader of the United States, and that's why he should come here to see," Zelenskyy said. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS that President Joe Biden's visit will be an important message of support for them. Kuleba also mentioned that a meeting between Biden and Zelenskyy could pave the way for new supplies and weapons, as well as the discussion on a possible political settlement to end the conflict with Russia. Will Pres. Joe Biden Visit Ukraine? Several Biden administration officials previously shot down the idea of the president traveling to Ukraine. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that President Joe Biden has no plans of visiting Ukraine, but assured that he is always in the Oval Office and coordinates with the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, per the Post. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also noted on the "Pod Save America" podcast that President Joe Biden is always ready for anything. "The man likes a fast car, some aviators - he's ready to go to Ukraine... [But] we are not sending the president to Ukraine," Psaki highlighted. It can be recalled that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Ukraine earlier this month. READ NEXT: U.S. Should Not Be Afraid of Russia and Send More Weapons to Ukraine Now to Win the War, Experts Say This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Biden Doubles Down on 'Genocide' Claim in Ukraine - From ABC News SNAP Benefits 2022 in Florida are delayed as the Florida Department of Children and Families noted that it has "experienced challenges" in hiring staff. DCF said that the department continues to increase resources to prioritize processing benefits applications. It includes using volunteers from other program areas to assist, according to a WearTv News report. The agency added that they have recruited more than 200 new employees since December 2021 with eligibility determinations, noting that they offer overtime to compensate for the efforts of their team. Two Escambia County women experienced delays in their SNAP benefits approval. They reported their concerns about not being able to provide food and other essential items for their families. READ NEXT: SNAP Benefits 2022: Schedule of April Payments in Oregon, Emergency Allotments Revealed SNAP Benefits Florida Delays Brenda Powell, the outreach director for Guided Path Foundation, noted in February that they are seeing a lot of delays in the distribution of SNAP benefits in Florida. Guided Path Foundation is a non-profit that provides outreach services to the community, with Powell helping families apply for SNAP benefits. She said that there were times that they call in and are on hold for two hours and get disconnected, adding that the shortage "must be phenomenal," according to a WFLA News report. Earlier, DCF denied the delays and said that applications were processed within 30 days or less. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to discuss the matter with DCG Secretary Shevaun Harris to expedite the process. The DCF took action two days after. In December and January, the DCF spokeswoman said that the agency added 125 new team members. However, Powell said that she has not seen improvement yet. In February, 546 people put their names on the list of people reporting a SNAP delay. Yessica Santos of Orlando said that she was three hours waiting for a phone call and never received a callback, according to a Fox 35 Orlando News report. David Mtetwa of Plant City said that there was a notice that his benefits were being terminated. He noted that he re-certified his benefits but said that the DCF never completed the process. SNAP Benefits 2022 SNAP benefits recipients have received emergency allotments equal to the maximum benefit for the household size minus their monthly base benefit since March of 2020. U.S. Department of Agriculture noted that emergency allotments were authorized under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to help address temporary food needs amid the pandemic, according to a Go Banking Rates report. State SNAP agencies have had the option to release emergency allotments to all SNAP households if the state meets certain criteria. U.S. Health and Human Services Department Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the COVID federal public health emergency. The average benefit per household per month in Florida stands at $127, with 2.85 million recipients. Thirteen percent of the population receives SNAP benefits, according to another Go Banking Rates report. READ MORE: SNAP Benefits 2022: Texas, California, Florida, Other States Payment Updates This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: DCF delays threaten SNAP benefits for thousands in Florida - FOX 35 Orlando U.S. FDA has reportedly opened a probe on Lucky Charms cereal, which is one of the most popular cereals in the country, after several people have reported becoming ill after consuming it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration noted that it has received more than 100 complaints linked to Lucky Charms cereals this year, according to The Daily Wire report. Several people have also reported on the food safety website, iwaspoisoned.com, citing symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting after consuming Lucky Charms. The FDA noted that it takes reports of any possible adulteration of food that may cause illness or injury seriously. The company that makes Lucky Charms, General Mills, said they have done their internal review and have not found anything that connects their cereal product to reports of illness after eating it. READ NEXT: Tate's Bake Shop Workers Threatened With Deportation Ahead of Their Union Vote Lucky Charms Cereal Consumers Reporting Illness Food-safety experts noted that it is rare for people to get sick from eating breakfast cereal as it is usually baked, which typically kills pathogens, according to a Fox Business News report. Patrick Quade, the founder of the consumer website iwaspoisoned.com, said that the site has so far received around 2,500 reports from people around the country who said they got sick after eating Lucky Charms cereal. Quade added that a huge majority of the reports have been posted over the past two weeks. He added that some consumers who reported their illness told Quade that the FDA has contacted them about testing their cereal. Kristin Johnson, who lives in Lexington, Ky., said she allowed her two-year-old daughter to eat Lucky Charms about a week ago. Johnson then said that her daughter got sick for a few days after that. She said that when her daughter started to feel better, she gave her Lucky Charms again as it was her daughter's favorite treat. However, her two-year-old child got sick again. Lucky Charms Cereal Complaints General Mills did not further comment on the matter. However, it encouraged its consumers to share their concerns directly with the company, according to a CBS News report. One person from Ohio noted that it was their second time experiencing symptoms after eating Lucky Charms, and noted that they are certain it is the cause. They wrote that they were having "extreme abdominal pains" and that they were hoping to get the cereal left in the box tested, according to a Daily Mail News report. One person from Pittsburgh complained that they had Lucky Charms for breakfast and got ill later that day. The person said that it came out of nowhere and lasted for a couple of days. In 2018, a salmonella outbreak was traced back to Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal, leaving 36 people sick across 36 different states. Kellogg recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops and other brands in 2010 after complaints about taste and smell. Some people also complained that they got sick after eating it. READ MORE: Kellogg's Workers at All Cereal Plants Go on Strike, Demand Better Wages and Benefits This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: FDA investigating Lucky Charms after reports of illness - from 10 Tampa Bay Rosario Ibarra died at age 95 due to failing health. Ibarra has been championing cases of disappeared people in Mexico since the disappearance of her son. She helped develop Mexico's human rights movement and prompted her to become Mexico's first female presidential candidate, according to a Washington Post News report. Her daughter, Rosario Piedra, now heads the National Human Rights Commission. Piedra announced her mother's death on the commission's Twitter account, wherein Ibarra was described as the "pioneer in defense of human rights, peace, and democracy." Ibarra died in the northern city of Monterrey after several years of failing health. Ibarra founded the Eureka Committee, a movement focused on gathering information about the fate of her son and other disappeared people in Mexico. The advocate and other mothers in Eureka were reported to have faced an "authoritarian regime," where there was no respect for human rights, according to a CNDH Mexico News report. Ibarra was awarded the Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor as recognition for her hard work and activity as a human rights defender in favor of prisoners, disappeared, and political exiles. READ NEXT: Mexico: 400 Missing Persons Found Dead in Guanajuato State Plagued by Mexican Drug Cartels Rosario Ibarra's Son Jesus Piedra Jesus Piedra was accused of belonging to the Communist League guerilla group and disappeared during the "dirty war" against dissidence waged by the authoritarian government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, according to a Paris Beacon News report. Jesus was also accused of killing a police officer. Ibarra, with some 80 mothers of the disappeared, held protests, such as the hunger strike of August 1978 in front of the Cathedral of Mexico, which was a place that prohibited demonstrations. The protests led Mexico to enact an amnesty law in 1978 that freed some dissidents and allowed exiles to return. Jesus was also a third-year medical student at the UANL. He talked about inequality along with other colleagues, motivating Jesus to join an anti-government group. It was the judicial policeman Juventino Romero who was commissioned for Jesus' arrest, according to a Milenio report. Jesus was tortured and was placed at the disposal of Nassar Haro, wherein he ultimately disappeared. Rosario Ibarra Ibarra was the first woman to appear on a Mexican presidential ballot in 1982. However, she won relatively few votes for the Revolutionary Party of the Workers. The advocate for the disappeared has become a federal deputy twice and once a senator. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador noted in a tweet that they will always remember Ibarra for her most "profound love for the children and her solidarity with those who suffered due to the disappearance of their loved ones." Ibarra considered Lopez Obrador as her friend. She mentioned the president, saying that she leaves in the Mexican president's hands the custody "of so precious a recognition." Lopez Obrador chose Ibarra to present him with a presidential sash of office in a ceremony declaring him the legitimate president of Mexico. Ibarra continued to scrutinize force disappearances in Mexico and called for more progress regarding the matter. READ MORE: Mexico: 90,000 People Have Disappeared Without a Trace Amid Drug War This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Rosario Ibarra de Piedra abrio caminos hacia la justicia #EnPortada - from El Universal Texas Gov. Greg Abbott might be vying for the White House in the 2024 presidential election after he enacted his new policy of sending illegal immigrants to D.C., which is part of his plan to sway GOP voters, analysts say. GOP strategist Doug Heye noted that just like several Republicans, Abbott is upping his reputation and pushing on important issues to the base, which puts himself in a position to run, according to a Daily Mail report. Sen. Ted Cruz commented on Abbott's policy, saying that it gets "liberal elites" and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration to actually care about millions of illegal aliens streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas-based GOP strategist Brendan Steinhauser said that Abbott's move "has been favored in the polls." Steinhauser said that he thinks it is playing well with Republicans as they "clearly want their elected officials to be tough on illegal immigration." He added that people want to ensure that security is placed first on the list of priorities. Meanwhile, Heye said that despite GOP's support for Abbott, the Texas governor will not be making any formal decision until former U.S. President Donald Trump announces whether he will run or not. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seen to be a possible top contender for Trump, with many seeing him as a lawmaker that can push the same policies that made Trump popular. READ NEXT: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Strikes Deal With Mexican Governor Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda to Address Texas-Mexico Border Issue Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Illegal Immigrants Last week, a second group of asylum seekers arrived in Washington D.C. on Thursday on a charter bus after Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to send migrants to D.C., according to an ABC News Go report. It was a day after the first bus of undocumented migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua was transported to Washington D.C. The Texas governor noted that the order is a direct response to Biden's plans to end Title 42 expulsions on May 23. Abbott also said that there will be more that will be dropped at Washington "by bus or plane so that Washington is going to have to respond and deal with the same challenges" that they are facing. Immigration advocacy groups and faith leaders had a joint press conference in front of Union Station to welcome asylum seekers who arrived in Washington. Abel Nunez, the executive director of Carecen, noted that their community is ready to receive any immigrants that the governor of Texas wants to send, adding that they have the support of the local government. Carecen is a Central American refugee nonprofit. 2024 Presidential Election Biden said in March that he would consider himself "very fortunate" if Trump decides to run against him for a second time in the 2024 presidential election, according to a CNBC News report. In the 2020 election, Biden defeated Trump by more than four percentage points in the popular vote, while he defeated the former Republican president by 74 Electoral College votes. Trump has falsely claimed that he had won the 2020 election without any basis. The former president and his allies argued that Biden's win was based on ballot fraud. However, the courts dismissed dozens of lawsuits regarding the matter. READ MORE: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Says He Will Deliver Illegal Immigrants to Washington D.C., Drop Them at Capitol Hill Steps This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Texas Governor Greg Abbott battles with Biden administration over immigration policies - from CBS News One Florida man has been accused of cutting his arm open and defacing a Holocaust memorial using his own blood in Miami Beach, Florida. The man was identified as 44-year-old Christopher Green and was seen by several witnesses digging into his left forearm until it bled, according to a New York Post report. He then smeared the blood all over the wall of the Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation on Tuesday, according to police. Green was reportedly homeless and wrote "numerous letters of the alphabet" using his blood. The police noted that the letters Green wrote did not spell anything readable. READ NEXT: Miami Seaquarium Dolphin Attacks Trainer in Front of Terrified Families; Ex-Veterinarian Says It's Not an Isolated Incident Florida Man Defacing Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach Police announced that they have arrested Green and was charged with criminal mischief on a place of worship. Green is jailed and was held on a bond worth $5,000, according to a Miami Herald News report. The Holocaust program coordinator immediately called the police when several witnesses saw the Florida man cutting himself and using his blood to deface the Holocaust Memorial. However, Green had already left before officers could arrive at the scene. Miami Beach intelligence unit spotted Green walking on the MacArthur Causeway. He was asked about defacing the memorial. Green replied to the police and said that he did not mean "any harm by that," and that "it was just my blood." Officers inquired about Green's intention of doing it. The Florida man replied that he was just trying to spell out in his blood, "Abracadabra." The homeless man added that the "Holocaust Museum is a magical place," which urged him to do "something magical." Green said that he has nothing against the Jewish people, reiterating that he thought the place was "magical." The Holocaust Memorial at Miami Beach was established by a small group of Holocaust survivors who joined together to develop a permanent memorial in Miami, Local 10 News reported. The group said that the area was a sacred place where people come to remember lives lost, adding that violence of any kind should not be tolerated. Holocaust Memorial Defaced The Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach was not the only Jewish memorial that was defaced in the United States. In May 2021, Oregon police reported that someone spray-painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at the Oregon Holocaust Memorial. Officers also noted neo-Nazi sayings and symbols were scrawled across the stone wall of the memorial, according to a KGW News report. At the time of its reporting, investigators noted that there is no suspect information available, and there have been no arrests made. Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education Director Judy Margles said that the memorial is a sacred space, serving as a place for contemplation. Rabbi Eve Posen, Congregation Neveh Shalom Associate Rabbi and Chair of the Oregon Board of Rabbis, noted that antisemitism and hatred are still alive after all "we've been through as a society and country." READ MORE: Florida Shooting Kills 2, Injures 2 Others in Transit Bus; 3 More Fall Victim in Related Crash This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Man faces judge after cutting arm, smearing blood letters on Holocaust museum - from WPLG Local 10 Date of Judgement: 06th April 2022 Coram/judge: The Honble Justice Ms.Asha Menon Parties to the Case: PlaintiffHTC Corporation Defendants-Mr. LV Degao & Ors. Legal Provisions Order XXXIX Rules 1 & 2 Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 Order XXXIX deals with the provisions for temporary injunctions and interlocutory orders. Rule-1 lays down cases in which temporary injunction may be granted. Rule-2 lays down provision for injunction to restrain repetition or continuance of breach. Section 124 of Trade Mark Act, 1999- lays down provision for stay of proceedings where the validity of registration of the trade mark is questioned, etc Section 29 of Trade Mark Act, 1999- lays down conditions which leads to infringement of registered trade marks Overview The plaintiff company was incorporated under the laws of Taiwan in the year 1997 and claimed to be a leading manufacturer of consumer electronic items. The plaintiff was initially registered as High Tech Computer Corporation, but gained popularity among consumers as HTC and had been known as HTC since 1998. The plaintiff got its Trade Mark registered in India on 12th May, 2006, which was valid till 12th May, 2026. On 24th November, 2011, the plaintiff applied for and was granted registration of its Trade Mark HTC ONE in India. On 7th March, 2014, the plaintiff obtained international registration for the Trade Mark HTC in China. The defendant was a Chinese individual and owner of the companies being defendants No.2 to 4. The defendants No.2 to 4 were manufacturers of electronic products bearing identical infringing Trade Mark [HTC] in China and exporting the same to India. These defendants were also selling their products through Amazon India website. The defendant No.1 had applied for registration of the Trade Mark in Class 8, for grant of protection in India on 15th November, 2013 and it escaped the notice of the plaintiff, consequently the protection sought for, was actually granted. Various other applications were lying under objection in the Trade Marks Registry. In the present circumstances, the defendants had continued to infringe the Trade Mark. The suit had been filed and the interim relief claimed by the petitioner for an injunction restraining the defendants from manufacturing, selling and offering for sale including through online platforms, exporting, importing, directly or indirectly dealing any goods bearing the impugned Trade Marks. Arguments Advanced by The Petitioner Learned Counsel for the plaintiff submitted that this was a clear case of copying with a deliberate attempt being made to associate the goods of the defendants with those of the plaintiff. Learned Counsel contended that through Amazon, while displaying the goods of the defendants, links had been given, which upon clicking would take the person to the site of the plaintiff. It was submitted that if the intentions of the defendants were honest, there would have be no need to provide such a link. A Cease and Desist Notice was sent to the defendants and when they did not stop selling their products on the E-commerce platforms of Amazon, the plaintiff had sent a Legal Notice to Amazon, who then, took the products down. However, later on Legal Notices were sent by the defendants No. 2 & 3 claiming that the Trade Mark had been registered by the defendant No.1, who had authorized the defendants No.2 & 3 to produce the goods with the said Trade Mark. In these circumstances Courts direction was required. Hence, the suit was filed, while also applying for cancellation of the registration. The plaintiff had a worldwide social-media following.It reflected tremendous goodwill, popularity and reputation enjoyed by the plaintiff company and the trade markin India as well as internationally. Learned Counsel submitted that when there was dishonest use, then commonality of the product was not essential, and the plaintiff was entitled to an injunction even though the goods of the defendants No.1 to 4 were different from those of the plaintiff. Arguments Advanced by The Defendant Learned Counsel for the defendants submitted that the products of the plaintiff and the defendants were very different, while the registration of the Trade Mark of the plaintiff was in Class 9 that of the defendant No.1 was in Class 8. The plaintiff manufactured computer and computing products whereas, the defendant was manufacturing only hair grooming products. It was submitted that there was no substitutability of the products even if they were to be sold in the same market, as the customers would clearly differentiate between the products. There was nothing in the product range that would confuse the customers. It was further submitted that in any case, these provisions of the Trade Mark Act would be attracted only when the alleged infringer was himself holding no registered Trade Mark.But in the present case, the defendant No.1 was the registered proprietor of the mark. It was submitted that during the past six years, the plaintiff took no efforts to question the validity of the Trade Mark of the defendants and had filed a Cancellation Petition just before filing of the present suit. Since that matter was still pending, as on date, both, the plaintiff as well as defendant No.1, had registered Trade Marks in their favour and therefore, against each other, even in respect of identical or similar marks or products, they were at par. Learned Counsel submitted that Section 29 Trade Mark Act was not attracted as the goods were not comparable, allied or cognate. Since the defendant No.1 was registered proprietor of his Trade Mark, his use of the same could not be described as without due cause. The plaintiff had no goodwill in respect of grooming products and the plaintiff had no sales whatsoever in hair trimmers and grooming products.Hence, it could claim to have built any goodwill in that area. The plaintiff had to also show that the name was synonymous to its goods. Thus, there was no pleading to establish passing off. The Learned Counsel submitted that the defendants would give an assurance that they would not be producing any goods in Class 9 or using the mark for their products, but they would use their registered Trade Mark. Issue Whether in the present circumstances the plaintiff can be granted injunction against the use of similar trademark by the defendants until the result of cancellation application would be out? Judgement Analysis It was observed that before the filing of the suit, an application for cancellation of trade-mark had already been filed by the plaintiff, which was pending. Under Section 124 of the T.M. Act, the present suit would be stayed pending final disposal of such cancellation proceedings. As pointed out by Learned Counsel for the plaintiff and rightly acknowledged by the Learned Counsel for the defendants, under Section 124of the T.M. Act, the court was not precluded from making any interlocutory order, including any order granting an injunction during the period of the stay of the suit. Hence, The Court proceeded to consider whether the plaintiff made out a case for an interlocutory order i.e., an injunction against the defendants restraining them from the use of the Trade Mark. In the present case, both Trade Marks had been registered. This was unlike in the several of the cases cited by both sides, where a registered proprietor was seeking relief against the defendants, who were yet to obtain registration or had applied for the same or other situations where, having once been granted, the registration was cancelled at the time the suit was filed. Section 28 of the T.M. Act confers some rights to the registered proprietor of a Trade Mark upon its registration. The exclusive right to use it in relation to the goods and services in respect of which the Trade Mark was registered, was limited where there were two or more such registered proprietors, as they could not claim exclusive use against each other, but had those rights against other persons. Concurrent registration of the same or similar Trade Mark by two or more persons was not per se barred under the Act. When a challenge would be raised to the registration, ordinarily till the Register was rectified, both the proprietors would be entitled to claim a right to its use. On a plain reading, Section 29 of the T.M. Act, on the basis of which the Learned Counsel for the plaintiff had sought the interim injunction dealt with infringement of a registered Trade Mark by a person, who was not a proprietor of the registered Trade Mark or a permitted user of the registered Trade Mark. The court when faced with a situation as prevailing in the present case, would be helpless and would it also mean that the plaintiff could seek only protection against passing off. The Court was of the opinion that as Section 124 dealt with a situation where the validity of the registration of the trade mark is being questioned and Section 124(5) empowers the court to pass interim injunction orders.It would be logical that even when there were two registered Trade Marks involved and the plaintiff wanted protection against the user of a similar or identical trade mark, The Court could consider not just the question of passing off, but also of infringement since Section 124 of the T.M. Act was in relation to a trade mark and not to mere passing off. Where no rectification application had been filed, the Civil Court could determine the tenability of the plea of invalid registration. The Court could consider the existence of a prima facie case on the same basis, to decide whether or not to grant interim orders of injunction, etc. By providing a link to the plaintiffs site from that of the defendants, the intent to blur the source and origin of the goods was established. Thus, no protection under Section 30 of the T.M. Act would be available to the defendants for use of their registered Trade Mark. The explanation offered for the adoption of the random alphabets HTC and copying of the exact trade mark of the plaintiff, disclosed dishonest use and bad faith. For a consumer of average intelligence and observation, it might not be difficult to believe that the hair grooming products of the defendants with the Trade Mark and link to the website of the plaintiff, were actually being produced and marketed by the plaintiff. This being an act of deception and creation of confusion, was even against public interest. It would therefore be of no significance that the plaintiff was not producing any hair trimmers or clippers, as unquestionably they had an excellent reputation in India in respect of the goods that they actually produce and market. The unfair and dishonest use of the identical trade mark by the defendants for their products clearly hampered the reputation of the plaintiff. There was a clear intent to take unfair advantage of the reputation, it could lead to a detrimental effect on the distinctive character of the trade mark of the plaintiff. The trademark of the plaintiff company was initially drawn from their corporate name and subsequently, itself became their corporate name. The application was accordingly allowed and till the decision in the cancellation proceedings was rendered. Conclusion The Honourable Court in light of a series of case laws, decided to pass an interlocutory order thereby granting temporary injunction to the plaintiff against the use similar trademark which was simultaneously registered by both the parties. Such an order was to remain effective until the application filed by the plaintiff to cancel the registration of trade mark of the defendant would be finally adjudicated and decision pronounced. Learn the practical aspects of CPC HERE Click here to download the original copy of the judgement A woman who assaulted a nurse at Tullamore hospital was given the benefit of the probation act at Tullamore district court. At 8pm on November 21, 2021 Sandra Ward (43) 34, Churchview Heights, Edenderry, was admitted to the Accident and Emergency unit of Tullamore hospital where she assaulted Nurse Catherine Lally biting her on the upper arm and causing it to bleed. Nurse Lally was traumatised by the incident and required medical attention including a tetanus injection and a HIV test. Ms Ward, who is the mother of one daughter, was highly intoxicated. She was later arrested. Her solicitor Donal Farrelly said Sandra Ward was taking steroids and antidepressants which had caused an allergic reaction resulting in a severe itch and swelling all over her body. The defendant told Judge Patricia Cronin she had passed out and the first she heard of it was in January. She said she had no idea and couldn't believe what happened. Solicitor Donal Farrelly said Ms Ward is now off all medication. Judge Cronin said this was a very serious matter and a section 3 assault carries a 5 year prison sentence. She said she was taking into account the aggravating circumstances at the hospital and commented that for a nurse to be assaulted is a very serious matter. She took note of Ms Ward's guilty plea and that she had no previous convictions. She also read a medical report from her doctor stating that this was out of character. She noted she had been on steroids and antidepressants and one may have reacted with the other. She had no recollection of the event until Gardai told her. Judge Cronin commented that the victim impact statement from nurse Lally made for difficult reading and remarked that nurses have had a difficult time over the last two years. She noted that compensation had been paid to nurse Lally. She applied section 1.1 of the probation act, adding that she didn't believe that Sandra Ward would be before the court again. She noted she was hard working and had a 23 year old daughter who was getting on well. A midlands man has just returned from Ukraine where he helped to rescue 53 dogs, bringing them across the border to safety in Poland. Offaly man, Darren Bracken, who volunteers with the Laois based Husky Rescue Ireland regularly transports rescued dogs from Ireland to good homes in Sweden. He had been watching what was happening in Ukraine and thought Husky Rescue should travel there to take care of the pets who had been abandoned in the war through no fault of their owners. ''I have 4 dogs of my own and I would feed them before I would feed myself,'' said Darren. ''Myself and Andy Cullen, the founder of Husky Rescue Ireland were talking about it and we agreed to go. We put up the appeal online and we were overwhelmed. We got 10 to 15 tons of supplies. We got food for dogs, cats, hamsters and rabbits plus people donated food for the people of Ukraine as well, along with toiletries and other things, added Darren. We were overloaded with stuff and a little bit overweight, but we got through customs and we drove from Dublin to France. to Germany and Poland. We crossed the border three times to rescue the dogs. Darren and Andy were only allowed to bring 10 dogs at a time which they found frustrating as the van can hold a number of large dogs, but they were the rules so it required them to make the hazardous journey three times. We passed through an army barracks the same night as it was blown up. We didn't know until we came out, said Darren. The dogs were being cared for in a small family run rescue centre in Ukraine. Many of the buses crossing the border with refugees dont allow dogs on board so people left their dogs with the rescue centre. Darren and Andy off loaded their supplies at this particular centre which meant that people who were dropping off their pets were able to pick up vital supplies. ''We know the stuff got to the people and to some of the soldiers as well. The people who were picking it up knew the area. They knew which roads to travel to avoid being bombed.'' Darren and Andy were able to reunite three of the dogs with their owners. The owners of the other dogs will know their pets are in a safe place and being well looked after, until the day they can be reunited. ''One dog gave birth to 7 pups just days after she was brought across the border. She waited until she was in a warm and safe place.'' said Darren. Darren said he and Andy couldnt have made the journey without the support of the team at Husky Rescue Ireland. They looked after the centre while they were abroad, feeding and walking the dogs in their care. He also gave a big thanks to Star Rescue for all their help. To make a donation to Husky Rescue Ireland log onto https://www.huskyrescueireland.ie/donation-options More details have emerged about a major event being held at the Curragh Camp next month to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the handover of the military base from the British Army to the Irish Free State Army. The significant moment in history took place at 10am on Tuesday, May 16, 1922, when the Camp was transferred to a party of Irish troops commanded by Lieutenant General JJ Ginger OConnell. To mark the centenary of the occasion, the Defence Forces Training Centre (DFTC )in the Curragh Camp has organised a ceremonial event on May 16 next. The day of activities will involve invited guests, families of serving personnel as well as members of the general public. The event will begin at 11.15am with an official address in the Main Barrack Square by General Officer Commanding DFTC, Brigadier General Brendan McGuinness. At 12 noon, the national flag on the water tower will be hoisted followed by the unveiling of plaques. A reception and military display will follow at 12.30pm. It is understood that the ceremonial event will allow the families of serving soldiers and members of the public to interact with soldiers of the Camp and view several stands of weapons displays, vehicle displays and information hubs. A Defence Forces spokesperson said: Defence Forces personnel will be involved in several State and local ceremonial events nationwide, throughout this centenary year, with the key focus lying on the centenary of the barrack handovers. These occasions will involve personnel from the Army, Air Corps and the Naval Service, as part of the commemorative programme. These ceremonies are to commemorate the hugely significant handovers of the military barracks from British to Irish forces in 1922, but will also encompass other events as part of the decade of centenaries programme, including the handover of Dublin Castle in January 1922 and the death of General Michael Collins in August 1922. An upcoming fundraiser will see its proceeds going towards both the maintenance of a Kildare-based community centre, as well as towards victims of the Ukraine crisis. The latest Bluebells and Buskers event will raise money for the RYARC Community Centre in Rathangan: specifically, it will pay for the insurance, light and heating for this invaluable service in Rathangan. This year proceeds will be also be supporting victims of the war in Ukraine. The event began in 2013 as a tribute to the memory of the late Jimmy O' Loughlin, and is one that is suited perfectly for nature and music lovers, walkers, children and families. Brian OLoughlin, main organiser of the event, said: "We are looking forward to another super event this year and we have a great line up of 20 different events including music and story-telling for children. "Over the years we have raised more than 50,000 for the RYARC Centre and we hope to do even better this year... more importantly though its an opportunity for people and families to gather in our lovely woods and enjoy nature and culture." Kildare-based Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O' Loughlin added: "After a gap of two years because of Covid, we are looking forward to gathering together once again to celebrate our wonderful Killinthomas woods and Buskers, and also to remember those who are no longer with us, in particular John and Mairead Fullam, with whom we always shared this special day. "A huge thank you to the Scouts for their help with our giant BBQ, local sporting volunteers for their help with parking and marshalling, the Kildare Civil Defence and of course our wonderful musicians and entertainers." The event will take place on Sunday, May 1. Passengers onboard an Aer Lingus flight from Zurich to Dublin on Saturday, April 16, had a nervy experience when an announcement of an emergency landing was allegedly made in error throughout the cabin. The announcement allegedly told passengers that the flight was in an emergency situation and to prepare for a "ditched landing." One of the passengers onboard the flight took to Twitter looking for answers and spoke of "two nervous minutes" before the announcement was corrected. Fearghal O'Lideacha described it as "very scary" and asked Aer Lingus what happened. Dear @AerLingus , I was on your flight from Zurich to Dublin this morning and found it very scary when an emergency crash landing in the sea was announced on the PA. Two nervous minutes followed before the fault was corrected with another announcement. What happened? @IrishTimes April 16, 2022 Mr OLideacha told the Irish Times that his interest in aviation allowed him to deduce that a "ditched landing" meant going into the sea. He said flight attendants remained behind the curtains at either end of the cabin and did not rush to deliver more news to passengers. He said there was very little reaction among other passengers, many of whom were wearing headphones. Aer Lingus said the announcement on the EI343 flight from Zurich to Dublin was played in error. It was a pre-recorded announcement "momentarily played on board." A spokesperson said a follow-up announcement was made advising passengers of the error. They insisted that there was no risk to the safety of the plane or its passengers at any point. The airline also responded to Mr OLideacha to apologise. An Irish-based online teaching platform is calling for volunteers to teach English to Ukrainian adults in Ireland. The call has been made by eTeachers Global in response to the war in Ukraine, which has left millions of Ukrainian people displaced across Europe. The company usually requires all teachers to be qualified primary or secondary teachers registered with the Teaching Council with English Language Education qualifications. The platform has now been made freely available to teachers wishing to help Ukrainian refugees. However, teachers must hold registration with the Teaching Council. They should also preferably have a qualification in teaching English as an additional language, though this is not essential for volunteer teachers. CEO Joan Gilligan said, "The aim is to help Ukrainians adapt to life in Ireland and support them as they learn English for work and for day-to-day living here." She continued: "Teachers can teach on a one-to-one or small group basis. They can cater for individual needs which may not always be possible in a large group setting e.g., someone may need help with the English needed for taking up a catering or healthcare job. "During lockdown, many teachers quickly adapted to teaching online and now have the skills to do so effectively. For any teachers who may need help setting up, eTeachers Global IT team are on hand to help. "Covid has negatively impacted on schools with both pupil and staff absences so understandably not everyone is in a position to help. It may suit teachers who are job-sharing, on career break or retired and who can commit to as little as an hour a week. The booking calendar on the platform is easily adjusted by teachers themselves to reflect their availability." As part of the initiative, eTeachers Global is wavering all fees for teachers who voluntarily teach English to adult Ukrainian refugees. Joan said, "Usually, a small commission fee and an annual token subscription fee is charged on each class taught but these fees are waivered as part of our efforts to support the Ukrainian community." Anyone willing to support or help with the project should contact joan@eteachersglobal.com. Fifteen million euro in capital funding has been announced for the upgrade and refurbishment of community centres across Ireland. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, made the announcement this week (Friday April 15) and is encouraging all community groups to consider applying. She said, "Community Centres are at the heart of every community in Ireland, rural and urban. We need places for people to meet up, to play sport and engage in all sorts of activities whether it is meals for the elderly, indoor soccer or basketball, or providing a space for the local dramatic society to perform. "This new fund is about supporting them to carry out vital upgrade works as well as enhancing the services and amenities they can provide to persons of all ages in their community. "I am encouraging all community groups to look at this fund and think about how they can use it to improve their own local parish hall or community centre. Do you need new windows or doors? Does the stage or sound system need to be upgraded? Could you look at developing space for a Youth Hub or Community Cinema? Community Centres are all about bringing people together in a locality." According to the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Community Centres Investment Fund will provide grants for works such as energy retrofitting, disability access, and communal facilities such as toilet improvements. Funding will be available under three Categories with grants of between 10,000 and 300,000 available. Small scale projects and improvements can access between 10,000 and 25,000 (category 1) with 25,001 and 100,000 for larger projects (category 2) and 100,001 to 300,000 for major projects (category 3). Applications for category two and three options must include a minimum contribution of 5% of the total project costs from the applicants' own funds. More information on the fund is available here. Hello, it's lunchtime in Paris and both candidates have been campaigning in slow motion during an Easter weekend that the French usually spend with their families switched off from the news. What happened during the week-end? Emmanuel Macron (La Republique en Marche) made an emphatic appeal to young and environmentally conscious voters by declaring multiple commitments during a rally in Marseille on Saturday. Why does it matter? Still ahead in the polls, the incumbent and centrist candidate needs significant vote transfers to be re-elected for a second and final term. The second round run-off for the presidential election plays by its own rules. The winner is always the one who can define who his or her opponent is rather than being defined by him, or by her. In terms of this game, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen (Le Rassemblement National) is now clearly playing defense. In the early days, when she was campaigning among eleven other presidential contenders, her sole focus on purchasing power had been an effective message and a winning bet. She is now paying the price for a strategy of "de-demonization" mostly limited to public appearances. Under fresh scrutiny, all the weaknesses of her program are being exposed. More on this topic: Subscribers only Le Pen rolls out her tired foreign policy recipe It all started with the kind of constitutional issue that usually puts people to sleep. The first groundbreaking decision she would make if she were to be elected would be to hold a referendum which would create a legal discrimination against foreigners. The problem is that she could not actually proceed in the way she says she would (without a green light from parliament). Le Conseil Constitutionnel, the French constitutional court, has an explicit power to review the content of a bill submitted to a referendum. All legal experts agree on this. She will no doubt have to defend her untenable position on this issue when she comes face-to-face with Mr. Macron on April 20 for their only debate. She also seems to be wavering on a central symbolic measure which connects with her far-right base: the banning of headscarfs for women in public spaces, which would directly target the Muslim population. Ms. Le Pen has defended this radical measure by hiding behind a historical precedent (it was applied in Tunisia, although the candidate spoke of Algeria in a radio interview). After a lively meeting with two veiled women in the south of France on Friday, she seemed to hesitate. The ban on scarfs was no longer the alpha and omega of the fight against Islamism the day after. "I am not being obtuse," she said, before acknowledging that it was "a complex issue". She also flip-flopped on the question of restoration of the death penalty she presented as a possibility on Tuesday, before backtracking again on Friday. You have 38.76% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. LIMERICK City and County Council is looking for five artists, creatives or creative industry partners to work collaboratively with a local community to explore an aspect of decarbonisation that matters to them. The council has put out this open call after securing funding from the Creative Climate Action Fund for a project known as Decarbonising Together. Decarbonising is about reducing carbon (CO2) emissions resulting from human activity in order to combat climate change. It involves emitting less (e.g. by burning less fossil fuel) and absorbing more (e.g. by planting trees) carbon. "The process of decarbonisation will change aspects of our day-to-day lives and can happen in a way that creates other benefits for communities including improved air and water quality, better health and wellbeing, more comfortable homes, lower noise levels and less waste. "The changes in behaviour that can contribute to decarbonisation is what we plan to explore creatively through Decarbonising Together," said a council spokesperson. Creative partners can come from a range of disciplines including: Arts: music, performing and visual arts Architecture, crafts, design: product, graphic and fashion design Audio visual: film, TV productions, TV, video, radio and photography IT: software and computer game development Publishing and literature Museums, galleries and libraries Advertising and marketing "Funding is available for artists and creative industry partners of 12,000 per artist. It is anticipated that the five outputs from the creative collaborations will use diverse skills in a range of creative mediums. "The project will focus on learning and doing together, and will use Limericks Citizen Innovation Lab as a collaboration hub and a platform to empower communities to decarbonise Limerick by 2050, with citizen creativity placed at the core of the process. "Successful participants can also access Fab Lab Limerick, a maker space and digital fabrication laboratory run by the School of Architecture at University of Limerick and co-located with the Citizen Innovation Lab on Sarsfield Street," said a council spokesperson. For more details and applications forms please click here A JUDGE has warned she may consider imposing a prison sentence in the case of a man who was begging on streets which he was forbidden from being on. James Clune, aged 44, who has an address at McGarry House, St Alphonsus Street, has pleaded guilty to breaching an exclusion order three times in the space of six months. At Limerick District Court, Judge Patricia Harney said gardai observed the defendant begging on Little Ellen Street on June 12, 2021 and at Denmark Street on another date last year. On March 24, 2021 Mr Clune was seen walking at Roches Street - also an area from where he is banned. He was not begging on that occasion. Sergeant Sean Murray said Mr Clune, who has 133 previous convictions for a variety of offences, had cooperated with gardai on all occasions. Solicitor John Herbert said his client has had difficulties with alcohol and drug addiction for years but that he is now dealing with his issues and is on a methadone programme. He said he was living in homeless accommodation around the time but is now engaging with support workers. Judge Harney said she was satisfied Mr Clune was aware of the exclusion order and she expressed concern about the repeated breaches. He doesnt seem to have grasped what it means, she commented. Adjourning the matter to facilitate the preparation of a Probation Report, she said she would have to consider a prison sentence given Mr Clune's previous criminal record. However, she indicated she will give him an opportunity to avoid prison if the probation report is positive. I will deal with matters in a certain way, she stated. I HAD TO do something, I couldn't just watch, says Anne-Marie Stacke as she sifts through a mountain of donations to help some of the hundreds of Ukrainians in Limerick who've arrived after fleeing war in their homeland. She is one of the many volunteers who have transformed the old St Lelia's school in Kileely on the city's northside into a one-stop shop giving a helping hand to those arriving after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In normal times, the old school in Kileely would fall silent after traditional working hours, it's role of providing educational opportunities to older people done for the day. But we are not in normal times, and, instead, the facility is all abuzz with activity, with Ukrainians setting up home here. What's happened here is just a transformation, said Linda Ledger, the centre manager of St Munchin's, which runs the former primary school. She chats to the Limerick Leader in between taking calls from local TDs, agencies, and the Redemptorist fathers, who have provided washing facilities for the city's newest residents, ahead of the installation of showers in St Lelias this week. Former classrooms in the old school have been converted into dormitories for those arriving from Ukraine, while two new modular buildings have been delivered in order to provide extra space for the new arrivals to socialise. It's a one-stop shop. We'll have kitchens to allow three families to cook at a time. A fridge-freezer has been donated to us tonight. The modular unit will be their communal space, where they can make their own breakfast and lunch, Linda explained. Signage in the centre is in both English and the Cyrillic script - from directions to the toilets to helpful translations. But the language barrier is lessening as the refugees become more and more integrated as the days go on. They were traumatised, and not communicating when they first arrived, said Anne-Marie. But after a day or so, they've just blended in. They are joking with us. You know what? There's no language barrier any more. We are communicating. I've learnt so much in a short space of time, Linda added. Nothing spurs you on more than seeing the difference in these refugees. Seeing the kids go out and play, seeing them chatting, and being able to go in the kitchen and mix. Anne-Marie has an office in the centre, where the Aid for Ukraine group she founded in Limerick is operating from. It was set up to co-ordinate the delivery of donations to St Munchin's, and also - using the power of social media - appeal for certain items which are still needed. Their Facebook page, which has 749 fans, seeks chairs, a flat-cap for an elderly Ukrainian gentleman, and good condition book cases among other things. But one thing they are not seeking is clothing - with bags of new and second-hand garments flying through the doors, leaving Anne-Marie to appeal for people to cease these donations for the time being. When a refugee arrives into the centre, they are given a welcome pack of clean pyjamas, underwear, shampoo, a shower-gel, a face towel and a change of clothes. A pop-up free-shop is to be opened shortly to afford those arriving the dignity of choosing their own clothes, rather than having to trawl through bags, as is the case at this time. That respect is important for Linda, who said: They are not greedy, they literally came here with nothing. I want them to come in and have that dignity. These people will be like Irish people - they will not want anything. They will want to be safe, happy, healthy and treated with dignity. It's hard to imagine the barbarity of having to flee your homeland as it comes under attack. Regina, from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv gave a glimpse into the personal horror visited on her and her partner. She saw an apartment she had saved up for years for destroyed by Russian forces. While en-route to Ireland, a bag of valuables including US dollars, jewellery and her European passport were stolen. Speaking through a translator - Belarussian national Tanya Dunworth, who now lives in Thomondgate - Regina said: For the past eight years, we've not gone on holiday. Not a single day to make sure we had enough saved up. Now the whole block is in ruins, destroyed. Before I used to dream nice dreams, sometimes with flowers. I was looking forward to the future. Now, it's all darkness. It's is if I am constantly falling down a black hole, she added, holding back tears. The only silver lining is the welcome she and her fellow Ukrainians have received upon arrival to Limerick. I did not expect to receive such kindness. The Ukrainian people are eternally grateful. Not everyone would do this. We want to prove to you that we are a nation who is hard working, and we will prove for all you have done for us, that we will repay you one day, she said. In the centre, the children play with each other, as well as other local youngsters who have formed new friendships. On Sunday last, many saw the sea for the first time on a day trip to Kilkee. As much as the spirit of the Ukrainian people is inspiring, the generosity of Limerick is also commendable. Linsey Kinsella and her friend Valerie Houlihan launched an online fundraiser which has raised money for things needed at the centre. As a result, a large smart-TV, a fridge and ladies' accessories have been purchased. Linsey - whose daughter Chanel, 8, played with 11-year-old Ukrainian refugee Michelle - has first-hand experience of the support of the community which gave her emotional support when her sister Chloe died almost a decade ago. Valerie added: Its been heartbreaking. No-one knows what they left behind. They had to just up and leave. We don't realise how lucky we are. We can go home. We have a bed. These people came with nothing - only a plastic bag - into a country where they don't know anyone. Two men murdered on the west coast of Ireland have been laid to rest following funeral services. Aidan Moffitt, 42, and Michael Snee, 58, were found dead in their own homes in Sligo earlier this week. A man was remanded in custody at Sligo District Court on Thursday after being charged with their murders. A representative of Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar attended the funerals in Sligo and Roscommon on Easter Monday. A funeral for Mr Snee, a retired care assistant, took place at Saint Josephs Church in Ballytivnan, Sligo. Father Noel Rooney described much sadness and grief in the church, as well as anger. Mr Snee was remembered as a beautiful, kind and gentle person, and also witty with a typical dry Sligo sense of humour. It is important today that we do not allow the horror of Michaels death to define his beautiful life, he told mourners. He was much-loved by all and had a heart filled with love. He was a sensitive man and couldnt do enough for his family, his friends and loved ones. Fr Rooney described the care worker as having a beautiful way with residents and had retired about 10 years ago with sight problems. Michael was always dapper and well-presented, always wore the very best clothes and shoes, he said, describing how his sister said he had aged gracefully and became better with age. Fr Rooney described his family as the centre and the heart of his life and said one of the last things Mr Snee did was to cook a stew for his family on Tuesday, before two of his nieces found he had been murdered in his home. The funeral for Mr Moffitt, a business man and Fine Gael activist, took place at the Church of Christ the King, Lisacul, Co Roscommon at the same time at Mr Snees funeral. Father Michael McManus said the indescribable pain and suffering on the Moffitt family cannot adequately be defined or put into words. He said Mr Moffitt made the world a better place, describing him as considerate, caring, respectful, intelligent, funny, engaged but above all kind. Fr McManus also emphasised Mr Moffitts pride in his home countys GAA side despite being an adopted Sligo man and his love of horses, as well as how he regarded the historic republican leader Michael Collins as an inspiration. He had a love for his country and he used politics as a mechanism to positively develop and improve the lives of others, he told mourners. He held many voluntary positions in Fine Gael over the years and he tried to drive positive development. He wanted things to be better for people and he wanted to get things done. Although he had many setbacks in this sphere, he persevered and devoted his time to this cause that he held so dear to his heart. The murders of the two men sparked shock and anger across Ireland, and a number of vigils took place in memory of the two men at towns and cities on both sides of the border. NEW DELHI : Finland is keen to step up cooperation with India in areas like waste-to-energy, low carbon mobility and communication, said Finlands visiting minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintila, who on Monday made a joint announcement with science and technology minister Jitendra Singh on cooperation in quantum computing. Lintila said in an interview that India and Finland are exploring more tie ups and that the two sides would be announcing partnerships in the areas of energy too. Lintila, who is on a week-long visit to India said Finnish companies have expertise in areas like quantum computing, 5G technology, renewable energy and low emission mobility, the areas that could benefit from greater bilateral cooperation. Indias collaboration with Finland in the technology segment has done well for companies like Nokia and digital technology would naturally be an area of future collaboration between the two countries, he said. Under the deal announced by both the sides on Monday, an Indo-Finnish virtual network centre on quantum computing would be set up, said an official statement from the ministry of science and technology. A deal to this effect was signed by officials from both the sides in the presence of Singh and Lintila. Lintila said that he would be meeting commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri. We try to open doors for companies for cooperation. In energy sector we have solutions which could be very interesting for India, for example in waste-to-energy and circular economy," said Lintila. The minister said that connectivity is a key area in bilateral cooperation. The MoU signed today looks at quantum technology opportunity. There are specific areas where Finland is really advanced. We have strong research (capability) and companies that have technology," said the minister. The statement from the science and technology ministry said quoting Jitendra Singh that bilateral collaboration between the two countries was an attempt to stimulate innovative research and development projects that address specific needs or challenges, demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential and aim to deliver benefit to both the nations. Singh said that the Department of Science & Technology has started several mission mode programs covering electric vehicles, quantum technologies, future manufacturing and green hydrogen fuel and have sought collaboration with Finland in solving issues of societal challenges. We are an export country. More than 40% of our GDP come from exports. We strongly support open trade. We (India and Finland) have good trade relations and we have to continue that and companies have a big role in that," said Lintila. On the proposed Free Trade Agreement between India and the EU, the minister said that a trade agreement tailored for todays needs--not a conventional one, but one that facilitates a broad range of economic cooperation-- would be in the interest India, Finland and the EU. An email sent to the ministries of power and petroleum and natural gas on Monday evening remained unanswered at the time of publishing. Millions of tourists flock to the Leaning Tower of Pisa every year, drawn to its gravity-defying tilt that has withstood centuries. But how much longer will this iconic Italian attraction stand? Understanding the tower's future structural integrity (or lack thereof) requires a look at its past. Construction began on the bell tower within the Piazza del Duomo, or Cathedral Square, in 1173, marking the start of two centuries of on-and-off building interrupted by wars. Even from the first few floors, builders of the tower noticed a southward lean. The main culprit? The malleable soil underneath, softened by the area's high water table. Instead of scrapping the attempt and starting again, the builders got creative. They built each floor at an angle to try to correct the tilt only to have the tower lean even more. This resulted in a slight " banana shape," said Gabriele Fiorentino, a Marie Curie research fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Upon its completion in around 1370, the tower tilted at 1.6 degrees. The finished structure was a hollow cylinder that rose eight stories, reaching about 196 feet (60 meters) high. Its masonry skeleton composed of rock fragments and mortar was coated with marble, columns and vaults. Related: What is the oldest known archaeological site in the world? As the tower's slant gradually grew to 5.5 degrees, the Italian government took action to protect the landmark, according to Fiorentino. In 1990, it appointed a committee of experts to mitigate the lean but without eliminating it and its tourist attraction. "It's one of the symbols of Italy," Fiorentino told Live Science. "There is a great debate around how much we can change about the monument. It's part of the culture." The committee first affixed 600 tons (544 metric tons) of lead to the base of the tower's north side in 1993, hoping to compensate for the sinking southern side. But this didn't stop the rate of tilt, even after they added an extra 300 tons (272 metric tons) to the north side, along with ground anchors, according to Fiorentino. After more brainstorming, the committee attempted "underexcavation" that is, using long tubes and drills to noninvasively remove the ground beneath the north side of the tower's foundation. As soil was removed, the structure slowly started to rotate northward. These efforts decreased the tower's lean by 10%, leaving it at a 5-degree slant. "When they did it, they said they [turned] back the clock of the tower by 200 years," Fiorentino said. This was only a temporary fix, he said, and it's impossible to estimate how much longer the tower will stand. Within the next 300 years, it could tilt back to its 5.5-degree lean from the 1990s, shifting atop the soft soil yet again. But in the meantime, the tower is safe for a few reasons, Fiorentino said. First, the long interruptions to the tower's construction gave the structure time to settle into the malleable soil, fortifying its structure until the next bout of building. Additionally, because the tower's base is thicker than its column-coated upper half, its center of mass is lower to the ground, making it more stable. Fiorentino's own research has investigated why the tower has fared well during earthquakes despite its precarious tilt. He and his colleagues learned that it has a longer, less destructive natural vibration period or the time it takes structures to vibrate back and forth during seismic activity thanks to the soft soil under the tower's foundation, which offers the building protection from the region's earthquakes. Although no physical interventions are planned, the tower is monitored constantly with instruments that measure factors such as its tilt and the water table. For now, iconic history will live on through the tower. Just like the " ancient Romans wanted to build monuments that last," like the Coliseum, so did the tower's builders, Fiorentino said. "They wanted them to be eternal." Originally published on Live Science on July 5, 2011, and updated on April 18, 2022. Click here to read the full article. More than 400 French artists and entertainment figures, including Juliette Binoche and Charlotte Gainsbourg, have signed an emotionally charged op-ed published in Le Monde newspaper on April 15 to urge people to vote for incumbent President Emmanuel Macron during the election runoff on April 24. The letter is aimed at those who may not support Macrons politics, probably didnt vote for him during the first round of the election and are now inclined to abstain from going to the polls next Sunday. Actors, filmmakers, musicians, artists and producers who signed the plea argue that casting a ballot in favor of Macron, a pro-EU centrist, is an absolute necessity as it is the only way to beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Like in 2017, Macron and Le Pen qualified for the runoff with 27.84% and 23.15% of the vote, respectively. Many people in the film and cultural industries voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hardleft candidate and leader of La France Insoumise party. After being defeated with 21.95 % of the vote, Melenchon called on his supporters to not give a single vote to Le Pen but elected against encouraging them to go vote for Macron. Its the third time a far-right candidate makes it to the second round of the election since the Fifth Republic was established by Charles de Gaulle in 1958. Before the 2017 election, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marines father, who founded the notoriously anti-semitic and xenophobic Front National party, faced incumbent President Jacques Chirac in 2002. Chirac and Macron ultimately won the 2002 and 2017 elections with 82.21% and 66.10 % of votes, respectively. Le Pen has gained significant ground since rebranding her party Rassemblement National in 2018 to widen her base, as well as making appeals to the centre and even to the left. During this race, she positioned herself as a socialist and has been increasingly perceived as a more moderate candidate compared to the other more radical far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour, a former pundit who was nicknamed Frances Trump. Le Pens political program, however, continues to pose a threat to democratic and republican principles, argues the plea, which was also signed by Jane Birkin, Francois Cluzet, Gilles Lellouche, Guillaume Canet, Fabrice Luchini, Jeanne Balibar and Caroline Benjo, among others. Here are some abstracts of the letter: Actresses and actors of the world of culture and live entertainment, we often have profound disagreements () with the power in place. We have also felt deceptions, anger and even rage. But even if the outcome of this elections first round was not one we hoped for, even if some of us still feel some distrust (towards Macron), today, there is no hesitation, no doubt, wavering. We dont put on the same level democracy and populism, (or) a democratic government and the Rassemblement National. Nothing in Marine Le Pens program reflects the legacy of France as a country of resistance, humanism, generosity and openness towards the world. Tomorrow, we dont dare to imagine what would become of our countrys cultural landscape if (she won the election). We cannot imagine, at the helm of France, a candidate whose program remains one of xenophobia and bigotry, a candidate who made alliances with totalitarian (regimes). We cant imagine the feeling of the Ukrainian people who have been invaded, bombarded and massacred, when they would discover that we have elected an accomplice of the Kremlins leader at the head of our country. We cant imagine that France, the country of the enlightenment and the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen, would bring to power a president whose self-proclaimed friendships with the worst dictators in power, and cause us shame or dishonor. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. After a break from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Natalie Portman is back and more powerful than ever in the first teaser for Thor: Love and Thunder. The fourth film in the Thor series is directed by Taika Waititi, who helmed the well-received Thor: Ragnarok. The movie follows on the heels of Avengers: Endgame, which ended with Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), adrift after the fall of his kingdom Asgard, leaving Earth with the Guardians of the Galaxy. The teaser begins with him as a member of the group, with Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel set to reprise their roles. Previous MCU stars Tessa Thompson and Waititi himself as the rock gladiator Korg will also return for the film, but the biggest moment of the teaser comes in the final seconds, when Portmans Jane Foster is revealed as the new Mighty Thor. Set to Guns N Roses Sweet Child O Mine, the trailer begins with Thor on a quest of self-discovery. These hands were once used for battle, now theyre but humble tools for peace, he says as he puts aside his new hammer Stormbreaker and watches an intergalactic sunset. Now I need to figure out exactly who I am. After a weight-loss training montage and a new outfit, Thor leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy behind to find his own path. He claims his superhero days are over and sets off with Korg across the galaxy. The teaser shows brief glimpses of Thompsons Valkyrie ruling over New Asgard as its king, a lightning-bolt wielding man whos likely Russell Crowe as the Greek god Zeus, and Thor on a pirate ship kissing an unknown woman. Capping off the teaser, Portman calls down Thors hammer Mjolnir, which is now magically pieced back together, and debuts her comic-accurate Mighty Thor costume. Theres no sign of Christian Bales villain, Gorr the God Butcher, but the plot description describes him as a killer seeking the extinction of the gods. Thor, Valkyrie, Korg and Jane will have to team up on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butchers vengeance and stop him before its too late. The story of Love and Thunder is based on Jason Aarons critically-acclaimed run on the comic book The Mighty Thor, which saw Jane Foster, who dated and broke up with Thor, take up the superheros mantle after the sacred hammer Mjolnir deemed the Odinson unworthy and stripped him of his powers. In the comics, however, Fosters newfound power-up comes at a heavy cost: Every time she uses the hammer, her breast cancer becomes worse and worse. Its unclear whether the movie will follow the same storyline, though. Portman reprises the role of Jane after last appearing in 2013s Thor: the Dark World. She reportedly left the series due to being unhappy with the film, and particularly the replacement of the original director Patty Jenkins with Alan Taylor. However, Waititi reportedly directly convinced Portman to return to the MCU for the project. In addition to old faces, Love and Thunder will also introduce new cast members to the franchise. Bales Gorr the God Butcher is a more recent addition to the Marvel canon, having been created by Aaron and Esad Ribic in 2013. Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone are also expected to make cameo appearances. Jenny Morris and Simon Russell Beale have been cast in undisclosed roles for the film. Jaimie Alexander, Sean Gunn and Jeff Goldblum are also set to reprise their MCU roles. Waititi wrote the script for the film with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film is produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum. Marvel Studios produces. The movie filmed in Sydney, Australia last year, after being delayed repeatedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theater July 8. Watch the full trailer below. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NEW YORK - Tracy Letts has written a play that will be Ibsen-esque catnip for anyone who enjoys seeing the ruling class exposed for all its self-deceptions, indiscretions and hypocrisies. That is to say: I adored it. "The Minutes" had its official opening Sunday at Broadway's Studio 54, in a juicily subversive production directed by Anna D. Shapiro. Taking place during a closed city council meeting in mythical Big Cherry in Almost Anystate, U.S.A., this sterling comedy-drama starts in unassumingly sedate fashion. Ninety minutes later, it explodes like a meticulously wrapped gift that had been hiding a live grenade. What unfolds in between is a scathing satire of the American way - which is to say, the official predilection for denial, denial, denial of the country's historic sins, particularly as they concern the cruel treatment of its original inhabitants. "Democracy's messy," Big Cherry's mayor, played with impeccable control freakiness by stage and film actor Letts himself, opines to the council's dissenting member, Mr. Peel (an outstanding Noah Reid). That declaration is a smokescreen for the ongoing effort to perpetuate Big Cherry's Big Lie - concerning the town's origin story - which playwright Letts exhilaratingly brings to light, point by mendacious point. There's a hallowed tradition for this kind of story of malign civic behavior - and a hero who challenges the institutions that uphold it. Frank Capra gave us one on film, in Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith, who went to Washington and found it in need of a long lecture. Reginald Rose, in his 1950s drama "Twelve Angry Men," offered up the lone juror who turns the tide against prejudice and injustice. The genre's foundational drama debuted 140 years ago: In Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," conscientious Dr. Stockmann discovers that a Norwegian town's spa waters have been making tourists sick - and the town seeks to destroy him for blowing the whistle. Here, set designer David Zinn places us grandly, even affectionately, in the realistic government chambers of an average American city. Letts fills the council seats with a gallery of petty tyrants, fading hangers-on and close-minded guardians of their own best interests. They're portrayed by an ensemble out of a director's dreams. In mentioning several, I get to recall their wonderful performances: Jessie Mueller as council clerk Ms. Johnson, a survivor if there ever was one; Jeff Still as Mr. Assalone, the bullying local pol with his hands in too many tills; Blair Brown as Ms. Innes, the old-timer with a spine made of cellophane; Danny McCarthy as Mr. Hanratty, whose ideals extend only so far as the boundaries of his own family. Then there is the play's not-so-secret comic weapon: Austin Pendleton as senior council member Mr. Oldfield, a fossil who lives just this side of lucidity and whose No. 1 legislative priority is securing the building's available dedicated parking space. Pendleton gets every laugh Letts tosses his way, like a cleanup batter who can handle any pitch. (K. Todd Freeman, Ian Barford, Cliff Chamberlain and Sally Murphy play the other council members, all to memorable effect.) "The Minutes" pokes at that sensitive area of American skin - predominantly White - that's invested in a mythology of European virtue and buries a tarnished history of ethnic cleansing. It will doubtless infuriate those who rail against critical race theory, or anything asserting that America's nation-building occurred without a heavenly seal of approval. That sanctimonious posturing is enshrined in the Big Cherry Heritage Festival, a celebration whose entire rationale is undermined by a council member who has discovered the sordid truth of Big Cherry's past. The council's newest member, Mr. Peel, then learns that the minutes of the meeting at which the secrets were revealed have mysteriously been suppressed. The excavation of the city's rotten roots includes a marvelous interlude, orchestrated by Shapiro and choreographer Ty Defoe, that enlists the politicians in an elaborate reenactment of Big Cherry's origin story (fans of Christopher Guest's movies, particularly "Waiting for Guffman," will recognize the kind of parody Letts is going for). Yes, for sure, a bit of urbane condescension spices Letts's comedy, but small-town folkways and the affectations of community leaders are ripe for sendup. I started my journalism life many moons ago as a nightside reporter, covering town councils and planning and zoning boards in little towns in central New Jersey, and let me tell you: Letts's portrait brought back many familiar episodes. Letts is a playwright who reliably goes to extremes, whether in slasher stage comedies such as the great "Killer Joe" or histrionic melodramas, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning "August: Osage County." So the wildly theatrical denouement of "The Minutes" will come as no surprise to his fans. It makes for an ugly and shocking - but also wholly appropriate - adjournment to an electrifying meeting with America's shame. - - - "The Minutes," by Tracy Letts. Set, David Zinn; costumes, Ana Kuzmanic; lighting, Brian MacDevitt; sound and music, Andre Pluess; choreography, Ty Defoe. About 90 minutes. At Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., New York. 212-239-6200. telecharge.com. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate After two years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a letter in late February regarding a revision to their previous flood plain map suggested by the team behind the Rancho Viejo Waste Management landfill, the Pescadito Landfill. Ultimately, the letter rejected the changes suggested by RVWM. The letter by RVWM suggested a revision to FEMAs flood insurance rate map and flood insurance study report. It suggested modifications to the Base Flood Elevations, Special Flood Hazard Areas, zone designations and regulatory floodways for San Juanito Creek Tributary and San Juanito Creek Tributary 1-5, stated the agency. Another major factor in the opposition against the landfills location was the fact that the proposed project was set to be built on a 100-year floodplain. The project was stalled as state law, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality does not allow solid waste disposal operations, leading to the county not issuing a permit for the project in 2016. After reviewing the data submitted with the appeal, FEMA determined that it did not warrant changing the issued LOMR, Case No. 18-06-2680P, which became effective on November 25, 2019 (hereafter, the November 25, 2019, LOMR), FEMA wrote. However, FEMA opened Case No. 20-06-0595P to further review the data and determine if a revision to the effective flood hazard information was warranted. As FEMA is in charge of reviewing flood maps and the national flood insurance program, the agency does not issue permits of any kind for projects like the Pescadito Landfill. However, their scientific analysis sets the basis for the flood plain map in 2019, that indicated that the project was indeed in a flood plain. Further review by FEMA was indicated to have the same outcome with a new case analyzing the flood hazard information and stating that their map did not need revision. This comes after a years-long battle between the RVWM and property owner Carlos C.Y. Benavides against his family, state representatives, local officials, environmental activists and surrounding residents; all who lamented the idea of building a landfill close to rural communities around Laredo. This included three public meetings on the subject, a lawsuit against the Webb County floodplain administrator, family disputes over property rights and accusations of environmental racism, the Texas Tribune previously reported. According to Austin based advocate Ray Sullivan, who stood alongside prominent landfill opponent Ana Galo and Benavides cousin in 2016, following FEMAs decision, there are just a few options for Benavides to take that will keep the project alive. If the applicant wants to go ahead and continue this project or a similar project, they should start from scratch and get their science and their rule-following right from the beginning on a new application, Sullivan suggested. Additionally, Sullivan said that he believed there is also the risk of the TCEQ outright rejecting the project if the application deficiencies prevail. Benavides could not be reached for comment regarding this story. A Dallas resident has been sentenced to prison for attempting to smuggle about $1.1 million in meth, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Luke Law, 20, had pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 to smuggling 55.46 pounds of meth. On April 14, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced him to 60 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. A woman told authorities that her husband made arrangements for her to transport migrants, according to an arrest affidavit. Kassandra Jeaneth Avalos, 24, was charged with smuggling of persons, criminal conspiracy. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) A Kentucky jury has awarded a man $450,000 who sued his employer after he asked them not to celebrate his birthday at work and they did it anyway. Kevin Berling told his manager at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington in 2019 that a birthday celebration would cause him immense stress. But the company didn't heed his request, and Berling suffered a panic attack, the Courier Journal reported. The next day Berling had another panic attack when his supervisor chastised him for stealing his co-workers joy and being a little girl," according to a lawsuit. Berling was fired after the second attack. Berling alleged in his lawsuit the company discriminated against him based on a disability and retaliated against him for demanding a reasonable accommodation to it. The jury returned the verdict after a two-day trial in Kenton County that ended in late March. The jury awarded him $300,000 for emotional distress and $150,000 in lost wages. An attorney for the company, Katherine Kennedy, said it continues to deny liability and is pursuing its post-trial options. Julie Brazil, the companys founder and chief operating officer, said in an email statement to the newspaper that with ever-increasing incidents of workplace violence, this verdict sets a very dangerous precedent for employers and most importantly employees that unless physical violence actually occurs, workplace violence is acceptable. Brazil said that her employees, rather than the plaintiff, were the victims in the case. Berling's attorney, Tony Bucher, said once the jury got to meet his client, they realized the companys claim that he posed a threat was far-fetched. Berling had told his supervisor that a birthday celebration would bring back bad childhood memories surrounding his parents divorce. The supervisor forgot to pass along his request, the company said. If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. Northern Irish police have marked the third anniversary of Lyra McKee's murder with another appeal for information. Ms McKee, 29, was shot dead in Derry as she observed rioting in the Creggan area in April 2019. An extremist group styling itself the New IRA has previously claimed it was responsible for killing the journalist and author. Detective Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan said, "As we approach the third anniversary of the murder of Lyra McKee on 18 April 2019, our thoughts very much remain with her family, partner, friends and colleagues. Lyras family not only continue to mourn for her but also for her mother, who sadly passed away after Lyras murder. "To date, as part of our ongoing investigation, we have made 30 arrests and nine people have been charged, three with murder and six with public order offences. The investigation into Lyras murder remains very active and I would like to thank the community for their response and support throughout our investigation. I want to re-state the commitment of the police service to work with the community as we collectively seek to release communities from the influence of terrorists. While grateful for the considerable public support we have received, we still need the publics help. If anyone has any information about the events which led up to Lyras murder, and they have yet to come forward, please contact detectives in absolute confidence by calling 101. Alternatively you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers completely confidentially 0800 555 111. The sister of murdered journalist Lyra McKee has made a fresh appeal for information to bring her killer to justice. Vigils were held in memory of the 29-year-old in Belfast and Derry today (Monday April 18) the third anniversary of her death. Her friends and family visited the spot at Fanad Drive in Derry where she died after being struck by a bullet during rioting in the area three years ago. No one has yet been convicted of her murder. An extremist group styling itself the New IRA has previously claimed it was responsible for killing her. Her sister Nichola Corner told the vigil in Derry that her family are still waiting for justice. Three years ago our sister Lyra McKee was murdered here in this city, and still three years on, we are waiting for justice for Lyra, the person who pulled the trigger of the gun that led to her death still walks these streets, and while they walk these streets, these streets will not be safe for the people of this city, she said. We appeal to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for our sister's death, we appeal to them to come forward. Its never too late. We want to thank all the people who have come to honour Lyra and to remember her as a journalist, as a human being and as a person who loved this city. We hope that youll continue to keep Lyra in your hearts and in your minds in a very dignified way. In Belfast, a new banner in memory of Ms McKee was unveiled on the steps of St Annes Cathedral, where then Prime Minister Theresa May, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Irish president Michael D Higgins were among those who attended her funeral in 2019. Police have also made a fresh appeal for information to bring those responsible for Ms McKees murder to justice. Detectives said they have made 30 arrests and nine people have been charged, three with murder and six with public order offences, in relation to the shooting of the author. Tech & Science, Family & Parenting, Community, Charity & Cause, Arts & Culture, Seasonal & Current Events By Kelly Tenny Published: August 09 2014 During your travels around Long Island keep your eyes out for cool, quirky, roadside attractions and landmarks. Looking for something out of the ordinary to do? Do you enjoy road trips and discovering interesting landmarks and attractions along the way? Why not plan a mini road trip around Long Island to seek out all of the kitschy roadside attractions Long Island has to offer! Youll be sure to learn a little bit of weird Long Island history at the sites and discover a side of Long Island you never experienced before. Bring the family along and make a day of it. Youll get tons of great pictures at the sites and you can show your friends and family all of the amazingly awesome attractions lining the Long Island roadways. Dont forget to look over our DIY road trip emergency kit for ideas of what to bring with you, just in case, on your roadside Long Island journey. Grumman Memorial Park Off Route 25 near 25A intersection in Calverton As youre driving down this more wooded section of Route 25 you begin to see a shape taking form above the trees. Once the trees have cleared you are greeted with a huge F-14A Tomcat, lifted up upon a pedestal. The park is a tribute to advances in aviation and aerospace which have taken place on Long Island, especially through the Grumman Corporation. You can visit the attraction for free and walk around the one acre site reading the informative plaques and standing in awe of this marvel of machinery. Casa Basso Restaurant Off Montauk Highway in Westhampton Twelve foot tall dueling musketeers, a castle, mythological characters, and jumping horses greet visitors to this unique Italian restaurant. The statues and sculptures have a rich history dating back to the late 19th century when artist Theophilus Brower built a castle similar to one hed seen in Seville, Spain then adorned it with romantic sculptures. Make sure to bring the kids along, they will have a blast exploring all of the sculptures and eccentric fare around the grounds. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Off Route 83 at Bald Hill in Farmingville Situated on one of the highest points on Long Island, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial commemorates the efforts and losses of all those who fought and sacrificed for our country during the Vietnam War. It was built in the early 1990s and is a beautiful obelisk shape with a pointed top decorated with the bold colors of the American flag. The memorial is free and there are benches all around the memorial making it a great spot to sit, have lunch, and catch a nice breeze. The Big Duck Off Route 24 in Flanders Its quite impossible to miss The Big Duck as you drive down route 24 in Flanders, NY. The structure is 20 feet tall, bright white, and of course, is in the shape of a very large duck. In the 1930s The Big Duck was originally envisioned to be a place for Martin and Jeule Maurer to sell their farm raised Peking ducks. The Big Duck now serves as a tourist center and gift shop. If you can, try to visit the duck the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving. On that day they hold the annual holiday lighting of the Big Duck. What roadside Long Island attractions and landmarks have you come across in your travels? Which ones do you still want to discover? Let us know below in the comments! [Source: Suffolk County, Grumman Park, Casa Basso, Suffolk County] Pictured: "The Big Duck" in Flanders. Photo by Bob Gutowski, via Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-2.0. Local News By Long Island Published: April 18 2022 Landlords Who Receive Payments from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program Cannot Raise Rents for 12 Months New York Attorney General Letitia James today issued an advisory to landlords reminding them that they cannot raise rents if they accepted or plan to accept funding from the states Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which was recently expanded in the states budget. Landlords who accept payments from the program are prohibited from raising rents for a year after they receive the funds. Attorney General James is ready to take action to protect tenants if landlords fail to abide by ERAPs rules. The rules are clear: Landlords who accept ERAP payments cannot raise rents for 12 months, said Attorney General James. This program was created to support struggling tenants and keep New Yorkers in their homes during the pandemic. Landlords who accepted payments from the state yet are still raising rents are double dipping and breaking the law. I urge any tenant who accepted ERAP payments and received a new lease with rent increases from their landlord to contact my office. ERAP is a rent relief program that provides support to low- and moderate-income tenants across the state who could not pay rent during the pandemic. Since the state started accepting applications in June 2021, it has provided hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers with financial support to pay off back rent. It pays up to 12 months of rental arrears accrued on or after March 13, 2020 as well as up to three months of additional rental assistance going forward. In addition, the program pays up to 12 months of electric or gas utility arrears that accrued on or after March 13, 2020. The program was recently infused with an additional $800 million. Landlords who accept ERAP payments agreed: Not to increase the monthly rental amount for one year from receipt of the ERAP payment; To waive any late fees due on any rental arrears covered by the ERAP payment; and Not to evict ERAP recipients when their lease expires. This does not apply if the apartment is in a building of four or fewer units and the property owner or owners immediate family members intend to immediately occupy the unit for use as a primary residence. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has received reports from tenants that landlords who accepted ERAP payments are sending them renewal leases with rent increases amid the 12-month grace period. While these leases may be generated automatically by management, landlords are cautioned not to seek rent increases in renewal or new leases that commence during the 12-month period. Now more than ever, it is critical for tenants across New York to empower themselves and know their rights under ERAP, and for landlords to adhere to the law, said Judith Goldiner, attorney-in-charge of Civil Law Reform Unit, The Legal Aid Society. We applaud Attorney General James for putting property owners on notice and reinforcing that there will be serious consequences for unscrupulous landlords. The Emergency Rental Assistance program has been an effective tool in ensuring tenants can remain housed during a global health crisis, said Meghan Zickl, legal tenant advocate, PUSH Buffalo. Continuing to fund ERAP is a decision we are relieved the New York state legislature made a priority in the most recent state budget. However, we remain concerned about landlords who will take advantage of this mutually beneficial program and seek to undermine the tenant protections in it by raising the rent during the first year, apply excessive late fees, or even trying to move their tenants out, all while accepting ERAP. We have seen this happen in the prior round of ERAP funding, and we must remain aware of those patterns and address them if our goal is to stabilize our communities. The state law that implemented ERAP took measures to promote housing stability, said Jill Bradshaw-Soto, Esq, chief program officer, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley. Our clients face numerous obstacles to maintaining safe and sustainable housing and these challenges have increased during the pandemic. As the majority of tenants in housing court are unrepresented, it is critical that both tenants and landlords are informed and understand the ERAP program and its protections. During the COVID19 pandemic hundreds of families in North Brooklyn struggled with staying safe and healthy but lost income had difficulty meeting housing costs, said Frank Lang, housing director, St. Nicks Alliance. In 2021 St. Nicks Alliance assisted over 200 households apply to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) so these families dont become homeless. We remind landlords that received ERAP funds to comply with the program regulations. To tenants that received ERAP assistance we encourage them to seek Housing Counseling assistance to ensure that their housing rights are protected. Attorney General James offers the following tips and guidance to tenants who have received funding from ERAP: THE businessman, who claimed to have seeded a US$300 000 Bentley Continental to Prophet Uebert, nine years ago, is the same man today being accused of allegedly abusing his lover Monica Gadu. Last week, H-Metro exclusively reported about the fallout between Ndabazinengi Shava, 43, the buinessman, and his lover, Gadu, 30, with whom he has a child who is one year-old. Gadu claims she has been a victim of abuse, allegedly inflicted by Shava, who has allegedly been threatening to withdraw all the financial support, exposing the woman and her baby to the possibility of being thrown out of the house they are renting. Recently, Gadu posted their photographs, and that of their one-year-old baby, into the inbox of Shavas wife, Eurita. She said she was protesting over unpaid rentals and lack of support and described Shava as abusive. It is better for me to suffer with my child than to continue living in silence while being physically and emotionally abused by Shava, said Monica. I have approached the police several times about being assaulted, but the cases die because of threats that I would lose financial support. Ndofa nekurohwa nekuda mari here yandinopihwa nemuseredzero asi ini ndakabereka mwana naye? I have some photographs of my buttocks and face bruised and he warns me about taking the matter to law enforcement agencies, or anyone in authority, and threatens to kill me. For how long will I live and die silently for the sake of money and a marriage which he does not want to introduce to his legal wife? It is true that I posted some photographs and messages between me and him to his wife Eurita for her to understand my plight. She has since lodged another police report against Shava under RRB 5011895 at Rhodesville Police Station over the threats she received after H-Metro published their story last week. Shava sent threatening messages following the publication of his story and I decided to lodge a police report fearing for my life, said Monica. He threatened to come and deal with me and return to South Africa where he would reside forever. It is better for me to have peace of mind than to be emotionally and physically abused for the sake of being supported financially, she said. Shava denied harassing Gadu but conceded there were some challenges in their relationship. Ndewangu mukadzi wemusikanzwa uyo asi zvaarikutaura ndezvekunyepa nekuti ndakatobhadhara mari yerent ye mwedzi miviri, said Shava. There are some issues behind her claim of lack of support which she does not want to tell. She has not been faithful and I never assaulted her as alleged, but she is hiding the real issues. I do not have one house in Harare, for her to struggle for accommodation, even her Greendale rented house is paid up. She is after fighting me because she sent some photographs of me with her and the child to my wifes Facebook account, exposing me, and I do not know why she is doing this. However, it has since emerged that Shava is the same businessman who dragged Prophet Angel to court over a US$300 000 Bentley Continental he claimed to have seeded to the Spirit Embassy leader. In June 2015, the case collapsed after High Court judge, Justice November Mtshiya, confirmed Prophet Angels sale of the vehicle to another local businessman, after dismissing Shavas application, to repossess the vehicle, with costs. Shava did not appear in court for the judgment. He had claimed he donated the car to Angel after being promised his blessings with increase three-fold. However, this did not happen, as promised. Whereupon, after reading documents filed of record and hearing counsel (Angels lawyer, Advocate Webster Chinamora), it is ordered that plaintiff (Shava) being in default, claim is dismissed with costs, read the judges order. In the court papers, Prophet Angel disputed that Shava was the owner of the vehicle, as he claimed. The Respondent (Shava) was never the owner of the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle was owned by one Anderson Tagara whose name appears on the registration book, said Prophet Angel. Further, the motor vehicle was purchased from Anderson Tagara by Benjamin Mudzanire the Applicants (Prophet Angel) brother and there is an agreement of sale to that effect. H Metro EPFO, or Employee Provident Fund Organisation, is a statutory government body administered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. EPFO is responsible for the management and regulation of the Provident Fund (PF) in India. A Universal Account Number, or UAN, is a unique id used to access all the information related to the Employee Provident Fund (EPF). The EPFO Login can be done using the UAN (EPFO UAN Login). UAN login is also used to access the UAN Passbook online. As UAN is mandatory to access the employee data, an employee can use the EPFO member login to get the UAN passbook. Also Read: National Generic Document Registration System Let us examine the details related to EPFO Login and UAN. What is UAN UAN or Universal Account Number is a unique number assigned to the salaried employees who are covered under the Employee Provident Fund program. The UAN allows access to the EPFO passbook, PF contribution details, balance check of the EPF account. Being a unique number, UAN is transferable in case the employee switches to a new job. It is essential to link the UAN with the AADHAR number of the employee, failing which the employer will not be able to contribute to the PF account. A salaried employee who makes a PF contribution must have his/her UAN number. This unique number comes in handy in cases of job change and PF money withdrawal etc. Do you wish to know how you should find your UAN number? Read on. UAN login: How do I know my UAN Number Before the UAN facility, the EPFO used to work manually. However, with the introduction of a unique number UAN (UAN Login), the computerised system has enabled a seamless UAN login. You can ask your employer to provide the UAN number. It is generally written on the monthly salary slips. If you are facing challenges in accessing the UAN number, you can know your UAN online. To know your UAN number, follow the below-mentioned steps- Step 1: (EPFO Login) Login to the official website of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), i.e., https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/ Step 2: On the right-hand bar, click on the Know your UAN tab. Step 3: When you click on the Know Your UAN tab, the system will be redirected to the following page. Step 4: Enter the Mobile Numbers and the Captcha code and click on the Request for OTP button. Step 5: You will receive an OTP on the registered Mobile number. Step 6: Enter the OTP and click on the Validate OTP button. Step 7: the system will verify the OTP and you will be redirected to the following screen. Step 8: Here, you will be asked to fill in the details such as Name, Date of Birth, AADHAR/Pan Card/Member ID and the captcha code. Step 9: Click on the Show My UAN. The UAN will be displayed on the screen. UAN login is essential to access the UAN Member portal and UAN Passbook. One can use the UAN to login into the EPFO portal (EPFO UAN login). Once you know your UAN, you can use it to login on the EPFO portal. (EPFO Login). Follow the below mentioned steps to login using UAN (UAN Login). Also Read: QR Code Scams on Realty Portals UAN Login: How to do UAN login on UAN portal? Follow the below-mentioned steps for UAN Login. Step 1: (EPFO Login) Login to the official portal of Employee Provident Fund Organisation. Step 2: Go to the UAN login on the right-hand side and enter the UAN number and password. Step 3: Once you enter the UAN and password, you will enter the dashboard of the concerned person. Step 4: The dashboard will have details like UAN, Name, Date of birth, gender, Aadhar, Pan Number, Bank Account Number, registered Mobile Number, and users email id. Step 5: Under the UAN dashboard, a person can perform various activities such as view the passbook, manage the account, change password, and download pdf etc. Step 6: When you click on the View button on the front, you have the options such as Profile, Service History, UAN Card and Passbook. You can apply for a UAN Card or check the passbook to view the current balance. You can also see the service history in this section. Step 7: When you click on the manage button you have options such as Basic Details, Contact Details, Know Your Customers (KYC), E-nomination for assigning the nominee etc. Step 8: You can manage the PF account using the Account button and even change the password for the account. Step 9: Under the Online services tab, you can perform the following actions- Claim for Form 31,19,10 C and 10 D Request for One Member -One PF Account Track Claim Status Download Annexure K As mentioned, the UAN number is the primary requirement to login into the EPFO portal (epfo login). It must be highlighted that before an employee could use the UAN number only after it is activated. UAN Login: How to activate the UAN Number? The activation of the UAN number is very important to avail of the services available on the EPFO portal (EPFO Login). Here is the step-by-step method to activate the UAN number. Step 1: Visit the homepage of EPFO. Step 2: On the right-hand bar, click on the Activate UAN option. Step 3: Once you click on the Activate UAN option, the system will be redirected to the following screen. Step 4: You will be required to fill in the details such as UAN, Member ID, AADHAR, Name, Date of birth, Mobile Number and Captcha code. Step 5: Once the details are filled in, you will be required to check the declaration. The declaration says that you authenticate the agency to use the Aadhar number, OTP and other basic details. Step 6: Tick the declaration box and click on Get Authorisation Pin. Step 7: Once you get the authorization PIN, you will be required to enter it on the screen, and your UAN number will be activated and ready for EPFO login. UAN Passbook: How to view the EPF member passbook? The UAN number can be used to check the PF balance. An EPFO UAN Passbook can be seen in the following steps. Step 1: Visit the homepage of EPFO (EPFO Login). Step 2: Go to the UAN login on the right-hand side and enter the UAN number and password. Step 3: Once you enter the UAN and password, you will enter the dashboard of the concerned person. Step 4: Under the UAN dashboard, a person can perform various activities such as view the passbook, manage the account, change password, download pdf etc. Step 5: When you hit the View button on the front, you have the options such as Profile, Service History, UAN Card and UAN Passbook. You can apply for the UAN Card or check the passbook to view the current balance. Step 6: Click on the Check passbook option. Step 7: You will be taken to a dashboard where you can see the UAN passbook details and the transactions on a month-on-month basis. The EPF members can also change the contact details on the portal. After the UAN login, the contact details can be changed on the EPFO dashboard. Step 1: (EPFO Login) Login to the official portal of Employee Provident Fund Organisation. Step 2: Go to the UAN login on the right-hand side and enter the UAN number and password. Step 3: Once you enter the UAN and password, you will enter the dashboard of the concerned person. Step 4: Click on manage and click on the contact details button. Step 5: Once you click on the contact details, you will be taken to the following screen. Step 6: Click on the Change Mobile Number option, enter the new mobile number and hit the Get Authorisation Pin button. Step 7: Once you get the authorization pin on the mobile, enter the pin, and your mobile number will be changed in the EPFO records. EPFO Login: How to check the PF balance (PF balance check with UAN number) The PF is contributed both by the employee and the employers. An employee can seamlessly check the PF balance (pf balance check with uan number) in the following ways. Via Umang Mobile Application- An employee who has a PF account and UAN can download the UMANG Application from the Google play store and know the PF balance using the UAN. Via SMS- A user can check the PF Balance using the SMS services. The user can check the balance by sending a message (SMS) on 7738299899. The format of the message must be EPFO UAN ENG. The last three digits denote the language. The SMS must be sent through the registered mobile number only. Via Missed Call- the user can also check the PF balance by giving a missed call. The registered user must give a missed call on 011-22901406. The balance will be shown on the mobile. The missed call must be from the registered mobile number only. Also read: Loan Against PPF Conclusively, the EPFO Login helps a user to check the PF balance via UAN. The UAN login allows a user to access the dashboard online and avail of services such as EPFO passbook check, contact details change and track the status of claims. The UAN login has indeed streamlined the EPFO services What is IGR Maharashtra? IGR Maharashtra is the office of the Inspector General of Registration and Stamps in Maharashtra. IGR Maharashtra is responsible for services such as registration of property documents, payment of stamp duty, valuation of property, property tax computation, calculation of stamp duty amount, payment of stamp duty and registration fees, stamp duty refund and marriage registration etc. With a view to providing the mentioned services to the citizens, the Department of Registration & Stamps, Government of Maharashtra, has its website for Inspector General of registration and Stamps (IGRS). IGR Maharashtra offers various property-related documents and registration services online. IGR Maharashtra has minimized the need to visit the Sub-registrar office services related to document registration. The link for this website is www.igrmaharashtra.gov.in. Lets have a look at some of the key services which can be availed via the IGR Maharashtra Website- Also Read: Stamp Duty in Maharashtra IGR Maharashtra: How to Calculate Stamp Duty in Maharashtra? Stamp Duty is a tax payable on registering a legal document with the Government. Stamp Duty is applicable on various documents, including property sale agreement, leave and license (rental) agreement, gift deed, and mortgage deed, among others. Stamp Duty in Maharashtra is applicable at the rate of 3% to 6% of the total consideration value mentioned in the sale document. This rate differs as per the type of document, the type of area, and many other factors. IGR Maharashtra allows a user to calculate the stamp duty charges online. The exact stamp duty applicable can be calculated using the Stamp Duty Calculator option on the IGR Maharashtra website. A user can easily enter the details of the document and get an estimate of the applicable Stamp Duty. Follow the step-by-step method to calculate the stamp duty charges online. Step 1: Visit the official website of IGR Maharashtra, i.e. https://www.igrmaharashtra.gov.in/frmHOME.aspx Step 2: On the home page, click on the Stamp Duty Calculator tab. Step 3: As soon as you click on the tab, you will be redirected to the following link http://www.igrmahhelpline.gov.in/stamp-duty-calculator.php Step 4: Select the type of document to be registered. If it is a sale deed, click on the Sale Deed option. Step 5: In this step, select the concerned region from Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Cantonment or Gram Panchayat (Whichever is applicable). Step 6: If you select the Municipal Corporation option, you will be asked to choose the concerned Municipal Corporation. Step 7: Once you have selected the corporation, you will be required to fill the Consideration amount and Market value. Step 8: Click on the Calculate button. The desired stamp duty details will be displayed on the screen. Also Read: Bhu Naksha Maharashtra: View Land Map Online IGR Maharashtra: How to Search the Property Registration Details? The details of any property registered in Maharashtra can be found using the free search tool of the IGR Maharashtra website. Under this, details of all properties registered from the year 1985 in Mumbai city as well as suburban limits can be procured. For areas other than Mumbai, details are available only from 2002. However, for some selected areas other than Mumbai, details are available for 1985 to 2002 as well. Basic details such as property number and year of registration are required for searching property registration data on IGR Maharashtra. The facility to search a property based on the name of the property holder is also provided, but this is a paid service. To search for a property, follow the step-by-step process- Step 1: Visit the official website of IGR Maharashtra, i.e. https://www.igrmaharashtra.gov.in/frmHOME.aspx Step 2: On the home page, click on the E-search and select the free process option. The system will be redirected to https://freesearchigrservice.maharashtra.gov.in/Login.aspx Step 3: If you are not a registered user, create an account and register using the login Id and password. Step 4: Once you are logged in, select the relevant area of the property from the three options- Mumbai, Urban areas other than Mumbai, and the rest of Maharashtra. Step 5: Enter the relevant details of the property- viz. year of registration, district name, tehsil name, village name, and property no. (One can enter the survey no., plot no., or CTS no., etc. in case the exact property no. is not available, and then select the relevant property from the list populated below) Step 6: Select the relevant property from the list. Click on the Index II option. A PDF file mentioning the registration details will be downloaded. Also read: 7/12 Utara Mahabhulekh IGR Maharashtra: Payment of Stamp Duty and Registration Fees Once the stamp duty has been calculated as in the steps mentioned above, it can be paid online through the Government Receipt Accounting System (GRAS) available on the IGR Maharashtra website. Additionally, the applicable registration fees can also be paid through IGR Maharashtra. The user can use online as well as offline payment methods. Follow the below-mentioned procedure to pay stamp duty and registration charges online. Step 1: Visit the link https://gras.mahakosh.gov.in/igr/nextpage.php Step 2: Click on the Inspector General of Registration tab on the homepage. You will be redirected to the following screen. Step 3: Click on the Pay without registration (If you are an unregistered user). You will be redirected to the screen where you will have to fill in the details. Step 4: Select the required payment to be made: Only stamp duty Only registration fees Both stamp duty and registration fees together Step 5: Select the relevant district of the property, the sub-registrar office under whose jurisdiction the property falls, and the type of document. Step 6: Enter the stamp duty amount as calculated above. If the option of the registration fee is also selected, then the user needs to enter the registration fee as well. The registration fee is 1% of the consideration value mentioned in the document (Maximum Rs 30,000) Step 7: Enter the relevant details of the property and both the parties (buyer as well as a seller). Step 8: Select the mode of payment. The user can use online payment methods such as Credit/ Debit cards and internet banking. Users not familiar with online payment options can generate a challan through this portal and make the required payment at selected bank branches in cash or cheque. Step 9: Click on the Proceed button. Also Read: Your Guide to Executing a Registered Rent Agreement in Maharashtra IGR Maharashtra: How to Apply for Stamp Duty Refund? The IGR Maharashtra allows a user to file for a stamp duty refund in a seamless and online way. Follow the step-by-step method to apply for the stamp duty refund on IGR Maharashtra. Step 1: Step 1: Visit the official website of IGR Maharashtra, i.e. https://www.igrmaharashtra.gov.in/frmHOME.aspx Step 2: On the homepage, click on the Stamp Duty Refund tab. Step 3: As soon as you click on the button, you will be redirected to the following page. Step 4: Enter the refund token number and password and click on the View Status button. Step 5: The details of the refund status will be displayed on the screen. Also Read: Maharashtra Electricity Bill Payment IGR Maharashtra: How to Check Ready Reckoner Rates online? The IGR Maharashtra allows a user to check the latest ready reckoner rates online. Ready reckoner rates are decided by the Maharashtra Government. The ready Reckoner rates are the rates below which a property transaction cannot take place in a specified area. These rates are periodically revised by the state exchequer. Here is the step-by-step method to check the ready reckoner rates online on IGR Maharashtra. Step 1: Log in to the official website of IGR Maharashtra. https://www.igrmaharashtra.gov.in/frmHOME.aspx Step 2: Click on the E-ASR and Process tab. Step 3: The system will be redirected to the following screen. Step 4: On this map, you can select the concerned district for which you wish to know the Ready Reckoner Rates. Step 5: As soon as you select a district from the given map, the following window will be displayed. Step 6: Select the District, Taluka and Village and the Assessment Type, Assessment Range, and rates will be displayed on the screen. IGR Maharashtra: Other Services IGR Maharashtra portal provides a range of services. Some services other than those mentioned above can also be availed online through the website of IGR Maharashtra. These include: Conclusively, the IGR Maharashtra portal has played an excellent role in streamlining the online providence of citizen centric services. The citizens can easily access services such as stamp duty payment, stamp duty refund, challan search, refund status, ready reckoner rates and property search online on the IGR Maharashtra portal. Moreover, the IGR Maharashtra web portal has contributed immensely towards a transparent and efficient delivery of services in a digital mode. This week lets start with a quote by Albert Einstein. He said, The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Put another way, we must change our thinking of the past to realize and facilitate change within our community today. After the past couple years which impacted many small businesses and communities, it is important we remind ourselves of the real and tangible value small business brings to our community. Analyst Nick Rokke, of the Palm Beach Daily, recently indicated some astounding small business facts. Small businesses make up 99.7% of U.S. firms. They employ 49% of all Americans and create 64% of all new jobs. Stop, and let those figures sink in. Prior to the last couple years, the locally owned business environment was generally favorable in most communities throughout the country. Governments over time, and more recently with the help of COVID have become less favorable to small business. Even communities incorporating many of the proven tactics such as micro-TIF's, favorable tax rates, fewer regulations, city commitment and other initiatives to assist small businesses, are struggling to survive. Rokke also points out, with fewer regulations, businesses can more accurately predict the future allowing them to hire more employees and expand. Competitive tax rates allow businesses to keep more of their profits creating a stronger small-medium business base in the community. Micro-TIF's provide targeted funds for targeted areas of your community. City commitment and leaders can instill confidence and support. Why do I point out the above information? Now is the time for every community in America to focus their efforts inward and determine if their community is doing everything possible to support and build their local business base. Now is the time for your community to double down on efforts to assure small business growth. Now is the time to create an atmosphere of innovation, change, entrepreneurship, collaboration and synergy. There can be many reasons why this may not be occurring in your community. It may be regional headwinds not seen in other portions of the country, such as being tied to oil prices. It may be local and state taxes coupled with regulation, such as we see in states like Illinois, New Jersey or California stifling growth. It might be a soft labor market where open positions are hard to fill. The list of economic reasons is practically endless. In spite of the reasons above and others that we could add to the list, each community must take their future in their own hands. Be the future you wish to see. If taxes are too high, offer tax incentives. If regulations are stifling, reduce regulations making start-ups easy and painless. If you havent taken advantage of micro-TIF's, look into it and see if that fits your community. You might be surprised. If you have a tight labor market, provide tax incentives for hiring locals in lieu of out-of-town employees. For every issue, there seems to be an excuse. Dont dwell on excuses, seek solutions overcoming your issues through creativity, innovation, and a willingness to invest in local people. Many communities invest major dollars in courting national businesses, not that this is always bad. Evaluate the long-term impact of those dollars on your community. In most cases, the long-term impact is much worse than we can imagine or realize. Not to mention, when times get tough, national chains know no loyalty and will leave. Most importantly, while investing in small business, simultaneously invest in your downtown and the surrounding area. Not only are your downtowns the eyes into soul of your community, but national statistics also indicate investing dollars into your downtown bring the highest return (ROI) to your community. When downtowns are left to deteriorate, you can assure other parts of the community will soon follow. You wont see it overnight, it will be like a cancer or degenerative process that slowly infects the body until it is too weak to battle back. On the other hand, I have yet to see a rebuilt and vibrant downtown that hasnt positively impacted the entire community. Our downtowns are treasures, they link the past, present and future together. They are what drives small business growth throughout the entire community. They are what connects the young, middle aged, and the mature. They are the future for those communities seeking answers to a better tomorrow. THE Meteorological Service Department (MSD) has dispelled rumours that heavy rains which recently pounded South Africa could spill to Zimbabwe. Floods in South Africas KwaZulu-Natal province have killed more than 400 people. Matabeleland South MSD provincial officer Rodgers Munyira said the country was experiencing normal rains, and urged citizens not to panic. Several parts of the country have been experiencing little rain and cold weather lately. The kind of rain that the country is receiving is cool and does not have thunderstorms or floods. It is difficult for this weather to change suddenly and give us floods and thunderstorms, Munyira said. As MSD, we havent recorded any signs which show that the floods will be coming to Zimbabwe anytime soon. We will be soon releasing a statement responding to the concerns and rumours that are circulating on social media. Munyira implored the public to seek information and clarity from the MSD and avoid sharing false information on social media, which can cause panic among citizens. The MSD has read communication on social media warning of flooding in the eastern districts of Zimbabwe and wishes to dispel the contents of the communication making the rounds on social media, he said. While the MSD emphasises the existence of mainly cool to mild weather with drizzle/rain in the area of interest throughout the period April 18-21, 2022, we would be updating all stakeholders of any interesting phenomena that may develop in our country. Munyira further noted that it was important for all stakeholders to understand that MSD was the designated authority for climate and weather forecasts. Newsday British music journalist Eve Barlow, a close friend of Amber Heard, was kicked out of the defamation trial against Johnny Depp. Her journalist instincts kicked in According to the testimony of some of the people who have access to the hearing where a lawsuit that could mean the actor the payment of $50 million dollars for defamation is being discussed, last Friday, the contributor to New York Magazine was caught by the judge handling the case sending text messages from her cell phone and issuing tweets on social networks, where the main objective was to relate what happened in the enclosure. Because of this, the woman in question, who was also in the area that normally corresponds to lawyers, was invited to leave the place without the right to return. Eve Barlow has become an inseparable friend of Johnny Depp's ex-wife to the extent of wanting to act as part of her legal team, exercising functions that do not correspond to her, such is the case of trying to intervene against Gina Deuters, witness and friend of the 58-year-old actor. He tried to mislead the jury Apparently, Barlow also showed a post of the witness alleging that it was recent to the trial, being that this was last year, so the journalist was expelled and her testimony was removed from the record. "Amber had her closest journalist friend sit in the front row - with her legal team - at the trial, live tweeting, texting and posting information. Eve Barlow seems to believe she is part of Amber's legal team. Depp's lawyers finally had enough and banned her from the courtroom," said a source who preferred to remain anonymous. BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- China pursues development in order to bring better lives to the people, without any interests in challenging or replacing others, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on CIA Director William Burns' speech on Thursday, in which he called China a "formidable competitor lacking in neither ambition nor capability," and said that China is "intent" on replacing the United States as "the preeminent power in the Indo-Pacific." Zhao said the United States has been constantly disseminating disinformation about the Ukraine crisis, flagrantly slandering China and driving a wedge between China and Russia with an agenda of profiting from the repercussions of its blame-shifting and the confrontation it incites among others. "The United States should focus more on its responsibility for the outbreak and escalation of the Ukraine crisis," Zhao said. He stressed that China pursues development in order to bring better lives to the people, without any interests in challenging or replacing others. "For too long, the United States has been whipping up the 'China threat theory' and throwing dirty water at China. But lies remain lies, no matter how many times they are repeated. The world can make a fair judgement about China's contributions to world peace and development," the spokesperson said. Certain U.S. politicians should view China's development in an objective light, cease fabricating lies, stop sowing discord between China and other countries that China has normal relations with, and do more that is conducive to the development of China-U.S. relations, Zhao said. CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Australias prime minister on Monday warned that thousands of asylum seekers will attempt to reach the country by boat if the opposition party wins elections on May 21. The annual number of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters by boat peaked at more than 20,000 in 2013, the year the conservative government was elected and began turning back boats in a military-led policy known as Operation Sovereign Borders. The government also continued a center-left Labor Party administrations policy introduced two months before the election of banishing boat arrivals to immigration camps on remote Pacific islands. Boat arrivals have since become almost nonexistent. Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested his coalition governments success against the people smuggling trade had inspired Britains plan to put some asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda. We established Operation Sovereign Borders and it has been one of the most successful border protection policies anywhere in the world. So successful, that other countries are taking their lead from Australias successful approach, and why? Its the humane thing to do, Morrison said. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has said a Labor government would change the national policy on asylum seekers by getting rid of so-called temporary protection visas. Refugees among Australias formal protection intake are permanently resettled. But those who arrived by boat are given three-year protection visas. The visas can be extended if refugees cant be returned to their homelands, but critics argue the uncertainty over their futures gets in the way of creating new lives. Morrison blamed a previous Labor government abolishing three-year refugee visas in 2008 for the surge in boat arrivals that followed. Only 161 asylum seekers arrived in 2008. But more than 2,700 arrived the following year and 6,500 in 2010. I know that when Labor abolished temporary protection visas in 2008, the armada of people smugglers boats came to Australia and that was the launching point, Morrison said. Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul, a Melbourne-based refugee advocate, accused Morrison of scare mongering over the need for temporary visas that dont provide refugees with the same rights as permanent visas. Australias harsh refugee policies have been criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups. Indonesia has condemned the Australian navy turning back asylum seeker boats to Indonesian ports as a violation of Indonesian sovereignty. Some smuggling crews had developed a tactic of sabotaging their crowded fishing boats after being intercepted by patrol boats so that Australian crews would have to rescue them from sinking. Australian ships have countered by putting these asylum seekers and crews into powered lifeboats that are then towed close to the Indonesian coast and left with just enough fuel to reach the shore. The leader of the Anglican church this week strongly criticized the British governments plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying sub-contracting out our responsibilities to refugees cant stand up to Gods scrutiny. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made the unusually direct political intervention in his Easter Sunday sermon, saying there are serious ethical questions about sending asylum-seekers overseas. Labor has been leading the government in most opinion polling in recent months. The government is seeking a rare fourth three-year term. Midland-based Dow announced that its board of directors has approved the repurchase of up to an additional $3 billion of the company's common stock. An April 13 news release explained that the new repurchase program does not have an expiration date and is in addition to the current program announced in April 2019, when Dow was spun off from DuPont. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PARIS (AP) Paris prosecutors are studying a report by the European Union's fraud agency accusing French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other members of her nationalist party of misusing public funds while serving in the European Parliament. The report was disclosed by French investigative news site Mediapart just days before Le Pen faces incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a runoff election Sunday that could determine Europes future direction. Le Pen's party National Rally seeks to diminish the EUs powers. Le Pen denied wrongdoing, dismissing the report as foul play by the European Union a few days before the second round" of the election. Speaking Monday on a campaign stop in Normandy, she said, I am well accustomed to this, and I think the French will absolutely not fall for it. A similar EU fraud investigation was disclosed ahead of the 2017 French presidential election, which Le Pen lost to Macron. Le Pen was handed preliminary charges by French investigators over that case, which is still ongoing. Macron, a pro-EU centrist, leads Le Pen in polls ahead of Sundays vote, though the race is tighter than when they faced off in 2017. EU fraud agency OLAF submitted its latest report last month to the Paris prosecutors office, which is in the course of analyzing it, the prosecutors office said Monday. No formal investigation has yet been opened, and no further details were released. According to Mediapart, the OLAF report found that Le Pen, her firebrand father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and other party members who served in the European Parliament used 617,000 euros of public money for fictitious reasons, notably for the benefit of companies close to the party. The fraud office is reportedly seeking reimbursement of the funds and potential fraud and embezzlement charges. OLAF accused party members of grave violations and said the inappropriate behavior of members of National Rally formerly called the National Front imperiled the reputation of the Unions institutions, according to Mediapart. OLAF didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday, a holiday in Belgium and several European countries. It's not the first time Le Pen has been accused of misusing EU funds. Among several legal affairs that have dogged her party, Le Pen was handed preliminary charges in 2018 based on a separate investigation by OLAF accusing members of her party of using aides on the European Parliaments payroll for the partys political activity. Other French political parties faced similar accusations. Le Pen, who served in the European Parliament from 2004-2017, smiled for selfies as she met with hundreds of voters Monday in the Normandy town of Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. A small group of Macron supporters came with posters to urge voters to prevent the far-right from running France. She and Macron face a crucial debate on Wednesday. ___ Jeremias Gonzalez contributed from Saint-Pierre-en-Auge. ___ Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HELSINKI (AP) Swedish police said Monday that the riots that have shaken several cities and towns in the Nordic country are extremely serious crimes against society and suspect some protesters are linked to criminal gangs that intentionally target police. Sweden, a nation of 10 million, has seen unrest, scuffles, arson and violence since Thursday that has left some police officers and protesters injured. It was triggered by Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludans meetings and planned Quran burnings across the country. We suspect that those involved (in the riots) have links to criminal gangs, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg told a news conference on Monday, adding some of those criminal individuals are known to police. I have been in touch with the public prosecutor to prosecute these individuals. Swedens National Police Commander Jonas Hysing said Monday that 26 police and 14 individuals protesters or other people have been injured in the riots and 20 police vehicles destroyed or damaged. The latest riots broke out Sunday night in Malmo, Swedens third-largest city, as an angry crowd of mainly young people set fire to car tires, debris and garbage cans in the Rosengard district. Protesters threw stones and police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. A school and several cars were set on fire, but the situation calmed down early Monday. A total of 11 people were detained and three people arrested in Malmo. No serious injuries were reported. Since Thursday, in addition to Malmo, riots, unrest and violent clashes have been reported in Stockholm, the central city of Orebro, the eastern cities of Linkoping and Norrkoping and southern town of Landskrona. Police have been forced to use weapons in self-defense, Hysing said. Three people were hurt in Norrkoping on Sunday as they were hit by ricochets as police fired warning shots into a crowd of protesters. There is a lot to suggest that the police were targeted, Hysing said, adding that some protesters were suspected of attempted murder, aggravated assault and violence against an official. Both Thornberg and Hysing stressed that the main target for the rioters was Swedish police and society, not Paludan seen by many Swedes merely as an agent provocateur and his Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, which runs on an anti-immigrant, anti-Islam agenda. Thornberg, Swedens supreme police chief, said criminal individuals who took advantage of the situation with Paludans Swedish Easter tour and joined the riots, were the main suspects for the violent flare-ups of violence. The unrest escalated quickly after Paludans first demonstrations, which were met by counter-protesters in many places last week. We must put an end to this early. What we see here is a very serious crime, Thornberg said, referring to the riots. Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said Monday that he continues to have great confidence in the Swedish police despite the unrest over the weekend and pledged more resources to law enforcement. When you end up in these critical and aggressive situations, theres nothing else police officers can do but to put up a hard fight, Johansson told Swedish news outlets. We cannot accept that perpetrators commit this type of violence. Iraqs Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned Swedens charge daffaires over Paludans planned Quran burnings, reportedly saying that such activity could seriously endanger Swedens relations with the Muslim world. In Iran, dozens of students gathered Monday at Swedens embassy to protest Paludans planned Quran burnings. Chanting Insulters of Quran must be condemned! they also repeated traditional slogans such as Death to America!" and Death to Israel! ___ Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this article. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Turkey has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, that has left at least 19 suspected Kurdish rebels dead and has wounded at least four Turkish soldiers, Turkeys defense minister said Monday. Turkish jets and artillery struck suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and commando troops supported by helicopters and drones then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video posted on the ministrys website. Akar said the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK. The group maintains bases in northern Iraq and has used the territory for attacks on Turkey. At least 19 militants were killed while four Turkish troops were wounded during the offensive, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish militant group on the incursion and the defense ministry statement couldn't be verified independently. Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decades. The latest offensive, named Operation Claw Lock, was centered in northern Iraqs Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions. There was no information on the number of troops and jets involved in the latest incursion. Our heroic commandoes and maroon berets supported by attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, armed unmanned aerial vehicles arrived on the scene by land and by air and captured the determined targets, Akar said in a second video. Many terrorists were neutralized. At this point we have reached, all planned targets have been captured, he said. The Defense Ministry said the new offensive was launched after it was determined that the militants were regrouping and preparing for a large-scale attack. The offensive was carried out in coordination with Turkeys friends and allies, the ministry added, but didn't elaborate. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region, which controls the areas that were attacked. The Turkish minister said the incursion was targeting terrorists and that maximum sensitivity was being shown to avoid damage to civilians and cultural and religious structures. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, began an insurgency in Turkeys majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. The judge's decision freed airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements, resulting in a mix of responses. The major airlines switched to a mask optional policy, with some eliciting cheers from passengers when the changes were announced over loudspeakers. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement, and airports in Houston and Dallas almost immediately did away with their mandates after the TSA announcement. Los Angeles International Airport, the world's fifth-largest by passenger volume, also dropped its mandate but the Centers for Disease Control continued to recommend masking on transportation and I think that's good advice," LAX spokesman Heath Montgomery said. Sleepy passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean. No ones any happier than we are," the attendant says in a video posted by Dillon Thomas, a CBS Denver reporter, who was on the flight. She added that people who wanted to keep on their masks were encouraged to do so. But were ready to give em up," she added. So thank you and happy unmasking day! New York Citys public transit system planned to keep its mask requirement in place. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said it would make masks optional for riders on its buses and trains. The Association of Flight Attendants, the nations largest union of cabin crews, has recently taken a neutral position on the mask rule because its members are divided about the issue. On Monday, the unions president appealed for calm on planes and in airports. The last thing we need for workers on the frontlines or passengers traveling today is confusion and chaos, union leader Sara Nelson said. Nelson said it takes airlines 24 to 48 hours to put new procedures in place and tell employees about them. She said passengers should check with airlines for updates about travel requirements. The mask requirement covered airlines, airports, mass transit and taxis, and was the biggest vestige of pandemic restrictions that were once the norm across the country. The decision by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, also said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking procedures that left it fatally flawed. In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely across the country because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected in the lawsuit. The judge said a limited remedy would be no remedy at all and courts have full authority to make a decision such as this even if the CDC's goals in fighting the virus are laudable. The Justice Department declined to comment when asked if it would seek an emergency stay to block the judges order. The CDC also declined to comment. The White House said the court ruling means that for now the mask order is not in effect at this time. This is obviously a disappointing decision, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. The CDC is recommending wearing a mask on public transit. The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. In New York, Metropolitan Transportation Authority communications director Tim Minton said the system was "continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will review the Florida court order. The MTA operates New York City buses and subway trains as well as two commuter rail lines. Face coverings have been mandatory on all trains and buses since early in the pandemic. United Airlines said in a statement that, effective immediately, masks would no longer be required on domestic flights or certain international flights. "While this means that our employees are no longer required to wear a mask and no longer have to enforce a mask requirement for most of the flying public they will be able to wear masks if they choose to do so, as the CDC continues to strongly recommend wearing a mask on public transit," United said. Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also made similar announcements. The federal mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate. Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January. There have been a series of violent incidents on aircraft that have mainly been attributed to disputes over the mask-wearing requirements. The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 by two plaintiffs and the Health Freedom Defense Fund, described in the judge's order as a nonprofit group that opposes laws and regulations that force individuals to submit to the administration of medical products, procedures and devices against their will. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was not directly involved in the case but has battled against many government coronavirus requirements, praised the ruling in a statement on Twitter. Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end, DeSantis tweeted. ___ Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Michael Balsamo and Will Weissert in Washington, and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this story. STAMFORD Two men were killed and two others were hospitalized Sunday after a boat capsized in Long Island Sound off Shippan Point, officials said. Rescue crews responded to the Sound around 10:20 a.m. after officials received a report of a small boat struggling to return to the shore due to strong winds and rough seas, according to Stamford Fire Department Deputy Chief Matt Palmer. The boat was being carried by the tide and wind away from Stamford when the last cellphone call was made to a family member from one of those onboard the small vessel, Palmer said in a statement. First responders were hampered in determining the exact location of the boat due to a language barrier and conflicting initial reports of the boat's last known location. Palmer said dispatchers used cellphone tracking software to pinpoint the last known location of the callers vessel. The software eventually led first responders to an area about a mile offshore from West Beach where they discovered debris from the boat and the four men in large swells. Each of the men was wearing a life jacket when they were pulled from the frigid water, according to Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesperson Will Healey. Two of the men were unconscious and unresponsive, while the other two were what Palmer called semi-responsive. Rescue crews performed CPR on two of the men before rushing then all to hospitals in Norwalk and Stamford. Two of the men were pronounced dead at the hospital, Palmer said. As of Sunday afternoon, the survivors remained in stable but critical condition. Stamford police described the deceased individuals as Stamford residents and Guatemalan nationals. Officials said they are waiting to notify the Guatemalan consulate about the incident before publicly identifying the two men. Palmer said crews from Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk, the DEEP Environmental Conservation Police and the U.S. Coast Guard assisted with the rescue operation. The boat involved in the incident has not been located, and the investigation is ongoing. The day Teresa Beatty learned she owed the state more than $83,600, she said, she had to ask what for. Thats when Beatty, who reportedly spent about two years in prison roughly 20 years before she learned of her debt, discovered Connecticut can collect money from former inmates for the costs of incarceration. If enacted in time, pending state legislation could bring relief for people like Beatty, who said she now worries about having the financial means to put a roof over her head. House Bill No. 5390, which would repeal the states prison debt statutes, is one step closer to becoming law after the Judiciary Committee green-lighted it late last month. Connecticut brings in between $4 million and $6 million annually using the prison debt statutes, according to the Department of Administrative Services, which handles debt collection. The DAS did not provide data on how many former inmates pay money on prison debt each year, but it did provide an overview of how the funds fit into its entire debt collection program. DAS collections collects just under $70 million dollars from roughly a couple thousand parties annually, spokesperson Lora Rae Anderson said in an email. Prison debt makes up for less than 10% of those dollars, at $4-6 million. DAS takes action on these cases through referrals, she said. Those referrals come from the Department of Social Services, the Department of Correction, attorneys, health care facilities, complaints from the general public, the insurance intercept database, probate court and other entities, according to Anderson. After receiving a referral, DAS verifies that the state should be taking collections action based on state law and regulations, and moves forward with contacting the appropriate parties, she wrote. Asked whether the DAS collects money from people who were imprisoned as juveniles, Anderson deferred to the DOC. DOC spokesman Andrius Banevicius said the prison debt statute does not distinguish between juveniles and adults, but deferred back to DAS for information on whether the state actually collects on people who were incarcerated as minors. In essence DAS still does the collection, he said. Im not aware of any juveniles being charged in recent memory. If they do not distinguish (between juveniles and adults), we wouldnt, Anderson said in a follow-up email. We follow their guidelines. When the state comes knocking During the 2019-20 fiscal year, inmates accrued $249 of debt for every day spent behind bars, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut that seeks to stop the practice. Beatty is a plaintiff in that lawsuit. The state does not appear to go after property such as regular wages but may come after funds earned in certain circumstances, such as lottery winnings, lawsuit proceeds and inheritance money, according to a 2018 report from the Office of Legislative Research. The state also has a claim to certain federal, state, or municipal pension, annuity, insurance contracts, and similar items that are for government employee retirement benefits, the report says. If someone who has prison debt wins money from a legal action, the states claim is a lien against the proceeds, the report says. The maximum amount of the claim is the full cost of the inmates incarceration or 50% of the proceeds, minus certain expenses, whichever is less, it says. Similar guidelines apply when a former inmate is receiving an inheritance, and thats why Beatty found herself with bill for about $83,700 years after she left prison. Ive already paid my debt to society A Stamford resident, Beatty has spent 51 years living in the same home, she said. She cared for her ailing mother there, according to the ACLU lawsuit. But when Beattys mother died in 2020, the lawsuit says, the estate was to be divided among the surviving children. Beatty now expects the probate court to order the house sold, she said. I was 7 years old when my parents bought the home, and in a matter of a month or two Im not gonna know where Im going, she said. The ACLU lawsuit estimates Beatty will receive about $230,000 from the sale and says she needs that money to acquire new housing. But because Beatty spent time in prison in the early 2000s for charges stemming from being caught with drugs, according to the lawsuit, the state is demanding about one-third of her inheritance. Beatty is a mother and grandmother, she said, and she cares for her brother, who is disabled. She works as a certified nursing assistant and has provided in-home services to the same 91-year-old woman for the past six years, she said. She worked hard to turn her life around and stay clean after getting out of prison, she said. My mom died in 2020 and now theyre coming after me for my little inheritance, said Beatty.I just think its wrong. I think Ive already paid my debt to society. Why do I have to pay twice? I dont have money to pay anybody, she said. Im gonna be homeless. When asked about the bill to repeal prison debt, Dan Barrett, legal director of the Connecticut ACLU and an attorney representing Beatty, said he supports taking these oppressive laws off the books. (Beatty) is at risk right now of losing the inheritance that her mother left her, which she needs to put a roof over her and her familys heads, he said in a written statement. The question of whether or not our named clients or other clients suffering would be stopped by legislation would depend entirely on what the language enacted said, which could change at any point in the legislative process if the statute went away starting on July 1, for instance, Ms. Beatty would still have to fight against the state before then. State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, said the bill would repeal the lien process altogether so that even if someone was in prison before the bill passed, they would not owe the state money. The legislation also is meant to end ongoing collections processes, he said. I think we probably have to double-check the language, but as one of the chief proponents of this bill certainly its my intent that this bill would end those collections processes, he said. But there is one caveat: if the state already has collected debt, Stafstrom said, it would not return the money. Debt looms over reformed offenders After serving 171/2 years on a homicide charge, Daee Muhammad McKnight said, he was released from prison 17 years ago. Since then, he has worked hard to prevent situations like his own from recurring, he said. McKnight works for Family Re-entry Inc., a Norwalk-based organization that helps incarcerated individuals successfully reenter society. He is a key advocate for the bill to repeal prison debt. The state twice took money from McKnight after he won proceeds from personal injury lawsuits related to car crashes, McKnight said. And hes still not out of the woods. The state can collect on prison debt for 20 years following an inmates release, he said. I have to have this looming over my head for 20 years, said McKnight, who argues the system is not only morally wrong, but its legally wrong. McKnight was sentenced in 1988, he said, years before the prison debt statutes became law, yet still has been subject to them. McKnight also said his sentencing documents waived all fines, a point that ties in with an argument in the ACLU lawsuit. The lawsuit contends prison debt violates the Excessive Fines Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It says Beattys conviction carried a maximum fine of $10,000, the amount associated with a Class C felony, and that the court waived the fine during sentencing. Yet the states prison debt claims against Beattys inheritance far exceeds what she could have been fined as a punitive measure. Trying to move forward State Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, sees prison debt collection as double jeopardy. People released from prison have the chance to restore their families and finances and become better citizens, Porter said. Especially in Black and brown communities disproportionately affected by economic disadvantage and incarceration rates, Porter said, money from sources such as an inheritance can help build generational wealth. Prison debt makes that harder. I think after years of not being able financially to take care of yourself and your family, to have something like that happen after youve paid your time, youve done your time. Its just its not fair, she said. But will the bill pass? On March 29, the Judiciary Committee voted 28-11 to move it forward, a vote that fell largely among party lines but received support from a handful of Republicans. Many who spoke against the bill, including Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said they thought the prison debt system could be reformed but did not want to do away with it altogether. I think its worthwhile to try to make sure that there is some compensation if for no other reason than managing money and knowing that there are some debts that you incur that you have to pay back over time, he said during the March 29 Judiciary Committee hearing, according to a recording available online. He also worried about the hole the legislation would leave in the budget. (Prison debt collection) actually raises about $6 million a year, and so for us to just move forward with this legislation and toss this program away, thats gonna create a hole of $6 million, he said. Theres programs out there that are going begging for less than that. Legislators currently are having conversations about working the legislation into the budget package, according to Stafstrom. Obviously its a short legislative session. ... Were getting short on time, the Bridgeport lawmaker said when asked whether he thought the bill would pass. But Im hopeful that well be able to do at least some piece of this bill as we get toward a final budget package. It is time to repeal the prison debt statutes, he said. Its far more advantageous to be smart on crime and invest in rehabilitation and preventing recidivism, he said. The lien process runs counter to that goal. meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Monday asked state lawmakers to approve a massive package of financial incentives, including tapping into the state's reserve funds, to help lure an unnamed company to the state. The first-term Republican said he was prohibited by a non-disclosure agreement from naming the company or outlining the total cost of the package. But he hinted that the incentives targeted a company associated with the electric-vehicle industry. Tens of billions of dollars are going to be invested over the next five to seven years in this space, and we want Oklahoma to be the spot that these folks land," Stitt said. He said the unnamed company planned to build one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the country, a humongous factory with billions and billions of dollars worth of investment, thousands and thousands of jobs." Japanese broadcaster NHK, citing unnamed sources, reported last month that Panasonic Corp. was looking at both Kansas and Texas as a potential location for a factory to produce electric-vehicle batteries for Tesla and other vehicle makers. Kansas earlier this year authorized more than $1 billion in state incentives in hopes of attracting a $4 billion project. Panasonic did not immediately respond to a message left Monday seeking comment. A bill unveiled Monday afternoon in a joint budget committee authorized rebates of up to nearly $700 million in state funds that could be disbursed to a company that reached specific benchmarks, including at least a $4.5 billion capital expenditure and the creation of up to 4,000 new jobs within the first four years of the project. Oklahoma reportedly was in the running for the new Tesla assembly plant near Tulsa, and its CEO Elon Musk visited the city, but the company ultimately selected Austin, Texas. After the competition to land the Texas plant, Oklahoma launched a new effort to lure the automotive industry to the state. Stitt wants lawmakers to expand the state's Quality Jobs Act, which provides quarterly cash payments up to 5% of new payrolls for up to 10 years for qualifying companies, to payments of up to 7.5% for major projects. Stitt also wants to raise the cap on a separate investment tax-credit package, which provides tax credits to manufacturers based on either investment in property or the addition of employees, from 2% to 3%. Speaker of the House Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat both indicated their support of Stitt's proposal. House Democratic Leader Rep. Emily Virgin said her members had been briefed by Stitt's Secretary of Commerce Scott Mueller on the general components of the plan, but was hesitant to offer her support without more information. The governor has not spoken to us about the bill, and it's very concerning he would ask us to support something without giving us the bill number or language," said Virgin, D-Norman. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SEOUL, South Korea (AP) The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Washington and Seoul agreed on the need for a strong response to North Korea's recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country. Sung Kim flew to South Korea on Monday for talks two days after North Korea conducted a new type of missile test in its 13th round of weapons firing this year. Experts say North Korea wants to advance its weapons arsenal and wrest concessions such as sanctions relief from its rivals. Weapons tested include nuclear-capable missiles able to target both the U.S. mainland and its allies such as South Korea and Japan. There are concerns that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test soon to intensify its pressure campaign. We agreed on the need for a strong response to the destabilizing behavior we have seen" from North Korea, Kim told reporters after meeting with his South Korean counterpart. (We) also agreed on the need to maintain the strongest possible joint deterrent capability on the peninsula. South Korean nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk said he and Kim shared concerns that North Korea will likely continue to engage in acts that raise regional tensions. He urged North Korea to return to talks. Kim said the allies have not closed the door on diplomacy with North Korea and have no hostile intent" toward the country. He repeated his earlier statement that the United States is ready to meet North Korea anywhere, without any conditions. North Korea has so far rejected Kims outreach, saying the United States must first drop its hostile policy before talks can resume. Some experts say North Korea wants the U.S. to relax sanctions or suspend its regular military drills with South Korea, which it views as an invasion rehearsal. Earlier Monday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off their springtime computer-simulated command post exercise. North Korea has previously responded to such drills with missile tests and warlike rhetoric. North Korea said Sunday it tested a new tactical guided weapon a day earlier which would boost its nuclear fighting capability. Some analysts said the weapon is likely a short-range ballistic missile to be mounted with a tactical nuclear warhead capable of targeting South Korea. Last month, North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching the U.S. homeland in its first long-range weapons test since November 2017. U.S.-led diplomacy meant to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and political rewards remain largely stalemated since 2019. The Department of the Air Force is pumping the brakes on creating a National Guard or reserve component for the Space Force, opting instead for full-time or part-time Guardians in a new congressional proposal. The legislative proposal, which was submitted to Congress earlier this month and approved by Force Secretary Frank Kendall, seemingly would combine the Space Force's active-duty and reserve elements. "This component proposal is a new approach to managing reserve component forces by merging what has traditionally been called active-duty forces and reserve forces into a new component that provides full-time and part-time service options to guardians," Lt. Col. Justin Brockhoff, Kendall's spokesman, said in a statement to Military.com. Read Next: Towing Company Illegally Auctioned Troops' Cars Including a Deployed Navy SEAL's, Justice Department Alleges Kendall's proposal, which was first reported by Space News, is the first definitive move to settle a debate that has raged since the creation of the service about whether the Space Force needs reserve forces. Gen. John Raymond, the chief of space operations, has spoken publicly about the full-time and part-time concept as a possible way to recruit more talent from the private sector. "We would be giving opportunities for people to go to the commercial industry, to go to NASA, and then come back," Raymond told Space News. "Maybe at certain times in their life, if they want to have children, they can go part-time for a while and then come back without having to get out of active duty and then go into the reserves." Since the creation of the Space Force in late 2019, there have been several attempts by military leaders to establish a reserve or National Guard element for the newest and smallest military service branch. Those efforts have ultimately been delayed, sidelined or stymied, as lawmakers grapple with the costs and logistics it would take to create another element of the National Guard. Additionally, President Joe Biden's White House has not supported the efforts. The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement last year saying it was "strongly opposed" to any efforts to create a Space Guard component. "Establishing a Space National Guard would not deliver new capabilities -- it would instead create new government bureaucracy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could increase costs by up to $500 million annually," OMB said in its statement. Simpler moves, such as a proposal submitted last year to rename the Air National Guard as the Air and Space National Guard, have not been approved either. Kendall's latest proposal does not sit well with Guard leaders, according to the National Guard Association. Nearly 2,000 personnel across 14 National Guard units with space-related missions are located in California, Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Colorado, Ohio, New York and Guam. Arkansas also has one unit with a space-focused targeting mission. John Goheen, a spokesman for the National Guard Association, told Military.com that not weaving that existing talent and skill into the Space Force is an insult to those men and women. "It's a slight," Goheen said. "And we trace it back to some faulty analysis from the Congressional Budget Office. It's very frustrating for many Guard leaders." Debate about a Space National Guard will likely reemerge during discussions about the 2023 defense budget. Brockhoff said the Department of the Air Force will continue to figure out "the appropriate future disposition of current Air National Guard space units in a manner that is efficient, effective, and appropriate for space missions." -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly. Related: Space Force Guardians Grow Exasperated Waiting for the Branch's Policies to Slowly Emerge LONDON The family of a former British Army soldier allegedly captured by Russian forces while fighting in the Ukrainian resistance have called on his captors to treat him as a prisoner of war in accordance with international rules. Footage on Russian television appeared to show Shaun Pinner, 48, in captivity, saying he was captured in Mariupol while fighting with the Ukrainian marines. The former Royal Anglian soldier, who appeared tired in the video, said he had been fighting in the besieged city for five to six weeks but was now in the breakaway region of Donetsk. Origin APNews He is the second British soldier fighting with the Ukrainian army to be paraded on Russian media after Aiden Aslin, 28, was filmed being led around in handcuffs with a cut on his forehead after surrendering to the Russian military in Mariupol last week. In a statement released by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Pinner's family explained how he became involved in the defence of Ukraine, which they said he considers "his adopted country." The statement read: "Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia. "In 2018 Shaun decided to relocate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine military. "Shaun enjoyed the Ukrainian way of life and considered Ukraine as his adopted country over the last four years. During this time, he met his Ukrainian wife, who is very focused on the humanitarian needs of the country. "He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit." The statement continued: "We would like to make it clear he is not a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. "Our family is currently working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin, who is also being held by the Russian Army to ensure their rights as prisoners of war are upheld according to the Geneva Convention." They described Pinner as "funny, much-loved, well-intentioned" and said they hoped for a quick resolution to allow the captured men to return to their families. "Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this horrific conflict," the statement concluded. The FCDO has been in contact with the families of Pinner and Aslin to support them. However, Britain's ability to obtain information and provide consular services on the ground is severely limited because of the conflict. In a second heavily- edited video, Pinner, who is originally from Bedfordshire, appeared to be questioned by a Russian journalist about how he was captured. He answered: "We were in the factory area of Mariupol. "In early hours of Tuesday morning, it was decided we move from the area of the factory, but we didn't know exactly where. "At about four in the morning we left the factory." There was "not much time to think," he said. The Russian reporter then appeared to tell Pinner his Ukrainian commanders wanted him to be killed. Pinner spoke of his fear of capture in January, telling the Mail on Sunday: "I fear for my life. The Russians will treat us differently if we are captured because we are British. This is always on my mind, that I will be captured." Aslin, originally from Nottinghamshire, had been defending Mariupol with his unit during heavy fighting in recent weeks before having to surrender after 48 days. "We have no food and no ammunition," a post on his Twitter account, which was being run by a friend while he was fighting with the Ukrainian marines, read. Aslin's grandmother told the PA news agency that a video on Russian television showing him saying Ukraine was not making "the right decisions" was "propaganda." 2022 dpa GmbH. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Six Northeast High School students were hospitalized Thursday night because of what could be overdoses at an Air Force JROTC Military Ball at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida, according to Broward County Public Schools. Two students are still in the hospital. School staff is also at the hospital to assist, according to a statement from the Broward County school district. The safety of our students is always our top priority, the statement said. The District and Northeast High School administration are concerned and closely following the Davie Police investigation into what caused six students to become ill Thursday night while attending the Air Force JROTC Military Ball at the Signature Grand in Davie. One person described what they saw at the scene. I saw everybody crying and grieving and I think I saw one having a seizure, Lorenzo Toafa told CBS-Ch. 6. The ball included students from Coral Springs and Northeast High Schools. Some students speculated drinking water might have been spiked. The water at one of our tables, it had drugs in them. People started putting drugs in them, Earl Cayo, a student, told WPLG-Ch. 10. We dont know exactly who or how many people did it, but for the kids who drank it ... they got high and everything. ____ 2022 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. SEVERODONETSK, Ukraine The rows of graves were marked with simple crosses of fresh-cut wood. Black plaques with gold lettering declared the names. The occasional wreath broke the monotony of dull earthen colors, and, in the front, three rectangular holes awaited the newly fallen. "How many graves? I don't know. Go count them," said the caretaker of this cemetery on Severodonetsk's southern edge, which started to grow when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. "We're digging new ones almost every day now." In the escalating fight over eastern Ukraine, Russia's army after consolidating and redeploying its forces from other parts of the country, including the capital, Kyiv has renewed its thrust to seize the Donbas region. Fresh destruction is wreaked daily on communities battered both by nearly eight years of war against Moscow-backed separatists as well as this latest onslaught the Russians call a "special military operation." Origin APNews Russia's strategy is to encircle the east and close in on Ukrainian forces. That has placed Severodonetsk, the easternmost tip of Ukrainian government control in the Donbas, as well as the city of Slavyansk, some 40 miles to the west on the strategic M03 highway, at the top of Moscow's target list. The main fear for residents here is that Russia will attempt to shell this region into submission as it is doing in the southern port city of Mariupol. With the growing certainty that the vise is closing Russian troops on Friday fought Ukrainian soldiers for control of a town just over a mile northwest of Severodonetsk many have already escaped. Only a fifth of Severodonetsk's 106,000 people and possibly a quarter of Slavyansk's 111,000-strong population have stayed put, authorities say. Those who remain endure a surreal existence under increasingly lethal skies. The few who brave the streets of Severodonetsk keep one eye on the ground as they pick their way past artillery-ravaged buildings, mangled cars and low-hanging power lines. Sounds of destruction echo around them. Some ride a bicycle or walk their dog near the large square in front of the city council, past a crater with the remains of a rocket still inside. Wary soldiers, stationed with their rifles at the corner behind stacked sandbags, watch them go, fingers on trigger guards. War makes suspicion even of neighbors. After more than 50 days of fighting, some, like Vladimir Kadavy, 49, a thin, shabbily-dressed man who worked as a caretaker maintaining Severodonetsk's public spaces, seemed inured to the erratic drumbeat of missiles and shells playing above. "I don't have a basement or anywhere to shelter. I'm not afraid anymore. I hear this every day," said Kadavy, his tired eyes unflinching as a thunderclap of artillery sounded. He looked around the square, his voice tinged with sadness. The places he had spent much of his life keeping beautiful now lay in ruin. His boss told him that he would be evacuated in three days, but Kadavy, like many others interviewed, thought he would be at a loss if he left his hometown. "If we go, who cares about us?" he said. "I was born here. Somehow I will survive here, I think." Though they did not display the same equanimity, Yura Alforov and his wife, Olga, didn't want to leave either. "We're not calm about this. We just want peace," Olga said. The couple were on the way to the hospital, which was even closer to the front line. Yura, an electric maintenance engineer who had moved to Severodonetsk in 1984, had sprained his ankle while rushing to the basement during a shelling. "We don't have money to go, and have no place to go to anyway. How would we live if we left?" Alforov said. He took off his glasses and wiped away a tear. The choice to stay is hard, but the decision to leave one's home carries its own uncertainty. Miles to the west, on a grimy corner near the Slavyansk train station, where a trio of stray dogs growled at each other over a scrap of food, Yuri Kovalenko, a 58-year-old coal miner, waited for the bus that would take him and his family to safety. Two hours before, he had left his wife back at their farm in the mining town of Gorskaya, bringing with him his daughter Yulia and his two grandchildren, Dmitri, 7, and 5-year-old Igor. They were going to his sister's place near Chernihiv. "If we all came, it would be different," he said, his blue eyes staring steadily ahead. "But my wife is staying to take care of the animals. I worry about her. So many years we lived together, had our life together, and now it's time to go. How do I feel? I wish I never felt this." His gaze faltered; he walked away, his eyes reddening for a moment before he looked at his grandchildren playing off to the side and pulled himself together. A shell falling near their town a day earlier had spurred the family's escape. But it was also about the threat of living under Russian-backed separatist rule and the economic evisceration that was sure to follow. "If Russians come here," he said, "it will become a dangerous place." Their leaving wasn't a moment too soon: That morning, train service was suspended from Slavyansk after an attack on the railway somewhere to the north and the Russian advance on the city of Barvinkove, 25 miles to the east. Many were also too afraid to go by train after last week's horrific attack on the station in the nearby city of Kramatorsk. Scenes of departures have become intimate portraits of loss and fear twined into the shared burden of survival. Near the Slavyansk City Council building, a crowd of 71 people lugged suitcases, overstuffed backpacks and bags toward seven vans that would take them to the western Ukrainian city of Ternopyl. Among them was Dina Zhivilyak, 18. She helped an elderly woman, Lyudmilla Botkovskaya, carry her dog Kashtanka (so named after the dog in the eponymous short story by Anton Chekhov; it means "little chestnut") to one of the vans before wrestling with her own suitcase. "I have the essentials here. Clothes I need for the trip, comfortable shoes, documents. And this," Zhivilyak said, rummaging through her bags before coming up with a ragged-looking teddy bear: a gift from her foster parents when they first brought her from the orphanage. With most shops shuttered and only a few major grocery stores operating, municipal authorities had taken to dispatching trucks to various parts of the city to distribute aid. One of them parked near Slavyansk's central square. People queued to receive a bag full of onions and carrots. "It's very hard to get products. Everything is closed. So I'm standing here. I don't even know what they're giving out," said Tanya, a 62-year-old pensioner who gave only her first name for reasons of privacy. She was staying behind because of her three cats, she said, but had little fear anything would happen. "I'm an optimist," she said. Just as fervent in her belief was Lydia Mychislavena, a caretaker in the city's Alexander Nevsky church. She lit the candles for the second daily service. A few parishioners came, kneeling and bowing their heads as a priest and two women sang, their voices resonating across the church's ornate interior. "In the 2014 war, we stayed. We won't go now," said Mychislavena. She recounted how she was getting out of the shower and heard a voice in her head telling her to move to the other room. She did so, and saw shells coming; she prayed, and they flew over her head. "Our prayer is stronger a million times than the bombs." Perhaps not a million, but many bombs have fallen between Slavyansk and Severodonetsk. They have taken lives, roads, shops and animals; they have ripped across fields and leveled buildings. Sergei Zaharolka, the 51-year-old deputy director of the Severodonetsk School, was bunkered with his wife, Lila, and several others at the school. "The director went away, but I stayed. Where would we go? We want to watch over the school," said Zaharolka. They had converted much of the space underground into living quarters, including the school clinic and areas near the indoor swimming pool. Some staff members were assigned to cook food (bean stew, chicken and freshly baked bread). Others would clean or rig solutions to get amenities. Zaharolka, a handsome man who resembled David Lynch he believed he looked more like the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov did woodwork. The atmosphere seemed less siege than strange camping trip, with two kids playing hide-and-seek in one of the hallways before straying into a boiler room crowded with mattresses, religious icons and belongings. But all that did little to improve the mood of Natalya, the 44-year-old cleaning lady, who was there with her 9-year-old daughter Alona. She had stayed at the school almost from the beginning of the invasion on Feb. 24. She too had no intention to go, but was terrified of the bedlam happening nearby. "Only fear. I feel nothing else. Just fear," she said. She added that Alona understood there was war and wasn't asking too many questions. Still, when the bombing became too much, "we just sit here and pray." Zaharolka walked up the stairs to the school's outer yard. To the side lay a stack of crosses. Locals had asked him to make them, along with coffins. It was another way he could help, he said, and they would soon be going to the cemetery a prospect he met with a shrug. "I'm a carpenter. Some live. Some die. This is life." Moments later, an artillery shell landed to the north, striking something that released a dark, angry-looking plume of smoke that rose for miles, darkening the skies above the city. 2022 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Gen. James McConville, the Army's chief of staff, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and is working remotely, the service announced. The news of McConville's illness comes as measures to combat the pandemic have started to recede across much of the country, with many businesses and schools returning to normal operations and mask mandates largely being lifted. The Pentagon's mask mandate, for example, was dropped in March. McConville is experiencing only mild symptoms, according to an Army spokesperson. He is fully vaccinated and has received two COVID-19 booster shots. Read Next: Breakdowns, Ripped Clothing and Dying Batteries: Army Commits to Arctic But Still Figuring Out What Soldiers Need According to tracking by the New York Times, while deaths from the pandemic have been declining, coronavirus cases have been climbing nationally with a 39% spike in the past two weeks. Most of the military's senior leaders, whose jobs require them to travel frequently, have been infected with the virus since the pandemic. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tested positive in January, and Gen. Dan Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, tested positive in December. All have made full recoveries. Researchers have reported that patients who suffer the most severe effects of the virus typically have comorbidities, such as obesity and diabetes. The Washington, D.C., area has seen a spike in high-profile COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Elaine Luria, D-Va.; and Attorney General Merrick Garland. -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: A Sign of the Times? DoD Skips Publishing Weekly COVID-19 Numbers In the wake of reports that a Navy psychologist played an active role in convicting for drug use a sailor who had reached out for mental health assistance, the service is standing by its policy, which does not provide patients with confidentiality and could mean that seeking help has consequences for service members. The case highlights a set of military regulations that, in vaguely defined circumstances, requires doctors to inform commanding officers of certain medical details, including drug tests, even if those tests are conducted for legitimate medical reasons necessary for adequate care. Allowing punishment when service members are looking for help could act as a deterrent in a community where mental health is still a taboo topic among many, despite recent leadership attempts to more openly discuss getting assistance. On April 11, Military.com reported the story of a sailor and his wife who alleged that the sailor's command, the destroyer USS Farragut, was retaliating against him for seeking mental health help. Read Next: Towing Company Illegally Auctioned Troops Cars Including a Deployed Navy SEALs, Justice Department Alleges Jatzael Alvarado Perez went to a military hospital to get help for his mental health struggles. As part of his treatment, he was given a drug test that came back positive for cannabinoids -- the family of drugs associated with marijuana. Perez denies having used any substances, but the test resulted in a referral to the ship's chief corpsman. Perez's wife, Carli Alvarado, shared documents with Military.com that were evidence in the sailor's subsequent nonjudicial punishment, showing that the Farragut found out about the results because the psychologist emailed the ship's medical staff directly, according to a copy of the email. "I'm not sure if you've been tracking, but OS2 Alvarado Perez popped positive for cannabis while inpatient," read the email, written to the ship's medical chief. Navy policy prohibits punishment for a positive drug test when administered as part of regular medical care. The email goes on to describe efforts by the psychologist to assist in obtaining a second test -- one that could be used to punish Perez. "We are working to get him a command directed urinalysis through [our command] today," it added. Later, the same psychologist is listed on Perez's nonjudicial punishment paperwork as a witness. Although Perez was told he had tested positive when a second test was conducted, he was never provided with paperwork of a positive test, according to his wife. After she demanded the document be produced, Perez's punishment was overturned, she said. Military.com is not naming the psychologist, a Navy officer, because it does not appear that they violated Navy policy or been charged with any wrongdoing. However, the documentation provided by Alvarado strongly suggests that the medical provider who was responsible for treating Perez was also actively participating in his legal proceedings. Sean Timmons, a managing partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey and a former Army judge advocate general officer, told Military.com that "it sounds like the psychologist has participated in a conspiracy to set him up." Timmons explained that the military has a policy known as "limited use" that is supposed to protect some drug test results from being used against service members. "If you have an alcohol problem or drug problem and you go see emergency room care ... if you test positive after a self-referral, that's not supposed to be used in an adverse manner against you," he explained. "It sounds like they immediately gave another test, then they used that second test," Timmons said, referring to the second test mentioned in the Navy doctor's email. "That's corrupt -- that's not legally sufficient." The Navy, through Angela Steadman, a spokeswoman for the service's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, agreed that "while reportable to the command for awareness, medically ordered drug testing and alcohol marker testing cannot be used for administrative proceedings by the command." Steadman said the reasoning behind that prohibition is not patient confidentiality but "chain of custody" issues. She was responding to overall policy questions posed by Military.com and not speaking specifically on Perez's case. Traditionally, none of the military branches will address allegations in which an individual's medical records or private information are involved, given privacy concerns and regulations. Steadman went on to say that "the command can do a command urinalysis or breathalyzer, or both, upon the Sailor's or Marine's return" from treatment. Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired Army brigadier general, said the doctor's behavior struck him as unethical. "I can see no justification, when it comes to doing good care -- good medical, clinical care -- for this psychologist to disclose this to the commander," Xenakis told Military.com in an interview. "I think it violates the basic principles of what we need to do," he added. Steadman says that, overall, "positive drug tests ordered by mental health and other medical providers are reported to the Sailor or Marine's Commander if they meet the command reporting requirements" in a Department of Defense instruction. That instruction lists nine reasons for which a health care provider needs to break confidentiality on either mental health or substance abuse conditions. Some are self-explanatory, such as "harm to self" or "harm to others." But other reasons are far broader and open to interpretation, like "harm to mission;" an "acute medical condition" interfering with the "ability to perform assigned duties;" or "other special circumstances in which proper execution of the military mission outweighs the interests served by avoiding notification." Timmons said that the "significant number of loopholes" is intentional and that they are used so regularly that "the limited use policy is functionally worthless." "If they want to retain, they focus on limited use. If they want to toss the sailor, they focus on the loopholes and accomplish the objective through gamesmanship," he said. Steadman was asked by Military.com why the service doesn't provide sailors with a clear right to confidentiality with their medical providers, like civilians, and whether Navy leadership is concerned that the weak protections for mental health treatment will deter service members from seeking help. She did not reply by the time this story was published. Incidents like the one Perez faced are problematic, considering the reputation and trust issues the military already faces in getting help for its service members. "You've undermined the effectiveness of any mental health services and broad services that you need, particularly at a time when you're seeing more suicides and all sorts of other problems within the active duty and the family," Xenakis said. Senior leaders, like Adm. Mike Gilday, the Navy's top officer, have recently released a number of messages about mental health meant to counteract the stigma associated with seeking help. In last year's message for Mental Health Month, Gilday, told "all of our leaders out there, no matter your rank" to "talk to your people, listen to them, be available, and encourage them to seek help if they need it." Studies have shown that it is common for some service members to turn to drugs and alcohol -- especially marijuana -- as a way of self-medicating and coping when suffering from mental health ailments. For example, Marine Cpl. Tyson Manker, who was dismissed with an other-than-honorable discharge after he was caught using marijuana, told The New York Times the drug helped him deal with the traumatic experiences he encountered in Iraq in 2003. Manker sued the Navy and forced the service to review thousands of general and other-than-honorable discharges awarded to troops over the past decade for problems that may have stemmed from a military-related mental health condition or sexual assault. If the comments from service members on social media on mental health stories are any indication, the message isn't getting through. Stories about retaliation against sailors like Perez are consistently met with cynical quips over the lack of surprise at the news or a plethora of anecdotes involving specific instances of unsupportive leaders. Xenakis, who in civilian life has focused some of his efforts on using technology to improve health care services and sustain military readiness, thinks that decades of war have taken a toll on the entire military. "The whole chain of command, up and down, has been just beat up over 20 years ... and everybody's struggling," he said. "Some of the senior leaders that have survived and gotten through it just detached themselves from it." Timmons, whose practice involves routinely defending military clients, also points to the inconsistent and often confusing system of regulation surrounding drugs in the military as part of the problem, and the fact that false positives for cannabinoids happen in particular. "The military is a large bureaucracy, [with] a lot of moving parts and a lot of overlapping regulatory guidance," he said. "[Commanders] don't look at the deeper guidance." However, the lawyer is quick to note that "part of this is because robotically they check the box and move on." On a form designed to let Perez's leadership make recommendations for how his case was to be handled by the ship's commander, his division officer simply wrote "Zero Tolerance Policy," while the department head wrote "NSTR. Cut and dry case." NSTR is often an acronym for "Nothing significant to report." All four leaders recommended he be punished with a nonjudicial proceeding. While stories like Perez's paint a grim picture for service members looking to get assistance for mental health struggles in the military, help is out there. Outside organizations like Stack Up, Military Helpline or the Veterans Crisis Line offer crisis response and limited counseling options with the promise of confidentiality. The first two are not affiliated with any government organization, while the last is run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, not the military. Military OneSource, which is run by the Department of Defense, is also an option. However, its website notes that "present or future illegal activity" falls outside of its confidentiality promises. Xenakis explained that service members looking for help don't necessarily need to look for a professional. "There are people out there that you can trust, and you have to use your personal instincts to go find that individual," he said. "It's not about the treatment, it's about the therapist," he added. "I always tell everybody, nothing is more valuable than your life," Timmons said, adding that "you can always clean the records up later, if necessary. "Yes, the military may very well act in an unprofessional manner or have a very draconian, vindictive response, but nothing's more valuable than your long-term future," he explained. The lawyer also encourages sailors who are facing legal issues not to hesitate to get legal advice "as a minimum, through the free services available on installation from the uniformed attorneys." If you or someone you know needs help, the Veterans Crisis Hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-273-8255, press 1. Services also are available online at www.veteranscrisisline.net or by text, 838255. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: A Sailor With Diagnosed Mental Health Issues Says He's Being Targeted for Seeking Help A towing company in Virginia Beach, Virginia, illegally auctioned, sold or trashed the vehicles and personal belongings of at least seven U.S. service members, including two cars owned by a Navy SEAL deployed overseas, according to a lawsuit filed April 15 by the Justice Department. Government court documents allege that as early as April 2019 Steve's Towing Inc. began a pattern of violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, which guarantees certain financial and housing protections to active-duty members, when the company failed to recognize military ownership of multiple vehicles and obtain a court order before putting them up for bid. The DoJ is seeking damages for the Navy SEAL and the other impacted service members in a Virginia district court. Read Next: McConville, the Army's Top General, Tests Positive for COVID-19 "The Department of Justice is taking action to ensure that all servicemembers harmed by unscrupulous actions receive just compensation," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the department's civil rights division said in a press release. This is not the first time the DoJ has come down on businesses for selling troops' vehicles in their absence. Towing companies must receive a court order to dispose of property owned by a service member during their military service, or for 90 days after they separate, thanks to the SCRA, which was enacted in 2003. DoJ court documents identify an unnamed Navy petty officer first class from the elite SEAL Team 2, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia, who parked his two cars in a lot across from headquarters while he was deployed overseas from roughly October 2019 to April 2020. Both his 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ73 -- containing a duffel bag of military uniforms, plus a Navy challenge coin -- and his 1987 Toyota 4Runner had Arizona license plates and registrations, the state where his parents live. Around Jan. 3, 2020, Steve's Towing towed the two vehicles, and about a month later filed with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to take ownership of the property, shortly after purchasing both vehicles from itself for $500 each. Although the car service company contacted the Virginia DMV, the state where the cars were collected, it reportedly did not do so in Arizona, where the vehicles were actually registered. The filing on Friday came as a "complete shock" to Lee Gilliam, general manager at Steve's Towing. "We love our military and would never auction off an active-duty military vehicle knowingly," Gilliam said in an interview. The case was filed in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, Norfolk Division, and no court date has been set. The DoJ advises service members and dependents who think their SCRA rights have been violated to reach out to their nearest Armed Forces Legal Assistance Program Office. As of Monday afternoon Steves Towing had not been served the court paperwork, Gilliam said, but the company continues to tow vehicles for the military police. -- Jonathan Lehrfeld is a fellow at Military.com. Follow him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media. Related: DOJ Is Cracking Down on Towing Companies That Seize Troops' Cars SEOUL, South Korea The U.S. special envoy for North Korea said Monday that Washington and Seoul agreed on the need for a strong response to North Korea's recent spate of missile tests, though they remain open to dialogue with the country. Sung Kim flew to South Korea on Monday for talks two days after North Korea conducted a new type of missile test in its 13th round of weapons firing this year. Experts say North Korea wants to advance its weapons arsenal and wrest concessions such as sanctions relief from its rivals. Weapons tested include nuclear-capable missiles able to target both the U.S. mainland and its allies such as South Korea and Japan. There are concerns that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test soon to intensify its pressure campaign. Origin APNews We agreed on the need for a strong response to the destabilizing behavior we have seen" from North Korea, Kim told reporters after meeting with his South Korean counterpart. (We) also agreed on the need to maintain the strongest possible joint deterrent capability on the peninsula. South Korean nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk said he and Kim shared concerns that North Korea will likely continue to engage in acts that raise regional tensions. He urged North Korea to return to talks. Kim said the allies have not closed the door on diplomacy with North Korea and have no hostile intent" toward the country. He repeated his earlier statement that the United States is ready to meet North Korea anywhere, without any conditions. North Korea has so far rejected Kims outreach, saying the United States must first drop its hostile policy before talks can resume. Some experts say North Korea wants the U.S. to relax sanctions or suspend its regular military drills with South Korea, which it views as an invasion rehearsal. Earlier Monday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off their springtime computer-simulated command post exercise. North Korea has previously responded to such drills with missile tests and warlike rhetoric. North Korea said Sunday it tested a new tactical guided weapon a day earlier which would boost its nuclear fighting capability. Some analysts said the weapon is likely a short-range ballistic missile to be mounted with a tactical nuclear warhead capable of targeting South Korea. Last month, North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching the U.S. homeland in its first long-range weapons test since November 2017. U.S.-led diplomacy meant to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and political rewards remain largely stalemated since 2019. When you think of "camouflage," there's a good chance the first image that comes to mind is the woodland pattern on the Battle Dress Uniform. From 1981 until the early 2000s, this was the one uniform that firmly identified a member of the U.S. military. It didn't matter in which branch they served, that woodland camouflage commanded respect. All of the most famous advertisements for joining the armed forces featured this uniform. Despite being in service for so long, the uniform went mostly unchanged for 20-plus years. The Pentagon eventually issued summer-weight versions; the button waist adjusters gave way to an easier sliding tab; and the lapels on the BDU blouse were shortened. The 470th Military Intelligence Brigade in Panama during Operation Just Cause (U.S. Army) It seemed like the perfect working uniform -- until commanders started demanding improvements. They began with demanding trouser-like creases in the pant legs. Then came creases in the arm sleeve. These all eventually became regulations. American troops then did what they do best: trying to outdo one another in the quest to look as "sharp" as possible. By the end of its time in service, between 2005 and 2012, depending on the service branch, the BDU had suffered a stream of adjustments that would either make troops' lives easier or so much harder, depending on what they tried. These adjustments were by no means universal, but they happened. A lot. We got a little carried away. 5. Intense Levels of Starch Two sets of my BDUs were the same ones issued to me in basic training, a stunning tribute to the durability of the uniform. When preparing them for an inspection day or some other event where people would care how sharp my creases were, I unloaded an entire can of starch into them. Twelve years later, these uniforms are still so crisp, they literally stand up on their own. If anyone took their BDUs to the base laundry or an on-base dry cleaner, they would likely receive the same treatment. There were entire businesses dedicated to this practice, right outside most gates. You can't get "laser creases" into this nylon-cotton blend without the use of performance-enhancing substances. After treating them with starch, they needed only a simple iron now and then to renew the creases, which kept my effort minimal, along with my washes. These babies are razor thin, even after a decade of being in a bin somewhere. Just like god intended. I wasn't going to "break starch" (put on a new uniform) for no reason. And when I touched up, my BDUs glowed with the flash that only superheated starch on cotton BDUs could bring. 4. Sewing Creases into Arms and Legs Maybe you needed laser creases but didn't want to put the effort into your everyday wear. Maybe you wanted to avoid "summer creases" (summer here, summer there, creases everywhere). Either way, starch wasn't your thing. The simple solution was to go to that same off-base dry cleaner and see whether they had an alterations service to put a seam right where the regulations said that crease should be. They usually did. Because, again, they were near the base for a reason. And they knew every word of whatever regulation governed your branch's uniform wear. Some airmen would put plastic fishing line in the crease of their BDU sleeves and iron over it to melt the line into the crease, creating an instant, permanent crease. Either way, you could easily walk into work every day, looking like you at least tried to touch up those creases, even if you just rolled out of bed. 3. Gluing Down Pocket Flaps With BDUs, it wasn't only hands that didn't belong in your pockets. Using any of the pockets on the BDU blouse was a faux pas that would cause any onlooking officer to metaphorically clutch their pearls. While it was perfectly acceptable to use the waist pockets on the BDU pants (for any purpose except keeping your hands warm), using the side leg pockets would cause equal amounts of confusion and alarm, as they poofed out with use. The solution American troops found to this issue was to literally glue or sew those pockets flaps shut and either sew the inner pockets down or remove them entirely. You can't use pockets you don't actually have. If you needed those pockets for combat, you probably weren't deploying with that uniform anyway. 2. Using Weights Inside Pant Legs Not only did those pants need to be creased and clean, if you were going to take them to the next level, they needed to be straight-legged too. There's no better way to keep pants looking like they've never been worn even when you're currently wearing them than installing heavy rubber weights in the area you also just bloused. Grown adults would blouse their BDU pants as usual, but instead of allowing the material to naturally flow over the tops of their expertly-shined combat boots, they would control how they looked -- by force. Very large, very heavy rubber cuffs were placed at the bottom of the bloused pant area so the wearer could smooth the fabric flowing over his or her boots over and around the heavy rubber cuff. The end result made it look like the wearers' pants weren't bloused work pants, but instead were doggedly-starched camouflage pattern dress pants. 1. Cutting Off Sleeves It gets super hot in many of the places American troops are based or deployed. In those instances, BDU-wearing soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines would be allowed to roll their sleeves to a predetermined area on their arm. The Navy and Marine Corps wore their rolled BDU sleeves with the lighter-colored material facing out, while the Army and Air Force wore rolled sleeved mostly rolled this way, but with the outer cuff facing outwardly. As if anyone else wore rolled sleeves like that anywhere, ever. Rolling our sleeves the way literally no one else would. (U.S. Air Force photo) If stationed somewhere that gets continually hot and required rolled sleeves day-after-day, some airmen and soldiers would simplify the rolling process. Normally, they would have to keep the roll perfectly flat and get the outer cuff on top, then have to restarch and iron the sleeves once they came down. Or they could just cut off most of the sleeve and sew the cuff to the predetermined place on the short sleeve, to make a perfect short-sleeved BDU blouse, one they'd have to change immediately if a VIP showed up. No problem, though. A regular pressed, heavy-starched replacement was probably somewhere close at hand. -- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. Want to Learn More About Military Life? Whether you're thinking of joining the military, looking for post-military careers or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com to have military news, updates and resources delivered directly to your inbox. How to use the mindat.org media viewer Click/touch this help panel to close it. Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. Different controls are available depending on the type of media being shown (photo, video, animation, 3d image) Controls - all media types Zoom in and out of media using your mousewheel or with a two-finger 'resize' action on a touch device. Use the mouse or your finger to drag the image or the view area of the image around the screen. < and > at the left and right hand side of the screen move forwards and backwards for the other images associated with the media you selected. Usually this is used for previous/next photo in a gallery, in an article or in search results. Keyboard shortcuts: use shift + the left and right arrow keys. < and > in the bottom center are used for switching between the photos of the same specimen. Keyboard shortcuts: use the left and right arrow keys. > in the bottom center, raises the information box giving details and further options for the media, < at the top of this box then hides it. Keyboard shortcuts: use the up and down arrow keys. ? opens this help window. Keyboard shortcuts: use the H key or the ? key. Other keyboard shortcuts: 1 Fit image to screen 2 Fill screen with image 5 Display at full resolution < Make background darker > Make background lighter space Hide/dim titles and buttons Scalebar If the field of view (FOV) is specified for the photo, the scalebar appears in the left bottom corner of the viewer. The scalebar is draggable and resizeable. Drag the right edge to resize it. Double click will reset the scalebar to it's default size and position. If the scalebar is in default position, double click will make it circular. Controls - Video Video files have a standard set of video controls: - Reset to start, - Skip back, - Play, - Pause, - Skip forwards. Keyboard shortcuts: You can stop/start video play with the P key. Controls - Animation (Spin Rotation) Animation (usually 360 degree spin rotations) have their own controls: - enable spin mode. Note that while images are loading this option will not be available but will be automatically activated when the animation has loaded. Once active you can spin the image/change the animation by moving your mouse or finger on the image left/right or by pressing the [ or ] keys. The button switches to move mode so that you can use your mouse/fingers to move the image around the screen as with other media types. The button, or the P key will start playing the animation directly, you can interrupt this by using the mouse or finger on the image to regain manual movement control. Controls - 3D Stereoscopic images If a stereoscopic 3D image is opened in the viewer, the 3D button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "3D settings" menu. The 3D images can be viewed in several ways: - without any special equipment using cross-eyed or parallel-eyed method - with stereoscope - with anaglyph glasses. - on a suitable 3D TV or monitor (passive 3D system) For details about 3D refer to: Mindat manuals: Mindat Media Viewer: 3D To enable/disable 3D stereo display of a compatible stereo pair image press the 3 key. If the left/right images are reversed on your display (this often happens in full-screen mode) press the 4 key to reverse them. Controls - photo comparison mode If a photo with activated comparison mode is opened in the viewer, the button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "Comparison mode settings" menu. Several layouts are supported: slider and side by-side comparison with up to 6 photos shown synchronously on the screen. On each of the compared photos a view selector is placed, e.g.: Longwave UV . It shows the name of currently selected view and allows to select a view for each placeholder. Summary of all keyboard shortcuts News Frontrunner Vaccine Will Affact the Price of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder - Market Trend CEO of Pfizer partner BioNTech says coming winter will be hard but by April, 300 million immunization units should be ready, which will have an impact on the global pandemic. If coronavirus vaccinations are rolled out widely, life could return to normal by next winter, one of the scientists behind the front-running coronavirus vaccine told British television on Sunday. Ugur Sahin, the Turkish co-founder of the German firm BioNTech, told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show that this winter will be hard, without any major impact from vaccinations. Together with US giant Pfizer, BioNTech is developing the leading candidate in the worldwide chase for a vaccine. Israel has ordered millions of units of the vaccine, hoping that the first deliveries will arrive in the country by January. Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder market is changing rapidly. These changes are indicators of market growth. This year-on-year upward trend in the market indicates that the next November 2020-2026 will show an oval but steady growth. The price of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder continues to be affected by factors such as market growth momentum, various opportunities and challenges. However, during the forecast period from 2020 to 2026, the global Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder sales market is expected to continue to be above average. The growth rate will continue to increase. It is expected that from today to next week, the price of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder will increase to a certain extent. Due to changes in consumer demand, import and export conditions, and various investigations on the development of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder, the cost of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder is constantly changing. Taking into account the current market macroeconomic parameters, value chain analysis, channel partners, demand and supply, the cost of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder will also be affected to a certain extent. It is estimated that the cost of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder will increase slightly from today to next week. The market trend of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder? The global Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powdermarket is constantly changing. The latest Global Market Report provides clear and accurate statistics and market estimates of the global Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder target market. The report includes an analysis of the different factors driving the market growth. It includes market drivers, constraints, opportunities and trends. This report is written by experienced and knowledgeable market analysts and researchers. It is an amazing compilation of important research that explores the competitive landscape, segmentation, geographic expansion, and revenue, production and consumption growth of the global Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder target market. In addition, the report provides a series of different market segments and applications that can promote market development during the forecast period. In-depth information is based on historical milestones and current trends. In addition, the Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder market report also covers development policies and plans, manufacturing processes and cost structures, marketing strategies, and then analyzes top Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder producers, distributors, marketing channels of Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder, potential buyers and Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder History of development. The report also lists import and export, supply and consumption data as well as costs, prices, revenue and gross margins by region. The market demand for Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder? The world's leading Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder target market report contains research on competitive dynamics. It also has a specific awareness that can help you choose the right business execution and steps. Market reports systematically display information in the form of organizational charts, facts, charts, statistics and graphs, which represent the status of related transactions on global and regional platforms. In addition, the report also includes the entire business chain, through which the growth rate and decline rate of specific industries in the market can be analyzed. The report also describes the total cost of manufacturing the product and analyzing its assembly process. In addition, the report also includes major developments in the market. The report involves value chain analysis and represents the workflow in the market. In addition, the market is classified by category, process, end-use industry and region. The report divides the market based on geographic location. TRUNNANO (aka. Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd.) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12 years experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. As a leading nanotechnology development and Aluminum Silicon Alloy (Al12Si)-Powder manufacturer, Luoyang Tongrun dominates the market. Our professional work team provides perfect solutions to help improve the efficiency of various industries, create value, and easily cope with various challenges. Please send an inquiry as needed. Li3N is short for lithium nitride, which is a metal nitrogen compound that is a purple or red crystalline solid, showing a light green luster under reflected light and a ruby color in transmitted light. At room temperature, metallic lithium can partially generate lithium nitride when exposed to air, and lithium generates lithium nitride in a nitrogen stream 10 to 15 times faster than in air. At this time, all lithium is converted into lithium nitride. Learn more knowledge about Lithium nitride from nanotrun website. Inquery us South Korea's Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters reported on March 19 that as of 00:00 on the 19th local time, South Korea had newly added 152 confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia, and the cumulative number of confirmed infections rose to 8,565.In South Korea, the number of new cases in a single day stayed within 100 cases for four consecutive days and then jumped to three figures.According to a report by Yonhap on March 18, a cluster of hospital infections has recently occurred in Daegu, South Korea, where the epidemic has slowed recently. As of March 18, a total of 87 people in 5 hospitals have been diagnosed with new crown pneumonia.Among them, the most significant number of confirmed cases was an elderly nursing home located in the Western District of Daegu. Seventy-four cases have been diagnosed, 57 are hospital patients, and 17 are hospital employees.The nursing home specializes in treating older adults with dementia. There are 115 patients in the nursing home. On the 16th, a nurse at the hospital was diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia, becoming the first confirmed case. Since then, the health department has performed a virus test on all patients and medical staff in the hospital. At present, only one third has been completed, and more than 70 confirmed cases have been detected.South Korea's Disease Management Division, the hospital, and the Daegu City Government have initiated pathological investigations and adopted preventive measures to block similar infections. During the investigation, confirmed cases were found in four other nursing homes or elderly hospitals, and a total of 87 confirmed cases in 5 hospitals.With signs of a rebound in the domestic epidemic, it can be concluded that in the future, South Korea's epidemic prevention measures will be more stringent, and import and export trade will be more strictly controlled. As well as other domestic manufacturers of polycarboxylic acid superplasticizers , they will affect the supply of superplasticizers in Asia. As a professional supplier of the polycarboxylic acid water-reducing agent, our company will always provide our customers with high-quality water reducing agent as the epidemic situation in China improves. If you need, you can contact us at any time: tech@cie-china.org. Products Frontrunner Vaccine Will Affact the Price of Beryllium (Be)-Rod - Market Trend CEO of Pfizer partner BioNTech says coming winter will be hard but by April, 300 million immunization units should be ready, which will have an impact on the global pandemic. If coronavirus vaccinations are rolled out widely, life could return to normal by next winter, one of the scientists behind the front-running coronavirus vaccine told British television on Sunday. Ugur Sahin, the Turkish co-founder of the German firm BioNTech, told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show that this winter will be hard, without any major impact from vaccinations. Together with US giant Pfizer, BioNTech is developing the leading candidate in the worldwide chase for a vaccine. Israel has ordered millions of units of the vaccine, hoping that the first deliveries will arrive in the country by January. Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the Beryllium (Be)-Rod market is changing rapidly. These changes are indicators of market growth. This year-on-year upward trend in the market indicates that the next November 2020-2026 will show an oval but steady growth. The price of Beryllium (Be)-Rod continues to be affected by factors such as market growth momentum, various opportunities and challenges. However, during the forecast period from 2020 to 2026, the global Beryllium (Be)-Rod sales market is expected to continue to be above average. The growth rate will continue to increase. It is expected that from today to next week, the price of Beryllium (Be)-Rod will increase to a certain extent. Due to changes in consumer demand, import and export conditions, and various investigations on the development of Beryllium (Be)-Rod, the cost of Beryllium (Be)-Rod is constantly changing. Taking into account the current market macroeconomic parameters, value chain analysis, channel partners, demand and supply, the cost of Beryllium (Be)-Rod will also be affected to a certain extent. It is estimated that the cost of Beryllium (Be)-Rod will increase slightly from today to next week. The market trend of Beryllium (Be)-Rod? The global Beryllium (Be)-Rodmarket is constantly changing. The latest Global Market Report provides clear and accurate statistics and market estimates of the global Beryllium (Be)-Rod target market. The report includes an analysis of the different factors driving the market growth. It includes market drivers, constraints, opportunities and trends. This report is written by experienced and knowledgeable market analysts and researchers. It is an amazing compilation of important research that explores the competitive landscape, segmentation, geographic expansion, and revenue, production and consumption growth of the global Beryllium (Be)-Rod target market. In addition, the report provides a series of different market segments and applications that can promote market development during the forecast period. In-depth information is based on historical milestones and current trends. In addition, the Beryllium (Be)-Rod market report also covers development policies and plans, manufacturing processes and cost structures, marketing strategies, and then analyzes top Beryllium (Be)-Rod producers, distributors, marketing channels of Beryllium (Be)-Rod, potential buyers and Beryllium (Be)-Rod History of development. The report also lists import and export, supply and consumption data as well as costs, prices, revenue and gross margins by region. The market demand for Beryllium (Be)-Rod? The world's leading Beryllium (Be)-Rod target market report contains research on competitive dynamics. It also has a specific awareness that can help you choose the right business execution and steps. Market reports systematically display information in the form of organizational charts, facts, charts, statistics and graphs, which represent the status of related transactions on global and regional platforms. In addition, the report also includes the entire business chain, through which the growth rate and decline rate of specific industries in the market can be analyzed. The report also describes the total cost of manufacturing the product and analyzing its assembly process. In addition, the report also includes major developments in the market. The report involves value chain analysis and represents the workflow in the market. In addition, the market is classified by category, process, end-use industry and region. The report divides the market based on geographic location. TRUNNANO (aka. Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd.) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12 years experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. As a leading nanotechnology development and Beryllium (Be)-Rod manufacturer, Luoyang Tongrun dominates the market. Our professional work team provides perfect solutions to help improve the efficiency of various industries, create value, and easily cope with various challenges. Please send an inquiry as needed. Li3N is short for lithium nitride, which is a metal nitrogen compound that is a purple or red crystalline solid, showing a light green luster under reflected light and a ruby color in transmitted light. At room temperature, metallic lithium can partially generate lithium nitride when exposed to air, and lithium generates lithium nitride in a nitrogen stream 10 to 15 times faster than in air. At this time, all lithium is converted into lithium nitride. Learn more knowledge about Lithium nitride from nanotrun website. Inquery us Products Global TC4 market trend 2025-2028 Properties and Applications of Ti6Al4V TC4 Powder by Newsmis-asia Oil futures tumbled more than $5 a barrel on news that the Biden administration is considering releasing about 1 million barrels a day from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for several months to cool surging crude prices. Brent crude futures were down $4.71, or 4.2 percent, at $108.58 a barrel by 0035 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell $5.45, or 5 percent, to $102.74 a barrel. At an earlier time, gasoline prices had already reached record levels because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The prices of other commodities like the TC4 are also expected to be volatile. Introduction to Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder TC4 titanium alloy material, also known as Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, belongs to the (+) type titanium alloy. It has good comprehensive mechanical properties, good stability of the structure, good toughness, plasticity, and high-temperature deformation performance. It can be better for hot pressure processing, quenching, and aging to strengthen the alloy. The strength after heat treatment is about 50%~100% higher than that after annealing. It has high strength at high temperatures and can work at 400~500 temperature for a long time. TC4 also has good low-temperature performance. It still has good toughness below -196and, therefore, is used to manufacture low-temperature high-pressure vessels, such as liquid hydrogen fuel tanks for rockets and missiles. Physicochemical Properties of Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder TC4 titanium alloy material is characterized by lightweight, excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. In addition, it has low thermal conductivity and is non-magnetic. Titanium-based metal, as a new type of metal, its properties depend on other elements like carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. In general, it has: 1, high strength. Titanium typically has a density of 4.51 grams per cubic centimeter, only 60 percent of that of steel. The density of pure titanium is similar to that of ordinary steel, and the strength of some high-strength titanium alloys is higher than that of many alloy structural steel. Therefore, the specific strength (strength/density) of titanium alloy is much higher than that of other metallic structural materials. 2, high thermal strength. At medium temperature, titanium alloy can still maintain the required strength and can work at 450~500 for a long time. 3, good corrosion resistance. Titanium alloy works in a humid atmosphere and seawater medium, its corrosion resistance is far better than stainless steel pitting corrosion, acid corrosion, stress corrosion especially strong alkali, chloride, chlorine organic matter, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and so on. 4, good low-temperature performance. Titanium alloys can still maintain mechanical properties at low and ultra-low temperatures. TA7 is a titanium alloy with good low-temperature performance and very low gap elements, which can maintain certain plasticity at -253. Therefore, titanium alloy is also an important low-temperature structural material. 5, high chemical activity. Titanium has high chemical activity and has a strong chemical reaction with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, CO, CO2, water vapor, ammonia, and so on in the atmosphere. When the carbon content is greater than 0.2%, hard TiC is formed in titanium, and a hard TiN surface is formed at high temperatures. When the carbon content is above 600, titanium can absorb oxygen and form a hard hardening layer. At high temperatures, with the increase of hydrogen content, a hard hardening layer is formed. After inhalation, the depth of the hard brittle surface can reach 0.1~0.15mm, and the hard brittle surface can reach 20%~30%. Its chemical affinity is also strong, and easy to adhere to the friction surface. 6, small thermal conductivity elasticity. The thermal conductivity of the titanium system is about 1/4 of nickel, 1/5 of iron, 1/14 of aluminum, and the thermal conductivity of various titanium alloys is about 50%. The elastic modulus of titanium is about 1/2 that of steel, with poor stiffness and easy deformation. It is not suitable for slender rods and thin-walled parts. Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder Properties Other Names Ti6Al4V Powder, TC4 Powder CAS No. N/A Compound Formula TA0,TA1,TC4,TC4 ELI,TC11,TC17,TC18,TC21,TA7,TA12,TA15,TA17,TA19, Ti40,Ti60,TiAl(Ti36Al,Ti48Al2Cr2Nb) Molecular Weight N/A Appearance grey powder Melting Point N/A Boiling Point N/A Density N/A Solubility in H2O N/A Exact Mass N/A 3D Printing Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder Applications of Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder Ti6Al4V is used in many high-performance engineering applications, such as aerospace, automotive, and medical device manufacturing. Aerospace: Components for jet engines Manufacturing: Industrial turbines Car: muffler Medical: implants, artificial bones In the petrochemical industry: In most inorganic salts, TC4 titanium rods are completely inert and have excellent corrosion resistance. For example, in the production of electrolytic Mn02, the electrolyte is a neutral MnSO4 solution, which requires the electrode to be resistant to sulfate corrosion. The effect of a telegraph machine made of lead alloy and graphite is not good. After switching to titanium, the anode is not corroded and becomes a semi-permanent device. TC4 titanium alloy rod has excellent corrosion resistance in almost all organic acids and organic media except formic acid and oxalic acid. In addition to methanol, titanium also resists corrosion by organic alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones. For example, in the petrochemical industry, acetic acid is prepared from acetaldehyde. Because acetic acid, acetaldehyde, chloride, and catalyst corrode the stainless steel equipment seriously, titanium material is used to solve the corrosion problem of equipment in acetic acid production. Acetone, for example, can be made from propylene, or titanium production facilities can be used. Japan built a plant with an annual output of 30,000 tons of acetone and used nearly 40 tons of titanium. Finally, TC4 titanium rods are resistant to wet H2S gas, wet SO4 gas, ammonia, and industrial atmospheres (titanium should be used with particular care in small hydrogen-containing media and pure oxygen). For example, in the oil refining industry, equipment is often corroded by H2S, NH8, sulfide, chloride, and titanium equipment can solve the corrosion problem. Titanium is mainly used in distillation towers, condensers, air coolers, and other equipment in petroleum refining. Titanium is an ideal corrosion-resistant material in ammonia and urea production. Main Supplier of Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd. (TRUNNANO) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12-year-experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials, including silicon powder, nitride powder, graphite powder, zinc sulfide, calcium nitride, 3D printing powder, etc. If you are looking for high-quality Ti6Al4V Powder TC4 Powder, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. ([email protected]) With Tesla's new factory in Germany starting TC4. In the future, the demand for TC4 will become more and more extensive. Please feel free to contact us for the latest news on TC4. Inquery us Products Market Trend and Demand-Successfully Sent The Chang'e-5 Probe Will Affact the Price of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump At 4:30 on November 24th, the Chang'e-5 probe was successfully launched. As the final battle in the three-step process of my country's lunar exploration project, the Chang'e-5 lunar exploration mission will challenge my countrys space history. The four "firsts" are: The first lunar surface automatic sampling; The first lunar surface take-off and rise; The first lunar orbital rendezvous and docking; The first time to bring the lunar soil high speed to return to the earth. The Chang'e-5 probe plans to shovel some lunar soil samples from the lunar surface after landing on the lunar surface, and will also drill a lunar soil core about 2 meters long. According to Lin Yangting from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, using samples obtained on the moon's surface combined with modern analysis techniques, scientists will unlock the moon's more than 1 billion years of volcanic activity and meteorite impact history. If the samples of Chang'e 5 confirm that the moon was still active 1 to 2 billion years ago, it will rewrite human perception of the moon. The most recent moon sampling was the Moon 24 sampling mission of the Soviet Union in 1976. Yes, it is the "Soviet Union" that has become history. It has been 44 years since the last time mankind successfully obtained a lunar sample. If the Chang 5 mission is successful, China will become the third country where mankind obtains lunar samples. Affected by Successful launch of Chang'e 5 probe, the Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump market is changing rapidly. These changes are indicators of market growth. This year-on-year upward trend in the market indicates that the next November 2020-2026 will show an oval but steady growth. The price of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump continues to be affected by factors such as market growth momentum, various opportunities and challenges. However, during the forecast period from 2020 to 2026, the global Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump sales market is expected to continue to be above average. The growth rate will continue to increase. It is expected that from today to next week, the price of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump will increase to a certain extent. Due to changes in consumer demand, import and export conditions, and various investigations on the development of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump, the cost of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump is constantly changing. Taking into account the current market macroeconomic parameters, value chain analysis, channel partners, demand and supply, the cost of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump will also be affected to a certain extent. It is estimated that the cost of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump will increase slightly from today to next week. The market trend of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump? The global Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lumpmarket is constantly changing. The latest Global Market Report provides clear and accurate statistics and market estimates of the global Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump target market. The report includes an analysis of the different factors driving the market growth. It includes market drivers, constraints, opportunities and trends. This report is written by experienced and knowledgeable market analysts and researchers. It is an amazing compilation of important research that explores the competitive landscape, segmentation, geographic expansion, and revenue, production and consumption growth of the global Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump target market. In addition, the report provides a series of different market segments and applications that can promote market development during the forecast period. In-depth information is based on historical milestones and current trends. In addition, the Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump market report also covers development policies and plans, manufacturing processes and cost structures, marketing strategies, and then analyzes top Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump producers, distributors, marketing channels of Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump, potential buyers and Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump History of development. The report also lists import and export, supply and consumption data as well as costs, prices, revenue and gross margins by region. The market demand for Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump? The world's leading Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump target market report contains research on competitive dynamics. It also has a specific awareness that can help you choose the right business execution and steps. Market reports systematically display information in the form of organizational charts, facts, charts, statistics and graphs, which represent the status of related transactions on global and regional platforms. In addition, the report also includes the entire business chain, through which the growth rate and decline rate of specific industries in the market can be analyzed. The report also describes the total cost of manufacturing the product and analyzing its assembly process. In addition, the report also includes major developments in the market. The report involves value chain analysis and represents the workflow in the market. In addition, the market is classified by category, process, end-use industry and region. The report divides the market based on geographic location. TRUNNANO (aka. Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology Co. Ltd.) is a trusted global chemical material supplier & manufacturer with over 12 years experience in providing super high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. As a leading nanotechnology development and Dihydrogen Hexachloroiridate(IV) Hydrate (H2IrCl6 xH2O)-Lump manufacturer, Luoyang Tongrun dominates the market. Our professional work team provides perfect solutions to help improve the efficiency of various industries, create value, and easily cope with various challenges. Please send an inquiry as needed. Li3N is short for lithium nitride, which is a metal nitrogen compound that is a purple or red crystalline solid, showing a light green luster under reflected light and a ruby color in transmitted light. At room temperature, metallic lithium can partially generate lithium nitride when exposed to air, and lithium generates lithium nitride in a nitrogen stream 10 to 15 times faster than in air. At this time, all lithium is converted into lithium nitride. Learn more knowledge about Lithium nitride from nanotrun website. Inquery us Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez is unfortunately stepping away from the booth after receiving a cancer diagnosis. Martinez announced the decision himself with a press release, presented here by Sportsnet. The Blue Jays responded with a show of support. Martinez will undergo treatment, after which he hopes to be able to return to the booth. Martinez has long been an ambassador for the Blue Jays, going all the way back to his playing days. Martinez spent the final six seasons of his 17-year playing career with Toronto. He would even go on to manage the club from 2000-01. Hes now been part of the Toronto organization for four decades. But the 73-year-old has become closely aligned with the Blue Jays from his work in the booth. While he has some experience as a national broadcaster, he is now in his 12th year with Sportsnet announcing Blue Jays games, notes MLB.coms Keegan Matheson. Blue Jays games certainly wont be the same without Bucks familiar commentary over the next couple of months. We here at MLBTR wish Martinez a speedy recovery as he, in his words, fights the good fight. By 2021, South Africa's unemployment rate was at 44% . Around 55.5% of South Africans were living in poverty. Figures show that in 2021, 10 million people, including 3 million children, lived in a household affected by hunger. Poverty is a key driver of poor mental health. People who also experience insecure income, housing and food supply are particularly vulnerable. The burden of mental illness in South Africa is high. Nearly half of the population (47.5%) is at risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in their lifetime. Despite this high burden, access to mental healthcare in South Africa is severely limited. Only 27% of patients with severe mental illnesses receive treatment. South Africa's public health system was under-resourced and overburdened even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare in the publicly funded system is provided by 35% of the country's doctors for 84% of the population . Major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders, have drastically increased during the pandemic, with figures from 2020 suggesting that 24% of the population exhibit depressive symptoms. Adolescents and young people growing up in households with unemployment and lacking income and a regular supply of food are known to experience even greater stress and anxiety than young people in less resource restricted households. Adolescent girls and young women in the poorest communities in South Africa also face additional challenges to their mental health. These include a lack of social support, financial insecurity, and vulnerabilities related to their gender. But services specifically targeted at adolescents and young people are woefully inadequate. The HERStory2 study In our recent study we looked at the socio-economic and mental health impacts of COVID-19 on South African adolescent girls and young women. The aim was to understand how the additional challenges brought on by COVID-19 had added to existing risks faced by this population group. Between November 2020 and March 2021, we conducted a survey and interviews with adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 years in six districts of South Africa. The young women in our study came from communities with some of the highest rates of HIV, teenage pregnancy and socio-economic hardship in the country. We found that COVID-19 restrictions had led to increased experiences of stress and anxiety. But despite the many hardships, some of the young women showed signs of emotional resilience. Understanding the strategies that some young women have used to cope with the uncertainty of COVID-19 could point to better ways to respond to their needs. Our findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions, introduced by the South African government in March 2020, worsened situations of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity, adding to mental health stressors. Young women in our study described how households' loss of income, economic and food insecurity, fear of infection, and death of family members resulted in feelings of frustration, anxiety and depression. Nearly three quarters (71.8%) of young women reported financial problems during COVID-19 and the lockdowns. Hunger was a major issue, with 75.4% of young women saying they had been concerned about food running out due to lack of money. A quarter said they had gone a day and night without food. This anxiety related to food supply negatively affected mental health, with 69% of young women reporting they had became more distressed and anxious during COVID-19 and the lockdown. Poor mental health was made even worse by strained family relationships, increased fear of domestic violence, household unemployment, economic stress and food insecurity. Respondents described feeling bored, frustrated, isolated, lonely, scared and hopeless. Young women had not been able to get the emotional support they needed during the lockdowns. They spoke of their experiences of increased tension in the home environment, with fraught family relationships due to lockdown, and family members feeling stressed, frustrated and confined in close quarters. Fear was a predominant emotion in the narratives of respondents in our study: fear of infection, fear for the health and safety of family, fear related to economic insecurity and future prospects, and fear of leaving home during lockdown due to concerns about police brutality . Respondents described an overwhelming sense of hopelessness about their current situation, and the future. Young women spoke of having their dreams for the future shattered. Some shared desperate stories of their friends no longer being able to cope, and choosing to end their lives due to a loss of hope that things would ever improve. On a positive note, some respondents articulated an emotional resilience, describing how they managed to cope in healthy ways and retain hope. Some described taking things one step at a time, accepting their situation and being patient, hoping that things would improve. Respondents also described sources of psycho-social support which enabled them to cope. These included parents, grandparents, and community or faith based groups. Going forward The South African government urgently needs to recognise child and adolescent mental health services as a health priority, and develop appropriate interventions. These should be innovative, cost-effective, scalable and evidence-based. Working through schools and community-based services could be a cost-effective way of increasing access. Building skills and capacity of lay mental health providers and frontline workers, including community health workers and teachers, could help to reduce the mental health treatment gap. Support could also be offered through accessible and data-free mobile health applications, digital technologies, virtual support solutions and online platforms. Telephonic counselling services and community safe spaces are options too. Mental health is not possible if basic needs aren't met. Therefore, it's critical to strengthen social protection responses and social safety nets. Read more: COVID-19 holds lessons for the future of social protection Finally, efforts need to be made to create an enabling environment to foster hope among adolescents and young people in South Africa. Zoe Duby receives funding from the South African Medical Research Council. By Zoe Duby, Socio-behavioural public health researcher, South African Medical Research Council 18.04.2022 LISTEN The founder and presiding Bishop of the Lighthouse Group of Churches (UD-OLGC), Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, has said the death of his son, David Heward-Mills, has created a funny environment. Bishop Heward-Mills made the comments on Sunday, 17 April 2022, while delivering a sermon titled: The grave is not the end. My son David just passed away. It spoils everything. You ask me am I sad? If you had a son who died, will you be sad? You should ask yourself that question. It spoils everything. It brings a funny environment and it makes nonsense of everything. We always try to wish it further and further away but that is how it is, Bishop Heward-Mills. Dr. David Heward-Mills died in the United States after a short illness. He was 31. It is with deep regret and great sorrow that we announce the sudden passing away of David Heward-Mills, after a short illness. David was the first son of our Founder and Presiding Bishop. We, also as a church, are heartbroken, however, we stand with our leader and his family and believe that God will comfort and see us through this very difficult season, a circular issued to members of the church said. Please respect their privacy during this difficult time. Funeral arrangements will be communicated in due course, the circular added. David Heward-Mills was a Research Physician at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston. Source: classfmonline.com Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared Monday for a final defence. Moscow is pushing for victory in the southern city as it works to wrest control of Donbas and create a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum on Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. The Ukrainian authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. "Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas," Zelensky said in a statement. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on 24 February. "The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. "There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end. We will not surrender." While several large cities were under siege, only Kherson in the south has fallen under Russian control, and more than 900 towns and cities have been re-captured. Thousands of civilians facing famine The UN World Food Programme says that more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine and lack water and heating. Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the city was on "the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe", saying there was compiling evidence of Russian atrocities there. "We will hand everything over to The Hague. There will be no impunity." The mayor of Bucha -- a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead civilians sparked international condemnation and war crimes accusations -- said Russian troops had raped men as well as women and children there. Zelensky invites Macron to 'see for himself' Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed "genocide" -- a term President Emmanuel Macron has avoided. "I talked to him yesterday," Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on Friday but broadcast Sunday. "I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. He'll come and see, and I'm sure he will understand." Zelensky, describing the situation in Mariupol as "inhuman", has called on the West to provide heavy weapons. Russia has warned the United States this week of "unpredictable consequences" if it sent its "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine. The Catholic Bishop of Koforidua Diocese, Most Rev Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, has raised issues against the lack of continuity of projects and policies when a new government takes over administration of the country. He said this way of doing things in the country must stop. Regarding the free senior high school (SHS) policy, he said it is a programme that should remain no matter the government in place. Speaking in interview with TV3s Eastern Region correspondent Yvonne Neequaye on Sunday April 17, he said We start a project, let us try to continue. I am happy the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo started this free senior high school policy . This is a policy that we also need to assist for it to be successful in spite of the challenges that came up at the beginning but I think gradually they are trying to make it up, he said. He further called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to address issues facing feeding of pupils in the various schools. I also mention the buffer stock which is where the headmasters and headmistresses will get their supplies from the suppliers who have been designated. At the beginning it was wonderful, you go to school and the students say they are eating eggs, fish, mackerels, but these days it looks like the situation is becoming more challenging for the heads. I think it is an area that we seriously have to look into, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, so that we unearth the challenges that are causing this issue, he said. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017 launched the Free Senior High School Policy in fulfilment of his campaign promise in 2017. Today, we throw open the doors of opportunity and hope to our young people We have a sacred duty to our children and the generations beyond in ensuring that, irrespective of their circumstances, their right to education is preserved, the President said to an ecstatic crowd at the West Africa Senior High School premises at Adenta. He added I want every Ghanaian child to attend secondary school not just for what they learn in books, but for the life experiences that they will gain. I want each of them to look in the mirror in the morning, every morning, and know that they can achieve anything they dream of when they complete their studies. I want them to be confident that what they study is relevant to the demands of today, and of tomorrow. I want every Ghanaian child to be comfortable in the knowledge that, when they work hard, they will be as capable as anyone else in the world. And I want parents to look upon their children with pride, as they watch them mature into self-confident adults, the President said. 3news.com The Catholic Bishop of Koforidua Diocese, Most Rev Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, has called for the arrest and prosecution of officers who fixed ghost names into government payroll. He explained that the names on the payroll did not get there by themselves therefore, persons who ought to have known better should be dealt with in accordance with the law. Speaking in interview with TV3s Eastern Region correspondent, Yvonne Neequaye on Sunday April 17, he said with the ghost names, I am really surprised that every now and then we come up with this same issue that we have cleared some thousands of of names from the payroll. My question is, how did the names get there and who are the directors or who are the officers who are supposed to have known that these are not our staff? In the long round, who is collecting the money at the end of the day. So, when you clear these names what happens to those who managed the get the names there? Recently, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta said the government would conclude on-going measures to eliminate ghost workers from the Government payroll by end December 2022. He said this while announcing measures to deal with the challenges facing the country on Thursday March 24. Government will conclude on-going measures to eliminate ghost workers from the Government payroll by end of December 2022; prioritize ongoing public projects over new projects. This is to enhance the efficient use of limited public funds over the period by finishing ongoing or stalled but approved projects; reduce expenditure on all meetings and conferences by 50%, effective immediately. He further revealed that with immediate effect, the Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. He said this will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. With immediate effect, Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. We will ensure that the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 percent for the period, he said at a press conference on Thursday March 24 while announcing measures introduced to deal with the economic challenges. 3news.com Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Michael Kyere Baafi has urged churches in the country to welcome the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy). In a plea to churches, the MP who is also the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry stressed that the new levy has become necessary to foster national development following the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic. What the church can do to help the country are prayers and promoting the patriotism. You will agree with me that the country is going through some difficulties because we didnt see COVID-19 coming to disrupt the economy. But by the grace of God and your prayers the economy is recovering. I know that you will not stop praying for the country so that the country crashes. Continue to remember President Akufo Addo and his appointees in prayers. The second issue about patriotism, many things have happened some are quiet difficult decisions but all for the sake of the countrys development. That is why the President and the Finance Minister initiated e-levy. We know it is difficult but it is for the sake of national development so accept it for us. If the church doesnt accept e-levy nobody can accept it .We know it is quiet worrying but at all cost try to welcome the e-levy to enable government embark on developmental projects, Michael Okyere Baafi said on Sunday in Koforidua during the climax of the Easter Convention by the Church of Pentecost. Following the passage of the controversial Electronic Transaction Bill and the swift assent to the bill into law by President Akufo-Addo, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is set to commence its implementation on May 1, 2022. Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has presented GHC60,000 to victims of the Zakoli attack in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region. Dr Bawumia made the presentation when he visited the community on Sunday to commiserate with the victims and the bereaved families. Naa Abukari Andani, the Chief of Zakoli, received the money for onward disbursement to the victims. Last Wednesday, April 13, some unknown persons besieged Zakoli, a nomadic settler community, and killed eight members. Four other people sustained gunshot injuries and are receiving treatment at the Yendi Government Hospital. A number of thatch-roofed houses, food crops and motorbikes were also destroyed. It is not clear what triggered the attacks but the Ghana News Agency gathered that it was a possible retaliation of an earlier robbery attack on a teacher at Zagbang on the YendiZabzugu Road, which led to his death. Out of the GHC60,000.00, families of the eight deceased persons would each receive GHC5,000.00 towards the burial rites while the four injured persons would each receive GHc5,000.00 for their medical bills and upkeep. Dr Bawumia gave the assurance that government would, during the week, dispatch relief items to the community to support the victims. Naa Andani demanded swift investigations into the attack to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators to ensure justice was served. GNA A global summit to chart an end to the Covid-19 crisis and plan for future upheavals will occur May 12, the White House said Monday, even as President Joe Biden struggles to get vital pandemic funding from Congress. The virtual gathering will be co-chaired by the United States, along with current G7 president Germany, G20 president Indonesia, African Union chair Senegal, and Belize, the current chair of the CARICOM Caribbean grouping. "The summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats," the countries said in a joint statement. This will be the second global huddle on the pandemic, which has killed more than six million people and triggered profound disruption to leading economies and trading patterns in the two years since it began to spread. Biden hosted a similar summit last September, at which he urged partners to surge vaccines and ensure that 70 percent of every country has been vaccinated by September this year. Although death rates are plummeting world wide, the virus continues to spread, preventing many leading countries from fully lifting restrictions, while Shanghai in China is in the midst of a draconian lockdown. Summit hosts appealed for maintaining the sense of urgency. "In advance of the May 12 summit, we are calling on world leaders, members of civil society, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists, and the private sector to make new commitments and bring solutions to vaccinate the world, save lives now, and build better health security -- for everyone, everywhere," the joint statement said. "The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling Covid-19 worldwide," it said. And while the latest variants are less lethal, the summit statement stressed there must be a focus on stopping similar future catastrophes from taking the world by surprise. "We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging Covid-19 variants, but also future health crises," the statement said. Biden goals face headwinds US President Joe Biden faces problems funding his Covid-19 response. By MANDEL NGAN AFPFile Biden took office in 2021 promising to overcome the pandemic at home but also putting a heavy accent on efforts to vaccinate poor areas of the world. The United States has pledged to deliver at least 1.1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses for global use before 2023 and has so far shipped around half of that. However, Biden's ambition to make the United States an "arsenal for vaccines" similar to US leadership in World War II now faces political headwinds. A package ensuring $10 billion in continued funding for the domestic Covid response has yet to be passed by Congress, while there is no agreement at all on more funding for vaccine donations abroad. "It's vital Congress acts now so the US can continue our momentum in the international effort to get shots in arms in every part of the world, no matter how remote, and to prevent the spread of the next Covid variant with our international allies and partners," a senior administration official told AFP. Also muddying the waters is the war in Ukraine, which is sapping diplomatic attention in the world's most powerful countries. A source familiar with the issue told AFP that nevertheless the pandemic response remains seen as fundamentally important. Prospects of a swift return to civilian rule in Chad seem to be fading nearly a year after the son of the country's veteran leader took the helm after his father died fighting rebels. The international community, led by France, swiftly endorsed Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a 37-year-old four-star general, after Idriss Deby senior's dramatic demise. Both his father's death and his son's succession as "transitional" leader at the head of a 15-member junta were announced on April 20 2021 -- a day that deeply shook the volatile Sahel region. Previous coups in other countries in the region had triggered a stern response from France and the international community. But Chad -- a key ally in the fight against jihad insurgents -- escaped any such retribution. The younger Deby was immediately embraced as Chad's interim leader. His first acts were to dissolve parliament, sack the government and repeal the constitution. He promised to hold "free and democratic elections" after an 18-month "transition" -- a period that could be extended once -- and vowed not to stand in the future presidential ballot. Cracks France, the European Union and African Union have called for the junta to uphold the 18-month deadline. Chad. By AFP But cracks emerged in Deby's plan soon after it was announced. They have since widened, and today experts doubt the initial timetable can be sustained. Within a couple of months, Deby said he might have to invoke the 18-month extension clause if Chadians proved "unable to agree among themselves". As for his "destiny" in the presidential ballot, he added ambiguously, this lay with "God". The cornerstone of Deby's plans is a national forum that will approve the path back to civilian rule. Due to start on May 10, this "inclusive national dialogue" would bring together the various parties and armed factions from across the nation. However, Chad's political opposition has already threatened to boycott the forum. "Pre-cursor" talks between the junta and a constellation of rebel groups in Qatar's capital of Doha began on March 13 after delays. But the talks have been bedevilled by suspicion and discord among the rebels themselves. Scepticism "The transition timetable won't be met," predicted Thierry Vircoulon, a specialist at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) think tank. "Doha isn't progressing -- an agreement (there) will be hard to achieve and this will delay the transition period," agreed Roland Marchal at the Centre of International Research (CERI) at the Sciences Po school in Paris. As recently as Saturday, the junta insisted that it would stand by the May 10 date. "The dialogue which everyone is expecting absolutely has to lead to democratic institutions," said the transitional government named by Deby. A vast arid country in central-northern Africa, Chad has a long history of volatility since gaining independence from France in 1960. It has a large and shifting array of armed opposition groups, which have varying ethnic affiliations and goals as well as sometimes rivalries. The elder Deby himself came to power at the head of a rebel force which rolled into the capital N'Djamena in 1990. In 2008 and again in 2019, columns of fighters came close to forcing him out, but each time were thwarted by France. Younger Deby Despite the problems, his son's grip on power -- based on powerful armed forces controlled by members of his own Zaghawa ethnic minority -- does not seem in doubt. He swiftly "surrounded himself with stalwarts of the previous regime," said Vircoulon. In 2020, the elder Deby was awarded the title of field marshal to mark Chad's 60th anniversary of independence from France. By Renaud MASBEYE BOYBEYE AFP "There's a real continuity from father to son -- the Deby system is still in place." Unlike his father, who cracked down on shows of dissent, the youthful Deby "leaves a bit of space for the opposition to express themselves", said Marchal. "He is less impulsive than his father -- he's more level-headed, and listens more than he talks," a close adviser to Deby said. Deby senior was mortally wounded in a successful operation to fight rebels in the north of the country, according to the junta. "As far as security is concerned, things are quite manageable for the moment... (and) armed groups do not represent a threat," said Vircoulon, noting there had been no new offensive by the rebels. Mensah Thompson, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has lashed out at the various Women Rights Groups in the country for their loud silence and lack of interest in the dilemma of Serwaa Broni, the Ghanaian-Canadian woman who has been 'exposing' President Akufo-Addo on social media. ASEPA boss said the lack of interest of the women groups and activists in the country smack of cowardice, hypocrisy, and vile selectivity. In a Facebook post, Mensah Thompson argues that although Women Rights Groups, the Affirmative Action Groups, the Women Lawyers Union, the Gender Activists, the Women Church Leaders, the Queen Mothers, and the Girls Rights Protection Groups have in the past made strong cases for the rights of women, it appears they are now conspicuously losing their voice on the trauma and ordeal this Serwaa Broni has gone and is going through due to the actions of our President. Maybe they are not womens rights advocates after all, maybe they are not that strong and vociferous as we think, maybe they dont have that much balls as they made us believe or just maybe they just dont care about enhancing anyones rights but only interested in having platform through which they can fight for their own survival and nothing else, parts of the post on Mensah Thompsons page on Facebook says. He adds, If out of the over 200 women rights CSOs in Ghana and the over 70 strong women who can be identified as Gender Activists here in Ghana, not a single one has shown any interest whatsoever in this Serwaa Broni issue since it broke and till date none of them have reached out or extended a hand of support and encouragement to this lady and asked just how they can help, no matter how much of a drop in the ocean it is then Im sorry I dont respect any so-called Gender Right Activist or CSO in Ghana anymore. In his conclusion, Mensah Thompson insists that what we have in Ghana are a bunch of narcissistic frustrated women and women groups who only show up when theres something to benefit from and conspicuously go into hiding when they are required to put their integrity on the line to fight for their fellow women who have suffered severed trauma due to the direct actions of persons in position of power. Read the full statement from Mensah Thompson below: The Women Rights Groups, the Affirmative Action Groups, the Women Lawyers Union, the Gender Activists, the Women Church Leaders, the Queen Mothers, the Girls Rights Protection Groups who I meet constantly at Civil Society Forums and Engagements most recent was at an EU Delegation workshop making forceful and fantastic propositions for the enhancement and protection of womens rights but conspicuously loosing their voice on the trauma and ordeal this Serwaa Broni has gone and is going through due to the actions of our President is not only disappointing but a smack of cowardice, hypocrisy and vile selectivity. Maybe they are not womens rights advocates after all, maybe they are not as strong and vociferous as we think, maybe they dont have that much balls as they made us believe or just may be they just dont care about enhancing anyones rights but only interested in having a platform through which they can fight for their own survival and nothing else. If out of the over 200 women's rights CSOs in Ghana and the over 70 strong women who can be identified as Gender Activists here in Ghana, not a single one has shown any interest whatsoever in this Serwaa Broni issue since it broke and till date none of them have reached out or extended a hand of support and encouragement to this lady and asked just how they can help, no matter how much of a drop in the ocean it is then Im sorry I dont respect any so called Gender Right Activist or CSO in Ghana anymore, infact they dont exist, what we have are a bunch of narcissistic frustrated women and women groups who only show up when theres something to benefit from and conspicuously goes into hiding when they are required to put their integrity on the line to fight for their fellow women who have suffered severed trauma due to the direct actions of persons in position of power. This is a testament to how deep the moral decay in our society is and Im sorry I cant hide my disappointments anymore!! With All Due Respect - Loud Silence Media Ma'Adzepabi Serwaa-Broni 18.04.2022 LISTEN Elon Musk, the worlds richest man, has enough funds to buy anything, whether it is a social platform or a place like Nigeria. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is currently worth about $260 billion. Elon Musk, who is a U.S. citizen, was born in South Africa to a Canadian mother and South African father. The billionaire financier Elon Musk is said to have offered to take Twitter Inc. in a deal valued at $43 billion. The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire said he is trying to buy Twitter as it is not doing well in expanding freedom of speech, the backbone of a functional democracy. While discussing buying Twitter, Musk recently told TEd Talk that "I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy," while discussing buying Twitter. Many tech leaders and lots of people are resisting him, so I say to Musk, like Twitter, Nigeria needs to be turned into a free expression haven, as the largest country in Africa with more than 200 million people. Nigeria remains a major political and economic power in Africa and wields influence regionally, but it is marred by restrained freedoms, a regressing economy, hunger and malnutrition. It is surrounded by ethnic and religious distrust, bouncing corruption, rising levels of homelessness, and the risk of democratic breakdown. Unlike the current huge resistance Musk is facing regarding Twitter's takeover, just take a poll, survey, or quiz. The feedback from Nigerians will be totally welcoming. Nigerians are currently living in daredevil times. Musk, known for space exploration, clean energy, and constantly offering plenty of opportunities for new technology and free ventures, can use some of his money to bring hope, build stability, and transform the future of Nigeria. As for Musk, who is known for using unusual names, as in "Technoking of Tesla" and giving the name X A-12 Musk to his baby boy and his daughters name as Exa Dark Siderl Musk., he will be welcomed by Nigerians to change the name of Nigeria as it has a global reputation for being bad. Musk is known for his "carrot and stick" leadership style and wild firing rages of non-performing and misbehaving employees. The Musk style of leadership will be welcomed into the Nigerian environment known for its chronic "toxic" leadership environment, which fosters bad leaders with the consequences of bad governance. The directorate of the U.N.'s World Food Programme not long ago called on Musk to help end global hunger by making a $6.6 billion donation, and Musk said he could be willing by selling shares of the electric car company, which is worth more than $1 trillion. So, I say this: Musk should inform the U.N. that as a person who can unlock the "extraordinary potential" of a communication platform like Twitter, he could do the same for Nigeria, a rich natural resource country riven with disorderliness and poverty due to corruption and nepotism. I have no doubt that Nigeria, with its huge natural resource wealth and abundant resources such as diamonds, gold, crude oil, natural gas, coal, tin, and iron, will attract Musk, who has offered to purchase Twitter for $43 billion in cash. He can buy Nigeria for the same amount or more as long as the payment goes to the people of different ecological zones and regions. Musk, during the Ted Talk interview, said his reason for wanting to purchase Twitter is not about making money but about "the future of civilization." A turning point for civilization is what Nigeria needs right now, so buy it to make it a trusted country for democracyand make it a better place to improve human quality of life, freedom, and equal opportunity. Prof. Egbeazien Oshodi, an American-based forensic/legal/clinical psychologist and police/prison scientist, wrote in via [email protected] R chocolate in London lives in the passion for life; good life as life is sweet, sometimes bitter and sour, but with chocolate, tears dry easily and the smile on our faces return to shining glory. Tea...no, wine...possibly, coffee...sometimes but chocolate always. Chocolate is the only food item that through itself makes humans happy when eating 30gr of 70% chocolate even extends the life span significantly. From childhood, chocolate runs through my blood system. Pocket money was received and a few moments later I stood before a vending machine to get one gold bar of Chocolate Brocken out of the machine and into my mouth. Stress in school or at University, chocolate was always my comforter. Years passed and I met my good friend, Peter, by then a Professor, a German and only soil specialist in Thailand well known around the world in his field. He shared with me the story of Mr. Jacob, a well-known entrepreneur in Germany with the famous chocolate brand "Milka". He asked him to set up a big plantation on Ivory Coast but during the process, Mr. Jacobs passed on. His heirs were unable to agree on the plantation project, sold the company to Suchard, then Kraft Foods, and now it is a venture of Mondelez. From a pure chocolate lover, I turned into a passionate business-minded growing chocolate enthusiast. For years my chocolate factory and concept improved from level to level. I came to understand chocolate must be produced at the source of harvesting to limit quality loss while reducing the price to give even locals the enjoyment of the chocolate. Asking Hamburg authorities for support I soon concluded that the established companies have no interest in supporting me but rather started to see me as a person to have a critical eye on. Late Joachim Burmeister welcomed me in his white British style Villa in Hamburg-Othmarschen. He was old but willing to disclose secrets of the trade. In a file taken from the shelves in his office, he showed me that he was behind CPC Cocoa Processing Company Ltd in Tema, Ghana established in 1965 under the mandate of former President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. My mind was spinning around and around. The time came I set sail for Accra wanting to buy CPC Ltd with other international investors to produce the best chocolate in the world, not by mouth but by evidence. My spiritual Father, Prophet Dr. Emmanuel Badu Kobi blessed my idea, the King in Adabraka Palace, Accra, the Oyechene promised to bring the factory into my hands but as a State enterprise so far the factory is still suffering taken off Ghana Stock Exchange in 2016 for underperformance. The fact that I am white might have contributed to the denial. Each year Ghana subsidizes CPC Ltd with annually USD 12-14 Mio. to keep a legacy afloat in the hands of political parties' affiliates and not a passionate heart. Asian elephants like African elephants have a long-lasting memory willing to go the extra mile and are passionate enough to wait for the right time to come and enjoy the glory. Former President of Ghana, JD Mahama, before returning from Davos World Economic Forum in 2014 said in an interview with GBC:" I was asked by friends to bring chocolate home from Switzerland. At the airport, I asked myself why? Why does the world regard chocolate made in Switzerland better than our chocolate in the light of the fact that the best cocoa beans come from Ghana and Switzerland is not producing a single one?" And he added: "I want to see that we produce the best chocolate in the world." Eight years have passed and no sign of improvement is insight. When a country puts the wrong people in the right places it never ends in prosperity. The mercury in the water bodies of Ghana from Chinese and locals alike to mine gold destroys precious cocoa farms and the policy of Cocobod adds to the downfall of the cocoa industry by the impoverishment of the poor farmers. The identity of Ghana is not in gold or oil, in cassava, plantain, assembly of foreign cars, etc. but in the humble cocoa bean which cries out for the help of a passionate heart that loves life to the max. BY Karl-Heinz Heerde Kruessweg 3 22307 Hamburg, Germany If God helps you to control yourself, dont judge the other person who is yet to get that, rather pray for them, the Reverend Franklin Emmanuel Agyeman, Senior Pastor of Banner of Grace Ministries at Dawhenya Terrazzo Junction stated on Resurrection Sunday. Rev. Agyeman said it was time that Christians exhibit love and understand that everyone has some weakness and therefore must encourage each other instead of judging people. He however encouraged the public not to allow themselves to be trapped in their weaknesses but rather do their best to break from them and live a holy life for Jesus Christ. Speaking on the topic: The Blessings of the Resurrection, as monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) Rev Agyeman cautioned Christians against bullying others with their righteousness. He said Christians must remember that their righteousness has been perfected not because of their deeds but rather due to the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said it was unacceptable for Christians to judge others they perceived to be unrighteous. I have seen people who dont drink alcohol or fornicate, but they watch pornography and masturbate, but the same people see you in church and start judging you based on what you wear, he stated. He, therefore, urged people whose righteousness had been perfected to rather pray for others to receive the same grace, stressing that. Touching on some benefits of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he said it gives believers hope adding that without having faith one would not live long. The Banner of Grace Senior Pastor urged Christians to have the hope that no matter the situation they found themselves in God would come through for them. Rev. Agyeman said the resurrection brought total healing to those who believe in Jesus Christ, adding that believers also received victory. The Church of Pentecost, Ashaiman Lebanon District on Resurrection Sunday climaxed the Easter Convention with a mammoth church rally at Ashaiman Zenu Lazio Park which was characterized by miracles and signs and wonders. Ministers of the Gospel, Elders, and Prayer leaders led by the Reverend Aaron Yaw Kyei, the District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, Ashaiman Lebanon District laid hands-on members of the congregation while praying for the impartation of the resurrection power in the life of every Christian. The Lebanon Zone which includes the Zenu District, New York, Katamanso, and Lebanon climaxed this year's Easter Convention with praises, worship, and dance among various activities which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult). In a sermon, Rev. Kyei charged Christians around the globe to vigorously value the resurrection of Jesus Christ as it is the foundation of Christianity and urged believers to make the resurrection of Christ a topmost priority in their Christian lives. "Our foundation as Christians is based upon the resurrection of Christ because through this particular incident, we have received forgiveness of sin, justification, reconciliation, peace, joy, happiness, and victory," he said. If Christ was not able to resurrect after the crucifixion, Christians would have been false witnesses, lacked hope, and direction, and would perish forever. The resurrection was central and paramount to the faith of Christians hence the need not to take it for granted, he said. "What better sacrifice can one talk of than when our Lord himself laid down his entire life in suffering to save us from our sins, let us praise and thank our Lord for his loving blessings. I wish each and everyone a blessed Easter," he added. Rev. Kyei, who is also the Zonal Leader for the Lebanon Zone said "While the early disciples were unlearned men, even they knew that dead people stay dead. So, imagine their astonishment when they witnessed the risen Lord standing before them three days after he had risen from the dead." He stated that Christs resurrection stands as a giant exclamation point that separates Jesus Christ from all other mortals, adding that the resurrection does not only prove that there was life after death, or that Jesus is God but the resurrection also announced the beginning of a kingdom which would live forever to glorify God. "When Jesus died on the cross, He didnt take the place of Christians, but the place of sinners. He came as mans substitute. The whole world has been saved from the punishment of sin, but Gods interest wasnt just to save man from the punishment of sin but to save man from the life and nature of sin, he indicated. He said Jesus Christ is unique and exceptional therefore He must be worshipped truthfully, righteously, and religiously as His resurrection has brought a new form of newness to the world. Mali's ruling junta on Monday announced the delivery of two more combat helicopters and surveillance radars from Russia as the West African nation tackles a bloody jihadist insurgency. Photographs of the equipment being unloaded from a Russian cargo flight at Bamako international airport were posted on the official Twitter account of Mali's presidency. The posting described the gear as "Mi-24P helicopters, fourth-generation radars and other combat equipment" Army chief of staff General Oumar Diarra said in a statement the delivery was "a sign of a very fruitful partnership with the Russian state". The consignment brings to eight the known number of helicopters that Moscow has provided under closer ties forged by colonels who seized power in 2020. A source in the defence ministry said four similar deliveries were expected over the next three months. Russia has also supplied what are officially described as military instructors -- personnel that former colonial power France and the United States say are operatives from Russia's Wagner security group. They have been helping the impoverished Sahel nation fight a decade-old jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Mali's rapprochement with the Kremlin has prompted French forces and their European allies to announce their exit from the country. Visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned in Bamako last Wednesday that European forces would not cooperate with Mali's military while it maintains such links with Russia. There have been allegations that Malian troops, in coordination with foreign fighters, massacred hundreds of civilians in late March. The army-dominated government regularly defends the rights record of its military and has also repeatedly denied hiring Wagner operatives. Helicopter deliveries The previous Russian consignment arrived on March 31 and was seen by an AFP journalist at Bamako airport. It comprised two Mil Mi35P attack helicopters -- an export version of the Mi-24P -- as well as 59N6-TE mobile radar systems, according to the specialist newsletter Africa intelligence. It said the consignment had been ordered under former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was toppled in August 2020 by army officers led by Colonel Assimi Goita. The helicopters had been purchased under a 2019 bilateral agreement in which the Kremlin agreed to provide helicopters at a far lower price than that proposed by the European aircraft maker Airbus, the newsletter said. But the source at the defence ministry, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, denied the report. Mali. By AFP "The helicopters that were delivered two weeks ago were (not) orders that were made by the IBK regime," the source said, referring to the ousted president by his initials. "We don't acknowledge orders made by another government." The first batch of military helicopters from Russia comprised four aircraft that were delivered in October last year. Mali described them at the time as Mi-171 choppers, a model used for troop transport, and said they had been ordered under a contract "signed in December 2020 (and which) took effect in June 2021." On April 12, the United Nations and the British defence ministry said a Malian army helicopter fired several rockets close to British troops serving in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. There were no casualties and the incident is being investigated, the defence ministry in London said. According to a diplomatic document seen by AFP, the Malian helicopter fired six rockets. The document said almost all Malian helicopters are flown by Russians assisted by Malian co-pilots 18.04.2022 LISTEN In a primary school, a teacher asked his pupils, What is the name given to a situation where a person dies by hanging himself or herself? Sir, sir, sir, the pupils shouted with their hands raised. The teacher called one of the pupils for an answer; and he said, tie and die. Utterly disappointed, the teacher shook his head and wondered what the future held for his pupils. One after the other, he asked them what they wanted to be in future. One child said he wanted to be a shoe shine boy. When asked why, he said he was always fascinated by the sound shoe shine boys make by hitting their wooden boxes with a stick to attract clients, and that was his motivation. Another child said she would love to be a delegate. Her motivation was that her father was a branch chairman of a ruling party and her uncle a constituency organizer of an opposition party; and during party and primary elections, his father and uncle received assorted items and huge sums of money as gifts. As much as this may sound funny, there are serious underlying issues regarding the endemic rot which is destroying the very fabric of our society. The underhand dealings that go on during party conferences to elect officers at the constituency, regional and national levels is no more a secret, not mentioning how District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives of Local Government in Ghana are compelled to part with huge sums of money before their appointments are confirmed at the various Local Assemblies, and how these officers reap their investment in the speed of light by stealing money meant for the wellbeing of the rural poor. There are more, in some instances, corrupt politicians get funding from some rapacious businesspeople who become the power brokers when power is won. The most disturbing part of this narrative is that our young ones are watching and emulating. Terrible! I had a shock of my life when I visited a primary school some years ago to see a friend who was a teacher there. A child who appeared to be from an affluent home was sharing toffees to his school mates. Was he celebrating his birthday? No, I was wrong! There was an impending poll to elect prefects, and apparently that child was practising what he had observed from adults in his community whenever there is an election. He was buying votes! I cringed! This marked the instant my life crossed a particular junction of time and space. I'm scared and wondering what the future holds for us as a country. Little wonder a pupil of a basic school sees a "delegate" as a lucrative career. God help us! Anthony Obeng Afrane Dear Honourable Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, I am Rockson Adofo, a native of Ghana, and to be precise, the proud son of Kumawu/Juaben-Asiampa in the Ashanti region. I reside in London. However, I have cultivated interest in the political activities of Ghana and do actively directly or indirectly participate in such activities as far as I am capable of, and my services needed by whomever. I have always been striving to seek the collective interests of Ghanaians, especially, the poor and the needy in the society who are oftentimes regarded with scorn by most of our politicians and the well off. Subsequently, I have come to be seen among some Ghanaians as the defender of the defenceless or the voice of the voiceless. In order not to bore you with any lengthy stories that may take out the essence of my todays urgent letter to you, I will convey to your attention the following. There are about a hundred and sixty-eight students in the Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Ashanti Mampong whose careers risk never to be realised. This is as a result of the malicious decision taken against them by the principal of the school, Mrs Gifty Helena Dwamena Amoah. When their plight came to my knowledge, I rang to interview some of the affected students. Again, I made it a duty to call on some of the students when I went to Mampong on Saturday, 12th March 2022, to gather more information, facts and credible evidence from them. I had desired to contact the principal while I was in Ghana and Mampong on that day but was told she was not available on campus that day. From the evidence I gathered, almost all the students are victims of deliberate official academic discrimination, victimization and demonstration of shameful incompetence by the principal of the school, acting in collusion with the Academic Officer, Mr Paul Antiafere, and the Member of Parliament for Mampong Constituency who doubles as the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honourable Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong. The students are understood to have been allowed to proceed to their next higher classes or levels without sitting for their final year or semester examinations. This was due to the devastating or fatally infectious Covid-19 pandemic and how to contain its spread hence students not allowed to physically attend classes. Subsequently, they were allowed not to sit for end of year or semester examinations. Letting students proceed or promoted to their next higher class without sitting for an end of year examinations during the Covid-19 pandemic was not unique to Mampong Nursing and Midwifery Training College or Ghana but many countries, especially, the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom for example, final year students were permitted by the government and the national examination board to be assessed and awarded grades by their class teachers using their academic work and previous mock examinations as are known to their individual class or subject teachers. These grades awarded to them by their class or subject teachers without sitting for final year examinations were accepted for admissions of sixth formers into the British Universities. [Withdrawn] Taking exams during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak Why is the principal after promoting the students in question, and the students performing better in their semester exams of their higher classes, has decided to sack or demote them? Does it make sense? From my investigations, most of the students have been sacked by the principal but without officially notifying them or their parents. They are neither allowed on campus, nor dining hall, nor classes. They are simply lodging in privately rented student hostels in Mampong. Honourable Kwaku Ampratwunm Sarpong is established to be instrumental in, if not the architect of, the reprehensible decision taken against the affected students. Therefore, for you, the Sector Health Minister, to somehow accept his version of events or findings presented to you does beat my mind. For, your acceptance of such findings, if any, will not only cause the continuous suffering of the students to culminate in the destruction of their career but may not look good on your credibility. For Honourable Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong to inform you of the outcome of his meeting with the principal of the school and the Board of Governors, sitting on the case affecting the students, and for you to accept it as final, will fly in the face of the underlying legal requirement. In the absence of an impartial judge, men are prone to respond to interpersonal wrongdoing with vengeance, meting out punishments that are disproportionate to the offense. A principle spanning both Roman law and English common law, nemo iudex in causa sua ("no man should be a judge in his own case") - John Locke. I pray you expeditiously reconstitute an independent panel without Honourable Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong, a known saboteur of the students, to look into the students case as time is running against them. I understand the school has arranged for the entire non-affected students of the school to sit for exams on 26th of April 2022. Does it look fair on the affected students who by the incompetence, malevolence and discrimination of the principal and her colluders, stand the unfortunate chance of not taking part in, or sitting for, the exams? Time is of essence. Their situation is becoming critical with each passing tick tock sound of the clock. Sincerely yours, Rockson Adofo In most countries that practise it, democracy is all about families. It is all about putting more money in the pockets of working class citizens. It is all about putting in place affordable medical facilities for citizens. It is all about well equipped schools for students. It is all about clean drinking water and nourishing food for families to eat at an affordable cost. It is all about decent and affordable housing for residents. It is all about making sure that citizens do not lack anything that would make them happy and more confident in the government they put in place with their votes to manage the countrys affairs over the years. It is all about the future of the country. If we take a critical look at events in Nigeria in the last 60 years, we will easily discover that the reason the country is failing is that politics in the country has consistently been based on the acquisition of power. It has all been about grabbing power and authority and not about service to the people which is what politics should actually address. There are the seemingly intractable activities of Boko Haram in the north and other armed and unarmed insurgencies in parts of the south. There is the menace of Fulani herdsmen and unknown gunmen which has taken on a national dimension. There are kidnappings almost every day somewhere in both the north and the south. There are cult activities everywhere, especially in the south. There is massive unemployment of even university graduates. There is the epileptic supply of electricity and no clean drinking water in the villages, towns and urban cities. Even ordinary food to eat has become a luxury in Nigeria today. The people groan under a heavy yoke, suffering and smiling, as Fela Ransome Kuti would put it. Politicians are blamed. No one seems to appreciate the fact that the problem with the country was inherited by the first set of politicians from the first day Nigeria had self rule. Everyone seems to forget that right from the first day Nigeria had self rule, the seed was sown for the wrong type of political dispensation. Over the decades, Nigerian leaders continued in that direction of political correctness, oblivious of the fact that the country could no longer continue to move in that direction without damaging its own very existence. Peter Obi My research shows that this politics of power is what is stultifying Nigerias democratic growth and has largely turned the country into a paradox so that the richer the country is, the poorer the citizens are. It is this brand of politics that is at the root of the series of rapes of both Nigerian women and the Nigerian economy, the curse of the country today. It is this brand of politics that is behind the impunity of Fulani herdsmen and unknown gunmen who either attack and sack citizens from their ancestral homes and make them refugees in their own country or kill and maim them at will for no justifiable reason. It is this brand of politics that is encouraging every insurgency that has continued to challenge the country and its leaderships at every turn and every level. Even the official corruption that has been blamed for Nigeria slanting towards a failed state is as a result of Nigerian politicians getting drunk with the politics of power. America was in flames a few years ago because President Donald Trump shifted from Obamas eight years politics of service delivery to his own four years politics of power. We all witnessed the results. So, Nigerians need to move from the politics of power to the politics of service delivery, if they want to save their country from self destruction. That is the realization Professor Obiozor should start from, and concentrate on, in advocating for Igbo Presidency, come 2023. It is important at this juncture to consider the fact that everyone in Nigeria now seems convinced that the Igbo can never speak with one voice again. Even on the pressing issue of Biafra or referendum which every Igbo is concerned about, they have as the mouthpiece of the Igbo in general, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), the Movement for the Realization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the Biafra Zionist Front (BZF), the Biafra Liberation in Exile (BILIE), the Eastern Peoples Congress (EPC), the Biafra United Liberation Council (BULC), the Joint Revolutionary Council of Biafra (JRCB), the Igbo Hebrew Cultural Restoration (IHCR), the Biafra Actualization and Defence Squad (BADS), the Biafra Revolutionary Organization (BRO), the Salvation Peoples of Biafra (SPB), the Biafra Liberation Crusade (BLC), the Biafra Peace Corps (BPC), the Billie Human Rights Initiative (BHRI), the Ekwenche Organization (EO) and the Igbozurume Organization (IO). Obviously, this idea of proliferating leaderships among the Igbo is not going to do them any good. To secure the presidency in 2023, the Igbo must speak with one voice which must be articulated by the President General of Ohanaeze, the highest cultural association of Igbo people. Fortunately, the Igbo are on the lead in creativity and innovation in the country. So, how must they get to speak with one voice? Kingsley Moghalu Professor Obiozor must expeditiously summon all Igbo stakeholders in the 2023 Presidency, all Igbo aspirants to the Presidency and all leaders of activist movements the IPOB, MASSOB, BZF, BILIE, EPC, BULC, JRCB, IHCR, BADS, BRO, SPB, BLC, BPC, BHRI, EO and IO to a crucial meeting. Given the need to redirect the Nigerian political focus from politics of power to politics of service delivery, the meeting must deal exhaustively with the election of a consensus candidate who will effectively represent the Igbo and turn around the fortune of all Nigerians for better, irrespective of their religious leaning, political affiliation and ethnicity. And what the Igbo need to achieve that is a technocrat, not the regular politicians who failed the country over the years both in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and in the All Progressives Congress, APC. It is true that many Igbo sons and daughters who consider themselves qualified have shown interest in the race to Aso Rock in 2023. Professor Obiozor and his team must ensure that every opinion of every interest group counts but that the re-emergence of the Igbo in Nigerian political dispensation and democratic evolution is not characterized by the selfish ambition or egocentricism of presidential aspirants. They must all understand and appreciate the fact that the success or failure of this exercise of electing a consensus candidate is what will make or mar the relevance of the Igbo nation in Nigeria, now and in years to come. So, they must be as selfless and as visionary in electing a consensus candidate and pushing for his or her success at the polls as can be humanly possible, bearing in mind that the interest of the Igbo nation should be considered as more important than the private ambition of any of her sons or daughters. That understanding should goad the conduct of the meeting and its result. At the moment, two aspirants readily come to my mind. One is Peter Obi who many testify succeeded as governor of Anambra State. Many Nigerians believe in him. They trust that he can deliver. But they dont trust his party, PDP, as much. Many Nigerians believe that APC and PDP are the Siamese twins of corruption in Nigerian politics, joined in their hearts, feeling each others heart beat as they sweep the national treasury clean from where PDP stopped or offer umbrella coverage for looters of the national treasury. That feeling of many Nigerians might jeopardize Obis chances unless he can convince Nigerians that he has the magic wand to turn the PDP around. But that would be gambling with his political career and fortune. And then, there is Professor Kingsley Moghalu who vied for the presidency in 2019 under the banner of Young Progressives Party. Professor Moghalu believes that his basic assignment is to first educate Nigerians on their political demands, rights and privileges. So he instituted an organization that aims at switching Nigerian political practice from politics of power to politics of service delivery. That organization is known as TBAN To Build A Nation and it already boasts of several intellectuals and concerned youths of Nigeria who are disillusioned and dissatisfied with the trend of affairs in their beloved country. They come from many countries across the world to register with TBAN. Moghalu was deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and performed well in instituting the current BVN in banks, which can be used to check criminal activities. He worked for 17 years in the United Nations and rose to the rank of Director. My take is that Professor Obiozor should lend his weight to TBAN organization and with the massive efforts of all Igbo, no matter where they live, help wrestle authority from the current greedy politicians who have bluntly refused to see that politics of power is ruining Nigeria and the fortunes of its citizens. Once the Igbo are able elect one consensus candidate among all the aspirants, one who can institute modern politics in clear, unambiguous terms, at national, state and local government levels, an Igbo President would be able to make the difference in the service to God and his countrymen. Igbo business men and women can start complementing TBAN by beginning now to invest in their own home towns and local government areas to create jobs for their teeming population of young people. To make this dream of a competent Igbo President come true is what Professor Obiozor must embark on immediately. The time to start is now. Chief Sir Emeka Asinugo is a London-based journalist, author and publisher of Imo State Business Link Magazine (Website: https://imostateblm.com) April 18, 2022 The Ukraine Is Still Losing So What Is Its Plan? Russian and Donbas forces have cleared the city of Mariupol except for the giant metallurgic complex of Azovstal which is held by some estimated 4,000 men, including many from the fascist Azov battalion. On Sunday Russia opened corridors across the front line and asked for those forces to surrender. However the Zelensky government ordered them to stay and to continue to bind Russian forces which otherwise could be used elsewhere: Russia had given the Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol until Sunday morning to lay down their weapons or be eliminated. On Sunday, the forces at the plant ignored the deadline, and Ukrainian officials vowed that they would not surrender. In response, the Russian assault intensified, with missiles and bombs hitting the city and new attacks occurring near the plant, according to the Ukrainian military. ... Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that the struggle was not over for Mariupol, which for two months has tied up Russian troops and resources that are badly needed elsewhere. The Azovstal complex is a 2 by 2 miles industrial area. It can be surrounded and controlled by a relatively small force. Those within the area no longer have heavy artillery ammunition and presumably little other supplies. The Russian forces can see and bomb anything that moves on the open ground and can otherwise sit back and wait their enemies out. I do not believe that holding on to Azovstal will significantly delay the upcoming second phase of the Russian operation which will surround and destroy the Ukrainian army on the Donbas front. The Russian military has two huge advantage over the Ukrainian forces in the east. One is of course its air superiority. The other is the unimpeded supply line which allows it to get as much heavy artillery ammunition, fuel and food to its forces as it needs. Without fuel the Ukrainian army can not move and without constant supply, especially of large amounts of artillery munitions, it can not counter Russian artillery which will be in heavy use against it. This pictures of a former Ukrainian position show the devastating result of such a situation. bigger Nearly all of the Ukrainian ammunition and fuel supplies have been bombed and destroyed. What is trickling in through its western borders has difficulties to reach the eastern front and is anyway not enough to supply an actively fighting and maneuvering army. On April 16 Russia shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane that was bringing 'western' weapons to Odessa. Today it destroyed another ammunition depot near Lviv were 'western' weapons are crossing the border into Ukraine. Some bits of fuel allegedly still reach the Ukraine through trains from Moldova. But that is far from enough. Here is a week old report on the fuel situation: Since the beginning of the war, the number of gas stations in Ukraine has decreased three times, and private fuel consumption has decreased by about the same amount, said Sergey Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group. According to our estimates, a third of the total number of gas stations is operating, this is about 2.5 thousand stations, before the war there were 7.5 thousand. Of course, the main reason is the lack of fuel. Consumption has also decreased three times compared to the pre-war level, he said at a closed briefing at the Media Center in Lviv on Monday. At the same time, Kuyun noted that traders or network owners are forced to provide their most strategic and powerful facilities, located mainly in regional centers or on main routes, while peripheral stations are forced to stand idle, although there are also a lot of consumers there. According to him, the shortage of fuel became especially aggravated after the shutdown of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery as a result of a missile attack by Russian invaders. ... On April 2, the Russian invaders destroyed the infrastructure of the Kremenchug oil refinery with their shelling, and it stopped working. The damage done daily to the Ukrainian military and military industry is huge. One can get a sense of it when one reads through the briefings of the Russian defense ministry. From today's morning brief (here in full as some have difficulties accessing the site): The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine. High-precision air-based missiles destroyed 16 military assets of Ukrainian overnight. Among them: 5 enemy command posts, 1 fuel storage facility, 3 ammunition depots, as well as military personnel and equipment concentrated in Barvenkovo, Gulyai Pole, Kamyshevakha, Zelenoe Pole, Velikomikhailovka and Nikolaev. Operational-tactical aviation hit 108 areas of concentration of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment. In addition, 1 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down by an air-to-air missile near Buda. Army aviation destroyed 8 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, as well as up to a company of enemy manpower near Pashkovo, Veseloe and Illichevka. Missile troops struck with high-precision Iskander land-based missiles. 4 arms depots and Ukrainian military equipment were destroyed, as well as 3 areas enemy manpower concentration near Popasnaya, Yampol and Kramotorsk. Russian artillery units hit 315 Ukrainian assets overnight. 18 command posts, 22 artillery batteries, 1 OSA-AKM anti-aircraft missile system, as well as 275 enemy strong points and areas of concentration of enemy manpower were hit. Russian air defence means shot down 3 Ukrainian combat aircraft in the air: 2 MiG-29 fighters near Izyum and 1 Su-25 near Avdeevka. 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were also shot down in the air near Klimovo, Nevelskoe, Novotroitskoe, Izyum, Panteleimonovka, Sladkovodnoe and Yasnoe. 10 large-calibre rockets fired by Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers at Chernobaevka were intercepted. In total, 139 aircraft, 483 unmanned aerial vehicles, 250 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,326 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 254 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,004 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,184 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation. This has now been going on daily for more than a month. While the precision of the above numbers is somewhat uncertain I do not think that they are exaggerated by much. Yesterday there was no particular heavy fighting and the equipment destroyed on that one day alone was already more than what the U.S. has in total promised to send. That means that the military destruction and defeat of the Ukrainian forces in the country's east is all but assured. What then is the strategy that government in Kiev and its overlords in Washington DC are following? Why has the Ukraine not given up? Why didn't it continue to negotiate with the Russian side? Is their hope that their daily over the top 'Russia is losing' propaganda will create enough political momentum for a large scale NATO intervention? That would end in a disaster for the NATO forces. Russia is obviously prepared for it. It has so far held back large parts of its own forces. Russia has at least 12 tactical missile artillery brigades, each with 36 Iskander missile launchers and 144 fire ready missiles. Only three of the those brigades plus a third of two other ones have so far been committed: Three brigades, or a total of 36 Iskander launchers (two missiles each plus two resupply missiles per launcher) were deployed to Belarus as part of the buildup to war in Ukraine. Two additional brigades (12 launchers) were also assigned to Russia's Southern Military District and moved forward in the area of Belgorod near the Russian border; and to the area of Krasnodar, south of Ukraine. Most of the Russian airforce has likewise been held back. On March 24 the Pentagon claimed that Russia was running out of precision munitions. However, if the Russian defense ministry report is correct, at least 16 precision air ground missiles and 7 Iskander were used just yesterday. To me that does not sound like 'limited supplies'. Other issues: Since Saturday Gonzalo Lira, who has been reported from Kharkov, is no longer reachable. He seems to have been captured or killed by the Ukrainian Gestapo-like SBU. Sadly I had expected that. Doing hours of Youtube live streams when your enemy controls the internet in your area is not very smart. A picture of the damaged Russian cruiser Moscwa was published today. bigger The Russian cruiser was damaged last week and sunk. The ship is listing and so it must have additional damage below its waterline. The picture shows fire midships on its port side where two of its close-in weapons systems and their ammunition storages are. The ships crane is deployed right above that area. The large anti-ship missiles towards the bow and the S-300 air defense launchers behind the deckhouse seem intact. The port side life rafts are no longer where they were and must have been launched. That means that a significant part of the crew likely got off the ship alive before it sank. The picture does not tell us what has happened. Was this an accidental ammunition explosion as Russia had first claimed or was the ship hit by Ukrainian (or British?) anti-ship missiles as the Ukraine is claiming? We will have to wait for further reports to know that. Posted by b on April 18, 2022 at 17:28 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF Texas made its mark on a recent list showcasing the 11 best desert towns in the US, specifically highlighting places with "beautiful landscapes and mystical vibes." The Lone Star State was well-represented on Travel and Leisure's list, with three Texas towns making the cut. This includes Marfa, Terlingua and Amarillo. The other U.S. desert towns listed in the roundup include Grand Junction, Colo., Boulder City, Nev., Ojo Caliente N.M., Cottonwood, Ariz., Joshua Tree, Calif., Moab, Utah, Sedona, Ariz. and Silver City, N.M. The reality of the Midland College Aviation Maintenance Technology program closure has recently been brought to my attention. I have heard rumors of it over the last year or so but did not realize how close to permanent this decision has become. I graduated from the program in 2013 and obtained my FAA A&P license through resources provided solely from the dedicated instructors at Midland College. Without this program my career would be nothing close to what it has become today. I owe a great debt and gratitude to the people that this program introduced into my life. The aviation industry has been struggling recently, especially over the last two years. The need for qualified mechanics is growing and without economic options, like Midland College AMT program, for individuals to gain the qualification needed to join this industry, aviation will be left with few options in the future. I am currently managing Air King Aviation Services, a local aviation company here in Midland. We provide maintenance for small general aviation aircraft, corporate turbine aircraft as well as the commercial airlines -- the ones that families like yours travel on. I have experienced the shortage firsthand. My need for licensed mechanics is growing every day, and the number of individuals in the area qualified to do this work is growing smaller and smaller. With the closure of this program there is even less hope for improvement in the future. I grew up in Midland, graduated from a local high school and pursued a career in aviation, not only because it was a passion of mine but because Midland College offered exactly what I was looking for. I dont think I need to explain the difficulty in convincing people that Midland is a place that they should call home. It is difficult enough as it is to compete financially with the larger aviation companies in the Dallas and Houston areas. That is why this program is so important to local aviation companies. We need employees that are rooted in Midland. Ninety percent of my workforce grew up in this area, just like I did and most of us went through the program at Midland College. The need for this program is real, and I cannot let this closure happen without voicing my opinion. I have seen other programs like this and worked with people that went to other schools. The dedication and the true sense of passion that you feel from the instructors is something that cant be replaced. The level of knowledge that the students leave with is a perfect foundation for rapid growth in this industry. It would be such a shame to see a program like this come to an end. I hope this letter finds its way to the hands of someone that can disrupt this end to a great resource this community is about to lose. By Sun Min Japan and the Philippines hold joint military exercise. Japan and the Philippines held their first two-plus-two talks between their foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo on April 9 and issued a joint statement afterward. The two countries have had frequent interactions recently, and the establishment of the new high-level dialogue mechanism is aimed to elevate bilateral relations to a new level. Media reported that the latest cooperation package between Tokyo and Manila is an interest-driven move under special circumstances that only appears fruitful but will meet many restrictions during implementation. In October 2021, right after taking office, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida proposed the two-plus-two meeting with the Philippines, but the proposal was unavailable until now, due to busy schedules on both sides. However, since late February this year, the regional conflicts have not only affected the international geopolitics but also brought Tokyo and Manila closer, reflected in concrete steps to elevate bilateral ties, though perhaps for different reasons and purposes. The Fumio Kishida administration has been notably more active on the diplomatic and defense fronts recently. Adjusting its diplomacy that takes a panoramic view of the world map and values diplomacy strategy, Tokyo is now giving precedence to interests rather than values and conducting neighboring diplomacy through financial aid and so-called all-around cooperation under the slogan of Indo-Pacific prosperity, with a view to enhancing its own influence while catering to Americas demands. Previously it has consistently intensified the defense and diplomatic cooperation with ASEAN members such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia by providing medical equipment, COVID-19 vaccines and used ships. Its overture to the Philippines now is also aimed to deepen the cooperation with ASEAN and pave the way for future diplomatic moves. The situation in Eastern European has made the Philippines attach more importance to balanced diplomacy, and the Duterte government hopes to get Japanese aid in infrastructure construction, anti-virus supplies and military-industrial goods through cooperation, which would be in his favor in the upcoming presidential election in June. In the joint statement issued after the meeting, officials of the two countries confirmed that as marine neighbors sharing the basic values and strategic interests, they will better coordinate with each other to cope with regional and international issues, and work together for a free and open Indo-Pacific. The meeting revolved around the two countries concerns for their own maritime interests and rights and for international and regional situations, topics that Japan went to great lengths to hype up before the meeting. According to the joint statement, Japan and the Philippines will have their troops visit each other and exchange defense equipment to enhance interoperability. They will also carry out maritime security cooperation in the Sulu Sea. Japan reaffirmed its support for the peace process on Mindanao Island, while the Philippines expressed its support for Japan to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The ministers also discussed politically driven economic coercion and cyber security. Going forward, Japan, in the name of cooperation, may dispatch oceanographic research ships to carry out hydrological and meteorological research in the Philippines, whereas the collected data may be used in the military domain. Besides, the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force made it clear that it will ramp up training intensity in the Indo-Pacific front. Previously, the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) dispatches two or three batches of vessels annually to the sea areas of ASEAN countries for port calls, joint exercises and training. It is predictable that such activities will increase sharply both in frequency and scale. It's worth noting that the US and the Philippines just wrapped up their largest-ever joint military exercises in 30 years a day before the "two-plus-two" meeting between Tokyo and Manila. It's foreseeable that with America's backing, Japan and the Philippines will step up their military activities in the Asia Pacific, which should put neighboring countries on alert. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A Northern California woman pleaded guilty Monday to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI about it, leaving her motive unanswered in the carefully planned hoax that set off a massive three-week search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, offered no explanation for her elaborate hoax during the half-hour court hearing. I feel very sad, she said tearfully when Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb asked her how she was feeling. Were you kidnapped? he asked her later in the hearing. No, Your Honor, she replied. Did you lie to government agents when you told them you were kidnapped? Shubb continued. Yes, Your Honor, she responded. Papini agreed to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors reached last week and is scheduled to be sentenced July 11. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated to be between eight and 14 months in custody, down from the maximum 25 years for the two charges. She also agreed to pay restitution topping $300,000. That includes the cost of the search for her that covered several Western states, and the subsequent investigation into the two Hispanic women she said had kidnapped her at gunpoint. Papini was actually staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles (966 kilometers) away in Southern Californias Orange County. Three weeks later, he dropped her off along Interstate 5 nearly 150 miles (240 kilometers) from her home. She had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred brand on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm. The married mother of two kept lying about it as recently as August 2020 when in fact there was no kidnapping, she admitted in her guilty plea. Papini has offered no rationale for why she did it. Her attorney, William Portanova, said last week that he doubts even she knows. He suggested a very complicated mental health situation," and said her long-delayed acceptance of responsibility and punishment is part of the healing process. Papini said Monday that she has been receiving psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution. Prosecutors say her faked kidnapping wasnt impulsive, and that she planned it for more than a year without her husband knowing. The former boyfriend told investigators they didnt have sex while she stayed with him. Papinis organization and planning would seem to make conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression an unlikely explanation, two mental health experts said independently. Both cautioned that they have not examined Papini and that many factors in the case remain unknown to the public. She may have expected that the kidnapping hoax would bring her fame and fortune, said Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a forensic psychiatrist and frequent expert witness who teaches at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. And she did benefit financially: Aside from the victim compensation, she must repay nearly $128,000 in disability payments. Separately, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family. As a possibly related factor, Lamoureux has researched the false hero or pathological hero phenomenon that takes advantage of society's treatment of victims as heroes. Those who fake their own victimization may be seeking recognition or popularity, and if mental illness is involved it may suggest a narcissistic or histrionic personality disorder. Another possible explanation is that she faked her kidnapping to avoid some other adverse consequence, he said, typically something like a divorce or being fired, though Papini was a stay-at-home mom. Lamoureux, who specializes in complicated criminal and civil cases, said manufacturing a crisis may be a way for those with fragile egos and poor coping skills to seek to prevent the bad outcome from happening. And there are such things as compulsive liars, as well as those who do not have a great distinction between fantasy and reality, sometimes because of an earlier trauma, said Dr. Ziv Cohen, founder and medical director of Principium Psychiatry in New York City. This case is unusual in that Papini had no clear motive and this is consciously creating some kind of false traumatic situation, said Cohen, who teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University. She harmed herself she wasn't actually abused by anyone. But for some pathological liars the motivation is simply in fooling others, he said, in this case perhaps her husband and investigators. These patients can sometimes remain quite mysterious and they often can deny their lies right until the end, Cohen said. They will persist and say in the face of all evidence that their version is true. RunPhoto/Getty Images PITTSFIELD A Pike County-based bank is getting a nod as one of the best places to work in Illinois. Farmers State Bank, which has its headquarters in Pittsfield, has been recognized among 2022 Best Places to Work in Illinois by the Daily Herald Suburban Business. It is one of 46 honored statewide in the small-company category for business with 15 to 99 employees. NoahBryant/Getty Images/iStockphoto CARROLLTON A Jacksonville man who escaped last week while being taken to Greene County Jail was found early the next morning, hiding under the porch of a Carrollton house. Tony L. Henson, 34, of Jacksonville escaped about 11:30 p.m. April 10 after being taken to the jail by a Scott County sheriff's deputy, who had arrested Henson on a charge of criminal trespassing. The Illinois General Assembly is ready to send the governor legislation that would provide students with options and resources to deal with mental health issues. Senate Bill 4028 was filed by state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, in January. If signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, it would require schools to provide information on how and where students can find mental health resources in the state. The bill also includes the forming of the Student Mental Health Council consisting of six members with different backgrounds to recommend systemic changes to better improve mental health among young students. The task force will have a member of the LGBTQ community, a person of color, and at least one woman. Simmons said the inspiration for the bill came after meeting with the Youth Peoples Legislative Councils, when he spent time discussing mental health with students. "It is a committee made up of young people from schools and this is something that they consistently raise that either they or their friends are experiencing," Simmons said, adding that many of the issues are foreign to the students. "It's things they necessarily do not have a word for or can't quite name it but they know that they are not well and do not know where to go," Simmons said. "This legislation is an effort to help them navigate." According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mental health-related visits are up by 24% since 2020 for children ages 5-11, and visits by children ages 12-17 have gone up 31%. Simmons said that the pandemic has increased the need for this legislation. "This legislation is an effort to help students with a lot of the mental health crisis that's been born about by the pandemic and aggravated by the pandemic," Simmons said. Schools in Illinois were ordered by the governor to suspend in-person education through most of 2020 and many districts across the state continued with remote learning well into 2021. A recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research ranked Illinois No. 43 of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for school policies during the pandemic. "[Lack of in-person learning] hurt the children and it didn't help health, it might have even hurt the health a little bit but definitely didn't improve health, didn't reduce COVID or anything like that," Mulligan said. Lindsay McQueen wasnt sure what she wanted to be when she grew up on the rural Franklin farm where her parents still live, but she knew it ultimately was going to be something to do with agriculture. That self-fulfilling prophecy has come true for McQueen, who has spent her entire working life since college with the Illinois Farm Bureau and has been county manager of Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau in Jacksonville since 2014. McQueen is the first woman to hold the position. When I was growing up I didnt really look at a job and think, thats only for men, so I didnt think anything of it when looking for jobs, McQueen said. Im not alone in that when I talk to my colleagues. We younger women think we can do anything a guy can do and I love that. McQueens journey to Jacksonville began when she was in her senior year at Western Illinois University. She was majoring in agricultural business and had received an Illinois Farm Bureau Scholarship the year before, so she decided to apply at the Farm Bureau. She was hired before she graduated. McQueens first Farm Bureau post was in Cumberland County in eastern Illinois. Then she spent several years in Jackson and Union counties in southern Illinois. When former Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau county manager Jim Carlton retired in 2014, McQueen applied for his position and was hired that same year. Although all three of her positions have been with the same organization, McQueen said each area of the state interacts differently with the Farm Bureau. In the eastern part of the state, where I started, it was very much hands-off, the Farm Bureau is there if needed, McQueen said. So it gave me a good opportunity to learn about the organization and not be overwhelmed. In the south, its a lot different. We have a lot of wheat, orchards, vineyards and trees. Id go from office to office and sometimes I wouldnt even see a field of corn or soybeans, McQueen said. We have different kinds of producers to work and, since I grew up on flat land, they were always calling me a Northerner and joking that it takes a real farmer to farm in southern Illinois. McQueen said the southern Illinois counties often combined their efforts, and she frequently was working side by side with her Farm Bureau colleagues from neighboring counties. The whole southern tip of the state was like one giant Farm Bureau; we all did the same programs together, McQueen said. Up here in central Illinois, the counties kind of do their own thing, but there seems to be a lot more issues in our area. I do a lot more work on local affairs here than I ever have. McQueen said Cass and Morgan counties farmers have seen a lot of energy-related activity in recent years involving pipelines, wind farms and solar installations. She likes to stay engaged with each issue so she can better advise Farm Bureau members. I know exactly what our farmers are going through, who they are talking to, and make sure that they are protected as much as they can be and know what they are signing, McQueen said. We like to get them educated before they do anything serious because it can be a 30- or 40-year commitment. The Illinois Farm Bureau has state staff who are dedicated to certain issues, and McQueen often communicates with those experts to stay on top of matters that concern area farmers. The next big issue, she said, will be the Navigator CO2 carbon sequestration pipeline. That pipeline will be coming from the Dakotas through Iowa and all across Morgan County, then on into Christian County, McQueen said. They are trying to get surveys on properties right now. They havent filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission yet, but thats the next possible thing on the horizon. The Illinois Farm Bureau is a membership organization, so its important that McQueen is able to educate her members about the choices they are facing. What these energy companies have been offering are, in the long run, sometimes better for their bank accounts. They wouldnt have to farm if they choose not to, McQueen said. Then there are the farmers who wonder what would Grandpa think, what are they leaving for their kids. Theres a lot of things to weigh when you are considering certain easements on your land. McQueen also enjoys working with the non-farming community so they realize what farming is all about. Making sure that people understand that their food doesnt just start at the grocery store, it starts with the ground where the farmers are planting it, McQueen said. Just keeping that in the back of everyones mind about our industry. McQueen also serves as a role model. The Illinois Farm Bureau has been around since 1916, with Morgan County joining in 1917, Cass County in 1918, and the two counties merging their bureaus into one in 1970. Being in this position, out in front of the FFA kids talking at different programs, they see a leader in the industry, not just based on gender or age, McQueen said. They see that maybe this could be where they could go out of high school or college. The agriculture industry is open and has something for them. McQueen has started an internship program for young people at Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau that has opened many a young persons eyes to the future. When many people think of agriculture they only think about out in the field, and there is so much more in agriculture now, McQueen said. I wanted to make sure that the kid who doesnt necessarily want to dig in the soil every day knows there are other ways to work in agriculture. McQueen is active in the Jacksonville area. She helps with University of Illinois Extension, is involved with the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee, serves on the Jacksonville Memorial Hospital board, is a Kiwanis Club board member, and volunteers at Jacksonville Area Museum. McQueen also picks up trash once a month as part of the Community Improvement Initiative, which I love and its therapeutic for me. I hope it lifts peoples pride in our town, she said. McQueen is proud of her Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau board and the farmers who support my sometimes crazy ideas. McQueen is also happy that she gets to do a job she loves in a vital industry, and credits her Morgan County upbringing for that success. Growing up on the farm was a privilege, but I didnt know it at the time, McQueen said. I was jealous of the kids who lived in town and didnt have to ride the bus home, who could hang out and play at the park. I had to sit on the bus for an hour when I headed home. But looking back on it, I wouldnt have changed a thing about how I was raised. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town." He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. ___ Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIJING (AP) Shanghai authorities on Monday reported the first COVID-19 deaths in the latest outbreak in Chinas most populous and wealthiest city. All three people who died were elderly, had underlying diseases such as diabetes and hypertension and had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, city Health Commission inspector Wu Ganyu told journalists. After entering hospital, their conditions grew worse and they died after attempts to save them were unsuccessful," Wu said. The deaths raise to 4,641 the number of people that China says have succumbed to the disease since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. While China has an overall vaccination rate of around 90%, a low rate among the elderly remains a concern. Only 62% of Shanghai residents over age 60 have been vaccinated, according to the latest data available. Some experts say China needs to raise that rate before it can safely live with the virus. While highly contagious, the omicron BA.2 variant driving the Shanghai outbreak is less lethal than the previous delta variant. However, China's low death toll from COVID-19, which is blamed for more than 988,000 deaths in the United States, has raised questions about how China's authoritarian and often highly secretive government counts such fatalities. Most of Shanghais 25 million residents are being confined to their homes for a third week as China continues to employ a zero-tolerance strategy to curb the outbreak, demanding isolation of anyone possibly infected. China on Monday said 23,362 people had tested positive for the virus over the previous 24 hours, most of them showing no symptoms and almost all of them in Shanghai. The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, although officials have warned that the city doesn't have its outbreak under control. Shanghai, which is home to China's biggest port and most important stock exchange, appeared unprepared for such a massive undertaking. Residents have run short of food and other daily necessities while enduring lockdown conditions, and tens of thousands of people put under medical observation have been sequestered in crowded facilities where lights are always on, garbage bins overflow, food is inadequate and hot showers nonexistent. Anyone who tests positive but has few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Concerns have risen about the economic impact of the government's hard-line policy. Chinas economic growth edged up to a still-weak 4.8% over a year earlier in the first three months of 2022 as lockdowns cut production in major industrial cities. Official data showed growth accelerated from the previous quarters 4%. At a meeting Monday, Vice Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, pledged increased spending to stabilize supply chains and provide financial support for health workers and others on the pandemic front lines. While the ruling Communist Party has urged more targeted prevention measures, local officials have routinely adopted stringent regulations, possibly for fear of being fired or penalized over outbreaks in their areas. In the city of Wenzhou, which has seen only a handful of cases, authorities have authorized rewards of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,800) for information about people who falsify their health status, online news site The Paper reported. JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank. Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gaza's militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year's Eve. Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, targeting a weapons manufacturing site" for Hamas, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries. Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli violations in Jerusalem. Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago cant silence us from whats happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. However, no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which has long been an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because the mosque stands on a hilltop where the Jewish temples were located in antiquity. Protests and clashes there this time last year helped trigger an 11-day Gaza war. Police said they were responding to Palestinian stone-throwing and that they were committed to ensuring that Jews, Christians and Muslims whose major holidays are converging this year could celebrate them safely in the Holy Land. Palestinians view the presence of Israeli police at the site as a provocation and said they used excessive force. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, ahead of the rocket fire, that Israel has been the target of a Hamas-led incitement campaign." The latest tensions come during the rare confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover. Christians are also celebrating their holy week leading up to Easter. Tens of thousands of visitors have flocked to Jerusalems Old City home to major holy sites for all three faiths for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security matters, have condemned its actions at the mosque. Jordan which serves as custodian of the site summoned Israels charge daffaires on Monday in protest. Jordans King Abdullah II discussed the violence with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, agreeing on the need to stop all illegal and provocative Israeli measures there, according to a statement. Jordan planned to convene a meeting of other Arab states on the issue. Israel has been working to improve relations with Jordan over the past year and has recently normalized relations with other Arab states. But the latest tensions have brought renewed attention to the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, which Israel has sought to sideline in recent years. The U.S. State Department urged all sides to exercise restraint, to avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo at the holy site. Spokesman Ned Price said U.S. officials were in touch with counterparts across the region to try and calm tensions. U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting on the tensions for Tuesday. In Israel, an Arab party that made history last year by joining the governing coalition suspended its participation on Sunday a largely symbolic act that nevertheless reflected the sensitivity of the holy site, which is at the emotional heart of the century-old conflict. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem which includes the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and is building and expanding Jewish settlements across the West Bank, which it views as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people. The last serious and substantive peace talks collapsed more than a decade ago. The Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over or partition the mosque compound. In recent weeks, calls by Jewish extremists to sacrifice animals there have circulated widely among Palestinians on social media, sparking calls to defend the mosque. Israeli authorities say they have no intention of changing the status quo, and police are enforcing a prohibition on animal sacrifices. Israel allows Jews to visit the site but not to pray there. In recent years large numbers of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited under police escort, angering the Palestinians and Jordan. Israel says police were forced to enter the compound early Friday after Palestinians stockpiled stones and hurled rocks at the gate through which Jewish visitors typically enter. That gate also leads to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Recent weeks have seen a series of Palestinian attacks inside Israel that killed 14 people. Israel has launched near-daily arrest raids and other military operations in the occupied West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing more. The military said Monday it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations across the territory overnight. In a raid near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives toward troops. Soldiers responded with live ammunition toward the suspects who hurled explosive devices, the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after being critically wounded. Two of the recent attackers came from in and around Jenin, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed. ___ Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Omar Akour in Jordan, Fares Akram in Hamilton, Canada; Matthew Lee in Washington and Jennifer Peltz at the United Nations contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) Britain announced a deal with Rwanda on Thursday to send some asylum-seekers thousands of miles to the East African country a plan it said would stop people-smugglers sending desperate migrants on treacherous journeys across the English Channel. U.K. opposition politicians and refugee groups condemned the move as inhumane, unworkable and a waste of public money, and the United Nations said it raised a number of human rights concerns. The plan would see some people who arrive in Britain as stowaways on trucks or in small boats picked up by the U.K. government and flown 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to Rwanda, apparently for good. Critics accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of using the issue to distract attention from a scandal over government gatherings that breached pandemic lockdown rules. Johnson is resisting calls to resign after being fined by police this week over the parties. Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to reach Britain, either by hiding on trucks or ferries, or increasingly since the coronavirus pandemic shut down other routes in 2020 in small boats organized by smugglers. More than 28,000 people entered the U.K. in boats last year, up from 8,500 in 2020. Dozens have died, including 27 people in November when a single boat capsized. On Thursday, dozens of men, women and children were picked up by British lifeboats and brought ashore at the Channel port of Dover as Johnson, speaking just a few miles away, outlined the plan. Anyone entering the U.K. illegally may now be relocated to Rwanda," Johnson said in a speech to troops and coast guard members at an airport near Dover. Action, he said, was needed to stop vile people smugglers (who) are abusing the vulnerable and turning the Channel into a watery graveyard. The Rwandan government said the agreement would initially last for five years, and Britain had paid 120 million pounds ($158 million) up front to pay for housing and integrating the migrants. Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Vincent Biruta said the agreement is about ensuring that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose. He said his country is already home to more than 130,000 refugees from countries including Burundi, Congo, Libya and Pakistan. Johnson denied the plan was lacking in compassion but acknowledged it would inevitably face legal challenges and would not take effect immediately. Rwanda is the most densely populated nation in Africa, and competition for land and resources there fueled decades of ethnic and political tensions that culminated in the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis, and Hutus who tried to protect them, were killed. Johnson insisted that Rwanda had totally transformed in the last two decades. But human rights groups have repeatedly criticized President Paul Kagames current government as repressive. Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said the claim Rwanda was a safe country is not grounded in reality. Arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities is commonplace, and fair trial standards are flouted in many cases, Mudge said. Britain says relocation decisions will not be based on migrants country of origin but on whether they used illegal or dangerous routes to reach the U.K. from a safe country such as France. Not all such arrivals will be considered suitable to be sent to Rwanda; it was unclear what the criteria for making the decisions would be, though the British government said children would not be sent to the African country. The United Nations human rights office said it had raised its "concerns directly with the U.K. authorities. A spokeswoman for the office said the U.K. was shifting ... its responsibilities and obligations under international human rights and refugee law onto a country which is already taking great asylum responsibilities. Previous policies of sending refugee applicants abroad have been highly controversial. In 2013, Australia began sending asylum-seekers attempting to reach the country by boat to Papua New Guinea and the tiny atoll of Nauru, vowing that none would be allowed to settle in Australia. The policy all but ended the people-smuggling ocean route from Southeast Asia, but was widely criticized as a cruel abrogation of Australias international obligations. Israel sent several thousand people to Rwanda and Uganda under a contentious and secretive voluntary scheme between 2014 and 2017. Few are believed to have remained there, with many trying to reach Europe. Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee director at Amnesty International U.K., said the British governments shockingly ill-conceived idea will go far further in inflicting suffering while wasting huge amounts of public money. The chief executive of the U.K.-based Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, called it dangerous, cruel and inhumane. Rwandan opposition figure Victoire Ingabire told the AP that her governments decision to take in migrants was questionable, given that the country is also a source of refugees. The British and French governments have worked for years to stop the cross-Channel journeys, without much success, often swapping accusations about who is to blame for the failure. Britains Conservative government has floated myriad proposals, not all of them workable, including building a wave machine in the Channel to drive boats back. Johnson said Thursday that the Royal Navy would take charge of responding to small-boat crossings, but that the idea of pushing vessels back towards France had been rejected as too dangerous. Several earlier proposed locations for the U.K. to send migrants including the remote Ascension Island, Albania and Gibraltar were rejected, at times angrily, by the nations in question. The Rwanda plan faces hurdles both in Britains Parliament and in the courts. Johnson's Conservative government has introduced a tough new immigration bill that would make it more difficult for people who enter the country by unauthorized routes to claim asylum and would allow asylum-seekers to be screened abroad. It has not yet been approved by Parliament, with the House of Lords seeking to dilute some of its most draconian provisions. Labour Party lawmaker Lucy Powell said the Rwanda plan might please some Conservative supporters and grab headlines, but was "unworkable, expensive and unethical. I think this is less about dealing with small boats and more about dealing with the prime ministers own sinking boat, Powell told the BBC. ___ Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda, and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed to this story. ___ Follow AP's coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As our country approaches 1 million deaths from COVID-19, it can feel impossible to wrap our heads around such a devastating figure. But its essential if we want to treat the pre-existing conditions that made it so deadly. In the beginning, many thought the pandemic would be a great equalizer, since the virus doesnt distinguish between rich and poor. But the tragic reality is that our economic and public health systems do discriminate. A coalition of researchers convened by the Poor Peoples Campaign recently published a report making this reality plain. The researchers define poverty to include all those living up to 200% of the official poverty measure, which has long been considered too low to capture those who struggle the hardest to make ends meet. Using this measure, they found that COVID-19 death rates in poorer U.S. counties were nearly double those wealthier counties. The gap was even bigger during the worst phases of the pandemic. During the dark winter of 2020-21, 4.5 times as many people in poorer counties died. During the Delta phase, that number shot to five times. Vaccination rates tend to be somewhat greater in wealthier counties, but this study looked at counties where vaccination rates topped more than 85%. So vaccination cant account for the disparity. What can account for it is poverty. The over 300 counties with the highest death rates had average poverty rates of 45 percent. These counties include 30 million Americans of every color. Latinx Americans make up about a quarter of their population, while their Black population is about double the national average. Whats more, these counties are home to nearly 30 percent of all Indigenous people in the United States. Theyre also home to many poor whites. Although COVID-related deaths fell disproportionately on people of color, these poorer white people suffered the most deaths. Experts and impacted people recently about these findings in Washington, D.C. At times, our countys rate of COVID hospitalizations and deaths led the nation, said Bruce Grau of Wausau, Wisconsin. In the first six months of the pandemic, nearly all of the residents in just one nursing home died penniless and alone. Because I dont have money, it was 17 days before they told me I had COVID, testified Tyrone Gardner of Goldsboro, North Carolina." "We were slaughtered for the almighty dollar, and we wont be sacrificed anymore, declared Pamela Garrison of West Virginia. It was hard for us to get the vaccine, recalled Vanessa Nosie, a member of the Apache Stronghold in New Mexico. Our lives arent valued. They look at us like it doesnt hurt that we dont survive. The findings of this report reveal intentional decisions to not focus on the poor, summed up Reverend WIlliam Barber, co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign. We cannot say that this is because of individual choices or behaviors. Instead, he declared, something deeper is at work: systems that prey on the poor poor white people and poor people of color. The lessons of this pandemic are brutal and myriad. One of its most important is that when a public health crisis runs headlong into systemic inequities in wages, wealth, and health care, the result is mass death among those the system is rigged against. The Poor Peoples Campaign has been mobilizing Americans across the country to unrig this system. This data is a wake-up call for this nation to heed the calls of the Poor Peoples Campaign, said John Cavanagh of the Institute for Policy Studies. This summer, the campaign is organizing a mass mobilization of poor and low-income people in Washington to fight back. On June 18, thousands of poor people and their allies will arrive in the capital, calling on lawmakers to treat the pre-existing conditions of a pandemic thats killed nearly 1 million Americans. They welcome all to join them. President Joe Biden View Photo President Biden delivered a speech announcing his actions to fight gun crimes. Biden was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: A year ago this week, standing here with many of you, I instructed the Attorney General to write a regulation that would would rein in the proliferation of ghost guns because I was having trouble getting anything passed in the Congress, but I used what we call regulatory authority. A year later, were here. We keep that promise. The gun lobby tried to tie up the regulators in paperwork for a long, long time. The NRA called this rule Im about to announce, extreme. Extreme. But let me ask you: Is it extreme to protect police officers? Extreme to protect our children? Extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldnt even pass a background check? AUDIENCE: Nooo THE PRESIDENT: Look, the idea that someone on a terrorist list could purchase one of these guns is extreme? It isnt extreme; its just basic common sense. (Applause.) You know, if you buy a couch you have to assemble, its still a couch. If you order a package, like this one over here, that includes the parts you need, the directions for assembling a functioning firearm, you bought a gun. Take a look. Take a look at this. It comes in this package. You can see the picture down here maybe. This is the gun. (Holds up upper and lower receivers of a handgun.) Its not hard to put together. A little drill hand drill at home. It doesnt take very long. Anyone can order it in the mail. Anyone. And, folks, a felon, a terrorist, a domestic abuser can go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes. Buyers arent required to pass background checks. Because guns have no serial numbers these guns when they show up at a crime scene, they cant be traced. Harder to find and prove who used them. Meaning you cant connect the gun to the shooter and hold them accountable. In fact, the ATF reports that theyve been able to trace less than 1 percent less than 1 percent of ghost guns reported by law enforcement. And so it makes sense that police across the country are increasingly finding ghost guns at crime scenes. And, by the way, ghost guns can be, quote, rifles essentially assault weapons as well. This is one version of the kit you can buy. Last year alone, law enforcement reported approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns to be to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Thats a tenfold increase in these ghost guns from 2016. Tenfold in five years. These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals. Were going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice and, when we find them, put them in jail for a long, long time. Law enforcement is sounding the alarms. Our communities are paying the price. And were acting. Today, the United States Department of Justice is making it is illegal for a business to manufacture one of these kits without a serial number. Illegal. (Applause.) Illegal for a licensed dealer to sell them without a background check. (Applause.) And starting today, weapons like the one used at Saugus High School and to ambush deputies with us to- that are here with us today are being treated like the deadly firearms they are. And if somebody sells a ghost gun to a federally licensed dealer for example, a pawn shop that dealer must make the firearm and mark it with a serial number before reselling it. All of a sudden, its no longer a ghost; it has a return address. And its going to help save lives, reduce crime, and get more criminals off the streets. And this rule is only part of our strategy to go after ghost guns. In February, the Department of Justice launched a nation a National Gun Ghost Guns Enforcement Initiative, intensifying our efforts to bring cases against those who use ghost guns illegally. Were teaching investigators and prosecutors best practices how to build these cases and assigning a coordinator in each of the ATF field divisions to serve as the point person for helping federal, state, and local law enforcement go after ghost guns. If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution, not just state. Expect federal prosecution. (Applause.) This rule is an important step. Its going to make a difference, I promise you. And there are a lot of other things we know work to reduce gun violence and other violent crimes and save lives. Thats why Ive put together a comprehensive strategy to supercharge what works while continuing to push Congress to act on sensible legislation to prevent gun violence. In addition to today in addition to todays rule, were working on four areas: First, were going after rogue gun dealers. The last time we had data on this was more than 20 years ago. Five percent of gun dealers sold 90 percent of illegal guns found at crime scenes. Five percent sold 90 percent. These merchants of death are breaking the law for profit and selling guns that are killing innocent people. Were cracking down on these gun dealers and the violent criminals they knowingly arm. Second, were disrupting illegal gun trafficking. Attorney General Garland has directed all U.S. Attorneys to prioritize combatting gun trafficking that is moving guns across state lines and city boundaries. The Justice Department is surging prosecutorial resources to help shut down these trafficking corridors, including the one known as the Iron Pipeline that funnels weapons (applause) from gun shops in states like Georgia to crime scenes up and down the East Coast. Thirdly, were funding strategies we know reduce gun crime: community policing and community violence interruption. Look, Ive said it many times: The answer is not to defund the police. Its to fund the police and give them the tools and training to support they need to be the partners and the protectors of our communities in need. (Applause.) And Ive already made clear that I want cities, states, counties, and Tribes to use some of the $350 billion we sent to them in the American Rescue Plan that I wrote in the first month to reduce gun violence, hire police officers for community policing, pay police overtime, purchase crime-fighting technologies. They were given the money. They can do it. Spend it. (Applause.) And now, on top of that, Im calling for additional funding to put police on the streets for community policing. One thing we learned in the middle of the crime wave not long ago: When the cop knows by first name who owns the corner drug store, who lives in the apartment above 6B, who the people who are the pastors of the churches, guess what? People talk to them. They trust them. My son was the Attorney General in Delaware. Hed go around and make sure everybody, literally, in these high-crime-rate neighborhoods hed give them his personal cell phone number and instructed all of the cops to do the same thing. And they did. And the crime plummeted. Not a joke. Look at the record. Not just my son, but all across the nation. And for the AFT [ATF] to hire agents they need to help the fight gun crime more agents. My budget funds body cameras and makes sure police work with our local communities and are accountable to the local communities. Were also investing in community violence intervention. These are areas, local programs that utilize trusted messengers community members and leaders to work directly with people who are the most likely to commit a gun crime or become victims of gun crime get to them early. It works. (Applause.) It works. They intervene before its too late. Fourth, were funding jobs and training for young people, summer programs, drug treatment, mental health, housing availability, criminal justice reform, and reentry support for people coming home after incarceration. Right now, you get let out of prison after serving your time; you get a bus ticket and 25 bucks. You end up under the same bridge you left 2, 5, 10 years earlier. If you serve your time, you qualify for Pell Grants, you qualify for housing, youre qualified for food, you qualify to get back into the community give them a fighting chance. These are all demonstrated ways to reduce crime. And Im strongly urging cities, states, counties, and Tribes to use the Rescue Plan funding weve sent them to do more in each of these areas. And they need to do more and do it quickly, before the summer, when crime typically surges around America. So were pushing in each of these areas, but none of this absolves Congress with all due respect to my members of Congress here; theyre the wrong people Id be talking to for their responsibility to act. We need Congress to pass universal background checks. (Applause.) Universal background checks. And I know its controversial, but I got it done once: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. (Applause.) I was getting criticized when I first passed this law when I was a senator. And guess what? I was down in southern Delaware they do a lot of hunting and fishing down there and I was walking up one of the creek beds. And a guy standing said, You want to take my gun? I said, I dont want to take your gun. He said, Well, youre telling me I cant have more than X number of bullets in a in a in my gun. And I said, What do you think the deer youre hunting wear Kevlar vests? What the hell you need 20 bullets for? You must be a hell of a terrible shot. (Laughter.) No, Im serious. Think about it. Think about the mass shootings. As many as a hundred rounds. Its a weapon of war. It has nothing to do with recreation. Outright banning the sale and possession of un-serialized guns. Eliminate gun manufacturers immunity from liability. Theyre the only outfit (applause) theyre the only outfit in the country that is immune. Imagine had the tobacco industry been immune to prost- to being sued. Come on. In February, the families of nine of the Sandy Hook shooting victims achieved a settlement against the maker of guns that was used to kill their children. The Sandy Sandy Hook folks are here. Do you will you be embarrassed if I ask you to stand up? (Applause.) These folks right here did more to keep all of this going than anybody. We owe you, man. We owe you. (Applause.) It never goes away, does it? God love you. Look, this is incredibly rare because gun manufacturers have more immunity from liability than any other American industry, so they have never had to take responsibility for the death and destruction their products cause. But as part of this settlement, Remington agreed to release thousands of pages of internal documents. You did that. And why heres why its so important: Remember, it wasnt until we saw the internal documents that we really understood what cigarette manufacturers were doing to our kids and to our families. Now we may begin to see what gun manufacturers are and are not doing when it comes to making and marketing their deadly products. And, by the way its going to sound bizarre I support the Second Amendment. You have a right. But from the very beginning, the Second Amendment didnt say you can own any gun you want, big as you want. You couldnt buy a cannon when, in fact, the Second Amendment passed. And certain people from the very beginning werent allowed to purchase guns. Its nothing new. Its just rational. Look, this should be just the start. We need to repeal the liability shield of gun manufacturers and finally hold them accountable for false advertising and many other things they do. Theres one more action Im taking today. Its only been and theres been only one Senate who has confirmed a director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Bureaus entire history. It used to be it didnt require Senate action when I first got to the Senate. But its only been one since it became required confirmation. This is an agency whose mission it is to protect communities from violent criminals, illegal trafficking of firearms, acts of arson and bombing, and a lot more. The mission of this agency isnt controversial, its public safety. Today, to lead and support the dedicated men and women of the AFT [ATF], I am proud to nominate Steve Del- Dettelbach excuse me, I mispronounced your name I just as Director of Bureau of Al- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Steve is immensely qualified. He served the Department of Justice for two decades. He worked side by side to support the work of federal, state, and local law enforcement, includingAFT [ATF] agents. And one of those was he a case he was personally tried as a U.S. Attorney, where the serial arsonist firebombed the courthouses and police headquarters in Mansfield, Ohio. For his work, Steve got death threats, but the defendant got 60 years. Steve also partnered with the community leaders and law enforcement to help prevent violent crime. Hes worked with the police to combat domestic extremism and to take violent criminals off the street. Steves record makes him ready on day one to lead this agency. And, by the way, in 2009, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him to serve as a U.S. Attorney. I look forward to working with the Senate to get him confirmed once again. With what Ive know about him and why I was enthusiastic about supporting him, Id like to introduce my nominee to lead the AFT [ATF] to you all of you. Steve, come on up here. (Applause.) MR. DETTELBACH: Thank you, Mr. President; thank you, Vice President Harris, for your leadership in protecting the people of this nation and for placing your trust in me to become the next director of the ATF. Thanks. (Applause.) Thank you, also, Deputy Attorney General Monaco, for all that you and Attorney General Garland continue to do at DOJ to make our nation safer. And thank you, Mia, for your incredible inspiration and courage not just here today, but all over this nation. Thank you. (Applause.) I also want to thank my incredible, supportive, and often patient family who are here. My wonderful wife, Karil, and my children, Allie and David. Please. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: When hes 16 years old, I want to draft him. (Laughter.) MR. DETTELBACH: Is there an agent in the house? (Laughter.) But seriously, more most especially today, I want to thank the men and women of the ATF. You know, I started as a career prosecutor back in 1992. And I have spent three decades watching and admiring agents and staff at the ATF along with its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners as they work tirelessly and courageously to protect the American people. I would also say they work in anonymity, but that would not be completely true because, sadly, one thing Ive also seen over the years is that the ATF often does work in anonymity when its agents are out there risking their lives to protect us only to be thrust into the public eye when its time for criticism. You know, law enforcement is a very tough job, and no person and no agency is perfect. But the President is right: The men and women of the ATF and the public that they protect deserve better support from us. (Applause.) Ive seen firsthand the work that so many at the ATF do to protect us from violence. Theyre dedicated, theyre professional, and theyre effective. They dont write the laws; their mission every day is just to go out and enforce those laws and protect the public from a wide range of threats. When I was a U.S. Attorney, our office partnered with the ATF and the Cleveland Police as they doggedly investigated and brought a case involving the deadliest home arson in Cleveland history killed nine people, including eight kids. I also saw the ATF partner with the FBI and our office, first to find and then to bring to justice a bigot who drove from Indiana to outside Toledo to torch the largest mosque in Ohio. And last and certainly not least, I have partnered with the ATF for decades in its crucial fight against gun violence. You know, whether it was taking a single violent recidivist off the street in Maryland or putting together a big racketeering case against a violent gang in Youngstown, Ohio, I have seen the ATF work with other law enforcement to make so many of our communities safer. As we emerge from this pandemic, weve got to recognize that many Americans still face fear and isolation not because of a virus, but because of an epidemic of firearms violence. Its not a new problem, and it has many causes. Thats why its going to take an all-hands-on-deck-partnership approach to address that issue. And the ATF will be there. (Applause.) If confirmed, I promise to support the men and the women of the ATF and to do everything in our power to protect the people of this nation every single day. Thank you. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: All right, good job. MR. DETTELBACH: Thank you, Mr. President. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. And, by the way, he was responsible for the weather as well. (Laughter.) Thank you, thank you, thank you. MR. DETTELBACH: Thank you. (Applause.) The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) A former Maryland mayor who admitted to posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Reddit will not have to spend time behind bars under a plea deal announced by the state prosecutors office on Monday. Former Cambridge Mayor Andrew Bradshaw pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing revenge porn online and was sentenced to a year and a day for each of the five counts, with all of the incarceration time suspended. He also was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and fined $1,000 for each count. Bradshaw also was ordered to pay $750 in restitution to the victim and to perform 100 hours of community service. The former mayor had faced a maximum penalty of two years incarceration and a $5,000 fine for each count. Bradshaw pleaded guilty to posting nude photos of a woman he was once in a relationship with after the relationship had ended. The woman contacted authorities in May after learning that the photos were posted on Reddit. She told authorities that she had sent the photos only to Bradshaw while they were in an intimate relationship, and she didnt give him permission to redistribute them. Investigators discovered that Bradshaw had made numerous separate public posts that contained at least 10 unique visual representations of the victim, and that numerous posts contained language that was related to humiliation and degradation, the state prosecutors office said. When interviewed, Bradshaw admitted to law enforcement agents that he created the accounts and posted the victims nude photographs, authorities said. Bradshaw resigned his position as mayor in January. Anyone who abuses the trust and confidence of another to degrade and humiliate them, particularly through the use of a forum as powerful and pervasive as the Internet, must be held accountable. Such actions are especially egregious when committed by an individual holding a public leadership role of power and authority, said State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard, III. Maryland law prohibits the nonconsensual distribution of a private visual representation of another which exposes their intimate body parts or displays them engaged in sexual activity, with the intent to harm, harass, intimidate, threaten or coerce the person depicted. By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press Shareholders await Musks next move in Twitter takeover bid View Photo DETROIT (AP) Twitter has dropped a major roadblock in front of Elon Musks effort to take over the company, leaving investors to wonder about the mercurial Tesla CEOs next move. The social media company has adopted a poison pill defense that makes it difficult for Musk or any other investor to buy Twitter without the board of directors approval. Musk, who currently owns about 9% of the company, last week disclosed an offer of about $43 billion, or $54.20 per share. Twitters next likely move is to formally reject Musks offer, although it could negotiate. Musk has a number of options which also include talks with the board, sweetening his offer, or even triggering the poison pill, which experts say would be disastrous for the company. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Twitters board said it approved the defensive move to protect the company from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics. The board is leaving open the possibility of negotiating with Musk or another suitor. The filing says the shareholder rights agreement should not interfere with any merger or offer approved by the board. Although he said his offer was final, Musk may have to raise his bid to satisfy other shareholders. A Saudi prince who is among Twitters major shareholders scoffed at the offer last week in a tweet. Al Waleed bin Talal said he didnt believe $43 billion is close to Twitters value given its growth prospects. Twitter shares hit an all-time high of $77.63 in March 2021. When he made his offer public, Musk provided no details on financing, but such a disclosure could improve his chances. He could raise money by borrowing billions using his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX as collateral, and he could bring in other investors. The poison pill would give stockholders as of April 25 the right to buy one one-thousandth of a share of preferred stock for each common share they own, at a price of $210. The rights are triggered if any person or group of investors buys 15% or more of the companys shares without board approval. The preferred stock would have the same voting rights as a common share, according to the filing, which does not specifically mention Musk. The poison pill essentially would spell the end of Twitter if Musk or another investor acquires 15% or more of the company, said James Cox, a professor of corporate and securities law at Duke University. Shareholders who exercise the rights and buy preferred stock at $210 would get $420 in Twitter stock or assets, he said. That would be more than Twitter can afford to pay, and likely would send the company into receivership, Cox said. You want to create an event that Musk would never want to trigger because it would be the death of Twitter, Cox said. He predicts that Musk and the board will negotiate, at least for a while, adding that no investor has ever crossed the line to activate a poison pill. If Musk triggered the poison pill, he risks wiping out much of the money he has invested in Twitter because his stake would be diluted, said Columbia University law professor Eric Talley. You want to deter someone from deliberately triggering the poison pill, Talley said. Twitters board has information that the average shareholder doesnt, such as earnings or market growth projections, and whether theres reason to believe that the share value is artificially depressed, Talley said. The board, he said, could just hold out. Theyre sitting right now on top of a poison pill thats a bit of a showstopper. From a corporate law perspective, theyre on pretty solid footing right now if they just keep that in place and say theyre not comfortable bargaining at this stage. Musk said in making his bid that Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company in order to build trust with users and do better at serving what he calls the societal imperative of free speech. He said shareholders, not the board, should decide whether Twitter goes private. Shares of Twitter closed Monday up 7.5% at $48.45, still $5.75 shy of Musks offer. Thats a sign that investors are skeptical of whether Musk can pull off the deal. Musk began accumulating Twitter shares in late January, ending up with a stake of about 9%. Only Vanguard Group controls more shares. A lawsuit filed last week in New York federal court alleged Musk illegally delayed disclosing his stake so he could buy more shares at lower prices. Musk took to Twitter to criticize board members in recent days, saying hed save about $3 million per year by bringing the board salary to zero if his bid succeeds, and noting that board members collectively owning just a tiny financial stake in Twitter shows that their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders. Musk, who has more than 82 million followers, is a prolific tweeter who has criticized other celebrity accounts for not tweeting enough, suggesting that as a sign that Twitter is dying. The takeover episode will put pressure on Twitter executives to show that the company is not underperforming, said Olaf Groth, a business professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Even the entire social media business model of making money through advertising which Musk has questioned is now up for discussion, Groth said. He may decide its not worth it, and that he sent a political signal to exert pressure, Groth said. Now all eyes are on Twitter and the clock is ticking. ____ OBrien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. By TOM KRISHER and MATT OBRIEN AP Business Writers LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town." He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. ___ Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Sri Lanka's president acknowledged Monday that he made mistakes that led to the country's worst economic crisis in decades and pledged to correct them. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the admission while speaking to 17 new Cabinet ministers he appointed Monday as he and his powerful family seek to resolve a political crisis resulting from the countrys dire economic state. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. A severe shortage of foreign exchange means the country lacks money to buy imported goods. People have endured months of shortages of essentials like food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available. During the last two and a half years we have had vast challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt burden, and some mistakes on our part, Rajapaksa said. They need to be rectified. We have to correct them and move forward. We need to regain the trust of the people. He said the government should have approached the International Monetary Fund early on for help in facing the impending debt crisis and should not have banned chemical fertilizer in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. Critics say the ban on imported fertilizer was aimed at conserving the country's declining foreign exchange holdings and badly hurt farmers. The government is also blamed for taking out large loans for infrastructure projects which have not brought in any money. Today, people are under immense pressure due to this economic crisis. I deeply regret this situation," Rajapaksa said, adding that the pain, discomfort and anger displayed by people forced to wait in long lines to get essential items at high prices is justified. The Cabinet appointments follow weeks of protests over shortages of fuel and food and demands that Rajapaksa, his politically powerful family and his government resign. Much public anger has been directed at Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They head an influential clan that has held power for most of the past two decades. Thousands of protesters occupied the entrance to the presidents office for a 10th day on Monday. The president and prime minister remain in office, but some other relatives lost their Cabinet seats in what was seen as an attempt to pacify the protesters without giving up the family's hold on power. Many senior politicians and those facing corruption allegations were excluded from the new Cabinet in line with calls for a younger administration, though the finance and foreign affairs ministers retained their positions to assist with an economic recovery. Most of the Cabinet resigned on April 3 after protests erupted across the country and demonstrators stormed and vandalized the homes of some Cabinet ministers. Opposition parties rejected an offer by President Rajapaksa to form a unity government with him and his brother remaining in power. Opposition parties have failed, meanwhile, to gain a parliamentary majority. Last week, the government said it was suspending repayment of foreign loans pending talks with the International Monetary Fund. Finance Minister Ali Sabry and officials left for talks with the IMF on Sunday. The IMF and World Bank are holding annual meetings in Washington this week. Sri Lanka has also turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel. DETROIT (AP) Twitter has dropped a major roadblock in front of Elon Musks effort to take over the company, leaving investors to wonder about the mercurial Tesla CEOs next move. The social media company has adopted a poison pill defense that makes it difficult for Musk or any other investor to buy Twitter without the board of directors approval. Musk, who currently owns about 9% of the company, last week disclosed an offer of about $43 billion, or $54.20 per share. Twitters next likely move is to formally reject Musks offer, although it could negotiate. Musk has a number of options which also include talks with the board, sweetening his offer, or even triggering the poison pill, which experts say would be disastrous for the company. In a regulatory filing on Monday, Twitters board said it approved the defensive move to protect the company from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics. The board is leaving open the possibility of negotiating with Musk or another suitor. The filing says the shareholder rights agreement should not interfere with any merger or offer approved by the board. Although he said his offer was final, Musk may have to raise his bid to satisfy other shareholders. A Saudi prince who is among Twitters major shareholders scoffed at the offer last week in a tweet. Al Waleed bin Talal said he didnt believe $43 billion is close to Twitter's value given its growth prospects. Twitter shares hit an all-time high of $77.63 in March 2021. When he made his offer public, Musk provided no details on financing, but such a disclosure could improve his chances. He could raise money by borrowing billions using his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX as collateral, and he could bring in other investors. The poison pill would give stockholders as of April 25 the right to buy one one-thousandth of a share of preferred stock for each common share they own, at a price of $210. The rights are triggered if any person or group of investors buys 15% or more of the companys shares without board approval. The preferred stock would have the same voting rights as a common share, according to the filing, which does not specifically mention Musk. The poison pill essentially would spell the end of Twitter if Musk or another investor acquires 15% or more of the company, said James Cox, a professor of corporate and securities law at Duke University. Shareholders who exercise the rights and buy preferred stock at $210 would get $420 in Twitter stock or assets, he said. That would be more than Twitter can afford to pay, and likely would send the company into receivership, Cox said. You want to create an event that Musk would never want to trigger because it would be the death of Twitter, Cox said. He predicts that Musk and the board will negotiate, at least for a while, adding that no investor has ever crossed the line to activate a poison pill. If Musk triggered the poison pill, he risks wiping out much of the money he has invested in Twitter because his stake would be diluted, said Columbia University law professor Eric Talley. You want to deter someone from deliberately triggering the poison pill, Talley said. Twitter's board has information that the average shareholder doesn't, such as earnings or market growth projections, and whether there's reason to believe that the share value is artificially depressed, Talley said. The board, he said, could just hold out. "Theyre sitting right now on top of a poison pill thats a bit of a showstopper. From a corporate law perspective, theyre on pretty solid footing right now if they just keep that in place and say theyre not comfortable bargaining at this stage. Musk said in making his bid that Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company in order to build trust with users and do better at serving what he calls the societal imperative of free speech. He said shareholders, not the board, should decide whether Twitter goes private. Shares of Twitter closed Monday up 7.5% at $48.45, still $5.75 shy of Musks offer. Thats a sign that investors are skeptical of whether Musk can pull off the deal. Musk began accumulating Twitter shares in late January, ending up with a stake of about 9%. Only Vanguard Group controls more shares. A lawsuit filed last week in New York federal court alleged Musk illegally delayed disclosing his stake so he could buy more shares at lower prices. Musk took to Twitter to criticize board members in recent days, saying hed save about $3 million per year by bringing the board salary to zero if his bid succeeds, and noting that board members collectively owning just a tiny financial stake in Twitter shows that their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders. Musk, who has more than 82 million followers, is a prolific tweeter who has criticized other celebrity accounts for not tweeting enough, suggesting that as a sign that Twitter is dying. The takeover episode will put pressure on Twitter executives to show that the company is not underperforming, said Olaf Groth, a business professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Even the entire social media business model of making money through advertising -- which Musk has questioned -- is now up for discussion, Groth said. He may decide its not worth it, and that he sent a political signal to exert pressure, Groth said. Now all eyes are on Twitter and the clock is ticking. ____ O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. WASHINGTON (AP) Stephen Miller, who served as a top aide to President Donald Trump, was questioned for hours Thursday by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Miller was a senior adviser for policy during the Trump administration and a central figure in many of the Republican's decisions. He had resisted previous efforts by the committee, filing a lawsuit last month seeking to quash a subpoena for his phone records. Miller was interviewed virtually for about eight hours, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony. A second person also confirmed that Miller appeared before the committee. A spokesperson for the committee said the panel had no comment, and Miller did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Miller is the latest in a series of sit-downs the committee has scored with those in Trumps inner circle as lawmakers move closer to the former president by questioning people who were with him on the day of the attack or were his confidants in the weeks leading up to it. His appearance comes weeks after Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also agreed to sit down with congressional investigators, months after the committee had first reached out. Members of the panel said Kushners testimony in late March, which lasted more than six hours, was helpful. Ivanka Trump, who was with her father in the White House on Jan. 6, was questioned for eight hours last week as congressional investigators tried to piece together her fathers failed effort to delay the certification of the 2020 election results. The nine-member panel subpoenaed the former Trump adviser in November along with Steve Bannon and former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the panel's chairman, said at the time that Miller was aware of and had participated in "efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud" and had encouraged state legislatures to alter the outcome of the 2020 election by appointing alternate electors. Thompson has also said that Miller helped prepare Trump's remarks for a rally on the Ellipse that preceded the insurrection and was with Trump when he spoke. The House voted last week to hold former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt for their monthlong refusal to comply with subpoenas. The move was the third time the panel has referred people in the former president's orbit to the Justice Department for potential prosecution for contempt. The first two referrals, sent late last year, were for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Bannon. The contempt referral against Bannon resulted in an indictment, with a trial set to start in July. The Justice Department has been slower to decide whether to prosecute Meadows, much to the committee's frustration. By agreeing to cooperate, Miller appears to be looking to avoid the fate of those former advisers and administration officials. For the committee, comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans, the central facts of the insurrection are known, but what members are hoping to do with the more than 850 interviews and over 100,000 documents is fill in the remaining gaps about the attack on the Capitol. Lawmakers say they are committed to presenting a full accounting to ensure it never happens again. The panel is examining every aspect of the riot, including what Trump was doing while it unfolded and any connections between the White House and the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol building. Members plan to release information in the coming months as the committee begins to hold public hearings and eventually release a series of reports on the insurrection. While there have been discussions about the possibility of eventually pursuing a criminal referral against Trump, lawmakers have not made a final decision. ___ Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinians and Israeli police clashed at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday as thousands gathered for prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Medics said more than 150 Palestinians were wounded Palestinians threw rocks and Israeli police fired stun grenades in what was the most serious violence at the site in nearly a year. The holy site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, has often been the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian unrest, and tensions were already heightened amid a recent wave of violence. Clashes at the site last year helped spark an 11-day war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The clashes come at a particularly sensitive time. Ramadan this year coincides with Passover, a major weeklong Jewish holiday beginning Friday at sundown, and Christian holy week, which culminates on Easter Sunday. The holidays are expected to bring tens of thousands of faithful into Jerusalem's Old City, home to major sites sacred to all three religions. Hours after the clashes began, the police said they had put an end to the violence and arrested hundreds of suspects. The mosque was re-opened, and some 60,000 people attended the main Friday prayers midday, according to the Waqf, the Islamic endowment that administers the site. After prayers, thousands of Palestinians marched around the esplanade, chanting with our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Al-Aqsa, in addition to slogans in support of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. Less than a kilometer (mile) away, thousands of Christians marched in a procession retracing the traditional journey of Jesus to the cross in honor of Good Friday. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was open to visitors, who are returning to the Holy Land in large numbers for the first time since before the pandemic. The violence was confined to the mosque compound. Israeli authorities said that before the unrest broke out they had negotiated with Muslim leaders to try to ensure calm. But the police say Palestinians stockpiled rocks and other objects inside the compound and hurled stones at the Mughrabi Gate, which leads to the Western Wall a major Jewish holy site triggering the violence. Palestinian witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said a small group of Palestinians threw rocks at police, who then entered the compound in force, setting off a wider conflagration. Palestinians view any large deployment of police at Al-Aqsa as a provocation. Palestinians threw rocks and fireworks, and police fired tear gas and stun grenades on the sprawling esplanade surrounding the mosque. Dozens of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque as they fought Israeli security forces. Israeli police later entered the mosque and arrested people inside. The police rarely enter the building, which is seen by Palestinians as an escalation. The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it treated 152 people, many of them wounded by rubber-coated bullets or stun grenades. Video footage showed police beating a photographer for the Waqf with batons before knocking him to ground and kicking him. The Waqf said the photographer, Rami Khatib, suffered a broken hand. There was no immediate comment from police. The Israeli police said three officers were wounded from massive stone-throwing, with two evacuated from the scene for treatment. Neighboring Jordan, which has custodianship over the holy site, and the Palestinian Authority issued a joint statement accusing Israel of a dangerous and condemnable escalation that threatens to explode the situation. Egypt also condemned the Israeli raid. Israel's public security minister, Omer Barlev, who oversees the police force, said Israel had no interest in violence at the holy site but that police were forced to confront violent elements who attacked them with stones and metal bars. He said Israel was committed to freedom of worship for Jews and Muslims alike. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said authorities are working to calm things on the Temple Mount and throughout Israel. At the same time, we are prepared for any scenario." The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It is built on a hilltop in Jerusalem's Old City that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the site of the Jewish temples in antiquity. It has been a major flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence for decades and was the epicenter of the 2000-2005 Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future state including the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel also captured during the war nearly 55 years ago. Tensions have soared in recent weeks following a series of attacks by Palestinians that killed 14 people inside Israel. Israeli troops have carried out a wave of arrests and military operations across the occupied West Bank, setting off clashes with Palestinians. At least 25 Palestinians have been killed, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in the clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed. Weeks of protests and clashes in and around Al-Aqsa during Ramadan last year helped ignite a fourth Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. This year, Israel has lifted restrictions and taken other steps to try and calm tensions, but the attacks and the military raids are fueling another cycle of unrest. Hamas condemned what it said were brutal attacks" on worshippers at Al-Aqsa, saying Israel would bear all the consequences. Earlier this week, Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza had called on Palestinians to camp out at the Al-Aqsa mosque over the weekend. Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over the site or partition it. Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years large groups of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited the site with police escorts. A radical Jewish group recently called on people to bring animals to the site in order to sacrifice them for Passover, offering cash rewards for those who succeeded or even tried. Israeli police work to prevent such activities, but the call was widely circulated by Palestinians on social media, along with calls for Muslims to prevent any sacrifices from taking place. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, issued a statement calling on Muslim leaders to act to stop the violence. He also noted that bringing a sacrifice to the Temple Mount today is in opposition to the decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. ___ Associated Press reporter Wafaa Shurafa in Gaza City, Gaza Strip contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban into law Thursday as the state joined a growing conservative push to restrict access to the procedure ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could roll back abortion rights in America. This will represent the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation, DeSantis said as he signed the bill at an evangelical church in the city of Kissimmee. Republicans nationwide have moved to place new restrictions on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it would uphold a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. The high court's decision, expected this summer, could potentially weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to abortion. The law DeSantis signed Thursday also deals a blow to overall abortion access in the South, where Florida has provided wider access to the procedure than its regional neighbors. The new law, which takes effect July 1, contains exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save a mothers life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape, incest or human trafficking, despite several Democratic attempts to amend the bill. Under current law, Florida allows abortions up to 24 weeks. Debate over the proposal grew deeply personal and revealing inside the legislature, as lawmakers recalled their own abortions and experiences with sexual assault in often tearful speeches on the House and Senate floors. Republicans have repeatedly called the 15-week ban reasonable. A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said about 2% of the nearly 72,000 abortions reported in Florida in 2019 were performed after 15 weeks. That same year, 2,256 out-of-state residents got abortions in Florida, with the majority, or about 1,200 coming, from Georgia and more than 300 from Alabama, according to the CDC. The origin of the remaining patients was not clear. Democrats were quick to criticize the new law after the signing. Politicians have no business getting between a patient and her doctor," House Democratic Leader Evan Jenne said. This 15-week abortion ban takes away every womans right to make personal decisions that should only be made by themselves, with their family, their doctor, and their faith. The legislation came a few months after the U.S. Supreme Courts conservative majority indicated it would uphold Mississippis 15-week ban. There also has been substantial support among the conservative justices for getting rid of Roe altogether. If Roe is overturned, 26 states are certain or likely to quickly ban or severely restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that supports abortion rights. During the debate over the Florida legislation, as well as at the bill's signing ceremony, Republicans said they want the state to be well placed to limit access to abortions if the Supreme Court upholds Mississippis law. The reality of the Roe decision is that men on the Supreme Court proclaimed that women, in order to achieve equality with men, must be able to kill their own children," said Republican Rep. Erin Grall, the bill's sponsor. As a woman, I refuse to accept such a perverse version of equality." Elsewhere in the U.S., Republican lawmakers have introduced new abortion restrictions, some similar to a Texas law that bans abortion after roughly six weeks and leaves enforcement up to private citizens. Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed a bill to make it a felony to perform an abortion, punishable by up to a decade in prison. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in March signed legislation to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court leaves Mississippis law in place. ___ AP writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed from Miami. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The bodies of more than 900 civilians have been discovered in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital following Russia's withdrawal most of them fatally shot, police said Friday, an indication that many people were "simply executed. The jarring number emerged shortly after Russias Defense Ministry promised to step up missile attacks on Kyiv in response to Ukraines alleged assaults on Russian territory. That ominous warning followed the stunning loss of Moscow's flagship in the Black Sea, which a senior U.S. defense official said Friday was indeed hit by at least one Ukrainian missile. Amid its threats, Moscow continued preparations for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine. Fighting also went on in the pummeled southern port city of Mariupol, where locals reported seeing Russian troops digging up bodies. In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, shelling of a residential area killed seven people, including a 7-month-old child, and wounded 34, according to regional Gov. Oleh Sinehubov. Around Kyiv, Andriy Nebytov, the head of the capital's regional police force, said bodies were abandoned in the streets or given temporary burials. He cited police data indicating 95% died from gunshot wounds. Consequently, we understand that under the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets, Nebytov said. More bodies are being found every day under rubble and in mass graves, he added, with the largest number found in Bucha, where there were more than 350. According to Nebytov, utility workers gathered and buried bodies in the Kyiv suburb while it remained under Russian control. Russian troops, he added, were tracking down people who expressed strong pro-Ukrainian views. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops occupying parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south of terrorizing civilians and hunting for anyone who served in Ukraines military or government. The occupiers think this will make it easier for them to control this territory. But they are very wrong. They are fooling themselves, Zelenskyy said. Russias problem is that it is not accepted and never will be accepted by the entire Ukrainian people. Russia has lost Ukraine forever. In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy also said he discussed the fate of Mariupol with top military and intelligence officials. He said he couldnt offer details, but we are doing everything we can to save our people. Zelenskyy said peace and how many more Ukrainians the occupiers have time to kill depend on Ukraine receiving more outside support, and echoed calls for more and faster military aid, as well as an oil embargo on Russia. More violence could be in store for Kyiv after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of wounding seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings with airstrikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another border region of Russia also reported Ukrainian shelling Thursday. The number and the scale of missile attacks on objects in Kyiv will be ramped up in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any terrorist attacks or diversions on the Russian territory, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Russia used missiles to destroy a facility for the repair and production of missile systems in Kyiv, Konashenkov said. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed striking targets in Russia, and the reports could not be independently verified. However, Ukrainian officials said forces did strike a key Russian warship with missiles. A senior U.S. defense official backed up the claim, saying the U.S. now believes the Moskva was hit by at least one Neptune anti-ship missile, and probably two. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment. The Moskva, named for the Russian capital, sank while being towed to port Thursday after taking heavy damage. Though Moscow did not acknowledge any attack, saying only that a fire had caused ammunition on board to detonate, the loss of the ship represents an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia. The sinking reduces Russias firepower in the Black Sea, although military analysts disagreed on the event's significance to the course of the war. Either way, the loss was viewed as emblematic of Moscow's fortunes in an eight-week invasion widely seen as a historic blunder following the retreat from the Kyiv region and much of northern Ukraine. A flagship russian warship is a worthy diving site. We have one more diving spot in the Black Sea now. Will definitely visit the wreck after our victory in the war, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweeted Friday. Russia's warning of renewed airstrikes did not stop Kyiv residents from taking advantage of a sunny and slightly warmer spring Friday as the weekend approached. More people than usual were out on the streets, walking dogs, riding electric scooters and strolling hand in hand. In one central park, a small group of people including a woman draped in a Ukrainian flag danced to the music of a portable speaker. Such tentative signs of prewar life have resurfaced in the capital after Russian troops failed to capture the city and retreated to concentrate on eastern Ukraine, leaving behind evidence of possible war crimes. But a renewed bombardment could mean a return to the steady wail of air raid sirens heard during the early days of the invasion and to fearful nights sheltering in subway stations. In Mariupol, the city council said Friday that locals reported seeing Russian troops digging up bodies buried in residential courtyards and not allowing new burials of people killed by them. Why the exhumation is being carried out and where the bodies will be taken is unknown, the council said on the Telegram messaging app. Fighting continued in industrial areas and the port, and Russia for the first time used the Tu-223 long-range bomber to attack the city, said Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Mariupol has been blockaded by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion, and dwindling numbers of Ukrainian defenders have held out against a siege that has come at a horrific cost to trapped and starving civilians. The mayor said this week that the city's death toll could surpass 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials have said they expect to find evidence in Mariupol of atrocities like the ones discovered in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv. Mariupols capture would allow Russian forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraines eastern industrial heartland and the target of the looming offensive. It's not certain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign. Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in the Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has recognized the independence of two rebel-held areas of the region. Also Friday a Russian rocket hit an airport at night in the central city of Oleksandriia, Mayor Serhiy Kuzmenko said via Facebook. He made no mention of casualties. And a regional Ukrainian official said seven people were killed and 27 wounded when Russian forces fired on buses carrying civilians in the village of Borovaya, near Kharkiv. The claim could not be independently verified. Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors office, told the Suspilne news website that authorities had opened criminal proceedings in connection with a suspected violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder. Russia's Defense Ministry said strikes in the Kharkiv region had liquidated a squad of mercenaries from a Polish private military company of up to 30 people and liberated an iron and steel factory in Mariupol. The claims could not be independently verified. ___ Fisch reported from Kramatorsk. Burns reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Julian Castro can now add cable news host to his resume after taking over the host chair for Alicia Menendez on MSNBC over the weekend. The former San Antonio mayor and Obama administration cabinet member hosted the show on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17. The show, American Voices, launched in September 2020 and spotlights the largest political stories and highlights underrepresented stories. Castro's weekend guests included journalist Molly Jong-Fast, legal analyst and author Jill Wine-Banks, and Kavita Patel, a doctor from San Antonio. Patel also served in the Obama administration as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement in the White House. The worlds largest International Dark Sky Reserve is now in West Texas backyard. The University of Texas at Austins McDonald Observatory, The Nature Conservancy -- Davis Mountain Preserve and the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) have announced the certification of the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve. The designation, granted by the International Dark-Sky Association, recognizes the commitment of organizations, governments, businesses and residents in the region to maintain dark skies, according to a press release. Protecting this resource benefits wildlife, ecology and tourism alongside astronomical research. The new Greater Big Ben International Dark Sky Reserve is more than 15,000 square miles and is the largest certified International Dark Sky Place to date. Moreover, this is the only reserve to incorporate portions of West Texas and protected lands in Coahuila and Chihuahua, northern Mexico. The core of the reserve, where the protection for dark skies is the strongest, is formed by the lands of McDonald Observatory and the Nature Conservancys Davis Mountain Preserve. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is one of the major partners that helped make the reserve a reality. The reserve will protect numerous nocturnal wildlife habitats and migration corridors passing through the Big Bend region. The full range of the reserve spans the Rio Grande, from the Davis Mountains of West Texas to the Sierra del Carmen of northern Mexico. In the US, it includes the Texas counties of Jeff Davis, Brewster, Presidio and a small section of Reeves County. Participating protected lands also include several certified International Dark Sky places, such as Big Bend National Park, the Big Bend Ranch State Park Complex and Black Gap Wildlife Management Area. South of the Rio Grande in Mexico, the reserve includes privately managed lands in Maderas del Carmen, Ocampo and Canon de Santa Elena. Four countries and five municipalities within the proposed reserve periphery or the area surrounding the dark core area, updated their existing lighting ordinances with relevant language to ensure their lighting reflects best practices and supports the efforts of protecting the cores dark skies. By Lambert Strether of Corrente Bird Song of the Day I think I will try for a week of Lyre Birds. (They are videos, too, but I cant find one of Lyrebird courtship display.) * * * Politics But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51 They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Hunter Thompson Biden Adminstration Another enormous success for Bidens Vax-Only policy: Other Indoor Activities: I went to a large conference in Nashville last week. I wore my mask in sessions, though (to my surprise) ~80-90% of the MDs there did not. I did go to a few big indoor dinners/receptions with no mask, accepting it was probably the riskiest thing (20/25) Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) April 17, 2022 Doctors are influencers, after all. They probably think that aerosols are the result of aerosol-generaling procedures in hospital. Who lost Bidens agenda? Democrats offer competing theories for failure of Build Back Better' [NBC]. There is now a quiet effort underway to pass some version of the presidents agenda under a legislative process known as reconciliation, which allows Democrats to circumvent Republican opposition and pass a bill along party lines. Officials said Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and Louisa Terrell, the White House director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, are having conversations with Democrats on Capitol Hill. That effort, however, has hardly been central for Congress so far this year, as the focus has been on Russias war in Ukraine, funding the government and confirming a Supreme Court nominee. Democrats also expect to pass the CHIPS Act, to bolster the domestic production of computer circuitry, and an election security measure in coming weeks. And officials are quick to argue that even without Build Back Better, the presidents legislative accomplishments are significant from $1.9 trillion in Covid relief to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Oh no, an election security measure. A Biden Blood Bath? [Charles Blow, New York Times]. Poor messaging may contribute to the problem, but I think the problem is more on ground level, a gut level: How do people feel? They feel stuck and angry, theyre tired and overwhelmed, and that energy is being directed at Biden. Poor messaging may contribute to the problem, but I think the problem is more on ground level, a gut level: How do people feel? They feel stuck and angry, theyre tired and overwhelmed, and that energy is being directed at Biden. All the while, two major perennial issues are resurgent: crime and the economy. Agreement seems to be universal that a million dead in a pandemic and a proxy war with a nuclear power arent issues. Which is fine, I suppose, since the parties dont think theyre issues either. Democrats en Deshabille I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that cant bury itself) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a live Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before: The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as unreformable as the PMC is unreformable ; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, thats because the PMC lacks the capability to govern . (PMC modulo class expatriates, of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network a Flex Net? An iron octagon? of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community. Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see industrial model of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down. * * * 2022 * * * MN: With An Attempt To Unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota House Race Sets Up A Contest On Policing [The Intercept]. FOR THE SECOND cycle in a row, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is facing a serious primary challenger. Former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels announced Thursday that his campaign had raised $350,000 in the month since its launch, with 75 percent in contributions under $100 and $320,000 cash on hand. Omars fundraising has been slower, pulling in $275,000 in the first quarter with an average donation of $13, with a total of $500,000 on hand. The Minneapolis primary will focus heavily on the question of policing. Over the past two years, the first count in the party establishments indictment of its progressive wing has been the push to defund the police, with President Joe Biden explicitly targeting the slogan during his State of the Union address and following it up with an infusion of cash for cops. Almost two years ago, amid calls to reform the Minneapolis Police Department after cops there killed George Floyd, Samuels, who also served on the citys school board, and his wife, Sondra, took on a new cause: In August 2020, they sued the city to hire more than 100 additional cops. Includes plenty of juicy detail on Samuels, like got an envelope with a couple grand. The segment on the hot dog vendors is also good. OH: Nina Turner in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District [Cleveland.com]. With some bumps along the way, and considering how recently she was elected, Brown has conducted herself reasonably well, shown relish for the job and a commitment to important Democratic issues like voting rights reform although she should step down as party chair. But a fighter is what Greater Cleveland needs in Congress, especially with the strong possibility of a GOP takeover of the House. And a principled and focused fighter is what Greater Cleveland will get in Nina Turner. OH: Oil Mogul Bankrolls Attempt To Buy Democratic Primary [Lever News]. One month after Samson Energy mogul Stacy Schusterman poured $2 million into DMFI PAC, the group purchased TV ads starting Monday to boost Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) in her primary campaign rematch against former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner in a newly redrawn Cleveland congressional district. The primary election date is May 3. Last year, DMFI PAC spent $1.9 million attacking Turner and promoting Brown, helping the latter win the seat in a special election. The group also spent $1.4 million attacking Sanders during his 2020 campaign. Schusterman chairs Oklahoma-based Samson Energy, whose website describes it as a company that was formed to allow the Schusterman family to remain in the oil and gas exploration and production business following their sale of Samson Investment Company in 2011. The company has been one of the countrys largest per-well emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. PA: Its a big, big day for our crew. Coming to you live from the 2022 @WhiteHouse Easter Egg Roll! P.S. the rumors are False. I did *not* wear a bunny suit for this fine occasion. pic.twitter.com/l4dkbU4Hot John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) April 18, 2022 This is the second time Ive seen Biden give Fetterman a hand (the first was a photo op in Pittsburgh after the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse). I dont see stuff like this happending for that little twerp Conor Lamb. Not sure whats going on here. 2024 Kamala Harris keeps traveling to unconventional places. Heres why. [Politico]. The swing to Greenville is part of an under noticed strategy for the VPs office, one in which shes homed her focus on the ways in which administration policy is intersecting with overlooked communities. Its brought her to other far-off, non-traditional locales, including a recent swing to Sunset, Louisiana, a rural town of fewer than 3,000 people, to tout the administrations work expanding rural broadband. And its manifested itself in the ways in which shes approached some of the White Houses big-ticket items. Weeks after the bipartisan infrastructure bill was passed into law, Harris convened a briefing with administration officials to go over the part of the bill related to charging stations for electric vehicles an interest that had animated her dating back to her time in California politics. As staff went from page to page of the briefing document, she peppered them with questions. How would 500,000 charging stations be built and distributed? Who would build them? What would it mean for overlooked communities? [She said] Talk to me about a community that has been left behind, a rural community. Where are they going to go? How are they going to get put there? Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser to the president, recounted to POLITICO. Now talk to me about an urban neighborhood that has been left behind where people are renting. A month later, she was in Brandywine, Maryland, a majority Black city though not exactly a locality at the vanguard of electoral politics talking about EV stations and announcing the administrations plan to make sure its charging network made it to communities like theirs. Its not necessarily that were going to win Mississippi or Louisiana, but it makes a difference in people knowing that theyre seen and theyre heard. The electoral benefits of going to remote communities in non-swing states seem decidedly limited for those in the Beltway, especially at a time when the White House is trying to turn around its polling nosedive and gain praise for the state of the jobs market. But administration officials contend that the symbolism of a vice presidential trip matters, and that when its tied with some larger announcement, it has a clear downstream upside. A downstream upside. Or maybe they send Harris to small places because shes not ready for the big leagues. Realignment and Legitimacy The End of Progressive Intellectual Life [Michael Lind, The Tablet]. The space to the left-of-center that was once filled with magazines and organizations devoted to what Diana Trilling called the life of significant contention is now filled by the ritualized gobbledygook of foundation-funded, single-issue nonprofits like a pond choked by weeds. It is not surprising that the written output of this billionaire-funded bureaucratic apparatus tends to read like an NGO word salad with crunchy croutons in the form of acronyms that stud post-intellectual progressive discourse: DEI, CRT, AAPI, BIPOC, LGBTQ+. Wokespeak is Grantspeak.Meanwhile, in one area of public policy or politics after another, Progressivism Inc. has shut down debate on the center left through its interlocking networks of program officers, nonprofit functionaries, and editors and writers, all of whom can move with more or less ease between these roles during their careers as bureaucratic functionaries whose salaries are ultimately paid by Americas richest families and individuals. The result is a spectacularly well-funded NGO-sphere whose intellectual depth and breadth are contracting all the time.. Who decides what is and is not permissible for American progressives to think or discuss or support? The answer is the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and other donor foundations, an increasing number of which are funded by fortunes rooted in Silicon Valley. It is this donor elite, bound together by a set of common class prejudices and economic interests, on which most progressive media, think tanks, and advocacy groups depend for funding. The center-left donor network uses its financial clout, exercised through its swarms of NGO bureaucrats, to impose common orthodoxy and common messaging on their grantees. The methods by which they enforce this discipline can be described as chain-ganging and shoe-horning. Chain-ganging (a term I have borrowed from international relations theory) in this context means implicitly or explicitly banning any grantee from publicly criticizing the positions of any other grantee. Shoe-horning is what I call the progressive donor practice of requiring all grantees to assert their fealty to environmentalist orthodoxy and support for race and gender quotas, even if those topics have nothing to do with the subject of the grant. Commentary: Democracy experts: Ive been thinking more and more that newsrooms need to hold an all-staff meeting where they invite democracy experts & historians in & really do a massive reset of how we are covering whats happening in our country right now. Its not about partisanship but covering reality. Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) April 17, 2022 Yikes: No wonder we dont know how to do diplomacy anymore. Reminds me of Carl Schmitt. #COVID19 If you missed it, heres a post on my queasiiness with CDC numbers, especially case count, which I (still) consider most important, despite what Walenskys psychos at CDC who invented community levels think. But these are the numbers we have. * * * Case count by United States regions: Fiddling and diddling. Remember, its 100% certain the cases numbers are significantly understated. Theyve always been gamed, but its worse than before. One source said they though cases might be undercounted by a factor of six. Yikes. But how do we know? Here are the cases for the last four weeks: NOTE I shall most certainly not be using the CDCs new Community Level metric. Because CDC has combined a leading indicator (cases) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning sign of a surge, and a poor way to assess personal risk. In addition, Covid is a disease you dont want to get. Even if you are not hospitalized, you can suffer from Long Covid, vascular issues, and neurological issues. For these reasons, case counts known to be underestimated, due to home test kits deserve to stand alone as a number to be tracked, no matter how much the political operatives in CDC leadership would like to obfuscate it. MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection: As usual, the crisis of the past is the normal of the present. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple school systems but several large universities. Since Boston is so very education-heavy, then, I think it could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally. For grins, heres the wastewater of another college town, Ann Arbor, Michigan (hat tip kcp): Improvement, unlike MWRA. From Biobot Analytics: Cases lag wastewater data. From CDC Community Profile Reports (PDFs), Rapid Riser counties: The Northeast isnt looking too good, now confirmed by hospital data. I wonder how many Gridiron Club attendees took the Acela home the following morning? (Remember that these are rapid riser counties. A county that moves from red to green is not covid-free; the case count just isnt, well, rising rapidly.) The previous release: Here is CDCs interactive map by county set to community transmission. This is the map CDC wants only hospitals to look at, not you: The Northeast remains stubbornly and solidly red. Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile): Suddenly, the Northeast isnt looking good. Of course, absolute levels are still low, so CDC can argue that nothing should be done. Again, I dont like these sudden effloresences of yellow and orange. I dont care that the baseline is low. From the point of view of our hospital-centric health care system, green everywhere means the emergency is over (and to be fair, this is reinforced by case count and wastewater). However, community transmission is still pervasive, which means that long Covid, plus continuing vascular damage, are not over. (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the arrow, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So its possible to have an upward trend, but from a very low baseline.) Oh, and if anybody tells you hospitalization is down, tell them No, it very isnt. A new way for hospitals to game the data: Covid hospitalizations are only counted in Massachusetts if the patient is given Dexamethasone, which is only recommended for those on oxygen. I feel the death & hospitalization criteria will extend across other states soon pic.twitter.com/J6ykG56Zrz MayasMommy2 #NotMeUs (@SheriD17536431) April 1, 2022 IM Doc writes: I would guess with Omicron about 60% of the patients were on Dexamethasone so no not an adequate proxy for hospitalization. Just a reminder: As with everything else, because the United States is not a serious country, our hospitalization data is bad. Here the baseilne is off: Hospital trick: patients admitted with covid in 10-12 days become post-covid & no longer counted as hospitalized covid patients. ICU is full of post-covid patients that are here for 30, 40, 50 & more days. Not counted in the official stats. Dr. Natalia (@SolNataMD) January 24, 2022 Gamed numbers aside, it also occurs to me that this time around, people might be avoiding hospitalization altogether, if they were relatives or friends of people who got hospitalized in earlier waves; no knock on the medical profession, but it was a bad way to go. (I wonder if theres some sort of proxy that would show this.) Death rate (Our World in Data): Total: 1,015,451 1,014,902 . We did it. Break out the Victory Gin. have added an anti-triumphalist Fauci Line. The numbers have been level for the past few days, and theyre still democidally high. Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista): Stats Watch * * * Retail: White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch Review: How Youth Fashion Turned Fascist [Variety]. The journalist Moe Tkacik recalls that the first time she walked into an Abercrombie outlet, she said to herself, Oh my God, theyve bottled this. They have absolutely crystalized everything that I hate about high school and put it in a store. * * * Todays Fear & Greed Index: 39 Fear (previous close: 42 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 46 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Apr 18 at 1:19pm. Rapture Index: Closes up one on Israel: Violence has erupted on the Temple Mount [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 188. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) The Gallery So., NFTs for each can? News of the Wired Dad: The chemist tried to come up with a clever reply about breaking his glassware, but he had no retort SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) April 18, 2022 * * * Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. GE writes: Im mostly a lurker around the water cooler, but I noticed todays plant image: GE writes: I believe I recognize this particular tree and have even painted a small gouache sketch of its trunk (66, in winter 2021). If Im correct, this tree is in a cemetery in Vancouver, BC, and if so, I love that this particular plant has inspired more than one NC reader to capture its unique image: And GE writes: The cherry blossoms in Vancouver are brief, but always spectacular! * * * Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and thank you! successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals: Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated: If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you! By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and U.S. president Joe Biden met virtually last Monday to discuss their bilateral relationship, especially U,S, insistence that India not increase its oil and gas imports from Russia, according to the New York Times, Biden Urges Modi Not to Increase Indias Reliance on Russian Oil and Gas. Russian oil currently accounts for about one percent of Indias exports. India has abstained from UN votes condemning Russian actions in Ukraine. India has most recently condemned the killings in Bucha and called for a fuller UN investigation, but tellingly, has not attributed those killings to Russia. Per the NYT: On Monday, Mr. Modi again declined to single out Russia by name even as he condemned the apparent human rights abuses in Bucha, which the United States and others have said are evidence of war crimes. The news about the killings of innocent civilians in the Bucha city was very worrying, Mr. Modi said in public remarks at the beginning of his meeting with Mr. Biden. He did not attribute the killings to Russia, but said that we instantly condemned the killings and have called for an independent inquiry. These talks were accompanied by 2 plus 2 meetings in Washington, between Indian external affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Indian defense minister Rajnath Singh and their U.S. counterparts, U.S. secretary of state Anthony Blinken and U.S. secretary for defense Lloyd Austin. This was the fourth such meeting. Now, some have suggested in NC comments threads, among other places that Modi will respond to U.S. arm twisting by walking back Indias commitment to an independent multi alignment policy and instead capitulate to pursuing the sanctions policy against Russia that the U.S. demands. I think that highly unlikely, for reasons I outlined in a post two weeks ago, India: Pursuing its National Interest in the Multipolar World. First, India has pursued a broadly non-aligned policy more or less from its Independence from the Raj. This new multi-alignment policy is the logical follow-on from that policy, in response to the rise of a multipolar world. Second, Jaishankar published a remarkable book in 2020, The India Way, which serves as a primer for understanding Indias current approach to managing its international affairs. If one wants to understand the terms in which Indis leaders see the current state of the world and the role India should play in it, theres no better place to start than with this erudite, elegant book. Third, to be sure, Modis BJP government is advancing this policy. But Modi has time and time again demonstrated a facility to draw on the best of Indias technocrats such as Jaishankar in this case in designing and implementing BJP government policies. Moreover, support for this multi-aligned policy extends across the Indian political spectrum if anything, the Congress Party is even more committed to pursuing a non-aligned policy, as it was Indias first prime minister and Congress Party member, Jawaharlal Nehru, who first charted Indias non-aligned foreign policy course. So, even in the unlikely event of an electoral upheaval, Indias multi-aligned foreign policy is here to stay. Finally, its clearly in Indias self-interest to get the best possible economic deals for its people, especially as Jaishankar has observed, Indias Russian oil imports are mere drops in the bucket, compared to Russian fossil fuel being taken in by Europe. According to The Hindustan Times, Indias 1-month oil from Russia less than Europes in one afternoon: Jaishankar: Delivering a firm rebuttal to a widely held but factually inaccurate perception of Indias energy relationship with Russia, external affairs minister S Jaishankar has said those who are looking at Indias energy purchases from Russia would be better served if they turned their attention to Europe. At the press meeting after the conclusion of the 2+2 dialogue in Washington DC on Monday, Jaishankar said, If you are looking at energy purchases from Russia, I would suggest that your attention should be focused on EuropeWe do buy some energy which is necessary for our energy security. But I suspect, looking at the figures, probably our total purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon. So you might want to think about that. Or, to put it more bluntly, if Germany and Europe cannot forgo their Russian fossil fuel fix, why should India do so particularly when fuel is being offered on such favourable terms? Aftermath of 2 + 2 Indo-U.S. Meetings Lets delve a bit more deeply into what happened on the immediate aftermath of the D.C. meetings. The U.S. defense department followed with release of a warm and fuzzy document, Readout of U.S. India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue: From that document: Secretary Austin and his counterparts exchanged views on a range of regional security prioritiesspanning the Indian Ocean region to East and Southeast Asia to Europe. They agreed to maintain close consultations on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, including on humanitarian assistance efforts, and echoed support for an independent investigation into the brutal violence deployed against civilians in Bucha. In support of Indias leading role as a net security provider, the leaders discussed new opportunities to coordinate more closely together to ensure that the United States and Indias shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region continues to thrive. . The leaders discussed ways to coordinate more closely with like-minded nationsincluding Australia, Japan, and European partnersto ensure that our shared principles of the rule of law, freedom of the seas, and respect for the territorial integrity of sovereign states prevail today and far into the future. Todays 2+2 Ministerial reaffirmed that the United States and India will continue stand shoulder-to-shoulder, rooted in common democratic values, as two pillars of a free and open Indo-Pacific. in other words, all the correct noises were uttered in impeccable diplomat-speak. Alas, last September the U.S. had shocked India by peremptorily announcing a new trilateral security arrangement, AUKUS, among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus superseding the Quadrlateral Security Dialogue the Quad among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. More than any other recent U.S. action, this move helped convince India that the U.S. is a less than reliable ally. India had been a prime mover behind the Quad arrangements. Moreover, as part of the new AUKUS accord, the U.S. agreed to send nuclear submarines to Australia after having dithered about sending such subs to India, due to concern about technology transfer to India. While the U.S. defense department played good cop, state slipped easily into the bad cop role, choosing to highlight concerns about Indian human rights abuses at a joint press conference. According to the Hindustan Times, US monitoring concerning human rights abuses in India: Blinken: During his press appearance after the 2+2 dialogue with defence minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister S Jaishankar standing next to him Blinken said that India and the US share a commitment to our democratic values, such as protecting human rights. We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values, and to that end we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials. While Washington has emphasised the need for protection of minorities and civil liberties in India, this is the first time in recent times that US has directly implicated Indian government officials in human rights abuses. The Indian ministers did not respond on the dais. Blinken did not elaborate, and it was not clear what specific incidents he was referring to. The state department followed with the release of a report the very next day highlighting specific U.S. concerns aboutIndias human rights record, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: India. From the executive summary: Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by police and prison officials; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention by government authorities; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on free expression and media, including violence, threats of violence, or unjustified arrests or prosecutions against journalists, use of criminal libel laws to prosecute social media speech; restrictions on internet freedom; overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operations of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; refoulement of refugees; serious government corruption; government harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence; crimes involving violence and discrimination targeting members of minority groups based on religious affiliation, social status or sexual orientation or gender identity; and forced and compulsory labor, including child labor and bonded labor. Despite government efforts to address abuses and corruption, a lack of accountability for official misconduct persisted at all levels of government, contributing to widespread impunity. Investigations and prosecutions of individual cases took place, but lax enforcement, a shortage of trained police officers, and an overburdened and underresourced court system contributed to a low number of convictions. Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern states, and Maoist terrorism-affected areas committed serious abuses, including killings and torture of armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and civilians, kidnapping, and recruitment and use of child soldiers. The Hindustan Times article further discussed pressures from progressive Democrats which have accused India of democratic backsliding in recent years. Blinken and Jaishankar met again Tuesday in an event on Tuesday at Howard University, acccoring to The Times of India,Blinken & Jaishankar for enhanced US-India educational ties to boost bilateral relations. How did India specifically Jaishankar respond to the U.S. concerns? Over to the Times of India, Have concerns about human rights in US: EAM Jaishankar: Unfazed and unbowed in the face of American pressure, India is pushing back at Washington on several contentious issues- including the threat of sanctions. and its crusade for human rights while maintaining that ties between the two sides are strong enough to accommodate differences. In a blunt rebuttal to the US menacing New Delhi with sanction threats over its purchases of Russian S-400 missile system, external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said CAATSA, the US domestic law that enjoins sanctions for such transactions with American adversaries, was for Washington to sort out. It is their legislation and whatever has to be done has to be done by them, Jaishankar said, implicitly declaring that India will do what it takes to safeguard its security without worrying about sanctions. Jaishankar similarly pushed back at US criticism of human rights in India, attributing it to American lobbies and vote banks. People are entitled to have views about us.We also are entitled to have views about their lobbies and vote banks.We will not be reticent. We also have views on other peoples human rights, particularly when it pertains to our community, Jaishankar retorted in one of the strongest repudiation of the constant American lectures on human rights. Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis. Is anyone in Washington listening? Well, this subsequent report in Firstpost, suggests that perhaps Blinken now understands that the US bullying isnt likely to yield the results the U.S. seeks, The latest reset: India and the United States amid Ukraine war. Blinkens next-day comments were much more cordial: After Blinken raised concerns about human rights in India, Jaishankar responded by saying India too has concerns about human rights in America. The next day, Blinken noted: The US and India have always had much to learn from one another interactions with Gandhi influenced a key figure in our nations journey: Martin Luther King, Jr. We share a special bond indeed. As to what happens next: I think its safe to say that India is not going to join the UK, and much of Europe, in entering the U.S. kennel, acting like a poodle happily yip yapping at Americas heels and allowing Washington to set the tone and course of its future relations with Russia or any other country, for that matter. Instead, as Dr. Sunandan Roy Chowdhury, editor of Eastern Review magazine, pointed out to me in a telephone interiew: India will not toe a US line not only because of its understanding of its relationship with Russia, but also India is acutely aware of its geopolitical location in Asia, its biggest neighbour is China, and Russia and China are poles that India will not ignore because India knows if it does so, that will be in effect to the detriment of its own self-interest. Geostrategic reasons may even override the immediate economic benefits of cheap petrol. As for the U.S.: Will Washington once again learn how to practice effective diplomacy? Im not so sure. During recent decades, diplomatic skills seems to have been lost, forgotten or outright abandoned, both along the Potomac and in the extensive outside interactions between the United States and the wider world. Yves here. While I do not watch gasoline market conditions closely, it seems just about certain that the price trajectory is higher. First, weve gotten a bit of a break from the China lockdowns, which have cut into Chinese demand for oil and gas. But second is a mixed item. Biden has authorized going into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at the rate of a million barrels a day, which is a bit more than our Russian oil imports. But thats only for six months. Think the US is prepared to end the sanctions on Russia by then? Not only is that answer likely to be no, Russia is also just about certain not to accept payment (in the event the US were to relent) in anything other than the pay in roubles process it set forth for European gas buys. The only way Russia might accept dollars is if the US were to give back the $300 billon in central bank reserves it stole, which is na ga happen. By Wolf Richter, editor at Wolf Street. Originally published at Wolf Street Following the dizzying spike in gasoline prices, the question arises when demand destruction will set in, where people start driving less, start taking it easier to conserve gas when they do drive, or start prioritizing the most economical vehicle in their garage. If enough people do it, demand begins to decline, and gas stations have to compete for dwindling business. Demand destruction is what would cause the price to come down again. Are we there yet? The Energy Departments EIA measures consumption of gasoline in terms of barrels supplied to the market by refiners, blenders, etc., and not by retail sales at gas stations. The volume of gasoline supplied has fallen for the third week in a row. This is unusual this time of the year, when gasoline consumption normally rises through the summer. The EIA reported on Thursday that gasoline consumption fell to 8.61 million barrels per day in the week ended April 8 on the basis of a four-week moving average (red line), the lowest since March 4, down 2.3% from the same period in 2021 (black line) and down 8.1% from the same period in 2019 (gray line). Consumers Began to React in January Note how the past 11 months (red line) tracked the pre-Covid period three years earlier very closely (gray line) until they began to diverge sharply, not just in March, but already in mid-January, and have been solidly below the 2019 level ever since. Gasoline prices started shooting higher from collapsed levels in April 2020. By May 2021, the average price of gasoline, all grades combined, breached $3.00 a gallon, a multi-year high, and kept going. In November 2021, it hit $3.40 a gallon and took a break. Then in early February, it started spiking higher and in historic leaps hit $4.32 on March 14. But since mid-March, the price has ticked down. Now at $4.09, it remains nosebleed high but is a little lower than it was: Gas stations dont lower prices out of the goodness of their heart. They lower prices because sales are getting hit, and price competition has set in among gas stations in an effort to maintain sales volume. And gas stations could lower their selling price without taking a hit to their profit margins as the costs of their product also declined. Demand destruction that hits gasoline would then be passed through to crude oil demand. But crude oil has far broader uses than just gasoline, including the booming petrochemical industry. And a small decline in demand for gasoline in the US isnt going to shake up the global crude oil markets all that much. The Price of Crude Oil Already Bounced Again Crude oil grade WTI had spiked to $130 a barrel and then fell back into the mid-$90 range. In recent days, it has changed course again and hit $106 now. This is not a good sign for gasoline prices. Clearly, there has been some demand destruction, and perhaps this was enough to cause the price of gasoline to come back down a little. But maybe it wasnt. Maybe this demand destruction wasnt the cause of the decline in gasoline prices. Maybe they fell for some other reason, such as the current volatility that has hit everything. The wild dynamics of the commodities markets see to that. My Guess: Gas Prices Will Rise Again I can see the demand destruction, but for now I remain doubtful that it is big enough to cause a lasting decline in the price of gasoline. I would not be surprised if the price starts heading higher again. Crude oil prices have already started heading higher again. This could be a long-drawn-out process with prices being very volatile and zigzagging higher and higher. Thats my guess. What We Do Know Annual gasoline consumption hit a peak in 2007 and then declined over the next five years through 2012 by a total of 6.3%. It then rose again, and hit that 2007-peak again in 2016, and again in 2017, and in 2018, and again in 2019, without going beyond it. And then in 2020, consumption collapsed. In 2021, consumption recovered sharply, but the annual total consumption ended the year still down 5.3% from 2007! But total vehicle miles driven hit a record every year from 2015 through 2019. And in 2021, despite the collapse in 2020, miles driven were up 6.6% from 2007. People are driving more, but theyre using less gasoline to do so: So, there are many other factors that play into gasoline consumption, not just price. This includes long-term technology trends, such as more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the arrival of EVs on a scale that is now large enough to make a dent into gasoline consumption. Other changes also impact gasoline consumption, some of them dating back well over a decade, such as the building boom of high-rise residential towers in urban centers that reduced or eliminated commutes-by-car for residents; or the trend of working from home at least part of the time that also cuts commuter miles. Pulling in the opposite direction was the increase in driving vacations during the pandemic, that may by now have been superseded by flying again (domestic leisure traffic is up). Gasoline consumption is also highly seasonal, which makes it even tougher to spot where demand destruction has occurred due to price, and where unusual seasonal patterns could be at play. My Nashville Post role has evolved since 2000 when I joined the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister publication in 2008 (when I began doing some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have been managing editor of the Post since late 2011. Follow William Williams 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 (Natural News) A top commander with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is sounding the alarm about Russias expansion into the Arctic, saying that theres no way his country can hope to match it or stop it. Defense Chief Gen. Wayne Erye said that the CAF cannot possibly maintain a permanent, substantial military presence in the countrys vast northern regions, but will have to instead rely on deploying its forces when and where they are needed, according to Truth North News. Eyre gave his warning before a Senate panel earlier this week as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defense Minister Anita Anand were meeting with premiers from the countrys northernmost territories of Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. We are continuing to stand strong in our sovereignty and our defense of the Arctic, said Trudeau. Of course, with NORAD modernization on the table, with increased investments in defense, the Arctic is an area were going to look closely. In recent years, Russia has dramatically expanded its presence in the Arctic, building new bases throughout the region and rehabilitating old ones that had been shut down following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In addition, Moscow has been shoring up and expanding air bases along Russias Arctic coastline. Russia is refurbishing Soviet-era airfields and radar installations, constructing new ports and search-and-rescue centers, and building up its fleet of nuclear- and conventionally-powered icebreakers, Pentagon spokesman Thomas Campbell told CNN in 2021. Last month, it was also reported that Russian forces recently reopened and reoccupied several more bases that had been used during the Soviet period, True North reported. One of the challenges, one of the expressions of sovereignty is being able to project force to the extremities of your country, Eyre told a defense conference earlier this year, the outlet continued, adding: Russian forces have also crossed into disputed territory as numerous nations vie to make claims on the Arctic. For example, in Jan. 2020, NORAD warned that two nuclear-capable Russian bombers had buzzed Canadian airspace. The jets crossed over the North Pole and approached Canada, although they remained in international airspace. The UKs Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Sir Nick Carter has said that his nation is keen to cooperate with Canadians on Arctic defense. Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest also recently proposed that Canada develop more military bases in the arctic. As part of his defense plan, Charest stated that if elected prime minister, he would develop and properly support two military bases in the arctic, including a deepwater port. In addition, he has proposed having drones keep the northernmost regions under surveillance while having Canada procure two new icebreaker ships that would be armed. Already, Russian forces pose a significant challenge in the Arctic. Russias current military capabilities in the Arctic are sufficient enough to cut off sea logistical routes and lines of communication between the U.S. and NATO, noted The Cipher Brief in December. Climate change, logistical sea routes, and Russian military assets are threatening U.S. strategic capabilities and influence in the Arctic. Russias expansion into the Arctic and military posturing on the Kola Peninsula, has given it de facto control over the Northern Sea Route, the brief continued. In the event of war, which would be hard for Moscow to fight at present given the forces committed to the Ukraine invasion, Russia could attack Europe from the West as well as North America from the East. And because of the countrys geographic location, Russia currently has an advantage, meaning the U.S. (and Canada) must be preparing now to create strategic deterrence. The U.S. needs to focus more financial resources and expand military personnel capable of operating in Arctic conditions to engage Russia in the Arctic, and work with NATO partner forces and the Intelligence Community (IC) to gather information about Russias intentions and military build-up, The Cipher Brief concluded. Sources include: TheCipherBrief.com TNC.com (Natural News) As the country enters its 13th year of persistent drought, Chile is having to implement new water restrictions for the capital city of Santiago, population six million. A city cant live without water, announced Claudio Orrego, the governor of the Santiago metropolitan region (RELATED: Utahs Great Salt Lake region is also drying up due to drought). And were in an unprecedented situation in Santiagos 491-year history where we have to prepare for there to not be enough water for everyone who lives here. The new plan involves a four-tier alert system that slides from green to red, beginning with public service announcements and expanding mandatory water restrictions. When conditions are most extreme, Santiago will ration water on a rotating schedule with about 1.7 million customers losing access for up to 24 hours. The alert system is based on the capacity of the Maipo and Mapocho rivers, which supply the capital with most of its water and have seen dwindling water levels as the drought drags on, reported The Guardian (U.K.). The government estimates that the countrys water availability has dropped 10 percent to 37 percent over the last 30 years and could drop another 50 percent in northern and central Chile by 2060. Chile suggests that water rationing will be permanent because climate change is here to stay How the government of Chile will determine when to start rationing water will depend upon water deficit measurements in area rivers. If measured liters per second drop too low, water rationing will take place every four, six, or 12 days, depending. This is the first time in history that Santiago has a water rationing plan due to the severity of climate change, Orrego said. Its important for citizens to understand that climate change is here to stay. Its not just global, its local. The only exemptions to Chiles water rationing plan are for areas fed by well water or sources other than the two main rivers that currently feed the city. California faces similar problems as on-and-off drought conditions have left much of the state without steady reserves. The Golden State has seen its own water rationing schemes over the years, including restrictions on which days residents can water their lawns, for instance. Perhaps the worst-hit sector there is agriculture, which faces constant challenges in getting what it needs. Many farmers throughout California have been cut off completely, even as state officials intentionally drain reservoirs into the ocean. There is always some excuse as to why California wastes so much fresh water, one of the most ludicrous being that it is necessary in order to prevent certain endangered species such as the delta smelt from going extinct. This is mostly nonsense, of course, and is merely a cover story for the engineered collapse of the water supply, which is to be blamed on climate change. Chile and California appear to be leading the way in pushing this climate change narrative, which seeks to normalize water and other shortages as a natural consequence of a warming globe. They have been doing the same thing here in Arizona, noted one reader at Natural News. California has around 6 million acre-feet stored in our reservoirs and underground aquifers and they are trying to withdraw it all right now. That would mean that Arizonas allocation of water would be temporarily reduced while California sucks more from the Colorado River. The International Boundary and Water Commission is sending emergency water to Tijuana because of a pipeline and canal that was destroyed by a 2010 earthquake. The funny part is, they immediately fixed the damage and water is STILL being sent to the Colorado Delta UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. More related news coverage can be found at Drought.news. Sources include: TheGuardian.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The other day, fake government doctor Tony Fauci appeared on MSNBC to praise lockdowns as a way to torture people into getting vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). When asked by host Andrea Mitchell about the unfolding hellscape in Shanghai right now, which is locked down once again under the guise of keeping everyone safe against the latest BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron (Moronic) variant of the Chinese Flu, Fauci had this to say: China has a number of problems, two of which are that the complete lockdown, which was their approach, a strictest lockdown youd never be able to implement in the United States. Although that prevents the spread of infection, I remember early on they were saying, and I think accurately, they were doing better than anyone else. In what appears to have been a slip of the tongue or perhaps not Fauci went on to declare that you use lockdowns to get people vaccinated so that when you open up, you wont have a surge of infections. In other words, lockdowns have nothing to do with stopping the spread of any disease. They are about invoking fascism and tyranny as punishment against those who refuse to get shot in obedience to Faucis commands. Because youre dealing with an immunologically naive population of the virus because theyve not been exposed because of the lockdown, Fauci went on to reveal about his authoritarian philosophy. Fauci says China should commit mass genocide with more lockdowns because its vaccines are not good enough Despite the fact that Chinese people are hanging themselves and jumping out of windows due to the latest lockdown, which is leaving many of them starving, Fauci says this is all a good thing. Because Chinas version of the Fauci Flu shot is not good enough for Faucis personal standards, he says he believes that the lockdowns and subsequent genocide are needed in order to provide a better level of protection against Moronic. The problem is the vaccines theyve been using are not nearly as effective as the vaccines used in the United States, U.K., E.U., and other places, Fauci rambled. So, they dont have the degree of protection thats optimal. What Fauci really means by this is that he and his buddies do not have a financial stake in Chinas covid injections, and thus make no money from their use. So, in his mind, locking them all down until China starts buying the shots that Fauci is personally invested in is the best way to ensure a new profit stream for both himself and his friends. Also, they have a lot of their older population, which are the most vulnerable among us, and so, theres a double negative there, Fauci continued on the fake news network. One, they dont have people who are protected, and B, the people who need it most, are not getting the vaccination. Thats the source of the problem in China. You can watch a clip of the interview with Fauci below: WATCH Fauci PRAISES communist Chinas draconian lockdowns. Early on, [China] was saying and I think accurately that they were doing better than anybody else. pic.twitter.com/yM4WYAIw34 RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2022 At no point during the interview did Fauci even bring up the human rights abuses currently taking place in China, where residents are being forcibly locked inside their homes without food. So much for caring about human life. Isnt the more immediate source of the problem in China that people are being locked up in their box homes and starved to death in a maniacal quest for zero COVID?' asked Steve Watson, writing for Summit.news. The latest plandemic-related news can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources include: Summit.news NaturalNews.com (Natural News) French President Emmanuel Macron has made it perfectly clear that he would prefer to see his citizens victimized and killed rather than engage in any act of self-defense or self-preservation, both of which are natural human instincts. Macrons comments came after a French farmer was charged with murder for shooting a man after four burglars broke into his home. According to the initial investigation, the farmer fired twice with a large caliber rifle at a group of four burglars, killing one of them. The self-defense shooting took place last Friday, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., and the man was alone with his 3-year-old daughter at the time, Remix News reported. However, Macron actually told a French news outlet that he opposes any and all forms of self-defense, the victims be darned. Everyone must be safe, and the public authorities have to ensure it, Macron told Europe 1, before going on to make a false premise while taking a jab at the United States. But I am opposed to self-defense. Its very clear and undisputable because otherwise, the country becomes the Wild West. And I dont want a country where weapons proliferate and where we consider that its up to the citizens to defend themselves, Macron actually said. Mind you, the farmer in question obviously did not have French police protection and its not like there are enough officers to station one outside every residence in the country (nor would that even be sane). But no matter; theyre still supposed to be everywhere at once all the time, 24/7/365 says a man who is literally protected by armed officers every moment of every day and does not have to worry about protecting himself. Macron insisted that the farmer should have called the police, who in many areas of France are already stretched to the limit thanks to criminal gangs of migrant youths being in a perpetual state of war with them, Infowars noted. Im not going to judge this news. I convey the rules, Macron, whose weak record on security and crime is already under scrutiny, added. There is also this: Presumably, if we are to take Macron seriously, the young farmer was just supposed to allow the four burglars free passage to ransack his home and potentially harm him and/or his toddler daughter. As for the farmer, he has been released but he remains under judicial supervision. Macron, meanwhile, is facing a tight election in a few days with polls showing a likely final round challenge from conservative-leaning Marine Le Pen. Regarding that race, Macron is taking a page from U.S. Democrats, calling Le Pen a racist and taking other personal potshots at her, according to reports which is a sure sign he is afraid hes going to lose. The race appears to be narrowing down to the two finalists of the 2017 election, and while Macron so far has kept clear of any direct debate, the two have increasingly taken aim at each other from afar. And they were not mincing their words on Friday, Reuters reported last week. There was a clear strategy (from Le Pens camp) to hide what is brutal in her program, Macron told Le Parisien in an interview. Her fundamentals have not changed: Its a racist program that aims to divide society and is very brutal, he said in remarks that literally divide French society. For her part, Le Pen responded in an interview with broadcaster Franceinfo that Macrons remarks shocked her while pushing back on them and branding the left-wing French president febrile and aggressive. She also said that her policies, which include a national priority principle of adhering to the French constitution, dont discriminate against anyone on the basis of their skin color or national origin as long as they are holding French passports. Macron is a typical socialist liberal and his country is suffering from it. But its up to French citizens to change their destiny at this point. Sources include: Reuters.com Infowars.com (Natural News) Molecular biologist and expert on genetically modified organisms (GMO) and pesticides Gilles-Eric Seralini appeared with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recently to discuss the trials he has faced ever since coming forward to expose the dangers of Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide. Seralini, who currently serves as chairman of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN), told Kennedy that Monsanto, the multinational corporation behind Roundup, went after him following the publishing of his 2012 study in Food and Chemical Toxicology showing that glyphosate causes cancer. He [did] something nobody else dared to do, which is to take the exact same test [on rats] that Monsanto did for 90 days and do it for two years instead, which is the typical lifespan of a rat, Kennedy explained about Seralinis work. And he found 80 percent of the rats that consumed Roundup developed tumors compared to 30 percent in the control group. Not only that, but the tumors in the rats were 130 percent larger. Check out our earlier coverage to learn more about the Seralini saga, which began about a decade ago. Former CIA and other intelligence assets launched witch hunt against Seralini Immediately after Seralinis study was published, Monsanto launched a crusade against him to try to suppress the research. The infamous Monsanto Papers revealed the companys strategy. It turns out that Kennedy was co-counsel on the legal team of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, which acquired the papers. Hundreds of thousands of documents were included, revealing for the first time Monsantos internal communications. We saw their strategy for destroying Professor Seralinis reputation and getting his article retracted, Kennedy says. Monsanto then proceeded to hire former intelligence agents and other hitmen to try to destroy Seralinis life and career, as well as that of his colleagues who were also involved in uncovering the truth. [Monsanto] had a number of strategies, Kennedy said. Each one of the strategies was designed to make sure that Monsanto that Roundup was not harmed by the science. One of the strategies was called Let Nothing Go. Another one was called Freedom to Operate or FTO. Another was called Whack-a-Mole. Every time a scientist would pop his head over the barricades and publish a study that showed that Roundup was unsafe, they would whack him. There was also another called Project Spruce that was implemented by black ops spies, including former members of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. These were the big dogs, in other words, that were deployed on Seralini as punishment for his work. And Seralini says that some of them tried to kill him, at first scientifically, and then physically. I have the chance to survive all this system, he added. Many people didnt survive. The chemical industry is an ugly one. And just like the pharmaceutical industry, there is a lot of money on the line if the truth ever gains real traction at the mainstream level. Seralinis revelations have, in many ways, gone mainstream, which is why Monsanto and other evil players continue to target him for destruction. Thankfully, he is still with us spreading the truth via mediums such as Kennedys RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast, which covered the latest news about Seralinis situation. You can watch or listen to that podcast episode at The Defender website. Wow, this should be on the front page of any newspaper, but no, it wont be, wrote a commenter at The Defender. This sentence struck me (in the interview): The thing is, people dont know that when they use pesticides, they eat petroleum waste.' More related news about toxic glyphosate can be found at Glyphosate.news. Sources include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org NaturalNews.com Sunday, April 17, 2022 by: Ethan Huff Tags: bioweapons , breathing , immunization , masks , pandemic , pathogens , respiration , respiratory , science , Viruses This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author (Natural News) For the past two years, the world was told that wearing a face covering would stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) and keep everyone safe. The truth, though, is that masks interfere with breathing, which a new Harvard University study found is one of the ways that the human body wards off infections. The natural exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) waste for fresh oxygen in the lungs, also known as respiration, is a powerful antiviral activity that masks directly interfere with, putting the body at risk. Inside your lungs are tiny sacs that exchange CO2 for oxygen. With every breath you take, these alveoli facilitate the transaction of CO2, which your body exhales, for oxygen, which your body inhales. This process oxygenates your blood and boosts immune function. A mask, however, traps CO2 inside the lungs while blocking oxygen intake. This creates a chemical imbalance inside the body, leaving it prone to infection and disease (Related: More than 400 studies prove that masks provide no benefits and are harmful.) The authorities told everyone that masks would end the plandemic, but this latest science suggests that masks more than likely made it worse. How many people ended up getting sick and dying because of the mask mandates, we wonder? Who knew that proper breathing is a natural anti-viral? Published in the journal Nature Communications, the Harvard study utilized a lung chip to mimic the mechanical forces of breathing to tests dead influenza bugs. Researchers evaluated how breathing impacts the uptake of these bugs, to which they discovered that respiration is basically an anti-viral activity that the body engages in automatically. This research demonstrates the importance of breathing motions for human lung function, including immune responses to infection, and shows that our Human Alveolus Chip can be used to model these responses in the deep portions of the lung, where infections are often more severe and lead to hospitalization and death, said co-author Dr. Haiqing Bai from Harvards Wyss Institute. The simple act of breathing also exercises the lungs, stretching and relaxing them with every inhale and exhale. This natural motion influences both the development and vital function of the lungs, which naturally combats infection. Two parallel microfluidic channels were lined with different types of living human cells, recreating the interface between human air sacs and their blood-transporting capillaries. The upper channel was given alveolar lung cells while the lower channel was given lung blood vessel cells. The channel lined with alveolar cells was then pumped with air while the blood vessel channel was provided with a flowing culture medium containing nutrients that are normally delivered by the blood. The research team then separated the two channels using a porous membrane that allowed molecules to flow between them before pumping H3N2 influenza into them. Upon doing this, they noticed several hallmarks of infection, including the breakdown of junctions between cells, a 25 percent increase in cell death, an increase in levels of multiple inflammatory cytokines, and the initiation of cellular repair programs. The blood vessel cells of infected chips also expressed much higher levels of immune cells, though there was 50 percent less viral mRNA observed in the alveolar channels of chips exposed to natural breathing motions, as well as a massive reduction in inflammatory cytokine levels. A follow-up genetic analysis revealed that the mechanical strain activated molecular pathways associated with immune defense and multiple antiviral genes. When the cyclical stretching stopped, however, mimicking no more breathing, these activations reversed. This was our most unexpected finding that mechanical stresses alone can generate an innate immune response in the lung, said fellow co-author Prof. Longlong Si. More related news can be found at Science.news. Sources for this article include: StudyFinds.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law two bills that aim to stop teachers and other school officials from pushing transgender therapy on their students. House Bill 322 and Senate Bill 184 together prohibit sexual indoctrination of children at school, as well as outlaw the promotion of hormone blockers, genital mutilation and gender reassignment surgery. I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl, Ivey stated. We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life. The legislation also bans K-12 students from using bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex meaning only men in the mens room, and only women in the womens room. Here in Alabama, the men use the mens room, and the ladies use the ladies room, Ivey added. Sex talk at public schools throughout Alabama will now be a thing of the past, at least legally speaking. There will surely be rogue instructors who try to do it anyway, but they will have to learn the hard way that Alabama no longer tolerates that kind of thing. Much like the anti-grooming bill passed in Florida, this pair of bills in Alabama aims to protect children from pedophiles and child predators while receiving an education. This bill will also ensure our elementary school classrooms remain free from any kind of sex talk, Ivey revealed. Let me be clear to the media and to opponents who like to incorrectly dub this the Dont Say Gay amendment: That is misleading, false and just plain wrong. We dont need to be teaching young children about sex. Ivey also signed executive order defying Bidens COVID jab mandates Last fall, as you may recall, Ivey signed an executive order directing all government agencies throughout Alabama to ignore Joe Bidens Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandates. Ivey said at the time that Bidens mandates rest on dubious grounds and constitute significant federal overreach. Attorney General Steve Marshall was also on board with this, as Ivey urged state agencies to cooperate to the fullest extent possible with him on the matter. Private companies in Alabama could still choose to mandate the injections, but the executive order was designed to help in legal battles against the Biden regimes efforts to mandate the shots federally. It is better than nothing, but not quite up to par in terms of fully defending health freedom in Alabama. At least children there will no longer have to put up with grooming from sexual predators at school. Just as the Death Angel in Exodus passed over the Hebrew homes where the blood had been applied with hyssop so Alabama could be spared some of Gods judgement for Americas crimes against humanity, wrote someone in response to the news about the anti-grooming bills in Alabama. Public schools have no business teaching sex at any grade level, said another. However, several others pointed out that Iveys plandemic policies were among the worst in the South, and that they have not forgotten how she barely stood up to tyranny. I live in Alabama and if we actually had a candidate running against the joke Kay Ivey, she would be going in 2023, one of them wrote. Shes a joke and her Covid policies were the worst in the South. She old, a drunk and her commercials are embarrassing. More related news can be found at Gender.news. Sources include: CitizenFreePress.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Infowars host Owen Shroyer got the chance to interview Francis Boyle, PhD, a lawyer and bioweapons expert, about the alleged biolabs in Ukraine. And his view is that they do exist and are being funded by the United States (aka American taxpayers). The corporate-controlled media along with the Biden regime deny that these bioweapons facilities exist, claiming that this is all just Russian propaganda. But the truth, Boyle says, is that biological warfare is a Pentagon specialty. The Pentagon does not do missionary work, Boyle joked about this evil entity. They kill people, and thats why they are there. Boyle played a primary role in drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, which was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by then-president George Bush Sr. in May 1989. That Act prohibits the type of thing that the U.S. appears to be doing in Ukraine. Everyone involved with these biolab operations, including the Biden crime family, is subject to life in prison for these crimes, if they can be proven. This explains the deep states mad scramble to cast these biolabs as something other than what they actually are. One popular excuse is that the labs were used to develop medicines as opposed to weapons, though Russian authorities deny this. They claim to have evidence showing that the U.S. is building bioweapons to kill people, not developing drugs to help people. The Pentagons plan was to surround Russia with bioweapons laboratories, says Boyle The fact that U.S. officials first denied the existence of the biolabs, only to later admit that they do exist, but claims that they are harmless. This was a change in narrative right from the start and proves that the American government has something to hide. The Western media are now trying to claim that the labs did show bioweapons, but that they were brought in there from the Soviet era to be secured and destroyed again blaming Russia, just like they always did throughout Donald Trumps presidency. Another narrative is that they are health labs being used to develop life-saving vaccines. The story changes depending on whos telling it, writes Dr. Joseph Mercola. Boyle, of course, does not buy any of these false narratives. He says that the Pentagon has always had a comprehensive policy in place to surround Russia with biological warfare laboratories and preposition biological weapons in anticipation of war against Russia. Such U.S.-run labs also exist in Central Asia, which is another target of the military-industrial complex. This all makes sense, seeing as how the Western deep state seems hellbent on igniting another world war against Russia and its allies. If all of these facilities have been getting built over in Ukraine and elsewhere for many decades now, then this plan has long been in the works. It is just that this is all coming to light only now, and the rats are scurrying to come up with excuses and reasons for the existence of these facilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pulled the curtain down, and now the emperor has no clothes. According to Boyle, there is a global Nazi cult that wants to rid the world of certain ethnic groups, hence the need for these biolabs. Many, if not all, of the facilities focus on DNA-based, ethnic-specific bioweapons. And the U.S., sadly, is still the only country in the world that is refusing to get rid of all of its biological weapons, all while making more of them in secret but now these secrets are being revealed for the world to see. The latest news about the Ukraine biolabs can be found at WWIII.news. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Many conservative academics in American, Canadian and British universities experience a hostile environment for their beliefs as demonstrated in a new study exploring political biases in academia. Titled Academic Freedom in Crisis: Punishment, Political Discrimination and Self-Censorship, the study authored by Dr. Eric Kaufmann was published on Monday, March 1. The study surveyed professors and graduate students in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) faculties at universities in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom to investigate political discrimination in academia and authoritarianism. Kaufmanns findings represented hard data on the absence of viewpoint diversity in universities and the presence of discrimination against conservative and gender-critical scholars. The study found that in the top 100 U.S. universities, 73 percent of academics are liberal, 22 percent made no affiliation and only around 5 percent are conservative. Less than half of left-leaning professors would be comfortable in a close social situation with someone who voted for Donald Trump, with that number plummeting to a quarter if the voter is critical of the issue about transgender. Among his main findings, Kaufmann noted that more than 90 percent of Trump supporters and 80 percent of Brexit supporters (Britain leaving the political union with Europe) working in academia reported discomfort in expressing their views to colleagues while more than 50 percent of all conservative academics in North America and Britain admitted censoring their own work. On the other hand, only around 8 percent combined slightly-left and far-left academics thought their department is hostile to their political beliefs. Kaufmanns study also revealed that more than their older counterparts, younger academics including Ph.D. students tended to favor their ideological opponents being fired for holding controversial beliefs. That trend, according to Kauffman, signified that progressive authoritarianism could get worse in the coming years. (Related: College leftists now acting just like Stalinist and Maoist operatives with purge demands for conservative thinkers.) But in general, less than 10 percent of academic staff members supported hard authoritarianism which included dismissal campaigns, social media smears and disciplinary action. In terms of soft discrimination, Kaufmann said the conservative academics suffered more from prejudices regarding hiring, promotion, grant applications, publishing, the allocation of teaching and research tasks, workplace civility and social inclusion. Soft discrimination was much more broadly practiced among the ranks of leftists. Kaufmanns study found out that not only a near-majority on the far left, but also some center-left and even centrist staff would support softer censorship measures against their right-wing colleagues. One in three British academics would discriminate against a known Brexit supporter while 40 percent of American academics and 45 percent of Canadian academics would discriminate against a known Trump supporter, said Kaufmann, a professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. As a result, most conservative academics reported self-censorship, including 70 percent of professors surveyed in the U.S. External intervention needed to curb leftist bias in academia The leftist bias in academia has intensified dramatically since the 1960s, at which time leftists outnumbered conservatives 2-1. Now, that ratio has increased to a 10-1 average bias of leftists over conservatives. According to Kaufmann, this vast left-leaning proportion within academia has discouraged conservatives from pursuing careers in SSH university departments, with 70 percent to 80 percent of current conservative academics saying their departments are hostile environments for their political beliefs. Kaufmann observed that no internal measures have proved capable of redressing the growing levels of discrimination against conservative academics. He suggested that it would require external intervention to address the issue. On Thursday, March 4, Kaufmann wrote a column for the website City Journal to discuss why and how the government should step in to reform universities. His piece was titled A Necessary Intervention. This is an urgent problem for policymakers. The intolerance and censorship that began on campus are now spilling out into the wider world of elite institutions, from tech firms and major news organizations to corporations and government agencies, Kaufmann wrote. Universities are a crucial site of struggle that will help set the tone for the wider culture of elite institutions. Policymakers at the state and federal level should push back against the tide of progressive authoritarianism and political discrimination on campus. According to Kaufmann, the role of government intervention should be to enforce the laws that todays universities routinely break. For instance, around nine in ten American universities currently maintain speech codes that violate the First Amendment. An interventionist approach would require universities to adopt the Chicago Principles, or a set of academic freedom principles that is functionally equivalent and to remove or amend all noncompliant speech codes and internal policies, he explained. To be effective, Kaufmann said legislation must mandate regular audits of individual universities for academic freedom violations. Follow Conservative.news for more news and information related to conservatives. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com City-Journal.org (Natural News) If there ever was any proof that high-ranking government jobs should be term-limited (just like Congress), Dr. Anthony Fauci is a walking, talking, living example. According to the findings of a legal watchdog, Fauci head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since the early 1980s as well as the State Department, knew that China was withholding key data on the then-emerging COVID-19 pandemic, meaning, as well, that the virus was almost certainly manufactured in a lab. In addition, according to The Epoch Times, the National Institutes of Health sent experts from the NIH-funded P4 lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch to instruct Chinese technicians at the Wuhan Institute of Virology about lab management and maintenance approximately two years before the pandemic, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (and why does it take lawsuits to get information from government agencies when FOIA is already the law?). The legal watchdogs president, Tom Fitton, said he thinks the 90 pages of communications between the NIH and the lab in Wuhan indicate clearly that Faucis NIAID has been hiding information on Chinas failure to provide essential data on COVID-19. For instance, Judicial Watch obtained an email from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing circulated Jan. 8, 2020 by staff at NIH and the NIAID, led by Fauci, titled, PRC Response to Pneumonia Cases Shows Increased Transparency Over Past Outbreaks, but Gaps in Epidemiological Data Remain. Hi, here is the cable from US Embassy Beijing reporting on the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China. It has ruled out SARS, MERS, and flu. [Redacted] confirmed it is [a] viral infection, says an email to colleagues from Dr. Ping Chen, who was then NIAIDs top official in China. The Epoch Times notes: Embassy officials in the email said they were concerned that a lack of epidemiological data hindered better risk assessment and response by public health officials. The officials noted that because of gaps in [detailed] information provided by the Chinese regime and lack of a final confirmed pathogen, the risk to the United States and global health is difficult to assess at this time. The first known cases of COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, according to reports. As of January 7, the Wuhan Health Commission has reported 59 local cases of pneumonia with unknown cause, the email says. Lab techs from the Wuhan institute were also trained directly by experts funded by NIH in April 2018, The Epoch Times continues. In addition to French assistance, experts from the NIH-supported P4 lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have trained Wuhan lab technicians in lab management and maintenance, an April 19, 2018, email says. The Wuhan institute plans to invite scientists from the Galveston lab to do research in Wuhans lab. One Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher trained for two years at the Galveston lab, and the institute also sent one scientist to U.S. CDC headquarters in Atlanta for six months work on influenza, it continued. In another email between the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and NIH headquarters on Feb. 23, 2018, officials with the U.S. agency were flagging China Health News from Chinese Media. Among those flagged reports is a story published by the state-run news agency Xinhua headlined, Chinese scientists find how bats carry viruses without getting sick another indicator that Chinese virologists were likely conducting gain of function experiments in the lab involving bats. Chinese scientists identified bats that harbor highly pathogenic viruses like Ebola, Marburg and SARS coronavirus but do not show clinical signs of disease, according to the report. According to researchers, in humans and other mammals, an immune-based over-response to one of these and other pathogenic viruses can trigger severe illness, the report reads. If Anthony Fauci isnt guilty of some form of treason against his own country, then there is no such thing. Sources include: NaturalNews.com Pandemic.news (Natural News) This week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill into law allowing most residents of the state to carry a handgun without a permit. Known as the Georgia Constitutional Carry Act, the new measure passed in the states legislature on April 1. Under the act, Georgia residents can carry a concealed firearm without first obtaining a license. However, this right will not extend to people who have been convicted of a felony or treated for certain mental health problems in the last five years. Lawmakers who pushed for the act said requiring a carry permit, which costs around $75, infringes on Americans Second Amendment gun rights. In addition, they cited the delays in obtaining permits that were seen in some counties during the pandemic as another obstacle to people exercising their rights. One sponsor of the bill, Georgia State Republican Senator Jason Anavitarte, said of the signing: Today was a victory for the safety, security and constitutional rights of hardworking Georgians. This bill is about self-protection and self-empowerment. Its about disincentivizing criminals and empowering law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families. At a signing ceremony, Governor Kemp said the new law gives Georgians the power to protect themselves without needing permission from their states government. He said: SB 319 makes sure that law-abiding Georgians law-abiding Georgians, including our daughters and your family too can protect themselves without having the permission of the state government. The Constitution of the United States gives us that right, not the government, With the move, Georgia has become the nations 25th state to not require a permit for carrying concealed firearms for legal gun owners. Kemp also signed a second measure giving holders of concealed weapons permits from other states the right to legally carry in Georgia as well. Guns will still be prohibited in locations such as secured areas of airports or government buildings with security at the entrance, such as the state Capitol. Supporters believe the measure will help people protect themselves as crime continues to rise throughout the nation; criminals might hesitate to act because they wont know if a potential victim could be carrying a weapon. The governor signed the bill at a gun store in Douglasville where he and his wife bought a Glock 9mm for their daughter several years ago. Speaking to reporters after the signing, Kemp said: This simply allows you not to have to get a piece of paper to legally carry. And look, the criminals are getting the guns anyway. Gun rights advocates applaud the new bill National Rifle Association Chairman Wayne LaPierre praised the decision, telling Fox News: The success of the carry movement in America cannot be denied at this point. When Gov. Brian Kemp signs this landmark legislation, half of America will protect the right to carry as an inherent and inalienable right. He added that the divide between Washington, D.C. and the rest of the country is clear, with many states passing laws to protect peoples self-defense rights while the Biden administration fails to prosecute criminals and tries to enact gun control schemes and undermine self-defense laws. In essence, theyre overprotecting and indulging criminals while penalizing good Americans, he said. In the past two years alone, Ohio, Tennessee, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Iowa, Alabama, Indiana, and Texas have all passed constitutional carry laws. Georgia Democrats held a rally opposing the bill, which they claim puts people in danger as mass shootings around the country increase, including a shooting in a New York City subway that injured at least 23 people on the same day that the law was passed. Some used the occasion to call for Kemp to be defeated in the upcoming elections. However, many Georgians celebrated the new law for ensuring citizens rights to protect themselves in public. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com AJC.com (Natural News) The inhabitants of a city in southern Spain are making use of oranges to produce a different kind of juice one that powers the entire city. Life gave bitter oranges to the residents of Seville, the capital of Spains southern Andalusia region. But instead of throwing them away, Seville residents tapped these oranges as a potential power source. Originally from Asia, Seville oranges (Citrus aurantium) were first introduced to the country by the Muslim Moors about 1,000 years ago. The orange trees have adjusted to the regions climate and have grown abundantly ever since. People say the city of Seville is the worlds largest orange grove, according to Fernando Mora Figueroa. The head of the citys parks department added: [The orange trees] have taken root here: Theyre resistant to pollution and have adapted well to the region. However, the trees produce bitter fruits that are unsuitable for eating. They are simply left to fall from the tree and rot because of this. Some oranges fall on the streets where they are squashed by passing vehicles. This causes roads to become sticky, and the juice subsequently attracts flies. In fact, Seville employs around 200 people to clean the streets of juice from the squashed oranges. To solve this bitter predicament caused by C. aurantium fruits, Sevilles water utility company EMASESA proposed using the fruits to produce power. The resulting power will then be used to run a water purification plant in the city. The pilot test launched by EMASESA used 35 tons of oranges for clean energy with each ton of orange yielding 500 liters of juice and 500 kilograms of peel. The company explained how the system will operate: Oranges will be sent to a facility that produces electricity from organic matter, where they will be fermented. As the fruits ferment, they will produce a gas called methane which will then be collected and utilized to power the water purification plants generator. According to the results of the pilot test, one ton of oranges can produce up to 50 kilowatt-hours which is enough to power five homes for a day. EMASESA environmental department head Benigno Lopez said the move was not just about saving money. He remarked: The oranges are a problem for the city, and were producing added value from waste. Lopez also expressed hopes that all the citys oranges will be recycled into energy to power many homes instead of being discarded. (Related: Scientists develop new technology that extracts valuable chemicals from biological waste.) Squeezing energy from oranges allows Seville to cut down on fruit waste Seville has around 48,000 orange trees and all of the fruits from these trees could provide electricity to more than 70,000 homes if converted to power. EMASESA officials said in a statement that they hope to make that dream a reality but the city would need to invest about 250,000 (US$297,000) for the endeavor. For now, the oranges will be used to run the citys water purification plants ensuring Seville residents have clean water and sanitation. The plants currently consume almost 40 percent of the energy required to keep the city supplied with potable water. The long-term goal is to put back surplus energy generated from the oranges back into Sevilles electricity grid. Aside from this, the energy from oranges project will help the city hit its targets for lowering emissions and become self-sufficient in energy. Seville Mayor Juan Cejas said during a press conference that EMASESA is now a role model in Spain for sustainability. (Related: Duke suspends its plans for a new gas power plant and will focus on generating energy from pig waste.) EMASESA also created a use for the otherwise bitter-tasting fruits with its energy project. The entire Andalusian region produces about 15,000 tons of Seville oranges, but the Spanish do not consume them. The fruits are instead exported to the U.K, where they are processed into marmalade, a common teatime favorite. Seville oranges are also used in making the orange-based liqueurs Cointreau and Grand Marnier. With the endeavor by EMASESA, the city of Seville is guaranteed to eventually reap the sweet benefits of the bitter oranges. Check out Power.news to learn about fresh new ways of generating energy. Sources include: WakingTimes.com TheGuardian.com (Natural News) It has been revealed that animal venom is used as a designer toxin in a growing number of pharmaceutical applications. And a major player in the industry that catalogs different animal venom products admits that one of their unique benefits is that they kill prey in seconds. ToxinTech, which was profiled by CNN back in 2020, is a biotechnology startup firm run by Zoltan Takacs. The company was described as a library of designer toxins that can be manipulated to target various life functions in humans. Genetically modified (GMO) animal venom peptides, the ToxinTech website explains can target vital receptors, key to neuromuscular, cardiovascular, hemostatic and other life functions. They are also chemically stable, meaning they do not break down in water. Reading the language on the ToxinTech website, one is led to the conclusion that the company is really proud of the fact that these substances destroy life. How, then, do they impact humans? That is what many are now wondering as fresh revelations about snake and other animal venom make the news rounds. There is even speculation among prominent, outspoken analysts that theorizes snake venom peptides may have been engineered into part of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) payload. ToxinTech describes Designer Toxins as novel, chimeras In the Applications section of the ToxinTech homepage, it is further explained how animal venom peptides can be customized to hit very specific validated targets through optimization. Unlike many other drug technologies, animal venom peptides have the ability to precisely target whatever it is a drug manufacturer is trying to target, as well as perfect other existing active pharmaceutical ingredients. Typically, templates are a select set of animal venom toxins with known pharmacology that are varied to achieve novel properties against pharmaceutical targets, it further reads. Key features include, the vast number of novel molecules created, evolution-tested molecular motifs, and target-specificity of the library. There are more than a million novel molecules in the Designer Toxin libraries, representing a vast pool of non-random variations intentionally introduced and defined all derived from natural templates. The use of the word novel, in this context, is interesting, as they were calling it the novel coronavirus early on in the plandemic, only to later drop the use of the word novel entirely. Another interesting word choice that ToxinTech uses to describe Designer Toxins is chimeras, or mosaics, which exhibit novel and fine-tuned biological properties compared to the natural templates. To ToxinTech, this chimeric customization is a way to improve nature, which sounds a whole lot like man trying to play God which is what all of this appears to be when you really think about it. What is basically happening is that scientists are extracting venom from animals, manipulating it through bioengineering, and inserting it into human bodies for reasons that, in many ways, are still a mystery. They say they are just trying to help people alleviate pain or blood clots, but is that all these drugs really do? Is there anything else these animal venom poisons do that might hurt a human body, seeing as how they are natures way of killing prey? These are disturbing ideas that are still without clear answers, but more gets revealed every day, it seems, and we are sure to learn more in the coming days. Weve invited this through our own apathy and self-centeredness, suggested someone at Natural News, adding the following quote from Dr. Anna Kingsford, MD: The spiritual malady that rages in the soul of the vivisector is in itself sufficient to render him incapable of acquiring the highest and best knowledge. He finds it easier to propagate and multiply disease than to discover the secret of health. Seeking for the germs of life, he invents only new methods of death. The latest news about animal venom peptides can be found at Toxins.news. Sources include: NaturalNews.com ToxinTech.com CNN.com (Natural News) A number of cities in the U.S. have proposed banning natural gas lines in new buildings. The moves to prohibit gas connections in new developments are linked to efforts to slash carbon emissions. However, parties against these bans on natural gas have talen to state legislatures to express their opposition. Meanwhile, other places have taken a middle-ground approach by allowing natural gas connections for certain purposes only. The fight for natural gas first began in 2019 when city leaders in Berkeley, California passed an ordinance banning natural gas connections in new construction. The progressive citys ordinance spread like wildfire to other California cities, eventually reaching far areas such as Seattle and Denver. Now, 42 cities in the Golden State have passed bans or severe restrictions on natural gas. The California Energy Commission could pass a state-wide ban amid its update of state building codes. But opponents of natural gas bans were also at work behind the scenes. They have lobbied a number of states to pass laws limiting natural gas bans in certain cities. Their efforts have paid off in four states as of writing Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Meanwhile, Denver made concessions on the use of natural gas for certain purposes. The Colorado city is working on a plan that would continue the use of gas for cooking, while banning it for heating on new buildings. Under the plan, new developments in Denver will only be permitted to use electricity for home heating. Seattle also followed Denvers footsteps by adopting a partial gas ban in February. This ban focused on larger structure, with the citys building code being updated to reflect the move. All new commercial and multi-family buildings standing four stories or taller to be built in Seattle must use electricity for heating. However, the ban does not police the use of gas for heating in smaller buildings and houses. The prohibition also excludes natural gas being utilized for cooking. Natural gas is in the crosshairs of environmental advocates after coal Environment advocates and the gas industry are in conflict over the future of natural gas. Those against the energy source want to make it the new coal and accelerate its demise, while natural gas supporters insist that the bans are products of fringe politics that will never reach the mainstream. The gas industry meanwhile responded to the laws in a seemingly contradictory fashion. It downplayed the dangers of natural gas, yet pledged to cut emissions and plug gas leaks. University of California, Berkeley business professor Lucas Davis said: Youre seeing more cities in states where [banning natural gas] is possible and youre seeing more states take pre-emptive measures. Its becoming more front-of-mind for policymakers all over. The initial four states that struck down natural gas bans do not have emissions reduction as part of their agenda. Many of the 12 states aiming to follow their footsteps argue that restricting possible energy sources would be unfair to their residents. (Related: Climate lunatics are working to ban natural gas stoves, forcing consumers to rely on electric burners that are mostly powered by coal.) Indiana State Rep. Jim Pressel (R-20) said last February: I think its very unfair to our constituents, any of them, to take away any source of energy. The Republican state lawmaker noted that most cities that have adopted the natural gas bans are located in California. Pressel made the remarks amid a debate at the Indiana House of Representatives for his bill banning the natural gas bans: It eventually passed the lower chamber. The gas industry has also went on the defensive through organizations such as the American Gas Organization and the binational Northwest Gas Association. Both groups have responded to the legislative challenges by downplaying the environmental impact of natural gas. But interestingly, they have also pledged to cut emissions by mixing fossil fuels with cleaner fuels and improving how leaks in the gas supply chain are addressed. Some other groups have reached out to people to fight the natural gas bans instituted in the Golden State. The Power Florida Forward campaign made use of a flyer that said: Dont bring failed California policies to Florida. The campaign conducted by the Florida Gas Association urged support for a proposal in the Sunshine State preventing cities from banning natural gas connections. (Related: Stable energy for America: Natural gas supply in the eastern U.S is growing faster than demand.) Check out Power.news to read more news about bans on natural gas use. Sources include: CleanTechnica.com SeattleTimes.com One of the first things that come to mind when you think of a bird is that it has wings and can fly. Of course, not all birds have the ability to fly. Penguins, rheas, ostriches, and emus are well-known examples of flightless birds, but there are several others, as per Bird Spot. Many flightless birds went extinct years ago due to their inability to escape imported predators, but here are ten of the more unique birds that still live with their feet firmly planted on the ground. People have wistfully watched birds take flight for millennia, feeling a little envious. But what about non-flying birds? You'd think they'd be envious of their wild cousins, but these boys are just as fantastic in their own right, as per Britannica. Atlantisia rogersi The Inaccessible Island rail (Atlantisia rogersi) is the world's smallest flightless bird. It only lives on Inaccessible Island, which is part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. The species was named for Henry Martyn Rogers, a missionary priest on Tristan Da Cunha who spotted the Inaccessible Island rail. Penguins Without the penguin, no list of flightless birds would be complete. All 18 penguin species are unable to fly and are instead better adapted to swimming and diving, which they spend most of their time doing. Because of their small legs and stocky stature, they move with a unique waddling gait. While most people identify penguins with Antarctica, the majority of species dwell at higher latitudes. Some even live in temperate temperatures, while the Galapagos penguin may be found almost on the Equator. These birds are also incredibly passionate. Penguins are generally monogamous and seek out the same mates season after season, even if there are hundreds or even thousands of birds in their colony. Steamer ducks Three of the four steamer duck species are flightless, but four of the four should not be tampered with. Even among flighted species, some males are too hefty to accomplish liftoff. These South American ducks got their name by dashing over water and thrashing their wings like steamboat wheels. They also utilize them for various kinds of thrashing. Steamer ducks are notoriously violent and have been known to engage in dramatic, bloody conflicts over territorial issues. They have even been observed killing waterbirds numerous times their size. Read more: Top 10 Deadliest Animals In Asia.Extremely Fatal And Dangerous Galapagos cormorant The flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi) is only one of the strange creatures that live on the islands. It is the only cormorant found in the Galapagos, and it breeds in the coldest seas and nests on shingle or lava outcrops on two islands, Fernandina and Isabela. The biggest member of the cormorant family and the only one that cannot fly is the flightless cormorant. It resembles its relatives except that its wings are roughly one-third the size necessary for flight in relation to its body. The keel on the breastbone, to which the major muscles required for flying are linked, is also significantly decreased. Weka Another New Zealand bird is the weka. This brown, chicken-sized bird was a valuable resource for both native New Zealanders and European settlers, but its population is now declining. Weka has a booming cry that males and females sing as a duet, despite their unimpressive appearance. They are also known as cunning thieves, as they will steal food and little stuff that appeal to them and flee with them. Weka is also a good swimmer. Related article: Top 10 National Parks in the Indian Subcontinent for Spotting Wildlife A participant walks past a camel during the Ultra Mirage El Djerid marathon in the desert near the southwestern Tunisian city of Tozeur on October 7, 2017. The Ultra Mirage El Djerid marathon is a 100 kilometres ultra marathon across the largest salt pan of the Sahara Desert. (Photo : Photo credit: AMINE LANDOULSI/AFP via Getty Images) The world can be full of so much mystery that to be "baffled" is an understatement. The African continent can attest to this. For years, two enormous land masses have been sitting just beneath the Earth's surface. Meanwhile, one blob beneath Africa seems to emerge from underneath the ground - slowly starting to make its way to the surface, according to Popcrush. Scientists discovered that deep beneath the opposite sides of Earth's surface sits two enormous blob-like structures spanning thousands of miles, observed via seismic observations, as per Newsweek. To understand this bizarre natural phenomenon, researchers from Arizona State University have studied these blobs, what they are and where they sit in Earth's mantle, and published their findings in Nature Geoscience. What is the African Blob? The two giant structures sitting between 400 and 1,600 miles below the surface in the lowermost mantle is the African blob. It is known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs). One blob was discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean, while the other is under Africa. According to scientists, they tend to influence processes at the core, as well as the mantle. After extensive study, researchers Mingming Li and Qian Yuan tried to determine what they really are. These 'anomalies' are generally considered to be "intrinsically dense thermochemical piles". However, it remains unclear what their height difference entails. It was later on found that "the maximum height a thermochemical pile can reach is more controlled by its density and the surrounding mantle viscosity, and less so by its own viscosity and volume," the authors wrote. The two blobs differ in terms of density - with the with the African LLSVP seemingly less dense than the Pacific; and maximum height - with one in Africa sitting about 620 miles higher than the Pacific LLSVP. They also vary in terms of compositions, dynamics and evolution histories. Also read: Cave in Bulgaria Revealed New Information on Migration of Ancient Humans Linked to Volcanism The African continent has experienced more supervolcano eruptions over the years compared to the Pacific. Scientists explain that this is because the African blob was known to be less stable. "The Africa LLSVP may have been rising in recent geological time," ASU researcher Li said. "This may explain the elevating surface topography and intense volcanism in eastern Africa." While the African blob is currently rising, Li said that it would take about 50-100 million years for it to reach the surface, as its rises at a rate of around one to two centimeters per year. "In fact, as the African rises, it may become cold and dense. It is not impossible for it to sink again when it becomes dense enough," Li added. Findings from seismic results and geodynamic modeling provide new insights and has "far-reaching implications" on the two largest structures in Earth's deep interior, and how they interact with the surrounding mantle. Related article: An Ancient Tsunami-Unleashing Earthquake 3800 Years Ago Sent Humans into Hiding for a Thousand Years Records from ancient plant life, according to a climatologist at Washington University in St. Louis, revealed the actual story of global temperatures. Warmer temperatures drew plants, and subsequently increasing temperatures, according to new climate models published in Science Advances on April 15. Vegetation change on climate change Alexander Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher in Earth and planetary sciences at the University of Arts & Sciences, altered simulations from a prominent climate model to reflect the importance of changing vegetation as the main consequence of sustainable climate during the last 10,000 years. Since the previous ice age, Thompson has been plagued by difficulty with simulations of Earth's atmospheric temperatures. Too many of these models exhibited constant temperature rises throughout time. Climate proxy data, on the other hand, presented a different narrative. Many of these sources point to a significant increase in global temperatures between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago. Thompson suspected that the models were disregarding the importance of changes in vegetation in favor of impacts from carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere or ice cover. According to Thompson, "pollen data show a considerable growth of vegetation throughout that period," as cited by ScienceDaily. However, earlier models only show a limited amount of vegetation development, so even though some of these other simulations contained dynamic vegetation, the vegetation change wasn't nearly enough to account for what the pollen records imply. The Sahara Desert in Africa grew brighter than it is today early in the Holocene geological age, resembling a grassland. Deciduous and coniferous forests in the mid-latitudes and the Arctic, as well as other Northern Hemisphere vegetation, flourished. Thompson used pollen records as evidence and devised a set of tests using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), one of the most well-regarded models in a wide-ranging class of climate models. He used simulations to account for a variety of previously unaccounted-for changes in vegetation. Also Read: UN Report: Measures Against Climate Change and Global Warming not Sufficient How plants could impact global warming? Biodiversity has an impact on climate at the local, regional, and global levels, but most climate models ignore it because its variables and effects are too varied and complicated to calculate. However, two recent studies show how crucial it is to be able to account for vegetation's reaction to increased carbon dioxide levels in climate models when attempting to forecast our climatic future. The direct impacts of carbon dioxide on plants, according to scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science, contribute to global warming. Plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through stomata in their leaves, which they utilize for photosynthesis. They then expel water via the stomata, a process known as evapotranspiration, which cools the plant in the same way that perspiration cools people. On a hot day, a tree may transpire up to 10 gallons of water, which cools the surrounding air. Plants' stomata shrink when carbon dioxide levels rise, releasing less water into the air and limiting the cooling effect. Long Cao and Ken Caldeira of Carnegie Mellon University increased the amount of carbon dioxide in their model and discovered that reduced evapotranspiration was responsible for 16% of global land warming, with the balance attributable to CO2's heat-trapping effects. More than a quarter of the warming in North America and Asia was attributable to the influence of rising CO2 on plants. Related article: Heatwave Prompted by Climate Change May Cause Shortage of Christmas Tree This Year After an abnormally warm Easter weekend, Monday is predicted to bring a decrease in temperatures and rain to several parts of the UK. On Sunday, temperatures were predicted to reach the high teens, with the chance of even higher in the south, following Good Friday, which was the hottest day of the year so far with 23.4C recorded in London's St James's Park. Warmer weather on Easter weekend After enjoying the warmest day of the year so far, the UK is poised for mild weather ahead of Easter Sunday. According to the Met Office, the temperature at St James's Park in downtown London reached 23.4C on Good Friday afternoon, making it hotter than in California. Saturday will be somewhat colder, although temperatures in parts of southern and central England are anticipated to reach 22 degrees. Despite a murky start to the day in certain locations, many portions of the country will have bright, sunny moments. "It will be a rather overcast start to the morning before evolving into a rather fine and bright day on the whole," Met Office meteorologist Simon Partridge told the PA news agency via the National World. The West Midlands, in central and southern England, is most likely to see temperatures in the low twenties. Also Read: New Jersey Is Preparing for Spring Big Pollen Blast While Warm Weather Will Strike Brighton Seaside Temperatures will drop on Monday On Sunday, the weather will progressively drop, with showers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but most other places should stay nice. More broadly, some areas will have temperatures in the low twenties, while portions of Scotland and Northern Ireland will experience temperatures in the mid-to-high teens. On Sunday, cloudier skies were forecasted in the west, with rain outbreaks in Northern Ireland and western Scotland gradually moving eastwards in a week that the UK Met Office said would bring a return to more typical weather for April when the average temperature is around 12C. It was forecast that temperatures will begin to decrease on Easter Monday, with some rain and cloud rolling in over the week. Rain would come in from the west tonight, but it would be "weakening" as it proceeded, so the east may stay dry, according to Marco Petagna, a senior meteorologist at the Met Office. "The assumption is that over the following several days, temperatures will gradually crawl down across the UK," he added, as per The Guardian. The further south and east you travel, the better your chances of remaining dry, but it will be a little cooler on Monday, with temperatures in the low to mid-teens in some areas in the south-east and low to mid-teens everywhere. Pollen levels, which are still high across the country, causing harm to those suffering from seasonal allergies, will begin to decline in many areas starting Monday, according to Petagna, who added that Easter Monday may be the last day of the week's dry, bright weather, which saw moderate UV levels also with the sun as strong as it was in August. The sunny weather over the weekend, along with the fact that it was the first Easter without lockdown restrictions in two years, drew a large number of people to the seaside, with Bournemouth seeing some of the busiest crowds of the year and coastal car parks in Cornwall were full. The RAC has recommended those returning from weekend getaways travel before 10.30 a.m. or after 6.30 p.m. on Easter Monday to avoid congestion. Related article: Cold Weather With Strong Winds And Snow Will Sweep Across Northern US Environmental scientists highlighted that coral reefs may soon disappear within the next three decades if no concrete actions are taken. The detrimental effects of ocean warming due to human-induced climate change are imminent, but mitigating measures are still possible, according to a new scientific paper. Coral Reefs at Risk During the "Our Oceans Conference" held in Palau on April 14, the Vibrant Oceans Initiative consisting of an international team of environmental scientists presented their paper regarding the future of vulnerable and important habitats, as cited by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The paper focused on the fact that the Earth's coral reefs are in danger of being extinct due to ocean warming caused by climate change over the years. Also Read: Scientists are Weeding Coral Reefs to Help Lessen the Impacts of Climate Change Coral Reef Portfolio In spite of achieving the global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement, environmental scientists said that 90% of the world's coral reefs could still vanish within the said period. In 2018, the Ocean Agency identified 50 coral reefs that were chosen as a site of study for surviving the effects of global warming. Due to the ground-breaking discovery of underwater atolls were called climate change avoidance sanctuaries. Based on the current database, the oceanic group recorded these reefs between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, bordering the coastal waters of Florida, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In other regions, the following reefs were found in the following bodies of water: The Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Brazil The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, off the waters of Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Djibouti The Indian Ocean, located off Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka The Java Sea, off the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore The South China Sea, near the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei The Pacific Ocean, off the shores of Australia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Fiji Since then, scientists have called for the expansion of the portfolio that includes "resistant reefs" and "fast-recovering reefs," as cited by AAAS. Proposed Recommendations During last week's conference, the Vibrant Ocean Initiative provided an action plan consisting of the following recommendations below to protect the said "50 Reefs" worldwide: Continue the prioritization and conservation of the 50 Reefs as climate change avoidance sanctuaries Expand the 50 Reefs conservation portfolio related to coral resistance and recovery sanctuaries against climate change Increase the regional evaluations and financial initiatives to support the conservation efforts of the 50 Reefs portfolio Develop data-driven coral reef monitoring methods to examine, test, and predict climate undiscovered sanctuaries around the world Utilized science-based and latest guide about coral reefs to assist investment, especially topics about the environmental repercussions of climate change Implement the management of the 50 Reef Sites in coastal communities, applying connections to fisheries and water quality management Ecological Degradation and Marine Ecosystems According to the National Ocean Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), climate change causes destruction to marine ecology and marine habitats, and it is considered to be the highest global threat to the world's coral reef ecosystems. The US agency emphasized that scientific evidence shows that both the Earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming due to greenhouse gases (GHG) from human activities. This, in turn, changes the pattern, frequency, and intensity of tropical storms that affect the coral reefs. Related Article: Coral Reef in Ocean's 'Twilight Zone' Untouched by Climate Change Found in Tahiti A man in Arizona, United States, is facing charges of animal cruelty after being found to possess almost 200 animals, including dead birds, dogs, rabbits, and other species, in his garage freezer. Local authorities believe some of the animals died from freezing while they were alive. Frozen to Death In early April, a woman reported to officials that a 43-year-old man by the name of Michael Patrick Turland has not returned the snakes she lends to him for breeding at a rented home in Golden Valley, a rural community in western Arizona. The incident raised initial speculations that Turland was keeping animals at the said storage. The initial report was confirmed when the property's owner cleaned the establishment while Turland and his wife were away. The owner then contacted the woman who informed the authorities of the incident. This prompted the Mohave County animal control officers and deputies to respond, which paved the way for the April 3 discovery of the dead animals, which also include mice, rats, turtles, lizards, and snakes. The sheriff's office said they were kept in a large-sized chest freezer, as per The Guardian. Initial investigation indicated that some of the said mammals and reptiles died in such a manner due to body positioning, added by the sheriff's office. Also Read: Mass Deaths of Koalas in Australia Prompt Animal Cruelty Charges Arrest: Animal Cruelty Charges Police forces arrested Turland when he returned to his home on April 13. The suspect admitted that he kept some of the animals in the freezer while they were still alive. However, there is still no new information regarding scheduled hearings. Bur, court orders indicated that Turland had 94 counts of animal cruelty on his plate. Moreover, it is not clear why Turland acquired a large number of animals before killing them. The case can also be categorized as animal hoarding aside from animal cruelty under Arizona law. Arizona Animal Law In 2021, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey reportedly signed a bill that prevents residents convicted of animal cruelty from owning a pet for up to five years. As a result, the Arizona law requires pets such as cats and dogs to be transferred to a "different household" if their owner is convicted of such a crime. In exceptional cases, an offender may live in a house with a pet as long as the animal is taken care of by someone else that has not been convicted. During these circumstances, the monitored person must be under the strict supervision of judicial courts. Furthermore, an offender may take care of a pet again if he or she has undergone psychiatric treatment and no longer poses a threat to animals after a year of being convicted. According to Debra Nolan, founder of the animal rights organization 'Don't Leave Me', there is also a strong correlation between domestic violence and animal abuse, as cited by the local media outlet KOLD News 13. Nolan, who also initiated the animal bill in the Grand Canyon State, said that 89% of abused women also had their pets harmed, threatened, or killed by their partners. US Animal Welfare Act Over recent months, multiple cases of separate yet related cases of animal abuse and animal cruelty such as hoarding, beating, killing, and abandonment have been reported in several states across the country. In the US, states are governed by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) ratified in 1966, as per the National Agricultural Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Still, each federal jurisdiction are allowed to impose or develop its own specific measures when it comes to upholding the advocacies of the AWA, which prohibits all kinds of violence and actions that degrades the welfare and well-being of animals. Related Article: New Jersey Dog Hoarding Couple Face 552 Animal Cruelty Charges Microfossils from billions of years ago discovered in what is now Canada suggests it may be Earth's oldest life, as per a new study. If proven to be the oldest fossils, the discovery may change our understanding that life as we know it may have developed earlier than previously thought. Oldest Fossils In a new study published in the journal Science Advances on April 13, scientists from the University College London (UCL) found new fossil evidence consisting of microscopic structures inside rocks. They believed that it could only be formed by microbes living near hydrothermal vents in the oceans billions of years ago. Based on carbon dating technology, the fossils approximately date back between 3.7 and 4.2 billion years ago; which means that microscopic life may have started to emerge 300 years after the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. If proven, the ground-breaking discovery will surpass the previously confirmed 3.5 to 3.7-billion-year old microfossils. The new study had its roots in a separate 2017 research led by Dominic Papineau, an associate professor in astrobiology and geochemistry at UCL. During the previous study, Papineau and his team discovered the fossils, but some members of the scientific community doubted their biological nature. This curiosity has led to further years of research by the same team, which led to the latest developments. Also Read: The Moon Was Part of the Earth 4.5 Billion Years Ago, New Study Suggests Origins of Life on Earth Prior to the new study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hinted that there is some unconfirmed evidence that biological activity took place on Earth more than 3.8 billion years ago, a period also called the "late heavy bombardment." NASA said the initial phase of Earth's existence was marked by violent and continuous comet and asteroid impacts, which extremely caused the warming of the planet, preventing the formation of life. The Earth's climatic conditions at the time are conventionally known as "anti-life" due to the absence of significant water and carbon dioxide, says NASA. It is also during this period when the solar system, including the Sun and our neighboring planets, just started to form 4.6 billion years ago. This entails that the atmospheric and geological stability of Earth as we know it today is still out of the picture. Implications: Earth's Oldest Life The implications of the discovery of the potentially oldest life on Earth, whether proven or not, is substantial since it may not only lead to further research on the same subject matter. Hence, it would also pave the way for previous study remodeling their approach concerning the emergence and development of life on Earth. In a previous research article posted on the site of the Research Outreach (RO) organization in 2019, the origin of life on Earth has been long debated from a scientific point of view. These debates were grounded in several theories. One of the standing hypotheses claimed by RO is that the birthplace of life came from a nuclear geyser where there is a constant circulation of energy and material. Related Article: Big Bang and More: Life On Earth Likely Began 300 Million Years Earlier, Researchers Say According to local officials in a Turkish town in the south, forest fires that erupted in two areas early Monday have been brought under control. When flames flared in two portions of a forest in Dortyol, a town in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, around one hour after midnight, villagers called the firefighters. Immediate Respond Local forestry services and Hatay municipality firemen responded to the spot. Strong winds impeded their efforts to put out the fire. Winds also hampered efforts to put out the fire using aircraft or helicopters. The firefighters were assisted by residents living near the woodland. The cause of the fire is yet unknown. Occasionally, flames erupt in the region throughout the summer, the peak season for wildfires. Also Read: UN Warns of Catastrophic Effects as Wildfires Continue to Worsen Globally Turkish Wildfires Wildfires are threatening Turkey's evergreen countryside, exacerbated by climate change. Between 2012 and 2021, 226,845 hectares of forest were damaged or burnt across the country, with more than 61 percent of this loss occurring in 2021 alone. According to the Directorate General of Forestry (OGM), there have been 27,150 forest fires around the country in the last ten years. Fires have become more intense, although not unusual, due to strong winds spreading them and scorching temperatures exacerbating the flames. Also Read: Statistic Reveals How Big of a Damage Wildfires Caused in 2021 Last Year's Fire Though last year may appear to be the worst in terms of the extent of the woods destroyed by fires, the largest number of flames, 3,755, occurred in 2013, one year before the country had its fewest fires in a decade, with 2,149. There were 2,793 forest fires recorded last year. The majority of them, like in the past, took place during the summer months. Antalya and Mugla, two southern provinces on the Mediterranean Sea's coasts, were home to most of the massive flames. At least eight persons were killed in the horrific fires. The fire generated a countrywide effort to assist the burned-out communities and a discussion over the country's response to such large fires. Also Read: Hazardous Forest Fires Erupted Around Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Forest Fires All Over Forest fires erupted in more than 500 areas over two provinces, with the largest lasting 15 days, forcing the evacuation of communities in Manavgat, Antalya's worst-affected district, and Bodrum and Marmaris, two famous tourist spots in Mugla province. Also Read: Rare Early-Year Wildfire Burned Through 1,500 Acres of Land in California Bracing Up As summer comes, Turkey braces for another season of wildfires, some of which are caused by terrorist organizations, but most of which are caused by human mistakes, such as improperly dumped combustible materials. This year, 55 helicopters and 20 airplanes have been allocated for dumping water on burning woods, while 15,000 volunteers and professional personnel are ready to go into the field. The government also uses drones to monitor woods around the clock to respond to wildfires faster. Related Article: Invasive Fire Ants Moved to a New "Wetter" Environment After Old Hills Damaged by Wildfire For similar news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! After being picked up by a tornado and found dangling from a tree, a 6-year-old girl is in critical condition. Miriam Rios was severely injured when an EF-3 tornado with winds of 165 mph ripped through her family's house in Texas. After an EF-3 tornado swept apart her family's mobile home in Central Texas on Tuesday, a 6-year-old girl is battling for her life. Miriam Rios was tossed hundreds of yards from her home during the storm in Salado, which had peak gusts of 165 mph. She was eventually discovered hanging upside down from a tree. She is presently in serious condition at a local hospital, just days before her 7th birthday on Saturday, according to KWQC. Her injuries were the most serious in her family, although her parents and 1-year-old brother were all present during the storm. Also Read: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt Against Global Warming Remain High Despite Pressing Evidence Road to Recovery Miriam's father, Joel Rios, was also flung around inside, and her pregnant mother, Vanessa Rios, wound up on the other side of the home. According to the publication, one-year-old Ezra was tossed from his house and into a field. Vanessa was told she had a miscarriage after the family of four was transported to the hospital. According to KWQC, Vanessa's brother Stephen Perez claimed the infant had the least severe injuries and would be released shortly, while the rest had undergone much surgery. According to Perez, the Rios family attempted to drive away from the storm, but it began to hail, so they returned home. "All left is the foundation; there's nothing else," Perez told the newspaper. Perez's GoFundMe campaign generated more than $44,000 of the $80,000 target. While the tornado has snatched everything they've worked so hard for, he claims they've managed to hold on to each other. "Our objective is to raise 80,000 dollars to assist restore their house and get them back on their feet and give them hope and encouragement to keep fighting," Perez said. During a press conference on Wednesday, Bell County Judge David Blackburn stated that the tornado injured 23 individuals, one of whom was in serious condition. In a video taken by KCEN, he claimed that 63 structures were damaged, including churches, residences, and storage buildings. At the time, there were also 638 electricity outages reported. Surviving Tornadoes Every year, tornadoes wreak havoc on communities around the country, bringing huge winds and property devastation in their wake. Prepare an emergency plan and an emergency kit, keep alert of weather conditions during thunderstorms, know the best places to shelter both indoors and outdoors, and always protect yourself from injuries, especially to your head, to stay safe during a tornado. 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! Champaign, IL (61820) Today Windy. Cloudy skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 78F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Low around 65F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Vaccines can be made over 25% more effective by adding left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles as adjuvants, according to a study by an international collaboration in which Brazilian researchers took part. An article reporting the results is published in Nature. Three research groups collaborated on the study, one affiliated with the University of Michigan in the United States, and another with Jiangnan University in China. The Brazilian group was led by Andre Farias de Moura, a professor in the Chemistry Department at the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar) and a researcher with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP. The study was also supported by FAPESP via a research grant awarded to Moura. It did not involve COVID-19 vaccines because it began well before the pandemic. The researchers used vaccines developed to combat a specific influenza virus strain. While this is not the strain that is currently circulating in Brazil, in principle the results can be generalized for any type of vaccine, evidently with case-by-case complementary studies. The reason is that left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles are not the active ingredient, but an adjuvant that potentiates the recipient's immune response. "The key to understanding the contribution of these nanoparticles is the concept of chirality, which applies to an object or system that can't be superimposed on its own mirror image," Moura told Agencia FAPESP. Chirality, then, is a type of asymmetry. The term is derived from kheir, the Ancient Greek for hand, and the best example is precisely the difference between left hand and right hand. When we hold up our hands to a mirror, the hand we see on the right is our left hand and vice-versa. Everything alive on Earth is chiral. Chiral molecules can have entirely different properties depending on whether they're left- or right-handed. The two chiral forms of the same molecule are known as enantiomers. A tragic example is thalidomide, a drug prescribed to pregnant women for morning sickness in the late 1950s and 1960s. It caused babies to be born with a range of malformations. One of the enantiomers in the substance had the expected therapeutic effect, but the other atrophied the limbs of the fetus." Andre Farias de Moura, Professor, Chemistry Department, Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar) Nanoparticles Research in nanomaterials has advanced sufficiently to enable scientists to separate one enantiomer completely, Moura explained, and the study reported in Nature was based on this possibility. "We began with gold nanoparticles, which are symmetrical and lack chirality. They're achiral. We first induced chirality in them by having them interact with the amino acid cysteine, and then intensified the induced chirality by exposing them to polarized light using the amino acid phenylalanine as a light-harvesting antenna," he said. Chirality is measured in "g-factor" on a scale from minus two (-2) to plus two (+2). The procedure used in the study enabled the scientists to exceed 0.4 and resulted in three nanoparticles: the original achiral gold, the right-handed enantiomer, and the left-handed enantiomer. "Initially we tested the nanoparticles on human immune cells cultured in vitro and found that the chiral nanoparticles induced production of substances associated with an immune response even in the absence of an antigen any substance capable of triggering antibody production. This kind of reaction is exactly what an adjuvant does in a vaccine," Moura said. Next, the researchers tested the nanoparticles on the influenza virus. "We found that the enantiomers greatly enhanced the efficacy of the vaccine," Moura said. "Specifically, the left-handed enantiomer caused a 25.8% increase in efficacy compared with the right-handed enantiomer, and an even greater increase compared with the achiral nanoparticle." The knowledge is published and available to anyone who wishes to use it, Moura stressed. "It can be used by any producer of any type of vaccine, including vaccines for novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 or influenza. We aren't vaccine developers, but we're offering this basic knowledge as a novel technological platform for those who are," he said. Nurse Angel Ho-king sways her head to the sound of salsa music as she waits for people willing to roll up their sleeves to get a shot. Ho-king is part of a four-person crew staffing a covid-19 vaccine table at a health fair in Rampart Village, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood about 10 minutes from Dodger Stadium. In three hours on a recent Saturday, Ho-king and Brenda Rodriguez, a medical assistant, vaccinated 16 people far fewer than they had anticipated. Nearly everyone who showed up at the fair, organized by Saban Community Clinic, was an adult seeking a booster shot or a young child getting a first dose (children ages 5 to 11 became eligible for a vaccine late last year). As covid infections have declined so too has interest in covid vaccines even though the shots are highly effective at preventing serious illness and death from the virus. In California's most-populous county, where more than 1.7 million people have not received even one dose, vaccination events have turned desolate. About 46,000 county residents got their first dose in March, a 79% decline from January, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Those who remain unvaccinated are harder to convince, telling health care workers and vaccination coordinators that they don't feel a sense of urgency. According to a January survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, about 1 in 10 California adults said they definitely won't get vaccinated, which has remained consistent since January 2021, and 86% of unvaccinated adults said the omicron variant wasn't enough to persuade them. Employers and businesses are dropping or rolling back vaccination mandates. And although proof of vaccination once offered perks like allowing people to go maskless indoors, face coverings are generally no longer required in California. At a recent vaccination drive coordinated by an immigrant advocacy group in Palmdale, near Lancaster in northern LA County, only two people showed up over four hours, both for second doses. As of April 1, 25% of Palmdale residents ages 5 and up were unvaccinated, compared with 17% of county residents, according to county data. Jorge Perez, Salva Organization's vaccine coordinator, spent a week promoting the event with his team, going door to door, visiting local businesses, and publicizing it on social media. At previous vaccine drives, "we got 42 people, then 20, then four," said a disappointed Perez. "Now two." Perez reduced the number of staffers at vaccination events from five to two in February as the numbers started to dwindle. Much work remains to be done to combat vaccine misinformation, especially given the spread of BA.2, an omicron subvariant that is highly transmissible, said Dr. Richard Seidman, chief medical officer for L.A. Care, a public Medicaid insurance plan that serves county residents. The number of covid cases and hospitalizations had been declining since February, but the county is again seeing a bump in cases, according to data released this week. People have various reasons for remaining unvaccinated, Seidman said. "For some, it's distrust of the government or health care providers in general," he said. "Some are more cautious and want to take a wait-and-see approach. Others simply don't believe the science." A study published April 11 by JAMA Internal Medicine shows just how entrenched views are. Many people who refused to get vaccinated early on said they were waiting for the shots to get full approval from the FDA. But when the agency's first full approval of a covid vaccine came in August 2021, the study concluded, it did little to change people's minds and "had little immediate impact on vaccination intentions." In California, unvaccinated people were nearly 14 times as likely to die from covid as people who had been fully vaccinated and received a booster dose, according to state data from March 7-13. Perez said people getting their first shots now are doing so mainly because they feel obligated to meet a work requirement, for example, or enter places such as restaurants, bars, and gyms that require proof of vaccination. That was the case for Modesto Araizas, one of the two people who showed up at the Palmdale vaccine event. Despite contracting covid twice, missing work, and having a hard time breathing, he didn't get vaccinated until he needed proof of vaccination to eat at his favorite seafood restaurant. "I haven't been scared," said Araizas, 46. "I take vitamins, eat healthy food, and I work out." Until recently, the federal government reimbursed doctors, hospitals, and other providers for tests, treatments, and vaccines for uninsured people. But the Health Resources and Services Administration stopped accepting reimbursement claims for tests and treatments March 22, and for vaccinations April 5. Many uninsured people now will likely need to pay out-of-pocket for tests and other services. Perez is hoping people might become more open to vaccines if covid tests become too expensive for them. No one will want to keep paying for tests when they can just get a shot, he reasoned. Nurse Roxanna Segovia works at a pop-up vaccine and testing clinic in front of South LA Cafe in South Central LA. She recently spent 45 minutes trying to persuade a man who had visited the clinic regularly for free tests to get vaccinated. "He gave me all the reasons he has not been vaccinated, like his civil rights were being violated and Bible verses," Segovia said. "His job requires it now, and he said he was losing money by missing work waiting for test results. If he continued this way, he wouldnt be able to feed his family, but even so, he still wasn't sure if he was making the right choice." At the end of their conversation, he got the shot. This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. In a recent study published on the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers found six monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) binding to the spike (S) proteins of all human coronaviruses (CoVs). Study: Broadly neutralizing antibodies target the coronavirus fusion peptide. Image Credit: Slow Area / Shutterstock.com Background Coronaviruses belong to Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta genera and can infect different birds and mammals. There are seven human CoVs that have been identified to date, of which include HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV, Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. Whereas HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1 are endemic viruses and cause mild disease, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 have caused severe outbreaks in the past two decades. SARS-CoV-2 causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The development of COVID-19 mitigation policies has been consistently complicated by the emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC), which exhibit at least partial resistance to many therapeutic antibodies and vaccines. Protection induced by vaccines is mainly provided by neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) directed at the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein, which is also targeted by the therapeutic mAbs. Since the most recent Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants contain a highly mutated RBD, most mAbs are ineffective against them. Thus, other sites on the S protein need to be explored for therapeutic breakthroughs. Study findings The researchers identified broadly reactive mAbs from COVID-19 convalescent donors in the current study. Plasma samples from 142 convalescent donors were examined for B-cells producing broad mAbs. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) reactivity to S proteins of the human CoVs was assessed. About 19 donors were identified for isolating and characterizing mAbs. IgG+ memory B cells (MBCs) were screened in a two-stage method prioritizing for mAbs with great breadth of reactivity, which identified 60 mAbs reactive to a minimum of three CoVs. Further examination revealed that only six mAbs were reactive to all seven S proteins, which included COV44-62, COV91-27, COV44-79, COV77-39, COV77-04, and COV78-36. The neutralization capacity of the six mAbs was tested against pseudoviruses of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, and authentic HCoV-OC43. Two mAbs of COV44-62 and COV44-79 exhibited the highest breadth of functional reactivity, neutralizing both Beta (HCoV-OC43, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2) and Alpha CoVs (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63). Additionally, the two mAbs neutralized the BA.1 and BA.2 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Only COV44-62 showed neutralization of MERS-CoV, whereas other mAbs failed. Interestingly, COV77-39 had no neutralizing activity despite having the same broad binding reactivity as the remaining mAbs. All six mAbs were observed to bind to the S2 subunit and not to the RBD or N-terminal domain (NTD) of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. A surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based high-throughput analysis was performed, wherein 15-mer overlapping peptides spanning the entire length of the SARS-CoV-2 S2 subunit were mapped. The SPR analysis revealed that the mAbs bound to peptides 42 44 sharing the 815 RSFIEDLLF 823 motif, located in the fusion peptide region of SARS-CoV-2. Thirty-five viral isolates, which were representative of each CoV genus, were studied to determine genetic diversity in the 815 RSFIEDLLF 823 motif. The motif was conserved in more than 90% of the selected isolates. Broadly neutralizing antibodies target coronaviruses associated with human disease. (A) Analysis of the frequency of MBCs expressing broadly reactive antibodies from n = 19 donors. Values in parentheses represent the percentage of SARS-CoV-2 reactive supernatants that also bind the specified subsets of non-SARS coronavirus spikes. A total of 10,356 MBC culture supernatants (50-100 B cells/well) was screened. (B) Phylogenetic relationships across the coronavirus spike proteins targeted by the broadly reactive mAbs were inferred by the Neighbor-Joining method in MEGA11 using full-length amino-acid sequences of CoV spike proteins. Bootstrap values from 500 samplings are shown on the branches. (C) Heat map representing the binding of broadly reactive mAbs to spike proteins from coronaviruses across the alpha, beta and deltacoronavirus genera. H1 hemagglutinin was included as a negative control for mAb binding experiments and area under the curve (AUC) values for each antigen are shown after subtraction with values for the negative control antigen CD4. (D) Values represent antibody titer at 50% neutralization (NT 50 ) against SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan Hu-1, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-229E envelope-pseudotyped lentivirus, as well as authentic HCoV-OC43. NT50 values were calculated using the dose-response-inhibition model with 5-parameter Hill slope equation in GraphPad Prism 9. (E) Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (pseudovirus) by COV44-62 and COV44-79. Alanine scanning was performed, focusing on the amino acids (AAs) targeted by COV44-62 and COV44-79. To this end, the team found that the E819, D820, L822, and F823 residues were vital for COV44-62 binding. As with COV44-79, the E819, D820, F823, and R815 residues were crucial for binding. These five residues were among the conserved sites for S proteins across CoVs. Polyclonal sera (IgG) from convalescent donors, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-1273 (Moderna) vaccinees, and SARS-CoV-2-naive individuals were obtained to test the binding to fusion peptide of SARS-CoV-2. As a cohort, convalescent donors had lower responses than vaccinated subjects; however, several convalescent subjects had the highest responses among the three cohorts. This indicated that a natural infection could trigger a more robust antibody response to the fusion peptide in specific individuals. A Syrian hamster model was used to assess the efficacy of COV4-79 and COV44-62 in vivo. COV44-79-treated hamsters showed reduced weight loss with faster recovery than control hamsters. Four out of six COV44-62-receiving hamsters developed clinical signs by day six post-infection, in contrast to only one COV44-79-treated hamster, which showed a respiratory rate on day six. Conclusions The authors discovered six mAbs from convalescent individuals binding to all seven human CoVs and two mAbs neutralizing at least six CoVs. All mAbs were directed against the fusion peptide, which is identical in current SARS-CoV-2 VOCs, and conserved across the four CoV genera, thereby highlighting its pivotal role and potential as a candidate site for vaccine design. Despite its potential benefits, this peptide has not been focused on, likely because of the relatively weak binding of mAbs to the intact S protein, which improves only when its S1 cap is removed. Overall, the present study offered valuable insights into broadly acting mAbs targeting the fusion peptide, a highly conserved site across the CoVs, necessitating further research into this region as a potential vaccine candidate. *Important notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. In a work of systematic biology that advances the field, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have identified 16 distinct cell populations in a complex area of the midbrain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA. The VTA is important for its role in the dopamine neurotransmission involved in reward-directed behavior. Substance use disorders involve dysregulation of these reward circuits, leading to repeated drug-seeking despite adverse consequences. These include more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in the most recent year. The VTA also has a role in several other neuropsychiatric disorders. Thus, expanding knowledge of its function is a start to explaining the mechanisms for substance use disorders involving drugs like cocaine, alcohol, opioids and nicotine, or psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity, or ADHD. Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters used by the brain as chemical messengers to send signals between nerve cells. While decades of research have focused on dopaminergic neurotransmission in the VTA, there is also substantial evidence for the importance of two other neurotransmitters acting in the VTA in reward-related behaviors -; GABA and glutamate. There is also evidence for "combinatorial" neurons that can potentially synthesize and release multiple neurotransmitters. These suggest an additional layer of complexity in VTA cellular and synaptic function. Systematic biology is the science of classification, and it usually refers to the classification of organisms with regard to their natural relationships. The UAB VTA study classifies cell populations to extend and deepen previous work on the different cell types in the VTA, to provide a starting point for deciphering the relationships among these cells and their broad connections to other areas of the brain. The research, published in Cell Reports, was led by co-first authors Robert A. Phillips III and Jennifer J. Tuscher, Ph.D., and corresponding author Jeremy J. Day, Ph.D. The 16 distinct cell populations were identified by differences in gene expression after single-nucleus RNA sequencing of 21,600 cells from the rat VTA, creating a searchable online atlas of the VTA. The rat is the prime model for reward and substance use studies. This unbiased approach -; in contrast to previous studies that selected some subsets of cells for RNA sequencing -; was used to create the largest and most comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic analysis focused exclusively on the composition and molecular architecture of the VTA. Though it was well known that the VTA is composed of heterogeneous cell types, the UAB atlas expands those studies in several key ways. For example, previous single-cell sequencing studies were conducted exclusively in the mouse brain and have relied primarily on sequencing a subset of fluorescence-activated cell sorting-isolated midbrain dopaminergic populations, rather than sampling all VTA cell types. Notably, our sequencing dataset focuses exclusively on VTA sub-regions, unlike other studies that have focused on pooled cells from the mouse substantia nigra and VTA or a subset of fluorescently tagged cells from general midbrain regions." Jeremy J. Day, Ph.D. The 16 distinct cell populations include classic dopaminergic neurons, three subsets of glutamatergic neurons and three subsets of GABAergic neurons, as well as nine other cell types, including astrocytes and glial cells. After sub-clustering neuronal cells, the UAB researchers also identified four sub-clusters that may represent neurons capable of combinatorial neurotransmitter release. They also identified selective gene markers for classically defined dopamine neurons and for the combinatorial neurons. A selective marker allows viral targeting of distinct VTA subclasses for functional studies. The researchers also examined sub-clusters for opioid neuropeptides and their receptors, and identified pan-neuronal increased expression for risk genes associated with schizophrenia and "smoking initiation," as well as enrichment of ADHD risk genes in two glutamatergic neuronal populations. Co-authors besides Day, Phillips and Tuscher for the study, "An atlas of transcriptionally defined cell populations in the rat ventral tegmental area," are Samantha L. Black, Emma Andraka and N. Dalton Fitzgerald, UAB Department of Neurobiology and Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute; and Lara Ianov, Civitan International Research Center at UAB. Day, Phillips and Tuscher are, respectively, associate professor, graduate student and postdoctoral fellow in the UAB Department of Neurobiology. Support came from National Institutes of Health grants MH114990, DA039650 and DA048348; UAB's Pittman Scholars Program, AMC21 Scholars Program and Civitan International Research Center; and a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator grant. The UAB Department of Neurobiology, McKnight Brain Institute and Civitan International Research Center are all part of the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. Patricia Keys, 71 and a stroke survivor, needs help with many everyday activities, such as dressing and bathing. Her daughter Christina, who lives near her mom in Vancouver, Washington, cares for her in the evenings and pays about $3,000 a month for help from other caregivers. Christina Keys, 53, was thrilled three years ago when Washington state passed a first-in-the-nation law that created a long-term care benefit for residents who paid into a state fund. She hoped it would be a resource for others facing similar challenges. The benefit, which has a lifetime limit of $36,500, would have made a big difference during the first year after her mom's stroke, Keys said. Her mom needed a ramp built and other modifications made to her house, as well as a wheelchair and hospital bed. The extra money might also have made it easier for Keys to hire caregivers. Instead, she gave up her technology sales job to look after her mom. "People are under this cloud of delusion that between your insurance and your retirement [income] you're going to be fine," she said. "They don't understand all the things that insurance doesn't cover." But relief for Washington families will have to wait. The WA Cares Fund, which was set to begin collecting money for the program with a mandatory payroll tax on workers in January, has been delayed while lawmakers made adjustments during the current legislative session. Payroll deductions will start in July 2023, and benefits will become available in July 2026. Other states are watching Washington closely as they weigh offering coverage for their own residents. In California, a task force is examining how to design and implement a long-term care program, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois and Michigan are also studying the issue, according to the NCSL. Supporters of the Washington program say it just needed fine-tuning and note that social programs like Medicare and the Affordable Care Act also underwent tweaking. The program's long-term solvency, however, is in doubt and the cost to workers who buy into the program is in question. What's not in doubt is that it is critically important to address long-term care needs. About 70% of people who turn 65 will require some type of long-term care services. Many will need help such as an at-home assistant, while others could face a stay in a nursing home, which on average costs more than $90,000 a year. But many don't have good options to cover the expense. Medicare's coverage is very limited, while Medicaid generally requires people to impoverish themselves before it picks up the tab. Private long-term care insurance policies are unaffordable for most people. The upshot: Many people rely on unpaid family members to help them with medical care, as well as everyday activities like bathing and dressing. The problem is getting much worse. The number of people 85 and older is projected to more than double within the next 20 years, while the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias is expected to double as well, to 13 million. The federal Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS Act), which was part of the Affordable Care Act, created a voluntary long-term care buy-in program, but it was never implemented because of concerns it wouldn't be financially sound. Since then, policymakers in Washington, D.C., have had little appetite for addressing the problem. "We don't have a solution at the federal level, so states are taking it on themselves to experiment with solutions," said Bonnie Burns, a consultant for California Health Advocates and an expert on long-term care who was appointed to a Washington state committee to help develop a supplemental long-term care insurance product to be offered alongside the state benefit. The Washington state program's maximum benefit is intended to cover a year's worth of home care at 20 hours a week, said program director Benjamin Veghte. Although wealthy people likely can afford to pay for their care and the poorest families qualify for Medicaid, middle-class families might burn through their savings trying to cover such bills. "It doesn't solve all the problems, but with a modest premium and a modest benefit it eases the problem for families," Veghte said. It could also give some families time so that "maybe they can develop a plan" for long-term care needs after their benefits expire, he added. Although the law passed in 2019, it remained below many people's radars until the mandatory payroll deduction approached. Workers faced a tax of 0.58% per $100 of income. For someone earning $52,000 annually, the deduction would equal $302 a year, according to state estimates. As people realized they were about to have to start paying into the program, some pushed back. Workers could get an exemption if they had private long-term care insurance, and thousands of people scrambled for that coverage before the Nov. 1, 2021, opt-out deadline. Many of the state's employers quickly offered workers the opportunity to buy private plans. Because withholding for the benefit isn't capped based on income, wealthier people may be better off with private long-term care insurance, if they can pass the insurer's medical evaluation. "We did have a good number of higher-earning, younger folks who wanted to buy a policy," said Gary Brooks, a certified financial planner who is co-owner of BHJ Wealth Advisors in Gig Harbor, Washington. By last month, 473,000 workers had taken the one-time offer to opt out of the program. Other people raised objections because they would have to pay into the system but wouldn't benefit. These included people who work in Washington but live in a neighboring state, the spouses of service members who are unlikely to make Washington a permanent home, people planning to retire before the three years needed to qualify for benefits, and some workers on temporary visas. The commission overseeing the long-term care program has estimated that the number of people from these groups eligible to opt out is about 264,000. In January, Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation that addressed many of these issues. It allows certain groups to opt out and people nearing retirement to receive partial benefits based on the number of years they paid into the program. One other group those who plan to retire elsewhere hasn't been addressed, but the state is developing recommendations for the legislature, Veghte said. According to current actuarial projections, 3.1 million workers will begin paying into the program next year, out of a total of 3.6 million, Veghte said. Some critics are concerned that allowing more people to opt out of the program puts it on increasingly precarious financial footing. "The solvency issue just gets greater and greater," said Richard Birmingham, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle who is representing employers and workers in a class-action lawsuit that claims the law violates federal and state statutes governing employee benefit plans. "Any change they make further increases the cost." Supporters are sponsoring a ballot initiative that they believe would help bolster the program's assets by allowing program funds to be invested in a diversified portfolio rather than fixed-income investments. That initiative "probably will eventually" pass, Veghte said, even though it failed in 2020. Although the program delay isn't ideal for the thousands of people who could benefit from the new program in the short term, consumer advocates are taking it in stride. "We know that as the first state to do this that it may not be perfect going out of the gate," said Jessica Gomez, coalition manager of Washingtonians for a Responsible Future, which represents community groups for aging and disability populations. "It may have to be fixed, but we'll fix the problems and go forward." BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese central authorities have issued a set of guidelines to crack down on fraud involving telecommunication and the internet. China will step up efforts to fight the whole criminal chain of telecom and internet fraud, and will enhance international cooperation to hunt down and extradite fugitives involved in these crimes, per the document jointly released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council. The authorities will make all efforts to retrieve money acquired by fraud rings, it said. Technology should be used against the websites, apps and short messages used by fraud rings, and to enable law enforcement agencies to identify potential victims more precisely. Awareness campaigns will be devised to better equip the public to identify fraud schemes, according to the document. Authorities will also tighten the supervision over financial institutions to detect and cut off new money laundering channels of fraud rings. Those involved in telecom or internet fraud will be blacklisted by the country's social credit system. (Newser) Following a recent piece about the origin myth of starlingsthe small black birds that move in cloud-like, synchronous flocksNew York Times writer Jason Bittel was overrun with questions and commentary about snarge, the term biologists and aviation professionals use for the bits or clumps of bird remains found on (or in the engines of) airplanes after midflight collisions. In a follow-up piece, Bittel digs deeper into the word's origins, which dates back to 1960, after an Eastern Airlines flight crashed into Boston Harbor. Just 10 out of 72 passengers and crew survived; investigators later determinedbased on clumps of feathers in the enginesthat the plane had struck a flock of starlings. The term emerged from the Smithsonian Institutes Feather Identification Lab, where feather expert Roxie Laybourne pioneered a critical branch of research around wildlife-aviation hazards. It's not clear whether Laybourne herself coined the term, though Bittel anoints her the "Queen of Snarge." Since then, Smithsonian ornithologists have worked with the FAA to identify and address potential risks, which vary from one airport or region to another. (Just ask Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.) Airports use various management options, such as noise cannons, capture/relocation, and even trained falcons. The aviation industry has also adapted plane engines, which are expected to survive most bird impacts. The FAA documented 17,358 strikes in 2019, most of which did little or no damage. Read the full story. (Read more snarge stories.) (Newser) Children's book author Jason Tharp says his planned book reading at an Ohio elementary school was halted after concerns were raised about the book's possible "gay agenda." Tharp was scheduled to read It's Okay to Be a Unicorn on April 6, but the day before, he got a call from Buckeye Valley Local School District informing him of the issue. "I just said, did somebody think I made a gay book? And he's like, 'Yeah,' and I'm like, 'Because why? Rainbows and unicorns?'" Tharp told USA Today. He says the answer to that question was essentially affirmative. He later clarified on Instagram, "The principal, teachers, students, and school was awesome. These decisions were made outside of that building." There are no references to homosexuality in the book, which is about loving and accepting yourself, but, Tharp tells USA Today, a parent scrolling through Tharp's social media saw that he supports the LGBTQ+ community. "One parent ... came in and said that apparently, I was coming in with an agenda to recruit kids to be gay," he says. Tharp offered to read another book, It's Okay to Smell Good, which has a similar message but involves a story about skunks rather than unicorns, but he was told to instead just focus on an uplifting message rather than read any of his books. In a statement to ABC 6, the district says the author visit went on as scheduled, just, apparently, without the book reading. "Jason shares an inspirational message with students about how he was 'weird' in school but has capitalized on what made him unique (his drawing) and turned it into a strength. Jasons message revolves around K.U.P which stands for: Kindness (be kind to others and yourself) Uniqueness (be yourself and capitalize on what makes you unique) Practice (practice unique skills you have, chase your dreams). After discussing his message, Jason will share his talent of drawing and illustration." The district says the book has not been banned. (Read more Ohio stories.) (Newser) Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscows troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city after a series of explosions shattered windows and started fires, reports the AP. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine have seen only sporadic strikes during almost two months of war and have become a relative refuge for people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, vowed to fight absolutely to the end in strategically vital Mariupol, where the last known pocket of resistance in a seven-week siege was holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. Russia has repeatedly urged forces there to lay down their arms, but those remaining ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum on Sunday. Lviv's regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyy, said six people were killed and another eight, including a child, were wounded by four Russian missile strikes. He said three hit military infrastructure facilities and one struck a tire shop. A hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting further east was among buildings badly damaged in overnight missile strikes, according to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who put the toll at six dead and 11 wounded. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv," said Lyudmila Turchak, 47, who fled with two children from Kharkiv. "There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways, and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the countrys ability to resist a major ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland. The Russian military said missiles struck more than 20 military targets across Ukraine overnightincluding ammunition depots, command headquarters, and groups of troops and vehicles. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, after its attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, failed. (Read more Ukraine stories.) (Newser) An alleged murder case in South Korea is making headlines for its unusual circumstances, including the use of pufferfish toxin. Police near Seoul arrested 31-year-old Lee Eun-hae and alleged accomplice Cho Hyun-soo, 31, and accused them of murdering Lee's husband for insurance money, reports the Korea Herald. Police say the couple drowned Lee's 39-year-old husband in 2019 in a case that was initially ruled to be an accidental death. However, a tip to police led to an investigation that authorities say uncovered two previous murder attempts in 2019. One involved poisoning the husband's food with deadly pufferfish toxin, per Yonhap News. The second involved an attempted drowning. Whether the husband grew suspicious at any point remains unclear, notes the Daily Beast. Lee was on track to receive about $650,000 before the police investigation derailed the payout. The pair went on the lam in December after police issued arrest warrants, and they were arrested over the weekend in Goyang. (Read more South Korea stories.) (Newser) About the only thing certain about the Russian war ship Moskva is that it is now at the bottom of the sea. But days after it sank, key questions remain, including how it got there and how many members of its 500-plus crew were injured or worse. Ukraine says it sank the ship with missilesand the Pentagon believes itbut Russia denies that and says the ship sank in stormy seas while being towed after an onboard fire broke out. On Monday, photos and video appearing to show the damaged ship before it went down emerged on the messaging app Telegram, reports the Moscow Times. The images, which show the ship listing and parts of it engulfed in smoke, have not been verified as authentic. I believe the video is real," journalist Yoruk Isik, an expert on Russian ships, tells the Guardian. "It is the Moskva." Even if so, the images won't do much to settle the mystery of what caused the ship to go down. However, the Guardian points out that the ships' lifeboats are gone, suggesting that the crew was able to escape. Over the weekend, Russia's defense ministry posted new footage of what it described as a gathering of Moskva sailors, but the Moscow Times notes that only about 100 sailors were present. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that the Moskva's sinking has led to a lively public debate in Russia. Just explain to me how you managed to lose it, said Vladimir Solovyev on his prime-time talk show, one that usually sticks to Kremlin talking points. He also openly speculated that Ukraine might indeed have sunk the ship, at odds with Russia's official line. Also of note: director Vladimir Bortko, a former member of Russia's parliament, publicly blamed Ukraine for the sinking and said Russia must retaliate, per the Times. "The special military operation has ended, it ended last night when our motherland was attacked, he said, using the term that Moscow has stipulated in place of "war." He added that "the attack on our territory is casus belli, an absolute cause for war for real. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) A grim story out of New York City, where the body of a Queens mom was found in a wheeled duffel bag by a dog-walker early Saturday. Most of the details beyond that have been provided by unnamed police sources. The New York Daily News spoke with a police source who said Orsolya Gaal, 51, went out on Friday night and arrived home around 11pm, "and at 4:30 in the morning, somebodys pulling that bag down the street." A police source said much the same to the New York Post, explaining multiple cameras recorded the scene around 4:30am and cops "actually traced it backward from the scene to the house." The duffel bag was found about a half-mile from her home in what the Daily News describes as a "quiet, upscale residential" neighborhood. It reports that upon arriving at the residence, police found Gaal's 13-year-old son there alone, though its source says it's not thought the boy was involved in the murder. Gaal's husband, Howard Klein, and their 17-year-old son were reportedly on the West Coast at the time; a since-deleted tweet suggested they were visiting colleges. PIX11's police sources say Klein received a message, possibly sent from the killer using his wife's phone, saying, "Your whole family is next." Klein seemed to back that up in comments to the Post, which reached him by phone at the airport Saturday. "Thank God [my son] is safe," he said of his youngest son, adding the family's "lives are at stake." (Read more murder stories.) (Newser) If you're not familiar with flechettes, that's understandable. The Washington Post reports the roughly inch-long finned darts "are rarely seen or used in modern conflict"the Ukraine-Russia war apparently being an exception. The Post isn't presenting evidence that they've been widely used, but it visits with a woman who lives outside Kyiv in Bucha and who has piled up the flechettes that studded her yard. "If you look closely on the ground around my house, you will find a lot more of them," she says. Post reporters observed others in the streets. The projectiles, or a version of them, were used in WWI and in Vietnam, and while they aren't banned under any international conventions (in part because their use fell out of fashion), groups like Amnesty International point out that they're indiscriminate weapons that should not be used in civilian-heavy areas. The Guardian in 2014 reported they were being used by Israel in Gaza and explained that when the shell containing the flechettes explodes, thousands of metal darts are dispersed "in a conical arch" nearly 1,000 feet long. A munitions expert tells the Post the weapon is most effective in specific scenarios, as when troops are massing together in an open space. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) (Newser) Police have made an arrest in the murder of a high-profile figure in the LGBTQ community of Florida. Authorities say 36-year-old Steven Yinger strangled 54-year-old Jorge Diaz-Johnston of Tallahassee, whose body was found in a landfill in January, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. Diaz-Johnston was one of the plaintiffs in a 2015 lawsuit that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Miami-Dade County, per People. He was also the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Yinger and Diaz-Johnston were roommates, Diaz-Johnston having offered Yinger a place to stay upon his release from prison in October. The two met in an an alcohol-recovery program, and Diaz-Johnston was known for helping people in recovery, notes the Democrat. His death "sent shock waves throughout Florida," per the Washington Post. Yinger, who has a long criminal record, has been indicted on charges including first-degree murder and moving Diaz-Johnston's body. He is also accused of stealing the victim's BMWpolice stopped him while driving it shortly after Diaz-Johnston went missingand iPhone. Diaz-Johnston had been in the midst of a divorce from his husband, Don, when he was murdered. (Read more murder charges stories.) (Newser) The new Showtime series The First Lady premiered Sunday, a show that features Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford. Unlike Anderson and Pfeiffer, Davis is portraying somebody who is still very much alive and well, and she spoke to Vanity Fair about that pressure: "Everyone knows what she looks like and what she sounds like, so I am absolutely terrified," says Davis. "But I'm mostly terrified about what she will think. I don't want to insult her and have her calling me. I gotta make the sister look good. I just hope that it lands with her." Davis further says she pored over videos of Obama, listened to her podcasts over and over, and even spoke to the former first lady in preparation. "She said to me, 'Im not an angry person,'" recalls Davis. "So what I really wanted to do with my performance was to protect her, to honor her, and not be the perception that Black women are angry and hostile." In a separate interview with the Guardian, Davis elaborates: "Heres the thing about Michelle Obama, which is very different from me, different from a lot of people: She's healthy. Shes a healthy human being, because she grew up in an environment where she always felt seen, always felt worthy," she says. "Maybe because Ive been with a lot of artists in my life, a lot of people whove been traumatized, including myself, its very interesting to portray someone who literally is healthy," adds Davis. So far, Obama has not publicly weighed in since the show's Sunday debut, though the New York Post picks up on social media chatter from people who aren't crazy about Davis' use of pursed lips in her portrayal. In general, the show itself is getting lackluster reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. (Read more Viola Davis stories.) (Newser) The "cake" was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots, and sugar cane, and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it. The National Zoo's most famous tenants had an enthusiastic breakfast Saturday in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government. Xiao Qi Jis father Tian Tian largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighboring enclosure as Chinese ambassador Qin Gang praised the bears as "a symbol of the friendship" between the nations. In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by President Nixon's landmark visit to China, Saturday's celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program. The zoo's original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs: Tai Shan, Bao Bao, and Bei Beiby artificial insemination. All were transported to China at age 4, under terms of the zoos agreement with the Chinese government. Similar agreements with zoos around the world have helped revitalize the giant panda population. Down to just over 1,000 bears in the 1980s, the species has since been removed from the lists of animals in danger of extinction, reports the AP. Xiao Qi Ji's birth in August 2020 was hailed as a near miracle, due to Mei Xiang's advanced age and the fact that zoo staff performed the artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the entire zoo. At age 22, Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States. Normally they would have used a combination of frozen sperm and fresh semen extracted from Tian Tian. But in order to minimize the number of close-quarters medical procedures, zoo officials used only frozen semen. Xiao Qi Ji's name translates as "little miracle." (Researchers have figured out why pandas like horse manure.) (Newser) A federal judge in Florida has voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of US health officials even in the coronavirus pandemic, per the AP. The decision Monday by US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, an appointee of former President Trump, also said the CDC improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking. In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected to it in the lawsuit. Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate, she wrote. The CDC recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the US. The mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate. Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores, and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January. (Philadelphia just reinstated its mask mandate for indoor public spaces.) (Read more mask mandates stories.) (Newser) The US Supreme Court on Monday declined an appeal by the Penobscot Indian Nation in its fight with Maine over ownership and regulation of the tribes namesake river. It was a bitter defeat for the tribe that sued a decade ago, claiming the Penobscot River is part of its reservation. Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis says it is a disappointing outcome in a legal case that goes to the "core identity of the Penobscot Nation." "We see this as a modern day territorial removal by the state by trying to separate us from our ancestral ties to our namesake river," Francis tells the AP. A federal judge previously ruled that the reservation includes islands of the river's main stem, but not the waters. There were appeals to a panel of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the full appeals court. On Monday, the nation's top court, without comment, declined to hear the tribe's appeals over river regulation. The ruling came as the Maine Legislature was considering several measures that relate to tribal sovereignty. The Penobscots, whose reservation is on an island in the river, sued in 2012 after then-Attorney General William Schneider issued an opinion that the tribes territory was limited to islands. The tribe said the lawsuit was necessary to protect tribal authority over its ancestral river and ensure sustenance rights. But state regulators argued that a win by the tribe would create "a two-tiered system" on the Penobscot that would be a detriment to the general public. Francis says the Supreme Court's action is probably the end of the road for the appeal, but the tribe won't give up. "Well continue to see every avenue to remedy this," he says. (Read more Maine stories.) (Newser) The long-expected major Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine is now underway, with Russian forces trying to push forward along a front around 300 miles long, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday. "We can now say that Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbas, for which they have long prepared," Zelensky said, per Reuters. Ukrainian forces have been bracing for an attack in the area since Moscow started withdrawing its troops from northern Ukraine, including the Kyiv area, last month. "The second phase of the war has started," said Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff. "This morning, along almost the entire front line in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said Monday, per the New York Times. "Our servicemen are holding out" and the Russians have only been able to break through in two places, Danilov said. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the Donbas. Shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February, Vladimir Putin said Moscow was recognizing two breakaway pro-Russia republics in the areaand their claims to larger areas of Ukrainian territory. "A large part of the Russian army is now dedicated to this offensive," Zelensky said Monday. "No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight." A senior US defense official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, said there are now 76 Russian combat units in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. The official said that could work out to 50,000 to 60,000 troops based on typical unit size before the invasion, but the number is harder to determine after weeks of heavy Russian losses. Before the Monday offensive, Russian strikes hit dozens of targets across Ukraine. Some strikes hit the western Ukraine city of Lviv, killing civilians in a city that had been considered relatively safe. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.) Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Cloudy with occasional showers this afternoon. High 42F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Rain and snow showers this evening transitioning to snow showers overnight. Low 31F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 50%. The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Join me onboard Japan Airlines First Class all the way over to Tokyo. What's more, I'll have the entire cabin to myself for 14 hours. Starting in Chicago, my flight will cross the international date line, meaning technically I will be onboard for two days before arriving into Tokyo's Narita Airport. Given I've recently travelled onboard Singapore Airlines First Class, as well as ANA First Suites (both on their Boeing 777-300ER) I feel this review will be an interesting point of comparison between key luxury airline products in the Asian region. Japanese farmers are being hit by higher prices of grain, fertilizers and other supplies necessary for agriculture and livestock farming as Russias aggression against Ukraine continues. In particular, grain prices are soaring due to a decline in exports from both Russia and Ukraine, boosting the prices of compound feed. But many producers are finding it difficult to pass on the higher costs to buyers. Sales prices of fresh food items, such as vegetables, are usually determined by the balance of supply and demand because it is difficult to adjust the production amount quickly. Grain prices had risen due to poor harvests caused by drought. The situation worsened further, as Russias invasion of Ukraine sparked supply concerns, leading wheat futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to rewrite their record highs for the first time in 14 years. Compound feed prices also rose sharply. Uber Technologies on Monday said it will partner with Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Group in Uber's food delivery business, a move that will likely intensify the delivery battle in Japan. By the end of April, users of Uber Eats will be able to pay for orders using the credit card linked to their Rakuten ID. They can earn Rakuten Points, a reward program run by Rakuten Group, as well as use the points to pay for purchases. Users will also be able to sign up for Uber Eats with their Rakuten ID. In a recorded video message, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the tie-up was a result of years of talks between him and Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani. Rakuten has been a major investor in Lyft, Uber's ride-hailing rival in the U.S., since 2015, but Mikitani stepped down from Lyft's board in 2020. Rakuten last year transferred its food delivery operation to Gurunavi, a Japanese restaurant booking site that counts Rakuten as a shareholder. The move signaled that Rakuten was scaling back ambitions of building its own delivery business. Uber's biggest rival Demae-can said last week that net loss for the September 2021 to February 2022 period more than doubled from the previous year from 9.8 billion yen ($77 million) to 22.9 billion yen. Demae-can's revenue, however, also doubled to 22.7 billion yen. ...continue reading Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Turkey Monday expressed its sympathy to the people of Benin following the recent terrorist ambush in the Pendjari Park (North) that left five dead and one injured (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Sebastian Tello-Trillo, University of Virginia (THE CONVERSATION) The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea When children get health insurance through Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, their families benefit too. Thats what I found through recent research conducted with two fellow health economists, Daniel S. Grossman and Barton Willage. And it was particularly true for their mothers, who become 5% more likely to be in a stable marriage and experience a 5.8% reduction in stress levels. Moms are also less likely to smoke cigarettes and drink heavily. We figured this out by comparing the rates for marriage, mental health conditions and health behaviors of mothers whose children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, a joint effort by states and the federal government to cover kids in families with relatively modest incomes that are too high for Medicaid eligibility, with mothers whose children are less eligible for these programs. We also compared the employment status of low-income mothers of children who obtained health insurance eligibility with those who did not. Why it matters Some 4.3 million children under the age of 19, or 5.6% of all U.S. kids, lacked health insurance coverage in 2020 the most recent data available. President Joe Bidens proposed Build Back Better Act, currently stalled in the Senate, would help close this gap. States set their own eligibility requirements for Medicaid and CHIP, and these thresholds range widely. Eligibility usually depends on a childs age, the number of people in the household and the familys income. For example, in Oregon, a 3-year-old in a family of three with an annual income of US$33,000 would not be eligible. That same child living in Wisconsin, however, would be. And Wisconsins policies are not even the most generous in the nation. Previously, researchers have primarily measured the effectiveness of the Medicaid and CHIP programs for children by assessing direct effects related to their own health. Our study shows that gaining access to government-provided health insurance coverage also affects a childs household in positive ways. One reason thats important: Prior research has shown that growing up in a stable home benefits a childs cognitive development. What still isnt known Our study complements previous research suggesting that obtaining health insurance coverage through Medicaid and CHIP has long-term effects for children, such as through higher educational achievement. But how that happens remains unclear. That is, do these kids perform better in school because their health is typically better than it would have been or something else? Another question that remains is whether these patterns crop up when people gain access to other beneficial programs. For example, when children with special needs obtain the services they require, does it also benefit their parents? Or how does student loan forgiveness improve the lives of people in a household besides the person who owed the money? Whats next We focused on moms because maternal data was more readily available. In the future, we would like to do further research to see whether the benefits for the fathers of children who gain health insurance coverage through Medicaid and CHIP are similar to the boost that mothers get. [Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletters to understand the world. Sign up today.] This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/health-insurance-coverage-for-kids-through-medicaid-and-chip-helps-their-moms-too-178249. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRIDGEPORT The morning of Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018 began like any other for Paulo Henriques, a commercial fisherman who owns a shellfish business on Seaview Avenue. That changed about 8 a.m., when a friend who came to do some maintenance work on one of Henriques boats alerted him to something he saw from the business dock, near the area of a public boat ramp. He told me that he thought he saw a doll on the beach, Henriques said in Superior Court Monday. I walked back up to the dock with him. The person was face down and I saw sand on their shoes. I said This is not good. I grabbed the phone and called 911 right away. Henriques was the first witness to testify Monday in the trial of former Ansonia resident Brandon Roberts in the killing of 25-year-old Emily Todd, of Bethel. Police said Todds mother told detectives that her daughter had met Roberts, who was staying with relatives at a Stratford hotel, on an online dating app. After several dates, police said Todd, who lived in Bethel, called off the relationship. But they said Roberts convinced her to meet him one more time, luring her to the area of the boat ramp before killing her. States Attorney Joseph Corradino introduced photos depicting Todds lifeless body sprawled on the sand before showing the jury a close-up of her head taken after cops turned the body over, with blood covering her face. Some of Todds family members, who filled the front row of the courtrooms public gallery, wept quietly and wiped tears from their eyes. Others turned away from the screen where the photos were being shown. Cops had to move quickly to document the scene, said Detective Juan Serrano, who worked at the time in the police departments crime scene unit. The detective said police didnt have time to record video of the area as they normally would. The water was rising, high tide was coming in, Serrano said. We were afraid that it was going to wash the body out. A single .40 caliber shell casing was found nearby. Dr. Maura DeJoseph, a deputy chief medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Todds body, testified that the gunshot that killed Todd struck her near the base of her neck and exited her mouth near her right cheek. The bullet broke one of her cervical vertebrae and injured her vertebral artery, carotid artery, and jugular vein. The last witness called Monday was FBI Special Agent James Wines, a specialist in analyzing cell phone data, who testified about the cell towers used by Todds and Roberts phones the night she died and the next morning. He said the data showed Todds cell phone was in the Bethel area earlier that night before traveling southeast toward the Trumbull area, then into Stratford and Bridgeport near the area of the boat ramp. He said he found Todds cell phone the night after her death on the shoulder of Interstate 95 south near the Route 8/25 connector. Information from Roberts phone records, which he said included more specific per call measurement data, showed movement consistent with the phone being in the area of the Quality Suites in Stratford and the Peoples United Bank in Trumbull the night of the killing. Police said that after killing Todd, Roberts took Todds car, cellphone and credit cards. Video surveillance allegedly showed Roberts driving Todds car into the drive-through at the bank, where officers said he used Todds debit card to withdraw $400 from Todds bank account. In 2020, Roberts had offered to plead guilty to the killing in exchange for a 45-year prison sentence. But after hearing from numerous friends and family members of Todd, Judge Joan Alexander rejected the deal, saying the sentence would not be appropriate. Roberts, who is now 29, is charged with murder, felony murder, first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit in the case. Todds death sparked debate about numerous issues, including Connecticuts gun laws and Bridgeports response to a 911 call from Todd about a week before the killing. According to Todds mother Jennifer Lawlor, Todd had called 911 eight days before her death. She told the dispatcher that Roberts had a gun and was threatening to hurt himself after she had broken up with him, and that hes going to kill me for telling anyone. Police located Roberts more than an hour after the 911 call, but he drove off and police did not pursue him. On Dec. 14, police arrested Roberts at his fathers home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and charged him with Todds murder. While being questioned in the Shaker Heights police station, police said Roberts confessed to Bridgeport Police Lt. Chris LaMaine that he had killed Todd and shot another woman near Washington Park a year earlier. The second woman, who was 43 at the time, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital with a bullet wound in her right shoulder. Roberts is charged with attempted murder and first-degree assault in that case. Corradino told a judge last month that as part of the agreement with Todds lawyer, he will not be presenting evidence of the second crime during the trial. At the hearing, the prosecutor told Superior Court Judge Alex Hernandez that Roberts lawyer, Public Defender Joseph Bruckmann, will not be contesting his clients recorded confession to police, but instead will be raising a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. Unlike the so-called insanity defense, if a jury is convinced Roberts was acting under extreme emotional distress they could find him guilty of a lesser manslaughter charge. Testimony in the case was expected to resume Tuesday morning. CALGARY, AB, April 18, 2022 /CNW/ - Avanti Energy Inc. (TSXV: AVN) (OTC: ARGYF) ("Avanti" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Chris Bakker, Chief Executive Officer of Avanti, will be a guest today, April 18th, on Bloomberg Radio at approximately 11:45 a.m. EST with Paul T. Sweeney and Matt Miller. Mr. Bakker will be discussing Avanti's major helium discovery in Montana, which the Company believes has the potential to become one of, if not the largest new helium pools in North America, as well as helium's uses in industries of critical national importance such as semiconductor manufacturing, fiber optics, and rockets. Bloomberg Markets AM Radio is on weekdays from 10am-12pm. Paul Sweeney and Matt Miller focus on market coverage as Wall Street begins its day, with analysis from Bloomberg Opinion writers, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, and influential newsmakers. To listen to the interview please go to: https://www.bloombergradio.com/shows/bloomberg-markets-am/ Avanti Energy is a helium exploration and development company pursuing new opportunities in extracting untapped helium deposits across western Canada and the United States to help fill the void in supply left from the depleted Federal National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, the world's single largest source of helium for the past 70 years. Furthermore, the way demand is going, the nature of helium as a finite resource, geopolitical risks of threats to supply and potential supply outages, helium is going to be highly sought after. It is more important than ever to secure North American supplies of helium for materials that are critical to everyday living as well as national defense. About Avanti Energy Avanti Energy is focused on the exploration, development, and production of helium across western Canada and the United States. Avanti's professional oil and gas exploration and production team is actively targeting untapped potential helium reserves to help meet the increasing global demand for an irreplaceable and scarce element critical to advanced technology, medical and space exploration industries. For more information, please go to the Company's website at www.avantienergy.com. Forward-Looking Statements The information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Avanti Energy Inc. For further information: For corporate and shareholder inquiries, please contact: Avanti Energy, Investor Relations, Phone: 403-394-0409, Email: [email protected]; Avanti Energy Inc., Website: www.avantienergy.com The bench, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, set aside the Allahabad High Court's order that granted bail to Ashish. The SC held that the Allahabad HC's order is not sustainable. The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted by Allahabad High Court to the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Ashish Mishra Teni. The apex court further directed him to surrender within a week. The bench, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, set aside the Allahabad High Courts order that granted bail to Ashish. The SC held that the Allahabad HCs order is not sustainable. The top court also observed that victims were not heard while considering the bail plea of Ashish Mishra in Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court remanded the matter back to the Allahabad High Court to hear the issue afresh. Earlier, on April 4, the bench had reserved the order after hearing all the parties. The Uttar Pradesh government had said that accused Ashish Mishra is not a flight risk. Earlier, in an affidavit, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that the state has taken all efforts to protect the witnesses and families of victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. According to Hubli Police commissioner, 88 persons, including an AIMIM corporator's husband, have been arrested in the matter so far. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said probe is underway into the stone-pelting on Old Hubli Police Station in the state on Sunday. Bommai also assured strict action against the perpetrators. Speaking to the media, the Karnataka CM said, We have arrested all accused, and further investigation is going on. Action will be taken against the perpetrators after the investigation. According to Hubli Police commissioner, 88 persons, including an AIMIM corporators husband, have been arrested in the matter so far. Section 144 which was imposed soon after the incident continues to remain in place in the Hubli city. Earlier on Sunday, state Minister CN Ashwathnarayan said that the strongest possible action should be taken against those involved in the stone-pelting incident. Ashwathnarayan was quoted as saying, The strongest possible action should be taken to send the right message to the people who time and again do not respect the law of the land. We condemned the incident. On Sunday, 14 accused were produced before the Rohini Court. The court remanded custody of two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to the police for one day. The Delhi Police has arrested another accused in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence that broke out during the Hanuman Jayanti Shobhayatra on Saturday. This takes the total number of arrests in the case to 21. Two juveniles have also been apprehended in the case. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North-West Usha Rangnani. said, One more accused has been arrested in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case. He is found to be previously involved in a robbery and an attempt to murder case under Jahangirpuri Police station. She further added, An FIR has been registered under sections 147, 148, 149, 186, 353, 332, 323, 427, 436, 307, 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 27 Arms Act dated April 16, following 20 accused persons have been arrested and 2 Juveniles in conflict with the law have been apprehended. On Sunday, 14 accused were produced before the Rohini Court. The court remanded custody of two prime accused Ansar and Aslam to the police for one day. The remaining 12 were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. The new ministers have been appointed with the aim to ensure the smooth functioning of the administration. The swearing-in ceremony for the ministers took place at the Presidential residence. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday appointed 17 cabinet ministers amid the worsening economic crisis in the island nation. The new ministers have been appointed with the aim to ensure the smooth functioning of the administration. The swearing-in ceremony for the ministers took place at the Presidential residence. President Rajapaksa had earlier offered cabinet positions to opposition party lawmakers after 26 ministers resigned from the countrys cabinet. On April 3, cabinet ministers of the Sri Lankan government had resigned en masse, except for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in view of the economic crisis. The new cabinet consists of eight former ministers, reported the Colombo Page. There have been widespread calls for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajpaksa. Rajapaksa had earlier refused to step down from his post and said that he would transfer power to any party that proves a simple majority in the countrys parliament. The island nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the people, resulting in massive protests over the governments handling of the situation. InfoWars, the company run by Alex Jones, has filed for bankruptcy as Jones faces mounting legal pressure in a suit brought by the families of victims in the Sandy Hook school shooting. The victims families have sued Jones over his claims that the shooting, which left twenty children and six educators dead, was a hoax. The bankruptcy filing now means that civil litigation will be put on hold while the business reorganizes, the Associated Press reported. Several of the families already won judgments against Jones in Connecticut and Texas state courts last year. A new lawsuit filed earlier this month by some of the families who had won a judgement against Jones alleged the host of the InfoWars program had transferred millions of dollars in his fortune to shield his assets from the families. Federal court filings show Jones company InfoW, Inc., which operates under various names including InfoWars, has all filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The list of creditors owed money by the businesses includes the parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, as well as family members of educators who were killed. The filings show InfoWars was estimated to have between one and 49 creditors and estimated liabilities between $1 million and $10 million. A defamation suit against Jones filed by some of the families in state court is ongoing after a judge found Jones liable for damages. A trial on specific damages is scheduled in August. Last week, a judge in the case ruled that $75,000 in fines Jones had paid after he initially failed to appear for a deposition should be returned to him, because he eventually did show up for a deposition in the case. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) A judge told jurors deliberating in the trial of an Ohio doctor charged in the deaths of 14 hospital patients to keep working Monday after they said they were deadlocked. Franklin Judge Michael Holbrook told the panel to make one more attempt to come up with a verdict in the case of Dr. William Husel, who's accused of ordering excessive painkillers that led to the deaths of patients in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System. WEST HAVEN Following a vote from a state board last week that potentially could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenditures for the already cash-strapped city, officials are wondering what to do though an apparently unintended recording may provide some insight. The states Municipal Accountability Review Board voted to begin the process of escalating West Haven to Tier IV, the highest level of state oversight allowed under the MARB by state statute. Since the MARB was formed in 2017, West Haven is the first municipality to be recommended for such oversight. Although the special meeting Thursday ended after roughly an hour, residents who were viewing the meeting on the citys YouTube channel were given a sneak peek of city officials reaction to the vote. For about 30 seconds after the meeting ended, city officials apparently in a room together could be heard reacting to the vote. The questions gonna be whether you seek an injunction before the governor signs or whether you do it immediately thereafter, city Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan said in the video. Tiernan said Monday that the city is reviewing its legal options. The Mayor will be advised of all of the legal options the city has concerning the state of Connecticut, Tiernan said in a text message. Mayor Nancy Rossi did not respond to a request for comment Monday. City Treasurer Mike Last told the Register prior to Thursdays meeting that he had been researching the MARBs authority in order to form an opinion. Last did not respond to a request for comment Monday as to whether the city is planning next steps. Although the MARB voted to recommend advancing West Haven to Tier IV, the final decision is for Gov. Ned Lamont to make. A 30-day public comment period is underway following the MARB vote, and all feedback from that process will be forwarded to Lamont before he makes his decision. However, Lamont already has expressed support for the MARBs vote. I think its appropriate that MARB is taking the action they have, which means the state and [Office of Policy and Management] and the outsiders will be there to be another set of eyes on everything going on in the budget office in West Haven, he said at a news conference following the vote. City Council weighs in At Thursdays meeting, the MARB followed a provision of the state statute that outlines the process for voting on whether a city enters Tier IV involuntarily that allows for three representatives of the city to serve on the board for the special meeting. Rossi, Last and City Councilman Mitch Gallignano, D-4, were recognized as members for the meeting, although only Rossi and Gallignano were granted votes on whether the city should be recommended for Tier IV. In pleading the citys case to not be placed under Tier IV, Gallignano said he believed the mayor had worked hard and made progress on the citys finances since taking office in 2017. He said he has served on the City Council under three mayors, and Rossi is the citys best mayor in that time. My full support is with Mayor Rossi on this and with the city of West Havens residents, he said. I believe Mayor Rossi is on the right track and the City Council supports her. Gallignanos comments struck some of his colleagues as odd, they later told the Register, and several said Gallignano did not speak for them when making his comments on the councils behalf. Three days prior to the MARB meeting, the City Council heard 21/2 hours of negative testimony, predominantly against Rossi, from residents outraged over findings in an audit report ordered by the state that concluded about $900,000 of the citys $1.15 million federal CARES Act funding meant to be used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic either was misspent or improperly documented. Some residents called for Rossis resignation; others asked the council to take a symbolic vote of no confidence in the mayor. When City Council Finance Committee Chairwoman Bridgette Hoskie, D-1, made a motion to authorize a council investigation into the findings in the audit, Gallignano proposed an amendment to the motion that the City Council also take a vote of no confidence in Rossi. The amendment was included in the motion for an investigation, which passed unanimously. Following Thursdays MARB vote, Hoskie said she supports Rossi as an irreplaceable part of a team. I do believe Mayor Rossi and the team of people shes put around her like (Finance Director) Scott Jackson and (Purchasing Director) Ricky Spreyer and her other department heads are going to rise to the occasion and be stronger for it and be more collaborative and do their due diligence, she said. I support her because she is our mayor, and I understand and know she is not going to resign, so we need to become one team even with the MARB. Council Minority Leader Steven Johnstone, R-10, said in a statement that the council Republicans believe the city needs more help than it can accomplish without state intervention. In response to Councilman Gallignanos statement at the April 14, 2022 MARB meeting the council is not united in the Tier IV decision, he said in an emailed statement. I cant speak for the Democrats but we the Republicans wholeheartedly support MARBs decision for takeover and further supervision of our finances. On Monday April 11, we as a council unanimously gave Mayor Rossi a vote of no confidence. Clearly whatever we are doing is not working and we need help. Three of the councils 13 members are Republicans. Gallignano did not respond to requests for comment Monday. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State of using state funds to support his wife, Mrs Be... The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State of using state funds to support his wife, Mrs Betty Akeredolus senatorship ambition in Imo State. Mrs Akeredolu had declared her intention to run for the Imo East Senatorial District ahead of the general election in 2023, under the banner of the All Progressives Congress, APC. A statement issued over the weekend by the PDPs state Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, said the Ondo first lady had been nurturing her senatorial ambition immediately her husband became governor. PDP added that the part of the move to use state resources to support the Mrs Akeredolu was that, some of the Free School Shuttle buses bought by the former Governor Olusegun Mimiko for easy movement of school children were sighted in Owerri, Imo State capital. Mrs Betty Akeredolu is desirous of joining the league of wives of former governors in the Nigerian Senate. The first was Senator Zainab Kure, wife of former Governor of Niger State, Engr. Abdulkadir Kure. Zainab was elected to represent Niger South Senatorial District in 2007 at the end of her husbands second term as Governor. The other person is Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of APC leader Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a two term Governor of Lagos State. Senator Remi was elected to represent Lagos Central Senatorial District in 2011. She was re-elected in 2015 and 2019. Reacting, the Governors wife who slammed the PDP over the statement, said it was an effort to disparage her. In a statement released by Debo Akinbami, Special Assistant to the Governor on New Media and Archives, the first lady said it was false that the first Lady is dependent on the Ondo State exchequer fund political aspiration. Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, says Nigerians now see the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as their only hope. Speaking d... Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, says Nigerians now see the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as their only hope. Speaking during a programme on Channels Television, on Sunday, the former governor said the ongoing arrangements by the party with regards to the 2023 general election are for the interest of the country. He said the consultations by PDP stakeholders across the country will further promote the image of the party. In PDP, whatever we do is purely for Nigerias interest, not for us. People see the PDP as the only hope in Nigeria today, Lamido said. We look at what do we come up with and Nigerians will be comfortable with it and will give them the environment that will restore mutual love and trust for each other. To me, before you do anything else, we need to restore the trust among ourselves. Apparently, in Nigeria today, we dont trust each other. We dont believe in each other anymore. Our common bond is not there anymore. Our common bond is humanity. Some aspirants in the PDP have begun consultations across the country ahead of the partys presidential primary election. During the Niger state PDP stakeholders meeting on Saturday, Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, said there was nothing wrong with a consensus candidate if it is based on equity, justice and fairness. The Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has absolved his principal, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, fr... The Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has absolved his principal, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, from criticism that the Presidents ruling style had contributed to the division in the country. Recall that the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, on Sunday, heavily criticised Buhari over insecurity, corruption, and division in Nigeria. Kukah made his complaints known in his Easter Message on titled, To mend a broken nation: The Easter metaphor. According to the bishop, every aspect of life in Nigeria has been destroyed while corruption is enthroned. He said, It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just dont care. Either way, from this crossroad, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right or return home. None of these choices is easy, yet, guided by the light of the risen Christ, we can reclaim our country from its impending slide to anarchy. The challenge of fixing this broken nation is enormous and, as I have said, requires joint efforts. With everything literally broken down, our country has become one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy. Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, and infrastructure are broken. Our educational system is broken. Our childrens lives and future are broken. Our politics is broken. Our economy is broken. Our energy system is broken. Our security system is broken. Our Roads and Rails are broken. Only corruption is alive and well, the message read in part. But in a veil response to Kukahs harsh criticism of Buharis regime on Monday, the presidential spokesman said it was surprising that those who are guilty of creating division with mouths in Nigeria are the ones accusing the President of the same crime they committed. In a tweet on his verified Twitter handle, Adesina wrote, Those who divided Nigeria with their mouths, with evil, unguarded speaking, are the ones now accusing President Buhari. How sad! Their wicked intentions shall not come to pass. The state governments have asked the federal government to refrain from deducting from funds accruing to them and all local government cou... The state governments have asked the federal government to refrain from deducting from funds accruing to them and all local government councils as liquidation for the alleged $418 million London/Paris Club loan refund-related judgment debts. The governors stated this in a letter dated April 4 as its response to a November 11, 2021 letter from the minister of finance, budget, and national planning, advertising the commencement of the deduction for the liquidation of the alleged judgment debts. In March, attorneys-general of the 36 states appealed a judgment that dismissed a suit seeking to restrain the federal government from effecting the planned deduction of $418 million from states funds. The plaintiffs in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1313/202 sought to restrain the president and others. Speaking through the body of attorneys-generals of the federation, the state governments said they were not parties to any suit on the London/Paris Club refund, hence, were not liable to any person or entity in any judgment debt being relied on by the federal government. According to Channels Television, the document was signed by leaders of the body of attorneys-general of the federation, including Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) of Lagos state, interim chairman; and Abdulkarim Abubakar Kana of Nasarawa state, interim secretary, as well as the attorneys-generals of Rivers, Abia, Taraba, Benue, and Zamfara states, for and on behalf of all the state attorneys-generals. Their Excellencies have drawn our attention to your letter referenced above, which the various states of the federation received at about the end of March 2022. The letter notifies the states of your intention to commence deduction from allocations due to the states from the Federation Account for the liquidation of the London/Paris Club Loan refund-related judgment debts on behalf of the 36 States of the federation and the 774 local government councils, the letter reads in part. Please note that the states of the federation were not parties to any contract or suits concerning the London/Paris Club refund, from which the said judgment debts arose. Consequently, the 36 States of the federation are not liable to any person or entity in any judgment debt. It further noted that the deduction of the allocations due to the 36 states of the federation from the Federation Account to liquidate the London/Paris Club Loan refund-related judgment debts is the subject of an appeal filed by the 36 states at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. The appeal challenges the Federal High Courts (per Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo) judgment delivered on 25th March 2022 between A.G Abia State v. President, Federal Republic of Nigeria & 42 Ors. and, therefore, the issue is sub judice, the states explain in the letter. They noted that they have also filed a motion on notice for an order of injunction pending the appeal. The controversial payment of $418 million to consultants over the Paris Club refund had become a contentious issue between the three tiers of government. Consultants had claimed the amount as a percentage of the payment of services rendered to the states and local government councils. The federal government had said its decision to deduct the fund was based on a previous verdict of the court. Chrisland School has explained why it suspended a 10-year-old female student who was abused and r@ped by her colleagues. In a statem... Chrisland School has explained why it suspended a 10-year-old female student who was abused and r@ped by her colleagues. In a statement dated 14 April 2022 and signed by Chrisland School Head Teacher, Mrs G.I. Azike, the school also stressed the action taken to resolve the case as it categorically stated that the action of the student was a truth and dare game. The statement, titled, Indefinite suspension of (the female student), partly read, It was discovered that your daughter was involved in improper behaviour during the recently concluded World School Games in Dubai with a few of her counterparts willfully participated in a game they called Truth or Dare, a game which led her and a few other co-learners to carry out an immoral act after the lights-out instruction was given. In line with our core values centred on discipline, Chrisland Schools have zero tolerance for any improper behaviour and misconduct. A full-scale investigation has been done and the parents of all the culpable learners have been duly notified of the necessary punishment meted out on the learners. However, in the course of the schools efforts to see how best we can helpwho was a major participant in the whole incident, every effort to inform you as her parents about the incident and ensure that this improper behaviour is permanently corrected, has proved to be futile. We cannot as a school condone such. Consequently, (the student) is hereby placed on an indefinite suspension until you as the parents ensure that she is punished, adequately counselled and rehabilitated. This comes after the Chrisland School was called out on social media for deliberately sweeping under the carpet the incident of a female student who was taken turns on by a number of male students. Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has shut the school over the alleged sexual violence case involving its students which occurred in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Popular Kannywood film star, Nafisa Abdullahi has advised parents to stop giving birth to babies they cant afford to take good care of. The... Popular Kannywood film star, Nafisa Abdullahi has advised parents to stop giving birth to babies they cant afford to take good care of. The actress made the remarks in a series of tweets on Saturday, saying: Stop giving birth to babies you know you cant afford to take care of. God will hold you accountable for having children without giving them all the necessary guidance and parental care. God will ask you on the way and manner you raised your children, so those in the habit of having many children they cannot take care of, ending up in sending them far in search for knowledge get prepared, the actress said. She expressed her deep concern on the way some parents were sending their two to three-year-olds to Almajiri school. Although the actress didnt point finger at any part of the country or tribe, it is not uncommon in Hausa land for young children to be sent to Islamic school far from their parents in search of knowledge (Almajiranci). A notorious bandits leader, known as Nasanda, has demanded the sum of N30 million from Zamfara State government for neutralizing his wife, ... A notorious bandits leader, known as Nasanda, has demanded the sum of N30 million from Zamfara State government for neutralizing his wife, her uncle and her aunt or he would kill 300 persons to revenge the killings. According to reports, the bandits leader had already giving a 14-day ultimatum to the State government to pay the 30 million naira as compensation on the three deceased persons or face massive killings in the State. If the State government fails to pay the compensation, I vow that I would lead to the killing of 300 community people, he said. In a recorded audio message trending on social media, Nasanda described the murder of his bride, her uncle, and aunt as deliberate, saying that the Yansakai men knew that they were related to him. In the audio, the Nasanda was quoted as saying that he has been realistic and not greedy in asking for the N30 million compensation, adding that if he was greedy, he would have demanded for N50 million for each of the people killed. I cannot give months for the government to settle me, the 14 days would be enough to settle my demands. And we will not attack until when people are on their farms. If our Fulani people are not allowed to live in peace, we will also not allow others to live in peace. If the government cant pay the N30 million demanded, the government should be ready to see me in action. I will kill 300 people to avenge the death of my bride and two of her relations. Yes, the lives of 900 will be in danger, he warned. It was reported that as of the time of filing this report, there has been no official statement from Zamfara State Police Command and all efforts to get the State Commissioner of Security and Internal Affairs, DIG (rtd), Mr. Mamman Tsafe for confirmation over the threat proved abortive, as his line was not going. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: David Volion doesnt have his restaurant back open yet, and he still has a long road ahead. But this weekend he will be cooking his heart out anyway at French Quarter Festival. Voleos Restaurant was wiped out when Hurricane Ida drove a wall of mud through its small fishing community in Lafitte, about a 30-minute drive from the city. He was able to salvage his old cast iron kettles and piece together enough equipment to build a temporary kitchen as he plans Voleos eventual return. He and his crew have been hard at work preparing for the festival, and theyre going all out with a menu of smothered rabbit po-boys, fried shrimp remoulade, crabmeat boudin balls and crawfish enchiladas. The French Quarter Festival returns Thursday-Sunday (April 21-24), and it brings an opportunity that the restaurants and other vendors taking part haven't seen in years and badly need after the tumult of the pandemic. Weve got to be out there, we got to work, Volion said, whose festival stand will be at the Jax Brewery Lot. It feels like is a comeback tour for sure. Biggest chance yet Food is a key component of French Quarter Festival, with some 55 vendors serving hundreds of dishes (see the full list at frenchquarterfest.org/food). It turns the French Quarter into a bastion of street food, with six different clusters of vendors spread across the festival area, which stretches from the Old U.S. Mint on Esplanade Avenue to Woldenberg Park along the Mississippi Riverfront. After missing two years through the pandemic, and enduring the wrenching decisions to reschedule and cancel the return, to festival is shaping up to mark a major celebration and a revival. Nowhere does that ring more true than at Cafe Dauphine, the family-run Creole soul restaurant in Holy Cross. It has been shuttered since the pandemic began. Chef and owner Tia Henry has supported herself through community feeding efforts in the early days and now events and catering. In the midst of the pandemic, hurricanes roiled her tight-knit family across the state. Hurricane Laura displaced family members from their Lake Charles home in 2020, and Hurricane Ida damaged her New Orleans restaurant last year. Blue tarps still cling to the restaurants roof, patching damage from that storm. Henry hopes to reopen for normal business during the summer, but for now shes firmly focused on making French Quarter Festival a success, with her booth at Kohlmeyer Lawn. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Her own festival menu reads like a feast - fried ribs, seafood stuffed egg rolls, and fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade, each served individually or together as a sampler platter. Its the first taste of Cafe Dauphine that a lot of our regulars out there will get in so long, so we know we have to bring it, Henry said. Expanding flavors, diversity The food lineup at French Quarter Festival has been growing in diversity for years, both in the flavors presented and the New Orleans people behind it. This year brings a lot of new operators to the mix. Some vendors are still struggling with staffing and logistical issues that have plagued the industry nationwide and were unable to commit this year, said Kenneth Spears, food and beverage director for French Quarter Festival. But the festival keeps a list of prospective vendors, and this year 11 of them got the nod. Many of the new additions are set up near the Old U.S. Mint, including Ma Momma's House of Cornbread, Chicken & Waffles, serving wings and waffles, NOLA Crawfish King, with whole hog barbecue platters, and Dittos Food Truck, making shrimp, chicken and fried crawfish tacos. Another new addition near the Old U.S. Mint this year is Addis NOLA. The Ethiopian restaurant in Mid-City has been introducing more people to this traditional form of African cooking, and making a splash on the festival scene as well. Look for sambusas, crisp savory pastries filled with lentils or greens, and awaze chicken legs, the heady Ethiopian chile sauce. Tradition endures These vendors will be cooking alongside some of the most vaunted names in French Quarter dining, including Tujagues and Galatoires, each set up in Jackson Square for the festival. And theyre joining New Orleans food families with very long roots in the business. This weekend will be the biggest event since the pandemic for Vaucressons Sausage, a staple going back to the earliest days of French Quarter Festival, and the upcoming New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as well. Now run by third-generation owner Vance Vaucresson, the company is putting the finishing touches on a new butcher shop and cafe in the 7th Ward, reviving a market the family ran in the same spot before Hurricane Katrina. That should be complete in the months ahead. For Vaucresson, taking part in festivals is an extension of what he wants to do at his shop, which is tell the story of Creole New Orleans culture through food. There are culturally significant dishes to Creole heritage, and we want to make it an experience and educate people about our city and our traditions, said Vaucresson. His chaurice po-boy, a Creole hot sausage mix and beef and pork with a spice blend deeply embedded in local tradition, is a handheld, festival ready demonstration of that. And this weekend, at long last, it will be back in circulation in Jackson Square. +3 French Quarter Fest 'Geauxing Green' with new recycle, compost program for food, drink vendors Eat, drink, repeat could be the motto for people getting after the reliably prodigious food and beverage options at local festivals. As the The French Quarter Festival isn't wasting any time. When the fest returns this weekend, there will be bands on 20 stages spread across the French Quarter and along the riverfront. There also will be plenty of cold beer and food booths galore. After a tough two years, it'll be nice to enjoy the excess. This year's music lineup includes 270 bands on stages from Thursday, April 21, through Sunday, April 24, including Irma Thomas, Tank and the Bangas, Rickie Lee Jones, Kermit Ruffins, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and so many more. In this week's Gambit, we preview some of the bands performing at the festival, including up-and-coming acts and bands with new albums out. Flip through the digital edition below to read more. And if you scroll down this page, you'll find the official French Quarter Fest guide, with cubes, stage info and the food lineup. Cant see the e-edition above? Click here. Also in this week's Gambit: "Varla Jean Merman's Little Prick..." comes to New Orleans; Political Editor Clancy DuBos writes about some of the political migraines Mayor LaToya Cantrell has had so far in her second term; Blake Pontchartrain tells readers more about New Orleans' long history at the Grammy Awards; chef Ana Castro digs into family memories for the tasting menu at Lengua Madre plus news and more. If pandemic restrictions make it harder to pick up a Gambit in your usual spot, we have you covered. Our e-edition is available to download at bestofneworleans.com/current and read at your leisure. If you enjoy this weeks issue, please share this digital edition on social media. And as always, New Orleans, thank you for your support. The Gambit staff People in one Metairie neighborhood are tired of making way for ducklings. Specifically, Muscovy ducklings and their adult counterparts, an invasive species that has roamed the streets of the Pontchartrain Shores neighborhood for several years, thwarting attempts to reduce their numbers. The rapidly multiplying avians, encouraged by some residents who feed and put out small plastic pools for them, number in the hundreds, leaving droppings all over yards and driveways and creating a nuisance, neighborhood leaders say. Now the Pontchartrain Shores Civic Association and Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Van Vrancken are discussing an agreement that would see the parish give up to $50,000 for the association to hire a trapper to remove and possibly euthanize Muscovy ducks from the area. The problem has been brewing for several years, civic association President Warren Surcouf III. "We started this conversation in 2018," he said. In 2019, neighborhood residents complained to the Parish Council, which adopted an ordinance making it illegal to feed or put out pools for the ducks, punishable by a citation and a fine. Since then, some 60 citations have been issued, according to information provided by Van Vrancken's office. But it hasn't done enough. 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 "The number (of ducks) has gotten so alarming," she said Monday. "They are overwhelming that neighborhood." In a recent meeting with members of the civic association, Van Vrancken said the parish was ready to move forward with the agreement to help hire a trapper. There were only a few civic association members who voted against pursuing the agreement, Surcouf said. Residents have complained about the duck feces covering driveways and sidewalks, and some have blamed it for health problems, Van Vrancken said. "Both old and young residents are being affected," she said. It isn't known if other areas of the parish are having similar duck issues. The Muscovy duck a warty-faced bird originally domesticated by natives of Peru and Paraguay when Spanish explorers arrived in the 16th century is a prolific breeder and considered an invasive species in the United States, outside of certain parts of Texas. Federal law permits the removal of the animal but doesn't allow for relocation, Van Vrancken said. Van Vranken said she provided to the civic association a list of trappers she received from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The removal and likely euthanization would only impact Muscovy ducks, she said. "They are not where they belong and we have to figure out a way to address it," she said. One person was killed and four others were injured overnight Sunday in five separate shootings across New Orleans, police say. Three people were injured in a shooting on North Claiborne Avenue earlier Sunday afternoon. One killed in Seventh Ward homicide Officers were called to a report of a shooting in the 2600 block of Allen Street (map) around 7:35 p.m., where they located a 31-year-old man who had been shot multiple times. The man was taken to a hospital where he later died. Information about a motive and suspect were not immediately available. The investigation is ongoing. One injured in Algiers shooting One man was injured in a shooting at the intersection of Mardi Gras Boulevard and Farragut Street (map) around 8 p.m., the NOPD said. The man drove himself to a hospital. 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 One injured in Treme shooting Police received a report of a shooting in the 1800 block of Orleans Avenue (map) around 9 p.m. One man was taken to a hospital. One injured in Little Woods shooting Police were called to a report of a shooting in the 7100 block of Florita Court (map) shortly after midnight. One woman had been injured and taken to a hospital. One shot on Chef Menteur Highway A woman was injured in a shooting in the 6200 block of Chef Menteur Highway (map) shortly before 6 a.m., according to the NOPD. She was taken to a hospital. Note: Police previously reported that this shooting occurred at the intersection of Gentilly Boulevard and Paris Avenue. Editor's note: New Orleans police originally reported the driver in the hit-and-run died from injuries sustained in the collision. Police later corrected their report to reflect that a pedestrian had died, not the driver, who fled the scene and is wanted. This story has been edited for accuracy. One man was killed and four other people were injured in a hit and run in the Seventh Ward on Sunday night, New Orleans police said. Officers were called to the intersection of Pauger and North Miro Streets around 7 p.m., according to a press release from the NOPD. Investigators say they believe the driver of a Chevrolet Suburban was traveling at high speed in the wrong direction on Pauger Street when he crossed into North Miro and struck a Honda Accord. The Suburban flipped and hit five pedestrians on the sidewalk and three parked, unoccupied cars. The driver of the Suburban and its occupants fled the scene on foot. 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 The five survivors were also taken to a hospital, police said, where one of them died. The woman driving the Honda Accord is in what police described as good condition. The hit and run remains under investigation. The Orleans Parish Coroner will conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. Anyone with information is asked to call the NOPD at (504) 821-2222 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-111. Its springtime in New Orleans, which means thousands of families around the city recently learned where they will send their children to school come August. For the first time, families this year could apply to all of the public charter schools in New Orleans through the NOLA Public Schools Common Application Process, or NCAP, including schools like Lusher and Ben Franklin High School, which have academic admission requirements. Formerly known as OneApp, it allows parents to apply for any school in New Orleans no matter where they live, but priority in the lottery process is often given to students with siblings already at the school or who live in the neighborhood. About 9,600 families applied for spots in the city's public schools this year, up from 9,200 last year. Parents can rank up to 12 schools on the application, in order of preference. Most schools have some kind of priority, such as sibling preference, seats reserved for students living within a half-mile of the school or parents who work in a partnering university. Everyone else goes into a lottery, and some don't get placed at all and move into a second round where students are funneled into leftover spots. About 9,600 families applied for spots in the city's public schools this year, up from 9,200 last year. Matching up Overall, the percentage of students who secured a spot at one of their top three choices remained consistent with last year -- 86% of students applying for a spot at a new school got in and 82% matched into one of their top three choices, the same percentage as last year. Of students applying for a spot in kindergarten or 9th grade, the two biggest entry points to New Orleans public schools, the match rates are even higher -- 94% got into a school and 90% got into one of their top three choices. The most popular elementary and high schools didn't change from last year. Hynes Charter School in Lakeview, an A-rated school, saw the most applicants for kindergarten this year, with 628 families seeking entry. The match rate was just 19%. 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 Lusher Charter School received the second-most kindergarten applicants, followed by Bricolage Academy, Audubon Charter School Montessori and Audubon Charter School - Gentilly. For high school, Warren Easton Charter High School, an A-rated school, received the most 9th grade applications, 2,059, and had a match rate of 34%. Edna Karr High School, which also had a match rate of 34%, had the second most applicants for 9th grade, followed by Benjamin Franklin High School Eleanor McMain Secondary School and McDonogh 35 Senior High School. Other than Warren Easton, Edna Karr and McMain, the top ten high schools had a 100% match rate. The match rate does not take into account students who are ineligible -- including those who may have applied with a non-New Orleans address -- or those that have already been matched to a higher-ranked choice. Supply and demand But the problem of scarcity remains: with limited spots in highly-rated schools, some families are bound to be disappointed, and some students did not receive a placement at all. In 2020, one-quarter of the 11,314 applicants didn't get placed into any of the choices they had listed as first round picks for the 2020-21 school year. The following year, in 2021, 999 students did not receive a placement in the first round. Student who did not receive a placement should apply for the second round of placement, which began on April 11 and will close May 13. This year, 852 students did not receive a placement. The vast majority of those students, 86%, listed three or fewer choices on their applications, drastically decreasing their odds. About 40% of the students who did not receive a placement were applying for kindergarten or 9th grade spots. When announcing the switch from OneApp to NCAP last year, NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. said that the uniified NCAP process would allow families "to apply to the schools that best meet the needs of their children." Our enrollment team is committed to treating all applications fairly, and the NOLA-PS team will continue to work towards providing options and expanding access that ensures all our students receive a high quality education," Lewis said. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East OPPO has now confirmed a launch for the K10 5G series in China, the vanilla model of which will become the world's first smartphone with the "MAX" version of the Dimensity 8000 processor, whereas its Pro counterpart will emerge with a high-end Snapdragon SoC. The new devices are also now slated to have 120Hz displays, fast charging and even a Razer tie-in. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Benchmark , Biotech , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel , Intel Evo , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Leaks / Rumors , Linux / Unix , List , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Raptor Lake , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Wi-Fi 7 , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) , Zen 4 Ticker OPPO has now announced that the K10 series will debut soon in China. A phone of this name has already launched in India, although this was the series' rather underwhelming 4G-only variant. However, the OEM has now made it clear that the incoming devices are the line's full-fat 5G flagships. They consist of the vanilla K10 5G, to be powered by not just the Dimensity 8000, but a new 8000-MAX version of this chipset. The Pro 5G, on the other hand, is to be a Snapdragon 888-powered device. Both SoCs are now officially slated to drive 120Hz displays, although this spec may be combined with AMOLED in the higher-end version only. The K10 series is also now destined for flagship-grade 80W SuperVOOC charging, not to mention OPPO's well-favored Sony IMX766 as a 50MP main camera. The OEM has also now teased a "top-end" X-axis linear motor for haptics that are, moreover, tuned by "experts" from Razer so as to reproduce the tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard on these upcoming K10 screens. Finally, OPPO has now confirmed that the new K-series units will turn out with this line's distinctive industrial design, which acts to camuflage an increasingly standard-issue camera hump in this case. As with the 4G/LTE-only model, it will be finished in just 2 choices of blue and black. The K10 and K10 Pro 5G will be unveiled in full on April 24, 2022. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. CROWN POINT A long-serving deputy prosecutor has been named head of Lake County's new High Tech Crime Unit. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter announced Monday he's chosen Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez to lead a comprehensive effort to obtain evidence from computers, cameras, laptops, tablets, cell phones and other electronic devices for use in criminal cases. "His understanding of what we do as prosecutors, coupled with his innate ability to excel in all that he does, makes him the ideal choice moving forward," Carter said. The High Tech Crime Unit is a partnership between the prosecutor's office and Purdue University Northwest focused on finding and extracting digital evidence in connection with investigations involving murder, robbery, drug distribution and other violent crimes. Altogether, 10 counties across the state are setting up similar units after the 2021 Indiana General Assembly authorized $6 million for the effort, which is based on similar, successful forensic technology units already operational in Tippecanoe County, in partnership with Purdue University, and in St. Joseph County, with assistance from the University of Notre Dame. Carter said Rodriguez's experience in many different areas of the prosecutor's office, including work with the Lake County Drug Task Force and Lake County Metro Homicide Unit, has prepared him to lead technology-based investigations. "For this particular role with the High Tech Crime Unit, we believe it is critical that we continue to forge a solid partnership with law enforcement and Rodriguez will continue to do just that," Carter said. Students at the PNW campus also will play a key role in the unit's investigations while gaining hands-on training in the latest technology used by law enforcement, new research skills and experience solving actual crimes in Lake County. "PNW has significant expertise in a number of areas needed to do thorough investigations and to probe new directions in research and investigations with the prosecutors office. We look forward to availing the expertise of our faculty in this endeavor and having our students assist in developing new avenues of research," said PNW Chancellor Thomas Keon. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education awarded four Region organizations with the 2022 School and Community Partnership Grant. The grant is designed to bring together K-12 schools, colleges, employers and community partners to implement supportive efforts for students to complete education and training beyond high school. Griffith High School, Scott Middle School, the School City of Whiting and Indiana University Northwest were Region recipients. There were 21 organizations that received the grant, with the total amount awarded $162,680. Grant recipients will implement their suggested programs and events this summer. IU Northwest will use its funds to host a #M.O.N.E.Y. planning workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 23 for current Indiana 21st Century Scholars and their parents. The grant is designed to support collaborative efforts focused on three main priorities: completion of the 21st Century Scholars Scholar Success Program and maintenance of academic eligibility with at least a 2.5 GPA; family engagement programming focused on college and career readiness; and pre-college and postsecondary professional development focused on Indianas college achievement gap. The funding is made possible through Indiana Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LAKE STATION Lake Station Community Schools is establishing the "Eagles Education Foundation" to help provide teachers in the district with grants and programming. Superintendent Tom Cripliver said that while the district is appreciative of the money received from the state, there is a need for additional funds in education. We find that we would like to be able to supplement what tax dollars dont or cannot provide, Cripliver said. The foundation will support innovative and creative classroom programs through donor support. While initially the foundation will not be able to support grants, the plan is to fundraise in the first few years and then begin giving grant money. Cripliver said that teachers are often interested in doing projects or field trips but that there is not enough funding to do it. Eric Kurtz, chief financial officer for Lake Station schools, said the foundation is a necessity. The view in Indiana is to shortchange public education, Kurtz said. He said it's an opportunity to find new funding sources outside of the state. Kurtz also emphasized the need in Lake Station due to the economic status of many of the students. According to the Indiana Department of Education, approximately 76% of Lake Station students qualify for free or reduced lunch as of the 2021-22 school year. Lake Station approved a referendum in 2017 to help supplement support received from the state. It will end in 2024, and Cripliver said the district wants to tap into any financial avenues before going to the community to increase taxes again. I want to demonstrate to our community that we are very sensitive to our communitys economic situation, Cripliver said. Before we go and ask them to renew the referendum, we want to exhaust all financial avenues that we possibly can. Members of the foundation will meet four times a year, at least initially. Lake Station is still looking for interested participants. Teachers, parents, community members and community leaders are welcome to apply to join its board of directors. Our schools and students are second to none, and this foundation will help keep it that way. It will take a couple of years to build up the Eagles Education Foundation. We need people to serve on the Board of Directors to build up the funds to support our schools, but it is worth it because our students are worth it, Cripliver said. It is a separate entity from the school board and school corporation. The first meeting is at 6 p.m. May 24 at Edison Jr. Sr. High School. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CROWN POINT A judge denied the state's motion Thursday to join the cases of men charged in the 2019 shooting death of an 18-year-old Portage High School student for trial. Elrice L. Williams, 28, of Park Forest, and Joe C. Pittman Jr., 29, of Chicago, each have pleaded not guilty to murder, robbery and burglary charges in a series of alleged events Jan. 9, 2019, that led to the homicide of 18-year-old Alayna Ortiz. The men's co-defendants, Giovante M. Galloway, 23, of Gary, and his uncle Juarez E. Rogers, 51, of Park Forest, each accepted plea agreements and could face sentences of three to 16 years. Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota rejected Williams' proposed plea agreement in September after Williams claimed his gun went off accidentally and said, "I didn't intend to shoot." The charges to which Williams had intended to plead guilty included an element of intent. Pittman, who has pleaded not guilty, recently was appointed a new public defender. He previously has asked to represent himself and claimed to be a "sovereign citizen." Bokota re-appointed the public defender's office to represent Pittman in August, after he repeatedly refused to accept he'd be held to the same legal standards as an attorney if he were to represent himself. Williams and Pittman are accused of approaching Ortiz's red SUV with guns in a parking lot at the Park West Apartments in Griffith and screaming for Ortiz and three others to open the doors. When Ortiz's boyfriend, the intended target of a robbery, attempted to drive the SUV over a wooden stump, Williams fired a single shot that took Ortiz's life, records state. Williams' trial remained set for the week of May 31. Pittman's attorney, Aaron Koonce, asked that his next hearing be set for June 15. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tiarra Glenn initially claimed that the child had been told to stand in a corner to discipline her for not eating, police said. Glenn told police the girl began crying hysterically because she did not want to go in the corner, and started to hyperventilate, defecated on herself and then became unresponsive. Doctors determined the girl had a life-threatening brain injury, and she was later airlifted to Comer Children's Hospital. Doctors stated it appeared the damage was from lack of oxygen. Officers spoke to medical staff, who said the child appeared to have been battered and abused based on bruises covering her body from head to toe, which were documented with photos. Medical staff and police also noted a bite mark on the child's abdomen, bruising in the shape of three fingers on her chest and belt marks on her legs, thighs and buttocks. There was also blood on her lips, redness around her neck, bruising on her feet, redness under her armpit and a bump or bruise on her forehead. The child suffered traumatic brain injuries, and a CT scan revealed acute hemorrhages, officials said. Sister describes abuse The girl's 5-year-old sister said Allen made the younger girl stand in the corner Tuesday and was forcing her to "make an 'X' on the corner," records show. Tiarra Glenn told investigators "making an 'X' in the corner" refers to making the child spread her feet and hands out against the wall to form an "X" and stay in the position for a long time. Allen tied the girl's hands behind her back, and after she broke loose, Allen re-tied the child's hands and forced her into the bathroom, turned off the lights and closed the door, officials say. Allen allegedly beat the girl with a belt because she wouldn't make an "X" on the wall. The child further told police that her sister had soiled herself and passed out, at which time Tiarra Glenn told the 5-year-old to put the fan on her sister. Then the child said they cleaned the whole house and her mom called police. Tiarra Glenn, who is three months pregnant, said she was angry with the 3-year-old Tuesday and hit her with a belt at least six times, after which time she was beaten again by Allen, police said. Tiarra Glenn said she saw Allen carry the child into the living room because she was hyperventilating. Allen had tied the girl's hands behind her back and covered her eyes, nose and mouth with a black scarf, police said. Allen then took the girl back into the closet and after she was not able to do what he wanted her to do on the wall, he began to strike her several more times. Allen carried the girl into the living room, according to police. She was not wearing a shirt, her hands were still tied behind her back and she had urinated and defecated on herself. Tiarra Glenn and Allen allegedly changed the girl's clothes, washed her up, cleaned the apartment and after 20 minutes passed, Glenn did a Google search of hyperventilation. The internet directed that she should call 911, so she called for an ambulance. Long list of charges Allen is also charged with battery resulting with serious injury to a person under 14 years old; neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury; battery resulting in serious injury; battery resulting in injury to a person under 14 years old; neglect of a dependent resulting in injury; battery resulting in injury; battery on a person less than 14 years old; and neglect of a dependent where the child is placed in a situation that endangers them. Glenn faces charges of battery resulting with serious injury to a person under 14 years old; neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury; battery resulting in serious injury; battery resulting in injury to a person under 14 years old; neglect of a dependent resulting in injury; battery resulting in moderate injury; battery on a person less than 14 years old; and neglect of a dependent where the child is placed in a situation that endangers them. GARY The Gary Community School Corporation has partnered with WorkOne to host a Career Fair Saturday. It runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Gymnasium of West Side Leadership Academy, located at 9th and Gerry St., in Gary. More than 25 employers from Northwest Indiana will be interviewing job seekers for positions in education, hospitality, manufacturing and healthcare. Specifically, the Gary Community School Corp. will be hiring successful candidates on the spot and offering bonuses for specialty positions. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for education," said Melisha Henderson, Director of Human Resources for GCSC. "Individuals with degrees in other fields who have an interest in teaching are invited to apply. We will pay for them to become certified, and they can begin a new and exciting career with our school district. Attendees should dress professionally and bring copies of their resume. Interested candidates may apply for open positions at garyschools.org ahead of the event. Representatives from the school district's enrollment team will also be on site enrolling students for next school year and sharing information about academic enrichment and extracurricular activities available at all school buildings. For more information, visit www.GarySchools.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JAKARTA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Coal mining giant PT Adaro Energy Indonesia said Monday that it has started to export coal to European buyers as the continent is currently experiencing disruptions in coal supplies. "We have sent around 300,000 tons of coal to the Netherlands and Spain. However, that is an on-the-spot purchasing, not for a long-term contract," the company's Finance Director Luckman Lie told a press conference. Lie said that although Adaro has been open to demands from European buyers, the company would still prioritize the Asian market and its largest buyers like China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. A familiar name to generations of south Lake County voters is challenging an incumbent Lake County councilman who says he's spent the past four years "fighting for south county." Cedar Lake Town Council President Randy Niemeyer whose cousin, state Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, and uncle, the late Ernie Niemeyer, both represented Lake County Council District 7 is vying for the Republican nomination against first-term Councilman Christian Jorgensen, R-St. John, vice president of the county's financial governing body. Niemeyer said he was inspired to follow in the footsteps of his family members and seek a seat on the county council because of the ongoing "ridiculous power struggle" over purchasing authority between the county council and the county commissioners, including a lawsuit now pending at the Indiana Court of Appeals that he said initially was instigated by Jorgensen. "This attempt to usurp the normal checks and balances of county government effectively disenfranchises all of us who reside and pay taxes in the 7th District of Lake County," Niemeyer said. Niemeyer said that if he defeats Jorgensen in the May 3 GOP primary, and prevails in November over Michael Jacobi, of Crown Point, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, he plans to focus on making Lake County government more accessible by broadcasting meetings and other events and more consistently updating the county's website. He also is pledging to implement zero-based budgeting principles to ensure that during times of economic uncertainty, the county can properly maintain and grow essential services while reducing the burden on taxpayers. "I have 14 years of successful local government experience in which my community grew while tax rates dropped, services and infrastructure improved and home values increased," Niemeyer said. "I have spent my entire life in the 7th District and will not forget that I serve the people of the district first and not the government contractors and special interests which have been the priority of my opponent and so many Lake County politicians for generations." The 45-year-old CEO of Niemeyer Milk Transfer Inc. said his experiences as a "family man, small business owner and public servant" ensure he can properly represent the values of the district, which includes the southern ends of St. John and Crown Point, all of Cedar Lake, Lowell and Winfield, and the remainder of south county. "I will never be owned by any people or groups. The person you see in a public meeting is the same person you will see at the local grocery store. I will post my cell phone number publicly and always make myself available for the people I represent," Niemeyer said. "I will not influence directly or indirectly the appointment or employment of any immediate family members by Lake County government while I serve. You never have to wonder where my loyalties lie." Jorgensen, meanwhile, said he's running for a second four-year term on the county council because he still has unfinished business on behalf of south county. "Anyone in public service can tell you that a single term is usually insufficient to accomplish the job you set out to do," Jorgensen said. "There are tremendous opportunities coming Lake Countys way, and I want to ensure that south county receives its fair share like I did for Crown Point and Lowell with American Rescue Plan Act (funding)." In addition to securing federal funds for sewer improvements, Jorgensen said he's helped ensure that Lake County has a balanced budget with a surplus every year, freed up unused funds from prior budgets for future use, opposed all new taxes and tax hikes, halted a proposed face mask mandate in county schools and led the repeal of target shooting restrictions in unincorporated areas of the county. Jorgensen also said he's promoted transparency in government by maintaining and improving remote access services begun amid the COVID-19 pandemic, combated tax fraud and ensured safe public works projects through the use of responsible bidder ordinances and project labor agreements, and kept the sheriff's department properly equipped within its own budget. "It takes time to build relationships and trust amongst your colleagues and departments years actually," Jorgensen said. "I currently have earned that trust and built the relationships that make me the most effective candidate for south county." "That is the tremendous benefit of being a successful incumbent. I have a proven track record of getting things done for south county." If reelected, the 49-year-old attorney and former president of the St. John Town Council said his goal is to get Lake County in a sufficiently secure financial position where it could possibly reduce its 1.5% income tax rate or return a portion of its revenue to county taxpayers. "I am a conservative. My goals as both a town official and county official are, and have always been, fiscal responsibility, limited government, responsible growth and skilled labor. I want to continue to advance these goals in Lake County," Jorgensen said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CROWN POINT John Petalas needs no introduction to voters. One of two candidates running for Lake County treasurer, Petalas has been a public official for 31 years and said he would like one more four-year term in office as the county governments cashier. He is opposed by Josefina Magallanes, a Whiting woman and insurance agent, who ran unsuccessfully for county clerk in 2014 and 2018. Magallanes did not return calls seeking comment. Petalas previously served for 14 years as Merrillvilles clerk-treasurer. Lake Countys Democratic precinct committee members chose him as county treasurer in 2005 when the previous officeholder, Peggy Holinga Katona, left to become county auditor. He won two four-year terms from voters between 2006 and 2014 before term limits required him to step down as treasurer. Voters then elected Petalas to two four-year terms as county auditor from 2014 until the end of this year, when term limits again came into play. Petalas said he and Katona, who alternatively ran the county treasurer and auditor offices during the last two decades, work well together. He also said his years in public service help him deal with the intricacies of county government finance, which involves tens of thousands of transactions taking place annually among all public offices and departments of Lake County and other local government units that add up to $1.3 billion annually. He said he is now working to help integrate the new $5 million Oracle financial reporting system needed to modernize county accounting practices. He said he will continue to make both the auditor and treasurer offices more efficient, put internal controls into place to guard against misappropriation and oversee the county police pension plan. He said he has received endorsements from all county Democratic precinct organizations as well as the steelworkers, Northwest Indiana building trades and the Greater Northwest Indiana Realtors Association. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WINFIELD Three lawyers, two steelworkers and a former teacher are in the running for at-large Winfield Town Council positions. Democratic candidate Stacey Wachowski, 39, a former teacher, late this week tried to formally withdraw her name from the race but was told it was too late, so her name will appear on the ballot but she is not actively campaigning. The three Democrats actively running in the primary are Sara Kubik, Louie Gonzalez and Mark Lash. The two Republicans running in the primary are incumbent Zachary Beaver and Michael Lambert, a former Winfield Town Councilman. Voters on May 3 will pick two candidates from each of the two parties, and those four two Democrats and two Republicans take part in a run-off in the General Election in the fall. The two elected individuals will serve a four-year term beginning Jan. 1. Beaver, 34, is the only incumbent, having been elected in 2019 for a three-year at-large term along with fellow Republican Gerald Stiener, who presently serves as Town Council president. Stiener, who held the other at-large position, has chosen not to run. Beaver, a former Indiana State Trooper, now serves as a corporate lawyer working in Chicago. Lambert hopes to return to the Town Council after being elected in 2007 and sworn in as a new member in 2008. Lambert, 52, who was born and raised on a family farm in Winfield, serves as a criminal defense lawyer with his offices located in Crown Point. Kubik, 50, also a lawyer, moved to Winfield four years ago to raise her two children. Louis Gonzalez, 47, has worked at Laborers Local 41 for over 15 years. The East Chicago native has lived in Winfield for 15 years. Mark Lash, 52, has worked for U.S. Steel for 27 years, serving in different capacities. He currently serves as president of United Steelworkers Local 1006. All candidates agree that the growth in Winfield, which is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, is of main concern, along with management of infrastructure and public safety. The Democratic candidates also said theyd like to see more transparency in the towns dealings and more diversity on the Town Council, with more women and minorities serving on the board. Candidates also said they'd like to see Winfield have more of an identity. Beaver said maintenance of the growing towns infrastructure definitely tops the list of important issues in the race. The town is growing, and we need to improve our roads. Its never-ending, Beaver said. Public safety is also an important issue, Beaver said. As the town grows we need to grow our police and fire, Beaver said. Beaver said theres been a lot of progress as far as infrastructure during his tenure, including improvements to roads as well as sewer and water systems. In addition to infrastructure improvements during his term, Beaver points to the fact that there have been more police officers added to the department, with two more being hired this year. The current council is collaborative, and everybody kind of weighs in on what it does for the community. We sit and talk about it and deal with it as a full group, Beaver said. Lambert said he would like to return to serve on the Town Council to address such issues as the town's growth and infrastructure needs. "I've lived all my life in Winfield except for when I went to college and when I served in the military," Lambert said. His military service was with the U.S. Army and his tour of duty was in Operation Desert Storm. Kubik, who moved to Winfield four years ago with her two children, said she chose the town because of its open space and its good schools. Her children are 9 and 11, so having a good school district was something she looked for before moving to Winfield. The academics of the Crown Point schools are outstanding, Kubik said. Kubik said she began attending Town Council meetings and, as an attorney accustomed to structure and rules, grew frustrated by the lack of transparency. She would like to see more transparency, including possibly holding using Zoom so that residents could view meetings at home. Gonzalez, who moved to Winfield 15 years ago, said growth of the town is one of the top issues. I feel there is not a grasp on how fast we are growing, Gonzalez said. He also believes infrastructure remains one of the important issues going along with that growth. Gonzalez cites high sewer rates and problems with flooding and drainage in the town. We need to do a better job with our infrastructure plans. We need to stay in pace, Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said he would also like to see more transparency in town council meetings and more diversity on the council board. People want more inclusion, Gonzalez said. He would also like to see meetings streamed and more input on social media. So people know what issues are coming up on the council, Gonzalez said. Lash moved to Winfield in 2006 and now has two college-age sons. He said he has worked in different capacities for the steelworkers union and would like to represent the issues of Winfield. Lash said he isnt sure that the interests of what he termed regular residents are being represented. He said he'd like to be a councilman to represent those interests. Lash said he wants to make sure the infrastructure keeps pace with the growth of the community and that everything roads, sewers and water is up to par. I want to make sure we are not putting the cart before the horse, Lash said. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LAPORTE A middle ground has been reached between residents of a LaPorte area subdivision plagued by years of flooding and property owners downstream concerned the solution will leave their yards and farm fields in higher water. The LaPorte County Commissioners earlier this month approved starting construction of a gravity drain aimed at lowering the water table at Meadowview Estates, between LaPorte and Kingsbury. However, the commissioners also ordered that the project be stopped when it is halfway completed to make sure the amount of water coming out wont add to flooding problems downstream. The gravity drain will consist of burying a 30-inch diameter pipe seven feet in the ground to take in strictly groundwater. The pipe will be extended 1,000 feet to empty into Kingsbury Creek, said LaPorte County Surveyor Tony Hendricks. He and other drainage experts assured landowners downstream that the volume of water filtering into the pipe will not be enough to worsen the occasional flooding occurring in their fields and yards. The creek and surrounding area is a designated wetland. Because of the time it takes for stormwater to seep into the ground, Hendricks said, the drainage system will accept and release water slowly into the creek so it doesnt further run over its banks. Even if theres a horrendous storm, it will take a long time for this to percolate into the system were installing, he said. Hendricks also said he was confident the 30-inch pipe will never reach capacity not even when the drain is first opened to start lowering the water table. Initially farmers, believing the pipe would carry stormwater, feared a negative impact on the water quality of the spring-fed creek. Hendricks assured them only groundwater would go into the pipe, and stormwater, after filtering into the ground, would be clean once entering the system. Downstream property owners seemed less skeptical about the plans, especially when Hendricks said the pipe can be plugged if the amount of water going into the drain is above projections. If it all is wrong and everyone is completely wrong, it can be stopped, Hendricks said. Opponents asked the commissioners to reconsider their approval of the $1.3 million drain. The project has been years in the making for residents operating sump pumps continuously year-round to keep the water table from pushing up through their basement floors. Officials said the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has approved the permit for construction of the drain. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. VALPARAISO Lysol wipes, masks and strict distancing guidelines are again a reality for the Humane Indiana Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, only this time it is to quell the spread of a much different virus. As the avian flu outbreak creeps closer to Porter County, the center, whose population is about half birds, is on high alert. I am essentially back to social distancing, not necessarily for my sake, but for the birds' sake, said Wildlife Center Director Nicole Harmon, who has been monitoring the highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI, outbreak since January. Every year the wildlife center receives thousands of injured, abandoned or diseased animals. Two older houses sit on the Valparaiso property: one for animal rehabilitation and the other for educational programs. Armed with a staff of three, a team of volunteers and about 20 summer interns, the center works tirelessly to heal the many foxes, turkey vultures, squirrels, turtles and other wild animals in their care. If rehabilitation is successful, the critters are returned to the wild. Right now, the center is gearing up for the busy spring season, readying cages and prepping for interns. "There are times when this building is humming with 800 animals all at once," CEO Brian Fitzpatrick said as he gestured to the small rehabilitation building. While watching the spread of avian flu, Harmon quickly realized the center would have to make some adjustments. In February, staff cleaned out an old storage area at the front of the education center. Separate from the rest of the building, the space will be used to house all waterfowl. Harmon explained that waterfowl can serve as "reservoirs" for avian flu, not displaying symptoms but still spreading the disease to poultry and birds of prey. Fitzpatrick estimates the center receives about 800 waterfowl a year, 25% of its total intake. If the waterfowl spread the disease it would be "disastrous," as HPAI is 90% fatal in birds of prey, Harmon said. The center is also concerned about infecting the 12 ambassador birds that are used in educational programming and as surrogate parents for other birds. If avian flu reaches the area, the center would have to shut down operations for three weeks. If a bird on the property tests positive, there is a chance all of the center's birds would have to be euthanized. "If something tests positive here, there are more animals that I can't help because we are quarantined," Harmon said, explaining that they may have to start turning away birds who appear to have lead toxicity or West Nile virus, as the symptoms are similar. "You have to ask yourself, are you really willing to take that risk?" HPAI was detected in North America in December 2021. The H5N1 subtype, not known to cause human illness, was found at an exhibition farm on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. By January 2022, multiple wild bird species in the U.S. had also tested positive for the strain. The outbreak reached Indiana on Feb. 9, first confirmed at a commercial turkey farm in Dubois County. Since then, avian flu has spread to six commercial turkey operations, in Dubois and Greene counties. According to the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, a total of 171,224 commercial turkeys have tested positive. All of the affected commercial turkey populations have been depopulated and the control areas for Dubois and Greene counties have been lifted. Then, on April 8, the highly contagious illness was found in a flock of 4,679 commercial ducks in Elkhart County. As of April 16, a second commercial duck flock of about 6,000 had tested "presumptive-positive," meaning the initially positive tests are still being verified at the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa. "It is right around migratory season, so we are worried about some of those waterfowl that are passing through that area coming up here. You have waterfowl that could be in Elkhart County this afternoon and get here by tomorrow morning," Harmon said, adding that the outbreak of wild birds by the Illinois-Wisconsin border is also a concern, as the area is in Porter County's flight path, meaning migrating birds from Wisconsin will likely stop in nearby ponds and fields. Avian flu has been detected in over 600 wild birds in the U.S., though out of the over 200 wild birds tested in Indiana, only one redhead duck has been deemed presumptive positive. Because commercial birds are often kept in confinement, the disease is spreading faster among poultry. Over 27,000,000 have been affected in the U.S. However, it is harder to test, track and control the spread in wild birds. "The difference between something like avian influenza and COVID is that COVID does not do really well on surfaces and avian influenza does amazingly well on surfaces," Harmon explained. "It will live on the surface of the grass for up to 30 days." Birds shed the virus through their droppings and nasal discharge, meaning wild birds can carry the virus almost anywhere. Harmon looked at the farm fields surrounding the wildlife center on all sides, pointing out the many neighbors that raise chickens. If a wild bird flies over a poultry cage and defecates, the entire flock could be infected. The wildlife center is already "planning for the worst" Harmon said. All educational programs will be conducted indoors; interns and staff will wear gloves, medical gowns, booties and masks; shoes will be changed frequently; and there will be footbaths at every door. No cases of human infections have been reported, and there is no food safety risk associated with the outbreak. Humans can still carry the virus on their shoes and clothes, Harmon said, encouraging increased disinfecting. Standing before an enclosure housing Arlene, an eastern screech owl that lost her vision after being hit by a car and is now a center ambassador, Fitzpatrick said, "We just cannot risk having our ambassadors decimated because of this." With a stack of cleaning supplies, signs that read "no waterfowl beyond this point" and an isolation area at the ready, all the center can do now is watch the spread. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WASHINGTON As millions of Americans raced to finish filing their tax returns on Monday, the Biden administration made another plea for Congress to give the Internal Revenue Service more money. The latest call for funding to modernize the agency and beef up its enforcement staff followed I.R.S. and Treasury Department officials complaints that they are facing an extraordinarily challenging tax season because of staff shortages and the complexity associated with distributing pandemic relief money. The Biden administrations proposals to provide the I.R.S. with $80 billion over a decade have thus far fallen flat in Congress. The I.R.S. knew walking into this filing season that it did not have the work force or technology in place to serve the American people the way they deserve to pick up the phones when taxpayers call, to help them access all the credits and benefits to which they are entitled and to ensure that each and every taxpayer receives their refund quickly, Natasha Sarin, Treasurys counselor for tax policy, wrote in a report about Tax Day. Ms. Sarin said the I.R.S. had collected more than 130 million tax returns from individuals and businesses this year and had disbursed more than $220 billion in refunds. The average refund, as of the week of April 8, was $3,175. The word venturesome has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 28 in A Spiritual Meeting in the Sand and a Wedding There, Too by Lois Smith Brady: On the morning of April 24, Emily Arnold and Youssef Ait-Khouya walked over the dunes at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park outside Kanab, Utah, chose a spot to get married and began accessorizing it. They laid down Moroccan rugs and pillows, set up a portable table and decorated it with vases of flowers, a tea set and Moroccan lanterns. The surrounding dunes were continually changing shape because of the near-constant wind. A sign inside the park reads: When you left your car in the parking lot, you left stability behind. Ms. Arnold, 34, grew up in a Mormon family in South Jordan, Utah, and was known for being studious and devoutly religious, but also venturesome and independent. Super duper is one of her favorite phrases and one of her favorite books is I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson. I loved the idea of wanting to marry adventure, not just marry the boy next door or somebody from school, she said. Daily Word Challenge Can you correctly use the word venturesome in a sentence? Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using todays Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the words definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun. Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the Recommend button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you. If you want a better idea of how venturesome can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. If a vaccinated child is highly exposed to Covid at home but is still healthy, parents might consider keeping that child home to protect others. Masks do come off at lunch. But this measure would be going above and beyond the federal recommendations, and only one expert I spoke with recommended it. Should I try to reduce exposure in the household, even if it seems futile? As parents know, the term close contact takes on a whole new meaning with young children, who seem to have an uncanny ability to sneeze in your face. Even so, the experts agreed that reducing exposure to each others illnesses is still worth the effort. There is a small window of time when this is particularly important between exposure and when the immune system begins to fully engage. Parents have to care for children, and some siblings simply cant be kept apart. Still, there are steps you can take. Whoever gets sick first should be in his or her own room, if possible. Put a HEPA filter in there, if you have one. Try to get the sick person to stay in there for meals. Wear high-quality masks when family members are together. Open the windows. Place another HEPA filter, if you have two, where other family members are spending time. Another pro-tip: Keep the air at 40 to 60 percent humidity, which helps stop aerosol transmission, Dr. Pirzada said, by using a hygrometer or a humidifier to measure the level. Use common sense. Once the air filters are running, the windows are cracked and masks are worn when possible; attempting more may feel like too much if a young child is ill. If my kid were sick, my natural instinct would be to care for them, said Dr. Linsey Marr, a leading expert on viral transmission. I could see throwing my hands up, relying on the vaccine and my good health to keep me from falling seriously ill and cuddling with my kid. The good news is that once you test positive, exposure to other family members who are also positive is unlikely to make you sicker, the experts agreed. And it isnt likely that the family members who recover first will be reinfected by those still sick. VENICE The 78 bronze funnels were ready, the pump tested and the backdrop was almost done. So when it looked as if war was most likely coming to Ukraine, Maria Lanko, one of the curators of the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, was determined to get the artist Pavlo Makovs fountain sculpture safely out of the country. In a recent interview in New York, Lanko described how she loaded the funnels in three boxes and packed them into her car. We expected something might start, she said. There was a lot of tension and Putin gave us many hints. On the evening of the wars first day, as explosions besieged the city, Lanko set off driving from Kyiv with her dog and a colleague, the pavilions art director, Sergiy Mishakin. I started the journey without a precise route, said Lanko. I had to decide which road was safest. So began a harrowing three-week journey driving 10 hours a day on back roads, staying in places without heat that ultimately took Lanko out of Ukraine and to Vienna, where the sculptures materials were sent onward to Italy. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. The American conductor Gavriel Heine has been a fixture at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, for 15 years. He has led hundreds of performances of classics like Swan Lake and The Rite of Spring. And he has done so as a protege of the companys leader: Valery Gergiev. On Saturday, Mr. Heine went yet again to the Mariinsky, but not for an evening at the podium. He was there to inform Mr. Gergiev a longtime friend and supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he was resigning from his post as one of the state-run theaters resident conductors. Mr. Heine gathered his possessions, including a few white bow ties and scores for La Boheme and The Turn of the Screw, and prepared to leave the country. Mr. Heine, 47, had been increasingly disturbed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Theres no way I could ever be in denial of what is happening in Ukraine, he said during a series of interviews over the past week. Russia is not a place where I want to raise my son. Its not a place where I want my wife to be anymore. Its not a place I want to be anymore. His resignation comes as the war continues to upend performing arts. Cultural institutions in Europe and North America, vowing not to hire performers who support Mr. Putin, have severed ties with some artists most notably Mr. Gergiev as well as orchestras, theaters and ballet companies. Many artists, citing the invasion, have canceled appearances in Russia. DISORIENTATION, by Elaine Hsieh Chou ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING, by Lisa Hsiao Chen As every writer, teacher and tyrant knows, art is a powerful thing. These two debut novels explore the danger and wonder of art, its capacity to distort and illuminate the world. In Elaine Hsieh Chous Disorientation, an eighth-year Ph.D. candidate named Ingrid Yang wrestles with the work of a fictional poet, Xiao-Wen Chou, the so-called Chinese Robert Frost and the late crown jewel of the faculty at Barnes University the mid-tier Massachusetts institution where this campus dramedy unfolds. Facing the end of her funding and the expiration of her student loan deferral, Ingrid struggles to produce 250 pages (they had to be shockingly original and convincing!) on the famous poet: But after hundreds of hair-pulling hours spent at the archive, all she had accomplished was 50 pages of scrambled notes on Chous use of enjambment. Plus an addiction to antacids. It doesnt help that Ingrid never wanted to study Chou in the first place she just caved to pressure from her adviser, Michael Bartholomew, the defensive, snaky, white chair of Barness East Asian studies department. Have you, too, experienced an identity crisis related to being Chinese American, Ingrid overhears him asking another student, or as Chou said, forever caught betwixt east and west? Chous poetry has become controversial among the new generation of scholars, due in large part to its Chinese-y pandering, trading on cranes and ancestors, thousand-year-egg porridge and porcelain spoons. When Ingrids research leads her down an unexpected path, she makes a discovery that could decimate Chous legacy and unleash pandemonium in the halls of Barnes. Image Disorientation is a satire, and it is frequently funny and insightful, with plenty to say about art, identity, Orientalism and the politics of academia. Though her own department is filled with white men who talk over her and correct her Mandarin pronunciation, Ingrid finds her nemesis in Vivian Vo, the outspoken, prolific star of the postcolonial studies department. Ingrid and her friend Eunice understand that there were two varieties of Asians: Asians like Vivian and Asians like themselves. And that the two varieties eyed each other warily: the former with pity and the latter with resentment for being pitied. At first Ingrid cannot stand Vivians activism and constant railing against white supremacy (oppression this, justice that attention seeking, that was all). But as the East Asian studies department erupts in scandal and the university becomes a hotbed of open racism masquerading as free speech (this is America and it is our God-given right to pursue happiness at the expense of others!), Ingrid re-evaluates her long-held beliefs and complacencies, as well as her closest relationships. It is a lot for a young girl to bear, and as Billy begins to cross dangerous boundaries, so too does Sunshine. On the bayou a yellow rope has been slung between the safe shallows and the alligators swamp. When Sunshine dares to swim beneath it, we wonder if she will encounter the fabled crocodile or his gentle bride. Image Pedersen does well to temper the accumulative dread with the care and camaraderie of Sunshines nearby relatives. Aunt Lou lives just across a small bridge with her daughter, J.L., the just-older cousin from whom Sunshine tentatively seeks guidance. Aunt Lou watches with concern as her brothers behavior becomes more volatile and her niece becomes increasingly withdrawn. Lou has seen violence before. In the 1950s, their father, John Jay, turned it on their mother, Catherine, and then on his children. His abuse was total and, like the crocodile, consumed everything in its wake. Aunt Lou knows these currents roll and swirl and although she loves her brother and can still see some good in him she can also detect the beginnings of a wretched repetition. Further generations are described compellingly, and Pedersen slots each into the novels familiar mold. Catherine was born in 1919 and before her there were her parents, Margaret and Talmadge, in Portland, Tenn. Talmadge returns from the First World War a broken man. He mutters to himself and draws the attention of neighbors. Despite the ameliorative exertions of his wife and daughter, he falls into a depression, lost inside his own mind, or inside the past, or inside the belly of a beast no one could see or understand. That beast has a natural home and it is Fingertip, a wonderfully evoked place of rot and ruin (Fingertip was dying on the vine). With its New Deal communities offering 99-cent mortgages, the town was built as a salve for the devastation of the Great Depression, though it was not Franklin D. but Eleanor Roosevelt who imagined the scheme, the name calling to mind her healing hands. When Catherine and John Jay move here from Tennessee in 1942, they expect steady jobs and cheap housing; but in the years since its salutary conception the town has seen more of bust than of boom. Elsewhere, clear waters might run into the sea, but Fingertip only ever catches the silt. Economic hardship exacerbates, provides a rancorous undercurrent for, John Jays sadism. When, in 1982, his son, Billy, is laid off just as his father was, we fear a similar downturn in the younger mans moods. Billys character does not contain the unrelenting malice of his fathers, and he deserves sympathy for the abuse he suffered in childhood, but we are meeting him at a critical moment. He can either sink into the bayou or hoist himself out or be offered the lifeline this novels guiding parable has promised. In Mariupol, Ukrainians vow to fight to the end After weeks of shelling and bombings, Russia gave Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol until yesterday morning to lay down their weapons or be eliminated. When Ukrainian officials vowed that they would not surrender, Russian forces intensified their attack on the southeastern city, including at the Azovstal steel plant, near Mariupols port. Follow the latest updates. The plant has become the last line of Ukraines defense in preventing Russia from securing a strategically important land bridge between its stronghold in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said yesterday that the struggle for Mariupol was not over and that its military forces would fight to the end, according to Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister. Taking Mariupol would be one of the first major victories for Russia over the past weeks, a period in which it withdrew from the area around Kyiv, Ukraines capital, and lost one of its most important warships, the Moskva. The Moskvas sinking drew fierce reaction in some corners of the Russian news media, which called for harsh retaliation. By the numbers: It was unclear how many Ukrainian troops were still fighting in Mariupol. Russian officials said there were 2,500 soldiers aligned with Ukraine at the steel plant, including 400 foreign mercenaries. Ukrainians officials say Russian troops outnumber the Ukrainian forces in the city by six to one. If you live in most any Western country, your governments support for Ukraine, including sending weapons and imposing sanctions on Russia, can give the impression of a united global response to Vladimir Putins invasion. But that isnt the case. Most of the worlds 195 countries have not shipped aid to Ukraine or joined in sanctions. A handful have actively supported Russia. Far more occupy the messy middle, as Carisa Nietsche of the Center for a New American Security calls it, taking neither Ukraines nor Russias side. We live in a bubble, here in the U.S. and Europe, where we think the very stark moral and geopolitical stakes, and framework of what were seeing unfolding, is a universal cause, Barry Pavel, a senior vice president at the Atlantic Council, told me. Actually, most of the governments of the world are not with us. Todays newsletter offers a guide to some of those countries and why they have committed to their stances. Auto experts say the electric F-150, known as the Lightning, must be a success if Ford is to thrive in the age of electric vehicles. Introducing this truck now is equivalent to betting the company, said William C. Ford Jr., the companys executive chairman, who is a great-grandson of Henry Ford. If this launch doesnt go well, we can tarnish the entire franchise. The company has amassed about 200,000 reservations for the trucks, but it could still stumble. Production could be slowed by the global chip shortage or the surging costs of lithium, nickel and other raw materials crucial to batteries. The software that Ford has developed for the truck could be flawed, a problem that hampered sales of a new electric Volkswagen in 2020. Ford and Mr. Farley do have some things going for them. Unlike many other electric cars, the F-150 Lightning is relatively affordable it starts at $40,000. Teslas cheapest car is the compact Model 3 sedan, which starts at more than $48,000. The Lightning has tons of storage, including a giant front trunk, which is appealing to families and businesses with large truck fleets. And it helps that Tesla will not begin making its Cybertruck until next year. And Ford is also already in the E.V. game with the Mustang Mach-E, an electric sport utility vehicle. It had sales of more than 27,000 in 2021, its first year on the market, and won favorable reviews. Production of the F-150 Lightning is scheduled to start next Monday. Competing models from General Motors, Stellantis and Toyota Fords main rivals in pickups are at least a year away. Rivian, a newer manufacturer that Ford has invested in, has begun selling an electric truck but is struggling to increase production. If the Lightning launch goes well, we have an enormous opportunity, Mr. Ford said. Jimmy Car-Car In many ways, Mr. Farley checks most of the boxes when it comes to leading a large U.S. automaker. Like Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of G.M., whose father used to work on a Pontiac assembly line, Mr. Farley has family roots in the industry: His grandfather worked at a Ford factory. On visits to his grandfather, he would tour Ford plants and other sites important to the companys history. As a 15-year-old, he bought a Mustang while working in California one summer and drove it home to Michigan without a license. His grandfather nicknamed him Jimmy Car-Car. But like Mr. Musk, a native of South Africa who was a founder of PayPal and other companies, Mr. Farley has had a varied career and been involved in creating businesses. Born in Argentina when his father was working there as a banker, Mr. Farley, 59, also lived in Brazil and Canada when he was growing up. His career started not in the auto industry but at IBM. He spent a long stretch at Toyota. He helped the Japanese automaker overcome its reputation for making boring and economical cars by working on its fledgling Lexus luxury brand, now a powerhouse. It has not helped that the industry has been burned before by a green tech boom. About 15 years ago, environmentally conscious start-ups were seen as the next big thing in Silicon Valley. One of the premier venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, made former Vice President Al Gore a partner and pledged that clean energy would eventually make up at least a third of its total investments.Instead, Kleiner became a cautionary tale about the risks of investing in energy-related companies as the firm missed out on early backing of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. There is evidence that these old fears are receding. Two years ago 360 Capital, a venture capital firm based in Paris and Milan dealing in early-stage investment, introduced a dedicated fund investing in clean energy and sustainability companies. The firm is now planning to open up the fund to more investors, expanding it to 150 million from a 30 million fund. There are a growing number of dedicated funds for energy investments. But even then there is a tendency for the companies in them to be software developers, deemed less risky than builders of larger-scale energy projects. Four of the seven companies backed by 360 Capitals new fund are artificial intelligence companies and software providers. Still, the situation has changed completely since the companys first major green-energy investment in 2008, Fausto Boni, the firms founder, said. We see potentially lots of money coming into the sector, and so many of the issues we had 15 years ago are on their way to being overcome, he said. But the availability of bigger investments needed to help companies expand in Europe still lags behind, he added. The funding gap RICHMOND, Va. Hamidullah Noori was 8 years old when his father, uncle and cousin were killed by Taliban militants in Kabul, Afghanistan. As the eldest son, he soon went to work to support his family, selling boiled potatoes and balloons from a pushcart. Violence and flight have shaped his life ever since. So as he follows news reports about the Russian assault on Ukraine, Mr. Noori feels a weary kinship with the refugees fleeing that conflict, knowing that their futures will resemble his past. This is something where I have already experienced it, he said, sitting in his Richmond restaurant, the Mantu. If youre lucky, you survive. When Mr. Noori opened the Mantu in 2019, four years after arriving in Virginia as a refugee, he joined a group of restaurateurs who had already established a solid presence for Afghan cuisine in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. The region is home to one of the largest populations of resettled Afghans in the United States more than 16,000 came to the area during the 20-year war that ended last year, an influx second only to Californias, according to U.S. News & World Report. Rose Shields-Jefferson, a Chickasaw Nation elder and the firstborn of 13 children, leaned into her computer screen, her red and black beaded earrings swaying as she gave a conspiratorial smile. Im not bragging, you know, but were good cooks. Mrs. Shields-Jefferson, 77, is well known in her community of Ada, Okla., for her grape dumplings, panki alhfola in the Chickasaw language, of which she is a native speaker. Dont try asking for her exact formula, however. We dont use recipes, you know, she said during a video chat. I just know how to make it. This dessert has been a favorite among various southeastern Native tribes for centuries. The tender dumplings are coated by a warm, deeply purple sauce that explodes with an uncommon grapiness. Originally made from balls of ground corn mush boiled in the juice of wild grapes and then mostly prepared with store-bought ingredients, these dumplings illustrate the evolution of Indigenous foodways, first with voluntary seasonal migration, then because of forced relocation, cultural exchanges and developments in the food system. Modern chefs and cooks are now renewing interest in the earliest recipes, which predate current movements to eat locally grown foods. Its simple. Press some firm tofu to extract as much liquid as you can. Make a marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, minced garlic, grated ginger, a spoonful of gochujang, a splash of neutral oil, some sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds. Slice the tofu into thick squares, and slide them into the marinade. Let that sit a half-hour works; a few hours works better. Then roast them on an oiled and foil-lined pan until theyre crisp. Serve with bibb lettuce cups to wrap them in, rice, kimchi and a dipping sauce of ssamjang and a little bit more gochujang thinned out with neutral oil and sherry vinegar. (If not, go sesame oil and ground white pepper.) Thats a fine dinner. There are thousands more actual recipes to consider awaiting you on New York Times Cooking, and further inspiration on our on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channels. Its true that you need a subscription to access the recipes and to use our features and tools. Subscriptions are the fuel in our stoves. They allow us to keep cooking. I hope youll consider, if you havent already, subscribing today. Thank you. We will in turn be standing by should anything go squirrelly while youre using the site and app. Just reach out to us at cookingcare@nytimes.com, and someone will get back to you. Now, its nothing to do with food and its preparation, but Id like to steer you toward Maud Newtons first book, Ancestor Trouble, the begats of the Bible brought into shimmering, difficult light. For T Magazine, Alwa Cooper spoke with the Ivory Coast artist Joana Choumali about her painting The Return of the Swallows, which depicts a sunrise she experienced in Dakar, Senegal. The golden glow that halos around the two former lovers reconnecting in See You Then is tinged with melancholy. More than a decade has passed since the sudden breakup of Kris (Pooya Mohseni) and Naomi (Lynn Chen). Some things have changed, some things stayed the same. That such an aphorism is easily applied to any number of Before Sunrise-style movies of people reminiscing and litigating what once was sets Mari Walkers film at a disadvantage. But the chemistry of its stars gives the movie a curious magnetism that is almost enough to forgive its flaws. In the time since the two parted, Kris has transitioned, has a job in network security and is visiting Los Angeles from Phoenix. Naomi is an art professor at their alma mater and is married with two children. After a nervous start, they ease into a familiar rapport. Dinner turns into drinks, small talk gives way into how they really are, becoming a vortex of past and present. A federal prosecutor said on Monday that the government had issued more than 160 subpoenas for financial, phone and other records as part of its investigation into New Yorks former lieutenant governor, Brian A. Benjamin, who resigned last week after being charged with bribery and fraud. At a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the prosecutor, Jarrod L. Schaeffer, suggested a trove of potential evidence of broad scope and complexity. On Monday morning alone, Mr. Schaeffer said, the government turned over about 160,000 pages of materials to Mr. Benjamins lawyers. The government had also executed about seven search warrants for email accounts and seized and searched cellphones, including one belonging to Mr. Benjamin, he said. The hearing was the first court appearance for Mr. Benjamin, 45, since his arrest a week ago in what the authorities have depicted as a brazen scheme to funnel illegal contributions to his previous political campaigns and to cover up the criminal activity. The manhunt that followed had an immediacy that was unique to this moment. It was difficult to remember a manhunt where bystanders pointed the police to a suspect, with one photographing the man and posting on Twitter. Hooray for bystanders who helped, one commenter wrote on nytimes.com after reading our story about the manhunt. Like Mayor Eric Adams, who deplored the crisis that is playing across our country involving guns and violence, some commenters mentioned access to guns. We just dont understand all the guns everywhere, someone from Australia wrote. Ive loved the traveling Ive done in the U.S. in the past but Im not sure Id return now all I read is anger and guns. The subway attack unfolded as New York wrestled with questions about public safety above ground as well as on its labyrinthine transit system. But it began unremarkably: Someone who looked like a construction worker a man wearing a hard hat and a reflective safety jacket and clutching a backpack walked into a subway station. When he swiped his MetroCard at a turnstile and it did not let him pass, the agent at a nearby booth pushed a button, unlocking an emergency exit door. The man stepped through. It was 6:12 a.m. at the Kings Highway station in Brooklyn. At some point he boarded an N train that arrived at 59th Street, a half dozen stops away, around 8:20. Once the train was moving again, he stood and pulled on a gas mask. He took a canister from a bag he was carrying. Oops, he said, according to a rider standing nearby. My bad. As the car began filling with smoke from the canister, he took out a handgun and opened fire. At the next stop, at the 36th Street station, those who could those who had not been wounded poured out. The gunman apparently fled with them, boarding the R across the platform and riding the same train as people he had just shot. One way to make clean hydrogen is with electrolyzers that split hydrogen from water. Right now thats expensive, but with a spurt of new investment, electrolyzer costs will likely tumble. Other methods will compete as well. Central to the European plan for cutting dependence on natural gas is investment in hydrogen and other alternatives to conventional gas something that companies are lining up to do with their own capital. Privately backed projects are exploring how to link hydrogen production to renewable electric power generators a key innovation because hydrogen is easier to store than electricity and could help make electric grids reliable even when they depend on large amounts of intermittent wind and solar. Leaders in sectors such as steel, refining and chemicals all see hydrogen investments as part of their plans to remain viable in a world that slashes emissions. Maersk, one of the worlds largest container shipping companies, is backing some of these projects along with several other clean fuels. Even in aircraft and heavy trucks, hydrogen may prove the best way to cut emissions. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that the value of investment in clean hydrogen projects by 2030 will exceed half a trillion dollars, based on the announcements made with Europe in the lead. For comparison, the total value of all fossil fuels sold globally in 2021 was about $5 trillion. The United States is finding it harder to be a clean technology leader because the political environment is fractured. But one area of promise is $8 billion for hydrogen hubs in the recent bipartisan infrastructure law to build the production facilities, pipelines and terminals to link producers and consumers. A hydrogen revolution could take a while perhaps two decades, with a highly committed effort, until there are substantial volumes of hydrogen replacing conventional natural gas and also replacing oil. But beyond hydrogen, there are many other examples of credible policy, along with new technology attracting a flood of capital. New designs for nuclear plants attracted $3.4 billion in private capital in 2021 alone. (New nuclear plants are likely to focus on America, Britain, China and other markets. Attitudes around nuclear power in most of continental Europe are yet to turn reliably in favor.) Other, more mature clean technologies like solar, wind and batteries are expanding massively as well. To the Editor: Re After Toying With Twitter, Musk Now Wants It All (front page, April 15): What a disaster it would be for Elon Musk to acquire Twitter and open it up to disinformation and lies from Donald Trump and other right-wing activists. Misinformation, unconstrained by any need to be accurate or honest, is psychologically seductive, and countering it by fact-checking is often ineffective. That is why the right wing is in full support of Mr. Musk, cynically claiming that its a free speech issue. Twitter would likely return to broadcasting anti-democratic misinformation about elections, with devastating consequences. In the face of intense voter suppression, gerrymandering and partisan attacks on election boards and secretaries of state, Americas grasp on democracy is already very shaky. The country just barely survived a coup attempt on Jan 6. A return to a complete free-for-all on Twitter is a frightening prospect. Gary M. Stewart Laguna Beach, Calif. To the Editor: In a stunning move, Elon Musk has taken action into his own hands by offering to take over Twitter for more than $40 billion. The worlds richest person, in a letter to Twitters board chairman, stated his primary goal: to transform Twitter, the de facto town square, to be the platform for free speech around the globe. Once again we invite high school students to enter our letter-writing competition. Write a letter to the editor in response to a Times news or opinion article from the past week, and we will choose some of our favorites for publication. Letters should be about 150 to 200 words and include the headline and a link to the article. Include your name, age, high school and grade, city or town and state (for publication), and telephone number (not for publication). Email: letters@nytimes.com Please put Student Competition in the subject line. The deadline is Monday, April 25, at 10 a.m. Eastern time. For examples of what were looking for, look at the letters published here. For more opportunities to publish student work, visit The New York Times Learning Network. As the petition attracted signatures, I spoke at several school board meetings on the issue. I recall one meeting in particular. I had prepared to talk about how these novels helped shape me both as a student and as a human being. I spoke briefly about how reading the story of a Black family in the Deep South in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, under the guidance of a caring teacher, had moved me to tears and to a commitment to learn more about the resilience and resistance of the people upon whose backs this country was built. I explained how these class experiences helped move me and some fellow students from complacent private citizens to people who today are deeply involved in the fight for social justice. There was more I could have said: How Atticus Finchs defense of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird taught me the danger of complacency; how the unlikely friendships of Huckleberry Finn and Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Phillip Enright and Timothy in The Cay taught me that love transcends any and all differences. But standing on the boardroom floor as comments from others in the meeting began, I witnessed the public forum made up mostly of parents, administrators and educators devolve into tribalist dissension. The meeting quickly became a two-sided shouting match pitting supposed freedoms against purported justice. There was plenty of arguing but little or no meaningful discussion on why those novels were in question or what students would lose or gain by a ban against them. At that moment, I had a long-overdue realization: How we as Americans approach restrictions on literature curriculums is not only flawed but also wholly reactionary. My experience at that meeting and others convinced me that the problem is not that we disagree but how. We need to shift focus away from reflexive outrage about restrictions and bans and toward actual discussions of the merits and drawbacks of the individual books. Nearly a year and a half later, the Burbank book restriction is still in place, and more have been approved in schools and school districts across the country. A report from PEN America this month found that 86 school districts in the United States have banned 1,586 books in the past year. From the Tennessee school board that decided Maus, Art Spiegelmans graphic novel about the Holocaust, could no longer be taught, to the Oklahoma State Legislatures proposed law giving a parent of any student the power to enforce bans on books of a sexual nature, to the sweeping removal of 130 books with sexual themes from school shelves at the request of a Texas superintendent, one element unites all the conflicts around these bans a political and ideological partisanship that buys more into contemporary culture wars than into our students education. Technicians also discovered that a valve on the upper stage was malfunctioning, and for the third rehearsal try last Thursday, the test was modified so that only the propellant tanks on the booster stage were to be filled. But then a hydrogen leak was detected in what is called the tail service mast umbilical that attaches to the bottom of the rocket, and the rehearsal was scrubbed. The oxygen tank was not quite half full, and hydrogen fueling had just started. Last week, NASA officials said they hoped to fix the hydrogen leak while the rocket was still at the launchpad. But on Monday, they said they had changed their minds. Next week, the rocket is to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where technicians can more easily get access to parts of the rocket. That will allow replacement of the balky upper-stage valve. At the same time, an off-site vendor that provides nitrogen gas used to purge hazardous gases will upgrade its systems. During two of the rehearsal attempts, disruptions in the nitrogen supply delayed the countdowns. The mega moon rocket is doing very well, Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development at NASA, said during a news conference on Monday. I think were really getting smart with this rocket. But weve got a little bit more work in front of us. The Space Launch System, a key component of NASAs Artemis program to send astronauts back to the moon, is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. With the latest problems, getting the rocket ready in time for a launch during a two-week window in early June would be challenging, Mr. Whitmeyer said. There are additional two-week opportunities beginning in late June and late July. WASHINGTON A federal judge in Florida struck down the mask requirement on airplanes, trains, buses and other public transportation on Monday, less than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had extended it through May 3. The ruling left it up to individual airlines and local transit agencies to decide what to do, and by late Monday, the nations largest airlines had dropped their mask requirements for domestic flights. The Amtrak rail system said passengers and employees would no longer need to wear masks. In a 59-page decision, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was appointed by President Donald J. Trump, voided the mandate which also applies to airports, train stations and other transportation hubs nationwide on several grounds, including that the agency had exceeded its legal authority under the Public Health Services Act of 1944. Because of the ruling, the masking order was not in effect for the time being, and the Transportation Security Administration would not enforce it, a Biden administration official said on Monday evening. The official said that the administration was still reviewing the decision and assessing whether to appeal it, and that the C.D.C. still recommended that people wear masks in enclosed public transportation settings. Sally Poncet first came to South Georgia in 1977. Back then, she said, the sub-Antarctic island was as gorgeous as it is today: A spine of mountains, some 100 miles long, defines the terrain; glaciers drape down from the peaks, with verdant slopes running up to meet them; glistening beaches wrap around the shoreline. But in those days, Ms. Poncet recalled, the island had an empty feel to it. You felt a lack, she explained. It wasnt alive like you knew it could be. Nobody knows South Georgia the way Ms. Poncet does. An independent field ecologist, she has surveyed or counted everything from its grasses and albatrosses to its elephant seals. Her first son was born on a sailboat here in 1979. Now, at the age of 69, she continues to work in the field just as she did 45 years ago. Three companies affiliated with the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, among them the media outlet Infowars, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, according to court documents. Infowars is facing multiple defamation lawsuits from families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which Mr. Jones has claimed was a hoax. Two other companies connected to Mr. Jones, IWHealth and Prison Planet TV, also filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday. Last September, Mr. Jones lost two defamation lawsuits filed in Texas by victims families because he failed to provide requested information to the court. Months later, in a case representing the families of eight others killed in the shooting, a Connecticut judge ruled that Mr. Jones was liable by default because he had refused to turn over documents ordered by the courts, including financial records. The rulings delivered sweeping victories to the families. Mr. Jones for years spread bogus theories that the shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., was part of a government-led plot to confiscate Americans firearms and that the victims families were actors in the scheme. But the crisis is most acute in California, where about one in four of the nations 500,000 homeless people lives. The process of tallying homeless deaths is painstaking, involving the cross-referencing of homeless databases and death reports. But based on data from the handful of Californias 58 counties that report homeless deaths, experts said that 4,800 is a conservative estimate for last year. In Los Angeles County, the homeless population grew by 50 percent from 2015 to 2020. Homeless deaths have grown at a far faster rate, an increase of about 200 percent during the same period to nearly 2,000 deaths in the county last year. These are profoundly lonely deaths, said David Modersbach, who led the first public study of homeless deaths in Alameda County across the Bay from San Francisco. In some cases, bodies are left undiscovered for hours. Others are unclaimed at the morgue despite efforts to reach family members. In San Francisco, where people sleeping in cardboard boxes, tents and other makeshift shelters are a common sight, the body of a homeless man who died on a traffic median last spring lay for more than 12 hours before being retrieved. Guy lay dead here & no one noticed, said a cardboard sign left at the scene. Those who sleep on the streets speak of the wear that it imposes on the body, of several untreated illnesses and the loneliness of being surrounded by pedestrians who ignore you. Billy, a metal worker and carpenter from New Jersey who now sleeps in the narrow alleys behind Venice Beach in Los Angeles, constantly feels the reminders of his previous jobs. At 50 he has chronic pain from an accident while trimming trees, treating it with a jumbo-size bottle of Aleve he keeps in his backpack. Studies have found young people are more likely to vote in local and national elections after they were involved in P.B., more likely to walk into a city-owned building, more likely to consider going into politics, more likely to speak to a public official, more likely to volunteer and more confident in their skills. Any favorite examples of P.B. in action? In New York, it came up that Muslim women in a certain Brooklyn district needed resources to feel safer in their neighborhoods. Using P.B., they got a self-defense class on the ballot. In Arizona, the Phoenix Union High School District decided to get rid of armed officers in schools. Were going to take the $1.2 million from that contract and go through a participatory budgeting process where students, parents, guardians and teachers get to define what safety is and how to invest in those things. The vote will happen this spring, but already the community has built an understanding of what alternatives to policing look like. In Boston, I launched the countrys first youth-focused P.B. effort, with $1 million of city funds. That included money to make parks more accessible. But right before we broke ground on one, I got a call from the citys archaeologist. They said we had to stop because of a site there. I said, Can we engage community members to protect the site? You seem like you dont have a lot of staff! And it worked. We put out a call and soon were enlisting regular people to be archaeologists. Many were criminal-justice-system-impacted young people. Because of P.B., they not only had a chance to find historic artifacts in their own city, but theres now a park in Boston thats far more accessible than it was before. What if the community chooses wrong? Often Im asked, What if people make bad decisions? What if all the kids in this school decide they want a taco truck? First, if that many young people are voting for a taco truck, I might want to look into why. But second, theres an involved process we follow. You build relationships with the community over time, you have conversations, you track ideas, you score them, you vet them. How does defunding Batman fit into this? With Tracey Corder [of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, which focuses on racial justice and Wall Street accountability], Ive been giving these workshops at youth conferences, placing everyone into a world theyre familiar with Gotham in order to envision a new one. We get amazing answers: What if the whole idea of a villain was flipped, and the Joker starts putting on quarterly arts concerts? Suddenly theyre imagining this new world, and no ones talking about police and jails and prisons anymore. Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses that the United States has already purchased and could send abroad could soon expire because of the impasse in Congress over additional pandemic aid, Senator Chris Coons has warned. Senators failed to pass the stalled $10 billion package before leaving for a two-week recess earlier this month, despite increasing pressure from the White House to approve emergency aid for new vaccines, therapeutics and research. Mr. Coons, a Democrat from Delaware who has been one of the negotiators of the package in the Senate, framed global aid as a critical national security matter on CBSs Face the Nation on Sunday, saying that expanding international access to vaccines was the best way to protect the American people from the next variant. Public health experts have repeatedly stressed that vaccine inequity allows new and potentially more dangerous variants to emerge. Only 16 percent of populations in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to data compiled by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, compared to 80 percent in high- and upper-middle-income countries. The White House announced on Monday that it would co-host the second global Covid-19 summit next month, a gathering intended to build momentum for vaccine donations and for ending what the White House called the acute phase of the pandemic. The meeting, which was originally expected to be held in March, is now scheduled to take place virtually on May 12. Efforts to subsidize more global vaccinations stalled in the United States after lawmakers stripped $5 billion from a pandemic relief package that could come up for a Senate vote in the next few weeks. When lawmakers announced an agreement earlier this month on the $10 billion coronavirus aid package, which is centered on domestic coronavirus testing, vaccination and treatment, they turned away a push from the Biden administration and from some members of Congress to reinforce the nations global Covid-19 commitments, which some public health experts said were already lacking. Republicans had demanded that any new aid be financed in part by repurposing previously approved but unspent Covid-19 relief. Mr. Love was convicted of committing a murder for hire. As part of jury selection in his case, prospective jurors filled out a questionnaire that asked, among other things, Do you believe that some races and/or ethnic groups tend to be more violent than others? The prospective juror in question, who is white, said yes. He added an explanation: Statistics show more violent crimes are committed by certain races. I believe in statistics. He elaborated when he was questioned by the lawyers in the case, saying he based his views on news reports and criminology classes rather than his personal feelings toward one race or another. The prospective juror added that he did not think because of somebodys race theyre more likely to commit a crime than somebody of a different race and that he would not feel differently about Mr. Love because hes an African American. Mr. Loves lawyers asked the judge to strike the prospective juror for cause, but the judge declined. Mr. Love had exhausted his peremptory challenges, and the juror was seated. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Mr. Love could not contest the judges decision to seat the juror because the judge had earlier granted Mr. Love two extra peremptory challenges. Mr. Love had used those challenges before the juror at issue was questioned. WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Pentagon may take disciplinary action against a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve who refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus on religious grounds. The courts brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is common when the justices act on emergency applications. The courts three most conservative members Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch noted dissents but did not explain their thinking. The courts order, an interim measure that denied relief while appeals proceed, followed a similar ruling last month that said the Navy could consider the vaccination status of 35 of its service members in decisions about where they should be assigned or deployed. The same three justices dissented. In the new case, Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn, who has been removed from his command after serving for nearly two decades as a pilot, trainer and commander, said he sought only protection against further punishment, including a discharge. But just as Mr. Eastmans original plan to use Congresss final count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the election was seen as far-fetched in the run-up to the deadly Capitol riot, the continued efforts are fueling a false narrative that has resonated with Mr. Trumps supporters and stoked their grievances. They are keeping alive the same combustible stew of conspiracy theory and misinformation that threatens to undermine faith in democracy by nurturing the lie that the election was corrupt. The efforts have fed a cottage industry of podcasts and television appearances centered around not only false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020, but the notion that the results can still be altered after the fact and Mr. Trump returned to power, an idea that he continues to push privately as he looks toward a probable re-election run in 2024. Democrats and some Republicans have raised deep concerns about the impact of the decertification efforts. They warn of unintended consequences, including the potential to incite violence of the sort that erupted on Jan. 6, when a mob of Mr. Trumps supporters convinced that he could still be declared the winner of the 2020 election stormed the Capitol. Legal experts worry that the focus on decertifying the last election could pave the way for more aggressive and earlier legislative intervention the next time around. At the moment, there is no other way to say it: This is the clearest and most present danger to our democracy, said J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative lawyer and former appeals court judge, for whom Mr. Eastman clerked and whom President George W. Bush considered as a nominee to be the chief justice of the United States. Trump and his supporters in Congress and in the states are preparing now to lay the groundwork to overturn the election in 2024 were Trump, or his designee, to lose the vote for the presidency. Most of Mr. Trumps aides would like him to stop talking about 2020 or, if he must, to focus on changes to voting laws across the country rather than his own fate. But like he did in 2020, when many officials declined to help him upend the election results, Mr. Trump has found a group of outside allies willing to take up an outlandish argument they know he wants to see made. A 52-year-old man was charged with murder after a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death outside her high school in central California on Monday morning, the authorities said. The stabbing occurred outside Stagg High School in Stockton, Calif., the authorities said. On Monday night, the Stockton Police Department said in a Facebook post that a suspect, later identified as Anthony Gray, had been arrested, charged and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail. The police said the stabbing appeared to have been a random act. The student was identified on Tuesday as Alycia Reynaga by the San Joaquin County Medical Examiners Office. Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department, said by phone on Monday that the authorities were trying to determine why Ms. Reynaga student had been targeted. Officer Silva said on Tuesday that it did not appear they knew each other. The new case concerns Barry D. Romeril, a former Xerox executive whom the S.E.C. accused of participating in a scheme to mislead investors. He settled the case in 2003 without admitting or denying the accusations; paid more than $5 million, much of it reimbursed by Xerox; and agreed to the agencys take-it-or-leave-it condition that he stay forever silent about any shortcomings in the governments case. In 2019, he sued the agency, seeking to be released from his promise. The S.E.C. responded that Mr. Romeril, represented by sophisticated lawyers, had intentionally given up his right to speak in a negotiated settlement. He had been free to go to trial, the agency said, and then to say whatever he liked whether he won or lost. Instead, he made a deal, the agency said, waiving any First Amendment rights. He accepted silence as a condition of settlement rather than being forced into silence against his will, the agencys lawyers told the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York. A unanimous three-judge panel of the court ruled for the agency. A defendant who is insistent on retaining the right to publicly deny the allegations against him has the right to litigate and defend against the charges, Judge Denny Chin wrote for the panel. Romeril elected not to litigate. Floyd Abrams, a noted First Amendment lawyer who represents Mr. Romeril in the Supreme Court, says there are some rights that cannot be bargained away. To impose a speech ban as an element of a settlement is, in my view, unconstitutional, he said. The idea that the government is demanding an enforceable promise not to speak ill of it is really troubling. The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case, Romeril v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 21-1284, in the coming months. The justices grant review in very few cases, but the question this one presents may intrigue them, as lower courts have adopted differing approaches to so-called gag orders in settlement agreements with the government. TORONTO If you are hankering for a government-sanctioned joint, then you have come to the right city. The options along Queen Street West are bountiful. You could start at Toronto Cannabis Authority, with a sign outside suggesting customers warm up with hot cannabis infused beverages. You could take a few steps down the sidewalk and enter Friendly Stranger, which trades on nostalgia for tokers who picked up their first bong here, long before cannabis was legalized three and a half years ago. Or you could dash across the street to the Hunny Pot, which made headlines in 2019, when it became the citys first legal cannabis store and saw an overnight line of customers. And thats just in 1,000 square feet. Walk two minutes and three more options appear. Theres a standing joke in Toronto that dispensaries are sprinkled around like parsley. They are everywhere, said Dalandrea Adams, a budtender standing behind the long glass display counter revealing pipes, grinders and rollers inside Friendly Stranger. Which is convenient, if you are a pothead. As Toronto slowly comes back to life after two years of repeated lockdowns and closures, the wreckage of the pandemic is surfacing like cigarette butts in melted snow drifts. Along the citys many neighborhood main streets, For lease signs hang in dusty windows. Office towers in the citys dense core remain mostly empty. High-profile prisoners held by both Russia and Ukraine, including two British fighters believed captured in Mariupol, appealed on Monday to be exchanged. Viktor Medvedchuk, one of the richest tycoons in Ukraine and a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, appeared in a 34-second video posted on Twitter by the Security Service of Ukraine. Mr. Medvedchuk, 67, the leader of a Ukrainian political party, asked both Mr. Putin and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to exchange him for the people defending Mariupol as well as any civilians trapped in the besieged, shattered southern port city. Mr. Medvedchuk, who had been under house arrest on treason charges when the war started but escaped, had been shown after he was captured on April 12, handcuffed, in military fatigues and looking disheveled and dazed. In his appeal on Monday, his hair was combed and he was wearing a zippered sweater. Mr. Medvedchuk was considered particularly close to Mr. Putin, who was godfather to his youngest daughter. Many in Lviv, like Ms. Belau, have learned to acclimate to the sounds of air raid alarms and even occasional strikes on military facilities. But the scenes of billowing smoke from the center of the city were a stark reminder that the violence now razing cities and villages to the east could be at their doorstep, too, at any moment. The city, no more than 50 miles from the western border with Poland, has been largely spared direct attacks as Russia has focused its attention on larger and more strategic areas to the east. It has turned into a critical gateway to safety for the millions of Ukrainians who have fled westward to escape the worst of the fighting, which is concentrated in the east. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have passed through the citys train and bus stations as they look to cross the border and reach foreign lands. For others, it is a new home, if fleeting. The city, which had about 720,000 residents before the war began, has since welcomed at least 350,000 more people who were displaced from other parts of the country. Until Monday, the only direct targets that had been hit in Lviv were a fuel storage site and tank facility in the citys northeast, struck by several missile strikes about three weeks ago. Before that, a pair of attacks targeted an airport facility and a military base just outside the city, killing at least 35 people. The war, nonetheless, has transformed the city. Known for its quaint cobbled streets flanked by historic architecture and statues a UNESCO world heritage site Lviv was quickly repurposed from a tourist hub to a vital base of operations. Since the war began in late February, it has served as a channel for humanitarian supplies, aid workers and foreign fighters to front line cities. In a small parish in northern Italy affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, the mostly Ukrainian worshipers IT specialists, migrant factory laborers, nurses and cleaners decided to repudiate the full-throated support for the war in Ukraine from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The Moscow Patriarch had repeatedly bestowed blessings on the Russian military, giving a historical golden icon of the Virgin Mary to a senior commander, for example, and casting the war as a holy struggle to protect Russia from what he called Western scourges like gay pride parades. He has been a vocal supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin, with the church receiving vast financial resources in return. We saw that the Moscow Patriarchate was not engaged in theology, it was simply interested in supporting the ideology of the state, said Archpriest Volodymyr Melnichuk of the Church of the Elevation of the Cross in Udine, Italy, In essence the patriarch betrayed his Ukrainian flock. So on March 31, the Ukrainian cleric wrote a letter severing all ties to the Moscow Patriarchate. With the Eastern Orthodox Easter approaching this Sunday, similar tensions are rippling through the churchs more than 200 million faithful, concentrated in eastern and southern Europe. Around the world, the war is dividing national churches, parishes and even families as they reassess relations with Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church. People were getting information from their relatives in Lviv about the attacks, said the conductor, Fedir, leaning out of the railway car to talk before it pulled away. They werent panicked, but they were worried. I told them to stay calm, he added, asking that he be identified by his first name only. Inside the train station, Anna Khrystiuk, a volunteer staffing an information desk for displaced people flooding into the train station, said most people had ignored the air raid siren until the first explosion. We told people to go to the shelter but they didnt listen to us, said Ms. Khrystiuk, 23. But with the sound of the explosion, she said, passengers ran to the underground level of the station that serves as a shelter. It was panic, she said. Many people came from Kharkiv and other places and they were so afraid of rockets already. They thought that it was safe to stay here.. While they were underground, they heard three more explosions. Russia-Ukraine War: Key Developments Card 1 of 3 Victory Day. President Vladimir V. Putin used his May 9 holiday speech to falsely depict his invasion of Ukraine as an extension of the struggle against Nazism in Europe. But contrary to some expectations, he did not make any new announcements signaling an escalation of the war. A show of support. Jill Biden, the first lady, traveled to western Ukraine in an unannounced trip, the latest show of support from the United States, which in recent weeks has significantly increased military aid for Ukraine. Canadas leader, Justin Trudeau, also made an unannounced visit. Russian oil ban. Leaders of the Group of 7 nations pledged during a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky to ban or phase out Russian oil, aiming to further erode Russias economic standing. The group did not provide details but said the plan would take effect in a timely and orderly fashion. Many people cried, she said. We told them to keep calm and everything would be OK. Orest Maznin, a police officer, said he had been driving to work past the garage when the missile struck and he narrowly escaped being hit by shrapnel. His car windshield had a large hole from the impact of a piece of metal. He said he and other drivers slammed on the brakes and took cover near their cars when the missiles struck. It happened too quickly for me to be afraid, said Mr. Maznin, who joined the police force just six months ago. JERUSALEM Militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israeli airspace on Monday night that was intercepted by an Israeli air defense system, as tensions continued to rise after recent clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli police at a holy site in Jerusalem. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but it followed several recent hints by Islamic Jihad, a militant group in Gaza, that it may respond to the clashes at the Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount. It was believed to be the first rocket strike since January from Gaza, where tensions have been comparatively low since the end of an 11-day war between Gaza militants and Israel last May. Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, has condemned Israeli interventions at the mosque, but also indicated it is wary of escalating tensions so soon after last years war. Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official, said Saturday that both Hamas and Israel had told Qatari mediators that they did not seek a new round of fighting. Gazan authorities are still rebuilding infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed in last Mays fighting; militants are still rebuilding their arsenal; and Hamas is considered leery of losing several economic concessions Israel recently made to Gaza, including a rise in the number of Israeli work permits assigned to Gazan residents. Intense fighting continued around a large steel factory in the southern city of Mariupol, in what appeared to be one of the last redoubts of Ukrainian forces in the besieged city, an adviser to the mayor said on Monday. Pyotr Andryushchenko, an aide to Mayor Vadym Boychenko, said that some 2,000 civilians were trapped along with the soldiers inside the Azovstal steel plant, one of Europes largest metal factories. Mr. Andryshchenko insisted that street fighting was continuing throughout Levoberezhny, the district that includes the factory. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had completely surrounded the steel plant, and that the Ukrainian forces holding out forbade negotiations about surrendering, citing an intercepted radio transmission. The Ministry repeated a demand that the Ukrainians put down their weapons. In case of further resistance, the ministry said, all of them will be eliminated. Photo illustration by Braulio Amado Talk Julia Roberts Hasnt Changed. But Hollywood Has. Julia Roberts is one of those few actors who have achieved a stardom that never really fades: Shes always up there in the pop-culture firmament, flashing that famous smile. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that her role as the Watergate whistleblower Martha Mitchell in the new Starz mini-series Gaslit, which premieres April 24, is her first acting work in four long years. As if making up for lost time, Roberts has found in the part of Mitchell wife of the former attorney general and Nixon confidante John N. Mitchell, played in the series by Sean Penn a character that affords her the opportunity to deliver the full Julia experience. Marthas brighter moments give Roberts the chance to exude the charisma and sass that lit up her earlier, lighter movies. Then as the story slides into grimmer territory, she draws on the darker, more fine-grained character work that has defined the later years of her career. Its a welcome return. It wasnt by design, Roberts, who is 54, says about her recent low profile, so much as not finding something that I was interested in. I was surprised how quickly the years seemed to go by. The story of Martha Mitchell is largely about power and influence and how men react to a woman trying to exert it. Youre someone who has experienced having power in your world. Did you bring any of that to Martha? I guess I could find commonality with Martha in that on the surface shes a woman whos sure of herself and comfortable around all the gents and cigars and knows how to work a room. Whats interesting is that her undoing, in my thought process in portraying her, was that she didnt want to go out and beat the drum for Nixon, but people responded to her. So she was pushed to go out and represent Nixon, and I think she started to dig it. But it wasnt without an enormous amount of cajoling. She had problems with her nerves and anxiety and being in front of people, which I can completely appreciate you have to conceal all that. I dont know if that answers your question. I feel like ultimately I could appreciate her more than lend myself to her. The thing about your answer My rambling? [Laughs.] You can ramble. Its fine. But you skipped the part of the question that alluded to your experience of power. OK, what is my experience of power? Well, its always going to be the person, man or woman, who doesnt know what theyre doing or doesnt have confidence in what theyre doing thats going to be the pain in the ass. Even when I am for sure not the smartest or most powerful person in the room, if I feel confident being in that room then I feel good saying, Im sorry, what are we doing? That becomes collaboration, which is my favorite thing. Sam Esmail, hes a great collaborator because he brings in such a strong team, and goodness knows I have waited my adult life to work with my friend Sean Penn. The John and Martha scenes, when we first read them, Sean and Matt Ross came over to my house, and I made lunch, and I said to Sean, I dont know the kind of actor I am that I could perform these scenes with someone that I didnt know very well. Because its tricky stuff. Especially when you start hitting each other. Im not a method actor, but someone hitting you is someone hitting you. Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in the new mini-series Gaslit. Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Starz What kind of actor are you? If I had just met someone and wed had a week of rehearsal and then started these scenes Id be curious to see how that performance would have ended up. The first day that Sean filmed, our characters are coming into a hotel from an event. Were all dressed up and we walk into this room and we realize that the Secret Service guy is there. He says, Mr. Mitchell, I need to speak with you or something. Its pretty straightforward. But Sean goes, I have an idea. Trust me on this. So we go outside the door, Matt says action and Sean gets on his knees behind me. Hes got his hands on my hips, and hes going Rawr rawr rawr rawr into the back of my dress as we come into the room. Only a pal could be that crazy off the bat. It cant be, Nice to meet you; I have an idea! When I asked you about parallels between yourself and Martha Mitchell, you said you could appreciate her more than lend yourself to her. It occurs to me that when I went back to old interviews you have done, you often seemed resistant to making links between yourself and your characters. Is that because you dont think of acting as many people do as this process of pulling from ones innermost experiences and emotions? Or maybe is it because you have an aversion to talking about your internal self with journalists? If it comes off as resistance, I think its because youve been doing a deep dive on me. So hearing me say whatever it is Ive said before might feel like Im making a big point when they were just a smattering of small points. But if I were to examine this as youre asking me to, to say that too much comes from inside me is to negate all the hunting and gathering Im doing to create something. I want to find things and examine outside myself and make things up. Because once you start the performance, that stuff thats inside us, that alchemy that makes us individuals, thats always going to bubble up to the surface in whatever way it needs to. Gaslit is another of these emotionally heavy ensemble pieces that youve done over the last 20 or so years. But before that you were doing more persona-driven, romantic-comedy star vehicles movies that called for a different kind of acting than Gaslit or Ben is Back or August: Osage County. Did the move toward heavier material make you think differently about the kind of actor you are or can be? What Ive learned is that you always want to do what youre not doing. Whenever Im in a comedy, I think I just want to be at a table with a cup of tea sobbing over something. Then youre doing that, and you think, Oh to be wearing a pretty dress and laughing. People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time thats gone by that I havent done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one. If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friends Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it. They didnt exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed. But even with that, I thought, Well, disaster, because this only works if its George Clooney. Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went. To go from John and Martha Mitchell, to play these scenes with the greatest dramatic actor, I think, of my generation in Sean Penn, and then run around Australia with George playing these very funny scenes Im living my acting dreams. Roberts with Lucas Hedges in Ben Is Back (2018). Mark Schafer/Roadside Attractions, via Everett Collection Youre telling me you didnt do a romantic comedy for 20 years because there wasnt a single good script? Not one? Yeah. It cant be 20 years, can it? It is. What was 20 years ago? That was around the time of Americas Sweethearts. You also did those Garry Marshall movies but your parts were small. Heres the thing: If Id thought something was good enough, I would have done it. But I also had three kids in the last 18 years. That raises the bar even more because then its not only Is this material good? Its also the math equation of my husbands work schedule and the kids school schedule and summer vacation. Its not just, Oh, I think I want to do this. I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker. For so much of my childrens younger life they would see their dad go off and I would work a little, but they almost didnt notice. It was like I was only gone when they were napping or something. But as they get older, and particularly with my daughter, I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that its meaningful to me so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with. I almost didnt do August: Osage County because they were going to start filming right as our youngest son was starting kindergarten, and I was like, How could I miss this? I remember talking to Danny about it, and he said: At some point you were going to have to leave us to work. Wouldnt you rather roll those dice in a situation like this, where you have a good understanding of what youre going to be doing and the people youre going to be working with? He was right to push me, because if he said, I dont know, I would have been like: I dont either! Im not going! Thats the female plight. That feeling of leaving is hard. Roberts with Meryl Streep and Julianne Nicholson in August: Osage County (2013). Claire Folger/Weinstein Company, via Everett Collection What about from a business perspective rather than a family perspective? How do you decide whether the moves youre making are the right ones? Ive never put the work in a place of, Doing this part, what will people think? I read it. I want it or I dont want it. Thats how Ive made my decisions for 50 or whatever movies. But was that the case with movies like, for example, Mary Reilly and Michael Collins, both of which were seen as an effort on your part to break out of some typecasting and both of which didnt do well? Youre saying they had no bearing on the choices you made after? You werent then gun-shy or looking for roles in which you would be more secure? No. Your performance, obviously there are people helping you accomplish this goal. But the further away you get from it, the more you look alone. When youre alone out there in the world the Mary Reilly, 100-years-ago world you look at that performance, and you think, I am fully responsible for it. I have to be fully responsible for my decision. You say Mary Reilly to me today, and I mean, Im not half bad in that movie! I think I got short shrift. I can stand next to it happily because it was my decision. I feel that way about everything: Do I want to be that person who can stand next to this forever? Because the sum of my joy is finished the day that we wrap. Thats all the fun I will have on a movie. Youre basically saying you dont want to make a turkey. Yeah, I dont want to make a turkey. But if I do, I want to be able to go, Thats my turkey. If a young actor or actress were to ask for advice about how to build a career or navigate Hollywood now, what would you tell them? My first response is dont take advice from actors. Because everybodys experience is unique should be unique. Also, I am less qualified to give advice now because the business has changed entirely. Its a little sad, because when I started, I felt like you did a movie and if it did well then you might get offered a couple of other movies and might have more choice and youd get paid a little bit more on the next one. There were incremental shifts in opportunity, and it made more sense. Now its made more of air; maybe it doesnt feel as sturdy when youre going along. I felt pretty sure-footed about the choices I was making. You dont have those incremental markers anymore, it doesnt seem like. So this new movie youve made with George Clooney: Was it easy to stretch the rom-com muscles again? The good news is yes. I love to laugh and be funny. You get into that mode of those endorphins going off when youre clever and people going, Oh! Then that becomes this automatic thing where youre always thinking in terms of creating fun. Its a joy to play in that sandbox. It has been a long time. Is it still possible for you to do the trademark Julia Roberts moves the big smile and the big laugh without any self-consciousness? If somethings funny, Im going to laugh. If somethings not funny, nothings going to make me laugh. I would probably get a lot further in my career if I had more control over those things. Roberts with Dermot Mulroney in My Best Friends Wedding (1997). Everett Collection Its true, you havent gotten very far. [Laughs.] Still! Is it right that your smile is insured? No. What am I insuring it against? How would you do that? I dont know. I thought it was like how you hear that Tina Turners legs were insured. Oh, I have heard that. I mean, if my smile was insured, there would be someone at my house on a nightly basis saying, You need to floss longer. Its interesting for me to hear you talk about your smile because when I give my big smile, people say things like Are you OK? and Have you seen a doctor? [Laughs.] Oh, stop. Im told I mostly make up for it with my winning personality. Anyway, I asked earlier about the roles youve taken during the later part of your career. Are there personal reasons for why youve gravitated toward heavier stuff? Im 54 years old. The truth of what you see and how you understand it and the weight of things becomes clear. You want to be able to unpack that. Also, it might be a response to having a happy life. You think, Why would I leave a happy life to go pretend to be in a happy life? You were also talking about me being more in ensembles: I havent put a geography map over the workload and seen where the borders are of what Ive done. I bet in the analysis of it theres probably equal amounts of two-handers, four-handers, six-handers, eight-handers. Sorry, if we overlaid eight-handers on the geography map? Im throwing out a lot of nomenclature here, David. Keep up if you can. [Laughs.] But what does it all mean? You tell me. Roberts and Albert Finney in Erin Brockovich (2000). Everett Collection Well if you look at that map, you pretty much stopped doing big Hollywood star-driven lead roles after around 2001, 2002, and Im curious about what drove that aside from family dynamics. Or let me put it to you this way: I interviewed Brad Pitt once. He, like you, had a similar demarcation line in his career, after which the roles changed. When I asked him about it, he said he had an epiphany on the movie Troy, when he realized that he couldnt get out of the center of the frame and didnt want to play the hero anymore. Im wondering if you had any similar turning point? Um, no. But I do remember watching Troy and thinking Brad should not be the center anymore. I had that moment of clarity for Brad. For me, there might have been something subconscious. But I cant say that I made a decision to do something different. Going back to Gaslit: There has been this trend of retelling the stories of women who were harshly and quickly judged by the public in their time people like Monica Lewinsky or Tonya Harding. Martha Mitchells treatment in Gaslit fits in with that redemption-narrative cultural theme. Were you thinking of her in those terms? And are there risks to interpreting a historical figure through a contemporary perspective? Martha could very much find herself in the same situation today as 50 years ago, left holding the bag and to have the whisper campaign against her: Shes crazy. Shes an alcoholic. Theres nothing that makes you look crazier than running around screaming, Im not crazy. You say culture is quick to judge. Is anyone slow to judge? It doesnt exist. So of course when given time to consider someone or a situation, nine times out of 10 you are going to reveal a gentler interpretation. Theres also the issue of the gap between an individuals self-perception and how theyre perceived by the public. What do you know about that gap? I decided a while ago that Ill never really understand what people think about me and I dont need to. I also feel like Im a neutral person. Im not one of those polarizing personalities I dont think. I dont know. Because my job is so perfectly positioned in the priorities of my life, Im not investing time in understanding the relationship between who I am and who people might perceive me to be. Did you ever spend time thinking about it? Maybe when I was spending more time thinking about, Who am I? When I was 22 or whatever. Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990). Everett Collection What were you thinking about who you were back then? In that period of time, particularly when I wasnt working, I was not sure what I was looking for, but I was sure what I wasnt looking for. At least I had that going for me. I could read a script and say, I am not looking for that. People often ask actors, Whats your dream part? I have no idea. I cant conjure it. That period of searching was that connected to suddenly becoming so famous at such a young age? There was that too. But what that meant in 1990 is different than now. I mean, Im not Grandma Moses, but theres been so much innovation in these last few decades that put such a different shift on society and the way people communicate. Its just different. Let me ask: During one of these periods when youre not working, when youve got downtime, whats an ideal day? Oh, I dont want to sound like a turkey. I could say it, and then people will either be like, Thats sweet or Oh, [expletive] off. I thought you didnt care what people think. I still have a beating heart! When people say shes this or shes that that I cant do anything about. But I dont want people reading your nice piece thats going to be so interesting and people are going to be like, Wow, shes interesting in a way I never realized its all on you, David I guess its like when actors talk about their eating and exercise habits. Theres two people inside me: one that goes, OK, they look great. They eat these things; they dont eat those things. Then the other part of me goes, Oh, [expletive] off. This is a convoluted answer to What do you do for fun? [Laughs.] Well, Ill tell ya. They say youre only as happy as your least happy child. So when theres harmony in the house and you get up and make breakfast and see everybody off to school. Then do some adventuring with my husband. Well take a bike ride or have a coffee or a meal somewhere, and then Ill have time to myself and now its almost 3 oclock. Ill go get the kids from school. Lacrosse practice. Start making dinner. Its boring! Thats why you want to go, Oh, [expletive] off. But its the joy of the details of life that I get to lean into because I have this cool job. If I was here for the last 18 years doing that all day, every day, it probably wouldnt still have pixie dust on it. But I go away, and I miss it so much. Then I come back, and it kind of resparkles. I dont know. I cant be the kookiest person youve ever talked to, David. God knows, I cannot be! This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations. Opening illustration: Source photograph by Shayan Asgharnia/AUGUST David Marchese is a staff writer for the magazine and the columnist for Talk. Recently he interviewed Neal Stephenson about portraying a utopian future, Laurie Santos about happiness and Christopher Walken about acting. If you enjoy staring at womens thighs while you eat, theres now a place that allows you to do just that, without looking like a pervert. Welcome to Japans new World of Thighs Photography Cafe! Its no secret that Japan loves themed restaurants and cafes, but if you thought airsoft restaurants and reptile cafes were a bit too much, youre going to love this new joint that is colored by the world of thighs. Young girls thighs, that it. Designed as an extension of Japanese photographer Yurias artistic exhibitions, the newly opened cafe in Tokyos Ebisu district is decorated with photos of womens thighs from Yurias existing portfolio, as well as some never-before-seen pics from a recent photo shoot in Guam. If youre unfamiliar with Yurias body of work, its pretty much centered around female thighs. Photo: Yuria Called World of Thighs Photography Cafe, Tokyos newest themed cafe was inaugurated on October 6 and will stay open until December 6, allowing patrons to feast on various popular dishes while surrounded by dozens of photos of young womens thighs. Judging by some photos released by the organizers, the food will also feature thigh-shaped decorations, although its not yet clear if those are edible. For die-hard female thigh fans, World of Thighs Photography Cafe also features a thigh-themed gift shop where you can buy pins and other thigh-related merchandise. Photo: Yuria via SoraNews24 A 28-year-old man from Pakistan has become known as the Tarzan of Karachi after spending the last eight years of his life living in a makeshift treehouse in the city. Farman Ali became somewhat of an overnight social media sensation after footage of his unusual home went viral on social media a few weeks ago. People were fascinated by the young man who managed to live in a modest treehouse for over eight years, but as he keeps telling everyone who asks, he didnt do it by choice. After losing both his parents, Ali was simply too poor to afford any kind of conventional housing, and after living on the streets for a while, he decided to build his own home in the only place where no one would bother him or drive him away in a tree on public property. Photo: Ruptly The Tree Man of Karachi, as Farman Ali is known by some in Pakistans largest city, makes a living by washing cars, sweeping and cleaning outside peoples houses and making groceries for others. Most of his clients pay him in cold water and food, and the little money is barely enough for his daily necessities, so he cant even think about getting a proper home. The 28-year-olds story went viral in Pakistan, with many praising him for his grit and outside-the-box thinking. He was recently interviewed by international video news agency, Ruptly, and said that he only started living in a Karachi tree as a last resort. He knocked on every door he could, asking relatives and acquaintances for help, but no one wanted to deal with a poor man who had nothing to offer. Ali said that he built his treehouse out of bamboo, wood and old doors, with cloth to protect himself from the wind and rain. Apart from a makeshift bed, he also managed to set up a sink to wash his face every morning, a small oven for cooking and heating water, and even a small, battery-powered light and a charger for his phone. The young treehouse dweller told Pakistani interviewers that he was married at one point, but since he couldnt earn the 30,000 rupees ($165) that his partner was asking for per month, she eventually left him. After appealing to authorities for help numerous times only to be ignored, Tarzan of Karachi said that at this point his hope lies only with the Almighty Allah. Eight days after communal clashes broke out in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone, the first death was reported on Monday. The body of a person identified as Ibarish Khan, who was reported missing since April 10, was found in Indore's MY hospital morgue. The family of the deceased identified the body at the morgue, which is around 120 km from Khargone. The family alleged that the police tried to hide the death. The family claimed that the deceased had been missing since the day violence erupted in Khargone. A missing complaint was also lodged at the police station, family claimed. According to the local police, Ibarish Khan was murdered by seven-eight men on the night of the clashes. "An unidentified body was found a day after communal violence in the Anand Nagar area of Khargone had occurred," senior Khargone police officer Rohit Kashwani told reporters on Monday. He added that Khan died of a head injury and his body was identified by his family on Sunday night. Khan's body was kept in a freezer at Indore's MY Hospital. His family was taken to the hospital on Sunday night and that was when the body was identified as that of the missing man. The body was handed over to the family and brought to Khargone early Monday, police said. Ibarish Khan was a local municipality employee in Khargone and leaves behind a wife and a young son. Deceased's family alleged that he was killed by the police and local residents when he had gone to a mosque to arrange food for iftar. The family also claimed that Ibarish Khan was last seen in police custody at Khargone police station on April 10 evening. "The people in Anand Nagar attacked my brother with weapons and crushed his head with a stone," said the deceased's brother Iqhlak Khan. According to him, the police finally told him about Ibarish Khan's death only after he threatened to go to the media. "A policeman came to me on Sunday night and told me that Ibarish's body is kept in Indore," he said. The condition of the body indicated a brutal attack, Iqhlak said. "His one eye was damaged, there were cuts on his face and legs," he added. On April 10, communal violence erupted in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone during the Ram Navami celebrations. Stones were hurled at the procession, triggering incidents of arson wherein some vehicles were set on fire, prompting authorities to clamp curfew in three areas and section 144 of CrPC in the entire city. Police fired tear gas shells to control the situation. The Manuscript Writing Cafe in Tokyo, Japan only caters to writers working on tight deadlines, providing the motivation and assistance required to make sure they meet those deadlines. Japan is no stranger to offbeat cafes that sometimes inspire worldwide trends. Remember cat cafes? That popular trend originated in the Asian country, as did, maid cafes, owl cafes, reptile cafes, and even a cafe dedicated to female thighs. And those are just a handful of examples; in reality, Japan has come up with a plethora of intriguing cafe concepts, and somehow keeps coming up with new ones. The latest example is the Manuscript Writing Cafe in Tokyos Koenji neighborhood, a venue that only welcomes writers struggling to meet their deadlines. Photo: Takuya Kawai/Twitter The Manuscript Writing Cafe only allows in people who have a writing deadline to face! owner Takuya Kawai tweeted. Its in order to maintain a level of focus and tense atmosphere at the cafe! Thank you for your understanding. The cafe, which only opened a few days ago, charges patrons by time used (it operates at a rate of 150 yen or $1.32 per 30 minutes), and is equipped with USB ports, computer stands, and free Wi-Fi. Struggling writers can also bring their own food and drinks, or have it delivered there since coffee and water are the only things available, but its pretty strict when it comes to the actual writing. Although the Manuscript Writing Cafe actually accepts a wide range of writers, from translators and copywriters to novelists and proofreaders, the rules are the same for everyone. When entering the cafe, patrons must write down at the reception desk how many words they plan to write and by what time they plan to finish. Every hour, a member of the staff will come by to check on their progress and apply a predetermined pressure level to help move things along. For example, opting for the S course will have the cafe staff more aggressively pushing you to get the work done, while the M course involves a more mild approach. Its all based on what kind of person you are, and what works better for you, I guess. However, the craziest rule of the Manuscript Writing Cafe is that writers are not allowed to end their session until reaching their declared goal or until the place closes down for the day, whichever comes first. Its not clear how the cafe enforces this rule, but it is meant to keep patrons from declaring ambitious targets that they wont be able to meet. The space in which the Manuscript Writing Cafe operates is actually a recording and broadcasting studio called Koenji Sankakuchitai. The cafe itself is only open when the studio isnt, so you wont be able to go every day. However, Takuya Kawai makes sure to always announce the next date that the cafe will be open. For example, this month, the Manuscript Writing Cafe will be open on the 20th next. The guys at SoraNews24 recently featured the Manuscript Writing Cafe and the wacky concept went viral on social media. While some found it intriguing, others said that it was too much pressure. If it were me, I would no longer be able to leave the store and would end up having to live there, one person commented. SHINRONE Sensory Walkway Group was established in 2021 with the support and facilitation of Offaly Local Development Company. Group members include Amy McLoughlin, Lesley Davies, Declan and Karina Mullally, Sandra Mullally, Ciara Carey, Peter Ormond and Rachel Moloney (OLDC). The group aims to develop a multifunctional sensory walkway through the village for the benefit of all the community. There will be a particular emphasis on children and families with autism and the walk will provide space for self-regulation as well as exploration, creativity and development. The proposed walk will start at the Birr Road, continue through the village and connect with Cangort Wood. The group and Offaly Local Development Company staff are working closely with Shinrone Tidy Towns, The Heritage Group, Offaly County Council and the local CE scheme to ensure the sustainability and success of the project. Youth initiatives are ongoing through planting/horticulture projects with young people and their families, Sunflowers preschool Shinrone, mosaic workshops, DIY Frog Tyre planter workshops, Motto/Caption Competitions, and The Dog Fouling awareness campaign with Shinrone National School and ODEN (Offaly Disability and Equality Network). They even had a mini Womens Shed going for a while with volunteers painting the activity boards as seen in the Sensory space at St Marys Terrace/Church View. In July 2021, the group supported by Shinrone Tidy Towns, were successful in procurement of funds of 1,000 from the Community Enhancement Programme 2021 to develop the Sensory Touch area at St Marys/Church View. The remainder of the project was funded by Healthy Ireland and SICAP (Social Inclusion and Community Activation) within Offaly Local Development Company and manual labour was provided by OLDCS Rural Social Scheme (RSS) and TUS participants. This project would not have been feasible without their labour, hard work, and commitment. They appreciate all their work and taking time away from regular responsibilities in order to be a part of this project. Thank you to RSS Supervisor Tracy Pigott, RSS participants Pat Dolan, Sean Brown, Malachy Bradley and TUS Supervisor John Kelly for their work making the activity boards and to RSS supervisor George Digan, RSS participants Brian Beavans, Richie Greene, Thomas Fahy, Enda Molloy, Paddy Kennedy and Cathal Fleury for their manual labour on and off site with sensory footpath, seating area, placement of boards and more. Thanks also to P.J. Cleary for voluntary manual labour and Cuimin Maher for donations of paint. A massive thank you to Martin King, David Moloney, Jerome King and the family at Shinrone Tyre Centre for all their support, patience and kindness and help throughout. They would also like to thank Birr Community Policing Unit, Garda Grace Heffernan and Garda Lisa Touhy for helping with youth activities Thank you to OLDC staff members Roisin Lennon, Rural Development Team Leader, Louise Larkin, SICAP Support Worker, Peter Maher, Recreational Development Officer. This project was also massively dependant on volunteers and The Sensory Walkway group would also like to thank everyone who volunteered their time, materials/resources and most of all support and encouragement throughout: Shinrone Tidy Towns, Shinrone Heritage Group, Offaly County Council and the many volunteers within the community, who gave of their times and skills so generously in order to complete the many aspects of this project. The Sensory Space was officially opened on Saturday last April 9th and there was great attendance and support for the initiative. Martin King at Shinrone Tyre Centre kindly allowed use of his premises for the event, where they had art and craft, games, sensory spaces, ice-cream and refreshments kindly provided by Karina Cummins, Eileen Brereton, Centra Shinrone and SICAP. There is loads more to look forward to as they plan to develop more spaces similar to this, revisit projects from last year, engage in litter picks/clean ups and continue Planting the Seed project as a tradition for those transitioning from preschool to primary school. If you are interested in getting involved or finding out more then contact Rachel Moloney at Offaly Local Development Company on (086) 8336873, or rmoloney@offalyldc.ie . A Ferbane man has just returned from Ukraine where he helped to rescue 53 dogs, bringing them across the border to safety in Poland. Darren Bracken, who volunteers with the Laois based Husky Rescue Ireland regularly transports rescued dogs from Ireland to good homes in Sweden. He had been watching what was happening in Ukraine and thought Husky Rescue should travel there to take care of the pets who had been abandoned in the war through no fault of their owners. ''I have 4 dogs of my own and I would feed them before I would feed myself,'' said Darren. ''Myself and Andy Cullen, the founder of Husky Rescue Ireland were talking about it and we agreed to go. We put up the appeal online and we were overwhelmed. We got 10 to 15 tons of supplies. We got food for dogs, cats, hamsters and rabbits plus people donated food for the people of Ukraine as well, along with toiletries and other things, added Darren. We were overloaded with stuff and a little bit overweight, but we got through customs and we drove from Dublin to France. to Germany and Poland. We crossed the border three times to rescue the dogs. Darren and Andy were only allowed to bring 10 dogs at a time which they found frustrating as the van can hold a number of large dogs, but they were the rules so it required them to make the hazardous journey three times. We passed through an army barracks the same night as it was blown up. We didn't know until we came out, said Darren. The dogs were being cared for in a small family run rescue centre in Ukraine. Many of the buses crossing the border with refugees dont allow dogs on board so people left their dogs with the rescue centre. Darren and Andy off loaded their supplies at this particular centre which meant that people who were dropping off their pets were able to pick up vital supplies. ''We know the stuff got to the people and to some of the soldiers as well. The people who were picking it up knew the area. They knew which roads to travel to avoid being bombed.'' Darren and Andy were able to reunite three of the dogs with their owners. The owners of the other dogs will know their pets are in a safe place and being well looked after, until the day they can be reunited. ''One dog gave birth to 7 pups just days after she was brought across the border. She waited until she was in a warm and safe place.'' said Darren. Darren said he and Andy couldnt have made the journey without the support of the team at Husky Rescue Ireland. They looked after the centre while they were abroad, feeding and walking the dogs in their care. He also gave a big thanks to Star Rescue for all their help. To make a donation to Husky Rescue Ireland log onto https://www.huskyrescueireland.ie/donation-options BORD na Mona could soon be embroiled in a new legal battle which threatens the immediate future of the briquette factory in Derrinlough and its power station near Clonbullogue. The energy company has said it will resist any move by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) to seek an injunction stopping it from supplying peat to both plants. FIE is the environmental lobby group which won a landmark court case on the planning regulations governing peat extraction in 2019. Bord na Mona had already launched its 'brown to green' strategy the previous year and last year announced it was ceasing turf harvesting on all its bogs. In an unexpected move on Wednesday, FIE revealed that its solicitors had written a warning letter to Bord na Mona accusing the company of using unlawfully extracted peat at the power station, the briquette factory and at its horticulture facility in Co Kildare. FIE told Bord na Mona that unless it stopped removing peat from its stockpiles by that evening (Wednesday, April 13) it would seek an injunction under the Planning Acts to ensure that planning permission is sought with an opportunity for public consultation. The environmental group's demand was made as a result of a statement to an Oireachtas committee on March 23 last that Bord na Mona had 950,000 tonnes of peat in reserve. FIE said that when Bord na Mona's representative Ger Breen was questioned by Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy at the committee, Mr Breen agreed he was absolutely satisfied planning permission for the extraction of stock was not required. The solicitor's letter from FIE to Bord na Mona said the peat was extracted without the required planning permission, and without an environmental impact assessment (EIA) or appropriate assessment and added: Bord na Mona now seeks to profit from this unauthorised development by using the material unlawfully extracted. The excavation and removal of peat stockpiles amounts to works within the Planning and Development Act 2000 that itself require planning permission and may also require EIA and/or appropriate assessment. Speaking to the Tullamore Tribune, FIE spokesperson Tony Lowes said Bord na Mona had not previously said publicly that it had nearly one million tonnes of peat in stockpiles and the information given to the Oireachtas committee prompted the threat of legal action. Mr Lowes said FIE's move was motivated by its belief in the importance of public participation in planning and development matters. We all have to go through the planning process and the key thing about that is it gives everybody a chance to discuss it, he said. We have to be pretty clear in the law on what we issue planning permission for and what we don't. In the context of the High Court ruling that large scale peat extraction needed planning permission, he said Bord na Mona had applied for substitute consent at a number of sites but then subsequently withdrew those applications. In a response to this week's threat of legal action, Bord na Mona's solicitor outlined to their FIE counterpart how the energy company had already ceased all peat harvesting from its lands and had accelerated its decarbonisation strategy to deliver ambitious enhanced peatland decommissioning, rehabilitation and restoration targeting circa 33,000 hectares in over 80 of its bogs. Bord na Mona's solicitor said FIE had previously welcomed all those developments. The letter to FIE's solicitor went on: In all the circumstances, we are surprised at your clients demand for confirmation that excavation has ceased, and do not understand what further commitment is necessary. Further, we cannot understand why your client makes this demand now, at this time and with this short deadline. Our client has been transparent and clear with all stakeholders about its ongoing activities. There is nothing different or new in these activities. We believe that any and all ongoing activity is carried out under and in accordance with applicable laws, including under and in accordance with the several licences granted by the Environmental Protection Agency to our client." The letter also told FIE that Bord na Mona had permission from An Bord Pleanala to continue using extracted peat at Edenderry Power Station for seven years from December 2016 and that Derrinlough briquette factory had been constructed and opened prior to October 1 1964. Since then, Offaly County Council have granted permission for amendments to the factory, including, most recently, for new workshop building on 2 February 2015... The use of peat at that factory is lawful. The legal letter also said Bord na Mona did not understand FIE's suggestion that lifting previously extracted peat into transport vehicles requires planning permission: There is an important difference between extraction of peat from land, and mere transport of peat. The latter does not comprise development. We read your letter to suggest that permission is required to transport previously extracted peat, solely because the peat was, itself, unlawfully extracted. Your client has not identified or established that peat has been unlawfully extracted. Further, we do not understand how that could make any difference to the proper construction of what comprises development that requires planning permission. Bord na Mona plc has been careful to comply with applicable laws, across the entire of its 80,000 hectare land bank. We note your threat of an application to court. We do not believe that any such application is necessary or appropriate at this time. Any application based on the suggestions made in your letter will be resisted. We must insist that you bring this letter to the attention of the court. FIE is currently assessing the reply from Bord na Mona's solicitor in advance of a decision on seeking a court injunction. In a statement released on Thursday night, Bord na Mona said it permanently ceased all peat extraction on its lands in January 2021 ensuring it is in full compliance with its legal obligations concerning the extraction of peat from its lands. "The company has been advised that the movement of milled peat stockpiles does not require planning permission," said a spokesperson. "The company continues to operate under and in accordance with its Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licences, that are granted and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Those regulate peat stockpile management, including weather protection, loading and removal from its lands." Bord na Mona has previously said it will cease supplying peat to Edenderry power station in 2023, at which point the electricity generation plant will be supplied by biomass wood chip only. It has been using both fuels for a number of years. The energy company also plans to discontinue the manufacture of peat briquettes in 2024. No matter what has happened today, don't lose hope. Hold on to hope as much as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. Much love and Easter blessings to each of you. Be kind every chance you get. The ripple effect, if visible, would astound you. What the world needs now is hope. Hope transforms you, it transforms me, and it is only as transformed hope-filled people that we will be able to bring such urgently needed hope to the world: to our own personal world of family, friends and acquaintances, but also to the world as a whole. One little drop of hope has far reaching consequences for all of humanity. As Desmond Tutu who sadly passed away recently said, "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. They say that a man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope. Hope can be the difference between success and failure. You can withstand so much if you know you have people who support you and are looking out for you. You can face just about anything, as long as you dont lose the hope that you can succeed. Even hope and faith as tiny as a mustard seed can produce mountainous amounts of blessings. Hope is a positive and potent spiritual practice that has the power and influence to pull us through difficult times. Hope is the basic ingredient of optimism, a tendency to dwell on the best possibilities. It is often described as a metaphor such as a ray, a beam, a glimmer of hope; the break in the clouds; the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Hope can often be revealed in unexpected places or through others. Hope is energizing. Certain attitudes or virtues can support the development of hope in our lives. Hope can be learned with practice. One attitude or virtue that supports a deepened sense of hope in our lives is patience, an ability to tolerate set-backs, and a willingness to let events unfold in their own time. The other is courage, an attitude of confidence even when facing the unfamiliar. A third is persistence, the determination to keep on going no matter what happens. We have hope when we can say, "everything will be ok, and we mean it. Without hope, we find it difficult to be patient and can be easily frustrated. We may lack the courage to continue struggling against hardship. We are often easily discouraged. The common expression, "Hope for the best, but expect the worst" implies the worst. When we are without hope, we easily fall victim to such negativism. When the light of hope is absent, we are overcome by gloom and doom, despair and negativity. Hope gives us enthusiasm, courage and drive to continue moving forward in every situation. Each of us carries within our hearts the seeds of enduring hope. With a conscious effort and committed action, and rooted in God's love, our hopes have the power to transform our lives and the lives of others. Hope challenges us When life happens, people are tempted to give up hope. It must feel like that today for the people of the Ukraine where I have spent many weeks over the last 50 days of war who just experienced the horror and evil of the Russian invasion and whose lives have been ripped apart by the cruel bombings and gunfire. Life happened over the last few weeks and months in Ukraine and the war blew away a lifetime of work, life and memories. Homes, possessions, towns, cities, livestock, and livelihoods all destroyed in weeks of evil carnage. I wonder what emotions they must be feeling. How would I feel? Would I still have hope? Have you ever had the sense that the virtue of hope gets short-changed in our Christian experience? We focus on faith in Jesus. We focus on loving God and our neighbor. But do we really value and nurture hope? Hope is what sustains us as we persevere, remaining steadfast in times of trial and discouragement. For instance, when our lives are turned upside down by a war or climate change or another of lifes disruptions that are bound to come and, when they do, feel like a hurricane. The virtue of hope challenges us and empowers us to be determined, resolute, intentional, purposive, and steadfast. Hope is not wishful thinking or passive waiting. It means intentional, purposeful living; and it is something we experience before the bad stuff happens. We live hopeful lives. Thomas Merton was one of the more influential spiritual writers of the last century. He wrote a now-famous prayer that seems appropriate for those times when we experience the hurricanes of life and dont know which way to turn. My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do that you will lead me by the right road, although I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me and will never leave me to face my perils alone. Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that you are understood... As long as there is still hope there will also be prayer... And you will be held in God's hands. Thought for the week As your thought for the week, pray for hope for the people in your life and know that hope never abandons us. We abandon hope. Consult not your fears especially during these worrying times but consult your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. Hope is the basis of existence and we should never give up hope. Hope should be our true companion of all times. I want to encourage you to stay focused on the hope that is Jesus. Pray for endurance. Know the Lord has a plan. And finally, be a reflection of hope to the world. Let them know where your hope, faith, and trust lies, sharing the light and hope of Jesus with them. A prayer of Hope I like to say to keep me going each day goes as follows - Dear Lord, I try so hard to be your humble servant, I come before you today in need of hope, courage and strength. There are times when I feel helpless and lost. There are times when I feel weak and addicted. I pray for hope. I need hope for a better future. I need hope for a better life. I need hope for love, care, shelter and kindness. Some say that the sky is at its darkest just before the light. I pray that this is true, for all seems very dark in my life at times. I need your light, Lord, in every way. I pray to be filled with your light from head to toe. To bask in your glory. To know that all is right in the world, as you have planned, and as you want it to be. Help me Lord to walk in your light, and live my life in faith and support to those most in need. Help me to shine my light to help others shine their light. Let us also pray for all who are recovering from illnesses of all types in hospital, nursing homes , hospices and in the family home and for families who are unable to visit loved ones especially those in ICU and High Dependency Care wards and for our nurses, doctors, carers and all on the frontline who serve us daily despite the extreme stress and anxiety they endure. Dear Lord, Our Lady and St. Joseph, we ask you to hear our prayers during these worrying times and especially for all our people who are sick or unwell with any type of illness at home or in hospital. Comfort those who are vulnerable, anxious or fearful. Protect our healthcare workers and all our frontline workers who put their lives at risk. Inspire our leaders to make good decisions and may we all act responsibly and lok and pray for peace in our world. "When my arms can't reach people close to my heart, I hug them with my prayers. In your name I pray, Amen. A MAN was jailed for five months after a court heard he was caught driving just three months after being hit with a 15-year ban. Tullamore Circuit Court was told that Simonas Medeika, aged 42, was found to have no insurance when he was stopped at Dublin Road, Edenderry at 12.15pm on June 22, 2020. Sandra Mahon, Offaly state solicitor, told Judge Keenan Johnson that the tax on Mr Medeika's vehicle was out of date and he did not pay a fixed charge penalty notice. Gardai subsequently found that he was disqualified at the time having been banned for 15 years at Tullamore Circuit Court on March 6, 2020. He had also been convicted of having no insurance and drink-driving at Mullingar Circuit Court in May 2019 and more recently, in December 2021 at Naas Circuit Court, he received another 15-year disqualification. In all, he had up to eight convictions for driving without insurance. One of the worst records I've seen, commented Judge Johnson. Mr Medeika was back before the judge to appeal against the severity of a sentence imposed on him at Tullamore District Court. Defence counsel Suzanne Dooner said she was aware of the risks run by taking the appeal but added that the man had a very good work history since coming to Ireland in 2004. A father of one, he worked as a mechanic and the offence before the court was committed when he was carrying out a pre-NCT test on a car and and naively he had driven it outside the premises. Judge Johnson asked: How could it be naively with a record like that? Ms Dooner said the appellant was just outside the perimeter of the garage and she had explained to him that it was public property so he had no right to be there. Because of the very good working relationship he had with his employer they cleared some of the site so he can do the testing within the grounds. Letters of support were handed in to the court, including one from his wife. Ms Dooner said the man had spent a period in custody for road traffic matters and that meant he was away from his family. He had served one-and-a-half months and was on temporary release and he signed on at a garda station and at the prison. Ms Dooner added that he had pleaded guilty at an early stage in the District Court and he had saved 1,000. Judge Johnson said Mr Sedeikas had driven while disqualified, had at least eight previous convictions and had been the subject of a 15-year ban. I don't know what it takes to get the message through what it means to be disqualified, he said. When Mr Medeika, with an address at Tanara, Broadford, Co Kildare, was before Tullamore Circuit Court in March 2020, Judge Johnson was told he had served just four days of a two-month sentence which was previously imposed on him for drink-driving. You wonder what we're doing up here, really, remarked the judge. Judge Johnson learned about the short time served in prison when Mr Medeika, a native of Lithuania, was appealing against a six-month prison sentence which had been imposed for a drink-driving offence. The court was told then that the man had three convictions for drink-driving since 2017 and a 10-year ban had been imposed on him for the last one in October 2019. A nine-month suspended sentence was imposed. A stalagmite from Yonderup Cave, a shallow cave in Western Australia, preserved a record of fire events and climate conditions. We found that the largest fire event in the stalagmite record, in approximately 1897 CE, coincided with a decades-long drought period known as the Australian Federation drought, said Dr. Liza McDonough, a researcher at Australias Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The intensity of this fire was likely caused, at least partially, by these dry conditions. We also know that this fire occurred a few decades after Indigenous cultural burning would have been suppressed by Europeans, so the fire was also probably exacerbated by a build-up of understorey vegetation and dry combustible material on the forest floor due to removal of Indigenous land management practices. Dr. McDonough and her colleagues interpret the pre-European period captured in the stalagmite record as characterized by regular, low-intensity fires, while its post-European record depicts infrequent, high-intensity fires, which they speculate could be due to management practices. Nutrients such as phosphorus, and trace metals are found in bushfire ash and, in theory, can dissolve into waters that eventually infiltrate underground caves, she said. Our research provides the first evidence that water containing high concentrations of these dissolved ash-derived elements can also alter the chemistry of a stalagmite and result in the preservation of signals from past fire events. Why had stalagmites not been previously discovered as archives of past fires? We realised we needed to use the highest resolution geochemical techniques available, as stalagmites grow very slowly, Dr. McDonough said. In one year, a stalagmite increases in height by the same thickness as that of a sheet of paper. The geochemical trace left by a fire would be even thinner. Its not just historical fires that are recorded in stalagmites but also the annual accumulation of years, much like tree rings. In regions with high seasonality, wet winters can lead to a flush of organic matter into the dripwaters that form stalagmites, Dr. McDonough said. This causes annual dark bands alternating with light calcite bands in summer. This means that these stalagmites can be easily and precisely dated by counting back the annual layers. While the particular portion of the Yonderup stalagmite is relatively young, allowing scientists to peer back just 260 years, the range of time promised by other stalagmites and other speleothems (cave ornaments) stretches back much further, thousands or even tens of thousands of years. This new technique opens the possibility of speleothems, and their chemical record, to describe historical fire and climatic events around the world potentially anywhere we might find caves, Dr. McDonough said. The technique also grants new perspectives on climate change. Speleothems record increasing or decreasing rainfall rates and changes in evaporation and their potential influence on local fire events, whether theyre becoming more or less frequent through time. The results appear in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. _____ Liza K. McDonough et al. Past fires and post-fire impacts reconstructed from a southwest Australian stalagmite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, published online March 19, 2022; doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2022.03.020 A humid evening greeted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she touched down in Singapore to start her first overseas trip in over two years.Ardern and a 12-strong trade and business delegation are spending this week in Singapore and... With Auckland's CBD lacking the hustle and bustle of office workers with more people working from home, and with the hospitality industry suffering as a result, Kirsty Wynn asked our mayoral candidates what they would do to revive... Bang Media International Limited 10 Jun 2021 Prince Edward says his mother Queen Elizabeth is coping as well as can be expected following the death of her husband Prince Philip.. The covid-19 pandemic has highly impacted our everyday lives. No one expected this worldwide crisis to last so long, but events cannot be foreseen. The virus is still among us, continuing to claim several lives from all around the globe. One of the most visible effects of the pandemic is the change in social interaction, which has affected the lives of millions of people. Thousands of people have passed away due to the pandemic - studies show that there are about 978,000 lost lives in the U.S. alone. Homelessness is another issue brought into the discussion here since the spread of the pandemic has increased the percentage of the homeless population. Northshore Clinical Labs in Chicago, Illinois, has been making considerable efforts to provide support during these challenging times. Since the pandemic's start, the high-performing lab has constantly been working to process thousands of Covid-19 tests and deliver results effectively and efficiently. Because time is crucial in preventing the disease, Northshore Clinical Labs has expanded their services, helping the citizens of Illinois not only with Covid-19 tests but also with on-site support, donations and charitable fundraising, homeless programs, and other significant contributions. Community-oriented services have become one of the lab's main priorities - fruitful partnerships with numerous organizations (nursing homes, summer camps, schools, churches, etc.) and businesses have been formed to ensure the community's well-being. This article explores the various ways Northshore Clinical Labs has helped combat the pandemic: Testing Testing remains one of the most effective ways to avoid spreading the virus. Once you know you're sick, you won't go outside and interact with other people because your civic spirit doesn't allow you to do so. If there's something everyone should learn from this pandemic is responsibility. That's why testing was and continues to be one of the most powerful weapons against the virus. Covid variants have claimed many lives, including Omicron. That's why Northshore Clinical Labs continues to serve tests. One of their main priorities is to keep people safe, so they're constantly working to deliver high-quality results in the shortest possible time. They also decided to partner with different organizations, such as nursing homes, public school districts, daycares, and so on, to ensure a smooth testing process. They also expanded to locations where testing was necessary to ensure everyone had access to this technology. On-site testing in high-crowded areas proves to be a viable solution in the fight against the virus. But even these laboratories' employees are humans and get sick sometimes. Many of the Northshore Labs' workers have experienced the effects of Covid-19, being forced to remain home (in isolation). In some cases, members of their families got sick and had to take care of them. No matter the circumstances, the lab has experienced a shortage of labor, which caused tests to be backed up and the processing time to take longer. These experiences are understandable - it's not like the virus chooses whom to sicken. Fortunately, Northshore Clinical Labs has found solutions so that the infection among employees should no longer be a problem. How did they manage to solve this? By hiring more lab workers and forming partnerships with different companies. This way, they encourage effective and efficient testing, which is nothing but imperative in these troubling times. But that's not all. Northshore has also invested in high-quality equipment to avoid slow testing. Therefore, Northshore Clinical Labs focused on buying modern technology to speed up test delivery to the highest standards, apart from almost doubling their staff. They're committed to easing Illinois's community members' lives, and that's why they chose to invest in top-notch testing supplies. Therefore, Northshore's responses to the pandemic are hiring more lab employees, investing in high-quality technology, and forming partnerships with community organizations and businesses. Nursing Homes It's not surprising that older people are more vulnerable to the virus - their immune system no longer functions at full capacity, which makes infection with Covid-19 more likely to happen to them. According to statistics, there's a mortality rate of approximately 75.5% among people above 65 in the U.S. The numbers are alarming, so what is to be done? They need support and special care in some cases, but what if they have no place to stay? In this case, nursing homes prove to be of great help. They offer shelter for the most vulnerable to the virus population who can't tend to themselves. Northshore Clinical Labs has made significant efforts to support nursing homes, assuring that seniors are at a lower risk of getting sick. In this regard, they provided these facilities with testing supplies and sent an experienced team to test the ones in need. Westminster Place, Greek American Rehabilitation, and The Springs of Monarch Landing are just a few locations they helped fight against the pandemic. Homeless Programs As we already mentioned, the number of unsheltered people has risen significantly during the last few years, and the pandemic only encouraged this fact. Since the virus was spreading so fast, so many people have been left without shelter, finding refuge on the street, where the risk of getting various diseases was much higher. One thing is for sure: they need help, and Northshore Clinical Labs has done their best to support them. They make incessant efforts to ease homeless people's lives - the labs engaged in sponsorship, fundraising, and other supportive services. For example, they represent the main sponsor for the ShoweUp Program in Chicago, a non-profit organization preoccupied with providing hygiene resources to the homeless population. Charter Schools Since the rise of the pandemic, students have no longer access to a land-based education environment. And even if they physically return to school, things are no longer the same. Safety should be on the top of any school's priorities list. Northshore Clinical Labs has offered outstanding support services to help children return to school as soon as possible and assure safety standards in educational institutions, contributing to the students' constant testing. They've also provided about 100 summer camps with testing supplies to ensure children make the most of their recreational time. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Justen Watkins, the self-proclaimed leader of the white nationalist group The Base, pleaded guilty to gang membership in a Washtenaw County courtroom on Monday afternoon. Watkins pleaded guilty to gang membership, a felony, for his role in a December 2019 incident in which he and another Base member, Alfred Gorman of Taylor, terrorized a family at their Dexter home after mistaking one of the residents as the host of an Antifa podcast. Two other counts against Watkins in Washtenaw County, unlawful posting of a message and using computers to commit a crime, will be dismissed at sentencing. Watkins and prosecutors made what is known as a Cobbs agreement, a practice in Michigan criminal law that allows a Judge to make an agreement with a defendant concerning the sentence the court will impose if the defendant pleads guilty or no contest. On Dec. 11, 2019, around 11:30 p.m. the victims reportedly witnessed Watkins and Gorman around their home, shining a light and taking photos from the front porch of the home, according to a press release from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessels office. The photos were then uploaded to The Base's channel on the social media platform Telegram with the caption: "The Base sends greetings to Daniel Harper of the Antifa podcast 'I Don't Speak German.'" According to the release, Watkins and Gorman intended to threaten and intimidate Harper but mistakenly believed he resided at the victims' home. In January 2022, Gorman pleaded guilty to one felony count of gang membership for his role, and in February he received a suspended sentence of one year in jail and was also sentenced to four years of probation. Washtenaw County Judge Patrick J. Conlin Jr. agreed to sentence Watkins concurrent with the recommendations in Tuscola County, where Watkins and fellow base members Thomas Denton and Tristan Webb were charged for allegedly breaking into "two former Michigan Department of Corrections sites MDOC Camp Tuscola Annex and MDOC Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program which were, and are, vacant in the city of Caro on Oct. 3, 2020," a press release from the attorney general's office stated. The original charges alleged Watkins, Denton and Webb broke into the MDOC properties and stole state-issued clothing from one of the locations. It is also alleged the sites were assessed as potential future training grounds for hate camps, which is what the group named its paramilitary firearms training exercises. Those charges included one count of larceny in a building, a four-year felony; one count of gang membership, a 20-year felony; one count of conspiracy to commit teaching use of firearms for a civil disorder, a four-year felony; and one count of felony firearm, a two-year felony. Denton, 32, was sentenced to a maximum of 48 months on two felony charges in January 2022 that were issued by Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene in cooperation with Michigan Assistant Attorney General Sonita Doddamani. Under the Cobbs agreement, the judge agreed not to sentence in excess over what Tuscola County sentences. If that changed, Watkins could withdraw his plea. Watkins is scheduled to be sentenced in Washtenaw County on June 13 at 1:30 p.m. File photo A 41-year-old Midland woman is lodged in the Midland County Jail after she was arrested for drunken driving with a child in her vehicle. Rebecca Fisher was arrested Friday night and faces five misdemeanor counts. She is charged with child abuse third degree; driving on a revoked/suspended/refused license; operating while intoxicated with a child under 16; OWI; and driving while license suspended. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan will help bring a popup food pantry to Huron County the week of April 18. This weeks free food giveaway is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, in Harbor Beach. The food distribution will begin at 10 a.m. at the Harbor Beach Village Hall, 766 State St. The Greater Michigan Construction Academy (GMCA) and LOGIC (Ladies Operating for Growth in Construction) are bringing Power Up: It's a Mother-Daughter Thing! to the Great Lakes Bay Region at 5:30 p.m. on May 18. The event will be held at the Greater Midland Curling Club, 2009 S. Jefferson Ave., Midland. Power Up's mission is to educate young women on careers in the construction industry, engage girls with women and employers in the construction industry and encourage young women to explore the construction industry through hands-on activities and learn more about the educational resources. Power Up uses innovative solutions to create partnerships at all levels, and works diligently at removing barriers that have prohibited the development of a diversified and strong workforce for the construction industry. We are so excited to be bringing the Power Up event to young girls and their moms/guardians. This will be the first event of its kind in our region. This event will educate and engage young girls and allow them to explore the construction industry through hands-on activities, said Stephanie Davis, president of GMCA, about bringing the event to Midland. KALEVA Bethany Lutheran Church of Kaleva will host a soup luncheon on April 23 to benefit Ukraine. This event will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Kaleva Lions' Den, located at 14361 Nine Mile Rd. in Kaleva. The lunch is set to feature a variety of homemade soups and desserts with refreshments at the cost of a donation. Three gift basket raffles will be held with the raffle ticket cost of $1 each, or six for $5. The drawing will be the same day at 12:50 p.m. Participants need not be present to win. Funds raised by the lunch and the raffles will be donated to help the people of Ukraine. WELLINGTON New Zealand Chatham Rock Phosphate Limited (TSXV: NZP and NZX: CRP or the Company") is pleased to announce, further to the Companys news release concerning this acquisition dated October 14, 2021, that the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has just approved the acquisition by CRPs wholly owned subsidiary Korella Mining Pty Ltd of the Korella Mining Tenement ML90209 FIRB approval, a condition precedent of the acquisition, was required because the Company is predominantly owned by shareholders not domiciled in Australia. This paves the way forward to a speedy conclusion of the acquisition of the Korella mine from Australia Venus Resources and to the required TSXV approval of the $A2 million share issue relating to the transaction. In anticipation of the FIRB approval and the completion of the acquisition Chathams executive director Colin Randall and recently appointed Field Services Manager Maurice March have already established a base in Cloncurry, the nearest town. They have already made significant progress towards the joint aims of expediting the immediate sale of an already mined stockpile, future transport arrangements and commencing mining operations from the existing open pit. During the last two months we have identified a preferred site for the grinding, bagging and dispatch of Korella rock phosphate. We have also commenced negotiations with mining contractors, transport and processing plant providers and been actively involved with key local stakeholders, including the landowner and the local government authorities. On the marketing front we have established the Korella phosphate rock specification, together with a pricing schedule for rock delivered ex-works at Cloncurry. We have identified a very wide range of potential customers and have been contacting them. Subject to access to the mine site, following the acquisition, and arrangements for crushing and bagging in Cloncurry, the first sales of Korella phosphate are now expected in July. The start of cash generation from phosphate sales will mark a transformative milestone for the Company. Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Chatham Commences Scoping Study for Phosphate Export Mine 9th May 2022 Morning Report CHI - Indicative Interest Margin for Bond Offer ARG - FY22 Annual Result Announcement Date and webcast Marsden Maritime Holdings commences due diligence MCK appoints Stuart Harrison as Managing Director CDI appoints Jason Adams as Managing Director 6th May 2022 Morning Report KPG FY22 annual results announcement date BGP - 1st Quarter Sales to 1 May 2022 TO THE EDITOR: A few weeks ago, Mr. P. Richard Stoesser asked the question, "Does Biden have the competence or courage to be president?" This needs a response. Biden has not been able to create an insurrection or commit sedition, he has not alienated all our European allies, and he has not praised Putin, North Korea and China for their skills at exploiting their citizens (all autocratic countries). Biden has not developed the skill to lie and blame others to protect his fragile ego nor has Biden been subject to impeachment, twice. Poor Biden has not quit on the average "Joe" to enrich the privileged or adopted frivolous conspiracy theories to confuse the uninformed. So, the answer is Biden is not up to our last president, thank God. But, to be honest, our last president had the misfortune of using too much bleach to cure COVID. RONALD TAYLOR Midland At a glance Experts Rating Pros Stable, high throughput at close range Works well as a modem stand-in TS9 ports for better cellular range Good battery life Replaceable battery C-Wave support Cons Very spendy No mmWave support 5G plans havent caught up to the technology Our Verdict The Netgear Nighthawk M5 isnt quite good enough to be a router on its own for anything larger than an apartment or small home, but its an excellent hotspot fit for even large groups of coworking people, and it could conceivably be well-suited to be a modem replacement, if only telecoms had good, widely available internet plans comparable to modern unlimited broadband. Best Prices Today: Netgear Nighthawk M5 (MR5200) Retailer Price Delivery $699.99 Free View Netgear $699.99 View As the practical reality of 5G begins to bear fruit, its many touted uses are becoming more clear. One of those applications is the creation of a strong, home-internet-style connection almost anywhere you can find a decent 5G signal. To that end, Netgear has released the Nighthawk M5 WiFi 6 mobile router, which we review here. Pocket internet The Nighthawk M5 is a diminutive AX1800 device, about the size of a small, square, 250-page book, weighs about half a pound, and is aesthetically spartan. A 2.5-inch touchscreen on the top of the router gives you direct and easy configuration of your network, with some other basic options for the cellular connection and other configurations. On the front edge of the device theres a gigabit ethernet LAN port and a USB 3.1 Gen-2 port that pulls double duty, charging the M5 and serving as a USB tethering port. Flanking these ports are two covered TS9 ports for external cellular antennas, which are not included. It has textured, grippy flat sides and a removable soft-touch bottom cover hiding the devices mercifully replaceable 5040 mAh battery. A SIM card is secured under that. The overall package is pleasantly compact (for a router), and while I wouldnt exactly call it pocketable, its close enough that I could slip it mostly into my hoodie pocket when moving tables while out in public with it. That said, it fit quite easily into a compartment in my laptop case. Though its bulky for a hotspot, its size-to-performance ratio is genuinely impressive. Two TS9 ports let you increase the M5s reception. USB-C and Ethernet give you tethering options with fast throughput. Wes Davis / IDG Whats inside Its beating heart is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem chipset, which is one generation older than the excellent 3rd iteration of the Snapdragon X60 modem that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra carries within its chassis. The X55 is a slightly bigger chip built with a 7 nanometer process (compared to the X60s 5nm) that isnt quite as efficient as its successor. It also cant aggregate mmWave and sub-6 connections like the X60that is, using them simultaneously for higher throughputin fact, the M5 does not support an mmWave connection at all. Netgear has forgone this in favor of adding more 5G bands in this router. C-Band support is a key feature here, as the limits (and limited availability) of mmWave mean that, on the whole, this router has more opportunities for faster throughput, as the C-Band is far less susceptible to physical impediments, and will be much more available for the near future. The Nighthawk M5 has impressive configurability via its touchscreen, as well as plenty of other options for network management. Netgear Feature set The nice thing about a hotspot is that they generally come with a touchscreen, which means that, so long as your needs are basic, you may never have to fuss with the GUI or an app, which is good because I found the Netgear Mobile app to be kind of buggy. In the case of the Nighthawk M5, you get that basic control and then some, with configurable band regions, data-and-battery-saving options, output band options, and more. Youll still need to dive into the app or web GUI (I recommend the latter, here) to do anything more complicated, but whats available via the touchscreen is still more comprehensive than youd expect, and thats pleasant. As a router, the Netgear Nighthawk M5 is fairly elemental. It supports Wi-Fi 6the interference-busting, IoT-friendly usurper protocol meant to take over from the aging 802.11ac (now renamed Wi-Fi 5) standardand by extension it also uses the new Wi-Fi security standard WPA 3, which improves the security of your Wi-Fi network most notably by rendering the complexity of your password largely irrelevant. The M5 also includes a few security features like web filters, access scheduling, and you can set up port forwarding/filtering or configure which cellular band regions youd like to connect to, and it even supports VPN Passthrough and UPnP. Apart from the cellular-specific things, these are all pretty standard features for an ordinary router, but not necessarily for a mobile hotspot. Because of these features though, you could feasibly use the Netgear Nighthawk M5 as your only connection to the internet; whether you would want to is an entirely different question, of course. Its hard to find a mobile plan that wont severely throttle your connection after a certain set data limit, and the M5 costs far more than routers with significantly better performance. Of course, these are the considerations of a city slicker; for those bound to the road or living in rural spaces, internet access is sometimes hardly better than the bad old days of dial-up. As 5G coverage expands, however, switching from hardwired internet or satellite internet to cellular-based access may be the more attractive option, as demonstrated by the average 30Mbps download speed reported on, for instance, T-Mobiles standalone 5G network or 53.4Mbps on the faster Non-standalone access network, by mobile analytics firm Open Signal in February of this year. At home, the M5 is almost indistinguishable from a normal router. Wes Davis / IDG Performance as a broadband alternative To test the Nighthawk M5s throughput, I ran TCP file transfer tests from six points in and outside my home, testing throughput on the 5GHz band using the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) protocols, then on the 2.4GHz band using Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)the latter is likely to be used by most of your IoT devices, and although its possible to use Wi-Fi 5 on the 2.4GHz band, most router manufacturers dont support it. For my client device I used a Lenovo Yoga (2019) with an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 NIC, while an M1 MacBook Air, hardwired with a Plugable 2.5Gbps USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter, stood in as the server. Each average was taken from six individual tests at a given location. What I found was a router more capable than I expected, though it fell short of being a replacement for the full network apparatus that is my doomed ISP-supplied modem-router combo and my Eero mesh system. Brad Chacos/IDG Throughput in the same room as the M5 averaged an impressive 651Mbps using Wi-Fi 5, and 605Mbps with Wi-Fi 6. That is fast. By comparison, the only router that outperformed it at this range was an Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 at 917Mbps, but thats a gigantic gaming router intended for the highest possible throughput, and is our high-water mark for most of the comparison testing in this review. Brad Chacos/IDG The M5 outperformed all other routers tested (on raw throughput) at close range, including an Eero Pro (2nd Generation), which came in at 562Mbps on the Wi-Fi 5 protocol, and a Linksys EA9500 with an average 380Mbps at 3 feet. The story changed as we moved away from the M5, though, with its throughput dropping by more than half on the 5GHz band on my front porch, with one exterior wall and 20 feet of open air in the intervening space. None of the other routers experienced anywhere close to that big a drop in performance here or anywhere in my testing space on the 5GHz band, but it was able to stay above 100Mbps everywhere I tested inside my home, while it failed to reach my backyard with usable signal (the only way Ive managed to get any sort of decent signal back there is to bounce it with a mesh system. Brad Chacos/IDG Brad Chacos/IDG On the 2.4GHz band, the M5 was passable indoors, but slower than all the other routers tested on most tests except in my basement and upstairs area, where it at least outperformed the Asus router, which has poor ranged performance on the 2.4GHz band, at least where the Wi-Fi 4 protocol is concerned. Thats the intra-network performancepassable, but not stellar, in a large space with many walls; but in a more appropriate environment, is a 5G connection reliable enough to fully replace a wired connection to an ISP? To test this, I ran a 2-hour connection test at testmy.net, set to poll my connection every 5 minutes, up to 24 times. The result was a connection that did occasionally dip below 100Mbps, but ultimately averaged 120.71Mbps, while my DSL connection never made it above 50Mbps (Im currently paying for a 100Mbps plan). As I expected, there was a lot more deviation in throughput on the 5G downlink, but it was quite a bit faster than my relatively creeping DSL, and that isnt even using a C-Band connection, which as far as I can tell, is not available at my home. In gaming, I wasnt able to connect to other players on my Nintendo SwitchI kept receiving a NAT traversing errorbut I found it surprisingly serviceable for some on-the-go Counter Strike: Global Offensive play; although, with ping hanging out around 100-140ms, you certainly wont want to use it for competitive play. According to Netgear, activating Universal Plug n Play fixes the Switch NAT issue, but I was unfortunately not able to get a different result on making that change. No online MarioKart for me, then. Overall, as a standalone access point, the Nighthawk M5 could legitimately hold its own, but I wouldnt recommend it in a home any larger than, say 1,000 square feet, and probably not for serious gamers. Unless Curious, I replaced my modem-router combo with the M5 and ran it at the head of my network, with Eero handling all of the intra-network routing. After a day of testingstreaming 4K or HD video on three Apple TVs, listening to music on the three HomePods Mini positioned around my home, playing games, browsing the internet and swapping files between computersI found the Nighthawk M5 more than merely capable: It handled the duty of providing internet access to my entire network with aplomb. In fact, my network seemed more stable, with fewer long pauses and failed requests from smart speakers than I have via my normal ISP. If not for the price tag, I would strongly consider replacing my DSL plan with a data plan using this router. More on that option, later. More than just a hotspot, the M5 can easily be a mobile office network. Wes Davis / IDG Internet to-go Next, I convinced my wife to come with me to a nearby brewery to try the router out in the wild. While we were there, connected to the router with two phones, an iPad, and three laptops, we streamed video, music, and surfed the internet, and the Nighthawk M5 didnt miss a beat. I performed some more throughput testing, and saw some rather significant throughput drops versus similar testing conditions at home, but being inside a brewery, its likely there was significant interference. Still, throughput during iPerf testing on the 5GHz band was well in excess of 300Mbps, and my downlink bandwidth was enough to stream at-least-HD video on multiple devices. Given this experience, its apparent why Netgear insists on calling this a mobile router, rather than a hotspotit could easily be used by an entire office working together in a public space without relying on the often insecure wireless connection of a business or each using their own private hotspots. More than enough battery for a normal workday. Wes Davis / IDG Battery life Netgear claims up to 13 hours of battery before you need to recharge the Nighthawk M5; I tested this assertion, and found it to be no tall tale. In fact, it actually took 14 hours of active use for me to completely exhaust the 5040mAh battery. That was with multiple devices connected, often streaming video or music, and fairly constant internet browsing. In standby mode, the M5 battery life seems to stretch out into infinity, as it only lost a single percentage point over a three-day period wherein I left it sitting untouched on a shelfI asked Netgear about this and was told that in their testing, at pure idle, the M5 lasted 14 days, putting it in the territory of old feature phones for battery life. There isnt a lot out there to compare this device to right now, but the Inseego 5G MiFi M2000, which boasts much of the same feature set and compatibility, has about the same battery rating (5050mAh, in this case) and runs with the same chipset. It claims all-day battery life, but thats fairly subjective, while a PC Mag review put it at 11 hours. For the purposes of this review, well assume its similar enough not to really matter. Bottom line I came away from the Nighthawk M5 extremely impressed. While I dont think 5G is quite ready to be a full-blown alternative to a home internet connection for most people, this piece of hardware is a wonderful glimpse into a future free from the frustrations of our big broadband company cartels. The biggest obstacle now seems to be the lumbering telecom giants, whose access plans simply havent caught up to where the hardware seems to be. At the moment, plans are reminiscent of the bad old days of cell phones, with data caps and throttling and overage fees aplenty, with some offering unlimited home-internet-style plans, but how they correlate to 5G coverage is a mystery to me, as simply getting a 5G device doesnt seem to be the only prerequisite (I tried). Where the Netgear Nighthawk M5 truly falls flat is its price, though: for $700, you can buy a very nice router or mesh systemheck, for one-third of that price you can get a great router for most needs, and if youre the thrifty sort, pick up a used mesh system for even less. Of course, the M5 doesnt hit the same market, but it doesnt really get better if you look at other 5G mobile hotspots. In fact, if youre on AT&T, the predecessor MR5100 itself is almost $200 less despite being, for all intents and purposes, the same router. If you wanted mmWave, the Inseego MiFi M2100 5G UW offers that (albeit without the option for a C-Band connection) for a hair under $400. Unlike those devices, however, the MR5200 is carrier agnostic, and that C-Band compatibility is going to see a lot more use than an mmWave connection; so on balance, it might be worth the extra $200-$300 to some folks. As they say, though, its too rich for my blood. Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Wednesday it plans to invest about $9.5 billion across its U.S. offices and data centers this year, up from $7 billion last year. Google said the investment will create at least 12,000 full-time jobs in 2022 and focus on data centers in several states including Nevada, Nebraska and Virginia. The company will open a new office in Atlanta this year, and expand its data center in Storey County, Nevada, it added. "It might seem counterintuitive to step up our investment in physical offices even as we embrace more flexibility in how we work. Yet we believe it's more important than ever to invest in our campuses," Google said in a statement. Google has been trying to bring back its employees to some of its offices in the United States, the UK and Asia Pacific by mandating working from office for about three days a week, a step to end policies that let employees work remotely because of COVID-19 concerns. Google will continue to invest in offices in its home state of California and support affordable housing initiatives in the Bay Area as part of its $1 billion housing commitment. read more Last year, Google helped provide $617 billion in economic activity for U.S. businesses, creators and developers, according to its 2021 economic impact report. 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. Featured Video Four gunmen stormed a church and opened fire on worshippers during an Easter service Saturday dawn, local police have confirmed. The incident occured at the Heaven Embassy Chapel International located in the Atwima Kwanwoma District town of Afrancho near the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi. A patrol team from the Foase District rushed to the scene following a distress call but the assailants could not be traced. One witness told dailymailgh.com that the four armed men shouted in a local language asking the whereabouts of the Head Pastor before shooting indiscriminately at the worshippers. We were observing our worship session when the masked men surfaced. Two of them who wielded locally-made guns shot sporadically at the congregation and we had to take cover. Five of the victims including three children survived with gunshot wounds. We have suspended church service for now as we await further directives from our Head Pastor, the witness said. A police report revealed that some of the congregants were robbed of their phones and an unspecified amount of cash. Four of the wounded victims, including children aged between 10 and and 13 years are receiving treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. A fifth victim was however on admission at the Foase Health Center, according to the report. The police at the Foase District have commenced investigations into the incident. Source: dailymailghana 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 Catholic Bishop of Koforidua Diocese, Most Rev Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, has raised issues against the lack of continuity of projects and policies when a new government takes over the administration of the country. He said this way of doing things in the country must stop. Regarding the free senior high school (SHS) policy, he said it is a programme that should remain no matter the government in power. Speaking in an interview with TV3s Eastern Region correspondent Yvonne Neequaye on Sunday, April 17, he said We start a project, let us try to continue. I am happy the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo started this free senior high school policy. This is a policy that we also need to assist for it to be successful in spite of the challenges that came up at the beginning but I think gradually they are trying to make it up, he said. He further called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to address issues facing the feeding of pupils in the various schools. I also mention the buffer stock which is where the headmasters and headmistresses will get their supplies from the suppliers who have been designated. At the beginning it was wonderful, you go to school and the students say they are eating eggs, fish, mackerels, but these days it looks like the situation is becoming more challenging for the heads. I think it is an area that we seriously have to look into, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service so that we unearth the challenges that are causing this issue, he said. Source: 3news 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 Amnesty International, a global organisation focused on addressing human right issues, has indicated that inequality and instability grew in 2021 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. George A.B. Aggrey (2nd from left) Board Chairman of Amnesty International Ghana (AI), launching the 2021-2022 Amnesty International state of the worlds human rights report. With him are Cynthia Adu Darko (left) Board member, Hannah Osei (2nd from right), Human Rights Education and Youth Engagement Co-ordinator, and Belinda A. According to the organisation which has a branch in Ghana, the devastating effects of the pandemic were compounded by poor health systems with economic and social support crumbling under the weight of decades of neglect, especially in Africa. A Human Rights Eduction and Youth Engagement Cordinator at Amnesty International Ghana, Hannah Osei, made this known at the launch of Amnesty International's state of the world's human rights 2021/2022 report in Accra. The report focuses on the state of Ghana's human rights within the global environment. "In Africa, only eight per cent of the population were fully vaccinated by the end of 202. Lockdown measures to curb COVID-19 infections led to increase of sexual and gender-based violence," she said. She said security forces in Africa fired live ammunition at protesters resulting in the death of more than 100 people while about 1000 others got injured. Aside from that, she said armed conflict in some African countries resulted in thousands of civilians being killed and millions displaced as they attempted to flee from the violence. Ghana situation In reference to Ghana, the report bothered on excessive and unnecessary use of force by the security forces, arbitrary arrests and detentions, inhumane prison conditions and women's and girls rights. It also touched on the right to health, forced evictions, environmental degradation and the rights of LGBTI people's rights. For example, Ms Osei noted that there were incidents of excessive and unnecessary use of force by the security forces as various media outlets reported that the National Security operatives assaulted journalists Peter Tabri and Caleb Kudah in connection with their work. Future focus The Board Chairman of Amnesty International Ghana, George A.B Aggrey, however, said the organisation recognise that there have been considerable improvements in the human rights situation in the country since 1992. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 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. Observing the carbon emissions by sectors in 2018, the transportation sector is the highest contributor of carbon emissions followed by electricity and heat sector. by Imesha Dissanayake We often ask the question as to why Sri Lanka should decarbonise when our carbon emissions are relatively low. This is true as the countrys share of global carbon emissions is only 0.06% and has been plateauing at the same rate for the last five years since 2015. However, as an island nation, Sri Lanka is very vulnerable to climate change impacts and hence joining hands with global decarbonisation initiatives is imperative for the country. The global climate risk index 2021, ranked Sri Lanka as the 23rd most affected country from extreme weather conditions during the period of 20002019. Therefore, Sri Lanka is susceptible to temperature rise, rainfall variability, and sea-level rise. A rise in sea level will hamper sectors of the economy such as tourism and fisheries. A significant population of the country is also dependent on livelihoods connected to agriculture and will be adversely affected due to impacts of climate change. The World Bank estimates that the countrys GDP could decline by 7.7% by 2050 in a worst-case scenario where no action is taken to combat climate change. This is estimated to result in a loss of USD 50 billion to the economy over the course of the period. Sri Lanka also contains hidden hotspots that are often not discussed in public fora. Climate change poses an economic risk to these hotspots. The World Bank identifies hotspots as a location where changes in average temperature and precipitation will have a negative effect on living standards. The World Bank assessments show that approximately 19 million people in Sri Lanka are currently living in locations that could become moderate or severe hotspots by 2050 under a situation where no action is taken to limit emissions. This population is equivalent to about 90% of the countrys population. Sri Lanka has a global responsibility to achieve climate change commitments as well, since, the country signed and ratified the Paris Climate Agreement. This resulted in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) being developed initially in 2016 and renewed every 5 years in accordance with the 21st Conference of the Parties (CoP) commitments. Currently, the updated NDCs in 2021 accounts for 4% and 10.5% of unconditional and conditional actions, respectively, for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions against the Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario during the period of 2021-2030. It must be noted that in spite of abiding by these international climate commitments, it would still put the world on course for 2.7C of warming this century while, net-zero pledges could reduce warming by 0.5C. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that the new and updated global climate commitments only accounts for an additional 7.5% reduction of emissions while a 30% reduction is needed for 2C and 55% is needed to meet the 1.5C Paris goal. Sri Lanka is also reliant on its export earnings and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), and there are key business risks associated with lackluster attempts at decarbonisation. The rapid pace at which countries are moving towards becoming net-zero carbon economies is also determining the global demand for products and services. This has led to consumers and investors seeking products and services that underpin low carbon emissions. Hence, it will be crucial for the country to latch onto the shift in demand and reap benefits of having products and services that produces less carbon emissions. Therefore, quick decisive and implementable actions are needed to decarbonise the country, since decarbonisation of an economy or a business takes a significant amount of time. As observed in other countries, climate change impacts disproportionately to the poorest and marginalised communities. This is more so applicable in Sri Lanka, as a majority of the population are living in rural areas and engaged in small-scale agricultural activities or fisheries activities that are increasingly threatened by extreme weather events and irregular monsoon rainfall patterns. This is in return can exacerbate poverty and inequality within regions of the country. Sector Overview Observing the carbon emissions by sectors in 2018, the transportation sector is the highest contributor of carbon emissions followed by electricity and heat sector. While carbon dioxide is the most dominant GHG produced by burning fossil fuels and industrial production, there are others that are driving global climate change. This includes methane, nitrous oxide, and trace gases, which have contributed to a noteworthy amount of global warming. A brief overview of sectors with high emissions, which are of economic importance to the country is given in the section below. Transportation Sector The transportation sector is grappling with many issues such as congestion, pollution and a resultant substantial fuel bill. The private and public transportation accounts for nearly 60% of the fuel consumption in the country. Congestion is particularly seen in city limits such as Colombo with about 1.9 million passengers entering the City of Colombo daily. One of the causal factors for these issues has been the growing population of private vehicles in the absence of good public sector transportation modes. About 85% of the vehicle population in Sri Lanka are privately owned vehicles, namely; cars, motor bicycles and trishaws. The growing disposable income, urbanization, availability of credit, and the need for last mile transport can be identified as the reasons for this trend. Energy Sector Historically growth in electricity demand of the country has seen a direct correlation with the growth in the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and hence, plays a vital role in the economy. In this regard, the sector has seen high level interest from the top most officials in the country including HE president in achieving a 70% renewable energy target by 2030 as announced in the annual budget of 2020. However, the government is yet to gazette this target and make it part of the formal state policy. The electricity generation for the last two years show that renewable energy accounts for approximately 35% of the total energy mix in 2019 and 2020. Coal and oil have contributed to more than 60% of total generation mix in the same period. The current power outages experienced by the country is a result of the energy sectors dependence on fossil fuel for generation and lack of reforms in the sector. Manufacturing Sector The value added by Sri Lankas manufacturing sector as a percentage of GDP stood at 18% in 2021. Manufacturing sector exports such as Apparel is the largest contributor to the countrys export earnings with a share of 43% in 2021. Therefore, with a change in demand by consumers and investors for products that generate low carbon emissions, it will be imperative for the countrys manufacturing sector to adopt low carbon measures in order to attract investors for more local value addition and as well as to cater to a growing market. The Apparel industrys key customers in export destinations are increasing the pressure to decarbonise supply chains. Examples of these include Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), G7 Fashion Pact and EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which are likely to include apparel, metal and ceramics with time. Agricultural Sector The agricultural sector plays a vital role in Lankas economy with linkages across all sectors. It contributes to key exports of Sri Lanka such as Tea and Rubber that accounted for 11% and 8% of the export earnings in 2021. The agriculture sector, accounts for 7% of the GDP and employs nearly 30% of the countrys labour force. About 70% of the rural population is dependent on livelihoods attached to Agriculture and utilizes 43% of the total land area of the country. Climate change impacts such as irregular rain patterns, and extreme shifts between droughts and rainfall, directly affects agricultural activities. The agriculture sector in Sri Lanka as assessed by Climate Watch data is the highest contributor of both methane emissions and nitrous oxide emissions, albeit contributing to low emissions in carbon during 2018. Methane and nitrous oxide are mainly produced through agricultural activities such as rice production, and from the use of chemical and organic fertilisers. Way Forward 1. Introducing direct power purchase agreements together with power wheeling Globally countries are offering power purchase agreement models that yields financial as well as environmental benefits to organisations. This allows companies to work with a renewable energy developer and receive renewable energy directly from the developer. Power wheeling will allow renewable energy developers to use existing transmission and distribution networks to supply renewable electricity to prospective buyers. An appropriate fee for the grid can be charged for this purpose. 2. Roadmap for circular economy The country lacks a road map for encouraging a circular economy in Sri Lanka. As a first step, identifying sectors that have linkages within other sectors can be explored, where output waste can be translated into input material of another sector. This is already taking place in the brewing industry and in the case of PET bottles. Coupling waste management and energy generation is another area for the circular economy that can also look beyond key urban areas. 3. State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform Reforming SOEs can not only result in productivity and efficiency gains but also facilitate innovations in the enterprises that will aid in carbon reduction mechanisms. It will also provide the entities with additional revenue to pursue the carbon neutral targets. Reforms can be carried out to entities such as Sri Lanka Transport Board and unbundling of the CEB. Partially listing a percentage of SOEs on the stock market would also help to increase public oversight and increase accountability for achieving carbon emission targets. 4. Solarisation Solarisation can take many forms including; highway solarisation; solarisation of railway and bus stations; and conversion of existing industrial zones to renewable energy industrial zones. Sufficient storage capacities will be required for this process with technologies such as pump hydro and battery storage that will facilitate high renewable energy integration to meet real time electricity demand. A significant amount of investments too is required for this and hence can be opened up for investors with conducive policy to support it. 5. Electric vehicle policy Sri Lanka lacks a policy for Electric Vehicles (EVs) with a proper mechanism of disposing batteries of EVs. Therefore, a policy on EVs together with a proper mechanism for disposing batteries will be imperative in reducing the fuel dependency of the country, which thereby can reduce forex outflows. Feasibility of local value addition for batteries can also be explored as about 70% of the value of EVs are in the battery. Further, establishing more charging stations for EV and solarisation of EV charging stations will make EVs more sustainable. 6. Public transport strategy A public transport strategy covering both bus and railway sectors is imperative for the country. This will enable the public transport systems to be safe, affordable and attractive to the public. This can encourage the shift from private vehicles to public transportation modes, which in return can reduce congestion and pollution in the country. The strategy can encompass sector reforms; digitization; standards and quality assurance processes; and rationalised pricing regimes 7. Introducing parking facilities Introducing parking facilities at city entry points, especially in the Colombo city limits with shuttle bus services is another area that can aid in transferring passengers from private vehicles to public transportation, reducing congestion and pollution. The shuttle bus service can be operated with electric buses to support the initiatives of reducing fuel dependencies. Conclusion Climate change does not stop at borders, as with the on-going pandemic, and requires the same level of urgent and decisive measures to avert its detrimental impacts. The above-mentioned strategies can help the country to be placed on a path towards achieving carbon neutrality. This will result in improved growth and development, improved living standards, and help reduce poverty and inequality. The economic crisis the country is currently experiencing, presents an opportunity for Sri Lanka to decarbonise. This can act as a catalyst to tap into green financing that can help in closing the gap between financing and infrastructure needs of the country while also improving the countrys foreign reserves. Hence, this is an opportune time for Sri Lanka to reduce its dependency on fossil fuel and reduce its strain on the import bill. This can bring in new avenues of FDI to the country and improved performance of export earnings. This can also ensure that sustainable projects are in place to build resilience for future crises. The full report can be accessed at: Catalysing Decarbonisation in Sri Lanka The writer is a Senior Research Associate attached to the Economic Intelligence Unit of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. This article is part of the Strategic Insight Series, which focuses on key contemporary topics. Two Indian nationals died and seven others sustained various degrees of injury in a motor accident at Gomoa Mampong near Winneba in the Central Region. The dead were identified as Rujuta Ferrao, 46 years, and Rosa Ferrao 72, who were pronounced dead on arrival at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital, Winneba. Sergeant Maxwell Yeboah of the Effutu Municipal Police Division of the Motor Traffic Transport Department told the Ghana News Agency that a Mitsubishi Pajero Station Wagon, with registration Number GE 6723-17, belonging to Olam Company Limited and driven by Jacob Abusah Ahideke, aged 40, was from Accra to Apam Junction, with four Indian nationals on board. He said at about 1150 hours on Saturday, the driver of the Mitsubishi Wagon, on reaching a section of the road at Gomoa Mampong near Winneba, lost control of the steering wheel and the vehicle veered into the opposite lane and collided with an oncoming KIA Truck. The Kia Rhino truck, with registration number GR 9705-17, driven by Ebenezer Offei, aged 27, was loaded with bags of sachet water from Agona Swedru to Accra, with three persons on board. All the occupants of both vehicles sustained various degrees of injury and were rushed to the Trauma and Specialist Hospital at Winneba for treatment but Rujuta Ferrao and Rosa Ferrao were pronounced dead on arrival. The bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the Hospitals mortuary for preservation. The other Indians are Noel Ferrao, 47, an employee of Olam Ghana Limited, and Naomi Ferrao, 15. The injured are on admission responding to treatment, Sgt Yeboah said. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Christians have been charged to value the resurrection of Jesus Christ as it is the foundation of Christianity. In a sermon to climax the Easter Convention at Zenu Lazio Park in Ashaiman, the Reverend Aaron Yaw Kyei, the District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, Ashaiman Lebanon District urged believers to make the resurrection of Christ a topmost priority in their Christian lives. "Our foundation as Christians is based upon the resurrection of Christ because through this particular incident, we have received forgiveness of sin, justification, reconciliation, peace, joy, happiness, and victory," he said. If Christ was not able to resurrect after the crucifixion, Christians would have been false witnesses, lacked hope, and direction, and would perish forever. The resurrection was central and paramount to the faith of Christians, hence, the need not to take it for granted, he said. He said, "While the early disciples were unlearned men, even they knew that dead people stay dead. So, imagine their astonishment when they witnessed the risen Lord standing before them three days after he had risen from the dead." The District Pastor stated that Christs resurrection stands as a giant exclamation point that separates Jesus Christ from all other mortals, adding that the resurrection did not only prove that there was life after death, or that Jesus is God, but the resurrection also announced the beginning of a kingdom, which would live forever to glorify God. "When Jesus died on the cross, He didnt take the place of Christians, but the place of sinners. He came as mans substitute. The whole world has been saved from the punishment of sin, but Gods interest wasnt just to save man from the punishment of sin but to save man from the life and nature of sin, he indicated. He said Jesus Christ is unique and exceptional, therefore, He must be worshipped truthfully, righteously, and religiously as His resurrection has brought a new form of newness to the world. He noted that Easter reminds Christians never to lose faith in God for it may take some time but God will never leave prayers unanswered hence all one needed to do was to; "Place your trust in Him and watch Him work wonders in your life." "What better sacrifice can one talk of than when our Lord himself laid down his entire life in suffering to save us from our sins, let us praise and thank our Lord for his loving blessings. I wish each and everyone a blessed Easter," 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. Featured Video Mr. Godwin Kwame Dadzawa, District Chief Executive of South Dayi in the Volta Region says the Assembly is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that persons with disability (PWDs) have access to opportunities to reach their potential. He said the Assembly was making every conscious effort to create an enabling environment that worked for all including PWDs so they could explore their potential and contribute to societal development. Mr. Dadzawa said these at Kpeve when the Assembly presented some items to persons living with disabilities in the area to help them establish their businesses to earn a decent living. The items which included 10 deep freezers, two fufu pounding machines and two cassava graters were aimed to empower the beneficiaries economically and improve their wellbeing. The items were funded from the three percent of the assembly's share of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) allocated to PWDs. The Assembly also presented 31 wheelchairs to the PWDs which were donated by the World Bank through the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled. Reverend Mrs. Emma Adom, Director of Social Welfare and Community Development, said the disability fund aimed to reduce poverty among the PWDs. She entreated the beneficiaries to ensure proper maintenance of the items and put them to effective use to achieve their intended purpose. Madam Adom disclosed that the Assembly through the Department paid medical bills for some PWDs and provided support to some students living with disabilities in the district. The Director said the Department would continue to positively touch the lives of PWDs and urged parents and guardians of disadvantaged children to desist from hiding them. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Reverend Benjamin Tettey, Associate Pastor, Ring Way Gospel Centre, Assemblies of God, Osu has advised Ghanaians to emulate Jesus Christs sacrificial nature by putting the national interest above personal gains. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Easter Resurrection Sunday, he explained that being sacrificial in nature required selflessness and giving careful thought to the outcome of ones actions before taking them. Let us all, from the leadership down to the citizenry, embrace the spirit of sacrifice. We must think of others when taking any step regarding the nation. Do not focus on yourself alone and what you can derive from your privileged positions but rather, let us operate with a generational mindset of selflessness and sacrifice, he said. Rev Tettey said Jesus life on earth was to point humans to God as the Almighty One in whom they should trust. He, therefore, encouraged citizens not to fret over the current hardships facing the nation but to rely fully on God to see them through. Throughout Christs stay here on earth, He taught us to trust more in God. This is because our human strength and abilities have a limit but God cannot be limited by any circumstance. Our dependence must be on Him alone, he said. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb on the third day after his crucifixion. It is the fulfilled prophecy of the Messiah who would be persecuted, die, and rise on the third day, according to Isaiah 53. Easter follows a period of fasting called Lent, in which many churches set aside time for repentance and remembrance. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday, the day of Jesus' crucifixion. The 40-day period was established by Pope Gregory 1 using the 40-day pattern of Israel, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus' time in the wilderness. The week leading up to Easter is called The Holy Week, or "Passion Week", and includes Palm Sunday (the day Jesus entered Jerusalem and was celebrated), Maundy Thursday (the "Last Supper" where Jesus met with his disciples to observe Passover), and Good Friday (when Jesus would be crucified on the cross). Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Member of Parliament(MP) for Dome Kwabenya Sarah Adwoa Safo has pleaded with her constituents to forgive her long absence from the constituency. Adwoa Safo as she is affectionately called has been out of the country for a long time; a move which has been condemned by even members of her political party. Its not clear what is keeping the vibrant Parliamentarian out of the country. But in an interaction she had with her followers on social media, Adwoa Safo asked for forgiveness and promised she was going to be back in the country very soon to help push government business and also help develop her constituency. Adwoa Safo disclosed that things are happening to her that she has no control over but is of the firm belief that with time, things will get better. She said Hey Eben, its never been my intention to stay away from my people for so long. Just that, sometimes in life, things happen that we have no control over. As you know, in my first two terms as MP, at no point in time did I stay away from my duties and responsibilities as MP and Minister. "So do find a place in your heart to forgive me as my constituent. Even in my absence, I have been constantly in touch with the appropriate authorities to ensure that whatever development deserving of our Constituency is done. "I am aware that the Atomic-Pillar 2 Road has been completed, the dualization of the Atomic Junction-Atomic Roundabout is ongoing, several interial roads in Taifa (around the market) are being worked on, Ashongman Estate roads have been completed with asphalting works ongoing, the Bank of Ghana Road works is also currently ongoing, the Agbogba-Abokobi link Road was also just recently sealed and works on the Abokobi town Roads are also to begin in the earnest. The Dome Kwabenya Member of Parliament called on members of the New Patriotic Party not to refer to her as a traitor when they have not heard her side of the story. Source: mynewsgh.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 Minister of National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah has been at the receiving end of backlash after his comment on the Judiciary. Mr Kan Dapaah speaking at a sensitization workshop on the national security strategy for judges of the superior courts said: injustice occasioned as a result of the absence of an effective justice delivery system or delayed justice or biased justice is certainly a threat to national security. Indeed, when injustice abounds, particularly in situations where the bench, which is considered the final arbiter of disputes, is deemed biased, citizens tend to take the law into their own hands most times without recourse to the established systems of justice delivery, he said. If the interpretation of the law is tilted in our favour all the time, people will start accusing the judiciary and will not have the confidence that they need he added. Frank Davies question This has, however, generated controversy. According to NPPs head of Legal Committee, Frank Davies Justices or judges of our courts do not dispense justice in tandem with whichever political party holds the reins of government. So this business tilting interpretation in favour of uswho determines who has tilted the interpretation of the law? Ayikoi Otoo's take The Former Attorney General in reaction said even though the perception of bias exists, the judges have taken an oath to do justice to all manner of persons without fear or favour. Im sorry to say that, I dont think he sought legal advice, because the judges have taken an oath to do justice to all manner of persons without fear or favour, ill-will and affection. He was saying that if someone brings a bad case, the Supreme Court must give a decision to favour that person merely because every time ruling for you will make people feel there is something wrong? he quizzed. However, Sam Pee Yaley, a lawyer and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes Frank Davies and Ayikoi Otoo have no right to criticise the National Security Minister. Contributing to a panel discussion on UTV's Adekye Nsroma, the former High Commissioner to India said the only one to call the Minister to order is President Akufo-Addo. "These are not just mere claims...if people lose confidence in the judiciary, it has dire consequences. As a lawyer, I take Kan Dapaah's statement very serious...he's a member of government; he's not the government's lawyer or attorney, he is just the National Security Minister and I'm sure he's been briefing the President and so if he's made a comment which you feel is bad, all you need to do is to invite him to a cabinet meeting for him to explain himself or the threat we're facing as a country so that we can take the necessary steps..." he said Adding "if he's said something which is not right, it is the President who must query him and not Frank Davies or Ayikoi Otoo" Listen to Sam Pee Yaley in the video below Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been asked to review the performance of its legal team instead of complaining anytime the party loses a case in court. National Communication Director of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Sylvester Sarpong Soprano believes it is the quality of the opposition partys legal representation that is questionable. The NDC has on several occasions butted heads with the Judiciary. Their criticisms against the Judiciary went an octave higher when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Deputy Speakers had the right to vote while presiding and can form part of a quorum in decision making. The Minority, in its reaction, described the ruling as smacking of Judiciary support for the controversial and now passed Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy). Mahama's Take Former President John Mahama also waded into the issue accusing the judiciary of being politicized. We do have problems with the Judiciary, I must say. I think that it is necessary for some internal reforms to take place there. It is necessary for the Chief Justice or whoever is responsible to make some reforms. Most of the governance institutions have been politicized. I give the example of the Judiciary. It is only in Ghana that a Supreme Court will make a decision that a birth certificate is not proof of citizenship..... .....That is what our judges should do. They must rise to the occasion, he added. Kan Dapaah's Observation Few weeks after, the National Security Minister made some comments that the NDC believes are a confirmation of their views against the Judiciary. According to Kan Dapaah, injustice occasioned as a result of the absence of an effective justice delivery system or delayed justice or biased justice is certainly a threat to national security. Indeed, when injustice abounds, particularly in situations where the bench, which is considered the final arbiter of disputes, is deemed biased, citizens tend to take the law into their own hands most times without recourse to the established systems of justice delivery. If the interpretation of the law is tilted in our favour all the time, people will start accusing the judiciary and will not have the confidence that they need, he added. Change Lawyers If... But Sylvester Sarpong Soprano, reacting to these issues during a panel discussion on Neat FM's Me Man Nti programme said the problem might not be coming from the Judiciary; "maybe their lawyers are not good enough" "I feel when the Judiciary makes a decision we need to go with it because, in litigation, you win some and lose some...when the Judges give a ruling and it's a 7:0 or 9:0, maybe it means your case was so bad that they couldn't help but come to that conclusion... "...when there's a unanimous ruling, I think a number of factors are involved; probably the Attorney General is too good...if he met the NDC (in court and the case was ruled in his favour), probably their (NDC) lawyers were not good enough...he's probably done his homework and he's too brilliant...so there's nothing wrong with the judiciary, they're doing their work..." he noted. According to Soprano, "it appears Asiedu Nketiah and former president John Mahama has issues with this particular Supreme Court because they never said anything about the Atuguba court when they won the election petition; so I'm saddened to see the revolution in their opinion about the judiciary especially as they're not winning. I think probably they need to take a second look at their representation in court...if you don't get a good lawyer...you cannot blame the system because you didn't like the ruling." Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video TOKYO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Japan's top government spokesperson said Monday the government here will look to closely communicate with South Korea's incoming administration. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press briefing that the Japanese government would use an upcoming visit by a delegation sent by South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party to seek to closely communicate with Yoon's incoming administration. The delegation will comprise lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders. They are scheduled to visit Japan from April 24 to 28, ahead of Yoon's planned inauguration on May 10, government sources here said. They added during the visit, policy talks will be held between the various parties of the South Korean delegation and their Japanese counterparts. Matsuno said that in order for relations to improve between the two sides, close communication would be paramount. "To restore healthy Japan-South Korean relations, we will closely communicate with the new government on the occasion of the delegation's visit to Japan," Matsuno said. Japan and South Korea have been at odds with ties having sunk to their lowest in years owing to discord regarding Japan's compensation for its coercion of women into sexual slavery during World War II and issues pertaining to Japan's use of wartime labor. Matsuno said that bilateral ties remain in an extremely severe state due to these issues but stressed they should not be left as they are and that bilateral cooperation between the two sides was essential. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e83899a938)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838970260)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e83899a938)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838970260)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838911148)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838970260)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838970260)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e834a81ce8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838581768)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838581768)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Terra Bikes "Aria" Details - Frame made in Italy - 29" - Head angle: 64 - Seat angle: 78 - Reach: 465 mm (M) / 485 mm (L) - Chainstays: 455 mm - Seat tube: 400 mm - Head tube: 110 mm - Wheelbase: 1260 mm (M) / 1280 mm (L) - Travel: 180 mm (230 x 65 mm shock) / 165 mm (230 x 55 mm shock) - T47 bottom bracket - Frame weight: 4.1 kg - Price: 4000 Euro (frame without shock) - Website: - Instagram: - Frame made in Italy- 29"- Head angle: 64- Seat angle: 78- Reach: 465 mm (M) / 485 mm (L)- Chainstays: 455 mm- Seat tube: 400 mm- Head tube: 110 mm- Wheelbase: 1260 mm (M) / 1280 mm (L)- Travel: 180 mm (230 x 65 mm shock) / 165 mm (230 x 55 mm shock)- T47 bottom bracket- Frame weight: 4.1 kg- Price: 4000 Euro (frame without shock)- Website: terrabikes.it - Instagram: @terra.bikes Trailmech Enduro hubs Details - Made in Ukraine - Points of Engagement: 50 - Available for various axle standards (weight varies) - Spokes: 28 or 32 j-bend spokes - Colour: Black - Website: - Instagram: - Made in Ukraine- Points of Engagement: 50- Available for various axle standards (weight varies)- Spokes: 28 or 32 j-bend spokes- Colour: Black- Website: trailmech.com/ - Instagram: @trailmech.hubs Actofive Signature cranks Details - Made in Germany - Two piece hollow construction (bonded) - Weight: Well below 500 g - Axle: Dub - Q-factor: 168 mm - Length: 170 mm - Chainring mount: SRAM DM - Colours: raw or anodized - Release: Summer 2022 - Website: - Instagram: - Made in Germany- Two piece hollow construction (bonded)- Weight: Well below 500 g- Axle: Dub- Q-factor: 168 mm- Length: 170 mm- Chainring mount: SRAM DM- Colours: raw or anodized- Release: Summer 2022- Website: www.actofive.com/ - Instagram: @actofive_cycles Lilienthal XT rims Details - Made in Germany - Weight: 435 g (29") / 410 g (27.5") - Inner width: 30 mm - Outer width: 36 mm - Height: 22 mm - Max. weight (rider and bike): 130 kg - Price: 2099 Euro (Lilienthal XT rims with Pirope spokes and Newmen Fade hubs) - Website: - Instagram: - Made in Germany- Weight: 435 g (29") / 410 g (27.5")- Inner width: 30 mm- Outer width: 36 mm- Height: 22 mm- Max. weight (rider and bike): 130 kg- Price: 2099 Euro (Lilienthal XT rims with Pirope spokes and Newmen Fade hubs)- Website: lilienthal.bike/ - Instagram: @lilienthal.bike 612 Parts 612 Parts is also working on this new one-piece stem, but it might take a while until it is launched. Details - Made in Germany, assembled in Switzerland (brake caliper) / Made in Switzerland (disc) - Weight: 111 g (brake caliper) / 203 g (203 mm disc) - Price: 190 Euro (brake caliper) / 70 Euro (203 mm disc) - Website: - Instagram: - Made in Germany, assembled in Switzerland (brake caliper) / Made in Switzerland (disc)- Weight: 111 g (brake caliper) / 203 g (203 mm disc)- Price: 190 Euro (brake caliper) / 70 Euro (203 mm disc)- Website: 612-parts.com/ - Instagram: @612_parts At first glance, the new Terra Bikes "Aria" frame might look like just another high pivot bike. However, it has some special features that make it stand out from the crowd - most notably its very refined i-Track suspenion design.While Terra Bikes is a new and small frame manufacturer from Italy, the team behind i-Track Suspension from Australia have been designing high pivot frames for almost ten years. The collaboration between these two brands has resulted in a bike that Terra Bikes call a game-changer.The key feature of the i-Track Suspension design is the idler pulley which is not attached to the front triangle, but to the rocker. This allows the idler pulley to move along a certain path (or track, hence the name), controlling the length of the upper chainline and the way pedalling forces are transmited to the suspension. According to Terra Bikes, this is not possible with any other suspension design.We're looking at a rather extreme and progressive leverage ratio, which starts at 4.2 (0 mm travel) and ends at 2.05 (180 mm travel). As many other high pivot bikes, the Aria has a very pronounced rearward axle path (up to 25 mm at 130 mm travel), which allows the rear wheel to roll over rocks and roots more easily. The i-Track suspension design also makes sure the pedal kickback, anti-rise and anti-squat numbers are kept in check. If you really want to dive into the details, there are several graphs in the photo album of this article.The frame is welded by Meccano Lab and the machined parts are made by Materia Racing . Both companies are based in Arezzo (Tuscany), Italy. The 3D printed 316L stainless steel frame lugs are made by 3dpbs Kannon Cycles in Germany. Terra Bikes use Dedacciai steel tubing for the Aria frame, as they believe that it offers the best ride quality.Designed for 180 mm forks, the frame can be used with either a 230 x 65 mm or 230 x 55 mm shock. The longer stroke will generate 180 mm of rear travel, the shorter one 165 mm. The frame is designed around common standards such as a ZS44 / ZS 56 head tube, a 148 x 12 mm Boost rear axle with Sram UDH hanger and a 30.9 mm stealth dropper compatible seat tube. The T47 bottom bracket might not be very common (yet?), but there are some really nice options around.Terra Bikes topped off this stunning frame with some very boutique parts from Italy, including a fork from Bright Racing Shocks, a Formula Mod shock, DRC rims as well as a derailleur and crank from Ingrid Components.Everything you wanted to know about the geometry of the Aria frame. Make sure to watch the video in 720p for best results.Trailmech Enduro hubs are made to last. While Trailmech also offers lighter hubs for XC and gravel, these heavy duty hubs were designed for Enduro, Downhill and E-Bikes.At the heart of all Trailmech hubs you'll find their patented Vortex freehub system. The idea behind it is similar to other ratchet style freehubs. The big difference is that the Vortex system uses helical lock-in channels. According to Trailmech, this means that the teeth lock into each other more securely the harder you pedal. This ensures great power transfer and even if you are pedalling really hard, the risk of a failure should be minimal. The engagement mechanism is made from hardened steel to ensure longevity.It's not just the Vortex system that was designed with longevity in mind, it's also the oversized bearings. In many hubs, you'll find 6902 (15x28x7 mm) or 6903 (17x30x7 mm) bearings. Trailmech on the other hand uses bearings with a size of up to 35x47x7 mm (type 6807). Also, the Vortex system is placed completely inside the hub shell to optimize the placement of the bearings. Overall, this results in long service intervalls, according to Trailmech.Please note that despite the current war, the Ukrainian Post is still working and delivering letters and parcels in the vast majority of the country. The team at Trailmech says that it's the easiest for them if you order the hubs from their partners in Europe ( Protens in Germany, Grafworks in Italy and Protocycles for Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), but you can also get in touch with them directly if you want to order Trailmech hubs.Most companies sell rather small products during their first years. Simon from Actofive Cycles did it the other way round: He started with frames and recently launched some really nice chainrings. Soon, the first Actofive cranks will become available.As Simon started his business when he already owned a very big CNC machine, it made sense to make frames right from the start. In the meantime he has perfected the production of his completely machined frames, which allows him to focus on new projects.The Actofive cranks use the same manufacturing techniques as the Actofive frames - machining and bonding. The hollow two-piece cranks arms are bonded and according to Simon, they will be among the lightest aluminium cranks out there. However, he does not yet want to publish a precise weight. Obviously the cranks have the same style as the Actofive frames, which is a good thing.The cranks are designed around the Dub axle standard and will be compatible with SRAM direct mount chainrings. In the beginning, the cranks will only be available with a length of 170 mm, but other lengths might follow in the future. They are currently being tested at EFBE lab in Germany.It's the manufacturing process that makes Lilienthal rims truly unique. Instead of laying carbon sheets into the mould by hand, Lilienthal uses an automated process to make their rims. Bands of non crimp carbon are rolled onto the mould. Rolling the different bands of carbon is a matter of seconds and reduces the risk of human error. The uniform fibre orientation provides a unique look and surface texture. Later, the spoke holes are drilled in-house and the pattern is customized to suit the geometry of the hub.The XT rims are the latest addition to the Lilienthal rim line-up. Weightwise, the XT (435 g for 29") sits between the AM (465 g) and XC (400 g) rims. However, that does not mean that the XT rim can't be used for Enduro. The reason why it is lighter than the AM rim is that Lilienthal does not use their vibration-damping foam in the XT rims, but has added some extra layers of carbon for added strength instead.Apart from regular hubs and spokes, the new XT rims are now also available with very light textile spokes from Pirope . With Pirope spokes and Newmen Fade hubs, the wheelset can be as light as 1350 to 1400 g.Lilienthal rims were recently tested at Zedler Institut in Germany and passed their Advanced Plus test.On the Lilienthal website, you can build your own wheels and choose from many different colour customization options, hubs and more.612 Parts is a new company from Switzerland that will launch some very interesting products this year. Two products are already available on their website: The "Jack the Gripper" 4-piston brake caliper and the "Mohawk" brake disc. Felix, the person behind 612 Parts, is also working on a brake master cylinder, a stem and a chainring.The brake caliper has 16 & 17 mm pistons and is available in DOT and mineral oil versions. It was designed to upgrade your Code RSC or XTR brakes. The distance betweeen the brake pads and the disc is just 0.15 mm, so the free stroke is reduced to a minimum. It has a 6mm hose fitting, so it can be used with braided Goodridge hoses. Felix sent his caliper to EFBE lab in Germany for testing and was very pleased when he got the results. When used with a Code RSC master cylinder, braided Goodridge hoses and Hope sinter pads, his caliper delivered 20% more power than the standard caliper. Head over to the 612 Parts Instagram account to see some detailed test results. Earlier this year I got the chance to try the new calipers and as a fan of minimal freestroke and a clearly defined and hard bite point, I immediately fell in love with them. The brake caliper will be machined in Germany and assembled in Switzerland.While the caliper is available, the master cylinder and brake lever are still in prototyping stage. The photo shows the very first protoype that came to life, but Felix says that he has many more iterations on his computer. He's planning to use a symmetrical design, so the brake levers can be used on the left and right side without troubles. It will have a 9mm piston and will also be available for DOT and mineral oil.The new "Mohawk" disc comes with a thickness of 2.0 mm and is currently only available with a 203 mm diameter. It gets a heat treatment after laser cutting and it's completely made in Switzerland from German steel. Felix says that the hundres of small holes will reduce brake pad wear. Pittsburg native Joe Harris didnt set out to become a highly sought-after leader in the world of business, nor a successful home builder. He originally planned to become a doctor, starting his pre-med classes at Pittsburg State and working at St. Johns Hospital in the cardiology unit. Life took some twists and turns, Harris embraced them, and today hes the CEO of Schuber-Mitchell Homes in Southwest Missouri, one of the top 100 home builders in the U.S. His achievements made him a great choice for this years Meritorious Achievement Award, said PSU President Steve Scott, who presented Harris with the award in a ceremony Friday attended by friends, faculty, his employees, and many family members several of whom also are Gorillas. Harris (BBA 95, MBA 96) came to Pittsburg State after graduating from Pittsburg High School in 1991 and while taking pre-med courses, taking all of his electives in business. I had enough to graduate with a major in business management, he said, and I seemed to excel at it. He met his wife, Danica, at PSU, and knowing that being a doctor would come with work-life balance challenges, decided to jump into the business world with both feet. Offers came rolling in, and he went on to have a career with Koch Industries in Wichita, Sprint in Kansas City, and Leggett & Platt, where he spent 17 years first as an analyst, then an assistant director of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Planning. In 2005, he was promoted to director of Business Development, overseeing new product lines, new technologies, and geographic expansion here and abroad in Europe, Asia, and South America. In 2005, while still at Leggett & Platt, he and his wife formed Harris Homes to provide quality and affordable single-family homes to families in Carl Junction, Joplin, and Webb City. In 2015, he purchased a third of Schuber Mitchell Homes and became a member of the companys leadership team. Now a resident of Carl Junction, Missouri, he serves as CEO and is a member of the board. Its exciting to have opportunities to serve families, to serve communities, and its been an extraordinary growth process, he said. For Southwest Missouri in particular, there hasnt been a large builder focused on this area in as many years as Ive lived here. High quality, affordable housing is so desperately needed. The company has grown to have a presence in 17 cities in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas and employs 150 people, with another 1,500 trade partners who work on Schuber-Mitchell homes. Were on track to build about 800 homes this year, making it one of the top 100 home builders in the U.S., he said. Were also a kingdom company, which means we are guided by our faith and our ministry is part of everything we do. Harris' family are almost all PSU alumni, as well. My family has a long and strong connection to Pitt State, he said. My grandma went here; my dad Dr. James Harris, was a professor in IT for more than 30 years, retiring just a few years ago; my wife earned her elementary ed and masters in administration here; both my brothers and their wives attended; and I now have two nieces at Pitt State. Knowing what PSU did for each of them, he makes it a priority to find ways to give back: he serves on the Kelce College of Business Advisory Board and is a supporter of Campus Christians, among other things. Receiving this award from a place that helped get me to where Im at today is very special, very meaningful, he said. When Michael Robbinson graduated from Pittsburg State University, he quickly rose to the top of his profession, gaining acclaim for achievements related to environmental and safety compliance and best practices. His achievements made him an obvious choice for this years Meritorious Achievement Award, said PSU President Steve Scott, who presented Robbinson with the award in a ceremony Friday attended by friends, family, faculty, staff, and alumni. Its an incredible honor close to my heart, he said. To get an honor like this from an institution you love is so rewarding. Robbinson (BS 78, MS 83) never forgot the foundation of learning he got from the Biology Department, and in retirement still makes time to return to campus when he is able to volunteer in the Sperry Herbarium, assisting Professor Neil Snow in the processing of collected plant specimens. Then, and now, I found it rewarding to always be learning, he said. Among his fondest memories were biology field trips. Going with an expert and your peers a group filled with people who are passionate about what youre passionate about and learning something new was one of the most memorable experiences of college, he said. I think it put me on a path to seek out learning throughout my life. Now retired and living in Lenexa, Kansas, Robbinson earned degrees in Environmental Studies and Biology and propelled himself into a career working with major manufacturing companies in aerospace and defense industries. For more than 25 years, he worked for Hercules Aerospace and later Alliant Techsystems Inc. where he rose to become corporate vice president of Health, Safety, and Environment. He also worked for Honeywell Aerospace, a division of Honeywell International, as vice president of Environment, Safety, Health and Facilities. Robbinson also was a long-time member of the Aerospace Industries Association Environmental Safety & Health Committee. He became vice chair, and later chair, for that committee. He spent the final eight years of his career with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a $16 billion global facilities management and commercial real estate company with 88,000 employees, as vice president of Safety, Health & Environment for the Americas, where he developed best practices in environmental and safety, performance metrics, and tools for use across operating facilities, as well as managed compliance with regulatory requirements. He was selected as one of two global health, safety, and environmental experts supporting one of JLLs highest-profile projects: conducting a management systems audit in Dubai, U.A.E., of the Burj Khalifa Tower the tallest building in the world and the Dubai Mall the largest mall in the world. When retiring from JLL, he earned the Lifetime Achievement Award for Safety. Robbinson has been a leader in numerous professional societies and organizations and has been a sought-after speaker. He is a member of the PSU Heritage Society, and he and his wife, Carol, with whom just celebrated 39 years of marriage, are Legacy members of The Nature Conservancy. A man charged in a Wagener murder was extradited to Aiken County following his arrest in Florida on Jan. 7. Robert Gene Payne II, 29, is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in connection to the Oct. 2, 2021 murder of a Trenton man in Wagener. Acting on a tip, agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Jacksonville Sheriffs Office arrested Robert Gene Payne II, according to a release from the Aiken County Sheriffs Office. Payne was being held in Duval County Jail pending his extradition to Aiken County. The murder On the morning of Oct. 2, 38-year-old Clifton Tyler was shot and killed at his home on the 3000 block of Wagener Road in Wagener, according to a release from the Aiken County Coroners Office. When police entered the residence, they found the victim on the floor with an apparent gunshot wound [redacted], according to an incident report obtained from the Aiken County Sheriffs Office. Tyler was pronounced dead on the scene from at least one gunshot wound, according to the release. Payne was last seen driving away from the Wagener Road location where deputies found the victim deceased from an apparent gunshot wound. He was wanted for murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in connection to Tylers death and was arrested in Florida on Jan. 7. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838540930)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838c54dc0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838540930)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838c54dc0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838579020)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838c54dc0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838c54dc0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83823be48)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838d0f418)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e838d0f418)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 A group of scientists believe the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most widely known dinosaurs, might have actually been three different species. In an academic paper released earlier this year, three researchers, including two from the College of Charleston, said there's evidence to support these claims. "You anticipate that there ought to be multiple species," said College of Charleston professor W. Scott Persons IV. "It would actually be really, really strange if over such a big geologic range ... and given that so many specimens have been found, that we only happened to be finding one particular species within that genus." But several other scientists are skeptical of the claim. "In my view, there's no evidence to suggest there's any more than one species in the last million years of ancient dinosaurs in the American west. There's nothing to even act on," said Thomas Carr, a biology professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin. Tyrannosauruses were discovered more than a century ago. And for a long time, very few of the dinosaurs specimens were available. A renewed interest in dinosaurs started in the '70s and '80s, which led to more specimens being discovered, according to independent researcher Gregory Paul, the lead author on the study. This enabled scientists to look more at the biological variation of the animals. Paul started examining the variation seriously in 2010, around the time that research was showing the formation of new triceratops species, another well-known genus of dinosaur. We also knew there was a lot of variation in tyrannosauruses, more than usual, Paul said. So I was not surprised by the fact or how the evidence came out that there is speciation (the evolution of new species) going on. I was surprised by the way it occurred. Paul, along with Persons and Jay Van Raalte, a C of C graduate with a mathematics degree, examined data of more than 30 specimens and analyzed several features, including teeth, femur and skulls. Van Raalte said the researchers spent days wracking their brains trying to come up with tests to run. They used measurements from skeletal features, including circumferences of skulls and femurs and number of teeth. "And I was just ecstatic when things started coming back that showed actual correlation," Van Raalte said. Paul said he assumed they would find that tyrannosauruses got more massive as the species further evolved. That turned out immediately not to be true, Paul said. Persons said it has been long recognized that some tyrannosaurus specimens are chunky and have thick bones. They are robust in comparison to other, much skinnier skeletons. He said different explanations have been put forward to justify this, including the idea that the robust ones are males and the thinner animals tended to be females. And there was speculation about there possibly being multiple species within the tyrannosaurus genus, Persons said. He, Paul and Van Raalte only looked at existing variation in skeletons, rather than discovering new physical characteristics. So instead, we looked at some of these arguments that had been made about variability within tyrannosaurus; the fact that some of them were skeletally robust, some of them were gracile (skinny) and that there was variability in the form of the teeth, Persons said. In addition to those traits, Persons said they dated the skeletons. Researchers noticed a pattern that showed the tyrannosauruses changing over time and branching into different groups. The animals started with robust skeletons and double sets of teeth. But more recent skeletons seemed to split into two distinct populations: one that retained the strong skeletons and another with much slimmer bones. In their new classification, Tyrannosaurus imperator is the ancestral species, while Tyrannosaurus regina and Tyrannosaurus rex are younger descendants. Regina was the skinniest of the bunch, according to the report. And imperator usually had two slender anterior incisor teeth, while the others didn't, the researchers concluded. Meanwhile, Carr, who is skeptical of the new study, has studied tyrannosaurs since 1999. He serves as the director of the Carthage College's Dinosaur Discovery Museum. He previously published a study on T. rex variation, finding that much of it can be explained by growth. Other variations are just unique features. I had no reason to think that I was studying any more than one species, Carr said, so he was skeptical when a new study was released claiming otherwise. When he read the new paper, Carr said it was clear to him that the evidence for three species was weak. For example, he said tooth count in the T. rex is variable because as the animals grew up, they lost some, making it hard for scientists to know if they are really comparing the same teeth. Another line of evidence, the species' position in time, is also not straightforward, he said. To make the claim that there was an earlier species and two later ones, paleontologists would need to know where the fossils came from in the rocks. People who study dinosaurs know there is a problem with sample size. If there really were a robust form and skinner form of tyrannosaurus, statistical studies show there would need to be anywhere from 35 to 50 individuals of each form to show the difference, according to Carr. "And right now, we're lucky if we have 35 half-decent T. rex to do the sort of work that really needs to be done," Carr said. Paul said he is continuing to do research on the tyrannosaurus and look at skull characters that tend to support their being three species. For this study, he said he analyzed about seven characters, nearly the same amount included in the triceratops study on speciation in 2014. "And nobody made a big fuss about that," Paul said. "All of a sudden, our paper comes out and the people are outraged saying it's only two characters, (physical features) even though a lot of species are defined by two characters." He said there has been an overreaction to his paper with Persons and Van Raalte. The criticism was invalid and didn't characterize the paper correctly, he said. GREENVILLE Former President Donald Trump has given U.S. Rep. William Timmons his endorsement in the two-term Republican congressman's primary challenge, clearing up the central looming question surrounding the District 4 race. The former president, who has endorsed primary challengers in high-profile congressional races along the South Carolina coast, announced the endorsement in a three-sentence statement April 18. In the statement, Trump said Timmons is a "terrific advocate" for the district, which encompasses Greenville and Spartanburg counties. The former president cited Timmons' current service in the Air National Guard and endorsed his record on border security, support for military, abortion, the Second Amendment and holding "Joe Biden and the radical left accountable." "William Timmons has been a steadfast supporter of our America First agenda, and has my complete and total endorsement," Trump said in the statement. Timmons faces three challengers in the June 14 primary. No Democrats or third-party candidates qualified for the general election. Simultaneously, Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who faces no primary challenger for his seat that stretches from Rock Hill to Sumter. Norman will face one of two Democratic challengers, Kevin Eckert or Evangeline Hundley. The question of whether the former president would weigh in on the District 4 race has loomed since Timmons kicked off his re-election campaign in January at his Greenville cross fit gym with the backing of dozens of Republican legislators and party leaders in a show of consolidation among those entrenched in power. Trump has endorsed challengers to incumbents he's deemed disloyal to him. The former president endorsed challenger Katie Arrington against U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace for the Charleston-area District 1 seat following Mace's criticism of him in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. She has tried to attenuate the dust-up over time, including voting against a Congressional committee to investigate the president's role in the insurrection. In the Pee Dee region's District 7, U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump's impeachment a year ago, faces a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in state Rep. Russell Fry. Timmons challengers include Mark Burns, an Easley pastor who gained recognition as an advisor in Trump's state presidential primary victory in 2016 that catapulted him as the frontrunner. Burns has used that connection to boost his candidacy, where in Greenville County the GOP apparatus has faced multiple power struggles revolving around who is most loyal to the former president. Former Timmons advisor and airline pilot George Abuzeid, and retired businessman Michael LaPierre, are also running in the primary. Following the campaign kickoff event in January, Timmons told The Post and Courier that the rift in the county party is "super-complicated" and that he would "stay out of all that." In a statement on the heels of Trump's endorsement, Timmons echoed attacks on President Joe Biden and a Democratic "socialist agenda," and called on his primary challengers to consolidate behind him. "My hope is that the other Republican candidates in this primary and their supporters come together and unify behind my candidacy so we can focus on defeating Democrats and retaking the House majority this November," Timmons said. In this midterm election cycle, Trump has endorsed candidates, both incumbents and challengers, who adhere to his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Following the violent Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters who tried to prevent Congress from certifying Bidens victory, Timmons was one of 147 Republican lawmakers to vote against certifying the results. In the weeks following Trumps defeat, Timmons joined other Republican lawmakers in support of a legal effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court contest the results, which failed. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8384565e0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83846ae88)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8384565e0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83846ae88)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838456f88)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83846ae88)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e83846ae88)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82e8bb5f8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e8384b1088)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e8384b1088)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 The cover of the May-June 2021 issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine features a photograph of yellow pitcher plants by Robert Clark. 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 A violent attack on a child was caught on a stores video surveillance camera and circulated on social media on Monday. A suspect was arrested in connection with the case. Oliver Jasen De Soto, 41, was arrested on suspicion of abuse of the incompetent - neglect, aggravated assault, child abuse - violent, and simple assault, according to prison records. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. He was taken to the Department of Corrections jail on Monday afternoon. The attack occurred at NCS Mart parking lot in Dededo. The surveillance video shows the suspect ran up to the child who was on a bicycle in the store parking lot and allegedly kicked the child, causing the boy to fall to the ground. The suspect is then seen allegedly kicking and punching the child multiple times. The victim had bruises on his face but the boy's parents declined medical attention for the child. Police said officers were called to the scene around 10 a.m. Monday. A witness pointed out to police that the suspect was still in the vicinity, leading to the suspect's arrest. Prison record De Sotos lengthy arrest record dates back to 2000, jail records show. November 2000: Disorderly conduct, public intoxication, resisting arrest, and assault on a peace officer. April 2002: Aggravated assault, family violence and use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony. February 2003: Criminal mischief and family violence. March 2003: Criminal trespass, burglary, and criminal mischief. July 2003: Assault, family violence, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. November 2005: Aggravated assault, terrorizing, and family violence. November 2005: Possession, illegal delivery, dispensing, and manufacturing of a controlled substance, assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. November 2005: Assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. January 2006: Family violence, aggravated assault, and abuse of an incompetent. May 2006: Theft of a motor vehicle. March 2009: Possession of a Schedule I controlled substance, improper storage, open container. January 2013: Terrorizing, family violence, assault against a peace officer, and resisting arrest. February 2015: Assault and family violence. March 2017: Two counts of criminal mischief. April 2017: Harassment, stalking, criminal mischief, terrorizing, and family violence. November 2017: Family violence, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness. CROSSING: Asylum-seeking migrants walk out of the Rio Bravo river after crossing it to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters It was only two years ago that low oil and natural gas prices had depressed major oil and gas company profits so much that ExxonMobil had to borrow money to patch them over. Even before the pandemic arrived, fossil fuel energy stocks reached their lowest share of the S&P 500 in decades (which signaled screaming buy to me). The oil market turned around rather more quickly than I expected, but epicycles of oil and gas pricesand energy company profitsare hardly a brand new phenomenon. So it is with no little amusement that the Washington Post reports that energy companies that are enjoying higher profits right now are using those profits to . . . reward shareholders. Why those evil dastardly capitalists. The nations biggest oil and gas companies have significantly increased stock buybacks and dividends since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, raising questions about whether the firms are using wartime profits to enrich investors instead of curbing Americans pain at the pump, three liberal advocacy groups write in a new report shared exclusively with The Climate 202. . . One could argue that boosting payouts to investors could be a net positive for the climate, should those investors choose to reinvest their money in renewable energy companies rather than fossil fuel firms. But Alan Zibel, research director at Public Citizen and another co-author of the report, questioned whether that scenario was realistic. Gabriel Noronha has some ideas about how Congress might be able to bollix up the nightmarish Iran deal in the making. So long as Nancy Pelosi rules the Democrats control Congress, its not going to happen. However, he adds, it would only take Republican control of one chamber of Congress to dismantle a fledgling deal next yearwhich is precisely what top Republicans are planning to do. Noronha is a former State Department official who continues to dig around in the details of what comes next. We previously drew attention to his March 7 Tablet column on the concessions in process. He adds to that today in the Tablet column headlined How Congress Can Nix Bidens Iran Deal. Noronhas current Tablet column is of interest to me in its description of the inherent guarantees Iran seeks in lieu of an unachievable treaty commitment: Because the U.S. negotiators are unable to provide such a guarantee [i.e., that any economic contracts exempted from sanctions under the deal would remain immune under a subsequent administration], the Iranians are said to be seeking some form of economic compensation to be held in trust by a third party that would be paid to Iran in the event that U.S. sanctions are reimposed. In other words, the United States would pay into a giant trust fund to protect the regime from future sanctions presumably triggered by Irans own malignant behavior. One U.S. government official close to the negotiations told me they doubted the demand would ever be accepted or could even be fashioned in the first place in any way that wouldnt cause even more Democrats to jump ship and oppose the deal. Noronha has much more of interest. Dont miss his section on Putins $10 billion nuclear deal. To borrow the name of an old St. Paul toy store, it is the essence of nonsense. I urge interested readers to take in Noronhas column(s) along with the brilliant Michael Dorans Tablet column Biden Koshers Iranian Terror. Subhead: The administration and its press poodles are trying to normalize Iranian plots to kill Americans on U.S. soil in the pursuit of a nuclear deal that has long outlived any plausible arguments for its usefulness. Officials of Nigerias anti-graft agencies, EFCC and ICPC, say their morale and commitment to work have been affected by the controversial presidential pardon of Jolly Nyame, former governor of Taraba State, and Joshua Dariye, former governor of Plateau State. Both men had been convicted and jailed for stealing state funds. The officials of the two institutions, in separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES, lamented the pardon and accused President Muhammadu Buhari of sabotaging the anti-corruption fight. The officials asked not to be named for fear of victimisation. We used to say our problem in our work against corruption is the judiciary but we see a lack of political will by the president, one EFCC official said. Messrs Nyame and Dariye were pardoned by Mr Buhari despite still serving their jail terms. Mr Dariye, 64, and Mr Nyame, 66, were convicted for mismanaging and stealing public funds while they were governors of their states. But on Thursday, at the National Council of States meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Mr Buhari granted pardon to the two former governors, as well as 157 others, on the grounds of health and age. By granting them pardon, insiders told PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Buhari who rode to power on the campaign of fighting corruption has dampened the morale of the officials of the anti-graft agencies. We used to say our problem in our work against corruption is the judiciary but we see a lack of political will by the president One official said the anti-graft officers would now merely attend work to earn their salaries without passion. People will be taunting us now that a president can pardon a big thief whom we seriously try to prosecute, the official said. The official lamented that the prosecutions of the two former governors took up to 10 years and their eventual convictions were a high point of their work. Staff are angrier because the two former governors were tried for over a decade and got convicted. They are saying that the corrupt public servants even made appeals but their conviction was affirmed by Nigerias apex court, the official said, The official added that some members of staff are querying their moral ground to go pursue other cases of corruption. Another official said he doubts Mr Buhari reviewed the implication of his actions on operatives of the anti-graft agencies. People risked their lives and friendships to investigate the ex-governors. They refused to be compromised. Now it appears all the efforts were in vain, the anti-corruption investigator said. Meanwhile, some non-governmental organisations such as the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and Transparency International (TI) also condemned the pardon granted to the corrupt politicians convicted by the Nigerian courts. The civil society organisations are worried about what they called the effect such ill-thought political pardon will have on the anti-corruption efforts, which constitutes the major agenda and commitment of the current administration. We sincerely hope the processes and objectives of such Presidential pardon will be re-examined and made transparent to avoid bad precedence, especially as the nation moves towards a political transition in the 2023 general elections, a statement signed by CISLACs Executive Director, Auwal Musa, read in parts. Mike Ozekhome, a human rights lawyer and activist, said the official pardon is a major setback to Nigerias fight against corruption. Mr Ozekhome argued that pardoning the corrupt politicians has only validated the public perception of Mr Buharis administrations lop-sided corruption fight. This move goes further to demoralize our anti-corruption agencies who are already facing challenges prosecuting high profile cases of corruption, Mr Ozekhome said in a statement. Some of these cases took over ten years to conclude and with lots of resources committed. He also said: In one case, for example, a witness had to be flown from the United Kingdom to Nigeria at different times with funds from taxpayers. Furthermore, operatives of anti-corruption agencies had to put their lives at risk even to the point of facing physical attacks while these cases were on and suddenly, we read that these individuals have been pardoned. In its statement, on Sunday, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urged President Muhammadu Buhari to use his good offices to urgently review and withdraw the pardon granted to former governors of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, and Taraba State, Rev Jolly Nyame who are serving jail terms for corruption. Presidential pardon for corruption cases is inconsistent with the rule of law, and the public interest, as it undermines the principle of equality before the law. It will undermine public confidence in your governments fight against corruption, and the justice system, the group wrote, quoting a letter it said it wrote to President Buhari. Advertisements The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has joined the race for the presidential seat. His media office stated on Sunday that the minister had been consulting stakeholders in his All Progressives Congress (APC) party as well as stalwarts of opposition political parties. He is scheduled to publicly declare his intention on April 19, the media office stated. It added that Mr Ngige gave his explanation for consulting opposition political parties when he addressed his supporters at Amansea, a border town with Enugu State after visiting Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The media office stated also that Mr Ngiges standpoint was informed by his belief that his aspiration had a cross-party appeal. I visited Enugu State governor as part of my nation-wide consultation. Even though he is in PDP, he is an Igbo man. He is a very realistic, discerning person. Dont forget also that Enugu is the capital of the former Eastern Region. And you know that respect is reciprocal. Over the week, I also consulted some other Nigerians not allied to any political party. Therefore, I had to consult the Enugu State governor over my intention to contest and to seek his views too. He told me to kick the ball into the net. So this journey is not for APC members alone. Our brothers in PDP are easily agreed that I tower above some of the persons aspiring to the position in their party. I have no fear whatsoever. I am equal to the task. Even our brothers in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) will join us in the task ahead, Mr Ngige was quoted as saying. The minister said also that his antecedents, stewardship as a civil servant, governor, senator and minister stood him apart. What we did in Anambra in 34 months, those who did eight years have not done them. I did 34 months during which I laid the foundation for the new Anambra. I didnt just lay the foundation; I also took the house beyond the lintel level. I built schools, returned schools to the missions, rescued Odumegwu Ojukwu University from the status of a glorified secondary school built structures there and secured accreditation for 15 courses including Law and Medicine. I rehabilitated and upgraded our general hospitals, including Enugwu-Ukwu, Onitsha and Amaku in Awka and restructured the states civil service and also introduced examination as basis for promotion. I built more than 500km of roads across all senatorial zones that are still standing today. I also inherited N42 billion debts when I assumed office. I didnt talk about it. I put my hands on the plough and started working and cleared arrears of pensions and salaries, among others, Mr Ngige was also quoted as saying. Mr Ngige added that he had an advantage of being part of this government and part of the 7th Senate. Im well equipped for the job, he stressed. I plan to re-engineer Nigeria the way I re-engineered Anambra. April 19 is the date. Let all roads lead to Alor where the matter will be laid to rest, Mr Ngige quipped. (NAN) Excited about her 23rd birthday, in April 2021, Zainab Oladehinde chose to treat herself to a trip to Zanzibar, the famous archipelago of islands in Tanzania known for its tourist attraction and also known as a haven for spices. Little did Ms Oladehinde, who shared her experience on Twitter, know that she was about to have a whirlwind experience that will change her life forever. Home to about 1.3 million people and rare wildlife, Zanzibar is sometimes referred to as the Spice Islands, due to the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper that are grown there. Tired of holding back the pain caused by her experience, Ms Oladehinde, on Saturday, took to her Twitter handle to share a thread on the incident. Its high time I told my horrible experience in Zanzibar as a young solo female traveller, she tweeted. On April 15, 2021, Ms Oladehinde said, she flew from Lagos to Zanzibar for her 23rd birthday and was extremely excited about it. Even though she had reservations about travelling alone as a female, she embarked on the two-day flight with a layover in Addis Ababa. She had already secured accommodation for six nights at Warere Beach Hotel in Nungwi Zanzibar, she said. On getting to the hotel, I was welcomed by the staff and they showed me my room which had a pool and sea view. Now, this looked like heaven to me and I can remember being so excited as this was going to be my dream birthday holiday, Ms Oladehinde recounted. On settling into her room, she said, she ate dinner and was off to sleep after a long trip with plans of seeing more of the hotel the next day. I had breakfast, went to the pool and the beach which was very nice . I mingled with some Russian couples who were also lodged at the hotel and by evening time, I was already in full birthday mode as it was just a few hours to my birthday. It was finally her birthday (midnight). After taking calls from friends and family wishing her a happy birthday, I went back to my room to sleep. Few hours into my sleep, I started to feel a strange hand touching my breast. Now, this was me sleeping naked on my bed in my hotel room with my doors locked so this was definitely a dream, I told myself and went back to sleep, Ms Oladehinde narrated. Few minutes afterwards, I started to feel my hands stroking someones penis. At this moment, I opened my eyes to confirm if It was actually a dream or I was in real danger. Once she opened her eyes, she realised she was not dreaming. A naked man who she did not know was in her bed caressing and calling her baby. There was a naked man lying on my bed and touching me at 2am in my hotel room! He started calling me baby and then I became scared the room was dark as I had switched off the lights before I went to bed. I asked the man, Who are you? But all he kept saying was baby, baby . I asked in a louder tone this time around, I was getting angry and then he quickly stuffed his hands over my mouth in an attempt to stop me from shouting. Shaken by this act, Ms Oladehinde said, she began to review her options. I became very scared as I didnt know who this was and why this person was in my room. Who is this? Does he have a weapon? Will I get raped and killed on my birthday in a strange land? How did this man get into my room? Should I struggle for my life? Will he rape me and throw me into the ocean directly opposite my room? Should I let him rape me so he may spare my life? Should I run? Will he chase me? While she continued to quiz herself, the stranger got atop her in an attempt to penetrate her. In an attempt to identify the stranger in the dark, Ms Oladehinde said she began to touch his body so Id get some clarity on how to identify him if I ever got out of my room alive. She said she cried profusely while begging him not to rape her but he did not understand English as he kept on speaking Swahili to her. Advertisements He would not stop until she mentioned HIV, which he understood from his pause at the sound of the acronym. He did not understand a word I said but immediately he heard HIV, he paused for a while. I quickly wanted to use the opportunity to run but then he started strangling my neck. I became very scared for my life as I saw my life flash right before me in an instant, she continued to narrate. She continued to use the trigger word until he left the room and told me he would be back with a condom. She however did not state in what language he spoke. PREMIUM TIMES reached out to Ms Oladehinde on Twitter but she did not respond to messages. Once he left her room, she tried to call the hotel reception but there was no intercom or numbers to call. Calls to the police were also not successful, she said. She also sent a message to the hotel owner who she had been in contact with before making the trip. She got dressed and went looking for help outside her room. When she got to the reception and found no one, she remembered the Russian couple who she had earlier fraternised with and found her way to their room where she stayed the rest of the night. She called her driver, Mr Suley, by morning and headed for the police station to report the incident. Before heading to the police station, Ms Oladehinde said she spoke to Mussa, the hotel receptionist, who claimed he received a phone call around 4 a.m. from the hotels owner to go check on her but went back to bed when he could not find her. She also found that $1,100 was missing from her bag. When we got to the police station, I was asked to write my statementthey advised I go to the hospital to go do a check up if I was raped or not. They were all speaking Swahili and were asking me questions instead of interrogating the suspects. When I decided to take a picture of the police station and the statement I had written, the police men started shouting at me and threatening me to delete the pictures I have. Ms Oladehinde said she refused to delete the pictures. Based on that, the police chief at the Nungwi police station said he would not let her get to the hospital for a checkup. She was later allowed to go to the hospital where it was confirmed that there was no penetration. I got back to the police station and the police men said they have no issue for the sexual assault since I was not raped. The only issue here was my stolen money, she wrote. According to Ms Oladehindes account, the police at Nungwi police station kept bullying her, asking her to leave their station as there was no case of rape. Warere Beach Resort in a FaceBook post on Sunday said that the police report indicated that this was a personal case, and not negligence on its part (the hotel). As a woman-owned and operated business, the Warere takes guest safety and the safety of single women travellers extremely seriously, as evidenced by 6 years of verified positive reviews from women all over the world, Warere wrote. It added that it tried its best to support Ms Oladehinde as soon as it learned of the accusations. We immediately brought her to the police and offered her support. The case was brought before Government authorities in April 2021 when it occurred. It added that Ms Oladehinde declined to take the case further even after she was informed that the hotel would abide by damages awarded by the court system of Zanzibar. However, in a post made earlier which the hotel has deleted, it said the suspect was a security official posted to the hotel and not its staff. According to Warere, the suspect claimed Ms Oladehinde invited him to her room for a love affair and when he got to her room, she asked him to get a condom for safety. The hotel noted that the security man confessed to the crime and he had an accomplice in the kitchen staff. The two men were arrested and later released. It said the police advised that the case be pursued in court but Ms Oladehinde declined and would rather go to the district commissioner demanding $10,000 in damages. Ms Oladehinde in her account said lawyers from the Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association, who she had contacted, Tanzania immigration official and the district commissioner Sadifa Khumis reached the agreement that she should be paid $10,000 in damages. She noted that the co-owner of the hotel asked her to press charges against the security company after objecting to paying the damages as requested, insisting that the kitchen staff was not part of the crime. The hotel claimed that Ms Oladehinde threatened to tarnish its image through social media if they did not dance to her tune. PREMIUM TIMES messages to Warere Beach Resort received no response at the time of filing this report. Her lawyers took the case to Zanzibars second vice presidents office but could not get an early appointment which led to Ms Oladehinde extending her stay. On the day of the final meeting at the government house, I noticed the owner of the hotel and the representative of the Vice President were friends as they kept laughing and exchanging pleasantries. During this meeting, I suggested they speak English as I couldnt hear what they were saying. They claimed some of the officials present at the meeting do not understand English. She said her lawyers insisted she could not take the hotel to court as she had limited time to be in court. Ms Oladehinde noted that she no longer felt safe in Zanzibar at this point. After the meeting at the vice presidents office, the security would not let Ms Oladehinde or her lawyers leave without ensuring that she (Ms Oladehinde) had no records of the conversation, she wrote. According to Ms Oladehinde, the incident happened a year ago but she has not been able to talk about it as she has been in therapy. this experience has been the most painful and traumatic experience Ive ever faced in my entire life. In Fact! Im glad Im still alive today to share my story, she wrote. I had my reservations about going to a foreign country as a solo female traveller but none of my thoughts would have prepared me for what I eventually witnessed and experienced in Tanzania, Ms Oladehinde tweeted. Twitter uproar Ms Oladehindes story was followed by an uproar on Twitter by many Nigerians including the chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa. This is a most horrifying experience. One of the first rules in any hotel is to always double lock your room. This is scary. @nidcom_gov will bring this to the attention of Tanzanias high Commissioner to Nigeria, Ms Dabiri-Erewa tweeted. Although it took Ms Oladehinde a year to share her experience, Ms Dabiri-Erewa advised the hotel not to gloss over the matter. Zanzibars Commission for Tourism, disappointed, said it has commenced an immediate investigation into the incident and will report its findings. A Twitter user, Hassan Seun, wrote, I hope @zainabdehinde gets her justice. Also, cases like this should be probed beyond Zainabs. More retrospective justice should be pursued as it is likely there are more victims of this horrendous behaviour. I hope other victims can speak out #Zanzibar. Another Twitter user, Uju Anya, said the lesson from Ms Oladehindes experience should not be that women shouldnt travel alone. Women have a right to occupy public space. The lesson is society must assure womens right to be free and safe in public spaces, she wrote. An angry mob from Twitter have also left negative reviews on the hotels search page including that it is permanently closed. Our Warere website was hacked, today 16 April 2022. Within 3 hours we received over 4,000 negative reviews on Google from people who had never stayed at our hotel, the hotel wrote on Facebook. This hotel has been like this for a very long time now, its not a thing of today, luckily somebody had the guts to talk about My friend once visited there last year and as he went out touring with his wife, he came back only to find out that their bags were searched and their money was stolen along with their gadgets. He tried to talk to the manager about it but they said theyd work on it until they left, till today nothing happened, Miles Montego wrote in the review section. The backlash from angry sympathisers leaving negative reviews on the hotels Google page has led to a nosedive in its ratings from four-star to one star. President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday controversially pardoned two former state governors who were jailed for stealing public funds in 2018 and were yet to serve half the length of their jail terms. The former governors Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State who governed their respective states between 1999 and 2007, were among the 159 convicted persons whose pardon was approved by the Council of State on Thursday. Although the full list of those pardoned and the reasons given for the individual cases are still sketchy, it was learnt that the former governors, both of whom are in their early 60s, got their pardon on the grounds of age and health. It calls back to mind a similar gesture that Mr Buharis predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan, extended to a former Bayelsa State governor, the late Dipreye Alamieyesegha, in March 2013. Mr Jonathan served under Mr Alamieyesegha as deputy governor, from 1999 to 2005. Mr Alamieyesegha, who was removed from office over corruption allegations in 2005, was later convicted after he pleaded guilty to corruption charges at the Federal High Court in Lagos on July 26, 2007. As president, Mr Jonathan pardoned Mr Alamieyesegha in gratitude to a political benefactor who gave him the opportunity to start his political career as Bayelsa State deputy governor. Nigerians responded in outrage. Expressing his displeasure in a letter to Mr Jonathan, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who said he missed the council of state meeting where the pardon was ratified, noted that the action was a wrong way of compensating a political benefactor. Mr President, I know how much you see Alamieyeseigha as your benefactor since he selected you as his running mate which was the beginning of your rise on the political ladder. But there is much to lose as a government and as a nation for taking inappropriate time to please a benefactor no matter how concealed, Mr Obasanjo wrote to the then President Jonathan. Summarising public sensibilities towards the pardon, Mr Obasanjo described it as a demonstration of an absolute lack of political will to fight or confront corruption. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, on his part, said the pardon was unjustifiable and amounted to encouraging corruption. What is going on right now gives the picture of a government that is floundering and justifying the unjustifiable. It amounts to encouragement of corruption, Mr Soyinka said. Some present-day members of President Buharis political family, such as Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, and a serving minister, Festus Keyamo, did not pull any punches in their criticism of the pardon in 2013. They accused Mr Jonathan of not only failing to fight corruption but also of reversing the gains of the anti-corruption efforts of previous administrations. Jonathan pardon Vs Buhari pardon If Mr Jonathans pardon for Mr Alamieyesgha demonstrated an encouragement of corruption and lack of political will to fight it, Mr Buharis pardon for Messrs Dariye and Nyame amounts to emboldening corruption and going a step further to stab the heart of those fighting it. In Mr Jonathans case, Mr Alamieyesegha, the beneficiary of the pardon, was remorseful by pleading guilty to the corruption charges against him at the earliest possible time. Also, his plea of guilt saved a lot of judicial time and taxpayers funds that would have been expended if he had opted for a full-blown trial. Moreover, his pardon also came years after he had completed the jail term imposed on him by the court. A senior lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, who defended the pardon granted to Mr Alamieyesegha in 2013, maintained in an opinion article on Saturday that beyond being remorseful, the former Bayelsa State governor earned it through other ways. Citing a book, The Burden of Service, authored by Mohammed Adoke, who was the Attorney General of the Federation when Mr Jonathan granted the pardon in 2013, Mr Ozekhome said the former Bayelsa State governor had earlier been pardoned by (President) YarAdua, though not gazetted before his death. He added that Mr Alamieyesegha also helped in brokering the peace process that led to amnesty in the restive Niger Delta region that halted oil production. This, the senior lawyer said, in turn, led to stability in the area and reduced pipeline vandalism, kidnapping of expatriates, and thus improved oil production which had plummeted to a state of nadir, leading to national ruckus and impoverishment. The reverse is the case for Messrs Dariye and Nyame who remorselessly dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and his prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs, through 12 to 13 years of tortuous legal battles with millions of naira of taxpayers money expended to assemble witnesses and evidence and pursue endless appeals. This lasted till the Supreme Court in 2020 affirmed a jail term of 12 years for Mr Nyame for stealing about 1.6 billion and a jail term, in 2021, of 10 years for Mr Dariye for stealing N1.16 billion. Advertisements Mr Dariye did not stop there. After the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction on March 12, 2021, he filed an application at the Federal High Court in Abuja to retrieve some properties recovered as proceeds of corruption from him. The judge, Obiora Egwatu, struck out the case on March 7, this year. While Mr Buhari was considering granting him a pardon, the man was filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal insisting on retrieving the proceeds of corruption seized from him. Expressing concerns over the pardon granted to the remorseless convicts, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the Nigerian partner of Transparency International (TI), said some of these cases took over ten years to conclude and with lots of resources committed. In one case, for example, a witness had to be flown from the United Kingdom to Nigeria at different times with funds from taxpayers, the group said in the statement signed by its executive director, Auwal Musa, on Friday. Mr Buhari, thus, erased the toiling of over a decade with a wave of the hand in granting pardon to the high-profile looters. Mr Ozekhome argued that the remorseless Messrs Dariye and Nyame who betrayed their people by stealing from them did not deserve the pardon granted to them. They breached the trust reposed in them. None of them admitted their guilt or wrongdoings until the courts found them guilty, up to the Supreme Court. As a matter of fact, Joshua Dariye was a sitting Senator when the Supreme Court affirmed the 10-year jail term earlier passed on him. What then is the basis for granting pardon to these individuals in a country where corruption is the bane and struts around imperiously like a peacock? Mr Ozekhome said. Ruse anti-corruption war Mr Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), campaigned for office in 2015 by discrediting Mr Jonathans administration as corruption-infested. They also vowed to clear the Augean stable if given the opportunity to govern. It was a campaign promise underpinned by the publics enduring impression of the former dictator as a no-nonsense military general with zero tolerance for corruption. This image of him clung to the heart of many Nigerians since his stint as head of state over 30 years before becoming an elected president in 2015. The much-avowed fight against corruption that Mr Buhari and APC promised to execute has now reached its poignant turning point with the pardon issued to Mr Dariye and Mr Nyame. Some said the pardon has hit the final nail into the coffin of whatever remained of the anti-corruption battle that started floundering soon after it started. Faced with the challenges of the anti-corruption war, Mr Buhari and his administration officials often heap the blame on the judiciary. Recently, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, said the judiciary was to blame for the delay in high-profile corruption cases; an allegation that Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad swiftly denied. The ministers allegation against the judiciary is a sentiment Mr Buhari had expressed more explicitly while announcing the suspension of then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, in January 2019. Mr Buhari accused the Supreme Court under Mr Onnoghens leadership of serially setting persons accused of serious corruption allegations free. It is no secret that this government is dissatisfied with the alarming rate in which the Supreme Court of Nigeria under the oversight of Justice Walter Onnoghen has serially set free, persons accused of the most dire acts of corruption, often on mere technicalities, and after quite a number of them have been convicted by the trial and appellate courts, Mr Buhari had said. But this pardon may have finally put a lie to the allegation that the judiciary is responsible for the shattered anti-corruption war. It also clearly places the president on a higher level of culpability in sabotaging the anti-corruption war. This is proven by the fact that the looting by Messrs Dariye and Nyame outraged the trial judge to the point of sentencing the culprits to 14 years in jail in 2018, although the Supreme Court would later affirm 10 years for Mr Dariye and 12 years for Mr Nyame. I am morally outraged with the facts of this case, the judge, Adebukola Banjoko of the FCT High Court in Gudu, Abuja, (now elevated to the Court of Appeal), said of Mr Nyames looting in her judgement delivered on June 12, 2018. The evidence shows that the defendant and his cohorts behaved like common thieves with unbridled greed, she added. In contrast, Mr Buharis reaction to the judgments on the two men was to bring them out of prison. Citing the case of the controversial withdrawal of the charges against Danjuma Goje, a former Gombe State governor, in 2019, CISLAC said the pardon granted to Messrs Dariye and Nyame is a continuation of the trend of shielding politically exposed persons from accounting for their actions. To Mr Ozekhome, the pardon given to the former governors by Mr Buhari is a tacit support for corruption which the president promised to fight. He added that it shows that once you are a friend of the president or a member of his political party, or his acolyte and supporter, you can get away with any crime. In other words, in Nigeria, corruption surely pays! This becomes more worrisome under a government which made fighting corruption one of its tripodal mantras, Mr Ozekhome said. International implication As the decision hurts Nigerians sensibilities, it also sends a chill to different parts of the world. One of those likely to receive the news with a withering blast of shock is Peter Clerk, who investigated Mr Dariye, as a metropolitan police officer in the United Kingdom in 2004. He, thereafter, shuttled between Nigeria and London over the years to gather evidence for prosecution. Mr Clerk also took the trouble to return to Nigeria after his retirement to testify in the trial of the former governor in 2016. On May 9, 2016, Mr Clerk sat in the witness box for hours, taking the trial judge through his galling findings. He added that a valid arrest warrant was still pending against the former governor, who jumped bail in the UK after he was released in September 2004. It implies that Mr Dariye, despite his pardon by Mr Buhari, remains a fugitive in the United Kingdom, one of Nigerias major partners in the recovery of looted assets. CISLAC captured this succinctly, saying, It is important to state that when convicted individuals who looted billions of naira are released, there is no way that the international community will take Nigerias anti-corruption efforts seriously, especially when attempts are being made to recover stolen assets outside the country. Corruption to get worse The Nigerian constitution under sections 175 and 212 empowers state governors and the president to grant pardons to those found guilty of crimes after consulting with the relevant states advisory body or the council of state. But lawyers say it is a discretionary power that must be sparingly exercised with caution. They argue that it should be used only when there is genuine remorse on the part of the convict. Mr Ozekhome said pardon should be granted as a recognition of a cause worth celebrating, not offensive and fouling the air. Relying on various judicial authorities, the senior lawyer said a pardon relieves the person of all sins, and turns an offender into a new man. He also said it can sometimes mean blotting out all suffering, consequences, and punishments whatsoever that the said conviction may ensure, but not to wipe out the conviction itself. To him, the pardon granted to Messrs Nyame and Dariye was in bad taste, coming shortly after Nigeria was rated the 149th out of 180 most corrupt countries in the world, and the second most corrupt country in West Africa, by Transparency International (TI). On the psychological impact the pardon will have on Nigerians, Mr Ozekhome asked, Where lies the justice for the impoverished people of Plateau and Taraba States who will now watch their tormentors stroll out with red carpet treatment? CISLAC shared the view that the pardon confirms the poor rating of Nigeria on different global indexes and reports like the Corruption Perception Index and the Afro barometer corruption survey which have reported an increase in corruption in Nigeria. It said the effect of the singular ill-advised act of abuse of power is that it will definitely embolden political thieves and unrepentant pilferers of our national commonwealth. Anyway, the stench of the dirty deal may soon be lost in the midst of unending scandals that continually ooze out of government circles. But what will persist for years to come is its demoralising effect on prosecuting agencies and their personnel, as well as the judges who braved all odds and sweated blood to see the cases to their logical conclusion. CISLAC recalled that operatives of anti-corruption agencies had to put their lives at risk even to the point of facing physical attacks while these cases were on and suddenly, we read that these individuals have been pardoned. This will also undercut the prosecuting agencies moral rectitude to investigate and prosecute high-profile personalities; especially those who do not belong to the ruling party. The Unravelling of Muhammadu Buhari Perhaps another poignant takeaway from this is the unravelling of Mr Buhari. Mr Buhari and his then party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), were silent over the pardon granted Mr Alamieyesegha in 2013. Mr Buhari maintained a deafening silence even when many who believed in his forthrightness called on him, as a member of the council of state that ratified the pardon, to publicly dissociate himself from what they saw as a dirty deal. This pardon by him appears to have completed the demystification, revealing a concealed softness that betrays the no-nonsense generals stony outlook of sternness against corruption. That hardcover that has endured for decades has forever been cast away. Valentine Ozigbo, Peoples Democratic Partys (PDP) candidate who lost the November 6, 2021, governorship election in Anambra, has declared his intention to contest in the Anambra South Senatorial District election in 2023. Mr Ozigbos intention was made known in Awka on Sunday by Aziza Uko, director of Media and Communications at Valentine Ozigbo Campaign Organisation. Mr Ozigbo was runner-up in the governorship election won by incumbent Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2021. Ms Uko said her principals decision to run for Senate was in response to the clamour by political associates and people of the district. She said after the governorship election, the clamour for Mr Ozigbo to run for the senatorial seat of Anambra South began with youth groups and political blocs in the state. She said Mr Ozigbo had been widely praised for his style of politics, which was issues-based and devoid of bitterness. Mr Valentine Chineto Ozigbo has accepted the call by his people, the people of Anambra South, and influential voices across Anambra to run for the seat of Anambra Senatorial District in the Senate. He is well-positioned to clinch the ticket at the PDP primary election slated to hold in May because he is the most popular and widely accepted aspirant, Uko said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Ozigbo resigned his appointment as the President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Plc. in 2020 to contest the governorship election. His shot at the governorship seat in Anambra was his first attempt to get into an elective office. (NAN) Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo has expressed optimism that the state will overcome its current travails. The governors Media Adviser, Oguwike Nwachuku, in a release on Sunday, said that Mr Uzodimma gave the assurance in his Easter message at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Parish, Ozuh Omuma, Oru East Local Government Area. Mr Uzodimma enumerated the travails to include the killing of innocent citizens, burning of public and private property, burning of police stations and the killing of policemen, among others. He urged the congregation to join him in beseeching God to touch the heart of those perpetrating the violence to repent in the spirit of Easter as we mark the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He noted that the killings in parts of the state were politically motivated as against reports in some quarters that they were the handiwork of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). According to him, personal property of opposition politicians were hardly affected by the menace in the state, an indication that politicians could not be exonerated from the killings and wanton destruction of property. He called on those behind the dastardly acts to repent quickly before government would go after them, adding that the killing of innocent Imo people must stop henceforth. These are the activities of wicked politicians who are unrepentant and have continued to sponsor the killings of their fellow brothers. They are challenging God because when you are after the creation of God, you are after God. My government is not weak, my government is only God-fearing. The only thing is that we hate to let blood. We cannot allow the killing of innocent citizens and the activities of non-state actors in the form of criminals and hoodlums to overtake the political space , he said. Earlier in his homily, the Parish Priest, Isaac Onwuanumkpa, described Easter as the highest celebration of Christendom. He described the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only connection that links Christians to God through his son. (NAN) Pakistan: World Amateur Radio Day Pakistan's Tribune newspaper reports on World Amateur Radio Day (WARD), taking place today, Monday, April 18 The newspaper says: Modern communication systems may seem robust, but they prove useless during disasters for want of power or due to spotty network coverage. In such emergencies, it is still the good old amateur or ham radio technology that provides communication links and saves lives. As the world observes the Amateur Radio Day on Monday, Asadullah Marwat, 50, vice president of Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS) told Anadolu Agency that this comparatively old communication system has helped to network people and the government in critical times. Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris. Although, from a legal background, his fathers working with walkie-talkies, radio antennas and transmitters had fascinated Marwat from his childhood. We both joined PARS in 1992 and got our licenses. Now both my sons, are also license holders, he said. He urged parents to encourage their children to understand and learn ham radio technology, so they are capable to help people in distress during disasters. Read the full story at https://tribune.com.pk/story/2353032/when-all-else-fails-amateur-radio-rescues-people-in-distress The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, has reversed his rejection of a request by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for the transfer of a case over his ministrys award of a critical maritime security contract to unqualified companies. The chief judge two weeks ago turned down Mr Amaechis request to reassign the case to a vacation judge, claiming the nation was losing revenue as a result of the projects delayed implementation. The judge had in a letter dated April 7, 2022 written by his special assistant, Ambrose Unaeze, rejected Mr Amaechis March 31 request made through his lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi. The case about the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) was filed by a civil society organisation, the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER). The ICTN is an electronic cargo verification system that monitors the shipment of seaborne cargoes and enables a real-time generation of vital data on ships and cargo traffic in and out of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari approved the national security-sensitive maritime contract to a medical company nominated by Mr Amaechi in a process the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) said was embarrassing and illegal. CASER had on December 13, 2021 filed a suit against Mr Amaechi, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the BPP over irregularities in the award of the sensitive contract. Two firms Medtech Scientific Limited and Rozi International Nigeria Limited that got the contract are joined in the suit as defendants. On December 17, 2021, following an ex parte application by CASER, the court restrained all the defendants from taking any further steps concerning the appointment of operators of ICTN. But, in a fresh letter dated April 14, 2022 Justice Tsoho overruled himself and agreed to transfer part of the case marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1587/2021 to a new judge. Violation On March 23, CASERs lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, reported to the judge responsible for the case, Donatus Okorowo, that Mr Amaechi had allegedly violated the courts order of December 17, prompting the judge to endorse the filing of a contempt charge against the minister. Mr Okorowo also directed the suspension of proceedings in the substantive suit to give way to hearing of contempt charge against Mr Amaechi and fixed May 9 for ruling. Rather than wait till May 9, the transportation minister through his lawyer wrote the March 31 letter, claiming utmost urgency, among others and requested that the case against him be reassigned to the courts vacation judge for urgent hearing. The chief judge declined the request. But following another letter by Mr Fagbemi, dated April 13, 2022, Mr Tsoho changed his mind and agreed that a portion of the suit be re-assigned to the courts vacation judge. Justice Tsohos recent letter on April 14, written by his aide, Mr Unaeze, in response to Mr Amaechis second letter, reads: I am directed by the Hon. Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to refer to your letter of 13th April, 2022 in respect of the above subject matter. Having considered the responses as per your letters dated 13th April 2022, 1st April, 2022 respectively, it is noted as follows: that there is presently no indication of any proper or formal application for contempt proceedings. The filing of Form 48 per se does not amount to a contempt application or committal proceedings, in the absence of Form 49 with evidence of the alleged contemnors disobedience obtained after service of Form 48. Therefore, in view of the extreme urgency emphasised with regard to the matter, there is good basis for referring the pending applications to be heard during the Easter vacation. Consequently, our letter dated 7 April, 2022 is cancelled. The pending notice of preliminary objection and the application for joinder in the suit (but not the suit itself) are reassigned to the vacation court for determination. Please accept the assurances of His Lordship, the Hon. Chief Judge. CASER reacts The group that filed the case criticised the decision. In a statement by its executive director, Frank Tietie, CASER argued that it was impossible for Mr Tsohos decision to ensure justice in the case. Thus, the directive that only the preliminary objection be heard by a vacation court leaving the main suit is aimed, in our opinion, at terminating the suit without the court adjudicating on the real issues of corruption and incompetence of the companies, as it should be, he said. We strongly believe that the latest directive of the Chief Judge to transfer the suit as impressed on him by counsel to the Honourable Minister of Transportation. when there is no real urgency, is but just a self-serving one that is not in any way in the interest of Nigerias national security, thereby endangering the peace and welfare of Nigerians. We believe that the course of the administration of justice should run smoothly without any undue pressure. Advertisements To this end, we are very uncomfortable with the latest directive of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court that a suit that is due to be heard in less than one month be transferred to a vacation judge for reasons which he had earlier considered to be highly untenable. The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, says his declaration to contest the governorship election in Delta State is giving the incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, sleepless nights. Mr Agege said this at the thanksgiving reception in honour of the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, at Agbor, Delta State on Sunday. The Deputy Senate President said his declaration also rattled the PDP, the party that has been in control of the state since 1999. They dont want the truth told to the people; they are unhappy for saying the bitter truth. Okowa has not been able to sleep since I told the people the truth, he said. Speaking about the new APC spokesperson, Mr Omo-Agege said Mr Morka is a worthy son of Ika land and a committed member of the APC whose membership of the partys National Working Committee and National Executive Committee would strengthen the influence of Delta State and the South-south geo-political zone. In his reaction, Mr Morka said the ruling party has not been able to tell its story and its achievements under the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. He stated that his role now will be to go out there and tell our story and retake the public space for our party and prepare us properly for what is to come which is the general elections, come 2023. So, I am ready to speak. That is the job I have been given to the best of my ability. He promised to do the job with a lot of vigor, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of candour and to lead evidence-based arguments and facts to our people. Mr Morka also expressed gratitude to Mr Omo-Agege and others for working behind the scene to get him elected at the APC national convention. Earlier, Mr Omo-Agege visited the palace of the Dein of Agbor Kingdom, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Benjamin Keagborekuzi 1. Speaking to the visitors, Mr Keagborekuzi called on politicians from both sides to shun violence and embrace peace. He added: Whether the APC or PDP, we want to take the country forward; but we dont need guns, we dont need the violence. Please bring in your brainpower to take this country to the next level. The monarch said both the APC and the PDP must not see themselves as enemies, instead, they should work towards a better Nigeria. We must bring back peace because its that peace we will use to invigorate and bring business back to this country, which we desperately need right now, the monarch said. Mr Keagborekuzi added that the ongoing construction of the new U.S embassy in Nigeria shows that developed countries still have hope in the country. Therefore, the monarch urged all politicians to work for the development of the nation. Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno has felicitated Christians on their Easter celebration and urged for prayers for the success of the ongoing fight against terrorism and the mass surrender of insurgents. The governor, in a statement on Monday by his Senior Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Isa Gusau, urged Christians and other citizens to pray and reflect on the key message of Easter. He said the message aligned with Borno governments programme that welcomed the mass surrender of insurgents who are undergoing stringent security profiling, disarmament, demobilisation and safe reintegration. He said the procedure would guarantee the full return of sustainable peace in the state. To my understanding, some of the main reflections of the Easter festival are the importance of making sacrifices for the greater good of humanity, having the strength to forgive offenders and being able to re-emerge stronger from serious difficulties In over 12 years of our battles with insurgents (Boko Haram and later ISWAP) Borno State, for the first time, has a golden window that has the potential of ending the insurgency. The mass surrender of over 35,000 fighters and commanders is certainly one of Allahs many miracles towards healing Borno and rest of the North-East. ALSO READ: Gov Zulum reiterates stance on hiring mercenaries to tackle insurgency This mass surrender is a product of the endless prayers citizens across Borno, the North-East, the rest of Nigeria and indeed the world have been offering, seeking Gods intervention to heal Borno State. It is the product of immense sacrifices by the Armed Forces and volunteers. It is a product of repeated calls by political leaders, clergy, elders and traditional rulers, asking insurgents to lay down their arms and embrace peace. We must, therefore, be optimistic in welcoming the likely benefits of disarming, demobilising, rehabilitating and reintegrating mass-surrendered insurgents, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there is drastic reduction in insurgents attacks on civilians in Borno for the past three months, particularly the abduction of travellers along the busy Maiduguri Damaturu road by the insurgents. Meanwhile, the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai North East, Christopher Musa, said that so far more 50,000 insurgents, comprising members of their families and hostages have surrendered. (NAN) Over 463 houses in three local government areas in Cross River have been destroyed by windstorm, out of the 1,326 households worst affected by the the effects of the windstorm. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the affected local government areas were Obudu, Yala and Ogoja. Godwin Tepikor, Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), South South, said his team were conducted round the affected areas by the council officials and youths from the communities on Monday. While in Obudu local government area, the team visited the affected communities of Bewbone, Abonkib, Bebuagbong, Igwo and Okworutung. Mr Tepikor told NAN that the assessment tour followed a save our soul report from the Chairman of Obudu Council area, Boniface Eraye, following the windstorm incident that occurred on April 12, 2022. The disaster affected 503 households and damaged 249 buildings and other household property in Obudu local government area. Also, in Yala local government area, we visited five communities affected by the windstorm. The communities were Okpoma, Otuche, Olachor, Idigbo and Igbekurikor. The assessment followed a save our soul report from the Chairman of the local government, Mr Fabian Ogbeche. We were conducted round the affected areas with officials from the Nigerian Red Cross, the Police, the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency and members of the communities. The incident, which occurred on April 5 2022, affected 486 households, 214 buildings and destroyed household property including economic trees in the affected communities, he said. Similarly, Mr Tepikor said that the windstorm that occurred in Ogoja local government area on April 5 2022, affected Ishibori, Ukelle, Ogboje and Abakpa communities. According to him, 337 households were affected by the disaster, while several houses and property were destroyed, including economic trees. He told NAN that the assessment in Ogoja local government area also followed a distress call from the Chairman of Council, Mr Emmanuel Ishabor. On the whole, the windstorm disaster that affected Yala, Obudu and Ogoja local government areas destroyed over 463 houses and affected 1,326 households, he said. (NAN) The police in Lagos have begun an investigation into the alleged rape video of pupils of Chrisland school, an official said. A mother had earlier claimed that Chrisland concealed the matter from her. Her 10-year-old daughter was involved in sexual activity with another male pupil during a trip to Dubai, which was organised by the school to take part in an international competition. Benjamin Hundeyin, the spokesperson of the police in Lagos, said in a statement on Monday that they have begun an investigation into the matter. The police said their investigation will establish the identities of the players in the video, the true incident in the video, the geographical location of the incident, the alleged threat to life against a student of the school, and circumstances surrounding the alleged repeated pregnancy tests conducted on a student without parental consent. The Command is equally taking cognizance of the cybercrime angle to the whole episode and would not hesitate to enlist the support of the Interpol should the need arise. For a holistic and unbiased investigation, the Command shall be working with relevant ministries, departments, agencies and non-governmental organizations. Closure Following the circulation of the childrens sex tape, the Lagos state government ordered the closure of the school. The school has at least seven branches in the state. The government also warned those in possession or circulating the sex tape to desist from such acts or be ready to spend 14 years in jail as prescribed by the law. In the meantime, all Chrisland schools within Lagos are hereby closed, pending further investigations, the statement said. Suspension Chrisland had suspended the ten-year-old female student for what they described as improper behaviour. In a suspension letter posted by People Gazette newspaper, dated April 14, the school told the parents that their ward was a major participant in a truth-or-dare game with other male pupils. They, however, did not state the nature of punishment meted on the male student involved or the others in the room when the act was done. Legal icon and elder statesman, Afe Babalola, says an interim government should replace the current administration at the expiration of President Muhammadu Buharis tenure in 2023. Mr Babalola, the founder of Afe Babalola University, told a news conference in Ado-Ekiti on Monday that the interim government should be in office for six months to chart a new course for Nigeria. He stressed that the 2023 elections should be suspended until Nigeria has a new-look peoples Constitution which should provide for part-time legislators and non-executive president. Mr Babalola said members of the interim government should be drawn from all living former presidents and vice-presidents; some selected ministers and governors and delegates of prominent professional associations. The professional associations could be the Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Academic Staff Union of Universities and Civil Society Organisations. The elder statesman noted that such delegates should be elected on zero party basis. He said it was regrettable that the current 1999 Constitution, foisted on Nigerians by the military was no longer in tune with the realities of the day. The same Constitution has made politics become not only very attractive, but the only lucrative business in Nigeria today. What this means is that any election that holds under the present scenario will end up producing transactional and recycled leaders, with no ability to turn things around, he said. The university proprietor advised that the new Constitution which should be coordinated by the interim government, should spell out rules and regulations on improved qualifications of those contesting elections. He added that the new Constitution should provide for part-time legislators and not full-time legislators, considering the attendant waste of resources. The new Constitution should also provide that there shall be no salary, but sitting allowances only for lawmakers. It should provide a true federal system of government, instead of the expensive presidential system of government. I suggest parliamentary system of government, with a unicameral legislature. The new Constitution should also provide a body at the local, state and federal levels to screen all aspirants on the sources of their wealth and means of livelihood, criminal record which includes pending suits, Mr Babalola said. The legal luminary added that any person that would become the president of Nigeria should not be older than 60 years of age and must have a varsity degree. (NAN) The publisher of a newspaper, Taraba Truth and Fact Newspaper, Oloye Samuel, Sunday, alleged that his life is being threatened for his critical reporting of politicians in the state. The management of the newspaper in a statement on Sunday said Mr Samuel had learned of a plan to kidnap and assassinate him. It said the plan was hatched during a meeting in Abuja. Some desperate politicians in Taraba State have concluded plans to kidnap and assassinate the Publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts Newspaper, Oloye Ayodele Samuel. This plot is coordinated by a serving federal lawmaker and some of his cohorts who felt disturbed by reportage of the newspaper in recent times. These politicians had through their agent contacted a criminal gang operating within Taraba/Benue border for the hatchet job, the newspapers management said. The statement claimed a credible source told the newspaper that the plot was to kidnap the Publisher, and demand ransom but ensure he is not released alive. The discussion started at the residence of the Federal Lawmaker in a highbrow area of Abuja before moving to Sunnyvale Estate where a meeting with some persons contacted for the deadly job was briefed. The job has been handed over to some boys of the late Gana. They also briefed them of your movements within Jalingo and Abuja, please be very careful. They vowed to take you off the scene ahead of the next election. Its going to be like a case of kidnapping for ransom but the ultimate goal is to get rid of you, they said you are working against their political interest, the Newspaper quoted their source in the statement. One among these desperate politicians who have a governorship ambition had in time past seriously threatened to deal with the Publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts Newspaper over reports he considered offensive. We are calling on security agencies to look into this plot as we are ready to furnish them with all details at our disposal, also a formal complaint would be made available to relevant agencies for proper action. We are also calling on the general public to take note of this threat from those who are afraid of being held accountable by the public through the media. At this point, we will like to restate our commitment to upholding the tenets of the journalism profession and our core focus of informing the people and making public officers accountable to the public. We will never be cowed by threats and intimidations, the statement concluded. The newspaper publisher told PREMIUM TIMES that they have submitted their written petition to the police. I am happy to tell you that the security agents are cooperating on the matter, the said. If forty million Nigerians have mental health challenges, dont you think that some of these people will be general overseers and pastors of churches and Imams in mosques? Some will be Policemen. Some will be medical doctors. Some will be lecturers. Many will be husbands and wives. You need to google bipolar disorder and read about the behaviour of people in this category. Marriage counselling in churches must embrace mental health fitness checks. A Recent Experience A very close person to me once told me of how much abuse he was experiencing from his wife. It was terrible. To protect his wife, he refused to expose the crisis until it reached a climax, after which he invited me to his house. When I saw the innocent wife, I said to myself, this woman cant be doing all what this man has told me. Not until the next morning when I went to the kitchen to get some water. She jumped out of her room, and screamed towards the kitchen, Who is that in my kitchen? I replied, I just want to get some water. To my surprise, she gave me a strict warning never to try that rubbish with her again. I quietly went into the room I was staying, packed my bags, and called the man to inform him that I was leaving. The man laughed at me, because, according to him, it was good for me to experience what had just happened since I had refused to believe all he had recounted about the same woman. Later on we separated, only for him to reach out to me again a few years later that his wife had actually grown worse. So, in 2016, I went to Nigeria for an important engagement. When I arrived, I called him for a brief meeting, where I told him plainly that with the new details he was giving me about his wife, he was going to die very soon. He was scared. But I had to tell him the plain truth. I told him to leave his house and stay away for a while until the madness of the wife could be resolved, and if she still remains unchanged, he may have to escape for his life. I returned abroad. He remained at home despite my counsel. Two years after, they called me that he was dead. I cried like a baby. My wife dropped on the floor weeping profusely because of how good this man had been to us. My mother-in-law, who was with us on a visit from Nigeria at that time, heard my wifes screams and ran out to see her weeping profusely on the floor. We told her, We have just lost one of the dearest people in our life to a needless death. I am yet to recover from the loss, as I still cry in my lonely moments whenever his name comes up in my mind. He was a very caring and loving man. This should tell us that abuse is not just limited to women being on the receiving end, although statistics shows that men are more likely to be the agressors in marriages, instead of women, given their privileged positions of physical strength. It is painful to lose a precious person to an avoidable death Losing a precious person to an avoidable death in marriage is one of the most painful things in the world. I dont think I can ever forget this man I have just described. I have hidden a lot of things about him because some people who know the wife may be reading this and may likely get upset that I am narrating their story on a public platform. That is why I have hidden all the details that may identify the wife, who is still very much alive, but now lonely and miserable. A popular minister of God in Nigeria recently came out in an Instagram live seminar to make a very shocking confession. According to her, I have counselled many ministers wives in Nigeria who told me that their husbands, popular pastors and Bishops, have continued to beat them up. Are these the ministers who will raise disciples and model Christ-like values in members? But Nigerians, themselves, are not looking for pastors that can make them disciples. Does he physically abuse you? See, friends, I dont play around with peoples lives. The first question I ask women in counselling is this, does he physically abuse you? Once I hear the word, yes. The next thing is to tell her to jump out to a safer place. Be safe first, is my priority. With the little experience I have with women in counselling, I will never allow my junior sister or daughter to remain in the arms of a killer, or someone who appears like one. Unfortunately, I dont have girls. All my children are boys. I am doing everything possible to model good fatherhood to them. I have never touched my wife with the tiniest finger in my hand in fifteen years of marriage, much less use a foul language on her before or behind our children. Are you stupid? From my mouth? Never! Dont you think? Never. This is to let you know that not all men are beasts. There are still many godly men out there. Do we disagree? Many times. Do I get angry? Several times. What do I do? I walk away. Sometimes, I drive away to a quiet place to relax. And, of course, I have a great deal of self control; one of the most powerful character traits of disciples of Christ. That is why I tell young people never to build their marriages on transient and ephemeral things like money, fame, or other types of mundane benefits. In fact, love does not prevent marital crises, neither does it unilaterally sustain the success of marriages. Love plus self-control is the greatest formula. Causes of Martial Abuse This problem is a product of our rotten culture, particularly the preponderance of fallen values in the Nigerian society, ably assisted by our evil culture of silence; the evil culture of mens superiority over women and the lawlessness in the Nigerian society at large, where people can do or say whatever they like and get away with it. The church has entered the culture. The culture has entered the church. Rather than the church being the light of the world. The world is now the light of the church. The departure of many church leaders from the message of truth has produced a new generation or carnal and money-driven Christians who go into marriages for personal gains. When the church stopped producing disciples, we started to produce wife beaters and husband abusers. A popular minister of God in Nigeria recently came out in an Instagram live seminar to make a very shocking confession. According to her, I have counselled many ministers wives in Nigeria who told me that their husbands, popular pastors and Bishops, have continued to beat them up. Are these the ministers who will raise disciples and model Christ-like values in members? But Nigerians, themselves, are not looking for pastors that can make them disciples. What we are looking for are miracles, prophecies, money and other mundane things of life that can never produce Christlikeness in us. So, we too are enablers of the current crises in the church Solutions to Marital Abuse First, our churches must wake up and start teaching sound doctrines. Second, the government has also failed woefully. Values have collapsed totally in the society. The youths have no role models again except corrupt politicians, and sexually immoral celebrities who marry and divorce in six months. These are the role models for many of our youths. The media is soaked in corrupt and immoral music and video contents. The politicians are ruining the lives of young ladies, married or unmarried, dangling millions of naira in their eyes for a nightstand. On our campuses, the situation is even much worse. Also, the nations worsening economic crisis, coupled with the lawlessness in the Nigerian society, produces morally bankrupt citizens who go into marriages with vengeance and bitterness. So, we cant solve this problem from the surface. The problem is multi-faceted; that is, it is cultural, economic and spiritual. Consequently, the solution is multidimensional. The church must wake up. the role of mental health has also not been taken very seriously by the church. The Nigerian government recently mentioned that more than forty million Nigerians are suffering from various mental ailments We need a lot of awareness in this aspect. When a mentally deranged person, one suffering from bipolar, psychopathic and sociopathic disorders, among others, is married to another person of a saner mental status, the outcome is always disastrous. The government must wake up to its socio-economic responsibilities. They must know that there is a strong correlation between the socio-economic status of a nation and marital success. When people are poor, angry, depressed and confused, they will take it out on their spouses. Hence, marriages will continue to end up in crisis and troubles. Let me speak for the men. We men must take responsibility to become good role models to our children. When men are better aligned to sound moral values, proper upbringing by parents, real and genuine transformation in Christ, a culture of respect and are generally faithful and responsible, many of our women will be aligned. Second, the role of mental health has also not been taken very seriously by the church. The Nigerian government recently mentioned that more than forty million Nigerians are suffering from various mental ailments. And the government always downplays statistics to avoid panic. So, this number may even be more than this. A mentally ill person is not necessarily a mad person. We need a lot of awareness in this aspect. When a mentally deranged person, one suffering from bipolar, psychopathic and sociopathic disorders, among others, is married to another person of a saner mental status, the outcome is always disastrous. If forty million Nigerians have mental health challenges, dont you think that some of these people will be general overseers and pastors of churches and Imams in mosques? Some will be Policemen. Some will be medical doctors. Some will be lecturers. Many will be husbands and wives. You need to google bipolar disorder and read about the behaviour of people in this category. Marriage counselling in churches must embrace mental health fitness checks. There are many medications and therapies out there to contain these illnesses. But where there is ignorance and/or lack of awareness, a lot of homes will continue to be ruined by mentally deranged partners. My heart goes out to all the godly men and women out there who are experiencing untold abuse from their spouses. Please speak out and where violence is involved, jump out now. If you are suspecting that your spouse is mentally unstable, given his/her behaviour in recent times, please send us a email for a professional mental health assessment with one of our Canada-based mental health professionals. Email address: olundarafoundation@gmail.com Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist, and minister of the word, writes from Canada and can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com. At present, Nigeria is in the grip of a particularly benighted conception of the task of governance. Add the clumsy attempts to resolve the adverse and worsening security situation to the economic one, and you get a sense of the nature of this leadership. Until we wrest the country from this coterie of leaders, then, the progress towards designing solutions to the many challenges Nigeria now faces will be an exercise in futility. More than three decades after flag-independence, Nigeria is at a critical moment in its development. A point of inflection, even. As with most tipping points, the next addition (whether this be an event, process, and or person) to its case load could lead to an irreversible effect or change the fabled straw that finally does the camels back in. On current form, it is fair to think that this change, whatever the trigger and however it comes about, will be a negative event in other words, that this ill-starred camel will finally succumb to its burden rather than soldier on. Interestingly, the pass we are at in this chapter of accidents is in spite of the fact that (and not because) we have general elections scheduled for next year. Or that the politicking ahead of these elections have not been anything to write home about. Instead, a sneak peek at the content of most missives sent back home this season will reveal an increasing concern with how the cost of living has risen so rapidly over the last four years, that living is becoming impossible. The relevant authorities continue to argue that the rising costs of living in Nigeria is a trade-off that the citizenry must bear for the economic growth that they are engineering. The difficulty with this take is that we are invited to conclude that this must be growth that is not designed to produce jobs. For one, the unemployment rate for the country is so high that the misery index long crossed the 50 per cent mark. Amongst the youth, and this is not to belabour the point, joblessness is even worse. The strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on the other hand, raises the question of the nature of government investment designed to drive growth. One could be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that the challenge of the current election cycle is to find candidates for political office across the three tiers of government with clear perspectives on how to wrestle with these myriad economic challenges from next year. Alas, the story of how we ended up in the current cul-de-sac suggests otherwise. If not in social capital, then where is governments spend going? Infrastructure, I am often told. But basic costs continue to rise. Especially for businesses. This ordinarily means that the investment in infrastructure is either of a variety that has a long lag between being put in place and when it positively impacts the economy. Or (perish the thought) government may have been spending the wrong sums on the wrong things (remember that the potential returns on investment in social capital is much higher in economies like ours than that from investment in infrastructure). Either way, businesses, small, medium and big, formal and informal, are complaining of the effect of the diminution in final demand on their custom. Where they can no longer raise prices without alienating what is left of their customer base, and thus go out of business, most manufacturers have resorted to shrinkflation (that, incidentally, is the proper name for what we call satchetisation). Then, there is the increasingly immediate worry over the huge debt burden that the country now bears. The examples of Argentina, and most recently Sri Lanka, are not comforting in this regard. We now owe money to a new sovereign lender China which does not appear willing to play by the old rules whereby sovereign creditors members of the Paris Club (remember them?) agree to a debt restructuring package with a highly-indebted low income country, so long as the latter puts in place reorganisation plans with the International Monetary Funds imprimatur on it. Aside from which, a growing share of our indebtedness is to London Club-type creditors. These prefer to get their monies back, including through court arbitration that attaches the debtor countrys assets abroad to the judgement debt. One could be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that the challenge of the current election cycle is to find candidates for political office across the three tiers of government with clear perspectives on how to wrestle with these myriad economic challenges from next year. Alas, the story of how we ended up in the current cul-de-sac suggests otherwise. At present, Nigeria is in the grip of a particularly benighted conception of the task of governance. Add the clumsy attempts to resolve the adverse and worsening security situation to the economic one, and you get a sense of the nature of this leadership. Until we wrest the country from this coterie of leaders, then, the progress towards designing solutions to the many challenges Nigeria now faces will be an exercise in futility. Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manque and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin. I think the Lagos government has to develop a global model and take the lead in partnership with private entities. I like the initiative at a school in Ajegunle where parents are paying school fees with plastic bottles. What about poor households paying their refuse disposal fees with plastic bottles? What about the supermarkets running a reward scheme where customers receive a token or discount for plastic bottles returned? What about discounts for not collecting plastic bags at supermarkets? If you pay close attention to the bodies of water around Lagos, you are bound to be overtaken by emotions. It could be embarrassment, anger, wonder or whatever else. Without doubt, there is little to be proud of about our management of water bodies and treatment of waste, especially plastic in this city-state. A check on the drains in different parts of Lagos Island, Ikoyi and Lekki would make one throw up. Often clogged and filthy, I always wonder how the residents, many of whom are high networth individuals, are able to live with these. I always wonder how they are able to breathe. There are two photographs here: One (above) is of a drain on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, nestled between a major bank and a petrol retail major, as I saw it last week. It has been that way in the last one month that I have regularly walked past the place. It is an eyesore. How these corporates are able to carry on business with this unsightly neighbour, I will never know. The storm water drains are clogged, yet the rainy season is yet to come. Then, the plastics. Three years ago, I had this to say about the opportunity we have in our waste : Waste as Opportunity One of the opportunities we have on account of being at the bottom of the ladder in our quest for development, is that we can leapfrog over some of the stages, not having to go through the route some developed societies took, which advancement in technology have now rendered obsolete or anachronistic. We can tap into new technologies, new thinking, new products, taking advantage of our endowments, avoiding mistakes made by others, turning our state and the challenges we face into opportunities. Some of the possible areas to key into for opportunities include clean energy generation and the management of urban and industrial waste. As urbanisation began to swallow the world up, cities developed all sorts of initiatives to deal with the downside of urban living. What Lagos needs to do more is find a way to adopt some of these best practices in a sustainable manner. On waste management, we missed the opportunity to leapfrog our way into a sustainable model when we launched the LAWMA-PSP initiative. At the point of introducing the scheme, which took a lot of effort to sell, we might, as well, have incorporated the waste separation model into it, with sorting done at the point of generation. Well, it is not late in the day, as many still struggle with the LAWMA model till late, preferring to indiscriminately dispose their waste. Some of our educated folks still throw out waste from their cars onto the highway, even now. But then, all is never lost. With every challenge there is an opportunity. Nine years ago, I was in Berlin. One of the shocks for me was that at the Supermarket, one was expected to come with his carrier bag, as the Supermarket would not package stuff bought in plastic bags. If you do not come with a bag and are not able or willing to carry items bought in your hand, you have to pay for the plastic(nylon) bag to have one. The essence was simply to discourage the use of plastic bags. Then this, the system also allows or encourages, I should say, the return of plastic bottles to the Supermarket for a token. So, while you pay a fine for wanting a plastic bag, you are rewarded for returning a plastic bottle. The incentivisation of the process is what I found most instructive. In many other countries, the practice of sorting your waste, at point of generation has become standard. I think a fine does come with not sorting suff properly, in some places. I think the way to go in making the Lagos model work lies with incorporating incentives at all levels of engagement. There are a few start-ups and initiatives in Lagos who have tried to run with some models, paying people some little money for plastic bottles and running different reward systems. Not surprised that the impact has not been as should be. I can imagine the challenges with logistics and sustainability that might be there. I have been waiting, for years now, for one such company to come pick up my bags of plastic bottles, as they promised. I think the Lagos government has to develop a global model and take the lead in partnership with private entities. I like the initiative at a school in Ajegunle where parents are paying school fees with plastic bottles. What about poor households paying their refuse disposal fees with plastic bottles? What about the supermarkets running a reward scheme where customers receive a token or discount for plastic bottles returned? What about discounts for not collecting plastic bags at supermarkets? What about households receiving discount on refuse disposal fees for sorting their waste? What about estates being rewarded for waste management initiatives? The little things. We have to fix the little things. The solution lies with the little things. Not much has changed since then. But LAWMA has in place a reward model, with people who sort their waste receiving some discount off their dues. Not sure many know about this. I doubt that the level of enlightenment is as it should or could be. We have to fix the little things. It is in fixing the little things that we get to fix the big things. Simbo Olorunfemi works for Hoofbeatdotcom, a Nigerian Communications Consultancy and publisher of Africa Enterprise. Twitter: @simboolorunfemi St. Albert students call astronaut in space using ham radio Rocky Mountain Outlook report a group of high school students got the chance to spend 10 minutes talking with a working Canadian astronaut aboard the International Space Station The story by Kevin Ma says: Hailing frequencies were open at St. Albert Catholic High on Monday [April 11] as students held a live chat with a Canadian aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As the rest of their school listened in, about 12 SACHS students asked questions of Canadian astronaut Mark Pathy KO4WFH via amateur radio April 11. The conversation was made possible by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, which back in 2013 allowed Sir George Simpson students to speak with astronaut Chris Hadfield while the latter was aboard the ISS. SACHS was one of the 10 schools in Canada set to talk to Pathy during his mission through this program, said teacher Hilary Gabelmann. Ecole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite dYouville and Ecole Marie Poburan students were scheduled to speak with Pathy on April 13 and 14, respectively. SACHS got this chance in September after a parent working on Pathys space mission told the school about the ARISS program, Gabelmann said. Students formed a space club, researched space science, and launched a weather balloon in preparation for the event. They compiled a list of questions for Pathy six weeks ago, and on April 8 watched as he took off from the Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Read the full story at https://www.rmotoday.com/beyond-local/st-albert-students-call-astronaut-in-space-5259359 Amateur Radio on the International Space Station https://ariss.org/ Sekibo is also a brilliant writer. His book, Leadership Turnaround, unveils the principles to get the best out of corporate entities and to keep them running at profit for generations. In 175 pages, he explains the principles and strategies that can help entrepreneurs. He argues that a lot of businesses make the mistake of wanting to go global all in the name of globalisation when glocalisation consideration of the local environment is the way. The banking industry in Nigeria has a rich history. This history is also replete with trials and triumphs. The turbulences, notwithstanding, the industry remains standing, and it is also thriving. When its story is told, one name that the writers cannot afford to miss out on is Ifiesimama Melvin Precious Sekibo, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Aside from the CIBN and ICAN, he also holds the fellowship of several professional Institutes such as the Institute of Directors; the Institute of Petroleum, London; the Nigerian Institute of Management; and the Institute of Credit Administration. A quiet operator, Dr Ifie Sekibo as he is better known sits atop Heritage Bank, an institution whose name embodies its managing directors status as a man with the skills for returning moribund businesses to the path of profitability. One of the first things he did to make Heritage Bank stand out was to sit with a former bank owner and discuss why his bank failed. From their discussion, he learnt many lessons which came in handy in running Heritage Bank and making it a force to reckon with, despite its background as a bank that was moribund for no less than a decade. Sekibo, who was born on April 18, 1965, has been Heritage Banks Managing Director since 2012 and the bank has grown beyond many peoples expectations. From zero he has made a hero of the bank. He has pieced carcasses together and what has emerged is an institution with a future not only bright but worth waiting for. This is assured by its innovations that are almost second to none in the industry. His rich educational background sure provides the block for what he has built. He holds a degree in Accountancy from the University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School OPM Class of 2006 to 2009. His doctorate from the London Post Graduate Credit Management College, UK, an affiliate of American University, London, is in Credit Management. A firm believer in training and retraining, Dr Sekibo is always eager to learn more and as such he regularly attends international seminars, workshops and courses in banking, insurance, marketing, and finance, among others. His rich career trajectory began as an Auditor II with the Rivers State Governments Audit Department in 1988, where he got the right mentorship that propelled him towards a bright future. After his stint with the Rivers State government, the KPMG in Lagos was his next point of call as an Audit Trainee in 1989. He later joined ELF Nigeria Limited as a Cost Controller. Between 1991 and 1997, he was an Assistant Manager with the Investment Banking and Trust Company Limited. By the time he left there for Rims Merchant Bank Limited in 2000, his assured rise was no longer in doubt. He served as a member of the executive management till 2002, a task he combined with his position as Financial Controller/ Head of Administration of Monipulo Limited (Petroleum Development) from 1999 to 2002. By 2003, International Energy Insurance Plc (IEI) could not resist his managerial charms and he used them to the companys advantage as its Executive Vice-Chairman till 2009. It was after garnering all these experiences that he led a team of brilliant professionals to wake up Societe Generale Bank after years of being in a coma. The team turned it into an innovative commercial bank with a regional outlook and it also marked the beginning of his Heritage Banking Company Limited journey. His deft handling of the process that led to Heritage Banks acquisition of Enterprise Bank in 2014 was a game-changer for the bank, as it got it the nod of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a national banker operating all over Nigeria. But an issue the bank glossed over in its acquisition of Enterprise Bank almost dealt it a fatal blow. After acquiring Enterprise Bank, it was discovered that there were so many litigations against it in the courts. The resolution of this not only made it bigger, but it also made it better and stronger. Under Sekibo, the bank that began as a mustard seed has germinated into a tree with headquarters in Lagos, 127 branches, 202 automated banking centres and 350 ATMs across Nigeria, and offering top-notch services in retail banking, corporate banking, online/internet banking, investment banking and asset management services. With its tapestry of unparalleled services, the awards have kept rolling in. They include Best SME Bank in Nigeria, which was awarded by the Capital Finance International (CFI) in 2018, Agriculture Bank of the Year, which it won at the Nigeria Agriculture Awards (NAA) in 2018, and many more. Sekibo believes so much in grooming the next generation of leaders. He creates time out of an understandably tight schedule to mentor the youths through business forums within and outside Nigeria. He always emphasises entrepreneurship when he mentors the young ones because of his unshakeable belief that youth mentorship is a pathway to economic development. His trust in the young ones obviously makes him see no merit in the belief that anyone less than 40 is not fit to lead Nigeria, citing the fact that failed African states are led by people who have been in power for decades. This banker of note who strongly believes Africa does not need aid, but an equal partnership of long-term investment is not just about banking and mentoring; he is a lover and promoter of culture. He solely supports SEKI DANCE, a dance in the Niger Delta and has sponsored the publication of books in languages in the Niger Delta. One of such books is Let Us Speak Ikwerre (A KWU IWNUROHHNA). The book was originally written in the English language by Oyintarela Ebiere Umeri and translated to the Ikwerre language by Tony Enyia, an indigene of Rumuor-Ogbakari, Emohua Local Government of Rivers State. Sekibo sponsored the Niger Delta Books Limited to launch an audio CD in the Kirike, a dialect spoken in Okrika, Rivers State. It is titled Speak Kirike. His support for writing books in all Niger Delta languages is to preserve local dialects and he believes in catching them young, a belief which drives his campaign for children to speak their local dialects. The idea of converting English to our local dialect wasnt mine, I stumbled into it by chance. I was invited by my bosom friend, Timi Alaibe, to the launching of Izon fie, a book written in the Izon language, so I felt if people can think of printing books in the Ijaw language, why cant we do the same for all Niger Delta languages? And I decided at the event that I will be ready to fund or sponsor the production of these printable books in our language. Not just Izon but in all Niger Delta languages. So, I decided to set out with languages in Rivers State and Bayelsa State. So, we did Kirike Fie, which is the dialect of Okrika in Rivers State and I found out it was very successful, so I decided to give sponsorship for other languages which include Ikwerre, Kalabari, Ekpeye, Nembe and Ogoni languages. We need to act fast before our dialects go into extinction. So, we plan to introduce the books in other local dialects of different states across the Niger Delta, Sekibo explains. He is facilitating the distribution of books in local dialects free to all the schools and colleges in the Niger Delta. When my son greets me in my dialect, which is Okrika, it is a great deal for me. So, we as parents need to encourage them in speaking our dialects. Some of the children would love to speak but they do not have access to reference books that will help them. This is one of the major reasons we took it upon ourselves to support this cause, he says. Sekibo is also a brilliant writer. His book, Leadership Turnaround, unveils the principles to get the best out of corporate entities and to keep them running at profit for generations. In 175 pages, he explains the principles and strategies that can help entrepreneurs. He argues that a lot of businesses make the mistake of wanting to go global all in the name of globalisation when glocalisation consideration of the local environment is the way. He stresses the importance of unity of purpose in an organisation and uses the Biblical tower of Babel to show that without unity of purpose progress is impossible. Advertisements With the book, he demonstrates that an organisations vision is nothing without leadership and the teams right attitude and blames lack of foresight and others for the inability of businesses in Nigeria to survive generations of the founding family. As he gets set for more years of service to the world, Nigeria, the Niger Delta, the youths and more, I wish him a happy 57th birthday and more successes. Sampson Sagbama, an ex-banker, sent this piece from Abuja. A rare positive note as Nigeria spirals into a state of lawlessness is the unintended return to the front burner of longstanding issues around governance at the subnational level. Until now, such issues have bubbled under the surface, receiving fleeting attention only when the countrys perennial crisis threatens to boil over, only to subside as soon as a temporary fix is found. Penultimate week, after still unidentified assailants opened fire on an Abuja-Kaduna train, killing eight passengers and kidnapping tens of others for ransom, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, emerging from a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, threatened to do whatever it takes to protect lives and property across the state, including importing mercenaries from outside the country to do it. The governors frustration is understandable. While bandits have cut a swathe through the entire country, in recent times, the strategic northwestern state of Kaduna appears to have suffered more than most. According to an official security report, 1,192 people were murdered in the state by bandits in 2021 alone. A new report by the Abuja-based Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) estimates that violent crime across the northwest has claimed more than 12,000 lives while displacing over a million people. Following the Abuja-Kaduna train tragedy, another attack on a Nigerian military base in Birnin Gwari Kaduna (sixty-two miles from Kaduna, the state capital) by bandits reportedly carrying heavy weapons including a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) left eleven soldiers dead. According to reports in the Nigerian media, no fewer than 714 soldiers have been killed by terrorists in the past eighteen months. El-Rufai has never been shy of resorting to unconventional solutions, going as far as offering financial compensation to aggrieved Fulani herdsmen from Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, and Niger Republic believed to have orchestrated the spate of killings across the southern part of the state in 2016. While the 2016 settlement did raise more than a few eyebrows, the threat to import mercenaries has been greeted with almost universal condemnation, with most commentators appearing to agree that the governor lacks the legal authority to invite foreign combatants into the country. Both the pan-northern sociopolitical organization, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and its Yoruba counterpart, Afenifere, were quick to condemn the move. El-Rufais threat to import mercenaries has not occurred in a vacuum. The involvement of mercenaries in African conflicts has expanded steadily since the 1990s when Executive Outcomes and Sandline (originating out of South Africa and the United Kingdom respectively), provided military assistance to the highest bidder in exchange for diamond and oil concessions. In recent times, mercenaries have featured prominently in the conflicts in Darfur (western Sudan), Chad, and Libya, while the Russian Wagner Group continues to be active in Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Central African Republic (CAR), and Mali, where they are engaged in protecting the ruling or emerging governing elites and critical infrastructures. With general elections looming in 2015, the previous Goodluck Jonathan administration imported hundreds of mercenaries from South Africa to help quell the Boko Haram insurgency. Mercenaries, suffice to say, are a dubious asset, their battlefield success always liable to being offset by their tendency to worsen conflict and threaten stability. In any event, recourse to them by African states is ironic considering their otherwise strident rhetoric around sovereignty and territorial integrity. Whether or not El-Rufai gets his way, his threat reveals cracks in the Nigerian security architecture that successive administrations have papered over. The most directly relevant concerns policing, responsibility for which is constitutionally vested in the Nigerian Federal Government (FG). Size is a nagging issue. Of a total workforce of 400,000, some 150,000 police officers are attached at any given time to private individuals and companies in Nigeria, thus, leaving the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) permanently short-handed. Pay being low and morale even lower, police officers regularly moonlight on their time off. Because of this and other problems associated with the privatization of policing in Nigeria, states have clamored for decentralization through the creation of state police. In the southwestern region of the country where the clamor has been at its most insistent, six states banded together in January 2020 to establish a regional paramilitary outfit, Amotekun (leopard in Yoruba language), to complement the work of the police. The federal government has declared the outfit illegal. While southwestern states may view the establishment of Amotekun as a significant step in the long march towards true federalism, the unwitting insight from the move is the reliance of states themselves on nonstate violence and private actors. Instructively, Amotekun drew on sundry vigilante and local civil defense groups, including the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), a Yoruba interest group which has been accused of using violence to pursue its objectives. Apart from diverting enormous resources towards private entrepreneurs and entities, state mobilization of nonstate violence stokes division and violence within civil society because it invariably empowers a group of actors to the detriment of others. The ongoing power struggle within the Lagos branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) is partly a reflection of this dynamic. In turn, nonstate actors have leveraged the opportunity to accumulate social and political power, blurring the distinction between militant and politician on the one hand, and between state and nonstate violence on the other. In a nutshell, other than being outward facing and emerging from the subnational level, El-Rufais threat to outsource state security to nonstate actors is nothing unusual in the country; if anything, it captures an essential truth about the character of state power as authorities struggle to contend with a surge in violence by assorted rogue actors. For a long time, even as it shirked its basic statutory responsibilities, continued monopoly of violence meant that the state retained a certain aura and remained the most consequential actor in the political arena. While it still largely is, the possible loss of that monopoly (the readiness to look for external help is an admission more or less) raises important questions about what the state has become and the reality of statehood. Going forward, the fundamental question is not whether El-Rufai, or indeed any of the other beleaguered governors, goes looking for help. Given the imperative, the real question is what avenues desperate state officials across the country will turn to as they face a fight to rein in increasingly emboldened actors, some of whom, ironically, they played a part in creating and unleashing. Ebenezer Obadare is Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy. The Lagos State government announced on Monday the shutdown of all Chrisland Schools in the state following an alleged sexual violation involving some pupils during an international trip. The school has at least seven branches in the state. The development comes months after the state also shut down Dowen College, following the controversial death of Sylvester Oromoni. The alleged sexual violation happened when Chrisland School was in Dubai in March to take part in the World School Games, a four-day annual competition with schools from all over the world. The news of the alleged sexual violation came to the fore when Ubi Franklin, a talent manager, accused the school of complicity in the sexual violation involving the minor and another male pupil. Just got off the phone with a friend of mine His 10-year-old daughter was selected to represent her school at the World School Games in Dubai, he wrote on Sunday night via his Twitter handle. His daughter was r**ped by fellow students, video tapped and posted on Instagram and the school concealed it for a month. Chrisland is not new to sexual controversy. In 2018, a court convicted a 46-year-old teacher of the school, Adegboyega Adenekan, for raping a two-year-old female pupil. School closure The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to the alleged sexual violence case involving students of Chrisland school, the statement reads. It is pertinent to note that all allegations are being investigated by the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including the Ministry of Education, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Ministry of Justice and the Lagos State Domestic & Sexual Violence Agency, whilst the criminal allegations have been escalated to the Commissioner of Police. The government also warned those in possession or circulating the sex tape to desist from such acts or be ready to spend 14 years in jail as prescribed by the law. In the meantime, all Chrisland schools within Lagos are hereby closed, pending further investigations, the statement continued. Ordeal Hours after Mr Franklin broke the news, he posted a video of the mother of the female minor narrating how the school concealed the matter from her. The mother said a parent who had seen the explicit video had informed her. The woman, who didnt mention her name, said she got a call from the school headteacher, G.I Azike, to come to the school. When I got to the school, I met her with two other women in her office. And one introduced herself as Mrs Kemi, I cant remember her surname, she said. They said they came from Chrisland headquarters. That they wanted me to know that my daughter whom I left in their care, who they took to Dubai. That she had a kiss with a boy and the boy also kissed her and that they found out that they got the kissing thing from Truth and Dare. So, I said okay The woman told the school that she was going to seize her daughters phone following the report to prevent further a recurrence. I asked if there was anything else, they said no, she continued She further said that they advised her not to disclose the discussion to her husband by Mrs Kemi. According to her, about two to three weeks later, the school management invited her again, this time to a virtual meeting with the board of directors. And one, in particular, said he was Akin, he was the one leading thehe began by saying if there is no forgiveness, if there is no sin there is no forgiveness, she recounted. He was speaking in parables, at a time, I had to ask what are you people discussing? He now said no, that he just wanted to do a follow-up to ensure that I have withdrawn(name withheld) phone to check in how she is doing. I said she is fine. He now made a comment that when it happened. I said sir, what happened. He said(name withheld) did not tell you? I said she didnt tell me anything. Advertisements The mother said that after pestering the management without result, the meeting ended. Two days later, a parent from the school called her to inform her about what is trending in Chrisland, that all the parents are aware. So, immediately I informed my husband. Look at what is going on, then we began to call Mrs Azike, she refused to pick up her call. I called her more than 20 times and she didnt respond to the call but later I think she spoke with my husband and she said that she didnt know anything if such a thing existed, the mother said. The woman, thereafter, said she asked her daughter and she confessed to her that Mrs Azike has threatened her not to speak out. So, she narrated how it happened, how they abandoned them in the hotel, and how she got into this thing. So, even on our behalf, they have been having meetings, they have been sending delegates from their headquarters to have meetings with my daughter without my consent. I was not aware. We were not informed. Suspension Chrisland suspended the ten-year-old female student for what they described as improper behaviour. In a suspension letter posted by People Gazette newspaper, dated April 14, the school told the parents that their ward was a major participant in a truth-or-dare game with other male pupils. They, however, did not state the nature of punishment meted on the male student involved or the others in the room when the act was done. Growth of end-use industries including power, oil & gas, mining, chemicals, pulp & paper, and others has increased the growth of the global circuit breakers market. PORTLAND, Ore., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Circuit Breakers Market by Voltage (Low, Medium, High), by Insulation Type (Vacuum, Air, Gas, Oil), by Installation (Indoor, Outdoor), by End User (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Utilities): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030". As per the report, the global circuit breakers industry accounted for $9.4 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $17.8 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2021 to 2030. Major determinants of the market growth The growth of end-use industries including power, oil & gas, mining, chemicals, pulp & paper, and others and involvement of domestic governments, non-profit organizations, and international financial institutions have increased the growth of the global circuit breakers market. However, greenhouse gas emission from the SF6 circuit breaker hinders the market growth. On the contrary, surge in consumption of electricity and rise in use of circuit breakers in energy-related areas would open new opportunities in the future. Download Sample PDF (300 Pages PDF with Insights): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5709 Covid-19 scenario: The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in shutdown of several industrial operations including manufacturing, construction, renewable energy, and other infrastructure installations. In addition, ban on international import & export and manufacturing activities decreased the demand for circuit breakers from consumers. Unavailability of workers and surge in demand-supply gap hampered the circuit breaker market. The high segment dominated the market growth By voltage, the high segment held the largest share in 2020, accounting for nearly half of the global circuit breakers market, due to applications in commercial, industrial, and utilities sectors. However, the low segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period, owing to rise in demand for low voltage circuit breakers from residential and commercial users. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Circuit Breakers Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/5709?reqfor=covid The residential segment to manifest the highest CAGR through 2030 By end user, the residential segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period, as residential sector is the largest consumer of circuit breakers. However, the utilities segment is expected to hold the largest share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the global circuit breakers market, due to increase in demand for electricity from developing and developed economies. Asia-Pacific, followed by North America, held the largest share By region, the global circuit breakers market across Asia-Pacific, followed by North America, dominated the market in 2020, holding around one-third of the market, due to presence of key market players and huge consumer base in the region. However, the market across Europe is expected to register the highest CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period, owing to rapid expansion of renewable energy sector, rapid expansion of the renewable energy sector, and increased investment toward upgradation of aged power infrastructure. Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/5709 Major market players ABB, Ltd. Eaton Corporation Plc Alstom Kirloskar Electric Furukawa Group Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Powell Industries Siemens AG Schneider Electric Toshiba Corporation Interested in Procure Data? Visit Here: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/circuit-breakers-market/purchase-options Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenueTrial Similar Reports We Have: Low voltage circuit breaker market is projected to reach $4.4 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2020 to 2027. Instrument transformers market is projected to reach $13.0 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2021 to 2030. Energy harvesting system market is projected to reach $1,057.7 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2021 to 2030. High Voltage Capacitor Market is projected to reach $30.3 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.9% from 2021 to 2030. Medium Voltage Cable Market is projected to reach $49.1 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2020 to 2030. Electric Service Companies (ESCO) Market is projected to reach $49.6 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2021 to 2030. Static VAR Compensator Market is projected to reach $1,135.4 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2021 to 2030. High Voltage Cables Market is projected to reach $23.4 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 6.0% from 2020 to 2027. Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount: DC Circuit Breaker Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 GFCI Receptacles Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Air Circuit Breaker Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2029 Generator Circuit Breakers Market Global Opportunity Analysis and Forecasts, 2022-2029 Switchgear Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026 Molded Case Circuit Breakers Market: Global Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212028 Electric Utilities Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Energy Cable Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 About us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact us: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: 1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow us on: LinkedIn Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research CHICAGO, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Middle East Cybersecurity Market with COVID-19 Analysis, by Component (Solutions and Services), Security Type (Network Security, Endpoint Security, Cloud Security, Database Security), Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Middle East Cybersecurity Market size is projected to grow from USD 20.3 billion in 2022 to USD 44.7 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.1% during the forecast period. The increased sophistication of cyberattacks across heavy industries to result in financial and reputational losses, stringent government regulations, and cyberattacks due to the proliferation of digitalization are anticipated to be the major market drivers. The need to adopt necessary steps in advance for securing the overall security posture and technological advancements in cloud and IoT has bolstered potential use cases across verticals. Browse in-depth TOC on "Middle East Cybersecurity Market" 252 Tables 39 Figures 282 Pages Ask for Report Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=121119697 The network security segment to play a key role in the Middle East Cybersecurity Market The network security segment is estimated to have the largest market size during the forecast period. With the growth of COVID-19-related adaption in remote working practices, the network of enterprises in the Middle East has been jeopardized. Organizations are adopting measures to combat the situation and are collaborating with security vendors to manage the situation effectively. Increasing vulnerability on the network in the energy and utilities, BFSI, and IT and ITeS industry verticals are triggering the growth of the Middle East Cybersecurity Market. The healthcare vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the Middle East Cybersecurity Market The healthcare industry vertical is expected to contribute the largest market share and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2022 to 2027 in the Middle East Cybersecurity Market due to the technological proliferation of healthcare applications and increased instances of data thefts in the sector. The government and defense sector is expected to grow at the second-highest CAGR from 2022 to 2027 in the Middle East Cybersecurity Market, due to increasing instances of cyberattacks on the government sector and the government-regulated oil and gas companies. The demand for cybersecurity solutions is rising, as the adoption of these solutions provides advanced protection from cyber threats without affecting the operational efficiency. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expected to contribute the largest market share, whereas Israel is projected to grow at the highest rate Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expected to have the largest market share and dominate the Middle East Cybersecurity Market from 2022 to 2027, due to the need to safeguard enterprises in various industrial verticals such as BFSI, energy and utilities, government and defense, healthcare, IT and ITeS and others from advanced threats. Israel offers potential growth opportunities in the Middle East Cybersecurity Market, as there is a wide presence of SMEs that are turning towards cybersecurity solutions to efficiently safeguard their business endpoints, network, application, and cloud environment. Speak to Research Expert: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=121119697 Market Players: The market players profiled in this report include IBM (US), Cisco (US), Palo Alto Networks (US), Check Point (Israel), Trend Micro (Japan), Fortinet (US), NortonLifeLock (US), Sophos (UK), Kaspersky (Russia), Trellix (US), DTS Solution (UAE), RAS Infotech (UAE), spiderSilk (UAE), CYBERSEC CONSULTING (UAE), AHAD (UAE), CodeGreen (UAE), LogRhythm (US), Malwarebytes (US), Safe Decision (KSA), Security Matterz (KSA), Infratech (KSA), Cato Networks (Israel), Help AG (UAE), Cysiv (Egypt), and CyberGate (UAE). These players offer cybersecurity solutions and services to cater to the demands and needs of customers. Major growth strategies adopted by these players include partnerships, collaborations and agreements, and new product launches/product enhancements. Related Reports: Threat Intelligence Market with COVID-19 Analysis, by Component (Solutions, Services), Application, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical (BFSI, IT and ITeS, Retail, and Healthcare and Life Sciences) and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 Cybersecurity Market with Covid-19 Impact Analysis by Component (Software, Hardware, and Services), Software (IAM, Encryption, APT, Firewall), Security Type, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/middle-east-cyber-security-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/middle-east-cyber-security.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg SOURCE MarketsandMarkets PROVO, Utah, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alpine Air Express, Inc. ("Alpine" or "the Company"), a leading regional air cargo carrier providing critical air infrastructure supporting a wide range of integrated logistics operations throughout North America, announced that it has acquired Suburban Air Freight Inc. ("Suburban"). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This strategic addition marks Alpine's second acquisition since becoming a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, LP ("AEI"), a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. Alpine also acquired the assets of Great Lakes Airlines in 2020. Headquartered in Provo, Utah, Alpine is a leading Part-135 air cargo operator with a long and distinguished history of providing its customers with safe and reliable air cargo transportation services. Alpine operates a growing fleet of more than 50 active aircraft and owns a proprietary Supplemental Type Certificate ("STC") to convert the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from passenger to cargo configuration, providing a unique value proposition to its blue-chip customers such as UPS, U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and others. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Omaha, NE, Suburban is a Part-135 regional air cargo carrier providing dedicated air cargo services to DHL and other leading customers. Much like Alpine, Suburban primarily operates a fleet of Beech 1900s and operates a highly complementary integrated maintenance operations team. Suburban's leadership team of Geoff Gallup and Jay Armstrong will remain with the Company to help transition Suburban into this next chapter and assist with the integration into Alpine. "Suburban is a leading regional air cargo carrier with a reputation for quality service and safety," said Michael Dancy, CEO of Alpine Air. "The addition of Suburban and its talented team significantly expands our Company and its market position, enabling us to better serve our new and existing customers." "Growing e-commerce activity, faster delivery requirements and supply chain complexity has increased the demand for large scale, reliable regional air cargo service providers," said Jon Nemo, Senior Partner at AEI. "We have invested significantly in Alpine, including this strategic addition of Suburban, to create a leading provider of critical air cargo infrastructure capable of meeting this growing demand." "Safe and reliable service has also been our key focus while providing additional routes to better serve our customers, and as part of Alpine, we'll have greater resources to realize both objectives," said Mr. Gallup. "We look forward to partnering with both the Alpine and AEI teams as we expand our business." BDO served as financial advisor and Akerman served as legal advisor to AIpine. Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith was the legal advisor to Suburban. About Alpine Air Express Headquartered in Provo, Utah, Alpine is a leading a leading regional air cargo carrier providing critical air infrastructure supporting a wide range of integrated logistics operations throughout North America. Alpine operates a growing fleet of aircraft and owns a proprietary Supplemental Type Certificate ("STC") to convert the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from passenger configuration to cargo configuration, making it the largest single pilot cargo aircraft in the world. For more information, please visit www.alpine-air.com. About AE Industrial Partners AE Industrial Partners is a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. AE Industrial Partners invests in market-leading companies that can benefit from its deep industry knowledge, operating experience, and relationships throughout its target markets. AE Industrial Partners is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and the ILPA Diversity in Action initiative. Learn more at www.aeroequity.com. CONTACT: Lambert Jennifer Hurson 845-507-0571 [email protected] or Caroline Luz 203-656-2829 [email protected] SOURCE AE Industrial Partners PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrei Damian, M.D., F.A.C.C., is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Prominent Physician for his dedication to the Medical field and in acknowledgment of his work at Cardiovascular Consultants Inc. Andrei Damian For more than 35 years, Dr. Andrei Damian has been helping patients in the Phoenix, Arizona area find quality healthcare. He has years of experience creating healthcare models that benefit the consumer and allow them to pay less for high-quality care. Dr. Damian has expertise in creating value-added contracts while actively collaborating on healthcare models. To obtain his education, Dr. Damian attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned a Doctor of Medicine degree. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC). Dr. Damian established Lifeprint Healthcare in 2000 to help create private equity-based outpatient services. Today the company is one of the largest cardiovascular groups in Phoenix, where Dr. Damian along with his staff provide exceptional services at a lower cost. The company currently covers eight hospitals, including locations in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Peoria, Glendale, and Fountain Hills. They offer both in-person and telehealth visits at a lower price point average compared to what patients might pay at a traditional hospital or healthcare facility. Dr. Damian was the President of IRMS in Phoenix, AZ, from 2012-2016, becoming a board member and healthcare consultant in 2012. Dr. Damian began work as the President of CVC in 2017 overseeing the company's sales and acquisition. He attributes his success to continuous innovation, and his important work on the front lines. He plans to continue to solidify his vertically-integrated cardiovascular services on a fee-for-service model. For more information, visit https://cvcheart.com/ Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Updates to Technology Rise in Demand as More Employees Return to Office and Work from Home MONUMENT, Colo., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Coronavirus has reshaped how businesses use their data networks. Now, as COVID-19 restrictions lift and evolve in Colorado and across the country, one of the biggest technology demands for companies is Network Installation upgrades. Dan Carlson Rick Limas The pandemic magnified the need for businesses to rely on an agile, flexible, and dynamic network infrastructure. From healthcare to government, to education, more people working in office and remotely has taxed older infrastructures. IT equipment, servers, switchers, and routers are at risk of coming to end of life now right as they're relied on more heavily for employees. Stepping up to that need is netRelevance, a Colorado based company specializing in Technology deployments for companies nationwide. "Organizations need more modern Network hardware to support new wireless and remote capabilities," says Daniel Carlson, National Account Manager at netRelevance. "The demand is rising as the pandemic's original strain has eased. More people have funds now to buy an upgrade, and get newer equipment. And we're seeing it across the board." Even with many returning to offices, there's a need for flexibility to support employees working off-site. To meet online customer demand, businesses are struggling to have enough bandwidth to handle the surge in demand for data. netRelevance has served hundreds of businesses as a single point of contact for network and wireless upgrades to WiFi 6, adding wireless access points and updating network hardware. With a national team of partners, they're able to provide their networking solutions nationwide. If a client wants to deploy a widget across the country, they can do it in a matter of days. "If you don't have an in-house IT specialist, we can have someone onsite for you quickly with our Working Hands network," says Carlson. "Whether you need work stations and equipment moved to meet social distancing requirements, re-run data cabling and upgrades, we can be there to do it for you." Whether it's network cabling, wireless networking or data center build outs, they will assign a dedicated Service Manager to each project who ensures the workflow is efficient while maintaining a high level of service and quality. Find more about netRelevance's Network services at www.netrelevance.com . About netRelevance Inc.: netRelevance LLC is a national technology deployment organization that specializes in the rollout of network infrastructures, data center build out, voice and data cabling, audio/video equipment, network routers, switches, wireless networks, audio & public address systems, computer room build out, and IP based security camera systems for commercial businesses. Founded in 2007, the netRelevance team has over 50 years of industry experience. Contact: Anita Brown Operations Specialist office: 408-217-0131 mobile: 408-202-7230 Email: [email protected] SOURCE netRelevance April is Lineman Appreciation Month in Georgia, with April 18 recognized across the country as Lineman Appreciation Day. While working to install and maintain electrical line equipment is a highly rewarding career field for thousands of Americans, it can also be treacherous with lineworkers often facing extremely challenging conditions in the field especially following severe weather like hurricanes and tornadoes. Rigorous training and education programs for lineworkers are critical to help prepare them to work safely in real world conditions and the role they play in providing reliable electrical service for millions of Georgians. "We're proud of our longstanding relationship with the Technical College System of Georgia, and for the positive impact of the programs we have developed to help support our state's need for highly skilled and well-trained lineworkers," said Chris Womack, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. "As we work every day to build Georgia's energy future, we need workers on the line, delivering for our customers and all Georgians. It truly takes partnerships across the public and private sector to cultivate that much needed pipeline and give our state's youth a path forward into these critical trade roles." "The partnership between Georgia Power and Georgia Northwestern Technical College's Polk County Campus dates back nearly 15 years," said Dr. Heidi Popham, president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College. "The addition of the lineworker program at the campus reinforces Georgia Power's continued commitment and investment in providing a skilled workforce. Georgia Power has proven to be one of GNTC's most committed partners. We are grateful for their continued support of GNTC and technical education. It is through partnerships like this that GNTC is able to provide opportunities for students and to meet the workforce needs of the communities we serve." In addition to the new program at GNTC, Georgia Power has partnered for years with the Technical College System of Georgia to create lineworker programs at other multiple institutions including Atlanta Technical College; Coastal Pines Technical College; North Georgia Technical College; South Georgia Technical College; Southern Regional Technical College; and West Georgia Technical College. In addition, the company supports Electric Utility Technology (EUT) programs at Lanier Technical College and Savannah Technical College. Georgia Power is actively hiring qualified line personnel, with career opportunities also existing at the state's Electric Membership Cooperatives (EMCs) and municipal power providers. Visit www.PoweringCareers.com to learn more about becoming a lineworker with Georgia Power, and visit www.GeorgiaPower.com/ThankALineman to get to know the people behind the power and sign a digital thank you card for the state's lineworkers during Lineman Appreciation Month. About Georgia Power Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the Company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the Company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the Company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power). About Georgia Northwestern Technical College Georgia Northwestern Technical College provides quality workforce education to the citizens of northwest Georgia. Students have the opportunity to earn an associate degree, diploma or a certificate in aviation, business, health, industrial or public service career paths. This past year, 11,134 people benefited from GNTC's credit and noncredit programs. GNTC has an annual credit enrollment of 8,528 students and an additional enrollment of 2,606 people through adult education, continuing education, business and industry training and Georgia Quick Start. For more information about GNTC, visit us at www.GNTC.edu. GNTC is a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia and an Equal Opportunity Institution. SOURCE Georgia Power The funding enables EX-Fusion to accelerate the development of the continuous target supply system (CTSS) and the laser target tracking system (LTTS), both fundamental systems for the commercialization of laser powered nuclear fusion reactors. By combining the two systems, EX-Fusion aims to demonstrate the feasibility of high frequency repetition laser plasma experiments using high power pulse lasers and to demonstrate the ability to continuously generate neutrons in sequential laser fusion reactions. EX-Fusion was co-founded between Kazuki Matsuo, postdoctoral research fellow at University of California San Diego, Shinsuke Fujioka, professor at the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University, and Yoshitaka Mori, associate professor at the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries. "We believe that nuclear fusion is the solution for meeting our global energy needs and helping the world reach carbon neutrality by 2050," said Matsuo. "And by focusing our research and development around the fundamental technology related to commercial operation of laser-based nuclear fusion, we can achieve safe and affordable clean energy faster. This initial funding will kick start our efforts to build the two systems, continuous target supply system and laser target tracking system, which will prove that continuous target injection as well as laser targeting can be achieved at or above 10Hz." Masahiro Sameshima, Partner at ANRI, said, "I have been encouraging researchers to establish their own ventures with the hope of creating a nuclear fusion venture that could become a new power source in Japan. I am thrilled to be supporting the launch of EX-Fusion from the beginning. Investment in fusion ventures is accelerating around the world toward the realization of fusion technology, and Japan is lagging far behind in terms of the amount of funds raised. However, we are not pessimistic about this, and are determined to help refine EX-Fusion's original technology and prove that we can compete on the world stage. Furthermore, we hope to apply this laser technology to various fields such as processing of metal materials and semiconductor manufacturing." Yousuke Hirai, Investment Principle at OUVC, said, "I am very excited to be investing into the EX-Fusion team whose goal is to provide the ultimate clean energy in the form of commercial nuclear fusion power. While we realize that laser based nuclear fusion is one of many forms of nuclear fusion, there have been rapid advancements in the field of laser fusion recently and thus is considered one of the most commercially viable methods amongst various nuclear fusion methods. By taking the learnings from the research conducted at Osaka University over the past 50 years, EX-Fusion will lead the advancement of laser nuclear fusion and pave the path to commercialization of the technology." EX-Fusion is collaborating with the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE) at Osaka University, the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries (GPI) as well as multiple private sector corporations in its development of these technologies. The joint development project with ILE involves the development of the CTSS, which will allow for material targets to be placed inside the fusion reaction chamber continuously, consistently and congruently against the high powered pulse laser system. The collaboration with GPI will be focused on developing the LTTS, which will allow for real-time alignment of multiple lasers such that it can direct the energy at maximum efficiency towards the reactor target. About EX-Fusion EX-Fusion is a Japan-based private company aiming to develop the first commercial laser based nuclear fusion reactor for power generation. Laser fusion is a method of obtaining energy by using a high power laser to compress a mixture of deuterium and tritium to high density and heat it to high temperature, causing a nuclear fusion reaction. Research is being conducted mainly in the US, Japan, France, the UK, China, and Russia. In the U.S., in August 2021, an experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a fusion output of 1.35 megajoules, which is more than 70% of the laser input energy. This demonstrated that it is possible to ignite and burn fusion fuel using a laser method. On the other hand, in order to realize a commercial reactor, it is necessary to (i) improve the efficiency of fusion reaction generation, i.e., to achieve a fusion power that exceeds the laser input energy, and (ii) to generate a steady-state fusion reaction with a repetition rate of about 10 Hz and to recover the fusion energy and convert it into consumable energy forms such as electricity and hydrogen. In Japan, for (i) improving the efficiency of fusion reaction generation, we are focusing on the fast ignition method, in which high-density fusion fuel is externally heated by a laser, which is expected to increase the efficiency, and experiments are being conducted using the GEKKO XII and LFEX lasers at the Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE), Osaka University. The founder, Kazuki Matsuo is one of the lead researchers on fast ignition and is the world record holder for fast ignition type of reaction [1]. The recent results have been referred to in the summary of the world fusion research published by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) in the United States [2]. Furthermore, as for (ii) fusion generation by high frequency repetition lasers, our executive officer Mori, as a core member of the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries (GPI), has been conducting joint research with Toyota Motor Corporation and other partner institutions using high power lasers developed by Hamamatsu Photonics [3]. Our company was established to consolidate the knowledge of laser fusion that has been cultivated in Japan and to realize a commercial laser fusion reactor. Currently, we are transferring the 10Hz continuous target feeding system [4] owned by the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries to our company. With this technology as our core technology, we will start our research and development with the support of our partner institutions. For further information, please visit: www.ex-fusion.com. [1] K. Matsuo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 35001 (2020). [2] Samuel E. Wurzel, Scott C. Hsu arXiv:2105.10954v4 (2022) [3] Laser Fusion CANDY GPI/Hamamatsu by Y. Mori (Chapter 6), Nuttal W J, WebbeWood D, Konishi S, Takeda S, Commercializing Fusion Energy: How Small Businesses are Transforming Big Science (IOP Publishing Ltd., London,2021). [4] Y. Mori et al., "Ten hertz beads pellet injection and laser engagement" Nucl. Fusion 62, 036028 (2022) Contact: Koichi Masuda [email protected] SOURCE EX-Fusion After the sepoy mutiny, India saw the power of the Company replaced by the British crown and the country became a British colony by all definitions. Colonial powers suck too much and that could not be tolerated by it's subjects. by Pradip Kumar Dutta It is well known to all of us that the Indian subcontinent was under the colonial rule of British imperialists for close to two centuries. The first century was under the British East India Company which had a mandate of doing business of all sorts including slave trade and at the same time to maintain a private army to take control of areas where they traded and rule those areas as virtual colonies. The Company,by royal charter, maintained their army and other law enforcers,collected revenue,administered judiciary functions and could penalise subjects upto the limit of capital punishment. This went on from 1757 after the battle of Plassey if not earlier. In 1857 the Indian sepoys of the Company revolted because of different reasons which are beyond the scope of discussion of the present topic. Though,freedom from colonial struggle was not the primary aim of 1857 Sepoy mutiny,it spread like wildfire and swept the entire Indian population barring British boot lickers to rise against the British company. Some enthusiastic rebels even persuaded the aging name sake Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Jafar(whose jurisdiction was by then restricted to the walled portion of Delhi and who lived on a privy purse allowed by the British) to claim sovereignty. The unable,old and unwilling descendant of once mighty House of Mughals complied and consequently met a tragic end. That part too we will skip today. Even the great Karl Marx has also termed this Sepoy mutiny as the first Freedom Struggle of India. Though many other historians have different opinions. One of the greatest Bengali Historian Prof RC Majumder,who taught and headed our prestigious Dhaka University was firmly of the opinion that the real impetus to the Freedom Movement from British colonial rule was given by the youth revolutionaries who were disillusioned by the too slow ction of Indian politicians and the infight between them which prompted them to take up arms to fight the colonisers. After the sepoy mutiny, India saw the power of the Company replaced by the British crown and the country became a British colony by all definitions. Colonial powers suck too much and that could not be tolerated by it's subjects. Political activities and resentment grew.Brute power and booty to boot lickers were the answers of the masters. The revolutionary youth of the subcontinent were not happy with their mainstream politicians and they started forming their secret organisations which they thought will be the tools to drive the oppressors away by force. Examples: Alipore Bomb case,Khudiram and Prafulla Chaki,Kakori case,Udhanm Singh and so on.and so forth. They thought,their actions will activate the nation and ignite within them the flame of freedom from injustice and will unite them to a fierce anti colonial struggle which will grow like waves to drown the oppressing foreigners. Worldwide too,the twentieth century was to see the demise of colonialism and new form of exploitation of the by then developed capitalism was in the offing. Under this backdrop the great revolutionary action by the Chittagong youth led by legendary Masterda SurjyoSen(Surya Sen) took place. This valiant action could keep Chittagong free of British occupation for four days from 18April 1930 to 22nd April 1930. In history the heroic action goes by the name Chittagong Youth Revolution or Chittagong Armoury Raid. It was a severe blow to the British powers and they dealt with the action as brutally as they could. By their terms,it was looting of Chittagong Armoury. There were never any shortage of Mirzafars in this land. Those Bengalis,who were not much favourable towards this action also terms it Chattogram Astragar Loonthon(loot of Chittagong armoury). Some Bengali writers and publishers also had made this historical mistake. We consider the Colonialists including the Britishers as exploiters and looters of our wealth. Even those arms taken possession of by the revolutionary youth were bought with our wealth.So,we consider that the brave boys took over our own wealth by force from the British.It was the British and their cronies who coined the revolutionary youth as looters or dacoits. To us,the Bengalis and the people of the subcontinent they were and will always remain Heroes of the highest order.Our deepest respect to them will remain for all time to come. If not for their exemplary self-sacrificing all out armed attacks,Netaji's desperate attack with his Azad Hind Fauz, the British Indian Naval forces mutiny and such other vital incidents the Independence of the subcontinent may not have happened in 1947. However,lets discuss the 1930 Chittagong Armoury Raid or the Chittagong Youth Revolution,as named by the revolutionary leader Masterda himself,in a little more detail. During the WW1 the tricky British proposed to the Indian political leaders that if the Indians support and fight for the Allied forces in the WW1 the Indian demand for self-rule will be met. Accordingly the mainstream Indian political leaders persuaded thier people to join the British Indian Army. The semi sovereign Indian Kingdoms and Nawab/Sultan ruled entities also fought for the Allied forces. But as soon as the war against Axis forces of Austro -Hungary,Turkey and Germany/Prussia was won,all promises were forgotten. The Indian leaders were left with an empty bowl. The Muslims were particularly frustrated at the disslution of Othman caliphate. In early 20's of 20th century simultaneously the Noncooperation movement by Gandhiji and the Khilafat movement by Moulana brothers started in tandem. Though the movements could master enough popular support but it did not possess the steam to make the necessary outburst of revolutionary movement to compel the rulers being pushed against the wall. The movements slowly started losing steam and slowed down. This infuriated the young guards of freedom and revolution. The then Secretary of Chittagong district Indian Congress Surjyo Sen alias Masterda(he actually was an innocent looking mathematics teacher in a school)chalked out his own program. He had innumerable young supporters who were ready to sacrifice their own life in the alter of freedom of the country anytime. They only waited orders from their leader. Masterda fixed the D Day to be 18april 1930. He chalked out a meticulous plan. In his plan we find deep influence of Irish Sinn Fein revolutioneries. Ireland too was fighting against the British crown around that time.A group of 64 selected youth were divided into several groups. By evening of that day the railway link between Chittagong and rest of the British India was severed near Feni. Telephone exchange was attacked and the communication with rest of the country was broken. The Armoury of the Auxiliary forces was taken over. Chittagong Club attack was abandoned because it was closed due to easter. The main target,the Police line Armoury was attacked.The British defenders fled and the Armoury and the police HQ was taken over. Masterda was given a full Guard of Honour as the Provisional Head of the IRA government of Chittagong. The district was declared free. All Britishers left the city and took refuge in the ships in Karnafully and Bay of Bengal. Masterda knew that they could not hold this Independence for long as whole of India was not prepared. He wanted to create an example. Wanted to kindle the fire of revolution. He withdrew his forces to the Jalalabad Hills where a rugged battle was fought between handful of revolutionary youth and a huge contingent of British soldiers. 12 young freedom fighters embraced martyrdom whereas reportedly 80 of the enemies were killed. The British contingent left in the evening with their casualties. Masterda offered a 21gun salute to the fallen Heroes and decided to withdraw to the villages for the next session of protracted guerilla warfare. It was already the early hours of 22nd April 1930.This phase continued for more than 3 years. Finally and gradulally all the top leaders including Masterda was apprehended and the great Chittagong Youth Revolution died down in action but not in spirit. Their Heroism is still acclaimed. As we know MasterdaSurjyo Sen and his 2nd in command Tarakeswar Dastidar were tried summarily and awarded death penalty. Only a few days was allowed to hear the appeal at the High court. It was mockery of a trial. Before hanging they were beaten and tortured beyond limits and just hanged almost dead bodies. The British powers were so afraid of their popularity that the dead bodies were not handed over to the friends and relatives for last rites. They carried the sacred bodies deep into the Bay of Bengal and sunk the bodies with heavy weight. Masterda Surjyo Sen's immortal revolutionary ideas will live for ever! Long live Masterda Surjyo Sen! Inquilaab Zindaabad! Chittagong Youth Revolution will remain as a beacon to all revolutionaries all over the world for all time to come. Pradip Kumar Dutta is a Masters in Engineering. He writes regularly in different Bangladesh Newspapers on History,heritage,culture, traveling,nature,people's rights, progressive ideas and environmental issues. FDA clearance of investigational new drug (IND) application Initiation of multisite Phase 2 study in spring 2022 Phase 1 pharmacokinetic study completed SEATTLE, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumen Bioscience , a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing biologic drugs for highly prevalent diseases, today announced clinical development progress for LMN-201, an investigational orally delivered cocktail to treat and prevent C. difficile infection (CDI). Achievements include FDA clearance of a planned Phase 2 study of LMN-201 and successful completion of a Phase 1 first-in-human study, which validated drug delivery of enteric capsules into the gut. LMN-201 combines four therapeutic proteinsmanufactured and orally delivered in the edible microorganism spirulinathat work synergistically to neutralize both the C. difficile bacterium and the toxin that causes its virulence. LMN-201 is the world's first complex biologic cocktail to enter human clinical trials and represents a significant advance in the field of polypharmacology. Lumen recently published its pre-clinical data on LMN-201 on bioRxiv, pending peer review. "We are excited to mark these clinical milestones for LMN-201 and advance the development of a candidate that offers the potential to impact recurrent CDI, a major health problem worldwide," said Dr. Carl Mason, Lumen's head of clinical research. "Lumen's platform enables this novel approach of combining multiple therapeutic proteins into a single, low-cost, easily distributed and administered therapeutic. We are eager to advance LMN-201 into later stage clinical development." The Phase 2 trial (NCT05330182) will begin enrolling approximately 375 patients at sites across the United States. Physicians interested in participating are encouraged to contact Lumen's clinical operations team at [email protected]. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the efficacy of LMN-201 in participants recently diagnosed with CDI receiving standard-of-care antibiotics. The primary goal of the Phase 1 study of LMN-201 recently completed in Australia was to confirm the dissolution kinetics of enteric capsules designed to release LMN-201's therapeutic proteins at or before the terminal ileum, where C. difficile becomes established in most patients. The trial met its primary endpoint, indicating the capsules can successfully deliver LMN-201 where needed. Initial analysis also confirmed the therapeutic proteins were bioactive upon release and demonstrated robust stability against gastrointestinal protease digestion over time, meeting the exploratory endpoints. Lumen plans to publish full study results in a peer-reviewed journal after complete data analysis. About C. difficile infection C. difficile infection (CDI) is the most common cause of health care-associated infections in U.S hospitals, where nearly half a million CDI cases occur each year. CDI is often considered a hospital-acquired infection, but community-associated CDI is on the rise and now comprises a majority of cases in some regions. Antibiotic therapy is typically successful for initial cases of CDI. However, 20%-40% of patients will suffer a recurrence, and the chance of additional episodes for these patients exceeds 40%. Currently available approaches for preventing CDI are hampered by high costs and inconvenient delivery (in most cases requiring either I.V. administration for traditional antibodies or bowel prep or enema for fecal microbiota transplant). About LMN-201 LMN-201 is a cocktail of two classes of therapeutic proteins: the world's first complex biologic cocktail drug. The first class is comprised of three antibody-like proteins that bind and neutralize the bacterial toxin that is the main cause of the diarrhea and other severe symptoms of CDI. The second is an enzyme protein that destroys the cell wall of the C. difficile bacterium itself. The product is orally delivered in capsules and shelf stable, facilitating ready distribution to broader patient populations than is feasible with most other interventions available or in development for CDI. To facilitate accessibility to the broadest possible patient population, these monoclonal proteins are expressed and delivered within whole spirulina biomass, a type of blue-green algae widely consumed as a nutritional supplement that Lumen has repurposed as a GMP biomanufacturing host as described in Lumen's recent paper in Nature Biotechnology. All four therapeutic proteins do their work without perturbing the patient's healthy GI microbiome. There has always been a certain illogic in using antibiotics to treat C. difficile infection, which is usually caused by prior antibiotic damage to the GI microbiome. Rather than treating CDI, which in most patients is easily cleared with generic antibiotics, therefore, LMN-201's primary purpose is to be delivered alongside and for a short period after antibiotics to prevent future bouts with CDI, a common side effect of antibiotics. Lumen recently published its pre-clinical data on LMN-201 on bioRxiv, pending peer review. About Lumen Lumen Bioscience discovers, develops, and manufactures biologic drug candidates for highly prevalent diseasesmany of which currently lack any effective treatments. The company's unique drug development and manufacturing platform offers the potential to transform the biologics industry through increased speed, mass-market scale, and exponentially lower costs than current approaches. Lumen's clinical pipeline includes investigational biologic drugs for C. difficile infection, Covid-19, cardiometabolic disease, inflammatory bowel disease, norovirus, and traveler's diarrhea. For more information, visit: www.lumen.bio . Media Contact: Julie Rathbun +1.206.769.9219 [email protected] SOURCE Lumen Bioscience Leo Hathaway, SVP Exploration stated: "Chalapo is an early stage, undrilled high sulphidation epithermal gold-silver prospect, that is an exciting addition to Luminex's Southern Ecuador project portfolio. It is easily accessed and proximal to the area that Luminex already operates in. Mapping and sampling to delineate drill targets is planned for later this year." The concessions are comprised of two contiguous claims Chalapo (4,242ha) and Chalapo 1 (3,845ha) and carry no required annual investment commitment. The Project is located in southern Ecuador approximately 45 km south southwest of the regional capital, Loja and 7Km from the town of Vilcabamba. Chalapo is part of the Oligocene-Miocene porphyry/epithermal belt that hosts significant mines with similar geology further south in Peru, such as Lagunas Norte, Pierina and Sipan. Rock chip sampling by Codelco has identified a zone of anomalous gold with pathfinder elements typical of a high sulphidation gold system, including silver, arsenic, mercury and copper. Luminex rock chip sampling during due diligence retuned gold values up to 1.78 g/t (see Figure 2) from a hydrothermal breccia with intense vuggy silica/alunite alteration, indicative of intense hydrothermal acid sulphate leaching. Qualified Persons Leo Hathaway, P. Geo, Senior Vice President Exploration of Luminex and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed, verified and approved the scientific and technical information concerning the Condor Project in this news release and has verified the data underlying that scientific and technical information. About Luminex Resources Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV:LR,OTCQX:LUMIF) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on gold and copper projects in Ecuador. Luminex's inferred and indicated mineral resources are located at the Condor Gold-Copper project in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador. Luminex also holds a large and highly prospective land package in Ecuador, including the Tarqui, Pegasus and Orquideas projects, which are being co-developed with BHP Group plc, Anglo American and JOGMEC respectively. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://luminexresources.com/. To receive news releases please sign up at https://www.luminexresources.com/contact/contact-us/. Follow us on: Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. LUMINEX RESOURCES CORP. Signed: "Marshall Koval" Marshall Koval, CEO and Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future work programs at the Project. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; changes in laws (including regulations respecting mining concessions); and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. SOURCE Luminex Resources Corp. Users can test their financial literacy with 10 short questions, and if they answer all questions correctly, they may get one share of AAPL. To be eligible to receive one share of AAPL from the prize pool, a participant needs to: correctly answer all 10 investment-related questions in the quiz; deposit over $5,000; and maintain average daily assets of over $5,000 for 60 days. Since the launch on April 1, moomoo users have actively participated in the event, which runs until the end of April. Nearly 10,000 users had taken the quiz as of April 11, and the number of participants is still increasing rapidly, meaning the original prize pool of 500 APPL shares intended for the first 500 eligible users will soon run out. Participants have unlimited attempts to correctly answer all questions. For more information on the Prize Quiz event, refer to https://www.moomoo.com/hans/support/topic641. Even if a question is not answered correctly, participants can further enrich their investing knowledge via moomoo courses, tutoring, tailor-made learning plans, and full-process investment education services. In 2004, the United States designated April as the National Literacy Month. Every April, governments, communities, and other social organizations jointly hold various events to raise public awareness on the importance of financial literacy across the United States. Since its inception, moomoo has aimed to accompany investors on their journeys of learning and growth, so that they can better cross the cycle of bear and bull markets and use the financial knowledge they have learned to continuously accumulate wealth, without being eliminated by the market due to short-term fluctuations. "Only by continuously learning knowledge, fully acquiring information, and recognizing investment risks can users make more prudent investment decisions," said Keith Chan, CEO of moomoo. "Moomoo endeavors to further empower global investors to learn and grow by continually enriching our investment education system and improving the financial literacy of our users." Accompanying Investors on Their Journeys of Learning and Growth With the rapid development of financial technology, the threshold for investors to enter the market has been significantly reduced. Helping investors stay in the market for a long time has become a more important issue. Moomoo is committed to being a facilitator for investor education with the firm belief that "The best investment one can make is in oneself." Moomoo provides many free investment courses to help global investors learn and grow. At the end of 2021, moomoo had presented more than 700 investor education videos and articles, covering stocks, options, funds, and other financial instruments. From operational guidelines to practical strategies, from investment ideas to trading methods, moomoo aims to help every investor have a better control of their own wealth. Whether a technical investor profiting from fluctuations, a trend investor who captures market trends, a value investor who focuses on fundamentals, a novice with no investing experience, or an experienced trader, moomoo has the right course for every investor. Moomoo also offers insights into important financial news and market trends, from macro-economic situations to individual events, from underlying stocks to options. Investors can thus better grasp market trends and constantly improve their investment knowledge system. In addition to providing investment courses, moomoo's investor education system also includes tutoring, tailor-made learning plans, and full-process investment education services to help users sharpen their investment sense, establish an investment system, and seize investment opportunities. While learning financial knowledge, users can also use the paper trading function on moomoo to practice what they have learned, implement operation strategies, and try out investment systems, thus entering a positive cycle that integrates knowledge input and investment practice and truly enhancing their financial intelligence. Empowering Investors with Comprehensive Functions and Features Moomoo aims to help new investors learn and grow via a complete investment education system, so that they can become experienced investors, and ultimately "trade like a pro." Apart from accompanying investors on their early-stage learning journeys, moomoo also provides a wealth of market data, financial news, social and analysis tools, and other functions. These together can meet the needs of all kinds of investors from beginners to veterans, and empower investors with a complete set of investment analysis tools. The ultimately goal is to allow every investor to have their own "private investment team" and truly invest like a professional investor. The moomoo interface keeps up with the pace of the Internet era, making formerly complex functions user-friendly and easier to use. Functions such as financial news, an online community, live broadcasts, video tutorials, free level-2 market data, and analysis tools are integrated into one app, which reduces the investment threshold and provides investors with a complete set of investment analysis tools. Through learning and analysis, investors can acquire full information on listed companies and industries, and make their investment decisions better grounded. About Moomoo Inc. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Moomoo Inc. is a company that offers a professional trading platform and access to commission-free trading through Futu Inc. With advanced research tools, free in-depth market data, and one of the most active online trading communities, the moomoo app empowers individual investors to trade like a pro. In the United States, moomoo's securities services are offered by Futu Inc., a licensed broker dealer regulated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Futu Inc. is also a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Funds enrolled through the Futu Bank Sweep Program are also protected by the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for up to $1M. For more information about moomoo, please visit the company's official website www.moomoo.com. SOURCE moomoo Inc. Thursday, April 28, 2022, 1:00pm Doors open 12 noon. The National Press Club, (Press.org) 529 14th St NW, Washington DC 20046 WASHINGTON, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Family members and experts will demonstrate Russian involvement with three passenger aviation disasters killing 663 passengers from 32 countries. Polish family members, and from The Netherlands, U.S., and special guests, will remember and provide important facts and the latest updates about the following: "Smolensk" April 10, 2010, from Warsaw, Poland to Smolensk, Russia. Poland's equivalent to "Air Force One" PLF 101. Passengers included the President of Poland, First Lady, top government officials, and families of the Katyn victims. After 12 years, we are finally learning more from the Final Conclusions released on April 11, 2022. https://SmolenskCrashNews.com MH17, Malaysia Airlines July 17, 2014. Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has claimed that the MH17 plane was targeted by a Buk missile that belonged to the Russian armed forces. The Dutch government and over 400 next of kin have sued Russia at the European Court of Human Rights because Russia is held responsible for the downing of flight MH17. Learn more about the investigations, trial, criminal prosecution, and continued legal actions from the dedicated family members. https://MH17.legal KL007, Korean Airlines scheduled flight from NYC JFK to Seoul, South Korea. August 31, 1983. Shot down and crashed into the Sea of Japan by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 using air-to-air missiles, and allegedly being mistaken as a U.S. spy plane. Wikipedia "Korean Air Lines flight 007" www.Rescue007.org and Facebook The challenges continue for the international community as to how to serve justice for these crimes, and, however rare they may be, other aviation terrorist attacks. National Air Disaster Foundation (NADF) was founded in 1995 by air crash survivors and victim's family members from the U.S. and worldwide. All are welcome who support our Founding Goals: To raise the standard of Aviation Safety, Security, Survivability, and to Support victims' families, so that others are not harmed. CONTACT INFO: Gail Dunham [email protected] (336) 430 5437 cell/text NADF News: https://Twitter.com/PlaneSafeorg Open to media and guests. Everyone welcome. If possible, please contact [email protected] if you plan to attend. Current policy of the Press Club is to bring photo ID and proof of vaccination on phone or card. Masks are recommended for crowded groups, but not required. SOURCE National Air Disaster Foundation (NADF) Beehives to be installed across the U.S. in 30 of ShopCore's shopping centers CHICAGO, April 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Something new is buzzing at ShopCore Properties! The real estate company that leases and manages shopping centers across the U.S. will be installing beehives this year, in honor of Earth Day, at 30 of their properties throughout 12 states as part of their sustainability initiatives. The installation builds upon a pilot of the urban beekeeping program installed at two properties in 2021. Beehives at ShopCore Properties Beehives at ShopCore Properties "Sustainability is central to our mission, our mandate, and our purpose," said Corinne Rico, Director of Sustainability for ShopCore Properties. "From our properties to our communities, prioritizing the environment is part of how we do business. Installing beehives across our properties is one more layer to our sustainability and environmental goals. Bees play an exceedingly important role in a thriving ecosystem and the honey they produce is rich in antioxidants. So, bees are advantageous for not only the environment but also your health!" ShopCore Properties will install the beehives during 2022 and will harvest the honey in the fall. The honey will then be packaged and offered to the community as a gift. Each beehive will have approximately 50,000 bees and will be cared for by local beekeepers. "ShopCore aims to be an industry leader when it comes to our sustainability initiatives, and we look to partner with our tenants to mutually achieve our goals," continued Rico. "We have more than 50 shopping centers across the United States. We recognize each property is unique and will have its own set of solutions to advance sustainability, and we encourage creativity to do so. We are proud of our unique mix of shops and restaurants, many of which sell ecofriendly products and services." ShopCore Properties' sustainability solutions include but are not limited to benchmarking and tracking energy consumption; green leasing practices; reducing energy, water, and waste; installing renewable energy systems; incorporating sustainability into all business decisions and installing electric vehicle charging stations across its parking areas. The organization is recognized as a 2021 Green Lease Leader; is an Energy Star partner; piloted the WELL Health-Safety Rating; established its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee; established its Support, Empower, Engage, Develop (SEED) women's initiative; and donated 12.5+ million meals to CoreGiving in partnership with fellow portfolio companies. In addition, ShopCore Properties has committed to net zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. ShopCore is a vertically integrated real estate company with internalized leasing, development, property management, legal, accounting and asset management functions. Currently ShopCore leases and manages 50+ shopping centers covering approximately 20mm+ square-feet across 19 states. For more information on ShopCore Properties and its sustainability goals, please email [email protected] or visit shopcore.com/sustainability. PRESS CONTACT: Slatkow & Husak Public Relations Heather Vidulich [email protected] or (561) 278-0850 x2 SOURCE ShopCore Properties Total Door Systems One of 300 Manufacturers Printing the Parts to Aid Ukraine WATERFORD, Mich., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Total Door Systems, a Waterford, Michigan-based manufacturer of integrated door systems is helping an effort to supply Ukrainians with tourniquets during wartime. Total Door is one of 300 Michigan manufacturers participating in an effort led by Automation Alley's Project DIAMOnD, a local 3D printing network working with Makershelp, a 3D printing organization in Denmark, to supply tourniquets to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Total Door Systems and the other manufacturers are printing tourniquet clips, which are then sent to Denmark for final assembly and delivery. Project DIAMOnDwhich stands for Distributed, Independent, Agile Manufacturing on Demandwas established in 2020 through CARES ACT funding grants given to Automation Alley to accelerate digital transformation among Michigan manufacturers and strengthen supply chains for developing PPE. "We are proud to be a part of an effort that will help save lives," said Patricia Yulkowski, President, and CEO of Total Door Systems. "And we are proud to join with 300 other Michigan manufacturers to contribute to this amazing initiative. We know that when we work together, we can achieve incredible things." "The specific part that the Ukrainian government needed was a tourniquet clip that cannot be easily produced using conventional means quickly because of turnaround times in mold making," said Pavan Muzumdar, Automation Alley COO in a news release. "We are grateful to be able to help the people of Ukraine in some way." About TDS: Total Door Systems is the global leader in fully integrated door systems that provide unparalleled security, unmatched reliability, and respect for the integrity of the architect's vision with a nearly infinite selection of design options. Total Door Systems are engineered to meet or exceed all life safety codes and standards and are the only integrated door system to have a UL EPD and to be BHMA certified. With all parts engineered, manufactured, and assembled from Total Door Systems' award-winning Waterford, Michigan plant, their integrated door systems arrive complete with fewer parts for streamlined installation, and savings to you in additional buildout and labor costs. Find out more at https://totaldoor.com/. About Automation Alley Automation Alley is a World Economic Forum Advanced Manufacturing Hub (AMHUB) for North America and a nonprofit Industry 4.0 knowledge center with a global outlook and a regional focus. We facilitate public-private partnerships by connecting industry, education and government to fuel Michigan's economy. We help businesses embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution by equipping them with the knowledge and tools to develop a software-first mindset that leverages the intersections of advanced technologies, systems and people to jumpstart or accelerate a digital path to strategic success. Visit automationalley.com. SOURCE Total Door Systems AANA Applauds Signing of Legislation Expanding CRNA Practice Opportunities PARK RIDGE, Ill., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alabama patients now have increased access to safe, affordable care with the signing today of HB 268 by Governor Kay Ivey. The law provides that, in addition to physicians and dentists, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) may provide anesthesia care under the direction of or in coordination with a physician, podiatrist, or dentist. The law further clarifies that the CRNA scope of practice includes ordering of medications and tests before, during, and after analgesia or anesthesia in accordance with the anesthesia plan. "Removing barriers to CRNA practice will allow Alabama healthcare facilities to maximize their workforce and increase access to safe, affordable care for our patients," said Wesley Canerday, CRNA, president of Alabama Association of Nurse Anesthetists (ALANA). "By signing this important legislation, Alabama recognizes that CRNAs are qualified to make decisions regarding all aspects of anesthesia care based on their education, licensure, and certification." Anesthesia services are provided solely by CRNAs in many of Alabama's critical access hospitals offering surgical services, and in a majority of its rural hospitals. The law also specifies that anesthesia care, when an anesthesiologist is not present, is provided by CRNAs "in coordination with" a physician, podiatrist, or dentist, defined as a working relationship in which "each contributes his or her respective expertise in the provision of patient care, which includes the discussion of patient treatment, diagnosis, and consultation." "The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) applauds Gov. Ivey for recognizing the important role CRNAs have in delivery of safe anesthesia care to the residents of Alabama," said AANA President Dina Velocci, DNP, CRNA, APRN. "Increased demand, limited resources, and the rural nature of the state dictate that a system capable of meeting the needs of all Alabama residents be maintained and this law provides that." As advanced practice nurses, CRNAs are members of one of the most trusted professions according to Gallup. CRNAs provide anesthesia care across all settings and in all patient populations and are the primary anesthesia providers in rural and underserved areas and on the battlefield in forward surgical teams. Because of their expertise in anesthesia delivery and management of critically ill patients, CRNAs have been a highly sought-after healthcare provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. SOURCE American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology "I welcome this Partner2Connect pledge by BitSight to bridge the cyber capacity gap in the Least Developed Countries," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. "Through this contribution, LDCs will access useful resources to identify their cyber vulnerabilities and take targeted steps to lower their cyber risks." This pledge towards Partner2Connect will provide LDCs with free access to the BitSight Critical National Infrastructure solution for a full year. The solution will let LDCs monitor their critical infrastructure, such as electric utilities, water systems and emergency services, so they can better protect themselves from cyber threats. "With advanced data tools, LDCs can immediately establish a better understanding of the risks their organizations face and how to manage them," said Steve Harvey, BitSight's chief executive officer. "By helping these countries improve their cybersecurity stature, we are creating a more secure global environment. We are proud to partner with the ITU on this critical initiative to improve global cyber capacity." Botswana, an early participant of the program, has already seen improvements in its national cybersecurity capacity. Head of Botswana CIRT (BwCIRT) Emmanuel Thekiso noted, "Before using the BitSight tool, the Botswana CIRT team did not have any tool in place to measure the cybersecurity posture in the country. The BitSight tool has a large footprint on the public internet for observing traffic and makes efforts to ensure accurate data. The platform is easy to use and provides fantastic summary reporting related to security which is easy for management and the Board to understand. It provides valuable, objective and comparable data, which can drive better risk-based decisions across different stages of vendor risk management life-cycle." Eswatini, another early program participant, has similarly seen improvements. Eswatini Communications Commission IT Engineer Nokuthula Hlophe commented, "BitSight is a great tool that has given Eswatini visibility of the country's cyber risks, helping the country make informed decisions and improve the nation's cybersecurity posture as a whole. The tool is non-intrusive with no requirement for any hardware. The dashboards are easy to navigate and compliment internal vulnerability applications. Improving the threat landscape for any country requires a concerted effort from different stakeholders and BitSight offers just that." For more information, contact cybersecurity(at)itu.int, or visit www.itu.int/go/cyberforgood. About BitSight BitSight transforms how organizations manage cyber risk. The BitSight Security Ratings Platform applies sophisticated algorithms, producing daily security ratings that range from 250 to 900, to help organizations manage their own security performance; mitigate third party risk; underwrite cyber insurance policies; conduct financial diligence; and assess aggregate risk. With the largest ecosystem of users and information, BitSight is the Standard in Security Ratings. For more information, please visit www.bitsight.com , read our blog or follow @BitSight on Twitter. About ITU The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies ICTs. Founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks, we allocate global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develop the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and strive to improve access to ICTs to underserved communities worldwide. Every time you make a phone call via the mobile, access the Internet or send an email, you are benefitting from the work of ITU. ITU is committed to connecting all the world's people wherever they live and whatever their means. Through our work, we protect and support everyone's right to communicate. About Partner2Connect The Partner2Connect Digital Coalition is a multistakeholder alliance launched by ITU in close cooperation with the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, and in line with the UN Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally, with a focus on but not limited to hardest- to-connect communities in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), visit https://www.itu.int/Partner2Connect. SOURCE BitSight Related Links http://https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1798194/BitSight_Security_Rating_Averages.jpg https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1798194/BitSight_Security_Rating_Averages.jpg RICHMOND, Va., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital Square, a national investment sponsor specializing in tax-advantaged real estate investments, announced today that Jacqueline Rogers has joined the firm as chief communications officer. Rogers built her career at several of the most influential companies in the nation, with an emphasis on cutting-edge technology, branding and marketing. She recently served as head of brand program management at Amazon Music. In her newly created role at Capital Square, she will oversee branding, marketing, investor relations, communications, strategy and implementation. "Capital Square has grown rapidly since its founding in 2012. The firm continues to expand its product line of tax-advantaged real estate investments, including Delaware statutory trust programs, opportunity zone funds, a multifamily REIT and development funds," said Louis Rogers, founder and chief executive officer of Capital Square. "I am thrilled that Jacqueline has joined Capital Square. She will help take the firm to an even higher level by increasing brand loyalty across the product line for the mutual benefit of investors, broker-dealers, financial advisors and others." At Amazon Music, Rogers spearheaded the organization's largest strategic initiative, the development of a new Amazon Music global brand platform and design refresh that serves as the customer-facing expression of the organization. Previously, she was the director of design operations and program management for Lyft, where she developed strategically aligned programs and processes across the company's product design team. "I am honored to join an established team with a distinguished history of maximizing value for investors," said Rogers. "I look forward to strengthening the marketing efforts and further increasing our reach to current and prospective investors while continuing to uphold the highest level of excellence that makes Capital Square an industry leader. I am excited to shape the communication of our expanding value proposition to drive our brand forward for our investors, broker-dealers, financial advisors and other colleagues. Capital Square is well-positioned to help lead the real estate industry into a technology-fueled future, and I am thrilled to contribute to the vision of this dynamic company." Throughout her career, Rogers has created impactful advertising and marketing campaigns across an array of brands, including BMW, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Lincoln Motor Company, Marriott International, Four Seasons Hotels, Soul Cycle and The Ritz-Carlton. She began her career by co-founding the marketing team at Tumblr, where she helped shape the startup brand into a world-renowned social networking brand. Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in communications studies and English, with an emphasis in journalism, from Christopher Newport University, a master's degree in advertising and brand strategy from The Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. About Capital Square Capital Square is a national real estate firm specializing in tax-advantaged real estate investments, including Delaware statutory trusts for Section 1031 exchanges and qualified opportunity zone funds for tax deferral and exclusion. Since 2012, Capital Square has completed more than $5.6 billion in transaction volume. Capital Square's executive team has decades of experience in real estate investments. Capital Square's related entities provide a range of services, including due diligence, acquisition, loan sourcing, property/asset management, and disposition, for a growing number of high-net-worth investors, private equity firms, family offices and institutional investors. Since 2017, Capital Square has been recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the nation for four consecutive years. In 2017, 2018 and 2020, the company was also ranked on Richmond BizSense's list of fastest growing companies. Additionally, Capital Square was listed by Virginia Business on their "Best Places to Work in Virginia" report in 2019 and their "Fantastic 50" reports in 2019 and 2020. To learn more, visit www.CapitalSq.com. Contact: Jill Swartz Spotlight Marketing Communications 949.427.1389 [email protected] SOURCE Capital Square NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm Ropes & Gray today announced that Daniel Forman has joined the firm's 500-lawyer New York office as a partner in the capital markets practice. Daniel's arrival deepens the firm's bench of partners who advise leading corporate issuers, private equity firms and investment banks on their largest and most complex securities work. Law360 named Ropes & Gray a 2021 "Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year." Last year, Ropes & Gray steered clients in nearly 150 public offerings that raised an aggregate of more than $55 billion, and closed on 78 IPOs totaling over $30 billion. "Daniel's deep client experience complements our capital markets practice, recognized as among the best in the world," said Julie Jones, chair. Daniel represents issuers, sponsors, investors and underwriters in a broad range of capital markets transactions, including IPOs, secondary equity offerings, debt offerings, tender offers, debt restructurings and private placements, as well as advising on corporate governance, securities law compliance, and general corporate matters. Daniel is a member of the Securities Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar Association and has served as an adjunct professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, teaching an upper-level contract drafting course and assisting with professional skills development programs. "Ropes & Gray's capital markets lawyers had two consecutive years of record-setting activity levels executing some of the most complex transactions in the market. Daniel is known to handle challenging and complex transactions for clients. He will enhance our ability to deliver these results for our clients," said managing partner David Djaha. "Daniel is a versatile capital markets partner with significant experience leading issuers and underwriters in a broad range of transactions across industry sectors," said Paul Tropp, co-head of the firm's capital markets practice. "He also brings significant experience in the specialty finance market, counseling clients in transactions involving PIPEs, real estate investment trusts, registered direct offerings and business development companies." "Ropes & Gray's award-winning capital markets group is known for market-leading deals," Daniel said. "I'm excited to join a growing practice and collaborate with attorneys in adjacent practices across the firm." Daniel is one of seven partners to join Ropes & Gray in New York in 2022. Already this year, the firm welcomed capital markets partner Faiza Rahman, IP transactions partner Edward Sadtler, M&A partner Suni Sreepada, asset management partner Jennifer Graff, employee benefits and executive compensation partner Richard Kidd and finance partner Christopher Poggi. Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Videos | Podcasts To view our privacy policy, please click here. Media Contact: Eric Goldman Senior Public Relations Specialist Office: +1-212-596-9089 Cell: +1-917-224-9861 [email protected] SOURCE Ropes & Gray We, the People witnessing a planned scheme of things to exterminate humanity with superior weapons hitting targeted civilian towns and daily bloodbath as a new normal. by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD. Tyranny did not Pause even on the Easter Decades earlier recall what the US-Britain and NATO did in Iraq even on the Xmas Eve. Layla Anwar (Come and see our overflowing morgues..come and see the rubble of your surgical strikes: An Arab Women Blues wrote in her website blog: Everyday, under the pretext of either al-Qaida, insurgents, militants or whatever imaginary name you coined, you have not ceased, not even for one day, slaughtering our innocentsfor 4 years, you have not ceased for one single day, not during holiday periods, not during religious celebrations, not even during the day your so called God was born.if you have a God that is. We, the People witnessing a planned scheme of things to exterminate humanity with superior weapons hitting targeted civilian towns and daily bloodbath as a new normal. Have we not learned any lessons from the European nationalistic wars of First World War and the 2nd World War? We, the Humanity continue to argue if wars have become part of new normal - unknown and unthinkable to human civilizations and rational thinking. We, the People are entrapped and entrenched by dirty politics of the few. It needs a formidable challenge to rethink about the continuity of the current tragedy in Ukraine. We, the People, We, the Humanity claim to be a moral being, yet our action defy the logic of our claims as moral beings. Easter had moral, spiritual and humanitarian significance to be at peace and united to worship God, the Creator of All (known and unknown), and Lord of the worlds. The Orthodox Christians and other Christian denominations populating Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Asia and Africa would visualize as an inner world of soul and body to celebrate the Easter, but bombing, shelling and missiles continued to victimize the innocent civilians and anarchy of violence and barbarism followed by human beings against other humans across Ukraine. The consequential killings and destruction in Kyiv, Khariv and Mariupol appear far worse than the imagination of despotism. Loss of Morality and War against All Canons of rationality should unfold rationality of leadership in Russia, Ukraine, America, NATO and all over the globe for immediate concerns about lost sense of moral humanity. What Russian Military Operation is doing in Ukraine, American, British and other Europeans have practiced the Hobbesion formula: war of all against all. The conflict in Ukraine calls for an immediate ceasefire and rethinking and how the great cause of humanity for peace and harmony could end up in catastrophic challenges for a sustainable future. Did President Putin not know that war kill people and destroy the habitats? Surely, he knew first-hand how George Bush, Tony Blair and Obama had inflicted insanity of war on the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria - and millions and millions were brutally massacred, displaced and children made orphans for generation to come. Why should intelligent and responsible leaders ignore the lessons of history? If Bush, Blair and Obama were wrong and misfit for responsible leadership, Putin does not have to be immoral, tyrannical and ruthless to wage war against his own people - former entity of the USSR Ukraine- people have enjoin common ethnicity, culture, religion and lot more as peace loving people of this planet. The wars are declared by the few and not the majority masses. The small ruling elite who plans and wages war is often afraid of citizenry reaction and refusal to accept the rationality of a war. Throughout history, European nationalism institutionalized the doctrine of war as a necessary means to promote national interest and racial superiority over the other. Most proponents of wars have used fear as one of the major instruments of propaganda and manipulation to perpetuate allegiance from the ordinary folks to the elite warmongers in a crisis situation. President Putin in Search of a Navigational Change Effective leaders must know their strength and weaknesses and assess the competence of their immediate advisors and people around them to determine whether they make rational decisions/actions or negating the logic of humanity by crossing over the limits of insanity. Russian culture has immense relationship to ethnicity, language and culture of Ukraine. Why would an intelligent leader bent on destroying his own people and culture for some transitory military gains? In an age of enlightenment of the 21st century, could we imagine the growth of human civilizations out of moral mire, military conquest, hypersonic bombing and imperial domination? What went wrong with human thinking that has brought us to this onslaught of continued insanity, shelling and killings even on the Easter? We imagine that Orthodox Christians hold Easter as vital and spiritually important as other Christians across the world. But there was no critical challenge emerging to the leadership in Moscow from the Russian religious establishment to halt the bombing or pause for the civilians to be evacuated across the charcoaled buildings in Khariv and Mariupol. If the Orthodox Church (Russia) claimed moral values, then surely there seems to be contrast between politics and human morality. Undoubtedly, killings and bombing of civilian habitats cannot be related to ideas and ideals of Easter festivity and splendor. Violence against fellow human beings are the outgrowth of madness, cruelty and sheer indifference to human basic values and perhaps Russia would not like to be part of malignity and tyranny. It would be logical to understand that President Putin would realize what went wrong with his assumptions of immediate victory over helpless Ukraine and to stop the dreadful and unavoidable calamity of war and should rush to make a navigational change for the good of the people of Russia and Ukraine and the larger global humanity. The war on Ukraine has unleashed unthinkable socio-economic, political and humanitarian calamities on the rest of mankind. One would imagine that President Putin would listen to voices of REASON for a navigational change and would not bankrupt Russia as did Bush and Obama: This author noted the same in: How the United States and Britain Lost the Bogus Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Global Research: 10/22/2010. It is undeniable that the US is bankrupt because of the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. David M. Walker Comptroller General of the US and Head of the Government Accountability Office (December 2007). reported that In everyday language, the US Government cannot pass an audit. Time and Reason call for an immediate Ceasefire and Peace-Making between Russia and Ukraine We, the People, We, the Humanity must rise against the evil to exploit, tyrannize and demoralize the people across the globe. Those echoing voices of Crimes against Humanity in Khariv and Bucha and Mariupol must know that it is a slippery trail of myth and one cannot imagine to expect ICC ( The Hague) to prosecute any superpowers. There were many formal complaints against America, Britain and NATO but none were translated into actions against these powerful monsters for crimes committed against the civilian population in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Syria. To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO should have a direct face to face communication with President Putin. It could be facilitated under the G20 auspices. It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly, tensions and evil mongering is reduced to reason and mutual interest. This has not happened except military options for weapon supplies and enlargement of the scope of regional conflict. Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal. Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany. NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global education technology market size was estimated at $237.6 billion in 2021, and it is expected to touch $998.4 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 17.3%. With the development of technologies such as AI and IoT, Edtech solutions are set to evolve. Additionally, the incorporation of VR and AR in these solutions supports a more-interactive learning experience for students. Other factors driving the demand for EdTech solutions include the developments in connectivity infrastructure, surging smartphone penetration, increasing speed of the internet, and growing investments by private equity and venture capital firms. In addition, learning material is easily accessible through smartphone apps. Furthermore, the increasing disposable income has advanced the demand for mobile learning platforms. Get the sample pages of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/educational-technology-edtech-market/report-sample Key Findings of Education Technology Market Report The rising usage of the internet and smart devices drives the industry in APAC. In addition, the government's financial help in developing countries, such as China and India , combined with the advancing accessibility of smart devices for students, is assisting the growth of the market. According to the UNICEF, China has 282 million students and 17.32 million teachers in more than 530,000 schools. Individual learners generated above $100 billion in education technology market revenue in 2021 as they are more open to garnering new skills. Additionally, the high federal investments in the education industry drive the usage of EdTech solutions among individuals. In the coming years, the usage of IT-driven educational methods will grow the fastest among educational institutions. This can be credited to the growing trend of smart classes, which gained wings during the pandemic. For instance, in March 2020 , the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) signed a partnership to provide 700,000 LAUSD students with educational aids via television broadcasts, to counter school closures. In the same way, the Indian Union Budget FY23 has assigned INR 1,04,278 crore to the education sector, for the advancement of digital connectivity and to offer high-quality education. Thus, hardware accounted for approximately 60% of the revenue in the education technology market in 2021, attributed to the strengthening significance of digital classrooms. For example, interactive whiteboards have expanded in popularity as they deliver a more-satisfactory experience. They offer dry-erase surfaces, communication software, digital pens, and other multi-touch options. COVID-19 has boosted the adoption of advanced education technology and emphasized the prospect of education innovations encouraged by EdTech institutions. The pandemic forced many students to enhance their skills and strengthened their reliance on educational technology. As the number of people utilizing different EdTech tools grew, so did the demand to go digital. Browse detailed report on Global EdTech Market Trends and Future Growth Study 2022-2030 Big players in the education technology market are Blackboard Inc., Chegg Inc., Edutech, Coursera Inc., edX Inc., Instructure Inc., Udacity Inc., Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, and Think and Learn Private Limited (BYJU'S). McGraw Hill started a collaboration with TutorMe LLC in July 2020 to deliver university students one-on-one tutoring sessions free of cost. McGraw Hill registered more than 4.3 million college student subscriptions in 2020. Global Education Market Segmentation Analysis By Type Hardware Software Services By Application K-12 Higher Education Competitive Exams Certifications By End User Individual Learners Institutes Enterprises By Region North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. Italy France Asia-Pacific China Japan India South Korea Latin America Brazil Mexico Middle East and Africa and Turkey Saudi Arabia South Africa Browse Other Report Published by P&S Intelligence Global Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Growth and Business Opportunities Global Digital Pen Market Growth and Business Opportunities About P&S Intelligence P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. Contact: Prajneesh Kumar P&S Intelligence Phone: +1-347-960-6455 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter SOURCE P&S Intelligence "We are rapidly building a new company - a New Equifax a faster growing, higher margin, diversified data, analytics and technology company that has expanded well beyond a traditional consumer credit bureau," said Mark W. Begor, Chief Executive Officer at Equifax. "As we look to complete our cloud transformation, how we share our strategy with analysts and investors is critical to our success. Trevor brings a deep understanding of our business and over 15 years of experience in Equifax finance and investor relations to this role. I'm energized to welcome him back to our Senior Leadership Team." Burns, a graduate of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business, joined Equifax in 2005 and has held a number of finance and investor relations leadership positions during his tenure with the company. Prior to Equifax, Burns held accounting roles with AT&T Mobility and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He replaces Dorian Hare who has accepted a new position at Oportun, a financial services company that specializes in affordable credit solutions. "We thank Dorian for his work in Investor Relations over the last two years - a period where we reported substantial growth and historic M&A activity for Equifax," added Begor. "We wish Dorian the best in his future endeavors." For more information on Equifax corporate leadership, visit our website . ABOUT EQUIFAX At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 13,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 25 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com . FOR MORE INFORMATION Kate Walker for Equifax [email protected] SOURCE Equifax Inc. MIAMI, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Institute is proud to announce its successful partnership with Amneal Pharmaceuticals in developing the brand name ALYMSYS, under which the biosimilar approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 13, 2022 will be marketed. This biosimilar represents the third bevacizumab approved in the U.S. ALYMSYS was developed by mAbxience, a global biotech company with over a decade of experience in the development, manufacture, and commercialization of biopharmaceuticals. Bevacizumab-maly is a vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor used in oncology. "The entire Brand Institute and Drug Safety Institute Team congratulates Amneal Pharmaceuticals and mAbxience on the FDA approval of ALYMSYS," said Brand Institute's Chairman and C.E.O., James L. Dettore. About Brand Institute and our wholly owned regulatory subsidiary, Drug Safety Institute Brand Institute is the global leader in pharmaceutical and healthcare-related name development, with a portfolio of over 3,800 marketed healthcare brand names, 1,200 USAN/INN nonproprietary names for 1,100 clients. The company partners on over 75% of pharmaceutical brand and nonproprietary name approvals globally every year with healthcare manufacturers. Drug Safety Institute is composed of former naming regulatory officials from global government health agencies, including Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), Health Canada (HC), American Medical Association (AMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). These regulatory experts co-authored the name review guidelines while with their respective agencies, with many responsible for ultimately approving (or rejecting) brand name applications. Now working for a private company, these professionals provide Brand Institute's clients with industry-leading guidance pertaining to drug name safety (i.e., preventing medication errors), packaging, and labeling. Contact: James Dettore Chairman & C.E.O. [email protected] www.brandinstitute.com SOURCE Brand Institute, Inc. What's New for 2022? Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 7; Released: February 2022 Executive Pool: 16372 Companies: 94 - Players covered include Applied Medical Resources Corporation; ATMOS MedizinTechnik GmbH & Co. KG; B. Braun Melsungen AG; Boston Scientific Corporation; Bowa-Electronic GmbH & Co. KG; CONMED Corporation; Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH; Ethicon US, LLC; Medtronic Plc; Olympus Corporation; Smith & Nephew, Plc; Symmetry Surgical, Inc. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Product (Generators, Argon & Smoke Management Systems, Instruments & Accessories); Surgery Type (General Surgeries, Gynecological Surgeries, Urological Surgeries, Orthopedic Surgeries, Cardiovascular Surgeries, Other Surgeries) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Electrosurgery Market to Reach $5.9 Billion by 2026 Electrosurgery makes use of high frequency electrical energy for carrying out high precision surgeries, while ensure low levels of tissue damage and less oxygen sacrifice. Electrosurgical procedures are widely used in medical disciplines such as gynecology, urology, pneumology, neurology, abdominal surgery, general surgery, and gastroenterology among others. The faster recovery time, low risk to patients, easy usage, and reduced risk of infection are some of the advantages driving use of electrosurgery procedure compared to traditional surgical techniques. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Electrosurgery estimated at US$5.1 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$5.9 Billion by 2026, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6% over the analysis period. The United States represents the largest regional market for Electrosurgery and is estimated at US$1.8 Billion in 2022 is projected to reach US$2 Billion by 2026. China is expected to spearhead growth and emerge as the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 4.4% over the analysis period. The rapidly rising number of surgeries being performed globally, an aging population, and increasing prevalence of various chronic diseases is fueling growth in the electrosurgery market. The growing geriatric population worldwide, with higher susceptibility to diseases such as cardiac arrest, cancer, intestinal and gastrointestinal diseases owing to weakening immune system, is emerging as a major factor fueling demand for electrosurgery procedures and devices. Increasing incidence of chronic diseases continues, necessitating surgical intervention is paving the way for electrosurgical devices to be used. In particular, the increasing number of minimally invasive surgeries being performed is enhancing the significance of electrosurgery technique in critical surgical methods such as cutting, coagulation, devitalization and thermofusion. In particular, the increasing number of minimally invasive surgeries being performed is enhancing the significance of electrosurgery technique in critical surgical methods such as cutting, coagulation, devitalization and thermofusion. Increasing number of cosmetic and plastic surgeries being carried out and the rapid pace of technology advancements in electrosurgical tools are also favoring growth in the electrosurgery market. Advancements in the electrosurgical technology space are primarily focused on attainment of anatomic dissection with improved precision, better hemostasis, and minimum thermal damage to the surrounding tissue. Other areas include improved cutting precision, minimizing the occurrence of tissue adhesion to the electrode device, and temperature regulation electrode-tissue contact area. The recent years have witnessed the rollout of devices with high radiofrequency, embedded digital algorithms to control the impact of delivered energy, and hybrid technologies that combine the benefits of both bipolar and ultrasonic technology. In North America, the expanding geriatric population and rapidly rising demand for cosmetic surgeries is fueling growth in the market. The established and advanced nature of healthcare industry in North America and favorable government policies are spurring growth in the region's electrosurgery market. Asia-Pacific is poised to grow at a high rate driven mainly by the rising demand for plastic and cosmetic surgeries in the region. Rising awareness about minimally invasive surgeries also fuels demand for electrosurgery instruments. The rising demand for elective cosmetic surgeries, increasing access to elective surgeries, improving healthcare infrastructure facilities, and better insurance coverage are also driving market growth. With medical tourism on the rise especially in the emerging markets of India, China and Brazil, demand for high-quality surgical instruments is poised to benefit the market. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. What's New for 2022? Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 9; Released: February 2022 Executive Pool: 404 Companies: 88 - Players covered include Coromandel International Limited; EuroChem Group; Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd.; Haifa Group; Hebei Monband Water Soluble Fertilizer Co., Ltd.; Israel Chemicals Limited (ICL); K+S Aktiengesellschaft; TRIBOdyn AG; Yara International ASA and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Application (Horticultural Crops, Field Crops, Turfs & Ornamentals, Other Applications); Type (Nitrogenous, Phosphatic, Potassic, Micronutrients) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Colombia; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registr ABSTRACT- Global Foliar Spray Market to Reach $7.8 Billion by 2026 Foliar feeding or foliar nutrition refers to the method of directly applying liquid fertilizer to the leaves as a way of feeding plants. Plants are capable of absorbing nutrients and the essential elements from the leaves through the bark or through the stomata, which are the microscopic openings located in the middle of a pair of guard cells, and epidermis. While transport through the stomata is usually faster, total absorption level is greater through the epidermis. Generally, foliar feeding is carried out early in the morning or during late evenings, preferably when the temperature is below 24C as heat causes the closure of pores on the leaves of some species. A popular feeding method is the use of sea-based plant mixes, particularly kelp, which contains most of the 50 trace nutrients. Kelp contains some hormones that are considered beneficial for the development of the leaves, flowers, and also fruits, and is therefore preferred by organic growers who are wary of using artificial hormone applications. When plants face conditions of unbalanced or limited availability of nutrient-providing media or sudden elemental deficiencies such as pH fluctuation, the traditional method of feeding plants through the roots might not result in faster nutritive repair. In such situations, there is a need for an alternative and faster acting method of providing the much-required nutrients to the plants. Spraying or foliar feeding, which is a method by which nutrient solution is directly applied to the leaves, is the best technique for achieving rapid absorption of nutrients into the plant. Foliar feeding has been scientifically proven to improve plant health as well as yields significantly through increased and faster absorption of essential elements. Foliar application was demonstrated to prevent leaching-out of the feed into the soil, thus prompting quick absorption by the plant. A mix of zinc, iron, and phosphorus in foliar application ensures greater benefit than direct addition to the soil, where phosphorus gets fixed into the soil and becomes inaccessible the plant, while iron and zinc are also made less available. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Foliar Spray is projected to reach US$7.8 Billion by 2026, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4 % over the analysis period. Europe represents a major regional market for Foliar Spray and is projected to reach US$1.5 Billion by 2026. China is expected to spearhead growth and emerge as the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 8.8% over the analysis period. Market growth is driven by their growing applications in field crops, horticultural crops, and turfs & ornamentals. The constant decline in arable land globally and increased pressure on growers to address the food needs of the world's expanding population are driving focus on to the development of more effective methods for applying fertilizers. Rapid growth of agricultural production, especially staples such as rice and wheat, and the subsequent rise in need for fertilizers to protect crops and promote growth are leading to growth in foliar sprays market. The significant growth of foliar spray market in various application sectors is mainly attributed to their ability to increase agricultural output and increasing awareness about the advantages of foliar nutrition. The easy to apply nature of foliar sprays and their ability to uniformly distribute nutrients onto crops is driving growth in the market. The market is also poised to benefit from the strong growth being witnessed in the industrial agriculture, which enhances need for uniform and efficient application of fertilizers to improve crop yield. Also fueling market growth is the rapidly rising demand for chemical-based plant booster in horticultural operations. Foliar sprays market is also poised to benefit by the agriculture industry's shift towards advanced farming techniques. Europe represents the largest regional market for foliar spray worldwide. The region's large and well-established agricultural industry, steadily rising expenditure on agricultural activities and growing use of advanced farming techniques favor the foliar sprays market in Europe. Strict regulations related to the use of chemical fertilizers in Europe are also contributing to the growing importance of foliar sprays. Though bio-fertilizers are being used as alternatives to chemical fertilizers, their relative ineffective is driving focus onto foliar sprays that are known to be more effective and less harmful to environment when compared to conventional fertilizers. China and Asia-Pacific are poised to grow at a high rate through the analysis period. The vast population base, rising demand for food, and ever shrinking availability of agricultural land is spurring demand for fertilizers. The growing government efforts to promote agricultural activities, increase in R&D initiatives to develop new farming techniques are also leading to high adoption of foliar spray method of fertilizer application. In North America, with agriculture being one of the major industries, the fluctuating weather conditions, rising temperature levels, and other climate change phenomena are adversely impact crop production levels. In addition to climatic conditions, the agricultural output is also threatened due to the increasing risk of pest attacks. In this regard, foliar sprays are emerging as ideal options for farmers to increase amount of nutrients being provided to crops, thus enhancing overall agricultural production. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. What's New for 2022? Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 6; Released: February 2022 Executive Pool: 3437 Companies: 34 - Players covered include Addivant USA LLC; Adeka Corporation; BASF SE; Beijing Tiangang Auxiliary Co., Ltd.; Chitec Technology Co., Ltd.; Clariant AG (Switzerland); Double Bond Chemical Ind., Co., Ltd.; Everlight Chemical Industrial Corp.; Mayzo, Inc.; Qingdao Jade New Material Technology; SABO S.p.A.; Solvay S.A.; SUNSHOW (Yantai) Specialty Chemical Co., Ltd and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Application (Packaging, Automotive, Agriculture Films, Construction, Other Applications); Type (Polymeric, Monomeric, Oligomeric) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Hindered Amine Light Stabilizers (HALS) Market to Reach $1.3 Billion by 2026 Hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS) are amine based chemical compounds, and can be used as efficient stabilizers for polymers and plastics. These compounds are derivatives of tetramethylpiperidine and are used primarily to safeguard polymers against the photo-oxidation effects. The role of HALS as thermal stabilizers is also increasing in particular for moderate and low level of heat however for high temperature polymer processing's the effectiveness is lesser in comparison to the traditional phenolic antioxidants. Though HALS does not absorb UV radiation, they act to inhibit polymer degradation by cyclically and continuously discarding free radicals, which are produced through photo-oxidation of the polymer. Sometimes this overall process is also known as Denisov cycle. HALS reacts with alkyl polymer radicals (R) and polymer peroxy radical ((ROO) that are formed through the reaction of oxygen and polymers, avoiding further radical oxidation. With these reactions, HALS is oxidized into corresponding aminoxyl radicals, however an additional series of radical reactions they can return to their original amine state. Moreover during the stabilization process, HALS exhibits cyclic process wherein they are regenerated instead of being consumed, and hence show high longevity and efficiency. HALS also exhibits resistance towards side reactions due to their structure. While HALS is found to be highly effective for polyethylene, polyolefins and polyurethane, the additive is not found to be effective for PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Protecting polymers from UV radiation is critical in ensuring reliability of polymer based products/solutions, as photo-oxidation caused by UV radiation results in cracks and rapid degradation of the polymer's mechanical properties. HALS is in particular found to be an effective inhibitor of free-radical induced degradation of polymers. High molecular weight (MW) HALSs are effective long-term heat stabilizers and are valuable in engineering durable polymers. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Hindered Amine Light Stabilizers (HALS) market estimated at US$1.0 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$1.3 Billion by 2026, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% over the analysis period. Europe represents the largest regional market for Hindered Amine Light Stabilizers (HALS) and is projected to reach US$289.7 Million by 2026. China is expected to spearhead growth and emerge as the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 9.1% over the analysis period. Rapid pace of industrialization, urbanization trend and rising disposable incomes especially in emerging economies are leading to growing use of plastic materials in a range of consumer and industrial products, which in turn is fueling demand for HALS worldwide. Global market for hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS) is being driven mainly by the growing investments into plastic products manufacturing, specifically in Asia-Pacific region that is experiencing strong growth in demand for plastic products. Rapid rise in investments into production facilities is also driving growth in the market. The global market for HALS is also benefiting immensely from the rising demand for plastic packaging materials, automotive components & coatings, and agricultural films. HALS usage is also growing in commercial and industrial applications, where demand is rising for UV resistant coated plastics, wood products and polymers especially from packaging, construction and automotive sectors. The market is poised to benefit from the rapidly rising demand for packaged food products and growing needs of the automotive industry. With manufacturers seeking higher quality and high performance packaging materials and products with long-term durability, demand is rising for additives such as HALS that can endure extended exposure to sunlight. Despite the strong potential of HALS market, high cost of production and fluctuating prices of raw materials are impeding market growth. With prices of raw materials rising, manufacturers are coming under intense pressure and forced to increase prices of HALS. Another factor impeding growth in the implementation of strict regulations related to the use of HALS in certain applications, whereby plastic manufacturers are compelled to use only those HALS materials that have received approval from related regulatory bodies, especially in the US and the EU. Polymeric HALS constitutes the leading type of HALS worldwide. The greater effectiveness of polymeric HALS in comparison to monomeric and oligomeric types of HALS contributes to their larger share in the market. Polymer HALS also benefits from its low volatility, superior extraction resistance, positive compatibility and ability to ensure heat stability. Due to its larger structure and presence of different types of chains, Polymeric HALS finds use in varied applications. China and other Asia-Pacific economies represent the most promising markets for HALS globally. The rapidly rising demand for HALS from a growing number of plastic, polymer and automotive industry participants in the region and the constantly rising foreign investments are fueling market growth. With growing plastic consumption, plastics manufacturing infrastructure is being strengthened worldwide, specifically in emerging economies, thus preparing a strong base for the HALS market. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. What's New for 2022? Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 7; Released: February 2022 Executive Pool: 5832 Companies: 17 - Players covered include Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Arira Design; ARM Ltd.; Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Cray, Inc.; Fujitsu Ltd.; IBM Corporation; Intel Corporation; Marvell Technology Group Ltd.; Micron Technology, Inc.; NVIDIA Corporation; Open-Silicon, Inc.; Rambus, Inc.; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SK Hynix, Inc.; Xilinx Inc. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Application (Graphics, High-performance Computing, Networking, Data Centers); Memory Type (HMC, HBM); Product type (GPU, CPU, APU, FPGA, ASIC) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) and High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) Market to Reach $6.3 Billion by 2026 A high-performance RAM interface for TSV-based stacked DRAM memory, HMC dramatically enhances the performance of conventional memory to a new level, while substantially reducing the power consumption and costs. HMC can deliver 15 times higher performance as compared to a DDR3 module, while consuming 70% less per bit energy. Other key attributes of HMC include high per bit density and decreased form factor that drastically enhances total memory space. HMC device typically requires 90% less space than the presently available RDIMMs. With its highly innovative performance attributes, HMC can offer a resourceful platform that augments network system performance to new 100G and higher infrastructure, while keeping up with advancements in CPUs and GPUs. The use of HMC DRAM memory is currently being contemplated in applications such as graphic cards, data center infrastructure and high-performance computing applications seeking bandwidth, form factor and energy efficiencies. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) and High-bandwidth Memory (HBM) market estimated at US$2.6 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$6.3 Billion by 2026, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5% over the analysis period. The United States represents the largest regional market for Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) and High-bandwidth Memory (HBM) and is projected to reach US$2.5 Billion by 2026. China is expected to spearhead growth and emerge as the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 31.9% over the analysis period. The market is growing at a steady pace driven by various growth encouraging factors. Massive adoption of electronics and digital technologies in consumer, commercial and industrial sectors on the back of widespread relevancy of 'Connected World' made possible with advanced communication protocols and enabling technologies and devices, is creating the persistent need for high-bandwidth, scalable and low power consuming memory solutions. Sustained expansion in world data center industry, on the back of steep increase in computing requirements of modern enterprises, is contributing immensely to growth and progress of HMC/HBM DRAM memory solutions. To resolve the soaring bandwidth and capacity requirements, modern data centers are increasingly relying on advanced technologies such as IoT, AI and cloud-based services, stirring the demand for sophisticated memory solutions in the process. Emergence of High-Performance Computing (HPC), referring to the application of supercomputers to resolve complex computational issues, as reliable tool for the worldwide IT industry is favouring widespread growth in HMC and HBM marketplace. Desktop computers usually require a single processing chip, generally called a CPU, however the processing chip requirement for HPC is excessively high, where HMC/HBM interfaces can be handy to resolve the underlying complexities. Steered by progressive developments in AI and ML, HPC gained traction in the last few years and the momentum in HPC is poised to remain northbound amid increasing computational power requirements of enterprises and general consumers, indicating strong growth forecasts for HMC/HBM DRAM memory solutions. Rising adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), broadly referring to the intelligence displayed by machines contrary to the natural intelligence demonstrated by humans, across various facets of technology applications is building momentum form high-tech memory devices. AI adoption is soaring on an ongoing basis amid escalating computational capacity in the 'Cloud', and improvements in sophisticated algorithms, while generating parallel opportunities to advanced hardware devices including high-performing memory and processors. Electronic device miniaturization is another major growth driver for HMC/HBM technology. As MEMS devices are small, they require advanced memory solutions made in extremely low-footprint designs, but with higher memory capacities, for which HMC/HBM can offer potential alternative. HMC and HBM market also stands to gain from high growth momentum in stacked DRAM vertical, gauged through wider uptake of 3D TSV technology in DRAM fabrication. Leading DRAM memory vendors are prioritizing 3D layer stacking with TSV technology to develop high-quality memory devices to address the growing high-performance computing needs of consumers, while creating ample space for HMC and HBM, the stacked DRAM memory solutions. The United States constitutes the largest market for HMC/HBM DRAM solutions, representing nearly half of worldwide market revenues. HMC/HBM DRAM market in the US is gaining traction amid robust opportunities emerging from end-use domains. Well established data center industry, growing importance of high-performance computing, intensified demand for advanced networking technologies, and sustained growth in graphic cards market, are all poised to inflate the demand for HMC/HBM solutions. Growth forecasts for HMC/HBM market remain extremely high in emerging regions, especially China. While China has demonstrated massive expansion in the Industrial sector over the past two decade period, the IT industry in the country also made significant progress. Chinese enterprises are making substantial investments on data centers and high-performance computing to enhance their operations. The uptrend in the computing domain is therefore creating highly conducive environment for IT solutions including memory technologies such as DRAM and NAND. HMC and HBM, the two stacked DRAM technologies that utilize 3D TSV to stack the dies, are also gaining from the trend. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 10; Released: February 2022 Executive Pool: 23807 Companies: 30 - Players covered include Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; ARM Limited; Broadcom Corporation; IBM; Imagination Technologies Limited; Intel Corporation; Marvell Technology Group Ltd.; MediaTek, Inc.; Microchip Technology, Inc.; NVIDIA Corporation; NXP Semiconductors N.V.; Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.; Renesas Electronics Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Texas Instruments, Inc.; Toshiba Corporation; Unisoc Communications, Inc.; VIA Technologies, Inc. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Architecture (X86, ARM, MIPS, Power, and SPARC); and Application (Consumer Electronics, Server, Automotive, BFSI, Industrial, Aerospace & Defense, and Medical) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Microprocessor and GPU Market to Reach $97.4 Billion by 2026 A microprocessor is a computer processor that incorporates various functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit (IC). Graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit intended to manipulate and modify memory to accelerate the image generation in a frame buffer designed for output to a display device. Microprocessor chipsets and GPUs, in various architecture formats including X86, ARM, MIPS, Power and SPARC, gained wider application relevancy in consumer electronics, servers, automotive systems, industrial equipment, aerospace & defense technologies, and medical equipment, among others. Modern microprocessors, functioning as the core components of computer systems, can seamlessly implement and execute logical instructions programmed in processing systems in a precise and efficient manner, in real-time. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Microprocessor and GPU estimated at US$87.7 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$97.4 Billion by 2026, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.7% over the analysis period. The United States represents the largest regional market for Microprocessor and GPU, and is projected to reach US$24.6 Billion by 2026. China is expected to spearhead growth and emerge as the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 4% over the analysis period. Growth in the global market is set to be driven by sustained demand in core end-use verticals. While consumer electronics have driven overall momentum, widespread use in servers, industrial equipment, and automotive technologies, paved way for growth and progress of the microprocessors and GPU market. At the same time, factor such as rise of 'Cloud' computing and subsequent transition of data from on-premise to cloud-based servers, emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) model, popularity of wearable devices such as smart watches, have boosted the market prospects. Further, technology improvements also contributed to market expansion in a major way. Modern microprocessors, functioning as the core components of computer systems, can seamlessly implement and execute logical instructions programmed in processing systems in a precise and efficient manner, in real-time. Similarly, latest range of GPUs can uniquely function as chip processors that are capable of processing over 10 million polygons in a second with comprehensive lighting, remodeling and triangle setup capabilities. Sustained expansion in IoT ecosystem and growing role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in modern computing domain, strongly favor future expansion of the market. Ongoing shift towards intelligent computing amid priority for 'Digital Transformation' among modern enterprises would be instrumental in future growth of the market. The US constitutes the largest consumer of microprocessor chipsets and GPU devices. Sustained growth in domestic electronics and electronics components industries, roll out of new and next generation electronic systems for autonomous vehicles, IoT environments, Industry 4.0 ecosystem, UAV and drone technologies, healthcare systems and server applications, would substantially boost the market prospects. Rise of China as the industrial manufacturing hub, supplying a range of consumer electronics products to global markets, strongly supports present and future expansion in the domestic microprocessor and GPU market, while pushing the country's share in the world market. By architecture type, the market for X86 Architecture is forecast to dominate market share. The x86 represents a popular Intel CPU architecture that came into existence with the 16-bit 8086 processor in the year 1978. Today, x86 is commonly used to denote 32-bit processors that comply with the x86 instruction set. The x86 architecture is extensively employed in computers (desktops and laptops) and servers, and established role of the architecture in these devices is poised to maintain uptrend in the x86 market segment. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares Market presence across multiple geographies - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial Online interactive peer-to-peer collaborative bespoke updates Access to our digital archives and MarketGlass Research Platform Complimentary updates for one year Edition: 19; Released: March 2022 Executive Pool: 4697 Companies: 382 - Players covered include ACRO Automation Systems, Inc.; Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik GmbH; Coherent, Inc.; Daihen Corporation; Denyo Co., Ltd.; ESAB; Fronius International GmbH; IDEAL-Werk; IGM Robotersysteme AG; Illinois Tool Works, Inc.; Hobart Brothers LLC; Miller Electric Mfg. LLC; Kemppi Oy; Kiefel GmbH; Kobe Steel, Ltd.; KUKA AG; Manufacturing Technology, Inc.; Panasonic Corporation; Sonics & Materials, Inc.; The Lincoln Electric Company; Tianjin Bridge Welding Materials Group Co., Ltd.; voestalpine Bohler Welding Group GmbH and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Product Type (Arc Welding, Oxy-Fuel Welding, Resistance Welding, Laser Beam Welding, Other Product Types); Type (Automatic, Semi-Automatic, Manual); End-Use (Automotive, Building & Construction, Aerospace, Energy, Oil & Gas, Marine, Other End-Uses) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Welding Machinery Market to Reach US$17.1 Billion by the Year 2026 Modern welding techniques find use in a wide range of applications extending from a small garage to the aerospace industry. Fabrication of ships, bridges and buildings, manufacture of farm equipment, automobiles, mining equipment, home appliances, and earth moving equipment use various types of welding processes. Energy, infrastructure, automobiles, construction and ship-building industries are the major end-users of welding machinery. Infrastructure projects such as power, ports, road networks, railroads and modernization of existing facilities are major growth drivers for the welding industry. Future Prospects remain brighter for welding machinery, as construction, infrastructure, energy, oil & gas, wind power and various other sectors are set to witness significant growth in spending. Besides, better prospects for future economic growth in various markets worldwide, including the renaissance in those currently sliding down, are expected to drive investments and therefore propel demand for welding machinery during the review period. The global population is projected to rise at an exponential rate and exceed the 9 billion-mark by 2050. The subsequent rise in demand for housing, potable water, energy and other infrastructure including bridges and harbors is expected to drive demand for welding equipment. Product innovations, advances in manufacturing process as well as technological improvements are all factors expected to positively influence the global welding equipment market. Laser sources, beam delivery and work management are some of the technical areas that are witnessing significant advancements and are increasingly finding place in new machinery models. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Welding Machinery estimated at US$13 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$17.1 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% over the analysis period. Arc Welding, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 7.6% CAGR to reach US$7.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Oxy-Fuel Welding segment is readjusted to a revised 6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 27.2% share of the global Welding Machinery market. Worldwide arc welding machinery market is expected to grow led by increased demand from emerging markets, and the growing consumption in various end-use markets. In particular, the energy sector, which was among the few markets to be minimally impacted by the financial crisis, contributed considerably to the market's growth. Arc welding is used for maintaining and repairing LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) tanks, nuclear facilities, wind turbine installations and pipelines. Growth is also fueled by increased usage in the transportation, automotive, infrastructure and construction industries; and the rapid industrialization of developing countries. The market is also expected to benefit from the emergence of newer technologies such as energy saving equipment and corrosion-resistant filler metals, and the continuous rise in foreign directs investments. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $3.2 Billion in 2022, While China is Forecast to Reach $3.3 Billion by 2026 The Welding Machinery market in the U.S. is estimated at US$3.2 Billion in the year 2022. The country currently accounts for a 24.95% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$3.3 Billion in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.9% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 4.6% and 5.8% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 5.5% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$569.4 Million by the end of the analysis period. The market for welding equipment is mature in developed nations which are home to an already well established infrastructure. Demand in these nations is predominantly driven by infrastructure rehabilitation and maintenance programs. For instance, the UK is contemplating a national plan for upgrading infrastructure as the government hopes to fund its ambitious plans to improve railroad, energy and airport infrastructure. France has also been expanding its high-speed rail system to improve connectivity across the nation. The US also offers prospects for welding equipment as most of its infrastructure is dated and requires upgrading or remodeling. The Middle East nations, set to transform their energy-based economies into trading hubs, also offer opportunities for welding equipment. Resistance Welding Segment to Reach $2.8 Billion by 2026 Resistance welding machinery market has evolved considerably over the years. Currently, available power supplies are much more accurate and efficient compared to older generation power supplies. Manufacturers also developed weld programmers-devices, which execute and store weld programs. These devices automate welding process and consequently reduce scrap parts. In the global Resistance Welding segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 5.8% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$1.4 Billion will reach a projected size of US$2.1 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$2.7 Billion by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 7.6% CAGR through the analysis period. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. GREENVILLE, S.C., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GrandSouth Bancorporation (OTCQX: GRRB) (the "Company" or "GrandSouth"), the holding company for GrandSouth Bank announced today that net income for the first quarter of 2022 was $4.1 million. The Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.13 per common share ($0.1365 per Series A preferred share) payable on May 18, 2022 to shareholders of record on May 4, 2022. First Quarter 2022 Highlights For and during the quarter ended March 31, 2022: Net Income was $4.1 million , an increase of $0.5 million , or 14.30%, from the same quarter in 2021. , an increase of , or 14.30%, from the same quarter in 2021. Basic and diluted earnings per share were $0.75 and $0.72 , respectively. and , respectively. The annualized returns on average assets and average equity were 1.37% and 16.89%, respectively. Total assets increased $49.5 million , or 4.11%, to $1.3 billion , since December 31, 2021 . , or 4.11%, to , since . Gross loans increased by $2.7 million , or an annualized rate of 1.18%, to $936.2 million , since December 31, 2021 . , or an annualized rate of 1.18%, to , since . Total deposits increased $49.9 million , or an annualized rate of 19.09%, to $1.1 billion , since December 31, 2021 . , or an annualized rate of 19.09%, to , since . Cost of funds decreased by 17 basis points, or 29.31%, from the same quarter in 2021. 0.03% of Core Bank loans (gross loans excluding specialty floor plan and purchased student loans) were 30 days past due as of March 31, 2022 . The annualized net charge off ratio for the quarter was 0.04%. . The annualized net charge off ratio for the quarter was 0.04%. The efficiency ratio was 58.40%, up from 55.45% in the prior quarter but lower than 60.64% in the same quarter in 2021. To view the full report, visit https://www.otcmarkets.com/otcapi/company/financial-report/327942/content About GrandSouth Bancorporation GrandSouth Bancorporation is a bank holding company with assets of $1.3 billion at March 31, 2022. GrandSouth Bank provides a range of financial services to individuals and small and medium sized businesses. GrandSouth Bank has eight branches in South Carolina, located in Greenville, Fountain Inn, Anderson, Greer, Columbia, Orangeburg and Charleston. www.grandsouth.com SOURCE GrandSouth Bancorporation HONOLULU, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) (NYSE: HE) will announce its first quarter 2022 financial results on Monday, May 9. In addition, American Savings Bank, F.S.B. (American), a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of HEI, will announce its first quarter 2022 financial results on Friday, April 29. HEI will conduct a webcast and conference call to discuss first quarter 2022 consolidated earnings, 2022 earnings guidance and regulatory and other matters on Monday, May 9 at 10:15 a.m. Hawaii time (4:15 p.m. Eastern time). To listen to the conference call, dial 1-844-200-6205 (U.S.) or 1-929-526-1599 (international) and enter passcode 275546. Parties may also access presentation materials and/or listen to the conference call by visiting the conference call link on HEI's website at www.hei.com under "Investor Relations," sub-heading "News and Events Events and Presentations." A replay will be available online and via phone. The online replay will be available on HEI's website about two hours after the event. An audio replay will also be available about two hours after the event through May 23. To access the audio replay, dial 1-866-813-9403 (U.S.) or (44) 204-525-0658 (international) and enter passcode 477148. HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (Hawaiian Electric) intend to continue to use HEI's website, www.hei.com , as a means of disclosing additional information; such disclosures will be included in the Investor Relations section of the website. Accordingly, investors should routinely monitor the Investor Relations section of HEI's website, in addition to following HEI's, Hawaiian Electric's and American's press releases, HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and HEI's public conference calls and webcasts. Investors may sign up to receive e-mail alerts via the "Investor Relations" section of the website. The information on HEI's website is not incorporated by reference into this document or into HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's SEC filings unless, and except to the extent, specifically incorporated by reference. Investors may also wish to refer to the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Hawaii (PUC) website at dms.puc.hawaii.gov/dms to review documents filed with, and issued by, the PUC. No information on the PUC website is incorporated by reference into this document or into HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's SEC filings. About HEI The HEI family of companies provides the energy and financial services that empower much of the economic and community activity of Hawaii. HEI's electric utility, Hawaiian Electric, supplies power to approximately 95% of Hawaii's population and is undertaking an ambitious effort to decarbonize its operations and the broader state economy. Its banking subsidiary, American Savings Bank, is one of Hawaii's largest financial institutions, providing a wide array of banking and other financial services and working to advance economic growth, affordability and financial fitness. HEI also helps advance Hawaii's sustainability goals through investments by its non-regulated subsidiary, Pacific Current. For more information, visit www.hei.com . Contact: Julie Smolinski Phone: (808) 543-7300 Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Sustainability E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. Key Market Dynamics: Market Driver - The key factor driving the global high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market growth is the increasing investments in the healthcare sector. Several private and government stakeholders are investing heavily in R and D activities in the healthcare sector. This is to launch products with innovative new technologies in the field of HPLC and to increase the potential of the healthcare industry. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies must comply with stringent guidelines implemented by regulations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, they are increasingly adopting HPLC to ensure the high quality of products before commercialization. Several companies are investing in HPLC products to meet the increased demand from end-users such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the healthcare sector. Such factors will drive market growth in the coming years. The key factor driving the global high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market growth is the Several private and government stakeholders are investing heavily in R and D activities in the healthcare sector. This is to launch products with innovative new technologies in the field of HPLC and to increase the potential of the healthcare industry. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies must comply with stringent guidelines implemented by regulations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, they are increasingly adopting HPLC to ensure the high quality of products before commercialization. Several companies are investing in HPLC products to meet the increased demand from end-users such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the healthcare sector. Such factors will drive market growth in the coming years. Market Challenges - The key challenges to the global HPLC market growth is the high cost of HPLC instruments. For instance, the Agilent 1290 UHPLC Infinity DAD System offered by Agilent Technologies is priced at USD 39,500 and Agilent 1200 Preparative HPLC System is priced at USD 39,000 . The Thermo Scientific Dionex Ultimate 3000 UHPLC PREP System offered by Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., is priced at USD 23,000 . Furthermore, instruments such as pumps are highly-priced. For instance, the Thermo Scientific Accela HPLC Autosampler and Pump offered by Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., is priced at USD 7,900 . Thus, the high cost of HPLC instruments, including systems, detectors, and pumps, hinders the growth of the global high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market To learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges -Download our FREE Sample Report right now! Segmentation Analysis The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market report is segmented by Product (Instruments, Consumables, and Accessories) and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (ROW). The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market share growth in the instruments segment will be significant for revenue generation. These instruments are used for various applications, including water purification, analysis of traceable components of samples, ion-exchange chromatography of proteins, and high-pH anion-exchange chromatography of carbohydrates and oligosaccharides. The increase in product offerings in the instruments segment has led to the growth of the global high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market. Download our sample report for additional insights into the contribution of all the segments Some Companies Mentioned The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as investment in R and D to compete in the market. Agilent Technologies Inc. Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. Danaher Corp. General Electric Co. Gilson Inc. Hamilton Bonaduz AG Hitachi High Tech Corp. IDEX Corp. JASCO Merck KGaA Orochem Technologies Inc. PerkinElmer Inc. Restek Corp. Shimadzu Corp. SHOWA DENKO K.K. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Tosoh Corp. Trajan Scientific Australia Pty Ltd. Waters Corp. YMC Co. Ltd. To gain access to more vendor profiles with their key offerings available with Technavio, Click Here Related Reports: The organs on chips market share is expected to increase by USD 73.91 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 29.34%. Download a free sample now! share is expected to increase by USD 73.91 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 29.34%. The arbovirus testing market share is expected to increase by USD 320.5 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.6%. Download a free sample now! High-performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.33% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 1.26 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.16 Performing market contribution North America at 33% Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Agilent Technologies Inc., Bio Rad Laboratories Inc., Danaher Corp., General Electric Co., Gilson Inc., Hamilton Bonaduz AG, Hitachi High Tech Corp., IDEX Corp., JASCO, Merck KGaA, Orochem Technologies Inc., PerkinElmer Inc., Restek Corp., Shimadzu Corp., SHOWA DENKO K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Tosoh Corp., Trajan Scientific Australia Pty Ltd., Waters Corp., and YMC Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Market overview Exhibit 01: Executive Summary Chart on Market Overview Exhibit 02: Executive Summary Data Table on Market Overview Exhibit 03: Executive Summary Chart on Global Market Characteristics Exhibit 04: Executive Summary Chart on Market by Geography Exhibit 05: Executive Summary Chart on Market Segmentation by Product Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Product 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Product Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Product Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Product 5.3 Instruments - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Instruments - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Instruments - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Instruments - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Instruments - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Consumables - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Consumables - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Consumables - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Consumables - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Consumables - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Accessories - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Accessories - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Accessories - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Accessories - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Accessories - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Product Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Product ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 87: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 Agilent Technologies Inc. Exhibit 89: Agilent Technologies Inc. - Overview Exhibit 90: Agilent Technologies Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 91: Agilent Technologies Inc. - Key news Exhibit 92: Agilent Technologies Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 93: Agilent Technologies Inc. - Segment focus 10.4 Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. Exhibit 94: Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - Overview Exhibit 95: Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 96: Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - Key news Exhibit 97: Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 98: Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. - Segment focus 10.5 Danaher Corp. Exhibit 99: Danaher Corp. - Overview Exhibit 100: Danaher Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 101: Danaher Corp. - Key news Exhibit 102: Danaher Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 103: Danaher Corp. - Segment focus 10.6 General Electric Co. Exhibit 104: General Electric Co. - Overview Exhibit 105: General Electric Co. - Business segments Exhibit 106: General Electric Co. - Key news Exhibit 107: General Electric Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 108: General Electric Co. - Segment focus 10.7 Hitachi High Tech Corp. Exhibit 109: Hitachi High Tech Corp. - Overview Exhibit 110: Hitachi High Tech Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 111: Hitachi High Tech Corp. - Key news Exhibit 112: Hitachi High Tech Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 113: Hitachi High Tech Corp. - Segment focus 10.8 IDEX Corp. Exhibit 114: IDEX Corp. - Overview Exhibit 115: IDEX Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 116: IDEX Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 117: IDEX Corp. - Segment focus 10.9 Merck KGaA Exhibit 118: Merck KGaA - Overview Exhibit 119: Merck KGaA - Product / Service Exhibit 120: Merck KGaA - Key offerings 10.10 PerkinElmer Inc. Exhibit 121: PerkinElmer Inc. - Overview Exhibit 122: PerkinElmer Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 123: PerkinElmer Inc. - Key news Exhibit 124: PerkinElmer Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 125: PerkinElmer Inc. - Segment focus 10.11 Shimadzu Corp. Exhibit 126: Shimadzu Corp. - Overview Exhibit 127: Shimadzu Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 128: Shimadzu Corp. - Key news Exhibit 129: Shimadzu Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 130: Shimadzu Corp. - Segment focus 10.12 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Exhibit 131: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Overview Exhibit 132: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Business segments Exhibit 133: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Key news Exhibit 134: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Key offerings Exhibit 135: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 136: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 137: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 138: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 139: Research methodology Exhibit 140: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 141: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 142: List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email:[email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio Hyundai Motor is the first automaker to enter the NFT market with its own NFT community, including the Hyundai NFT official website and channels on Discord and Twitter . The Hyundai NFT community will provide its users with the Hyundai brand experience in the metaverse by sharing NFTs depicting its mobility solutions. The Hyundai NFT Discord and Twitter channels opened on April 15, and the official NFT website is scheduled to open in May. By providing dedicated channels for the Hyundai NFT community, the company will continuously manage the asset value of its NFTs. The online platforms will provide an open 24/7 communications channel between the company and community members, with real-time updates on the asset value of its NFTs. Today, the company released a short film introducing the Hyundai NFT universe concept 'Metamobility Universe,' which reflects the 'Metamobility' concept revealed at CES 2022. In the film, the 'Meta Kongz' gorilla character drives in both a classic PONY and modernly reinterpreted heritage series PONY from Earth to the Moon, visualizing how mobility solutions can transcend time and space. The film at the end also teases a shooting star-shaped NFT that will be released in May. Hyundai Motor will also issue 30 limited editions 'Hyundai x Meta Kongz' NFTs on April 20 to commemorate the release of the film. Hyundai NFT projects will be continued throughout the year to keep expanding the Hyundai NFT Universe. Profits from the sale of Hyundai NFTs will be used for the project's management and community members. "The Hyundai NFT Universe will extend the Hyundai brand experience, especially with MZ generation, in a completely new way, further reinforcing our commitment to innovation in both the real world and in the metaverse," said Thomas Schemera, Hyundai Motor's Global Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience Division. "We are extremely excited to introduce 'Metamobility' through our own NFTs and start this journey with 'Meta Kongz'." Hyundai Motor Company shared its vision of a 'Metamobility' concept at CES 2022 with the goal of pioneering a smart device-metaverse connection that will expand the role of mobility to virtual reality (VR), ultimately allowing people to overcome the physical limitations of movement in time and space. For more information, please visit: http://globalpr.hyundai.com SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company All have a singular vision for what Eleven is about: an agency that is purpose-driven and leading edge. All are also on a mission to undo the norms and conventions of the creative industry. They believe there is a new future emerging that agencies and brand organizations are not set up to be relevant in. And they are determined for Eleven to be the agency that is. "We were drawn to each other at this transformational moment, determined to embrace this opportunity as creators, thinkers, leaders coming together to create something powerful together," said Kristina Jenkins, Eleven's new chief strategy officer. "We are here to be part of a different type of agency, company and culture that unapologetically thrives at the intersection of wellness and greatness." Kristina infuses her New York resilience and California sense of possibility into all she does. She has pioneered and elevated agency strategy groups at Cashmere, Zambezi and mcgarrybowen, unleashing her signature superpower in each leadership role. In turn, she has helped brands like Disney, Google, HBO, Instagram, Hulu, Taco Bell, Venmo, Reebok, Verizon and Marriott show up in the world in culturally relevant ways. Incredibly passionate about empowering people to be their unique and thriving selves in their work, Kristina has been a guest speaker at Advertising Week, Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, The Marcus Graham Project, Miami Ad School and The One Club for Creativity. Eleven was born on the principle that everything matters: every medium, every detail, every touchpoint and every voice. The trio is building upon that foundation with a fresh expression of values, including: heart-first leadership, restorative creativity and a passion-first workstyle. "We've been 'pulling it off' for too long. It's time to pull each other up," said Juliette Geraghty, Eleven's new executive creative director. "Creativity comes from people. Yet when you look at how we welcome more visionary voices into our industry, so little of the process allows us to actually see people. We're going to be focused on passions and perspectives over portfolios; to see people and for people to feel seen." Juliette landed her first agency role this way. She was discovered by a creative director at Digitas NY while emceeing an event in Brooklyn supporting her theater outreach program for homeless teens living in domestic violence shelters. Shortly after that event, she had her first associate copywriter role at Digitas. As a daughter of immigrant parents, she has always held a passion for empowering unheard voices. In the inspiring words of Kate DiCamillo, her mission is to help brands amplify these voices to "make hearts large through story." With a devotion to cultural impact, she has collaborated with kindred spirits at AT&T, Disney, Hulu, Live Nation, OPI, and WarnerMedia to move the world forward through powerful, inclusive storytelling. Her infectious enthusiasm and creativity earned her a spot on Business Insider's "30 Most Creative Women In Advertising." Her greatest role, however, is that of "Mama" to her 9-year-old firecracker of a daughter Clover Mimi, and "Babers" to the love of her life Dave. "We're establishing a bold set of criteria for clients that we bring in, and we'll take them on the journey. Change is hard, but radical change is needed," said Andrea Ogunbadejo, Eleven's new head of production. "This is a different way of doing things. The intersection of creative, strategy and production is where great work is made, and we plan to employ a round table approach - equal seats at the table, to achieve that." British born Andrea has been beating the production drum her entire career - from a foundation in cinema at film school, to working in independent feature films, shorts and scripted TV for the BBC, Netflix, Sky, NBC & Syfy. She made the transition into advertising, landing at VaynerMedia London where she established and led the agency production department and in-house content studio, delivering global campaigns for TikTok, 7UP, UNICEF, Shell, Stella Artois and Johnson & Johnson. She is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability, leading DEI efforts for VaynerMedia London, committed to representation on and off camera, and working towards Net Zero carbon emissions on all productions. Eleven's beginnings are in San Francisco, but these three are further establishing a multi-city swagger and sensibility with Kristina and Juliette based in the Los Angeles area, and Andrea based in New York. "For 22 years we have proudly been thoughtful, kind and considerate in our culture and our work. We are now meeting this moment of change to make our mark on our industry," said Courtney Buechert, the president of Eleven. "Kristina, Juliette and Andrea join us with a freshness, a vitality and a new wisdom that is igniting us all." SOURCE Eleven ATLANTA, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lenz, a leading marketing and advertising firm based in Decatur, Georgia, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary of helping companies, communities, and causes reach for higher goals. Founded in 1992 in the basement office of CEO and President Richard J. Lenz, the company has grown into a vibrant business that has supported hundreds of companies with their marketing needs. Lenz offers integrated marketing including brand strategy, public relations, digital and traditional advertising, web-based communication solutions, and strategic analysis for healthcare and other service-related businesses. "I am extremely grateful for the trust our clients and business partners have placed in us over the years," says Richard J. Lenz. "While we commemorate Lenz's achievement, we also celebrate the growth and accomplishments of our clients. They inspire us. And for more than 30 years, we have worked hard to advance their vital missions with effective marketing and media. "The company's mission from the start was to use marketing communications to help people, companies, and causes that are trying to make a positive difference in the world," Lenz explains. "This has led to attracting clients in the fields of healthcare, science, conservation, arts, and education, who are focused on creating healthier and sustainable communities." The company is best known for its expertise with healthcare marketing, assisting physician practices and hospitals in the Southeast and nationally. Additionally, the company has had a rich history of tackling a broad array of communications projects and campaigns. To that end, Lenz has designed and developed brand-elevating digital and advertising media campaigns, created and launched hundreds of websites, raised millions of dollars for causes, built radio and digital media properties, and founded and grown cause-driven festivals. "What has brought us to this anniversary has been to focus on combining innovative and effective marketing strategies with a staff dedicated to superior customer service and integrity," Lenz says. "Thirty years is a generation. And in that time, we have not only survived through several very difficult business recessions and a global pandemic, we have worked hard to adapt and thrive," explains Lenz. "We have done this as marketing communications have gone through many radical changes. We are excited about the future as we continue to attack new opportunities." To learn more, visit lenzmarketing.com . Contact: Jon Waterhouse | Lenz, Inc. 678-770-9561 [email protected] SOURCE LENZ MARKETING Applications now open nationwide for 20232025 grant cycle to present a free concert series that activates underused public spaces and builds community through the power of free, live music LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, a social impact funder supporting nonprofits nationwide at the intersection of music and public space, announces the open application period for its Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards, now through June 30, 2022. The Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards is an exciting, multi-year matching grant opportunity bringing the joy of free, live music to towns and cities with a population of up to 250,000 people. For the 20232025 grant cycle, the Levitt Foundation has expanded the Levitt AMP program from an annual matching grant of $25K into a three-year matching grant of $30K per year, for a total grant award of $90K. U.S.-based nonprofits are eligible to apply to the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards to present the Levitt AMP Music Series10 free concerts that inject new life into underused public spaces, creating joyous, inclusive community destinations. Reflecting the Foundation's commitment that all Levitt projects be community-driven, the Top 20 Levitt finalists will be selected through online public voting. Interested nonprofits can view the eligibility criteria and apply starting today at levitt.org/apply. Past grantees are eligible to reapply for the 20232025 Levitt AMP grant. Apply now to the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards to bring free outdoor concerts to your community with $90K grants. Tweet this Since 2015, the Levitt Foundation has provided funding to 38 communities across America through the Levitt AMP program, activating underused outdoor public spaces, ensuring access to the arts and strengthening the social fabric of communities through creative placemaking, bringing people together of all ages and backgrounds through a free concert series featuring a diverse lineup of artists, music genres and cultural programming. The acronym "AMP" speaks to the goals of the program: Amplify community pride and a city's unique character; enrich lives through the power of free, live Music; and illustrate the importance of vibrant public Places. Today marks the first time in three years that Levitt AMP applications are open to the public. Due to the pandemic, all 2020 Levitt AMP grantees were also awarded Levitt AMP grants in 2021 and 2022. "Since launching the Levitt AMP program in 2015, we've seen firsthand the tremendous positive impact of Levitt AMP concerts in building more equitable, healthy and thriving communities, creating pride of place and a sense of belonging within each hometown, and spurring additional investments supporting the local economy," says Sharon Yazowski, executive director of the Levitt Foundation. "We are thrilled to once again open applications to new communities seeking to harness the power of music to connect us and bring joy to our lives, while realizing the incredible potential of towns and cities across our country." While the Levitt Foundation's celebrated program of outdoor music venues, each presenting 4050 free concerts annually, is tailored to large metro areas with populations of over 400,000 (due to financial sustainability and audience development considerations), the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards are specifically designed to meet the needs and capacity of small to mid-sized towns and cities, with each Levitt AMP grantee presenting 10 free outdoor concerts. The Levitt AMP program is open to nonprofits across sectorspast grantees have included nonprofits from the arts, Main Street, community development, affordable housing, universities, among otherswhile the Levitt venue program has a dedicated "Friends of Levitt" nonprofit partner, that manages, programs and supports the venue year-round. As the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards are matching grants, each applicant must secure a dollar-for-dollar match of $30K each year from other sources such as foundations, businesses, municipalities and individual donors, among other entities. Up to half of the matching requirement may be in-kind, such as donated sound equipment, professional services or contributed marketing. In addition to the monetary award, Levitt AMP grant recipients receive the Levitt AMP Toolkit containing valuable resources to help them produce their concert series and access to peers within the national Levitt network of venues and concert sites. Also, applicants participating in the online public voting phase will receive a $1,500 mini-grant from the Levitt Foundation to support their efforts. Levitt AMP concerts are intended to create inclusive experiences, where all members of the community are welcome to participate. The most competitive proposals will convey the following: The public space where the free concert series is to be presented is easily accessible to a range of demographic groups; A programming philosophy that is inclusive, family-friendly and represents a wide range of music genres; Proposals that are submitted by nonprofits that are BIPOC-led, and/or inclusive of all members of the community, particularly those who have been historically excluded and/or underrepresented due to race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, socioeconomic status, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age and disability; A proven track record of presenting professional quality concerts or community events or partnering with an individual or organization that has done so. Online public voting will determine the Top 20 finalists between September 1221, 2022. The Levitt Foundation will then review the applications and announce the 20232025 Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards recipients on November 15, 2022. From Soldotna, Alaska with a population of nearly 5,000 people to Trenton, New Jersey with more than 83,000 residents, the Levitt AMP program reaches a wide range of communities across America, presenting pop, rock, folk, World music, country, jazz, Latin, children's shows, blues and more. To view the current Levitt AMP grantees presenting concert series this summer, please visit levitt.org/amp. To view past grantee communities, please visit levitt.org/past-grantees. To learn more about the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards, check your eligibility and access the application, please visit levitt.org/amp. Press photos are available. About the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation is a private family foundation that exists to strengthen the social fabric of America. Through its commitment to creative placemaking, the Levitt Foundation supports the activation of underused public spacessuch as neglected parks, vacant downtown lots, and former brownfieldsinto welcoming, inclusive destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together to create more equitable, healthy and thriving communities. The Foundation's primary funding areas include Levitt venues and the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards. Both of these programs present free concerts in outdoor, open lawn settings featuring high-caliber talent in a broad array of music genres and cultural programming. Levitt venues and Levitt AMP concert sites attract people of all ages and backgrounds and reflect the character of their town or city, while benefitting from the framework and best practices of the Levitt program. The Levitt Foundation invests in community-driven efforts that harness the power of partnerships and leverage community engagement. Levitt venue nonprofits and AMP grantees partner with other local nonprofits and community groups to inform programming, outreach and engagement, embodying the Foundation's funding philosophy and core values to support projects that are inclusive, catalytic and dynamic, and create connectedness and joy. Reflecting its ongoing commitment to self-reflection and contributing to the creative placemaking field, the Levitt Foundation invests in research to evaluate the social impact of Levitt programs in communities, which in turn informs the Foundation's evolving philanthropic practice. Learn more: levitt.org and follow us @levittfoundation on Facebook and Instagram and @levittfdn on Twitter. SOURCE Levitt Foundation CHICAGO, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketsandMarkets has released 360 Quadrant for Top Cybersecurity companies to help businesses make quicker and more informed decisions. Companies' product portfolios and business strategies are used to construct ranking quadrants, which will be revised every six months based on market and regional studies and advancements in the cybersecurity industry. Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Antivirus/Antimalware, Encryption, Identity and Access Management, Firewall, Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention System (IDS/IPS), Disaster Recovery, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Mitigation, and Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) protection were the top criteria for company evaluation out of 132 parameters. Cybersecurity Software is the program used for the protection of a network, device, or any system from cyberattacks. It is concerned with preventing unwanted access to and assaults on computer systems and their components, such as hardware, software, data, and digital infrastructure. In the cybersecurity sector, Microsoft is a top cybersecurity vendor. Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA) assists in threat detection services. It offers a quick and easy way to figure out what is going on in the network. Cisco Systems is an American cybersecurity company. Its objective is to provide a full-fledged cybersecurity platform to its large enterprise customers. The company has 300,000 security customers and protects 61 million endpoints and 840,000 networks with its solutions. Around 80% of Cisco System's security clients start with one of four popular products, and a quarter of consumers move on to buy at least one more security product. AWS offers enterprises enterprise-grade security and analytics tools that may provide complete visibility into application traffic. AWS Data Protection services assist organizations in protecting their data, accounts, and workloads from illegal access. Palo Alto is an American cybersecurity vendor that provides digital-age solutions such as firewalls spanning clouds, networks, and mobile devices. Palo Alto has formed strategic alliances with prominent cloud providers, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, making Palo Alto's solutions more available to customers and boosting customer growth. As a result of these relationships, Palo Alto has added 12,500 new customers, an average of 2,500 per quarter. IBM safeguards the entire company network against known and new threats. It aids in the detection and prevention of sophisticated threats. McAfee, Inc. offers IT security solutions to a wide range of industrial clients. Its software and hardware prevent viruses, spam, and spyware, as well as handle data loss protection, mobile security, host intrusion prevention, encryption, and e-mail security. CATEGORIZATION OF CYBERSECURITY VENDORS ON 360QUADRANTS Cybersecurity software vendors' evaluation was conducted for over 89 Cybersecurity companies, of which the top 20 were categorized and placed in a quadrant under Visionary Leaders, Innovators, Dynamic Differentiators, and Emerging Leaders. Microsoft, AWS, Palo Alto, IBM, McAfee, Trend Micro, Mandiant (FireEye), Fortinet, and Cisco- These Cybersecurity companies have been identified as visionary leaders in Cybersecurity on 360Quadrants. Visionary leaders are the leading market players in terms of new developments such as product launches, innovative technologies, and the adoption of growth strategies. These players have a broad product offering that caters to most of the regions globally. Visionary leaders primarily focus on acquiring the leading market position through their strong financial capabilities and their well-established brand equity. Alert Logic, Malwarebytes, Avast, OpenText (Webroot), Kaspersky, and eSentire- These Cybersecurity companies have been identified as innovators on 360Quadrants. Innovators are those vendors that have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. These companies have focused on enhancing their product portfolios. Arctic Wolf, Code42, and Havoc Shield have been identified as emerging leaders on 360Quadrants. Emerging companies have niche product and service offerings. Their business strategies are not as strong as that of the established vendors. The emerging vendors include the new entrants in the market (emerging in terms of product portfolio and geographic reach) and require time to gain significant traction in the market. Qualys, RSA Security, and F5 Networks- These Cybersecurity companies have been recognized as dynamic differentiators on 360Quadrants. Dynamic differentiators are established players with very strong business strategies. However, they have a weaker product portfolio compared to the visionary leaders. They generally focus only on a specific type of technology related to the product. 360Quadrants Scoring Methodology 360Quadrants assessed some of the Top Cybersecurity Software providers. These vendors were assessed based on more than 120 specifically selected parameters, which were finalized based on the product and business strategies of the software providers, and the data received from the buyers as well as the industry experts. All these parameters were assigned a specific weightage, post which they were measured as well. This study also helps the analysts calculate the total score based on which cybersecurity company were ranked and positioned on 360Quadrants. About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats, impacting 70% to 80% of revenues of the companies worldwide. They currently serve 7,500 customers worldwide, including 80% of the global Fortune 1000 as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across 8 industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their pain points around revenues decisions. Our 850 full-time analysts and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the Growth Engagement Model GEM. The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify the most important customers, write 'attack, avoid and defend' strategies, and ascertain sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets is now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high-growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. The flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform of MarketsandMarkets, Knowledgestore, connects over 2,00,000 markets and entire value chains for a deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Agney Sugla Email: [email protected] 630 Dundee Road, Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 SOURCE MarketsandMarkets In addition to financial services, the Aliada Digital Card offers a range of free basic assistance, such as a 24-hour online doctor, ambulance service, unlimited online counseling with a psychologist, legal advice and one-click concierge services, as well as all the benefits offered by the MasterCard Gold Card. The Aliada Digital Card is a new product launched by NanoPay, a part of the OPLAY Group, a new player in the digital financial services sector in the Mexican market. NanoPay has been officially launched to the public for five months with the support of MasterCard as a strategic partner. Laura Cruz, president of MasterCard's Mexico and Central America division, describes the company as having "flexibility and a range of solutions that we have not seen in other similar companies to date." "According to the United Nations Development Program, only one third of Mexican women in Mexico have access to the financial system. That's why Aliada Digital Card, together with its strategic partner MasterCard, is looking to bring these services to this area for expansion," mentioned Heye Guo, CEO of NanoPay. "With the growing push for women's empowerment over the past few years, economic independence is a key factor in strengthening Mexico's economic development, and that's what NanoPay's Aliada Digital Card seeks to be part of the evolution. Currently, there are no diversity credit products on the market that specifically target women," said Jose Luis Mateos, NanoPay's Chief Operating Officer. NanoPay's Aliada digital card is helping Mexican women change their lifestyles and balance their personal lives and financial needs through digital applications. About NanoPay NanoPay is a credit card that meets the consumer needs of Mexicans. It is part of the OPLAY Group, a new player in the digital financial services sector in the Mexican market. NanoPay is a card for everyone and everything, it can be applied through in minutes, it is secure, reliable, easy to use and is backed by MasterCard Gold. SOURCE NanoPay HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following two years of virtual events, teams will have the opportunity to compete in person at the 2022 NASA Student Launch rocketry competition. The annual event is set for Saturday, April 23, at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, minutes north of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Student Launch challenges middle school, high school, college, and university students to design, build, test, and fly a payload and high-powered amateur rocket. Sixty teams from 23 states plus Puerto Rico are taking part in this year's competition; 27 teams are expected to launch in person. Teams not traveling to Alabama may conduct final test flights at a home launch field. Schedule April 23 : Launch day from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT , or until the last rocket launches. The opening ceremony begins at 9 a.m. , featuring speakers from NASA Headquarters, NASA Marshall, and Northrop Grumman. : Launch day from , or until the last rocket launches. The opening ceremony begins at , featuring speakers from NASA Headquarters, NASA Marshall, and Northrop Grumman. April 24 : Tentative rain day in case of deterring weather. Competition will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. , or until last rocket launches. Winners will be announced June 2 during a virtual awards ceremony once all teams' flight data has been verified. Media interested in covering Student Launch events should contact Christopher Blair at 256-544-0034. About the Competition This year, teams must fly their rocket to an altitude between 4,000 and 6,000 feet and make a successful landing. Teams in the college/university division will tackle a new task that mirrors NASA missions like the Mars Curiosity Rover. Teams must design a payload capable of autonomously locating where their rocket landed by identifying the rocket's grid position on an aerial image of the launch site, while transmitting the data back to their ground station. This must be accomplished without the use of GPS. The requirement simulates a challenge faced by NASA mission managers communicating with spacecraft and payloads on distant planetary bodies, where use of GPS is not an option. Middle and high school teams can choose to attempt the college/university division challenge or develop their own science or engineering experiment. Teams predicted their rocket's altitude months in advance of launch day. The team that comes closest to their projection in each division wins the Altitude Award. Teams are scored in nearly a dozen other categories, including safety, vehicle design, social media presence, and science, technology, engineering, and math engagement. NASA's Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement manages Student Launch, one of the agency's Artemis Student Challenges. These activities stimulate innovation and advance NASA's human exploration mission through collaboration with educational institutions and students the Artemis Generation, who will help NASA explore the Moon and Mars. NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate and Office of STEM Engagement, along with Northrop Grumman provide funding and leadership for the initiative. The rocket launches are open to the public, but pets are not permitted. Live streaming will begin at 8:30 a.m. CDT on Student Launch Facebook and NASA Marshall Youtube. For more information about Student Launch, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/studentlaunch/home/index.html SOURCE NASA SimpleVenue and Vegan Warrior Project to Launch New Plant-Based Sushi Restaurant Concept in Manhattan April 30 The Team Behind Sushi by Bou Launches a Vegan, Japanese-Inspired Omakase Dining Experience NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Omakaseed at Plant Bar, a plant-based omakase dining experience set to open in New York City's NoMad neighborhood on April 30, will bring global flavors and fresh plant-based ingredients to New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. The unique dining experience is launched in partnership with SimpleVenue, an experiential agency connecting food and beverage concepts with world class venues, and Vegan Warrior Project, an organization that helps restaurants maximize their kitchen capacity by connecting them to plant-based delivery concepts. The Japanese-inspired service will feature an eight-seat sushi bar with five seatings per night, and an omakase menu curated by the Chef based on seasonal, fresh ingredients. This fresh take on plant-based dining is led by Executive Chef Roberto Romero, an experienced Michelin star chef with a passion for plant-based culinary innovation. At opening, guests can experience dishes such as Vegan Nigiri, Miso Soup, Potato Matcha Soup, Sunomo Style Pulled Oyster Mushroom Salad, Watermelon Tuna with Pickled Kelp and additional plant-based Japanese-inspired courses. The cocktail menu will feature specialty cocktails incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables including: Feel the Beet, Practice What you Peach, Who's Your Edamame, Green Goddess and Mint to Be. "Following the success of Sushi by Bou, we are thrilled to launch Omakaseed in partnership with the Vegan Warrior Project," said Erika London, President at SimpleVenue. "Our passion is showcasing the incredible flavors provided by the earth through our plant-based dishes, and Omakaseed will be a pioneering concept in the vegan food scene with an intimate setting." "Each omakase course will incorporate eclectic global flavors," said Chef Jorge Pineda, Chef at Omakaseed and Executive Chef at the Vegan Warrior Project. "Our menu is carefully curated week by week based on what's seasonally available and at its peak flavor profile, giving our guests a dining experience that uncovers the complexities of each vegan sushi course, completely transforming the vegan sushi concept." The intimate omakase bar is limited to 8 seats, with seating priced at $85 per person (exclusive of tax and gratuity). Dinner omakase seatings will be open from Wednesday to Saturday from 5:30PM 10:30PM, with the last seating on Saturdays at 11:30PM. Omakase at Plant Bar is located inside Plant Bar at 1204 Broadway, New York, NY 10001. For more information and to book reservations, please visit www.omakaseed.com. ABOUT OMAKASEED AT PLANT BAR Omakaseed brings experiential dining and a unique flair for service to a vastly underserved market within the plant-based community. With a focus on Japanese-inspired vegan omakase, Omakaseed seeks to continue the mission of the team behind Sushi By Bou, bringing Omakase Style service to the masses, including vegans and vegetarians. We focus on natural, minimally processed ingredients, and highlighting seasonal and local produce. Omakaseed puts an emphasis on conscious cuisine, and expanding the palettes of all who join us, vegan or not. ABOUT SIMPLEVENUE SimpleVenue is an NYC-based hospitality group, led by restaurateurs Michael Sinensky and Erika London, which specializes in micro restaurants and in bringing incredible concepts to underutilized spaces. With over 15 years of experience, SimpleVenue brings an elegant and new age touch to a classic take on the old school Sushi Counter. Sushi by Bou and sister brand Sushi Suite currently have locations inside Sanctuary Hotel in Times Square, both in the lobby and inside of a hotel room at Hotel 3232 in Nomad, Hotel Lincoln and Claridge House in Chicago, the Marriott Residence Inn at Pompano Beach and Salt7 Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Simple Venue connects experiential food and beverage concepts with world-class venues to transform underutilized real estate into revenue-generating spaces. For more information, visit sushibybou.com or email [email protected] . ABOUT VEGAN WARRIOR PROJECT Vegan Warrior Project (VWP) is a NYC plant-based Food, Technology & Marketing organization, co-founded in 2020 and led by digital marketing and technology veteran Ross Glick, former CEO of iNDELIBLE Media. VeganWarriorProject aims to help struggling independent restaurant owners everywhere optimize and maximize their untapped kitchen capacity to create more profits for both the independent restaurant owner and VWP. VeganWarriorProject is helping and aggregating 1000's of independent restaurants to create the 1st nationwide Plant Based Kitchen Fulfillment Partnership ('KFP') Network to support its geographic expansion for its wholly owned vegan delivery brands www.VistroBurger.com & www.PurpleThai.com. Both brands are currently available for delivery in NYC, from its flagship KFP Plant Bar NYC : Nomad. The culinary team at VeganWarriorProject is led by chefs Jorge Pineda & Angel Ramos from the legendary Manhattan vegan restaurants Candle79 and Candle Cafe. SimpleVenue, a NYC-based hospitality group, led by restaurateurs Michael Sinensky and Erika London, specializes in micro restaurants and in bringing incredible concepts to underutilized spaces for 15+ years is a strategic investor and a co-founder at VWP. For more information, visit www.veganwarriorproject.com or www.plantbarnyc.com or email [email protected]. SOURCE Omakaseed at Plant Bar Orthopedic planning systems are digital systems or software that help surgeons view, plan, and design patient-specific 3D orthopedic models and final implants pre-operatively. These implants are then utilized in surgical procedures such as hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder replacement, and small bone replacement while limiting the risk of intraoperative complications and improving patient outcomes. It thus helps orthopedists by managing the entire surgical procedure, which includes preoperative decisions, intraoperative guidance, and postoperative management. Incidence of musculoskeletal conditions are increasing across the world. Osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and joint inflammation are some of the most commonly occurring musculoskeletal conditions that are known to affect a large number of the population, especially the geriatric population. Additionally, the treatment for these conditions adds to the overall cost of pharmaceutical expenses, since per-care cost is continuing to rise every year, thereby increasing global health spending. Request for sample copy of report: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/26182 Improved reimbursement scenario provides coverage for orthopedic treatment. For instance, in 2019, US$ 799.4 Bn was spent by Medicare on benefit expenses for nearly 61 million patients who were aged 65 or older or disabled. In the same year, US$ 138.7 Bn was paid by Medicaid for acute-care services such as hospital care, physician services, and prescription drugs. Better reimbursement scenario enables more number of patients to opt for treatment. This is expected to boost demand for orthopedic planning systems in the future. Easy understanding of growing advanced technologies among healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and patients suffering from musculoskeletal conditions are highly contributing to increasing demand for orthopedic planning systems. Get customized report as per requirement: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/request-customization/26182 Key Takeaways from Market Study Pre-surgical planning software held more than 63% market share by solution in 2021. held more than Joint replacement contributed nearly 58.2% revenue share in 2021 in the global market. contributed in 2021 in the global market. On-premise deployment of orthopedic planning systems is the most commonly seen in hospitals and medical centers, holding more than 1/3 of the global market in 2021. By end user, hospitals are preferred more by patients, and the segment held a market share of around 49.3% in 2021. Around 48.6% of the global market share, by region, was accounted for by North America in 2021. "High prevalence of orthopedic disorders and increase in AI in providing personalized healthcare will market growth over the coming years," says an analyst of Persistence Market Research. Market Competition Key manufacturers of orthopedic planning systems are focusing on forming strategic partnerships through acquisitions and mergers to enhance their presence across the world, resulting in increased customer width for manufacturers and distributors. In February 2022 , Formus Labs collaborated with Zimmer Biomet in order to develop and commercialize the Formus Hip in Australia and New Zealand . , Formus Labs collaborated with Zimmer Biomet in order to develop and commercialize the Formus Hip in and . In March 2021 , Brainlab acquired a Heidelberg-based company - Mint Medical GmbH. This acquisition helped Brainlab expand its current portfolio in the image reading and reporting software division developed for clinical routine and research. Get full access of report: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/26182 What Does the Report Cover? Persistence Market Research offers a unique perspective and actionable insights on the orthopedic planning systems market in its latest study, presenting historical demand assessment of 2016 2020 and projections for 2021 2031. The research study is based on the solution (pre-surgical planning software and post-surgical planning software), application (joint replacement and orthopedic oncology), deployment (web-based software, cloud-based software, and on-premise), and end user (hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and orthopedic office-based clinics), across seven key regions of the world. Related Reports: About Persistence Market Research: Persistence Market Research (PMR), as a 3rd-party research organization, does operate through an exclusive amalgamation of market research and data analytics for helping businesses ride high, irrespective of the turbulence faced on the account of financial/natural crunches. Overview: Persistence Market Research is always way ahead of its time. In other words, it tables market solutions by stepping into the companies'/clients' shoes much before they themselves have a sneak pick into the market. The pro-active approach followed by experts at Persistence Market Research helps companies/clients lay their hands on techno-commercial insights beforehand, so that the subsequent course of action could be simplified on their part. Contact Rajendra Singh Persistence Market Research U.S. Sales Office: 305 Broadway, 7th Floor New York City, NY 10007 +1-646-568-7751 United States USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353 Email: [email protected] Visit Our Website: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com SOURCE Persistence Market Research Remote working and cloud infrastructure top cyber risk for organizations DALLAS, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today announced the findings of its latest global Cyber Risk Index (CRI) for the second half of 2021, standing at -0.04, which is an elevated risk level with North America being at -0.01. Respondents revealed that 76% of global organizations think they'll be successfully attacked in the next 12 months, with 25% claiming this is "very likely" to happen, and an even higher percentage (34%) among North American organizations. To view the full report, CRI 2022, please visit: www.trendmicro.com/cyberrisk "To craft effective cybersecurity strategy, organizations must master the art of risk management. This is where reports like the CRI can be a great resource in highlighting areas of possible concern," said Jon Clay, Trend Micro VP-Threat Intelligence. "As remote working and digital infrastructure threats persist, organizations should adopt a platform-based approach to optimize security whilst minimizing their security sprawl." The semi-yearly CRI report asks pointed questions to measure the gap between respondents' preparedness of attack and their likelihood of being attacked*. In this report, 84% claimed to have suffered one or more successful cyber-attacks in the past 12 months, with over a third (35%) saying they'd experienced seven or more. Threats they're most concerned about globally are ransomware, phishing/social engineering, and denial of service (DoS)and the negative consequences of a breach are stolen or damaged equipment, cost of outside consultants/experts, and customer turnover. When it comes to IT infrastructure, organizations are most worried about mobile/remote employees, cloud computing (with a "high risk" score of 7.75 / 10 for North America), and 3rd party applications. USA organizations put the cloud computing risk score at 9.87 / 10. This highlights the ongoing challenge many organizations have around securing the digital investments they made during the pandemic. Such investments were necessary to support remote working, drive business efficiencies and agility, and understandincrease the corporate attack surface. "Organizations are facing demanding security challenges every day, from software vulnerabilities, data breaches, to ransomware attacks and more," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. "The semi-annual survey has been a tremendous asset in evaluating the rapidly evolving cyber risk landscape to help organizations improve security readiness and serving as a guidance in strategic planning." The highest levels of risk were around the following statements: My organization's IT security function supports security in the DevOps environment My organization's IT security leader (CISO) has sufficient authority and resources to achieve a strong security posture My organization's IT security function strictly enforces acts of non-compliance to security policies, standard operating procedures, and external requirements This clearly indicates that more resources must be diverted to people, processes, and technology globally to enhance preparedness and reduce overall risk levels. * An index value is calculated from this information based on a numerical scale of -10 to 10, with -10 representing the highest level of risk. In this report, the USA CRI stood at -0.18 versus -0.01 for North America and -0.04 for global, indicating a higher level of risk. This was driven by a higher cyber threat index figure in the US. About Trend Micro Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro's cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.TrendMicro.com. SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated In honor of 4/20, the dispensary chain offers showstopping doorbuster product deals and accepts credit cards at all storefront locations SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate the biggest cannabis holiday of the year, Perfect Union California's largest wholly-owned cannabis company offers doorbuster deals this 4/20 including 30% off products from over 23 brands. "It comes as no shock that 4/20 is one of the biggest days of the year for us from a traffic and interest standpoint," said Meghan Fort, Chief Operating Officer of Perfect Union. "We care deeply about the needs of our customers and are excited to offer such great deals on cannabis products to celebrate this holiday that we know is special to us and our customers." The incredible deals Perfect Union will be offering on 4/20 include: 30% off products from over 23 brands including Wyld, Big Pete's, Dime, Sublime, UpNorth, Fig Farms, Island, Jetty, Zach & Ted's, 530 and more New Shake That 1 gram prerolls rolled with full indoor flower on sale 4 for $20 The first 100 customers who make a minimum $30 purchase at Northside, Eastside, Marysville and Wild Seed Wellness will receive a Lime pre-roll for $.01 purchase at Northside, Eastside, and Wild Seed Wellness will receive a Lime pre-roll for The first 50 people who make a $50 minimum purchase at all ten stores get a free swag bag 4/20 is universally known as the national holiday for cannabis culture and is largely celebrated by consumers. On this special holiday, dispensary chain, Perfect Union will offer great deals to customers to save money on buying the top-quality products they love. To add to the excitement, all Perfect Union and their Wild Seed Wellness locations now accept credit cards. Since its founding Perfect Union has become a force to be reckoned with in the cannabis industry. What sets them apart from competitors is the emphasis they put on the relationship with customers. Perfect Union strives to prioritize customer needs and prefers to look at them as friends or family rather than simply consumers. The dispensary chain provides customers with the best-in-class cannabis experience possible and unbeatable deals. Visit Perfect Union in stores this 4/20 to join in on the festivities and enjoy great deals on cannabis. To learn more about Perfect Union, visit https://www.perfect-union.com/ . About Perfect Union Perfect Union has over a decade of experience managing profitable cannabis businesses, navigating state and local laws and regulations, and adding value to the communities where they operate. The company has a proven track record of building engagement, social welfare and outreach programs that focus on local partnerships, monetary investments and in-store donation campaigns. MEDIA CONTACT: Matt Kovacs BLAZE PR [email protected] (310) 395-5050 SOURCE Perfect Union NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rising gas prices, increased costs and demands on time are changing how people access professionals. If you can visit your doctor or mental health professional from the convenience of your home, why can't you also see a lawyer the same way? Pro Help Legal, a secure video communication marketplace for lawyers, is changing how people find and interact with lawyers. Focused on privacy and security concerns unique to the legal community, the founders of Pro Help Legal created a site from the ground up. Our primary focus is always security and privacy Tweet this In a recent interview with Co-Founder Josh Cordova, he explained that "the features are built by the Pro Help Legal development team and are not third-party applications." This helps ensure control over privacy and security. From the crystal clear 256-bit encrypted video meeting rooms, in-meeting payment processing, calendar integration with Outlook, iCal, and Google, and the newly released "request a meeting" feature, our primary focus is always security and privacy. Pro Help Legal provides a growing marketplace for people who need a lawyer. Instead of traveling to an office to sit in a lobby waiting to meet with a lawyer, people can chat with lawyers who are instantly available or request a meeting with a lawyer during their lunch break or whenever is most convenient. Pro Help Legal provides a free video meeting place for lawyers and people who need a lawyer. It should be noted that while many lawyers offer free consultations, ultimately, there is usually a cost for legal services. Josh was eager to relate that Pro Help Legal had recently expanded their company to Australia. This is phenomenal growth for a less than two years old company. Pro Help Legal Australia offers all of the same services and features, with the same security features, as their American counterpart. For anyone looking for a secure marketplace for legal services, whether in the United States or Australia, you should consider https://www.ProHelpLegal.com in the United States or https://ProHelpLegal.com.au in Australia SOURCE Pro Help Legal Originally Known as BloomNation, Promenade Group Offers E-Commerce Platform and Marketplace to Empower Local Businesses CAMPBELL, Calif., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Walt & Company, an award-winning Silicon Valley tech public relations and social media agency, today announced it has been selected by Promenade Group as its public relations agency of record. Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. and originally known as BloomNation, Promenade offers an easy-to-use e-commerce platform and marketplace allowing local businesses to thrive online. The Promenade e-commerce platform offers local businesses an intuitive online shopping experience for their customers and a complete, user-friendly business management solution. From flowers to food to liquor, Promenade levels the playing field for neighborhood businesses, allowing them to reach and retain new customers, grow online revenue, and effectively manage both online and in-store orders. BloomNation, a Promenade e-commerce platform and marketplace servicing the independent florist industry, offers the most complete business management platform for today's florist. Custom, turn-key online storefronts, an integrated point of sale system, invoicing and house account management, delivery, and much more. "Neighborhood businesses are the heart and soul of virtually every community in the U.S. Helping them build and manage their online presence is what Promenade is all about," said Farbod Shoraka, founder and CEO, Promenade Group. "To do this, we've built an extraordinary team that includes an array of best-in-class service partners. We added Walt & Company to our lineup based on its creative and strategic public relations capabilities." Walt & Company has experience positioning and promoting a wide range of technology-based products and services designed to help small businesses increase productivity, streamline operations and add new capabilities. It will operate as an extension of the Promenade marketing team, developing and implementing strategic communications to support new service launches, share Promenade news, and drive Promenade brand recognition, thought leadership and customer success. "We are excited to be working with Promenade Group and believe wholeheartedly in its mission to support neighborhood businesses," said Robert Walt, president of Walt & Company. "We're looking forward to developing and implementing a brand awareness and market share building program that will help drive Promenade market growth." About Promenade Group Promenade Group is a software company empowering small, local businesses with the technology, knowledge and support to attract and retain customers with one powerful platform. Originally known as BloomNation, Promenade offers an easy-to-use e-commerce platform and management solution to help local businesses get online and reach new customers, grow online sales and easily manage both online and in-store orders. For more information, visit https://www.promenade.co. About Walt & Company Walt & Company specializes in developing tech PR and social media programs and campaigns that advance its clients' marketing and corporate agendas by generating actionable awareness in all influential formats and forums. For more than 30 years, when it comes to building marketplace credibility, brand recognition, and product and service awareness, Walt & Company has its clients covered. For further information, visit www.walt.com. Product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Walt & Company disclaims any and all rights in these marks. SOURCE Walt & Company Prov International is expanding into the Dominican Republic market with promise of economic growth. The Tampa based technology consulting firm is prepared to be a strong community player and help diversify the Dominican local economy by bringing customers and companies together with Salesforce. TAMPA, Fla., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prov International is expanding into the Dominican Republic market with promise of economic growth. The Tampa based technology consulting firm is prepared to be a strong community player and help diversify the Dominican local economy by bringing customers and companies together with Salesforce. It is commonly known that good work demands more work. This phrase is true of ProV International, a technology firm that has distinguished itself from the rest by their years of proven excellence in equipping modern-day companies with the evolving world of technology through a comprehensive, step-by-step process. ProV International has succeeded in creating more than 600 full and part-time jobs across the world, while investing above $10 million dollars in the employment of software engineers, senior solution architects, developers, and business analysts to mention a few. With a track record of inspiring growth, creation of jobs and economic opportunities, ProV is determined to replicate these results in the Dominican Republic. As a pioneer in the industry, it is certain that ProV's investments will continue to attract more businesses and tech talent to Santo Domingo thus translating to a boost to the economy. The Santo Domingo Tech Hub includes technology roles in software development, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning alongside non-tech corporate roles in product management, human resources, finance and much more. ProV plans to spend a significant amount of time, effort and investment to make their Salesforce implementations the best it can be. Launching this Salesforce Center of Excellence ensures they are running efficiently, agile and can bring customer success. The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader inaugurated ProV's Salesforce Center of Excellence. This ceremony served as a historical marker and celebrated the significant investment and promise that ProV has made to own one of the most successful centers of excellence within the Salesforce ecosystem. This world-class center of excellence will drive global and large multi-division Salesforce projects, align business and IT operations and allow us to develop in-house salesforce expertise across different areas. The Salesforce Center of Excellence inauguration was covered on National TV, the front page of newspapers, the president's social media and hundreds of websites online. ProV is thankful for this opportunity and looks forward to creating a bright future for Salesforce customers. About ProV International. Inc ProV International is a global IT consulting firm that specializes in streamlining processes, increasing service quality and keeping workplace productivity high. We promise to reduce your business's complexity with innovative tech solutions you won't be able to find anywhere else. Serving a large spectrum of customers, we believe and invest in your organization's vision and goals. Start a conversation with us at https://www.provintl.com/contact-us PRESS CONTACT NAME Renrose Magne PHONE 813-281-2959 WEBSITE https://www.provintl.com/en SOURCE ProV International. Inc Premier Self-Care Franchise Brands Propel Franchise Development; Positioned for Significant Future Growth DENVER, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiance Holdings , a company representing a collection of premier brands in the beauty, wellness and self-care sector, is reporting the strong quarterly performance of its two flagship brands, Sola Salons and Woodhouse. The leading franchise concepts both accelerated their aggressive development efforts in the first quarter of 2022, growing their respective footprints across the U.S. and Canada, and signed franchise agreements to further expand their presence domestically and internationally. Following a successful 2021 where Sola Salons opened 53 new locations and achieved its 600th milestone, the company sustained its impressive development momentum into Q1 2022, opening 13 new locations in markets such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida. The world's largest and fastest growing salon studios franchise also signed development agreements in Q1 to further grow its system wide footprint. Additionally, Sola successfully purchased 20 existing franchise locations in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. previously owned by former operators, adding to its growing home office portfolio. Today, Sola has 59 corporate-owned locations with one in development. "Sola's remarkable growth and compounding success is a reflection of its 17+ years of industry expertise and longstanding reputation as the category leader, truly paving the way as the original salon suites franchise, supporting a community of over 18,000 independent beauty professionals. The brand's strong first quarter performance has set the foundation for the remainder of 2022, which is projected to be one of its best years yet," said Christina Russell, CEO of Radiance Holdings. "Both Sola and Woodhouse have successfully carved out unique niches in the increasingly competitive self-care market, positioning them for significant future growth that we're excited to witness in the years to come." Woodhouse , which was founded in 2001 and acquired by Radiance Holdings in July 2020, is the first brand to scale a luxury spa concept into the franchise model, making high-end, resort-level experiences accessible in a day-to-day neighborhood setting. The brand, which ranked as the massage and spa services category leader on Entrepreneur magazine's highly competitive 2022 Franchise 500 list, recently celebrated the opening of its 75th location in Franklin, Tennessee. Woodhouse remains on track to open eight additional locations this year. "Woodhouse provides an immersive experience with unmatched quality that makes it an accessible destination for consumers in their local community while offering franchisees diverse revenue streams and strong unit-level economics. Coming out of the pandemic, there is tremendous latent demand for the services Woodhouse offers making it a very exciting time to be part of the brand's promising future," added Christina Russell. Sola Salons and Woodhouse are seeking sophisticated and passionate business professionals with a desire to own a category-leading franchise within multi-billion-dollar, in-demand industries. To learn more about franchise opportunities and available Sola Salons territories, contact Lori Merrall, director of franchise development at [email protected] or visit www.solafranchising.com . To learn more about franchise opportunities and available Woodhouse territories, contact Karen Garrett, director of franchise sales at [email protected] or visit www.ownawoodhouse.com . ABOUT RADIANCE HOLDINGS Radiance Holdings represents a collection of premier brands in the beauty, wellness and self-care sector. Led by Christina Russell, CEO, Radiance's current brand portfolio includes Sola Salons, the world's largest and fastest growing salon studios franchise; Woodhouse, the largest premium day spa brand in the U.S.; and BeautyHive, an online distributor of professional beauty products. Radiance is committed to investing in its brands, driving innovation, and helping their franchisees and their community of independent beauty professionals grow their businesses and improve their lives. For more information, please visit www.weareradianceholdings.com . ABOUT SOLA SALONS In 2004, Sola Salons was established with the opening of its first location in Denver, Colorado. Now with more than 600 locations open in the U.S., Canada and Brazil, Sola is proud to offer 18,000+ independent beauty professionals the freedom and benefits of salon ownership without the risk and overhead of opening a traditional salon. Its innovative salon model empowers hairdressers, estheticians, nail techs, massage therapists and other like-minded professionals to take control of their lives and their careers. Sola provides beauty professionals with beautiful, fully equipped salon studios alongside the support and tools they need to launch their salon business in no time. For more information, please visit www.solasalons.com . ABOUT WOODHOUSE Founded in Victoria, Texas in 2001, Woodhouse provides each guest with a tranquil, transformational environment that's both memorable and healthful. From beginning to end, dedicated spa teams ensure that each visit enhances the guest's well-being. With more than 75 spas across the country, guests of Woodhouse are guaranteed the same high-quality signature services and luxurious experience regardless of location. For more information, please visit www.woodhousespas.com . Contact: Christina Rodriguez Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 [email protected] SOURCE Radiance Holdings NOIDA, India, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A comprehensive overview of the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market is recently added by UnivDatos Market Insights to its humongous database. The Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data on various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market. The Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market at the global and regional levels. The residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% from 2021-2027 to exceed US$ 12.7 million by 2027. Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://univdatos.com/get-a-free-sample-form-php/?product_id=9398 Market Overview This increase in demand for residential vacuum cleaners is due to the advancements in technologies, AI feature, voice assistance, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Companies are focusing on increasing features like the addition of UV sterilization during the pandemic to meet the changing customer demands. Additionally, the latest robotic cleaners are compatible with Alexa and the Google voice assistant. Other connectivity like smart home technology and IoT devices are opening new paths for robot manufacturers. For example, in December 2018, Neato Robotics launched Neato Zone Cleaning for the Botvac D7 Connected and No-Go Lines feature for Botvac D3 Connected with these consumers can highlight the area they want to be cleaned and create a no-go zone, respectively. This increases the flexibility of robotic cleaning. COVID-19 Impact The covid-19 pandemic has really changed the industrial structure of the world. Many industries went into loss and shut down due to the pandemic while others gained traction and popularity after the pandemic. One such industry is the robotic vacuum cleaner. The latest update in the robotic vacuum cleaners during the time of covid was the addition of UV disinfection which became very popular during the pandemic. Additionally, since the start of the pandemic, there is more emphasis on hygiene which wasn't there before. Neo, a robotic vacuum cleaner by a Canadian startup Avidbots doubled its annual sales during the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, the sales were constantly increasing and according to the world robotics forecast, this trend is expected to go on in the coming years. Ask for Price & Discounts @ https://univdatos.com/get-a-free-sample-form-php/?product_id=9398 Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated. By Type, the market is primarily segmented into Cleaning Robots Hybrid Robots Mopping Robots Amongst Type, the Hybrid Robots segment of the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market was valued at US$ 0.8 billion in 2020 and is likely to reach US$ 4.1 billion by 2027 and is growing at a CAGR of 25% from 2021-2027. By Type of Charging, the market is primarily segmented into Manual Charging Automatic Charging Amongst Type of Charging, Automatic segment accounted for a market valuation of US$ 0.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach US$ 5.5 billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 28% over the analyzed period. By Distribution Channel, the market is primarily segmented into Online Offline Amongst Distribution Channel, the Online segment of the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market was valued at US$ 0.9 billion in 2020 and is likely to reach US$ 5.9 billion by 2027 and is growing at a CAGR of 29% from 2021-2027. By Operation, the market is primarily segmented into Self-driven Remote-controlled Amongst Operation, the Self-Driven segment of the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market was valued at US$ 1.7 billion in 2020 and is likely to reach US$ 9.0 billion by 2027 and is growing at a CAGR of 26% from 2021-2027. By End-User, the market is primarily segmented into In-House Outdoor Amongst End-User, the in-house segment accounted for a market valuation of US$ 2.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach US$ 10.6 billion by the year 2027, at a CAGR of 23% over the analyzed period. Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market Geographical Segmentation Includes: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the World Based on the estimation, the Asia-Pacific region dominated the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market with almost 41% revenue share in 2020 and saw the highest CAGR of 25% in the forecast period due to the increasing cost of labor. Ask for Report Customization @ https://univdatos.com/report/residential-robotic-vacuum-cleaner-market/ The major players targeting the market include iRobot Corporation Panasonic Neato Robotics, Inc. Roborock Dyson Inc. Ecovacs Robotics Koninklijke Philips N.V. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. SharkNinja Operating LLC Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions (Pvt.) Limited Competitive Landscape The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analysing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market. The leading players have been analysed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition. Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include: What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market? Which factors are influencing the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market over the forecast period? What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market? Which factors are propelling and restraining the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market? What are the demanding global regions of the Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner market? What will be the global market size in the upcoming years? What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies? We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs. For more informative information, please visit us @ https://univdatos.com/report/residential-robotic-vacuum-cleaner-market/ Browse Other Related Research Reports from UnivDatos Market Insights Ultra High Temperature Milk Market: https://univdatos.com/report/ultra-high-temperature-milk-market/ Nut Products Market: https://univdatos.com/report/nut-products-market/ Plant-Based Protein Market: https://univdatos.com/report/plant-based-protein-market/ Dairy Products Packaging Market: https://univdatos.com/report/dairy-products-packaging-market/ Brown Sugar Market: https://univdatos.com/report/brown-sugar-market/ About UnivDatos Market Insights UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients. Contact UnivDatos Market Insights Ankita Gupta Director Operations Ph: +91-7838604911 Email: [email protected] Website: https://univdatos.com/ SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd. Technological developments to boost replacement demand CLEVELAND, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- US demand for power transmission components is forecast to advance 3.8% yearly in nominal terms through 2026, according to Power Transmission Components: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Suppliers will benefit from increases in domestic output of durable products such as machinery and motor vehicles that incorporate power transmission components. Durable goods shipments are expected to grow 3.3% per year through 2026. Persistent global demand for technologically advanced products made in the US will support domestic demand for power transmission components used in their production. In addition, ongoing technological developments will boost replacement demand for more efficient and higher-priced power transmission components. However, rising imports of machinery and other equipment are expected to continue to restrain demand growth for power transmission components in products manufactured in the US. Additionally, the increasing penetration of battery-electric vehicles into the motor vehicle market will hamper demand for power transmission components in that market, as fully electric vehicles have much simpler transmissions. Demand is expected to grow of 2.0% in 2022 as the economy continues its recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those increases will be supported by 9.0% growth in motor vehicle production and 3.1% growth in machinery shipments. These and other key insights are featured in Power Transmission Components: United States. This report forecasts to 2022 and 2026 US demand and shipments of power transmission components in nominal US dollars at the manufacturer level. Total demand and shipments are segmented by product in terms of: motor vehicle transmissions and powertrain parts ball and roller bearings gears and gearboxes mechanical power transmission parts To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total shipments, the various segments, and trade are provided in annual series from 2011 to 2021. Excluded from the scope of this report are motor vehicle engine bearings and electric motor components, as well as flexure, fluid, and magnetic bearing products. Also excluded are related bearing hardware such as adaptor and withdrawal sleeves, locknuts and washers, lubricators, and retaining plates. In addition, certain types of power transmission components (e.g., ball, swivel, and universal joints) for use in aerospace equipment are excluded from the scope of this report, although bearings for aerospace equipment are included in the bearings segment. Re-exports of power transmission components are excluded from demand and trade figures. More information about the report is available at: https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Power-Transmission-Components-United-States-FF70010/?progid=91541 About Freedonia Focus Reports Each month, The Freedonia Group a division of MarketResearch.com publishes over 20 new or updated Freedonia Focus Reports, providing fresh, unbiased analysis on a wide variety of markets and industries. Published in 20-30 pages, Focus Report coverage ranges from raw materials to finished manufactured goods and related services such as freight and construction. Additional Industrials reports can be purchased at Freedonia Focus Reports or MarketResearch.com. Analysis is intended to guide the busy reader through pertinent topics in rapid succession, including: total historical market size and industry output segmentation by products and markets identification of market drivers, constraints, and key indicators segment-by-segment outlook in five-year forecasts a survey of the supply base suggested resources for further study Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.842.2400 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group PORTLAND, Ore., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruby.com, the premier provider of virtual receptionist and live chat services, is pleased to announce that CEO Kate Winkler will be speaking on a panel at eWOW's 2022 virtual summit on April 23. The event brings together voices across business and tech who are transforming the workplace landscape, offering insights for employers to eliminate discrimination and build inclusive cultures. This one-day event is for ambitious and forward-thinking women in all stages of life looking to build resilience, find inspiration, and prepare for changes ahead. The summit will open with a keynote address from Nicktoria Johnson, Chief Diversity Officer at Credera, followed by a power-packed lineup that includes presentations from Lisa Minkin (VP of People at Tile), Madhukar Govindaraju (CEO of Numly), Dr. Maisha Cobb (founder of Mpact International), and others. Ruby's Kate Winkler will share her perspective on the Future of Work Panel alongside Rashim Mogha, founder of eWOW; Brea Starmer, founder of Lions + Tigers; Selina Meere, Managing Director at Trevanna Tracks; Dr. Georgette Zinaty, Executive Vice President at Corporate Class Inc. Kate Winkler, CEO at Ruby, has been outspoken about her intent to change the status quo when it comes to inclusive leadership. "The more women in leadership positions, the more opportunities created for other women," she said. "With representation, we impact many other aspects of the future of work, empowering women to shape the next iteration of the future and make it even better." Winkler has real-world experience transforming unforeseen disruptions into opportunities to promote inclusion and improve employee experience. During COVID, she moved a 100% in-office operations model with 600-plus employees to a fully remote workforce over the course of 11 days, addressing employee and customer concerns with thoughtful and proactive communication. Under Winkler's leadership, the company has reaffirmed its status as an equitable place to work with a keen focus on innovationall while delivering meaningful customer experiences that drive growth for over 14,000 small businesses throughout the US. In recognition of her achievements, Winkler recently received the 2021 Gold Stevie Award in the Female Executive of the Year - Business Services category for companies with 112,500 employees. She was also included on the Portland Business Journal's list of the top 60 Oregon executives in 2020. More information about the eWOW summit can be found at ewowglobal.com. Registration for the virtual summit includes access to job opportunities from participating companies, a networking and job fair, and the eWOW 2022 Global Awards. Those interested can register and find the full agenda here. About Ruby Ruby is a U.S.-based live virtual receptionist and chat specialist company that creates meaningful connections and maximizes opportunities for businesses, empowering them to freely pursue their purpose and, in turn, cultivate diverse and thriving local economies. Trusted by more than 14,000 businesses, Ruby helps meet today's customer demand for quick answers and personalized service, 24/7, 365 days a year. Founded in 2003, Ruby has earned national and global recognition with honors such as a 2022 Gold Stevie for Customer Service Employer of the Year, designation from Fortune magazine as a Best Small Company to Work For in the U.S., inclusion in the Inc. Best Workplaces, and repeat Great Places to Work rankings. To learn more, visit ruby.com or experience Ruby for yourself by calling 844-311-7829. Follow along with @callruby on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and YouTube. About eWOW eWOW (empowered Women of the World) is an online platform whose purpose is to help women discover, visualize, and actualize their success. Founded by tech leader Rashim Mogha (whose career portfolio includes leadership positions at Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and VMware), eWOW's rich content provides an intellectual framework for women to follow their own unique leadership paths. eWOW engages an audience in more than 40 countries, and comprises women leaders from companies including Facebook, Microsoft, Roku, Grammarly, and Starbucks. Follow eWOW's journey on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Linkedin. Media Contact Nicole Morales Director, Brand & Content [email protected] 866-611-782904 SOURCE Ruby RTHK: Zelenskyy says Russian assault on Donbas has begun Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Russia's large-scale offensive in the eastern Donbas region had begun. "We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time. A large part of the Russian army is now dedicated to this offensive," he said on Telegram. "No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend ourselves." Fighting has intensified in eastern Ukraine after Russia withdrew troops from the region around the capital Kyiv and refocused its efforts on the Donbas region that pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlled since 2014. Shortly before Zelenskyy's address, the regional governor of the eastern Luhansk region Sergiy Gaiday also announced the beginning of Russia's much-anticipated attack. "It's hell. The offensive has begun, the one we've been talking about for weeks. There's constant fighting in Rubizhne and Popasna, fighting in other peaceful cities," he said on Facebook. Russian shelling killed at least eight civilians in eastern Ukraine on Monday, according to local authorities. Gaiday said four people died as they tried to flee the city of Kreminna in Luhansk, which Russian forces captured on Monday. In the neighbouring region of Donetsk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said four other civilians died after Russian bombardment. A large Russian offensive in the Donbas region had been predicted by Ukraine's army for weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he launched the military operation to save the region's Russian-speaking population from a "genocide" carried out by a "neo-Nazi" Kyiv regime. Putin recognised the independence of two self-proclaimed separatist republics in Donetsk and Luhansk shortly before the full-scale Russian offensive began on February 24. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-04-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. HAVANA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Cuba reported on Sunday 292 new cases and no deaths from the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, for a total of 1,099,736 infections and 8,520 fatalities. The Ministry of Public Health said in its daily report that 1,752 Cubans are currently in the active stage of the disease, a figure that continues to decline daily. The province of Camaguey reported the highest number of new cases, at 43, followed by the provinces of Havana and Artemisa, at 42 and 29, respectively. A total of 9.9 million of Cuba's 11.2 million residents have been fully vaccinated against the disease so far, while 6.4 million have received booster doses. The national vaccination program uses Cuban-made vaccines, namely Abdala, Soberana-02, and Soberana Plus. NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Soloviev Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Soloviev Group, today announced a $1 million donation to Americares to help Ukrainians in need due to the invasion by Russia. "My family has deep roots in Sweden, eastern Europe and Russia, and one of my grandmothers was Ukrainian," said Soloviev Group Chairman Stefan Soloviev. "What Putin has done to Ukraine and its people is an atrocity. I felt I had to do something, and this donation is my way of helping the people of Ukraine and honoring the memory of my Ukrainian grandmother." To address the situation in Ukraine, Stamford, CT-based Americares has emergency response teams in Poland and Romania to support health services for families affected by the escalating humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. To date, Americares has 65 tons medicine and relief supplies either sent to Ukraine or in transit to the country. The Poland team has completed the first local procurement of supplies valued at more than $100,000 and weighing 12.5 tons to be distributed to local partners. Americares has been helping a total of 20 local organizations in Ukraine, Poland and Romania. The Soloviev Group is the holding company for several businesses operated by Stefan Soloviev. The Soloviev Group encompasses divisions that include, but are not limited to, Realty and Development, in addition to Hospitality, Transportation & Railroad, and Agriculture & Ranching divisions. The company operates in New York City, and the East End of Long Island, including Shelter Island, and also owns Crossroads Agriculture, a large-scale integrated farming and ranching operation based in Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. That company is one of the country's largest privately held agribusinesses. Soloviev is the 26th-largest landowner in the United States. About the Soloviev Foundation The Soloviev Foundation is the philanthropic arm The Soloviev Group, the successor to New York real estate company Solow Building Company. Stefan Soloviev, who uses the original Russian family name, grew up in Manhattan and was educated at the University of Rhode Island and St. John's University in New York. He has spent much of the past two decades building one of the country's largest privately-held agribusinesses in the U.S., Crossroads Agriculture, based in Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. For more information, go to https://solovievgroup.com About Americares Americares is a Stamford, CT.-based 501 (C) [3] organization that responds to more than 30 natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide each year, establishes long-term recovery projects and brings preparedness programs to communities vulnerable to disasters. Since its founding more than 40 years ago, Americares has provided more than $20 billion in aid to 164 countries, including the United States. For more information, go to https://americares.org PR Contact: Andrew Blum, AJB Communications [email protected], 917-783-1680 SOURCE Soloviev Foundation The nation's largest children's hospital will host a community donation drive Monday, April 18 through Saturday, April 23. Texas Children's volunteers and staff will collect much-needed hygiene items for children and women for overseas delivery to Ukrainian refugees in neighboring Romania. Texas Children's Hospital will send these coveted care packages with decorated cards and letters, hand-crafted by its patients and families to Ukrainian refugee families. Houston and Austin communities are encouraged to visit www.texaschildrens.org/Ukraine where they can view a list of high-demand items they can purchase new, in the original packaging and drop off at our drive locations. Houstonians who are interested in contributing to Texas Children's Hospital's Ukraine Donation Drive can drop off items through the hospital's convenient drive-thru donation events. Volunteers and employees will collect donations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, April 18 to Saturday, April 23 at: Texas Children's Hospital Texas Medical Center (Feigin Center Circle Drive, 1102 Bates Avenue, Houston ) ) Texas Children's Hospital West Campus (Outpatient Entrance, 18200 Katy Freeway, Houston ) ) Texas Children's Hospital The Woodlands (private drive between the courtyard and parking garage) In Houston, Austin and College Station, drop-boxes will be set up at Texas Children's Pediatrics and Urgent Care locations beginning April 18. All Texas Children's Pediatric and Urgent Care patients are welcome to bring their donation items with them to their appointments. From duct tape, ink pens, bar soap, diapers and hand wipes to other essential toiletries, all donated items will be prepared and packaged at Houston-based Medical Bridges, a non-profit that aims to bridge the healthcare gap worldwide by distributing medical equipment and supplies to communities in need across the globe, and shipped directly to Ukrainians in need via Crane Worldwide Logistics. For those who prefer to make a monetary donation to support Ukrainian refugees, Texas Children's has created a donation site at www.texaschildrens.org/ukrainedonations "The core mission of Texas Children's Hospital is to create a healthier future for children and women throughout our global community which is our great privilege and responsibility," said Mark A. Wallace, President and CEO of Texas Children's Hospital. "We are proud to run toward the crisis in Ukraine with the life-sustaining health care and support fleeing refugee families need most. Whether through the donation of essential supplies or the provision of world-class medical care, Texas Children's global impact greatly surpasses the boundaries of its name." In addition to the community donation drive, Texas Children's Hospital will utilize its robust Texas Children's Global Health Network to provide critical medical care to women and children fleeing war-torn Ukraine in Romania and collaborate with local institutions in Poland to address unmet specialized medical needs there. In Romania, two OB/GYN physicians will provide lifesaving care to patients who have been forced from their homes at Texas Children's Hospital's Center of Excellence at the Baylor Black Sea Foundation Clinic the Romanian headquarters at Texas Children's Hospital in Constanta. Similarly, Texas Children's Hospital has enlisted a pediatrician who is treating patients in a county hospital in Tulcea, Romania. As part of this care, physicians will be utilizing a portable ultrasound device generously donated by Butterfly iQ+ Ultrasound System, the world's first handheld, smart phone compatible and complete ultrasound system. In Poland, Dr. Michael Belfort, OBGYN-In-Chief at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, is spearheading Texas Children's Hospital's refugee care in Warsaw and Krakow, where he is collaborating with local physicians to enhance care to children and pregnant women with specific needs for sophisticated medical care in which Texas Children's Hospital specializes. Dr. Belfort also recently travelled to Rzeszow to deliver much-needed surgical equipment including specialized pediatric surgery suture material and surgical instruments to Prof. Artur Mazur and Dr. Piotr Bernat at the University of Rzeszow. This equipment and suture material was donated by Texas Children's Hospital at the request of pediatric surgeons in Ukraine who are struggling to keep up with the workload in besieged cities. "Our commitment to the health and wellbeing of women and children at Texas Children's Hospital goes far beyond our presence in the Texas Medical Center," said Dr. Belfort. "By bringing the resources and expertise of our world-renowned Maternal Fetal Medicine and Fetal Center teams at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women to the families of Ukraine, we are improving health outcomes for women and children who have had to flee their homes in search of safety." U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul lauded Texas Children's Hospital's global efforts to aid Ukrainian refugees. He said, "I strongly support the incredible work of Texas Children's Hospital in Poland and Romania to bring lifesaving medical care to the Ukrainians fleeing Putin's brutal full-scale invasion. The U.S. is standing side by side with the Ukrainian people, and I am proud the Texas community is stepping up to join this monumental effort." "We have been a primary pediatric healthcare partner in the Constanta and Tulcea regions of Romania for two decades, and our physicians in Romania will treat pregnant people and sick kids regardless of nationality," said Michael Mizwa, Director of Global Health at Texas Children's Hospital. "We're all about access to care regardless of boundaries, and we want to address health inequities that are under the spotlight as a result of this war." In a continued show of Ukrainian support and solidarity, Texas Children's Hospital's three campuses are currently illuminated with the Ukrainian colors of blue and gold. About Texas Children's Hospital Texas Children's Hospital, a not-for-profit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children's hospital in Texas, and among the top in the nation, Texas Children's has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women's health. The hospital includes the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute; the Feigin Tower for pediatric research; Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children's Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston; and Texas Children's Hospital The Woodlands, the first hospital devoted to children's care for communities north of Houston. The organization also created Texas Children's Health Plan, the nation's first HMO for children; Texas Children's Pediatrics, the largest pediatric primary care network in the country with offices in Houston and Austin; Texas Children's Urgent Care clinics that specialize in after-hours care tailored specifically for children; and a global health program that's channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children's Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. For more information, go to www.texaschildrens.org. Get the latest news by visiting the online newsroom and Twitter at twitter.com/texaschildrens. SOURCE Texas Children's Hospital NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Kennel Club (AKC), world's largest purebred dog registry and leading advocate for dogs, has joined with the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and the Animal Health Institute (AHI) in making a joint public statement opposing the proposed California Assembly Bill 1881. The bill, touted as a "Dog and Cat Bill of Rights" has several concerning elements to it and would severely undermine the rights of pet owners to make appropriate health care decisions for their animals and take the best possible care of their pets. Additionally, it has the potential to shift the legal status of pets in California, which could result in unintended consequences and future litigation. "The American Kennel Club cares deeply about the wellbeing of all dogs," said Sheila Goffe, Vice President of Government Relations, AKC. "We are pleased to join with the California Veterinary Medical Association and the Animal Health Institute to share our concerns about this proposal, which could undermine the rights and responsibilities of pet owners to make appropriate care decisions for their animals." The letter, sent to the author of the bill California State Representative Miguel Santiago and to the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, which is considering the bill on April 26, calling for amendments to the legislation and outlines the concerns for pets and their owners. The AKC, CVMA and AHI are organizations dedicated to ensuring the health, welfare and humane care of animals and ensuring that pet owners understand the responsibilities of pet ownership. The full text of the letter can be viewed here. About the American Kennel Club Founded in 1884, the American Kennel Club is a not-for-profit organization, which maintains the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and oversees the sport of purebred dogs in the United States. The AKC is dedicated to upholding the integrity of its registry, promoting the sport of purebred dogs and breeding for type and function. Along with its more than 5,000 licensed and member clubs and its affiliated organizations, the AKC advocates for the purebred dog as a family companion, advances canine health and well-being, works to protect the rights of all dog owners and promotes responsible dog ownership. More than 22,000 competitions for AKC-registered purebred and mixed breed dogs are held under AKC rules and regulations each year including conformation, agility, obedience, rally, tracking, herding, lure coursing, coonhound events, hunt tests, field and earthdog tests. Affiliate AKC organizations include the AKC Humane Fund, AKC Canine Health Foundation, AKC Reunite and the AKC Museum of the Dog. AKC Clubs comprise America's largest rescue network. For more information, visit www.akc.org. AKC, American Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club seal and design, and all associated marks and logos are trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks of The American Kennel Club, Inc. Become a fan of the American Kennel Club on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @AKCDogLovers SOURCE American Kennel Club As per DelveInsight analysis, the Common Warts market will experience a significant impact in the coming years owing to the rising research and Common Warts prevalence along with the emergence of novel therapies from key Common Warts companies such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, and others. LAS VEGAS, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's Common Warts Market Insights report provides a comprehensive understanding of current treatment practices, Common Warts emerging drugs, market share of individual therapies, and current and forecasted Common Warts market size from 2019 to 2032, segmented into 7MM (the United States, the EU5 (the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany), and Japan. Key Takeaways from the Common Warts Market As per DelveInsight's estimates, the Common Warts market size was USD 720.03 million in 2020 which is further expected to increase by 2032 in the 7MM. in 2020 which is further expected to increase by 2032 in the 7MM. The US accounted for the maximum Common Warts market size compared to EU5 countries and Japan in 2020. in 2020. The leading Common Warts companies such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others are developing therapies that are expected to launch their drugs in the Common Warts market in the coming years. and others are developing therapies that are expected to launch their drugs in the Common Warts market in the coming years. Key Common Warts therapies in the pipeline include Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, expected to bring a positive shift in the Common Warts market along with others. expected to bring a positive shift in the Common Warts market along with others. The key driver for the surge in Common Warts market size is the rise in the Common Warts prevalence in the 7MM. For further information on how the emerging therapies would shift the Common Warts market landscape download the sample at Common Warts Market Outlook Common Warts Overview Common Warts, also known as Verruca Vulgaris, are caused by non-malignant strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV Common Warts are typically benign lesions with a low risk of malignant transformation. They appear on the skin as rough, painless papules that can be grey or flesh-colored and are found in various body areas. Other HPV subtypes associated with cervical cancer are not the same strains that are linked with the causes of Verruca Vulgaris. Common Warts can be distinguished from other common types of warts, including genital, filiform, and plantar warts. Common Warts on hands and Common Warts on fingers are the most common, but they can also be found on the knees, ankles, arms, and legs. The Verruca Vulgaris symptoms include small, fleshy, grainy bumps, Flesh-colored, white, pink, or tan, Rough to the touch, Sprinkled with black pinpoints, which are small, clotted blood vessels. Common Warts Epidemiology Segmentation As per DelveInsight, the total Common Warts prevalent cases were approx 2.7 million cases in the 7MM in 2020. Among EU5 countries, Germany has the highest Common Warts prevalence, while Spain had the lowest in 2020. The Common Warts Market Report proffers epidemiological analysis for the study period 2019-2032 in the 7MM segmented into: Diagnosed prevalent cases of Common Warts Gender-specific Prevalence of Common Warts Know how the epidemiological trends are going to look like in 2032 for the 7MM by downloading at Common Warts Epidemiological Insights Common Warts Market Common Warts account for nearly 70% of all viral warts and are more common in school-aged children. Despite the high incidence rate, the Common Warts treatment landscape is limited and ambiguous. Even though the majority of warts disappear on their own, some require treatment. The goal of treatment for Common Warts is to either destroy the wart or to stimulate an immune system response to fight the virus. It is possible that Verruca Vulgaris treatment will take weeks or months. Warts tend to recur or spread even after treatment. Salicylic acid, freezing (cryotherapy), laser treatment, and other antiviral products such as 5-flourouracil, imiquimod, and others dominate the current Common Wart treatment landscape. Furthermore, the current Common Warts market for wart-specific treatment is extremely limited. However, a few market participants have pipeline products in the disease indication. These include Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, and others. Discover more about Common Wart treatment at Best Treatment for Common Warts Common Warts Pipeline Therapies and Key Companies Candin: Nielsen Biosciences VBP-245: Veloce BioPharma VP-102: Verrica Pharmaceutical CLS006: Maruho Co., Ltd. A-101: Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. Discover more about therapy set to grab substantial Common Warts market share at Drugs for Common Warts Common Warts Market Dynamics The current market landscape, governed with salicylic acid does not provide an opportunity for curing the warts, thus the recurrence is high. This challenge is dubbed as the Common Warts market driver for the continuing and future developmental activities for the indication. The Common Warts market's growth can be further attributed to the rising prevalence of human papillomavirus infections, recurrence of warts, and development of new products. Moreover, increasing awareness regarding warts is expected to foster market growth during the forecast period. Major pharmaceutical players are committed to developing the current pipeline to address the unmet needs and improvise the current Common Warts treatment landscape, further bolstering the overall revenue generation during the forecast period. As a result, the dynamics of the Common Warts market are anticipated to change in the coming years owing to the increasing awareness, the rising research and Common Warts prevalence along with the emergence of novel therapies. The expected launch of these therapies will fuel the Common Warts market size during the forecast period (20212032). Know more about which pharma player in the Common Warts market is set to emerge as the trendsetter at Common Warts Companies Scope of the Common Warts Market Report Study Period: 2019-2032 2019-2032 Coverage: 7MM [ The United States , EU5 ( Germany , France , Italy , Spain , and the United Kingdom ), and Japan ] 7MM [ , EU5 ( , , , , and the ), and ] Key Common Warts Companies: Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, Maruho Co., Ltd, Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc., and others Key Pipeline Therapies : Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, and others : Candin, VBP-245, VP-102, CLS006, and others Therapeutic Assessment: Common Warts current marketed and emerging therapies Common Warts current marketed and emerging therapies Common Warts Market Dynamics: Common Warts market drivers and barriers Common Warts market drivers and barriers Competitive Intelligence Analysis: SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG Matrix, Market entry strategies SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter's five forces, BCG Matrix, Market entry strategies Unmet Needs, KOL's views, Analyst's views, Common Warts Market Access and Reimbursement Discover more about the future Common Warts market share of treatment therapies at Verruca Vulgaris Treatment Market Table of Contents 1. Key Insights 2. Report Introduction 3. Common Warts Market Overview at a Glance 4. Executive Summary 5. Disease Background and Overview 6. Management and Treatment 7. Epidemiology and Patient Population 8. Patient Journey 9. Emerging Therapies 10. Current Marketed Therapies: Generics 11. Other Topical Agents 12. 7MM Common Warts Market Analysis 13. Common Warts Market Outlook 14. Common Warts Market Drivers 15. Common Warts Market Barriers 16. KOL Views 17. Unmet Needs 18. SWOT Analysis 19. Appendix 20. DelveInsight Capabilities 21. Disclaimer 22. About DelveInsight Get in touch with our Business executive at Healthcare Due Diligence Services Related Reports Common Warts Pipeline Common Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Common Warts companies involved such as Nielsen BioSciences, Veloce BioPharma, Verrica Pharmaceutical, among others. Common Warts Epidemiology Forecast Common Warts Epidemiology Forecast to 2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical, and forecasted Common Warts epidemiology in the 7MM. Warts Market Warts Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Warts companies such as Maruho, Aclaris Therapeutics, among others. Genital Warts Market Genital Warts Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2030 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Genital Warts companies such as Verrica Pharmaceuticals, Novan Inc., G&E Herbal Biotechnology, among others. Genital Warts Pipeline Genital Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Genital Warts companies involved such as ViroXis Corporation, bioRASI, LLC, Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc., Orgenesis, among others. Warts Pipeline Warts Pipeline Insight, 2022 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key Warts companies involved such as Cytovation, Novan, Verrica Pharmaceuticals, among others. Other Trending Dermatological Reports Atopic Dermatitis Market Atopic Dermatitis Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Atopic Dermatitis companies such as Sanofi, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Japan Tobacco and Torii Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly and Company, among others. Rosacea Market Rosacea Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Rosacea companies such as Sol-Gel Technologies, Maruho Co., Ltd., AOBiome LLC, CAGE Bio Inc., among others. Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections Market Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast-2032 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections companies such as Basilea Pharmaceutica, MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, TenNor Therapeutics Limited, among others. About DelveInsight DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant, and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports Pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance. Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve. Connect With Us at LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter Contact Us Shruti Thakur [email protected] +1(919)321-6187 www.delveinsight.com SOURCE DelveInsight Business Research, LLP The collaboration is part of The Mars Agency's ongoing international expansion supporting blue-chip clients. Tweet this The global partnership with XPO Brands greatly enhances The Mars Agency's presence in the Australia and New Zealand markets, while also adding diverse new talent and specialized capabilities. The extension of The Mars Agency family also gives the agency's current employees more spaces and places to grow. "Our global clients will value XPO's strong presence in the Australian and New Zealand commerce space, led by their local expertise across Shopper, Retail and Experiential marketing," said Darren Keen, The Mars Agency CEO of International Markets. "We're excited about the way XPO helps strengthen the global TMA proposition." Founded in 2013, XPO Brands has earned an acclaimed reputation as a creative leader in Shopper and Experiential Marketing. They were recently named B&T's Experiential Agency of the Year and won five top awards at Shop! Association's Marketing at Retail Awards last month, including Best in Show. They have brought first-of-their-kind innovations to the market and continued to push the boundaries of what's possible in connecting brands with shoppers. "At The Mars Agency, our mission is connecting people, technology and intelligence to create demand and drive profitable, sustainable growth," said Global CEO Rob Rivenburgh. "With their talented team and unique capabilities, XPO makes The Mars Agency even better equipped to deliver that mission on a global scale." "I'm thrilled to join forces with a company that matches our own values, passionately innovating and helping their clients succeed," said Sally Tobin, Founder and Managing Director of XPO Brands. "I'm excited to see the impact we're going to make together." There is no change in leadership on either side, and Darren Keen, CEO of International Markets at The Mars Agency, will oversee this expansion. The Mars Agency will now operate 16 offices on four continents where there over 700 hundred employees serving Fortune 100 clients. The Mars Agency is an award-winning, independently owned, global commerce marketing practice. With talent around the world, they connect people, technology, and intelligence to create demand and drive profitable, sustainable growth. Their latest MarTech platform, MARILYN, enables marketers to make better decisions, create connected experiences and drive stronger results. Learn more at www.themarsagency.com and meetmarilyn.ai. XPO Brands is an-award winning creative agency dedicated to transforming the way retailers and brands connect with and influence people. Headquartered in Sydney with an additional arm in Melbourne, their integrated, below-the-line campaigns span across Shopper Marketing, Digital and Content, Experiential Events and Product Sampling. Learn more at xpobrands.com.au. For more information, contact: Sarah Jo Sautter [email protected] 248.506.5829 SOURCE The Mars Agency "We're proud to celebrate our industry's rich culture by spearheading local and national initiatives focused on giving back to the patients and customers in the communities we serve," said Kim Rivers , Chief Executive Officer of Trulieve. "The '4.20 for All' campaign reflects our ongoing commitment to create a more inclusive industry by supporting economic and social advancement opportunities for minorities and underserved communities." Each state where Trulieve operates will be activating at the local level ranging from brand giveaways to food trucks and DJs. Trulieve will also offer product launches and regional activations across the country: Launches include: New brand product launches or limited time offer strains in most of our retail states Richard DeLisi's DeLisioso Flamingo Kush pre-rolls in Florida DeLisioso Flamingo Kush pre-rolls in Wiz Khalifa's Khalifa Kush pre-roll and 1/8th products in Arizona pre-roll and 1/8th products in Muse, a Trulieve in-house brand, introduction in Pennsylvania Activations across the country include: Florida Groves music, art, and cannabis festival in Orlando music, art, and cannabis festival in Buds-A-Palooza block party in Phoenix, Arizona block party in Carniroll in Northampton, Massachusetts Trulieve commenced its national campaign by becoming the first multi-state operator to enter the metaverse. On April 2, Trulieve launched an exclusive NFT Collection available on the OpenSea marketplace. All proceeds from NFT sales will benefit the Last Prisoner Project , a non-profit organization committed to cannabis criminal justice reform and freeing over 40,000 individuals in prison for non-violent cannabis convictions. The Company also proudly announced its new membership with the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA). Additional national initiatives include Trulieve's Harvesting Goodness donation campaign and having celebrity brand partners Ethan Zohn and Champ Bailey share video stories about why they support "4.20 for All." Trulieve also attempted to register 4/20 as a national holiday, but the application was rejected due to its affiliation with the cannabis industry. For more information or to explore more "4/20 for All" initiatives, please visit Trulieve.com and connect on Instagram and Facebook . About Trulieve Trulieve is an industry leading, vertically integrated cannabis company and multi-state operator in the U.S. operating in 11 states, with leading market positions in Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Trulieve is poised for accelerated growth and expansion, building scale in retail and distribution in new and existing markets through its hub strategy. By providing innovative, high-quality products across its brand portfolio, Trulieve delivers optimal customer experiences and increases access to cannabis, helping patients and customers to live without limits. Trulieve is listed on the CSE under the symbol TRUL and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol TCNNF. For more information, please visit Trulieve.com . Facebook: @Trulieve Instagram: @Trulieve Twitter: @Trulieve Investor Contact Christine Hersey, Executive Director of Investor Relations +1 (424) 202-0210 [email protected] Media Contact Rob Kremer, Executive Director of Corporate Communications +1 (404) 218-3077 [email protected] MATTIO Communications [email protected] SOURCE Trulieve Cannabis Corp. Closes gap in weather data for flight operations RESTON, Va. and RENO, Nev., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Micro weather data and analytics firm TruWeather Solutions has joined forces with safety avionics pioneer Iris Automation to integrate TruWeather's micro weather services and cost-effective weather sensors into Iris Automation's Casia G ground-based surveillance system (GBSS). This meshed network will provide real-time integrated communications, collision avoidance and micro-weather data to operators. Iris Automation TruWeather Solutions, Inc. Micro weather or low-altitude local atmospheric conditions can often substantially differ from that in higher altitudes, injecting uncertainty into the safety equation. This can significantly impact uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) operations and revenue. According to an FAA-funded MIT Lincoln Lab study, currently only 3% of the U.S. has accurate surface weather and cloud ceiling report measurements. Quote from TruWeather CEO, Don Berchoff, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and former senior executive Service Technology Director of the National Weather Service Science "This is what we refer to as a "data desert. Up to 40% of crewed aviation flights that are either canceled or delayed due to weather could have flown. Even higher scrub rates will occur for UAS' flying beyond-visual-line-of-sight, with no pilot on board to spot problems, unless the surface and low altitude weather measurement gap can be closed." "The industry requires even more low altitude weather measurements to increase data fidelity and flights per airframe. Without this, uncertain micro weather and wind conditions will result in conservative business decisions. Failure to resolve this problem will result in fewer flights, disgruntled customers and significant revenue losses." That's where additional weather sensors come into play. TruWeather recently turned its focus to sensor placement and density optimization to capture microscale features with rapid update, at the lowest cost possible. Incorporating weather sensors into Iris Automation's non-radar based passive ground based system, Casia G, simply made sense for both companies. Casia G is a ground-based detect and avoid solution, to allow operators to better detect approaching aircraft and avoid collisions. It leverages the same artificial intelligence and computer vision technology used in the company's Casia series of onboard integrated systems, including its 360 degree / 6-camera system, Casia X. The Casia product line provides unparalleled situational awareness for intelligent decision-making, including alerts and manual or autonomous collision avoidance. All Casia onboard systems can detect a small general aviation aircraft at an average distance of 1.2 km with a 93.2% detection rate. Comparatively, Casia's milliseconds reaction time exceeds that of human pilots, who take about 12.5 seconds on average to avoid collision threats. Because Casia G is sensor agnostic, it can be easily integrated with weather sensors to add real time weather data to nodes (the UA, Casia G, the command center), in addition to its already seamless air and ground-based communications. Quote from Lori DeMatteis, VP of Sales, Marketing and Customer Success at Iris Automation "Micro weather information is critical to commercial drone operations, avoiding aborted flights and unnecessary risks and overhead in order to meet the FAA 107 weather minimums. combined with Casia G, the TruWeather solution provides up to the minute, highly localized climate information to ensure safe drone operations in one easy setup. This meets the FAA's stringent requirements and offers the ability to bring together all the required data in one dashboard. This partnership will drive the expansion of BVLOS safety best practices, offering clients immediate value to ensure operational safety, and rapidly changing climate information for emergency preparedness activities, ensuring both public and personnel safety." The vast deployments expected around the world with this solution will also feed continual learning and reporting improvements into TruWeather's micro-weather products and services. Link to images - Courtesy of TruWeather, except Casia G courtesy of Iris Automation: Captions: Windsock - Winds at surface level can be very different from 80 meters above ground level. The drone industry requires even more low altitude weather measurements to increase data fidelity and flights per airframe. Computer screen - TruWeather's TruFlite V360 MissionCAST translates weather data into Go/No-Go insights. Drone in storm clouds - Uncertainty in micro weather and wind conditions will result in fewer flights, disgruntled customers and significant revenue losses. The TruWeather - Iris Automation Collaboration seeks to turn the tide. About Iris Automation Iris Automation is a safety avionics technology company pioneering on and off board perception systems and aviation policy services that enable customers to build scalable operations for crewed and uncrewed aircraft; unlocking the potential of countless industries. Iris' Casia system runs either onboard the aircraft or in a ground-based configuration. We work closely with civil aviation authorities globally as they implement regulatory frameworks ensuring BVLOS is conducted safely, partnering on multiple FAA ASSURE and BEYOND UAS Integration Programs and Transport Canada's BVLOS Technology Demonstration Program. Visit www.irisonboard.com. About TruWeather Solutions, Inc TruWeather is a leading provider of weather data analytics and innovative weather risk management products with a focus on low level aviation and ground transportation systems. Founded on over 35 years' experience across the aviation, logistics and weather industries, and acknowledged as experts in setting standards for the safe operation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the company provides the highest quality insights alongside excellent technical and operational forecasting support services. TruWeather's customized translation of real-time and predictive weather data into discrete workflow decision insights sharpens resource scheduling, planning and mission execution resulting in safer, more productive operations and business success. Visit www.truweathersolutions.com. Contact: Lisa Tinnesz [email protected] Ann O'Leary [email protected] +1 650 996 0778 Follow us: Facebook: irisautomation Instagram: @iris.automation LinkedIn: @iris-automation Twitter: @iris_automation https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpXemgfSiCGm6z05vQAjbA/featured SOURCE Iris Automation GUANGZHOU, China, April 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 10-day 131st Canton Fair is held online from April 15 to 24. This is the fifth time the Canton Fair kicks off in its online platform. Without an in-person exhibition, the online platform again attracts much attention from exhibitors and buyers. According to Mr. Chu Shijia, Vice President and Secretary General of the Canton Fair and Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, the online Canton Fair has become more user-friendly as it has journeyed through four online gatherings starting with the 127th session. The Canton Fair website consists of 16 product categories across 50 exhibition sections. Each section features multimedia display, exhibitor and product search, instant messaging, negotiation appointment, sourcing requests, business matchmaking, exhibitors on live, meetings and events, new product release and VR exhibition halls. Catering to user experience, the platform has been optimized to be more stable, efficient, comprehensive with better service. To improve search accuracy, the search function has been upgraded to add tags to specialized, high-tech or time-honored Chinese brands and green or intelligent products for easy recognition. Search dimensions are increased to help buyers find what they want quickly. The updated platform facilitates communications and exchanges between exhibitors and buyers by enabling exhibitors to check buyers' information with consent from them. Companies can also initiate conversations with buyers that add the company to their favorites, watch exhibitor livestreams, or recommended intelligently by the system based on sourcing requests. Maggie Pu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, noted that Canton Fair keeps scaling new heights thanks to its continuous innovation and thoughtful, convenient, and delicate service. The 131st Canton Fair will set up new columns including Product Release and Featured Livestream. With about 150 product debut events, the effectiveness of the Fair will be further enhanced with innovation achievements of Chinese enterprises displayed in an all-round way. Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email for more opportunities. SOURCE Canton Fair "Having a spot on Fortune's Great Place to Work for the seventh consecutive year is an honor. It all comes down to our employees and their passion for impacting and enhancing the lives of our nation's Veterans, service members, our families, communities, and each other," said August Nielsen, Vice President of People Services for Veterans United. "We collectively define our company's success by directly living out our employee-created values: be passionate and have fun, deliver results with integrity and enhance lives every day." The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For is highly competitive, and 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the list. Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture, selected the list using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. Companies were only considered if they had been a Great Place to Work-Certified organization. Great Place to Work is the only company culture award in America that selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated. Companies are assessed on how well they are creating a great employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, disability status, or any aspect of who employees are or what their role is. "Best Companies' leadership has never been more necessary," said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. "As workers struggle with the Great Resignation, burnout and Covid disruptions, these exceptional companies offer workplace experiences as strong as prior to the pandemic. These companies get that 'place' is wherever their employees are sitting or standing, and they are committed to make that place equitable, safe and productive. Their commitment to genuinely care for their people through trust, inclusion, purpose and meaningful flexibility for life circumstances goes beyond surface-level perks and is a model for the market to follow." One aspect that makes Veterans United unique is its foundation, which is supported solely by the company's employees and its affiliates. In 2021, the Veterans United Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary by donating an additional $10 million on top of other giving to help communities nationwide, which assisted 139 individuals and 93 organizations. In total, the foundation donated more than $20 million throughout the year. "Our employees share a passion for wanting to enhance the lives of others. It was something the company was intentional about before the foundation was created, as we've always been focused on enhancing lives and supporting others," said Erik Morse, board president of Veterans United Foundation. "By forming the Veterans United Foundation 10 years ago, not only were we able to give back more to the communities we call home, but we were also able to provide more opportunities for our employees to give back collectively." To see the complete list of the 2022 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, click here. About Veterans United Home Loans Based in Columbia, Missouri, the full-service national lender financed more than $25.8 billion in loans in 2020 and is the country's largest VA purchase lender. The company's mission is to help Veterans and service members take advantage of the home loan benefits earned by their service. The company's employee-driven charitable arm, Veterans United Foundation, is committed to enhancing the lives of Veterans and military families nationwide by focusing on supporting military families and nonprofit organizations that strengthen local communities. Veterans United Home Loans and its employees have donated more than $100 million to the Foundation since its founding in November 2011. Learn more at EnhanceLives.com. About the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For Great Place to Work selected the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For by gathering and analyzing confidential survey responses from more than 4.5 million current U.S. employees at Great Place to Work-Certified organizations. Company rankings are derived from 75 employee experience questions within the Great Place to Work Trust Index survey. Read the full methodology. About Great Place to Work Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All. VeteransUnited.com | 1-800-884-5560 | 1400 Veterans United Drive, Columbia, MO 65203 | NMLS ID #1907 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). A VA approved lender; Not endorsed or sponsored by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. Equal Opportunity Lender. Mortgage Research Center, LLC. SOURCE Veterans United Home Loans LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- William McBride, Ph.D., is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Lifetime Achiever for his remarkable contributions to Academia and in recognition of his role as an Arthur G. Hansen Distinguished Professor at Purdue University. William McBride Garnering over fifty years of experience in education, Dr. William McBride has led an impressive career. Throughout his acclaimed career, Dr. McBride has gained extensive expertise in Social and Political Philosophy, Legal Philosophy, and Continental European Philosophy. In his previous years, Dr. McBride taught at Yale University for nearly a decade and has lectured at Northwestern University, Sofia University in Bulgaria, and the Korcula Summer School. Encountering people with a different professional orientation that they have thought superior to all others, Dr. McBride distinguishes this crucial factor as one of the prime challenges he has faced throughout his career. When asked his advice to newcomers in the industry, Dr. McBride notes the importance of retaining a commitment to the truth as he or she sees it, and not being daunted by initial setbacks, if such there are, in seeking employment. An academic scholar, Dr. McBride earned an AB from Georgetown University. Thereafter, Dr. McBride attended the University of Lille from 1959 to 1960, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. Later, Dr. McBride attended Yale University, where he obtained his Master of Arts degree as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1962. He then received his Ph.D. at Yale in 1964 and was awarded a Social Science Research Council Fellowship. Remaining abreast of the latest industry developments, Dr. McBride is an active member of several international and national scholarly organizations, including the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP), of which he was President from 2008-2013; the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences; and the North American Society for Social Philosophy, of which he is past President. In light of his professional achievements, Dr. McBride has been recognized by several elite organizations for his exemplary work in the field, including Who's Who in America, Who's Who in America Education, Who's Who in the Midwest, and Who's Who in the World. He served as the first American Secretary-General and then President of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP) and gained many international connections that led to these positions. Dr. McBride has established himself as a prominent figure in professional philosophy. A respected voice in his field, Dr. McBride is well-known for sharing his breadth of expertise. He is the author of several written works, including "From Yugoslav Praxis to Global Pathos," "Social and Political Philosophy," and "Social Theory at a Crossroads." In his spare time, Dr. McBride enjoys traveling and considers himself a news buff. In looking to the future, Dr. McBride hopes to publish at least one more book, preferably more, while continuing professional involvement globally. Dr. McBride dedicates this recognition to Gerard F. Yates. For further information, please visit https://www.purdue.edu/. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Essential oils company shares latest commitments ahead of Earth Day 2022 LEHI, Utah, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of Earth Day this year, Young Living, the world's leading provider of essential oils, is sharing plans to further its commitment to advancing sustainability practices across key areas of its business. The company is focusing its efforts on areas such as sustainable farming, conservation, habitat preservation, supply chain and waste reduction. "At Young Living, nature guides us in all that we do from how we grow, farm and harvest our botanicals, to how we operate our farms and other facilities," said Deven Patten, director of sustainability at Young Living. "That is why our commitment to sustainability is woven throughout our entire business, from the products you can experience to our lasting positive impact on the planet and in the communities we serve." Young Living has committed to minimizing its impact on the natural environment through: Regenerative and Sustainable Farming: From how soil is fertilized to how crops are harvested, Young Living works with each of its farms to implement practices that are both sustainable and regenerative. From how soil is fertilized to how crops are harvested, Young Living works with each of its farms to implement practices that are both sustainable and regenerative. Conservation: The company's conservation efforts and projects around the world vary, but all serve to bring about meaningful and lasting change in the natural environment. These include initiatives like protecting wild habitats, enhancing biodiversity, and implementing sustainable energy sources that work with nature, not against it. The company's conservation efforts and projects around the world vary, but all serve to bring about meaningful and lasting change in the natural environment. These include initiatives like protecting wild habitats, enhancing biodiversity, and implementing sustainable energy sources that work with nature, not against it. Preservation: Young Living works to protect wild habitats and endangered species and promotes biodiversity in and around its global farms and partner farms. Young Living works to protect wild habitats and endangered species and promotes biodiversity in and around its global farms and partner farms. Supply Chain Operations: From sourcing oils to product delivery and everything in between, sustainability is considered at every step of Young Living's supply chain. From sourcing oils to product delivery and everything in between, sustainability is considered at every step of Young Living's supply chain. Waste Reduction: From its farms to its offices and beyond, Young Living established a strong plan to help build a cleaner future and greener earth. Examples of specific ongoing sustainability initiatives at Young Living range from utilizing sheep as weed removers at the Simiane-la-Rotonde lavender farm in France, to redesigning the oil distillery at the company farm in Mona, Utah, in order to save 260 million gallons of water per year, equivalent to 400 Olympic-sized pools. In addition, Young Living has significantly reduced total waste at its largest warehouse in recent years. To learn more about Young Living's sustainability efforts, visit the website at youngliving.com . About Young Living Essential Oils Young Living Essential Oils is a world-leading essential oils company based in Lehi, Utah. Founded in 1994, the company provides the highest quality essential oils and oil-infused products available. Guided by the company's Seed to Seal standard, which incorporates stringent sourcing and testing standards, Young Living's essential oils come from corporate-owned farms, partner farms, and certified suppliers. The company's products not only support a healthy lifestyle but also provide opportunities for over 6 million global brand partners to share the unique benefits of essential oils while building their own businesses. For more information, visit YoungLiving.com, follow @youngliving on Instagram, or like us on Facebook. SOURCE Young Living Essential Oils Ankara, April 18 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Israel's actions against the worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during his phone call with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas. "During our conversation, I expressed that I strongly condemn Israel's interventions against the worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque and that we will stand against the provocations and threats to the status quo and spirituality of Al-Aqsa Mosque," Erdogan said on Sunday on Twitter. "Turkey always stands with Palestine," he added, noting the events reaffirm the necessity for all Palestinian groups to work toward unity and reconciliation, Xinhua news agency reported. The tension between Israelis and Palestinians has flared up in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past weeks, especially when the Jewish festival of Passover began on Friday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Friday clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem left more than 160 people wounded. The relations between Turkey and Israel were strained in 2010 when a Turkish-led flotilla attempting to break Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip clashed with Israeli forces, leaving 10 Turks on board dead. In a more recent spat in 2018, Turkey expelled the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey after the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem. The two countries have been working on a rapprochement in recent months. On March 9, Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid a visit to Ankara, during which Erdogan said he "clearly expressed Turkey's sensitivity on the issue of Palestine." Khartoum, April 18 : Sudan has reaffirmed its ownership of the disputed Fashaga district on the border with Ethiopia. "Fashaga is a Sudanese land," acting Foreign Minister Ali Al-Sadiq told visiting UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Hanna Tetteh, according to a statement by Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Sunday. Negotiations and dialogue are the best means to settle the dispute, the Minister said. The border area between Sudan and Ethiopia has been witnessing rising tensions and skirmishes between the two sides since September 2020, Xinhua news agency reported. In December 2020, the Sudanese Army said it deployed strong reinforcements to the border area with Ethiopia and retook what it terms "the seized lands". New Delhi, April 18 : BJP chief J.P Nadda on Monday said that Indian politics has undergone a rapid transformation in the last eight years. In a letter to fellow citizens, Nadda said: "Indian politics has undergone a rapid transformation in the last eight years. The tried, tested, or I should say dusted and rusted approach of vote bank politics, divisive politics, and selective politics is no longer working." Nadda's letter follows a joint statement of opposition parties on recent violence. "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his emphasis on 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas' every Indian is being empowered and is getting the wings to rise further. Unfortunately, this thrust towards development politics is being bitterly resisted by the rejected and dejected parties who are once again taking refuge in vote bank and divisive politics," Nadda wrote. He further wrote that today, India is seeing two distinctive styles of politics - the NDA's efforts which are seen in their work and the petty politics of a group of parties, which is seen in their acerbic words. "In the last few days, we have seen these parties come together yet again in letter (whether in spirit too, time will tell) in which they have waged a direct onslaught on the spirit of our nation and cast aspersions on our hard working citizens," he wrote. Referring to violence in Rajasthan, he said: "I want to remind the rejected and dejected political parties - since you talk about vote bank politics, why have you forgotten the shameful happenings in Karauli, Rajasthan? What are the compulsions that are driving your haunting silence on the issue?" "In November 1966, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opened fire on Hindu Sadhus sitting outside Parliament who had marched towards Delhi with the demand of banning cow slaughter in India. And who can forget Rajiv Gandhi's infamous words - "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes" - that justified the killing of thousands of Sikhs in the wake of PM Indira Gandhi's death,he said. He mentioned violent incidents-- Gujarat in 1969, Moradabad 1980, Bhiwandi 1984, Meerut 1987, various incidents against the Hindus in Kashmir valley throughout the 1980s, 1989 Bhagalpur, 1994 Hubballi. "The list of communal violence during Congress rule is long. Under which Government did the Muzaffarnagar Riots happen in 2013 or the Assam Riots in 2012," he asked. He noted that it was the UPA, controlled by an extra-constitutional NAC that brought in the most horrific Communal Violence Bill, which stooped to new lows of vote bank politics by even UPA standards. "Similarly, the most horrific massacres against Dalits and Tribals have taken place under Congress regimes. This is the same Congress that even got Dr Ambedkar defeated in Parliamentary elections," he said. He mentioned that in Tamil Nadu, elements aligned to the ruling party in the state have left no stone unturned in verbally lynching, smearing and humiliating one of India's tallest musical maestros just because he has views not palatable to one political party and their allies. "Is this democratic? One can have different views and yet coexist happily but why take to insults," he further asked. Talking about violent attacks on party workers in Kerala and West Bengal, the BJP chief said: "The shameful political violence in West Bengal and Kerala, and the repeated killing and targeting of BJP workers offers a glimpse of how some of our political parties view democracy." He pointed out that in Maharashtra, two Cabinet Ministers have been arrested on serious charges of corruption, extortion and links with anti-social elements. "Is this not worrisome for us as a nation that a state which houses India's financial capital has such an uninspiring coalition where top Cabinet ministers have such extortionist tendencies,? he asked. "This brings me to my next point. The reason for the shameful conduct by a select group of political parties lies in the above list of incidents that I have shared. Dyed in the wool proponents of vote bank politics that they are, these parties are fearing that their shenanigans are being finally exposed comprehensively," the veteran leader said. He alleged that for decades, they freely patronised lumpen, anti-social elements who bullied common people. Now that these elements are being subjected to the laws of the land, the parties which sheltered these elements are panicking and thus taking to this bizarre conduct. "The results of the recently held Assembly election should be an eye-opener for those who thrive on vote bank politics. India's largest state on the electoral map, a coastal state on the western coast, a state in the Northeast and a hill state have given a resounding mandate to the BJP," he said. Nadda claimed that due to the BJP, India is seeing a sentiment of pro-incumbency where developmental politics is being resoundingly rewarded. The BJP also became the first party in many years to cross the 100 figure in the Rajya Sabha and get an absolute majority in the UP legislative council. The Opposition should introspect why the parties that ruled the nation for so many decades have been confined to the margins of history now, he noted. "The youth of India want opportunities, not obstacles. They want development, not divisions. Today, when people across all faiths, all age groups as well as from all walks of life have come together to defeat poverty and take India to new heights of progress, I would urge the Opposition to change track and embrace the politics of development. We owe this to our coming generations," Nadda added. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, April 18 : The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident, and directed him to surrender within a week. A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the Allahabad High Court to examine afresh whether Mishra should be granted bail or not. The bench noted that the victims have been denied a chance of effective hearing and the high court overlooked relevant considerations. It further added that the tearing hurry shown by the high court merits the setting aside of bail order and remanded the matter back to high court for fresh consideration. The bench said the high court order cannot be sustained and is thus set aside. Earlier, the apex court had objected to the high court order giving credence to "irrelevant" details in FIR and post-mortem reports to grant bail to Mishra. On April 4, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, where eight people lost their lives, was a grave offence, but no untoward incident happened after Ashish Mishra, prime accused in the case was granted bail, and he was also not a flight risk. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the family members of the victims, submitted that the high court failed to consider relevant facts, and the order suffered from gross non-application of mind by the high court. After hearing the detailed arguments in the matter, the top court reserved the order. Mishra was arrested on October 9 last year in the case. On October 3, 2021, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri in clashes during a farmers' protest. He was granted bail by the high court on February 10. The family members of the farmers, mowed down by a car belonging to Mishra, in Lakhimpur Kheri had moved the top court challenging bail granted to him. He is the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. The victims' families have claimed that the state has not filed an appeal opposing bail granted to Mishra. New Delhi, April 18 : The case of communal clashes in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri will be investigated by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, an official said here on Monday. "The case has been transferred to the Crime Branch," a senior police official told IANS. The development comes just a day after Special Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak had said that teams from northwest district police and the Crime Branch are jointly working on the case. Severe clashes broke out between the two groups of people, belonging to different communities, during a Shobha Yatra procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area. So far the police has arrested a total of 21 people and apprehended 2 juveniles. The arrested accused were identified as Salim alias Chikna (36), Zahid (20), Ansar (35), Shahjad (33), Mukhtyaar Ali (28), Mohd. Ali (18), Amir (19), Aksar (26), Noor Alam (28), Md. Aslam (21), Zakir (22), Akram (22), Imtyaz (29), Mohd. Ali (27), Ahir (37), Sheikh Saurabh (42), Suraj (21), Neeraj (19), Suken (45), Suresh (43) and Sujeet Sarkar (38), all residents of Jahangirpuri. Several among the accused were found to be previously involved in criminal cases. According to the police, the main conspirator of the violence, Ansar, was found to be previously involved in two cases of assault and was also arrested repeatedly under preventive sections and booked five times under the Gambling Act and Arms Act. It was officially learnt that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch has been formed to probe the whole incident which will consist of five assistant commissioners of police and 10 inspectors. Meanwhile, the sleuths of the Crime Branch have already initiated the investigation and earlier in the morning, could be seen examining the area where the violence took place. Apart from the Crime Branch, an eight-member forensic team is also on the spot to collect samples and evidence. The team is likely to furnish its report within a week. Sonipat, April 18 : The O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Spain in the presence of Jose MarAa Ridao Dominguez, Ambassador, Embassy of Spain in India, and Alfonso Perez-Hernandez Egart, First Secretary, Embassy of Spain. The agreement under the auspices of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Spanish Ministry of External Affairs (MAEC) will especially benefit the Jindal School of Languages and Literature (JSLL), which shall host a native Spanish language lecturer to teach Spanish language, culture and literature. This long-term academic engagement of a native Spanish speaker (lector or lectora) with specialised training in teaching Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) shall benefit students of JSLL as they gain a richer and more complete experience of Hispanidad (Hispanicity). JGU has the distinction of being the only private university in India and one of a select group of 12 universities in India and Sri Lanka partnering with the government of Spain for Spanish language teaching. Students are currently being admitted to the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme for 2022-2025. These students will work with the Spanish lector/lectora and other JSLL faculty on language skills such as pronunciation and improve their communicative and socio-pragmatic competencies. The Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University, Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar welcomed the development and said, "The MOU demonstrates the commitment of JGU and JSLL to advancing the study of Hispanic literatures and cultures in India. JSLL is proud to join the burgeoning field of Hispanic studies in India. The number of Spanish speakers in the world today exceeds 500 million. Students in JSLL will be able to make the most of the wide-ranging teaching expertise of Indian and foreign faculty members possessing the highest level of language training and proficiency." Professor (Dr.) Denys Leighton, Dean, Jindal School of Languages and Literature, JGU remarked on the academic significance of the programme: "We are thankful to the Spanish government and are excited about having a native speaker of Spanish trained in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. JGU is currently the only Indian private higher education institution to be part of this programme of Spain's Agency for International Development Cooperation and one of about ten participating institutions in India and Sri Lanka. Students of the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme will receive excellent instruction by Indian and international Hispanists at JGU and will benefit from a rich learning environment. "We will also work to ensure that students of the programme have a meaningful Study Abroad experience in a Spanish-speaking country as part of their course of study at JGU. This will be an added value for our students." Professor (Dr.) Mohan Kumar, Dean of International Affairs and Global Initiatives, JGU commented, "It is a matter of great pride for JGU to have this formal arrangement with the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi under the MAEC-AECID Spanish Assistantships at Foreign Universities programme. I am sure learning Spanish from a native Spanish Language Specialist will expand the learning horizons of our students and help them in their careers and further education pursuits." Over the course of the three-year programme, JSLL students shall acquire a solid grasp of Spanish grammar and linguistic nuances that will enable them to communicate effectively in Spanish and explore the treasure trove of literary texts and cultural products of Spanish. Along with the development of linguistic competency, the programme fosters meaningful engagement with literature, cinema, music and other arts of Spain, Latin America and the wider Hispanosphere. The B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme curriculum is designed with a high degree of electivity so that the students may tackle courses in language, literature, communications, and cultural studies offered through many schools of the university. Students will complete several internships to gain exposure to organisations and enterprises engaging with Spanish-speaking clients, and they will apply skills learned from their courses and other academic activities. This MOU is in addition to 22 other agreements and instruments of cooperation signed by JGU with prestigious higher education institutions in Spanish-speaking countries --including University of Granada, University of Salamanca, University of Chile and the National University of Colombia. JGU learners of Spanish will have unique opportunities to experience Hispanidad through linguistic and cultural immersion. Academic credits earned by JGU students from the foreign universities will transfer to JGU for completion of the students' degrees. The B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme of JSLL is the only such undergraduate degree programme in India to incorporate study abroad as an integral part of the undergraduate learning experience. Special workshops at the JGU campus and extracurricular activities will ensure thorough linguistic training so that students attain the B2 proficiency level under the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Students of the B.A. (Hons.) Spanish programme will enter a vibrant community of learners and scholars dedicated to exploring the Hispanosphere. Mumbai, April 18 : Actress Chhavi Mittal recently took to her social media handle to share with her fans and friends about the diagnosis of breast cancer and how she is fighting it. Now, the actress has posted on Instagram on how she came to know about the illness. She also thanked her fans and friends for their support and the messages she is getting after her post on social media. She wrote: "I've shed a lot of tears since yesterday. But only tears of joy! I've received thousands of messages and wishes in the last 24 hrs and they keep pouring in... and each one of them has words like, strong, superwoman, inspiration, fighter, gem, and many such beautiful adjectives that they used for me." Chhavi added: "I also got messages from different faiths where you guys are praying in the Mass, during Namaaz, to Bholenath, Guruji and whoever gives you strength. People reached out with alternate therapies, books to read, groups to join and the most inspiring of all.. Their own breast cancer journeys. I am so overwhelmed to have such a loving and engaged community as supporters. Many of you even cried reading the news! How can I not recover fast!" The 41-year-old actress further mentioned how she was detected with breast cancer and how she came to know about the reality. "But I also got a lot of queries asking how I discovered it. I truly have a high power looking over me and I feel blessed to have detected it early. I had gone to a doctor for a minor gym injury in the chest and that's when they found the lump. "We investigated it further and further till we did a biopsy which came back positive. To all women, I feel like my gymming will literally save my life but nothing should be left to chance. As a post cancer patient one is supposed to do six monthly PET scans mandatorily.." The actress also advised to go for proper self-examination and always pay attention if any lump is found. "So in order to save your life from breast cancer, please do regular self-examination/ mammograms... and do not neglect a lump if you find one. Early detection is the only key and it's worth every effort." She recently also posted: "Things never to say to a cancer patient:What you have nothing,I've seen people fight worse.You're lucky. Some people actually have it bad." "Cancer is a fight for not just the patient but everybody around them. The least you can do is be sensitive. No two cancer journeys are the same, but then..why's there a need to compare? And lastly, nobody's 'lucky' to have cancer, though you are lucky if you detect it early. "As I am. Iam also extremely lucky to have real sensitive people in my social media community. You guys give me strength no end with your messages and wishes and experiences!Thank you for that!Keep them coming," she wrote. Khartoum, April 18 : Sudan has condemned Israeli forces' raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that left more than 100 Palestinians wounded. Sudan on Sunday called on the international community to play its role in holding Israel fully responsible for the repercussions of such crimes and violations against the defenseless Palestinian people, their land and the holy sites, Xinhua news agency reported citing the country's Foreign Ministry. The ministry also demanded the Israeli government immediately stop the violations and its continued attempt to Judaize Jerusalem by imposing what it called a fait accompli policy. Sudan reaffirmed its stance toward the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem witnessed clashes between the Israeli forces and the Palestinians on Friday, when the Jews began to celebrate their Passover holiday that coincided with the second Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan. Los Angeles, April 18 : 'Like an Island', a hybrid documentary fable tinged with magical realism by Swiss director Tizian Buchi, has won the Grand Jury Prize at international documentary film festival Visions du Reel in Nyon, Switzerland. According to 'Variety', the debut feature had its world premiere at the festival, bearing testimony to the event's reputation as a launchpad for new talent and its tradition for hybrid fiction-reality films. A total of seven first features are among the winners. It is the first time since 2013 that a Swiss film has picked up the festival's top prize. "A small urban island becomes the metaphor of contemporary Europe and lends itself to a deep reflection about the absurdity of borders, rules, fences and barriers. "A brilliant observation, a surprising wondering, that rewrites the coordinates of geographical spaces in universal terms," said the jury, composed of filmmaker Jessica Beshir, the winner of last year's Grand Prix, Beatrice Fiorentino, general delegate of the Venice Film Festival's Critics' Week, and Jovan Marjanovic, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The runner-up Special Jury Award went to 'Bitterbrush' by Emelie Mahdavian, a doc about two female range riders in the American West, which made a splash when it premiered in Telluride, for its cinematically triumphant, raw, yet tender, portrayal of two women's nomadic existence in this rewrite of the classic Western genre," the jury said. Russian director Marusya Syroechkovskaya's debut feature, 'How to Save a Dead Friend', received a Special Mention, for its "punk rock attitude in skillfully piecing together a story of another lost generation in Russia, according to the jury. The festival's more experimental Burning Lights section was judged by Chiara MaraAAn, director of content at MUBI, Switzerland's Cyril Schaublin, who won best director for his debut feature "Unrest" in this year's Berlinale Encounters section, and Argentinian producer Gema Juarez Allen ("Lina From Lima"). They awarded their top prize to yet another first feature, 'A Long Journey Home', by Wenqian Zhang, a family portrait about cohabitation, emancipation and the search for one's place within the family, reports 'Variety'. "With an equally tender and formally bare approach, the film humbly draws our attention to the intimacy of a household. With precise cinematic decisions, domestic situations unfold before the camera, weaving together a family portrait of strong emotional resonance, that raises important questions about the ties that bind us, as it bridges an intergenerational gap in contemporary China and beyond," said the jury. The Special Jury Award in the Burning Lights segment went to 'Herbaria' by Argentina's Leandro Listorti, who delicately combines archival and fresh images to chronicle the immense work that goes into plant classification and preservation. "A film of extraordinary lucidity that brings together two universes - plants and cinema - in a revelatory game of analogies. Taking the time to explore the multi-layered nature of preservation, the film finds unsuspected warmth in scientific and methodical processes, rendered visible in an act of poetic justice," said the jury. A Special Mention went to "Europe" by Philip Scheffner, "for dealing with the subject of immigration in a novel way and with a great sense of humanity while showing that silence and the "out of frame" are remarkable tools to discuss the fiction of borders." In the National Competition, Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando picked up the Jury Prize for 'Fuku Nashi', a moving encounter between two lonely souls that tells the story of Yukiei who returns home to her grandmother's house after years of absence. Sando also nabbed the Zonta Award for "a female filmmaker whose work reveals mastery and talent." The National Competition's Special Jury Award went to 'Le Film de mon pere', Jules Guarneri's first feature, described by the jury as "an intimate portrait of a family whose members live close to each other and yet seem far apart. The filmmaker succeeds in making an honest and entertaining film that tells of house spirits and control freaks, of searching for and cutting one's roots, and at the same time asks the question: what does family mean?" Serbian filmmaker Luka Papi's absurd comedy 'Without', about an eccentric artist who embarks on a journey to find his pet dog, won the International Medium Length and Short Film Competition Jury Prize. Best Short Film went to 'Aralkum' by Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko, the story of the last inhabitants on the shores of the Aral Sea, who have lost their way of life to desertification - "a film that opens a door on a landscape swept by human excess," said the jury. "Jaime" by Francisco Javier Rodriguez, the portrait of a young man affected by a mental disorder, received a Special Mention in the Short and Medium category. The Interreligious Award went to Iranian artist and director Vida Dena for 'Ma vie en papier', in which drawings she shares with the daughters of a Syrian refugee come to life to relate the memories, dreams and destiny of the family in exile. Swiss photographer Manuel Bauer's debut feature, 'Steel Life', a fascinating journey across Peru's Altiplano to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, won the International Critics' FIPRESCI Award. The Audience Award went to Sara Dosa's poetic archival montage 'Fire of Love', which has been blazing through the festival circuit since premiering at Sundance. The festival's artistic director Emilie BujAs welcomed the prizes, which she said reflect the wealth of diversity at Visions du Reel. "New voices rub shoulders with the films of established filmmakers and engage in a dialogue with the works of our guests Marco Bellocchio, Kirsten Johnson and Hassen Ferhani. We are particularly pleased that the diversity of film genres, generations, approaches and geographies that guide us have been rewarded and welcomed by the public and the juries," she said. The 53rd edition of Visions du Reel ran from April 7 through April 17. Kabul, April 18 : Afghanistan has reported a death toll of at least 47 after Pakistani military air strikes hit the provinces of Khost and Kunar provinces, Pajhwok News reported. Pakistani security forces carried out airstrikes on Waziristan refugees in Sperai district of southeastern Khost province and in the Shaltan district of eastern Kunar province, inflicting casualties on people. "Forty-one civilians, mainly women and children, were killed and 22 others were wounded in air strikes by Pakistani forces near the Durand line in Khost province," Shabir Ahmad Osmani, director of information and culture in Khost told Pajhwok. Twenty-four people were killed from one family itself, reports said. Jamshid, a tribal leader from Khost, also confirmed that more than 40 people had died. "I went yesterday with several people to donate blood for treating the wounded in the Khost strike," Jamshid said. Another government official in Khost on condition of anonymity said he saw "42 graves" of people killed, adding that a few people were missing. "Faces and bodies of some were charred and beyond recognition," Abdul Wahab, a religious scholar from Khost, who helped bury some victims, said. Afghanistan strongly condemned the attack and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, in response to the attacks. Bengaluru, April 18 : Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday that a final decision on cabinet expansion will be taken only after his visit to New Delhi. "The High command has to give directions on my visit and it will be decided in New Delhi itself whether there would be cabinet reshuffle or just cabinet expansion in the state," he said. Speaking to reporters Bommai said that the matter of cabinet expansion has been discussed with party President J.P. Nadda already. He had assured that he would inform after conducting a meeting in this regard. The statement of Bommai proved to be a dampener for cabinet berth aspirants who expected the cabinet expansion to take place immediately after Ugadi festival (April 2). With the resignation of K.S. Eshwarappa, five posts in the cabinet are now vacant. Since, the elections are fast approaching (2023), the party is treading cautiously with regard to expansion. Talking about the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scandal, Bommai clarified that there are demands for re-examination. "But, we will take a call on it only after the CID investigation report comes," he said. "Once the allegation surfaced, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra had handed over the investigation to CID. The step was taken to ensure an unbiased probe. The directions have been given for comprehensive investigation and no one will be spared," he said. Colombo, April 18 : Sri Lankan Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana said on Monday that the country will take steps to stabilise the economy, including strengthening public finance. Siriwardana made the remarks as the Sri Lankan government sent a delegation to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to seek assistance. Figures show that around 125 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($384 million) of banknotes were printed in April and the government expenditure has also increased despite escalating foreign exchange shortages, Xinhua news agency reported. The government has to carefully manage resources and reduce the budget deficit as it has caused many problems across the economy, Siriwardana said. The official added that the government does not have enough revenues and that it is no longer in a position to get foreign loans. "The entire deficit has to be financed domestically. Given that there are limited domestic resources, the central bank is compelled to find the money," he told reporters. The Sri Lankan government decided last week to suspend repayment for all debts for an interim period till it has an orderly and consensual debt restructuring programme supported by the IMF. Chennai, April 18 : Tamil Nadu housing and urban development department have issued circulars to corporations and municipalities to increase the number of e-vehicles for garbage collection. The department in the circular informed the corporations and municipalities to increase e-vehicles for garbage collection as this would improve eco-friendliness as well as increase the dignity of the garbage collectors. Greater Chennai Corporation has presently more than 350 vehicles and sources in the corporation told IANS that it was planning to increase the fleet to double the present numbers. A corporation counselor while speaking to IANS said: "The presence of e-vehicles and uniforms has improved the dignity of the garbage collectors and this is also a major step towards eco-friendliness. So we think that by doubling the number of e-vehicles, the situation of the garbage collectors would improve drastically." Officials of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) told IANS that an e-vehicle can travel up to 100 km or six hours continuously on a single charge and periodical charging is required. R. Mohankumar, an official with GCC while speaking to IANS said: "The e-vehicles are eco friendly and give dignity to the sanitation workers. Other than this, these vehicles can be traversed through narrow lanes and as it is battery operated the sanitation worker does not have to exert much to manage this. Our sanitation workers had to push the carts earlier to collect garbage and discard it but with the e-vehicles, they are at much ease. This induces self-respect and dignity to the concerned people for which we are happy." Trichy corporation is also planning to buy 88 vehicles in the current fiscal to improve the garbage collection. The corporation has bought 100 e-vehicles for garbage dumping during the last financial year and together this has become 188 vehicles. Sources in the Tamil Nadu Urban and housing development department told IANS that almost all the corporations are increasing their purchase orders of e-vehicles and the letter was sent to create awareness among the newly elected councilors, presidents, and Mayors for purchase of new e-vehicles. Officials also said that they are planning to rope in some advertising agencies to get some advertisements on these e-vehicles, the money from which can be used to repay the loan amount of the corporation as well as make the e-vehicles more colourful. The Urban and housing development department is also approaching the Union government for sanctioning an amount to convert the garbage collection in all the urban local bodies through e-vehicles. Maniyamma. K, a garbage collector at Teynampet in Chennai while speaking to IANS said: " Once we commenced collecting garbage using e-vehicles, our prestige and dignity has risen. This is a new feel compared to the collection done using pushcarts. Now at leastAwe can sit in the vehicle and operate it using battery. It's also colourful and I feel proud." New Delhi, April 18 : The Hindu Sena, a right-wing organisation, on Monday approached the Delhi High Court seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the communal clashes in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri. Talking to IANS, Advocate Vidlesh Aggarwal, who represented the Hindu Sena in the court, alleged that there is a connection in all the similar incidents that took place in many parts of the country on the occasions of Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. Terming the incident a 'PFI work', he alleged that the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI is funding to disrupt the peace in India. He said that there is an 'organised way' of collecting various arms and ammunition including country-made guns, petrol bombs, and other hand-made tools for rioting and arson. On the direction of the Chief Justice during the course of the hearing, Aggarwal said that he will again approach the court with a proper Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the matter in a day or two. In the plea, Hindu Sena demanded that the status report should be called from the Delhi police and its investigation should be done by the NIA. Severe clashes broke out between the two groups of people, belonging to different communities, during a Shobha Yatra procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area. So far, the police have arrested a total of 21 people and apprehended two juveniles. According to police, the main conspirator of the violence, Ansar, was found to be previously involved in two cases of assault and was also arrested repeatedly under preventive sections and booked five times under the Gambling Act and Arms Act. It was officially learnt that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch has been formed to probe the incident which will consist of five assistant commissioners of police and 10 inspectors. (Jaison Wilson can be reached at jaison.w@ians.in) Hyderabad, April 18 : The Hyderabad international airport has added yet another international destination to its portfolio with the launch of Indigo's direct flight service from Hyderabad to Dhaka on Monday. Apart from boosting tourism and leisure travel between Bangladesh and Telangana, the direct flights are expected to give a fillip to medical travel to Hyderabad. The IndiGo Flight 6E 1931 will depart from GMR Hyderabad International Airport at 12.45 p.m. The return IndiGo Flight 6E 1932 from Dhaka will arrive in Hyderabad at 6.50 p.m. The two hours forty-five minutes flight will operate between GMR Hyderabad International Airport and Dhaka twice a week - Saturday and Monday. As per data released by the Indian tourism ministry, about 54 per cent of all international medical visitors to India for treatment are from Bangladesh. With some of the finest medical facilities in the region, Hyderabad has emerged as one of the preferred destinations for medical tourists from Bangladesh. To attract medical tourists to the city, airlines are adding new flight routes connecting to the popular international destinations catering to the medical tourists. Pradeep Panicker, CEO- GHIAL, said: "Apart from many tourist places to visit in Hyderabad, the city has also been a major hub for medical tourism. Over the years we have seen a massive influx of medical tourists along with leisure travellers. There is a great demand for direct connectivity between Hyderabad and Dhaka. This new connectivity will not only allow Bangladeshis to explore our city and medical facilities but also give a chance for the Hyderabadis to experience the unique charm of Dhaka." Indigo's maiden direct flight service from Hyderabad to Dhaka took off at 12.45 p.m from GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) Ltd. Senior officials from GHIAL along with Indigo officials and other stakeholders flagged off the first flight amidst a festive atmosphere. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer, Indigo said: "We are pleased to commence new flights connecting the Indian hub of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to the cultural and economic capital of Bangladesh. Hyderabad has seen significant recovery in air traffic over the last few weeks, even surpassing the pre-covid levels on some days. Travellers from Dhaka could also use Hyderabad as the hub to connect more than 70 cities within the country. We are very confident that these flights will command high traffic, promoting leisure and medical tourism across both countries." Hyderabad International Airport is now connected to over 70 domestic destinations, from the pre Covid period of 55 domestic destinations and 16 international destinations. Though the overall international travel was subdued during the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, Hyderabad International Airport is now connected to its earlier favorite destinations like London, Singapore, Kualalumpur, Colombo, Dubai, Qatar to name a few. Hyderabad is the only airport in the country where all ten domestic airlines fly. For the 'Summer-22' schedule, International Airlines have filed flight slots to 20 International destinations. The international summer slots filed is 103 per cent of the pre-Covid times. Flights from Hyderabad to Thailand and Hongkong will resume soon, GHIAL stated. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mumbai, April 18 : 'Lock Upp' contestant Munawar Faruqui revealed his painful secret of how his mother had consumed acid and committed suicide. He shared: "It was in January 2007 when my grandmother told me 'your mom is not well'. I saw her screaming with stomach ache. Immediately I took her to the emergency and I was told that she had consumed acid. I was taken aback." He continued: "I was holding my mom's hand. Doctors came and said, 'Leave her hand as she is no more.' I should have been with her. After the postmortem, doctors said that she didn't have food for 7-8 days. I also realised that my mom was unhappy in 26 years of her married life." He shared her mother was physically abused. "My dad used to beat her, my mom also took loan from people, but my dad always used to have fun but didn't care about us." Munawar also talked about his relationship with his wife and said: "The relation which I had earlier was also full of pain and agony. I was abused but I didn't share anything as I never wanted to show disrespect towards her." He broke down in tears after sharing about his painful past. 'Lock Upp' streams on ALTBalaji and MX Player. New Delhi, April 18 : After top investor Sequoia Capital India raised a red flag over recent fraud allegations at some of its portfolio startups like BharatPe, Zilingo and Trell, Info Edge co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani has joined the corporate governance debate, saying that good governance begins in the founders' heads. A Padma Shri awardee, Bikhchandani who scaled platforms like Naukri.com, 99 acres.com and Jeevansathi.com, said in a tweet thread that "no amount of oversight by investors, boards, audit committees or auditors can ensure a company is well governed if the founders are not committed to this objective". "When I was on the Board of @makemytrip, I was awarded an ESOP. In line with Satish Mandhana's sane advice, @hitobs, Ambarish, and I decided that the economic benefit of this ESOP should go to Info Edge rather than to me as that would align all of our shareholders' interests," Bikhchandani said. "After all, we decided if I am spending time away from Info Edge, it should benefit all of Info Edge shareholders rather than me alone. We thought we had done a small thing. We didn't think much about it," he added. The blog post by Sequoia Capital India has triggered a chain reaction among the tech honchos in India, on how to stem the rot in the startup ecosystem. "His (Bikhchandani's) insights are so invaluable and backed by vast experience. Must read!" tweeted Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal. One of the biggest investors in the Indian and Southeast Asia startup ecosystem, Sequoia Capital India said that recently, some portfolio founders have been under investigation for potential fraudulent practices or poor governance. "These allegations are deeply disturbing. We have always strongly encouraged founders to play the long game. We focus on the enduring, and discourage focussing on vanity metrics. Despite that we find some counter-examples of what we espouse," the VC said in a blog post. BharatPe co-founder and Managing Director Ashneer Grover, along with his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, has been charged by the fintech platform of "extensive misappropriation of company funds" and using "company expense accounts" to "enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles". The Grovers are no more a part of the fintech company which initiated an internal probe against them. On the other hand, online fashion marketplace Zilingo has suspended its founder and CEO Ankiti Bose following a probe over wrongdoing in accounting books. Shailendra Singh, Sequoia Capital India's head, has left the board of the Zilingo. Live commerce startup Trell also probed claims that its founders siphoned off money. "It makes us reflect on what we could have done, along with other investors who have partnered in these companies, to prevent such a situation," Sequoia Capital India said. Bikhchandani said that the startup ecosystem needs guardrails so that a few errant founders don't create big setbacks for all. "We want to build companies that are enduring, and that can only happen if governance is strong. Finally, if you are better governed you will sleep more peacefully at night, he added. April 18 : Karisma Kapoor is all set to star in a new project titled Brown - The First Case. Directed by Abhinay Deo of Delhi Belly fame, the project is backed by Zee Studios. Brown is based on the book City of Death by Abheek Barua. The makers are yet to specify if the project is a feature film or a web series. Taking to her Instagram handle, Karisma shared a picture of herself with a clapper board, and announced the new project Brown. She captioned the post as, To new beginnings #brown. Karisma's sister Kareena Kapoor also shared the news on her Instagram stories, and wrote, Karisma Kapoor you are the best. Karisma was last seen in the web series Mentalhood in 2020, which marked her streaming debut. The show also starred actors Sanjay Suri, Sandhya Mridul, Shilpa Shukla and Shruti Seth. Touted as a neo-noir crime drama set in the bustling city of Kolkata, Brown also stars Surya Sharma. Karisma will play the lead as a detective in the project. The actress said she is looking forward to essaying a fiercely strong character in an intriguing story. Brown is the kind of storytelling that is not just exciting but also challenging for any actor and that is exactly what attracted me to take the part up... I can't wait to begin shooting, the actor said in a statement. Abhinay Deo said the project is a character study that hasn't been seen before. Brown is an extremely well-crafted story that gives me a chance to delve deeper into the human psyche and relationships. We've always taken pride in stories that have a global appeal and Brown - The First Case will reinforce that. We are thrilled to have Karisma Kapoor as the leading actor on this project, and with Abhinay Deo driving it, we are looking forward to setting new benchmarks in storytelling, added Shariq Patel, CBO - Zee Studios. The project will go on floors this month. Karisma's bestie Amrita Arora commented, Woohoo, while Saif Ali Khan's sister Saba Ali Khan wrote, Good luck. Sanjay Kapoor commented, All the best. A fan wrote, Can't wait to see the magic," while another wrote, OMG Lolo! Finally finally. Los Angeles, April 18 : Model Cara Delevingne recorded a show called 'Planet Sex' at one of London's oldest and most treasured LGBT venues - the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. The visit might even have inspired the star to get into drag. Openly bisexual Delevingne, snuck in to the venue to interview members of the queer community as part of her six-part investigation into human sexuality. An insider reveals: "The Royal Vauxhall Tavern - affectionately known as the RVT - is famous for being very inclusive. It celebrates drag kings as well as drag queens and makes a huge effort to increase visibility for some of the most marginalised individuals in the LGBTQ+ community." "Cara was thrilled to visit such an iconic venue in a professional capacity and learn more about its history as she's had a few nights out there herself in the past. Since landing the presenting gig, which is somewhat out of her comfort zone, Cara has been learning more about those who are playing with gender as part of their art and performances. "It's inspired her to incorporate more gender-bending elements into her own work. She might even be getting into drag herself." The model-actress happily posed for pictures with pub staff while filming the programme. She even took a photograph with the pub manager. The RVT is where Princess Diana famously partied with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the '80s and Cara is described on the pub's social media pages as a "friend of the tavern". Hubballi : , April 18 (IANS) A local court on Monday remanded Abhishek Hiremath, the accused youth whose objectionable social media post allegedly triggered large-scale violence in Hubballi, to judicial custody till April 30. Prohibitory orders have been clamped in the city till April 20 and as many as 100 persons detained in connection with the violence. The city, which is known as 'Chota Mumbai', a major commercial centre after Bengaluru in Karnataka, has turned into a virtual fortress. The accused youth who was arrested on Saturday was brought into the court premises amid heavy police security cover and produced before the magistrate of JMFC Additional court. Appearing for the accused youth, the counsel had submitted a bail application. The public prosecutor will submit objections on Tuesday and the court will take a call on granting bail later. Sanjeev Badaskar, the counsel for the accused youth explained that a bail petition has been submitted by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Advocates Association. "We will submit powerful arguments pressing for the release of arrested youth once the police and prosecution submits objections to bail petition. We are confident of obtaining bail," he said. Meanwhile, the shops and establishments have been opened in Hubballi on Monday morning amid curfew orders and the situation is limping back to normalcy. Police have detained more than 100 persons in connection with the violent incident. The other accused would also be produced before the court on Monday. Ankara, April 18 : Turkey said on Monday it has launched a new air and ground cross-border operation against its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Turkish air forces first hit the PKK's shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots, and headquarters in the Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions in northern Iraq, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video statement, Xinhua news agency reported. While artillery units struck the targets, commando troops and special forces, supported by helicopters and drones, entered the region by land, Akar said. "So far, our operation continues successfully as planned. The targets set in the first phase were achieved," he said. In a separate statement, the Turkish Defence Ministry said the "Operation Claw-Lock" was launched after the security forces determined that the PKK was planning to initiate a large-scale attack. The operation is in line with Turkey's self-defence rights arising from Article 51 of the UN Charter, the ministry said. Turkey regularly conducts cross-border operations on PKK bases in northern Iraq. Iraq has condemned previous airstrikes by Turkish aircraft in its northern region, stressing its rejection to the violation of sovereignty. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, has been fighting against the Turkish government for over 30 years. Chandigarh, April 18 : Punjab Police have solved the hand-grenade attack at Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office in Nawanshahr by busting a major Pakistan-based terror module run by Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, with the arrest of its three operatives, said Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra here on Monday. Some persons on the night of November 7 and 8, 2021, had hurled a hand grenade with the intention to kill police officials. However, the officials present there had escaped unhurt. Those arrested have been identified as Manish Kumar, a resident of village Bains in Nawanshahr, Ramandeep Singh of Jalandhar district and Pardeep Singh in SBS Nagar district. The police have also recovered one hand grenade from their possession. Bhawra said after extensive and sustained investigation, the Counter Intelligence wing and the SBS Nagar police have arrested three accused. During interrogation, Ramandeep confessed that he along with Manish had thrown the hand grenade on the directions of Harvinder Singh, said the DGP, while adding that Ramandeep had picked-up two hand grenades from the Ludhiana-Ferozepur Road as guided by Rinda. Sandeep Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) SBS Nagar, said while one han grenade was used for the attack in Nawanshahr, another P-80 hand grenade, similar to the one used to carry out the attack, was recovered on the disclosure of Ramandeep. Harvinder struck a deal with Ramandeep for Rs 4 lakh to carry out this attack, he added. Harvinder Singh, a notorious gangster active in Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Haryana, is a history-sheeter and wanted by Punjab Police in heinous crimes, including murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion and snatching. Shillong, April 18 : The North East Students' Organisation (NESO), an apex body of eight influential students' organisations of the region, has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke the decision to make Hindi a compulsory subject in all the northeastern states up to Class 10 as "the move in the region would be detrimental". The NESO told the Home Minister that imposition of Hindi as a compulsory subject in the northeastern region would be detrimental not only for the propagation and dissemination of the indigenous languages but also to students who will be compelled to add another compulsory subject to their already vast syllabus. NESO Chairman Samuel B. Jyrwa and Secretary General Sinam Prakash Singh in their letters to Shah said that in the region each state bears its own unique and diversified languages spoken by different ethnic groups ranging from Indo-Aryan to Tibeto-Burman to Austro-Asiatic families. "In the region, a native or indigenous language or a mother tongue is an important marker for a community. Native or indigenous languages are being further enriched in terms of all aspects such as in literature, academics and arts." The NESO, of which powerful All Assam Students' Union (AASU) is one of the constituents, urged the home Minister to withdraw the "unfavourable policy and focus on how to further uplift the indigenous languages of the region by incorporating them in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution and facilitating more schemes for their development and progress. "Such a move would not usher in unity but will be a tool to create apprehensions and disharmony. Also, a move to make one of the Modern Indian Language (MIL) subjects as compulsory is more or less like belittling the indigenous language spoken and written by a particular community." The NESO said that the Hindi language accounts for approximately 40-43 per cent of native speakers in India. It is, however, worth noting that there is a plethora of other native languages in India which are rich, thriving and vibrant in their own perspectives giving India an image of a diverse and multi-lingual nation, it said. The NESO, a conglomerate of eight students' bodies representing the seven states of the north eastern region, suggested that indigenous languages should be made compulsory in their native states till the 10th standard and Hindi should remain as an optional or elective subject, said the conglomerate student body. On April 10, while chairing the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, Union Minister Shah had said that Hindi should be accepted as an alternate language to English but not to local languages. "The nine tribal communities of the Northeast have converted their dialects' scripts to Devanagari while all the eight states of the Northeast have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class 10. There is a need to give elementary knowledge of Hindi to students up to Class 9, and pay more attention to Hindi teaching examinations," the Home Minister had reportedly said in the meeting. While the political parties in the northeastern region are divided on the Hindi learning issue, the linguistic experts and political commentators said that while teaching in English and Hindi, local and indigenous languages must be given equal propriety for their promotion and practical use. Assam's influential apex literary body, Asom Sahitya Sabha (ASS) has opposed the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject till Class 10 in the Northeastern states. ASS Secretary General Jadav Chandra Sharma said making Hindi a mandatory language will endanger the indigenous language. Kiev, April 18 : At least six people were killed and eight others were wounded after five missiles struck Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Monday morning, said Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military-civilian administration. Russian troops have launched four missile strikes on the city, Kozytsky said on Facebook, noting that three missiles hit military infrastructure, and another one struck a tire service centre, Xinhua news agency reported. Efforts are underway to extinguish the fire caused by the strikes, Kozytsky said. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Bhopal, April 18 : Eight days after communal clashes broke out in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone, the first death was reported on Monday. The body of a person identified as Ibarish Khan, who was reported missing since April 10, was found in Indore's MY hospital morgue. The family of the deceased identified the body at the morgue, which is around 120 km from Khargone. The family alleged that the police tried to hide the death. The family claimed that the deceased had been missing since the day violence erupted in Khargone. A missing complaint was also lodged at the police station, family claimed. According to the local police, Ibarish Khan was murdered by seven-eight men on the night of the clashes. "An unidentified body was found a day after communal violence in the Anand Nagar area of Khargone had occurred," senior Khargone police officer Rohit Kashwani told reporters on Monday. He added that Khan died of a head injury and his body was identified by his family on Sunday night. Khan's body was kept in a freezer at Indore's MY Hospital. His family was taken to the hospital on Sunday night and that was when the body was identified as that of the missing man. The body was handed over to the family and brought to Khargone early Monday, police said. Ibarish Khan was a local municipality employee in Khargone and leaves behind a wife and a young son. Deceased's family alleged that he was killed by the police and local residents when he had gone to a mosque to arrange food for iftar. The family also claimed that Ibarish Khan was last seen in police custody at Khargone police station on April 10 evening. "The people in Anand Nagar attacked my brother with weapons and crushed his head with a stone," said the deceased's brother Iqhlak Khan. According to him, the police finally told him about Ibarish Khan's death only after he threatened to go to the media. "A policeman came to me on Sunday night and told me that Ibarish's body is kept in Indore," he said. The condition of the body indicated a brutal attack, Iqhlak said. "His one eye was damaged, there were cuts on his face and legs," he added. On April 10, communal violence erupted in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone during the Ram Navami celebrations. Stones were hurled at the procession, triggering incidents of arson wherein some vehicles were set on fire, prompting authorities to clamp curfew in three areas and section 144 of CrPC in the entire city. Police fired tear gas shells to control the situation. New Delhi, April 18 : Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which accounts for 8.7 per cent of all blindness worldwide, is the most common cause of anxiety, and depression seen among people older than 60 years, health experts said on Monday. AMD is a disease where abnormal blood vessels grow in the macula - centre part of the retina - causing damage to the central vision and making it difficult to cope. Recent projections estimate that globally the number of individuals suffering with AMD will reach 288 million in 2040. In India, the overall prevalence of AMD currently ranges from 1.4 per cent to 3.1 per cent. The earliest symptom of AMD is difficulty in seeing at night. At a later stage, AMD patients see blind spots and their ability to read, watch television, drive and recognise faces gets affected. It later progresses to blindness. The impaired vision disturbs the routine of the patients, makes them dependent and also increases functional disability. "People suffering from AMD, who have lost over 80 per cent of their central vision are more likely to have anxiety and depression. This is mainly as they have plans to retire smoothly, and find it difficult to read and perform recreational activities at this stage in life, which causes frustration and discomfort. Their life involves multiple visits to hospital accompanied with expensive treatments, which adds to deterioration in the quality of life," Dr. Indu Singh, Consultant Retinal surgeon and Director, Dr Daljit Singh Eye Hospital, Amritsar, told IANS. A recent study by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health also confirmed that AMD has a negative psychological impact, and it reduces the quality of life to levels comparable to severe illnesses like cancer and stroke. While it is important to go for walks, supervise things at home, to manage depression, Dr. Vishali Gupta, Professor, Vitreoretinal and Uvea, Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh suggested the patients to engage in activities that they can do within the comfort zone of their vision. "These patients should use magnifiers, iPads or other low vision aid devices that can help them read the script. Today there are apps that can read books to them. The idea is to keep oneself busy and feel useful," Gupta told IANS. Another way to fight AMD related stress is to go for regular screening in order to avoid worsening of vision. Early diagnosis of AMD can help early treatment and also halt progression to vision loss. Dr. Daraius Shroff, a retina specialist at Shroff Eye Centre in Delhi, suggested patients with AMD share with family and friends their anxieties to help relieve mental stress as well as to gain support to find solutions to alleviate depression. Jaipur, April 18 : The Rajasthan government is moving fast in the direction of 'Right to Health', Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday, as he directed the concerned officials to give final shape to it at the earliest. In January this year, the Rajasthan government had prepared a draft bill of the country's first Right to Health law that defines the rights of patients, their attendants and healthcare providers, and provides for a mechanism to address the grievances of the stakeholders. All necessary provisions should be included in the interest of the patients in this bill, Gehlot said at a review meeting of the health department held at his official residence here. Gehlot also directed to make the 'Mukhyamantri Nishulk Nirogi Rajasthan Yojana' (Chief Minister's Free Healthy Rajasthan Scheme) successful at the ground level. This scheme was started on April 1 with an objective to make the people of the state free from the tension of the expenses incurred due to high treatment costs. "Our government has started an innovative scheme to provide free treatment and testing services in OPDs and IPDs to the people of the state," Gehlot said. Health department officials, doctors and the nursing community should get ready to make this scheme successful with the spirit of service and ensure that the patients do not face any kind of problems in getting free treatment, the Chief Minister said. "Health is the top priority of the state government. This is the reason the government started ambitious schemes such as the Mukhyamantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana and the Mukhyamantri Nishulk Nirogi Rajasthan Yojana. We want Rajasthan to become a leading state in providing healthcare services," Gehlot said. The state government would ensure that these schemes are executed with full commitment at the ground level," he added. The Chief Minister added that regular monitoring would be done at all levels to make the scheme a success. Patna, April 18 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday expressed concern over the violent incidents that had taken place across the country during Hanuman Jayanti, saying those who do 'puja', cannot be involved in violence. "I firmly believe that creating disturbance in the name of religion is not acceptable by any means. There is no space for controversy or dispute in religions. How, could a person who wants to do puja could create communal disturbance," he said, indicating it is fringe elements who are involved in creating communal disturbances, not the common people. "Bihar is a completely peaceful state on this account. No incident of communal violence in the state. I do not give any space for communal disturbance in Bihar," Nitish Kumar said. "Everyone knew about what happened before 2006. Now, those people are asking us. But they also know their own reality when they were in power in Behar before 2006," he said, in a veiled barb at the RJD. Chandigarh, April 18 : A day after the BJP slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over a meeting between its Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and visiting British Labour Party MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, who was critical of the Centre over issues associated with the farmers' stir, the AAP on Monday questioned the saffron party over the British MP's meetings with its own leaders in the past. An AAP's Punjab unit leader released pictures of Punjab-origin Dhesi's meetings with various BJP leaders, comprising two Union ministers -- Hardeep Singh Puri and Som Prakash, and former union minister Vijay Sampla. Also, the photo of BJP's ally and Punjab Lok Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh meeting with Dhesi was also released. AAP spokesperson Neel Garg shared the photos on Twitter and hit out at the BJP by questioning the party's double standards for criticising Mann over his meeting with Dhesi, while its own ministers -- Puri and Prakash -- held meetings with the Labour Party MP. AAP's Punjab spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang asked the BJP why no questions were raised when some of their leaders, including Vijay Sampla, had met Dhesi in the past. "Why did they not raise questions then. So, it exposes the BJP's double standards," said Kang. Kang said during Dhesi's meeting with Mann, issues related to Punjabi diaspora and the NRIs were discussed at length. A day earlier, BJP leader and former Army chief Gen J.J. Singh lashed out at Mann over his meeting with Dhesi and said AAP should clarify "if it endorses the pro-separatist and anti-India views of the British lawmaker". In his post, Dhesi on Saturday wrote, "Grateful to the Honourable Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for the warmth with which he received me at his official residence today in Chandigarh." He said MP Raghav Chadha and MLA Inderbir Singh Nijjar were also present in the meeting. Dhesi said he talked to Mann about land disputes, political prisoners and blacklisted individuals and urged him to establish direct flights from London, Birmingham and other major global cities to both Amritsar and Chandigarh. On Monday, Dhesi along with his family visited his ancestral village Raipur Pharola in Punjab. Sharing his experience, he wrote on Twitter: "Great to be back in the #Punjab at our ancestral pind (village). At the khoo (farm/well), where the kids had an amazing time in the motor pool, just as I once did!" On Baisakhi, he visited Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar and said he felt blessed that "they could pay respects". "Hadn't been for 2 years, so lots of questions and interviews at press conference in Darbar Sahib Information Office, where they kindly bestowed honorary siropa," he said in a tweet. During the farmers' agitation last year, Dhesi had sent a letter, signed by over 100 MPs and Lords, to the Prime Minister on the ongoing protests, asking him to raise this matter with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi when they next liaise. New Delhi, April 18 : The Delhi High Court on Monday turned down a plea to remove the election symbol from the ballot paper, including the unit of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), in the municipal elections in the national capital. The division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla dismissed the PIL filed by Alka Gahlot, who had contested and lost the civic body polls in 2017. Advocate HS Gehlot, appeared for the petitioner was seeking the court's direction to the state election commission in the matter. Earlier, the court had sought the response of the election commission in the matter. According to the plea, the election symbols are not required in the presence of photographs of the candidate and the presence of a reserved election symbol is ultra-vires the provisions of law enshrined in the Constitution of India and the Delhi Municipal Corporation, Act 1957. "In the presence of photographs of the contesting candidates on the ballot paper, there is no need for any other election symbol. Even illiterate voters can identify their candidate by seeing the photograph and cast their vote in secrecy," it read. It further stated that the State Election Commission puts the reserved symbol on the ballot paper in "blatant violation" of the provisions of the Constitution and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act as there is no reference to political parties in the Constitution and the Act. "The presence of the symbol of political parties on the ballot paper is such that it shifts the focus of the contesting candidate from the people of his ward to the political party bosses (who has the power of nomination for party ticket)", it stated. London, April 18 : More than 40 people have been arrested after violent clashes in Sweden between police and people angry at plans by a far-right group to burn copies of the Quran, the media reported. Three people were injured in Norrkoping on Sunday when officers fired warning shots at rioters, police said. The violence was sparked by a series of rallies organised by the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan. He says he has burned a copy of Islam's holy book and wants to do so again. Muslims consider the Quran the sacred word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive, BBC reported. Saudi Arabia has condemned what it called the "deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists in Sweden, and provocation and incitement against Muslims". Iran and Iraq earlier summoned the Swedish ambassadors to lodge protests. Sweden's national police chief, Anders Thornberg, said he had never seen such violent riots following Sunday's clashes in Norrkoping, which is about 160 km south-west of Stockholm, and nearby Linkoping. The two cites also witnessed riots on Friday, along with the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby and the western city of Orebro. On Saturday, there was a riot in the southern city of Malmo, BBC reported. On Monday, police said 26 police officers and 14 members of the public had been injured in the violence and that more than 20 vehicles had been damaged or destroyed. They said that around 200 people had been involved in the violence, adding they believed it was organised by networks of criminal gangs. Some of the individuals are already known to police and Sweden's security service, Sapo. Sunday's violence in Norrkoping came after Rasmus Paludan said he planned to hold a rally there. However, he never showed up in the city. New Delhi, April 18: Pakistan's new prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has sought peaceful ties with India and wants to resolve all issues, including Kashmir, with New Delhi with "meaningful engagement". In a letter written to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sharif said socio-economic development of the people of the two countries as well as the region can be achieved through meaningful India-Pakistan engagement and peaceful resolution of "all outstanding disputes" including that of Jammu and Kashmir. He further wrote that a "peaceful and cooperative" ties between Pakistan and India are imperative for the socio-economic development of the people of the two countries and the region. Sharif's letter was in response to a missive from Modi congratulating him on his election as the Pakistani prime minister. "India desires peace and stability in a region free of terror so that we can focus on our development challenges and ensure the well-being and prosperity of our people," Modi wrote in his Twitter post. Responding to the tweet, the new PM Sharif said: "Thank you Premier Narendra Modi for felicitations. Pakistan desires peaceful & cooperative ties with India. Peaceful settlement of outstanding disputes including Jammu & Kashmir is indispensable. Let's secure peace and focus on socio-economic development of our people," wrote Shehbaz Sharif. Earlier, Pakistan has granted an extension to India for the transportation of wheat and life-saving medicines to Afghanistan via Pakistan. "The time period granted for transportation of humanitarian assistance expired on March 21, 2022. The Government of India recently requested for extension in time period to complete the transportation process," said the Pakistani foreign office on Sunday. According to Pakistani watchers, there is a possibility of thaw as both the leaders of India and Pakistan indicate in their communication. Though the rhetoric around Kashmir in Pakistan's politics also means that more often than not, bilateral ties end up taking two steps back for every step forward. The ceasefire agreement -- the peace has largely been held since February 2021 -- made room for continuing discussion on "core concerns" while allowing cooperation wherever possible but former Prime Minister Imran Khan, seeking to forge an anti-India Islamic front with countries such as Turkey and Malaysia, made it clear that "there can be no normalisation of relations with India until reversal of changes made by India in J&K before resuming trade". The all-powerful Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, again signalled that Pakistan is ready to move forward if India agrees to do so in the first week of this month when it became certain that Imran Khan is out. India in any case , more than words, would be looking for meaningful action, including restraining terror groups inside Kashmir marshalled by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's spy agency. In his keynote address on April 2 at the Islamabad Security Dialogue (ISD), Bajwa said that while modernising the Pakistani military, Pakistan's emphasis will be on geoeconomics: development and connectivity, and peace with neighbours, especially India. "Pakistan will benefit if we improve ties with India. We have wasted 70 years; it is time to move on. Let us sit down and resolve our issues including Kashmir. We want development first. Pakistan is working on north to south (Pakistan to Afghanistan to central Asian republics and Russia) connectivity. We also want east to west (India to Iran) connectivity and trade which will benefit both Pakistan and India," Bajwa said. India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such an engagement. (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative New York, April 18 : Twin studies have explained how infected immune cells prompt a massive inflammatory response leading to severe Covid-19, Nature reported. While it has been known since the early days of the pandemic that inflammation leads to significant respiratory distress and other organ damage, scientists have struggled to pinpoint the triggers behind the inflammation. The studies - one published in Nature, and the other a preprint posted online and not peer-reviewed - implicate two types of white blood cells: macrophages in the lungs, and monocytes in the blood. These cells, once infected with the virus, trigger the inflammation. The studies also reveal how the virus enters those cells, as well as confirms that the virus can infect and replicate in immune cells. The findings could offer a potential target for drug development. In the Nature paper, researchers from Boston Children's Hospital in the US examined blood samples from people with Covid-19. They detected a type of cell death associated with inflammation, known as pyroptosis, in about 6 per cent of monocytes - 'early responder' immune cells that patrol the body for foreign invaders. The virus was probably activating inflammasomes - large molecules that trigger a cascade of inflammatory responses that ended in cell death, the team said. Another type of immune cell, macrophages in the lungs of people who died of Covid also showed activated inflammasomes. A fraction of these had been infected with the virus, the report said. In the second study, posted on bioRxiv, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, showed that the Covid virus could infect and replicate in macrophages in human lung cells and in a mouse model of the human immune system. The macrophages displayed the same inflammatory response described in Nature study, and eventually died. But injecting drugs that blocked inflammasomes prevented severe respiratory distress in the mice. The drugs "rescued the mice so they were not as sick", Esen Sefik, an immunologist at Yale was quoted as saying. This suggests that infected macrophages have a role in the pneumonia observed in people with severe Covid-19. Further, when inflammasomes were activated, the virus stopped replicating in the cells. But when the researchers blocked inflammasomes, the macrophages started producing infectious virus particles, suggesting that macrophages can assist infection, the report said. Both teams of researchers also showed that in the absence of ACE2 receptors, the virus's main entry point, SARS-CoV-2 enters both immune cells through another surface protein, known as the Fc gamma receptor, with the help of antibodies. When the virus encountered antibodies attached to the Fc gamma receptor, instead of the virus being disabled, it got scooped up into the cell, the report said. Bagalkot : , April 18 (IANS) In further embarrassment for Karnataka's ruling BJP, which has suffered a dent in its image following the suicide case of contractor who alleged harassment by a minister over commission, a prominent Lingayat seer on Monday accused the government of taking 30 per cent commission from religious institutions and mutts for releasing funds. Participating in a tractor rally organised by senior Congress leader S.R. Patil, Dingaleshwara Swamiji said: "The ruling BJP not only takes commission from contractors, that it even takes 30 per cent commission from religious seers." The religious mutts will have to pay 30 per cent cuts to get the funds released and projects of mutts will take off, he alleged. "The officers directly tell us about the commission. If an ice cream is granted in New Delhi or Bengaluru, by the time it reaches north Karnataka, only the stick will remain," he alleged. The statement of the seer has created a stir in the political corridors of the state. Opposition party Congress has launched a high voltage attack on BJP, with its Executive Presidents of Congress Satish Jarkiholi and Eshwar Khandre have slammed the ruling party over the issue. "Corruption does not have caste and religion. BJP is using caste and religion to its advantage," said Khandre. However, BJP ministers have taken objection to the statements made by the seer. Agriculture Minister B.C. Patil said that "before giving bribe, the swamiji should have protested. "He is talking like a Congress worker. Earlier he supported former CM B.S. Yediyurappa... he has now shown his chameleon nature," he said. New Delhi, April 18 : Dairy giant Amul has taken a jibe at Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his proposed acquisition of Twitter for $43 billion, with a doodle that shows Musk trying to woo a blue bird (Twitter's logo) to come inside a cage. "Elon flexes his Muskles?' read the banner on the doodle that went viral on social media. Mocking his Twitter takeover attempt, Amul said in a tweet that it "takes over bread daily". "#Amul Topical: Billionaire launches hostile bid to take over Twitter!" read the description. Several users reacted to Amul's cartoon. "Elon musk wants freedom of speech. Twitter is currently owned by a deep state who influence their narrative," posted one user. "The bird (Twitter) will move from one cage to another," commented another. As Tesla and SpaceX CEO puts pressure on the board of Twitter to let him acquire the micro-blogging platform for $43 billion, its Co-founder Jack Dorsey has also broken the silence, labelling the board as "consistently the dysfunction of the company". Reacting to a Twitter user, Dorsey said late on Sunday: "It (the board) has consistently been the dysfunction of the company". Musk has said that the Board of Twitter should be more concerned about other potential bidders than him who has made a fair offer to acquire 100 per cent of the micro-blogging platform for $43 billion. With 9.2 per cent stake, Musk is one of the largest shareholders in Twitter. "With all buttery respect I would suggest you to reevaluate this meme," posted one user to Amul's cartoon. Chandigarh, April 18 : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday ordered an inquiry into how the state has a whopping public debt of Rs 3 lakh crore and where was the money spent. "We will inquire as to where the money was spent and will order recovery into where this money was spent. This was the public money," Mann said in a tweet. As per official figures, the total outstanding debt of Punjab as on March 31 was projected at Rs 2,52,880 crore, which is 42 per cent of the GSDP for 2020-21 and the outstanding debt is likely to be Rs 2,73,703 crore in 2021-22, which is 45 per cent of the GSDP. Twenty per cent of the annual budget is being spent only to pay the interest on the loans. As per the latest findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the state's financial crisis is set to worsen with the debt likely to reach Rs 3.73 lakh crore by 2024-25. The government officials told IANS that the state's debt has increased by Rs 1 lakh crore in the past five years under the previous Congress government, largely owing to populism. Responding to the Chief Minister's decision, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) welcomed the decision to order a probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt acquisition but said the inquiry should not be used to divert attention from fulfilling the promises made to the people of the state. It also demanded a probe into all advertisements released by the AAP government in the last one month in office. "We are all for a free and fair probe into the Rs 3 lakh crore debt accumulated by the state but this probe should not be used as an excuse to delay fulfilling the promises made to the people," senior leader Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement here. He said the previous Congress government had used the excuse of empty treasury to renege on all promises made to the people. "Despite knowing the reality of the financial position of the state before taking over the reins of the state, the Chief Minister has now come up with an excuse to probe the reasons behind this position. "The SAD feels the probe should not come in the way of fulfilling the government promise to distribute Rs 1,000 to all women in the state, besides ensuring 300 units of free power per month to all domestic consumers immediately." Cheema said the Chief Minister should also order an inquiry into the advertisements released by the state during the last one month in office. "As per reports, taxpayer money is being used to spread the propaganda of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) across the country. Advertisements are being released in regional languages by the AAP government to project its alleged achievements in South India and even poll-bound states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Crores have been spent for this purpose which does not benefit Punjab or Punjabis in any manner whatsoever," he added. Fulfilling its major pre-poll promise, the AAP government on April 16 announced 300 units of free electricity from July 1 in the state. It said the rates of industrial and commercial units would also not be hiked, besides continuing free electricity for the agriculture sector. The government further announced to waive off bills up to 2 KW load till December 31, 2021. Punjab is the second state after Delhi to provide free power to the people in the country. Bhubaneswar, April 18 : The Odisha government has targeted to complete the land acquisition process for the proposed steel plant project of JSW Utkal Steel Ltd (JUSL) in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district in next five months, an official said. The Sajjan Jindal-owned JUSL wanted 2,980 acres of land near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur to set up a 13.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) integrated steel project at the site with an investment of Rs 65,000 crore. In 2020, when the company proposed this project, the Odisha government reserved 2,700 acres of land acquired in 2013 for the failed Posco project. "Part of the land acquired for Posco has been transferred to JUSL. The land alienation process is going on and will be completed in the next four to five months," an official of the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL) told IANS. IPICOL is the single point of contact for all industrial investments in Odisha. At present, construction of the boundary wall for the project site is going on and very recently, the company has got environmental clearance from the Union Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ministry for the project, said the official. Posco had signed an MoU with the Odisha government in 2005 to set up a 12 million tonne capacity steel project at the site with an investment of Rs 52,000 crore. However, 12 years later following public resistance to the project as well as regulatory hurdles, the South Korean steel major had officially withdrawn from the project in 2017. Later, the Odisha government cancelled the land's allotment to the conglomerate and reserved it for JSW in 2020, sources said. Meanwhile, protest by the locals is still on against the JSW project. The people from villages Dhinkia, Gobindpur and Nuagaon areas of Ersama block are strongly opposing the project as they will lose their livelihood for this project. Kolkata, April 18 : Concerned with the party's dismal performance in the recently-held concluded bypolls for a Lok Sabha and an Assembly constituency in West Bengal, BJP national President J.P. Nadda has sought a report detailing the reasons for this from the state unit, party leaders said on Monday. BJP's state President Sukanta Majumdar said that an office bearer of the party's state committee is leaving for New Delhi on Monday night only with two separate reports - one on the Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll and the other on the Ballygunge Assembly bypoll. In both these constituencies, where polling was held on April 12 and results declared on April 16, the BJP not only witnessed a humiliating defeat but also witnessed a major deletion in the vote share compared to previous elections. In Asansol, the defeat was even more humiliating against the backdrop of the fact that in 2019, the BJP won from this constituency by a massive margin of 1.97 lakh votes. But in the by-polls, Trinamool Congress candidate Shatrughan Sinha defeated the BJP candidate, Agnimitra Paul by an even more massive margin of over three lakh votes. BJP's state General Secretary, Organisation), Amitava Chakraborty will present the two reports to Nadda and the party's central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya. Meanwhile, a member of the BJP's newly-appointed state committee, told IANS on strict condition of anonymity, that initial findings hint that some kind of internal sabotage might have some role to play in case of the disaster in Asansol. "Many of the party's old-timers became totally inactive before the bypolls in Asansol. There were also some differences between the state committee and West Burdwan district committee over the candidate selection. Whatever it might be. An in-depth introspection is required now before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," he said. The fact that the decline of the vote share is a matter of concern for BJP was indirectly accepted by Agnimitra Paul immediately after her humiliating defeat from Asansol "Just two years are left from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The party leadership should introspect the reasons behind this disaster and work accordingly. I do not want to give any excuse for my defeat and accept the people's verdict," said Paul, who is already a sitting BJP legislator from Asansol (South) assembly constituency. Saumitra Khan, the BJP MP from Bishnupur Lok Sabha in Bankura, said that the "immature approach" of the saffron leadership in West Bengal led to such a disaster. New Delhi, April 18 : The Delhi High Court has rejected a plea by a couple who mutually sought divorce before the mandated one-year cooling-off period, observing that though denial of conjugal relationship is a ground for divorce, and tantamounts to cruelty, it cannot be "exceptional hardship". A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh was dealing with the appeal filed by the couple challenging an order of a family court that dismissed their application under Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act as it was filed before the one year time. "Once the Parliament, in its wisdom, has legislated that denial of cohabitation/ conjugal relationship over a period of one year, or more, would tantamount to cruelty, it cannot be said that denial of sex simpliciter within the period of one year, would be a case of exceptional hardship. Thus we reject the submission of the appellant that the denial of conjugal relations by both parties is such, that it causes 'exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity' to either or both of them," said the order which was reserved on April 13 and delivered on Monday. During the course of the hearing, various judgments have been referred including the Punjab & Haryana High Court verdict in Shivani Yadav vs Amit Yadav case which had stated: "Since the couple had stayed together only for two days, this is the sufficient ground to allow their application filed under Section 14 of the Act for waiving off the mandatory period of one year." Another case of Ratheesh M. vs Dhanya K.V. in the Kerala High Court was also referred, in which the court had noted that there is a denial of sex from the part of the petitioner and it would amount to cruelty falling under section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act. While dismissing the arguments, the Delhi High Court said: "We reserve the right of the parties to move the appropriate court independently, after the expiry of one year of separation." As per the plea, the marriage of the couple was solemnised on April 4, 2021, as per the Hindu rites and ceremonies at Ram Nagar, Uttarakhand. The bride after marriage shifted to the matrimonial home in Faridabad, Haryana. Soon after the marriage, marital differences cropped up between the parties, and from April 14, 2021, onwards, they started living separately in the same house. On July 29, 2021, the appellant left her matrimonial home and went to her parental house at Rohini, Delhi. The couple hardly lived together as husband and wife, and no child has been born out of the wedlock. Panaji, April 18 : The government's intention to restore religious structures which were destroyed during the Portuguese colonial era should not be dubbed as communal, Goa's Archives and Archaeology Minister Subash Phaldesai said on Monday, adding there was a need to articulate the history of the times, during the brutal Inquisition phase, which has been swept under the carpet. Speaking to reporters soon after taking charge of the Archives and Archaeology Ministry, Phaldesai also said that apart from Hindu temples, if religious structures of other faiths were destroyed during the colonial era, they too would be restored by the BJP-led coalition government in the state. "There is no call for controversy. The atrocities committed in this land, including the Inquisition and conversion and our Gods and temples were destroyed. This is a good intention on part of the government, nobody should have any doubt about it. Some people call this a communal (measure). Why should it be considered communal?" Phaldesai said. "It is not only Hindu temples which we are talking about, if anything else related to another religion was destroyed, then definitely that will come under this. We look forward to establish and transfer our history to the coming generations. What was our tradition, what was our ancient history. How we evolved to this (stage). We need to do all this," he added. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in his budget speech in March had allocated Rs 20 crore for restoration of temples destroyed during the colonial Portuguese era. While the CM's move has attracted opposition from certain quarters, Phaldesai said that religious persecution was a reality and should not be brushed under the carpet. "We are not promoting anything for a specific religion. The temples where atrocities were committed, where made slaves and were razed to the ground, if we are trying to restore them, then why should anyone have an objection. We have been quiet so far about the atrocities committed on us. But history cannot be pushed under the carpet like this," Phaldesai said. The Archives and Archaeology Minister also said restoration would only be carried out in places where there was no dispute or litigation. "What is the objection in carrying out such restoration in areas where there is no controversy, where there is no disputed area. If there is a dispute it can be addressed, there is the judiciary, there are mechanisms to maintain law and order," Phaldesai said. "We can do this in a place where there is no dispute or claims. Monuments which were damaged during that period will be restored," he added. Islamabad, April 18 : Many fear that the deep polarisation cultivated by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan could prove deeply destabilising for the country, pushing it into greater political turmoil that the new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is known more for his skills as an administrator than a charismatic leader, might be unable to contain, The Guardian reported. In recent days, the inflammatory rallying cry of Khan, who has gone back on the campaign trail with gusto, has been "ghaddari" - traitors - with anyone opposing him, be it his political parties, the media, activists, intellectuals and the judiciary being tarnished as part of a "foreign conspiracy" to oust him. Pervez Hoodbhoy, an analyst who has extensively written on Khan, called the former PM "a true populist". "Khan has polarised Pakistan to an extreme level. The coming days will be chaotic as his insatiable lust for power makes him truly dangerous for this country," said Hoodbhoy. Evoking popular anti-western sentiment that he has played on for the past four years in office, Khan has continued to push the narrative that the no-confidence vote which ousted him was a "foreign conspiracy" by the west, citing diplomatic correspondence with the US to prove it. On the streets of cities and towns across Pakistan, the narrative that Khan was victim of a western conspiracy has been powerful and pervasive, and thousands have continued to come out in protest in support of him, The Guardian reported. Reema Omer, a lawyer who was victim to a lengthy online trolling campaign by Khan's supporters, said Khan is creating a wave of public anger that could prove difficult to control. "This narrative is based on no evidence whatsoever and has repeatedly been debunked. However, Imran Khan is following Goebbels' playbook, using 'convenient lies' that evoke strong emotions and spew hatred and contempt, not caring about how dangerous the effects can be for the society," said Omer. With Khan expected to contest the next general election, which is likely to be called before the end of the year, many are predicting a volatile time ahead for Pakistan. "I wasn't dangerous when I was in government. But I will be now," Khan said on Wednesday while addressing a rally. New Delhi, April 18 : Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has told the Supreme Court that the Indian government is bound by its assurance given to the Portugal government during the extradition of gangster Abu Salem, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, but the question of honouring it will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire. On March 8, the Supreme Court asked the Union Home Secretary to file an affidavit, on whether the Centre is committed to adhere to the assurance given by the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to Portuguese authorities of not incarcerating gangster Abu Salem for more than 25 years while seeking his extradition. Bhalla filed a written response to the court's query on Abu Salem's plea questioning life imprisonment imposed on him by the TADA court on September 7, 2017 in the serial blasts case. In an affidavit, he said: "The government of India gave an assurance vide letter dated December 17, 2002, to the government of Portugal. This assurance is an executive assurance given by one country to other in the exercise of their executive functions." "The period of 25 years which is mentioned in the assurance will be abided by the Union of India at an appropriate time subject to the remedies which may be available. The question of the Union of India honouring its assurance dated December 17, 2002, will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire. This date is November 10, 2030." The affidavit said before this date, the convict cannot raise any arguments based on the assurance, therefore the contention of the petitioner about non-compliance of assurance is premature and based on hypothetical surmises and can never be raised in present proceedings. "The government of India will abide by the said assurance.... subject to the rights which may be available at that stage. The attempt of convict-appellant to club that assurance with merits of the present case is legally untenable as the appeals need to be decided in accordance with Section 19 of the TADA read with other provisions governing criminal procedure," it said. The Home Secretary added that having carefully examined the matter and the ramifications which the stand of Union of India will have, it is the respectful submission of the Central government that the top court may decide the appeal on merits. The Home Secretary pointed out that with regard to the set off period of sentence, the prosecuting agency has already filed a reply and made submission before the top court on that issue. "Therefore, there is no question of the convict-appellant arguing anything at this stage based upon the said assurance while arguing the present appeal on merits of the case which can be argued only based upon the investigation papers, evidence collected (both oral and documentary) and the findings of the designated court," said the affidavit. On April 12, the top court asked the Central government to file its response by April 18 and scheduled the matter for further hearing on April 21. Asking the Centre to make its stand clear, the top court had said that not abiding by the assurance made to the Portugal authorities, could have wider ramifications and it may create problems while seeking extradition of fugitives from other countries. The CBI, in its affidavit, has told the top court that an Indian court is not bound by the assurance given in 2002 by the then Deputy Prime Minister to Portugal that gangster would not be imprisoned beyond 25 years after his extradition to India. The top court said it is not happy with the CBI's reply in the matter and sought a response from the Home Secretary. Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing Abu Salem, had argued that as per the principle of reciprocity in Portugal, the courts cannot award a sentence for more than 25 years. He contended that based on the principle of reciprocity, India had given a solemn sovereign assurance to the Portugal courts that in case Abu Salem is permitted to be extradited back to India, he will not be given punishment for more than 25 years. New Delhi, April 18 : The Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that Ansar, an accused in the Jahangirpuri communal violence, has links with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and urged the police to investigate why the 'mastermind' the clash was associated with one party. Delhi BJP spokesperson Pravin Shankar Kapoor, meanwhile, has written a letter to Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, asking him to expel Ansar from the party. Lok Sabha member from North East Delhi, Manoj Tiwari alleged that the mastermind of attack on Hanuman Jayanti procession in Jahangirpuri, Ansar has been a worker of the AAP. "There are evidence of this in the form of photographs. Tahir Hussain who was the mastermind of Delhi riots in 2020 was also a AAP councillor. Is AAP running any riot factory?" Tiwari asked. He claimed that illegal migrants living in the city were a big challenge for the police, and the law and order. "The police and intelligence agencies should probe this angle as to why the masterminds of incidents of riots are being found to be associated with the AAP," Tiwari said. In his letter to chief minister Kejriwal, Kapoor said: "People of Delhi want a reply from the AAP leadership over the involvement of the youth, apparently an AAP worker in Jahangirpuri riots. Earlier too, we saw an AAP councillor Tahir Hussain as the main accused of 2020 Delhi riots." Earlier, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta had alleged on Sunday that Ansar was an AAP activist whose photograph has been seen with many party MLAs. New Delhi, April 18 : Political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday again discussed the roadmap for 2024 general elections with senior Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi. This was the second meeting of the Congress leaders with Kishor in three days. Congress top brass, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, P. Chidambaram, K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala, were present in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi has constituted a subgroup of senior party leaders to discuss the roadmap presented by Kishor to the party for the 2024 general elections, which is expected to report back within a week. On Saturday, Kishor had presented a detailed roadmap for the 2024 elections before interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the party's top leaders. "Prashant Kishor has given a detailed presentation for the 2024 elections and the Congress President has deputed a small group to look into it and report to her within a week. A final decision will be taken after that," Congress General Secretary (Organisation), K.C. Venugopal, said. Acording to sources, Kishor said during Saturday's meeting that the Congress must target 370 to 400 seats and work on alliances wherever the party is weak. The sources also said that Kishor is likely to formally join the Congress soon. Mumbai, April 18 : Englishman Jos Buttler (103) struck his second century of IPL 2022 while skipper Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer blasted vital cameos to help Rajasthan Royals post a massive 217/5 in 20 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium here on Monday. Buttler, opening the innings, blasted nine boundaries and five sixes in his 61-ball 103 while Samson blazed to a 19-ball 38 and Hetmyer struck sixes off successive balls in the last over off Andre Russell as Rajasthan Royals posted a challenging total on a wicket on which chasing is expected to be easy because of the dew. Asked to bat first by Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer, Buttler shared vital partnerships of 97, for the opening wicket with Devdutt Padikkal, and 67 for the second with skipper Sanju Samson, who played a superb cameo of 38 off 19 balls, to put Rajasthan Royals on course for a big total. This was Buttler's second century in this IPL after he scored a 68-ball 100 against Mumbai Indians on April 2. He joined an elite list of batsmen that includes the likes of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Shane Watson and Shikhar Dhawan to score two centuries in an IPL edition. Virat Kohli holds the record of scoring four centuries in the 2010 edition of the tournament. Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal gave the Royals a rollicking start of 97 runs in quick time as they went about their business with purpose. Buttler was in his element as he 16 runs in the third over bowled by Umesh Yadav, hitting a four lofted over mid-on and a gigantic six over wide long-on. Buttler kept the scoreboard rocking with superb hitting, taking 15 runs off Varun Chakaravarthy's first over and went on to complete his half-century in 29 balls, hitting five fours and three sixes. Padikkal (24), who played the perfect foil to his partner, was the first to get out, bowled by Sunil Narine as he went into the shot early and missed it completely. Skipper Sanju Samson took over the task of scoring quick runs as he added 67 runs for the second wicket with Buttler. Samson was the aggressor in the partnership as Buttler took the back seat, allowing his skipper to free his hands. Samson struck three fours and two sixes during his brief stay as he helped the Royals maintain a good scoring rate. The 27-year-old batter from Kerala was out trying to hit a slower one by Andre Russell, the skier pouched by Shivam Mavi at deep midwicket. But he had already done his job, scoring at a strike rate of nearly 200, helping Rajasthan cross 150 in the 15th over. Buttler soon completed his century with a six of Pat Cummins but was out soon. But Cummins had the last laugh as he sent him packing with a well-directed bouncer that Buttler tried to hit out but managed to find Varun Chakravarthy at the fine-leg fence. Riyan Parag, another big hitter in the Royals' ranks, fell to a smart bit of work by Cummins, who caught the ball near the long-off boundary but lobbed it to Shivam Mavi as he stumbled over the rope. In the end it was left for Hetmyer to take Rajasthan Royals past the 210-run mark. He blasted fellow West Indian Andre Russell for 18 runs in the last over, hitting sixes off successive deliveries. Though Russell came back well to bowl two dot balls, Hetmyer struck him for a boundary on the last delivery of the 20th over to help Rajasthan Royals set Kolkata Knight Riders a mountain to climb. Sunil Narine was the only bowler to make some impression on the batters as he finished his four overs with 2/21 while Australia Test captain Cummins was hammered for 1/50 off four overs. Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 217/5 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 103, Sanju Samson 38; Shimron Hetmyer 26 not out; Sunil Narine 2/21) against Kolkata Knight Riders. Latest updates on IPL 2022 New Delhi, April 18 : In relief for several thousands of Amrapali home buyers who booked their flats under subvention scheme, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the banks not to impose penalties on default of EMI payment. A bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Bela M. Trivedi said the accounts of defaulter flat buyers, who had availed the subvention facilities, should not be treated as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) accounts, and also their CIBIL score should not be maintained at zero level. The bench took note of home buyers' difficulties, but made it clear that after getting the possession of the flat, the home buyer was liable to pay the EMI towards the loan as per the agreement. It said the liability of home buyers would come into effect from the date when possession of the flat is handed over, and banks can take action if they do not discharge their liability. The bench said banks should not impose a penalty for default committed by the flat buyers, but, would be entitled to the principal as well as interest on it. The top court asked the banks to regularise the accounts of home buyers when they approach the lender concerned. Advocate Kumar Mihir, representing home buyers, said: "It is a huge relief to the home buyers who, on one hand, had not got their houses and on the other hand, had to face recovery proceedings initiated by banks without any fault on their part." Under the subvention scheme, the home buyer was not required to pay any EMI, during the "No EMI period" till the completion and possession of the flat. Several thousand home buyers in the Amrapali housing projects availed this scheme, however they were burdened with the EMIs without getting possession of the flats. Mihir added that this will also ensure release of more funds on behalf of the subvention buyers towards their flats which will help the court receiver to complete the Amrapali projects. The bench also noted that a consortium of banks and Greater Noida authority have completed the required documentation and Rs 1,350 crore will be available for the purpose of construction of housing projects. On April 4, the Supreme Court was informed that the first tranche of Rs 150 crore out of the total sum of Rs 1,500 crore, meant for construction of stalled Amrapali housing projects, has been directly paid to the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC). A consortium of seven have granted final approval to infuse Rs 1,500 crore. Senior advocate and court-appointed receiver R. Venkataramani, in a note, said: "In compliance with the order dated March 28, on March 31 the Banks disbursed a sum of Rs. 150 crore, though the actual requirement/request by NBCC was for Rs 540 crore. The disbursal of loan was subject to certain pre-condition compliances, as set out in the sanction letter(s) of each Bank." Gurugram, April 18 : A group of 4-5 armed robbers snatched Rs 1 crore, approx, from the employees of a private cash collection company at gunpoint, the police said on Monday. The miscreants attacked the two occupants of the cash van with chilli powder before carrying out the crime near the ILD Mall on Sohna Road on Monday afternoon. An employee named Vipin said that at the time of the incident, two employees had gone inside a car showroom to collect cash while two others were waiting in a vehicle parked near the mall on Sohna Road. At that time, a group of 4-5 men held the occupants of the van at gunpoint, and threw chilli powder at them, rendering them disabled. When the employees resisted, the accused thrashed them, took the bags containing the cash and fled from the spot. "We have launched a search for the criminals. We will also question the employees for further investigation," said Virender Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East). The police are also not ruling out the involvement of the cash van staff. The accused used a black car to execute the crime. At the time of the incident, the security guard was not present in the van and the vehicle's windowpane was also open. Kohima, April 18 : Central government envoy A.K. Mishra, who held his first round of talks with major Naga groups including the NSCN-IM and others six months ago, arrived here on Monday to carry forward the discussions, officials said. A senior state government official said that Mishra, a former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau, would meet Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and others and the leaders of Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) and Naga National Political Groups (NNPG). During his week-long staym he would also meet members of the core committee on Naga political issues headed by the Chief Minister, the official said declining to disclose further details. Mishra was assigned with the Naga peace talks after transfer of Nagaland Governor Ravindra Narayan Ravi, who was the Centre's interlocutor in the Naga peace talks for many years, to Tamil Nadu. There was an open difference of opinion between NSCN-IM and Ravi leading to the deadlock in the peace process. Mishra, during his visit to Nagaland in September last year, also discussed the Naga issue with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the Convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). Chief Minister Rio, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton, United Democratic Alliance Chairman T.R. Zeliang and newly-elected Rajya Sabha Member S. Phangnon Konyak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Home Minister Amit Shah on April 13 in New Delhi and discussed the Naga issue. However, nothing has been disclosed yet about these crucial discussions. During the Assembly session last month, all legislators, cutting across party lines, strongly urged the Centre to settle the issue at the earliest, as Assembly elections are in the state early next year. The Centre has been separately holding peace talks with the NSCN-IM and eight other Naga groups, which came together a few years ago under the banner of NNPGs. The NSCN-IM and other outfits entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997 and since then, both sides held more than 85 rounds of negotiations. A Framework Agreement between the two was signed on August 3, 2015 and the agreed position between the government and the NNPG on November 17, 2017. However, the NSCN-IM's insistence on a separate Naga flag and Constitution became a hurdle. New Delhi, April 18 : Delhi Police had denied permission to take out a third 'Shobha Yatra' in the Jahangirpuri area to mark Hanuman Jayanti on Saturday, which later resulted in violent clashes between two groups of people in the area. "A case under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the organisers for taking out a third procession on the evening of April 16 in the Jahangirpuri area without any permission," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Usha Rangnani. However, the first two processions which were taken out earlier in the day had due permission from the police. Special CP (Law and Order), Dependra Pathak, said the organisers took the permission from Delhi Police on March 25 and March 31 for the first two processions that were taken out at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. "Request for the third Shobha Yatra was made on Friday night, which was denied by the police," the officer said. Earlier on Monday, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said in a media briefing that at the time of violence, police were present in adequate numbers and initially the force even managed to separate both the groups. Nine persons, including eight policemen, were injured in the clashes. "This shows that the police efficiently did their job, which prevented injury to the public," Asthana said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, April 18 : The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Uttar Pradesh government's takeover of the land of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C.T. Ravikumar passed the interim order while issuing notice to the UP government on a plea by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust. The plea was filed against the Allahabad High Court order, which declined to interfere with the direction of Additional District Magistrate, Rampur, to take back nearly 400 acres of land, which was allotted to the university. The Trust is run by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. The Samajwadi Party government in 2005, enacted the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Act, which paved the way for the setting up of the university. The state government allowed the Trust to acquire 400 acres of land against the ceiling of 12.5 acres for setting up the university. The government had imposed certain conditions, one of which was that the land would only be used for educational purposes. In September last year, the high court declined to entertain the plea filed by the Trust seeking a direction to quash a report submitted by Sub-Divisional Magistrate in March 2020. The plea also sought quashing of ADM's order passed in January last year. The high court cited the SDM's report that a mosque was constructed over the land which was granted only for educational purposes, and this is a violation of the state government's permission. Patna, April 18 : Union Minister Pasupati Kumar Paras, who faced a stone-pelting attack in Mokama on Saturday, on Monday blamed his estranged nephew Chirag Paswan for the incident, while also questioning the state government's arrangements. At an event in Patna, Paras accused Chirag Paswan of continuously being in a conspiracy against him. Paras went to Ghoswari village in Mokama subdivision to celebrate the Jayanti of Chaudharmal on Saturday where a group of people had pelted stones on his convoy. Interestingly, the people had welcomed Chirag Paswan an hour ago when he reached there for the same celebration. "Chirag Paswan conspired against me. Hence, a group of people pelted stones on my convoy. It was also a failure of the local administration which failed to provide security to an Union Minister," Paras said. Noting that during the 2020 Assembly elections, "Chirag threatened to expel me from the party for 6 years every time I talked about contesting the Assembly election under the umbrella of NDA headed by Nitish Kumar in Bihar, he said: "Chirag Paswan always said that he would send Nitish Kumar to jail, if he comes to power in Bihar. The NDA top leadership agreed on giving us respectful number of seats to contest in Assembly election 2020 but Chirag Paswan did not accept it. As a result, the party had performed badly in that election." "If Chirag would have accept the offer of NDA at that time, we would have been part of the Bihar government and we would have had ministers in the Central government as well. Due to the wrong policies of Chirag Paswan, LJP had performed badly in the Bihar Assembly election," he added. New Delhi, April 18 : The Centre on Monday declared Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo, an active member of Pakistan-backed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), as a terrorist under the Prevention of Unlawful Activity Act, 1967. According to a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday, Nengroo was involved in infiltration of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, who were responsible for various terror attacks in the Valley. Nengroo has been running a terror syndicate in Kashmir and he is presently engaged in a perilous campaign to orchestrate terror in J&K, remote controlled from Pakistan, the notification read. A resident of Hayan Bala Rajpora in Pulwama, Nengroo was involved in cases related to the killing of one policeman in Pulwama in 2013, killing of one civilian in 2020, terror funding and illegal supply of weapons to terrorists. In order to deter him from perpetrating terror, Nengroo is being designated as a terrorist under the provisions of the said Act, the MHA said. Chennai, April 19 : The sleuths of the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have seized 2.5 kg gold concealed in paste form from a passenger and a crew member of a private airline. The flight landed at 7 pm on Sunday from Singapore and the crew member, Vinod Kumar, and the passenger, Bakrudeen, were apprehended after gold in paste form was found in their possession. On investigation, the DRI sleuths found that the seized gold was valued at around Rs 1 crore. The Tiruchi international airport has been on the radar of the DRI and Customs ever since a gold smuggling racket was busted there in November 2021. The central intelligence agencies had tipped off the DRI that certain people involved in raising funds for some nefarious activities were using the airport for smuggling activities. The DRI had earlier busted two attempts to smuggle gold by concealing them in the body of the aircraft as well as inside the panel beneath the seat. In the first instance, gold worth 41.62 lakh was seized, and in the second raid, gold worth 21.5 lakh was recovered. It may be noted that the Tiruchi air intelligence unit of the Customs had seized gold worth Rs 28 crore between April 2020 and March 2021, and the net amount of gold seized from April 2021 to July 2021 stood at Rs 15 crore. Sources told IANS that the Tiruchi airport is turning into a hub of gold smuggling from Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai, and several carriers are employed for this purpose. A senior officer with the DRI at Chennai told IANS, "The Central agencies have intimated us that certain groups are smuggling gold to fund their nefarious activities and we are trying to crack the link along with the Central agencies and the Tamil Nadu police." The DRI and other agencies are also trying to find out the details of those who are buying the gold smuggled into the country through the Tiruchi airport. Kolkata, April 19 : At a time when controversies are brewing in West Bengal over the gang-rape of a minor girl who died later at Hanskhali in Nadia district, yet another case of gang-rape of a minor girl has surfaced in the state. The incident took place late on Sunday night at Baduria in North 24 Parganas district. An FIR has been filed at the Baduria police station which said that after the incident, the culprits threatened the victim, her family members and her friend of dire consequences if they approached the police on this count. The victim is a student of Class 9. On receiving the complaint, the police launched a probe and on Monday morning, they arrested three accused in this connection. The accused have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It is learnt that the victim went to a relative's house on Sunday evening. While returning home, she and her male friend were attacked by the accused, who first beat up the boy before raping the girl, as per the FIR. Adnocs Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber leads the strong Emirati contingent in ranking of worlds leading brand guardians in a report by leading global brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. Picked as the top brand guardian CEO Dr Al Jaber has led Adnoc, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, since 2016 and faced the difficult challenge of delivering an increase in Adnocs oil production while seeking to transform the business to satisfy changing customer demands and address environmental protection concerns. Olayan Mohammed Al Wetaid of stc is the top Saudi brand guardian and Hana Al Rostamani is the top-ranked female brand guardian CEO at First Abu Dhabi (FAB). Facing a difficult challenge As the CEO of one of the worlds leading oil companies, Dr Al Jaber faces a difficult challenge to balance commercial and environmental demands. To face this challenge, he has overseen the development of an Adnoc sustainability strategy to extend their legacy as a responsible producer of oil and gas so that they can continue to deliver maximise value for the UAE and key stakeholders. Richard Haigh, Managing Director of Brand Finance, commented: Ultimately, the role of a brand guardian is to build brand and business value. Our ranking recognises those who are building business value in a sustainable manner, by balancing the needs of all stakeholders employees, investors, and the wider society. More and more, the CEOs ranked in the Brand Guardianship Index must work in partnership to build a sustainable future, redefining the role of a CEO from ultracompetitive entrepreneur to collaborative diplomat. Dr Al Jaber is the highest-ranked CEO outside of the US and China, and ranked higher than any CEO in all of Europe and Africa. Ranked 15th globally in the ranking, he is also the top-scoring leader in the oil and gas sector. In addition to his role at Adnoc, Dr Al Jaber holds senior positions within the UAE government, and is a key figure in promoting the diversification and growth of the UAE economy. Saudi brand guardian In Saudi Arabia, stcs Al Wetaid has the tough job of replacing Nasser Sulaiman Al Nasser as CEO. Under Nasser, stc undertook a profound evolution into a leader for digital transformation. With Al Wetaid serving as CEO and a brand guardian, stc is now pushing ahead with deploying 5G services for the Middle East and diversifying the Saudi economy in line with the Saudi Governments broader objectives. Al Wetaid has a strong opportunity to build upon Nassers legacy for the future. Brand Finances research found that Al Wetaid scores highly on attributes related to focusing on long-term sustainable value which are at the core of brand guardianship and demonstrate long-term vision and commitment. Another metric where Al Wetaid scored highly was Inspire positive change. In a pivotal moment for the world economy as digitisation is increasing, inspiring positive change is important as STC is heavily involved in high priority growth opportunities within the 2030 vision such as smart cities, the digitalisation of Saudis healthcare system, and the cloud-first policy. Impressively, there is already widespread familiarity with Al Wetaid, a notable achievement given his relatively new appointment in the role. Wetaid has an excellent opportunity to serve as a guardian of the stc brand, and industry stakeholders will continue to keep an eye on his leadership in coming years. Top-ranked female CEO brand guardian Al Rostamani, the highest-ranked female brand guardian CEO, is the 15th ranked brand guardian CEO overall in the Middle East. Serving as CEO of the Emirati bank since January 2021, Al Rostamani has extensive internal experience and previously lead personal banking within FAB. Since her appointment as CEO, Al Rostamani has served as an excellent custodian of the FAB brand which is currently expanding internationally throughout the Middle East with the acquisition of assets such as the Egyptian division of Bank Audi, a Lebanese bank. Her appointment sends a strong signal to key stakeholders that FAB is able to serve people of various demographics in different roles. Ranking the worlds top CEOs, the Brand Guardianship Index evaluates the performance of chief executives according to how well they manage and grow their companies brands. The ranking is informed by the results of an original survey of over 1,000 market analysts and journalists. The top 250 ranking is drawn from a sample of over 500 chief executives of the worlds top companies with at least one brand featured in the annual ranking of the worlds top 500 most valuable brands the Brand Finance Global 500.-- TradeArabia News Service Hyderabad, April 19 : The Telangana government on Monday launched its SpaceTech Framework, with a vision to establish the state as a globally recognized one-stop destination for space technology. The framework aims to encourage private participation in the space industry in line with the recent reforms by the Union government. Noting that space technology is the state's next focus area, K.T. Rama Rao, Telangana's Minister for IT, Industries, and MAUD, said that with the national reforms supporting the increased participation of the private sector in the spacetech industry, the Telangana shall be "supporting the innovation that is bound to occur". "In the past, we have seen several foreign private players amaze the world with technological advancements, but we know that majority of them are supported by brilliant Indian scientists and engineers. But now, it is time that the technology developed by Indians is built in the country and then exported globally. It's time that we occupy a larger share of the space industry that is expected to grow to $558 billion by 2026," the minister said. The event was hosted on metaverse, making it the first such official event in India. A space-themed metaverse environment was custom-developed along with custom avatars of the key dignitaries for the launch event. Attendees joined the event using standard avatars on the platform and interacted with the nearby participants while parallelly observing the event's proceedings - just like in a physical event. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Somanath S, Chairman, ISRO, and Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe participated in the even. An NFT collection was launched at the end of the event, with the proceeds from its sale earmarked for support one of the state government's technology enabled social impact projects. New Delhi, April 19 : The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has said that by cancelling the bail of the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri murder case, Ashish Mishra alias Monu, the Supreme Court has restored hope in the justice system. Earlier in the day, the apex court had cancelled the bail of Mishra in connection with the October 2021 incident at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh wherein a vehicle allegedly belonging to him had mowed down several people including protesting farmers. The Allahabad High Court had granted bail to the accused on February 10. "After this order of the Supreme Court, (Union Minister for Home) Ajay Mishra Teni - Ashish's father - should be immediately sacked from the post of minister," the SKM demanded. "If this does not happen, then in the first week of May, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha will hold a national meeting and announce a nationwide protest programme," it added. "Justice should be given to the farmers implicated in the Lakhimpur Kheri case and its eyewitnesses should be given protection," said the consortium of farmers that had carried out more than a year long agitation to protest the now-repealed three farm laws. "Efforts were on to save the criminals from the very beginning in this heinous murder that took place on October 3, and justice has been achieved only after repeated intervention of the Supreme Court. After this order, there is no justification left for Teni to continue in the Union Cabinet," the farmers said. "Before this massacre, on September 26, Minister Ajay Mishra Teni had openly threatened the farmers, but till date no action has been taken on him," the SKM claimed. Even after a written recommendation by the SIT working under the supervision of a judge, the Uttar Pradesh government did not file an appeal against the decision of the High Court. "Ultimately, the families of the deceased farmers approached the Supreme Court," it asserted. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Jerusalem, April 19 : Israel's aerial defense system intercepted a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip on Monday, amid simmering tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement. "One rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, and it was intercepted by the Iron Dome Air Defense System," the military spokesperson said. The rocket triggered sirens in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. It was the first time a rocket was fired from Gaza in the last seven months, Xinhua news agency reported. The rocket launch came amid the latest wave of violence over the past month that saw Israeli police raiding the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 200 Palestinians were injured during Israelis' raids. Meanwhile, more than 10 Israelis were killed in a string of shooting, stabbing, and car-ramming attacks in the last few weeks, some of which were carried out by Arab citizens of Israel. Sure Secure Solutions - A Key Partner with Leidos on NASA AEGIS Sure Secure is very pleased to announce that our teaming partner, Leidos, was finally awarded the agency wide Advanced Enterprise Global Information Technology Solutions (AEGIS) contract. This ten year contract is a cornerstone in our company growth and we are grateful to Leidos' role as a Mentor in providing outstanding support and guidance for yet another opportunity at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is of great pleasure and to be doing work for NASA again under this incredible partnership. Leidos and Sure Secure were previously awarded the Mentor-Protege Agreement of the Year by the NASA Shared Services Center in January for their performance on the ongoing NASA NEST contract. About Sure Secure Solutions A leader in providing innovative IT solutions to the federal government and private sector, Sure Secure is a woman-owned small business specializing in cloud services, web development, cybersecurity, and data analytics. A services provider to an array of federal clients including NASA, USDA, CBP, SBA, FEMA and the U.S. Army, Sure Secure Solutions has been recognized as the Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year several times and also received the Outstanding Performance Award by the NASA Chief Engineer. In addition, Sure Secure Solutions was also awarded the Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year 2016 for SBA Region 3. To learn more, visit http://www.suresecuresolutions.com. Today, Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc., the leader in helping legal professionals across the United States own and operate a successful, peaceful divorce services business, announced Mr. Rob Rosen as its newest Divorce With Dignity Network Affiliate in Philadelphia. Founder and President of Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc., Cindy Elwell said We are delighted to welcome Rob as our newest affiliate to our Divorce With Dignity family. Rob brings with him 10 years of experience in the legal field and will help families peacefully divorce in and around Philadelphia. Rob Rosen commented, I am thrilled to be heading the Divorce with Dignity network in the Philadelphia area. Over the years, I have seen numerous bitter and costly divorces that have caused harm and lasting damage to everyone involved, especially the children. I am passionate about helping families and individuals alike through this process in a peaceful and cost-efficient way. Mr. Rosen added, After 18 years as a General Manager for Hilton Hotels, I wanted a new challenge where I could also help people. I wanted to help people who needed assistance, but could not afford traditional legal services. In addition to my work with Divorce with Dignity I also own a legal services company called Legal Assist. My areas of specialty are family law, real estate law, deeds, wills, landlord tenant complaints, small claims court, legal research and more. For those in the Philadelphia area in need of divorce services, or wanting to refer a friend, please contact Rob Rosen: Divorce With Dignity-Philadelphia 1669 Edgewood Road Suite 210 Yardley, PA 19067 Phone: (267) 223-4090 Email: robr@dwdignity.com For more information on the option of peaceful divorce you can visit the Divorce With Dignity website. There is a wealth of information about divorce on their peaceful divorce blog. You can also find a Divorce With Dignity Network Affiliate in your area. If you are a legal professional; paralegal, attorney or mediation firm that would like to learn more about becoming a Divorce With Dignity Affiliate to own and operate your own peaceful divorce services business please contact Cindy Elwell at 510-967-1735 or visit the Divorce With Dignity website. About Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc. The Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc. helps legal professionals across the United States to own and operate a successful peaceful divorce services business. The Divorce With Dignity Network offers a proven method and a superior lifestyle opportunity for those legal professionals seeking their own independent business or it can create a new value-add and incremental revenue stream to an existing family law or mediation practice. The Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc. began licensing its peaceful divorce services business model in 2008. Press Contact Cindy Elwell President Divorce With Dignity Network, Inc. Sonoma, CA Phone 510-967-1735 celwell@dwdignity.com Following a sellout success at Boots in the UK and Ireland, globally recognized celebrity hairstylist Andrew Fitzsimons namesake haircare brand is now available in the United States. As of April 17, Andrew Fitzsimons Haircare, an accessible, salon-performance collection featuring 23 care and styling products, priced at $14 is available exclusively at all Ulta Beauty stores and on Ulta.com. Having spent two decades in the hair industry, Ive come to realize we as beauty professionals can serve clients better, said Fitzsimons. I made it my mission to create the first high concept, high fashion, high-performance brand, and make it a price everyone can afford. Everyone deserves products that makes them feel like their best selves. Andrew Fitzsimons Haircare marries bold design and artistry with high-performing, efficacious formulas. All products in the collection feature the proprietary AF Bonding System, an innovative, protein-based complex that builds maximum strength from within and creates powerful hydrogen and ionic bonds inside the keratin hair structure to increase elasticity and flexibility, so hair is left looking shinier and feeling healthier and softer. "Were beyond thrilled to introduce the talented Andrew Fitzsimons to our guests with his new, playful and exciting brand," says Jessica Phillips, vice president of merchandising, Ulta Beauty. " Our guests are loyal to products with a proven bonding system. Paired with such an affordable price point, we are confident this will be the perfect addition to any beauty lovers hair care routine. We cant wait to welcome new and existing fans to discover this brand exclusively at Ulta Beauty stores, our salons, and online. Ulta Beauty guests can shop the brands five inclusive and concern-specific collections, along with styling products designed to mix and match for ultimate hair health and expression: VIRGIN REPAIR LINE WITH CERAMIDES FOR DAMAGED HAIR: Ideal for damaged and/or weakened hair, this collection strengthens hair structure with an innovative formula featuring ceramides to revitalize and regenerate while protecting against further breakage from chemical, thermal, environmental stressors and styling effects. Products include Restructuring Shampoo, Restructuring Conditioner, Restructuring Mask, AF1 Restructuring Leave-in Conditioner and Restructuring Serum. FANTASY CURLS LINE WITH AMINO ACIDS FOR 3A-4C CURL TYPES: Formulated to cater to 3A-4C curls, this nourishing collection provides long-lasting curl definition for smooth, manageable, and bouncy curls. Containing amino acids for strength and pro- keratin to rejuvenate dry hair, this line controls volume and tames frizz without stripping the hairs natural oils. Products include Nourishing Shampoo, Nourishing Conditioner, Nourishing Mask, Nourishing Serum, Curl Creme and Curl Amplify Texture Spray. BODY VOLUME LINE WITH CAFFEINE: Ideal for thin or fine hair, this unique collection formulated with caffeine is designed to nourish, texturize and lift. Adding weightless body and conditioning treatments that fill in missing keratin found naturally in hair follicles, the products include Boosting Shampoo, Boosting Conditioner, and Blow Dry Hold Spray, giving hair a soft, weightless finish for lasting shape. PRISM SHINE LINE WITH HYALURONIC ACID: Suitable for most hair types, this collection provides extreme shine, moisture and reduced frizz while improving manageability and protection from dullness. Infused with a Hyaluronic Acid protein complex, Prism Shine replenishes fibers from root to tip, detangles and softens to leave strands silky, supple and with maximum shine. Products include Glossy Shampoo, Glossy Conditioner, Invisible Shine Spray, and Softening Creme. STYLING: This high-performance styling collection addresses all hairstyling needs. The products offer a mix of innovative formulas and perfected luxury-inspired classics, all including Aurascent Technology. This long-lasting scent technology leaves strands with a divine fragrance that boasts notes of citrus, green florals and creamy wood which gradually release overtime. The Styling range can be cocktailed with any other products across the collection to leave hair feeling refreshed between washes. Products include HARD Strong Hold Hairspray, TOUCH Soft Hold Hairspray, DISCREET AF Dry Shampoo, MODEL Volume Wave Spray and APRES SEXE Texture Spray. In addition to price accessibility, Andrew Fitzsimons is committed to inclusivity and social responsibility, from formulations to marketing. The brand joins Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty, which educates, guides, and simplifies by providing guests with greater choices and transparency. Andrew Fitzsimons Haircare is certified under all five Conscious Beauty pillars: Clean Ingredients, Cruelty-Free, Vegan, Sustainable Packaging, and Positive Impact. As an ally of the Trans community, Andrew began a donation program for the Trans Wellness Center in Los Angeles in addition to the brands support of the London LGBTQ+ Community Center. Andrew Fitzsimons Haircare is committed to supporting the community via beauty product donations for transgender or non-conforming people and intends to bring awareness and fundraise where help is needed via its owned media channels. Additionally, the brand offers retail partners inclusivity and pronoun training workshops for store associates. I always knew I wanted to create a line that empowers people to embrace and fall in love with their natural hair texture, said Fitzsimons. I hope this collection inspires you to be the most unapologetic version of yourself. Dont just be you. Be you AF! # # # Shabbat like you've never experienced before. On May 6, the first Friday Night Hub event will kick off in Temple Emanu-El's historic sanctuary, including live music, delicious food and signature cocktails. Designed for Jewish millennials and Gen-Zers ages 21-39, events will be held at chic bars, clubs and unique venues around New York City. As part of a new initiative to provide young professionals with an exciting way to connect to the Jewish community, The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Outreach Center is launching a new event, Friday Night Hub (Home - Friday Night Hub). A Jewish event your Friday night plans were lacking. This monthly Shabbat event will be a service that celebrates Jewish life in a new modern way for Jewish millennials and Gen-Zers. On May 6, the first Friday Night Hub (Home - Friday Night Hub) event will kick off in Temple Emanu-Els historic sanctuary with a new spin on traditional prayer music written specifically for Friday Night Hub by Israeli music icon David Broza. Live music will be performed by Broza with a diverse, contemporary band and choir. The service encourages young Jews to sing, dance, nosh, and create community. Following the service there will be an Oneg with live music, food and signature cocktails curated by 5-time James Beard Award-winning chef of Zahav, Michael Solomonov. Friday Night Hub (Home - Friday Night Hub) is designed for young professionals ages 21-39 who are passionate about Judaism, skeptical about its relevance in their lives, or just curious. Friday Night Hub will serve as the centerpiece of a broad roster of programs designed to build a community around important Jewish conversation. Held at chic bars, clubs and unique venues around New York City, the events in this series will include provocative discussions with prominent thinkers, Jewish celebrities, a Night Before Xmas Extravaganza party, holiday celebrations and intimate Shabbat dinners. Register to attend for free on May 6, and learn more at Home - Friday Night Hub. The integration between Botco.ai and Medtelligents ALIS is a boon to Carlton and the entire assisted living industry Botco.ai, the leading HIPAA-compliant conversational marketing platform, announced today a partnership with Medtelligent, Inc., provider of ALIS software for assisted living, memory care, and independent living communities. The partnership brings Botco.ais conversational automation platform to assisted living communities as an integrated part of Medtelligents ALIS software, a comprehensive suite of electronic health records (eHR) tools. Together, the joint solution enables seniors and their families to learn about assisted living communities through private, easy-to-use chat conversations and, upon moving into the community, make insights from those conversations a part of their eHR profile to receive better, more personalized care and treatment. Among the first businesses to implement the joint solution is Carlton Senior Living. With 12 communities throughout Northern California, Carlton offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care options. Through Botco.ais conversational automation platform, the pre-qualified leads for Carlton that have come in to take a tour at one of their communities have shown a conversion rate of 85% a marked increase from the companys average conversion rate of about 50%. The integration between Botco.ai and Medtelligents ALIS is a boon to Carlton and the entire assisted living industry, said Carlton president David Coluzzi. Botco.ai allows us to deliver a top-notch customer experience starting from our very first interaction with a potential resident or their loved one, while ALIS ensures that our residents receive exceptional care during the entirety of their stay. Through this joint solution, were able to take whatever questions or concerns a customer may have upon their initial inquiry and make sure they are properly addressed throughout the course of their care. Botco.ais conversational automation platform enables healthcare providers to provide fast and accurate answers to their prospects questions via an easy, conversational experience that complies with all HIPAA policies. Meanwhile, Medtelligents ALIS offers software purpose-built for assisted living and memory care communities, with features including marketing and lead tracking, electronic health records, staff management, clinical management, enterprise dashboards, and more. Insights from Botco.ais platform are seamlessly integrated into ALISs eHR system to provide important inputs for resident care and treatment. Botco.ai creates a safe space where new prospects and potential residents of assisted living communities can come and ask any questions they might have without any fear of judgment and with complete privacy, said Trisha Cole, COO and General Counsel at Medtelligent. And then, by bringing those conversations into our CRM and eHR platform, we enable the staff to gain access to relevant information so they can follow up and make sure theyre addressing whatever fears or concerns the resident might have initially had. It allows us to integrate those early conversations into each communitys workflows, from marketing and sales all the way through to resident onboarding and care. Medtelligent shares our values of using technology to help make the assisted living community and the healthcare industry in general more human, said Rebecca Clyde, CEO of Botco.ai. We believe that AI, automation, and related technologies can help healthcare providers forge deeper, longer-lasting relationships with customers and patients. Through this new integration with ALIS, assisted living communities are able to provide their prospects with faster and easier answers to all of their top questions, along with a deeper level of empathy and understanding for those prospects once they become customers. Botco.ai and Medtelligent will co-host a webinar on Multiplying engagement at scale for the full resident lifecycle through the seamless integration of conversational automation and EHR systems on May 23rd at 11 am PST. To register, visit http://www.botco.ai. About Medtelligent Medtelligent makes ALIS: software purpose-built for clinical management, billing, and operational reporting in assisted living, memory care, and independent living communities. ALIS is designed to solve senior living-specific challenges including regulatory compliance management across different states, full eMAR management and drug counting, integrated assessments, and family engagement. To learn more, visit http://www.medtelligent.com. About Botco.ai Botco.ai is a HIPPA-compliant, AI-powered conversational marketing automation solution that can be implemented at scale to improve engagement rates. Today, the company offers industry-leading authoring, webchat, and AI machine-learning capabilities to quickly and effectively convert more customers in healthcare, wellness, addiction, behavioral health, physical therapy and senior living centers. Botco.ai's Integrated Analytics Dashboard provides a comprehensive view of chat campaigns across multiple messaging channels such as web and Facebook Messenger. The API-based interface can be used to transfer leads, transcripts, and data into enterprise sales and marketing automation products like Salesforce, Hubspot, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Zoho as well as leading EHR and scheduling systems. Botco.ai is the recipient of the Arizona Innovation Challenge "Most Outstanding Startup" award and a graduate of Alchemist Accelerator Class XXV, the #1 accelerator for enterprise startups. For more information, visit http://www.botco.ai. Media Contact Lauren Tascan Fluid Group for Botco.ai lauren@fluidprgroup.com Businesses across the globe are always on the lookout for quality accountants and tax advisers to help them with complex financial matters. Most small businesses cant afford to build a solid in-house team to assist in their tax and accounting issues. Therefore, they turn to experts who can provide them with valuable insight, expertise, and the knowledge to handle the accountancy and taxation side of their businesses to focus on core operations. IBISS & CO are one of the leading accountancy and tax firm in the United Kingdom that has recently opened an office in Walsall to help local businesses with their financial and tax planning. They aim to help their customers with robust tax planning and figure out legal ways to reduce the amount of tax they pay. Their team of accountants and tax advisers has significant experience dealing with various issues. Speaking about their team, a company representative said, We aim to help businesses in Walsall deal with their accounting and tax issues. We have assembled a qualified and experienced team of experts known to go above and beyond for our customers. They will undergo a comprehensive overview of the financial health of your business and recommend personalised solutions that fulfil your unique needs and requirements. You can trust us with all your tax and accountancy needs, and we will surely not disappoint you! IBISS & CO have created quite a name for themselves by providing affordable accountancy and tax solutions for their clientele. They have accountancy and tax packages for every type of business. They provide quality packages for sole traders, starting at 30 + VAT per month and including self-assessment submission, unlimited accountancy support, and a dedicated client management service. Ltd. companies can also consult the company to get help with their statutory year end accounts, corporate tax filing, and quick phone and email support. Their experts are well-versed in VAT, MTD, RTI and Payroll. The company has a close-knit of experts who aim to help businesses with their accountancy needs. They provide unified support in accountancy, taxation and expert business advisory Anyone looking for more information about their services can visit their website or contact them using the information below. About The Company IBISS & CO is a leading tax planning and accountancy firm which has recently started its operations in Walsall. The company aims to become the leading provider of quality tax and accountancy services for local businesses in the area. Their affordable packages, extensive expertise and experience has enabled them to become a trusted provider of quality financial services. Contact Information Website: https://ibissandco.com/ Address: 5 Corporation Street Walsall WS1 4HW Phone Number: 01922 218 999 Email: clients@ibissandco.com "We are excited to welcome Alejandra and expand our sales capacity in Michigan." said Dean Ferris, Chief Growth Officer. HealthBridge, a first-of-its-kind employee financial security benefit solution, announces that Alejandra Juarez has joined the organization as Regional Sales Director. In this role, Alejandra will be leading our sales in Southeast Michigan. We are excited to welcome Alejandra and expand our sales capacity in Michigan, said Dean Ferris, Chief Growth Officer. Employers are looking for opportunities to provide expanded benefits to attract and retain talent, and Alejandras expertise in assisting employers enhance their benefit offerings will be invaluable. Alejandra comes to HealthBridge with eight years of experience in group sales with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and six years directing sales in the behavioral health/employee assistance marketplace. She is very active in the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) as both a member and speaker. Alejandra shared, Im thrilled to be part of a team providing an innovative benefit that ensures people receive health care without delay and with the security to pay for it. And, the HealthBridge program not only complements health plans but also allows doctors to focus on clinical care and not patient financials. About HealthBridge HealthBridge Financial, Inc. is a first-of-its kind financial security solution that provides a resource to help members bridge the gap between the high cost of healthcare and their financial wellbeing. The HealthBridge benefit provides members with peace of mind by helping them access care and afford the balances due after a health event with a single consolidated monthly statement and consumer-friendly repayment terms. HealthBridge Network Providers can spend more time focusing on care with more predictable patient payments. HealthBridge solutions run on a proprietary software platform. HealthBridge is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. To learn more, visit the HealthBridge website or LinkedIn page. ### The upcoming Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will discuss the future of aviation, with participation from 120 speakers from around the world over 40 dialogue sessions and round table discussions. Hosted by the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the forum runs from May 9 to 11. The Future of Aviation Forum will discuss three axes: innovation, growth and sustainability being the major and influential axes in the civil aviation industry. The Forum achieves one of the objectives of the National Aviation Sector Strategy (NASS) emanating from the National Strategy for Transport and Logistics to become an integrated and unique global conference that provides huge investment opportunities, taking advantage of the Kingdoms distinguished strategic location among the world three continents. This enhances its attractiveness to be a global logistics platform, for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be a global aviation hub with investments of $100 billion by the year 2030, and the construction of a new mega airport in the capital city of Riyadh. This in addition to eight other airports distributed across the Kingdoms regions, including four airports in partnership with the private sector as well as launching a new national flag carrier to enhance air transport sector. Meanwhile, the strategic vision of the Civil Aviation Authority aims to double the capacity and reach 330 million passengers annually, from more than 250 destinations from around world and reach in freight to 4.5 million tons of goods. The Future of Aviation Forum provides the opportunity to participate in the world of aviation in the Kingdom amid unprecedented opportunities. This after the after the rapid developments witnessed by the sector to be a centre for global aviation and the most prominent in the Middle East. This in addition to encouraging creating and closing of commercial deals and unifying global efforts to develop the air transport industry and formulate policies and regulations to keep pace with global developments and changes. The Forum aims to find solutions that contribute to the prosperity of the civil aviation sector in the coming years, especially since this phase the sector is going through necessitates the importance of activating global cooperation activities in civil aviation and enabling collaborative work to support the realization of ambitions and innovation. Further, the development of necessary policies to ensure a promising future for the sector. looking forward to be a forum to senior industry leaders at the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, and cooperation to drive ambition, innovation and policy-making necessary to ensure a promising future for this industry. The Future of Aviation Forum will be launched in the presence of too representatives of the civil aviation sector from around the world and high-level civil aviation leaders from various countries and organizations, as well as CEOs of several international air transport companies and a group of businessmen. TradeArabia News Service Regina Taylor, two-time NAACP Image Award winning actress, playwright and activist, will play the role of Marian Shields Robinson, Michelle Obamas mother in the SHOWTIME anthology series THE FIRST LADY which premiered on Sunday, April 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME. THE FIRST LADY is a revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House. In the governments East Wing, many of historys most impactful and world-changing decisions have been hidden from view, made by America's charismatic, complex and dynamic First Ladies. The series will peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of three unique, enigmatic women and their families, tracing their journeys to Washington, dipping into their pasts and following them beyond the White House into their greatest moments. Through interweaving storylines so intimate its as if the White House walls are talking, season one focuses on the enlightening lives of Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. The new anthology drama stars Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), as former first lady Michelle Obama, Oscar and Emmy nominee Michelle Pfeiffer (French Exit) as Betty Ford and Emmy and Screen Actors Guild winner Gillian Anderson (The Crown) as Eleanor Roosevelt. The series also stars Kiefer Sutherland (24) as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Aaron Eckhart (Wander) as President Gerald Ford, Dakota Fanning (The Alienist) as Susan Elizabeth Ford, Regina Taylor (Ill Fly Away) as Michelle Robinson Obamas mother Marian Shields Robinson and Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) as Lorena Hick Hickok. Produced for SHOWTIME by Lionsgate Television, the 10-episode series, created by Aaron Cooley, is executive produced by Oscar winner Cathy Schulman (Crash), who also serves as showrunner, and Oscar and Emmy winner Susanne Bier (The Undoing) executive produces and directs all of season one. Michelle Obama has always credited her mother as being an inspirational role model, Taylor said. Her mother and father were absolute pillars of strength, encouraging her to pursue her dreams, let no one deter her and to not get in her own way. It was crucial for Michelle Obama, as the first Black woman in the White House, to bring along her essential source of strength her mother, Marian Robinson. Taylor said it is a great honor to be working with such an astonishing cast of actors in the widely anticipated series. Each performer is singular, amazing and a beautiful testimony to the strengths of first ladies and their lasting imprint on our world, Taylor said. THE FIRST LADY is a timely and provocative project that enables us to see how the lives of these first ladies influenced American culture and politics. Helmed by the brilliant director Susanne Bier, the series is beautifully crafted and realized with indelible performances by Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson, accompanied by an extremely impressive ensemble. Taylor is an Actress, Writer and Director Taylor became best known for her role as Lilly Harper in the iconic TV series I'll Fly Away (with Sam Waterston). Her poignant characterization won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a TV Drama, an NAACP Image Award for Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama and Emmy nominations. In the role of Molly Blane in the CBS action series The Unit, Taylor earned her second NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. Taylor has starred alongside top leading men in Hollywood including Denzel Washington in Courage Under Fire, Sam Jackson in The Negotiator and Sidney Poitier in a A Good Day to Die. Taylor was the first Black woman to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway and to play a lead in a PBS Masterpiece Theater presentation, Cora Unashamed. Taylors first film was the made-for-TV movie Crisis at Central High, starring Joanne Woodward, in which she portrayed Minniejean Brown, one of the first Black students to integrate the Arkansas school system. Taylor next garnered praise for her role as Mrs. Carter, a drug-addicted mother in 1989's Lean on Me, alongside Morgan Freeman. Other film roles include Spike Lees Clockers, Saturday Church and Losing Isaiah. More recently, Taylor was seen in the mind-bending Lovecraft Country (Jordan Peele, J. J. Abrams, Mischa Greene); The Wonder Years (Saladin K. Patterson, Lee Daniels, Marc Valez, Fred Savage); Red Line (Ava DuVernay); All Day and a Night (Joe Robert Cole, Jeffrey Wright, Ashton Sanders); Blue Bloods (Tom Selleck); Black List; and Dig. Taylor is an Award-Winning Playwright and Director She is currently writing projects for Audible and Londons The Old Vic, and developing, mentoring and directing a new play by Phanesia Pharel for Le Femme Productions in New York. Taylor is writer-in-residence at New York's Signature Theatre and is a distinguished artistic associate of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where she is one of its most produced playwrights. She wrote and directed Crowns, a play adapted from the photographic essay book of the same name. Crowns has toured the United States, including runs in New York and Washington, becoming one the most-performed musicals in the country and garnering four Helen Hayes Awards (including outstanding directing). An avid social activist, Taylor, in conjunction with her alma mater Southern Methodist University, also launched the black album.mixtape. The black album.mixtape invited collaborators from arts, technology, science and activism to submit works exploring questions about the historical significance of 2020 within the scope of COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd. Entries included works of video, music, audio, images, monologues, photos, designs, text, interviews, and self-interviews. Prizes were awarded to winning collaborators. In yet another tribute to the actress, the Dallas Independent School District is rebuilding L. G. Pinkston High School, where Taylor was a student, and naming the new Fine Arts Department for Regina Taylor. The United States Navy Memorial hosted its 31st Blessing of the Fleet ceremony on Saturday, April 9th in Washington, D.C. following the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. This ceremony was free and open to the public, marking the Navy Memorials first major event coming out of the pandemic. Over 1,100 people witnessed the ceremony in person on Navy Memorial Plaza, located in the heart of D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue, or at home via live stream. This longstanding tradition kicks off the spring season at the Navy Memorial by bringing the fountains to life with water provided by the U.S. Navy each year. A captive audience watched as the United States Navy Band opened the event with ceremonial music including Ruffle and Flourish and The Flag Officers March. Traditionally, special remarks are delivered by members of the Official Party at each Navy Memorial event. This years ceremony featured Mr. Charles F. Chuck Sams III, Director of the National Park Service; Admiral John C. Harvey, USN (Ret.), Chairman of the Board of Directors, Navy Memorial; Rear Admiral Paula Dunn, USN, Vice Chief of Information; and Captain Brian J. Stamm, USN, U.S. Fleet Forces Command Chaplain. We have worked together to complete the major overhaul of the piping systems of this memorial. Water plays a critical role in this memorial, and you see the fruits of that partnership all around you today. The fountains will come to life for the first time in two years, said Mr. Charles F. Chuck Sams III. During the ceremony, the United States Navy Ceremonial Guard served as vial bearers and carried four vials with water from the Seven Seas and Great Lakes to each corner of the plaza. On cue from the U.S. Navy Band, all four vials were poured into the Navy Memorials fountains, and water shot up toward the signal flags on the plaza. Directly after the ceremony, a special ribbon-cutting took replace outside the Navy Memorial Visitor Center to celebrate its reopening along with Navy Memorial 2.0 - a growing initiative to expand on the memorials digital programs and productions, creating a global community and making a bigger impact around the world. Shortly after, attendees were invited inside the Visitor Center to enjoy free exhibits, maritime music, and Navy Bean Soup served by White House Mess. With a vision to come out of the pandemic stronger than ever, the Navy Memorial team felt this was an incredibly successful event. The Navy Memorial is honored to continue its partnership with the U.S. Navy, the National Park Service, and corporations like the U.S. Money Reserve that support its mission. Additionally, the Navy Memorial is proud to have the full support of its Board of Directors. The Navy Memorial is back. Our Visitor Center is alive; its informative, it's engaging, and its interactive. We have made a significant move to digital programming taking our mission to honor and celebrate our sailors and marines across the country, said Admiral John C. Harvey, USN (Ret.). The public can expect another Blessing of the Fleet ceremony to happen next year in early April. Visit http://www.NavyMemorial.org for information on upcoming events. The Navy Memorial is located at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to Honor, Recognize and Celebrate the men and women of the Sea Services, past, present, and future; and to Inform the public about their service. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.NavyMemorial.org. UnitedRx will host several booths at upcoming conventions. We place our customers at the heart of everything we do and commit to delivering an unmatched experience in the process of fulfilling their needs, said UnitedRx Chief Executive Officer Chuck Benain. UnitedRx, the nations leading full-service, independent long-term care pharmacy, is participating in four upcoming conferences across the country to showcase its exceptional services. Priding itself on providing a friendly neighborhood pharmacy experience, the organization pledges to exceed all expectations with state-of-the-art communication and packaging technologies, as well as custom and flexible solutions to address specific customer needs and centralized billing. We place our customers at the heart of everything we do and commit to delivering an unmatched experience in the process of fulfilling their needs, said UnitedRx Chief Executive Officer Chuck Benain. By taking the time to listen to our customers and assess their needs on an individual level, we are able to identify and provide the best solutions possible. Flexible, adaptable, and highly innovative, UnitedRx offers electronic billing, prior authorization (where state law allows), and full eMar bidirectional integration to reduce staff administrative time and increase time spent providing patient care. The organization has pharmacy locations in Gallatin, TN, Johnson City, TN, Hillside, IL, Carbondale, IL, Henderson, NV, Lenexa, KS, and Philadelphia, PA, and ensures secure and accountable medication delivery to facilities seven days a week via DeliveryTrack technology. It is our priority to ensure every experience our customers have with UnitedRx is positive, and relationship building is the central goal of each interaction, said UnitedRx National Director of Sales and Marketing Melanie Williams. We take great pride in providing unparalleled levels of innovation and customer support with the unique and efficient solutions we offer. UnitedRx utilizes Cubex Technology as well as FrameworkLink, a solution that allows real-time access to order status, controlled substance destruction documentation, and quick medication pricing in each facility. Both systems support their secure first dose machine that holds 300 medications, including parenterals and narcotics. Based in Illinois, UnitedRx currently provides services to over 350 facilities across 20 states, totaling more than 36,000 beds at skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, group homes, intermediate care facilities (ICF-DD), and hospice. Facilities interested in partnering with UnitedRx can learn more at: For more information visit https://www.unitedrx.net. About UnitedRx UnitedRx is one of the largest, full-service, independent long-term care pharmacies headquartered in Illinois. Developed in 2008, UnitedRx has grown to over 350 facilities consisting of skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, youth homes, intermediate care facilities (ICF-DD), and hospice care. UnitedRx serves over 36,000 beds across 20 states with pharmacy locations in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Nevada, and Tennessee, while employing over 350 people with an average of seven years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. UnitedRx is committed to performing outstanding customer service to form meaningful and long-lasting relationships to produce positive results with facilities they partner with. For more information, visit https://www.unitedrx.net. Organizations ready to scale their business need to establish the correct and professional way to incorporate this new RevOps discipline into their plans, said Christopher Antonopoulos, CEO of Measured Results. Measured Results Marketing (MRM), the global leader in enterprise sales and marketing automation consulting, today announced the first HubSpot User Group (HUG) meeting focused on Revenue Operations (RevOps). RevOps represent the consolidation of operational needs across your organization to provide your prospects and customers with a seamless experience. Companies have increasingly adopted Revenue Operations as a function over the past few years. The Boston Consulting Group research shows both an increase in sales productivity and decrease in go-to-market costs [1]. The RevOps HUG meeting is open to 350 people in North America, and any professionals involved in RevOps, Sales, Marketing, Product, Customer Support and Operations are welcome. Attendees do not need to be HubSpot users, but the discussion will refer to HubSpots platform and its five Hubs. Forrester indicates that RevOps Director searches on LinkedIn surpassed Sales Director by 68%. Organizations ready to scale their business need to establish the correct and professional way to incorporate this new discipline into their plans, said Christopher Antonopoulos, CEO of Measured Results and HUG RevOps Leader, North America, We have seen through our sales and marketing technology work that visibility into pipeline, agreement on processes and communication and proper use of technology lead to success. This HUG meeting represents a collective opportunity to define this new role. Special guest Kyle Jepson, Senior Inbound Professor from HubSpot, will co-host the event. Evan Dean, Principal Channel Consultant from HubSpot said, The HubSpot HUG Team selected Measured Results Marketing to be a HubSpot User Group Leader based on their expertise in marketing including the HubSpot tool set. When selecting MRM we considered the awesome activation rates and feedback from the companies they worked with. Finally, we selected MRM because they know how to put on a great event! MRM is a HubSpot Diamond Partner, one of the few AIC (Advanced Implementation Certified) Partners and brings ten years of experience to the meeting. Christopher and his team of Yetis at MRM were instrumental in implementing our HubSpot sales and marketing platform. They have a deep understanding of the application of technology to execute marketing campaigns, attribute revenue and improve market operations efficiencies. This event promises to be particularly useful to understand how RevOps can support current organizational challenges, said Simon Turner, CEO of Ocean 5 Strategies. To participate in the HUG meeting on RevOps on April 26th at 1:00PM Eastern, please visit the HUG event page to register. For questions, please contact Measured Results Marketing. About Measured Results Marketing Measured Results Marketing (MRM) is a sales and marketing technology consultancy that helps SaaS, association and professional services firms grow their pipeline, build efficiency into their operations, and create visibility around revenue operations. Founded in 2013, MRM uses a proprietary process, its Demand Generation Ecosystem, to align the use of technology, internal processes, and measurement of results. MRM is a partner with almost a hundred commonly used technologies and provides an independent view of their clients' infrastructure. For more information, visit: http://www.measuredresultsmarketing.com. [1] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/revving-up-go-to-market-operations-b2b We set out to build a firm around the unique needs of entrepreneurs who want to build the best version of their companies, disrupt entire industries, and become their best selves along the way, Rallyday Partners, LLC, (Rallyday), a Denver-based private equity investment firm, has closed its second fund, Rallyday Partners Fund II LP. Following a highly curated fundraising process targeting university endowments, foundations, and highly respected family offices, Rallyday closed its second fund at $205 million and welcomed capital commitments from ten institutional limited partners, all mission-based and committed to supporting the growth of emerging industry leaders. The Rallyday founding investment team, Nancy Phillips, Travis Conway, Ryan Heckman, and Mark Hopkins, also made significant capital commitments to the fund. Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ryan Heckman described the fundraising goal: The founders we support care deeply about our investor base and are inspired by our investors respective missions and passion for building innovative companies that elevate entire industries. The best entrepreneurs want the best investors with a real sense of purpose. Rallyday closed on a $150 million first fund in May 2020 and have made five platform investments, as well as dozens of strategic add-ons, out of this vehicle. From the outset our goal was to offer an alternative to the traditional private equity model and become the gold standard in the lower middle market. Our diverse team of operators, investors, and advisors meaningfully help our executive teams build game-changing organizations that benefit all stakeholders, explains Managing Partner Nancy Phillips. Rallyday invests in lower middle market growth companies with compelling secular trends, magically disruptive business models, and audacious leadership. As Managing Partner Mark Hopkins describes, we built Rallyday with a by founders for founders DNA, and we are building powerful peer relationships with these founders. Our philosophy is that the journey is personal, and the mission is professional and we feel a sense of calling to be working side-by-side with our portfolio company leaders. Nancy, Ryan, and Mark have all founded, led, and ultimately sold extraordinary companies. As entrepreneurs, they recognized that taking outside capital required unfortunate trade-offs and, collectively, we set out to build a firm around the unique needs of entrepreneurs who want to build the best version of their companies, disrupt entire industries, and become their best selves along the way, said Travis Conway, Managing Partner. Pacenote Capital LLC served as the exclusive placement agent for Rallyday on the fundraise. The Pacenote team finalized our first fund amidst the first month of COVID and raised our second fund in just two months during an equally tumultuous time in the global economy. We view Pacenote as an extension of our team and we admire their passion for serving our ambitious long-term mission. They always under commit and over deliver and they have built an extraordinary platform. We are grateful for their leadership, expressed Ryan Heckman. Greenberg Traurig, LLP provided Rallyday with legal counsel and E78 Partners is the Fund Administrator. For more information, please visit rallydaypartners.com or contact Ryan Heckman at ryan@rallydaypartners.com. About Rallyday Partners Rallyday Partners is a Denver-based private equity firm founded by former entrepreneurs. The firm is focused on investing alongside founders in lower-middle market companies with compelling secular trends, disruptive, scalable business models and audacious leadership. For more information, please visit http://www.rallydaypartners.com. About Pacenote Capital Pacenote Capital is a boutique private equity placement agent focused on partnering with preeminent emerging investment managers and independent sponsors. For more information, please visit pacenotecapital.com or contact Casey Peters at cpeters@pacenotecapital.com. We are excited about launching this new initiative and undertaking this national, patient-focused survey to gather baseline data that many people can use to support advocacy and measure impact for the NAFLD/NASH patient population The Fatty Liver Foundation (FLF) today announced the launch of The State of NAFLD/NASH Care in America, a first-of-its-kind national initiative that aims to make a big impact within the NAFLD/NASH community by surveying the lived experiences of adults with NAFLD/NASH in the United States and fostering the continuous development and integration of actionable solutions to improve the diagnosis, treatment, care, and support for people with NAFLD/NASH. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. NAFLD is an umbrella term for a range of liver conditions affecting people who drink little to no alcohol. It is characterized by steatosis or infiltration of liver cells with fat, liver inflammation, liver cells injury, and progressive fibrosis. Some individuals with NAFLD can develop nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an advanced and aggressive form of fatty liver disease, which is marked by liver inflammation and may progress to advanced scarring or cirrhosis and liver failure. NAFLD/NASH place a heavy burden on individuals, families, and healthcare resources and utilization. NAFLD/NASH are silent diseases with few or no symptoms and may go undiagnosed for years. FLF hears frequently from NAFLD/NASH patients who have been diagnosed late. This is why FLF continues to advocate and emphasize the vital need for raising awareness, promoting early screening and detection, improving access to screening tools and treatment, and educating patients about lifestyle changes to help prevent and treat NAFLD/NASH. NAFLD/NASH are now the most common cause of chronic liver disease among adults in the United States, affecting about one-quarter of the population. The impact of NAFLD/NASH on patients care and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is important to understand the full burden of these diseases, medical management, and social support response. Data derived from this annual national survey as part of FLFs State of NAFLD/NASH Care in America initiative could provide patients and their families, providers, researchers, and payers real-life information needed to better understand the total impact of NAFLD/NASH and help inform their decisions. The survey generates key measures of patients lived experiences with NAFLD/NASH, such as: Patients NAFLD/NASH diagnosis, staging, and care pathway Getting timely appointments, care, and information How well NAFLD/NASH care team communicates with patients Involvement of family members and friends Patients psychosocial and environmental impact Patients current health status Patients rating of the NAFLD/NASH care team Patients rating of overall NAFLD/NASH care The results could provide in-depth information about the needs, concerns, and struggles of the NAFLD/NASH patient population, as well as interventions they believed would be helpful. The survey study is confidential and does not require any personal identifying information to participate. Survey respondents will be asked about their demographic background, diagnosis and testing, symptoms, treatment options they may have chosen, and impacts on mental health and behavior. This survey aims to recruit up to 2,000 respondents and is in both English and Spanish. We are excited about launching this new initiative and undertaking this national, patient-focused survey to gather baseline data that many people can use to support advocacy and measure impact for the NAFLD/NASH patient population, said Wayne Eskridge, CEO and Co-Founder of FLF. We need to take urgent action to stop the silent epidemic of NAFLD/NASH in its tracks by applying whats working well and apply them so that every person with NAFLD/NASH gets the best possible care and support, regardless of where they live and ability to pay. There is a huge gap in our understanding about the overall impact of NAFLD/NASH on patients care and HRQOL, said Dr. Neeraj Mistry, FLF Chief Medical Officer. We want to gather information from those willing to share their lived experiences about NAFLD/NASH and share that data with all stakeholders trying to paint the full picture of this silent epidemic. We are grateful to our funders for supporting this new initiative, said Henry E. Chang, FLF Executive Director. We look forward to sharing key findings from this survey that could provide the strongest evidence base from patients and create actionable solutions to reduce the unacceptable premature mortality and disease burden from NAFLD/NASH and improve the standard of care for people with NAFLD/NASH. About the Fatty Liver Foundation The Fatty Liver Foundation is a non-profit patient organization dedicated to improving the identification, diagnosis, treatment and support of people living with fatty liver, NAFLD or NASH through awareness, screening, education, and patient outreach. FLFs goal is to improve the lives of both asymptomatic and diagnosed patients by raising awareness, advancing wellness screening, educating patients, and championing the development of responsive support systems for individuals of the growing epidemic of fatty liver disease. Connect with us on http://www.fattyliverfoundation.org, Facebook (Fatty Liver Foundation JUST LIVER NEWS), Twitter (@LiverSaver), and YouTube (Fatty Liver Foundation). GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan speaks at a GSA Press conference to discuss the importance of combating the climate crisis. "The more we can show and demonstrate that climate change can be solved today by the innovations already today... the more that people will begin to demand the solutions that will benefit them today." - Gina McCarthy, National Climate Advisor ALPEN HIGH PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS INC., a longtime U.S. leader in high efficiency window technology across commercial and residential markets, was highlighted at a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) press conference Wednesday at the Denver Federal Center as a part of GSAs Green Proving Ground (GPG) Program. GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan joined National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Governor Jared Polis, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, and Mayor Adam Paul to discuss the importance of combating the climate crisis through the means of promoting climate and job investments in Colorado. Federal programs like GSAs GPG Program actively evaluate emerging building technologies to demonstrate its applications towards achieving clean energy and sustainability goals. GSA recently finalized and published the results of its nearly year-long testing and evaluation of WinSert secondary window inserts and lightweight Quad-Pane windows manufactured by Alpen. In discussing the GPG Program, Administrator Carnahan pointed out Alpen windows as an example of what these program investments aim to achieve. Thats where we use innovative, new products and test them out on these federal buildings, and one of them is here today. Its the Alpen glass quad-panels. Its a Colorado company that has been doing that here on the [Denver Federal Center] campus and saving a lot of money, creating jobs in Colorado. National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy expanded on Carnahans comments about demonstration programs like GPG, explaining how the code red status of climate change can be turned into opportunities. The more we can show and demonstrate that climate change can be solved today by the innovations already today as we move forward to create the next round of opportunities, the more that people will begin to demand the solutions that will benefit them today. Reducing energy costs by making buildings more energy efficient is one key factor in combating the climate crisis, as well as the importance of futurizing buildings beyond the federal portfolio. The challenge is to try to get folks to understand and embrace the efficiency that you can get with new buildings, but also the efficiency you can achieve through retrofitting and rethinking the way in which energy cost is spent, said McCarthy. It can make a huge improvement, if you think about it, over time. By making a small investment, you can accrue that payback and the payments just keep paying after that. Every single year you benefit Part of the biggest strategy to address climate change is as simple as reducing your energy bill. Through the GPG studies, Alpens WinSert secondary window inserts, made with thin glass and super-insulated fiberglass frames designed to turn existing low-performing windows into high performance windows, demonstrated up to 18% whole-building energy savings based on energy modeling. Alpens quad-pane windows, made with either thin glass or suspended film center panes to create a high performance window in a lighter-weight profile, demonstrated an average simple payback of less than two years. GSA will be installing Alpens quad-pane high performance windows throughout building 40 at the Denver Federal Center as a part of its goal to use energy efficiency to get to net zero through electrification of its buildings. We are pleased to be invited into GSAs Green Proving Ground Program to demonstrate the promising capabilities of our quad-pane windows and WinSert secondary windows, said Brad Begin, CEO of Alpen High Performance Products. Climate change is here, and high-impact technologies that reduce the footprint of the built environment have never been more imperative. GSAs Green Proving Ground program hosted two webinars for Alpens products where researchers and facility managers discussed findings from the project evaluation, shared operational guidance and answered live questions. The webinar recordings for Lightweight Quad-Pane Windows and Lightweight Secondary Windows can be viewed here. More information about these GPG Program studies and their findings is available on http://www.gsa.gov About GSAs Green Proving Ground (GPG) Program GSAs Green Proving Ground program works with third-party evaluators to test innovative early-commercial building technologies in federally owned buildings. The program enables GSA to make investment decisions in next-generation building technologies based on actual performance. To date, following favorable evaluation results, 23 GPG-evaluated technologies have been deployed in more than 500 facilities in GSAs real-estate portfolio. For more information about the GPG program, please visit http://www.gsa.gov/gpg. About ALPEN HIGH PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS INC Alpen High Performance Products manufactures super-insulating, thermally efficient commercial and residential windows and architectural glass with four decades of industry leadership in high performance windows and glass unit manufacturing. The exceptional thermal performance of Alpens window and glazing solutions grants the freedom to design with maximum glass across all building types and climate zones. Whether for new construction or retrofit applications, Alpen products provide a powerful combination of blocking summer heat, retaining winter warmth, eliminating harmful ultraviolet rays, reducing noise and maximizing natural daylight while providing exceptional energy savings. Visit Alpens website to learn more. By 2027, experts predict a 27.6% increase in the total number of ASCs; more than 50% of all procedures performed there will treat cardiovascular issues. Given [the] increase in cardiac procedures at ASCs, it follows [they] would enormously benefit from a unified, structured-reporting CVIS platform that [has] the same functionalities as those in major medical centers and are tailored-made for the needs and capabilities of the ambulatory center. For more than four decades, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have offered patients the convenience of having certain surgical procedures performed outside the hospital setting.(1) By 2027, experts predict a 27.6% increase in the total number of ASCs; more than 50% of all procedures performed there will treat cardiovascular issues.(2) To handle increasing patient loads, cardiologists in these centers will need access to technology providing comprehensive data management throughout the entire care cycle. Dr. Serge Makowski, CEO and Co-founder of leading software design firm MediReport, says, Moving certain cardiac procedures to an ASC provides many benefits. The patient receives the convenience and affordability of ambulatory care. The physicians benefit from more convenient scheduling and more autonomy. And the insurance companies benefit as ASCs offer the same procedures as hospitals but at a rate that is 35 to 50 percent less costly. According to some estimates, there are now more than 9,000 ASCs in the United States,(3) and single-specialty cardiology ASCs are rapidly growing in number. In 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) updated their definition of surgery to include surgery-like procedures. This resulted in an expansion of their reimbursement list to include more than 18 cardiac catheterization-related procedures such as heart catheterizations, coronary interventions, and pacemaker implants.(4) CMS continues to approve more procedures for outpatient reimbursement, driving the need for unified cardiovascular information systems that provide end-to-end data management. How ASCs benefit patients, providers, and the healthcare system ASCs offer the same surgical care services as many larger inpatient facilities at a fraction of the cost. Some estimates show that surgical procedures performed in an ASC may be 35 to 50% less expensive compared to the same procedure performed in a hospital.(5) In addition to these cost savings, greater emphasis on excellent customer service and a commitment to delivering the highest quality care helps improve patient outcomes and lowers the chance of complications, such as infection, after a procedure.(6) Statistics show that approximately 90% of all ASCs are fully or partially owned by physicians.(6) Physicians benefit from a more convenient scheduling and flexibility in staff, equipment, and supplies and tend to get more autonomy and customized surgical environments in ASC settings. For the healthcare system as a whole, ASCs provide the ability to move lower-risk, routine cardiovascular procedures out of the inpatient setting. This frees up valuable cardiac cath and electrophysiology lab time for patients suffering from complex medical issues or trauma. Technology needs Given this increase in cardiac procedures at ASCs, it follows that these centers would enormously benefit from a unified, structured-reporting CVIS platform that in addition to having the same functionalities as those in major medical centers are tailored-made for the needs and capabilities of the ambulatory center. ASCs currently have lighter patient loads and provide less medically complex procedures compared to hospitals. However, they also usually have less staff and a lighter information technology (IT) infrastructure. And since ASCs arent reimbursed at the same rate as larger facilities, its important to find technology solutions that dont hurt the bottom line. MediReport, a software company that understands the specificities of ASC settings, already provides a CVIS solution called CardioReport Ambulatory. Specifically tailored for ASC needs and requirements, the cloud-based system intelligently guides the clinician on the mandatory and important procedural data abiding by the latest clinical guidelines and generates near real-time reports which are automatically incorporated into the facilitys electronic medical record (EMR). Based on 25-plus years of medical expertise, the system enables doctors to leverage extensive built-in clinical depth with functionalities such as structured reporting (with templates customized to the physicians and practices specific workflows), inventory management, score calculation (SCAI, SYNTAX), analytics dashboards and post discharge follow ups. The same data may be repurposed repeatedly for clinical research or registry participation, without the need for repeated manual data entry. The end result is greater physician satisfaction as it dramatically improves not only their experience of performing and reporting on procedures, but it completely unifies their diagnostic reporting for accuracy. Functionalities include, but are not limited to: Automated scoring calculation (Syntax, STS, SCAI, and more). Automated generation of structured reporting featuring customizable templates in 15 different languages. Customizable research protocols and structured databases. Dynamic integration of the latest clinical guidelines. Supply management including device traceability, activity monitoring, consumption, and forecasting future needs. Scheduling and appointment setting. Pre-admission patient screening and post-procedure monitoring. Data analytics and registry participation. As ASCs grow in number and offer more access to nonurgent surgical procedures, better data management systems are required to boost the patient care experience and help minimize costs, explains Dr. Makowski. CardioReport Ambulatory offers a unified but flexible platform for the clinical team to perform their daily tasks in one single platform. In addition, as a cloud-based solution, it fills any potential information gaps that could arise throughout the care cycle by providing remote access to procedure reports or pertinent data from any device (computer, tablet, or smartphone), anywhere and at any time. Adopting a unified CVIS drastically reduces clinical team workload, improves clinical outcomes and results in greater physician satisfaction while reducing costs. It was paramount for us to adapt our product and related services to efficiently deliver the CVIS that ASCs value most. At MediReport we consider our customers as our partners, and we work with each of them to support their initiatives and offer customization per site. We bolster customer success by ensuring smooth implementation, easy clinical adoption, and expert technical support. We have built teams of clinical specialists, account managers and IT experts to support the user every step of the way. As we know price pressure is important on ASCs due to lower reimbursement, we have tailored our price point to meet their financial constraints based on patient volume and size of the facility. However, this is critical for us that lower cost does not imply lower quality or technology, Dr. Makowski says. About MediReport MediReport, a global supplier of cloud-based software for medical applications, was founded in 1995 by cardiologists Dr. Serge Makowski and Dr. Fabrice Beverelli. Through its comprehensive CVIS, CardioReport Suite, MediReport provides vastly improved clinical workflows that save time, improve quality, and generate high revenue for client organizations. The company is committed to delivering quality products that address the evolving needs of cardiology and IT technologies, based on its foundational principles: clinical excellence, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement of its products and innovations, and commitment and responsiveness. They have equipped over 450 hospitals in more than 35 countries. For more information, visit medireport.net. Sources 1. Value-Based Care and Independent ASC Billing Facilities. Leading Medical Billing Services - USA, 29 June 2021, medicalbillersandcoders.com/blog/value-based-care-and-independent-asc-facilities-what-you-should-know/. 2. Thompson D and Comeau C. The Strategic Role of Ambulatory Surgery Centers Cardiology Care. DAIC, 1 Oct. 2021, dicardiology.com/article/strategic-role-ambulatory-surgery-centers-cardiology-care. 3. How Many Ambulatory Surgery Centers Are in the US? Definitive Healthcare, definitivehc.com/blog/how-many-ascs-are-in-the-us#: 4. Texas Cardiologist Discusses Procedures in the ASC Setting. ASC Focus Magazine, ascfocus.org/ascfocus/content/articles-content/articles/2020/digital-debut/texas-cardiologist-discusses-procedures-in-the-asc-setting#: 5. Biesen, Tim van, and Todd Johnson. Ambulatory Surgery Center Growth Accelerates: Is Medtech Ready? Bain, 26 June 2020, hbain.com/insights/ambulatory-surgery-center-growth-accelerates-is-medtech-ready/. 6. ASCS: A Positive Trend in Health Care. ASCs: A Positive Trend in Health Care - Advancing Surgical Care, ascassociation.org/advancingsurgicalcare/aboutascs/industryoverview/apositivetrendinhealthcare. Check out the Chrysler Pacifica at Auction Direct USA. Priced at a sale price of $23,999, the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L is powered by a 3.6L V6 24V VVT V 6-cylinder engine with automatic transmission and front-wheel drivetrain producing a fuel economy of 19 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. Currently, the vehicle is available at the Auction Direct USA inventory in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its previously recorded odometer reading stands at 73,696 miles, and the vehicle is available in Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl coat exterior color with Black/Alloy interior colors. The minivan also features a backup camera, alloy wheels, leather interiors, rear parking sensors, a power drivers seat, third-row seating, and heated seats. Additionally, the vehicle has also passed the 125-Point Dealer Inspection and possesses a clean CARFAX report. Customers interested in the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L can find more information regarding the vehicle on the dealerships website at http://www.auctiondirectusa.com. Call 844-678-8048 or drop by 7601 Glenwood Ave in Raleigh, North Carolina 27612 for further assistance. Convergence Inc. is excited to announce the acquisition of Double N Advisers, LLC (DNA). Carl J. Versella, DNAs Founder/CEO will assume the role of Managing Director to lead its Capital Markets segment and its Management Consulting practice. About DNA Founded in 2017, DNA is an independent, boutique management consulting firm that delivers superior operations and business strategy to financial services companies and their service providers, at every stage of the business lifecycle. Services include project management, strategic business planning, operational due diligence, middle/back-office transformation, cash and collateral management, capital development, counterparty credit risk management, service provider analysis and compliance. Prior to founding DNA, Carl served as President/COO of HC Associates, a consulting firm successfully sold to Rothstein Kass. He was the founder of the Alternatives consulting group for Credit Suisses prime brokerage unit, a Morgan Stanley consultant to Tiger Management, LLC and a senior leader for KPMGs Management Consulting practice. "I am very excited to join the Convergence team, a firm I have spent many years working closely with as a cooperative company. Convergences award-winning data-driven insights will position existing and new capital markets clients to efficiently achieve their business goals, said Carl. Carls background and his core set of values are an ideal fit for Convergence as we continue to build more robust analytics and consulting support for our clients, said John Phinney, Chairman and CEO of Convergence. Carls extensive experience in alternatives, asset management, prime brokerage, broker dealer/banking operations, combined with his strategic vision for growth, adds depth to the growing Convergence team, said George Evans, Convergence co-founder and Co-President. Carls full background and complete set-of skills can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/versella/. About Convergence - Founded in 2013, Convergence provides clients with data as a service solutions by identifying, collecting, normalizing, structuring and enriching raw and unstructured data into meaningful business insights. Its insights are often infused with data science to create highly accurate predictive analytics and help our clients grow revenue, improve efficiency and identify and manage risks. Our clients include institutional investors, asset managers, service providers, government agencies, corporations and colleges and universities. We are headquartered in South Norwalk, CT and operate in New Jersey and Hyderabad, India. For additional informational please contact John Phinney, jphinney@convergenceinc.com, George Evans, gevans@convergenceinc.com or Carl Versella cversella@convergenceinc.com to learn more about how Convergence can help you. Expo 2020 Dubai offered hope to the entire world for a better future, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Commissioner-General of Expo 2020 Dubai. In an interview with the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Sheikh Nahyan stressed that the UAEs hosting of Expo 2020 Dubai has proven the success of the nations journey and approach, supported by the vision of its leadership, adding that the major event attracted the worlds attention to the UAE and the commercial, investment and economic opportunities it offers. The world spoke the language of humanity in the UAE, a country known for its giving, for six months, and offered hope for a better future, he added, noting that most pavilions will remain standing in the city, and related cultural and academic events will continue. He also commended the distinguished Emirati model of volunteering at Expo 2020 Dubai, affirming that nearly 33,000 volunteers provided leading services and facilitated the visits of over 24 million guests. All countries that participated in Expo 2020 Dubai were treated with respect, appreciation and equality, and many celebrated their national days at the event, Sheikh Nahyan said. The UAE, upon the directives of its wise leadership, believes in possibilities and was established to address challenges and turn them into opportunities, which is the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, he added, stressing that the UAE has successfully overcome the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and organised the most important cultural event in the world. Speaking about the leading youth empowerment solutions presented by the event, Sheikh Nahyan explained that the youth were the key pillar of Expo 2020 Dubai and a core component of all initiatives, conferences and events held during the event, which represented a platform for the voices of the youth, enabling them to express their views and ambitions and highlight their challenges. Speaking about the role played by Expo 2020 Dubai in supporting the UAE Vision 2071, by making the country an international hub for attracting ideas and investments, Sheikh Nahyan said the Golden Jubilee's celebrations at Expo 2020 Dubai site have crowned the past fifty years in the history of the UAE, and signalled a promising future for the next fifty years. He highlighted that the Expo has taught the world about the UAEs leading role in the areas of international politics, culture, the economy and science. The Expo has gathered the world in the UAE, and thousands of international leaders visited the event, including kings, heads of states, prime ministers, other ministers and high-level officials, he added, highlighting the many investment and commercial opportunities offered by the UAE. Sheikh Nahyan also talked about the UAEs cooperation with Japan in hosting Expo 2025 Osaka, repeating the words of the Japanese pavilions commissioner-general, who said Japans participation in the event was not only about sharing its culture and traditions, but it was inspired by the organisation of Expo 2020 Dubai. Sheikh Nahyan stated that the UAE welcomed the world at the Expo, ensuring the rights of people and the community to gather in safety, in line with the highest international precautionary standards, adding that the Expo also offered discussions about the major challenges facing humanity and held many activities that aimed to create solutions to these challenges. During Expo 2020 Dubai, the world explored the UAEs distinguished model of tolerance, pluralism and diversity, he added, noting that the event hosted Tolerance Week, which witnessed the launch of numerous initiatives, such as the Global Tolerance Alliance launched during the National Tolerance and Coexistence Festival. Speaking about the UAEs message to the world during Expo 2020 Dubai, Sheikh Nahyan pointed out that the event took place amidst dire conditions, giving the world a glimpse of hope about what could be achieved if humanity can cooperate and unify their aims and visions. San Francisco Toyota is offering a free brake inspection and 10% off on brake service in San Francisco, California. Drivers who feel the need to get a brake inspection for their Toyota vehicles can get it for free at San Francisco Toyota, an automotive dealership in San Francisco, California. In addition to a brake inspection, customers will also get 10% off on brake servicing, if required. Interested parties can download the coupon for this offer at San Francisco Toyotas website before June 2, 2022 and present it at the time of order write-up. Along with brake services, the dealership provides various other automotive services, including oil and filter change, wheel alignment, coolant flush, transmission flush, scheduled maintenance, vehicle inspection and more. Drivers can get any service for their Toyota models by scheduling a service appointment on the dealerships website. In addition to quick and efficient automotive services, individuals can also order parts and get them installed by the dealerships staff. Drivers interested in taking advantage of the services offered at San Francisco Toyota can contact the dealership by dialing 415-941-2502. Individuals can also visit the dealership at 1701 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, California 94109. Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the lawsuit against USGI, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. The Los Angeles employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a lawsuit against USGI alleging the company violated Labor Code 2699, et seq. seeking penalties for DEFENDANTs alleged violation of California Labor Code 201, 202, 203, 204 et seq., 210, 221, 226(a), 226.7, 510, 512, 558(a)(1)(2), 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 1198, 1198.5, and 2802. The lawsuit against USGI is currently pending in the Orange County Superior Court, Case No. 30-2022-01250268-CU-OE-CTL. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here. According to the lawsuit filed, USGI allegedly failed to pay employees accurate sick pay wages, which violates California Labor Code Section 246. Employees can earn non-discretionary remuneration and routinely earned non-discretionary incentive wages which increased their regular rate of pay. However, when paid sick pay wages, it was allegedly paid at the base rate of pay rather than the regular rate of pay. PAGA is a mechanism by which the State of California itself can enforce state labor laws through the employee suing under the PAGA who do so as the proxy or agent of the state's labor law enforcement agencies. An action to recover civil penalties under PAGA is fundamentally a law enforcement action designed to protect the public and not to benefit private parties. The purpose of PAGA is not to recover damages or restitution, but to create a means of "deputizing" citizens as private attorneys general to enforce the Labor Code. For more information about the lawsuit against USGI, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, Santa Clara County, Orange County and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct. ***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT*** Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa in Abilene, Texas is excited to be holding an open house event on May 5 to celebrate 10 years in business. Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa is honored to have the opportunity to continue serving the Abilene community for 10 years and counting. The team at Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa cant wait to celebrate 10 years in business and share this huge milestone with everyone! Here are the event details, for those who would like to join: 10th Anniversary Open House! Where: Hendrick Plastic Surgery and MedSpa, 950 North 19th St., Suite 200, Abilene, Texas 79601 When: 5 - 7 p.m., Thursday, May 5 What: Refreshments, demos, raffles, vendors and event-only specials! Plus, attend for a chance to WIN a $500 gift card (Must be present at the time of the raffle to receive gift.) Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa is honored to have the opportunity to continue serving the Abilene community for 10 years and counting delivering the highest level of care and expertise through a comprehensive menu of plastic surgery and results-driven medical spa treatments. It has been such an honor to help our clients look and feel their best, says board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Kevin Bridge. We are so appreciative of their dedication and so grateful for all the success weve had in the past 10 years. About Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa offers a wide variety of cosmetic and reconstructive procedures, as well as medical spa services, in a tranquil, state-of-the art environment to help clients take the next step in their health and wellness journey with confidence and ease. Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa offers both surgical and non-surgical treatments, including fat grafting, breast augmentation, buttock augmentation, rhinoplasty, microdermabrasion, dermaplaning, Botox, dermal fillers, photofacials, laser skin tightening, non-surgical body contouring with CoolSculpting, laser hair removal, microneedling and more. Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Kevin Bridge and the specially-trained staff are focused on providing a nurturing environment where all questions and concerns are carefully and warmly addressed. Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa provides individually-tailored treatment options to help you exceed your aesthetic goals and live your life with confidence. To get started with a treatment or procedure at Hendrick Plastic Surgery & MedSpa, schedule your free consultation today by calling 325.670.5320 or visiting https://hendrickplastic.com/. About Kevin Bridge, MD Kevin Bridge is a board-certified plastic surgeon who has obtained extensive surgical training. Dr. Bridge graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina State University, where he earned a degree in biochemistry and was class valedictorian. Dr. Bridge earned his masters degree from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and his medical degree from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Bridge completed his general surgery residency at the University of Iowa and his training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Emory University. During his time at Emory, Dr. Bridge was privileged to be trained by leaders in the field of both breast reconstruction and aesthetic surgery. He was honored as a Regan Fellow with Operation Smile and traveled to Paraguay to perform cleft lip and palate procedures. Dr. Bridge is now an assistant professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centers School of Public Health in Abilene, where he plans to do research in childhood trauma prevention and breast cancer. The Inimical: a gripping fiction that offers suspense and thrills. The Inimical is the creation of published author JLR- Writer, an American Christian author from Houston, Texas, with a passion to create horror stories built from Biblical foundations. JLR- Writer shares, Even those that grip the cross aren't safe. They say we battle not against flesh and blood, but what happens when flesh and blood get involved and the human willpower is compromised by demonic forces? Meet Eli Smith, a former occult member turned pastor and demon hunter who barely escaped with his own life, but tragically, his wife and daughter were brutally murdered fifteen years ago. Since then, Eli's been on a mission helping families, businesses, and churches infested by the evil supernatural realm. But his former occult group resurfaced, taking strongholds in Sea Forest and Day-Port City, pledging to cause genocide on the Christian body. They are led by the iron hand of Benny Augustin, the dark priest who spills false doctrine to control the ones he scattered and unmercifully slaughtering the believers for the glory of Satan. May God watch over us all during these testing times. Welcome to The Inimical. The name itself explains it all. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, JLR- Writers new book will have readers on the edge of their seats as they race to see what awaits Eli as he battles against the forces of darkness. JLR- Writer presents a powerful narrative that offers unexpected twists of fate and a cast of well-developed characters for the enjoyment of readers who have a passion for supernatural thrillers. Consumers can purchase The Inimical at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Inimical, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Our Father Who Art In Heaven: Volume One Discover the Love of God Beyond Human Senses: a potent reminder of the comfort and encouragement one can find within Gods word. Our Father Who Art In Heaven: Volume One Discover the Love of God Beyond Human Senses is the creation of published author K C Uche, who is originally from Imo State, Nigeria, and relocated to the USA in 2001. He graduated with a doctorate in pharmacy (PharmD) from MCPHS University in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2008, and a masters degree in administration with a major in finance in Westwood College, Denver, Colorado, in 2011. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He came from a family of seven children and is married to Jane Uche, with six lovely childrenJennifer, Daniel, Whitney, Ijeoma, Michael, and Gold. Uche shares, This series of devotionals is to encourage us to grow in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We have all stayed away too long from Him that it is difficult for us to discover the love of our Heavenly Father beyond human senses. Our Lord Jesus said, I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them (John 17:26). So the more we increase in our knowledge of God, the more we remain in His love. Beloved, do you want to enjoy the peace and goodies the world and its affluence cannot give? Do you want to live in and experience Gods rightness and justiceGods own ways of doing things right? Have you tasted the joy of the Holy Spirit? If not, this devotional is for you. Come and enjoy the fatherhood of Goda divine Father-child relationship God planned for Him and us before the foundation of the world. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, K C Uches new book is from the authors Our Father Who Art In Heaven series. Uche shares in hopes of guiding others as they work to build and nurture a strong connection with God through daily devotions. Consumers can purchase Our Father Who Art In Heaven: Volume One Discover the Love of God Beyond Human Senses at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Our Father Who Art In Heaven: Volume One Discover the Love of God Beyond Human Senses, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Rep. Maxine Waters and LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell help cut the ribbon at the grand opening celebration of the Fairview Heights affordable and supportive housing complex in Inglewood, Calif. Were going to end homelessness when we have enough affordable and supportive housing for our working families and those who struggle with mental and physical health issues. Co-developers National Community Renaissance (National CORE) and Linc Housing, both California-based nonprofits, joined Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, and other partners to celebrate the grand opening of Fairview Heights apartments. This new transit-oriented affordable and supportive housing apartment complex brings 101 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes to Inglewood, including 50 units for people who have experienced homelessness, 50 units for households earning between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income, and one on-site manager's unit. One new resident, Oyuki, moved in on her birthday in late January. After struggling to house herself and her young son for many years, moving into her new home at Fairview Heights was the best birthday gift ever. I couldnt believe it, she said. I still cant believe it. I keep waiting for someone to tell me I have to leave. It was difficult to care for her Type 2 diabetes when she wasnt sure where her next meal would come from, and her son struggled at school because the stress of being homeless left him unable to concentrate. Since moving in, her health and his grades have improved. You cant imagine how relieved we are to finally have a home, she said. The 1.44-acre site, located at 923 East Redondo Blvd in Inglewood, was previously occupied by an aging building owned by the County of Los Angeles. The County was a key supporter of the new development with funding support from many County sources, including Measure H and Proposition A. Were going to end homelessness when we have enough affordable and supportive housing for our working families and those who struggle with mental and physical health issues, said Mitchell. When I look at this beautiful new building and I meet the new residents, Im inspired to continue our work at the county level to partner with developers and service providers to get more housing built. Fairview Heights is a shining example of whats possible. A highlight of the building is Rise Above, a four-story high augmented reality mural. The mural features vibrant colors and imagery of joining hands, which depict strength in togetherness, solidarity, diversity and inclusion. Viewers can download the Rise Above Mural app and then hold up their phones to experience the augmented reality. Theyll see the hands open to reveal images of culture, history, and heritage. Poppies - Californias state flower and a native species of Inglewood - grow and bloom, and leaves blow in the wind, while a ribbon swirls around, leading the viewer through the story of Inglewood. Viewers can also swipe to another documentary layer to see and hear community members talk about what makes Inglewood a great place to live and work. Were all about bringing people together to support our residents and the surrounding neighborhood, said Suny Lay Chang, president and COO, Linc Housing. With this new housing, wraparound intensive case management, resident services, public art and ground floor space for organizations that want to work with us to uplift this community, were confident Fairview Heights will be central to the ongoing revitalization of Inglewood. The two four-story buildings feature Spanish-style architecture with open spaces to promote resident interaction. The complex has on-site parking, bike storage, a community room with a computer lab, offices for case management, tot lots, and two outdoor courtyards with picnic areas. The buildings, recently certified LEED for Homes Gold, have a rooftop solar energy system that is expected to offset 90% of the communitys common area electricity needs. Water-conserving plumbing, drought-tolerant landscaping, and high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and AC systems further decrease Fairview Heights carbon footprint. Fairview Heights is an example of what can happen when like-minded partners and supportive cities work together to address the housing issues in our communities, said Steve PonTell, president and CEO, National CORE. It has been a pleasure working with the County, City, and Linc Housing to build sustainable apartment homes with strong wraparound services that provide new opportunities for individuals who were formerly homeless and families who have been struggling. Partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and Department of Mental Health allows Linc and National CORE to serve the 50 formerly homeless households with intensive case management services. Additionally, all residents have access to life-enhancing services through Lincs resident services program. Intensive case management services include mental health and physical health services, employment counseling and job placement, education, substance use counseling, money management, assistance in obtaining and maintaining benefits, and referrals to community-based services and resources. Linc resident services will support all residents with a variety of programs to promote community, health and wellness. In addition to the new homes and services for the residents, the complexs ground level has more than 6,300 square feet of community-serving space that includes offices for local nonprofit One For All, an Inglewood Police Department Community Drop-In Center, and planned Workforce Innovation & Talent Center in partnership with CVS Health. Fairview Heights location is walking distance to surrounding community amenities, including the nearby Edward Vincent Junior Park and the Fairview Heights Metro Station, due to open later this year. Funding for the development comes from a variety of sources, including $11.5 million distributed by the Los Angeles County Development Authority (County General Funds, Mental Health Housing Program Funds, Measure H, and Proposition A L.A. County District Two), as well as a conventional loan and tax credit equity from Bank of America. KFA Architecture designed the new community, and National CORE was the general contractor. Construction began in January 2020 and residents began to move in January 2022. All 101 homes are currently occupied. About Linc Housing Corporation Linc Housing, one of California's most productive nonprofit developers of affordable housing, is committed to building communities and strengthening neighborhoods for people underserved by the marketplace. Linc has helped create nearly 9,000 homes in 90 communities throughout the state. The organization's properties are known for excellent design, outstanding management and life-enhancing services for its residents. Linc has 38 years of service to families, seniors, people with special needs, and local governments - helping to create sustainable communities via new construction, acquisition and rehabilitation, and historic preservation. Visit http://www.Linchousing.org for more information. About National Community Renaissance (National CORE) National Community Renaissance, based in Southern California, is one of the nations largest nonprofit developers of affordable housing. National CORE manages nearly 9,000 affordable, senior, and market-rate units in California, Texas, and Florida. National COREs strength is in its ability to offer partners an array of in-house capabilities that navigates the complexities of planning, developing, building, managing, and providing supportive services. For more information on National CORE, please visit http://www.nationalcore.org. NAMI Metropolitan Baltimores mental health awareness event, LOUDER, will be held on Tuesday, April 19 at 5:30 p.m. at Sagamore Pendry Baltimore. LOUDER, like many of our other initiatives, allows us to help reduce the stigma around mental health while also celebrating Baltimore companies and leaders who champion our values day in and day out. NAMI Metropolitan Baltimores mental health awareness event, LOUDER, will be held on Tuesday, April 19 at 5:30 p.m. at Sagamore Pendry Baltimore. The event will recognize and celebrate the individuals and companies who are committed to reducing the stigma around mental health in Baltimore through NAMI Metropolitan Baltimores I Will Listen campaign. At the event, NAMI will honor local leaders who elevate the conversation around mental health in the workplace and the Greater Baltimore community with the NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore LOUDER Achievement Award. This years honorees and speakers are Tchernavia Bagheri-Rocker, Chief People and Administrative Officer at Under Armour, and Patrick Sutton, Designer and Owner of Patrick Sutton Design. 284,000 adults in Baltimore City and County have a mental health conditionthats the equivalent of four full Baltimore Ravens stadiums, said Kerry Graves, Executive Director of NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore. LOUDER, like many of our other initiatives, allows us to help reduce the stigma around mental health while also celebrating Baltimore companies and leaders who champion our values day in and day out. Morgan State University will also be awarded for its demonstration of creativity and innovation in addressing the mental health needs of its students with the NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore #IWillListen Student Impact Award. During the 2021 #IWillListen Campaign, Morgan State University reached 1,200 students through 14 events including game nights, Unplugged open mic nights, yoga, and other wellness events to help start the conversation around mental health. The money raised from LOUDER will support the work of NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore and its mission to improve the lives of local individuals living with mental health conditions, their families, and their communities through education, support, and advocacy. Donations will allow the organization to expand and provide critical support groups, classes, and mental health programming free of charge to the Baltimore community. In 2021, NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore provided nearly 9,000 touch points of service in the Baltimore City and County for individuals living with mental health conditions, their families, and communities through education, support, and advocacy. During that same year, 39.1% of adults in Maryland reported symptoms of anxiety or depression and 31.3% were unable to get needed counseling or therapy. There is undoubtedly a need for organizations like NAMI in the Baltimore area, especially given the events of the last several years, said Patrick Sutton. Offering empathy and support at every level is critical, and Im looking forward to sharing my passion for NAMIs mission and my personal mental health story with Baltimores leaders at LOUDER. NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore is proud to have Sheppard Pratt as LOUDERs Premier Sponsor, with other sponsors including Under Armour, Atlas Restaurant Group, Baltimore Magazine, BHS, Bloomtopia, Brown Advisory, Patrick Sutton, and Whiting-Turner Contracting. For more information about NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore, the LOUDER event, or to purchase tickets, please visit our website. About NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nations largest grassroots mental health organization. NAMI is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals living with mental health conditions, their families, and communities through education, support, and advocacy. NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore is a NAMI affiliate serving Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Our staff, board, and dedicated volunteers work together to raise awareness and provide essential support programs. For 35 years, we have established ourselves as the local voice on mental illness. NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore piloted many of NAMIs Signature education programs here in Baltimore. Today, we continue to develop innovative resources and community education tools that improve the lives of people affected by mental illness and their families. We have grown to serve more than 9,400 individuals and family members annually. For more information on NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore, visit http://www.namibaltimore.org. Black-crowned night heron in Downtown Oakland- Oaklands official city bird; Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo We are so proud to relaunch this program to help our official City of Oakland bird and are fully committed to preserving wildlife in our great city, the Bay Area, and beyond, Oakland Zoos Heron Rescue Team (HRT) is collaborating with International Bird Rescue and Golden Gate Audubon Society of San Ramon in the rescue effort for these fledgling birds, too young to fly and fallen from their nests and needing care and rehabilitation to survive. With two daily patrols in downtown Oakland, the team consists of designated Oakland Zoo staff and volunteers to help save as many birds as possible during the 6-8 week-long nesting season. These initial patrols have taken place during the early part of the fledgling season. Oakland is home to the largest black-crowned night-heron rookery (communal nesting ground for birds) in the Bay Area. When nests are built in the trees on busy Oakland streets, the fledglings (babies) of the black-crown night herons, just learning to fly, sometimes fall from their nests onto the concrete sidewalks or streets, often resulting in serious injury or death. So far, 151 nests have been identified this year. The HRT brings injured birds to the Zoo for intermediary medical evaluation and treatment. The Zoo then provides transport of the birds to International Bird Rescue to complete their recovery period. Once recovered and old enough to survive and fly, the birds are released into the wild into safe and local habitats, such as the Oakland Bay shoreline. We are so proud to relaunch this program to help our official City of Oakland bird and are fully committed to preserving wildlife in our great city, the Bay Area, and beyond, Nik Dehejia, CEO of Oakland Zoo. Posting flyers in neighborhoods and distributing postcards to get residents to aid in the rescue effort, Oakland Zoo has also created an emergency hotline (510-703-8986) for residents to help in reporting injured birds to the HRT. The Zoo partnered with the Golden Gate Audubon Society and International Bird Rescue in previous years. During that time, the team rescued about 70 birds. The Zoo had to pause the rescue efforts in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic-related issues that included staffing challenges. Golden Gate Audubon is thrilled that the Oakland Zoo is resuming rescue operations. Black-crowned night herons are the official bird of Oakland, and they merit some special attention to ensure that they can continue to thrive in the city," says Glenn Phillips, Executive Director of Golden Gate Audubon. Due to their iconic city status, black-crown night herons were named the City of Oaklands official bird in 2019 after a two-year campaign spearheaded by third-graders at Park Day School. Please visit our website here for more information on joining the Zoo in Taking Action for Herons. Contact: Isabella Linares Oakland Zoo ilinares@oaklandzoo.org Office: 510-632-9525 ext. 239 Cell: 650 776 -9589 Erin Dogan Harrison Oakland Zoo eharrison@oaklandzoo.org Office: 510-746-7120 Cell: 415-601-1619 ABOUT OAKLAND ZOO AND THE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: Oakland Zoo, home to more than 850 native and exotic animals, is managed by the Conservation Society of California (CSC), a non-profit organization leading an informed and inspired community in Taking Action for Wildlife locally and globally. With over 25 conservation partners and projects worldwide, the CSC is committed to conservation-based education and saving species and their habitats in the wild. Oakland Zoo is dedicated to the humane treatment of animals and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the national organization that sets the highest standards for animal welfare for zoos and aquariums. ABOUT THE BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON: Black-crowned Night-Herons are common in wetlands across North America. True to their name, these birds do most of their feeding at night and spend much of the day hunched among leaves and branches at the waters edge. Adults have a black crown and back with the remainder of the body white or gray, red eyes, and short yellow legs. They have pale gray wings and white underpartsblack-crowned night-herons nest colonially, often with a dozen nests in a single tree. Colonies sometimes last for 50 years or more. P2 Science Inc., a green chemistry company, is proud to announce that the company has won 3rd place in a very competitive Cosmetics Raw Materials Category of the innovation awards managed by Beratungs- und Serviceburo (BSB) of Germany. The BSB awards are in their 20th year and are highly sought after by members of the cosmetics industry. Among the aims of the awards are to promote the global dissemination of up-to-date knowledge, according to Dr. Jan Riedel, BSB founder. The Citropol range of superior performing silicone and petrochemical alternatives from P2 Science was introduced to the global market in April of 2020. This patented biorenewable, biodegradable and biocompatible range of ingredients delivers strong differentiating performance in both skincare and haircare products. The BSB awards application for Citropol was made by P2 in collaboration with Connect Chemicals, P2s Citropol distributor in Germany and Italy. About P2 Science: P2 Science is a green chemistry company, co-founded by Professor Paul Anastas, head of the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering and Dr. Patrick Foley. P2 has developed and patented technologies for converting renewable feedstocks into high-value specialty products. Investors in P2 include BASF Venture Capital, Xeraya Capital, Elm Street Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, Ironwood Capital, HG Ventures and Chanel. The company started up its first manufacturing plant in September of 2018 which produces novel renewable aroma chemicals and cosmetic ingredients. For more information, visit http://www.p2science.com. LevinPro HC Although the last quarter was not the busiest quarter for investment activity in the physician medical group market, activity remains healthy and stable... Health systems are also going to make a strong push into the market to bolster their network of care, so expect plenty of future activity. Activity in the Physician Medical Group (PMG) M&A market fell slightly in the first quarter of 2022. In Q1:22, there were 130 publicly announced deals in the PMG sector, according to data from the LevinPro HC Database. This is a 6% decrease from Q4:21 that saw 139 deals. Yet, when compared to Q1:21, this past quarter had 12% more transactions than Q1:21s 116 deals. Further deal information can be accessed through the LevinPro HC Database, which is found here. Although the last quarter was not the busiest quarter for investment activity in the physician medical group market, activity remains healthy and stable, with plenty of opportunities remaining for private equity investors. Health systems are also going to make a strong push into the market to bolster their network of care, so expect plenty of future activity, said Dylan Sammut, Editor of Healthcare at Irving Levin Associates. Although most deals in the sector do not disclose the transaction prices, there were two deals of note. First, Forefront Dermatology was acquired by Partners Group for $1.5 billion, the largest deal in the sector last quarter. Founded in 1977, Forefront Dermatology is a network of dermatology practices providing best-in-class general, surgical and cosmetic dermatology care along with related laboratory services. The disclosed deal value for all of Q1:22 totaled $1,500,756,332. In Q4:21, the disclosed transaction value totaled more than $2.9 billion across six publicly priced deals which is higher than last quarter by more than $1 billion. Q1:22 total dollars volume was higher than Q1:21, which only saw $489.2 million in announced spending across three different deals. After analyzing the 130 deals that were reported last quarter, 26 deals targeted dental practices and 23 focused on ophthalmology practices. Dental and ophthalmology practices are traditionally attractive targets for private equity firms, and we expect this trend to continue. Q1:21 reported 20 ophthalmology deals and only 15 dental transactions. Another popular sector for Q1:21 was gastroenterology that saw 18 deals, which is more than a 33% decrease to Q1:22 that only had 12 gastroenterology deals. All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of healthcare, which is part of the LevinPro HC investment research source. For information, or to order the report, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating more than 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors. The company was established in 1948 and has headquarters in New Canaan, Connecticut. The company publishes research reports and newsletters and maintains databases on the healthcare and seniors housing M&A markets. Smoke rises over an apartment building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. Military families are key contributors in their communities. This investment will allow us to build stronger military families which, in turn, builds a stronger America. - Margi Kirst, Chief Revenue Officer, Operation Homefront The Aegon Transamerica Foundation has generously donated $100,000 to Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit serving Americas military families. Transamericas contribution will support Operation Homefronts highly valued programs that help so many military families who, in the wake of the pandemic and our current economic climate, are struggling to make ends meet. Thanks to the tremendous commitment of partners and donors like the Aegon Transamerica Foundation, Operation Homefront has been able to serve tens of thousands of military families in need every year, through financial relief, transitional housing and recurring and caregiver support programs. The donation will allow Operation Homefront to continue its important mission to build strong, stable, and secure military families so they can thrive not simply struggle to get by in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. We are grateful to organizations like the Aegon Transamerica Foundation who share our commitment to help military families in their time of need because of all they have done for us in our nations time of need, said Margi Kirst, Chief Revenue Officer of Operation Homefront. Military families are key contributors in their communities. This investment will allow us to build stronger military families which, in turn, builds a stronger America. Transamerica is proud to support Operation Homefront and their mission to help military families thrive, said Karyn Polak, Chair of the Aegon Transamerica Foundation. Operation Homefront works tirelessly to provide military families in need with the help they deserve. Their extraordinary efforts align with our values as a company, and our commitment to helping people achieve a lifetime of financial security. Through the Aegon Transamerica Foundation, Transamerica supports nonprofit organizations that promote the arts and culture, civic engagement and community development, education and financial literacy, health and human services, inclusion and diversity, and the overall wellbeing of the communities where the companys employees live and work. Last year, the Aegon Transamerica Foundation donated more than $8 million to charitable causes. ### About Operation Homefront: Celebrating 20 years of serving Americas military families, Operation Homefront is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to build strong, stable, and secure military families so that they can thrive not simply struggle to get by in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. Recognized for superior performance by leading independent charity oversight groups, 88 percent of Operation Homefront expenditures go directly to programs that support tens of thousands of military families each year. Operation Homefront provides critical financial assistance, transitional and permanent housing and family support services to prevent short-term needs from turning into chronic, long-term struggles. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the support from thousands of volunteers, Operation Homefront proudly serves Americas military families. For more information, visit https://OperationHomefront.org. About Transamerica: With a history that dates back more than 100 years, Transamerica is recognized as a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, serving millions of customers throughout the United States. Recognizing the necessity of health and wellness during peak working life, Transamericas dedicated professionals work to help people take the steps necessary to live better today so they can worry less about tomorrow. Transamerica serves nearly every customer segment, providing a broad range of quality life insurance and investment products, individual and group pension plans, as well as asset management services. In 2021, Transamerica fulfilled its promises to customers, paying more than $52 billion in insurance, retirement, and annuity claims and benefits, including return of annuity premiums paid by the customer. Transamericas corporate headquarters is located in Baltimore, Maryland, with other major operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Denver, Colorado. Transamerica is part of the Aegon group of companies. Based in the Netherlands, Aegon is a diversified financial services group focused on providing investment, protection, and retirement solutions. For the full year of 2021, Aegon managed over $1.1 trillion in revenue generating investments. For more information, visit http://www.transamerica.com We have been looking for partners that are aligned with our mission to educate end users to be geotourists. The Tennessee River Valley offers outdoor enthusiasts thousands of acres of public lands and miles of waterways to explore. For visitors seeking dispersed backcountry camping, backpacking, and paddling experiences, there is a demand for light weight inflatable kayaks or SUPs that are easy to inflate or deflate. While Inflatable kayaks are ideal for packing into and out of off-the-beaten path launch spots, the flipside is that some big box inflatables end up abandoned in pristine locations due to tears in the plastic or the inability to deflate for portability. Instead, these are left behind to decay or end up in a waterway. Plastics are increasingly fouling the watersheds of the rivers and lakes in the Tennessee River Valley. Unsightly plastic floating debris spoils the beauty, while microplastics create harmful conditions for wildlife and humans. Each year, thousands of volunteer hours are invested in picking up trash from shorelines, waterways, and trails. Some of the worst items to haul in are the abandoned float tubes, trampolines, and mats that careless users leave behind, said TRV Stewardship Councils Julie Graham. We want people to experience the beauty of the Tennessee Valley Region, but to also respect these public lands and waters. In late 2021, Zoppinh approached the TRV Stewardship Council about a partnership to introduce the Southeast market to inflatable kayaks and iSUPs that have been widely available in European markets with great success. The products are made from the most durable materials available. They're manufactured using state-of-the-art materials and design techniques, and not cheaply glued, loosely stitched, flimsy plastic floatie-toys like you'd encounter in a chain retail store. They are built for the challenging conditions that can be found in backcountry waterways. With an eye on sustainability and the needs of backcountry travelers, Zoppinh also offers a line of portable, sun-powered lights which conveniently contain lithium batteries that can serve as power-packs for recharging phones. These are all-purpose companions for indoor and outdoor use: on the back of your boat, next to your RV or out on the trail. Zoppinh's self-powering lights are perfect for illuminating the campsite cook area or game-dressing work area after the hunt. Accessibility to the most beautiful places in the Valley is a wonderous journey. It is what draws people from across the US and worldwide to explore this part of Appalachia. We have been looking for partners that are aligned with our mission to educate end users to be geotourists, said Graham. At the end of day, all of us have a role in preserving and protecting our public lands and waters for future generations. The Tennessee River Valley Stewardship Council serves as the steering committee and editorial board for the Geotourism MapGuide website. It is comprised of volunteers from a seven state region. The Council's efforts are made possible through the generous support of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). For information on TVA's campgrounds and TVAs public trails, visit their website at http://www.tva.gov and click under the Recreation section. The University of La Verne is pleased to announce keynote speakers for the 2022 commencement ceremonies. Pomona Unified School District Superintendent Richard Martinez; prominent trial attorney Ricardo Echeverria; Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education Deborah A. Santiago; and Executive Vice President of the Lewis Group of Companies Randall Lewis will address the University of La Vernes graduates during commencement ceremonies held on Friday, May 27, and Saturday, May 28. The university will celebrate the accomplishments of more than 2,300 graduates who studied in the universitys four colleges on the central campus in La Verne, eight regional campuses, and online. The events will take place at Ortmayer Stadium on the La Verne campus and will also be broadcast live online. Martinez will address graduates of the LaFetra College of Education. He has been with Pomona Unified since 2001, serving as director of pupil resources, administrative director of personnel services, assistant superintendent of pupil and community services, and deputy superintendent. He became superintendent in 2009, serving on many district, county, and state boards and committees in school leadership, urban education, diversity, legislative policy, safety, guidance, and child welfare. He has presented at regional, state, and national conferences on topics such as student achievement, school climate, parent engagement, and peer support. Echeverria will address graduates of the College of Law. He is a trial attorney with Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP handling insurance, bad faith, and catastrophic personal injury cases. Echeverria is past president of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), the nations largest local association of plaintiffs attorneys. He was recognized as one of the Top 30 Plaintiff Lawyers in California in 2018 and 2019 and was named one of the Top 100 Attorneys in California in 2017 and 2018 by the Los Angeles Daily Journal. In 2019, he was honored with the Lifetime Legal Achievement Award from Consumer Watchdog. Santiago, who will address graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences, is chief executive officer and cofounder of Excelencia in Education, a Latina-led research organization dedicated to accelerating Latino student success in higher education. For more than 20 years, Santiago has led research and evidence-based practices and strategies at national levels to improve educational opportunities for Latino, and all, students. She has addressed federal legislative issues in higher education at the Congressional Research Service and informed program and policy implementation at the US Department of Education. She also served as the deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Lewis, the College of Business and Public Management speaker, has more than 40 years of experience in the real estate industry and serves as executive vice president of Lewis Management Corporation, a member of the Lewis Group of Companies one of the largest industrial planned community developers in Southern California. In 2014, Lewis won the Southern California Association of Governments Presidents Award for Sustainability Leader of the Year and the Urban Land Institutes Bob Santos Industry Leadership Award in Sustainable Community Development. He is an active and philanthropic supporter of health, education, and the arts and is a passionate University of La Verne advocate and donor behind centers such as the Randall Lewis Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Social Impact and the Randall Lewis Center for Well-Being and Research. The College of Arts and Sciences commencement will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 27; the College of Law commencement will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 28; The LaFetra College of Education commencement starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 28; and the College of Business and Public Management commencement begins at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 28. Additional information about commencement is available at laverne.edu/commencement. About the University of La Verne Founded in 1891, the University of La Verne is a private, nonprofit, comprehensive institution founded on four core values: lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, civic and community engagement, and diversity and inclusivity. The university serves students on the historic La Verne campus as well as across regional campuses and online. PHAs World PH Day theme is Pulmonary Hypertension Has No Borders. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) joins more than 80 organizations around the world on Thursday, May 5, to recognize World PH Day. World PH Day puts a spotlight on the global impact of pulmonary hypertension (PH), a rare, complex, life-threatening disease. PH has no cure and affects more than 75 million adults and children of all ethnicities globally. PH, or high blood pressure in the lungs, causes symptoms that include shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain. The disease is often underdiagnosed, misunderstood or misdiagnosed with more common illnesses, such as asthma. While there is no cure for PH, accurate early diagnosis and access to correct treatment can improve a patients quality of life and life expectancy. Without treatment, the average length of survival is under three years. PH can exist alone or in association with other conditions. In the U.S., PH is most associated with left heart disease. Other PH-associated conditions and risks include connective tissue disorders, blood clots to the lungs, HIV, sickle cell anemia, COPD, sarcoidosis and living in high altitudes. It has also been associated with methamphetamine use. This year, PHAs World PH Day theme is Pulmonary Hypertension Has No Borders. PH can affect anyone regardless of age, sex, race, social or ethnic background. PHA is joining the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI), based in Canterbury, England, to raise global awareness around the lack of treatment access and needed care for PH patients, particularly those caught in war and tragedy, like the current conflict in the Ukraine. As we look ahead to World PH Day in May, its important to remember that such efforts are critical not only in Ukraine and surrounding countries affected by war. They also are crucial for PH communities from Afghanistan to Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen, and other parts of the world affected by war, poverty and disaster, says Matt Granato, PHA president and CEO. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, most World PH Day events will take place virtually while some events will be held in-person with safety precautions in place. Matt Granato will be joining the MEP Lung Health Group and PHA Europe for a live panel discussion, A Stronger European Response to Rare Diseases - The Case of Pulmonary Hypertension on April 26 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Central European Time. The panel will address the European Parliament and the presentation will stream on Facebook Live. In the U.S., to raise awareness and promote advocacy, PHA will be hosting virtual legislative visits on May 4 and 5 for World PH Day. Advocates will meet with key congressional members of legislative committees that are overseeing PHAs top-priority bills, including the Safe Step Act (S. 464, H.R. 2163) and the HELP Copays Act (H.R. 5801). PHA will have a parallel advocacy action for the PH community to engage in on May 5 to support advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill. Patients, caregivers and health care professionals can use PHAs email template in PHAs Advocacy Action Center to write to legislators. The template will encourage Congress to support PHAs priority bills and a budget increase of $49 billion for National Institutes of Health funding so researchers and scientists can continue life-saving PH research. PHA will also host three in-person events in May. All O2breathe event attendees must be fully vaccinated (two vaccinations plus a booster, or one J&J vaccination plus a booster) or show a negative COVID-19 PCR-test within 48 hours of the event. PHA encourages the global PH community to raise awareness on social media through posts using the #WorldPHDay2022 hashtag. Individuals can visit the World PH Day page on PHAs website for more information about PH and to learn how they can participate in this years campaign. PHAs World PH Day webpage includes a digital toolkit with educational messages, images and other social media resources. Spanish and French resources are also available. About the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) is the oldest and largest nonprofit patient association dedicated to the pulmonary hypertension (PH) community. Pulmonary hypertension is a rare, chronic and life-threatening disease of the lungs for which no cure currently exists. PHAs mission is to extend and improve the lives of those affected by PH. To achieve this mission, PHA engages people with PH and their families, caregivers, health care providers, and researchers worldwide who work together to advocate for the PH community, provide support to patients, caregivers and families, offer up- to-date education and information on PH, improve quality patient care, and fund and promote research. For more information, visit phassociation.org and phassociation.org/WorldPHDay and connect with PHA on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In a move that has alarmed library supporters, a new law in Kentucky will give politicians control over local library boards in the state. According to a report in the Lexington Herald Leader, SB 167which came back from the dead last week with a dramatic veto overridewill empower local politicians to appoint whomever they want to library boards and block major library spending. Last week, the bill appeared to be killed after Kentucky governor Andy Beshear vetoed it, and the Kentucky House of Representatives fell short of the necessary votes to override. But in a surprise maneuver, supporters of the bill were able to revive the bill for another override voteand this time, four representatives who had not voted in the previous effort voted to override Beshears veto, carrying the measure into law. The law is scheduled to take effect in January 2023. According to the Lexington Herald Leader, Kentucky Republicans say the issue is accountability, pointing out that most of Kentuckys public library boards can levy taxes and should therefore answer to someone elected by voters. But critics say the bill is in fact a thinly veiled effort to politicize library boards, and give unprecedented control over library operations to politicians. According to the Herald Leader piece, library directors in the state are concerned that vesting power in a single partisan political leader will lead to partisan-skewed boards with ideological interests in the material on library shelves as well as in terms of programs, services, and library buildings. Whenever you have political control, its going to benefit that politician and their backers, Pike County library director Louella Allen told the Herald-Leader earlier this month. Its not going to be for the benefit of all the population and the needs of the entire population. On April 30, the Childrens Book Shop in Brookline Village, Mass., will close its doors after 45 years. Despite a successful GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $30,000 at the start of the pandemic, the lack of foot traffic and the inability to switch to online bookselling in a meaningful way forced the closure of the 900 sq. ft. store, the areas oldest independent childrens bookstore. We just didnt have the business, owner Terri Schmitz told PW. Schmitz made the official announcement of the upcoming closure late last week on social media, as well as through signage in the bookstore windows. But she began working with a realty company to sell the space the store occupies, a retail co-op, late last year. A new owner will take over on June 1. A former librarian at Harvard Universitys Widener Library, Schmitz purchased the Childrens Book Shop in 1985; when the building was turned into condos 10 years later, she bought the retail space. She was only the second owner of the store, following Elizabeth Rusty True Browder, who founded the tiny neighborhood bookstore for young children, from newborns through eighth graders, in 1977. Under Schmitzs tenure, the bookstore received a number of accolades, including the Womens National Book Association Pannell Award in 2000 for best childrens bookstore, followed by a Best of Boston Award from Boston Magazine in 2002 for Best Childrens Bookstore. The Childrens Book Shop was also known for its community involvement, including an annual spring poetry contest for children in grades K8, which Schmitz ran for 25 years ending in 2021. The store will be missed greatly, as a number of fans noted on Facebook. Some came by the bookstore to tell her in person, like a man who stopped by early Saturday morning and said, Thank you for all the years. On April 19, Schmitz is planning to begin an inventory sale. She asks that people who want to share a memory or a message contact her via email. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/18/2022 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. couple Alana Milne and Chris Conran have revealed how they reconciled after they both left the summer spinoff's seventh season single.Following the October 2021 finale of 7, Alana posted a photo of herself kissing Chris on her Instagram Story at a party and wrote, "Paradise is wherever I'm with you."Chris shared Alana's post on his own Instagram Story and proudly revealed at the time, "3 months of no cameras or producers," before noting how the couple was "waiting for a double date" with Noah Erb and Abigail Heringer Chris and Alana have been dating ever since, and the pair moved in together in Salt Lake City, UT, in Fall 2021, according to BachelorNation.com.On how the couple got together after leaving Mexico separately, Chris told the website, "After Paradise, I was completely mind f'ed. I have this great connection with someone and watched it slip away in the same day.""I downplay it all the time," he noted, "but it ate away at my heart.""What we have is real real, and I've never felt anything stronger," Chris insisted of Alana. "I had to talk to her and see her, but right after the show I felt like she didn't want to talk to me."Chris, however, apparently reached out to Alana anyway and "sent her flowers and booked a flight" to visit her."[The] rest is history," Chris said.Alana added how "things have a way of working themselves out" and she and Chris don't regret appearing on last summer."Had I never gone on the show, Chris and I never would have had that first date. Had we stayed on the show, something or someone may have come between us. It all happened the way it was supposed to," Alana shared."The show brought us together and then we were able to create a relationship on our own."The pair agreed it would be "silly to regret anything."Alana and Chris recently revealed their favorite things about each other on their respective Instagram Stories.Alana gushed, "Everyone who knows Chris knows they are lucky to have him in their lives. He's incredibly compassionate, loving, and kind. He makes me smile every single day, makes me laugh constantly, and above all, makes me a better version of myself."Alana also called her boyfriend "motivated and inspiring," and she said his dimple doesn't hurt.Meanwhile, Chris listed Alana's selfless heart, bright smile, intelligence, beautiful eyes, and her love for him."[She] always puts me in a better mood no matter how hard life, work, or stress hits me... Alana gives 110 percent in everything she does and this includes loving me. I love you baby," Chris told his followers.On an early September 2021 episode of , Chris and Jessenia Cruz had become one of the strongest couples on the beach in Mexico, but once Alana showed up to an invite-only VIP party hosted by Tituss Burgess , Chris kissed her right away and proceeded to make out with her on the dance floor right in front of Jessenia.After Jessenia left the VIP party early, alone and brokenhearted, Alana joined the Paradise cast the next day and asked Chris out on a date, and he said "yes" without hesitation.From there on out, Chris and Alana were inseparable and all about each other, and so the couple was accused of having a pre-show relationship and strategy for the Paradise process, similar to how Brendan Morais had dated Natasha Parker until his genuine romantic interest, Pieper James , arrived.Jessenia told the cameras Alana had once "thrown herself" on Chris at a friendly gathering in San Diego, CA, which "wasn't a good look" and it appeared Chris had been waiting for her to enter Paradise the entire time.Once Chris and Alana coupled up in Paradise, Joe Amabile and Riley Christian rushed to Jessenia's defense and led an attack on Chris in which they scolded him for wanting "clout" and being "dishonorable."Chris was essentially forced out of Paradise, with Jessenia telling Chris to f-ck himself, follow his heart, and "get the f-ck out of Paradise." And Riley and Joe agreed that was the right decision to make.When Alana asked the group if anyone wanted to know what she thought of the situation, Jessenia, Joe and Riley clapped back, "No!"Alana therefore left the show on her on accord since the environment had become a toxic place for her as well.Alana, however, decided not to leave with Chris since they had no time to really get to know each other and build a solid foundation.Chris apologized for hurting Jessenia in a lengthy Instagram apology after the unflattering footage aired, but he also felt wronged by his Season 7 co-stars."I take complete accountability for my blatant disrespect towards Jessenia, and handling the situation poorly," Chris wrote in early September, adding, "My past behavior is not a reflection of who I am or who I want to be, and it was never my intention to maliciously or purposefully hurt anyone on the show."After pointing out how he had been working on his relationship and communication skills, Chris confirmed he was "by no means in a relationship" with Alana prior to filming the show."I hung out with both Alana and Jessenia in a group setting," Chris explained at the time. "I met both of them, and had the same preshow relationship prior to Paradise. Flirty, and excited to potentially see them on Paradise."Chris asked people to stop attacking and harassing Alana, and despite having made some mistakes, he went on to stand up for himself."The hateful messages I'm receiving aren't fun, and the way I was attacked and pushed out of Paradise sucked. It reminded me of getting ganged up on in high school by the 'cook kids,'" Chris wrote."I understand I was low hanging fruit since I'm not a fan favorite, but it also takes a huge level of disrespect for grown men to shut a woman down when she's trying to use her voice. You two know she deserves an apology. We cannot have a culture where we silence women on this show.""All in all, I was not in a relationship prior to the show. I arrived single, and left single. Don't compare me to Brendan and Pieper, because it is not the same. I was disrespectful to Jessenia, and should have carried myself better," he added.Chris said "sorry" again for his actions but admitted, "I do not regret following my heart" on -- and his heart clearly led him to Alana once he returned home.Prior to their time on , Alana competed on Season 25 of The Bachelor starring Matt James , which aired in 2021, and Chris was a suitor on Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams ' season of The Bachelorette in 2020.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group Jason Dean started as a home brewer with the intention of possibly starting a brewery. After taking over the kombucha-making process at Five Points Bottle Shop, Dean fell in love with kombucha and all of the different creative possibilities it offered, so he decided to open Figment Kombucha. Now, Figment is sold in taprooms and cafes around Athens as well as in Deans own storefront, the Peoples Pantry. Feeling adventurous? These supermarkets offer ingredients not normally sold in typical markets, including specialty honey and imported foods. Some of these places also offer cooked food while you shop! How can you turn that down? As part of its Terraprint initiative, Terrapin Brewing Co. is expanding its community impact with the creation of a mobile food pantry in partnership with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. Located behind the brewery, the food pantry is open on the third Monday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon, rain or shine. Russel Stalvey discussed the effect of the pantry. With music and the smell of food filling the air, people pop in and out of different booths that dot the land at the outdoor Brattleboro Area Farmers Market that opened for the season on Saturday, May 7, 2022, and will run every Saturday until Oct. 29. You are the owner of this article. Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Suresh V. Garimella is president of the University of Vermont. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As birria tacos became one of the hottest food trends on social media, the MilSabores food truck jumped on board. The Norwalk-based mobile eatery, which launched in 2019 with a menu of Mexican and Venezuelan specialties, went all in on "Birria Sundays" in 2020, cooking hundreds of pounds of braised beef on the last day of the weekend. Lines outside the truck extended for half a block sometimes, said Edwin Mondragon, who owns and operates MilSabores with his wife, Yohana. Their success with the trendy dish, which extended beyond tacos to birria burritos, quesadillas, nachos, tortas and even ramen, helped the Mondragons open their first brick-and-mortar in Bridgeport on Nov. 16. But now they're running into a new challenge finding enough staff to reopen the food truck. "I've had a lot of events I haven't been able to grab, because they start in April," Edwin Mondragon said. "It's really difficult. We've posted a lot for [waitstaff], food truck employees." Courtesy of MilSabores / Edwin Mondragon The Mondragons parked the food truck temporarily in November to focus on the new space. Normally, they'd be gearing up for the warm weather season: festivals, private parties and other lucrative vending and catering opportunities. But without enough employees to cover both businesses, he's had to turn down requests for the truck. "We have a lot of private events and bookings on hold, but we're low on staff," he said. "[The event] would have to be worth it for us, because we'd have to close the store." Despite the current staffing woes, which has been impacting restaurants all over Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mondragons are looking ahead to possible expansion. Norwalk fans have been calling the restaurant to ask when the truck will return to the city, Edwin said, and he's noticed that only about 10 percent of their Norwalk customers have come to Bridgeport to dine. He and Yohana have discussed a potential new location there, and have considered other towns like Fairfield and Stratford. At the small and casual Bridgeport storefront, with just a few dine-in tables, the Mondragons showcase dishes from both their cultures. Edwin is Mexican and Yohana is Venezuelan, and tacos, burritos, nachos and tortas share equal menu space with arepas, empanadas operadas and patacon (sandwiches made with fried green plantains serving as "bread.") Courtesy of MilSabores / Edwin Mondragon Though birria has been a star menu item at both the truck and the restaurant, Edwin said guests are happy to see the Venezuelan dishes, a cuisine that isn't as readily available as Mexican food in the area. Customers are excited to see pabellon bowls, he said, a traditional Venezuelan platter with white rice, black beans, shredded cheese, fried egg, sweet plantain and choice of meat. Arepas have fillings like shredded pork, beef and chicken; grilled steak, shrimp and chorizo, served with mayonnaise-based pink sauce and green avocado-based guasacaca sauce. "We're focusing more on what we've seen that hits pretty well everyone's interested in street food," Edwin said "Authentic Mexican street food, Venezuelan street food. We've got a Venezuelan burger, hot dog. Those are things that look big, they catch your attention, catch your eye. They look different." (La hamburguesa Venezolana, by the way, is a staggering concoction: a beef patty topped with smoked pork chop, grilled chicken, hot dog, ham, fried egg, bacon, Gouda cheese, potato chip sticks, lettuce, tomato, grilled onion and house sauces.) The Mondragons have added a few outdoor tables for the warm months, shaded by umbrellas and framed by planters. The restaurant also offers takeout and delivery through third-party apps, including DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats. If they do secure enough staff to adequately run both businesses, Edwin said he would like to get back behind the wheel of the truck. "We're both still learning [at the storefront], but my wife is already at the point where she can run the restaurant by herself, with a good staff," he said. MilSabores is at 2043 Fairfield Ave. It's open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 203-345-2747, @milsaboresct. The Shanghai lockdown has prompted an exodus of foreign students and teaching staff, as the city reported its first deaths from COVID-19. Foreign residents of the city, many of whom were working in the education sector, are being evacuated, with many consulates arranging for evacuation of their nationals back home, according to social media posts. "It's not just in Shanghai; teachers at the best international school in China have left," Fudan University graduate Li Min told RFA. "They sent out a letter saying that while they have more than 100 years of history as an international school, the lockdowns have left them feeling hopeless in just a short period of time." "A large number of teachers [in Shanghai] have [also] resigned, because they can't guarantee normal food and drink supplies there." One announcement from an international school in Shanghai seen by RFA said in a letter to parents: "Currently, 28 teachers have indicated that they may leave Shanghai by , and 24 of them are expected to return to Shanghai in time for the next academic year." It said the school would move to distance learning until then. "We must create an environment that retains our top teachers, rather than forcing them to resign or to hesitate about their responsibilities," the letter said. The South Korean consulate meanwhile wrote to Fudan University calling on university authorities to release the remaining South Korean students still locked down on campus. "Last week, half of the international students in China were evacuated by plane," the letter said. "There are still [South] Korean students in various schools." "The Korean consulate wrote to Fudan University because the school wasn't cooperating ... and refused to allow them to leave." The letter described the students as "extremely panicked and helpless." A December 2019 file photo showing a sign of Fudan University , One of China's top universities, on the campus in Shanghai. Credit: AFP. 40,000 Japanese nationals A Shanghai resident surnamed said Fudan's foreign students have been transported out of Shanghai to isolation facilities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other provinces. "The foreign students at Fudan are no longer in Shanghai and have been moved to Zhejiang and Jiangsu," said. "They got taken away when the temporary hospitals no longer had enough space." The Consulate General of Japan in Shanghai has also written to the local authorities to ask how long the lockdown will continue. In a letter to deputy mayor Zong Ming, it said that around 40,000 Japanese nationals are currently living in Shanghai, and are "facing an unprecedented and difficult situation." It said some 11,000 Japanese-invested companies had been unable to operate normally for more than a month. "The impact on the business activities of enterprises has become increasingly serious," it said. A Shanghai-based scholar surnamed Fan said the letter was a thinly veiled warning that Japanese companies could relocate, if the situation doesn't improve soon. Three official deaths Health officials said on that just three people have died from Covid-19 in Shanghai since the citywide lockdown began last month, although hundreds of thousands of cases of omicron have been recorded. Public anger among Shanghai's 26 million residents over the ongoing restrictions is growing, amid ongoing complaints of food shortages, substandard and unsafe accommodation in isolation facilities and heavy-handed enforcement by officials. A Shanghai resident surnamed Lu said more than 20 million are totally confined to their homes, without external help for domestic chores like emptying septic tanks, fixing broken plumbing or water heating systems, as well as being barred from seeking hospital treatment without a negative PCR test, which can arrive too late for those in urgent need of care. "There are new issues starting to emerge," Lu said. "For example, a friend of mine's Wifi has been down for the past two weeks, so it's been tough on them, staying at home." ", a friend's water heater broke down, and another friend's refrigerator the day before that, and another's gas stove," she said. "No-one came out to repair these things because the whole of Shanghai is shut down." Online complaints have also pointed to garbage piling up in residential areas and overflowing septic tanks, while frail and elderly people have been forced to wait out the lockdown at home, alone. CCP leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly insisted on a zero-COVID approach, despite the ongoing outbreak, with officials warning that allowing the virus to rage unchecked through an under-resourced healthcare system and a sparsely vaccinated elderly age group could cause millions of deaths. But political commentators say Xi, who is seeking approval from party ranks for an unprecedented third term in office later this year, has staked his political reputation on the policy, and is unable to back down without admitting personal and political failure. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Taiwans plan was criticized by the Philippines and Vietnam as stoking tensions in the disputed South China Sea. A Jan. 8, 2018, satellite image of Taiping island, a disputed feature in the South China Sea held by Taiwan. The Taiwanese military plans to extend a runway on a contested island in the South China Sea to accommodate fighter jets, local media reported on Monday, in a move that would likely trigger protests from other claimants. Taiwans government has previously pushed back against suggestions it might militarize the island, Taiping. Taiwans air force declined Monday to comment on the report. Taiping, also known as Itu Aba, is the biggest natural feature in the Spratly islands. It is currently occupied by Taiwan but is also claimed by China, the Philippines and Vietnam. United Daily News, a conservative newspaper in Taiwan, quoted an unnamed source as saying that the military is planning to finish another round of renovation works on Taiping this year, with an extension of the existing 1,150-meter-long airstrip by 350 meters. A 1,500-meter runway would be able to accommodate F-16 jet fighters and P-3C anti-submarine aircraft. Air force spokesperson Chen Guo-hua told RFA Mandarin Service that he was not aware of media reports and had no comment. If confirmed the news could provoke strong reactions from other claimants of the island. In March, the Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-Cheng said that Taiwan had no intention of militarizing Taiping despite reports that China had completed building military facilities on three artificial islands nearby. Runway extension Taiwanese media had reported in the past about proposed plans to develop the infrastructure on Taiping Island including the runway extension. The plans were criticized by the Philippines and Vietnam as stoking tensions in the disputed South China Sea. Taiping is located in the north-western part of the Spratly islands, 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Taiwan and 853 kilometers (530 miles) from the Philippines. It is under the administration of Kaohsiung Municipality. It has been under Taiwans control since 1956 but the current runway was only built in 2008. According to a report on the website of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing sees Taiwans development work on Taiping Island as a long-term strategic asset. China considers Taiwan to be a part of China and the runway or piers built on Taiping Island may be used by mainland China in the future after reunification of the two sides, it said. The international tribunal in the case brought against China by the Philippines in 2016 however ruled that Taiping is a "rock" under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and therefore not entitled to a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. Both Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of China rejected this ruling. RFA Mandarin journalist Xia Xiao-hua in Taipei contributed to this report. Vladimir Putin "has driven Russia into a trap" by invading Ukraine, the former Polish dissident Adam Michnik has said, predicting ultimate defeat for the Russian leader and a chance for much-needed liberal reforms afterward. "In Russia, changes took place after wars were lost -- after the Finnish war, the Japanese war, the Afghan war, and now Ukraine," Michnik recently told RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus in an interview. Michnik, a leading intellectual of the Cold War era and longtime critic of Russian domination of Eastern Europe, is now, at age 75, the editor in chief of the liberal Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. In a column for the paper, Michnik placed the struggle of Ukrainians as just the latest chapter in the historical repression by the Soviet Union and Russia. "We must say it loud and clear," he wrote. "We are all Ukrainians now." WATCH: The port city of Mariupol was home to 400,000 people before Russia's invasion. It has been under siege by Russian troops and under constant shelling for more than 50 days. The city has been reduced to rubble, amid claims by Russia that it now has near complete control. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died and tens of thousands remain trapped in the city. In his interview with RFE/RL, Michnik said Putin was likely deluded into thinking events during his latest invasion of Ukraine would largely mirror those in Crimea in February 2014, when Russian soldiers without insignia on their green uniforms seized control of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula. [Putin] did not think that there would be such a heroic response from the Ukrainian Army and Ukrainian society. It's fantastic." "His hope that there would be a repeat of what happened in Crimea. The enthusiasm, as there was during Crimea, did not occur," Michnik explained. A month after illegally annexing Crimea in March 2014, Putin sent arms, funds, and other aid to separatists in southeastern Ukraine, sparking a conflict that has left at least 13,200 dead. In his calculus to go to war, Putin was driven by a belief -- held by many Russians -- that Ukrainians aren't a separate people, said Michnik. "He thinks, as probably some of our common Russian friends do, that Ukraine is not Ukrainians, they are little Russians, one nation. This is a big mistake, not only for Putin but also for many absolutely honest and intelligent people in Russia," he said. Exiled Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky recently told CNN that Putin became "literally insane" when his invasion of Ukraine wasn't met with a friendly reception from its citizens. Putin also got the West's response wrong, Michnik said, hoping what many have criticized as the hasty retreat from Afghanistan by the United States and its NATO allies was a sign of cracks among the allies. "[Putin] thought the United States was dead after Kabul, that [Joe] Biden didn't have a [Donald] Trump illusion, that Biden didn't think like Trump did, that Putin was a benevolent genius. Biden is a calm, normal person who knows that [Putin] is a bandit, how to behave with a bandit," said Michnik. Putin also likely brushed off the capabilities of the Ukrainians, Michnik said, admitting he was himself among the initial skeptics. "[Putin] did not think that there would be such a heroic response from the Ukrainian Army and Ukrainian society," he said. "It's fantastic. No one thought it would happen, and I didn't think it would either. The Ukrainians told me that this would happen, but I did not believe them." Ukraine has estimated as of April 13 that 19,800 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the war, citing its own recovery of bodies and intercepted Russian communications. Russia has called the Ukrainian numbers inflated and only twice announced its own figures, a fraction of those tabulated by Kyiv. The war with the Poles was not a war with the Poles -- no, they were the white Poles.... When there was a winter war with Finland, they were white Finns. Now, not Ukrainians, but fascists, Nazis...." Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said on April 7 that the country had "significant losses of troops and it's a huge tragedy for us" during an interview on Sky News, a rare official admission of the scale of the Russian losses. What support Putin has among average Russians is difficult to gauge, said Michnik, amid worsening repression and the muzzling of any opposition media. 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. "I don't believe Russians are 100 percent supportive of Putin; 200,000 Russians have gone abroad. In 1968, during the intervention in Czechoslovakia, seven people took to Red Square in Moscow. Today, 8,000 have already been arrested for taking to the streets with the slogan, 'No To War,'" said Michnik, referring to estimates of how many Russians have left the country since the Russian invasion started on February 24. Russia has adopted many Soviet tactics in defining those opposed to them, Michnik explained, with Ukrainians dehumanized as "just Nazis, fascists," in a never-ending barrage on state-run media. "Even during the time of the Bolsheviks, the war with the Poles was not a war with the Poles -- no, they were the white Poles," Michnik said, noting the term used by the Bolsheviks and later the Soviet authorities to designate "enemies" of its communist rule. "When there was a winter war with Finland, they were white Finns. Now, not Ukrainians, but fascists, Nazis.... But if they tell you so in the morning, after dinner, in the evening, one day, another day, a third day, after all, you think there is something to it," Michnik said. "I remember it well, how in Poland in Soviet times there was anti-German propaganda that all Germans were Nazis. But not these Germans, not ours from East Germany -- they were good Germans. Ukrainians from Luhansk and Donetsk who support the Kremlin's policy are good, but they are not Ukrainians either. They are little Russians." Ultimately Russia's invasion of Ukraine will end with defeat for Putin, Michnik said, and judging by previous Russian military defeats in the past, an opportunity for change may emerge. "I am sure that Ukraine will become for Putin what Afghanistan became for [Leonid] Brezhnev," Michnik said, referring to the former Soviet leader who ordered the invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. That conflict would lead to the death of some 15,000 troops and 2 million Afghans before its end in 1989, hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, Michnik holds out hope that a Russian defeat in Ukraine could be the spark to ignite democratic change in Russia. "Russia made a bad choice. But we still have hope that it is still possible. I will not live to see it, but my son will live, [and] a new wave will come" With additional reporting by Tony Wesolowsky Dmitry Shkrebets knows the true fate of his 20-year-old son, even if Russia wont yet tell him. Yegor Shkrebets was a cook aboard the guided-missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea when it was reportedly struck by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles on April 13 while far from shore. Moscow attributed the disaster to an ammunition explosion. The flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva, which had about 500 crew members on board, caught fire and sank in stormy weather the following day, before reaching port. The elder Shkrebets said naval officers contacted him to say his son was not dead but rather included among the missing, a statement he seemed to find incredulous considering the circumstances. Guys, missing on the high seas?!!! he wrote in a post on his VKontakte social media page. Five days after the loss of the Moskva -- the largest naval ship to sink in 40 years -- the fate of the crew is still shrouded in mystery. Russia has not made any official comment about if -- or how many -- sailors died. In a statement shortly after the incident, Russia stated it had completely evacuated the crew. However, in subsequent statements the reference to completely was missing. Shkrebets is one of at least four sailors considered missing or dead by Russia, based on social media posts by family members. Varvara Vakhrusheva posted on social media that her husband, Ivan Vakhrushev, was killed in the incident. She said she had received a call from Russian Navy officials on the afternoon of April 14. The commander in chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, met with the crew of the Moskva in the port of Sevastopol on April 16. A video of the meeting posted to social media showed two rows of sailors totaling about 100 people. Whether the remaining 400 crew members are either injured or dead is unclear. Wreaths laid at a memorial in Sevastopol and posted on social media were dedicated "to the ship and crew," an indirect confirmation of deaths aboard the Moskva. The elder Shkrebets went to a hospital in Sevastopol with his wife to look for their sons body. They saw about 200 young men, injured with burns, but did not find their son, Irina Shkrebets said. "We looked at every burned child. I can't tell you how hard it is, but I didn't find mine. There were only 200 people there, and there were more than 500 on the cruiser. Where are the others?" Irina Shkrebets said in an interview with The Insider. Moscow has an extensive history of trying to cover up catastrophes and any resulting casualties, be it during war or peacetime. In August 2000, a torpedo on board the nuclear submarine Kursk exploded, killing most of its crew members and sending the wreck, along with 23 survivors, plunging to the seafloor. The tragedy claimed the lives of all 118 sailors aboard. The blast was picked up on seismographs across Europe, but the Russian Navy made no public acknowledgment of the catastrophe. President Vladimir Putin, then just over three months into his first Kremlin term, continued vacationing on the Black Sea and made no statement about the Kursk for more than a week, until his return to Moscow. During the wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, Moscow kept a tight lid on the number of soldiers and civilians killed. Likewise with the current war in Ukraine. Russia has officially stated that fewer than 2,000 soldiers have died, despite mounting evidence that the number is much greater. The United States and Western allies earlier this month put the number of Russian soldiers killed at 10,000. Among the dead are Russian conscripts, even though Moscow initially said they were not serving in the war. After admitting that some were accidentally sent to Ukraine, Russian officials said the remaining conscripts would be called home. However, Yegor Shkrebets is one of at least four conscripts "missing" aboard the Moskva, his father told RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities. The younger Shkrebets, a resident of Yalta in Crimea, was conscripted in July. "I think the people that allowed this to happen should be punished," Dmitry Shkrebets told RFE/RL. "And how they cynically lie on the [TV] channels that all are alive. How can they lie so cynically?" Shkrebets told RFE/RL that he had been contacted by relatives of three other missing conscripts and that they have sent an appeal to the Russian military asking what really happened to their sons. He said one of those who reached out to him was the mother of a conscript from St. Petersburg, a possible reference to Uliana Tarasova, who announced on social media that her son, Mark Tarasov, was also "missing." Tarasov was conscripted in December and that same month posted a photo of himself in his sailor's uniform on his Instagram account, according to the the Agenstvo news agency. Later that month, Tarasov posted a photo of himself in his sailors uniform on his Instagram account, according to the Agenstvo news agency. See you in a year, he wrote. Written by Todd Prince based on reporting by Current Time, Crimea.Realities, and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. Ukrainian authorities braced for an expected intensification of Russian attacks ahead of the Victory Day holiday on May 9, while officials on both sides said the civilian evacuation of a besieged steel factory in Mariupol had been completed, although the fate of the remaining fighters there is unclear. Ukrainian officials declared on May 7 that all women, children, and elderly people had been evacuated from the massive Azovstal steel plant that has been under attack for weeks by Russian forces amid the ruins of the port city. "The President's order has been carried out: All women, children, and the elderly have been evacuated from Azovstal," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media. This part of the Mariupol humanitarian mission has been completed," she added without elaborating. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later said that a second stage of the evacuation would now take place, with the wounded and medical personnel being take out. He said work would continue on May 8 to secure on all humanitarian corridors to allow those in and around the city who want to leave to get a way out. He added that Kyiv was attempting to get the last fighters out of the steel plant, but that it was extremely difficult. Fears are rising that a final, bloody showdown between the Ukrainian fighters and Russian troops could ignite if the defenders are not allowed to be evacuated from the factory. The evacuation of the Azovstal steel mill intensified over the past two days, even as Russia has continued to batter the facility and the strategic city, which is now mainly in ruins. Russia is seeking to complete its takeover of the region and build a land bridge between Crimea -- which it illegally annexed in 2014 and territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Mariupol has taken the worst of the fighting in Ukraine since Russian troops were forced to retreat around Kyiv and other cities in the north. Before the weekend, an estimated 200 civilians had been hiding within the massive steel plant along with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have desperately been attempting to organize evacuations from the site. Russian officials also later issued a statement saying that the civilian evacuation of the steel plant had been completed. The fate of the fighters remains unclear. Russia, meanwhile, claimed its Iskander missiles destroyed a Ukrainian cache of weaponry that had been supplied by the United States and Europe and that high-precision missiles had destroyed Ukrainian aircraft at airfields in the Artsyz, Odesa, and Voznesensk regions. Oleskiy Arestovych, a top adviser to Zelenskiy, claimed on May 7 that Ukraine had made battlefield advances in the east, just two days before Russia holds ceremonies to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Russian President Vladimir Putins speech on May 9 will be closely watched to see if he will announce a general mobilization or some other major strategic shift, in a bid to turn the tide of the war, now in its 73rd day. The top human rights representative of the Council of Europe has deplored Moscows actions in its invasion, saying that every Ukrainian who has suffered human rights violations at Russian hands deserves justice. "Each of them deserves justice and must not be forgotten," Dunja Mijatovic said in a statement following a four-day visit to Kyiv, adding that the extent of human rights violations was staggering. In the early weeks after the February 24 invasion, Russian forces were thwarted in their attempts to seize Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, suffering heavy losses of personnel and equipment. Commanders then later withdrew units from areas near Kyiv and repositioned them to the Donbas. Russias last official tally of its military deaths was 1,351. Western officials, however, say the toll is at least 15,000, and Ukrainian officials claim the tally exceeds 20,000. Zelenskiy said last month that between 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed, though that figure is believed to be an undercount. Ukraines General Staff, meanwhile, said in its daily assessment that Russian activity was relatively quiet overnight, limited to military reconnaissance and artillery fire. 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. Near Izyum, where there has been major back-and-forth fighting, drones were repeatedly detected overflying defense positions, the report said. Kharkiv was also hit by artillery. Kherson, which is located north of Crimea, well outside of the Donbas, has been contested for weeks now, though Russian forces have claimed control of the region's main city, and a top Russian politician visited Kherson city on May 6. Russias Defense Ministry said on May 6 that its forces were continuing to advance on positions in the Donbas, and had destroyed an ammunition depot in Kramatorsk and shot down two Ukrainian warplanes. On May 7, the ministry said its forces hit 18 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including three ammunition depots near the port city of Odesa. It also said Russian forces destroyed a stockpile of military equipment from the United States and European countries near a railway station in the Kharkiv region. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by Russian media as saying that "a heavy concentration of weapons and combat hardware delivered from the U.S. and Western countries, as well as military personnel of the 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of Ukraines armed forces, have been eliminated with Iskander operational-tactical missile systems" near railway stations in the Kharkiv region. It wasn't clear what the weaponry was exactly, or when it might have been delivered and the claims could not be independently confirmed. Ukrainian military officials confirmed on May 7 that at least four Russian cruise missiles had been fired into the Odesa region and the city's main airport. Local officials said a curfew would be set in the region from 10 p.m. on May 8 until 5 a.m. on May 9. Ukraine's successes against Russian forces have been due in large part to the major supplies of weaponry provided by the United States and Europe-- weaponry that increasingly includes offensive armaments like heavy artillery, howitzers, and tanks. Russia has repeatedly warned NATO that its weapons supply convoys could be targeted, but has so far not taken any steps to do that. Russian forces had been closing in on the last contingent of Ukrainian troops holding out at the sprawling Azovstal steel works factorys extensive tunnels and bunkers in the port city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials said on May 6 that several dozen civilians were evacuated from Azovstal, while at least another 50 reportedly left early on May 7 before Vereshchuks announcement that all women, children, and the elderly had left the site. Separately, the Ukrainian military said on May 7 that it had destroyed a Russian landing ship near Snake Island in the Black Sea, hitting it with an armed drone. There was no immediate comment from Russia. In mid-April, Russia's Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Moskva, sank near Snake Island after being hit by what was believed to have been a Ukrainian missile. Russia denies a missile strike, saying only that a fire onboard caused the ship to sink. For the first time since the invasion, the UN Security Council approved a brief resolution expressing "deep concern" about the situation in Ukraine. However, the text, which was adopted on May 6 with Russias vote, did not mention a war, conflict, or invasion -- as many council members call Russias military action -- or a special military operation as Moscow refers to it. "The Security Council expresses deep concern regarding the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine," it read. With reporting by AP and dpa SHREVEPORT, La -- Police say an inmate died at the hospital, almost a week after a fall in the Shreveport City Jail during a medical event. Deputy Chief Antoine White would not release the man's identity or provide many details. But a law enforcement source confirms to KTBS 3 News that the man who died is Kelly Larremore, 48. He's the former owner of a local collision repair shop. White said Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport notified police early Tuesday that the man died there. He had been booked into the jail on April 5 for violating a protective order. White read from a statement, "On April 6th, the man suffered what appeared to be a medical event and fell onto the floor. The jail video showed that the man's head did hit the floor, and he sustained what appeared to be a minor head injury." White said the man was improving in the hospital, before taking a turn for the worse on April 9. He says the SPD is waiting on an autopsy report as they investigate the death. Larremore's local arrest record includes cyberstalking of his ex-wife on Aug. 6, 2018; violating a protective order on Jan. 4, 2019; and the most recent arrest on April 5 for, again, violating a protective order. His record also shows an arrest on April 15, 2015, for careless operation, leaving the scene of an accident and refusing to take a chemical DWI test. Plus, National Conflict Resolution Center gears up for its Peacemaker Awards and Soapy Joes hosts its seventh annual fundraiser Cynthia Sommer Exonerated: 2008 Convicted: 2007 Cause: False or misleading forensic evidence, inadequate legal defense Age at conviction: 34 Time served: 2 years and 4 months in jail Cynthia Sommer was wrongfully convicted of murdering her 23-year-old Marine husband with arsenic to cash in on his life insurance, according to Union-Tribune archives. While doctors initially said that Sgt. Todd Sommer died of natural causes at their home at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, lab tests found high arsenic levels in his liver and kidney. Arsenic never does that, said Allen Bloom, Sommers lawyer, recently. Arsenic goes through the whole body. If its of a deadly level, its going to be a deadly level everywhere in the body. Prosecutors pursued the case against Sommer, and at trial, Sommers previous lawyer had her mother testify about Sommers grieving over her husbands death. This allowed prosecutors to bring in testimony that the judge had previously ordered not appear in the trial. Witnesses gave accounts of Sommer partying, having sex and getting breast implants after her husbands death. When the jury convicted her, Bloom argued, it was because they judged her way of grieving and not because of any physical evidence. When he took on her case, he asked for a new trial. There was not one cent of evidence that she had arsenic in her house, that she had ever purchased arsenic, Bloom recalled. They made all sorts of guesses and speculations as to how she had gotten him to eat it. Bloom said one of the possibilities suggested by the prosecutor was ant bait. He wouldve had to ingest 12 pounds of ant bait in order to reach those levels in his system," Bloom said. "It was no way that she had done it. He added that the lab that had done the testing had suggested the samples might be contaminated, but Sommers trial lawyer did not know that. The judge granted a second trial. Before the trial began, Bloom found out that the lab had saved other samples from the autopsy that had not yet been tested. When the lab ran tests on them, they were completely clean, no arsenic. Prosecutors dropped the charges. District Aattorney Bonnie Dumanis told reporters at the time, This case was done exactly the way it should be. Our prosecutors reviewed the evidence, and based on the evidence that they had at the time, there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt As soon as there were issues raised, those issues were followed through. Bloom disagreed. She had only spent more than two years in jail, lost her kids, lost her house, Bloom said. According to Bloom, Sommer has reunited with her kids. She moved to Michigan and remarried. Bloom said that Sommer was not interested in speaking to media. She wants to stay out of the limelight, he said. No matter what happens, and no matter how innocent she is, somebody is always going to say, 'Well, your husband is dead, and you had a boob job.' It was a Scarlet Letter type of prosecution. SFFD Local 798/ A Sunday afternoon fire in a 5-story storage building in the Tenderloin brought engines to the 300 block of Turk Street, near the corner of Hyde. The first alarm was pulled shortly after 2:30 pm. according to a tweet by San Francisco Firefighters Local 798. Units responded to the call at Fort Knox Self Storage, 370 Turk Street, to find a small fire on the third floor. The fire was brought under control in 20 minutes according to Jonathan Baxter, public information officer for the San Francisco Fire Department. An apartment in the building was vacant and there were no injuries, Baxter said. Cause of the fire is under investigation. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle A juvenile suspect was arrested in connection with the shooting death of a man in Concord on Saturday morning, authorities said. The Concord Police Department received multiple calls around 9:50 a.m. about a man shot at the corner of Meadow Lane and Johnson Drive, police said. Officers found the man suffering multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital where he later died, according to a police release. LinkedIn, the vast online professional and career-development network, cant prevent a San Francisco data analytics company from mining the networks roster of members for information it can sell to job recruiters, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in a case that has already made one visit to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company, hiQ Labs, founded in 2012, uses bots robotic software to gather data such as work history and skills from the publicly available listings on LinkedIn, which has 810 million members, and then analyzes the information and markets it to clients. LinkedIn sent hiQ Labs a cease-and-desist order in 2017 seeking to halt the searches, saying they violated its own terms of access as well as federal and state privacy and technology laws. After U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed hiQ Labs to continue its work, the Supreme Court took up the case last June and told the appeals court to reconsider it in light of a recent decision by the high court defining the limits of access. On Monday, the appeals court said its conclusion was unchanged: The information hiQ scrapes from the LinkedIn network has been made publicly available by LinkedIns members, and its analysis and use for job recruiting do not appear to violate anyones rights. The court noted that those members could have hidden their data from public view, without financial cost, but had decided not to do so. HiQ Labs business depends on access to publicly available data from people who choose to share their information with the world, Judge Marsha Berzon said in a 3-0 ruling upholding Chens injunction that prevented LinkedIn from interfering with the companys access. Allowing the network to block access risks the possible creation of information monopolies, she said. LinkedIn said it was disappointed by the ruling but would continue with its legal arguments in the case, which is still at a preliminary stage. The company did not say whether it would appeal to the Supreme Court. When your data is taken without permission and used in ways you havent agreed to, thats not okay, LinkedIn said in a statement. On LinkedIn, our members trust us with their information, which is why we prohibit unauthorized scraping on our platform. LinkedIn, based in Sunnyvale, was founded in 2002 and acquired by Microsoft in December 2016. HiQ Labs lawyer, Renita Sharma, said the ruling supported the companys view of federal law on website access. A court filing by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 30 news organizations, including Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle, said LinkedIns interpretation of federal law would threaten everyday journalism. 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. If a website owner could forbid journalists from observing what any eye can see, like a shop owner policing which pedestrians can look at a window displaythe CFAA (the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) would raise grave constitutional questions, the news groups said. LinkedIn argued that it properly invoked the federal law, which prohibits access to online data without authorization. But the court said hiQ Labs, like other members of the public, had authorization to enter the site and view the records, and that LinkedIns cease-and-desist order was a ban that the law did not recognize. The federal statute was intended to prevent hacking, Berzon said in the ruling, and does not apply to websites made freely accessible on the Internet. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Chris Carlson/AP On-ramps to Treasure Island are open again in both directions on the Bay Bridge Monday after hours-long closures that left ferry service as the only way to get to or from the island. Ramps serving the island in both directions were closed after a traffic collision involving a commercial truck at Treasure Island and Macallan roads closed the intersection at around 8 a.m. Traffic soon backed up on the islands small network of roads and spilled onto Interstate 80 eastbound on the Bay Bridge. The CHP ordered the eastbound ramp closed around 9 a.m. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The victim in a 29-year-old Santa Clara County killing was identified through a cold-case match as Patricia Skiple of Colton, Ore., officials with the nonprofit DNA Doe Project announced Monday. Skiple, who went by the nicknames Patty and Patsy, was born May 29, 1948, and her body was found on the side of Highway 152, in unincorporated Gilroy. The victim had been sexually assaulted, strangled and her body left on a dirt turnout on the Pacheco Pass, as the highway is known, where she was discovered on June 3, 1993. More than a decade later, convicted serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, a long-haul trucker, confessed to the murder in a letter he wrote to Santa Clara County prosecutors. Jesperson liked to adorn his anonymous letters with a hand-drawn smiley face, earning him the nickname the Happy Face Killer. Blue Pacheco, as she came to be known by detectives, was one of seven similar murders Jesperson confessed to committing between 1990 and 1994. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the Oregon State Penitentiary. Though Jesperson made his confession in 2006, and pleaded guilty to first-degree homicide in 2007, detectives spent 12 more years trying to ascertain Skiples identity. In 2019, Sgt. Shannon Catalano of the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office finally brought the case to the DNA Doe Project, a volunteer organization based in Sebastopol that uses genetics to help identify human remains. Genealogists with the DNA Doe Project worked for two more years before they were able to make a match through a database. Skiples identity was finally confirmed through DNA testing on April 13. She was approximately 45 at the time she was killed, according to a statement released by the Sheriffs Office Monday. 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. This case was exceptionally challenging due to recent Norwegian ancestry which resulted in very distant DNA matches, DNA Doe Project team leader Cairenn Binder, said in a statement. It would not have been possible to solve this case without the dedication of our law enforcement partners at Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office, especially Sergeant Shannon Catalano, whose tenacious efforts to solve the case made our job as genealogists as effective as possible. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @samwhitingsf Popular Oakland Mexican restaurant Nido, which closed during the pandemic, will be coming back to life this spring as an agave bar with seasonal Mexican cuisine courtesy of pop-up Tacos El Precioso. Odin is set to open in late May at 444 Oak St., at Fourth Street. Nido owners Silvia and Cory McCollow, who also run Nidos Backyard down the street, will oversee the drinks while Devin Gonzalez of Tacos El Precioso will bring the food. An orange onyx bar will serve only agave-based spirits and a single beer; there will be no wine, vodka or bourbon. Nearly every drink will be made with products from Mexico, like a corn margarita with corn-infused mezcal, corn liqueur and cooked corn syrup. Odin will also serve classics like a paloma and negroni all mixed with a private batch of espadin mezcal but the hope is that customers will also explore the depth and breadth of the agave world, Cory McCollow said. Hugo Gonzalez, whos worked with Mexican mezcal collective Maestros de Mezcal, will help guide people through Odins bottles. The food menu will celebrate local farms and producers, like a quesadilla with grilled nopales and summer squash tucked inside a fresh tortilla from Oaklands Bolita Masa, or a vegetarian ceviche crafted from local trumpet mushrooms. Gonzalez and chef de cuisine Melinda Vaca are working with East Bay flour tortilla pop-up Xulo to make custom beef tallow tortillas for dry-aged beef tacos with smoked guajillo salsa. Mexican-inspired meat and cheese boards will come with whipped carnitas rillette, spicy carne seca (Sonoran-style beef jerky), peach mostarda and Oaxacan queso fresco marinated in chile oil and honey. There will also be at least two vegan tacos on the menu, such as charred sweet potato over a bed of pureed Rancho Gordo black beans. Salsa macha will show up in both savory and sweet dishes, including a salsa macha brittle on top of a spiced dark chocolate pudding. Gonzalezs salsa macha is smoky and spicy with six kinds of chiles, including piquin peppers grown by his grandmother in Texas. Courtesy Adahlia Cole After briefly reopening Nido for outdoor dining in 2020, the McCollows decided to remodel the restaurant with the help of designer Jon de la Cruz, who also designed San Franciscos Che Fico and Palo Altos Protege. The Odin space is dark and striking, decorated with mirrors, hand-shape wooden chairs and artwork from young artists in Oaxaca. Knowing the costly challenges of opening a restaurant, the McCollows wanted to offer the Odin kitchen to another local business. They met Gonzalez years ago and reconnected when they hosted his now-defunct pan dulce pop-up Cafe con Pan at Nidos Backyard. The Texas native started Tacos El Precioso five years ago, building a name for himself through pop-ups and catering gigs. He previously cooked in Bay Area restaurants and at San Francisco catering company Stag Dining Group. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. At Odin, a 1% surcharge will go to Community Kitchens, an Oakland nonprofit that provides meals to people in need, and the McCollows also plan to donate to agave farmers in Mexico. Odin. Opening May 2022. Happy hour 4-5 p.m. and dinner 5-10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. 444 Oak St., Oakland. odinoakland.com Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany San Benito County is not known widely as a wine destination. But this sparsely populated area near Monterey is the global epicenter for a certain type of wine thats quickly, and improbably, gaining attention: Cabernet Pfeffer. The Cabernet Pfeffer grape (no relation to Cabernet Sauvignon, confusingly) can produce a wine thats light, perfumed and peppery, precisely the sort of fresh, chillable red thats so in vogue right now. Increasingly, top California winemakers are competing for access to the 15 or so acres of Cabernet Pfeffer that were planted more than a century ago in San Benito Countys Cienega Valley likely the largest concentration of Cabernet Pfeffer acreage in the world. Its a rural, parochial remnant of a very isolated region in California that only now people are rediscovering in some weird way, said Morgan Twain-Peterson, winemaker at Bedrock Wine Co., which makes a varietal Cabernet Pfeffer wine and also uses it in a red blend. The grape is also shrouded in mystery. No one knows how the plant material got to Cienega Valley from its native France, nor how exactly it got its name. Until recently, in fact, no one knew for sure what it was. Theories abounded: It was a genetic crossing of the grapes Trousseau and Cabernet Sauvignon. No, it was actually a synonym for the Bordeaux grape Gros Verdot. No, it was a catchall term for a field blend of multiple grape varieties. Its been called Manseng, Pinot St. George and a host of other names. Helynn Ospina/Special to The Chronicle Those theories have all been put to rest now, thanks to genetic testing performed by UC Davis showing that Cabernet Pfeffer is one and the same as Mourtaou, a grape from southwestern France thats all but extinct in France now. Yet the folktales persist. It is Mourtaou, said Kobza Wines owner Ryan Kobza, the winemaker who submitted the plant material to UC Davis for testing. He finds it frustrating that people keep entertaining the other theories, especially the Cabernet Sauvignon-Trousseau hypothesis. Even if its origins are understood, Cabernet Pfeffer nevertheless continues to offer plenty of mystery. As to how it was imported from France in the late 19th century, why it was planted only in the Cienega Valley and how 15 acres of it managed to endure more than a centurys worth of trials including Prohibition no one has a definitive answer. The mystery, no doubt, has added to its allure in a moment when Californias historic wine grapes are all the rage. The wackier the story, the cooler the wine seems. But unlike some antique viticultural curiosities, this one in fact makes quite a delicious wine. Every few years someone tries to revive a heritage grape, said winemaker Josh Hammerling of Berkeleys Hammerling Wines. Often its just novelty. This one actually tastes good. Helynn Ospina/Special to The Chronicle Everyone agrees on a couple of Cabernet Pfeffer facts. In the late 1800s, a German immigrant named William Pfeffer owned a grapevine nursery in Saratoga. Also around that time, the grape was planted in the Cienega Valley. Four plantings have survived, at the vineyards now known, respectively, as Enz, Wirz, Gemelli and DeRose. But how is Mr. Pfeffer connected to the Cienega vineyards? Its reasonable to assume that the nurseryman might have named one of his products after himself, or that people would have referred to grapevines purchased from him by his name. Is it a coincidence that Pfeffer is German for pepper, which happens to be the prevailing flavor of the wine? And how did Cabernet get mixed up in it? Pat Wirz, owner of the Wirz Vineyard, whose 5 acres of Cabernet Pfeffer were planted in 1903, believes that Mr. Pfeffer was friendly with another German immigrant known as Dr. Orwall, who owned whats now the Gemelli Vineyard. But I dont know which one of them imported the cuttings from France, Wirz said of the two Germans. Whether Mourtaou ever had a meaningful fan base in Europe is likewise unknown. The whole thing sounds like a long, convoluted game of telephone, making for ripe conditions for spurious theories. The plants leaves resemble those of Trousseau, a red grape from Frances Jura region, which may explain the longstanding Cabernet-Trousseau crossing theory. And some genetic tests from the late 1990s and early 2000s, predating the Mourtaou match, did actually return false results. One turned up a probable match for Gros Verdot, a Bordeaux grape variety. (This is likely because Mourtaous genome was not added to the UC Davis database until relatively recently, so it may have shown matches with grapes that are genetically related, but not identical.) The farmers who grew Cabernet Pfeffer in the Cienega Valley in those early years were probably not obsessing over its identity. For them, its appeal would have been clear: Unlike Mission, the wine grape that dominated in California until the late 19th century, Cabernet Pfeffer is easy to grow and easy to make into wine. The vines loose clusters make it resistant to mildew. Its yields are generous. The fruit holds on to color and acid well even in hot conditions suggesting that it could be especially useful as Californias climate warms. And its structure lends the wines a chemical stability that Mission often lacked. It probably checked a lot of boxes of what people were looking for when they made California Burgundy or claret, said Twain-Peterson. Or maybe its planting in Cienega wasnt quite so calculated. Weve got to be careful not to ascribe too much thought process to things that were going on in the Wild West, said Ian Brand, who will release a Cabernet Pfeffer from the 2020 vintage. A lot gets lost in translation. Esther Mobley / The Chronicle There was a time when Wirz considered pulling out his vines, he said, since he couldnt get winemakers interested in buying the fruit. The only reason that winemakers got interested, about eight years ago, was because they wanted to buy Wirzs Riesling grapes. I was there for the Riesling, but Pat was really excited to show me this Cab Pfeffer block, said Nicole Walsh, who started her Ser wine label in 2014. I was skeptical. Id never heard of it. But I said OK, Pat, Ill take some. The Wirz Cab Pfeffer has since become Sers flagship wine. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. It may have taken 120-odd years, but the style of wine that Pfeffer naturally delivers is finally popular. If the market once rewarded dark, concentrated, hefty reds the prototypical California Cabernet Sauvignon its now come around to lighter, translucent, more delicate options. Santa Cruz winemaker Ryan Stirm said his Cabernet Pfeffer is now reliably his fastest-selling red. Many of its fans compare the grape to Nebbiolo, an Italian variety that produces savory, light, brick-colored reds with formidable tannins. When talking to his customer base at his Berkeley tasting room, Hammerling describes it as something like a semi-carbonic Gamay or Trousseau, terms now familiar to natural-wine acolytes. Cab Pfeffer wines are dependably full of red-fruit flavors like strawberry, cranberry and pomegranate, and many winemakers employ carbonic maceration a fermentation technique that tends to bring out a fruit-candy note. More than anything, though, the Cabernet Pfeffer signature is the pfeffer itself. Its a very distinct white pepper for me, said Walsh. Not the black pepper you get in Syrah. Every vineyard has its own expression, but I always get that white pepper. Helynn Ospina/Special to The Chronicle Now, Wirz has more winemakers interested in the fruit than he can accommodate. Every winemaker interviewed for this story said theyd like to get more Cab Pfeffer grapes than they currently receive. Luckily, the acreage is expanding, albeit modestly: The Gemelli Vineyard planted an additional 7 acres this year, Kobza said. That would increase the Cienega Valleys total Cabernet Pfeffer acreage by over 25%. I know its not from California, but its been isolated for such a long time to one little part of California that I would say it is Californian, in a sense, said Kobza. In the context of this long, unfinished story, it seems like theres a possibility that it may really grow substantially in the next 10 years. Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles senior wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley As a loving son 10 years into the care of both my disabled parents, the news about Sen. Dianne Feinsteins mental fitness struck a familiar and painful chord with me. Of particular note was House Speaker Nancy Pelosis comment that the senator is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led. Rep. Ro Khanna said such rumor mongering is disrespectful ... ageist and cruel. Ive been vilified and disregarded by some family and friends for communicating the deterioration of my wonderful father into Alzheimers, and I applaud the courage it took for Sen. Feinsteins colleagues to speak up about their observations. Im confident the sources who spoke to the media did so only after attempts to speak to the senator, her family or staff. To view the relaying of such heart-wrenching information as an attack on the individual is shortsighted and unhelpful. It can result in delayed medical treatment, and in the case of Feinstein, an underserved electorate. Perhaps the only people less fit for office than a cognitively compromised individual are those who would arrogantly lambaste the messengers to make themselves look virtuous. Charlie Galligan, Bristol, R.I. Name the sources Regarding Feinsteins fitness to serve doubted (Front Page, April 14): I voted against Sen. Dianne Feinstein twice, believing she was too old. But The Chronicles news article used all anonymous sources. Thats unprofessional journalism, even if the substance might be right. Further, neither your news article nor your editorial identified the motives of politicians speaking out about her. At least some of these anonymous California officials are motivated by their wish to be appointed to the Senate seat should Feinstein resign. So, while the article and editorial get a failing grade for inadequate sourcing, your news coverage gets an incomplete for not identifying by name who is pushing hard to push the senior senator out. I am not the only reader who will look to see if your reporters follow up to identify who the back stabbers are. Gary Facente, Berkeley Seek second opinions Regarding Losing Ailee Jong (Front Page, April 10): Ailee Jong, your tragic story reminds us that doctors are never gods and at the time of an anticipated medical event, the family must advocate despite their emotional circumstance or choose a medically qualified advocate. Always we must ask how many times the operating team has done the planned surgery at that hospital. We must obtain a second opinion from another team at another qualified hospital. We must ask what the rate of success has been. We must avoid soothing magical thinking and ask what can possibly go wrong. And any questions that arise must be answered by a medical expert who is impartial. Even then, life can be unexpectedly fragile. Parents need to be encouraged to do their own research even if their best possible preparation cannot prevent unimaginable loss. Appropriate support is needed for the remaining child, not just the parents. As a child of my physician father and the niece of my physician aunt, they did not always agree on the diagnosis of loved family members. I know the hearts of many readers, including medical professionals, will forever carry Ailee Jong. Jean Cleverly, San Francisco Gerrymandering in S.F.? Could someone please tell me the difference between a legislative district being gerrymandered to ensure a certain partisan outcome and our San Francisco supervisorial districts being drawn to ensure that a special interest group gets its own supervisor? This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Joaquin Ciria was arrested in 1990 for a murder in San Francisco that he insists he didnt commit. On Monday, 32 years later, Superior Court Judge Brendan Conroy overturned the conviction and granted a new trial after a request from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Boudin was following a recommendation made by his Innocence Commission. A prosecutor said in court that the District Attorneys Office would dismiss the case against Ciria, clearing the way for him to go free. After the hearing, Cirias son, Pedro, embraced loved ones, his eyes red from crying. It feels good, said the 32-year-old, who was 6 weeks old when his father was arrested. Ciria, 61, counts as the first person exonerated by the commission, a unique model that Boudin has sought to advance with state legislation at a time when most conviction review units nationwide have shown no results. Mondays ruling makes San Franciscos only the second district attorneys office in the Bay Area to help exonerate someone with its version of a conviction review unit, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Santa Clara Countys unit has been involved in five overturned convictions dating back to 2011. Though Boudin followed the commissions recommendation, he has final authority on what to do. Our office is proud of and grateful for the work of the Innocence Commission in rectifying the wrongful conviction of Mr. Ciria, Boudin said in an emailed statement. Although we cannot give him back the decades of his life lost we are grateful that the court has corrected this miscarriage of justice. The commissions decision was largely owed to a man who came forward to say he witnessed the murder and recognized the killer as a different man. Roberto Socorro swore in a declaration that he saw and heard the killer, a man he knew, but didnt come forward for two reasons. First he didnt believe in cooperating with the police. Second, because he was a close friend of the victim, Socorro said he made a vow to find the man himself and take revenge. But Socorros conscience found him before he could find the man. I am deeply ashamed of my selfish decision to remain silent all these years, Socorro wrote in his declaration. The Chronicle isnt naming the alleged shooter because he hasnt been charged and couldnt be reached for comment. It isnt yet clear when Ciria will be released, though his attorneys say it could be anytime this week. Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle Joaquin Ciria in 1989, a year before he was arrested. Joaquin Ciria in 1989, a year before he was arrested. A disbelieved alibi The murder happened on March 25, 1990, outside the Bay Bridge Hotel in SoMa. Felix Bastarrica, 30, whom friends called Carlos, was walking down an alley around 9 p.m. when a white car pulled up, according to case records filed in court with Cirias petition. An armed man climbed out. An argument ensued, followed by gunshots, including one into Bastarricas head. The hotel was a popular haunt for locals who had fled Cuba in a mass migration in 1980. In what would become known as the Mariel boat lift, 125,000 people traveled from the port of Mariel to the shores of South Florida. Amid a crisis in Cuba, President Jimmy Carter had said those who could make it to the U.S. would be granted asylum. Police searched the immigrant community for suspects. Ciria and the victim, who police claimed were part of a crack cocaine ring, both immigrated to the U.S. in the Mariel era. Ciria was friends with the victim. He didnt match witness descriptions of the killer, who had a short Afro, according to filings by the District Attorneys Office. Ciria, who is Afro-Cuban, had a Jheri curl. He had two alibi witnesses who said he was at home after a stop at his favorite arcade, where he loved to play Pac-Man when he wasnt spending time with his little boy. But a rumor started going around that he did it. In a court filing, the District Attorneys Office said the rumor was started by the real killer and caused investigators to focus on Ciria. After finding an 18-year-old named George Varela who admitted driving the killer to the scene, investigators pressed him. If youre going to continue to sit in here and lie and cover up for Joaquin, one inspector said, youre going to be in some deep (expletive). Varela could have been prosecuted for his role in the murder, but instead was granted immunity. Ciria was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life on March 22, 1991. Through the years, hes come up for parole hearings multiple times, but was always denied after he refused to admit guilt and express remorse for the crime. For him to still hold his ground says a lot, said Pedro Ciria. Youre not going to put yourself through all that denying you didnt do it if youre not innocent. Varela hasnt spoken to investigators or attorneys about the murder since the 1990s, but others say he told them Ciria was innocent. One is a friend; the other is Varelas sister who, in a sworn statement, said Varela told her the shooter was another Cuban. Varela was recently brought into court to testify for the judge. With every question, Varela invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, said University of San Francisco Professor Lara Bazelon, chair of the Innocence Commission. Socorro said he was in the hotel near the scene of the murder because hed shot and killed a man the night before and thought the Bay Bridge would be a good hiding spot. Socorro ended up serving three decades for that murder. Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle Joaquin Ciria with Yojana Paiz and their son Pedro while Joaquin was in prison. Joaquin Ciria with Yojana Paiz and their son Pedro while Joaquin was in prison. I found him credible 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. The original San Francisco Police Department investigation was led by retired officers including Art Gerrans and Jim Crowley. Gerrans and Crowley were also involved in the 1991 wrongful conviction of Maurice Caldwell, who sued the city after serving 20 years and won $8 million in 2021. Bazelon said the commission took up Cirias case after his attorneys with the Northern California Innocence Project came to the District Attorneys Office. The commission a panel of legal experts of varying backgrounds began amassing documents. Members reviewed the entire Police Department file for Cirias case and, to be sure they werent missing anything, Socorros. They read numerous legal filings and sought witnesses and experts. Bazelon found it important to be thorough to show how serious the commission is. Many elected prosecutors have been accused of running a so-called CRINO, or Conviction Review Unit in Name Only. Such units can be underfunded or understaffed for the task of reinvestigating cases, which can take years, researchers with the National Registry of Exonerations have found. The Innocence Commission is a different model from others in that its meant to be more independent of the District Attorneys Office. The reasoning is partly that any prosecutors leading such a process would inevitably run into conflicts when investigating their offices own potential failures. Nationally, there are 93 conviction integrity units; almost all are within prosecutors offices, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Only 41 have helped overturn wrongful convictions. Boudin, along with Assembly Member Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, in March announced the introduction of AB2706, which would create pilot programs mimicking the San Francisco Innocence Commission in three as-yet-unnamed counties. Its still winding through the state house, but had a favorable report in committee. Cirias case was the first the Innocence Commission reviewed. Its reviewing two others. Bazelon said it was Socorros testimony before the commission that convinced her of Cirias innocence. I found him credible, she said. I found the story credible. The judge also said he found Socorros statements compelling. He stopped short of saying that he believed Ciria was innocent, but said Ciria likely wouldnt have been convicted if they had all the information available today. I am going to find that its reasonably likely that one juror would have changed their vote, Conroy said. Ciria thanked the judge for the opportunity to be heard all these years later. After Conroy read his decision, Ciria declined to make a statement as he took it in. In the courtroom gallery, Cirias former partner, Yojana Paiz, sat with their son, Pedro. Paiz had maintained for 32 years that Ciria had been at home when the murder happened. No one believed her until it was much too late. Now she leaned over on her sons chest and sobbed. Joshua Sharpe is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: joshua.sharpe@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joshuawsharpe San Francisco Fire Department A smoky and fast-spreading roof fire in San Franciscos West Portal district Monday caused minor injuries to one firefighter and damaged three buildings, authorities said. The fire in the 300 block of West Portal Avenue ignited shortly after noon and quickly spread to three buildings with six addresses all of them businesses. When the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down in 2020, Jessica Greens interest in safe buildings went from a corporate afterthought to global priority. That trigger was an awakening in the world where, now, almost everybody understands that we live submerged in this ocean of air indoors we spend 90% of our lives indoors and were surrounded by this very rich microbial ecosystem, Green said. The majority of the spaces that we work, live and play in are managed in a very unintentional way with regards to indoor air quality, and it doesnt have to be that way. Green, CEO of San Francisco startup Phylagen, is on a quest to develop an airborne monitoring system that will alert businesses to the presence of coronavirus particles, other viruses and even allergens like pollen. The company hopes to release a prototype within a year. Currently, the company trains on-site workers such as janitors to collect samples from offices twice a week with hand swabs. Those are shipped to one of three Phylagen labs, including one at its South of Market headquarters, and sequenced through PCR tests, with results available in a few hours. Phylagens major client is Silverstein Properties, owner of multiple World Trade Center towers in New York, where tenants include tech firms Uber and Spotify. Green said Phylagen is also working with a global tech firm based in Silicon Valley, which she wouldnt identify. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle Green sees the technology as a way for companies to bring back workers safely and detect the presence of the coronavirus, even if employees arent showing symptoms. Long-term, its a way to manage offices and ensure optimal air quality. Phylagen also develops software for clients that show floor-by-floor test results through an online dashboard. The goal of an automated airborne detection system is to remove the manual labor component of swabbing and increase the frequency of data collection. Challenges for airborne detection include collecting enough sample material, which is more dispersed in the air compared with surfaces. Its, in the long-term, going to be much more seamless to have sensors that are no-touch, collecting data and pushing that data to the building automation system, Green said. Green, a Bay Area native, received her doctorate in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley. A mentor encouraged her to look into microbial ecology, and in 2000, she read a paper about how collecting an environmental sample and analyzing DNA sequences could reveal what tiny organisms were present. After stints in academia at the University of Oregon and UC Merced, Green co-founded Phylagen in 2015 with the goal of reading microbial data in buildings as a way to manage air quality. Before the pandemic, the company worked to trace microbial material in supply chains to ensure shipments werent contaminated. After the coronavirus arrived, Phylagen first deployed environmental testing for logistics customers in warehouses, before shifting fully to focus on office buildings. Because the samples are collected from the environment, Phylagen isnt subject to government testing regulations and can ship them over international borders. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle The company has raised $14 million from investors, including from the industrial giant 3M, maker of N95 masks, and Peter Thiel-backed Breakout Ventures. The company name is derived from phylogeny, or the study of how parts of organisms evolve. Green declined to disclose how many customers the company has, but said the testing has encompassed more than 100 million square feet of office space in 18 cities. Revenue has increased by 10 times in the past year, said Green, who declined to give specifics. Employee count has risen 40% to around 40 people. Phylagen isnt alone, and some companies already sell airborne detection products. Another Bay Area startup, Poppy, developed a device thats been compared to a COVID smoke detector. New Mexico startup BioFlyte has an airborne detection system called the Sentinel. It is promising from my point of view that we are seeing competitors emerge in the market. And its just an indication that there is real market demand and public understanding of the need to put biology in the mix in terms of providing healthy indoor environments, Green said. The current swabbing system is a cheaper alternative to human testing and less intrusive, while being more focused than another prominent practice, wastewater testing. Taking samples from a zone of desks and getting a positive test can narrow it down to a dozen people, while wastewater testing could encapsulate thousands of people. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Dave Coil, a project scientist at the UC Davis Genome Center, worked on a pilot effort to swab air filters at local elementary schools to collect samples. The technology was similar to Phylagen. Everything has its pros and cons. Swabs are much more labor intensive, but they yield more targeted data about where the virus is, Coil said. An airborne detection system wouldnt require as much labor but might not specifically pin down what area of a building has the virus. Another challenge for swabbing is timing: A positive result doesnt reveal when the virus was shed, so more frequent sampling is better. An airborne system thats always on would have an advantage. Another hurdle is whether PCR tests could be done on-site rather than in a lab as part of a detection system, which would significantly cut down on the time it takes to get results by removing shipping times. The technology is possible, said Coil, whose manager, Jonathan Eisen, is on Phylagens science advisory board. Coil has also discussed testing methodology with the company. Wastewater (testing) is here to stay. Its proven itself beyond a doubt, Coil said. Indoor sampling is more experimental, in my opinion. Another risk for Phylagen and other startups in the field is that, as the pandemic wanes, environmental testing will no longer be a priority for companies, but Green said the worlds mind-set has changed permanently. I dont think the world is ever going to be going back on multiple levels, Green said. Scientists dont believe that COVID is going away anytime soon, it may become something that looks more like the flu. But we know that even the flu alone is a tremendous financial burden on companies. Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf Very shortly after the earth rumbled and the fires raged on April 18, 1906, thousands flocked to San Francisco to document unimaginable destruction of the earthquake. A vast portion of the city lay in utter ruin. Due to the enormity of the event and its aftermath, there is much documentation depicting the horror that reigned. But, like a mourned death, soon people went back to where they came from, leaving San Francisco citizens to pick up the pieces. While there was documentation of the rebirth of one of America's much loved cities, it's much less prevalent. I was thrilled to find a booklet on a recent trip to a flea market, entitled "The New San Francisco Two Years After the Great Fire." According to this publication, nearly five square miles and 28,000 structures were destroyed. The dollar value was conservatively put at $350 million at that time. According to an inflation calculator, that would be over $9.5 billion today. LATEST April 18, 1:45 p.m. The three-alarm blaze that rattled San Franciscos West Portal neighborhood Monday afternoon has been contained, a San Francisco fire spokesperson confirmed. The fire, San Francisco Fire spokesperson Jonathan Baxter told multiple media outlets, was caused by construction work on a rooftop on the block. More than 100 firefighters were on-site, with one injury reported. April 18, 12:55 p.m. A three-alarm fire in San Franciscos West Portal neighborhood led to the partial collapse of a nail salon Monday. San Francisco fire officials confirmed Monday afternoon that 309 West Portal Ave., the location of the White Daisy Nail Spa, suffered the collapse and the entire block is being forced to evacuate. A roof fire was reported on the 300 block of West Portal Avenue on Wednesday at about 11:30 a.m., according to San Francisco Fire Department's Twitter, with the fire department arriving just minutes after. Within an hour of the initial report, the fire escalated to a three-alarm blaze affecting three buildings and six addresses, among them a dry-cleaning service and the Japanese restaurant Fuji. Footage from the scene shows significant amounts of smoke emanating from the block, with firefighters on ladders trying to quell the flames on the roof. The cause of the fire has not been revealed, and no injuries have been confirmed yet. Community members are being asked to avoid the area and anticipate major traffic delays. A temporary shelter has been established at 15th Street and West Portal Avenue. This is a breaking story and will be updated with more information. Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Elon Musk's vision for Twitter is a public town square where there are few restrictions on what people can or can't say on the Internet. But the utopian ideal envisioned by the Tesla CEO ceased to exist long ago and doesn't take into account what's happening in the real world, tech executives, Twitter employees and Silicon Valley insiders say. As Musk seeks a $43 billion hostile takeover bid for Twitter, critics say his ambition for what the platform should be - a largely unpoliced space rid of censorship - is naive, would hurt the company's growth prospects and would render the platform unsafe. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks have spent billions of dollars and employed armies of people to create and enforce policies to reduce hate speech, misinformation and other toxic communication that degrades public discourse. In doing so, they've provoked the ire not only of politicians on the right, who claim these actions amount to censorship, but also people on the left, who say tech companies' enforcement is both too limited and biased. "What Musk seemingly fails to recognize is that to truly have free speech today, you need moderation," said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook public policy director and CEO of consultancy Anchor Change. "Otherwise just those who bully and harass will be left as they will drive others away." She added that content moderation and responsible platform design done right can actually allow for more speech. Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO, who co-founded the social media company 16 years ago, said in a tweet about Musk's potential takeover bid: "I don't believe any individual or institutions should own social media, or more generally media companies. It should be an open and verifiable protocol. Everything is a step toward that." Twitter declined to comment. Musk didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. Musk, a prolific Twitter user himself with more than 80 million followers, has touted the benefits of free speech in the lead up to his hostile takeover bid unveiled in a Securities and Exchange filing last week. Following the disclosure, he conducted a poll asking on Twitter whether taking the company private at $54.20 a share should be up to shareholders and not the board. During a TED conference in Vancouver Thursday, he touted the merits of free speech on the Internet. "I think it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech," Musk said during the TED interview. "Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it's just really important that people have the, both the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law." Musk, who has previously referred to himself as a free speech maximalist, also said he hoped to make available to the public the company's algorithm, helping people understand how content surfaces on the platform. He also said that platforms should police speech in accordance with U.S. laws, a comment that was widely interpreted to mean that he was advocating for limited content moderation because speech in the United States short of direct calls for violence is largely protected by the First Amendment. And he said his bid wasn't about making money. "My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," he said. Some pro-free speech networks have been found by researchers to be havens for white supremacists and those who wished to do harm to society. Tech executives argue that Musk's ideals arose out of a time when the Internet served a different purpose - when concerns about government repression and news organizations as gatekeepers for speech led to early social media pioneers, including Twitter's own founders, to believe that free expression was paramount above all other ideals. Early Internet pioneers of Musk's generation, which include Dorsey, long subscribed to the ideal that more speech is the best antidote to harmful or bad speech. The CEOs were shaped by experiences such as the Arab Spring, where everyday activists used social media services to share their experiences even as governments were trying to repress them. They came of age in a time when governments could speak through them with a megaphone that could far more easily drown out the public than it can today. The belief was so strong that a former executive at both Google and Twitter used to refer to Twitter as "the free speech wing of the free speech party." At the same time, the people who built the Internet - coming up during a period many in Silicon Valley refer to as Web 1.0 - took on hardcore speech postures to also fight back against religious conservatives and opponents of the Internet itself, some of whom argued that the Internet should be restricted because it would become a haven for "porn and sometimes first person shooters," tweeted Yishan Wong, a former CEO of the Internet platform Reddit. "To [many of the older tech leaders], the Internet represented freedom, a new frontier, a flowering of the human spirit, and a great optimism that technology could birth a new golden age of mankind," Wong, a Silicon Valley pioneer, said in a widely-viewed thread. "It's not that the principle is no longer valid (it is), it's that the practical issues around upholding that principle are different, because the world has changed. " Wong added that the notion that more free speech is the best counter to bad speech is "naive" in today's world. Fast forward and the Internet is indeed a different place. Russian trolls sowed disinformation on social platforms in the 2016 U.S. election and President Donald Trump used a network of followers as a misinformation megaphone in the lead up to the last election. Anti-vaccine activists have used social media to spread health conspiracies to millions of people. Even now, amid the conflict in Ukraine, researchers and Facebook have identified disinformation networks trying to tilt public opinion toward Russia. "The Internet is not a frontier where people can go to be free, it's where the entire world is now, and every culture war is being fought on it," Wong tweeted. In an interview, Wong said that early Internet pioneers of Musk's era had "lived experience of free speech working pretty well, and the enemies of free speech being wholly bad," and that informed their worldview. Twitter's shift from being a largely unmoderated platform into one with more robust content moderation took place a year after the 2016 presidential election, when it was revealed that Russian operatives spread disinformation on social media to try to tilt the election outcome toward Trump. Larger rivals Facebook and YouTube also took on similar initiatives in response to the 2016 election. In late 2017, Twitter began building tools and hiring content moderators to weed out disinformation, fake accounts, spam, and other forms of what the company called "inauthentic behavior." That effort got even bigger in 2018, when the company launched an initiative geared toward "Healthy Conversations," and solicited opinions from more than 200 outside experts for how to keep the service free of harassment and bullying. (Before this, user complaints about harassment and bullying were widely ignored by the company, according to numerous reports at the time.) In 2019, Twitter also developed labels that would cover up tweets by powerful people and politicians who broke the service's rules but whose tweets were considered newsworthy. And in 2020, it developed new policies to tackle misinformation during the 2020 election and the pandemic. All of these new measures dramatically changed how speech was policed on the platform and resulted in many more people having their posts and accounts removed. Today, the teams working on healthy conversations at Twitter comprise dozens of people, some of whom have been among the most concerned about Musk's potential takeover, according to internal documents obtained by The Post and people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs. Researchers who study social media say Twitter has vastly improved in some areas, even as some rule-breaking is still easy to identify on the service. The company has gotten much better at detecting fake accounts and disinformation, for example, and also was the first social network to penalize Trump for violating its policies. (Trump is now banned from Twitter.) Advocates for tech accountability say that it would be very risky for Twitter or other social networks to remove some of the measures they've taken in recent years. "A platform that allows people to spam misogynist and racist abuse is unsafe for pretty much anyone else and would lose advertisers, corporate partners and sponsors rapidly, leaving it a commercially unviable husk within months," said Imran Ahmed, founding CEO of the nonprofit group, Center for Countering Digital Hate, which researches and promotes accountability for tech companies. Wong, along with others, pointed out that if Musk were to take control of Twitter, he would be in for a "world of pain" because of the challenges of moderation. "Given the misunderstandings that exist around free speech on platforms I sometimes think it is hard to grasp until you're on the frontline having to make these decisions to get the gravity & difficulty of the work," tweeted Esther Crawford, a Twitter executive whose own social network, Squad, was acquired by Twitter. "I'm very pro free speech but there must be limits for the health of a platform and to ensure the safety of people." Twitter is trying to thwart billionaire Elon Musks takeover attempt with a poison pill a financial device that companies have been wielding against unwelcome suitors for decades. WHAT ARE POISON PILLS SUPPOSED TO DO? The ingredients of each poison pill vary, but theyre all designed to give corporate boards an option to flood the market with so much newly created stock that a takeover becomes prohibitively expensive. The strategy was popularized back in the 1980s when publicly held companies were being stalked by corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn now more frequently described as activist investors. After announcing its board had approved a poison pill last Friday while the stock market was closed, Twitter on Monday provided more details in a regulatory filing that no doubt it's trying to fend off Musk's $43 billion takeover bid, even though the document didn't mention its antagonist by name. Twitter's plan works by imposing a significant penalty" on any investor that builds up a stake of at least 15% in the San Francisco company without the board's approval. The San Francisco companys plan will be triggered if a shareholder accumulates a stake of 15% or more. Musk, best known as CEO of electric car maker Tesla, currently holds a roughly 9% stake, but has raised the possibility of buying more stock. If Musk were to hit the 15% threshold, the Twitter board can then grant shareholders as of April 25 the right to buy one-thousandth of a share of preferred stock for each common share they own, at a price of $210. That option make it virtually impossible for anyone to buy Twitter, including Musk, the world's richest person with an estimated fortune of nearly $270 billion. CAN A POISON PILL BE A NEGOTIATING PLOY? Although they are supposed to help prevent an unsolicited takeover, poison pills also often open the door to further negotiations that can force a bidder to sweeten the deal. If a higher price makes sense to the board, a poison pill can simply be cast aside along with the acrimony it provoked, clearing the way for a sale to completed. True to form, Twitter left its door open by emphasizing that its poison pill wont prevent its board from engaging with parties or accepting an acquisition proposal at a higher price. Adopting a poison pill also frequently results in lawsuits alleging that a corporate board and management team is using the tactic to keep their jobs against the best interests of shareholders. These complaints are sometimes filed by shareholders who think a takeover offer is fair and want to cash out at that price or by the bidder vying to make the purchase. HOW DID ELON MUSK REACT TO TWITTERS ANNOUNCEMENT? Musk, a prolific tweeter with 82 million followers on Twitter, hasn't said anything explicitly about the company's poison pill yet. But he posted cryptic tweet on Saturday hinting he may take his current bid of $54.20-per-share directly to Twitter's shareholders in what is known as a tender offer. Love Me Tender," Musk tweeted with musical notes surrounding the words that Elvis Presley made famous in a 1956 hit song. In another tweet last week, Musk also signaled he was prepared to fight. If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty, Musk tweeted. The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale. Musk has publicly said that his current bid is his best and final offer for Twitter, but other corporate suitors have made similar statements before ultimately upping the ante. Given his immense wealth, Musk would seem to have deep enough pockets to raise his offer, although he is still working out how to finance the proposed purchase. HOW HAS THIS DEFENSE WORKED IN THE PAST? Takeover tussles often dissolve into gamesmanship that include poison pills and other maneuvers designed to make a buyout more difficult. Thats what happened in one of the biggest and most drawn out takeover dances in Silicon Valley history. After business software maker Oracle made an unsolicited $5.1 billion offer for its smaller rival PeopleSoft in June 2003, the two companies spent the next 18 months fighting with each other. As part of its defense, PeopleSoft not only adopted a poison pill that authorized the board to flood the market with more shares, it also created what it called a customer assurance program. That plan promised to pay customers five times the cost of their software licenses if PeopleSoft was sold within the next two years, creating an estimated liability of up to $800 million for an acquiring company. PeopleSoft also got another helping hand when the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block a takeover, although a judge ruled in Oracles favor. Even though the company ended up selling to Oracle, PeopleSofts defense strategy paid off for its shareholders. Oracles final purchase price was $11.1 billion more than twice its original bid. Christian Klein was a teenager the first time he set foot in SAP's headquarters in Walldorf, Germany as an intern. Now the 41-year-old is CEO of the software giant and steering its revenue shift from licensing fees to cloud computing subscriptions. April marks SAP's 50th anniversary and the culmination of Klein's first year as sole CEO. He previously shared the role for several months with co-CEO Jennifer Morgan. Klein spoke recently with The Associated Press. Q: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had strong words for SAP, asking the company and others to stop supporting software clients in Russia and saying theres no half measures. How have you responded? A: Right after the outbreak of the war and the invasion of Ukraine, SAP took immediate action. We stopped the sale of all of our products and services. Needless to say, on top of that, we are not supporting any kind of sanctioned customers. The European Union and others have released further sanctions, which were also following, especially in the energy sector. We also decided to wind down our cloud business. We shut it down completely, almost our complete business in Russia. It was very important for us to have a very clear stance around this invasion of Ukraine and this terrible war. Q: So youre not supporting existing software deals and clients, say a hospital or the food supply chain? A: Not in the cloud business. On the on-premise side, we are following the sanctions which just got expanded. What is left on the on-premise side is customers for civil infrastructure, but nothing more. Q: What was SAP like when you first visited in 1999? A: When you grow up in the area of Heidelberg, theres no way that you can avoid SAP. I did an internship during my school days. I was the one who had to carry the monitors -- not a flat screen at that time -- these were the huge ones. I can really say I learned from the ground up. Already at that point of time, believe it or not, you were part of the family. You were part of this culture. One of the strongest assets is that people really have special connections with the company. And that was carried over from generation to generation. Q: Can you speak to complaints SAP sometimes gets from end users about the complexity of putting in a sales order or filing timesheets? A: We need to simplify the way we develop our software. In the past, in the on-premise world, oftentimes customers bought a solution and then they modified it. Over time there were thousands of modifications and no one understood anymore what was the standard. And then the product becomes more complex. With the move to the cloud, we want to make sure that our customers stay close to the standard so that they can receive regular innovations, automated upgrades so that this complexity is also getting less in the way. So yes, we are on that. Its a big priority. LONDON (AP) Harrison Birtwistle, the creator of daringly experimental modern music who was recognized as one of Britains greatest contemporary composers, has died at 87. Birtwistles publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, said he died Monday at his home in Mere, southwest England. No cause of death was given. Birtwistles compositions, which ranged from chamber pieces to large-scale opera, were given prominent performances in venues including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, the BBC Proms in London and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His unapologetically challenging work sometimes tried the patience of listeners, but the composer was unperturbed. The question of accessibility, Birtwistle once said, is not my problem. I have an idea. I express it as clearly as I can. Criticism is someone elses problem, he added. Martyn Brabbins, music director of the English National Opera, said Birtwistle was a much-loved collaborator and mentor whose work has inspired generations of musicians. The Royal Philharmonic Society said on Twitter that he was a true musical colossus whose music shook the earth. Short on conventional harmony and heavy on complex rhythms, Birtwistles music was often described as having an abrasive quality. In 1995, his piece Panic had a high-profile premiere on live television as part of the hugely popular Last Night of the Proms concert. The BBC was inundated with complaints. Was somebody strangling a cat? one viewer asked. It wasnt only ordinary musical audiences who winced at his work. Benjamin Britten, among Britains greatest 20th-century composers, reportedly left at the intermission of the 1968 premiere of Birtwistles chamber opera Punch and Judy at Brittens own Aldeburgh Festival. Birtwistle said audiences often had trouble with dissonance because it was unfamiliar. Its to do with memory in music, he told The Sunday Times newspaper in 2019. For instance, if you have a Picasso, it can sit on the wall and become part of your memory, even if you only subliminally see it. In music, time is really ephemeral. Modern music is not heard for long enough for it to become familiar. Youre not getting anywhere near being familiar with it. Born in Accrington in northwest England on July 15, 1934, Birtwistle studied clarinet and composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his contemporaries included composer Peter Maxwell Davies and the late pianist John Ogdon. In 1965, Birtwistle sold his clarinets and devoted all his time to composition. His works include The Mask of Orpheus, staged by the English National Opera in 1986; Exody, which the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered under Daniel Barenboim in 1998; Gawain, which premiered in 1991 at the Royal Opera House; and The Minotaur, which debuted in the same venue in 2008. Press Association, the British news agency, said Gawain was avant garde and has no trace of a tune. But Rodney Milnes, editor of Opera magazine, said the opera gripped the imagination pretty remorselessly. Reviewing The Minotaur, critic Anna Picard wrote in The Independent: Long on ugliness, short of redemptive beauty, rich with the rough, pungent poetry of David Harsents libretto, Birtwistles score is as violent as its subject. But in the Evening Standard, Fiona Maddocks described it as music of coruscating, storming beauty. The music flowed from a unique perspective. I dream in the abstract can you imagine that? he told the BBC in 2002. Can you imagine sort of cogs, wooden cogs that are meant to fit, but dont. And then you try to put them in another way and they dont, and its like sort of difficult to describe, but its a sort of abstraction. In 1987, Birtwistle won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Award for Composition from the University of Louisville in the United States for his opera The Mask of Orpheus. He was made a Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres by France in 1986, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 and was elevated in 2001 to a Companion of Honor, a British distinction limited to 65 living people. Birtwistle, the subject of so much criticism, memorably dished it out to pop musicians in 2006 when he accepted an Ivor Novello award. Why is your music so (expletive) loud? he said. You must all be brain dead. Maybe you are. I didnt know so many cliches existed until the last half-hour. Have fun. Goodbye. Birtwistles wife Sheila died in 2012. He is survived by their three sons. ___ The late Associated Press Writer Robert Barr contributed to this story before his death. The Kings Shadow by Edmund Richardson (St. Martins Press) Charles Masson isn't a household name, even for many avid readers of history, but it's easy to wonder why that's the case after reading The King's Shadow." Historian Edmund Richardson's book on Masson's search for the lost city Alexandria Beneath the Mountains is less about the treasure hunt and more about the unlikeliest of archeological heroes. A deserter from the army for the East India Company in the 1800s, Masson wound up in Afghanistan and sought to find the remnants of the famed city that was part of Alexander the Great's sprawling empire. That search winds up being the backdrop for Masson's exploits as he dodges spies from the East India company, rivalling rulers and others. Along the way, Masson unearths archeological treasures that pointed to the city's existence. The story of Masson's life at times can be convoluted, with a massive cast of characters that many writers would die for. But Richardson skillfully weaves the tale of Alexander's empire with Masson's adventures, using a novelistic approach rather than dry academic one that focuses on the action without sacrificing key details about the history. Toward the end of Richardson's book, he notes that history is not just formed by scholarship. Rather, he writes, it is also made of stories." With The King's Shadow," Richardson contributes quite a story to prove that point. I thought I knew all about the information that consumer reporting agencies were collecting on me. Then I discovered The Work Number a database that reports every paycheck Ive received from my company, with net and gross amounts, going back to my hire date six years ago. Another consumer reporting agency shows the results of a 2016 echocardiogram. (It was normal.) Yet another tracks insurance claims on my home and car. If Id made too many returns at retail stores or bounced a check at a casino, that could show up in a database as well. Any data point that someone can track, theres going to be a bureau or someone gathering information and selling that information, says Matthew Loker, a consumer protection attorney in Arroyo Grande, California. Unfortunately, not all the information being reported is accurate and mistakes can have serious consequences. Loker says one of his clients lost a lucrative job offer because an employment screening company confused her with a drug smuggler. By the time the error was fixed, the position was filled. Other people have been denied insurance, apartments, bank accounts and government benefits because of database errors. But discovering and correcting mistakes is no small task. DOZENS OF COMPANIES ARE TRACKING US The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting agencies thats currently 38 pages long. In addition to the big three credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion the list includes 22 employment screeners, 10 tenant screeners, six check and bank screeners, four insurance reporting agencies and two medical information companies, among others. Checking all those reports would be a monumental task, says consumer advocate Chi Chi Wu , a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. Even narrowing down the options to the agency most likely to have relevant information can be tough, Wu says. Lets say youre applying for an apartment, Wu says. There are all these companies and you dont know which one your landlord is going to use. You can ask the prospective landlord, of course, but by the time you spot and fix an error in the report, that apartment may be long since rented. PICK YOUR TARGETS Privacy advocate Evan Hendricks recommends you start by targeting some of the larger databases. For tenant screening, that could include RealPage or TransUnion SmartMove. One of the largest consumer data aggregators is LexisNexis , which provides various types of background screening . The report you get back could be hundreds of pages long, detailing everything from traffic tickets and concealed weapons permits to the amount of every mortgage youve ever had, bankruptcies, tax liens, evictions and criminal records. LexisNexis also operates the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange , or C.L.U.E., which collects and reports auto and personal property claims. You can request your comprehensive report at https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer. If youre employed, check The Work Number, which is owned by Equifax and has current payroll data for more than 136 million jobs. If your salary information is there and it probably is youll also see which companies and government agencies have checked it recently. Government agencies also consult The Work Number files to fight unemployment fraud and determine eligibility for public benefits, among other uses. That alone is a good reason to check your file for errors, Wu says. People have been kicked off or risked being kicked off of benefits or accused of an overpayment because of The Work Number, Wu says. Request your ChexSystems report if you plan to open a new bank account or had problems with a previous account, such as not paying an overdraft fee or bouncing a check. If you plan to apply for individual life, health, long-term care or disability insurance, request your files from MIB and Milliman IntelliScript . MIB collects information about medical conditions, while Milliman IntelliScript collects prescription drug purchase history. WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR REPORTS You typically dont have to pay to request your data, but you may have to wait to get it. Some companies allow you to see your files online, but many require you to submit a form or call a toll-free number to request a report. A company has 15 days to respond once it receives your request, the CFPB says. If you find any errors, follow the companys dispute process. If you cant get the problem resolved, you can file a complaint with the CFPB. A few companies including the credit bureaus, RealPage, LexisNexis, ChexSystems and The Work Number give you the option to freeze your reports. That generally prevents companies from accessing your data without your permission. Freezes can involve some hassle since youll have to keep track of a password or PIN, and a freeze could slow down credit or other applications. The trade-off is more privacy. Speaking of credit bureaus: Youre currently allowed free weekly access to your credit reports through the end of the year. But many other consumer reporting agencies limit your free reports to one every 12 months. So mark your calendar, since checking your data for errors is likely to be a never-ending task. _______________________________________ This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Liz Weston is a columnist at NerdWallet, a certified financial planner and author of Your Credit Score. Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lizweston. RELATED LINKS: NerdWallet: 5 Steps to Clear Up Your ChexSystems Record Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: List of consumer reporting companies LexisNexis: Access Your LexisNexis Consumer Disclosure Reports PHOENIX (AP) Arizona State University police say a 19-year-old student was found dead over the weekend at a campus swimming pool. Adam Wolfe, an ASU police spokesman, told The Arizona Republic that officers responded to a report of an unresponsive man Saturday night at the Sun Devil Fitness Center in Tempe. Officers administered CPR before paramedics arrived but the student was pronounced dead. Jerry Gonzalez, a spokesman for ASU, confirmed the student's identity as Andrew Bryan. Investigators believe Bryan was swimming laps. His body has been turned over to the medical examiner, who will determine the cause of death. Police do not suspect foul play. No other details were released. ____ This story has been changed to correct the student's name to Andrew Bryan after it was initially reported by authorities as Bryan Andrew. PRICHARD, Ala. (AP) Police are investigating after two men were shot to death in the south Alabama city of Prichard. The gunfire happened before dawn Sunday morning. Officers found two men shot, and both were taken to USA Health University Hospital, WKRG-TV reported. Both men were later pronounced dead at the hospital. ATHENS, Greece (AP) Two Turkish men who apparently flew right across the Aegean Sea in an ultralight aircraft to seek asylum in the European Union have been rescued after they ran out of fuel and ditched their small plane off the Greek island of Evia, officials said Monday. The men, ages 32 and 31, were helped out of the water by local fishermen Saturday, and taken for first aid to a health center on Evia, just off the central Greek mainland. Greek media said the men identified themselves as political dissidents in Turkey and were planning to seek asylum. They were arrested for illegal entry. SANTA MONICA, Calif. Their bodies were found on public benches, lying next to bike paths, crumpled under freeway overpasses and stranded on the sun-drenched beach. Across Los Angeles County last year, the unsheltered died in record numbers, an average of five homeless deaths a day, most in plain view of the world around them. Two hundred eighty-seven homeless people took their last breath on the sidewalk, 24 died in alleys and 72 were found on the pavement, according to data from the county coroner. They were a small fraction of the thousands of homeless people across the country who die each year. Its like a wartime death toll in places where there is no war, said Maria Raven, an emergency room doctor in San Francisco who co-wrote a study about homeless deaths. An epidemic of deaths on the streets of American cities has accelerated as the homeless population has aged and the cumulative toll of living and sleeping outdoors has shortened lives. The wider availability of fentanyl, a particularly fast-acting and dangerous drug, has been a major cause of the rising death toll, but many homeless people are dying young of treatable chronic illnesses such as heart disease. MARK ABRAMSON/NYT More than ever, it has become deadly to be homeless in America, especially for men in their 50s and 60s, who typically make up the largest cohort of despair. In many cities, the number of homeless deaths doubled during the pandemic, a time when seeking medical care became more difficult, when housing costs continued to rise and when public health authorities were preoccupied with combating the coronavirus. Austin, Texas. Denver. Indianapolis. Nashville, Tennessee. Salt Lake City. These are some of the cities where officials and homeless advocates have said they have been alarmed by the rising number of deaths. But the crisis is most acute in California, where about 1 in 4 of the nations 500,000 homeless people lives. The process of tallying homeless deaths is painstaking, involving the cross-referencing of homeless databases and death reports. But based on data from the handful of Californias 58 counties that report homeless deaths, experts said 4,800 is a conservative estimate for last year. In Los Angeles County, the homeless population grew by 50% from 2015 to 2020. Homeless deaths have grown at a far faster rate, an increase of about 200% during the same period to nearly 2,000 deaths in the county last year. MARK ABRAMSON/NYT These are profoundly lonely deaths, said David Modersbach, who led the first public study of homeless deaths in Alameda County across the Bay from San Francisco. In some cases, bodies are left undiscovered for hours. Others are unclaimed at the morgue despite efforts to reach family members. In San Francisco, where people sleeping in cardboard boxes, tents and other makeshift shelters are a common sight, the body of a homeless man who died on a traffic median last spring lay for more than 12 hours before being retrieved. Guy lay dead here & no one noticed, said a cardboard sign left at the scene. Those who sleep on the streets speak of the wear that it imposes on the body, of several untreated illnesses and of the loneliness of being surrounded by pedestrians who ignore you. Billy, a metal worker and carpenter from New Jersey who now sleeps in the narrow alleys behind Venice Beach in Los Angeles, constantly feels the reminders of his previous jobs. At 50, he has chronic pain from an accident while trimming trees, treating it with a jumbo-size bottle of Aleve he keeps in his backpack. He has overdosed twice from heroin, revived both times with the drug naloxone, and has watched as friends have disappeared around him. I can name 30 or 40 people who have died of overdoses, and most of them were in my demographic, said Billy, who did not want his last name published because he said it would embarrass his three grown children. MARK ABRAMSON/NYT A study by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found that homeless people are 35 times as likely as the general population to die of a drug or alcohol overdose. They are also four times as likely to die of heart disease, 16 times as likely to die in a car crash, 14 times as likely to be murdered and eight times as likely to die of suicide. California, flush with cash from pandemic budget surpluses, has poured record amounts of money into combating homelessness. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $12 billion homelessness package last year that included funds to construct 42,000 new housing units. Los Angeles County in 2017 voted overwhelmingly to raise its sales tax and generate a projected $3.5 billion over 10 years for homelessness programs. Since then, the county has housed 78,000 people. Yet, county officials say they cannot keep up: Although 207 homeless people find housing every day, 227 people become homeless every day, the county calculates. And once on the street, mental health, drug abuse and general medical well-being can spiral out of control. Modersbach said he had been struck by how many homeless people were dying of diseases outside of hospitals or other clinical settings. To die of heart disease, liver disease, respiratory diseases on your own is pretty shocking, he said. Of the 809 homeless deaths from 2018 to 2020 in Alameda County, according to the study, one-quarter were from drug overdoses; half were from heart attacks, cancer, strokes and chronic illnesses; and the rest were from accidents, suicides and homicides. In Sacramento County, at least three homeless people froze to death last year. MARK ABRAMSON/NYT A key distinction among the homeless population today is the graying of the destitute. Margot Kushel, a doctor specializing in homeless care, has tracked the rise of the average age of homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area from their mid-30s three decades ago to their mid-50s today. But even that rise in age does not tell the full story of their vulnerability, she said. Homeless people in their 50s are showing geriatric symptoms: difficulty dressing and bathing, visual and hearing problems, urinary incontinence. Poverty is very wearing on the body, Kushel said. Fifty is the new 75. One-quarter of the homeless people she began studying nine years ago are now dead. The median age of death was 63, well below the average U.S. life expectancy of 77. Across California, homeless deaths are overwhelmingly among men, and especially Black men who are dying on the streets at rates far disproportionate to their share of the general population. In Los Angeles County, men make up 67% of the homeless population but 83% of homeless deaths. In San Francisco, men in their 50s have the highest rates of overdose deaths among all age deciles. Keith Humphreys, a Stanford psychologist, said the issue of death and despair among older men was underappreciated and understudied. He said society should ask the question: Can we help men from dying so much? David Brown, 59, a former bus driver and fast-food employee in San Francisco who is currently enrolled in a rehabilitation program at the Salvation Army, describes the circumstances that put him on the streets as a lifes accumulation of woes. The knee problems from cramming his tall frame into the bus drivers seat. The Type 2 diabetes. The prison terms he served for burglary. A lifetime struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse. So many friends died in shootings around the time of the crack epidemic in the 1980s and from overdoses on the streets that he feels entirely bereft. I dont have anybody in my life, he said. Pamela Prickett, a sociologist who has studied death records in Los Angeles, said one measure of male isolation is that mens bodies go unclaimed at the morgue at twice the rate of women. The rates that bodies go unclaimed, which have been climbing since the 1970s, are highest among men in their 40s and 50s. There are more people not getting married or getting divorced and not getting remarried, Prickett said. So we find lots of loners. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said he had seen a pattern of men being ill-equipped to handle triggers in life such as illness and losing a job or a spouse. As men get older, they tend to be less good at building and maintaining relationships, he said. When people do not have a safety net to catch them in the form of community and strong healthy relationships, its much more likely they end up struggling with substance-use disorders, with mental illness and homelessness. Ivan Perez, 53, is philosophical about what caused his life to go off the rails. His wifes miscarriage and their marriage that fell apart. A marijuana habit that sank his career as a stockbroker. Prison time for an assault when he was high. Gambling. Being alone, you kind of have no excuses to say its my wifes fault, its my moms fault, its societys fault, Perez said. In recent months, he has slept on the streets in a tent near the North Hollywood subway station. The soundtrack to his life, he said, is the hissing of passing trucks next to his tent and the swoosh of street cleaners. Theres a certain posture that you take when you are homeless, he said. You lose your dignity. His goal, he said, was to live as long as his father, who died at 54 1/2. He is not far off. Perez remembered the hopes he had when he was younger of becoming an actor or a playwright. I tried to do all the right things and it blew up in my face, he said. What a raw deal this life turned out to be. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. PHOENIX (AP) A suspect in the shooting of a Phoenix police officer and the subject of a manhunt for more than three days has been arrested. Authorities say 35-year-old Nicholas Cowan was found Sunday at a rental property in Scottsdale after receiving a tip from the public. Police spent several hours negotiating with him to surrender. Cowan was taken into custody shortly before 8 p.m. Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Williams says Cowan still had gunshot wounds from Thursday's shootout with the injured officer. Once he gets treated for those, he will be booked on several charges. Investigators believe several people helped Cowan hide from authorities. They have arrested 33-year-old Nicole Montalbano for aiding and abetting him. It was not immediately known Monday if she had an attorney to speak on her behalf. Phoenix police officers were speaking with Cowans girlfriend at a gas station Thursday regarding her domestic violence call when he arrived in his car. An officer was approaching Cowan when he shot her from inside his vehicle, police said. Another officer returned fire as Cowan continued shooting before fleeing the scene. The wounded officer is continuing to recover in the hospital. Cowan became the subject of an intense search by police and FBI. A $35,000 reward was issued for any information leading to his arrest. FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) The final two F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jets have arrived at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, completing the full complement of 54 aircraft. Col. David Ajax Berkland of the 354 Fighter Wing at Eielson called it a really significant day for us in terms of the buildup of Eielson Air Force Base. The base was selected in 2016 to host F-35s, spawning a base expansion that cost more than a half billion dollars and includes 36 new buildings and 54 housing units for the F-35s, Fairbanks television station KTVF reported Saturday, a day after the two final jets arrived. The Air Force says the fifth generation F-35 represents a quantum leap in air combat capability. Combined with two squadrons of F-22s at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska will have more operational fifth generation assets than anywhere else in the world, Eleventh Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. David A. Krumm, told Air Force Magazine. Krumm is the senior military official in Alaska. Gen. Billy Mitchell talked about it in the 1930s, that whoever holds Alaska, holds the world. So the strategic importance of competing and securing our nations interests, which were there then, remains as much now as ever, Berkland told KTVF. The expansion also includes personnel, with about 3,500 new active duty airmen and their dependents stationed at the base about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Fairbanks. The strategic importance of these aircraft in the Arctic illustrates the Air Forces capability for readiness, and when it comes to training, you need an area as big as Alaska, Berkland said. We are actually sitting inside the greatest air space in the world to train for fifth generation tactics against advanced threats, both on the air and on the ground, he said. With the capability to fly more than 12 hours at a time, the F-35s can reach almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in one mission. In a photograph from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, a woman stands in the yard of a house, her hand covering her mouth in horror, the bodies of three dead civilians scattered before her. When Aset Chad saw that picture, she started shaking and hurtled 22 years back in time. In February 2000, she walked into her neighbors yard in Chechnya and glimpsed the bodies of three men and a woman who had been shot repeatedly in front of her 8-year-old daughter. Russian soldiers had swept their village and murdered at least 60 people, raped at least six women and plundered the victims gold teeth, human rights observers found. I am having the most severe flashbacks, Chad, who now lives in New York, said in a phone interview. I see exactly whats going on: I see the same military, the same Russian tactics they use, dehumanizing the people. The brutality of Moscows war on Ukraine takes two distinct forms, familiar to those who have seen Russias military in action elsewhere. There is the programmatic violence meted out by Russian bombs and missiles against civilians as well as military targets, meant to demoralize as much as defeat. These attacks recall the aerial destruction in 1999 and 2000 of the Chechen capital of Grozny and, in 2016, of the Syrian rebel stronghold of Aleppo. And then there is the cruelty of individual soldiers and units, the horrors of Bucha appearing to have descended directly from the slaughter a generation ago in Chads village, Novye Aldi. Civilian deaths and crimes committed by soldiers figure into every war, not least those fought by the United States in recent decades in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has always been difficult to explain why soldiers commit atrocities or to describe how the orders of commanders, military culture, national propaganda, battlefield frustration and individual malice can come together to produce such horrors. In Russia, however, such acts are rarely investigated or even acknowledged, let alone punished. That leaves it unclear how much the low-level brutality stems from the intent of those in charge or whether commanders failed to control their troops. Combined with the apparent strategy of bombing civilian targets, many observers conclude that the Russian government and, perhaps, a part of Russian society in reality condones violence against civilians. Some analysts see the problem as a structural and political one, with the lack of accountability of the Russian armed forces magnified by the absence of independent institutions in Vladimir Putins authoritarian system or the Soviet Union before it. Compared with the West, fewer people harbor any illusions of individual rights trumping raw power. I think there is this kind of culture of violence, said Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher. Either you are dominating or you are dominated. In Ukraine, Russian soldiers, by all appearances, can continue to kill civilians with impunity, as underscored by the fact that virtually none of the perpetrators of war crimes in Chechnya, where the Kremlin crushed an independence movement at the cost of tens of thousands of civilian lives, were ever prosecuted in Russia. Back then, Russian investigators told Chad that the killings in Novye Aldi might have been perpetrated by Chechens dressed up as Russian troops, she recalls. Now, the Kremlin says any atrocities in Ukraine are either staged or carried out by the Ukrainians and their Western patrons, while denouncing as a Nazi anyone who resists the Russian advance. Many Russians believe those lies, while those who do not are left wrestling with how such crimes could be carried out in their name. Violence remains commonplace within the Russian military, where more senior soldiers routinely abuse junior ones. Despite two decades of attempts at trying to make the army a more professional force, it has never developed a strong middle tier akin to the noncommissioned officers who bridge the gap between commanders and lower-ranking soldiers in the U.S. military. In 2019, a conscript in Siberia opened fire and killed eight at his military base, later asserting that he had carried out the shooting spree because other soldiers had made his life hell. Experts say the severity of hazing in the Russian military has been reduced compared with the early 2000s, when it killed dozens of conscripts yearly. But they say that order in many units is still maintained through informal systems similar to the abusive hierarchies in Russian prisons. To Sergei Krivenko, who leads a rights group that provides legal aid to Russian soldiers, that violence, coupled with a lack of independent oversight, makes war crimes more possible. Russian soldiers are just as capable of cruelty against fellow Russians, he says, as they are against Ukrainians. It is the state of the Russian army, this impunity, aggression and internal violence, that is expressed in these conditions, Krivenko said in a phone interview. If there were to be an uprising in Voronezh a city in western Russia and the army were called in, the soldiers would behave exactly the same way. But the crimes in Ukraine may also stem from the Kremlins years of dehumanizing propaganda against Ukrainians, which soldiers consume in required viewings. Russian conscripts, a sample schedule available on the Russian Defense Ministrys website shows, must sit through informational television programs from 9 to 9:40 p.m. every day but Sunday. The message that they are fighting Nazis as their forefathers did in World War II is now being spread through the military, Russian news reports show. In one video distributed by the Defense Ministry, a marine commander, Maj. Aleksei Shabulin, says his grandfather chased fascist scum through the forests during and after World War II, referring to Ukrainian independence fighters who at one point collaborated with Nazi Germany. Now I am gloriously continuing this tradition; now my time has come, Shabulin says. I will not disgrace my great-grandfather and will go to the end. That propaganda also primed Russian soldiers not to expect much resistance to the invasion after all, the Kremlins narrative went, people in Ukraine had been subjugated by the West and were awaiting liberation by their Russian brethren. Krivenko, the soldiers rights advocate, said he had spoken directly to a Russian soldier who called his groups hotline and recounted that even when his unit was ordered into Ukraine from Belarus, it was not made clear that the soldiers were about to enter a war zone. Military commanders attitude to the army is, basically, like to cattle, Krivenko said. Putin has said that only contract soldiers will fight in Ukraine, but his Defense Ministry was forced to admit last month that conscripts serving the one-year term in the military required of Russian men 18 to 27 had been sent to the front, as well. Ukrainians did fight back, even though Putin called them part of one nation with Russians in an essay published last year that the Defense Ministry made required reading for its soldiers. The fierce resistance of a people considered to be part of ones own contributed to the sense that Ukrainians were worse than a typical battlefield adversary, said Mark Galeotti, who studies Russian security affairs. The fact that ordinary Ukrainians are now taking up arms against you there is this sense that these arent just enemies, these are traitors, he said. And treason, Putin has said, is the gravest crime possible. To some extent, the Russian militarys violence against civilians is a feature, not a bug. In Syria, Russia targeted hospitals to crush the last pockets of resistance to President Bashar Assad, a brutally pragmatic approach to warfare that has its own, ghastly logic, Galeotti said. It was an echo of Russias aerial destruction of Grozny in 1999 and 2000 and a prelude to the fierce siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in the current invasion. The killings of civilians at close range and sexual violence by individual soldiers are a separate matter. In Bucha, civilians told The New York Times that the moods and behaviors of the Russian troops grew uglier as the war progressed and that the first soldiers to arrive were relatively peaceful. You have a bunch of sleep-deprived young men with guns for whom, they feel, none of the rules apply, Galeotti said. The violence has caused scholars to reassess their understanding of the Russian army. In a military operation that seemed at least at first to be aimed at winning over Ukrainians allegiance to Moscow, atrocities against civilians seem grotesquely counterproductive. Russia already experienced that in Chechnya, where Russian violence against civilians fueled the Chechen resistance. Every dead civilian meant a bullet into a Russian soldier, said Kirill Shamiev, who studies Russian civil-military relations at the Central European University in Vienna. I thought that they had learned some lessons. But Stanislav Gushchenko, a journalist who served as a psychologist in the Russian military in the early 2000s, said he was not surprised by the reports of Russian atrocities in Ukraine. He recalled the quotidian violence in his unit and the banal mistreatment of Russian civilians, like the time a group of soldiers he was traveling with by long-distance train stole a cooked chicken that an older woman in their carriage had brought along for sustenance. In a phone interview from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Gushchenko marveled at the Russians who now express shock. I say, Guys, things were about the same 20 years ago, he said. You lived in your own, closed world, in some kind of bubble, or as psychologists say, in a comfort zone, and didnt want to notice this or truly didnt notice. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TULSA, Okla. (AP) An Oklahoma man who shot two Tulsa police officers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, was in fear for his life after the officers beat, kicked, pepper sprayed and shot him with a stun gun after a traffic stop, his attorney told jurors during opening statements Monday. David Anthony Ware, 34, faces a possible death sentence for killing Sgt. Craig Johnson. He's also charged with wounding a second officer, Aurash Zarkeshan, following a traffic stop on June 29, 2020, along with drug and other charges. The truth is that when David Ware shot Officer Zarkeshan and Sgt. Johnson, he was in fear for his life," Ware's attorney Kevin Adams said. Sgt. Johnson and Officer Zarkeshan beat David Ware, they kicked David Ware, they tased David Ware, they maced David Ware as he pleaded and begged for somebody to help him. And when it got to the point that he felt that he was about to lose his life, he shot Officer Zarkashan and he shot Sgt. Craig Johnson." Prosecutors say Ware, who is white, escalated the situation following the traffic stop by refusing to obey the commands of officers as they sought to get him out of the vehicle. (Zarkeshan) asked him to step out of the car. This is where things start to get ugly," said Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray. The traffic stop started out OK. It went really bad." Gray said Zarkeshan pulled Ware over about 3 a.m. after he saw him run a stop sign and then take a wide turn into another lane of traffic. Ware failed to produce a driver's license or proof of insurance when Zarkeshan asked him to provide those documents. A nine-man, three-woman jury, along with several alternate jurors, were selected last week. Co-defendant Matthew Hall, who authorities said drove Ware from the scene after the shooting, is serving a 24-year prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of being an accessory to a felony in the case. LOGANVILLE, Ga. (AP) A Georgia teenager has been charged with malice murder and felony murder after his 10-year-old sister was found dead following a fire in their family's home, investigators said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported two adults and five children had been living in the one-story home that caught fire early Sunday in Loganville, east of Atlanta. Investigators said the fire might have been set intentionally. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIJING (AP) Chinese leaders face pressure to shore up sinking economic growth after Shanghai and other cities shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, threatening to disrupt global trade and manufacturing. Growth slid to 1.3% over the previous quarter in the first three months of 2022, down from a 1.4% rate in last year's final quarter, official data showed Monday. Compared with a year earlier, a measurement that can hide recent fluctuations, growth was 4.8%, up from 4% in the final quarter of 2021. In a sign the slide might be deepening, March retail sales fell 3.5% from a year earlier. This month's activity is set to be even worse, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report. Chinas economic performance is likely to remain lackluster in the near-term. The ruling Communist Party, which set a 5.5% growth target this year, already was trying to reverse a slump that started in mid-2021. Pressure mounted after last month's surge in infections prompted Beijing to suspend access to Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, and other industrial centers. Further impacts from lockdowns are imminent, Iris Pang of ING said in a report. The slowdown hurts Chinas trading partners by depressing demand for imported oil, food and consumer goods. Oil prices, which spiked after Russias attack on Ukraine, have eased on expectations Chinese consumption will weaken. The ruling party promised tax refunds and other aid to businesses after tighter controls on use of debt triggered a slowdown in China's vast real estate industry. Last week, Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader, called for quicker action to help entrepreneurs who generate China's new jobs and wealth. Forecasters say Beijing is using cautious, targeted stimulus instead of across-the-board spending, a strategy that will take longer to show results. Chinese leaders worry too much spending or bank lending might push up politically sensitive housing costs or corporate debt they worry is dangerously high. Meanwhile, China faces more headwinds from a possible slowdown in the European Union, a major export market, due to Russia's war on Ukraine and higher oil and gas prices, according to Rajiv Biswas of S&P Global Market Intelligence. That would "hit Chinas manufacturing export sector," Biswas said in an email. The flow of industrial goods has been disrupted by the suspension of access to Shanghai, home of the world's busiest port, and other industrial cities including Changchun and Jilin in the northeast. Global automakers and other manufacturers have reduced or stopped production at Chinese factories. The disruption "will weigh on activity in April and into May, if not longer," Tommy Wu of Oxford Economics said in a report. That is "likely to have a significant impact on global supply chains. China's latest infection numbers are relatively low, but Beijing is responding to its biggest outbreak since the 2020 start of the pandemic with a zero-COVID policy that aims to isolate every person who tests positive. Consumer demand, an important economic engine, was dampened by a government appeal to the public to avoid traveling during Februarys Lunar New Year holiday, normally a period of big spending on gifts, banquets and tourism. Factory output rose 6.5% during the quarter over a year earlier. Investment in factories, real estate and other fixed assets increased 9.3%, possibly reflecting easier credit. This quarter, retail sales might fall 5.5% from a year ago, while factory output contracts by 1.5%, according to Nomura economists Ting Lu, Jing Wang and Harrington Zhang. Global markets underestimate Chinas growth slowdown, which is set to ripple to the rest of the world, they said in a report. Last week, regulators injected an extra 500 billion yuan ($80 billion) into the pool of money for lending by reducing the amount of deposits commercial banks are required to hold in reserve. Shanghai has eased controls that confined most its people to their homes. But while some 6.6 million people were allowed to go outdoors, most businesses stayed closed. The agency that runs the Shanghai port says operations are normal. But companies say the volume of cargo it handles has fallen. Shanghai is so important that a full month's shutdown will subtract 2% from China's annual economic growth, according to Pang of ING. This loss will increase if the lockdown lasts longer, Pang wrote. Authorities also suspended access to Tianjin, a port and petrochemical center east of Beijing, and Shenzhen, a finance and tech hub near Hong Kong. Other cities have closed businesses, told residents to stay home if possible or imposed limits on movement. Economists have warned spring planting by Chinese farmers who feed 1.4 billion people might be disrupted. That would hurt economic activity and boost demand for imported wheat and other food, potentially pushing up already high global prices. China rebounded quickly from the pandemic in 2020, but activity weakened as tighter controls on borrowing by real estate developers hit construction, which supports millions of jobs. Investors are waiting to see what happens to one of Chinas biggest developers, Evergrande Group. It has struggled since last year to avoid defaulting on $310 billion owed to banks and bondholders. ___ China National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn WASHINGTON (AP) A global computer chip shortage has made it harder for consumers to get their hands on cars, computers and other modern-day necessities, so Congress is looking to boost chip manufacturing and research in the United States with billions of dollars from the federal government. Both the House and the Senate have passed major legislation on the matter, and the effort is one of lawmakers final opportunities before the November elections to show voters they are addressing the nations strained supply chains. Now they have to work out considerable differences in the two bills. And Senate Republicans are already digging in before the negotiations formally begin. President Joe Biden has made the semiconductor legislation a top priority, but hell need the support of 10 Senate Republicans, and perhaps more, to get a bill to his desk. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell emphasized that point when congressional leaders recently announced which lawmakers will serve on the committee that works to reconcile the two bills. Without major concessions and changes from House Democrats, this legislation has no chance of becoming law, McConnell said. House Democrats say their voices need to be heard during negotiations. We need to make sure that everyone has input," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a group that has 19 members participating in negotiations. We have a strong bill in the House, and I think there's important components there that the Senate should also consider. The Senate bill is projected to increase spending by about $250 billion over 10 years. The House bill would boost spending by more than $400 billion over the period. WHERE THERE IS MUCH AGREEMENT The Senate and House bills allot more than $52 billion for semiconductor production and research. Grants and loans from the federal government would subsidize some of the cost of building or renovating semiconductor plants. The chips funding is absolutely the foundation of this bill it's a bipartisan foundation," said Josh Teitelbaum, senior counsel at Akin Gump, a law and lobbying firm. I think it is what is driving this toward the finish line." SOME OVERLAP, BUT KEY DIFFERENCES Both bills authorize a big boost in spending for the National Science Foundation, but they have different priorities for the research receiving funding. The Senate bill provides $29 billion over five years to a new directorate focused on strengthening U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotics and other cutting-edge technologies. The House bill provides $13.3 billion over five years to a new directorate for science and engineering solutions. It lists climate change, environmental sustainability and social and economic inequality as part of the directorate's focus. The two sides will have to work out their competing visions for the National Science Foundation. The two bills also establish regional technology hubs with the Senate dedicating $10 billion to the program and the House dedicating $7 billion. The Senate bill calls for 20 such hubs, while the House bill authorizes at least 10. The seed money would go to regional organizations seeking to advance a variety of economic and national security priorities. The approach has bipartisan support from lawmakers with big rural and minority constituencies who want to ensure the money is not concentrated in universities or communities where a lot of tech research is already done. WHERE THERE ARE MAJOR DIFFERENCES The bills diverge on supply chain issues, trade, immigration and climate change, to name a few areas. One of the big-ticket items is a $45 billion program in the House bill to enhance supply chains in the U.S. There was no such provision in the Senate bill. The money would provide grants, loans or loan guarantees to companies, local governments and tribes trying to build or relocate manufacturing plants producing critical goods. This is a real area of focus for companies and for communities who want to try to bring back manufacturing," Teitelbaum said. Theres a lot of interest in including this funding in the final package." Another stark difference is on trade. The House reauthorizes a program that provides training and financial assistance for those who lose their jobs or have hours cut because of increased imports. The Senate has no such provision. It's not going to move without trade adjustment assistance," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said of the bill. Meanwhile, the Senate bill includes a trade provision that would exclude more products from tariffs the Trump administration put in place on goods imported from China. Those exclusions have almost all expired. The Senate bill reinstates them, a priority of business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The House bill addresses immigration, while the Senate bill does not. It would create a new visa category for entrepreneurs and would allow those with an ownership interest in successful ventures to apply to become lawful permanent residents. The House bill, unlike the Senate bill, also touches on climate change. It dedicates $8 billion to a fund that helps developing countries adjust to climate change. That could be a nonstarter for Republicans, who object to using U.S. taxpayer money for that purpose. No one expects the negotiations to be easy. I have a hard time explaining to my friends and constituents," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that when the White House is in favor of something, when Democrats are in favor of something, Republicans are in favor of something, the House is in favor of it, and the Senate is in favor of it, we still cant seem to get it done. But I hope that we will take advantage of this opportunity. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ST. LOUIS (AP) When Hurricane Ida hit last summer, a storm surge overwhelmed a levee and gushed into Ted Falgouts coastal Louisiana home, destroying his furniture and the beloved framed photos of his twin sons kissing him on their first day of school, then again when they graduated high school. That water was probably 60% mud, said Falgout, whos hoping relief is on the way for his community in Larose, about 30 miles southwest of New Orleans. As climate change makes hurricanes stronger and wetter and increases storm surges, cities on the Louisiana coast and Mississippi River are hoping President Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure package will provide badly needed funding to fortify locks, levees and other flood protections. But community groups and advocates fear smaller cities will struggle to navigate the maze of government programs and miss out on the rare chance to protect against rising waters and heavy rains. I think the agencies are still figuring a lot of this out, said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, which advocates for communities along the river. While many swaths of the country are at risk for flooding, the Louisiana coast has long been especially vulnerable and the Upper Mississippi is part of a region where flood severity is increasing faster than in any other area of the country. La Crosse, Wisconsin is among the cities trying to figure out how to benefit as infrastructure funds start rolling out. The city's levees were built after devastating flooding in 1965 and don't meet federal standards that would help lower insurance rates and make it easier for residents to fix up their homes without having to spend more to protect against floods, said Brad Woznak of SEH, a flood planning consultant for the city. Upgrading the levees would be so expensive it's hard for the city to know how to get started, he said. But with this potential infrastructure bill funding, thats what I keep telling them dont rule anything out yet, Woznak said, noting that it could be a chance to pay for an initial evaluation for the project. Some advocates want agencies to make it easier for communities to learn about funding opportunities and ensure that simple applications from small towns will be able to compete against more sophisticated proposals from richer cities. They also want more clarity into how the Biden administration considers factors like economic and environmental inequality in its funding decisions. The Biden administration is asking states to make climate resilience a part of their long-term planning and encouraging projects that factor in flood risk. It tapped Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, to help coordinate the laws implementation and outreach to communities There needs to be a concerted effort by the administration and federal government to engage states and localities now, said Forbes Tompkins, a flood policy expert at Pew Charitable Trusts. The Environmental Protection Agency also said it will offer assistance to disadvantaged areas and states have money to help small communities access funding for drinking and wastewater projects. Rural communities are also getting special guidance on tapping into the money. But further complicating the scramble for funding is debate about the best approaches for protecting against floods. In addition to protections like levees and floodgates, Congress directed the Army Corps to more seriously consider natural solutions like the restoration of wetlands. Wetlands help absorb water before it can reach communities while restoring wildlife habitat, recharging groundwater and providing more green space, noted Olivia Dorothy of the conservation group American Rivers. After flooding in 2019 breached a levee in northwest Missouri on the Missouri River, for example, the levee was moved back to create more than 1,000 acres of floodplain and added wetlands. Dorothy said more natural protections are especially needed along the Mississippi. In Louisiana, Larose is among the small communities that were lucky enough to benefit from early funding from the infrastructure law because of a long-running project in the broader area. In January, the Army Corps allocated $379 million to continue work on a series of locks, levees and other structures that will help protect 150,000 residents in coastal Louisiana. Once completed, local officials said the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project will likely shield Falgouts home from another storm like Ida. For now, Falgout and his wife are living in their boathouse while their home is repaired. The property had escaped flooding in the past but Falgout said the shrinking Louisiana coast is making it more vulnerable. It would be a shame to walk away, he said. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment LANCASTER, N.H. (AP) A National Guard helicopter rescued an injured backcountry snowboarder in northern New Hampshire who had fallen and struck some rocks, state Fish and Game conservation officers said. The snowboarder, identified as Patrick McQuaide, 31, of Pelham, was on a solo trip Friday in an area called the Great Gulf in a ski run known as Turkey Shoot. The FBI might not have found any Civil War-era gold at a remote woodland site in Pennsylvania but it's definitely got records of the agency's 2018 dig, and will soon have to turn them over to a father-son pair of treasure hunters. A federal judge has ordered the FBI to speed up the release of records about the search for the legendary gold, ruling Monday in favor of Finders Keepers, the treasure hunting outfit that led FBI agents to the remote site. The group accuses the Justice Department of slow-walking their request for information. The FBI must turn over 1,000 pages of records per month, starting in 30 days, and the first batch of records must include a key report sought by Finders Keepers, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered. The ruling came four months after Finders Keepers sued the Justice Department over its failure to produce records on the FBIs search. The FBI has long insisted its March 2018 dig came up empty, but Finders Keepers says the government has acted suspiciously throughout the four-year saga. Finders Keepers owners, the father-son duo of Dennis and Kem Parada, spent years looking for the fabled 1863 shipment of Union gold that was supposedly lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The pair eventually led the FBI to a remote site 135 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh where they say their instruments identified a huge hunk of metal. The FBI brought in its own contractor the geophysical consulting firm Enviroscan which said its sensitive equipment detected a 9-ton metallic mass suggestive of gold, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed last year at the request of news organizations including The Associated Press. On Monday, Mehta ordered the government to include Enviroscan's report to the FBI, along with FBI photos taken at the site, in the first batch of documents it turns over to Finders Keepers. But the judge declined to compel the Justice Department to explain a discrepancy in the number of video files it says it has of the dig. Finders Keepers said in a court filing last month that the FBI initially said its records included 17 video files. Now, the government claims there are only four videos. Federal officials have not explained the discrepancy, the treasure hunters said. Mehta said the Freedom of Information Act only requires that an agency produce records, not answer questions from the person requesting them. The FBI initially claimed it had no files about the investigation at all. Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI claimed its records were exempt from public disclosure. Finally, in the wake of the treasure hunters appeal, the FBI said it had located records it could potentially turn over but that it would take years to do so. That prompted the treasure hunters Freedom of Information Act suit seeking to compel production. The owner of an unpermitted firing range is facing jail time if he won't allow officials from the town of Pawlet to visit the property within 30 days, a Vermont judge said Monday. The town has been working for years to get Daniel Banyai to comply with its zoning regulations, and later orders from the state Environmental Court. During the remote hearing, Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin also told Banyai that he must sign a contract within 10 days with a surveyor to complete an assessment of the 30-acre property in West Pawlet to determine what is located there. I will caution Mr. Banyai that if you do not abide by this interim order in any respect I will then immediately ... consider any request made by the town of Pawlet to have you jailed until you comply, Durkin said. During the three-hour hearing, Banyai's lawyer Robert Kaplan said he only began representing Banyai last month, but he would work with town officials and his client to find an acceptable date for a site visit. Banyai bought the 30-acre property known as Slate Ridge in 2013 and sometime in 2017 he began operating what he calls a firearms training facility. The property is only permitted to have a garage with an apartment. Slate Ridge neighbors have complained for some time about gunfire at the facility and what they claimed were threats and intimidation by Banyai and his supporters. Many of the neighbors of Slate Ridge are afraid to talk publicly because of fears for their safety. In March 2021, Durkin ordered Banyai to end any firearms training activities at the center and that he remove any unpermitted structures. Banyai appealed that decision to the Vermont Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the town earlier this year. That 2021 order included the need for a site visit so officials can learn what is on the property, and it imposed a fine. Earlier this month Banyai paid a nearly $53,000 fine. A site visit had been scheduled for last week, but was canceled at the last minute because Banyai was hospitalized, officials said in court. I am very concerned about the evidence weve received thus far, particularly in relation to Mr. Banyai's conscious decision to not abide by a judgement order that is now over a year old and was affirmed by the Vermont Supreme Court three-plus months ago," Durkin said. Banyai testified during the hearing that he'd hired a surveyor and made plans to remove a 500-square-foot building that has been used as a school house by putting it on a trailer and taking it away. He did not say where he would take it. Earlier this year, Banyai hired a surveyor, but the survey did not have the time he needed to provide the detailed maps requested by the court. FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Kentucky's Democratic governor won a court order Monday temporarily blocking a GOP-backed measure that would cut off his access to public funds to challenge laws he deems unconstitutional. It was one of two laws temporarily blocked by Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas D. Wingate. The other would give a legislative committee decision-making authority over executive branch contracts. The dispute continues a bitter tug-of-war between Gov. Andy Beshear and the Republican-led legislature over the extent of the governor's executive authority. Both measures became law and took effect immediately after the legislature voted last week to override the governors vetoes. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said his office was ready to defend the new laws. It is our job to defend the laws as they are passed by the General Assembly, and we will continue to defend HB 248 and HB 388 from the legal challenge brought by the governor, the Republican attorney general said in a statement Monday. Laura Leigh Goins, a spokeswoman for the House speaker's office, said in a statement that there is no reason to believe that the temporary restraining order is any reflection on the merits of the case or how he may eventually rule. "The judge stated that he will maintain the status quo and issue an order as quickly as possible for the appellate courts to decide the issue, Goins said. Unable to stop the legislature's GOP supermajorities from overriding his vetoes, Beshear has gone to court repeatedly to challenge the constitutionality of measures chipping away at his executive authority. One measure now being contested would cut off his use of public funds to do so. The measure, House Bill 248, would designate Kentucky's attorney general as the only statewide constitutional officer allowed to spend taxpayer funds on litigation challenging a law's constitutionality. In his order temporarily blocking the measures, Wingate said the plaintiffs had more than sufficiently demonstrated that their rights are being or will be violated." Of particular concern to the court is that plaintiffs have alleged that under HB248 their access to the courts has essentially been blocked," the judge wrote. In his veto message, Beshear referred to HB248 as a blatant attempt by the General Assembly to shield unconstitutional laws it passes from judicial review. Beshear, a former state attorney general, said it violates the state's constitution by barring access to the courts. Beshear said the other contested measure, HB388, violated at least four sections of Kentucky's constitution. His veto message said it violated Kentucky's separation of powers by giving a legislative review committee final say over personal service contracts and other agreements entered into by the executive branch. The committee's role has primarily been advisory in reviewing billions of dollars worth of government contracts. Under the measure, if the committee disapproves a contract, it is sent back to the state finance and administration secretary. The secretary must either revise the contract to comply with the committee's objections, cancel the contract or appeal the panel's disapproval to the state treasurer. Currently, when the legislative committee recommends disapproval of a state contract, the finance secretary who is appointed by the governor can decide to continue the contract as it was originally awarded. Wingate's order Monday came in the initial stages of the legal fight over the two measures. The judge is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on May 31. WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland to the 2017 tax law that capped federal tax deductions for state and local taxes. The lawsuit had previously been dismissed by lower courts. It argued that the Republican-led tax law, signed by then-President Donald Trump, unfairly singled out high-tax states in which Democrats predominate. LVIV, Ukraine - Russia appeared on Monday to launch its anticipated ground offensive in eastern Ukraine as Moscow stepped up missile and artillery strikes across the country in some of the broadest attacks in recent weeks. "Now we can state that the Russian forces have started the battle for the Donbas that they have been getting ready for a long time," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message, referring to the contested eastern region that many analysts expect will see some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. "A very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive." Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defense council, said Russian forces attacked along nearly the entire front line in Donbas and Kharkiv, breaking through in two small cities. "Fortunately, our military is holding on," Danilov said. The Pentagon did not contradict the Ukrainian assessment but took a more cautious approach, with spokesman John Kirby saying the Russians "are shaping and setting the conditions for future offensive operations" with hundreds of missile strikes and artillery barrages. At the same time, the relative calm that western Ukraine has largely enjoyed after more than 50 days of war was shattered when Russian missiles struck the city of Lviv, killing at least seven people and injuring 11, including a child. Regional officials said they were the first deaths recorded inside the limits of the city, which has been a safe haven for displaced Ukrainians and foreign diplomats, as well as aid workers and journalists. A preliminary assessment indicated the strikes were launched from airplanes that came from the direction of the Caspian Sea, the regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, said at a news conference. Officials said the Russian forces hit a military warehouse as well as a commercial service station where local drivers go for tire repairs and carwashes. The warehouse was not being used by the military when it was hit, Kozytskyi said. Philip Crowther/AP In a hotel next to the service station, 32-year-old Kostiantyn Pospelov said he prepared to run when he heard explosions but only had time to pull on his jacket and one sock before another blast blew out the windows and shook the hotel. Pospelov was staying there with roughly 80 other guests who had arrived in the last month from hard-hit cities in the south and east. Dozens of families sought shelter in the hotel, Volodymyr Tereshko, the manager, recounted. Curtains fluttered out of gaping holes that had been windows of guest rooms. "No military! Civilian people! Children! Fathers, mothers," Tereshko said, insisting on English so that people in the West understood who was paying the price for Russia's onslaught. Monday's attack punctured that bubble of normal life. Residents who said they often shrug off air raid sirens filed into underground bunkers, where they traded Telegram messages in search of information about the blasts. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on social media that the entire country was vulnerable to Russian assault: "Today in Ukraine there are no safe and unsafe cities." At the scene of the auto shop strike, firefighters doused flames and emergency crews picked through the rubble of the two-story building, its roof now ripped off. Smaller buildings on the site were also badly damaged. The smell of burning rubber wafted through the air; charred tires sat in piles. Evgenii Laziuk, 49, who lives in the area, shook his head as he looked at the ruins of what he called a "fully civilian" target. He said the shop owner is well-known in the community, a father of five whose extended family is involved in the business. "It's like having a big wallet and throwing it away," Laziuk said. "He was feeding his family with it, and now he's been left with nothing." Despite the strike on a civilian structure, the Pentagon said the attacks on Monday seemed to be aimed at military targets and did not signal that Russia was expanding its war into the west of Ukraine. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon, denied that the Russian attacks struck any weapons shipments from the United States or Ukraine's other allies. To the south, Russian forces continued their devastating assault on the strategic port city of Mariupol, focusing on a sprawling industrial complex that houses the Azovstal steel plant. Moscow had imposed a deadline for Ukrainian forces to surrender, but as of Monday, they had refused. A Ukrainian commander who is still fighting alongside soldiers in the city made a desperate plea to Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, for help to evacuate civilians hiding in military bunkers. "We beg the world for help in evacuating the wounded, children, women and the bodies of the dead," said Maj. Serhiy Volyna, with the 36th Separate Marine Brigade in a letter posted on his Facebook page. The brigade is one of the groups holed up at the steel plant, the last line of Ukraine's defense preventing Russia from taking over the city. "We call on world politicians, public and religious figures not to be indifferent to people who have fallen into the trap of Mariupol against their will," Volyna wrote in the letter also shared on Twitter by a city official from Kyiv. Ukraine's prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Sunday that the last forces in Mariupol "will fight till the end." In the eastern region of Luhansk, leaders urged citizens to urgently evacuate amid a fresh Russian push that killed at least six people. The Pentagon says Russian forces are learning from their failed assault on Kyiv as they shift to Donbas, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of earlier mistakes. "They are moving in heavy artillery, they are moving in command-and-control enablers, they are moving in aviation," the senior defense official said. "It appears they are trying to learn from the lessons of the North, where they didn't have proper sustainment capabilities." Still, Russia's efforts to buttress its war machine with repair and resupply capabilities is unlikely to solve its overarching problems with preparedness, the official said. Sanctions have affected the Russian forces' restocking efforts "particularly in the realm of components," the official said. A lack of parts, the official said, is affecting the viability of several Russian weapons systems, including precision-guided munitions. "They have already faced an issue in terms of replenishing their inventory because of components of some of these systems," the official said, adding that even Russia has "concerns about how fast and how much they can ramp up their own domestic production of defense articles." "Sanctions are having an effect on their ability to do that." Ahead of anticipated heavy fighting in the east, the Biden administration has pledged an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine. As part of that package, U.S. forces in the next several days will begin training select members of Ukraine's armed forces on American-made howitzers, the defense official said. The exercises will occur outside Ukraine and will be administered to Ukrainian forces who can then return and train others, in a program the Pentagon describes as "training the trainers." The weapons, drawn from the Pentagon's inventory, are to include eighteen 155-millimeter howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds, the official said. The Ukrainian military has not previously trained to use the artillery, each of which is typically operated by a nine-person crew. The administration has delivered four flights of equipment to Ukraine since announcing the security package last Wednesday, the senior defense official said. The Pentagon doesn't expect it will take long to train the Ukrainians to use the howitzers. "They don't use American howitzers in artillery," Kirby said. But "they understand how to use artillery . . . The basic outlines of the systems are the same." The Ukrainians just use a smaller caliber. About half a dozen arms deliveries have now occurred, Kirby said. He emphasized how quickly the shipments occurred. Biden authorized the assistance package April 13, and the first flight was in the air two days later. "That is unprecedented speed," Kirby said. "Forty-eight hours after authorization from the president, [the] first plane was on its way. And there have been subsequent shipments." - - - Harris, Demirjian and Thebault reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Kim Bellware in Chicago, and Abigail Hauslohner and Paulina Villegas in Washington contributed to this report. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A Kansas City man has again been convicted of carrying out the fatal shooting of another man outside a central Kansas City gas station. A judge on Friday found Timothy Fernandez, 45, guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the February 2019 death of 40-year-old Michael Bryan in the citys Crossroads District, television station WDAF reported. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A man charged with raping and killing a woman in North Carolina nearly 50 years ago has died in a state prison while awaiting trial, authorities said Monday. Larry Joe Scott, 68, was in the custody of the state Department of Public Safety for safekeeping due to medical conditions when he died Friday at a prison in Raleigh, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell and District Attorney Susan Doyle said in a joint statement. The statement didn't elaborate on the circumstances of Scott's death or identify a possible cause. Scott was scheduled to be tried in August on charges of first-degree murder, rape and kidnapping in the December 1972 killing of 33-year-old Bonnie Neighbors. The News & Observer reports that Neighbors had picked up her oldest son from school before she was found bound and fatally shot, with her infant son found alive next to her. Scott was arrested in Bradenton, Florida, in April 2019. The sheriff's office had reopened the investigation of Neighbors' killing in 2007. Authorities said DNA evidence from the crime scene and fingerprints found inside Neighbors' car had tied Scott to the killing. We were confident and ready for trial, Doyle said in the statement. The evidence against Scott was conclusive and overwhelming. I hope (Neighbors) family can find some closure, knowing that we got the right man, Bizzell said. Scott was taken to a hospital on March 21 and transferred to a second hospital before he was taken to the Raleigh prison on April 3, authorities said. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A man convicted of abducting, raping and killing a Virginia Commonwealth University administrator in her home was sentenced on Monday to life in prison. In November, a jury convicted Thomas Edward Clark, 62, of three felony counts stemming from the May 2019 killing of Suzanne Fairman, 53, of Richmond. LONDON (AP) British police say a 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he confronted military police in central London with a knife. The Metropolitan Police force says no one was injured in the Monday morning incident, which is not being treated as terrorism. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Budd is benefitting from President Donald Trumps endorsement and a super PAC's commitment to flood airwaves and mailboxes to help him as the May 17 Republican primary approaches. But rival and former Gov. Pat McCrory still has managed to stick close to Budd when it comes to head-to-head fundraising. Campaign finance reports for the first quarter show McCrory, the former governor, and current U.S. House member Budd collecting essentially the same level of contributions and other funds. McCrory's campaign said it raised $1.13 million through March 31, compared to $1.125 million raised by Budd., according to reports due Friday with the Federal Election Commission. McCrory also reported having more cash in his campaign coffers entering April $2.2 million compared to $1.9 million for Budd. Since early 2021 before either candidate had entered the race Budd has raised slightly more overall, FEC reports show. Budd has raised $4.24 million compared to $4.16 million for McCrory. Budds overall total contains $275,000 that he loaned his campaign. McCrory with a high name recognition from his time as governor from 2013 through in 2016 had outraised Budd in the second quarter of 2021. As word of Trump's June 2021 endorsement spread, Budd and McCrory's numbers were about even in the third quarter, and Budd outraised McCrory by about $220,000 in the fourth quarter. The candidates' fundraising may shrink in comparison to Club for Growth Action, a super PAC that has said it plans to spend $14 million on activity in the North Carolina primary, praising Budd and attacking McCrory. An FEC filing by the group said it had already incurred $4.7 million in independent expenditures in the race through February. The super PAC and Budd's campaign are barred from coordinating activities. Among other Republican Senate hopefuls, former Rep. Mark Walker's campaign totals remain well behind those of Budd and McCrory. He was also outraised in the first quarter by first-time political candidate Marjorie Eastman of Cary, FEC reports show. Walker reported collecting $105,000 in the first quarter and had $509,000 in cash available. Eastman, a combat veteran, raised $372,000 of which $160,000 were in a personal loan and had $441,000 in cash on hand, according to reports. The four candidates are among 14 seeking the GOP nomination. The top vote-getter must receive more than 30% of the vote to avoid a late July runoff with the second-place finisher. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in an 11-candidate field raised $3.66 million in the first quarter and had $5.1 million on hand entering April, according to her FEC report. Beasleys campaign had announced those totals earlier in the month, showing she is the most prolific fundraiser in the field to date. All of the candidates, including Libertarian Party nominee Shannon Bray, are seeking to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr. Budd has said Trump's endorsement which was on full display during a rally by the former president in Johnston County on April 9 has contributed to his recent surge in polls. McCrory has accused Washington-based Club for Growth of essentially buying support for Budd. The head of another Club for Growth affiliate that endorsed Budd calls him a principled and proven conservative, and said McCrory is too liberal. The ex-governor and other primary rivals have also criticized Budd for declining so far to participate in televised debates. Eastman, McCrory and Walker will attend a live GOP debate Wednesday evening sponsored by Spectrum News 1, the cable channel said Monday. Carolina Senate Fund, a super PAC supporting McCrory and opposing Budd, reported last week that it had collected $478,500 in the first quarter and had $752,000 entering April. In a separate filing, the organization said it had spent $117,000 on campaign mailers. MERRIMACK, N.H. (AP) The mother of a 5-year-old New Hampshire boy who was found dead in Massachusetts last fall has been charged with murder, authorities said Monday. Danielle Dauphinais, 35, was indicted Friday on one count of first-degree murder alleging she purposely caused the death of Elijah Lewis, one count of second-degree murder alleging she acted recklessly in causing his death, and three counts of witness tampering. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a St. Louis-based natural gas company's appeal of a lower court's decision that could close a pipeline that runs through parts of Illinois and Missouri. The court rejected Spire Inc.'s appeal without comment. Spire President Scott Smith pledged to continue fighting to keep the 65-mile (105-kilometer) pipeline up and running. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted approval for the pipeline in 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019. The Spire STL Pipeline connects with another pipeline in western Illinois and carries natural gas to the St. Louis region, where Spire serves around 650,000 customers. The Environmental Defense Fund sued in 2020, raising concerns that the pipeline was approved without adequate review. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that FERC had not adequately demonstrated a need for the project, vacating approval of the pipeline. EDF attorney Erin Murphy said in a statement Monday that the lower court ruling found serious flaws in FERCs approval, including failing to assess the harms to ratepayers and landowners. As the case played out in court, FERC last year issued a temporary certificate allowing the pipeline to remain operational. The temporary order continues to stand while the agency considers Spire's appeal to FERC seeking new approval of the pipeline. We are confident that when people have an opportunity to review the proven benefits of the STL Pipeline, they will agree that there is a critical need to keep this infrastructure fully operational to ensure continued access to reliable, affordable energy for families and businesses in the greater St. Louis region, Smith said in a statement. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Portland police say one man died and three juveniles were injured in a shooting Sunday night in southeast Portland. The Portland Police Bureau said in a news release that officers were called to a report of a shooting at 8:45 p.m. When they arrived, they found a man that had been killed and three males under the age of 18 that had been shot. All of the minors were taken to the hospital. Police said one of the minors had injuries that appeared to be life-threatening. OMAHA, Neb. (AP) An Omaha officer suffered only minor injuries after being dragged during a vehicle stop early Monday, police said. The incident happened around 3 a.m. Monday in north Omaha when policer pulled a woman who was driving from the vehicle and arrested her, television station KETV reported. A male passenger then moved into the drivers seat and took off, police said. MADRID (AP) The phones of dozens of pro-independence supporters in Spain's northeastern Catalonia, including the regional chief and other elected officials, were hacked with controversial spyware available only to governments, a cybersecurity rights group said Monday. Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, said a large-scale investigation it had conducted in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups found that at least 65 individuals were targeted or their devices infected with what it calls mercenary spyware sold by two Israeli companies, NSO Group and Candiru. NSO said the allegation could not be related to NSO products. Candiru couldn't be reached for comment by The Associated Press. Almost all of the incidents occurred between 2017 and 2020, when efforts to carve out an independent state in northeastern Spain led to the country's deepest political crisis in decades. The former Catalan Cabinet that pushed ahead with an illegal referendum on independence was sacked. Most of its members were imprisoned or fled the country, including ex regional president Carles Puigdemont. NSOs Pegasus spyware has been used around the world to break into the phones and computers of human rights activists, journalists and even Catholic clergy. The firm has been subject to export limits by the U.S. federal government, which has accused NSO of conducting transnational repression." NSO has also been brought to court by major technology companies, including Apple and Meta, the owner of WhatsApp. Citizen Lab said its investigations into the use in Spain of Pegasus and spyware developed by Candiru another Israeli firm founded by former NSO employees started in late 2019 after a handful of cases targeting high-profile Catalan pro-independence individuals were revealed. Amnesty International said its technical experts had independently verified the attacks. The Toronto-based non-profit said it could not find conclusive evidence to attribute the hacking of Catalan phones to a specific entity. "However, a range of circumstantial evidence points to a strong nexus with one or more entities within Spanish government, Citizen Lab said. Spain's Interior Ministry said no ministry department, nor the National Police or the Civil Guard, have ever had any relation with NSO and have therefore never contracted any of its services. The ministry's statement said that, in Spain, all intervention of communications are conducted under judicial order and in full respect of legality. The prime ministers office didnt immediately respond to questions from AP. A spokeswoman with Ministry of Defense, which oversees Spain's armed forces and intelligence services, declined to clarify if it had contracted NSO or Candiru software. The government of Spain always acts according to the law, said the spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be named in the media. Pegasus infiltrates phones to vacuum up personal and location data and also surreptitiously controls the smartphones microphones and cameras, turning them into real-time surveillance devices. NSO Groups stealthiest hacking software uses zero-click exploits to infect targeted mobile phones without any user interaction. NSO Group claimed it was being targeted by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International with inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports and false" allegations that "could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons. "We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, an NSO spokesperson said in a statement. Citizen Lab said signs of a zero-click exploit not previously identified were found in infected devices of Catalans at the end of 2019 and in early 2020 before Apple updated its mobile operating system to patch vulnerabilities. Among the targeted individuals were at least three European lawmakers representing Catalan separatist parties, members of two prominent pro-independence civil society groups, their lawyers and various elected officials The revelations come as European Union lawmakers on Tuesday are holding the first meeting of a committee looking into breaches of EU law associated with the use of hacker-for-hire spyware. Four former regional Catalan presidents, including Puigdemont and his successor Quim Torra while he was holding office, were also subject to direct or indirect spying, the researchers said. Current Catalan President Pere Aragones, whose phone was infected, according to Citizen Lab, while he served as Torra's deputy from 2018 to 2020, said massive espionage against the Catalan independence movement is an unjustifiable disgrace, an attack on fundamental rights and democracy." Because the software can only be acquired by state entities, the Spanish government must offer an explanation, Aragones said in a series of tweets. No excuses are valid, he wrote. To spy on representatives of citizens, lawyers or civil rights activists is a red line." In a response to Amnesty International's formal request in 2020 for full disclosure on contracts with private digital surveillance companies, Spain's Defense Ministry said that information is classified, the rights group said Monday. The Spanish government needs to come clean over whether or not it is a customer of NSO Group, said Likhita Banerji, an Amnesty International researcher. It must also conduct a thorough, independent investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware against the Catalans identified. In a separate report also released Monday, Citizen Lab said it had also found evidence in 2020 and 2021 that the British prime ministers office was infected with Pegasus spyware linked to the United Arab Emirates. It said it found suspected infections at Britains Foreign Office linked to the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The group said it had informed the British government about the findings. Other countries where Citizen Lab and other public-interest researchers have confirmed Pegasus infections on political dissidents and journalists critical of governments include Poland, Mexico, El Salvador and Hungary. NSO Group claims it only sells Pegasus to government agencies to target criminals and terrorists, but hundreds of cases have been documented of its use against human rights and other activists, lawyers, reporters and their relatives. __ Frank Bajak in Boston and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Sri Lanka's president acknowledged Monday that he made mistakes that led to the country's worst economic crisis in decades and pledged to correct them. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the admission while speaking to 17 new Cabinet ministers he appointed Monday as he and his powerful family seek to resolve a political crisis resulting from the countrys dire economic state. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. A severe shortage of foreign exchange means the country lacks money to buy imported goods. People have endured months of shortages of essentials like food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available. During the last two and a half years we have had vast challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt burden, and some mistakes on our part, Rajapaksa said. They need to be rectified. We have to correct them and move forward. We need to regain the trust of the people. He said the government should have approached the International Monetary Fund early on for help in facing the impending debt crisis and should not have banned chemical fertilizer in an attempt to make Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. Critics say the ban on imported fertilizer was aimed at conserving the country's declining foreign exchange holdings and badly hurt farmers. The government is also blamed for taking out large loans for infrastructure projects which have not brought in any money. Today, people are under immense pressure due to this economic crisis. I deeply regret this situation," Rajapaksa said, adding that the pain, discomfort and anger displayed by people forced to wait in long lines to get essential items at high prices is justified. The Cabinet appointments follow weeks of protests over shortages of fuel and food and demands that Rajapaksa, his politically powerful family and his government resign. Much public anger has been directed at Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They head an influential clan that has held power for most of the past two decades. Thousands of protesters occupied the entrance to the presidents office for a 10th day on Monday. The president and prime minister remain in office, but some other relatives lost their Cabinet seats in what was seen as an attempt to pacify the protesters without giving up the family's hold on power. Many senior politicians and those facing corruption allegations were excluded from the new Cabinet in line with calls for a younger administration, though the finance and foreign affairs ministers retained their positions to assist with an economic recovery. Most of the Cabinet resigned on April 3 after protests erupted across the country and demonstrators stormed and vandalized the homes of some Cabinet ministers. Opposition parties rejected an offer by President Rajapaksa to form a unity government with him and his brother remaining in power. Opposition parties have failed, meanwhile, to gain a parliamentary majority. Last week, the government said it was suspending repayment of foreign loans pending talks with the International Monetary Fund. Finance Minister Ali Sabry and officials left for talks with the IMF on Sunday. The IMF and World Bank are holding annual meetings in Washington this week. Sri Lanka has also turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of an inmate facing execution this week who sought to have his case reopened after an unknown persons DNA was found on one of the murder weapons. The one-sentence order comes as the state prepares to kill Oscar Smith, 72, by lethal injection on Thursday. The court also denied his request to vacate his execution date. Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons Jason and Chad Burnett, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. Smith has maintained that he is innocent. The state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled last week that Smith didnt provide evidence that he is innocent of the murders. The appeals come after Smith asked the Davidson County Criminal Court to reopen his case earlier this month after a new type of DNA analysis found the DNA of an unknown person on one of the murder weapons. The judge denied that request as well as a second request to reconsider, writing that the evidence of Smiths guilt was extensive. The judge cited prior threats and a life insurance policy taken out by Smith for the three victims. Smith appealed. Smith previously sought to prove that fingerprint evidence used against him was unreliable. Smiths attorneys argued in an appellate motion last week that the combination of a fingerprint and DNA from an unknown person on one of the murder weapons should be considered together as strong proof of his innocence. Smith would be the first inmate put to death in Tennessee since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred the rescheduling of executions for several inmates. AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined an appeal by the Penobscot Indian Nation in its fight with Maine over ownership and regulation of the tribes namesake river. It was a bitter defeat for the tribe that sued a decade ago, claiming the Penobscot River is part of its reservation. Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis said it was a disappointing outcome in a legal case that goes to the core identity of the Penobscot Nation. We see this as a modern day territorial removal by the state by trying to separate us from our ancestral ties to our namesake river, Francis told The Associated Press. A federal judge previously ruled that the reservation includes islands of the river's main stem, but not the waters. There were appeals to a panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of appeals, and then to the full appeals court. On Monday, the nation's top court without comment declined to hear the tribe's appeals over river regulation. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had no immediate comment on Monday. The ruling came as the Maine Legislature was considering several measures that relate to tribal sovereignty. The most far-reaching legislative proposal would restore sovereignty rights forfeited by tribes under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. The House enacted the bill Monday, but it was pending in the Senate. It faces a possible veto by the governor. The Penobscots, whose reservation is on an island in the river, sued in 2012 after then-Attorney General William Schneider issued an opinion that the tribes territory was limited to islands. The tribe said the lawsuit was necessary to protect tribal authority over its ancestral river and ensure sustenance rights. But state regulators argued that a win by the tribe would create a two-tiered system on the Penobscot that would be a detriment to the general public. Francis said the Supreme Court's action was probably the end of the road for the appeal but he said the tribe wouldn't give up. Well continue to see every avenue to remedy this, he said. YouTube star Logan Pauls estate in the Encino neighborhood of L.A. has finally found a buyer. The modern mansion is now pending sale. The home was listed in November for $8,995,000 and reduced to $7,995,000 in January. Paul, 27, had picked up the swanky spot in 2017 for $6,550,000. The neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley features luxurious builds and is popular with celebrities. Kelly Clarkson, Joe Jonas, and Hailee Steinfeld have all owned homes in Encino, and construction of modern mansions continues unabated. Contemporary compound Paul's gated home is located in the exclusive Rancho Estates area. Completely remastered and remodeled, the 8,689-square-foot layout features a living room with a conversation pit, a family room with a bar, an office, and a high-end chefs kitchen. There are both formal and casual dining spaces, and glass doors extend the living space to the patio. Open and airy floor plan Realtor.com Conversation pit Realtor.com Formal dining room Realtor.com Kitchen with marble counters Realtor.com The primary suite looks out to the backyard and comes with a glam walk-in closet as well as a spa bath with a soaking tub. The floor plan also boasts a stellar wine cellar and a flexible bonus space. Bedroom Realtor.com Spa bathroom with soaking tub Realtor.com The fun continues outside with a large pool, entertaining space, grassy lawn, kitchen, and guesthouse. A six-car garage completes the property. Pool Realtor.com Paul attended Ohio University before dropping out in 2014 to concentrate on his social media career. The social media personality, who's also an actor and pro wrestler (his team won WrestleMania 38), recently announced that he had pulled up stakes in L.A. and relocated to Puerto Rico to focus on his training, renting a $13 million mansion for $55,000 a month, according to the New York Post. Since 2018, Paul has hosted the Impaulsive podcast, and his YouTube channel boasts over 23 million subscribers. The post Logan Paul's Excellent $8M Encino Estate Finds a Buyer appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. WFO AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, April 17, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Austin San Antonio has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Southern Medina County in south central Texas... East central Uvalde County in south central Texas... * Until 630 PM CDT. * At 537 PM CDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 10 miles north of Sabinal to near Hondo, moving southeast at 25 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Hondo, Devine, Sabinal, Natalia, Biry, D'Hanis, Yancey, New Fountain, Quihi and Dunlay. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Large hail, damaging winds, and continuous cloud to ground lightning are occurring with these storms. Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature's leading killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather On Tuesday, April 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a community radio station (CRS) dedicated to animal husbandry, Dudh Vani, during his Gujarat tour. The Banas Dairy Community Radio station, established by the Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union or Banas Dairy, would link nearly five lakh dairy producers in 1,700 communities across the state. This will be the country's first community radio station dedicated only to cattle breeders. Notably, the apex dairy development organization, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has launched a biweekly podcast series dedicated to dairy farmers in cooperation with All India Radio. "This Community Radio Station has been established to offer farmers essential scientific information relevant to agriculture and animal husbandry," the Prime Minister's Office stated in a statement. Prime Minister Modi will begin his three-day visit to Gujarat on Monday, April 18. Since March 11, he has paid two visits to his home state, which is in the midst of the election. On April 18, the Prime Minister will pay a visit Command and Control Centre for Schools in Gandhinagar. He will lay the foundation stone for several projects at the Banas Dairy complex in Diyodar Taluka, Banaskantha district, in North Gujarat, on Tuesday. Potato Processing Plant The Prime Minister will inaugurate a potato processing plant built at a cost of over 600 crores at the newly-commissioned greenfield dairy complex in Diyodar. The potato processing plant will make a variety of processed potato products, including french fries, potato chips, aloo Tikki, patties, and more, with many of them being exported to other nations. "These plants will help local farmers and enhance the rural economy of the region," the PMO stated in a statement. The dairy complex would have the capacity to process around 30 lakh liters of milk per day, as well as create 80 tonnes of butter, one lakh liters of ice cream, 20 tonnes of condensed milk (Khoya), and six tonnes of chocolate each day. Gobar Gas Plants The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for four 100-tonne gobar gas plants in Khimana, Ratanpura Bhildi, Radhanpur, and Thawar, as well as an organic manure and biogas plant in Dama, Gujarat, and expanded facilities for the manufacturing of cheese products and whey powder at the Banas dairy plant in Palanpur. Modi will also lay the foundation stone for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar during his visit to Gujarat. The next day, he would visit a tribal community meeting in Dahod and open the Global AYUSH Investment & Innovation Summit in Gandhinagar. Some people are the products of talent, some are products of hard work. Then there are some who are a perfect mix of talent and hard work. When we talk about such rare people in the digital marketing industry of India, there are just a few names we can actually think of. One of such rare people is the best SEO expert in India, Praneet Thakur. The journey that just started as a passion, has become a highly successful profession for this nerd. While converting his passion to a profession, he went on to build the best SEO company in India, that is Shoutrank. The grind to become the best SEO expert in India There are many people who might think that the success of the best SEO expert in India is more of an overnight success, but that means have ignored the hard work he has put behind the success we are seeing today. The grind he has put behind is rarely something many will do. The sweat and the sleepless nights to grow step by step before being the best SEO expert in India, totally makes you feel that none were more deserving to be in the #1 position more than this founder of Shoutrank, which is the best SEO company in India. When many give up after the initial grind due to not getting quick success, this geeky entrepreneur believed in the old textbook method of going step by step with a high level of patience to reach the top position. What the best SEO expert in India does with Shoutrank? Praneet Thakur, founded Shoutrank to help businesses around the world grow well. Shoutrank, the best SEO agency in India helps businesses to develop unique strategies to stay ahead of their competitors. Along with branding, they help businesses with quality sales and exponential growth. The brands who trust the best SEO expert in India, are always up for a sure-shot success with the great number of business scopes coming their way. Praneet Thakur, with Shoutrank agency, has a proven track record. Not only him, but his team of experts is second to none in their domain. With all said and done while doing SEO, the best SEO expert in India always strictly follows SEO ethics and never compromises with them. What is the ultimate goal of this knowledgeable entrepreneur? At his age, many might be wanting to earn and go on holidays in the Maldives, but surprisingly this ground-to-earth SEO from Mumbai believes in simple living and high thinking. The best SEO expert in India wants to reach the life of every single person in every corner of the country. He wants to reach the poor people, help them develop skills, and make them self-sufficient. Does he have any hidden interest in this? No! He is doing it just to give back to the society that has given him so much till now. He has already reached the lives of 1000s of people, trained them for free, and made them highly skilled that some are even earning 6 digits every month. It is such an inspiring story, that it is a must that this story reaches every people. Given the age of the best SEO expert in India, we can easily say that he is the over-achiever everyone wants to be but fails due to a lack of patience and determination. His success teaches everyone that there is no shortcut to success and nothing beats hard work. He may succeed in reaching millions of people, or maybe he fails, but the thought of reaching millions of people in itself is always an achievement. Very few people dream of it. What is the advice of this successful entrepreneur for his fellow entrepreneurs? According to the best SEO expert in India, you might stumble, and fall down. The thing that defines you is if you are able to stand up and recover to reach your goal. The way he says this with crystals in his eyes shows in-depth his ambition and how much he wants everyone to succeed in their respective fields. One just needs to salute this person who has achieved so much at such a young age but always stays grounded. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Three months after Perth Childrens Court president Hylton Quail said Western Australias juvenile prison was putting children into lockdowns for so long they were better off in an adult prison, the state government has announced a funding boost. Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston said a new $7.5 million Crisis Care Unit would be built at the centre which would aim to provide a safe and therapeutic environment to support vulnerable, at-risk young people as part of a broader $21.6 million state budget package. Where a 15-year-old spent all of Christmas locked away. Credit:Custodial Services Inspectors Report 2020 Another $3.6 million would go towards staffing an Aboriginal Services Unit to provide cultural support and services to help address the over-representation of Aboriginal young people at Banksia Hill. About 73 per cent of incarcerated youth at the centre were Aboriginal in 2020. The funding boost came after Judge Quail said conditions at the already grim Banksia Hill Detention Centre had worsened during the pandemic when he sentenced a 17-year-old to 14 months jail at Hakea Prison. High-profile independents such as Allegra Spender in the Sydney seat of Wentworth and Monique Ryan in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong have rebuffed requests to name the party they might support and have instead named the key issues they would raise with leaders on both sides. Independent candidate Kylea Tink, who is seeking to oust Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, said it would be up to Labor and Coalition leaders to demonstrate what they would do in office. I would talk to the leaders of each of the major parties to assess who is more prepared and able to meet the people of North Sydneys demands for quicker action on climate, integrity in politics and genuine equality for women, Tink said. Daniel, who is seeking to replace Liberal assistant minister Tim Wilson, said she would talk to leaders from the two main parties. To do otherwise would be a breach of my responsibilities as an independent member of parliament, she said. The men aspiring to lead the government in such circumstances would know full well the principles on which I have campaigned: faster and stronger action on climate change, restoration of integrity and trust in politics and real equality and safety for women. Spender, who is challenging Liberal MP and former diplomat Dave Sharma in Wentworth, said local voters wanted an integrity commission and stronger action on climate. They hate both parties wasteful spending that seems solely designed to retain power, she said of the feedback she had received from voters. With $1 trillion of debt, the community expects much better than this. Many independents are supporting a bill advanced by Dr Helen Haines, the MP for Indi in northern Victoria, which would give the proposed integrity commission broader powers, including the scope for public hearings. Haines said if she was sitting at the negotiating table after the election the issues most important to her would be a robust federal integrity commission, strong action on climate change and urgent and significant investment in regional healthcare. Sophie Scamps, who is seeking to oust Liberal MP Jason Falinski in the northern Sydney seat of Mackellar, said the priorities for local voters were climate action, integrity and better healthcare. Loading National leadership on clean energy will provide good jobs, cheaper energy for families and businesses, cleaner air and oceans for our children, and a safer climate for all, she said. We also need a significant increase in federal government funding for health and mental health services to ensure better access and health outcomes for all Australians. Liberal MPs have privately estimated that the independent campaigns will spend as much as $2 million in blue-ribbon seats in Melbourne and Sydney, with the latest Resolve Political Monitor showing a fall in the Labor primary vote and a small increase in the Coalition vote, highlighting the possibility of a hung parliament. In a sign of their confidence, Ryan published polling on Monday that suggested she had 59 per cent of the vote in Kooyong in two-party terms against Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who has held the blue-ribbon seat since 2010. Ryan said the poll by UComms of 847 residents was conducted on April 12 and had a margin of error of 3.35 percentage points. Ryan made it clear that Morrison would have to deepen cuts to carbon emissions from his target of 28 per cent by 2030 to her target of 60 per cent by the same year, but said this would also apply to Labor leader Anthony Albanese. The current Labor target is 43 per cent by 2030. At this point, neither of the major parties has come to the party, to the table, in the same way that the people of Kooyong want them to, Ryan told Sky News on Monday afternoon. NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has introduced formal gender diversity targets for corporations, including Sydney Water and Essential Energy, as part of a continued push for female representation. From Monday, the targets are for no less than 40 per cent of board director positions on each state-owned corporation (SOC) and public financial corporation (PFC) board to be filled by women, and 50 per cent of the positions when combined. NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has set formal gender diversity targets for state owned and public financial corporations. Credit:Nick Moir The state government said it hoped to achieve the target on individual boards by the end of the year for SOCs, and as soon as practical thereafter for PFCs, with the gender diversity statistics to be published online annually. The states PFCs, for which Kean is the shareholding minister, are insurer icare and NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp), while there are eight SOCs: Essential Energy, Sydney Water, Hunter Water, Landcom, Water NSW, Port Authority of NSW, Forestry Corporation of NSW and the Transport Asset Holding Entity of NSW (TAHE). Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner are mourning the loss of one of their newborn twins. The Manchester United striker shared the news on Monday on social media. It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away. It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel, he wrote. Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness. Bir Lehlou (Saharawi Republc) 18 April 2021 (SPS)- The President of the Sahrawi Republic and Secretary-General of Frente Polisario, Mr. Brahim Ghali, sent a letter Today to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, strongly condemning the recent atrocious and inhumane violations committed by the occupying state of Morocco against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists in the occupied areas of Western Sahara. He considered that Frente POLISARIO, which has demonstrated by concrete actions its genuine commitment to a peaceful, just, and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara, affirms once again that no peace process will ever be possible while the occupying state of Morocco persists, with complete impunity, in its atrocious and repressive actions against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists. We hold the occupying state of Morocco fully responsible for the consequences of its criminal acts and its ongoing aggressive war on the Sahrawi people. Following is the full text of the letter of which SPS received a copy: Letter of the President of the Sahrawi Republic and Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr Brahim Ghali, to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres Bir Lehlou, 18 April 2022 Mr Secretary-General, On the eve of the forthcoming consultations that the Security Council is planning to hold on MINURSO on 20 April 2022, I am writing to you with a sense of urgency and grave concern to express our strong condemnation of the atrocious and inhumane actions carried out recently by the occupying state of Morocco against Sahrawi civilians and activists in the Sahrawi Territories under Moroccan illegal occupation. On early Saturday, 16 April 2022, the security forces of the occupying state of Morocco surrounded the houses of a group of Sahrawi activists in the Occupied City of Bojador and blocked all streets and alleys in the area. The Sahrawi activists, including Zainabu Babi, Fatima Mohamed Al-Hafiz, Hajitna Babi, Um-El-Muminin Abdallah Brahim, Mbarka Mohamed Al-Hafiz, Maluha Mohamed Al-Hafiz, Fatma Babi and Balla Mohamed Hafiz, were forcibly prevented from visiting and expressing their solidarity with the human rights activist Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family whose house has been under tight siege since 19 November 2020. On the same day, while taking a taxi, Sahrawi activist Zainabu Babi was stopped and forced out by Moroccan police and then taken to a police station where she was subjected to brutal and degrading treatment for several hours. No sooner had she left the police station in terrible condition than she was dragged through the street and brutally beaten by five masked agents of the Moroccan security forces using batons. She was seriously injured and bruised because of the severe beatings on various parts of her body and had to be taken to the hospital. Sahrawi activists Fatima Mohamed Al-Hafiz, Hajitna Babi, Um-El-Muminin Abdallah Brahim, Maluha Mohamed Al-Hafiz, and Fatima Babi were also severely beaten and subjected to physical and verbal abuse by Moroccan security agents. Early this week, Moroccan security agents used brutal force against a group of Sahrawi civilians who were protesting peacefully in the Occupied City of Smara to express their rejection of the continued Moroccan illegal occupation, the flagrant and degrading violations of human rights and the plunder of Sahrawi natural resources. Several protestors were severely beaten and had to be taken to the hospital as was the case of Abdel Muniem Hamadi Nassiri who was dragged through the street and bruised because of the severe beatings on various parts of his body. The new attack on Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists is a heinous and cowardly act that should be vehemently condemned by the United Nations and by all the conscientious people and those who defend the values of justice, peace, and human dignity in the world. We call upon you, Mr Secretary-General, to act urgently to end the terror and the retaliatory and racist actions carried out by the occupying state of Morocco against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists, including Sultana Sid Brahim Jaya and her family. We also call upon you again to urgently ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Sahrawi political prisoners, including Gdeim Izik Group, who are being held in the prisons of the occupying state. As we have stressed in previous communications, the occupying state of Morocco would not have continued to oppress and terrorise Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists in the Occupied Western Sahara and to violate the rules of international law and international humanitarian law, with complete impunity, had it not been for the complacency and unjustifiable silence exhibited by the United Nations and the international community regarding the situation in the Territory. The Sahrawi people and many peace-and justice-loving peoples around the world enquire about how long the United Nations and the international community will remain bystanders to terrorisation, torture, rape, siege and trampling underfoot human rights and dignity in the Occupied Western Sahara, and what would it take to make them act in defence of the Sahrawi people and their human fundamental rights, including their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. We call once again and urgently upon you, Mr Secretary-General, to operationalise the legal and moral responsibility of the United Nations towards our people, particularly Sahrawi civilians living in the Territories under the illegal Moroccan occupation. This entails deploying international protection mechanisms and taking practical measures to ensure their safety and security, including the establishment of an independent and permanent UN mechanism for the protection of human rights in the Occupied Western Sahara. In concluding, the Frente POLISARIO, which has demonstrated by concrete actions its genuine commitment to a peaceful, just, and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara, affirms once again that no peace process will ever be possible while the occupying state of Morocco persists, with complete impunity, in its atrocious and repressive actions against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists. We hold the occupying state of Morocco fully responsible for the consequences of its criminal acts and its ongoing aggressive war on the Sahrawi people. I would be grateful if you would bring this letter to the attention of the Members of the Security Council. Please accept, Mr Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration. (signed) Brahim Ghali President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO H.E. Mr Antonio Guterres United Nations Secretary-General United Nations, New York Copies to: H.E. Mr Staffan de Mistura, Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara H.E. Dame Barbara Woodward Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations President of the Security Council. (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday defied intensifying pressure over his new border policy that has gridlocked trucks entering the U.S. and shut down some of the world's busiest trade bridges as the Mexican government, businesses and even some allies urge him to relent. The two-term Republican governor, who has ordered that commercial trucks from Mexico undergo extra inspections as part of a fight with President Joe Biden's administration over immigration, refused to fully reverse course as traffic remains snarled. The standoff has stoked warnings by trade groups and experts that U.S. grocery shoppers could soon notice shortages on shelves and higher prices unless the normal flow of trucks resumes. Abbott announced Wednesday that he would stop inspections at one bridge in Laredo after reaching an agreement with the governor of neighboring Nuevo Leon in Mexico. But some of the most dramatic truck backups and bridge closures have occurred elsewhere along Texas' 1,200-mile border. I understand the concerns that businesses have trying to move product across the border, Abbott said during a visit to Laredo. But I also know well the frustration of my fellow Texans and my fellow Americans caused by the Biden administration not securing our border. Abbott said inbound commercial trucks elsewhere will continue to undergo thorough inspections by state troopers until leaders of Mexico's three other neighboring states reach agreements with Texas over security. He did not spell out what those measures must entail. At the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, where more produce crosses than any other land port in the U.S., truckers protesting Abbott's order had effectively shut down the bridge since Monday. But Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the protests had concluded and commercial traffic had resumed. Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel Garcia joined Abbott in Laredo, where backups on the Colombia Solidarity Bridge have stretched for three hours or longer. Garcia said Nuevo Leon would begin checkpoints to assure Abbott they would not have any trouble." Abbott said he was hopeful other Mexican states would soon follow and said those states had been in contact with his office. On Tuesday, the governors of Coahuila and Tamaulipas had sent a letter to Abbott calling the inspections overzealous. This policy will ultimately increase consumer costs in an already record 40-year inflated market holding the border hostage is not the answer," the letter read. The slowdowns are the fallout of an initiative that Abbott says is needed to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. Abbott ordered the inspections as part of unprecedented actions he promised in response to the Biden administration winding down a public health law that has limited asylum-seekers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19. In addition to the inspections, Abbott also said Texas would begin offering migrants bus rides to Washington, D.C., in a demonstration of frustration with the Biden administration and Congress. Hours before the news conference in Laredo, Abbott announced the first bus carrying 24 migrants had arrived in Washington. During the last week of March, Border Protection officials said the border averaged more than 7,100 crossings daily. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Abbotts order unnecessary and redundant. Trucks are inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents upon entering the country, and while Texas troopers have previously done additional inspections on some vehicles, local officials and business owners say troopers have never stopped every truck until now. Cross-border traffic has plummeted to a third of normal levels since the inspections began, according to Mexico's government. Mexico is a major supplier of fresh vegetables to the U.S., and importers say the wait times and rerouting of trucks to other bridges as far away as Arizona has spoiled some produce shipments. The escalating pressure on Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, has come from his supporters and members of his own party. The Texas Trucking Association, which has endorsed Abbott, said that the current situation cannot be sustained. John Esparza, the association's president, said he agrees with attempts to find a remedy with Mexico's governors. But he said if talks take long, congestion could overwhelm bridges where inspections by Texas are no longer being done. The longer that goes, the more the impact is felt across the country, Esparza said. It is like when a disaster strikes. The slowdowns have set off some of widest backlash to date of Abbotts multibillion-dollar border operation, which the two-term governor has made the cornerstone of his administration. Texas has thousands of state troopers and National Guard members on the border and has converted prisons into jails for migrants arrested on state trespassing charges. Critics question how the inspections are meeting Abbotts objective of stopping the flow of migrants and drugs. Asked what troopers had turned up in their truck inspections, Abbott directed the question to the Texas Department of Public Safety. As of Monday, the agency said it had inspected more than 3,400 commercial vehicles and placed more than 800 out of service for violations that included defective brakes, tires and lighting. It made no mention of whether the inspections turned up migrants or drugs. ____ Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show it's Customs and Border Protection. Konstantinos Diamantis, the former state official under federal investigation, showed a special interest in his daughters quest for state employment on a number of occasions in early 2020, according to documents released Friday. The documents, obtained Friday by The Connecticut Mirror through a Freedom of Information Act request, were compiled in response to a federal subpoena issued in October. Many of the documents had been part of the independent investigation into the matter commissioned by Gov. Ned Lamont and conducted by Stanley Twardy of the Day Pitney law firm. But others provide new insights into the extent to which Diamantis advocated on behalf of his daughter Anastasia. The Twardy report established that Diamantis had entangled himself in Anastasias job search. It reported that he pressured an official with the state Department of Administrative Services to hire Anastasia for a human resources position in November 2018, and that in June 2020 he had forwarded an email to Anastasia about a job within the Division of Criminal Justice which he had initially received from former Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo. Colangelo hired Anastasia Diamantis days later for a different position in his office. Colangelo, who was accused of pressuring Diamantis to help secure raises for his staff, resigned in early February. But those werent the only instances when Kosta Diamantis involved himself in Anastasias employment efforts, the documents show. Two state jobs On Jan. 2, 2020, Anastasia Diamantis received an email from a state human resources official regarding a job at the state Department of Education. The email stated that a staff assistant position Anastasia had applied for was being canceled and would be reposted with different job responsibilities in the future. She forwarded the email to her father two days later with no comment, the records show. A few minutes later, Kosta Diamantis forwarded the email to his boss, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw, with no comment. She sent it to me on my personal email just to let me know what had happened, and I forwarded it to my state email so that I could print it out at work and have a record of it, Diamantis said. The only reason that personal email ended up in my state email is because I dont have a printer at home and wanted to print it. Just about a month later, on Feb. 6, 2020, Diamantis learned that the newly created Office of Workforce Competitiveness needed an executive assistant, a job that paid as much as $135,000. Diamantis forwarded the job description to the governors then-chief operating officer, Paul Mounds, and asked Is [this] something for Anastasia? Mounds responded by telling Diamantis that whoever got the position would eventually report to the state Office of Policy and Management, the agency he helped lead: I am agnostic about the who for this position. With that said, this ES position is current in DECD and is called for to be moved [to] OPM in the upcoming budget adjustments. I was just being inquisitive about a job opening and wondering if perhaps my daughter would be qualified for it, Diamantis said Saturday. I was just asking a question to see what the answer might be. Other involvements The documents also raise questions about a second job Anastasia Diamantis got in July 2020 at a company called Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP), a company that was the construction manager on the Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland. Kosta Diamantis, who was the director of the state Office of School Construction Grants & Review within OPM at the time, oversaw the state financing for the project. Anastasia Diamantis was hired by CAP in July 2020, after the company received a $70,000 contract to oversee construction of portable classrooms at the school. Weeks after Anastasia was hired, the company received a $460,000 contract amendment to oversee construction of a new school at the site. Kosta Diamantis denied he had any role in his daughter getting hired, but in an email sent July 2, he copied his daughter when discussing the project with CAPs owner Antonietta Roy. It is unclear whether Anastasia was employed with CAP on that date. According to the Twardy report, she began her employment sometime in July. The email dealt with questions from Tolland officials about the first phase of the school project the installation of modular classrooms for students to use during construction. Hint hint The documents also show that Diamantis had an email exchange with Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford and the House Majority Leader, in July 2020. Rojas begins by thanking Diamantis and McCaw for their support on many of my colleagues requests for bonding. He goes on to raise questions about projects in Newington and South Windsor, and after a few exchanges, appears to conclude with Sounds like a plan. Diamantis responded to that email with one line: On an aside I hope my daughter gets a good room at trinity. Hint hint. Diamantis was apparently referring to one of his other daughters, not Anastasia. Rojas is the chief of staff to the president at Trinity College in Hartford. Rojas responded: Hmmmmm. Lets see if the states ensure that we can provide as safe and health[y] an experience as possible :) Diamantis responded: Perfecto. Whenever I saw Jason, hed ask me how my daughter was doing in school, because he knew she went to Trinity and I knew he worked there, Diamantis said Saturday. We talked about the school all of the time. Rojas said Saturday that he remembers the exchange and that he took it as a tongue-in-cheek comment and not serious. It was very light-hearted, and that is how I took it, Rojas said. Obviously, given the circumstances now, it may not look so good, but I didnt take it seriously. I couldnt have helped him anyway. Dorm rooms are assigned by a lottery that I have nothing to do with. More documents to come Lamonts attorney, Nora Dannehy, said the documents released to the CT Mirror on Friday well over 6,000 PDF files were only a portion of what was turned over to the federal authorities last year and that the rest will be released once they are vetted for privilege and other exemptions under the Freedom of Information laws. The Connecticut Mirror requested the subpoenaed documents in early February, shortly after the existence of the federal investigation was revealed. They include thousands of pages of bid documents, meeting minutes and emails. The documents show that Kosta Diamantis was not a prolific emailer, often responding to long missives from others with responses of just a few words. A federal grand jury issued the subpoena to the state Department of Administrative Services for all emails, text messages and attachments involving Diamantis and a broad range of construction projects on Oct. 20, 2021. Eight days later, he was removed as the states second-highest budget official at the Office of Policy and Management and placed on administrative leave as the director of OSCG&R. Rather than accept the leave of absence, Diamantis chose to retire. The subpoena to DAS on Oct. 20 specifically sought records from state contracts for school renovations, hazardous abatement disposal and the new State Pier in New London, along with emails and text messages involving, among others, Anastasia Diamantis and CAP, where she worked part-time. Federal authorities later sent a second request with more than 50 search terms for the state to search among Diamantis emails and text messages. The search list includes names of several contractors, including DAmato Construction, which got a no-bid job for the Tolland school, as well as several other school projects. The search list also included the words wedding, gift and FBI. Many of the emails released Friday focused on the Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland, which has been a key part of the federal investigation. Tolland Superintendent of Schools Walter Willett has since alleged that local officials in Tolland were pressured by Diamantis to choose DAmato Construction for the school construction project. Other school officials have made similar claims. MIDDLETOWN The Middlesex County Historical Society will hold its annual meeting Monday at 7 p.m., at the Samuel Russell House, 350 High St. The 2022 Arthur R. Schultz Memorial Lecture will begin directly following the business portion of the meeting, with Richard Friswell presenting a reading and talk based on his new book, Merchants of Deceit: Opium, American Fortune & the China Trade. This work of historical fiction deals with the life and times of 19th-century Middletown resident, Samuel Russell, and his years spent in Canton, China, according to a press release. The book examines the burgeoning opium trade in China during the early 1800s, revealing a little-known chapter in American history. Signed copies will be available for sale, and the author will donate a portion of the proceeds to the society. Friswell, the annual meeting speaker, is a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University, where he co-directs the Wesleyan Wasch Seminars, an adult education program. As a cultural historian, his lectures and publications deal with topics of importance through the imagined eye of a storyteller, the news release said. Previous publications include dozens of print and online articles on topics of art, architecture and design; a book of essays, Balancing Act: Postcards from the Edge of Risk & Reward (2015) and Hudson River Chronicles (2018), a work of historical fiction dealing with the life and times of painter, Thomas Cole. Friswell speaks and lectures widely on topics related to the modern era, a time during the 18th and 19th century when Western civilization was experiencing rapid change in the face of the Industrial Revolution and widespread political and social upheaval, the society said. He lives, paints and writes in Branford. Both members and nonmembers are welcome. All visitors to campus must be fully vaccinated, including a booster dose, to attend this event. Visitor parking will be available in the lots next to and across High Street from the Russell House. For information, email mchs@wesleyan.edu or call 860-346-0746. To join by Zoom, register at bit.ly/3KYE8QC. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD Before moving to Stamford and pursuing a career as a police officer, Anna Futyma called a small Polish town named Sanok home. A small, industrial town of nearly 40,000 people in eastern Poland, Sanok sits not quite 30 miles from the border of Ukraine. Because of its proximity to the border, Sanok has a rich history of ties with the Ukrainian community, Futyma said, which is why she watched with concern as Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. That concern reached a tipping point on March 19, a day after Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine and which sits only a three-hour drive away from Sanok was struck by Russian missiles. As Futyma watched Russias war efforts inch closer to her childhood home and the family members who still live there, she said she felt a call to action. That could easily be me over there going through this, so when you have a chance to help out with something like this, you almost feel obligated to do it, she said. Determined to help, Futyma reached out to a friend, Eva Zimnoch, a Wilton police detective whose family hails from Bialystok, Poland, just north of the Ukrainian border. The two formulated a plan to aid the Ukrainian efforts. Zimnoch said Polish family members had shared stories with her about Ukrainian soldiers being forced to craft makeshift body armor vests because of equipment shortages. I was told that Ukraine men were hiding in factories cutting metal to make protective vests and the women were using any materials they could find, sewing them together to make carriers to hold these metal pieces. Metal pieces cut down from downed buildings, cars, any scrap metal that would work, Zimnoch said. Seeing this need, Futyma and Zimnochs plan began to take shape. They figured their respective police departments had extra body armor vests available, so why not send some of the extra equipment to those fighting on the frontlines? Over there, theyre going to be used for a good cause instead of just laying around here, Futyma said. The two, along with the help of Zimnochs aunt Ala Waslow, who owns Express Travel Services in Stamford, devised a way to collect used body armor equipment from local police departments and send it to the Ukraine through the National Polish Airlines, free of charge. The donation drive reached past Stamford and Wilton to nearby police departments. Zimnochs brother, a retired police sergeant, sought donations from his former employer, the Meriden Police Department. Police departments in Cheshire, Darien and Southington chipped in as well. In total, the drive collected 150 body armor vests that were shipped to Poland earlier this month. The equipment was then bused by civilians to the Ukrainian forces. Silas Redd, assistant chief of police for the Stamford Police Department, praised Futyma and Zimnoch for the work they did to arrange the drive, calling the donations a true humanitarian effort to help aid Ukrainian men, women and even children that are fighting to save their country. To Officer Futyma, I say thank you for your willingness to spearhead such an effort of need, as this is truly a display of humanitarianism at its best and a department-wide job well done, Redd said. WASHINGTON (AP) Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of former President Donald Trumps eldest son, met with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection Monday more than a month after she abruptly ended a voluntary interview with lawmakers according to a person familiar with the matter. Guilfoyle, 53, arrived Monday morning at the federal office building on Capitol Hill where the committee has been conducting its virtual and in-person interviews to sit down with lawmakers, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony. The committee investigating the attack had requested testimony and records from Guilfoyle, who spoke at the rally Trump held on the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, before the riot at the Capitol aimed at overturning Trump's election loss. Lawmakers say that Guilfoyle, who was a chair of the Trump Victory Committee, the fundraising arm of his campaign, also raised funds for the rally and was in direct contact with its key participants and organizers. Members of the nine-member panel issued a subpoena to Guilfoyle last month after she cut the voluntary interview short over her objection to the presence of lawmakers. The committees decision to subpoena her was unusual, as lawmakers have tried to bring in most members of Trumps family on a voluntary basis. Joe Tacopina, an attorney representing Guilfoyle, did not respond to a request for comment Monday but has previously stated that his client has done nothing wrong, and will testify truthfully to any question. The committee has said it has received a number of the documents it initially requested from Guilfoyle but is now looking to learn more about her meetings with the former president and members of his family in the Oval Office the morning of the attack. Ms. Guilfoyle met with Donald Trump inside the White House, spoke at the rally that took place before the riot on January 6th, and apparently played a key role organizing and raising funds for that event, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committees Democratic chairman, said in a March 3 statement. Guilfoyle's appearance is the latest in a series of sit-down interviews the committee has conducted with those in Trump's inner circle in the past few weeks. On Tuesday, Stephen Miller, who served as a top aide to Trump, was questioned virtually for eight hours. The former president's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have also spoken to the committee in the past month, providing hours of testimony that members have cited as helpful to their probe. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Organizers of an Albuquerque festival for 4/20, the date known for celebrating marijuana, have had two permits denied by local police. The 420 Fest, scheduled for Wednesday in downtown Albuquerque, had submitted permit requests for streets to be blocked off. Melissa Thompson, New Mexico 420 Fest organizer, told KOB-TV that she and her team have been communicating with the city about this since June. Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the request was rejected because the department doesn't have the manpower to block off streets in the middle of the work week. Officers already have to shut down roads in the same area at night because of traffic around the bars. The 420 Fest has been an ongoing event for six years but was shelved during the pandemic. Thompson says thousands of people are expected to show up. While recreational marijuana is now permitted, attendees won't be able to buy or consume any because they'll be out in public. This month New Mexico joined 17 other states that have legalized recreation marijuana without significant legal challenges. The change came 15 years after the state first began offering medical marijuana. STAMFORD A 36-year-old city man is still fighting for his life after he was stabbed multiple times Saturday morning, according to police. Capt. Richard Conklin said the man, whose identity has not been released, has undergone a series of lengthy surgeries to try and stop the bleeding caused by multiple stab wounds to the upper chest. Hes not out of the deep water yet, Conklin said Monday afternoon. Police arrested Omar Davis, 58, a resident of the shelter at 597 Pacific St., on charges of first-degree assault and carrying a dangerous weapon in connection to the stabbing. According to police, Officer Nicholas Kuhn was on patrol around 9 a.m. Saturday morning when he responded to reports of a male lying on the sidewalk in the area of Pacific Street. Kuhn located the victim, who was bleeding heavily from a stab wound in the upper chest/neck area, police said in a statement Saturday. The officer applied pressure to the mans wound until EMS arrived and transported the victim to Stamford Hospital, police said. Police later detained Davis after video surveillance from the area, along with eyewitness accounts, pinpointed Davis as a suspect. According to police reports, Davis told police that he and the victim, who was also staying at the shelter, were involved in an argument Saturday morning over one of the buildings windows. Davis later told police that the petty beef escalated when the victim encountered Davis outside of the shelter and allegedly pulled a folding knife on him, telling him not to return to the shelter, according to police reports. While Davis told police he couldnt remember the rest of the encounter, one witness told police that they witnessed him assault the victim, according to police reports. Davis has a long criminal history with felony convictions in Connecticut and New York, including second-degree murder and multiple counts of felony robbery charges. He was arraigned at Stamford Superior Court Monday morning, where a judge, citing Davis history of convictions, increased his bond from $250,000 to $500,000. His case was also transferred to the Part A docket, where the judicial districts most serious matters are heard. Davis is next scheduled to appear in court on May 25. Romania, as a member country of NATO and the EU, currently has security guarantees that it never had before, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca declared on Monday, during an interview for Radio Romania Actualitati. "Romania, during this period, just as the other countries, is going through a difficult period, that we would not have thought of in the 21st century. (...) We are a member country of the North-Atlantic Alliance, we are a member country of the European Union, we can see, decisions were made in this sense, there are more troops and equipment from the North-Atlantic Alliance on Romania's territory. We can see that this will not be short-termed, but also a constant, consolidated presence. We must remind that Romania is a pro-western country, the Romanian people, about 70%, supports this institution of us being a member of the North-Atlantic Alliance and of the European Union. There are elements of guarantee that we belong to this Western civilization and all that we do, our responsibility, is to take the Romanian people's wish further," the head of the Executive said.In reference to the Ukrainian refugees' crisis, he highlighted that the Romanian people's reaction during this period is exemplary."The emotion produced by the drama of these refugees led to a reaction which makes us all proud. It comes from the anger against this invasion, but also from the desire of contributing with something to these dramatic effects. (...) We have the reaction of people from border counties, whether we are talking about the Northern border, the Northeastern border, but also the Southeastern one. Basically, they are the most worried, they do not only get information from the TV, but also from the surrounding reality, and their reaction, once again, was exemplary. The people who work in the state system, both the military, but also the workers in other structures, in customs, in administration, in the medical field. I would like to highlight that the civil society, journalists and people with credibility, most of them have done something during these days and that something is extremely important, because they took a stand, and not because someone asked them to, but because that is how they felt. We perceived this at a Government level," Nicolae Ciuca also declared. The Minister of National Defence, Vasile Dincu, had a telephone conversation on Monday with the US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd J. Austin III, context in which the two spoke about the evolutions of the security situation from the Black Sea region in the context of the war in Ukraine and about NATO's efforts to strengthen the Allied position on the eastern flank. Also, a topic of discussion was the stage and putting into operation of the allied battle group in Romania, according to a Ministry of National Defence's release, according to agerpres.ro. During the talks, the two officials expressed concern over the current situation in Ukraine and reiterated their firm condemnation of the conflict, the crimes committed in Bucha and other localities in Ukraine, for which Russia bears full responsibility, according to the quoted source. The Romanian side thanked the US for its commitment and consistent contribution to ensuring the security of NATO's eastern flank, including in the Black Sea region, the repositioning of the Stryker Battalion, the deployment of F-16 and F-18 aircraft to strengthen the Air Policing missions in Romania being only a few concrete examples of the strength of the transatlantic relationship. During the talks, the two officials highlighted the humanitarian support offered on multiple levels to the Ukrainian partner and the need to coordinate actions to ensure its assistance. Five Ukrainian men were discovered by border police after illegally crossing into Romania near a border small town, spokesman for the Maramures County Emergency Management Committee (CJSU) Dan Buca reported on Monday. "The border police found five people, Ukrainian citizens, who crossed the green border from Ukraine to Romania and requested a form of protection from the Romanian state. Specific procedures for such cases were started," said Buca, according to agerpres.ro. According to the same source, Maramures firefighters drove one of the men, accompanied by a gendarme, from the Sighetu Marmatiei Border Crossing Point to the Maramures Regional Housing Centre for Asylum Seekers at Somcuta Mare. Four more people were driven to Baia Mare, where they were housed at the Nord University Centre. Also, five more people were driven, accompanied by a volunteer, from the Sighetu Marmatiei Border Crossing Point to the CFR Sighetu Marmatiei Railway Station, from where they left by train to Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. "Currently, there are no people accommodated in the camp operated by Maramures firefighters in Sighetu Marmatiei. As many as 160 people can be housed and space can be supplemented depending on future developments," the CJSU Maramures official also said. The Holy Light will be brought from Jerusalem, on Saturday evening, by the Representative of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Land, V. Rev. Archimandrite Teofil Anastasoaie, and will be offered to the diocese delegates present at Otopeni International Airport. The diocesan centers, through archdioceses, will distribute the Holy Light to each parish, the Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informed on Monday.On Saturday evening, between 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm, the procession of the reception of the Holy Light by the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel, will take place on Colina Bucuriei.The tradition of bringing the Holy Light from Jerusalem was inaugurated by His Beatitude Daniel in 2009. Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday to discuss the consequences of Russia's illegal military aggression against Ukraine and NATO efforts to manage and respond appropriately to them. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), the two officials also talked about the concrete ways to offer support to Ukraine, as well as about a series of aspects of bilateral co-operation under the Romania-United States Strategic Partnership. Blinken thanked Aurescu for Romania's regional role and for all measures taken by Romania to manage the current crisis, for the multidimensional support offered to Ukraine and other vulnerable partners in the region, including Moldova, according to agerpres.ro. In addition, Blinken praised "Romania's continued commitment, as a strategic partner of the United States and a responsible and reliable NATO ally, to stability and security in the Black Sea region, as well as at European and Euro-Atlantic level." Aurescu underlined the importance of the rapid implementation of the decisions of the extraordinary NATO Summit of March 24, especially the sped-up creation of a battlegroup in Romania, as a first step towards balancing and consolidating NATO's presence on its Eastern flank. The two officials also agreed to maintain close coordination in preparing the NATO decisions at the NATO summit in Madrid, which will be key to transforming and adapting the alliance's long-term deterrence and defence posture especially on the East flank. The importance of the Bucharest 9 (B9) Summit, which will be hosted by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, in June, before the NATO summit, was also highlighted. The head of the Romanian diplomacy thanked the US for its decision to increase its military presence in Romania and highlighted the need to further consolidate a US and NATO presence as robust as possible in Romania and the entire Eastern flank, especially in the Black Sea. The US official offered assurances that the United States is fully committed to protecting the territories of Romania and all NATO allies, especially those countries that are at the forefront, such as Romania. Aurescu also reiterated Romania's strong support for a strong transatlantic relationship, acting together with like-minded partners, including in relation to sanctions against Russia and its international isolation. Blinken expressed US commendation for Romania's co-sponsorship of the UN resolution that led to Russia's suspension from the Human Rights Council. Blinken also congratulated Aurescu on the very good and substantial results obtained in support of Moldova following the international Moldova Support Conference, which was co-chaired by Aurescu and his German and French counterparts in Berlin on April 5. Aurescu presented the needs of Moldova to deal with the effects of the crisis triggered by the Russian aggression in Ukraine and to strengthen the resilience of Moldova. The US secretary of state agreed with the Romanian counterpart's assessment of the importance of strengthening resilience in the Eastern Neighbourhood, emphasising the need to support Moldova. The Ministry of Justice announced on Monday that it had submitted to the European Commission, for consultation, within the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the draft laws on Justice and on the Criminal Codes. According to the ministry, the deadline assumed by Romania within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for the entry into force of the amendments to the Justice laws is June 30, 2023, and in the case of the Criminal Codes, December 31, 2022. "In the ongoing cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and the European Commission, maintained both at expert level and through the constant and direct dialogue between the Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu, with the representatives of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, Vice President of the Commission, and Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice, the Ministry of Justice sent to Brussels on Monday the drafts of the laws on Justice and on the Criminal Codes," reads a release from the Ministry of Justice sent to AGERPRES. Draft justice laws were under public debate between September 2020 and the spring of 2021, after which they were promoted by the ministry for Superior Council Magistracy and the Government's approval and later adoption by Parliament, but the process remained unfinished in the middle of last year. According to the release, the Ministry of Justice resumed the process of promoting these drafts in December 2021, integrating some proposals and solutions received in the public debate. The bills were completed, including the English language versions, at the end of March - beginning of April, taking into account recent Court of Justice of the European Union's decisions. "The drafts were the subject of discussions between the European Commission delegation on PNRR evaluation, as well as the European Commission delegation under the 'Rule of Law' mechanism, on the one hand, and the Ministry of Justice delegation, led by the Minister of Justice, in two working sessions that took place at the beginning of April," informs the ministry. The process of public debate on the laws amending the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure ended last year, without the bills being promoted in the Government and, subsequently, in Parliament. As in the case of the laws on Justice, in 2022, the Ministry of Justice resumed and finalized the necessary procedures for the promotion of the drafts. "The finalization of the draft new laws on Justice, as well as the draft amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure is a priority objective within the Government Program and, at the same time, an objective of the CVM on Justice, provided in the PNRR," mentions the Ministry of Justice. Over 200,000 Ukrainians have entered Romania through the Siret Border Crossing Point (PTF) since the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine. According to the Suceava Border Police, between February 24 at 00:00hrs and April 18 at 09:00hrs, 256,125 people crossed into Romania via Siret, including 201,024 Ukrainian nationals.During the same period, 45,462 means of transport entered via the same route.On Sunday, 2,769 people entered Romania via Siret, including 2,172 Ukrainian nationals.Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, 12,086 people have entered the temporary accommodation camps in Suceava County and 12,005 people have left.According to the Suceava Prefecture, 81 people were in the temporary accommodation camps in the county on Monday and 1,920 places were available.Most people, 3,830, went through the Siret mobile camp for temporary accommodation. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca says Romanian authorities continue to provide direct and rapid support to the Ukrainian state affected by Russian aggression, citing the operationalization of a donation of eleven fully equipped and functional ambulances that left on Monday for Ukraine, according to agerpres.ro. "We continue to provide direct and prompt support to the Ukrainian state, which has been severely affected by Russian aggression. Eleven fully equipped and functional ambulances left on Monday for Ukraine, donated to evacuate the wounded and provide first aid. The 29th humanitarian mission was operationalized through the hub in Suceava, the first European logistics center for receiving humanitarian assistance. Romania stands in solidarity with Ukraine and the suffering Ukrainian people and will continue to offer support!", Nicolae Ciuca wrote on Monday on Facebook. A Ukrainian woman from Kyiv, a war refugee to Romania since the beginning of the military conflict, has been employed by the Romanian Post on Monday, informs the postal services company in a release sent to AGERPRES. "Starting today, the Romanian Post is the new workplace for a Ukrainian woman from Kyiv, a war refugee to Romania since the beginning of the military conflict in her country. With a rich professional experience gained in the corporate sector in Ukraine, as commercial director, the new employee of the company will reorient her professional activity, as she will work in the field of international postal services. (...) Anastasia Kulakova is originally from Kyiv, the capital of the neighboring country, and, until her country was attacked by the army of the Russian Federation, she had been commercial director of the Ukrainian National Lottery. Mother of two children, an 11-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl, she chose to take refuge in Bucharest from the war, where she lives in the apartment of some Romanians working abroad," shows the release. According to the quoted source, Kulakova speaks German, English, but also Romanian, "an aspect that mattered in the adaptation process in Romania, including the decision to try to access a new job on the relevant market." Anastasia Kulakova chose to work on a four-hour, part-time contract. "Although I was born in Kyiv, I had the happy opportunity to learn Romanian during the summer holidays with my grandparents in the Republic of Moldova. Speaking the Romanian language was an essential criterion for me in the decision to stay in Romania and try to continue my life here, together with my children, who are already in school. I did not want to go to the UK or Germany, countries whose languages I speak, because I want to be as close as possible to my country, a short distance away. Both my parents and my husband remained in Kyiv. I am extremely grateful to all Romanians for all the support I have received here. Although the pain of leaving our country is great, we will try to do everything we can to make our lives move forward, and to make the adjustment here as easy as possible. The children have already started to learn some Romanian language, the colleagues from the school have been very helpful in this regard, and I manage with the public transport routes," said Kulakova. As many as 686 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, by 104 more than on the previous day, on 11,500 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Monday. Of the new cases, 75 were in re-infected patients who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 198, and in Maramures County - 62.As of Monday, 2,882,590 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.- Hospitalisations -As many as 1,702 people with COVID-19 are hospitalised at specialist care facilities across the country, by 19 more than the day before; 101 of this total are children.Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 235 are in ICUs, by 8 less compared to the previous day. Of the 235 ICU patients, 201 are unvaccinated for COVID-19.- Deaths -According to the Ministry, another three Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 - one man and 2 women - were reported dead in the last 24 hours. Two of the deceased patients were in the 60 - 69 age group, one was 80+, and they all suffered from underlying conditions.Two of the three fatalities were unvaccinated. The vaccinated patient was 68.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,340 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania. A new French convoy of intervention vehicles and medical supplies arrived at the humanitarian hub in Suceava on Monday evening, and will be picked up by the Ukrainian side on Tuesday and transported to Chernivtsi. The convoy, led by a detachment of FORMISC (military division of Civil Security), comprised 100 French firefighters and carried 12 fire engines and 12 intervention trucks, four trucks with 50 tonnes of equipment, especially high-tech equipment of search and rescue and fire-fighting equipment. "We traveled 2,500 kilometers from Paris, passed through five countries and arrived today at the Suceava hub to deliver fire-fighting, life-saving and rescue-saving equipment to our Ukrainian comrades. (...) We admire the courage of the Ukrainian firefighters in this situation and we hope that this donation of vehicles and equipment will help them in their activity'', said the French team leader Didier Talbot. Some of these materials were purchased thanks to the French local authorities and the companies that contributed to the fundraising operations managed by the Crisis and Support Center. The operation is coordinated by the Directorate-General for Civil Security and Crisis Management of the Ministry of the Interior and the Crisis and Support Center of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the French Embassy in Ukraine, representing "a new testimony of the solidarity of France, the local authorities and the French companies towards the Ukrainian people". A first French aid convoy, consisting of 11 fire trucks cars, 16 emergency vehicles and 23 trucks with 49 tonnes of medical and rescue equipment, representing France's first contribution to the humanitarian hub in Suceava, arrived in Romania on March 26. ST. LOUIS (AP) Eric Greitens stepped aside as Missouri's governor in 2018 amid a scandal involving accusations of blackmail, bondage and sexual assault. As he attempts a political comeback this year with a U.S. Senate bid, his ex-wife has said Greitens physically abused her and one of their children. It once took far less to end a political career. But at a recent meeting of the St. Charles County Pachyderm Club in a largely Republican area of suburban St. Louis, GOP voters engaged in genuine debate over whether they'd support Greitens in the August primary. Bob Sullentrup, the club's 70-year-old president, dismissed Greitens as damaged goods." Hes going to get creamed, he said. That baggage will follow him. Others, including several women, weren't so sure. Sharon Kumnick of Weldon Springs said she'd vote for Greitens if he's the GOP nominee, noting everybody's divorce, when they want more than is offered, is contentious." Tina Maloney, a real estate investor from St. Charles, said Greitens should stay in the race. I dont think just because youre accused of something in this day and age that you should drop out, Maloney said. This is what they always do, she said, citing the sexual assault allegations that emerged against Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearing. It shows character to fight, Maloney added. That sentiment is reinforcing Greitens' refusal to leave the race, posing the latest test of the GOP's openness to men accused of physical or sexual abuse. Greitens is convinced that by casting himself as a conservative fighter in the mold of former President Donald Trump, he can win the Republican nomination for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat even though many of his political benefactors abandoned him and the party's establishment wishes he would just go away. I am going to win, Greitens said in an email, calling his ex-wife's accusations false and a political hit job. Indeed, Trump is perhaps the GOP's best example that candidates can power through abuse allegations. He won the 2016 campaign despite accusations of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women. In this year's midterms, Herschel Walker is poised to become the GOP's nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia despite making repeated threats on his ex-wife's life. A Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska, Charles W. Herbster, was accused last week of groping several women. Sean Parnell, a Republican who sought a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, is the rare example of a candidate who ended his campaign after allegations of abuse. He only did so after losing a court fight over custody of his three children. The string of allegations concern some Republicans who worry that the party will rally behind candidates who will be unable to win the general election, when moderate voters often play a more decisive role. With the Senate evenly divided, the GOP cant afford to lose what would otherwise be a safe seat. That anxiety has deepened in Missouri after Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune whose family history is deeply intertwined with the state, entered the Senate race last month as a Democrat. Many in the party have unified behind Valentine as the best chance to flip the seat. In her personal capacity, Pat Thomas, the state GOP's treasurer, has called on Greitens to leave the race. She said Valentine's entrance makes it even more urgent for someone other than Greitens to emerge as the nominee. I am certainly concerned that (she) could be a problem, Thomas said. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar, was considered an early front-runner in the crowded Republican primary to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt. But his campaign was rocked last month when his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, filed a sworn affidavit as part of a child custody case that accused Eric Greitens of displaying such unstable and coercive behavior in 2018 that others took steps to limit his access to firearms. In the affidavit, Sheena Greitens said he once knocked her down, took her wallet, keys and phone, and prevented her from leaving their home with their two children. She also accused Eric Greitens of striking their eldest son and pulling him around by his hair, among other claims. Eric Greitens says that's all false. And he, his allies and his attorneys have used hardball tactics to try to discredit her. In statements, interviews, a press conference and on social media, theyve portrayed Sheena Greitens as a liar with a documented history of mental illness. They've also accused her of working in conspiracy with a web of Republican figures to take down Eric Greitens' candidacy, among them Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., longtime Republican operative Karl Rove and Greitens' former 2016 campaign manager Austin Chambers, who has staunchly defended Sheena Greitens. Everyone smelled right away that this was a political hit job, Eric Greitens said. His attorneys have filed subpoena requests seeking phone records from Sheena Greitens, her sister, as well as Rove and Chambers, whose attorneys derided the effort an abuse of judicial process by a floundering campaign. But Eric Greitens says that if the allegations against him were true, there is no way his ex-wife would have agreed two years ago to a court-approved parenting plan. An affidavit she filed at the time stated that it was in the best interest of the children for the parents to share joint custody, a discrepancy that he argues amounts to perjury in light of her most recent statements accusing him of abuse. Sheena Greitens says she told multiple lawyers, therapists, and our mediator, in 2018 and afterward about the abuse allegations. She also says she will provide evidence in court, including pictures and documentation of their communications. The parenting agreement came at the time she was moving to Texas for her job. I had to make concessions that I did not want to make," she said in a court filing. Ultimately, she says that her ex-husband's current behavior feels like a repeat of 2018, when he resigned rather than go under oath to respond to allegations made by his former hairdresser, who testified that he blindfolded and restrained her in his basement, assaulted her and appeared to take a compromising photo to pressure her to keep quiet about an affair. He has acknowledged the affair, but has denied taking pictures. When his political future is at risk, he becomes erratic, unhinged, coercive and threatening, Sheena Greitens stated in a recent court filing. He accuses me of things that are untrue and generates conspiracy theories about me collaborating with his enemies when I have done no such thing. For now, the political fallout from the episode is uncertain. There are signs the dispute could galvanize the pro-Trump base. Many online conservative outlets have sided with Greitens while criticizing his ex-wife, a college professor at the University of Texas who specializes in Asian affairs. And Greitens' campaign says they saw a dramatic uptick in donations since the allegations were made public, taking in over $100,000 in 14 days. But he's also drawn harsh condemnation from many leading Republicans in Missouri. Sen. Josh Hawley, who served as Missouris attorney general when Greitens was governor, said in a statement that if you hit a woman or child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate. Its time for Eric Greitens to leave this race. Greitens leading opponents had stern words, too, calling on him to to be jailed, drop out or seek help. But not everyone was quick to fully condemn. Gov. Mike Parson said he believed Sheena Greitens, but stopped short of urging Eric Greitens to end his candidacy. The Missouri Republican Party also hasnt taken a stand on Greitens future. Thomas, the state partys treasurer, said the best thing he can do is suspend his campaign. She also noted that while Greitens accused the woman he had an affair with as well as his ex-wife of lying, theyve both made their statements under oath which Eric Greitens has not done. Why hasnt he gone under oath? Thomas asked. If he had nothing to hide and wanted to put this all to bed, why doesnt he do that for his supporters? Slodysko reported from Washington. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. ST. LOUIS A team of experts at Yale School of Management has given Anheuser-Busch InBev an 'F' for its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Yale team, which released the grades Monday, said the world's largest brewer is among a subset of major companies "defying demands for exit or reduction of activities" in the wake of the invasion. AB InBev, which has its North American headquarters in St. Louis, has done business in Russia through a joint venture with Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes. AB has said it doesn't control the venture, but executives announced last month they would forfeit "all financial benefit" from it and ask the controlling stakeholder to suspend the production and sale of Budweiser in Russia. The company repeated the announcement in response to questions Monday. The Yale report graded more than 1,000 companies, and gave nearly 300 an 'A' for making a clean break with Russia, including AB InBev rivals Heineken and Carlsberg. Both companies have said they will pull out of the country entirely. Law firm Bryan Cave, which has its largest U.S. office here, also received an 'A' after saying it would close its office in Moscow. Planemaker Boeing, which builds fighter jets here, suspended operations and titanium purchases in Russia and got a 'B'. Ferguson-based Emerson Electric, which has halted new investments in Russia, received a 'D'. Bryan Cave and Boeing did not did not reply to a request for comment Monday. A spokesperson for Emerson declined comment. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As the nine girls and women at the Sew Hope community sewing room in Florissant sat at sewing machines and practiced sewing straight lines on pieces of white paper, Kacie Starr Long offered some simple words of advice. What happens if I get way off? one girl asked. What happens if I get way off? Long repeated. I move back on the dotted line. Long, 41, knows the importance of community, of second chances, of helping others move along a straight path. In early March, the former St. Louis alderman opened Sew Hope. The bright, cheery space, nestled in the Florissant Meadows shopping center next to a state license office and a Mexican restaurant, offers sewing classes, social sewing sessions, fabric and notions for sale, and alterations and repairs. This summer, it plans to offer sewing therapy groups for men and women transitioning out of prison and jail, and eventually it wants to offer sewing job training for those who want to supplement their income or start a career. Her own path here wasnt exactly easy. In 2014, an investigation from the Missouri Ethics Commission showed that as Ward 6 alderman, Long, then known by her maiden name of Kacie Starr Triplett, spent as much as $18,900 of campaign cash on personal expenses, including student loans, new clothes, items from a fabric store and spa services. She avoided charges by making restitution. She apologized at the time, cooperated with investigators, and says that she had poor judgment. I dont mind talking about it, but because that happened, it really shapes the work that I do right now, she said. I know what its like to make a mistake and need a second chance. I know what its like to have a scandal and you need a second chance. Amazing things happen when people start sewing. She said Sew Hope is like a barber shop or beauty shop you come to get your hair done, but you also get community. She motioned toward two women in the back of the sewing room, sitting on a couch and talking softly to each other. I guarantee you they are having a heart-to-heart. Its just what happens here. Longs great-grandmother and grandmother sewed, and when her grandmother became ill and died about 14 years ago, Long realized that the gift of sewing in her family would die as well. She took private lessons in a womans home and sewing classes with other adults and kids at Hancock Fabrics store. After she lost her job as alderman she found it hard to find employment. I really grew closer to my relationship with God, she said. I didnt really have anything else to fall back on. I started sewing. It seemed like that was a door that was open. As she made outfits and items of clothing for herself, shed post the results on social media and people asked if she could teach them or make items for them. As she looked for help and resources, she stumbled across City Sewing Room in south St. Louis. She brought her work there, met with customers there, and connected with other instructors and makers. She found a mentor in City Sewing Room owner Anne Stirnemann. Long lamented that the commute from her home in Florissant was getting tiresome, and that north St. Louis County needed a similar community space. Stirnemann offered to help. She gave Long carloads of donated fabric and notions and donates money monthly for operations. She is very capable of doing anything, and she has a very good heart. Shell follow through, Stirnemann said of Long. The two share instructors and consider the centers sister locations. Stirnemann also says Long shares the same philosophy as City Sewing Room that sewing, like quilting bees of long ago, werent just a way for people to make quilts. It was for women to come together and share their lives. Shes good at that up there. In 2015, Long married minister Alfred T. Long Sr. Together they are pastors at Influence Church in St. Louis. They run Jacob's Ladder Ministries, which conducts church services and mentoring programs in jails and prisons. In 2020, they started sewing therapy groups that got upended by the pandemic; they got a grant to start them again this summer. To open Sew Hope, volunteers donated their skills to build sewing tables, people donated machines, and students at the Stevens Institute of Business and Arts came up with a floor layout. I will just say God has provided, said Long. That has just been a blessing. A sign above the door on the shopping center facade simply says Sewing. Long chose that on purpose instead of the name Sew Hope, so people would come in to ask what they do. Do they do alterations? Yes. Do they do classes? Also yes. Do they sell fabric and notions? Yes. Can you just drop in? Yes. Reception has been enthusiastic. Weve needed something like this in Florissant and in North County, said Susan Geerling, 64, a longtime sewer who attended the introductory sewing class with her granddaughter, Gemma, 6. Its kind of a no mans land as far as anything to do with sewing. This is just amazing. Zuri Reddick, 9, joined the class because she and her best friend have big fashion dreams. Me and my best friend are going to make a company, and were going to do great because we both really love fashion, said Zuri, after the class moved on from stitching lines on paper to stitching with actual thread on pieces of scrap fabric. Annie Chambers, 74, of Florissant, joined the introductory class as a beginner. I bought a sewing machine 55 years ago, she told the group upon introducing herself. And now I am going to become proficient, starting at the first stitch. The group applauded. Because at Sew Hope, its not too late to start again. Sew Hope community sewing room Where 630 North Highway 67, Florissant When Noon to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; open only for classes Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday How much Monthly membership $99, drop-in sewing $15 an hour, class prices vary More info sewhopestl.com; 314-324-7248 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. TOKYO (AP) Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said Monday his country has joined the international community in implementing tough sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but that does not mean it has abandoned its traditional neutrality. Cassis and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed in talks in Tokyo that Russia must be held accountable for attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. Kishida, in opening remarks at their meeting, said Russias invasion undermines the foundation of the international order not only in Europe but also in Asia. Now is the time for the international society to unite more than ever, he said. Cassis, who is also foreign minister, said at a separate news conference that Switzerland strongly denounces war and urged Russia to immediately halt its invasion. He said Switzerland, which does not belong to the European Union, fully backs EU sanctions against Russia and implemented a fifth round of measures last week. But that does not mean his country has abandoned its policy of neutrality, he said. Supplies of war material would not be compatible with neutrality. Participation in military alliances would not be compatible with neutrality. Using ones own territory to transport or fly over war material to war would be incompatible with neutrality. On the other hand, condemning any action that strongly violates our values, which are in the constitution, that is compatible with neutrality, he said through a translator. Japan also was quick in joining the United States and European Union in imposing sanctions against Russia because Tokyo fears the impact of its invasion on East Asia, where China has been increasingly pushing its own territorial claims. Japan has frozen the assets of hundreds of Russian individuals and groups and banned new investment and trade, including exports of goods that could be used for military purposes. Japan also announced plans to phase out imports of Russian coal. Cassis told reporters that he understood through his talks with Japanese officials about Japan's harsh security environment. Japan is a neighbor of Russia and also faces the threat of North Koreas missile and nuclear development, tensions with China and disputes over history with South Korea. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Fellow St. Louisans, one man's illogical, municipal nightmare is over. And all it took was 50 parking tickets, a handful of emails, one daily newspaper, two attorneys and several radio station appearances. Steve Moro, the St. Louis County resident who was on the receiving end of the 50 tickets issued in 2021 on a car he sold in 2019 finally got the written notice that he had been waiting for. The printed notice from the St. Louis Treasurer's Office arrived last week, stating: "Voids: $1,495; Amount Due: $0.00." And just to be clear, the statement says: "There is (are) 0 ticket(s) attached to this account." Moro had been haggling for months with the treasurer's office, specifically its traffic violations bureau, about 50 parking tickets issued in September and October. To show that he had sold the car in August, 2019, he obtained records from the Missouri Department of Revenue that reflected that sale. But William A. Douthit, a lawyer and the administrative hearing officer for the traffic bureau, told Moro those official state records did not qualify as "credible evidence, and refused to cancel the tickets. Douthit said Moro was more than welcome to go to court and fight the case. Eventually, Moro hired an attorney. After the Post-Dispatch published a story on March 16 and then this bureau spoke about the situation on both KTRS (550 AM) and KMOX (1120 AM) radio stations numerous calls and emails came in from people who have had similar problems with the office being unwilling to revisit questionable tickets. Since none of them had anywhere near 50 tickets and $1,500 worth of fines, most said they paid the fine simply to avoid the hassle. City Treasurer Adam Layne eventually reviewed Moro's case and began the resolution process. But in case one thinks the bureaucracy beast surrenders easily, the traffic bureau sent Moro 60 postcards reminding him that he still owed money. "Well, it does seem to be over," said Moro, a certified public accountant by trade. "But I'm going to check the list of voided tickets against the ones they originally gave me, just to be sure." Your weekly capsule of local news, life advice, trivia and humor from Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Holleman. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today If 2022 is the year you choose to start your own small business, the best move may be to head west all the way to St. Charles County. In a look at more than 1,300 U.S. municipalities with a population of 25,000 to 100,000, only five locales in STL made the top 500. Four of those cities were across the wide Missouri River. The best place for a new small business, according to the list from personal-finance website WalletHub, is Wentzville. That booming town clocked in at No. 216. Following closely was the city of St. Charles, which ended up at No. 221. The county's other cities to crack the top 500 were O'Fallon (353) and St. Peters (497). The only muni in St. Louis County to finish in the upper group was Chesterfield, which came in at No. 270. East St. Louis was the sole Metro East town to crack the top 500, finishing at No. 459. The rankings were based on three main criteria: business environment (work-week length, commute time, average growth and revenue of small businesses); access to resources (financing, human-resource accessibility and higher education); and business costs (office space, labor, corporate taxes, cost of living). One of the experts who participated in putting the list together was Richard Ryffel, a part-time finance professor at Washington University. The best state in which to start a new business appears to be Utah, which had five of the top 10 cities, and seven of the top 20. The worst looks like California, which had six of its cities in the bottom 10. Your weekly capsule of local news, life advice, trivia and humor from Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Holleman. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CLAYTON Pasadena Hills will become the second north St. Louis County city to end its contract with Normandy police this year. Pasadena Hills, with a population just under 900, will sign a contract with St. Louis County police for $130,000 for a year of patrol services, from May through June 2023. The St. Louis County police board voted unanimously to approve the contract Monday. Pasadena Hills was patrolled by St. Louis County police for about two decades until the city opted in December 2016 to go with Normandy police. Normandy police Chief Mark Hall said his department's contract with Pasadena Hills had been month-to-month since October when the city decided to seek bids from other agencies to take over patrol. Pasadena Hills officials did not return a call for comment on Monday about their reasons for the change. Greendale officials voted in March to move that municipality's police contract to Pagedale police. Hall said he believes both departments wanted agencies that would assure them they would have an officer assigned to their small communities fulltime, which Normandy was unable to do. Pasadena Hills paid Normandy about $99,000 a year for police services, but the city would have raised it to $120,000 because of increasing costs, Hall said. Hall said he is not concerned by the two cities leaving Normandy's patrol. "This will allow us to utilize the extra patrol to consolidate and give more patrols to the areas we still serve," he said. Greendale had paid Normandy $85,114 a year for police service since 2017. Normandy holds contracts to patrol Pasadena Park, Bellerive Acres, Glen Echo Park and Cool Valley, according to the department website. St. Louis County police patrol 12 municipalities, including Jennings and Wildwood. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ST. LOUIS Police on Monday asked the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office to charge a woman in connection to a fatal stabbing in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood early Sunday morning. Police said the 49-year-old woman killed one woman and injured another during an argument just before 3 a.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of Montclair Avenue. The 29-year-old woman who survived told police the suspect stabbed the other woman in her chest during an argument. The 29-year-old then tried to intervene and was cut in the process. The woman who was stabbed in the chest was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Police have not been able to identify her. Officers said the surviving woman was treated at the scene of the stabbing and released. Prosecutors will decide whether to file a first-degree murder charge, a first-degree assault charge and two counts of armed criminal action. The Post-Dispatch typically does not identify suspects until charges are filed. Shake off your afternoon slump with the oft-shared and offbeat news of the day, hand-brewed by our online news editors. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ST. LOUIS The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dealt Spire another setback in the utilitys bid to regain approval for its main St. Louis-area natural gas pipeline. The Supreme Court on Monday listed Spires legal challenge among dozens of cases that it denied a hearing. The decision leaves the pipelines fate in the hands of federal regulators. Spire said it was disappointed by the decision, but expressed optimism about the long-term outlook for its project. We are confident that when people have an opportunity to review the proven benefits of the STL Pipeline, they will agree that there is a critical need to keep this infrastructure fully operational, the company said in a statement on Monday. The utility pitched the 65-mile line in 2016, got it approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2018, and had it running by November 2019. In January 2020, the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund sued FERC, arguing Spire had not demonstrated a need for the line, amid flat gas demand in the region and a lack of interest from other gas providers. In June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed, revoking the approval and ruling that Spire hadnt proved the region needed the line, which extends north from St. Louis County through parts of Illinois. Though FERC would later grant the pipeline a temporary extension, Spire still vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court. The utility hired prominent lawyers to mount the challenge, including Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and Theodore Olson, who argued for winning sides in pivotal cases such as the Bush v. Gore case that settled the 2000 presidential election, and the Citizens United case that solidified the role of corporate spending in politics. Spires outside critics, however, described the companys aims for a legal solution as a Hail Mary. The future of the pipeline now remains in the hands of FERC. FERC originally approved the project by a 3-2 vote, but was tasked with revisiting its decision by last years deeply critical court ruling that said the agency took an ostrich-like approach in its initial review. That court opinion, for example, questioned whether the line is needed, citing the regions flat gas demand and concerns about self-dealing, since the only company that lined up to buy gas from the pipeline was Spire itself and it was authorized for a return of 14% for building the project, the court wrote. Spire asserts the actual return is 8%. Bryce Gray 314-340-8307 @_BryceGray on Twitter bgray@post-dispatch.com Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WASHINGTON (AP) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington but she'll be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity will take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On Tuesday, Yellen will convene a panel of finance ministers, the international development banks and other institutions to talk about how they will use resources to address food insecurity. This year's meetings run through Friday, and include a mix of virtual and in-person events. Russian finance officials are expected to attend several events virtually, according to a senior Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans for the meetings. Yellen will participate if a Russian minister is there for a session or two, but will not attend every session, the official said, adding that the presence of Russian officials should not stop the work the U.S. needs to do with members of the Group of 20 the world's largest economies. There are some sessions the secretary will attend including the opening, which the Ukrainian finance minister also will attend. However, she wont be participating in a number of the G20 sessions if the Russians are participants. President Joe Biden has said Russia should be removed from the G20. Yellen is expected to use this weeks meetings to work with allies on efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia while mitigating spillover effects, to call for the implementation of a global minimum tax deal and to address food security issues. In addition, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control this week is expected to issue clarifying language to make clear that trade in agricultural products is not barred under existing sanctions, in response to the food security crisis that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused. Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is also set to meet with Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko this week. During a discussion Monday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Adeyemo reiterated the U.S. position that China has a chance to pressure Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine and would thereby avoid subjecting itself to secondary sanctions. China has in the past, and we expect them to continue to follow, the sanctions regimes that have been introduced by us and the coalition" of sanctioning countries, Adeyemo said. China's business with the rest of the world is greater than its business with Russia. The U.S. and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There arent any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western effort, could do so, Yellen said in a speech at the Atlantic Council last week. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension as the U.S.. tries to cut off Moscows energy income. AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Patrick Lyoyas father says he and his family have a right to know the name of the white officer who fatally shot the 26-year-old Black man. But the police chief in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he will only do so if the officer is charged in the April 4 shooting that followed a brief foot chase and a struggle over the officer's Taser. Eric Winstrom's department is among those across the U.S. that have faced scrutiny for withholding identities of officers in cases where Black people were wounded or killed during interactions with police. Some have said its to protect the officers from retribution. Others, like Grand Rapids, point to policies that prohibit the release of an officers name before charges are filed. Im asking for the law to release his face, his image and his identification because I would love to know the person who has killed my son. I have the right, Peter Lyoya said through a translator during an emotional news conference after video of the shooting of his son was released last week. Andrew Shannon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Peninsula Chapter and vice president for the SCLC Virginia State Unit, said police departments should treat officers who are under investigation like they would anyone else. They always report who the suspect is and they report who the victim is, except in cases of rape, Shannon told The Associated Press. There should be no special treatment when law enforcement are involved in these types of matters. They should want to demonstrate transparency and openness so everyone can be fully apprised of the process. Lyoya was facedown on the ground when an officer shot him in the back of the head while straddling Lyoya. The officer had stopped Lyoya for driving with a license plate that didnt belong to the vehicle. The funeral for Lyoya, a native of Congo, is scheduled Friday in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. The Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver the eulogy. While Winstrom said he could not release the officer's name, he did release videos of the shooting, citing a need for transparency. The officer could be heard repeatedly ordering Lyoya to let go of his Taser, at one point demanding: Drop the Taser! Ben Crump, an attorney for Lyoyas family, planned to release results of an independent autopsy on Tuesday. Michigan State Police are investigating. The prosecutor who will determine whether the officer will face any charges has said not to expect a quick decision. A Grand Rapids police spokeswoman said Monday in an email that a person's name, age, other basic information and the charges against him can be released following an arrest or issuance of an arrest warrant. Not releasing the officers name is consistent with the procedure, Jennifer Kalczuk wrote. Such policies vary from city to city. Chicago, for example, changed how it handles such cases after Black teenager Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a white police officer in October 2014. In that case, it was prosecutors who released Officer Jason Van Dyke's name 13 months later, when he was charged with murder and video for the shooting was also released. On Monday, Federal authorities said they will not criminally charge Van Dyke. In response to criticism of how the McDonald shooting was handled, the city made changes. While police still will not release an officer's name unless he's charged, the agency that reviews those shootings does so regardless. City policy also requires that video be released within 60 days. Last year, within a month of two separate fatal shootings by police, including of a 13-year-old boy, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released officers' names. Prosecutors have said the officers won't face charges. Ephraim Eaddy, spokesman for the agency, said it has concluded that officers names cannot be held back because they are public servants. If the release of the names of the Chicago officers involved in the two 2021 shootings seemed to come quickly, the name of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot Jacob Blake several times in 2020 was made public in lightning speed. Three days after that shooting, the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a news release that included Officer Rusten Sheskey's name. The decision came after the Kenosha Police Department handed the investigation over to the states Justice Department for complete transparency, said Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik. Nosalik said he agreed with the decision. Had the department refused to release the name, Nosalik said he would have called to ask why. The public has a right to know ... and unless theres a logical reason like it might put the officers safety and his family in jeopardy, I dont see a reason why the name cant be released, he said. In fact, he said, the Kenosha police moved to extricate" Sheskey's family from their home after learning that they might be in danger, and suggested the same concern might be part of the reason why authorities in Grand Rapids have not released the officers name. Crump, the Lyoyas' attorney, said having the officer's name would allow the family to find out more about him. We want to know his history, Crump said last week. I can guarantee you, theyre going to do everything in their power to try to learn the history of Patrick to assassinate his character." Find the APs full coverage of the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Babwin reported from Chicago. Williams is a member of AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. LONDON Days after Russias Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Andrei Shestakov opened a set of files in a WhatsApp group chat for history teachers like himself in his town in east Russia. The files which Reuters reviewed and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links are instructions on how to teach teenage school children about the conflict. Its unclear who shared the files to the group chat, but many of the documents carry the crest of the education ministry in Moscow. The material includes lesson guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukraines rulers made common cause with people who collaborated with World War II Nazis, that the West was trying to spread discord in Russian society, and that Russians must stick together. Shestakov said he leafed through the files during one of his lessons. The slim-built 38-year-old said that before becoming a teacher in January he had spent 16 years as a police officer. But he had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russias rulers were living up to the values they professed about democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He decided not to teach the modules to his pupils at the Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal-mining town in eastern Siberia, some 4,160 miles east of Moscow. Instead, Shestakov told his pupils about the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For instance, he said he explained that the materials claimed Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia yet history textbooks discussed Ukrainian history going back centuries. He went further. On March 1, he told pupils during a civics class he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he opposed the war against Ukraine, and that Russias leaders exhibited elements of fascism even while saying they were fighting fascism in Ukraine, according to a signed statement taken by police and reviewed by Reuters. In the following days, the local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Shestakov for questioning, according to the March 5 signed statement about his classroom comments. He said he has not been charged in relation to those comments. The FSB and local police didnt respond to requests for comment. A court did fine him 35,000 rubles (about $420) on March 18 for discrediting the Russian armed forces after he reposted videos online of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters. He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the education ministry didnt respond to requests for comment on Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters reached the school by phone, a woman who identified herself as acting head teacher said she declined to comment on Shestakovs case and ended the call. Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teachers union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools reporting they had taught the modules. Olga Miryasova, an official with a trade union called Teacher, said regional education authorities circulated the teaching guide Shestakov received to multiple schools around the country. Reuters was unable to determine independently how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said they received a different teaching pack from the one Shestakov did, though it contained similar content. The initiative shows how the Russian state which has been intensifying its grip on the mainstream media is now extending its propaganda effort about the Ukraine war into schools as the Kremlin seeks to shore up support. Since the war started, many Russian schools have posted images on social media showing pupils sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to spell out the letter Z, a symbol of support for the war in Russia. Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, nongovernmental organization campaigners, and independent journalists in feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, prosecutions, and the prospect of forfeiting their jobs. President Vladimir Putin in early March signed into law legislation that makes the spread of fake information about the Russian armed forces, an offense punishable with fines or jail terms of up to 15 years. Even before the invasion, the Kremlin had been tightening the screws on its opponents using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists. The Kremlin didnt respond to requests for comment about its handling of opposition to the war, the teaching guide and Shestakovs case. Russias Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide drive to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with pupils, amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions. The Kremlin has said it is enforcing laws to thwart extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a special operation to destroy its southern neighbors military capabilities and de-Nazify Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian speakers, especially in the east of the country. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war, and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians. Wests hybrid warfare The teaching guide that Shestakov received says it is aimed at pupils aged between 14 and 18 years. It comprises detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of speeches by President Putin and short films to illustrate the lessons. According to the teaching materials, the West is waging information warfare to try to turn public opinion against Russias rulers, and that all Russian people need to stand firm against that. One lesson plan explains Russia was fighting a cultural war against the West which had destroyed the institute of the traditional family and was now trying to foist its values on Russia. It says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had conducted an anti-Russian policy. There were attacks on the Russian language, our common history was falsified, war criminals and criminal groups from World War Two were turned into heroes, according to the document, which refers to Ukrainian nationalists who made an alliance with Germany during that war. Another lesson says that the West is deploying hybrid warfare a mixture of propaganda, economic sanctions, and military pressure to try to defeat Russia by fomenting internal conflict. That is precisely why they urge us to attend unsanctioned demonstrations, they incite us to break the law, and try to scare us, it reads. We must not succumb to provocation, the document says. The modules include a game where pupils have 15 seconds to decide if a statement is true or false. One statement reads: The organization of protests, provocations of the authorities and mass gatherings are an effective way of resolving a hybrid conflict. According to the lesson guide, the correct answer is false. Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga river, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides from the same presentations being used. Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, the Ural mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different teaching pack than the one Shestakov received; Plotnikov didnt identify who the bosses were. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues in other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but they had not been taught in her school. The teachers Reuters spoke to said that some regions and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of cases where teachers were explicitly ordered to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request, or a recommendation by a school or regional education authorities. Some had said no, and faced no consequence, said Daniil Ken, chair of an independent teachers trade union called Teachers Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told bosses they had, said Ken. He added refusing was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their head teachers would pressure them to quit. Ken said his union has heard from about half a dozen teachers a week who say they are quitting because they didnt want to promote the Kremlins line something Reuters wasnt able to independently verify. Political awakening Shestakov wears his hair close cropped and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police included a one-year stint in the interior ministry special forces, an arm of law enforcement whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The interior ministry didnt respond to a request for comment. By 2018, when he was a community officer working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he started watching videos put out by Navalny, the opposition figure who is now in a Russian jail, alleging corruption by Kremlin leaders. Read full story I became a real opposition person, Shestakov said. He said when the war in Ukraine started, the images of casualties disturbed him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media. Under a pseudonym, he re-posted the videos of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine to the comments section of a local media outlet that has about 5,200 subscribers, according to Shestakov and the March 18 court ruling seen by Reuters. The court said his actions were a violation of a law forbidding the discrediting of the Russian armed forces. Shestakov said he suspects the FSB has in recent weeks been eavesdropping on his phone conversations, though he did not have evidence of that. He also said that he has seen people he recognizes as undercover FSB officers three times in recent days. The FSB didnt respond to requests for comment on whether it is monitoring him. Now, Shestakov plans to leave Russia because he says he fears further penalties from authorities. He would join tens of thousands of Kremlin opponents who have also fled the country since Putin began cracking down hard on opposition in 2018. He said he planned to go to Turkey, unless the authorities bar him from leaving the country. Staying and dropping his public opposition to the war was not an option for him, Shestakov said. It will be hard for me to keep my mouth shut, he said. LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town." He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. On March 31, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would release oil from its strategic reserve to counteract the impact of sanctions enacted earlier last month, which penalized the importation of Russian energy. Although it remains to be seen if these sanctions are capable of deterring Russias resolve to wage war, its worth revisiting a different war that also affected the worlds most precious commodity of its day. During the American Civil War, the Confederate states cut the world off from the Souths cotton in an effort to coerce Europe, especially Great Britain and France, into intervening on its behalf. While this strategy failed, exploring King Cotton diplomacy and Europes response to its implementation offers us lessons relevant for the current Ukraine situation. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, the world became dependent on cotton grown in the American South. While a few textile mills existed below the Mason-Dixon line, southerners sent the vast majority of their cotton to the northern states, Great Britain, and France. As both Europes dependence on the Souths cotton and the prospect of secession grew to concerning levels in the mid-1850s, southerners began forming the doctrine of King Cotton. If the South voluntarily cut off its overseas friends from their white gold, Europe would be forced to help the South in the event of war. While historians still debate why King Cottons majesty failed to coerce Europe into the war, a few things on this subject can be said with certainty. Two are especially pertinent. First, the proponents of King Cotton diplomacy underestimated the working classes of Britain and Frances resolve and enthusiasm for freedom. Their disgust for the Souths slavery and enthusiasm for Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation curbed the ambitions of Britain and Frances aristocratic leaders, who would have been happy to see the United States splintered by war. The European working classes support for the Union played no small part in the dethroning of King Cotton. The peoples voice in response to foreign war matters just as much or more today as it did in the 1860s. While many Americans feel powerless in the Ukraine crisis, we must remember that our democratically elected politicians can effect change in the conflict. In fact, it seems unlikely that Biden would be as aggressive as he has been in promoting painful economic sanctions against Russia if the American public had not shown such outward support for the Ukrainian people. While the United States must think long and hard about the consequences of becoming more involved with war, the power of our opinions should not be forgotten. We can also learn about the importance of commodity diversification from the failure of King Cotton. The people of Great Britain survived the cotton drought at least in part because they began importing more of the crop from India and Egypt. Although the South resumed supplying the world with cotton after the war, Great Britain has never again been at the mercy of one country for its cotton. Just as the Civil War forced Great Britain to diversify its sources of cotton, we must use the current Ukraine crisis as an opportunity to diversify our sources of energy. First and foremost, the United States and European Union must wean themselves off Russian energy. The United Kingdom and European Union should be praised for their commitments on this front. That is not enough, though. It is imperative for the world to use this current war as a catalyst to invest in renewable resources. If America and Europe succeed in cutting off Russian energy but still require similar amounts of oil and gas, we will likely be forced to close the deficit by importing energy from autocratic rulers in the Middle East and destroying our own lands with fracking and drilling. Additionally, as we all know, the environmental damage done to our planet by the continued use of these fossil fuels must come to an end. The changes brought by the war in Ukraine offer us an excellent opportunity to turn a new leaf. Daniel Leon is a graduate student of history at the University of Alabama focusing on British-American relations during the Civil War. The recent fighting in Ukraine has brought forth a lot of support from NATO nations, especially in terms of weapons, ammunition, military equipment, fuel and much more. These shipments have increased but keeping it coming may be a problem. So far nearly 90,000 anti-tank and portable air defense weapons have been sent. The most important of these have been portable ATGMs (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles) and portable anti-aircraft missiles, particularly the American Stinger. The modern ATGMs and Stingers have been particularly effective, so much so that the United States is quickly exhausting its supply of these weapons as are other NATO nations which have also sent other types of ATGMs and some very effective unguided anti-tank weapons. All these shipments came from existing stockpiles, known as War Reserve Stockpiles. Over the last six years other NATO members have been copying the American efforts to build sufficient reserves of key weapons and munitions just in case. The basic idea is to rebuild stockpiles of ammunition and equipment for use against a large, well-equipped force in a war. These stockpiles are also referred to as the War Reserve, as in large quantities of munitions and spares stockpiled to keep the troops supplied during the initial 30-60 days of fighting until production can be increased to sustain the fighting. These stockpiles must contain the most useful munitions and other supplies and be positioned so they can be moved to the combat zones as quickly as possible. Without adequate logistics, as in the right supplies delivered in time, wars or at least battles, are often lost early and often. This is happening to the Russians and threatens to hobble Ukrainian war efforts if NATO cannot keep key weapons and other supplies coming. Ukraine is a major arms producer and increased production after 2014, but many of those manufacturing facilities have been destroyed or damaged by Russian cruise and ballistic missiles. Russia too appears to have nearly exhausted its supplies of these weapons after a month of more intense combat than they expected. Russian production of those depends on key components imported from the West which are now cut off by heavy sanctions so Russia is now limited to unguided rockets and artillery. Even these are not available in large quantities because Russia has shipped a lot of artillery ammo to Syria. While some of the huge Cold War stockpiles of artillery rockets and shells remain, that is because Russia has been slow to safely dispose of these projectiles that grow increasingly unreliable until those remaining are more dangerous to the artillery crews than to anyone being fired on. Russian production of artillery ammo is the only source of munitions for the Ukraine War and how large those stockpiles are now is questionable. All this is the main reason Russia withdrew all its battered forces from northern Ukraine and used new units to reinforce the fighting in eastern Ukraine (Donbas) and the south, where Russia has held Crimea since 2014 and can resupply by ship. Increased fighting in the east means Ukraine has a longer distance to move the NATO supplies which enter Ukraine from neighboring Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Iran has contributed some unguided rockets and air defense systems to Russia but no cruise missiles and no large quantities of anything. China refuses to help and that gives Ukraine an edge if NATO can keep the shipments coming. The nature of these war reserves has changed a lot since the 1990s. For one thing, the widespread use of GPS/INS guided shells and rockets since the late 1990s has led to most artillery being retired. One guided shell or rocket can do the work of dozens of unguided projectiles. The validity of this was proven time and again while fighting Islamic terrorists since 2001. This included 2016-18 battles against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) where the Islamic terrorists were defending urban areas the same way a conventional force would, but smart shells and rockets were used effectively and frequently rather than the older tactic of using far more unguided shells and rockets. In both cases, the urban areas are destroyed but with guided projectiles, it is done with more precision and that enables the friendly ground forces to advance more rapidly and with fewer casualties than in the past. Because of the battles with ISIL in Iraq and Syria, the effectiveness of fewer guided projectiles replacing many more unguided ones was proven and ammunition stockpiles could be adjusted accordingly. Russia has some guided shells, but cannot afford to stockpile many of them and they are less effective than American designs. Over the last five years, U.S. Army orders for 155mm artillery shells were up from 16,573 for 2018 to 148,287 for 2019 because of the guidance option. In 2020 the emphasis switched to GPS guided 227mm rockets (GMLRS) and upgrades for the longer range 600mm ATACMS guided rocket. In 2020 the army has ordered 10,193 GMLRS rockets versus 8,101 in 2019 and 6,936 in 2018. In that time the Army discovered that it was easier to use the longer range (70 kilometers or more) GMLRS than trying to develop longer range tube-based artillery. The need here was to match longer range artillery developed and put in service by Russia and China. Even with longer barrels and rocket-assisted shells artillery could not reach as far as GMLRS. Moreover, jamming the GPS signal is a less effective enemy option with the much-improved microchip-based INS (Inertial Guidance System) long used as a less accurate backup in weapons using GPS for projectile guidance. The new INS is nearly as accurate as GPS and if you have to be sure-fire two or three GMLRS at the same target. That works, especially since INS cannot be jammed. There is still a need for guided and unguided 155mm artillery shells. To provide choice the army has been ordering many more of the PGK (Projectile Guidance Kit) 155mm fuze. The PGK fuze turns an unguided 155mm shell into a GPS/INS guided one. These were found to be exceptionally useful in Syria and Iraq and, in mid-2017, the U.S. Army ordered another 5,600 PGK fuzes and has been building a large stockpile. The army still uses unguided artillery shells for situations that dont require precise accuracy for each shell but the PGK provides options that can be implemented quickly to turn any dumb shell into a smart one. It is unknown if any of these PGK fuzes have been sent to Ukraine. Recent U.S. defense budgets accelerated purchases of numerous items that have to be stockpiled to sustain a major war, even a short one. Although fighting in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan has involved few American troops, it has seen enough action and use of artillery in support of Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan forces to deplete stockpiles and indicate which items would be needed in another major war. That war came along unexpectedly in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and much of the NATO support was in the form of modern ATGMs and other guided weapons. Before 2008, as the war began to wind down in Iraq, there were warnings that stockpiles and war reserves were being allowed to shrink to dangerously low levels. In early 2016 American military leaders went public about how their complaints about smart bomb and missile shortages being ignored. In 2015 over 25,000 smart bombs and missiles were used by American (mostly) and allied (NATO and local Arabs) warplanes operating over Iraq and Syria. Nearly all weapons were supplied by American firms but the American politicians and military leaders couldnt agree on how to get the money to replace bombs being taken from the war reserve stocks. That debate was largely halted in 2022 when Ukraine was invaded. Now there is lots of support for increasing production of the items most useful to Ukrainian forces (like Javelin and Stinger) and rebuilding war reserves of those weapons. This is not a new problem. It was a major and widespread problem in 2011 when NATO warplanes provided air support for Libyan rebels. In the aftermath of the 2011 campaign NATO countries noted the importance of smart bombs and guided missiles, and the tendency of European nations to maintain meager stocks of these (and many other) munitions and spare parts for the aircraft that deliver them. NATO nations did not start acquiring smart bombs until after the Cold War ended, about the same time their procurement budgets were cut sharply. Until 2014 European defense spending continued to shrink, and war reserve stocks were not a high priority. In Europe, the attitude seemed to be that the Americans would be able to supply smart bombs in a crisis. For a long time that was the case, but with the Americans now running down their own war reserves and deadlocked over what to do about that (which was usually not much), American allies were getting anxious. After 2014, when Russia first attacked and seized parts of Ukraine, NATO defense spending began to increase and those increases grew much larger in 2022. All this was yet another reminder that cutting corners in maintaining war reserve stocks was a false economy, even if the smart bombs and missiles are expensive. About 30 percent of the cost of the 2011 NATO Libya operation was for these high-tech weapons, with the rest of the expense being operational costs (fuel, spare parts, and personnel expenses). But if you dont have the smart bombs to deliver there is no action, except for the imaginative stories conjured by many political and military leaders to shift the blame onto someone else. When the smart bomb stockpile shortage got the most attention it became obvious that the army stockpiles of guided, and unguided, artillery ammunition needed attention as well as modernization efforts to communication. In 2019 U.S. Army procurement was up 18 percent over the previous year and that kept increasing until 2022 when it rose throughout NATO. With all these guided projectiles being used there is a greater need to know precisely where friendly forces are at all times. That means more orders for the latest version of Blue Force Tracker (BFT), which lets commanders see where all their troops are in real time. BFT trackers are carried in all combat vehicles and orders for these trackers went from 6,552 in 2018 to 26,355 in 2019. This JBCP (Joint Battle Command Platform) gear that BFT is part of, began arriving in 2015 and is essential in large scale combat. It is unknown if equipment like this has or will be sent to Ukraine, where the Ukrainian military is familiar with it and how useful it has been since first employed in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq. Ukraine eventually has to decide what kind of long-term defense policy it will adopt. There are basically two choices, the nation-in-arms or the current system that has a relatively large regular military plus the territorial units, which have become legendary for their effectiveness against the Russian invaders. Ukrainians admire those who fight as organized militia against a foreign threat. The territorial units, all formed after 2014 who fought so effectively against the 2022 invasion, might be able to survive as effective local forces that receive training, weapons, uniforms and recognition from the government as well as pay for the time they are on active duty for training or long-term conflicts. This is a version of what Israel employs to become what is recognized as has the most powerful armed force in the Middle East. Israel manages to achieve this with a population of only eight million. One reason for this is the Israeli use of reserve troops who are recruited from the regions they live in and the brigade names originally came from those regions. While only two percent of the Israeli population is in the active army, nearly five percent are in the reserves. There are former full-time soldiers who train regularly and can be called back to active service quickly. This is called the "reserve system" and it is a relatively recent development. It all began some two hundred years ago, when several major European nations began conscripting civilians for the military on a regular basis. These soldiers served for only two or three years before being released. Shortly thereafter, several nations came up with the notion of bringing some of these former soldiers back to the army in times of national danger. This was done by enrolling discharged soldiers in reserve units and often having them show up in uniform and with weapons for some training a few times a year. Thus began the "reserve system," which enabled enormous armies to be created quickly and relatively inexpensively. World Wars I and II would not have been possible without the reserve system. Some nations, like Israel, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, took the reserve system to an extreme. These four nations conscript a large portion of the adult males into the reserves. As a result, full mobilization calls up so much of the population that it severely disrupts the economy. Sweden and Switzerland are neutral and depend more on the threat of mobilization. Finland uses its mobilization force and its reputation of defeating past Russian invasions. Israel has had to mobilize several times in the past and will probably have to do it again. Israel has to win quickly and her enemies know that. However, Israel has adapted its economy to full mobilization. Forty years ago, such a mobilization put 15 percent of the population in uniform but now it's less than half that. That means Israel can keep fighting for a bit longer while fully mobilized. This has proved to be a powerful deterrent. Israel, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland all depend on units formed around reservists from the same area. While some reservists are used to reinforce active-duty units, most mobilize and go to war with their local reserve units. In effect, reservists serve in units that will, quite literally, defend the homes and families of the reservists. That is a tremendous motivator to learn military skills and perform your duties effectively. Britain continues to use this system for its army reserve and West Germany adopted it during the Cold War while South Korea still has a similar system. In the U.S. most of the reserve troops serve in National Guard units belonging to individual states in peacetime and are mobilized into the active army for foreign wars. The National Guard evolved from the colonial militias that existed before the revolution that turned the colonies into the United States. Israel is unique in that its reservists, especially those in combat units, are frequently mobilized in peacetime. About 30 percent of Israeli reservists are mobilized each year (for more than a few days), often for only a week or two. About two-thirds of those mobilized are combat troops. Not surprisingly, half of reserve troops are married and 40 percent of them are women who are also conscripted. Reservists serve until they are 40 and physically able, and can continue until 51. Most women serve in support jobs, which are numerous enough to use all the female reservists. Switzerland still has a nation-in-arms system with all members of the reserve army keeping pistols and assault rifles at home. This allows Switzerland to mobilize a large force in a few hours, all of them armed and knowing their local defense positions and what their duties are. Sweden is reviving a version of the Israeli system they had during the Cold War. In the 1990s Sweden eliminated conscription, which is essential to make these systems work. Now conscription is back, along with plans to join NATO. Many Ukrainians still want to join NATO but that cannot be done (or has not been done) while the nation is at war. Ukraine has the full support of NATO, at least in terms of weapons and military supplies in the fight against the Russian invaders. Forcing the Russians out of Crimea and Donbas will be costly in terms of casualties but if the Ukrainians demonstrate a willingness to do it the Russians may decide to cut their losses and leave. After that the Russian threat will remain, as it has for centuries. Ukraine may opt for the Israeli system long-term because the Russian threat is not likely to go away and depending on NATO Article 5, which requires all NATO nations to come to the aid of any member attacked may not be sufficient to keep the Russians out. Israel has never considered joining NATO and instead maintains strong economic ties with NATO countries, including the arms trade. Ukraine does want to join the EU (European Union) which is all about economic cooperation without depending on NATO for military reinforcements. Israel also has nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them by ballistic missiles or from submerged submarines using cruise missiles. FILE PHOTO: The company logo for United Parcel Service (UPS), is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department has secured a settlement with United Parcel Service Inc to resolve immigration-related discrimination claims in a civil action against the package delivery company, the agency said on Monday. "The settlement resolves the department's claims that UPS violated the Immigration and Nationality Act when it discriminated against a non-U.S. citizen by requesting that he present additional documents to prove his permission to work after the worker had already provided sufficient proof," the department said in a statement. The Justice Department's probe had determined that UPS discriminated against a newly hired lawful permanent resident in Jacksonville, Florida, by asking him for his permanent resident card and work visa to prove his legal authorization to work, even though he had already shown his driver's license and unrestricted Social Security card, which were sufficient proof, it added. UPS asked for the additional documents after getting a data entry error notification from the propriety software program the company uses to verify workers' authorization to work, the department said in the statement. UPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the settlement, UPS will pay a civil penalty, train employees about how to properly handle notices about data entry errors, and be subject to department monitoring, according to details of the settlement released by the Justice Department. "When UPS received the notification, the company asked the worker for additional documents instead of checking for a simple data entry error, as the company did when it received such notices for U.S. citizen workers," the Justice Department added. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis) (Tribune News Service) A military judge will decide the fate of former AFRL commander Maj. Gen. William Cooley this week instead of a jury of his peers. "Not having to pick a jury will make this process far more smooth," Dan Conway, attorney for Cooley, said after the first day of the court-martial of the former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory. Cooley faces one charge of abusive sexual contact with three specifications. If convicted by a judge, Cooley faces dismissal from the Air Force, loss of pay and benefits and up to 21 years of confinement. Further, the charges are registerable, meaning if convicted Cooley may have to register as a sexual offender in the future, Conway said. Cooley formally pleaded not guilty Monday, but he read a letter in a pretrial hearing last year denying the charges. Cooley requested this morning that his court-martial be heard by the judge, an Air Force colonel, similar to a bench trial in civilian court. The motion was made before his attorney and the prosecution team began questioning a pool of two- and three-star generals for a possible jury empanelment. Cooley is accused of making sexual advances toward a civilian woman, kissing and groping her through her clothes while off-duty in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in August 2018. The military trial was set to begin Jan. 10 at Wright-Patterson, where Cooley today works with the commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). The trial was continued until Monday, but with the selection of a jury avoided, it may be possible to reach a verdict by Thursday or Friday, Conway said. Asked if he expects his client to testify in the trial, Conway said that would be a "game-time decision" made at a later point. Besides Conway, Cooley also has two uniformed Air Force officers representing him in the trial. Selecting a jury in the complex case would have been challenging, the attorney said. Empaneled jurors would be required to outrank Cooley, and it was expected to be difficult to select jurors whose career paths depend on a U.S. Senate that, in Conway's words, "expends significant energy excoriating them about sexual assault on an annual basis." Not only is this the first time an Air Force general officer has faced court-martial on a charge of sexual assault, it is the first time an Air Force general officer has faced a court-martial, Conway and others have said. Cooley was removed from command at AFRL in January 2020 following an Air Force investigation into the misconduct allegations. He then became a special assistant to AFMC chief Gen. Arnold Bunch. The trial is set to resume at 8:30 am Tuesday at the headquarters of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson. The first witnesses may be called then, Conway said. Neither Cooley's uniformed attorneys nor the attorneys for the prosecution commented after the first day's proceedings. As commander of AFRL, Cooley led the Air Force's $2.5 billion science and technology program with additional $2.3 billion in externally funded research and development, overseeing some 6,000 people in the laboratory's nine technology directorates and the 711th Human Performance Wing. (c)2022 Springfield News-Sun, Ohio Visit Springfield News-Sun, Ohio at www.springfieldnewssun.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii Army leaders in the Pacific are lauding the inaugural use of floating prepositioned supplies and equipment for a pair of recently completed exercises in the Philippines as a significant step forward in strategic agility. Vehicles and supplies were delivered aboard the Military Sealift Commands USNS Red Cloud and offloaded at Subic Bay for Hawaii-based soldiers who participated in the back-to-back exercises Salaknib and Balikatan March 5 to April 8. This week the equipment was reloaded onto the ship, which is now headed back to Hawaii. I think the significance of the use of Army prepositioned stocks to extend our operational and strategic reach in the region is substantial, Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, said during an interview at his headquarters in Fort Shafter on Wednesday. Employing land-based prepositioned stocks has been routine in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and South Korea, but prepositioned afloat stock has been underutilized, particularly in the Pacific, he said. To be able to rapidly offload that equipment, issue it to a unit, have the unit go out and conduct training, and then be able to collapse that equipment back to, in this case, the port, and then be able to reload that on those vessels is really a demonstration of our strategic agility, Flynn said. The Army will continue to adjust and refine the use of floating prepositioned stocks in this region, Maj. Gen. David Wilson, commander of the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, said at his Fort Shafter headquarters on Tuesday. This is an evolution, said Wilson, who heads the Indo-Pacific theaters top Army logistics command that is tasked with enabling and prolonging the operational reach needed by combatant commanders. What we have found is that every operation we conduct west of the international dateline is an opportunity for us to conduct strategic rehearsal and strategic movement, he said. Thus, if offloading prepositioned equipment were needed during a time of crisis or conflict, the Army is now gaining an understanding of the time and tempo required for the task, Wilson said. And that's invaluable, he said. I mean, now youre actually operating on the terrain in which you may have to fight. That cannot truly be replicated even in the Armys massive training centers at Fort Irwin, Calif., and Fort Polk, La., he said. On the other hand, this inaugural down offloading of prepositioned afloat stock faced no adversary attempting to prevent it, Wilson said. We have to be able to account for that in our planning, he said. As we can build subsequent exercises, simulations and war games, we will be able to do that and put a finer point on it. Wilson has been on a quest to expand the logistics toolbox for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command since taking the reins of the sustainment command in June 2020. Within weeks he ordered up a theater sustainment posture review, which he said to his knowledge had not been done before. What drove me to that was sitting and looking at a map when taking my initial counseling from [then-commander of U.S. Army Pacific Gen. Joseph LaCamera] when I assumed command, Wilson said. He described how he saw operations occurring during times [of conflict] out here in the Pacific. The posture review, completed in December 2020, concluded that while no military service in the Indo-Pacific is advantaged to single-handedly handle sustainment, we do have enough collectively as a joint force to solve the problems, Wilson said. With the Indo-Pacifics tyranny of distance dilemma, sustaining the joint force requires close collaboration with partner nations throughout the region, he said. That investment in or partners and allies is an investment in us being able to execute our requirements west of the international dateline during crisis or conflict, he said. A new software program that tracks Navy sailors physical fitness tests arrived just in time for this years testing season, according to the Navy. A delayed software delivery pushed the Physical Readiness Information Management System 2, or PRIMS-2, rollout into April, the month the new physical fitness testing season began, according to a spokeswoman for the Navy Personnel Command. PRIMS-2 allows fitness leaders to record physical fitness data and sailors to see their fitness scores. The Navy in November said the software was originally scheduled to be available in summer 2021, according to a report in Military.com on Dec. 3. The Physical Readiness Information Management System 2 is a success story of what a true transformative system should look like, Lt. Sarah Niles, a spokeswoman for the personnel command, told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. Implementing PRIMS-2 is a process and as we move forward, more and more system requirements will be built into this product in an agile manner. A push by the software provider, Katmai Government Services, a subsidiary of the Ouzinkie Native Corp. in Anchorage, Alaska, and MyNavy, the services online human resources portal, brought the system online in time, Niles said. Sailors may access their physical fitness information through MyNavy, a web portal that combines many of the services human resources and other career information. Along with the new software, the Official Navy Physical Fitness Assessment application was released with an updated fitness assessment calculator and physical readiness operating for updated policies, requirements and training cycles, Niles said in the email. A Navy fitness leader in Japan said he looks forward to seeing how PRIMS-2 works. [Im] very excited and to see what the new system is all about, Petty Officer 1st Class Reymer Agojo, 36, a Navy fitness leader at Yokota Air Base, Japan, said in an email to Stars and Stripes on Feb. 24. Once I get to use and experience the new system, I am pretty sure that there will be a big difference. Last year, the Navy required one annual physical fitness assessment to cut down on the risk of spreading COVID-19. One test is required this year, too. Testing season ends Sept. 30. The Navy also did away with curl-ups and introduced the forearm plank, and a 2,000-meter row as optional cardio. KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany Baumholder area residents are being advised to boil their tap water after the discovery of elevated levels of a bacteria that is a leading cause of foodborne illnesses. The boil notice was expanded Friday to cover much of Birkenfeld district, where numerous U.S. military personnel live. Initially, officials believed that only a limited area would be affected after the bacteria were first detected in a day care center in Sien, the Nahe Zeitung reported over the weekend. But further testing showed that the presence of the germs was more widespread. The bacteria in the samples, clostridium perfringens, can produce a toxin that causes diarrhea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People in the affected areas should boil their tap water before drinking it or using it for domestic purposes, such as cooking and brushing their teeth. The boil took effect in Baumholder, urban areas of Idar-Oberstein and more than 34 towns and villages in Birkenfeld and Herrstein-Rhaunen districts. Water coming from taps on Baumholder installations, including Smith Barracks, Wetzel Kaserne and Clinic Kaserne, is independently treated and safe to use, a post Saturday on the official Baumholder Military Community Facebook page said. The Army, which maintains a major training ground in the area, operates its own water supply and disinfects the water with chlorine. German municipalities generally dont chlorinate drinking water. The water supply for work centers and residents on base is unaffected, U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz told Stars and Stripes on Monday. The Baumholder military community is a satellite installation of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz. In 2016, contamination with E. coli bacteria triggered a three-day boil notice in the area. As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear how long the boil advisory will remain in effect. District officials were unavailable, as local offices remained closed for national Easter holiday observances. The Paris prosecutor is looking into allegations that nationalist leader Marine Le Pen and several of her party members misused hundreds of thousands of euros of European Union funds between 2004 and 2017 when she was a member of the European Parliament, with just a week left before she stands in the final round of the French presidential election. The prosecutor's office said it received a report detailing alleged abuse of funds from the European anti-fraud office OLAF on March 11 and is reviewing it. Le Pen's lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, denied any wrongdoing in an interview with BFM TV. A spokesman for Le Pen wasn't immediately able to comment. French investigative outlet Mediapart first unveiled the existence of the OLAF report on Saturday. Le Pen is set to face President Emmanuel Macron in the election runoff on April 24. According to Mediapart, several political expenses claimed by Le Pen and others in her party were "fictitious." They include promotional gear for a conference in 2014, payments to various contractors and organizations, personal wine purchases and funding for other party events unrelated to parliamentary responsibilities. Le Pen would personally be liable for about $148,000 (137,000 euros) and her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, for roughly $328,000 (303,000 euros), according to Mediapart. The total amount of alleged fraud is more than $667,000 (617,000 euros). A spokesperson for OLAF said the agency finalized its investigation in September 2021 with recommendations and sent its final report to the European Parliament and to French and Belgian judicial authorities. The probe involved several persons, both natural persons and economic operators. The spokesperson added that "final case reports are not made public by OLAF." Polls point to a victory for Macron in the final runoff ballot on April 24, and the gap between him and Le Pen has widened over the past week, according to a compilation of surveys. But it's still likely to be a much tighter race than in the 2017 election, when Macron defeated her by more than 30 percentage points. RAF LAKENHEATH, England Tech. Sgt. Matthew Byous has felt disregarded by his leaders before, but someone high up was listening when he spoke out on Facebook about suicide prevention. Now hes part of an effort to address the issue, and hes doing so with support from the services top enlisted airman. Late last year, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass voiced concerns, urging the services leaders to head off suicide through true connection, compassion and being present. Initially, that sentiment rang hollow for the Lakenheath-based airman. You may say this, Byous wrote in a comment on Bass November 2021 post. But until the front-line supervisors live it. Until squadron and group commanders get real about how their people are treated. It falls on deaf ears to those of us who have watched friends, co-workers and family take their lives. Those candid remarks caught the attention of a former supervisor, Maj. Sean Frietag, who invited Byous to a working group that was seeking ways to help commanders better communicate with subordinates. Earlier this year, the group pitched Bass on a new microsurvey tool known as Foundations, which some believe can help alleviate thorny issues plaguing the force, including suicide. I couldnt be more excited by the work being done on the Foundations program, Bass said, touting the work of Byous, Frietag and Tech. Sgt. Devan Trammel. They are transforming the way our airmen provide feedback to help shape their organizations better ... Id love to see this scaled across the force. After working with Trammel, the Foundations program manager, Byous persuaded Lakenheaths 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron to become one of over 40 units that have adopted the tool, which aims to create a healthy command climate where airmen feel safe raising concerns and challenging the status quo. Its been in beta testing for over a year. The adoption of Foundations by Byous squadron came on the heels of the December 2021 death of Airman 1st Class Camden Mello, a crew chief assigned to Lakenheaths 748th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron who authorities indicated died by suicide. In a Facebook post about Mellos death, wing commander Col. Jason Camilletti was unusually forthright, telling airmen that they are loved and important and providing information on suicide prevention. Byous said the death wasnt the only suicide locally over the past three years, though Air Force officials in England were unable to provide a number. The deaths have come amid a servicewide push to stop suicides. That intensive focus began in 2019, when the Air Force saw both the highest number and highest rate of suicides in recent history. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 sustained that trend. In April 2021, the services resilience director, Brig. Gen. Claude Tudor, called for efforts at all levels of command to find solutions. In a nod to that all-hands-on-deck call, some proponents of Foundations think the tool could help fight pernicious issues like self-harm and sexual misconduct. Its tailored to promote a culture of innovation in the Air Force by strengthening the psychological safety a person needs to speak up, which proponents think could call attention to assorted issues earlier. This isnt the silver bullet. I dont think it fixes everything, Command Master Sgt. Paul Hammer III said in an April 2021 podcast about Foundations. But I have to imagine that if the environment is psychologically safe and someone is struggling with something like suicidal thoughts, then theyre more likely to bring that up to someone and seek help. Foundations falls under a larger effort called Tesseract, which aims to apply principles from the likes of Google, Amazon and Delta Air Lines to improve logistics and maintenance without added costs or personnel, in part by finding and fixing sticking points in operational processes. The broader goal is to empower and connect airmen so they can make their workplaces better, which Foundations seeks to achieve by pinpointing issues and providing resources to assist in addressing them. Questions on the five-minute surveys are based on industry research into what makes good teams. The program scores commands based on surveys conducted every few weeks. The quick microsurveys are Tesseracts answer to the three-hour commandwide surveys the Air Force does once a year. Officials dont have data showing how workplace culture in the Air Force may be linked to suicide, said Trammel, the program manager, but they hope to get there. For Byous, a third-generation airman, implementing the program is about making the Air Force better for those who come after him. I fully believe in it, he said in a recent interview. I fully believe in Tesseract. Photos posted to social media Monday appear to confirm that Ukrainian missiles struck the Russian cruiser Moskva before it sank in the northern Black Sea, military experts say. The widely shared but unsourced photos appear to be authentic, analysts said. They show the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship listing to port, or the left side, with fire and smoke coming from the structure. The photos and a video appear to have been taken from a Russian rescue tugboat after a fire started on the Moskva and its crew abandoned the ship, said H.I. Sutton, a military expert and open source intelligence analyst. Istanbul-based ship watcher Yoruk Isik identified the tugboat as part of the Russian Black Sea Fleets 145th Rescue Ship Squadron, 1st Group, Sutton said. The damage does not rule out a missile strike(s), and it remains the likely cause, Sutton said in a Monday post to his blog and promoted on his Twitter account @CovertShores. Possible puncture marks in the side of the hull are visible where the fire is. More analysis would be needed to confirm if the marks were caused by a missile strike, Sutton said. The Moskva suffered a catastrophic fire and subsequent munitions blast Wednesday that seriously damaged the guided-missile cruiser. Maksym Marchenko, governor of the Odesa region of Ukraine, said that two Ukrainian missiles caused the fire and explosion. That claim was denied by Russian officials who said the origin of the fire was localized and was being investigated. On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said the Moskva sunk while being towed to port in Crimea. Pentagon officials on Friday said that a missile strike caused the blast. In analyzing the photos, Sutton said the lack of life boats on the ship indicated the crew already had left. The photos also could have been taken before a catastrophic explosion seriously damaged the Moskva, he theorized. The fire appeared to be in the middle of the ship in the funnels, behind the main P-1000 Vulkan (SS-N-12 SANDBOX) anti-ship missiles and ahead of the S-300F Rif (SA-N-6 GRUMBLE) air-defense missiles, Sutton said. The area also was near the Moskvas engines, he said. We cannot be sure at this point, but possibly there was a catastrophic explosion of either the anti-ship or air-defense missiles. Or possibly other systems, Sutton said. Video posted on Twitter by military expert Rob Lee shows dark, black smoke billowing from the Moskva with another ship nearby. Looks like a legit photo of the Moskva after it was struck by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, Lee tweeted in a separate post on Monday. Looks like a legit photo of the Moskva after it was struck by Ukrainian Neptun anti-ship missiles. https://t.co/oVYDySpcd8 Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 17, 2022 Loss of the 11,490-ton ship is a crippling blow to Russias navy and its national pride. The Mosvka played a sizeable role in Kremlin efforts to enforce a blockade in the northern Black Sea and reportedly was one of the ships involved in the seizure of Snake Island in the opening days of the war in February. It also could hamper Moscows attempts to attack Odesa. Since early in the invasion, Russian navy ships have launched missile attacks and small-scale amphibious assaults, in addition to patrolling the northern Black Sea. On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry posted a video it said was of Russian navy Adm. Nikolay Yevmenov meeting with some crew members of the Moskva in Sevastopol. Analysts estimated that about 50 of an estimated 500 crew members were present at the meeting. The ministry has not made any announcement about casualties. RIGA, Latvia The sinking of the Russian warship Moskva is causing tension back home, where some families are reporting sailors dead or missing despite a defense ministry claim that the whole crew had been evacuated. The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet sank last week after being hit by two Ukrainian missiles, delivering a significant blow to Russia's naval capacity, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. Russia confirmed that the ship sank but said only that it had been damaged by "heavy storms" and a fire that caused ammunition on board to detonate. On April 14, Russia's defense ministry said all crew members were evacuated. The authorities have not confirmed any dead or wounded. But several families are now contradicting this claim in Russian media reports and on social media. Social media groups uniting mothers of Russian soldiers currently deployed in Ukraine are filling up with photos and pleas from parents looking for their missing sons. On Monday, at least four families shared pictures of sailors the families say served on the ship and who have been not been heard from since the incident. "Please join our search for the Moskva sailors!" reads one message on a Vkontakte message board. "Family members, please talk to your sons, perhaps someone saw the [rest of the] guys at the time of the evacuation, or you were near on the cruiser itself or you are currently with them in a hospital?" One sailor's mother said her son, who survived, told her that about 40 people died and many were wounded and missing in the sinking. The newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe published the unnamed woman's remarks on Sunday, saying it had reviewed documents proving that the son served in the navy, though not specific proof that he had been aboard the Moskva when it sank. "There are dead, there are wounded, there are missing. My son called me when they were given phones. They left their documents and [their personal] phones on the [ship]. He calls me and cries from what he saw. It was scary. It is clear that not everyone survived," said the mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety. The Russian news outlet Agentstvo said it spoke with a family member who confirmed the death of Vitaly Begersky aboard the Moskva. The Ministry of Defense broke the news to the family, the sailor's cousin, Anastasia Begerskaya, told the media outlet. Begersky was a conscript from a small town near Russia's Pacific coast, Agentstvo reported. The defense ministry over the weekend released a video that it said showed crew members from the ship. About 100 or more sailors are visible. It wasn't clear exactly how many had been aboard the ship at the time of the incident, but the size of the crew varied and ranged over the years between 500 and 600 people, according to Russian state news agency reports and the defense ministry releases. On Sunday, a user of the social-media platform VKontakte said the ship's commanders told him that his son Yegor, a conscript, was among those missing in the tragedy. Russia earlier "said that the entire crew had been evacuated. It's a lie! A blatant and cynical lie!" Dmitry Shkrebets wrote. "After my attempts to clarify the details of the incident, the cruiser commander and his deputy stopped communicating with me," Shkrebets wrote. "I ask everyone who is not afraid and not indifferent, spread this appeal of mine wherever you have the opportunity" so the tragedy is not hushed up. In a later post, Shkrebets said three families from different parts of Russia contacted him to say their children also were missing from the ship. Anna Syromyasova, the stepmother of another sailor, said that 20-year-old Nikita had been missing for several days. The Syromyasovs said they have also struggled to get any information about their son's whereabouts from the military. "Syromyasov Nikita Alexeevich was on the Moskva ship the night of April 13-14," Syromyasova wrote on her social media page on Monday morning. "He is now listed among the missing [ones], the parents are not being told anything, they block our contacts. [We have] no information!" Nikita's father told The Washington Post that his son is also a conscript soldier and the family still hasn't heard anything about his fate: "Silence ... they are not saying anything." In total, at least seven sailors have been identified by name and classified as missing, according to The Washington Post's tally based on local media reports and accounts of family members. At least three others have been reported dead. Among those who were reportedly killed was 19-year-old Andrey Tsyvov, whose mother told the Russian BBC service that he was also a conscript. "[The military commissariat] said that it could not be that the conscripts were on that ship: 'They are probably just deployed somewhere, don't worry, he is somewhere here local, he cannot be sailing there [toward Ukraine],'" Yulia Tsyvova is quoted as saying. She later told The Guardian that she received a call from a military official informing her that Andrey was dead. Russia conscripts eligible men aged 18-27 for one year of military services. President Vladimir Putin and the country's defense ministry have vowed that conscripts would not be involved in Ukrainian hostilities. But in early March, after videos emerged showing conscripts captured by Ukrainian forces, Russian military officials acknowledged that some conscripts had been sent to Ukraine by "mistake." Russia's loss of the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, provoked a rare note of displeasure with the authorities on state-controlled television, with one widely followed anchorman said he was "furious" over the sinking. "Just explain to me how you managed to lose it! Explain to me why the hell you happened to be in this very part of the Black Sea at this very time," Vladimir Solovyov asked during his prime-time show over the weekend. "Why did your fire-extinguishing system not work and the ship burned practically from the inside out?" Ukrainian officials say seven people were killed Monday when apparent Russian airstrikes struck Lviv the largest city in western Ukraine and one that has been spared the worst of the war's violence. The attack marked the first deaths in the city itself, but in March, when two Russian missiles struck Lviv, alarm bells went off in part because at the time, President Joe Biden was some 250 miles away on a visit to Poland. In the nearly two months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the relatively safe city near the Polish border has been transformed into a hub for diplomats and international aid agencies. It's become a destination for many of the millions of Ukrainians displaced from their homes and a transit point for many of the roughly 4.5 million Ukrainians, mainly women and children, made refugees by the war. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the March 26 strikes were Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt "to say hello" to Biden, who hours later forcefully condemned Putin in an address from Warsaw, Poland's capital. As the assault on Ukraine grinds on, here's what to know about Lviv, the city that's become a pillar of support and refuge for a country at war. Q: Why is Lviv historically important to Ukraine? A: Lviv, today some 40 miles from the Polish border, has been an epicenter of Ukrainian nationalism and culture. "Kyiv is the heart of Ukraine and Lviv is the soul," Sadovyi told The Washington Post in mid-February. The city was officially founded in 1256 and has changed hands many times since. Modern-day Lviv has maintained some medieval, baroque, Renaissance and classical architecture. Lviv's old town has been named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. Despite its shifting rulers over the centuries, Lviv developed a reputation as a multicultural city with deep Ukrainian roots. Lviv began the 20th century in the Galicia region of Poland, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I and the empire's dissolution, Lviv returned to Polish rule only to be incorporated into the Soviet Union during World War II, when it was also briefly conquered by Nazi Germany. Before World War II, about one-third of the city's population was Jewish, and it was also an epicenter of Orthodox churches. Throughout these periods, the city maintained ties with Ukrainian nationalist and intellectual movements. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Lviv became a part of an independent Ukraine. Now western Ukraine's largest city, it also absorbed many Ukrainians displaced from their homes in the east after war broke out between Kyiv and Moscow and its allies in 2014. Q: What happened in Lviv leading up to Russia's invasion? A: In the weeks before Russia's invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to downplay the prospect of war. But some Ukrainians and international workers started relocating to Lviv anyway as a precaution. As momentum toward war grew in February, the United States temporarily moved its embassy to Lviv for "the safety of our staff," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Feb. 14 announcement. A handful of other embassies did the same. Zelensky criticized the move as adding to the drumbeat of war. He warned, perhaps now presciently, that if war did break out, "it will be everywhere." "You cannot be away from the escalation or problems in five, six hours," he said, referencing the time it then took to drive from Kyiv to Lviv. Now the trip, if one can make it, is hours longer and precarious. Many countries, including the United States, have since removed diplomatic staff. Q: What has Lviv been like since war broke out? A: While hundreds of Russian missiles have fallen on other Ukrainian cities, Lviv has been hit just twice so far. The first time was March 18, when Russian missiles struck an area near Lviv's airport, about four miles from the city center. The second was on March 26, when Russia said it targeted military sites using both long-range and high-precision missiles. Lviv's mayor said a fuel storage facility was destroyed. Life in Lviv has been upended in countless ways as it went from being a hub for tourism to one for the displaced. For weeks, Lviv's train station has been filled with packed trains arriving and people looking for tickets out of Ukraine or a connection to elsewhere in the western part of the country. Hotels, restaurants and residents opened their doors to offer free rooms or food to the war-weary arrivals. Across the city, Ukrainians have quickly mobilized, turning everything from homes to museums into humanitarian command centers for organizing evacuations, donations and emergency aid. Others have focused on connecting the displaced with food, shelter, clothes, medical care and child care. Still others have seized the opportunity to combat Russian disinformation online. Long-term accommodations in the city are full. MIAMI (Tribune News Service) A U.S. Coast Guard crew transferred 82 Haitians and Cubans, including babies, to Bahamian authorities late last week after they were stopped in the countrys waters, the military branch said Sunday. The Florida Keys-based crew handed over 67 Haitians and 15 Cubans to the Royal Bahamian Defense Force on Friday after they were detained near Anguilla Cay, over 100 miles southwest of Key West, in two separate stops, the Coast Guard told the Herald in a news release. Migrants are taken to the Bahamas when they are found in Bahamian waters. Only hours before the transfer, the crew spotted an overloaded chug, or small boat, on Friday, taking 15 Cuban men aboard for safety of life at sea concerns, according to the Coast Guard. On April 11, another crew found an overloaded sail freighter, bringing 51 men, 10 women and six children, all Haitians, aboard due to safety concerns. These types of voyages are extremely dangerous, said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Neiman, Coast Guard District Seven public affairs officer. If our cutters were not patrolling the waters, who knows what would have happened to these people. 2022 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. TAMPA, Fla. (Tribune News Service) A retired U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who is among those accused in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol faces new charges that he held onto secret national defense documents from his time in the service. A federal grand jury in Tampa last week returned an indictment alleging that Jeremy Brown had unauthorized possession of the documents, which relate to military activities that occurred in 2004 and 2005. The new charges accompany previous allegations that Brown illegally possessed two guns and a set of hand grenades, which federal agents found when they executed a search warrant last year at his Tampa home. The new indictment is the latest salvo in a complicated case that has seen prosecutors work hard to keep Brown locked up and prevent him from benefitting financially from public support he has received. Days after the new indictment came a request from Browns defense: He wants to represent himself. He is not just competent but a highly intelligent individual, defense attorney William Sansone wrote in a court paper filed Sunday. While he has no prior experience with criminal trials, Brown is learning as he goes, with assistance from two pro bono attorneys who will continue to help him, Sansone wrote. Mr. Brown has the constitutional right to represent himself, Sansone wrote, and he is adamant that at this juncture of his case, he is the best person to lead his defense. Brown, 47, served in the Special Forces from 1992 to 2012. For most of that time, he held a secret security clearance, which gave him lawful access to national defense information that was closely held by the government, the indictment states. The indictment alleges that Brown willfully retained the documents and failed to deliver them to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it. One document is listed in the indictment as a threat frequency report of a combined explosives exploitation cell in Afghanistan. Another is labeled as an incident report related to an improvised explosive device. A third bears the title Spider Device Testing Procedures and Results. The fourth is labeled as a fragmentary order. All four documents are classified as secret, a label that applies to information which, if disclosed, could be expected to cause serious damage to national security, the indictment states. The classification is a step above confidential, which applies to information that could simply cause damage to national security. It is a step below top secret, which applies to information that could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. Brown is scheduled for an arraignment on the new charges later this week. He was arrested last September on charges related to the Jan. 6 siege at the U.S. Capitol, which disrupted congressional certification of the 2020 election results. Court documents allege that Brown was seen donning combat attire amid a crowd that breached a restricted area outside the building. Although he is not accused of entering the Capitol, federal prosecutors have noted ties to the Oath Keepers extremist group. In the days preceding Jan. 6, according to court records, Brown communicated with members of the groups Florida chapter, several of whom have been charged separately with seditious conspiracy and other crimes. A criminal complaint references messages in which Brown coordinated travel plans, writing that he would bring his recreational vehicle, which he referred to as Ground Force One. A search warrant application, which federal agents used to authorize a search of Browns home in the Palm River area, references information agents received from a person identified as Defendant 4, who said the group caravanned to Washington, D.C., in an RV that held weapons and ammunition. Kelly Meggs, the purported leader of the Florida Oath Keepers, told Defendant 4 that Brown was a loose cannon and had explosives inside the RV, according to the court record. In their search of Browns home, agents seized a short-barrel rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and three hand grenades, which they alleged he possessed illegally. A federal judge previously ordered Brown to remain detained pending trial, expressing concern over a profane handwritten sign he placed outside his home after an earlier visit from law enforcement. The sign stated that if they came back, they should bring a bigger tactical package. Brown asserted in court that the sign was not a threat and said he detests violence. He has said the criminal charges are an effort by the government to silence him. As he fights his case, Brown has filed to run as a candidate for Florida House of Representatives in the 2022 election. He previously ran for congress in Tampa in the 2020 race, but withdrew before the primary. 2022 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. WASHINGTON American troops will train Ukrainian forces in the coming days on how to operate U.S. howitzers as the Pentagon sends them 18 of the cannons as part of the latest $800 million in military aid, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday. The training, which will occur outside Ukraine, will teach Ukrainian forces to operate the 155mm howitzers. They will then return to the fight and train other Ukrainians to use the American cannons, the official said. The aid package includes 40,000 artillery rounds. We have made some progress in terms of setting up some training for Ukrainians, the official told reporters at the Pentagon. These are train-the-trainer [sessions], so training trainers outside of Ukraine in coming days on the howitzers, specifically. The U.S. does not expect it to take long to complete the instruction, Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday. It's not going to be exorbitant. It won't take a long time. It won't require a large pool of trainees, he said. We don't believe that it's going to be an onerous task, or lengthy in time or in resources. Ukraine already uses howitzers, such as the Soviet-era 152mm mSATA-B and 122mm D-30, but their troops will still need instruction on the American cannon, whose basic outlines are not unlike other artillery, Kirby said Monday. This particular system is new to the Ukrainians [but] they understand how to use artillery and we dont believe it will take very long or require much detailed training to get them up to speed on American howitzers, Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon. Defense officials have not said which of two U.S. howitzer models the older M198 system or its replacement, the M777 is being used by the Ukrainians. With respective ranges of 14 and 18 miles, according to the Army Acquisition Support Center, they are most comparable to the Msta-B, which can fire artillery as far as 15 miles away. The howitzers announced Wednesday in the latest $800 million military aid package are the first the U.S. has sent Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24. Other countries, such as Estonia, have also recently sent howitzers to Ukraine. The U.S. is sending the cannons as Russia prepares to launch a renewed assault on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. The land there is flat, rolling plains and conducive to using long-range fires, Kirby said. "The terrain lends itself to the use of artillery, and we know that the Russians also believe the same thing because we're seeing them move artillery units into the Donbas, as well," he said. "So, we want to give the Ukrainians every bit of advantage that we can. They specifically asked for artillery support." The U.S. on Sunday sent the first four planes carrying military equipment from the most recent security assistance package and plans to make another delivery within the next 24 hours, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official did not detail what kinds of equipment were delivered in those flights. Aside from the howitzers, the package also includes 300 Switchblade tactical drones, 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 200 M113 armored personnel carriers and other weapons and military equipment, according to the Pentagon. The defense official did not say where the training would take place but said U.S. European Command is working on it. There are more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Europe, roughly 15,000 of whom are deployed to NATO countries that border Ukraine, such as Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Most of that 15,000 about 8,750 are in Poland, where U.S. troops have previously advised Ukrainians on U.S.-donated systems, such as Javelin missiles, as they transferred the weapons to Ukrainian hands, defense officials said last month. There's some liaising going on, but we wouldn't call it classic training, a senior U.S. defense official said of the prior advising March 31. The U.S. also recently trained Ukrainian troops in the United States on Switchblade drones. Those troops, who were already in the U.S. for military education prior to the start of the war, have since returned to Ukraine to share the Switchblade training with other troops. U.S. troops might be called upon in the future to train Ukrainians on other weapons in the $800 million package, the official said. "We're exploring other options for other systems as well, and even if there needs to be additional training for the howitzers, we're certainly looking at that, as well, the official said. Theres a range of options that are still being explored." As 50 young women from Tauranga Girls College receive their Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Awards, through support from Blue Light, the awards, now over 60 years old, continue to prove why its the leading youth achievement awards for young people. The awards are based on the principle that young people need experiences outside the classroom in order to become committed, responsible and fulfilled citizens of the world. The Duke of Edinburgh's Hillary Award, also known as The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, is a New Zealand award modelled on The Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The name of the award is a reference to the famous New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary. The awards are intended to provide young people with opportunities for important personal growth and help them develop the adaptability they need for good vocational outcomes. Silver Award winners: L to R Back:Hannah Ward, Programmes Manager, Blue Light, Sukhleen Kaur, Eve Flint, Poppy Wilson, Charlotte Wilde, Megan Robinson, Teacher in Charge, Tauranga Girls College. Front: Lily Pearce, Ella Ryan, Bree McTavish-Huriwai. Photo: Supplied. It really helps build resilience in the young women especially the Adventurous Journey component, says Tauranga Girls College Lead Teacher in Charge Megan Robinson. Students really enjoy the all-round approach to the award, and it really pushes them out of their comfort zone providing great new experiences outside their own world and school life. Despite the challenges posed by Covid restrictions and recent lockdowns, the programme has seen an 11 per cent increase in participation worldwide since 2020 and has, at any one time, around 20,000 young people involved. Eve Flint receives her Silver Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award from Blue Light Programmes Manager Hannah Ward. Photo: Supplied. Blue Light works to fulfil the awards vision that every young person in New Zealand will have the opportunity to participate. Having Blue Light on board to help with the funding has seen kids who may not have had the chance to do it now can with the barrier of finances taken away, says Megan. To earn their award, the young women must progress through four sections: skills, voluntary service, physical recreation, and adventurous journey. Ella Ryan from Tauranga Girls College commented that the variety in the sections was one of the main attractions for her on signing up. I do quite a lot and so I liked that there was a range of different things you can do within the award, says Ella. The Service section builds connections between youth and their community, with benefits for all involved. Its good to give back and it also looks good for employers on your CV, says Tauranga Girls College student Eva Flint. Eva says that learning to do things for other organisations without being paid was a valuable skill she had developed. The young womens Adventurous Journey section was a memorable experience according to student Charlotte Wilde. When we [were] hiking we had quite bad weather and it made it quite hard, says Charlotte. I definitely wont forget that trip. Ella too comments that for her the most challenging aspect was definitely the tramp for the adventurous journey. Over the next 12 months the young women will be focussing on completing their Gold Award which includes a residential project. Bronze Award winners: L to R Abbie-Mae Henry, Youth Mentor, Blue Light, Isis Metcalfe (teacher), Sofi Blythe, Lucy Armstrong, Ella Rose Carter, Kyra Addison, Liv Marshall, Mia Corney, Nimah Manning, Lilly Pullar, Ella Hill, Hanyoung Kim,Giselle Li, Jin Lee, Ellie White, Prachi Patel, Tearani Wikohika, Judy Shin,Daisy Kim, Erina Islam, Sophie Chang,Kawana Marsden Youth Worker, Blue Light. Photo: Supplied. The Ministry of Health is reporting 6,242 new community cases of Covid-19, 553 hospitalisations and 11 deaths. There are 23 people in ICU today. Of the 6,242 new community cases, there are 264 new cases in Bay of Plenty and 105 in the Lakes DHB region. There are 28 people in Bay of Plenty hospitals with one in ICU, and 11 people in Lakes hospitals. There have been 41 new cases identified at the border. Today there are 55,869 active community cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered. This brings the number of confirmed cases in New Zealand to a total of 828,906. Covid-19 deaths Today we are sadly reporting the deaths of 11 people with Covid-19, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 to 597 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 14. Age and location breakdowns of the people who have died over the past two days are unavailable today. This is a very sad time for whanau and friends and our thoughts are with them. The seven-day rolling average of case numbers continues to decline, with today's seven-day rolling average at 7,986 last Monday it was 10,169. The number of reported community cases is expected to continue to fluctuate day to day, but the overall trend remains an overall reduction in reported cases. Please note that because of the Easter public holidays, some of the Ministry of Healths usual reported breakdowns are unavailable. Apologies for any inconvenience, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. Easter weekend reminder We are reminding you that if you are travelling home today from your Easter break, you should have plans in place in the event you contract Covid-19 or are identified as a household contact of a case, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. You would need to self-isolate and likely remain wherever you test positive or become a household contact, so there may be extra costs involved in paying for additional accommodation and changing your travel plans. If you have used your own vehicle to travel, you can travel back to your home to isolate, taking public health measures to ensure you dont infect anyone on your way home such as maintaining social distance and using self-service petrol stations, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. However, if you have used public transport or travelled between islands, you wont be able to isolate at your home. It is important you have a plan and the ability to isolate where you are holidaying, if you need to do so. There are three actions everyone can do to help protect themselves and others. Firstly be up to date with vaccinations, including a booster if youve not yet had one. Secondly wear a mask. Masks are still required in many indoor settings. A good rule of thumb is to wear a mask in indoor public settings as we know that mask use halves the risk of spread of COVID-19. You must also wear a face mask on all flights and public transport, in taxi and ride-share services unless you are exempt. And thirdly stay home and avoid others if youre unwell, isolating or waiting for the results of a COVID-19 test. For guidance if you or someone you know tests positive or becomes a household contact, visit the Ministry of Health website. For more information on mask use at Orange, visit the Unite Against COVID-19 website. Vaccinations administered in New Zealand Vaccines administered to date: 4,026,193 first doses; 3,976,767 second doses; 31,684 third primary doses; 2,613,242 booster doses: 260,506 paediatric first doses and 104,825 paediatric second doses Vaccines administered yesterday: 8 first doses; 9 second doses; 0 third primary doses; 119 booster doses; 9 paediatric first doses and 61 paediatric second doses People vaccinated All Ethnicities (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 4,055,930 first dose (96.4%); 4,005,898 second dose (95.2%), 2,610,153 boosted (71.3% of those eligible) Maori (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 520,794 first dose (91.2%); 503,720 second dose (88.2%), 232,750 boosted (55.5% of those eligible) Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 281,751 first dose (98.3%); 276,803 second dose (96.6%), 138,664 boosted (57.4% of those eligible) 5 to 11-year-olds all ethnicities: 258,050 first dose (54.2%); 102,431 second dose (21.5%) 5 to 11-year-olds - Maori: 40,659 first dose (35.2%); 11,704 second dose (10.1%) 5 to 11-year-olds - Pacific Peoples: 23,394 first dose (47.4%); 5,644 second dose (11.4%) 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 (88%); boosted (68.1%) Auckland Metro DHB: first dose (97.2%); second dose (96.2%); boosted (69.9%) Waikato DHB: first dose (95.1%); second dose (93.6%); boosted (66.9%) Bay of Plenty DHB: first dose (95%); second dose (93.4%); boosted (66.5%) Lakes DHB: first dose (93.2%); second dose (91.4%); boosted (66.9%) MidCentral DHB: first dose (96.4%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (72.5%) Tairawhiti DHB: first dose (93.2%); second dose (91%); boosted (66.4%) Whanganui DHB: first dose (91.9%); second dose (90.4%); boosted (71.9%) Hawkes Bay DHB: first dose (97.1%); second dose (95.5%); boosted (70.2%) Taranaki DHB: first dose (94.6%); second dose (93.2%); boosted (68.5%) Wairarapa DHB: first dose (96.5%); second dose (95%); boosted (73.3%) Capital & Coast DHB: first dose (98.5%); second dose (97.8%); boosted (79.6%) Hutt Valley DHB: first dose (96.6%); second dose (95.7%); boosted (75.3%) Nelson Marlborough DHB: first dose (96.4%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (73.7%) West Coast DHB: first dose (92.7%); second dose (91.2%); boosted (72%) Canterbury DHB: first dose (99.7%); second dose (98.8%); boosted (74.8%) South Canterbury DHB: first dose (94.8%); second dose (93.8%); boosted (74.9%) Southern DHB: first dose (98.5%); second dose (97.4%); boosted (73.5%) *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 for today: total 553; total in ICU/HDU 23. Hospitalisations by DHB: Northern region (including Northland, Waitemata, Auckland and Counties Manukau): 293 (7 in ICU); Waikato: 37 (3 in ICU); Bay of Plenty: 28 (1 in ICU); Lakes: 11; Tairawhiti: 1 (1 in ICU); Hawke's Bay: 10 (2 in ICU); Taranaki: 13 (1 in ICU); Mid Central: 18 (3 in ICU); Whanganui: 3 (1 in ICU); Capital & Coast: 17; Wairarapa: 4; Hutt Valley: 21; Nelson Marlborough: 12 (1 in ICU); Canterbury: 52 (2 in ICU); West Coast: 2; South Canterbury: 3; Southern: 28 (1 in ICU). Border cases changes From today (Monday), new arrivals into the country who test positive for Covid-19 within seven days of arrival will be reported as a border case - changing it from the previous definition of within 14 days. Any recent arrivals testing positive for Covid-19 after seven days will now be reported as a community case reflecting where the most likely source of infection after being in the country for more than a week. Cases Seven day rolling average of community cases: 7,986 Seven day rolling average (as at same day last week): 10,169 Number of new community cases: 6,242 Number of new community cases (PCR): 136 Number of new community cases (RAT): 6,106 Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (295), Waitemata (526), Auckland (453), Counties Manukau (396), Waikato (463), Bay of Plenty (264), Lakes (105), Hawkes Bay (187), MidCentral (269), Whanganui (94), Taranaki (223), Tairawhiti (53), Wairarapa (69), Capital and Coast (425), Hutt Valley (226), Nelson Marlborough (178), Canterbury (1,066), South Canterbury (136), Southern (746), West Coast (63), Unknown (5). Number of new cases identified at the border: 41 Number of active community cases today (total): 55,869 (cases identified in the past 7 days and not yet classified as recovered) Confirmed cases (total): 828,906 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 Bottom line: Following an official announcement last month, Samsung has now made the Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 available for US students and Chrome OS users on a budget. Starting at $430, this model seems a bit too underpowered but does have a few features to make up for the core hardware, such as the 2-in-1 flexible design, spill-resistant keyboard and a claimed 10hr battery life. Given the software on board, Chromebooks usually do without beefy hardware but instead target budget buyers and students with lightweight designs and decent connectivity for basic computing. Samsung's latest Chromebook is no different in this regard, which uses a dual-core Intel Celeron N4500 chip and a 4GB/64GB memory configuration in the base $430 version. Buyers have no option to upgrade the CPU or RAM, but they can spend an extra $30 to double the eMMC storage to 128GB. This model's main highlight is the 2-in-1 form factor that utilizes a tall 16:10 aspect ratio display measuring 12.4-inches with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600px. The touch screen panel can reach 340 nits of brightness and features a 720p webcam up top. In terms of connectivity, this Chromebook packs Wi-Fi 6, 2 x USB-C ports, 1 x USB 3.2 Type-A port, microSD slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Moreover, users can also remotely unlock the device with a nearby Android phone and sync Wi-Fi info, share files and respond to text messages. The 45.5 Wh battery, meanwhile, is rated for up to 10hrs of use on a single charge. Samsung says the Chromebook 2 360 has a spill-resistant keyboard and its chassis is made with a shock-resistant alloy to survive accidental drops from up to 4ft. The model only comes in a silver finish and is now available for purchase in the US. Tesla's mobile charger is no longer available for new EV owners. Because of this, many consumers are disappointed. Before the change was made, the complimentary Mobile Connector Bundle was included in newly sold Tesla electric vehicles. This EV accessory allows drivers to charge their electric cars by using the mobile charger to connect to a wall outlet. It can provide up to two to three miles of driving range in just one hour of charging. Tesla Mobile Charger Now Sold Separately! Twitter user Tesla Adri first spotted the sudden bundling change made by Elon Musk. Also Read: Tesla's NEW Model Y AWD with 4680 Batteries Price, Other Details Leak via Internal Memo "Tesla just updated the website. The mobile connector is no longer included with a new car," said the leaker via his latest tweet. Based on his Twitter post, the official Tesla website now includes the prices of its Mobile Connector gadgets, indicating that the EV accessory is being sold separately instead of being a freebie. Tesla just updated the website. The mobile connector is no longer included with a new car. They now list a price for the connector rather than saying "comes with vehicle". Guessed correctly what the change in the configurator means. https://t.co/IieebFQLUu pic.twitter.com/MBWfUzsdGv Tesla_Adri (@tesla_adri) April 16, 2022 Tesla's Corded Mobile Connector, the Gen 1 version, is sold for $400. Meanwhile, the Tesla Mobile Connector Bundle is priced at $275. However, one of the Twitter users said that the pricing for the mobile charger Gen is either incorrect or the price is going up. Since the issue is now creating some confusion with the Tesla EV consumers, Elon Musk released a statement to answer their questions. Why Tesla Mobile Charger Was Removed According to Engadget's latest report, Elon Musk decided to remove its Mobile Connector Bundle from newly sold Tesla models since the usage statistics are pretty low. This means that it is not really used by EV drivers. But, the billionaire added that more plug adapters would be included in the mobile connector kit to offset the removal. Aside from this, Musk confirmed that the Mobile Connector Bundle's price will be reduced up to $200. If you want to see more of his statements, you can check the Twitter post below. Based on feedback received, we will drop mobile connector price to $200 & make it easy to order with car. Note, mobile connector is not needed if you have a Tesla wall connector or to use Superchargers. Recommend installing Tesla wall connector well before car arrives. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2022 Meanwhile, Tesla shares decreased after Musk offered to buy Twitter's shares fully. On the other hand, the new Tesla 2022.12.1 update brought back the popular bar customization feature. For more news updates about Tesla and other electric carmakers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Tesla's Historic $137 Million Payment to Racially Abused Former Employee is Now Reduced to $15 Million TechTimes own this article Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two China crewed space missions are expected to happen once a year in the next decade. This plan was announced by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). China has been one of the main competitors of NASA in the ongoing space race. The international space union and the Chinese government has been launching various spaceflights that will help them enhance their space industries. Now, CMSA unveiled its new goals in the following years, including the yearly two manned spaceflights. Two China Crewed Space Missions Ever Year? According to the South China Morning Post's latest report, Hao Chun, the China Manned Space Engineering Office Director, is the one that confirmed the upcoming manned spaceflights. Also Read: NASA's InSignt Mars Lander Showcased this Unique Martian Sunrise and You Should Not Miss It "The initial plan is to launch two manned spacecraft and two cargo spacecraft each year, with astronauts staying in orbit for longer periods to conduct space science and technical experiments," said Chun. He announced these details after the recent successful Shenzhou 13 crewed flight's return to Earth. On the other hand, Hao added that before 2022 ends, two launches will be conducted by China. These are the Tianzhou 4 cargo spacecraft (around May) and the Shenzhou 14 (around June). Aside from these, the Wentian and Mengtian spaceflights are also expected to bring two laboratory modules, which will be attached to the Tiangong Space Station. Other Space Goals of China Aside from the upcoming cargo spaceflights and the yearly two manned launches, China Hao also said that they will develop next-generation space vehicles. Meanwhile, more plans for Tiangong Space Station were revealed. Chinese space experts added that China's space station will be used for more serious experiments and studies, which will cover life sciences research, microgravity physical science investigation, Earth science, as well as space astronomy. The Tiangong Space Station has been the focus of China's space sector ever since they started to build it. Recently, Space.Com reported that once this large laboratory is completed, it will allow commercial passengers to visit Tiangong, even without formal astronaut training. Recently, SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully carried the all-civilian Axiom Space mission to the ISS. On the other hand, NASA's new framework is now being developed as new alarming effects of the Moon Wobble 2030 were discovered. For more news updates about China's space sector and other related space topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Space Events 2022: NASA Missions, Meteor Showers, and More You Need to Watch Out This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA's Artemis I mission faced a significant update on its testing phase for the SLS rocket. It is pulling back the spacecraft back to its laboratories to repair several stages and parts. The wet dress rehearsal and other tests that the company did were to look at the rocket's capabilities, flaws, and needs for its actual flight coming in the future. Also, there is a scarce nitrogen supply, and it is essential for the spacecraft's operation. NASA Artemis I Mission to Go Back for Repairs on Spacecraft NASA announced the state of the SLS rocket for the Artemis I mission, especially as it went to several tests and saw what the spacecraft needs for its future missions. The main focus here is that NASA will bring the Space Launch System rocket's entirety back to its labs for the team to work on repairs and ready it for its subsequent testing. NASA said that there was a faulty upper stage check valve on the spacecraft, focusing on a minor issue for the rocket. Additionally, there was a small leak on the tail service mast umbilical. NASA said that there would be an announcement for the Artemis mission coming, addressing the future task from the space agency. Read Also: NASA's InSignt Mars Lander Showcased this Unique Martian Sunrise and You Should Not Miss It NASA Artemis Mission's SLS Rocket and its Needs There is another problem that the Artemis Moon mission and the SLS rocket face at present: the dangerous low supply of a rare gas called nitrogen for the rocket. There are upgrades that an off-site supplier of nitrogen will be doing for its company, and it will not be able to deliver to NASA. The agency took the time also to address several of SLS's needs. NASA's Artemis Moon Mission NASA's Artemis moon mission aims to bring back humans to the space rock, and it also seeks to get the first woman to land on the Moon and walk around it for the exploration mission they aspire to do. However, there have been many delays to the current status of the Artemis mission, with the first Moon landing to happen by 2026. The Artemis mission's uncrewed flight gets delayed, and there is no information regarding its crewed flight by the next decade. Nevertheless, preparations are made for the next venture by NASA, and it is all about having its crew ready and well-equipped for their upcoming mission for the space agency. The additional needs are also getting focused during this venture, especially with the recent NASA and Canoo deal that will have the electric van to drive around space. The Artemis Moon mission will bring humans back to the lunar surface for its further exploration and other goals of NASA for the natural satellite of the planet. There are many preparations for it. The agency will not settle for less in this venture, as it is a critical mission involving lives, scientific work, money, and other essential factors surrounding it. Related Article: NASA To Create New Framework as Moon Wobble 2030 Alarms Scientists This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Artificial intelligence is fast becoming more ubiquitous these days. You can see it being used in almost anything from self-driving cars, to your Google assistant, and even predicting diseases with astounding accuracy-in less time it would take you to make your own coffee, too. But AI, like any potentially useful piece of technology, needs to be regulated. The United States government knows this, which is why there's already AI regulation in place. So what kind of guidelines are already in place or being worked on, to ensure that we don't end up like the world in the "Terminator" movies? Early Steps According to ScreenRant, the first step from the US government to regulate AI was taken back in 2020. This was the so-called National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, which was passed into law a year later. Among its main goals is to set up and assign tasks to committees who will do the bulk of the AI regulation. Aside from that, it also aims to define artificial intelligence as follows: "A machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments." One of the committees to handle the job of actually regulating AI is the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force, or NAIRRTF. Their main purpose is to see how AI affects US citizens as a whole. This could include the technology's application into certain things involving privacy, like facial recognition software. As per a statement by the NAIRRTF, their job is to "manage issues" related to civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy" as they relate to the application of AI as a whole. Read Also: Ukraine is Using Clearview AI Facial Recognition Technology to Identify Russian Soldiers Who Died in Combat Cooperating With The World As of this year, the United States government and the EU are "starting to align" with AI regulation, as per an article by the American public policy non-profit Brookings. Among the biggest goals of this cooperation between the US and the EU is to both implement "meaningful" oversight on AI, while also still enabling it to be made. By cooperating with each other, these countries look to create a "unified, international approach" to governing the use and production of AI. Common oversight can be improved tenfold, and every country would be promoting their best practices to achieve a common goal. It is also likely that this cooperation is due in part to the countries realizing the immense benefits of using artificial intelligence for the world. Take the fight against the global climate crisis, for example. Scientists at the University of Waterloo are training a deep-learning model to identify climate change "tipping points," which could help inform us of when the world's climate crisis would be going past the point of no return. AI Is Not 'Dangerous' In The Way You Know Now, to some people, regulating AI could mean that it still poses a risk-perhaps an existential one-to humanity. But take solace in the truth that current-generation AI is far, far below your fears of "the ghost in the machine." ScienceAlert argues that AI taking over the world and driving humanity to extinction is impossible because of one thing: our lack of capability to even create one smarter than we are. The artificial intelligence you see and even use in daily life is extremely limited in its capabilities. What you fear as a self-aware, super-intelligent "true" AI is still decades (perhaps even centuries) away from being made. Regulating current-gen artificial intelligence is more about ensuring that it won't be used by people to spy on you. That's it. So sleep soundly tonight knowing that your Amazon Alexa is NOT going to plot to take over the world-with no law stopping it from doing so. Related Article: Artificial Intelligence Vs. Human Intelligence: How Do They Differ? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by RJ Pierce 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk has been no stranger to controversies and lawsuits. As a matter of fact, Tesla stockholders are launching a lawsuit over his tweets dating back to 2018. Elon Musk Sued Due to 2018 Tweet According to the story by ABC News, official court documents reveal that the lawyers during the case have claimed that the CEO's tweets as false. These statements are regarding Musk's 2018 tweets about having "funding secured" in order for Tesla to be taken private. The comment made by the CEO and now major shareholder of Twitter is said to be in violation of a previous court settlement with the United States securities regulators in 2018. During the settlement, both the CEO and the company had to pay a fine of $20 million. Tesla CEO Says Company Already had Needed Funding to Take It Private During a TED 2022 conference interview with Musk, he announced that he already had the needed funding in order to take the company "private in 2018." Musk then explained that the only reason he decided to settle is due to Tesla potentially becoming bankrupt should bankers stop providing the company with his needed capital. Both the interview as well as the lawsuit against the CEO came shortly after Musk made an "unsolicited bid" to take Twitter private. According to Bloomberg, Musk offered $43 billion, which is 38% above its official price. During the time of Musk's court order, TWTR shares were trading at just $45.81 with the CEO offering to pay $54.20 per share. As a result, the official board of the social media platform decided to adopt a "poison pill" strategy, attempting to make it "prohibitively expensive" for the CEO to buy shares of the social media platform. Lawyers Say Musk is Trying to Influence Potential Jurors Lawyers for the shareholders of Tesla alleged that the CEO is trying to "influence potential jurors in the lawsuit" as stated in the court documents filed. The shareholders are claiming that the tweets were written in order for Musk to manipulate TESLA's stock price. Read Also: Elon Musk Reacts on Twitter Meme About His Purchase of the Company-What is Happening on Social Media? Musk Said He Would Take the Company Private 'at $420 Per Share' The tweets, however, could be looked at as a "joke," according to the New York Post, as Elon Musk said that he would take the company private "at $420 per share." To add, lawyers are claiming that as the case is coming close to an official trial, Musk is trying to influence possible jurors. San Francisco Judge Edward M. Chen was asked by the lawyers to restrain the CEO from making any further public comments regarding the issue "until after the trial. A deadline was given to Musk's lawyers for their team to formulate a response. Should Elon Musk be asked to pay another $20 million fine, this would still be less than 10% of his net worth of $264.6 billion, according to Forbes. Related Article: Elon Musk Teases Long Form Tweets, Reacts on Reason Why Twitter Should Not Be Private This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Urian B. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA has incorporated the "holoportation" in bringing a flight surgeon into space. The process has gone smoothly without launching any rockets whatsoever. This science fiction-inspired mechanism could appear futuristic to many people, especially those who grow up with sci-fi movies. It's indeed surprising how the international space agency managed to use it for a next-level transdimensional journey. NASA 'Holoports' a Space Surgeon You might have already seen a hologram representation in a "Star Trek" or other sci-fi movie, but you haven't seen one in real life. Apparently, NASA has already made it possible by bringing a flight surgeon onto the International Space Station or ISS. According to a recent report by CNET, the space agency brings Dr. Josef Schmid onto the modular space station with no required use of any rockets. Along with Schmid, the AEXA Aerospace CEO Fernando De La Pena Llaca and his other team members transformed this exploration into a feasible space journey-- something that's just taken out of the book at first glance. Schmid considers this a "brand-new" way of exploration where their bodies are tied up to a unique space trip. He added that even though their physical bodies are not there, their human entity is found where it belongs. Related Article: Microsoft HoloLens Holoportation Is Star Wars, Harry Potter And Star Trek Awesomeness Rolled Into One [Video] 'Holoportation' Not a New Case Anymore For those unfamiliar, this is not the first time that scientists and engineers use holoportation. Right from the get-go, many tech companies have already involved this invention in their discovery. Originally, they used it for many industries including education, advertising, and gaming. The latest activity that NASA did was a different breakthrough, however. The space agency has been successful in its virtual transportation into space. To give you an idea of how it works, the scientists use 3D-modelled holoporters that undergo several processes: reconstruction, compression, and transmission. Interestingly, all of these are done in real-time. As for Microsoft's take on this invention, the Redmond firm was able to use its HoloLens to interact with astronauts and holoporters. The laboratory appears to be establishing a special realm for both entities from space and Earth. Despite being remotely located from the subject, the holoporters have successfully conversed with Schmid and De La Pena in the ISS. In the picture, the involved people have shaken hands on a holographic platform. According to NASA, this technology is useful in private medical, psychiatric, and family conferences. For the advanced innovation, NASA wants to take it to the next level by adding an augmented reality function. This feature can allow the users to view the space as if it's next to them. They could see a group of stars or even touch the sun (but not physically). Moreover, this could also benefit astronauts in terms of "extraterrestrial medicine." Read Also: Space Events 2022: NASA Missions, Meteor Showers, and More You Need to Watch Out This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joseph Henry 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Microsoft Office 2013 support is already ending in 2023, or 12 months from now. As such, it won't be long until Microsoft Office 2013 users will need to switch to a higher and more recent version of the productivity software. Microsoft Office 2013 Support It is worth noting that by the end of its support in 2023, a decade had already passed since the debut of Office 2013 in the first month of January of the said year. Not to mention that Office 2013 has long been succeeded by Office 2016, which launched in 2015. Despite that, Microsoft still supports Office 2013, providing its users with continued security updates. It comes as it still has yet to complete its five years of Extended Support, which ends in April 2023, as per a news story by Bleeping Computer. On the other hand, the Mainstream Support of the Office 2013, which also lasted for half a decade, had concluded a few years back already. Office 2013 Support End: What's Next The Redmond- based tech firm told Office 2013 users that it "will reach the End of Extended Support on April 11, 2023." In turn, the software maker warned Office 2013 users that once the support comes to its final curtain call, "security updates for Office 2013 will no longer be available." Thus, Microsoft would no longer provide any security updates for Office 2013. That said, the tech giant warned its users that continued use of its after the support end is a risky move. Microsoft warned that "continued use of Office 2013 after April 2023 may increase your organization's exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations. Apart from the lack of security updates in general, Microsoft would specifically cease providing its users any bug fixes, as well as technical support. Considering the risks of using Office 2013 after April 2023, Microsoft asks its customers to upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps, which still receive constant security updates. Read Also: Microsoft to Submit Harassment Cases in its Annual Report After Shareholder Vote Microsoft Office Support In fact, according to a recent report by How to Geek, Office 365 is created to be updated to its latest version like how most apps work these days. On the other hand, older versions of the productivity app of Microsoft are not meant to last perpetually, thus its support is ending sometime soon. For instance, Office 2016 and Office 2019 for Windows support cease receiving updates on Oct. 14, 2025, whereas Office 2019 for Mac ends on Oct. 10, 2023. Related Article: Microsoft Office Subscription Fee to Increase by 20%-Here's How to Avoid Paying More This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The 75-year-old politician left for the South American country on Sunday after feeling "intense pain" in his right side on Thursday night. On Monday, Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, is being treated in Venezuela for a health problem that has been affecting him for several days. The 75-year-old politician left for the South American country on Sunday after feeling "intense pain" in his right side on Thursday night. Before traveling abroad, however, he sought medical attention at an island hospital on Friday. The Saint Vincent & the Grenadines physicians found him in "good" health. However, they recommended that he get a full checkup. Knowing about this, the administration of President Nicolas Maduro extended an invitation to Gonsalves to travel to Venezuela to undergo tests. Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines @ComradeRalph received the English version of the book "Abril, Golpe Adentro" by @VillegasPoljak from the Secretary of @ALBATCP @SachaLlorenti and accompanied by the Head of the Venezuelan mission in SVG @FPerezSantana pic.twitter.com/xEuLmegHxC Embassy of Venezuela in StVincent & the Grenadines (@EmbaVEStVincent) April 13, 2022 In 2021, PM Saint Vincent & the Grenadines underwent a full health check in Cuba, where he will possibly go after passing through Venezuela. On April 23, the Counts of Wessex, Edward and Sofia, will arrive in this Caribbean island in a visit that is part of the celebration of Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee for her 70 years on the throne. The prime minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, however, will most likely not be able to host the British visitors. Gonsalves, a historic leader of the Unity Labor Party (ULP), is the longest continuously serving head of government since St. Vincent & the Grenadines became independent in 1979. He was first elected Prime Minister in 2001 and his fifth term began in November 2020. "I was first in the whole school"... The identity of the woman who walked to the Olympic Boulevard was revealed Arguments over Gov. John Bel Edwards' proposal to spend $500 million for a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge escalated Monday, with a key House committee watering down the proposal and one of Edwards' key lieutenants arguing the money is crucial for landing federal aid and private partners. "Today Louisiana is awash in onetime money," Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne told the Press Club of Baton Rouge. "The stars are aligned to make that kind of monetary investment a reality," Dardenne said. But the powerful House Appropriations Committee has other ideas. The committee voted to set aside $100 million of the $500 million for road preservation statewide, and designate the other $400 million for major work across Louisiana, not just the bridge. Even the name of the fund makes clear it is not aimed at one project the Revitalizing and Developing Infrastructure in all of Louisiana Fund, or RADIAL fund. "There are discussions going on right now with the Senate," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerome "Zee" Zeringue, R-Houma said. "At this point where the fund will be allocated, it is still being discussed." The money is part of House Bill 406, which may be debated in the full House on Thursday. Zeringue is among a host of House and Senate leaders who have questioned Edwards' bridge proposal, which the governor has called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity amid the state's roughly $3 billion in extra revenue. Key lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of "parking" $500 million for work that is five years or more away, especially since state leaders have not settled on a site for the new structure. Dardenne said the $500 million was carefully selected since it represents 20% of a possible $2.5 billion price-tag, including the bridge and access points on La. Hwy. 1 on the west side and La. Hwy. 30 on the east side. He said the allocation would also send a strong signal to federal officials when leaders of the state Department of Transportation and Development apply for federal grants that could help trim costs to taxpayers. "It will be used as a sum certain to say to the federal government, here is a local match that the state is putting up in order to secure the federal grants," Dardenne said. DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson envisions the state teaming up with private firms called a public-private partnership to help finance the work in exchange for the private company getting a long-term revenue stream, which would likely be from toll revenue. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "It enables the department to proceed with credibility as it seeks third party developers to enter into public-private partnerships," Dardenne said. The current bridge near Port Allen opened in 1968 at a cost of $46 million. It is used by about 150,000 cars and trucks daily, is the source of regular backups and even complaints from coast-to-coast travelers as a notorious chokepoint. Officials have narrowed the list of possible sites to 10, from about five miles south of the current bridge to about five miles north of the Sunshine Bridge in Ascension Parish. +2 New bridge in Baton Rouge sparking new issues, 'What's taking so long?' Narrowing the list of possible sites for a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge has triggered more questions, including the The aim is to trim that list to three in May and settle on a site in 2024. Dardenne said mandatory environmental and other costly reviews have to move ahead to comply with federal rules. "We cannot afford the luxury of waiting right now," he said. The proposal is backed by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, BRAC, and a wide range of other groups. A group called Put Louisiana First, which is led by former Board of Regents Chairman Richard Lipsey, noted that it also has the support of area parish leaders, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and others. "There is no reason the full $500M should not be set aside," Put Louisiana First said in a tweet Monday. Dardenne downplayed criticism by BRAC that some top lawmakers are trying to have it both ways claiming to back the bridge while finding fault with spending plans. "I think a majority of the members recognize the need," Dardenne said. "I think we are going to be talking about how much is enough." Family, friends and residents of Ukraine gather in the parking lot at Lakeside Mall in Metairie Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, to hold a solidarity gathering to protest Russia and Vladimir Putin for invading and starting a war in the Ukraine. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate) Australian graphite miners seeking to challenge Chinas dominance over global supplies of the electric battery raw material could see demand increase up to five-fold by 2050 amid an accelerating switch from petrol to electric vehicles and years of underinvestment in the industry. Despite graphite making up more of the mass of electric vehicle (EV) batteries than any other mineral, analysts and producers say graphite hasnt captured investor attention like the booming lithium market where prices jumped nearly 500 per cent last year. Analysts and producers say graphite hasnt captured investor attention like the booming lithium market. Credit:Photo: Bloomberg I genuinely think the world got lithium, and the next thing thats going to come will be the conversation around we forgot about graphite, Black Rock Mining chief executive John de Vries said. The challenges that have held up companies seeking to develop new graphite mines have included longer project lead times than lithium, lengthy processes where companies adjust the product to suit battery makers, and opaque pricing structures in the China-dominated supply chain. Keith Urban took aim at the shine blockers of the world as Channel 7 fired the first shots in the battle of the reality TV juggernauts on Monday night. The network started The Voice at 7pm, half an hour before MasterChef on Ten and Lego Masters on Nine kicked off their seasons. It delivered a strong debut that was big on laughs, drama and, yes, vocal talent, even if it cycled through just seven blind auditions in almost two hours of television. The Voice returned on Monday with judge/coaches Rita Ora, Guy Sebastian, Keith Urban and Jessica Mauboy. Credit:Seven Responding to the opening performance by 19-year-old Ally Eley, from the western suburbs of Melbourne, the judges asked why she had chosen to cover the song Teenage Dirtbag, a hit for New York alt-rockers Wheatus in 2000. She explained by telling a story about a teacher whom she had looked up to at primary school, but who responded to her first-ever performance, in front of the class when she was just nine years old, by laughing and saying: I thought you said you could sing. People talk a lot about the people that encouraged us early on, the cheerleaders in our lives, the believers and all that, and we get a lot of fuel from those people, Urban said. But man, we get a lot of fuel from the naysayers, the shine blockers, who say to us you will never amount to anything. Melbourne Airports chief executive Lyell Strambi will step down at the end of June after seven years running the citys main airport, and will be replaced by his second in command, Lorie Argus. The airport announced the move on Tuesday afternoon. Melbourne Airport chief executive Lyell Strambi has announced his resignation. Credit:Chris Hopkins Ms Argus is currently the airports chief of aviation and has been with the company for seven years following 10 years in senior roles at Virgin Australia. Mr Strambi said that during his time as CEO, the airport had seen record highs and record lows. Ive been particularly proud and humbled by the way our people handled the Covid-19 crisis and the drive and commitment they show to keep improving, even in the toughest of circumstances, he said. Ms Argus said the airport would continue its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which had been a difficult few years for Melbourne. Im proud to take on the leadership of Melbourne Airports team and look forward to delivering the upgrades that are so critical for both the airport and Victoria, she said. The third runway project will ensure we have capacity to cater for our states growing population and freight task for decades to come, and our terminal upgrades will provide passengers with a world-class airport experience. Minister for Health Michael MacKellar with colour TV set at the centre of the Customs duty row. Credit:Staff photographer The Moore-MacKellar resignations bring to 21 the number of departures from the Fraser Ministry through one cause or another in less than seven years. Mr Fraser said yesterday that, for the time being, the Employment Minister, Mr Brown, would be sworn in as Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs and the Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Senator Baume, would take over the health portfolio. These will be apart from their present jobs. Assurance The Prime Minister said he accepted Mr MacKellars assurance that he had not intended either to mislead customs or to evade duty when he brought a colour TV set into Australia last October without declaring it on his customs form. The outcome, however, was that duty was not paid at the time, although subsequently it will be paid, and the Minister therefore appears to be in a preferred position compared with other Australians something that Ministerial instructions issued in 1976 specifically sought to avoid, Mr Fraser said. The penalties in public office are high. Both Ministers accept this and have accordingly volunteered their resignations, the Prime Minister said. Mr Fraser said that Mr Moore had not followed up the matter fully. The Prime Minister said he accepted Mr Moores assurance that his error was honestly made. Mr MacKellar, 43, who polled 27 votes in the deputy leadership ballot only a fortnight ago, had been regarded as one of the high flyers of the Ministry. He was considered certain to be the next into Cabinet when a vacancy occurred. Mr Moore. 45, entered the Ministry after the 1980 election when the late Mr Eric Robinson, a fellow Queenslander, rejected the business and consumer affairs job. Mr Moores resignation is likely to worsen Mr Frasers extremely delicate relations with the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party. Loading In a brief comment last night, Mr Moore insisted that he had not been forced to resign and claimed he had acted at my own initiative. A spokesman for Mr Fraser denied last nigh that the Ministers had been forced to resign. They offered their resignations freely, he said. But the long time taken for the resignations to be produced suggested the pair were under great pressure. Mr Moore said he did not believe he had acted improperly in the TV set affair but had resigned of his responsibility as Minister in charge of the Customs Act. Mr MacKellar, asked if the Prime Minister had asked him to resign, replied: No I volunteered. The former Health Minister, who was red-eyed, repeated his weekend assertion that a mistake had been made over the TV. Asked if he felt any bitterness or sadness, he said: You cant go through a day like today without feeling a bit upset about things. Asked whether it was possible for him to return to the Ministry in the future, Mr MacKellar said: Oh, thats not my decision. The decision to dump the two Ministers was taken against the strong advice of the Liberal Party Federal director, Mr Tony Eggleton. Senator Carrick, who is Government Leader in the Senate, fought hard to save Mr MacKellar, who is also from NSW. However the Defence Minister, Mr Killen, is believed to have argued strongly that both should resign. Mr Howard was equivocal. Mr Frasers statement accepting the resignations came about an hour after first Mr Moore and then Mr MacKellar walked about 80 metres around the corridor to the Prime Ministers office. Each used similar words when he emerged from brief separate interviews to waiting reporters: I have tendered my resignation. Asked whether it had been accepted, each said: Ask the Prime Minister. It is believed that the Ministers offered their resignations when they saw Mr Fraser early yesterday afternoon. The Cabinet decided that the resignations should be accepted. Loading At one point during the day, there was a feeling that a possible course would be to have the resignations offered, but not accepted.. But the crisis had gone too far for that to be a credible line of action. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hayden, said last night Mr Fraser had done the only thing possible in accepting the resignations. He will regret, however, not having .acted with more urgency and greater regard for the public interest four days ago, he said. For their part, the two Ministers have been forced by the weight of public opinion to now do what they should have done last Friday. No Minister should believe that he or she can flout the spirit if not the letter of the law as well *as the high standards of propriety demanded of public office, Mr Hayden said. As he left Parliament House with Mr Howard just before 8.30 pm, Mr Fraser said: Its a sad day for all of us. The Prime Minister promised that the Customs affairs would of course be referred to in Parliament today and that relevant papers would be tabled. The Inner West Council is pushing ahead with the preparation of a business case to de-amalgamate, despite a growing divide between residents and staff on plans to reinstate Leichhardt, Marrickville and Ashfield councils. Councillors voted unanimously in February to form a business case for the de-merger after 62 per cent of people in the area, which has 186,000 residents, voted for the council to split in a poll at last years council elections. Labors Darcy Byrne has said he would listen to the majority of residents on the demerger. Credit:Kate Geraghty Labor, which holds an eight-person majority on the new council, committed to abiding by the result of the poll. But Independent councillor John Stamolis told a meeting last week the councils response to the vote had been lacklustre and residents were growing frustrated by a lack of progress, information and transparency. A man has died when a car hit a power pole following a police pursuit in Sydneys south on Monday morning. Officers tried to pull over a sedan travelling on Rawson Avenue in Sutherland for an RBT about 4.15am, but the driver failed to stop. A pursuit began, but ceased within seconds, police said, due to the manner in which the driver was controlling the car. The car continued along Rawson Avenue and hit the pole. At what point does Victoria say to the Commonwealth of Australia, enough is enough? The election spendathon and the federal budget put into stark relief the financial rip-off that Victoria suffers for our membership of the federation. Is it time for Victoria to take a new path? Credit:Wayne Taylor Victoria was allocated less than 6 per cent of $3.6 billion in new infrastructure funding in this years pre-election budget, despite having 26 per cent of the nations population. On top of this, the new GST arrangements mean Victoria will lose up to $1.1 billion per year, enough to fund 9000 teachers, 9200 police officers or more than 10,000 nurses. There has never been a greater distribution of federal taxpayers money away from Victoria, and it has never occurred in a more brazen manner. We now have a federal financial model and an election pork-barrelling machine that is systematically and unfairly making Victoria poorer. Hows this for a high stakes posting? A job advertisement quietly appeared last week in a raft of community newspapers scouting for a chef/cook with a formidable list of skills. We are currently seeking an experienced chef or cook to prepare and serve traditional shabbat meals on alternating Friday nights for a private family residence in Melbourne, the advertisement began, before rattling off a list of requirements including A true passion for food knowledge of Shabbat/Eastern-European cuisine is required and the capacity to consistently cater for approx 20+ guests. A knowledge of Jewish cuisine and traditions is highly regarded as is the management of back-of-house duties after dinner service. But its a discreet contact at the bottom of the advertisement which gives the idea of just who the lucky chef will be serving up for, with interested applicants encouraged to apply to an email address ending in Raheen.com which readers will know is the family estate of the Pratt packaging family headed by philanthropist Jeanne Pratt and her billionaire son Anthony Pratt who heads the familys Visy packaging empire. Dinner plans: Jeanne Pratt . Credit:Simon ODwyer. As this column has revealed, Raheen has played host to multiple prime ministers and opposition leaders and industry titans as the family has sponsored events for major political parties, industries and other causes. At the last do a food and beverage industry event attended by the PM, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce the family served Penfolds Grange as the house drop. Presumably not a bad plonk to pair a Friday night dinner with! Labor has accused the Coalition of having a secret agenda to undermine Medicare after the Prime Minister Scott Morrisons pick for health minister, Anne Ruston, failed to rule out future cuts to universal healthcare. Historical comments by Ruston where she questioned the long-term financial viability of a fully-funded Medicare surfaced on Sunday and Ruston faced further questioning about them on ABC radio on Monday morning. Labor leader Anthony Albanese inspects flood-affected properties in Brisbane on Monday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Medicare is sustainable. The fact that we have increased spending on Medicare from when the Labor was last in government in 2012-13 from $19 billion to $31.4 billion in 22-23. I mean, it just shows that we have made a commitment year on year, Ruston said. We have been increasing Medicare support for Australians. Anthony Albanese has committed a federal Labor government to supporting new coal mines, matching the pro-mining stance of the Coalition, as the opposition targets blue-collar workers in crucial seats for the coming federal election. Albaneses move is a nod to Labors traditional blue-collar base as well as a bid to avoid a repeat of the 2019 election, when controversy over the Adani coal mine in Queenslands Bowen Basin dogged then leader Bill Shorten. Labor leader Anthony Albanese is backing new coal mines as long as the financial and environmental cases stack up. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen. If coal mines stack up environmentally, and then commercially, which is the decision for the companies, then they get approved, he said in Queensland on Monday. Labor would welcome any jobs that would be created from that. Border Patrol agents detain a group of migrants near the border wall, after they entered the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, border with El Paso, Texas, US, on Feb. 3, 2022. (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images) 19 AGs Urge Supreme Court to Uphold Ruling Ordering Full Reinstatement of Remain in Mexico Policy Nineteen attorneys general, led by Indiana, have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas and Missouri against the Biden administration. Theyre asking the Supreme Court to uphold a lower courts order instructing the Biden administration to follow the law to fully reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), otherwise known as the Remain in Mexico policy. No one is above the law in America, and we are simply insisting that the Biden administration follow the law, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said. The rule of law is the framework that enables American liberty to survive and thrive, he added. The situation at our southern border provides the perfect example of how going soft on the rule of law gives rise to anarchy, chaos, and ultimately the erosion of our freedom and safety. In January 2021, President Joe Biden announced via executive order that he was terminating MPP. Months later, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas began dismantling it and other immigration policies. Southern border encounters then surged to historic levels. In Bidens first year in office, Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol agents encountered or apprehended roughly 2 million people entering the southern border illegally. This number excludes the several hundred thousand who are estimated to have evaded law enforcement. At the same time, Mayorkas implemented a wide range of policy changes to effectively halt most deportations. CBP and Border Patrol agents were directed to release illegal immigrants into the U.S. en masse instead of sending them back to Mexico to go through the immigration process. Texas and Missouri sued, District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas granted their request for a permanent injunction and ordered the administration to reinstate the MPP. He ruled the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it halted the MPP. The administration appealed to the Fifth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court and lost. Both courts denied its request to stay Kacsmaryks ruling. After its Supreme Court loss, the administration said it was appealing Kacsmaryks ruling, vowing to vigorously challenge it. In a statement, it said, As the appeal process continues, however, DHS will comply with the order in good faith. Alongside interagency partners, DHS has begun to engage with the Government of Mexico in diplomatic discussions surrounding the Migrant Protection Protocols. But compliance hasnt happened, as evidenced by the flood of illegal immigrants the administration is releasing into the U.S. and by the tactics its used in court to circumvent the law, the AGs argue. From the beginning of this Administration, the United States has been forthright about its intention to terminate MPP simply because it did not like the program, and its conduct demonstrates its readiness to do anythingincluding ignore the APAs requirementsto accomplish that objective, they argue in the brief. The Administrations act now, justify later approach began on Inauguration Day, when it summarily paused MPP, they add. Throughout the appeals process, the Fifth Circuit correctly concluded that the United States efforts to avoid judicial review violated basic principles of procedure, they argue. An unprecedented number of people are expected to come through the southern border after the administration ends the Title 42 public health authority May 23, the attorneys general have argued, necessitating the urgency for the Supreme Court to weigh in. Implemented under President Donald Trump in January 2019, the MPP led to a reduction in the number of people entering the U.S. illegally. The Trump administration also invoked Title 42 to enable CBP and Border Patrol agents to quickly expel illegal immigrants and prevent entry to a greater number of people during a public health emergency. Current law requires those not authorized to enter the U.S. to be detained, to stay in Mexico, or be paroled into the U.S. based on narrowly defined case-by-case circumstances including urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The Biden administration has been issuing paroles en masse to release illegal immigrants into the U.S., the attorneys general argue, violating the law. The administration maintains its inherited a flawed system, and its policies are more humane than the previous administrations. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last December after the administration lost another court battle in the case, it is not our preference to be reimplementing and reinstituting the Migrant Protection program. we still feel that the program is inefficient, inhumane, and we are notwe werent, we weredid not eagerly reimplement it. By Bethany Blankley Abbott Signs Agreement With 4th Mexican Governor Gov. Greg Abbott late Friday signed his fourth memorandum of understanding in three days with another Mexican governor as part of his commitment to secure Texas shared border with Mexico. The signing came as a fourth bus transporting illegal immigrants released by the Biden administration into Texas reached Washington, arriving Saturday morning. Abbott met Friday with Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca in Weslaco, Texas. They signed a memorandum of understanding designed to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas and improve the flow of commercial traffic across the international bridge. The agreements were reached within a week of Abbott ordering enhanced inspections of commercial vehicles as part of the states expanded border security efforts through Operation Lone Star. The inspections led to major backlogs, protests by Mexican commercial truck drivers, cartel operatives setting fire to vehicles, and commercial traffic being ground to a halt. Despite criticism of Abbotts plan, within a week, an agreement was reached with four Mexican governors in states where international bridges connect Texas and Mexico. Border governors can achieve results when we work together and put the safety of our constituents first, Abbott said. I am grateful for the partnership of Governor Cabeza de Vaca as we work to secure our border. Because Cabeza de Vaca presented such a detailed plan to secure the border, Abbott said the Texas Department of Public Safety would return to its previous strategy of randomly searching commercial vehicles coming through ports of entry. While President [Joe] Biden ignores the ongoing crisis at the border, the state of Texas will continue to work with heads of state in Mexico to further strengthen our comprehensive border strategy, he said. On April 14, Abbott signed memorandas of understanding with Chihuahua Gov. Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan and Coahuila Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme Solis in Austin. On April 13, he signed Texas first agreement with Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda in Laredo. The historic agreements with Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas were reached in anticipation of an increased, cartel-facilitated smuggling operation expected to occur once Title 42 ends. The Biden administration announced it was ending the public health authority May 23. The agreements were also reached after Mexican cartel operatives set fire to three tractor-trailers near the Pharr International Port of Entry on Wednesday. The Tamaulipas government confirmed a group of men set fire to the vehicles and its state police tracked them using surveillance cameras and arrested them. The men are suspected of being part of the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel primarily controls the trafficking of people and drugs in the Rio Grande Valley Customs and Border Patrol Sector, which along the TexasMexico border stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Falcon in Starr County. The sector is one of the busiest at the southern border. Its Border Patrol agents are responsible for patrolling over 320 river miles, 250 coastal miles, and 19 counties equating to over 17,000 square miles. The agreements reached with the Mexican governors signal yet another historic step taken by the state of Texas to solve the border crisis, keep our communities safe, negotiate with our partners in Mexico, and fill in the gaps left by the inaction of the Biden Administration, Abbott said. Until President Biden decides to fulfill his constitutional duty to secure the border, we will continue to do whatever it takes to protect the safety and security of all Texans. Texas also is continuing to bus illegal immigrants released by the Biden administration into Texas to Washington. The fourth bus arrived Saturday morning, April 16. At a news conference with Campos Galvan, Abbott said, The president has not ever come to the border of Texas and seen the chaos that hes caused. And if hes not going to come to the border, were going to take the border to him. Its not just the president. Its members of Congress also. Its Congress thats specifically authorized by the United States Constitution to take action on this. And Congress has not taken action on this either. This is sending a message to both the president and Congress that Texas is tired of being the unloading dock for illegal immigrants. The new unloading dock is going to be Washington, D.C. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a press briefing several hours after the first bus arrived Wednesday, Its nice the state of Texas is helping them get to their final destination as they await the outcome of their immigration proceedings. By Bethany Blankley The Covered Wagon Motel was shut down in Anaheim on March 29, 2022. (Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times) Anaheim Closes South Beach Boulevard Motel After Finding Inhumane Conditions ANAHEIM, Calif.Anaheim city officials inspected the Covered Wagon Motel on South Beach Boulevard in March and found dozens of people, including children, living in squalor. Living conditions were so bad, the city shut down the motel March 29 after relocating several families and tenants. The closure was the first step in the citys plan to redevelop and revitalize the 1.5 mile stretch of Beach Boulevard that runs from Lincoln Avenue to Ball Road. The Covered Wagon Motel was shut down in Anaheim on March 29, 2022. (Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times) One room inside the Covered Wagons mustard-colored, two-story property was littered with syringes, burnt tinfoil, knives, miscellaneous drug paraphernalia and gift cards that were likely stolen, authorities said. In another room, city inspectors found one young woman was living with three men that they believed could have been involved in sex trafficking and prostitution. Several families with children were living in inhumane conditions, while others were also found living in cleaning closets and a shipping container at the property, city spokesman Mike Lyster told The Epoch Times. The families were relocated with the help of social workers who visited the site daily before it was closed. Those staying at the motel who were suspected of using the rooms to sell or take illegal drugs were not relocated, according to Lyster. The woman suspected of being a victim of sex-trafficking was offered help. Were not looking to penalize someone who is being victimized, so we offer them help and provide services to get that person on a more stable footing where they dont have to work in what is a very dangerous thing, Lyster said. Nobody should be working in that. The Covered Wagon Motel was shut down in Anaheim on March 29, 2022. (Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times) The rooms had open wires throughout and no fire alarms. The owners were not on-site, he said. Families were using this as housing of last resort, Lyster said. But it was not cheap. Rent could be $2,000 for a very substandard, unsafe room. About 25 people were living in 12 rooms at the dilapidated motel, some boarded up on the outside, Lyster said. Lyster pointed to a red sign declaring unsafe conditions posted by the city on a security gate outside the shuttered and quiet rooms. Discarded clothing and garbage littered the site. This is as bad as it gets, he said. This is why were trying to work on the rest of the street to avoid getting to this state where we had to come in and literally close the thing. The 70-room motel and coffee shop at 823 S. Beach Blvd. first opened in 1960. The rundown motel is one of 16 left on that stretch of South Beach Boulevard, according to Lyster. Tourists visiting nearby Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland left the string of aging motels behind decades ago and demand for these rooms dropped along this stretch of the boulevard. Long-term lodgers have since taken over many of the rooms in the motels along that stretch of South Beach Boulevard. Many properties are now dilapidated. But the city still hopes many can participate in the citys renewal program. Our ultimate goal is to redevelop and see Beach [Boulevard] redevelop with new homes and shops, and make it a very lively, inviting, and walkable street, Lyster said. We invite the motels to be part of that, if they can operate safely and operate to standards. (Courtesy of the City of Anaheim) Anaheim additionally placed operating conditions on the nearby Anaheim Lodge and the Travel Inn Motel nearby on April 12, requiring the motels to check guest identification upon check in. The city also requires the two properties to have a security plan and to post signs notifying lodgers that prostitution, illegal drugs, gambling, and drug sales were not allowed, Lyster said. They also required the motel operators to both check the rooms and offer cleaning services daily. You would never want somebody to die in there and later discover that, Lyster said. Anaheim police have stepped up patrols along Beach Boulevard to address human sex trafficking, prostitution, organized crime, chronic drug use and sales, illegal gambling, theft and fraud. Meanwhile, city officials are waiting to see what the owners of the Covered Wagon Motel will do next. The motels owners pulled a demolition permit March 30 but the city does not yet know if they plan to tear it down. We dont know what theyre going to do yet, Lyster said. They might follow through and do it. They also have the opportunity to fix all these problems and continue operating. Replacing older motels and other rundown businesses, stores and restaurants is part of the citys plan to create a walkable street. (Courtesy of the City of Anaheim) Anaheim has already installed security video cameras along Beach Boulevard. It also plans to upgrade streetlights and underground utility lines in the area. So far, the city has moved forward with redeveloping some lots. It sold or leased 30 acres of land to private Los Angeles- and Irvine-based developers for a new shopping center development and townhomes near Lincoln Avenue. The development is expected to include 65 townhomes, a grocery store, and retail and restaurant space. The same developers built the Burbank Empire Center which has a Target, Marshalls, Ulta, Walmart, and Lowes, along with several smaller retail and restaurant spaces. Also along this stretch of Beach Boulevard, the city plans to pursue building in the next three to five years affordable apartments, homes, and some retail shopping at the former site of the Americana Motel, Beach-Lin Hand Car Wash, and a Mexican restaurant. The Pentagon building is seen in Washington in a file photograph. (AFP via Getty Images) Another Top Pentagon Tech Official Resigns, Says Breaking Through Bureaucracy Was Like Working to Defy Gravity The Pentagon lost another top IT official on April 18, with the resignation of Preston Dunlap, founding chief architecture officer of the Air and Space Forces. In an open resignation letter posted to social media, Dunlap wrote that he was proud of the three years he spent at the Defense Department, but that bureaucracy, a risk-averse culture, and other internal issues made innovation more difficult than it should have been. He said the department fostered an environment in which it was hard, but not impossible to innovate and compared the effort required to break through Pentagon bureaucracy to the effort needed to push satellites past Earths gravity. Ive spent the last three years working to defy gravity and get desperately needed technology into our operators hands, Dunlap wrote. By the time the Government manages to produce something, its too often obsolete; no business would ever survive this way, nor should it. Dunlaps resignation follows that of Pentagon Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss earlier in April, and that of Air and Space Forces Chief Software Officer Nicolas Chaillan in October. Both Weiss and Chaillan used their resignations to warn that out-of-control bureaucracies were preventing a talented and dedicated workforce in the Defense Department (DoD) from succeeding. This is a massive loss for DoD, Chaillan said in reference to Dunlaps departure. The number of top talent leaving the Pentagon is very concerning. I dont know anyone who is as good as Preston in the entire Department. [He] will be very tough to replace, particularly since they have yet to replace me. Even worse after [Weiss] left last month too. Dunlap: Pentagon Lacks Budget, Authority, Vision In the eight-page document marking his departure from the Pentagon, Dunlap painted a bleak picture of a military bureaucracy run amok, with little to no resources or support being available for those trying to change the status quo. Not unsurprisingly to anyone who has worked for or with the Government before, I arrived to find no budget, no authority, no alignment of vision, no people, no computers, no networks, a leaky ceiling, even a broken curtain, he said. You get the picture. Sadly, I was probably better off than most who show up to serve. Ironically as Im writing this, I received notification that the phone lines are down at the Pentagon IT help desk. Phone lines are down? Its 2022, folks. Dunlap noted that there was a strong cadre of dedicated individuals who had worked to stand up to the Pentagons efforts at building a next-generation fighting force, but that they were too often blunted by bureaucracy. He singled out a handful of individuals for gratitude in continually supporting the mission regardless of the trials faced. Among them was Gen. John Hyten, former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Like Dunlap, Hyten also tried to combat the growing military bureaucracy and, in the final months before his retirement in November 2021, sounded the alarm on what he saw as a number of red flags for U.S. military readiness. During an October 2021 interview, Hyten derided what he called a brutal Pentagon bureaucracy for hamstringing the U.S. military. He said weapons programs took 10 to 15 years to develop on average, with others taking far longer. We can go fast if we want to, Hyten said. But the bureaucracy weve put in place is just brutal. Still other systems were scrapped outright for not immediately succeeding, he said, as was the case with the brief U.S. effort to develop hypersonic weapons a decade ago. Further, Hyten said U.S. military leadership was making the nation less secure through the process of overclassification, essentially blocking out knowledge of their projects from the public eye because they knew that if a project were classified, there would be less bureaucratic red tape for it to become entangled in. Momentum Is Dying Dunlap noted several significant accomplishments achieved during his three years at the Pentagon, including the successful use of 5G networks and AI to shoot down a cruise missile and the leveraging of commercial satellites to improve the resiliency of secure department data. Key projects intended to bring the U.S. armed forces fully into the 21st century are at risk of stalling out in the absence of leaders such as Dunlap, however, and the Pentagon will need to work quickly to fill the growing void of top IT professionals. When Russia invaded Ukraine this year, public reporting stated Russian forces almost immediately lost their ability to communicate securely, forcing them to choose to either call on open lines or stop talking altogether, Dunlap said. The U.S. must not place our forces in the same predicament. Key to preventing that fate are emerging programs such as the Joint All-Domain Command and Control program, or JADC2, that seek to make military data fully interoperable, allowing for the speedy flow of data through the forces regardless of what military branch it originates from. A lack of funding to fully implement JADC2 was a key reason cited by Chaillan for his resignation and, in recent months, the Air Force has doubled down instead on a command and control system that would unite only the Air Force and Space Force. In his resignation letter, Dunlap gave the impression of hope in the face of long odds and said it was still possible to find talent lost in the woods of military bureaucracy or hiding behind a title that would normally be overlooked for technical expertise. Still, he said he worries about the militarys ability to successfully leverage his and his teams accomplishments at scale. Along the path to the following wins, I and my team suffered many bureaucratic battle scars, but we defeated gravity and that means our warfighters won, Dunlap said. Ultimately, my team and I proved that we can defy gravity and change can happeneven at the largest employer in the galaxy and even with small but highly capable teams. But, we shouldnt be satisfied. We need this kind of progress at scale. And we need it now, not tomorrow. Or it will be too late. For his own part, Chaillan was more pessimistic, saying that the Pentagons movement toward developing critical new technologies was beginning to slow. I see no urgency, he said. Worse, complacency is growing and momentum of the last three years with what we achieved is dying. A Border Patrol agent organizes illegal immigrants who have gathered by the border fence after crossing from Mexico into the United States in Yuma, Arizona, on Dec. 10, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Arizona Border Sheriffs Expect More Cartel Crime Once Title 42 Revoked One sheriff gets the illegal alien gotaways in his Arizona county, while the other predominantly gets the give-ups. Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said that during the month of March, his office apprehended more than 7,000 illegal immigrants who were trying to avoid capture, also known as gotaways. Two years ago, that number was a manageable 400 per month, Dannels said. In my section of the southeast corner in the state of Arizona we see 100 percent aggravated individuals that are camouflaged, theyre coming to the country for all ill intenttheyre taking advantage of current times, Dannels told members of Congress during an April 6 House hearing. Between 900 and 1,000 smugglers drive into Cochise County to pick up illegal aliens near the border and drive them to Phoenix for about $1,000 per head, according to Dannels. We need to understand that smuggling comes with criminal cartels. These transnational organizations, they have no respect for Americans, no respect for communities, he said. My office right now is investigating several acts here last month, where an agentthey tried to cut his throat. Had another one [where] they tried to kill the agent. As the Biden administration prepares to end the Title 42 public health order on May 23, border sheriffs are expecting the worst. We have great concern, Dannels said. Its going to have a huge impact. Were already outpaced. Title 42 is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order that was invoked in March 2020 under then-President Donald Trump to minimize the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring that only essential travel occurred at U.S. borders. It directed that illegal immigrants could be quickly expelled back into Mexico as a pandemic precaution, rather than be processed under Title 8 immigration law, which is a much more protracted process inside the United States. Currently, were spending $17,000 a week out of a rural county sheriffs office to address border security, Dannels said. Between July 1, 2021, and February, the sheriffs office has spent $1.1 million in booking border-related criminals into the local jail. What were not talking about when it comes to our southern border is the rule of law. Were also not talking about border security. We have immigration, and we have border security. And sadly, border security has been set aside, Dannels said. The Give-Ups A 320-mile drive to the west sits Yuma County, where Sheriff Leon Wilmot is grappling with thousands of illegal immigrants walking around the unfinished border wall and waiting for Border Patrolthe give-ups. These are not poor people; they are dressed in designer clothing with money and cell phones, Wilmot told The Epoch Times. They are flying into Mexico from over 140 different countries and then taking a cab or bus to the river. They walk across the border, discarding their trash, clothing, and identification [showing] they have been granted permission to live and work in Mexico. They are exploiting the weakness of this administrations policies on our border. In 2021, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 183,750 illegal immigrants, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. In 2020, that number was 8,758. Estimates are that the cartels are making an average of $15 million a week in the smuggling of humans across the Yuma Sector alone, Wilmot said. This has led to escalated violence along the border in Mexico as the cartels fight over control of the border. Hes bracing for the end of Title 42 and expects border-related crime to increase. In my 37 years of law enforcement in Yuma County, I have never seen such a lack of border security or concern for the safety of our country as I do today, Wilmot said. In the Yuma Border Patrol Sector, agents are already so busy processing large groups of illegal aliens that only four agents are available to patrol a 150-mile section of the border. That 150 miles of border normally takes about 75 to 90 agentswe had four agents out there, Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said at an unofficial House hearing at FreedomWorks in Washington on Feb. 1. Cartels control the border right now. They dictate to us what our operations are going to be. That should never happen. The amount of drugs being seized at the border has correspondingly plummeted, according to CBP data. If we seize even 5 percent of whats coming across the border, were lucky, Judd said, referring to a question about fentanyl pills. And if theres nobody there to detect you and apprehend you, the cartels are going to push it through between the ports of entry when they know that there is absolutely no chance that were going to apprehend that narcotic. The two Arizona Senators, both Democrats, wrote to President Joe Biden on March 24, urging him to keep Title 42 in place until the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a plan to handle the anticipated influx. To date, we have not yet seen evidence that DHS has developed and implemented a sufficient plan to maintain a humane and orderly process in the event of an end to Title 42, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) wrote. DHS has told Border Patrol agents to be prepared to apprehend up to 500,000 illegal immigrants per monthmore than double what the overwhelmed agency is currently encountering. The leaked contingency plan from DHS shows senior officials being told that the removal of Title 42 would lead to an increase in illegal immigration and one way to respond is to quickly release many into the U.S. interior. The agency would use broadscale release mechanisms such as issuing notices to appear in court or even releasing illegal immigrants without a court notice, a practice that wasnt used until Biden took office, according to the document first published by Breitbart News. As many as 450,000 illegal aliens could gather from the southern U.S. border through Central America in a 30-day period, according to one of the planning scenarios in the contingency plan. That could lead to multiple surges of 10,000 to 20,000 illegal crossings at different locations at the same time. DHS, which already dealt with a record-level of illegal immigration during Bidens first year in office, has stated that ways to remove illegal immigrants will be limited once Title 42 is revoked. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said the law doesnt allow for the mass release of illegal aliens. The Department of Homeland Security must either enroll all illegal aliens in the Migrant Protection Protocol program or detain them as required by law, Biggs recently told The Epoch Times. Simply releasing them is unacceptable and illegal. Border Security vs Immigration Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said border security and immigration need to be seen as two different entities. I might be oversimplifying a little bit, but border security is exactly like your homeits just knowing who and what enters your home. If you dont know who and what enters your home, you dont have any security. Its the same with the country, Scott told Cindy Drukier, host of NTDs The Nation Speaks. Scott, who was a Border Patrol agent for almost 30 years, retired from the top job last August and now works with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He said the ports of entry are similar to a front door in a home and that Congress has made it illegal to cross between ports of entry. Its just like trying to enter through a window of your home, come through the side door or something like that, uninvitedregardless of who that person is, where theyre from, or what their intent is, Scott said. So the fundamental baseline part of border security, simply knowing who and what enters our home, is not being accomplished. There literally is no real enforcement of the law on the southwest border right now. Border Patrol agents have been relegated to being processing officers, administrative processing. And the border is just wide openits ridiculous. Immigration includes the decisions Congress has made about who to grant visas, green cards, and citizenship to, as well as who to allow into the country and what type of vetting process they should undergo before entering. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. SEATTLE Service sucks now. Its a phrase Ive heard uttered a lot the past two years. When pressed, the person might say it was because service was slow or harried, there wasnt enough or too much conversation, they felt ignored, or the server hovered too much. To be fair, its been a rough two years. Its been tough to figure out how to best support restaurants, and its been tough for restaurants to figure out how to operate while navigating shutdowns, rising costs, labor shortages and supply chain issues. Even without a global pandemic throwing a wrench in how we feel about eating at a restaurant, going out to dinner has always been about more than just the food. And people are complicated. Deciphering what a person wants from an interaction during dinner and delivering on that successfully is what separates a good server from a great one. Service is what makes eating at a restaurant special for the diner. But what makes it special for the servers? What draws people to this career path and what makes them stay? As restaurants continue to adapt and face challenges wrought by the pandemic, including labor and supply shortages and safety concerns, we will be examining, through a series of stories, the experiences of Seattles restaurant service workers, the challenges and rewards of serving in the Seattle restaurant scene, and their hopes for the rapidly changing industry. Here, we spoke to four servers at five restaurants about what it takes to be a server and why they do what they do. The Special Skills of Service Read any Yelp review and there will be a line or two about the service regardless of the level of service that is expected. This review wouldve been much worse had it not been for Annie, reads a review for a neighborhood Italian restaurant. Our server (Josh) was very pleasant and professional, but we felt like we wanted a bit more conversation, reads one for a posh dining room. Diners ask so much of servers. Even if youre reading this shaking your head, thinking not me, there is probably an unwritten list of conditions that must be met for you to walk away from an evening having totally enjoyed yourself. Theres a well-worn idea between people in the hospitality industry that a restaurant needs to provide three things: service, food, atmosphere. People will keep coming back if you succeed at just two of them, but one of the two must be good service. Now, there isnt a quick or easy definition of what good service is, or what it means to be a good server. But there are some guidelines. Its being able to read people and have the skill to become in front of the guests what it is they want and what they expect. Its a chameleonlike trait, Kristen McAuley, server at Kirklands Cafe Juanita, says. A server must anticipate needs and do it in an unobtrusive way. They must sell you on an experience, while making you forget the amount of money youre spending. They must be quick to fix any mistake, efficient, anticipatory and forge a million tiny relationships every night some of which turn out to be bigger relationships. And theyve got to do it all while being questioned about why they even want to do the job. If youre a server at a fine dining restaurant the list of skills is even longer. Plates should be placed on the right and cleared from the left of the guest, using a specific hand. Certain dishes might need to be finished tableside, and the entire menu and every dishs components should be committed to memory. And while there is most likely a wine steward, a working knowledge of a wine list is expected. Still, society struggles to see restaurant service as a legitimate career. And, while some wait tables as a temporary gig, others proudly dedicate decades to the art of service and develop expertise in a trade that is largely based on intuition and the ability to read people. The ability to read people is important no matter the kind of restaurant you work at. But when it comes to eating at a fancy restaurant, the expectation from diners is that of a performance. Everything from the lighting and music to the interaction with the waitstaff is part of the act. McAuley has worked at a lot of different types of restaurants, from cocktail bars to fine dining establishments like Cafe Juanita. Her favorite style of service is fine dining. The guests at Cafe Juanita are so fantastic. The reception of what we do and what Holly [Smith, chef and owner] provides its almost like theyre thanking us, which is a really cool feeling, McAuley says. While there are rules to fine dining, McAuley says its ultimately about whats best for the guest in the moment, even if that means breaking rules. Again, its a performance. As Mark Canlis once said, The promise of Canlis is that it will be worth it, and that, no matter who you are, you will feel safe. But service looks different in different restaurants, whether its precisely placed forks and waiters with napkins draped carefully over their forearms or a waiter who sits down next to you to take your order and winks when you take her suggestion to trade the fries for the tots. Like with any job, where you want to work depends on the kind of server you want to be. Where Everybody Knows Your Name Theres something about going to a restaurant where the bartender knows your drink. Regardless if the restaurant is high-end or the neighborhood dive, good service is having that ease with another person, that feeling of acceptance. Its having places to go to where I know I can have a connection and be around people who I can feel comfortable with, Virginia Samsel says. Samsel has been working in the service industry for 20 years as a server, bartender and wine attendant. She works doing vineyard reiki, to better connect grape growers and winemakers with their land and is also an artist and feels hospitality and art are her tandem careers. It took her a while to realize her passion for wine and now learning about the intricacies of natural winemaking is what drives her. Right now, she works as a server at Capitol Hills Light Sleeper and as a wine attendant at Ballards Brimmer & Heeltap and the wine shop inside Brimmer, Halfseas. The connection, she says, goes two ways. I approach [working in restaurants] as a postgraduate program where youre working to develop your skills and theories. Maybe I overintellectualize my process, but it makes it to where I can find dynamism for myself in it, Samsel says. For some longtime servers, the human connection isnt what drew them in, but its what helped them stay in the industry for decades. On March 30, Tamara Voight retired, working her last shift after spending 40 years at Vinces Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Federal Way. Shes made a lot of connections with people. Over 40 years at the same restaurant, shes hidden countless engagement rings in bowls of ice cream, met some of her best friends and met her husband all while at work. Shes seen generations of families have dinner at Vinces, and while she doesnt remember everyones name, I know them by what they eat. I dont think Ive realized I was going to spend 40 years at Vinces, it just happened, Voight says with a laugh. While Voight says she didnt walk into Vinces 40 years ago with the intention of making it a career, the ease of the schedule working days while she was pregnant, trading to nights when her kids were little to save on child care plus the people she met and connections she made were what kept her there. The tips arent bad either, she quips. Conscious decision or not, 40 years at Vinces wasnt just a job, which meant all the difference. Her last three shifts were the retirement party she never expected. Longtime customers showered her with gifts, there was even a framed letter from Mayor Bruce Harrell. It was something shell never forget. I was shocked to actually find out how many people really cared about me I guess, Voight wrote in a text. Career Mindset The way Samsel sees it, jobs are a means to an end. A career is about investing in your future. She moved to Seattle from Virginia a little less than a year ago. In Virginia, she was always asked about her job. A guest would say what else do you do, whats your other thing? This has to be more than what you do. You have to have a strong ego to put up with that, well-meaning or not, Samsel says. But for Samsel, this is the thing. Shes spent nearly a decade focusing on wine, and knows her connections to winemakers help enhance the dining experience, making her role of server as a kind of teacher. For her, there is real joy in helping people realize things are more than whats in a glass or on a plate. Theres a whole history there. McAuley, the server from Cafe Juanita, actively turned down a job that is more traditionally considered a career in order to pursue service full-time. She got her start in the service industry in 1995 as a host as a hobby job. She was quickly promoted to manager, which led to a string of management jobs at different restaurants in Kirkland and Bellevue. Then, she realized she wanted more flexibility, less stress and she left management and became a server. Shes never looked back. I like walking into work with a lighthearted approach and leaving feeling accomplished. Management did not ever end, McAuley says. Shes worked at Kirklands Cafe Juanita since 1995. The restaurant, known for its attention to detail and high level of service, has moved to a tasting menu format, which means less verbal interaction with guests. Theres no flair like in the past with tableside service. But theres certainly a trust [from guests] that my knowledge is there, she says. She once read an article that equated the level of stress a server felt to that of an airline pilot. She brushed it off, saying every airline pilot goes through the same training. With waiting tables, some of it is innate. You just kind of find yourself either good at it or not good at it, McAuley says. Its going through a very busy evening and at the end [saying], Wow, what just happened? How did I just get away with that?' For some, however, serving is just the beginning of a career in restaurants. Michelle Magidow, owner of Wallingfords Union Saloon, began cooking in restaurants when she was 18 years old and living in California. After moving to Seattle, she spent years working both in the kitchen and on the floor waiting tables or managing at places like Salumi, Harvest Vine, Lark, Licorous and Delancey. She opened Union Saloon in 2017. It was time to put the whole of me into my own space, Magidow says. Union Saloon is a neighborhood spot casual and comfortable. Youre not going to get your fork and knife on the right side, but well get it, and the bartender will know you want a Negroni, Magidow says. For me, I want everybodys food to get there while its hot, but I had a customer who started crying and my server just sidled into the booth with her and put her arm around her and just listened. And that was amazing. With restaurants closed, then opened but sparsely attended and socially distanced, moments like those have been missing from the dining experience these past two years. Weve eaten a lot of takeout these past few years. More in the beginning of the pandemic when restaurants were shut down and less as things began to open up again. It wasnt the same, and it wasnt just because we were eating out of boxes or our food got a little cold. Good service is at its core about connection. If it wasnt, wed all be happy eating fast food or at fast-casual counter service joints and ordering takeout. The act of leaving your home to go sit down in a restaurant is an act of wanting. Yes, you want dinner, but youre also wanting someone who can help turn that evening into something special. Slide into the booth with you. Hide a ring in a bowl of ice cream. Call out something on the menu you might have missed. And for the servers? Its like with any gig. Theres satisfaction and pride in turning on the magic and creating something special out of an ordinary evening. Id work in places and years later run into customers who I havent seen, and theyre like We still think about you. Youre a part of peoples lives, Samsel says. Its somewhat about the atmosphere and the food, sure, but without the right service its still just eating. (c)2022 The Seattle Times Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Charles P. Rettig, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testifies during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the IRS budget request on Capitol Hill in Wash., on June 8, 2021. (Tom Williams/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) As Tax Deadline Arrives, IRS Still Has Millions of Unprocessed Returns From Last Year The last weekend for Americans to file their taxes before the Monday deadline is here, but the Internal Revenue Service still faces major backlogs for individual and business filings. IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig testified before Congress last month, promising to clear through the 20 million unprocessed 2021 tax returns by the end of 2022. He cited an array of reasons for the backlog, including new responsibilities, delays in modernization and uncertainty about funding that slows down hiring. When we are confronted with long-term Continuing Resolutions (CRs), we typically freeze nearly all external hiring, he said. We take this action to ensure we have funds to pay all employees, including any applicable pay raises. Last fall, we increased staffing in our Wage & Investment Division (W&I) despite the CR, hiring at risk without the funding in place to support these positions, but assuming future resources would be provided by the eventual enactment of the FY2022 appropriation, to help address our inventory. Observers say President Joe Bidens trillions of dollars in social spending passed through Congress overwhelmed the IRS last year. The agency was tasked with distributing and tracking much of the money, such as the stimulus payments and the monthly child tax credit to qualifying families. The problems the IRS is having primarily stems from Congress putting the responsibilities for distributing pandemic-era social programs on an agency thats supposed to exist for revenue collection, not benefit administration, said Alex Muresianu, a tax expert at the Tax Foundation. The effects of that disconnect only got worse during the pandemic: the various relief measures (CARES, the appropriations law in early 2020, ARP) increased the IRSs administrative responsibilities enormously, making them responsible for distributing hundreds of billions of additional dollars. And while they did receive a budget increase to try and make that process smoother, its tough to upgrade their capacity that quickly, he added. Rettigs testimony seemed to back up this idea at least in part with several references to the increased workload for the agency. We continue to balance multiple unprecedented demands, including starting the filing season as well as continuing to work on important new tax provisions, Rettig said. And we remain focused on numerous taxpayer-related issues and have pursued innovative ideas and processes not previously deployed by the IRS in an effort to make improvements to the current inventory and provide meaningful taxpayer services. The reality at the IRS is that we know we need to do better; were committed to doing better, and we are trending in a positive direction. Republicans have blasted the Biden administration for these backlogs, saying they should have been corrected by now. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the IRS pointing to COVID-19 related telework policies allowing most IRS employees to work remotely as well as outdated software. For many Americans, their tax refund can equal six weeks of take-home income, the letter said. The volume of tax returns and refunds completed each year shows the far-reaching impact that processing delays could have for the average American. Processed returns are also essential for those who may be entitled to apply for other government benefits such as loans administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. It is therefore imperative that the IRS take steps to mitigate any processing delays, which can delay refunds and access to economic relief programs. The IRS issued an urgent reminder at the beginning of this year telling Americans to file electronically to help speed refunds this year. Rettig published an op-ed in Yahoo News last month echoing that tone. As the IRS begins this tax season, it continues to face enormous challenges. Our dedicated workforce has done everything it can to prepare for filing day on April 18, he wrote. Today, millions of people are still waiting for prior years returns to be processed, and refund checks to arrive in the mail, while preparing for their upcoming tax filing. While we cant immediately solve these significant issues, our employees are doing everything they can, and I am committed to returning to normal inventory levels before next year. Attention, Last-Minute Filers: Tax Return Deadline Is Monday, April 18 Tax procrastinators be warnedMonday, April 18, is the deadline to get your taxes filed. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began accepting 2021 tax returns in January. While Tax Day is normally April 15, Monday will mark the third year in a row the Internal Revenue Service has extended the filing date for federal tax returns. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline for tax returns in 2020 was extended to July 15. The federal government extended the tax deadline again last year to May 17. This year, the deadline has been pushed forward because of Emancipation Day, a government holiday celebrated in the District of Columbia. Last-minute filers will need to submit their 2021 tax returns by April 18 or request an extension, which would give them six more months to get their fiscal declaration in order. An extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay, however, and taxpayers must estimate their tax liability and pay any amount due by the filing deadline to avoid penalties and interest. If youre owed a refund, there is no penalty for filing federal taxes late. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically because tax software does the calculations, flags common errors, and reduces tax return errors by prompting taxpayers for missing information. Even while your local post office may offer extended hours on Tax Day, the fastest way to receive a refund is to file electronically and use direct deposit, the IRS says. IRS Free File is available to any person or family with an adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less in 2021. Most tax software providers make their online products available for free, and taxpayers can use IRS Free File to claim the remaining amount of their Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other important credits. The IRS estimates 1.5 million taxpayers did not file a 2018 tax return to claim tax refunds worth more than $1.5 billionand the three-year window of opportunity to claim a refund from that year closes on April 18 for most taxpayers. If they dont file a 2018 tax return by the deadline, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury. The law requires taxpayers to properly address, mail, and ensure the 2018 tax return is postmarked by that date. The IRS considers a tax return filed on time if it is addressed correctly, has enough postage, and is postmarked by the due date. For more information about filing your income tax return for free, please visit the IRS official website. Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison attends the state memorial service for former Australian cricketer Shane Warne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, on March 30, 2022. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) Australian PM Heads West With Defence Pitch Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has headed west in the second week of election campaigning with a sweetener for the defence industry. Morrison announced an AU$124 million package for two extra navy patrol boats to be constructed at the Henderson shipyards in Perth, Western Australia, by local defence contractor Austal. The two new Evolved Cape Class patrol ships come after the company delivered its first vessel on March 24. The new project will create 400 jobs and around 150 new jobs across small and medium-class businesses in the Austal supply chain. The extra $124 million comes on top of an existing $324 million contract for six Evolved Cape Class patrol ships. Cape Class Patrol Boats at Austal Australia in Henderson, Western Australia. (Supplied by Austal) This investment doesnt just help secure our borders; it secures hundreds of shipbuilding jobs in Western Australia, the prime minister told the West Australian newspaper. Keeping our borders safe is a key priority for my government, and the acquisition of two more Evolved Cape Class patrol boats will boost the capability of Navys patrol force to ensure it is available where and when needed. Morrison will spend two days in Perth before heading to Brisbane for the first debate with opposition leader Anthony Albanese. The leader of the centre-left Labor Party is currently in Brisbane visiting victims of recent floods. The past eight days of the election campaign have been regarded by many as challenging for Albanese after he made several stumbles in policy launches on the campaign trail and endured a torrid reception on April 17 at the Byron Bay Bluesfest, where he was heavily booed while addressing the audience. The Labor leader has been working to recover from the first official week of campaigning, which saw him make several incorrect statements that could have affected poll numbers, including his claim that the partys AU$135 million pledge for 50 urgent medical clinics had been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) when it had not. Labor Senator Katy Gallagher was later forced to clarify the leaders statement. The costing of Labors Urgent Care Centre policy is based on work done by the PBO, but for the avoidance of any confusion, has not been formally costed by the PBO, she wrote on Twitter on April 14. All of Labors policies and costings will be released before the election. Deputy leader of the Labor Party, Tanya Plibersek, said voters were not interested in verbal mistakes; instead, they were concerned with reducing the cost of living. It is not a test of memory, it is a test of leadership, and Anthony shows leadership every day, she told the Seven Network on April 18. BC to Require Health-Care Professionals to Disclose COVID-19 Vaccination Status to Regulating Bodies Health officials in British Columbia are going ahead with requiring all regulated health professionals to disclose their vaccination status to their respective regulatory colleges, though the province has recently abolished a rule that would require them to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to stay on their jobs. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said earlier in April that she wants to give comfort to patients when they choose which medical professionals to see in the community, reported The Globe and Mail. In a statement, the Office of the Provincial Health Officer (PHO) said it is taking steps to support people in B.C. to make informed decisions about their own care with respect to whether or not to see an unvaccinated health provider in private practice in the community. The purposes of this PHO order are to determine the level of vaccination in each health profession as a whole and to understand the distribution of vaccination in health professionals across the province. Henry had issued an order on March 7 requiring B.C.s health practitioners to register their vaccination status with their respective health regulatory bodies by March 31, saying that an unvaccinated registrant who provides services puts persons at risk of infection with COVID-19, and constitutes a health hazard. The order covers 26 regulated health professions governed by 18 colleges in the province. However, information on individual practitioners will not be made available to patients, and will only be provided as an aggregated vaccination rate for each profession, the B.C. Health Ministry said in a written statement to the Vancouver Sun. The vaccination status of individual regulated health professionals will not be published by the provincial health officer or colleges, it reads. The provincial health officer will make aggregated vaccination rates by regulated health profession publicly available. This represents a change from Henrys original plan, announced in October 2021, that would require all health-care employees in B.C. to be vaccinated in order to work. The plan would have barred unvaccinated health professionals from continuing their jobs as of March 24. While that plan was scrapped roughly a week before it entered into effect, close to 2,500 nurses, aides, and other hospital support staff were fired for not receiving the shot as of March 22. The Health Ministry also said 2,582 employees in public-health care settings have been terminated due to non-compliance with the mandate. This includes 927 employees from Interior Health, 474 from Fraser Health, 393 from Island Health, and 304 from Northern Health, reported the Globe. The ministry said in its statement that Henry will be able to provide statistics on vaccinations by college soon, once all the professional bodies have recorded and collated the vaccination status of their registrants and had the opportunity to provide the data reports to the PHO. She said in her public order that she has the authority to take action if the colleges dont comply. Last month, the province announced the lifting of a number of pandemic-related restrictions, including mandatory indoor masking and the easing of restrictions on long-term care visitors, faith gatherings, and overnight camps for children and youth. B.C. also set the date of April 8 to end its proof of vaccination program. A child receives a swab test for COVID-19 in a compound during a lockdown in Pudong district in Shanghai, China on April 17, 2022. (Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images) Beijings Zero-COVID Crackdown Not Likely to Work: White House COVID-19 Coordinator The harsh treatment of Chinese citizens in the name of extinguishing COVID-19 isnt likely to succeed, the coordinator of the White Houses COVID-19 team said. We dont think that a zero-COVID strategy, what China is pursuing, is one that is likely to work, Dr. Ashish Jha, who recently joined the administration, said on Fox News Sunday. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have been imposing lockdowns in various cities in recent weeks, including Shanghai, in the name of combating COVID-19. That has left many without food and medicine, among other consequences. I think its very difficult at this point, with a highly contagious variant, to be able to curtail this through lockdowns alone, Jha said. His comments appear to be the first from a Biden administration official on the situation in China. Jha, who is on leave from being dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, replaced Jeffrey Zients as coordinator of the White Houses COVID-19 team. Jha, who didnt remark on China during appearances on other Sunday shows, said the Biden administrations strategy is aimed at getting people vaccinated and boosted in addition to providing access to treatments for those who do contract SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. That is a much more effective, long-term, durable strategy for living with this virus, he said. Omicron, a variant of the virus, became the dominant strain in many countries in 2021. Omicron is better able than earlier variants to bypass protection from vaccines and prior infection. The vaccines are able to provide little protection against infection from Omicron but have held up better against severe illness. BA.2, a subvariant of Omicron, has been circulating in China and the United States in recent weeks. Early indications are that BA.2 is more transmissible, but that it doesnt cause more severe disease, Jha said on ABCs This Week. Jha spoke shortly after Zhang Wenhong, a top Shanghai pandemic expert, predicted more people would be killed by the citys lockdown than COVID-19. How long can the whole city be put on pause, and can we afford it? Everyone has nothing to eat or drink, there is no place to buy vegetables, and if you are sick, you cant go to the hospital to see a doctor, Zhang said in a video widely shared on Chinese social media. Moreover, if hospitals dont resume services, cancer patients cannot undergo chemotherapy and surgery, people infected with other diseases cannot be treated, and trauma patients cannot be cared for. In this case, I believe that patients who die from other diseases are far more than the COVID-19. So I think its reasonable to resume work, and everyone should return to normal life as soon as possible. Alex Wu contributed to this report. People wait at Insein prison in hopes of the release of their families members who were arrested due to the anti coup protests, in Yangon, Burma, on April 17, 2022. (Assistance Association for Myanmar-Based Independent Journalists/Handout via Reuters) Burmas Military Pardons 1,600 Prisoners for Buddhist New Year, But No Political Prisoners The Burmese military junta released more than 1,600 prisoners on April 17 in an amnesty to bring joy to mark the countrys Buddhist new year, but political prisoners werent among those released, according to reports. Lt. Gen. Aung Lin Dwe, a state secretary of the junta, said that a total of 1,619 prisoners, including 42 detained foreigners who will be deported, were pardoned to bring joy to the people and address humanitarian concerns. Burma Prisons Departments spokesman Khin Shwe claimed that he was unaware of any political prisoners being released under the amnesty, as he observed that most of those released were drug offenders and common criminals. An official from Yangons Insein Prison said that 160 people were released from the penitentiary, but they didnt include those convicted of political offenses. Among the political prisoners detained in Burma, also known as Myanmar, are ousted government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her Australian economic adviser, Sean Turnell, who is being held at Insein Prison. Professor Sean Turnell is a former adviser to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (LinkedIn) Mass prisoner releases are common in Burma on the countrys major holidays. In October last year, the junta released more than 5,600 people who were arrested for taking part in anti-coup protests. Tun Kyi, a senior member of the Former Political Prisoners Society, said that political detainees are being held as hostages and used as bargaining chips by the Min Aung Hlaing-led military junta in order to appease other countries. He said its unsurprising that political prisoners werent released under the amnesty because the military leader knows the political prisoners will oppose him again if they were released. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a nonprofit human rights organization based in Thailand, the 1,619 released prisoners only represent a fraction of the juntas total detention of 10,238 people, including Suu Kyi. Of the total detainees, AAPP stated that 59 detainees, including two children, have been sentenced to death. About 1,976 people are evading arrest warrants, while 120 others were sentenced in absentia, with 41 of them sentenced to death. The exact identities and total figure remains to be verified, but we will continue to confirm the recently released, the rights group said. Human rights group Fortify Rights and Yale Law Schools Schell Center said in a report on March 24 that the whereabouts and well-being of many detainees are unknown, effectively amounting to a situation of mass enforced disappearances. The report states that the military junta systematically imprisoned and forcibly disappeared several thousand people in Burma, including children, civilian opinion leaders, elected officials, peaceful protesters, journalists, and human rights defenders. The Associated Press contributed to this report. An F-35A Lightning II fighter jet practises for an air show appearance in Ottawa, Sept. 6, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) Canada Avoided F-35 Teething Problems, Should Buy Stealth Fighter Now: Test Pilot A former F-35 test pilot says Canada likely benefited from not purchasing the stealth fighter more than a decade ago. Retired lieutenant-colonel Billie Flynn spent more than 17 years flying the F-35 as a test pilot after a 23-year career in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He says Canada has avoided many of the teething problems that have plagued the F-35 during its early years, and is now poised to receive better planes at a lower price than if it had purchased the aircraft under the previous Conservative government. Yet Flynn is also criticizing the federal Liberal government for not fully committing to the stealth fighter now. While the government announced last month that it was launching negotiations to purchase 88 F-35s, it left the door open to buying Swedens Saab Gripen instead if talks with F-35 maker Lockheed Martin stall. Flynn says the refusal to commit to the F-35 represents another delay as the air force needs to know which fighter it will get before moving ahead on new training and several related procurements such as infrastructure and air-to-air refuelling aircraft. Workers transfer daily food supplies and necessities for residents during the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai, China, on April 5, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) China Fails to Implement a Unified Market System Amid COVID Lockdowns News Analysis Beijing recently unveiled its unified domestic market system as residents in Shanghai face food shortages due to the regimes strict COVID-19 lockdown measures. The latest economic plan has left the public wondering if it will lead to a major disaster reminiscent of the Mao Zedong era. On April 10, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued guidelines to accelerate building a unified market to break local protectionism and market fragmentation in order to promote a regulated, competitive, and open market across the country, according to Chinese state media. After the guidelines were published, the Chinese stock market plunged to levels not seen since July 2020. On April 11, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.61 percent, the Shenzhen Component Index fell 3.67 percent, and the ChiNext Index fell 4.2 percent. Chinese media reported the public feared that the new market system signaled a return to the planned economy of the Mao era. Is the CCP Preparing for War? State-run media CCTV touted that a unified market would better manage the massive domestic market and transactions between Chinese and international markets. However, the feasibility of a unified market is questionable. Frank Xie, a business professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken, told The Epoch Times on April 12 that the CCPs unified market system is contradictory. The unified means it is no longer free and competitive and, thus, its not a market but a monopoly, or arbitrariness, he said. Chinese mainlanders are familiar with the systemits also known as a unified purchase and sales, according to Xie. From the perspective of price, the CCP could easily initiate a political movement to crack down on speculation of price and sales, he said. Xie indicated that unified purchase and sales would cause a severe shortage of various products, including food. An example of such a disaster is the Great Famine (1959-1961). Xie also said rent-seeking and corruption usually occur in a unified market system. Xie took the e-commerce giant Alibaba as an example. The CCP punished the companys co-founder, Jack Ma, through its regulatory clampdown of the fintech sector. In a nutshell, he said, its a matter of controlling both the money and the people. He believes that the CCP is implementing a unified market system to prepare for war, as unified purchases and sales are the best economic reserves in wartime. We saw that China hoarded over half the worlds grain last year, he said, its an indication of the CCPs war preparation for fear of losing its power. Xie said that the unified market system is part of the CCPs efforts to increase domestic consumption to prop up an ailing economy. In the CCPs 2022 Work Report, Premier Li Keqiang proposed the economic strategy of boosting domestic consumption (or internal circulation) by keeping production, distribution, circulation, and consumption in an orderly and smooth manner. Applying big data in a unified purchase and sales and distribution is one way to promote domestic circulation, Xie said. Two farmers unload corn at a state grain reserves depot in Yushu in Jilin Province, China, on Dec. 19, 2008. (China Photos/Getty Images) Beijing Attempts to Implement a Unified Market System in Locked Down Cities Amid the current lockdown of Shanghai, Xie believes that the supply distribution channel could be used as a test for implementing a unified market system. However, he thinks its not working. Shanghai residents have been trapped at home. Meanwhile, many online videos show locals running out of food because authorities failed to promptly distribute supplies from other regions. Most of the produce and meat were not delivered to the residents because many delivery trucks were not allowed to enter the city due to the lockdown measures. Authorities carried out extreme measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, such as closing roads, which affected the logistics in coastal provinces across the country, trapping tens of millions of truck drivers and affecting more than three-quarters of Chinas freight volume. Various Chinese media reported that stranded truck drivers were crying and begging for help. On April 3, on Chinese social media WeChat, Shanghai journalist Chen Jibing criticized Beijings harsh pandemic measures and called the situation a chaotic planned economy. The article was taken down the next day. When COVID cases surged in Xian at the end of last year, a Chinese netizen on Jan. 6 pointed out significant problems caused by the lockdown measures, such as the food supply shortage caused by the citys rationing systemsimilar to the one seen in the planned economy during Maos era. Xie said that although the lockdowns have caused the collapse of the supply chain and distribution system, the CCP believes the surging COVID cases provide an opportunity to implement a unified market system, which the regime believes to be its solution to the failing economy. On April 6, the Caixin services PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) fell to 42 in March from 50.2 in February, the lowest since March 2020, indicating the service industry activity has declined significantly. Chinas manufacturing activity also fell to 48.1 in March, the lowest level in two years. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said on April 11 that it had sent a letter to Chinas State Council and Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, explaining how Beijings COVID measures disrupted the operations of European companies in China, causing significant disruptions, extending from logistics and production all the way along the supply chain within China. Mary Hong contributed to this report. Haizhong Ning Follow Haizhong Ning was a state employee and worked for a real estate company in China, before moving abroad and working as a reporter with a focus on Chinese affairs and politics for more than seven years. Conrad Black: Christianity Survives Perversion and COVID Commentary As a former atheist who has been a reasonably practicing Roman Catholic for 51 years, I hope I will be pardoned a few Easter thoughts. I didnt desert non-belief with a burning fire of Revelation, but because I concluded that spiritual forces were abroad in the world and that there was thus probably a divine intelligence that could perhaps be propitiated. There have been a number of divinely inspired people, and theres no reason to doubt that the most famous such person advised St. Peter to found a church, whose most likely current continuator is the Church of Rome. Im an adherent to the school of religion being a personal matter that one rarely discusses other than with specialists in the field or intimates. My partial departure from that practice now is not to inflict theological thoughts on the reader but to reflect on the status of religious belief and institutions today, after theyve received a sequence of heavy blows. Anyone who knew anything about the Roman Catholic Church was aware that, for obvious reasons, it had in its clergy a higher percentage of homosexuals than there are in society as a whole. It was reasonable to assume that most of them adhered to their vows of abstinence, and if they did so, they had as much right to their position of trust as anyone else. But it could also be surmised that in the heavily cloistered lives of unisexual celibacy in a hierarchical organization, there would be abuses. It was my privilege to know a number of the outstanding religious figures in the history of Canada and elsewhere, and I knew from them that the key to avoiding these terrible problems was to keep clergy one might judge to be susceptible to these temptations away from young people. Many bishops were insufficiently worldly or prudent to do this, and the consequences, especially but not exclusively for the Roman Catholic Church, have been a public relations, financial, and morale disaster. It could scarcely have been otherwise. As these developments came sluggishly to the surface at the same time that women generally became more assertive than ever in denouncing and demanding the punishment of male harassment and assault, which under previous rules of evidence were almost impossible to prove and were widely considered to be somewhat stigmatizing, the collective ambience in which claims of wrongdoing against church personnel were heard was extremely receptive and hostile. Throughout modern history, there has been a large body of people at all times who were skeptical of religion generally and suspicious of the churches as propagators of ignorance and charlatanism. In these times of frequent and apparently undoubtedly well-founded complaints that shocking numbers of children, novices, and junior clergy were sexually assaulted, often relentlessly and even sadistically, all of the ancient foes of religious institutions and particularly the Roman Catholic Church, as the premier ecclesiastical organization in the world, swarmed the beset edifices of the churches and inflicted as much damage on their respectability, self-confidence, and fiscal stability as they possibly could. In my experience, antagonism to Christianity is approximately as fervent and assertive as is faith in it, and when the churches, and the Roman Church in particular, were stripped naked before their enemies, plausibly accused of hideous institutionalized perversion and gross abuse of their unique position of trust and faith, they were bound to face, to use an expression that is bandied about with tiresome frequency, an existential crisis. The temptation and the ability of atheistic secular officials to pillory the Roman Catholic Church in particular with its emphasis on celibacy as a vast closet of deviants was irresistible, and was carried to extremes that made the adjudication of the alleged misconduct gratuitously revolting. As just one illustration, there was no excuse for prosecutors in Los Angeles to threaten to charge the former Cardinal Archbishop of that city with operating a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) because of an alleged pattern of criminal wrongdoing in sexual abuses. The church was lumbered in Los Angeles alone with a financial settlement of $660 million. There have been a great many other very large awards throughout the Western world and extending to other Christian churches as well for abuse of children and other derogations from their sacred trust. On the heels of this terrible worldwide debacle, there came down the COVID-19 pandemic and the general shutdowns, and, however unexceptionably motivated it may have been, an attempt practically to close the churches to those who still wished to attend them. The act of receiving the sacrament of communion became a mundane ceremony one might more likely expect to encounter in a hospital. Not being the most indomitable churchgoer, I simply could not face it for two years. In their morally battered state, the churches generally offered up little resistance, and it didnt require even an unlicensed psychiatrist to detect the joy with which many officials did all that they could, waving their pandemical authority about, to discourage church attendance, which was deemed a much less important action than visiting the liquor store. The mentality that prosecuted the Little Sisters of the Poor and purported to require Roman Catholic institutions to pay for the abortions of their students or employees could scarcely be expected to resist the temptation to harass churchgoers. Its all part of the dogma of the unofficial state religion of the entire West: atheism. The secularists have enjoyed such a long sequence of official victories, from, in President Ronald Reagans words, expel[ling] God from our childrens classrooms, to banishing references to the Almighty with the fervor of pest exterminators (the steady gains of the pro-life advocates being the only fly in this ointment), some of them must have imagined that they had finally killed the practice of the Christian faith. Numbers were diminished this Easter from what I remember, but its clear that everyone except the atheists understand that we are all sinners, and the failings of the clergythose people bold enough to try to intercede between the terrestrial world we all know and the great beyond and hereafter that is a matter of speculation and much skepticismare regrettable and in recent years have often been tragic and criminal. But they are failures of the practice of the faith, not of the faith itself. The greatest danger of atheism is that in the expulsion of God from our minds and consciousnesses, a vacuum will be created that will inevitably be filled by ambitious men. It was one thing for Alexander the Great and Julius and Augustus Caesar to accept partial deification; none of them was an atheist. We saw with Robespierre and Hitler and Stalin what happens when pagans occupy the area of the human consciousness formerly inhabited by religious faith and conduct their pursuit of the perfectibility of man as they conceive him. Christians are chastened and disappointed but not dispirited. It was not acceptable for a former Fox News commentator to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci reminded her of the Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele, but Fauci has shown us the perils of following the science. Faith is logical but elusive; it will not be stamped out and there must be more to the world than the thin gruel of the atheists, or even the ambitious scientists. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 1, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Justice Thomas Back on Bench After Missing 2 Weeks of Arguments Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas resumed hearing oral arguments in person on April 18 for the first time since being hospitalized with what the court described as a non-COVID-19 infection. Thomas, 73, joined the courts eight other justices as they opened a two-week session. The George H.W. Bush appointee asked the first question during the first case, which deals with whether a Washington state workers compensation provision can apply to federal contractors without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Thomas, the longest-serving member of the court, didnt address his absence from the court. Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington on March 18 after experiencing flu-like symptoms, according to a court spokesperson. The justice was diagnosed with an infection and was treated with intravenous antibiotics. Thomas didnt have COVID-19, Patricia McCabe, a court spokeswoman, told The Epoch Times at the time. The court initially said Thomas was scheduled to be released after three or four days of treatment, but he ended up staying at the hospital for a week. The court has declined to share additional details about Thomass health ordeal. The hospital declined to comment, and the justices wife, Ginni Thomas, hasnt returned requests for comment. During each day of arguments that Thomas was hospitalized, Chief Justice John Roberts said the justice was unable to be present today but didnt say why. After Thomas was released, he participated in arguments remotely. The court has said he will participate in the consideration and discussion of all cases that were heard when he was hospitalized. Justice Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee and the courts current oldest member, joined Thomas and the others on April 18. Breyer plans to step down following the current term. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by President Joe Biden to replace Breyer, was confirmed by the Senate earlier in April and is poised to join the court once Breyer retires. Matthew Vadum contributed to this report. People hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory (CRT) being taught in schools, at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) Considering the Impact of Critical Race Theory on US National Security Commentary Mao Zedong famously wrote that the guerrillas relationship with the people is like a fish in water. This powerful metaphor may be usefully applied in other contexts, including the consideration of what countries need to defend themselves. All defense ministries swim in the water of their political and social systems. All exist to defend their country and necessarily are supported through resources drawn from that societyits people, finances, and materialsand are governed by the political system of their states. The United States is no exception. Americas national security depends upon the Pentagon, to be sure, but fundamentally it also depends upon the U.S. political system and society. They provide it with the resources to conduct its many missions and to serve as the object of what must be defended against the enemies of the United States. In the American historical experience, the Department of War, known after 1947 as the Department of Defense, operated in a political ecosystem governed by the rules and expectations provided by political liberalism and by the institutions derived from political liberalism. Now thats changing because of the rise of critical race theory (CRT) in U.S. politics and society. A participant holds up a sign during a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) Critical Race Theorys Core Ideas There are five major propositions of CRT. The first is the centrality of race and racism for historical, political, social, and economic analysis and legitimacy. Race is for CRT what class is for traditional Marxists. The political ideology, institutions, and culture of the United States are based on the powerful myth of the superiority of white Americans over all others, and this still affects the lives of people of color through institutional racism, but also via racial microaggressions and white fragility, which seek to maintain racial subordination, according to those who subscribe to CRT. Second, theres the intersectionality of race and racism with other forms of subordination. For CRT, racism is intricately woven within all aspects of society and intersects with other oppressed identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex identity. Third, CRT is a challenge to the purported dominant ideology in the United States, which CRT assumes to be liberalism. CRT seeks to question the status quo and majoritarian perspective. Fourth, CRT postulates that meritocracy is a myth and serves to continue the oppression of people of color. Fifth, immigration is another front. CRT advances the notion that borders and sovereignty are artificial constructions by racist states in the West. They have no moral force and shouldnt be respected by progressives. CRT seeks to erase the concept of citizenship dependent on the laws of the United States in favor of documented or undocumented immigrants who possess the same right to live in the United States as U.S. citizens. Their presence is welcome by CRT, as it will reduce the traditional political and cultural dominance of the historically dominant Americans and their political principles, influence, and values. Negative Consequences for US National Security The changes sought by CRT also have implications for the U.S. position in the world and the stability of international politics. Two of those implications are particularly salient now. First, CRT discourse is being weaponized by the Chinese regime against U.S. interests. It was employed by Beijing against the United States at the March 18, 2021, meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts, Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. A Black Lives Matter riot in Portland, Oregon, in this undated photo. (Noah Berger/AP Photo) Yang argued in his opening statement that the United States faced many profound human rights problems, as evinced by the Black Lives Matter movement, which is anchored in CRT. Chinese officials recognize that making accusations of racism and systemic racism in U.S. society damages the United States and hinders the Biden administration. CRT has provided China with a bludgeon to employ against the United States to weaken the appeal of liberal ideology within China, in the United States, and internationally. But it also serves to discredit the position of the United States as a human rights leader. The Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) employment of systemic racism is one element of its political warfare campaign to advance its fundamental goal of undermining the position of the United States with other countries, including in the West. Second, theres the danger that CRT may have major consequences for U.S. national security in the struggle with China. Ideological stress between CRT and traditional American liberalism within the United States will generate political and societal disruption. This, in turn, will hinder the ability of the U.S. Department of Defense to recruit, maintain standards, employ the force to achieve its strategic objectives, and sustain the fight. Fundamentally, the U.S. political system is the foundation of U.S. interests and national security objectives. The Pentagon depends upon the U.S. political system to receive its orders, recruit its civilian members and servicemen and servicewomen, procure its equipment from industry, and fulfill its missions with the support of the American people. Accordingly, vulnerabilitiesincluding those in how America is defined and whether its a country thats fundamentally good and, thus, worth defendingmust be anticipated, identified, and addressed. Ideas are more important for national security than tanks or submarines. Ultimately, ideas determine public support for the U.S. military and so permit the United States to continue advancing its interests and obligations in international politics. More importantly, ideas define what America is, the nature of its polity, and its place in the world. Year after year, CRT has caused a significant ideological change within the country. The consequences of CRT extend far beyond Americas borders to U.S. allies and enemies, as well as to the Pentagon and the American people. Whether its so perceived, CRT is a U.S. national security issue and must be so considered. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. People cross a deserted street in Old Montreal on Feb. 8, 2022, during provincial restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes) Death Rate Rose Among Young Canadians During Pandemic Amid Surging Overdoses: StatCan Increased feelings of social isolation and a 95% jump in opioid-related deaths disproportionately hurt younger Canadians Excess mortality rates among younger Canadians rose as the COVID-19 pandemic wore on, which may have been the result of increased substance use and missed medical appointments, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency released the latest provisional data on April 14, which shows that overall excess mortalitymeaning more deaths than expected in a given periodclimbed to 28,987 in Canada from March 2020 to the end of November 2021. This amounts to 6 percent more deaths than would be expected if there were no pandemic, after accounting for population changes such as aging. Meanwhile, 28,600 deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 were reported during that period. The agency notes that in the three distinct periods of overall excess mortality observed in Canada since the start of the pandemic, the impacts of excess mortality shifted from mainly affecting older Canadians to increasingly affecting younger people, especially males. It adds that to some extent, this shift may be caused by increased indirect effects of the pandemic, such as missed medical appointments and increased substance use. Among Canadians under the age of 45, excess deaths rose in each of the three waves Statistics Canada recorded during the pandemic: from April 2020 to June 2020, from October 2020 to the end of January 2021, and from August to mid-November 2021. Males under the age of 45 saw excess deaths climb 11.8 percent in the first wave, 19.7 percent in the second wave, and 24.4 percent in the third wave. For women, excess deaths were 8.6 percent, 11.7 percent, and 17.6 percent respectively. According to federal government data released in March on opioid- and stimulant-related harms in Canada, there was a 95 percent increase in apparent opioid toxicity deaths (AOTDs) during the first year of the pandemic. Total AOTDs between April 2020 and March 2021 jumped to 7,224, almost double the 3,711 deaths in the corresponding months in the year prior to the pandemic. The latest figures show that national AOTDs continued to remain high in the first nine months of 2021, at a rate of about 20 deaths per day. Some 74 percent of these deaths occurred among males between January and September 2021, and the majority, for both males and females, were recorded among those aged 20 to 59 years. Stress Remains High A number of factors may have contributed to a worsening of the overdose crisis over the course of the pandemic, including the increasingly toxic drug supply, increased feelings of isolation, stress and anxiety, and changes in the availability or accessibility of services for people who use drugs, the government report reads. In a report from last December, Statistics Canada found in a national study that opioid poisoning-related hospitalizations have been highest among certain disadvantaged groups. They include those with lower levels of income and education, those who were unemployed or out of the labour force, those who self-identify as indigenous, those who live in lone parent households, and those who spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. The report also noted that stress levels remain high as the pandemic continues to challenge Canadians mental health. And it reiterated that the pandemic has caused more deaths than would be expected but not all from COVID-19, noting that poisonings and opioid overdoses are contributing to excess mortality. Nearly 50 percent of Canadians considered that their stress levels were somewhat or much worse than prior to the pandemic, the Statistics Canada report said. Among the population groups experiencing higher stress levels were people between 35 and 44 years of age. In a Nanos Research poll from January, 64 percent of Canadians aged 1834 reported that their mental health is worse or somewhat worse since the start of the pandemicthe highest of all age groups. A significant portion of younger Canadians reported that the two biggest factors for their decline in mental health were a loss of social contacts (67 percent), and the impact of lockdowns and public health restrictions (59 percent). The Public Health Agency of Canada said Canadians with mood disorders were more likely to turn to opioid pain relief medication, which it said has contributed to the overdose crisis that has been exacerbated by the challenges of the pandemic. Overdose Deaths Unprecedented, Terrifying In the first nine months of 2021, the most recent health department data indicated that 88 percent of all AOTDs occurred in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. B.C. led all provinces with a rate of 41.3 AOTDs per 100,000 people, compared to a rate of 33 deaths in Alberta and a rate of 18.3 deaths in Ontario. According to the BC Coroners Service, the province tallied a record 2,232 total illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2021, jumping 128 percent from the 981 deaths in 2019. With 382 deaths already confirmed in the first two months of 2022, B.C. is on pace for another record year. As we approach the sixth anniversary of the declaration of the public-health emergency into substance-related harms, we are continuing to lose members of our communities at an unprecedented and terrifying rate, B.C. Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a recent statement. Statistics Canada warned that its national excess mortality figures could be higher for 2021 because the data it released on April 14 is provisional due to reporting delays in some provinces. While the data, which does not include the territory of Yukon, shows that while excess deaths have been on the rise for younger Canadians, deaths actually dropped in the second and third waves for those aged 85 and older. In that older age group, for women, the first wave saw 22.5 percent excess deaths, followed by 10.4 percent and 3.8 percent in the subsequent waves, and for men, 17.4 percent excess deaths occurred in the first wave, followed by 13.1 percent and 6.4 percent in the subsequent waves. Debt-Ridden Sri Lanka Halts Share Trading for 5 Days Amid Mounting Crisis Sri Lankas Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) was ordered to close the stock market for five days from April 18 after the government announced its decision to suspend the repayment of billions of dollars in foreign debt. The Sri Lankan Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in an April 16 statement that CSEs board of directors has called for a temporary halt to trading, citing the present situation in the country. The SEC is of the view that it would be in the best interests of investors as well as other market participants if they are afforded an opportunity to have more clarity and understanding of the economic conditions presently prevalent, the statement reads. The SEC said it has also evaluated the impact the present situation in the country could have on the stock market, in particular the ability to conduct an orderly and fair market for trading in securities. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, saddled with dwindling foreign reserves and $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment over the next five years. Nearly $7 billion is due this year. The government said on April 12 that it was suspending foreign debt repayments. According to the countrys Finance Ministry, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assessed Sri Lankas foreign debt as unsustainable, and staying current on foreign debt payments is no longer a realistic policy for the country. The government intends to pursue its discussions with the IMF as expeditiously as possible with a view to formulating and presenting to the countrys creditors a comprehensive plan for restoring Sri Lankas external public debt to a fully sustainable position, the ministry stated. Sri Lankas national airline said that it had issued four requests for proposals to lease up to 21 aircraft by 2025 to support its business expansion strategy. Two requests for proposals address existing fleet types, while two parallel proposals address alternative aircraft types, Sri Lankas News First reported. The airline said that 60 percent of the planned aircraft would be used for fleet replacement, while the remainder would be used to support its expansion strategy and meet the growing demand for air travel between Sri Lanka and the world. Harsha de Silva, a member of parliament from the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya alliance, criticized the plan as nonsense, given the countrys ongoing financial crisis. Sri Lanka is bankrupt; no fuel, gas, or medicine. Where the hell is money for this nonsense?! Better immediately clarify, he wrote on Twitter. Sri Lanka is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, with its foreign exchange reserves plummeting by 70 percent in the past two years to about $2.31 billion, leaving it unable to pay for essential imports. Sri Lankans have been forced to wait in long lines to buy cooking gas, fuel, and milk powder, and doctors have said theres a catastrophic shortage of essential drugs in government hospitals. Protesters have camped out daily outside the presidents office, demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, blaming his government for the economic crisis. Rajapaksa has refused to yield power, saying the governing coalition would continue to rule Sri Lanka because opposition parties rejected its call for a unity government. The Associated Press contributed to this report. (L): Elon Musk speaks at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, On June 13, 2019. (R): Jack Dorsey speaks at the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York on May 16, 2018. (Mike Blake, Mike Segar/Reuters) Dorsey Rips Twitter Board for Dysfunction After Musk Accuses It of Failing to Represent Shareholders Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey penned a scathing tweet over the weekend, calling the companys board of directors a consistent source of dysfunction after Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused the Twitter board of failing to represent the interests of shareholders. Dorsey made the remark in a Twitter thread initiated by Garry Tan, co-founder of Initialized Capital, who wrote that having the wrong partner on your board can literally make a billion dollars in value evaporate, noting that its the reason for a surprising percentage of startup failures. Weighing in on Tans tweet was Tren Griffin, a former partner at private equity firm Eagle River, who shared an article on the impact of board dysfunction on businesses that cited Fred Destin, founder of venture capital firm Stride. What I do know for sure is that this old Silicon Valley proverb is grounded in age-old wisdom that still applies today: Good boards dont create good companies, but a bad board will kill a company every time, Destin was cited as saying. Dorsey commented in the thread by saying these were big facts, prompting a user to say that the history of the Twitter board shows that it has been mired in plots and coups so intriguing as to merit a Hollywood thriller one day. The Twitter board, Dorsey replied, has consistently been the dysfunction of the company. The Epoch Times has reached out to Twitter for comment. Dorseys remarks came on the heels of a statement by Musk, who accused the Twitter board of not representing the interests of its shareholders. Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders, Musk wrote on Twitter, replying to a post showing a chart of the ownership percentages of Twitter board members. Based on Twitters latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the 14 executive officers and directors own 2.7 percent of the companys share. Of the 2.7 percent, Jack Dorsey, the CEO turned board chair owns 2.4 percent and the others own only 0.3 percent. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, testifies at a hearing to examine foreign influence operations use of social media platforms before the Intelligence Committee at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 5, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Poison Pill Twitters board of directors approved on April 15 a provision known in the financial world as a poison pill to ward off Musks potential hostile takeover, after Musk said he wanted to buy the company for about $43 billion. The poison pill tactic has been used by other companies in the past to dilute outstanding stock and make a hostile takeover more financially challenging for the potential acquirer. Following earlier rumors that Twitter had been mulling a poison pill method after he launched his takeover bid, Musk wrote on Twitter that the move could expose the board to a titanic amount of liability because they would be breaching their fiduciary duty. Twitter said in an April 15 statement that the poison pill tactic, also known as a limited duration shareholder rights plan, was a move in the best interest of holders of Twitter stock, as it would reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders. Adam Candeub, a law professor at Michigan State University, told The Epoch Times before the shareholder rights plan decision was announced that the board could face legal consequences if they turn down an offer thats financially lucrative to shareholders. Twitters owned by shareholders, and the directors have to act in a way thats in their best interests, not in the way that allows them to keep control of the corporation, Candeub said. If they turn down a very favorable price, there will be dereliction of their legal duty, and there could be lots of legal consequences. Under Twitters poison pill provision, if any entity, person, or group acquires 15 percent or more of Twitters outstanding stock in a transaction not approved by the board, other stockholders will be able to buy additional shares of common stock at a lower price. Allen Zhong, Emel Akan, and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. Michael Sussmann in an undated interview. (CNN/Screenshot via NTD) Special counsel John Durham in 2018. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP) Durham: 5 Witnesses Connected to Clinton Campaign Refusing to Cooperate Special counsel John Durham revealed that five witnesses who have connections to the Clinton campaign are invoking their Fifth Amendment right and will not cooperate with his investigation, according to a recent court filing. In a motion filed (pdf) on April 15, Durham revealed that one unnamed individual, Researcher-2, was given immunity in exchange for testimony, while at least five other witnesses who conducted work relating to the Russian Bank-1 allegations invoked (or indicated their intent to invoke) their right against self-incrimination, referring to the Constitutions Fifth Amendment. The names of those five individuals were not provided in the filing, although they pertain to former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who is accused by Durham of lying to the FBI in 2016 when he met with the bureaus then-general counsel, James Baker, and told him that then-candidate Donald Trump had a secret back channel with a Russian bank. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said Durmans investigation is politically motivated. Researcher 2 was granted immunity by the government on July 28, 2021, about a month before Sussmann was indicted, according to Durhams filing. The Government therefore pursued Researcher-2s immunity in order to uncover otherwise-unavailable facts underlying the opposition research project that Tech Executive-1 and others carried out in advance of the defendants meeting with the FBI, the filing said. A spokesperson for Rodney Joffe told news outlets in February that he is Tech Executive-1 mentioned in Durhams filings. Joffe was previously in charge of a technology firm known as Neustar. Earlier this month, Durham, in court filings, sought to compel the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS, Democratic election firm Perkins Coie, and others to provide evidence in the Sussmann case. However, they have refused to hand over the documents and said they are protected by attorney-client privilege, according to Durham, who accused those entities of improperly withholding those documents. Durham further said that of 1,455 documents withheld by Fusion GPS, the firm that was heavily involved in the creation of the controversial and discredited Steele dossier on Trump, only 18 emails actually involve an attorney. This means, according to the prosecutor, that attorney-client privilege cannot be applied in the remaining tranche of documents. Days before that, Durham said Sussmann, Joffe, and Democrats engaged in a joint venture to gather and spread claims that Trump had a connection to the Russian governmentclaims that dominated the early portion of the Trump administration. Contrary to the allegations in this recent filing, Mr. Joffe is an apolitical Internet security expert with decades of service to the U.S. Government who has never worked for a political party, and who legally provided access to DNS data obtained from a private client that separately was providing DNS services to the Executive Office of the President (EOP), a spokesperson for Joffe said earlier this year. In that early April filing, Durham asserted that Fusion GPSs work [does] not appear to have been a necessary part of, or even related to, [Perkins Coies] legal advice to [the Clinton campaign] and the DNC. Instead, contemporaneous communications and other evidence make it clear that the primary purpose of [Fusion GPSs] work related to the [Steele] dossier, the [Russian bank] allegations, and the other issues was to assemble and publicize allegations that would aid the campaigns public relations goals, it reads. Meanwhile, in the same filing that was uploaded Friday, Durham said Sussmann met with a second government agency other than the FBI in February 2017 and handed over alleged evidence claiming to link Trump to Russia. Durham did not name the agency but reports indicated that it was the CIA. The CIA later concluded that the allegation about the secret channel and a separate allegation about Russian-manufactured phones was not technically plausible, did not withstand technical scrutiny, contained gaps, conflicted with [itself], and was user-created and not machine/tool generated, according to Durhams filing. People gather their luggage after arriving at Miami International Airport on a plane from New York on Feb. 1, 2021, in Miami, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Federal Judge Strikes Down CDC Mask Mandate for Planes, Travel The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDCs) mask mandate for airplanes and other forms of public transportation was struck down on April 18 by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said the CDC rule exceeded the agencys statutory authority because its implementation violated administrative law. Mizelle, a Trump appointee based in Florida, directed the agency to reverse the policy nationwide in response to a lawsuit filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund. The CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it didnt give notice before imposing the mandate in February 2021, Mizelle wrote in a 59-page summary judgment. At the time when the CDC issued the mandate, the COVID-19 pandemic had been ongoing for almost a year and COVID-19 cases were decreasing, she wrote. This timing undercuts the CDCs suggestion that its action was so urgent that a thirty-day comment period was contrary to the public interest. So too, the CDCs delay in issuing the mandate further undercuts its position. Public comment, in this case, is necessary, the judge wrote, because the mandate would constrain their choices and actions via threats and civil and criminal penalties. Mizelle also found that the mandate, which was imposed in February 2021, exceeded the CDCs statutory authority. The agency had claimed that the Public Health Services Act of 1944 gave it the power to regulate travelers, but the judge disagreed, finding that the law only grants the agency the ability to directly regulate individuals only if they are traveling into the United States from abroad or are reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease in a qualifying stage.' The CDC and the White House didnt respond to requests for comment. Its not clear if the Department of Justice will try to file an appeal or how quickly the ruling will be implemented across the United States, namely at airports. Several weeks ago, the CDC announced that it would extend the mask mandate until at least May 3, despite calls from airline companies and groups to end the policy. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky listens during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Capitol Hill on April 15, 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo/Pool) The judges decision is yet another blow to the Biden administrations COVID-19 mandates. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule directing tens of millions of workers at larger private companies to receive vaccines, but left intact a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule requiring health care workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Other CDC orders issued during the COVID-19 pandemic have also been struck down by judges, including an eviction moratorium and an order pertaining to cruises. Before COVID, the CDC had really played more of a background role, a sort of advise and consent role to the state public health authorities. It had never before sort of come to the forefront of a public health situation and said were going to dictate, directly dictate how people can conduct themselves and how people can use their property. And that was really unprecedented, Brant Hadaway, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the mask mandate case, told The Epoch Times. And so the pattern is really that when a federal agency, which is part of the executive branch of government, suddenly starts claiming newfound powers in a statute that has existed for decades, the courts are going to take a close look at that. And thats what the courts have been doing. Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, was among those disagreeing with the latest ruling, writing on Twitter that airports and travel hubs should be at the core of the CDCs legal authority in trying to reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. This is both a big deal and a truly preposterous (nationwide) injunction, Vladeck wrote. The CDCs statutory authority is specifically directed at preventing the spread of communicable diseases across state lines. Where else is such spread more likely to occur than transport hubs like airports? Starting earlier this year, a number of Democrat-led municipalities and states joined many of their Republican counterparts in rescinding mask and vaccine passport mandates as COVID-19 cases significantly dropped across the United States. However, Philadelphia has reinstated a general mask mandate in recent days, drawing a lawsuit from local business owners. Earlier this month, several major airline CEOs pleaded with the Biden administration to drop the CDCs mask order. We are encouraged by the current data and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions from coast to coast, which indicate it is past time to eliminate COVID-era transportation policies, a group of CEOs wrote in a letter to the White House. American Airlines, United Airlines Holdings, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines were among those who signed the document. They stated that much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context, before making note of a persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates. Jack Phillips Breaking News Reporter Follow Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York. Former Journalist Calls on Australians to Cast Off the Marxist Paradigm at Next Election After 16 years in Hong Kong, Damian Coory saw the gradual encroachment of big government come to a head with the Umbrella protest movement in 2014, which saw hundreds of thousands of students occupy the busy streets of the financial hub in reaction to Beijings growing control. The public relations director and former TV news reporter decided it was a good time to return to his home country of Australia, where he discovered that it had changed dramatically. I was very concerned about the extent to which left-wing ideology had taken hold in this country from the 20 years when I left, he told The Epoch Times. I think Australia has shifted into a dangerous zonethe culture has definitely shifted, and most expatriate Australians returning have the same view. Motivated to act, Coory briefly joined the Liberal Party of Australia before settling on the classical liberal-leaning Liberal Democrat party to compete for the seat of Ryan in Brisbanes west. Coory said universities and schools no longer taught the benefits of liberalism, and in this vacuum, a Marxist paradigm had taken hold insteadwhere society is seen as a constant struggle for power between different classeswith little airtime (and tolerance) available for right-wing, conservative, or traditional points of view. Damian Coory, public relations director and former TV journalist, is now standing as a Liberal Democrat candidate for the seat of Ryan in Brisbanes west. (Supplied/Damian Coory) We have a one-track political mind in this country, that somebodys oppressing someone all the time, and thats a Marxist paradigm, he explained. The fault in my life, the issues in my life are related to what someone else is doing. One example has been the playing up of the rich-poor dichotomy during prolonged lockdowns in Sydney, where commentators claimed discrimination of the lower socio-economic parts of Sydney (namely western Sydney) at the expense of the wealthier eastern suburbs. Other examples include the gender wars, the struggling family law system, identity politics, and the stalemate between unions and employers exemplified by the industrial relations system. Read More Our 1776 Moment: Either a Liberal or Progressive America At the same time, Coory said modern progressivism had opened the door for the state to assume more control over the lives of Australians at the expense of individual responsibility. In my electorate, parents are very concerned about what kids are being taught at school, and how identity and sexuality are being addressed institutionally instead of from within the familyas well as the decline of the family and individual as the unit of society towards one where the government was the unit, he said. The governments management of COVID-19 was a bellwether of this trend, with state authorities choosing a heavily interventionist approach to contain the pandemic, including lockdowns and restrictionslike the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Coorys experience running a public relations firm in Hong Kong showed him that once the pendulum shifts and the government becomes more powerful than the peoplethen its a downhill ride from there. My biggest issue is that these conversations are not being had in Australia, that people dont talk about this stuff because we take freedom for granted, he said. Economist Gigi Foster of the University of New South Wales has expressed similar concerns, saying the pandemic revealed a culture of compliance within Australia. WA Police inspect cars at a Border Check Point on Indian Ocean Drive north of Perth, Australia, on Jun. 29, 2021. (Photo by Matt Jelonek/Getty Images) For many people: they go to bed at night thinking theyve had a good day if they have worn their masks all day, gotten their COVID shots as dictated, and chastised a few teenagers for not adequately socially distancing, she previously told The Epoch Times. Foster also criticised the major political parties for not acknowledging the problems with the countrys approach to dealing with the pandemicwhich will leave Australia with an AU$963 billion debt in June 2022 (45.1 percent of GDP). To have gone along with the madness initially is bad enough, she said. For them still today not to acknowledge their mistakes, and instead to try to distract attention away to other policy areas, suggests that they are hoping to evade justice for their betrayals. Mark Latham, leader of the One Nation party in New South Wales, observed that in the current election, issues important to ordinary Australians were being swept away by the speed of the news cycle and social media. Theres a new issue every 10 minutes, he told Radio 2HD in Newcastle on April 14. I think they (the major parties) start to focus on things that arent mainstream issues for people in the suburbs and regions of Australia. The leading one is this federal [anti-corruption body] ICACthe media want to bang on about it, but the need for it is not clear, and its very expensive. So thats one issue that tends to pop-up thats nowhere near as important as how you run the economy, how you deal with China, how you get a better education system in place for our children. The Australian flag is seen on the Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on April 1, 2022. (Rebecca Zhu/The Epoch Times) Meanwhile, Coory conceded the challenges for the current centre-right Coalition government to maintain power when the dominant political discourse is progressive and left-wing. However, it can be done, and to do so requires strong leadership. It requires a leader thats prepared to put away the market research. And instead of being responsive, be proactive, he said. Steve Jobs once said, We dont do market research on iPhones because nobody knows what it is. He called for a return to a plurality of political discourse while advocating for the funding model for public broadcasters like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to be changed. People who are left-wing in their thinking dont perceive bias because they dont know what theyre not discussing, he said. The assumption is that the philosophy of identity politics, victimhood, and the oppressed-oppressor paradigm is the norm. We just need to push the pendulum back the other way, a little bit, he added. I dont think all is lost; Im optimistic. I do believe in the human spirit, and I believe liberalism is an ideology that is connected to reality, while [Marxism] socialism is an ideology trying to create a fake reality or utopia. Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 29, 2022. (Martin Ollman/Getty Images) Health and Welfare Rely on New Mines for Funding: Australian Deputy PM Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has reminded voters not to forget where funding for health and welfare comes from when they drop their votes on the ballot box on May 21. Whichever party wins the upcoming federal election can determine the prospect of at least three coal mines in Queensland. Election campaigns in many electorates have revolved around renewable energy and discontinuing fossil fuel use as a new wave of independent candidates is targeting Coalition MPs with calls for more decisive action on carbon emissions reduction. The Green party also wants to win some new Senate seats by promoting more environmental policies with ambitious goals. Expressing his support for more coal development, the deputy prime minister said a coalition government would invest in things that generate revenue for the economy. Medicare and social security have to be paid for, he told the Seven Network on April 18. We are the side that is brave enough to say that we make it from iron and coal and gas. And if we lose sight of that, were not making the money that can support all of the vital economic and social infrastructure so important to this nation. This picture shows a conveyor bridge dumping soil and sand removed at another area of a coal mine in the town of Singleton, in Newcastle, Australia, on Nov. 5, 2021. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) Meanwhile, Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said her party was willing to have a debate on economic management with the Coalition. This is a government that actually doubled the debt before COVID-19 hit, she said. The Morrison government and the Howard government are the two highest taxing governments in the last 30 years. In addition, she said the Coalition government had acknowledged that it intentionally kept wages at low levels while managing the economy. We want to lift that (cost of living) burden to make sure that they have good jobs and a pay rise and cheaper childcare and cheaper healthcare and an easier life, Plibersek said. At the same time, the Green party leader Adam Bandt said that a critical test for the incoming government would be how to deal with three new coal mines in Queenslands Galilee Basin. If you open new coal mines, youre not serious about climate, he said. In a related development, when speaking with reporter Andrea Crothers from Sky News recently, Joyce emphasised that the threat from China was a more significant issue to Australia than the net-zero debate. He also said that investing in projects that would grow the economy was important to the countrys national security. The difference is here making sure you get the investment and the infrastructure so that you have the capacity to extract more wealth, grow more wealth, develop more wealth, manufacture more wealth because we need it, he said, as reported by Sky News on April 15. Meanwhile, the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which provides independent updated information on the economy and budget for the public to review before the election day, will be published by the Treasury in the week commencing April 18. When, the summer before last, the results of the first Covid wave began to be tallied in the media, there were different ways of measuring the devastation. One way of looking at the pandemic was to focus on how many people died more than half a million around the world by the end of June. Another was to try assessing the complicated impacts of the various measures taken to combat the virus. When a lot of the functions in society were frozen, people struggled especially the most vulnerable. For those who preferred the first perspective, there was plenty of data to lean on. Meticulous records of the death toll were being kept in most countries, especially the wealthy ones, and presented in stylish graphs on various sites: the Johns Hopkins University website, Worldometer, Our World in Data. It was a lot harder to measure the consequences of the lockdowns. They appeared here and there as scattered anecdotes and figures. Perhaps the most striking data point came from the US: by the end of the academic year, a total of 55.1 million students had been affected by school closures. But still, the death toll was more interesting. In early summer, The New York Times had published a front page completely devoid of pictures. Instead, it contained a long list of people who had died: a thousand names, followed by their age, location, and a very brief description. Alan Lund, 81, Washington, conductor with the most amazing ear; Harvey Bayard, 88, New York, grew up directly across the street from the old Yankee Stadium. And so on. It was The New York Timess national editor who had noticed that the US death toll was about to pass 100,000, and so wanted to create something memorable something you could look back on in 100 years to understand what society was going through. The front page was reminiscent of what a newspaper might look like during a bloody war. It brought to mind the way American TV stations had reported the names of fallen soldiers at the end of every day during the Vietnam War. The idea spread quickly across the world. A few weeks later, in Sweden, the front page of Dagens Nyheter was covered with 49 colour photographs below the words: One Day, 118 Lives. Those 118 people had passed away on 15 April. It was the highest daily death toll recorded throughout the Spring. Since then, it had steadily been falling. When the epidemiologist Johan Giesecke read the paper, it left him a little puzzled. On any normal day, 275 people die in Sweden, he thought. Hed spent a large part of his life studying just that: where, when, and how people die. The way the world currently thought about death was, to him, completely alien. When hed taken part in an online conference in Johannesburg, one participant had pointed out that, in that year alone, more than 2 million people had died of hunger in the world. During the same period, Covid-19 had claimed between 200,000 and 300,000 lives. Giesecke felt as though the world was going through a self-inflicted global disaster. If things had simply been left to run their course, it would have been over by now. Instead, millions of children were being deprived of their education. In some countries, they werent even allowed to go to playgrounds. From Spain came stories of parents sneaking down into parking garages with their children to let them run around. Tens of thousands of surgeries had been postponed by healthcare services. Screenings for everything from cervical to prostate cancer were put on ice. This wasnt just happening in other countries. Sweden had seen its fair share of peculiar decisions, too. The Swedish police hadnt tested drivers for insobriety for months, out of fear of the virus. This year, it didnt seem quite as serious if someone were to get killed by a drunk driver. It was becoming obvious that the media, the politicians, and the public had a hard time assessing the risks of the new virus. To most people, the figures didnt mean anything. But they saw the healthcare services getting overwhelmed in several countries. They heard the testimonies from nurses and doctors. Here and there in the world in Germany, the UK, Ecuador people had been taking to the streets to protest the rules, laws, and decrees curtailing their lives. From other countries came reports that people were starting to flout the restrictions. But the force of the resistance remained weaker than Giesecke had expected. There had been no French revolution, no global backlash. One explanation for the citizens passivity might have been the coverage of the deadliness of the virus in the media; it seemed they had been fed a non-contextualised picture of how serious the Covid-19 pandemic really was. During the Spring and Summer, the global consultancy firm Kekst CNC had asked people in five big democracies the UK, Germany, France, the US, and Japan about all kinds of things relating to the virus and society. The sixth country in the survey was Sweden. Sweden was a lot smaller than the other countries, but was included due to the unique path it was taking through the pandemic. The questions were about everything, ranging from peoples opinions on actions taken by the authorities, to the state of the job market, and on whether they thought their governments were providing sufficient support to trade and industry. The twelfth and final topic in the survey contained two questions: How many people in your country have had the coronavirus? How many people in your country have died? At the same time as increasingly reliable figures were trickling in with regard to the actual deadliness of Covid-19, there was now a study of the number that people believed had died. In the US, the average guess in mid-July was that 9% of the population had died. If that had been true, it would have corresponded to almost 30 million Americans deaths. The death toll was thus overestimated by 22,500% or 225 times over. In the UK as well as in France and Sweden, the death toll was exaggerated a hundredfold. The Swedish guess of 6% would have corresponded to 600,000 deaths in the country. By then, the official death toll was more than 5,000 and inching closer to 6,000. Reporting the average guess was perhaps a little misrepresentative, as some people replied with very high numbers. In the UK, the most common answer was that around 1% of the population had died in other words, a lot less than the 7% average. But it was still a figure that overestimated the number of deaths more than tenfold. At this point, 44,000 Brits had been registered dead or around 0.07% of the population. The breakdown of the numbers further showed that more than a third of the Brits responded with a figure of over 5% of the population. This would have been like the whole population of Wales dropping dead. It would have meant many times more Brits dying of Covid-19 than during the entire Second World War civilian and military casualties included. The war rhetoric brandished by the leaders of the world had had an impact. Their citizens really did believe they were living through a war. Then, two years into the pandemic, the war ended. There were no longer any foreign journalists at the Swedish Public Health Agencys press conferences. No Americans, Brits, Germans, or Danes asked why schools were staying open, or why the country hadnt gone into lockdown. In large part, this was because the rest of the world had quietly begun to live with the new virus. Most of the worlds politicians had given up hope on both lockdowns and school closures. And yet, considering all those articles and TV segments that had been produced about Swedens foolishly libertarian attitude to the pandemic, considering the way some data sources had been referenced daily by the worlds media, this sudden lack of interest was strange. For anyone still interested, the results were impossible to deny. By the end of 2021, 56 countries had registered more deaths per capita from Covid-19 than Sweden. With regard to the restrictions that the rest of the world had put so much faith in school closures, lockdowns, face masks, mass testing Sweden had more or less gone in the opposite direction. Yet its results were not noticeably different from those of other countries. It was beginning to become increasingly clear that the political measures that had been deployed against the virus were of limited value. But no one spoke about this. From a human perspective, it was easy to understand why so many were reluctant to face the numbers from Sweden. For the inevitable conclusion must be that millions of people had been denied their freedom, and millions of children had had their education disrupted, all for nothing. Who would want to be complicit in that? Republished from Brownstone Institute Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A British National Overseas passports (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China passport are seen in Hong Kong, on Jan. 29, 2021. (Kin Cheung/AP Photo) Hongkongers in UK Concerned Over CCP Sympathisers in Welcoming Groups A civil society group helping Hongkongers settle down in the UK has expressed concerns that the UK governments welcoming fund for new Hong Kong arrivals has gone to groups with alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Hongkongers in Britain (HKB), an ex-pat group founded by Hong Kong activist Simon Cheng, called on the government to reach out to Hongkongers beyond the well-established Chinese groups which may be subtly open to the Chinese regime. Following the imposition of Beijings draconian National Security Law in Hong Kong in June 2020, the UK opened a special visa programme allowing British National (Overseas) status holders from the former British colony and their eligible family members to resettle in the UK. The government also launched a welcome package, including grants for charities and community groups that help Hongkongers settle in. Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, the 23rd anniversary of the citys handover from Britain to China. (Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images) But HKB is concerned that some of the more established groups may have the United Front Work Department (UFWD)the CCPs overseas propaganda unitlurking behind. HKB has grave concerns about the CCPs United Front Work, which is targeting BN(O) Hongkongers and overseas Chinese people. It risks neutering our political asylum, and endangers democracy and freedom just what BN(O) visa-holders came here to find, the group said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. According to The Times of London, Hongkongers fear that two of the successful grant recipients under the Hong Kong BN(O) Welcome Programmethe Chinese Community CentreBirmingham (CCC-B) and Chinese Association of Southampton (CAS)may have been infiltrated. According to CCC-Bs website, two of the three directors of the organisation, which receives 34,719 ($45,167) government funding under the BN(O) Welcome Programme, have worked with the British Chinese Project; one as the chair of the projects Birmingham team, the other as a project coordinator. The British Chinese Project was founded by Christine Ching Kui Lee, who the MI5 in January said had been knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the UFWD. The Times of London said that James Wong, who is listed on CCC-Bs website as a patron, had been awarded a visit to China that was sponsored by the CCPs Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which has since been absorbed by the UFWD. Dr. Ping Hua, a research scientist at the University of Southampton who cofounded the CAS and chaired the organisation between 2002 and 2011, last year voiced her defence of the Chinese regime. Writing in the British socialist newspaper the Morning Star ahead of a so-called Stop Racism, Stop Anti-Asian Hate rally in November 2021, Hua accused the United States of causing a witch hunt against China by creating appalling lies and fabrications on human rights issues, including what she said were unwarranted charges concerning Xinjiang provocative subversion in Hong Kong, and encouraging Taiwans independence in order to violently interfere in Chinas internal affairs. The Epoch Times previously reported that a scuffle broke out during the rally, where witnesses saw Hongkongers who were staging a counter-protest were harassed, chased, and attacked with blunt objects. Scuffles broke out between two rallies in Chinatown in London on Nov. 27, 2021. (Wen Dongqing/The Epoch Times) CAS also holds its Chinese New Year celebrations with the Confucius Institute, which is operated under Hanban, an organsation under Chinas Ministry of Education. So we might have political refugees who fled the CCP, you know, theyre in a situation where theyre celebrating Chinese New Year with people thatthey might not knowanswer to the Chinese government, Sam Dunning, the author of The Times of Londons report, said on Monday in an interview with Times Radio. Dunning said that apart from official UFWD agents, people are also wary of unwitting agents of United Front activities such as unwittingly passing information about a pro-democracy Hong Kong activist to a group chat or conflating criticism of the CCP with anti-Chinese racism. This is the kind of unwitting behaviour which I think some of these Hongkongers are afraid of, and they just want reassurance in many cases, he said. The CAS receives 20,130 ($26,188) government funding under the BN(O) Welcome Programme. HKB issued a statement calling on UK politicians to take action. Hongkongers fleeing from the oppressive regime should not be hosted and represented by the regimes sympathiser(s), the statement said, adding it is not what BN(O) visas were meant to be. The group also called on the UK to wake up to the CCPs use of anti-racism language to stifle criticisms against the regime, saying while it appreciates the value of being respectful, tolerant, and patient to differences, tolerating the intolerance, which is the approach of totalitarian regimes also in China and Hong Kong, will end up eradicating pluralism in the end. Commenting on Twitter, Benedict Rogers, co-founder and CEO of the Hong Kong Watch NGO, said the alleged connection is deeply concerning, and that the UK government needs to be more aware of CCP infiltration. Campaigner Benedict Rogers speaks at a rally for democracy in Hong Kong at Trafalgar Square in London, England, on June 12, 2021. (Laurel Chor/Getty Images) CCC-B said the concerns are unfounded and it is offended by what it calls damaging and malicious allegations that CCC-B has been influenced by the CPC and is monitoring HK BNOs in the UK. A CAS spokesman told The Times of London that Hua was no longer a member. The demonstrations in Hong Kong during 2019 have highly charged the political landscape and relations between Hong Kong, China, and the UK. We do not wish for this toxicity to seep into the non-toxic environment which our charity has cultivated for decades in which its purpose is for purely the celebration of Chinese culture and traditions (Hong Kong included), which date back thousands of years before the takeover of China by the CCP. We as an organisation do not hold any political opinions regarding current issues, the CAS said. The reason why we applied for government funding for the Hong Kong BNO Welcome programme is that we as a non-profit charity aim to help Hong Kong people to successfully settle down in the UK, to integrate with and to contribute to British society, in accordance with British values and traditions including the support of freedom, free speech and democracy, it added. We work closely with the British government and the local council, and we adhere to the rules and regulations closely. It is a shame that although CAS has made genuine and considerable efforts in partnership with the British government, to help and support the newcomers from Hong Kong to settle, we nonetheless have still been pulled into the highly charged and toxic environment of politics. We do not want this, and this has served only to prevent and degrade our ability to provide the necessary help to the people that need it. House GOPers Preparing Political Earthquake With Legislation to Withdraw NEAs Federal Charter A bill co-sponsored by 18 House Republicans would remove the National Education Associations (NEA) 116-year-old federal charter because of the unions hyper-partisanship and support for extreme ideological policies such as critical race theory (CRT). The NEA can no longer be considered a public service worthy of its federal charter as it has drifted substantially from its core mission and become a massive political operation dedicated to electing Democrats and imposing a radical progressive agenda on Americas schools, reads the bill, HR 7510, which was introduced April 14. The NEA was chartered in 1906 by Congress to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States, according to HR7510. To date, the NEA is the only federally chartered labor union and, with that charter, it is receiving a seal of approval from and support of their actions by Congress, according to the proposal. But the teachers union has strayed far from its original purpose, as reflected in the fact that, according to the proposal, disclosures made to the [Department of Labor] Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), from Sept. 6, 2019, to August 2021, the NEA spent over $116.7 million on political activities and lobbying, and in the 2020 election cycle, 95.7 percent of candidate campaign contributions by the NEA went to Democrat candidates. Data compiled by opensecrets.org shows that between 2012 and 2020, Democratic congressional candidates received 93 percent of NEA campaign contributions in Senate and House races. The bill text further notes that in the organizations July 2021 conference, NEA officials adopted measures to support critical race theory, calling it reasonable and appropriate, and to spend $56,500 on researching and shaming organizations fighting the inclusion of critical race theory in schools. Critical race theory is the neo-Marxist view that all U.S. economic, political, and social institutions, including schools, since before the nations founding have been and continue to be organized to advantage white individuals and disadvantage people of color, including blacks, Hispanics and other nonwhite persons. Its also a CRT claim that all white individuals are inherently and unalterably racist, while all persons of color are inherently and unalterably victims of white racism. At the same conference, NEA officials also expressed support for the right to abortion, supporting illegal immigrant justice, and expanding professional development for educators to help create student Gender Sexuality Alliance clubs. The bill text further notes that in 2021, NEA board member Mollie Paige Mumau wrote on Facebook that shooting people hiding behind religious exemptions to vaccine mandates would be quicker and ultimately safer than putting me and my friends and family at risk. Co-sponsors of the proposal include GOP Reps. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, Jim Banks of Indiana, Doug Lamborn of Colorado, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Brian Mast of Florida, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Mary Miller of Illinois, Buddy Carter of Georgia, Bob Good of Virginia, John Rose of Tennessee, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee, Greg Steube of Florida, Kat Cammack of Florida, Mark Green of Tennessee, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, and Andy Harris of Maryland. The bill has been endorsed by the American Principles Project, America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Club for Growth, Concerned Women for America LAC, ForAmerica, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, Independent Womens Voice (IWV), National Right to Work Committee (NRTW), and Young Americas Foundation (YAF). A spokesman for the NEA didnt respond by press time to The Epoch Times request for comment. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. With Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a slim Democratic majority in control of the lower chamber of Congress, the NEA charter repeal proposal has little chance of passage. The proposal, however, would stand an excellent chance of passage next year if voters return Republicans to a majority in the House, a development that would shake U.S. politics to its foundations because of the power and influence of the NEA and other education unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The introduction of HR7510 follows the publication of a report earlier this year by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) that found that Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the leader of the National Education Association (NEA), confirmed to Education Week that the core business of the NEA is no longer [teacher] pensions and health insurance, but social activism and political lobbying. The GAI report also found that data from the U.S. Department of Labor reveal that between 2006 and 2020, AFT and NEA donated approximately $726,200 to Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN bills itself as a leading national organization working to guarantee LGBTQ+ students safe and affirming education.' The GAI analysis further reported that research indicates that over the last three years, the AFT and NEA have donated approximately $3 million to pass-through groups that then fund Black Lives Matter, the far-left racial activist group that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate and charitable contributions in recent years, most of which, according to a growing chorus of critics across the political spectrum, is either unaccounted for or misspent. In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, Fitzgerald said that rather than supporting students, the NEA consistently puts the interests of progressive teachers unions over the learning of students. It is time for Congress to say enough is enough and revoke the NEAs federal charter. Banks told The Epoch Times on April 18 that the NEA has become nothing more than a union arm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). In fact, during the last election cycle, the NEA gave more than 95 percent of its political donations to Democrats. Congress should not be actively helping a radical leftist group indoctrinate our children, and I appreciate Rep. Fitzgeralds leadership on this initiative. How Media, Politicians Play a Role in Raising the Activism Temperature News Analysis Grigori Khaskin owns and operates Euro Food Tri-City in Coquitlam, B.C., where he sells foodstuffs from eastern Europe, including countries like Ukraine, Romania, and Czech Republic. Its what he hopes will be the final chapter in a storied working career, which has included helping clean up the Chernobyl nuclear site after the catastrophe in 1986, followed by two decades teaching at Simon Fraser University. However, with a Russian-sounding name and a store selling Russian products, something Khaskin never would have anticipated happenedhe became the victim of a series of vicious online attacks after Russias invasion of Ukraine. I was born in Ukraine, and I lived in Ukraine my entire life before I came to Canada, he told The Epoch Times. And now Im a Russian terrorist, a fascist. Its a little bit ironic. Kashkins store and staff, more than half of whom are from Ukraine, have received vile threats, including death threats, primarily on the stores Facebook page, followed by a campaign to target the businesss favourable ratings. A few kilometres away sits Drevo Russian School, which received similar threats as Euro Food, leading the school to post Canadas official statement condemning Russias aggression against Ukraine on its website. In nearby Vancouver, the Russian Community Centre was damaged around the same time when vandals threw blue and yellow paint on the doors and walls of its theatre entrance. Local police have been investigating all three situations. So far, no arrests have been made. In fact, Canada has seen few arrests and fewer charges related to the escalation in activism in recent months, and that includes the attack on a Coastal GasLink worksite near Houston, B.C., in mid-February that caused millions of dollars in damage, and the arson and vandalism of 68 churches across the country last summer. Some academics argue that actions such as the attacks on Russian businesses or the assault on Canadian churches are part of a growing trend in activism today, where people align themselves with a cause they passionately believe they must support, regardless of the consequencesand politicians and media have inflamed the divide. Damaged heavy machinery is shown in this TFeb. 17, 2022, RCMP handout photo near Houston, B.C. RCMP say they are investigating a violent confrontation between workers building the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. and a group of about 20 people armed with axes. (The Canadian Press/HO, RCMP) Philip Salzman, professor emeritus of anthropology at McGill University, says derogatory labelling has played a role in raising the activism temperature. All you have to do is label [a particular group or cause] as something horrible, and politicians have jumped in and have been doing that enthusiastically. Most political entities have used the pandemic in order to bolster their power and take power away from other people. Youve seen an egregious example in Canada with the declaration of emergency powers, he told The Epoch Times. The truckers werent calling for cancelling anybody. They werent calling anybody evil. They certainly were not engaged in any kind of violence whatsoever. But their bouncy castle, apparently, was a great threat to the government of Canada. Before the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa at the end of January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the truckers and supporters of the convoy a small fringe minority who hold unacceptable views. Numerous other elected officials disparaged the Freedom Convoy protesters, including Ottawa City Councillor Diane Deans, who called them a threat to our democracy. In mid-February, in a controversial move, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to clear the convoy protest site in downtown Ottawa, which had lasted for almost three weeks. In response to the church burnings last year, Trudeau condemned them but then followed up by saying he sympathized with the motivation for the vandalism given the history of the residential schools. I understand the anger thats out there against the federal government, against institutions like the Catholic church, he said in a press conference in July 2021. It is real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we are all becoming more and more aware of, and engaging ourselves to do better as Canadians. Pitting Canadians Against Canadians In recent months, Vancouver has developed into one of the countrys hot spots for activism, including regular protests outside media networks in a campaign titled The Media Is The Virus. One of the organizers behind this movement, Marcella Desjarlais, points an accusatory finger at todays journalism. Some of the things that the media puts out there is propagating fear and causing division, Desjarlais said in an interview. Theyre making identifiable groups visible, like the unvaxxed and the unmasked, and they become the enemy of the country. Weve become terrorists. And so its pitting Canadian citizens against Canadian citizens when all we want is our freedom and our rights respected. While bias in media reporting has been alleged for years, the past two years of COVID coverage, coupled with the Freedom Convoys pursuit to remove government-imposed restrictions, have left some claiming that Canadas press has been choosing sides. Anita Krishna, a former television director with a well-established Canadian media outlet, says that although she and her co-workers werent obligated to adhere to a company policy on how to cover a story, in retrospect she could see the prejudice creep into the newsroom. Krishna said her network framed social justice causes favourably, even when vandalism, arson, and looting had taken place. But when covering somebodys vaccination status or the people who protested being forced to reveal it, the station had a different stance. A woman dances and waves a Canadian flag during the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa on Feb. 12, 2022. (The Epoch Times/Noe Chartier) Nobodys judging anybody or criticizing anybody in the Black Lives Matter protests because we are presenting that in a way where youre justified to do those things. But boy, are we ever judging the unvaccinated, she told The Epoch Times. Its perfectly OK to tell those protesters to go home. Perfectly OK to tell those protesters to get a hobby. It is perfectly OK to put things on [TV] asking if its OK to not want to sit beside your unvaccinated co-worker. Joseph Quesnel, a senior research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who worked in journalism for 15 years, says when it comes to the coverage of the convoy protests, media outlets were very afraid of reporting on anything that questioned the dominant narratives. A lot of the hostile coverage by the media about the Freedom Convoy was really about attacking the messenger because they personally didnt like the message, Quesnel said in an interview. They persisted in calling the convoy an anti-vaccination protest when it was about mandates and restrictions. And that was unfortunate because it caused people to have a black and white mentality that if you question anything to do with the mandates, it was OK to disrespect those people or call them selfish without even looking at the reasons why they were adopting those positions. Salzman says theres a spiritual gap growing in society, which, combined with constant social and media messaging about politically correct discourse, has caused more polarization on issues people with opposing views once used to be able to talk about. Now, youre not just disagreeing over factual matters, youve expressed evil, he said. And the desire is not to correct you by making better arguments, but to cancel youto get you fired, to punish you, to isolate you from other people and to say youre out of civilized society. Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House in Washington on May 22, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Hunter Bidens China Business Deals Should Raise Alarm Bells, Author Says As a federal investigation into Hunter Biden moves forward, his tangled business dealings, in particular those related to China, are drawing greater scrutiny. Author Peter Schweizer, who wrote the book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, recently told The Epoch Times that there is one simple way people can look at Hunter Bidens business activities. During the Cold War, It would have raised alarm bells if Jimmy Carters or Ronald Reagans family, were found to have received millions from Russian businessmen connected to the KGB, according to Schweizer. Thats what happened here. All were doing is replacing the KGB with the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS). Its the exact same story and it ought to be setting off the exact alarm bells, he said, referring to the Chinese regimes top intelligence agency. Recent attention has been on a damaged laptop that was dropped off at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware in April 2019. The owner of the shop, who said the customer of the laptop never came back to retrieve it, made a copy of the hard drive for former New York Mayor Rudy Guilianis lawyer Robert Costello. A man walks past The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware on Oct. 21, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) Ahead of the November 2020 presidential election, the New York Post and Senate committees were among the first to obtain and review emails on the hard drive, revealing how Joe Biden, his brother James, and his son Hunter Biden, were involved in various foreign business ventures, in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, and China. At the time, many media outlets discredited the revelations as Russian disinformation and the news was blocked by social media platforms. The Washington Post and the New York Times authenticated the emails and published their own reports relating to Hunters laptop only last month. Were very clear that the Bidens got some $31 million, based on the laptop, from a series of deals that happened beginning when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States. And those deals happened courtesy of four Chinese businessmen, Schweizer said. All four Chinese businessmen were directly linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, he added. The fact that these Chinese businessmen would want to talk to the Bidens was interesting, Schweizer said, since the latter did not bring any capital or investors to the table, something financial investment firms would do. Surely, the Chinese businessmen werent philanthropies either, he added, the question then became what they wanted in return. When you look at the cluster of who provided the funds to the Bidens, and the fact that the Bidens did not really provide anything tangible in return, this has all the markings of elite capture and of a Chinese intelligence operation, he said. Ties According to his book, one of the Chinese businessmen was a Chinese tycoon named Che Feng, who helped Hunter Biden and his associates secure a deal involving a Chinese investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). Schweizer said the deal netted him about $20 million. Rosemont Seneca Partners, a U.S. investment and advisory firm Hunter Biden co-founded, became one of the shareholders of BHR, which was incorporated in Shanghai in 2013. Hunter gained an unpaid board seat on BHR as a result. In October 2019, George Mesires, Hunter Bidens attorney, issued a statement saying that the younger Biden had decided to resign from his seat on the BHR board of directors. Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake in BHR but divested as of November last year, his lawyer told The New York Times. Che was business partners with Ma Jian, who was then-vice minister of Chinas MSS and was reportedly headed the ministrys No. 8 bureau, which targeted foreigners with its counterintelligence apparatus, according to the book. Soldiers of the Peoples Liberation Army march in front of the entrance of the Forbidden City in Beijing on May 20, 2020. (Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images) Ma was vice minister of state security from 2006 until January 2015, when he was placed under Party investigation for corruption, amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign initiated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2012. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2018, after being found guilty of accepting bribes, insider trading, and making coercive business deals. Before his political downfall, Ma was a key member of a political faction loyal to former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin. The so-called Jiang faction is known for opposing Xis leadership. Che, who is also the son-in-law of Dai Xianlong, the former governor of Chinas central bank, was also named in the 2017 Paradise Papers for making about $14.6 million in preferred stocks through his offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands between 2009 and 2013. According to Chinese media, Che was placed under investigation in June 2015. [Che] would fade from the [BHR] deal after both he and Ma were arrested and charged with money laundering and bribery, respectively. But the partnership between Hunter and Chinese officials was off and running, according to his book. Deals Schweizer said he wrote in his book how some deals made by the BHR were benefiting the Chinese state in its competition with the United States. One such deal allegedly involved BHR buying an anchor investment stake in a Chinese state-owned nuclear company called China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN). The investment was made within a year before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accused CGN of nuclear espionage. In April 2016, the DOJ unsealed an indictment against CGN and its engineer Allen Ho for conspiracy to unlawfully engage and participate in the production and development of special nuclear material outside the United States, without the required authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy. Ho, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China who held dual residency in Delaware and China, was sentenced to two years in prison for violating the U.S. Atomic Energy Act in August 2017. The logo of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is seen during the International Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, on June 25, 2017. (Eric Piermont/AFP via Getty Images) Another deal involved the BHR and its Chinese partner AVIC Auto acquiring Henniges in 2015, a U.S. maker of anti-vibration technologies with civilian and military applications. AVIC Auto is a subsidiary of Chinas state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). Schweizer said the acquisition was suspicious given that AVIC has a long history of engaging in espionage in the United States. The Pentagon has identified both CGN and AVIC among many Chinese companies having ties to the Chinese military. AVIC is currently also on the U.S. investment blacklist. AVIC was the beneficiary of a hacking campaign from 2010 to 2015 carried out by hackers associated with MSS, during which several U.S. companies, including Honeywell and General Electric, were breached, according to a 2019 report. The campaign allowed AVICs shareholding company AECC to domestically produce an aircraft engine similar to a foreign design. So the bottom line is, there are very serious implications for these deals, Schweizer said. Ive never seen anything like this involving a political family this prominent. The White House and Hunter Bidens attorney Chris Clark didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Discoveries Recently, more information about Hunter Bidens overseas business activities has come to light. He was found to have tried to broker a $120 million oil agreement in 2014 and 2015 between a Chinese state-owned oil company and Kazakhstans prime minister at that time, the Daily Mail reported in February, citing emails obtained from his alleged abandoned laptop. The Chinese company, the State China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), has also been named by the Pentagon as having ties to the Chinese military and is also currently on a U.S. investment blacklist. In March, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) presented bank records on the Senate floor showing CEFC China Energy, a now-defunct company, made payments to Hunter Biden. Leaked emails recently reviewed by Fox News and the New York Post showed that James J. Bulger, the nephew of now-deceased Boston crime boss James Whitey Bulger, played an active role in Hunter Bidens business activities in China. One 2014 email discussed a potential meeting between Bulger, Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca co-founder Devon Archer, and the Chinese ambassador to the United States at that time, to talk about a Chinese fund. U.S. Attorney David Weiss is currently investigating Hunter Biden for possible tax violations, but little has been revealed to the public other than that he has not been charged with any crime. Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about oversight of the Department of Justice in Washington on Oct. 27, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool/Getty Images) On April 13, 16 Republican House lawmakers sent a joint letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on the Department of Justice to brief Congress on Weisss investigation into Hunter Biden. Congress has a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch and a moral obligation to examine if the President of the United States or any senior official in his administration is ethically compromised or injured, the letter stated. Schweizer said the key to the investigation is finding out what China has gotten out of Hunter Biden. They could have leveraged him and used him for intelligence source [and] blackmailed him, he said. Those are the areas where I think the investigation needs to proceed. Now, the next question is, what were they [China] getting for their money? he added. Roman Balmakov contributed to this report. Illinois Starts Providing Free Health Care to More Illegal Immigrants Illinois has started providing free health care to more illegal immigrants, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzkers office announced on April 15. Illegal aliens aged 55 to 64 in Illinois are now covered by the state. They can access services such as doctor visits, dental care, and laboratory tests for free. Illinois started covering health care for many illegal immigrants aged 65 or older in December 2020. The expansion was approved by the state legislature in 2021 and signed by Pritzker, a Democrat. Implementing more equitable health care coverage across the state is central to HFS mission, which means increasing access to quality health care choices for all Illinois residents, regardless of their immigration status, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) Director Theresa Eagleson said in a statement. Illinois state Sen. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat who has led the charge for providing health care to illegal immigrants, said, The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program providing coverage to noncitizen adults aged 55 and over is a significant step toward a more equitable health care system in Illinois. People are eligible for the program if theyre illegally in the country or have been a legal permanent resident for less than five years and their annual income is at or below $18,754 for one person or $25,268 for two people. The limits are the same as those outlined in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Federal law bars illegal immigrants from participating in many health care programs, such as Medicare. Illinois must foot the bill for the services because of the federal law. The program will be expanded even further on July 1 following the passage of Illinois House Bill 4343. On that date, illegal immigrants who meet the conditions and are aged 42 to 54 will be able to obtain free health care. Democrats say the expansion is needed to help ensure poorer people, including illegal immigrants, receive health care. Republicans have criticized the program and leveled fresh criticism against the latest expansion. We have told so many other groups that they cannot get coverage, but yet in turn we are going to expand this coverage for undocumenteds, so I urge a no vote from this side, for multiple reasons, Illinois state Sen. Dave Syverson, a Republican, told colleagues before the vote on the House measure. California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Pennsylvania also use state funds to cover some illegal immigrants health care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. California, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington state, and Washington also cover children from low-income families, even families that are in the country illegally. Infowars founder Alex Jones takes photos at a hearing to examine foreign influence operations' use of social media platforms before the Intelligence Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 5, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Infowars Files for Bankruptcy as Alex Jones Hit With Sandy Hook Defamation Lawsuits Infowars, a media company owned by well-known radio host Alex Jones, has filed for bankruptcy after it was hit with several defamation lawsuits related to the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. The company filed for voluntary Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. This will give Infowars some time to restructure debts. It has listed liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million with assets worth up to $50,000. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures will put the defamation lawsuits on hold. In addition to Infowars, two more companies owned by JonesInfowars Health and Prison Planet TVhave also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Joness lawyers have set up a trust to settle the legal claims that arise as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Breitbart reported that he handed over $725,000 to the trust to cover the cost of the process. Last year, Jones and his companies were deemed to be liable in a defamation lawsuit filed by relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. On his radio show, Jones claimed the massacre was a hoax perpetrated by advocates of gun control and the mainstream media, a theory that began circulating online in the days and weeks after the shooting. That allegedly resulted in Joness followers harassing the relatives of the victims, who subsequently filed the defamation lawsuit. Lawyers representing Jones argued that the defamation lawsuit was filed to curtail free speech in matters of public interest. Jones has said repeatedly in recent years that the shooting did take place. A judge will decide in August how much Jones should pay the relatives. Similar defamation lawsuits were filed by relatives of victims from Texas, the trial for which will begin this month, CBS News reported. Alex Jones is just delaying the inevitable: a public trial in which he will be held accountable for his profit-driven campaign of lies against the Sandy Hook families who have brought this lawsuit, said Christopher Mattei, who represents the families in a Connecticut lawsuit against Jones, according to The Associated Press. In March 2022, Jones was held in contempt by a court in Connecticut after he failed to comply with multiple orders to sit for a deposition in a defamation suit. The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant Alex Jones willfully and in bad faith violated without justification several clear court orders requiring his attendance at his depositions on March 23 and March 24, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said at the time. Jones was forced to pay $75,000 in fines due to the issue. However, the money was later returned after he complied with the order. In March, Jones offered a sum of $120,000 to each of the 13 plaintiffs in the defamation case. However, the families rejected the offer. In a court document, the families called the offer a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Initial Strategic Lessons of the Russia-Ukraine War Commentary The ongoing Russia-Ukraine wareven as part of a much larger strategic conflicthas already begun to yield significant lessons for statecraft and military operations. The conflict was far from resolved during April. But regardless of the completion of that military phase, profound and durable changes had been caused to the global architecture. 1. Anything your adversary (a) wants you to do, (b) goads you to do, (c) offers to you as a gift, or (c) says you will do is almost certainly something you do not want to do. Russian President Vladimir Putin took the bait on all four counts in deciding to attack Ukraine. The U.S. government had, since late 2021, insisted that Russia was about to invade Ukraine at a time when Moscow had no plans to do so (even though it had increasingly used the threat of force to keep Ukraine out of NATO). Then, on Jan. 25, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden, while ramping up support for Ukraine, said that the United States would not interfere with a Russian attempt to militarily resolve its problems with Kyiv. Then Washington kept insisting that Russia was in the process of a full-scale invasion. The war had not, even by mid-April, reached the level of a full-scale invasion, as dramatic as the imagery of this (or any other) war may be. A resident crosses a street damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) The result was that when Moscow took the bait, Washington was able to irrevocably divide the world once again into two camps, with Russia forced into an alliance with China and Iran. This will have long-term negative consequences for Russia, as well as for the West (including the United States), but has saved the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which now has long-term stability in food and energy supply from Russia. For those who still cannot comprehend why Putin took the bait, the important question should be asked as to why, strategically, Biden offered it. So even if the motive cannot be immediately understood, the best course of action is to reject such temptations. 2. Information dominance warfare, which pre-determined the conduct of the Ukraine conflict, runs the risk that the perpetrators will unwittingly buy their own propaganda. U.S.-led information dominance ops ascribed motives and goals to Russian planners, which clearly were not those determined by Moscow. As a result, Western analysis deceived itself at a public and policy level that Russia had militarily failed in its theater objectives by early April. The actual Russian failure was in its misunderstanding of Washingtons ability to use information dominance to drive the irrevocable polarization of the West against Russia, and to rebuild the perceived validity of the North Atlantic Alliance. By mid-April, Russia was close to achieving its goals of securing the defense of Crimea, consolidating and expanding the territorial control of the entire once-Russian area of Donbass (Luhansk and Donetsk), and possibly acquiring a coastal land corridor between the Donbass and Crimea (therefore securing total domination of the Sea of Azov and the surrounding resource regions), while ensuring that post-conflict Ukraine would not be a partner in NATO. However, the grand strategic cost of the campaign proved that Moscow might achieve a pyrrhic victory. 3. In the current phase of modern technology, countermeasures and defenses have not yet caught up with, or balanced, offensive capabilities. Russia used some key new technologies with impunity in military operations against Ukraine. These, particularly, included hypersonic weapons. To the extent used thus far, however, none of these were war-winning weapons, and it is probable that even a Russian use (doubtful) of tactical nuclear weapons would materially impact the outcome of the conflict. Nonetheless, it is clear that the use of new-technology offensive weapons has given considerable impetus to the evolution of anti-hypersonic countermeasures, for example, which may be viable within a year or more. What was clear, however, was the reality that the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an offensive role had still far from peaked, and thatas Ukraine demonstrated on April 13shore-based anti-shipping missiles, coupled with reconnaissance and electronic warfare assistance from UAVs (Turkish-built Bayraktar TB-2) were difficult to detect and deter. This is a key lesson for those contemplating operations in, say, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea (Strait of Hormuz), and South and East China seas regions. Servicemen of Ukrainian Military Forces move U.S.-made FIM-92 Stinger missiles and the other military assistance shipped from Lithuania to Boryspil Airport in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 13, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images) Significantly, Iran has Ukrainian-sourced anti-shipping cruise missile batteries on its coastline; Vietnam and the Philippines have acquired Indo-Russian supersonic BrahMos anti-shipping batteries. The Ukrainian Luch Kyiv Design Bureaus Neptune 360 ST, a vehicle-mounted anti-ship cruise missile system with a range of up to 174 miles, was used against the Russian Atlant-class missile cruiser, CG Moskva, at a reported range of only some 60 miles, and at night, giving little time for countermeasures. Bayraktar TB-2s were engaged in active electronic warfare (EW) suppression of Moskvas systems, while two Neptune R-360 surface-skimming missiles were launched, essentially unopposed, hitting the cruisers port side. Significantly, although the Moskva was extensively modernized since its initial delivery in 1979, and was operated by an experienced crew, it clearly was functioning too close to the Ukraine coastline. This may have been to avoid being in international waters with the possibility of contact with foreign warships. Still, the Moskva was insufficiently prepared for a mass EW assault on its sensors. Ironically, the ship had been presented with what was purported to be a fragment of the cross of Jesus Christ, and this holy relic was kept aboard as a blessing and a token of good luck. It had cost the donor a reported $40 million. There was no immediate news as to whether the relic had been saved. All 510 crew aboard Moskva were initially claimed to have been saved but subsequently acknowledged that at least 40 people were killed in the attack, and more than 200 suffered severe burns. The loss of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagshipthe largest warship to be lost in combat since World War IIwas a severe political blow for Russia. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Israeli border police force stand by as Palestinian protestors shoot fireworks towards them in an alley in Jerusalem's Old City, on Apr. 17, 2022. (Ammar Awad/Reuters) Israeli Police Arrest 9 After Clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque JERUSALEMIsraeli police faced off with fireworks-hurling Palestinians in the alleyways of Jerusalems Old City on Sunday as they entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to secure the way for Jewish visitors to the shrine. Violence at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which erupted on Friday, has raised fears about a slide back into deeper conflict over the site as the Muslim month of Ramadan coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. Christians also marked Easter in Jerusalem on Sunday. Sundays confrontations were less violent, but Israeli police said several passengers on two buses had been lightly wounded when stone-throwing Palestinians smashed the vehicles windows. Nine people were arrested, police said. Palestinians said Israeli police had temporarily limited their access to the compoundwhich is also a vestige of ancient Jewish templesafter dawn prayers to enable a scheduled visit by Jews who toured the site on foot under guard. Police said they took measures to prevent the disruption of the visit by hundreds of protesters, some of them masked, who were seen stockpiling rocks on the compound. Muslim freedom of worship was being preserved, police said. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said 17 Palestinians were wounded, including five people who were hospitalized. By midday, witnesses said police had moved out of the compound. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Security personnel stand guard in the Kukawa Village in the Kanam Local Government Area of the Plateau state on April 12, 2022, after resident's houses were burnt down during an attack by bandits. President Muhammadu Buhari vowed on April 12, 2022, there would be no mercy for those behind the killings of more than 100 people. (AFP via Getty Images) Jihadists, Bandits Working as One Force, Nigerian Officials Say 1,000-man gangs on motorbikes strike on doorstep of capital Officials in Nigeria acknowledged on April 13 that so-called bandits and the Islamic terrorist group known as Boko Haram have formed a united front to attack trains and vehicles headed to the capital, Abuja. While the union of the two criminal groups has been suspected for a year, the governments chief spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and his defense ministry counterpart, Gen. Bashir Magashi, confirmed the suspicions at a press conference in the presidents compound in Abuja. What is happening now is that there is a kind of unholy handshake between bandits and Boko Haram insurgents, Mohammed said, according to media reports. Preliminary reports of what transpired at the Kaduna train attack show that there is a kind of collaboration between the bandits and dislodged Boko Haram terrorists from the northeast. We are fighting an asymmetrical war, a war in which the other side does not obey or recognize the rules of engagement, but where we are compelled to fight according to the rules of engagement. What happened two Mondays ago shook the whole country, yes, but that is the modus operandi of terrorists, Mohammed said. He was referring to the derailing of a passenger train on March 28 near Kaduna by a group that used an improvised explosive device, killing nine people. The perpetrators, who kidnapped 168 others, are believed to be the same gang that attacked a train last year and shot down a Nigerian air force fighter in Zamfara state on July 18, 2021, according to Murtala Rufai, a historian at Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto and a recognized expert on bandits. The leader of the sophisticated attacks is Kachalla Ali, and his base of operation is Birnin Gwari, in Kaduna state, Rufai told The Epoch Times. Alis high-profile attacks have established his position as the most powerful gang leader in the northwest, Rufai says. His gang members are reputed to be fearless fighters, according to media reports. I am happy that the Nigerian government has acknowledged that the Boko Haram insurgents and the bandits are allied, said Dr. Gregory Stanton, an African genocide expert in Virginia and the founder of Genocide Watch. The U.S. government also needs to acknowledge that there is a connection between the bandits and the ethnic Fulani jihadists. Its time for the U.S. government and other governments to wake up and realize this is already a genocide. This is not violence due to climate change. Bandit leaders pose with hostage release negotiators at a forest hideout in Niger state, early in 2021. (Courtesy of Bello Turji) The sophistication of the attack was evident in the planning and logistics; the use of improvised explosive devices isnt typical for the bandits. In addition, the terrorists had arranged for a fleet of vehicles to take the 168 hostages quickly from the scene. A week after the train attack, the bandits released a wealthy hostage, Alwan Hassan, acting CEO of the Bank of Agriculture, and posted a video in which three masked bandits spoke in Arabic and the Hausa language, according to media reports. Hassan reportedly paid a ransom equivalent to $225,000. Security analysts have told The Epoch Times that some bandits speaking in the video spoke with Fulani accents, but one spoke with an accent linking him to northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram has maintained a presence for 12 years. Some analysts speculate that the jihadists behind the train attack are linked to the Ansaru insurgency that split from Boko Haram and has operated in Kaduna as a kidnapping gang. They said theyre not after ransom and that govt knows what they want, Bulama Bukarti, a senior analyst in the Extremism Policy Unit of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, wrote on Twitter, referring to the video. Judging from their language and posture, these are not bandits. They are likely members of the Ansaru faction of Boko Haram and demand is likely the release of their leaders who have been [in] detention for long. Nigerian media reported on April 12 that the bandits had announced that the train hostages could be released in exchange for the release of 16 of their top commanders. The bandits were killing and taking hostages in several villages on the border zone of the federal capital territory in the early days of April, according to conflict reporter Stephen Kefas. The bandits travel on motorbikes in numbers that approach 1,000, he told The Epoch Times. They have taken their hostages to their forest havens in Shiroro County in northeast Niger state, where they are confident the army wont attack, Kefas said. Judd Saul, founder of Equipping the Persecuted, posing at a conference in Orlando, Fla. (Douglas Burton) The emerging threat facing Nigeria is reflected in the apprehension of pastors to travel in the country by train or bus, and the level of fear among ordinary citizens has reached a new level, according to Judd Saul, an Iowa-based missionary who for 10 years has administered an NGO called Equipping the Persecuted in Kaduna state. We organized a conference in April for 200 clergy who came from all regions in Nigeria, Saul told The Epoch Times. What we learned is that no matter what state Nigerians live in, they are afraid for their lives if they have to travel from one town to another. The invasion of Boko Haram in Shiroro County of northern Niger state was reported by The Epoch Times in April 2021, when Gov. Abubakar Sani Bello at a press conference pleaded with the federal government for assistance. Yet the federal government until April 13 hadnt acknowledged the alliance of these two potent threats to civil order. The term Boko Haram means foreign learning is forbidden. Its loosely applied to terrorist groups ranging from Ansarulinked to al-Qaidato the Islamic State of West Africa, which has overshadowed Boko Haram since the suicide death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in May of 2021. The number of organized bandits terrorizing villages and towns in the five sprawling states of northwestern Nigeria is believed to be at least 10,000 and may number as many as 30,000, according to James Barnett, a nonresident scholar at the Hudson Institute. Unlike most jihadists, bandit gangs tolerate the use of narcotics and alcohol, and they victimize both Muslims and Christians. If the largest bandit gang of the Northwest really has made [an] alliance with Boko Haram, then God help us! Rufai told The Epoch Times. Nigerian soldiers hold up a Boko Haram flag that they seized in the town of Damasak, Nigeria, on March 18, 2015. (Emmanuel Braun/Reuters) (L-R) Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Minister of Finance Allan MacEachen, and Premier of Quebec Rene Levesque attend the constitutional conference in Ottawa on Nov. 5, 1981, when it was agreed to add a Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the Constitution. (CP Photo) John Robson: The Charter at 40: Empowering the State, Not Protecting Liberty Commentary It is now 40 years since the glorious Charter of Rights and Freedoms sprang full-fledged from the brow of philosopher-king Pierre Elliot Trudeau, created Canada from some rather nasty foam bobbing about from sea to shining C-minus, and gave us sweet-smelling liberty where all had been sick-making darkness. Or so I gather from the retrospectives, though Im having a bit of trouble reconciling that particular golden bough with the sour, wormy fruit before me. A person called the Governor General just tootled at me, On April 17, 1982, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed the Constitution Act, 1982 For the first time in our countrys history, our rights and freedoms were enshrined in our constitution. So that whole Magna Carta/Glorious Revolution business was just a load of old fish heads, and when Canadas Founders spoke proudly about preserving liberty they were thinking of something else. So apparently were our re-Founders. In 1981 there was considerable debate over the notwithstanding clause as friend or foe of our constitutional rights. Since we didnt have any, it was all moot. But their quaint concern was whether the sovereignty of a parliament whose members were elected, alone among government officials, was a crucial protection or a pressing threat to them. As I say, it was moot. And the main reason wasnt that wed been fools to go about saying Its a free country, singing True North Strong and Free, or citing Joseph Howes stirring 1835 address to the jury when charged with libeling Nova Scotias colonial authorities by exposing their corruption, back when truth was not a defence: Will you permit the sacred fire of liberty, brought by your fathers from the venerable temples of Britain, to be quenched and trodden out on the simple altars they [your ancestors] have raised? (The jury, being as confused as the speaker, acquitted him and boldly nullified that unjust infringement on the ancient right of free speech.) It was moot primarily because the notwithstanding clause was virtually never used, except by Quebec nationalists who cared as little about our historic liberties as the chattering classes knew about them. Whereas the crucial Section 1 slid in virtually unnoticed. Its the one that says here, drive a truck over those freedoms. (But not with a yucky Canadian flag.) More formally, the charter guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. But S. 1 doesnt say how or by whom it must be demonstrated. Just Now you see it, now you dont. Recently I moderated a Canada Strong and Free Network discussion featuring former B.C. attorney general Suzanne Anton, QC; Queens law prof and Rights Probe executive director Bruce Pardy; and Brian Peckford, former Newfoundland premier and last surviving signer of the 1982 Constitution. And Peckford made it very clear that S. 1 was for real emergencies only. But the courts swooped and hung natural law from a living tree with it, making ruling after utilitarian ruling that the greatest good of the greatest number authorized them routinely to set aside traditional negative freedoms like free speech or assembly in favour of positive rights to take or impose this, that, or the other from or on your unwilling fellows. Nearly everyone grasps that in Canada if you want to go to court to defend some long-established liberty to be left alone, fuggedaboutit. But if you want to force your doctor to perform a procedure they abhor, step right up. A National Post roundup of 10 important court cases that shaped Canadas rights and freedoms listed abortion, euthanasia, being employed by people you offend, taking illegal drugs, wearing religious weapons in school, etc. But not saying vile things or avoiding illegal search and seizure. In our panel discussion, Prof. Pardy rightly argued that the Charter empowers the administrative state. But its not a plot. Rather, its the inevitable result of a particular way of thinking, then and now, of which embarrassing ignorance of pre-1982 constitutional history like the 1689 Bill of Rights is a secondary feature. The main problem is the unexamined conviction that utilitarianism is and should be our guiding principle. One pundit just claimed the charters glorious success could be seen in that even the populist right embraced it over COVID, with a veritable army of cranky lawyers, filing endless charter actions against every government bigger than a two house villages! As he said, everyone wants the charters guarantees applied on their own behalf. But his sneer underlined Antons point that those chumps are about to discover this charters not for them. Just those who want to make you a better person whether you like it or not, and cheerfully go about making social justice omelettes by breaking classical liberal eggs. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Actor Johnny Depp appears in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., on April 12, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski, Pool via AP) Johnny Depps Severed Finger Found in Kitchen After Alleged Fight: Doctor A piece of actor Johnny Depps finger was found in his kitchen after he was involved in a fight with his ex-wife Amber Heard in Australia, his doctor testified in a Virginia court on Monday. Depps addiction doctor, David Kipper, said via a videotaped deposition that the couples chef found a piece of his finger in March 2015. It occurred in Australia as Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The doctors testimony was part of Depps civil case against Heard, who he is accusing of defaming him in a Washington Post opinion article. Hes seeking $50 million in damages, while Heard has counter-sued for $100 million. Kipper told attorneys that I cleaned his wound before he took Depp to the hospital. When he went back to their Australia rental home, the doctor said he found a piece of the actors finger on the kitchen floor, adding there was broken glass in the kitchen and blood around the home. The doctor had been treating Depp for addiction to alcohol, cocaine, and various prescription medication. Actress Amber Heard looks on inside the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., on April 12, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski, Pool via AP) Earlier in the trial, Depps lawyers claimed the finger was sliced when Heard threw a bottle at him. But Kipper told the court that Depp told hospital workers he cut himself with a knife, according to TheWrap. When he saw Heardwho he was also treatingthat same day in 2015, Kipper said he did not see any signs of abuse or any bruising. Depp in April 2015 told Kipper via text messages that hed cut the top of my middle finger off. What should I do? Go to the hospital? Im so embarrassed for jumping into anything with her, according to reports. And later that year, in June, Depp sent Kipper a message that said: My deformed finger and I have no friends!!! By the wayAmber and I have been absolutely perfect for three [expletive] months solid!!! I have locked my monster child away in a cage within and it has [expletive] worked!!! Were [expletive] best friends now, according to Deadline. Depp denies abusing Heard, but Heards lawyers say evidence will prove that he did. The actors denials, they argue, lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out and failing to remember anything he did. On April 14, a former personal assistant to Heard said she never saw the actress suffer any physical abuse at the hands of Deppbut she said Heard once spit in her face when she asked for a higher salary. Heard allegedly descended into screaming fits of blind rage, sent incoherent text messages at 4 a.m., and was often drunk and high on illegal drugs, Kate James testified in a video deposition that was played in court. Depp, on the other hand, was very calm, almost shy, like a total Southern gentleman, James said. Both Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco, and billionaire Elon Musk. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Journalist Says UN Migrant Camp in Panama Being Expanded President Joe Bidens administration is expanding a United Nations migrant camp near the Darien Gap in Panama, according to war correspondent Michael Yon, just weeks after the White House announced that its ending Title 42 expulsions with Mexico. Speaking during a live Q&A on EpochTVs Crossroads program, Yon noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to travel to Panama between April 19 and 20 to talk about controlling the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap. The Darien Gap, which extends into Panama from Colombia, has become one of the most important routes for the illegal trafficking of migrants who try to reach the United States by passing through Central America. Those migrants mainly come from Africa, Cuba, and Haiti, and the journey is often extremely dangerous. However, Yon, an investigative journalist and war correspondent, said that while Blinken says he will discuss collaboration on safe, orderly, and humane migration throughout our hemisphere during his visit, the Biden administration is actually building and extending the camp to house migrants taking the dangerous jungle route in an effort to seek asylum in the United States. Theyre building, theyre adding on the back of it, Yon said. So theyre expanding this camp. There were 130,000 that went through last year between this camp and a couple of others. Yon shared photographs recently taken by his drone from above the camp. The images show some of the tents clearly marked with OIM onu Migracion, also known as The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in English. A canoe taking migrants down the Rio Tuquesa to the village of La Penita in Panama on May 27, 2021. (Courtesy of Michael Yon) Haitian migrants cross the jungle of the Darien Gap near Acandi, Choco Department, in Colombia, heading to Panama on their way to the United States, on Sept. 26, 2021. (Raul Arboleda/Getty Images) The IOM is a United Nations agency that supports migrants across the world, providing services and advice to illegal aliens. It has also sheltered migrants in temporary housing. IOM officials didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. In March, IOM, citing statistics from Panamanian authorities, said that the number of Venezuelans crossing the Darien Gap in the first two months of 2022 (roughly 2,500) has almost reached the entire total of 2,819 it reported for 2021. Meanwhile, the total number of people crossing the jungle in 2022 has almost tripled, to 8,456 in the first two months of the year from 2,928 in the same period a year earlier. UNHCR and IOM recognize the Government of Panamas positive efforts to provide assistance and reiterate their commitment to helping the authorities ensure access to aid and protection for all those in need, including host communities, IOM said in a statement last month. Yons comments come shortly after the Biden administrations decision to end expulsions under the Title 42 policy, which had allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to turn most illegal aliens back to Mexico immediately if they posed a health threat amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ending of the policy comes amid an influx of migrants attempting to enter the United States, and Border Patrol agents and local officials along the border are now preparing for more. In March, the head of Border Patrol, Raul Ortiz, warned that the United States is on track to reach more than 1 million illegal alien encounters so far in fiscal year 2022. When asked how the ending of the Trump-era policy has affected the migrant crisis, Yon said there are more factors affecting immigration than the policy alone. The rains affected here, so now were going into the rainy season, he said. So that will slow it [migration] down for a while, but thats normal, and then were going to explode again. I know whats going to happen, its going to explode. Katabella Roberts Follow Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States. RussiaUkraine War (April 18): Russians Fight in Streets of Ukrainian Town The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, April 18. Click here for updates from April 17. Russians Fight in Streets of Ukrainian Town A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. Thats one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains was targeted. Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his men retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy, he said. ____ Biden to Speak With Allies Over Ukraine Invasion U.S. President Joe Biden will on Tuesday hold a call with allies to discuss the Ukraine crisis, including how to coordinate on holding Russia accountable, the White House said. The president will convene a secure video call with allies and partners to discuss our continued support for Ukraine and efforts to hold Russia accountable as part of our close coordination, it said in a statement. ___ Ukraine Says First Civilians Killed in Lviv Ukraine said a Russian missile attack killed seven people in Lviv on Monday, the first civilian victims in the western city. Maksym Kozytskyy, the governor of Lviv which lies 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border, said preliminary reports suggested there were four strikes, three on warehouses that were not in use by the military and another on a car service station. Russias defense ministry said it had hit hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight. It said air-launched missiles had destroyed 16 military facilities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, which are locations in the south and east Ukraine. It added that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where Ukrainian forces were concentrated and Russian artillery struck 315 Ukrainian military targets. Ukraines defense ministry said on Monday that the situation in Mariupol was extremely difficult but the city was not under full control of Russian forces. Video and audio footage showed explosions rumbling and smoke rising from the Azovstal steelworks, which contain myriad buildings, blast furnaces, and rail tracks. Taking Mariupol would unite Russian forces on two of the main axes of the invasion, and free them up to join an expected new offensive against the main Ukrainian force in the east. _____ Putin: Wests Sanctions Blitz Has Failed Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the barrage of Western sanctions against Russia has failed. Putin said Monday that the West expected to quickly upset the financial-economic situation, provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores. He added that the strategy of the economic blitz has failed. The Russian leader spoke in televised remarks during a video call with top economic officials. Putin noted that Russia has withstood the unprecedented pressure, arguing that the ruble has strengthened and the country has recorded a historic high trade surplus of $58 billion in the first quarter of the year. Instead, he contended that the sanctions backfired against the United States and its European allies, speeding up inflation and leading to a drop in living standards. Putin acknowledged a sharp hike in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose by 17.5 percent as of April on a year-over-year basis and directing the government to index wages and other payments to alleviate the impact of inflation on peoples incomes. _____ Ukraine Plans Monstrous Provocation: Moscow The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Kyiv, with Western backing, is planning to shell churches, during Orthodox Easter celebrations in southern and eastern Ukraine, and then pin the blame on Moscow. Nationalist battalions will form more than 70 mobile groups equipped with mortars with the goal to shell Orthodox churches on Easter Sunday, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of Russias National Defense Management Center, said. Orthodox Christians will celebrate the holiday on April 24, a week after the feast was held in most of the Western world. According to Mizintsev, the attacks are planned in the Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sumy, and Kharkov regions. The plan is to later accuse Russian troops of mass murder of civilians on this holy day, he stated. Mizintsev asserted that several Western countries were aiding Kyiv in the preparation of sophisticated monstrous provocations with numerous victims. The Defense Ministry said it has evidence of the claims. It called on the U.N., OSCE, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to influence the Kiev regime to prevent the alleged planned attacks. ____ Russia Hits Hundreds of Targets Across Ukraine, Fighters Cling on in Mariupol Russia said on Monday it had hit hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight, destroying command posts with air-launched missiles, while authorities in the western city of Lviv, which has escaped heavy bombardment, said a missile attack killed six. The Russian defense ministry said in a statement it had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, in the south and east of the country. It added that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where Ukrainian forces were concentrated and Russian artillery struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnight. The Russian military is now trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks and which would be a huge strategic prize, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck military facilities and a car tire service point in Lviv, which is just 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border. Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy said seven people were killed and 11 were wounded. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverized port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday, despite a Russian demand to surrender. The city still has not fallen, he told ABCs This Week program, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the southeastern city. Russia said on Saturday it had control of urban areas, though some Ukrainian fighters remained in the Azovstal steelworks, one of Europes biggest metallurgical plants, which cover more than 11 sq km (4.25 sq miles) and overlook the Sea of Azov. On the eve of the war, Mariupol was the biggest city still held by Ukrainian authorities in the Donbass region, which Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede to pro-Russian separatists. Taking Mariupol would unite Russian forces on two of the main axes of the invasion, and free them up to join an expected new offensive against the main Ukrainian force in the east. Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said street fighting had begun between Ukrainian and Russian troops and he repeated a plea for people to evacuate. Russian forces advanced overnight and taken Kreminna, he said in a televised speech, adding that authorities could no longer take people out of the town. _____ Blasts Reported in Ukraines Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk Regions Authorities in Ukraines Western and Southern regions of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk reported multiple explosions on Monday, while a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts in Kyiv, as Russias invasion of the country continues. Six people were killed and eight wounded in Lviv where missiles struck military facilities and a car tire service point, regional governor Maksym Kozystkiy said. Separately, authorities said some of the missiles hit areas close to a railway station and other railroad facilities, briefly disrupting normal traffic. According to media outlet Suspilne, two people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk attacks. In Kyiv, a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts on the left bank of the Dnipro river. Local authorities were yet to provide any official information on their cause. ____ Ukrainians Defy Russian Surrender Demand in Mariupol Ukrainian soldiers resisted a Russian ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverized port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces had almost completely seized in what would be its biggest prize of the nearly two-month war. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in Mariupol were still fighting despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn. Russia said on Saturday it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov. _____ Zelenskyy, IMF Managing Director Discuss Ukraines Post-War Reconstruction Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday he spoke with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva about Ukraines financial stability and the countrys post-war reconstruction. Discussed with IMF Managing Director Georgieva the issue of ensuring Ukraines financial stability & preparations for post-war reconstruction. We have clear plans for now, as well as a vision of prospects. Im sure cooperation between the IMF & Ukraine will continue to be fruitful, Zelenskyy said in a tweet. Georgieva confirmed the call in a tweet later in the day. Thank you, she wrote, addressing Zelenskyys Twitter handle, for the very good call today. She wrote support is essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding a modern competitive #Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier he will attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week and will seek more financial assistance for Ukraine. _____ Russia Responds to EUs Bankruptcy Predictions Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the Brussels masochists that they will have to change their rhetoric if the Russian debt default they predict ends up turning into the bankruptcyboth moral and materialof the European Union. Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of the national Security Council, took to Telegram to respond to remarks by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Speaking to the Bild newspaper earlier on Sunday, she said that Russias state bankruptcy is only a matter of time, referring to the hard-hitting Western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its offensive in Ukraine. Noting that auntie Ursula has been talking a lot about an imminent Russian default, Medvedev suggested that it was something the EU politicians secretly dreamed about at night. This is the deep strategy of the European Union, the secret intention of the masochists from Brussels and their partners in games from across the ocean [the US], Medvedev wrote in a post. The former president warned the EU leaders that any Russian default could turn into both a moral and, quite possibly, material default of the bloc itself. The financial system of the EU is not quite stable, peoples confidence is falling. And it didnt shake so much even in the memorable year of 2008, and back then it was very difficult, he said, referring to the so-called Great Financial Crash. He sarcastically advised the EU to expect powerful gratitude from their citizens for hyperinflation, which could no longer be attributed to the wicked Russians, for the lack of basic supplies in stores and for a new migration crisis, which, in Medvedevs opinion, will provoke a wave of violent crime worse than the Albanian one. Then the chaps in Brussels will have to change their rhetoric, he said, adding that otherwise, smelly bonfires of tires will appear on the streets of well-maintained European cities. ______ Russia Publishes Data on Foreign Mercenaries in Ukraine An estimated 6,824 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries have come to Ukraine to fight for Volodymyr Zelenskyys government, the Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday. Of these, 1,035 have been destroyed, while several thousand remain. Four hundred foreign fighters are holed up in Mariupol, where nationalist forces have refused to surrender. The most numerous group of foreign fighters (1,717) arrived from Poland, while around 1,500 came from the United States, Canada, and Romania. Up to 300 people each came from the U.K. and Georgia, while 193 arrived from the Turkish-controlled areas of Syria. These figures were announced on Sunday by Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. According to the general, 1,035 foreign mercenaries have been killed by Russian forces and 912 fled Ukraine, leaving 4,877 active in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Nikolaev, and Mariupol. Roughly 400 of these foreign fighters remain embedded with Ukrainian nationalist battalions in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Konashenkov stated. Let me remind you that foreign mercenaries do not have the status of combatants under International Humanitarian Law, Konashenkov said. They came to Ukraine to earn money by killing Slavs. Therefore, the best that awaits them is criminal liability and long prison terms, he added. ____ Ukrainian Opposition Leaders Wife Appeals to Putin Oksana Marchenko, the spouse of the arrested Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, has recorded a video address to Russian President Vladimir Putin in which she requests his assistance in securing the release of her husband. It comes after she appealed to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, earlier this week. In her statement, Marchenko suggested to Putin that there is a chance of persuading the Ukrainian authorities to swap Medvedchuk for two British mercenaries who reportedly surrendered to Russian and Donbass forces in Mariupol earlier this week. She underlined that her husband gave his consent to be exchanged and transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation if the Russian and Ukrainian sides reach the relevant agreements. Meanwhile, Ukraines state security service has posted a video of Medvedchuk held on a treason charge offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of Mariupols trapped civilians, while two British men who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol appeared on Russian media asking to be part of an exchange. The video of Medvedchuk was posted Monday. In it, he appeals to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by name to consider the exchange. Medvedchuk was detained last Tuesday in a special operation carried out by Ukraines state security service, or the SBU. He escaped from house arrest several days before the hostilities broke out on Feb. 24 in Ukraine. The British men identified themselves as Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin. In one video, Pinner asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoped to be exchanged. Ukrainian officials have said Kyiv wants to try Medvedchuk and ultimately exchange him for Ukrainian prisoners. ____ Ukraine Claims Shelling Halts Civilian Evacuation Ukraines government has halted humanitarian evacuations for the second day, claiming Russian forces were targeting civilian evacuation corridors. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk claimed Monday that Russia was shelling and blocking the humanitarian evacuation routes. According to Vereshchuk, the government had been negotiating passage from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other towns, as well as from the Luhansk region. ____ German Minister Claims Arming Ukraine Needed to Prevent Global Famine Supplying Ukraine with more effective weaponry amid the ongoing conflict with Russia is essential to avoid an allegedly looming global famine, German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir has said. The official made the remarks in an interview published Sunday by the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. Russias war against Ukraine is increasingly turning out to be an attack on the international community, the minister claimed. ____ Serbian President Accuses Ukraine and EU Country Over Air Serbia Bomb Threats Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused the secret services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union country of being behind a series of false bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia. The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline that has not joined international flight sanctions against Russia over Ukraines war. Several of its flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg have been delayed or had to return to Belgrade after the anonymous bomb threats. In an interview with the pro-government Pink TV late Sunday, Vucic said that foreign (intelligence) services of two countries are doing that. One is an EU country, and Ukraine is another. The Serbian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials had alleged that the threatening emails have been sent either from Ukraine or Poland. Vucic said that although the Air Serbia flights to Russia are not making a profit because of frequent returns to their base in the Serbian capital, the flights will continue as a matter of our principle. ___ Ukraine Is Ready to Fight Russia for 10 Years: Zelenskyy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is prepared to fight the Russian Federation for 10 years in order to take whats ours while acknowledging that doing so may come at a high price. During an interview Friday on CNNs State of the Union, Zelensky noted that Ukraine is unwilling to make any major concessions to Moscow in order to achieve peace between the two countries. When asked whether Zelenskyys goal was to see Ukraine in a better position to negotiate with Russia and bring about peace or defeat Moscows military forces and get them to leave his country, the president said: We want to liberate our country, take back whats ours. Read the full article here ____ 5 Missiles Strike Lviv, Mayor Says Multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles have struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, according to witnesses there. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine has been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country, and is considered to be a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Facebook that five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding to the blasts. He said more details would follow. ___ Ukraine Completes Questionnaire for EU Membership: Official Ukraine has completed a questionnaire that will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on membership for Kyiv, Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyys office, said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed the questionnaire to Zelenskyy during her visit to Kyiv on April 8, pledging a speedier start to Ukraines bid to become a member of the EU following Russias invasion of the country. Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side, Zhovkva told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Sunday evening. The European Commission will need to issue a recommendation on Ukraines compliance with the necessary membership criteria, he added. We expect the recommendation to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states. Zhovkva added that Ukraine expects to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting. The European Council is to meet June 2324, according to the Councils schedule on its website. Next, we will need to start accession talks. And once we hold those talks, we can already talk about Ukraines full membership in the EU, Zhovkva said. Russia Calls Increased NATO Military Activity in the Arctic Worrying: TASS Russia is worried about increased activity of NATO forces in the Arctic and sees risks of unintended incidents occurring in the region, TASS news agency cited Russian ambassador-at-large Nikolai Korchunov as saying on Sunday. In March, Finland and Sweden, which are both considering joining the U.S.-led military NATO alliance, conducted combined NATO military drills. The exercise was long planned, but Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 added intensity to the war game. Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a special military operation. The recent increase in NATOs activity in the Arctic is a cause for concern. Another large-scale military exercise of the alliance was recently held in northern Norway. In our view, this does not contribute to the security of the region, Korchunov said. According to Korchunov, such activity raises the risk of unintended incidents, which, in addition to security risks, can also cause serious damage to the Arctic ecosystem. He did not specify what type of incident he might be referring to. _____ Ukraine Has Asked G7 for $50 Billion to Cover Budget Deficit, Says, Senior Official Ukraine has asked G7 nations for $50 billion in financial support and is also considering issuing 0 percent coupon bonds to help it cover a war-linked budget deficit over the next six months, the presidents economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said on Sunday. Speaking on national television, Ustenko said these options were being actively discussed. Katabella Roberts, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report. According to Dr. Ryan Cole, messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines produce persisting spike protein that may cause severe damage to the recipients health, such as unusual clotting, heart inflammation, or cancer. Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the only mRNA vaccines approved or authorized for booster use in the United States. Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines use a viral vector, a modified version of a virus, to give cells instructions. Cole is a pathologist who has operated a lab for 18 years. He has seen, mostly through the microscope, about 500,000 patients in his career. [In] normal mRNA, you have cells making messages all day long mRNA is generally broken down within minutes to maybe an hour or two. mRNA should not persist, Cole told EpochTVs Facts Matter program during the Global COVID Summit held in Houston, Texas, on April 8. Cole said mRNA is a message that tells your cell to make a certain protein for different body reactions. But when you put this synthetic pseudouridine [in your body], said Cole. The body doesnt know what to do with it, and it looks at it and says, Hmm, I dont know what to do. So Im not going to break it down. And so it evades that breakdown process, and it also evades an immune response. But it also turns down our immune system, which is not a good thing because other thingscancers, virusesget to wake up. In a February interview with The Epoch Times, Cole said that he had seen an uptick in cancers that he shouldnt be seeing. In addition, he has seen elevations and clotting factors persisting for a long time post-vaccination. However, when he voiced his concerns, no government agencies were willing to look into this finding. Currently, Cole examines about 40,000 biopsies a year. Coles view aligns with Dr. Robert Malone, a key contributor to mRNA vaccine technology. Malone, in an article published by The Epoch Times on April 11, said the mRNA from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is not really mRNA. These molecules have genetic elements similar to those of natural mRNA, but they are clearly far more resistant to the enzymes which normally degrade natural mRNA, seem to be capable of producing high levels of protein for extended periods, and seem to evade normal immunologic mechanisms for eliminating cells which produce foreign proteins which are not normally observed in the body, said Malone. Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, also said the spike protein from the COVID-19 vaccines is to blame for the severe organ damage. Science demonstrated that it wasnt the virus causing endothelial damage that led to organ damage, such as was found in the heart, liver, and kidney of COVID-19 patients. Rather, it was the spike protein that was also being injected in a genetic therapy shot program, wrote Mercola in a recent article. Some studies showed the vaccine-induced spike protein persists in human bodies, said Cole, but we have no idea how long that synthetic sequence is persisting. A Stanford study by Katharina Roltgen and others showed that the synthetic sequence persists for at least 60 days. A Harvard study by Alana Ogata and others showed that the spike protein could circulate for weeks. Cole said a German professor, Dr. Arne Burkhardt, found in his autopsy study that the spike protein could persist in the human body for as long as 128 days. And the spike [protein] that [mRNA vaccines] make induces pathologic changes in the body. It can cause clotting, said Cole. We hear these young people dying from clots, micro clots, not normal types of clots. These are a unique type of clot that persists, chokes off the body of oxygen, chokes up body parts, inflames the heart, causes heart attacks, causes strokes, causes cancers in young age groups Unusual things that shouldnt be happening and are likely related to a synthetic, genetically modified sequence that were putting into the bodies of billions of people. Cole said our cells have DNA-repair mechanisms, but the DNA cant repair itself when the spike protein gets into the nucleus of the T-cells, one of the important white blood cells playing a central role in the immune system. A study out of Sweden shows this, said Cole, referring to a recent study showing that mRNA from Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine can enter human liver cells and be converted into DNA inside the nucleus. Now the cell, the DNA cant repair itself. So the cell is going to do one of two things, its either going to blow itself up, thats called apoptosis, or its going to mutate. And now it becomes an atypical malignant cell. To that question as well, the immune suppression because of the spike [protein], because of the pseudouridine, it changes patterns of receptors on cells, said Cole, adding these receptors could enable T cells to fight off all kinds of viruses. Now, you dont have a defense system. This cancer cell can invade over the wall. This pathogen can invade over the wall because your immune system has been suppressed to a degree that allows that to happen. When does that stop? We dont know. How do we reverse it? We dont know. Is it happening to everybody? No, thank heavens. Is it happening to a degree thats alarming? You bet. A peer-reviewed study published on Apr. 15 also found that mRNA vaccines promote sustained synthesis of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the spike protein is neurotoxic, and it impairs DNA repair mechanisms. Neither Pfizer nor Moderna has responded to a request for comment. On its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states COVID-19 mRNA vaccines wont affect or interact with DNA, nor will the mRNA and the spike protein last long in the body. mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell where our DNA (genetic material) is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes, states the CDC. Our cells break down mRNA and get rid of it within a few days after vaccination. Scientists estimate that the spike protein, like other proteins our bodies create, may stay in the body up to a few weeks. Intertwining Government-Corporate Interests Cole said the vaccine manufacturers and government health agencies knew about mRNA vaccines problems but hid it due to their intertwining interests. We have known the immune modulation problems of this back since 2006, at the very least some papers there, said Cole. There is a reason Moderna had never brought an mRNA product to the market. And they had trials for genetic disorders. They were going to use this modality for gene modification. It never got to market because there were always too many animal models side effects. They knew about this. Did Pfizer know about this? Yes. [The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] is corporate-captured. Almost half of the FDAs income and engrossing revenues come from Pharma, said Cole. CDC has 57, 58 vaccine patents Do you think they have any interest in speaking ill of any vaccine? Of course not. The [National Institutes of Health (NIH)] holds the patent to the spike protein and the sequence, and they licensed that to Moderna. Every billion that the Moderna coffers get, so does the NIH. Is that intertwining government-corporate interest? You bet. The Epoch Times has contacted the FDA, CDC, and NIH for comments. According to the FDA fact sheet, for fiscal year 2019, 54 percent of its budget was provided by federal budget authorization. The remaining 46 percent, or $2.8 billion, was paid for by industry user fees. The CDC lists over 60 vaccine and therapeutic candidates technologies for licensing and collaboration on its website. The FDA has its own technology transfer program as well. Each year, hundreds of new inventions are made at NIH and CDC laboratories. Nine NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs) transfer NIH and CDC inventions through licenses to the private sector for further research and development and eventual commercialization, NIH said. Model licensing agreements show these health agencies ask for royalties to transfer their technologies. According to Axios, in May 2020, then-NIH Director Francis Collins said, We do have some particular stake in the intellectual property behind Modernas coronavirus vaccine. Talking to the companies, I dont hear any of them say they think this [vaccine] is a money-maker, Collins said. Nobody sees this as a way to make billions of dollars. So nobodys going to vote themselves out of a job in these agencies, said Cole. By denying these applications and application fees and drug reviews for all these large companies, they wont have enough revenue to keep their agency going either. Its really a paradoxical lose-lose. Truth plus transparency equals trust, said Cole. However, the government agencies are destroying the publics trust in them. Even the left-leaning New York Times recently reported that the CDC is withholding critical COVID-19 data on boosters, hospitalizations, and other analyses. Cole said if he were in charge, he would have managed the COVID response in line with the Great Barrington Declaration. We protect the vulnerable. We knew who this was going to affect right away. We keep the schools wide open. We lock nobody down. We focus on early treatments. We knew from SARS COVID-1 that chloroquines work against this family of viruses. We go to old repurposed drugs like we always do with any new and emerging disease. We treat early. We recognize those who are COVID-recovered with natural immunity. And we dont do what we did. You never let the cure be worse than the disease itself. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Flared natural gas is burned off at Apache Corporations operations at the Deadwood natural gas plant in the Permian Basin in Garden City, Texas, on Feb. 5, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Natural Gas Eyes $8 as Prices Surge to Highest Levels Since 2008 Natural gas futures are trading at their highest levels in more than 13 years, with the May contract flirting with $8 per million British thermal units (Btu). The energy commodity has been rallying on market tightness, driven by colder-than-normal weather in the United States and Europe and strong export demand amid Russias invasion of Ukraine. In an April 12 report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) lifted its price outlook for natural gas, forecasting that it could surge by 32 percent in 2022 to a spot price average of $5.23 per million Btu, according to its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The spot price represents the immediate buying and selling cost, while the futures contract price postpones payment and delivery to predetermined future dates. The EIA also expects natural gas to climb by 12 percent to $4.01 in 2023. In the week ending April 8, U.S. natural gas stockpiles rose by 15 billion cubic feet, matching market estimates. In total, inventories in storage stood at 1.4 trillion cubic feet, down by 439 billion cubic feet from the same time a year ago. Stockpiles are also 303 billion cubic feet below the five-year average. The gap between present inventory volumes and the five-year average grew to 17.8 percent, according to the EIAs weekly storage report. A Cabot Oil and Gas natural gas drill is viewed at a hydraulic fracturing site in Springville, Pa., on Jan. 17, 2012. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Because of tighter inventories, market disruptions, and swelling prices, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that global natural gas consumption could tumble slightly this year. In 2021, worldwide natural gas consumption rose by 4.5 percent. Natural gas consumption this year is expected to fall by close to 6% in Europe, the group said in its latest quarterly update. In Asia, it is expected to grow by 3% in 2022, a marked slowdown from growth of 7% in 2021. Regions such as the Americas, Africa and the Middle East are expected to be affected less directly by gas market volatility, as they principally rely on domestic gas production. But they are nonetheless being affected by the wider economic impacts of Russias invasion of Ukraine including rising commodity prices, weaker purchasing power and lower investment due to dented business confidence. In recent weeks, Europe has accelerated its imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) while reducing its dependence on Russia. This transition occurred at a time when storage levels were nearly one-fifth below their five-year average. The White House confirmed in March that U.S. exports of LNG would continue to grow for the next several years. The decision would boost LNG shipments by 50 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe each year. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called the decision a new chapter in our energy partnership. But the most effective long-term solution is to expand energy efficiency improvements across our economies and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels towards low-carbon sources of energy, including domestically produced low-carbon gases, according to Keisuke Sadamori, IEA director for energy markets and security. With Russian energy being rejected by the West, it could be a challenge to replace the supply overnight. This will result in a significant expansion of LNG infrastructure globally, according to Rob Thummel, a portfolio manager at Tortoise, an energy investment firm. But coal and renewables could play a role in the near and long term, he noted. The best near-term solution is increased coal consumption in Asia that allows for higher volumes of LNG to land in Europe, Thummel told The Epoch Times. The best long-term solution for Europe, like the U.S., is an all-of-the-above approach that includes increased LNG imports from the U.S., as well as continued build-out of renewables like wind and solar and renewable fuels such as biomass. Its unclear whether the United States produces enough LNG to ship greater volumes to Europe. Before the military conflict in Eastern Europe, global LNG demand had already been skyrocketing. In February, domestic LNG exports climbed to an all-time high of 13.3 billion cubic feet per day. This represented the first time all U.S. terminals were fully docked by tankers simultaneously. In addition, once the newest terminal in Louisiana is fully operational by the end of 2022, the total U.S. capacity will be just under 14 billion cubic feet per day. LNG infrastructure can take several years to be constructed, and many proposed ventures still require a final investment decision. As a result, it might be three years until fresh supplies come to the global energy markets, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities research at Bank of America, told BNN Bloomberg. Theres speculation that the United States could encourage Asian markets to resell American LNG to Europe. It was recently revealed that Japan would bolster investments in LNG production to ensure that the worlds third-largest economy possesses enough supply. Russias invasion of Ukraine has intensified competition for purchasing LNG, raising concerns about stable supply of the fuel for Japan, Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda told reporters on April 15. The government needs to come to the forefront to secure LNG through cooperation with the private sector. Tokyo had been the worlds top LNG importer until last year, when purchases fell by nearly 4 percent. Still, Japan remained one of the largest consumers in 2021, acquiring more than 74 million tons for the year. Today, China is now the globes largest buyer. Beijing increased its imports of LNG by 18 percent to a record high of 78.93 million tons last year. In total, with higher prices and strong demand, global energy spending is poised to hit a record high of more than $2 trillion in 2022, Rystad Energy said in an April 7 statement. Meanwhile, spring chills in the air are sending prices higher, and recent trends could justify the bullish sentiment among investors. The latest weather conditions supported heating demand expectations in the United States. It was cooler than normal during Easter weekend, and certain pockets of the country could experience more cooling heading into May. Any additional bullish shocks could significantly alter the natural gas market, Eli Rubin, a senior analyst at EBW AnalyticsGroup, wrote in a research note. With the natural gas market on the price-inelastic portion of the forward curve, however, even recent price gains are unable to fundamentally offset the weather-induced tightening, Rubin wrote. Nonetheless, with momentum firmly bullish and the market ill-equipped to handle any further bullish shocks, notable continued gains for natural gas remain likely this summer. Looking ahead, however, Thummel said there could be some easing in natural gas prices. U.S. natural gas prices likely remain elevated between $5 and $6 in the short-term due to strong global demand for natural gas, he said. However, in the long term, U.S. natural gas prices could fall back to the $3$4 levels providing the U.S. a competitive advantage as a low-cost fuel that can be decarbonizing when it displaces coal. Natural gas futures for May rallied more than 6 percent on April 18, hitting $7.78 per million Btu on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Year-to-date, natural gas has soared by nearly 120 percent. President Joe Biden speaks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, N.C., on April 14, 2022. Biden plans to nominate Michael Barr to be the Federal Reserve's vice chairman of supervision. The selection of Barr comes after Biden's first choice for the Fed post, Sarah Bloom Raskin, withdrew her nomination a month ago (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) New Document Outlines Bidens Preference for US Steel and Iron in Infrastructure Projects The Biden administration is directing federal agencies to prioritize purchasing American-made iron and steel for infrastructure projects. A document released Monday from the Office of Management and Budget offers guidance on how to implement made in America requirements from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan signed into law in November. The law specifies that federal agencies should maximize the use of goods, products, and materials produced in, and services offered in, the United States. It also says that funding from the bill will not be made available for a project unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States. This means all manufacturing processes, from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, occurred in the United States, adds the 17-page guidance released Monday. While the new guidance outlines the application of the buy America preference from the infrastructure law, it also puts in place a process to waive the preference when there is not enough American-made supply or the cost of American iron and steel is too much. Biden has repeatedly said that boosting American manufacturing and domestic supply chains is a priority of his administration. From day one, every action Ive taken to rebuild our economy has been guided by one principle: made in America, the president said on Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina. It takes a federal government that doesnt just give lip service to buying American but actually takes action. The administration could not say what percentage of construction material for existing infrastructure projects is U.S.-made, even though the federal government is already spending $350 billion on construction this year, according to the Associated Press. At the G-20 summit last October, Biden announced that the United States had reached a deal to reverse tariffs on European steel and aluminum imposed by his predecessor, President Donald Trump. Trumps tariffs on steel received praise from at least one president of a steelworkers union who in 2019 called them a shot in the arm for the American steel industry. American manufacturers are about 170,000 jobs short of the 12.8 million factory jobs held in 2019, as manufacturing jobs began to decline with the outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in 2020. The United States has 6.9 million fewer manufacturing jobs compared with its 1979 peak, a loss largely attributed to outsourcing and automation. Zachery Stieber and the Associated Press contributed to this report. The logo is on display in an office of the Russian largest lender Sberbank in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 24, 2020. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters) New EU Sanctions on Russia to Target Sberbank, Commission Head Tells Paper The European Unions forthcoming sanctions on Russia will target banks, in particular, Sberbank, as well as oil, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, told a German newspaper. Bild am Sonntag, in an interview published on Sunday, asked her to name the key points of a planned sixth round of sanctions. We are looking further at the banking sector, especially Sberbank, which accounts for 37 percent of the Russian banking sector. And, of course, there are energy issues, she said. The EU has so far spared Russias largest bank from previous sanctions rounds because it, along with Gazprombank, is one of the main channels for payments for Russian oil and gas, which EU countries have been buying despite the conflict in Ukraine. She also said that the EU was working on clever mechanisms so that oil could also be included in the next sanctions. What should not happen is that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin collects even higher prices on other markets for supplies that would otherwise go to the EU, she was quoted as saying. The top priority is to shrink Putins revenues, she said. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (L) and her Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong attend a MOU signing ceremony at the Istana Presidential palace in Singapore on May 17, 2019. (Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images) New Zealand PM Goes on First Post-COVID Overseas Trip to Promote Tourism New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern departed on Monday for a six-day trade mission to Singapore and Japan, her first overseas trip since COVID-19 began. Ardern is hoping to promote New Zealand tourism and education in the two Asian nations and support local businesses rebuild and grow connections in both markets. This is a chance to be out there talking about the fact that New Zealand is open, Ardern told reporters before take-off. The prime minister will be joined by Trade Minister Damien OConnor and 13 business leaders, including Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell. This first trade mission is part of our wider plan to reconnect with the world following the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening partnerships between government, business, and industry will help accelerate our strong economic recovery, Ardern previously said in a statement. As part of her three-day trip in Singapore, Ardern will attend an official welcoming ceremony and an official lunch hosted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Prime Minister Arderns visit reaffirms the excellent relations between Singapore and New Zealand, underpinned by the Singapore-New Zealand Enhanced Partnership established during Prime Minister Arderns Official Visit to Singapore in 2019, Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Ardern will also meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the first time to discuss global and regional challenges. She will also address the Japan-New Zealand Business Council and meet with business and industry leaders. This year also marks New Zealands 70th year anniversary of diplomatic relations with Japan. The trade minister said unlocking opportunities in key markets was an important trade strategy as the country begins reconnecting with the world. Japan is New Zealands fourth largest trading partner, with our major exports including horticulture, dairy and meat. Our two-way trade totalled NZ$8.34 billion (US$5.6 billion) to the year ended December 2021, OConnor said. Singapore is our fifth largest with a total of NZ$6.56 billion in two-way trade over the same period. Singapore is an important market for dairy and tourism and are also a key regional hub for New Zealand exports and imports, he added. Despite the tourism promotion, all tourists, except those from Australia, are still barred from entering the country until May 2. Ardern is also expected to visit Australia, the United States, and Europe this year. A South Korean man holds a placard during a rally to support Hong Kong's protest over extradition law in front of Chinese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on June 17, 2019. (Chung Sung-jun/Getty Images) New Zealands Painfully Naive Response to Chinas Extradition Request Commentary The acceptance, by members of the New Zealand judicial and political elites, of Chinas promises to conduct a fair trial is astounding and alarming. In a three to two decision, the Supreme Court of New Zealand ruled on June 4, 2021, that a man accused of murdering a young bargirl in Shanghai in December 2009 could potentially be surrendered to China. But the Supreme Court adjourned the appeal to enable the minister of justice to obtain diplomatic assurances that the accused would receive a fair trial. Consequently, on April 13, 2022, the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, decided that New Zealand could extradite a resident to face trial in China. The accused, Kyung Yup Kim, born in South Korea, is a permanent resident of New Zealand. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that he could be surrendered to China under the Extradition Act 1999, according to which the minister of justice must determine in accordance with this section whether the person is to be surrendered if the court issues a warrant for the detention of that person. The Court relied on assurances given by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that the accused would not be tortured and would receive a fair trial. Of course, there are subtle means of torturing people because the notion of torture itself is vague and indeterminate. One would have expected that the abominable human rights record of the CCP would have excluded even the acceptance of diplomatic assurances that, in Kims case, the basic principles of criminal justice would be respected. This is because an objective consideration of Chinas system of criminal justice suggests, and common sense confirms, that any assurances cannot be relied upon. Jerome A. Cohen, in an excellent review of Kims case, published in June 2021 in The Diplomat, notes that the Courts opinion is easily the most comprehensive foreign review of Chinas criminal justice system. But he also points out that the decision is painfully naive because the Court takes at face value the promises made by the Chinese authorities. As such, the Supreme Court failed to comprehend the brutality of the Chinese regime, as evidenced by its long and endemic history of human rights violations, stretching back to 1949. Communist Party cadres hang a placard on the neck of a Chinese man. The words on the placard states the mans name and accuse him of being a member of the black class. (Public Domain) These violations include the government-induced famine of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Chinas organ harvest industry programme, discrimination of the Uyghurs, suppression of democratic institutions, detention without trial, the pernicious influence of the CCP in the criminal process, and the very limited support that lawyers for the accused are able, or allowed, to render their accused clients. The Courts acceptance of the Chinese promises is analogous to allowing the fox in the hen house because the fox has promised not to harm the hens. Cohen writes that China has increasingly tried to force certain foreigners by a variety of means, to re-enter Chinese territory for criminal prosecution or even lawless and indefinite incommunicado confinement. The Chinese regimes suppression of the one country, two systems arrangement for Hong Kong, brutally facilitated by the adoption of its new national security law of July 2020, now allows for the rendition of residents, including foreigners, to China. The 2021 judgement was described as probably the most extended foreign judicial discussion of the Chinese legal system ever conducted. Yet, the opinion is painfully naive about the realities of criminal justice in China and far too limited in its examination of Chinas judicial system. Even a perfunctory review of Chinas criminal justice system reveals that it distorts the rule of law. In fact, it is a convenient instrument in perpetuating and strengthening the power of the CCP. In the field of criminal justice, the rule of law, at a minimum, requires a trial before an independent and impartial tribunal, allowance of legal representation, and the presumption of innocence; none of these is even remotely guaranteed in China. Indeed, over 99 percent of criminal cases result in a conviction. At issue is the question of whether Kim, if extradited to China, will receive a fair trial that meets the requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was signed by China but never ratified. Article 14 of the Covenant stipulates that an accused shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. Australian Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher (L) is not allowed entry by court officials and police as he tries to enter the trial of Chinese Australian journalist Cheng Lei at the Beijing Number 2 Intermediate Peoples Court in Beijing, China, on March 31, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) The Supreme Court of New Zealand correctly interpreted this Article as requiring that the judges must be free from influence by their judicial colleagues, the executive, legislature, and other external bodies. However, a review of Chinas judicial system reveals that a criminal court is subject to oversight by political authorities. Indeed, sensitive cases are decided not by the court but by the courts judicial committee (and other supervisory commissions) that consists of Communist apparatchiks and typically deliberates without the presence of the accuseds lawyer. Nevertheless, the New Zealand Court is satisfied that the Chinese assurances of a fair trial will be honoured because, if not, they would adversely affect Chinas ability to successfully submit extradition requests in the future. Cohen, addressing the issue of the independence and impartiality of a Chinese criminal court panel, reveals that the Supreme Court of New Zealand dismisses the possibility that the father of Kims former Shanghai girlfriend, herself a possible suspect in the death of the young bargirl, might use his status as a CCP official to influence the case. There are thus sufficient reasons to disagree with the reasoning and decision of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. A healthy distrust of Chinas judicial system should be sufficient to deny the request to extradite Kim. In this context, it is instructive to point out that China has bilateral extradition treaties with almost 60 countries, but not with any common law countries, including New Zealand. Hopefully, common sense might still prevail, but the CCPs relentless pursuit of its geopolitical expansionist interests and burgeoning economic power might make it difficult to refuse its request to extradite people. But the political will to trump the regimes ambitions in this area should prevail. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohammed Faraj al-Mazroui (L) shakes hands with OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo (R) watched by Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih (C) during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, on Nov. 12, 2018.(KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images) Oil Prices Near 3-Week High as Supply Worries Dominate Market Sentiment Crude oil prices were trading close to a three-week high on April 18 amidst fears of supply disruption due to the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Brent crude oil futures hit a high of $113.80 per barrel, a level unseen since March 30. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures hit $105.55 per barrel, which was also the highest level since March 30. Oil production has continued to fall in Russia this month. In the first half of April 2022, Russian oil output fell 7.5 percent compared to March. OPEC failed to raise its output by 253,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March as allowed in the OPEC+ deal. Instead, output for the month increased by 57,000 bpd. OPEC+ is an alliance between OPEC and other oil-producing nations, including Russia. The oil market will likely stay on a bullish trend this week with limited additional supply coming from major oil producers to offset a reduced flow from Russia, said Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Securities Co Ltd., according to CNBC. Soaring U.S. heating oil prices were also behind the recent rally as expectations grew that U.S. petroleum market would get tighter due to increasing demand to export to Europe, Saito said. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently warned in a report that Russian oil supply would fall by 1.5 million bpd in April and eventually by three million bpd in May. However, the agency is expecting to prevent a sharp deficit owing to output increases by other oil-producing nations. The disruption in Libyan oil supply also added upward pressure on the market. The countrys National Oil Corp. warned on April 18 that it can no longer fulfill obligations for oil deliveries from its Sharara oil field and Zueitina terminal due to political disruptions. It had earlier halted production from the El Feel oil field. The upside pressure on oil prices is being countered by worries about Chinas growth. The countrys economy slowed down in March as exports, consumption, and real estate took a hit. The governments highly restrictive COVID-19 restrictions have resulted in factory shutdowns and clogged ports, affecting supply chains. Severe new lockdown measures amid surging Covid cases in China have led to a downward revision in our expectations for global oil demand in 2Q22 and for the year as a whole. Weaker-than-expected demand in OECD countries at the start of the year added to the decline, the IEA report said. As a result, the agency reduced its estimate for global oil demand in 2022 by 260,000 bpd. Global demand is still expected to be up by 1.9 million bpd this year when compared to 2021. Reuters contributed to this report. The chimneys of the Total Grandpuits oil refinery are seen just after sunset, southeast of Paris, France, on March 1, 2021. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters) Oil Slips on China Demand Fears, Supply Worries Limit Losses TOKYO/LONDONOil edged lower on Monday pressured by worries over slowing demand in China, although concern over tight global supply and the deepening Ukraine crisis kept Brent crude above $111 a barrel. Chinas economy slowed in March as consumption, real estate, and exports were hit, taking the shine off faster-than-expected first-quarter growth numbers and worsening an outlook already weakened by COVID-19 curbs and the Ukraine war. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 26 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $111.44 at 1055 GMT, sliding from the highest since March 30 of $113.80 hit earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was down 11 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $106.84. Some Asian investors booked profits as they became worried about slowing demand in China, said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with Rakuten Securities. Data on Monday also showed China refined 2 percent less oil in March than a year earlier, with throughput falling to the lowest since October as the surge in crude prices squeezed margins and tight lockdowns hurt demand. Oil surged to the highest since 2008 in March, with Brent briefly topping $134, as Moscows invasion of Ukraine added to supply concerns due to sanctions on Russia and buyers avoiding Russian oil. Adding to supply-side pressure, Libyas National Oil Corp. on Monday declared force majeure at Zueitina oil port and warned that a painful wave of closures had begun hitting its facilities. Libya had halted production from its El Feel oilfield on Sunday. With global supplies now so tight, even the most minor disruption is likely to have an outsized impact on prices, said Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA. Russian production declined by 7.5 percent in the first half of April from March, Interfax reported on Friday, and EU governments said last week the blocs executive was drafting proposals to ban Russian crude. Those comments came before an escalation in the Ukraine war. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck Lviv early on Monday and explosions rocked other cities as Russian forces kept up their bombardments after claiming near full control of the port of Mariupol. By Yuka Obayashi and Alex Lawler A sign on a door asks people to wear masks in downtown in Philadelphia on April 15, 2022. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Philadelphia Businesses, Residents File Lawsuit Against Newly Reinstated Mask Mandate Multiple businesses and residents in Philadelphia have filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania state court seeking to overturn the citys renewed indoor masking mandate for COVID-19. Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole announced on April 11 that the city would reinstate indoor masking on April 18 in an effort to stem a surge of infections, after previously ending the mask mandate on March 2. The temporary emergency order comes amid a more than 50 percent rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city compared to the previous 10 days, officials said. The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court on April 16, states that Philadelphia lacks the authority to impose such a mandate and accuses city health officials of having usurped the power and authority of state lawmakers, the state Department of Health, and the state advisory health board. The restaurant industry, which opposes the renewed mandate, believes that employees will suffer amid anger from customers regarding the new rules. Attorney Thomas W. King III, who was among the individuals who successfully challenged the statewide mask mandate in Philadelphia schools last year, said the emergency order contradicts the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and imposed a renegade standard unfound anywhere else in the world. The CDC only recommends masking for individuals displaying symptoms, those who have a positive test result, or those who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. Philadelphia actually did away with the CDC guidelines as the standard, and theyve invented their own guidelines, King told CBS3 Eyewitness News. Theyre making this stuff up. I want to see the state Commonwealth Court strike down this mandate as a violation of Pennsylvania law. We have people here who have saved all their lives to run restaurants, open gyms, chiropractic services, and other businesses in Philadelphia. What theyre telling me is that when these mask mandates are in place and people have to wear masks indoors, that they lose a substantial amount of their business. The lawsuit comes as the majority of states and cities across the United States have done away with masking requirements following new guidelines from the CDC, which emphasize mask-wearing only in areas where hospitals are under high strain from COVID-19 cases. In announcing the renewed masking mandate on April 11, Bettigole said the Omicron virus variant wave of COVID-19 has claimed the lives of nearly 750 people in the city in three months. I suspect that this wave will be smaller than what we saw in January, but if we wait to find out and put our masks back on, well have lost our chance to stop the wave, Bettigole said. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Barnette opposes the renewed mandate, saying that Democrats should take their own advice and start following the science. Im traveling over 1,500 miles a day. Im spending more time with the voters in Pennsylvania than any other candidate and I can tell you that people feel squeezed. People feel very unnerved about the direction our country is headed. Most know that something fundamentally has gone wrong in how our country is being run right now, Barnette told The Epoch Times. She said that even Dr. Anthony Fauci has admitted the virus wont be eradicated and that everyone must learn to live with some degree of risk. In other words, Americans should continue their lives as usual and take the necessary precautions to stay healthy, Barnette said. What Democrat leaders in Philadelphia are doing is draconian, an abuse of power, and absolutely unnecessary. Kevin Lessard, a spokesman for the Philadelphia mayors office, said officials are unable to comment on this particular case. However, Lessard cited a courts denial of an emergency motion by another plaintiff for a preliminary injunction against the mandate, noting that the courts once again confirmed that the city has both the legal authority and requisite flexibility to enact the precautionary measures necessary to control the spread of COVID-19. Beth Brelje and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Empty pews are seen as Father Mark Goring, pastor at St. Mary's Parish Catholic church in Ottawa, delivers his homily in front of an iPhone broadcasting the Easter Sunday mass live on YouTube on April 12, 2020. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press) Places of Worship in Ontario Given Arbitrary and Unequal Treatment Throughout Pandemic: Think Tank Time to amend province's Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to protect faith communities, policy experts say COVID-19 restrictions imposed on places of worship were often more stringent than those applied to retail and liquor stores, despite the fact that the freedom of conscience and religion is a fundamental freedom, says a think tank calling for an update to Ontarios Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. For example, in Step One of Ontarios Roadmap to Reopen in May 2021, essential retail businesses and liquor stores could operate at 25 percent capacity, while indoor religious services were limited to 10 people regardless of the size of the house of worship, said Cardus in a press release on April 12. On May 20, 2021, the Ontario government announced its plan to reopen the province in three phases, with step one expected to proceed in the week of June 14, 2021. The province eventually moved into step one on June 11, 2021, three days ahead of schedule. In a policy brief titled Keeping Ontarios Places of Worship Open During Emergencies, authors Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of Cardus Religious Freedom, and Andreae Sennyah, Cardus Policy director, argue that houses of worship faced unequal and occasionally arbitrary treatment that failed to recognize the distinct role of faith communities and the essential nature of public worship. For many religious traditions, public or communal worship is fundamental not optional, Bennett said in the release. Governments, of course, may restrict gatherings and limit freedoms during emergencies, like a pandemic. But limits on houses of worship need to be proportionate to limits on other gathering places. The authors cited the example of Torontos St. Michaels Cathedral Basilica, which, if the government of Premier Doug Ford had not restricted it to 10 people, would have been able to accommodate 300 people, or 25 percent of its maximum capacity of 1,200 people at any one time for weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites, or ceremonies. The brief, which examined the restrictions and differential treatment faced by faith communities, said provincial officials failed to distinguish the differences between communal worship and retail activities. This arbitrary and unequal treatment revealed an inability to appreciate the objective difference of public worship, which is a constitutionally protected fundamental freedom under freedom of conscience and religion, the authors said, referring to section 2 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Fundamental freedoms are the highest order of rights, while other activities, such as shopping or purchasing alcohol, are not constitutionally guaranteed. Bennett and Sennyah recommended amending Ontarios Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act by creating a distinct category for the treatment of religious services, rites, and ceremonies, including weddings and funerals. They proposed that limits imposed on religious activity by the provincial government should be the same as, or less restrictive than, the next least-restricted category in any future emergency. If essential retail businesses are given the greatest latitude (i.e., 25 percent capacity), places of worship should receive the same or less restrictive treatment (i.e., 25 percent capacity or higher), they said. For clarity, this means that outright closures of places of worship would not be allowed if any other public or private place is allowed to remain open. The brief also recommended that any limits placed on public worship are to be proportionate and reasonable. The amendments should require that emergency orders applicable to religious services, rites, and ceremonies include a rationale when they are filed and published, it stated. The rationale must stipulate clearly how the emergency order achieves the policy objective. The authors stressed that not only should a rationale be provided, but any extension to the emergency order by provincial officials or municipalities must also include an updated rationale to justify the extension. This recommendation ensures that freedom of conscience and religion are not unduly infringed by arbitrary measures or jurisdictional confusion, they said. The brief noted that when the state of emergency, which was declared in March 2020, ended in July 2020, the Ford government introduced a new piece of legislationReopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020that enabled the province to continue exercising pandemic restrictions. As such, Cardus recommends that if subsequent legislation is introduced to continue emergency orders, the new legislation should also contain the above protections for faith communities, the brief said. For many religious traditions, communal worship is an absolute necessity, not simply an option which at times of crisis can be abandoned in favour of virtual participation. SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk attends a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 19, 2020. (Steve Nesius/Reuters) Poison Pill Tactic Makes Coercive Takeover Difficult: Twitter Twitters adoption of a so-called poison pill tactic makes it harder for a hostile takeover, the company said on April 18. Twitters board on Friday announced that a person or entity buying at least 15 percent of Twitters outstanding stock without approval would trigger the poison pill, which enables other stockholders to buy shares at a lower price. The move was made to protect stockholders from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics, Twitter said in filings Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In general terms, it works by imposing a significant penalty upon any person or group that acquires 15 percent or more of the shares of common stock without the approval of the board, the company said. That may make it more difficult for a party or parties to buy the company without approval but should not interfere with an offer that is approved by the board, according to the filings. The company also revealed more details of the provision. It would allow each stockholder to buy one 1,000th of a share for each share they own, with each 1,000th of a share costing $210. The option was set to take effect on April 25 and will remain in place until at least April 14, 2023. The filings dont mention Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who offered to buy Twitter for about $43 billion earlier this month. Musk extended the offer after snapping up nearly 10 percent of the company. Musk said he invested in Twitter because he believed in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe but had come to realize that the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it, he wrote in a letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitters board. Twitter later described the offer as unsolicited and non-binding but also suggested it would accept an offer if members ascertained it was in the best interests of Twitter and its shareholders. Besides Taylor, co-CEO of Salesforce, the 11-member board includes Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former Twitter Executive Chairman Omid Kordestani, and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The latter, whom Agrawal replaced in 2021, is set to to step down from the board soon. Dorsey wrote on Twitter over the weekend that the board has been plagued by dysfunction. Musk, meanwhile, took notice of Twitter users pointing out that other than Dorsey, members own few Twitter shares and some have never posted on the platform. Still, members receive around $275,000 a year for their positions. Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so thats ~$3M/year saved right there, Musk wrote on the platform. A night view of the Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing, China, on Nov. 10, 2021. (An Xin/Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Risks Accumulate for China Investors, Including Harvard Money for China private equity is drying up and pulling out News Analysis Risk is accumulating for China investors, with private equity in particular trouble. Harvard University, one of the worlds top PE investors, with an endowment of $53.2 billion, recently showed a crack in its veneer on China. In a sign of a potential pullback, according to Bloomberg News, Harvard Universitys endowment is considering tapering its investments in China. Bloomberg sources, familiar with Harvards investment strategy, asked to remain anonymous. Publicly, however, 34 percent of Harvards endowment in 2021 was in private equity, up from 23 percent in 2020. Harvard declined to tell Bloomberg what percent of its PE investments are in China. Surveys cited by Bloomberg show that investors beyond Harvard are also getting nervous about China. In the first half of 2021, according to Bain & Co., only 35 percent of China investment managers viewed the countrys outlook with confidence. Compare that to 60 percent who were confident on Asia more generally. According to Preqin, a financial data analysis company, about half of alternative investors late last year saw Southeast Asia as the best emerging market opportunity, a 37 percent increase from the year prior. Political Risk to Private Equity in China PE invests in companies that are private, for example, that have not gone public through exchanges in financial centers like New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Because PE lacks a mass base of owners, it is in some ways more vulnerable to political risk, especially in China. If the value of companies held by PE firms decreases substantially due to some action by Beijing, there are fewer investors to complain. Complaining is even more difficult in China, where power is centralized by Xi Jinping and his Standing Committee of just seven top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo members. The ideology of the CCP has historically been anti-capitalist, which is ultimately against private equity. Xi, more than past Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping, looks backwards with nostalgia to the days of Maoism and state control of the economy. PE investors in Chinese equities started to realize how vulnerable they were last year when Chinese regulators clamped down on broad sectors of the economy, including technology, ride-sharing, online education, and gaming. Using the term common prosperity, the CCP took aim at the most profitable companies, disappeared some Chinese businessmen, and strong-armed others into massive donations that they would not otherwise have made. Beijing Sinks Online Education For example, in 2020, PE-backed investment in Chinese education companies reached $8.1 billion. As pandemic lockdowns denied children the classroom and sent them to their computers instead, online education companies seemed like a good billion-dollar bet. Valuations of some of them doubled within a year. One such company was Yuanfudao, backed by $3.5 billion from PE investors, including Tencent Holdings, Jack Mas Yunfeng Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, Singapores sovereign wealth fund, and Temasek. A child uses the mobile app of Yuanfudao, a Beijing-based online education startup, on a smartphone in Shanghai, China, on March 31, 2021. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images) But last summer, in the context of citizen complaints about education being too expensive for Chinese families, and according to the CCP, leading to low birth rates, Beijing took an extraordinary step. It moved to ban profits among private tutoring companies that teach core school subjects. That any government would ban profits is almost unimaginable for a PE investor or anyone else. The new rules converted the companies into nonprofit organizations and banned any further domestic or international investment. While enforcement details were hazy, the regulations came as a shock to PE firms that had already invested billions on the assumption that profits were still allowed. The ban risked killing many companies and making a profitable exit through going public, next to impossible. The debilitating non-market result should have been predicted by Beijings regulators. Banning profits should cause investment in the private education sector to decrease. There will be fewer opportunities for children to learn in what has become an ongoing pandemic. Some of the worlds worst lockdowns and travel restrictions are still on in China, including in Shanghai and Hong Kong, previously some of the freest places in China. The response of parents to children at home without good online learning might reasonably be to have fewer children or emigrate away from China, both outcomes that put downward pressure on Chinas population growththe opposite of what Beijing intended. Multivalent Accumulation of Risk to Investment in China The cavalier and self-destructive attitude of CCP regulators to market principles is rightly giving institutional investors second thoughts about their billion-dollar investments in a totalitarian communist country that they previously liked to imagine was on its way to democracy and open markets. Investors drank their own Kool-Aid and now are paying the price. The biggest American institutional investors are even growing skeptical about investing in specialist Chinese private equity funds. These funds, run by investors with white shoe pedigrees from banks like Goldman Sachs, are struggling to meet deadlines and hit their billion-dollar targets to attract new cash. Pension funds and endowments are turning away from such China funds, not only due to political and market risks but because of building debt in the economy, COVID-19 restrictions, and the resulting downgrade in earnings expectations. Xis regulation crackdown has hit Chinas tech giants, including Tencent and Alibaba, even as the United States is barring production in Xinjiang due to the Uyghur genocide. People walk past the Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen, southern Chinas Guangdong Province, on May 26, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images) American regulators are threatening to delist hundreds of Chinese firms listed on U.S. exchanges for failure to provide transparent audits to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In many instances, Chinese law does not allow such disclosures, putting the companies in an impossible situation of needing to choose which law to violate. With Russias war in Ukraine, apparently supported by the CCP, the risks of secondary U.S. sanctions against China for the war in Ukraine cannot be ignored. Over the last 12 months, a Pennsylvania state employees pension fund stopped committing new cash to Chinas PE funds altogether. It currently has approximately 2 percent exposure to Chinese assets. Floridas pension system of $253 billion in assets, less than 3 percent of which was in China as of January, has also turned the cash spigot off for new investment in China. In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. dollar funds invested in China dropped to $1.4 billion, the lowest number since 2018 for that period, according to Bloomberg. Quarter after quarter last year, this sector suffered declines. Even as the money for China private equity dries up, according to Bain & Co. research, its managers continue to grow in number, reaching approximately 1,200 between 2019 and 2021, an increase of 25 percent over the prior period. Every day, more China money managers chase less China money in the field. That will not end well. Billions in private equity funds should be pulled from China and redeployed to countries that have a better track record on human rights, democracy, and the market principles that best assure future profits and real prosperity for all. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The initial sketch is always an emotion, not a concept.Sambo Mockbee As you drive along the two-lane highway into Newbern in the heart of Alabamas Black Belt, you might experience a massive shift in your perception. There is something different about the architecture of the buildings downtown. The facilities along Highway 61 include a city hall, a fire station, a library, and others. All of the structures appear uncommon, unconventional, exotic, and almost idiosyncratic. Some are covered with brick and mortar, a few with old metal sheets, others with a variety of unconventional material. To view these iconic structures can be best described as an out-of-this-world experience. Karim Shamsi-Basha for American Essence Welcome to the Rural Studio, an Auburn School of Architecture program in Alabama. Since its inception in 1993 by architects Samuel Sambo Mockbee and D.K. Ruth, the studio has been renowned for providing students with a unique learning experience while offering the residents of Hale County and the surrounding poor communities affordable and inspirational homes. Between 150 and 180 projects have been completed, half of which are private and half public. Founder Samuel Mockbee once said, That is the reason you go to college, not to make more money, but to gain the knowledge to make this a better world. One third of Hale County residents live below the poverty line, and the Rural Studio has become one of the only ways they can afford a well-built home. Its not about your greatness as an architect, but your compassion was said so well by Mockbee. U.K.-born architect Andrew Freear is currently leading the studio. He has taken the helm since Mockbees death in 2001. Freear spoke of what drives him to live in Hale County year after year: The studio has become a great opportunity as well as a responsibility for the community. Nobody else can do the work, so we have to figure out how to do it. The students work with the community and help them understand how these projects will be used. Then they work on how to fund the projects and make them sustainable in the long term. Karim Shamsi-Basha for American Essence As an artist or an architect, I have the opportunity to address wrongs and try to correct them.Sambo Mockbee Freear enjoys seeing an idea birthed in the students minds, then becoming a living structure for a needy family. He leads the students from idea to concept, then to designing and building the project. The students get involved in all of the projects. For the library, they were here technically nine months but stayed for two more years. Its a remarkable commitment, Freear said. Karim Shamsi-Basha for American Essence For me, its the act of drawing that allows the hand to come into accord with the heart.Sambo Mockbee The students live in dormitories that resemble childrens book homes. Julie Long spoke of what it was like to experience life at the Rural Studio. After the initial wow, being at the Rural Studio is a process that has so many layers, Julie said. Its a part of an educational system where we learn how to put together projects, then theres the element of designing buildings for people who need them and otherwise wouldnt have them. Its about being a part of something bigger, something beyond architecture school, something even beyond the Rural Studio itself. Karim Shamsi-Basha for American Essence Karim Shamsi-Basha for American Essence Everyone, rich or poor, deserves shelter for the soul.Sambo Mockbee The Rural Studio has been featured in media outlets such as Fast Company, Architectural Design, Detail, The Huffington Post, and Alabama Living. The awards are too many to list, but perhaps this citation from the American Institute of Architects sums things up: In celebration of two decades of forging lasting ties between the programs students and the people of Alabama; as together they develop real solutions that have healed communities while teaching rising generations of architects the value of listening carefully to the needs and dreams of those they would serve, the great work of the Studio shows that more than skill in draftsmanship, design excellence is compassionate when sweat is shared in the struggle to make a positive difference in the quality of peoples lives. The Rural Studio teaches students architecture and provides affordable housing for poor people. It touches the souls of everyone who encounters it, Freear said. Touching souls may not be on most architects agendas, but it does belong to those who dream at Alabamas Rural Studio. Smoke rising after shelling on the outskirts of the city is pictured from central Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 27, 2022. (Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters) Russia Says Mass Strikes Carried Out in Ukraine Russia said it deployed a large number of strikes against Ukranian assets overnight, reaching hundreds of targets, including what was described as a logistics base containing large numbers of Western-provided weapons. In a statement on April 18, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that air-launched missiles destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts, ammunition warehouses, and a fuel depot in the regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk. Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov later told state-run media that a Russian strike at a logistics facility in the western Ukraine city of Lviv destroyed a large number of weapons provided by the United States and European allies. On the morning of 18 April, missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces [aircraft] delivered a precision strike against the 124th Joint Logistics Center of the Logistics Forces Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The logistics center and a large batch of foreign weapons delivered to Ukraine over the past six days from the United States and European countries was destroyed, he said. Ukrainian officials havent immediately issued public comments on Russias claims. The Epoch Times couldnt immediately verify Moscows statements. Regional officials in Lviv told The Washington Post that at least seven people died when missiles struck the city on April 18. Those were the first in Lviv since the invasion began in late February. A local resident crosses a street damaged during the UkraineRussia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) The Russian defense ministry also spoke of destroying 12 Ukrainian strike drones and tanks in other parts of Ukraine and of using Iskander missiles to destroy four arms and equipment depots in the Luhansk, Vinnytsia, and Donetsk regions. In all, Moscow said its overnight strikes were aimed at about 108 targets where it believed Ukraine had its forces and weapons. The defense ministry also said Russian artillery had struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnight and that air defense systems had been used to bring down two MiG-29 fighters and one SU-25 plane. In recent days, Russia has been focused on trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks. Also on April 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that U.S. and European sanctions against him and other government assets have failed. The intention was to quickly shatter the financial-economic situation in our country and provoke panic on the markets, the banking systems collapse, and major shortages of goods in stores, he said at a conference, according to Interfax. We can say confidently now that this policy in relation to Russia has failed, and the economic blitzkrieg strategy has proved unsuccessful. Reuters contributed to this report. San Diego Woman Found Dead in Car; Son Detained SAN DIEGOA 37-year-old man was detained on April 16 after he barricaded himself inside a San Diego house as police investigated the suspicious death of a 68-year-old woman whose body was discovered in a vehicle parked in front of the house. Police received a call about 10:15 a.m. reporting an unresponsive female in a car parked at 1600 Bubbling Well Drive, in the Egger Highlands area, San Diego police Lt. Adam Sharki said. Arriving officers confirmed a deceased woman was in the rear seat of the car, Sharki said. The vehicle was registered to the address where it was parked, he said. Officers attempted to speak to a male inside the residence, but he retreated into the home and barricaded himself inside. The man refused to come out, so officers eventually entered the house and detained him, Sharki said. Investigators learned the woman and her son both lived in the house, he said. There were no obvious signs of trauma to her body, Sharki said. The exact cause of her death is pending examination by the San Diego County Medical Examiner. Anyone with information was asked to call the Homicide Unit at 619-531- 2293 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. Joyce Kuo contributed to this report. Santa Monica Residents Worry About Safety After USPS Suspends Delivery in Neighborhood SANTA MONICA, Calif.Some Santa Monica residents say they fear that their neighborhoods are becoming more prone to crime amid a recent trend of attacks on U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail carriers and the release of a new study that identifies their city among a list of the least safe cities in the nation. Ive seen a huge shift in the crime [and] in the way that the city is being led, and the way that we are responding to this crisis in Santa Monica, 20-year resident and teacher Chie Lunn told The Epoch Times. According to Lunn, her purse was stolen twice in one week in the city. Its tough because we have this small city that is world-renowned, known as a great destination. So to feel unsafe there, to see that theres crimes that are being committed that are not being handled in the best way, these types of situations are becoming more normal, she said. People walk by boarded-up shops in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 6, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) USPS suspended delivery to the 1300 block of 14th Street on April 7, alerting residents that multiple carriers have been subjected to assaults and threats of assault from an individual who has not been located or apprehended, according to a postal letter sent out to residents alerting them of the change. Only one incident of assault was reported to the Santa Monica Police Department. The victim didnt press charges, and information about the suspect wasnt immediately released. Santa Monica Police Lt. Erika R. Aklufi said a mail carrier was attacked with a deadly weapona broomstickin the same neighborhood on Jan. 19. I have never heard of the Postal Service suspending service for all residents in a neighborhood, Aklufi said. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the USPS, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that its aware of the recent reports of suspicious activity towards postal carriers in Santa Monica, California, but couldnt comment further because of an ongoing investigation. Its unclear when delivery will resume, but the suspension has rattled neighbors who said they feel like their cries havent been heard by officials. I do not feel safe living here in Santa Monica, Robyn L. wrote on the Nextdoor app. I live right at Lincoln and Colorado in one of the newer apartment buildings and we have no security patrolling. We are always having issues with our mail and packages being stolen, we have had a few apartment break-ins and cars in a gated garage being broken into. Even residents being assaulted within the gated property. A homeless encampment looking toward Santa Monica, Calif., on Jan. 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Another user posted a home security video of a man trespassing in residential carports. We are just going to keep complaining here on this app until we are all blue in the face and potentially robbed, Daye S. posted on April 14. The city, a tourist destination with an amusement park on its often-photographed pier, is within Los Angeles County. Crime in the county has increased as a whole, according to Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva. According to a March report by Safewise, an online home-safety resource for residents, that analyzed violent crime and property data, 54 percent of Californians said theyre highly concerned about violent crime13 percent higher than the national average. Over the past two years, homicides in Los Angeles County have increased by 94 percent and grand theft by 59 percent. For residents like Lunn, the shift in safety can be seen every day. She also said there was a man who was stabbed recently in the school parking lot, also in Santa Monica, where she works. People in Santa Monica that I speak with, lots of family and friends are concerned about the direction of safety, she said. Lunn said people tell her they dont even want to take their families to nearby Third Street Promenade anymore, a high-end open-air mall, because of the randomness of the crimes. First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon attends the Scottish Parliament to give updates on changes to COVID-19 restrictions including the wearing of masks, in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 30, 2022. (Fraser Bremner/Getty Images) Scotlands Mask Mandates End as All Legal COVID-19 Restrictions Lifted Scotland has officially put an end to its mask mandates, marking the end of all legal COVID-19 virus restrictions in the region. The legally enforced mask mandates moved into guidance on April 18, meaning people are no longer legally required to wear masks on public transport and in most indoor public spaces in Scotland. But the Scottish National Party (SNP)-led administration is still strongly recommending that face coverings continue to be worn where appropriateincluding in indoor crowded spaces and on public transport. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on April 16 that she was confident most people will continue to wear masks after the rules ease. Wearing a face covering is a bit of protection you can give, not only to yourself but to the people you might be aroundincluding people who might be more clinically vulnerable, she told the PA news agency. But on the same day, Sturgeon became one of the last individuals to fall foul of the rules, less than two days before they were set to expire. The first minister was reported to police after a video posted on social media appeared to show her not wearing a mask during a visit to a barber in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire. Police Scotland confirmed it had received a complaint and said it was being assessed. The SNP said Sturgeon was invited into the barbershop during an outdoor visit on the street. A party spokesman said on April 17: Within a few seconds, she realised she hadnt put her mask back on and immediately put it on. But the opposition Scottish Conservatives accused Sturgeon of not practicing what she preaches. Dr. Sandesh Gulhane, the partys health spokesman said: Shes happy virtue signalling for official photos but behind closed doors its clear she doesnt believe in her own rules so why should anyone else. This is blatant hypocrisy from the first minister who has now shown her true colours. The public, who have been under these legal COVID restrictions for over two years, deserve an apology for this rule break. In addition to the end of the mask mandates, people without symptoms of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus are no longer being asked to take regular lateral flow tests as of April 18. Until the end of April, people with symptoms are still asked to isolate and get a PCR test. From April 30, test sites will close and people with symptoms will no longer be advised that they need to seek a test. The public health advice for people who feel unwell will be to stay at home until they feel better, to reduce the risk of infecting other people. PA Media contributed to this report. Shanghai Registers First Fatalities From Current COVID-19 Outbreak After Mounting Reports of Unrecorded Deaths Authorities in Shanghai, which is grappling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic, reported its first deaths on April 18. The three deaths were all elderly, hadnt been vaccinated, and suffered from multiple severe diseases, including acute coronary syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure, and sequelae of cerebral infarction, said Wu Qianyu, the citys health commission inspector. The direct cause of the death is their underlying disease, Wu told reporters at Mondays briefing. She added another 16 patients are currently in severe condition. The official announcement of the deaths came amid growing speculation that fatalities from COVID-19 have been understated by regime authorities, which have a history of downplaying and covering up information about the outbreaks across the country. The report marked the second time authorities logged deaths this year. The first reported deaths came in March, when two people over their 60s died after contracting COVID-19 in the northeastern province of Jilin. In 2021, China only registered two deaths. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leveraged the news to claim that only its zero-COVID policy could maintain the death toll at such a low level, as stated in a commentary run by Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua. Experts and residents, however, are skeptical of the reliability of the regimes official death counts. Chinas official death rate was understated by 17,000 percent, according to George Calhoun, director of the quantitative finance program at Stevens Institute of Technology, citing modeling by The Economist magazine. Earlier this month, reports and social media posts said that patients died at a Shanghai elderly-care facility and other medical facilities that are battling unreported COVID-19 outbreaks. At least 20 people died in the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital, according to the Wall Street Journal. Domestic media Caixin also reported dozens of deaths occurred at the same facility, but the report was quickly taken down. Workers from a public service organization wearing protective gear deliver vegetables to residents of a neighborhood in lockdown, in Jingan district, in Shanghai on March 29, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) Although details of each case are hard to verify, they underscore growing concerns that the outbreak is more severe than authorities have disclosed. Many residents have also told The Epoch Times that some case numbers had been underreported. Shanghai reported some 22,000 new cases on April 17, pushing the total official infections in the current wave to over 300,000. Nationwide, China said 23,362 people tested positive over the past 24 hours. However, the majority of cases reported were asymptomatic, raising questions about the need for strict measures from Beijings zero-COVID playbook. More than 20 million residents in Shanghai have been barred from exiting their homes for three weeks as part of the efforts to contain the outbreak, leaving many struggling to obtain food and medical care. Stories of deaths occurring as a result of the strict curb measures, rather than by the virus itself, have also been widely circulating online. A prominent Chinese economist Larry Hsien Ping Lang said on April 11 that he lost his mother because the hospital demanded his 98-year-old mother, who was suffering from kidney failure, get a negative test result before being sent to the emergency room. His mother ended up dying during the wait for the test results. Lang, who was sealed inside his home, didnt get a chance to say goodbye as it took too long to obtain permission to exit his neighborhood community. Last month, a Shanghai nurse died from asthma after being denied access to the hospital she worked in, as the emergency room was closed for disinfection in accordance with COVID-19 measures. A community volunteer wearing personal protective equipment disinfects an area before conducting a test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in a compound during a Covid-19 lockdown in the Pudong district in Shanghai on April 17, 2022. (Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images) Despite the growing grievances and skepticism, there is little sign that the Chinese regime will relax its heavy-handed approach to the pandemic. Shanghai started a new round of mass testing on Monday. Across the country, about 373 million people are under partial or total lockdown, analysts at Japanese bank Nomura estimated. Nevin and Thorsten Sosnitzki attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Metropol Theater Bremen, Germany, on April 15, 2022. (NTD) BREMAN, Germany In a world where many traditional cultural practices are being forgotten, Shen Yun Performing Arts has been exciting audiences internationally by showing the beauty and true value in reviving a culture whose teachings have inspired a nation for over 5,000 years. Nevin and Thorsten Sosnitzki were at the Metropol Theater in Bremen, Germany, to see New York-based Shen Yuns presentation of classical Chinese dance and music. Nevin works in sales for a pharmaceutical company and Thorsten is a branch manager at Euromaster. Thorsten said he had initially come to accompany his wife but had been pleasantly surprised by the performance. I found these dances very beautiful, above all. I was thrilled by the colors. [Its good] for the soul. Chinas ancient culture, according to legends, was believed to have been passed down to its people by heavenly beings. Values such as morality, filial piety, compassion, and truthfulness were the essence of its soul. Shen Yun is also calming and inspirational, Thorsten said. Nevin was amazed by the performance. Well, when [during] the very first performance I saw the colors, I said to my husband, Wow, those colors! That blaze of color! Im interested in synchronized dancing, Nevin said. However, that said, she had never seen anything like Shen Yun before and was very impressed. And I must say, the acrobatics, the dances, [were] excellent, she said, adding that the combination of colors within the performance was amazing. The dances in Shen Yun try to capture the beauty inspired by the traditional values of ancient Chinese societies. I think (tradition) its good, but of course, you only realize that [from watching] piece after piece. I have to be honest. I didnt think about [traditional values] before, but through the [emcees] announcements, through the dances, you start to think about It I think its good that its being communicated like that, Thorsten said. Nevin is also very interested in different cultures. I have also been active in this field for many years as a volunteer, as far as foreign cultures are concerned, here in Germany. I, myself, have a migration background. So I always find it very, very interesting to learn about other religions, other cultures and, also, what kind of history lies behind them, Nevin said. Nevin said that in her and her husbands lives, they feel connected to the divine, and believe in only one God. However, I have, of course, incredibly high respect for the many gods, so many gods, which is very often the case in Asian culture. They believe in many gods and I think that connects us both. I find that extremely exciting, she said. Rainer Follmer attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Metropol Theater Bremen, Germany, on April 15, 2022. (Si Fan/The Epoch Times) Rainer Follmer, an accountant, was also enjoying Shen Yun at the Metropol Theater. The performance was very beautiful and told many different stories, he said. Follmer especially enjoyed the Plum Blossom in Spring and Water Sleeves dances. The grace and harmony of the dancers was fantastic, he said. The portrayal of spring as the awakening of nature [was] just beautiful, he said. He said he feels strongly that at this time in history, traditional values are important to remember. Because we are slowly losing the values. [Having] values to guide us would be good for the young people, too, Follmer said. Reporting by NTD Television and Diane Cordemans. The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006. A sign at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is posted near Richland, Wash., on Aug. 13, 2019. (Elaine Thompson/AP Photo File) State Workers Comp Law at Nuclear Site Discriminates Against Feds, Biden Administration Tells Supreme Court A Washington state law that extended workers compensation benefits to employees at a decommissioned federal nuclear production facility where employees suffered exposure to radioactive waste discriminates against the federal government, the Supreme Court heard April 18. The case could have expensive consequences for U.S. government contracts related to hazardous work conducted on federal property. The Biden administration argues that the state law impermissibly intrudes on federal authority. Washington state counters that the case is moot because a new state law replaced the old one. The case is United States v. Washington, court file 21-404, an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The Supreme Court agreed Jan. 10 to hear the case. The constitutional doctrine known as intergovernmental immunity prevents states from taxing or regulating property or operations of the U.S. government, but Congress may waive this immunity. In 1936, a federal law waived federal immunity in connection with state workers compensation laws on federal land after the Supreme Court ruled states could not apply their workers compensation laws to federal facilities. The objective was to make sure non-federal workers involved in federal work would not be left without workers compensation coverage, in which case their only option for redress might be launching a civil tort action if they suffered a workplace injury or disease, according to a SCOTUSblog summary. Workers compensation laws and regulations give employees regular cash benefits and reimbursement for medical treatment for diseases and injuries experienced while working. Diseases have historically been very difficult to cover under workers compensation because of causation requirements. Many diseases may have both work and non-work causes, a distinction U.S. v. Washington contemplates, the summary states. The dispute in the case at hand is about whether the federal government has to continue paying the workers compensation claims of specific employees working for private federal contractors. Since 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy has been overseeing a cleanup at the Hanford Site, a 600-square-mile site along Washingtons Columbia River that made weapons-grade plutonium for the Manhattan Project, the nations nuclear program during World War II and the Cold War. The remediation is expected to stretch over the approaching six decades and involve around 400 department employees, along with another 10,000 contractors and subcontractors. These workers are at high risk of suffering diseases caused by workplace exposure to radioactivity and other toxins at the site. In 2018, Washington state enacted HB 1723, which created a legal presumption that some medical conditions affecting workers involved in remediation efforts at the Hanford Site are occupation-related diseases that can lead to workers compensation benefits. The law was passed after reports emerged that workers in Hanford had become sickened but were denied workers compensation benefits because they were federal contractors. In what appears to have been an effort to placate federal authorities, in March of this year the Washington state legislature expanded the presumption so that it applied to all employees at all radiological waste sites in the Evergreen State. Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill, SB 5890, on March 11 and the state then took the position that the case before the Supreme Court had become moot. The Biden administration rejects the mootness argument. U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart told the Supreme Court during oral arguments that Washingtons new legislative enactment makes it uncertain whether a decision invalidating HB 1723 will ultimately produce any financial benefit to the United States. But, Stewart added, under this courts precedents the case is not moot so long as there is a reasonable possibility that such a benefit will ensue. Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Stewart he enjoys a presumption in [his] favor, the presumption that a waiver has to clearly and unambiguously waive governmental immunity. She added: As my colleagues have pointed out, the language here is a waiver of immunity, but there is some ambiguity as to what the extent of that waiver is. Justice Elena Kagan told Stewart that he had very strong arguments about the impetus of the law, but if you look at the text here, Im struggling to read it your way. Washington Deputy Solicitor General Tera Heintz told the justices the appeal should be thrown out on mootness grounds. To protect workers on federal projects like the Hanford cleanup, Congress passed a waiver statute that allows states to regulate federal contractors using all the same tools we can use as to any private actor, Heintz said. The waiver allowed the state to enact HB 1723, which no longer exists because SB 5890 replaced it, she said. The federal government is asking you to issue a constitutional ruling invalidating a state law that no longer exists and that has no ongoing effect, Heintz said. Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. Seated from left: Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Standing from left: Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. (Erin Schaff/Pool/Getty Images) Supreme Court Wont Hear COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Challenge From NYC Teachers The U.S. Supreme Court refused on April 18 to hear a New York City vaccine mandate challenge from teachers, meaning the mandate will be allowed to stand. The nations high court rejected the case (pdf) without comment and provided no indication that any of the justices would take it. The four teachers, who said the COVID-19-related rule violated their right to keep their profession, took their appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court left the citys mandate in place. Those teachers previously asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees the state, to provide relief that would block the mandate from taking effect, which Sotomayor rejected. Under the mandate, all city Department of Education employees who didnt comply with getting the vaccine by Oct. 1, 2021, would be suspended without pay for up to one year. But the teachers argued that the rule violated their due process rights and blocked them from practicing their profession because the citys Department of Education is the only agency in the city that publicly hires teachers. Vinoo P. Varghese, who represented the teachers, told Forbes on April 18 that the teachers are disappointed in the result, but we will continue the fight to protect the due process rights of our teachers against the new administration of Mayor Eric Adams. In February, New York City fired more than 1,400 employees who remained unvaccinated. The policy allows for religious and medical exemptions. This case presents the Court with the opportunity to address a critical constitutional issuewhether public-school teachers have a fundamental right to practice their profession, the teachers wrote (pdf) in their petition to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, the Court can provide needed guidance to the lower courts regarding the flood of COVID-19 vaccine mandate-related cases already pending and expected. In response, however, New York City attorneys argued that the petitioners made no attempt to explain how the vaccination requirement either preventedor even impairedtheir ability to work as teachers or paraprofessionals for another employer. Vaccine mandates for public-sector and private-sector employees were announced in late 2021 under former Mayor Bill de Blasios administration. Last month, New York Citys health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, said the vaccine mandate for private-sector workers who work on-site will continue indefinitely. The citys mask mandate for children 5 and under will also remain intact for the foreseeable future, Vasan said. While the Supreme Court has previously blocked federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including a controversial Biden administration rule requiring tens of millions of private employees at many companies to receive shots, the justices have often permitted COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the local and state level. The case is Maniscalco v. New York City Department of Education; 21-854. Suspect in Mall Shooting That Left 14 Injured Could Return to Work Under Bail Conditions A South Carolina judge set a $25,000 bond for a suspect who is accused in a mall shooting over the past weekend, police said. But the mans lawyer said that he opened fire at the mall in self-defense. The judge allowed Jewayne Price, 22, to be on house arrest and said he can travel to and from work while wearing an ankle monitor if he posts bond, said the Columbia Police Department on social media Sunday. Authorities arrested Price on suspicion of unlawful possession of a pistol after he was questioned, according to the Columbia Police Department in a separate statement. Police have not formally named him as the shooter, the department said, adding that he was barred by the court from contacting victims of the attack. A judge also prohibits Price from contacting the injured victims or other persons involved in the isolated shooting incident. All persons charged/arrested are presumed innocent until or unless proven guilty in a court of law, it wrote. In the incident, nine people were shot and five were injured, according to officials. Investigators said that a fight between people who knew each other led to the shooting at the mall, and they noted that at least three suspects displayed firearms inside the mall, a statement from the police department to local media said. Preliminary information suggests at least two people opened fire, said officials. Prices lawyer, state Rep. J. Todd Rutherforda Democratclaimed his client opened fire in self-defense after two people threatened him and started shooting first. It was unprovoked by him, Rutherford said, according to WIS-TV. He called the police, turned himself in, turned over the firearm that was used in this, and gave a statement to the Columbia Police Department. That is why he got a $25,000 bond. Rutherford also said the suspect has cooperated with the police. The firearm was also legally registered to Price, he said, adding that Price, however, did not have a concealed carry permit. Rutherford recently backed a state bill that would reduce penalties for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told WIS-TV that Price was charged by the Richland County Sheriffs Department with accessory after the fact in connection to the murder of Amon Rice, 17. According to a statement released by the department, Lott expressed concerns about what he described as a catch and release system where violent offenders are released back onto the streets after facing lax sentences and punishments. We catch people, they serve a little bit of time, they get out and they get right back doing what they normally do and thats commit crimes, he also said at a recent news conference. The criminal justice system needs to do better. Cheyenne Traditional School in Scottsdale, Ariz., was among several Scottsdale schools and businesses that were targeted by a prank teenage caller in the United Kingdom. The boy is now facing charges in the UK. (Cheyenne Traditional School photo) Teenage Boy In United Kingdom Facing Charges of Threatening Arizona Schools Youth allegedly also had child porn in his possession A teenage boy is in police custody in the United Kingdom after he allegedly phoned threats to several schools and businesses in Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale police said the boy was arrested by British law enforcement on April 12 for offenses related to swatting calls he made to seven schools and three businesses over the past several days. Swatting is a prank call to emergency services so as to cause the dispatch of officers to a particular address. Police said the youth is also accused of possessing indecent images of children and distributing them across the internet. He will remain in the United Kingdom and go through the justice system there, Scottsdale police said in a statement. The alleged swatting incidents took place on April 8 and April 11 and affected Scottsdale Preparatory Academy, Notre Dame Preparatory Academy, the Scottsdale United School District office, Pima Traditional School, Hohokam Elementary, Cheyenne Traditional School, and Cochise Elementary. Pima Traditional School in Scottsdale, Ariz., was also targeted by a teenage boy in the United Kingdom who is now facing charges stemming from phoned threats to several Scottsdale schools and businesses. (Pima Traditional School) Scottsdale businesses that were affected were Tommy Vs, OHSO Distillery, and Desert Schools Federal Credit Union. A spokeswoman at OHSO Distillery said the company had no comment on the incident. Officials at several other impacted schools and the Scottsdale Unified School District could not be reached for comment. On April 12, police in the United Kingdom arrested the youth for his alleged involvement in calling in several threats while claiming he was armed with a firearm and was going to shoot up a certain school or on his way to a certain school, Scottsdale police said. Each threat was taken seriously, investigated thoroughly, and no credible threat was found on the school campuses or other locations, police said. However, the initial threats caused several schools to go into temporary lockdown until the threats could be verified as false, they added. The incidents prompted a joint investigation with Homeland Security Investigations in London, which traced the suspected callers location to near Manchester, England. Scottsdale police were not immediately available for comment on whether the boy will face charges in Arizona. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, on June 8, 2021. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images) Texas Governor Sends 6th Bus With Illegal Immigrants to Washington A sixth bus of illegal immigrants who were picked up along the southern U.S. border was sent to Washington, D.C., from Texas late on April 17, according to Gov. Greg Abbotts office. Footage showed the bus arriving with the unlawful aliens at D.C.s Union Square that evening, according to local outlet WUSA-9. In a statement on April 17, Abbott, a Republican, confirmed that the bus was sent from Texas to Washington. He said it needed to be done this way due to the Biden administrations mismanagement of illegal immigrants pouring in from Mexico. The sixth bus transporting a group of unlawful migrants to Washington, D.C. from Texas will be arriving at the nations capital today, April 17, he said, confirming that the bus would drop off the illegal immigrants at Delaware Ave. and Columbus Circle. This busing strategy is part of Governor Abbotts response to President [Joe] Bidens ongoing failure to secure the border. A fifth bus carrying illegal immigrants also arrived in Washington on that morning, Abbotts office said in a separate statement. Earlier this month, the Texas governor started sending buses of illegal immigrants to Washington, drawing praise or condemnation from different groups. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, has similarly proclaimed that illegal immigrants in his state will be sent to Delaware, President Joe Bidens home state. Border Patrol agents apprehend illegal immigrants after they cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States, in La Joya, Texas, on Jan. 14, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) The White House previously dismissed Abbotts proposal as a publicity stunt, saying he lacks the authority to do it. Im not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier in April. I think its pretty clear this is a publicity stunt. His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported, and he cant compel them to because, again, enforcement of our countrys immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state. Meanwhile, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke, a former congressman whos likely to face Abbott later this year in a statewide election, criticized Abbott. If Abbott focused on solutions instead of stunts, then Texas could have made some real progress on the issue over the last seven years, ORourke said several weeks ago. Earlier this month, the Biden administration rescinded Title 42, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rule that blocked people from seeking asylum if they were coming from a country experiencing the transmission of a communicable disease, namely COVID-19. The rule, which was implemented under the Trump administration, is slated to expire on May 23. Republicans and some Democrats have called on Biden to reinstate the rule, arguing that by letting it expire, even more illegal immigrants will pour across the southern border. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Those at highest risk of dying from COVID-19 are also at highest risk of dying from the COVID shot. The shots are also causing severe heart damage in younger people whose risk of dying from COVID is inconsequential While you only get at most six months worth of protection from the COVID shot, each injection will cause damage for 15 months as your body continuously produces toxic spike protein The spike protein is responsible for COVID-19-related heart and vascular problems, and it has the same effect when produced by your own cells. It causes blood clots, myocarditis and pericarditis, strokes, heart attacks and neurological damage, just to name a few The safety signal is very clear, with 19,249 deaths having been reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System as of November 19, 2021. Historically, drugs and vaccines are pulled off the market after about 50 suspected deaths Children aged 12 to 17 are five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID jab-induced myocarditis than they are to be hospitalized for COVID-19 infection The video above features Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist, internist and epidemiologist, and editor of two peer-review journals, who has been on the media and medical frontlines fighting for early COVID treatment. McCullough has also been outspoken about the potential dangers of the COVID shots, and the lack of necessity for them. Curiously, agencies that are currently calling the shots do not have the authority to dictate how medicine is practiced. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, has no power to tell doctors what to do or how to treat patients. The National Institutes of Health are a government research organization and cannot tell doctors how to treat patients. Ditto for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is an epidemiologic analysis organization. It is the job of practicing doctors to identify appropriate and effective treatment protocols, which is precisely what McCullough has been doing since the start of this pandemic. In August 2020, McCulloughs landmark paper Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Infection was published online in the American Journal of Medicine.[1] A follow-up paper, Multifaceted Highly Targeted Sequential Multidrug Treatment of Early Ambulatory High-Risk SARS-CoV-2 Infection (COVID-19) was published in Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine in December 2020.[2] It became the basis for a home treatment guide. COVID Shots Are Dangerous and Ineffective When it comes to the COVID injections, McCullough cites research showing those at highest risk of dying from COVID-19 are also at highest risk of dying from the COVID shot. Additionally, the shots are causing severe heart damage in younger people whose risk of dying from COVID is inconsequential. He points out the safety signal is very clear, with 19,249 deaths having been reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System as of November 19, 2021.[3] The signal is also consistent both internally and externally. A number of side effects are reported in high numbers, and very close to the time of injection, that validate the suspicion that the shots are at fault. The U.S. data are also consistent with data from other countries, such as the Yellow Card system in the U.K. Despite that, not a single safety review has been conducted to weed out risk factors and the like. Were almost a year into the program and theres been no attempt at risk mitigation, McCullough says. At the same time, there have been gross attempts to coerce Americans into taking the shots everything from free beer or a free lap dance, to million-dollar lotteries and paid scholarships to state universities. Such enticements are an undeniable violation of research ethics that strictly forbid any and all kinds of coercion of human subjects. As suspected and predicted, no sooner had bribery stopped working than government officials started talking about vaccine mandates. President Biden infamously stated that his patience with vaccine hesitancy was wearing thin. The insinuation was that if people didnt get the shot, theyd face serious repercussions, and were now seeing those repercussions play out day by day, as people are being fired and kicked out of school for refusing the jab. Meanwhile, they havent even determined which vaccine is the most effective, which is remarkable. If government really wanted to end the pandemic with a vaccine, wouldnt they determine which shot works the best and promote the use of that? But no, they tell us any shot will do. The fact that theres no safety report, theyre not telling you if youre taking the best vaccine, the fact that its kind of in a distorted way linked to your ability to work and go to school, that were violating the Nuremberg Code, violating the declaration of Helsinki its just not adding up. Its not looking good for those who are promoting the vaccine, McCullough says. Add to all that the now-clear finding that the shots offer only limited protection for a very short time six months at best. According to McCullough, there are more than 20 studies showing efficacy drops to nothing at the six-month mark. Theyve also had very limited effectiveness against the Delta variant, which has been the predominant strain for several months. Why Booster Treadmill Is Such a Health Hazard Ive often stated that, in all likelihood, your risk of side effects will rise with each additional shot. McCullough cites research showing your body will produce the toxic SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for 15 months. If your body is still producing the spike protein which is whats causing the blood clots and cardiovascular damage and you take an additional shot every six months, there will come a time when your body simply cannot withstand the damage being caused by all the spike protein being produced. Also consider this: While you only get at most six months worth of protection from any given shot, each injection will cause damage for 15 months. If we continue with boosters, eventually, its going to be impossible to ever clear out the spike protein. While the spike protein is the part of the virus chosen as the antigen, the part that triggers an immune response, its also the part of the virus that causes the worst disease. The spike protein is responsible for COVID-19-related heart and vascular problems, and it has the same effect when produced by your own cells. It causes blood clots, myocarditis and pericarditis, strokes, heart attacks and neurological damage, just to name a few. As noted by McCullough, the spike protein of this virus was genetically engineered to be more dangerous to humans than any previous coronavirus, and that is what the COVID shots are programming your cells to produce. Theyre just grossly unsafe for human use, McCullough says. Myocarditis Will Likely Be Widespread He goes on to discuss research from 2017,[4] which showed myocarditis in children and youth occurs at a rate of four cases per million per year. Assuming there are 60 million American children, the background rate for myocarditis would be 240 cases a year. How many cases of myocarditis have been reported to VAERS following COVID injection so far? 14,428 as of November 19, 2021.[5] Doctors have never seen so many cases of myocarditis, McCullough says, citing research showing that among children between the ages of 12 and 17, 87% are hospitalized after receiving the shot. Thats how dangerous it is, he says. It is frequent, and it is severe. Yet the FDA claims myocarditis after the COVID shot is rare and mild. Were now also getting reports of fatal cases of myocarditis in adults in their 30s and 40s. Myocarditis right now looks like an unqualified disaster, McCullough says, both for younger people and adults. Children aged 12 to 17 are five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID jab-induced myocarditis than they are to be hospitalized for COVID infection. Sadly, children also reap no benefit from the shots, so its all risk and no benefit for them. McCullough points out there has been no recorded school outbreaks and no child-to-teacher transmission. He estimates 80% of school aged children are already immune, which would explain this. Meanwhile, research cited in the interview found that children aged 12 to 17 are five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID jab-induced myocarditis than they are to be hospitalized for COVID infection. These data counter the claim that COVID-induced heart problems are a far greater problem than vaccine-induced heart damage. And lets not forget, if you take a COVID shot, you have a 100% chance of being exposed to whatever risk is associated with that shot. On the other hand, if you decline the injection, its not 100% chance youll get COVID-19, let alone die from it. You have a less than 1% chance of being exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and getting sick. So, its 100% deterministic that taking the shot exposes you to the risks of the shot, and less than 1% deterministic that youll get COVID if you dont take the shot. COVID-19 Unrelated to Vaccination Rates As noted by McCullough, rates of COVID are higher now in the highest vaccinated areas than they were before the vaccine rollout. That too tells us they arent working and not worth the risk. He cites research[6] published September 30, 2021, in the European Journal of Epidemiology, which found no relationship between COVID-19 cases and levels of vaccination in 68 countries worldwide and 2,947 counties in the U.S. If anything, areas with high vaccination rates had slightly higher incidences of COVID-19. According to the authors:[7] [T]he trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people. Iceland and Portugal, for example, where more than 75% of their populations are fully vaccinated, had more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than Vietnam and South Africa, where only about 10% of the populations are fully vaccinated.[8] Data from U.S. counties showed the same thing. New COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people were largely similar, regardless of the percentage of a states population that was fully vaccinated. There appears to be no significant signaling of COVID-19 cases decreasing with higher percentages of population fully vaccinated, the authors wrote.[9] Notably, out of the five U.S. counties with the highest vaccination rates ranging from 84.3% to 99.9% fully vaccinated four of them were on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions high transmission list. Meanwhile, 26.3% of the 57 counties with low transmission have vaccination rates below 20%. The study even accounted for a one-month lag time that could occur among the fully vaccinated, since its said that it takes two weeks after the final dose for full immunity to occur. Still, no discernable association between COVID-19 cases and levels of fully vaccinated was observed.[10} Hospitalization rates for severe COVID infection have also risen, from 0.01% in January 2021 to 9% in May 2021, and the COVID death rate rose from zero percent to 15.1% in that same timeframe.[11] In short, everything is getting worse, not better, the more people get these shots. Allowing natural immunity to build is really the only rational way forward. But then again, the COVID jabs arent about protecting public health. Theyre about ushering in a socio-economic control system via vaccine passports, which is something McCullough doesnt discuss in this interview. Nothing makes sense if you look at it from a medical standpoint. It only makes sense if you see it for what it is, which is a control system. Natural Immunity Is Infinitely Better Than Vaccine Immunity According to McCullough, natural immunity is infinitely better than vaccine immunity, and studies have borne that out time and again. The reason natural immunity is superior to vaccine-induced immunity is because viruses contain five different proteins. The COVID shot induces antibodies against just one of those proteins, the spike protein, and no T cell immunity. When youre infected with the whole virus, you develop antibodies against all parts of the virus, plus memory T cells. This also means natural immunity offers better protection against variants, as it recognizes several parts of the virus. If there are significant alternations to the spike protein, as with the Delta variant, vaccine-induced immunity can be evaded. Not so with natural immunity, as the other proteins are still recognized and attacked. Heres a sampling of scholarly publications that have investigated natural immunity as it pertains to SARS-CoV-2 infection. There are several more in addition to these:[12] Science Immunology October 2020[13] found that RBD-targeted antibodies are excellent markers of previous and recent infection, that differential isotype measurements can help distinguish between recent and older infections, and that IgG responses persist over the first few months after infection and are highly correlated with neutralizing antibodies. The BMJ January 2021[14] concluded that Of 11, 000 health care workers who had proved evidence of infection during the first wave of the pandemic in the U.K. between March and April 2020, none had symptomatic reinfection in the second wave of the virus between October and November 2020. Science February 2021[15] reported that Substantial immune memory is generated after COVID-19, involving all four major types of immune memory [antibodies, memory B cells, memory CD8+ T cells, and memory CD4+ T cells]. About 95% of subjects retained immune memory at ~6 months after infection. Circulating antibody titers were not predictive of T cell memory. Thus, simple serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies do not reflect the richness and durability of immune memory to SARS-CoV-2.A 2,800-person study found no symptomatic reinfections over a ~118-day window, and a 1,246-person study observed no symptomatic reinfections over 6 months. About 95% of subjects retained immune memory at ~6 months after infection. Circulating antibody titers were not predictive of T cell memory. Thus, simple serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies do not reflect the richness and durability of immune memory to SARS-CoV-2.A 2,800-person study found no symptomatic reinfections over a ~118-day window, and a 1,246-person study observed no symptomatic reinfections over 6 months. A February 2021 study posted on the prepublication server medRxiv[16] concluded that Natural infection appears to elicit strong protection against reinfection with an efficacy ~95% for at least seven months. An April 2021 study posted on medRxiv[17] reported the overall estimated level of protection from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection for documented infection is 94.8%; hospitalization 94.1%; and severe illness 964%. Our results question the need to vaccinate previously-infected individuals. Another April 2021 study posted on the preprint server BioRxiv[18] concluded that following a typical case of mild COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells not only persist but continuously differentiate in a coordinated fashion well into convalescence, into a state characteristic of long-lived, self-renewing memory. A May 2020 report in the journal Immunity[19] confirmed that SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies are detected in COVID-19 convalescent subjects, as well as cellular immune responses. Here, they found that neutralizing antibody titers do correlate with the number of virus-specific T cells. A May 2021 Nature article[20] found SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells, which are a crucial source of protective antibodies. Even after mild infection, anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies were detectable beyond 11 months post-infection. A May 2021 study in E Clinical Medicine[21] found antibody detection is possible for almost a year post-natural infection of COVID-19. According to the authors, Based on current evidence, we hypothesize that antibodies to both S and N-proteins after natural infection may persist for longer than previously thought, thereby providing evidence of sustainability that may influence post-pandemic planning. Cure-Hub data[22] confirm that while COVID shots can generate higher antibody levels than natural infection, this does not mean vaccine-induced immunity is more protective. Importantly, natural immunity confers much wider protection as your body recognizes all five proteins of the virus and not just one. With the COVID shot, your body only recognizes one of these proteins, the spike protein. A June 2021 Nature article[23] points out that Wang et al. show that, between six and 12 months after infection, the concentration of neutralizing antibodies remains unchanged. That the acute immune reaction extends even beyond six months is suggested by the authors analysis of SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B cells in the blood of the convalescent individuals over the course of the year. These memory B cells continuously enhance the reactivity of their SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies through a process known as somatic hypermutation. The good news is that the evidence thus far predicts that infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces long-term immunity in most individuals. Reinfection Is Very Rare McCullough stresses there is also no need to worry about reinfection if youve already had COVID once. The fact is, while breakthrough cases continue among those who have gotten one or more COVID-19 injections, its extremely rare to get COVID-19 after youve recovered from the infection. How rare? Researchers from Ireland conducted a systematic review including 615,777 people who had recovered from COVID-19, with a maximum duration of follow-up of more than 10 months.[24] Reinfection was an uncommon event, they noted, with no study reporting an increase in the risk of reinfection over time. The absolute reinfection rate ranged from 0% to 1.1%, while the median reinfection rate was just 0.27%.[25][26][27] Another study revealed similarly reassuring results. It followed 43,044 SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positive people for up to 35 weeks, and only 0.7% were reinfected. When genome sequencing was applied to estimate population-level risk of reinfection, the risk was estimated at 0.1%.[28] There was no indication of waning immunity over seven months of follow-up, unlike with the COVID-19 injection, which led the researchers to conclude that Reinfection is rare. Natural infection appears to elicit strong protection against reinfection with an efficacy >90% for at least seven months.[29] Its a one-and-done, McCullough says. If youve had it once, you wont get it again. He also advises against using PCR testing after youve had confirmed COVID-19 once, as any subsequent positive tests are just going to be false positives. Early Treatment Options In closing, should you get COVID-19, know there are several very effective early treatment options, and early treatment is key, both for preventing severe infection and preventing long-haul COVID. Here are a few suggestions: Oral-nasal decontamination The virus, especially the Delta variant, replicates rapidly in the nasal cavity and mouth for three to five days before spreading to the rest of the body, so you want to strike where its most likely to be found right from the start. Research[30] has demonstrated that irrigating your nasal passages with 2.5 milliliters of 10% povidone-iodine (an antimicrobial) and standard saline, twice a day, is an effective remedy.Another option that was slightly less effective was using a mixture of saline with half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (an alkalizer). You can also gargle with these to kill viruses in your mouth and throat. When done routinely, it can be a very effective preventive strategy. You can find printable treatment guides on TruthForHealth.org. The virus, especially the Delta variant, replicates rapidly in the nasal cavity and mouth for three to five days before spreading to the rest of the body, so you want to strike where its most likely to be found right from the start. Research[30] has demonstrated that irrigating your nasal passages with 2.5 milliliters of 10% povidone-iodine (an antimicrobial) and standard saline, twice a day, is an effective remedy.Another option that was slightly less effective was using a mixture of saline with half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (an alkalizer). You can also gargle with these to kill viruses in your mouth and throat. When done routinely, it can be a very effective preventive strategy. You can find printable treatment guides on TruthForHealth.org. Nebulized peroxide A similar strategy is to use nebulized hydrogen peroxide, diluted with saline to a 0.1% solution. Both hydrogen peroxide and saline[31][32] have antiviral effects. In a May 10, 2021, Orthomolecular Medicine press release,[33] Dr. Thomas E. Levy board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology discussed the use of this treatment for COVID-19 specifically. Levy has in fact written an entire book on peroxide nebulization called Rapid Virus Recovery, which you can download for free from MedFox Publishing. A similar strategy is to use nebulized hydrogen peroxide, diluted with saline to a 0.1% solution. Both hydrogen peroxide and saline[31][32] have antiviral effects. In a May 10, 2021, Orthomolecular Medicine press release,[33] Dr. Thomas E. Levy board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology discussed the use of this treatment for COVID-19 specifically. Levy has in fact written an entire book on peroxide nebulization called Rapid Virus Recovery, which you can download for free from MedFox Publishing. Vitamin D optimization Research has shown having a vitamin D level above 50 ng/mL brings the risk of COVID mortality down to near-zero.[34] Research has shown having a vitamin D level above 50 ng/mL brings the risk of COVID mortality down to near-zero.[34] Other key nutraceuticals Vitamin C, zinc, quercetin and NAC all have scientific backing. Vitamin C, zinc, quercetin and NAC all have scientific backing. Key drugs For acute infection, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine or monoclonal antibodies can be used. While monoclonal antibodies and hydroxychloroquine must be used early on in the disease process, ivermectin has been shown to be effective in all stages of the infection. Doxycycline or azithromycin are typically added as well, to address any secondary bacterial infection, as well as inhaled budesonide (a steroid). Oral steroids are used on and after the fifth day for pulmonary weakness and aspirin or NAC can be added to reduce the risk of clotting. In the interview, McCullough discusses the use of each of these, and other, drugs.One drug I disagree with is full-strength aspirin. I believe a potentially better, at least safer, alternative would be to use the enzymes lumbrokinase and serrapeptase, as they help break down and prevent blood clots naturally. Originally published on Dec 13, 2021, on Mercola.com References Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, seven miles south of Monterey, Calif., is one of the most gorgeous spots on the West Coast. Though the underwater preserve comprises over 9,907 acres, the land open to the public is surprisingly compactjust 400 acres bordered by a six-mile perimeter trail. However, this meeting of land and water contains stunning views, a diverse range of animals and plants, and a fascinating cultural history. Map of Central California showing Point Lobos Reserve. (courtesy of Google Maps) Bird Island A large rock called Bird Island can be seen from the Bird Island Trail at China Cove. During the nesting season (AprilJuly), thousands of Brandts cormorants breed and nest on the hard ground of Bird Island. The male chooses the nest site, then spends time throwing his head back and bobbing his wings to attract a mate and ward off rivals. After hes won a mate, he gathers nesting material (seaweed, eelgrass, and algae) which the female will use to build her nest. Both parents incubate and care for the young. A view of Bird Island. (courtesy of Karen Gough) A male Brandts cormorant tries to impress a potential mate. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Harbor Seals During the month of April, mother harbor seals come ashore to the beaches to have their pups. A docent explained that through the miracle of nature, the mothers are able to delay implantation of their fertilized eggs for up to two months, while they wait until water temperature and food sources are ideal. The mothers all give birth around the same time. They only stay with their pups for a month. This gives the pups 30 days to nurse and hopefully gain enough fat to support them for the rest of the year. Pups must learn to hunt on their own. But harbor seal milk is the richest of all mammals, containing 50 percent fat (by comparison, cow milk contains 4 percent fat). A mother harbor seal bonds with her pup. Another pup lays close by. (courtesy of Karen Gough) The Trees Monterey cypress and Monterey pine are indigenous to this area. For thousands of years however, the hills in the reserve were nearly bare of trees. Native Americans burned trees and brush, and later Spanish missionaries and Portuguese settlers maintained the grassy hills for raising cattle. In the 1930s, after Point Lobos became a state reserve, the trees began to recover. The Allan Memorial Grove in Point Lobos is one of only two places in the world where Monterey cypress trees grow naturally (the other is in Pebble Beach, Calif.). Monterey pine is also unique to the Central Coast of California, though a variant grows on two islands off of Baja California, Mexico. Monterey cypress trees on the left and Monterey pines on the right frame this photo of the ocean. (courtesy of Karen Gough) The Whalers Cabin Visitors can learn about the history of Point Lobos in the small but mighty Whalers Cabin located on Whalers Cove. The cabin has been in existence (with modifications) since at least 1850. The Whalers Cabin museum. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Earliest Inhabitants Rumsien Native Americans lived in Point Lobos seasonally for over 2,500 years. In 1770, the land was claimed for cattle ranching by Father Junipero Serra of Spain and the Carmel Mission. Between 18351850 the land, then known as Rancho San Jose Y Sur Chiquito, was considered Mexican territory. Chinese History In 1851, a few Chinese families came over from Southern China in 30-foot junks (sailing ships). Shortly after, more Chinese joined them from the California gold fields. Together they established one of the first fishing camps in California. They harvested fish, squid, abalone, and sea urchins from the waters offshore. The Chinese stayed until about 1879. In the 1980s, Chinese artifacts were found under the floorboards of the Whalers Cabin. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Granite Quarry In 1854, Colonel Jose Castro sold the land to Americans Abner Bassett and Joseph Emery to be used for quarrying granite. Some of the granite quarried here was used to build the U.S. Mint in San Francisco and the Navy shipyards at Mare Island in the SF Bay. A view of Whalers Cove. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Portuguese Whaling Industry In 1861, the first Portuguese whalers arrived in Point Lobos. Their community of about 60 people came seasonally (DecMay) to hunt the gray whales that migrated up and down the coast. According to docent Ed Clifton, the Portuguese would send a man up to the top of Whalers Knoll where they had a flag pole, and if he saw a whale, hed run a flag up the pole. Then the whalers would jump into their boats and head out to sea. As long as they were getting closer, Clifton said, the flag would stay up, but if they started to deviate, the flag would start to come down. With the invention of the kerosene lamp in the early 1880s, the whale market began to dry up. After that, the Portuguese turned their complete attention to raising dairy cattle (already begun in the 1870s). Tools of the Portuguese whaling trade. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Whalers try pots used to melt blubber into oil. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Coal Mining According to Clifton, who is said to know so much hes forgotten more than most people know, the coal artifacts are the most important exhibit in the museum. Heres why: In 1872, coal was discovered in the coastal hills a few miles southeast of Point Lobos. Emery began mining the coal, But, Clifton said, it was really nasty, it flooded, and Emery had all kinds of problems with it. So Emery brought in a mining engineer that he knew of named Alexander Allan to help him manage the coal mine. Fast forward to 1878, Emery decided to subdivide and sell the land of Point Lobos to a developer named William Stader. Stader named his future village Carmelito. Fortunately for us, Clifton continued, it was during one of the great recessions and there wasnt a lot of money, and secondly, there was no bridge over the Carmel River, so it was kind of isolated. Meanwhile, Allan and his wife Satie fell in love with the place and they saw it for its beauty. In 1898 Allan bought up all the subdivided lots, and when he died in the 1930s, his heirs sold it to the state to be used as a reserve. So that is why, Clifton said, out of all the exhibits we have here, this is one of the most important. Note the chunk of coal on this signage. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Display about Alexander Allan, The Preservationist of Point Lobos. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Abalone Harvesting In 1897 a marine biologist named Gennosuke Kodani traveled from his native village of Chiba, Japan to Point Lobos and discovered an abundance of abalone (their main predator, otters, had been nearly hunted to extinction). Kodani sent for free-divers from his native village to harvest the abalone. They quickly discovered that their simple bathing suits, goggles, and caps would not keep them warm in the cold waters of the West Coast. So Allan had his father, who was a distributor of fishing equipment, send him hard-hat diving suits and air pumps. Then Kodani teamed up with Allan to establish a cannery. Together they pioneered the first abalone industry along the California coast. A hard-hat diving suit used by the Japanese whalers. (courtesy of Karen Gough) Much More to Learn Other groups, including the U.S. military and Hollywood, made use of Point Lobos as well. To learn more, visit the Whalers Cabin in the reserve, or the park website at https://www.pointlobos.org/. An ocean view of Point Lobos. (courtesy of Karen Gough) A Sunwing aircraft is parked at Montreal Trudeau airport in Montreal on March 2, 2022. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) Flights Delayed as Sunwing Airlines Struggles With Network-Wide System Issue Some travellers flying with Canadas Sunwing Airlines are left stranded as the company struggles with a technical issue that affects check-in and boarding. The company said in a statement on Twitter on April 18 that its systems provider is experiencing a network-wide system issue that has impacted check-in and boarding and has resulted in ongoing delays for a number of Sunwing flights. We regret any inconvenience to customers travel plans and are working to have the issue resolved as soon as possible, the company said in another tweet. In the meantime, Sunwing advised its customers who will be travelling over the next 12 to 24 hours to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Most of Sunwings flights on April 18 are delayed, some for up to 12 hours, according to the Flight status and alerts on the company website. No timeline has been provided as to when the issue would be resolved. When a passenger flight is delayed or cancelled for reasons outside of the airlines control, it has the minimum obligations to provide its customers meals, overnight accommodation, and even up to $1,000 in financial compensation for inconvenience, according to guidance from the Canada Transport Agency. Situations that are categorized as outside the airlines control could include security incidents, medical emergencies, bad weather, or orders from applicable authorities. Gabor Lukacs, a passenger rights advocate, told CBC that airlines are responsible for keeping their computer system functioning. There can be some truly exceptional responsibilities like being hacked, like internet cables being cut accidentally, but airlines have to have contingencies, he said. If other airlines are unaffected, then Sunwing has to buy you a ticket at its own dime on other carriers flights, he added. Undated family handout photo of Shaun Pinner, a former British Army soldier captured by Russian forces while fighting in the Ukrainian resistance, issued by the UK Foreign Office on April 18, 2022. (PA) Two British Fighters Captured in Ukraine Paraded on Russian State TV Two British fighters captured in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol have appeared on Russian state TV and asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help bring them home. In footage broadcast on the Rossiya 24 state TV channel, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who were captured while defending Mariupol against Russian attacks, asked to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian oligarch who was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities on April 12. Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 18, 2019. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/ Kremlin/ Pool Photo via AP) Pinner, a 48-year-old former British Army soldier, said in the video: I understand that Mr. Medvedchuk has been detained and we look to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin for Mr. Medvedchuk. He said to Johnson: Obviously Id really appreciate your help in this matter and pushing this agenda. In a separate clip, Aslin, 28, is seen saying: If Boris Johnson really does care like he says he does about British citizens then he would help pressure (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families. In a statement released by the UK Foreign Office, Pinners family explained how he became involved in the defence of Ukraine. They said: Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia. In 2018 Shaun decided to relocate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine military. Shaun enjoyed the Ukrainian way of life and considered Ukraine as his adopted country over the last four years. During this time, he met his Ukrainian wife, who is very focused on the humanitarian needs of the country. He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit. The family rejected Russian medias characterisation of foreign fighters in the Ukrainian military as mercenaries, stressing that Pinner was officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. They said they are working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin to ensure their rights as prisoners of war are upheld according to the Geneva Convention. Aslin, originally from Nottinghamshire, had been defending Mariupol with his unit during heavy fighting in recent weeks before having to surrender after 48 days. The Telegraph reported that Aslin enlisted in the Ukrainian army in 2018 and that he had previously fought with Kurdish forces against the ISIS terrorist group in Syria. PA Media contributed to this report. Ukraine Is Ready to Fight Russia for 10 Years: Zelenskyy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is prepared to fight the Russian Federation for 10 years in order to take whats ours while acknowledging that doing so may come at a high price. During an interview Friday on CNNs State of the Union, Zelensky noted that Ukraine is unwilling to make any major concessions to Moscow in order to achieve peace between the two countries. When asked whether Zelenskyys goal was to see Ukraine in a better position to negotiate with Russia and bring about peace or defeat Moscows military forces and get them to leave his country, the president said: We want to liberate our country, take back whats ours. We can fight the Russian Federation for 10 years to take whats ours, he said. We can go down such a path, he continued, noting that what we want can come at a very high price. And, in any case, all these years of war, where is the compromise coming from the Russian Federation? Zelenskyy continued. Maybe we can end this war without any conditions. Maybe the war can end without any dialogue or compromise and without sitting down at the negotiating table with the president of Russia. The president acknowledged that the ongoing conflict has devastated his country and its people, who he said are paying the price for the war. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as of April 14, a total of 1,964 Ukrainian civilians have died since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, of which 161 were children. Another 2,613 people have reportedly been injured, although OHCHR believes that the figures for both deaths and injuries may be higher. So, for us, this is a really great cost, he said. If there is an opportunity to speak [with Russia], we will speak. But to speak only a Russian ultimatum, its then a question about the attitude towards us, not about whether the dialogue is good or bad. Its impossible. The sooner it happens, it just means that less are likely to die. However, Zelenskyy noted that diplomatic talks between the two countries may not lead to a peaceful solution, although it is possible and, therefore, we should try. Zelenskyys comments differed from those he made in an interview with The Atlantic, also published on Friday, where he stated that he doesnt want Ukraine to fight for our independence for another 10 years. We already have 30 years of our independence. I would not want us to fight for our independence for another 10 years, the Ukrainian president said. Elsewhere during Fridays interview with CNN, Zelenskyy renewed calls to leaders across the globe to provide more assistance and equipment to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russias much larger military forces, noting that there needs to be equipment today or tomorrow, not in two or three months. Some countries are just not offering assistance, Zelenskyy said. They can send millions, but we can still lose our state. Thats why one has to strike a balance. Officials on Friday said the United States will continue to pour weapons into Ukraine, despite Russia reportedly warning of unpredictable consequences, in response to such actions. State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN on Friday that nothing will dissuade the Biden administration from directing weapons to the country, adding that if the Kremlin is concerned that the Biden administration is providing billions of dollars worth of security assistance to our Ukrainian partners then were guilty as charged. The United States has sent more than $2.5 billion worth of arms and other military aid to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24. On April 13, Biden announced that his government has authorized a further $800 million in weapons, ammunition, and other security assistance to Ukraine, noting that the country has used the weapons provided by the United States to devastating effect. A view shows the gates of the Illich Steel and Iron Works damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) Ukrainian Official: Mariupol Doesnt Exist Anymore After Russia Blockade A Ukrainian official said that Mariupol city doesnt exist anymore after Russia announced the urban area of the city is clear of Ukraine troops. The situation in Mariupol is both dire militarily and heartbreaking. The city doesnt exist anymore. The remainder of the Ukrainian army and large group of civilians are basically encircled by the Russian forces, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an interview with CBS Face the Nation. The Kremlin announced on Saturday that there were no Ukrainian troops in the urban area of Mariupol, a key battlefield in the east of Ukraine. The entire urban territory of Mariupol is completely cleared of militants of the Nazist group Azov, foreign mercenaries, and Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry wrote in a social media post. About 2,500 Ukrainian troops are blocked from leaving Azovstal, one of Europes biggest metallurgical plants located in the east of Mariupol, by Russian troops who have surrounded the plant, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated. This picture shows the partially destroyed Mariupol drama theatre, bombed last March 16, in Mariupol on April 12, 2022, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across eastern Ukraine, while Russias President makes a defiant case for the war on Russias neighbour. *EDITORS NOTE: This picture was taken during a trip organized by the Russian military.* (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images) Several Ukrainian officials said their troops are still struggling in Mariupol and have defied the deadline offered by Russian forces to surrender. The Russian Defense Ministry gave the Ukrainians at Mariupols giant Azovstal steel mill until 1 p.m. on April 17 to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be guaranteed to keep their lives. Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol would be destroyed, the Russian military warned. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy threatened to cut all talks with Russia if the remaining Ukrainian troops in Mariupol were eliminated. The more Borodianka-like cases appear, there will be no chance that negotiations will be held, actually, he said during an interview with Ukrainian media. The destruction of all our guys in Mariupolwhat they are doing nowcan put an end to any format of negotiations. Borodianka is an urban-style settlement about 37 miles northwest of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv from which the Russian forces recently withdrew. Zelenskyy said that more than 300 civilians were killed by Russian forces, with about 30 of them executed. However, Kuleba said that Russia and Ukraine have had no contact for weeks at the diplomatic level. The only level of contact is the negotiating team that consists of representatives of various institutions and members of parliament, he said. He downplayed the ceasefire talks and labeled the efforts as consultations at the expert level. Russian soldiers and volunteers distribute bread in Mariupol on April 12, 2022, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across eastern Ukraine, while Russias president makes a defiant case for the war on Russias neighbor. *EDITORS NOTE: This picture was taken during a trip organized by the Russian military.* (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images) Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, which the Kremlin calls a special military operation. The United Nations said that as of April 15, 1,982 civilians had been killed and 2,651 injured in Ukraine since Russias invasion, and more than 4.8 million people had fled the country. Russian forces recently shifted focus to the south and east of Ukraine where the separatist or disputed territories are located. The Kremlin is apparently intending to occupy the corridor connecting Crimea and Donbas, with Mariupol being a key city along the corridor. A map by the U.K. Ministry of Defense shows the troop locations of Russia and Ukraine as of April 17. (U.K. Ministry of Defense) However, a ceasefire over this area seems stuck, with the two sides having taken on irreconcilable stances. The gap between Russian and Ukrainian demands seems unbridgeable on the issue of Crimea and Donbas; both areas have been de facto occupied by Russia or pro-Russian separatists. Putin clearly demanded that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia, and Donetsk and Luhansk as independent. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has agreed to possibly set aside the disputes for those territories but also vowed to not give them up. A Coast Guard cutter off the coast of Florida in a file photo. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP) US Coast Guard Searches for Man Who Jumped From Cruise Ship TALLAHASSEE, Fla.The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a man who jumped overboard from a cruise ship early Saturday as it approached Florida. The man jumped from the Carnival Cruise Lines ship Mardi Gras just after midnight about 55 miles east of Port Canaveral, according to the Coast Guard and Carnival. The Coast Guard responded with two cutters and an airplane to search for the 43-year-old man. The Mardi Gras and the cruise ship Elation also participated in the search, said Coast Guard spokesman David Micallef. The Carnival Care Team is supporting the guests family. Mardi Gras, said Carnival spokesman Matt Lupoli. Our thoughts and prayers are with the guest and his family. Lupoli said the Coast Guard released the ship from the search efforts and it continued to Port Canaveral. It will continue sailing as scheduled. FIle photo: Participants in a ceremony marking the start of Talisman Saber 2017, a biennial joint military exercise between the United States and Australia, board a U.S. Marines MV-22B Osprey Aircraft on the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship off the coast of Sydney, Australia, June 29, 2017. (Reuters/Jason Reed/File Photo) US Red Dragons Dispatched to Australia A squadron of U.S. tilt-rotor combat aircraft will be dispatched to the northern Australian city of Darwin to take part in this years Marine Rotational Force. The 10 Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospreys, also known as the Red Dragons, will be part of a contingent of thousands of marines who will be training with the Australian Defence Force. The Red Dragons are excited to join 5th Marines as part of the MRF-D 2022 rotation, Lieutenant Colonel Vanessa Clark, the aviation combat element commanding officer said on April 18 in comments obtained by AAP. Honoured to be working hand in hand with the Australian Defence Force, the importance of the U.S.-Australia team cannot be overstated. The Osprey fleet follows the arrival of the U.S. Air Forces largest aircraft, the 75-metre-long C-5 Super Galaxy, which arrived in Darwin in late March, as well as an earlier arrival of the B-2 Stealth Bomber. The current seasonal exercises have been expanded to around 2,200 servicemen and will include 250 U.S. army personnel for the first time. The initiative comes as part of a force posture to promote stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Adm. John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who visited Darwin in late March, said he believed Australia could be at risk of attack from the north. There is certainly a threat, he told reporters on March 23. Today in the Indo-Pacific, it hosts the most concerning security challenge that we have faced in a number of years. The admiral was referring to Beijings militarisation of three manmade islands in the South China Sea. They are full-fledged offensive bases, he said. Runways, hangers, barracks, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles, jamming capability, hangers for fighter aircraft, bomber aircraft. U.S. and Australian officials have also been concerned at a recent security pact initialled by the leaders of the Solomon Islands and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The pact, if fully implemented, could open the door for the CCP to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the South Pacificextending the reach of the Peoples Liberation Army beyond the South China Sea and into a strategically important region under 2,000 kilometres from the Australian coastline. Australian and U.S. politicians have warned Solomon Island leaders against the deal, with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, warning that Beijing could become the owner and minder of the Pacific nation. Thats what their ultimate goal is, and theyve shown in Africa and other parts of the world that where it seems like theyre coming with good intentionand then their coercive economic policies and practices ultimately [result in you being] owned by China. I dont think anyone wants to be owned by China, he said, in reference to the Belt and Road Initiative. Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale has been critical of the deal, saying it was unnecessary for pacifying internal and external threats. All the drivers of instability, insecurity and even threats to national unity in Solomon Islands are entirely internal, he said in a statement. Wale called Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare a mercenary of Beijing, and that he had longed for the day he could exact revenge on Australiathe prime minister has been a long-time critic of the countrys involvement in the region claiming it was engaging in colonialism. The opposition leader said that day [of vengeance] has arrived, and he has gladly thrust his sword into Australias back. China is only too happy to oblige Prime Minister Sogavare, there is a meeting of minds on this. Parents who saw their childrens education stunted, people with chronic illnesses who couldnt access the care they needed, and entrepreneurs whose businesses crumbled to nothing throughout 2020 and 2021 may well know the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns better than many of the public health officials who implemented them. It is also these people who would likely recoil at recent comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci apparently praising the Chinese Communist Partys COVID management: And remember early on they were sayingand, I think, accuratelythat they were doing better than almost anybody else. In this episode, I explore some of the cold hard truths of the Shanghai lockdown, the disturbing parallels between COVID management in the United States and in communist China, and revisit a lesson from ancient history for ruling powers seeking to tighten their grip on the people. Follow EpochTV on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV Parler: https://parler.com/#/user/EpochTV NORWALK Sleeping on duty. Damaging department property. Refusing to obey orders. These are some of the department violations Norwalk police officers have been cited for in recent years, according to disciplinary records obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media. Most police officers caught engaging in wrongdoing faced relatively light punishments aside from one officer accused of repeated misconduct being suspended from work for 15 days, the most serious punishment handed down by the department between 2015 and 2020. The records show that the majority of the officers, including two repeat offenders, were ordered to serve only one- or two-day suspensions, allowing them to quickly return to work. An investigation by Hearst Connecticut Media last month found that of the more than 1,800 internal charges of alleged officer misconduct at 30 local police departments primarily in Fairfield and New Haven counties, only about 1 percent resulted in the officer being fired. In Norwalk, none of the 17 charges that were sustained by department officials meaning misconduct was found to have occured led to any terminations. Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik, who personally determines the disciplinary action for each individual case, said the punishment is based on the seriousness of the violation and the record of the officer accused of misconduct. Someone whos been here for 20 years and has a minor violation but has never had an issue is going to be treated differently than someone whos had several suspensions and then charged again with the same violation, he said. Obviously, the punishment would get more severe as you go forward. Kulhawik said the vast majority of the violations were found by department supervisors or through routine inspections. A lot of our disciplinary issues are really internally generated as opposed to civilian complaints, he said. We have very few civilians, and of those very few end up substantiated. The disciplinary records, which do not include allegations of misconduct that were found to be unsubstantiated, offer few details about the individual violations. Often just two sentences long, the reports note the violation and the resulting punishment. Still, the records show the frequency of the violations within the 179-member department and a pattern of misconduct from at least one officer. Jermaine Nash, a veteran of the department, was found to have violated department rules at least four different times over the span of five years, the largest number of violations for a single officer. In 2015, he was suspended for five days and was ordered to pay the department $500 in restitution for damaging equipment. Two years later he was cited for neglect of duty and then for incompetence, leading to a 15-day suspension. Most recently, he was suspended for a single day in 2019 for sleeping on duty. At least two Norwalk officers who have faced criminal charges this year also appear in the disciplinary records. Michael DiMeglio, who was arrested in January after allegedly drinking alcohol while on duty, was suspended for two days in 2016 due to insubordination and for a violation involving the use of department equipment. Nelson Figueroa, an officer charged with trespassing in May for allegedly refusing to leave a Fairfield residence, was forced to forfeit a day and a half of vacation time in 2018 after he submitted a fictitious injury or illness report. Norwalk Branch NAACP President Brenda Penn-Williams, who has pushed for changes to police practices, called the punishments detailed in the disciplinary records slaps on the wrist. She suggested that officers who repeatedly violate department policy should face longer suspensions and, if necessary, termination. They should be held to the highest standard possible, she said. They are police officers and they are supposed to serve and protect. But it seems like theres a different set of rules for them and thats not right. The number of violations have decreased in recent years. Between 2015 and 2017, a dozen violations were sustained. But from 2018 to 2020, just four infractions were recorded. Norwalk Police Union President David OConnor described the disciplinary process as thorough and fair. Under the union contract, officers are allowed to dispute misconduct allegations and present evidence in their defense. OConnor said he was open to changes to the system, but argued that the current approach encourages officers to correct mistakes and avoid committing any future violations. For the most part, the goal is to get cooperation and compliance and not to be punitive in every single thing, he said. If every time someone made a mistake we fired them, then there would be nobody there working. richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK An attorney representing a 13-year-old boy and his parents says the family plans to file a lawsuit after the teen was suspended from the Norwalk Alternative Opportunity Program and allegedly forced to wait outside for hours before a police officer gave him a ride home. Attorney Piper A. Paul has filed a notice with the Norwalk Town Clerk of the familys intent to sue, alleging an administrator for the alternative program used foul and disparaging language before suspending the student and not letting him back into the building last month. Paul said the boy, Daniel Portillo, 13, was suspended in March for allegedly violating a rule about the number of students allowed in the bathroom at the same time at the George Carver Community Center on Academy Street where the full-day program is held. The Norwalk Alternative Opportunity Program is for students who have been suspended or expelled from school. A report to the Board of Education in June 2020 said at that time there were 34 students enrolled in the program, half of whom were identified as special education students. A spokesperson for Norwalk Public Schools did not respond to requests for comment or questions about the status of the school administrator who was allegedly involved in the incident. Any allegations will be taken seriously and fully investigated. However, it is our policy not to comment on pending lawsuits, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said in a statement. In an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group, the boys mother, Elda Mas, said her son was using the restroom when another student entered one day last month. When the school administrator found both students in the restroom, he suspended them and told them to leave the property, Paul wrote to the city in his letter, which was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group. On his phone, Portillo captured audio of the exchange with the person who his family claims is the school employee. The camera was pointed to the floor and the person speaking is not seen in the video. Take your crap at home, the mans voice can be heard saying in the video. Oh my God, both of you go home. Im done with you. Portillo gathered his belongings and left the building as instructed, Paul wrote in the letter. So many things happened so fast. I didnt know how I felt, Portillo said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. Inside, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed and frustrated. In his letter, Paul said the school administrator did not notify the boys parents about the suspension. After Portillo called his mother to tell her what happened, Mas contacted the school administrator to inform him she and her husband were unable to pick up their son for several hours, Paul wrote in the letter. However, the school administrator would not allow the student to wait inside the safety of the school building, Paul wrote in the letter. A security guard stopped Portillo from reentering the building, informed him he could not remain on school property and instructed him to wait for his mother across the street, Paul wrote in the letter. After Portillo remained outside for several hours and did not have a coat, Paul contacted the police, who gave the boy a ride home, the letter stated. The Norwalk Police Department said it could not release a report of this response because it involved a juvenile. Were feeling sad, Mas said. Were frustrated because we try to work with (the school district). I never imagined Id be in this position. ... Its sad because Im expecting the district had that responsibility to give my son the right to a special education. Mas said her son has not returned to the program. He has tremendous anxiety and the treatment he received at NAOP, as well as the incident have caused irreparable harm to both the student and the family, for which they will be seeking damages, Paul wrote in the letter. Portillo was sent to the Norwalk Alternative Opportunity Program in late December following a disciplinary issue at Roton Middle School, Mas said. Mas said police were involved and her son had to appear before the Norwalk Juvenile Review Board. Norwalk police said they could not provide information about the incident because it involved a juvenile. Mas said the review board offered two options for her son. Portillo could either stay home and receive tutoring or he could attend the Norwalk Alternative Opportunity Program. According to the city website, the purpose of the Juvenile Review Board is to offer meaningful alternatives to the criminal justice system through community-based intervention strategies. A youth under the age of 18 with no prior arrests who has committed a misdemeanor offense is referred to the JRB case manager. My voice is for other parents too, Mas said about taking legal action. Maybe they feel intimidated. Maybe they dont know who can help. This is not only for my son. emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com For the millions of lactose-intolerant people out there, ice cream is a vice that can sometimes feel on par with a Schedule 1 substance sans all the violence and oppression. As a dessert lover whose stomach gets shredded from the slightest glance in the direction of cheese, finding the right dairy-free ice cream is a painful process of trial and error. I went on a journey to find some of the best lactose-free, plant-based, vegan, all-around delicious dairy-free ice creams out there. Beckon Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Beckon Ice Cream Beckon Shop Now I put aside my normal wariness for dairy alternatives in order to try Beckon, and found myself rewarded for my stability. Beckon, to me, tastes a tad sweeter than lactose-heavy ice cream, almost having more of a frozen milkshake quality to it which is the precise reason I settled on chocolate chip cookie dough as my favorite flavor. The cookie dough chunks add a perfect amount of body and sweetness that makes Beckon live up to its name. Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy Mint Chocolate Chance Frozen Dessert Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy Mint Chocolate Chance Frozen Dessert Ben & Jerry's Shop Now Ben & Jerrys has been on the forefront of the ice-cream-as-activism scene since their founding in 1978. This 100% vegan certified non-dairy ice cream comes to us as a collab with Chance the Rapper, whose favorite flavor just so happens to be mint. You can always trust Ben & Jerry to deliver on flavors that pack a punch, and Mint Chocolate Chance doesnt disappoint with bold mint and chocolate chips that melt in your mouth. Klimon Cherry Bomb Klimon Cherry Bomb Shop Now A newcomer to the ice cream scene, Klimon makes almond-based, dairy-free frozen desserts that promise mouth-watering flavors based on the promise of no dairy, no difference. I picked up their Cherry Bomb at a random Walmart after catching a glimpse of their decidedly-punk packaging. Cherry Bomb blew me away with its rich, decadent flavor and cherry-packed pint that is somehow only 670 calories?! Van Leeuwen Sicilian Pistachio Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert Vegan Sicilian Pistachio vanleeuwenicecream.com $12.00 Shop Now From the people who brought us such flavors as Kraft Mac & Cheese ice cream, Van Leeuwen has cracked the code on blending together flavors that make real ice cream taste like cow poop. This is, hands down, my favorite ice cream in any category and I dont care how much each pint drains my bank account. Made with special pistachios purportedly only found on a mountain in Bronte, Italy, this cashew milk and coconut cream-based dessert is as smooth as it is luscious and borderline impossible to put down. N!CKS Peanot Butter Fudge Peanot Butter Fudge nicks.com $9.99 Shop Now Whats better than erroneous exclamation points and umlauts? Vegan ice cream that manages to taste like ice cream! Lactose-free, Keto-friendly, and vegan with only 290 calories per pint, N!CKS is technically lactose-free but contains animal-free dairy protein so anyone allergic to actual milk, as opposed to lactose, can take a hike. Im a sucker for peanut butter, so Peanot Butter Fudge sent my tastebuds soaring with a flavor that just about reads like ice cream. Texture-wise, its quite light but you cant keep an entire pint under 290 calories without making a few sacrifices. NadaMoo Banana Caramel Crunch Banana Caramel Crunch nadamoo.com $14.00 Shop Now Like the big boys at Ben & Jerrys, NadaMoo has cracked the code on delivering full milk flavor without the sh*t-your-pants qualities of lactose. Wildgood Mango ice cream Made with borderline-intimidating ingredients like chicory root fiber, pea protein, carob bean gum, and *check notes* extra virgin olive oil, Wildgoods mango ice cream lives up to its name with a *checks notes again* wildly good taste you could swear was dairy-based. The not-so-secret secret ingredient is a flavor made with alphonso mango; a prized Indian mango known for its taste, smell, and vibrant color. Creamy, tangy, and shipped in recyclable eco-friendly coolers, Wildgood makes for a refreshing springtime dessert. Haagen-Dazs Non-Dairy Coconut Caramel Non-Dairy Coconut Caramel icecream icecream.com $4.60 Shop Now Like my gluten-free brethren overjoyed by the influx of gluten-free snacks desserts, I was one of the brave lactose-intolerant people whose addiction to ice cream really gained traction after Haagen-Dazs' contribution to the dairy-free game. Made with naturally dairy-free ingredients like coconut cream, brown sugar, and molasses, coconut caramel is one of the brands two vegan flavors in their non-dairy line, and a total marvel at what the brand can do with coconut and caramel. Smooth, creamy, and freaking luscious, animal creams got nothing on coconut cream. HONORABLE MENTION: Sticky Sweet THE BEST PLANT-BASED ICE CREAM YOUVE EVER TASTED Sticky Sweet Shop Now Despite the fact you can only get this plant-based vegan ice cream in Maine, Sticky Sweet is absolutely worth the honorable mention. I bought their Sea Salt Maple flavor on a whim and ate it all within three days. My wife didnt even know I had bought it how f***ed up is that? This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LVIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. Torture chambers are built there, Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians, he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine will begin in the near future. Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies, Zelenskyy said. All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions. ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Russia strikes Ukraine's big cities, bears down on Mariupol Mother, grandmother weep over a 15-year-old killed in shelling of Kharkiv Elderly mother feels lost, seeks son's body in Ukrainian town of Bucha Prince Harry pays tribute to Ukrainian competitors as he opens the Invictus Games We pray for you: Ukrainian Jews mark Passover, if they can Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: WASHINGTON -- Ukraines foreign minister is describing the situation in Mariupol as dire and heartbreaking and says Russias continued attacks there could be a red line that ends all efforts to reach peace through negotiation. Dmytro Kuleba tells CBS Face the Nation that the remaining Ukrainian military personnel and civilians in the port city are basically encircled by Russian forces. He says the Ukrainians continue their struggle but that the city effectively doesnt exist anymore because of massive destruction. Kuleba says his country has been keeping up expert level talks with Russia in recent weeks in hopes of reaching a political solution for peace. But citing the significance of Mariupol, he echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in saying the elimination of Ukrainian forces there could be a red line that stops peace efforts. ___ WASHINGTON President Joe Biden says hes praying on Easter for those living in the dark shadow of war, persecution and poverty. Biden released an Easter message Sunday in which he says hes also praying for peace, freedom and basic dignity and respect for all of Gods children. Biden didnt say which war he had in mind, but the president has been deeply involved in trying to force an end to Russias invasion of Ukraine. The American president says hes grateful that the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed many people around the world to celebrate by attending religious services and in-person family gatherings. He also acknowledges that the holiest day on the Christian calendar falls on heavy hearts for those who have lost loved ones and those among us living in the dark shadow of war, persecution and poverty. ___ KYIV, Ukraine A regional official in eastern Ukraine says at least two people have been killed by Russian shelling. The Luhansk regions governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said that at least four others were wounded Sunday when Russia forces fired at residential buildings in the town of Zolote. Zolote is located near the front line in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas, where the Russian forces are preparing for a massive offensive. ___ WASHINGTON Ukraines prime minister says the besieged city of Mariupol hasn't yet fallen to Russia and the Ukrainian forces there will fight to the end. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal appealed during a Sunday appearance on an American television broadcast for help for the approximately 100,000 Ukrainians who remain trapped in the eastern city without food, water, heat and electricity. He says some regions of Mariupol remain under Ukrainian control, and that Russia doesn't have full dominance over the city. Mariupol appeared on the brink of falling to Russian forces Sunday after seven weeks under siege. The Russian military gave a deadline for surrender to a few thousand Ukrainian fighters who were providing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, but the Ukrainians didn't submit. Shmyhal told ABC News This Week that Ukrainian forces are still fighting, including in the Donbas region, but we do not have intention to surrender. The prime minister says Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy, if possible. Shmyhal says surrender isnt an option, adding that we will not leave our country, our families, our lands, so we will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war. ___ KYIV, Ukraine A Ukrainian health official says that at least five people have been killed in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv. Maksym Haustov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administrations health department, said that another 13 residents were wounded by Sundays shelling of Ukraines second-largest city. Rescuers have been working to help survivors after the shelling that hit residential and administrative buildings and caused fires. Officials said the center of Kharkiv came under shelling by multiple rocket launchers. ___ KHARKIV, Ukraine Multiple rockets struck the center of the eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, according to AP journalists in the city. The barrage slammed into apartment buildings and left broken glass, debris and part of at least one rocket scattered on the street. Several apartments caught fire, with firefighters and residents scrambling to douse the flames. At least two bodies were seen, and four other people were injured, though the scale of the attack suggested the casualty toll could rise further. ___ MOSCOW The Russian military has warned that Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol will be destroyed. The Russian Defense Ministry gave the Ukrainians at Mariupols giant Azovstal steel mill until 1 p.m. Sunday (1000 GMT) to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be guaranteed to keep their lives. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian military command had banned its troops from surrendering. He said the Russian military received the information from intercepted communications. Konashenkov warned that all those who will continue resistance will be destroyed. He claimed that along with Ukrainian troops, there are about 400 foreign mercenaries encircled at Azovstal, most of them from European countries and Canada, communicating in six languages, according to intercepts. Konashenkovs claim couldnt be independently verified. ___ VATICAN CITY In an Easter Sunday message aimed at the world but heavily focused on Ukraine, Pope Francis raised two worries the risk of nuclear warfare and that other armed conflicts on the globe will go unnoticed. In a speech from the balcony of St. Peters Basilica, the pope quoted a declaration from scientists in the 1950s in which they posed the question: Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war? The pope has repeatedly made anguished pleas for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. In his Easter message, Francis lamented that so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing. He expressed hope that the war in Europe will also make us more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow in situations that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget. Among the places he cited were Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. He singled out Yemen, suffering from a conflict forgotten by all, with continuous victims. ___ MILAN Italian Premier Mario Draghi is calling Ukraines resistance to Russias invasion heroic, depriving Russia of what it expected to be a rapid victory and setting the stage for a prolonged war. Draghi told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Sunday that what awaits us is a war of resistance, prolonged violence with destruction that will continue. There is no sign that the Ukraine population can accept a Russian occupation. Draghi noted that Italy remained close to the Ukrainian people, with the reopening of its embassy in Kyiv. The ambassador returned to the capital on Friday, and the embassy is expected to be fully operational on Monday. Draghi, who spoke to Putin before the war broke out and again at the end of March, said he has come to believe that speaking with the Russian leader is just a waste of time. Draghi said: I have the impression that the horror of the war, with its carnage, with what they have done to children and women, is completely independent of the words and the phone calls. ___ KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines deputy defense minister says that the key port of Mariupol is holding despite the continuing Russian attacks. Hanna Malyar said Sunday that the defenders of the key Sea of Azov port have tied up significant Russian forces besieging the city. She described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine that prevents the Russian troops encircling the city from advancing to other areas of the country. Malyar said that the Russians have continued to hit Mariupol with air raids and were possibly preparing an amphibious landing to beef up their forces in the city. ___ LONDON In his Easter sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called for Russia to declare a cease-fire and withdraw in Ukraine. The leader of the Anglican church said Easter is a time for peace and not blood and iron. Noting that in the Eastern Orthodox church followed by many in Russia and Ukraine Sunday marks the start of Holy Week the week leading to Easter he said let this be a time for Russian cease-fire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. Welby said God hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, and he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees. ___ MOSCOW The Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in the besieged port of Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be guaranteed to keep their lives. The Russian Defense Ministry made the announcement early Sunday. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said that the Ukrainians encircled at the giant Azovstal steel factory were given until 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) to surrender. It was the latest such offer to the Ukrainian defenders of the key Sea of Azov port during a siege that has lasted for more than 1 months. Capturing Mariupol is a key strategic goal for Russia, allowing it to secure a land corridor to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. The fall of Mariupol would also free the Russian forces involved in the siege for a planned offensive in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. The giant Azovstal steel mill that covers an area of more than 11 square kilometers (over 4.2 square miles) is the last major section of Mariupol still under Ukrainian control. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that about 2,500 Ukrainian troops remain at Azovstal, a claim that couldnt be independently verified. The Ukrainian officials didnt mention any numbers for the city defenders. ___ MOSCOW The Russian military says it has struck a military plant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital with missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday the military has used precision-guided air-launched missiles to attack the ammunition plant in Brovary outside Kyiv overnight. He said that other Russian air raids also destroyed Ukrainian air defense radars near Sievierodonetsk in the east and several ammunition depots elsewhere. The strikes were the latest in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraines weapons factories, air defense assets and other facilities as Moscow prepares for a massive offensive in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. ___ SOFIA, Bulgaria Bulgaria has banned Russian-flagged ships from entering its Black Sea ports as part of expanded EU sanctions, the countrys Maritime Administration announced on its website on Sunday. All vessels registered under Russian flag, as well as all vessels that have switched their Russian flag, or flag or maritime register registration to any other state whatsoever after Feb. 24, are forbidden access to Bulgarian maritime and river ports, the authority said. Exceptions will be made only for ships in distress or seeking humanitarian assistance, or ships transporting energy products, food and pharmaceuticals to EU countries. ___ KHARKIV, Ukraine Russias bombardment of cities around Ukraine on Saturday included an explosion in Kharkiv that destroyed a community kitchen. Associated Press journalists at the scene recorded the immediate aftermath of the apparent missile attack. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three people were killed and 34 wounded by missile strikes Saturday in that city alone. The kitchen was set up by World Central Kitchen, which is run by celebrity chef Jose Andres to establish feeding systems in disaster and war zones. Andres tweeted that the non-governmental organizations staff members were shaken but safe. The organization says it has now reached 30 cities across the country, providing nearly 300,000 meals a day. Andres said the attack in Kharkiv shows that to give food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience and resistance and that his groups chefs will keep cooking for Ukraine. ___ KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke Saturday with the leaders of Britain and Sweden about how best to help those defending Mariupol and the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the besieged city. Mariupols fate can be decided either through battle or diplomacy, he said. Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the blockade, he said in his nightly video address to the nation. Or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive. ___ NEW YORK A Russian general whose troops have been besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried on Saturday in St. Petersburg after dying in battle, the governor said. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media identified as being among the forces battering Mariupol for weeks. Gov. Alexander Beglov released a statement saying Frolov died a heroic death in battle without saying where or when he was killed. Photographs on Russian news websites showed his grave at a St. Petersburg cemetery piled high with red and white flowers. Ukraine has claimed that several Russian generals and dozens of other high-ranking officers have been killed during the war. ___ WASHINGTON Austrias chancellor said after meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow this past week that the Russian president is in his own war logic when it comes to Ukraine. Karl Nehammer told NBC in an interview that he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war. Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. He said we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine. Before arriving in Moscow last Monday, Nehammer had visited Bucha, Ukraine, the town outside of Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces. Nehammer told Meet the Press that he confronted Putin with what he had seen in Bucha, and it was not a friendly conversation. He said Putin said he will cooperate with an international investigation, on one hand, and on the other hand, he told me that he doesnt trust the Western world. So this will be the problem now in the future. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Alex Jones' company Infowars has filed for bankruptcy protection after the conspiracy theorist lost defamation lawsuits over his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. Jones filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas and told his listeners Monday he was totally maxed out financially. He urged his audience to contribute money or buy products off his Infowars website. Attorneys for Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets as juries later this year are set to determine how much he should pay in damages. Here's what to know: WHAT DOES ALEX JONES CLAIM? Infowars told the bankruptcy court it had estimated assets of $50,000 or less and estimated liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Creditors listed in the filing include relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut. Two other companies with ties to Jones, Prison Planet TV and IW Health, also filed for bankruptcy. An attorney for InfoWars did not return messages seeking comment but Jones has addressed the bankruptcy in recent days on his show. He has been banned from major social media platforms for hate speech and abusive behavior. We have less than $3 million cash and we need that money" to operate, Jones said. WHAT IS JONES FACING? Jury selection had been set to begin next week in Austin in a trial to determine how much Jones should pay the families of Sandy Hook victims. He faces similar trials in Connecticut later this year. The plaintiffs in those cases have said they were subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones followers because he promoted the hoax conspiracy that crisis actors faked the shooting in an effort by the federal government to take away guns and restrict firearms. Jones has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Alex Jones is just delaying the inevitable: a public trial in which he will be held accountable for his profit-driven campaign of lies against the Sandy Hook families who have brought this lawsuit, said Christopher Mattei, who represents the families in a Connecticut lawsuit against Jones. Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, died in the Newtown school shooting, said he did not immediately know how the bankruptcy would affect his defamation lawsuit against Jones in Texas, It is what it is, Heslin said. Well see where it all goes. Hes tried everything to avoid everything. WHAT ARE JONES' FINANCES? A separate lawsuit earlier this month accused Jones of hiding millions of dollars in assets. An attorney for Jones has called the allegation ridiculous. Last month, Jones was fined $75,000 for failing to appear for a deposition in a defamation case but a judge last week ordered the return of the money because Jones eventually showed up. The bankruptcy court filings claim that Jones has paid $10 million in legal fees. He claimed in court records last year that he had a negative net worth of $20 million, but attorneys for Sandy Hook families have painted a different financial picture. Court records show that Jones' Infowars store, which sells nutritional supplements and survival gear, made more than $165 million between 2015 and 2018. Hes going to come under far more scrutiny under a bankruptcy court than in state court, said Sid Scheinberg, a bankruptcy attorney with Godwin Bowman in Dallas, which is not involved in the Jones case. WHAT EFFECT WILL THIS HAVE ON THE SANDY HOOK CASES? Filing for Chapter 11 puts civil litigation on hold while the business reorganizes its finances. It is not the first time a bankruptcy filing has affected a lawsuit filed by the Sandy Hook families. While suing gun maker Remington, which manufactured the AR-15-style rifle used in the school shooting, the company filed for bankruptcy twice. In the second case filed in 2020, Remingtons assets were eventually sold off to other companies. The 2020 bankruptcy delayed proceedings for a year in the Connecticut lawsuit, which sought damages against Remington for how it marketed its rifles. In February, the families of nine victims of the school shooting announced they had agreed to settle the case for $73 million. ___ Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. For more than a half a century, the International Hospitality Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has been helping international students find a family away from home. The International Hospitality Program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, is conducting a membership drive. The organization currently has 40 to 50 host families but needs more. New international students are invited to participate in the International Hospitality Program and sign up for a host family each term during orientation week. We take families from the Metro East and even some from St. Louis and describe the program to them, International Hospitality Program President Jodi Cox said. The orientation usually takes about 45 minutes over Zoom and its really easy. Its a friendship program and we match up students with families, and we ask the families to bring the students into their lives. The students dont live with the families, and they have their own place to live, but we ask the families to treat the students like they would their own kids. Ask them to dinner, family game nights and whatever holidays you celebrate and show them around St. Louis. The mission of the International Hospitality Program is to help international students make the transition to life on the SIUE campus and life in the United States, and to help make the transition more comfortable for them. The host families might offer the students advice on banking, shopping, laundry, automobile responsibilities, housing and health concerns. Some of these students come here and they get hooked up with their language groups someone that is easier for them to speak to and they dont get out of their bubble, Cox said. This is a way for them to experience American life. They have a lot of questions, and the host families can help to answer them. Most of the students are graduate students, although we do have some four-year students. They are usually the cream of the crop in their own countries, and they are big achievers. Cox noted that most of the new international students may not know anyone when they arrive on campus, and the International Hospitality Program helps them make the adjustment to college life in a new country. I served on a committee at SIUE, and I helped freshmen move in, and most of those kids have so much support, Cox said. Mom and Dad and brothers and sisters are helping them carry stuff to their dorm rooms. Most of these (international) students show up with just a suitcase and theyre here to start a life. Many of these students are looking for second-hand stuff for their apartments and Restore Decor in Edwardsville has been a great source for them, with stuff like twin-size beds, student desks and a small kitchenette table and chairs. We also direct them to places like Goodwill where they can get goods at a low cost. Due to a backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, SIUE is getting more international students than ever. We usually expect about 150 international students in the fall and maybe 80 students in the spring and not all of them sign up for host families (through IHP), Cox said. This past semester, we had 300 incoming students, which is a record. With 40 host families, even if each family takes three students, you cant place that many students. Plus, our membership is getting older and theyre not able to do as many things as they did before. Were looking to fill spots on the leadership team and were looking for new families. Cox, who is from Edwardsville, currently lives in Cleveland, where she manages a family-owned heavy equipment rental store. She attended SIUE for an undergraduate degree in German and a masters degree in public administration. She has been an International Hospitality Program member for about nine years and has been the president for more than three years, but her connection to the organization goes back to her undergraduate days at SIUE. My roommates were from Iran and one of them still lives in the St. Louis area, Cox said. They told me that (the International Hospitality Program) was a group of people I should get involved with, and thats how I got started. While much has changed at SIUE since the founding of the International Hospitality Program, Cox believes that the organizations mission as is important as ever. Weve been around since 1969 and we started initially because at that point, there wasnt a lot of housing for students, Cox said. The families back then actually took the international students in their homes for about four weeks until they could get their feet under them and were able to find an apartment. Theres much more housing now, but we wanted to keep the organization going. Its a great thing for community members, and if you talk to our families, theyll tell you they get more out of it than the students ever will. Its an opportunity to bring the world to your door. For more information about the International Hospitality Program, email Cox at jodi.olyseen@gmail.com or visit International Hospitality Program at SIUE on Facebook. Photo: Columbus Park in Chinatown, March 10. Some of the Lower East Side-related stories that caught our eye in the past week: Police are investigating a shooting that happened near Ludlow and Stanton streets early Sunday morning. Two men, one of them an innocent bystander, were injured. They are both expected to survive. [Channel 7] A store owner allegedly stabbed a 16-year-old boy following a dispute. The teen ended up in the Duane Reade on Delancey Street, although the incident did not happen there. [Channel 4] Two people were killed, a 91-year-old woman and her 52-year-old son, in a Chinatown apartment fire. [Channel 4] More protests against the new Chinatown jail as the city administration confirms it stands behind the project. [Channel 7] Protesters rally against one of the mega-projects in the Two Bridges area, saying its improper to begin digging the foundation for the building in order to qualify for 421a tax breaks, which expire in June. [AM New York] The owner of Katzs Deli throws water on claims that Frank James, the accused Brooklyn subway shooter, stopped by the restaurant in the hours before he was arrested in the East Village. [Daily Beast] A retrospective at Shin Gallery, charts the gallerys history (on) the Lower East Side of Manhattan and its namesake collectors wild but slyly judicious tendencies, with nearly 100 items filling three rooms. [The New York Times] Essex Pearl, the restaurant in the Market Line, reopens with a new chef, Daniel Le formerly of Hanoi House, and a new menu. [Time Out] Photo Credit: Jason Schmidt It appears the debut of Nine Orchard, the boutique hotel in the landmarked Jarmulowsky Bank Building, is finally upon us. The 14-story tower, built in 1912, was purchased back in 2011 by DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners. A painstaking restoration of the property, including re-establishing the distinctive 60-foot-tall spire on the rooftop, has been going on for years. The other day, the PR team for the hotel announced a spring 2022 opening. A press release noted that guest room bookings are available starting July 1. The acclaimed chef, Ignacio Mattos (Estela, Altro Paradiso, Lodi) is behind Nine Orchards multiple restaurants, bars and event spaces. Mattos Hospitality has been staffing up for awhile. As noted on the website Culinary Agents, The Food and Beverage program at Nine 9 Orchard will include an elegant, upscale restaurant, a neighborhood bar and lounge, a rooftop bar, in-room dining and a collection of private event spaces. As highlighted in the recent press eblast, The lobby features a soaring, vaulted ceiling and large, arched windows; here, where bank tellers once worked, guests can check-in, lounge and enjoy a coffee or drink. There are 116 guest rooms, including three suites which include terraces. The Jarmulowsky property was purchased in 2011 by DLJ for $33 million. It became a city landmark back in 2009. Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, Mon, 18 April, 2022: The Intl Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law-InterSociety is sorrowfully mourning with Eastern Nigerias Human Rights Chief, Emeka Umeagbalasi as he buries his mother, Late Lolo Mgboli Patricia Umeagbalasi on Thursday, 21st April 2022. The burial/funeral is to take place at the Familys Compound located in Enuama-Ifite Village, Ezinifite. It is easily locatable through Old Uga Airport along Uga-Ezinifite-Ekwulobia Road. Emeka Umeagbalasi (M.Sc.) has been a vocal, fearless and consistent human rights and democracy campaigner since 1995. According to Umeagbalasi Family sources, Late Patricia Umeagbalasi was a respected daughter of Isiakpu Kindred and born to Nwokedike Family, all in Enuma-Ifite Village in Ezinifite, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. She was married to Late Nwire Umeagbalasi and their marriage was blessed with seven children including Emeka, Late Cecilia, Chimezie, Azuka, Uchechukwu, Ebuka and Late Chinonso Raphael. Intersociety recalls that Emeka Umeagbalasi who is the founder and lead-director of our Organization was in July and October 2021 hit by two tragic deaths involving his beloved youngest brother, Chinonso Raphael Umeagbalasi whose tragic demise psychologically affected their mother (Mgboli Patricia) leading to her demise the same day and hour her beloved last born was being committed to mother earth. Intersociety hereby deeply consoles and sympathizes with Emeka Umeagbalasi, his beloved wife, Blessing Chidi and his brothers wife, Chibuzor as well as his brothers and sisters: Chimezie, Azuka, Uchechukwu and Ebuka Jerome; and their mothers surviving blood brother, Paulinus. We are also aware that condolences and solidarities have come from other well meaning and respected groups, friends and well wishers including the Southeast Zone of the Civil Liberties Organization and its Anambra State Branch where he served for years as Zonal Vice Chairman and State Chairman, respectively; the Southeast Based Rights and Democracy Coalition and the Eastern Nigeria Rights and Intellectual Coalition which presently have him as their Principal Convener. Condolences and solidarities have also come from the Ekwenche Research Institute/Organization in Chicago, USA, among others. Intersociety is aware that Nze Chukwuemeka Godfrey Benjamin Umeagbalasi (Emeka Umeagbalasi) has been going through a lot especially since the tragic death of his beloved kid brother and mother in July and October 2021. This is to the extent that he has carried out three funerals in six months (his brother, maternal grandmother and mother). This is in addition to other pressing family issues. Gladly, he has remained strong and focused especially in rendering priceless services to humanity. He recently led forensic investigative findings on Situation of Christians in Nigeria from Jan 2021 to March 2022. He also spearheaded an intl documentary on state actor conduct atrocities in the Southeast part of Eastern Nigeria as well as our recent investigative work on: intellectual roadmap for 2023 federal seats of power transition in Nigeria. Finally, we pray to the God Almighty to grant Our Comrade Board Chair and members of his nuclear and extended Family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss of their beloved mother. May the God Almighty also takeover the burial/funeral and protect all members of the Family as well as friends and well wishers attending same-Amen. Our heart is gladdened that assurances have been given regarding the route and venue safety of the Event. Such assurances are another way of appreciating priceless sacrifices and contributions made by Our Comrade Board Chair for the betterment of Nigerian Society in general and its Eastern part in particular. This is more so when he is well lettered and grounded in security and intelligence campaigns and practices. Signed: For: Intl Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law Chidimma Udegbunam Esquire Head, Campaign and Publicity Mark my thesis! At critical moments in the evolving history of human communities, Providence throws up select individuals whose phenomenal response to the needs of their people often serves as panacea for the communities ills. Leadership demands taking responsibilities for others wellbeing, and a people are often judged by the quality of leaders they produce. The political leadership in a defined democracy determines the spate of development or under-development the geopolitical enclave experiences. This presupposes that whereas sound and purposeful leadership births development, its absence impedes advancement. Evidently, the cause of the disconcerting backwardness our sociopolitical clime has suffered over time is readily attributable to the poverty or at best mediocrity of our leadership stock. Our people have been enmeshed in poor leadership rigmarole upon their lackadaisical attitude towards identifying inimitable change agents whose professional expertise, global exposure, functional outreach and passion to serve are glaring core prerequisites for positive systemic change. Poor appreciation of the relevant indices for leadership recruitment is therefore implicated in the maze of underdevelopment that torments our people. It is high time our people got shocked out of this sustained encumbered attitude that entraps us behind civilisation. It is in absolute acknowledgement of the veracity of the above, and in recognition of the radiant emergence of a compelling modern age agent of change who hails from Ifitedunu in Dunukofia Local Council, Anambra State, that this piece is made. Mark Okoye is an amazingly brilliant young man whose choice training and sterling successes in his field of investment/development economics and prime economic policy formulation and implementation would easily have enabled limitless grandstanding in public space, but for his conscious efforts not to lose focus in the glamour of adulations that could soon infect the ingenious disposition to serve his people and mankind. Mark would rather concentrate on advancing the cause of lifting the populace from the pains of obsolete economic policies and practices to the gains of modern progressive economic precepts of wealth creation and wealth grooming. Little wonder the Anambra State Government anxiously waited for him to turn the tenable age of 30 to confirm him the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget while he surefootedly superintended over the affairs of the Ministry as Senior Special Assistant to the state governor. Thusly, Mark became the youngest Commissioner in the cabinet of any state government across Nigeria. His stellar performance as the Commissioner for Budget and Planning yielded the transformational state economy that effectively cushioned the harsh effects of two successive national economic recessions that ruined majority of states in Nigeria. Marks deftness in discharging his primary responsibilities of facilitating the execution of the state economic blueprint, designing medium-term strategic economic plan and preparing annual budgets for the state, attracted numerous recognitions and awards from a wide range of major state, national and global bodies. Leveraging on the enormous trust Marks expertise had earned him before his principal, Governor Willie Obiano, he assiduously drove the Tax Relief/Reduction Scheme and the Stimulus Funding Programme for SMEs, MSMEs and large enterprises. He facilitated the Social Intervention Programme for Low Income Households and the intervention in instituting infrastructure for jobs. These initiatives were instrumental in cushioning the hazards of 2016 recession and the economic downturn following Covid-19 advent in 2020. Marks resourcefulness begot the Anambra Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA), a World Bank supervised scheme that attracted USD4m to community development. It might just be pertinent to note that the flagship investment agency of Governor Willie Obianos administration, the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) which provided one-stop-shop services to the throng of investors into Anambra economic space, was Mark Okoyes brainchild. It soon became the cynosure of the administrations commitment to ease of doing business in the country. This earned Anambra State national and international accolades, with the attendant inflow of investment capital. Before then, Mark Okoye had distinguished himself as a high-octane professional in the execution of the functions of his offices and in other ancillary responsibilities that his prized expertise commended. As an award winning public policy expert in a leading investment bank that advises nations and blue-chip organisations on economic matters, Marks emergence and strong presence in the realms of policy making and drive on matters of Anambra State economy was no mere happenstance. He went through thorough training that prepared him for his very impactful service to Anambra State Government and Ndi Anambra. His Harvard training groomed him for critical interrogation of the challenges of economies of countries, states and corporate organisations across the globe while still in his early 20s. His interest in grooming vibrant economies got him involved in public policy formulation on economic matters which prepared him for the Anambra assignment. Of the three recognised arms of executive, legislature and judiciary that seat democracy, the legislature more defines the system than the rest. No gainsaying the imperative of a sound grooming for legislative hands that envision a livable polity and go ahead to make legislations towards attaining it. It is without doubt that the bedrock of democracy is the legislature which institutes and legitimatises it. Being the arm of government where laws are made, the Legislature demands sound minds with resourceful mental faculties who have the capability of promulgating laws that will make for even development and stability in the polity, measurable with what obtains in developed climes. It is upon these demands and the proven rare intellectual and pragmatic attributes of Mark Okoye that this piece advises the good people of Dunukofia-Njikoka-Anaocha Federal Constituency (DNA) to send the brilliant, youthful, resourceful, dedicated, sagacious and courageous Mark as a change agent their vibrant and irrepressible voice in the Green Chambers come 2023. Mabene works at Ozion Limited, Perception Managers & Political Stategists. President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated on April 15, 1865, was arguably the greatest U.S. President, but I would also suggest, perhaps the finest American. His tragic death changed the the, world not just the United States. My colleague, Nancy Spannaus, provides a fitting requiem for the fallen President. A Requiem for Abraham Lincoln His temperament, his intellect, and his commitment to the U.S. Constitution, saved our precious Republic, which was less than eighty years old, and heading towards a Civil War, when he took office in 1861. President Lincolns unwavering resolve to defeat the opposing army of the Confederacy, demonstrated his superior military skills and strategic understanding that only the surrender by a defeated South, would the Union be preserved. His tragic death affected the world, not just the United States. If his reconstruction program had been fully implemented in his second term, the U.S. would be dramatically different today. Much has been written and even taught that President Lincoln was not opposed to slavery, but only freed the slaves to win the Civil War. The remarks by the intellectual titan and fierce anti-slavery leader, Frederick Douglas, following the death of President Lincoln, quoted in Spannaus articles eloquently dispute this claim. Douglas was an ally of President Lincoln in the fight to eliminate slavery. In his eulogy on June 1, 1865, at Cooper Union, NY, Douglas said: But what was A. Lincoln to the colored people or they to him? As compared with the long line of his predecessors, many of whom ere merely the facile and service instruments of the slave power, Abraham Lincoln, while unsurpassed in his devotion, to the welfare of the white race, was also in a sense hitherto without example, emphatically the black mans President: the first to show any respect for their rights as men. The vast majority of Americans are also unaware that President Lincoln adhered to the economic policies of Alexander Hamiltons American System. Abraham Lincoln in his basic campaign stump speech, advocated for protectionism, a national bank, and internal improvements. As President, he initiated the building of the Transcontinental Railroad across the U.S., connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which became a model of transportation infrastructure for the rest of the world. To fund the U.S. economy during the war he created a new currency-greenbacks, bonds backed by the federal government. Lincolns economic advisor was Henry Carey, a student of Hamiltons economic method. Abraham Lincolns frequently delivered speech on Discoveries and Inventions, reflects his philosophical understanding of human economy, revealed in its opening sentences: All creation is a mine, and every man, a miner. The whole earth, and all within it, upon it, and round about it, including himself, in his physical, moral, and intellectual nature, and his susceptibilities, are the infinitely various leads from which, man, from the first, was to dig out his destiny. In the beginning, the mine was unopened, and the miner stood naked, and knowledgeless, upon it. Fishes, birds, beasts, and creeping things are not miners, but feeders and lodgers, merely. Beavers build houses; but they build them in nowise differently, or better now, than they did, five thousand years ago. Ants, and honey-bees, provide food for winter; but just in the same way they did, when Solomon referred the sluggard to them as patterns of prudence. Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship. This improvement, he effects by Discoveries, and Inventions.(Emphasis added) Read his entire speech: Abraham Lincoln on Discoveries and Inventions Let the U.S. again return to the policies of Abraham Lincoln by providing true leadership in the world. As viewers of my website know, this is my second post in recent days discussing former outstanding U.S. Presidents and their policies. Why has American culture not produced such leaders in the last six decades following the death of John Kennedy? This will be the subject of a future article. Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freemans stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton Danger day six sees 28 killed, 246 injured in 241 road accidents BANGKOK: Twenty-eight people were killed and 246 injured in 241 road accidents throughout the country on Saturday (Apr16), the sixth of the so-called seven dangerous days which runs from Apr 11-17 during the Songkran Festival, the government said. accidentsdeathSafetypolice By Bangkok Post Monday 18 April 2022, 10:28AM People returning to Bangkok by train arrive at Hua Lamphong yesterday (Apr 17), the last day of the New Year celebration. Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul However, the death toll is likely understated since according to the World Health Organization, more than 50 people die on Thailands roads every day of the year on average, reports the Bangkok Post. Nirat Pongsithithavorn, the Interior Ministrys deputy permanent secretary in charge of the centre for prevention and reduction of road accidents during the Songkran Festival of 2022, said the figures were provided by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation and concerned agencies. On Saturday, the figures showed 28 people were killed and 246 injured in 241 road accidents nationwide. Speeding was still the main cause of accidents, at 41.49%, followed by drink-driving (25.31%). Motorcycles accounted for most accidents (84.34%), followed by pick-ups (6.43%). Most of the accidents (38.59%) happened on Highway Department roads and 38.17% on village roads administered by tambon administration organisations. A majority - 80.91% - of the accidents occurrred on straight roads. The most dangerous time was 6pm-7pm, accounting for 10.37% of accidents. Chiang Rai was the province with most accidents (11). Lampang registered the highest number of injuries (11) and Chiang Rai the highest number of deaths (3). There were 1,900 safety checkpoints in operation nationwide, manned by 56,324 officials. A total of 410,818 vehicles were pulled over for safety checks and 70,180 drivers were charged - 18,388 for not carrying a drivers licence and 19,264 motorcyclists for not wearing a safety helmet. The accumulated six-day (Apr 11-16) toll was 1,720 accidents with 237 killed and 1,696 injuried. Phuket officials recorded six accidents resulting in six injuries requiring admission to hospital for treatment, but no fatalities on Saturday. Phuket fake goods raids net B50mn in merchandise PHUKET: Raids in Phuket instigated by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has led to the seizure of more than 100,000 items of imitation copyright goods estimated to have a street value of B50 million. crimepolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 18 April 2022, 05:42PM The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The seized goods were presented to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Pol Lt Col Phonsan Therdsanguan, Director of the Royal Thai Police Intellectual Property Litigation Division, presents the seized goods to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Pol Lt Col Phonsan Therdsanguan, Director of the Royal Thai Police Intellectual Property Litigation Division, presents the seized goods to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Pol Lt Col Phonsan Therdsanguan, Director of the Royal Thai Police Intellectual Property Litigation Division, presents the seized goods to the press today (Apr 18). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub The merchandise, presented to the press today (Apr 18), was seized in raids led by Pol Lt Col Phonsan Therdsanguan, Director of the Royal Thai Police Intellectual Property Litigation Division. The raids came at the request of DSI Director-General Traiyarit Temhiwong, explained a report issued by the DSI today. Five locations were raided a warehouse in Moo 5 Kathu, two houses in Moo 6 Kathu and two houses in Koh Kaew with four found to be hoarding stashes of counterfeit goods. In total, more than 100,000 items of counterfeit clothing were seized featuring labels of famous brand names such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Nike, Adidas and Chanel, among others. The report issued today explained that the raids followed an investigation launched from a Facebook page promoting the illicit goods for sale. However, the report made no mention of any people arrested in connection with the items seized. Phuket Governor responds to Patong hotel closed, Songkran COVID rules flouted PHUKET: Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew this morning (Apr 18) trod carefully in responding to the news of a well-known Patong hotel being ordered closed for flouting COVID-19 prevention rules during the Songkran holidays, and the mass water fights on Bangla Rd during Songkran, resulting in five officers from Patong Police Station being transferred pending further investigation. COVID-19healthcrimeculturepolicepatongtourism By Eakkapop Thongtub Monday 18 April 2022, 01:22PM The Provincial Police notice issued this morning pointing out that the Patong Bay Hill hotel has a No Camera sign posted at its entrance. Image: Phuket Provincial Police The notice issued this morning defending the police for warning operators on Apr 2 and on Apr 4 to follow COVID rules during Songkran. Image: Phuket Info Center Governor Narong said that the public and business operators had been well informed of the need to follow the COVID-prevention rules during the Songkran holidays to prevent the spread of infections. Phuket Provincial Police in concert this morning posted a notice repeating the official public notices issued on Apr 2 and on Apr 4 warning all people and business operators to follow the mandated COVID-19 protocols. As for the incident, it is understandable that most of the tourists who travelled to Phuket wanted to enjoy themselves. They wanted to have fun, while the business operators have struggled for the past two years, Governor Narong said. Overall, according to the TATs assessment, a lot of tourists have been coming in, averaging 15,000 people per day, spending more than B3 billion. The number of hotel stays has been high, he said. The guidelines for practice of supervision in ensuring in accordance with the law, government agencies must take care of each other. The last Songkran festival, for example, in the matter of splashing water, the administrative and police departments were in control. However, he added, regarding this years Songkran celebrations, In the beginning there was a violation, which was the result of the fact that everyone wanted to engage in water for Songkran water, especially foreigners. So we have to understand each other, Governor Narong said. With regard to hotels in Patong area that violated the law, there are legal proceedings which are expected to be filed in court today, he said. Phuket Provincial Police this morning issued yet another notice amid the public relations blitz to defend the lack of action taken by local authorities to enforce COVID-prevention rules on only certain operators. The notice issued this morning appeared to defend the Patong Bay Hill hotel, at the epicentre of the media storm for flouting COVID rules. The police notice pointed out that the hotel has a "No Camera" sign posted at its entrance. Action against the hotel was taken only after a video proving the breach of COVID-19 rules by the hotel was posted online. Phuket scoops B3bn in Songkran tourist cash PHUKET: The Songkran festival in Phuket made more than B3 billion in revenue from tourist spending, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). By Bangkok Post Monday 18 April 2022, 12:40PM TAT Phuket director Ms Nanthasiri (left) welcomes arrivals on the inaugural direct flight from Singapore to Phuket on Apr 12. Photo: AoT Phuket Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, director of the TAT Phuket Office, said yesterday (Apr 17) that Phuket has about 70,000 hotel rooms available, accounting for 70% of all local hotels opened for business, reports the Bangkok Post. Between last Wednesday and Friday (Apr 13-15), most hotel rooms were fully booked for the first two nights, particularly in popular tourist sites such as Patong, Kamala, Surin, Kata and Karon beaches. During the period, the province recorded 188,245 domestic and international visitors* who spent a combined total of B3.24 billion, Ms Nanthasiri said. Phuket airport director Monchai Tanode said more than 800 domestic and international flights took off and landed between last Monday and Sunday (Apr 11-17). Natchapong Pranit, director of the Regional Marine Offices Phuket Branch, said up to 10,000 tourists had visited the island by boat and ferry each day. Officers at the islands 22 piers were instructed to ensure COVID-19 safety measures were adhered to, including passenger number restrictions, alcohol consumption controls and boat inspections, he said. In Surat Thani, Tawich Somwang, Hat Rin Business Association president, said the Songkran festival and last nights full moon party were expected to make about B2bn in revenue for businesses on Koh Pha-ngan. He said about 10,000 tourists were expected to attend the full moon party. * According to the Phuket Reopening Daily Report issued by the TAT, the number of international arrivals for last week totalled 19,508. as follows: *Sigh* Happy Tuesday. Doctors in Brazil had to remove a 2kg dumbbell that was stuck in a man's rectum, according to a recent case in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. The 54-year-old man waited two days to seek medical help, despite suffering stomach pains, nausea and constipation. He also tried to remove the dumbbell himself. When that failed, he went to the hospital, where doctors initially were unable to find the problem by rectal examiniation. After X-rays were conducted, doctors found the 20cm -long-dumbbell wedged in where the colon meets the rectum. Ya can't miss it. THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) A migrant was killed by gunfire at the Greece-Turkey border while she and several others attempted to cross a river separating the two countries, Greek police said Sunday. It wasn't immediately clear who fired the shot that killed the woman on Saturday night. An autopsy showed that the victim was shot in the back with a small-caliber weapon. Greek police were patrolling the area where the Evros River, which is called Meric in Turkish, narrows to about 60 to 70 meters (around 200 feet) wide and through which many migrants attempt to cross, according to a police statement and additional information provided to The Associated Press by a police officer on condition of anonymity. The officers spotted numerous migrants on the Turkish side shortly before 9 p.m. Police said 11 people embarked on an inflatable dinghy, and officers directed flashlights at the boat and started shouting Police. Go back. In response, said the police officer, a barrage of shots erupted from the Turkish side. The Greek police patrol couldn't detect the source of the shots in the darkness and fell to the ground to protect themselves, shooting warning shots in the air, according to the statement which the officer corroborated. The dinghy came close to the Greek shore and five people disembarked four made it to the shore while a fifth person was seen floating in the water. Police reached the body with some difficulty, according to the statement, and when they pulled it to the shore they determined that it belonged to a woman and that she was dead. Police questioned the four survivors three Pakistani males, one of them a minor (17 years old), and a woman from Eritrea. It wasn't known what happened to the other six people who tried to cross, but authorities don't believe they entered Greece. Coroner Pavlos Pavlidis, who performed the autopsy on the woman in the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis, told the AP that the victim was between the ages of 20 and 25 and that she was most likely from one of the Horn of Africa countries. She had a wound in the upper right (back) area. She was shot from close distance and died almost instantly from post-hemorrhagic (blood loss) shock," Pavlidis said. ___ Demetris Nellas reported from Athens, Greece. ___ Follow Costas Kantouris at https://twitter.com/CostasKantouris and APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration WASHINGTON (AP) Migrants attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at the highest level in two decades as the U.S. prepares for even larger numbers with the expected lifting of a pandemic-era order that turned away asylum seekers. Immigration authorities stopped migrants 221,303 times along the Southwest border in March, a 33% increase from a month earlier, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Monday. The new figures were disclosed as the Biden administration comes under increasing pressure over the looming expiration of a public health order that enabled U.S. authorities to turn back most migrants, including people seeking asylum from persecution. The number of migrant encounters has gone up nearly every month since President Joe Biden took office, becoming fodder for political opponents who point to the increase as evidence that this administration is weaker on border security than its predecessor. A backlog of people waiting outside the country to seek asylum, as well as dire economic and political conditions in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, is partially responsible for the increase in migrants. Administration critics blame Biden, arguing his administration's moves to roll back Trump-era policies has encouraged people to come. The number of illegal crossings, or those outside official ports of entry, totaled 209,906 in March, surpassing the previous high of Bidens presidency of 200,658 set in July, and the highest level since March 2000, when it reached 220,063. Former President Donald Trump also faced a sharp increase in migrant border crossings but the number plummeted with the start of the pandemic. In March 2020, the previous administration invoked Title 42, a little-used public health authority to quickly expel nearly anyone encountered along the Southwest border. U.S. authorities have expelled migrants more than 1.7 million times under Title 42 authority, named for a 1944 public health law, using the threat of COVID-19 to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum as required under U.S. law and international treaty. With COVID-19 cases in decline, the Biden administration has said it intends to end the use of Title 42 at the border on May 23. Several moderate Democrats have joined Republican leaders to call for an extension of Title 42 authority. Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat up for election this year, toured the border last week and warned that the Biden administration is unprepared for asylum restrictions to be lifted. Human rights groups and other migrant advocates say the U.S. has a legal obligation to permit people to seek asylum and have called for the lifting of the public health order. The United States can and must welcome people seeking asylum because it is the law, because it is right, and because we can," the Catholic Legal Immigration Network said in a statement Monday to mark Holy Week. The rapid expulsions under Title 42 are a significant component of the recent increases. Migrants are turned back without any legal consequences, and many simply try to cross again and are therefore counted more than once in the total. CBP said the number of unique individuals encountered nationwide in March came to 159,900, a 37% increase from the prior month. More than half of the total 221,303 stopped were quickly turned away, without being given a chance to apply for asylum, either to Mexico or their homelands, according to data supplied to a federal court in Texas as part of that state's challenge of Biden administration immigration policies. CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement that the agency planned to send additional staff to the Southwest border to handle the likely increase expected when Title 42 is lifted. Most of the rest were processed under immigration authority, known as Title 8, and their ultimate fate varies. About 34,000 were allowed to remain in the U.S. under parole, which will allow them to pursue asylum or legal residency through other avenues. If they are unsuccessful, they could face deportation. Mexicans made up the largest group by nationality of those encountered at the border, followed by Cubans. The number of Ukrainians, who are generally being allowed into the country on humanitarian parole, increased to over 200 in March from just 5 in November. ___ Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Monday warned that Israel will be targeted by his country's armed forces if it makes the tiniest move against Iran. He spoke as talks stalled in Vienna over a deal to rein in Iran's nuclear capabilities, which Tehran says are used for peaceful purposes. Israel opposes a deal, saying it does not do enough to curb Irans nuclear program or its military activities across the region. Israeli officials have said they will unilaterally do whats necessary to protect their country. 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. Vote View Results The number of Britons whose financial data was hacked last year rose by a staggering 1,800 per cent. More than 42million people in the UK were affected by data breaches up from 2.2million the previous year. The huge rise comes as criminal gangs have ramped up their use of large-scale ransomware attacks. Scamdemic: More than 42m people in the UK were affected by data breaches up from 2.2m the previous year These use malicious software that is designed to block a computer unless cash is paid. Ransomware attacks potentially involve huge amount of data being copied. Richard Breavington, a partner at international law firms Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), which published the analysis, said such attacks have become very lucrative for cyber-criminals. The 42million figure may include individuals whose details were stolen in multiple separate attacks, RPC said. Businesses, who have been urged to double down on efforts to protect the storage of personal data of customers and employees, should invest in robust IT security software, RPC said. Jo Morrison teaches a Sunday school class in 1949 at Kingsports Waverly Road Presbyterian Church, where she was a founding member. Taking the entrepreneurial path is a decision that requires fortitude and courage in the face of adversity. No matter the route taken, adversity in some form or another (sometimes multiples) will be present. The decision to buy into a franchised business concept becomes one of risk vs. reward. In Mark Sieberts The Franchisee Handbook, published by Entrepreneur Media, he dedicates an entire third chapter on how to gauge your individual tolerance for business ownership. He wastes no time in pointing out that conducting a thorough risk assessment is a key element of choosing a franchise. How should you get started assessing your own risk? Related: What To Consider When Researching a Business Opportunity Weighing the big decision For a majority of people that take the franchise path to business ownership, there was a clear before time. Perhaps even a very successful and lucrative career with many accomplishments, accolades, titles and awards. Even so, each individual carries with them a certain tolerance of risk. If you happen to be one of those singularly successful corporate citizens whos enjoyed a thriving career thus far, are you truly prepared for an entrepreneurial venture? Siebert presents a few rapid-fire rhetorical questions for consideration: are you prepared to leave the security of your career and job position? Are you willing to risk your personal finances to fund a business of your own? Could you entertain working more hours per week than you are now? How about 60+? Most importantly, what exactly is your backup plan in the event this venture fails? Once youve carefully considered these questions as they apply to your own life, its now time to assess the risks of the franchises you choose to investigate. Risky Business(es) With thousands of franchise concepts on the market today, theres something for everyone. But when risk vs. reward is taken into account, some businesses appear more high-risk than others. During the franchise investigative process, you must be wary of fad businesses, emerging brands that seem too good to be true and others that dont meet the definition of recession-resistant. According to Siebert, even regionality comes into play, as a business that does well in one part of the country, may not exactly thrive in another. The same goes for seasonality factors, with the author reminding the reader that a lawn care franchise wont be as lucrative in upper Michigan as it might be in sunny Florida. Related: 4 Truths About Searching for Franchise Concepts Markets, sectors and industries Every market, business sector and industry has its own set of risks and rewards, as Siebert deftly points out by stating, market risks are different from concept risks in that they reflect things happening outside the franchise in question. Siebert holds that its advisable to consider the risk vs. reward for both the brand and market simultaneously. Siebert cites numerous examples of brands that seemed like a lucrative lock, only to fade into obscurity due to evolving market conditions. Brand health In determining the risk vs. reward of a particular franchise concept, its worth the additional time to review the brands overall health. But the author doesnt just stop at mere financial performance something youll delve into deeply in the franchise disclosure document (FDD), but also the current state of the brands management team. For instance, you can get a quick snapshot of the franchisors financial viability by looking into their financial ratios, such as liquidity and their debt-to-equity position. Siebert highlights the importance of running a credit check on the brand, the same way one will be run on you during the investigative process. Two of the keys are the brands net worth and profitability both of which can be found within the franchisors balance sheet and income statements. Its been said that theres a perfect franchise match for every entrepreneur looking to go into business for themselves. How to tell? Each side must evaluate the other and determine whether the risk vs. reward is an equation that works out, destined to become a mutually beneficial partnership between the two entities. Mark Siebert is CEO of the leading franchise consulting firm iFranchise Group and author of The Franchisee Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Related: Never Buy a Franchise Without Researching These 5 Sources Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck As our world becomes more interconnected and doing business across borders increasingly common, corporate tax rates have emerged as a hot topic the make-or-break factor when it comes to foreign investment. Some of the biggest companies on Earth, including tech behemoths like Apple, Amazon and Google, have turned to countries with lower rates to save big on taxation, rewarding those that bring them the greatest profits. The minimal international coordination regarding corporate taxation prompted leaders of the world's 20 largest economies (G-20) to endorse a global minimum tax rate of 15% last October. "We call on the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting to swiftly develop the model rules and multilateral instruments as agreed in the Detailed Implementation Plan, with a view to ensure that the new rules will come into effect at global level in 2023," the draft conclusions, as seen by Reuters, stated. Related: The Pandora Papers Reveals Where the Richest People in the World Are Hiding Their Money The deal was signed by 136 countries, which account for 90% of the global economy, per the World Economic Forum. The new rate applies to overseas profits of multinational firms with $868 million in sales globally and allows local governments to instate a tax rate of their choosing though a company's home government could bump its taxes to meet the 15% minimum threshold and prevent the profit loophole. To get a sense of just how widely corporate tax rates vary from country to country, small business lending company OnDeck mapped it out. OnDeck pulled corporate-tax-rate data from KPMG, the Tax Foundation, Trading Economics, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and various government website, applying each country's tax laws to "a model company with revenue of $1 million, profit of $100,000 a year, five to nine employees, is owned by a resident of the country in question, and earns a majority of its revenue from business operations within the country in question." Related: Here's How The UAE's New 9% Corporate Tax Could Impact the Country's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem OnDeck's study didn't include companies in the oil, gas and mining sectors, or publicly traded companies. Here's what the study found. North America's tax rates for business owners are comparable to the global average The average corporate tax rate for North American countries is 21.5% about in line with the worldwide average. In the U.S., companies are subject to a 21% federal tax rate in addition to state corporate taxes, which range from 0% in South Dakota and Wyoming to upwards of 9% in Alaska, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania and a high of 11.5% in New Jersey, per the Tax Foundation. Canada comes in close behind the U.S., imposing a $27,125 tax per $100,000 in annual profit. But tax rates in nearby island nations vary more significantly, with a taxation of $33,000 per $100,000 in annual profit in Saint Kitts and Nevis; $30,000 in Saint Lucia and several others; $15,000 in Cuba; and $0 in the Bahamas the only remaining tax haven associated with the continent. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck South America has the second highest average tax rate, plus barriers for business owners Small businesses in South America are subject to a 26.1% tax rate on average the second highest among all continents. Still, there's quite a bit of variation, with a taxation of $36,000 per $100,000 in annual profit in Suriname (the highest corporate tax rate anywhere in the world); $25,000 in Ecuador, Chile and several other countries; and just $10,000 in Paraguay. Additionally, it takes an average of 42.1 days to start a business in South America considerably longer than Canada's one-and-a-half days, Georgia's one day or New Zealand's half a day. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck Africa has the highest corporate tax rate, on average Africa has the highest average tax rate of any region, at 27.5%. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), developing countries rely more heavily on corporate income tax; in Malaysia, for example, corporate taxation makes up 66% of the country's total tax revenue versus just 9% in France and the United Kingdom. Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Sudan and Zambia have a taxation rate of 35% tied for the second highest in the world. The process of starting a business is also expensive and difficult; in Equatorial Guinea, for instance, it requires approximately 16 procedures to get a new venture off the ground. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck Eastern Europe has some of the lowest corporate tax rates The average corporate tax rate for European countries is 17.9%, remarkably lower than those in Africa, South America or North America. Malta levies the highest taxation at $35,000 per $100,000 in annual profit, but the range is wide across the continent, dipping to just $15,000 in Georgia, $12,500 in Cyprus and even as low as $0 in Monaco (dependent on earning a minimum of 75% of revenue within the country) and Vatican City. Starting a business is also relatively expedient, taking only 12.7 days on average. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck The Middle East and Central Asia have the lowest average tax rate Small businesses in the Middle East and Central Asia are taxed at the lowest average rate, just 16.7%. Many governments in the region receive the majority of their revenue from national oil and gas companies (which were not included in this study), driving down taxation rates for small businesses outside of those sectors. Case in point: Qatar imposes a $10,000 general corporate tax rate per $100,000 in annual profit and more than triples that figure to $35,000 (or even more) for oil companies. Similarly, Bahrain serves as a tax haven for most businesses, charging $0, but it can levy a 46% tax rate on oil and gas companies' net profits. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck Corporate tax rates vary significantly across the rest of Asia and Oceania As we've already seen across several continents, taxation rates can differ substantially from country to country. For example, Japan has the highest rate in the region $33,580 per $100,000 in annual profit while South Korea has one of the lowest in the region at just $11,000. Bangladesh, with a tax rate of $32,500 per $100,000 in annual profit, is another high-tax standout in the region, while island nations Nauru and Vanuatu round out the tax havens across the globe. Image Credit: Courtesy of OnDeck Related: Will Biden's Proposed Tax Hikes Prevent Companies From Hiring? Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Show More Show Less 2 of 5 STEFANI REYNOLDS/New York Times Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Will Waldron/Times Union Show More Show Less 5 of 5 ALBANY The Times Union has joined NBC 4 New York/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU in organizing the first scheduled, televised debate featuring the Democratic Partys leading candidates for governor. The debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 16, two days before the start of early voting. (Primary day is Tuesday, June 28.) It will originate from WNBCs 30 Rockefeller Center studios in Manhattan and air on WNBC and WNJUs over the air and on digital platforms. At first glance, Caldwell Gallery Hudson on Warren Street appears traditional. A variety of paintings line the walls, from genre scenes and portraits to abstract work and surrealism. But at the back of the gallery are two flat-screen monitors, one with information on digital artworks issued as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and the other displaying NFTs owned by the gallery. Their NFT business is a year-old enterprise called CGH Blockchain. The art market has changed dramatically, says Jay Caldwell, the gallerys principal, who bought his first NFT in 2018. We have had to adapt or die. Our interest in traditional art remains, but weve added to it. Caldwell points to the exponential growth of NFTs. In 2020, worldwide sales hit $95 million. In 2021, that number leapt to $25 billion. That annual total was eclipsed in the first two months of 2022, with sales reaching $26 billion. Feeling confused? Heres a quick primer. NFTs are unique units of digital data that represent art and its underlying intellectual and creative property. Blockchains are public, electronic ledgers that record the provenance and rarity of digital assets. These ledgers are unalterable, distributed and exist across a network, so no one can manipulate them. When you buy an NFT, a smart contract is created that points to the NFTs location on the blockchain, which is then stored in a digital wallet. Ethereum is the main blockchain for art. Ready for a little more? You may have heard of the Metaverse, virtual shared worlds where people can interact with each other virtually think The Matrix before Keanu Reeves became The One. NFT owners can display their digital artworks in Metaverse galleries, and CGH Blockchain has an online gallery that can be navigated with a mouse and up-and-down arrows. In other words, guests at a real-life dinner party can admire a physical piece of art in your home hanging above the fireplace, but in the future that art display and interaction may take place virtually. We are in the midst of a sea change Self-Love Overdose III by Simone Garcia The profile of NFTs rose significantly in March 2021 when Christies auctioned its first-ever purely digital artwork with a unique NFT. EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, a conglomeration of 5,000 images, was made by artist Mike Winkelmann, a.k.a. Beeple, who created one digital picture a day for 13.5 years. EVERYDAYS sold for a staggering $69 million, leading Christies to dub him among the top three most valuable living artists. Just half a year earlier, Beeple was selling his digital prints for a top price of $100. Since that sale, things have moved so rapidly, Caldwell says. It bifurcated the art world. Living artists with studio practices have added NFTs, which allows them to pivot and create new angles for their work. An NFTs flashing across the screen at CGH Blockchain by artist Jessica Goehring features Caldwell himself. Goehring was soliciting selfies for an NFT project, so Caldwell sent her one that he took in front of a J. M. W. Turner painting at the Clark Art Institute. Goehring electronically smudged Caldwells face using a beauty app. NFTs currently for sale at CGH Blockchain include Simone Garcias Self-Love Overdose III, two versions of Michael Joo and Danil Krivoruchkos OG Crystals, and 24 video NFTs by Nikolena Kovalenko, made in parallel with 24 oil paintings that she exhibited in the gallery last fall in her Utopian Reefscape show. Although blockchain ledgers are inherently transparent, there have been instances where unscrupulous parties have hyped NFT projects by promising utility and philanthropic aspects, minted and sold out the collection and then executed whats known as a rug pull, transferring revenues to personal crypto wallets and abandoning the project. These rug pulls get a disproportionate amount of press attention, but most NFT projects being launched are led by earnest founders interested in helping artists and benefitting worthy causes, Caldwell says. Part of the service we offer our clients is a carefully vetted group of top-tier NFTs. Nothing in Caldwell Gallerys history foretells its leap into the world of zeros and ones. Founded by Joe and Marcy Caldwell, Jays parents, in Syracuse in 1973, the gallery deals in painting, sculpture and drawing dating roughly from the 19th through 20th century. Jay joined the business in 1985 after graduating from Dartmouth with a degree in economics and managed it side-by-side with his father until his passing in 2017 at age 88. Michelle Falkenstein Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter. The Caldwells ran the business out of their Syracuse home until 2013 when, at the suggestion of a friend, they took a big leap and opened a brick-and-mortar business in Hudson. It shares the building with a cafe/motorcycle gear shop called Moto Coffee Machine. This is our first experience as shopkeepers, Jay Caldwell says. Caldwell says they have placed work at 25 major museums over the years, including a recent sale of a surrealist painting by Eugene Berman to the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. Caldwell got involved with NFTs for social as much as business reasons he likes the way they give opportunities to artists who are working outside the mainstream. It gives them access to capital and allows them to follow their dreams, he says. Caldwell also notes that many of NFTs have a charitable component, with artists donating a percentage of their earnings to a social cause or nonprofit. For example, 25 percent of sales from artist Mieke Marples Medusa Collection, a series of 2,500 unique NFTs, benefit TeachRock, a free curriculum for teachers that uses the history of popular music and culture to engage students. Twenty percent of both painting and NFT sales from Kovalenkas Utopian Reefscape project has gone to the ocean conservation group Coral Reef Alliance. Some critics and artists themselves are wary of NFTs and Ethereum for their environmental impact; in 2021, it was estimated that the combined mining operations for Ethereum and Bitcoin the two most common cryptocurrency networks emitted more than 78 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, Caldwell says that because of ongoing technical advances, their environmental impact is being greatly reduced. For those who think NFTs might be a fad, like Beanie Babies, Caldwell disagrees. We are in the midst of a sea change on how people interact socially, politically and economically, he says, pointing to NFT shows at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Francisco Carolinum Linz, a museum in Austria. Were not going back. Michelle Falkenstein is a freelance journalist who writes about culture, food and whatever catches her eye. mfalkenstein18@gmail.com, @michellefalkenstein LIVINGSTON When a Long Island man was found dead in a rental home in the hamlet of Elizaville, State Police didn't immediately classify the case as a homicide. But a pathologist later determined Ed Kessler was strangled and state investigators are trying to determine who killed him. A law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Kessler was found deceased at a home on Mountain View Drive. The man had been dead for a couple days before being found on Feb. 7 by authorities at the home near Twin Lakes in the hamlet, the official said. Kessler, who was described as being in his mid-60s, was from Long Island. Public records tie him to addresses in Suffolk and Nassau counties. His connection to the upstate rental property was not immediately clear. State Police took on the case, which was at first treated as an "unattended death" when a person dies without medical personnel being present but was later deemed a homicide by the pathologist who preformed the autopsy and State Police, the law enforcement official said. The death was never announced publicly by State Police as a homicide, though they came to the conclusion it was a homicide "within a few weeks" of finding Kessler, the official said. The house where Kessler was found sits on a bend of Mountain View Drive close to other properties, part of a cluster of residential streets around Twin Lakes near the Dutchess County border. Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter. A man who answered the door late Monday morning said he was renting the house for "a couple weeks" and had heard of the death, though he said he was never told it was anything suspicious. State troopers continue to say little about the case. On Monday, State Police confirmed they responded to the home on Feb. 7 and that there was a death at the address, but would not provide other details. State Police are "engaging in an ongoing investigation," according to a State Police spokesman. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A second suspect in a shooting at an Iowa nightclub that killed two people and injured 10 others was arrested Monday in a Chicago suburb, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Dimione Jamal Walker, 29, was wanted in Linn County, Iowa, on charges of first-degree murder and other counts in the April 10 shooting during a crowded party inside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. ALBANY Gov. Kathy Hochul's record-breaking campaign fundraising efforts stalled last week after then-Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was indicted on allegations that he traded a state grant for campaign contributions while serving as a senator in New York. At least two fundraisers for Hochul were postponed on Tuesday following Benjamin's indictment. That same morning, a masked gunman wounded nearly two dozen people some were shot and others suffered injuries from falls and smoke inhalation when he opened fire in a subway car in Brooklyn. The governor spoke at a news conference at the scene, urging New Yorkers to "report what you see." The suspected shooter was taken into custody the following day. While Hochul's campaign events did not go ahead, she did speak at a number of unrelated proceedings throughout the week. Neither Ostroff Associates nor Brown & Weinraub, the firms that organized the fundraisers both of which represent numerous companies with interests in state government responded to requests for comment for this story. Such fundraisers are not uncommon for Hochul, whose campaign team has followed the tested strategy of outsourcing much of its contribution collection efforts to the state's top lobbyists. The strategy was key to her ability to amass funds at the fastest clip in state history, raising nearly $22 million between her inauguration in August and a January filing deadline. Her campaign team declined to comment on the recent cancelations or their rationale, though multiple individuals with knowledge of the move said it was related to the unexpected filing of federal criminal charges against Benjamin. Several experts in state government said pausing the moneymaking events was a wise tactical decision, given that the federal charges, which Benjamin denies, allege fraudulent campaign fundraising practices. Such backdoor dealings could reflect poorly on his running mate, even though they stem from his prior role. "This is a piece of savvy strategy to say, 'let's not talk about money and fundraisers and influence at this particular point.' ... You don't want to reinforce the idea in the head of the electorate that there's something fishy," said Norman Adler, a retired state lobbyist who also worked in Albany as a legislative aide and campaign strategist. "You need to give yourself a little distance." But other Albany insiders disagree: James Featherstonhaugh, a veteran state lobbyist, said he thought Benjamin's indictment was not reason enough to temporarily pause Hochul's campaign efforts. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. "Frankly, I don't understand why anybody would have canceled an event, as long as it still fit into her schedule," Featherstonhaugh said. "There haven't been any allegations that she did anything wrong." Featherstonhaugh pointed to one count in the federal indictment where Benjamin was accused of lying to Hochul's team about his campaign dealings. According to federal prosecutors, Benjamin provided "false information in vetting forms ... submitted while under consideration to be appointed the next lieutenant governor of New York state." Hochul has said that though she knew Benjamin faced allegations of campaign finance impropriety prior to his selection, she was told the issues had been addressed and were "in the past." Benjamin was selected by Hochul to be her lieutenant governor and running mate in late August. Since he already accepted a nomination for the upcoming election at the Democratic Party's state convention in February, Benjamin will likely remain on the upcoming ballot in spite of his resignation from office on Tuesday afternoon. GRANTSVILLE, Md. (AP) Three people were injured when a small airplane crashed in a wooded area of Maryland on Saturday, police said. The Baltimore Sun reports that a 62-year-old man, a 50-year-old woman and 15-year-old girl were taken to a hospital to be treated for their injuries after the 1966 Piper single-engine, fixed-wing plane crashed in Garrett County just after 8 p.m. ALBANY Albany police and U.S. marshals arrested 18 - ranging in age from 20 to 63 - in what they said was a week-long sweep of drug-related crimes on Central Avenue. Police said the investigation began in March and targeted narcotics trafficking and gang activity along the city's main east-to-west corridor. MADRID (AP) The phones of dozens of pro-independence supporters in Spain's northeastern Catalonia, including the regional chief and other elected officials, were hacked with controversial spyware available only to governments, a cybersecurity rights group said Monday. Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, said a large-scale investigation it had conducted in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups found that at least 65 individuals were targeted or their devices infected with what it calls mercenary spyware sold by two Israeli companies, NSO Group and Candiru. NSO said the allegation could not be related to NSO products. Candiru couldn't be reached for comment by The Associated Press. Almost all of the incidents occurred between 2017 and 2020, when efforts to carve out an independent state in northeastern Spain led to the country's deepest political crisis in decades. The former Catalan Cabinet that pushed ahead with an illegal referendum on independence was sacked. Most of its members were imprisoned or fled the country, including ex regional president Carles Puigdemont. NSOs Pegasus spyware has been used around the world to break into the phones and computers of human rights activists, journalists and even Catholic clergy. The firm has been subject to export limits by the U.S. federal government, which has accused NSO of conducting transnational repression." NSO has also been brought to court by major technology companies, including Apple and Meta, the owner of WhatsApp. Citizen Lab said its investigations into the use in Spain of Pegasus and spyware developed by Candiru another Israeli firm founded by former NSO employees started in late 2019 after a handful of cases targeting high-profile Catalan pro-independence individuals were revealed. Amnesty International said its technical experts had independently verified the attacks. The Toronto-based non-profit said it could not find conclusive evidence to attribute the hacking of Catalan phones to a specific entity. "However, a range of circumstantial evidence points to a strong nexus with one or more entities within Spanish government, Citizen Lab said. Spain's Interior Ministry said no ministry department, nor the National Police or the Civil Guard, have ever had any relation with NSO and have therefore never contracted any of its services. The ministry's statement said that, in Spain, all intervention of communications are conducted under judicial order and in full respect of legality. The prime ministers office didnt immediately respond to questions from AP. A spokeswoman with Ministry of Defense, which oversees Spain's armed forces and intelligence services, declined to clarify if it had contracted NSO or Candiru software. The government of Spain always acts according to the law, said the spokeswoman, who wasn't authorized to be named in the media. Pegasus infiltrates phones to vacuum up personal and location data and also surreptitiously controls the smartphones microphones and cameras, turning them into real-time surveillance devices. NSO Groups stealthiest hacking software uses zero-click exploits to infect targeted mobile phones without any user interaction. NSO Group claimed it was being targeted by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International with inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports and false" allegations that "could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons. "We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, an NSO spokesperson said in a statement. Citizen Lab said signs of a zero-click exploit not previously identified were found in infected devices of Catalans at the end of 2019 and in early 2020 before Apple updated its mobile operating system to patch vulnerabilities. Among the targeted individuals were at least three European lawmakers representing Catalan separatist parties, members of two prominent pro-independence civil society groups, their lawyers and various elected officials The revelations come as European Union lawmakers on Tuesday are holding the first meeting of a committee looking into breaches of EU law associated with the use of hacker-for-hire spyware. Four former regional Catalan presidents, including Puigdemont and his successor Quim Torra while he was holding office, were also subject to direct or indirect spying, the researchers said. The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote. Current Catalan President Pere Aragones, whose phone was infected, according to Citizen Lab, while he served as Torra's deputy from 2018 to 2020, said massive espionage against the Catalan independence movement is an unjustifiable disgrace, an attack on fundamental rights and democracy." Because the software can only be acquired by state entities, the Spanish government must offer an explanation, Aragones said in a series of tweets. No excuses are valid, he wrote. To spy on representatives of citizens, lawyers or civil rights activists is a red line." In a response to Amnesty International's formal request in 2020 for full disclosure on contracts with private digital surveillance companies, Spain's Defense Ministry said that information is classified, the rights group said Monday. The Spanish government needs to come clean over whether or not it is a customer of NSO Group, said Likhita Banerji, an Amnesty International researcher. It must also conduct a thorough, independent investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware against the Catalans identified. In a separate report also released Monday, Citizen Lab said it had also found evidence in 2020 and 2021 that the British prime ministers office was infected with Pegasus spyware linked to the United Arab Emirates. It said it found suspected infections at Britains Foreign Office linked to the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The group said it had informed the British government about the findings. Other countries where Citizen Lab and other public-interest researchers have confirmed Pegasus infections on political dissidents and journalists critical of governments include Poland, Mexico, El Salvador and Hungary. NSO Group claims it only sells Pegasus to government agencies to target criminals and terrorists, but hundreds of cases have been documented of its use against human rights and other activists, lawyers, reporters and their relatives. __ Frank Bajak in Boston and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. Whats the difference between a Jew and a Boy Scout? a friend asked, with a broad grin on his face, as I sat down in my seventh-grade science class. The Boy Scout comes back from camp! He and everyone else at my table burst out laughing. Did my classmates even know what they were laughing about? Upset but unsure, I feigned a smile. I am ashamed to say I said nothing. I grew up hearing about the Holocaust through the stories my grandfather, now 92, told about his perilous escape from fascist Italy as a teenager. He described the indifference he saw in the eyes of soldiers and civilians alike, the fear in his parents hushed voices as they planned to flee, how his heart pounded as he slid under a fence to reach Switzerland while holding his 3-year-old sister in his lap. He escaped only hours before German soldiers showed up at his home in Milan to take his family to a concentration camp. It is a miracle that he survived and that I am here today. When I look into his eyes as he recalls his frantic getaway, I see him reliving the history my friend had so unabashedly joked about. My generation is the last one that will be able to talk to Holocaust survivors and people who experienced life in Nazi Europe. As this crucial connection to the Holocaust fades, so will our collective memory of it. When there are no more living survivors, Holocaust denialism will become easier and more mainstream. Im a junior in high school, and my formal education on this topic has consisted of one slide with a brief depiction of concentration camps and a short worksheet. If this is all Ive been taught, its no surprise that Holocaust knowledge nationwide is severely lacking. Almost 1 in 3 American adults say they believe that fewer than 2 million people were killed, and about 1 in 10 people arent sure the Holocaust even occurred. In a national survey, 11 percent of millennials and Gen Z report believing that Jews themselves created the Holocaust. To be clear: Two-thirds of Europes Jewish population was murdered. Eighty years later, anti-Semitism is on the rise. As a Jewish American, Ive had to walk past security guards and a metal detector to enter my synagogue for fear of shootings. Swastikas have been painted on schools, Jewish centers, even a State Department elevator. When I recall the chants of Jews will not replace us by white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, it chills me to my core. Earlier this school year, one of my teachers made an offhand comment insinuating that because I was Jewish, I must have money. Last spring, someone dropped an anti-Semitic note on my familys doorstep that called government officials Jew-inspired communists. Accepting stereotypes and making threats have the potential to turn into far worse. In middle school, I invited my grandfather to speak to my classmates about his experiences during the Holocaust. He spoke about his good luck: Hed been playing ball with friends when he drew the short straw and had to retrieve water for the group from home and encountered his panicked family almost out the door. He talked about his parents decision to accept the help of Italian soldiers at the Swiss border, despite the risk of betrayal, and about his dreary and demoralizing life as a teenager in a refugee camp. My peers listened with their mouths open, much like I do every time I hear these stories. After he finished, he had tears in his eyes. Then someone asked, What were non-Jews doing to stop this? Ive heard so little about the Holocaust during my years in school that if I didnt have intimate personal connections to it, I could easily put it in the back of my mind. My 10th-grade history class in Virginia spent weeks elaborating on the way of life of ancient Mesopotamians and less than a day on the Holocaust. Its hard to fathom. Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. Virginia requires four years of high school history, and World History II is the only course that touches on the Holocaust. State guidelines for this class include teaching 61 broad topics one of them folds the Holocaust into examples of genocide in the 21st century. Its not enough. Such gaps in education about the Holocaust make me afraid. Im afraid that the collective ignorance and ongoing hatred of Jews will grow into something so much more, and it makes me fear for my loved ones and myself. Im afraid that Im seeing seeds of civil unrest, and educators arent doing enough to stop it. When my friend made that joke in seventh grade, I said nothing because I didnt want to be ostracized for ruining his funny moment. I now recognize that his comment stemmed from ignorance. Each generation needs to be taught about the events and ideology that allowed the Holocaust to occur so that it can be given an opportunity to understand the horrifying consequence of unchecked hate and ignorance. We need to make sure the lessons of the Holocaust outlive the last survivors. Gabriel Ascoli is a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times. One of the most remarkable moments in Washington late last month came not in a major policy debate or a leaked bombshell memo, but in a House vote on a minor piece of legislation. What it suggests about the growing extremism in the Republican party has unsettling implications for democracy. A bill backed by the entire Florida congressional delegation, Democrat and Republican, would have named a U.S. courthouse after trailblazing Justice Joseph W. Hatchett, the first Black man to serve on Floridas Supreme Court. These kinds of votes are a courtesy, and rarely controversial. But firebrand freshman Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia he who called the Jan. 6 insurrection a normal tourist visit pointed out to his colleagues that he didnt like a 1999 decision in which Justice Hatchett upheld the separation of church and state. And as reported in The New York Times, at the last minute the vote fell apart on the House floor. GOP lawmakers consulted each other in confusion to find out what was going on and rushed to vote no. Even some of the bills co-sponsors voted against it. The vote became an impromptu performance, a signal for Republicans to show their party bona fides, like fraternity pledges dropping everything on command to frantically recite their motto and creed. So much here is troubling. First, votes on such naming bills are a gesture that crosses party lines to honor common principles leadership, service, democracy. Is even that much unity out of reach? Justice Hatchett made one decision a Republican objected to, and theres no We disagree but we're both working toward the same goals; rather, its He is the enemy; we give him no quarter. Its also worth noting that there was nothing extreme about the 23-year-old ruling Rep. Clyde found so distasteful. It concerned a Florida school systems policy permitting prayers at commencement ceremonies. Writing the majority opinion in the 2-1 decision, Justice Hatchett noted the policy violated the Supreme Courts ban on school prayer. This wasnt legislating from the bench; it was following precedent. But as culture war ammunition, it was enough. Then theres the follow-the-herd impulse. Rep. Vern Buchanan, one of the Florida Republicans who co-sponsored the measure, was asked why he voted against his own bill. He answered, I dont know. It was a startling moment of honesty: No need to understand it. Just do what the other Republicans do. Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. Its all the more disturbing that New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who wants to be governor of this state and has been endorsed by party leaders here, went along with it. So did Rep. Elise Stefanik, the number three House Republican whose district covers much of northern New York and whose near-daily political screeds and diatribes belie her claim to being one of the Houses most bipartisan members. Shame on them. And where was Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in all this, letting a first-term member derail a vote because he resents the idea that church and state should be separate, exactly as the Constitution says? When such extremists are unleashed, and leading the party, we all should fear where they might take us. ALBANY A former top-ranking official with the Firefighters Association of the State of New York was awarded $369,000 by a judge who ruled last week that the organization had breached its contract when it terminated him without cause three years ago after he complained about alleged financial improprieties. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Denise A. Hartman, who ordered the association to pay the judgment, also declined to dismiss a retaliatory claim filed by the former official, David Quinn, who began working for the statewide firefighters' organization in 1991 and was appointed chief administrative officer in 2003. Quinn had once been chief of the South Schodack Fire Department in Rensselaer County. He had alleged top officials in the organization were using credit cards without prior authorization, as required, and that grant funds were being doled out to a firefighters museum in Columbia County without vouchers, which violated the non-profit association's regulations. A month after Quinn was fired in February 2019, the organization gave him a letter outlining a proposed separation agreement that included a severance package but with stipulations that included a confidentiality clause and his immediate resignation as treasurer of the association's Museum of Firefighting in Hudson. After Quinn declined to sign the release that included a confidentiality clause which would have prohibited him from publicly disclosing the complaints he had made the organization refused to pay his severance. In the ruling that found the organization had breached its employment contract with Quinn, the judge scheduled a trial in June for Quinn's retaliation claim, which includes allegations that the organization's leaders issued Quinn a negative performance evaluation and eventually terminated his employment after he had reported the policy violations. "David Quinn was an honest and good firefighter and leader at FASNY," said his attorney, Kevin A. Luibrand. "This court decision begins the reckoning for FASNY and those in FASNY who tried to silence him." A spokesman for the firefighters' association, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. In her ruling, the judge noted that Quinn, who sought whistleblower protection, had his employment contract renewed without issue in August 2018. But he apparently began to fall out of favor within the organization the following month after he reported that executives were using the association's credit cards without prior authorization a violation of their policies. He did not allege that made any purchases that were inappropriate. In October 2018, a month after his complaint was filed, Quinn received a negative performance evaluation which was an anomaly in his career with the organization, according to his complaint. In Feb. 2019, Quinn sent an email to the association's board members further detailing his concerns about the violations of fiscal policies and administrative guidelines, including two vice presidents' use of corporate credit cards without prior authorization and the unvouchered grant payments to the fire museum. The following day, the board held an executive session where they discussed a "climate assessment" that polled employees about the working conditions and allegedly revealed concerns about Quinn's treatment of employees. During that February board meeting, Laurie Hance, indicated that "she felt that she was treated differently (by Quinn) than the male board members," according to court records. The judge characterized Hance's statement as "unsupported." In a related matter in 2018, a terminated employee who gave an exit interview had said felt Quinn had "mistreated her based on her sex and made remarks about her getting donations in exchange for sexual favors," according to court records. The board subsequently voted to fire Quinn without cause. According to Steve E. Klein, who was president of the organization at the time, the board opted to terminate Quinn without cause so that it would be effective immediately and he would not be given an opportunity to address or remediate the reasons that led to his termination, the judge's ruling states. "The court finds the circumstances and timing surrounding plaintiffs termination to raise questions of fact regarding the existence of legitimate, non-retaliatory grounds for his termination," she wrote. The firefighters' association, founded in 1872, helps provide education and training for New York's volunteer fire organizations. It also has a lobbying arm that represents the interests of approximately 110,000 volunteer firefighters across the state. Earlier this year, for instance, the organization touted legislation that it had supported and was signed into law banning the use of toxic carcinogenic flame retardant chemicals found in electronic enclosures, household items and furniture, which firefighters can be exposed to in the line of duty. After a two year in-person absence, the annual Tipperary Ogra Fianna Fail Easter Sunday 1916 Commemoration returned to Templemore this year. For the last two years, an in-person event was not possible due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, the event was a resounding success as it took place online, with an oration from former Fianna Fail TD for Tipperary South and senior Government Advisor on the North of Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement, Dr Martin Mansergh. This year, the commemoration took place for the seventeenth consecutive year, and was back in its location in Templemore Town Square. The Chairperson of Tipperary Ogra Fianna Fail, Ryan O'Meara acted as MC for the event, which saw the Fianna Fail TD for Dublin Bay South, Jim O'Callaghan giving this year's oration. Speaking at this year's event, Ryan O'Meara highlighted the importance of younger generations continuing the tradition of organising commemorations. He said: "Fianna Fail has a proud Republican tradition and a long history of honouring and remembering our patriot dead. We do this respectfully. We do this accurately. We do this honestly. "The history of our island is a long and complex one. The 1916 Easter Rising belongs to the people of Ireland and not to any one political party. We gather here today to remember those who fought for our independence and we do this based on an accurate historical record. "It is not unusual for others to try and rewrite our country's history or claim it as their own. But history is bigger than that. It is more important than that. There is, in my view, both a duty and obligation on us, as young Republicans, to continue this tradition in a manner that is honest, respectful and accurate, and that is exactly what we gather here today to do." Jim O'Callaghan TD followed in the footsteps of the likes of Dr Martin Mansergh; the current Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, Mark Daly; the former Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Senator Denis O'Donovan; Deputy Jackie Cahill and others in delivering this year's oration. Among a number of interesting points made, Deputy O'Callaghan pointed to the strong links between the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, such as Eamon DeValera and Countess Markievicz and the foundation of Fianna Fail. Among other remarkable figures, they founded Fianna Fail in 1926, with DeValera as its first leader and Markievicz chairing the first meeting of the Party and being the first female Cabinet Minister in Europe. O'Callaghan said: "The man who founded our great party, Eamon DeValera, was sentenced to death but after his sentence was commuted he ploughed a line that ultimately led to the independence of this country from Britain. "The fight then for Irish freedom was the same as the fight of the Ukrainian people today, who battle to be free from the dominance and interference of Russia. What is happening in Ukraine today is the same as what happened 100 years ago in Ireland. A large and dominant colonial power as a neighbour that the people wish to exist independently from, and have every right to do so." Deputy O'Callaghan also spoke of the importance of such commemorations and commented on the large crowd in attendance, honouring the proud Republican tradition that Tipperary is famous for, and highlighting the significance of Soloheadbeg in the Irish fight for freedom. He also spoke of the deeply unequal society that existed in Ireland 106 years ago, despite Dublin being the second city of the British Empire at the time, and stated that the abject poverty in certain parts of the capital city could only be matched within the British Empire at the time by similar levels of poverty only seen in Calcutta. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Gaston Gazette. This afternoon protest his an embattled local school after parents, friends and family weren't satisfied with answers from the administration following a deadly stabbing that left a student dead. Here's part of the story . . . About 100 Northeast Middle School students walked out of class on Monday and protested at the edge of school property, joining family who stood across the street in pleading for justice for 14-year-old Manuel Guzman, who was fatally stabbed at the school last week. Family members wept as they pleaded for answers. Friends and relatives, many carrying signs or wearing T-shirts with pictures of Guzman, demanded an explanation from administration about how the stabbing could have happened at the school with metal detectors, security and a policy requiring clear backpacks. Police and extra security remained outside near the crowds on Monday. The students were required to stand behind barricades and were not allowed to join Guzmans friends and family on the sidewalk. But the two groups often chanted in unison, yelling Justice for Manny, School should be closed and Long live Manny. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Kansas City students walk out as family of slain middle schooler pleads for justice About 100 Northeast Middle School students walked out of class on Monday and protested at the edge of school property, joining family who stood across the street in pleading for justice for 14-year-old Manuel Guzman, who was fatally stabbed at the school last week. Family members wept as they pleaded for answers. Students, friends, family march in support of slain NEMS student KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Friends, family and Northeast Middle School students marched in support of Manuel Guzman, the 8th grade student that died last week in a school bathroom. The group took to the corner of an intersection near the school with signs saying "Justice for Manuel." 'I don't feel safe': Students demand Northeast Middle School shut down after fatal stabbing More than 100 students walked out of class at Northeast Middle School Monday to draw attention to their concerns over student safety. Dozens of parents joined the rally, which was prompted by the fatal stabbing of Manuel Guzman, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, in the school's bathroom last week. Students hold walkout as family demands answers in KC middle schooler's stabbing death Family and friends of Manuel Guzman, who was stabbed to death at Northeast Middle School last week, said they want answers from the Kansas City Public School District.They held a rally outside Northeast Middle School today. Dozens of students at the school walked out of class Monday to show their support for Guzman and his family. Developing . . . Toronto Mayor John Tory has announced the end of the city of Torontos COVID-19 emergency declaration, which was first imposed on March 23, 2020. My father will never be the same: Toronto police detective charged with impaired driving in crash that left Durham man seriously injured Det. Preston Clark, a 21-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, is facing a charge of impaired operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm in the March 4 crash that left Mark Geisel with a serious head injury. How much do you know about the legacies left by past Ontario governments? Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with journalists of Ukrinform, Ukrayinska Pravda, LB.ua, LIGA.net, RBC-Ukraine and Obozrevatel. On April 16, the President of Ukraine spoke with journalists of Ukrinform, Ukrayinska Pravda, LB.ua, LIGA.net, RBC-Ukraine and Obozrevatel. Ukrinform provides the main theses of the interview. Authorities are in contact with defenders of Mariupol The Ukrainian authorities at various levels are in contact with servicepersons blocked in Mariupol. Defenders of the city today are fighting the enemy, whose forces outnumber six times. "We are in contact with our guys who stay in the blocked plant. We are in contact with them. We talk to them at different levels every day. We support them as much as we can. But they know that they are carrying out one of the most powerful and important missions today, and this is true. In fact, the enemy is afraid of them because today there are six times more Russian troops there," Zelensky said, adding that the enemy has tens times more equipment than Ukrainian defenders. The president added that "not a very large part" of Mariupol is controlled by the Ukrainian military. In addition, according to him, there is a humanitarian crisis in the city.There are not enough food, water, medicines. "Nevertheless, our guys are heroically defending, we are grateful to them for that. Words of gratitude are definitely not enough, so certain plans and negotiation processes are being developed. To be honest, there is no trust in the Russian negotiators regarding Mariupol," Zelensky said. He added that there was an agreement on a humanitarian corridor mediated by Turkey, but Russia refused "at some point." "To be honest, there is no trust in the Russian negotiators regarding Mariupol. We agreed that there will be a humanitarian corridor, mediated by Turkey and by President Erdogan personally. We agreed that through Berdiansk, he could take away our wounded people, who are in Mariupol, and those killed and civilians, first of all, women and children. There are very young children there. And we agreed on that. Then Russia refused at some point. That is why I say that there is not much trust, Zelensky said. Zelensky also stressed that there is no established data on the situation in Mariupol, adding "many people have gone missing." Russia wants to repeat the Ilovaisk tragedy in Mariupol The President of Ukraine does not rule out that Russia, by offering the defenders of Mariupol to surrender and promising to save their lives, actually wants to shoot Ukrainian soldiers, as in Ilovaisk in 2014. "In my opinion, they have different attitude to our military. And you know that. There are military servicemen whom they hate. I don't believe they will save their lives there, even if they promised them. Yes, it may be Ilovaisk. I think so, but we need to ask our military, Zelensky added. According to him, Russians put psychological pressure on the Ukrainian defenders and promise to save their lives in return. "I know that they offered our people to surrender, to go into captivity. We know this through many channels. Therefore, they constantly spread this information through their people, put psychological pressure so that they to surrender and go into captivity. Then they will save their lives, Zelensky said. According to the President, it is possible to help Mariupol, first of all, by providing Ukraine with highly effective weapons, which the Ukrainian government is constantly talking about to international partners. Another option is to negotiate with the Russian side if it agrees. After all, a ceasefire is needed now, at least in Mariupol, in order to take certain humanitarian steps and to take away those wounded and killed. "Another option is to speak about this at the level of leaders. I gave my signals on this, on any format of negotiations to save our people, on any format of swap, if another party is ready," the President said. At the same time, Zelensky stressed that the defenders of Mariupol are already heroes, so now if they make a decision for themselves, take this or that step, no one will forbid them to do so. Destruction of defenders in Mariupol could put an end to any format of negotiatios President Volodymyr Zelensky said that any format of negotiations could come to an end if Russin forces kill Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol. The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol - this is what they [Russians] are doing now - can put an end to any format of negotiations. I think it is their big mistake to say that they really want to end the war, Zelensky said. He assured that the Ukrainian government does not trade territories and people, but understands that negotiations are needed to protect the state and end the war. The President stressed that the stronger Ukraine is, the better the outcome of these talks can be. At the same time, he noted "the more Borodianka-like cases appear, the less chance there will be for negotiations." "We have Bucha, Borodianka, etc., and we have not been to Mariupol - there may be ten times worse than in Borodianka," the head of state added. On the change in western countries position on arms supplies to Ukraine As to the supply of weapons to Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky noted "at first, no one decided on this quickly, and then, when the people within the state, the people themselves began to put pressure on them, then they began to change the position and give us weapons or speed up these processes. According to the President, from the moment they say that they have decided on the supply of weapons to Ukraine, from this moment to the moment when these weapons are already in our army, it can take two-three weeks. Thus, it's a very long process because Ukrainian defenders say - we need help now within one day, two-three days. And they [western countries] say - everything is fine, we will give you [weapons] in May. What do they expect? That we have to fight for months, the war [will take] years? Some of them are probably counting on it According to the President of Ukraine, for us, speeding up [supplies of] weapons is a very important moment. And the rhetoric of some countries has changed for sure, it has become warmer - if such a word can be used regarding arms supplies, it has become warmer in our direction. Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the process of arms supply has been unblocked; We now get weapons. But in my opinion, we get not enough weapons. Russia believes that we get lots of weapons. And it is also a good result, I think. " "I think that the United States, Great Britain, Poland and several other countries really support us today, but they can certainly supported us much stronger. And they support honestly and openly, the Czech Republic supports, and the Slovak Republic, the President said. Four countries are ready to become Ukraines security guarantors The United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Turkey are ready to become Ukraine's guarantors, but the number of countries may grow and there is no final response from any country. "Today, those who are showing that they are ready... we have no signatories on paper yet. There is a demonstration of readiness from Boris Johnson, from Great Britain, from the United States, from Italy, from Turkey," Zelensky said. Document on the end of war may consist of two separate treaties The final document on the end of Russia's war against Ukraine may consist of two parts - an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine and a separate bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Russia. "I believe that these can be two different documents - security guarantees from those countries that are ready to provide these security guarantees, and a separate document with Russia," the head of state said, when asked about the final document on the end of the war. The President noted that Russia would like to have one agreement that would include all issues. However, according to him, not all countries that could be security guarantors want to be at one table with the Russian Federation. "For them, security guarantees for Ukraine are one issue, and agreements with Russia are another issue. Russia wants everything to be in one document, but people say Sorry, we saw what happened in Bucha. Circumstances are changing, the formats of future agreements are changing, and the percentage of possibilities of agreements is changing, following such steps, those rapes. Everyone sees this and less and less want to have any agreements with Russia, and at the same time they want to have agreements with Ukraine," Zelensky said. He also added that the issue of Russia's compensation for Ukraine's war losses must be legally resolved, but he does not know now what kind of document it will be. Russia wants to occupy as much territory as possible to put pressure during negotiations President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that one meeting with the Russian leadership will not be enough to settle everything and agree on all the issues to establish peace. "I support the idea of holding a meeting with Russia as soon as possible. I do not think it will be one meeting. I do not think that you can meet once and agree on everything. Because there are many issues. On some issues, I do not see yet whether they agree on our option or we agree on their option, Zelensky said. In particular, according to him, this concerns the issue of Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. "They want to constantly change the status in this part, and we want some kind of agreement so that those people, who are there, who consider themselves Ukrainians, know where they live, not on an island in the middle of the land, but that it is part of a state. I believe that this is part of Ukraine, they believe that they are part of Ukraine, the militants of L/DPR believe that they are part of Russia, and Russia does not consider them part of Russia, but believes that they are separate republics. They are afraid of being separate republics, because if they are separate republics, they understand that Ukraine may come to separate republics. Maybe. Russia fears that Ukraine may come, and thus it wants a neutral status so that Ukraine will never come there. Thus, there are many issues. And the most important question for me is: What do we all want to be there?" the President said. At the same time, Zelensky added that the meeting is unlikely to be held until it is clear which countries are ready to become security guarantors and under what conditions, because the course of negotiations will also depend on it. He also added that diplomatic talks should take place when Russia ends the war. "You can think of diplomacy, while they want to resolve issues diplomatically when the war is ongoing. This is very difficult. That is why they want to take some of our territory to occupy more so that to have such pressure. Well, then it is not about diplomacy. And why do we then meet? It is unclear to me why we need to meet if they want to seize the whole state," Zelensky said. In general, he added, Ukraine is ready to hold a dialogue on many controversial issues and look for common ways. On Russia's conditions for meeting with Putin The Russian Federation insisted that meetings between the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia could be possible only after final agreements on all points of negotiations. "At any time during this war, we offered a meeting of leaders. They want to meet when there are already final agreements on all points. Honestly, with all due respect to all negotiators, to all negotiation processes, I cannot accept that everything is decided instead of me. They [Russians] act in such a way, they have everything prepared then they meet and sign, Zelensky said. On the possibility of exchanging Medvedchuk "Look, we are ready to exchange Medvedchuk, ready, honestly. Of course, for our servicepersons or anything else Russia may offer. It seems to me that we have gave these signals publicly and not very publicly, and if they are interested, they will definitely respond," the President said. On the role of Abramovich in the negotiating team President Zelensky said that according to information available to him, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich represented in the Russian negotiating delegation a party that advocates diplomacy and an end to the war. However, no one can guarantee it is true. "I do not think that anyone on the Russian side has a neutral position. I believe that the Russian side, their diplomats or businessmen are defending the Russian side and only their interests. Our interests cannot coincide. We may be interested in resolving certain issues by non-military means, ending this war. I think that Abramovich is part of this delegation, I don't know about others, what I was told was that he represented the party that supports the diplomatic solution to this issue and the end of the war," Zelensky said. On the absence of conflicts between Presidents Office representatives and Zaluzhnyi Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the representatives of the Ukrainian Presidents Office have no conflicts with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, now everyone works in one team, and everything opposite are fakes. "Thank God, everyone who has been here since day one and everyone who has stayed, everyone is working," Zelensky said, noting that he knows who is spreading false information about alleged conflicts. The head of state said that during the first days of the Russian full-scale invasion, he gathered many people and called on them to unite for victory. He suggested forgetting all misunderstandings and working together as one team. On Ukraine's economy decline as a result of the war "There are two questions. The first question: minus seven billion euros of our economy every month. Minus seven billion is all salaries, payments, everything from the budget. Salaries, pension payments, social support. We now have a deficit of seven billion euros. It is a difficult situation, you see it. These figures are known to [our partners]. By the way, we will be able to see at the end of the month how certain partners support us. Everyone knows these figures: the European Union, the United States, Great Britain, our people and so on. I think we will get out of this situation." According to Zelensky, all Ukrainian institutions that should work now must work. I think that people will return and work, and the economic situation will be better. The President noted "there are agreements with the IMF, and several programs are being developed for this assistance. But you must understand that if this war continues, it will exhaust us. It is so. Therefore, there are some grants, there is assistance, there are several different programs. Ukrainian people in occupied territories are not collaborators According to the President of Ukraine, the question is: how to work and live in the occupied territories They are not collaborators, we understand. We are all people, and I understand what difficulties may be. For example, a math teacher is told: I understand that you taught children in Ukrainian. And now you need to teach mathematics in Russian I think that the main thing for our people is to survive there, the main thing is to remember that they are all citizens of our state. We will definitely liberate these or those occupied cities. I think that is the most important thing. On the possible returning of Ukrainians home from abroad and Kyiv residents to the capital Volodymyr Zelensky believes that there is not exact answer. Why? Can the Russians return [to the positions that are now liberated from the occupiers]? They can. However, is it necessary for the city to work? 100%. I think that seven billion, sorry, I'm very pragmatic, but that seven billion is nothing for our state, basically nothing. If people work, we will not ask anyone [for help]. We don't need anything, you know. Being humiliated and ask for money or another amounts. But for this, the country should work and live, despite the ongoing war. You have to get used to it. Get used to the idea that you should not wait for the moment when there will be no shots. It can be different. We all want that, but it can be different. That's why we need to work. If you work, you can spend money the way you want, it's your right. But, nevertheless, the economy must start operating. Without it, there will be no money for our army. And this is the main thing. Our servicepersons have high salaries. And where to get this money? The economy must work. They, these or those partners, will help us for a month, or maybe for two months they will help - it will not be forever. That's why we need to work. That's the answer regarding the returning. Ukrinform Photo credit: Presidents Office Ukraine has neither technical nor arms advantage over the enemy and, thus, needs much greater assistance than what it receives now. The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with CNN, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. There will not be enough assistance [to Ukraine Ed.], it is impossible to have enough. Enough is much greater than what we receive today. Unfortunately, we have neither technical nor arms advantage over the enemy. We are not at the same level. But, we have stronger people. Most importantly, we have the goal and mission. We know what for and where we are fighting. We are defending our land, defending our families, the President of Ukraine told. According to Zelensky, Ukraine is paying a high cost, the lives of people, for fighting now. In any case You will choose, where is that very compromise with the Russian Federation to sit down at the negotiating table with the President of Russia, Zelensky noted. Zelensky stressed that Ukraine cannot give up its territories, but there must be ways of establishing a dialogue with Russia. But, there are such moments as Bucha, Borodianka, Volnovakha, Izium, Mariupol, after which nobody wants to talk. Our society does not want Today Ukraine, the people of Ukraine and the state have a clear understanding: we do not need something that does not belong to us but will not give anything of our own, the President of Ukraine added. 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 air and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and villages, torturing and murdering civilians. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine mk Russian troops are likely to shell the city of Kherson with the Grad multiple rocket launcher systems and accuse the Armed Forces of Ukraine of that. The main goal is to hold a pseudo-referendum in Kherson Region. The relevant statement was made by Odesa Regional Military Administration Head Serhii Bratchuk on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. Near the Antonivskyi Bridge, they are deploying the Grad systems to shell Kherson and accuse the Armed Forces of Ukraine of that. This should be the reason for saving the city through holding a pseudo-referendum. We want to emphasize that the Ukrainian military never open fire on civilian houses. It is important to make such plans public, Bratchuk noted. A reminder that Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova stated earlier that Russian invaders are planning to hold a pseudo-referendum in Kherson Region between May 1, 2022 and May 10, 2022. According to the data from witnesses, ballots are printed out in Nova Kakhovka. Obviously, all the voting result protocols will be prepared in advance and delivered to the regional center. For the duration of the pseudo-referendum, Russian invaders intend to close the entrance to and the exit from Kherson and disconnect all communications. The similar scheme was used by Russia in Luhansk and Donetsk in 2014. Instead of the expression of the will of the people, Russian invaders simply created an image required for the Russian television. mk Shelling populated areas within Mariupol, Russian troops are using the same tactics that were previously used in Chechnya and Syria. According to Ukrinform, the UK Ministry of Defense said this on Twitter. "The targeting of populated areas within Mariupol aligns with Russia's approach to Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016. This is despite the 24 February 2022 claims of Russia's Defense Ministry that Russia would neither strike cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population," the ministry said. The ministry added that concerted Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and materiel, slowing Russia's advance elsewhere. "Russia's effort to capture Mariupol has come at significant cost to its residents. Large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed whilst the population has suffered significant casualties," the statement said. On April 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message that Russian invaders, who are preparing to launch an offensive in eastern Ukraine, want to wipe out the city and communities of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka The Armed Forces of Ukraine have liquidated Commander of Russias 49th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, Colonel Ivan Grishin of Smolensk. Thats according to the Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. "Meet the fresh occupier with the Russian armed forces: Commander of the 49th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade Colonel Ivan Grishin of Smolensk. He got lost during exercises but has already returned home the right way," the statement reads. As Ukrinform reported with reference to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Ukrainian defenders have already killed about 20,600 Russian servicemen since the onset of the invasion. It is the 53rd day of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, whose troops have been shelling and destroying key critical and civilian infrastructure, brutally killing Ukrainians. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, believes that Russia's offensive on Kyiv failed due to the incompetent approach of the Russian command to conducting such a large-scale operation. Thats according to Budanovs interview with Der Spiegel, Ukrinform reports citing the defense ministrys press service. When asked, why Russia decided to withdraw its troops from Kyiv region, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence said that the occupying forces did not just pull back, they were pushed out from Kyiv region by Ukraines Armed Forces. The push started when the Army regained control of the town of Irpin. This threatened to cut off part of their forces in Kyiv region. The Russians quickly realized that in just a few days, they found themselves in the same situation that they like to inflict on the enemy encircling and dividing them. So they decided to retreat. Read also: Military intel chief believes Russia not to achieve any wins in Ukraine by Easter as Kremlin wishes "I am amazed at how incompetently and carelessly Russian commanders have approached such a major operation. If they really believed that they could do it in three days - and, as far as we know, they absolutely believed that they could - then the Russian leadership is probably wondering whether their generals are competent at all. They took their wishful thinking for reality," Budanov said. He also commented on the combat losses among the Russian military command. We asked ourselves this question. And we found only one answer: the extremely low professional level of their generals. One of the reasons for this is nepotism in the Russian army, sham generals, relatives of some officials who dont meet the performance criteria, unready to solve tasks. Take the Chornobaivka case (where the Ukrainian forces more than a dozen times annihilated enemy aircraft at a local airfield after the Russians repeatedly tried to set up a base there)! This is a monument to idiocy," said the intelligence chief. Asked what Russia's strategic goals are and how they have changed, the head of Ukraine's defense intelligence said that the goal of military aggression remained unchanged: an operation to destroy Ukraine's statehood. Ukraine must cease to exist as a state. This is their main goal, and Putin hasnt given up on his plans. How exactly they would achieve this goal, Russia doesnt fully understand, and its also characteristic of their tactics. But they wanted, firstly, to plant a Russian-controlled government here in Kyiv, and secondly, to put Ukraine back into the Russian sphere of influence forever. This didnt happened and cant happen, especially after the atrocities and war crimes witnessed by the whole world, said the head of Ukrainian intelligence. Asked what weapons Ukraine needs to repel Russian aggression, Major General Budanov said the country needs artillery systems, such as the German army has. The Ukrainian military also needs tanks due to heavy losses of armored vehicles. The rest are standard equipment: anti-aircraft and electronic reconnaissance systems. In Russias Rostov region, the invaders continue to form additional units and plan to complete them by April 24. Meanwhile, helipads are rolled out in Belgorod region. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine records the signs of the start of the offensive operations in eastern Ukraine. According to operative information, as of 18:00 on April 18, the enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on industrial and civilian infrastructure, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook. It is noted that the main efforts of the enemy are focused on establishing full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and holding the previously captured territory. The signs of the start of the offensive operation in the Eastern Operational Zone are recorded. In Slobozhansky and Donetsk operational districts, the aggressor intensified offensive and assault operations in some directions. "In order to strengthen their offensive capabilities, the invaders continue to form additional units in Rostov region and in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is planned to use them to support the military operations of the main forces in the second echelon, protection of administrative buildings and important infrastructure facilities in the occupied territories. According to available information, the approximate date of formation is April 24 this year," the report reads. Provocative actions and the use of enemy aircraft in UkraineRussia border areas are not ruled out, including strikes on civilian objects. No significant changes in the activities of enemy troops were noted in Volyn, Polissia, and Siversky directions. In Slobozhansky direction, the enemy group, which includes separate units of the 6th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District, the Baltic and the Northern Fleet coastal forces, continues to partially block Kharkiv and destroy residential areas of the city with artillery fire. In Izium direction, the aggressor operates with separate units of the 1st Guards Tank Army, the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Western Military District, the 35th and 68th Combined Arms Armies of the Eastern Military District and the air assault forces. Attempts to advance in Izium-Slovyansk and Izium-Barvinkove directions are expected to continue. The helipads are rolled out in Russias Belgorod region, close to the state border with Ukraine. In Donetsk and Tavriysky directions, a group of Russian troops continues to focus their efforts on capturing the localities of Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna, and Rubizhne, as well as establishing full control over Mariupol. The enemy also intensified offensive operations in Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, Kurakhove, and Zaporizhzhia directions. To step up efforts, the enemy continues to amass additional tank and artillery units. The battles for Mariupol continue. The enemy is storming the seaport area. In the Southern Buh direction, some enemy units continue to focus their efforts on holding the occupied frontiers and shelling the positions of Ukraines Defense Forces. The enemy does not stop trying to establish full control over the territory of Kherson region. The invaders conduct unsuccessful military operations in the area of Oleksandrivka. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine notes that enemy naval groups continue to isolate Ukraines sea coast and conduct reconnaissance in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. In addition, Russian aggressors continue to cynically violate international humanitarian law, block initiatives to evacuate civilians from occupied localities, refuse to coordinate humanitarian routes, and fire on areas near possible "green corridors". "In the occupied territories, the enemy steals and takes out to the Russian Federation equipment, machinery and products of local enterprises, mines agricultural fields," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. The defense forces continue to hold certain frontiers, eliminate the enemy, and liberate Ukrainian lands from invaders in some areas. ol The next package of sanctions that the European Union is set to impose on Russia must lay down an embargo on Russian oil. Thats according to Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who addressed the issue on Twitter. Spoke with my Maltese counterpart Ian Borg. Grateful to Malta for supporting five previous rounds of EU sanctions on Russia. I stressed that the sixth EU sanctions package must necessarily include an oil embargo on Russia, Kuleba tweeted. As Ukrinform reported earlier, the chief of the Ukrainian Presidents Office Andriy Yermak said that such an embargo was on the tables as EU members were discussing the sixth package of Russia sanctions. Earlier, Yermak explained that the EU intended to gradually reduce gas purchases from Russia, while Ukraine sought to make sanctions tougher. The EU leadership is looking into introducing an oil embargo against Russia, which would deliver one of the most powerful blows on Russias economy, which has already suffered greatly from sanctions over the full-scale war that the Kremlin unleashed against Ukraine on February 24. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected baseless accusations voiced by the Serbian president about Ukraine's alleged involvement in hoax bomb reports as regards civilian flights to Russia operated by Serbian air carriers. Thats according to a comment provided to Ukrinform by Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko. His (Aleksandar Vucic's) statements about Ukraine's alleged involvement in bomb threats to Serbian air carriers flying to Russia are false, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. He also expressed disappointment that Serbia has not yet joined the EU sanctions imposed on Russia over an unprovoked war it unleashed against Ukraine. Nikolenko stressed that the Russian Federation launches missiles and drops bombs on Ukrainian cities on a daily basis, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. "Tough sanctions and unity of the democratic world can stop this war. We call on Belgrade to stand up for the truth and fully join in supporting Ukraine and upholding the values on which a united democratic Europe has been founded," Nikolenko said. As reported, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview with TV Pink that his country will continue to fly to Russia, despite bomb threats being issued. According to Vucic, two countries stand behind such threats one is an EU member and the other is Ukraine. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova informed about the facts of the illegal deportation of 13 Ukrainian orphans by the Russian military from Mariupol to Russia. "It became known about the illegal transfer of 13 orphans, children deprived of parental care," Denisova posted on Telegram. In particular, six children from a family-type orphanage were taken out of Mariupol to Rostov-on-Don, Russia. A foster mother went for water and did not return, her whereabouts are unknown. According to the Commissioner, one of the children from the orphanage managed to get to Zaporizhzhia and reported that the children had been taken to Russia. The boy also noted that the children wanted to return to Ukraine. In addition, seven children together with their foster parents were illegally taken from another family-type orphanage in Mariupol to the village of Yagodnoe, Rostov region. A mother of another child reported the illegal transfer of her daughter from Mariupol to Donetsk. Ukrainian children deported to Russia are being raised in the families of Russian citizens, which is a crime that falls under the definition of human trafficking under international law, the Ombudsperson stressed. "The actions of the occupiers violate the state's obligation to ensure the rights of children in armed conflict as provided for in Article 38 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Russia grossly violates the provisions of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War which prohibits the forced relocation or deportation of persons from the occupied territories, the Commissioner noted. Denisova calls on the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Red Cross Society to "assist in the fastest possible search for and return of children." The Commissioner also urges the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine to "take into account these facts of Russia's violations of children's rights in Ukraine." As reported, according to the Crimean Human Rights Group, the Russian military has forcibly deported up to 150 children from Mariupol. The vast majority of these children, about a hundred people, were forcibly evacuated from hospitals. It is likely that they were transported to the temporarily occupied Donetsk. ol (@FahadShabbir) Gabes, Tunisia, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :Divers who inspected the hull of a tanker loaded with 750 tonnes of fuel that sank off southeast Tunisia detected no leaks on Sunday, officials said. The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo, which sank Saturday in the Gulf of Gabes, has settled on its side at a depth of almost 20 metres (65 feet), the environment ministry said. "No leak has been detected," it said in a statement. The inspection was carried out by divers accompanied by the ship's captain and engineer, said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in Gabes city that is investigating the sinking. The Xelo was travelling from Egypt to Malta when it went down. With the scene sealed off by Tunisia's military, the defence ministry released pictures showing the vessel submerged on its side. The crew of the Xelo had issued a distress call on Friday evening and sought shelter in Tunisian waters from bad weather before going down. Tunisian authorities rescued the seven-member crew, who received first aid and were moved to a hotel. Transport Minister Rabie Majidi said Sunday that rescue workers had checked during the operation that the valves were closed, and the team of divers ensured they were sealed and intact. "The situation is not dangerous, the outlook is positive, the ship is stable because luckily it ran aground on sand," he told reporters. The minister said the priority was to pump the diesel fuel and prevent any spillage or pollution. An Italian ship specialised in cleaning up marine pollution will be sent alongside a team of divers to aid with efforts, an Italian official said. As a precaution, protective booms have already been placed around the wreck. Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui has also been at the scene in the port of Gabes to follow up on the incident. Tunisian officials are investigating the itinerary of the tanker, which reportedly has Turkish and Libyan owners. The Tunisia branch of the World Wildlife Fund has expressed concern about another "environmental catastrophe" in the region, an important fishing zone. The tanker is 58 metres (63 yards) long and nine metres wide, according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com. It began taking on water around seven kilometres (four miles) offshore in the Gulf of Gabes and the engine room was engulfed, according to the environment ministry. (@FahadShabbir) LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Apr, 2022 ) ::Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Sunday said the Pakistan Army drew its strength from the people and any effort to create wedge between them would not be tolerated. The COAS, who visited Lahore Garrison over the weekend, interacted with garrison officers and veterans in two separate interactive sessions, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release said. He said, "Misinformation and propaganda threatens state integrity requiring timely and unified response to effectively counter speculations and rumours". "The hostile forces are trying this for a long time but they won't succeed, Insha Allah", the COAS added. The Army Chief appreciated the Lahore Corps for maintaining high standards of operational preparedness and training. Earlier on his arrival, the COAS was received by Corps Commander Lahore Lieutenant General Muhammad Abdul Aziz. The Army Chief also visited the Combined Military Hospital Lahore (CMH) and inquired about the well-being of Major Haris, who was manhandled and injured in a road rage incident recently. He said the law would take its course. "Perpetrators, who are under arrest, will be brought to justice. No one can be allowed to take law into their hands,", the Army Chief assured. Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz on Monday said that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) with the support of its allies, would burn the midnight oil to serve the people of the province LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz on Monday said that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) with the support of its allies, would burn the midnight oil to serve the people of the province. Hamza Shehbaz expressed the resolve to work for the people with utmost commitment and dedication and said every possible step would be taken to resolve public problems. Talking to the media here, he said that the province was passing through an agony for past few days due to political atmosphere created by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and its allies. He said that the people had already been suffering for the last four years due to bad governance of the past government which did nothing for the welfare of the common man. Hamza Shehbaz said that the incident took place in the Punjab Assembly was unfortunate as the constitution and rules of the house were violated by the opponents who had foreseen their defeat in the election. He said that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was seen instigating his personal force to attack the members of the assembly. He said that the PML-N would take its allies along to put the province on track to real progress and prosperity. He thanked all his allies who stood to support him in the election of chief minister. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a petition against issuance of diplomatic passport to former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif while declaring it as non-maintainable ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a petition against issuance of diplomatic passport to former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif while declaring it as non-maintainable. Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case filed by a citizen regarding the matter. The petition adopted the stance that Nawaz Sharif was convicted and awarded imprisonment sentence in NAB reference. He had also been declared absconder due to continuous absence from court proceedings. He prayed the court to issue directives to the concern for the arrest of the accused soon after his return. He also prayed to stop issuance of diplomatic passport to former prime minister. The chief justice remarked that any absconder didn't deserve for the relief if someone was proclaimed offender then the law would make its own course. The court noted that the petitioner couldn't produce any notification in favor of his case instead gave references of only some press clipping. The bench subsequently dismissed the case and imposed fine worth Rs5,000 against the petitioner. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said the journey of progress of Pakistan has resumed from the point that faced a halt of development during the four years of the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said the journey of progress of Pakistan has resumed from the point that faced a halt of development during the four years of the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Addressing here at the inauguration of mass transit bus project on Peshawar More to Islamabad International Airport route, he said being the representative of the coalition government, he would ensure fast implementation of the delayed or suspended projects of public importance. The Islamabad Metro Bus Service project, which was due to become operational by 2018, faced a massive delay by the previous government and was launched within five days after PM Shehbaz Sharif assumed his office. The 25.6 kilometer bus route will benefit an estimated 50,000 commuters on daily basis. PM Shehbaz said the project was a gift from the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to the people of Islamabad aimed at facilitating them through a decent transport service. He regretted that the route plan of Islamabad was reduced abruptly to cut the cost from Rs 16 billion to Rs 12 billion, which he said, caused immense loss to the materialization of the project. He said though the development funds were available to complete the public welfare projects during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, however the will to serve the masses was lacking. PM Sharif mentioned that Pakistan Muslim League government during previous tenure had launched the mass transit projects in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. He pointed out that the PTI government regrettably took stay orders from the courts to suspend the projects of public importance. He said the Orange Line mass transit train, which was a gift from China, faced litigation by the PTI that caused its delay by over two years. He said other than a few technical points regarding survey of the Orange Line project, no trace of corruption was found by the courts. PM Shehbaz Sharif said during the PTI government, the national economy suffered immensely and even the defence expenditure was borne by the debt money. The prime minister expressed gratitude to China and Turkey for contributing towards the launch of public transport system in Pakistan. He termed China a great friend that stood by Pakistan throughout the history, adding that the Chinese leadership always supported Pakistan at all international forums. He mentioned that China greatly contributed towards strengthening Pakistan's economy and expressed gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a game changer for the country. He urged China to also support Pakistan in the launch of Karachi Circular Railway for the benefit of people of the metropolitan. PM Sharif thanked Turkey for supporting Pakistan since its establishment and recalled that the Muslims of sub-continent had also supported the cause of freedom of Turkey. He said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a leader with a vision and stood by Pakistan during various challenges. Shehbaz Sharif said 15 buses would be taken from Punjab Mass Transit Authority, Rawalpindi for an interim period till the new fleet was added to Islamabad metro service. He announced free-of-cost metro bus service for passengers during the holy month of Ramazan. Chairman Capital Development Authority Engineer Farkhand Iqbal said on instructions of PM Shehbaz Sharif, the CDA and National Highway had made possible the launch of the project within five days. He said 15 buses with orange skin would be run on the route in collaboration with Turkish company, besides the four buses as airport shuttle. He said ticketing system of the metro bus had been completed, however would be opened with approval of the prime minister. He said a mobile application was being launched for an easy access to the buses coming after every five minutes and the shuttle by every 25 minutes. The blue line bus will be initiated in near future on Rawat-Islamabad Airport route. Later, PM Shehbaz Sharif took a ride of the bus on the inaugurated route flanked by Turkish ambassador Mustafa Yardakul, Chinese Charge d'Affaires Pang Chunxue, and parliamentarians including Mohsin Dawar, Ali Wazir, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Hanif Abbasi and others. The Islamabad metro bus will be covered in orange skin for route coding. The NHA to N5 station will take 6-8 minutes and from N5 to the airport around 25-30 minutes. The shuttle service will be run on a stretch of 11 kilometres. (@Abdulla99267510) Shehbaz Sharif says the government looks forward to benefitting from Saudi Arabia in its expertise in various sectors including education, health, information technology, and alternative clean energy resources. ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-April 18th, 2022) Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressed the desire to strengthen relations with Saudi Arabia in diverse fields including strategic ties, trade and investment. The prime minister expressed these views while talking to Saudi Ambassador Nawaf Bin Saeed Al-Maliki, who called on him to felicitate on assuming the office. PM Shehbaz Sharif said the government looked forward to benefitting from Saudi Arabia in its expertise in various sectors including education, health, information technology, and alternative clean energy resources. The Saudi envoy congratulated Shehbaz Sharif and expressed confidence that under his leadership, the friendly relations between the two countries would further grow. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday here held meeting with ambassador of the State of Qatar Sheikh Saoud Abdulrahman Al-Thani and discussed matters of mutual interest ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday here held meeting with ambassador of the State of Qatar Sheikh Saoud Abdulrahman Al-Thani and discussed matters of mutual interest. The ambassador conveyed the message of felicitations from the Qatari leadership on his election as Prime Minister of Pakistan. Recalling the long-standing and fraternal ties between the two countries, he reaffirmed Qatar's desire to further deepen and broaden bilateral relations with Pakistan. The Prime Minister thanked the Qatari Ambassador for the messages of felicitations from the Qatari leadership. He underscored the importance Pakistan attached to its relationship with Qatar and reiterated his resolve to work towards further expansion of mutual cooperation in diverse fields. In particular, the Prime Minister highlighted trade, investment, energy and manpower sectors in this regard. The Prime Minister appreciated Qatar's role in facilitation of the Afghan peace process and expressed the desire that both Pakistan and Qatar would continue to work together for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and provision of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. Qatar is home to a large Pakistani diaspora in the Gulf Region. Pakistan and Qatar enjoy close, cordial ties resting on the firm foundation of shared faith and values. The two countries closely collaborate bilaterally, as well as on regional and global issues of mutual interest. (@FahadShabbir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2022) The repeatedly delayed and halted wet dress rehearsal of the US Artemis 1 lunar mega-rocket with its Orion upper stage will likely be further delayed to miss its June launch window, NASA engineers admitted at a press conference on Monday. "I think the earlier June window (for launch) is challenged at this point," NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Tom Whitmeyer said. "The operations are certainly complicated and we want to make sure we get them right. Some of that is (that) the issues with the rocket were different from what were anticipated." Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin agreed that the full wet dress rehearsal required weeks before the actual launch would probably not take place before July and might even be delayed until August. "There is definitely a challenge for the June 6-16 window. The next opportunity is June 29 - July 12. The next opportunity after that is July 26 through August 9. ... We have had to repeat the wet dress rehearsal for a number of reasons. We have had a number of challenges to overcome. We are not ready to put a pin on the Calendar yet," Sarafin said. NASA officials said they were rolling the enormous, 365-feet high rocket back into the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for at least a week. "We should have it ready to roll back (to launch Pad 39A for the wet dress rehearsal) next week.(Next) Tuesday {April 26) is the time frame. ... We will do another set of leak checks. We will take care of that upper stage check valve and we will need to work the leak," Flight Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said. NASA failed a third fuel-loading rehearsal on the unmanned Artemis I moon rocket system last week but as late as Friday, April 15 Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin said the space agency was still thinking of attempting the process for a fourth time as soon as this week. During the third attempt, engineers encountered some issues with the cryogenic loading operations on the hydrogen and liquid oxygen side, he said. (@FahadShabbir) China on Monday expressed concern over the escalating tension between Palestinians and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2022 ) :China on Monday expressed concern over the escalating tension between Palestinians and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. China has been following closely with concern the escalating tension between Palestine and Israel in Jerusalem, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing here. He said that the issue of Jerusalem's status and ownership was complicated and sensitive and hoped that the parties concerned would act in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, maintain and respect the historical status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem, stay calm and exercise restraint, and prevent the situation from deteriorating or even getting out of control. Wang Wenbin said that the escalating Palestine-Israel situation once again reminds us that the Palestine question should not be marginalized. He said that the international community, major countries in particular, should look squarely at the crux of the Palestine question and on the basis of the two-state solution, facilitate the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel to realize peaceful coexistence. China will continue to play a constructive role in this effort, he added. According to reports, hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on April 15, leaving at least 152 people injured. The international pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson announced in a statement on Wednesday that it has agreed to a $99 million settlement with the US state of West Virginia to resolve opioid-related claims against it WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) The international pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson announced in a statement on Wednesday that it has agreed to a $99 million settlement with the US state of West Virginia to resolve opioid-related claims against it. "Johnson & Johnson and its US-based Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies today announced a settlement agreement with the State of West Virginia and its participating subdivisions resolving their opioid-related claims against the company," the statement said. The agreement removes the company from an ongoing trial in Kanawha County, West Virginia, the statement said. "The $99 million settlement will directly support local community efforts to seek meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis in West Virginia ... (but) is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing and marks continued progress in resolving opioid-related claims and litigation by states, cities, counties, and other subdivisions in the United States," the statement added. Janssen no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the United States as part of its ongoing efforts to focus on transformational innovation, according to the statement. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Russian Aerospace Forces, using high-precision air-launched missiles, destroyed a logistics center near Ukraine's Lviv and large consignments of foreign weapons that arrived in Ukraine from the United States and European countries on Monday morning, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) The Russian Aerospace Forces, using high-precision air-launched missiles, destroyed a logistics center near Ukraine's Lviv and large consignments of foreign weapons that arrived in Ukraine from the United States and European countries on Monday morning, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. "On the morning of April 18, high-precision airborne missiles of the Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the 124th Joint Logistics Center of the Logistics Forces Command of the Ukrainian forces near Lviv. The logistics center and the large consignments of foreign weapons that were delivered to Ukraine from the United States and European countries over the past six days were destroyed," Konashenkov said at a briefing. In addition, a large ammunition depot was destroyed near the village of Vasylkiv, Kiev region, he added. Syria sent a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and to the UN Security Council about the war crimes of the US-led international coalition in the city of Raqqa in 2017, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released by the state agency SANA MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) Syria sent a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and to the UN Security Council about the war crimes of the US-led international coalition in the city of Raqqa in 2017, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released by the state agency SANA. "In an official letter sent to the UN Secretary General and the President of the Security Council about the war crimes committed by the so-called international coalition in the city of Raqqa in 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made it clear that the US military operation carried out by the forces of the illegitimate international coalition in Raqqa in period from June to October 2017, led to the almost complete destruction of the city and thousands of its civilians," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry's statement stressed that the goal of the coalition's operation was to destroy infrastructure, public and private property, and target civilians. In 2014, Raqqa was captured by militants of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia). In October 2017, the city was liberated after a months-long military operation by the Arab-Kurdish formations of the Syrian Democratic Forces with the support of the international coalition aviation. During the massive bombardments and actions of the pro-US Kurdish formations, Raqqa was actually destroyed. The US military illegally controls territories in the north and northeast of Syria in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hasakah and Raqqa, where the largest oil and gas fields in Syria are located. Damascus has repeatedly called the presence of the US military on its territory occupation and state piracy with the aim of outright theft of oil. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Ukrainian military in March used cluster munitions in an attempt to take control over a village near the city of Izium in the east of the country, the New York Times reported on Monday WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) The Ukrainian military in March used cluster munitions in an attempt to take control over a village near the city of Izium in the east of the country, the New York Times reported on Monday. Cluster munitions, which include missiles, bombs, mortar and artillery shells, are banned under an international convention signed by more than 100 nations in 2010. However. Ukraine, along with the United States and Russia, is not among signatories of the convention. The Ukrainian troops shelled the village of Husarivka in an attempt to push back the Russian military units from the positions held there. International human rights groups accused Russia of using banned munitions there, but the New York Times, said that based on reviewing evidence during the visit to the area it concluded the missile with cluster munitions had been launched by the Ukrainian troops. Nobody was killed during the attack then but at least two civilians were killed in a subsequent attack by the Ukraine forces to retake the village, the report said. Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, said the Ukrainian troops hit their own people with cluster munitions and their use is unacceptable. "It's definitely dismaying to hear that evidence has emerged indicating that Ukraine may have used cluster munitions in this current conflict," Wareham said. New York Times personnel at the scene said they collected metal parts of antipersonnel munitions from the used missile shells. The attack in Husarivka appears to be the first verified use of cluster munitions by Ukrainian troops since the beginning of Russia's military operation, the report said. In 2015, Kiev used such munitions in the war in the Donbas, it added. UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said earlier the United Nations is investigating allegations that Ukrainian forces have used cluster munitions during the ongoing conflict with Russia. Russia, which has repeatedly said it does not violate existing conventions regulating armed conflict, has said Ukrainian troops are using typical terrorist methods, such as hiding behind civilians and positioning weapons systems in civilian areas. Russia has also accused the Ukrainian military of using cluster munitions, including in the March 14 missile attack on Donetsk that killed 21 civilians. (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down under pressure from Saudi Arabia and is now under de-facto house arrest, The Wall Street Journal reports. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud allegedly handed a written decree to Hadi on the sidelines of the talks in Riyadh, which set out provisions for the delegation of powers to the presidential council, the newspaper said on Sunday citing Saudi and Yemeni officials. Prince Mohammed told Hadi that other Yemeni leaders had agreed that it was time for him to relinquish power, according to the officials. Saudi officials pressured Hadi to step down and threatened to release evidence of his alleged corrupt activities, The Wall Street Journal said. One Saudi official told the newspaper that Saudi authorities have largely confined Hadi to his home in Riyadh and restricted communications with him. These claims were nonetheless refuted by some other officials. Earlier this month, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down after seven years of war in the country and handed over his power to the newly created presidential council, which consists of eight political leaders, including the separatist South Yemeni Transitional Council governing in the south, but excluding the Houthis. The council's formation was announced following inter-Yemeni consultations in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh, where the Saudi leadership called on the council to initiate talks with the Houthis to establish peace in Yemen, which had been torn by violent conflict for years. The University of South Florida today announced new gifts totaling $14 million from St. Petersburg philanthropists Kate Tiedemann and Ellen Cotton that will support the USF Muma College of Business vision to become a hub of excellence in fintech. Fintech, short for "financial technology," aims to improve traditional methods of delivering financial services to simplify financial transactions, making them more accessible and, often, more affordable to consumers and businesses. Fintech automation impacts everything from mobile banking and insurance to crowdfunding, blockchain, cryptocurrency and investment apps. Kate Tiedemann and Ellen Cotton have made an indelible impact on the University of South Florida, and their generous new gifts continue their legacy of preparing our business students for a bright future, said USF President Rhea Law. Fintech is a rapidly emerging field, and Kate and Ellen have paved the way for a cutting-edge program at USF that will help fill the talent pipeline to serve the Tampa Bay regions thriving tech community. The gifts are for the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance, one of six schools in the Muma College of Business. The schools home is on the USF St. Petersburg campus, and it has students and faculty on each of USFs three campuses, all of whom will benefit from the gifts. It brings us great joy to help USF students build their expertise in fintech, so they are ready for the fast-changing business world that awaits them, Tiedemann and Cotton said. The faculty on the USF St. Petersburg campus, on all USF campuses, possess the talent and experience needed to effectively develop the curricula that will make USF a leader in this space. Fintech spans many disciplines, and we couldnt be happier to play our part in creating new opportunities for students. Moez Limayem, the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the USF Muma College of Business, says fintech is a high-demand field that produces graduates who regularly transition quickly into high-paying jobs. Fintech is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors in the world, Limayem said. There is a seemingly endless array of fintech applications, and this gift will help us educate students on blockchain, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, automation and data science that is the backbone of innovation. The gifts, made through the USF Foundation, support Limayems four-pillar vision for fintech, which includes hiring world-class faculty to conduct scholarly inquiries into emerging opportunities, as well as assessing fintech risks and threats and how to mitigate them. The second pillar of the plan, to embed fintech modules into core curricula, will ensure all USF business students, regardless of major, have meaningful exposure to the topic. The third pillar includes broader outreach to share expertise with the community through conferences, executive education programs and workplace certificate programs. The fourth pillar allows the school to become a place where students and fintech entrepreneurs alike come for education and mentoring, where startups come for resources and major firms come for talent. The gifts further solidify the Tampa Bay regions footprint in fintech, including a strong presence in St. Petersburg that has come as an outgrowth of the citys strong roots in the financial services sector. The area is home to Raymond James, now the largest financial service provider outside of Wall Street. According to the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., financial services is St. Petes largest employment sector, and the thriving tech community has drawn companies such as ARK Invest and Dynasty Financial Partners to relocate to the area. The support for fintech is the latest example of Tiedemann and Cottons investment in USF. The $10 million gift announced today is in addition to $4 million that was given during the COVID-19 pandemic, though not previously announced, to endow two professorships. Prior contributions have transformed the St. Petersburg campus school of business and finance. Kate and Ellen have a deep passion for the university, its students and its faculty. Their longstanding support of the USF St. Petersburg campus has been transformative. These gifts will help generations of students prepare for the workplace, said USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman. Their support also signals to other philanthropists that giving to USF is a smart investment that impacts lives and the larger community. USM School of Psychology Announces Psychology Scholars for 2022-2023 Mon, 04/18/2022 - 13:53pm | By: David Tisdale The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Psychology recently announced the 2022-2023 class for its Psychology Scholars Program, a select group of high-achieving psychology majors who are offered specialized training in interpersonal communication skills, peer mentoring, and applying to graduate programs from the schools faculty. Psychology Scholars serve as models of a successful psychology major for other students in the school by representing the School of Psychology at various events, providing student success presentations, and offering peer mentoring to new and transfer students. The program specifically aims to help students from underrepresented groups achieve admission to and succeed in graduate school. Since its inaugural class in 2017, the Psychology Scholars Program has successfully helped students gain acceptance to masters and doctoral programs in psychology, social work, neuroscience, education, leadership, and human resource development, as well as medical school. For many fields, including psychology, advanced degrees are required to perform in research or applied practice settings, such as in becoming a psychologist, said Dr. Michael Madson, professor of psychology and advisor to the program. The Psychology Scholars program strives to help high achieving USM psychology majors acquire the tools and skills necessary to gain entry to and perform well in graduate school. Many of our majors come from backgrounds underrepresented in graduate school and advanced education, so part of our mission is to help many of our high achieving students realize their potential, and realize they can succeed as a graduate student, Dr. Madson continued. Within the first five years of the program, we have been relatively successful in helping the majority of Psychology Scholars gain access to graduate programs of their choice. Many of the early Scholars who have earned their graduate degrees have said this program helped them feel confident as a graduate student and that they belonged in graduate school. The 2022-2023 Psychology Scholars include: *Andrew Moore of Mandeville, Louisiana *Garima Puri of Mozang, Nepal *Olivia Dampier of Madison, Mississippi *Ambir Amacker of Collins, Mississippi *Klaria Holmes of Oxford, Mississippi *Sydney Lord of Portland, Connecticut *Sunny Jo Young of McHenry, Mississippi *Caroline Carmody of Grenada, Mississippi *Lorilynn Thigpen of Walls, Mississippi *Zoe King of Braxton, Mississippi *Makyla Edwards of Fayette, Mississippi The USM School of Psychology is housed in the College of Education and Human Sciences. For more information about the School of Psychology, visit https://www.usm.edu/psychology/index.php. Pope Francis presides over a prayer vigil with thousands of teenage pilgrims from Italy, and urges young people to cast aside all fears and seek Jesus with all their hearts. By Devin Watkins A large group of young Italian pilgrims held a prayer vigil with Pope Francis on Easter Monday evening under the banner: Follow Me. The event marked the first time a large event that was not a Mass was held in St. Peters Square since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, over 2 years ago. The prayer vigil was organized by the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), and saw several teenagers share their experience of trials and faith and receive the Popes encouragement and blessing. Some 100,000 Italian teenagers heard a girl named Alice tell about her suffering at the death of her grandmother and how she eventually understood how to turn her pain into a gift for others. Another girl named Sofia spoke about her loneliness during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and how a new friend taught her to view life through different eyes full of hope and joy. Young people pay price for war Pope Francis spoke to the young Italian pilgrims about his joy at finally being able to host such a large group in St. Peters Square after so much time had passed. He recalled his Statio Orbis in the Square on 27 March 2020 to pray for an end to the pandemic as a heavy rain fell and people huddled inside their homes out of fear of a tiny pathogen. Now, two years later, the Pope expressed his joy that the joy of Easter has finally filled the Square once again. At the same time, he noted, dense clouds still cover our world, as the pandemic is still with us and a terrible war has broken out in Eastern Europe. Often it is your own agemates who pay the highest price. Not only are their lives compromised and made insecure, but their dreams for the future are trampled underfoot. Many brothers and sisters still await the light of Easter. The Pope with young people Never lose hope The Pope then reflected on the Gospel account of Jesus appearing to the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after His Resurrection (Jn 21:1-19). He pointed out that the disciples were disheartened after the Jesus death on Good Friday, and felt that their dreams had been shattered. Yet, as the sun arose while they sat on their fishing boat, the disciples saw a man appear on the shore. Johnthe disciple whom Jesus lovedrecognized the Risen Lord. Pope Francis urged the young people to never lose hope, even when all their dreams are shattered and everything seems lost. There are moments in which life puts us to the test and makes us feel the weight of our frailtyWe should not be afraid to say: 'I'm afraid of the dark!' Pope Francis arrives for the audience Sharing our fears Everyone is afraid sometimes, said Pope Francis, adding that we must share our fears with those we trust. When our fearswhich dwell in darknesscome to the light, truth breaks forth, he said. Dont be discouraged: if you are afraid, bring it to the light, and it will do you good. Listen to our report Courage in seeking Jesus The Pope wrapped up his remarks to the Italian teenagers by reminding them that they have the ability to find the Lord and the Truth. Are you afraid? Bring your fears to the light; tell them to someone. Are you discouraged? Overcome it with courage, with someone who takes me by the hand. And in moments of difficulty, concluded Pope Francis, we turn to our mother Mary. May she help you to respond in faith with your own Here I am! to the Lord. Indonesia, like other major Southeast Asian countries, is tilting its military relations toward the United States as China raises pressure over disputed waters, analysts say. Late last year, Beijing demanded in December that Indonesia stop drilling for oil and natural gas north of the Southeast Asian country's Natuna Islands, which lie in the southernmost part of the South China Sea a tract that Jakarta calls the North Natuna Sea. In July and August, Chinese law enforcement vessels patrolled a new Indonesian drilling site near the islands, and a Chinese survey ship conducted seabed surveys in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone, according to the U.S.-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. China calls about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea its own, citing records of historical usage as cause for its claims. Four other Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan contest all or part of China's claims. They all value the sea for oil, natural gas, shipping lanes and fisheries. Military exercises The Indonesian army announced this week that its forces and the U.S. military are expanding their annual bilateral Garuda Shield exercises this year to 14 participating countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. This year's exercises, which will take place August 1-14, will be the largest ever conducted in Indonesia, the news website GBP Aerospace & Defence reports. Due to perceived threats from China in the disputed sea, Indonesia is increasingly considering the United States and other Western allies as military supporters, analysts say. "That has caused Indonesia to look to the U.S. and other countries, but the U.S. in particular, as a kind of counterbalance," said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in 2014 his country would become a "global maritime fulcrum" a force between the Indian and Pacific Oceans through changes to domestic and foreign policy that included strengthening its maritime security and protecting its maritime boundaries. Since then, the 17,500-island archipelago's coast guard has expelled and confiscated fishing boats from other countries, including China. In late 2018, the country opened a base, with more than 1,000 personnel, in the Natuna Islands. "I think both Indonesia and China are getting more serious in addressing their overlapping exclusive economic zones, and, therefore, you will see these sorts of confrontations more often nowadays," said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. China has been an "irritant" to Indonesia since the 1990s, Thayer said, and President Widodo has mobilized "tens of thousands" of air and naval assets in the North Natuna Sea. Indonesian forces so far have been "unable to curb Chinese intrusions" into their exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, writes Felix Chang, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in a September 2021 analysis. Wider trend in Asia From March 28 to April 8, the United States and the Philippines held one of their largest-ever annual joint military exercises. Taiwan, a rival to China for the past eight decades, is likely to join the U.S. military-organized Rim of the Pacific Exercise this year as an observer, Taiwanese media outlets said earlier this year. Experts have told VOA that the Southeast Asian claimants to the disputed sea privately approve of the U.S. Navy sending warships to the waterway as warnings to China. The Philippines and Vietnam have tried over the past decade to balance their foreign policies between Washington and Beijing, the nongovernmental organization International Crisis Group said in separate reports. Washington represents security, while Beijing is a neighbor and a source of trade and investment. Chinese reaction China and the U.S. were Cold War foes, and they're rival superpowers today. China probably worries little about Indonesia's views toward the U.S., Oh said. The Southeast Asian state "did not quite align itself with the U.S." and has not condemned Russia over its war in Ukraine as many countries have, he said. Officials in Beijing have not commented on this year's expanded Garuda Shield exercises. Indonesia counts China as its top export destination, worth an annual $16.8 billion, and biggest source of foreign investment, at $1.4 billion in the last three months of 2019. Indonesia's Muslim population may object to a stronger U.S. role in the country, said Paramitangrum, an international relations lecturer at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta. Washington has tried to break up cells of radical Muslims in the country, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The efforts began after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, although they receive less emphasis now. It's the United States approaching Indonesia for stronger military ties rather than vice versa, she said. "As long as China does not do anything or does not release statements that reveals that they are powerful or they would like to show off their power, that will be fine for Indonesia and Indonesians," Paramitangrum said. BANGKOK Myanmars military government on Sunday began releasing more than 1,600 prisoners to mark the traditional new year holiday, but they didn't include any political detainees despite the countrys ruling general vowing to bring peace this year. Myanmar has been under military rule since February last year, when the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover was met with massive resistance, which has since turned into what some U.N. experts have characterized as civil war. This year's holiday celebrations, carried out over several days, were muted as opponents of military rule called for a boycott of government-supported activities. State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmars military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 1,619 prisoners, including 42 foreigners who will be deported. Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays. The spokesman of Myanmars Prison Department, Khin Shwe, told The Associated Press that those released were mostly drug offenders and common criminals, and that he was unaware if any political prisoners were among them. An official from Yangons Insein Prison said 160 people have been released from the penitentiary but they didnt include those convicted of political offenses. Tun Kyi, a senior member of the Former Political Prisoners Society, said that political detainees are held as hostages by Min Aung Hlaing. He said it was not surprising if political prisoners were not released, because the general sees people who oppose his government as criminals and intends to crush them. He knows the political prisoners will oppose him again if they were released, he said, adding that they were also kept to be used as bargaining chips who can be freed as a gesture of goodwill to appease other countries and groups critical of the military government. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said Friday that 10,238 people, including Suu Kyi, are in detention. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and killings linked to the government's repression. Min Aung Hlaing said in his new years speech that he is doing the best to bring peace in 2022. He said that he will try to achieve his two national goals -- prosperity and an abundance of food and provisions. Myanmar is one of Asia's poorer nations, and living standards have slipped due to the coronavirus pandemic and the political turmoil. The strength of the country comes from inside the country. I will try my best, with the strength of the people, he said. Myanmar's military has been carrying out full-scale offensives against militias and ethnic rebel groups in the countryside as well as urban guerrillas active in the cities. The opponents have established their own parallel shadow government. Its acting president said in his new year speech that the militias and allied armed forces of ethnic minorities control the countrys rural areas. Im happy to report to you on this auspicious Myanmar New Year that our resistance forces and ethnic armed forces are now controlling much of the country, particularly rural areas, as well as positions around several major cities, Duwa Lashi La, acting president of the self-styled National Unity Government, said Saturday. A video of his speech was posted on Facebook. It is impossible to confirm either side's claims of control over territory. Even though the resistance forces do not hold any areas, the repeated major offensives by the army indicate security problems in many areas. A tenuous truce between the Thai government and armed separatists in the countrys far south and a deal to discuss some of the rebels core concerns are spurring hopes of progress toward a lasting peace after years of sputtering talks, despite a rebel attack in the region Friday. The two sides met face to face in Malaysia on March 31 and April 1 for the first time since the start of the pandemic. They agreed to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with an informal cease-fire, to run from April 3 to May 14, and to set up three joint working groups on reducing violence, consulting the public and hashing out political solutions to the conflict. The separatists have been fighting to make an independent state of Buddhist-majority Thailands predominantly Malay Muslim southern provinces, which comprised the sultanate of Patani when Britain handed them over to what was then the kingdom of Siam in 1909. More than 7,300 people have been killed in related violence since the occasional bouts of rebellion flared up again in 2004. Official peace talks started nine years later. If this becomes a peaceful Ramadan, then I think it will build confidence on both sides, said Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, a lecturer at the Peace Studies Institute of Thailands Prince of Songkla University. If they can manage that, she added, they might then negotiate a more formal, long-term cease-fire and even move on finally to discussion on the substantive matters. She and other analysts told VOA last week that the truce, while fragile and lacking official monitors, appeared to be holding. On Saturday, however, a rebel group affiliated with the Patani United Liberation Organization, which was left out of the talks, reportedly claimed responsibility for bombings in Pattani province the day before that killed a civilian and injured three police officers. The governments negotiating team told VOA Sunday that the truce was still in effect. Paradigm shifts The Thai government struck the Ramadan deal with Barisan Revolusi National, the largest and most active of the rebel groups. Rungrawee said the government seems to be giving up its narrative that BRN and the rest are no more than criminal gangs. They were trying to delegitimize the people who have undertaken this armed resistance, so to state it clearly that this is a political problem that needs a political solution, I think it is an important shift on the part of the government, she said. Matthew Wheeler, Southeast Asia senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said openly treating the conflict as a political problem could help pave the way toward something short of independence for the southern provinces. Presumably a political solution would involve ... some change to the existing relationship between local people in the southernmost provinces and the state, so that suggests some sort of decentralization or devolution of political power, he said. But what form thats going to take, when it would happen, all of that is yet to be determined. Neither side has gone public with the full text of the Ramadan deal. But Wheeler said the statement the Thai government issued just after the meeting did refer to a Patani community, possibly the first time it has conceded the existence of a distinct cultural identity born from the old sultanate. National identity has been so central to the nation-building concept in Thailand in the modern era, and thats encapsulated in the [national] slogan of nation, religion and monarchy,' which of course is something that this government champions. So, to acknowledge a subnational identity I think is an important step, he said. The same statement also says that both sides agreed to aim for a settlement that respects the Unitary State of Thailand in accordance with the Constitution. The first article of the constitution says the country is indivisible. Wheeler said that suggests BRN itself may be willing to consider something short of independence, at least for now. Having a senior figure from BRNs military wing at the table for the first time, a man known by the alias Deng Awaeji, also signals that the peace talks are finally being taken seriously by more than just the groups political wing, Rungrawee said. This is a major issue for the Thai government, she said. They want to know whether there is buy-in from the military wing or not, because they are doubtful that the people who come to the dialogue table have command and control over the militants on the ground. To the extreme Observers still see a long and winding road ahead for the peace talks, though, with potential pitfalls that may yet derail the process. Don Pathan, a Thailand-based security analyst who has been following the conflict for decades, said BRN political leaders seem to be giving way on the groups long-held goal of independence for the southern provinces without first convincing their rank-and-file fighters to go along. He said both the Thai government and BRN delegations to the latest meeting dodged pointed questions about BRNs current stance on independence at their press conferences on April 1. BRNs brief remarks to the media made no mention of adhering to the Thai constitution or the notion of a unitary state of Thailand, as the governments statement did. Thats the worrying point right now, Pathan said. If the combatants feel that this point, independence, is off the table, has been compromised, I have a strong feeling that there could be a split, a splinter group created, because for the past 18 years theyve been told that independence is a moral obligation. Any splinter group, he added, is likely to be more radical and violent. Some research suggests that extremism may be rising in the ranks already. Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Thailands National Security Council and special government envoy to the southern provinces, said that is the conclusion of a paper he co-authored on the insurgency and is soon to be published by Thailands Chiang Mai University. Despite an overall drop in violence for the past few years, he said his research and interviews suggest that the younger generations of fighters are, for example, more willing to die in combat and more likely to have their politics infused with religion. If not tackled soon, he warned it could lead to a new spiral of violence and dampen the mood for more peace talks. There are a lot of political consequences ... if this thing is not handled properly at the national level, Panitan said. And in the end the Thai public will get even more nationalistic, you see, and like they always do maybe support more troops to the south, which is quite bad. The southern provinces have been living under heightened security measures for years already, with repeated accusations of human rights abuses by soldiers and police, including the torture and death of suspected insurgents in custody. Vietnamese police arrested the country's deputy foreign minister on Thursday for allegedly receiving bribes connected to a repatriation flight program during the pandemic, officials said. In recent months the communist nation has ramped up an anti-corruption drive, targeting government officials and business people. On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security issued a statement saying To Anh Dung and two other officials had been arrested as part of an investigation into a bribery scandal connected to repatriation flights for Vietnamese citizens since 2020. Police searched the residences and workplaces of the three on Thursday. No other details on the case were revealed. The 58-year-old Dung was appointed Vietnam's deputy foreign minister in 2019, after holding various positions at the ministry since 1991. After closing its borders to slow the spread of Covid-19, Vietnam organized nearly 800 charter flights to bring citizens home from 60 countries and territories, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Travelers faced complicated procedures while paying exorbitant airfares and quarantine fees to get home, reports said. Police have arrested five other people connected to the case since January. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang previously said those involved in the wrongdoing should be "seriously punished" under the law. Vietnam had closed itself to the world for almost two years before reopening in mid-March. The country shifted from a zero-Covid policy to living with the virus once vaccination rates increased. Ukrainian forces defied a demand from Russia to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where do things stand on Monday? Plus, how important is the Donbas region to Russian President Vladimir Putin? And a look at circumvention techniques that allow unbiased news into Russia. A group of Catalan separatists, including several members of the European Parliament, other politicians, lawyers and activists from Spains northeastern region, had their phones hacked with a controversial spyware called Pegasus, a cybersecurity firm said Monday. Citizens Lab, which is associated with the University of Toronto, said at least 65 people were targeted using the Israeli-made software that is only available to governments. The maker of the software, NSO, said the allegations were false. The spyware infections allegedly took place between 2017 and 2020 after a failed Catalan independence bid. The movement for an independent Catalonia dates back more than a century and has been a problem for Spains central government. Catalonia enjoys some regional autonomy under the Spanish constitution. Citizens Lab said it could not pinpoint the source of the hacking but said on its website that a range of circumstantial evidence points to a strong nexus with one or more entities within the Spanish government. The Spanish government declined a request for comment by Reuters. On Twitter, Catalonian government President Pere Aragones called the hacks an unjustifiable disgrace. Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press. Terrorist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a mortar attack on Somalias parliament Monday that injured at least six people during a joint session. Somalias newly elected members of parliament were meeting Monday to approve procedures for the election of speakers when the grounds were hit by a mortar attack. In a Facebook post, lawmaker and presidential candidate Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame said several rounds were fired and several people wounded, including two of his bodyguards. Somali militant group al-Shabab, in media posts, claimed responsibility for the attack. Somalias Office of Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble condemned the assault, which it called a terrorist act. In posts on social media, it said the attack was a cowardly attempt to intimidate parliament, which is in the process of finishing Somalias indirect election. Roble commended the efforts of lawmakers to expedite the elections. Before the attack Monday, lawmakers unanimously agreed to elect the speaker of the Upper House on April 26 and the Speaker of the Lower House a day later. Somalias indirect elections were delayed for months because of political wrangling between the prime minister and President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmaajo. Farmaajo had sought to extend his term in office, but backed off under intense domestic and international pressure. Al-Shabab has taken advantage of the political instability to launch a series of deadly attacks on Somali security forces and politicians. Somalias lawmakers are expected to vote for the next president as early as May. A 20-year-old Azerbaijani university student is describing near-daily beatings during his time as a prisoner of Russian forces near Mariupol, Ukraine last month. Huseyn Abdullayev, who was studying at Mariupol State University when Russia invaded Ukraine, tells VOA Azerbaijani he was held from March 17 until April 12 after Russian military personnel kidnapped him at a military post west of Mariupol in Berdyansk. Abdullayev said that after he was taken, They tied my hands and covered my head with my jacket so that I could not see anything. Then they threw me in a truck and took me to prison. They spoke Russian. Abdullayev said he was tortured while in captivity and accused of being a Ukrainian soldier. They used electric shock (baton), and then I was beaten. They were Russians, and there were Azerbaijanis and Chechens among them. First, they used electric shock, then beat me with a wooden board and trampled my feet. I was beaten almost every day. They asked me whether I am not a student but a Ukrainian soldier. Abdullayev said that he was released after Chechen commanders pardoned him for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. We were eight people. I was the only citizen of Azerbaijan. We were all captured by Russian soldiers of Chechen origin and tortured, he added. Huseyn Abdullayev was seen seated in a car in a video released on social media on April 13 by an Azerbaijani volunteer in Mariupol. Student Huseyn Abdullayev, who was held captive in Mariupol by the Kadyrovs, is now free, stated the volunteer, identified as Aykhan Hajibeyli. The volunteer was referring to forces under the control of Ramzan Kadyrov, a leader from the Chechnya region of the Russian Federation and a strong supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hajibeyli added that other Azerbaijanis are in Mariupol and other parts of Ukraine, but that their fate is not known. Officials from Azerbaijan have yet to comment on the situation. Huseyn Abdullayev's father, Amin Abdullayev, who lives in Azerbaijan's Neftchala region, told VOA Azerbaijani that his son's health is critical. My son was kept in a freezing place and tortured. This is horrible. One of the torturers was an Azerbaijani. They gave him only dry bread and water. He lost a lot of weight. He was oppressed. They beat him every day, he said. Amin Abdullayev added he only spoke to his son twice throughout his sons captivity, on March 19 and March 25. The father also thanked the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, along with other Azerbaijani officials, for their help in releasing his son. Amin Abdullayev said, I sent a telegram to the president at 10 o'clock. At about 1:30 in the afternoon on the same day, the hostage-takers called and said that we would release your son tomorrow. VOA could not independently verify that information. According to Amin Abdullayev, an agreement was reached to hand over his son to the members of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ukraine. Huseyn Abdullayevs family told VOA Azerbaijani that he is now in Lviv and plans to go to Poland Tuesday as he makes his way home. This story originated in the Azerbaijani service. Brazil announced Sunday that, in just a few days, it will lift public health emergency measures in place for more than two years, citing a drop in the number of deaths and infections. More than 660,000 people died of the virus in Brazil, one of the hardest-hit countries, second only to the United States. But the number of infections and deaths has fallen dramatically as authorities ramped up immunization, with about 75 percent of its more than 212 million people now fully vaccinated. Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Sunday the public health emergency declared on February 3, 2020 - when the virus started spreading globally - will soon end. "We have the conditions to announce today the end of the health emergency," Queiroga said on television, adding that the announcement will be formalized by a decree in the next few days. "This, however, does not mean the end of COVID-19. We will continue to live with the virus," the minister said. The decision came after Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who famously dismissed the virus as "a little flu, asked his minister a few weeks ago to decree an "end to the pandemic" and called for a return to normalcy. Earlier this month, Brazil also loosened restrictions for international travelers, scrapping a 14-day quarantine for vaccinated foreign visitors. The far-right COVID-skeptic president is up for re-election this year, and has come under fire in the past for his handling of the pandemic. A migrant was killed by gunfire at the Greece-Turkey border while she and several others attempted to cross a river separating the two countries, Greek police said on April 17. It wasn't immediately clear who fired the shot that killed the woman the night before. An autopsy showed that the victim was shot in the back with a small-caliber weapon. Greek police were patrolling the area where the Evros River, which is called Meric in Turkish, narrows to about 60 to 70 meters (around 200 feet) wide and through which many migrants attempt to cross, according to a police statement and additional information provided to The Associated Press by a police officer on condition of anonymity. The officers spotted numerous migrants on the Turkish side shortly before 9 p.m. on April 16. Police said 11 people embarked on an inflatable dinghy, and officers directed flashlights at the boat and started shouting "Police. Go back." In response, said the police officer, a "barrage" of shots erupted from the Turkish side. The Greek police patrol couldn't detect the source of the shots in the darkness and fell to the ground to protect themselves, shooting warning shots in the air, according to the statement which the officer corroborated. The dinghy came close to the Greek shore and five people disembarked four made it to the shore while a fifth person was seen floating in the water. Police reached the body with some difficulty, according to the statement, and when they pulled it to the shore they determined that it belonged to a woman and that she was dead. Police questioned the four survivors three Pakistani males, one of them a minor (17 years old), and a woman from Eritrea. It wasn't known what happened to the other six people who tried to cross, but authorities don't believe they entered Greece. Coroner Pavlos Pavlidis, who performed the autopsy on the woman in the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis, told the AP that the victim was between the ages of 20 and 25 and that she was most likely from one of the Horn of Africa countries. She had a wound "in the upper right (back) area. She was shot from close distance and died almost instantly from post-hemorrhagic (blood loss) shock," Pavlidis said. Taxpayers across the United States were required to file their federal tax returns by April 18, and they did so amid a barrage of news about the Internal Revenue Service facing a significant backlog of tax returns, a staffing shortage and uncertainty about its funding. That the U.S.s tax authority is in bad shape is no secret. Nor are the reasons behind its troubles. The agencys budget has been slashed by 18% over the past decade, and a yearslong hiring freeze means that as experienced auditors and other specialists retire, the pipeline of workers trained to take their places is running dry. The agency is facing an excess of 7 million returns from last year that still havent been processed. And the Biden administration has estimated that some $600 billion in taxes owed by the wealthiest Americans go uncollected every year because the agency doesnt have the manpower to audit returns for compliance with basic tax law. Additionally, funding cuts have left the IRS playing catch-up when it comes to technology. Agency employees must manually enter information from paper returns, even though the technology exists that would allow the process to be automated. Pandemic added responsibilities The advent of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 created a whole new set of challenges for the agency. In addition to having to navigate pandemic-related lockdowns, it was given the task of administering much of the relief effort, including stimulus checks, and later, the implementation of a refundable child tax credit that sent millions of Americans monthly payments. The incredible challenges with our system (are) how much we ask of it, William Gentry, a professor of economics at Williams College, told VOA. We don't just ask it to raise revenue. We ask it to serve all sorts of social functions. The agency finally saw a budget increase in the current fiscal year, to $12.6 billion from just under $12 billion the previous year. But because it has no certainty about its future budget prospects, IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig has warned lawmakers that it is difficult for the agency to plan for the long term. International comparisons As troubled as the IRS may appear to U.S. citizens, it is far more effective and efficient than tax authorities in many countries around the world, experts say. This is especially the case in developing nations, where the administrative capacity to operate something as complicated as a nationwide income tax assessment is limited. Daniel Bunn, executive vice president of the Tax Foundation, a think tank in Washington, told VOA that in many developing countries, it is practically impossible for the government to track economic activity in a way that makes taxing personal income effective. There's a decent amount of activity that goes on in the cash economy, or the gray economy, or the black market whatever term you use, he said. Because governments can only tax what they can measure, many developing countries rely on taxation of established businesses for a much higher share of their overall revenue than countries like the U.S. Bunn said that while developed countries rely on business taxes for only about 9% of their total tax revenue, developing nations average about 16%. Consumption taxes A unique feature of the federal tax system in the U.S. is its lack of a consumption tax component. Most other countries developed and developing alike use a value-added tax system, which adds incremental tax payments on goods and services at each stage of their production. For historical reasons, we've left consumption taxes the taxes you would pay at the cash register to the states through retail sales taxes, Gentry said. Economists are often frustrated by the lack of a value-added tax (VAT) in the U.S., which is seen as being more efficient than taxes on personal income. They distort economic activity less because they don't affect investment, Thornton Matheson, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Institute, told VOA. They don't tax business profits, so they don't affect investment. They can affect labor decisions, but generally speaking, a VAT is more efficient than labor taxes, like the personal income tax, payroll taxes and Social Security taxes. Administrative nightmare As much as they believe a VAT would be a better way for the United States to raise some of its revenue, experts acknowledge that the political effort involved would be enormous. In addition to finding a way to replace or reallocate the revenue that consumption taxes already deliver to the individual states, it would require rationalizing the disparate systems that have developed over the years. Some states have no sales tax, while others tax different things. It would require harmonizing all the states, and they don't want to harmonize, said Gentry. New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax. Tennessee taxes food, but Massachusetts doesn't tax food. And so, there are all these complicated choices. He added, And then you start selling goods online, and it starts getting to be a nightmare. For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. Recap of April 18 FIGHTING * The death toll has risen to seven in Russias attack on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday, adding that 11 were injured. * The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, besieged for weeks by Russian forces, was still contested, a senior U.S. defense official said. * Russia appears to have started its anticipated new offensive in the east of Ukraine, Ukraine's top security official said. HUMANITARIAN * Humanitarian cease-fires between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine are not on the horizon right now, but may be possible in a couple of weeks, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths said. * The mayor of Mariupol said that about 40,000 civilians had been forcibly moved to Russia or Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine. DIPLOMACY * The High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, condemned what he called the latest illegal and indiscriminate attacks by Russia on Ukraine, which are the most intensive in weeks. SANCTIONS * Germanys employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia * Some 200,000 people risk losing their jobs in the Russian capital because Western companies have suspended operations over the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. ECONOMY * U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will convene a high-level panel on Tuesday to discuss the global response to an ongoing food security crisis exacerbated by Russia's war against Ukraine * Russia's invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine's infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said on Monday. * More countries are expected to announce contributions to help war-torn Ukraine maintain its government through the World Bank's multidonor trust fund and parallel funds this week, World Bank President David Malpass said. The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 7:43 p.m.: Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai, a Ukrainian military official, said the town of Kreminna came under heavy artillery early Monday. He said street battles had begun and evacuations were made impossible, The Associated Press reported. Haidai said seven residential buildings were set on fire, and the Olympus sports complex where the nation's Olympic team trains was targeted, the AP reported. He later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city -- one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said Russians managed to break through on the front. After leveling everything to the ground, he said he and his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy, he told the AP. 6:15 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Monday, "Now, we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time." 5:35 p.m.: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an Associated Press report that she would meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington. She said she would be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The AP reported that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity would take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 4:16 p.m.: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview Monday with Antena3 TV that his government would soon reopen its embassy in Kyiv as a show of support to the Ukrainian people. Spain is with Ukraine, and we are against Putin, Sanchez said. 3:54 p.m.: Alexander Chirva, Russias third-ranked captain and the commander of the Russian landing ship Caesar Kunkikov, was killed in battle in Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda reported Monday, citing Kryminform, a Russian government-controlled media outlet. The exact circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately known. 3:04 p.m.: No fewer than 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city council said on Monday, adding that Russia was dropping heavy bombs onto the Ukrianian-held factory in the besieged city. "Mostly the (civilians) are women with children and old people," the city council wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Street battles have been taking place in Mariupol over the past week as Russian forces seek to take full control of the city from Ukraine, Reuters reported. 2:41 p.m.: Germanys employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia, The Associated Press reported Monday. They say a boycott would lead to factory shutdowns and job losses in the blocs largest economy. Their joint statement was released as European leaders discuss possible new energy sanctions against Russian oil. The EUs 27 nations get around 40 percent of their natural gas and around 35 percent of their oil from Russia. 2:27 p.m.: Russia's invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine's infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said on Monday, adding reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to help finance it. Ukraine has not previously outlined the specific impact on infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, although officials say the total bill for damage to everything from transport to homes and other buildings runs to about $500 billion so far. "Practically all components of our transport infrastructure have suffered in one form or another," Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov told Reuters. 2:16 p.m.: The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Monday said that about 40,000 civilians had been forcibly moved to Russia or Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine. Unfortunately I have to declare that as of today they are forcibly deporting residents, Vadym Boichenko told Ukrainian television. We have verified through the municipal register that they have already deported over 40,000 people. It was not possible for Reuters to independently confirm the allegation. Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine. 2:04 p.m.: The Pentagon says Russia has added artillery, ground combat forces, and other capabilities in recent days ahead of a new ground offensive in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, The Associated Press reported Monday. The official said that if Russian forces succeed in fully controlling the southern port of Mariupol, it could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas region. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe Sunday with weapons and other materials, and that training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. Army and Marine Corps 155mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days at an undisclosed location outside of Ukraine. 1:46 p.m.: Russia appears to have started its anticipated new offensive in the east of Ukraine, Ukraine's top security official said on Monday. "This morning, along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in televised comments. "They began their attempt to start the active phase this morning," he said. 1:32p.m.: Humanitarian ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine are not on the horizon right now, but may be possible in a couple of weeks, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday. Briefing reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, Griffiths said that Russian officials have not yet put local ceasefires at the top of their agenda. He said that U.N. aid officials are planning to dispatch a humanitarian convoy in the next couple of days into the embattled eastern region of Donetsk and from there, send aid supplies into the Luhansk region, Reuters reported. 1:27 p.m.: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will convene a high-level panel on Tuesday to discuss the global response to an ongoing food security crisis exacerbated by Russia's war against Ukraine, the Treasury Department said in a statement Monday. "Secretary Yellen is deeply concerned about impacts that Russias reckless war are having on the global economy, including the risk of rising food insecurity in emerging markets and developing countries around the world, which are still struggling to recover from the pandemic," a senior Treasury official said, according to Reuters. 1:12 p.m.: The High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, on Monday condemned what he called the latest illegal and indiscriminate attacks by Russia on Ukraine, which are the most intensive in weeks. This includes particularly heavy attacks in recent days in the east and south of Ukraine, notably on Ukraines Luhansk region, in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and Popasna, he said in a statement. Attacks on major cities, including Kharkiv and Lviv, show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlins senseless onslaught, he added. There can be no impunity for war crimes, the statement said, calling on Russia to immediately and unconditionally cease hostilities and withdraw all forces and military equipment." 12:46 p.m.: The European Commission on Monday released a video on Twitter informing Ukrainian refugees that as legal residents under the EU Temporary Protection Directive, they have a right to open a basic bank account. The video provides information on how the refugees can access common banking services. 12:17 p.m.: Survivors of war crimes committed during Bosnias war 30 years ago say the victims of human rights abuses in Ukraine can learn from their experience, which was lengthy and painful, The Associated Press reported Monday. It took decades to arrest and try the wartime Bosnian Serb leaders, though the U.N. war crimes tribunal eventually convicted 83 high-ranking political and military officials. The guilty were collectively sentenced to over 700 years. 12:08 p.m.: The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, besieged for weeks by Russian forces, was still contested, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday. "Our assessment is Mariupol is still contested...(it) remains under threat from the air both from missile strikes as well as bombs from the air but even of course artillery," the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters. The official said there were roughly 76 Russian battalion tactical groups in southern and eastern Ukraine currently, an increase of about 11 in recent days, Reuters reported. 11:51 a.m.: A Ukrainian girl has her smartphone back, thanks to Ukrainian troops who found it in the possession of a captured Russian soldier, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday. 11:27 a.m.: More countries are expected to announce contributions to help war-torn Ukraine maintain its government through the World Bank's multi-donor trust fund and parallel funds this week, World Bank President David Malpass said on Monday. Malpass said the World Bank was working during spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to put together a $3 billion package of aid to help Ukraine maintain essential government services, Reuters reported. 11:14 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday bestowed an honorary title on a brigade accused by Ukraine of committing atrocities in the town of Bucha, Agence France-Presse reported. 11:06 a.m.: Russias President Vladimir Putin says that the barrage of Western sanctions against Russia has failed, the Associated Press reported. Putin said Monday that the West expected to quickly upset the financial-economic situation, provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores. He added that the strategy of the economic blitz has failed. The Russian leader spoke in televised remarks during a video call with top economic officials. Putin noted that Russia has withstood the unprecedented pressure, arguing that the ruble has strengthened and the country has recorded a historic high trade surplus of $58 billion in the first quarter of the year. He contended that the sanctions backfired against the U.S. and its European allies, speeding up inflation and leading to a drop in living standards. Putin acknowledged a sharp hike in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose by 17.5 percent as of April on a year-to-year basis and directing the government to index wages and other payments to alleviate the impact of inflation on peoples incomes. 10:58 a.m.: The editor in chief of the Kyiv Independent, Olga Rudenko, visited the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro and posted a video on Twitter Monday discussing the expected battle with Russia over the Donbas region. 10:45 a.m.: Some 200,000 people risk losing their jobs in the Russian capital because Western companies have suspended operations over the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Monday. Authorities last week approved a $41 million program to support employment in Moscow by providing training and temporary "socially important work," Sobyanin wrote on his blog. Sobyanin said the newly approved program plans to support more than 58,000 people who have lost their jobs in foreign firms. Around 12,500 of them will undergo retraining, the mayor added. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report. 10:27 a.m.: A Ukrainian mayor described hours of hard interrogations when held for almost a week by Russian forces last month and said he had appealed to the pope for help to stop a war that had wrecked swathes of his city in southern Ukraine. It was a dangerous six days because I understood that for Russians my life and the lives of civilians were worth zero, Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol which is now under Russian control, said in an interview with Reuters in Rome a month after his release. Ukraine said Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol, which lies west of the besieged city of Mariupol in a southern region that Russia seeks to control. Kyiv announced Fedorovs release in a prisoner exchange on March 16. 9:59 a.m.: Ukraines Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russia could be prosecuted for war crimes over its refusal to allow civilians to leave Mariupol, The Associated Press reported Monday. Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all involved for war crimes, she wrote on social media. Ukraines government halted civilian evacuations for a second day Monday, saying Russian forces were shelling and blocking the humanitarian corridors. The government of the Luhansk region in the Donbas said four civilians trying to flee were shot and killed by Russian forces. Vereshchuk said Ukraine had been negotiating passage from cities and towns in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, including Mariupol and other areas in the Donbas. 9:41 a.m.: Fighting in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol a key target of Russias ground assault in the countrys east has largely focused on the citys sprawling industrial complex that houses the Avozstal steel plant, the Washington Post reported. Ukrainian forces holed up there showed no signs of surrendering on Monday more than 24 hours after a Moscow-imposed deadline to do so, and local authorities have warned that civilians also remain trapped there, the paper said. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday the last forces in Mariupol will fight till the end," it reported. 9:35 a.m.: Russias forces may have pulled back in some parts of Ukraine more than a week ago, but the territorial defence force in the northern Sumy region is training and bracing for further attacks, Reuters reported Monday. I think the probability of a (new) attack is high. They are determined and we understand that the number of people in Russia is about 150 million, Dmytro Zhivitskyi, head of Sumys regional and military administration, said. Until the tanks and people run out, they will keep sending people here. 9:26 a.m.: Ukrainian refugees in Strasbourg, France, are being given a chance to work at a sewing workshop as part of a program to integrate them into employment, Agence France-Presse reported Monday. 8:54 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reported. They also talked about the problems of the Middle East settlement in the context of escalating tensions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Kremlin said on Monday. 8:32 a.m.: The death toll has risen to 7 in Russias attack on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday, adding that 11 were injured. Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said the number of victims might increase as rescuers continue to clear debris, it said. According to Kosytskyi, Russia shot four missiles at the warehouses that are not used by the military now, the newspaper reported. Another missile hit a car repair shop, which Kozytskyi calls a barbaric strike on a civilian site, it added. 8:14 a.m.: Italian officials will go ahead with an energy-deal trip to Africa this week as part of Premier Mario Draghis efforts to quickly reduce the countrys heavy reliance on Russian gas, The Associated Press reported. The mission to Angola and Congo is set for Wednesday and Thursday. Italy buys almost 40 percent of its gas from Russia. Draghi is determined to drastically reduce that reliance in the next two or three years, in large part by sealing deals with other energy producing countries. Draghi recently traveled to Algeria to make such an agreement part of the strategy. 7:42 a.m.: The elderly are "often forgotten, very vulnerable" in times of war says Federico Dessi, the Ukraine director of the NGO Handicap International, a group that provides equipment and will financially help the Dnipro home. "Cut off from their families" and "sometimes unable to use telephones or communicate" they are particularly vulnerable in conflicts, Dessi said. Leaving aside physical health, the elderly often require "additional help, which is often not available." Agence France-Presse has this story. 7:23 a.m.: Vladimir Putin "has driven Russia into a trap" by invading Ukraine, the former Polish dissident Adam Michnik has said, predicting ultimate defeat for the Russian leader and a chance for much-needed liberal reforms afterward. "In Russia, changes took place after wars were lost -- after the Finnish war, the Japanese war, the Afghan war, and now Ukraine," Michnik recently told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview. 7:05 a.m.: Russian state television on Monday broadcast a video showing two men identified as Britons who were captured by Russian forces in Ukraine asking to be exchanged for pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is in Ukrainian custody. Ukraine's security service published its own video showing Medvedchuk suggesting he be swapped for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in Mariupol. Russia rejected a trade offer involving Medvedchuck last week. 6:31 a.m.: As the war in Ukraine continues, a dance studio in the Czech Republic has begun free ballet courses for some of the displaced children, Agence France-Presse reported. 6:20 a.m.: Russia said on Monday it had launched mass strikes overnight on the Ukrainian military and associated military targets, using its air force, missile forces, artillery and air defense systems to hit hundreds of targets across its southern neighbor, Reuters reported. The defense ministry said Russian artillery had also struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnight and that air defense systems had been used to bring down two MiG-29 fighters and one SU-25 plane. The Russian defense ministry said in a statement that air-launched missiles had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including five command posts, a fuel depot and three ammunition warehouses, as well as Ukrainian armor and forces. It said those strikes took place in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, and that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where it said Ukrainian forces and armor were concentrated. The Russian defense ministry also spoke of destroying 12 Ukrainian strike drones and tanks in other parts of Ukraine and of using Iskander missiles to destroy four arms and equipment depots in the Luhansk, Vinnytsia and Donetsk regions. It is currently focused on trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks. 5:36 a.m.: The port city of Mariupol was home to 400,000 people before Russias invasion. It has been under siege by Russian troops and under constant shelling for more than 50 days. The city has been reduced to rubble, amid claims by Russia that it now has near complete control. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died and tens of thousands remain trapped in the city. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report. 5:16 a.m.: Ukraines State Border Guard Service says over one million people have returned to Ukraine since February 24, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday. Spokesman Andriy Demchenko told Ukrainska Pravda that on April 16, for the first time since the start of the full-scale war, more people entered Ukraine than left. 5:02 a.m.: On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadn't yet found a home. All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. Volunteers dug them up one by one Sunday two weeks after the soldiers disappeared. This spring is a grim season of planting and replanting in towns and villages around Kyiv. Bodies given hurried graves amid the Russian occupation are now being retrieved for investigations into possible war crimes. More than 900 civilian victims have been found so far. 4:54 a.m.: Ukraine and Russia failed to agree on humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians for the second day, Ukraine's deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. In violation of international humanitarian law, the Russian occupiers have not stopped blocking and shelling humanitarian routes," Vereshchuk posted in a statement on social media. 4:43 a.m.: Britains Ministry of Defence said Monday in its regular update on Twitter that concerted Ukrainian resistance in the besieged port city of Mariupol has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and materiel. Large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed whilst the population has suffered significant casualties, it said. The targeting of populated areas within Mariupol aligns with Russias approach to Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016 despite Russian claims that it would neither strike cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population, it added. 4:40 a.m.: Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his government will reopen its embassy in Kyiv soon. Sanchez told Antena3 TV in an interview Monday, "Spain is with Ukraine, and we are against Putin." 3:45 a.m.: Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozystkiy said Russian missiles strikes on the city of Lviv killed at least six people and wounded eight others. Half of the strikes hit military infrastructure sites, Kozystkiy added. 2:30 a.m.: Witnesses in the western city of Lviv reported multiple explosions Monday. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said five missile strikes had hit the city and that emergency personnel were responding to the strike sites. For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. Rosario Ibarra, whose long struggle to learn the fate of her disappeared son helped develop Mexico's human rights movement and led her to become the country's first female presidential candidate, died Saturday at age 95. The National Human Rights Commission now headed by her daughter Rosario Piedra announced the death on its Twitter account, calling her a "pioneer in the defense of human rights, peace and democracy in Mexico." She died in the northern city of Monterrey following several years of failing health. Ibarra's son Jesus Piedra belonged to an armed communist group and disappeared, apparently at the hands of authorities, after being accused of killing a police officer. Ibarra founded the Eureka Committee, a movement demanding information about the fate of her son and other disappeared persons, though his case was never fully clarified. She was the first woman to appear on a Mexican presidential ballot in 1982, though she won relatively few votes for the Revolutionary Party of the Workers. She was twice a federal deputy and once a senator. "We will always remember her most profound love for the children and her solidarity with whose who suffered because of the disappearance of their loved ones," tweeted President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whom she considered a friend. Still, even during Lopez Obrador's administration, in 2019, she refused an honor voted by the Senate, saying she would only accept it when Mexico learns the truth about its disappeared, who now number nearly 100,000 98% of them from 2006 onward, during an era of cartel violence rather than "dirty war" politics. "I don't want my struggle to be unfinished," she said then in a text read by her daughter because health prevented her from appearing. Referring to the president, she added, "I leave in your hands the custody of so precious a recognition and ask you to return it to me with the truth about the whereabouts of our loved and missed children and relatives." Her decades-long demands for information as well as amnesty for political prisoners took the form of marches, hunger strikes, visits to military prisons and to United Nations offices and made her a widely respected figure on the left. When Lopez Obrador alleged fraud in the 2006 presidential election that he very narrowly lost, he chose Ibarra to present him with a presidential sash of office in a ceremony declaring him "legitimate president." After his universally recognized victory in 2018, Ibarra urged him in her message before the Senate "not to permit that the violence and perversity of the earlier governments continues to lie in wait." She lamented that force disappearances continued in Mexico and called once more for progress: "The families of Eureka continue today the same as a few years ago," she said in the letter read by her daughter. "The open wound will stop bleeding only when we know where our (loved ones) are." An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced six men to death and nine others to life in prison for lynching a Sri Lankan factory manager, who they accused of insulting Islam. The court announced the verdict Monday, sentencing 72 additional suspects to "rigorous" jail terms of two years each. Another person received five years' imprisonment for his role in the fatal mob assault on Priyantha Kumara in December. The incident took place in the industrial Sialkot district in Punjab province, where Kumara had worked as an export quality control manager at a sporting goods factory for 10 years before being tortured and burned by hundreds of coworkers as well as local activists of a radical Islamist group. The slain man was accused of desecrating and removing posters bearing the name of the Prophet Muhammad from factory walls before informing others about the allegedly blasphemous act. However, investigators later concluded that the accusations were baseless and Kumara was murdered merely for instructing workers to abide by factory regulations. The foreigner's brutal murder had drawn nationwide outrage and condemnation, with demands that the perpetrators be publicly hanged, prompting Pakistani authorities to swiftly arrest dozens of suspects and put them on trial. Defense lawyer Israr Ullah said the special court had conducted the trial inside a prison in the provincial capital, Lahore, for security reasons before announcing the verdict Monday. Mob lynchings of alleged blasphemers are common in Pakistan, but the assault on the Sri Lankan national was the first such incident involving a foreigner. In January, Kumara's employer announced it would pay his salary, approximately $1,700 per month, to his widow for the next 10 years, while the Sialkot business community separately donated and transferred $100,000 to her account. Blasphemy is a highly sensitive matter in majority-Muslim Pakistan and carries the death penalty under local laws, although no one convicted of the crime has been executed to date as lower court convictions are often overturned by the higher judiciary. Critics have long called for reforming the laws, saying they are abused by influential members of society and religious fanatics to intimidate the country's religious minorities and pressure opponents into settling personal feuds. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who has been serving a prison term for crimes against humanity committed during his presidency, was hospitalized April 17 for the second time in a month, prison authorities announced. The 83-year-old, who has served 15 years of a 25-year term, suffered a drop in blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat and was raced to a hospital, where his condition was stabilized, the National Penitentiary Institute said on Twitter. He was later transferred to a clinic for monitoring. Fujimori, who suffers recurrent respiratory, neurological, and hypertension problems -- he had heart surgery in October -- was hospitalized on March 3 after suffering a strong arrhythmia. After an 11-day stay, he was returned to the police base where he is the only prisoner. His latest health crisis came a week after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) urged Peru to refrain from implementing a high court ruling that would have freed Fujimori under a 2017 presidential pardon. Lima has said it would abide by any IACHR decision. Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, was subsequently jailed over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people were killed in supposed anti-terrorist operations. The South African army says it is deploying 10,000 troops to areas affected by record floods to help restore power and water, and support recovery missions. The death toll from the floods in the countrys eastern provinces has risen to more than 440. The return of rains over the weekend complicated rescue efforts and contributed to the death of at least one responder. Officials say 14 search and rescue teams have been dispatched from Durbans Virginia Airport to recover victims of last weeks deadly floods. Durban is in the hard-hit province of KwaZulu-Natal. Travis Trower, director for volunteer organization Rescue South Africa, said one rescuer, Busisiwe Mjwara, drowned Sunday along with her dog Leah while searching the Msunduzi River. The more water that's falling, the heavier the ground becomes, which causes more mudslides, which makes it a lot more dangerous for us," Trower said. "To lose somebody that is part of the team has a massive impact on everybody. Were all close to the member and to know that that has happened definitely sets everyone back and changes the tone of the rescues. Trower, who is also an emergency medical care lecturer at Nelson Mandela University, said despite the weather conditions, rescuers managed to recover six bodies Sunday. At least 443 people were confirmed dead by provincial officials. Dozens of people remain missing. In the riverside community of Mariannhill, in west Durban, the arrival of search and rescue teams Friday brought momentary relief to families of missing loved ones. Sinenhlanhla Menela's 26-year-old sister and her two children were swept into the river in a landslide. Menela said local police have been overwhelmed by calls but that he hopes the arrival of a canine unit will help. No one wants to help us, even the police, they dont want to help. We see dogs, maybe they will, they will try to help us. Further downstream, Philsiwe Nene was among dozens of people searching the riverbanks for their neighbors missing son. She said without a body, the family is denied a proper funeral. It gives us some peace when we know where we bury the body. His mother is crying now and again, whole days. Its bad, its bad. Trower called the devastation vast and says it is impossible for authorities to be fully prepared for a disaster of this scale. He said he has seen the heartbreak in communities and rescuers are doing their best with the resources they have while keeping safety in mind. We really need to do things slowly. And hopefully, in time, we'll be able to bring everyone back and then give these families closure. But I think at the moment it is just patience. You know, it's a very difficult time. And the guys will work, they will work until the job is done. People across the country are coming together to donate funds and resources to the KwaZulu-Natal province. President Cyril Ramaphosa has also cancelled plans to go to Saudi Arabia Tuesday so he can focus on the recovery. The White House has announced the United States will co-host the second global COVID-19 summit virtually on May 12 to discuss increasing efforts to end the pandemic internationally and prepare for future variants of the coronavirus. The emergence and spread of new variants, like omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling COVID-19 worldwide, the White House said in a joint news release. The U.S. will host the summit with Belize, chair of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, Germany, the current president of the Group of Seven leading economies, or G-7; Indonesia, which currently holds the presidency of the Group of 20 largest economies, or G-20; and Senegal as African Union chair. The news comes amid concerns regarding a resurgence of the pandemic after recent COVID-19 restrictions in China, and the rise of a new BA.2 variant of the coronavirus in the U.S., where Philadelphia has reinforced an indoor mask mandate, making it the first big American city to do so. The Summit will redouble our collective efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future health threats, the five countries said in the statement. They emphasized supporting locally-led solutions that include getting shots into arms; deploying tests and treatments, especially for the highest-risk populations; and expanding and protecting the health workforce. U.S. President Joe Biden, who called for international cooperation to end the pandemic, convened the first global COVID-19 summit last September. The delta and omicron variants of the coronavirus spread soon after. We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also future health crises, the joint statement said. The summit is calling on world leaders, philanthropists, NGOs, and the private sector to support their mission to increase the vaccination rate internationally and sustain health security. A group of Tesla shareholders suing CEO Elon Musk over some 2018 tweets about taking the company private is asking a federal judge to order Musk to stop commenting on the case. Lawyers for stockholders of the Austin, Texas-based company also say in court documents that the judge in the case has ruled that Musk's tweets about having "funding secured" to take Tesla private were false, and that his comments also violate a 2018 court settlement with U.S. securities regulators in which Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million fines. Musk, during an interview April 14 at the TED 2022 conference, said he had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. He called the Securities and Exchange Commission a profane name and said he only settled because bankers told him they would stop providing capital if he didn't, and Tesla would go bankrupt. The interview and court action came just days after Musk, the world's richest person, made a controversial offer to take over Twitter and turn it into a private company with a $43 billion offer that equals $54.20 per share. Twitter's board on April 15 adopted a "poison pill" strategy that would make it prohibitively expensive for Musk to buy the shares. In court documents filed April 15, lawyers for the Tesla shareholders alleged that Musk is trying to influence potential jurors in the lawsuit. They contend that Musk's 2018 tweets about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share were written to manipulate the stock price, costing shareholders money. Now, lawyers say Musk is campaigning to influence possible jurors as the case gets closer to trial. "Musk's comments risk confusing potential jurors with the false narrative that he did not knowingly make misrepresentations with his Aug. 7, 2018, tweets," the lawyers wrote. "His present statements on that issue, an unsubtle attempt to absolve himself in the court of public opinion, will only have a prejudicial influence on a jury." The lawyers asked Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco to restrain Musk from making further public comments on the issue until after the trial. Chen gave Musk's lawyers until April 20 to respond. Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Musk, wrote in an email April 17 that the plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking a big payout. "Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have," he wrote. "All that's left some half-decade later is random plaintiffs lawyers trying to make a buck and others trying to block that truth from coming to light, all to the detriment of free speech." But the shareholders' lawyers wrote that Chen already ruled that Musk's tweets were false and misleading, and "that no reasonable juror could conclude otherwise." Judge Chen's order, issued April 1, was not in the public court file as of April 17. Adam Apton, a lawyer for the shareholders, said it was sealed because it has evidence that Musk and Tesla say is confidential. It will stay sealed until the parties agree if anything should remain sealed, he wrote in an email. "Our motion for TRO (temporary restraining order) accurately describes the issues decided by the court," Apton wrote. After Musk's 2018 tweets, the SEC filed a complaint against him alleging securities law violations. Musk then agreed to the fine and signed the court agreement. Part of the agreement says that Musk "will not take any action or make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis." If Musk violates the agreement, the SEC may ask the court to scrap it and restore the securities fraud complaint, the agreement says. A message was left April 17 seeking comment from the SEC. Spiro, on behalf of Musk, already has asked a Manhattan federal court to throw out the agreement. He contends the SEC is using the pact and "near limitless resources" to chill Musk's speech. Court documents filed by Spiro say Musk signed the agreement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized its financing. On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadn't yet found a home. All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. Volunteers dug them up one by one Sunday two weeks after the soldiers disappeared. This spring is a grim season of planting and replanting in towns and villages around Kyiv. Bodies given hurried graves amid the Russian occupation are now being retrieved for investigations into possible war crimes. More than 900 civilian victims have been found so far. All four bodies here were killed on the same street, on the same day. That's according to the local man who provided their caskets. He bent and kissed the cemetery's wrought-iron crosses as he walked to the makeshift grave. The volunteers tried digging with shovels, then gave up and called an excavator. As they waited, they recounted their work secretly burying bodies during the monthlong Russian occupation, then retrieving them. One young man recalled being discovered by soldiers who pointed guns at him and told him "Don't look up" as he dug a grave. The excavator arrived, rumbling past the cemetery's wooden outhouse. Soon there was the smell of fresh earth, and the murmur, "There they are." A woman appeared, crying. Ira Slepchenko was the wife of one man buried here. No one told her he was being dug up now. The wife of another victim arrived. Valya Naumenko peered into the grave, then hugged Ira. "Don't collapse," she said. "I need you to be OK." The two couples lived next to each other. On the final day before the Russians left the village, soldiers knocked at one home. Valya's husband, Pavlo Ivanyuk, opened the door. The soldiers took him to the garage and shot him in the head, apparently without any explanation. Then the soldiers shouted, "Is anyone else here?" Ira's husband, Sasha Nedolezhko, heard the gunshot. But he thought the soldiers would search the homes if no one answered. He opened the door and the soldiers shot him too. The men's caskets were lifted out with the others, then pried open. The four bodies, wrapped in blankets, were placed in body bags. The lace-edged white lining of each casket was stained red where the head had been. Ira watched from afar, smoking, but stood by the empty caskets as the others left. "All this land is in blood, and it will take years to recover," she said. She had known her husband was here. Nine days after his temporary burial, she came to the cemetery scattered with picnic tables, following the local custom of spending time with the dead. She brought coffee and cookies. "I want this war to end as soon as possible," she said. The other bodies were a teacher and a local man who lived alone. No one came for them Sunday. In the house next to the cemetery, 66-year-old Valya Voronets cooked homegrown potatoes in a wood-warmed room, still getting by without water, electricity or gas. A small radio played, but not for long because the news gets too depressing. A plate of freshly cut radishes rested near the window. A Russian soldier once came running and pointed his gun at her husband after spotting him climbing onto the roof to get a cellphone signal. "Are you going to kill an old man?" 65-year-old Myhailo Scherbakov replied. Not all the Russians were like that. Voronets said she cried together with another soldier, barely 21. "You're too young," she told him. Another soldier told her they didn't want to fight. Still, she feared them all. But she offered them milk from her only cow. "I felt sorry for them in these conditions," she said. "And if you're nice to them, maybe they won't kill you." Turkish military forces using planes, helicopters and drones attacked Kurdish rebel positions inside northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Monday. The targets included camps and ammunition depots in the regions of Metina, Zap, and Avashin-Basyan, the military said. Kurdish rebels have launched attacks in Turkey from northern Iraq, and Ankara said they were planning another attack in Turkey. The Associated Press reported 19 Kurdish rebels were killed and four Turkish military members were wounded. "Our operation is continuing successfully as planned," the state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. "The targets identified in the first phase have been captured." Turkish military forces have repeatedly attacked Kurdish groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers terrorist organizations. The PKK has been active since 1984. It has bases in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Kurdish people are spread throughout a region covering parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. (Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press.) U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths abruptly canceled a trip to Turkey late Monday after he tested positive for COVID-19. He had planned to leave Tuesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Ankara's help in trying to achieve some level of humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine. "Cease-fires, they are not on the horizon right now, but they may be in a couple of weeks. They may be a little bit longer than that," Griffiths told reporters earlier in the day. It depends on where the war is heading and how talks between Russia and Ukraine go, he said. Those talks are currently taking place at very low levels. Griffiths also expressed hope that Orthodox Easter on April 24 could present an opportunity for a pause. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with the Turkish president Sunday regarding Turkish-hosted mediation efforts. Guterres also emphasized the need for humanitarian corridors for the distribution of aid and the evacuation of civilians. Griffiths intended to follow up on that discussion with Erdogan. The aid chief's trip to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month had not yet yielded the hoped- for cooperation from Moscow. "Neither I nor the secretary-general, if I could speak for him, had any illusions about whether there would be some sort of an immediate breakthrough in this," Griffiths said. "What I wanted to do was to set out for both parties, first of all, what our vision of a local cease-fire would be. How would it be monitored, for example? That's crucial, and we have done a lot of work on that, and how ready we are to step forward as soon as there is an opportunity." The United Nations has 1,300 staff across Ukraine in both government-controlled areas and nongovernment areas in the east, and it recently reopened its Kyiv office. In addition to trying to open aid and evacuation corridors to besieged cities such as Mariupol in the south, it is preparing for a fierce battle for eastern Ukraine. "The Donbas is a massive, massive humanitarian worry," Griffiths said, referring to the eastern region. He urged the parties to return to the negotiating table in Istanbul to continue discussions. "Even if the eventual war aims may be unrealized or unclear, we certainly need that to happen," he said of resuming substantive talks. "On the humanitarian side, we need much, much more willing acceptance, primarily of the Russian Federation, to allow convoys in and convoys out in these places of great need." The United Nations says 4.9 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, and 7.1 million more are internally displaced. Manning checkpoints and patrolling towns and cities: the reservists of Ukraine's territorial defense force are the last line standing between ordinary civilians and Russian troops. Standing 2.07 meters (6 feet, 9.5 inches) and dressed in camouflage fatigues that reveal only his eyes under a hood, "Buffalo" quit his job in construction and signed up for the force when the Russians invaded. A cheerful young man in his 20s, he is one of the hundreds of thousands to answer President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for reservists. He was posted to Svyatohirsk, a village about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Kramatorsk, the capital of the Donbas region in the east of the country. The front lines are just 10 kilometers to the north and northwest, where fighting rages and the sound of intense bombardments can be heard daily. Fighting is particularly fierce around the town of Izyum. Victory there for the Russian troops would open the way toward Kramatorsk. "I'm sure you can hear the artillery," Buffalo told AFP. "And how our villages are disappearing from the face of the Earth." He proudly shows a video on his mobile phone that shows him with his comrades deployed for combat in the snow, Kalashnikov in his hand. But his mission also includes protecting and helping the local civilians. "The civilians have learned what war is," he said. "They stay in the basements and it's all they can do to stay alive. "Any time we can, we bring them food and water. There are a lot of elderly people there who have no place to go." There are still a good number left in the village of Svyatohirsk, which had a population of 5,000 before the war, and was then best known for its Orthodox monastery. Behind the counter of his little cafe Andriy is kept busy. Local people mix with soldiers and reservists as they line up for a hot dog, a hamburger or a hot drink. "Some people have left and others have stayed," he said. "The people are here. Everybody is walking around, shopping one way or another they have to eat." Dressed in fatigues with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, reservist Andriy, 35, is among the customers. For him, the territorial defense force is unique. "We have people of all ages and from different backgrounds who all came together because they had only one goal. Teachers, engineers, workers, artists, it's extremely important," said the young man, a civil servant before the war. "We will hold on until the last breath," he said. Many bridges in the region have been destroyed by the Ukrainians to slow down any advance by the Russians as Moscow turns the focus of its offensive toward the Donbas region. The one in Svyatohirsk is still standing, even though mines are ready to blow it up. Previously guarded by the territorial force, regular soldiers now keep watch over it. "The bridge is under the protection of both the Ukrainian armed forces and the territorial defense," said Volodymyr Rybalkin, a civilian journalist and head of territorial defense in the town. Like many members of the territorial defense, he already had combat experience during the Donbas war in 2014-2015. "Above us there are professional military commanders, who coordinate. Our task is to communicate with the civilians so that there is understanding and support between the two," he explained. Asked about Moscow's announced offensive, he appears confident. "The front line is less than 10 kilometers away. The artillery is firing at full strength and pushing the enemy back," he said. "I can't predict what will happen tomorrow. Today (Russian) planes didn't fly. We don't know if tomorrow they will be back. We'll react to all their actions." Behind him, "Buffalo" leads a refrain addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Glory to Ukraine!" he bellows. "Glory to the heroes!" his comrades reply. The United States and South Korea would maintain the "strongest possible joint deterrent" over North Korea's "escalatory actions", the U.S. envoy on North Korea said on Monday, amid concerns that Pyongyang was preparing to resume nuclear testing. U.S. Special Representative Sung Kim and his deputy, Jung Pak, met South Korean officials, including nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk, after arriving in Seoul early on Monday for a five-day visit. "It is extremely important for the United Nations Security Council to send a clear signal to the DPRK that we will not accept its escalatory tests as normal," Kim told reporters after his talks with Noh. Kim was referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We agreed on the need to maintain the strongest possible joint deterrent capability on the peninsula," he said. Kim also said the allies would "respond responsibly and decisively to provocative behavior," while underlining his willingness to engage with North Korea "anywhere without any conditions." Kim's arrival coincided with the start of a nine-day annual joint military drill by U.S. and South Korean troops. The exercise consists of "defensive command post training using computer simulation" and will not involve field maneuvers by troops, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday. North Korea has condemned the joint drills as rehearsals for war, and they have been scaled back in recent years amid efforts to engage Pyongyang in diplomacy, and because of COVID-19 restrictions. On Saturday, North Korea test fired what state media said were missiles involved in delivering tactical nuclear weapons. The U.S. envoy has repeatedly offered to re-engage with North Korea, but Pyongyang has so far rebuffed those overtures, accusing Washington of maintaining hostile policies such as sanctions and the military drills. Kim was also expected to meet with the transition team for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who takes office in May. A spokesperson for the team said there was no meeting confirmed between Yoon and Kim, but Yoon's foreign minister nominee, Park Jin, said he planned to meet Kim. Kim also said at his talks with Noh that Washington looks forward to working closely with Yoon's team. A U.S. federal judge has ruled a national mask mandate on airplanes and other public transportation is not lawful, overturning a Biden administration policy. The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, Florida, said health officials had exceeded their authority in issuing the mandate. The judge said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) failed to properly justify its decision and did not follow procedures in issuing the mandate. Earlier this month, the CDC extended its mask mandate on public transportation by 15 days until May 3. Health authorities said they needed time to assess the impact of the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus, which is causing cases to rise in some parts of the country. The mask mandate, which was first issued in February 2021, covers airplanes, trains, transit hubs, taxis and ride-share vehicles. Mizelle was appointed by former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit against the mask mandate was filed last year in Florida by a group called the Health Freedom Defense Fund. Airlines had lobbied for months for federal officials to end the mask mandate, arguing that advanced filters on planes make transmission of the coronavirus on flights unlikely. The Biden administration said Tuesday it would attempt to block the ruling by appealing the decision. The U.S. Justice Department released the following statement on Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc., et. al. v. Biden, et. al. from spokesman Anthony Coley: The Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disagree with the district courts decision and will appeal, subject to CDCs conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health. The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve. The Justice Department did acknowledge that If CDC concludes that a mandatory order remains necessary for the publics health after that assessment, the Department of Justice will appeal the district courts decision. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington but she'll be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity will take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On Tuesday, Yellen will convene a panel of finance ministers, the international development banks and other institutions to talk about how they will use resources to address food insecurity. This year's meetings run through Friday and include a mix of virtual and in-person events. Russian finance officials are expected to attend several events virtually, according to a senior Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans for the meetings. Yellen will participate if a Russian minister is there for a session or two but will not attend every session, the official said, adding that the presence of Russian officials should not stop the work the U.S. needs to do with members of the Group of 20 the world's largest economies. There are some sessions the secretary will attend, including the opening, which the Ukrainian finance minister also will attend. However, she won't be participating in a number of the G-20 sessions if the Russians are participants. President Joe Biden has said Russia should be removed from the G-20. Yellen is expected to use this week's meetings to work with allies on efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia while mitigating spillover effects, to call for the implementation of a global minimum tax deal and to address food security issues. In addition, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control this week is expected to issue clarifying language to make clear that trade in agricultural products is not barred under existing sanctions, in response to the food security crisis that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused. Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is also set to meet with Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko this week. During a discussion Monday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Adeyemo reiterated the U.S. position that China has a chance to pressure Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine and would thereby avoid subjecting itself to secondary sanctions. "China has in the past, and we expect them to continue to follow, the sanctions regimes that have been introduced by us and the coalition" of sanctioning countries, Adeyemo said. "China's business with the rest of the world is greater than its business with Russia." The U.S. and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There aren't any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western effort, could do so, Yellen said in a speech at the Atlantic Council last week. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension as the U.S. tries to cut off Moscow's energy income. Ukraine says Russia has begun its offensive to take control of eastern Ukraine while a Russian missile attack hit the western city of Lviv, killing at least seven people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Monday, "Now, we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time." He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive." The Donbas region includes Luhansk and Donetsk, two provinces that are already partly held by Russian-backed separatists, along with the port city of Mariupol to the south. Capturing the region would allow Russia to control a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014. Russias withdrawal of its forces from areas around Ukraines capital, Kyiv, and other parts of the north in recent weeks prompted assessments from Western military officials that Russia was reinforcing and redeploying those assets to eastern Ukraine. In the western city of Lviv, regional Governor Maksym Kozystkiy said three missiles hit military infrastructure sites, while another struck a car tire repair shop. Lviv, which is about 60 kilometers from Poland, had previously escaped the worst of the violence of the Russian invasion that began nearly two months ago. The city is a major transportation hub in Ukraine, which has been receiving weapons from Western allies. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States has no indication that any Western aid was targeted in Lviv. The new barrage came as Russian President Vladimir Putin contended during a video call with economic officials that the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies had failed. He said the West expected to quickly upset the financial-economic situation, provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores. However, he added, the strategy of the economic blitz has failed. Western officials say the sanctions have pushed Russia into a sharp recession that will hurt its economy for years. Putin acknowledged that Russian consumer prices this month had risen by 17.5% compared to a year ago, which is slightly more than twice the current 8.5% annualized inflation rate in the U.S. He directed his government to index wages and other payments to minimize the inflationary impact on personal incomes. Aside from the attack on Lviv, Russian troops hit numerous other targets across Ukraine, including in the eastern part of the country. Efforts to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from conflict areas were halted for a second consecutive day Monday. In violation of international humanitarian law, the Russian occupiers have not stopped blocking and shelling humanitarian routes," Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted in a statement on social media. In the southern city of Mariupol, Ukrainian forces continued to fight, defying a Russian deadline to lay down their arms. Russia has called on the remaining fighters in Mariupol to surrender, saying it controlled urban areas of the city, while an estimated 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers and 400 mercenaries remain at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told ABCs This Week Sunday the countrys forces will fight to the end in Mariupol. "The city still has not fallen, he said, hours after the expiration of Russias declared deadline. Asked about reports that Putin believes Moscow is winning the war, Shmyhal noted that while several cities are under siege, only Kherson in the south has fallen under Russian control. More than 900 cities, towns and villages are freed from Russian occupation, Shmyhal said, adding that Ukraine has no intention of surrendering in the eastern Donbas region. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview Monday with Antena3 TV that his government will soon reopen its embassy in Kyiv as a show of support to the Ukrainian people. Spain is with Ukraine, and we are against Putin, Sanchez said. The Russian invasion prompted numerous countries to suspend diplomatic operations in Kyiv, with many relocating to Lviv. Italy, France and the Czech Republic are among those that have already reopened their Kyiv embassies or announced plans to do so. Russian state television on Monday broadcast a video showing two men identified as Britons who were captured by Russian forces in Ukraine asking to be exchanged for a pro-Russian politician in Ukrainian custody. The men requested that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson work to make the exchange for Viktor Medvedchuk happen and bring them home. Ukraines security services also published a video Monday show Medvedchuk asking to be exchanged for Ukrainian troops and civilians in Mariupol. Medvedchuk, who has close ties to Putin, was captured last week after escaping house arrest in Ukraine, days ahead of Russias invasion. Last week, the Kremlin rejected a Zelenskyy offer to swap Medvedchuk for Ukrainians being held by Russia. Russia initially described its aims as disarming Ukraine and defeating nationalists there. Kyiv and its Western allies say those are bogus justifications for an unprovoked war of aggression that has driven a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Ukraine's prime minister said Sunday that the strategic port city of Mariupol remains under Ukrainian control. "The city still has not fallen, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told ABCs This Week, hours after the expiration of a Russian deadline for holdout Ukrainian fighters in the besieged port city to surrender their weapons. "There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So, they will fight to the end, he said. Asked about reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Moscow is winning the war, Shmyhal noted that while several cities are under siege, only Kherson in the south has fallen under Russian control. More than 900 cities, towns and villages are freed from Russian occupation, Shmyhal said, adding Ukraine has no intention of surrendering in the eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that if surrounded Ukrainian troops in Mariupol were killed, peace talks with Moscow would be scrapped. President Putin had already said the talks were at a "dead end." Shmyhal said on Sunday that Ukraine wants a diplomatic solution "if possible. We won't leave our country, our families, our land, he added. Zelenskyy, in an interview with CNN taped Friday and aired Sunday, said Ukraine is prepared to fight for the Donbas region. The battle will be critical, he said. If Russia were to capture Donbas, it could once again try to seize Kyiv. " It is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle ... can influence the course of the whole war," Zelenskyy said. Asked whether he was concerned that Russia could resort to using nuclear force, Zelenskyy said he and the rest of the world should be worried. They can. For them, the life of the people is nothing, he said. CIA Director William Burns Friday warned that the United States can't "take lightly" the threat of Putin using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. ROME On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said Jesus, the victor over sin, fear and death, called on the world not to surrender to evil and violence. He made an impassioned plea for an end to the war in Ukraine and urged the faithful to appeal for peace and the end to cruelty and senseless destruction. For the crowds this Easter was a true resurrection after two years of pandemic that brought Holy Week events to a standstill. Pope Francis made a strong plea for peace in what he called this Easter of war. Tens of thousands turned out in a sunny but windy Saint Peters Square this year to attend Easter mass, hear the popes words and receive his blessing. In his Urbi et Orbi [to the city and the world] Easter message the pope called for peace to return in war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. Francis called on the world not to get used to war and said may a new dawn of hope soon appear." Let there be a decision for peace, Francis said, may there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. He urged everyone to commit tocall for peace from balconies and streets and expressed the hope that the leaders of nations will hear the peoples plea for peace. The popes thoughts went to the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground. Francis added that amid the pain of war, there are also encouraging signs, many acts of charity as families and communities open their doors to welcome migrants and refugees throughout Europe. On Easter Sunday believers mark the most joyful day in the Christian calendar which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus three days after his death on the cross. Today, more than ever, the pope said, we hear echoing the Easter proclamation so dear to the Christian East: Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Today, more than ever, he added, we need him, at the end of a Lent that has seemed endless. Francis said the conflict in Europe should also make the world more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow, situations in many areas of the world that cannot be overlooked or forgotten. He mentioned the Middle East, racked by years of conflict and division and specifically Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan and Myanmar. The pope also urged peace for the whole of the African continent and for assistance to be given to people suffering from social conditions in Latin America. Francis ended his Easter message with powerful words: Peace is possible, peace is a duty, peace is everyones prime responsibility. DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA The death toll from floods that have battered South Africa's east coast has risen to 443, including a rescuer, a regional official said on Sunday, as dozens more are still missing. "The death toll now stands at 443," Sihle Zikalala, the premier of the KwaZulu-Natal province told a media briefing, adding 63 other people are still unaccounted for. A member of the rescue and recovery team "experienced difficult breathing and was airlifted to... hospital. Unfortunately he passed away." Rains were starting to let up in the flood-ravaged east, allowing for search and relief aid operations to continue after one of the deadliest storms in living memory. Zikalala said the "inclement weather has slowed our assessment and rescue operation on the ground, but we are once again back in the full swing." Floodwaters engulfed parts of the southeastern coastal city of Durban and surrounding areas early last week ripping apart roads, destroying hospitals and sweeping away homes and those trapped inside. 'Rains clearing' The city of 3.5 million was overcast but the South African Weather Service's Puseletso Mofokeng said "rainfall is actually clearing." "The rainfall is going to clear [away] completely as we move to Wednesday," he told AFP. But recovery operations and humanitarian relief continued in the economic hub and tourist magnet city whose beaches and warm Indian Ocean waters would normally have been teeming with Easter holidaymakers. The number of flood-related emergency calls had decreased compared to early last week. "Emergency services are still currently on high alert on Sunday morning," Robert McKenzie of the provincial KwaZulu-Natal emergency services told AFP. It rained on Saturday and overnight, "however now, it has stopped," said McKenzie. Even so, emergency services were busy attending to a scene in the district of Pinetown where a house collapsed overnight. "Fortunately now the flood waters have receded and [some] roads cleared. It's a lot easier to access the community," he said. Christians congregated at churches across the city and further afield to offer prayers for those affected by the floods as they celebrated Easter Sunday. "It's a tragedy of overwhelming proportions," said Thabo Makgoba, the Archbishop of Cape Town in his Easter message, a day after his visited Durban. "The community is suffering severe emotional stress and pain," said Makgoba, successor to Desmond Tutu. Government, churches and charities were marshalling relief aid for the more than 40,000 people left homeless by the raging floodwaters. The government has announced an immediate one billion rand ($68 million) in emergency relief funding. Hospitals and schools destroyed Deputy Social Development Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, said some 340 social workers had been deployed to offer support to traumatized survivors with many still missing children and other relatives. Most casualties were in Durban, a port city and a major economic hub. Parts of the city have been without water and electricity since Monday after floods ripped away infrastructure. Scores of hospitals and hundreds of schools have been destroyed. The intensity of the floods took South Africa, the most economically advanced African country, by surprise. While the southeastern region has suffered some flooding before, the devastation has never been so severe. South Africans have previously watched similar tragedies hit neighboring countries such as cyclone-prone Mozambique. These floods have forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to postpone a working visit to Saudi Arabia that was scheduled to begin Tuesday. The loss of hundreds of lives "and thousands of homes, as well as the economic impact and the destruction of infrastructure, calls for all hands on deck," said Ramaphosa. The country is still struggling to recover from the COVID pandemic and deadly riots last year that killed more than 350 people, mostly in the now flood-struck southeastern region. The leader of South Africas anti-immigration group, Operation Dudula, claims that they were attacked on Monday afternoon by foreigners in Sowetos Kliptown informal settlements while looking for people linked with the stealing of power cables. In a tweet, Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini, said, We just got shot at with AK47s and R5s in Soweto! Zimbabweans and Sotho Nationals opened fire in a SA community crowd that was attending to cable theft. My guys got hit! My guys got hit! My guys got hit! Commanders MORNING! In another tweet, with a photograph of one of his colleagues showing a gunshot wound, Dlamini said, We were ambushed by illegal foreigners with rifles! 1 of our guys died on the spot; we waiting for hospitals to update us on the 5+ SA women who got shot from the back. QUESTION for illegal foreigners & SA politicians; are u sure about this route you are taking? Police were unavailable for comment. Reacting to Dlaminis tweet, Zimbabwean, Takunda, said, You need to stop illegal operations and exposing South African citizens to this sort of danger. Residents, documented or undocumented have a right to protect themselves from dangers coming from your operation. Stop it before this gets out of control. The Sowetan newspaper reports that one person was killed and others wounded in skirmishes between the local residents and Operation Dudula activists. According to the newspaper, there was an altercation, shots were fired and one person was certified dead on the scene while a second person was wounded. The newspaper reports that all the victims are South Africans. Furious relatives of Elvis Nyathi, who was killed by a vigilante group in South Africa, urge him to punish his assailants from his grave. Nyathi's grandmother, aunt and other relatives made these remarks while they were placing dirt on his casket. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Warner Bros. and DC Comics The primary plot driver of The Batman is the Riddler, a mysterious serial killer terrorizing Gotham City and leaving cryptic messages for Jeffrey Wright to read aloud in a befuddled yet sultry purr. Some of these are Little Orphan Annie decoder-ring-level goofy (just wait until the first act when Robert Pattinson searches the mayors car for a USB port). Others are Ted Cruzlevel abstruse. Director Matt Reeves is a bit of a Riddler himself, filling the movie with symbols for us to interpret, including signifiers of present-day unrest. The citys police are crooked, a mayoral candidate promises real change with shades of AOC, and internet conspiracies radicalize men in a way that feels all too familiar. Like the Riddler, Reeves uses this symbology to warn us about the future. If you can piece together the clues, The Batman is an accurate predictor of 21st-century Americas worst-case scenario. It predicts a civil war of incels versus furries. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Come back! I swear these arent the fevered ramblings of a Riddleress (the zoological term for a female Riddler). First, lets establish the obvious: Paul Danos Riddler and his radicalized followers are clearly incel-coded. He is lonely and geeky and resentful and extremely online. He feels cheated by life. Just look at how they cast one of Hollywoods most chinless actors as the Riddler and positioned him in contrast to Pattinsons very prominent jawline. Pattinson has the kind of bone structure that incels obsess over, and the camera treats it like its own supporting character. The Riddler, meanwhile, channels a near-libidinous energy into his obsessive superhero fanboyism in lieu of human connection. (One of the films most daring decisions is to cast this type of Batman-obsessed nerd as its sweaty, crazed murderous-incel antagonist. Note that all of the Riddlers messages to Batman are literal valentines.) He fills ledgers with rambling manifestos, livestreams to a captive audience, disseminates conspiracy videos, and amasses fans and copycats through forum posts. And not that I should have to explain this, but Batman and Catwoman are obviously furries. For however cool and aloof Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz try to make these characters, theyre still adults with extreme affinities for specific animals, dressing up and role-playing in their little costumes. In the movies darkest and most violent moments, I couldnt stop looking at those doofy bat ears. Furries are a fan community of people who pick species with which to align themselves that they believe reflect their innermost or idealized personalities. Selina Kyles fursona is a cat. She wears woolly cat ears to go out and do her burgling. In the most perverted scene in the entire three-hour film, she an adult woman! straight up drinks a full glass of milk like some kind of freak or some kind of person who role-plays as a cat. Pattinsons interpretation of Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is a resoundingly honest depiction of the emo-to-furry pipeline. And these two arent just any furries; theyre clearly active in Gothams kink community. One of the movies main locations is some kind of secret orgy club run by are you noticing the furry agenda yet? the Penguin. Like furry-adjacent pup players, the main characters costumes are made of leather, and when Batman gets intimate, the mask stays on. None of this is to kink-shame Bruce and Selina but rather to champion them as peoples heroes who probably got their costume inspo from gender-swapped Rouge the Bat DeviantArt. The Riddler, meanwhile, amasses an online following of disaffected young white men who, frustrated with their lot in life, channel their doomerism into violence. The Batman understands that these men are often motivated to be part of an in-group, to feel heard, and to carve out some perceived status by targeting and terrorizing other groups. They claim alienation on a micro level despite their relative privilege on a macro one. And like QAnon, which furnishes conspiracy theories about wealthy, high-profile liberal politicians and public figures, the Riddler comes armed with bombshells about the mismanagement of Wayne trust and the hit that mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne took out on a journalist. (The films politics get fuzzy here, though, as these revelations definitely should be public knowledge.) Bruce Waynes role in The Batman is to represent a real-life diverging path for this type of young man. The character always functions best as a shadowy mirror: the darkness to Supermans light; the code-following, vengeance-driven violence to the Jokers randomized chaotic violence. The Batman constantly draws parallels between Wayne and the Riddler; the two are a call-and-response act. Both are reclusive introverts with personalities and worldviews shaped by their orphan backgrounds. Pattinsons version of Batman is especially weird compared to past ones, coming across more socially awkward and out of place than coolly distant. Like Riddlers clue about being the same seed, these are two men who could have gone down very similar roads. Both are obsessive, lonely sad boys, but one became a libertarian tech bro while the other was black-pilled. One channeled his passion and intensity into alter-ego role play and tricking out his fur-suit Batsuit, while the other mostly got into explosives. The Batman gives us an eerie vision of the young men who mobilize online to turn their sexual frustration/misogyny/racism into violence and in some cases try to accelerate civil war. But it also gives these men an exit route: Just do some push-ups, share a tender kiss with your partner in crime, and get really into your dorky anthropomorphic OC instead. These two 21st-century Types of Guy may seem similar to the offline observer, and, indeed, they can even intersect. But furries are overwhelmingly queer and into social justice. Theyve got Batman and Catwoman on their team. And, you know, they actually fuck. Ambassador Zazo and team return to Ukrainian capital. Italy has reopened its embassy in Kyiv, after it moved temporarily to Lviv in western Ukraine in early March as Russian forces advanced on the capital. Over the Easter weekend Ambassador Pier Francesco Zazo and his staff returned to the Kyiv embassy which is operational once again from Monday 18 April. The news was announced by the Italian foreign ministry which said on Twitter that "Italy stands by Ukrainian institutions and reaffirms the commitment to assist Italian nationals, promote dialogue and support solutions towards peace and the end of hostilities." Ambassador Zazo "will be working with Ukrainian institutions for diplomacy and to reach at least a ceasefire", said Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, recalling that the Italian embassy had been "among the last to leave the Ukrainian capital and is now among the first to return". "The reopening of our embassy in Kiev represents for us an exciting and hopeful moment more than 50 days after the beginning of the conflict", said Ambassador Zazo, who added: "Today we feel even closer to the government and the Ukrainian people and we will continue to assist our compatriots in the best possible way." Di Maio thanked Zazo and his staff "for their courage and dedication", including for their work in Lviv over recent weeks, stating that of the "2,000 Italians" to be evacuated there are "139 left." For information about the Italian embassy in Kyiv see website. Photo ANSA Placeholder while article actions load Nursing trillions of dollars in losses as they navigate Chinas stock markets, foreign investors have complained that the worlds second-biggest economy is becoming uninvestable. The truth is, they are just making excuses for their poor due diligence and dismal returns. No one ever said investing in China was easy. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Putting your money in developed markets is much more straightforward. In the U.S., investors need only look at the Federal Reserve to gauge market directions. In China, the cruel reality is that dozens of obscure bureaucratic bodies can ruin your trading day if not your year. Last July, the cybersecurity watchdog seemingly sprang out of nowhere, launching an investigation into Didi Global Inc., just days after the ride-hailing giants $4.4 billion initial public offering in New York. That move wiped out as much as $40 billion of Didis market capitalization. In recent weeks, Alibaba Group Holding Inc.s shares struggled in part on news reports that the anti-graft watchdog was probing its fintech affiliate Ant Group over links to state-owned companies. Advertisement While these might strike an average fund manager in New York or London as abrupt, unpredictable forays, they wouldnt have blindsided investors who watch China closely. Financial media outlets reported on Chinas data-security concerns as well as an anti-corruption drive in the banking sector before the crackdowns came. And Reuters warned that China would unveil tough new rules for the private-tutoring industry weeks before Beijing virtually obliterated that niche. Investors had plenty of time to do their homework and adjust their portfolios. So to invest in China, one must understand the sprawling government structure. For instance, watching the Peoples Bank of China is not so useful for spotting trading inflection points. Unlike the Fed, Chinas central bank only sits in the middle of the bureaucracys organization chart. On the other hand, theres the governments Financial Stability and Development Committee, chaired by Liu He, one of four vice premiers. On March 16, when he came out with a statement vowing to actively introduce policies that benefit markets, it was a big deal. The FSDC oversees the central bank and the securities regulator, as well as the banking watchdog. As such, these agencies have to coordinate to execute policy. Advertisement By the same token, the anti-graft or the cybersecurity watchdogs report to the top level of the Communist Party, and therefore may have more sway than say, the securities regulator. If these political connections seemed too complex to investors half a globe away, they could have just stayed away. They didnt, because the China story was too alluring. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, growth stocks, led by consumer tech companies, have dominated global equities and delivered outsize returns. And China has churned out a lot of these, publicly listing e-commerce, video gaming and social-media unicorns. For the benchmark MSCI China Index, consumer-discretionary and tech stocks contribute more than 40% of the total weight, a sharp shift from a decade ago, when value-oriented financials and energy companies ruled. Investing in emerging markets is not easy. Unlike the S&P 500, a buy-and-hold strategy can generate poorer performance than even a European sovereign bond, whose yields spent much of the past decade below zero. Rather, emerging-markets investing is about calling the right cycles and thats particularly true in China. Do your homework, and you might just be able to spot the marketplaces next inflection point. Advertisement More From Bloomberg Opinion: Jack Ma Did What He Was Told, So Why the Scrutiny?: Shuli Ren Can Beijing Tolerate an EV Battery Monopoly?: Anjani Trivedi China Can Solve Ukraine Wars Food Crisis: David Fickling This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barrons, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Its sort of a miracle that televised general-election debates ever happened at all in the U.S. If the Republican National Committee gets its way, they may never happen again. Their apparent demise tells us a few important things about the Republican Party, but before getting to that its worth thinking about the institution itself.To begin with, debates just never shouldve happened. Most campaign professionals dont like to subject their candidates to high-profile unscripted events, and general-election debates are extremely high profile. That goes double for a campaign that thinks its candidate is winning. Why risk the possibility that something could go wrong? Moreover, the conventional wisdom has always been that by participating in one-on-one debates, incumbents elevate their opponent. Presidents always seem presidential and challengers rarely do but supposedly that gap is narrowed by watching them debate as formal equals. More basically: Given that both candidates have to agree to participate, a debate requires both campaigns to think theyll benefit, which cant be true.Its not surprising that the first televised presidential debate (in 1960) featured a vice president, Richard Nixon, who was generally considered to be a master of television and was certainly extremely well prepared to discuss public policy. Vice presidents are oddly situated in the news media. On one hand, theyre the closest anyone can come to having presidential experience without actually having been president. But at the same time theyre typically objects of ridicule. So a campaign by a vice president involves shedding the vice presidency, and it made sense for Nixon to go ahead with the debate and in an election that was expected to be (and was) very close, neither candidate risked squandering a big lead.In two of the next three elections, 1964 and 1972, incumbent presidents on their way to landslides had no interest in repeating that experiment. Nor did a debate happen in 1968, an election that demonstrated another reason candidates may be reluctant: Nominees of badly divided parties, as both Democrats and Republicans were at the time, may want to stay as vague as possible on policy questions to preserve peace within the party and a televised debate isnt very appealing to a candidate trying to avoid talking about controversial issues.So how did debates become institutionalized? It was largely a fluke. In 1976, President Gerald Ford was far behind in the polls and was unusually lacking in presidential stature. (He had never run nationally himself, given that he had been chosen for the vice presidency under the 25th Amendment after Spiro Agnew resigned, and then became president when Nixon stepped down.) He chose to debate. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter was also well behind in the polls (and, having won an election after debating, presumably was more likely than any previous incumbent to be confident that debates were likely to help him). He also agreed to go ahead.Debates were thus regularized and expectations changed. By 1984, any candidate who refused to participate risked being blamed for undermining an important democratic institution. Apparently the incentives were sufficient to convince President Ronald Reagan (who, like Carter, had won an election after debating) to participate, thereby making it an even stronger norm that major party nominees would debate. And so on up through 2020.So what happened? Well, nothing yet; its one thing for the Republican National Committee to pull out of debates in spring 2022; its another for an actual nominee to refuse to debate in fall 2024.Nor would it be a disaster for democracy if the debates die. I dont think theyre worthless, but they are overrated. They appeal to a good-government vision of democracy in which neutral voters carefully study public-policy issues, take positions and then vote for the candidate who objectively is the closest match to those positions. But in real-world democracies, its just as likely that voters choose candidates first, and then select the policy positions those candidates hold. Theres nothing wrong with that; voters can choose candidates and parties based on whatever they like. But for better or worse, presidential debates have become a symbol of U.S. democracy, and in that sense, ending them would be a blow against democracy just when it could use some additional support.As for the Republicans? Refusing to participate because of supposed bias fits their long-term agenda of undermining the concept of political neutrality, whether its in the media, the bureaucracy, science or anything else. Of course, none of these institutions is purely unbiased. But its one thing to say that everyone has biases; its another to say that everyone is either a partisan Democrat or a partisan Republican. Thats never been true in the U.S., and its still untrue now. Russias invasion of Ukraine is one of the most documented wars ever. (The Post) Post Verified Eyewitness videos Sam Taunton brings a commendable set of quips, gags and pointed utterances. Credit: Fresh and enthusiastic, and just a handful of years into comedy, he radiates charm as he speaks of hot-air ballooning and going to therapy. Finding out his girlfriend has murderous intent, hating on Apple stores and tracing the unenviable traits of old Australian men add to the relatable guff that works a treat. Taunton is rewarded with hefty chortles when gentle chiding of a bloke sitting near the stage blossoms into a roast. And theres a wonderful lesson on how to spot a passive-aggressive phone message. The rising stars ruminations are enjoyable, invigorating fare, delivered with relaxed confidence. Dona Demaio Best friends and real-life couple Col and Fil of Woah, Alyssa!. Credit: Woah, Alyssa!, Woah, Alyssa! 4 The Westin Two, until April 23 Following a Golden Gibbo nomination last year, real-life couple Col and Fil have returned with the fourth instalment of their late-night hijinks. The duo chaotically jump from one insane sketch to another with rapid-fire pacing and exuberant camp energy. Be it the open nature of their relationship and the difficulties that entails when living in a one-bedroom apartment (including a sharp dig at Melburnians penchant for polyamory), tales of escapades and double standards on Grindr, or vanity taking hold in a fatal car crash, no stone is left unturned or feels too embarrassing or graphic for them to mine for a laugh. The sprinkling of direction from Mark Bonanno (of Aunty Donna) is obvious the chemistry and tightness between the two is remarkably stronger than previous outings. A very solid nightcap to end your evening (or warm you up for the Festival Club after). Tyson Wray Cancer, evil siblings and giant talking fish: Danielle Walker. Credit: Danielle Walker, Nostalgia Comedy Republic, until April 24 A great festival show will leave you with a glide in your stride and a fresh take on at least one word. Danielle Walkers passive-aggressive deployment of the word hysterical in a dynamite anecdote about a would-be axe murderer still has me in stitches 24 hours later. Walker presents a scrapbook of stories about her rough and ready Townsville family, including a bunch of gorgeous anecdotes about her charismatic grandfather. Her refreshingly regional take on Australia includes a searing commentary on how we view death dependent on geography: You city people outsource your death to the country. Oooft. She manages to blend stories in cancer, evil siblings and giant talking fish into a very satisfying narrative full of very Strayan act-outs like: Suck shit, Ryan, LOSER! Once she engages the crowd from the get-go and trims her final story for more emotional impact, this incredibly likeable comic will have a patriotic home run on her hands. Mikey Cahill Annie Louey is Flirting with Death Melbourne Town Hall, until April 24 Performing in front of an upright coffin is a bold piece of stage production. Lord knows what those who share Annie Loueys room at the Town Hall this festival think of seeing it backstage each night. Annie Louey find the funny side of death. Credit: But thats the overwhelming crux of this show: death. We are all going to die, and Louey knows it more intimately than most opening with a tale of her fathers funeral that was attended by former lord mayor of Melbourne John So. As Louey recounts her time working in a funeral home, there are some scintillating insights into superstitions around meeting your maker, and a demonic representation of the linguistic connotations of the tonal way the Chinese language enunciates numbers. There are sections that drag on slightly, but thankfully there are no other deaths on stage. The finale is absolutely brilliant but cant be shared without spoilers. Youll have to find out for yourself. Tyson Wray Steph Tisdell, Baby Beryl Melbourne Town Hall, until April 24 Steph Tisdell brings boundless energy to her non-show show. Credit: When Steph Tisdell says she hasnt written a show, apparently shes not kidding. Tisdell shares her authentic self, blurting stories about personal growth, family, school days and mental health. Revealing that humour helps her deal with shit, she urges the audience to yell stuff out during her non-show show. A decent chunk of time is spent playing talk-show host. She easily procures the goss from an audience volunteer whos joined the empathetic comedian on stage for a reveal-all. The guests story about her daughters freeloading boyfriend having to be formally evicted from the family home ends up unexpectedly riveting, while resorting to puerile penis jokes strike a jarring note. Loading With boundless energy, Tisdell comes across as vulnerable but scattered. Purposefully so, apparently. Donna Demaio Damien Power, Love Thy Neighbour? No Thanks Melbourne Town Hall, until April 24 Using bitterness as a comedic construct, Damien Power delivers one of the simultaneously sweetest and most acerbic shows of this years festival. Always the smartest guy in the room, Brisbane-bred Power has kept busy during the pandemic, coming up with observational anthropological fire about the ridiculousness of modern life. The smiling assassin throws in anti-wellness mantras like Regret, Revenge, Resent among gut-punch truth bombs about mans best friend: You know dogs can smell tumours? Powers indefatigable approach to his craft has the crowd rocking sideways when he breaks the fourth wall and points out hyper-sexualised audience members. The joke-writing about sexologists named Chantelle, rival stepdads and scathing assessments of stand-up peers elevate this show to a holy place. Power makes us feel like were in on an hour-long personal joke full of naughty, I-cant-believe-he-went-there asides what more could you want? Mikey Cahill Kooky collage fan: Emma Holland. Credit: Emma Holland, Dreamer In The Mist Melbourne Town Hall, until April 24 Emma Holland is someone you want to hang out with. Shes naturally funny, super-kooky and, like, really into (checks notes) collage. This underrated craft features heavily in her show, a surreal hour about her privileged Anglican upbringing, David Blaine and her French doppelganger, who functions as a Greek chorus. I must genuflect at one of her best lines: Anglican school is just like Catholic school but for hot kids. Loading It would help the pace of her show if she used her sarcastic glare (as much as we love it) sparingly, making us crave that wicked glance. In my qualified opinion, Holland has the best koala-based pun of the festival (I gave you a hint 19 words ago) and a very bright future once she leans into her strengths, hires a dramaturge and punches up her weaker jokes. Mikey Cahill A Very British Scandal Amazon Prime Video from April 22 The opening scene of A Very British Scandal is sure to spark cognitive dissonance in some viewers. Theres Claire Foy in the back of a sturdy British motor vehicle, wearing furs, pearls and pillbox hat, just as we saw her so often in The Crown. But the commoners outside are expressing their fury, not their fealty. Slut. Hussy. Disgusting, they yell. One woman even gobs on the window. Captain Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (Paul Bettany) and his wife Margaret (Claire Foy) in A Very British Scandal. Credit:Amazon Prime Video Of course, this Foy is not the Queen. Shes Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, whose divorce on grounds of adultery, after 16 years of intense marital disharmony, sparked a tabloid sensation in 1963. The key evidence included a coded diary that appeared to record multiple sexual liaisons, and a photograph of the Duchess performing fellatio on a man whose head was out of frame (the famous headless man of so much speculation, rumour and gossip, whose true identity was never revealed). But some texting manners are here to stay, especially when it comes to group chats. In Hey Ladies! Markowitz and her co-author Caroline Moss mine the many ways group communication goes awry. Group texts spawn hundreds of notifications, theyre often filled with strangers, and those threads never go away. (Im pretty sure Im still in a group chat for my college theatre production of Rent.) You wouldnt invite a bunch of friends to your house and not introduce them, so dont do that in a group text, either, Markowitz said. Take a moment at the top to let everyone say their names and clarify how they know each other. If you need to iron something out with a particular group member, start a new text conversation instead of making everyone read your back-and-forth. When it comes to money, tread lightly. Planning a weekend getaway or fancy dinner in the group chat sounds like fun, but some recipients might be squirming if they dont want to shell out for the Michelin-starred farm-to-table extravaganza. If youre at the helm, create space for dissenters or give people a way to suggest alternatives or gracefully back out. Were done fighting over capital letters and punctuation: Sorry, sticklers - this ship has sailed. A good text makes sense to its recipient, but that shouldnt require consulting a grammar workbook, Markowitz noted. After years of reduced social contact, shes happy when someone reaches out, even if their style of texting is totally different from hers. Skipping the capitalisation or leaving off a question mark doesnt denote a lack of respect. A good text makes sense to its recipient, but that shouldnt require consulting a grammar workbook. Millennials and Gen-Zers arent exempt here. Its time we embrace the dreaded Gen-X ellipses . . . even if it makes our anxiety spike . . . - Responses arent mandatory, but acknowledgments are nice: The past few years have been hard, and a growing chunk of text responses begin with sorry for the delay, Post said. Keep in mind that plenty of texts get lost to busyness or brain fog, and if you really need an answer, send a kind follow-up. On the other hand, keep in mind that unanswered texts make some people feel worried, Post added. A short note letting them know you saw their message and will respond when you have time can alleviate some text-related suffering. Santamaria said he has a now or never approach to texting once a message has sat a while, its tough for him to circle back. A simple smiley face or exclamation point reaction lets the sender know he saw it and appreciated the thought, he said. Beware: Effects in iMessage like thumbs-up bubbles and spotlights can get weird if your recipient isnt also using iMessage. Its best to avoid those in group chats. Dont be a texting wet blanket: Striking some particular tone is less important than matching your conversation partners energy. Plenty of us have poured our hearts out over text to get ok in response. Repeatedly sending short responses like thumbs up, lol or k might be fine if your recipient does the same, Post said, but its immature if youre failing to hold up your end of the conversation. Texting isnt Morse code the goal is not to use as few words as possible. Keep in mind that different generations have different comfort levels with texting. Your grandmas insistence on signing her name to every message may be unfortunate, but its not a big deal. Try to avoid any shorthand your recipient wont understand, and have grace when your dad sends a winky face. No scary mysteries: The historical ban against hey can we talk still holds, Markowitz said. Cryptic messages like call me please or what are you doing on Tuesday make your recipient nervous because they dont know what youre going to ask, she said. Give them a clue so they can choose the best response. Its OK to get serious: Delivering bad news like a break-up or someones death over text is verboten, Post said. Loading But limiting text conversations to logistics and basic greetings is outdated. Weve come to rely on texting in so many contexts, Santamaria said, that its natural well end up talking about our emotions. Sometimes he finds it easier to say serious things over text because he has more time to think. The rules of engagement are the same as in phone or in-person conversations: Prioritise listening and understanding over reacting. If youre struggling to interpret someones tone or understand what they said, ask. Reading tone in written communication is hard, and its always OK to ask for clarification. When youre having a serious conversation over text, its really important to understand whether you truly get the intent of the person youre having that conversation with and not letting your emotions read into the words on the screen, Santamaria said. I think thats a new skill that all of us are learning. Talk about workplace texting boundaries: Texting for business purposes has skyrocketed, Post said, but its still a personal communication channel above all. Before you fire off a message to your employee or boss, make sure your team has talked about boundaries. Which hours of the day can you answer text messages? Would you prefer an email or phone call instead? Once those boundaries are set, respect them for others and yourself. That mute notifications button is doing Gods work, Markowitz said. (To turn it on with an iPhone, pull down the menu from the top right corner of your home screen. Tap focus and then do not disturb. On an Android phone, try swiping down to see your notifications, then swiping down again on the row of quick settings icons to see the full list. Look for do not disturb.) Dont text during important real-world moments: When cellphones first became widely available, it was considered rude to talk on the phone in a public place like a grocery store, Post said. Now were much more lax. But that makes it all the more important to notice the moments when the people around you deserve your full attention. And would the polls have shifted if not for the way the journalists reported the error? Its a loop, and it can make you dizzy. The opinion polls were uniformly inaccurate at the last federal election, and nobody is really sure that the problems have been fixed, yet their publication steers the dialogue. Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends the Sydney Royal Easter Show over the weekend. Credit:James Brickwood What does it mean to say, as several political journalists did this week, that Scott Morrison is a better campaigner than he is prime minister? If that is true, then surely it is the job of journalists to narrow the gap between those phenomena. If the campaign is not reflecting the quality of the prime minister, and the alternative prime minister, then thats a problem, and an implicit journalistic failure. After Albaneses unemployment figures gaffe, it seemed that media conferences were all likely to include a test of memory on economic statistics. Thankfully, Greens leader Adam Bandt put a stop to that with his Google it, mate response to being asked the wage price index. Loading That killed, for the moment, this variety of performative journalistic watchdoggery. At its worst, this kind of journalism is about little more than which politician performs best in jumping through the hoops erected by the media pack. This is not as useful as we need journalism to be. Few thoughtful journalists are entirely happy with the worn smooth ruts of political reporting, and there are signs of deliberate attempts to do some things differently. There has been some good backgrounding and analysis. And there is the attempt, including in this newspaper, to devote resources to close-grained coverage of key electorates, including interviews with voters. Such reporting is grounding, and a corrective to the textual analysis of leaders statements and media appearances. But the fear of being beaten to a story, of missing a development still mitigates against a more radical breaking of the mould of election reporting. It helps to keep a few facts in mind. If political journalism ever determined an election, it has probably lost that capability. The partisanship of News Corp acts as a magnet, pulling on the national conversation and making it harder for others to find their balance, but repeated studies confirm it is a long time since it has directly swung votes. The annual digital news report from the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra shows only 13 per cent of Australians are paying for a news service. Credit:iStock One of the best sources of data on how Australians consume news is the annual report from the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra. It shows only 13 per cent of Australians are paying for a news service considerably lower than the global average of 17 per cent. Political journalism that is published behind paywalls is no longer really mass media. It informs an elite. To the extent it trickles through to the majority, it is through influencing the free-to-air outlets where most Australians get their news. Twenty-three per cent of news media users say social media is their main source of news and mostly not the accounts of mainstream media and professional journalists. This is fast increasing, across all age groups. Loading So political journalists are part of an ecosystem. They feed and are fed on by other inhabitants. That is how their influence works. TikTok videos and the surrounding memes may be at least as influential as political journalism on the roughly 20 per cent of voters who have yet to decide how they will vote. But the memes pick up the vibe of political reporting. So in this ecosystem, what can journalists most usefully do? I saw one political journalist suggesting that the media concentration on gaffes was the fault of the political parties, because the election contest was devoid of content few new policies from government and Labor a small target. Loading Id like to see journalists take on their responsibility to make the contest interesting and relevant. What about the topics neither side seem to want to talk about, such as the state of universities and tax reform and budget repair? Perhaps there could be less about the leaders and more about the teams. Marise Payne and Penny Wong on foreign affairs; Jim Chalmers and Josh Frydenberg on the deficit; Michaelia Cash and Mark Dreyfus on the independent commission against corruption. More contest of capacities and ideas, less cogitating and microanalysis of images and words. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It was pouring with rain in Varberg in Sweden on September 11, 2018. When I stepped into the doctors office in the hospitals neurology department, I felt like a soldier heading into battle. Collected and scared at the same time. As ready as a person can be for possibly having their world turned upside down. After I started to notice my body behaving oddly, I went to the doctor. I underwent some very unpleasant tests that summer. One involved sticking a needle through my tongue; another receiving hundreds of increasingly powerful electric shocks on various parts of my body. I felt more and more convinced it was something serious. Id googled my symptoms. I knew what the worst-case scenario was, and something in the pit of my stomach told me it was time to prepare myself for it. After a matter-of-fact presentation of my test results, it was as if the doctor took a moment to steel herself, then she told me what shed hoped she wouldnt have to: Bjorn, all signs point to ALS. Three little letters. ALS. The nightmare scenario. The disease the tabloids have nicknamed the Devils disease. The disease that makes your muscles wither away until your body no longer has the strength to draw breath. Modern medicine has no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, so it calls it incurable. I told the doctor that Id read on Wikipedia that you usually have three to five years to live from the time of diagnosis. In your case, I believe its more like one to five years, she replied. On a personal level, the news hit me full force. Despair and shock ripped through my innards. At the same time, another part of me remained calm, facing this new reality with gentle, open eyes. Without resistance. I still have that part of me to lean on the part of me thats always awake and never fights reality. The doctor was good at her job and emotionally intelligent. She talked to me kindly and sensitively as I sat there thunderstruck. I tried to hold it together as best I could, since I wanted to record everything she was telling me on my phone, so as not to miss some important piece of information. She ran through what was going to happen next and then I left her office. My body was shaking with grief when I called my friend Navid. My beloved [wife] Elisabeth and I had agreed not to talk about the diagnosis on the phone, but, rather, to wait until I got home. So Navid kept me company through the soulless, endless hospital corridors, out into the pouring rain and into my car. Once behind the wheel, I felt I could handle the rest of the journey on my own, so we hung up. Advertisement The grief was crashing over me like waves. When I merged on to the motorway, volcanic eruptions of sadness racked my body again. I was overcome with unbearable thoughts like, I thought I was going to grow old with Elisabeth. Id so been looking forward to having step-grandchildren and seeing them grow up. I thought I was going to grow old with Elisabeth. Id so been looking forward to having step-grandchildren. So I called another friend, Lasse Gustavson. Lasse is like a beacon of goodness in my life. Even on the stormiest seas, by the sharpest, most dangerous rocks, I can turn to him and find the light. And the light is always signalling the same thing in the most convincing way: Everything is as it should be. Always. The universe makes no mistakes. Lasse held my heart until I was seven or eight minutes from home and calm enough to get by unaided. I felt cried out for the moment. Emptied. The storm had passed and my body felt relaxed, my chest open. I wasnt thinking about anything, just resting in serenity, experiencing absolute mindfulness. Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad pictured here in South Africa spent 17 years as a Buddhist monk. Credit:JP Meyer Just as I was about to get off the motorway, something rose up inside me. A wise, intuitive voice spoke to me, bubbling up from the same place it had several times before in my life: Now that my last breath seems to be coming much sooner than Id hoped, I can calmly take stock and say Ive done nothing unforgivable, nothing I deeply regret or havent been able to put right. Ill be able to greet death with an open face knowing Ive lived a good life. The feeling was immensely powerful and beautiful, almost joyful. And whats more, it was a confirmation: Ive always known its important to be decent and true. Advertisement When I stepped into the hallway, I didnt have to say anything. Elisabeth knew, just from looking at me, that our worst fears had been realised. We fell into each others arms and cried and cried. And it went on like that for a few days. Usually, we cried in shifts: it was as if our grief knew when the other had the capacity to hold and support. On the third morning, I woke up early as usual and noted that my chest felt lighter. At around 6am, a friend called, so I tiptoed into the laundry room and sat down on the tiled floor to talk, so as not to wake Elisabeth. After a while, she stuck her head in. I looked up. She smiled her soft velvety smile and mouthed a silent Good morning. We held each others gaze for a long time. I noticed the light was finally back in her eyes. Hallelujah. No storm lasts forever. This too shall pass. I eventually found a relatively open way of relating to the news of my sickness. Its hard to say if it was based on acceptance or denial. Maybe it doesnt matter. Elisabeth and I managed to adopt an attitude that felt sustainable. Neither of us was willing to completely accept the doctors bleak predictions as the only possible outcome. We wanted to leave the door open for a miracle. I might be dead before the end of the year, or we might have another 20 wonderful years together. The author on a speaking tour in 2019. Credit:Anna Nordgren Even though my psyche and my soul are still in good shape, its obviously sad to feel my body gradually give up. Having ALS is a bit like being forced to live with a thief: first, theres the deeply unsettling moment the thief moves in. The equivalent to this in the world of ALS are the lumbar punctures, electromyography and neurography. Imagine a remarkably large needle, and a lot of smaller needles, in sensationally unpleasant places often in conjunction with electric shocks and tests that last an unreasonably long time. You start noticing that things youve always had in your home have gone missing. The thief seems to have taken them. One day its your ability to do a single abdominal crunch or push-up that vanishes. Another, your ability to run, swim, paddle, cycle, throw, hold or lift. You have to get used to asking for help to cut your nails, tie your laces, unlock doors, make a sandwich, buy petrol, open bottles, peel bananas, squeeze toothpaste out of the tube. And a thousand other things. Slowly but surely, you realise the thief wont be happy until hes taken everything from you. And that you according to the best knowledge of the medical profession cant do a thing about it. Thankfully, theres someone else in the house, too. My Elisabeth. And she happens to be a modern equivalent of a medieval knight in shining armour, who rides up alongside me in the heat of battle. She opens her visor, flashes her biggest smile at me and says: Dont be afraid. Im here by your side all the way. Then you just know that however things turn out, itll be okay. Advertisement Sometimes I think of the body as a kind of spacesuit weve all been poured into. I was given this particular one. When Buddhists meditate, they mainly focus on being in their bodies, but theres a clear distinction: we are not bodies, we have bodies. The Buddha went so far as to say once, Through this fathom-long body, I have sensed what was never born and never dies. The inherent nature of the body is to become sick from time to time, to age if youre lucky and one day to die. At some point during my Buddhist training, I internalised a fairly realistic view of what can be asked of a human body. Sometimes I think of the body as a kind of spacesuit weve all been poured into. I was given this particular one. Mine wasnt as top-notch as some other peoples, so it seems to have worn out a bit faster. Thats not something I can control. Without knowing it, my life as a monk in many ways prepared me for death. The Buddha emphatically stressed the value of remembering that were all going to die one day, and within the forest tradition we took this very literally. We were exposed daily to the realisation that a human life is impermanent and will one day end. The author became a sought-after speaker when he rejoined secular life in 2008. Credit: Our monastery was located in a cremation grove, which meant it hosted all local funeral services. At first, the mood at these funerals surprised me. They were so relaxed, people mingled, laughed and drank a lot of fizzy drinks. The only time I saw someone openly crying was when the deceased was a child. In the afternoon, the relatives of the dead would push a wooden cart bearing the coffin from the village, singing all the way. The coffin was placed on a pyre and the body inside it rotated so that it lay on its side. That was important because, if overlooked, the upper body of the deceased sometimes rose out of the coffin when the wood caught fire. Im told it has something to do with the tendons. Advertisement Sometimes I chose to spend all night next to the fire and the body burning in it, meditating on the impermanence of life and the inevitability of death. These meditations always calmed something restless inside me. They soothed something anxious. I softened, opened up and sort of cooled off inside, in the most pleasant sense of that phrase. It was as though my body recognised the truth when it saw it. And an uncomfortable truth does us good, so long as we stop turning away from it. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time worrying about various aspects of my physical appearance. But today we have a very different relationship, my body and I. It feels more like an old friend. Weve stuck together through thick and thin for a long time now and I feel a lot of gratitude. I want to honour my body: Thank you, body, for doing your best, all the time, every day. Youre fighting an uphill battle now. I see you. I promise never to be angry with you again when yet another movement becomes impossible for you. I promise to listen more and better to you than I ever have before. I solemnly swear that when you cant go on any longer, well do what you want. When that time comes, Im going to do everything I can just to surrender and be grateful. To rest in trust and acceptance. To take joy from the amazing life weve had, and to whisper to you with a steady and undaunted voice, Thy will be done, not mine. This is an edited extract from I May Be Wrong and Other Wisdoms from Life as a Forest Monk (Bloomsbury, $30), by Swede Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, who spent 17 years as a Buddhist monk. He died on January 17. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. We are entering the second week of a campaign many people must wish was already over. Part of that voter fatigue can be put down to having been told repeatedly by the polls how the story is likely to end. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail. Credit:James Brickwood, Alex Ellinghausen Yet even though hes been a part of the national political soap opera for more than two decades, one of the main characters remains curiously ill-defined. Perhaps this one will turn into a cliffhanger after all. More than 8000 new homes must be built by the Commonwealth as an emergency measure to address severe overcrowding in First Nations communities, according to Indigenous advocacy groups. Justice group Change the Record and housing group Everybodys Home have urged the winner of next months election to urgently invest in the sector. Cheryl Axleby is the co-chair of Change the Record, which is calling for more housing. Credit: The groups election priority document said appropriate housing was key to improving health outcomes and preventing family violence in First Nations communities. As an emergency measure to address the overcrowding crisis, we call for an immediate investment over four years in a minimum of 8500 new co-designed, culturally appropriate, climate resilient properties across the continent, it said. Under the Criminal Code, it is an offence to incite someone to give false or misleading information to a Commonwealth entity. She called on Morrison to rule out Tudge returning to the ministry and explain why he should remain in parliament. Encouraging another person to withhold information from national security agencies as part of a vetting process undermines our national security and safety, she said. While ASIO is warning that the biggest threat to Australia is foreign interference and espionage, such conduct risks playing straight into the hands of our adversaries by encouraging a person to withhold the very information national security agencies need to protect Australia against these threats. Tudge did not respond to a request for comment. But in response to questions about whether the minister had potentially breached the criminal code, the ministerial standards and whether Thom had been aware of the texts, a government spokesperson said Mr Tudge remains stood down from his position. He is not receiving a ministerial salary. As he submitted to the inquiry conducted by Dr Vivienne Thom, Mr Tudge did not consider himself to be in a relationship with Ms Miller. Mr Tudge has not met with Ms Miller in any capacity since 2017, the spokesperson said. The government cleared the way for Tudge to be restored to cabinet after the election on the basis the Department of Finance has offered to settle a complaint brought by Miller over her treatment while an adviser, worth a reported $500,000. The Saturday Paper reported Miller had accused another senior Liberal MP of sexually harassing her during the settlement process over the Tudge matter. On Sunday, Morrison was asked about Miller stating she released all parties from any confidentiality requirements of the settlement. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would honour the process of the Finance Department. Credit:James Brickwood This process is confidential and has been put in place by the Department of Finance ... I think that is the way these matters should be handled and I intend to honour the process that has been established independently, by public officials, about how sensitive matters of this nature should be handled, he said. When asked why he wouldnt release detail about taxpayer money paid out perhaps concerning the conduct of a government minister and their office, Morrison replied: If there was any matter that was, in the assessment by the Department of Finance, that involved the conduct of any Minister whatsoever in the granting of that payment then that matter would have to be raised with me. I can assure you absolutely that no such reference has been made to me. In the texts, Miller wrote to Tudge on March 5, 2018, and said: Im sorry, I need to talk to you about something urgent regarding an update to my NV2 [Negative Vetting 2, the second-highest level] security clearance which I have to do. Can you pls call? She later wrote: I have to send through via email marked sensitive personal to a secure inbox a form which discloses a change in personal relationships. I am stating Personal intimate relationship with Alan Tudge MP commenced 7 June 2017. Tudge then wrote back in a series of messages sent within 18 minutes: Why? And it is not accurate. Miller then sent: Ok, you tell me what is accurate? You are so good at denying this to yourself youve convinced yourself it didnt happen! and I am sending this email. Tudge replied: Why? You should at least put it in the past tense and You are opening a large can of worms. Four hours later, Miller wrote that she had sent the form and declared extra-marital affair last half of 2017 with unidentified male who did not deserve me. Tudge also urged Ms Miller not to disclose the relationship during a phone conversation around the same time. Negative Vetting 2 allows political staff and public servants access to classified resources up to and including the Top Secret rating. It is the second-highest security clearance rating and to obtain this clearance, candidates have to provide a wealth of personal information about their family and financial circumstances, overseas travel history, criminal history and more. Having an extramarital affair would not preclude someone from receiving security clearance but the withholding of information which could be grounds for someone to be blackmailed is problematic and could be an offence. Loading Miller ended up declaring the affair with Tudge, and in a series of messages over March 7 and March 8, tried to organise a time with Tudge to speak because she had been asked by the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency for more information. Its not my fault Alan! AGSVA have come back to me for more details. I now know better than to ask you to see me just because we might want to, she wrote. Tudge replied: You know I cant, Rachelle. Cant see anyone anymore. #hermit #monk #boringasbatshit. At 9.44am on March 8, Miller confirmed she was handing over the details. Im also giving AGSVA your name, DOB and place of birth. I have been specifically asked for this information. I cannot do anything else. I am sorry, she said. At 10.26 am, Tudge said: I am free in about five mins. Miller sent through a document and the minister replied: Ok. Pls qualify it. In the past. Etc. V dangerous for both of us. This leaks and Labor will pursue relentlessly your new role with MC [Michaelia Cash]. All over. A month ago, Macron spent an afternoon wearing a hoodie, a furrowed expression and three-day stubble for a photoshoot that made it look as if he was playing Volodymyr Zelensky. It went down poorly, but not poorly enough to put Team Macron off overtly masculine, uncomfortably informal portraits involving excesses of body hair and that familiar political scent, Eau Desperation. Emmanuel Macron, bless him, is no different. Leading Marine Le Pen by just five percentage points in the French presidential election, he needed to turn heads this Easter weekend, and rapidement. Mes amis, what can I do to really get the people going? he must have asked his staff on Saturday. London: All world leaders have a fallback option for when theyre desperately in want of votes. Joe Biden puts on aviator sunglasses and makes sure hes seen at an ice cream parlour. Donald Trump reaches for his red hat, arranges for 5000 acolytes to meet him at the nearest airport runway. Boris Johnson drives a digger through a wall, or something, then hopes people misread that metaphor and see it as charming. Because hes at it again, and this time hes saying it with his chest. In a new photo set from Soazig de La Moissonniere, a frequent Elysee snapper, Macron can be seen reclining, presumably post-rally (post-something, anyway), on a mustard leather sofa, with several mobile phones at his side and at least four more shirt buttons undone than is ever acceptable, unless actively undressing. The images released by Emmanuel Macrons official photographer were immediately dubbed je suis Zelensky by the French press. Credit:Soazig de la Moissonniere/Presidence de la Republique And poking no, powering through the chemise is his rarely seen running mate: a bristling carpet of thick brown hair. The war chest. A Tom Selleck throwback special. And boy, did it get the people going. Some politicians call for a spin doctor, Macron called for the rug doctor. Diagnosis? A heavy dose of he-vage male cleavage. Whether this will win over the undecided voter in France is unclear, as is the manner in which Le Pen might respond. (A little midriff on show at her next press conference, perhaps?) But in revealing that he could save hundreds of euros on the government security budget by always wearing his own thatched bullet-proof vest, Macron has accidentally tapped into the zeitgeist. After more than three decades under wraps for everybody other than Roger Federer, he-vage is very much back. At awards ceremonies, triangles of nude torsos, from Timothee Chalamets to Jared Letos, have littered red carpets through the northern spring. On the catwalks, youve been more likely to see real fur than a round neck or top button done up this season. And as with any trend, it was always going to be ruined by politicians. Ukrainian authorities condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the north-east and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting. After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv. Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky said. This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians, he said. An elderly local resident speaks to a journalist near a destroyed part of the Illich iron and steelworks in Mariupol on Saturday. Credit:AP Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverised port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday, despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn. The city still has not fallen, he told ABCs This Week program, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the south-eastern city. On Saturday, Russia said it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov. Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbas region, would be a strategic prize for Russia, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014. It would be Russias biggest victory after two months of costly fighting and could help reassure the Russian public amid a worsening economic situation resulting from Western sanctions. Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the neighbouring region of Luhansk, which has seen heavy fighting, repeated a plea for people to evacuate. The next week will be difficult, he said in a post on his Facebook page. It may be the last time we have a chance to save you. On the streets of Mariupol, small groups of bodies were lined up under colourful blankets, surrounded by shredded trees and scorched buildings. Residents, some pushing bicycles, picked their way around destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles while Russian soldiers checked the documents of motorists. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have left much of the city pulverised, leaving an estimated 21,000 people dead. Some 100,000 people out of a prewar population of 450,000 remained trapped in the city on Sunday without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of the some of the worst suffering of the war. All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defence Ministrys spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum. A Russian military convoy near Mariupol on Saturday. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, has been resisting Russian troops for almost seven weeks. Credit:AP He said intercepted communications indicated there were about 400 foreign mercenaries along with the Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel mill, a claim that could not be independently verified. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a shield defending Ukraine as Russian troops prepare for the battle in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory. Loading In a reminder that no part of Ukraine is safe, Russian forces carried out missile strikes on Sunday near Kyiv and in Kharkiv, the countrys second city. After the humiliating loss of its flagship Black Sea ship to a Ukrainian missile attack, Russias military had vowed on Friday to step up strikes on the capital. The Kremlin said on Sunday that it had attacked an ammunition plant near Kyiv with precision-guided missiles, the third such strike in as many days. Russia also claimed to have destroyed Ukrainian air defence radar equipment in the east, near Sievierodonetsk, as well as several ammunition depots elsewhere. Explosions were reported in Kramatorsk, the eastern city where rockets earlier this month killed at least 57 people at a train station crowded with civilians trying to evacuate ahead of the Russian offensive. Mariupols final stand Tunnels at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill have allowed the defenders to hide and resist. Loading President Zelensky said the fall of Mariupol could scuttle any attempt at a negotiated peace. The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol what they are doing now can put an end to any format of negotiations, Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists. In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky called on the West to send more heavy weapons to help save the city. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow last week the first European leader to do so since the invasion February 24 said the Russian president was in his own war logic on Ukraine. In an interview on NBCs Meet the Press on US TV, Nehammer said he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war, and we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine. Ukrainian servicemen run for cover as explosions are heard during a Russian attack in Kharkiv on Sunday. Credit:AP Like Mariupol, the north-eastern city of Kharkiv has been a target of attacks since the early days of the invasion and has seen conditions deteriorate ahead of the eastern offensive. At least five people were killed and 13 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv on Sunday, regional officials said. The barrage slammed into apartment buildings and left the streets scattered with broken glass and other debris. Reuters, AP The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Functional Analyst (HR and Payroll), Budapest, Hungary Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Country: Hungary City: Budapest Office: FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia Closing date: Friday, 6 May 2022 CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT : 2201040 Functional Analyst (HR and Payroll) Job Posting: 14/Apr/2022 Closure Date: 06/May/2022, 9:59:00 PM Organizational Unit : CSLCD Job Type: Non-staff opportunities Type of Requisition : Consultant / PSA (Personal Services Agreement) Grade Level : N/A Primary Location: Hungary-Budapest Duration : 11 months Post Number : N/A IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture. Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply; Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAOs values FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality Organizational Setting The post is located in the Shared Services Centre. The Shared Services Centre (SSC) recommends and administers process management and procedures that need to be executed effectively; ensure the management of quality assurance activities associated with the transactional processes and implementation of service delivery; continuously improve the satisfaction of its customers, internal or external, while pursuing a continuous improvement agenda that will drive up service excellence while driving down the costs of service delivery through process standardization, process automation and self-service capabilities Reporting Lines Under the direct supervision of the Head of the Continuous Improvement Unit, the Functional Analyst leads the business requirements gathering process, details business process flows, and develops implementation plans with the business units of FAO. Technical Focus The functional analyst will be required to work across multiple operational and technology groups and clients. The functional analyst will document the business requirements, and lead the business analysis activity to align the business processes of FAO to selected system solutions, document business processes and determine the optimal configuration for the identified Oracle HR, and Payroll modules. Tasks and responsibilities Work closely with the head of the Payroll and HR units to further improve the use of the payroll capabilities and well as self-service functions Work closely with the Payroll and HR unit heads to see if customizations or controls can be aligned to standard functionality reducing the technical work to port custom applications as part of the R12.2 upgrade. Lead detailed design, implementation, configuration and testing of various modules in HR and Payroll area, in Oracle eBusiness Suite (eBS) R12.2.10 (HRMS, Oracle Payroll ad Oracle Advanced Benefits (OAB), Oracle Time & Labor (OTL)) and HCM Cloud and Taleo. Coordinate collection, analysis of data utilizing a variety of techniques to gather information about the current state, best practices standards, and desired future processes. Identify opportunities for improvement and recommend solutions and work with process owners and other subject matter experts to identify scope of processes to be examined, define business requirements, establish success criteria, etc. Identify improvements and develop recommendations/solutions that allow senior management and process owners to make decisions about new best practices to ensure realization of improvements. Coordinate with the Business Process Owners and other key stakeholders to develop project plans to improve key areas such as Oracle HR, and/or Payroll. Proactively monitor project statuses and intermediate deliverables and escalate issues to management and stakeholders. Coordinate creation of process maps - current/future - with insights from cross-functional team members, to identify opportunities/dependencies, and then use this data to make recommendations to improve processes. Prepare testing plans for functional requirements and coordinate testing activities with stakeholders and concerned business units and collects information on validation of results. Facilitate communications and change management. Perform other related duties as required. CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements University degree in business administration, project management, computer science, IT systems management, or other related field; Oracle certification(s) (e.g. Certified Implementation Specialist) or track record of Oracle E-Business suite large scale implementation. Minimum of 8 years of Oracle support/ development experience; Working knowledge (C level) of English and limited knowledge (B level) of a second UN language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian) required. For PSA.SBS working knowledge of English will be sufficient. FAO Core Competencies Results Focus Teamwork Communication Building Effective Relationships Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement Technical/Functional Skills Experience in supporting/developing Oracle HR, and/or Payroll solutions and technical design documents from business requirements; Experience of Oracle 12.2.10 version Upgrade and Patching will be of added advantage; Strong ERP and systems design experience is desired; Experience with Oracle Business Intelligence development tools would be an asset (OBIEE 11/12c, Answers, BI Publisher) Experience with Microsoft Power BI is desired; Experience in working with multicultural teams in business transformation efforts; Understanding of the United Nations is essential, and previous experience in FAO or other UN Agencies preferred. Knowledge/Experience highly desirable to have: Cross-functional knowledge of "Hire-to-Separate" and Payroll processes in the context of complex ERP systems Experience with Workflow Management applications (including third-party) and their system/platform integration with Oracle EBS or Cloud infrastructure in the area of HR, and/or Payroll. Experience with application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and digital process automation Knowledge of best practices in the area of UN systems Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing) Please note that FAO will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ For more information, visit the FAO employment website Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances. Subject to certain exemptions, vaccination against COVID-19 will in principle be required. Vaccination status will be verified as part of the medical clearance process. HOW TO APPLY To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications Incomplete applications will not be considered Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAOs behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date. If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1649957281241 National Consultant on Agrobusiness, Yerevan, Armenia Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Country: Armenia City: Yerevan Office: FAO Yerevan, Armenia Closing date: Thursday, 28 April 2022 2201041 National Consultant on Agrobusiness Job Posting: 14/Apr/2022 Closure Date: 28/Apr/2022, 9:59:00 PM Organizational Unit : FEARM Job Type: Non-staff opportunities Type of Requisition : PSA (Personal Services Agreement) Grade Level : N/A Primary Location: Armenia-Yerevan Duration : Up to 120 days until 31 December 2022 Post Number : N/A FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions. FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAOs values FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization. Organizational Setting The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) is responsible for leading FAOs response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development through the identification, planning and implementation of FAOs priority activities in the region. It ensures a multidisciplinary approach to programmes, identifies priority areas of action for the Organization in the Region and, in collaboration with departments and divisions at Headquarters, develops, promotes and oversees FAOs strategic response to regional priorities. REU also advises on the incorporation of regional priorities into the Organizations Programme of Work and Budget and implements approved programmes and projects in the region, monitors the level of programme implementation and draws attention to problems and deficiencies. The Regional Office supports regional policy dialogue on food security, agriculture and rural development issues, facilitates the emergence of regional partnerships, and supports capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the region. Reporting Lines A person for this function will be recruited under the project, based on FAO HR rules. Under the direct supervision of Programme/Operations Officer or BH and overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Armenia and under the technical guidance of the Lead Technical Office (LTO) of the project, as well as in close cooperation with the Government authorities, other national counterparts and the national/international consultants. Tasks and responsibilities Specific tasks include: Prepare a comprehensive situation analysis of existing agricultural cooperatives, agro-producers associations and groups in Armenia, including the assessment of their capacities and performance, the assessment of the national legal framework, as well as highlighting the best practices and business models of successfully operating cooperatives and agro-producers associations working in Armenia; Provide recommendations on the economically justified areas for producers cooperation in the five LAG territories, supported by financial justifications and projections; Develop and regularly update a database of resource persons and resource institutions from the regions of LAG areas and beyond that can support establishment and operation of the agro-producers associations, create networks and make these persons and institutions available as and when required; Organize awareness raising events and meetings with interested beneficiaries in the five LAG territories to present and discuss the prospective areas for producers cooperation and the relevant business models; Identify at least five interested groups and support them with the development of a business strategy for the future associations; Support 3-4 groups of agro-producers to form associations in the LAG territories and assist them in the development of business plans; In cooperation with the National Agriculture Economist, organize capacity building sessions with the interested groups on business planning, cost-benefit analysis, financial management, grant applications, etc.; Contribute to project progress reports related to the activities performed; identify lessons learned, constraints and issues that require timely resolution and corrective actions and present recommendations; Prepare mission reports after each mission; Perform other related duties as required. CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements Advanced university degree in agriculture or a closely related field Three years of relevant experience and strong analytics, research skills Fluency in Armenian and English. Knowledge of Russian is an asset. Good communication skills National of Armenia or resident in the country with a regular work permit. FAO Core Competencies Results Focus Teamwork Communication Building Effective Relationships Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing). Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted. Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications. For other issues, visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/ Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances. Subject to certain exemptions, vaccination against COVID-19 will in principle be required. Vaccination status will be verified as part of the medical clearance process. HOW TO APPLY To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications Incomplete applications will not be considered Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAOs behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date. If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org Link to the organizations job posting: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1649957289497 Marc Tallman is the founder of Empty Cup Collective, but his life is nothing if not full. Marc Tallman is the founder of Empty Cup Collective, but his life is nothing if not full. In the past 12 months despite a COVID-19 pandemic thats wreaked havoc on businesses, especially ones in the hospitality sector Tallman has burst onto Winnipegs independent coffee scene, opening a trio of modern and striking, yet accessible and friendly, cafes in the city. Owner Marc Tallman (left) with Rempel opened the Panet Road location last year. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) And by the way hes only 26 years old. In a wide-ranging hour-plus chat at the Panet Road location over hot drinks on a recent mid-week morning, Tallman an ambitious but amiable fellow spoke about his rapidly growing concept, philosophy in business, and big plans for the future. Tallman grew up in Tuxedo and attended St. Johns-Ravenscourt school, before attending the University of Winnipeg to get a bachelor of business administration degree. When he graduated in 2017, he wasnt passionate about coffee at all. "I liked coffee like a lot of people, just drinking it to get through the day, but I never liked it enough to care what I was drinking," he said, making a comparison to beer to illustrate his point. Tallman opened Empty Cup in the Panet Road building owned by his familys Princess Auto and which, for a time, served as a Princess Auto location. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "I was more of a Bud Light person, not a craft beer person." While backpacking across the world on a year off, he drank a lot of canned cold brew coffee to beat the heat of locales such as Australia, the South Pacific and Thailand. He got to thinking that starting his own line of cold brews when he returned to Winnipeg might be a good and profitable idea. You see, business is in Tallmans blood like caffeine he comes from an extremely entrepreneurial family. His grandfather, Harvey Tallman, bought Princess Auto Wrecking in 1942 with the money he made from selling the truck he used while working in Alaska. Harvey, who was turned down by the Canadian Armed Forces twice because of his psoriasis, transformed a little shack on Princess Street into a war surplus supplier, and later, into a tools and equipment mecca. Empty Cup recently opened an Academy Road location in a former Starbucks. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) Harveys son, and Marcs father, Bob Tallman expanded Princess Auto Ltd. into the national company it is today, with 48 locations across all 10 Canadian provinces. Harvey is still around and is nearing 100. Bob is in his mid-60s and is "90 per cent retired now," Marc said. Bob left Marc and Marcs older brother, Matt Tallman to manage Princess Auto in 2018. But Bob also wanted his sons to have businesses of their own. Matt, 30 years old, is the president and founder of popular Kenaston Avenue taproom and brewery Trans Canada Brewing, which opened in October, 2017. Marc opened Empty Cup at a similar age, as his idea for a line of canned cold brew quickly blossomed into ideas of a full-blown cafe. Barista Emily Green steams milk while making a vanilla latte at Empty Cup on Academy Road. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) "It was like, Well, were going to roast the beans, so why not sell the beans?" Tallman said. "We have a space, so why not have a cafe?" But Tallman and his business-partner-slash-close-friend, COO Dexter Rempel, had a lot to learn. Neither had worked in a coffee shop before. "We literally had no idea Weve learned everything the past two years," Tallman said. They hired consultants, travelled to Colombia to study coffee beans and the growing process, and went to Italy for a barista course learning how to properly steam milk, pull shots of espresso and the like. They got their training done just in the nick of time. They left Italy just as the first wave of COVID-19 occurred there in early 2020. Beans roasting away at the Panet Road location. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) Tallman moved with confidence as he jumped behind the line to make us drinks when I arrived. (He needlessly apologized for the lack of art on my hazelnut oat latte.) Opening on Panet Road first was logical. Tallman owned the building already, as it used to be a Princess Auto (there is still a Princess Auto directly south of the shop.) However, the space needed a lot of work. Tallman planned to open in 2020, but unsurprisingly hit several roadblocks including a brutal second COVID wave and construction delays along the way. It at least gave him more time to practise. The shop finally opened on April 1, 2021. Tallman and Rempel opened the second Empty Cup location, in Sage Creek, in late September 2021, and followed that up by opening a location on Academy Road in a former Starbucks location in February. He said a lot of people in North River Heights have told him how badly their neighbourhood needed a coffee shop since Starbucks departed, and hes more than happy to fill the void. Rempel pours beans into the company roaster at the Panet Road location. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) The Empty Cup locations the name, by the way, is a play on the phonetic pronunciation of Marc Tallmans initials, "M.T.," have a slick vibe, with a sharp monochromatic colour scheme, sleek counters, and lit-up marquees on the ceilings that read "EMPTY." (The marquee was a last-minute addition to the Panet location but has now become a signature in all three shops.) Despite the look, Empty Cup is not a "third wave" shop, Tallman said. "Third wave" craft coffee appeals to hardcore coffee fans, and Tallman said it can be quite bitter and acidic. Empty Cup strives to be a bit more accessible with a variety of blends. "Were really not trying to just appeal to coffee lovers," Tallman said. "Were trying to appeal to anyone who wants to drink coffee or tea were trying to get people who are a tad out of their comfort zone to come in for a coffee and learn that were not the coffee theyre scared of," he said. Its important to Tallman that Empty Cup is welcoming to all. "I want customers to not be afraid to ask what a different coffee is. I want people to be able to learn about coffee, have a great experience, and be in what I think is a cool place." The nose knows: operations leader Dexter Rempel grabs a sniff of a batch of beans, getting ready to end roasting at just the right time. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) Unlike the Panet Road location, which is not in a particularly walkable location on the edge of an industrial park, the Academy location attracts plenty of walk-up traffic and more who sit in. Panet is doing well, and about 50 per cent of the customers there are regulars, but Academy is doing gangbusters. Sage Creek had a slower winter but has a large patio that should be bustling come summer, Tallman said. One of the biggest things Tallman has learned over the past year other than the ins and outs of running a cafe is how to deal with people. "My dad always told me people are the hardest part of business and I think its true," he said. "Everybody wants something and you want whats best for the business and you have to try and manage both of those, manage how people get along, and everything else that goes with it." Birthday cake latte is a feature coffee. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) One lesson his grandfather and father taught Marc, a lesson he has kept at the forefront of his mind, is to make people the biggest focus both customers and the approximately 50 staff. "Its all about people, whether its customer service or our team members, doing the right thing for them" Tallman said. "We never laid a single person off here through COVID. Weve had way lower turnover than you would ever think in a quick service cafe. The team are all friends. They get along. Its fantastic so far no complaints." Tallman isnt behind the line too much now, but at the beginning, would jump in as needed and knows how to make the whole menu. He trusts his experienced staff to represent the business well, and was even able to take a vacation recently without worrying that the shops would fall apart while he was gone. We heart coffee: frothed milk tops a vanilla latte. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) Collaboration between Matt and Marc has been frequent. Trans Canadas beer is on tap at all Empty Cup locations, and the pizzas on offer are some of Trans Canadas most popular and can be baked up in a matter of minutes. The brothers collaborated on a cold brew coffee stout sold at Trans Canada last year, and Tallman gave me one of the two cans he estimated to still be in existence. Empty Cup is also similar to Trans Canada in the way customers can get a peek behind the scenes. The glass wall behind the counter at the Panet location gives a clear look at the roasting equipment and canning line Tallman hopes to have the first-ever cans of cold brews ready by the Victoria Day weekend just like the glass wall at Trans Canada gives a clear look of the vats and brewing activities. Tallman and Rempel who arrived about an hour into the interview gave the reporter a mini tour, and its clear they now know their stuff, showing the different types of beans from various countries and explaining the roasting and cold-brew production processes. While Tallman is young, hes no rookie thanks to his family background. As a result, no ones tried to throw cold water on his plans or told him hes too young to hack it. Bags of coffee of various varieties are for sale Empty Cup. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) However, when he goes to events and expos he and Rempel travelled to Boston the day after the interview for the Specialty Coffee Expo and interacts with suppliers, some are surprised that someone in his mid-20s has stores of his own. "Ive had that all my life, though, so I dont really notice it anymore, as much. But theyre definitely surprised," he said. As for the advice hed offer other young entrepreneurs, Tallman is blunt. "Dont half-ass it," he said. "If youre going to do it, do it, and make sure its up to the standard that you want. I think that businesses that fail kind of half-ass it" A common design scheme between the original Panet Road location and the Academy Road location (shown) ties the two stores together. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) "Just look at this cafe. Its very experiential. We have the array full of everything" he continued, including the food menu of bowls, overnight oats, pizzas, and pastries from La Belle Baguette; beer and cold brew on a nitro tap; merchandise for sale; and a newly established rewards program where customers collect "drips" to redeem for free drinks. "If we wanted to, we could have just done coffee and had some coffee bags, but we tried to really extend it and make it a full offering, a full experience, rather than kind of stopping halfway." "I really wanted this place to kind of operate from morning to night come here for your first coffee or your last beer." Tallmans plans to offer that experience in more places to expand are, unsurprisingly, heady. Hes striving to keep Empty Cup on a firm upward trend. In addition to rolling out a line of canned cold brews, Empty Cup is opening its fourth location at Pineridge Hollow in Oakbank. The shop will be part of the new "Village at Pineridge Hollow" concept, which will consist of two large buildings with six individual shops each and a large covered farmers market. Tallman and Rempel have also bought a small trailer to use for pop-ups, with plans to take it to events within Winnipeg and to Tall Pines Marina in Kenora this summer. On top of all that, Tallman eventually wants to have a location with a drive-thru, which have become key for many businesses since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but isnt sure where hed want that location to be. He sees the potential for Empty Cup in other cities, but wants to get their processes refined more before hed make such a move. "I think we have a solid base, and we can build on that. I think that people love our brand," Tallman said. "Academys proven that its extremely busy; its hard to sit down in there. Im hopeful for the future, and well see where we go." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Tallman is a big-picture guy but provided a couple of examples of his attention to detail that will also serve Empty Cup well as it expands, whether thats within Winnipeg or beyond. "If we only went with cold brew and didnt design the cans properly, that would be a failure in my eyes," he said, as an example. "For us, cups were also big thing," he continued, gesturing to his black-cupped Americano, adorned with the italicized lower-case e logo and "EMPTY" in capital block letters from the bottom to the top. "A lot of cafes just have white cups. If we did that, that would have not been a full offering to me. I really wanted to create something that looks like a business thats been around for a while." "A lot of people have asked if were franchised or a chain, and in my eyes thats a good thing, because it means were doing something right and were looking like weve done our research and fully built the business that we wanted to build." declan.schroeder@winnipegfreepress.com ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. FILE - Travelers walk through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday, April 1, 2022 in Seattle. On Monday, April 18, 2022, a federal judge in Florida voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation saying it exceeded the authority of U.S. health officials. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. The judge's decision freed airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements, resulting in a mix of responses. The major airlines switched to a mask optional policy, with some eliciting cheers from passengers when the changes were announced over loudspeakers. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement, and airports in Houston and Dallas almost immediately did away with their mandates after the TSA announcement. Los Angeles International Airport, the world's fifth-largest by passenger volume, also dropped its mandate but the Centers for Disease Control continued to recommend masking on transportation and I think that's good advice," LAX spokesman Heath Montgomery said. Sleepy passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean. No ones any happier than we are," the attendant says in a video posted by Dillon Thomas, a CBS Denver reporter, who was on the flight. She added that people who wanted to keep on their masks were encouraged to do so. But were ready to give em up," she added. So thank you and happy unmasking day! New York Citys public transit system planned to keep its mask requirement in place. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said it would make masks optional for riders on its buses and trains. The Association of Flight Attendants, the nations largest union of cabin crews, has recently taken a neutral position on the mask rule because its members are divided about the issue. On Monday, the unions president appealed for calm on planes and in airports. The last thing we need for workers on the frontlines or passengers traveling today is confusion and chaos, union leader Sara Nelson said. Nelson said it takes airlines 24 to 48 hours to put new procedures in place and tell employees about them. She said passengers should check with airlines for updates about travel requirements. The mask requirement covered airlines, airports, mass transit and taxis, and was the biggest vestige of pandemic restrictions that were once the norm across the country. The decision by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, also said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking procedures that left it fatally flawed. In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely across the country because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected in the lawsuit. The judge said a limited remedy would be no remedy at all and courts have full authority to make a decision such as this even if the CDC's goals in fighting the virus are laudable. The Justice Department declined to comment when asked if it would seek an emergency stay to block the judges order. The CDC also declined to comment. The White House said the court ruling means that for now the mask order is not in effect at this time. This is obviously a disappointing decision, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. The CDC is recommending wearing a mask on public transit. The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. In New York, Metropolitan Transportation Authority communications director Tim Minton said the system was "continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will review the Florida court order. The MTA operates New York City buses and subway trains as well as two commuter rail lines. Face coverings have been mandatory on all trains and buses since early in the pandemic. United Airlines said in a statement that, effective immediately, masks would no longer be required on domestic flights or certain international flights. "While this means that our employees are no longer required to wear a mask and no longer have to enforce a mask requirement for most of the flying public they will be able to wear masks if they choose to do so, as the CDC continues to strongly recommend wearing a mask on public transit," United said. Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also made similar announcements. The federal mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate. Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. There have been a series of violent incidents on aircraft that have mainly been attributed to disputes over the mask-wearing requirements. The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 by two plaintiffs and the Health Freedom Defense Fund, described in the judge's order as a nonprofit group that opposes laws and regulations that force individuals to submit to the administration of medical products, procedures and devices against their will. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was not directly involved in the case but has battled against many government coronavirus requirements, praised the ruling in a statement on Twitter. Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end, DeSantis tweeted. ___ Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Michael Balsamo and Will Weissert in Washington, and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this story. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized Monday with Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the drugmaker's role in perpetuating the opioid crisis in the state that has long led the nation in drug overdose deaths. Attorney General for the State of West Virginia Patrick Morrisey gives opening arguments Monday, April 4, 2022. on the first day of the trial against Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan and their family of companies accused of misrepresenting the risks and benefits of opioids, in the Kanawha County Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va. (Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP) CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia will receive $99 million in a settlement finalized Monday with Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. over the drugmaker's role in perpetuating the opioid crisis in the state that has long led the nation in drug overdose deaths. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said during a news briefing that he believes West Virginia's settlement is the largest in the country per capita with Johnson & Johnsons Janssen, which has faced opioid litigation in dozens of communities throughout the U.S. The attorney general said the figure is reflective of the severity of the opioid crisis in West Virginia. We think it represents a major step forward to start to get money in the door to help West Virginians who have been devastated by the opioid epidemic, Morrisey said from his state Capitol office. Attorney General for the State of West Virginia Patrick Morrisey gives opening arguments Monday, April 4, 2022. on the first day of the trial against Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan and their family of companies accused of misrepresenting the risks and benefits of opioids, in the Kanawha County Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va. (Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP) The settlement was announced at the start of the third week of testimony in the state's case against Janssen, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie Inc.s Allergan and their family of companies. The companies are accused of downplaying or failing to mention the risks of addiction associated with opioid use in West Virginia while overstating the prescription drugs benefits. In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson and Janssen said the settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the company. The company's actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important opioid prescription medications were appropriate and responsible, a news release read. The company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the U.S., according to the release. Morrisey said West Virginia's cities and counties could start seeing the settlement money within 45 days. The money will be used to help communities combat the opioid crisis. Meanwhile, he said the trial against Teva and Allergan is continuing as scheduled. We will have no delay in our pursuit of accountability against Teva and Allergan and well be back in court now, he said. FILE - Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is shown at the White House, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, in Washington. Gupta was one of the first witnesses whose video deposition was played at a bench trial Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in which several pharmaceutical manufacturers are accused in a lawsuit of contributing to the crisis. He testified that the opioid epidemic got so bad in drug-ravaged West Virginia that the state was having trouble finding foster parents to care of children. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) Filed in 2019, the state's lawsuits accuse the companies of creating a public nuisance and violating the states Consumer Credit and Protection Act. Attorneys for the companies said during opening statements earlier this month that their individual products in question had considerably less than 1% of the market share in West Virginia, were medically necessary prescriptions and could not have contributed to the states opioid problems. But pharmaceutical marketing expert Matthew Perri testified that he painstakingly reviewed thousands of pages of marketing materials from the companies. He described a paradigm shift from the late 1990s to early 2000s in which the companies transitioned from marketing opioids as drugs designed for terminal cancer patients to drugs aimed at treating long-term pain. Perri testified that marketing materials used by sales representatives described drugs as safe and highly effective at controlling pain and improving functionality and quality of life for patients. It took down the barriers that were there, and effectively lowered the bar for the prescription of opioid medications, he said. Opioids could be prescribed sooner in the treatment process, with less worry. Dr. Katherine Keyes, director of Columbia Universitys Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program, testified last week that the influx of prescription opioids into communities was the main driver of the states drug crisis more than poverty, job loss and other economic stressors. The economic conditions were the kindling, but the opioid suppliers were the gasoline that was poured directly on that kindling, Keyes said. Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state's former health officer, testified during a video deposition shown earlier this month that the opioid epidemic got so bad, the state was having trouble finding foster parents to care for children. He said it also led to increases in public health problems such as Hepatitis B and HIV cases and neonatal abstinence syndrome, a withdrawal in newborns caused by exposure to drugs in the womb. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Gupta, who is now the White House drug czar, recorded his testimony before he was named to his White House position last fall. Before the trial started, Morrisey's office announced the state settled part of the lawsuit involving another defendant, Endo Health Solutions, for $26 million. State and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities have filed more than 3,000 lawsuits involving the opioid epidemic in state and federal courts. In November, a California judge ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Endo International, Teva and others, saying local governments had not proven in a lawsuit that the companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. Nationwide settlements were completed in February by Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson over their role in the opioid addiction crisis. That cleared the way for $26 billion to flow to nearly every state and local government in the U.S. West Virginia previously reached settlements in separate lawsuits, including $37 million with distributor McKesson in 2019, and $20 million with Cardinal Health and $16 million with AmerisourceBergen in 2017. In Charleston, a separate bench trial wrapped up last summer in a federal lawsuit accusing AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of fueling the opioid crisis in Cabell County and the city of Huntington. That judge has not indicated when he will rule. An ongoing spike in jet fuel prices will have to be passed on to passengers at least in part even as competition ramps up among discount carriers, says the new president of budget airline Swoop. An ongoing spike in jet fuel prices will have to be passed on to passengers at least in part even as competition ramps up among discount carriers, says the new president of budget airline Swoop. Bob Cummings, named head of the WestJet Group's ultra-low-cost subsidiary last week, said in an interview that budget carriers aim to minimize the impact of labour and fuel costs on airfares, but that market forces can't be ignored. "We're always adjusting, almost real time, to those market forces when input costs to go up. And they really do need to be passed through in order for the company to be financially healthy," he said Monday, his first day on the job. "We'll be doing everything we can to minimize that and have affordable fares." Fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including sanctions and oil import bans, helped push up the price of jet fuel by 129 per cent year over year to nearly US$153 per barrel by April 8, according to the International Air Transport Association. The price has dropped slightly since. Fuel costs amount to a major headwind for airlines in the coming quarters, National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen said in a note to investors last week. Cummings, who joins Swoop after a three-and-a-half-year stint away from the company following 13 years as a WestJet executive, nonetheless expects bookings to surpass pre-pandemic levels this summer. Other hurdles include rapid domestic expansions by rivals Flair Airlines and recent entrant Lynx Air as well as ongoing COVID-19 testing requirementsand a global pilot shortage. Flair Airlines was down to one aircraft a year ago, but expects to have 20 Boeing 737s in its fleet by the end of June as the Edmonton-based airline adds routes across the country. Calgary-based Lynx, formerly known as Enerjet, aims to operate 148 flights a week on more than a dozen routes by July, all within Canada, according to its CEO. Meanwhile Swoop plans to serve 33 destinations this summer, roughly half of them in Canada. It has added five new U.S. cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tenn. Flying those routes will be 16 Boeing 737 narrow-body jetliners, including six set to arrive by summer's end. "With the pent-up demand ... we're confident with respect to filling those planes," Cummings said. Demand for travel among Canadians is rising after two years cooped up under COVID-19 restrictions, but the bigger booking numbers could plateau if fuel costs are passed on to passengers through higher fares, said John Gradek, head of McGill University's aviation management program. "Typically what the airlines have done in the past with these types of fluctuations is they've put fuel surcharges on their sales to try to recoup some of this increased expense of fuel, and this of course gets passed on to the consumer." However, a competitive environment among discount airlines may convince them to mull different tactics, such as eating a portion of the fuel cost. "Which carriers are strong enough to do that have the ability to absorb those price levels?" Gradek asked. "It'll increase your cash burn, it'll affect your profitability." Flair faces challenges of its own. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruled in a preliminary determination last month that the airline "may not be controlled in fact by Canadians and, as such, Flair may not be Canadian" a violation of federal law. Miami-based investor 777 Partners acquired a 25 per cent stake in Flair in April 2019, the companies said in a joint release that year. Canada's federal transport regulator said in its March 3 decision that 777 has assumed the majority of risks and benefits of Flair's operations, taken control of the board of directors and left the airline dependent on 777 for aircraft financing and leasing. "After considering all of the facts together, the agency finds that 777s influence over Flair is dominant and that 777, therefore, may have control in fact of Flair," the CTA wrote. Flair, which has asked for an 18-month exemption to the rule, is confident it conforms to legislation that allows no more than 49 per cent ownership of a Canadian airline by foreign entities. The Canadian Transportation Act also states no one foreign player can own more than a quarter of the carrier or exert effective control over it. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "To the extent that there is any uncertainty about that, we are very happy to work with the CTA and others in government to resolve it," Flair CEO Stephen Jones said in a phone interview from New Zealand on April 6. Cummings said the federal regulator should not grant Flair an exemption. "Our expectation is that Transport Canada will uphold that (law) and that they will deny the exemption extension." The Swoop president also said a Competition Bureau investigation continues into allegations of predatory pricing at his airline and parent WestJet, launched after Flair complained it was being crowded out from several smaller markets. "There's still an ongoing process," he said of the probe, which began in 2018. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2022. BEIJING (AP) Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower. In this image taken and provided by Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, clothes are hung on a partitions at the National Exhibition and Convention Center which converted to a quarantine facility set up for people who tested positive but have few or no symptoms on April 15, 2022, in Shanghai. ( Beibei via AP) BEIJING (AP) Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower. Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine. The convention center, with 50,000 beds, is among more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in Shanghai for people such as Beibei who test positive but have no symptoms. It is part of official efforts to contain Chinas biggest coronavirus outbreak since the 2-year-old pandemic began. Residents show no obvious symptoms, Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone. There are people coughing, she said. But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron. The shutdown of Shanghai, which confined most of its 25 million people to their homes, is testing patience of people who are increasingly fed up with China's zero-COVID policy that aims to isolate every case. At the beginning people were frightened and panicked, Beibei said. But with the publication of daily figures, people have started to accept that this particular virus is not that horrible. Beibei was told she was due to be released Monday after two negative tests while at the convention center. Most of Shanghai shut down starting March 28. That led to complaints about food shortages and soaring economic losses. Anyone who tests positive but shows few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Beibei said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost part of her senses of taste and smell, but those symptoms passed in a few days. On Monday, the government reported 23,460 new cases on the Chinese mainland only 2,742 of which had symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95% of the total, or 22,251 cases, including 2,420 with symptoms. The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, though a health official warned the city didnt have its outbreak under control. At the convention center, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Most pass the time by reading, square dancing, taking online classes or watching videos on mobile phones. The 420,000-square-meter (4.6 million-square-foot) exhibition center is best known as the site of the worlds biggest auto show. Other quarantine sites include temporary prefabricated buildings. Residents of other facilities have complained about leaky roofs, inadequate food supplies and delays in treatment for medical problems. We havent found a place with a hot shower, Beibei said. Lights are on all night, and its hard to fall asleep. A video obtained by AP showed wet beds and floors due a leaky roof in a different facility in a prefabricated building. Bathrooms are not very clean at the NECC, Beibei said. So many people use them, and volunteers or cleaners cant keep up. HALIFAX - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is paying tribute to the 22 victims of the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history. HALIFAX - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is paying tribute to the 22 victims of the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history. Two years ago today, a gunman began a two-day rampage in the small Nova Scotia community of Portapique. In a statement, Trudeau says he joins the people of Nova Scotia and all Canadians in remembering those who lost their lives on April 18-19, 2020. Nova Scotians have been asked to observe a moment of silence today and Tuesday, while flags on government buildings are flying at half-mast until sunset Tuesday. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh tweeted today his thoughts are with the families and friends of the 22 people whose lives were taken. Trudeau is also paying tribute to Const. Heidi Stevenson, who was killed by the gunman, and to Const. Chad Morrison, who was wounded. "During one of the darkest days in Canadian history, they, along with the many other first responders, faced danger without hesitation saving lives and preventing further injury that day," Trudeau said. "On behalf of the government of Canada, I invite all Canadians to remember each of those who lost their lives and stand with all those affected by this attack." Premier Tim Houston has said legislation will be introduced in the fall to establish the dates of the shootings as provincial days of remembrance. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2022. HALIFAX - Two years after her father was gunned down by a man disguised as a Mountie, Charlene Bagley remains convinced he would be alive today had the Nova Scotia RCMP issued a provincewide alert early in the killer's rampage. HALIFAX - Two years after her father was gunned down by a man disguised as a Mountie, Charlene Bagley remains convinced he would be alive today had the Nova Scotia RCMP issued a provincewide alert early in the killer's rampage. "He usually would check the news on Facebook," Bagley said in a recent interview, recalling the morning of April 19, 2020 when her father Tom was murdered. "That was his morning routine. But at that point, they weren't showing the perpetrator's face or anything." The RCMP's communication with the public during the gunman's 13 hours at large has become a focal point for the commission of inquiry investigating the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, which claimed 22 lives on April 18-19, 2020. After almost eight weeks of public hearings, key questions remain about how and when the Mounties shared information, including on the first night when the killer fatally shot 13 people in rural Portapique, N.S., about 50 kilometres south of the Bagley home. The inquiry has heard that on April 18, 2020, at 11:32 p.m. RCMP used Twitter to advise Portapique residents to lock their doors because police were investigating a "firearms complaint." That innocuous statement offered little hint of the unfolding tragedy. By that time, the Mounties at the scene were aware an active shooter had already killed at least two people, wounded another and had set fire to a number of homes. As well, the suspect had yet to be found, officers were reporting gunfire and explosions, and a series of 911 calls indicated the killer was driving a car that looked like a fully marked RCMP cruiser. The inquiry has heard that at least two Mounties, Const. Stuart Beselt and Staff Sgt. Al Carroll, had suggested the public should be alerted to what was going on. But that didn't happen until the next morning. Beselt, the first officer to arrive at Portapique at 9:25 p.m., delivered the following message on his police radio at 11:16 p.m. as the search continued for the killer: "Is there some kind of emergency broadcast that we can make (to) make people go into their basement and not go outside?" He was told residents in the area were being called directly. No broadcast was made. As for Carroll, district commander for Colchester County, he told the inquiry's investigators that some time before midnight, he advised his colleagues to "get something out there through our media communications out of H Division (headquarters)." "They're our media people," he recalled saying. "Get in touch with them so they can get something out by their normal channels," which included social media. But the RCMP did not send any other messages to the public that night. Michael Arntfield, a professor and criminologist at Western University in London, Ont., said decision-making within the RCMP can be a slow process, especially when it comes to dealing with the public. "There are obviously going to be tactical decisions made on the fly but everything needs to be run up the flagpole and then back down if it involves any public communications," he said. "So even for something urgent and imminently dangerous ... they cannot unbind themselves from bureaucratic machinations. It's like analysis paralysis." There is evidence, however, the RCMP had reason to be careful about releasing more information to the public, said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., who specializes in police and security issues. Though 911 call-takers had received reports from witnesses about a replica RCMP cruiser, investigators later found three decommissioned police cars that belonged to the killer two that were burned wrecks near his properties in Portapique and one still intact in Dartmouth, N.S. At the time, police were unaware the killer had escaped Portapique in a fourth decommissioned cruiser that had been expertly modified to look identical to an RCMP cruiser. "Ultimately, you need to validate (the witness statements) because if you put out the wrong information, then you're going make the situation even worse," Leuprecht said, pointing to the discovery of the three former police cars. Arntfield, a former police officer, said it's also important to recognize the RCMP in rural Nova Scotia were facing an unprecedented situation. "You've got a fluid, critical incident," Arntfield said in an interview. "They've had no precedent or training in terms of dealing with this type of scenario." Through the night, the police force shared key information about the suspect with its officers through internal messages known as BOLOs, an acronym for "Be On The Lookout." But the public was kept in the dark. At 1:09 a.m., officers were warned about an "active shooter incident in progress." The alert identified the suspect, saying he was armed and dangerous and "associated" with an "old police car" that might have been burned in Portapique. Several similar message were repeated into the small hours of the morning. The situation changed at 7:22 a.m. when the killer's spouse emerged from hiding and revealed details about the fourth car and provided a photo of the vehicle. That crucial information was relayed to police at 8:04 a.m. through a BOLO that said the vehicle was loaded with weapons and "could be anywhere in the province." By 7:45 a.m., RCMP Staff Sgt. Addie MacCallum was tasked with preparing a news release with the help of the RCMP's media relations department. In a subsequent interview with inquiry investigators, MacCallum said he made it clear the public should be told to "look for this car." At 8:02 a.m., almost 10 hours after the shooter killed his first victim, the Mounties issued a tweet declaring an "active shooter situation" in Portapique, the first time the public received such a warning. But it did not mention the suspected getaway car or that the perpetrator could be anywhere in the province. The RCMP followed up with another tweet at 8:54 a.m. that identified 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman as the suspected gunman. A photo of him accompanied the tweet. It was around that time that Tom Bagley left for his morning walk on Hunter Road in West Wentworth. Investigators believe the former firefighter was fatally shot by the perpetrator as he approached the burning home of neighbours Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins. Police believe McLeod and Jenkins were killed in their house some time between 6:35 a.m. and 9 a.m. Charlene Bagley said her father would have stayed home had a provincewide warning alerted him to an active shooter in the area. "I guarantee you, my father would be here today," she said. "Some guy going around killing people and setting fires; I guess I'd like to know how much more was needed for them to have realized an alert was necessary." RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson asked supervisors at 8:44 a.m. if they had considered distributing a media release about the replica cruiser, according to documents released by the inquiry. Staff Sgt. Bruce Briers, in notes submitted to the inquiry, confirmed that Staff Sgt. Al Carroll the district commander in Colchester responded to the request in an email at 9:08 a.m., saying: "Thought was given to give release about vehicle, but decision was made not to." Briers, the risk manager at the Operational Communications Centre in Bible Hill, N.S., replied: "Very good. Kind of figured they may not want to release." Stevenson died later that morning when the killer crashed his car into her cruiser. Before she was fatally shot, the officer managed to fire a round that hit the suspect on the right side of the head, wounding him, the inquiry heard last week. It wasn't until 10:17 a.m. that the RCMP sent a tweet showing a photo of the killer's car, saying the perpetrator may be wearing an RCMP uniform. That key warning came almost 12 hours after the Mounties were first told about the vehicle, and more than two hours after they received the photo. As well, the Mounties have faced criticism for using Twitter to issue warnings, considering the social media platform isn't that popular in rural settings. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "The citizens of Nova Scotia have a right to know if and when they are in danger," lawyer Jane Lenehan told the inquiry last week. "The perpetrator represented a serious threat to their safety ... yet the vast majority of Nova Scotians were oblivious to the seriousness of the threat .... Critical information was withheld." Lenehan represents the family of Gina Goulet, the last person murdered by Wortman on April 19, 2020. She said many Nova Scotians would have made different choices about their movements that morning if they knew about the threat the perpetrator posed. That's why the RCMP should have distributed provincewide warnings through the Alert Ready system, which sends urgent messages directly to TV screens, radios and wireless devices, she said. The RCMP have confirmed that when two Mounties fatally shot the killer at a gas station north of Halifax at 11:25 a.m., the police force was in the middle of crafting an Alert Ready message that was never sent. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2022. With files from Michael Tutton Dr. Marcia Anderson was thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic as a voice people across Manitoba would wait on to hear for guidance on fighting COVID-19 on First Nations, but shes been devoted to serving her community for decades. Dr. Marcia Anderson was thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic as a voice people across Manitoba would wait on to hear for guidance on fighting COVID-19 on First Nations, but shes been devoted to serving her community for decades. The public health lead of Manitobas First Nations pandemic response team has now been lauded as Doctors Manitoba physician of the year for 2022. "I felt honoured even when one of my colleagues approached me and asked me if Id be willing to be nominated for it," Anderson, 44, told the Free Press. "I think its important to me in terms of what it represents: which is the value of the work that Ive been leading and part of, because thats close to my heart, and the broader acceptance and seeing of the value in that work by my peers." Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Kristjan Thompson commended Anderson as a "remarkable physician leader." "Dr. Anderson is being celebrated for her critical work in supporting Manitobans from Black, Indigenous and racialized communities through the pandemic," the physicians advocacy group leader said in an email to the Free Press. "By ensuring the right data was collected, she was able to demonstrate the disproportionate impact COVID-19 was having on these communities in order to influence provincial policy and ensure earlier and targeted vaccine access. This work led to a reduction in the disparities in the subsequent wave of COVID-19, which is truly a major public health success story." Anderson always knew she wanted to be a doctor growing up in Winnipegs North End, but wasnt always sure where she wanted to focus her work until she started medical school in 1998. "We grew up pretty disconnected from First Nations community or culture, but, for me, in medical school was when that really changed," she said. "I met some First Nations physicians, Indigenous physicians and other medical students." Through the mentorship of those physicians she notes Dr. Barry Lavallee, who also received a medal of excellence from Doctors Manitoba this year, provided her support during her studies she found the type of physician she wanted to be taking shape. "Throughout medical school and residency, (I) observed and experienced a lot of racism," she said. "It was those experiences that kind of further clarified, I wanted to work close to home." After her father had what she called "a really negative experience in health care," Anderson was moved to, no matter where she went, return home and keep her work based around improving access to health care in her community. After leaving for Saskatchewan for two years of her residency and Baltimore for a year to receive her masters in public health, Anderson returned to Winnipeg and has been practicing with a focus on Indigenous health and equity, along with medical education, since 2007. SUPPLIED Anderson gives NDP Leader Wab Kinew a COVID-19 vaccination last year. "Those kind of theoretical foundations, those relationships, the community connections that I have, and have built all of that is what really laid the foundation for the work in the pandemic that I did," she said. Anderson wears many hats outside of the COVID-19 group. Three days a week, she works in public health. She sees patients at Grace Hospital in the adult medicine clinic as a general internist with a cardiology focus practice on Wednesday mornings. The rest of the time, she serves as the vice-dean for Indigenous health, social justice, and anti-racism at the University of Manitoba. Mulling on the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, Anderson recalls "significant missteps" from the federal government's response that harmed Indigenous communities, already disproportionately impacted by the illness. "People might remember the body bags being sent to communities instead of other health supplies or the refusal to send alcohol-based hand sanitizers because the then-minister said something about how people might drink it," she said. "So when we knew COVID-19 was coming, I think there were lots of First Nations health experts who didnt want that to be the experience of their stories again this time." The executive director of Ongomiizwin Health Services and head of the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing at the U of M, Melanie MacKinnon, suggested putting together what would become the Manitoba First Nations Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team, with Anderson as the public face. The work was collaborative with different partner organizations, including the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and that collaboration and support was its strength. "The big opportunity of COVID-19 at that time was, we were all scared, right?" Anderson said. "And because of what was about to come, there was a lot more openness for creative responses and understanding that we dont have to be stuck in the status quo ways weve done things in the past, because thats not going t o work here." The goal wasnt to eliminate the structural gaps that cause disproportionate harm to Indigenous people in Manitoba, Anderson said, but to minimize that gap to improve accessibility to health-care tools and knowledge. What resulted was "probably more First Nations-led influence and direct service delivery, throughout this pandemic, as far as the health-care response goes, than we have had probably ever in the past and the health-care system." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Moving forward, the goal will be to look at the task force successes and use them to inform broader policy. "I think, at least I hope right now, because the province is still in a period of health-care transformation and trying to pick up some of that work that was being done pre-pandemic, and discontinued through, hopefully, that will be a bit smoother and easier to facilitate than it has been in past years," Anderson said. Shes now able to look back on the past two or so years tinged with uncertainty and fear, along with hindsight. When shes not leading an entire pandemic response team, Anderson said shes spending as much time outside as possible reading, working out and spending time with her two kids. "I would say its been up and down over the past couple of years," she said. "There have definitely been times when I felt much more burned out. I wouldnt say I feel like that right now but it has been, and I think for many health-care providers and me included, the toughest two-plus year period of my career or of my life." malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca WINNIPEG - A Metis group from Manitoba was flying to Rome on Monday ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican later this week. Pope Francis holds a Paschal candle as he presides over an Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, April 16, 2022. A Metis group from Manitoba was flying to Rome on Monday ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP /Alessandra Tarantino WINNIPEG - A Metis group from Manitoba was flying to Rome on Monday ahead of a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican later this week. The delegation from the Manitoba Metis Federation on Thursday will be the first to meet the head of the Roman Catholic Church since he apologized to Indigenous people for the deplorable conduct of church members involved in residential schools. The Pope apologized at the Vatican early this month following a week of meetings with Metis, Inuit and First Nations delegates. The Manitoba Metis Federation had a separate meeting organized with Francis. Delegates include residential school survivors, elders and youth. David Chartrand, the federations president, says many Metis are deeply connected to the church. "Now that His Holiness has issued an apology to all Indigenous peoples, we can focus our meeting on the relationship between the Red River Metis and the Catholic Church past, present, and future," Chartrand said in a news release Monday. Some bishops will be accompanying the Manitoba Metis delegates to the Vatican. "It is the desire of all the Bishops in Canada to move forward with reconciliation and to build strong relationships with Canadas Indigenous Peoples," Richard Gagnon, Archbishop of Winnipeg, said in a news release. An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, more than 60 per cent of which were run by the Catholic Church. On April 1, the pontiff stood before a room of nearly 200 Indigenous delegates and asked for God's forgiveness for the actions of the Catholic Church. "I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry," Francis said in Italian. "And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon." Francis also said he would come to Canada, possibly this summer. Shelley Cook | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Chartrand said he will request the Pope come to Manitoba to "understand why we need to renew our relationship, particularly in our small and remote communities, many of which the church is a central part of." A Catholic priest played a significant role in Metis leader Louis Riels founding of what would become Manitoba. Rev. Noel-Joseph Ritchot led the delegation Riel sent to Ottawa to negotiate the provisional governments entry into Confederation. Riel himself was Catholic but also wrote about his issues with the church. The Manitoba Metis Federation organized the separate meeting with the Pope after the group withdrew from the Metis National Council in 2021 following years of internal conflict. The Metis National Council was part of the larger delegation earlier this month. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2022. Church bells clanged throughout Winnipeg Sunday morning, welcoming parishioners to the first in-person Easter services held in the city since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago. Opinion Church bells clanged throughout Winnipeg Sunday morning, welcoming parishioners to the first in-person Easter services held in the city since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago. While some churches chose to keep their doors shuttered and stream their services online, others welcomed the faithful back inside, inviting them to gather together once more on the holiest day of the Christian liturgical calendar. Earlier in the week, the possibility of in-person Easter services seemed threatened for a third consecutive year. This time, however, the culprit wasnt pandemic public health restrictions, but an early spring snowstorm Environment Canada warned could be historic in its devastation. Snow did indeed descend upon Winnipeg, but not in the quantity predicted by the meteorologists, clearing the way for in-person Easter services to go ahead as planned. In Osborne Village, the parishioners of Holy Rosary Catholic Church on River Avenue streamed through the doors for Easter Mass during the morning and early afternoon, with some stopping to drop flowers at a bronze statue in the parish courtyard. The statue is of Padre Pio, an Italian saint famous for the stigmata on his hands circular wounds through his palms resembling the injuries Jesus Christ sustained during his crucifixion. But this April is not only a holy time for Christians in Winnipeg, but for members of other faith communities, too. The Jewish festival of Passover, commemorating the Israelites freedom from slavery in Egypt, began Friday and continues until April 23. And Muslims are currently observing Ramadan, a month devoted to fasting, prayer, reflection and community. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Easter mass at Holy Rosary Church: a welcome event after two years of cancellations. In a twist of fate, the calendar fell in 2022 a year in which people of all faiths (or no faith at all) are struggling to return to normal as the COVID-19 pandemic stubbornly marches on so that members of the Abrahamic religions are all observing holy days at the same time. When I was a child, Easter meant little more to me than an obligatory appearance at church, followed by all the chocolate I could stomach. But as Ive grown older, particularly as family and friends and people I love have died, it has taken on new significance and symbolism. Easter Sunday at least in the church I was baptized in brings to a close an annual cycle that begins on Ash Wednesday, when priests smudge the foreheads of parishioners with the sign of the cross and whisper a reminder that they too will one day die. It carries on through the 40 days and nights of Lent, representing Christs temptation in the desert, and through Palm Sunday the beginning of Holy Week which celebrates his arrival in Jerusalem. And it all leads to Calvary, where three crosses stood on a hill, and to a resurrection three days later, marking a vicarious victory over sin and death for all of mankind. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. It is a time when Christians of all stripes are called to reflect upon the Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, hell. This Easter, I am thinking of all those Manitobans lost to the pandemic the 1,759 who succumbed to COVID-19 itself, and the countless others who are not captured in their ranks who will never get to see our society make these stumbling attempts towards a return to normalcy. The ones who heard no church bells clanging on their final Easter Sunday on this earth. Wherever one falls on questions of theology, and whatever one thinks awaits us when we cross over to the other side, hopefully we can all spare a prayer or a warm thought for them this holy season, in the hopes that wherever they may be, they are at peace. ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe Hotly debated ideas to ban some exotic pets entirely and limit the numbers allowed in each Winnipeg household could soon be ruled out. Hotly debated ideas to ban some exotic pets entirely and limit the numbers allowed in each Winnipeg household could soon be ruled out. Last week, city councils protection and community services committee voted 3-1 to delete a call for civic staff to report back within a year on responsible pet ownership bylaw changes for exotic animals. Exotic pet owners are fine with the current bylaw in place, Coun. Markus Chambers told the Free Press on Monday. On April 11, Chambers joined Couns. Shawn Nason and Ross Eadie to vote against having the public service propose changes. The matter triggered heated debate last summer, when the city shared potential ideas, though these were never formally recommended or voted on. During a public consultation, municipal officials raised the concept of banning many types of birds, fish and reptiles from being kept as pets, by switching from a list of prohibited animals to a list of allowable ones. Another proposal noted each household could be limited to no more than five of each type of exotic animal. The ideas quickly sparked complaints from bird club members, pet retailers and national organizations, who feared pet choice would be greatly reduced. This winter, the national Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council of Canada launched an ad campaign, arguing the move would make Winnipeg the most anti-pet city in all of Canada. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The protection committees call to kick the exotic animal component off the agenda indefinitely is not final, since all pet bylaw changes require council approval. Coun. Sherri Rollins cast the sole vote against removing the exotic animal piece, over concerns some owners lack the knowledge to properly care for their exotic pets. When a snake isnt able to fully stretch out, when people dont have a concept for how to take care of a bird or many birds Im concerned about that, said Rollins, committee chairwoman. Council will vote on the matter April 28. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga After foot traffic plummeted two years ago due to COVID-19, new data shows Winnipegs downtown is gradually attracting more visitors. After foot traffic plummeted two years ago due to COVID-19, new data shows Winnipegs downtown is gradually attracting more visitors. However, local businesses hurt by pandemic closures and public health restrictions still believe the area is a long way from a full economic recovery. "Im going to say its not as hard as it was when the pandemic first happened, but I am definitely feeling sort of an emotional exhaustion. I do think its been very hard," said Elise Page, co-owner of Fete Ice Cream & Coffee at 300 Assiniboine Ave. "Theres a lot of data thats out there that says a lot of people have moved to remote working, (probably) forever." Page said her store has seen "a slight improvement" in daily coffee sales in recent weeks, with some regulars returning on a less frequent basis than in the past. "People arent coming on their lunch break and things like that. Its just less downtown traffic altogether," she said. Page is optimistic the end of nearly all public health orders will help boost sales soon and is "crossing her fingers" warmer weather will also help in the near future. At this point, there does appear to be some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel for downtown Winnipeg businesses. The number of daily average visits to the downtown rose from 87,661 for the week ending Jan. 9 to 124,573 on the week ending April 3, according to data gathered by the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone. The data was extrapolated from cellphones located within the BIZ boundaries. Historical data taken from 2021 shows the average number of visits has also risen on a monthly basis since last year. For example, the number of average daily visits was about 30 per cent higher in March 2022 than March 2021. Phil Klein, owner of Bagelsmith downtown, says he understands the desire for employees to work from home, at least on a part-time basis, but flex time creates unpredictable demand for businesses. (JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES) Meanwhile, 28 per cent of pre-pandemic downtown workers are now once again working in the city centre full-time, with another 19 per cent splitting work days between the office and home, according to a survey conducted for the BIZ in March. About 70,000 office staff worked exclusively downtown prior to the pandemic. Over the past month, the BIZ also asked 24 employers, who represent 10,000 downtown employees, for an update on where staff are working. About 18 per cent of those who responded said employees are back in the office full time, while 39 per cent said staff work a mix of home and office hours. The BIZ said all of those surveyed expected to bring back employees at least part-time in the future. Despite those plans, the numbers show a large majority of office workers, the traditional clientele for downtown businesses, has still not returned to the city centre full-time. Phil Klein, owner of Bagelsmith at 185 Carlton St., said he understands the desire for employees to work from home, at least on a part-time basis, but "flex time" creates unpredictable demand for businesses. "Any kind of normalcy for us would be lovely at this point. (For) myself, my staff, its been an exhausting time to open a business downtown. Theres been no consistency, traffic just varies widely from day to day," said Klein, who opened Bagelsmith in October 2020. While the bagel shop enjoyed a roughly 10 to 15 per cent boost in sales in recent weeks, he said it follows a "terrible" January and February, when sales were down about 35 per cent to 50 per cent from the previous year. "After Omicron hit, I think things got worse for downtown. We also saw traffic decrease pretty much the day the trucker convoy started, too. So theres a lot of variables that have impacted us negatively downtown including weather being terrible," said Klein. The head of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ said the latest data indicates a gradual economic recovery is underway, though it could still take a couple of years to reach pre-pandemic revenues. Kate Fenske, chief executive officer of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, says the latest data indicates a gradual economic recovery is underway, though it could still take a couple of years to reach pre-pandemic revenues.(MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES) "People in the beginning were wondering whats going to happen downtown, can downtown survive? I think this data shows that there is a commitment to downtown, that people are coming back, but that we all need to work together to make sure we support it and that the businesses still here can hang on through this recovery period," said chief executive officer Kate Fenske. Fenske said the return of large events and ongoing development in the area also bode well. "The momentum is still there, so now we just really need the people." She is urging the City of Winnipeg to help boost the recovery by reinstating one hour of free parking at downtown meters and curbside pickup zones that made the area cheaper for visitors earlier in the pandemic. Both of those pandemic relief measures ended Dec. 31. Fenske also urged the city to devote a portion of downtown parking revenues to infrastructure improvements within the area. Coun. Sherri Rollins, whose ward includes parts of the downtown, said the City of Winnipeg should explore those options. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Definitely, the parking and the loading zones (were) really key (during the pandemic) That really worked well and we do really need to keep up the momentum," said Rollins. The Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry councillor said it would be tougher to share parking revenue, which plummeted during the pandemic, though that could be considered in the longer term. "Currently, there is (very little) revenue to speak of to redistribute." The Probe Research workforce survey shares responses from a random and representative sample of 600 Winnipeg adults March 9-21, who completed the survey online. About 200 members of that group were downtown workers who provided insight on current work locations. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga Two months ago, two employees at The Brick in Thompson accused an Indigenous customer of being drunk, ordered him to leave, and called RCMP. Opinion Two months ago, two employees at The Brick in Thompson accused an Indigenous customer of being drunk, ordered him to leave, and called RCMP. The customer was Edwin Beardy, a 70-year-old man from Tataskweyak Cree Nation, who suffers from Kennedy disease a degenerative disorder causing progressive weakness in the face and legs as well as, in particular, impacts on speech and swallowing. Leaders from Tataskweyak and the advocacy body for northern Manitoba First Nations, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO), called the Feb. 19 incident "racial profiling." I prefer to call it "Indigenous life." I dont know one Indigenous person who has not been followed in a store, accused in a workplace of something suspicious, or been pulled over by police after "resembling a suspect" at some point in their life. I can only imagine how many times this has happened in history, because its only recently we hear about these kinds of incidents. This is due to social media, diversity in newsrooms, and maybe, just maybe, more and more people standing up to racism. Take the last five years. There isnt a month that there isnt some incident involving a banker, a business owner, a nurse, a police officer, or a teacher in a workplace stereotyping, harassing, or discriminating against a racialized person. I started a list of Canadian businesses recently accused of racial profiling and quickly realized this column would have just been a list of company names. Not all accusations are legitimate, of course, but the sheer number of allegations and straightforward cases like in Thompson show that workplaces in Canada have a serious problem with racism. The typical response to an allegation of racism in a workplace is to provide employees with "diversity" or "cultural awareness" training or an "anti-racism" workshop. In the case of The Brick, all employees at the Thompson store are now taking this kind of training. The problem is that research suggests "cultural awareness" training doesnt work just by itself. In an article entitled "Why Doesnt Diversity Training Work?" by researchers Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev in the scientific journal Anthropology Now, they studied the anti-racism training Starbucks put 175,000 employees through after an incident in a Philadelphia coffee shop. "Nearly all Fortune 500 companies do training, and two-thirds of colleges and universities have [diversity] training for faculty," Dobbin and Kalev write, "yet hundreds of studies dating back to the 1930s suggest that antibias training does not reduce bias, alter behaviour, or change the workplace." Dobbin and Kalev state that diversity training does not replace the impact of real-life diversity. In other words, it doesnt matter how many times The Brick employees in Thompson learn about medicine circles or spend time with elders, racism will barely be impacted. Only when Indigenous peoples are fully and completely a part of the workplace will change occur. The offering of "cultural awareness" training is more a smoke screen to systemic racism in a workplace a way to shield an organization from criticism than a path to institutional change. Mandating anti-racism training, if consistent over time, can change some attitudes but may also entrench some views or, worse, heighten division in a workplace. This is not to say employees should not learn about land theft, the Indian Act, and residential schools all factors that lead to anti-Indigenous racism its just that those most impacted by this information are likely already friendly to the message. This kind of training will likely not impact those holding the most racist views and performing actions garnering accusations of racism. Change comes from hiring and altering the workplace itself, with Indigenous peoples at the lead. Once recruitment is accomplished, a much bigger problem emerges retention. No Indigenous person hired at that furniture store in Thompson will be able to effectively work if racist views are tolerated. This means new workplace policies and practices must be written and existing ones enforced. New Indigenous employees must be supported because they are facing off against all the reasons they were never there in the first place. This support is not something "extra" but moving a workplace into the modern day. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. It is not enough to have all Indigenous employees in entry-level positions or that one "Indigenous" centred job, either. Diversity must exist at all levels of the organization. A workplace must also resemble the community it serves. This means, if 20 per cent of Manitobans are Indigenous, one out of every five employees, policies, and practices must be Indigenous or focused on Indigenous peoples in Manitoba. "Diversity," "cultural awareness" or even "anti-racism" training is not a solution to addressing the bias in any workplace. Its more a Band-Aid, and a temporary one at that. Only the presence of the people being discriminated against alter policies and practices of discrimination. That, and a good dose of humanity. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca PUSHING for the federal government to include a statement of multiculturalism in its new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Ukrainian Canadian academic and activist Manoly Lupul once wrote: A new constitution is like a new house. In it there must be room for the whole family. Opinion PUSHING for the federal government to include a statement of multiculturalism in its new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Ukrainian Canadian academic and activist Manoly Lupul once wrote: "A new constitution is like a new house. In it there must be room for the whole family." The Charter, which turns 40 this month, did just that with the addition of Section 27: "This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians." As the only charter or bill of rights in the world to include a commitment to multiculturalism, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is, in this sense, uniquely Canadian. There is some evidence to suggest that Section 27 has enjoyed broad support: a poll conducted for the charters 20th anniversary found that some 86 per cent of Canadians approved of it. But its inclusion was by no means predetermined. Advocates for the inclusion of multiculturalism in the Charter included, among other groups, the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, the Canadian Polish Congress and the Canadian Consultative Council for Multiculturalism. All had hoped that a statement of multiculturalism would be placed in the preamble, a position of symbolic importance. As the earlier 1972 Molgat-MacGuigan Commission on the Constitution put it, the preamble was the only place to define "what kind of country Canada is and what it aspires to be." Indeed, its final report, responding to presentations from many Ukrainian Canadian organizations, recommended that the preamble "formally recognize that Canada is a multicultural country." However, consensus on a sweeping preamble eluded the federal government in 1980. Despite previous statements that it had no objections to including a reference to multiculturalism in the charter, the governments initial draft did not. Disappointed, advocates then fought to include multiculturalism in Section 15, guaranteeing the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law. The Ukrainian Canadian Committee proposed the following wording: "Everyone has the right to preserve and develop their cultural heritage." That didnt happen. But Section 27 did. Because it didnt grant a right to cultural heritage, but rather ensured that the charter would be interpreted in light of Canadas multicultural heritage, legal scholars were largely unimpressed. Peter Hogg, the foremost expert on the Canadian Constitution, immediately suggested the section "may prove to be more of a rhetorical flourish than an operative provision," while another expert, Elmer Dreidger, bluntly dismissed it as "meaningless." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. But these critics overstated their case. For, beyond its powerful symbolism, Section 27 has played a role in numerous cases over the past four decades. Among other things, it has been used to limit the use of hate speech, strengthen freedom of religion, ensure the right to an interpreter and enhance minority language education rights. Additionally, as Justice Katherine Swinton has argued, Section 27 educates: it reminds judges of Canadas societal vision, which is one of a multiculturalism and not assimilation. There is also the possibility that it will someday be used more expansively, for Section 27 is unique among the other interpretive provisions in the charter in that the word "enhancement" makes it dynamic. As constitutional scholar Joseph Magnet puts it, this seems to be a "reference to positive action." Enhancement is essential, as official multiculturalism does not preclude racism or even notions of preferred immigrants and refugees. Still, as more people from all corners of the globe seek to make Canada their new home, it is comforting to know Canadas commitment to preserving and enhancing its multicultural heritage remains safeguarded in that most secure and privileged of places its Constitution. In part, they can thank Canadas Ukrainian community. For that matter, we all can. Daniel R. Meister is a Banting postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Brunswick. He is the author of The Racial Mosaic: A Pre-History of Canadian Multiculturalism. THREE initiatives aimed at lowering the voting age in Canadian federal elections are reigniting conversations about youth enfranchisement. Opinion THREE initiatives aimed at lowering the voting age in Canadian federal elections are reigniting conversations about youth enfranchisement. A group of young people is suing the federal government, claiming that disenfranchisement of those under 18 is unconstitutional. NDP MP Taylor Bachrach has introduced a private members bill to lower the voting age to 16. The first reading in the House of Commons was completed late last year. A similar act (Bill S-201) to amend Canadas minimum voting age from 18 to 16 is currently at second reading in the Senate. Sen. Marilou McPhedran introduced a similar bill in 2021 and it passed second reading. But the fall 2021 election put an end to that process. This is the 11th attempt to lower Canadas voting age since it was changed from 21 to 18 in 1970. Some municipal and provincial jurisdictions in Canada have considered lowering their voting age. So have other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Thirteen countries, ranging from Brazil to Nicaragua, Ecuador, Austria, Estonia and Malta, already have voting ages under 18. The Council of Europe has urged its member countries to follow suit. In Canada, the federal NDP and Green Party publicly support a younger voting age. The federal Conservative, NDP and Liberal parties already allow members as young as 14 to vote in leadership contests. Proponents of the bills in Parliament and the Senate, and the applicants to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, hope to build on this momentum. There are four main arguments for lowering the voting age: 1. Youth most affected by todays pressing issues Many of the key issues of today such as climate change, environmental degradation, the COVID-19 pandemic and social and racial justice have serious consequences for young people, now and in the future. Many leading Canadian and international environmental advocates are under the age of 18. Autumn Peltier, for example, was named Chief Water Commissioner for the Aniishnabek Nation at the age of 14 and addressed the United Nations General Assembly at age 13 and 15. Children and young people have disproportionately experienced the education, health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many young people under the age of 18 are actively involved in social justice movements, including Black Lives Matter and Every Child Matters. Under the UNs Convention on the Rights of the Child which is almost universally ratified children have the right to participate in decisions that affect them. Lowering the voting age is one way to provide a formal process for decision-making and accountability by elected representatives. In fact, the right to vote is a human right, protected by domestic and international law. 2. Could fuel political engagement Lowering the age to a time when young people are enrolled in high school civics classes could increase formal political participation and strengthen democracy. Despite the political consciousness and engagement of children and young people, there is still widespread apathy and declining participation among young adult voters. Research across jurisdictions that have introduced under-18 voting indicates that the impact is often positive in terms of political engagement and civic attitudes. 3. Would align with other age minimums The current voting age does not align with the minimum age of many other activities that require maturity and judgment, such as driving, consensual sex and paid work. Most tellingly, the age of criminal responsibility in Canada is 12 under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. If children as young as 12 are considered mature enough to be held criminally responsible for their actions, why cant 16-year-olds vote? If children can work and pay taxes, why dont they have a say in how their taxes are spent? These contradictions highlight adult-centric norms and everyday age discrimination manifested in arbitrary, chronological age cut-offs. 4. Would eradicate ageist assumptions Ageist assumptions against those under 18 mirror historically sexist and racist arguments to disenfranchise women and Indigenous people. One such argument is that those under the age of 18 lack the cognitive, emotional and moral maturity to vote. However, psychological research suggests that young people have adult-level cognitive capacity by age 16. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Others argue that parents will influence their childrens voting behaviour. But some studies indicate that peers, rather than adults, have greater influence over political behaviour and socialization. Results from Student Vote Canada, while not representative, show different voting outcomes for the 2021 election among students versus the official results. Some might argue that people under the age of 18 lack sufficient knowledge about policies and democracy to make informed decisions. However, many Canadian adults also lack basic civic literacy. Adult voters are not necessarily more informed about policy issues than young people when making political choices. Voting rights in Canada have changed over time to become more inclusive. Challenging age discrimination in Canadas election system could be the next step in expanding and strengthening our democracy. Christina Clark-Kazak is an associate professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa. This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca. Some restaurants are looking for new ways to re-engage with a market heavily affected by a two-year-old COVID-19 pandemic. Opinion Some restaurants are looking for new ways to re-engage with a market heavily affected by a two-year-old COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants have done a lot of juggling over the last two years: redefining menus; thinking of new ways of connecting with customers; pivoting to a positive future. Its been nothing short of impressive. One approach gaining some traction is to look at a new market: the metaverse. Yes, there has been lots of hype about the metaverse, also known as augmented reality. And its providing new opportunities for the food-service industry. Talking about the metaverse today is like explaining what the internet was in the 1970s. Few knew then how the technology would escalate and scale to change how we communicate and how we live. The metaverse is a virtual world that continues to exist and evolve, even if youre not around by way of some virtual reality device. You can get in and out while the world carries on. You can create, buy and sell goods. And you can order and virtually eat food in a digital economy. You obviously cant physically eat food in the metaverse, but there are numerous other things you can do that you cant do in the real world. In the more idealistic concepts of the metaverse, its interoperable, allowing anyone to take virtual items such as clothes or cars from one platform to another. You can make money and get credits to purchase things in the real world. Its all very fascinating. American restaurant chain Chipotle recently teamed up with online platform Roblox to have users create meals that earn credits for real food. When they began inviting people to join their restaurant in the metaverse and collect credits for their next Chipotle order by receiving special codes, more than 20,000 people were waiting to get in. McDonalds recently announced that it intends to open restaurants in the metaverse. Wendys and Hooters have also made announcements in recent days. In Canada, Restaurants Canada launched a metaverse marketplace for its industry, a trend-hunter partnership to revive the food service industry. It will be launched in May. We expect other chains to follow suit over the next several months. Its still unclear, however, how the metaverse will change our lives, or how restaurants can make money selling food virtually. It may be that it will come and go, like many other things in life. However, the potential crossover between the real food world and a virtual one in the metaverse can help companies look at the market differently. Think about how employees can be trained, or how chains can try new menu items. Experiences can be changed in a way they cant right now. For example, the metaverse could offer consumers a chance to eat breakfast in Istanbul, lunch in Paris and dinner in Rio on the same day. Or, on a more personal level, you could go to a family restaurant and be served by your ancestors and experience the food they ate many years ago. Most of the industrys research and development can occur in the metaverse. It may not be real food, but youre in with avatars representing real people who will tell companies what they like and dislike. The metaverse can be limitless but, of course, how consumers react to experiences can bring loads of unpredictability. The metaverse is also another reason so many are talking about cryptocurrencies. Many expect the two will rely heavily on each other as they develop. For example, Crypto Baristas aims to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds for coffee lovers. Not only does it bring coffee fans together in the metaverse, but the project is funding an actual coffee shop in New York City called Coffee Bros., which partners with coffee farmers from around the world. Its all done with cryptocurrencies. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Most Canadians may not buy into this metaverse concept. Food is food, and you either order it from a restaurant or cook your own. In other words, sticking to the basics. And lets face it, wearing virtual reality headsets can be a pain and looks silly. Some people may even experience motion sickness while wearing them, and theres nothing pleasant about that. The online world is different than before the pandemic, especially in the food industry. There are more business and more traffic, so converting some of that traffic into a virtual world isnt as hard as two years ago. It isnt that expensive for restaurants to join the metaverse, and the possibilities are intriguing. If this helps our food-service sector get back on its feet, all the power to them. Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. Troy Media JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank. FILE - Israeli army soldiers guard a section of Israel's separation barrier, in the West Bank village of Nilin, west of Ramallah, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. Two Palestinian men were critically injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest incident in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File) JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank. Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gaza's militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year's Eve. Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli violations in Jerusalem. Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago cant silence us from whats happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which has long been an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because the mosque stands on a hilltop where the Jewish temples were located in antiquity. Protests and clashes there this time last year helped trigger an 11-day Gaza war. Police said they were responding to Palestinian stone-throwing and that they were committed to ensuring that Jews, Christians and Muslims whose major holidays are converging this year could celebrate them safely in the Holy Land. Palestinians view the presence of Israeli police at the site as a provocation and said they used excessive force. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, ahead of the rocket fire, that Israel has been the target of a Hamas-led incitement campaign." The latest tensions come during the rare confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover. Christians are also celebrating their holy week leading up to Easter. Tens of thousands of visitors have flocked to Jerusalems Old City home to major holy sites for all three faiths for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security matters, have condemned its actions at the mosque. Jordan which serves as custodian of the site summoned Israels charge daffaires on Monday in protest. Jordans King Abdullah II discussed the violence with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, agreeing on the need to stop all illegal and provocative Israeli measures there, according to a statement. Jordan planned to convene a meeting of other Arab states on the issue. Israel has been working to improve relations with Jordan over the past year and has recently normalized relations with other Arab states. But the latest tensions have brought renewed attention to the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, which Israel has sought to sideline in recent years. The U.S. State Department urged all sides to exercise restraint, to avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo at the holy site. Spokesman Ned Price said U.S. officials were in touch with counterparts across the region to try and calm tensions. U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting on the tensions for Tuesday. In Israel, an Arab party that made history last year by joining the governing coalition suspended its participation on Sunday a largely symbolic act that nevertheless reflected the sensitivity of the holy site, which is at the emotional heart of the century-old conflict. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem which includes the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and is building and expanding Jewish settlements across the West Bank, which it views as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people. The last serious and substantive peace talks collapsed more than a decade ago. The Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over or partition the mosque compound. In recent weeks, calls by Jewish extremists to sacrifice animals there have circulated widely among Palestinians on social media, sparking calls to defend the mosque. Israeli authorities say they have no intention of changing the status quo, and police are enforcing a prohibition on animal sacrifices. Israel allows Jews to visit the site but not to pray there. In recent years large numbers of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited under police escort, angering the Palestinians and Jordan. Israel says police were forced to enter the compound early Friday after Palestinians stockpiled stones and hurled rocks at the gate through which Jewish visitors typically enter. That gate also leads to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Recent weeks have seen a series of Palestinian attacks inside Israel that killed 14 people. Israel has launched near-daily arrest raids and other military operations in the occupied West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing more. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The military said Monday it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations across the territory overnight. In a raid near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives toward troops. Soldiers responded with live ammunition toward the suspects who hurled explosive devices, the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after being critically wounded. Two of the recent attackers came from in and around Jenin, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed. ___ Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Omar Akour in Jordan, Fares Akram in Hamilton, Canada; Matthew Lee in Washington and Jennifer Peltz at the United Nations contributed to this report. LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. Firefighters work to extinguish fire at an apartments building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko) LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia launched its long-feared, full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine's east on Monday, attacking along a broad front over 300 miles (480 kilometers) long, Ukrainian officials said in what marked the opening of a new and potentially climactic phase of the war. The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a video address. He said a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. The Donbas is Ukraines mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years and have declared two independent republics that have been recognized by Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin declared the capture of the Donbas its main goal of the war after its attempt to storm Kyiv failed. After withdrawing from the capital, Russia began regrouping and reinforcing its ground troops in the east for an all-out offensive. No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight, Zelenskyy vowed. "We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. A woman makes the sign of cross as she participates in an Orthodox service celebrating Palm Sunday, in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) The offensive got underway after Russia bombarded the western city of Lviv and a multitude of other targets across Ukraine in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the countrys defenses. The Ukraine military's general staff said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces were increasing assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. This morning, almost along the whole front line of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defenses," Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, was quoted as telling Ukrainian media. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities. This is Kreminna and another small town." Ukrainian servicemen run for cover as explosions are heard during a Russian attack in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) He added: "We are not giving up any of our territories. A Ukrainian military official said street battles had begun in Kreminna and that evacuation was impossible. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said heavy artillery fire set seven residential buildings on fire and targeted the sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains. The body of a woman killed a Russian bombardment lies on a sidewalk in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Haidai later told Ukrainian television that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. Meanwhile, in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard that was holding out against Russian forces, said in a video message that Russia had begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment was holed up. The sprawling plant contains a warren of tunnels where both fighters and civilians are sheltering. It is believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the shattered city. Passengers rest in the train minutes before arriving in Lviv from Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) At least seven people were reported killed in missile strikes on Lviv, a city close to the Polish border that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlins increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons. The attack on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region's governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child. A Lviv hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled the fighting in other parts of the country was also badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. The city has seen its population swell with elderly people, mothers and children trying to escape the war. A man carries bicycle along a street filled with destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. Witnesses said multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early Monday as the country was bracing for an all-out Russian assault in the east. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv, said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe. Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member. Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine and warned that such aid could have consequences. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia. A train travelling from Dnipro passes by the area where emergency workers clear up debris after an airstrike hit a tire shop in the western city of Lviv, Ukraine, Monday April 18, 2022. Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscows troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. (AP Photo/Philip Crowther) A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to an air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found with a water canister and an umbrella by her side. Military analysts say Russia was increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railroads and other infrastructure ahead of its assault on the Donbas. Emergency workers clear up debris after an airstrike hit a tire shop in the western city of Lviv, Ukraine, Monday April 18, 2022. Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, killing at least six people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscows troops stepped up strikes on infrastructure in preparation for an all-out assault on the east. (AP Photo/Philip Crowther) Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles. It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia was waging a softening-up campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive. Men stands next to a crater of an explosion after night shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko) A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week. That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting. The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. A part of a missile with a sign in Russian reading "Filter FT-1 Pressurization" lies on the ground after night shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko) The capture of Mariupol, where Ukraine estimates 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine from 2014. The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, that could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas. ___ Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Are you a private well owner in the Winona area? We Are Water MN and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture are hosting a free nitrate testing clinic. Drop by at a time that works for you. Samples are analyzed on the spot the process usually takes less than five minutes and results are given directly to you. How to bring a water sample to this event: Run your water first for 5-10 minutes, then put at least one cup of water in a clean sealed container and keep the sample cold until you bring it to the clinic. Samples should be taken less than 24 hours before the event. An aspiring winter adventurer and thru-hiker from Duluth, Minnesota, will share stories about her trips at an upcoming UW-La Crosse presentation. Emily Ford will speak on The Longest Way: 10 things Ive learned along winter adventures at 6 p.m. Monday, April 25, in the Hesperich Auditorium in Graff Main Hall, 1725 State St. The program is free. Ford has completed many thru-hikes in the Midwest, including the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail that crosses Wisconsin east to west from Potawatomi State Park to St. Croix State Park on the Minnesota border. She was the first woman to complete the trail in winter. Most recently in the winter of 2022, Ford completed a solo 180-mile ski route across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Wilderness with her hiking companion, Alaskan Husky, Diggins. The presentation is part of the third annual Prairie Springs Lecture, funded by The Paul Fleckenstein Trust, which brings speakers to campus to discuss environmental issues. This years lecture is also sponsored by the UW-L College of Science and Health, Division of Diversity and Inclusion, and Department of Recreation Management and Therapeutic Recreation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) Authorities have lifted some evacuation orders for a mountain community in drought-stricken southern New Mexico as firefighters worked Saturday to contain a wind-driven blaze that killed two people and destroyed over 200 homes. The evacuation orders lifted late Friday covered about 60% of the estimated 4,500 people ordered to leave their homes since the fire started Tuesday, Village of Ruidoso spokesperson Kerry Gladden told The Associated Press on Saturday. Evacuation estimates were previously reported to be around 5,000 people. The big story is we're in a re-population mode," Gladden said earlier during a media briefing. Those evacuation orders remaining in effect may be lifted in coming days, officials said. Those waiting to return included Barbara Arthur, the owner of a wooded 28-site RV park that had wind damage but didnt burn. We feel blessed, said Arthur, who on Saturday was staying at a motel and preparing taco ingredients to take to another RV park for dinner with people displaced by the fire, including some of her tenants. Arthur said the fire came within a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) of her park and that she saw flames while evacuating. Its the scariest thing Ive ever been through in my 71 years of living, she said. Bob Moroney, who works for a company that manages nightly rentals at Ruidoso River Resort, said three different groups, roughly 15 people overall, were displaced by the fire and are staying in units at the complex. These are literally people that left for work in the morning and never went back home, he said, adding that for many, their homes are total losses. Theyre just down to chimneys and foundations at this point. Moroney, a qualifying broker for Keller Williams Casa Ideal, said that for now, the displaced are just trying to decompress as they figure out insurance and other next steps. Fire incident commander Dave Bales said crews worked to put out hot spots and clear lines along the fire's perimeter to keep the fire from spreading. The fire has no containment but Bales expressed a mix of satisfaction with work done so far and prospects for coming days. Weather conditions Saturday appeared favorable with reduced wind and increased humidity, Bales said. We have lines in. We just want to make sure they hold in that wind," he said. The fire and the winds that spread it downed power lines and knocked out electricity to 18,000 customers. Electricity has been restored to all but a few dozen customers, said Wilson Guinn, a Public Service Co. manager. But people returning to their homes needed to be cautious and call utility officials if they encounter downed lines, Guinn said. We may have missed something," Guinn said. Don't try to touch them, fix them, roll them up, whatever." Gladden, the village spokesperson, said residents also need to be aware that the strong winds earlier in the week may have damaged trees that could still fall or lose limbs. Its important that what started this whole event was a significant wind storm," she said. Hotlines lit up Friday afternoon as residents reported more smoke, which fire information officer Mike De Fries said was caused by flare-ups within the interior of the fire as flames found pockets of unburned fuel. The fire started in the neighborhood and then spread to more remote areas, De Fries said Saturday. Authorities are investigating the cause. What you have here in Ruidoso are stretches where homes are destroyed, multiple homes are destroyed within neighborhoods, De Fries said. And then there is the clear evidence and the trail of the fire as it progressed further north and west and in some cases neighborhood to neighborhood as it burned through the Village of Ruidosos north and east side. Authorities have yet to release the names of the couple who died. Their bodies were found after worried family members contacted police, saying the couple had planned to evacuate Tuesday when the fire exploded but were unaccounted for later that day. As of Saturday, the fire had burned 9.6 square miles (25 square kilometers) of timber and brush. Hotter and drier weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. The problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. There are other blazes in the state, including the smaller Nogal Canyon fire to the northwest of Ruidoso. That fire was caused by downed power lines, De Fries said, and has burned six homes and eight outbuildings. People have been ordered to leave the area. We are right now in a time, even though its very early in the year, where places like New Mexico have had extra stretches of just extremely dry weather, De Fries said. Combining that with some winds, and you can see by the number of fires that are taking place and number of new starts every day and each week that fire conditions are a big concern. Ruidoso a decade ago was the site of the most destructive wildfire in New Mexicos recorded history when more than 240 homes burned and nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers) of forest were blackened by a lightning-sparked blaze. While many older residents call Ruidoso home year round, the population of about 8,000 people expands to about 25,000 during the summer months as Texans and New Mexicans from hotter climates seek respite. This story has been corrected to spell a fire information officer's last name as De Fries, not DeFries. Associated Press journalists Julie Walker, Paul Davenport and Amy Forliti contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The relocated Wizard Quest features many more options, characters and skill levels for players and is located next to the upcoming Elm Street So much more than just a decoration theres a story behind each one. Thats how Jennifer Dominik said she views the veteran banners displayed each July through November in downtown Beaver Dam. Dominik is the widow of U.S. Navy veteran Andrew Dominik. Banners depicting his photo and service details have been part of the Beaver Dam Veterans Honor Walk since its inception in 2020. Luke Diljak created the program as his Eagle Scout project, finding inspiration while visiting family in Pennsylvania. I saw miles and miles of these banners hanging on poles which gave me the idea to do that here, he said. I wanted to do this project to honor veterans here in Beaver Dam like my grandfather who served during the Korean War. Dave Diljak, Lukes dad and Scout leader, said one of the many perks of being a part of the Veterans Banner Honor Walk is hearing stories of the veterans who served. Dave recalled Luke giving a presentation in 2020 before a city council committee to get approval to develop the banner program. He said Casandra Schmidt asked for a banner application following the meeting. She was one of the first to sponsor a banner. It was for her friend, Jennifer Dominik, whose husband had served our country and recently passed away, he said. Andrew Dominik served in the U.S. Navy from 1983 to 1992 and then went into the U.S. Navy Reserves from 1992 to 2003. He developed Parkinsons disease in 2018 and was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Dec. 21, 2019. He died of a brain bleed three days later on the morning of Christmas Eve. Dominiks death came as a shock to his wife Jennifer and their two daughters, Arika and Rachel. We never saw that coming. We had Parkinsons under control, Jennifer said. He was our everything. Its the only grief the girls have ever really dealt with. Andrew was employed for 26 years as an operations manager for Walmart Distribution, transferring to the Beaver Dam facility in 2012. Jennifer said they immediately felt at home in their new community. Youll never get me to leave Dodge County. I am just so grateful to all the people who came to the funeral, the ones who kept us fed and kept us functioning, and the ones who knew what we needed even when we didnt. Jennifer said her heart still hurts knowing her daughters lost their dad at Christmastime and then were isolated from their friends a few months later when schools shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Its one thing to lose the biggest person in our lives, but then to have the world completely change on top of that is unreal, she said. Andrews banner went up on South Spring Street in July 2020. Jennifer said it was overwhelming to see it hanging on the light pole at first. That first year, I cant even count how many times I drove past his banner. We went to eat at Palenque a lot that summer because it was right near his banner. Rachel, now 11, added that they would walk around to read the other banners and then take pictures by the murals located in the alley (between Front Street and Tower parking lot). Sixteen-year-old Arika said she spent much of the summer biking with her best friend. COVID was such a new thing and I didnt see my friends much, but my friend Abby lives not even a half a mile from me so wed just get on our bikes and meet each other and end up downtown. Id see the banner and say Oh, thats my dad. She knew him, too, because weve been friends since like the fifth grade so she thought it was great. Wed go back to the park behind his banner (Rotary Park) every day that was our ritual, and just sit around and talk. The veteran banners are returned to the families at the end of each year. In 2021, the Diljak family sponsored Andrews banner again so both his daughters could have a banner of their dad as a keepsake. Due to last years road construction on South Spring Street, Andrews banner was displayed on Front Street near Designs Plus. When Dave said he wanted to sponsor Andys banner it meant more to me than anything because I knew that it was coming from the family of the kid that started the program. How cool is that? Jennifer said. The girls still traveled to see their dads banner last summer, but this time Arika had her drivers license and she liked to drive past it. Both of them said it feels nice seeing their dads image and knowing he was appreciated. Dave Diljak shared that when the Dominiks picked up Andrews banner last December, they asked if they could help with the program. They are a part of our team now and they helped us mail 2022 banner applications to the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary members, he said. Jennifer said if her husband were still alive he would have loved the banner program. And it wouldnt be a drive through with him. Hed say, Were going to park the car and take a walk. Hed want to read everything on the banners and it would become a real history lesson. She said she joined the Veterans Honor Walk effort to keep the downtown looking beautiful and to recognize those who served. For me, I want the banners to keep going forever. Andy had a lot of faith in God, his family, and his country, those were his top priorities. We need to honor our veterans and the people we love and learn their stories. Banner order deadline nears The 2022 Veterans Honor Walk application deadline is looming. Interested parties should contact Dave Diljak at 920-885-6463 or diljak@charter.net by April 30. A 30-by-70-inch veteran banner can be purchased for $300 to be displayed in downtown Beaver Dam from July to November. Veterans from all service branches who were honorably discharged, died in the line of duty or are currently serving will be honored. Follow Kelly Simon on Twitter @KSchmidSimon or contact her at 920-356-6757. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WAUPUN It may seem like deja vu with barriers again blocking South Madison Street on Waupuns south side. Despite being delayed a year, everything is advancing as it should for Phase II of the Madison Street reconstruction, according to Waupun Director of Public Works Jeff Daane. They started the project now with some of the tree and grubbing removal, Daane said. Next comes the utility work water, sewer and things like that. Theyll get that done first and then will come the storm sewer and last will come the street portion of it. The section of roadway currently being reconstructed is between West Lincoln Street through the Libby Street intersection. Phase I was completed in 2019 as a separate phase of a larger project. Madison Street at that time was in poor condition and long-term borrowing was enlisted to come up with funds not available in the annual budget. Phase II of Madison Street was originally planned for last year. It was meant to be a separate project, Daane said. We had to wait for the grant portion to come around. Due to bidding and other requirements it got postponed until this year. Phase II will cost just less than $3 million, with the city receiving a $950,000 grant to cover most of its $1.5 million share. Waupun Utilities will cover infrastructure costs of $1.3 million. The utility did not receive any grants for that project, said Waupun Utilities General Manager Steve Brooks. We have set aside money that is set into the rates. That money was saved up to cover those costs. Now we will spend it to replace that infrastructure. Advance Construction was awarded the contract through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation completing the bidding process. When Phase II is completed, most of Madison Street will have been completed. Issues on town portions of the road may be addressed by town governments. Barriers were erected at the beginning of last week with completion slated for early October. In the meantime drivers, other than residents in that area, are urged to use other routes. We dont want any extra traffic in that area for safety reasons, Daane said. You never know when there will be workers there or holes being dug. We dont want to cause damage to anyones vehicle or for anyone to get hurt. Thats the main reason to keep people out of there. Homeowners will be alerted if for some reason they cannot gain access to their driveways or whether utility service may be interrupted. Contractors will do everything they can to provide access for residents, said Daane. There may be some pipe work that will prevent them from using their driveway for a little while, and when theyre pouring concrete for the road and the sidewalks theyll have to park somewhere nearby. Contractors will do their best to let people know when they will have service interrupted or access limited. Updates on construction progress will be posted on the city web site, cityofwaupun.org or residents may call City Hall at (920) 324-7900. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JUNEAU A 45-year-old Milwaukee woman entered a guilty plea in a Dodge County court Monday, ending a 13-year question on how the body of Baby Theresa was left in the woods outside of the town of Theresa. Karin S. Luttinen is following a plea agreement after facing charges of putting her newborn daughters lifeless body in a garbage bag before abandoning the body in a wooded area. Luttinen appeared in the courtroom of Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Kristine Snow. Luttinen entered a guilty plea to a felony count of concealing the death of a child. She could face up to 1 years in prison and 2 years of extended supervision. Luttinen said she was unaware she was pregnant until near the end of her pregnancy, according to a criminal complaint, and gave birth to the girl in April 2009 in a bathtub before disposing of the childs body. An autopsy on the newborn dubbed Baby Theresa by authorities determined she had died of fetal demise, which indicates a child may have died prior to or shortly after birth. According to the plea agreement, Luttinen would waive her preliminary hearing, which she has already done. On Monday, she fulfilled another requirement of the plea agreement by entering a guilty plea to the charge of concealing the death of a child. Luttinens attorney may recommend any sentence, but the prosecution will not recommend a specific sentence. However, the plea agreement allows the prosecution to recommend some incarceration is appropriate without stating a specific amount of time. The state may discuss the facts and circumstances of the case and any and all considerations related to sentencing. The state also may explain the potential penalties including the maximum sentence in the case. The baby was found by a man cutting wood on a private property on April 29, 2009. Her body was discovered on Lone Road less than a mile from Highway 175 and less than 3 miles from Highway 41. Authorities found a maxi pad wrapper in the trash bag containing the infant. It was sent to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab and came back with a DNA profile of Baby Theresas then-unidentified mother. The case was initially charged using the name Jane Doe in 2014 to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring. However, it wasnt until Jan. 29, 2021, that Luttinen was first approached about the case. A special agent for the Wisconsin Department of Justice went to speak to the father of the child and Luttinen following a potential match on the family tree DNA results. According to the complaint, Luttinen initially denied ever being pregnant but submitted a DNA sample. DNA results showed on March 1, 2021, that Luttinen was a major component source for the maxi pad wrappings. DNA markers also showed that Luttinen was the biological mother of Baby Theresa. DNA testing was done throughout the years, however it wasnt until 2018 when Dodge County Detective Vickie Brugger started speaking to Dodge County Medical Examiner PJ Schoebel about revisiting the investigation using forensic genealogy. Additional genetic analyst was completed and narrowed the search to a specific branch of the family. Speaking to law enforcement in March 2021, according to the complaint, Luttinen said she did not know she was pregnant until toward the end of her pregnancy. She was in the bathroom when her water broke, the complaint said, and gave birth to the girl in a bathtub with water in it, which she said she turned on to get more comfortable. According to the complaint, the baby came out head first and face down with the umbilical cord wrapped around the babys neck. Luttinen told law enforcement she blacked out for 15 minutes and awoke to the tub being empty of water, according to the complaint. She told investigators she was in a panic, drove around aimlessly and decided to place the girls body in the woods as a final resting place, the complaint said. A sentencing hearing is scheduled on Aug. 5. Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. An ongoing exhibition featuring about 1,000 ancient women-themed artifacts and paintings from 32 museums across China is underway both offline and online at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province. Photo shows the exhibition of women-themed artifacts and paintings held at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. [Zhejiang Provincial Museum] During the exhibition, an animated version of a painting from the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, which depicts a scene in which women intellectuals attend a gathering of scholars and artists during the Qing Dynasty (1644 1911), vividly provided the viewing public with detailed insight into the premodern lives of women in China's traditional high society. Currently, museums in China are thriving across the country, while the ways in which they display their exhibits and how they make use of their respective collections of cultural relics are constantly being innovated. Meanwhile, many museums have applied digital technologies in order to host exhibitions and have rolled out creative online exhibitions in a bid to reach more audiences. On the same day when the Zhejiang Provincial Museum kicked off its exhibition, four other museums, including one in Anhui Province, one in Jiangxi Province, one in Jiangsu Province, and one in Zhejiang Province, also unveiled their own respective women-themed exhibitions. Through cooperative efforts among the five museums and thanks to the application of digital technologies, the five museums have provided the general public with a chance to explore the different exhibitions housed at each other's exhibition halls conveniently through the use of multimedia screens. Last year, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum held the first-ever online exhibition featuring over 1,000 women-themed paintings after partnering with more than 30 museums and art galleries across the country. The museum has also established a special database collecting pictures of women from ancient times. The database can be used to search out specific information and conduct research on cultural relics, as well as for planning new exhibitions and efforts aimed at the popularization of museums. It also can assist in the development of cultural and creative products, as well as for promoting the sharing of data and collaboration between museums and across various disciplines. (Source: People's Daily Online) Giant panda cub "Xiao Qi Ji" (R) and its mother "Mei Xiang" enjoy an ice cake at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, April 16, 2022. [Xinhua/Liu Jie] "We are celebrating 50 years of giant pandas at the National Zoo and the incredible partnership and conservation success story that we have made over the years," said Brandie Smith, director of Smithsonian's National Zoo. "The best part about working with giant pandas is that we do work so closely with our colleagues in China." WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) Male giant panda cub Xiao Qi Ji went to great lengths to climb onto the back of his mother, Mei Xiang, only to fall down cutely before both of them were drawn to an ice cake made of their favorite treats, including sugar cane, carrots, apples and bamboo. The "eating shows" on Saturday morning, part of the Smithsonian's National Zoo's "Pandaversary" party, were quite enjoyed by visitors of all age groups. At least 18,000 people were said to have registered to visit the zoo in northwest Washington, D.C. during the day. "We are celebrating 50 years of giant pandas at the National Zoo and the incredible partnership and conservation success story that we have made over the years," Director of the zoo Brandie Smith told Xinhua at the scene. "The best part about working with giant pandas is that we do work so closely with our colleagues in China." While watching the giant pandas having fun in their outdoor yards, "Pandaversary" partygoers also had the opportunity to taste giant panda-shaped "Baozi" buns, try Chinese calligraphy, and watch lion dance performances and the world premiere of the Smithsonian Channel's documentary "The Miracle Panda" at the zoo. Photo taken on April 16, 2022 shows giant panda cub "Xiao Qi Ji"(R) and its mother "Mei Xiang" at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States. [Xinhua/Liu Jie] With a giant panda ears headband, Kirsten of Washington, D.C. told Xinhua that she got up very early to make sure she could see the adorable animals eat the fruitsicles on "a very important day for me and for the pandas in the zoo" and that she was "having a great time." Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang and members of the embassy also attended the event. Speaking to reporters, Qin said that over the past 50 years, China and the United States have achieved a lot in giant panda conservation, and that giant pandas are not an "endangered" species any more. In February 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since its founding in 1949. During the groundbreaking trip, his wife, Patricia Nixon, mentioned her fondness for giant pandas to then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, who later gifted two of the Chinese "national treasures" to the American people as a gesture of goodwill. The U.S. government reciprocated by sending a pair of Alaskan musk oxen to China. The Nixons selected the Smithsonian's National Zoo as female Ling-Ling and male Hsing-Hsing's home in the United States. The giant panda couple arrived in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 1972. The undated photo shows Ling Ling (R) and Hsing Hsing, a pair of giant pandas as a gift from the Chinese government, at the Washington National Zoo, the United States. [Xinhua/Liu Yu] Days later, Patricia Nixon, wearing a giant panda pin, formally welcomed the precious gift from China and declared that "I think 'panda-monium' is going to break out at the zoo." "This became quite an event, not because of Mrs. Nixon's presence but because of the pandas which were a great novelty," Chas Freeman, the U.S. State Department escort officer for the Chinese delegation that brought the giant pandas to the U.S. capital and the interpreter at Mrs. Nixon's acceptance of them at the zoo, told Xinhua during a virtual interview. "Everyone who sees pandas reacts the same way. They are cute. They are lovable. They don't seem at all dangerous," Freeman, also an interpreter for the Nixon delegation during the 1972 China visit, said of giant pandas. "You probably want to hug them and they were very exotic and this was a symbol of a new start in U.S.-China relations." Mrs. Nixon's prediction turned out to be right. The public debut of Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing alone drew 20,000 visitors. The following Sunday, 75,000 people thronged the zoo and waited in a line to catch a glimpse of them. The pair of giant pandas were the top attractions at the zoo until they passed away separately in the 1990s. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to Washington in December 2000 and went on to become new "rock stars" of the renowned zoo, bringing great happiness and joy alongside their cubs to not only in-person visitors but also fans from around the world via the Giant Panda Cams, which are said to have been viewed more than 100 million times. Photo taken on March 16, 2022 shows giant panda Mei Xiang at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States. [Xinhua/Liu Jie] Ever since giant pandas came to the zoo, the icon species has symbolized cross-cultural collaboration between the United States and China. With giant pandas, the zoo has been given an unparalleled opportunity to study the animal's behavior, health, reproduction and ecology. The decades-old partnership has also allowed American animal care staff and scientists to learn about and study giant panda breeding and cub development, as well as their native habitat. In return, the zoo's breeding, veterinary and ecological research has provided critical data and valuable insights for the conservation of wild populations. Smithsonian scientists also created a framework on how giant pandas are bred to improve breeding success and genetic diversity, which has also been used by zoos across the globe for other animals. Smith also revealed the zoo has been speaking with colleagues in China about a further extension of their giant panda cooperative research and breeding agreement, which has been renewed three times since 2000. The current research agreement extension was signed in December 2020 and stipulates giant pandas may live at the zoo into December 2023. "Very positive talks. Our interactions are very positive," she added. "I believe we all are very interested in making sure this program continues for another 50 years." When working together, China and the United States can get things done, Ambassador Qin said. "We have the wisdom and courage to maintain cooperation and deliver results, not only in giant panda conservation, but in many other areas, to the benefit of the people of both countries and the world." (Xiao Xiao in Washington, D.C. contributed to the story.) (Source: Xinhua) Students of Confucius Institute participate in the UN Chinese Language Day celebrations at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Michael Tewelde] UN Chinese Language Day celebrations would inject much-needed momentum into promoting the Chinese language in Ethiopia and boost the people-to-people ties between the two countries, said Emebet Mulugeta, the academic vice president of Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA, April 16 (Xinhua) Ethiopia's Addis Ababa University (AAU) on Friday marked the upcoming UN Chinese Language Day with various cultural activities aimed to promote the Chinese language and culture. The Chinese Language Day celebrations, which were jointly organized by the AAU and the Confucius Institute at the AAU, are said to serve as an important platform for creating awareness of the Chinese language in particular and Chinese culture in general to Ethiopians. In welcoming participants, Academic Vice President of AAU Emebet Mulugeta said the celebrations would inject much-needed momentum into promoting the Chinese language in Ethiopia and boost the people-to-people ties between the two countries. Academic Vice President of Addis Ababa University Emebet Mulugeta speaks during the UN Chinese Language Day celebrations at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Michael Tewelde] "Beyond the celebrations, it has a lot of implications. Learning the Chinese language means learning the Chinese culture, expanding cultural exchanges, expanding business and expanding academic exchanges. It has a very important implication," she said. "While celebrating this day, we also try to see the broader perspective of learning the Chinese language." A series of cultural activities were held, in which Chinese language students at the Confucius Institute at the AAU demonstrated various elements of the Chinese culture and language, including the calligraphy, paper-cutting, Chinese traditional costumes, and Peking Opera facial masks. Students wearing Peking Opera masks attend the UN Chinese Language Day celebrations at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Michael Tewelde] In addition, members of the 23rd Chinese medical team to Ethiopia demonstrated traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture and cupping to a crowd of the AAU community who gathered together inside the premises of the AAU main campus in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Members of the 23rd Chinese medical team to Ethiopia demonstrate traditional Chinese medicine during the UN Chinese Language Day celebrations at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Michael Tewelde] Amenuael Alemayehu, dean of the College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communications at the AAU, stressed the celebrations would serve to further promote the Chinese language and culture across the East African country. "The Confucius Institute at Addis Ababa University is one of the vibrant institutes we have today. It is the only foreign language institute in our college to attract students every year," he said. He emphasized that amid the growing demand for Chinese language studies among young Ethiopian students, the Confucius Institute at the AAU in partnership with the AAU will welcome new students for the Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL) as the first MA program in the Chinese language for the next academic year. He said celebrating Chinese Language Day will further promote the Chinese language in Ethiopia. "I believe this international Chinese Language Day (celebrations) will also help the institute to be more visible; it will increase the awareness of students within and outside the institute. People can learn about the Chinese language and culture from such events," said Alemayehu. Melaku Mekonene, a third-year Chinese language student of the Confucius Institute at the AAU, said the celebrations showcased the growing popularity of the Chinese language in Ethiopia, Africa's second populous nation. "Today we have seen the huge significance given to the Chinese language here in Ethiopia. As a Chinese language student, this gives me great pleasure due to the growing future prospects," Mekonene said. "I am certain that with the growing significance given to the Chinese language here, more and more students and the general public will learn the language in the years to come." Yohanis Elias, another Chinese language student, said such celebrations would serve to further deepen students' awareness of Chinese culture. "We all are happy to attend this Chinese Language Day celebration events. It also helped us to know more about Chinese culture, such as the Chinese dressing style, costume and traditional Chinese medicine," he said. Students of Confucius Institute participate in the UN Chinese Language Day celebrations at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Michael Tewelde] Che Zhaoguang, the cultural counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, said the celebrations will have huge significance as language plays a very important role in deepening and enhancing Ethiopia-China ties. "Chinese is one of the official languages of the United Nations and in recent years more and more people around the world are learning the Chinese language to better understand contemporary China," Che said. "We believe the future cooperation between our two countries in the fields of education, culture, tourism, and economy, among others, will be surely promoted." The Confucius Institute at the AAU, in collaboration with its partners, commemorated the Chinese Language Day in line with the decision by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010 to mark the Chinese Language Day on April 20. The decision envisaged celebrating multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as promoting equal use of all six of the UN's official working languages throughout the organization's structure and activities. April 20 was chosen as the Chinese Language Day to pay tribute to Cangjie, an imaginary figure in traditional Chinese lore regarded as the inventor of Chinese characters. (Source: Xinhua) Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, presides over the 60th biweekly consultation session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, April 15, 2022. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing] BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) China's top political advisory body convened a biweekly consultation session on Friday at which attendees contributed their suggestions on developing affordable child care. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, called for building a system of inclusive child-care services that is suitable for China's national conditions, development stage and Chinese culture. Ten political advisors and special representatives spoke at the session, and close to 90 political advisors voiced their opinions via a mobile platform. Recognizing the importance of child-care services in encouraging people to have children and alleviating the burden that child rearing places on families, attendees suggested scaling up government spending in the sector and including the services into the public services system. Highlighting the fundamental role of families in child care, they called for increasing the supply of affordable child-care services with measures such as encouraging businesses, public institutions and residential communities to build child-care centers. A service system for child care should cover both the urban and rural areas, attendees said, noting that special attention should be given to left-behind children and those living in difficulty in rural areas. (Source: Xinhua) Officially referred to as Butte-Silver Bow, Butte is a consolidated city-county situated in the northern Rockies on the western descent of the Continental Divide, in the southwestern portion of the US State of Montana. Initially established as a mining camp, the early miners named Butte after "Big Butte," an adjacent conical peak locally referred to as "The Richest Hill on Earth." With 34,494 inhabitants as per the latest census, Butte is considered the 5th largest city in Montana. Geography Of Butte A view of downtown Butte, Montana. Butte-Silver Bow covers a total area of 1,856.55 sq. km, of which only 1.48 sq. km is occupied by water, and 1,855.07 sq. km is occupied by land. The city is situated in the Silver Bow Creek Valley, high in the Rocky Mountains on the Continental Divide. Butte is also located on the southwestern side of Boulder Batholith, a large mass of granite that dates back to the Cretaceous era. The urban landscape of Butte is well-known for holding mining operations within the city's residential areas. Uptown Butte, located in the city's northwestern margin on a hillside, contains many luxurious Victorian homes and cottages built in Queen Anne-style architecture in the late 19th century. With more than 6,000 such historic structures, the Uptown Historic District of the Butte is one of the country's largest National Historic Landmark Districts that has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located below the hillside, the neighborhoods of the South District of Butte are inhabited by the working class. Climate Of Butte According to the Koppen climate classification, Butte experiences a cold semi-arid climate, with short, dry summers and very cold, snowy winters. The warm summer season lasts from mid-June to mid-September, with the average high temperature ranging between 26.1C and 7.7C. The cold winter season lasts from mid-November to the beginning of March, with the average low temperature ranging between -12.2C and -1.1C. The yearly precipitation is very low and is mainly concentrated in the spring season. The area receives an average annual rainfall of only 12.78 inches and snowfall of 60.4 inches. Therefore, the best time to visit Butte for warm-weather activities is from early July to mid-August. Brief History Of Butte The Silver Bow County Courthouse in Butte, Montana. Editorial credit: davidrh / Shutterstock.com Before the establishment of Butte in 1864, the area initially consisted of a mining camp that was developed in the early 1860s. The Asteroid Mine was founded by William L. Farlin in 1874 and attracted many prospectors to the area. In the late 19th century, Butte experienced rapid development and soon became Montana's first major industrial city. In 1881, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company was established, and by 1900, the company yielded half of the nation's total copper output. In 1910 alone, 129,000,000 kg of copper ore was mined from the Butte mining district, and eventually, Butte became North America's largest copper producer. In the late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Butte became one of the biggest copper mining boomtowns in the American West. In addition to this, large quantities of silver and gold were also mined here, and the large amounts of ore produced in Butte earned it the nickname "The Richest Hill on Earth." In 1917, Butte witnessed the worst mining disaster in the country when an underground fire took away more than 168 lives. The mining industries experienced a decline after World War I, and with the closing of the Berkeley Pit, the mining operations finally ceased in 1985. The Population And Economy Of Butte As per the latest US Census, Butte-Silver Bow has a population of 34,494 inhabitants, with a population density of 18.6 inhabitants per sq. km. The population of Butte-Silver Bow has increased from the 2010 census, which reported that the city was home to 33,525 inhabitants. The biggest ethnic groups in the city are the White, which accounts for 94.3% of the city's population, followed by the Hispanic group at 4.6%, Native Americans at 2.3%, two or more races at 1.9%, Asians at 0.8%, and African Americans at 0.6%. More than one-quarter of the city's population comprises people of Irish descent, and therefore Butte has the highest percentage of Irish Americans than any other city in the country. The latest census also revealed that there were 14,605 households in the city, with a median household income of $49,659 and a per capita income of $28,261. About 17.3% of the families residing in the city are below the poverty line. The city was initially a mining town, and its economic activities were mainly driven by several mining operations from the late 19th to the late 20th century. After the closure of the mining industries, the economy of Butte is primarily driven by various energy companies, healthcare, and tourism. Tourist Attractions In Butte World Museum of Mining World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana. The World Museum of Mining is situated on the former site of the Orphan Girl Mine. Opened to the public in July 1965, this outdoor museum spread over 22 acres houses numerous artifacts, 50 exhibit buildings, and 66 primary exhibits that tell stories about the history of mining and its influence on Butte. In addition to this, the museum also provides underground mine tours and maintains a photo archive that depicts the town's rich mining history. Copper King Mansion Redbrick exterior with white trim on the Copper King Mansion in Butte, Montana. Editorial credit: Teresa Otto / Shutterstock.com The Copper King Mansion is a 34-room residence of a well-known American entrepreneur William Andrews Clark. Located in uptown Butte, the mansion was constructed between 1884 and 1888 using the Romanesque Revival Victorian Architectural style. In 1970, the Copper King Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places. At present, the Copper King Mansion serves as a bed-and-breakfast and local museum. Berkeley Pit The Berkeley Pit mine in Butte, Montana. Editorial credit: Rob Crandall / Shutterstock.com The Berkeley Pit is a massive former open-pit copper mine situated in Butte. The pit is about 1.6km in length and has a maximum width of 800m. It reaches an average depth of 540m. The Berkeley Pit is filled with heavily acidic water up to a depth of 270m. It also contains several heavy metals and chemicals that leach from the rocks. At present, the Berkeley Pit serves as a popular tourist attraction and is one of the country's biggest Superfund sites. The former President on Sunday was transferred from prison to Ate Vitarte Emergency Hospital for a bout of tachycardia and hypotension. Afterwards, doctors decided to transfer him to the Centenario Clinic for monitoring. "Right now he is in the Intermediate Care Unit. He is receiving medication to treat hypotension, and the time of discharge will be decided as he stabilizes," she told the press. "He experienced an episode of hypotension and tachycardia, his episode of atrial fibrillation was quite severe. I thank the Ate Vitarte Emergency Hospital staff, who managed to stabilize him at that time, for their prompt and timely care," she added. In Fujimori Higuchi's opinion, the former President's state of health must have been affected by the recent events surrounding the humanitarian pardon "The latest legal decisions have undoubtedly affected my father's health, and this shows how fragile [he is] due to the many illnesses he suffers. As always, we, his relatives, hope that he will get well and that he can as always overcome each of these complex situations that he has gone through," she stated. Keiko Fujimori pointed out that the team of lawyers led by Cesar Nakazaki is discussing the next steps in defense of the former President. As is known, former President Alberto Fujimori has been serving a prison term for crimes against human rights and corruption committed during his term in office. (END) GDS/VVS/RMB Fuerza Popular Party leader Keiko Fujimori on Sunday reported that her father, Peru's imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori , is currently in the Intermediate Care Unit.Published: 4/17/2022 Farming Connect initiative helping to benefit north east Wales farms Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths MS has visited two farms in North East Wales to see how they are benefiting from Farming Connect which includes support to create a business to introduce farming to school children. As well as meeting some newborn lambs, the minister heard how support is helping the farms, in Bangor-on-Dee and Llandegla, improve their business and remain competitive. In Bangor-on-Dee, the Minister met with biochemist Cheryl Reeves who farms a beef finishing enterprise. Cheryl recently won the Farming Connect Public Engagement Award and has started a successful educational initiative, Agrication, which introduces farming to schoolchildren. This involves visiting schools and hosts farm visits, spreading messages about the important role of farmers and food producers through social media. An automated calf rearing system was also set up at the farm in June 2019 with support from Farming Connect. This system has the capacity to rear up to 120 calves in one batch and has improved the business cashflow, profitability, and reduced manual handling and labour. Farming Connect has helped Cheryl develop her skills which has helped her become a mentor to other farmers. At Plas yn Ial farm in Llandegla, farmer Huw Beech explained to the Minister the agri-environment work taking place on the farm to improve their overall woodland management. This includes assessing the history and condition of the woodland where the majority of the trees were planted during the 1800s and 1900s,but left unmanaged for 65 years. The project Huw has embarked on aims to integrate income generation whilst improving and enhancing environmental and biodiversity benefits by increasing the capital value of the woodland on the farm and providing multiple benefits in a cost-effective way. Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths said: As a government, we are committed to maintaining and developing a thriving and sustainable agricultural sector in Wales and the work being done by Cheryl and Huw are a prime example of what can be achieved. Recently, I announced 227m to support Wales rural economy towards a greener and more sustainable future. Farming Connect is an important factor in helping us reach our goals and I am proud of the programmes achievements, providing valuable training courses for more than 6,000 beneficiaries. Its clear the support is valued by our agriculture sector. In light of the ongoing challenges faced by the industry we confirmed an extension to Farming Connect through to March 2023. We are developing proposals for a replacement Programme to ensure there is no gap in provision. Cheryl Reeves said: Farming Connect has provided me with crucial support and helped me gain new and exciting skills. I am passionate about ensuring future generations understand food and farming which is why I started Agrication and its been fantastic to see young people taking an interest. I was pleased to be able to discuss this with the Minister and it was great to show her around the farm. Huw Beech added: Im incredibly proud of the work were doing here at Plas yn Ial farm which will benefit the business as well as the environment. Farming Connect is playing an important role in what were aiming to achieve, and I want to thank them for their continued support. I was really pleased to welcome Lesley Griffiths to the farm, explain the work taking place and to discuss the benefits of being part of the Farming Connect Demonstration Network which enabled us to run a project looking into Continuous Cover Forestry. North West Logistics acquires Wrexham business with HSBC funding support A Lancashire-based logistics firm has acquired a Wrexham business with support of a seven-figure funding package from HSBC UK. North West Logistics has utilised finance from HSBC UK to acquire Proserve Logistics, a Wrexham-based company providing warehousing and transport solutions for businesses to help maximise performance, efficiency and reliability in a cost effective manner. Proserve currently have in excess of four hundred thousand square feet of warehousing space, supported by a fleet of fifteen vehicles. The acquisition aims to strengthen North West Logistics operations and expand its geographical presence in North Wales and surrounding regions. As a result of the HSBC UK funded acquisition, and the inclusion of an expanded customer base, the combined revenue of the new group will increase to 17 million, and over the next two to three years revenue is expected to increase further. Stephen Dunn, Managing Director at North West Logistics, said: The acquisition of Proserve Logistics marks an exciting next chapter for our company, and were grateful to HSBC UK for providing funding. This acquisition allows us to join together with a well-established, reliable business, with a very experienced management team, robust growth plans and a loyal customer base. Were well-positioned to seize further growth opportunities that focus on the highest quality logistical solutions for our customers, whilst enabling us to retain the strength of our existing processes and management team. John Green, Managing Director at Proserve Logistics, said: We are all excited about the future of the new group and its ability to achieve much more in the UK logistics sector. The various synergies we share will help us to create new opportunities for growth, and find new efficiencies in our operations. Jason Gledhill, Corporate Relationship Director at HSBC UK, added: North West Logistics continues to perform exceptionally well in the logistics sector and generate impressive levels of organic growth. The acquisition of Proserve Logistics, a trusted business, consistently delivering the highest of standards for its customers, signals an exciting milestone and we look forward to seeing further growth opportunities born out of this union. With over 60 vehicles in operation, supported by one hundred thousand square feet of modern warehousing space, North West Logistics provides solutions and support to customers across the UK, ranging from SMEs to large multi-national businesses. "This proposal will be made formal in the coming days. We expect the support from Congress and we urge it not to turn its back on the people's clamor," the Head of State said. "As a Government, we have the responsibility to protect and defend the lives of Peruvians, which is above any interest or political calculation," he added. "It is our duty to do so with a sense of urgency and determination. There is no room for inaction or paralysis here, life is above everything," the President underlined. Castillo noted that, for decades and as a result of failed efforts, the country has been hit by poverty, inequality, corruption, violence, drugs, as well as by cases of sexual abuse against children, teenagers, and women. "Be absolutely certain that we are working to solve these serious problems. And, form here, we reiterate our rejection and demand the maximum sanction for those who attack our children," he said, recalling the case of sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl in the city of Chiclayo, which has shocked the nation. For this reason, he said, efforts are being made to implement public policies for the prevention and eradication of violence, in a comprehensive way, against child sexual abuse, as well as to have a firm hand and map out more severe measures against depraved and degenerate people who destroy the lives of children and young people. His remarks came during the incineration of 16 tons of drugs seized in various police interdiction operations nationwide from December 2021 to late March. (END) VVS/RMB The President of the Republic Pedro Castillo on Monday morning affirmed that he expects congressional support for the bill that the Government is preparing to perform chemical castration against rapists of minors, teenagers, and women.Published: 4/18/2022 After a nationwide police raid conducted against members of the Telegram network of the far-right United Patriots, four people were arrested on Wednesday. They stand accused by the Koblenz Prosecutor Generals Office of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. As recounted on Report Mainz from broadcaster ARD, the charges involved plans for mounting attacks using explosives and the kidnapping of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party, SPD), whose bodyguards were to be eliminated beforehand. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) during a press conference on January 14 (AP Photo/Michael Sohn). The group, which has been under investigation since October, allegedly planned to cause a nationwide blackout by sabotaging electricity substations and power lines, creating civil war-like conditions to take over the government in the ensuing chaos. In addition to Lauterbach, other kidnappings of well-known public figures were also planned. Although the searches took place simultaneously at 21 residential properties in nine federal states, another suspect could not be arrested. A total of 12 men and women are under investigation. The arrests followed a weapons handover conducted between undercover investigators and members of the groupsaid to involve pistols, Kalashnikov machine guns and mines worth 12,000. The suspects are believed to belong to the Reichsburger, anti-vaxxer and prepper scene and are said to have planned weapons purchases totalling several tens of thousands of euros. Lauterbachas well as prominent virologists and epidemiologistshas been a declared bogeyman of the extreme right since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to media reports, the security agenciesthe Rhineland-Palatinate state office and the federal office in Colognealso played a role in uncovering the group. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) spoke to the press of a serious terrorist threat emanating from preparations for a violent uprising on a Day X. The coup plans of armed Reichsburger members and radicalised coronavirus deniers, Faeser said, had reached a new quality. In fact, the case is only the latest in a whole series of raids the security authorities have utilized to take action against fascist groups in recent weeks. The events leave no doubt that right-wing extremist forces are now permanently working on plans for an armed coup and other terrorist actions under the eyes of the authorities. However, the leaders of these groups often remain at large. On the same day as the major operation against the Telegram network, the Federal Prosecutors Office brought charges against a suspected member of the far-right Atomwaffen Division, which has been linked to dozens of murders and maintains contacts with the notorious Azov battalion of the Ukrainian armed forces, among others. The accused, Marvin E., is said to have planned attacks in Germany using explosive devices and firearms but was arrested before carrying out these plans. Using components obtained online, he had manufactured several unconventional explosive devices, including 600 small explosive devices, according to the Federal Prosecutors Office. The profile of the accused is reminiscent of the Yom Kippur murderer in Halle, who also possessed propaganda material from the group. The charges against Marvin E. are the result of the neo-Nazi raid that had taken place a week earlier, when 800 officers from the State Criminal Office (LKA) and Federal Criminal Office (BKA) had searched 61 homes in 11 federal states, arresting four people accused of setting up a criminal organisation. According to information from the newsweekly Der Spiegel, the 50 accused right-wing extremists include a leading cadre from the neo-Nazi scene in Eisenach, but also an active noncommissioned officer in the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) who was under observation by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD). As reported by Der Spiegel, however, conflicts involving the MAD had led to a situation in which the Atomwaffen Division supporter, who is said to have last served in the tank unit in Munster, Lower Saxony, could neither be suspended nor disarmed. The Bundeswehr intelligence service had wanted to inform the officer cadet about the terrorism investigations against himallegedly to deter him. Since then, the relationship between law enforcement and the MAD has been considered strained, writes Der Spiegel. As a result, apart from the 20-year-old carpenter apprentice Marvin E., no one has been charged so far. At the end of March, about 300 police officers had already searched several properties in Bavaria in a large-scale operation. In the process, 3,000 litres of diesel were found and 75 firearms seized, including many suspected illegal handguns and rifles. Although the police believed that the suspects had planned attacks on overhead pylons of major power lines to interrupt the power supply in large parts of the Federal Republic, a spokesperson played down the group as preppers, saying there were no indications of a radical network. The fact that law enforcement authorities have felt compelled to carry out three large-scale raids against right-wing extremist subversives within just two weeks is proof of the extent of the fascist danger in Germany. In view of the ever more aggressive herd immunity policy, allowing the virus to rip through the community, and the aggressive war course against Russia, these forces sense the tide flowing in their direction. Before the kidnapping plans against Lauterbach became known, unknown persons had, among other things, damaged his car and broken a window of his Bundestag (parliamentary) office in Cologne. In Switzerland, the president of the vaccination commission had been kidnapped by a German citizen at the beginning of April, who subsequently died in a gun battle with the police. In Austria, the Green Minister of Health, Wolfgang Muckstein, had to resign due to death threats at the beginning of March amidst discussions about compulsory vaccination. The Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Wednesday that German neo-Nazi parties had shipped donations of materiel for the front to Kiev and that members had donated four-figure sums to the Azov regiment. The federal police officially assume that dozens of German right-wing extremists are intending to travel to Ukraine, after denying such a threat a month ago. The Atomwaffen Division, an international right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist network, is also recruited from the same neo-Nazi milieus. The growing fascist danger is a result of the fact that the state apparatus systematically cultivates right-wing extremist tendencies and previous governments have undisguisedly put their policies into practice. This concerns especially those politicians who, like Lauterbach and federal politicians from the Green Party, are now in the crosshairs of the fascists. While SPD politician Lauterbach is overseeing the worst COVID-19 infection levels since the beginning of the pandemic, Green Party politicians are agitating against Russia and demanding arms deliveries to the Nazi-infested Ukrainian military. The traffic light coalition of the SPD, Liberal Democrats (FDP) and Greens has removed all coronavirus protections and initiated the largest German arms buildup since the fall of the Nazi dictatorship. As far as the state apparatus and the so-called security agencies are concerned, they are closely networked with the fascist forces they are supposed to combat. Both in the case of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU) complex and the so-called Hannibal network, it is now known that the central actors were undercover agents of the secret services or members of the police and the Bundeswehr. As in the times of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and 30s, these forces are being deliberately promoted to be used against the growing opposition to price increases, war and the policy of deliberate mass infection. At the same time, the same state apparatus is cracking down on anyone who opposes the capitalist agenda of social inequality, pandemic and war. This is most sharply demonstrated in the persecution of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP), with the Federal Ministry of the Interior declaring the SGPs advocacy of a democratic, egalitarian and socialist society and any agitation against alleged imperialism and militarism to be unconstitutional. Alexandre Lantier, national secretary of the Parti de l'egalite socialiste (Socialist Equality Party, France; PES), explains the call for an active boycott by workers and youth of the second round of the French presidential elections. Le PES appelle a boycotter le second tour des presidentielles de 2022 To contact the PES, click here. For more information on joining, click here. Days after students occupied the Sorbonne and Sciences Po universities in Paris, as well as universities in Reims and Nancy, mass protests opposed to both right-wing presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and neo-fascist candidate Marine Le Pen broke out across France. Thousands marched in Paris, Lyon, Nantes, Rennes, Caen, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille and other cities across France. There is explosive opposition to the April 24 second round between Macron and Le Pen. Workers and youth marched under banners reading Neither Macron nor Le Pen, opposing a fraudulent election between these two reactionaries. The hash tag #NiMacronNiLePenAbstention was trending on Twitter throughout the weekend in France. The Parti de legalite socialiste (PES), the International Committee of the Fourth Internationals (ICFI) French section, has called for an active boycott of the April 24 election. An open rejection of both far-right candidates is the best way to arm the working class to oppose whichever of the two extreme-right candidates wins the election. Jean-Luc Melenchon, who placed third with 22 percent of the vote, is abdicating all political responsibility to give a lead to his voters. Though he won the youth and the working class suburbs of major cities, as well as 10 of Frances 16 largest urban areas, he made no effort to mobilize his vote. Even as police were violently assaulting protesters who marched on Saturday, he was merely organizing a consultative poll on what his voters planned to do in the second round. Jean-Luc Melenchon in Marseille, May 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) According to this poll of 310,000 Melenchon voters , 37.65 percent intend to vote blank, 28.96 percent intend to abstain and the rest to vote Macron. That is, at least two-thirds of Melenchons nearly 8 million voters oppose voting for either candidate on Sunday. Nonetheless, Melenchon and his Unsubmissive France (LFI) party are insisting that they do not have the authority to issue any political statements to their voters. They wrote the results of this poll are not a voting instruction given to anyone. It indicates the views of the 215,292 people who took part in it. Each will conclude and will vote their conscience as they see fit. Melenchon for his part claimed that LFIs cohesion was his primary concern. That is, Melenchon intends to tie those of his voters who are opposed to both candidates and are seeking a way to fight to the minority of LFI supporters who also back Macron. In this way, he is working to dissipate the political impact of the mass support his campaign received from millions of voters who looked to him to express left-wing opposition to Macron and Le Pen. Melenchon will speak on Tuesday night, the night before a televised debate between Macron and Le Pen. LFI official Mathilde Panot, the head of the partys parliamentary group in the National Assembly, again made a veiled comment to indicate her partys support for Macron, declaring that the threat posed by Le Pen is not of the same nature as that posed by Macron. While Melenchon is working to isolate protesting workers and youth and defuse mass opposition, this weekends protests against the election were met with sharp repression. In Rennes on Saturday, riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters. The city prefecture defended this trampling on the populations democratic right to assemble and protest on the grounds that it had not authorized a protest. In scenes reminiscent of the police violence used to suppress Yellow Vest protesters earlier in Macrons presidency, in Paris police charged protesters on the Place de la Republique. A video showing the police pushing over a man on crutches and another showing police striking a protester on the ground with a baton were shared online. Before the protest, another video showed the police combing metro stops in Paris to intimidate people on their way to the protests and dissuade others from joining. In response, those on a metro car chanted freedom to protest. Alongside an explosion of working class opposition to both candidates, the French ruling class is fearful of an expansion of recent student rebellions over the next week. Nanterre University just outside Paris, where the first occupation of May 1968 took place, has been moved completely online. Heightened security teams have been posted to all universities in the center of Paris, where additional measures such as bag searches are being imposed on students. Nonetheless, students are planning general assemblies to organize continued opposition next week. Within the capital, students at Paris-8, in the working class suburb of St Denis, are organizing an open meeting on Tuesday, April 19. Many of the weekends anti-Macron and Le Pen demonstrations took place alongside ecologist and anti-Russia protests calling for further arms and support for far-right Ukrainian militias, the expansion of NATO, and more sanctions against the Russian people. An Extinction Rebellion protest occupied the Boulevard St Denis overnight without any police interference. These forces are apparently being tolerated by the security forces in part because of Green candidate Yannick Jadots endorsement of Macron in the second round. In response to growing anger at the election among millions of workers and youth, the union bureaucracies are scrambling to keep social anger contained within limits acceptable to the state. Ahead of the election of April 24, they are doing everything possible to channel anger against both Macron and Le Pen behind the incumbent. On Sunday, Philippe Martinez and Laurent Berger, chiefs of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), respectively, published a joint letter in the Journal de Dimanche all but calling for a Macron vote. They wrote: The National Rally [Le Pens party] is a danger to the fundamental rights of citizens and workers. It cannot be considered as the republican parties, respectful and guarantors of our motto: liberty, equality, fraternity. Let us not entrust it with the keys to our democracy, at the risk of losing them. Martinez, whose union also endorsed the NATO war in Ukraine and backed trillion-euro bailouts for the rich during the pandemic, is claiming that Macron defends democracy. However, this is a political fraud. His celebration of Nazi collaborationist dictator Philippe Petain while riot police attacked yellow vests protesting for social equality, his deadly policy of living with the virus and his discriminatory laws targeting Muslims align him firmly with the tradition of extreme-right politics in France. Once again, as workers and youth enter into the streets to oppose Le Pen and Macron, the unions and allied pseudo-left parties like Melenchons LFI are attempting to stifle this opposition and lead it into a dead end. Indeed, they consistently worked to suppress opposition to every one of Macrons major social attacks against the working class over the five years of his term. This is diametrically opposed to the sentiment of millions of workers and youth in France, however, who find the prospect of another five years of austerity, attacks on Muslims and mass death from the pandemic under Macron just as unacceptable as under Marine Le Pen. The only political party in France that reflects this left-wing sentiment of masses of workers and youth is the PES, which calls for an active boycott of the French elections and seeks to build itself in opposition to all factions of the ruling class. After the sinking last week of the Moskva, the flagship of Russias Black Sea fleet, and a major expansion of NATO arms shipment to Ukraine, the imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is escalating further, with Ukrainian President Zelensky now threatening an end of all negotiations with Russia. The exact circumstances of the sinking of the Moskva remain unclear. While Kiev is claiming that it fired two Neptune missiles that hit the shipa claim supported by the USthe Kremlin is insisting that an explosion on board and stormy seas accounted for its sinking. Whatever the truth, however, the loss of the Moskva is universally regarded as a massive military humiliation and setback for Russia. It is the most significant loss any navy has experienced in decades and has been compared to the catastrophe suffered by the Russian navy in the war with Japan in 1904-05. Ukrainian servicemen run for cover as explosions are heard during a Russian attack in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Motivated no doubt by the attempt to offset the catastrophic impression left by the sinking of the Moskva, and in response to the endless provocations by the imperialist powers, which have funneled weapons worth billions of dollars to the Ukrainian army, Russia has escalated air strikes on targets across Ukraine, and has made a concerted effort to seize Mariupol. As of Sunday, Russian forces had reportedly destroyed an ammunition factory near Kiev and seized large parts of the southeastern city of Mariupol with the exception of territory around the Azovstal factory. According to Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov, 2,500 fighters affiliated with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion were still holding out at the Azovstal factory, including 400 foreign mercenaries who had been recruited mostly from Europe and Canada. Kiev rejected an ultimatum issued by the Russian army to the remaining Ukrainian forces to surrender by noon on Sunday. Ukraines prime minister has insisted that the troops will fight until the end. In response to threats by Russian officials that forces still fighting in Mariupol would be eliminated, President Zelensky warned that the destruction of our guys will put an end to all negotiations with Russia. Mariupol has been under siege for seven weeks. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding among the 100,000 civilians who have remained in the city and have reportedly experienced serious shortages of electricity, water and food. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine about the establishment of corridors to evacuate the civilian population, including from Mariupol, have repeatedly ended in failure. With a pre-war population of 400,000, Mariupol is the second largest city in East Ukraine, the so-called Donbass, and is of key strategic and economic significance. It is located on the northeastern cost of the Sea of Azov and, up until the war, much of Ukraines imports and exports went through its ports. If taken by Russia, the city would form a critical part of a land bridge between the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea and the other territories controlled by Russia in the Donbass, around Donetsk and Lugansk. Such a scenario would be a major military setback for Ukraine and create significant economic and logistical challenges for the Zelensky government in the continuation of the war. It is widely acknowledged that the Azov Battalion, which includes hardcore neo-Nazis who admire Adolf Hitler and are dreaming of a worldwide battle for the supremacy of the white race, has played the central role in the battle of Mariupol since the beginning of the war this year. In the civil war that erupted after the US-backed February 2014 coup in Kiev, a bloody battle between far-right militias such as the Right Sector and the Azov Battalion and pro-Russian separatists ended with the city falling to the Kiev regime. Later that year, the Azov Battalion was integrated into Ukraines National Guard and set up its official headquarters in Mariupol. In an interview with local media, Zelensky has indicated that the Azov fighters have effectively been given carte blanche by the government. He said, the Azovtsy are already heroes and no one would forbid them to take certain measures. Zelensky has awarded commanders of the Azov Battalion orders of heroes of Ukraine, and his government has encouraged a recruitment campaign by Azov aimed at attracting far-right forces from all over the world to fight in the war. In an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper, sitting in front of the Ukrainian national flag and a flag with the emblem of the Nazi collaborationist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Zelensky acknowledged that all of the world, all of the countries have to be worried that Russia might use nuclear weapons. However, far from advocating a de-escalation of the conflict, he echoed the provocative rhetoric of US President Joe Biden, who alleged last week that Russia was perpetrating genocide against Ukrainians, and demanded stronger, more destructive weapons for Ukraine and a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas. He also warned that Ukraine would not surrender the eastern part of the country, with Russia reportedly preparing a major offensive in the Donbass, set to begin in the coming days. Ukraine is already packed with advanced NATO weapons that have played a central role in the war. The advanced weapons systems at the disposal of Ukraines army and far-right forces in no small measure account for what are devastating losses by the Russian army, numbering in the thousands of soldiers and including dozens of high-ranking military officials. Just since the beginning of the war on February 24, the US has committed to $2.6 billion in weapons deliveries to Ukraine, including tanks, anti-tank missiles and other advanced weapons systems. The US has also significantly expanded its cooperation with Ukraines army on intelligence operations. Even before the war, the US and NATO spent billions on arming Ukraines military, while the CIA, according to Yahoo News, ran a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel to prepare an insurgency against Russia. Now, the US military is using the experience of the imperialist proxy war in Ukraine to prepare systematically for a direct military confrontation with Russia and China, i.e., for world war. A report by the Associated Press noted that U.S. Army trainers are already using lessons learned from Russias war against Ukraine as they prepare soldiers for future fights against a major adversary such as Russia or China. Army Secretary Christine Wortmuth told the AP, I think right now the whole Army is really looking at whats happening in Ukraine and trying to learn lessons. These lessons, she said, ranged from equipment and logistics problems facing the Russian army to the kind of tanks the US should be prepared to deploy to the muddy terrain prevailing in Europe. With barely veiled enthusiasm about the unfolding war, Wortmuth stated, The Russia-Ukraine experience is a very powerful illustration for our Army of how important the information domain is going to be. Weve been talking about that for about five years. But really seeing it and seeing the way Zelenskyy has been incredibly powerful... This is a world war that the actual world can see and watch in real time. Residents of Lismore and other cities, towns and villages across the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales (NSW) are furious over being left by governments to live in ruins and rubbish after being engulfed by two devastating floods on February 28 and March 30. Flood damaged furniture and household goods in Phyllis Street, Lismore [WSWS Media] Weeks after the floods, Lismore, a rural city of 44,000, including many working class and poor people, resembles a war zone, with piles of stinking and hazardous debris still strewn on residential streets. Together with other flood-struck communities throughout the Northern Rivers, Lismore has become an acute example of a wider and deeper social crisis across Australia. Poverty and inequality have been intensified by repeated climate change-related catastrophes, like bushfires and floods, as well as the soaring cost of living and the unchecked COVID-19 pandemic. Having failed to even organise rescue and emergency services as surging floodwaters threatened the lives of thousands of people, the federal, state and local governments have largely abandoned the victims, as they did in the 201920 bushfires in eastern Australia. In another cynical attempt to defuse the anger, which is shared by ordinary people across the country, the federal Liberal-National Coalition government last week said it would top up the pitiful disaster recovery allowance, which is paid at the JobSeeker (dole) rate of $642.70 a fortnight to those temporarily unable to earn an income. The $350-a-week top up is totally inadequate and lasts only a maximum of 13 weeks. Furthermore, it is confined to those living in the Lismore local government area, which happens to be in an electorate that the government is desperately trying to retain at the May 21 federal election. Flood victims in nearby communities, including Ballina, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby and the Tweed Heads area, are excluded. This latest political ploy came two weeks after the NSW Liberal-National Premier Dominic Perrottet tried to hose down the public hostility by announcing that residents who were not insured and had not accessed other grants could apply for aid of up to $20,000 to repair their homes. For tenants, the pittance was even smallerup to $5,000 to replace lost household essentials. One resident, whose house was inundated in the February 28 flood, causing extensive damage and loss of all household items, gave this comment to the WSWS: Ive sent you photos Ive taken of the mess were still living in, six weeks after the first flood! Included in these photos is one of asbestos lying in the rubble. The stench is disgusting. It smells like sewage. The debris is mixed in with the putrid smell of mud. Its got to be a health risk. A pile of rubbish on a Lismore residential street (Photo: Supplied) People throughout the region are facing homelessness on a much higher level. We dont get accurate information as to the number of people whose homes have been declared uninhabitable but the most recent figure I could find was 3,800. However, after the second flood that number could easily double. Ive looked into the $20,000 grant and its rubbishthe paperwork you have to produce, the amount of time you have to wait will stretch into months, possibly even next year at the rate theyre cutting Service NSW staff. People need financial assistance now. We need a housing plan to accommodate those whove lost their property or cant return for an extended period due to the extent of the damage from the floods. Our state Labor MP Janelle Saffin has thanked Perrottett, saying only the federal government should step up! This is (a) a pittance of what people need and (b) many will not be eligible because they dont have enough of the paperwork required, or they dont have access to the internet (another issue not resolved). The application process is long and confusing and theres no timeframe around when those eligible will receive any funds. We cant help wonder if this is about attacking the poor and most vulnerable in this region. Were all feeling like these governments want us dead! This is no exaggeration. Lismore resembles a war zone. The mainstream media, while not reporting the truth about the disaster, have painted the region as being a flood zone and the community as being responsible for building houses knowing they will be affected by floods. This is a huge lie covering up the fact that the rain bomb on February 28 sent the river more than 2 metres higher than the highest recorded flood in 1974. That led to houses and towns being affected that had never been flooded previously. Three levels of government have completely ignored our plight and the mainstream media is, for the most part, staying silent about the reality here in the Northern Rivers! The cost of living has blown us out financially as well. If youre fortunate enough to have a car, the cost of fuel currently has made it near impossible to afford to fill up, hoping whats in your tank will last just one more trip. It is an illusion to think that the situation will change if a federal Labor government is elected on May 21. It is equally committed to meeting the requirements of big business. Every aspect of the floods crisisfrom the lack of action on climate change to the inadequacy of basic infrastructure and support servicesis the direct result of the subordination of society to the requirements of corporate profit. In our election statement, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) warns that climate change is the basic driver of new extremes in temperature and climatic instability. Yet for decades, governments have fiddled with patently inadequate policies and market-based measures, while the planet has baked. As part of our socialist action program for the working class, the SEP proposes: Establish a fully funded and staffed national disaster agency to take the necessary steps to prepare for floods and fires, prevent them if possible, and respond immediately if need be. Full income support for those impacted and adequate financial assistance to help them reconstruct their lives. As we explain, the financial press, corporate CEOs and their political servants will object that our demands are unaffordable, but the working class, the source of all wealth in society, must decide what is affordable and what is not. Such ruling class objections point to the necessity to nationalise the banks, finance houses, insurance giants and major corporations, and place production and distribution under democratic workers control. A national public insurance fund would compensate individual losses and provide for the reconstruction and rebuilding of communities. Under the capitalist profit system, the flood victims have been left to fend for themselves. They have had to rely on the support of ordinary people. That response needs to be consciously organised into rank-and-file neighbourhood committees, independent of the political establishment, in order to advance an alternative to the dictates of the financial elite. Such working-class organisations need to become the foundation for a workers government to reorganise society along socialist lines as part of the fight for socialism internationally. Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000. On April 13, the National Rallys Marine Le Pen laid out an aggressive foreign policy at a public meeting in Paris. The neo-fascist candidate for the French presidency called to end cooperation with Germany and to refuse visas for Algerians, while threatening Muslims in France with violent police repression. French far-tight leader Marine Le Pen delivers her speech during a campaign rally, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022 in Reims, eastern France. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) The Parti de legalite socialiste (PES) in France has called on workers and young people to mobilize to actively boycott the second round of the presidential elections between Le Pen and incumbent president Emmanuel Macron. Given the reactionary character of both candidates, the only way forward is to reject them both and build an independent movement among workers and youth against the next government. The PES bases this opposition on Marxist internationalism and the struggle for international working class unity. Le Pens bellicose remarks vindicate the policy proposed by the PES to workers and youth in the elections. Macron supports a reckless NATO policy threatening Russia with war, after Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. This gives Le Pen the opportunity to criticize Macron and to pose as a less bellicose figure than the incumbent; however, this is only false and demagogic posturing. On the one hand, Le Pen hinted that she would seek a less aggressive policy towards Russia and also China, which currently serves as Russias main international ally. As soon as the Russian-Ukrainian war is over, Le Pen said, she would call for a strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia. On China, she also criticized US foreign policy as too aggressive towards Beijing. Washington, she continued, needs enemies in order to bind its allies under its domination. She claimed that, if elected, France would pursue relations with Beijing as equals. These statements aim to put Macron on the spot and to complement her populist demagogy through the presentation of a military policy less reckless than the current presidents. Indeed, masses of workers know that the Soviet Union played the main role in liberating France from Nazi occupation. Media criticisms of Le Pen which call for Paris to join Washington and Berlin in an all-out confrontation with Russia provoke broad popular distrust and disquiet. But Le Pens foreign policy is not a policy of peace, any more than her promise to return to the 60-year-old retirement age stands for a policy of social equality. Le Pen simply proposes to target other enemies, notably Germany, the main power in the European Union (EU), and Algeria, the former French colony that won its independence in a heroic struggle in a bloody colonial war in 1954-1962. Le Pen began by fiercely criticizing Germany as an incorrigible obstacle to the military and energy interests of French imperialism. Germany is asserting itself as the absolute negative of the French strategic identity, Le Pen said. She added that irreconcilable strategic differences separate Paris and Berlin, adding: I will not let Germany destroy our nuclear energy. Le Pen proposed to break with Berlin, while Macron has stepped up cooperation with Berlin, trying to turn the EU into an aggressive military power. We will stop all cooperation with Berlin, [including] French support for Germanys claim to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, she said. She accused Berlin of not cooperating with Paris on military projects, such as a new European fighter jet or tank. The arming of Europe against Russia and China, accompanied in Berlin by attempts by the ruling elite to legitimise the memory of the Nazis, is deeply reactionary. But the attempts to construct an independent policy by various representatives of French imperialism, such as Le Pen, are not a progressive alternative. Le Pen opposes Macron not because she rejects militarism or a world war but because she has a different target list. Le Pen does not rely like Hitler or the 20th century fascists on a mass movement of fascist paramilitary militias based in the petty bourgeoisie. Such movements do not exist for now, and masses of workers and young people are moving to the left. But her electoral politics put forward an ultra-authoritarian policy for the current police-state machine, based on the traditions of the 20th century French far right. Her threats against Germany reflect the enormous military tensions that are rising within NATO and the European Union amid the threat of war with Russia. She bases her line on substantial sections of the French ruling elite, in the top brass and defence industry. She also echoes the fascistic parties which, before collaborating with the Nazis, distinguished themselves between 1870 and 1940 by their Germanophobia, anti-Marxism and anti-Semitism. Le Pen appealed to the thousands of officers, both retired and active-duty, who signed calls for a coup in the neo-fascist magazine Current Values. These calls were made by anti-vaccination generals hostile to a scientific fight against COVID-19 and favorable to the failed putsch of April 21, 1961 against Algerian independence. Around them, a large group of officers threatened last year to intervene militarily inside France. Macron has been silent about these threats, while Unsubmissive France (LFI) candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon only called on Macron to control his generals. In the presidential campaign, no candidate warned of the threats the army poses to the French people or to countries it occupies in Africa. But preparations for imperialist war abroad clearly go hand in hand with preparations for class war at home. After this years withdrawal of French troops from Mali amid mass demonstrations against the French presence, Le Pen is putting forward an aggressive policy in Africa also intended to justify repression of Arab and African immigrants within France. Le Pen threatened to expel any Algerian who did not obey French customs and laws. She said, Algerians who already live in France and behave according to French law, respect our customs and love France, have no reason not to stay. The others, admittedly a minority, will have to leave. She also called for clear and unabashed dialogue with Algeria, in which Paris would acknowledge without apology its imperialist crimes, like resort to mass murder, torture and internment in concentration camps during the Algerian war. She said: Acknowledging the past, its glorious elements and its darker areas, does not mean repentance. I want to establish friendly relations with the Algerian people. She also threatened to block Algerian nationals travel to France, though millions of French people of Algerian origin host their relatives in France and want to travel to Algeria. She proposed to condition any new visa granting to Algerian nationals, any authorization of fund transfers, any acquisition of property in France by Algerian dignitaries to the readmission by the Algerian consulate in France of Algerians deemed undesirable and expelled by France. The fact that the bulk of media criticism of Le Pens agenda focuses on her less aggressive policy towards Russia underscores the reactionary evolution of the entire French ruling class. An anti-vax pandemic policy, neo-colonial wars in Africa and the threat of military intervention within France itself are unanimously supported by the ruling elite, including in Macrons circles. As the PES explains in its boycott call, this shows the necessity to build a movement among workers and youth against both Le Pen and Macron. As part of this struggle, the PES will intensify its common struggle with its German comrades in the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei, who are fighting German rearmament and the legitimization of fascistic militarism. In its struggle against imperialist war and military repression, the PES follows the Marxist axiom that the struggle against imperialism begins with opposing the imperialism of ones own country. New York City is seeing a new wave of coronavirus that includes the emergence of the BA.2 variant of Omicron. Earlier this winter, in the aftermath of the wave of mass infection of New Yorkers by the virus, New York City and the state altered the way in which they track COVID-19 infections in accordance with the practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The federal agency switched from direct reporting of community transmission to tying risk level to other factors, including hospitalization data. The outcome was that that the threshold for alert was significantly raised everywhere. In the city, as a consequence, little data is available to track the spread of the disease and caseloads are almost certainly gross underestimates. Ms. Kaiser, a teacher from the Earth school, holds a sign in solidarity with other teachers who are speaking out on issues related to lack of COVID testing for students on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, in New York [Credit: AP Photo/Brittainy Newman] The widespread use of home testing kitsbroadly encouraged by the state and city governments, as opposed to PCR testinghas also undermined the publics ability to accurately ascertain the true level of transmission in the area, since home tests are less reliable than lab tests and since results go largely unreported to any data collection agency. Additionally, the New York City Test and Trace Corps, an agency created in 2020 in the initial phases of the pandemic, well known for its inefficiency to begin with, officially shuttered its doors this month, further impacting the centralized tally of infection. At least one child is reported to have died recently from the disease. The city has been the center of a relentless campaign to numb the population to the danger of the virus in order to remove all mitigation measures which negatively impact big businesses. After indoor masking mandates were abolished in early March, including in schools, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams declared that [t]he best thing we can do to deal with COVID is get back to work Lets get our city up and operating. While Adams has temporarily backed off from removing a mask mandate for pre-K students in schools, the result of the disastrous policies of the citys ruling establishment has been that New York is now undergoing a surge of infection, the true extent of which cannot be known until it is too late. Educators and parents are now reporting an increase in sicknesses in city schools on social media. Mary, a parent of four who lives in Brooklyn, spoke with the World Socialist Web Site after two of her daughters came home from school ill this week with COVID-like symptoms. (Three of her children live at home, while the fourth is an adult who has moved out.) In October of last year, Mary had been targeted in a political effort by the administration of former mayor Bill de Blasio to crack down on parents who resisted sending their children back to school due to COVID safety concerns. The Administration of Childrens Services (ACS) opened a child neglect case on Mary, which threatened to establish the legal basis through which she could have lost custody over her children. In January, Mary was compelled to make the decision to send her children back to school in the face of the threat posed by ACS. Mary has been a consistent opponent of the ending of remote learning in New York City schools, as well as the slashing of mitigation measures. She also has been an outspoken supporter of paid lockdowns for the working class in order to curb infection and save lives. During the Omicron surge this winter, she praised the courageous student walkouts and protests all over the city over COVID-19 safety in school buildings. On Sunday my twins started feeling ill. This week, they took take-home [COVID-19] tests, and they both came out positive. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, my family has been extremely cautious. When the mask mandates ended, I told my kids that they had to keep their masks on in school. We dont even go out to the grocery store. Im totally outraged about this. Only a few months ago, the government was telling me that I was mistreating my kids because I wanted to keep them home safe from a potentially deadly disease that they were doing nothing to contain. Now my children are sick with the very thing that I was trying to protect them from all along. By Wednesday night, my other child started showing symptoms as well, and my husband also started to feel sick. Weve been isolating in separate rooms of our apartment. Ive been stuck in the kitchen taking care of them by myself. Ive communicated with other parents and teachers, and Ive heard that students are now getting sick left and right. But the people in charge are just ignoring it as though it werent a problemlike its all just business as usual. Both [New York City Mayors] de Blasio and Adams were against keeping kids remote, but they werent really serious about policy to stop the pandemic spreading in school buildings. It was all a sham. Only a month after Adams got rid of the K-12 mask mandate, lying through his teeth that masking was somehow detrimental to children, now were at the beginning of yet another wave. Our kids are getting sick again. Its completely, completely criminal. I read an article on the WSWS this week that pointed out that many politicians in Washington are now getting COVID themselves. In New York, Mayor Adams has it now, and this complete hypocrite gets to work from home while he condemns the rest of the population to suffer through it. All of this talk theyve done in the news about living with the virus is B.S. Having to worry like this all the time, with the brunt of the situation falling on regular working people and their childrenthis is no way to live. It is completely insane. Just feels like a bad dream. The lengths that the people in power will go just to keep people working at their low-paying jobs shows that they have absolutely no concern for human life. They simply do not care. Working people are not faring well. Were now stuck with the double whammy of having to worry about sickness and rising prices. Its crazy that in a matter of weeks you can pay 25 percent more than you did before for the same amount of groceries, or gas in your car. Where is the money in society to help people? The American government can spend billions of dollars on weapons abroad, but it cant even ensure a decent quality of life for people in its own country. Its no conspiracy theory to say that its all about profits and money. We need social programs that actually work. Pay people to stay at home, feed their kids and stay safe. Pass out differential payments to offset rising food and fuel prices. Keep schools remote. Save lives and end the pandemic once and for good. The National Health Service (NHS) is facing an unprecedented and debilitating crisis amid a renewed surge of coronavirus hospitalisations and deaths following the Conservative governments lifting of all key public health restrictions. In a remarkable thread posted on Twitter Sunday, the chief executive of NHS Providers Chris Hopson set out the four big, interrelated challenges creating the longest and most sustained period of NHS pressure 20 experienced chairs and CEOs from across the health service had ever experienced. Hopson lists as challenge one, Much higher levels of covid prevalence that we were expecting. In the first week of April, patients in hospital with COVID-19 exceeded 20,000 across the UKlevels not seen since the worst days of the pandemic in January and February 2021. There are presently 19,028 patients in hospital with COVID infections, according to official figures, with 15,432 admitted over the past seven days. Hundreds are dying daily of the disease, including nearly 2,000 deaths over the seven days to last Thursday. In the face of widespread calls by health leaders and scientists for the reintroduction of social distancing and masking requirements in public spaces to ease the pressure on hospitals, the Johnson government has insisted that there will be no change to our guidance and our living with COVID plan still stands. Hopson told The Sunday Times that COVID is surging partly because the government is pretending Covid doesnt exist any more and that nobody needs to take any precautions. This followed Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, telling the BBC earlier that week, In our view, we do not have a living-with-Covid plan, we have a living-without-restrictions ideology, and British Medical Association chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul warning of the consequent pressures on the health system, This Easter looks set to be just as bad as some of the worst winters we have ever seen. Challenge two is a very pressured urgent and emergency care pathway. Pressures, says Hopson, are significantly greater, lasting longer and more geographically widespread, than we have seen before. The worst hit area of hospital care is in accident and emergency departments, which have seen waiting times for acutely life-threatening type 1 patients increase to record levels in recent weeks. NHS Confederation reports: There were 1.42 million type 1 attendances in March, of which 58.6 per cent of attendances were completed within four hours. The worst performance on record prior to the pandemic was 68.6 per cent in December 2019, and performance in February was the previous worst on record (60.8 per cent). Meanwhile there were 22,506 12-hour waits from decision to admit, to admission (or trolley waits, as they are known) Across the whole of 2019, there were 8,272 12-hour trolley waits recorded, so Marchs figure is 272 per cent of an entire years worth of 12-hour waits pre-pandemic. Deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust Dr Sarah Scobie said patients were facing frightening levels of suffering and warned, It is hard to imagine an end in sight, with lengthy waits for healthcare firmly here to stay. Ambulances are also experiencing unprecedented delays. In five out of the last seven months, response times for the most serious, life-threatening injuries has been well over nine minutes compared to the standard of seven minutes. Likewise, category 2 patients, including suspected heart attacks or strokes, which guidelines say should receive treatment within 18 minutes, are taking an average of 1 hour and 1 minute to reach because of ambulance delays. Overall waits for ambulances have reached an average 2 hours 17 minutes, which is the first time since records began that this figure has exceeded 2 hours. The London Ambulance Service is now planning to use volunteers to answer category 3 emergency calls, including people in the late stages of labour, with abdominal pains, and cases of diabetes where patients can be treated in their own homes. President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr. Katherine Henderson commented, It feels shaming to me that were in this situation. Nursing staff in an NHS hospital (Credit: WSWS Media) Challenge 3, Hopson writes, is the care backlog. The waiting list for elective procedures rose to a record 6.18 million patients in March, up from 6.1 million in February. This is despite the valiant efforts of NHS workers who cleared 1.26 million patients off the waiting list in February and achieved a reduction in still dangerously high waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The Financial Times reported Sunday that in the week ending April 12, fewer than 5,000 general or acute hospital beds were unoccupied in England, 5.4 percent of the total and the lowest level across the pandemic. Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, told the paper No hospital system can run at that level of occupancy outside of very short periods of crisis. NHS managers have begun to ease infection control and prevention procedures to free up hospital capacity. These include measures such as ending the systematic testing of patients and the separation of COVID-positive patients from the general population, as well as relaxed protocols for personal protective equipment. According to NHS sources, The Independentreports, at least two major hospitals, in Newcastle and York, have dropped testing of all patients without symptoms in order to alleviate pressure on bedsraising fears that Covid could spread on unchecked wards. Other hospitals are also likely to do the same as bed pressures worsen. As well as high hospital demand due to COVID, clinicians are unable to discharge patients no longer requiring hospital treatment due to a staffing crisis in community health services and social care. Workforce shortages are described by Hopson as the biggest of challenge of all. Daily staff absences now stand at approximately 71,000 on top of 110,000 staff vacancies in NHS England. The figure is approaching the previous peak in absences recorded on January 10, 2022. In the South West and South East regions of England absences had already exceeded their January peak in March, with 48 percent of absences due to COVID in the South West. Approximately a quarter of health workers are looking for new jobs, according to a recent NHS staff survey, due to widespread staff burnout and low morale. NHS staff have suffered 8 million mental health sick days in the last five years, 2.2 million of them in 2021. Only 27 percent of the NHS workforce feel that there are enough staff in their organisation to allow them to do their jobs properly and safely. Close to half have been made unwell by work-related stress in the last month, a third say they feel burnt out and a third say they are exhausted at the thought of the next shift. Dr Thomas Dolphin, a consultant anaesthetist, told the Guardian, We brutalised our staff for months on end. Then, not surprisingly, quite a lot of them have left or retired, or moved to another country as soon as they could because it was soul-destroying. Now were in a position where were even more short staffed. The consequence is in those numbers. Hopson concludes his thread damningly, These pressures are a result of four long term fault lines built up over last decade. Longest/deepest NHS funding squeeze ever. NHS therefore unable to build extra capacity to meet growing demand. Rising workforce shortages. Govt failure to address problems in social care. The Conservative government, which is committed to privatising the health service, has no intention of resolving the situation. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has insisted that workforce numbers will need to be addressed based on existing budgets. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has instructed NHS Trusts to make a 4.75 billion in efficiency savings as part of plans to slash wasteful spending across the public sector. A British Medical Association (BMA) survey of 1,194 doctors found that 52 percent of doctors believe that the governments recovery plans are totally unachievable and 36 percent believe they are mostly unachievable with existing health resources. On April 12, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) held a demonstration in Hatton, a major town in Sri Lankas central plantation district. It was part of the SEPs intervention in the ongoing mass movement against President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government. Central to the partys campaign is the building of workers action committees to independently mobilise the working class on a socialist perspective. SEP demonstration in Hatton in support of Galle Face Green protest in Colombo [WSWS Media] Demonstrators held placards calling for removal of the Rajapakse regime, rejection of any future capitalist interim government, repudiation of Sri Lankas foreign debt and the building of action committees. Other placards called for mobilisation of the international working class to end the US-NATO proxy war against Russia. The protest attracted widespread public interest with some young people deciding to join in and many bystanders offering encouragement. Passing vehicles honked their horns in support. SEP and IYSSE members and supporters campaigned in the Hatton and Maskeliya area in the lead up to the event. They won strong backing from workers and youth in the tea estates who are bitterly angry over the intensification of social attacks by the Rajapakse government. In spite of ongoing paper shortages in Sri Lanka, over 1,000 copies of the SEPs April 7 statement in Sinhala and Tamil entitled Bring down Sri Lankas Rajapakse government! Abolish the executive presidency! Form action committees to fight for a socialist program of action! were printed. SEP campaigners distributing party statement in Hatton [WSWS Media] Several other demonstrations have been held in recent days in the central tea plantation districts where most Tamil-speaking workers live, including in Bogawantalawa and Ragala, as well as Hatton. These events were held in support of the ongoing protests in Colombos Galle Face Green where tens of thousands are gathered. Many Tamil youth, originally from the plantations but now working in Colombo, have joined the Galle Face Green protests. Tea plantation workers have been heavily impacted by the rapid increases in the cost of food, fuel and other basic necessities. The plantation unions, which are notorious for their collaboration with the companies and the government, were at first silent about the growing anti-government protests. But as political unrest grew among estate workers, the National Union of Workers, Democratic Peoples Front and the Up-country Peoples Front, decided to hold a joint demonstration and a rally at Talawakelle on April 7 to dissipate and contain workers anger. Two days earlier, on April 5, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) leader Jeevan Thondaman resigned as Rajapakses state minister for estate infrastructure affairs. In contrast to the treacherous policies of these unions, plantation workers from Glenugie and Deeside estate went on strike in response to a decision by the estates action committee. About 200 workers walked out and demonstrated to demand the ouster of the Rajapakse regime. The Glenugie and Deeside Estates Action Committee (GEWAC) was previously initiated by the SEP. One plantation worker, Nalluthamphy from the Lindula Estate, spoke with WSWS reporters in the leadup to the April 12 demonstration. He explained the impact of the rising cost of food and other essentials. The cost of living at present is unbearable, he said. We have to pay 200 rupees ($US75 cents) for one kilogram of rice or wheat. Dhal per kilogram and one litre of coconut oil are 450 and 1,200 rupees respectively. How can we live under these conditions? He pointed out that plantation workers' wages are not fixed. We have to pluck 20 kilos per day to get 1,000 rupees. If we cant, then we get less, about 50 rupees per kilo, he said. Farmers are also facing severe problems. Buying fertilizer is difficult because one packet [50kg] of fertilizer is Rs 18,000. How are farmers supposed to cultivate? He denounced all the capitalist political parties and said workers were discussing banning politicians from coming to their homes and begging for votes in future elections. N. Devapiriya, a social worker, said: Ive been a social worker for nearly 20 years and am very happy to participate in this struggle. If Id known about this protest earlier, I would have come with some other people and joined the protest. We should continue the fight until we defeat the dictatorship [of Rajapakse] and continue to raise our voice for our rights. N. Devapiriya [WSWS Media] Commenting after the April 12 protest, SEP political committee member M. Thevarajah said, A massive opposition of workers, farmers and youths has emerged demanding resignation of the President and his government. The SEP supports this campaign but even if Rajapakses government is brought down, other capitalist parties will form a government with no solution for workers, farmers, and oppressed Tamil people of North and East. It is the capitalist system we have to overthrow, which is the source of attacks against the social conditions of workers and the poor. We have to build an independent movement of the working class to overthrow the Rajapakse government, abolish the executive presidency and establish a workers and farmers government. There are pressing questions for the working class amid this social calamity. The US-NATO proxy war against Russia is very dangerous for the worlds masses. It can easily descend to a devastating third world war. The ICFI and SEP are fighting to build an international anti-war movement. We are fighting to overthrow the capitalist system, the root cause of the war. Only by fighting for the world socialist revolution, can we stop the war. he said. K Kandipan, the GEWAC secretary and a leading SEP member in the area, said, We are fighting to unite Sinhala Tamil workers and Muslim workers, and for a workers and farmers government. In every estate, the management attacks workers who are at the forefront of fighting for their rights. Thirty-eight workers from Alton estate at Upcot, 11 workers from Katukelle estate division and five workers from Welioya estate, Hatton were sacked by the management. Workers need action committees here and every workplace to unite workers and fight for their rights. YEREVAN, APRIL18, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ministry of Economy proposes to ratify the draft agreement on comprehensive economic cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union, its member states and Singapore. Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan presented the draft today during the session of the parliamentary standing committee on regional and Eurasian integration affairs. The minister said that the single package of agreements on development of commercial cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and Singapore has been developed based on the 2016 December 26 decision of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. The agreement on comprehensive economic cooperation envisages an obligation of multilateral development of interaction of the sides, which aims at promoting the trade of goods and services, expanding the cooperation, and ensuring capital investments, contemporary standards for the foundation of companies and protection of their activity, the minister said. Kerobyan said that 7 negotiation stages were held with Singapore, within the frames of which talks were also held over the signing of the Framework agreement, which aims at creating a package of agreements, as well as bilateral talks over the signing of agreements on trade of services and investments. The agreement aims at creating an environment and conditions for the development of commercial relations and promotion of economic cooperation between the sides in areas of mutual interest, as well as for eliminating the trade and investment barriers between the sides, reducing the business expenditures and raising the economic efficiency, he said. Based on this the minister said that the ministry of economy finds the ratification of the agreement by Armenia appropriate. The parliamentary standing committee on regional and Eurasian integration affairs approved the draft. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka are holding a picket and an online public meeting to advocate a working-class socialist program for the ongoing mass demonstrations against the government of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The picket will be held at 3 p.m. on Thursday April 21 outside the Fort Railway Station in Colombo. The main slogans at the picket will be Abolish the executive presidency, Defeat the IMF austerity measures and Build workers action committees. The online public meeting will be held three days later on Sunday April 24 at 4 p.m. It will be on Zoom and livestreamed via the SEP Facebook page. The Rajapakse government has been shaken by unprecedented and ongoing mass protests that erupted over intolerable social conditions. Lengthy daily power cuts, shortages of fuel and cooking gas, and the skyrocketing cost of essential items have devastated the lives of workers, youth, farmers, fishermen, self-employed and small-scale business holders. The mass movement has coalesced around Go Home Gota, the demand that President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna government resign. The SEP supports this demand and on April 7 issued a statement which goes further in outlining a socialist political program and perspective for the working class. The statement calls for the immediate abolition of the executive presidency which has been used since 1978 to brutally crush all social opposition by working people, youths and rural toilers to capitalist rule. Pointing out the treacherous role of unions in suppressing the wave of strikes and protests by workers during the past period, the SEP urges workers to form Action Committeesindependent of the trade unionsto address all the pressing social needs of the masses. It explains the incapacity all parties of the bourgeois political establishment to solve any of burning social issues confronting the working people and rural toilers and advances a series of policies aimed at meeting those needs. The SEP advocates a program for the working class to overthrow capitalist rule and establish a government of workers and peasants to implement socialist policies. This fight of the Sri Lankan working class is a part of broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally. The SEP/IYSSE urge all the workers, youths, peasants, and other oppressed layers to participate in this picket and online public meeting. Register for the Zoom meeting here. 25 years ago: Oklahoma City bombing trial opens The Oklahoma City federal building after the blast (Credit: FEMA) On April 24, 1997, opening statements were delivered in the trial of Timothy McVeigh for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people, including 30 children. McVeigh was facing the death penalty, indicted on 160 state offenses and 11 federal offenses. The identities of the jurors were kept secret by court order, and the panel sat behind a wall which blocked trial spectators from seeing them. Until the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. A further 680 people were injured, and the attack destroyed over a third of the building, ruined hundreds of buildings on the surrounding blocks, and caused $652 million in damage. Lead prosecutor Joseph Hartzler cited several expressions of McVeighs extreme right-wing views in order to demonstrate the political motivation for the bombing. At the time of his arrest, McVeigh was wearing a shirt celebrating the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. He was also carrying extracts from The Turner Diaries, a fascist and anti-Semitic novel in which the hero blows up a federal building with a truck bomb similar to the one he used in the Oklahoma City attack. McVeighs stated motivation was revenge against the federal government for the siege of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas, just two years prior. Defense attorney Steven Jones claimed in his opening statement that the identification of McVeigh as the bomber was the product of false testimony by witnesses who were coerced by the government or influenced by pre-trial publicity. He also cited reports of systematic mishandling of physical evidence by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laboratory. The first major piece of evidence, the axle of the Ryder truck that carried the bomb, was to be introduced after the first few witnesses testified about the impact of the bomb blast. McVeigh had been identified by a clerk as the man who rented the truck. He was eventually found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001, six years after the Oklahoma City bombing. 50 years ago: Anti-war protests erupt at US colleges Young Socialist march protesting US bombing of Vietnam During the week of April 18, 1972, a new wave of anti-war protests swept through colleges and universities throughout the United States. The demonstrations were sparked by news that the United States had begun a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam as retaliation for the Easter Offensive that was making steady progress retaking territory in the south and was encroaching on Saigon itself, capital of the US-backed puppet regime of South Vietnam. The US bombings largely targeted civilian areas resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Vietnamese non-combatants. At several campuses the protests turned violent after police and national guard forces were deployed to suppress the students. Particularly intense clashes were reported at Columbia, Harvard, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Maryland. Students at Harvard broke into the Center for International Affairs before police removed them and imposed a curfew. At Columbia 2,000 students walked out of classes and called for a strike to last until the war was ended. Over 4,000 joined the demonstration at the University of Wisconsin protest with some students throwing red paint on the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) building. The demonstrations were particularly intense at the University of Maryland. There, the students also targeted the ROTC building, with some making attempts to burn it down. Several thousand came out to call for an end to the war and occupied a campus building. In scenes reminiscent of attacks against civil rights demonstrators, Maryland State Police were called and used clubs, gas, and even dogs against the student anti-war protestors. In the aftermath, hundreds of National Guard troops were deployed to occupy the campus and arrested over 150 students. Most of the demonstrations were led by middle class protest organizations like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Maoist-oriented Progressive Labor Party (PLP). While claiming to support the revolutionary struggle of Vietnamese workers and peasants against imperialism, these groups offered no political way forward for students beyond appealing to the Nixon administration or the Democratic Party to end the war. The exception was a demonstration on April 22 organized by the Young Socialists (YS), the youth movement of the Workers League, the predecessors to the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and the Socialist Equality Party. Over 400 workers and youth came out to join the Young Socialist demonstration in New York City. The YS called for victory to the NLF against imperialism and for American antiwar protesters to turn to the working class and fight to build a revolutionary leadership as the method to end the war. One speaker from the Workers League told the crowd, The spectacular victories of the NLF in South Vietnam are the sharpest expression of the offensive of the international working class against capitalism. This powerful movement of the working class can be seen in this country as millions of workers fight Nixons Pay Board. 75 years ago: Trial of Nazi industrialists begins in Nuremberg Flick on trial at Nuremberg On April 19, 1947, six leading German industrialists were brought to the dock in Nuremberg, accused of participating in Nazi war crimes. The trial was the one of several involving charges against the leading personnel of major German businesses that had collaborated with Hitlers Third Reich. It was a US military tribunal conducted by American judges, which followed the main Nuremberg Tribunal involving all four of the Allied powers, Britain, France and the Soviet Union, as well as the United States. The trial also took place in Nuremberg because that city was part of the American-occupied zone in Germany. The defendants in the April trial included Friedrich Flick and five high-ranking directors of his group of companies which operated as Flick Kommanditgesellschaft, or Flick KG. Flick had been a financial supporter of the Nazi party from shortly after its seizure of power in 1933. He and his associates also allegedly benefited from the Nazi regimes racialist expropriations of businesses owned by Jews. Flicks network of mines and industrial enterprises had played a crucial role in Nazi armament. The charges against Flick were confined to the years of the Second World War. He and his co-defendants were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, by participating in the enslavement of occupied peoples and their abuse as slave laborers; the plundering and spoilation of occupied territories, including the acquisition of plants and facilities in countries seized by the Nazis; the persecution of Jews and aryanization of property; membership of the Nazi party and the high-ranking Circle of Friends of Himmler group, and participation in a criminal organization, the Nazi SS. The court dismissed the count on benefiting from the persecution of Jewish businesses, as the Nazi expropriations had occurred before the war. Three of the defendants were acquitted of all charges, two others were only found guilty of a minority of the offenses listed and were given lenient sentences. Flick was found culpable on three of the counts, including for war crimes. He was sentenced to just seven years, with consideration for time served. Flick did not do even this time, being released in 1950 based on an amnesty. By the end of the decade and less than 15 years after the conclusion of the war, he had rebuilt his fortune and was among the richest people in West Germany. 100 years ago: American Communist leader released from prison Ruthenberg On April 24, 1922, C. E. Ruthenberg, the Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of America, was released on a $5,000 bond from the New York State Penitentiary in Dannemora, a maximum-security prison, after serving nearly two years of a five-year sentence. Ruthenberg had been arrested in Chicago in 1919 at the request of New York authorities for violating the states 1902 Criminal Anarchy Law. There had been no arrests under this law for 17 years when it was resurrected as a part of a broad witch-hunt of leftists and immigrants best known for the mass arrests under the notorious Palmer Raids, instigated by US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and carried out by future FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. Ruthenberg had been a part of the Left Wing faction of the Socialist Party and worked with leaders such as Louis Fraina to publish the Revolutionary Age, the first newspaper in the United States to support the goals of Bolshevism. The Left Wing, particularly its stance against imperialist war, had been influenced by Leon Trotsky during his exile in New York City in 1917, before he returned to Russia to lead the October Revolution with Lenin. Tried in October 1920 with fellow Communist I. E. Ferguson, Ruthenberg was subjected to an examination on the principles of socialism and the reasons for their affiliation with the socialist movement. In his statement to the court, Ruthenberg said, I go to prison because of support of a great principle that will triumph in spite of all the courts, in spite of all the organizations of the capitalist class. A rally on May 13 in New York City of over 3,000 celebrated his release from prison. British special forces are training Ukrainian troops in the war zone according to a report published in the Times. The piece published Friday evening, headlined British special forces are training local troops in Ukraine: Serving UK soldiers on ground for first time, states, Officers from two [Ukrainian] battalions stationed in and around the capital said they had undergone military training, one last week and the other the week before. Ukrainian soldiers take part in an exercise for the use of NLAW anti-tank missiles at the Yavoriv military training ground, close to Lviv, western Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Pavlo Palamarchuk) It reports, Captain Yuriy Myronenko, whose battalion is stationed in Obolon on the northern outskirts of Kyiv, said that military trainers had come to instruct new and returning military recruits to use NLAWs, British-supplied anti-tank missiles that were delivered in February as the invasion was beginning. One Ukrainian special forces commander, who goes by the military nickname Skiff, said the 112th battalion, to which his unit was attached, had undergone training last week. The account was confirmed by his senior commander. The article claims, British military trainers were first sent to Ukraine after the invasion of Crimea. They were withdrawn in February to avoid direct conflict with Russian forces and the possibility of Nato being drawn into the latest conflict. It continues, Former British soldiers, marines and special forces commandos are also in Ukraine working as training contractors and volunteers, but the Ukrainian officers were adamant that their training this month was carried out by serving British soldiers. Much of the recent training provided by Britain to Ukraine has been in the use of the 3,600 Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons (NLAWs) that London has shipped into the war zone since February. These have played a crucial role in the Ukrainian militarys ability to destroy many Russian tanks and armoured vehicles. The UK media have been jubilant for weeks over the role of British forces in Russian military setbacks. On April 1, the Times, citing information from Major William Ross, known as Bill, who ran army training in the country until February 13, reported, Ukrainian soldiers from across the country turned up in droves to receive UK training on anti-tank weapons in the days before the invasion, which then proved invaluable in slowing the Russian advance The Times noted the extent of the UKs training effort in the country by Ross and other British troops who deployed to Ukraine in the months leading up to the invasion by Russia. The UK troops trained soldiers in counter-sniper techniques, how to defend against heavy artillery and how to fight in urban battles. The latest Times piece states in relation to the role of special forces, The [UK] Ministry of Defence [MoD] refused to confirm the Ukrainian commanders accounts, citing a longstanding convention not to comment on special operations. All such statements from London refusing to confirm or deny must be treated as an evasion, given the long-standing record of British imperialism in anti-Russian intrigues, particularly in training and arming Ukraine since the 2014 Maidan Square coup. Britain backed the coup, led by fascist forces, including the Right Sector, Svoboda and the Azov Battalion, which overthrew the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. In February 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Britain was to send military advisors and nonlethal aid to Ukraine, in order to improve the survivability of Ukrainian troops. As part of that operation 75 military trainers were sent to western Ukraine, providing instruction in command procedures, tactical intelligence, battlefield first aid, logistics, and the planning and execution of urban operations. The British also assessed the future training requirements of Ukraines infantry. A few months later, in July, Britain took part in a multinational training operation, Rapid Trident. Led by the US and Ukraine, it brought British soldiers together with troops from several other partner nations in the west of the country. The MoD said Partner nations troops were trained in essential tactics, such as reacting to contact with enemy forces. Battle Group Headquarters staff will also contribute to a command post exercise, testing the ability of commanders to lead operations alongside soldiers and officers from other nations. As part of the operation the UK Army sent in Battle Group Headquarters staff and an infantry platoon from 1st Battalion The Rifles, a total of around 50 personnel, to provide vital training and contribute to the mission command headquarters. The same year, Britain codified its support role with the launch of Operation Orbital, its official training mission to Ukraine. At the end of 2015, Cameron authorized an increase of 2 billion in the special forces budget, to be spread over five years. In 2018, the scope of the Orbital training was enlarged with the deployment of training teams from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines to deliver training to the Ukrainian Navy who face increasing threats in the Sea of Azov. In 2019, as the MoD revealed that 17,500 members of the Ukrainian armed forces had already been trained by Britain via Orbital, it announced a further extension of its training mission to Ukraine by three years to March 2023. UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced in September 2020 that Britain would lead a multinational Maritime Training Initiative for the Ukrainian Navy. The following year, in the lead up to the war and as Britain boasted that it had trained over 20,000 members of the armed forces of Ukraine, both nations played a crucial role in upscaling provocations against Russia as part of NATOs UK-led Carrier Strike Group 21 operations in the Black Sea. The WSWS reported in April 2021 that Britains Special Air Services (SAS) were by then playing a critical role in Ukraine: The UK already has special forces and Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft deployed to the region. An SAS special forces team and Royal Signals electronic unit were officially sent to Ukraine last week, alongside a US special operations team, to monitor Russian activity. As well as UK forces training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine, there has been regular training organised between the two nations held in Britain. Last week, on April 12, the i news website reported, Ukrainian troops will arrive on UK soil within days for emergency training in their fight against Russia. With the MoDs assessment that there will be an intensification of the war in the east of Ukraine, the i reported Armed Forces Minister James Heappey telling LBC Radio that Britain was supplying Ukraine with 120 armoured vehicles that were being made ready. He added, The Ukrainian troops that will operate them will arrive in the UK in the next few days to learn how to drive and command those vehicles. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson making a determined pivot to the US as a central plank of his post-Brexit strategy, and massively increasing Londons military capabilities, Britain can be relied on to stir the pot, no matter what the consequences. Last year Britains anti-Russian provocations in the Black Sea led to a Russian fighter plane dropping bombs in the path of a UK warship as tensions reached boiling point. This weekend Russia acknowledged Britains role as the chief lackey of US imperialism in facilitating its long-held designs on the Eurasian land mass and the dismembering, ultimately, of Russia. On Saturday, Moscow banned Johnson from entering Russia, along with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, former prime minister Theresa May, Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other senior ministers and politicians. Moscows Foreign Ministry said it was in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials. Britain had waged an unbridled information and political campaign aimed at isolating Russia internationally, creating conditions for restricting our country and strangling the domestic economy. Russia could just as easily have taken action against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his front bench, who have joined the ruling Conservatives in one de facto party of war. As Johnson rolled out initial sanctions against Russia, Starmer was bellicose in demanding he ramp up sanctions on Russia to cripple its ability to function. YEREVAN, 18 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. On April 20-22 at the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute an international scientific conference will be held entitled The challenges of teaching of Armenian genocide in 21st century. The director of Armenian Genocide Museum Institute Harutyun Marutyan said at ARMENPRESS media hall that 29 reports will be presented. The reporters are from different institutions of Armenia and there are participants also from the United States, Lebanon, Israel, Rwanda, Cambodia, Spain, Russian Federation. It's one thing what we think, another thing is what the professional community thinks. It is very important to listen to the opinion of our partners: researchers, pedagogues. Today the information about the past is presented to children. Since the memories of the Armenian Genocide are one of cornerstones of our identity, it is very important, that the information not only be about the past, but a transition will be made to present. We should understand how it is possible to do so. The issue is what is educated and how is educated. Absolutely no task is set to strengthen the stereotype of victim, on the contrary, knowledge will be offered that will create a feeling of pride in the student. It will be presented how the Armenian people were able to resist with weapons, fight without weapons, survival, win. Those are important features, which should be presented to the children at that age'', said Harutyun Marutyan. Here are the teachers, researchers who will try to find gaps, share experience, offer solutions. YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US State Department referred to the possible peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The United States welcomes PM Pashinyans recent comments on peace negotiations with Azerbaijan, the recent bilateral call between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the commitment of the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to peace negotiations, reads the Twitter page of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a telephone conversation with President of the European Council Charles Michel, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister. The interlocutors exchanged views on the implementation of the agreements reached during the meeting between the President of the European Council, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan in Brussels on April 6, the situation in the region and a number of issues on the agenda of Armenia-EU relations. Pashinyan and Michel also discussed the implementation of the agreement on allocating 2.6 billion to Armenia within the framework of the EU Eastern Partnership economic and investment plan, emphasizing the importance of effective implementation of the programs envisaged by the investment package. Charles Michel reaffirmed the EU's commitment to the full implementation of the investment program for Armenia and stressed the importance of starting the practical implementation phase of the programs as soon as possible. Americans' appetite for fish is helping fund the invasion of Ukraine despite an import ban on Russian seafood An Atlantic pollock sits on ice at the Portland Fish Exchange in Portland, Maine on Thursday, May 5, 2016. Robert F. Bukaty, File/Associated Press The US on March 11 banned all imports of Russian seafood to punish Putin for invading Ukraine. Russian seafood that gets sent to China for processing still makes its way to the US, AP reported. The US has also struggled to cut off Russia's energy revenue as other countries depend on its oil. The US banned the import of Russian seafood after the invasion of Ukraine, but that hasn't stopped it from flowing across the border. Thanks to seafood processing in China and loose country of origin labeling laws in the US, Russian pollock, salmon, and wild-caught fish is still being bought, sold, and consumed by Americans, according to an Associated Press report. President Joe Biden on March 11 announced a ban on imports of vodka, diamonds, and seafood from Russia as part of a series of measures intended to punish President Vladimir Putin for launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. But Russian seafood companies can get their products to the US anyway by going through China, where plenty of seafood from Russian waters is already processed. A 2019 study from the International Trade Commission found almost one-third of wild-caught fish imported into the US from China actually originated in Russia. The study also found that 50% of pollock and 75% of salmon imported into the US from China were actually from Russia. When the fish is processed and exported to the US it can be labeled as a "product of China" because a country of origin label isn't required, according to AP, allowing it to evade the Russian import ban. Gleb Frank, the son of a former Putin official and son-in-law of a sanctioned oligarch, owns two of the largest seafood exporters in Russia, Russian Fishery Co. and Russian Crab, AP reported. He was dubbed Russia's "Crab King" in 2019 after winning major crab-fishing rights from the Russian government. Frank demonstrates the close ties between the Russian seafood industry and the Kremlin, according to AP. He was also sanctioned by the US last month as part of a major campaign against Russian elites and their families. Following the sanctions, he sold part of his ownership in both companies and resigned as chairman. The US has also struggled to cut Russia off from oil and gas profits despite instituting its own import ban on them. Some European countries have also banned Russian oil but others are reliant on it, like Italy and Germany, in addition to countries like China and India that continue to buy it. Read the original article on Business Insider Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned that Democrats could be headed toward big losses in the November midterm elections if the ruling party does not do more in the coming months to fulfill the promises it made to voters. In an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Monday, the outspoken Massachusetts Democrat laid out the frustration and disappointment many Americans who voted for party members feel as President Joe Bidens agenda stalls despite Democrats controlling the House, Senate and White House. Republican senators and broken institutions have blocked much of that promised progress. Now Republicans are betting that a stalled Biden agenda wont give Democrats enough to run on in the midterm elections and they might be right, Warren wrote. Despite pandemic relief, infrastructure investments and the historic Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, we promised more and voters remember those promises, she continued. The 2020 presidential candidate outlined multiple priorities she said are both popular among voters and necessary to help Democrats deliver meaningful change, including passing a reconciliation bill that would make large corporations pay their share to fund vital investments in combating climate change and lowering costs for families referring to provisions from Bidens original Build Back Better spending bill. Warren also stressed that the president should exercise his executive power by canceling student debt and lowering prescription drug costs. To put it bluntly: if we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big losses in the midterms, the senator wrote. In Opinion To put it bluntly: if we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big losses in the midterms, writes Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a guest essay. https://t.co/8qlBq99WUx The New York Times (@nytimes) April 18, 2022 Warren added that Americans have identified corruption in government as a top concern for years an issue that stands in the way of tackling urgent issues like the climate crisis, income inequality and social injustice at the systemic level. Story continues To start cleaning up government, members of Congress and their spouses shouldnt be allowed to own or trade individual stocks, which the vast majority of voters support banning, according to multiple polls, Warren wrote. Whether youre a Republican senator or the Democratic speaker of the House, it is obvious to the American people that they should not be allowed to trade individual stocks and then vote on laws that affect those companies. In December, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers should be allowed to trade stocks, despite a growing momentum from both parties to ban individual stock trading among members of Congress. An Insider investigation found that almost 60 members of Congress and over 180 senior congressional staffers failed to promptly disclose their trades in compliance with federal law and that there have been several instances where lawmakers served on committees overseeing certain industries that those lawmakers had personally invested in. A month later, the California Democrat warmed up to the idea, saying she was open to banning lawmakers from owning and trading individual stocks if there was enough of a Democratic consensus. She maintained, however, that she was personally always in favor of trusting our members to not engage in illegal activity. As the Senator would know from reading the news, the Speaker of the House supports such legislation and the Committee on House Administration has held a recent hearing and is developing legislation on this very topic, Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill told HuffPost in a statement on Monday. As reported by HuffPost in October, Democrats have largely been unable to fulfill Bidens dream of an agenda comparable to Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal due to an unwillingness to break from traditions like using the filibuster, citing parliamentarian opinions, weaponizing the debt ceiling and fear-mongering the deficit. Warren herself has been a loud proponent of eliminating the filibuster to pass urgent, necessary legislation on issues like voting rights. Like many Americans, Im frustrated by our failure to get big things done things that are both badly needed and very popular with all Americans, she wrote. While Republican politicians obstruct many efforts to improve peoples lives and many swear loyalty to the Big Lie, the urgency of the next election bears down on us. Democrats cannot bow to the out-of-touch consultants who recommend we simply tout our accomplishments, the senator continued. Instead, Democrats need to deliver more of the presidents agenda or else we will not be in the majority much longer. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... A green anaconda like the one seen here in Bolivia is a restricted snake in Ohio if it is 12 feet in length or longer. Madeira has a new law that requires anyone with dangerous wild animals and restricted snakes in the city to register them with the police chief. The ordinance passed by Madeira City Council supplements Ohio law that specifies which animals qualify as dangerous and wild and which snakes are restricted. The issue was raised in Madeira earlier this year after city officials learned a resident had a state permit for 53 restricted snakes. Then they learned that the Ohio Department of Agriculture is not required to notify local officials when it issues permits for dangerous wild animals or restricted snakes in their jurisdiction. The state already requires permit holders to give a plan on what they intend to do should an animal escape to the county sheriff and the chief law-enforcement officer and fire chief of the city or township where the animal is held. The man with the restricted snakes in Madeira, Erik Vogel, says he contacted the Hamilton County Sheriffs Department and the Madeira Fire Department with plans. Madeira officials decided not to include a penalty for violating its new ordinance because the issue is not expected to surface frequently. Got a snake in Madeira? Better have antivenom on hand The citys new law requires anyone with venomous restricted snakes in Madeira even if they are just traveling through to have antivenom on hand to treat anyone bitten. The law also requires anyone with a dangerous wild animal or restricted snake to notify the police chief if an animal escapes. They must cooperate with the citys efforts to find the animal and neutralize any threat to the public. Madeira Police Chief Dave Schaefer said at a recent city council meeting that he visited Vogels home and found the snake area safe and clean. The snakes were properly confined, Schaefer said, and antivenom was available. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Madeira OKs law requiring registration of snakes, wild animals In the movie "Jaws" there is the famous scene where Chief Brody sees how large the great white shark is and tells Quint, "You're gonna need a bigger boat." That is how humanitarian agencies feel when they see how large the hunger emergencies around the world are becoming. There needs to be a bigger boat, bigger funding, for the U.S. Food for Peace program. Food for Peace has been our main tool for fighting world hunger since President Dwight Eisenhower started the program in 1954. Lambers Eisenhower sought a way to move U.S. surplus food out of storage and to countries that needed it. Our experience with World War II showed us how important food was for stability and building peace. Eisenhower made fighting hunger overseas an important part of his foreign policy. Whether funding CAREs school feeding and refugee programs or emergency aid to Hungary or India, Food for Peace made a big difference during the Cold War. With hunger escalating around the globe today, it's imperative Congress increase funding for Food for Peace. There should be flexibility in how the funds are used to allow for their most efficient use in obtaining and distributing food to the hungry. It's urgent we reach as many people as possible with life-saving food aid. Look at whats happened in recent years. Long wars in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, the Sahel and D.R. Congo have led to severe hunger. The COVID-19 pandemic further escalated hunger across the globe. Now the war in Ukraine is worsening hunger for the millions inside the country and refugees. The hunger is also extending far beyond its borders. Ukraine is a large supplier of wheat. With the fighting disrupting the wheat supply, food prices are higher. This makes it harder for poor countries to obtain food and for relief agencies to help. The war in Ukraine could lead to famine in Yemen and Ethiopia. With the number of people facing severe hunger, relief agencies like the World Food Program (WFP) are having a tough time keeping up. Before the Ukraine war, WFP even had to reduce rations for 8 million war victims in Yemen because of low funding. In other countries more cuts are on the horizon if new funding is not found. The relief operation in Afghanistan has grown significantly in the last year because of political instability and drought. Story continues Catholic Relief Services wants Congress to increase Food for Peace to at least $2 billion in funding a year, up from $1.74 billion. Congress did include an extra $100 million for Food for Peace donations for Ukraine. This was a positive step by Congress and should be the first in Food for Peace additional funding. Congress will need to boost Food for Peace funding to keep up with the worst global hunger crisis since World War II. As Eisenhower once said, "No element is as important in preserving the peace of the world as food. William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book "Ending World Hunger." This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: William Lambers Eisenhower's Food for Peace huge during Ukraine crisis Getty Images Libya shut down its largest oil field amid protests against Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. The outage sparks more global supply fears, and Libya's National Oil Corp warned of a wave of closures. Brent crude prices jumped above $113 a barrel for the first time since March, and WTI traded around $108. Oil prices face more turmoil and supply strains as Libya shut down its largest oil field following protests against Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Brent crude rose 2.5% to $114.55 a barrel, the highest since March, while West Texas Intermediate rallied 2.3% to $109.44. Outages have piled onto ongoing Russia supply fears, and Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) warned Monday of a "painful wave of closures" across its facilities. After protestors entered the Al-Fil field, the NOC declared a "force majeure" and suspended production. "With global supplies now so tight, even the most minor disruption is likely to have an outsized impact on prices," OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley told Reuters. NOC manages the Al-Fil field with Italian energy company ENI, and the production hub is responsible for about 70,000 barrels of oil per day. In March, the field also had temporarily shut down too due to an armed group entering the location. Libya's state news agency reported that protestors said they would halt production "until a government appointed by parliament takes office in the capital." The field closure comes as global energy markets trade on shaky geopolitics, with Russia threatening to cut off supply to "unfriendly" nations while the US and its allies look to ban Russian crude imports amid the Ukraine war. Russian oil has continued shipping in April, though cargoes are traveling much further distances to find buyers. More shipments are being sent to Asia and the Mediterranean, Bloomberg reported. So far, the European Union, which is very reliant on Russian oil, has moved to ban Russian coal imports, but has stopped short of banning oil and gas immediately. However, EU governments said last week the bloc was weighing a proposal for a crude ban. Story continues Meanwhile, Ukraine's government has called for the world's top energy traders to stop handling Russian crude altogether. "The fact is that traders and trading and they are helping Russia to receive this blood money," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser told the FT. Read the original article on Business Insider Pro surfer Koa Smith used psychedelic mushrooms to help recover from a traumatic 2018 head injury on a reef in Indonesia (Photo by Michael Veltman, courtesy of MUD\WTR) Surfing is a sport of frontiers. You enter a wave the exact moment it begins to shift, when it has reached its peak power, just before that energy causes it to fold over itself and collapse. You seek out points on the map where storms thousands of miles away, rolling across the ocean-floor geography, have channeled swells towards land. You experience a departure from the body itself, a feeling of perfect, ego-dissolving synchronization with the rhythms of the oceanor the three-dimensional chaos of being flipped off a moving tunnel of water and careening in the undersea dark. These are frontiers that pro surfer Koa Smith knows better than almost anybody. The Kaui-born surfer has ridden some of the most spectacular waves on Earth, from the North Shore of Oahu to Namibia and back. After a shock injury on a reef in Indonesia in 2018, he pushed into frontiers that athletes, let alone modern science, are only just beginning to explore. To heal from a catastrophic head wound, and the depression and trauma he experienced as a result, he began a journey with psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms. Koa Smith surfs Waimea Bay in the Hawaiian island of Oahu (Photo by Mike Ito, courtesy of MUD\WTR) The experience, chronicled in the new film Resurfacing, changed his life. According to medical experts on the cutting edge of psychedelic research, it could soon change many more. Maybe I was leaving my body In 2018, Koa came to the Indonesian island of Nias on a high. He was well on his way to the kind of surfing life he dreamed about as a kid growing up and surfing each day in Kauai: traveling the world, competing in contests, modeling in magazines. Hed just completed his third trip to Namibias Skeleton Bay, where a video went viral of him riding for minutes on a wave with eight separate barrels, sections where the surfer is riding inside the open tube of a crashing wave. In a sport where ever the best surfers ride waves that last just seconds, the clip, filmed in the waters off the ochre Namibian desert, is a surfers fantasy made real. Story continues Smith who often woke up before dawn, surfed all day, then partied all night wanted to keep pushing like he always did, so he hopped on a plane from Hawaii back across the world a few days later when he saw a big swell was heading towards Indonesia. After driving for hours through the jungle, he reached Nias, a remote village with a beautiful wave like one he grew up surfing. A few tries into his first session, a rogue set of waves far more powerful that the rest came thundering towards the beach. He decided to go for it anyway. He lost control jumped off his board flipped through the air. His head hit something. Hard. Lights out. I heard this crazy, super peaceful violin, Mr Smith told The Independent in March, sitting on a sun-dappled patio in Los Angeles. I had one of those moments where I was above the whole bay looking down. I could see my friends in the lineup. I could see the boats in the bay. I could see the mountains. Then all of a sudden I realized that I was actually underwater. But he wasnt afraid. I felt maybe I was leaving my body, he continued. The weird thing was it was a very comfortable, very loving, euphoric state. There was no fear. It was just like being home. That high wouldnt last. When he came to, there were bloody coral scrapes across his arms and head. He couldnt remember his own name, where he was staying, or in which direction lay the shore. Somehow, he made it back to land. A local man who recognised him gave him a ride on a moped back to where the surfer was staying. He was home free, but he wasnt out of troubled waters yet. He had a severe concussion, which would test him in ways he never expected. Something just broke in me After recuperating in Bali for two weeks, he flew to California for the 2018 US Open of Surfing contest. He immediately knew something was off. The whole event was overstimulating: crowds of fans across Huntington Beach. Questions from reporters and sponsors about his injury. Flashbulbs and the pound of the waves. Something just broke in me, he said. I couldnt even function anymore. I ended up losing luckily in the contest. From there I had to spend ten hours a day in my bed in the dark and just kind of figure out what I wanted to do from there. Five months, six months, seven months went by and he still couldnt get in the water. He began wondering if he would ever surf again. A deep, numbing feeling came over him. After a traumatic 2018 head injury, Koa Smith couldnt surf for months and became deeply depressed. (Still from the film Resurfacing, Courtesy of MUD\WTR) My life is good. I had a beautiful girl friend, very loving. I had my family, who was there to support me, very close to me. A beautiful house on the beach. I live in Hawaii. My life should be amazing, he said. But I had this crazy numbness over me, where I couldnt feel happiness, I couldnt feel excitement. I was just f***ing down, numb, and dead feeling. In that depression, he began having scary, recurring thoughts. Part of the concussion was I had these repetitive thought processes that I couldnt control, he said. Like a wheel is turning, committing suicide, that just keeps replaying and faster and faster until your brain starts getting getting super hot and melting almost, and I would have to call someone and have conversations with them or go jump in the ice bath or go on a forest walk just to slow that wheel down. It would get so painful and so crazy. He tried seeing doctors, but their answers werent satisfactory. At the hospital, one condescending specialist said they didnt want to scan Smiths brain because if it looked good, the hard-charging surfer would just get back in the water again. A therapist recommended antidepressants, but Smith felt the answers to healing were already inside of him somewhere. Koa Smith deep in a barrel. (Photo by Ryan Erickson, courtesy of MUD\WTR) Growing up so close to nature, in the forest, in the ocean, eating just organic, farm food, I knew what was healing. I knew that my body had the answers unless of course theres something extreme, he said. I knew that it was time to figure something out. Thats when he decided to try incorporating psilocybin mushrooms into his healing process. I never slipped back into that numbness In search of a peaceful and nourishing setting for their journey, Koa and his brothers headed into the jungle on Kauai, until they reached a freshwater pond fed by a very cold stream. They sat in the sun, naked, practising breathing techniques from Wim Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete whose breath work techniques have helped him perform astounding feats like climbing snowy Mount Kilimanjaro in just shorts. Koa was again outside of himself. This time, instead of violins, he heard a voice, first speaking, then screaming at him until he got the message. This voice came to me and reminded me of who I was, he said. It took me back to my childhood, that fire inside me as a child. It reminded me that I was a good person and that I was here to do good in this world. It reminded me that I should use my head injury as a guide to healing. Koa Smith traveled into the jungles of Kauai for a psychedelic mushroom experience as part of his healing process (Still from the film Resurfacing, courtesy of MUD\WTR) For the first time in a long time, he felt connected to himself and his body again. For the first time in a long time, he loved that person he was connecting to. That was the moment that brought me back from depression, he said. I never slipped back into that numbness again. Two weeks later, he started surfing again, and he hasnt stopped since. These moments of radical shifts in perspective hold immense promise for the treatment of mental health issues, PTSD, substance abuse disorders, and other ailments, according to scientists. Thanks to recent changes in research policy, we are now in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance, where experts are trying to unpack just what makes people like Koa have such profound experiences of healing on psychedelics and how to bring it to the masses safely and without fear of prosecution from the government. A reset of the brains historical patterns Indigenous peoples the world over have been using psychoactive plants for millennia for healing and ceremonies, but scientific research on these medicines has been stonewalled for decades in the US. Amid a rising backlash to the counterculture, mushrooms and other compounds were moved into Schedule I by the Food and Drug Administration, meaning the government considered them to have no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse. Only recently have authorities begun considering rescheduling psychedelics. In the mid-2000s, a pioneering group of researchers including those from Johns Hopkins University began to change things, rigorously studying the use of mushrooms and its potential applications. Psilocybin mushrooms. (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Two decades later, were in the midst of a new flourishing, with places like Oregon and Oakland, California, decriminalising psychedelics, and researchers examining the potential to use such compounds for medical ailments ranging from depression to alcoholism. Its a developing field, and experts caution people not to treat these drugs as proven cure-alls, or something to be explored without in-depth medical and spiritual guidance. Still, many are hoping that thousands of people might have a similar experience to the one Koa had. Studies suggest mushrooms can reduce the activity of the default mode network, a part of the brain involved in identity formation and self-perception, according to Dorna Pourang, a drug development researcher who has helped lead psychedelic trials for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and an adviser to MUD\WTR, the supplement and health food company which produced Resurfacing. When that activity is dampened, were not so tied to these things that create our identity and who we are, she said. Instead, she continued, we shift into interconnectedness." Researchers often liken the impact of psilocybin to a fresh coat of snow on a sledding hill: it fills in the rutted mental pathways that guide ones normal thought process, and people are free to chart new courses through the fresh powder of their mind. This new openness and perspective can be a powerful complement to traditional therapy, according to Karina Sergi, a licensed psychotherapist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, who has worked on using ketamine for treatment-resistant mental health conditions and psilocybin in clinical trials. A grower holds psilocybin mushrooms. (Getty/iStock) It can lead to a kind of recalibration or a reset of the brains historical patterns, she said. This kind of primes a person to benefit from the psychotherapeutic process. Psilocybin can also illicit a deep reconnection with the body, adds Alex Cardenas, a California-based community psychiatrist and co-executive director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Assocation (APPA), an organisation working to create standards of care, public education, and greater acceptance within the healthcare system surrounding psychedelic medicine. That reconnection with the physical could be especially vital for people like athletes, he says, for whom a close relationship with the body is at the core of what they do. Helping people recover from trauma, part and parcel of that is helping them connect to their body, Mr Cardenas said, noting his opinions are personal and dont necessarily reflect those of the APPA. I do think these medicines can help people connect to their bodies. For people who live in their body, helping them be more aware of their relationship with their body could have all sorts of effects beyond helping with trauma. More than just these effects, many who use psychedelics report experiences similar to Koas, where they feel theyve received a great piece of wisdom about themselves, or their place in the larger scheme of the world. According to Ms Sergi, this mystical experience sometimes allows people to hold conflicting truths at the same time that help in their healing. A person might say something like, Ive died several times but Ive never felt so alive and ready to live my life, she said. I am simultaneously a speck in the universe but so powerful as to be able to create change in my worldThe idea that they can be depressed but powerful. We can start to use that in the therapeutic process. Theres a lot of stigma that has to be overturned Still, despite these findings, and ongoing, scientifically sound research at prestigious institutions like Johns Hopkins, New York University, and University of California Berkeley, theres still loads of stigma against psychedelics, left over from the War on Drugs and even earlier prejudices about medicines and rituals outside of the Western canon. Theres a lot of stigma that has to be overturned within the medical community, according to Ms Pourang, the researcher. If youre working within the psychedelic community, everybody is really excited about it, but when youre trying to bridge into the modern medical system, youre going to come up against people whose doubts and reservations from the propaganda of the drug war that substances are not safe and have a lot more risk than the scientific data says they actually do. Both researchers and Koa himself warn to treat psychedelics lightly. Theyve only been under serious study for a few decades, and scientists are still working out which conditions they might be most useful for, what sorts of supports and therapies are necessary for a safe and positive experience. Theyre also trying to tackle some of the deeper physiological and philosophical questions surrounding psychedelics. From a research perspective, the questions are things like, for whom and for what disorders can these treatments be helpful? Questions like, is this purely a chemical reaction? Is this more of a psychological or spiritual experience? For whom and at what level is concurrent therapy necessary? adds Mr Cardenas, the APPA psychiatrist. Its not all pretty visuals or mystical experiences, either. The mental unboundedness of a mushroom experience can be intense or traumatic in its own right, as people face parts of their mind or memories theyre unprepared to. Theres no such thing as perfect medicine. Its all in how theyre used. Psychedelics need to be respected. I dont want to just encourage kids to go eat a handful of mushrooms. I feel like psychedelics are so wise and need to be treated with respect. You need to be ready. You need to have a guide so that youre comfortable, so that you can let the layers go, adds Koa Smith. They need to be used for healing. The surfer hasnt stopped chasing the best waves in the world, but his psychedelic journey inspired him to slow down, focus on holistic wellness, and share his story with others. In the adrenaline-fueled world of pro surfing, these themes are not always top of mind. Ive already had so many people reach out to me with similar stories and just being very excited that I told this story, he said. This is going to be a big moment for me to help people. Just me being vulnerable and telling my story. Im excited to see where I go next. Im excited to keep my story out there. Four years on, he still feels like hes healing from his crash in Nias, but with a new perspective. Koa Smith hopes sharing his story will inspire other people in the healing process. (Photo by Bridget Rodriguez, courtesy of MUD\WTR) Im stoked to just continue the healing process, he said. For people like Koa, who push the physical limits of what is possible every day, some of the toughest and most satisfying journeys are the ones that occur within. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a virtual address to Congress Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday suggested that Israel could be the meeting ground for future peace talks with Russia, Reuters reports. In his daily video update to Ukrainian citizens, Zelensky said Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was making concerted efforts to negotiate peace talks between the two countries. "We are grateful for his efforts, so that sooner or later we will begin to have talks with Russia, possibly in Jerusalem," he said. "That's the right place to find peace. If possible." Zelensky on Sunday addressed Israeli lawmakers virtually, criticizing the country's relatively limited response to Russian aggression as it seeks to be a neutral mediator. "Why has Israel refrained from sanctions on Russia? Israel needs to give answers to these questions and after that, live with them," Zelensky said. Following the address, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid pledged that his country will "never turn its back on people suffering from the nightmares of war." Bennett has spent recent weeks trying to facilitate talks between Russia and Ukraine, including a visit to Moscow last earlier this month to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This is no joke. This is high stakes for Israel," Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, previously told The Hill. "There are core Israeli national interests at stake here, and they are trying to figure out how to preserve them while also trying to avert a crisis." Arthur I. Cyr America and Britain play cold-war games with Russia in the Arctic. That headline sums up a situation growing steadily more ominous. The message is not current, but rather from two years ago in the influential British weekly The Economist. Since then, Russias massive infrastructure and military buildup in the Arctic has continued. Russias invasion of Ukraine, and the continuing bloody war, underscore the importance of the Arctic rivalry. The headline reflects British fondness for irony, but Arctic developments are no game. Big money and big militaries are involved. Today, Russia gives disciplined, long-term priority to the Arctic. Today, melting ice encourages both commercial investment and military activity. Other major powers have devoted relatively little attention to the changing geopolitical dimensions of Northern latitudes. Neither the Obama nor Trump administration gave the Arctic priority, but we no longer can afford that complacency. Both China and Russia are extremely assertive there, as elsewhere. Russia President Vladimir Putin relentlessly pursues power and influence in this part of the world, as in others. Operations of surface ships go beyond customary presence of submarines. Early this year, analysts interpreted Barents Sea operations as preparation to invade Ukraine. Russia publicly denied any such intent. Russias deployments comprise components of a wider disciplined, comprehensive strategy. That nation spearheads organizing a region of tremendous economic potential. In April 2019, Russia hosted leaders from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in an Arctic Forum held in St. Petersburg. In 2021, Russia succeeded Iceland in chairing the Arctic Council, which also includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States President Barack Obama did visit Alaska in 2016, but the trip was largely symbolic and rhetorical. This is unfortunate since the U.S. also chaired the Arctic Council at the time. Story continues There has been some Atlantic area assertiveness. In 2018, NATO held the Trident Juncture military maneuvers anchored in Norway. This large operation was unusual since the end of the Cold War. A U.S. aircraft carrier entered the Arctic Circle for the first time since the Cold War. Also notable, Finland and Sweden participated along with NATO nations. Historically Britain has led in Polar matters, joined in the nineteenth century by the United States. Germany also emerged as a leader, until disastrously sidetracked by militarism. Traditional, serious territorial conflicts continue, and Russias aggressive actions exacerbate them. Current disputes align Russia against Canada and Denmark regarding control of the Lomonosov Ridge, most of which is in international waters. Other involved nations include Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the U.S. Longer term, history is encouraging regarding international Arctic cooperation. International Polar Years occurred in 1882-1883, 1932-1933 and 2007-2009. The first two inspired the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-1958, during the height of the Cold War. Discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belts was among important IGY scientific discoveries. American scientific and government leadership was instrumental in launching and completing this comprehensive global enterprise. President Dwight D. Eisenhower also initiated demilitarization of Antarctica. This was the first major arms control agreement of the Cold War, and laid the foundation for others. Eisenhower combined scientific cooperation with attention to national defense. In August 1958, the new nuclear submarine Nautilus made the first undersea voyage to the North Pole. In 2007, two mini-submarines planted Russias flag on the North Pole seabed, far below the surface. Putins Ukraine invasion is one brutal component of comprehensive strategy. Newly energized NATO must plan, and act, accordingly. Complacency no longer is an option. Arthur I. Cyr is author of After the Cold War (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). Contact acyr@carthage.edu This article originally appeared on The McDonough County Voice: Complacency no longer is an option in the Arctic Last November, Marina Valentini's husband called her from the bakery the couple runs in Roccaraso, Italy and said seven words that she never could've expected. "I was at home, expecting him for dinner, when he called and said: 'Marina, there's a bear in the bakery,'" she told The Guardian. "My first response was: 'Have you been drinking?'" He wasn't: there really was a massive Marsican brown bear inside their Dolci Momenti (Sweet Moments) bakery, and after breaking a window and climbing in, the bear was helping himself to all the fresh-baked cookies he could eat. "He must have smelled them wafting down the street," Valentini told the outlet. "I had baked so many, some were on the table, the rest were in the oven the doors were slightly open and he managed to pull out all the trays and eat the biscuits." The two-year-old bear who has been named Juan Carrito by the residents of the picturesque ski-resort town was then loaded into a helicopter and relocated to the Majella national park about 40 kilometers (24 miles) away. "In other parts of Italy or other countries, a bear like Juan Carrito would probably have been placed in captivity," a spokesperson for the national park authorities said in a statement quoted by The Telegraph. The bear's stay in his potential new home only lasted a few days, before he found his way back to Roccaraso and was seen hanging out near his favorite bakery, playing in the snow, and tentatively trying to make friends with a few curious dogs. Marsican brown bear; Italian pastries Paolino Massimiliano Manuel / Getty Images; Kathrin Ziegler / Getty Images At the end of March, Juan Carrito was re-captured and taken to a nature sanctuary, where he spent several weeks being evaluated before being released in the Majella national park again. "We know there are other bears in the park there for him to be with and we really hope he stays put this time," wildlife biologist Antonio Antonucci told The Times. "The chances are not high he will stay put, but we really want to give him the chance of a normal life." Antonucci was right: although Juan Carrito was deposited almost 150 kilometers (93 miles) out of town, in less than three weeks, he managed to find his way back again. What happens now may be up to Juan Carrito, and how well he does (or does not) behave now that he's returned to Roccaraso. "It's a bad thing to say from a nature point of view, but for him, it seems natural to be in Roccaraso, where there is activity, people and other animals," Lucio Zazzara, Majella national park's president, said according to The Guardian. He has been fitted with a GPS collar, so park officials will be keeping an eye on him. Regardless, he may not get a second helping of Dolci Momenti's cookies: the Valentini's have since put (hopefully) bear-proof bars on the windows. Former Gov. Eric Greitens after announcing the release of funds for the state's biodiesel program on May 17, 2018 in Jefferson City, MO. Jeff Roberson/AP Photo Eric Greitens' ex-wife filed an affidavit accusing the GOP Senate candidate of violent and abusive behavior. She also said he admitted taking a nude photo of a woman with whom he had an extra-marital affair. The ex-governor has long denied this, despite being indicted for invasion of privacy and resigning in 2018. Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens privately admitted to taking the "revenge porn" photo that led to his indictment on invasion of privacy charges and his resignation as Missouri's governor in 2018, his ex-wife said in a new court filing. In a signed affidavit made public on Monday, Sheena Greitens accused her ex-husband of violent and abusive behavior amid an ongoing child custody dispute between the former couple. Eric issued a blanket denial of Sheena's allegations in a statement on Monday and his campaign called Sheena "deranged." The affadavit, which contains graphic descriptions of Eric's alleged behavior, also contains another notable allegation: despite repeatedly denying that he took a compromising nude photo of a hairdresser with whom he had an extramarital affair in 2015 and threatened to blackmail her, Eric privately owned up to taking the photo early last year. Sheena said Eric warned her not to reveal his admission to anyone. "After Eric admitted to me in late January 2021 that he had taken the photo that resulted in the invasion of privacy charge, he threatened that I would be exposed to legal jeopardy if I ever disclosed that fact to anyone, even family members or a therapist," she wrote. The Greitens campaign didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment concerning whether he took the photograph. She went on, "Because of the reach of his influence in Missouri, I believed him, which had the consequence of isolating me from many sources of outside support as his threats escalated and my concerns for my safety and that of my children grew." Story continues The couple divorced in 2020, and Sheena is now an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Eric Greitens, previously a rising star in the Republican Party, was elected governor of Missouri in 2016. But in early 2018, a local Missouri TV station aired a recording of an anonymous woman disclosing to her husband that Eric had taken nude photos of her without her consent while she was blindfolded and her hands were taped to exercise rings during an otherwise consensual encounter in 2015. After a grand jury indicted the then-governor on felony invasion of privacy charges the following month, his political support eroded, and he resigned in July 2018. But he's since sought to re-launch his political career, running for the open Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt and causing consternation among top Republicans as polling shows him near the top of the Republican primary. Eric now faces growing calls from fellow Missouri political figures to drop out, including Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and Republican primary opponents Rep. Vicky Hartzler and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Read the original article on Business Insider The dynamics of progress in Russian-Ukrainian negotiations leave much to be desired, said Russian presidents' spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, news.am informs, citing TASS. April 18, 2022, 14:59 Peskov says dynamics of talks with Kyiv leaves much to be desired STEPANAKERT, APRIL 18, ARTSAKHPRESS: The special military operation continues. The President [of Russia Vladimir Putin - ed.] just recently said that it is going according to plan. Contacts continue at the expert level within the framework of the negotiation process," he said. "I would also like to remind you of the President's words that, unfortunately, the Ukrainian side does not demonstrate much consistency. At the agreed points, the position often changes. The dynamics of progress in the negotiation process leaves much to be desired," he added. Kate Middleton looked stunning in a pale blue Emilia Wickstead frock at this year's Easter services. (Photo by ANDREW MATTHEWS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) For royal watchers, this past Easter weekend was a feast for the eyes as many high-profile members of the family were spotted out and about. The Sussexes were heavily involved in this year's Invictus Games, while the Cambridges led the rest of the royal family at the annual Easter Sunday service. While attending the event, the Duchess of Cambridge looked stunning in a pale blue Emilia Wickstead frock, which she paired with a Jane Taylor hatband and Emmy London pumps. Princess Charlotte, 6, wore a similar blue floral dress, as Prince George and Prince William matched in navy blue suits for a coordinated family look. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended Easter services along with two of their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. (Photo by Jeff Gilbert-WPA Pool/Getty Images) The 40-year-old mother of three was first spotted in the same blue coat dress back in 2017 on a visit to Luxembourg, and also owns a similar version of it in green proving that this chic coat dress is quickly becoming one of her signature styles. Given that it's a custom piece, getting your hands on one of Kate's coat dresses can certainly be a challenge. Luckily, there are still plenty of royal-inspired versions that can help you get the look for less. Ahead, we've gathered 11 similar dresses that are perfect for spring, starting at just $22. Duchess of Cambridge Style Occasion Outfit. Image via Etsy/OpalRoyal. For the ultimate royal-inspired style, this Etsy dress is about as close as it gets. It features the same collared neckline and nipped-in waist, plus a full skirt to help you channel your inner Kate Middleton. $216 at Etsy Flutter Sleeve Belted Dress. Image via Shein. For a less formal take on the classic coat dress, this lightweight wrap dress has a similar silhouette and pastel shade. $22 at Shein Ganni Blue Lace Midi Dress. Image via SSENSE. Look to this pretty lace dress from Ganni ahead of your next special occasion. It features a wrap silhouette and sheer sleeves for an eye-catching style. $610 at SSENSE Printed Long Sleeve Dress. Image via Coach. This floral dress could easily fit into Kate Middleton's enviable wardrobe with its sweet pattern and flattering A-line shape. Currently marked down to half price, you'll want to act quickly if you want to snag it for yourself. $448 $895 at Coach Story continues Satin Bishop Sleeve Wrap Dress. Image via Eloquii. Rich blue satin gives this belted dress a regal look and feel, making it a perfect choice for an upcoming wedding or upscale event. $140 at Eloquii Always Beside Me Light Blue Swiss Dot Tiered Midi Dress. Image via Lulus. Puffed sleeves, bows, and ruffles combine to create a romantic and feminine dress that lets you live out all of your royal dreams. $79 at Lulus Weiss Linen Dress. Image via Reformation. Made from 100 per cent linen, reach for this breezy dress to help keep you feeling cool on even the hottest summer days. $288 at Reformation V-neck Tie-belt Dress. Image via H&M. This flowing dress comes with a detachable belt, so you can choose to wear it with or without a cinched-in waistline. $38 at H&M Merlette Women's Brandaris Dress. Image via Maisonette. Diamond smocking along the waistline is the focal point of this cotton chambray dress, which features a self belt at the back, a V-neckline and an empire waistline. $480 at Maisonette The Somerset Maxi Dress. Image via Anthropologie. This tiered maxi dress comes in standard, plus, and petites sizes so you can find your perfect fit at any shape. $170 at Anthropologie Self-Portrait Pussy-bow pleated lace and chiffon midi dress. Image via Net-a-Porter. For a dress that makes a statement, this look has it all: lace, pleats, bows and scalloped details for a feminine flair. Plus, we already know that Kate Middleton is a fan of the brand, having been spotted in a similar green version while visiting the Bahamas. $681 at Net-a-Porter Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter. The TV commercials are coming hot and heavy now as Ohios U.S. Senate campaigns head into the stretch drive for the May 3 primaries in one of the nations most closely watched races. What remains to be seen is which ads are swaying voters. The Republican primary polls have usually shown about a quarter of GOP voters as undecided, so the well-executed ad could be decisive. Winning ads have a clear message and connect emotionally. Heres how I grade the recent crop, based on six decades of seeing campaign commercials the first one I remember, called "Daisy," is still best for those qualities. It clearly got across the idea that if you didnt vote for President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, innocent little girls would perish in a nuclear war. That was an A+. Here are a couple of recent As: COLUMBUS, OH - Mike Gibbons (L) and Josh Mandel exchange heated arguments at the FreedomWorks Forum for Ohio's Republican Senate Candidates on March 18, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio. The forum was attended by candidates Matt Dolan, Mike Gibbons, Josh Mandel, Jane Timken and JD Vance. Mike Gibbons rebuttal to claims by Josh Mandel and ads supporting the former state treasurer that Gibbons, an entrepreneur, referred to Mandels Marine Corps service as not "real work." That was a misquote of Gibbons, whose commercial counters with Marine Sgt. Jeremy Gons saying Mandel has been lying even as Gibbons son, a Navy pilot, was deployed. Mandel "exploits military service to score dishonest political points," Gons says. Mandel, who served two tours of duty in Iraq, was clearly hoping to benefit the way John Glenn did in the 1974 Democratic primary with a stirring "Gold Star Mother" response to then-Sen. Howard Metzenbaums belittling of Glenns Marine and astronaut career. But Mandel dishonestly overplayed his hand, and Gibbons returned fire. Democratic candidate Morgan Harper speaks in an Ohio Senate debate against Republican candidate Josh Mandel at North Columbus Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. Also an A: Democrat Morgan Harpers "My Ohio Story" biographical commercial. Its also an excellent American story, recounting her rise from adoption out of foster care to scholarships to top universities and working in consumer protection in the Barack Obama administration. She is clear on her positions: "Medicare for All," $15 minimum wage, pro womens choice on abortion. Story continues Democratic front-runner Tim Ryan has large advantages in name recognition and funding, though. Earning a B: Matt Dolan on how a "War on Energy" is hurting Ohioans from the gas pumps to the grocery shelves. The Cleveland-area state senator has been emphasizing his superior legislative experience in the Republican field while criticizing President Joe Biden instead of praising Donald Trump. Its a distinctive lane in the race, but so far has been a slow lane. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Warren, speaks to a crowd of about 30 people during a campaign stop Monday at the Bucyrus Public Library. Ryan is seeking his party's nomination for U.S. Senate. Here are a couple of C's: Tim Ryan on China taking Ohio jobs. Its some overkill, with all the repeated "Chinas," to the extent that some Asian Americans have complained. And its not clear what the veteran Democratic congressman plans to do differently about it in Washington. He does display some of the down-to-earth populism of Sherrod Brown, the Democratic senator hed like to join in the upper chamber. J.D. Vance in Are You a Racist? Do You Hate Mexicans? His point is that wanting Trumps border wall doesnt make you racist. But he might have gotten a little too clever, with an opening that can be and has been misinterpreted. Also, his claim that there are "more Democrat voters pouring into this country" seems a bit much. But the "Hillbilly Elegy" author also reminds viewers of his personal investment in stopping drugs after a childhood with a mother fighting drug abuse. U.S. Senate candidate Jane Timken released a statewide campaign ad on March 28 that was filmed at Hoover High School. Getting a D: Jane Timken on transgender athletes. We learn that the former Republican Party state chair was a college athlete, which is good, but the rest? Are transgender athletes really a big issue in Ohio schools? Seems like pandering to far-right fears, while upsetting the host high schools students including its Gay-Straight Alliance. An F goes to: Mandels Edmund Pettus Bridge anti-critical race theory commercial. Starting with a woman calling CRT "crap," it tries to use the term as a racial dog whistle. A screen grab of an ad for U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel. Questions have been raised about whether the image was photo-edited to put Mandel's head on the body of a Black man. Mandel's campaign and experts say it was not edited. Standing at the site of the "Bloody Sunday" voting rights march led by future congressman John Lewis, who was beaten and gassed, Mandel twists history and Martin Luther King Jr.s "color of their skin" quotes. He then took up a Twitter fight with the civil rights martyrs family. How low will they go? Stayed tuned. Dan Sewell is a member of The Enquirer Board of Contributors who retired last year after 44 years of daily journalism. Dan Sewell is a member of The Enquirer Board of Contributors. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Grading TV commercials in Ohio's hotly contested US Senate race Apr. 18JUNEAU During last week's budget debates in the Alaska House of Representatives, Republican lawmakers stood and declared that the state of Alaska is under attack from the administration of President Joe Biden. No Democratic lawmakers disputed the claim. Now, as Alaska's proposed state operating budget advances to the Senate, it contains $2 million for a special account designed to fund lawsuits against the federal government. Known as the "statehood defense fund," the account was stocked with $4 million last year as state legislators fulfilled a request from Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The governor and legislators including some Democrats and independents have opposed efforts by the Biden administration to limit oil and gas development on federal land, and the statehood defense fund is seen as a major tool to oppose the federal government. "This is sort of the Defense Department of the state of Alaska," said Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole. "The Biden administration has just been extremely hostile to the state of Alaska. We have no idea what they're going to do next." "It seems to me to be an attack on Alaskans by the federal government," he said. So far, the state has used its defense fund to pay for seven lawsuits on a variety of topics, including support for federal land transfers to the state, opposition to limits on air pollution and opposition to a national moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal land. Several legislators said they believe oil and gas issues are the most important because oil production generates money for the state. "More oil and gas production will solve so many problems and take so many issues off the table," said Rep. Tom McKay, R-Anchorage. The fund could be tapped for six more ongoing cases being funded from other accounts. Those include the state's support for Ambler Road, the state's support of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the state's support for Pebble Mine, and the state's support of oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve. Story continues Jason Brune is commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the chair of the statehood defense group for the Dunleavy administration. "We're talking about the ways we are constantly under attack," he told the House Finance Committee last month. Deputy attorney general Cori Mills said the Department of Law has had about a 30% increase in the number of federally related cases referred by state agencies. Twelve other lawsuits that could use the fund aren't yet ripe to file, said assistant attorney general Grace Lee, a spokeswoman for the department. The Department has not publicly identified those cases. "I think we're seeing it across the board," Brune said. "The federal administration absolutely has Alaska in their sights." Money from the fund hires private legal firms who work on behalf of the state. Contracts worth $1.3 million have already been signed, Lee said, and another $500,000 contract is in the works. About $600,000 had actually been spent by the end of February, she said. "The costs for these cases over two to four years will range between $3 million and $6 million. There are at least 11 anticipated cases those total costs are estimated to be upwards of $8 million," she said. Dunleavy requested an additional $4 million in funding for the program when he submitted his budget to the Alaska Legislature. That money was stripped by a subcommittee, which questioned why it was needed when much of last year's money remains available. "It's essentially a slush fund for the Department of Law," said Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage and a member of the subcommittee. Other lawmakers including some Republicans said that the Department of Law should approach the Legislature when it needs funding and not seek money in advance. Despite those concerns, the House Finance Committee approved an additional $2 million, and that amount advanced from the full House. The district of Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, voted for Biden at a higher rate than any other district in Anchorage. After the vote, Fields said it is "ridiculous" to say that Alaska is under attack from the Biden administration, citing the amount of economic relief and infrastructure money that Alaska is receiving. "Having said that," he said, "I think you can recognize the reality of our relationship with the federal government, including the federal government saving our bacon during this crisis, but also support appropriating money for litigation over development." Some legislators have also privately noted that this year is an election year, and Biden is relatively unpopular in Alaska. The budget is now in the hands of the Senate Finance Commitee, and its first-draft proposal doesn't include any additional money for the statehood defense fund. Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, represents the oil-rich North Slope and chairs the Senate subcommittee in charge of the Department of Law's budget. He said the fact that the state hasn't spent all of its available money and the state's poor winning record in federal lawsuits contributed to the decision to leave additional money off the table. Olson said there are clear differences between the state's approach and the federal government's approach, but he prefers different tactics. On Thursday, he was flying to Utqiagvik, where he and other legislators were scheduled to meet with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. He said they intended to discuss oil and gas development issues. "We are in a battle, but we need to choose our battles wisely," he said. A hospital bed sits in the hallway on the seventh floor of Stormont Vail Health on Nov. 21, 2020. After legislative delays and stalled negotiations allowed legal protections for businesses and hospitals to expire, Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday vetoed a bill to renew the COVID-19 liability immunity protections. Kelly said she supported pieces of SB 286, but opposed an expansion of the protections that some interpreted as too broad. Democrats in the Legislature had warned that the new language to existing liability protections could effectively preempt any medical malpractice lawsuit. "A last-minute provision was inserted into this bill which gutted our original carefully crafted compromise and indiscriminately broadened protections for health care providers, substantially reducing protections for Kansas patients," Kelly said. Kelly said she would like to see new legislation to restore the previous liability protections. More: COVID liability bill passes in Kansas over objections from Democrats, pro-ivermectin Republicans "I will work with the Legislature in a bipartisan fashion on a bill that returns the liability provisions to the original compromise language," she said, "and include the provisions for telemedicine and enhanced criminal penalties for violence against health care workers in hospital settings so that both Kansas patients and our hard-working healthcare providers are protected." A veto override is highly unlikely after SB 286 barely passed both chambers. The House required a lockdown forcing all members to vote in order to get a 64-51 majority one more aye vote than necessary for the legislation to pass. It later passed the Senate 24-16, three ayes short of a supermajority. House GOP leadership had championed the broader protections. "Governor Kelly just kowtowed to trial lawyers, selling out our frontline health care workers so that the ambulance chasers funding her campaign can make an extra dime," House Speaker Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, said in a statement. "What a disappointment to see the Governor choose trial lawyers over the nurses, paramedics and hospital workers who have been fighting day in and day out to care for our loved ones." Story continues Opposition to the bill came from most Democrats and a mix of far-right Republicans, albeit for different reasons. Democrats largely objected to the process by which the bill was "held hostage" before a gut-and-go deal, while some in the GOP who favor off-label drugs cited the lack of additional protections for doctors who prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. "The big problem with conference committee work and conference committee week is that bad policy gets packed in with the good," said Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee. "That makes voting against the bad stuff much harder. In my opinion, the bad in this bill outweighs the good." More: Unvetted legislation would ban Kansas hospitals from discriminating on COVID vaccination status The liability protections expired at the end of March after the bill languished in conference committee negotiations. Disagreement between House and Senate GOP leadership primarily centered on the addition of newly-written anti-vaccine language. The legislative stalemate was ultimately broken with the help of an apparent agreement among Republicans to advance another gut-and-go bill granting KanCare managed care organizations no-bid extensions of their contracts. Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, called the move "pay to play politics." The anti-vax provision that ultimately made it into the bill was designed to preempt hospitals from discriminating based on COVID-19 vaccination status by stripping such providers of their pandemic-related legal immunity. The provision, which was never vetted by a health committee, raised lawmaker concerns that it could particularly affect cancer and organ transplant patients. The bill also creating harsher penalties for people who attack health care workers, a piece of legislation that was championed by House Democrats. Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Gov. Kelly vetoes renewal of hospital COVID liability immunity A Sea Harrier takes off of Indian aircraft carrier INS Viraat during an exercise off of Goa, September 29, 2005. SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images Aircraft carriers have been a dominant naval asset for nearly a century. Their high cost and sturdy construction means those flattops often serve for decades. One of the longest-serving was HMS Hermes, which spent a total of 58 years in two navies. Since World War II, aircraft carriers have been one of the most important weapons in a military's arsenal. A nation with flattops can influence affairs far from its shores, and the more of them it can deploy, the farther it can project force around the world. The financial and technological requirements to build and deploy carriers means only a few countries can develop and maintain them. That barrier to entry means only few countries can field even one carrier. The US can deploy 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, reflecting its superpower status. China is building or testing three flattops, and the UK has two new carriers. Several other countries, including France, Russia, and India, have at least one. Video: Why this fighter jet may cost $1.7 trillion But carriers, once built, can serve for a long time. One of the longest-serving was HMS Hermes, which spent a total of 58 years in the British and Indian navies. HMS Hermes British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes sails to London in 1950. Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images HMS Hermes was a conventionally powered Centaur-class flattop that was laid down in 1944. Construction was paused for several years and the carrier wasn't launched until 1953. It entered service with the Royal Navy in 1959. The flattop began its career as a CATOBAR aircraft carrier and could carry up to five fixed- and rotary-wing squadrons. Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR, carriers use catapults to launch aircraft and arresting wires to recover them, allowing planes to take off and land on a deck that's only a few hundred feet long instead of a mile or longer. But in the early 1970s, the Royal Navy decided to convert Hermes to support operations by Royal Marine Commandos like the amphibious assault ships of the US Navy. Berthing space for 800 troops was added, and helicopters became Hermes' primary aircraft. Story continues Hermes was refit again in the early 1980s, when the threat from Soviet submarines prompted the Royal Navy to repurpose the ship for anti-submarine warfare. This modification also converted Hermes into a Short Take-Off, Barrier Arrested Recovery, or STOBAR, carrier. A ski jump was added to Hermes' bow and it once more hosted fighter jets, namely the Sea Harrier, which was designed for short and vertical takeoffs and landings. Royal Navy crewmen relax aboard HMS Hermes as they sail toward the Falkland Islands, 1982. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images During the Falklands War in 1982, the HMS Hermes was the flagship of the British armada, leading more than 100 ships to the South Atlantic to reclaim the islands from the Argentines. Hermes' sister ship and fellow STOBAR carrier, HMS Invincible, were crucial to the UK's success. Sea Harrier fighter jets operating from the two flattops gave the British air dominance and ensured that ground troops could land on and retake the Falklands. The Argentines recognized the importance of the British aircraft carriers and tried to sink them multiple times with daring air attacks. They sunk several escort ships and claimed to have hit Invincible, but the flattops emerged from the conflict unscathed. (The British armada included two improvised carriers, one of which was sunk.) Hermes' post-Falklands life was brief. After a refit and an exercise, the carrier was decommissioned in 1984, but that wasn't the end of its career. The British had previously tried to offload Hermes including a mid-1960s offer to Australia that fell through because of the high cost to man and operate the carrier and in 1983, they again offered to sell it to Australia, which once more turned them down. Indian sailors man the rails of INS Viraat during a fleet review in Mumbai, December 20, 2011. Mahendra Parikh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images The carrier was sold to India in 1986. After undergoing a refit, the carrier was commissioned into the Indian navy as INS Viraat in a ceremony held in the UK in May 1987. It became the flagship of the Indian Navy and participated in a number of operations, including in the Indian peacekeeping mission in Sri Lanka in 1989 and in the Indian blockade of Pakistani ports during the Kargil War in 1999. Viraat als took part in exercise Malabar, an annual exercise involving the US, India, and other navies. After almost six decades in service, the Hermes was finally decommissioned by the Indian Navy in 2017. In 2019, the Indian government decided to scrap the carrier. After years of attempts by state governments and private actors to preserve the carrier as a museum, including a last-minute legal effort to prevent it from being totally dismantled, the carrier was broken up in 2021. Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. Read the original article on Business Insider RICHMOND, VA - SEPTEMBER 8: Crews cut the top toros off of the horse in order for the statue to be transported during the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA on September 8, 2021. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images) (The Washington Post via Getty Images) RICHMOND, Va. As Devon Henry and his construction team take down the last remnants of statues that long dotted this former capital of the Confederacy, they have developed a grim game. Random passersby, some in vehicles, others on foot, often make known their disapproval of Henrys work so often, in fact, that Henry, who is Black, began to keep count of the many times he or a Black crew member were called an incendiary racial slur. The count is 72 and climbing, according to Henry, who has emerged as the go-to statue remover not only for this city, but for all of Virginia and other parts of the South. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Statue removal has become a lucrative line of work amid the ongoing national reckoning over traumas past and present. But in Richmond, where a 21-foot figure of Robert E. Lee towered over the city for more than a century, officials say no amount of government pleading produced a candidate interested in dismantling the citys many monuments during the tense and sometimes violent days of summer 2020. Except for Henry. He and his general contracting company, Team Henry Enterprises, have hauled away 15 pieces of Confederate statuary in Richmond and a total of 23 monuments across the Southeast in less than two years. But the work has come with considerable personal risk: Henry, 45, has been repeatedly threatened, carries a firearm and often wears a bulletproof vest on job sites. You start thinking, 'Damn, was it worth it?' Henry said. But then there are moments; my daughter, in her interview for college, said I was her hero. From New York to North Carolina, more than 400 Confederate symbols have been relocated, renamed or removed in recent years at costs that sometimes run into the millions. Henry has become one of the most reliable contractors willing and able to take on the work. But the removals are more than just a way to boost his bottom line. In dismantling the Lee statue, he said, some suggested he was fulfilling a prophecy from 1890. Story continues In an issue published that year, John Mitchell Jr., editor of The Richmond Planet, a Black newspaper, wrote of the Black mans role in the statues history: He put up the Lee monument, and should the time come, will be there to take it down. Henrys mother, Freda Thornton, said she, too, recognized the significance of her sons role and came to watch him work. I prayed the whole time, she said. I thought about my dad. I thought about the people the shoulders that Devon stood on, to do the job he was doing. Henry credits his mother, who was 16 and living in public housing when she had him, with instilling in him a sense of drive and commitment. From an entry-level job at McDonald's, she worked her way up the golden arches and eventually came to own five of the fast-food franchises. Henry was the first in his family to graduate from college, an educational journey that started at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Hampton, Virginia. (The school is now closed, and the campus has been renamed.) He rose through the ranks of General Electric before buying his company in 2006. The business specialized then in erosion and sediment control, but its name, The Silty Lady, conjured other thoughts in some callers and was eventually changed, Henry said. Since its expansion into general contracting, Team Henry Enterprises has been awarded more than $100 million in federal contracts and is expert in many areas, Henry said. But no one at Team Henry had ever considered dismantling a bronze and stone sculpture of a Confederate general until the office of Virginias governor, Ralph Northam, called in June 2020. In the days after the death of George Floyd, protesters had flooded the streets, a bus had been set on fire, and the Richmond police had tear-gassed a crowd of demonstrators, city officials recalled in interviews. The governor had survived accusations a year earlier that he had appeared in blackface in a college yearbook photo. Now he decided the Lee statue needed to go. Nobody would take this job, said Clark Mercer, the former chief of staff for Northam, a Democrat whose term ended in January. Some of the folks who were asked to take it down were pretty overtly racist with their comments back. Henry talked to his family and his staff. He knew that in New Orleans, a contractor with an agreement to take down city monuments had his car destroyed in a fire and that in Charlottesville, a rally to protest that citys plan to take down its own statue of Lee had led to violence. Henry thought for a day, then agreed to take the job. Because of a legal dispute, it would be more than a year before the Lee statue could be removed. But in the meantime, the city of Richmond decided it was time to remove its Confederate iconography. Frustrated protesters had already begun trying to pull down some of the statues, and the city said that posed immediate safety risks. City officials said that they made dozens of calls to contractors up and down the East Coast. But finding a qualified firm that could build a team with all of the necessary equipment and expertise was challenging from the outset. And some contractors refused to get involved because they were worried about potential backlash and the safety of their crews, according to emails and other public records reviewed by The New York Times. Only Henry stepped up. It takes courage to put yourself out front and expose not only your business, not only your reputation, but also your family as well, said Richmonds mayor, Levar Stoney, who used his emergency powers to award the contract. In an effort to shield his family and staff, Henry and the city said they agreed that the $1.8 million contract to remove about a dozen pieces of Confederate iconography would be awarded to a shell company he created, NAH LLC, instead of his Team Henry. But the work was later traced back to Henry by The Richmond Times-Dispatch, which reported that he had given Stoney and his political action committee contributions totaling $4,000 since 2016. Kimberly Gray, a member of the Richmond City Council and a Stoney rival, called for an investigation into the awarding of the contract, which was also unsuccessfully challenged in court. A special prosecutor assigned to investigate the award process later cleared the mayor of wrongdoing. Henry called the investigation ridiculous and added, There was nothing nefarious going on. Asked to comment on the dispute, Gray, who lost to Stoney in Richmonds 2020 mayoral election, said only that the removal work should have cost much less than it did. With the first removal planned for July 1, 2020, security loomed as an unresolved concern. The city attorney believed the mayor did not actually have the authority to expedite the removal of the monuments under emergency protocols, and the Richmond Police Department opted not to participate, fearing that it could be cited for acting illegally. Turning to the sheriffs department for help was another option. But the city sheriff, Antionette V. Irving, was unsure whether it was wise to get involved, Henry and city officials recalled. Henry and Irving attended the same church. So at one point, Henry took a selfie with the sheriff and sent it to their pastor, Lance Watson of Saint Pauls Baptist Church, in hopes the pastor might give the sheriff a nudge. Irving agreed on the afternoon of the first removal to deploy deputies to help protect Henry and his team as they began to dismantle a monument to Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Since 1919, it had stood along Monument Avenue, a thoroughfare studded with homages to leaders of the Confederacy. As much as the city had sought haste, statue removal is not at all the same as demolition work. Even monuments now devalued as symbols are often dismantled with immense care. In the case of the Jackson statue, Team Henry initially could not locate the bolts they needed to cut so as to detach it from its pedestal. But once all of the preparations were in place, the scene played out like a movie, Henry said. In a pouring rain, as a church bell nearly melted down into Confederate weaponry during the Civil War rang in the background, a crane sent the Jackson statue airborne. Hundreds of people erupted into cheers and tears. Henrys company removed other Confederate statues, cannons and assorted items from Richmond over the next nine days. Some white-owned subcontractors helped him while others didnt want any role. And things got nasty. Someone posted Henrys address online, he said. On social media, people inquired about the route he drove to his office and asked exactly what kind of bulletproof vest he wore. Threatening flyers from people purporting to be part of the KKK were discovered in county districts just outside Richmond. One subcontractor reported that drivers yelling slurs attempted to run his companys semitrucks off the road. But Henry persevered. His company removed Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, including the Lee statue there, and quietly whisked away other iconography outside Virginia before returning to Richmond to deconstruct the pedestals on which the statues once sat. The dismantled pieces from the Richmond statues are headed to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, which will determine what to do with them long term. On Monument Avenue today, there are still flowering trees, grassy medians and regal brick homes, but the traffic circles that once held Confederate figures are filled instead with succulents. The spot where the Stonewall Jackson statue stood has been paved over with asphalt. The only Confederate statue left is that of Gen. A.P. Hill. Its removal is authorized under the contract, but the work has been complicated by the fact that his remains are buried beneath it. Negotiations with the Hill family are ongoing, city officials said. Henry plans to commemorate his teams work by selling custom-made NFTs depicting 13 of the statues and other items that his team took down; he will donate the money from the sales to social causes. It is a new kind of art for the 21st century that will replace that which is past its time, he said. Another new creation in which Henry has played a pivotal role is the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia, 70 miles down the road. Henrys team oversaw the construction of the monument, which was dedicated last spring. So even as Henry helped to discard painful relics of one chapter of Virginias history, he helped to cement the legacy of another too important to still be ignored. They cant erase what weve done, he said. 2022 The New York Times Company Apr. 18Jaime Lawler wanted to move back to Maine after living and working in New Hampshire, so she answered an ad from a company called First Class Pool and Grass in Bangor seeking an office assistant. "I assumed it was a pool-cleaning and lawn-cutting business in an office," she said. "It looked legit." But she started questioning the situation on her first day, April 4. Her boss, Nathan Reardon, told her to meet him at the former Sears building at the Bangor Mall, where he is renting space and has been engaged in a fight with the city that has led officials to condemn that section of the property. Lawler, 45, of Dixmont said Reardon took her up to an office and told her to fill an empty fish tank with water, which she did. Later that day, Reardon, 44, sent her and another employee to an unmarked office on the second-floor of a building in downtown Bangor. "There were a couple of desks and a couple of computers there, but no telephones," Lawler said. There, Reardon asked Lawler to get him a cup of coffee, and call an insurance company for a coverage quote. But he told her to say the business was a software company, not a pool-cleaning enterprise, she said. "I was getting a really bad vibe from this guy, so I left at 1 p.m. on Tuesday [April 5]," Lawler said. "I texted him to say, 'Thank you but this job is not for me.'" She still hasn't been paid, Lawler said Thursday. The business that supposedly hired her, First Class Pool and Grass, isn't registered as a corporate entity in Maine or Florida, where Reardon has filed documents for other enterprises. Interviews with Reardon's former employees shed more light on the unfolding story of a sprawling and bizarre business empire that includes dozens of companies, a trail of debt to nearly 100 former employees, $100,000 in fines for labor violations and one federal fraud case for alleged misuse of pandemic Paycheck Protection Program money. Story continues Employees said they accepted jobs with Reardon but never understood what his businesses actually did. They described unsafe conditions, including in buildings where local officials had found code violations. They said Reardon assigned them seemingly random tasks that didn't align with their job descriptions. And many say they are still owed money. Reardon lists more than 60 businesses in the portfolio on his website, including a massage parlor; a law firm; and automotive, coffee and hardware businesses. But the Bangor Daily News could find only six with active corporate registrations four in Florida and two in Maine, including his now-closed Taco Shack restaurant in Newburgh, where the state Department of Labor found he paid more than 40 employees late. Reardon hasn't responded to requests for comment from the BDN in recent weeks. On Friday, he texted a reporter a photo of a Maine Judicial Branch receipt showing he had sued BDN parent company Bangor Publishing Co. The BDN confirmed that Reardon, acting as his own lawyer, filed the lawsuit in Penobscot County Superior Court on Friday. He sued the parent company of News Center Maine, alleging defamation, late last year. Samantha Townsend, 22, who now lives in Baker City, Oregon, worked for Reardon for a month in the fall of 2019 as a personal assistant at 54 Perry Road in Bangor. Reardon told her that he planned to renovate the building to do auto repair and transmission work, but also spoke of including a massage parlor and a recording studio there. None of the businesses ever opened, she said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Reardon in 2018 for safety violations at the Perry Road location. The agency found that his business, Ultimate Equity Holdings, lacked proper egress and that lighting did not meet safety standards. Bangor's code enforcement office has also found violations at that property. Townsend said that Reardon had her search for a business award he could apply to win, find a world record he could top, research worldwide statistics on clean drinking water, find options for burial plots for his family in Maine and Florida, print and frame portraits of famous CEOs and entrepreneurs, and start a podcast. "He gave no direction concerning what the podcast would be about or who would host," she said. "Any time I asked for clarification on a task, I would be ignored. It became apparent that the majority of these tasks were the disconnected threads of a fraying business that I needed to leave immediately." The Maine Human Rights Commission is separately suing two of Reardon's businesses after finding reasonable grounds to conclude he discriminated against a different former female employee when he suggested in a text message that he go to her home to get a massage. Townsend said that Reardon asked her about a massage shortly before she quit. "Being a personal assistant, I was under the impression that what he was asking me to do was find him a reputable massage therapist in the Bangor area," she said. It only became clear to Townsend later that he was actually asking her to massage him, she said. When she gave her notice, Reardon told her that his car, parked outside the Perry Road business, "was broken down" and insisted that she drive him to the Brewer home where he was living. "The entire ride to his home, Reardon insisted on complimenting me and speaking to me in a way that made me very uncomfortable," she said. "When we arrived, his wife was standing on the porch. She glared at me intensely, to which Reardon made comments about how she didn't like to see him with such young, attractive girls and continued to say that as an assistant, I was 'more qualified to meet his needs.'" Townsend quit after she said Reardon made her work in a mildewed recreational vehicle heated by a propane stove that he would often switch off as it grew cold in November. She was never paid for her last two weeks of work, she said. Unlike some of Reardon's former employees, Daniel Watson, 32, of Madison has reported his former boss' business practices to local and state authorities. He also sued Reardon in small claims court in an effort to collect $8,000 he's owed for construction work on a commercial building in Skowhegan, the Perry Road building and a Howland apartment house. Watson is just one of 17 people and two firms owed money for an estimated $22,000 worth of work done between Aug. 14, 2020, and Feb. 27, 2021, on a commercial property in Skowhegan, according to Somerset County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney. She has charged Reardon with theft of services, a Class B crime. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge and to five counts of bank fraud, three counts of attempted wire fraud, two counts of making false statements to a bank and one count of perjury related to the Paycheck Protection Program fraud case filed in federal court. Reardon has a Maine criminal record that dates back to 1999, and other legal actions against him stretch from his early business dealings in Florida where he registered more than 20 entities between 2009 and 2021 to more recent dealings in Maine. The cases include eviction proceedings in which landlords sought to remove Reardon and his businesses from their properties to companies' attempts to force Reardon to pay outstanding bills. On his criminal record is a 2013 conviction from his guilty plea to misdemeanor charges stemming from a failure to hand over Maine sales tax and employees' withholding taxes to the state when he ran Performance Auto and Diesel in Kennebec County. Reardon was sentenced to one year behind bars but was administratively released and ordered to pay $49,837 in restitution to the state. The last public disclosure of his balance was in 2017, when he still owed $27,537, according to the Maine attorney general's office. A trial on the state charge has not been set. His trial in U.S. District Court in Bangor is set for June 7. Mark Tibbs was Dillian Whytes trainer for four years (Nick Potts/PA) (PA Archive) Dillian Whytes former trainer Mark Tibbs is pleased the heavyweight will get an overdue world title shot this week and says the Brixton boxer knows how to beat Tyson Fury but admits putting it into practice is a different matter. An all-British affair will take place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday where up to 94,000 spectators could be in attendance for the biggest domestic bout in the division since Lennox Lewis beat Frank Bruno in 1993. Whyte has waited patiently for his chance to fight for the WBC-belt, stating he was the mandatory challenger to Deontay Wilder as far back as 2018 only to see the former world champion take on Fury in what turned out to be a trilogy. Now the 34-year-old will get his opportunity on the biggest stage, but there were fears he could pull out after he failed to turn up to last months press conference However, the Jamaican-born fighter acknowledged the fight was set to happen for the first time on Wednesday with a social-media post. Tibbs, who worked with Whyte for four years, told the PA news agency: I had a good journey with Dillian and I really enjoyed it. We had a good time together. I am pleased for him that he has got his world title shot at last. It is well overdue and I was a little bit surprised he wasnt performing with the press conference but I was relieved on Wednesday when I realised he has been playing a game and now he was playing ball after that tweet. Knowing Dillian as I do and knowing his strength of mind and character, I really believe he will be the best Dillian Whyte on April 23. He will be tuned in, he will be focused mentally and nothing will faze him. It will fuel him mentally. Tibbs first trained the Body Snatcher after his 2015 loss to Anthony Joshua, which arguably sent the old amateur rivals on different trajectories with the winner going on to achieve his world title dreams. Whyte (28-2, 19KOs) regrouped under the tutelage of his highly-respected trainer only to suffer a shock defeat to Russian veteran Alexander Povetkin during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. Story continues By this point Tibbs had gone his separate ways from the heavyweight, who avenged his surprise reverse last March and now has Fury in his sights again with the duo sharing history over long-debated sparring sessions early in their careers. I am pleased for him that he has got his world title shot at last. It is well overdue. Mark Tibbs on Dillian Whyte Dillian felt they would meet at some point and I always thought it would make a great fight for the fans, Tibbs explained. He has always had Fury in mind, we have always spoke about Fury and he knows what he has got to do against Fury, but it is just doing it now. He knows he has to get up close and personal from the get-go, he cant mess about and that is where he could win the fight getting up close and trying to get that left-hook off. So, he is always in for a chance early doors but he is the outsider and Tyson Fury is a superior boxer, there is no doubt about it but Dillians got a punchers chance. Tibbs is set to be at Wembley on Saturday in a punditry capacity having just helped one of his new recruits become world champion three weeks ago. Australian Ebanie Bridges, who first made headlines in the UK when she missed out on the vacant WBA bantamweight title to Shannon Courtenay last year, worked with the Rainham-based trainer at his Origin Gym before beating Maria Cecilia Roman to the IBF crown in Leeds on March 26. Tibbs, whose father Jimmy trained Nigel Benn and Bruno in his heyday, said: Ebaines heart and passion for the sport, I was drawn to. I felt I could tidy her up. She is due back in Australia very soon but then hopefully she comes back and works with me again because I feel we are doing all right. Since she got back in the gym, since the world title fight, she has actually got better. My father walked in the other day and said she has come on, come on since the fight even and I knew she would. Bridges is one of many fine prospects at Tibbss Origin Gym, with high hopes for heavyweight Johnny Fisher who earned praise from Fury last year after joining the world heavyweight champion for sparring. Johnny is a good prospect and I think he will go a very long way. He has learnt a lot in the year he has been a pro, Tibbs said. I like to take one step at a time, so lets win a couple of area titles and then look for a British title. After a British title, the world will be Johnnys oyster. Three companies owned by far-right conspirator and multimillionaireAlex Jones have filed for bankruptcy as Jones seeks to duck damages for his Sandy Hook lies. The Chapter 11 filing on Sunday, which lists up to $10 million in liabilities, would allow Jones to continue operating his businesses and would snarl legal judgments against him. Bloomberg earlier reported on Jones bankruptcy plans, citing a source with knowledge of the plot. A court filing earlier this month by parents suing Jones for defamation also claimed that he has diverted millions of dollars to an alphabet soup of shell companies to dodge damages by squirreling away his assets. The suit claims that he drew $18 million from his companies after the first suit was filed in 2018. After 26 people including 20 first-graders were killed in the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones insisted that the bloodbath was a hoax staged by crisis actors and that no one was actually killed. He now admits it did happen. Jones and his companies were found liable last year in a defamation lawsuit in the state over his heartless and vile lies brought by families of dead children. Not only did Jones profit from his outrageous tales, but the families were also subjected to death threats and hate mail and phone calls by his supporters after Jones attacked them on his radio program. An upcoming trial will determine the amount of damages Jones will have to pay. He was also found liable in three similar lawsuits in Texas, where he lives. Jones could not be reached for comment Sunday. Jones refused to turn over documents including financial information ordered by courts in both states. He also blew off a court-ordered deposition last month to determine damages, claiming to be ill. When his lawyers informed the judge of his excuse, he was in the middle of a four-hour radio broadcast, The Washington Post reported. Jones later turned up when attorneys for the families sought an arrest warrant for him, and the judge imposed a $25,000 daily fine against him for each day he missed. The judge agreed to refund his $75,000 once he complied. Story continues Jones reportedly helped fund and was on the scene for the rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He told his InfoWars listeners in January that he invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination nearly 100 times when he was questioned by the House select committee investigating the insurrection. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Spring is a time for blooming plants and flowering trees. But word to the wise: some of those beautiful blooms might come from invasive species. One such plant is the Bradford pear, a tree covered in attractive white blossoms with some unattractive features. What was once considered an ornamental and low maintenance decoration for yards and parks has proven detrimental to native plants and has even been banned in some states. The trees "have little to no value to wildlife and displace native trees," said Steven Long, assistant director of the department of plant industry at Clemson University in South Carolina. Other problems? Their thorns can puncture vehicles tires and their blooms stink, Long said. Where did the Bradford pear tree come from? Why is it dangerous to native plants? How do homeowners get rid of it? Here's what to know about this invasive plant: What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day What is a Bradford pear tree? The Bradford pear, also known as the "Callery" pear, is a popular ornamental tree native to Asia and found throughout the eastern U.S. It is most commonly planted in South Carolina. "Theyre in suburban and rural areas, as well as in natural forests," Kelly Oten, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said. The tree is perhaps most famous for the scent of its blooms, which some have compared to rotting fish, urine and baby poop. The fragrant white blooms that appear in early spring draw admirers, despite the offensive smell. Where did they come from? The trees were introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture as ornamental landscape trees in the mid-1960s. They became popular with landscapers because they were inexpensive, transported well and grew quickly. Considered a sterile hybrid, plant experts did not think the tree would propagate out of control, but scientists developed smaller hybrids designed to compensate for the Bradford pear's weak branch structure. Story continues The trees cannot self-pollinate, but can reproduce with another variety of the Pyrus calleryana species. The offspring are called Callery pears. The resulting hybrids are even more problematic than the original Bradford pear tree. Are Bradford pear trees harmful? Yes. The trees choke out other plants, particularly in fallow fields, or empty tracts of land seen as future forests. They can grow to 30 feet tall and the "dead zone" beneath its dense canopy keeps light from reaching other plants. Because they bloom earlier in the springfrom March to mid-April, Bradford pears overtake resources from surrounding native species. Long said the trees also increase the cost to maintain land. "They reproduce prolifically in (once-landscaped) areas and tend to dominate small lots as they are of the first to emerge once a lot is no longer being mowed," he said. "Callery pears are like a food desert for birds," Oten said. "Caterpillars, which are especially important in the spring when mother birds are getting soft-bodied insects to feed their young, dont feed on them. Because there are no caterpillars that feed on the Bradford pear, theres nothing for them to eat there." The trees "break easily during ice and wind storms which we have plenty of in (South Carolina)," Long said. Researchers discovered in the '80s that the tree has a fragile composition. Its signature "steep v crotch" means the tree has a weak structure at the "V" of the branch, yet is stronger in other directions so that it snaps off in areas from old age and high winds. Drivers should avoid parking their cars beneath a Bradford pear. Theyre heeeeeere. Bradford & Callery pears are blooming across NC now. What started as an innocent ornamental is now an environmental disaster. Here, the parent Bradford Pear (right) is in full bloom while its offspring Callery Pear (left) is wrecking ecosystems. #invasive pic.twitter.com/a60Cv6yjyD NC State Forest Health (@NCForestHealth) March 8, 2022 Where is the tree banned? South Carolina has enacted a ban on new Bradford pear sales effective on Oct. 1, 2024. A ban on the sale and cultivation of the tree in Pennsylvania will also take effect in February of that year. The tree was placed on the invasive species list in Ohio in January 2018, meaning in-state nurseries and landscapers must phase out selling the trees over the next five years. Experts say all native species in South Carolina will struggle as long as the Bradford pear tree survives. Even other trees that are not threatened for survival, such as oaks, maples and hickories, are being out-competed. Bradford pears in South Carolina: Methods of attack range from bounties to bans "I expect many more states will soon follow Ohio and South Carolinas lead on this," Long said. How can you get rid of a Bradford pear tree? At 20 years, the lifespan of a Bradford pear is relatively short, but the species might have reached its tenth generation of production. "When they cross with another pear and become wild, the offspring does have thorns. This can make it difficult to remove," Oten said. The thorns are sharp enough to puncture tires, making it difficult to mow down a field of Bradford's. Fire and some herbicides are alternative options for elimination, but fire has been shown to aid resprouting. The best weapon, according to experts, is to cut down the trees, and some states are providing incentives for removal. Clemson University in South Carolina has offered to exchange five cut-down Bradford pears with native trees. The North Carolina Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program advises people to remove or treat the stump with an herbicide to prevent it from sprouting new trees and to grind down the stump before placing a new tree in the same spot. Some landscaping companies provide stump-grinding services, according to the program. Most importantly, homeowners should avoid planting the tree altogether and instead plant native species. "We have plenty of native trees that have very similar blossoms, such as the flowering dogwood, black cherry, and serviceberry," Oten said. Reach out to Chelsey Cox on Twitter at @therealco. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US states hate invasive Bradford pear trees. So, they're banning them Just yesterday, LATAM, an airline company out of Santiago, Chile, announced that it is working with Autism Double Checked to train and certify its employees in dealing with and assisting families flying with autistic travelers. The purpose of this process is to continue to foster an environment of inclusivity, respectfulness, and appreciation that emphasizes empathetic assistance towards autistic passengers. LATAM has been publicizing its new initiative on its website and has also made available a guide to assist parents and caregivers of autistic individuals to make their flying experience with LATAM as easy as possible. Autism Double Checked co-founders Alan Day and David Tait have been making travel easy for autistic individuals for many years now. Through their three levels of readiness, Autism Double Checked has been preparing travel companies to expect the unexpected, be non-judgmental and autism-inclusivity aware and ultimately serve families with special needs better. With three levels of Autism awareness Autism Aware, Autism Ready, and Autism Double Checked, Autism Double Checked helps companies start at smaller levels of awareness and can slowly graduate to higher levels of empathetic assistance for autistic travelers and their families. Here is another example of how Autism Double Checked prepared an Autism Awareness Guide for the Kennedy Space Center. Recent surveys (source in video below) have suggested that 87% of families with autistic children dont take vacations. However, 93% of the respondents said they would love to travel more if autism friendly facilities were available to them. And what is that one thing that will boost their confidence in traveling? 95% said trained staff in autism awareness, and this is what Autism Double Checked is helping companies accomplish. Watch the video below and visit https://autismchecked.com to learn more about Autism Double Checked. (Bloomberg) -- Mexican lower house lawmakers on Sunday began debating a controversial proposal by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to restore the states monopoly over the electricity industry. Most Read from Bloomberg Dozens of lawmakers are expected to speak during what is likely to be a lengthy process. A same-session vote is planned for the bill, which comprises constitutional amendments giving state utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, at least 54% of the market and capping private participation. AMLO, as the president is known, had sought to use the bill to solidify his nationalistic vision for the energy sector and reverse an opening-up of the power industry to private investment that started over two decades ago. The proposal is expected to fall short of the two-thirds majority required to change the constitution. Lopez Obradors ruling coalition lost some ground in the lower house of congress following last Junes midterm elections and opposition lawmakers have refused to back the bill. Critics including industry representatives have said the legislation embraced fossil fuels and would cripple the countrys energy future by blocking private investment. Washington has also warned the bill would violate its free trade deal with Mexico and put more than $10 billion in U.S. investments at risk. Lopez Obrador has made energy a central pillar of his presidency as he seeks to overhaul the CFE and state-run oil company Pemex, which has become the worlds most indebted oil firm as it oversees a decline in production. He has used his daily press conferences to question the patriotism of opposition lawmakers who are supporting foreign companies that have entered the industry. Story continues On Sunday, the head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Alejandro Moreno said opposition parties were uniting to defeat the bill backed by the ruling coalition, calling it a danger to the Mexicos future. Today they will have their most monumental and biggest defeat, Moreno said. The president has said the bill is part of his efforts to keep consumer energy prices down at a time that global prices have spiked due to Russias invasion of Ukraine and as countries look for alternative sellers. Hes held firm to his plans amid a flurry of trade and climate diplomacy on the part of U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar and John Kerry, the U.S. presidential envoy for climate. Private investment in power projects have slowed to a trickle due to concerns that Lopez Obrador could pass a constitutional reform. The defeat of the bill could mark an inflection point that could lead to increased investment in the sector in the coming years, said Severo Lopez Mestre, an energy consultant and former high-level industry official who implemented early reforms to open up the power sector to private investment two decades ago. If Lopez Obrador cant change the constitution, no one can. Now, the level of uncertainty will come down, Lopez Mestre said in an interview. Mexico will require investment since everything has fallen behind. What is at issue is not just Mexico, but the competitiveness of the North American hemisphere. Still, Lopez Obradors government could continue to discourage investments. It has declined to renew the contracts of foreign companies such as Iberdrola, miring both companies and the state in court battles. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld another law that gave state utility CFE permission to distribute its energy before cheaper private alternatives. David Enriquez, a partner at Goodrich Riquelme y Asociados law firm, said legal maneuvers filed by private companies against that law will continue to be fought in court. The injunctions remain in limbo, he said. Some collegiate courts can decide in favor of companies, others against, and it creates a dispersal of decisions. (Adds details on debate, background after paragraph four) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. KYIVVladimir Putins onslaught has pushed Tatiana Bondarenko, a 53-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox Christian, to her breaking point. First, she was forced to flee her home town in Donetsk in the 2014 war. Then, in March, she had to leave Mariupol after her husband died in crossfire shelling and the city was all but wiped out by Putins army. Her life, she says, is ruined, and her heart broken. On Thursday, Bondarenko was weeping on the steps of Kyivs Pokrovsky Monastery, one of 12,000 Ukrainian Orthodox parishes still serving under the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) led by Russian Patriarch Kirill. She told The Daily Beast she still finds comfort being near the monastery, but her feelings about the institution and the leaders of the church have changed drastically since the start of the war. Putins Holy Man Pushed for the Eradication of Ukraine Bondarenko says she doesnt want her church to have anything to do with Russian Orthodox leader Kirill any longer. Please, my God, Patriarch Kirill has blessed this war, he is not the one who has a moral right to tell us that God is love, she said. He has blessed Putins friend, commander Zolotov and the Russian soldiers to kill us, Orthodox believers of Ukraine, Bondarenko added with tears welling in her eyes. Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty She was referring to a recent ceremony in which the Russian Patriarch prayed with President Vladimir Putins ex-bodyguard, Victor Zolotov, who is now the commander of the Russian National Guard fighting in Ukraine. Let it inspire the young warriors who take the oath, embark on the path of defending the Fatherland, the patriarch said in the Moscow ceremony last month. Zolotov, in turn, complained to the Russian Orthodox Church leader that not everything is going as fast as we would like. The commander then expressed his wishes that the prayer would protect the Russian Army and accelerate our victory. Ukrainian worshippers gather to attend a mass at Church of the Most Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv, Ukraine on April 17, 2022. Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Russian Orthodox Church and its leader have played a huge role in garnering public support for Putins war in Ukraine, where about 10 million Orthodox believers still pray in Moscow Patriarchate-affiliated churches. Ukrainian Orthodox Christians whose lives have been upended by the war are left to grapple with the fact that the leader has all but condoned the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. Story continues Now, the cracks are starting to show: More than 400 Ukrainian priests have spoken out against Patriarch Kirill for his support of the war, demanding he be put on trial by the Council of Eastern Patriarchs. Adding to that, scores of Orthodox parishes in Ukraine that have long been loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate have begun to withdraw from the UOC-MP, changing their jurisdictional affiliations to join the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church instead. Lonely Putin Is Losing Control of His Own Spiraling Minions Kirill has committed a crime: he blessed murders of innocent people, Metropolitan Oleksandr, one of the most senior clerics of the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kyiv, told The Daily Beast. He was on his way to a parish that recently declared its independence from the UOC-MP. I understand their decision, the criminal Russian army killed thousands of innocent women, children, men in Ukrainian, my own relatives are in the occupied Mariupol, I dont know if my godfather is alive. Last I heard he and his family were making food on fire outside their ruined house. His voice cracked when he spoke about his family members. An aerial view taken on April 12, 2022, shows the city of Mariupol, during Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine. Andrey Borodulin/AFP via Getty Images One Ukrainian priest and his wife, who belonged to a church in the separatist region of Luhansk that follows the Moscow Patriarchate, told The Daily Beast that the churchs guidelines were so jarring that they made the decision to leave it altogether. We were allowed to pray for Ukraine for eight years, while Luhansk was a breakaway republic but in February, when the war began, we were told we could not pray for Ukraine any longer, which was just against our beliefs, the priests wife told The Daily Beast while on a bus to Lviv. The Russian Orthodox Church made us make the decision to run away with our three children. There are more and more priests who disagree with the Moscow Orthodox Church in Ukraine. So far at least 16 dioceses out of 53 parishes loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate have stopped praying for Patriarch Kirill. Many are unhappy that the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onufriy, continues to pray for the Russian holy leader at Kyivs Pechersk Lavra, the most ancient monastery on the territory of Ukraine built in 1051. It is hard to imagine how Father Onufriy or any other priests are still praying for Patriarch Kirill My 91-year-old grandmother, who has lived under German occupation during World War II and now under Russian occupation, tells me Russian soldiers looted homes, shops and killed three of her neighbors, Metropolitan Oleksandr told The Daily Beast. Moscow accuses us and other Orthodox believers of hate but we do not feel hate, we feel righteous anger every priest who rejects the subordination of the Moscow Patriarchate gets condemned by them and banned from serving, soon they will ban us from breathing. By the evening on Thursday, four parishes from Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions requested Metropolitan Oleksandr to allow them to join the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Just in one day today four parishes made a decision to quit the church of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Oleksandr told The Daily Beast. It is time for all parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to become independent from Moscow. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. A line of trucks en route to a border crossing point seen in Kybartai, Lithuania, on Saturday. Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images Hundreds of Russian and Belarusian trucks were stuck in Poland this weekend while leaving the European Union. The EU banned haulers from the two countries from transporting goods in the bloc starting Saturday. On Friday, one checkpoint had a waiting time of up to 56 hours, the Financial Times reported, citing Polish data. Russian and Belarusian trucks formed a massive queue this weekend near the Poland-Belarus border as hundreds of drivers rushed to leave the European Union before a ban on their vehicles went into effect on Saturday. The long line on Saturday stretched 50 miles in Poland at one point, with some truckers waiting for up to 33 hours before they were processed, the BBC reported. Drone footage from Reuters posted on Sunday showed a column of trucks stuck in traffic near the Kozlovichi border crossing on Saturday evening. "We were driving from Serbia, we stood in a queue in Bobrowniki," said a truck driver from Belarus named Dmitry in the same video. "But in Bobrowniki we were turned back and asked to go to Kozlovichi. That's the situation. I'm driving with the load, I don't know what is going to happen." The day before, some drivers were left waiting for up to 56 hours at the Bobrowniki checkpoint, The Financial Times reported, citing data from Poland's National Revenue Administration. About 10,000 Russian and Belarusian vehicles were still in the EU ahead of the deadline, Aliaksandr Kuushynau, a senior executive at a GPS fleet-tracking company, told FT. The outlet reported that Lithuania and Latvia also saw long queues at their border crossings. The EU has banned Russian and Belarusian trucks from carrying goods in the bloc as part of retaliatory sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. However, haulers carrying food products, humanitarian aid, and energy have been exempted from the sanctions. Story continues Hundreds of trucks remained in Poland on Sunday morning, when waiting times were reduced to 12 hours, the BBC reported. With the deadline passed, it's not immediately clear what action these drivers may face, although their vehicles may be seized. However, Jan Buczek, head of Poland's Association of International Road Carriers, noted that at least 3,000 Polish trucks in Russia and Belarus may be at risk of retaliation from the two nations, per FT. "We should look for a benign solution," Buczek told the outlet. "Because any aggressive form of action by Europe against the Russian and Belarusian trucks at the border will instantly spark retaliation against our trucks that are on the way or coming back from markets like Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan." Read the original article on Business Insider We've all asked ourselves: Is the grass really greener on the other side? The expatriation of Black Americans to other countries has largely been reported as a response to racism in the U.S. However, K. Sunnei Samasa, leader of Black Americans Living Abroad, has seen members leave the U.S. for quality of life, job opportunities, entrepreneurial dreams, and more affordable health care. "Those who decide to move long term rarely do so because of one issue," Samasa says. Evita Robinson, founder of the Nomadness Travel Tribe, agrees. Her network of Black travelers boasts 20,000 members who've visited regions all over the world 19% of the community have also chosen to expatriate. "Tribe members," made up largely of Black women, have expatriated "because they want to live out loud right now," Robinson says. Kiwi Bold and Kimberly West are two such women. "I was in and out of Playa del Carmen (Mexico) for years," Bold says. "There was a huge House music party here every year so I'd hop on the plane with the rest of Atlanta." FEELING SEEN, UNDERSTOOD IN GHANA: 'African Americans are not as far removed from the continent' DID EVERYONE BAIL ON YOUR PLANNED TRIP?: How to travel by yourself, stay safe Eight years ago, Bold decided that her yearly excursions to Mexico could be more than a few days of dancing. In her forties at the time and having had successful careers as a professional dancer and personal chef, she began to think about how she wanted to spend her fifties, how far she wanted her money to go, how much she still wanted to dance regularly and live a comfortable, etc. She wanted a simpler life. Bold has called Playa del Carmen home ever since. At 56, she's also extensively traveled the Yucatan Peninsula, living in the small town of Chicxulub Pueblo. "I was the only Black American my neighbors ever met," Bold said between chuckles. Kimberly West and Keturah Kendrick during brunch at Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Bold chose Mexico because she was fascinated with its rich, complex history. It was always her intent to live in the local community. So, she set up home in Colosio, a neighborhood where she is one of few foreigners for at least 20 blocks. Story continues "I wanted to be a part of the culture. To have a community," she said. Bold has contributed to the Colosio community by teaching the kids and their parents English. A single woman, her Mexican aunties and nieces look out for her. If leaving for the night or taking a trip, Bold lets them know where she's going and when she's expected to return. They come knocking on her door the moment she's supposed to be on the other side of it. Story continues below. Like Bold, Kimberly West, 53, also had a multifaceted career. She'd owned a restaurant and a farm, worked in corporate America and transitioned into her own business as an information technology consultant. Four years ago, West needed a new adventure. An easier lifestyle with access to fresh foods and close proximity to water. She chose Playa del Carmen. On any given week, West can be found connecting with her husband and her stepsons in his Atlanta home or hers in Mexico. She also meets up regularly with the thriving Black expat community in Playa. Since West's relocation, weekly Soca dance parties have grown in popularity. Her circle of friends also has been known to belt out their favorite 90s classics during karaoke night at Club Social. If not dining at Rockas, a popular Jamaican restaurant, West invites her tribe over to her place where she grills up a few lamb chops. While they enjoy their lives in Mexico, West and Bold are open to relocating to any country that allows them the privilege of rest, comfort and community. "I want an intentional village," Bold explains. "Where we all fully believe that without each other, we don't exist." That village doesn't have to be in Mexico or the U.S. Being open to adventure guarantees the journey to their "forever country" will be just as joyous as their path to Playa. Keturah Kendrick is the author of "No Thanks: Black, Female, and Living in the Martyr-Free Zone" and an avid traveler based in New York City. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Moving to Mexico from the US: Why these women did it It Happened here is a weekly history column by Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Donald W. Meyers. Reach him at dmeyers@yakimaherald.com. Sources for this weeks column include an interview with Monsignor John Ecker, Celebration! St. Paul Cathedral Centennial 1914-2014 by Susan La Rivere and the archives of the Yakima Herald-Republic. When will you get your federal tax refund? Heres why it could be a longer wait than usual Senior staff writer Annette Cary covers Hanford, energy, the environment, science and health for the Tri-City Herald. Shes been a news reporter for more than 30 years in the Pacific Northwest. (Bloomberg) -- Before the pandemic began, Low Tuck Kwong tried -- and failed -- to sell a stake in his Indonesian mining company. Unable to find the right buyer, he decided to double down, adding shares instead of paring them. Most Read from Bloomberg The bet paid off: PT Bayan Resources stock has more than doubled since, making Low one of the wealthiest people in the industry, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His stake, now at 61%, is worth $6.1 billion. Its very simple: If I cant sell part of my shares, I better buy more, Low said in a rare interview from Jakarta in March, the month he added another 199 million shares. Coal producers have been on a tear recently, an unexpected development for the industry most responsible for carbon emissions. At last years COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, more than 40 countries pledged to shift away from the fuel. Indonesia, its largest exporter, has boosted regulation to safeguard natural resources. Yet burning coal is still common, generating about 35% of the worlds electricity and twice as much in Indonesia. Post-pandemic economic activity has increased demand, as has the war in Ukraine. Nations including Japan have banned Russian fuel imports, further tightening supply and pushing prices even higher. For Bayan Resources, where Low serves as president, its been a boon. Shares are trading near a record high. Revenue more than doubled to $2.9 billion last year, and the company repaid all of its debt. Now the miner is building new infrastructure to boost its production capacity to as much as 60 million tons by 2026 from 37.6 million tons in 2021, according to Chief Financial Officer Alastair McLeod. Story continues Theres still a very balanced, if not undersupplied market, McLeod said in the March interview. Obviously we will still face a variety of challenges. But from the market price perspective, theres a demand for coal. We would anticipate healthy margins in 2022. Shares of coal miners have surged across the board, boosting the fortunes of other Indonesian tycoons. PT Adaro Minerals Indonesia, controlled by billionaire Garibaldi Thohirs PT Adaro Energy Indonesia, has shot up almost 2,800% since its public debut in January. The 175% jump in PT Harum Energy over the past year has sent the value of its founders stake to $2 billion. Environmental concerns have yet to tamp the worlds demand for coal, said Shirley Zhang, principal analyst for Asia Pacific coal market at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Even if the Russian-Ukraine conflict subsides, she said, coal will still be needed by most of the Asian countries by 2050, and lack of financing at coal mines will provide price support. Bayan Resources has installed solar panels and solar-powered lighting at its projects, and its Tabang mine, which contributes to more than 80% of its production, generates lower levels of sulphur, nitrogen and ash when it burns coal, according to a company presentation. But the limitations are obvious, McLeod said: Inherently theres only a certain amount we can do if we still sell coal. Low moved to Indonesia more than five decades ago, ready to tap opportunities in Southeast Asias biggest economy. Initially, the Singapore native went into construction -- his first project was to build a facility to store ice cream. But the sector was a constant hustle. You still had to look for another project for our people to work on, he said. Mining looked more stable, and in the late 1980s and 90s, the construction company built its coal business. Bayan Resources was created in 2004, and Low also became the controlling shareholder of Singaporean coal shipper Manhattan Resources Ltd. Low says hes an animal lover, and he spends his free time strolling in the zoo and fruit plantations he established on the island of Borneo, near the site of his Tabang mine. He invested some $4 million in the park, which is open to the public free of charge. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. 51 years ago, the Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 330, popularly known as the Harpoons was commissioned on April 17, 1971 with a motto, Any Sea, Any mission, Any deck. As the Indian Navy seeks to induct MH60R, a modern and very capable multi mission helicopter, the Harpoons are all set to begin their third avatar. The squadron began operating the Sea King Mark (Mk) 42 Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopters acquired from British Westland Helicopters -- equipped with dunking sonar and lightweight air-dropped homing torpedoes. These helicopters increased the navys anti-submarine capabilities significantly. INAS 330 has its origins in the developments that followed helicopters being optimised into advanced roles for detecting and attacking submarines. Apart from that, advanced Navies also developed the capabilities to operate such helicopters from helicopter-capable surface ships. This led to INAS 330 to operate from Indias lone aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in 1971 says, Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, NM (Retd), a fully operational pilot and a flying instructor on all marks of Sea King and had also commanded the Indian Navys Marine Commando flight. The Sea King helicopter is a multi-role helicopter and has been used for all-around surveillance, search and rescue operations, warfare, and as a transportation platform for the last several decades. The first Sea King landed on INS Vikrant, the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy in July 1971. Though inducted into the Indian Navy a few months before the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, Sea King operations were restricted during the war given certain training shortfalls, says Pillai. However, Sea King did pick up a suspected submarine contact and carried out a vectored attack for the first time in Nov 1971. Besides this, extensive operations were also undertaken, and the Harpoons clocked over 156 hours of the war effort. Also read: China Eastern Airlines restart using Boeing 737-800 plane after March crash Post war, the Indian Navy worked tirelessly to adapt, integrate and understand the full potential of the Sea King helicopters. The decade following the 1971 war, the Indian Navy carefully charted out options for all the upgradation of military equipment. The aircraft was to be equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, communication systems, navigation systems, torpedoes, depth charges, radar, tactical Air Navigation and certain modifications that included an additional tail rotor blade to overcome certain aerodynamic limitations, said Pillai. He further added that INAS 330 had pioneered such adaptations and heralded a legacy that now has been extended to India operating helicopters from smaller platforms like the Taragiri- and Godavari-class frigates and follow-on ships of the Brahmaputra, Delhi and Kolkata class. Between 1988 and 1990, the Sea King MK 42B (Bravo) arrived in India. The core team was deployed to the UK for almost five years of extensive training of over 30 aircrews and an adequate ground crew. Sea King 42B are known as the Flying Frigates, as they could do almost anything the frigate that carried them could do. Due to the massive coverage of its radars, the Arabian Sea became a pond for the Indian Navy,` said Commodore G. Prakash, NM (Retd), a specialist in aviation and anti-submarine warfare. India's nuclear test in 1998 brought on the US Sanctions. Due to this, maintenance support for the Sea King became negligible. The Harpoons had a challenge to not only continue flying but also experiment, adapt, reorient, and add on several pieces of equipment to continue to remain operationally credible. Rear Admiral B.S. Parhar shares that when he took over the command of INAS 330, there was only one functional aircraft available with the squadron due to various limitations. Even then the Harpoons continued to execute incredible rescue missions, delivered supplies to disaster-hit areas, and provided service beyond their logical capabilities. The Harpoons were also known to be the Best Frontline Squadron and Best Naval Air Squadron of the Indian Navy. Also read: Indian Railways to soon deploy Vande Bharat Express trains on Delhi-Khajuraho route With the missile-age dawning, the anti-submarine helicopter was further evolved for anti-shipping roles with advanced maritime radars, electronic support, and intelligence suites. This role pioneered by INAS 330 has evolved the Indian Navy into becoming one of the most advanced Navies of the world. One important change that the Seaking MK 42Bs brought into our Fleets was a quantum jump in the size of the areas which we marked out for our exercises. The excellent ESM system onboard would pick up far away enemy contacts even as aircraft were still on deck, ready for launch. This, combined with the capabilities of the Sea Eagle missiles of the 42Bs, brought in massive standoff ranges, at which the Indian Navy was confident of dealing with the enemy, said Commodore G. Prakash (Retd). (With inputs from IANS) Live TV #mute In less than a month after the crash that killed 132 people on board, China Eastern Airlines has restarted using Boeing 737-800 jetliners for commercial flights, data from a tracking website showed on April 17. The crash grounded over 200 of its aircraft last month. China Eastern flight MU5843, operated by a three-year-old Boeing 737-800 aircraft, took off from the southwestern city of Kunming at 09:58 a.m, local time (0158 GMT) on April 17 and landed at Chengdu, also in southwestern China, at 11:03 am local time, data from Flightradar24 showed. That aircraft, which completed a test flight on April 16, departed Chengdu at 13:02 pm. for Kunming, according to Flightradar24. Also read: SpiceJet announces additional flights to Middle-East, adds domestic routes as well Another Boeing 737-800 jet conducted a test flight on Sunday morning (April 17) in Shanghai, where China Eastern is based, Flightradar24 data showed. China Eastern was not immediately available for comment. On March 21, Flight MU5735, which was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in the mountains of Guangxi and killed 123 passengers and nine crew members in mainland China`s deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years. China has retrieved both of the black boxes and has said it would submit a preliminary report to the U.N. aviation agency ICAO within 30 days of the event. (With inputs from Reuters) Live TV #mute New Delhi: Amway India Enterprises Private Limited, a company accused of running a multi-level marketing fraud, has had assets worth Rs.757.77 crore provisionally attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The attached properties include land and factory building of Amway in Tamil Nadu`s Dindigul district, plant and machineries, vehicles, bank accounts and fixed deposits. The ED had recently attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs 411.83 crore and bank balances of Rs 345.94 crore from 36 different accounts belonging to Amway. A money laundering investigation by the ED revealed that Amway is running a pyramid fraud in the guise of direct selling multi-level marketing network. It was observed that the prices of most of the products offered by the company are exorbitant as compared to the alternative popular products of reputed manufacturers available in the open market. Without knowing the real facts, the common gullible public is induced to join as members of the company and purchase products at exorbitant prices and are thus losing their hard earned money. The new members are not buying the products to use them, but to become rich by becoming members as showcased by the upline members. Reality is that the commissions received by the upline members contribute enormously in hike of prices of the products. It was observed that the company has collected an amount of Rs 27,562 crore from its business operations from 2002-03 to 2021-22 and out of the above, the company has paid commission of Rs 7,588 crore to its distributors and members in India and in the US during FY 2002-03 to 2020-21. The entire focus of the company is about propagating how members can become rich by becoming members. There is no focus on the products. Products are used to masquerade this MLM Pyramid fraud as a direct selling company. Amway has brought Rs 21.39 crore as share capital in India in 1996-97 and till FY 2020-21, the company has remitted huge amounts of Rs 2,859.10 crore in the name of dividend, royalty and other payments to their investors and parent entities. Britt Worldwide India Private Limited and Network Twenty One Private Limited also played a major role in promoting the pyramid scheme of Amway by conducting seminars for joining members under the guise of sale of goods by enrollment of members in the chain system. The promoters are conducting mega conventions and flaunted their lavish lifestyle and used social media to lure the gullible investors. With inputs from agencies. Johnny Depp testified for a second day in his $50m (38.2m) defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard. Cross-examination began at the end of the day and will continue on Thursday morning. Heard is being sued by Depp for implying he abused her in a 2018 op-ed she wrote. Although she did not name him, his lawyers claim her allegations have made it difficult for the actor to land movie roles, turning him from Cinderella to Quasimodo in Hollywood as Depp described it in testimony. The actor recalled a traumatic childhood with an abusive mother and said his relationship with Heard mirrored that, accusing her of bullying him. He described a tumultuous time together, including a fight in which his finger was severed, the time human faeces was found on his bed, and what he says happened on the night Heard accused him of throwing a phone at her in their penthouse, shortly before divorce proceedings began. Heard has filed a $100m (76.6m) counterclaim against Depp for nuisance and immunity from the actors allegations. Depp has previously lost a defamation case in the UK against The Sun newspaper over the same article by Heard. Key points Depp describes finger being severed in vodka bottle fight with Heard Depp says relationship with Heard mirrored abuse by his mother Depp cringes as he describes seeing photo of faeces on his bed Five things we learned from Tuesdays testimony by Johnny Depp Depp tells court that abuse allegations turned him from Cinderella to Quasimodo Depp reveals Winona Ryder tattoo that Heard didnt like 23:45 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps taste in tattoos was brought up during his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard as he revealed theres one in particular she didnt like. Mr Depp returned to the witness stand for a second day on Wednesday in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he was asked about Ms Heards claims that the first time he struck her was in response to a comment about a tattoo. Story continues The actor said that incident did not happen and reiterated that he never hit Ms Heard or any other woman. Megan Sheets reports. Johnny Depp reveals tattoo that Amber Heard didnt like A severed finger, childhood scars and wedding MDMA: What we learned from Depps testimony 23:28 , Oliver O'Connell The Independents Clemence Michallon recaps what we have learned after two days of testimony from Johnny Depp. A severed finger and childhood scars: Johnny Depps testimony on Amber Heard Endless parade of insults': Depp says relationship with Heard mirrored abuse by his mother 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp has likened his marriage to Amber Heard to his fraught relationship with his mother, calling it an endless parade of insults. Mr Depp made the comparison as he resumed testimony in his defamation trial on Wednesday in Fairfax County, Virginia. He recalled how demeaning name calling, being berated and made a fool of by Ms Heard would frequently escalate into full scale arguments. Megan Sheets reports. Johnny Depp says relationship with Amber Heard mirrored abuse by his mother Depp says his mothers death caused him to realise his marriage to Heard had to end 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp says his mothers death caused him to realise his marriage to Amber Heard had to end. Depp was asked about his mothers passing on Wednesday (20 April) as he testified for a second day in the defamation case opposing him and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Betty Sue Palmer died in May 2016 after an illness. In the Fairfax County Courthouse on Wednesday, Depp recounted bringing his two children to see her at the hospital. Depp said he had then decided that he would call Heard and inform her of Palmers death, as well as his intention to file for divorce. Clemence Michallon reports. Johnny Depp says his mothers death caused him to realise his marriage had to end 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell After just twenty minutes of cross-examination, the court adjourns for the day. Depp will return to the stand at 10am on Thursday. 21:55 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked whether he knows that the lawsuit is about the opinion piece and nothing that came before its publication in 2018. There is some contention between Heards lawyer Ben Rottenborn and Depp. Depp says he would have to be a simpleton to think that Heards word did not impact his career. Asked to look at another article from two months prior to Heards saying Depp is not going to be in another Pirates movie, Rottenborn is trying to show that her words in the Post are not responsible for his alleged career issues. Depp contends that his image is still in use on rides and merchandise connected to the franchise at Disney. Rottenborn shows #JohnnyDepp a headline that appeared in Oct. 2018, 2 months before #AmberHeard's op-ed. "Hide the rum! Johnny Depp is OUT as Jack Sparrow..." Pointing out that he was being cut from Pirates BEFORE Heard's op-ed. @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/0euWoDvClR Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 21:47 , Oliver O'Connell Note: The judge was willing to adjourn for the day, but Heards team wanted to go ahead and begin cross-examination. 21:46 , Oliver O'Connell Before the day ends, cross-examinaton of Depp begins by Heards legal team. He is shown the op-ed piece by Heard in The Washington Post. Amber Heard's attorney begins cross-examination by showing #JohnnyDepp the Washington Post article written by #AmberHeard in 2018. @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/7vsEGICGZ2 Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 21:42 , Oliver O'Connell The court is now hearing about Depps thoughts on the op-ed written by Heard that appeared in The Washington Post that is at the centre of this trial. Asked what the impact of the article was on his career, Depp says that Disney took a couple of days to announce that he had been removed from the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. He denies he ever physcially assaulted or sexually assaulted Heard. When asked what he had lost in terms of the article, Depp says he has lost everything the second the accusations of abuse and drugs and drinking were made against him. I will live with that for the rest of my life ... I lost then, no matter what the outcome of this trial. Depp: I lost then, no matter the outcome of this trial ... I will live with that for the rest of my life. With that, direct-examination of Depp concludes. Cross-examination begins.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/AI3TDPuxNK Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 21:32 , Oliver O'Connell The Depp-Heard divorce was finalsied on Friday 13 January 2017. A settlement was arrived at in which Depp would pay Heard $7m. In a joint statement it was said that the money would be donated to charity. Depp says he has no idea who wrote the statement. Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gains. There was never an intent of physical or emotional harm. Amber wishes the best for Johnny in the future. Amber will be donating financial proceeds from the divorce to a charity. 21:22 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says of this period: It just didnt happen. I felt like it was incredibly cruel ... I felt it was treachery. I dont know if she just wanted me to be erased or drop dead or just let me stick around and allow her to ruin my life for awhile. 21:17 , Oliver O'Connell Depp was asked about the dates when divorce papers and restraining order were filed and how he found out from growing press coverage around the world. Showing articles Depp saw of reports that Heard had gone to court to get a restraining order against Depp. In the photo Heard has, what she says, is a bruise on her cheek. #JohnnyDepp v #AmberHeard pic.twitter.com/l9n8r0BCE1 Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 He says the reasons for the restraining order appeared to metastasise to include allegations of drinking, drugs, and abuse, about which Depp says he could do nothing. Depp says he warned his kids about what was being said when he saw the issue of People that included coverlines such as Inside their toxic marriage and featured a picture allegedly showing Heard with bruises from abuse. People magazine article - #JohnnyDepp he saw it when it was released. Cover shows #AmberHeard with the caption "Inside their toxic marriage" - ""A friend of Heard's took this photo which shows injuries allegedly inflicted by Depp last December" pic.twitter.com/BrzPm8Ar4H Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 20:59 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says he first heard of Heards abuse allegations on 27 May 2016 - his daughters birthday. He says he saw she had gone to court and had been surrounded by paparazzi. There was a brown mark on her face. That was the day Depp says she chose to file a temporary restraining order against him and was also the date of the premier of his latest movie at that time Alice Through the Looking Glass. 20:54 , Oliver O'Connell Depps legal team plays another audio excerpt. Heard is recorded saying that she hopes the stepfather of Depps son, Jack, teaches him to be a man, because Depp couldnt. Counsel asks how often Heard brought his children into their arguments. Too often, he replies. Asked what the relationship was between Heard and his children, Depp says it was non-existent and they did not want to be around her. Vasquez: How often did Miss Heard bring your children into your arguments? Depp: Too often. V: At the end of your relationship, how was your children's relationship with Miss Heard? D: Non-existent ... My kids are far more intelligent than I am ... They refused to be around her. pic.twitter.com/um0G0bXxKM Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 20:47 , Oliver O'Connell Court returns from afternoon recess. Depp cringes as he describes seeing photo of faeces on his bed 20:42 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp described seeing a photo of faeces on his bed days after a fight with Amber Heard as he testified in court. He said he didnt see Ms Heard between 22 April and 21 May 2016 because he had received some news that was as absurd and grotesque and cruel, and then I was shown a picture of what the problem was. Gustaf Kilander reports. Depp cringes as he describes seeing photo of faeces after fight with Amber Heard 20:36 , Oliver O'Connell Court is now on its afternoon break. 20:36 , Oliver O'Connell After retrieving some possessions from upstairs, Depp says he found her on the phone to her friend iO Tillet Wright. He took the phone and said shes all yours now, and flopped it onto the side of the couch, walking towards the kitchen. Depp testifies that Rocky Pennington ran in and shouted to leave Heard alone. He says he was 20 feet away from Heard at this point who was still sitting on the couch. He says she began to scream: Stop hitting me Johnny, describing her tone as freaked out and high pitched. Depp notes that iO is still on the other end of the phone. At this point Depp says his security team enter and a surprised Heard then says: Thats the last time youll hit me. Depp reiterates his claim he was still standing 20 feet away. He says he and his team left the building. He then he went on tour with his band until July. 20:26 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says he arrived at the penthouses that night with He testifies Heard was sitting on the couch when he arrived at their penthouse and they talked about Coachella and the fecal matter on the bed. Kevin Murphy who manages their properties was contacted about the faeces, he says, adding that the call was ended by Mr Murphy after Heard hurled obscenities at him. He describes her as riled. 20:19 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says Heard brought up the faecal matter on the bed and blamed the dogs. He denies that it could have been. That did not come from a dog. That just didnt. 20:17 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says after his mother died: I decided to call Amber and tell her that my mom had died that day. I said, Look, Ive made a decision and I think its the best thing. Im going to file for divorce. He testifies that he told Heard he would not cite irreconcilable differences or any abuse in the relationship. Depp says she asked him to come over to the penthouses on 21 May to talk and he agreed, also wanting to gather his things. 20:11 , Oliver O'Connell Depp describes his mothers failing health in this period and her final days at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. She was no longer responsive when he brought his children to see their grandmother. His mother passed away on 20 May 2016. 20:08 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says he wanted to retrieve some of his personal effects while Heard was out of town at Coachella. His security guard said it wasnt a good time and Depp says he showed him a photo on his phone of his bedroom and on his side of the bed was human fecal matter. He says: It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh. 20:02 , Oliver O'Connell Later, after the guests left, Depp says Heard began a verbal barrage. He says he thought it was unfair and small for her to react the way she did given the meeting he has sat through about his and financial future and that of his family. Depp describes her insults continuing after he went to bed. At one point Heard got out of bed and walked around to his side and began hitting him, he claims. Depp says he got out of bed and said he was leaving. He then says Heard punched him twice in the face, so he put her back on the bed and told him not follow him. He left the penthouse and went to his other house in LA. 19:56 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is told questioning will now move on to discuss Heards birthday in April 2016. He appears to sigh audibly. A dinner and party was planned for her birthday. Depp says he had been in a very long meeting with accountants about a financial problem. The meeting ran long and he says he texted Heard to let her know. She replied and asked him to bring wine and weed. He says he arrived at the penthouse for the party about one hour and forty minutes late. Heard greeted him coldly and did not say much to him at the party. Depp says she said to him: I cant believe you did this on my birthday. 19:46 , Oliver O'Connell Describing another fight on a family vacation on his island, Depp says he set up an easel and paints for Heard. When an argument began and escalated, he claims Heard threw a can of something at him which struck him on forehead. 19:39 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is now recounting another incident in which he entered penthouse three and claims he was hit from behind by Heard. He acts out what happened saying he put her in a bear hug to try and stop her from hitting me anymore and their heads collided. Depp says that is the incident in which Heard accuses him of head-butting her and breaking her nose, which he denies is the case. He calls it accidental contact, not a headbutt, and says not part of him hit her nose. He describes the incident as unpleasant. Heard came to him after in the bedroom with a Kleenex with red on it, but he didnt trust that it was blood, and she said he had broken her nose. Depp says he retrieved the Kleenex from the trash can and claims it was nail polish. 19:26 , Oliver O'Connell Listen to the audio recordings of Depp and Heard arguing about their fights. 19:23 , Oliver O'Connell Depps team plays an audio recording of Depp and Heard talking about their fights specifically those involving the punch at the penthouse in LA and the fight in Australia. From the audio, Heard doesnt appear to recall kicking him at the penthouse because she was on Ambien. In the discussion about Australia, he refers to going to different bathrooms and bedrooms to escape the fight which she says is running away from the solution. The couple can be heard arguing about how Heard hit Depp and she admits to starting a physical fight. She also calls him a baby. (Via audio recording) Heard: You didn't get punched. I hit you ... I don't know what the motion of my actual hand was. But you are fine. I did not hit you, I did not punch you ... I did start a physical fight.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/oqEW4peYGg Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 Says Depp after the recordings are played: What was just played on the audio recordings was very much the tone and the aggression and the attitude and the need for a fight from Miss Heard. These are portions of a much longer audio recording, not all of which is played in court. 19:08 , Oliver O'Connell Court resumes after lunch with Depp describing to jurors a photo take by security guard Sean Bett. He says it shows an injury after he received a roundhouse punch on the cheekbone from Heard. It occurred in penthouse five at the Eastern Columbia Building on 23 March 2015. Heards sister Whitney tried to intervene he said, but he claims she still managed to hit him. This photo now entered into evidence. It was taken on March 23, 2015. #JohnnyDepp testifies this is from #AmberHeard punching him. @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/F1mIBBhyt4 Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 Depp says Heards friends took MDMA at wedding and reveals why daughter Lily-Rose didnt attend 18:45 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp was asked about his wedding to Amber Heard on day two of his testimony in a high-profile defamation case. Depp testified on Wednesday (20 April) in Fairfax, Virginia, as part of the civil lawsuit he has filed against his ex-wife Amber Heard. During his testimony, Depp said his daughter Lily-Rose Depp, the eldest of his two children with Vanessa Paradis, did not attend his wedding to Heard in 2015. Clemence Michallon reports. Johnny Depp on why his daughter Lily-Rose didnt attend wedding to Amber Heard 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell 17:57 , Oliver O'Connell Depps attorney says she is about to switch gears in her questioning and so Judge Penney Azcarate calls the lunch break. Court resumes at 2pm. 17:56 , Oliver O'Connell Depp describes the treatment for his injured finger in detail, explaining the insertion of a pin, and how he contracted MRSA. Photo shown of #JohnnyDepp's injured finger. He said he opted for the kid bandages to bring some levity. #JohnnyDepp v #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/dr45Tt8rtD Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 Blood was just pouring out 17:49 , Oliver O'Connell During his testimony in court, actor Johnny Depp spoke about a fight with his former wife Amber Heard during which he claims she threw a vodka bottle at him, severing his finger. Johnny Depp describes severing finger in vodka bottle fight with Amber Heard 17:45 , Oliver O'Connell Depp shows jury his injured finger. He says he has no feeling in the upper part of his right, middle finger. After Heard threw the bottle and severed his finger, Depp said Heard was yelling, "high-pitched constant attack of insults"#JohnnyDepp v #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/zgaAYImJf6 Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 20, 2022 17:43 , Oliver O'Connell After the incident, Depp says he slept on his friend Martin Connollys sofa and instructed his staff to get Heard on a flight back to Los Angeles. To all intents and purposes, I was done. Shown a picture taken in the emergency room that night, Depp recalls a further detail, claiming that Heard stubbed his cigarette out on his face after the incident with his finger. The photo is entered into evidence and shown to the jury. A further photo of his injured finger is also entered into evidence and shown to the jury. 17:38 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says that blood was pouring out and he could see the bone. He felt he was close to what he think a nervous breakdown feels like. He then started to write on the walls in his blood about the lies he had caught Heard in. At some point he retreated to a bathroom and called Dr Kipper teo tell him to come over and that he had severed his finger. Depp shows the jurors his right middle finger, the end of which was severed and says that it is his dominant hand. As members of staff arrived, an initial cleaning of the wound showed it needed emergency room care. At the hospital he lied about how the injury had occurred saying it happened in a set of doors. Asked why he lied he said he did not want to get Heard in trouble or reveal what had transpired. Depp said he told Dr Kipper what had actually happened. 17:31 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says he was sobre at the time apart from marijuana, but when he heard Heard leave the vicinity of the bathroom door, he went downstairs and poured himself three shots of vodka the first alcohol he had ingested in a while. Heard discovered him there and he says she began to shout at him before she grabbed the bottle of vodka and threw it at him. It smashed behind his head. Depp says he picked up a second larger bottle of vodka and poured himself another shot. He testifies that Heard picked that up and threw that at him. He shows the jury how he was sitting and how he says the bottle impcted the edge of the bar and severed the top of his finger. Depp: I was looking directly at my bones ... Blood was just pouring out. And at that point, I think that I went into some sort of, I don't know what a nervous breakdown feels like. But that's probably the closest I've been. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/jT3eYC3Kbq Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 17:25 , Oliver O'Connell What followed, Depp says, was Heard going into a tailspin by the time she reached Australia. He says she kept saying: Im not even in your will. Im not even in your will. Depp says he thought that was an odd thing to say as nobody had time to change any wills, or anything of that nature. She accused him of being in league with the lawyers to trick her into getting nothing if something might happen to him. The arguments and confrontation escalated at the rented house in Australia and Depp says he found himself again locked in the bathroom. He describes her as screaming obscenities and knocking on doors wanting a physical altercation. 17:19 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about Heards presence in Australia, he says she came later. He says Heard told him she was upset because an attorney she had met with regarding the post-nup was rude and dismissive and all she was being shown was an example of such an agreement. Depp says she was very upset. 17:15 , Oliver O'Connell Depps attorney moves the conversation on to Australia where Depp next travelled to film Pirates of the Caribbean 5. He confirms which members of his entourage were there and that he had a meeting with Sean Bailey, third in command at Disney. 17:12 , Oliver O'Connell Asked if they had a prenuptial agreenment in place, Depp says they did not. He tells the court that Heard would avoid talking about it or it would turn into an argument. It then became took late to arrange and so a post-nuptial agreement was discussed. 17:11 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says his daughter, Lily Rose, did not attend the wedding because she and Heard were not on particularly good terms. There was alcohol served at the wedding and Heard and her friend Rocky Pennington had scheduled dinner, dancing, and drugs on the schedule. Depp says he observed Heard and all of her gang of friends taking MDMA, as well as some of his friends. Asked if he had taken any drugs, Depp says he didnt take MDMA because it would not have had an effect on him, but he did smoke marijuana. Depp says he doesnt believe he was drinking at the time. 17:05 , Oliver O'Connell Live feed restored. Depp is now talking about his wedding to Heard. 17:04 , Oliver O'Connell The live feed from the court has temporarily gone down. Please stand by. 17:02 , Oliver O'Connell On return to LA, Depp says he coinvinced Heard to leave him alone for five days or a week while he went through the detox. She reluctantly agreed, he said, and he offered to put her up in a bungalow at The Beverly Hills Hotel with some friends. Depp reveals tattoo that Heard didnt like 17:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps taste in tattoos was brought up during his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard as he revealed theres one in particular she didnt like. Meghan Sheets reports. Johnny Depp reveals tattoo that Amber Heard didnt like 16:55 , Oliver O'Connell Recounting the rehab experience on the island, he describes the process as feeling like the inside of you ... is trying to escape the body. Saying that the pain of withdrawal can be like nothing ever experienced, he begins to explain how Heard took control of the medication used to ameliorate the symptoms. I said to Miss Heard, Im going to need the meds now, and she looked at the clock and she said, Its not time. Depp says he hated to admit it but it was the lowest point in his life, saying he pleading with Heard for the meds. He tells the court he recalls sitting on the floor and crying while he begged her and she refused. After that incident he told Dr Kipper and Nurse Lloyd that he didnt think the detox would work any more on the island and that she couldnt be with him going through the rest of the detoxification. 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell As part of a detox program, Depp travelled to his private island in The Bahamas. He says he was uncomfortable with Heard joining him there as the detox process would not be pleasant and he was afraid that it would be too much for her and that she might be too much for him at the time. Depp says Heard insisted she come along and took his sister Christis place on the trip. Depp says, while he never feels comfortable admitting it, he has an island in The Bahamas. That's where he traveled to with Debbie Lloyd and Amber Heard to complete a detox.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/k8dSHbLhkR Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 Earlier: Depp compares Heard to his mother 16:43 , Oliver O'Connell 16:39 , Oliver O'Connell Court resumes and the jury returns. Depps attorney switches focus to ask about his treatment by Dr David Kipper and Nurse Debbie Lloyd both of whom have already testified by video deposition. 16:18 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Penney Azcarate calls morning recess until 11.35am. 16:17 , Oliver O'Connell On arrival back in LA, he says Heard checked herself into the Chateau Marmont and that he paid for it as generally he would take care of expenses like that. He says she was upset but he does not know why she went to the hotel when she still had her own apartment and the penthouse. Depp says after the flight Heard was "irate" and went to the Chateau Marmont. "I can't say it was a bad idea for her to stay at the Chateau Marmont at that time." Depp also says he paid for Heard's room. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/ijchiOJlX9 Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 16:14 , Oliver O'Connell Depps attorney asks him about the flight to LA from Boston that Mr Wyatt referred to in testimony yesterday. He recalls still being on the medication he was addicted to and that he was in consultation about detoxing. Depp explains he had told the nurse that he was taking more than he was so that he could still have one or two on him to avoid suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Heard wanted to be picked up in New York with her assistant before the plane went on to Boston before flying to LA. He says they had fought the night before and that he had taken two of the opiates. Depp tells the court he was feeling the impact of the medication which he describes as akin to feeling sleepy, not blacked out. He says Heard was trying to instigate a fight with him and said she was ready for some king of brawl. Depp says he sat there drawing, before removing himself to the bathroom with a pillow. Depp says he was not drinking to excess as the medication had taken its effect. Depp says relationship with Heard mirrored abuse by his mother 16:06 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp has likened his marriage to Amber Heard to his fraught relationship with his mother, calling it an endless parade of insults. He recalled how demeaning name calling, being berated and made a fool of by Heard would frequently escalate into full scale arguments. Megan Sheets reports. Johnny Depp says relationship with Amber Heard mirrored abuse by his mother 16:04 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about the filming of the movie Black Mass in Boston in May 2014. He recalls the long work days due to the application and removal of prosthetics. Heard was staying with him the entire time he was making the film, Depp tells the court. He says that Jerry Judge, Stephen Deuters, Keenan Wyatt, and other staff were also present in Boston. 15:59 , Oliver O'Connell Asked if he has a tattoo that Heard objected to, Depp responds that he had Winona forever referring to his past relationship with actress Winona Ryder changed to Wino forever. He recalls she encouraged him to get a tattoo about her, which he eventually did. Depp adds that ironically not long after that everything started going sideways. I was doing what he could to bring a smile to her face rather than a frown. He adds: I tried to wake her up with laughter, and that he constantly tried to bring her mood up and many times it worked and sometimes it did not. Depp reiterates that he didnt want to fail at the relationship and kept trying, but didnt realise what I was up against. 15:55 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about the alleged first time he struck Heard, apparently in response to comment about one of his tattoos. He reiterates that he never struck Heard or any woman and the incident did not happen. Depp adds that he would not strike a woman for making fun of a tattoo, he adds the allegation never made any sense to him. Depp: It didn't happen ... As I said yesterday, I've never struck Miss Heard. I've never struck a woman in my life. I'm certainly not going to strike a woman if she decides to make fun of a tattoo I have on my body.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/cGW2cKiPI4 Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 15:53 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about Heards use of other elicit substances. He says she was fond of MDMA and mushrooms, and that she was on other medications including a high velocity speed. Depp estimates he saw her take MDMA about 20 times over the years, and mushrooms about six or seven times. 15:51 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about Ms Heard drinking. He says she always drank around him and would easily drink two bottles of wine in an evening. Depp says she did not stop drinking during his 18 months of sobriety. He would open her wine and pour her a glass. During his sobriety he recalls having half a glass of champagne after presenting a lifetime achievement award to actor Christopher Lee. He told Heard about it afterwards and said he had enjoyed the champagne. Heards reaction he says was that she lost it and stormed off. He described her reaction as apopleptic and that she called him a complete mess and an alcoholic and that his kids were upset by him. Depp says he suggested she got sobre with him and that she refused because she did not have a problem. 15:45 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked how the relationship impacted his use of drugs and alcohol. He says that when they travelled there would be a separate hotel room booked for him to escape to and he when retreating he says he would feel inspired by Ms Heard to have something to distance himself from the verbal attacks. I had to have something maintain me, and for a while ... placation seemed the best route if I was unable to escape her clutches. He is asked how Heard tried to stop him using drugs and alcohol. Depp recalls drinking wine with Heard and reiterates his high tolerance for alcohol that he referred to in yesterdays testimony. He sought advice as to whether he was an alcoholic After Heard's attorney objects, Depp's attorney says she will ask another question. Depp: Let's let him object to another one.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/uXxIJCMGjy Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 20, 2022 15:38 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about the use of the term monster in Heards description of him. He says he accepted her use of it: If she had referred to me as being a monster, there was no way I was going to go through a 45 minute conversation of, Youre a monster! No, Im not. Youre a monster! No, Im not. Depp continues: She told me many times the monster was only me when I was using drugs and alcohol. But even when I was stone cold sober ... the term The Monster was still there. He adds that the description was her mind, but not his. 15:34 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked about recording their conversations which he says he did on his phone because she would deny things she had said during their arguments the next day. He says she would perform for the tape when she knew it was recording. Depp says then Heard also began recording their conversations surruptiously. 15:30 , Oliver O'Connell Why did you stay with Heard, Depp is asked. He replies it is a complicated answer but says it has something to do with his father being so stoic while his mother beat him, and also that he had been in a wonderful relationship before for 15 years with Vanessa Paradis. Depp ruminates on being a celebrity or public figure and that in that realm people can say anything about you. He describes Heard as having a need for conflict and a need for violence and he reiterates that he tried to deal with it by putting space between them. Depp says he stayed to be like his father and that he wanted to stay to help Heard to be like the person he first met and not the opponent she had become. I stayed because I didnt want to fail. I didnt want to hurt anyone. Especially Miss Heard. I didnt want to break her heart, he says recalling his mothers suicide attempt after his father left. He says Heard spoke of suicide on occasion when he tried to leave. 15:20 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says Heard would tell him what a bad father he was and he had no idea how to parent. He says he couldnt understand how he could be so wrong about everything at his age. Depp says Heard had to have him there at all times for her own needs. He describes an increasingly grim and dire situation with her telling him he was a bad father and an awful father. Depp says he knew it was not true but recognised it was said to bring him down. There are battles to be fought he says, but this bullying was becoming too much to take. 15:15 , Oliver O'Connell Depp says these arguments would often escalate into violence. He says Heard would strike out in her anger and frustration, with a slap or a shove, or throwing a TV remote at him, or a glass of wine in his face. Depp says that personal experiences he shared with Heard were used against him like weapons. There was no need for it. Too many lines were crossed. 15:12 , Oliver O'Connell The only way I could find any sort of peace was to walk away, or try to walk away ... there were times I would lock myself away in places she could not reach, he says, recalling locking himself in the bathroom on several occasions. 15:11 , Oliver O'Connell To cope with the situation, Depp says he would remove himself from the situation as much as possible as he had done in his youth with his mother. As it escalated and continued to escalate, I went to straight to what I had learned as a youth, which was to remove myself from the situation so that it couldnt continue. Because theres only so much your ears can hear and never forget, he tells the court. 15:10 , Oliver O'Connell Depp recalls arguments spiralling out from disagreements and that he would stick up for himself at first. He recalls demeaning name calling and being berated and made a fool of, before things would escalate into a full scale argument. If theres a dialogue between two people, both people need to speak. But there was no way to fit a word in. It was a sort of rapid-fire, endless parade of insults, he says. He says that he was not allowed to be right and not allowed to have a voice even about things he was well versed in, even related to his career. Depp likes his relationship to Heard to his relationship with his mother. You start to slowly realise that you are in a relationship with your mother, in a sense. And I know that sounds perverse and obtuse, but the fact is, some people search for weaknesses in people. 15:06 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is reminded that in testimony yesterday he spoke of the early days of his relationship with Heard. He is asked when he felt things began to turn in the relationship. Depp refers to the incident where he broke the tradition of removing his boots when he returned home and she was not happy. He expands from that saying that suddenly according to Heard he was wrong about everything. If you tried to explain yourself and correct the misunderstanding, it would then begin to heighten as Miss Heard was unable to be wrong. It just didnt happen. She couldnt be wrong, he tells the court. Court resumes 15:01 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Penney Azcarate has entered the courtroom and told Depp he can return to the stand. The jury is now being brought in. Five things we learned from yesterdays testimony 14:40 , Oliver O'Connell It was the fifth day of Johnny Depps $50m defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, and for the first time the Hollywood star took the stand to give evidence. Here are five things that we learned from the trial on Tuesday before Depps testimony resumes at 10am. Five things we learned on fifth day of $50m Depp-Heard defamation trial Depp says he is not embarrassed as he testifies 14:15 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp testified on Tuesday that about six years ago, Ms Heard made some quite heinous and disturbing criminal claims against him, adding that the allegations were not within any species of truth. He said, it was a complete shock... it just didnt need to go in that direction. The actors testimony continues today at 10am ET. Johnny Depp says he is not embarrassed as he testifies against ex-wife Amber Heard Depp tells court he saved nervous Heard from nude scene 13:55 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp described how he helped a nervous Amber Heard avoid a nude scene on the set of The Rum Diary movie. Mr Depp, who starred in and produced the movie based on a Hunter S Thompson novel, told the court in the former couples multi-million dollar defamation trial how his ex-wife had been appreciative of the move. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depp tells how he saved nervous Amber Heard from nude scene on Rum Diary set Depp tells court abuse allegations turned him from Cinderella to Quasimodo 13:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp spoke about the toll Amber Heards abuse allegations have taken on him as he took the witness stand in his defamation trial against her. Mr Depp opened his testimony on Tuesday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia, by calling his ex-wifes claims heinous, disturbing and not based in any species of truth. The Hollywood veteran invoked Disney characters in explaining how the allegations have affected his career, saying: [Its] very strange when one day youre Cinderella so to speak and then in 0.6 seconds youre Quasimodo. Megan Sheets reports on the actors testimony. Johnny Depp says Amber Heards abuse claims turned him from Cinderella to Quasimodo I didnt see it. But I believe that the film did pretty well' 13:10 , Oliver O'Connell In one surprising moment during Tuesdays testimony, Johnny Depp revealed that hes never seen his movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Describing how the movie had changed his life because of its success and how he had formulated the character of Jack Sparrow amongst his most famous screen portrayals he said: I didnt see it. But I believe that the film did pretty well, apparently, and they wanted to keep going, making more and I was fine to do that. Peony Hirwani has the story for The Independent. Johnny Depp says hes never seen Pirates of the Caribbean Depp says Heard grossly embellished his substance abuse as he reveals the first time they met 12:44 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp says that his ex-wife Amber Heards characterisation of his substance abuse has been grossly embellished and is just plainly false. The Hollywood star told the court in the former couples $50m defamation trial that he had never taken drugs for the party effect and only ever to deal with trauma. And he said that it had been an easy target for the actress to hit after their relationship and marriage imploded. Graeme Massie reports for The Independent. Johnny Depp says Amber Heard grossly embellished his substance abuse Depp tells of childhood abuse as mother was suicidal 12:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp told a Virginia court of his childhood abuse as his mother was suicidal and his father told him that youre the man now when he left the family. Gustaf Kilander reports on the actors recollections of his childhood. Johnny Depp tells of childhood abuse as mother was suicidal and father left Depps friend testifies that Heard yelled at him on private plane 10:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sound engineer Keenan Wyatt has testified during the actors defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard that she became abruptly loud when he told her that Mr Depp cared for her. According to Mr Wyatt, Ms Heard yelled how dare you talk to me after he tried to speak to her during a private flight. Gustaf Kilander reports. Depps sound engineer testifies that Amber Heard yelled how dare you talk to me Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Depp supreme narcissists amid ongoing legal battle 09:00 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists What weve learned about Johnny Depp from the Amber Heard defamation trial 07:00 , Oliver O'Connell The Independents Gustaf Kilander reports on what we knew going into the trial and what we have learned from the actors, at times frank, first day of testimony. Johnny Depp: What weve learned about actor from Amber Heard defamation trial ICYMI: Depps sister reveals their abusive mother called him one eye 05:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp spoke extensively about his childhood and mother today in court, echoing some of the testimony of his sister who took the stand last week. Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye ICYMI: Couples former marriage counselor says pair engaged in mutual abuse 04:30 , Oliver O'Connell Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Who might yet testify at the trial? 03:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the week since testimony began in Amber Heards defamation trial, some big names have been mentioned, but who might actually appear on the stand other than Johnny Depp? From James Franco to Elon Musk, who could testify at Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial? Johnny Depp and Amber Heard: A timeline of their relationship 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Depp tells of childhood abuse as mother was suicidal 01:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp told a Virginia court of his childhood abuse as his mother was suicidal and his father told him that youre the man now when he left the family. Gustaf Kilander reports on the actors testimony about his early life. Johnny Depp tells of childhood abuse as mother was suicidal and father left Depps sound engineer testifies that Heard yelled how dare you talk to me Wednesday 20 April 2022 00:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sound engineer Keenan Wyatt has testified during the actors defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard that she became abruptly loud when he told her that Mr Depp cared for her. According to Mr Wyatt, Ms Heard yelled how dare you talk to me after he tried to speak to her during a private flight. Gustaf Kilander has the details. Depps sound engineer testifies that Amber Heard yelled how dare you talk to me What weve learned about Johnny Depp from Amber Heard defamation trial Wednesday 20 April 2022 00:10 , Oliver O'Connell The Independents Gustaf Kilander reports on what we knew going into the trial and what we have learned from the actors, at times frank, first day of testimony. Johnny Depp: What weve learned about actor from Amber Heard defamation trial Today in pictures Tuesday 19 April 2022 23:45 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heard arrives in court (EPA) Sound engineer Keenan Wyatt testified on Tuesday morning (Screenshot / Law & Crime Trial Network) Johnny Depp began giving evidence in the defamation trial on Tuesday afternoon (AP) Depp testified extensively about his childhood, career, and the beginnings of his relationship with Heard (AP) Depp is suing Heard for libel over a 2018 article she wrote in The Washington Post. She appeared to listen closely to his testimony . (AP) Depp tells court abuse allegations turned him from Cinderella to Quasimodo Tuesday 19 April 2022 23:12 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp spoke about the toll Amber Heards abuse allegations have taken on him as he took the witness stand in his defamation trial against her. Mr Depp opened his testimony on Tuesday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia, by calling his ex-wifes claims heinous, disturbing and not based in any species of truth. The Hollywood veteran invoked Disney characters in explaining how the allegations have affected his career, saying: [Its] very strange when one day youre Cinderella so to speak and then in 0.6 seconds youre Quasimodo. Megan Sheets reports. Johnny Depp says Amber Heards abuse claims turned him from Cinderella to Quasimodo Depp says he is not embarrassed as he testifies in trial against ex-wife Heard Tuesday 19 April 2022 22:42 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp said in testimony today that about six years ago, Ms Heard made some quite heinous and disturbing criminal claims against him, adding that the allegations were not within any species of truth. He said, it was a complete shock... it just didnt need to go in that direction. Gustaf Kilander reports on what the court heard from Depp today. Johnny Depp says he is not embarrassed as he testifies against ex-wife Amber Heard Depp: Heards description of drug abuse grossly embellished Tuesday 19 April 2022 22:20 , Oliver O'Connell "I think it was an easy target for her to hit": #JohnnyDepp testified that the characterization of his substance abuse was "grossly" embellished by his ex-wife #AmberHeard. @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/gdSKgHx4Cg Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) April 19, 2022 Tuesday 19 April 2022 22:02 , Oliver O'Connell Testimony ends for the day an the jury is excused. Judge Penney Azcarate says Depp can stand down until tomorrow morning. Tuesday 19 April 2022 22:01 , Oliver O'Connell Depp say she met Heards friends almost immediately and is asked about each individually. One friend, Rocky Pennington, also moved into a penthouse at the Eastern Columbia Building with her boyfriend, Josh Drew. Later a female friend moved in as well. Another, iO Tillett Wright lived in a house owned by Depp in order to write a book. He said the penthouses would otherwise be empty, though one had been intended for his sister. Depp says they spent more time at the penthouses than he ever did. Tuesday 19 April 2022 21:53 , Oliver O'Connell Depp speaks fondly of the Heard family who he first met when they visited Los Angeles from Austin. He speaks more specifically about Heards sister Whitney, whom he says he called sis. She lived with Heard at times and later moved into one of the penthouses (number four) owned by Depp at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown LA. He charged her no rent. Asked if he had ever done drugs with Whitney, Depp responds yes on a couple of occasions. He later adds that they did a line or two of cocaine together. Tuesday 19 April 2022 21:48 , Oliver O'Connell Depp is asked if they had nicknames for each other. He recalls that hers was Slim and he was Steve names taken from the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie To Have and Have Not, he had asked her to watch to practice stillness on camera. He acknowledges the large age difference between him and Heard and between Bogart and Bacall. Bogart was 45 and Bacall was 19 when they met. Depp was 48 and Heard was 25 when they began dating in 2012. Tuesday 19 April 2022 21:42 , Oliver O'Connell Asked what he liked about Heard, Depp says she seemed to be the perfect partner for him for her love of obscure blues music, being literate, and being smart and funny. For the first year and half he says things were wonderful, then things began to reveal themselves. Referring back to her habit of taking off his boots, Depp is asked what other habits he observed early on in the relationship. He says that if she wanted to go to bed and he wanted to stay up because he wasnt ready to go to bed, Heard would find that unacceptable. Tuesday 19 April 2022 21:38 , Oliver O'Connell Depp recalls filming the movie and how Heard was appreciative about his realisation that she did not have to film a nude scene and it could be suggested instead. He recalls in a scene they had together that he felt something in a kiss that they preformed for the camera. He says it was something that he shouldnt have been feeling. Asked when their romantic relationship began, he says that the next day they had a glass of wine while listening to old blues music and they kissed, he tells the court. He says it was only later that they began to see each other as a couple after his relationship with Vanessa Paradis came to an end. Tuesday 19 April 2022 21:29 , Oliver O'Connell Depps attorney asks him about his relationship with Heard and how it began. He talks about discovering the long-lost novel of The Rum Diary with author Hunter S Thompson and how that led to him meeting Heard as they moved forward with plans to take the book to the big screen. When Heard was brought in, she has been auditioned five times and Depp says there was uncertainty about her ability to fit the role. He met with her and felt that she was a fit for the role and Thompson would have wanted her for the role. Depp is complimentary about Heard in his testimony, and describes how he felt he could help her with the part. Click here to read the full blog on The Independent's website New Delhi: Drone patrolling, intensive rooftop surveillance in sensitive areas of the national capital with deployment of additional police forces and meetings with Aman (peace) committee members are among the major measures taken by the Delhi Police to maintain law and order in the city. Drone and foot patrolling was done in areas of Jamia Nagar, Jama Masjid, Sangam Vihar, Chandni Mahal, Jasola, and Huaz Qasi among other communally sensitive areas including those of the northeast which had witnessed violence in 2020. Delhi | Police deployment continues in Jahangirpuri, where stone-pelting incidents were reported on Saturday (April 16) evening during a 'Shobha Yatra' procession. Early morning visuals from the area. pic.twitter.com/j6L3G8jm3e ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 This comes a day after a clash broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in the city's Jahangirpuri area in which nine policemen and a civilian was injured. There was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes between two communities that left eight police personnel and a local injured. Some vehicles were also torched, they said. The Delhi Police arrested 21 people over the violence, including a 21-year-old man, who allegedly fired a bullet that hit a sub-inspector and a 35-year-old man alleged to be the "main conspirator" behind the clash. The Delhi Police on Sunday held a meeting with members of Aman committees and asked them to appeal to the people to maintain peace in their areas, officials said. According to the police, a meeting was organised by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani with the members of Aman Committee of Jahangirpuri, Mahendra Park and Adarsh Nagar to maintain peace in the area. "During the meeting, all the members were asked to appeal the public in their areas to maintain peace, harmony and tranquillity. "They were assured of a professional and fair investigation and due legal action on the part of police," said Rangnani. The members of the Aman committees were also urged to counter any rumour, and misinformation and asked to be vigilant towards the activities of any mischievous or anti-social elements, the officer said. They were also requested to keep in touch with the police and immediately report anything suspicious, the officer added. The situation in the Jahangirpuri area is fully under control. An adequate police force has been deployed in the area. Area domination, foot patrolling and deep deployment has been ensured to assure people and to maintain law and order, the officer said. Preventive patrolling and area domination was undertaken throughout the night in the southeast and other sensitive areas of different police districts to ensure peace and tranquillity. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Sameer Sharma said, "Gauging the present scenario in Delhi and in order to maintain communal peace and harmony, intensive foot patrolling has been done by our staff along with senior officers in the area of Paschim Vihar and Ranhola." Further Aman Committee meetings were organized in the areas of Mangolpuri, the officer said, adding steps have been taken to develop faith in police and to assure them not to panic and to realise the normalcy of the situation. Rangnani said an FIR was registered on Saturday under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act sections in connection with the clash that took place in Jahangirpuri. There is a heavy police deployment in the Jahangirpuri area where the clashes took place. A team of Rapid Action Force has also been deployed to keep a tight vigil on the situation which is now under control, she said. Live TV New Delhi: Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Monday said that at least 23 people from both communities have been arrested so far in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence and asserted that those involved will not be spared irrespective of class, creed or religion. 23 accused arrested till now. 9 people incl police personnel & one civilian received injuries during the incident. Analysis of CCTV footage & digital media is being done. FSL teams have visited scene of crime today:Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Jahangirpuri violence pic.twitter.com/TfZLBxGwOa ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 "The case will be probed from all angles and we will ensure that anyone who participated in the violence, whether directly or indirectly, is brought to the book," Delhi Police Commissioner said in a media briefing. Delhi police chief also denied claims that attempts were made to hoist saffron flags at a local mosque in Jahangirpuri during the Hanuman Jayanti procession. He told a press conference here that some people were trying to spread rumours on social media to keep the situation tense and appealed to people to ignore them. Action will be taken against any person found guilty irrespective of their class, creed, community & religion: Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Jahangirpuri violence pic.twitter.com/nIskYHaB95 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 The investigation into the Saturday clashes has been handed over to the Crime Branch and 14 teams have been formed to take it forward, he said, adding four forensics teams also visited the spot to gather evidence. He informed that the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell has been given the task to do a detailed analysis of all the digital evidence, identifying the suspects who were involved and initiating legal action against them. Asthana had on Sunday night visited a Sub-Inspector Meda Lal`s residence who sustained a bullet injury during the violence in Jahangirpuri, and assured him of full support from the department, said an ANI report. Asthana reportedly enquired about Lal`s well-being and said that the entire Police Force is proud of the courage displayed by him at the site of violence. However, soon after the Delhi Police chief Rakesh Asthana's press briefing ended, there were reports of fresh violence in the Jahangirpuri locality where a clash broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession two days back. There was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes between the two communities and some vehicles were also torched. Live TV As the world renews its focus on meeting global climate targets, it is the automobile industry that has internationally witnessed a shift. This shift towards a zero-emission future has introduced us to having vehicles that will help get us to meet the lower temperature goals of 1.5 degrees Celsius. A beginning towards that end has been made by changing gears to shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to zero-emission electric vehicles. The concept of EV vehicles is a term associated with the present, thanks to technology and legislation paving the way into the future. Interestingly enough, it is a fact that electricity has been used to power transport as early as 100 years ago. Several experiments dotted the 19th century and the first-ever battery-powered motor saw success in 1834. Electric vehicles, including trams, and even trains, emerged towards the mid to late 1800s. It did not find much commercial success given the limitations of a rechargeable battery, etc. Also read: All you need to know about the Tata Curvv electric SUV concept Heralding a Change If we are to look at the present day, there are three main areas of change that are taking place with regard to the transition to EVs. There are drastic changes that will shape the paradigm shift in the automobile industry that we are talking about here. Regulation and policy, ensuring public awareness, influencing consumer action, and the development of newer technology, are the core factors that are heralding this positive sentiment. This is set to bring about a change that will see the world moving towards a point where most geographies are operating vehicles on electricity by 2030. In India, the centre and states have committed to the introduction of policies. This will help in tackling the challenges that come with the mechanics of the supply chain, manufacturing, and organising the charging infrastructure. In Britain, industry observers suggest that a tipping point where the sale of EVs rapidly grew beyond petrol and diesel vehicles has already happened. Backing this belief are announcements of the major automobile manufacturers. While Jaguar announced its plans to only sell EVs from 2025, Volvo said it would do the same from 2030. This is set to change the landscape drastically. On the policy front, there should be an alignment of climate, energy, transport, and taxation that works in tandem to meet our emission goals through EVs. As EVs plug into the future of the commuting space, the awareness among people too has grown. It has changed from having range-anxiety issues given the limits of electric vehicles in the past to embracing alternative and sustainable mobility modes in their rides. Moving out of Infancy The EV sector in India has begun to move out of its infancy and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 90% from 2021 to 2030. As the market grows, the penetration of EVs is expected to increase and move upward from the 1.3% of vehicle sales that it holds at the moment. Our ability to deliver on a model that makes shared, electric-powered, and connected mobility a reality, is what the government and industry believe will power India to emission limits set for 2030. In India, given the diverse dynamics that our country presents, there are many types of vehicles that are now available in various electric variants. While there are two, three, and four-wheelers along with electric city buses that are now being plied by the Government, there is also the good old humble bicycle in its electric form that is available. The e-bikes are proving to be an excellent solution to clean zero-emission intra-city movement. E-bikes are being seen as a practical mode of transport which given the added touch of health and fitness have seen increasing popularity ratings recently. Besides being lighter than electric two-wheelers, and easy on parking space, riding an e-bike does not call for holding a driving license. While the automobile industry perfects battery charging issues, battery swapping issues, light-weighting solutions, and the like for the bigger capacity vehicles, e-bikes have perfected most limitations that city-riders face. As cities worldwide adopt an approach that is futuristic and the goal is to turn sustainable, human-centric, CO2-neutral, we need to integrate road engineering, having intelligent transport and data-driven solutions. For us to plug into the future as the global automobile industry shifts its focus to EV, we will need to think smart and back it up with research that goes hand in hand with the private and public sector sharing leadership in execution. This article is authored by Rajib Gangopadhyay, Founder & MD - EMotorad. All views are personal. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Actress Mandana Karimi, who had entered Kangana Ranaut hosted Lock Upp as a wildcard contestant has been eliminated from the show. From the time Mandana entered the show, she was seen getting into fights with all the contestants. From getting upset with Zeeshan Khan for calling her bipolar to being called a flop heroine by Azma Fallah, she has always been in the news for one or the other reason. Recently, she also got into a huge fight with Ali Merchant when he took her name after finding hair strands in the breakfast. Mandana had earlier in the show revealed that she was in a secret relationship with a renowned filmmaker and even got pregnant with their baby. He however backed off, forcing Mandana to abort the child. Kangana Ranaut's fearless reality show 'Lock Upp' is heading towards its finale and becoming more intense and exciting for the contestants and the audience by the day. Prince Narula is supposed to enter the show as a troublemaker. 'Lock Upp' is produced by Ekta Kapoor and is available for streaming live on ALTBalaji and MX Player. It also marks Kangana Ranauts digital debut and her debut as a host. Una: Himachal Pradesh Akhil Bhartiya Sant Parishad in charge Yati Satyadevanand Saraswati has said that Hindus should give birth to more children to protect their families, humanity and Sanatan Dharm, according to news agency ANI. "The increasing population of Muslims in the country indicates the decline of the Hindus...Hindus should strengthen their families, they should give birth to more children to protect their families, humanity & Sanatan Dharm," Saraswati said at a meeting in Una, Himachal Pradesh on Sunday. "The Hindu society is constantly on the verge of decline," he added. While Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati said, "There was a time when the pilgrimage to Amarnath and Mata Vaishno Devi was pelted with stones by the Muslim community." The condition is such that on the day of Durga Ashtami, stone-pelting and attacks have started on the procession going out across the country, he stated. What could be more unfortunate for the Hindu society, he further stated. Muslims are increasing their population by giving birth to many children in a planned way, Yati Narsinghanand claimed on the first day of Akhil Bhartiya Sant Parishad`s three-day Dharam Sansad at Mubarakpur in Himachal Pradesh`s Una district. Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati along with other priests from across the country attended Dharma Sansad in Una. Live TV New Delhi: The Delhi-NCR residents are likely to face problems as various unions of auto, taxi and minibus drivers have decided to go on strike on Monday (April 18, 2022) to protest against rising petrol, diesel and CNG prices. While most unions said they will be on a one-day strike, the Sarvodaya Driver Association Delhi, which has members who drive for cab aggregators, said it will go an "indefinite" strike from Monday. "We have decided to go on an indefinite strike from Monday in view of no action by the government to help us by slashing prices of fuels and revising fares," President, Sarvodaya Driver Association Delhi, Kamaljeet Gill, was quoted as saying by PTI news agency. The unions, notably, have refused to call off their strike despite an announcement by the Delhi government to form a committee to consider fare revision in a time-bound manner. General secretary of the Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh, Rajendra Soni, said the "unprecedented" hike in rates of CNG has taken a toll on auto and cab drivers. "We know that the Delhi government is forming some committee but we need solutions to our problems which are not in sight. We are demanding that the government (Centre and Delhi) provide Rs 35 per kg subsidy on CNG prices," he said. "We cannot keep plying our autos and cabs bearing losses every day as the CNG prices are galloping. This is a symbolic protest to oppose the price hike," Soni said. Hundreds of auto, taxi and cab drivers had staged a protest at the Delhi Secretariat recently demanding subsidy on CNG prices. There are over 90,000 autos and more than 80,000 registered taxis complementing the public transport system in the national capital. General secretary of STA Operators Ekta Manch, Shyamlal Gola, said that RTV buses, numbering around 10,000, will also be off road in support of the demands to revise fares and bring down CNG prices. Petrol and diesel prices rose by Rs 10 per litre between March 22 and April 6 -- the highest ever increase during a 16-day period since fuel prices were deregulated two decades back. On the other hand, the CNG price has risen by Rs 15.6 per kg in less than six weeks. This includes a Rs 7.50 per kg hike in April alone. While petrol in Delhi is being sold at Rs 105.41 per litre, diesel is priced at Rs 96.67 per litre. Prices of CNG in the national capital, which were last hiked on April 14, currently stand at Rs 71.61 per kg. Meanwhile, traffic is also likely to be disrupted due to dharna by residents of Ghamroj (Haryana) and surrounding villages to oppose the Sohna toll plaza coming up on Sohna road. In view of this, the Gurugram traffic police have requested all heavy vehicles to avoid this route and take alternate routes. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Days after a close aide of senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan accused the party of ignoring him, Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has urged the former Uttar Pradesh minister to join the party. In a letter to the Samajwadi Party MLA, AIMIM state spokesperson Mohammad Farhan urged Azam Khan to join the Owaisi-led party so that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the SP could be eliminated from Uttar Pradesh, PTI news agency claimed on Sunday (April 17, 2022). "When you were fighting for life in Medanta Hospital, the whole nation was concerned about your well-being and praying. On your safe return to the Sitapur jail, Akhilesh Yadav did not consider it necessary to meet you," the AIMIM leader said in the letter to Khan. He claimed that neither Yadav nor his party has the "slightest pain" that the leader is in jail. "Akhilesh Yadav took votes from Muslims by putting your photo in the 2022 Assembly elections, but when it came to making you the leader of the opposition, he did nothing," the AIMIM leader alleged in the letter. Urging Azam Khan to join the AIMIM, he said Owaisi has raised his voice against every oppression being committed against Khan and always considered him as his elder brother. Earlier in the month, jailed SP leader Azam Khan's media incharge had accused party president Akhilesh Yadav of ignoring his colleague and the Muslim community, sparking speculation of a rift in the opposition party. Fasahat Ali Khan, Azam Khan's spokesperson, said Yadav met the senior leader only once in the jail and the party made no attempt for his release in the past two and a half years. He said this was his "personal pain" but he will tell Azam Khan that it is high time to take a "decision". Fasahat Ali Khan said, "Azam Khan has been in jail for the last two and a half years but the Samajwadi Party has done nothing for his release and didn't even protest in one district. What would be more absurd than this that Akhilesh Yadav met Azam Khan in jail only once." "Can it be assumed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is right in saying that Akhilesh Yadav does not want that Azam Khan comes out of jail," he asked. He also accused Yadav of neglecting Azam Khan, saying the Samajwadi party president did not take his name when he spoke in the Assembly recently. It is noteworthy that the outburst by the Azam Khan's aide came days after hints from Akhilesh Yadav's uncle and ally Shivpal Singh Yadav, who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, that he might snap ties with the Samajwadi Party. ALSO READ | Akhilesh vs Shivpal again? 'Upset' Uncle cites Ramayana over not being invited to SP meet Azam Khan, who is languishing in the Sitapur jail, had won from Rampur Sadar seat for the 10th time in the recently concluded Assembly polls. He quit the Lok Sabha membership from Rampur to remain an MLA. Meanwhile, a Firozabad court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Azam Khan in a 15-year-old case of inflammatory speech. Khan has been asked to appear in court on April 30. According to the order issued by the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Amrish Tripathi, Khan was accused of giving an inflammatory speech during a public meeting held in Mohalla Hussaini under the Rasulpur police station area during the 2007 elections. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Amid the scare of a fourth wave of Covid-19 due to the rising trend of infections, Noida's Covid positivity rate has touched 15% causing health authorities to take prompt and timely actions. At present, the district has 332 active cases with nearly 1000 tests being conducted daily. The Noida administration has been put on high alert after the Gautam Buddh Nagar district reported 65 new Covid infections on Monday. What is the state government doing? According to media reports, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday reviewed the situation and took a meeting with the health officials. Following the meeting, both the districts were asked to increase preparedness amid the growing cases. Previous data Data from the last three months shows that during the third wave in February, the positivity rate in Noida was 2.13% in government labs and 17% in private labs. In March, the same was 0.18.% in government and 5% in private labs. In April so far, the positivity rate has been 0.22% in government and 10% in private labs. However, there has been an increase in the last four days when the positivity rate has touched 0.41% in government and 17% in private labs. No need to panic, say health authorities While there is a significant uptick in Covid infections in Noida, the health authorities are advising people not to panic but take necessary precautions. The Delhi-NCR cities are seeing a rise in cases, but there is no need to panic yet. The active cases have increased, but it is important to note that there is not a single person who has been hospitalised. Even the surveillance teams have reported that most of the infected patients are not serious and do not even need the medicine kits that are being provided. We are still taking precautions and have had detailed discussions with the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS). We have told hospitals to be on alert, Hindustan Times quoted Suhas LY, district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar as saying. Live TV New Delhi: Amid the fourth wave of Covid-19 fear, Delhi on Sunday (April 17, 2022) saw 517 fresh coronavirus cases, 56 more than the previous day, with a positivity rate of 4.21 per cent, according to city health department data. With these new infections, the capital's case tally has increased to 18,68,550 while the death toll remained unchanged at 26,160. Delhi has been witnessing an upward trend in daily Covid-19 cases in the last few days. The city had on Saturday recorded 461 Covid cases and two deaths. On Friday, Delhi had logged 366 cases, while on Thursday, the number of cases was 325. Hospital situation in Delhi As of Monday morning, there are 9,662 vacant beds for Covid-19 patients in Delhi hospitals. The capital also currently has 9,156 vacant Covid-19 oxygen beds and 2,174 ICU beds. Around 1,246 ICU beds with ventilators are also available for Covid-19 patients in Delhi hospitals. A total of 964 Covid-19 patients are currently under home isolation in the national capital. DDMA to meet on April 20, may consider reimposing mandatory use of face masks In view of an uptick in coronavirus infections in the national capital, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will hold a meeting on April 20 in which it may consider reimposing the mandatory use of face masks. It is noteworthy that the health department of the Delhi government, in an order on April 2, had said that fines will not be imposed for not wearing face masks in public places. The DDMA meeting is scheduled to be held under the chairmanship of Lt Governor Anil Baijal to discuss the prevailing Covid situation, including the recent rise in the number of cases. As per official notice, the meeting will take place at 11 am on April 20. The ongoing vaccination programme in the national capital will also be discussed. People should get tested, mask mandate be brought back With a spike in Covid-19 cases in Delhi, doctors are saying that people developing coronavirus-like symptoms should get themselves tested and authorities should make the wearing of masks mandatory to help check the spread of infection. "People who are developing symptoms are not going for Covid-19 test, largely. Now, with a surge in cases and the positivity rate beyond five per cent again, I would urge people to go for testing if they are having symptoms. Even those going for home isolation should go for testing," a senior doctor at LNJP Hospital told the PTI news agency. Dr Ritu Saxena, who heads the emergency department at the Delhi government's largest facility and a key Covid-19 hospital, said that large gatherings should now be avoided and people should wear masks and follow COVID-appropriate behaviour. Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, at the Apollo hospital noted that hospitalisation is still less, but batted for 'logical' and 'stringent' measures to check the spread of the infection. "Given the situation in Delhi, the DDMA meeting should have been held a bit earlier. Also, the mask mandate needs to be brought back," he said. With the climbing positivity rate, the right move would be to take logical, stringent measures," he said. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Minutes after Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana briefed the media on the Jahangirpuri incident, fresh violence erupted in the same area on Monday (April 18, 2022) afternoon. As per the latest reports, stones were pelted at the police personnel who have been deployed to northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri. DCP, North West Delhi said that it was "a minor, one-off incident". "Legal action is being taken. One person has been detained," Delhi Police said. The recent media report of fresh stone pelting is an exaggeration of facts. It was a minor, one-off incident. Legal action is being taken. One person has been detained.#DelhiPoliceUpdates#Jahangirpuri DCP North-West Delhi (@DCP_NorthWest) April 18, 2022 Earlier in the day, Delhi Police chief Rakesh Asthana informed that 23 accused have been arrested so far in the case. "9 people including police personnel and one civilian received injuries during the incident. Analysis of CCTV footage and digital media is being done," he said in a press conference. "Some people are trying to disturb peace through the medium of social media. We are monitoring social media closely, and legal action will be taken against those who are found spreading misinformation. The public should not pay heed to rumours," Asthana added. The Delhi Police commissioner also said that no attempt was made to hoist a saffron flag at a mosque during the Hanuman Jayanti procession. Some people are trying to disturb peace through the medium of social media. We are monitoring social media closely, and legal action will be taken against those who are found spreading misinformation. Public should not pay heed to rumours: Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana pic.twitter.com/qNkzWepVf7 ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 The media briefing came two days after a clash broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in the national capital's Jahangirpuri area. There was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes between two communities and some vehicles were also torched. Live TV The Auburn YMCA-WEIU will encourage conversations about mental health throughout May, Mental Health Awareness Month, beginning with an event on Friday, May 6. The YMCA invites individuals, organizations and businesses to Walk Out for Mental Health Appreciation at noon that day. The event will take place at the New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center, 25 South St., Auburn, where Cayuga County Director of Community Services Lauren Walsh will speak. The YMCA will also hold a Community Wellness Night Wednesday, May 25. The YMCA is partnering with the Cayuga County Mental Health Task Force to hold the events. "We can all play a role in supporting each other's mental health at the Y and in our communities," said Laura Clary, the YMCA's health and wellness director, in a news release. "The first step is to start talking in our communities about what mental health really is." The YMCA encourages the community to have conversations this month about mental health, which is how we think, feel and act. It is part of our physical health, social-emotional well-being and identity. Everyone has mental health, the YMCA said, not just people with mental illness. Therefore, everyone faces challenges in their lives that can impact their mental health. To improve our mental health, the YMCA suggests steps like moving, fueling and resting our bodies; being mindful of how we feel and what's happening around us; connecting with others; and asking for help when we need it. We can also support the mental health of others with empathy and compassion, such as asking, "How are you?" and encouraging honest answers. For more information about the YMCA and Mental Health Awareness Month, contact Clary at laura@auburnymca.net or (315) 253-5304. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 When planning employee expenses, it's easy to forget that your overall compensation package needs to include not only state and federal taxes but insurance, payroll, and benefits as well. And that's not all the costs. In the third quarter of 2021, the U.S. ECI reached 146.6, according to Statista, indicating a one percent increase in labor costs compared to the previous quarter. How much does an employee cost in Hawaii? Those who build a business in Hawaii will have to face a significant difference between wages and the actual cost of employment in Hawaii. It is because Hawaii is a difficult place to do business. That is where employers need to understand precisely how much an employee is worth to control their costs. Forbes notes that increases in health insurance spending could harm Hawaii's financial future, especially as they go hand in hand with increasing the state's already significant unsecured pension obligations. Employment costs fall into several broad categories: Staffing costs Base salary Taxes on work Office space Hardware and software Employee benefits Other costs are predictable fixed costs, either as variable taxes or insurance programs. Business insurance rates are hard to predict and can increase every year, making hiring more expensive. Features of the work of workers in Hawaii There are some other features for employment in Hawaii that business owners on these islands should be aware of. If employees working more than 20 hours per week must be offered coverage.PHCA requires employers to provide health insurance for employees who work an average of 20 or more hours a week. Employees cannot pay more than 1.5% of their incomeUnder the PHCA, employers cannot claim more than 1.5% of their gross monthly salary from an employee for self-insurance costs. Thanks to this rule, many employers cover the total cost of employee bonuses. Employers must cover half of the bonus. One of the most effective rules states that employers must cover at least half of the insurance premium for employees only. It means that the employee is not responsible for more than half of their total health insurance premiums. Employees are required to enroll in insurance coverage The PHCA requires employees to enroll in their employer's plan unless an exception applies. The most common exemption applies to insured employees by a program sponsored by their spouse's employer. Employees with exemptions must provide Form HC-5 to the employer documenting the exemption. How to Control Employee Costs in Hawaii It's no secret that employees are often most expensive investment. It doesn't matter if you work with dedicated software development team or a travel business. Studying the conditions of the state or area where you do business before you deploy your facilities is fundamentally essential. Employers have the opportunity to use best-in-class services to reduce the costs associated with attracting new employees. Authors bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev, a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting. (Sponsored Feature) New Delhi: The probe into Jahangipuri violence that was triggered after two groups clashed in North Delhi during the Hanuman Jayanti procession on April 16 took an interesting turn on Monday after Delhi police found some major breakthroughs in the investigation. The police arrested three more accused- a scrap dealer who allegedly supplied bottles for pelting during the riots, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad member and Sonu Chikna, the man who allegedly fired rounds at the crowd during the clashes. Apart from this, the opposition accused the Delhi police of conducting a one-sided probe targeting a particular community. As the investigation into the fateful Jahangirpuri violence continues, heres a look at some of the most significant developments of the day Sonu Chikna arrested Delhi police arrested Sonu Chikna alias Imam alias Yunus on Monday. The 28-year-old Sonu Chikna is accused of opening fire during the clashes on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in North Delhis Jahangirpuri. #UPDATE | The 28-year-old man in the blue kurta, Sonu alias Imam alias Yunus, whose video was being circulated on April 17 on social media for opening fire during a riot in the Jahangirpuri area, Delhi, on April 16, has been nabbed: Delhi Police ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 According to Delhi police, a social media footage in which a 28-year-old man in the blue kurta, identified as Sonu alias Imam alias Yunus showed him opening fire during a riot in the Jahangirpuri area on April 16. This apart, the Delhi police on Monday arrested the 36-year-old accused, Sheikh Hameed. He is a scrap dealer and disclosed during the interrogation that he had supplied bottles that were used for pelting during the Jahangirpuri violence. Case filed against VHP and Bajrang Dal Delhi police registered a case against religious groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal for taking out Hanuman Jayanti procession without prior permission reported ANI quoting DCP NW Usha Rangnani. As per Rangnani, the Hanuman Jayanti procession during which the stone-pelting occurred and led to violent communal clashes in North Delhis Jahangirpuri was conducted without permission from the police. Meanwhile, accused Prem Sharma, Jila Sewa Pramukh-Vishwa Hindu Parishad has been arrested. Owaisis one-sided probe allegation on Delhi police AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday in reference to the Jahangirpuri violence said that one-sided action is being taken and that the communal violence takes place when govt want it to happen. In response to the one-sided investigation allegations, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Monday said the police were not discriminating against anyone. Amit Shah calls for tougher actions Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday directed senior Delhi police officials to take stringent and exemplary actions against the miscreants so that no such violence can occur in Delhi again. Aman meetings by Delhi Police The Delhi Police organised a meeting at the Jahangirpuri police station on Monday in order to maintain peace and tranquillity in the violence-hit area in the northwestern parts of the city, officials said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said the meeting of the Aman Committee was held at the police station at 1.30 pm. Live TV New Delhi: Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Sunday late night visited a Sub-Inspector Meda Lal`s residence who sustained a bullet injury during the violence in Jahangirpuri, and assured him of full support from the department, said an ANI report. Asthana reportedly enquired about Lal`s well-being and said that the entire Force is proud of his courage displayed at the site of violence. "CP Delhi visited Sub-Inspector Meda Lal of Police Station Jahangirpuri at his residence and enquired about his well being. CP, Delhi informed SI Meda Lal that the entire Force is proud of his courage and sense of duty, which helped in quickly controlling the unruly mob," a statement by Delhi police said, adding "He assured him of all possible support and assistance from the Department during these testing times." According to reports, the Sub-Inspector of Jahangirpuri Police Station had suffered the injury during the violent clashes that took place between two communities during a religious procession on April 16 evening. One more accused held in case, total 21 arrested so far One more accused has been arrested in connection with clashes that broke out in Delhi`s Jahangirpuri area on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests so far to 21. Two juveniles have also been apprehended in the connection with the incident that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and a civilian. "One more accused has been arrested in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case. He is found to be previously involved in a robbery and an attempt to murder case under Jahangirpuri Police station," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North-West, Usha Rangnani, told ANI. "An FIR has been registered under sections 147, 148, 149, 186, 353, 332, 323, 427, 436, 307, 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 27 Arms Act dated April 16, following 20 accused persons have been arrested and 2 Juveniles in conflict with the law have been apprehended," ANI report quoted her as saying. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the district police are jointly probing the incident, said Ravindra Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. "Adequate number of police officials are present at the location. Delhi Police is on the top level of alertness. Our priority is to curtail rumours," said Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Depender Pathak. In order to ensure peace and harmony in the national capital, the police held a meeting with members of Aman (peace) committees in north-west Delhi. The meeting was organised by the Deputy Commissioner of Police North West at Kushal Chowk in the Jahangirpuri area with the members of the Aman committee of PS Jahangirpuri, PS Mahendra Park and PS Adarsh Nagar. RJD urges PM to come forward and give strong message to everyone A day after a clash between two communities occurred in the national capital`s Jahangirpuri area, Rashtriya Janta Dal MP, Manoj Kumar Jha on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come forward and give a strong message to everyone across the country on the matter. Manoj Jha demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself should intervene in view of the continuous riots happening in different parts of the country. Prof Jha told ANI on Sunday, "I am familiar with the area of Jahangirpuri and we have never seen such scenes in Jahangirpuri before. The Jahangirpuri incident is not isolated. If you look at the images of different places from all over the country, then there is a pattern." "I request the Prime Minister for his direct intervention. Prime Minister should give a strong message and whoever is indulging in such violence, tearing the social fabric, is hindering us in marking the 75th year of independence," ANI quoted him as saying. Prof Jha termed the continuous allegations and counter-accusations after this incident as unnecessary and said that it is unfortunate that whenever such an incident takes place, someone is making indecent remarks against each other. "The most important task of the `social` fire brigade was to douse off the fire. We have embarked on a journey backwards and are falling into a new abyss every day," he said, adding "In view of these incidents, the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed its anguish while the opposition parties questioned the intentions. Opposition urged the Centre to look in the mirror and introspect on the incidents. To whom will I go if I have a complaint today? I don`t have any other option but to urge the Prime Minister. In the 75th year of independence, the Prime Minister should come out and give a strong message." Earlier on Saturday, a procession taken out during Hanuman Janmotsav was attacked by some people of a particular community in Jahangirpuri area, after which violence erupted there. Of the 20 accused persons in the case, 14 were produced before the Rohini court on Sunday, which sent two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to police custody for one day. The remaining 12 were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Heavy security has been deployed in the violence-hit area to prevent any untoward incident. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday deliver its verdict on a plea seeking cancellation of bail to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana is likely to pronounce its verdict at 10:30 am today. The top court had on April 4 reserved its order on a plea of farmers seeking cancellation of bail to Ashish Mishra. The apex court had earlier raised questions over the Allahabad High Court verdict granting bail to Ashish Mishra. The special bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, had also taken strong note of the fact that the state government did not file an appeal against the high court's order as suggested by the apex court-appointed SIT. The bench had taken note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhushan, appearing for farmers, that the high court did not consider the extensive charge sheet and rather relied upon the FIR where it was alleged that one person received bullet injuries. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the state, had said that the accused was not a flight risk and has no criminal record. The bail was granted after the high court took note of the facts including the postmortem report which did not indicate bullet injuries of the deceased. On March 16, the top court had sought responses of the Uttar Pradesh government and Ashish Mishra, on a plea challenging the grant of bail to him. It had also directed the state government to ensure the protection of witnesses after the counsel, appearing for farmers, referred to the attack on a key witness on March 10. On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area. Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre's now-repealed agricultural reform laws. Live TV NEW DELHI: In a major development, the Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Allahabad High Court order which granted bail to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and also directed him to surrender within a week, reported ANI. Supreme Court cancels bail granted to Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, directs him to surrender within a week pic.twitter.com/kIQJZ7UzHA ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 Ashish Mishra was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on February 10. This was challenged by the families of farmers who were killed on October 3 at Lakhimpur Kheri in UP. Lakhimpur Kheri violence case | Supreme Court has set aside the Allahabad High Court order which granted bail to Ashish Mishra in the case ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 Pronouncing its order, a top court bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said, "The High Court order is based on irrelevant observations." The Supreme Court bench also directed the Allahabad High Court to hear the matter afresh, reported ANI. Lakhimpur Kheri violence case | Supreme Court remands the matter back to the Allahabad High Court to hear the issue afresh ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 The top court had on April 4 reserved its order on a plea of farmers seeking cancellation of bail to Ashish Mishra. The apex court had earlier raised questions over the Allahabad High Court verdict granting bail to Ashish Mishra. The special bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, had also taken strong note of the fact that the state government did not file an appeal against the high court's order as suggested by the apex court-appointed SIT. The bench had taken note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhushan, appearing for farmers, that the high court did not consider the extensive charge sheet and rather relied upon the FIR where it was alleged that one person received bullet injuries. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the state, had said that the accused was not a flight risk and has no criminal record. The bail was granted after the high court took note of the facts including the postmortem report which did not indicate bullet injuries of the deceased. On March 16, the top court had sought responses of the Uttar Pradesh government and Ashish Mishra, on a plea challenging the grant of bail to him. It had also directed the state government to ensure the protection of witnesses after the counsel, appearing for farmers, referred to the attack on a key witness on March 10. On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's visit to the area. Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre's now-repealed agricultural reform laws. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV Sangrur: A Punjab police official from the Sangrur district has decided to contribute a part of his salary to the education of the daughters of farmers who die by suicide due to financial constraints. Senior Superintendent of Police Mandeep S Sidhu, posted for the third time in the district, decided to contribute Rs 51,000 from his first pay followed by Rs 21,000 every month till the time he is posted here. He has taken this initiative under his `Padhta Punjab` campaign which has inspired two major industrialists to come forward and join the campaign. Speaking to ANI, Sidhu said, "In a small effort to help the daughters of farmers who die by suicide due to financial constraints, I have announced to pay a sum of Rs 51,000 from my first pay followed by Rs 21,000 every month till the time I`m (posted) here (Sangrur)." "I have got the opportunity to be the SSP of Sangrur for the third time. I thought that I am being posted repeatedly here, so I should do something for the people. Sangrur is the largest producer of paddy in Punjab. I am a son of a farmer and I felt that for the farmers who die by suicide due to money crunch, their daughter`s education should be ensured. I did not have this plan earlier, but when I was assigned this charge for the third time, this thought crossed my mind," the SSP added. Speaking about the industrialists who wished to join him in his campaign, Sidhu said that one of them wished to contribute Rs 21 lakh and another Rs 26 lakh. "My initiative also motivated two industrialists. One of them wished to contribute Rs 21 lakhs. Another industrialist handed over a cheque of about Rs 26 lakhs for 9-12 class students from 13 government schools in Dhuri. These students won`t have to pay any fees this year," he added. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from the Red Fort on the 400th Parkash Purab of Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur on April 21, the Culture Ministry said Monday. PM Modi will also release a commemorative coin and postage stamp on the occasion. Four hundred 'ragis' (Sikh musicians) will perform in a 'Shabad Kirtan' to mark the auspicious occasion, the ministry said. The programme will be organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Chief ministers of many states and several prominent personalities from across the length and breadth of the subcontinent and abroad will be part of the celebrations, it said. This programme on the 400th Parkash Purab (birth anniversary) of Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur is being organised as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Live TV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day visit to his home state Gujarat today (April 18, 2022) to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of several development projects. During his visit, PM Modi will join programmes in Gandhinagar, Banaskantha, Jamnagar and Dahod. "These programmes will cover different sectors and will boost Ease of Living for people," he said ahead of his visit. According to the Prime Minister's Office, Modi will visit the command and control centre for schools in Gandhinagar on April 18 and the next day, he will dedicate to the nation and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects at Banas Dairy Sankul in Diyodar in Banaskantha. On the same day, he will lay the foundation stone of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar. On April 20, the prime minister will inaugurate the Global AYUSH Investment & Innovation Summit at Gandhinagar and will later attend the Adijati Maha Sammelan in Dahod and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects. PM Modi at Command and Control Centre for Schools Giving details, the PMO said that Prime Minister Modi will visit the Command and Control Centre for Schools in Gandhinagar at around 6 PM. It added that the Centre collects over 500 crore data sets annually and analyzes them meaningfully using big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, in order to enhance overall learning outcomes for students. The Centre helps track daily online attendance of teachers and students, undertake centralised summative and periodic assessments of the learning outcome of students. It has been deemed a global best practice by the World Bank, which has also invited other countries to visit and learn about it, the PMO noted. PM Modi at Banas Dairy Sankul in Diyodar, Banaskantha As per his office, Prime Minister Modi will dedicate to the nation a new dairy complex and potato processing plant at Diyodar, Banaskantha district, built at a cost of over Rs 600 crores at around 9:40 AM on April 19. The new dairy complex is a greenfield project and will enable the processing of about 30 lakh litres of milk, produce about 80 tonnes of butter, one lakh litres of ice cream, 20 tonnes of condensed milk (Khoya) and 6 tonnes of chocolate daily. The programme in Banaskantha will take place on the 19th at the impressive @banasdairy1969 complex. A new dairy complex and potato processing plant will also be inaugurated. Both these projects will empower local farmers and contribute to value addition in the agro-dairy space. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 17, 2022 The potato processing plant will produce different types of processed potato products like french fries, potato chips, aloo tikki, patties etc, many of which will be exported to other countries. These plants will empower the local farmers and give a boost to the rural economy in the region, the PMO stated. Prime Minister Modi will also dedicate the Banas Community Radio Station to the nation. This Community Radio Station has been established to provide farmers with key scientific information related to agriculture and animal husbandry. It is expected that the radio station will connect with over 5 lakh farmers of about 1700 villages. Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the expanded facilities for the production of cheese products and whey powder at the Banas dairy plant in Palanpur. Also, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation, Organic Manure and Biogas plant established at Dama, Gujarat. Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of four gobar gas plants of 100 tonnes capacity to be established at Khimana, Ratanpura Bhildi, Radhanpur and Thawar. WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine Prime Minister Modi will also lay the foundation stone of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) in Jamnagar on April 19 at around 3:30 PM, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus. The GCTM will be the first and only global outpost centre for traditional medicine across the world. Global AYUSH Investment & Innovation Summit Prime Minister Modi will then inaugurate the Global AYUSH Investment & Innovation Summit, to be held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, on April 20 at around 10:30 AM. The Summit will help uncover investment potential and give a fillip to innovation, research & development, start-up ecosystem, and the wellness industry. PM Modi at Adijati Maha Sammelan in Dahod Prime Minister Modi will also attend the Adijati Maha Sammelan in Dahod on April 20 at around 3:30 PM, where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects worth around Rs 22,000 crore. On the morning of the 20th, I will take part in the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. Later in the day I will be in Dahod at the Adivasi Maha Sammelan which will focus on empowering the poor and marginalised communities. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 17, 2022 The Sammelan is expected to witness the participation of over 2 lakh people. Live TV Jaipur: Reacting to reports of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) lodging a case in connection with the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) paper leak incident, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday (April 18) said every agency has its role and they should play their part. "All the agencies have their own role, they should play their part, what can we do in this. The truth will come out...And the truth must come out," Gehlot told reporters. In February, the Congress government in the state had cancelled the REET level-two examination, held in September 2021, due to the paper leak. The case is being probed by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan police. The exam was conducted by the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education. "The SOG is doing a good job and everyone agrees on this. The BJP is in the election mode and therefore, (such) decisions are being taken. I believe that if anyone can unravel the truth, there is no problem," Gehlot said. The veteran Congress leader also said an "atmosphere of riots" is being created in the country. He said whenever there is a riot and an atmosphere of tension, people are arrested and some are released after investigation but it is not fair to run bulldozers on houses just because someone has been arrested. "I have never seen such an injustice. We are seeing this for the first time in the country. That is why I say again and again that nobody knows in which direction the country is going," Gehlot said. He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward, condemn incidents of violence and call upon the people of the country to maintain peace and harmony. Live TV Veraval: 30 persons were arrested in connection with a saffron flag being placed atop a dargah in Veraval town in Gujarat's Gir Somnath during an unauthorised Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday, a senior police official said on Monday. The incident took place at Magrebisha Bapu dargah in the Vakhariya Bazar area here, and several of those involved had also taken mobile phone videos of the act and circulated them on social media, Gir Somnath Superintendent of Police Manoharsinh Jadeja said. "After the videos went viral, people from both communities started gathering on Saturday night. However, police arrived at the site quickly, dispersed the crowd and took control of the situation. A flag march was also held in sensitive areas in the vicinity," the SP said. "Two FIRs were registered on Sunday. One under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between two communities) and section 295A (outraging religious feelings), while the other was under section 188 for taking out a procession without permission," Jadeja said. Based on videos of the incident, eight people were arrested for allegedly putting a flag atop the dargah, while 22 people have been held for organising the Hanuman Jayanti procession without permission from authorities, he added. Live TV The Onondaga County Sheriffs Office has received national accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. In the country, only 91 of the more than 3,000 sheriffs departments are accredited through CALEA, the sheriff's office said in a press release Monday. In New York state, only eight of the more than 510 municipal police departments have received accreditation. The sheriff's office said CALEA is the premier credentialing authority providing accreditation to police agencies. CALEA has developed thousands of professional standards that cover all areas of law enforcement operations, including use of force, employee conduct, internal investigations, social services, and more. To be accredited, a law enforcement agency must meet high professional standards and demonstrate compliance in their policies, procedures, and practices on an annual basis. The agency then undergoes a rigorous site-based assessment every four years. During this on-site examination, the assessors conduct interviews, meet with the public, and observe first-hand how well the agency complies with the CALEA standards. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 New Delhi: The Central Government on Monday appointed Indian Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of the Indian Army. The officer will take over the new office on May 1. "Government has decided to appoint Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff," the Defence officials told ANI. Who is Manoj Pande An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Manoj Pande is the Indian Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General. He will succeed General Manoj Mukund Naravane who is scheduled to complete his 28 month-tenure on April 30. The 29th Army chief, Pande, will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff. Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. Lieutenant General Pande commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Operation Parakram, the large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western border, followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. In his 39-year military career, Lt General Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along LoC, a mountain division in the Ladakh sector and a corps in the northeast. He was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command before he took charge of the Eastern Command. Live TV SRINAGAR: The State Investigation Agency (SIA), which has been constituted to investigate terror-related cases in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, conducted searches at several locations in Srinagar on Sunday. The searches were conducted against the author of a seditious article, Abdul Aala Fazili, his editor and other associates of a monthly digital Magazine The Kashmir Wala. The article titled The shackles of slavery will break was written by Abdul Aala Fazili and published in the Monthly Digital Magazine The Kashmir Walla on 6th November 2011. A J&K police statement said, "Article is highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. It added, "The article has used prescriptive language with instructional intent, encouraging secessionist elements to carry out terror activities." The article titled The shackles of slavery will break written by Abdul Aala Fazili and published in the Monthly Digital Magazine The Kashmir Wala, on one hand, is highly provocative, seditious, and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, and on the other, written with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of violence by glorifying terrorism. The article has used prescriptive language." Some tell-tale excerpts reproduced here are: "On the occasion of Eid Ul Azha, let us all pledge in the name of the blood of our martyrs and tears of mothers and sisters: that we shall always remember their sacrifices, that we shall never stop our struggle for freedom." The searches for the collecting evidence, by the sleuths of SIA of J&K, were conducted in the office of The Kashmir Walla at Rajbagh and at the residence of Abdul Aala Fazili at main chowk Humhama and the residence of Fahad Shah (Editor of the monthly digital magazine) at Soura Srinagar. The arrest of PhD scholar Abdul Aala Fazili was made after the SIA conducted raids at his home in Humhama and the office of the digital magazine "The Kashmir Walla," police said. The search teams seized incriminating evidence, which included computers, laptops and other digital equipment. After the raids, a statement was issued by "The Kashmir Walla" Magazine condemning the raids, "The raids at shah's residence where his family lives started at 7.17 Am and state officials searched the entire house. While at the office the raids started nearly at 8.20 AM. During the raid at The Kashmir Wallas office, the officials seized the laptops of two reporters, a Mac from the multimedia department, six hard drives that had backups, and five CDs. They also checked the daily assignment dairies and phones of two reporters, who had reached the office during the raid. The Kashmir Walla staff co-operated with the officials during the raid and facilitated the formalities. During the searches, a tablet device, and a voice recorder was also seized. We condemn the seizure of reporters gadgets and other equipment at the office and at Shahs residence. We yet again call upon the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led administration to withdraw the charges against Shah and the work of The Kashmir Walla, the statement said. Fahad Shah was arrested on February 4 and later booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) on March 16, however, he got bail from court twice in two different cases. He is currently in prison at the Kupwara Jail in north Kashmir. Live TV Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices, which resumed trading after a long holiday, faced heavy drubbing on Monday, with the Sensex plunging over 1,186 points in early trade. The key index was dragged down by heavyweights Infosys and HDFC Bank amid weak trend in Asian markets. Stock markets were closed on Thursday for Mahavir Jayanti and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti, as well as on Friday on account of Good Friday. The Sensex was trading 1,186.18 points lower at 57,152.75 in early trade. The Nifty tumbled 314.95 points to 17,160.70. From the 30-share pack, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Wipro and HCL Technologies were among the major laggards in early trade. In contrast, NTPC, Tata Steel, M&M, Maruti and Power Grid were among the gainers. Shares of Infosys tanked 8.95 per cent to Rs 1,592.05 on the BSE despite the country's second-largest software services firm last week reporting a 12 per cent year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit for the March quarter at Rs 5,686 crore HDFC Bank declined 3.35 per cent to Rs 1,415.75 even as the largest domestic private sector lender Bank on Saturday posted a 22.8 per cent jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 10,055.2 crore for the quarter ended March 2022. In Asia, markets were trading lower, with Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo quoting in the red in mid-session deals. Stocks in the US had ended lower on Thursday. International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 1.01 per cent to USD 112.83 per barrel. On Wednesday, the Sensex declined 237.44 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at 58,338.93. The NSE Nifty dipped 54.65 points or 0.31 per cent to finish at 17,475.65. Foreign institutional investors continued to offload shares worth Rs 2,061.04 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Nagpur, March 07: The UPA wants to capitalise on the differences between its two major constituents -- the Congress and the Left -- on the Indo-US nuclear deal by going in for early general elections, senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha claimed today. "After the recess of Parliament, the ruling coalition will pass Union Budget in the second leg of session in April and in another six months time the general elections will take place," Sinha who is here to deliver a lecture on outcome of the budget, told reporters today. He said the UPA and the congress want to earn political mileage out of differences with Left by advancing Lok Sabha elections, which may be held between September and November. Both UPA and Congress have made their views clear on the nuclear deal and are pushing in that direction while Left with divergent views have perhaps made up their mind to face consequences of a fallout, since UPA was adamant of giving no room for re-thinking, Sinha claimed. It could also be a tacit understanding between Congress and Left on holding elections, he alleged. Sinha said BJP was all prepared to face elections anytime and it had already started preparations much before, by setting up poll booth level committees and projecting opposition leader L K Advani as its Prime Ministerial candidate. The party has identified 158 out of 297 seats which it lost in the previous 2004 polls, but had won earlier, he said. Top party leaders are visiting these Lok Sabha constituencies to assess the situation now, Sinha said adding he himself was entrusted the responsibility of Tamil Nadu. He said "rising" prices of essential commodities was an important issue and alleged the UPA had failed to contain them. On the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver scheme announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Sinha said, "These populist measures at the eleventh hour will not help the government. Voters won't be influenced by such gimmick," he said adding, "there are some administrative difficulties in implementing the loan waiver." On Prime Minister's efforts to win the confidence of senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sinha said that "He (singh) is trying to show political maturity after being in politics for 17 years." Bureau Report New Delhi: Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is considering to increase the existing salary limit for pension from Rs 15000 to Rs 21000. As per reports, the members of EPFO are in favor of the increase in pensionable salary. The last amendment on the cap of pensionable salary was made in 2014 wherein the government had raised the PF salary limit from Rs 6500 to Rs 15000. On one hand, while the new limit will bring more people under the ambit, it will also make a burden for the government. The matter is currently awaiting government's green signal. It has been reported that for the hiked PF salary limit, government will have to bear an expenditure of 6,750 crores. As per the present rates of contribution, in case an existing EPS member (as on 01-09-2014) whose Pension contribution was paid erstwhile EPS wage ceiling of Rs 6500 contribution to contribution above Rs 15000 wage ceiling from 01-09-2014 he/she will have to give a fresh consent and an amount of 1.16% on wages above Rs 15000 will have to be contributed by him in pension Fund (A/C No 10) through the employer. Live TV #mute Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw during his visit to Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh, announced the operationalisation of the Vande Bharat Express train between Khajuraho in Madhya Pradeshs Chhatarpur district and Delhi. The Minister said that two rake points have been approved at Chattarpur and Khajuraho. Along with this, he also informed that rail tickets can now be obtained from 45,000 post offices. "Soon Rail Over Bridge /Road Under Bridge (ROB/RUB) will be constructed at important places," he said while mentioning the operation of Bharat Gaurav trains like Ramayana Express, the electrification of which is to be completed by August. Also read: Khajuraho railway station will be developed with world class facilities: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw "By that time, Vande Bharat will also start rolling out. The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government is to serve the people and has to be followed in spirit while developing the region," he added. Vaishnaw also reviewed the works done in the Pradhan Mantri Gram Yojana in the Bundelkhand region. He took stock of the development projects of the Maharaja Chhatrasal Convention Center area. Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar and other public representatives were also present during the inspection. Vaishnaw also informed about the redevelopment of Khajuraho station to make it a world-class station. The minister, along with the local administration and Railways, encouraged the farmers to set up solar plants on their land so that their income could increase. The pilot project is to be started with Bundelkhand. The land is to be identified soon. Kisan Morcha, Railways and District Administration to jointly identify the location. Vaishnaw also informed that "One Station One Product Scheme" is also being expanded so that local level products will be made available in the market through stations. 1000 stations will be included under this scheme, in which Chhatarpur station will also be included. "Limestone industries near Panna are important. Panna is to be linked with Railways," he said. (With inputs from ANI) Live TV #mute New Delhi: Apple is set to release the iPhone 14 series later this year. But now it has been revealed that the iPhone 11 series, which was released in September 2019, will be discontinued. As per a report by iDropNews, the iPhone 11 is likely to be phased out this year due to its age and the fact that it competes directly with the iPhone SE 3 that was released earlier this year. For comparison, the iPhone 11 starts at Rs 49,900 in India, while the iPhone SE 3 or iPhone SE 2022 starts at Rs 43,900. But that isn't the case. According to the report, Apple may also lower the price of the iPhone 12 series, which was released in 2020. In India, the series starts at Rs 65,900. The iPhone 12 is expected to be reduced in price to $599 (about Rs 45,672) from its current price of $999. (Rs 76,170). If this report is correct, the iPhone 12 might be priced similarly to the iPhone 11, giving potential consumers a more competitive choice of options. According to the report, the iPhone 13 series is expected to be available for several years. In terms of specifications, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are expected to have a 6.1-inch display, whereas the iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone Pro Max are expected to have a 6.7-inch display. They're expected to be powered by Qualcomm's A16 Bionic chipset and support 5G connectivity. The iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14 Max are expected to feature LTPO panels with refresh rates of up to 120Hz, according to reports. In terms of cameras, the top Plus and Max editions of the series are expected to feature a triple back camera system with a 48MP primary sensor. The iPhone 14 series will also have a larger battery than the iPhone 13 series. According to reports, the company may also offer the series' top variants in a 2TB version. BEIJING: Chinas Shanghai has reported its first death due to Covid-19 ever since lockdown was re-imposed to contain the outbreak of the deadly virus in the city, news agency ANI cited the city administration as saying. According to the Shanghai Health Commission, three Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Sunday. China's Shanghai reports first Covid deaths since the start of lockdown, as per city govt: AFP ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2022 Those who died were aged between 89 and 91 and all had underlying diseases, the city administration said. The newly reported deaths are the first since two people passed away in mid-March in the northeastern province of Jilin. They were the first Covid fatalities in more than a year in China, where a strict zero-tolerance approach contained the virus until the more infectious delta and omicron variants emerged last year. Meanwhile, Shanghai has set a target to stop the spread of COVID-19 outside of quarantined areas by Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter said, which would allow the city to further ease its lockdown and start returning to normal life as public frustrations grow. The target will require officials to accelerate COVID testing and the transfer of positive cases to quarantine centres, according to a speech by a local Communist Party official dated Saturday, according to Reuters. Ending community-level transmission has been a turning point for other Chinese localities that were locked down, such as Shenzhen city which last month reopened public transport and let businesses go back to work shortly after achieving that target. Shanghai has become the epicentre of China`s largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, and has recorded more than 320,000 COVID infections since early March when its surge began. Frustrated Shanghai residents have taken to social media to vent their anger at local authorities over difficulties sourcing food, lost income, separated families and poor conditions at central quarantine centres. Tensions have on occasion erupted into public protests or scuffles with police. The Chinese economy and global supply chains are also feeling pinched by shuttered factories and transport bottlenecks in many parts of China hit by COVID-19 curbs. Shanghai`s new goal of "zero-COVID at the community level" by April 20 was communicated in recent days to the city`s Communist Party cadres and organisations such as schools, according to the sources, who declined to be named as the information was not public. China`s definition of zero-COVID status at the community level means that no new cases emerge outside quarantined areas. A speech dated Saturday by the party secretary of the city`s Baoshan district described it as an order that had come as the city`s situation reached a "critical moment" with growing public anxiety and food supply pressures. Shanghai started locking down areas east of the Huangpu river on March 28 and extended the lockdown citywide on April 1. While it eased movement curbs on some residents last week, most businesses remain shut and public transport is suspended. Business leaders have been increasingly outspoken about the toll of the lockdowns on the Chinese economy, with automakers warning they could be forced to stop production completely if their suppliers in Shanghai and neighbouring areas could not resume work soon. On Friday, China`s industry regulator said it had identified 666 companies in Shanghai in the semiconductor, automobile and medical sectors as priority firms that needed to resume work. (With Reuters Inputs) Live TV In the past few days, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine military conflict has taken a serious turn after Kyiv claimed that it has destroyed Moscows largest warship deployed in the black sea with two Neptune Missile attacks. The country has also released the pictures of the attack and since then the Russian state media is addressing the Russia-Ukraine conflict as the beginning of the World War 3. Zee News Editor-In-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Monday made an analysis on whether or not the Russia-Ukraine military conflict has turned into World War 3, where world powers like the United States and Europe have joined hands to counter Moscow. Notably, the Russian Defence Ministry has yet not accepted Ukraines claim that it has damaged its black sea warship. In fact, Moscow has released a statement, saying all the 500 naval officers deployed in the warship are safe. However, while both the countries insist that they are in a dominating position, denying each other's claims, it must be noted that if true, this will surely become a turning point in the Russia-Ukraine war. Why Ukraine destroying Russias warship is a turning point in the war Interestingly, if true, this has happened after 40 years in the world history that a countrys warship has been destroyed by the enemy country during a war. Last, it happened in 1982, during the war between Britain and Argentina when the latter destroyed a huge British warship with Anti Warship Missiles, and because of this incident, the tension between the two countries peaked just like Russia and Ukraine. Big blow to Russia Now, if Ukraine's claim is to be believed, the damage caused to the warship will prove to be a huge blow to Russia, both in monetary and defence terms. This Russian warship that Ukraine now claims to have destroyed was worth roughly 5 thousand 718 crore rupees and Kyiv says that it has ravaged the warship with two missiles costing 100 crores each. This way, it took Ukraine only 200 crores to destroy Russias over 5,000 crores worth of warships causing a big blow to Russias military plans to win the war. Notably, the loss is not just economical. The warship was equipped with high Anti Ship Missiles, Weapon systems, Anti Submarine Mortars and Torpedo Tubes. Other countries that own such warships At present, China has the highest number of 777 Warships in the whole world. After this Russia has 605, the US owns 484 and Colombia and North Korea have 450 warships. Why is Russia calling it World War 3? One of the prime reasons behind this is Ukraine getting direct military help from major world powers, making them an indirect party to the war. So far, 27 countries of the European Union have provided military assistance worth Rs 12 thousand 355 crores to Ukraine. Apart from this, the US has military help worth Rs 19 thousand crores to Ukraine since February. NATO has also come to Ukraines assistance by providing missiles and other dangerous weapons against Russia. This means all of these countries, that have directly or indirectly acted against Russia have become active parties to the war. This is why Russia is calling the war with Ukraine World war 3. Live TV New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Russian aggression, the United Nations (UN) has warned that the Ukraine crisis could push more than one-fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Ukraine crisis is blocking grain exports and disrupting supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket. "We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades," Guterres was quoted as saying by ANI on Monday (April 18, 2022). Ukraine and Russia account for 30 per cent of world production of wheat and barley, a fifth of all corn and more than half of all sunflower oil, the UN Chief said, specifying that Russia and Ukraine account for over a third of the wheat imported to the 45 least developed countries. Since the start of 2022, wheat and corn prices have gone up by 30 per cent, Brent crude oil prices have risen by more than 60 per cent, while gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled. Guterres called for global reforms that would change the world`s financial system "that makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer." The people of Ukraine cannot bear the violence being inflicted on them. And the most vulnerable people around the world cannot become collateral damage in another disaster for which they bear no responsibility. We must silence the guns & accelerate negotiations towards peace. pic.twitter.com/aM4F9eojMr Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 14, 2022 Earlier last week, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will downgrade forecasts for 143 economies this year, which collectively make up 86 per cent of the world`s GDP. The chiefs of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) had also recently issued a joint statement calling for urgent, coordinated action to address food security amid the fallout of the Ukraine crisis, which is adding to the still ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the northeast and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting. After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv. Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine`s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. "This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians," he said late on Sunday. Russia, however, denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks. It calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression. (With agency inputs) Live TV LVIV/KYIV: Ukrainian soldiers resisted a Russian ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverised port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces had almost completely seized in what would be its biggest prize of the nearly two-month war. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in Mariupol were still fighting despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn. "The city still has not fallen," he told ABC`s "This Week" programme, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continue to control some parts of the southeastern Ukrainian city. Russia said on Saturday it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov. Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbas region, would be a strategic prize for Russia, connecting territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014. After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere including the capital, Kyiv. About four million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24. The economic damage is significant too - Shmyhal said Ukraine`s budget deficit was around $5 billion a month and called for Western governments to provide more financial aid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter he had discussed ensuring Ukraine`s financial stability and preparations for post-war reconstruction with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. She replied that support was "essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding a modern competitive #Ukraine." Earlier, he posted on his Telegram account images of destruction he said were akin to World War Two. "The occupiers will be responsible for everything they did in Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. `CRUEL AND SENSELESS WAR` Implicitly criticizing Russia, Pope Francis pleaded for an end to the bloodshed and lamented the "Easter of war" during his address in St. Peter`s Square after Mass. "May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged," he said. Zelenskyy accused Russia on Saturday of "deliberately trying to destroy everyone" in Mariupol. The Azovstal steelworks, one of Europe`s biggest metallurgical plants with a maze of rail tracks, tunnels and blast furnaces, has become a last stand for the city`s outnumbered defenders. "All who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared," Russia`s Defence Ministry said on Saturday. It was not known how many soldiers were in the steelworks. Satellite images have shown smoke and fire coming from the area. Zelenskyy has said killing his troops would put an end to peace efforts. Russia said Ukraine had lost more than 4,000 soldiers in Mariupol as of Saturday. Kyiv says its total troop losses nationwide so far in the war are less than that, between 2,500 and 3,000. Reuters has not been able to verify either side`s figures. Russia calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression. A representative in Mariupol of the Azov forces a one-time far-right militia now part of Ukraine`s National Guard whose destruction is among Moscow`s war objectives said international intervention was needed to help civilians, including children, sheltering at the steelworks. "There are civilians at Azovstal who are afraid of Russia`s guarantees for their exit," the Azov representative said in a message to Reuters. Reuters has not been able to verify whether there are significant numbers of civilians at the plant. There have been on-off negotiations between Ukraine and Russia since the start of the war. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a CBS News interview on Sunday that the situation in Mariupol was "dire" and could be a "red line" in the path of negotiations. NATIONWIDE ATTACKS Elsewhere in Ukraine, there were more reports on Sunday of Russian strikes around major population centres. Local media reported an explosion in Kyiv, though deputy mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said air defence systems had thwarted Russian attacks. The mayor of Brovary city, close to Kyiv, said a missile attack had damaged infrastructure. Russia said it had destroyed an ammunition factory near the capital, according to the RIA news agency. Shelling in Ukraine`s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, killed five people and injured 13, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported. A Reuters correspondent in Kharkiv heard multiple explosions in quick succession and saw debris from missiles. "This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. As cleanup operations continued in areas where the Russians have retreated, Ukraine`s human rights ombudswoman said almost all high-rise buildings in the town of Okhtyrka were unfit for occupation. The State Emergencies Service said 41 bodies had been recovered in the town of Borodyanka. Most Ukrainians celebrate Orthodox Easter next Sunday, but in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv where Ukraine accuses Russia of killing dozens of civilians, some 50 people attended a church service, carrying pussy willow and praying for the dead. Russia denies targeting civilians and has called images from Bucha fake. "I just prayed today to stop crying," said resident Evgeniya Lebedko after the service. "We have survived these horrors and we are constantly crying." Despite the desperate situation in Mariupol, Ukraine said it was holding off Russian forces in other parts of the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which before the invasion were already partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists. On Sunday, police in Donetsk region said that over the past 24 hours Russian forces opened fire on 13 settlements under Ukrainian control, killing two civilians. Live TV Assyrian Fighter Killed in Turkish Shelling in Northeast Syria Zia Tal Tamir, a fighter of the Assyrian al-Khabour Guards, was killed by Turkish shelling on Sunday, the Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced. "Zia Tal Tamir, the fighter in the Assyrian al-Khabour Guards, was martyred this evening following the Turkish occupation's brutal shelling against the Tal Shenan village, Tal Tamir," the media center said. The SDF on Sunday also accused the Turkish-backed groups and the Turkish Army of intensifying their attacks. "Many Christian villages in Tal Tamir were shelled yesterday, as they were preparing to celebrate Easter," it said. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported that Turkish-backed groups bombarded villages near Abu Rasin (Zirgan in Kurdish) in the northwestern countryside of Syria's Al-Hasakah province with artillery. "Moreover, the shelling expanded to positions near the Russian base in Al-Mabaker, Assyian Tel Shinan and Al-Dirdara in Tel Tamr countryside," SOHR noted, adding that a Turkish drone flew over the area during the bombardment. According to the North Press news agency, shelling continued in Tal Tamr on Monday. In October 2019, Russia and the US reached separate ceasefire agreements with Ankara, allowing Turkish troops to control the areas it captured between Tal Abyad and Serekaniye. Despite these agreements, Turkish-backed groups and the Turkish Army have continued to target SDF-held areas, especially near Tal Tamr. It started out as a tale bound not to Easter but to a famous Frank Capra movie about Christmas. Four months ago, Elizabeth "Lill" Kress of West Falls took a call that reminded her both of how she came to be and of how an act of sacrifice remains a living force for generations. Her maternal grandmother, Elisabetta Varacalli, was from Seneca Falls, arriving there a century ago for one main reason: On April 12, 1917, Elisabetta's brother a 20-year-old Italian immigrant named Antonio Varacalli was working near a bridge over the Cayuga-Seneca Canal when a despondent teenager plunged into the frigid water below. The bridge, built in 1915, is in the heart of the village. At the time, said Seneca County historian Walter Gable, it was surrounded by industrial bustle. Varacalli jumped in to try and save Ruth Dunham, 17. He managed to push her to safety on the bank before he was overcome by the sheer temperature of the canal, and drowned. According to accounts of the time, Dunham barely survived. As World War I raged in Europe and a flu pandemic soon cast a lethal shadow, a community grateful for a reminder of pure humanity erected a plaque on the bridge to honor Varacalli, then raised enough money to grant a family wish: A fundraising drive helped his mother, sisters and a nephew leave Italy 100 years ago this summer to join his grieving father in Seneca Falls. That is how Elisabetta, grandmother and namesake of Lill Kress, arrived in this nation. Two generations later, Kress who was a child when her mother died would spend summers in Seneca Falls with her aunt, Asunta Palandro. They often walked together to the plaque on the bridge, where Asunta would explain: Every minute of Lills journey could be linked to a great-uncle who was not around long enough to leave behind a family photograph, and gave his life for a teenager he had never met. In Seneca Falls, which holds an annual festival to celebrate its similarities to the Yuletide film Its a Wonderful Life, the Varacalli rescue is held up as a real-life example of the cinematic scene in which George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, leaps from a strikingly similar bridge to save a stranger. While that movie invokes a Christmas theme, the events that caused Kress and her husband Don to travel from Erie County last week, exactly 105 years to the day since the rescue, had far more to do with the philosophy surrounding this month's holiday. From death comes life, and thats Easter, said Rev. James Fennessy, a Catholic priest who attended a small and emotional ceremony on the bridge last week. The goal was bringing together the 62-year-old Kress with Kathy Williamson, 71, a retired special education teacher from St. Louis. Williamson brought a gift for Seneca Falls: A framed family image of her own grandmother, a woman named Ruth Winslow, who settled in Washington, D.C. To the best of Williamson's knowledge, her grandmother never spoke of how her own life began as Ruth Dunham in Seneca Falls, a Seneca County community about 115 miles from Buffalo that is best known as the cradle of women's rights. She displayed inspiring courage of her own, leaving behind the terror at the bridge to lead a long life of warmth and grace. Yet Williamson believes the trauma of that moment led to this result: Dunham's grandchildren never knew the only reason they were born was because Varacalli risked everything to save their grandmother an act that led to a posthumous Carnegie Medal from a Pittsburgh commission that honors extraordinary bravery. Last Tuesday, on the bridge, Williamson and Kress studied the plaque that describes how Varacalli gave his life to save another. The event was organized by Anwei Skinsnes Law, Henry Law, Fran Caraccilo and other coordinators of an "It's a Wonderful Life" museum, which is closely tied to a Seneca Falls December festival that celebrates the film, set in the fictional upstate community of Bedford Falls. For years, organizers have been passionate about similarities between the movie and their small town. "It just seemed so important for Seneca Falls to bring together people whose lives intersected in such a way," said Skinsnes Law, explaining last week's gathering on the bridge. Williamson and Kress met for the first time Monday night, at the nearby Gould Hotel. That connection occurred only because of Megan Smolenyak, a Florida researcher and genealogist. She is an old friend, and when she learned last year I was writing of the rescue and its legacy, she took a shot at helping me to find descendants on both sides a task that always led me to frustrating dead ends. As usual, Smolenyak discovered answers. My biggest challenge, after she came up with contacts for Williamson and Kress, was keeping them on the phone long enough once I called to convince them my interest in their long-ago family stories was for real, and not some elaborate scam. Thankfully, though leery at first, they did not hang up. The initial column ran last December, explaining the ongoing impact of a story of faith and sacrifice that transcends even the movie, because this narrative is true. In Seneca Falls, which holds a separate "Antonio Varacalli Day" later in April to celebrate acts of civic selflessness, the next step seemed obvious: They needed to close the circle with a meeting on the bridge. Throughout the year, volunteers already encourage visitors to hang small memorial bells near Varacalli's plaque, bells inscribed with the names or memories of someone you love. Each one is a reminder of the moment in the film when a child called Zuzu says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. For the anniversary of the rescue, not far from the spot where Varacalli saved a young woman's life, his great-niece joined the granddaughter of Ruth Dunham in ringing a bell for the teenager who survived and for the young man who gave his life for her. Sean Kirst: In Seneca Falls, a desperate leap and real-life angel tie in to 'It's a Wonderful Life' The grandmother of Elizabeth "Lill" Kress of West Falls arrived in the United States because of a community reaction to the sacrifice of a great-uncle, Antonio Varacalli, who died saving a young woman from drowning near a famous bridge in Seneca Falls. It led Williamson to say of Varacalli what she expressed repeatedly during her visit: "Without him, I would not even exist." She made the 750-mile drive from St. Louis with a friend, Terri Stendeback. During that ride, Williamson worried the meeting with Kress might be "awkward" she was thinking of how one family's blessing came from another's sacrifice but their bond was quickly cemented by all they shared in their careers. Kress is a retired nurse practitioner, and the two women marveled at how they each spent decades dedicated to the well-being and success of people born with developmental disabilities. That blew my mind, Williamson said. On the bridge, they rang a bell set on a simple table, before hanging their own small memorial bells near the plaque recalling Varacalli. Kress dedicated hers to her Aunt Asunta, from whom she learned the story as a child, while Williamson wrote down the names of her grandmother, her siblings and her mother, Rose Marie all these lives that only happened because of the rescue at the bridge. Afterward, during a reception at the nearby National Womens Hall of Fame a beautiful space carved from a 19th century stone knitting mill Kress met Tony Dellefave, Debra Swenson and Lena Marr. They are cousins whose grandfather, Dominic Romeo, stepped in to cover the balance when an Elks Club fundraising drive came up a little short in the effort to bring Antonio Varacallis family to this country. Once again, Kress saw every second of her own life cascading from a stranger's generosity, long ago. "If Antonio hadn't saved Ruth, I wouldn't be here and Kathy wouldn't be here," she said. Like Williamson, she spoke of the gratitude that accompanies such a realization: Without an act of utter sacrifice by a guy without even a photo, nothing of who and what they are would be the same. It was a thought they carried with them, as they drove home toward Easter. Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Buffalo News. Email him at skirst@buffnews.com. Love 6 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Nepal government is considering declaring a two-day holiday in public sector offices this month in order to reduce fuel consumption, reports PTI. The Nepal government is mulling the idea as the country is battling a foreign exchange crisis and the prices of petrol and diesel are skyrocketing. The report claims that the Central Bank of Nepal and Nepal Oil Corporation have advised the government to announce a two day government holiday. Similar Cars Find More Cars UPCOMING Skoda Kodiaq Petrol Bs6 Prices are currently unavailable View Details (Also read: Why CNG has seen unprecedented hike in India in last six weeks) The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is going on for more than a month now, has resulted in a major spike in crude oil prices in the international market as Russian oil is under sanction. Other major oil producers such as Iran and Venezuela too are facing sanctions on selling oil. This has resulted in a massive hike in oil prices in Nepal. However, the Nepal government has said officially there is no such decision taken yet. A move like two day government holidays would result in a significant saving for Nepal Oil Corporation which is selling petrol and diesel at subsidised rates and facing huge losses at the current global rates, claimed the officials. In India as well, petrol and diesel prices have been shooting skyward in recent times. The oil marketing companies in India restarted daily price revision on March 22 after a four and half month pause since early November. However, in last one month, the OMCs have increased the pricing of both petrol and diesel by 10 per litre, moping all the benefits of the last few months. This has resulted in the price of petrol being at an all-time high and diesel too reaching almost 100 per litre mark. However, in the last few days, petrol and diesel prices remain steady and oil marketing companies have paused the daily price revision. First Published Date: The tunnel will be built by Border Road Organisation at a height of 16,580 feet. It is expected to be operational for commute by 2025. India will soon have the world's highest tunnel. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which builds and maintains roads along the mountainous areas in the northern and north-eastern states, will construct a new tunnel that will go into the record books. The tunnel, which will connect Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh is expected to be operational for vehicles in the next three years. BRO will construct the world's highest tunnel at Shinku La Pass at a height of 16,580 feet, said Rajeev Chaudhary, Director General Lieutenant General of BRO. On Sunday, he opened the strategically important Himachal to Zanskar Road at Shinku La Pass from where over half a dozen vehicles crossed the Shinku La Pass from Zanskar side towards Manali. DG Lieutenant General Chaudhary was quoted by news agency PTI that the BRO will start the construction of the tunnel connecting Himachal Pradesh to Zanskar Valley in Ladakh by July this year. He said the Centre has already constituted a BRO team called 'Project Yojak' to execute the project. The new tunnel will help cut down time taken to travel between the two regions. While the south portal of the tunnel will be located at Shinku La pass, which is over 16,000 feet above sea level and is at the border of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, the north portal will provide access to Lakhang and the Zanskar valley. Currently, one has to travel more than a 100 kms from Manali to Darcha before taking a turn towards Shinku La Pass and enter Zanskar valley. So far, the highest tunnels in the world have been either in China or Peru. None of these tunnels are more than 16,000 feet above the sea level. The BRO is also responsible to maintain some of the world's highest passes located in the region. The agency recently constructed world's highest motorable pass situated in Umling La in Ladakh at a height of 19,300 feet. Besides Umling La, Ladakh region boasts of seven of the highest motorable passes in the world, all of them above the height of 17,000 feet from sea level. First Published Date: LML has recently announced that it will unveil three new products in the Indian market in September. Its initial product lineup will include electric hyperbike, electric bike and an electric scooter. LML Electric has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to form a joint venture with Germany-based electric hyperbike manufacturer eROCKIT AG. The electric two-wheeler manufacturer made the announcement today, which comes days after the brand revealed its plans for India in coming days. The joint venture between LML Electric and eROCKIT AG is aimed for mass production of electric hyperbikes for the Indian market. LML has recently announced that it will unveil three new products in the Indian market in September. Its initial product lineup will include electric hyperbike, electric bike and an electric scooter. The electric hyperbike, which LML Electric will develop jointly with eROCKIT, will be manufactured at the former's facilities in India if both sides agree. Yogesh Bhatia, CEO at LML Electric, issued a statement on Monday saying, "With this new jewel in LML's crown, the technology strength, manufacturing prowess, and disruptive consumer experience that we stand committed to offering, will get a new dimension altogether, besides meeting the high level of expectations of our primary as well as secondary target audience." The Germany-based electric hyperbike manufacturer eROCKIT AG produces a unique pedal-powered electric motorcycle. It is a hyperbike that runs with pedalling and has a top speed of over 90 kmph, supported by an advanced battery and electric direct drive motor. The innovative, clutch-free direct drive of the eROCKIT adapts to the intuitive pedal control. LML Electric has earlier announced that the manufacturing and deliveries of the E-Bike and E-Hyperbike will start from February or March next year. The electric scooter will start rolling out from around August or September in 2023. LML Electric has also promised that the new LML models will come with some features which are yet to be added to any of the EVs around the world yet. In India, LML Electric will face rivalry from electric two-wheeler manufacturers like Hero Electric, Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech, Ather Energy among others. First Published Date: With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information. CATL, Yinbang Clad Material sign MoU Chinese new materials provider Yinbang Clad Material Co., Ltd announced it has signed an MoU with CATL to supply the latter with its battery water-cooling plates that will be used in new energy vehicles and energy storage devices. The supply volume should be no less than 361,800 tonnes in total for the period from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2026. Photo credit: CATL HOZON Auto releases new photos of NETA S Chinese EV startup HOZON Auto released a new set of photos of its all-new flagship pure electric sedan model, the NETA S, which will hit the market this year. NETA S; photo credit: NETA Rising Autos R7 caught in patent images Chinas MIIT recently released the patent images of the R7, the first flagship production model under Rising Auto, a NEV brand of SAIC Motor. Rising Auto's R7; photo credit: MIIT Geely Auto to start presale of Geely Binrui COOL Geely Auto will kick off the presale of its all-new sedan model, the Binrui COOL, tomorrow. The model will vie with the MG5 Scorpio and the Trumpchi EMPOW. SGMW to start presale of Jiachen MPV in late April SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), General Motors' joint venture with Chinese partners SAIC Motor and Guangxi Automobile Group, will begin the presale of the Jiachen MPV in late April, according to a local media outlet. The vehicle is the third production model bearing Wuling's global silver badge. FAW Group resumes operations at all five car plants in Changchun Currently, FAW Groups five automobile plants in Changchun city, Jilin province have all resumed operations. China's Hirain Technologies' IPO day scheduled on April 19th on SSE Chinas automotive electronics suppler, Beijing Jingwei Hirain Technologies Co., Ltd. announced today that the company will start public trading on April 19th, at the STAR Market board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. CATL begins EVOGO battery swap service in Xiamen city On April 18, CATL officially launched its battery swap service EVOGO in Xiamen, the first city to introduce this service, according to a post on CATL's WeChat account. JIDU unveils dual-LiDAR autonomous solution with photos On April 18th, Baidus JIDU released photos of the front, headlights, and the hood of its first automotive robot, revealing its exclusive dual-LiDAR solution for the first time. Horizon Robotics, ThunderSoft set up joint venture for intelligent driving On April 18th, Chinas AI chip supplier Horizon Robotics announced that it would establish a joint venture for intelligent driving with leading OS developer, ThunderSoft. China's AD developer AutoBrain partners with HIKAUTO for ADAS advancement China's autonomous driving company AutoBrain partnered with automotive electronics supplier, HIKAUTO, for integrated ADAS development. The two companies plan to establish a long-term sustainable partnership that benefits both parties in technological accumulation and industrial resources within the automotive electronics and artificial intelligence fields. AutoBrain and HIKAUTO will develop an integrated solution that fully satisfies automakers various demands. SAIC-backed IM Motor's L7 hits market, starting at 368,800 yuan IM Motor, a joint venture among SAIC Motor, Alibaba and Zhangjiang High-Tech, saw its first production model, the IM L7, formally hit the market. The model currently comes with two variantsthe Dynamic and the Pro, which are priced at 368,800 yuan ($57,900) and 408,800 yuan ($64,160) respectively. JAC Group forecasts net loss of RMB307 million in Q1 2022 China's state-owned automaker JAC Group saw a widened net loss after non-recurring deductions in the first quarter of 2022, compared to a year ago, according to its performance forecast. Li Auto's L9 SUV's patent images released China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently released the patent images of Li Autos second mass-produced model, the L9. Update: 18-04-2022 | 12:01:28 Over the past 25 years, Binh Duong strengthened international cooperation, especially with localities such as Cambodias Kratie province, Laos Champasac province, Japans Yamaguchi province, Chinas Guangzhou city, South Koreas Daejeon city, Hollands Eindhoven and Emmen cities, Belgiums East Flanders province, Italys Emilia-Romagna region and Russias Oryol province This created the premise and basis for the comprehensive socio-economic cooperation between Binh Duong and these localities. Binh Duong with quick and sustainable development Daniel Stork, Consul General of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City spoke highly of the development of Binh Duong. He said that if looking back at the province's development over the past 25 years, it is clear that the transition from an economy based entirely on agriculture has shifted to the one based on the development of services and manufacturing. This has helped Binh Duong become one of the countrys localities with the highest GDP per capita income. In addition, the provinces development strategy has upheld its effectiveness when Binh Duong is among the countrys top localities in FDI attraction. Nguyen Van Loi (right), member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of provincial Party Committee, Head of provincial National Assembly Deputy Delegation receives Yamada Takio, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam According to Mr. Daniel Stork, Binh Duong is an attractive destination for investors. Many Dutch businesses, namely Phillip, Unilever, Friesland Campinahave operated effectively in Binh Duong. Especially, the cooperation between Binh Duong province and Eindhoven city in general, between Brainport Group and Becamex IDC in particular has achieved initial successes, especially in the construction of Binh Duong Smart City. He expressed his impression at the efforts by the province in improving a more attractive investment climate and a worth-living environment for the people. On the sidelines of his working visit to Binh Duong in March 2022, Yamada Takio, Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam said that during the past 25 years, Binh Duong province achieved great development steps. Binh Duong is one of Vietnams fastest growing localities. Apart from its geographical advantages, Binh Duong is highly appreciated as an investment destination thanks to the efforts by the local government in creating a favorable investment climate. Mr. Yamada Takio said that Binh Duong is developing very quickly and is currently one of Vietnams localities with the highest GDP per capita. Obviously, this is a very good sign because it means that the living standards of people in Binh Duong are increasing, but it is also a challenge because a number of traditional crafts in the province are facing the loss of competitiveness, due to rising labor costs. Therefore, Binh Duong needs to have cooperation in order to support these crafts towards automation while still ensuring the reduction of emissions causing environmental pollution and providing people with better jobs, thereby promoting the local economic development. Attractive destination Jaya Ratnam, Singaporean Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam said that Binh Duong made great progress during the past 25 years. The birth of the first Vietnam - Singapore industrial park in Vietnam is the clearest evidence for the development cooperation between the two countries Vietnam and Singapore. Binh Duong province has many advantages. For example, the province has high competitiveness and is also the gateway to Ho Chi Minh city. The province has so far attracted more than US$ 43 billion in FDI capital, with more than 4,000 FDI projects in operation Whilst, MadanMhanSethi, Consul General of India in Ho Chi Minh city said he has so far visited and worked in Binh Duong province for 5-6 times. Binh Duong has a lot of potential in almost all fields and is a place attracting many Indian investors. Currently, large-scale Indian corporations, namely Widpro, Godrej, TataCoffe are present in the province and there will be many other Indian enterprises to seek investment opportunities in the province in the coming time. He also shared that Vietnam and India have a very fine friendship and each country has many advantages in different fields. For common interests, the two countries will work together, link together to become a part of the global supply chain. Therefore, India is ready to support Vietnamese enterprises, including Binh Duong ones to expand their business scale and promote global trade connections, especially with the Indian market. Attachment with Binh Duong Winnie Wong, from American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam), Country Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos said that Binh Duong today is completely different from its image 25 years ago. At that time, Binh Duong was only an agricultural locality. It is now one of the countrys industrial localities with impressive development momentum. AmCham's members are investors who have been present in Binh Duong very early and are continuing to sticking with this land. They are impressed with Binh Duong's efforts on strategic and visionary infrastructure planning and investment. According to Mrs. Winnie Wong, Binh Duongs oranizaton of dialogues with enterprises and the investor community in order to better focus on building and developing the local positive investment climate. Binh Duong province has built up its fame in the southern key economic region and is especially a locality with policies and initiatives helping enterprises further develop. Another factor contributing to Binh Duong's success is the search and recruitment of quality workforces in the region. Binh Duong has as of now attracted a large number of direct workers. The birth of universities in the province as well as neighboring ones in Ho Chi Minh city has helped promote the local quality labor market. According to Yamada Takio, Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam, there are currently 300 Japanese enterprises operating in Binh Duong province, with a total investment capital of US$5.77billion. In 2014, Binh Duong province signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing friendly cooperative relations with Japans Yamaguchi province. Since then, the close friendship between Yamaguchi province and Binh Duong province has always been maintained. In 2021, two webinars in the province were held in attendance of Yamaguchi Prefecture Governor Muraoka. The events took place very animatedly. The friendship and linkage between the two localities and the attachment through cultural and sports activities will continue getting stronger in the coming time. According to Peter Portheine, Development Director of Brainport Group, from an agricultural province, Binh Duong turned to strong development in industry and services during the past 25 years,. Binh Duong not only continues its economic growth, but also focuses more on green and sustainable growth. This development demonstrates the strategic vision of the generations of provincial leaders in order to soon turn Binh Duong into a smart city in the future. Reported by Ho Van-Translated by Kim Tin Update: 18-04-2022 | 16:06:15 In two days of April 19 and 20, at Binh Duong provincial Convention and Exhibition Center, the scientific conference of "The tradition inheritance of Binh Duong in a quarter of a century - The achievements and prospects." This is a wide-ranging political-scientific activity with practical significance on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Binh Duong's construction and development from January 1, 1997 to January 1, 2022. After a term of concentration, efforts and urgent implementation of the Organizing Committee and specialized departments, up to now, the preparation steps for the workshop have been completed according to the set plan. Jubilant activities According to the Conference Organizing Committee, in addition to thematic and plenary discussions, the participants will be on field visit to economic, urban development models, smart city construction, science - technology development, and tours for delegates to supplement factual information to serve the presentation of content at the seminar. Accordingly, the delegates will visit Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) I and hear information about VSIP; they also visit the ceramics production and display area of Minh Long Company I and the Smart City Operations Center. Some delegates will visit Hoi Khanh Pagoda in Thu Dau Mot city and listen to the introduction of the project of the memorial area for Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac along with visits to Eastern International University, Dinh Hoa social housing area, VSIP II Office to hear information about VSIP, and the visit to the Smart City Operations Center. Ms. Truong Thi Bich Hanh, Standing Member, Head of Propaganda Department of the provincial Party Committee, Standing Committee of the Conference Organizing Committee informs representatives of press agencies about the contents of the conference. Photo: H.Van Within the framework of the conference, the provincial Party Committee and the provincial People's Committee will hold a ceremony to announce the Web Portal of the Provincial Party Committee and the Center for Smart Monitoring and Management of Binh Duong province and hold a signing ceremony of the coordination minutes in collaboration with the Central Council of Political Theories to implement the Project on Summarizing the development model of Binh Duong province in the country's renovation and oriented vision to 2050. The project will evaluate the province's development results comprehensively in all aspects during the renovation period. It will identify and clarify outstanding features of Binh Duong province's development model in the national renewal process to analyze the causes, especially the ways leading to success, and draw lessons from the results achieved in Binh Duong province while analyzing and forecasting factors affecting the development of Binh Duong province in the next 3 decades. The conference is also to determine the viewpoints, visions, goals, models, strategic orientations and development roadmap of Binh Duong province to 2050 and propose guidelines, mechanisms and policies for Binh Duong province to achieve breakthroughs in future development. In addition to the main activities of the conference, the Organizing Committee will coordinate with relevant units to organize the program of "Fatherland Flag Road" to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the National Day of Southern Liberation and International Labor Day and to organize exhibitions of documentary, art photos, fine art works, technical products - Robocon, lacquer, ceramics, and high-tech agricultural products. The conclusion of experience and creation of new breakthroughs According to the Organizing Committee of the Scientific Conference of "The tradition inheritance of Binh Duong in a quarter of a century - The achievements and prospects", so far the workshop has received the active participation and response of experts, scientists, and managers of units and localities inside and outside the province. At the thematic and plenary sessions, the participants will focus on giving speeches and discussing the content groups of building the political system, economic - urban development, people - culture society, and defense - security - foreign affairs. In which, the focus will be on evaluating achievements as well as shortcomings, limitations, difficulties and problems and suggestions, recommendations and solutions for Binh Duong province to quickly and sustainably develop in the process of contributing more to the overall development of the country. Speaking at the press conference about the scientific conference held at the weekend, Ms. Truong Thi Bich Hanh, Standing Member, Head of the Propaganda and Education Division of the provincial Party Committee, Standing Committee of the Organizing Committee, said that the conference is to affirm and honor the achievements of the Party Committee, authorities and people of Binh Duong province in the cause of national construction and defense, be the worthy continuation of the foundation and achievements of Song Be province; thereby, contributing to the pride and confidence for all classes of people in the Party's leadership in the cause of national construction and defense, especially in the process of renewal, development and integration. The conference is an important political-scientific event of Binh Duong province in 2022 to create a driving force to promote labor emulation movements for production, work and study as the contribution to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 11th Binh Duong provincial Party Congress of 2020-2025 tenure. The conference is to clarify the initiative, political determination and flexibility of the Party Committee and authorities of Binh Duong province in applying the guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State to specific materialize into guidelines, mechanisms and policies meeting the requirements of integration and development of the province. It identifies advantages and limitations along with opportunities and challenges to propose practical guidelines, tasks and solutions in order to exploit and effectively use resources to further promote socio-economic development of the province for the coming time. Up to date, the conference has received 175 presentations from experts, scientists inside and outside the province, agencies and units in the province. The content of the presentations submitted to the conference focus on analyzing and clarifying the historical significance of the event of dividing Song Be province into two provinces of Binh Duong and Binh Phuoc as the opening event for Binh Duong to promote its internal resources and take advantage of external forces to actively explore and be creative in comprehensive socio-economic development, making Binh Duong a model of the future ideal model of the country in terms of industrialization, urbanization and construction of rich and strong life for the people. Reported by Tri Dung Translated by Vi Bao Update: 18-04-2022 | 12:25:54 Myanmar reopened the Yangon International Airport on April 17, more than two years after the country suspended all commercial flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An overview of Yangon International Airport in Myanmar Xinhua news agency of China quoted an airport official as saying that a flight of Singapore Airlines that arrived at around 9am on April 17 was the first flight touching down at the airport after reopening. The inbound passengers need to present proof of vaccination with a Ministry of Health-approved vaccine and a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report, as part of the health protocol against COVID-19. Meanwhile, all foreign travellers are required to submit the COVID-19 medical insurance purchased from Myanmar Insurance. All incoming travellers will also have to wait at designated hotels for the RT-PCR test result that is to be sent by the Health Ministry in about 24 hours. Myanmar confirmed 18 new COVID-19 cases on April 16, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 612,545. The total death toll from COVID-19 in the country was 19,434. Over 22.23 million people in Myanmar had been fully vaccinated as of April 9./. VNA On the morning of April 17, the Provincial People's Committee held a ceremony to receive a mandarins hat and a Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty. The antiques were won at an overseas auction and donated by Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company to be displayed at Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities. Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Le Truong Luu presents a certificate of merit in recognition of the contributions of Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company Attending the ceremony were Mr. Le Truong Luu, Member of the Central Committee of the Party, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly; Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Standing Member of Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee. On behalf of Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company, there was Mr. Dinh Chi Hieu, Deputy General Director of Sunshine Group. The mandarin's hat and the Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty were successfully auctioned by Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company in Spain at the end of October 2021. The Nguyen Dynasty mandarins hat costs 600,000 Euro (nearly 16 billion VND) and the Nhat Binh ao-dai costs 160,000 Euro (more than 4 billion VND), excluding fees and taxes. The above antiques have been assessed by an appraisal council of scientists, artisans, and antique collectors as antiques dating from the late 19th century and early 20th century. They are associated with the Nguyen royal court life and are very valuable in terms of culture and history. The return of the imperial mandarin's hat and the Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen dynasty is an addition to the source of antiquities of a museum with a history of nearly 100 years closely associated with the complex of Hue royal architecture. According to the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, each donated artifact is a story, a journey, and also challenges. That journey is also the convergence of enthusiastic hearts for Hue and determination to bring antiques back to their homeland. The story of the antiques successfully auctioned at the Auctionet of the Balclis auction house in Barcelona, Spain recently is such a story of the Sunshine Group. Speaking at the reception ceremony, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Phuong thanked Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company for successfully participating in the auction of two valuable antiques of the Nguyen Dynasty abroad and for donating them to Thua Thien Hue. He emphasized: In the condition of limited budget resources along with many binding mechanisms for the collection and auction of antiques, participation in auctions and donation of antiques to museums of organizations and individuals is a noble and humane gesture towards the benefit of the community". With the goal of bringing the heritage closer to the public, these two antiques are on display by Hue Monuments Conservation Center at Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities and are open free of charge to the public from April 17 to May 17. Images captured by Thua Thien Hue Online at the reception and display ceremony of the two antiques, mandarin hat and Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty: Chairman Nguyen Van Phuong (first on the left) and Director of Hue Monuments Conservation Center Hoang Viet Trung (first on the right) presenting souvenirs to Sunshine Group Joint Stock Company Provincial leaders cutting the ribbon for opening the display of the two antiques, mandarin hat and Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty Receiving and bringing antiques to Hue is the effort and determination of the provincial leaders After many years of wandering, the mandarin's hat is on display at Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities and is appreciated by researchers and antique collectors as much more beautiful and sophisticated than the auction house's photo The back of the mandarin's hat The mandarin's hat box is also a finely carved artifact The Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty dating from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century is still intact The back of the Nhat Binh ao-dai of the Nguyen Dynasty The two antiques attract the public to visit and admire By Minh Hien The three Shenzhou-13 astronauts have completed their six-month space mission and returned to Earth safely on April 16. Crew transportation, rendezvous/docking and extravehicular activity are called the three fundamental technologies of human space flight. For any space capable nation that wants to have a space station, or to have a human mission to the Moon, it must master these three technologies. During the intensive space race between the former Soviet Union and U.S. in the mid of last century, they mastered these technologies via Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz space programs and the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo programs respectively. For China, we mastered crew transportation technology through Shenzhou-5 and Shenzhou-6 missions. We tested extravehicular activity via Shenzhou-7 mission. By conducting Tiangong-1/Shenzhou-8, 9, 10 missions, we mastered rendezvous and docking technologies. Therefore, Shenzhou-10 mission becomes China's first operational mission, rather than an experimental mission. Coincidentally, Wang Yaping, the second female astronaut and the first space teacher of China, is a crew member of both the Shenzhou-10 and Shenzhou-13 missions. With the safe return of Shenzhou-13 re-entry capsule, she and her crew members made history again. The Shenzhou-13 spaceship achieved both fast rendezvous/docking and fast return. This shows that China made new progress on crew transportation technology. About six hours after being launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Shenzhou-13 spaceship successfully rendezvoused with Tiangong space station and docked to Earth-facing docking port. This is not easy. To connect to spacecraft together, the basic requirement is that the second spacecraft must enter the same orbital plane of the first one. Considering that the Earth is rotating continuously, usually we don't have other choices but to launch the second spacecraft while the launch site is rotated to the orbital plane of the first spacecraft. However, this is the right moment for launch but when the second spacecraft comes into orbit, usually its position is quite different from the first one. To solve this problem, we choose a relatively lower orbit because it would rotate faster and thus chase the first one. With a two-day transfer period, like the former missions, we will have plenty of chance to handle all kinds of problems. But with the fast rendezvous and docking, it raised a much higher reliability requirement to the Shenzhou spaceship. Also the orbit maneuvers must be carefully planned and conducted. The rendezvous and docking of Shenzhou-13 spaceship with Tiangong space station was excellent, because it shows that China has mastered fast rendezvous and docking technology very practically. This has made the crew members very comfortable because they only stayed about six hours in the narrow volume. Another issue we should consider about is the "space motion sickness," which is caused by the influence of zero-G to human cardiovascular system and neural system. Usually the sickness happens six hours after coming into orbit and the astronauts will feel better in two days. With the fast rendezvous and docking, the astronauts will keep a very good status before entering the station. This also brings another advantage, if something is wrong with the autonomous docking system, the Shenzhou-13 commander may switch to manual docking mode. Because they are still in very good status, this can ensure the success of manual operations as well. Shenzhou-13 not only accomplished a fast rendezvous and docking, it is also the first spacecraft of China that achieved a docking on radial direction. Mastering this technology is very critical for the construction and operation of China's space station. Because Tiangong space station only has one front docking port and one rear docking port. If the two docking ports are occupied by other spacecrafts, like this time, the two docking ports were occupied by Tianzhou-2 and Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecrafts. Thus Shenzhou-13 has no other choices but to dock with the Earth-facing docking port. Approaching the station from below means that the two spacecrafts are in different orbits, comparing with docking from the front or rear direction, theoretically speaking the relative position is not a stable one, which brings more challenge to the operation. During the construction phase, the Shenzhou spaceship must dock to the Earth-facing docking port, and keep the front docking port free for the coming Wentian and Mengtian modules. In the future operation phase, during the turn over of different expedition teams, there will be two Shenzhou spaceships connecting to the station, one on the front docking port and the other on the Earth-facing docking port. Shenzhou-13 spaceship's docking showed that China has mastered this technology. When Shenzhou-13 spaceship undocked from Tiangong space station, it took only several hours to return to Dongfeng landing zone. This fast return technology is also a remarkable breakthrough in return technology. Similar like rendezvous and docking, Shenzhou spaceship must conduct the de-orbiting insertion when the landing zone is rotated with the Earth to the orbital plane of Shenzhou. For each day there is only one chance for this operation. Before that, the Shenzhou spaceship must have left Tiangong spacestation to a safe distance, and the orbital module must be separated from the reentry capsule. Not like missions before, Shenzhou-13 spaceship conducted all kinds of complex operations within only several hours and successfully performed the de-orbiting burn. And then the propulsion module is separated. Like the fast rendezvous and docking, the fast return also ensures the Shenzhou-13 crew only stayed in narrow volume for a very short period, much more comfortable than former missions. A faster return also benefits scientific research. During the Shenzhou-13 mission, the crew conducted many space medicine and space biology research. They brought some samples back to the Earth. Shortening the transfer period may keep the samples in an ideal storage condition. With the success of Shenzhou-13 mission, China now is more practical on fast rendezvous/docking, radial direction docking and fast return, which shows the remarkable progress of China in crew transportation technologies. By Yang Yuguang, vice chair of the Space Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation. (Source: CGTN) A Beatrice woman was sentenced to prison this week for a series of crimes that took place in Johnson County. On Monday, Tanya Binnick, 44, of Beatrice, was sentenced by the District Court in Johnson County for crimes taking place in 2019 and 2020. She received 6-10 years in the Nebraska Department of Corrections for possessing a stolen firearm, three years for child abuse, and two years for flight to avoid arrest. The sentences will run concurrently, and she received credit for 51 days previously served at the Johnson County Jail. A press release state the charges stemmed from separate incidents, beginning on June 26, 2019, when the Johnson County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at the Crab Orchard home where Binnick was living at the time. During the search of that residence, the Sheriff's Office recovered property that had been reported stolen from a home in Fairbury, including a Marlin .17 HMR rifle. Deputies also found the home to lack electricity, running water, and sufficient food for her children, who lived with her part-time. On August 8, 2020, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office was in Crab Orchard attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Binnick. When she saw the officers, Binnick fled in her vehicle. Officers pursued her at high speeds through Johnson and Pawnee Counties before terminating their pursuit in Kansas, where she was arrested by local authorities. During this pursuit, she narrowly missed hitting an officer head-on. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 5 Sad 1 Angry 5 Authorities from Gage and Jefferson counties made an arrest following a high-speed pursuit after a robbery late Saturday night. Just before 11:30 p.m. the Jefferson County 911 Center received a call from an employee at McDonalds stating there was a robbery and a female employee was assaulted and needed medical attention. At the time of the call a Jefferson County Deputy was already near the area and observed two black males run south through the large parking lot near McDonalds, head south across Highway 136 and then south on J Street. A press release stated the deputy started to follow them and saw headlights from a vehicle parked on the side of the street turn on. The deputy pulled in front of the vehicle in an attempt to stop them from leaving, but the vehicle jumped the curb and took off. The deputy pursued the vehicle and it failed to stop and left Fairbury eastbound on Highway 136. Other deputies who responded to the scene of the crime found a female employee of McDonalds had been assaulted and she had serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries. She was transported to the Jefferson County Hospital where she was treated. Other deputies pursued the vehicle eastbound on highway 136 to Beatrice, where speeds reached 125 mph. The press release stated the suspect drove in an extremely reckless manner and drove with the lights off at times during the pursuit. With the assistance of the Beatrice Police Department, spike strips were deployed near Southeast Community College as the vehicle neared Beatrice. One suspect fled on foot near the disabled vehicle. With the assistance of the Beatrice Police Department, Gage County Sheriffs Office, and the Jefferson County Emergency Management Drone Team, a large search was conducted. The suspect was found and taken into custody in connection with the robbery after a 90 minute search. He as identifed as 34-year-old Marzeanis M. Coleman, of Lincoln. During the investigation it was determined that two black males entered the back door of McDonalds during closing while a cash drawer count was being conducted. During the robbery, a struggle between one of the suspects and the female employee occurred. The suspects fled McDonalds after getting a small amount of cash. There was also a pistol located in the vehicle that was later determined to be a stolen firearm. Coleman was booked into the Jefferson County Jail for robbery, felony flight to avoid arrest, possession of stolen firearm, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, obstructing police and assault. The incident is still under investigation, and the press release stated the identity of additional suspects is being investigated at this time. Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 State environmental officials have made another $2.2 million in funding from a federal settlement with Volkswagen available to replace or repower vehicles. This marks the third round of funding stemming from North Dakota's $8.1 million share of a 2016 settlement between the federal government and the auto manufacturer after Volkswagen admitted to programming diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. The settlement money is meant to go toward projects that reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, which are released by diesel engines and can contribute to smog. So far through the settlement, Bismarck has installed two fast electric vehicle charging stations -- one at the airport and another at the Bismarck-Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city has also secured funding for three new diesel trucks and a fire truck. "There is still some benefit there to operate a newer, more efficient vehicle that likely pollutes less than what it replaced," said Keith Hinnenkamp, compliance program manager for the Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Air Quality. "At the end of the day, the settlement requires that older vehicles are taken out of service so they are no longer operable." Older vehicles will be scrapped or taken out of service, following program requirements. In some cases, ranchers have requested to bring home the shell of a bus to use for sheltering calves, Hinnenkamp said. Program guidelines cap the share of settlement money that can go toward electric vehicle charging infrastructure at 15%, and most of that money within North Dakota was allocated during the first year, he said. Governmental and nongovernmental entities are eligible to apply for money in a number of categories, including trucks, buses, freight switchers, airport ground support equipment, forklifts and port cargo handling equipment. Typically, any settlement funds awarded will cover only part of the cost of a new vehicle or piece of equipment. Hinnenkamp said it's likely the state will administer a fourth and final round of funding after the third one closes to distribute any remaining money. The application deadline for the third round is May 2. More information is available at https://deq.nd.gov/AQ/planning/VW.aspx. Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Bismarck man sent to prison for raping an infant and giving her a venereal disease. A Burleigh County jury in May 2021 found Paxton Heywood, 23, guilty of a sex crime that carried a possible 20-year sentence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years on supervised probation, and must also register as a sex offender. Heywood in his appeal to the state Supreme Court argued that the lower court was wrong to allow prosecutors to amend the charging information in the days before the trial. He also argued the jury did not have sufficient evidence to convict him. The justices disagreed, and affirmed the lower courts ruling and the jurys verdict, saying "substantial evidence exists that could allow a jury to draw a reasonable inference in favor of conviction." Heywood was charged in 2019 after an adult family member reported the child's venereal disease diagnosis to police. Heywood last week pleaded guilty to two sex crimes authorities say took place several years ago. Authorities say he raped and inappropriately touched a young girl numerous times in 2013. South Central District Judge Pamela Nesvig ordered a presentence investigation, court documents show. Each count carries a possible 20-year prison sentence. The sentencing date was not immediately scheduled. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 4 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The latest North Dakota coronavirus news: pandemic lecture, camp grants and more. Pandemic lecture The director of North Dakota State University's Center for Immunization Research & Education will give a lecture Tuesday on how the accomplishments of vaccines are threatened by health misinformation and a rising tide of vaccine hesitancy. Professor Paul Carson will present Two Years on a Pandemic Frontline: Lessons Learned and Reflections for the Academy, at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union Anishinaabe Theater on the Fargo campus and through Zoom. Carson will explore the historical and psychological roots of vaccine hesitancy, and discuss how the NDSU center has worked to address the problem. Federal data shows that North Dakota continues to have some of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country: 65.4% of adults in the state are fully vaccinated, with the rate for all vaccine-eligible people -- age 5 and older -- at 58.9%. Neither rate increased over the week. The national averages are 75.8% and 70%, respectively. COVID-19 booster shots are recommended for people 12 and older. North Dakota's booster rate is 41.8%, compared to 47% nationally. Carson during the pandemic has been a regular consultant to the state Health Department and has served on Gov. Doug Burgums task force to address the pandemic response in North Dakota. On Tuesday he also will reflect on lessons learned in public health from the pandemic. Camp grants North Dakota schools and other groups can apply for up to $20,000 in grant assistance to offer academic camps for students during the summer. The camps will offer academic programs for students, including those who may need to make up instruction they lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler. Organizations eligible for an Academic Summer Learning Experience grant are school districts, community groups, city and county agencies, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Groups may submit joint applications. Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 29. They may be emailed to dpischoolapproval@nd.gov or mailed to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, 600 E. Boulevard Ave., Dept. 201, Bismarck, ND 58505-0440. For more information, go to https://bit.ly/3x9t0wv. Questions can be emailed to dpischoolapproval@nd.gov, or call program administrator Arlene Wolf at 701-328-2295. Testing and vaccines A comprehensive list of free public COVID-19 testing offered in North Dakota can be found at health.nd.gov/covidtesting. That site also lists where free at-home test kits are being offered. People can go to https://www.ndvax.org or call 866-207-2880 to see where COVID-19 vaccine is available near them. County-level COVID-19 risks determined by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found at https://bit.ly/3Clifrq. Guidance and resources for businesses are at https://bit.ly/3w0DpKj. General information is at https://www.health.nd.gov/diseases-conditions/coronavirus. A recently appointed state legislator is calling on the North Dakota attorney general to determine if the state owns the Bismarck-Mandan Rail Bridge. Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, requested an opinion from the attorney general's office Monday to settle the ownership dispute, which the office has previously declined to wade into. The nonprofit Friends of the Rail Bridge wants to stop BNSF Railway from demolishing the 139-year-old bridge spanning the Missouri River to make way for a new structure. The preservation group and the railroad signed an agreement with the U.S. Coast Guard in early 2021 outlining paths to either keeping or removing the bridge. The Coast Guard decides on projects proposed along that part of the river, and the permitting process for a new bridge has been ongoing for more than four years. The nonprofit earlier this year said it believes state ownership of the bridge would bolster its cause. The railway called those ownership claims "absurd" and questioned the timing. The Attorney General's office previously told the State Historic Preservation Office and the State Historical Society that it would not get involved in the ownership dispute because no state entity was involved. Potter said he thinks the State Historical Society has a "statutory responsibility" to determine if the bridge has historical interest if it is owned by the state. He added that no state officials had voiced any opposition to the idea of the state owning the bridge. He did not say whether any expressed interest. If the attorney general declines to issue an opinion or says the bridge does not belong to the state, then the preservation effort continues as it is, he said. "But if the attorney general says yes, then all of the dreams people have had about the preservation of the bridge come into play immediately," Potter said. The attorney general is reviewing the request, spokeswoman Liz Brocker said. Potter said the preservation group did not ask him to request the opinion. FORB President Mark Zimmerman said Potter advised the group he'd be taking action. Bismarck-area District 35 Democrats in March appointed Potter to fill out the remainder of the term of Sen. Erin Oban, D-Bismarck, which expires at the end of November. Potter also is running for the seat in the November election. Oban recently resigned after President Joe Biden appointed her as state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency. She had previously chosen not to seek reelection to the Legislature this year due to what she said was the divisive nature of politics. Reach Sam Nelson at 701-250-8264 or sam.nelson@bismarcktribune.com. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Federal efforts are underway to rename places containing the offensive term "squaw" in their names, and at least one tribal nation within North Dakota plans to engage. But a rancher with deep roots at one such place says the name wasn't meant to be hurtful, and that locals didn't initially believe the renaming effort was real. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last fall declared the word to be derogatory and established a 13-member Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force. The panel in months ahead will recommend to the Board on U.S. Geographic Names replacement names for more than 660 geographic features on federal lands. Each feature will have a list of five candidate names. Words matter, particularly in our work to make our nations public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Consideration of these replacements is a big step forward in our efforts to remove derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue, Haaland said in a statement. Throughout this process, broad engagement with tribes, stakeholders and the general public will help us advance our goals of equity and inclusion. Several spots on the map in North Dakota contain the slur in their name, including Squaw Gap in McKenzie County. Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Tribal Chairman Mark Fox said he is "definitely in support of adjusting that derogatory term. It really is a bad term. It's always been." "It really causes serious and strong emotions and resistance to that term," Fox said. He supported the renaming of Squaw Peak in Arizona in 2003 as Piestewa Peak for the first-known Native woman in the U.S. military to die in combat. "I think the ones that we have here in North Dakota ... those should be changed as well," Fox said. He doesn't yet have replacement names in mind, but said tribal elders and historians could help identify historical and traditional names, especially for places close to the reservation. MHA Nation plans to declare its support for the federal efforts and to offer assistance in renaming the sites, Fox said. "Right now we're just putting our support behind it and think it's a good project and a good federal action. Others may not feel the same, but we definitely do," the tribal chairman said. Gov. Doug Burgum's office is "continuing to track the issue and will provide input as requested by the federal government," spokesman Mike Nowatzki told the Tribune. Squaw Gap Squaw Gap, which is little more than a community hall and an old schoolhouse on a remote road, holds "nothing but loving memories" for Kathy Skarda, a Keene-area farmer and rancher who spent the first 25 years of her life in the Squaw Gap area. Her friends and family there didn't think the renaming effort was real. "They thought it was a joke. They couldn't believe it," she said. The community's name "notes a local rock formation said to resemble an Indian squaw carrying a papoose and its location in a gap in a hill," according to "North Dakota Place Names" by Douglas A. Wick. Squaw Gap acquired telephone service in 1971, "one of the last regions in the country" to do so, the book said. Skarda said she doesn't think the name was "ever meant to be derogatory toward anybody or any ethnicity." "But if it means so much to have it changed, I guess we'll have to live with it, but ... I think in the hearts and the minds of everybody around the community, it will always be Squaw Gap, with treasured memories and honored over time," she said. "Changing the name, I guess, won't change the memories and the cherished family events and the history that the Squaw Gap has always been for the community." Candidate replacement names are Spring Creek, One-O-One Creek, Phillip Draw, West Fork Badlands Draw and Phillip Spring, according to a task force map. The local U.S. Forest Service office last month notified the McKenzie County Commission of the renaming effort, said Skarda, the commission's vice chair. The panel "notified the citizens" so they can engage, she said. More information on the task force and a public comment period is at bit.ly/3NGfMNr. Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 The West can never do humanized projects besides ruin Frank April 18, 2022 This is the comment following Youtube video How China is Reforesting the Gobi Desert into Forest - The Great Green Wall 208,9922022328 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbEkCeKvpb4 By Primest - The Money Channel; a first business TV channel in Romania. It broadcast information about the Stock Exchange in Romania, and also news, mainly economic, but also politics, weather and sport. 3.56 Comments Thanks a lot for inspiration video. But it only can be done in the economic model of socialist mixing capitalist of China by viewing the profit from whole economic system in a long term, not by single project for a return in a short period as that of capitalist persuing. But the most decisive root is at China based Collectivistic Civilization humanized Technocratic Democratic government since two thousand years ago and today China the government is composed of outstanding entrepreneurs and scholars to be headed by a Politburo of 7 members who are gradually promoted from grassroot with ensured personal and political quality, without the meeting consensus, no one would speak at will to avoid personal dictator. Since two thousand years ago, the ancient government of China recognized that is not all people in human feature are in human nature and ideology is in decisively affecting the quality of people; so that took Confucianism as only moral guidance to suppressing other stupid ideologies to have humanized people with human quality of self-discipline for collectivistic interest. This is the reason that China has been in long peace with old and new Silk Road to supply the life necessaries globally. In the West, it can never be done the projects as that of China did from now on after the gone of quality generation that cultured by the hard life of World War II. Due to that in the Western countries, everything done and in doing is opposite with the humanized practice of China did and in doing; which is because of the inhuman flaw of European looting and killing Dark Ages based Western Individualistic Civilization; in which the free campaigned liberal democracy attracts brainless social garbage as reckless dictator by taking the power of State Apparatus as personal crutch to exert their beast mentality at will by looking for harm others as pleasure; while wrongful ideologies dehumanized people in only selfish individualistic concern without a slight sense for collectivistic interest. The country that their people not care about is doomed to ruin. The fatal harm of liberal democracy is at that it shares the power of the State Apparatus to the brain defective individuals who are eagerly democratic playing; which exposed a terrible tragedy that liberal democracy has been in large scale producing reckless dictators; and than the dictators ruin the economy of own home place. Actually, Liberal Democracy is not a democracy; but produces dixtators by granting the power of the State Apparatus to the beast individuals. For self beautifying to cheat voters and public; the dictators of democratic politicians endlessly yell Liberal Democracy, Liberty or Freedom, human Rights and too many ignorant ideologies; they are never care about to ruin the life of public and themselves. Social effect exposed that the Liberty or Freedom, human Rights and too many ignorant ideologies is the noose on the neck of democratic played countries; and it is never able to untie. Please look at the contribution of democratic players The Geatest United Sataes of America 2018, in book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap, the American political scientist at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the professor Graham Allison has indirectly proved that the United States has lost essential vitality along with the loss of social productivity. The Professor introduced disappointed project of the silver line of the Washington Metro, it began planning in 1968, officially launched in 2000, but began the construction until in 2009. The first phase of the project was completed in 2014, which was 46 years later from the start of the planning, but, that only completed 5 stations of planned 34. The professor sighed that its even harder to know when the second phase of the connection to the Dulles Airport will be completed. The professor introduced another project that was the bridge across the Charles River between the Kennedy School and Harvard Business School in a distance that can be seen from his office window. In 2012, the State of Massachusetts said they were going to renovate this bridge, and it would take two years. But, in 2014, they said it wasn't finished. In 2015, they said it would take one more year. But it was finished until 2017 with three times over budgeting. As sharp contrast, the professor introduced a project in Beijing China; a much bigger bridge called the Sanyuan Bridge was renovated within 43 hours. The Professor disappointed said that now China completed project in hours is more than that of the United States completed in years. The reason of the slow of the construction is nothing else, but the values cultured idling play encourage people playing idling play to force government adding supplementary budgets. The terrible is at that in the U.S.; such idling play for adding budget is not limited in the public project; but corrupted in the project of individual home. My friend told me that his neighbors in both sides are suffered idling play in building fence of back yards; so that they have to three times adding supplementary budgets that were nearly reaching the half of the price for buying the house. The Greatest United Kingdom: Feb. 12, 2016, a report How did Britain fall out of love with privatisation indicates that, privatization was supposed to reduce the burden on the taxpayer and force these sectors to become more competitive, efficient and deliver better value for customers. But over the long term, it has become clear that private services do not deliver good value. For the ticket of 35-minute railway journey, in Britain was 358 monthly, but in Italy was 37 only. The most recent data show that for Department of Health projects which delivered over 11 billion of capital investment, the undiscounted cost of the unitary charges to be paid until the end of these projects was around 80 billion. Labour Party leader vows to renationalize their failed infrastructure again, it is not willingly, but have to; and which will be the second time in repeating the same business. The Great Britain may be the only country that flips its economy upside down twice likes a pancake. Now, I really doubt that whether Great Britons have fixed their teeth that have been broken by the hard nut of state owned economy or they have cultivated the wand for taming the monster of state-owned economy - a monster that once beats Great Britain in decades ago. Such sadness was not the result of British politicians who neglect their duties, or the low quality of British people, but the social atmosphere of the country has been corrupted as that of herding cats by the legally supported poisonous ideologies. The Greatest French Republic: Feb. 21, 2013, the article French minister hits back at 'three hour day' attack reports that: "Arnaud Montebourg, minister for industrial renewal in France, was subject to a written barrage of abuse from Maurice Taylor, chief executive of US tyremaker Titan, after the French politician appealed for financial support for an ailing Goodyear factory." "Mr. Taylor berated French workers for putting in just "three hours" a day, and said his company would be "stupid" to invest in the loss-making tyre plant in Amiens, northern France." "'The French workforce gets paid high wages but only work for three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!' Mr. Taylor wrote." In view of this, France comprehensive daily newspaper "Le Figaro" made an on line survey, there were 81 percent of French people said support the view of American boss. It clearly showed that French people themselves are also dissatisfied with the status quo of the poor work ethic of people. See, they are all the Greatest in Greatest Stupid. <<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>> Below is the comment from the Primest - The Money Channel. How China is Turning it's Desert into a Forest Oasis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbEkCeKvpb4 Greening the world's deserts reverse climate change Allan Savory regenerative agriculture desert oasis desertification desert farming in Saudi Arabia desert farming sustainability fight climate change regreening deserts global warming China Turns Desert into Green Forests desert into forest desert into oasis desert into green desert into farmland Regreening the desert with John D. Liu Arabia Oasis Africa green wall china green wall forest wall In today's video, we're going to introduce How China is Turning it's Desert into a Forest Oasis The China Great Green Wall Project has the Chinese government was concerned about one thing: the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert spans about 500,000 km of northern China and southern Mongolia. The expanding dryness of northern China poses a severe danger to the country and its people. The Gobi Desert is the world's fastest-spreading desert, transforming over 2250 miles of grassland per year. This expansion devastates agricultural land and generates sandstorms that wreak havoc on populations along the desert's edge. Chinese desertification has been continuous since the 1950s when the Young People's Republic started raising farms and wildlands to create communities and infrastructure to accommodate a growing population. This human activity exposed most of the land to wind erosion and desert deposits. Until the 1970s, the government concentrated completely on desertification and took action. In 1978, the Chinese government initiated the three North Shelterbelt Projects, often known as the Great Green Wall, a state-wide ecological engineering project. Another unofficial title was Luise Chang Cheng or The Great Green Wall of China. It is considered to have been written by Deng Xiaoping. This operation aims to stop the Gobi Desert's spread by planting millions of trees along its 2800-mile border with Northern China. Reforestation is one of the world's most important environmental projects. Grass and indigenous trees are planted first, followed by drought-resistant species. Then come to the hardest trees, such as poplars. Planting teams are formed, and seeds are dispersed throughout the plains. Chinese elites, including ministers, join specialists and amateurs in planting trees. Although billions of trees have been planted, the project intends to plant 100 billion trees by 2050. The Chinese can now grow trees online. Donations are lawfully collected and used for planting. According to the Chinese government, around 66 billion trees have been planted in northern China during the previous several decades. Between 2009 and 2014, thousands of moving dunes were stabilised, and the frequency of sandstorms was cut in half throughout the country. Hectares of windbreak trees have been planted, 336,200 square kilometres of desertification has been reversed, and over 10 million hectares of grasslands have been protected regenerated in the previous 40 years. while parts of the Gobi Desert are blooming with lush vegetation, rich soil, and more rainfall. Another achievement was establishing a luxuriant forest area in northern China's Mu Us desert. The Great Green Wall is not China's sole action. In the early 2000s, many laws were enacted. While the Great Green Wall Project has shown potential, it is not flawless. Some opponents of the initiative are critical, but the majority are anti-monoculture. Most woodlands contain just one tree species, rendering them vulnerable to epidemics. Numerous trees have been devastated by plant diseases. The World Bank advised China to prioritise tree species quality above number. A forest debate occurred a few years ago. Large Chinese cities, particularly Beijing, suffer from pollution, which increases year after year despite government efforts. Smog is pushed out of cities by the wind. However, this has become infrequent. The New Forest plantings may have hindered air movement, resulting in stagnant air in cities that cannot be cleaned. Zhang Yongli, the People's Republic of China's State Forestry Administration deputy head of Trees, can only hinder air circulation near the land's surface. In any case, the benefits exceed the drawbacks, notably their engagement in pollution reduction. Mass tree planting. Farmers in Southwestern China were spotted removing native vegetation to earn government funding for spreading non-native plants as part of a government effort. Water. Large areas of China, especially in tree-planting zones, are becoming drier. The project's thirsty nonnative trees have depleted groundwater resources in arid portions of northern China. Everyone has that one artist or an author who produces such impressive work that they'd walk across flaming legos to procure their next piece. For me, one of those authors is Grant Morrison. Morrison is among the most inventive and essential creators in the history of the comics medium. People love to ascribe that aforementioned list of superlatives to Morrison's rival Alan Moore, but I'd argue that both are equally responsible for reinventing how modern comics are written. One could even draw parallels between their creative output with every decade of their professional careers. With the announcement of LUDA, fans will be able to compare Morrison and Moore's output in the world of books as well. The story follows a drag artist named Luci, who becomes embroiled in Glasgow's occult world. Luci LaBang is a star: for decades this flamboyant drag artist has cast a spell over screen and stage. Now she's the leading lady in a smash hit musical. But as time takes its toll, Luci fears her star is beginning to dim. When Luci's co-star meets with a mysterious accident, a new ingenue shimmers onto the scene: Luda, whose fantastical beauty and sinister charm infatuate Luci immediately and who bears a striking resemblance to herself at a much younger age. Luda begs Luci to share the secrets of her stardom, and reveal the hidden tricks of her trade. For Luci LaBang is a mistress of the The Glamour, a mysterious discipline that draws on sex, drugs, and the occult for its trancelike transformative effects. But as Luci tutors her young protegee in the art, their fellow actors and crew members begin meeting with untimely ends. Now Luci wonders if Luda has mastered The Glamour all too well and exploited it to achieve her dark ambitions. What follows is an intoxicating descent into the demimonde of Gasglow, a fantastical city of dreams, and into the nightmarish heart of Luda herself: a femme fatale, a phenomenon, a monster, and perhaps, the brightest star of them all. The book is currently available for pre-order with a release date of September 6, 2022. Throwing an unwanted office birthday party for an employee in Kentucky caused the celebrated man to have a panic attack and cost the company $450,000 in a lawsuit settlement. The employee, Kevin Berling, had asked his company, medical laboratory Gravity Diagnostics, to ignore his birthday, which would aggravate his anxiety disorder. But the person in charge of birthday celebrations forgot. And things only escalated after Berling's party-induced panic attack. From The Guardian: The person who scheduled the party, Berling said, "didn't do it to be mean. She said she would accommodate [Berling's request] and she just forgot." The next day, according to Berling's lawsuit, Berling was "confronted and criticized" for his reaction. "According to my client, [his managers] started reading him the riot act and accused him of stealing other co-workers' joy," Bucher told Link NKY. According to the lawsuit, "this confrontation triggered another panic attack". Berling's lawsuit said: "At the conclusion of this meeting and because plaintiff had a panic attack, plaintiff was sent home from work for the remainder of 8 and 9 August." Berling apologized for having a panic attack. But, his lawsuit said, three days later he received an email from the company, "informing him that he was being terminated because of the events of the previous week". According to court documents, a jury awarded Berling $450,000, including "$120,000 in lost wages and benefits; $30,000 in future lost wages and benefits; and $300,000 for past, present and future mental pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, mortification and loss of self-esteem". Two retired Buffalo priests accused of sexually abusing minors are suing the Buffalo Diocese to restore their pensions, which were reduced or eliminated after the priests refused to submit to a monitoring program pushed by the State Attorney Generals Office. The Rev. Arthur J. Smith and the Rev. Pascal D. Ipolito maintain that they are not child molesters and havent had a fair hearing to defend themselves against the accusations. They also said they earned the pensions that were promised to them when they became priests decades ago and when they retired a few years ago. Our position is that the (pension) contract clearly lays out that they have a vested right. It cannot be amended, modified, whatever it may be, said attorney Mark J. Byrne, who filed a lawsuit Sunday in Erie County State Supreme Court. The lawsuit might be the first of its kind in the country of Catholic clergy seeking a civil court remedy in a pension dispute. Diocesan priests take a vow of obedience to their bishops when they are ordained, and very few priests have challenged their bishops in U.S. courts over employment matters. Byrne described the case as a contract dispute in which the diocese has failed to fulfill its end of the bargain. He said Bishop Michael W. Fisher recently added to the priests pension plan random conditions that were not present when the priests retired. Theyre just changing the substance of the contract in order to almost appease the Attorney Generals Office. It is fundamentally unfair, said Byrne. Byrne is seeking an injunction to restore the full pensions until the matter can be addressed in court. Fisher created the monitoring program in response to the AGs 2020 lawsuit alleging the diocese covered up for abusive priests and failed to put in place measures to prevent child sexual abuse. The state agency sought a court order to force a better monitoring system for offending priests. The diocese and AG's office are still negotiating a settlement to end the lawsuit. Buffalo Diocese negotiating to settle attorney general's lawsuit Lawyers for the diocese and the Attorney Generals Office have been going back and forth for months on a draft settlement agreement, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Diocese spokesman Gregory Tucker issued a prepared statement Monday stating that the diocese "has been consistent in its requirement that those members of the clergy with substantiated claims of abuse agree to the rigorous monitoring program established by the Diocese." "Failure to comply entails the potential forfeiture of Diocesan financial support and/or pension benefits, as outlined by Bishop Fisher in October 2021," he added. Fisher last year wrote to 18 accused priests, all of whom are retired, about a monitoring plan that requires them to refrain from presenting themselves as clergy and performing any kind of ministry, such as celebrating Masses and hearing confessions. They also must meet at least monthly with a mental health case worker and be subject to unannounced home visits, among other requirements. Fisher said in his letter that failure to comply could lead to their pensions being revoked, and diocese officials have said most of the 18 priests signed monitoring plan paperwork. Smith, Ipolito and at least one other priest, the Rev. Samuel J. Venne, have maintained their innocence and refused to sign. Vennes priest pension was cut by a quarter from $1,940 to $1,668 per month, not enough to cover basic living expenses, Venne said in a recent letter to Fisher. Venne, 80, said he had earned the full pension and was in poor health and too old to find a job to replace the cut in pension money. I find your lack of charity under the circumstances unconscionable and completely inconsistent with the fundamental teachings of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Venne said in his letter. Venne has not joined the lawsuit. Byrne said the diocese eliminated Smiths pension entirely and cut Ipolitos in half. They cant afford their living expenses, medical, or anything like that, he said. How are they supposed to pay any of these bills? They have rent. Theyre not homeowners with regards to where theyre living, so they have a lease agreement and theyre going to get thrown to the curb. Former Bishop Richard J. Malone removed Smith, Ipolito and Venne from ministry in 2018 and placed them on administrative leave after receiving complaints that the priests had sexually abused minors. A diocese review board later determined the complaints were substantiated. Ipolito, 77, is accused in three separate Child Victims Act lawsuits alleging abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. Venne is accused in two lawsuits, one alleging abuse in 1980, the other in 1992. Smith also is accused in two lawsuits, one alleging abuse in 1976, the other in 1994. In an interview last year, Ipolito told The News he wouldnt consent to being monitored because he wasnt guilty of any child sexual abuse. Im not a predator, and I absolutely refuse to accept that label, he said. Venne and Smith, 76, also have maintained their innocence through their attorneys. Before the cuts, Ipolito and Smith had been receiving pensions of $2,009 and $1,904 per month, respectively, according to court papers. Survivors of child sex abuse criticized the diocese in 2020 for not doing more to punish priests accused of abuse, including revoking pensions. As part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy negotiations, the diocese agreed to stop paying salaries to priests who were suspended due to substantiated abuse allegations. It also stopped paying for their health care and car insurance. Diocese officials said in 2020 they could not revoke pension payments because they werent certain it was legal. But Fisher last year amended the pension plan to include a clause stating that priests with substantiated abuse allegations forfeit their rights to receive benefits under the plan. Bishops are still obligated under Catholic Church canon law to provide decent support for their priests, even if they have been suspended from ministry. The dioceses amended pension document says that the bishop may restore a portion, or even all, of the priests retirement benefit. Fisher extended the deadline for priests to comply with the monitoring program multiple times, and in February he advised the holdout priests in a letter that their pension payments would be cut as of March 1. The monitoring program as required by New Yorks Attorney General is an essential component of your repentance and accountability to provide the assurance of a responsible and safe environment for all persons, Fisher said in the letter. If you were to agree to full compliance of this reasonable monitoring program, there could be the possible consideration of restoring your full pension. It's not clear how far the priests' lawsuit will advance, given that courts sometimes are reluctant to intervene in personnel matters of religious organizations. A Catholic priest in Fall River, Mass., who was removed from ministry after a child sex abuse allegation sued his bishop last July. The Rev. Daniel W. Lacroix alleged Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha slandered him by putting Lacroixs name on a list of priests credibly accused of abusing a minor. A Massachusetts Superior Court judge in March dismissed the case. A former priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York settled a State Supreme Court lawsuit in 2008 over his suspension and eventual dismissal from the priesthood. That case was two days into trial over claims by Simon B. Howson that he was removed as rector in Batavia because he had complained about being sexually harassed by another priest. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, although Howson was not immediately reinstated. 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. The Mercy Flight helicopter that crashed Tuesday in a field in rural Genesee County, killing two seasoned pilots, was traveling at an altitude of about 2,000 feet when, according to witnesses, there was a "large boom and they saw the helicopter fall from the sky." A Lockport company has ended its court battle to recover $392,495 that was seized almost two years ago by federal agents investigating alleged fraud and money laundering by local debt collection firms. Officials of the Market Street Debt Partners admitted no wrongdoing when they recently signed a court document agreeing that they will no longer seek return of the money. The company has relinquished its claim to money seized from a company bank account. According to court papers filed by the U.S. Attorneys office, Market Street was hired to process payments for debt collection companies run by Mark M. Miller, 49, a Kenmore businessman. No criminal charges have been filed against Miller, who denied any wrongdoing Thursday in a brief message to a News reporter. Miller said he is no longer involved with debt collections and is still seeking to recover $90,385 that federal agents seized from his home in May 2020. Im out, Miller told The Buffalo News. And fighting for money. "My client has made no admission of any wrongdoing. If there was any kind of fraud involved, it had nothing to do with Market Street," Herbert L. Greenman, the attorney for Market Street, said on Friday. "The company processed payments for Mr. Miller in good faith. I think you can safely say the company intends to sue Mr. Miller." When investigators from the Homeland Security Department seized the $392,495 from Market Street Debt Partners in May 2020, Greenman filed a court challenge, saying the company conducts a legitimate business, broke no laws and should get its money back. But on Jan. 25, Greenman, company owner Joseph Torriere and a federal prosecutor all signed a court document stating that Market Street has agreed to let the government keep the money. Torriere knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waives his right to a jury trial on the forfeiture of assets, the court document states. While not admitting any wrongdoing, Torriere and his company agreed in the document that federal agents had probable cause to institute this action regarding any alleged criminal activities by a third party. Miller is not mentioned in the Jan. 25 document but prosecutors stated in two previous court documents that debt collection companies run by Miller were under investigation for alleged wire fraud and money laundering. Law enforcement officials and other sources told The News that the Miller probe is part of a still-ongoing effort to crack down on alleged fraud by Western New York debt collectors. The National Consumer Law Center has called Buffalo an epicenter of unscrupulous debt collection practices, and over the past six years, government investigations have shut down several multimillion-dollar collection agencies in the region. The state Labor Department told The News last year that 157 collection agencies were registered to do business in Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Allegany counties. The department said those agencies have 3,441 employees. In court papers filed last year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grace M. Carducci described Market Street as a debt processor for five companies run by Miller that were involved in illegal debt collection activities. The payment processor is a necessary entity that facilitates a wire fraud scheme/unlawful debt collection operation by providing the debt collection business with the capability of accepting debit/credit cards as payments, the prosecutor said in court papers. Barbara Burns, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys office in Buffalo, declined Thursday to comment on the Market Street seizure latest developments in the or to provide any update on the Miller investigation. Prosecutors said last year they were investigating almost $2.8 million in transactions related to debt collection firms run by Miller. They alleged that Miller's companies engaged in illegal debt collection practices, including the use of profane language, threats and scare tactics. Miller has denied any wrongdoing in interviews with The News, claiming that he has been unfairly targeted by law enforcement. Federal agents in Army suits, pointing machine guns, raided my home and my business almost a year ago, Miller said last year. They have not charged me with anything ... because my companies follow the law. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As his murder trial was set to begin Monday, a Buffalo man admitted he fatally stabbed a 29-year-old man more than two years ago inside a convenience store. Quinton O. Turner, 30, pleaded guilty in Erie County Court to first-degree manslaughter in the death of Ronald Green. Turner was scheduled to begin a bench trial on a second-degree murder charge before County Court Judge Kenneth Case. A condition of the plea was an agreement that the judge would sentence Turner to between 20 and 25 years in prison. Green was stabbed six times at about 5 a.m. Jan. 5, 2020, inside Mandella Market, at East Ferry Street and Jefferson Avenue. He died of his injuries a short distance from the store. Turner and Green knew each other, prosecutors said. They were involved in a dispute over money related to damage to a vehicle, prosecutors said. In pleading guilty to the manslaughter charge, Turner admitted he was attempting to cause Green a serious physical injury. In order to prove a murder charge, prosecutors would have had to prove Turner intended to kill Green. Turner was taken into custody by U.S. marshals on Jan. 31, 2020, in Charlotte, N.C. He was extradited back to Buffalo. Green's family was willing to support the plea agreement if Turner was guaranteed to receive a sentence of 20 to 25 years, Assistant District Attorney Eugene Partridge told the judge. Judges typically are able to impose a sentence for first-degree manslaughter of anywhere between 5 and 25 years in prison. As another condition of the plea, Turner agreed to waive his right to appeal, aside from rare legal exceptions. Turner, who continues to be held without bail, is scheduled to be sentenced May 23. Reach Aaron at abesecker[at]buffnews.com or 716-849-4602. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Rev. Moses Ikuelogbon had never led a large in-person Easter Mass since joining St. Gregory the Great in Amherst in June 2019 until Sunday, that is. With Covid-19 restrictions lifted, Ikuelogbon prayed, laughed and shook hands with hundreds of parishioners Sunday a return to normalcy on one of the biggest Christian holidays of the year. "It gives hope to all of us," he said during a break between the 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Masses. "For the last two years, we weren't able to gather even last year, only a few people were here but today we have this crowd. And every Sunday is like a mini-Easter to all of us as we get rejuvenated in hope and spirit." It sure felt like a pre-pandemic Easter celebration, the type of atmosphere likely found in many U.S. churches Sunday. Congregants at St. Gregory chatted with one another face to face, the majority without masks. Those with kids at times huddled toward the back of the church, looking to keep noise to a minimum. And later on in Mass, Ikuelogbon walked around with a smile as he used a brush to sprinkle parishioners with Holy Water the type of tradition impossible to do over the livestreams that many churches had pivoted to during Easter celebrations in 2020 and 2021. When the 11 a.m. Mass ended, some lingered behind, opting to take photos together near the colorful floral display at the front of the church. As they left, they stopped to talk with Ikuelogbon. "Happy Easter, my friend," Ikuelogbon said to one. "Good to see you." Outside in the parking lot, it was like a shift change at a big manufacturing plant, as the 11 a.m. Mass attendees departed and the arrivals for the 12:30 p.m. Mass began, with stop-and-go traffic for a brief period. The scene, of course, unfolded adjacent to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, which at its peak had 109 Covid-19 patients on a single day in December 2020. That number, as of Thursday, was 13 Covid-19 patients hospitalized at Millard Fillmore, a reminder the virus is still here even if it's not causing as many cases of severe illness. That's something Bou Jaoude, a chaplain at Millard Fillmore, knows well. He stopped in for a few minutes at the end of the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Gregory, standing quietly in the back. A few minutes later, he headed back to the hospital before returning a while later for the 12:30 p.m. Mass where an usher escorted him to a chair this time around. "I see people hungry more for Christ," he said. "I think Covid has awakened a lot of people. And now more people are going back to their faith." And while the hospital is seeing low Covid hospitalizations, he confirmed it's seeing some sicker patients, too, after all the preventative care that was delayed during the pandemic. "People are asking for more attention," Jaoude said. "People are asking for more counseling." Churches, especially during the first wave of Covid in spring 2020, turned to various methods to deliver Easter services to parishioners. Churches livestreamed Mass, while others turned to outdoor services on makeshift stages. Some pastors pointed out the chaos and uncertainty in the pandemic's early days may have been akin to what the earliest followers of Jesus experienced. Churches stream Easter worship into homes in Covid-19 era Empty pews, honking car horns and home-office sermons marked the virtual Easter Sunday services that appeared Sunday morning on computers and other electronic devices throughout Western New York. Area churches celebrated the biggest Christian holiday of the year in a manner few people could have imagined before the novel coronavirus pandemic. True Bethel Baptist Church livestreamed on its website Sunday at St. Gregory, it was easing back into what Easter Mass must have looked like in April 2019. "During these major holidays like Easter, Christmas, it's good to see that the turnout is coming back to what it should be," said North Buffalo resident Gary Tredo, who attended the 11 a.m. Mass with his wife, Maureen, and two daughters: Ani, 4, and Adi, 2. The family was one of the few wearing masks, with Tredo saying he wanted to play it safe with his daughters getting over a cold. For Ikuelogbon, Easter Sunday was the type of scene he hopes to see every Sunday moving forward. However, Easter is typically one of the largest church gatherings of the year the result, he joked, of attendance that swells with the "C.A.P.E. Catholics those who come during Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Psalm Sunday and Easter." "I was really happy today to see this number of people in church, and I wish to see that constantly not just on Easter," Ikuelogbon said. Sunday's Mass featured the types of interactions not possible over a livestream, evident right away when Ikuelogbon started his last Mass of the day at 12:30 p.m. "Happy Easter to all of you," he told parishioners. The crowd mumbled back. "That is not loud enough," Ikuelogbon said, getting a few laughs. "Today is the day the Lord has made, and we are happy and we are glad." He tried again. "Friends, happy Easter to you all," he said, waiting eagerly for their reply. This time, they boomed back: "Happy Easter, Father." Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris. 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. College is supposed to be a time for intellectual exploration, for having ones ideas challenged and for trying to see things through the eyes of others. Those were not the values on display at the University at Buffalo on April 7, when student protesters tried to drown out the voice of a conservative commentator. Allen West, a former congressman from Florida and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, was invited to speak by a conservative club on campus, Young Americans for Freedom. His talk was titled America is Not Racist. One can debate whether that title was meant to provoke thought or animus, but student protesters at UB overreacted. Students began picketing that afternoon, carrying signs in the student union building with slogans including Racism is real and No justice, no peace. Some students demanded that Wests talk be canceled. Peaceful protest is a form of free speech, protected under the First Amendment. However, chanting and shouting over the speaker so he could not be heard, or making threats, is going too far. Therese Purcell, president of the UB chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, told The News that after Wests talk she was forced to hide in a mens bathroom after being chased by a group of protesters. She said another group leader was punched and kicked. UB said its campus police was investigating those incidents. UB officers were also looking into threats made against the protesters on the social media app Yik Yak. If they keep yelling its going to become target practice, one post said. All posts to Yik Yak are anonymous. Both the protests and the online threats reflect whats happening across American society, where political polarization spills into nearly every aspect of our lives and social media fans the flames. If someone disagrees with you, they must be arguing in bad faith. Opposing political views are dismissed as hate speech. Of course, racism exists in America. UBs student protesters were objecting to the premise of the speakers talk, but were unwilling to give him a fair hearing. A statement from the university said it does not take a position on opinions expressed by visitors, adding that UB stands by its commitment to upholding its core values of diversity, inclusion and mutual respect at all times. If students wish to attend a university that defends those values and they should they cannot ignore the part about mutual respect. Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing. This is not a war. It is clearly an invasion of the peaceful country of Ukraine orchestrated by Russias genocidal president. It is obvious that Vladimir Putin wants to gain back the land that was lost when the Soviet Union was broken up in 1991. He doesnt care if he kills everyone who lives in Ukraine. He also doesnt care if he destroys every structure in every town in Ukraine. All he seems to want is the land that the country of Ukraine encompasses. Putin didnt expect to have a war on his hands, but now that he does, he is even more obsessed with owning the land mass of Ukraine even if he has to annihilate everything and everyone within its boundaries. I understand the reluctance of the United States to more directly assist Ukraine militarily. Putin has a special hatred for our country and we shouldnt risk a nuclear war. However, we have sent almost a billion dollars in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. While Im certainly no expert in the art of war, Ill make a suggestion. I believe that the NATO countries should hire mercenaries and send them to Ukraine ASAP. They could help the Ukrainian military stop the Russians that are now amassing in the Eastern Donbas region. These mercenaries should be former military professionals who are expert in the use of the armaments that many countries have sent and are continuing to send to Ukraine. I believe that many former military people would agree to help Ukraine because of either humanitarian reasons and/or for the money. This recruitment could be done surreptitiously by many NATO countries so that Putin can not blame any one country. And none of the NATO countries could be accused of putting boots on the ground against Russia! There should be no announcements to the press or the public. If a number of NATO countries agreed, there could soon be many thousands of trained reinforcements bolstering Ukraines defenses. Robert Mauger East Aurora This story was first published on 3 December 2015 Visitors to the Jiu Tiao Qiao Xin Ba Na Du Tan in Tampines Link will notice a shrine to a somewhat unusual figure. It is a bearded Malay man or is he Chinese? sitting cross-legged, dressed in robes and a songkok. Before and around him are baju kurung melayu, songkoks, a stone keris and stone turtles, a symbol of fertility and vitality in Chinese culture. Beside him are two flowing streams of water, as well as ornaments declaring Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfriti (Happy Eid). His name is Datuk Gong, or Nah Tuk Kong. He is a guardian spirit and an earth deity who has taken various forms across different periods and places across Southeast Asia, attracting devotees of different ethnicities and faiths. Mr Tok, 56, caretaker of the Tampines temple, says he has seen Chinese, Indians and Malays coming to pay their respects to the deity. All gods are the same. We will all ask for the same things: peace, and that things will go smoothly for us. Its all the same, says Tok matter-of-factly. The origins of Datuk Gong The Datuk Gong shrine at the Jiu Tiao Qiao Xin Ba Na Du Tan in Tampines Link is surrounded by, among others, baju kurung melayu and ornaments for Hari Raya Puasa. (Photo: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo News Singapore) Malaysian documentary photographer Mahen Bala is the man behind the recent feature documentary Datuk Gong: Spirit of the Land. He explains, The Datuk is revered as a living spirit, and therefore he is treated with great respect by the community in which he resides. A shrine is built in his name, various offerings are presented and spirit mediums are engaged to communicate with him. The shrine may take the form of an idol bearing the likeness of the Datuk whose features vary across different places -, a tablet with his title inscribed on it or even a rock. The majority of old shrines in Georgetown, Penang are dedicated to multiple idols, collectively referred to as beradik or brothers, in multiples of three, five and sometimes seven. They are also represented by a series of coloured flags. However, in Klang, Selangor, most of the idols are dressed up as if they were members of the royal family, complete with headgear, keris and in some cases, accompanied by the entire royal court, says Mahen. Story continues Master Chong Weiyi, secretary general of the Taoist Federation (Singapore) Youth Group, says the Malay figure in a songkok is very similar to the Chinese earth deity Tua Pek Kong. It started from the early Straits Chinese immigrants. They will usually ask him for protection and blessing, especially in business, says Master Chong. It reflected the aspirations of the early Chinese immigrants: they wanted to work hard, earn money and go home to China. It gave them the strength to look forward to a better tomorrow. It is also a way for the Malay and Chinese communities to respect each other. A screenshot from the trailer for the documentary Datuk Gong: Spirit of the Land, written and directed by Mahen Bala. (Screenshot: Present Tense Media) While the exact number of devotees in Singapore is unknown, Chong says the cult of Datuk Gong was popular in the 1960s and 70s, and is still practiced by the older generation. Besides shrines in Tampines, Loyang Tua Pek Kong and Pulau Ubin, he is also venerated in many factories. I think they want good business, so they want to be in harmony with the spiritual world, says Chong. In a reflection of the mixture of beliefs, devotees offering prayers to Datuk Gong must abstain from pork and alcohol for the day, while offerings to the deity will also exclude these two. Chong says, "Since Nah Tuk Kong is Malay, whatever the Malays don't like, they won't do." But according to Bala, the cult of Datuk Gong goes backs even further than the early Chinese immigrants. He says, Having arrived in a foreign land as immigrants, they merely adopted a pre-existing practise. Unlike most organized religions which relied on the teachings of a prophet, saint or holy scripture, the worship of the Datuk is a practise that adapts itself according to the times. The cult of Datuk Gong reflects a phenomenon called religious syncretism, or the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system. Sometimes, it involves the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. According to Assistant Professor Indira Arumugam of the National University of Singapores sociology department, syncretisim is what defines culture, of which religion is a part. She says, It is entirely natural that religions are influenced by, react to, borrow from and mimic each other - producing interesting hybrids in the process. This is how religions are formed, grow and change. They do not arrive fully formed from nothing but develop in constant exchanges with historical and existing examples. It is the attempt to purify - to deny their multiple sources and cross-cultural influences that lies at the heart of religious intolerance. What is problematic is the refusal to accord other religions equal validity in order to assert the singular superiority of ones own. The Datok Kong of Kusu Island On Kusu Island are located two shrines dedicated to a 19th century holy man and his family. (Photo: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo News Singapore) Early on a Sunday morning, pest controller Wong Kim Sing, 33, is on a ferry to Kusu Island. He bears joss sticks, as well as offerings of oranges and pineapples. The worship of Datuk Gong runs deep in Wongs family back home in Johor Bahru, his father built a shrine to the deity outside their home. Wong is on his third trip to Kusu. But though he has been in Singapore for 14 years, he only found out this year that there is a shrine to Datuk Gong on Kusu. My girlfriend told me that people will pray and can strike 4D. I really did strike a big prize, so I am going there to thank him, says Mr Wong with a smile. But the Datok Kong of Kusu Island is somewhat different from the one that Wong grew up with. Residing at the top of a 152-step high hillock are two shrines to a pious 19th century family: Syed Abdul Rahman, his mother Nenek Ghalib and his sister Puteri Fatimah. One of the caretakers of the Kusu kramats (shrines) beside the shrine to Datok Nenek. (Photo: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo News Singapore) They are dedicated to, respectively, Datok Kong and Datok Nenek. There are no statues or remains entombed there merely symbolic tombstones wrapped in yellow cloth, the colour of holiness, and altars to them. While Wong was surprised by this particular incarnation of Datuk Gong, he says, Its all the same to me. I pray for the same things. Just as with the earth deity, the shrines attract devotees praying for good health, good business and prosperity. Its especially popular with childless couples seeking a baby, as well as those seeking 4D numbers. There is even a ritual blessing with many echoes of Chinese religious traditions. According to caretaker Ishak Samsuddin, 54, they come from as far afield as Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar. He even claims that the late President Wee Kim Wee and his wife were regulars at the shrines. This is not a god, this is a saint. The thing is alive. You can communicate with it, says Ishak, whose family has been taking care of the shrine for six generations. He adds with a laugh, I have seen many miracles here, a lot, too many! The sick get well, businesses do well, couples have kids. (People of ) any religion is [sic] welcome. Thangamuthu, 46, a manager in the marine industry, has come to the shrines with eight members of his extended family to pay his respects. A Hindu, he recalls that six years ago, a childless couple he knew conceived after praying at the Kusu shrines. I believe in all the gods, we dont criticize them. We will go into churches and Chinese temples, just to give respect, he says. For Sri Lankan domestic worker Malee Payarathna, 60, she finds many echoes of her Buddhist faith at the shrines, We trust the god, so maybe they are helping us. All the things that they do here, we also do in Buddhist temples, just that there are no pictures of statues. Uniquely Singaporean At the top of the 152 steps leading to the Datuk Gong/Datuk Nenek shrines is an altar where many 4D numbers have been scrawled. (Photo: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo News Singapore) Ultimately, religious syncretism is emblematic of cultural diversity in Singapore, says A/P Indira. The cult of Datuk Gong, being unique to this region, is an excellent example of an ordinary, un-self conscious and entirely ordinary testament to our acceptance of cultural and religious pluralism. It is one of the phenomena that makes Singapore, despite popular prejudices, a deep, interesting and complex society. Underneath all this sophisticated gloss is a messy, plural and society that is alive and therefore fascinating to study. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Emirates President Sir Tim Clarke says the decision to stop flying to Russia is one for the United Arab Emirates government to take Emirates' boss says the airline will keep flying to Russia unless its owner, the Dubai government, tells it not to. "If we are told to stop we will stop, unless we are told otherwise, we will continue," Sir Tim Clarke told the BBC. Most major international airlines pulled out of Russia amid sweeping sanctions imposed by Western countries since the war began in Ukraine. But Emirates is one of the few carriers that is still operating flights to Moscow and St Petersburg. When asked if the airline would reconsider its position, Emirates president Sir Tim said that "it was not his call" but a decision that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government would take. As well as carrying passengers, the airline also transports cargo including humanitarian goods, food and medical supplies, which are not on the sanctions list. Sir Tim added that it was important to recognise the Russian population may not be part of the war in Ukraine. And that the diplomatic core of other countries, who have missions in Moscow need to be able to function by moving in and out of the country. He said: "We are catering to people who are on the periphery of the main issue here, and that is probably the way the [UAE] government looks at it." The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have rejected calls from western governments to impose sanctions on Russia. Abu Dhabi has also not severed economic ties with Moscow. It was one of only three countries, along with China and India, to abstain in a United Nations Security Council vote in February to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It also abstained in a General Assembly vote on 7 April to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Since the outbreak of the war, Moscow has faced a barrage of unprecedented sanctions, including bans on Russian aircraft using airspace and airports in the US, the EU, the UK and Canada. International flights by Russian airlines have been severely curtailed due to the sanctions. National carrier Aeroflot has suspended all international flights, except for its service to the Belarus capital Minsk, due to the sanctions. Story continues Sir Tim believes that the war in Ukraine could spell long term implications for the global airline industry, especially if Russia is excluded by the West from the global economy. "This [war] will have major manifestations of perhaps disadvantage for both sides. And this will have an impact on the industry," he said. Sir Tim said Emirates was seeing strong demand despite high oil prices. The airline has passed on the cost to consumers by adding a fuel surcharge to airfares but that hasn't impacted bookings. "Irrespective of that, people are ready to pay the prices that we have to charge to cover this enormous increase in the fuel price," Sir Tim said. He added that the airline industry was used to dealing with high oil prices but said he felt that budget carriers would find it difficult get through this without taking a financial hit. Brent, one of the main benchmarks for oil, has been trading above $100 for nearly two months since the Russia-Ukraine war triggered volatility in global energy markets. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that the airline industry's overall financial performance in 2022 is likely to worsen due to the challenge of higher oil prices. Jet fuel makes up about a quarter of an airline's costs. 'Roaring demand' Despite the recent setbacks, Sir Tim said that Emirates had returned to profitability over the last six months due to "roaring" demand. The carrier expects to report improved annual earnings this year after it posted a loss of $5.5bn in the 2020-2021 fiscal year as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the global aviation industry. The Dubai government injected $3.1bn into Emirates to bail out the state-owned airline, which was forced to ground flights and lay-off thousands of employees after the outbreak of the pandemic. Sir Tim said the airline was now looking to hire 3,000 to 4,000 cabin crew and additional pilots on the back of booming travel demand. "If we can have all our aircraft flying today, 270 of them then we would. I can't because I am just short of crew," he said. HOME founder Bridget Tan died on 18 April 2022, aged 73. (SCREENSHOT: meWATCH) SINGAPORE Bridget Tan, the founder of Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), a support group for migrant workers, died on Monday (18 April) aged 73. Expressing deep sadness over her death, HOME said in a post on its Facebook page that Tan had a stroke in February 2014. She has been spending the last few years in Batam, where she recuperated while working with non-profit groups there. Tan was an untiring champion of the rights of migrant workers and played a key role in establishing HOMEs current activities, such as its shelter for abused domestic workers, and skills training programmes, the group said. Bridget was a true friend and ally of the migrants; she always provided a listening ear and extended a helping hand to many in need. Details of the wake service for Tan will be announced later, HOME added. Activist and social worker Jolovan Wham separately paid tribute to Tan on his Facebook page, saying that he learnt what it was like to walk the talk through her. I've always had a love-hate relationship with her, as it sometimes is with people whom you admire and respect, said Wham, saying that a lot of who he is today was due to Tan. One of the giants in civil society and the migrant worker space is gone. She will definitely be missed. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore HELSINKI (AP) European Union nations Finland and Sweden reached important stages Wednesday on their way to possible NATO membership as the Finnish government issued a security report to lawmakers and Swedens ruling party initiated a review of security policy options. Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 triggered a surge in support for joining NATO in the two traditionally militarily non-aligned Nordic countries, with polls showing a majority of respondents willing to join the alliance in Finland and supporters of NATO in Sweden clearly outnumbering those against the idea. Finland, a country of 5.5 million, shares the EU's longest border with Russia, a 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) frontier. Sweden has no border with Russia. Russia, for its part, has warned Sweden and Finland against joining NATO, with officials saying it would not contribute to stability in Europe. Officials said Russia would respond to such a move with retaliatory measures that would cause military and political consequences for Helsinki and Stockholm. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's reasons for invading Ukraine was that the country refused to promise that it would not join NATO. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, speaking Wednesday in Stockholm in a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson, said Finland is ready to make a decision on NATO within weeks rather than months following an extensive debate in the 200-seat Eduskunta legislature. Marin stressed that Finland and Sweden, two neighboring Nordic countries which have close economic, political and military ties, will make independent decisions regarding their security policy arrangements, including whether to join NATO. But we do that with a clear understanding that our choices will affect not only ourselves but our neighbors as well, Marin said, adding that she would prefer seeing both Finland and Sweden becoming NATO members. Andersson said Sweden and Finland would maintain a very close dialogue and have a very straightforward and honest discussions in the coming weeks over their countries respective choices on NATO. The only real option to NATO membership could be an enhanced bilateral military cooperation added with the United States and Nordic NATO member Norway, Finnish experts have said. Marin and Andersson lead the ruling Social Democratic Parties in their respective countries. The parties are expected to announce their NATO views in early and late May, respectively. Parliaments in both countries are ready to finally decide the matter something that could happen in Finland in late May and a bit later in Sweden. Complicating things in Sweden is the general election in September, which is likely to be dominated by the NATO issue. In Finland, President Sauli Niinisto said he was convinced that his countrys decision on NATO will be ready well ahead of NATOs June 29-30 summit in Madrid, Spain. On Wednesday, the Finnish government issued a much-awaited report on changes in Finlands security environment that lawmakers will start debating after the Easter break. The report addresses the pros and cons of Finlands possible membership in NATO, focusing on supply threats, economic effects, cybersecurity and hydrid threats. The war started by Russia endangers security and stability in entire Europe, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said as he presented the report. Russias attack on Ukraine will have a long-lasting impact on our own security environment. Trust in Russia has plummeted. Andersson said Wednesday that the Swedish government is working on a security environment analysis together with all parties in the 349-seat Riksdag legislature. She said the report is due May 31 but could be finished earlier. In addition, Andersson's Social Democratic Party has initiated its own separate review of Sweden's security environment. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Childrens Hospital & Medical Center announced Thursday that it will develop, pilot and open urgent care centers for innovative pediatric mental health across Nebraska. The centers, which will serve children and teens, are aimed at addressing the national mental health crisis and improving access to such care in the state. Centers will be situated in Omaha and in central or western Nebraska. The exact number of centers and their locations has yet to be determined. Childrens Hospital & Medical Center will receive $10 million from the states pool of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to establish the centers. Childrens also will receive $1.8 million in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services for telehealth technology to support pediatric mental health initiatives. The Nebraska Legislature allocated a total of $40 million of the states ARPA funds for behavioral health projects in LB1014, which outlines how the state will spend the pandemic funds. Gov. Pete Ricketts signed the measure Wednesday. Chanda Chacon, Childrens president and CEO, thanked lawmakers, Ricketts and partners in state government for working to address the needs of the states youths. It is overwhelming to see the support from members of the Legislature who recognize the mental health crisis we are facing today and have the fortitude to make a one-time investment that will last a lifetime, Chacon said in a statement. The time is now to collaborate with our community partners and stakeholders, and we are committed to addressing mental health issues for children with an innovative model of care. One in five U.S children report having experienced a mental health condition in a given year. In 2021, childrens hospitals across the country reported a 45% increase in the number of self-injury and suicide cases in 5- to 17-year-olds compared with the same period in 2019, according to Sound the Alarm for Kids, a campaign by the Childrens Hospital Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others. In December, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory to highlight the urgent need to address the nations mental health crisis among youth. Dr. Jennifer McWilliams, Childrens division chief of psychiatry, said the $1.8 million for telehealth will help the hospital expand access across the state and offer more immediate access to services. That money had been added to LB1014 after initially being included in another measure. Two other previously announced projects also are aimed at expanding mental health services in the state. Each will receive a portion of the behavioral health care funding allocated by the Legislature. A nonprofit group led by Omaha philanthropist Ken Stinson plans to build a new 36- to 40- bed inpatient behavioral health center for children ages 5 to 18 on the campus of Immanuel Center. The facility will cost an estimated $50 million and be called Lasting Hope Center for Children and Families. It will be operated by CHI Health. In addition, Community Alliance an Omaha nonprofit that has served Nebraskans for 40 years has announced plans to expand services and build a 120,000-square-foot headquarters at 71st Street and Mercy Road. Construction will be funded by a $60 million capital campaign, which includes the organizations share of the federal funds allocated by the Legislature. Carole Boye, Community Alliances CEO, said in announcing the expansion that mental health challenges were apparent in the community before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic has increased the number of people affected and spotlighted the areas lack of capacity and access to behavioral health care. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 An unlikely coalition of senators is backing Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchars bill to drastically overhaul the nations antitrust laws. They may want to give her proposal another read, because there are things about it that might not be what they seem. Klobuchar wants to be president and is counting on this legislation, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, to establish the progressive bona fides she needs to leap to the front of the pack running for president the next time the Democratic presidential nomination is up for grabs. If she expects her effort to excite the people whose spines once tingled at the thought of President Bernie Sanders, shes off base. The Republicans who signed onto her bill generally did so in the belief it gives the government the power to ensure Big Tech plays fair with conservatives. It doesnt, and letting federal bureaucrats determine what to censor online would be worse. The legislation would also make life more difficult for social media companies the Democrats have allied with in pursuit of election victories. The framework her legislation would erect would take a big bite out of the hand that feeds her. The impact on Big Tech isnt the only reason politicians should be concerned. Those issues are largely political. The way some businesses are treated is not and has given rise to complaints favorable treatment is being extended to some kinds of firms because of what it doesnt address. What kind of crony capitalism may we be seeing? The Klobuchar bill overlooks because its not included in the list of discriminatory conduct by covered platform the use of pharmacy benefit managers, also known as PBMs, that negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers and health insurers to set the price of prescription drugs. Proponents say these companies produce lower prices for consumers. Critics say the opposite, arguing they are too open to inducements from manufacturers to set prices higher than they need be in exchange for some kind of remuneration. Their involvement in the health care system is, for the moment, a political hot potato second only perhaps to House Speaker Nancy Pelosis continuing quest to impose a regulatory scheme to impose price controls on drugs. Currently, just three pharmacy benefit managers are responsible for about 80 percent of the insurance market: CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx. According to Health Industries Research Companies, CVS has the biggest share at 34 percent of total 2021 adjusted claims. Express Scripts is second at 25 percent and OptumRx has 21 percent. Now 80 percent control doesnt corner the market exactly, but progressives like Klobuchar used to argue it comes uncomfortably close. Critics were disappointed when members of the Federal Trade Commission voted along party lines back in February not to investigate allegations of anti-competitive behavior by these pharmacy benefit managers. Nonetheless, they keep trying to call on the heavy hand of government regulation to swipe them into line. Klobuchar cannot be unaware of this ,yet for some reason, her bill (which also has the support of House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline of Rhode Island) doesnt mandate or include a mechanism triggering their scrutiny under the proposed new track taken by the proposed legislation. Has cronyism crept into the process? Some say yes, pointing to the fact UnitedHealth OptumRx, the number three firm, has its headquarters in Klobuchars Minnesota. CVS, which has the largest single share of the market, is based in Rhode Island, just like Cicilline. UnitedHealth has given $154,820 in campaign contributions to Klobuchar while CVS gave $50,085 in political money to Cicilline, who also backed the companys proposed $69 billion merger with AETNA, one of the largest of the nations health insurers. Thats just the kind of business deal the legislation looks to stop because Klobuchar and friends believe mega-mergers are bad for consumers. Coincidence? Probably. Still, the taint of corruption touches so much of what Washington does these days its hard to be sure. What is clear is that big is not necessarily bad and that the consumer welfare standard, which has been the prevailing justification for most antitrust actions taken for nearly five decades is a sound enough approach to dealing with legitimate antitrust issues when they arrive. Klobuchars bill should be allowed to go no further. Peter Roff is a former UPI and U.S. News & World Report columnist who is now affiliated with several Washington-D.C.-based public policy organizations. Contact Roff at RoffColumns@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Monday, April 18. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, April 19, as Russia's invasion continues. Russia has launched its long-foreshadowed offensive in eastern Ukraine offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday, vowing that his people will continue to fight and "defend ourselves." Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time, Zelenskyy announced Monday in a video address, stating that a significant portion of the Kremlin's army was concentrated in the effort. He added: No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. In recent days, Russia has reinforced its invading force in Ukraine, adding about 11 battalion tactical groups and as many as 11,000 troops, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said Monday. Russian forces on Monday increased assaults in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions both of which are part of the Donbas as well as in the area of Zaporizhzhia. The occupiers attempted to break through our defenses, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines national security council. Fortunately, our military is holding out. They passed through only two cities this is Kreminna and another small town. A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. Thats one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles. Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the nations Olympic team trains was targeted. Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after leveling everything to the ground, so his guys retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy, he said. Story continues RUSSIA'S ARSENAL: What weapons are being used in Russia's invasion of Ukraine? A visual guide to key military equipment and locations USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our new Russia-Ukraine war channel Latest developments: Germanys employers and unions joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. They say a boycott would lead to factory shutdowns and job losses in the blocs largest economy. Ukraine took another step in its bid for European Union membership, completing a questionnaire that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month. For a second day, Ukraine's government halted civilian evacuations. Government officials said Russian forces were targeting humanitarian corridors with shelling and blocking routes. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday that the city risks losing about 200,000 jobs as foreign companies leave the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, dismissed the impact of Western sanctions, saying his country "has withstood the unprecedented pressure." Russia is creating separatist states and introducing the Russian ruble in occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. The Russian military forcibly removed over 100 children from Mariupol, many taken from hospitals without parents, the Crimean Human Rights Group reported, citing Mariupol's mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenko. Residents hug as they look at the destruction from a Russian missile that hit a civilian building on April 18, 2022, in Lviv, Ukraine. Kremlin bombing Mariupol plant where civilians, soldiers are sheltering Russian forces have started dropping bunker-buster bombs on a Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainians are refusing to surrender, the commander of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard said Monday. Denys Prokopenko, whose soldiers have been holding out against Russian forces in the key southern port city, said in a video message that the bombs are dropping even though civilians are sheltering in the plants tunnels. Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in. The U.S. said nearly a dozen Russian battalion tactical groups have been tied up trying to defeat them. Along with the soldiers about 1,000 civilians are also inside the Azovstal steel plant. Reports from CNN and Reuters say Russian forces have been advancing on the plant and fights have broken out on the streets surrounding it. Those sheltering include women, children and elderly, Myhailo Vershynin, the chief of the Mariupol patrol police, told CNN. He added while the plant had reserves of food and water, supplies were quickly running out. Here's how Russia beefed up its forces ahead of offensive in eastern Ukraine Russia moved more heavy artillery, helicopters and command and control units into the region ahead of launching its offensive in eastern Ukraine as heavy fighting continued, including near the strategic city of Izyum, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said Monday. In all, there about 76 Russian battalion tactical groups in Ukraine. About 12 of those battalions are engaged in heavy fighting around the besieged Black Sea port city of Mariupol, which remains contested and isolated from other Ukrainian forces, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe intelligence assessments. Moscow said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles, while its artillery hit an additional 315 targets and its warplanes conducted 108 strikes. The claims could not be independently verified. Russian bombers have also launched long-range cruise missiles at Kyiv and Lviv, the official said. The targets appeared to be military facilities, but the regional governor in Lviv said at least seven people were killed and 11 more, including a child, were injured. "Many of the Russian strikes we've seen in recent days have targeted military installations, military adjacent installations," State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a Monday news conference. "But the fact is that Russia, more than just launching an invasion, more than just launching a war, is undertaking a campaign of terror, a campaign of brutality, a campaign of despicable aggression against the people of Ukraine. 7 dead in airstrike in Lviv, the city's first wartime fatalities Airstrikes by Russia's military killed at least seven people and injured 11 more including one child early Monday in Lviv in western Ukraine, the regional governor said. The deaths in Lviv were confirmed by regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy. He said four rockets were fired, striking three targets including several warehouses not used by Ukraine's military and a service station near Lviv Railway Station. The deaths were the first to be reported in the city since Russia's assault on Ukraine started in late February. On March 13, Russia fired 30 cruise missiles at the Yavoriv military training base, outside the city of Lviv, killing at least 35 people and wounding 134. Overnight blasts were also reported in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, in the north in Kharkiv and in Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea port city Odesa. Kozytskyy said a preliminary investigation indicated the rockets that hit Lviv were fired from the direction of the Caspian Sea, an inland body of water that links Asia and Europe. Captured Putin ally offers self in exchange for Mariupol evacuation An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin currently being held by Ukrainian authorities on a treason charge offered himself in exchange for the evacuation of civilians in the besieged city of Mariupol. Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party in Ukraine, made the plea in a video posted Monday by Ukraines state security service, who captured Medvedchuk last week in a special operation. Medvedchuk, 67, escaped from house arrest shorty before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began earlier this year. Medvedchuk appealed to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the video. Shortly after the video was published, two British men who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol also pleaded for their release. The men identified themselves as Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin in the videos posted by Russian state media. Fighting remains intense in eastern Ukraine Fighting continued to rage Monday in eastern Ukrainian cities as Russian forces sought to make advances the the Luhansk region, Ukrainian officials said. Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said Monday that the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna were "under the greatest threat" and that the city of Kreminna had been captured, according to Ukrainian state media Ukrinform. In nearby Zolote, at least two people were killed and four others injured in a strike, Haidai said, according to Ukrinform on Sunday. Meanwhile, a Russian strike on Kramatorsk destroyed several residential buildings Monday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional state administrator in Donetsk, said via Telegram. Farther west, Ukrainian forces were able to push back Russian troops and liberate several settlements around the city of Izyum, said Alexander Motuzyanyk, spokesman for Ukraine's Defense Ministry, Ukrinform reported. But the city of Kharkiv was hit in a Russian strike, killing at least three people and wounded three others, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. UK defense ministry: Mariupol resistance slowing Russian advances The British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Monday that Ukrainian forces' defense of the besieged city of Mariupol "has severely tested Russian forces." Russia has had to divert troops and supplies to Mariupol, in turn slowing its advances elsewhere, the U.K. assessment said, adding, "Russian commanders will be concerned by the time it is taking to subdue Mariupol." Ukrainian forces are largely holed up in the Azovstal steel mill as the city has been decimated over several weeks of Russia's attacks. Ukrainian officials have said its troops will not surrender, and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS Face the Nation that Russia's continued attacks could be a red line that ends efforts to reach peace through negotiation. US officials warn of impending Russian cyberattacks White House officials have repeatedly warned that evolving intelligence suggests Russia may be exploring potential cyberattacks against the United States. Now, that possibility is all but certain, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said Sunday. "We have to assume that there's going to be a breach," Easterly said on "60 Minutes." "There's going to be an incident. There's going to be an attack." Russia is known to have powerful cyber actors. U.S. intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors have concluded that the Russian government sought to sway the 2016 presidential election. Recently, Microsoft said it disrupted Russian cyberattacks targeting Ukraine, the U.S., and European Union. Lisa Monaco, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, told Bill Whitaker on "60 Minutes" that Russian state actors are already looking for weaknesses in U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure. "We're talking military intelligence actors, deploying malware, malicious code, on thousands of computers in hundreds of countries," Monaco said Sunday. "We're seeing them deploy that code and take control of these computers. It's like an army of infected computers that, with a single command, can be deployed to do everything from gathering information, stealing information, and sometimes to have destructive effect." Zelenskyy says Russian troops are torturing, kidnapping Ukrainians In his nightly address to the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings. Torture chambers are built there, he said. They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities. Russia has come under increasing scrutiny as mounting evidence builds of military attacks against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine, leading U.S. President Joe Biden to call Putin's actions "genocide." This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians, Zelenskyy said. Several European countries ban Russian ships from their ports Belgium, Estonia, and Bulgaria barred all Russian ships from their ports beginning Sunday. Their announcement came the same day as Italy's and as part of expanded EU sanctions announced earlier this month. Ships already in Italian ports must leave immediately after completing their commercial activity, according to a notice sent to port authorities throughout the country. The bans apply to all Russian-flagged ships, including those that have changed their flag from Russia to any other nationality since Feb. 24, the date of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The EU has imposed five rounds of sanctions against Russia, including the banning of ships in its fifth round. Leaders are still weighing a ban on Russian oil, with many European countries dependent on it. Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia begins offensive in eastern Ukraine: April 18 recap 9 2022 : , , , , , , 1936 . 10 . ( ) , . 1945 , 9 . 1994 . 1998 Eurovision. A man faces felony charges after allegedly leading police on a pursuit riding a stolen motorcycle in Terre Du Lac and Bonne Terre last week. Joseph Paul Lewis, 22, of Bonne Terre, has been charged with resisting arrest/stop by fleeing - creating a substantial risk of serious injury/death to any person, third-degree assault -special victim (police K9), first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, and two traffic offenses. According to information released by the St. Francois Sheriffs Department, on Thursday, a deputy assigned to the Terre Du Lac division was conducting patrol duties when he observed a motorcycle enter the lake area. The deputy reportedly noted the motorcycle had no rear taillight and attempted to perform a traffic stop on the bike. The man operating the motorcycle, identified as Lewis, then began to flee from the deputy, and a pursuit was initiated, according to authorities. The motorcycle fled south on Highway 47 into Bonne Terre, police said. During the pursuit, Lewis reportedly laid the bike down and began to flee on foot. Additional deputies, including a St. Francois County K-9 unit, joined the foot pursuit and the subject was taken into custody with the assistance of K9 Kay, the department reports. During the post pursuit investigation, deputies reportedly recovered a .22 caliber revolver. Deputies also learned the motorcycle had been stolen from Desloge approximately two weeks before its recovery. Deputies noticed the catalytic converter from the motorcycle had been cut away. Additionally, deputies reportedly recovered a reciprocating saw, which investigators believed was used to cut the converter from the motorcycle. After being medically cleared and fit for confinement, the man was taken to the St. Francois County Detention Center, where deputies discovered suspected methamphetamine and paraphernalia from the suspect. The St. Francois County Sheriffs Department would like to thank the Bonne Terre Police Department and the St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney for their assistance with this case, the department said in their social media post. Additional charges will likely follow for Lewis. The keen eye of the Terre Du Lac Deputy likely saved other St. Francois County residents the anguish of replacing catalytic converters or their entire vehicle, the department added. Court records indicate that Lewis has a pending St. Francois County case in which he is charged with three counts of second-degree burglary, three counts of stealing a motor vehicle, two counts of second-degree property damage, and one count of stealing $750 or more stemming from incidents that allegedly occurred in February 2020. A jury trial in the case is scheduled for Sept. 21-22. Records further show a separate pending St. Francois County case where Lewis faces a charge of receiving stolen property from March 2021. The case is currently scheduled to go before a jury on Aug. 30-31. Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 5 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. JACKSON, Miss. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is allowing the public to have access to additional papers from the late author Eudora Welty, including letters written by members of her family. The release came Wednesday on the 113th anniversary of Weltys birth. She died July 23, 2001. According to her will, the family correspondence was to remain private for 20 years after her death. Welty, who lived most of her life in Jackson, was known for the lyrical quality of her short stories and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her short novel, The Optimists Daughter, published in 1972. While establishing herself as a writer, Welty photographed scenes of everyday life in Mississippi during the Great Depression for the Works Progress Administration. Weltys niece, Mary Alice White, said in a news release from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that the newly released letters begin with the courtship of Weltys parents. White said they also include Weltys correspondence with relatives and papers and letters from others in the family. Because these letters were not technically the property of Eudora they belong to the letter writer I think Eudora wanted them sealed to respect the privacy of those still living, White said. The Eudora Welty Collection was established in 1957, when she donated manuscripts, photographs and correspondence to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The department said the Welty Collection has drafts, revised copies and printers versions of her works, including stories, books, essays, reviews, lectures, speeches and drama. The collection also contains incoming and outgoing correspondence of Welty, memorabilia, and negatives and photographs taken by Welty and her father. Harriet Pollack, Welty scholar and affiliate professor at the College of Charleston, said in the news release that the newly released correspondence provides insight about Weltys parents; her siblings and their families; her grandmother and great-grandmother and their children. Through their intimate and everyday interactions with one another, we also come to know so much more about the woman and the writer, Eudora Welty, Pollack said. Astonishingly, a very private woman has unpredictably made generations of personal history available to those touched by her art, inviting us to better understand and to more fully engage the elusive woman behind it. A former Albemarle County schools administrator claims she was forced to resign after a slip of a tongue created a racially hostile environment for her at work, according to a new lawsuit against the school division. Emily Mais, who was the assistant principal at Agnor-Hurt Elementary School from 2018 to September 2021, alleges she was retaliated against and experienced harassment from other division employees when she complained about anti-racism training. When she complained, she was branded a racist, severely and pervasively harassed, relentlessly humiliated and ultimately compelled to resign from a job that she loved to preserve her mental health, attorneys argue in the complaint. Attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a national nonprofit based in Arizona, filed the lawsuit in Albemarle County Circuit Court last week. The nonprofit also is representing a group of parents who are suing the school system over its anti-racism policy. A hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for Friday. Division spokesman Phil Giaramita said the school division has not been formally served with the lawsuit yet. We have not had a full opportunity to review the allegations, he said. We look forward to responding in a timely manner in the future in the appropriate legal forum. According to the 45-page complaint, the divisions implementation of its anti-racism policy and the associated training created a racially hostile and divisive environment. Within that environment, Mais said she experienced hostile and racially harassing behavior from division employees. Shes alleging in the lawsuit that the school system discriminated against her viewpoint as well as violated her right to free speech and the Virginia Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race. Shes seeking back pay and other damages, according to the complaint. Instead of training faculty members to embrace students of all races, Albemarle County school officials are using a curriculum that promotes racial discrimination, said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights, in a statement. Emily believes every person is made in the image of God and entitled to equal treatment and respect and refuses to participate in using harmful ideology to indoctrinate students, teachers, or staff. Mais issues began when the division started implementing its anti-racism policy, adopted in 2019. The policy was designed to eliminate racism and improve outcomes for students who historically lag behind white and more affluent peers. In a November 2020 staff orientation, Bernard Hairston, the school systems assistant superintendent for school community empowerment, told staff in a pre-recorded message that they needed to think about whether they were on the antiracism school bus, or if you need help finding your seat and keeping your seat, or if its time for you to just get off the bus, according to the complaint. Mais took that to mean that any staff member who took issue with any aspect of the policy would likely lose their job, according to the complaint. Mais and others at the school received training for teachers based on Glenn Singletons Courageous Conversations about Race, according to the complaint. That book was recently named by the Virginia Department of Education as a resource promoting inherently divisive concepts. According to the complaint, the training stereotyped, demeaned, and dismissed white people as perpetrators of systemic racism. The plaintiff also claims that the training was conducted in a racially hostile manner. For example, it called for participants to discuss inflammatory topics, such as the role of white privilege in their lives, in breakout rooms where the conversation could not be monitored by a trained administrator, attorneys wrote in the complaint. In these breakout rooms, white staff members attempting to participate were shut down or dismissed in front of other staff members and told they could not understand the topic because of the color of their skin, the complaint states. The training placed white employees in a no-win situation, according to the complaint. They were being instructed to engage with the curriculum and to speak their truth, but, if they did so honestly, they were chastised and told their race prevented them from understanding. Moreover, their comments were dismissed and they were harassed based on their race, attorneys wrote in the complaint. In a June training session, Mais said colored people when she meant people of color during a discussion on staff demographics. The lawsuit argues the comment was a simple slip of the tongue and she apologized, according to the complaint. After her apology, a teaching assistant at the school chastised Mais during the training and several times afterward. [The] verbal abuse was so severe that Ms. Mais received multiple communications during the training session and following it from other staff members expressing their support for her, according to the complaint. The teaching assistant also allegedly slandered Mais at work, openly cursing about her and calling her vulgar names at work, telling other employees she was a racist and that she intentionally demeaned Black people, and trying to turn other employees against [Mais], according to the complaint. Other employees were allegedly afraid to defend her out of fear of retaliation, according to the complaint. Following the June session, Mais had two meetings with the assistant and Hairston regarding her use of colored people, according to the complaint. She left the second meeting, which was held Aug. 6, in tears, according to the complaint. Mais complained to several people, including her principal and human resources, about harassment and her broader concerns with the race curriculum. Ms. Mais explained that the harassment was causing her substantial emotional distress, preventing her from focusing on her job, and making it impossible for her to effectively manage the employees involved in the harassment, according to the complaint. After several meetings with human resources officials, Mais concluded that the division would not take any action to address her situation. She submitted her resignation Aug. 29. Before her last day, she was asked to make a public apology in front of the schools staff, according to the complaint. Mais claims in the suit that the apology was necessary in order for her to maintain good standing with the division. She initially wanted to address her broader concerns and the emotional toll the situation had taken on her, but she was allegedly told she couldnt discuss that during a meeting about her apology, according to the complaint. The message from the participants at the meeting to Ms. Mais was clear: She was not allowed to voice, even mildly, the mistreatment she had experienced because of her race and in retaliation for her opposition to the curriculum and the way she was being treated, attorneys wrote in the complaint. The attorneys described Mais public apology as a ritual shaming. Mais attorneys argue that her resignation was a constructive discharge, meaning that she didnt leave voluntarily but because the employer created a hostile work environment. In November 2021, she filed a discrimination charge with the Virginia Attorney Generals Office of Civil Rights, but that office didnt take any action, according to the complaint. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Behavior usually determines whether we allow people on our property. For instance, if you neighbor threatens you because you dont agree with their political extremism and they have a history of intimidating and violent actions, you seek a restraining order from the courts to keep that person away from you. To the extent that the law allows, this is the approach that the University of Virginia should take next week with neo-Nazi alumnus Jason Kessler. Kessler helped organize the deadly Unite the Right rally in August 2017. On April 26, 2022, a four-year UVa campus ban ends for Kessler. His past and current behavior mark him as a future risk for inciting violence. So the campus ban should continue. Kesslers 2018 ban came after he had a confrontation with UVa students at the law school library. Campus police said Kessler threatened students. Those students were apparently Jewish because Kessler appealed the ban, accusing Jewish students of racially harassing him. But the ban stuck. Kesslers no-trespass order also resulted from the neo-Nazi allegedly misleading campus cops about a march through the Grounds the night before Unite the Right. Imitating a tactic used by German Nazis in the 1930s, Kessler and his fellow White nationalist neo-Nazis carried torches and chanted the Jews will not replace us. The march was one of the most despicable spectacles of hatred in recent U.S. history. It looked like something from Germany under Hitler. It became a modern international symbol of anti-Semitism that continues to stain the school, which had nothing to do with the march. The torch march ended on the Lawn in a fight between the neo-Nazis and some UVa students and faculty. Most importantly, it came a day before the deadly Unite the Right rally that Kessler helped organize with others who knew there would be violence, a lawsuit later showed. The lawsuit showed that Kessler and his fascist fellows also hoped the Battle of Charlottesville would ignite other violent race-based and anti-Semitic confrontations that would establish White supremacy in the U.S. A November 2021 trial resulted in roughly $26 million in financial judgments against Kessler, 11 other individuals and five organizations for their roles in the Unite the Right rally. The jurys decision took into account the violent death of counter protester Heather Heyer who was run over by a neo-Nazi who drove his car into a crowd of peaceful counter protesters. The jury also considered race-based assaults by the right wing groups that roamed the streets of Charlottesville Aug. 12, 2017. The spectacle was disgusting. But disgust was not the problem. Illegal assaults and intimidation were. The continued risk of that criminal behavior still matters. UVa cannot ban people for their racist or anti-Semitic rants, no matter how grotesque or offensive. But the school has the right and responsibility to protect students, staff and anyone else on its property from harm. That is why the university added 10 more Unite the Right participants to its no-trespass list in October 2018. Those no-trespass orders need to be renewed just as Kesslers should be. This situation stopped being about free speech on Aug. 12, 2017. It became about criminal behavior and the right of everyone, including those on the University of Virginia campus, to be protected from it. Kesslers trial proved that he helped lead a plot with violent intentions. By itself, this permanently brands him as a serious security risk, if not a potential domestic terrorist. He refuses to take responsibility for the part he played in the provocative behavior of the torch march. He shows no remorse for Heyers death or the injuries sustained by others attacked during Unite the Right. Kessler not only believes his financial penalties in the lawsuit are too much and should be reduced, he feels the courts should grant him a new trial. This is a man who thinks he did nothing wrong. Neither did Hitler. Going forward, what matters most is a simple truth: The only way Jason Kessler can achieve his racist, anti-Semitic goals involves suppressing the rights of other Americans by force. No executive, legislative or judicial solution exists to do otherwise. The mighty Colorado River just got a blow to its reputation: The nations sixth longest waterway, which winds through seven Southwest states and provides drinking water for 40 million people, is the most endangered river in the country. American Rivers, a national conservation organization, crowned the Colorado River with the unwelcome designation Monday, blaming climate change-driven heat and drought, combined with outdated river management and overallocation of limited water supplies. The eyes of the world have been on the river and now we are in the crisis that we feared for years, said Matt Rice, American Rivers Southwest regional director. People on Denvers Front Range dont understand this crisis. They turn on the faucet and water comes out. They water five days a week, but ranchers cant get water to irrigate. We need to use less water to live with the river that we have. The Colorado River Basin is home to 30 native fish species, many of which are threatened. More than 400 bird species depend on the area as well. The 1,450-mile river provides water for Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Unlike Colorados other rivers, it touches all four corners of the state. Rancher Paul Bruchez, his dad and his brother moved their families from Westminster to Kremmling in 2000 with a dream of ranching in the mountains. They bought the 6,000-acre Reeder Creek Ranch in part because the Colorado River runs through it. For a couple of glorious years, all was flowing according to plan: The Rocky Mountain snowpack fed the river, the fish were thriving and the crops grew tall. But when the drought of 2002 hit, the snowmelt was around half of where it was supposed to be and warm temperatures made things worse, quickening the thaw so that runoff didnt last very long. That year, Bruchez could walk across the river in places and see the fish going belly up in the warm water. Come 2003, my family had a meeting. We wondered, did we move to the wrong place? Instead of leaving, we decided to adapt and adjust to the river flow, climate change and population growth, Bruchez told The Denver Gazette. Seeing no quick fix, Bruchez established a restoration project and a Colorado Basin roundtable and prepared to go along for the ride. Over time, Bruchezs projects have led to water savings and recovery. We are discovering different types of plants, which are more drought resilient. I want to make a bumper sticker which says, 'Not all perennials are created equal,' Bruchez said with a laugh. Bruchez and Rice are sounding the alarm about the shrinking Colorado River as loudly as they can, hoping residents on the Front Range hear their message. They are disappointed that cities have not implemented water restrictions. People need to understand the connection between how we use water here and the effects and impacts on the West Slope, said Rice. Bruchez said it may come down to a choice of green lawns along the Front Range and food production. He is begging Coloradans to get on board the water-saving train, he says, because too late is now. This is happening today. If we dont act immediately, we will find ourselves in a crisis, said Bruchez. We are running out of water and we are running out of time. Snowmelt from Colorado and Wyoming that trickles into the Colorado River and feeds Lake Powell is crucial, and so is the timing of when it starts to flow. Each year in the last two decades of drought, more of the bathtub ring along the red cliffs of Americas second largest reservoir has become uncovered as the water level lowers. The latest numbers show Lake Powell at 3,523 feet above sea level, considered the warning level for people who keep up with these statistics. Its the first time the reservoir has ever sunk that low. Water in Lake Mead is also at record lows. After a healthy March, snowpack levels are at 93% of average, according to the Colorado Snow Survey, but the National Weather Service is predicting warm weather and lower-than-normal levels of precipitation this month. When the Bruchez ranch got two and a half feet of snow in March, it was like frozen white gold, Bruchez said. But the thirsty ground soaked that up quickly, meaning there was little runoff. The snow seeped right into the ground. There have been so many years of dryness, the grounded needed it. I dont know what its going to take to catch up, said Bruchez. Rice said the second and third most endangered rivers in the U.S. are the Snake River in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, which American Rivers says is threatened by four federal dams, and Alabamas Mobile River, which is hampered by coal ash contamination. "If you want to make a difference, water 30% less in your yards, get involved in how city households can conserve water, protect your open spaces," said Bruchez. "This is all for one and one for all. Or we all lose." Correction: The headwaters of the Colorado River are in Rocky Mountain National Park. A previous version of this story misstated where the river begins. Alabamas Senate candidates are making the case for why they are the toughest on immigration. And, while all three vying in the Republican primary want to construct a wall at the southern border, candidate and Congressman Mo Brooks questioned one opponents sincerity. Katie Britt is a master at border security deception, Brooks said to AL.com. America, there are real deals and pretenders. On border security, Katie Britt is most definitely a pretender. Britt, the former chief of staff for Sen. Richard Shelby and former head of the Business Council of Alabama, questioning Brooks effectiveness while in Congress. This is another last-ditch attempt to distort reality by a candidate who has plummeted in the polls, said Britt campaign spokesman Sean Ross. The fact is that Congressman Brooks has only managed to pass one bill over six terms in Washington, and that was to rename a post office not to secure our border. Brooks, who has fallen behind in recent polls, said he has been tough on immigration since taking office in 2010. Everything she claims shell do, I have actually done. America wont have border security until voters stop being conned by slick politicians and their high-priced campaign ads, Brooks said to AL.com. The three candidates policies vary in degree of specificity and strategic approach for addressing the issue. Britt said President Bidens immigration policies have created a humanitarian crisis and have effectively turned Alabama into a border state. Immigrants are driving down Americans wages, she said. She pointed to the opioid crisis and said undocumented immigrants are responsible for bringing massive amounts of fentanyl into the country and drug cartels are a safety concern. Consequences of these policies that directly affect Alabama include spikes in deadly drugs, violent crime, and human trafficking, Britt said in a campaign statement. Britt supports bringing back Trumps Remain in Mexico policy, requiring immigrants to stay in Mexico while a court rules on their asylum cases. A spokesperson for Mike Durant, a former army pilot and businessman, told AL.com that undocumented immigrants are a threat to public safety. Mike Durant knows there are several major problems posed by illegal immigration: crime and the drug trade are major ones, with many overdoses caused by illegal immigrant gangs bringing in deadly narcotics, campaign spokesman Scott Stone said in a statement to AL.com The spokesman for Durant, the frontrunner in the GOP primary in some recent polls, said Durants proposals are to finish the wall at the southern border, block taxpayer-funded benefits going to undocumented people, ban sanctuary cities, and prevent non-citizens from voting in places like New York City that have legalized the vote for immigrants. Alabamians will see many benefits from having Mike Durant fight for them on immigration: less illegals coming across our border, less crime, less of their money being spent on illegals, and a more secure Democracy where only American citizens get to vote, said Stone. After his election, President Joe Biden continued a Trump-era border policy called Title 42, a public-health related expulsion policy that has stemmed immigration. The policy ends next month. Biden has already ended several other tough Trump-era immigration policies, including construction of the wall. The number of deportations in the U.S. have fallen during the pandemic from 103,603 administrative arrests in 2020 to 74,082 in 2021 according to federal data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Britts immigration plan includes restricting diversity visas and lowering the overall number of legal immigrants allowed into the country by half, prioritizing immigrants with the highest skill levels, and restricting birthright citizenship to the children of citizens and those immigrants who entered the U.S. lawfully. President Trumps border policies worked. Biden should have left them in place. Instead, Biden prioritized radical political pandering over our national security, Britt said in a statement. Trump-era Pandemic immigration restrictions ending next month include preventing asylum applicants from petitioning to remain in the country. During his time in Congress, Brooks filed numerous bills in congress to restrict immigrants entering the country, including increased penalties for people who re-enter the country. Brooks proposed legislation included penalizing and restricting sanctuary cities, limiting worker visa programs and requiring employers to use the E-Verify program to prevent undocumented immigrants from working. I have fought for border security and struggling American families since my first day in Congress, Brooks said to AL.com. Le Van Phung (R) is summoned to a police station in Binh Duong Province after inciting protest on TikTok in support of popular Vietnamese tycoon Nguyen Phuong Hang. Photo by VnExpress/Yen Khanh A TikTok user was fined VND4 million ($174.73) for inciting protest on the platform in support of a popular Vietnamese tycoon, who was arrested for "abusing democratic freedom." Le Van Phung, 32, was fined by police of the southern Binh Duong Province for inciting public disorder on Sunday. On March 26, Phung used the account TikTok@phunguniexport to post a TikTok video calling for protests in front of Binh Duong's Dai Nam tourism area, belonging to Vietnamese tycoon and Internet celebrity Nguyen Phuong Hang and her husband, in support of Hang. Phung has since removed the video and promised not to repeat similar violations. Hang, 51, was arrested last month after criticizing multiple celebrities in Facebook livestream videos. She is being investigated for "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, lawful rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens." In February, Hang was temporarily banned from leaving the country until the end of April following multiple accusations of slander and insults. The impact of Vladimir Putins unjustified and brutal war against Ukraine has caused repercussions that resonate far beyond Ukraines borders. One of the results of the Russian Federations attacks on clearly non-military targets is the displacement of much of Ukraines civilian population. The magnitude and speed of the displacement that weve seen from Ukraine . . . has required a swift and significant and coordinated international response, said a senior U.S. administration official . On April 3, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited Moldova -- a destination for many Ukrainian refugees, and a transit country for many others. The focus of Ambassador Thomas-Greenfields trip was recognizing Moldovas exemplary efforts to assist refugees coming from Ukraine and to help provide humanitarian assistance. The flow of refugees will most likely increase as Russia continues to escalate its attacks in southern Ukraine and advances toward the Black Sea port of Odesa. If that is the case, the humanitarian fallout will most directly impact the countries on Ukraines southwestern border, Moldova and Romania, said the senior U.S. official. Already these countries have welcomed one million people displaced by Putins war -- roughly one-quarter of the total refugees, which recently topped four million, according to the U.N. Moldova now hosts about 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. During her visit, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield announced an additional $50 million in assistance to help the Government of Moldova and its people cope with the impact of Russias brutal war on Ukraine. This is in addition to $30 million in humanitarian assistance the United States has provided for response efforts in Moldova since February 24. The Moldovan people have come together to embrace Ukrainian refugees -- most of them women and children -- who have been forced to leave behind everything they have and people they love to flee to safety, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield at a joint press conference with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Chisinau. Your hospitality and generosity are now known around the world. ...In all your efforts, you have a committed partner in the United States. ELKO Beginning the 2022-2023 school year, Nevada high school seniors will be required to take one-half credit of Economics. In response to the recent graduation requirement set forth by the Nevada Department of Education, the Elko County School District assembled a team of social studies instructors and administrators to select the Districts new Economics textbook. The committee has selected the textbook Economics: Principles in Action, 2022. Described as a multi-dimensional program designed to help students of all abilities achieve fundamental understanding of core economic principles, the textbook is based on key concepts from the 20 content standards of the National Council on Economic Education. The public is able to view copies of the textbook during business hours at the Elko County School District Central Office. A feedback form will be made available upon viewing. The textbook will be presented to the Board of Trustees for possible adoption during the April 26 regularly scheduled Board meeting. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Last week we began a short article about the coming shortage of fertilizer and how it is going to affect food production in the year ahead. You may have seen the cost of everyday food prices shooting to record levels not seen in 40 years, or maybe have been surprised by a bare shelf in certain sections at the grocery store. Even President Biden has chimed in about our present situation saying two weeks ago: Its going to be real. His observation is beginning to be felt. A lot of the food shortages deal with the interruption of fertilizer due to the Russian involvement in Ukraine. Both the world and the United States receive a lot of this important product from that region. So we covered the topic and what is involved in its manufacture. Making fertilizer starts with the large scale production of ammonia gas. You may recall that synthetic ammonia from the Haber process helped out Germany during WWI when they were cut off by Britain from the nitrates of Chile. I mentioned that it is somewhat ironic how that nations patented process, born in war, is an absolute god-send when it comes to feeding the hungry fields nowadays. Ammonia is always used because it has the highest nitrogen content of all commercial fertilizers. It is therefore essential for crop production. But when two carbon dioxide molecules are made for every molecule of ammonia produced this not only uses natural gas a fossil fuel and a lot of energy but the results contribute to excess carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere. Last month a team from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University consisting of Dr. Abdoulaye Djire, assistant professor, and graduate student Denis Johnson, discovered a technique to produce ammonia through an electrochemical process resulting in greatly reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Their goal is to replace the Haber-Bosch process with one powered by electricity that is more sustainable and safer for our environment. The great challenge of ammonia synthesis, electrochemical or otherwise, is the requirement to take a nitrogen molecule from the air, and break it in two. This is a tall order because the triple bond holding the two nitrogen atoms together is one of the strongest known in nature. As mentioned last week, in the existing technology, now over a hundred years old, water and methane are heated over a catalyst that encourages atomic atom switching, producing a stream of carbon dioxide and hydrogen in the process. The hydrogen is then reacted with nitrogen over an iron catalyst and the result is ammonia gas. Because the process is so old, you have to believe it has been refined and squeezed to the peak of efficiency. Current global ammonia production is about 176 million tons per year and is predominantly achieved through this Haber Bosch process. The researchers have proposed using the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to produce ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and water. The benefits of using an electrochemical method include using water to provide protons and the ability to produce ammonia at ambient temperature and pressure. This process would potentially require lower amounts of energy than the Haber-Bosch which operates at pressures above 400 atmospheres and temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius. To run this new process, as mentioned in their paper published in the January 2022 journal Nature Scientific Reports, Ti2N Nitride Evokes Nitrogen Reduction Reaction the researchers found that using a titanium nitride catalyst that already has nitrogen intermingled in its structure, allowing for a more efficient ammonia formation. In the future, this could be a major scientific reform, said Professor Djire. About 2% of the worlds total energy is used for ammonia production. Reducing that huge number would drastically reduce our carbon footprint and energy consumption. Its easier for ammonia to form because the protons can attach to the nitrogen in the structure, form the ammonia and then the ammonia will leave out of the structure, said his graduate student Denis Johnson. A hole is made in the structure that can pull the nitrogen gas in and separate the triple bond. Many companies are looking for a way to reduce these environmental costs in securing the future of ammonia generation. Lets hope at least one of them can be brought to fruition. Gary Hanington is Professor Emeritus of physical science at Great Basin College and Vice President of Engineering at AHV. He can be reached at garyh@ahv.com or gary.hanington@gbcnv.edu. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 ELKO West Wendover High School English teacher Justin Evans is one of five recipients to receive a Nevada Arts Council 2022 Literary Arts Fellowship Grant in the amount of $5,000. The Artist Fellowship Program was created in 1989 to encourage the pursuit of artistic excellence by providing financial support to outstanding artists. Fellowship grants go to contemporary artists living in Nevada in the literary, performing, and visual arts (including media arts), and can be awarded at any stage of the artists career development. By recognizing and rewarding artistic accomplishment, the program promotes public awareness and appreciation of the role of the artist in our society. Receiving the grant does validate my decision to continue in the arts, said Evans. The Panelists who decide who receives the grants are all well-respected writers themselves, more than just in the writing community. Receiving the award is encouragement, it is an achievement among my peers. I have submitted every year I have been eligible as a resident of Nevada, and for me to receive this signal from the arts community is gratifying, and I want to work even harder as an artist so I can be worthy of being selected. Evans earned a Baccalaureate in History and English Education from Southern Utah University. Soon after, he moved to West Wendover, Nevada, with his wife and sons, where he has taught history, English, honors Government, College Prep Writing, ACT Prep, and many other classes for the past 23 years. Shortly after beginning his teaching career, he earned a Masters Degree in Literacy Studies from The University of Nevada, Reno. Justin has published four chapbooks and six full-length collections of poetry. His most recent books are Cross Country (WordTech, 2019), which he wrote with the poet Jeff Newberry, and All the Brilliant Ideas Ive Ever Had (Aldrich Books, 2020) NAC grants are made possible primarily through public dollars appropriations from the State of Nevada and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Elko County Commissioners will meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, in the Nannini Administration Building. Commissioners will consider changing voting machine suppliers or switching to paper ballots for elections. The board will also review a summary of capital needs, including $40 million for a judicial center with office space, $15 million toward a recreation and events center project, $10 million for additional parking, and other projects adding up to a total of $88 million over the next five years. The board will also consider a request for $500,000 from the Elko Institute of Academic Achievement for the construction of a charter school near the Peace Park. Elko County Board of Health will meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Nannini Administration Building. The board will hear health-related updates from Nevada Health Centers, Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, Vitality Center and the Elko County School District. Elko County Planning Commission will meet at 5:15 p.m. Thursday in the Nannini Administration Building. The board will discuss an application from Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc. for vacating right of way in Jackpot, and a zoning change request from Walter and Janice Fox for conversion from open space to special lands, for development of a 10-acre or larger parcel. A school board candidate forum sponsored by the Spring Creek Association is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at the Spring Creek High School gym. The event will be preceded by a meet and greet from 5:30-6 p.m. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Editor: Elko falls in line with the rest of our diseased country. A repeat felon gets busted with a stolen TV and drug paraphernalia. Judge Simons previously suspends two drug charges with the habitual criminal having seven felony arrests within two years. Unbelievable and sickening! Whatever happened to crime and punishment? The suspect should have been behind bars for a long, long time or deported if warranted. America has become a cesspool because of liberals and upstanding American citizens are paying the tab as usual. Ed Graham Lamoille Love 2 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 5 Country's food security can only be achieved when seed resources tightly held, president says President Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of the seed industry during a visit to a seed lab in Sanya, Hainan province, on April 10, and his visit boosted the confidence of workers on new innovations in the sector, agricultural scientists said. Seeds are key to national food security, and China's food security can only be achieved when seed resources are tightly held in Chinese hands, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at the Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory. He urged efforts to focus on making breakthroughs when it comes to ensuring food security and securing the supply of important agricultural produce. Efforts must be made to realize self-reliance in seed technology and make sure that sources of seeds are under control. Xi approved of Hainan's efforts in exploring innovation in agricultural science and technology to support and guarantee national food security. Scientists at the Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base in the Yazhou Bay area, where the seed lab was established in May 2021, said the Chinese leader's visit will encourage them to pass on the spirit of Chinese agronomists in making greater contributions to the country's food security. Nanfan, or offseason seed breeding in South China's Hainan province, started in the 1950s as agricultural scientists came to Sanya, Ledong and Lingshui from November to May to conduct seed breeding-related activities. Shortening the breeding cycle by half or more, Nanfan has accelerated the breeding process and greatly improved the adaptability of seed varieties, the experts said. At the Nanfan breeding bases, dubbed China's Silicon Valley for seed breeding, more than 10,000 scientists and workers from more than 800 research institutions and universities gather from across the country, bringing more than 3 million breeding materials to the vital seed propagation facility each year. Among them was Yuan Longping, the late agri-scientist known as the "father of hybrid rice", according to data from the Hainan provincial Nanfan breeding administration. The Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory covered more than 240,000 square meters. It built 10 public scientific research platforms which are equipped with more than 3,000 sets of the most advanced sequencers and mass spectrometers in the world. Seed samples collected from the field can be tested and identified with great convenience, said Xia Mian, head of the lab's department for cooperation and exchanges. The seed lab has gathered research staff to work on seed industry innovation, in collaboration with around 20 member institutions. Xia said more sets of large equipment are being installed to support scientific research at the lab, which will boast about 7,000 sets of various facilities to be shared by Nanfan agro-scientists in the near future. In the past years, Nanfan agro-scientists had to send seeds for testing to cities like Beijing and Shanghai as there were no basic facilities such as first-generation sequencers. "Backed by a professional technical support team and a comprehensive public service platform, the lab will serve as an innovation engine of the 'Nanfan Silicon Valley' to help cultivate a complete chain that links theoretical innovation with technology integration, seed breeding design and industrial incubation, and carry out joint innovative research to tackle bottlenecks," Xia said. "The lab's advanced platforms, such as the large instrument public service center and precision molecular design breeding center, have made scientific research very convenient and efficient, while saving a lot of costs," said Yang Xiaofeng, executive vice-president of Sanya Nanfan Research Institute under Hainan University. Jia Zhiwei, deputy general manager of Longping Biotech (Hainan) Co Ltd, said the lab, with its excellent natural location and state-of-the-art research environment, are playing an important role in promoting seed breeding technology development and exchanges of new ideas among agro-scientists. Jia, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology, believes the Nanfan Silicon Valley will become a highland of China's seed industry research and progress in the application of biotech in seed breeding. She said it will also bring revolutionary changes by improving the quality of seeds in traditional crops, cultivation of new varieties, and the reduction of pests and crop diseases which will ensure greater yields. The Longping company has been expanded quickly over the past three years, with its research team growing from around 10 at the launch date to the current 60 scientists, part of them coming from leading seed research institutions at home and abroad. "Longping Biotech focuses on developing key 'chip' technologies for biotechnological breeding of corn, soybean and other crops. The company also engages in developing insect-resistance and herbicide-tolerance technology, gene editing, male sterility seed production and new insect resistance, and drought resistance gene mining," said Jia. "Based in Sanya, we are conducting research from a global perspective. For instance, we have successfully helped Brazil get fall armyworms under controla pest that seriously harms the growth of maizethrough biotechnology," she added. Looking back into the development of seed breeding in Hainan, the varieties have been expanded from main crops such as rice, maize, and cotton to a much diversified list that include more than 40 species such as oil crops, potatoes, fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, medicinal herbs, aquatic products, livestock and poultry breeding, said the Hainan Nanfan administration. It said that taking advantage of the tropical climate and biological resources in Hainan, Chinese agro-scientists have developed more than 70 percent of new crop varieties in the country. "With unique natural conditions, Hainan is a treasure land for agricultural scientific research in China. Almost all good varieties come from Hainan, and it has played an important role in promoting China's agricultural development," said Yuan Longping, the late scientist who once worked for nearly 50 years in Hainan. Zhao Yimeng in Beijing contributed to this story. The delegation respectfully offered incense to the heroic spirit of President Ho Chi Minh, visited Tan Trao communal house, enjoyed the Then singing on Na Nua Lake, and laid flowers at the memorial area for revolutionary predecessors. The delegation visited Na Nua shack - where President Ho Chi Minh used to live and work. (Photo: CPV) Speaking at the exchange, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga said that, as an annual tradition, VUFO cooperates with localities to organize a program to visit historical sites, cultural constructions, and exchanges with representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations in Hanoi. She expressed her hope that the exchange program will bring international friends many interesting experiences regarding the unique historical and cultural values and the hospitality of the people of Tuyen Quang province in particular and of the Vietnamese people in general. In addition, the exchange was expected to open new cooperation opportunities between representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations in Vietnam and localities in the near future. Welcoming the international friendship exchange delegation in 2022, Mr. Nguyen Van Son, Deputy Secretary of the Tuyen Quang Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, assessed that the annual exchange is a practical and meaningful activity, creating opportunities for Vietnamese and international delegates to meet and exchange; contributing to strengthening the friendship, understanding and cooperation between the Vietnamese people and the peoples of the world; while introducing and promoting the image and beauty of Vietnamese culture to international friends. Vahram Kazhoyan, Armenian Ambassador to Vietnam, shared his joy and emotion to visit Tuyen Quang, a land rich in cultural and historical traditions, the capital of the liberated zone, and the capital of the resistance war of Vietnam, and to visit historical sites associated with the revolutionary activities of the great President Ho Chi Minh. According to the Ambassador, through the exchange program, he and the delegates had the opportunity to discover the richness, diversity, and colors of the culture of Tuyen Quang province, especially of the ethnic groups. He was particularly impressed when enjoying the unique Then singing - one of the intangible cultural heritages of the mankind. The Ambassador highly appreciated VUFO's activities in coordination with Tuyen Quang province in particular and other provinces and cities of Vietnam in general, in further promoting mutual understanding, enhancing friendship and cooperation between Vietnamese people and people of countries around the world. He affirmed that he would continue to promote the friendly relationship between the peoples of other countries and Vietnamese people./. Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in Ho Chi Minh City Truong Minh Tuoc Nguyen delivers a speech at the contest. (Photo: VNA) Taking place from April 17 to May 10, the contest attracts 64 teams with 425 contestants joining different issues, including promoting the studying and following of President Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style; Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought; knowledge about the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country and the city; history, culture, national traditions and traditions of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union; basic legal knowledge; and application of Marxist-Leninist sciences and Ho Chi Minh's thought to solve practical problems. Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in Ho Chi Minh City Truong Minh Tuoc Nguyen said that through the contest, the union has equipped students with theory and foundational knowledge, the forces that will play a key role in the goal of building high-quality human resources of Ho Chi Minh City. This year, young officials, teachers and lecturers aged 35 and under, who are currently working, teaching or doing research work at educational and training institutions in the city, will also enjoy the contest through their essays to share young people's perspectives on youth's social problems and effectively apply Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought in creating with solutions. Started since 2004, the contest has had considerable impact on candidates and society, creating a favorable environment for the city's young cadres, teachers and lecturers to research and apply Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought in their work, contributing to the success of the education sector./. Press Release April 18, 2022 Lacson Vows to Fight Attempts to Subvert Democracy More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-vows-to-fight-attempts-to-subvert-democracy Independent presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson on Sunday vowed to fight moves by some sectors to subvert democracy by "convincing" him and some of his fellow presidential aspirants to withdraw from the presidential race. Lacson said he was not alone in getting feelers to withdraw from the presidential derby in exchange for financial and other considerations. "Sinu-subvert na natin ang will ng electorate maski wala pang halalan (In so many words, what is this? This is an attempt to subvert the will of the electorate even before Election Day)," he said at a press conference with fellow presidential candidates at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City. "Yan ang essence ng paglabas namin ngayong umaga. At warning na rin na huwag kayo mag-subvert ng will of the electorate kasi we'll stand up as one (That is the essence of our press conference - and a warning against those concerned against subverting the will of the electorate because we'll stand up as one)," he added. Also at the press conference were Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso and former defense secretary Norberto Gonzales, who narrated their own experiences of being approached to back out of the race - and made a similar vow. During the press conference, Lacson and his fellow candidates vowed to unite against those trying to subvert the democratic process, and to continue with their respective campaigns. "We're emphasizing this morning that nobody will withdraw. We'll go all the way till May 9, come what may. Let's not buy their propaganda no matter how foul and below the belt," Lacson stressed. Lacson - who earlier named former Quezon City Mayor Brigido "Jun" Simon Jr. as approaching him to withdraw in favor of Vice President Leonor Robredo, after meeting with Mrs. Robredo at least twice earlier - said he learned from Gonzales that he had a similar experience. On the other hand, Lacson noted he and other candidates including Mayor Domagoso, were being "stripped" of their supporters by the same camp. "They are trying to strip us of our supporters and support groups," he said, referring to his former party Reporma and Domagoso's "Ikaw Na" shifting their support to Mrs. Robredo. Yet, he noted most of his supporters in Reporma left the party or at least maintained their support for his presidential bid. For his part, Domagoso said it seems that "isang kulay lang lahat nang ito (only one color is behind this)." "Marami talagang attempts at ninlilimit ang choices sa dalawa. That's why we had to do this (There were many attempts to limit the electorate's choices to two. That's why we had to do this)," Lacson noted. "Sabi ko baka pwedeng kausapin natin ang ibang kasamang tumatakbo, baka may sariling experience (I told him maybe we can talk to other candidates who have had similar experiences)," he added. For his part, Lacson's vice presidential bet, Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, said he is supporting Lacson, Domagoso and Gonzales. "I fully support the stand they are making on this," he said. The financial bloc of the government of Ukraine will attend the traditional Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which will start on April 18 in Washington, and will also hold talks with the U.S. government, the goal is to raise additional funds, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said. "Next week, the financial unit of our team will work in Washington. Meetings with the IMF, the World Bank and the U.S. government to raise additional funds to finance the needs of the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian economy and our people," Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram channel, as well as told the American television channel ABC News. According to him, in the coming months, Ukraine's state budget deficit could reach $5 billion, and therefore Western financial assistance is needed now more than ever. The prime minister said that Ukraine is ready for a diplomatic option to end the war, but will not give in to its national interests. "If Russia does not want to end the war with diplomacy, then we will have to end this war on the battlefield," Shmyhal said. Economic Adviser to the President of Ukraine Oleh Ustenko, in an interview with The New Yorker, recently estimated the Ukrainian budget deficit in the coming months at about $8 billion a month and announced the desirability of partner assistance of $50 billion for six months. At the same time, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko earlier predicted a state budget deficit for April-May of $5-7 billion a month compared to $2.7 billion in March. According to the National Bank, Ukraine has received $3.8 billion in international financial assistance since the beginning of the war. Water producer Voda UA (Kyiv) plans to increase export supplies of Carpathian high-mountain waters under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Vysokohirna due to a significant reduction in the domestic market caused by the military invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation. The owner and founder of the group of companies Dmytro Nikiforov told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday about the launch of the Support Ukraine, Buy Ukrainian project to promote Ukrainian brands abroad. According to the data on the project website https://supportukrainianbusiness.com/, it was created to encourage Europeans to buy Ukrainian products to support Ukrainian business, which in turn helps the Ukrainian military, volunteers and civil organizations. So, since the military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Voda UA has already provided UAH 3.5 million worth of its products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU), volunteer organizations, bomb shelters and other people in need. "There can be no question of any business in Russia or with Russian business in any form," Nikiforov said, pointing to the consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine. According to Nikiforov, now the Voda UA plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region is operating normally, while after the start of the war it experienced problems with logistics. "Logistics was disrupted for just two weeks. Nobody wanted to go to Kyiv, and the invaders were right near Kyiv, and half the country was cut off for delivery. Now everything is working as usual. There are problems with consumables from suppliers. For example, the Hostomel glass factory, where our legendary bottle is produced suffered quite a lot," Nikiforov said. At the same time, the Voda UA office in Kyiv is closed, and its employees work remotely. The company continues to pay office employees 75% of the pre-war wage rate, including those who serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Voda UA is a group of companies engaged in the extraction of Carpathian high mountain waters under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Vysokohirna. The owner of the group of companies is Dmytro Nikiforov. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal believes that Russia's default is becoming a matter of weeks, but not months. "The ports of all EU countries have suspended the service of Russian ships. Also, the countries of the European Union are finally starting to discuss the oil embargo and tightening sanctions against Sberbank. These decisions are needed as soon as possible. These decisions will help stop the war. Russia's default is becoming a matter of weeks, but not months," Shmyhal said. The prime minister stressed that the authorities talk daily with partners about the importance of further pressure on Russia. "And I am sure that this economic and financial pressure will continue," the official added. The fall in Ukraine's real GDP in March 2022 amounted to 45% compared to the same period last year, the state budget deficit this year could reach 16-26% of GDP, Dragon Capital investment company predicts. "According to preliminary estimates, in March, real GDP fell by 45% year-on-year. The blocking and mining of the Black Sea water area by the Russian naval forces significantly narrowed the opportunities for exports and imports. Almost 5 million Ukrainians were forced to leave the country," the analytical report says. "According to our estimates, the territories in the east and south of Ukraine, which remain occupied by Russian troops by mid-April, generated approximately 12% of GDP in pre-war times. Economic activity in the rest of the country remains subdued, although it is gradually recovering," the company's chief economist, Olena Belan, believes. So far, the occupying forces have destroyed or significantly damaged a small number of large industrial facilities, which allows for a partial restoration of production volumes, Dragon Capital notes. At the same time, without the resumption of access to the Black Sea, Ukraine will be able to export less than half of the pre-war volumes. The investment company predicts that if fighting continues within the territory occupied by Russian troops by mid-April, and the risk of missile strikes in the rest of the territory remains high, the Ukrainian economy will shrink by about a third and is unlikely to grow next year. At the same time, it is specified that a sustainable ceasefire in the coming months will accelerate economic recovery and reduce the annual decline in GDP to minus 25% year-over-year, followed by a 6.5% growth in 2023, analysts believe. In the scenario where the ceasefire agreement is accompanied by the opening of the Black Sea to commercial shipping, Ukraine will be able to increase export volumes, estimated to 70% of the pre-war level (due to lost production capacity). In this case, the fall in GDP this year will be 22%, and economic growth next year could reach 10%. According to analysts, one of the biggest challenges is the implementation of the state budget, which is complicated by a drop in tax revenues and an unprecedented expansion of the budget deficit. Dragon Capital estimates an average monthly budget deficit at $4 billion during the fighting and allows the gap to narrow to $2.5-3 billion "with a sustainable ceasefire agreement reached." The Russian aggressor launched five missile strikes on Lviv on Monday morning, the data is being specified, mayor Andriy Sadovy said. "A total of five targeted missile strikes on Lviv. Relevant services have already left for the place. We find out more detailed information," the mayor wrote on his telegram channel on Monday. At the same time, head of Lviv regional military administration Maksym Kozytsky writes about four missile strikes. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that American and European politicians should respond with sanctions against the entire banking system of Russia for its attempt to introduce a ruble zone in the temporarily occupied territories of southern Ukraine. "The invaders are trying to tear off Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, following the example of the so-called "DPR" and "LPR." They are switching to the ruble zone and subordinating the administrative machine of Russia on this territory. All this requires greater speed of Western states in preparing a new powerful sanctions package. In response to an attempt to occupy Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in rubles should be the full coverage of the Russian banking and financial systems, because they are part of the occupation machine," Zelensky said in an evening video message on Sunday evening. Also, according to him, the need to impose an embargo on the supply of oil from the Russian Federation is growing every day. "Everyone in the United States and Europe already sees that Russia is openly using energy to destabilize Western society. The Russian bet on chaos in the fuel markets should not work," he added. As a result of missile attacks on Lviv by Russian invaders on Monday, six people were killed, eight more were wounded, including one child, Head of Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytsky has said. "According to the information of the Zakhid (West) Air Command, this morning there were four missile strikes on Lviv. Three on a military infrastructure facility. One on a tire fitting... Unfortunately, there are killed and wounded. As of this hour, six killed and eight wounded, among the victims is one child. The data is being specified," Kozytsky said in Telegram. According to him, as a result of missile attacks, fires broke out, the extinguishing of which is still ongoing. "The facilities received significant damage," Kozytsky said. Later, Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, said that the number of injured had increased to 11 people, including a child. "One of the missiles hit a civilian facility, a tire fitting. Previously, six people killed, some 11 wounded, including one child. About 40 vehicles were damaged or destroyed. The blast shattered windows at a nearby hotel. The evacuated Ukrainians live in it," the mayor said in Telegram. Over the past day in Kharkiv region, as a result of shelling carried out by the Russia armed forces, nine people were killed and 25 were wounded, the press service of Kharkiv regional military administration has said. "In Kharkiv, as a result of shelling by the invaders of residential areas, including the central part of the city, 24 people were wounded, six were killed. Derhachiv community was shelled in the region, two people were killed and one was wounded. After the shelling of the Russian military, one person killed in Zolochiv community," the administration said. The enemy is completing the creation of an offensive grouping in the eastern part of the country, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation are completing the creation of an offensive grouping in the Eastern Operational Zone. The enemy also does not stop launching missile and bomb strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure," a message posted on Facebook on Monday morning said. The enemy did not conduct active operations in Volyn and Polissia directions, but is conducting electronic reconnaissance on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. In Siversk direction, the enemy tightly controls sections of the borders. "The engineering equipment of positions in the areas of checkpoints and in the border areas of Briansk and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation is underway. The involvement of sabotage and reconnaissance groups and missile strikes from the territory of the Russian Federation is not ruled out," the General Staff said. In Slobozhansky direction, the invaders continue to partially block Kharkiv. In addition, the enemy tried to conduct reconnaissance in force in the areas of the settlements of Zavody, Dmytrivka and Dubrovno, but suffered losses and retreated. In Donetsk and Tauride directions, the enemy continues shelling the settlements of Seversk and Pokrovske, and also replenishes combat capability. Trying to capture Mariupol, the main efforts of the aggressor concentrated in the areas of settlements Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna and Rubizhne. The enemy carried out offensive actions in Severodonetsk, Popasna and Zaporizhia directions. It also unsuccessfully tried to gain a foothold in the areas of settlements of Kreminna and Rubizhne. In addition, the invaders stormed Novotoshkivske, Popasna, Avdiyivka and Maryiynka, but also failed. In Pivdenny Buh direction, the enemy continues to exert a fire influence on the positions of Ukrainian troops in the directions to Mykolaiv and Oleksandrivka. Your browser does not support the video tag. A group of U.S. Democratic lawmakers, including four senators and a member of the House of Representatives, will travel to Poland, India, Germany, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates to garner support for Ukraine. "This strong congressional delegation will have the opportunity to meet with U.S. military leadership and troops in Poland in order to learn how the U.S. can continue to support Ukraine and our NATO allies against Russia's unprovoked and unwarranted war," the lawmakers said in a joint statement, according to The Hill. "In addition, the delegation will meet with a number of key foreign leaders in Poland, UAE, India, Nepal, and Germany to strengthen ties during this period of heightened global tension," the congressmen said. Other senators making the trip with Kelly are Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-MA), along with Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), the lone House member. The National Police of Ukraine is investigating nearly 900 criminal cases involving missing Ukrainians, more than 500 cases of abduction of civilians, and more than 2,500 cases involving the deaths of Ukrainian citizens. "To date, the National Police has registered almost 900 criminal proceedings on the facts of our missing citizens in the territories that were and, unfortunately, are still under occupation," First Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police Serhiy Panteleyev said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday. He said: "The police also documented the facts of illegal deprivation of liberty by the invaders of more than 500 civilian Ukrainians." In addition, according to Panteleyev, the police are investigating criminal proceedings on the facts of the death of more than 2,500 citizens of Ukraine. MP Viktor Medvedchuk, detained by the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), recorded a video statement to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, in which he asked to be exchanged for the defenders and residents of Mariupol. "I, Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk, want to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a request that the Ukrainian side exchange me for the defenders of Mariupol and [its] residents who are there and do not have the possibility of a safe exit through humanitarian corridors," Medvedchuk said in a video statement released by the SBU on Monday. The special service also said the Russian invaders provoked "one of the largest humanitarian disasters" in Mariupol. "The invaders are bombing the civilian population, blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to the city, forcibly taking Ukrainians to the territory of Russia and deliberately destroying the city. At the same time, according to various estimates, about 120,000 civilians remain in the blocked Mariupol, and the fighters of the Azov regiment continue to defend the city and the 36th Marine Brigade," the SBU said. As reported, on May 11, 2021, Medvedchuk was notified of suspicion of treason and attempted plunder of national resources in Russian-occupied Crimea. The shelling by the invaders of the village of Maryanske, Kryvorizky district, Dnipropetrovsk region, on Sunday, which resulted in the death of one person, was carried out with prohibited cluster munitions, the Prosecutor General's Office said. "According to the investigation, on April 17, 2022, the Russian armed forces fired missile artillery with the Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system with prohibited cluster warheads of the village of Maryanske, Kryvorizky district, Dnipropetrovsk region," the prosecutor's office said in a Telegram channel on Monday. According to the prosecutor's office, a local resident was killed as a result of the shelling, households, houses and cars of the village residents were damaged. The PGO said that there are no military installations in the area. Dnipropetrovsk regional prosecutor's office provides procedural guidance in criminal proceedings on the fact of violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder (part 2 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). As result of shelling of playgrounds in Kharkiv, two people killed On Monday afternoon, the Russia armed forces shelled Kharkiv, two people were killed. "On April 18, 2022, at about 11:50, Russian invaders fired at Osnovyansky district of Kharkiv. Shells fell on the territory of playgrounds near residential buildings. As a result of the shelling, a man and a woman were killed. A number of residential buildings were also damaged," the press service of Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office has said. On this fact, the investigators of the SBU in Kharkiv region initiated criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 438 (violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. During the month of the war, according to preliminary estimates of the Concern for Radio Broadcasting of Radio Communications and Television (CRRT), which belongs to the administration of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, Russian troops damaged the infrastructure of television and radio communications in Ukraine worth more than 600 million UAH. "Since the beginning of the military aggression, in attacks on populated areas, Russia has primarily been trying to physically destroy the communications and television infrastructure. More than two dozen transmitting television substations of the CRRT were shelled and were completely or partially destroyed," the State Special Communications Service said in the Telegram channel. The department also said that in general, for various reasons, 46 settlements are not able to receive on-air television and radio broadcasting services (mainly Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions). "This is due to the destruction, and because of the lack of power supply, and because of the aggressor's attempts to organize their own broadcasting, or in connection with the looting committed by Russian soldiers," the State Special Communications Service said. In eight settlements, Zorynivka, Markivka, Shyroke, Starobelsk, Belovodsk, Kherson, Vasylivka, Henychesk, the equipment was switched by the invaders to Russian channels. According to rough estimates of the CRRT, during the month of the war, Russia caused damage of more than UAH 600 million. These are preliminary assessments; a methodology for assessing the damage from the war will soon be adopted. The Ukrainian military liberated a number of settlements in the vicinity of Izium in Kharkiv region, spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Oleksandr Motuzianyk said. "Yes, I can confirm. A number of settlements have been liberated as a result of intensive combat operations by the Ukrainian military," Motuzianyk said at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Monday. He stressed that in Slobozhanske direction, the town of Izium and its surroundings are the places of the largest accumulation of Russian units. "It is from there, among other places, that they will try to develop an offensive to the East," the spokesman explained. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry does not confirm the Russian Federation's information about the destruction of a Ukrainian transport plane, spokesman of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Oleksandr MotuzIanyk said. "I do not confirm this information," Motuzianyk said at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Monday. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a Ukrainian military transport plane carrying a shipment of weapons for Ukraine was allegedly shot down near Odesa. Talk between Zelensky and Nauseda: We expect increase in EU security support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expects increased support for security within the EU. "Continued dialogue with President Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda. Informed about the situation on the frontline, the heroic defense of Mariupol. Thanked for the security support. We expect its increase within EU. We need to raise the price of aggression for Russia, to strengthen sanctions," he said on Twitter Monday. Chisinau will not be able to provide military assistance to Kyiv, Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita said. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Gavrilita declined to comment on Ukrainian media reports saying that Moldova refused to supply Ukraine with six MiG-29 fighter aircraft it has retained from Soviet times. "Moldova supports Ukraine and its citizens [...] in a different way, by accepting refugees, providing humanitarian aid, and observing all the international sanctions in the banking and financial sector," Gavrilita said. "And there are over 90,000 refugees from Ukraine in Moldova now, and we are providing them with all the necessary help. As concerns military assistance, there are countries far better equipped [with military hardware] and more developed, which have the economic and energy resources to provide such assistance," Gavrilita said. She declined to answer a direct question from a journalist as to whether Kyiv has actually asked Chisinau to transfer the fighters. A number of Ukrainian media outlets reported on Sunday that Kyiv had asked Chisinau to sell or give it the MiG-29 fighters in its possession but that the request was declined. The Moldovan Defense Ministry has owned six MiG-29 fighters since Soviet time. They underwent a major upgrade in Belarus in the late 1990s. They have not been flown since then, and therefore, there is no accurate information as to their current technical condition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given Matti Maasikas, the head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine, the completed questionnaire to receive EU candidate status, the presidential press service said on Monday. At the ceremony to hand over the document, Zelensky said work on the questionnaire normally takes years. "I want to thank you for the speed, for the possibility to complete this procedure in weeks or a couple of months. We believe that we will receive support for this work, we will become a candidate, and then the next and final stage will begin. We believe that this procedure will take place in the coming weeks," the president said. Maasikas, for his part, said Ukraine's answers in the questionnaire will be analyzed very quickly. Andriy Yermak, the head of the president's office, said Ukraine hopes to get EU candidate status after the meeting of the European Council in June 2022. "Then talks on joining should start, which should be held using a speedy procedure," Yermak said on Telegram on Monday. The first part of the questionnaire has been sent to the European Commission, he said. "We are working on the second part and we will be waiting for a positive recommendation from the European Commission. The entire team of the president, the office and the government is working to do all that depends on us as soon as possible," Yermak said. According to earlier reports, the questionnaire consists of two parts, of which one contains political and economic criteria and the second one includes an evaluation of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with the legal acts of the European Union. "After receiving answers to the questionnaire from the Ukrainian side, the European Commission will present its opinion to the European Council as to whether Ukraine meets the Copenhagen criteria and recommend whether to grant the country candidate status. After that, at the meeting of the European Council, the EU leaders, based on the opinion of the European Commission, should make a final decision on granting us candidate status for EU membership," the press service of Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olha Stefanishyna reported. Vereschuk: Kyiv demands from Russian leadership opening of humanitarian corridor from Mariupol for civilians Ukraine demands from the Russian leadership to open a humanitarian corridor Mariupol-Berdyansk for civilians, said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk. "Due to the aggravation of the situation in Mariupol, I appeal to the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation: we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Berdyansk for civilians," Vereschuk wrote on Twitter on Monday. She also said that Ukraine demands "an urgent humanitarian corridor from the territory of the Azovstal plant for women, children and other civilians." "Your refusal to open the said humanitarian corridors will be the basis for holding all those involved criminally responsible for war crimes in the future," the deputy prime minister stressed. Vereschuk wrote in the Telegram post in Russian. On Monday, April 18, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denys Monastyrsky met with foreign rescue colleagues who arrived in Borodyanka (Kyiv region). According to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 11 professional rescuers from the USA, Australia and Germany expressed their desire to come to Ukraine on a volunteer basis and help Ukrainian rescuers. In the near future one more Polish representative will join the team. It is noted that now they will work in Borodyanka, where they will be involved in the removal of debris and unblocking of buildings. The investigative department of the Min Department of SBU in Kharkiv region, under the procedural direction of the regional prosecutor's office began a pretrial investigation into the shelling of Nemyshliansky district of Kharkiv by the Russian Armed Forces in the morning of April 18. "According to the investigation, on April 18, 2022, at about 10:30-10:45, the military personnel of the Russian Armed Forces shelled Nemyshliansky district of Kharkiv. A shell fell near a residential building, which resulted in its partial destruction and damage to neighboring houses. According to preliminary information, three people were killed. The number of wounded is currently being established," the press service of Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office reported. Criminal proceedings were opened under Part 2 of Article 438 (violation of laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In Slobozhanske and Donetsk operational areas, the aggressor has intensified offensive and assault actions in certain directions, the efforts of the enemy are focused on establishing full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "The main efforts of the enemy are focused on establishing full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and maintaining previously seized territory. Signs of the beginning of an offensive operation in the Eastern operating zone are being recorded. In Slobozhanske and Donetsk operational areas the aggressor in certain directions has intensified offensive and assault actions," the General Staff said in a message on Facebook. Thus, in order to strengthen their offensive capabilities, the invaders continue to form additional units in Rostov region and in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea. "It is planned to use them to support the combat operations of the main forces in the second echelon, protect administrative buildings and important infrastructure facilities in the seized territories. According to available information, the tentative term of formation is until April 24 this year," the AFU stressed. In addition, there could be provocations and the use of army aviation by the enemy in the regions bordering Ukraine, including strikes against civilian objects. The deployment of helicopter landing sites in the vicinity of the border with Ukraine, on the territory of Belgorod Region, has been noted. In Slobozhanske direction, the enemy grouping continues to partially blockade Kharkiv and destroy residential areas of the city with artillery fire. Continued offensive attempts are expected in the direction of Izium-Sloviansk and Izium-Barvynkove. It is noted that the grouping of occupation troops continues to focus its main efforts on capturing the settlements of Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna and Rubizhne. The enemy has intensified offensives in Severodonetsk, Popasna, Kurakhove and Zaporizhia directions. Fighting for Mariupol continues, with the enemy conducting assault actions near the seaport. "The enemy does not stop trying to establish full control over the territory of Kherson region. It conducts combat operations in the area of the village of Oleksandrivka, there is no success," the General Staff added. Enemy ship groups in the Black and Azov Seas continue to isolate the sea coast of our state, as well as carrying out reconnaissance. In addition, the enemy steals and exports equipment, machinery and products of local companies to Russia in the occupied territories and mines agricultural fields. Danger of Russian sea, airborne landings in southern Ukraine remains, along with danger of missile and bomb strikes across country Zaluzhny The danger of sea and airborne landing of Russian occupiers in the south of Ukraine remains, as does the danger of missile and bomb attacks on the entire country, warns Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "The situation in the southern direction is under control. The threat from the sea has been significantly reduced due to the sinking of the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. However, the danger of sea and airborne landing troops remains. In this connection, measures are continuing to strengthen the anti-landing defense, including through material and technical assistance from partner countries," Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram on Monday. According to him, the defense forces are steadily protecting Mykolaiv from possible enemy attempts to resume the offensive and destroying the enemy in the suburbs of Kherson. "We do not allow the enemy to advance in the direction of Zaporizhia. There is a heroic defense of the heroic city of Mariupol. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is taking all possible measures to support the defenders of the city. In particular, the destruction of the landing ship Saratov in the port of Berdyansk reduced the risk of landing and fire from the sea," Zaluzhny noted. The AFU commander-in-chief stressed that Ukrainian defenders managed to eliminate the immediate threat to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. "Nevertheless, the danger of missile and bomb attacks remains for the entire country," Zaluzhny noted. He urged Ukrainian citizens to observe security requirements during alarms and to be sensitive to the presence of fortifications, roadblocks and heightened control measures during martial law. Zaluzhny also asked to refrain from publicizing in social networks and media publications about the consequences of enemy shelling in real time, as well as information about objects that could become potential targets for the enemy attack. Zaluzhny recalled that the defense forces gave a decent repulse to the aggressor in the northern and northeastern directions. "The territories of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions have been completely liberated. At the same time, I urge the residents of these regions to be careful, as the insidious enemy has left a lot of mines, traps and tripwires that pose a potential danger to the lives of civilians, especially children. Please be vigilant and report suspicious objects to the military command and the State Emergency Service," Zaluzhny said. There can be no impunity for war crimes, EU supports work of ICC Borrell The European Union actively supports the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and measures to ensure accountability for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, European Union High Representative Josep Borrell said in a statement on the latest indiscriminate shelling of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. "Ukraine is being struck by the most intensive missile attacks by the Russian Federation since weeks. The EU condemns the continued indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure by Russian armed forces There can be no impunity for war crimes," a statement published on the website of the EEAS on Monday reads. The head of the EU diplomacy noted that major cities, including Kharkiv, continue to be attacked indiscriminately, causing further destruction of civilian lives and infrastructure. "The EU commends the Ukrainian peoples strength, courage and resistance to withstand Russias aggression and stands with them in firm solidarity, including by supporting the delivery of military equipment. Russia must immediately and unconditionally cease hostilities and withdraw all forces and military equipment from Ukraine," the statement reads. Attention: people disappeared in Chernihiv, Kiev and Kharkov regions, please help in the search ("Find your loved ones", 04/16/2022) Attention! People disappeared in Chernihiv, Kiev and Kharkov regions. Please help us find: 1. Bazhenkov Konstantin Anatolyevich 11/27/1983. Was in Kharkov. Disappeared on March 2 after an air strike near the Shevchenko plant. Signs: has a scar after the removal of the appendix. On the right hand, after a surgical operation, the little finger and ring fingers are not fully extended. Bazhenkov Konstantin Anatolievich If you have any information about Konstantin's whereabouts, please call: +380966270488 (Irina Marchuk - sister). 2. Zaets Maxim Svyatoslavovich. 11/03/1988 Was in Bucha. Zaets Maxim Svyatoslavovich If you have any information about Maxim's whereabouts, please call: +380674047722 (Kurinenko Yulia Boleslavovna). 3. Petrenko Andrey Vladimirovich. 04/23/1989 Was in Chernihiv. The connection disappeared on February 27, 2022 after 16.00, left for the Epicenter area. Petrenko Andrey Vladimirovich If you have any information about Andrey's whereabouts, please call: +380638727974, +380984112069, e-mail: konodub96@gmail.com (Ekaterina) ------------------------------ We ask citizens whose relatives do not get in touch to send us all the information. We recommend using the following contact form: 1. Full name of the missing person; 2. Your contact details; 3. Photo of the missing person, description of special features; 4. Approximate place of the last stay of the missing person. The "Find Your Loved Ones" project is non-commercial, all your appeals will be edited and published free of charge in the media. We invite colleagues from the media to join the initiative! The project coordinator is Maksim Urakin, deputy head of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and publisher of the Open4Business project. Send information about the missing by e-mail maksim.urakin@gmail.com Murder map On February 24, 2022, the forces of the Russian Federation treacherously attacked Ukraine. Moving deep into the territory, the invaders captured all the settlements that were on their way. However, thanks to the heroism of the Ukrainian army, the Russian army was stopped and pushed back beyond the Ukrainian border, and the occupied cities and villages were liberated. However, having entered the liberated cities and villages, a terrible picture of the war crimes of the Russian army appeared before the Ukrainian defenders. In the occupied territories, for a short period of time, the commanders and soldiers of the Russian army tortured and executed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians. The occupiers raped, killed women and children. They shot cars with people who were just trying to evacuate away from the war. All these shots flew around the world. The entire world has unanimously called the war in Ukraine a genocide of Ukrainian people. So that no one can forget about the crimes of the Russian army, this site was created. The main task is to show the scale of crimes against humanity of the Russian occupiers in Ukraine. If you witnessed the crimes of the Russian army and have information about them, you can indicate the address and send a photo - write us an email feedback@genocideofua.org We will add them to our database. No crime should go unpunished. Every lost life cannot be forgotten! British-Ukrainian Aid (British-Ukrainian Aid) and volunteers donated two ambulances and medicines to Ukraine. On April 17, volunteers-citizens of Ukraine and the public organization British-Ukrainian Aid (British-Ukrainian Aid) handed over two ambulances to Ukraine and representatives of the Armed Forces. In addition, medicines were handed over from English friends. Now such cars are one of the most necessary types of transport both at the front and at the rear, because minimizing damage to citizens and timely medical care will save lives. The organizer of the delivery of cars Valery Polshkov, Alexander Bobylev and the construction company Liko-Holding. According to Valeriy Polshkov, prompt delivery of the car from Britain became possible thanks to the joint efforts of volunteers and the well-coordinated work of the state bodies of Ukraine. I am grateful to the State Border Service and the State Customs Service for their efficient work. The cars crossed the border in 20 minutes and have already been handed over to representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, V. Polshkov emphasized. Also, Oleg Chomko and his company Badzinger Auto were directly involved in the escort and transfer of cars from Britain to Ukraine. British-Ukrainian Aid, bringing together the efforts of the UK and Ukraine, offers humanitarian and medical assistance to the wounded, veterans, orphans, the elderly, internally displaced persons, refugees and families who have lost their military breadwinner. All members of the group are volunteers and work on charitable projects after their main work. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UvhN6AEOQw Do Not Lose Your Soul NEWS PROVIDED BY CURE America Action, Inc. April 18, 2022 LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Thousands of pro-life advocates will descend upon legislators in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 20, 2022, to oppose the single most heinous legislation ever proposed in the state of California. Assembly Bill 2223, authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), will make it lawful to murder a newborn child during the perinatal period with impunity. (Perinatal is defined as relating to the period shortly before and after birth, from the twentieth to twenty-ninth week of gestation to 1 to 4 weeks after birth.) This bill would legalize partial birth abortion and infanticide. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a convicted abortionist, used to joke about the large size of some the infants he aborted and in one case, according to what a co-worker told the grand jury, said, "This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop." Asm. Wicks intends to use AB 2223 to duplicate the works of Kermit Gosnell and make the practice of dehumanizing each other, in the most grotesque way, the norm not just for California but for the nation. Maryland is promoting Senate Bill 669 which mirrors the California proposed legislation. A press conference will be held at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of the Capitol to stand against any further progress of AB 2223 and to demand that the bill no longer be considered by the Assembly. Marc Little, executive director of CURE America Action, Inc., will join thousands of concerned Americans, including Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, Real Impact, California Family Council, and others to defeat AB 2223. Little, a lawyer, pastor and pro-life advocate said in his Townhall.com Op-ed titled Do Not Lose Your Soul, "Darkness either overcomes you or it compels you to shine your light to repel it. Americans face this choice as we are bombarded with social issues that require us to examine the core of the nation's soul." Little went on to say the quiet part out loud: "What is unspoken and most diabolical is that the proposed laws in these states will have a disproportionate impact on black babies," he said. "In the United States, 44% of abortions are performed on black babies. It stands to reason that the infanticide bills proposed in Maryland and California will disproportionately murder black babies after they are born," Little added. AB 2223 must be opposed. SOURCE CURE America Action, Inc. CONTACT: Jackie Jones, 662-259-0988, jackie@TruthPR.com Egypts prosecution ordered the detention of three teenagers pending investigation and placed 10 others in a probation hostel on charges of harassing two foreign girls at the Giza Pyramids during Eid El-Fitr holiday. In a phone call with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday, Jordanian King Abdullah II expressed his countrys solidarity with Egypt in face of terrorism. The World Bank on Monday urged donors to boost support for the Palestinian Authority, which it said was facing a destabilising budget crisis linked partly to "record low" foreign aid contributions. Social norms in Egypt still hold sway over the public when it comes to female genital mutilation (FGM) despite toughening the penalty against the crime in the past decades, concluded a recent study by the Research and Studies Unit of the Cairo-based Egyptian Youth Council (EYC). The study, which covered the country's legal and policy efforts to combat FGM from 1928 to 2020, concluded that although various laws have put a dent into the practice, they have not deterred people from continuing to perform it on a wide scale. Citing a UNICEF report, the study noted that the prevalence of FGM among Egyptian women recorded 97 percent in 2000, decreased to 92 percent and 87 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively, but rose to 91 percent in 2017. Despite taking the first official step against the practice in the 1950s, "the hoped-for change has yet to be achieved," Mai Aglan, director of the EYC's Research and Studies Unit, noted in the study. The EYC study pointed out that the country first acted against the practice in 1959 when the Egyptian health ministry issued a decree banning the operation at its units nationwide. Several laws and decrees were passed after popular and civil society organisations pressures following the death of girls who were subjected to the practice, the study pointed out. In 2008, Egypt passed legislation deeming the practice a misdemeanour and laying down an imprisonment term for a period of not less than three months and not more than two years and a fine ranging from EGP 1,000 to EGP 5,000 for whoever carries out female circumcision. The EYC's study said that the move to criminalise FGM altogether came in response to the death of a girl who was subjected to FGM in Upper Egypt's Minya a year prior. In the ensuing years, the government amended the law several times to toughen penalties against those involved in performing the practice. The EYC said that after the issue surfaced again in 2016 with news of the death of a girl from the practice in Suez, the government passed yet tougher penalties. The 2016 amendments redefined FGM as a felony rather than a misdemeanour and harshened the jail penalty to 5-7 years for whoever carries out the operation for non-medical reasons. Additionally, a 15-year imprisonment term was set down in case FGM leads to the death of the victim or a permanent deformity. The amendments also punish family members or any individual who escorts girls to undergo FGM with one to three years in jail. The legislator recognised the crime as the partial or complete removal of the external genitalia and causing wounds on those organs without medical necessity. In 2021, the government toughened the penalty against FGM, with non-medical individuals involved in performing genital mutilation facing prison terms for a period of no less than seven years in prison in case of permanent disability and not less than 10 years if the act leads to death. The most recent amendments to the law stipulated that medical professionals such as doctors and nurses who are convicted of performing FGM face a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The amendment also said that medical professionals who perform female genital mutilation can face between 10 and 15 years in prison. If the procedure leads to permanent disability, medical professionals involved shall face a minimum of 10 years in prison, and if the procedure leads to death, the penalty will be toughened to be between 15 to 20 years in prison. Furthermore, medical professionals convicted of performing FGM shall be stripped of the licence to practise their job for up to five years, and have their clinics closed for the same period. According to the 2021 amendments, any other individual found promoting, encouraging, or supporting FGM shall be jailed, even if the procedure was performed without causing any harm. Despite continued legislative efforts, the EYC's research concluded that laws by themselves do not prevent parents from circumcising their daughters despite the toughened penalties. The penalty introduced against parents who seek to have their daughters mutilated do not prevent the practice as much as it leads to the reluctance of people to report the crime for fear of punishment that may destroy families, the study added. The EYC noted that societal pressure to prevent the practice dissipates after the passage of laws due to the absence of awareness programmes and campaigns, especially in rural areas, needed to work alongside legislation. The study found that dealing with the act as "a mere harmful practice," belittles its real damages and consequences and disregards the fact that those who hold on to the tradition link their attitude to reasons related to chastity and religious beliefs. Recommendations The study called for combating societal pressures, traditions, and beliefs attributed reportedly to religion as well as misunderstandings stemming from the lack of education. It also urged that Egypt reframe the issue of FGM as part of the human rights framework and children's physical safety as well as rebuild the trust between the government and civil society organisations to restore cooperation on this issue. The study also called for focusing awareness activities against FGM on males and ending the existing perception that links the standards of masculinity with the practice of female circumcision. It also urged providing comprehensive education at schools to help youth understand the functions of the reproductive system, and correcting misconceptions about sexual desire and morals. The study stressed the need to design training programmes for clerics to unify their terms in their discussion on the matter. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts infection rates and hospital visits due to the coronavirus have significantly decreased nationwide, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population said Tuesday. These findings were revealed after Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar reviewed the latest numbers during a meeting on Tuesday. Egypt has successfully vaccinated over 53 percent of targeted groups, the spokesperson said, referring to those above the age of 12. The ministry has previously said that for life in Egypt to return to the way it was pre-pandemic, 70 percent of this group must be vaccinated a goal that the country seeks to achieve by mid-2022. Since beginning its vaccination campaign in early 2021, Egypt has fully vaccinated 32.9 million people, while 44.3 million have received only the first dose of the vaccine and 2.1 million have received the booster shot. Egypts current coronavirus vaccinations rate since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan has ranged between 100,000 to 150,000 doses per day, Abdel-Ghaffar said in a previous statement. During Tuesdays meeting, the acting health minister highlighted the importance of booster shots, urging everyone to take them, which are scheduled six months after the second dose. The possibility of infection increases after six to eight months, the minister said, noting that those above the age of 18 can safely take the booster shot depending on their health status. This come at a time when infection rates and deaths tolls continue to decline, with the country reporting an average of 400 infections and seven deaths per day over the past week, according to the latest figures released by the ministry on Saturday. The ministry also recorded an average of 532 cases recovering daily from the coronavirus. The ongoing decline in coronavirus cases has led the country to reduce the number of isolation hospitals to only four hospitals and 16 partial isolation facilities nationwide, the acting health minister said in a statement on Wednesday. He urged citizens who have not yet taken their first dose or booster shots to register on the health ministrys website to receive the vaccine. The ministry also continues to receive citizens inquiries regarding the coronavirus via the 105 and 15335 hotlines as well as WhatsApp on +201553105105. Search Keywords: Short link: A Covid-19 vaccine effective against multiple variants is possible before the end of 2022, the head of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Wednesday. Chairman Albert Bourla said the firm was also working on producing a vaccine that could provide good protection for a whole year, meaning people would come back annually for boosters, as with influenza shots. "I hope, clearly by autumn... that we could have a vaccine" that worked against not only the dominant Omicron but all known variants, he said. "It is a possibility that we have it by then. It is not a certainty," he told a media briefing organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) big pharma lobby group. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is one of the most effective against Covid-19. Though like other jabs, it has seen waning effectiveness against the now-dominant Omicron variant of the virus, it still offers strong protection against serious disease, hospitalization, and death. IFPMA director general Thomas Cueni said the world had to learn to live with the virus that causes Covid-19 disease, saying: "We are beyond the time when you can eradicate SARS-CoV-2." Bourla said there was a risk of vaccine fatigue, predicting that few people who have so far declined the chance to be vaccinated would change their minds, and suggesting that fewer people would come back for fourth doses than came forward for a third, booster dose. "What the world really needs is a vaccine that will last a year. I think this is what will become the optimal public health solution," he said. "It's way more easy to be administered and have the population be compliant with that. "It is very challenging, technically, to do it with this virus -- but we are working on it." IP Waiver Plan Blasted The World Health Organization is aware of 153 Covid-19 vaccines that have been in clinical development -- tested on humans -- and 196 in pre-clinical development. But so far, the UN health agency has only authorized eight vaccines and versions thereof: those made by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Bharat Biotech, and Novavax. The IFPMA briefing condemned suggestions that intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines should be temporarily lifted during the pandemic, in a bid to increase production. "I'm stunned that the proposed IP waiver is still debated while supplies are far outstripping demand," said Cueni. With more than a billion vaccine doses being produced every month, Eli Lilly chairman David Ricks called it "a solution looking for a problem", while Bourla branded the idea "insane". In a later WHO press conference, the UN health agency's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the vaccine supply situation had dramatically improved in recent months. The problem, she said, was more one of logistics and getting doses into arms in countries, especially in Africa, where only 13 percent have been fully jabbed. "We are able to now supply as many doses as countries want, on-demand, to them. The issue now really is on delivery," she said. Search Keywords: Short link: The Valneva vaccine is made with the decades-old technology used to manufacture shots for flu and polio. It is the sixth COVID-19 vaccine the U.K. has cleared and the only one that utilizes a "killed'' virus; scientists grow the coronavirus in a lab and then inactivate the virus so it cannot replicate or infect cells. British authorities have authorized a coronavirus vaccine for adults made by French drugmaker Valneva, despite the government's decision last year to cancel an order for at least 100 million doses. The U.K. is the first country to authorize Valneva's vaccine, which is also under review by the European Medicines Agency. Britain's medicines regulator said Thursday that the two-dose vaccine is intended for adults ages 18 to 50, with the second dose given about a month after the first. The U.K. government scrapped an agreement with Valneva in September to purchase at least 100 million doses, saying at the time that British regulators probably would not cleared the shot. Valneva said Britain canceled the deal because of supply concerns. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in September that he couldn't go into details because of commercial issues but that the deal was spiked because "it was also clear to us that the vaccine in question that the company was developing would not get approval." Britain was an early backer of the Valneva vaccine, agreeing to invest millions of pounds in a production facility in Scotland. As part of the contract, the U.K. had agreed to buy 100 million doses with options for another 90 million. Even without the Valneva vaccine, the government has acquired more than enough doses to fully vaccinate everyone in the country twice. To date, nearly 60% of the British population has received three doses. Search Keywords: Short link: Ukraine on Sunday vowed to fight to the end in Mariupol after a Russian ultimatum expired for remaining forces to surrender in the southeastern port city where Moscow is pushing for a major strategic victory. "The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said hours after Moscow's deadline for fighters holed up and surrounded in a sprawling fortress-like steelworks to surrender passed. "There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end," he told ABC's "This Week", with Moscow shifting its military focus to gaining control of the eastern Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. Russia's defence ministry said that there were up to 400 mercenaries inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant, calling on Ukrainian forces inside to "lay down their arms and surrender in order to save their lives." Moscow claims Kyiv has ordered fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion to "shoot on the spot" anyone wanting to surrender. 'Dead end' Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if Russian forces kill Kyiv's troops remaining to defend the city, then a fledgling negotiation process to end nearly two months of fighting would be ended. Russian President Vladimir Putin had already said the talks were at a "dead end." Shmyhal said that Ukraine wanted a diplomatic solution "if possible," but added: "If the Russians wouldn't like negotiations, we'll fight to the end, absolutely. We will not surrender. While several cities are under siege, he said, not one -- with the exception of Kherson in the south -- had fallen. He said more than 900 towns and cities had been liberated. As Russia scales up attacks on Ukraine's eastern flank, at least five people were killed and 13 wounded in a series of strikes in second city Kharkiv, just 21 kilometres (13 miles) from the Russian border and an air strike hit an armaments factory in Kyiv. Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region's health department, confirmed the deaths following a series of strikes that AFP journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from buildings. At one site, AFP saw a blood-stained coat next to a pool of fresh blood on the ground. A local reported hearing between six and eight missiles hit in the kind of strike that has become a daily occurrence. On Friday, shelling of residential areas of the city killed 10 people. On Saturday, a strike claimed two more lives. 'Inhuman' Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russian forces to allow evacuations from Mariupol. "Once again, we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians, especially women and children, from Mariupol," Vereshchuk wrote. Zelensky said the situation in Mariupol is "inhuman" and called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons. Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24. The UN World Food Programme says that over 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine, and lacking water and heating. Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the city was on "the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe" and warned the country was compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there. "We will hand everything over to The Hague. There will be no impunity," he said. With fighting raging in the east, Deputy Prime Minister Vereshchuk said that humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to flee would not open on Sunday after failing to agree terms with Russian forces. Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas area to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions, Donetsk and Lugansk. 'Easter of war' Celebrating Easter Sunday in Rome, Pope Francis called for peace in Ukraine during this "Easter of war". "May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged," the pontiff said in his traditional Urbi et Orbi address on St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. "Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering." Francis said he held "in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground. "I see the faces of the orphaned children fleeing from the war." A week ahead of Orthodox Easter, men, women and children of all ages streamed into the Bernardine Monastery in the western city of Lviv to bless sprigs of pussy willow on Orthodox Palm Sunday. - 'Unpredictable consequences' - Under an ornate gilded ceiling, worshippers huddled on pews or found standing space near the door to engage in private prayer. On the square outside, Natalia Borysiuk, a 29-year-old who works in the IT sector, held a posy of pussy willow and wheat bound in blue and yellow ribbon, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. She said she had come to pray for "peace and victory". "I can't even talk about how in these eastern cities of Ukraine and Kyiv they suffer now. It's terrible. But here we can just go to church and pray, and believe in our beautiful and peaceful future," she said. Russia warned the United States this week of "unpredictable consequences" if it sends its "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine, as Zelensky has requested. Its defence ministry claimed Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane in the Odessa region, carrying weapons supplied by Western nations. Search Keywords: Short link: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry left for Madrid Sunday to hold talks with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares and other officials to discuss ways of enhancing economic cooperation and attracting more Spanish investments. Shoukry's meetings come as a follow-up to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezs visit to Cairo in December 2021, said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez. During his visit, the first by a Spanish PM to Egypt since 2010, Sanchez held meetings with a host of Egyptian officials, including Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Both leaders discussed increasing trade exchange and Spanish tourism to Egypt, and agreed to form a joint high committee to boost bilateral relations. Trade exchange between Spain and Egypt reached 1.96 billion euros in the first nine months of 2021 compared to 583 million euros in the same period in 2020, an increase of 23.8 percent, according to date from the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Spanish King Felipe VI and Minister of Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera are set to meet FM Shoukry, Hafez added in a statement. The meetings also will address coordination ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27), slated to be held in November in the coastal Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Shoukry is also the president-designate of the UN event. Search Keywords: Short link: Ukraine's foreign minister is describing the situation in Mariupol as dire and heartbreaking and says Russia's continued attacks there could be a ``red line'' that ends all efforts to reach peace through negotiation. Dmytro Kuleba tells CBS' ``Face the Nation'' that the remaining Ukrainian military personnel and civilians in the port city are basically encircled by Russian forces. He says the Ukrainians ``continue their struggle'' but that the city effectively doesn't exist anymore because of massive destruction. Kuleba says his country has been keeping up ``expert level'' talks with Russia in recent weeks in hopes of reaching a political solution for peace. But citing the significance of Mariupol, he echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in saying the elimination of Ukrainian forces there could be a ``red line'' that stops peace efforts. Search Keywords: Short link: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed "genocide," a term President Emmanuel Macron has avoided. "I talked to him yesterday," Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on Friday but broadcast on Sunday. "I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. He'll come and see, and I'm sure he will understand." Zelensky said he also thought US President Joe Biden would come at some point, though White House officials have said there are no plans to do so. The Ukrainian leader said he believed Macron was shying away from using the term "genocide" -- a term Biden has now used regarding the war in Ukraine -- because he thinks it would hurt the chances for diplomatic engagement with Russia. The Ukrainian president said earlier that Macron's refusal to use the designation was "very painful for us." Macron is in the heat of an election campaign, with a second-round vote against far-right politician Marine Le Pen set for next Sunday. He told France's Radio Bleu on Thursday that it was not helpful to Ukraine "to enter into verbal escalations without drawing all of the conclusions." "The word 'genocide' has a meaning" and "needs to be characterized legally, not by politicians." Zelensky, in his CNN interview, said he would also like to see Biden visit Ukraine. A growing list of European leaders have made their way to Kyiv in shows of support, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. After Johnson visited the devastated Ukrainian town of Bucha -- where officials say scores of civilians were "simply shot in the streets" -- he said evidence of a massacre by Russian troops "doesn't look far short of genocide to me." Regarding a possible visit by Biden, Zelensky said, "I think he will" come, "but it's his decision, of course, and about the safety situation, it depends." "But I think he's the leader of the United States, and that's why he should come here to see." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised Biden's backing so far for his country in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS and said a visit by the US leader would "be an important message of support." "A personal meeting between two presidents could also pave the way for new supplies and of... US weapons to Ukraine and also for discussions on the possible political settlement of this conflict," he added. US officials say they are considering sending an emissary to Kyiv, but for now have ruled out a high-risk visit by the 79-year-old president himself. Search Keywords: Short link: Russian state TV broadcast a video Monday of what it described as "Britons" captured fighting for Ukraine demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiate their release. The two haggard-looking men identified as British nationals Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin asked to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin, who was recently arrested in the pro-Western country. The broadcast did not specify where or by whom -- Russian forces or Moscow's separatist allies in eastern Ukraine -- the two men were being held. The recordings were presented as interviews with journalist Andrei Rudenko, of the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK. In the clip, Rudenko shows the two men a video published last week by Oksana Marchenko, Medvedchuk's wife, who demanded her husband's exchange for the two Britons. The detainees then asked in English to be exchanged for the businessman. In a statement released through Britain's foreign ministry, Pinner's relatives said the pair were "being held by the Russian army". It added both families were working with the ministry "to ensure their rights as prisoners of war are upheld according to the Geneva Convention". Pinner's family noted he was a "proud member" of Ukraine's marines, after moving to the country four years ago and marrying a Ukrainian. This following "many years" in the British army, when he served tours in Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia. "In 2018 Shaun decided to relocate to Ukraine to use his previous experience and training within the Ukraine military," the family statement said. "We would like to make it clear he is not a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serving with the Ukrainian Army in accordance with Ukrainian legislation." Aslin's mother had appealed for his release in an interview with the British Daily Telegraph newspaper published on Friday. The woman, Ang Wood, said that she had recognised her 28-year-old son from a Russian broadcast because of his distinctive tattoo. "Aiden is a serving member of the Ukrainian armed forces, and as such is a prisoner of war and must be treated with humanity," Wood was quoted as saying by the newspaper. In videos circulating on social media and carrying the logo of Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, the young man appeared to imply that Ukraine is prolonging the conflict. It was not clear whether the men had been forced to speak in the videos. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed to exchange Medvedchuk, 67, for Ukrainians currently being held in Russia. Asked about a potential exchange last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Medvedchuk was "not a Russian citizen" and said he did not know if he wanted Moscow to interfere in his case. On Monday, Peskov promised to "communicate" any response to the idea from Putin. Search Keywords: Short link: Muslim countries and leading Islamic bodies condemned plans by far-right groups to burn the holy Quran in cities across Sweden. The Muslim World League (MWL) condemned on Monday the desecration of the holy Quran and incitement against Muslims in Sweden, warning against provocative acts meant to inflame the feelings of Muslims, widen societies' schisms, and offend the values of freedom and humanity, Al-Ekhbariya news channel reported. MWL Secretary-General and Chairman of the Muslim Scholars Association Mohamed Abdul-Karim Al-Issa called on Muslims in Sweden and around the world to exercise restraint, ignore attempts to spread extremist thought, and adhere to wise Islamic faith and values that advocate shunning violence and hatred. He reaffirmed Islam's divine teachings that call for peaceful coexistence away from discrimination and hatred. On Sunday, clashes erupted in two Swedish cities, Norrkoping and Linkoping, for the second time in four days over rallies by anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, led by the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan. The riots broke out following Paludan's meetings and planned Quran burnings in various Swedish cities since Thursday. Egypt Egypt denounced the deliberate desecration of the holy Quran and incitement against Muslims by the extremist group in Sweden, warning that such provocative acts may trigger outrage among Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. A foreign ministry statement reiterated Cairo's rejection of all acts targeting religious beliefs and sanctities and provocative practices offending values of freedom and humanity. The statement reaffirmed the importance of respecting freedom of faith as a basic human right. It called for advocating values of tolerance and co-existence and shunning violence and hatred that would deepen discrimination in societies. Al-Azhar Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, also condemned Paludans burning of the Quran copy. In a statement on Saturday, Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism warned extremist right-wing groups against the consequences of such actions that aim to achieve political or personal gains at the expense of the peace and cohesion of societies. Such crimes provoke and inflame the feelings of more than 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, said the observatory, which follows up on Muslim conditions worldwide and issues periodical reports on extremism-related topics. The observatory also warned that such abuses contribute to igniting the fire of sedition and conflicts among the people of the one nation, adding that sanctities are a red line and should not be insulted or violated. Saudi Council of Senior Scholars The Saudi Council of Senior Scholars vehemently denounced the incident on Monday. In a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the council described the act as "barbaric." It further stressed the importance of concerted efforts to spread the values of dialogue, tolerance, coexistence, renounce hatred, extremism, exclusion, and prevent the abuse of all religions and holy sites. Bahrain The Bahraini Foreign Ministry slammed in the strongest terms the provocative action by Paludan, leader of the Stram Kurs, of burning a copy of the Holy Quran in Linkoping, Sweden. Such abhorrent practices stand against freedom of religion and beliefs and coexistence, a matter which should be strongly denounced by the international community, the ministry said in a statement. Malaysia Malaysia also strongly condemned the incident. The foreign ministry said Paludan's action went beyond moral limits and norms of the right to freedom of speech and expression. Such action is provocative and incites hatred that must be rejected by all who seek peace and promote peaceful coexistence, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It underlined the importance of eliminating all forms of violence and hatred, including Islamophobia, saying it will continue to work closely with fellow members of the international community to prevent and eradicate Islamophobic sentiments and religious extremism. Search Keywords: Short link: Jordan on Monday summoned the Israeli charge d'affaires to object to "provocative Israeli violations" at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the foreign ministry said. Violence at and near the Al-Aqsa compound has since early Friday wounded more than 170 people, mostly Palestinians, almost a year after similar tensions sparked an 11-day conflict between Israel and militant groups in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Jordan serves as custodian of holy places in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by most of the international community. The foreign ministry "summoned the charge d'affaires of the Israeli embassy in Amman... to deliver a message of protest over illegitimate and provocative Israeli violations at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque", it said in a statement. "The charge d'affaires was informed of a message of protest to be delivered immediately to his government, including calls for an immediate stop to Israeli violations and attempts targeting a change of the historic and legal situation" at Al-Aqsa, the ministry added. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi had earlier told parliament that Israel's ambassador had been summoned but was not present in Amman, adding that the charge d'affaires would be summoned instead. Safadi said that "as the occupying power, Israel bears responsibility for all" the events at Al-Aqsa -- also known as the Temple Mount and considered the holiest place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. The top diplomat added that he would meet European counterparts in Amman "to deliver the same message". Jordan's King Abdullah II had on Sunday called on Israel to "stop all illegal and provocative measures" that drive "further aggravation". On Monday, he made phone calls to several Arab leaders and European Council president Charles Michel, during which he confirmed "the need to intensify regional and international efforts to stop the Israeli escalation in Jerusalem". King Abdullah said the violence "undermines the chances of achieving peace and leads to further aggravation", according to the state-owned channel Al-Mamlaka. Jordan became the second Arab country after Egypt to establish ties with Israel after they signed a peace treaty in 1994. More than 20 Palestinians and Israelis were wounded in incidents in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, adding to a previous count of more than 150 wounded on Friday. The clashes came at a sensitive time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful flock to the holy site. Search Keywords: Short link: Germany's employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. They say a boycott would lead to factory shutdowns and job losses in the bloc's largest economy. ``A rapid gas embargo would lead to loss of production, shutdowns, a further de-industrialization and the long-term loss of work positions in Germany,'' said Rainer Dulger, chairman of the BDA employer's group, and Reiner Hoffmann, chairman of the DGB trade union confederation. Their joint statement Monday to Germany's DPA news agency comes as European leaders discuss possible new energy sanctions against Russian oil, following a decision on April 7 to ban Russian coal imports beginning in August. Ukraine's leaders say revenues from Russia's energy exports are financing Moscow's destructive war on Ukraine and must be ended. That won't be easy to do. The EU's 27 nations get around 40% of their natural gas from Russia and around 25% of their oil. Search Keywords: Short link: A Cairo Criminal court sentenced on Sunday Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting Supreme Guide of the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood, to life in prison in the "Storming of the Eastern Borders", case, which dates back to 2011. Sundays verdict is a first degree ruling that can be appealed. A life sentence in Egypt carries 25 years in jail. The Public Prosecution had charged Ezzat and other defendants in the case with storming Egyptian prisons and collaborating with Palestinian Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhoods international leadership, and the Lebanese Hezbollah to create chaos and topple the Egyptian state as well as its institutions. The defendants were also charged with receiving military training from Irans Revolutionary Guard to launch military attacks in Egypt in the trial that goes back to 2011. In June 2015, Ezzat was handed a death sentence in absentia and 20 other defendants received life sentences in the case. Under Egyptian law, defendants who receive in-absentia convictions must be re-tried once they are apprehended. Ezzat was arrested in 2020 at a hideout in eastern Cairo. He was sentenced in April 2021 to life over charges of murder and terrorism in a case known in the media as the Guidance Bureau Case. He was also sentenced in December of last year to life for collaborating with the Palestinian group Hamas and other foreign organisations and disclosing information pertaining to Egypts national security. The Muslim Brotherhood was designated by the government as a terrorist organisation in 2013. Search Keywords: Short link: A Cairo Criminal Court sentenced TikToker and influencer Haneen Hossam on Monday to three years down from 10 in prison and a EGP 200,000 fine over charges of human trafficking. Previously, the court had sentenced Hossam in absentia to ten years in prison in June 2021 along with famous influencer Mawada El-Adham, who got a 6-year sentence, over charges of human trafficking. According to Egyptian law, defendants sentenced in absentia must be retried upon being apprehended by the authorities. The university student, who has 1.2 million followers on TikTok, was arrested on charges of inciting debauchery and human trafficking in June 2021. This is not a final ruling and can be appealed. Hossam was accused by the Public Prosecution of engaging in human trafficking and attempting to recruit two underage girls among others by claiming to provide them with job opportunities as hosts in a social networking app called Likee. The prosecution stated that she attempted to lure girls in implicit terms to debauchery and prostitution, and that she established a group on Likee called Likee El-Haram so the girls can meet young men virtually during the lockdown period imposed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in return for money. The prosecution also accused Hossam of using the two underage girls for commercial purposes. Hossam was also sentenced in another case to two-year imprisonment and a fine of EGP 300.000 for violating family values, however, she was acquitted in her appeal case in January 2021. Search Keywords: Short link: Ahram Online recently sat down with Dominic GOH Singapores ambassador to Cairo to talk about the many economic opportunities that his country and Egypt have for one another. With a volume of around $1 billion in investments, Singapore is arguably one of the larger Asian investors in Egypt. Certainly, nowhere near China, but ahead of both South Korea and Japan. Economic affairs has always been the cornerstone for bilateral relations between the two countries since they first established diplomatic relations in 1966. Today, GOH says there are vast economic opportunities that the two countries have to offer for one another and there is enough political will to bolster cooperation. The ambassador said that the exchange of visits between President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his Singaporean counterpart Tony Tan Keng Yam consecutively in 2015 and 2016 allowed for a new commitment to give bilateral relations a push ahead. Clearly, during these past years, the volume of trade and investment between the two countries has seen a significant increase of over 30 percent. Last month, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said that there was a renewed commitment to further facilitate the chances for economic cooperation between the two countries while on an official visit to Singapore. Initially, Shoukry planned to visit Singapore in the winter of 2020, however, the trip had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, the Egyptian top diplomat visited Singapore as part of an Asian tour that included Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Pakistan. During the visit, Shoukry invited Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to take part in the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) that Egypt will be hosting in Sharm El-Sheikh this November. According to GOH, both Singapore and Egypt have a shared interest along with other developing countries to encourage developed countries to honour their commitments to providing financial assistance for climate adaptation purposes as was promised in the COP26 that was held in Glasgow last November. Without this assistance, he argued, poor and developing countries would not be able to contribute effectively to the fight against climate change. Beyond discussions regarding the COP27, the ambassador also noted that Shoukrys visit to Singapore allowed for an exhaustive exchange on boosting economic and trade relations. He explained that currently, Singapore has a relatively diverse profile of investments in Egypt, including the operation of a large warehouse providing various facilities in 10th of Ramadan City, adding that there are plans to expand this logistical assistance to other parts of the country. Moreover, he said that a Singaporean plastic bottle manufacturer that has a $200-million-operation in Egypt is considering expanding their business with the aim of exporting their products from Egypt to other African and Middle Eastern countries. The same could be said about a manufacturer of instant noodles whose business has been remarkably successful in Egypt. Egypt is a strategic hub, and some companies are considering using the country as a base for their operation across Africa now that security has been re-established, he said. We want to encourage more companies to come to Egypt, he added. In the meantime, Singaporean companies may expand their current business in the service side of oil and gas that is conducted in cooperation with Egyptian companies. There is a purification module that Egypt is interested in that we can provide the know-how for, he explained. Then there are the investments of the Singapore Wealth Fund, which has already made a significant investment in Mabarat El-Assafera in Alexandria, he said, adding that further investments may include other facilities in the health sector or other sectors. Furthermore, the ambassador said that education and culture have also been two growing areas of interest for both countries in terms of cooperation. In 2010, Egypt had an ambitious plan to seek Singapores assistance in passing over the know-how to upgrading education systems. The scheme was, however, interrupted over the past ten years and is yet to resume. Furthermore, during the past years Singapore has been consistently sending Muslim students to Al-Azhar University in the pursuit of accessing education on moderate Islam. Currently, there are around 200 Singaporeans who study at Al-Azhar University. For a multi-racial country like Singapore, GOH said, issues of moderation and tolerance are simply essential, as we made a conscious decision that no race or religion will be favoured over another. Search Keywords: Short link: Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry was received on Monday by King Felipe VI in Madrid, Spain, where they discussed Egypts economic reform programme, green transformation, and preparations for the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27), a statement by the foreign ministry said. According to the statement, the Egyptian FM discussed with the Spanish King what the Egyptian government has achieved through the economic reform programme as well as how the country was looking forward to Spanish companies participating in development projects and green transformation efforts in Egypt. They also discussed several regional and international issues of mutual concern between the two countries. For his part, King Felipe welcomed the progress achieved in Egyptian-Spanish relations, asserting that Egypt was a vital partner in the region. Shoukry also met with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares to discuss ways to enhance cooperation between both countries with a special focus on investment, development, and transitioning to a green economy, the statement said. Following the meeting, Shoukry and Albares signed an MoU on diplomatic studies and exchanging experiences between the Diplomatic Studies Institute at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diplomatic School in Spain in order to boost cooperation in training and expertise exchange programmes. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt will allow Eid El-Fitr prayers to be held in large mosques, however, they will not be held in open spaces, according to regulations issued by the Ministry of Religious Endowments on Monday. Traditionally, Eid prayers were held in open spaces due to the large mass of devotees that attend the prayers that are held after sunrise to mark the feast. Prayers for both Eids El-Fitr and El-Adha were banned in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, they have been allowed since last year in large mosques only. The ministry explained in its statement that social distancing measures are more likely to be applied in a mosque than in an open space. It also added that open spaces tend to accommodate more people, which increases chances that worshipers may fall victim to a stampede. Mosques, however, are more regulated. Muslims going to mosques for Eid prayers must wear a mask and adhere to social distancing measures. Mosques must open their doors half an hour before prayers at most and closed 10 minutes after. Eid sermons should be delivered within 10 minutes just like Friday prayers while sticking to the standard Eid sermon in content. Womens prayer areas will also be open. Eid El-Fitr is set to start on the 2nd of May in Egypt. This Ramadan, the endowments ministry eased the anti-COVID restrictions that have been in place since 2020 related to mosques and special prayers which were issued last year. In Ramadan 2021, the ministry allowed in-mosque daily prayers and mass night prayers (Taraweeh) under strict precautionary measures and on the condition that Taraweeh prayers not exceed half-an-hour. Search Keywords: Short link: Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians on Monday during clashes that broke out during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations across the territory overnight. In a raid in the village of Yamun, near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives at troops. Soldiers ``responded with live ammunition`` toward ``suspects who hurled explosive devices,`` the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after being critically wounded. Israel has carried out a wave of arrest raids and other operations in recent weeks that it says are aimed at preventing further attacks after Palestinian assailants killed at least 14 people inside Israel. Two of the attackers came from in and around Jenin, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule. At least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state. Tensions have run high in recent days, during the confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover. Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security matters, have condemned its actions at the holy site. Jordan _ which serves as custodian of the site _ summoned Israel's charge d'affaires in protest on Monday. An Arab party that made history last year by joining Israel's governing coalition on Sunday suspended its participation _ a largely symbolic act that nevertheless reflected the sensitivity of the holy site, which is at the emotional heart of the century-old conflict. Israel says security forces were forced to enter the compound after Palestinians stockpiled stones and other objects and hurled rocks in the direction of an adjacent Jewish holy site. The Palestinians and Arab states accused the police of storming the site in violation of longstanding arrangements known as the status quo. Protests and clashes in and around the shrine last year helped fuel the 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza. Search Keywords: Short link: The UN Security Council will meet on Tuesday over violence around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque that wounded 170 people at the weekend, diplomatic sources told AFP. The meeting, called by China, France, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, and Ireland, will be held behind closed doors and comes after days of violence in and around Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The clashes at a tense time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan Jews are allowed to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, but not to pray at the site, the holiest place in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam. The unrest happened just two days after clashes with Palestinians at the same site. Violence in Jerusalem between Israeli security forces and Palestinian demonstrators a year ago escalated into an 11-day Gaza war. Israel says security forces were forced to enter the compound after Palestinians stockpiled stones and other objects and hurled rocks in the direction of an adjacent Jewish holy site. The Palestinians and Arab states accused the police of storming the site in violation of longstanding arrangements known as the status quo Search Keywords: Short link: The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) kicked off in Washington DC on Monday, with the key theme expected to focus on the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and COVID-19 on the global economy. The IMF said last week that it will revise down the real GDP growth of 143 economies, which account for 86 percent of the global GDP, including countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Egypt is currently in talks with the IMF for a new loan programme, the fourth since 2016, which aims to offset the impact of the global economic crisis and continue with its second wave of structural reforms. Egypt's first wave of reforms (from 2016 to 2019) was executed with an IMF-backed three-year programme and a $12 billion loan. The country also obtained two loans from the IMF in 2020 with a value exceeding $8 billion to address the negative fallout of the pandemic. The annual meetings of the IMF and WBG bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations, and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. This year's meetings will be held through 24 April. In advance of the meetings, the World Bank launched its economic update on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which maintained Egypts real GDP growth at 5.5 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2021/2022, making it the only country in the group of middle-income oil-importing countries to keep its forecast despite the ongoing economic challenges globally, regionally and locally. However, the report downgraded the country's forecast for FY 2022/2023 to 5 percent, down from 5.5 percent expected in January, driven by the consequences of the Ukraine war as well as the impacts of the pandemic. Search Keywords: Short link: Directed by Youssef Marzouq and written by Mohamed Gamal El-Din Raafat, Al-Khatem Al-Masy (The Diamond Ring, 1961) is regarded as the first crime series in the history of Egyptian television, established in 1960. In 1963, the genre gained in popularity when Nour El-Demerdash made Hareb min Al-Ayam (Fugitive of the Days), with a script by Faisal Nada based on a novel by Tharwat Abaza. Crime stories were the focus of suspense thriller makers until screenwriter Saleh Morsi and director Yehia El Alami made the espionage series Dumou Fi Oyoun Waqiha (Tears in Bold Eyes, 1980), starring Adel Imam and based on Egyptian General Intelligence files. They followed up with Raafat Al-Haggan (1988), a huge, three-season hit starring Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, also based on previously classified information. Both played on patriotic sentiments notwithstanding the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and the push for normalisation. More recently espionage drama has focused instead on the war on terrorism, with the antagonist being unnamed foreign rather than Israeli intelligence. This year in Al-Aaedoun (The Returnees), screenwriter Baher Dewidar and director Ahmed Galal draw on General Intelligence files in which officers gathered information about Islamic State (IS). The main characters are the officer Omar (Amir Karara), his superior Nabil (Mahmoud Abdel-Moghni) and his IT colleague Nadin (Amina Khalil). There is a human dimension to the character evident from the first episode. Nadines mother (Safaa Al-Toukhi), who is suffering from a terminal illness, dies at the end of the episode, leaving her father (Mohamed Hassib) so depressed he will not talk to anyone. Omar must take care of his daughter for a week since his divorcee is going to Dubai for work, while Nabils wife is desperate to have a child as the couple suffer from a fertility issue. All three characters must leave their families for a risky operation. In the first two episodes the script follows Hussien or Abu-Mosaab (Mohamed Farrag), a deputy of the IS security commanders planted by Egyptian intelligence many years before. When he informs Omar of a planned operation he is exposed and burned alive, but another exposed undercover agent successfully escapes. Every couple of episodes a new adventure comes up, with the overall plot line looking thinner and thinner though the general theme is how to deal with IS violating Egyptian national security. Although the first and the second episodes were very promising, the flow of the drama and the suspense is not moving the way it should be. Perhaps this is because the series has two purposes at the same time: to create a traditional suspense-action drama and to draw the publics attention to the great effort of the intelligence and the security forces to eliminate terrorist activities in Egypt. *** Over the past two years, director Peter Mimis TV series Al-Ikhtiar (The Choice) kept gaining momentum. The first season, written by Baher Dewidar, framed its hero-villian story in a classic drama format with the story of two military officers. One is a commander in Egypts special forces in northern Sinai killed in an ambush made by the terrorist Islamic Jihaists at Al-Barth village near Rafah in 2017. The other is deserter who joins first Ansar Beit Al-Maqdes in Sinai and Libya, where he forms his own Al Qaeda-affiliate Al-Mourabitoun before being executed in 2020. The second season, The Choice: The Shadow Men, written by Hani Sarhan, focused on the challenges the police faced while securing Egypt after the ouster of Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) following the nation-wide protests of 30 June on 3 July 2013. This year, The Choice: The Decision also by Sarhan returns to the last few months before Morsis ouster to document different arenas of life in Egypt and give a broader view of what led to the military decision to end MB rule. Before the opening credits, a few shots depicting the last few minutes before the declaration of 3 July hint at the subject. The drama is multilayered. One layer concerns ordinary people such as Mahmoud (Mahmoud El-Bezzawi), an old and disciplined government employee who is passed over for a promotion in favour of a less expert colleague who happens to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Maurice (Nour Mahmoud), a Christian pharmacist who faces the aggression of an extremist customer while refusing to give in to the desire of his wife Irine (Samar Morsi) to emigrate now that the MB are in power. The second layer, perhaps the main part of the drama, concerns National Security officer Zakaria Younis (Karim Abdel-Aziz) following the terrorist group known as Madinat Nasr Cell, the Military Intelligence officer Mustafa (Ahmed Al-Saqqa) investigating terrorist activities in Sinai, and the General Intelligence officer Marwan (Ahmed Ezz) intercepting a cargo of weaponry arriving by ship. All three cases seem to lead to the MB leadership. At first sight the fact that all three officers happen to be old friends feels forced, but the screenwriter adds plenty of human detail as he did in the last season. Mustafas wife is suffering from a rare, life-threatening condition. Marwans father, a judge, is also ill, while Marwan himself is interested in a girl named Basma (Mirna Nour El-Din) with a view to marrying her. Zakaria, for his part, keeps visiting the family of his informer who was murdered by the terrorists in order to help them. He also visits Ali (Mohamed Abu-Dawoud), a former major general in National Security who was dismissed following interference from the MB. The third layer concerns what is happening at the highest level, with discussions between Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi (Ahmed Bedier) and Major General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi (Yasser Galal), or between the newly appointed defence minister Al-Sisi and Major General Abbas Kamel (Gamal Solieman). The series also depicts the members of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office like the supreme guide Mohamed Badie (Abdel-Aziz Makhyoon) along with figures such Mohamed Morsi (Sabry Fawwaz), Khairat El-Shater (Khaled El-Sawy), Mahmoud Ezzat (Magdi Said), Saad Al-Katatni (Bayoumi Fouad) and Mohamed Al-Beltagy (Hesham Ismail). While the acting in the first and second layers is fair, it is less so in the third, since that requires imitating characters from real life, though El-Sawy and Makhyoon invented their own versions of Al-Shater or Badie. The script covers such events as the Rafah Massacre of 5 August 2012, Al-Shaters decision to give Mohamed Morsi the legitimacy to discharge Defence Minister Tantawi, and the Al-Ittihadiya protest in December 2012, in which peaceful protesters including journalist Al-Husseini Abu-Dief were killed. Besides his talent in action direction, Mimi uses a documentary technique in almost every episode, ending it with real footage of political meetings that involved members of the MB. Such footage helps to explain some of the MBs true intentions to exercise complete control over Egyptian politics. In one episode Morsi is seen with Al-Sisi and Tantawi in the latters office at the Defence Ministry after the presidential elections of 2012, in which Morsi seemed to be warning the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of serious consequences on the streets should there be a change in the results of the election. This footage has not been shown before regardless of the fact that most Egyptians know how the MB threatened Supreme Council of Armed Forces at that time. * A version of this article appears in print in the 14 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: Close long-time friend and colleague, prominent writer and journalist Jill Kamil passed away peacefully in England on 28 March. Born and raised in Kenya, Jill moved to England in 1951 where she met her husband-to-be, Nabeeh Kamil, an Egyptian artist and professor at Ain Shams University. They married in Germany in 1954, and then settled in Cairo. It didnt take long for Jill to fall in love with Egypts rich culture and history, and when Jill and Nabeeh Kamil divorced in 1972, she opted to remain in Egypt. Jills early years in Egypt were punctuated by frequent camping trips at Ain Al-Sokhna the warm spring on the Red Sea. At the time Ain Al-Sokhna was virgin desert land, crisscrossed by the sparkling blue water of the spring and home to flamboyant flowering cacti and other blooming vegetation. Inspired by the areas visual splendour, Jill wrote her first book, The Red Sea. The book led to Jills decision to become a professional writer and document Egypts Pharaonic sites and cultural history. She proceeded to study under the guidance of scholars in the field, including Egyptian Egyptologist Abdel-Moneim Abu Bakr, and professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo Kent Weeks. She was also a student of the eminent archaeologist Labib Habachi, whom she admired and whose biography she wrote. Jill became a prolific writer of historical guidebooks, beginning with Luxor: A Guide to Ancient Thebes, the first guidebook to look closely at the material remains of a specific site and narrate the art and social history of its inhabitants. Published in 1973, it was followed by Saqqara and Memphis: A Guide to the Necropolis and the Ancient Capital; Upper Egypt: The Antiquities from Amarna to Abu Simbel; Aswan and Abu Simbel, and The Ancient Egyptians: Life in the Old Kingdom. In addition to other works on Egyptology, Jill also wrote several histories of the Coptic Christian Church. Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs, published in 1985, was hailed as groundbreaking by RAWI magazine. Drawing on personal travel to all the Christian sites of Egypt, and conversations with scholars, monks, museum directors and scores of lay Egyptians both Copt and Muslim, the author tells us about the fundamental importance of Coptic religion and culture in Egypt. Weaving together historical research with absorbing stories she offers a captivating insight into a side of Egypt that will be new to many readers, said the magazine. Labib Habachi: The Life and Legacy of an Egyptologist, published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2007, is another of Jills groundbreaking works. The book provides an Egyptian perspective on archeology over a span of a hundred years, Jill explained in the introduction. It didnt only focus on Habachis biography, but reviewed the scholarly achievements of his predecessors, including Selim Hassan (1886-1961), who carried out excavations at Giza that equaled in size and productivity those of any foreign mission working in Egypt at the time; and Ahmed Fakhry (1905-1973), well-known for his pioneering studies on the oases of the Western desert. Habachi, who ranked among the most insightful and productive of Egyptian scholars in the field, was marginalised for most of his life. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject of his specialization, he was an invaluable source concerning the results of fieldwork, wrote Jill. Habachi struggled relentlessly to carve his way into the annals of a discipline traditionally dominated by Western scholars many of his most perceptive archeological observations, based on a deep understanding of ancient history were only recently recognized because they cast doubts on earlier European conclusions. His most important manuscript, The Sanctuary of Heqaib containing his findings on Heqaibs mausoleum on Elephantine Island, was shelved in the Egyptian Antiquities Department for 30 years. This was to preoccupy Habachi until his death, wrote Jill. The Sanctuary of Heqaib was finally published by the German Archeological Institute in 1984, shortly before Habachis passing. Jill spelled Habachis, and other scholars, marginalisation by the powerful foreign archaeological missions, as well as by the Antiquities Department. She was unafraid to criticise the powers that be, both foreign and local, for suppressing the research and achievements of Egyptian archeologists. The study of Egypts ancient heritage is more closely linked to politics than may be generally supposed, wrote Jill who courageously challenged the establishment by writing Habachis biography from an Egyptian perspective. Jills love of the country and its heritage, and her commitment to include peoples voices in her writing, shaped her identity as an Egyptian. As a Kenyan she also had African roots. Jill travelled extensively to Sudan, Uganda, and Tanganyika, and maintained a lifelong interest in, and understanding of, African cultures from the source of the Nile in Lake Victoria to its exit in the Mediterranean. She regarded herself as an African-Egyptian. At Al-Ahram Weekly, where she worked as the editor of the Heritage page and covered archaeological findings, she would often remind her colleague and friend, Gamal Nkrumah the son of former Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah and his Egyptian wife Fathia Risk that they were the only African-Egyptians working at the paper. Their shared sense of identity created a special bond between them, and they would often discuss African history and politics, a topic of passionate mutual interest. Jills work was highly regarded at the paper, where she worked from 1994 to 2010. She was especially supportive of younger colleagues. Reem Leila, now an established journalist, remembers her first professional encounter with Jill: I have always respected and cherished this lady. It happened that I once wrote an article for her page, and it was my first time. I remember her telling me: I loved your piece, you have written it as an expert. I never forgot the look in her eyes as she thanked me for the article. Amira Noshokaty added: I have known Jill since I was a fresh graduate. She was always smiling and generous with her thoughts and words. We shared the same room for years. She was young at heart, knew Egypt inside out, and kept encouraging me to take walks, and to take the road less travelled. Every story I wrote back then made me discover myself. Reham El-Adawi recalled that, on arriving to work at the paper, Jill immediately made her feel safe. Jill encouraged me to travel to areas I had never been before. She taught me everything about travel writing. She encouraged me to talk to the excavators she knew who were working at particular sites, and taught me how to tour a museum often little known museums and write about it. Jill Kamil is survived by her second husband, Michael Stock, a retired British diplomat; her daughter Tamara Rostom who lives in Denmark; her son Waheeb (Ricky) Kamil and his wife Christine who live in the US; her grandchildren: Natasha, Nadine and her husband Peter Hansen, Dina and her fiance Nicklas Graversen, and Marc; great-grandson Tristan; her sisters, Dorothy in South Africa and Suze in London, and her brother, John in Los Angeles. * A version of this article appears in print in the 14 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: The holy month of Ramadan is a time for spirituality and community, being not just about fasting, but also a chance for people to spend more time with their families, friends, and neighbours. But how is Ramadan celebrated by those who may be in hospital or in an old peoples home where visiting times may be regulated and there may be little space for families? Many people take advantage of Ramadan to do good deeds, visiting orphanages, homes for the elderly, and hospitals alike. While those who oversee these places do their best to spread joy and make their guests feel as if they are at home, they cannot fully create the impression that those in their care are in fact in full health among their families and loved ones. To spread feelings of joy in the holy month and happiness among patients, lanterns, decorations, and colourful lights are being put up in hospitals and old peoples homes across the country. A week preceding Ramadan, we started to hang up decorations for the holy month, said Marwa Mahfouz, manager of the Home for Older Blind People run by the Wafaa Wal-Amal Association. We explained to the residents what the decorations were like, and they shared with us their choices of colours and how and where things should be hung. They cant see the final look of the place, but we encourage them to touch the decorations and to talk about them. This means that they can enjoy them and imagine what they are like, Mahfouz said. Some of the women wanted to fix everything themselves. They can feel the spirit of Ramadan even more than when they were still living at home before they entered our institution, she added. A day in Ramadan is different from any normal day of the year. Due to the fact that most of our residents are elderly, their physician advises them not to fast to avoid any complications. Yet, those who do fast eagerly wait for the taraweeh prayers every day to pray together and to feel the spirituality that they have been missing. They may not have participated in mosque group prayers before as it was too difficult for them to leave their homes on their own, Mahfouz said. She said that there are also more visits during Ramadan. I have received a lot of calls from groups who want to come and chant religious verses with the residents. Others want to visit and have Iftar with them. Those who have adult children also receive more visits from them during Ramadan as its a month for social gatherings. One cheerful gesture this year was when the young women who stay in our guest house insisted on joining us for the taraweeh prayer, even changing their prayer space so that it would be easier and more comfortable for the older residents, she added. This kind action increased the state of love and friendliness even more. The willingness to add some special spirit in Ramadan is found in both government and private hospitals. Even if it is not easily affordable in government hospitals because of budgetary constraints, groups of nurses make individual efforts to create a joyful atmosphere. They bring in lanterns, khayameya fabric, and other touches that can add Ramadan spirit to the place. These little practices have a huge impact on staff and patients, commented Mohamed Yehia, a 34-year-old cardiologist in Cairo. At the moment, I work in a private hospital in Maadi, and the administration is keen to provide Ramadan decorations and provide a Ramadan environment. The decorations are mainly in the entrance, reception, and cafeteria areas, he said. Hours without eating in Ramadan can take their toll on concentration levels, but the doctors insist they are ready to deal with all the medical situations that may come their way. Unfortunately, illness does not take a vacation, so neither do we, Yehia said. There are many challenges during fasting, and we can be working 24/7 with little time for sleep or rest. But we are all used to working on this basis. Ramadans working hours are no different from the rest of the year, he said. There are also more visitors during Ramadan. The hospital security people exert more efforts to coordinate visits and visitor gatherings in the waiting areas. Time slots are changed so they dont conflict with Iftar. It can be hard to cope with Ramadans social demands and our work as doctors, and we understand that our occupation comes at some cost, Yehia concluded. * A version of this article appears in print in the 14 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: Ukraine rejected as baseless and false the accusations made by Serbia's president that Ukraine's secret service is behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed that the foreign intelligence services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union nation are responsible. The pro-Russian Serbian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials alleged that the threats were being sent from Ukraine or Poland. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nilolenko on Monday called the allegations false. The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline besides Turkish air companies that have not joined EU flight sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Search Keywords: Short link: Russian troops on Monday captured the east Ukraine town of Kreminna, local authorities said, as Kyiv's armed forces launched salvoes on Russian forces in the nearby settlement of Rubizhne. "There was a major attack in the night" from Sunday to Monday in Kreminna, the Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media. "The Russian army has already entered there, with a huge amount of military hardware... Our defenders have retreated to new positions," he added. Ukraine's security and defence council secretary Oleksiy Danilov confirmed the Russian offensive in the east. "Almost along the entire front line in the territory of Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv regions, the invaders tried to break through our defences," he said. "Fortunately, our military is holding on." They had however broken through in two places, he added: "Kremennaya and another small town. But the fighting continues. We do not surrender our territories." Kreminna, with a pre-war population of nearly 20,000 people, is around 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk, the region's administrative centre, and is a strategic target for invading Russian forces. Rubizhne, which is under Russian control, was under intense fire from Ukrainian artillery and mortars, AFP journalists reported. Powerful explosions could be seen in Rubizhne, sometimes followed by fires and plumes of white or black smoke. In Kharkiv meanwhile, fresh Russian shelling killed three people and wounded 15 others, said the region's governor Oleg Sinegubov. Russian forces have stepped up their offensive to capture the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine having pulled back troops deployed around the capital Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion in late February. Search Keywords: Short link: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during this week's big meetings of global economic leaders in Washington, but she'll be trying to avoid most contact with Russian officials who plan to attend some portions of the event virtually. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how world powers should manage the spillover effects on economies, including food insecurity, will take center stage at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. This year's meetings run through Friday and include a mix of virtual and in-person events. Russian finance officials are expected to attend several events virtually, according to a senior Treasury official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview plans for the meetings. Yellen will participate if a Russian minister is there for a session or two, but will not attend every session, the official said, adding that the presence of Russian officials should not stop the work the US needs to do in the working with members of the Group of 20. Yellen is expected to use this week's meetings to work with allies on efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia while mitigating spillover effects, to call for the implementation of a global minimum tax deal, and to address food security issues. In addition, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control this week is expected to issue clarifying language to make clear that trade in agricultural products is not barred under existing sanctions, in response to the food security crisis that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused. Roughly 155 million people in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2020, an increase of 20 million people from the year before, according to the World Food Program. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo is also set to meet with Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko this week. The US and its allies have used sanctions to weaponize the global economy against Russia over its war in Ukraine. There aren't any countries yet subverting the sanctions, but there are fears among the allies that China, which has criticized the Western effort, could do so, Yellen said in a speech at the Atlantic Council last week. Also of concern is India, which has taken a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and recently made a major purchase of Russian oil, a source of tension as the US tries to cut off Moscow's energy income. Search Keywords: Short link: Around 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to sanctions over Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, the city's mayor said on Monday. "According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a blog post. He said authorities had last week approved a $41-million programme to support employment in the Russian capital. "First of all, the programme is aimed at employees of foreign companies that have temporarily suspended their operations or decided to leave Russia," Sobyanin said. Hundreds of mainly Western companies have announced the suspension of their activities or their departure from Russia after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24. Sobyanin said the newly approved programme was expected to support more than 58,000 people who have lost their jobs. Around 12,500 of them will undergo retraining, he added. People in between jobs will be offered to get involved in public works in a number of city organisations, parks and elsewhere, Sobyanin added. Economists believe that the worst economic impact of debilitating Western sanctions is still to come and expect Russia to plunge into a deep recession. Search Keywords: Short link: The Journal of Medicine and Life published a study by Egyptian researchers proving the superiority of the anti-HCV drug Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) Ledipasvir in treating Egyptian patients with COVID-19 compared to the standard treatment. This is the first Egyptian research to be published in an international medical journal examining the use of the drug on coronavirus patients. The clinical study was conducted at Almaza Hospital in cooperation with the central laboratories in Kobry El-Kobba. The study was conducted by Dr. Mohamed El-Gohary, director of the Armed Forces Fever Hospital; Dr. Iman Medhat, professor of endemic diseases at Cairo University; and Dr. Amani Ibrahim, professors of endemic diseases at Ain Shams University. The research included 250 patients who were confirmed to have the coronavirus after a PCR analysis and categorising their degree of infection as medium according to clinical symptoms, laboratory analyses, and CT scans of the lungs. The study began in the initial wave of the pandemic from March 2020 until August 2020 on 250 patients, with the patients being divided into two equal groups. The first group included patients who were treated with Sovaldi, and the second group included patients with the same pathological characteristics, who were treated with drugs using traditional protocols that included Tamiflu, Hydroxychloroquine, and Xeromycin. The comparison between the two groups was in terms of clinical improvement of symptoms, length of stay of the patient in the hospital, number of patients who required admission to intensive care, as well as a comparison of laboratory results and periodic CT scans. A significant increase was found in the shortening of the treatment period until recovery among patients in the first group by 71%, compared to 51% in the second group, as well as no complications from Sovaldi compared to patients in the second group. Also, no deaths occurred among patients of the first group, while six deaths were recorded in the second group, noting that seven cases among patients of the first group required admission to intensive care, compared to six cases from the second group that received traditional treatment. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of laboratory results or improvement in CT scans. The trial was registered at the government with registration number NCT04530422. The study was conducted following all the CONSORT checklist 2010 steps. In the S.L. group, 89 (71.2%) patients were cured, while only 51 (40.8%) patients were cured in the OCH group. The cure rate was significantly higher in the S.L. group (RR=1.75, p<0.001). Kaplan-Meir plot showed a considerably higher cure over time in the S.L. group (Log-rank test, p=0.032). There were no deaths in the S.L. group, but there were six deaths (4.8%) in the OCH group (RR=0.08, p=0.013). Seven patients (5.6%) in the S.L. group and six patients (4.8%) in the OCH group were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) (RR=1.17, P=0.776). There were no significant differences between treatment groups regarding total leukocyte and neutrophils count, lymph, and urea. From this study, the researchers concluded the efficacy of Sovaldi in treating moderate cases of COVID-19. The advantages of the drug also included the ease of its use, the scarcity of side effects, and its cheap price in Egypt. The researchers stressed that this promising survey study (pilot study) is considered the beginning of a more comprehensive research. Further research will be conducted using a larger sample of patient across different hospitals and a different treatment protocol for the second group to confirm the effectiveness of the drug for treating coronavirus cases. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt condemned the desecration of the Quran by a group of right-wing extremists in Sweden, saying the act has inflamed the feelings of Muslims around the world during the holy month of Ramadan. The incident is part of the far-right practices that incite against migrants and Muslims in particular, read a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on Monday. During the weekend, the Danish far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) Party live-streamed a video of its Danish-Swedish extremist leader Rasmus Paludan burning a copy of the Quran in southern Swedens Linkoping. The anti-Islam, anti-migrant party, established in 2017, staged this act more than once in 2020. Egypt stresses its rejection of assaults to all religious principles and beliefs and to the rise of provocative practices against human values and principles, the foreign ministry added. The ministry urged the respect of the right to freedom of religion and belief as a pillar of human rights and called for upholding tolerance, acceptance of others, and peaceful coexistence among peoples. The statement reiterated Egypt's rejection of calls for incitement and hatred and called for halting violence, sabotage, and the provocative actions that harm societal stability, security, and peace. Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured and dozens others arrested when police clashed with hundreds of protesters in several cities who demonstrated against Paludans plans to burn more copies of the Quran. Riot and unrest rippled through many Swedish cities, including Orebro, Norrkoping, Linkoping, and Malmo, as protesters reportedly threw stones at policemen and set a number of police vehicles ablaze. Paludan announced cancelling a Sunday demonstration in Norrkoping and Linkoping, where unrest was heightened due to his Quran burning plans, saying authorities have shown that they are completely incapable of protecting themselves and me. International condemnation Many Muslim countries have condemned the right extremists burning of the Quran, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran. Malaysia also condemned the incident, saying it went beyond moral limits and norms of the right to freedom of speech and expression. The Malaysian foreign ministry said it will continue to work closely with fellow members of the international community to prevent and eradicate Islamophobic sentiments and religious extremism. The Iraqi foreign ministry summoned the Swedish envoy to protest against the incident, warning that the act has serious repercussions on the relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, whether in Islamic and Arab countries or in Muslim societies in Europe." Saudi Arabia described burning the Quran as "barbaric", calling for concerted efforts to spread the values of dialogue, tolerance, coexistence, and to renounce hatred, extremism, and exclusion. The Muslim World League (MWL) called on Muslims in Sweden and around the world to exercise restraint and adhere to wise Islamic faith and values that advocate shunning violence and hatred. The MWL urged Muslim people to let the chance slip away from those seeking to spread extremist thoughts. The Arab Parliament called for enacting international legislation that criminalises the incitement of hate, discrimination, and anti-Islam practices. In a Monday statement, the Arab Parliament cited the United Nations General Assemblys (UNGA) resolution proclaiming 15 March as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia as an important step to fight against denigration of Islam and Muslims. The parliament added that assaults against Islam and religious beliefs serve the agenda of extremists who reject tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, also condemned Paludans burning of the Quran. On Saturday, Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism warned extremist right-wing groups against the consequences of carrying out such actions to achieve political or personal gains at the expense of the peace and cohesion of societies. Such crimes provoke and inflame the feelings of more than 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, said the observatory, which follows up on Muslim conditions worldwide and issues periodical reports on extremism-related topics. The observatory also warned that such abuses contribute to igniting the fire of sedition and conflicts among the people of the one nation, adding that sanctities are a red line and should not be insulted or violated. Paludan, a lawyer and YouTuber, plans to stand in Swedish legislative elections next September but does not yet have the necessary number of signatures to secure his candidature. He represented his hardline Stram Kurs Party in the latest Danish elections in 2019 but failed to win a seat as the party received only 1.8 percent of the vote. In 2020, Paludan, born in Denmarks North Zealand, was banned from entering Belgium for a year over his plan to burn the Quran in Brussels and was expelled from France due to similar plans. In August 2020, he was also banned from entering Sweden for two years over plans to burn the Quran in Malmo, Swedens third-largest city. However, he was granted Swedish citizenship in October of the same year because his father is Swedish. Search Keywords: Short link: Libyas Constitutional Committee, which comprises representatives of Libya's two rival parliamentary chambers, has agreed during its meetings in Cairo over the past week on continuing work to put a framework for holding national elections soon, the UN said on Monday. This comes as representatives from Libyas east-based parliament and the rival Tripoli-based High Council of State have concluded UN-sponsored meetings of the committee in Cairo, which started on Wednesday. The meetings aimed at reaching an agreement on holding the indefinitely-postponed national elections. In February, the east-based parliament appointed Fathi Bashagha as prime minister-designate to replace Tripoli-based prime minister Abdul-Hamid Al-Dbeibah, who failed to hold the countrys anticipated presidential elections last December. The east-based parliaments decision has reignited differences between the east and west of the country as Al-Dbeibah, who was chosen as interim PM last year through UN-sponsored process and is still recognised by the High Council of State, has refused to leave office. The parliament and High Council of State are both responsible for the constitutional path in the country and have to shoulder full responsibility to achieve a comprehensive solution to the crisis, Egyptian state news agency MENA cited UN Adviser on Libya Stephanie Williams as saying in a press conference on Monday. She affirmed that a Libyan-Libyan solution to the crisis should be reached. Libyas Constitutional Committee has agreed during the Cairo meetings on continuing working to put a constitutional and legislative framework for holding presidential and parliamentary elections at the earliest opportunity, Williams said. She added that the committee has agreed on resuming consultations after the vacation of Eid Al-Fitr, which falls this year early in May, adding that the UN will continue to build on the achievements made during the Cairo meetings. Williams highlighted that it is necessary for the international community to unify efforts to support the aspirations of the Libyan people in having a democratic government that represents them. She also called for concerted international efforts to resolve the political crisis in Libya and achieve stability and safety in the Arab country. Williams called for stopping negative foreign interference by some parties in the Libyan crisis. She added that joint international work requires coordinating with the Libyans on the political, economic, and security aspects. The UN official voiced appreciation for the Egyptian government over hosting this round of the committee meetings and praised Cairo for backing UN efforts to achieve security and stability in Libya. Egypt has been pushing for stability in its western neighbour. It hosted a meeting in October for Libyas 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) to discuss plans to remove foreign mercenaries and troops from Libyan lands. During the UN-sponsored meeting, the JMC agreed with representatives from neighbouring countries Sudan, Chad, and Niger to "fully" cooperate to ensure the exit of all foreign fighters belonging to their countries from Libyan territories. Egypt has also hosted three meetings for Libyas Constitutional Committee since September 2020 in the Red Sea city of Hurghada, the last of which was in February 2021, to discuss resolving the political crisis in the country and coordinate on key security issues. Search Keywords: Short link: Asked about reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Moscow is winning the war, Shmyhal noted that while several cities are under siege, only Kherson in the south has fallen under Russian control. "More than 900 cities, towns and villages... are freed from Russian occupation," Shmyhal said, adding Ukraine has no intention of surrendering in the eastern Donbas region. "The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told ABC's "This Week," hours after the expiration of a Russian deadline for holdout Ukrainian fighters in the besieged port city to surrender their weapons. "There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So, they will fight to the end," he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that if surrounded Ukrainian troops in Mariupol were killed, peace talks with Moscow would be scrapped. President Putin had already said the talks were at a "dead end." Shmyhal said on Sunday that Ukraine wants a diplomatic solution "if possible." "We won't leave our country, our families, our land," he added. Zelenskyy, in an interview with CNN taped Friday and aired Sunday, said Ukraine is prepared to fight for the Donbas region. The battle will be critical, he said. If Russia were to capture Donbas, it could once again try to seize Kyiv. "It is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle... can influence the course of the whole war," Zelenskyy said. Asked whether he was concerned that Russia could resort to using nuclear force, Zelenskyy said he and the rest of the world should be worried. "They can. For them, the life of the people is nothing," he said. CIA Director William Burns Friday warned that the United States can't "take lightly" the threat of Putin using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Russia's foreign ministry said Saturday it had barred entry to the country for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members and politicians. The move was taken "in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British Government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it would expand the list soon. The Kremlin has described Johnson, who has been one of Ukraine's staunchest backers, as "the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian." U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants attempting to cross the border with Mexico in March, the highest monthly total in two decades and underscoring challenges in the coming months for U.S. President Joe Biden. The March total is a 24-percent increase from the same month a year earlier, when 169,000 migrants were picked up at the border, the start of a rise in migration that left thousands unaccompanied children stuck in crowded border patrol stations for days while they awaited placement in overwhelmed government-run shelters. Biden, a Democrat who took office in January 2021, pledged to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but has struggled both operationally and politically with high numbers of attempted crossings. Republicans, who hope to gain control of the U.S. Congress in November 8 midterm elections, say Biden's rollback of Trump-era policies has encouraged more illegal immigration. Biden officials have cautioned that migration could rise further after U.S. health officials said they will end a pandemic-era border order by May 23. The order, known as Title 42, allows asylum seekers and other migrants to be rapidly expelled to Mexico to prevent the spread of COVID-19. President Moon Jae-in will leave Cheong Wa Dae on May 9, his last official day as president, the presidential office said last Friday. Moon will attend the inauguration of his successor Yoon Seok-youl the following day before leaving for his private retirement home in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province. Moon and his wife will spend the night at an undisclosed location in Seoul, the last presidential couple to have inhabited the palatial Blue House that will now become a museum and park. "In the past, it was customary for an outgoing president to leave Cheong Wa Dae on the morning of his successor's inauguration day if his private quarters are in a remote area," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. But Moon will leave a day earlier because of Yoon's decision to open the premises to the public on inauguration day. Meanwhile, Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook will get their second COVID booster shots on April 25 in order to "encourage people over 60 to get second boosters," presidential spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee said. Moon is 69. Japanese star director Hirokazu Koreeda's Korean film is set to hit theaters in June amid high expectations. A teaser poster for "Broker" was released last week featuring its stars including Song Kang-ho, Kang Dong-won and IU. Other cast members are Bae Doo-na, who previously worked with Koreeda on the 2019 Japanese film "Air Doll," and Lee Joo-young. The film has generated a lot of excitement as it is Koreeda's first Korean film, and due to its star-studded cast. Koreeda has captivated moviegoers around the world with his touching portrayal of underprivileged people in his films. He won the Palme d'Or for "Shoplifters" at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. "Broker" portrays the unexpected journey of those whose lives are linked through a "baby box," where mothers who feel unable to raise a child can drop off their babies anonymously for adoption. Song plays a broker who tries to find parents to adopt the babies, and Kang plays his partner. Bae appears as a detective who chases after them, and IU plays a mother who returns to the baby box after leaving her child there. A staggering 3.2 million workers in Korea earned less than the minimum wage of W8,720 per hour last year as sharp increases of the threshold met with resistance from businesses. This is the second-highest number since 2019, when the minimum wage spiked steeply, raising the question what the minimum wage is for if it is so flagrantly ignored. The Korea Employers Federation in a report Sunday said the proportion of workers who earn less than the minimum wage reached 15.3 percent last year. In 2001, the figure stood at only 577,000 or 4.3 percent, but by 2009 this had already increased to 2.1 million or 12.7 percent. Since 2018, when the number of underpaid workers exceeded 3.1 million, it has remained at over 3 million every year. "Compared to Japan, where underpayment has been relatively stable from 1.9 percent in 2002 to 1.6 percent in 2019, Korea's problem is enormous and can be largely attributed to the sharp increase in the minimum wage." The worst offenders are agriculture and fisheries and hospitality, where the proportion of underpaid workers stands at a whopping 54.8 percent and 40.2 percent. Yang Keun-won at the KEF said, "This number reflects the reality that there are many employers who are unable to pay staff the minimum wage and also that there are many workers who need jobs so much that they will take them even if they are not paid the legal minimum." South Korea and the U.S. kicked off largely computer-based command post training on Monday in preparation for any full-scale war with North Korea. The exercise will last for nine days and take various new factors into account like the coronavirus pandemic and the changing power dynamics of the region, the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said Sunday. But the exercise involves no field training and is mostly a computer simulation, the JCS added. In advance, the two countries conducted four days of crisis management staff training on April 12-15. A delegation led by lawmaker Park Jin met with U.S. officials and experts in Washington, D.C. We hosted the delegation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with former U.S. National Security Council officials, ambassadors to South Korea and U.S. Force Korea commanders, and there was uniform positive support for president-elect Yoon Seok-youl's foreign policy agenda. But the delegation will have been struck during their week in town by how singularly focused Washington is on the war in Ukraine, rather than the pivot to Asia. The Yoon administration will have to adjust its foreign policy to these realities and go farther than the Moon Jae-in government did in supporting Ukraine's fight for freedom against Russia. The Moon government's initial response to Russia's unprovoked war of aggression was uninspiring, to say the least. South Korea did not join any of the U.S.-led sanctions aimed to deter a Russian invasion, explaining that it did not want to harm its growing economic relations with Russia without acknowledging any South Korean interest in the political situation. When the invasion occurred, Moon carefully avoided condemning the Russian invasion or calling out Putin by name, instead making passive statements about "upholding Ukrainian sovereignty," and "resolving the situation peacefully." South Korean actions remained focused on preserving energy imports from Russia and trade exports. This was essentially the same playbook followed in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. That South Korea saw no connection between the attack against Ukraine and the way the world came to Seoul's defense in June 1950 is astounding. The position came under criticism in Washington as a quiet acknowledgment that South Korea cannot be counted on in the community of democracies to stand up for freedom, unlike Australia, Japan or others, and that its voice in world affairs would remain faint. The excuse that the Moon government needed to appease Russia in order to gain Moscow's support on engaging North Korea was laughable in the face of multiple ballistic missile tests by the North this year. It took four days after the invasion before South Korea would sign on to the broadest multilateral sanctions against Russia, but it would not enact bilateral ones. It later signed on to SWIFT sanctions and suspension of financial transactions with Russian banks. But at the same time it sought exemptions from the U.S. Foreign Direct Product Rule that restricts export of products with American electronic technology, which it only was able to win after announcing financial sanctions against Russia. South Korea has to do better. If Russia wins in Ukraine, the world will be a different place, where autocrats will feel emboldened. That matters for South Korea. As a global power, South Korea needs to stand with other advanced industrialized democracies to deter aggression and to support the liberal international order. To do so in Ukraine is not a distraction from Korean affairs, but an action that invests in the obligation of others to do the same for South Korea against illiberal external threats, be they from North Korea or China. Thus far, president-elect Yoon seems to understand what is at stake. He immediately called Russia's invasion an act of aggression in violation of international law and the UN Charter. And he stated on numerous occasions that this is not a problem on "the other side of the world" or a "stranger's business" for South Koreans. This is all very encouraging. The question is what the president-elect can do to put actions behind these words. Thus far, South Korea's direct support of Ukraine has been modest. It has supplied some military uniforms and equipment to the Ukrainian army and US$10 million in humanitarian assistance. It has allowed about 3,800 Ukrainians in South Korea to extend their visas, and supported invitations to family members on humanitarian grounds with a simplified visa process. But these are fairly minor actions that may tick the box on showing support but do not truly buttress the Ukrainian resistance on the battlefield, nor make waves in the international community as a sign of South Korea's commitment to defend democracy. South Korea needs to consider the question whether it should provide lethal combat assistance to Ukraine. It is capable of providing infantry fighting vehicles, K-9 artillery, and K-10 ammunition transport vehicles as it is doing to Australia. This would be the strongest statement of the new government's commitment to be a global player. It would fit with South Korea's own plans to demonstrate the world-class capacity of its defense industrial products. And it would resonate deeply with the Joe Biden administration as a contribution to the alliance as a bulwark of democracy. Such an action would no doubt upset bilateral relations with Russia. But with Seoul having imposed financial and trade sanctions already, there is little chance that Putin will not already see South Korea as aligned with the West. The South Korean worry is that Russia will retaliate with its own sanctions on energy exports. This is likely, but it could be a spur to the Yoon government's plans to improve South Korea's supply-chain security. It is undeniable that China and Russia have weaponized economic interdependence, which South Koreans remember very well from the 2017 Chinese boycott, so it is incumbent on the new government to create new supply-chain resilience by reducing dependence on these two neighbors. On bituminous coal, for example, South Korea has already reduced its dependence on Russia to 54 percent from 75 percent last year by purchasing more coal from Australia, which has ready supplies to export given China's sanctioning of Australian coal. This type of trade diversion is the only way to reduce future vulnerability to coercion by illiberal regimes. KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 18:29 | World, All, Coronavirus China has decided to suspend the full promotion of President Xi Jinping's ambitious "common prosperity" policy for the time being, with the economy slowing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Chinese source familiar with the matter said Monday. Last year, Xi pledged to pursue common prosperity, aimed at reducing the income gap at home by levying more regulations on the nation's lucrative sectors, including the IT and financial industries. Xi's push to attain common prosperity, however, has been fanning concern that the world's most populous country would become a less attractive market, as the goal may place a heavy burden on the rich so that the government can coercively rectify economic inequality. As the world's second-largest economy has shown clear signs of losing growth momentum against a backdrop of the nation's "zero-COVID" policy, Xi has concluded that strengthening surveillance on companies would shrink corporate activities further, the source said. In the run-up to the ruling Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress in the fall, at which Xi is set to secure a controversial third term as the country's leader, China is expected to concentrate on stabilizing economic and social development. Some foreign affairs experts also say Xi might resume implementing measures to achieve his cherished goal of establishing common prosperity after he is reelected. The Communist-led government has bolstered restrictions on China's IT giants to curb their monopolistic behavior and disorderly capital expansion, sparking worries that innovation in the Chinese high-tech industry would be impeded. In April 2021, Chin's market regulator fined Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 18.2 billion yuan ($2.86 billion), apparently a record amount imposed under China's anti-monopoly laws. Moreover, big Chinese enterprises and business leaders are believed to be compelled by the central authorities to take steps that could contribute to narrowing income disparities, such as making donations and providing social support. But China's economy grew only 4.8 percent from a year earlier during the January-March period, official data showed Monday, as dozens of cities have been partially or fully locked down with the highly contagious Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus spreading. A disruption of the global supply chain stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also blurred the outlook for the nation's economy, making it more difficult for the Chinese government to realize its gross domestic product target of around 5.5 percent. Eventually, Vice Premier Liu He, who is in charge of economic and financial policies, proposed to Xi that the promotion of common prosperity should be suspended, the source said. In March, meanwhile, China decided to postpone broader trials of a property tax, which could be introduced as a symbol of common prosperity in the future, according to state-run media. Related coverage: China's economy grows 4.8% in 1st quarter amid "zero COVID" policy KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 23:01 | All, World, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Swiss President Ignazio Cassis agreed Monday to maintain "strong" sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Japan's Foreign Ministry said, as the war shows no signs of easing. Kishida and Cassis, who doubles as foreign minister, also agreed in Tokyo that Russia should be held responsible for its killing of Ukrainian civilians, urging Moscow to heed the voice of the global community and stop the invasion, according to the ministry. "Russia's aggression shakes the foundation of order not only of Europe but also of the international community including Asia," Kishida said at the outset of the meeting, which was open to the press. "There is no time that the unity of the international community is required as much as it is now." Cassis was quoted as saying that Switzerland will provide maximum support for Ukraine while continuing severe sanctions against Russia. He also expressed hope to strengthen cooperation with Japan in the fields of economy, science and technology. Switzerland, despite being a non-European Union member and known for its permanent neutrality, moved ahead with imposing sanctions on Russia including freezing assets of President Vladimir Putin, keeping pace with the EU, the United States and Japan, following Moscow's invasion that began Feb. 24. But the Swiss government has said that its response to the war does not mean it has abandoned its neutrality, and that the country will "not favor any warring party militarily." The two leaders also discussed North Korea and reaffirmed to work together in dealing with Pyongyang's missile threats and its abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the ministry. Cassis, who is on a six-day visit to Japan through Saturday, later held talks with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. They shared the view that Russia's aggression against Ukraine is a "clear violation of international law." Hayashi said at a press event after the meeting that he highly appreciates that Switzerland has adopted "as strong sanction measures as those imposed by the EU" against Russia. The two nations, both candidates for nonpermanent members of the U.N. Security Council for two years from 2023, pledged to step up their cooperation over its reform, according to the ministry. It is the first trip to Japan for Cassis since becoming Swiss president in January. During his stay in Japan, besides holding meetings with other Japanese ministers, the president is scheduled to attend a business event and visit the western Japan cities of Osaka and Kyoto. Cassis, who is on a six-day trip to Japan through Saturday, later held talks with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. It is his first trip to Japan since becoming Swiss president in January. During his stay in Japan, besides holding meetings with other Japanese ministers, the president is scheduled to attend a business event and visit the western Japan cities of Osaka and Kyoto. KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 23:29 | All, Japan A two-meter-long pet ball python was found Monday in the car it was last seen in, with police saying it had likely never escaped in the first place after being reported missing by its owner and prompting a search by authorities in a western Japan city. The snake was found after its owner noticed that the wire covering under the storage compartment opposite the passenger's seat was unusually raised and asked the police to check the car in his employer's parking lot in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The police had been looking for the python since Sunday evening after it was reported missing on Friday, with 10 officers poking around in the grass with sticks and looking into ditches around the owner's apartment. The snake was thought to have escaped from the car parked in the complex's parking lot. The snake, which weighs around 2 kilograms, is not venomous and is known to be relatively docile, but the police had called on the public to be careful because it might bite. Related coverage: Missing pet python found in attic after 2-week search in Yokohama Over 3-meter-long pet python on loose after escaping near Tokyo Japanese man arrested in Indonesia for smuggling hundreds of reptiles KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 20:49 | World, All The United States and South Korea will respond strongly if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, their special envoys warned Monday, as the two countries began joint military exercises despite protests from the North that they should be canceled. Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korean affairs, met with his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu Duk in Seoul in light of North Korea's recent provocative acts including the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Washington and Seoul share concerns about Pyongyang's "escalatory actions" and will "continue to work closely to respond responsibly and decisively to the provocative behavior in the united context and beyond," said Kim at the outset of the meeting. Noh said in a joint briefing after the meeting, "South Korea and the United States agreed to coordinate very closely, in case North Korea continues conducting nuclear tests and ICBM launches that violate U.N. security council resolutions." Kim added that it is important for the United Nations to send a clear signal to North Korea that such escalatory threats will not be accepted anymore. But he also said the United States is open for talks with North Korea and will remain prepared to meet anywhere without any preconditions. "I once again call on Pyongyang to pursue a diplomatic path with us," Kim said, stressing that the United States and South Korea have no hostile intent toward the North. Also Monday, South Korea and the United States began their joint springtime military exercises, the South Korean military said. The nine-day exercises will be computer simulated and not involve field drills, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The training this time will offer a chance to enhance the combined operational capabilities of South Korean and U.S. troops and further solidify the allies' combined defense posture," the JCS said in a statement. North Korea harshly criticized the exercises on its state-run propaganda website Uriminzokkiri on Sunday, saying, "Invaders and provocateurs must pay" for their actions. Kim said in the briefing that he and Noh also "agreed on the need to maintain the strongest possible joint deterrent capability" on the Korean Peninsula, and that "this is why our militaries are exercising and training together like the exercise that started today." North Korea on Saturday fired a new type of missile that reached an altitude of about 25 kilometers and flew about 110 km, South Korea's JCS said on Sunday. Concerns are growing about further North Korean provocations around the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army on April 25. Related coverage: North Korea test-fired "new-type tactical guided weapon": KCNA North Korea marks key anniversary amid fears about military provocations North Korea threatens to use nukes in event of preemptive strike by S. Korea KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 14:12 | All, World, Japan Over 30 percent of listed Japanese firms which operate in Russia have decided to stop doing so as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine, a survey by a credit research firm recently showed. In the Teikoku Databank Ltd. survey, 60, or 36 percent, of the 168 companies that do business in Russia said they plan to stop operations in the country, up from the 37 in the previous study in March. Some firms have continued to work in Russia due to having to fulfill backorders, among other reasons. As of April 11, a total of 31 firms said they decided to "suspend trade," including postponing shipments, increasing by nine from the survey last month. The number of companies that plan to halt manufacturing, including work at factories, increased by four to 11 firms. Nine said they will suspend business operations, such as closing stores, up by five. In March, no companies said they planned to withdraw completely from Russia, but the number grew to three in the most recent survey. Many firms cited disruptions in logistics and supply chains for suspending operations in Russia, with the prolonged crisis in Ukraine deepening wariness among businesses. However, others noted that they would continue operating in the country, taking into account that their products would not be impacted by sanctions implemented by Western countries. "There is a possibility that more firms will opt to withdraw from Russia" amid uncertainty over when the business environment may return to normal, a spokesperson from Teikoku Databank said. Related coverage: Japan's lower house OKs bills to strip Russia of favored trade status Over 20% of Japan's major firms halt Russian businesses: survey Japan nonlife insurers halt contracts for firms operating in Russia KYODO NEWS - Apr 18, 2022 - 13:03 | All, World, Japan, Coronavirus The coronavirus lockdown in Shanghai is forcing Japanese retailers to halt operations in the Chinese commercial and financial hub, while Japanese manufacturers have also been affected including through supply-chain disruptions. With the city locked down in line with Beijing's radical zero-COVID policy amid an increase in infections, Ryohin Keikaku Co., the operator of retail brand Muji, had closed about 50 of its over 300 stores in China as of last week. "We expect (the performance) in the second half of the business year (from March) to fall significantly below our forecast," President Nobuo Domae said Thursday. The company revised downward its earnings forecast for its business year through August, citing the adverse impact on its business in China. Clothing retail giant Fast Retailing Co. had closed all 86 outlets of its Uniqlo clothing chain and eight stores of its GU casual brand in Shanghai as of Thursday. Tadashi Yanai, chairman and CEO, told reporters on Thursday that the company has been "troubled significantly in terms of revenue and from the standpoint of employees' daily lives." Convenience store operator Lawson Inc. was forced to close 80 to 90 percent of its around 1,000 stores in Shanghai. Among manufacturers, Sony Group Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Sharp Corp. have suspended operations at factories in the city for extended periods of time. Operations in Japan have been affected too due to delays in parts procurements from suppliers in Shanghai. Mazda Motor Corp. shut down two plants in Japan for a total of eight days this month, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp. suspended operations at a major factory in Aichi Prefecture for five days from April 11. Japan Airlines Co. and All Nippon Airways Co. said some cargo flights on the Shanghai route have been canceled due to the difficulty of securing mechanics or staff who can load and unload their planes. Japan has been shipping semiconductors to Shanghai while importing electronic components from the Chinese city. "As long as (China) sticks to its policy of conducting lockdowns, the impact on the (Japanese) economy will become more serious," said Kengo Sakurada, who leads the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. Related coverage: China's economy grows 4.8% in 1st quarter amid "zero COVID" policy 370 mil. people under some form of lockdown in China due to COVID China's new infection cases top 20,000 despite "zero COVID" policy People are seen on a bus at a bus station in Gaborone, Botswana, on Dec. 23, 2021. Many people in Gaborone chose to travel to their hometowns to spend holidays on Thursday, despite the fact that the country has seen an increase in the number of people infected with COVID-19. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua) People are seen at a bus station in Gaborone, Botswana, on Dec. 23, 2021. Many people in Gaborone chose to travel to their hometowns to spend holidays on Thursday, despite the fact that the country has seen an increase in the number of people infected with COVID-19. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua) People line up to get on a bus at a bus station in Gaborone, Botswana, on Dec. 23, 2021. Many people in Gaborone chose to travel to their hometowns to spend holidays on Thursday, despite the fact that the country has seen an increase in the number of people infected with COVID-19. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua) SANAA, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi militia on Wednesday said they advanced in the strategic district of Hayran in the northwestern province of Hajjah following a week long battle. "We seized another 11 villages in the strategic district of Hayran, which stretching along 26 km square, and killed 200 soldiers in the offensive," Houthi-run al-Masirah TV quoted a military statement from the Houthi militia as saying. The militia said their advance came despite heavy airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government army. There has been no confirmation yet from the government army. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi militia for nearly seven years, with Hajjah as one of the critical battlegrounds. In February, the Houthi militia drove the government forces out of Harad, a city in Hajjah, and has since controlled large areas of the province. Hayran and Harad are located few miles away from the southern border of Saudi Arabia. The escalation in Hajjah came after the militia lost several strategic districts in the oil-rich provinces of Shabwa and Marib in central Yemen. Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, displaced 4 million people and caused what the United Nations says the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Hot air balloons are seen during an event to celebrate the National Tourism Year 2022 in Quang Nam province, Vietnam, March 25, 2022. (VNA/Handout via Xinhua) New products like marine tourism, cultural tourism and eco-tourism with unique features of localities have been launched in Vietnam as highlights for the upcoming summer travel season. HANOI, April 1 (Xinhua) -- With proactive and continuous efforts, Vietnam is stepping up the resumption of international tourism while flexibly adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking place here from Thursday to Sunday after two years of suspension, the Vietnam International Travel Mart 2022, the largest annual tourism trade fair in the Southeast Asian country, marked the reopening of the Vietnamese tourism sector in the new normal context. On another positive note, the country welcomed roughly 91,000 international arrivals in the first quarter of this year, surging 89.1 percent against the same period last year, said its General Statistics Office. Over the past few weeks, promotion activities have been accelerating across localities including the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, northern Quang Ninh province, and central Quang Nam province to welcome tourists back. Several new products like marine tourism, cultural tourism and eco-tourism with unique features of localities have been launched as highlights for the upcoming summer travel season. Tourists pose for a photo in the famed Hoan Kiem Lake in the capital Hanoi, Vietnam, March 16, 2022. (VNA/Handout via Xinhua) On March 15, the country fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors after nearly two years of COVID-19 disruption. Accordingly, most traveling restrictions had been removed for international arrivals to Vietnam. Visitors now only need to prove that they have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, with a negative test result as per requirements by local health authorities. They are also required to have insurance coverage of at least 10,000 U.S. dollars for possible COVID-19 treatment in Vietnam. Also from March 15, immigration procedures for foreigners have been restored like before the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that citizens from a list of 80 countries and regions can now apply for an e-visa for a stay of up to 30 days. The Vietnamese government reiterated its stance to treat foreign and domestic tourists as the same. Vietnam had resumed the visa exemption policy for citizens from 13 countries including Japan, South Korea, and Russia, its key tourism markets, on the same day. Prior to this, all restrictions on the frequency of international flights were officially removed since Feb. 15. Photo taken on March 16, 2022 shows the Ha Long Bay in Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province. (VNA/Handout via Xinhua) The country hosted a record number of more than 18 million visitors in 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus outbreak, compared to just 157,000 foreign arrivals in 2021 due to border closures. It has set a target of receiving over 5 million foreign tourists in 2022, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). At a recent meeting on reopening the sector, Deputy Minister of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu assessed that an assertive door-opening policy is giving Vietnam the advantage of being among "the first movers." When many countries and regions have not yet opened, the choices of tourists cannot be as diverse as before the pandemic. The advantage will, therefore, belong to the destinations that open early, actively promote and refresh their tourism image to attract tourists' attention. However, insiders have largely agreed that the reopening does not mean foreign tourists will immediately flock to Vietnam like before the pandemic. "Opening at this time is to resume the market so that we can welcome international visitors between this September and March 2023, our annual peak season," VNAT general director Nguyen Trung Khanh told local media. Tourists pose for photos on the Golden Bridge on Ba Na Hills, Da Nang city, Vietnam. (VNA/Handout via Xinhua) Local experts view that it may take months or even years for the number of visitors to recover to the pre-pandemic level, citing their financial and health concerns when traveling. At this point in time, it is a big challenge to reach customers from several important markets due to certain traveling restrictions, Khanh noted, adding that Russia, as another key market, is also affected by the pandemic and the current Ukraine conflict. According to Khanh, other obstacles come from the industry's serving capacity, technical facilities and human resources. In the past two years, many tourist areas have closed, and the facilities have been degraded. Personnel in the sector are also dispersed as they were forced to switch to other occupations. Between 2020 and 2021, nearly 30 percent of travel firms nationwide had their operating licenses withdrawn, leaving only about 2,000 ones to continue to operate, Khanh said. "They are facing difficulties, especially the shortage of skilled and high-quality personnel," he said. At least six people were killed and eight others wounded on Monday in missile strikes on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military-civilian administration. Produced by Xinhua Global Service BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese film studio Light Chaser Animation announced on Monday that the second installment of its "new gods" animated film series, following the 2021 fantasy "New Gods: Nezha Reborn," is set for release this July, without specifying the date. Famed for producing the 2019 animated blockbuster "White Snake," the studio has released a teaser of the new title, which is known in Chinese as "Xin Shen Bang: Yang Jian," literally meaning "New God List: Yang Jian" in English. The upcoming film revolves around Yang Jian, a mythological figure who, just like Nezha, is also from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel "The Investiture of the Gods." It is the same book that inspired the 2019 movie "Ne Zha" by Beijing Enlight Pictures which pocketed 5 billion yuan (about 784 million U.S. dollars). "New Gods: Nezha Reborn" raked in 456 million yuan. Immersive museum tours are available in the Three Gorges Museum in southwest China's Chongqing thanks to the wide application of digital technologies. #GLOBALink Produced by Xinhua Global Service Photo taken on Oct. 8, 2021 shows the vases of flowers installed to memorize gun violence victims at the Battery Park in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Three mass shootings over the weekend have again underscored that the recurrent problem of gun violence in the United States is aggravating. Over 22,000 people have died or been injured due to gun-related incidents in the United States this year, according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive. The following are some of the bloodiest mass shootings in the United States over the past two years: Police work at the scene of a shooting in Pittsburgh, the United States, on April 17, 2022. (Pittsburgh Public Safety/Handout via Xinhua) -- Early Sunday morning, two minors died and eight more people were injured after shots were fired at a house party with as many as 200 people in attendance in Pittsburgh, a major city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. -- In the state of South Carolina, two separate mass shootings on Saturday afternoon and early Sunday have left at least 23 people injured in total. -- During April 8-11 this year, at least 18 people were shot, with at least five of them killed, in New Orleans, the largest city in the southern U.S. state Louisiana within 72 hours, tying the record for the last 10 years. Police officers investigate at the site of a shooting in Sacramento, California, the United States, April 3, 2022. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua) -- On April 3 this year, the Sacramento Police Department confirmed that six adults were killed and 12 other people were injured in a mass shooting in the capital city of California. -- On Feb. 28 this year, five people, including three children, were killed after a man opened fire in a church near Arden Fair mall in Sacramento. -- On Sept. 5, 2021, four people, including an infant, were killed in Lakeland, southeastern U.S. state Florida, according to local media reports. -- On July 25, 2021, Five people, including a policeman and a suspect, were killed in a shooting incident in Wasco, a small city located in central California of the United States, local authorities said. People are seen at a memorial service for victims of a mass shooting in San Jose, California, the United States, May 27, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling) -- On May 26, 2021, nine people were killed and at least another injured after a shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority yard north of downtown San Jose in the U.S. state of California, according to local authorities. -- On May 9, 2021, six adults were killed when a suspect opened fire at a birthday party in Colorado Springs, a city in U.S. state of Colorado, police said, adding the suspect took his own life on scene. -- On April 29, 2021, two deputies and three other people including a suspected gunman were shot dead after a lengthy standoff at a residence in southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina, authorities said. -- On April 15, 2021, eight people were killed and multiple people suffered gunshot wounds that required hospitalization after a shooting at a FedEx facility on the southwest side of Indianapolis, the capital of the U.S. Midwest state of Indiana. -- On March 22, 2021, ten people, including one police officer, were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, police said. -- On March 16, 2021, eight people were killed and another one was injured in three shooting incidents in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. -- On Feb. 2, 2021, five children and an adult were killed in a shooting in Muskogee, Oklahoma, local police said. -- On June 6, 2020, a shooting at a child's birthday party in Northern California's Vallejo left two women dead and three people injured. -- On June 5, 2020, seven people were killed in the southern U.S. state of Alabama in an overnight shooting, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office confirmed in a series of tweets. -- On Feb. 26, 2020, seven people, including the shooter, were killed in a shooting on a company campus in Milwaukee in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, local media reported. XINING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Qiao Shujuan's new home is just 2 km from her school. If the 12-year-old girl's family was still living in their old village, that journey to school would be around 60 km. Qiao's hometown is Minzhu Village, Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, in the city of Haidong, northwest China's Qinghai Province, where the average altitude is more than 4,000 meters. Now they have moved to an urban area within the same county, making life much easier. "We wanted to provide better education for our children, so the family decided to buy a house elsewhere in the county," said Qiao Mingsheng, the father. The senior Qiao receives dividends by leasing his farmland in the village and runs a small shop in town. "We get a bigger income now than we got by planting crops in the past," he said. Sitting in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the city of Haidong has nearly 200,000 hectares of cultivated land, making an average per capita area of 0.2 hectares. Yuan Fude, a village official of Yangjia Village in Haidong, said an increasing number of villagers have settled down in towns or cities in recent years, with children's education being the main reason for moving. The situation is similar in the pastoral area. Tazang, a herdsman from Laiyang Village, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is now taking care of 13 children from the village who are attending schools in the town. Herders from 16 households in Laiyang Village set up a cooperative and built bungalows for their children in the town. Some of them take care of the children in the town, some stay and graze sheep and cattle in the village, and others take part in the processing and selling of mutton and beef. "In the past, children in the village dropped out of school at a very young age in order to help their families graze livestock. But now, more people attach importance to education for their next generation and send their children to schools in cities and towns. They also move there to take care of their children," said Tazang. An increasing number of villagers deep in the mountains are moving to cities and towns for their children's education, which has also changed the pattern of urbanization on the plateau, said Liu Changyuan, Party chief of Haidong's Yaozhuang Village, which has seen the majority of residents move to the town. Census data shows that, by the end of 2020, the urban population of Qinghai Province was over 3.5 million, and the urbanization rate of permanent residence hit 60 percent, increasing by 41 percent and 15 percentage points, respectively, compared with the figure for a decade ago, which reflected the rapid development of the province's urbanization. Although rural residents are flocking to cities and towns, those staying in the rural areas also see new opportunities. "There is a lot of vacant farmland, so I rented land and started to develop sheep breeding on a large scale," said Zhao Longfa, a villager in Xiexia Village. A villager named Wei Wenhong also rents around 100 hectares of land to grow potatoes, forage grass, oats and beans. "I earned more than 200,000 yuan (about 31,391 U.S. dollars) last year," Wei said, adding that he plans to expand the land to grow more vegetables and open a starch factory in the future. Prior to engaging in agriculture on a large scale, Wei used to be a migrant worker, toiling in logistics, with an income of only around 60,000 yuan every year. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi attends a joint press conference in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 10, 2022. (Str/Xinhua) Draghi, 74, who is fully vaccinated, "is asymptomatic," according to the statement. His schedule has been curtailed, including a planned trip to Angola and the Republic of the Congo scheduled for April 20-21. ROME, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi has tested positive for COVID-19, the government said in a statement on Monday. Draghi, 74, who is fully vaccinated, "is asymptomatic," according to the statement. Passengers walk on the platform of Roma Termini railway station in Rome, Italy, April 1, 2022. (Jin Mamengni/Xinhua) His schedule has been curtailed, including a planned trip to Angola and the Republic of the Congo scheduled for April 20-21. The statement said Draghi will be replaced by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani for the trip. Draghi's positive test comes as coronavirus infection rates in Italy are on the rise compared to recent lows from early March, though mortality and hospitalization rates remain low. The most recent data, from Sunday, showed nearly 52,000 new infections nationally, the sixth consecutive day with more than 50,000 new cases. A voter casts a ballot in a drive-thru voting area set up for electors positive to COVID-19 or in quarantine during a voting session to elect the new president of Italy in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 26, 2022. (Alberto Lingria/Xinhua) BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday sent a message of sympathy to his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, over the suffering caused by a typhoon attack. In his message, Xi said that he was shocked to learn the Philippines was hit by the typhoon, which caused serious casualties and property losses, adding that he, on behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, expresses his deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured people. China, he said, stands ready to provide assistance within its capacity to the Philippines. Xi said he believes that under the leadership of President Duterte and the Philippine government, people in the affected region will surely overcome the disaster and rebuild their homes. Calligraphy, paper-cutting and traditional Chinese face masks... A series of cultural activities have been held in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa to celebrate the upcoming UN Chinese Language Day, which falls on April 20 every year. Produced by Xinhua Global Service BRUSSELS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) is allocating a further 50 million euros (about 54.03 U.S. dollars) of humanitarian aid to people affected by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a EU statement issued on Sunday. Some 45 million euros (about 48.63 dollars) of the funding is allocated for humanitarian projects in Ukraine, and 5 million euros (about 5.4 dollars) to projects in neighboring Moldova, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict. The new funding, which brings the EU's total humanitarian aid funding in response to the conflict to 143 million euros (about 154.53 dollars), will address the most pressing humanitarian needs by providing emergency medical services, access to safe drinking water and hygiene, shelter and protection, cash assistance and support against gender-based violence, according to the statement. "As heavy fighting and missile strikes continue to destroy critical civilian infrastructure, humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain extremely high," the EU said in the statement. Two amateur astronomy projects were awarded the 2022 Page Medal on Saturday 16 April at the National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers held online. The six friends who make up The Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS) Team monitor distant galaxies to detect the death throes of massive stars as they explode in brilliant supernovae. The team then alerts professional telescopes to swing into action and study these phenomena at the crucial moment. The sooner those observations begin, the more is learnt about the lead up to the star's final moments. Without supernovae shedding their material across space, there wouldn't have been any ingredients available for life or even for planets like the Earth to develop. The BOSS Team make their observations from backyards in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and from a dairy farm near Christchurch, New Zealand. "We've discovered about 200 confirmed supernova over the years," says BOSS member Greg Bock. In 2008, former mine worker Trevor Barry found a white spot on Saturn, which turned out to be an electrical storm. "The CASSINI space craft orbiting Saturn couldn't image the storm on a day-to-day basis, due to its orbit and other priorities. I could," says Trevor. The storm swirled for seven months, making it the longest-lived storm ever recorded on Saturn. Trevor continues to provide storm data to NASA and others about Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. The Page Medal is awarded every two years by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) to recognise scientific contributions that have advanced the field of astronomy. It was established to honour Berenice and Arthur Page, a wife-and-husband team who were amateur pioneers of astronomy in Australia and foundation members of the ASA. ASA President Professor John Lattanzio says that this year's winners demonstrate the scientific value of amateurs who can continuously observe their targets. "Professional telescopes have their time fully allocated, plotted minute by minute, months in advance. Whereas these dedicated and highly skilled amateurs can monitor their targets on the chance something interesting happens - and that's where the value lies," says John. "The winners are truly outstanding and well-deserving, and it was impossible to differentiate between their contribution to advancement of astronomy. Hence, the decision to make two awards for the first time in the prize history," he says. Trevor Barry says he'll keep watching Saturn for as long as he's alive. "I'm waiting for the next big thing to happen, because Saturn can be a bit staid. It's not rambunctious like Jupiter, he says. "I'm so honoured by this award. It's the highest honour that the peak professional body in Australia can bestow in on an amateur. It's humbling to me," says Trevor. Trevor Barry single-handedly built an observatory in Broken Hill. This amateur observatory is capable of providing state-of-the-art planetary imagery. On its own, this is a significant achievement. Trevor's work on the differential rotation of the polar hexagon on Saturn gives a greater handle on the internal atmospheric dynamics. This is careful work, and it complements spacecraft measurements. Trevor's work is widely known and highly regarded by NASA. The difference and contribution that Trevor makes is the ability to almost continuously observe Saturn and analyse dynamic process over hours, days and weeks. This is something HST or satellite missions cannot do. Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS) team for a coordinated, collaborative program with a focus on supernovae studies. The BOSS Team is a well-coordinated, collaborative program with a focus on supernovae studies. The coordination of the team is what makes its achievement unique. They are able to monitor many galaxies and detect supernovae in their early stages, often way ahead of professional programs. The importance of the initial discoveries and tracing the light curves has led to an impressive sweep of late stellar evolution science. It also led to cooperation with Purdue University and had impact on their REFITT program. https://bosssupernova.com/ The 2022 Berenice and Arthur Page Medal The Berenice and Arthur Page Medal is awarded every two years by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). The Medal recognises excellence in amateur astronomy in Australia and its territories, based on scientific contributions which have served to advance astronomy. The award was established in 1972 as the Berenice Page Medal, through a bequest by the late Mrs Berenice Page of Brisbane. The nature of the award was developed with the support and consultation of Berenice's husband, Arthur Page. Berenice and Arthur were exceptional amateur astronomers and foundation members of the ASA. Formed in 1966, the ASA is the organisation for professional astronomers in Australia. The Pages were readily accepted as members of the society because of the indispensable part they played in the IAU Flare Star Programme in the 1960's. This work involved collaborating with astronomers from the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics to observe the spectacular and unpredictable outbursts of stars. Arthur Page remained an ASA member until his death in 2011 and, with his family's consent, the ASA renamed the award as the Berenice and Arthur Page Medal, to honour the achievements and dedication of both Berenice and Arthur towards astronomy. Berenice Rose was trained as a pharmaceutical chemist, graduating in 1951. She moved up through the profession and was managing her own pharmacy in Brisbane in the late 1960's. Throughout this time she had a deep interest in astronomy, building her own 22.5cm Newtonian telescope in the 1950's. Arthur Page was fascinated by astronomy from an early age. His family came to Australia in 1941, fleeing Japan during World War II. He joined the Australian Army, where his astronomy knowledge proved to be life-saving. His patrol unit became lost in the swampy jungle of New Guinea and Arthur, to his Commander's amazement, used the Sun and stars to guide the unit to safety. Many years later, in 1954, Arthur built a 15-cm Newtonian telescope for the purpose of astrophotography. Bart Bok, then Director of Mount Stromlo Observatory, was so impressed with the results that Arthur was invited to work at the observatory as a Visiting Observer. Arthur later returned to Brisbane and met Berenice in 1963 when they worked together on the IAU Flare Star Programme. They were married the following year, and together established the Page Observatory near Brisbane, constructing a 31cm Schmidt for photographic observations, mainly of flare stars. Berenice and Arthur contributed a great deal to astronomy throughout the 1960's. Sadly, at the height of her career, Berenice was struck down by a cerebral haemorrhage and died in July 1970 at just over 40 years of age. The amateur and professional astronomical communities suffered a severe blow and felt a deep sense of loss. Members of the ASA learnt with gratitude of Berenice's wish to leave a portion of her estate to the ASA for the advancement of astronomy in Australia. In 1971, Arthur built a new observatory on Mount Tamborine, south of Brisbane. His astronomy work was prolific, including the publication of the Atlas of Flare Stars Within the Solar Neighbourhood in 1988. In 1993, his observatory was moved to Mount Kent, near Toowoomba, with help from the University of Queensland and the University of Southern Queensland. The University of Southern Queensland now operates the observatory for stellar photometry and as a teaching tool for students. The Medal was first awarded in May 1973 and now stands as an impressive record of outstanding Australian amateur astronomers. The most recent award in 2020, was made to TG Tan who designed, built and operates the Perth Exoplanet Survey Telescope Observatory. TG has co-discovered more than 70 exoplanets so far, including one potentially habitable planet. He has collaborated and published with many of the world's professional exoplanet search teams and is currently a member of the Follow-up Observing Program for NASA's TESS mission working to confirm TESS planet candidates. TG has developed novel observing and analysis techniques that he has shared freely with the amateur astronomy community. Astronomy is unique in the extent to which amateurs and professionals can work together to build knowledge. Amateur astronomers have played an indispensable role in many research teams. There are a large number of phenomena in the sky to observe and a much smaller number of instruments to make those observations. Amateur astronomers help fill this gap and their work is greatly valued by professional astronomers and the ASA. Astronomy also advances by keeping the public informed of astronomical events and great contributions are made by amateurs in this area through their tireless efforts. Professional astronomers are keenly aware of the importance of an informed and interested public, as they depend on public support through the Australian Government. Australian astronomy has been generously supported in the past and this is likely to continue if the public remain interested in and excited by, the contributions made by all astronomers. Previous Winners 2020 Mr Thiam-Guan 'TG' Tan - Perth Exoplanet Survey Telescope observations 2018 Prof David Moriarty - eclipsing binaries & its application to models of stellar evolution 2016 Dr Roy Axelsen - photometric observations & the Fourier analysis of Delta Scuti variables 2014 Prof Tim Napier-Munn - precision modelling to resolve binary stars 2012 Mr Anthony Wesley - observations of transitory events in the atmospheres of Jupiter & Saturn 2010 Mr David Gault - significant observations of Pluto occultations 2008 Mr John Broughton - the systematic survey of Near Earth Objects, including numerous occultation timings 2006 Dr Tom Richards - CCD photometric lightcurve observations of minor planets, variable stars and contributions to exoplanet searches 2004 Mr Colin Bembrick - photometric lightcurve observations of minor planets and derivation of their rotation periods 2002 The Reynolds Amateur Photometry Team - photometric observations of distant supernovae and gravitational microlensing events 2000 Mr Andrew Pearce - observations of comets, variable stars and novae 1998 Mr Gordon Garradd - observation of asteroids, comets, novae and supernovae 1996 Mr Peter Williams - visual observations of variable stars, especially the R Coronae Borealis variables 1994 Mr Paul Camilleri - discoveries of novae and Mira variables and the development of simple photographic techniques for nova searches 1992 Dr Mal Wilkinson - the design and construction of a radio-telescope to observe and model the Io-Jupiter system 1990 Mr Barry Adcock - telescope design work and planetary observations 1988 Mr Robert McNaught - photographic nova & supernova discoveries 1986 The Reverend Robert Evans - visual discoveries of supernovae 1983 Mr Byron Soulsby - work on the oblateness of the umbral shadow 1981 Mr Bill Bradfield - the discovery of 11 comets (to date at that time) 1975 Mr David Herald - observations of Baily's Beads in the 1974 solar eclipse 1973 Mr S.J. Elwin - observations of the occultation of Beta Scorpii by Jupiter. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attends a symposium of NPC deputies in Beijing, capital of China, April 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Top legislator Li Zhanshu on Monday urged Chinese lawmakers to perform their statutory duties, faithfully represent the people's interests, and pave the way for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, made the call while attending a symposium of NPC deputies. Li heard their comments and suggestions on the practice of whole-process democracy. He called on lawmakers to uphold the correct political orientation while performing their duties, adding that state organs should accept the supervision of lawmakers and the people. Lawmakers should represent the interests and will of the people faithfully and exercise state power according to the law, Li said. He also called on the lawmakers to maintain close ties with the people and take the lead in exercising law-based governance. BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers are considering a draft law revision to provide tougher rules against trafficking women. The draft revision to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women was submitted on Monday to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for a second reading. The draft proposes a "mandatory reporting and screening mechanism" to swiftly identify and handle crimes against women. Marriage registration organs, local governments, women's associations, and hotels shall report to the police if they suspect women are being trafficked or abducted, says the draft. Those who fail to perform the mandatory duties will be punished. Hotels that fail to report such law violations or crimes may have their business licenses revoked or fined up to 50,000 yuan (about 7,845 U.S. dollars). The draft revision underwent a first reading in December, after which the legislature posted the draft online to solicit public comments. Over 420,000 comments were submitted, a sign that the legislation has garnered wide public attention. Many comments called for prompt measures to identify and prevent law violations or crimes that infringe upon the rights and interests of women, including trafficking, according to Zang Tiewei, a spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee. The Ministry of Public Security in March kicked off a special operation that will run through year-end to crack down on the abduction and trafficking of women and children. A government work report made public during this year's "two sessions" in March also vowed to "crack down hard" on the trafficking and buying of women and children. Lawmakers will deliberate the draft revision in group discussions during the NPC Standing Committee session, which will be convened until Wednesday. TEHRAN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran said Monday that it waits for U.S. response to the Islamic republic's proposals to address "concerns" in the Vienna nuclear talks, which aim to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said during his weekly press conference the topics of the Vienna talks are "very clear to all." "We will not agree on anything until we agree on the whole," he was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency. The exchange of messages between Tehran and Washington is taking place through Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Vienna talks, he said, adding that "Iran and the P4+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany) have done their best and are waiting for a proper response from Washington to address the concerns." Washington has adopted a "policy of delay," but the atmosphere of Vienna talks is "not negative" right now, Khatibzadeh said, adding it is still a good way to salvage the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers, including the United States. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, including freezing some of Iran's assets abroad, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments. Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal. BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's top court has ordered a nationwide campaign to crack down on fraud crimes against senior citizens, especially fraud in the name of elderly care. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) said that courts nationwide should seriously punish relevant crimes. Such efforts must include more severe financial penalties on the criminals. The SPC also asked the courts to take all possible measures to retrieve the illegal gains to minimize the victims' losses. The top court added that more publicity efforts are needed to raise awareness of the commonly-used tricks in such frauds among the public. BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers are deliberating a draft law to protect the fertile black soil in the country's northeastern provinces, amid efforts to ensure food security and protect the ecosystem. The draft law was submitted for its second reading on Monday to a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature. The black soil, or chernozem soil, found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, produces about one-quarter of the country's total grain output, meaning it is key to China's food supply. But years of excessive reclamation have eroded its nutrients and the chernozem layer is thinning, which threatens the country's ecological security and sustainable agricultural development. To safeguard grain security, the draft law requires the black soil to be applied to growing "farm produce including grain, oil crops, sugar crops and vegetables." Strict protection must be provided for the black soil that has been designated as part of the country's "permanent basic farmland" to ensure stable grain yields and quality, the draft law says. While calling for efforts to prevent damage to the black soil, the draft law also urges rural market entities of all ownership types to make frugal and reasonable use of the black soil and promote agricultural standardization to increase the soil's output. The country should encourage the participation of social capital and protect the rights and interests of those investing in the protection of the black soil, according to the draft law. Its first reading took place in December 2021. China has since been soliciting public opinions on the law. NANCHANG, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The foreign trade in east China's Jiangxi Province saw robust growth in the first quarter of this year, local customs said. Jiangxi's import and export volume rose by 29 percent year on year to nearly 139.4 billion yuan (about 21.9 billion U.S. dollars) from January to March, according to Nanchang Customs in the provincial capital. Of the total, exports stood at 104.4 billion yuan, up 32.6 percent compared with the same period last year, while imports increased by 19.4 percent to about 35 billion yuan. During the period, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States and the European Union remained Jiangxi's major trading partners, while its trade with the Belt and Road and RCEP countries saw fast growth. The foreign trade of Jiangxi's private enterprises witnessed a strong performance in Q1, with the total volume up 31.8 percent year on year to 101.3 billion yuan, accounting for 72.7 percent of the province's total. In terms of trade items, the export value of mechanical and electrical products accounted for nearly half of the province's total export value, while the import value of mechanical and electrical products and resource products increased by 19.8 and 20.8 percent respectively. WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Three mass shootings over the weekend have again underscored that the recurrent problem of gun violence in the United States is aggravating. Over 22,000 people have died or been injured due to gun-related incidents in the United States this year, according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive. The following is some of the bloodiest mass shootings in the United States over the past two years: -- Early Sunday morning, two minors died and eight more people were injured after shots were fired at a house party with as many as 200 people in attendance in Pittsburgh, a major city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. -- In the state of South Carolina, two separate mass shootings on Saturday afternoon and early Sunday have left at least 23 people injured in total. -- During April 8-11 this year, at least 18 people were shot, with at least five of them killed, in New Orleans, the largest city in the southern U.S. state Louisiana within 72 hours, tying the record for the last 10 years. -- On April 3 this year, the Sacramento Police Department confirmed that six adults were killed and 12 other people were injured in a mass shooting in the capital city of California. -- On Feb. 28 this year, five people, including three children, were killed after a man opened fire in a church near Arden Fair mall in Sacramento. -- On Sept. 5, 2021, four people, including an infant, were killed in Lakeland, southeastern U.S. state Florida, according to local media reports. -- On July 25, 2021, Five people, including a policeman and a suspect, were killed in a shooting incident in Wasco, a small city located in central California of the United States, local authorities said. -- On May 26, 2021, nine people were killed and at least another injured after a shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority yard north of downtown San Jose in the U.S. state of California, according to local authorities. -- On May 9, 2021, six adults were killed when a suspect opened fire at a birthday party in Colorado Springs, a city in U.S. state of Colorado, police said, adding the suspect took his own life on scene. -- On April 29, 2021, two deputies and three other people including a suspected gunman were shot dead after a lengthy standoff at a residence in southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina, authorities said. -- On April 15, 2021, eight people were killed and multiple people suffered gunshot wounds that required hospitalization after a shooting at a FedEx facility on the southwest side of Indianapolis, the capital of the U.S. Midwest state Indiana. -- On March 22, 2021, ten people, including one police officer, were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, police said. -- On March 16, 2021, eight people were killed and another one was injured in three shooting incidents in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. -- On Feb. 2, 2021, five children and an adult were killed in a shooting in Muskogee, Oklahoma, local police said. -- On June 6, 2020, a shooting at a child's birthday party in Northern California's Vallejo left two women dead and three people injured. -- On June 5, 2020, seven people were killed in the southern U.S. state of Alabama in an overnight shooting, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office confirmed in a series of tweets. -- On Feb. 26, 2020, seven people, including the shooter, were killed in a shooting on a company campus in Milwaukee in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, local media reported. Guangfu Neighborhood in central Shanghai welcomed home a lady who spent 11 days in a nearby makeshift hospital. Ms. Zhao was grateful for the help and care she got after she tested positive for COVID-19. A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a COVID-19 testing site on Times Square in New York, the United States, March 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) White House COVID-19 advisor Ashish Jha said that COVID-19 vaccines are still "holding up" against the virus, adding it remained to be seen if BA.2 would cause more severe disease than earlier variants and subvariants of the virus. LOS ANGELES, April 18 (Xinhua) -- COVID-19 cases are rising in more than half of all U.S. states due to the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, according to data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The United States is now averaging about 35,000 new infections daily, up 19 percent from the previous week and 42 percent from two weeks prior, CDC data show. Meanwhile, about 370 new deaths and 1,400 new hospitalizations were reported across the country every day, according to the latest CDC data. Experts said official case counts may go "underreported" because many at-home test results have not been reported to state or federal health agencies. Nearly 1 million people in the United States have died from COVID-19 so far. People who have heart conditions are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, and cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the country, according to the CDC. White House COVID-19 advisor Ashish Jha said on Sunday that COVID-19 vaccines are still "holding up" against the virus, adding it remained to be seen if BA.2 would cause more severe disease than earlier variants and subvariants of the virus. Early study suggested the BA.2 subvariant is thought to be about 30 percent more transmissible than the original BA.1 Omicron strain. A traveler walks into an entrance at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, April 14, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) Jha said Americans over 60 should get a second booster shot of a coronavirus vaccine, citing "pretty compelling" new data from Israel indicating that a fourth shot significantly reduced infections and deaths among older people there. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on March 29 authorized second booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for everyone 50 and older. As of Monday, about 218 million people, or 65.9 percent of the total U.S. population, have been fully vaccinated, CDC data show. COVID-19 boosters have been authorized in the United States for adults since November, but CDC data show fewer than 50 percent of eligible Americans have received their first booster. Experts said the coronavirus has changed over time. The vaccines may not prevent all infection, but they still protect against the worst consequences of the disease. Rolling back COVID-19 mitigation measures such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements too soon may lead to continued rise in COVID-19 cases and higher risk to the public, experts warned. A man walks near a residential building destroyed in Mariupol on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua) "The secretary-general strongly urges all parties to enact an urgent and immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which will enable the safe and secure functioning of humanitarian corridors, help evacuate civilian residents and also deliver life-saving humanitarian and medical assistance," said a UN spokesperson. UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday again called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine to allow for the delivery of life-saving aid as well as evacuations. The appeal followed attacks on cities across the country - most recently Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv - which reportedly resulted in numerous civilian casualties and destruction. Guterres was also greatly concerned about the continuing appalling humanitarian situation in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general, said at a regular press briefing. "The secretary-general strongly urges all parties to enact an urgent and immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which will enable the safe and secure functioning of humanitarian corridors, help evacuate civilian residents and also deliver life-saving humanitarian and medical assistance," said Dujarric. Adding that "genuine negotiations must be given a chance to succeed and to bring lasting peace," he said the UN stands ready to help. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at the launch of a report by Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine crisis, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E) Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the emergency relief coordinator, told journalists prior to the briefing that humanitarian ceasefires in Ukraine are "not on the horizon," but could occur in a couple of weeks. During his visits to Russia and Ukraine earlier this month, Griffiths met with senior officials to discuss UN "aspirations" for humanitarian pauses and on how to improve the notification system that allows safe passage of humanitarian workers and supplies. "Obviously we have not yet got humanitarian ceasefires in place on the Russian side," the UN relief chief said. "I went into a lot of details on this, and they continue to promise to get back to me on the details of those proposals." Griffiths will travel to Turkey this week to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on hosting humanitarian talks between Russia and Ukraine. On Sunday, Guterres spoke with Erdogan, expressing his ongoing support for the Istanbul process related to the war in Ukraine. Local residents are seen outside the damaged buildings in Mariupol, April 7, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua) Asked about Turkey's role, Griffiths said he was impressed by how the country has presented itself to both sides as a "genuinely valuable and useful host" for talks. "In classical mediation terms, there isn't a mediation really going between the Russians and Ukrainians," he said, "but the Turks come closest to it in terms of all member states." On the prospects for a ceasefire, Griffiths pointed to the example of Yemen, where warring sides have implemented a two-month truce. "Ceasefires, they're not on the horizon right now. But they may be in a couple of weeks; they may be a little longer than that," he said. "And it will all depend on two things: the war, of course...and the talks." Do Not Lose Your Soul NEWS PROVIDED BY CURE America Action, Inc. April 18, 2022 LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2022 /Standard Newswire/ -- Thousands of pro-life advocates will descend upon legislators in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 20, 2022, to oppose the single most heinous legislation ever proposed in the state of California. Assembly Bill 2223, authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), will make it lawful to murder a newborn child during the perinatal period with impunity. (Perinatal is defined as relating to the period shortly before and after birth, from the twentieth to twenty-ninth week of gestation to 1 to 4 weeks after birth.) This bill would legalize partial birth abortion and infanticide. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a convicted abortionist, used to joke about the large size of some the infants he aborted and in one case, according to what a co-worker told the grand jury, said, "This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop." Asm. Wicks intends to use AB 2223 to duplicate the works of Kermit Gosnell and make the practice of dehumanizing each other, in the most grotesque way, the norm not just for California but for the nation. Maryland is promoting Senate Bill 669 which mirrors the California proposed legislation. A press conference will be held at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of the Capitol to stand against any further progress of AB 2223 and to demand that the bill no longer be considered by the Assembly. Marc Little, executive director of CURE America Action, Inc., will join thousands of concerned Americans, including Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, Real Impact, California Family Council, and others to defeat AB 2223. Little, a lawyer, pastor and pro-life advocate said in his Townhall.com Op-ed titled Do Not Lose Your Soul, "Darkness either overcomes you or it compels you to shine your light to repel it. Americans face this choice as we are bombarded with social issues that require us to examine the core of the nation's soul." Little went on to say the quiet part out loud: "What is unspoken and most diabolical is that the proposed laws in these states will have a disproportionate impact on black babies," he said. "In the United States, 44% of abortions are performed on black babies. It stands to reason that the infanticide bills proposed in Maryland and California will disproportionately murder black babies after they are born," Little added. AB 2223 must be opposed. SOURCE CURE America Action, Inc. CONTACT: Jackie Jones, 662-259-0988, jackie@TruthPR.com People spend their time at the seaside in Larnaca, Cyprus, on April 6, 2022. (Photo by George Christophorou/Xinhua) As part of the relaxation of restrictions, the authorities have stopped announcing the number of daily COVID-19 infections and that of people being hospitalized. They said the data will be made public once a week. NICOSIA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus abolished most travel restrictions on Monday and a further relaxation of domestic COVID-19 measures will be decided later this week, the authorities said. The Ministry of Transport said that travelers from any country can enter Cyprus by presenting either a certificate of COVID-19 vaccination or recovery or a negative COVID-19 test. Travelers will no longer be required to take a COVID-19 test on entry and people under 12 years of age will be exempted from any COVID-19 test checks. Vaccinated people will have no expiry date for the booster dose, while initial vaccination regimens -- for example, the initial two doses or one dose for Johnson vaccine recipients -- will be valid for nine months from the date of their latest dose. A woman receives the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Nicosia, Cyprus, March 30, 2022. (Photo by George Christophorou/Xinhua) Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas said that the epidemiological situation in Cyprus is the best it has been for the last five months and this has allowed the lifting of the requirement to present a SafePass before entering shops and malls, with the exception of restaurants and other hospitality places. He said that on Tuesday he will confer with the team of scientists advising the government and will then make a suggestion to the government for further relaxation of domestic measures still in force. The cabinet will meet on Wednesday to approve any changes. However, he said that lifting the use of masks indoors will be one of the last measures to be announced. As part of the relaxation of restrictions, the authorities have stopped announcing the number of daily COVID-19 infections and that of people being hospitalized. They said the data will be made public once a week. A staff member checks a customer's SafePass at a coffee shop in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Feb. 15, 2022. (Photo by George Christophorou/Xinhua) According to the latest data, in the last 14 days since March 29, there have been 40,795 new infections in Cyprus, down from 59,800 in the previous 14 days. BUJUMBURA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Burundian First Lady Angeline Ndayishimiye on Thursday commended Chinese ophthalmologists who were carrying out cataract operations at the Umugiraneza Hospital of Kibimba in the district of Giheta, province of Gitega, central Burundi. During the campaign that began Wednesday, 47 vulnerable patients underwent cataract operations free of charge. "To reach economic development, citizens need to have good health and a good sight as well. We selected vulnerable people having the cataract disease in villages, and who are unable to pay for health care," said the first lady, also chairperson of the Good Action Umugiraneza Foundation that owns the Umugiraneza Hospital of Kibimba. During the visit, the Burundian first lady was accompanied by the Chinese Ambassador to Burundi Zhao Jiangping, Burundian Public Health and AIDS Control Minister Sylvie Nzeyimana and finalist girls for Miss Burundi Contest 2022. Ndayishimiye took her opportunity to thank China via the Chinese Embassy to Burundi for various support to Burundi in the health sector, notably in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other contributions of medical missions in Burundi. Ambassador Zhao praised the Burundian first lady for having initiated the project on the campaign for cataract surgical operations on vulnerable people. "I am very glad that patients having cataracts have recovered their sight. This was possible thanks to the support from the Burundian health ministry and the Chinese medical team," said Zhao. The campaign for cataract operations by the 20th Chinese medical mission was prepared for two months between the Burundian party represented by the chairperson of the Good Action Umugiraneza Foundation and the Chinese party represented by the Chinese Embassy to Burundi. The current Chinese medical team has been in Burundi for a year. Before it, China sent medical teams to Burundi in 2016 and in 2018 to carry out free cataract operations, said Zhao. "The current team of medical experts has ended their mission in Burundi and are going back to China by mid-April, and these (free cataract operations) are gifts offered to Burundian friends," she said. According to Zhao, this testifies to friendship, love and solidarity from Chinese people toward the brotherly people of Burundi. Burundi and China have sealed bilateral ties since 1963 and cooperation between both countries has focused on several sectors including health, energy, education and infrastructure. China started to send its medical experts to Burundi in 1987, said Zhao, adding that a new team of Chinese medical experts will come to Burundi in May 2022 to continue cataract operations. Blen Mehari, a female driver of Seregela Taxi Ride Service, stands in front of a car in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 29, 2022. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) ADDIS ABABA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. Meron Mengistie is one of the 150 women drivers at the Seregela Taxi Ride Service, which solely hires women drivers in its ambition to penetrate Ethiopia's ever-expanding ride-hailing service. "I have always dreamt of driving and this job has given me the best platform to do so," Mengistie told Xinhua recently. Figures from the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport show that about 10,000 drivers are presently engaged in ride-hailing services across Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Women, however, are insignificantly represented in the sector, contributing less than 3 percent of it. "I am so happy that Seregela introduced such an opportunity for women. I call on others to follow suit and hire more women drivers so that they can support their families," said Mengistie. The Seregela company, founded in March 2020, works solely with pre-orders and communications with customers from a call center to track the activities of each car and ensure the safety of its female cab drivers. "We are enjoying an increasing number of customers. Naturally, women are very caring. As a female taxi driver, I treat customers to the best of my ability amid safe driving," said Mengistie, who is a mother of two. Hailu Zergaw, fleet manager at Seregela Taxi Ride Service, said serving with only women drivers is helping to expand its business, in addition to promoting gender parity in Ethiopia's male-dominated transport sector. "We are unique in that we provide the ride-hailing service with women drivers and that helped us expand our customers' base," Zergaw told Xinhua. Ride-hailing service is relatively a new venture in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, with a growing number of companies vying to penetrate the untapped market, mainly in the capital of Addis Ababa and its surroundings. Zergaw insisted that the company, the first of its kind by dispatching women-operated taxi services, envisaged boosting the economic participation of women and creating much-needed job opportunities. "Women are little represented in Ethiopia's transportation industry. It is a vocation that has never existed (for women) and we are trying to create a pool of talent, right from sourcing, mobilizing and retaining. It is a challenge," said Zergaw. Noting women drivers are often praised for their safety and loyalty, Zergaw emphasized that the company aspires to leverage this distinctive quality so as to attain market sustainability. Sileshi Worku, a Seregela ride-hailing service user, singled out the maximum safety and security assurance as a distinguished quality in using women-operated taxi services. "The female drivers never drive beyond the speed limit," Worku told Xinhua, noting that he switched to using women-operated taxi services for close to one year. Wearing neat uniforms in brand colors, the female drivers cater to commuters with 150 cabs across Addis Ababa. "We want to boost women's income and ease their entry into the transportation industry, from which they have traditionally been excluded," Zergaw said. The initiative to exclusively hire women drivers was, however, a major challenge for the company, mainly due to women's nearly nonexistent representation in the sector, said Zergaw, claiming that getting women drivers onboard and adequately training them has been a difficult task for the company. In addition to offering driving lessons, the company also trains its women drivers on the entire mechanism and functioning of their cars. Blen Mehari, another driver recruited by the company, said the rare opportunity enabled her to be productive and help her family economically. "I used to spend my days sitting idle until I got a chance to work as a driver in the company six months ago. I am very grateful for having this chance to become a professional taxi driver," said Mehari, who provides taxi service for up to 10 commuters a day. Noting that women taxi drivers relatively encounter higher psychological and physical harassment than male drivers due to the lack of women's representation in the male-dominated sector, Mehari was confident that the women-operated ride-hailing service is changing the dominance by promoting the inclusion of women in the industry. A female phone operator works at the call center of Seregela Taxi Ride Service in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 29, 2022. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Photo taken on March 29, 2022 shows a car of Seregela Taxi Ride Service (L) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) A female driver of Seregela Taxi Ride Service drives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 29, 2022. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Meron Mengistie, a female driver of Seregela Taxi Ride Service, drives a car in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 29, 2022. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. TO GO WITH "Feature: Ride-hailing service with women drivers only gains popularity in Ethiopia" (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) Hailu Zergaw, fleet manager of Seregela Taxi Ride Service, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 29, 2022. As a growing number of ride-hailing companies vie to penetrate the untapped market in Ethiopia, one company with women drivers only is recently gaining popularity in the country's male-dominated sector and making a good profit. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's exports surged 25.4 percent year on year to a new high of 131.64 billion ringgit (30.99 billion U.S. dollars) in March, official data showed Monday. The export growth was contributed mainly by robust external demand for electrical and electronic (E&E) products and commodity-based products, namely palm oil and palm oil-based products, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as crude petroleum, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said in a statement. It also said the E&E products soared to a record high in March due to stronger exports of electronic integrated circuits underpinned by growing digitalization trends. Meanwhile, exports to major markets notably the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, the United States, the European Union (EU) and Japan recorded double-digit growth. According to MITI, Malaysia's trade in March expanded by 27.3 percent year on year to a record high of 236.57 billion ringgit. Its import also increased by 29.9 percent year on year to an all-time high of 104.93 billion ringgit, and trade surplus rose by 10.3 percent to 26.70 billion ringgit. For the first quarter, Malaysia's total trade grew by 23.6 percent year on year to 624.86 billion ringgit, compared to the first quarter of last year. Malaysia's exports for the period climbed 22.2 percent year on year to 344.97 billion ringgit and imports expanded by 25.2 percent to 279.89 billion ringgit. In March, Malaysia's trade with China, which made up 16.5 percent of Malaysia's total trade, increased by 15.2 percent year on year to 39.02 billion ringgit, the 16th consecutive month of double-digit expansion. Meanwhile, Malaysia's exports to China climbed by 10.7 percent to 17.79 billion ringgit supported by higher exports of E&E products as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products. Malaysia's imports from China, on the other hand, also expanded by 19.3 percent year on year to 21.23 billion ringgit. For the first three months, Malaysia's trade with China also edged up by 20.4 percent to 111.36 billion ringgit compared to the same period in 2021. Malaysia's exports to China for the period climbed by 19.2 percent to 50.07 billion ringgit on account of higher exports of E&E products and LNG. Malaysia's imports from China for the period also increased by 21.3 percent to 61.29 billion ringgit. (1 U.S. dollar equals 4.25 ringgit) by Bambang Purwanto JAKARTA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Helicopters, as a transportation mode, are offering a promising market in the aviation sector in Indonesia for business, leisure and emergency purposes, a legislator has said. "Flying taxis can be an alternative in the transportation sector, especially for emergencies," Chairman of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council, AA LaNyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, said in West Java city of Cirebon recently. According to him, helicopters, though with higher prices, make it faster to reach places that are difficult to access by land including remote areas in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua. Flying taxis can also be used as air ambulances to evacuate victims from disaster areas, distribute medicines and send medical teams to remote areas, he said. The head of Mimika district in Papua province, Eltinus Omaleng recently launched an air mobile health center service to meet the medical needs of local people, especially those who live in remote areas in the district. "Many people living in remote and coastal areas have difficulty getting health services. We can serve our families who are there with this service," Omaleng said when working on an air mobile health center program. This service run by the Mimika district administration is the first in Indonesia operated by the Papuan company PT Unitrade Persada Nusantara. It is used to support the work of medical personnel including doctors and nurses at a number of health community centers in remote areas. The company operates a Bell 412 helicopter with a capacity of almost 2 tons to support the health mission of the Mimika district administration. Such a helicopter service is also run by PT Whitesky Aviation, an aviation company specializing in charter flights in Indonesia. In cooperation with hotel company the Grand Mangku Putra Arcade, PT Whitesky Aviation opened an air taxi service and an air ambulance service operating the route from Cengkareng to Cilegon city in Banten province. CEO of Whitesky Aviation Denon Prawiraatmadja said the opening of this new route is expected to contribute to development of the tourism and business sector in Cilegon. The transportation company provides air taxi services with two types of helicopters, namely the Bell 505 single engine which can carry three passengers, and the Bell 429 double engine with a capacity of six passengers. The air transport service is charged around 7.5 million rupiahs (522 U.S. dollars) per flight of one helicopter with three passengers. By using a helicopter, the trip from Cilegon to capital Jakarta only takes 25 minutes, compared to two hours by land. COLOMBO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A court in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Monday extended a travel ban imposed on former central bank chief Ajith Nivard Cabraal. The Colombo chief magistrate issued an order to extend the travel ban on Cabraal to May 2, after a previous travel ban imposed on April 7 by the court expired on Monday. Cabraal is facing a legal challenge after a case was filed against him in court by a former Southern Province governor through a private plaint filed under the Code of Criminal Procedure Act. Cabraal was appointed as the central bank governor in September last year and resigned from his position early this month following the resignation en masse of cabinet ministers. He has been under criticism partly for his reluctance to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while lacking foreign currencies has led to fuel shortages and hours-long power cuts in the country. JAKARTA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has told its people not to travel abroad during Muslims' Eid al-Fitr holidays, which will run from April 29 to May 8, in a bid to avoid a possible spike in COVID-19 infections. "Many other countries have seen increases in coronavirus infections. The pandemic is not over yet. So, we urge people in Indonesia not to travel outside the country during the long holidays," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto told a press conference on Monday. Previously, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said all people should remain cautious against any potential of a surge in COVID-19 infections caused by the homecoming tradition of Eid al-Fitr holidays. "We have to be careful and should not let this long holidays trigger another new wave of COVID-19 cases," Widodo said. The warning to avoid spending holidays outside the country comes despite the government's decision to waive a number of restrictions for international travels. According to the latest circular issued by the Indonesian COVID-19 Task Force, the government has opened more entry points for international arrivals through airports and seaports. ULAN BATOR, April 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 3,300 heads of livestock were killed in Mongolia in the first quarter (Q1) due to animal diseases, marking an increase of 49.2 percent compared to the same period last year, the country's National Statistics Office said Monday. Earlier on Monday, Mongolia launched a month-long nationwide immunization campaign against the deadly foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Since 2021, the prevalence of highly contagious diseases in animals has been high in the country. Particularly, outbreaks of the FMD among cloven-hoofed animals have been registered in 20 of the country's 21 provinces, according to the Mongolian State Emergency Commission. The landlocked country strives to develop its livestock sector by increasing meat exports in a bid to diversify its mining-dependent economy. However, frequent outbreaks of livestock animal diseases such as FMD, lumpy skin disease and mad cow disease impede its endeavor. The country's meat exports have been suspended since June last year due to infectious animal diseases, said the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. PHNOM PENH, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported 61,839 tons of dry rubber in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, a slight increase of 1 percent compared to the same period last year, said a General Directorate of Rubber report on Monday. The country made 98.5 million U.S. dollars in revenue from exports of the commodity during the January-March period this year, down 1.3 percent from 99.8 million dollars over the same period last year, the report said. "A ton of dry rubber averagely cost 1,594 U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2022, about 42 dollars lower than that of the same period last year," Him Oun, director general of the General Directorate of Rubber, said in the report. The southeast Asian nation exports the commodity mainly to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and China. According to the report, so far, Cambodia has planted rubber trees on a total area of 404,044 hectares, of which the trees on 310,193 hectares, or 77 percent, are old enough to be tapped. ANKARA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday that it won't allow foreign minesweeper ships to enter the Black Sea to defuse the drifting mines after they allegedly broke off from anchor cables near Ukrainian ports. Turkey made the decision in accordance with the clauses in the Montreux Convention, the country's daily Milliyet quoted the minister as saying. Turkey attaches importance to fully implementing the convention because it is significant not only for Ankara but also for all the Black Sea countries, Akar said, adding Turkey prefers the balance around the Black Sea not to be "disturbed." In the past few weeks, Turkey has detected at least three mines in the waters of Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea. Ukraine's navy had deployed mines near the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny since the start of the Russian "special military operation," Russia's Federal Security Service said in March. As storms broke mine anchor cables, the mines were floating in the western part of the Black Sea, it said, adding that nearly 420 mines had broken off the anchors and might drift toward Bosporus and the Mediterranean Sea by winds and currents. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side has dismissed the allegation, saying it was disinformation. On Feb. 28, Turkey said that it will implement the Montreux Convention in the Black Sea in a way to prevent further escalation in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Ankara warned warships of both Black Sea and non-Black Sea countries not to pass through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits in line with the Convention. By Azernews Azerbaijan and Georgia have discussed the further increase in the volume of freight traffic on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which is one of the main components of cooperation between the two countries. The discussion took place during the meeting of Azerbaijan's Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev and Georgia's Economy and Sustainable Development, Vice Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili. During the meeting, the parties discussed the prospects for cooperation in transport and ICT, following the recent discussions held in Tbilisi. The parties also stressed the importance of developing transit potential between the countries. Moreover, as part of the visit to Azerbaijan, Levan Davitashvili held a meeting with Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov. They emphasized that the energy and transport projects implemented at the initiative and with the active participation of Azerbaijan are an important contribution to regional cooperation. Noting that the bilateral relations between the two countries are steadily developing, Jabbarov stated that Azerbaijan is interested in expanding cooperation with Georgia. He noted that Georgia actively participates in transnational projects initiated by Azerbaijan. The minister briefed on the development of trade and economic cooperation, partnership in attracting direct investment and other issues, noting the potential for ties expansion. In turn, Levan Davitashvili stressed that Azerbaijan is a reliable partner, adding that the projects implemented with the participation of both countries serve peace and stability in the region. The parties exchanged views on the development of trade and economic relations between the two countries, the expansion of transit and logistics opportunities, the alignment of excise taxes on goods produced in Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as the implementation of joint projects. Azerbaijan and Georgia are collaborating in a variety of economic fields. Azerbaijan and Georgia signed a number of cooperation agreements in 2021 as part of a meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. Simultaneously, as part of the trilateral business forum held in Baku in December 2021, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey signed five memorandums and agreements on cooperation. In 2021, the two countries' trade turnover totaled $763.6 million, with exports accounting for $661 million and imports accounting for $102.6 million. NICOSIA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus abolished most travel restrictions on Monday and a further relaxation of domestic COVID-19 measures will be decided later this week, the authorities said. The Ministry of Transport said that travelers from any country can enter Cyprus by presenting either a certificate of COVID-19 vaccination or recovery or a negative COVID-19 test. Travelers will no longer be required to take a COVID-19 test on entry and people under 12 years of age will be exempted from any COVID-19 test checks. Vaccinated people will have no expiry date for the booster dose, while initial vaccination regimens -- for example, the initial two doses or one dose for Johnson vaccine recipients -- will be valid for nine months from the date of their latest dose. Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas said that the epidemiological situation in Cyprus is the best it has been for the last five months and this has allowed the lifting of the requirement to present a SafePass before entering shops and malls, with the exception of restaurants and other hospitality places. He said that on Tuesday he will confer with the team of scientists advising the government and will then make a suggestion to the government for further relaxation of domestic measures still in force. The cabinet will meet on Wednesday to approve any changes. However, he said that lifting the use of masks indoors will be one of the last measures to be announced. As part of the relaxation of restrictions, the authorities have stopped announcing the number of daily COVID-19 infections and that of people being hospitalized. They said the data will be made public once a week. According to the latest data, in the last 14 days since March 29, there have been 40,795 new infections in Cyprus, down from 59,800 in the previous 14 days. KIEV, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Monday sent to the European Commission (EC) the first part of a questionnaire aimed at achieving candidate status for European Union (EU) membership, the Ukrinform news agency reported. The 1,156-page document contains the answers to 374 questions regarding Ukraine's compliance with the criteria for EU membership in the political and economic spheres, it reported, citing the country's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna. Stefanishyna said the Ukrainian government's team has worked on the first part of the EU questionnaire for seven days. The other part of the questionnaire, which covers questions on the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU laws, will be sent to the EC soon, Stefanishyna added. On Feb. 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an official appeal to the EU, asking for Ukraine's accession via a new special procedure. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EC, handed over a questionnaire to Zelensky during her visit to Kiev on April 8, and promised a speedier process for Ukraine to join the EU. MOSCOW, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia is expelling a number of Bulgarian diplomats in response to the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats from Sofia last month, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry summoned the Bulgarian ambassador on Monday and declared some employees of the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow "personae non gratae," it said, without disclosing how many are targeted. Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of two Bulgarian diplomats in tit-for-tat retaliation. On March 18, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declared 10 Russian diplomats "personae non gratae" and ordered them to leave within 72 hours due to their "activities incompatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." The United States and some European countries have taken coordinated actions to expel several hundred Russian diplomats since the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict continued as Ukraine's western city of Lviv reported missile strikes on Monday morning. The following are the latest developments: Five missiles struck Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Monday morning, City Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Facebook, adding that the emergency services rushed to the site of the blasts. - - - - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will not give up territories to end the conflict with Russia, Ukrinform news agency reported on Sunday. His country has no guarantee that Russia wouldn't try to seize Kiev again if it is able to capture Donbas, said the report. - - - - Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, recently intercepted large-scale attacks on Russian bank cards and the attempts were initiated by a Ukrainian developer of mobile applications, Stanislav Kuznetsov, deputy chairman of the bank's executive board, told the RIA Novosti news agency on Sunday. Kuznetsov said the company, whose name was not released, tried to write off funds from those who own Sberbank's cards. "Almost immediately after the start of the special operation, we stopped the massive debiting of funds from the cards of our clients. Moreover, the number of debit attempts reached ten thousand per minute," Kuznetsov said. - - - - Economic advisor to the Ukrainian President Oleh Ustenko called on the Group of Seven (G7) countries to provide 50 billion U.S. dollars to help Ukraine close its budget gap, according to a press release from Ukraine's Presidential Office. "If the G7 provided 50 billion dollars in new financing, that would resolve the deficit issue for at least another six months," Ustenko was quoted as saying in an interview with U.S. magazine The New Yorker. The advisor estimated the country's budget deficit at about 8 billion dollars a month due to the conflict with Russia. MOSCOW, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian troops destroyed a depot of weapons supplied by Western countries near west Ukraine's Lviv on Monday morning, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. The Russian Aerospace Forces used high-precision airborne missiles to hit a logistics center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Lviv, destroying large consignments of weapons arrived from the United States and European countries over the past six days, Konashenkov told a briefing. At least seven people were killed and 11 others wounded on Monday morning in missile strikes on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military-civilian administration. Pakistan Army has carried out major airstrikes in the Khost and Kunar areas of eastern Afghanistan. Yes, and according to the recent information received, at least 47 people from Afghanistan have been killed in this attack. On the other hand, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, director of the Department of Information and Culture in Khost, said, "47 civilians were killed in the Pakistan airstrike, including women and children, near the Durand Line in Khost. 22 people were also injured in the attack.'' On the matter, AFP said Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, "There has been a significant increase in incidents along the Pak-Afghan border in the past few days, with Pakistani security forces being targeted from across the border." Unfortunately, however, terrorists of banned terrorist groups in the border area, including the TTP, continue to attack Pakistan's border security posts, resulting in the killing of several Pakistani soldiers. On the other hand, Pakistan has called on Taliban officials to take action against terrorists on Afghan soil. Yes and this statement comes a day after the Pakistani army claimed to have killed six Afghans in alleged rocket attacks. They include five children and a woman living in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar. In protest against the attacks, Taliban officials had summoned Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul. In its defence, Pakistan said that "these attacks were carried out by targeting terrorists". The Taliban rejected the claims, saying they had controlled cross-border attacks since they captured Afghanistan in August last year. The UNITED NATIONS Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said, "UNAMA is deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties, including women and children, as a result of airstrikes in Khost and Kunar provinces. ' 14 month old baby blown everyone's senses... in just 3 minutes, made a big record by identifying the flags of 26 countries" US City: Two dead, 8 injured at party shooting in Pittsburgh Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev BEIJING: Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has stated that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will push the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) forward with renewed vigour and vitality, ensuring multifaceted development of the Belt and Road Initiative's flagship project, according to reports. The newly-elected premier met the acting Chinese envoy on his first day in office to reaffirm the importance of Pakistan's relationship with China and demonstrate conviction to move CPEC forward, according to the senator. Mushahid reportedly said that China and Shehbaz had a long-standing relationship since when the BRI was formed with CPEC as its centrepiece, it was led by then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and then-Chief Minister Shehbaz. He stated that under the new government, Pakistan-China relations will be accelerated across the board. "China is the top priority in terms of foreign policy, as the prime minister stated when he listed the countries, and his formulation has been enthusiastically received in China, so we have no doubt," he added. The senator said, China is the only country with widespread popular support, and Pakistan's entire political leadership regards it as the country's most important ally. "As a result, China's friendship is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy, and I envision this partnership developing and reaching new heights," he added. Construction of makeshift hospital completed in NE China city China's Ansteel sees operating revenue up 39.4 pct in Q1 World Insights: NATO's expansion to worsen Ukraine crisis, decay European security BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) is contributing further 50 million euros (about USD54.03 million) in humanitarian relief to individuals affected by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, a statement from the EU stated. "Humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain extremely high as fierce fighting and missile attacks continue to destroy essential civilian infrastructure," the EU said in a statement on Sunday. Reportedly, 45 million euros (USD48.63 million) will go toward humanitarian initiatives in Ukraine, while 5 million euros (USD5.4 million) will go toward programmes in Moldova, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the conflict began. According to the statement, the new funding will address the most pressing humanitarian needs by providing emergency medical services, access to safe drinking water and hygiene, shelter and protection, cash assistance, and support against gender-based violence, bringing the EU's total humanitarian aid funding in response to the conflict to 143 million euros (about USD154.53 million). US City: Two dead, 8 injured at party shooting in Pittsburgh Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev UN assistance convoy arrives in Ethiopia's conflict-torn area ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has addressed a letter to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, encouraging the two countries to preserve meaningful bilateral ties. reports said. On Sunday, Sharif issued a letter in response to Indian PM Modi's congratulatory message, in which Modi stated that India backed constructive ties with Pakistan. The Pakistani Prime Minister responded to the Indian PMs letter by requesting a resolution of the two countries' outstanding issues, especially Kashmir, while emphasising Pakistan's desire for peaceful and amicable relations with India. India, on the other hand, has underlined its desire for good diplomatic ties with Pakistan in exchange for Islamabad's creation of a terror-free atmosphere and a lack of antagonism to any kind of interaction. "H.E. Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, congratulations on your election as Pakistan's Prime Minister. India seeks peace and stability in a terror-free region so that it may concentrate on its development issues and assure the welfare and prosperity of its citizens "On April 11, Prime Minister Modi sent out a tweet on April 11 Relations between India and Pakistan have worsened further since India announced in August 2019 that it would repeal Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and divide the state into two union territories. Imran Khan retained 58 gifts he got as Pakistan PM: Report 'Pakistan is our best friend, will always keep it in priority...', China has publicly declared 'Pakistani cricketers came to India as spies with their wives...', the former PCB chief himself revealed the secret Sudan has condemned Israel's raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which left over 100 Palestinians injured. Sudan's Foreign Ministry, citing Xinhua news called on the international community to play a role in holding Israel completely responsible for the consequences of such crimes and transgressions against the defenceless Palestinian people, their land, and sacred places. The ministry also asked that the Israeli government stop the infractions as well as its ongoing endeavour to Judaize Jerusalem by implementing a "force majeure" policy. Sudan reiterated its support for the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the creation of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem witnessed fights between Israeli forces and the Palestinians on Good Friday when the Jews started to celebrate their Passover holiday that coincided with the second Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan. Scott Morrison pledges no cuts to universal healthcare if re-elected US City: Two dead, 8 injured at party shooting in Pittsburgh Russian armed forces destroy ammunition plant in Ukraine's Kiev By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli Azerbaijan's State Tourism Agency Chairman Fuad Naghiyev discussed prospects for enhancing cooperation in tourism with Japan and Kazakhstan. During the meeting Japanese ambassador to Azerbaijan Junichi Wada, Naghiyev noted the importance of developing tourism ties and intensifying tourism recovery in the post-COVID-19 era. He also informed the ambassador about the efforts to make Azerbaijan's liberated territories a new tourist destination. Emphasizing Japanese tourists' high interest in Azerbaijan, Junichi Wada, noted the significance of establishing direct flights and mutual study tours between the countries. Moreover, the ambassador invited Azerbaijan to participate in the JATA WTF-2022 exhibition in Japan. According to the official, this will allow Japanese tourists to get acquainted with the tourism potential of Azerbaijan. During the same event, Naghiyev and Kazakh ambassador to Azerbaijan, Serzhan Abdikarimovalso, focused on prospects of Azerbaijani-Kazakh tourism cooperation. Further, the parties discussed the organization of mutual info tours, as well as marketing partnerships with 11 Kazakh international airports. Abdikarimov stressed the importance of establishing joint tourist routes along the cultural heritage of the historical Silk Road. The ambassador added that these routes would help popularize the culture and tourism opportunities of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the agency's projects in Kazakhstan, as well as on attracting Kazakh citizens to Azerbaijani tourist centers and resorts. Currently, Azerbaijan and Japan are cooperating in different fields of economy. Japanese companies in Azerbaijan work in the fields of oil and gas as well as agriculture. Last year the trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $200 million and the growth of this sector is forecasted to increase up to four times in the near future. In addition, Japan has invested $7.1 billion in Azerbaijan, during the entire period of cooperation between the two countries. It should be also noted that 2022 will be the year of friendship between Azerbaijan and Japan. Additionally, earlier this year, Azerbaijans Energy Ministry and Japans TEPSCO company signed an agreement on the establishment of the green energy zone in the newly-liberated territories. The agreement envisages the effective use of renewable energy potential such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and bioenergy in the liberated territories. It considers the establishment of a green energy zone based on modern energy management approaches in order to realize the energy supply of the region. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $228.1 million in the first 10 months of 2021. Meanwhile, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan totaled $39 million in January-May 2021. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $142 million in 2020. Tunisia's president is attempting to restrict hydrocarbon leaks into the sea following a fuel tanker sink. Tunisia's President, Kais Saied, has asked the navy to control the environmental impact of a sunken fuel ship in order to avoid potential disasters, according to a Defense Ministry statement. "All available measures will be harnessed, in collaboration and consultation with authorities and regional committees, to tackle disasters in order to prevent the leaking of hydrocarbons into the sea," according to a statement released by the ministry on Sunday. As per reports, a number of countries have expressed their wish to help contain the damage. On Friday evening, a merchant ship carrying about 750 tonnes of petroleum capsized off the coast of Gabes in southeastern Tunisia, with all seven crew members saved. The crew of an Equatorial Guinea-flagged vessel travelling from Egypt to Malta requested entrance to Tunisian seas due to inclement weather seven miles (11 kilometres) off the Gabes coast, stating that water had leaked into the engine room to a depth of two metres. Tunisia Foreign Minister summons Turkish Ambassador after Erdogan's 'regret' comments Sudan strongly condemns Israel's attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque Scott Morrison pledges no cuts to universal healthcare if re-elected Whats in the latest US military bundle for Ukraine? 18 April, 18:45 Weapons supplies to Ukraine (Photo:Spc. Micah Clare) Washington has announced it is sending a further $800 million in military aid to Ukraine. But what does the new Pentagon package include? During a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. President Joe Biden previously said that the Ukrainian military was using U.S. weapons "to devastating effect." In light of this, the United States and Ukraine have agreed on another batch of weapons that will help protect the country from Russian aggression. It emerged that the new $800 million aid package will include "highly effective weapons systems," among them artillery systems, artillery rounds, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, as well as weapons to repel the "wider assault that Russia is preparing to launch in eastern Ukraine." The Pentagon has also noted that some of the new weapons the United States is sending to Ukraine will require training for the Ukrainian military. In particular, training will be required for the use of howitzer systems and anti-artillery radar stations, which were not previously available to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the U.S. military is working on a train-the-trainer program that will be organized "very quickly." The New Voice of Ukraine has compiled information about the new weapons supplied by the United States to Ukraine. From helmets to helicopters According to The Warzone publication, the new $800 million military aid package for Ukraine includes: 18 155-mm towed howitzers with 40,000 artillery rounds; 10 AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radars; two AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel air surveillance radars; 300 Switchblade kamikaze drones; 500 Javelin missiles and "thousands of other anti-armor systems"; 200 M113 armored personnel carriers; 100 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvee); 11 Russian-built Mi-17 Hip helicopters; unmanned coastal defense vessels; chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear (CBRN) protective equipment; 30,000 sets of bulletproof vests and helmets; over 2,000 optical and laser rangefinders; C-4 plastic explosives and demolition equipment for mine clearing; M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mines. NV has previously described some of the weapons, including the modern kamikaze drones Switchblade and ATGM Javelin, that have already been used effectively by the Ukrainian military since the beginning of the war. Now let's take a closer look at other weapons that the United States is now providing to Ukraine. Mi-17 Hip helicopters : ukrmilitary.com Allegedly, the Russian Mi-17 helicopters remained in the United States after the military campaign in Afghanistan, and they belonged to the now-disbanded Afghan Air Force. These helicopters were developed in the Soviet Union in 1975 based on the Mi-8M, and they are used as medium twin-turbine transport helicopters. But there are also their armed gunship versions. The Mi-17 is in service with almost 80 countries, including Ukraine, Poland, China, the United States, Russia, the Czech Republic, India, Turkey, Hungary, North Korea and more. Combat versions of the helicopters can be equipped with weapons on six hard points, including S-8 missiles, UPK-23-250 gun pods, Ataka anti-tank guided missiles, along with other high-precision munitions next to those and two window machine guns. The main crew of the helicopter comprises three people (two pilots and one engineer), and its capacity is 24 servicemen, or 4,000 kg of cargo, or 5,000 kg of cargo on the external suspension. The maximum takeoff weight of the Mi-17 is about 13.5 tons, while the empty helicopter weighs 7.5 tons. Mi-17 flight range is up to 800 km at a cruise speed of 280 km/h. The service ceiling of the helicopter is 6,000 meters, and the rate of climb is 8 m/s. Humvee SUVs : ukrmilitary.com This combat SUV has been used by the U.S. Army since 1984. The vehicle boasts a high clearance; it is suitable for air transport and parachuting. Four-wheel drive Humvees are equipped with petrol and diesel V8 engines from 5.7 to 6.5 liters with an output of up to 160 hp. The maximum speed of the armored car is 113 km/h, and the load capacity is up to two tons, with a curb weight of 2,676 kg. Some versions of the Humvee were equipped with TOW anti-tank systems and even AIM-120 anti-aircraft guided missiles. There are also reinforced armored versions of the car weighing about 4.5 tons, double-cab pickups, and a four-door version with a hard-top body. M113 armored personnel carriers : thedrive.com The U.S. M113 armored personnel carrier has been in operation since 1960 and is still in service with many countries around the world, including Ukraine. The M113 is the basis for armored personnel carriers with machine guns and grenade launchers, infantry fighting vehicles with automatic guns, command and staff vehicles with radios, as well as self-propelled mortars, howitzers, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft self-propelled units, anti-aircraft missile systems, flamethrowers, and bridge layers. The tracked M113 can reach speeds of up to 64 km/h and have a maximum range of 320 km. The crew of the armored personnel carrier consists of two people, but up to 11 paratroopers can be carried on board. There are also amphibious versions of the M113, and the maximum thickness of its aluminum armor is 44 mm. Despite the fact that the armored personnel carrier is still used in many countries, it is gradually being superseded by more modern vehicles. 155-mm towed howitzers : US Army Operating enhanced U.S. howitzers, which have been used since World War II, will require training for the Ukrainian military. A crew of 11 people is needed to operate each howitzer. The rate of fire of shell casings of separate loading is 4-8 shots per minute. The muzzle velocity of the projectile is 563 m/s, and the maximum firing range is 14.6 km. These howitzers have also been experimentally mounted on a lengthened chassis of the M5 light tank. The variant was adopted as the M41 Howitzer Motor Carriage and took part in fighting in the Korean War. Subsequently, the weapon was replaced by the M44 self-propelled howitzer. AN/TPQ-36 and AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar systems : raytheonmissilesanddefense.com Modern U.S. radars also require the training for the Ukrainian military, according to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby. However, data for 2019 suggests Ukraine had 13 AN/TPQ-36 mobile anti-battery radar units in service. In addition to searching for enemy mortars, artillery, MLRS and missile launchers, the system can also support its own artillery for more accurate aiming and adjustment of fire. The maximum range for the detection of missiles is up to 24 km, and artillery up to 18 km. The systems can track up to 99 targets. The AN/TPQ-36 is most often towed by the above-mentioned Humvee SUVs. The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel 3D radar, in turn, is used to alert short-range air defenses, and these radars are in service with forward area U.S. air defense units. The system has been in use since the early 2000s, and its radars can automatically detect, track and identify cruise missiles, drones, helicopters, and aircraft. The effective radar scanning range is up to 40 km, and the radar is also resistant to electronic warfare. The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is located far from the main part of the unit, operates autonomously, and communicates with the fire control center via broadband fiber-optic communication line. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News The election fever has engulfed Nepal. Almost all political leaders and parties are busy drafting their manifestoes for upcoming local elections and going door to door with the same old promises of building roads, bridges and improving infrastructure. But, so far, not one political party has seriously discussed climate change in its manifesto or put it on its agenda. The effects of climate change have been visible over the past few years. Floods, landslides and droughts have affected people from all walks of life. Despite this, politicians have not shown any serious interest to combat changing climate as they have not seriously discussed it ahead of the elections. Does climate change matter? Farmers say their yield is nominal if they do not use pesticides, due to climate change impact. Photo: Aryan Dhimal A report prepared by the Ministry of Forests and Environment states a lot of incidents are taking place in Nepal due to the changing climate. Researchers came up to the conclusion that incidents like landslides, floods, hailstorms, cold waves, unnatural rain and forest fire increased drastically from 1971 to 2019. It was also clear that all these incidents took place because of climate change. In October 2021, 120 people died and 28 are still missing due to incessant and untimely rainfall. Likewise, 44 people were injured as crops worth Rs 12 billion were also destroyed. All this took place four days after the Department of Hydrology and Metrology announced that the monsoon was over. During the monsoon (June-October 2021), 661 incidents of floods and landslides were reported. In these incidents, 142 people died, 42 are still missing and 153 people were injured. Hence, Raju Pandit Chhetri, a climate change expert, says that it was about time climate change became a political issue as well. He says political parties should include this issue in their election manifesto. These need to be an agenda in forthcoming local elections because the most affected by the changing climate live in remote areas, says Chhetri. Does the local level matter? A Nepal Army helicopter comes to rescue locals from a flood in Melamchi of Sindhupalchok on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Photo: Bikash Shrestha And, he is right. The first responders to any disaster cause are at the local level. It is the local representatives that go to these areas to rescue and provide aid. Take the floods in Melamchi and Manang, for example. The flood displaced hundreds of people from their homes. The local officials were the first to reach the scene and help people affected by it. These representatives are still working to help these people. They are also quite active in helping people who faced issues due to hailstorms, rain and drought. The local units can do a lot. They can offer services like crop insurance, relief and help build irrigation canals. These things can be listed in the manifesto and help people in rural areas, says Chhetri. He believes that if things like these are included in the manifestoes, the local units will be more vigilant and take changing climate impacts seriously. We need to assess how the changing climate affects people. We build unsafe roads that lead to landslides and we relate that to climate change. This cant keep happening and this will only stop when we start assessing disasters carefully, says Chhetri. A joint secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Sindhu Dhungana, also says that the first assessment needs to be done at the local level. Politicians dont seem to care about climate change. They speak about it, but dont act, says Dhungana. I personally feel that they should start including risks and prevention in the manifestoes. Do political parties care? Droughts in Mugu caused a lot of problems for the locals. In most countries, political parties use their manifestoes to tell people why they should vote for them. Once they come into power, they use their influence to fulfil the promises made in the manifestoes. In recent times, some political parties have started to include climate change in their documents. CPN-UML in its recently held general convention released a report which stated the risk and prevention of issues related to the changing climate. The CPN-Maoist Centres general convection also discussed climate change and carbon immission to some extent. We want to make this a political issue and have stepped up our effort to do so, says Pradeep Gyawali, a deputy general secretary of the CPN-UML. He says when his party was in power, it had prioritised the issue of changing climate. We have mentioned it on our political report and manifesto too, he says, claiming the Sagarmatha Sambaad initiated by the KP Sharma Oli-led government is a prime example of this. The Oli government had planned to call major leaders and climate scientists from all across the world to hold a summit about the changing climate. But due to Covid, the summit did not happen. Gyawali says his party will include climate change in its election manifesto at the local level. He says that the manifesto will include the preventive measures, the use of electric vehicles and utilising the international climate fund for climate adaptations. Govinda Pokharel, a central member of the Nepali Congress, says that the reason the issue has not become a political issue is that all political parties have never adopted a holistic approach. Politicians havent cared enough about the effects of climate change, says Pokharel. They arent aware of it and when that happens, one chooses to ignore its existence completely. He says people who are aware of this have not been able to explain it to major political leaders. But, Pokharel says he is aware that climate change has risen the cost of development too. The bridges we build need to be stronger and when we build roads, we need to make embankments too, adds Pokharel. Like Gyawali, Pokhrel also says the Nepali Congress will include climate change in its manifesto. The Maoist Centres Shakti Basnet, who has served as an environment minister once, says his party will work on ensuring moving the society forward in its manifesto. We will work on issues like drinking water, irrigation ad others, says Basnet. Almost all political parties agree that they lack awareness when it comes to climate change. And, because they are unaware, they do not pay much attention to it. This issue has been limited only to environmentalists. We all need to be aware of it, says Gyawali. The government has prepared a local adaptation plan of action (LAPA) to tackle the effects of climate change. But, local representatives and politicians not being on the same page has meant the plan of action has not been effective. From COP to COP Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba addresses the World Leaders Summit during the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, United Kingdom, on Monday, November 1, 2021. Photo: RSS So why has not climate change been a political issue? Experts say everyone is at fault. From bureaucrats to citizens to activists to NGOs, everyone is to blame, they say. These people take part in climate change conferences, but they have not been holding proper discourses about the issue in the country. Every year, before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of Parties (COP), people who are meant to attend it assemble and discuss it. But, after they come back from the conference, the issue is not talked about. Even the Environment Ministry does not pay much attention to issues related to climate change despite attending these conferences every year. Dhungana from the ministry, however, says the issue is being discussed among different ministries. But, another official at the ministry says the issue is given emphasis when COP comes around the corner as they get to visit new countries every year for free. The officials who go there do speak about climate change and what the world needs to do to help countries like Nepal. They come back and rarely talk about the things they learned there. For them, these trips are nothing but a free holiday. Experts say this needs to change if Nepal is to be serious about tackling climate change. This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length. If you are in Kathmandu, every corner you turn, every sight you look upon and your horizons include at least one temple. If these sites are idols of gods and goddesses, valuable heritage artefacts and inscriptions there carry social, religious, historical and sentimental values. But, the city is being robbed of the deities one after the another recently. And, this has sent people into a frenzy to look out for idols. Locals and activists are also reaching museums, in and outside the country, to look for such heritage artefacts and find those that were lost somewhere between in the last decade to 100 years ago. While efforts to recover the stolen heritage artefacts have yielded some results, activists still wonder how many other artefacts are yet to be returned to their original place. But, is demanding they be returned enough to preserve heritage sites and monuments here? The question, they say, is more pertinent when the city has not been able to effectively manage and preserve the recovered heritage artefacts in the participation of the locals as it was in the past. A second home Nepali artefacts displayed in a temporary museum at National Museum, Chhauni. Photo: Nasana Bajracharya Collectively over 6,000 idols and heritage artefacts, including those recovered after years to decades, have found their second home in the valleys museums. The Patan Museum has more than 2,000 stone idols, big and small, in its care whereas the National Museum (Chhauni) has over 4,000 such artefacts. The Bhaktapur Museum is taking care of some 45 idols and artefacts collected only from the Durbar Square areas of the valley. Many of them were collected whereas others were handed over by the police as well as the individuals for safekeeping. The acting executive director of Patan Museum, Suresh Man Lakhe, says more than half the heritage artefacts his museum has today were collected during the early 1990s although it started in 1959. That was the time when more idols were being stolen and sold abroad whereas people were building more houses and roads were being dug for transportation and water supply systems. On the other hand, the National Museum mostly has idols from the 1970s to 1990s, the decades that report many theft and disappearance cases. Due to socio-political unrest and a lack of information about religion or social importance as well as history, many idols were stolen and misplaced. Maybe it was also for the oblivious state among people; they didnt think the idols would be stolen the way they got stolen, says the museum chief Jayaram Shrestha. Yet, activist Yadav Lal Kayastha has grave concerns about how the recovered heritage artefacts are kept. It is wrong that our heritage, our hopes and faith are being locked in dark storerooms, stacked together. They are not in locals access, but locals not just want to see them but worship too. It is even more wrong for the idols to go from museum to museum, he adds. Are gods to be kept in museums? asks Kayastha, demanding that museums return the idols and restore the religious as well as sentimental attachment among people. At the very least, he demands the public have access to see their gods, pray, perform nitya puja (daily worships) and continue to feel hope in life. Homecoming The stolen idol of Padmapani Lokeshwar after being restored at Bhagwan Bahal, Naxal. Photo: Nasana Bajracharya Yet, museums defend that the heritage artefacts in storerooms are safe and all idols are accounted for. Nonetheless, they confess the space is definitely cramped as they do not have space or budget for better management. They also say they are ready to help the locals retrieve the deities like in the cases of Uma Maheshwar and Laxmi Narayan idols of Lalitpur and Padmapani Lokeshwar idol of Naxal. Under Ancient Monument Preservation Act (1956) and its 2015 amendment, there is a provision that if the heritage artefacts received under the Department of Archaeology are to be returned or reinstated, they need to be handed over to the owners or guthiyars (locals) given they have substantial proof along with the recommendation letter from their respective chief district officers or local government chiefs. Lakhe says, Once the proof, textual or graphical, is submitted, we go for field supervision and verify the claim to move with the handover. Along with that, we need assurance that the idols will be reinstated with religious sentiment as before and they will be taken care of and will not suffer any damage or loss thereafter. Museums also follow up when deemed necessary. Museums assure that they will facilitate anyone who is in need as per the Act and 1970 UNESCO convention as well as their moral obligation. They say they are in full favour of emptying their stores if it means that the heritage artefacts can be returned to their rightful places. But, they stress it has to follow due process. Meanwhile, Kayastha, who was influential in the process to bring Padmapani Lokeshwar home, says, Because I am known to have aggressively campaigned for this issue, I got some help from their side. But, anyone who reaches their doors has to be tangled in their complicated procedures. A lack of clarity Metal artefacts at display in Patan Museum. Photo: Nasana Bajracharya Further, museums say they have substantial reasons to preserve the cultural heritage artefacts as they have been doing and they are following protocols. Most of the heritage artefacts in our collection have a lot of unidentified information. After our basic research, we know their iconography but not about their origins, their temples or even their importance. Metal objects are more difficult to get information about given they were recovered from residential areas, says Lakhe, adding returning them to the locals without proof will mean they will suffer the same fate again. Shrestha agrees that a lack of proper information has made the handover process complicated. But now, we are doing it properly with photos and digital documentation, so that it has been easier. Out of the total, Shrestha says the National Museum has photographs and basic information about around 2,000 idols. Lain Singh Bangdels Stolen images of Nepal has been a major source for them. To get more information from the locals, museums say they are holding exhibitions of recovered heritage artefacts from time to time. They hold a permanent exhibition (for foreigners and tourists) and other temporary exhibitions (more targeted at locals). There may be theme-based exhibitions too. Shrestha shares, We select the idols, set a narrative and choose the heritage artefacts that have aesthetic value as well cultural importance. We use them in rotation so that they are all exhibited. But, Lakhe complains the Patan Museums last temporary exhibition, held from November 2021 to January 2022, had about 15 stone idols and saw no locals. Shrestha also adds that the National Museum has also seen a similar fate with little to no participation with no claims from locals. Minimal local initiation A temporary exhibition at National Museum, Chhauni. Photo: Nasana Bajracharya Lakhe and Shrestha complain locals less interest in the restoration of recovered heritage artefacts is credited to the poor museum-going culture. Young people would rather go to high-end restaurants than museums. Those who go do not know why they are going to the museum, what the museum believes in, its themes or even its speciality. We have arranged guided tours here too yet rarely do people opt for that. Lakhe says if there is an idol missing, locals should come, initiate talks and ask for the museums cooperation to find and return it. If they do not, they can surely complain about it. But, locals need to be proactive, they need to search for the information they need. But, Kayastha counters the museums giving such excuses are a reflection of how little effort they have put in. They are only dumping their responsibilities to the crowd who have their own worries of surviving and making a living. Unlike locals, they are paid to do the job of heritage conservation. Asking the public to take the first step is utterly wrong and irresponsible. Kayastha stresses that only when they open the gates for people will they know about their heritage artefacts. If you have to pay a fee every time you want to see your idol, people will hesitate. Devotees (not tourists) should have free access to see and worship their gods that are inside. To increase public knowledge, Shrestha says the National Museum has introduced a virtual reality tour of the museum to entice the public. Also, it plans to make public the inventory of cultural heritage artefacts it protects with basic details transparent, for people to browse through, he assures. He is hopeful for the future as people today are more aware of their identity and ancestral property. Next steps Shrestha says the National Museum has not been able to perform as intended as far as the restoration of recovered cultural heritage artefacts is concerned. Museums are not being proactive also because of the lack of museum-operating rules and guidelines that promote coordination among all three tiers of the government. But, museums have been working in coordination to collect information, increase exhibition visibility, and conduct training along with inter or intra-museum events. Shrestha envisions reaching out to community-based museums next. Lakhe also says the Patan Museum will also hold more focus group discussions and interaction programmes to involve more people. Acknowledging the gap, Shrestha says the National Museum is now designing a yearly programme and also preparing for school-level courses to reach door to door. The course is being designed in cooperation with the Lumbini Buddhist University. It will underline the roles of the local units, locals and the government to protect and preserve heritage. If Covid had not happened, we could have made progress as intended. Kayastha is also hopeful to find a way to reach the locals even through informal education programmes to educate the young generation. " " Lorenzo Quinn's "Building Bridges" was a highlight of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 in Venice, Italy. Six 49-foot-high (15-meter) pairs of hands formed an arched bridge over a Venetian waterway, representing the universal values of wisdom, hope, help, faith, friendship and love. David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images/Halcyon Art International Since 1895, the city of Venice, Italy, has hosted a 7-month-long public art exhibition every two years. Called the Venice Biennale (that's pronounced "Bee-a-nah-lay"), this artistic extravaganza is more than a mere exhibition of world-class art. "The Biennale establishes trends for art and can elevate and change people's careers or perspectives on contemporary art movements around the world," according to Miranda Kyle, the arts and culture program manager for the Atlanta BeltLine. Advertisement That kind of influence is nothing to sniff at. And it's backed up by 127 years of history with very few interruptions. World Wars I and II caused the cancellation of the Venice Biennale in 1916, 1918, 1944 and 1946. In 2021, the exhibition was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only other disruption to the Biennale occurred in 1974 when Biennale-related events took place but, in solidarity with the nation of Chile, a full-fledged exhibition wasn't held. (Italian communists on the Biennale committee sympathized with those in Chile after a coup put dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet in power). The first Biennale opened April 30, 1895, to toast the silver wedding anniversary of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita di Savoia of Italy. The city of Venice wanted to establish a biennial (which means every two years), and highlighting art made sense, as the city was famed for its exhibitions. The first show included 516 works of art 188 by Italians and the rest by artists from 14 other countries. The exhibition was a great success. By the time it ended, more than 224,000 people had come through. That's a lot of folks, and it demonstrated that a Venetian exhibition of art from all over the world could be a tourist draw and destination. Among the Biennale's unique features is its scope, and there are several parts that make up the whole: the International Art Exhibit located at the Giardini park, anchored by the Central Pavilion (site of the original Biennale); the Arsenale (a former shipbuilding complex added to the Biennale in 1980); the national pavilions , which show the work of artists of a specific country (countries began building their own pavilions as early as 1907 there are now 29); and the collateral exhibitions independent works, often created by groups, entities or institutions which are typically displayed at the Giardini or Arsenale. Who Curates the Biennale? The Biennale is curated by a single artistic director who selects the show's theme. The 2022 exhibition, the 59th, runs from April 23 until Nov. 27, and is curated by Cecilia Alemani, the director and chief curator of New York City's High Line Art. Alemani is the first Italian woman to serve as curator of the Biennale. That's "kind of a bonus," says Kyle. " " The 59th Venice Biennale, "The Milk Of Dreams," is curated by Cecilia Alemani and hosted by the president of the Venice Biennale, Roberto Cicutto. Stefano Mazzola/Getty Images "The real key here is that Cecilia is brilliant," she adds. "She has an exceptional vision of contemporary art, particularly amazing art that maybe the rest of the art world hasn't caught onto yet. Many times, it's the next spectacular thing. She's trilingual and immersed in contemporary art movements around the world. Making her the curator was also brilliant because she's an expert in public art. She can specifically create transitional spaces in how people can navigate and experience the city." Alemani chose the title of a children's book, "The Milk of Dreams," ("Il Latte dei Sogni" in Italian) by surrealist painter Leonora Carrington as the exhibition's theme. The book's stories, paintings and ideas of transformation inspired her, according to The New York Times. She then organized the Biennale exhibition around three themes of transformation (inspired by the artists) the representation of how bodies can transform; the relationship between individuals and technology; and the connection between bodies and Earth. This year, the majority of the artists are female or non-gender conforming. Over half the artists have never been to the Biennale before, and five countries will be participating in the national pavilions for the first time: Cameroon, Namibia, Nepal, Oman and Uganda. "I'll say something controversial: I don't think someone who had not been a mother would've chosen [a theme] like that," Kyle says. "I think Cecilia is definitely nodding to her own experience as a mother, and the idea of mother-ness is universal across the creative sphere. Even if it's not a biological child, this gestating and bringing forward an idea definitely feels like a transformational labor." " " The 59th Venice Biennale will be open to the public from April 23 to Nov. 27, 2022. Stefano Mazzola/Getty Images Kyle feels the past few years have demonstrated to the world how essential it is to thrive, to nurture and be nurtured. "Whether that is your ideas, other people or yourself, I feel her insight into those themes is a response to what the last few years have taught us," she adds. In the past, more than half a million visitors passed through the Biennale during the seven-month exhibition. Kyle thinks the Biennale committee made the right choice selecting Alemani as the first post-pandemic Biennale curator. "It goes back to Cecilia's area of expertise, public art," she says. "I think we'll see a Biennale unlike what we have seen before specifically because she is going to have a keen sense of our shared commonality once she gets ahold of that city." And will the people come? "We just saw record-breaking crowds in Los Angeles for the Frieze Fair," says Kyle. "I imagine it's going to be a madhouse. I think everybody's going to go." Now That's Artsy Anyone who wants to (and can get to Venice) can attend the Biennale. Tickets are relatively affordable at 25 euros (about $27) and just 10 euros (around $10.81) for students. But that's just for the art exhibition. There are also tickets available for the architecture exhibition, and for film, dance, music and theater festivals. The exhibition also offers a Biennale Card with various levels and benefits. Description Restorative yoga is an opportunity to release physical & mental stress in the comfort of supported yoga postures. A variety of props such as blankets, blocks, bolsters and straps are used as support to invite the body into a deep state of relaxation and renewal to be supported as it opens itself to a deep level of stretching, relaxation, and renewal. This class is appropriate for all levels and can be very beneficial for those looking to bring their bodies, minds and lives back into balance. Pregnant people are welcome. For more than a year, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has quietly piloted its own take on an accelerator for early-stage entrepreneurs; today, its partners announced the programs official debut. In exchange for an unannounced percentage of ownership, a16z START offers early-stage founders up to $1 million in venture capital. The checks are powered by a16zs seed fund, a $400 million investment vehicle that closed in August 2021. Specific investment terms, such as ownership stake or how the firm decides what specific fraction of $1 million to invest, is not yet disclosed publicly and will be discussed with final candidates. On the relatively brief application form for START, a16z names six categories -- American dynamism, consumer, enterprise, fintech, games and "other" -- within which its looking for founders. The areas largely line up with a16z's carved-out funds, though surprisingly don't include a mention of crypto, despite a16z raising a $2.2 billion vehicle for the sector last year. If founding a technology company is a dream of yourseven if you dont yet have a fully formed idea and havent yet quit your day jobwe want to hear from you, the firm writes in its landing page for the program. The remote-first program, which accepts founders on a rolling basis, wants to connect folks with partners for advice, potential customers or investors and, of course, other entrepreneurs, because networks are powerful. Notably, there is no mention of a diversity mandate or focus on the landing page. The firm also does not specify how long the program runs or who is mentoring the startups. Further, while the company is offering up to twice the $500,000 that famed accelerator Y Combinator now promises some of its startups, it has not divulged publicly whether part of its investment will come -- as with YC -- in the form of an uncapped SAFE, meaning that the company's valuation will be determined in the next subsequent round. Story continues TechCrunch reached out to Bryan Kim and Anne Lee Skates, the two partners running a16z's START program, for more information, but we've yet to hear back. A16z's newly announced program is its formal foray into the earliest stage of entrepreneurship. While it has long seed-funded companies, it has not worked with founders at the formation stage. The thinking inside the firm may be that rather than backing the startups that graduate Y Combinator, why not get there before the accelerator ever does? It continues the trend of investors going earlier and earlier when it comes to investing, thanks to the potential upside and a grossly competitive seed market. In a16z's case, I doubt we'll see the institution ditch the late stage like some Tiger-like investors have, but it's remarkable to see it finally catch up and commit to more pre-seed investing. Last month, Sequoia similarly debuted an accelerator with an emphasis on backing early-stage "outlier" founders from across Europe and the United States. Cohorts of about 15 startups will go through eight-week sessions and, similar to a16z, Sequoia plans to invest $1 million in accepted founders and doesn't disclose ownership targets. The big question, or perhaps stress test, for the firm is if a16z can convince high-quality founders to take its capital and ownership targets despite tons of hungry capital being thrown around, from equity-crowdfunding to rolling funds. These days, there's even discussion that "equity" as a way to upfront attract interesting founders to your community is outdated. I wonder how investors feel about that. A16z has a notorious reputation, given past successes and well-known partners, but is that enough for founders to trust them with first-check fundraising? And rather, will the first checks be truly unlocking a new cadre of founders who otherwise wouldn't have received funding from a Y Combinator or party round, or is it just taking a bite of the same, homogenous, cohort? CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America reported its first-quarter 2022 financial results today. The news release, supplemental filing and investor presentation can be accessed at Bank of America's Investor Relations website at https://investor.bankofamerica.com/quarterly-earnings. Investor Conference Call information: Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan and Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick will discuss the financial results in a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET today. For a listen-only connection to the conference call, dial 1.877.200.4456 (U.S.) or 1.785.424.1732 (international), and the conference ID is 79795. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. Investors can also listen to a live audio of the conference call and view the presentation slides by visiting the Events and Presentations section of the company's Investor Relations website. Replay information for Investor Conference Call: Investors can access replays of the conference call by visiting the Investor Relations website or by calling 1.800.934.4850 (U.S.) or 1.402.220.1178 (international) from noon on April 18 through 11:59 p.m. ET on April 28. Bank of America Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,100 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 42 million active users, including approximately 34 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Story continues For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom. Click here to register for news email alerts. www.bankofamerica.com Investors May Contact: Lee McEntire, Bank of America Phone: 1.980.388.6780 lee.mcentire@bofa.com Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income) Phone: 1.212.449.3112 jonathan.blum@bofa.com Reporters May Contact: Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America Phone: 1.980.386.6794 christopher.feeney@bofa.com SOURCE Bank of America Corporation - Fast casual concept celebrates grand opening with free chicken salad for a year to first 100 guests on April 26 - ATLANTA, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick , the nation's only fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today the opening of its newest restaurant in Columbia, Missouri. This marks the brand's third restaurant in the state with plans to open an additional location in Springfield later this year. Located at 300 Brickton Road and featuring a drive-thru and patio seating, Chicken Salad Chick Columbia is owned and operated by Missouri native and local resident Jennifer Winters, alongside her husband Michael Winters of The Family Brands Inc. The community is invited to celebrate the grand opening on April 26, which includes a free chicken salad for a year giveaway to the first 100 guests. Chicken Salad Chick logo (PRNewsFoto/Chicken Salad Chick) (PRNewsfoto/Chicken Salad Chick) During grand opening week, guests will experience the Southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, with giveaways and specials that include: Tuesday, April 26 Free Chicken Salad for a Year The first 100 guests will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for an entire year, with one of those lucky guests randomly selected to win one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week.* Guests can arrive starting at 7am for grand opening day only. Wednesday, April 27 The first 100 guests to purchase a Chick Special will receive a free Chick Special for their next visit.** Thursday, April 28 The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick cutting board.** Friday, April 29 The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free Chick tumbler.** Saturday, April 30 The first 50 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a free large Chick cooler.** Ambitious multi-unit operators, this is the Winters' third Chicken Salad Chick location in Missouri, joining their St. Louis-area restaurants in Chesterfield and Creve Coeur. The Winters were first introduced to the brand back in 2017 after a Chick restaurant opened near their children's preschool in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Quickly becoming regulars, the family fell in love with CSC's diverse flavors, brand values and simple concept. Today, the duo continues to build their franchise empire and now brings the great flavor of Chicken Salad Chick to their local Columbia community. Story continues "From the very first bite, I knew Chicken Salad Chick would be something special to me and my family. Whether it was a quick after-school snack or catering platters for our events, we always found ourselves back at the Chick," said Jennifer Winters. "The brand's core values of spreading joy, enriching lives and serving others are very much a part of who we are and what we strive to do. We look forward to not only introducing our friends and neighbors in Columbia to CSC's made-from-scratch menu but continuing to grow with this incredible brand as we plan for additional locations in the St. Louis and Jefferson City regions." Chicken Salad Chick in Columbia will be open Monday Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.chickensaladchick.com/ . Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends. *Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age and are required to download and create an account on the Craving Credits app. Once the restaurant opens, guests will receive a unique code to enter into their Craving Credits app to receive their reward. All first 100 guests must make a purchase of The Chick meal or greater value. **Must download the CSC App and be 16 years or older to purchase. Not valid with any other offers. Limit 1 reward per guest present. For more information on giveaways and specials, visit https://www.facebook.com/ChickenSaladChickColumbiaMO/. About Chicken Salad Chick Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Founded in Auburn, Alabama by Stacy and Kevin Brown in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick has grown to more than 200 restaurants in 17 states. Today, under the leadership of Scott Deviney and the Chicken Salad Chick team, the brand is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick has received numerous accolades including rankings in the 2022 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, Franchise Times' Fast & Serious for the second consecutive year, Fast Casual.com's top Movers and Shakers from 2018 to 2022, QSR's Best Franchise Deals in 2019 and 2020, and Franchise Business Review's Top Food Franchises in 2020. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information. Contact: Ashley Bennett Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 abennett@fish-consulting.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/columbia-resident-expands-missouri-business-with-new-chicken-salad-chick-restaurant-opening-301527101.html SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick Late goals from Steven Davis and Gavin Whyte gave Northern Ireland a 3-1 win over Luxembourg, but Ian Baracloughs side did not have it all their own way in this friendly. Substitutes Davis and Whyte scored in the 83rd and 85th minutes to snatch victory, but for much of the second half Luxembourg had looked the more likely winners after Marvin Martins 58th-minute header had cancelled out Josh Magennis early strike. Baraclough, ditching his usual suit for slacks and a jumper, cut a more relaxed figure in the technical area in his first match since signing a new two-year contract last year and the first since that memorable goalless draw with Italy at Windsor Park. But despite a promising start and three goals, the manager will not have enjoyed everything he saw from his side at the Stade de Luxembourg. Though they deservedly took the lead after dominating the opening exchanges, Luxembourg gradually took control of the game and looked the more likely winners after drawing level. Luke Southwood, on as a half-time substitute to make his Northern Ireland debut, had to make a series of saves before Davis and Whyte delivered the win. Davis had started the night on the bench, with Jonny Evans, back in the side after his sooner-than-expected recovery from a hamstring injury, taking the captains armband instead. Shayne Lavery making his first international appearance since September following injury was quick to cause havoc as he twice came close to setting up Magennis in the first two minutes, then fired narrowly wide himself. Corry Evans and Jordan Thompson both forced saves from Anthony Moris before the breakthrough came when Magennis muscled Maxime Chanot off the ball near the corner flag and raced at goal to finish from a tight angle. But having taken the lead, Northern Ireland let their control of the game slip. Missing the steadying influence of Davis in midfield, they allowed Luxembourg more of the ball and more chances, even if they could not get any of them on target in the first half as Daniel Sinani, on loan at Huddersfield from Norwich, and Gerson Rodrigues both spurned a series of chances Story continues Jonny Evans, who had played 25 minutes for Leicester at the weekend in his first appearance since December, said on Thursday he would start the match and assess his condition at half-time, but the 34-year-old emerged after the break. There was one change at half-time though as Southwood replaced Conor Hazard and quickly got his first touch as a mis-timed pass across goal from Tom Flanagan almost fell perfectly for Sinani. Southwood was needed again in the 53rd minute when Rodrigues laid the ball off for Mica Pinto, but there was no venom in his shot. Northern Ireland had not got going and the equaliser came in the 58th minute. Craig Cathcart had done well to beat Leandro Barreiro to a dangerous cross, but from the resulting corner Martins was on hand to head in at the back post. Sinani and Rodrigues then both tested Southwood with Luxembourg well on top, prompting a quadruple substitution from Baraclough as Evans, Magennis, Lavery and Thompson made way for Davis, Ciaron Brown, Dion Charles and Gavin Whyte. The changes helped Northern Ireland stem the Luxembourg tide, but the hosts still looked the more likely winners until it all changed in a frantic finish. First Davis poked home his 13th international goal only David Healy and Kyle Lafferty have more for Northern Ireland after Charles saw his shot blocked, then Whyte latched on to a long clearance from Southwood and ran at Moris, sliding a low shot under the Luxembourg goalkeeper to find the bottom corner. National power development plan VIII targets drastic CO2 emissions reduction The latest draft National Power Development Plan for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2045 (PDP VIII) has made drastic reductions of CO2 emissions with no new coal-fired power plants to be built in the planning period, and with the switch from coal and natural gas to biomass, ammonia, and hydrogen, according to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade ang Hoang An. Wind power project in Bac Lieu Province. VNA/VNS Photo In his report at a virtual conference with localities on Saturday on the PDP VIII, the Deputy Minister said that compared with previous drafts, this one also makes remarkable changes to the structure of energy sources and the designation of power development space, which helps reduce social investment capital and save US$13 billion for development of power transmission lines. The total capacity of power generation sources is expected to reach 146,000 MW by 2030, down about 35,000 MW compared to the version submitted on March 26, 2021. The peak capacity in 2030 is estimated at about 93,000 MW. Being the first national sector planning to be implemented in accordance with provisions of the Law on Planning in 2017, the PDP VIII has continued to be revised, supplemented, and updated many times since the first draft was submitted to the Prime Minister in March 2021. In particular, the PM has instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to revise the draft based on Vietnam's commitment to emission reductions at the COP26 and requirements for the development of green and circular economy. Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has held nearly 30 meetings and working sessions with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, relevant ministries, sectors, agencies; experts and scientists on the plan. Addressing the conference, Deputy PM Thanh said the latest draft PDP VIII had addressed shortcomings of the PDP VII. He underlined that the draft had outlined a roadmap to cut coal-fired electricity to just 9.6 per cent of total capacity by 2045, while the share of wind and solar power is raised to 50.7 per cent, ensuring Vietnam's commitments to energy transformation. The Deputy PM requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to urgently study opinions to finalise the draft PDP VIII for approval by the State Appraisal Council before submitting it to the Prime Minister for adoption in April 2022. By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova The Culture Minister Anar Karimov has visited cultural institutions across the country. The visit took place as part of a plan to improve the Culture Ministry's activities and management, and increase the efficiency of cultural institutions in the regions. Cultural institutions in Guba First, Anar Karimov visited the monument to national leader Heydar Aliyev in Guba. Together with the head of the Guba Executive Power Ziyaddin Aliyev, the minister visited the Heydar Aliyev Center that presents outstanding heritage and state activities of the great national leader Heydar Aliyev. Next, Bashir Safaroglu Culture Center hosted a presentation of the book " Guba . Center of multiculturalism" timed to the Year of Shusha in Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev signed an order declaring the city of Shusha as Azerbaijan's cultural capital in order to restore Shusha's historical appearance, bring its former glory to the city as well reunite it with the traditionally rich cultural life. An exhibition of folk arts and crafts "Skillful Hands" and a short film based on the "Treasury of Secrets" was also presented as part of the event. Music Furthermore, Anar Karimov visited the 19th century monuments including Ardabil Mosque, Juma Mosque, etc. The memory of the victims of the genocide was honored at the Guba Genocide Memorial Complex. The Culture Minister got acquainted with the activities of the Guba Centralized Library System and the Guba Museum of Local History. During a visit to city schools of music and art, Anar Karimov stressed the importance of quality education and the identification of new talents, support for the younger generation. As part of the Year of Shusha in Azerbaijan, a concert program was presented with the participation of pupils of the Children's Music School, soloists and groups of the Bashir Safaroglu Cultural Center, the Guba Volunteer Theater and folklore ensembles. Khachmaz Museum of History and Ethnography Furthermore, the Culture Minister arrived in Khachmaz. He got acquainted with the Khachmaz Museum of History and Ethnography and the Khachmaz State Art Gallery. The Minister was informed that the building of the Museum of History and Ethnography, which has been operating in the new building since 2013. Khachmaz History-Ethnography Museum started to operate on September 27, 1981. The building of the museum is distinguished and recognized by its architecture not only in the northern zone, but also throughout the country. The location of the museum building within the "People's Park" has created a beautiful and interesting unifying complex called "museum in the museum." Khachmaz History-Ethnography Museum has two branches: "Carpet Museum" and "Battle Honour Museum". The State Art Gallery, which opened in 2007, decided to move to a new building in 2014. With a total area of ??1,050 square meters, the gallery's exhibition hall features more than 100 works of fine art. The Culture Minister visited the Khachmaz Central Library that stores over 560,000 books. During his visit to children's music and art schools in Khachmaz, he was informed that in 2021, 435 students will study at the renovated music school. Some 104 teachers are involved in their training. The Children's Art School has music, choreography and painting departments. The Minister gave instructions on the establishment of education in both schools at the level of modern requirements. Arriving at the Khachmaz Cultural Center, Anar Karimov got acquainted with the conditions created here. It was noted that the three-storey center with a total area of ??1014 m2 consists of 15 rooms and a hall for 350 people. The Culture Minister also viewed a religious monument and a railway station in Khachmaz. Anar Karimov noted that the building, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was registered as an architectural monument of local importance. Emergex Vaccines Holding Ltd PRESS RELEASE Emergex Provides an Update on First-in-Human Studies of Its Novel Dengue Fever and Coronavirus T cell Adaptive Vaccines Both studies fully recruited, with data from the Dengue Fever study anticipated in the summer Preclinical data for Emergexs Coronavirus vaccine candidate suggests that it could provide heterologous immunity to viruses from the same family Abingdon, Oxon, UK, 18 April 2022 Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited (Emergex, or the Company), a clinical stage biotechnology company addressing major global infectious diseases through the development of fully synthetic CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccines, today provided an update on its first-in-human clinical trials of its Dengue and Coronavirus T cell Adaptive Vaccine candidates. As part of the clinical development of its novel T cell Adaptive Vaccines, Emergex has introduced an innovative clinical trial design where two vaccine candidates based on the same platform technologies, one against Dengue fever and one against Coronavirus disease, are assessed in two stages of a Phase I clinical trial at a single site in Switzerland (Unisante, Lausanne) with 52 participants. The two stages of the trial are designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the vaccine candidates in a double-blind, randomised, dose-ranging, and comparator-controlled setting. An independent Data Safety Monitoring Board has been monitoring the clinical trial. naNO-Dengue study: The Company has successfully completed the Phase I clinical trial for its novel CD8+ T cell Dengue vaccine candidate. The Last Participant Last Visit per clinical trial protocol for the trial (NCT04935801) was performed on 11 March 2022. In the trial, two dose levels of the Emergex CD8+ T cell Dengue vaccine candidate were evaluated in 26 healthy adults aged 18 to 45 years. Follow up with trial participants has taken place over a six-month period following first injection and the final clinical trial report is nearing completion. The results are expected to be announced in the summer. Story continues naNO-COVID study: The Phase I clinical trial (NCT05113862) for the Companys novel CD8+ T cell Coronavirus vaccine candidate is ongoing with first participant dosed on 10 January 2022. All 26 healthy adults aged 18 to 45 years in the naNO-COVID trial have received vaccinations (lower-dose or higher-dose) of the Emergex CD8+ T cell vaccine against Coronavirus disease and are now in the follow-up period per the clinical trial protocol. The Lausanne-based trial coincided with the January-March Omicron wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Switzerland. During this time, the seven-day average of new cases peaked at 30-40,000 new cases per day, representing a significant increase over prior time periods. The trial remains blinded (comparator controlled) and participants are being monitored for virologically confirmed symptomatic disease. Preclinical data for the Companys novel CD8+ T cell Coronavirus vaccine candidate in HLA transgenic mice has confirmed that after vaccination with the Companys T cell Coronavirus vaccine candidate and subsequent SARS-CoV-1 intranasal challenge, no lung inflammation was detected which suggests that the vaccine candidate demonstrates heterologous protection for both viruses from the same family. Future Studies: Phase I/II and II/III Clinical trials for both vaccine candidates are planned, in the near-term, for South-East Asia, USA, South America and Middle East. Dr. Athanasios Papadopoulos, Chief Medical Officer, commented: Over the past year, Emergex has made substantial progress in advancing its clinical programmes with a platform that is designed to boost T cell immunity against any infectious agent. The 52 participants enrolled in the naNO-Dengue and naNO-COVID Phase I trials represent a significant milestone for the Company, and I remain optimistic for when the data from these studies is unblinded. Both of these vaccines are a direct result of Emergex work to advance its CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccine platform to address a diversity of viral and bacterial disease threats. As it becomes available, I look forward to reporting the data from these ongoing clinical studies as well as our future clinical programme plans. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Emergex Consilium Strategic Communications Storme Moore-Thornicroft, Executive Director Phone: +44 (0) 1235 527589 Email: smt@emergexvaccines.com Robin Cohen, Chief Commercial Officer Phone: +44 (0) 1235 527589 Email: rc@emergexvaccines.com Chris Gardner / Ashley Tapp / Giulia Lasagni Phone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700 Email: Emergex@consilium-comms.com About Emergex Emergex, a clinical-stage, privately-held biotechnology company headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with an operating subsidiary in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, is pioneering the development of 100% synthetic T cell Adaptive Vaccines that harness the bodys natural T cell immune response to destroy pathogen-infected cells for protection against some of the worlds most pressing health threats: [i] viral infectious diseases, amongst which are Dengue, Coronaviruses, and pandemic Influenza, as well as [ii] serious intracellular bacterial infectious diseases. Emergex has a growing proprietary pipeline of innovative CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccine and booster vaccine candidates that have the potential to deliver rapid, broad (mutation-agnostic) and long-lasting immunity to reduce serious illness associated with infectious disease. Emergex has a number of Phase I clinical trials underway, of which the most advanced programmes in development are [i] Dengue (which may also be disease-modifying for other members of the Flaviviridae virus family, such as Zika and Yellow Fever) and [ii] Coronaviruses. Other programmes in development include vaccine candidates for universal (pandemic) Influenza, Chikungunya, and a booster vaccine for Yellow Fever. Emergexs T cell Adaptive Vaccines candidates combine two proprietary technologies , [i] an empirically determined library of pathogen-derived protein fragments expressed on the surface of pathogen-infected cells (forming the MHC Class I expression ligandome library), and [ii] a passivated gold nanoparticle carrier system designed to deliver the synthetic peptides to the skin-resident immune system (in combination with nociception) via micro-needles in order to elicit a robust, adaptive CD8+ T cell response. With potential stability at ambient temperatures, the vaccine candidates as intended reduce the burden and logistics of vaccine administration. Find out more online at www.emergexvaccines.com. Visit our LinkedIn page or Twitter account for live updates. ERES Limited Partnership TORONTO, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: ERE.UN, ERES) is pleased to announce that the trustees of ERES have declared the April 2022 monthly cash distribution of 0.01 per Unit and Class B LP Unit (the April Distribution), being equivalent to 0.12 per Unit annualized. The distribution will be payable to holders of the Units and Class B LP Units (the Unitholders) of record on April 29, 2022, with payment on May 16, 2022. The Euro-denominated distribution will be paid in Canadian dollars based on the exchange rate on the date of payment (estimated C$0.01367 per Unit and Class B LP Unit). Registered Unitholders will be provided with an option to elect to receive such distribution in Euros rather than Canadian dollars. If no such election is made, registered Unitholders will be paid the distribution in Canadian dollars based on the above exchange rate mechanism. Beneficial Unitholders will not have an option to elect to receive the distribution in Euros. The final cash distribution in respect of March 2022 was C$0.01367 per Unit and Class B LP Unit. To encourage participation and reward our loyal Unitholders, investors registered in our Distribution Reinvestment Plan will continue to receive an additional amount equal to 5% of their distributions paid in the form of additional Units. ERES intends to continue to make regular monthly distributions, subject to the discretion of the ERES Board of Trustees. ERES continues to target an AFFO payout ratio in the range of 80% to 90%. ERES Limited Partnership will make corresponding cash distributions to holders of Class B LP Units. About ERES ERES is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. ERESs Units are listed on the TSX under the symbol ERE.UN. ERES is Canadas only European-focused, multi-residential REIT, with a current initial focus on investing in high-quality, multi-residential real estate properties in the Netherlands. ERES owns a portfolio of 153 multi-residential properties, comprised of 6,791 suites and ancillary retail space located in the Netherlands, and owns one office property in Germany and one office property in Belgium. Story continues ERESs registered and principal business office is located at 11 Church Street, Suite 401, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1W1. For more information, please visit our website at www.eresreit.com. For further information ERES ERES Mr. Phillip Burns Mr. Stephen Co Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer 416.354.0167 416.306.3009 p.burns@eresreit.com s.co@eresreit.com Gareth Bale has welcomed Wayne Hennessey into Wales 100-cap club by describing the goalkeeper as a rock in this team. Hennessey will make his 100th appearance against the Czech Republic on Tuesday, becoming the third Welshman to reach the milestone after Bale and record caps holder Chris Gunter. The 35-year-old Burnley goalkeeper has kept 40 clean sheets a Welsh record. Wayne Hennessey will become the third Welshman to win 100 caps against the Czech Republic on Tuesday (David Davies/PA) Bale said: What an achievement to get to 100 caps. The one thing with Wayne is he probably goes without much recognition. But I guess as a keeper if people are not talking about you normally thats a great thing because you havent made mistakes. I also think people forget hes got the all-time clean sheet record as well. What a goalkeeper. I think hes so underestimated, so underrated. Its going to be a great night on Tuesday. Hopefully all the fans come out to support him and show their appreciation because he has really been a rock in this team. Hes been a massive part of our success from the start till now and I cant wait to celebrate his 100th cap with him. Hennessey made his debut against New Zealand in May 2007 and broke Neville Southalls record of 34 clean sheets in 2020. Anglesey-born Hennessey, who has played for Wolves and Crystal Palace as well as Burnley, helped Wales reach the semi-final of Euro 2016 in France. Weve been great friends since our early days and its grown and grown to a kind of a bromance, Bale said. Gareth Bale, right, says his relationship with Wayne Hennessey, left, has turned into a bromance (Darren Staples/PA) Were inseparable when we come away to camp. Its been a pleasure to play with him and be a friend of his. Hes literally one of the nicest people youll ever meet. So humble, so down to earth, Im just proud of him as a friend as well. The Cardiff friendly with the Czech Republic has been arranged following the postponement of the World Cup play-off semi-final between Scotland and Ukraine. Wales who beat Austria 2-1 on Thursday will play the winners of that game, probably in June, to decide qualification for the World Cup in Qatar later this year. Story continues Tuesdays match will raise funds for the for the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Bale said: Theres three reasons to come to the game. One to support Wales, two to support Waynes 100th cap, which will be an amazing night in itself, and three the appeal for Ukraine. The more fans come the more we can raise. Itll be a great night all round and hopefully we can get a good result on top of that. Company Logo Dublin, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Gene Therapies & Associated Vectors: Intellectual Property Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Although the COVID-19 pandemic limited certain aspects of the wider cell and gene therapies segment of the biopharmaceutical industry, it created significant future opportunities. From the financial perspective, the domain reported strong positive growth, primarily driven by drugs such as ZOLGENSMA, which reported close to 50% year-on-year growth in 2021. In addition, some innovators, leveraging proprietary technologies, launched COVID-19 directed R&D programs, while others took the opportunity to reposition existing assets in the same direction; either way, industry stakeholders were able to tap into the vast infectious diseases market. Taking into consideration both historical and recent developments, and modern technological advances, it is evident that this upcoming industry segment is at an inflection point. With the rapidly growing success of genetic medicine prompting more innovators to enter the market, the focus is now on building better and more efficacious assets, based on next generation biotechnology platforms. This is likely to pave the way for a much broader wave of new biological interventions. It is, therefore, important to identify key pockets of innovation and areas of improvement, in order to truly innovate whilst maintaining a competitive edge. This report summarizes some of the key R&D trends related to gene therapies and affiliated vectors. It also provides a perspective on the pace and focus of innovation in this field, briefly describing the future of gene therapies as mainstream healthcare solutions. Scope of the Report The report features an extensive study of some of the key historical and contemporary intellectual property (IP) documents describing gene therapies and affiliated vector constructs. The insights generated in this report have been presented across two deliverables, namely a MS Excel sheet and a MS PowerPoint deck, summarizing the ongoing activity in this domain. Key inclusions are briefly described below: Story continues Overall Intellectual Property Landscape: An in-depth review of the various patents and affiliated IP documents that have been published related to the diverse technologies, methods, and compositions associated with the use of genomic data and synthetic DNA / RNA constructs, for therapeutic purposes. It features insights on both historical and recent trends in R&D within this niche. Popular / Relevant Prior Art Search Expressions: An examination of IP literature, shortlisting key words and phrases that have been used to describe gene therapies and associated vector constructs. The analysis includes information on the historical use of the aforementioned terms across different types of IP filings, key affiliated terms, and other related trends. Patent Valuation Analysis: A competitive benchmarking and valuation analysis of the IP documents published in this field of innovation, taking into consideration important parameters, such as type of IP document, year of application, time to expiry, number of citations and jurisdiction. Patentability and Freedom to Operate: A systematic approach to identify relevant areas of innovation by analyzing published IP documents, defining the uniqueness of patented / patent pending innovations, understanding the scope of patentability in this domain, and pinpointing jurisdictions where new and / or modified claims may be filed without infringing on existing IP. Analysis of Patent Applications: A detailed summary of the patent applications that were filed across different jurisdictions and their relative value in the IP ecosystem. The analysis segregates the intellectual capital in terms of area of innovation and intended applications, thereby, offering the means to understand key areas of research and identify innovation-specific IP filing trends. Analysis of Granted Patents: An elaborate summary of the granted patents across different jurisdictions and their relative value in the IP ecosystem. The analysis also features a meaningful classification system, segregating granted patents into relevant categories to help develop a more detailed perspective on the diverse types of innovations in this domain and their intended applications, and the feasibility for innovators to enter into promising product markets. Pockets of Innovation and White Spaces: An insightful analysis of the various CPC codes used in published IP literature and their affiliated families, in order to identify historical and existing pockets of innovation (based on the functional area / industry described by the elaborate and systematic system of classifying IP); the analysis also features a discussion on prevalent white spaces in this arena of research. Claims Analysis: One of the objectives of the report was to analyze and summarize key inferences from the independent claims mentioned in granted, active patents in the dataset. Using a systematic segregation approach, we have analyzed trends associated with [A] the preamble, [B] type of patent, [C] type of claim and [D] key elements of a claim. Select Companies Mentioned Abbott Abiomed Acambis Access Biologics ACGT Acuitas Therapeutics Adagene Adaptimmune Adrenas Therapeutics Affymetrix Agenovir Agenta Biotechnologies Agenus Alexion Pharma Alkermes Alpharma AlphaVax Alpine Immune Sciences Alsatech Astellas Pharma AstraZeneca BASF Bavarian Nordic Baxalta Baxter International Canji CanSino Biologics CytoTherapeutics CytRx Dyax EdiGene Editas Medicine Egen Eisai Erytech Pharma Ethicon Etubics Evolva Evotech Biosystems Evox Therapeutics Exemplar Exhaura Exonics Therapeutics Exuma Biotech GeoVax Geron Gilead Sciences Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) GlobeImmune Goleini Hoechst Homology Medicines ProBioGen Quell Therapeutics RheoGene Ribo Life Science Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Richland Bio Medical Riken Roche Rocket Pharmaceuticals Rubicon Labs Samyang Sana Biotechnology Sandoz Sangamo Therapeutics Sanofi Pasteur Sarepta Therapeutics Stoke Therapeutics StrideBio Strike Bio Stryker Therion Biologics ToolGen Toppan Transderm TransGenRx UCB Biopharma Ultragenyx Umoja Biopharma Unicyte Valentis Vascular Biogenics Vaxart Vaxbio VaxCell Vecprobio VersiTech Vertex Pharmaceuticals VGX Pharmaceuticals Vycellix Wellstat Biologics Xenetic Biosciences XyloCor Therapeutics Zycos For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/pyv5de About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Company Logo Dublin, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Robot-assisted Surgical Devices (RASD) Growth Opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The report estimates the aging population and accompanying retirements to cause a significant physician shortfall of 55,000 to 150,000 by 2030, creating a gap in the healthcare system. Expanding the role of autonomous robots can mitigate the shortage. The healthcare sector is forecast to expand rapidly with the decentralization of institutions bringing about more offerings with robotic surgeries. Influenced by the growing incidence of lifestyle diseases and demand for affordable healthcare, effective surgery with robotic devices with a favorable decline in treatment costs looks promising. Robotic technology adoption has improved surgeons' capabilities with better ergonomics, motion scaling, and tremor filtration, meeting their demand. The need for experience before robotic surgery remains debatable. However, the transition from a laparoscopic surgeon to a robotic surgeon is associated with a shorter learning period. Hence, several medical academic and research institutes in the United States and Europe now offer robotic surgery training programs to ensure more surgeons have expertise and skills with a shorter learning curve. Hospital spending on capital equipment recorded an upswing early in 2021, signaling a stronger outlook for surgical procedures guided by robotic systems for the coming years. Hospital finances seem to be significantly healthier than they were after the economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic onset. The publisher projects leasing to grow as a percentage of sales over time, with deferred revenue increasing in the future as customers access capital through alternative financing arrangements. The report overviews the global robot-assisted surgical devices (RASD) market and revenue forecast from 2022 to 2026, covering a detailed market segment analysis, including various promising and emerging business models. It offers forecast by product (RASD systems, instruments and accessories, RASD services) and region. The study analyzes emerging opportunities and technology trends in surgical robot devices and procedures, with an exclusive focus on technologies enabling different market segments. The report also details innovations in different segments, initiatives to improve the overall adoption of surgical robotics technologies, and trends that drive and hinder the market growth. The trends shaping the industry are: Story continues Increase in Demand for Patient-specific Surgeries: Well-informed patients are demanding surgeons for personalized therapies, implants, procedures, and experience. Demand for Better Procedural Efficiencies: Patients demand maximum comfort while requiring minimum physical supervision. The need of the hour is reducing surgery times, better efficiencies, and optimized outcomes. Changing Reimbursement Trends: The shift toward payments based on quality plus cost over procedure-based reimbursement is likely to change the way medical technologies are evaluated and purchased. Changing Dynamics between Participants: Mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and leasing models are forecast to shape the industry. Shift to Emerging Economies: Large orthopedic participants are focusing on Asia-Pacific and other emerging economies that are forecast to register growth rates 2 to 3 times higher than developed markets. Demand for Lesser Hospital Time: The focus shifts to technologies that involve lesser hospital time for patients and lead to quicker recoveries. Key Topics Covered: Market Overview Segmentation by Application Technology Overview of the Study Next Generation Technology and What it Means for Minimal Invasive Surgery Evolving Roles of Robotics in Surgery AI Enhances Human-robot Interaction (HRI) Growth Opportunity Analysis Scope of Analysis Segmentation by Application Key Competitors Key Growth Metrics Growth Drivers Growth Restraints Forecast Assumptions Revenue Forecast by Product Revenue Forecast by Region Revenue Forecast Analysis Forecast Analysis by Region Pricing Trends and Forecast Analysis Competitive Environment Revenue Share Analysis Growth Opportunity Analysis - RASD Systems Key Growth Metrics Revenue and Unit Shipment Forecast Revenue Forecast by Product Revenue Forecast by Region Unit Shipment Forecast by Product Unit Shipment Forecast by Region Forecast Analysis Growth Opportunity Analysis - Instruments and Accessories Growth Opportunity Analysis - RASD Services Changing Paradigms in Surgical Care with Robotics Evolving Roles of Robotics in Surgery Recent Advances in Robotic Surgery AI Enhances HRI AI for Autonomous Robotic Surgery Transition from Multi-port to Single-site Surgery Robotic Surgery Becomes the Standard of Care Future Use Cases Adoption Criteria for Robot-assisted Surgery Comparative Matrix Opportunities and Development Scenario by Specialty New Entrants and Changing Ecosystem RASD Portability Connectivity and Telesurgery Business Models Digital Surgery-as-a-Service Increasing Focus on Microsurgery Future RASD Market Direction Growth Opportunity Universe AI for Robotic Surgery to Predict Surgical Outcomes and Minimize Variability Telesurgery enabled with Digital Connectivity to Eliminate Latency Improved Dexterity to Enable Quick Patient Recovery New Pricing Models to Improve Adoption Simulation and Training for Enhanced Surgical Outcomes For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/i057wf About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Pres. Hassan and Peter Greenberg in Dar es Salaam Pres. Hassan and Peter Greenberg in Dar es Salaam New York, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the heels of a visit to the White House, President Samia Suluhu Hassan visits NYC for a royal tour: The World Premiere of Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and Travel Editor Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanias first woman to lead her nation, arrives in New York on the heels of a visit to the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris. President Samia will be in New York for the World Premiere of Peter Greenbergs global television special, Tanzania: The Royal Tour, in New York on Monday, April 18 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as well as also attending the Los Angeles premiere on Thursday, April 21 at Paramount Theatre at Paramount Pictures Studios. "This is a very special, up close and personal journey to and through a country, seen through the eyes of its leader" says producer and host Peter Greenberg. "It's an all access pass, a deep immersion into the history, culture and the environment at a critical time in Tanzania's history." And the President was Greenberg's tour guide as they crisscrossed the entire country, from her small fishing village in Zanzibar to soaring over Mt. Kilimanjaro; from the expanse of the Serengeti to the Tanzanite mines, from searching for the big five to investigating the country's anti-poaching efforts. Please find link to the trailer of Tanzania: The Royal Tour here: TANZANIA: THE ROYAL TOUR TRAILER Since taking office in March of 2021, one year ago, President Samia has embraced an ambitious economic development plan, encouraging women-run business, and strengthening health care, most importantly reversing her predecessors Covid denial and making vaccines available to the public. Another principal objective is the promotion of tourism, with the goal of increasing the number of international travelers from the current 1.5 million to 5 million within the next 5 years, by showcasing Tanzania as a vibrant tourist destination and the many investment opportunities that are offered in her country. The Presidents visit to the US also affords her the opportunity to promote Tanzanias economic development and investment opportunities. Tanzania is an extraordinary destination with 500 miles of coastline along the Indian Ocean dotted with the fabled spice islands and Zanzibar just off its mainland. The country's cultural and natural assets are incomparable, seven destination wonders are UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Kilimanjaro National Park, home to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain; Serengeti National Park; Ngorongoro Conservation Area; Selous Game Reserve; Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara; Kondoa Rock-Art Sites and Stone Town of Zanzibar. Story continues Tanzania: The Royal Tour, produced in partnership with Chicago PBS station WTTW, premieres on public television stations across the country beginning April 18, 2022 (Check local listings for times). Tanzania: The Royal Tour will also be available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ beginning April 19, 2022. Please find YouTube coverage of President Samia at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris. PRESIDENT SAMIA VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/04/15/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-and-president-samia-suluhu-hassan-of-tanzania-before-bilateral-meeting/ https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/president-samia-travels-to-us-3782176 Select images of Tanzania can be viewed and downloaded here. For more information contact: Sally Fischer Public Relations sfpr@sallyfischerpr.com The Bradford Group: karenh@bradfordglobalmarketing.com Attachment CONTACT: Karen Hoffman The Bradford Group (212) 447-0027 tanzaniatheroyaltour@bradfordglobalmarketing.com Precedence Research According to Precedence Research, the hydrogen aircraft market size is expected to be worth around US$ 1,720.2 million by 2030 and it is growing at a CAGR of 27.8% from 2022 to 2030. Tokyo, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global hydrogen aircraft market size was estimated at US$ 189.14 million in 2021. The global aviation industry has significant contribution of about 2.5% of carbon emissions across the globe. The rising focus of the aviation industry to de-carbonize the aircrafts is significantly fueling the adoption of hydrogen aircraft across the globe. The traditional fuel transport solutions results in excess carbon emissions thereby contributing to the increased level of air pollution. Get the Sample Pages of Report@ https://www.precedenceresearch.com/sample/1632 The rising government initiatives to control carbon footprint from transport solutions is boosting the investments towards the development of hydrogen powered infrastructure, which is expected to foster the growth of the hydrogen aircraft market during the forecast period. The countries of European Union such as Germany, France, and UK are formulating their own National hydrogen strategy to control carbon footprint from the aviation industry. These government initiatives are expected to support the adoption of hydrogen aircraft across the globe and fuel the demand for sustainable transport solutions. Scope of the Report Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2021 USD 189.14 Million CAGR 27.8% from 2022 to 2030 Revenue Forecast by 2028 USD 1053.21 Million By Geography North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, Latin America Companies Covered Aerodelft, Aerovironment Inc., Airbus Se, Apus Group, Flyka, Gkn Aerospace, Pipistrel D.O.O, Hes Energy Systems, Honeywell International Inc., Hypoint Inc., Intelligent Energy Holdings, Plug Power Inc. Report Highlights On the basis of passenger capacity, the less than 100 segment led the market in 2021. The huge spaces required by the hydrogen fuel tanks has resulted in the development of less than 100 passenger capacity aircrafts across the globe, and hence resulted in its dominance. Based on the range, the short haul dominated the market in 2021. This is attributed to the presence of huge number of short haul aircrafts that can effectively and safely cover a short range owing to the space limitations. Based on the technology, the fully hydrogen powered aircraft is expected to witness the highest CAGR. The rising government and corporate investments in the development hydrogen fuel infrastructure and efficient hydrogen aircrafts are the major factors that are expected to boost the growth of this segment. Story continues Ask here for more customization study@ https://www.precedenceresearch.com/customization/1632 Regional Snapshot North America dominated the global hydrogen aircraft market in 2021. This growth is attributed to the huge demand for advanced and sustainable transport solutions among the population. The presence of leading multinational corporations in North America and their subsidiary companies across the globe results in huge number of international and domestic travels. Therefore the increased frequency of flight travels is resulting in the production of increased level of air pollution. The rising government initiatives to curb the carbon emission and promote sustainable and eco-friendly commute solutions are significantly fueling the adoption of hydrogen aircraft in North America. Moreover, the investments are increasing towards the development of hydrogen and electric powered infrastructure which is significantly fostering the growth of the North America hydrogen aircraft market. The rising investments in the research and development of long range hydrogen aircrafts and ongoing developments on the seating ergonomics to increase the number of passers in a single aircraft is anticipated to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the market players in the upcoming future. The Asia pacific hydrogen aircraft market is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The presence of various subsidiary companies and several MNCs in the region is resulting in growing number of international and domestic travels across borders owing to the globalization of businesses. Asia Pacific is a huge market owing to the presence of huge population and it successfully attracts huge investments from the multinational corporations. Furthermore, the rapidly growing tourism industry in Asia Pacific is resulting in significant number of domestic and international tours which is a prominent factor behind the growing demand for aircraft travel. The rising government and corporate initiatives to control carbon emission from the airplanes is significantly boosting the growth of hydrogen aircraft market. Market Dynamics Driver Rising focus on de-carbonization The global aviation industry has significant contributions towards the carbon emissions. The huge need for air travel facilities among the global population, the air traffic is significantly high, which results in huge volume of carbon emission. The deteriorating environmental condition owing to the carbon emission from transport vehicles is shifting the focus towards the de-carbonization. Therefore, the demand for the hydrogen aircraft is expected to grow at a significant pace during the forecast period. Restraint High costs of hydrogen production The traditional fuel emits huge volume of harmful gases. The best eco-friendly alternative is to produce hydrogen from water. The production of hydrogen fuel is a costly affair and hence the high costs of hydrogen production may hamper the growth of the hydrogen aircraft market during the forecast period. Opportunity Increasing government focus on hydrogen aircrafts The increasing government initiatives in the past few decades to preserve environment and to encourage the adoption of clean and green energy is significantly offering growth impetus to the hydrogen aircraft market. The government, in the form of incentives and subsidies is offering huge advantages to the hydrogen aircraft manufacturers across the globe. Related Reports Challenge Challenges associated with retrofitting The manufacturers are involved in redesigning of the existing aircrafts to convert it into hydrogen aircrafts, which is a complex task. Hydrogen requires huge fuel tank that is creating space issues for the manufacturers. Furthermore, the liquid hydrogen fuel needs to be stored at a very low temperature which requires expensive cryogenic tanks. These complexities are the major challenges for the manufacturers of the hydrogen aircraft market. Recent Developments In March 2021, AeroDelftlaunched its latest Phoenix PT aircraftprototype, which will be powered by liquid hydrogen fuel and it can cover a distance of 500 Km. Market Segmentation By Passenger Capacity Less than 100 101 to 200 Above 200 By Range Short Haul Medium Haul Long Haul By Technology Fully Hydrogen-Powered Hybrid Electric Powered Hydrogen Fuel Cell Aircraft Liquid Hydrogen Aircraft By Application Passenger Aircraft Cargo Aircraft By Distance Range Up to 20 km 20 km to 100 km More than 100 km By Platform Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Air Taxis Business Jets Click Here to View Full Report Table of Contents Buy this Premium Research Report@ https://www.precedenceresearch.com/checkout/1632 You can place an order or ask any questions, please feel free to contact at sales@precedenceresearch.com | +1 9197 992 333 About Us 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. For Latest Update Follow Us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/precedence-research/ https://www.facebook.com/precedenceresearch/ https://twitter.com/Precedence_R Hyundai Motor to become the first automaker to enter the community-based NFT market, including a website and channels on Discord and Twitter Hyundai Motor today released a short film introducing its NFT universe 'Metamobility Universe,' which reflects the 'Metamobility' concept revealed at CES 2022 Hyundai Motor to issue 30 limited NFTs celebrating the release of a short film that reveals its collaboration with 'Meta Kongz,' the NFT brand Profits from the sale of Hyundai NFTs will be used for the project's management and community members SEOUL, South Korea, April 17, 2022 /CNW/ -- Hyundai Motor Company today announced that it is entering the online community-based Non-Fungible Token market in collaboration with the 'Meta Kongz' NFT brand. HyundaiXMetaKongz Hyundai community-driven NFT Release KV 1 Hyundai Motor is the first automaker to enter the NFT market with its own NFT community, including the Hyundai NFT official website and channels on Discord and Twitter. The Hyundai NFT community will provide its users with the Hyundai brand experience in the metaverse by sharing NFTs depicting its mobility solutions. The Hyundai NFT Discord and Twitter channels opened on April 15, and the official NFT website is scheduled to open in May. By providing dedicated channels for the Hyundai NFT community, the company will continuously manage the asset value of its NFTs. The online platforms will provide an open 24/7 communications channel between the company and community members, with real-time updates on the asset value of its NFTs. Today, the company released a short film introducing the Hyundai NFT universe concept 'Metamobility Universe,' which reflects the 'Metamobility' concept revealed at CES 2022. In the film, the 'Meta Kongz' gorilla character drives in both a classic PONY and modernly reinterpreted heritage series PONY from Earth to the Moon, visualizing how mobility solutions can transcend time and space. The film at the end also teases a shooting star-shaped NFT that will be released in May. Story continues Hyundai Motor will also issue 30 limited editions 'Hyundai x Meta Kongz' NFTs on April 20 to commemorate the release of the film. Hyundai NFT projects will be continued throughout the year to keep expanding the Hyundai NFT Universe. Profits from the sale of Hyundai NFTs will be used for the project's management and community members. "The Hyundai NFT Universe will extend the Hyundai brand experience, especially with MZ generation, in a completely new way, further reinforcing our commitment to innovation in both the real world and in the metaverse," said Thomas Schemera, Hyundai Motor's Global Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience Division. "We are extremely excited to introduce 'Metamobility' through our own NFTs and start this journey with 'Meta Kongz'." Hyundai Motor Company shared its vision of a 'Metamobility' concept at CES 2022 with the goal of pioneering a smart device-metaverse connection that will expand the role of mobility to virtual reality (VR), ultimately allowing people to overcome the physical limitations of movement in time and space. For more information, please visit: http://globalpr.hyundai.com HyundaiXMetaKongz Hyundai community-driven NFT Release KV 2 HyundaiXMetaKongz NFT Design Example (PRNewsfoto/Hyundai Motor Company) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-motor-issues-first-community-based-nft-among-the-automakers-highlighting-its-mobility-solutions-in-the-metaverse-301526373.html SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2022/17/c6231.html The Annual Singapore's Best Employers survey is sponsored by The Straits Times and marketing firm, Statista. SINGAPORE, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Illumina Singapore, subsidiary of Illumina Inc (NASDAQ: ILMN) was honoured today to be ranked #17 overall and #1 in Healthcare Equipment & Services in Singapore's Best Employers Award. The Singapore Employer of Choice is a large scale and comprehensive employer study which assesses the attractiveness of employers in Singapore based on an independent employee survey. More than 200,000 recommendations were received between August and September last year. "It is wonderful to receive this award for a third time and see our ranking improve consistently through the years, especially with the challenges of a pandemic. We aim for an excellent employee experience and always value and try our best to action our employee's feedback which has helped us to continuously improve over the years," said Ms Dorothy Wong, Vice President Human Resources Asia Pacific. Illumina's training and development programs embody the belief that opportunities always exist to grow and to learn regardless of where one is on his or her career path. This growth mindset begins with valuing learning over knowing, together with seeking new ideas and embracing challenges while developing. "Illumina is unique when it comes to development. When I joined, I had not worked in the biotech industry, but I was encouraged to dream big, try and experiment. Staying true to its core values of innovation and moving fast, Illumina has often provided me the liberty to practice agile experimentation, fail fast, learn, and move on in the many initiatives I have worked on. As a result, I have been able to develop many new skills and grow extensively in my career," said Ee Leen Goh, Consumables Manufacturing Director who has been with Illumina for nine years. Illumina Singapore offers a workplace centred on innovation and care, that values the unique talents of the individual, and brings forward the best of the collective, to deliver on Illumina's mission at a global scale. Story continues Integrating work and personal life are essential to Illumina's employees. To foster this, employees are offered additional leave above statutory requirements. This includes six weeks paid paternity leave which is not parent gender specific, as well as the leave called Flexible Time Off. This is additional paid annual leave that can be taken once an employee runs out of statutory annual leave and there is no fixed limit to this leave entitlement. Illumina Singapore is a multi-functional site with manufacturing, R&D capability and offers both flexible and hybrid work arrangements. Over the past couple of years, the Company's Engagement and Trust & Confidence scores remained consistent, averaging at greater than 85 percent and 90 percent respectively. "In alignment with our culture of collaboration, which I think is our secret sauce of success, we empower our leaders and their teams to manage work arrangements together that balance the needs of the individual and the company. This has been especially helpful during COVID, which has required greater flexibility," Ms Wong said. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Illumina's first Singapore facility opened in 2008 with ten employees and a 38,000 square foot facility. Today, Illumina Singapore has increased the number of employees to more than 1,600 and grown to three buildings, occupying ten times the original spacenow totalling 385,000 square feet. The momentum continues with an additional facility for research and development which is expected to open in the first quarter of 2023. About Illumina Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To learn more, visit www.illumina.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. Media Enquiries: Ujwal Sharma, Account Director Email: USharma@webershandwick.com SOURCE Illumina Singapore TOKYO, April 18 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock index fell for a second session on Monday in thin trade, dragged down by losses in technology shares after U.S. Treasury yields rose, as many markets were still shut for Easter holidays. The Nikkei ended 1.08% lower at 26,799.71. Of the benchmark's 225 components, 181 declined versus 40 that rose. The broader Topix lost 0.86% to 1,880.02. "Looking at recent market moves, this should be a level that would attract bargain hunting, but because it's the start of the week and there's a scarcity of triggers to buy, bids are lacking, which is accelerating declines," said a trader at a domestic securities firm. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield jumped on Thursday after a batch of economic data was likely to keep the Federal Reserve on its tightening path. The U.S. returns to trading on Monday, but markets including the UK, Australia and Hong Kong remain shut for Easter holidays. Uniqlo clothing shop owner Fast Retailing was the biggest drag on the Nikkei, falling 1.25%, followed by staffing services company Recruit Holdings, which fell 3.32%. Japan Airlines led carriers lower with a 2.07% slide after revising down earnings guidance. ANA Holdings slipped 0.93%. Other technology decliners included Sony Group, which fell 0.67%, Nintendo, down 1.63%, SoftBank Group , off 0.69%. At the other end, credit card company Credit Saison surged 20.72% after Murakami-linked fund City Index Eleventh revealed it had taken a 5% stake. The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 0.88 billion, compared to the average of 1.33 billion in the past 30 days. (Reporting by Tokyo markets team; editing by Uttaresh.V and Rashmi Aich) By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova After seven years, laureate of international competitions Murad Abasov has once again delighted the Baku audience with fascinating music. The young pianist thrilled the audience with Frederic Chopin's music at the Baku Music Academy. The concert was held to celebrate the Baku Music Academy's centenary. Given the highest requirements for young musicians, this is the third such case in the German university's 80-year history. Speaking about his performance, Murad Abasov told Azernews that the concert in Baku was distinguished from other concerts. " It is a wonderful feeling to perform a solo concert at the Baku Music Academy. Looking at my previous concerts in Europe, I think that it was quite different. The works I perform at my concerts are the ones I like to perform the most," he said. The pianist brilliantly performed Frederic Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23, Prelude Op. 28 No. 22 in G minor, Prelude no. 23 in F major Op. 28 no. 23, Piano Sonata No.2, Op.35 and other music pieces. Notably, Murad Abasov received his bachelor's degree from the Trossingen University of Music in Germany after studying at the BMA's Special Music School-Studio. After bypassing the master's degree, the young talent entered the doctoral program, making him the first Azerbaijani to do so. " It was a very difficult and difficult process. On the one hand, the certificate exam, on the other hand, the German language and, most importantly, the entrance exam in Trossingen," the pianist said. Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, and Milli.az are the event's media partners. kupicoo / iStock.com Happy Tax Day, everyone. Hopefully you all are in pretty good shape with Uncle Sam, and for you late filers, here are some last-minute tips to help you out. On top of that, GOBankingRates has the lowdown on some of the most important financial news stories of the day. The Big Lead: Tax Day Deals From 7-Eleven to The Cheesecake Factory, many companies are offering Tax Day 2022 deals, discounts and freebies to drum up some business. Here are some of the best to be had today. Read the full story here Also, Take Our Poll: How Much Do You Expect Your Tax Refund To Be This Year? Economy Spotlight: Stimulus Update Pennsylvania residents could receive an additional $2,000 stimulus check through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)-funded $500 million PA Opportunity Program. Read the full story here Well Thats Interesting: Teens & Financial Literacy More than half of U.S. teens feel unprepared to finance their futures, according to a new survey from Junior Achievement and Citizens Financial Group. Read the full story here Bonus: 18 Investing Terms You Need To Know Asset allocation? Short selling? Here are 18 investing terms that you should really understand before you jump in with both feet. Read the full story here More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: GO in the Know: Tax Day Tips & Top Financial News for April 18 Highlights: Prospective undrilled epithermal gold-silver prospect in southern Ecuador US$60,000 and a 1.0% NSR to acquire an 8,087-hectare concession package VANCOUVER, BC, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV: LR) (OTCQX: LUMIF) (the "Company" or "Luminex") is pleased to announce that it has signed a binding agreement with Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile ("Codelco") to acquire its 100% owned Chalapo concessions (the "Project") in the Loja province of Ecuador for US$60,000 of consideration and a 1.0% NSR. 0.5% of the NSR can be purchased by Luminex for US$5.0 million before the year 2030. Leo Hathaway, SVP Exploration stated: "Chalapo is an early stage, undrilled high sulphidation epithermal gold-silver prospect, that is an exciting addition to Luminex's Southern Ecuador project portfolio. It is easily accessed and proximal to the area that Luminex already operates in. Mapping and sampling to delineate drill targets is planned for later this year." Figure 1: Project location map (CNW Group/Luminex Resources Corp.) The concessions are comprised of two contiguous claims Chalapo (4,242ha) and Chalapo 1 (3,845ha) and carry no required annual investment commitment. The Project is located in southern Ecuador approximately 45 km south southwest of the regional capital, Loja and 7Km from the town of Vilcabamba. Chalapo is part of the Oligocene-Miocene porphyry/epithermal belt that hosts significant mines with similar geology further south in Peru, such as Lagunas Norte, Pierina and Sipan. Rock chip sampling by Codelco has identified a zone of anomalous gold with pathfinder elements typical of a high sulphidation gold system, including silver, arsenic, mercury and copper. Luminex rock chip sampling during due diligence retuned gold values up to 1.78 g/t (see Figure 2) from a hydrothermal breccia with intense vuggy silica/alunite alteration, indicative of intense hydrothermal acid sulphate leaching. Figure 2: Project map with rock sampling results (CNW Group/Luminex Resources Corp.) Qualified Persons Story continues Leo Hathaway, P. Geo, Senior Vice President Exploration of Luminex and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed, verified and approved the scientific and technical information concerning the Condor Project in this news release and has verified the data underlying that scientific and technical information. About Luminex Resources Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV:LR, OTCQX:LUMIF) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on gold and copper projects in Ecuador. Luminex's inferred and indicated mineral resources are located at the Condor Gold-Copper project in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador. Luminex also holds a large and highly prospective land package in Ecuador, including the Tarqui, Pegasus and Orquideas projects, which are being co-developed with BHP Group plc, Anglo American and JOGMEC respectively. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://luminexresources.com/. To receive news releases please sign up at https://www.luminexresources.com/contact/contact-us/. Follow us on: Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. LUMINEX RESOURCES CORP. Signed: "Marshall Koval" Marshall Koval, CEO and Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future work programs at the Project. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; changes in laws (including regulations respecting mining concessions); and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/luminex-acquires-the-chalapo-concessions-from-codelco-301526859.html SOURCE Luminex Resources Corp. NEW YORK, April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of each of Neuberger Berman California Municipal Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NBW) and Neuberger Berman New York Municipal Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NBO) has declared monthly distributions for the dates below. The Funds seek to provide income that is exempt from regular federal income tax. Additionally, Neuberger Berman California Municipal Fund Inc. seeks to provide income that is exempt from California personal income tax and Neuberger Berman New York Municipal Fund Inc. seeks to provide income that is exempt from New York State and New York City personal income tax. Distributions of the Funds may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax for some stockholders. Each Fund's distribution announced today is payable on May 16, 2022, has a record date of April 29, 2022 and an ex-date of April 28, 2022. Neuberger Berman Logo (PRNewsFoto/Neuberger Berman Group LLC) The Funds will make the distributions described above in the following per share amounts: NBW Neuberger Berman California Municipal Fund Inc. $0.04480 NBO Neuberger Berman New York Municipal Fund Inc. $0.03933 In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year. About Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com. Story continues Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. Contact: Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC Investor Information (877) 461-1899 Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neuberger-berman-california-municipal-fund-and-neuberger-berman-new-york-municipal-fund-announce-monthly-distributions-301527459.html SOURCE Neuberger Berman By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday, with Brent crude topping $114 a barrel, as outages in Libya deepened concern over tight global supply amid the Ukraine crisis. Adding to supply pressures from sanctions on Russia, Libya's National Oil Corp on Monday said "a painful wave of closures" had begun hitting its facilities and declared force majeure at Al-Sharara oilfield and other sites. "With global supplies now so tight, even the most minor disruption is likely to have an outsized impact on prices," said Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose $1.46, or 1.3%, to settle at $113.16 a barrel. The contract rose to $114.84 a barrel, its highest since March 28. U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose $1.26, or 1.2%, to settle at $108.21 a barrel. The benchmark hit $109.81 a barrel, also the highest since March 28. Deeper supply losses loom. Russian production declined by 7.5% in the first half of April from March, Interfax reported on Friday, and EU governments said last week the bloc's executive was drafting proposals to ban Russian crude. Those comments came before an escalation in the Ukraine war. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck Lviv early on Monday and explosions rocked other cities as Russian forces kept up their bombardments after claiming near full control of the port of Mariupol. In a bearish signal for prices, China's economy slowed in March, taking the shine off first-quarter growth numbers and worsening an outlook already weakened by COVID-19 curbs. Data on Monday also showed China refined 2% less oil in March than a year earlier, with throughput falling to the lowest since October as the surge in crude prices squeezed margins and tight lockdowns reduced demand. Oil surged to the highest since 2008 in March, with Brent briefly topping $134. "There's still some confusion about whether they're reopening their economy, so were getting mixed signals out of China and that has presented a lot of volatility this morning," Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn said. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Nick Macfie, Barbara Lewis and Cynthia Osterman) Photo credit: RacingOne - Getty Images Speedway Motorsports used the the NASCAR Cup Series' Bristol dirt weekend as a platform to announce that racingfor now the late-model versionwill return to North Wilkesboro (North Carolina) Speedway, one of NASCARs original tracks, in August. North Wilkesboro Speedway hosted the NASCAR Cup Series from 1949 to 1996 but fell by the wayside as its infrastructure crumbled and NASCAR moved to bigger tracks and bigger cities. The track property was basically ignored for many years, but Speedway Motorsports, with the help of officials and volunteers from the speedway area, has removed some of the dilapidated buildings and cleaned the property. XR Events, signed by Speedway Motorsports to oversee the tracks revival, has scheduled racing on the tracks asphalt surface in August. The pavement will be removed in September, and the track will host dirt racing in October. The surface will be repaved next year with an eye toward bigger events. Speedway Motorsports president Marcus Smith said North Wilkesboro possibly could host the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2024 or beyond but said the tracks infrastructure wont support Cup or Xfinity races. XR Events hopes to schedule races for Super Late Models, Late Models, Street Stocks, sprint cars and other cars typically involved in weekly racing programs this year. Winnipeg, MB, in the National Homeland of the Red River Metis , April 18, 2022 /CNW/ - The Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF), the National Government of the Red River Metis, also known as the Manitoba Metis, in conjunction with the Bishops of Manitoba, is pleased to announce the final details for the meeting with His Holiness, Pope Francis. This will be the first meeting with one of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada with His Holiness since he made his apology for the harms done by the residential and day school systems. The Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF), the National Government of the Red River Metis Logo (CNW Group/Manitoba Metis Federation) This historic meeting set to take place on April 21, 2022, has been in development for several years, with efforts hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Red River Metis Government is sending a delegation of diverse group of Elders/Knowledge Keepers, residential school survivors, and youth from the Red River Metis Homeland, accompanied by a small group of Bishops. "Now that His Holiness has issued an apology to all Indigenous peoples, we can focus our meeting on the relationship between the Red River Metis and the Catholic Church, past, present, and future," said David Chartrand, President of the MMF. "I am proud to be leading this pilgrimage to meet the Holy Father, who has proven that he is a true shepherd.]""Our Nation has always been deeply connected to the church. You can see that in our petition to the church in 1817, the establishment of our settlement into parishes, and the faith and actions of our great leader, Louis Riel," said President Chartrand. "It is incredibly important that His Holiness will hold a private audience with the Red River Metis with the MMF - our National Government. A number of delegates will also be hosted at the Embassy of Canada to the Holy See for a reception and dinner." Delegates who will speak to His Holiness will reflect on their own experiences, while also sharing the Nation's collective message of a desire to renew our relationship. This is why the theme of the meeting between Pope Francis and Red River Metis delegates is Journey Forward: Reconciliation to Renewal. The meeting will feature discussions of Hope, Healing, and Revitalization. Story continues "The Bishops are deeply appreciative of the Holy Father's spirit of openness in generously extending an invitation for a personal encounter with the Red River Metis delegation led by the Manitoba Metis Federation," said Richard Gagnon, Archbishop of Winnipeg. "On behalf of the Bishops of Manitoba, we reaffirm our sincere hope that this forthcoming encounter will lead to a shared future of mutual understanding, peace, and harmony between the Red River Metis and the Catholic Church in Canada. It is the desire of all the Bishops in Canada to move forward with reconciliation and to build strong relationships with Canada's Indigenous Peoples." The Holy Father has taken a historic first step by apologizing to Indigenous Canadians in Rome," said President Chartrand. "I will be inviting the Holy Father to apologize in Canada in the Heart of the National Homeland of the Red River Metis and at the resting place of our past leader, Louis Riel. We also want His Holiness to see the Nation that stood with the church and understand why we need to renew our relationship, particularly in our small and remote communities many of which the church is a central part of community." Believe in Yourself; Believe in Metis. The Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) is the democratic government for the Manitoba Metis, also known as the Red River Metis, the origin and core of the Metis Nation. The Manitoba Metis are Canada's Negotiating Partners in Confederation and the Founders of the Province of Manitoba. SOURCE Manitoba Metis Federation Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2022/18/c4416.html Ekspress Grupp 8 April 2022 AS Ekspress Grupp released a notice on convening an Annual General Meeting of Shareholders . According to the Commercial Code paragraph 293 (2), the Management Board of AS Ekspress Grupp is adding items 7 and 8 to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting to be held on 2 May 2022 together with the draft resolutions as following: 7. Election of the member of the Supervisory Board To elect Triin Hertmann (personal code 48007170229) as the Member of the Supervisory Board for the five years until 2 May 2027. 8. Remuneration of the member of the Supervisory Board To remunerate Triin Hertmann as follows: a monthly remuneration of 1,350 euros (gross) to be paid. In addition, the management is declaring the change in the wording of the previously announced agenda item 3. On 14 April 2022, the shareholders Hans Luik and OU HHL Ruhm submitted a draft resolution on item 3 of the agenda of the annual general meeting to be held on 2 May 2022 pursuant to 2931 (4) of the Commercial Code, which seeks to increase the bought back share price from 1.80 euros to 1.90 euros. Therefore, item 3 together with the draft resolution, should be considered correct as follows: 3. Determining the acquisition of AS Ekspress Grupps own shares and laying down the terms of the share buyback program 3.1. Approve the share buyback program of AS Ekspress Grupps own shares under the following terms: AS Ekspress Grupp shall have the right to buy back a maximum of 2 500 000 own shares whereby the total amount of the nominal value of the treasury shares owned by the company may not exceed 1/10 of its share capital. AS Ekspress Grupp shall have the right to buy back its own shares in one or multiple transactions via buyback offer(s) targeted at all shareholders within 12 months from the date of adoption of this decision. The minimum amount to be paid for its own shares shall be EUR 0.60 per share and the maximum amount per share shall be the closing price on the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange plus 20% but not more than EUR 1.90 per share at the trading day preceding the announcement of each respective buyback. The total amount payable for the shares to be bought back pursuant to this decision shall be up to EUR 2 million at most. The acquisition of the shares may not lead to a reduction in net assets below the total amount of share capital and reserves, the payment of which to the shareholders is not be permitted under law or the articles of association. The purpose of the share buyback is to use the attractive market conditions in order to create value for the shareholders. The shares bought back will thereafter be cancelled or used for other purposes (e.g. sale or use of shares for the option program). Story continues 3.2. In accordance with this decision and applicable legal acts, authorise the Management Board to decide and carry out the share buyback, determine the share buyback price, procedure and other conditions as well as perform all other necessary procedures. The supplemented voting ballot and draft resolutions are attached to this announcement. All documents concerning the Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders of AS Ekspress Grupp, including draft resolutions, are available on the homepage of AS Ekspress Grupp. Mari-Liis Ruutsalu AS Ekspress Grupp Chairman of the Management Board +372 512 2591 mariliis.ryytsalu@egrupp.ee AS Ekspress Grupp is the leading Baltic media group whose key activities include web media content production, publishing of newspapers, magazines and books. The Group also operates an electronic ticket sales platform and ticket sales sites in Estonia and Latvia. Ekspress Grupp that launched its operations in 1989 employs more than 1400 people, owns leading web media portals in the Baltic States and publishes the most popular daily and weekly newspapers as well as the majority of the most popular magazines in Estonia. Attachments Companies covered in the U.S. lime market are Carmeuse, Lhoist Group, Graymont Limited, Mississippi Lime Company, United States Lime & Minerals Inc., Linwood Mining & Minerals Corporation, Minerals Technologies Inc., Cheney Lime & Cement Company, Pete Lien & Sons Inc., Valley Mineral LLC, Brookville Manufacturing and more players profiled. Pune, India, April 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. lime market size is anticipated to reach USD 2.46 billion by 2028 and exhibit a CAGR of 1.8% during the forecast period. The rising demand for calcium hydroxide by the steel industry is anticipated to boost the market growth in the coming years. Fortune Business Insights has presented this information in its report titled U.S. Lime Market, 2021-2028. The market size stood at USD 2.14 billion in 2020 and USD 2.17 billion in 2021. Additionally, the surging demand for several manufacturing applications, including the production of bioplastics, sugar, paper & pulp, glass, and others, is predicted to bolster the market growth in the forthcoming years. Segmentation- On the basis of type, the market is bifurcated into hydrated lime and quick lime. On the basis of application, the market is fragmented into water treatment, mining & metallurgy, building material, agriculture, and others. Report Coverage- It includes key market developments and information on different market segments. It assesses the COVID-19 pandemics impact on the market. It assimilates key market drivers and restraints. It profiles the rankings of key market players accordingly. It provides a comprehensive market assessment. Request a Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/u-s-lime-market-106592 List of Key Market Players- Carmeuse (Belgium) Lhoist Group (Belgium) Graymont Limited (Canada) Mississippi Lime Company (U.S.) United States Lime & Minerals Inc. (U.S.) Linwood Mining & Minerals Corporation (U.S.) Minerals Technologies Inc. (U.S.) Cheney Lime & Cement Company (U.S.) Pete Lien & Sons Inc. (U.S.) Valley Mineral LLC (U.S.) Brookville Manufacturing (U.S.) Story continues Drivers & Restraints- Rising Demand for Cleaner Steel to Amplify Market Growth Lime plays a vital role in the steelmaking process. It impacts productivity, metallurgical properties, steel quality, and total production costs. The market is being driven by the high demand for cleaner steel by the automotive and construction industries. Additionally, the rising architectural development further augments the demand for steel, thereby fueling the U.S. lime market growth. Lime is also used in treating industrial and mining wastewater. It maintains the pH levels of the wastewater and removes nitrogen, phosphorous, and other such toxins. This creates high product demand for various applications and amplifies the U.S. lime market growth. The stringent government regulations implemented to treat and limit water contaminants are further helping the market expand. Additionally, lime is vital for several manufacturing applications, including the production of bioplastics, sugar, paper & pulp, glass, and others. This is predicted to fuel the market growth in the forthcoming years. However, the high carbon emissions that arise during production may hamper the market growth. Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-lime-market-106592 Regional Insights- Expanding Construction Industry to Fuel Regions Growth The market size in the U.S. was USD 2.14 billion in 2020. The high product demand from various end-use industries is a key factor boosting the U.S. lime market share. The expanding construction industry and rising infrastructural development are stimulating the market's growth. Moreover, the improvements of water treatment plants by companies located in the region are expected to complement the market growth. The major consumers of the product have been construction, environmental, and chemical & industrial markets. According to the U.S. governments Mineral Commodity Study, approximately 16.9 million tons of lime were manufactured in the U.S. in 2019 and was estimated to be approximately 16 million tons in 2020. Competitive Landscape- Key Players Emphasize Expansions to Gain Competitive Edge The market comprises several key players, including Lhoist Group, United States lime & Minerals Inc., Carmeuse, and Mississippi Lime Company. The key players emphasize investments and expansions to acquire a competitive edge in the market. For instance, Carmeuse Overseas commenced the construction of a greenfield lime plant, Chaux de la Teranga, in Bandia Senegal in May 2020. The plant is estimated to have 250 tons/day capacity. Key Industry Developments- November 2020: Lhoist North America opened a new distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., for dolomitic quicklime for the steel industry. The company aims to fulfill the rising demand for high purity steel in the steel industry. Inquire Before Buying This Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/queries/u-s-lime-market-106592 Detailed Table of Content: Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions Executive Summary Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Key Insights Key Emerging Trends For Major Countries Key Developments: Capacity Expansions, Acquisitions, Partnerships, etc. Latest Technological Advancement Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis U.S. Lime Market Average Sales Price Lime Production Cost Analysis Qualitative Insights on Impact of COVID-19 on Global Lime Market Supply Chain Analysis & Challenges due to Covid-19 Steps taken by Government / Companies to Overcome this Impact Potential Challenges and Opportunities due to COVID-19 Outbreak TOC Continued! Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/u-s-lime-market-106592 About Us: Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Address: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. 9th Floor, Icon Tower, Baner Mahalunge Road, Baner, Pune-411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US: +1 424 253 0390 UK: +44 2071 939123 APAC: +91 744 740 1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com LinkedIn Facebook Twitter A Richmond judge on Monday sentenced a Henrico County man to three life sentences for abducting, raping and murdering a Virginia Commonwealth University administrator in her South Richmond home in May 2019. Thomas Edward Clark, 62, was convicted by a jury in November of all three felony counts, which each carry up to life in prison. Suzanne Fairman, 53, lived alone in the quiet Stratford Hills neighborhood of South Richmond. She had planned to visit her mother in Florida for Mother's Day, but never arrived at the airport. On May 9 around 11 p.m., police were sent to her home where they found Fairman submerged; face up in the tub, her head beneath the still-running faucet. She was fully clothed, though her shirt was pulled up revealing a black bra. Her pants were on inside out. Her wrists showed ligature marks from where they had been bound. Prosecutors say Clark put her in the water in hopes that his DNA was be washed away, but it was found on her and her clothing. Clark was part of a landscaping crew that worked on Fairman's back deck. She had complained about the shoddy work, and Clark had returned to redo the work the week before Fairman was killed. A bandana Clark told investigators he left behind was found on the counter in the bathroom, where Fairman's body was found. It was alongside a knife, a glove and a phone charging cord that had been cut. Prosecutors said the cord was used to tie her hands, and that Clark held the knife on her as he raped her. Phone records also tied Clark to the scene. He has maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and his attorney Ali Amirshahi said Clark intends to appeal. UPDATE: Jury finds Henrico man guilty in 2019 rape, murder of VCU administrator Scott Fairman wants his mother remembered for the wonderful, beautiful, loving person that she was, he told reporters outside the John Marshall Courts Building on Wednesday after a Richmond jury found a Henrico County man guilty of abducting, raping and murdering her in May 2019. By Azernews By Vafa Ismayilova Today marks the 29th anniversary of a massacre committed by Armenians during the occupation of Kalbajar region's Bashlibel village in 1993. Following the Armenian occupation of Kalbajar in early April 1993, 73 residents of Bashlibel village, with a population of around 2,000, were unable to leave their homes in time and sought refuge in the mountain caves to protect themselves from the enemy. They managed to live in hiding for only 18 days. On April 18, Armenians launched an armed attack on the mountains, where they had taken refuge. As a result, 14 residents were taken hostage and 18 were killed. The remaining 30 people continued their siege by changing their shelters to other mountains in the village. After 113 days, on July 17, they left the shelter and managed to escape the siege of the Armenian army through secret mountain roads, moving only at night. To recap, the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor annual report on the global human rights situation in 2021 also cover the details about the Bashlibel tragedy. After liberating its lands from occupation during the 2020 Patriotic War, Azerbaijan inspected Bashlibel village by a drone. The inspection revealed that all the houses, buildings and infrastructure that existed in the village before the occupation were completely destroyed. The Prosecutor General's Office investigation evidenced that the Armenian armed forces were particularly cruel to the civilian population in Bashlibel village when they occupied the Kalbajar region with military aggression in early April 1993, as they did in other regions of Azerbaijan. Under the court decision on corpse exhumation, on April 24, 2021, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office's Investigation Department conducted an investigation in Bashlibel. As a result, the remains of 12 skeletons were discovered buried at a depth of 50 cm. These remains belong to 12 unarmed Azerbaijanis (a 12-year-old child, a 16-year-old teenager, including six women and six men) who were deliberately killed by the Armenian armed forces on April 18, 1993. Bashlibel is part of a series of systematic genocide acts that Armenia committed against innocent Azerbaijanis during the first Karabakh war in 1988-94. Kalbajar region also saw the Aghdaban massacre, which occurred a year before Armenian military forces occupied Azerbaijan's Kalbajar region. It is one of the bloodiest chapters in Armenia's anti-Azerbaijan aggression. During the massacre, the Armenian invaders committed horrifying atrocities, violating both military and international human rights principles by brutally murdering civilians and destroying all historical monuments in the village. As a result of the Aghdaban tragedy, which resulted in the burning of the entire village, hundreds of civilians were tortured and forced to flee their homes. Prior to the Khojaly genocide, Armenians committed the worst tragedy in Khojavand region. The Garadaghli genocide was a stain on humanity, and heinous atrocities were committed in Akhullu, Tugh, Salaketin, and Edilli villages at the end of the 20th century. The tragic days in Khojavand villages started in 1988 when the Armenian separatist movement in Karabakh began. Garadaghli, Akhullu, Tugh, Salaketin, and Edilli fought valiantly against the Armenian invaders for several years. During those years, hundreds of villagers were killed in unequal battles with the Armenian armed forces. The Khojaly genocide is seen as the pinnacle of the systematic crimes and atrocities committed by Armenia against Azerbaijanis. Some 613 Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elders were brutally murdered on the ground of national identity in Khojaly in 1992. A series of previous horrible acts had preceded this one. In Gazakh region's Baghanis-Ayrim village, Armenians set fire to roughly 20 buildings, killing eight Azerbaijanis. A family of five was burned alive, including a 39-day-old infant. Armenian army killed 12 and injured 15 Azerbaijanis in Garadaghli and Meshali villages of Khojavand and Asgaran regions between June and December 1991. In August and September of that year, Armenian military detachments bombed buses on the Shusha-Jamilli, Aghdam-Khojavand, and Aghdam-Garadaghli routes, killing 17 Azerbaijanis and injuring over 90 others. In October and November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and plundered over 30 settlements in the mountainous area of Karabakh, including Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli, Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and other significant villages. The prosecution of Armenia for the crimes perpetrated against Azerbaijan, as well as the indictment of the aggressor in the international arena, would be a perfect scenario for exposing its true nature and sham diplomacy by ripping down the "oppressed" masks that Armenians have worn for many years. Armenia has violated the provisions of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and the Paris Convention on the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property (1972) and plundered Azerbaijans cultural property in all its former occupied territories. Many of the Armenia-committed massacres on Azerbaijan's formerly occupied territories meet entirely the requirements of the Genocide Convention, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948. Therefore, these tragedies must be classified as acts of genocide under international law, and the slaughter perpetrated against the civilian population of Aghdaban should be recognized as a genocide crime by the international community. Colorado is one of many states looking for answers to the deadly fentanyl crisis as overdoses hit an all-time high and experts point to national data showing the synthetic opioid has claimed a bigger and bigger share of those cases. The responses around the country offer a glimpse of the complexity of the fentanyl response and echo the debate that occupied Colorados legislature last week between adding public health measures to reduce the risk to users and increasing the penalties for dealing fentanyl or mixing it with other drugs. The National Conference of State Legislatures found nine states with fentanyl-specific drug trafficking or possession laws as of last year: Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia and North and South Dakota. Similar measures have been introduced or considered since the start of 2021 in at least 19 states, the Associated Press found in an analysis of bills compiled by LegiScan. That does not include measures to add more synthetic opioids to controlled substance lists to mirror federal law, the AP wrote. Those have been adopted in many states, with bipartisan support. States, such as California, are weighing harsher penalties for possessing or distributing fentanyl. In California, lawmakers are considering a measure to make it a felony to possess more than 2 grams of a substance containing fentanyl. Increasingly, states have turned their attention to fentanyl and its derivatives, targeting its delivery or possession. Maine, for example, makes it a trafficking offense to possess 2 or more grams of fentanyl powder. Massachusetts specifically prohibits the drugs trafficking. West Virginia, which is among the worst-hit states, prohibits the manufacture, delivery, transport into the state and possession of fentanyl, under which less than 1 gram of the drug means up to 10 years in prison. Others states are focusing more on public health measures, such as considering increasing access to Naloxone and test strips to limiting legitimate opioid prescriptions and collecting more data on overdoses. Since last year, at least a half-dozen states have enacted similar laws and at least a dozen others have considered them, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tennessee and New Mexico legalized test strips earlier this year (some states had considered the strips to be paraphernalia), according to an article in MedPage Today. A number of other states are either currently considering a similar move or have already done so, a Gazette analysis showed. In all, more than 30 states have passed, voted down or are considering legislation related to fentanyl test strips. Delaware and Tennessee, among many others, have also passed laws recently broadening who can distribute Naloxone. On the more cutting edge, New York City opened the nations first safe-use site, where people can use illicit substances under the watch of providers. According to NBC New York, the site reversed more than 150 overdoses during about 9,500 visits in its first three months. In February, the Department of Justice indicated it would be open to allowing the sites. In Colorado, a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week tackled a bill, which is also backed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, that would increase penalties for dealers possessing only 1 gram of fentanyl and in cases where the drug leads to a death. The legislation also would increase the accessibility of naloxone and test strips, while steering people who possess fentanyl into education and treatment programs. A line has been drawn in the sand in Colorado, with the opposing sides proposing diametrically divergent approaches to criminalization: Law enforcement advocates focus on fentanyls grim death toll, insisting criminal possession is the only way to stop it, while harm reduction experts argue felonization merely returns Colorado to the War on Drugs. Law enforcement and some families pressed lawmakers to lower the felony threshold for possession of fentanyl currently set at 4 grams to any amount, while medical providers and addiction experts urged the committee to leave the issue alone and to reconsider other criminal penalties in the bill. They advocated, as they had before the bill was even released, that legislators adopt a health-centric approach to confront Colorados opioid crisis. When the committee voted 24 hours after Tuesdays hearing began to send the bill to the House Appropriations Committee, the legislation had been amended most notably to set the felony threshold for possession at 1 gram. The criminal justice approach becomes the baseline, the default, and people are arguing against that, instead of were going to follow the evidence, and were going to do these things that the evidence shows is likely to work, said Corey Davis, a deputy director with the Network for Public Health Law. Davis and others, including three Denver physicians who testified in front of the judiciary committee on Tuesday, repeatedly said law enforcement should provide evidence that more incarceration will address the crisis. There is evidence, they said, for increasing access to Naloxone and other harm reduction efforts, and for improving access to medication-assisted and outpatient treatments. Noa Krawczyk of the New York Universitys Department of Population Health and School of Medicine called that treatment modality the gold standard, and she said increasing its availability should be states priority. Rob Valuck, head of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, previously said that Colorado currently has capacity to meet just one-third of its substance-abuse treatment need. James Karbach, a Colorado public defender and the offices director of legislative policy and external communications, told the House Judiciary Committee he had compared drug penalties against overdose rates nationwide and found no correlation. I continue to believe the criminal laws and overdose data, along with years of research, is best characterized as showing that there is no evidence that felony possession laws reduce overdose deaths or illegal drug use, he told the Gazette in a subsequent email. But law enforcement advocates, backed by city officials, argue that fentanyl presents a unique, and too often deadly, challenge. The synthetic opioid can be lethal in small doses, they point out, noting it is involved in the deaths of nearly 900 Coloradans in 2021 up from 41 in 2015 and quadruple the number from 2019. Though pills made to look like oxycodone are how fentanyl is typically seen in Colorado, drug traffickers have increasingly begun mixing it into other substances, unbeknownst to users, with often fatal consequences. They insist that anything less than the toughest sanction on possession will fail to stop fentanyls trail of death. While law enforcement argue that trend is further reason to have zero tolerance for distributors and fentanyl generally, opponents counter that because fentanyl is increasingly ever-present across many types of drugs, felonizing any amount of its possession in any mixture would lead to a de facto crackdown on all drugs and further incarcerate users of all stripes. Police, some mayors, district attorneys and Attorney General Phil Weiser have all said that fentanyl is so potent that possessing all but the smallest amounts should be indicative of an intent to distribute and, thus, a direct danger to users and the public. Because of shifts in the drug supply, which has made heroin less available and fentanyl far more ubiquitous, many people with opioid-use disorders are left with fentanyl as the only way to satisfy their dependency and avoid agonizing drug withdrawals. Some in law enforcement have argued that incarcerating users is the best, and in some parts of the state only, way to get them treatment before they fatally overdose. The legislation would require courts to order residential treatment as a condition of probation for people convicted under the bills new fentanyl possession and distribution levels. The law enforcement coalition praised that addition. Krawczyk, the NYU School of Medicine professor, said it isnt totally unreasonable to require treatment. She and Davis pointed to studies that show people recently released from correctional facilities are at significantly higher risk of fatally overdosing than the general population. A 2018 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina put the risk at 40 times higher. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fentanyl has fueled a spiraling overdose crisis in Colorado and across the United States. The drug's increasingly ubiquitous presence, both in the illicit market overall and in other substances, has permanently changed the drug supply, officials say. Between March 2020 and March 2021, more than 100,000 Americans fatally overdosed, the first time the country had surpassed that grim milestone in a 12-month period. Most of those deaths involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. An even higher number died between November 2020 and November 2021, with synthetics present in roughly two-thirds of those overdose cases. So what is fentanyl, why has it become so dominant and what makes it unique? Fentanyl was first synthesized in 1960, and over the ensuing six decades it became one of the most common surgical analgesics, according to a 2014 article in the Journal of Pain. The substance is significantly stronger than morphine and heroin its opioid cousins and patches containing fentanyl have been used to treat some people with chronic pain, particularly related to cancer. Among other reasons, the drug is frequently used in medicine because of the relatively quick onset and short duration of its effects, along with its relative safety in clinical settings and its cheap, easy-to-synthesize nature. A bipartisan congressional report published in February traced the origins of the current fentanyl crisis back to the 1990s, when, spurred on by drug manufacturers, providers began writing more and more prescriptions for opioid pills, such as OxyContin, to treat chronic pain. In the years to come, that steady supply of legitimate pills seeped into America, building a demand for and supply of diverted or misused pain medications. An epidemic's onset That, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was the first phase of the opioid epidemic. The next phase began in 2010. As states and the federal government began to crack down on the prescribing of opioids and fewer became available on the illicit market, heroin became more prevalent. It was cheaper and more available than legitimate prescription pills, according to the congressional report, and regulatory changes to prescribing habits didn't affect the black market. The third phase began in 2013, as overdose rates related to synthetic opioids of which fentanyl is the primary actor began to rise. Before then, according to the report, illicit use of fentanyl "was a modest problem." That changed in the ensuing years, gradually in Colorado at first. But in recent years, in the wake of the pandemic and a more significant shift in the drug supply, fentanyl's presence and impact here has grown substantially. Illicit fentanyl's path into the United States has also changed over the past decade. It was first shipped directly from China, often via the U.S. Postal Service. But the Chinese government cracked down on the drug and its analogues, chemically similar variations of fentanyl, which prompted a shift. The chemicals needed to make it started shipping in greater quantities to Mexico and the cartels that dominate the drug trade there. Unlike heroin, illicit fentanyl doesn't need to be grown or cultivated. It's not dependent on the weather or seasons. Like methamphetamine, it can be made year-round and distributed using preexisting drug trafficking routes. Cheaper to produce, it brings in more money in smaller packages: A kilo of fentanyl about the size of a textbook, said David Olesky, who was the acting special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Colorado can yield $2 million to $3 million in revenue. DEA seizures of fentanyl pills have grown significantly in recent years. Olesky said a seizure of 100 counterfeit pills two years ago would've been cause for celebration. Between October and late February, he said, the agency seized roughly 800,000 pills in Colorado alone. Increasingly, according to the DEA and the congressional report, fentanyl is laced into heroin. According to Lisa Raville, who works with drug users at the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver, heroin is more difficult to find on the street. For drug traffickers, it's a simple economic decision, Olesky told The Gazette in February. The congressional report found that heroin seizures have fallen off, while those involving fentanyl or fentanyl mixed with heroin have risen. The consequence of drug traffickers' simple economic decision, Raville and others have said, is that people with opioid-use disorders, who previously may have used heroin or legitimate opioid pills, increasingly must turn to fentanyl, as it may be the only substance available on the market. Because the effects of fentanyl are more fleeting than heroin, users must buy the drug more frequently. Illicit fentanyl, when in pill or powder form, can be taken orally, smoked, snorted or injected. Researchers in San Francisco found smoking fentanyl has become more common than injecting, and Raville has said that some users believe smoking is safer than injecting. The ubiquity of fentanyl As lawmakers debate how to crack down on fentanyl's presence in Colorado, they encounter a frustrating dynamic that's unique to the drug: Its presence in other substances. As a powder, fentanyl can be laced into other substances but is most often made into pills. Officials have said that illicit fentanyl pressed into pills often with stamps that make them appear as legitimate oxycodone tablets is the primary way that the drug is taken in Colorado. Don Stader, an addiction physician and the head of the Colorado Naloxone Project, said late last month that fentanyl pills, often called blues or smurfs because of their color, have been the primary drug for users here in recent years. Those tablets are typically not pure fentanyl, law enforcement officials told Colorado lawmakers last week. According to DEA report from January 2020, fentanyl smuggled across the border is typically "low concentration, high-volume loads, (and) kilogram seizures often contain less than a 10% concentration of fentanyl." Illicit pills often include relatively small but still potent amounts of fentanyl, Beth McCann, Denver's district attorney, testified this week. The bulk of the pills are made of a "filler" substance. When the DEA arrested a prominent fentanyl dealer in Grand Junction in 2018, analysis of those pills showed them to be fentanyl and acetaminophen, which is essentially Tylenol. Some may have baby aspirin, lactose or other odorless, cheap substances. One gram of fentanyl pills, then, does not necessarily equate to 1 gram of pure fentanyl. Still, there is high variability in the strength of fentanyl pills because traffickers aren't exactly concerned scientists. That same dealer in Grand Junction has been linked to several deaths. According to the DEA, pills they've seized have had fentanyl strengths ranging from 0.2 milligrams to more than 5 milligrams. Forty-two percent of fentanyl pills recently seized by the DEA have contained a potentially lethal dose, the agency said in September. Fentanyl is increasingly being found in other drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine and pills that look like legitimate Xanax or Adderall. That increases the overdose risk for users of those substances who often don't realize what they're taking. That's not only because of fentanyl's potency, but also because those users may not have any tolerance for opioids. Josh Barocas, a physician who testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee, said he hadn't seen a urinary drug screen that didn't include fentanyl in the past six years. The result of all of these factors is that overdoses are rising, and not just for users who knowingly use the drug. According to data from the state Department of Public Health and Environment, 650 fatal overdoses involved meth in 2021. Of those, 42% also involved fentanyl. In 2018, that figure was fewer than 4%. The same is true for cocaine: Sixty-four percent of Colorado's 235 cocaine-related fatal overdoses in 2021 involved fentanyl. In 2018, it was 14%. Just how deadly? According to the DEA, 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose. The strength of the drug, its ubiquity across the black market, and the absolute absence of quality control on the part of drug traffickers has fueled the overdose crisis: Nearly 900 Coloradans fatally overdosed after ingesting fentanyl in 2021, up from 41 in 2015. However, the drug's potential danger can sometimes be overstated. Experts and research has shown it is not dangerous to the touch or when inhaled, except in extreme and prolonged cases. By Azernews Police have seized Armenian-left munitions in Fuzuli region liberated from Armenian occupation in 2020, according to local media. The Fuzuli region police department found nine assault rifles, one machine gun, one sniper rifle, one anti-tank guided missile, three grenade launchers, 30 different types of hand grenades, 67 shells of various calibers, 7,500 cartridges of various calibers and other ammunition left by the Armenian military during the 44-day war, the report added. The munitions were handed over to the relevant authorities. Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed the second war after the latter started firing at Azerbaijani civilians and military positions starting September 27, 2020. The war ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral ceasefire deal by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders. The ceasefire agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historic Shusha city. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw all its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied since the early 1990s. Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security, and cooperation. It should be noted that ANAMA, along with the partner countries, carries out demining activities on its liberated territories. Moreover, the State Border Service and the Defence Ministry also demine the liberated lands. Previously, on June 12, Azerbaijan handed over 15 Armenian prisoners in exchange for a map detailing the location of 97,000 mines in formerly-occupied Aghdam. On July 3, Armenia submitted to Azerbaijan maps of about 92,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines planted during the occupation of Fuzuli and Zangilan regions. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered peace agreement on November 10, 2020, to end 44 days of fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution. The Colorado Senate approved legislation Monday seeking to ban adults from talking on cellphones while driving, except when using a hands-free accessory like a Bluetooth headset. Under current law, adult drivers are allowed to use cellphones for calls but they cannot text or browse the internet. If passed, Senate Bill 175 would prohibit all hand-held cellphone use. Drivers under the age of 18 are already prohibited from all cellphone use, including hands-free. The Senate voted 24-10 in support of the bill Monday, sending it to the House for consideration. This is a great step forward for Colorado, said bill sponsor Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver. Ive been hit twice by distracted drivers. Both times, they had their cellphones up to their ears, not paying attention enough to the road, not keeping their hands available to control their vehicle. Luckily, Im here to tell the tale, but unfortunately that doesnt always happen. During a committee meeting on April 5, several victims of car crashes resulting from distracted driving testified in support of the bill. The victims included multiple people who had lost friends or family members and a Boulder man who lost both of his legs. Last year, 91% of Coloradans admitted to driving while distracted, according to a survey from the Colorado Department of Transportation. The survey found that 54% of drivers said they read text messages while driving and nearly 50% talk on cellphones without hands-free accessories which would be prohibited under the proposed bill. In 2020, there were 10,166 car crashes involving distracted drivers in Colorado, resulting in 1,476 injuries and 68 deaths, the department said. In 2021, there was a 47% increase in fatal crashes caused by distracted driving statewide, according to the Colorado State Patrol. The Democrat-sponsored bill received both bipartisan support and opposition. Of the 10 senators who voted against the bill, seven are Republicans and three are Democrats. I find these attempts to be virtually unenforceable and a new, unnecessary burden on law enforcement who should really be spending their efforts to curb the violent crime wave we are seeing in Colorado, said Sen. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, calling the bill, another effort to have the government dictating good judgement to our otherwise law-abiding and safe driving citizens. Other concerns included that the bill would result in disproportionate policing and racial profiling. However, Hansen said the bill includes demographic reporting and a requirement that police cannot issue the citation unless they explicitly see a driver using their phone. Colorado lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to ban talking on the phone while driving at least three other times. In 2020, Hansen sponsored SB20-65, which is nearly identical to the new SB-175. Hansens predecessor, Sen. Lois Court, D-Denver, also pushed similar bills in 2018 and 2019. Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, said he voted against previous efforts to pass the ban but is in support of the newest proposed bill. Holbert said, in 2010, he nearly rear-ended another car because he was looking at his phone while driving and didnt see that traffic had stopped. A few years ago, he said he was on his phone while stopped at a red light and he ran the light after hearing someone honk their horn, mistakenly assuming they were honking at him because the light turned green. I'm not innocent. I think none of us could claim complete innocence with these devices in our cars, Holbert said. But how many times do we need to see that, how many times do we need to be the victim of that before we recognize? We have to step in and say, no. Under the proposed bill, a driver caught using their cellphone would get a $75 fine and two license suspension points for the first offense. If a driver gets another citation within 24 months, they would face a $150 fine and three points for the second offense, and a $250 fine and four points for all subsequent offenses. The fines and points could be waived if the driver proves to the court they have purchased a hands-free device, Hansen said. Drivers exempt from the bill would include first responders, utility workers, commercial truckers, commercial license holders, drivers using their cellphones to report emergencies and drivers who are parked. Using hand-held cellphones while driving is already banned in 24 states and Washington D.C., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. As Colorado candidates and campaigns turn their attention from ballot access to the June primary, a look at some of the states most contentious and high-profile recent primaries can be instructive. Nearly all of Colorados high-profile primaries in statewide and congressional races this year are on the Republican side, largely due to the Democrats sweep at the polls in the past few elections. Democratic incumbents are seeking reelection to nearly every major office on the ballot. Democrats are facing a pair of congressional primaries 13-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is facing a challenge from the left, and three first-time candidates are vying for the nomination in the 3rd CD but the partys primary docket pales in comparison to the state Republican Party, which only counts a couple of big-league races without contested primaries. As the party has done numerous times this century, Colorados GOP will ask primary voters since 2018, that group has included unaffiliated voters, who can vote in either major partys primary to decide on its direction. Most of this years GOP contests are between old-school Republicans and a feisty brand of outsiders, falling on either side of a rift over whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election or as blared by candidates who grabbed top-line in contested primaries at the April 9 Republican state assembly the vote was stolen from Trump. Generally, U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks, gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez and secretary of state candidate Tina Peters fall on the stolen-election side, contrasted with their respective primary rivals Joe ODea, Heidi Ganahl and Pam Anderson. As always, the lines are blurry, with a few Republicans attempting to straddle the question, including a third Republican secretary of state candidate, Mike ODonnell, while some primaries feature rivals who fall along a spectrum rather than on distinct sides. Democrats are sending incumbents in each of the above offices straight to the general election ballot: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Each of the states Republican congressional incumbents are also confronted with primaries: U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn will go up against state Rep. Dave Williams, Rebecca Keltie and Andrew Heaton; U.S. Rep. Ken Buck wound up with a last-minute challenge at the assembly from political newcomer Bob Lewis; and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert will square off against state Sen. Don Coram. Initial indications are that this years crop of top-ticket GOP primaries could rank high among the young centurys classic knock-down, intraparty battles. The two major Colorado parties recent primary history is a study in contrasts, with Republican voters as often as not opting for outsiders, while Democrats have tended to stick with their partys more moderate options in statewide and congressional races. Heres a look at a set of Colorados more consequential primaries that bookended the last decade, each featuring showdowns between their partys more established candidates and their insurgent wings. In 2010, Republicans opted for less conventional nominees in the marquee U.S. Senate and governors races, while Democrats stuck with the incumbent U.S. senator, who was favored by the party establishment. Riding a tea party-fueled wave favorable to candidates who hadnt waited their turn, Republican Ken Buck, the Weld County district attorney, upset former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, the choice of national Republicans, in the U.S. Senate primary, winning by 3.14 points. In the Democratic primary for the seat, Michael Bennet, the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, had been appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter after Democrat Ken Salazar was appointed interior secretary in the Obama administration in January 2009. Andrew Romanoff, the outgoing state House speaker who had applied for the appointment, waited until that fall to launch a challenge from the left, eventually nabbing top line on the ballot after a series of wins at caucuses and assemblies. The better-funded Bennet, however, won the primary by 8.3 points and went on to defeat Buck by 1.7 points in what turned out to be one of the two closest Senate races in the country that year, tied for that distinction with the race in Illinois. While former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination unopposed, the GOP found itself with a primary between former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis and Evergreen businessman Dan Maes. If Bucks win over Norton didnt announce the arrival of the tea party in Colorado loudly enough, the drubbing suffered by former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis at the hands of novice politician Dan Maes delivered the message on no uncertain terms and nearly relegated the Colorado GOP to minor party status. Undone by a late-breaking plagiarism scandal, McInnis faced calls from fellow Republicans to withdraw before the primary in hopes a more formidable candidate could take his place as accumulating scandals including the largest campaign finance fine in state history eroded party stalwarts confidence in Maes. McInnis, however, stuck it out and lost by a 1.32-point whisker to Maes, trailing on primary night by just 5,000 votes out of nearly 400,000 cast. Maes limped to November as Republicans jumped ship in favor of former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, who ran on a third-party ticket and siphoned off conservative support. Hickenlooper carried the race, just topping 50% of the vote. Fast-forward a decade, and its another Democratic U.S. Senate primary featuring the establishment pick this time, Hickenlooper, fresh from two terms as governor and a brief presidential campaign and Romanoff. Throngs of Democrats threw their hats in the ring for the chance to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, pegged as the most vulnerable senator on the ballot in 2020. By the time Hickenlooper ditched his stalled White House bid and jumped to the Senate primary in August 2020, more than 20 Democrats had declared their candidacies, though the field quickly dwindle once the heavyweight entered the race. Within a few weeks, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, former ambassador Dan Baer, former U.S. Attorney John Walsh, former state House Majority Leader Alice Madden and state Sen. Angela Williams had withdrawn or ended their campaigns. Romanoff and several other progressive candidates including Lorena Garcia, Stephanie Rose Spaulding, Michelle Ferrigno Warren, Diana Bray and Trish Zornio stuck it out. Romanoff was the only one to make it to the primary ballot along with Hickenlooper, though, after the COVID-19 pandemic stymied the other candidates petition and assembly efforts. Despite an 11th-hour flurry of bad headlines after Hickenlooper skipped an appearance at a virtual hearing of the states Independent Ethics Commission earning him a contempt citation and a modest fine for accepting a pair of free private plane rides while he was governor Hickenlooper trounced Romanoff by 17.3 points and went on to beat Gardner by 9.32 points. That same year, five-term U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton lost his seat in a Republican primary to Lauren Boebert, the owner of a gun-themed restaurant. No stranger to primaries he had to get past Republican rivals in three of his five successful runs for the 3rd CD seat Tipton approached his latest challenger much the same as he had his previous opponents, whose bids fizzled after initially exciting enough enthusiasm to get on the ballot. Boebert, however, was different. She embraced Trump and his most ardent followers despite Trumps endorsement of the incumbent, surprising Tipton with a 9.2-point win in the primary. Boebert went on to defeat Democratic nominee Diane Mitsch-Bush, a former state lawmaker, by 5.86 points. By Trend President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov will embark on an official visit to Azerbaijan on April 19-20, Trend reports citing Kabar. During the visit, Zhaparov will meet Azerbaijani Parliament Chairperson Sahiba Gafarova. Besides, a meeting is planned to be held with representatives of Azerbaijani business circles, during which information about Kyrgyzstan and the prospects for cooperation in the trade and investment sphere will be presented. The visit will take place on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, as well as the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the countries. Its planned to sign a number of documents, in particular, the Declaration on strategic partnership, the Memorandum on the establishment of the Interstate Council, as well as intergovernmental and interdepartmental agreements meeting the interests of the countries. By Azernews The fifth World Azerbaijani Congress will be held in Azerbaijan's liberated Shusha city, the State Committee on Work with Diaspora reported on April 18. The preparations for the Fifth World Azerbaijani Congress are nearing completion. The congress will be held in Shusha, Azerbaijan's cultural capital, which was liberated from Armenia's 30-year occupation by the mighty Azerbaijani army. The congress participants will first visit Baku's Alley of Honors, then the Alleys of Martyrs I and II before departing for Shusha. The event is expected to draw 400 diaspora representatives from 65 countries. Following the official opening ceremony, there will be a report on the activities of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora, discussions on "Challenges facing the Azerbaijani Diaspora in the post-war period", "Contributions of the Azerbaijani Diaspora to the restoration and reconstruction of Karabakh". It should be noted that the congress will be the first major event of the diaspora after the liberation of Karabakh, which demonstrated high organization and unity in recent years and played a special role in informing the international community about Azerbaijans realities. In 2020, President Ilham Aliyev outlined significant services of the Azerbaijanis worldwide in the victory that the country won in the 44-day war with Armenia. "I am confident that we will soon turn our native Karabakh, which was completely destroyed as a result of Armenian occupation and savagery, into a paradise on earth. The courageous protests of our compatriots living abroad against the insidious provocations of the enemy and anti-Azerbaijani circles during the Patriotic War, their selfless service in conveying the truth about Azerbaijan to the world community have made a sizable contribution to our victory," he said. The state committee organized a tour to Shusha for representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora who had come to Azerbaijan for their summer vacation on July 27, 2021. Furthermore, following its victory over Armenia in the 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan has organized a number of international and domestic events in Shusha. Shusha was occupied by Armenian forces on May 8, 1992, and liberated by Azerbaijan during the 44-day war on November 8, 2020. Shusha was declared Azerbaijans cultural capital by the presidential decree on May 7. Apart from Shusha, 300 other city centers, villages, and settlements were liberated from Armenian occupation during the war in 2020. Following the liberation of Shusha, the Azerbaijani, Russian, and Armenian leaders signed a trilateral peace treaty on November 10. The peace treaty called for the return of Azerbaijan's Kalbajar, Aghdam, and Lachin regions, which had been occupied by Armenia since the early 1990s. ARMSTRONG (AP) A former Armstrong police officer has been charged with dozens of crimes, making him the latest in a string of former town officials to face criminal charges in the last 14 months in a wide-reaching corruption case. Former Armstrong officer Benjamin Scheevel was charged earlier this month with 84 felony and misdemeanor counts some dating back to 2016, radio station KILR reported. The counts include stalking, involving at least two women, non-felonious misconduct in office, assault and unauthorized dissemination of criminal history data. He also faces counts of obstruction, theft and tax evasion. Scheevel is being held in the Buena Vista County Jail on a $200,000 bond. An attorney listed for him in online court documents did not immediately return a phone message left Monday by The Associated Press. The case is being prosecuted by the Iowa Attorney Generals Office, which is also pursuing cases again other former Armstrong officials, including the former mayor, police chief and several town clerks. Those charges were brought following a multi-year investigation that uncovered embezzlement and other abuses, authorities said. Armstrong is an Emmet County city of 880 residents located 135 miles north of Des Moines, near the states border with Minnesota. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Aida Overton Walker (18801914), one of the most widely acclaimed African American performers of the early twentieth century, was known largely for popularizing a dance form known as the cakewalk through her choreographing, performance, and teaching of the dance. The cakewalk was originally developed prior to the United States Civil War by African Americans, for whom dance was a means of maintaining cultural links within a slave society. It was based on traditional West African ceremonial dances, and like many other African American dances, it retained features characteristic of African dance forms, such as gliding steps and an emphasis on improvisation. To this African-derived foundation, the cakewalk added certain elements from European dances: where African dances feature flexible body postures, large groups and separate-sex dancing, the cakewalk developed into a high-kicking walk performed by a procession of couples. Ironically, while these modifications later enabled the cakewalk to appeal to European Americans and become one of the first cultural forms to cross the racial divide in North America, they were originally introduced with satiric intent. Slaves performed the grandiloquent walks in order to parody the processional dances performed at slave owners balls and, in general, the self-important manners of slave owners. To add a further irony, by the end of the nineteenth century, the cakewalk was itself being parodied by European American stage performers, and these parodies in turn helped shape subsequent versions of the cakewalk. While this complex evolution meant that the cakewalk was not a simple cultural phenomenon one scholar has characterized this layering of parody upon parody with the phrase mimetic vertigoit is in fact, what enabled the dance to attract its wide audience. In the cultural and socioeconomic flux of the turn-of-the-century United States, where industrialization, urbanization, mass immigration, and rapid social mobility all reshaped the cultural landscape, an art form had to be capable of being many things to many people in order to appeal to a large audience. Walkers remarkable success at popularizing the cakewalk across otherwise relatively rigid racial boundaries rested on her ability to address within her interpretation of it the varying and sometimes conflicting demands placed on the dance. Middle- class African Americans, for example, often denounced the cakewalk as disreputable, a complaint reinforced by the parodies circulating at the time. Walker won over this audience by refining the cakewalk and emphasizing its fundamental grace. Meanwhile, because middle- and upper-class European Americans often felt threatened by the tremendous cultural flux around them, they prized what they regarded as authentic art forms as bastions of stability; much of Walkers success with this audience derived from her distillation of what was widely acclaimed as the most authentic cakewalk. Finally, Walker was able to gain the admiration of many newly rich industrialists and financiers, who found in the grand flourishes of her version of the cakewalk a fitting vehicle for celebrating their newfound social rank. 1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage? The passage asserts which one of the following about the cakewalk? It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements? The author describes the socioeconomic flux of the turn-of-the-century United States in the third paragraph primarily in order to Which one of the following is most analogous to the author's account in the second paragraph of how the cakewalk came to appeal to European Americans? The passage most strongly suggests that the author would be likely to agree with which one of the following statements about Walker's significance in the history of the cakewalk? The passage provides sufficient information to answer which one of the following questions? A. Walker, who was especially well known for her success in choreographing, performing, and teaching the cakewalk, was one of the most widely recognized African American performers of the early twentieth century.B. In spite of the disparate influences that shaped the cakewalk, Walker was able to give the dance broad appeal because she distilled what was regarded as the most authentic version in an era that valued authenticity highly.C. Walker popularized the cakewalk by capitalizing on the complex cultural mix that had developed from the dances original blend of satire and cultural preservation, together with the effects of later parodies.D. Whereas other versions of the cakewalk circulating at the beginning of the twentieth century were primarily parodic in nature, the version popularized by Walker combined both satire and cultural preservation.E. Because Walker was able to recognize and preserve the characteristics of the cakewalk as African Americans originally performed it, it became the first popular art form to cross the racial divide in the United States.A. It was largely unknown outside African American culture until Walker popularized it.B. It was mainly a folk dance, and Walker became one of only a handful of people to perform it professionally.C. Its performance as parody became uncommon as a result of Walkers popularization of its authentic form.D. Its West African origins became commonly known as a result of Walkers work.E. It was one of the first cultural forms to cross racial lines in the United States.A. Because of the broad appeal of humour, satiric art forms are often among the first to cross racial or cultural divisions.B. The interactions between African American and European American cultural forms often result in what is appropriately characterized as mimetic vertigo.C. Middle-class European Americans who valued the cakewalks authenticity subsequently came to admire other African American dances for the same reason.D. Because of the influence of African dance forms, some popular dances that later emerged in the United States featured separate-sex dancing.E. Some of Walkers admirers were attracted to her version of the cakewalk as a means for bolstering their social identities.A. argue that the cakewalk could have become popular only in such complex social circumstancesB. detail the social context that prompted performers of the cakewalk to fuse African and European dance formsC. identify the target of the overlapping parodic layers that characterized the cakewalkD. indicate why a particular cultural environment was especially favorable for the success of the cakewalkE. explain why European American parodies of the cakewalk were able to reach wide audiencesA. Satirical versions of popular music songs are frequently more popular than the songs they parody.B. A style of popular music grows in popularity among young listeners because it parodies the musical styles admired by older listeners.C. A style of music becomes admired among popular music's audience in part because of elements that were introduced in order to parody popular music.D. A once popular style of music wins back its audience by incorporating elements of the style of music that is currently most popular.E. After popular music begins to appropriate elements of a traditional style of music, interest in that traditional music increases.A. Walker broadened the cakewalk's appeal by highlighting elements that were already present in the dance.B. Walker's version of the cakewalk appealed to larger audiences than previous versions did because she accentuated its satiric dimension.C. Walker popularized the cakewalk by choreographing various alternative interpretations of it, each tailored to the interests of a different cultural group.D. Walker added a "mimetic vertigo" to the cakewalk by inserting imitations of other performers' cakewalking into her dance routines.E. Walker revitalized the cakewalk by disentangling its complex admixture of African and European elementsA. What were some of the attributes of African dance forms that were preserved in thecakewalk?B. Who was the first performer to dance the cakewalk professionally?C. What is an aspect of the cakewalk that was preserved in other North American dance forms?D. What features were added to the original cakewalk by the stage parodies circulating at the end of the nineteenth century?E. For about how many years into the twentieth century did the cakewalk remain widely popular? AWA Score: 5 out of 6! I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay. Coherence and connectivity: 4.5/5 This rating corresponds to the flow of idea and expression from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analysed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters. Paragraph structure and formation: 5/5 The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs is evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay. Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5 This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocaubulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word-usage. Simple is the best form of suave! Good Luck AashishGautam wrote: Danville Community College is teaming up with Tyson Foods for a new training program, and students who complete it will receive priority when it comes to hiring at the new facility under construction in Pittsylvania County. The maintenance technology program is designed to help students find skilled work at the new facility expected to be in operation early next year, a news release stated. Almost 400 jobs will be created at the plant, which will cook, season, flash-freeze, package and ship out foods including Anytizer Snacks, chicken nuggets and other products. Hiring for maintenance technician roles will start in early 2023. Thats also when the first class of students in the program will be finished. Those enrolled students have the chance to be granted a guaranteed interview and priority placement in a maintenance position, DCC officials said. The career path we hope our students will pursue at Tyson Foods will begin with roles that pay well and have significant upward mobility, said Muriel Mickles, interim president at Danville Community College. Maintenance technicians have the opportunity to begin their careers with Tyson with nearly $45,000 in annual pay, plus full benefits, with the opportunity to grow into larger and even better compensated roles. The maintenance technology certification will train students in the repair and maintenance of mechanical and electrical equipment along with diagnosing, troubleshooting and maintaining automated systems, the release stated. Tyson Foods strives to be the most sought-after place to work, and were thankful for the warm welcome weve received from the people of Danville and Pittsylvania County, said Derek Baucom, vice president, poultry operations for Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods offers competitive pay, health, dental and vision insurance, as well as a company matching 401k and stock purchase plan, according to the release. Students will come away from this training opportunity with the skills to pursue a rewarding career, said Mickles. Many of these students will attend classes with zero out of pocket cost thanks to our robust financial aid and scholarship packages. The program consists of 700 hours of training offered at the DCC Regional Center for Technical Training in both day and evening cohorts. The day cohort will start May 2 and will graduate in November, with classes held Monday to Friday. The evening cohort will start May 10 and will graduate in May 2023, with classes held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Were thrilled that Danville Community College was able to develop a Maintenance Technology Program that students can complete while we build our facility, so theyll be ready to go to work when were ready to hire, said Baucom. For more information, visit www.tysonfoods.com/danville-virginia, or to enroll, contact Chad Younger at 434-797-8573 or email chadrick.younger@danville.edu. With decades of experience in management and local government, public safety director Chris Slemp has been promoted to director of operations for Pittsylvania County. Slemp will assume his new duties on May 1. I have enjoyed overseeing the development of the Pittsylvania County Public Safety Department, which touches all of our county residents and businesses in some way, Slemp said. Ive been lucky to make some great friendships with many of the volunteers and staff and Ill miss working with them every day. Our public safety system is lucky to have such great people as a part of it. As the director of operations, I am ready to make a positive impact on the county in different areas. I am thrilled to serve the county in this role, which includes more diverse responsibilities. The public safety department has improved under Slemps leadership since Pittsylvania County hired him in November of 2017. In the summer of 2020, public safety transitioned from relying on contractors for backup EMS service to hiring its own team of paid EMS professionals that are staffed at four locations. Some of the departments that fall under the public safety umbrella include the 911 center, animal control, EMS staff, the fire marshals and emergency management. Slemp also worked closely with the countys 23 volunteer agencies to coordinate effective emergency services. Slemp has demonstrated professionalism and effective management skills during his time as the Countys Public Safety Director, said Interim County Administrator Clarence Monday. We are confident that Slemp will be an asset to the County in this new position. In his new position, Slemp will oversee three primary areas: the public works department, the Pittsylvania Pet Center and special projects. The public works department includes solid waste operations, water and sewer services, and the building and grounds department. Some of the special projects that Slemp will manage beginning day one include the restoration of the Ringgold Rail Trail Bridge, the Gretna Library Renovation project, and convenience center improvements. Before joining Pittsylvania Countys Public Safety Department, Slemp served in a variety of public safety and management positions, including stints as the deputy fire chief for Horry County, South Carolina, director of public safety for Franklin County and battalion chief with Hanover County. Slemp has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and economics from Emory and Henry College and a masters in public administration and disaster management from Liberty University. How to Clip Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue. RALEIGH The political fundraising of Republican U.S. Senate candidates Pat McCrory and Ted Budd remained neck-and-neck entering the final full month before the May 17 primary. With the impending retirement of GOP Sen. Richard Burr, the seat has been hotly contested by both major parties attempting to make a power play. Campaign finance reports for the first quarter show McCrory, the former governor, and current U.S. House member Budd collecting essentially the same level of contributions. But Budd is separately benefiting from a political action committee that has already spent several million dollars on ads and mailers attacking McCrory. Budd also has received former President Donald Trumps endorsement. Looking at candidate fundraising, however, McCrory had a slight advantage over Budd, according to reports that were due last Friday with the Federal Election Commission. McCrory reported having more cash in his campaign coffers entering April $2.2 million compared to $1.9 million for Budd. Since early 2021 before either candidate had entered the race Budd has raised slightly more overall, campaign reports show. The congressman from Advance has raised $4.2 million compared to $4.1 million for McCrory. Budds overall total contains $275,000 that he loaned his campaign. Club for Growth Action, whose parent organization has endorsed Budd, plans to spend $14 million on the North Carolina primary. An FEC filing by the super PAC said it had already incurred $4.7 million in independent expenditures in the race through February. The super PAC and Budds campaign are barred from coordinating activities. McCrory has accused the Washington-based Club for Growth of essentially buying support for Budd. The ex-governor and other primary rivals have also criticized Budd for declining so far to participate in televised debates. Carolina Senate Fund, a super PAC supporting McCrory, reported last week that it had collected $478,500 in the first quarter and had $752,000 entering April. In a separate filing, the organization said it had spent $117,000 on campaign mailers. Among other Republican Senate hopefuls, former Rep. Mark Walkers campaign totals remain well behind those of Budd and McCrory. He was also outraised in the first quarter by first-time political candidate Marjorie Eastman of Cary, campaign reports show. Walker reported collecting $105,000 in the first quarter and had $509,000 in cash available. Eastman, a combat veteran, raised $372,000 of which $160,000 was from a personal loan and had $441,000 in cash on hand. The four candidates are among 14 seeking the GOP nomination. The top vote-getter must receive more than 30% of the vote to avoid a late July runoff with the second-place finisher. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in an 11-candidate field raised $3.6 million in the first quarter and had $5.1 million on hand entering April, according to her FEC report. Beasleys campaign had announced those totals earlier in the month, showing she is the most prolific fundraiser in the field to date. CHARLOTTE Political organizer Kristen Havlik didnt expect to find popularity on TikTok when she first started posting on the platform last summer. At the time, she was running for public office and wanted to spread the word about her campaign. Shes no longer running for office, but she is still on TikTok, where her platform has since grown. Havlik has amassed what she calls a niche North Carolina audience by breaking down issues in state and local politics. When you think of TikTok, news and politics may not be the first thing that comes to mind. The video-sharing app, which boasts more than a billion users, is probably best known for its dance videos, viral trends and otherwise silly, informal content. Its launched the careers of countless content creators who now make a living off of social media. But its more than that, too. Or at least it can be. Havlik has nearly 15,000 followers on TikTok, but many of her videos garner even more views than that. One video in which she explained the legal challenges to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorns candidacy was viewed more than 129,000 times. Videos about the redistricting process, as well as housing prices and gentrification in North Carolina cities, have also been popular. Havliks goal is to be a resource for fellow working-class people, many of whom have been turned off by a political process that is sometimes intentionally convoluted and inaccessible. Unlike many popular TikTok videos, the ones Havlik posts are not heavily edited or theatrical. More often than not, shes simply speaking straight to the camera from her couch, kitchen or somewhere else in her home. I think that the working-class person experience is not talked about enough, Havlik said. And so I think maybe my following comes to me because they know that Im a reliable source and also that Im super relatable because Im in the same shoes as a lot of the people that are following me. Political participation at the local and state level is often fairly low but its not always because people dont care. There are significant barriers to civic engagement, especially for working class and marginalized people. Oftentimes, the reason why people are disengaged or disillusioned with politics is because they feel politicians dont make enough of an effort to reach them. For Havlik, this work is not unfamiliar. She currently works for the New North Carolina Project, a grassroots organization that helps communities of color leverage their voice and political power. Havlik says that TikTok is a way to explain issues that may be difficult to understand like redistricting and deliver information in an easily digestible way. Many people stumble across her videos and are surprised to learn whats happening. Some ask how they can get more involved or learn more. Her videos have even prompted people to register to vote, sometimes because they werent sure how to do so previously. Roughly half of U.S. adults say they at least occasionally get their news from social media, so its not entirely surprising that Havlik has seen people engaging with her videos. More recently, TikTok has been a place for people around the world to coalesce around current events. Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine has been branded as the first TikTok war. Even the White House has begun to recognize the power of TikTok. Last month, 30 top TikTok stars were invited to a virtual briefing hosted by National Security Council staffers and White House press secretary Jen Psaki, where they received information about the war in Ukraine and how the U.S. has been involved in it. Theres a place for everything on TikTok, Havlik said. Its not just for videos and funny skits and things like that. People legitimately want to learn more, and they want to see the real thing from people in plain and simple terms for them to understand. By Azernews By Sabina Mammadli Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva has demanded that those responsible for Armenia's numerous crimes against peaceful Azerbaijanis face justice, the ombudsman's office has reported. She made the remarks in a statement dedicated to the 29th anniversary of the Bashlibel massacre committed by Armenians in 1993. We believe that those responsible for the numerous crimes committed by Armenia against peaceful Azerbaijanis, including the Bashlibel massacre, will soon be brought to justice and answer before the court, the statement said. She noted that the genocide, deportation, ethnic cleansing and occupation carried out by Armenia on the basis of hatred against Azerbaijan, resulted in the ruthless murder of thousands of innocent Azerbaijanis. Aliyeva informed that as a result of the genocide committed by Armenia in Kalbajar region's Bashlibel village, as well as the act of vandalism against Azerbaijan's historical and cultural heritage, the requirements of existing international human rights law have been grossly violated. The rights activist brought to light that one of the Armenian war crimes against humanity, which resulted in massacres, occurred in the village of Bashlibel in April 1993, during the occupation of Kalbajar region. According to the statement, during the Armenian occupation of Bashlibel, 62 civilians sought refuge in a cave to escape, but when the Armenians discovered them, they launched an armed attack and committed a massacre. As a result of this crime, villagers, including children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly, were tortured to death, and some were even burned alive, she stated. After the liberation of Kalbajar region, Azerbaijan Discovered the burial place near the cave of these brutally killed people. Aliyeva emphasized that the massacred residents' remains were exhumed, identified, and buried separately. According to the statement, the surviving witnesses' testimonies confirm that there were hostages among the residents during the Bashlibel massacre and that some are still missing. Furthermore, the human rights commissioner stated that during the occupation of Bashlibel, one of the oldest and largest villages in the Kalbajar region, historical, cultural, and religious objects were destroyed. It should be noted that the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor annual report on the global human rights situation in 2021 also covers the details of the Bashlibel tragedy. After liberating its lands from occupation during the 2020 Patriotic War, Azerbaijan inspected Bashlibel village by a drone. The inspection revealed that all the houses, buildings and infrastructure that existed in the village before the occupation were completely destroyed. The Prosecutor General's Office investigation evidenced that the Armenian armed forces were particularly cruel to the civilian population in Bashlibel village when they occupied the Kalbajar region with military aggression in early April 1993, as they did in other regions of Azerbaijan. Under the court decision on corpse exhumation, on April 24, 2021, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office's Investigation Department conducted an investigation in Bashlibel. As a result, the remains of 12 skeletons were discovered buried at a depth of 50 cm. These remains belong to 12 unarmed Azerbaijanis (a 12-year-old child, a 16-year-old teenager, including six women and six men) who were deliberately killed by the Armenian armed forces on April 18, 1993. Bashlibel is part of a series of systematic genocide acts that Armenia committed against innocent Azerbaijanis during the first Karabakh war in 1988-94. Kalbajar region also saw the Aghdaban massacre, which occurred a year before Armenian military forces occupied Azerbaijan's Kalbajar region. It is one of the bloodiest chapters in Armenia's anti-Azerbaijan aggression. During the massacre, the Armenian invaders committed horrifying atrocities, violating both military and international human rights principles by brutally murdering civilians and destroying all historical monuments in the village. As a result of the Aghdaban tragedy, which resulted in the burning of the entire village, hundreds of civilians were tortured and forced to flee their homes. Armenia has violated the provisions of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and the Paris Convention on the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property (1972) and plundered Azerbaijans cultural property in all its former occupied territories. Many of the Armenia-committed massacres on Azerbaijan's formerly occupied territories meet entirely the requirements of the Genocide Convention, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948. Therefore, these tragedies must be classified as acts of genocide under international law, and the slaughter perpetrated against the civilian population of Aghdaban should be recognized as a genocide crime by the international community. Those who step into the field of social work who willingly intertwine themselves in complex social issues with a desire to bridge the gap between problems and solutions are not lacking in courage. Each Master of Social Work student at Carroll College has a distinctive why for their pursuit of a graduate-level social work degree. Check out this photo gallery to hear their stories, in their own words, giving a glimpse of their reverence for both the field and their neighbors in Helena. Salina Ernst I completed my Bachelor of Arts in sociology with a focus in medical care in 2018, and I knew I was not ready to stop there. I needed a license to go forward with my passion. I kept praying for the door to open that was right for me and my family. Carroll Colleges Master of Social Work program opened what I had been praying for and allowed me to take the next step in my educational and professional journey. Learning to navigate systems, organizations, advocate and get appropriate medical care for my own family members that had medical and mental health needs and were falling through the cracks taught me how hard social services can be to get. It was a full-time job for me. It also showed me how much marginalization happens without people knowing it is happening. How many people who don't have just the bare minimum transportation, housing, food, clean clothing typically arent heard and fall through the cracks? I want to be there to listen to someone's personal story that has just been told or listened to for the first time, help them understand their trauma and reaction to it within their body, and support them with their mental health or substance abuse disorders by walking next to them, giving them tools and ultimately allowing them to utilize those tools along their journey and allowing them to find their true version of self and independence. Sophia (Ruah) Ferst I am a current student of the program and will complete my degree in the spring of 2023. I am also an alumni of Carroll College's undergraduate program. I am part of the inaugural class in the MSW program, and I am studying clinical social work. My area of interest is in working with adults with mental illness. As part of the program, we are given the opportunity to do a practicum in any number of organizations in our hometown. I am honored to be doing my practicum at a local women's shelter. They graciously offered me a position in care management on behalf of the shelter clients. I took on this position and have been working one on one with women in our Helena community who have experienced domestic violence, stalking and/or sexual assault. I am deeply motivated by a passion to help others not just survive, but find ways to thrive and overcome mental illness. I am also interested in brain chemistry and how neurobiology so closely affects our body and health. I intend to finish my education with a doctorate in psychology and felt that a masters in social work with a clinical focus was the perfect steppingstone to the next step in my education. As an MSW, I am able to effect change in my community and advocate for justice. Dani Marietti I am in Carroll's first Social Work cohort currently in the second semester of my first year. Our focus lies in our practicum or internships. My focus is to become a therapist. My first practicum has been at an elementary school with the CSCT (Comprehensive School and Community Treatment) program, and soon, I'll also be at a preschool. Next year my practicum will be more focused on what kind of clinician I want to be. In my last year of undergrad, I wrote my capstone on how authors represent trauma in their characters in literature. This research and study were so fascinating to me that I wanted to continue studying it. After graduation, I started working at a children's hospital to gain experience in the field as I searched for post-graduate schools. I was looking for an LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor) program. However, when Carroll announced their Social Work program, I decided it would be the perfect fit for me. Holly Mook I am a current student in the Master of Social Work program at Carroll College. The program has a clinical focus, which is why I chose to apply and attend. My ultimate goal after graduation is to obtain credentials as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I have a bachelors in psychology, am a Licensed Addiction Counselor and have always been attracted to working in the human services field. I consider myself a lifelong learner and have always wanted to expand my skills and become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. When Carroll College started the program this past fall, I knew it was time to pursue the degree and follow my deeper purpose. In my previous position, I saw a growing need for social workers in Montana, as more and more children and families were being impacted by behavioral health challenges and other serious social issues. I had become very familiar with the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and how these experiences impact mental and physical health. I understand the importance of trauma-informed care, policies and procedures to support those impacted by trauma, and the ripple effect trauma has. Carroll's program is rooted in the principles and methods of culturally competent trauma-informed care, integrated care and evidence-based practice. I felt that my education, work experience and professional development aligned with what Carroll's Master of Social Work program offers. For me, it's not just about another credential, it's about providing resilience-focused care, evidenced-based/promising practice and professionalism to those I serve and will serve. Laurie Sweeney I was an accountant for 30 years. I got involved in our local (Lewistown) recovery community in 2015 and then worked part time for a national advocacy organization. Recovery became my passion. And more specifically, advocating for more services and better treatment for people in, or seeking, recovery. When I went back to school in 2017 to study addiction counseling, I had no intention of becoming a clinician; I just wanted the education. At some point, I realized that as a clinician I could better effect change on the recovery side of the continuum of care that includes prevention, treatment and recovery. However, once I became a clinician, I realized I was still very limited in what I could treat so I decided to get a masters. I figured my choices were mental health counseling or social work. Because social work is an advocacy degree, that was my choice. I looked at a lot of schools and decided on Carroll because it was a brand-new program. I like getting in on the ground floor, and they have a fantastic reputation. I currently work in a community health center as a licensed addiction counselor, and I have had the opportunity to advocate in a variety of ways for people who are commonly oppressed. For more information on Carroll College and these and other degree programs, visit Carroll.edu. This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Thanks to a recent Montana History Foundation grant award and a financial commitment from the city of Helena, a long-fought effort to restore the city's beloved fire tower has new legs to stand on. The Helena Fire Tower received $10,000 from MHF and was one of 28 projects in Montana to be awarded a piece of the organization's more than $212,000 in grant money for 2022. "It's very much a symbol now," Helena and Lewis and Clark County Heritage Preservation Officer Pam Attardo said, speaking to the importance of the wooden structure perched above Last Chance Gulch. Attardo said much of the tower, including all four legs and the sill, date back to 1874. "It really is still the fire tower," she said. A suspected arson fire set in 2016 left portions of the structure damaged, and the city did not commit funds to restore the tower at the time. The tourist draw has been fenced off, unable to support any more weight than some strands of lights since then. In 2020, staff planned to use dollars from Helena's Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Lands budget in conjunction with community donations and a Montana Department of Commerce Historic Preservation grant of $25,000 to begin rehabilitation work. The city committed $150,000 to the project from the general fund, and that has been carried over from budget to budget since 2020. The anticipated department of commerce grant fell through. Helena's fire tower rehabilitation ranked 12th out of 94 projects that applied for the grant money, but the Montana Legislature killed the funding for it because it is located in Helena. State Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, said on the House floor the fire tower project stricken from the bill "ended up being taken out not because it was a bad project, but because it was located here in Helena. ... the idea being these extra dollars going outside of Helena to reach the other areas of Montana and the history that is associated with those areas." Attardo said she and her staff have worked hard to secure alternative sources of funding to plug the hole left by the Legislature's decision. In addition to the $10,000 awarded by the MHF, she said two more grant awards of $15,000 and $60,000 could potentially be on the horizon. Estimates of the total project cost have risen from about $180,000 in 2020 to upward of $220,000 as of this year. Attardo said to maintain the fire tower's place on the National Register of Historic Places, rehabilitation of the structure needs to meet the secretary of the interior's exacting standards, which dictate everything from the tools used on the job to the moisture content of the timber. Doug Porter is an architectural conservator specializing in the investigation, stabilization and repair of culturally significant sites. Porter has restored numerous landmarks including the Keane Wonder Mine Aerial Tramway in Death Valley National Park and the Cable Mountain Draw Works in Zion National Park. "He would really be the most qualified person for the job," Attardo said, adding that the plan is to bring Porter to inspect the fire tower and eventually contract his services to oversee the project. Parks, Recreation and Open Lands Director Kristi Ponozzo said in an interview the city will first need to competitively bid the contract. According to Attardo, years of neglect and the lack of a maintenance plan from the city has left the icon in "pretty dire straights." The last significant repair work done to the tower was in 1998. Metal plates and sealant applied to the structure in misguided efforts to keep it standing have trapped moisture in the timber, causing the fire tower to rot from the inside out. But the stakes may be higher than anyone realizes. While conducting research for the project, Attardo's team uncovered a newspaper article from 1970 that claimed Helena's fire tower was one of only five such structures left in the United States, prompting the question of where the others are. They reached out to contacts in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to find the fire towers. Attardo said in an email Wednesday that she has received responses from 40 states so far. None has such a structure still standing. Attardo said Helena's fire tower may be the last remaining wooden fire tower in an urban setting in the country, a mark that could earn it designation as a national historic landmark. "Then it becomes nationally significant," Attardo said. "That would open up the door to more grant opportunities and federal funding." Ponozzo said her department is up to the task of maintaining the fire tower should the reinvestment be made, and added that a maintenance plan expected to come out of the project will be welcomed. "We would certainly work with our partners at the Montana Historical Society to maintain the fire tower with historical integrity," she said. "Pieces like this, iconic pieces on our landscape, are part of the culture of this city. It will always be important, and we want to treasure it." There is no timeline as of yet for the project, Ponozzo said. To back up the city's newfound commitment, Attardo said the Helena and Lewis and Clark County Heritage Tourism Council is working with nonprofit organizations Preserve Montana and Friends of the Fire Tower to drum up an additional $100,000 to be seed a permanent endowment for the fire tower administered by MHF. "The hope is it won't get back to the point it's at now," she said. Love 4 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Your voice in the U.S. House of Representatives is about to double thanks to population growth that gave Montana back its second congressional seat for the first time in nearly 30 years. One of the big questions voters in western Montana face is whether they want their new representative to truly voice their interests or whether we will have a congressperson who is more at ease with the powerful interests that spend over a hundred million dollars each year on K-Street lobbyists and consultants who haunt the hallways of Congress seeking special favors at the expense of Montanans. If you read or listen to the talking heads in the D.C. swamp, the odds-on favorite for our new seat is Ryan Zinke. Thats the same Ryan Zinke who, only four months after being elected in November 2016, walked away from his Montana congressional seat to take a position where he could coddle those same powerful special interests as they sought favors and special advantage. Its paid off as Zinke is now $30 million richer since jumping into the D.C. swamp. But Zinke had already bellied up to the petroleum bar to cash-in on the big money theyre pocketing by overcharging us at the gas pump. In his legally-required financial report, Zinke disclosed that he had received $460,000 from ConocoPhillips alone. That report was up to seven months late, raising more questions of whether Zinke was getting money from Big Oil as a candidate. Almost exactly a year ago, while still being paid big money from Big Oil, Zinke decided to announce that he would start picking up big campaign dollars from Big Oil by running for this seat. Sort of like trying to butter your bread on both sides. And this could just be the tip of an iceberg. As I said, representing Montana is about making choices. Candidates have choices to make. Voters have choices to make. Ryan Zinke made a choice years back to be in the pocket of Big Oil. He supported them in Congress, coddled them from Interior, collected more than a half million from them as a consultant or board member, and now is chasing them for more campaign cash. There is no question whose bed Ryan Zinke has chosen to lay down in. I have made a choice as well. In a letter last week to the ConocoPhillips CEO I told him in no uncertain terms: I am running for the same Congressional seat as Ryan Zinke and I want you to know that I have no interest in receiving any consulting, lobbying or campaign checks from ConocoPhillips. I intend to represent the interests of Montanans, not powerful corporations such as ConocoPhillips. Montana voters will also need to make choices. Will you choose to demand answers from Ryan Zinke about: 1. What exactly did Ryan Zinke do for the $460,000 he got from ConocoPhillips? 2. Did Zinke use his positions to secure a $2,500 campaign contribution from ConocoPhillips PAC and other Big Oil donations? 3. Did Zinke advise ConocoPhillips to go ahead and price gouge Montanans at the gas pump while raking in $8.1 billion in profits last year? Will you choose to believe Ryan Zinke when he lies and denies these facts and tells you he wants to represent you? Or will you choose to cast your vote for me, Monica Tranel, in my crusade to serve Montanans in Congress with the same level of commitment and dedication, honor and integrity, I applied to represent America in two consecutive Olympic Games. The choice, I hope, is clear. Monica Tranel grew up in eastern Montana with her nine siblings and is an attorney and candidate for Montanas U.S. House seat MT-01. Love 4 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 DECATUR Monday was a cold and blustery day for the annual Operation Cookie Share but the Girl Scouts and their cookies were in Central Park in downtown Decatur anyway. The girls were taking donations and selling boxes of cookies as part of the effort to provide Girl Scout cookies to members of the military and first responders. We're doing it to make people happy, said Shniece Casterberry, a ninth-grader at MacArthur High School. Many of the girls present were series girls, the Girl Scouts whose troops are school-based. Program Specialist Audra Cottrell travels to the schools to meet the girls where they are, she said. We try to give them the Girl Scout experience, she said. Girls stood on the corners at the edges of Central Park holding signs encouraging people to donate toward the cookies for the troops. Community members can come and donate money or buy cookies to share with our military members overseas, Cottrell said. We're also honoring our first responders today so we have activities for girls and boys to come down and learn first aid and CPR, lots of fun things to do out here today. Scouts could also earn badges for completing a passport with several activities including writing letters to the troops who will receive the cookies, stopping by the first aid and CPR station, learn about financial literacy, renew their membership in Girl Scouts and bring a friend who isn't a Scout to sign up. Those activities also entered them into a drawing for a free week of camp. The letter-writing activity let the girls create personalized messages to send with the cookies. Some of them have drawn pictures, or just drawn a flag, said Emma Meyer, director of product sales for the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois. It's really cool, just letting them do their own creative thing. This year was the ninth annual Operation Cookie Share, said Stacey LaFeber, director of donor development. For those who missed the downtown event and want to donate, visit operationcookieshare.org and donate online or by phone at 217-233-0476. For the last two years, the cookie share program has included first responders and health care providers as well as the military, LaFeber said. They've been on the front lines throughout this pandemic, she said. They always are, with or without a pandemic, but it's been extra challenging for everybody. We were just talking about that. So we just want to be able to say an extra 'thank you' locally as well as our heroes at home and abroad. Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tiarra Glenn initially claimed that the child had been told to stand in a corner to discipline her for not eating, police said. Glenn told police the girl began crying hysterically because she did not want to go in the corner, and started to hyperventilate, defecated on herself and then became unresponsive. Doctors determined the girl had a life-threatening brain injury, and she was later airlifted to Comer Children's Hospital. Doctors stated it appeared the damage was from lack of oxygen. Officers spoke to medical staff, who said the child appeared to have been battered and abused based on bruises covering her body from head to toe, which were documented with photos. Medical staff and police also noted a bite mark on the child's abdomen, bruising in the shape of three fingers on her chest and belt marks on her legs, thighs and buttocks. There was also blood on her lips, redness around her neck, bruising on her feet, redness under her armpit and a bump or bruise on her forehead. The child suffered traumatic brain injuries, and a CT scan revealed acute hemorrhages, officials said. Sister describes abuse The girl's 5-year-old sister said Allen made the younger girl stand in the corner Tuesday and was forcing her to "make an 'X' on the corner," records show. Tiarra Glenn told investigators "making an 'X' in the corner" refers to making the child spread her feet and hands out against the wall to form an "X," and staying in the position for a long time. Allen tied the girl's hands behind her back, and after she broke loose, Allen re-tied the child's hands and forced her into the bathroom, turned off the lights and closed the door, officials say. Allen allegedly beat the girl with a belt because she wouldn't make an "X" on the wall. The child further told police that her sister had soiled herself and passed out, at which time Tiarra Glenn told the 5-year-old to put the fan on her sister. Then the child said they cleaned the whole house and her mom called police. Tiarra Glenn, who is three months pregnant, said she was angry with the 3-year-old Tuesday and hit her with a belt at least six times after which time she was beat again by Allen, police said. Tiarra Glenn said she saw Allen carry the child into the living room because she was hyperventilating. Allen had tied the girl's hands behind her back and covered her eyes, nose and mouth with a black scarf, police said. Allen then took the girl back into the closet and after she was not able to do what he wanted her to do on the wall, he began to strike her several more times. Allen carried the girl into the living room, according to police. She was not wearing a shirt, her hands were still tied behind her back and she had urinated and defecated on herself. Tiarra Glenn and Allen allegedly changed the girl's clothes, washed her up, cleaned the apartment and after 20 minutes passed, Glenn did a Google search of hyperventilation. The internet directed that she should call 911, so she called for an ambulance. CROWN POINT A woman pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Wednesday in connection with the shooting death of an 18-year-old man she was accused of helping to lure to Gary so her boyfriend and three others could kill him. Jazmin J. Garcia, 20, of Monticello, Indiana, admitted in her plea agreement she picked up Jacquice Baylock, 18, in Illinois on July 1, 2020 and took him to 19th Avenue and Taney Place in Gary at the direction of her four co-defendants. After arriving at the location, Garcia complied with her co-defendants' orders to leave Baylock in the car and get into another vehicle, according to Lake Criminal Court records. As Garcia walked away from Baylock, she saw her boyfriend, Devin S. Barron, and Jason Hinton walk past her with guns in their hands, documents state. Garcia got into a vehicle with Dwain E. Cunigan and Laquan M. Tolliver and they started to drive back to where she left Baylock, records state. As Garcia, Cunigan and Tolliver drove by the car she drove to Gary, Garcia saw Hinton shoot Baylock once and Barron shoot Baylock about five times, the plea agreement states. After the shooting, Barron and Hinton gathered money that Baylock had dropped and got into a third vehicle, records state. Garcia admitted they all returned to Illinois, where she saw Barron, Hinton, Cunigan and Tolliver split the money taken from Baylok. Baylock, of Lynwood, was shot once in the head, twice in the back, twice in the arm, once in the upper chest and neck, and twice in the chest. He was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary. Hinton and Tolliver each have pleaded not guilty to murder and robbery charges. Barron being held without bond in the Cook County Jail on unrelated charges, Cook County sheriff's records showed. Tolliver also was being held in another jurisdiction on unrelated charges, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Bruno said. Garcia, who was represented by attorney John Cantrell, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, a level 3 felony. If Judge Samuel Cappas accepts her plea agreement, she could face three to 16 years in prison. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge, which would have carried a possible penalty of 45 to 65 years in prison if convicted. Garcia told Cappas she understood prosecutors could withdraw her plea agreement if she doesn't meet her obligations to cooperate with the state. She has agreed she will not be sentenced until her co-defendants' cases are resolved. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 6 BRISTOL, Va. A judge has established deadlines directing the city of Bristol, Virginia to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from its sister city. An attorney representing the city of Bristol, Tennessee filed a petition March 31 in Bristol Virginia Circuit Court, asking the court to intervene in its request for extensive public records related to the Bristol, Virginia landfill. During an April 13 hearing on that petition, the court established deadlines of April 20 and a final deadline of May 25, according to Bristol Tennessee City Attorney Danielle Smith. Late last year, Bristol, Tennessee retained the Richmond-based law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders and has threatened legal action against the city of Bristol, Virginia if city officials there fail to take corrective action to resolve concerns and complaints regarding the landfill. Attorney Andrea Wortzel, a partner in Troutman Pepper, filed the initial request for information Jan. 11. Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the government entity is supposed to respond within five business days or, if access would take longer, take an additional seven days or provide information about when the records might be available and any associated fees. Some documents were previously turned over, but the city hadnt fully responded. The city will turn over any documents relating to the FOIA request by close of business on April 20, Bristol Virginia City Manager and City Attorney Randy Eads said Monday. Bristol, Tennessee agreed to narrow the scope of their email search, and we have 30 days to respond to the more defined scope of the FOIA request. May 25 is when all of that has to be turned in. The initial request includes 13 broad categories of documents and information related to the city landfill, according to the March 31 petition. Those include financial information about landfill closure and post-closure care; city budgets relating to capital projects, operations and maintenance of the landfill; City Council meeting minutes where the landfill was discussed; all email correspondence with state and federal environmental agencies and BVU Authority of actions taken at the landfill regarding violations and responses; all work and reports filed by city consultants Draper Aden Associates and SCS engineers or any other consultant or engineer related to the landfill; any records of a possible subsurface reaction at the landfill; records relating to benzene in the landfill leachate or emissions; records relating to fissures or chimneys in the landfill surface; information on staffing and management, including any internal email correspondence and records of pay and related documents of landfill employees involved in operation, maintenance or supervision of the landfill. Eads blamed the delays on the volume of information requested. When the city did the initial review of documents [requested], it was over 1.3 million documents and emails that would have to be reviewed prior to disclosure all related to the landfill, Eads said. According to the petition, Bristol, Virginia didnt initially respond and then, on Feb. 2, responded that the request was being worked on. On Feb. 18, the city responded that city staff was working diligently on collecting and copying documents in response to the request and estimated it would require three to four additional weeks to access all of the information, Bristol, Virginia then failed to respond to subsequent inquiries, according to the petition. In a related item, Bristol, Virginia has filed a motion to have Troutman Pepper disqualified from representing Bristol, Tennessee because a former iteration of that firm Troutman Sanders previously represented Bristol, Virginia on some of its bond debt, including all of the debt associated with the city landfill. The request has yet to be heard. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Much has been said about Azerbaijan's great victory and the liberation of its territories from Armenian occupation, but it is also worth noting and discussing the world's unjust position and the double standards applied to Azerbaijan during the war and afterward. Azerbaijan is pursuing the process of rehabilitation and revival of the liberated territories on its own, relying solely on its own efforts and resources. This is an example of the tendency to apply a double standard. Since the end of the 2020 second Karabakh war, international organizations, large foundations, and charitable organizations have not provided any assistance to Azerbaijan. Organizations usually become more active after wars end because there is a lot of work to be done. Donor conferences are held, and projects related to international organizations' restoration plans are carried out. The Marshall Plan, which was designed to rebuild Europe after World War II, is an example of this. During the 30-year Armenian occupation, Azerbaijani territories were completely destroyed, cities and villages were leveled, ecological genocide occurred, and all infrastructure was destroyed. So far, Azerbaijan has received no financial or other forms of assistance in connection with the restoration of these territories. Nearly one million refugees are about to return to their homes to be rebuilt at the expense of the Azerbaijani government rather than by foreign donors. It is worth noting that if the liberated territories could be demined more quickly, the return of refugees would be much faster, but there is a shortage of specialists. All of these are manifestations of the double standard. Azerbaijan saw the Russian-Ukrainian war as another example of the world's double standards. When Azerbaijan liberated its lands from the occupation in 2020 using the famous "Bayraktar" drones, foreign experts and media referred to it as a lethal weapon. It is referred to as an angel in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. This is the distinction; this is the case of double standards. The situation surrounding the gas supply to Khankandi is yet another example of the world's double standards attitude toward Azerbaijan. A gas supply line in Karabakh, where Armenians live, was being repaired, and there was no gas supply there for some time; Armenians claimed that Azerbaijan was causing a humanitarian catastrophe there. At the time, the Azerbaijani leadership received almost universal appeals in this regard, from America to Europe. So, where was everyone when Armenia cut off Nakhchivan's gas supply for 15 years? From 1990 to 2005, the people of Nakhchivan were without gas, and the Armenian leadership and state were to blame. Back then, no organization or country raised its voice. Everyone called it a humanitarian disaster when Armenians were cut off from gas for a week, but no one called it a humanitarian catastrophe when Nakhchivan was cut off from gas for 15 years. Another clear example of discrimination and double standards. In light of all of this, President Ilham Aliyev made an appeal to international organizations during his speech at the meeting dedicated to the results of the first quarter of 2022. "Those involved in human rights, those championing the principles of justice should pay at least some attention to Azerbaijan and avoid double standards," he said. Azerbaijan has always relied on its own resources and capabilities and has worked hard to develop them. Similarly, it now relies solely on itself to restore liberated territories. Azerbaijan, led by President Ilham Aliyev, is carrying out large-scale restoration and construction projects in liberated territories on its own. The necessary funds have been allocated from the state budget for 2021 ($1.5 billion) and 2022 ($1.2 billion), and work is being completed as soon as possible. These funds will primarily be used to restore infrastructure (such as electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, and so on) as well as cultural and historical monuments. The world must recognize that Azerbaijan, not Armenia, is the country whose lands were occupied and whose citizens were expelled from their native lands. A familiar voice that has filled the air of Southwest Virginia homes, cars and workplaces for more than three decades has gone silent. Family, friends and fans are paying their last respects today to long-time WMEV radio personality Jim Mabe, who lost his battle with cancer on April 10 at the age of 66. The Mabester was best known for his More Music Morning Show which aired on FM94 while most listeners were starting their day, getting ready for and commuting to work. A 1973 Fort Chiswell High School graduate, Mabe worked in his familys truck stop until he got his start in radio. His voice first hit the airwaves as a radio man in 1983 at a station in Pulaski. He later took a position at WYVE in Wytheville until he came on board as overnight host at WMEV in Marion in 1987. Always the music man, Mabes love of music began long before his radio career did. A lifelong musician, who was said to have the ability to play a guitar behind his back, Mabe sang and played in several bands over the years. In a 2019 interview with the News & Messenger, he recalled performing with his first band when he was still in grade school. Mabes music was what first landed him on air at WMEV in the 70s when then WMEV host Cousin Zeke invited him to be on the Cousin Zeke Show that aired on Saturday mornings. Thats when he and fellow radio host Henry Thomas first crossed paths. He was just an all-around, great person, Thomas said. Mabes love of music, larger-than-life personality and ability to connect with his listeners made for a perfect career in local radio. He loved his job, Thomas said. He loved his listeners, he loved all of his listeners and all of his listeners loved him. Lynn Rutledge, who worked at the station with Mabe for about 25 years, said Mabe loved interacting with listeners, learning all he could about them when he announced birthdays for The Birthday Club segment, and chatting with them during giveaways. When he gave something away on the air, hed stop and talk to some of the listeners who were trying to win to see what they were doing, Rutledge said. Hed say Hey, youre caller number six, whats going on? And that would make listeners happy. Hey, I was on the radio. Even though I didnt win a doggone thing, I was on the radio. Mabe was known for his humorous one-liners, such as Mow your half of the lawn, Let your hara down, Take that dirty red toboggan off, I salute ya, and Get outta that bed! Both Thomas and WMEV Office Manager Brandy Sexton recalled Mabe telling them, If I can make one person laugh, make one persons day better, well then thats what its all about right there. Mabe told the News & Messenger in 2019, If I can make one person happy and they have a good day, that makes me happy. Beyond the control room, Mabe also enjoyed doing remote broadcasts or otherwise being out in the community, such as when he played host at Rural Retreats Heritage Days or grand marshalled Marions Christmas Parade. Thomas said Mabe also volunteered several times as a celebrity bagger for Food Citys fundraiser event for the United Way of Southwest Virginia. Ill never forget, he got on the intercom and told Kevin back in the meat department that he needed to go to the shoe department, Thomas said, laughing at the memory. If you put a microphone in his hand you could see he was right at home, Sexton said. Thomas also recalled a remote broadcast in Tazewell County during an event featuring pro wrestlers Kevin Nash and Lex Lugar and other local wrestlers. I was jawing with them on the air, and I told Jim, I said, You better tell them that if they mess with you, theyve got me to deal with. He said, I dont know, Henry. These guys are big, he said, Youre gonna get me in trouble. When it came to Mabes work, Thomas said it had to be just right. Hed been known to spend more than two hours perfecting a commercial for a client. He was a perfectionist, Thomas said. If he was working on a commercial for a client, you knew that commercial was going to be exactly right when Jim was done with it. The Mabesters dedication didnt go unnoticed. In 2020, he was recognized by the American Advertising Federation of Southwest Virginia. The AAF honored Mabe with its Silver Medal for Lifetime Achievement for his contributions to advertising, furthering the industrys standards and his creative excellence. Mabes colleagues remember him as an inspirational man who always encouraged them to do their best. Thomas, who had left the station a couple of times only to return, remembered Mabe telling him upon his last return that he was where he needed to be. He said, Youre at home. Youre where you need to be, and you dont need to go nowhere else. And Ive been here ever since. Mabe also played mentor to Rutledge when Rutledge began his career at the station. Id worked at some mom and pop stations before I started working here, and he really brought me in and helped me to become better at what I do, Rutledge said. He helped show me how to do things and how to do them right. Mabe was dedicated to his work, and most importantly, he was dedicated to his listeners, his colleagues said. At times, he would work his morning show and then return in the afternoon to make sure things ran smoothly, they said. Rutledge, who worked closely with Mabe during his illness, said Mabe was steadfast in that dedication until the end. Every day I saw him, I could tell he was sick, but he was so dedicated that hed work. Hed be sicker than a dog, but hed work, Rutledge said. Mabe told the News & Messenger in 2019 that when he was first diagnosed with esophageal cancer in March of that year, he was told hed have to quit his job. Though he took some time off for treatment, he couldnt be kept out of the station for long. My listeners gave me the strength to go to work, he said, adding that people flooded the phones with support when I went back to work. I am on so many pray lists. I really appreciate all the support I have received. Through it all, if you tuned in each morning to Jims show, youd never [have] known he was even sick, he continued to be our much loved Mabe in the Morning without skipping a beat, Sexton said. Mabes listeners returned their love in 2019 when they came out to support Mabe during a benefit fundraiser at the Lincoln Theater. Organized by Mabes friends, a number of local musicians performed during the event, with Mabe also taking the stage. There were many friends that turned out in support of Jim and his wife Annette in his courageous fight, Sexton said. Lots of memories shared and new ones made that night. Throughout his illness, his colleagues said, Annette was by Mabes side, caring for him, and sometimes accompanying him on remote broadcasts. Im telling you, Annette was a rock, Thomas said. She was there for him through everything. Ive never seen a spouse stick by somebody as much as she did him. Mabes absence will be felt inside the station and across the listening area. We could put somebody else in on the morning show, but youll never replace Jim Mabe, Thomas said. Nobody can replace the Mabester. Jim is a treasured country radio icon taken too soon, a remarkable man on and off the air, and who has left a lasting legacy in radio for years to come, Sexton said. Gov. Glenn Youngkin is selling generous tax cuts for Virginia military pensioners, some of whom collect six figures in retirement pay while simultaneously holding high-dollar civilian jobs, as a red-white-and-blue idea. Skeptics see only red, worried that the proposal embraced by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, alike disproportionately rewards a small slice of the veteran population of more than 720,000 and will drain millions of dollars from state programs that make Virginia a magnet for military retirees. Indeed, WalletHub, the personal finance website, last year rated Virginia No. 2 in defense spending and home to the nations third-largest number of veterans, according to federal figures the top state for military retirees, giving high marks to its economic environment, quality of life and health care system. When youre No. 1, everybody wants to knock you off, Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, a former Army Ranger captain and a sponsor of the military pension tax break, said. Reeves, running for Congress in a defense-rich district in the outer D.C. suburbs, said a red X for Virginia is its policy of taxing veterans pensions. Unlike Youngkins other goodies doubling the standard deduction, erasing the grocery tax and suspending the fuel tax for three months the veterans proposal has generated little controversy, though it would cost $287 million annually. Thats more than twice what the state spends each year on its 17 veterans programs. Michael Dick, a retired Marine infantry colonel who was a lawyer in the U.S. Justice Department and heads a veterans legal aid program at the College of William and Mary Law School, said the hit to the budget is a major reason a state-created umbrella group of 21 veterans organizations didnt include the pension exemption in its legislative wish list. But it was fashioned before Republican Youngkin took office and a divided General Assembly was seated. Nor did it preclude member organizations from supporting the proposals. Among those backing it: the Fleet Reserve Association, an advocate for active-duty and retired Marine, Navy and Coast Guard personnel. Simply put, as a strategic matter, this proposal is the fiscal equivalent of a Russian assault on the state budget, said Dick, chairman of the Virginia Board of Veterans Services, to which he was appointed in 2016 by the Democrat whom Youngkin narrowly defeated, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Dick has donated $12,500 to political candidates all Democrats. As with the rest of Youngkin $5 billion tax package, financed with record surpluses attributed to Virginias strong bounce-back from the coronavirus pandemic, the veterans proposal depends on a measure that continues to elude Richmond: the 2022-24 state budget, on which the House of Delegates, Virginia Senate and governor have yet to agree. The military pension scheme would apply to retirees 55 and older, with the exemption increasing over four years from $10,000 to $40,000. It is less pricey than originally proposed, a plus for one of the Democrats who crafted a bipartisan compromise, Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath. He worried the cost would constantly increase, not unlike a tax-credit plan he won years back to promote the preservation of the Virginia countryside that then-House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, a trusts-and-estates lawyer, pressed to make more generous until GOP budget writers insisted it be capped, complaining it was a subsidy for the wealthy. Dick has a similar concern, noting that only one in five Virginia veterans would benefit from the tax exemption. Twenty percent of veterans here are career military, collecting pensions that often represent 87% of the average of their three highest years salary and ensuring many of them, as pension publications note, more than a $1 million retirement savings. The remaining vets, approximately 80% of the ex-military population, werent in uniform long enough to qualify for a pension. Credited for 28 years of service, Dick is eligible for about $90,000 a year, excluding health and other benefits. The states veterans and defense affairs secretary, Craig Crenshaw, is a retired Marine two-star general with more than 30 years on duty. His pension is driven by a salary that, according to U.S. Defense Department pay tables, was about $150,000. Crenshaw makes about $175,000 as a Cabinet secretary. In an op-ed article April 6 in The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Crenshaw echoed Youngkins claim from the 2021 campaign that friendlier tax provisions for veterans would draw more of them to Virginia, already a low-tax state, rated 34th overall by WalletHub. But university studies in other states in red Utah in 2017 and blue New Mexico in 2009 said tax exemptions for military retirement pay arent make-or-break factors in a veterans decision where to live. The Virginia Division of Veteran Services noted these findings, saying exemptions had not proven effective in states with large populations. Such doubts notwithstanding, veterans benefits have been a priority of both political parties here, an acknowledgement of the largess of the Pentagon, located in Northern Virginia, and an unwillingness by Democrats and Republicans to be seen as wimps on defense-related issues, especially when global tension means the U.S. military is in harms way. Twenty-six states, including neighboring North Carolina, dont tax the retirement benefits of former members of the armed services. Nine impose some taxes. The remaining states with income taxes levy them on military pensions, but may provide other forms of relief. That includes three of the other four states that surround Virginia West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland as well as Washington, D.C. Tennessee doesnt have an income tax. Virginia, which has wrestled in the state and federal courts and in the legislature since the late 1980s with the thorny issue of taxing the pensions of state, federal and military retirees, offers a mish-mash of tax breaks for active and former military. They include for lower-paid active duty state residents a higher deduction on their Virginia income taxes and an exemption for disabled veterans from the locally imposed car tax. A particularly exclusive benefit: Medal of Honor winners do not have to pay state taxes on their retirement income. The debate over tax relief for veterans, in contrast with the yowling over the standard deduction and Youngkins other higher-dollar notions, is more conversation than combat. That these giveaways should be considered as part of a larger examination of Virginias increasingly outdated tax system piques only a few politicians. So its praise the Lord and pass the tax exemption. Contact Jeff Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter, @RTDSchapiro. This article was updated with new information on April 19, 2022 at 8:46 a.m. Two people have been charged in connection with a fatal shooting at Sunny Valley Apartments in Hickory in March. Davon Lavell Williams, 23, of Claremont, was charged with murder. Whitney Janae Gatewood, 34, of Hickory, was charged with accessory after the fact. Ontorio Nymier Metts, 23, of Hickory died from multiple gunshot wounds on March 20 at the apartment complex. Investigators believe Williams and Metts had a confrontation prior to the shooting at Sunny Valley Apartments. Gatewood helped Williams leave the scene following the shooting, according to a press release from the Hickory Police Department. Williams was taken into custody in Orange County, North Carolina. He was transferred to the Catawba County Detention Facility on Monday, according to the county's Who's In Jail website. Gatewood appeared in Catawba County District Court on Monday. She was appointed an attorney and her next court date is May 9. Police are asking for anyone with information about this case to please contact the department at 828-328-5551, or contact Investigator Richard Helderman at rhelderman@hickorync.gov or 828-261-2621. The author is the managing editor of Hoards Dairyman. The United States has come a long way since the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) was formed in 1995. Back in those days, a minuscule 1% to 2% of U.S. milk production was exported to other countries in the form of dairy products. And those shipments were largely due to government-funded food donation programs. Everything began to evolve in the ensuing years as USDEC staff started gathering grassroots support, in a precompetitive manner, to develop opportunities for U.S. dairy product sales outside the countrys borders. The seed money and vision for USDEC came from the farmer-funded dairy checkoff and its nationally known Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) organization, which, to this day, is the umbrella organization for USDEC. With that firm foundation, cooperatives, processors, and traders alike began joining USDEC. As part of the budding relationship, USDEC staff helped all involved to work through marketing, and perhaps more importantly, regulatory hurdles on a country-by-country and region-by-region basis. Through it all, its still the responsibility of staff from cooperatives, processors, and traders alike to complete international business deals. A dream blossoms Fast-forward 27 years later USDEC membership has blossomed to some 110 organizations with thousands of people working on behalf of the collective U.S. dairy industry each and every day throughout the world. Sales now account for 17% to 18% of U.S. milk production, and that took place as U.S. dairy farms produced more milk with each passing year. All involved in export channels have learned that relationships matter, and its people who buy products from people. This holds especially true for food exports. Americas top customers Mexico, our neighbors to the south, quickly became Americas top customer during this journey. This was partially fueled by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that went into effect in 1994. It also made geographical sense as the countrys close supply chains lent itself to most easily completing deliveries. Mexico has since gone on to become the first $1 billion dairy market for the U.S. The fast-changing region known as Southeast Asia has become Americas second $1 billion market. Its a large area comprised of 16 countries. The expanding middle class of consumers in the likes of Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines have a growing appetite for high-quality dairy proteins. The region has become so important to the U.S. dairy industry that USDEC opened the Center for Dairy Excellence in Singapore to serve as a business hub to connect sellers and buyers. Then theres China the worlds largest dairy product importer and most populous country ranks along with Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the top buyers of U.S. dairy products. Outside of Canada, all those countries and regions are markets where USDEC has held farmer-based trade missions since carrying out the first farmer trade mission to Japan in 2011. These USDEC trade missions give customers in regions around the world a chance to meet the farmers and processors who produce the milk and make the dairy products. When international customers see the efforts made to make connections, it further grows the business relationships and ultimately spurs sales. Pandemic-era business U.S. exporters are working harder than ever to deliver products. It hasnt been easy as many countries retain rather stringent travel requirements. One region that began to open for international business travel is Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Given this development, USDEC hosted a farmer trade mission to the region in November. Dubai is in the Persian Gulf region and is considered by many to be the business capital of that part of the world. Its so important to the area that it was selected as the host city for the first Worlds Fair to ever be hosted in the Middle East. These days, the Worlds Fair has been rebranded as a World Expo, and last years event was called EXPO 2020 after being postponed one year due to the pandemic. Taking a long view Dubai is really a trendsetting part of the world; were talking about a city that has 12,000 restaurants, 600 hotels, and it reaches people from all over the world not just the Middle East, explained Missouri dairyman Alex Peterson, who also serves as chair of the National Dairy Research and Promotion board, which is part of DMI. To be even more candid, Dubai is the best of the East and the West put together when it comes to world culture. That makes it a perfect location to train future chefs. What does authentic Emirati cuisine look like? Peterson asked the hosts while on the trade mission. Our hosts laughed at me because theres really very few actual people there from the UAE. Its a cross-section and melting pot of the world. Thats what makes a culinary school there such an incredible opportunity, continued the University of Missouri graduate of his experiences on the trade mission. The International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA) features the USA Cheese Specialist Certification Program, which USDEC first launched in partnership with the award-winning ICCA program in 2018. There are now seven other partnerships like it around the world. In developing the USA Cheese Guild program, U.S. dairy farmers, through USDEC, have continued to take a long-term view on growing consumer demand for U.S. dairy product exports. Its the same long-term view many U.S. dairy farmers take when developing their multigenerational family farms. Many companies spend great sums of money on marketing budgets. Here, we use education, said Sunjeh Raja. Its the most intensive form of marketing. Our marketing is built through relationships, said Raja. These are the people who will become your ambassadors, continued the highly regarded culinary specialist whose school routinely ranks among the worlds top 10 culinary institutes. Its marketing with soul, added Angelique Hollister, senior vice president of global cheese marketing for USDEC and executive director of the USA Cheese Guild. As part of the recent trade mission, the U.S. dairy farmers held a question-and-answer session with the aspiring chefs. We sat down with the class of 22 students for over an hour, and we answered their questions about our farms, dairy in general, environmental standards and practices, and a number of other things, Peterson reported. They were a highly intelligent group. With these 22 newly accredited USA Cheese Specialists, the program will have graduated 478 chefs working in the region in just four years. A strong partnership developed by USDEC has helped to double cheese sales. At the moment, there are 167 natural cheeses from the USA on these dairy shelves out of the 300 natural cheeses, said Firas Zahreddine in discussing the cheese sold in the LuLu hypermarket that was visited by the farmer delegation. We have 54% of those shelves represented by USA cheese. This partnership began through our USA Cheese Retail program, added the marketing specialist with 21 years of work experience. Before launching that program, Zahreddine and his fellow team members first did their homework. We began by trying to understand the issues and the bottlenecks that buyers were facing when it came to stocking American cheeses, he continued. We found that there are at least two to three layers between the retailer and the cheese producer. That may have included consolidators, wholesalers, or suppliers that all added to the markup of the cheese, said Zahreddine, whose rather new position was funded by state and regional dairy checkoff programs known as S&Rs. Our Middle East marketing team brainstormed ideas to make this situation better. Thats when we came up with the USA Cheese Retail program, he explained. If you buy USA cheese from our (USDEC) members, we will help you reduce the air freight (on a trial basis), educate your staff, educate your shoppers with in-store activities, and we will have merchandisers who will help fix your shelf displays. We will look after all the opportunities and obstacles related to U.S. cheese in your store, and we will be your partners within any vital activity, continued Zahreddine, who can speak nearly every Middle Eastern language. The LuLu stores quickly jumped on board after learning of the USA Cheese Retail program. Since we started working with LuLu in 2018, we expanded the stock keeping units (SKUs) for USA cheeses from 90 to over 300 between both the dairy case and deli shop, he said of the effort. We also increased sales from 60 to 120 metric tons. That equates to $1 million increase in purchases of USA cheese. Shoppers can find products thanks to a Cheese made in the USA seal marked on all American cheeses. That simple display helps customers halfway across the world know that they are able to purchase a quality item from quality milk produced in the U.S. I think its really important when people are walking through the supermarkets that they see this product is coming from the U.S., said DMI Chairwoman Marilyn Hershey, who was another member of the farmer trade mission. I think other countries and other areas of the world do a good job with that, and we really had to step it up and showcase U.S. cheeses to make sure that people know that the quality product theyre getting is from the United States, said Hershey, who is a Pennsylvania dairy farmer. We have a lot to offer, added Becky Levzow, a Wisconsin dairy woman and member of the DMI board of directors, who was also on the trade mission. As she talked to customers in the region, time and time again they were surprised to learn that the U.S. produced more than 1,000 types of cheeses and that the U.S. is the largest single-country producer of cheese made from cows milk. A jam-packed trip In addition to these activities, the farmer trade mission and USDEC staff went to the U.S. Consulate earlier in the trip. Its here that the unsung heroes USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service staff reside. As members of the State Department, these public servants build ties within the country and help work through regulations that might impede trade. Well-versed in all things agricultural, Valerie Brown and Lucas Blaustein shared their insight with the group. We have consistently grown U.S. dairy product imports during COVID-19, said Blaustein of the MENA region that imports 90% of its food. During COVID-19, these areas invested heavily into home delivery. Cheese is big here, added Brown. Cheese is a staple of cuisine here, and the food is trending more Western. I thought it was really important that they knew we were there and cared enough to take off the time and make the effort to travel here, said Texas dairyman Larry Hancock, who chairs the USDEC board of directors of the consulate staff. It showed that we were committed to exporting and that we supported the USDEC staff that was in-country. Midway through the trade mission, the U.S. Consulate was pivotal in partnering with USDEC staff to host an expanded gathering of dairy ingredients importers, distributors, and processors. The trade envoy also interacted with the media. In the Middle East, the media definitely includes social media. While the typical American may have three to four social media accounts, 18-to 24-year-olds in the UAE average eight to 10 social media accounts, with 80% relying on social media to get their news. With that in mind, the farmers taped cooking segments with local television personalities and food bloggers. During the preparation, the farmers discussed their farms and U.S. dairy farming with the hosts while answering their questions. The finished videos were posted for followers to hear those stories and have the ability to try the dairy-based recipes for themselves. This was key to the whole experience of that afternoon because we could tell the story ourselves, Levzow said. So many times, I think things get lost on social media. This was a real story from the real people that do it. And, with that, everyone was once again reminded that relationships matter, and its people who buy products from people. CHARLESTON The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday, April 19, on a proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 and on related work for the ongoing expansion of Sister City Park. City Manager Scott Smith said the budget proposal's general fund projects $16.5 million in revenues and $17.2 million in expenses. He said the difference between the two figures is caused by the timing of when the city receives grant funding. "We may take in the revenues in one year and do the expenditures in the next," Smith said. "We are going to spend the revenue when the projects get going." For example, Smith said this is the case with Rebuild Illinois Funds that are being directed toward the expansion of Sister City Park. The council is set to vote on obligating $255,000 from these grant funds for a curb and gutter contract and $820,000 for an asphalt pavement contract as part of the second phase of this project. "We are in the middle of that project," Smith said, adding that it will take a couple more years to complete. In other matters, the council will consider approving a proposed increase in water and sewer rates. If approved, the new rates would charge all users, including those within corporate limits and Eastern Illinois University, 3.9% more on all their rates for service on a monthly basis. For residents within the corporate limits, water and sewer rates will go from $16.42 to $17.06 for usage of 10,000 gallons and any usage over 10,000 gallons will increase from $15.76 to $16.41. The council also will consider allocating tax increment financing district grants for exterior repair projects at 620 Sixth St., the Central Illinois Vision building; 509 Seventh St., The Law Office of Chris Wetzel; 710 Jackson Ave., Conley Properties; 618 Jackson Ave., The Body Club; and 516 Sixth Street, 521 Seventh St., and 716 Monroe Ave., Premier Properties. The council is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 520 Jackson Ave., after public hearings starting at 6:10 p.m., including on the proposed budget. Other items on the meeting agenda include: - Approving the minor subdivision final plat for the Babbs Subdivision at 1080 Nursery Road. - Setting 10 mph as the speed limit on all streets contained within the Charleston Lake Municipal Park. - Approving a scavenger license application from Premier Disposal. - Allocating $4,000 in tourism funds to help support the IHSA State Track Meets on May 19-21 and May 26-28 at Eastern Illinois University. - Authorizing street closures for the Sarah Bush Lincoln Races for All Paces on May 14. - Recognizing the week of April 24-30 as National Volunteer Week; the month of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, National Bike Month, and A.B.A.T.E. Motorcycle Awareness Month; and the week of May 1-7 as Professional Municipal Clerks Week. Contact Rob Stroud at 217-238-6861. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHICAGO - Quention Curtis said hes tired of talking about race and the Chicago Fire Department. Its no secret that Black firefighters have lagged far behind their white counterparts for decades. What the veteran fire lieutenant-emergency medical technician would like to focus on is how more training could increase the number of Black candidates applying for firefighting jobs, leading to more Black people in the ranks. A clause in a collective bargaining agreement from the early 1980s requires the department to strive for as close to 45% minority representation as possible in all ranks. The department of nearly 4,800 uniformed members currently has 721 Black employees, which represents 15%. Of that number, 422 are firefighters, 35 of them women, according to department numbers the Tribune received in a records request. Hispanic representation is higher at 18%. The departments most common rank, firefighter-EMT, had 277 Black employees compared with 796 white and 283 Hispanic, according to a personnel report from the citys office of public safety administration. On the paramedics side, the numbers are more stark. The department had 33 Black paramedics, compared with 257 white and 76 Hispanic. The departments command staff, including captains, lieutenants, engineers and battalion chiefs is also largely white and male. It is what it is. Its an unspoken thing, Curtis said recently at the Black Fire Brigades South Side firehouse on South Wabash Avenue, one of two it owns. I tell people I dont want to talk about racism it was here before I got here; itll be here when Im gone. Lets talk about change. What are we going to do to change it? Raised in Cabrini-Green, Curtis runs the fire brigade, his own not-for-profit that trains young people and minorities in firefighting techniques so they can earn professional licenses. With this training, brigade graduates are better equipped to apply for paramedic and EMT jobs, or take the CFD entrance test when offered. The test was last given in 2014. Because of years of litigation and large applicant pools, tests have been offered infrequently. In a city with a falling but still large Black population, encouraging more Black residents to join the ranks of the fire department has the potential to revitalize troubled neighborhoods, Curtis, 57, said. Though three African Americans have led the Fire Department, including current Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt, the departments first Black woman leader, the upper ranks are still mostly male and white. Even with a recruitment push by Fire Department brass, the number of Black firefighters and paramedics has fallen to third behind Hispanics and whites of the same rank. I need diversity greatly in my entry ranks and up through, Nance-Holt said during a budget hearing in October, according to Block Club Chicago. Because the only way to get people to this position (is for them) to walk in the door. If we cant get them in the door, we cant make them engineers, lieutenants, captains on up the ranks. Low numbers arent unique to Chicago; the federal government has investigated fire departments in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Florida, according to published reports. Last year, organizations representing Los Angeles Black and Latino firefighters called for a federal investigation into claims of rampant racial bias and ill treatment within the department, according to the Los Angeles Times. Along with creating the culture, traditions and character of the modern urban fire department, experts and historians say an Irish chain of command maintained an insular social hierarchy that opposed any advancement of Black firefighters across the country. The result has been an industry where white men make up about 80% of U.S. career firefighters, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Chicago, veteran and retired Black firefighters are also fearful that an expected cascade of retirements by Black firefighters will further reduce the departments numbers. Curtis will hit his 35th year with CFD in December. But he is convinced that programs steering young adults toward fire services with high salaries offers a path toward middle class living and could lead to welcome cash infusions in the citys underserved neighborhoods. The starting salary for a firefighter/EMT is about $63,000 a year, but salaries can quickly rise based on certifications and licenses. Curtis said fewer Black firefighters in the department equals a missing stable income in neighborhoods that desperately need them. What does that equate to? Crime. Bottom line. An opportunity to make a difference Carmelita Wiley-Earls has the deft touch of a velvet hammer, a mix thats part grandmother, part drill sergeant. Her speaking voice is soft, but commanding, as one would expect of a woman who served as a deputy district chief, a fire marshal and the commander of the fire academy before her retirement last November. She says her rough and tumble upbringing on the West Side prepared her for a CFD career that has included some unpleasant experiences and challenges by subordinates. I grew up with four brothers that didnt like me so it was a perfect fit, she said in a second-floor instruction room at the brigades Washington Park firehouse. What I didnt understand was that they were preparing me for this job. Isolation. Nonacceptance. Earning your way ... which is not a bad thing. Sometimes you need to be isolated to focus. Wiley-Earls uses the lessons of her 30-year career to help instruct and hopefully inspire the young men and women attending the fire brigades training course that has produced 460 graduates who earned a state paramedics license and are working for fire departments and ambulance companies. The graduates include 130 single mothers and 13 homeless people. The Black Fire Brigade prepares students that have never been exposed to this type of opportunity and Im going to keep talking about that word, because thats all it is. Its an opportunity to make a difference, she said. City residents, Wiley-Earls said, have the tools and its been proven 460 times. Walking through the doors from various backgrounds, from homeless to two-parent homes. So its not about strength, its about will. Curtis founded the fire brigade in June 2018 with the joint aim of training young residents and creating a Black firefighters museum. The organization bought the two South Side firehouses and has a refurbished fire engine called Engine 21 after the citys first Black company. The fire brigade does not charge tuition and is funded through donations. It is designed to not only teach lifesaving skills but also introduce applicants to the sense of shared purpose and camaraderie of a firehouse. The best thing about this program is theyre around firefighter culture because we operate this like a fire department, Curtis said. Theyre learning about a first responder family and how we stick together. Curtis said his goal is to make Black firefighters more visible in Black communities, inspiring their youth. Were there to save your life and everybody knows it. Firemen are our heroes, Curtis said. But imagine, Wiley-Earls interjects, Imagine if there was more Black heroes coming to your house to save you? Then the image of what you see will change. Curtis said he hopes that an uptick in Black hiring could offset the racial disparity in many CFD ranks. Vital positions with the highest Black and white disparity include firefighter/emergency medical technicians, new recruits and engineers, along with ranking positions such as lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs. Only about 9% of CFD is female, according to city statistics. In a statement, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department said hiring is handled by the citys Department of Human Resources rather than the Fire Department itself, and that much of the reason for the racial imbalance is the low number of Blacks who apply to take the test. The next test is planned for later this year. The Chicago Fire Department believes that its members should reflect the diverse makeup of Chicagos residents, but this must be primarily driven by the makeup of those who sit for and pass the entrance exam and subsequent qualifications for admission to the Quinn Fire Academy, the statement said. Eric Strong, a retired Black CFD battalion chief who runs Malcolm X Colleges fire service operations program, said there are big challenges in recruiting eligible young Black candidates, including a general lack of awareness of firefighting jobs and the loss of the best qualified Black candidates who are lured to college or lucrative private-sector jobs. The lack of access to neighborhood firehouses also puts Black youth at a disadvantage, said Strong, the father of a CFD firefighter. It has to do more with the fact that they dont see any, he said. Theres no one to talk to about the job, the benefits of being a firefighter. You see a guy in a uniform or on that truck, you look at him and think Maybe I can do it, too. Ive had many white officers, good friends, who spoke of how they got inspired by the neighborhood firehouse being able to visit, to come in and see things, Strong said. Retired fire Capt. Ezra McCann is among those who have doubts about the citys recruitment efforts, believing its past racist policies obscure any notions of progress. During his career, McCann turned over an infamous video of a 1990 party at a Woodlawn firehouse that captured a group of white firefighters making ethnic slurs, drinking beer and exposing themselves. He later sued the city claiming his superiors retaliated for turning over the tape. McCann, who joined the department in 1977 in a wave of court-ordered hires that boosted Black firefighter totals by 250, accuses the department and the city of dragging its feet when it comes to hiring Black firefighters and giving preference to white applicants living in white cop and firefighter neighborhoods on the edges of the city. The fix has always been in for these city jobs to go to white communities: Mount Greenwood, Jefferson Park, all of these communities up around OHare airport and on the Southwest Side. McCann said. A long history of segregation The increase in Black political influence as its population increased did little to clear a path for Black firefighters to be hired and promoted. In 1872, a year after the Great Chicago Fire, Chicago created Engine 21, the citys first Black fire company that gained the begrudging respect of whites and was credited with creating the iconic firemans pole, according to Tribune reports. But the early heroism of the Black company didnt lead to many more positions or spots in white firehouses. In cities such as Chicago, New York and Boston, Black progress on fire departments was often met with outright hostility, Wayne State University professor David Goldberg wrote in his book Black Firefighters and the FDNY: The Struggle for Jobs, Justice and Equity in New York City, which made comparisons among racially segregated departments. CFD was one of the first departments investigated by the federal government for racial bias in hiring, which Mayor Richard J. Daley and his fire commissioner, Robert Quinn, denied. The citys force stayed lily white well into the 1970s under the 21-year rule of Quinn, a Bridgeport native and boyhood friend of Daley. Quinn was a hero fireman who was something of a neighborhood legend after he infamously blared an air raid siren after the Chicago White Sox won a pennant in 1959. Quinns 1979 Tribune obituary noted his reputation both as a straight talking firemans fireman, and a bigot. He once told reporters the reason why there were so few Black firefighters was because They dont like heat and smoke. In another interview, Quinn said: We have never had any discrimination in the Chicago Fire Department. It just seems that the Irish and the Polish are the people that try to be firemen. In 1963, Ald. Leon Despres introduced a resolution asking that Quinn end the discrimination, citing only 187 Black firefighters out of 4,514 and only one integrated unit. In the next nine years, only nine additional African Americans joined the department. The following year in 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice brought a civil rights action against the city due to unlawful hiring and promotion practices against African Americans and Hispanics. At the time, Black and Hispanic employees comprised less than 5% of CFD uniformed personnel. In the ensuing decades, federal oversight of the department forced hiring for Black, Brown and female recruits through quota systems, inflaming divisions within the department. This spurred decades of dueling lawsuits between Black and white firefighters and applicants claiming racial bias and reverse discrimination. For decades we have tried to diversify the Chicago Fire Department. But at every turn, like most cities, we have been met with legal challenges from both sides, former Mayor Richard M. Daley said in 2010 after the Supreme Court reinstated a ruling that the city erred in using a scoring system for a 1995 firefighter test that eliminated a large number of minority candidates. A time for change For now, Strong wants to keep pushing efforts to introduce firefighting to local residents. Malcolm X is planning to open a satellite CPR and EMT training center in the Chatham neighborhood and teach CPR courses at the West Side Learning Center in West Garfield Park, he said. The West Side college is also looking into establishing the first testing site in the city for the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a physical training course whose successful completion is required to work on city and suburban departments. Curtis said he thinks the time is right for change in CFD. Old racist attitudes have lost steam as firefighters of different races and genders share quarters in firehouses. Its a different time now. The whole racist adage is almost over ... everybodys (racially) mixed today, and white kids grow up with Black kids, he said. Curtis said he believes problems with Black hiring will end when the city makes it a priority. Lets get out of racism and start talking about the administration. If the administrations turned a blind eye, thats your problem. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 America is following an arsenal of democracy strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against the Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns. That strategy, reminiscent of U.S. support for Britain in 1940-41, has worked wonders. Yet as the war reaches a critical stage, with the Russians preparing to consolidate their grip on eastern Ukraine, the arsenal of democracy is being depleted. That could cause a fatal shortfall for Ukrainian forces in this conflict, and it is revealing American weaknesses that could be laid bare in the next great-power fight. Of all the support the U.S. and its friends have provided Ukraine, arms have mattered the most. Deliveries of drones, antitank and anti-aircraft weapons, ammunition and other capabilities have helped Ukraine wreak havoc on Russian forces even as Moscow has pummeled the countrys industrial base. But President Joe Biden never planned for a war like this. The assumption was that Russia would quickly conquer much of the country, so the U.S. would be supporting a simmering, low-intensity Ukrainian insurgency. Instead, Ukraines successful resistance has led to an ongoing, high-intensity conventional fight, with prodigious consumption of munitions and intense attrition of key military assets. Pentagon officials say that Kyiv is blowing through a weeks worth of deliveries of antitank munitions every day. It is also running short of usable aircraft as Russian airstrikes and combat losses take their toll. Ammunition has become scarce in Mariupol and other areas. This is presenting Western countries with a stark choice between pouring more supplies into Ukraine or husbanding finite capabilities they may need for their own defense. Before the U.S. entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisers engaged in intense debates about whether the U.S. should rush weapons to a beleaguered Britain or hang onto them in case America had to defend itself. Bidens arsenal-of-democracy strategy is reaching a similar inflection point in Ukraine. Kyiv will require far more Western support to beat back Russian forces gathering in the east, where relatively open terrain is less favorable to the defense. It will also need more sophisticated weapons, such as tanks and aircraft, to deny Russia a decisive advantage and perhaps take the offensive if Moscows eastern offensive falters. Stout Ukrainian resistance has given Kyiv a reasonable chance of winning this war, but the cost of any victory, in equipment no less than lives, will be astounding. For the same reason, the war in Ukraine is a sobering preview of the problems the U.S. itself would face in a conflict against Russia or China. If forced to go to war in Eastern Europe or the Western Pacific, Washington would spend down its stockpiles of missiles, precision-guided munitions and other critical capabilities in days or weeks. It would probably suffer severe losses of tanks, planes, ships and other assets that are sophisticated, costly and hard to replace. In the world wars of the last century, Americas unmatched manufacturing base ultimately powered it to victory. But today, replenishing the free worlds arsenal might not be so easy. American economic leadership is no longer based primarily on manufacturing. Shortages of machine tools, skilled labor and spare production capacity could slow a wartime rearmament effort. The U.S. cant quickly scale up production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine, for example, because the workforce needed to do so no longer exists. American stockpiles of key weapons are smaller than one might imagine, partly because of production constraints and partly because most of the Pentagons roughly $750 billion budget goes to manpower, health care and things other than bullets and bombs. Dont bet against the worlds leading economy and all of its democratic allies in a long war. But dont think that America would effortlessly produce what it needs to win. Hal Brands is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The ownership of the former BB&T Financial Center in downtown Winston-Salem may be determined at a May 23 hearing. The buildings co-owner, Tyson Ty Rhame, was sentenced in December to 15 years in federal prison and fined $1 million. Rhame was convicted on Oct. 10, 2018, in the Northern District of Georgia on 11 of 13 counts of mail and wire fraud conspiracy, as well as multiple counts of mail and wire fraud. The 271,445-square-foot tower at 200 W. Second St. is listed as a potential forfeiture target by the U.S. government. U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones will preside over the hearing that will address any outstanding issues related to forfeiture and restitution, as well as the defendants pending bond appeal. The court specifically finds that forfeiture is a part of each defendants sentence and a specific amount of forfeiture will be determined at a later date, Jones said in December, Rex Morgan, an attorney representing co-owner Ray Gee, has said that due to the current instability in virtually all areas of commerce spawned by COVID-19, I truly cannot say if Mr. Rhames conviction will have any effect one way or another on the operation of the former BB&T center. BB&T Corp. had its headquarters in the tower for 25 years before its $33.4 billion purchase of SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta created Truist Financial Corp., which moved its headquarters to Charlotte in December 2019. Truist moved its offices from the tower in spring 2020 in favor of lower-profile sites it owns in Winston-Salem, including the downtown Park Building, as part of an initiative to reduce its companywide office space by 4.8 million square feet. Rhame and Gee paid $60 million for the building in December 2014, nearly $26 million more than its tax value at the time. The current tax value is $30.2 million. The sentencing hearing for Rhame, 56, and co-defendants Frank Bell and James Shaw was delayed at least five times as their motions for acquittal and a new trial were pursued and ultimately denied. Shaw was sentenced to 95 months and a $500,000 fine, while Bell was sentenced to seven years with no fine. They can appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Jones said the federal Bureau of Prison will determine where they will serve their terms. Acquitted of money laundering Rhame, a retired pilot and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, founded Sterling Currency Group LLC of Atlanta, which had been listed among the nations largest sellers of Iraqs currency, the dinar. Shaw, 58, was a co-owner of Sterling, and Bell, 58, served as chief operating officer. Federal attorneys claimed that between 2010 and June 2015, Sterling grossed more than $600 million in revenue from the sale of the Iraqi dinar and other currencies; Rhame and Shaw received over $180 million in distributions. According to the indictment, at least $19.9 million was laundered through 24 accounts. Officials also flagged another $22,643 in 10 accounts for wire and mail fraud. The Sterling officials were accused by U.S. attorneys of taking steps to make investors believe they would get rich by investing in the Iraqi dinar. At one point, Rhame posted information on Sterlings website falsely suggesting that the dinar was about to revalue. At other times, Rhame and Bell falsely claimed that Sterling would cash out investors at airports around the country following a dinar revaluation. The defendants also were accused of paying substantial sums of money to third parties who in turn spread false information about the dinar on conference calls and Internet chat rooms. Rhame and Bell also were convicted of making false statements to federal law enforcement agents. The jury acquitted the defendants of money laundering charges. These executives engaged in a lengthy campaign to defraud investors by spreading lies about the investment potential of the Iraqi dinar, acting U.S. attorney Kurt Erskine said in 2018. These convictions resulted from years of investigation, which included dozens of electronic and physical search warrants, hundreds of witness interviews, and extensive financial analysis. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Forsyth County is far from alone in expressing concerns over a proposed statewide foster-care services plan. At least 28 counties, including Forsyth, have sent letters to state Health Secretary Kody Kinsley outlining their concerns about the state Children and Families Specialty Plan developed by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. That includes most of the 14 counties that use Partners Health Management, which has Davie, Forsyth, Surry and Yadkin as members. Forsyth is by far the largest member by population. There are also at least 14 of the 31 counties with Vaya Health, which has Alamance, Alleghany, Ashe, Stokes, Watauga and Wilkes as members. Partners and Vaya are managed care organizations that handle behavioral health care in their member counties. MCOs make sure children in foster care are connected to proper health and medical care, along with other services. Under the state plan, the state would handle those tasks. The other MCOs are Alliance Health (six counties); Eastpointe (10 counties); Sandhills (11 counties, including Davidson, Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham); and Trillium Health Resources (28 counties). On April 7, Forsyth commissioners submitted a letter to Kinsley and deputy Medicaid secretary Dave Richard requesting permission to opt out of the states new plan. Richard said legislators across the state have received similar letters from other county boards of commissioners over the past month. The current CFSP proposal would transition many of the youth in Department of Social Services custody outside of Partners management, which would create another change too soon in an already complex system, wrote David Plyler, chairman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners. Forsyth commissioners and DSS staff have expressed satisfaction with Partners handling of foster-care service. The proposed single statewide plan design of the CFSP will jeopardize, rather than support, the progress we are making and targeted infrastructure we are building with Partners, Plyler said. On April 12, Richard told a state joint legislative oversight committee that he has received the Forsyth commissioners letter, but hasnt responded. Forsyth has the ability to opt out, but they cant make a pre-emptive (decision); theres nothing to opt out of right now, Richard said. MCO responses Vaya said in a statement Thursday that many of its counties share the concerns around a statewide Children and Families Specialty Plan raised by Forsyth County leaders. Partners said in a statement that nearly all of our 14 counties have expressed a clear desire to have the care of the children within their child welfare systems managed locally, and not by a statewide plan. Frankly, most counties were not aware of details of the (state) plan until recently. Partners said it is our belief that stakeholders have not had the appropriate time to understand the details and express their preferences/concerns. Vaya said commission boards in Clay, Graham, Jackson, Macon, McDowell, Mitchell, Vance and Watauga counties have sent individual letters to Kinsley that outlined their concerns around the (state plan), and requested that NCDHHS delay issuing the plans Request for Proposals, and instead consider a regional plans that align with MCO regions. Vaya said individual commissioners in Alamance and Stokes have sent their own letters to Kinsley, as well as county Department of Social Services directors from Cherokee, Clay, Macon, Stokes, Swain and Watauga, and the Haywood County Health and Human Services director. Vaya and other MCOs have shared those concerns with NCDHHS through a variety of channels, Vaya said. In response to an NCDHHS survey in February 2021, Vaya answered No to the question Do you agree one statewide Foster Care Plan would best meet the needs of this population? Asking for patience Richard is urging Forsyth commissioners and other commissioners to allow the state Children and Families Specialty Plan to be fully developed before making a final decision. Richard said the plan is projected to cover about 31,000 youths statewide through providers already participating in the states Medicaid program. About 218 youths in Forsyth have received foster-care services from Partners since Forsyth joined on Nov. 1. We want to create a consistency of what (services) would be available for foster children everywhere in the state, Richard said. There has been a broad array of support for us to do something different in this plan. We want a statewide plan for fostering youth because of people moving counties, that the service array is the same across the state, so coordination is a key component of the plan, Richard said. With that in mind, Richard said DHHS currently is not committing to a launch date. DHHS goals for a statewide plan include having a single accountable entity serving children, youth and families no matter where they are in the state, and individuals and families having a choice of plan. Another primary goal is an emphasis on keeping families together whenever possible, while providing access to continuous services and maintaining treatment plans and providers when children experience a change in placement. Tailored plans DHHS said Tuesday that tailored plans could serve about 175,000 North Carolinians, or about 7.6% of the 2.3 million Medicaid recipients. The launch of tailored plans, however, has been delayed until Dec. 1. Individuals who need certain services to address a serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, severe substance-use disorder, intellectual or developmental disability, or traumatic brain injury may be eligible to enroll in a tailored plan. Richard said one option for the states six behavioral health MCOs is to collaborate on their own statewide bid on providing services. I am thrilled that counties are feeling really good about their relationships with MCOs at this point, Richard said. Many of those counties were complaining pretty vigorously about their previous MCO relationship. But, it wasnt just the Cardinal counties who said they wanted to see a statewide plan. Richard stressed that the statewide plan would serve children beyond those in foster care. Rep. Gale Adcock, D-Wake, expressed concerns about duplicative efforts by the MCOs and the proposed statewide plan. We have a burgeoning de-facto state plan ... because these MCOs are working well together and the counties are working together to put together both a comprehensive, holistic, whole-person approach, Adcock said. I wonder if we need more time for the tailored plans to come to fruition, see how thats going to work, before we add something that could be a disruption to the children, to the families and to the system. If you make too many changes in either a person or a system at one time, you can crash the whole thing because you are trying to do too many good things at one time, and we want to avoid that, Adcock said. Adcock said counties are asking to opt out of something they havent even seen yet; theres a real message there. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. By Azernews Vice-President of the International Council for the Preservation of Monuments and Sites of UNESCO (ICOMOS) Zeynab Gul Unal visited Aghdam on April 17. The vice-president was joined by a delegation led by the head of the State Service for the Protection, Development and Restoration of Cultural Heritage under the Azerbaijani Culture Ministry, Azad Jafarli. During the visit, they examined the Imarat complex in Aghdam, the Alley of Martyrs, the Drama Theater, the Juma Mosque, the Bread Museum, the Chess House, the Shahbulag fortress, and the mosque in Giyasli village. The trip was also attended by the senior consultant of the Special Representation of the President of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories (with the exception of the Shusha region) Araz Imanov and the president of ICOMOS Azerbaijan, Sadagat Davudova. ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organization that is comprised of professionals, experts, representatives from local authorities, companies, and heritage organizations and is dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of the architectural and landscape heritage throughout the world. Armenia destroyed and vandalized Azerbaijani territories during the three-decade occupation between the early 1990s and late 2020. The scale of destruction and massacres on Azerbaijan's formerly occupied territories is shocking, implying deep hatred and animosity toward the Azerbaijani people, with many experts describing these mass destructions and killings as genocide. The country's war-torn Aghdam region alone is seen as a stark example of Armenian hatred and enmity. Aghdam, known as the "Hiroshima of the Caucasus" astounds delegations from all over the world with its infamous scenes of destruction. Currently, the work is underway to restore Azerbaijan's liberated lands. Azerbaijan will rebuild its recently liberated areas in four stages. The initial stage includes the solution of the issues of governance and security, and infrastructure, while the subsequent stages include the solution of the issues of social services activities, reconstruction, and development of the economy. In 2021, Azerbaijan allocated $1.5 billion for the reconstruction of liberated territories, followed by AZN 2.2 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2022. These funds will be used primarily to restore infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, communications, roads, education, health, and so on) as well as cultural and historical monuments. JOHNSON LAKE Its 1:30 p.m. on a cold Thursday in February at Canyon Lakes Brewing Company, and the business is bustling with diners. The special of the day was Rocky Mountain oysters, and patrons will come out just for that, said owner Jessica Bliven. Jessica and her husband, Michael, opened the brewery and restaurant at Johnson Lake in June 2019. The couple are originally from Lexington but had lived in Colorado for about 20 years. With two young children, they decided to return to Nebraska to be closer to family in 2018. They chose to open a brew pub near Johnson Lake. Michael has a degree in culinary arts and restaurant management and had experience working in restaurants. Hed also been brewing his own beer at home for about 15 years. The Blivens spent a year renovating their building before opening in the summer of 2019. Michael brews all the beer at the facility, and they began with four beers on tap. The restaurant started with a small menu of wings, burgers, chicken and salad. Canyon Lakes now has eight beers on tap and a varied menu that also includes pizza, pastas, sandwiches, appetizers and desserts. There are also specials, such as the Rocky Mountain oysters. When the pandemic began in 2020, the restaurant had to make adjustments to remain open. That definitely put a wrench in things. We changed the way we operated, Michael said. We did a lot of takeout for a few months. Thats all we could do. During the early months of the pandemic, more customers were traveling from Omaha and Colorado to Johnson Lake and dining at Canyon Lakes. I think a lot of people were working from home anyway so they came out here, Jessica said. There were families from like Omaha and Colorado looking for something to do. The brewery and restaurant stayed busy through the pandemic and all year long, although business in the summertime typically doubles. Michael is always brewing new beers and provides diverse options for customers. If craft beer isnt someones preference, Canyon Lakes also serves domestic beer, red and white wine, and mixed drinks. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 RACINE Three students at Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School want the community to know something: It makes you feel better to help others. On Feb. 26, dozens of people, some of them children, were displaced after a fire at their apartment building on Anthony Lane. In response, three students organized a fundraiser at the school that raised $423.87, plus another $200 came from a community member, to aid the people affected by the fire. Ramona Wolfe, 6, a first-grader, had the idea to host the fundraiser. She talked her brother, Foster Wolfe, 8, a second-grader, into helping, and he brought along his friend, Miles Kirby, 8, who is also in second grade. Ramona said it made her feel less sad and more happy that she could help the people get most of their stuff back. So it was basically very exciting that I could be a part of it and help, Ramona said. Miles said he was excited when he heard the total amount they were able to raise to help people who lost everything. I want people to know to always be kind to those who have lost things in life and be willing to help anyone who is kind, he said. The fire was especially close to the students because they knew someone affected by the fire. One of our friends lived in the apartment, Foster said. He lost everything. Fundraiser Dr. Jeremy Benishek, the principal of Jefferson Lighthouse, allowed the three to make announcements, which they wrote themselves, for the school over the course of three days. During the announcements, the three young altruists encouraged students and staff to donate to the fund. Benishek said he was very proud of the effort made by the students. They see something happen in the community, and they take action on it, he said. The school has sponsored numerous other efforts to help people in the community, including a clothing drive to assist homeless veterans. Just the fact we have a first-grader and two second-graders who are thinking about this makes me very proud, Benishek said. As an International Baccalaureate school, he added, one of the words the faculty emphasizes to the students is caring, which includes caring about the community. COP Officers with Racines Community Oriented Policing program have been working closely with those affected by the fire. On Friday, Officer Travis Brady came to the school with other members of the Racine Police Department, including Chief Maurice Robinson, to make a special announcement. Brady said Ralph Malicki, who owns the Piggly Wiggly at 5201 Washington Avenue, had contributed $200 to their fundraiser. The $200 will be distributed in gift cards to help the people who lost everything while they recover. The three student fundraisers were very excited about the additional assistance. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 1. Yes. If inflation remains high and interest rates rise, the economy will be a major factor. 2. Yes. If the nation goes into a recession, it will be the issue on the minds of most voters. 3. No. Inflation will likely moderate by then; if so, the economy wont be a major issue. 4.No. All the turmoil involving Russia and Roe v. Wade will probably take center stage. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the economy will play with voters at this point. Vote View Results KEARNEY With a chuckle, Spencer Parish says his church is a bit rough around the edges. Hardly anything we do is very polished, he said. I bumped into a musical instrument on stage, and I apologized to the instrument. That kind of thing is just normal for us. He added, I have done just about everything I could to screw up our efforts here, but God is working anyway. Parish, 33, is the pastor at Calvary Church, which opened at 2106 Central Ave. in February 2018. Just 12 people attended its first service, but now an average of 70 people come every Sunday. Attendance grew so quickly that camp chairs sometimes had to be set up to seat all the worshippers. Most of them are new to town. We had a family from California that came during COVID. Another family moved here from North Dakota, he said. We have people whose churches closed permanently during COVID, and a lot of university students, too. Growth has come so fast that Calvary is now doing a bit of renovation. It has moved a wall 10 feet so it can add a second restroom (one restroom for 70 people can be a problem) along with a mothers room and a nursery. Ten feet doesnt sound like much, but it made quite a bit of difference, Parish said. The new room for mothers has a one-way window so they can watch the worship service while nursing or tending to fussy babies. The church has moved the small stage where music and preaching take place. It went from the west wall to the south wall and soon will be reset along the north wall. Also, the church will replace its padded chairs with pews it recently purchased from a small church outside Kearney that closed. The pews will boost seating capacity from 90 to 120. Parish and his wife Lauren believed God called them to Kearney when they arrived in 2017 to set up Calvary Church. Graduates of Chadron High School and Wayne State College, they came by way of Colorado, where Parish earned his master of divinity degree from Denver Seminary. He had felt called to the ministry while in college. In Denver, they had joined Calvary Church, a joyful non-denominational congregation with 6,000 members. In 2016, Calvary leaders asked Parish and his wife to plant the first Calvary congregation in Nebraska. They agreed. I was born and raised in Chadron. We loved Colorado, but Nebraska is home. We knew we wanted to move back to Nebraska, and we wanted to move to a college town because college was a formative time in our lives. Thats when I became a Christian, and Lauren, too, he said. In Kearney, they saw a need for another church, especially south of the Union Pacific tracks. God shaped us in Denver. There we gained a heart for the forgotten and neglected. Theres a lot of that in the southern part of Kearney. We struggled to find a place south of the tracks, he said. He had no success, so when the Central Avenue location opened, he took it. Parish, Lauren and then-co-pastor Bryton Schulenberg and his wife Katherine turned that storefront into a place for worship and opened the church in early 2017. Parish loves the downtown location, especially its visibility. He calls it good middle ground. Kearneys Calvary was the 14th church, and the first in Nebraska, in the now 27-member Calvary Family of Churches. Calvary is also part of the Southern Baptist Convention and an offshoot of that, the Oregon Trail Baptist Association. Along with Sunday services, Parish offers three midweek small groups of about 20 people each. These are intergenerational, on purpose: Its good to spend time with people from different life stages and backgrounds, he said. He also leads a class on preaching for about 10 young men. They write sermons, practice in front of each other and critique the presentations. Some will go on to become pastors or church planters, but even if they never work as a pastor full time, I am a big believer in lay elders who serve the church, he said. Lauren pitches in, too. She helps lead Sunday worship, leads womens groups and plans events. They have a daughter, Juliet, 7, and a new puppy. About his Sunday gaffes, Parish just grins. I almost cant get through a sermon without saying something embarrassing. More than once, Ive set my Bible on a music stand up front. The music stand tips backward and the Bible falls off, he said. Ive learned here what I already knew, that God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines. Ive done just about everything wrong, but despite my mistakes, He is working anyway. I just want to teach people to love Jesus. I feel like I dont know what Im doing, but God is moving. Im just along for the ride. Three individuals were arrested in Necedah for attempting to steal a coin machine from a laundromat. At approximately 6:30 p.m. on April 14, the Juneau County Communications Center received information of a probable burglary in progress, according to a release from Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson. Multiple deputies responded and received information that two suspects were witnessed stealing the machine and loading it into a white Chevrolet Tahoe. Approximately 11 minutes after the burglary tip, the sheriff's office located the vehicle traveling west on 32nd Street and performed a "high-risk traffic stop," the release said. The three suspects, 35-year-old Daniel Horwath of Tomahawk, 33-year-old Brian Thomas of Eagle River and 19-year-old Kimberly Guite of Marshfield, were arrested, according to the release. The release stated that all three suspects were arrested on tentative charges of felony theft, entry into a locked coin box and criminal damage to property. Horwath and Guite were also tentatively charged with felony bail jumping, Horwath with three counts. Thomas also had warrants from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Oneida County, the release said. The incident remains under investigation and additional charges may follow, according to the release. C&S Towing and the Wisconsin State Patrol assisted the Juneau County Sheriff's Department with the situation. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 By Trend The delegation headed by the Chairman of Azerbaijans Parliament (Milli Majlis) Sahiba Gafarova will commit an official visit to Georgia on April 19, Milli Majlis told Trend. Sahiba Gafarova is scheduled to meet with the President, Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia during the visit, Milli Majlis said. The visit will last until April 20. New Zealands top court recently ruled a man can be extradited to China to face a murder charge. In a 3-2 decision, the court found that the accused, Kyung Yup Kim, could get a fair trial in China and would not be tortured. Concerns over those issues have stopped most democratic countries from extraditing suspects to China in recent times. Like many other nations, New Zealand does not have an official extradition treaty with China. But Kims lawyers said they would try to stop the extradition. First, they will make a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Then, if needed, they would request a new judicial ruling based on Kims poor health. Lawyer Tony Ellis said Kim was very upset by the judgment. He said Kim is in a suicidal state because of his health issues. Those issues include severe depression, a small brain tumor, and liver and kidney disease. Ellis said China may now begin to start extradition cases against people who have fled the country and been accused of economic crimes. In making its decision, the New Zealand high court overturned an earlier appeals court ruling. Two judges on the top court had removed themselves from taking part in the new ruling. Before being promoted to the top court, they were members of the appeals court. Both had ruled against the extradition. The high court found that China was able to guarantee that Kim would be jailed in Shanghai. New Zealand officials could monitor him from there before and during his trial. That would include visits at least every second day before his trial and at other times he requested. China also told officials that Kim would serve his prison sentence in Shanghai if convicted. The court found that if no substantial grounds exist for believing an individual accused is at risk of torturethe individual should not avoid prosecution for a serious crime. Kim was arrested in 2011 after China asked to extradite him on one charge of intentional homicide. He was imprisoned in New Zealand jails for more than five years. He spent another three years under electronic monitoring. According to court documents, Kim is a South Korean citizen who moved to New Zealand more than 30 years ago with his family when he was 14. He is accused of killing 20-year-old Peiyun Chen in Shanghai. He was traveling to the city to visit a different woman who was his girlfriend at the time. Chinese police say they have evidence linking Kim to the crime, including a bed covering found with the body. Kim says he is innocent. Ellis said his defense case would be that his former girlfriend is responsible for the crime. Im Jonathan Evans. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English based on a report from the Associated Press. Words in This Story extradite v. to surrender an alleged criminal usually under the provisions of a treaty or statute by one authority to another having jurisdiction to try the charge complaint n. a formal allegation against a party tumor n. an abnormal growth of body tissue monitor v. to watch or check for a special reason promote - v. to move up in position or rank Russias invasion of Ukraine has led Western nations to suspend tens of millions of dollars used to support Russian science projects. As a result, hundreds of partnerships between Russian and Western organizations have been canceled or put on hold. The changes are linked to heavy sanctions placed on Russia by European nations and others. The sanctions aim to punish Russia for its ongoing military offensive in Ukraine. Reuters news agency spoke with numerous scientists about the effects the war in Ukraine is having on Russian science. The Russian Science Foundations state-supported 2021 budget of $213 million was dependent on aid from India, China, Japan, France, Austria, Germany, and others. A spokesperson for the foundation did not answer questions from Reuters about how the lack of partner financing would affect its work. The spokesperson said only that the foundation planned to continue to support leading teams of researchers and their research projects. Some of the affected projects involved the building of high-tech research centers in Russia. Among them are an ion collider and a neutron reactor for which Europe promised to give $27.4 million. Scientists said such centers play an important part in physics research that may result in the development of new materials, fuels, drugs, or other inventions. Another $16.7 million set aside for the design of low-carbon materials and battery technologies was also frozen. The move came after the European Union stopped all cooperation with Russian organizations last month. One science project, a research station, has been supported by Germanys Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. But after Russia invaded Ukraine, the organization stopped financially supporting the station, which studies climate change in the Arctic. Peter Hergersberg is a spokesperson for the Max Planck Society, which receives money from Germanys federal government as well as states. He told Reuters the freeze in financial support will probably lead to a break in continuous measurements at Russias Northeast Science Station. The station, which sits on the Kolyma River in Siberia, has been keeping records since 2013. Hergersberg said researchers there were trying to keep the station running." He did not say how much money was being withheld from the project. Scientists who spoke to Reuters said Russias invasion of Ukraine has undone years spent building international science cooperation following the Soviet Unions 1991 collapse. A lot of communication between scientific organizations is currently stopped and research trips have been postponed. Arctic concerns Among the more urgent research efforts on hold are projects to study climate change in the Russian Arctic. Ted Schuur is a Northern Arizona University ecologist who works with the Permafrost Carbon Network. Permafrost is a layer of soil that is always frozen in cold areas of the world. He said two-thirds of the worlds permafrost area is in Russia, so data from there is very important. If you cut off your view of changing permafrost in Russia, you're really cutting off our understanding of global changes to permafrost, Schuur added. Scientists see the suspension of financial support for Russian projects as worrying because it could delay important research on climate change. This is especially true as climate change melts the long-frozen ground that holds an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of organic carbon. That is twice the amount already in the atmosphere today. Scientists fear that as the ground melts, planet warming gases could be released into the atmosphere. Schuur said while scientists can use satellites to see changes on land, they cannot see what is happening below ground. Scientific teams are needed in the Arctic to study the underground changes. Russian scientists have collected and shared permafrost field data for years. But as the war in Ukraine continues, Western researchers are not sure about the future of the research efforts. Im Gregory Stachel. Gloria Dickie and Dasha Afanasieva reported this story for Reuters. Gregory Stachel adapted it for our VOA Learning English readers and listeners. ____________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story sanction n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country usually plural collider n. a machine used to force particles to hit each other at high speed so scientists can study the results layer n. the amount of a substance covering a surface organic adj. happening or developing naturally over time, without being forced or planned by anyone We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Danang market offers free goods to poor students Authorities in the central city of Danang have organised a market that offers free goods to poor students in the area. A student at the market The market, which has been held every Sunday over the past two months at the headquarters of the Thanh Binh Ward People's Committee in Hai Chau District, only serves students, especially those with difficult economic conditions. The market mostly supplies fresh goods including fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. Phan Thi Hoai Anh who studies at the Danang University of Technology and Education said that she came from Binh Dinh Province and had faced lots of difficulties studying in Danang. "Besides paying rent, the costs of food here are also much more expensive than they are at home," Anh said. "So poor students like me really appreciate support like this market from Danang authorities." Another student, Tran Viet Tung said that this was his second time at the market and he appreciated the help it provided poor students. "I want to sincerely thank Danangs authorities and kind donors for their support," Tung said. "We now don't have to worry so much about food budgeting and we can make some savings." A man donates vegetables to the market Head of Ut Ly Hoa Phuoc Egg Shop, Phan Van Thoi is one of the markets donors. "We have so far participated in 10 markets since they started," Thoi said. "We like this way of supporting poor students from other localities coming to study in our city and we decided to participate along with other donors." Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in Thanh Binh Ward, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong said that thanks to support from local businessmen and donors, they were now supplying between 250-300 packages of fresh food at the market every Sunday. "The programme aims to ease the difficulties facing poor students who might have faced lots of challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic," the official said. By Azernews By Orkhan Amashov The closer Baku and Yerevan move towards a peace deal, the more infuriated and vehement the separatist remnants still present in the mountainous part of Karabakh become. Overwrought under the weight of the latest defeat-induced moral and physical decrepitude, and disillusioned with the Armenian governments acquiescence to Azerbaijans five-point plan, which amounts to the formers readiness to recognise the latters territorial integrity, the leader of the illegal entity based in Khankandi, in a faint attempt to throw his last dice, suggested a certain vertical framework for relations with Russia. Destiny has long ceased to smile comfortably upon separatist leader Arayik Harutunyan and his henchmen. In fact, he has been enmeshed in an issue from which there is no hope of extrication. The inflexible logic of the recent development points to the utter and irreversible extermination of the illegal formation of which he is in charge. Once a peace deal is concluded, there may be no need for the Russian peacekeepers, and without them, the separatists will have no refuge inside Karabakh. Moral and political debasement The idea of creating an Armenian state in Karabakh has traditionally had two elements. The first objective was to achieve its recognition by the international community, and then to realise what is called the "miatsum" and unite with Armenia. Now even in Harutunyans perverse world, this unhallowed mission is impossible, hence the radical solution in the form of acceding to Russia has emerged. It is not the first time that Harutunyan has exhorted the Kremlin to take control of this miserable situation. During the Second Karabakh War, he sent a letter to the Russian president to interfere. As was the case during the 2020 campaign, some contemporary elements within the Russian establishment are sympathetic to exhortations of this kind. Back then, in response to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans request for military aid as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Moscow clarified that, since the campaign was fought on the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, there were no grounds for intervention. Despite their bombastic statements, constant pleas and imaginary self-perception of being a quasi-state, the separatists are not functioning within a legal space. At no point during the course of the OSCE-mediated protracted negotiations has Baku consented to their participation, despite Yerevans best, yet futile, efforts. The entity in question has not been referred to in any document signed pursuant to the 2020 ceasefire deal. To be brief, when the separatists talk about the preservation of the 'Artsakh' statehood, they are talking about something that only belongs in the depths of their gibberish-fuelled imagination. Constructive share in guilt Moscow, despite its indispensable, yet self-interested role in ending the hostilities, is not entirely blameless in this context. Article 4 of the Russian-brokered ceasefire states that "Russian peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation shall be deployed concurrently with the withdrawal of the Armenian troops''. The withdrawal in question has not happened as yet and, on this basis, there are grounds for assuming that the Kremlin has a constructive share in keeping the aspirations of the separatists rhetorically alive. The facts, as far as they can be demonstrated, point to such a surmise. The separatist forces are still physically present in Khankandi, within the zone of the responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. Baku has consistently drawn attention to the non-fulfilment of this particular provision. Moscow prefers not to dwell upon this point at any length. If pressed to produce an answer, the Kremlin may always resort to tergiversation. On a purely formalistic level, it is possible to produce a different interpretation of what the withdrawal actually means in this context, or to even go as far as to draw up an artificial distinction between the forces directly at the command of Yerevan and the separatist forces operating from within Karabakh. Harutyunyan's displeasure and his preposterous idea have provided an ample opportunity to throw a piercing glance at the internal political situation and establish the degree of sanity in Armenia, which appears to exist in a parallel universe. On a governmental level, such a scheme is deemed useless and dangerous. Pashinyan, as was stated in his address to the National Assembly, has reiterated that he no longer views the status as a foundation from which guarantees as to rights and security emanate, but the other way round. The opposition is a different story, of course. One school of thought is that Pashinyan must be deposed, one way or another, and then a new government should take a different Karabakh line, renouncing the previous administration's concessions. Some of those who propagate this approach are also weary of Russia, and believe that relying too much on the Kremlin in the light of the Ukrainian crisis would be damaging to Armenias reputation in the West. The second school of thought is that, since the chances of Yerevan removing Pashinyan are slight, Russia must be encouraged to step in and solidify its presence in Karabakh on a long-term basis. This method of reasoning is not unakin to Harutyunyans recent plea. Disuniting population from separatist junta That the illegal entity based in Khankandi has no viable chance for legitimacy goes without saying. It is also clear that the incumbent Armenian government presently views the status as a method, not an aim in itself, in the context of the negotiations. It follows that the next stage should be the disentanglement of the separatist junta led by Harutyunyan from the local Armenian population of Karabakh. Pashinyans latest address to the Armenian parliament was indicative of this shift in a tentative way. He focused on the guarantees regarding the security and rights of the local inhabitants within the framework of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. The so-called illegal and universally unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is not a part of any discourse. What we observe today is that, even in Yerevans worldview, it is ceasing to be the voice of Karabakh Armenians. Harutyunyans latest exhortation might have caused dismay and even some degree of perturbation. But, within the grand scheme of affairs, it is nothing more than the glow of a firefly that is destined to die after a few days, leaving no trace of its misbegotten existence. The American space agency NASA is experimenting with ways to build huge telescopes with fluid materials. Such devices could permit astronomers to examine older and more distant space objects. Bigger telescopes often lead to big, new discoveries. They can reach deeper into space, finding and collecting light at far greater distances than smaller equipment. In January, NASA announced the deployment of its largest and most powerful telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope. It aims to build on the work of past telescopes, while gathering in-depth information on the early development of the universe. But NASA is seeking to greatly expand the size of its telescopes, up to 100 times over ones currently in use. One way to do this is to build lenses using fluid materials. NASA has been carrying out experiments to see if fluids can be used to create telescope lenses in microgravity conditions. The goal is to establish a method that could be used by astronauts in space to create lenses after transporting the necessary materials. Much of the research centers on exploring how liquids behave in microgravity. NASA notes in a description of its experiments that all liquids contain a force that holds them together at their surface. This force is called surface tension. On Earth, surface tension can keep very small drops of water together, in a perfect circle. But when the drops get bigger, the surface tension is broken and the drops circular shape collapses. In space, the microgravity environment causes drops of water and other fluids to form perfect circles and stay that way. One experiment is called the Fluidic Telescope Experiment, or FLUTE. It is a joint project involving NASAs Ames Research Center in California, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the Israel Institute of Technology, known as Technion. FLUTEs main investigator is Edward Balaban. He said in a statement the way liquids behave in microgravity can be a good fit for producing large telescopes or other optical elements. "In microgravity, liquids take on shapes that are useful for making lenses and mirrors, Balaban said. So if we make them in space, they could be used to build telescopes that are dramatically bigger than was previously thought possible." FLUTE team members have carried out experiments on the ground and in the air to test different liquid materials. In one test, scientists combined water with chemical mixes in search of a good material to make telescope lenses. The tests simulated a weightless environment. Researchers involved in the experiments said they were able to easily create lenses in a container. They reported that the resulting lenses had surface qualities similar to, or even better than, lenses produced with costly equipment. In December, the FLUTE team carried out experiments on two zero gravity airplane flights. Such flights involve an airplane climbing and falling at different altitudes in an effort to produce brief microgravity conditions. The team had 50 chances to reach 15 to 20 second periods of microgravity for testing. Moran Bercovici, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Technion, helped lead the experiments. He said the team used pumps to push different oil materials into a circular frame. In a few seconds, Bercovici said, we were able to create a free-standing liquid lens until the plane lifted upwards again and gravity kicked in and the oils oozed out. The experiment produced hardened lenses. Bercovici and his team plan to complete more experiments in the coming months to test how different fluids keep their shape in microgravity. One FLUTE project experiment will be carried out aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is to be completed by private astronaut Eytan Stibbe, the second Israeli to go to space. He launched to the ISS on April 8, along with three other private astronauts. Stibbe will attempt to use polymer material, like in the Technion laboratory experiment, to create lenses in full microgravity. The lenses will then be transported back to Earth for close examination. Balaban said: "If our (ISS) experiment is successful, it will be the first time an optical component is made in space. It feels a bit like making history." I'm Caty Weaver. And Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA, the Ramon Foundation and Axiom Space. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Quiz - NASA Looks to Build Huge Telescopes with Fluid Materials Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz __________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story lens n. a piece of equipment, made of glass or plastic, with a curved surface that is used to make images larger or cleaner optical adj. relating to light or the ability to see mirror n. a piece of glass with a shiny metallic material on one side that produces an image of anything that is in front of it dramatic adj. very sudden or noticeable previous adj. existing or happening before something else simulate v. to do or make something that looks real, but is not ooze v. to come out of something component n. one of the parts of something, especially a machine JUNEAU A 45-year-old Milwaukee woman entered a guilty plea in Dodge County courts on Monday, ending a 13-year question on how the body of Baby Theresa was left in the woods outside of the town of Theresa. Karin S. Luttinen is following a plea agreement after facing charges of putting her newborn daughters lifeless body in a garbage bag before abandoning the body in the wooded area. Luttinen appeared in the courtroom of Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Kristine Snow. Luttinen entered a guilty plea to a felony count of concealing the death of a child. She could face up to 1 years in prison and 2 years of an extended supervision if convicted of the offense. Luttinen said she was unaware she was pregnant until near the end of her pregnancy, according to a criminal complaint, and gave birth to the girl in April 2009 in a bathtub before disposing of the childs body. An autopsy on the newborn dubbed Baby Theresa by authorities determined she had died of fetal demise, which indicates a child may have died prior to or shortly after birth. According to the plea agreement, Luttinen would waive her preliminary hearing, which she has already done. On Monday, she fulfilled another requirement of the plea agreement by entering a guilty plea to the charge of concealing the death of a child. Luttinens attorney may recommend any sentence, but the prosecution will not recommend a specific sentence. However, the plea agreement allows the prosecution to recommend some incarceration is appropriate without stating a specific amount of time. The state may discuss the facts and circumstances of the case and any and all considerations related to sentencing. The state also may explain the potential penalties including the maximum sentence in the case. The baby was found by a man cutting wood on a private property on April 29, 2009. Her body was discovered on Lone Road less than a mile from Highway 175 and less than 3 miles from Highway 41. Authorities found a maxi pad wrapper in the trash bag containing the infant. It was sent to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab and came back with a DNA profile of Baby Theresas then-unidentified mother. The case was initially charged using the name Jane Doe in 2014 to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring. However it wasnt until Jan. 29, 2021, that Luttinen was first approached about the case. A special agent for the Wisconsin Department of Justice went to speak to the father of the child and Luttinen following a potential match on the family tree DNA results. According to the complaint, Luttinen initially denied ever being pregnant but submitted a DNA sample. DNA results showed on March 1, 2021, that Luttinen was a major component source for the maxi pad wrappings. DNA markers also showed that Luttinen was the biological mother of Baby Theresa. DNA testing was done throughout the years, however it wasnt until 2018 when Dodge County Detective Vickie Brugger started speaking to Dodge County Medical Examiner PJ Schoebel about revisiting the investigation using forensic genealogy. Additional genetic analyst was completed and narrowed the search to a specific branch of the family. Speaking to law enforcement in March 2021, according to the complaint, Luttinen said she did not know she was pregnant until toward the end of her pregnancy. She was in the bathroom when her water broke, the complaint said, and gave birth to the girl in a bathtub with water in it, which she said she turned on to get more comfortable. According to the complaint, the baby came out head first and face down with the umbilical cord wrapped around the babys neck. Luttinen told law enforcement she blacked out for 15 minutes and awoke to the tub being empty of water, according to the complaint. She told investigators she was in a panic, drove around aimlessly and decided to place the girls body in the woods as a final resting place, the complaint said. A sentencing hearing is scheduled on Aug. 5. Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760. Three people were arrested for stealing a coin machine from a laundromat in Necedah, authorities reported. At approximately 6:30 p.m. on April 14, the Juneau County Communications Center received information of a probable burglary in progress, according to a release from Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson. Multiple deputies responded and received information that two suspects were witnessed stealing the machine and loading it into a white Chevrolet Tahoe. Approximately 11 minutes after the burglary tip, the sheriff's office located the vehicle traveling west on 32nd Street and performed a "high-risk traffic stop," the release said. The three suspects, 35-year-old Daniel Horwath of Tomahawk, 33-year-old Brian Thomas of Eagle River and 19-year-old Kimberly Guite of Marshfield, were arrested, according to the release. The release stated that all three suspects were arrested on tentative charges of felony theft, entry into a locked coin box and criminal damage to property. Horwath and Guite were also tentatively charged with felony bail jumping, Horwath with three counts. Thomas also had warrants from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Oneida County, the release said. The incident remains under investigation and additional charges may follow, according to the release. C&S Towing and the Wisconsin State Patrol assisted the Juneau County Sheriff's Department with the situation. A process that creates fabric using water, soap and agitation turned piles of fluffy, colored wool into vibrant wall hangings of Wisconsin native wildflowers. Edgewood High School students created the fabric with flower designs by learning a wet felting process. The students worked in groups so five different wall hanging panels were created and will hang in the schools new library, which opened in the fall of 2020. The texture is really fun to play with. Its like really squishy, junior Marcio Sierra said. Freshman Lydia Shannon said she liked putting the wool in place. It was very pretty at the time because its so fluffy, she said. The process, which took a good portion of the school day, was open to the advanced 2D and 3D art class students taught by Stephanie Baertlein, and the schools Art Club, which she advises. Baertlein originally planned to have students go on a field trip to the farm in Big Rock, Illinois, where Natasha Lehrer Lewis, fiber artist and educator, raises sheep. Her fiber arts studio, which is called Esthers Place, is a couple of miles down the road from the farm. The idea was for the students to to see the farm and be exposed to the whole process of shearing the sheep and taking it from raw form to art form, Baertlein said. In addition to the farm tour, the students would have completed a small individual project. But when Baertlein was unable to get a bus to transport her students to the farm, she decided to create an in-school field trip with Lehrer Lewis serving as a visiting artist. She also liked that the finished project would make the students feel a part of the library. This was a really good opportunity to work large and do something we wouldnt typically do in the classroom, Baertlein said. I thought it was an amazing experience for the kids just to get their hands on a totally different medium. Baertlein started out with idea that the students would recreate some paintings by Georgia OKeeffe, who attended Sacred Heart Academy, now known as Edgewood High School. But the librarian had hoped for something more original, so the project instead took inspiration from OKeeffe, who is known for her large-scale flower paintings. We wanted it to be true to Wisconsin and also celebrate Georgia OKeeffe, so we did Wisconsin native wildflowers, Baertlein said. The five panels showcase wild bergamot (bee balm), columbine, butterfly weed, wood violet and coneflower. The students followed a type of wet felting called nuno felting, which used a gauzy silk fabric as a base for fusing the wool. Sometimes heat is part of the wet felting process but it wasnt incorporated this time. The wet felting process was tricky, the students said. It cant be too thick, but we didnt want it all splotchy, junior Jasper Colaluca said. Sophomore Avery Fisher said when starting out, the students had to be careful to put the wool in the right places to create the look of the flower they were trying to replicate. One group of students had fun designing the coneflower panel by incorporating 10 bees. We came up with the bee project because we wanted each bee to be yourself, sophomore Alex Munn said. But it also meant making sure to incorporate plenty of pollen, said junior Alex Flint. Senior Kaylin Green-Betty said the project was especially meaningful to her because she is doing an art project on sheep. I want to learn more about the wool and incorporate it in my project possibly, she said. Lehrer Lewis said this was the first time she worked with a group who took on the whole project starting with the design. Usually she starts by giving a group a sketch and has the fibers divided and ready. It was a nice creative stretch and a nice medium for them, Lehrer Lewis said. I loved how they (wall hangings) kind of represented the personality of the group as well. I felt each piece was representative of the artists that made it. Lehrer Lewis said the students developed team-working and communication skills during the process. They definitely took it beyond an art experience to a great social experience, as well, she said. Baertlein said processing the wool by agitating the fibers, which causes them to stick together, and removing the water was a long operation that tested the students. It was a really good sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, she said. There were some lessons on perseverance, so it was a really great project to do. School Spotlight: Adventures in learning, inside and outside the classroom Each Monday, the Wisconsin State Journal features a story about learning in Wisconsin. Here are School Spotlight stories from the past year. Even for a regular rider, a trip into an urban American subway system long has involved a leap of faith. The systems are, by definition, subterranean. The third rail, a metaphor taken from the ground-level electricity used to power subway cars, implies danger in all fields. At night, stations can be lonely and feel dystopian. By day, crowds can push against you, causing you to worry about falling onto the tracks or, these days, being pushed. And even when the train comes, were all familiar with the moment after the door closes and someone with a hustle bids the car hello. No wonder most passengers in Chicago breathe easier when the Red Line emerges from the earth, south of Roosevelt Road and north of North Avenue. On the other hand, these oft-ancient systems can be faster than traveling above ground and they free up street space for cars, bikes and pedestrians. Theyre better for the environment than automobiles. They dont clog streets like buses. And in some cities Paris and, yes, Moscow come to mind they can even be beautiful. On vacation, emerging from a station in an unknown neighborhood can be a thrill. Of late, subways have been in favor of transit planners. New York is investing in a costly new line under 2nd Avenue. Chicago is spending a whopping $2.3 billion in public funds on expanding the Red Line on the South Side from 95th Street to 130th Street. Thats on top of the $2.1 billion Red and Purple Line Modernization Program now well underway, featuring what wags call Rahms roller coaster, a costly concrete flyover allowing Brown Line trains to move more easily and quickly to the Northwest Side. These megaprojects suck up massive amounts of taxpayers money and they only make sense if the system is used, the network is perceived as an asset to a city, and the trains are busy. No fare at the turnstile ever replaces these capital costs. Yet consider what has been happening of late in the subways of New York and Chicago. In New York, an unhinged person disguised as a construction worker allegedly opened fire Tuesday in a crowded Brooklyn station, terrifying passengers who were just beginning to feel safe enough to return to the MTA. Some 23 people were injured, and panic ensued. That morning terror (which could easily have been a lot worse, given the hail of bullets fired) came on top of disturbing instances wherein a passenger was pushed onto the tracks, seemingly at random. And for every such incident, worries about it happening always are compounded. Many riders now remove their headphones and pay far more attention to their environment down below. As well they should. In Chicago, CBS 2 reported Monday, the last several days have seen (at minimum) a shooting, a stabbing and another attack on the CTA system. Officials still have no answers about actions against violent crime, the station reported on its website, suggesting that little evidence had yet been seen of the increased unarmed security presence promised by Chicago police Superintendent David Brown. According to CTA data and ABC 7 reports, Violent crime on trains was up 17% in the first part of this year. Aldermen, including Brendan Reilly, 42nd, also have been sounding the alarm. Its true that subway systems cannot be blamed for the increase in violent crime, which is pervasive in many urban areas, including Chicago. Its also true that crime never can be entirely eradicated from systems used by millions of riders every day. And its reasonable to note that the pandemic, and the systemic changes in work habits, reduced the number of people using the system, especially during off-hours, which not only allows more opportunity for criminals but affects the perception of how safe riders feel. All that said, just the above two projects in Chicago are costing $4.5 billion and counting. City officials, who have had wide discretion in how to spend federal relief dollars, have decided that this is what the city needs most to thrive and prosper, and to reduce the inequities that spiral when neighborhoods are cut off from convenient public transportation. ... These funding pots are all different, of course: Chicago cannot easily divert that money into security improvements. But its absurd to pour such resources into the system if riders are going to abandon it because they do not feel safe or comfortable on the trains anymore. And every subway system on the planet needs discretionary riders (people who have a choice about whether to take the train or some other means) to be cost-effective. This, clearly, is a worsening situation that urgently needs attention. Security systems need upgrading: a lesson from the New York incident was the importance of working cameras, an area in which Chicago has done better than New York of late. The stations and trains in both cities need cleaning up and freshening: This requires sensitivity not just to the homeless people who can often be found in the system, but also to avoid the kind of heavy law enforcement presence that makes things actually feel worse. Such simple things as picking up trash and sprucing up the cars helps, too. And, of course, more frequent trains are vital. The quicker the train arrives, the less time you have to stand around feeling vulnerable and the faster you get where you want to go. The crisis on the subway, which has many causes and touches many different agencies, now should be occupying the best minds in City Hall. Chicago needs a thriving CTA subway system, worthy of our massive collective investment. Four and a half billion dollars is a lot of money. Right now, after some years of improvement, The CTA is falling backward, even as it tries to grow to better serve its city. It needs immediate help. When Russian soldiers invaded Lubyanka, a village near the ravaged Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the Russians forced all the men to assemble in a central square. Then the invaders demanded that the Nazis step forward. The men laughed, I was told by Iryna Rayko, a Ukrainian American whose sister in Lubyanka recently informed her by phone of the details. They said, There are no Nazis here, we are just Ukrainians who love our country. Luckily none of these men were murdered in the square in February. But the Russian militarys fixation on rooting out Nazis reflects the big lie Vladimir Putin tells his people to justify the Ukraine war. He insists that Ukraine is led by Nazis backed by the United States and NATO and that the country is riddled with Nazi sympathizers. Putins big lie provides the Russian military with justification for more war crimes against civilians (after all, theyre Nazis). It justifies the Russian presidents goal of bringing Ukraine back under control of Greater Russia. It also allows him to blame Russian military crimes on Ukrainian Nazis who kill their own people. So Putin will pay no heed to Western charges of war crimes or genocide, and Russians wont press him to do so. There is no hope of a negotiated end to the war unless he and the Russian public can be forced to face the truth. In his Feb. 24 speech announcing the invasion, Putin pledged to de-Nazify Ukraine and called its leaders drug addicts and neo-Nazis who were committing genocide against Russian-speakers. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired back on Twitter that Russia had attacked his country as Nazi Germany did.) What makes Putins Nazi trope so bizarre is that Zelensky is Jewish (as is his prime minister) and lost members of his family in the Holocaust. The far right in Ukraine has only one parliamentary seat, and commands only a tiny fraction of the support that the far right garners in Germany or France or in Russia. Yet the Kremlin constantly blames the Russian militarys war crimes which the world is watching live on one battalion in the Ukrainian army composed of nationalist ideologues who are tough fighters. If Russia uses chemical weapons in Mariupol, Putin will claim that the Azov battalion is responsible. He has already proclaimed that the dead bodies in Bucha were fakes. So far, a majority of Russians are buying Putins lies. New public opinion research from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in partnership with Russias Levada Analytical Center shows that 53% of Russians strongly support Russias military operation in Ukraine, while 28% somewhat support it. Even if one doubts the poll, there are endless stories of Ukrainians rebuffed on the phone by Russian relatives when they try to describe what the invaders are doing to their country. Its typical to hear stories like this one, from Yevhen, another Lubyanka native, whose last name Im not using because he is serving in the Ukrainian military. He told me via WhatsApp: My fathers brother who lives in Russia called him and said, We are saving you from Nazi barbarians. My father replied, You are crazy. Come here and I will show you who are Nazis. But the hard facts didnt change the Russian relatives mind. The devilish cleverness of Putins big lie is that it feeds on Russians historic pride about their World War II triumph over Nazi Germany, which is celebrated each year on May 9 as Victory Day with a huge parade in Red Square. Russian friends tell me the letter Z on invading Russian tanks is a throwback to the words Na Zapad, meaning To the West, which were painted on military vehicles headed toward Berlin during World War II. Putin reportedly wants to announce a win over Ukraines Nazis by Victory Day in May this year. It may seem unimaginable to Americans that this Nazi trope can brainwash much of the Russian public in the age of the internet. Yet most Russians still get their news from state-controlled TV and radio, on which Putin and state-controlled media pundits constantly push the Ukraine-Nazi message. The barrage of anti-Nazi rhetoric has been unrelenting since Putins first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. One example: An appalling April article from the state-owned Ria Novesti news agency by Timofey Sergeytsev, argues Ukronazism is more a threat to the world and Russia than German Nazism. Sergeytsev contends that the majority of Ukrainians must be subjected to harsh denazification, which requires an end to the sovereign Ukrainian state. This is the kind of stuff Russians read and hear every day. Of course, Americans shouldnt be too surprised that Putin has been able to hoodwink tens of millions of Russians who cant access real news. We live in a country with open access to information, yet about one-third of the population has been brainwashed by former President Donald Trumps big lie that he won the election. Putins big lie is proof that, even in the internet age, an autocrat can hypnotize his country with propaganda that reaches Hitlerian levels. Putin, like Trump, may even believe his own falsehoods. Lost in his lies, this Russian war criminal wont respond to rational discourse. Putin can resist sanctions by convincing his public of the need to sacrifice to defeat the new Nazis. He will only back down if forced by military defeat on the field. Rubin writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer: trubin@phillynews.com. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov The United States has hailed Azerbaijans commitment to peace talks with Armenia. The European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau of the U.S. State Department made the remarks in a post on its official Twitter account on April 18. "The United States welcomes Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyans recent comments on peace negotiations with Azerbaijan, the recent bilateral FM call between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs commitment to peace negotiations, the bureau tweeted. It said in another Twitter post that "Assistant Secretary Donfried is sending Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Andrew Schofer to the region this week to discuss how the United States can best support the process". Analyzing Andrew Schofer's visit, political scientist, MP Elman Nasirov said that Schofer will most likely inform Armenia about the impossibility of cooperation among Washington, Paris and Moscow on the matter due to the ongoing Ukraine crisis. "With this visit, Schofer will explain to Yerevan that the OSCE Minsk Group's activities no longer make sense," Nasirov said. He added that Schofer's arrival in Armenia has naturally sparked a flurry of concerns. The visit is likely to be welcomed by Yerevan, as it has frequently raised the issue of using the OSCE Minsk Group's mediation in the settlement of post-conflict issues. "However, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated that their activities are non-existent. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently stated that the American and French co-chairs no longer wish to collaborate with Russia. In fact, the U.S. and France have suspended their participation in the OSCE Minsk Group. Russia must halt its activities in light of this. As a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Minsk Group has suspended its operations. There is no such institution," Nasirov stated. He described the visit as surprising. In my opinion, in reality, Schofer will only disclose Washington's position in the negotiations with Yerevan on issues awaiting resolution in the post-conflict period. On this basis, he will explain the new realities to Yerevan, the MP said. Nasirov underlined that the U.S. diplomat explain that against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is no longer possible for Washington and Paris to work together with Moscow in the OSCE Minsk Group. In the absence of Russia, the co-chairing institution cannot function effectively. In this circumstance, the American co-chair will simply try to persuade Yerevan that there is no alternative to accepting the current situation. Because, in the current reality, whether they like it or not, the OSCE Minsk Group's functioning is irrelevant. As a result, I believe that this visit will yield no tangible outcomes, Nasirov added. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel met in a trilateral format in Brussels on April 6. The meeting was held for a continuation of the discussions on the situation in the South Caucasus region and the development of EU relations with both countries. The leaders took stock of developments since their last meeting in Brussels in December 2021 and their videoconference, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, in February 2022. They reviewed progress on the implementation of undertaken commitments. The leaders discussed the recently reported tensions and reiterated the necessity of adhering fully to the provisions of the 9/10 November 2020 trilateral statement. Both Aliyev and Pashinyan have expressed a willingness to work quickly toward a peace agreement between their countries. To that end, it was decided to instruct foreign ministers to begin work on drafting a future peace treaty that would address all of the issues. At the same time, it was also agreed to convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April. The Joint Border Commission's mandate will be to: delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and ensure a stable security situation along and in the vicinity of the borderline. Last week a reader wrote with an inquiry: Which of the challengers in the Republican primary is most likely to give U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, who is up for election, a serious contest? I scratched out a quickly-crafted reply, and while the contest itself doesnt look like a nail-biter, the thought process behind evaluating it might be useful if you want to play at home Lets Handicap the Political Horse Race. One quick note: This isnt about how to choose who you should vote for. That might be the subject of another column. This is about estimating chances of winning. Another quick note: This isnt exactly about prediction, which is to say what will happen. This is about the factors that influence the chances something will happen, which is different. Quirky changes always are possible. Heres where I started. This particular race features five candidates: Crapo, Scott Trotter of Lewiston, Natalie Fleming of Boise, and Brenda Bourn and Ramont Turnbull both of Meridian. (You can get names and addresses at the Idaho secretary of states website.) Crapo has advantages of incumbency (incumbents in political races win most of the time), name familiarity (hes been in Congress for almost 30 years and most Idahoans know who he is) and money (helped by those previous factors). He can and does hire experienced campaign staff, and he is a highly experienced campaigner. Theres more, but these factors are enough to show heavy odds to win his primary. Okay. Of the other four contenders, whos most likely to come in second? None are household names in Idaho (as, say, Ammon Bundy is in the governors race) and none (so far as I can tell) have won elective office. Money could help make up for these things. I migrated to the Federal Election Commission web site, where you can find reports on campaign moneyreceipts and spendingfor congressional candidates. There I saw Trotter reported donations of $5,500, and the other candidates none. Thats far from Crapos more than $5 million, but it does indicate some campaigning effort and support, however limited. (Money is no guarantee of political success, but if one candidate overwhelmingly out-raises and out-spends the others, thats a relevant fact. Many donors like to invest in winners.) What other evidence of campaigning can be found on websites or social media? All of candidates had websites, which is a plus, but these tended not to suggest a lot of campaigning activity going on. Trotters site seemed to show most. It reported appearances at Republican Lincoln Day events around the storyde rigueur for Republican candidates in Idaho. Next, what kind of messageand with what force and claritywere they sending to the partys voters that would persuade them to break from the incumbent? For an example of this, consider the campaign of Bryan Smith of Idaho Falls against incumbent Mike Simpson for the District 2 House seat. Leaving aside the merits of Smiths argument, he is undeniably making a clear and strongly-worded case for why he should replace Simpson. It may or may not convince, but it will be compelling to at least a significant audience. Reviewing the Senate contenders websites, news accounts and other materials, I found nothing nearly so strong among Crapos challengers for why the incumbent should be tossed out, other than its time for a change (which challengers of every stripe always say). Fleming appeared to have the most developed message, but she did little to draw a direct contrast to Crapo, and didnt address him very specifically at all. Overall? Trotter appears to have done the most ground work among the four, may have reached the most people, and showed some evidence of picking up a little support. He seems best positioned unless, that is, Fleming finds a way to more broadly distribute her message and ifthis also is criticalsomething in it catches fire with a significant segment of voters. Or so I would say about that race, absent some factor Im not aware of, which happens, and which is part of the reason election nights always are so interesting. Absent polling (helpful in evaluation but not dispositive), these are some of the indicators in figuring out who might win a race. So run down the ballot and pick a race. You can play this game (safely, even) at home. Randy Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor and blogs at ridenbaugh.com. He can be reached at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com. His new book What Do You Mean by That? has just been released and can be found at ridenbaugh.com/whatdoyoumeanbythat and on Amazon.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Mexican Pizza is making its way back onto the Taco Bell menu, the fast food chain announced April 18, and its going to stick around for good. The fan favorite hasnt been available since 2020, when Taco Bell pulled it and other items in an effort to revamp the chains menu to be more environmentally friendly, McClatchy News reported. Removing it from our menus helps us work towards our commitment to leave a lighter footprint on our planet, the company said at the time. Currently, Mexican Pizza packaging accounts for over 7 million pounds of paperboard material per year in the U.S. But Taco Bell promises to bring Mexican Pizza back, with greener packaging, starting May 19. The chain credits fans outcry for the pizzas return, citing a Change.org petition that pulled in almost 200,000 signatures. Part of the Mexican Pizzas appeal is it makes for a tasty vegetarian option a rare thing when it comes to fast food. Like many Indian-Americans who grew up vegetarian, we had limited access to the fun fast food, so Taco Bell became a bridge to belonging in American culture for many kids like me who grew up in immigrant households, said Krish Jagirdar, who started the petition. The Mexican Pizza will cost $4.49 when its back on the menu in May. Our menu is full of fan-favorites, but the Mexican Pizza is at the top of that list, said Mark King, CEO of Taco Bell. From its flashy introduction to menus in 1985 as Pizzazz Pizza to its inspiration behind the creation of infamous jingles, Mexican Pizza has a long history with the brand and Im glad we could give fans what they crave and bring our classic Mexican Pizza back home where it belongs. Egypts Ministry of Trade Sunday denied the issuance of any decree banning Saudi Arabian exports after the countrys General Organization For Export and Import Control (Goeic) has issued a decree suspending and canceling several companies, brands, and factories exporting goods to Egypt due to violations in registration. The trade ministry is keen on providing Saudi companies investing in or exporting to the Egyptian market with the required facilities, the spokesman of the ministry said in a statement, Arab Business reports. The statement also added that some Saudi companies are undergoing regularization in accordance with the registration rules of factories qualified to export to Egypt. The move came after Goeic issued last month a decree suspending and canceling several companies, brands, and factories exporting goods to Egypt due to violations in registration. The decree aimed at regulating registration rules for factories exporting products to Egypt. The decree speculates that companies desiring to export to Egypt shall renew documents within at least 30 days as of the date of expiration. The list of banned companies including several Saudi firms. Commenting on the March decree, the ministry indicated that these companies failed to submit required documents. It also noted the decision is not targeting certain companies or products from a certain country. Eleven people including nine schoolteachers died in a head-on road crash south of Baghdad as they returned from a Ramadan meal, Iraqi officials announced Saturday, Arab New reports. A police source indicated the crash was caused by speed, adding that the accident happened in Babylon province around midnight as the group was returning in a minibus from the Shiite holy city of Karbala. Road traffic authorities in a statement said, the groups vehicle collided with a 44 travelling in the opposite direction due to high speed and the driver of the second vehicles lack of attention. Two other people were injured. The country according to road traffic authorities reported almost 1,000 deaths in road accidents over a population of around 41 million people. Authorities blame a lack of respect for speed limits, the use of mobile phones and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Many roads of the Middle East country are full of potholes and are plunged into total darkness at night. The UN mission in the Central African Republic announced that it has opened an investigation into unconfirmed reports by Bangui of the killings of a dozen civilians attributed to local military and Russian paramilitaries. The civil war, which began nine years ago, has considerably decreased in intensity since 2018 but, faced with a rebel offensive more than a year ago, the power received the reinforcement of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries to push it back, mercenaries from the private company Wagner according to the UN, France and NGOs that accuse both sides of committing crimes against civilians. On April 11 and 12, in the villages of Gordil and Ndah, more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Bangui, elements of the FACA (Central African Armed Forces) and their allies (a term used by both the authorities and the UN to designate Russian paramilitaries) conducted an operation and killed civilians, security, humanitarian and administrative sources said on condition of anonymity. Between 10 and 15 civilians were killed, according to the same sources. An investigation has been opened into this attack by Minusca, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, which has deployed some 14,000 blue helmets in the country since 2014, said its communications director, Charles Bambara. UNMISCA will not make any further comment before the end of the investigations, he added. Appointed on February 23 by Antonio Guterres, Valentine Rugwabiza has just arrived in Bangui. She replaced Mankeur Ndiaye after three particularly turbulent years at the head of the Unmisca. The new Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the country arrived in the capital on Sunday 17 April. She replaced Mankeur Ndiaye of Senegal at the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, Unmisca, in a tense context. Relations between the UN and the authorities have been strained, but the ties between Kigali and Bangui could serve as an asset. Last year, rebel groups were pushed back to the gates of the capital in extremis. Relations with the government have been tumultuous. Arrests of peacekeepers, violations of the status of forces agreement by the national army and its Russian allies, which the UN regularly accuses of preventing its investigations into human rights violations. The former Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations is familiar with these issues. To find a solution, the 59-year-old diplomat will undoubtedly be able to rely on the missions internal relays. Her country is now the largest contributor of troops to the UNMISCA, even in the most strategic positions. For example, the Rwandans provide close protection to President Touadera. This relationship is reinforced by cooperation agreements between the two countries in the areas of trade, mining and defense. In addition to the peacekeepers, a battalion of the Rwandan army is also deployed in the Central African Republic under a bilateral agreement. The Malian army announced Saturday evening that it had eliminated a dozen terrorists, including a French-Tunisian jihadist cadre, during two air strikes carried out Thursday in central Mali. The FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) just by two air strike operations on April 14, 2022 neutralized a dozen terrorists in the Ganguel forest about 10 km from the locality of Moura, said a statement from the General Staff. These strikes have neutralized some cadres of the GSIM (Group of Support for Islam and Muslims), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, linked to Al Qaeda and led by the Malian Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, including Samir Al-Bourhan, a Franco-Tunisian terrorist cadre, speaking French and Arabic, the text adds. The army said it acted on the basis of precise technical information about a grouping of terrorists, who it said had come to boost the morale of the fighters of the GSIM and to provide them with the financial and logistical support they had been waiting for after their bitter setback in Moura. On its part, Nigerias air force announced on Saturday that it had killed more than 70 suspected Islamic State-affiliated fighters in the north of the country, on the border with Niger. The Lake Chad area where Nigeria says it has launched airstrikes is known to host fighters from the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), a jihadist group active since 2016. Along with their older rivals, Boko Haram, the two factions have killed more than 40,000 people in the past decade and more than two million people remain displaced from their homes due to ongoing violence. Three aerospace companies, Sabca Maroc, a subsidiary of Blueberry Group, Sabena Aerospace, which represents Belgiums leading sustainable aerospace ecosystem, and the US Lockhead Martin have signed a strategic partnership for the creation of a maintenance plant, Maintenance Aero Maroc (MAM). This important partnership will allow the development of an industrial military and defense activity in Morocco. The plant dedicated to Moroccan military aircrafts is also poised to serve as a maintenance hub for friendly countries in the region operating airplanes such as C130. It will give new international impetus to Belgian and American companies and will support Moroccos defense needs, especially for the Royal Moroccan Air Force, according to the Far-Morocco forum, which quotes a press release from Blueberry Group. Maintenance Aero Maroc (MAM) will operate the state-of-the-art maintenance center for military aircraft, which will open in Benslimane and is expected to create 300 technical and high-tech jobs. In a press release, the CEO of Blueberry group, Stephane Burton, said he was extremely proud to start this new partnership with the Kingdom of Morocco and Lockheed Martin. This partnership between the three will make it possible to offer high quality sustainment services for the Moroccan Air Force, and then quickly to other customers in the region. We are very happy to see MAM joining our international network of maintenance solutions, offering opportunities to develop new expertise on other platforms, he added. Our Group has 50 years of experience in the maintenance, repair and modernization of aircraft such as the C-130 and the F-16, said the CEO of the Belgian Blueberry Group. This partnership, signed in the presence of Abdellatif Loudiyi, Minister Delegate in charge of National Defense Administration, represents the first achievement following the law which allows Morocco to develop a military-industrial activity. The project involves the construction of a 15,000 m state-of-the-art maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade center for military aircraft and helicopters at Benslimane airport. It should be noted that the Blueberry Group has been present in Morocco since 2012 through its subsidiary Sabca Maroc, which recently announced an investment of more than 17 million in the construction of a new factory of 16,000 m which will house the assembly line for Pilatus, Airbus and Dassault aerostructures in the Nouaceur region. Most U.S. National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers do not provide required price transparency, but markup on parenteral chemotherapy appears widespread, according to a study published online April 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Roy Xiao, M.D., from Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, and colleagues assessed the extent of price markup by hospitals on parenterally administered cancer therapies and price variation among hospitals. The analysis included private payer-specific negotiated prices for the top 25 parenteral (e.g., injectable or infusible) cancer therapies by Medicare Part B spending in 2019 using publicly available hospital price transparency files. The researchers found that 27 of 61 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers disclosed private payer-specific prices for at least one top-selling cancer therapy as required by federal regulations. Across all centers and payers, median drug price markups ranged from 118.4 percent (sipuleucel-T) to 633.6 percent (leuprolide). Price ratios ranged from 2.2 (pertuzumab) to 15.8 (leuprolide) across centers. Within the same center, negotiated prices also varied considerably between payers, with median within-center price ratios for cancer therapies ranging from 1.8 (brentuximab) to 2.5 (bevacizumab). "The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that, to reduce the financial burden of cancer treatment for patients, institution of public policies to discourage or prevent excessive hospital price markups on parenteral chemotherapeutics might be beneficial," the authors write. Several authors disclosed financial ties to the medical and health insurance industries. Explore further Wide variation in cost and transparency of payer-negotiated prices for thyroid cancer care Copyright 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain People taking part in the historic Framingham Heart Study are living longer and with less risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying from coronary heart disease, according to a new analysis that underscores the power of prevention, screening and treatment efforts. Scientists have known for decades about the risks posed by plaque buildup in the arteries. Coronary heart disease, for example, caused 360,900 deaths in the U.S. in 2019, according to statistics from the American Heart Association. But researchers wanted to learn more about how the risk has changed over the years. To do that, they focused on "remaining lifetime risk," or the probability that a person, at any given age, will experience cardiovascular disease during their remaining years. Researchers used data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study that started in 1948 and now includes participants from multiple generations. The investigators calculated participants' remaining lifetime risk from age 45 for having a heart attack or stroke or dying from coronary heart disease during three epochs: 1960-1979, 1980-1999 and 2000-2018. Life expectancy rose by 10.1 years for men and 11.9 years for women across the three time periods. The remaining lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease fell between 1960-1979 and 2000-2018from 36.3% to 26.5% in women, and from 52.5% to 30.1% in men. Researchers also found men and women in the 21st century were having their first cardiovascular disease events later in life. From 2000-2018, the average age of a first cardiovascular event was 8.1 years later for men and 10.3 years later for woman compared with 1960-1979. "It's a very strong message of prevention and hope," said Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, lead author of the study published Monday in the AHA journal Circulation. "This tells us that better health care access, preventive measures, smoking cessation and better treatment of high blood pressure and cholesterol may be helpful in lowering the lifetime probability of developing a heart attack or a stroke." The other success story is "we are postponing the onset of heart attacks and strokes by as much as a decade. We're increasing the period of living with good health," said Ramachandran, chief of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Boston University's School of Medicine and School of Public Health. With the pandemic easing up, people who haven't seen a doctor in a while should schedule an exam and have their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checked, he said. "The findings show us that the benefits of prevention, screening and proper treatment accrue. If you do these things in middle age, you're rewarded with healthy life years later." He said the study was limited by its focus on a largely white population in the northeastern U.S., and future studies are needed in more diverse populations living in different areas. Ramachandran also called for further research into gender differences because the findings for the most recent time period showed remaining lifetime risk of coronary heart disease was higher in men, but with stroke, it was higher in women. "We need a deeper dive and a deeper understanding of why this might be the case," he said. Monica Serra, who was not involved in the study, said new research is needed to see if rising rates of obesity and diabetes "will counteract the gains observed from our current medical and technological advancements." Despite the progress shown in the study, the overall risk of cardiovascular disease remains high, "highlighting the need for continued screening and primary prevention efforts, as well as identification of more effective and widely accessible screening and treatment options," said Serra, an associate professor and research health scientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Even with medical advancements and better treatments, it's important for people to take charge of their own heart health, Serra said. They can do that by adopting a healthier lifestyle earlier in life and being aware of their heart disease and stroke risks, "particularly those that are modifiableblood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes control, and smoking reduction." Explore further Gene map may identify heart disease risk for people with type 2 diabetes Copyright 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved. By Trend Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied on Monday that his government would make cuts to Australia's universal healthcare scheme if he is re-elected next month, after the opposition Labor Party raised doubts over its future, Trend reports citing Reuters. Ahead of the May 21 poll, Labor sees its protection of Australias cherished universal healthcare scheme as a key differentiator between it and the governing Liberal National coalition, which bills itself as superior on economic management and border protection. Labor seized on Medicare as a key issue after Morrison said on Sunday that he would appoint Anne Ruston as health minister if he is returned to office. Ruston several years ago described Medicare as unsustainable. This is a health minister, now designate if they're successful in the election, who we know will undermine Medicare, who has said that the current model is not sustainable, Labor opposition leader Anthony Albanese told reporters in Brisbane. Campaigning in Perth to announce investment in two new navy patrol boats, Morrison insisted that there would be no cuts to Medicare if his government were re-elected. She (Anne Ruston) said yesterday there would not be any cuts and I would repeat that today, he told reporters. Morrison turned attention to asylum seeker policy, saying the new patrol boats would play an "ongoing and important role" in Australia 's border protection capabilities, while also criticising Labor for its past approach on the issue. "When Labor abolished temporary protection visas in 2008, the armada of people smugglers' boats came to Australia and that was the launching point, and I note that people smugglers are very aware of my resolve," Morrison said. The comments come after Albanese, earlier in the campaign, was forced to clarify Labor's stance on border protection after mistakenly saying that it aligned with that of government. Meanwhile, a new election poll released on Monday showed a turnaround in support for Morrison, with the Liberal leader now ahead of Albanese as preferred prime minister. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain India has sharply criticised a forthcoming World Health Organization study which reportedly claims coronavirus killed four million people nationally, the latest analysis suggesting a significant undercount of the pandemic's death toll. The New York Times reported last week that New Delhi had stalled the study's release after disputing that India's true fatality count was eight times higher than official figures. The conclusion matches similar figures by The Lancet last month and a February study in the journal Science that calculated a COVID death toll of at least 3.2 million. But India's health ministry said in a weekend statement that the WHO's mathematical modelling of the pandemic was "questionable" and "statistically unproven". Several concerns were raised to the global health body over the report, including what the ministry said was a "peculiar" assumption of a relationship between lower temperatures and monthly deaths. India had shared its misgivings through several formal communications and meetings since last November, according to the ministry. "A satisfactory response is yet to be received from WHO," it added. The WHO was not immediately available for comment. Indian officials have previously disputed the methodology behind The Lancet and Science studies that also found vastly higher death tolls. Its official figures show 520,000 COVID deaths nationally, which still accounts for the world's largest single-country toll after the United States and Brazil. India was battered by a devastating COVID outbreak last year that saw thousands of people dying each day at its peak, overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums. Explore further India to offer Covid booster shots to all adults 2022 AFP Infant wearing an electroencephalography (EEG) net. Credit: ISLAND Lab In the fall of 2021, Democrats pushed to establish a national paid leave program under the Build Back Better Act, an initiative that would guarantee paid family and sick leave to U.S. workers. The bill faltered in the Senate before eventually being shelved when it failed to garner enough votes. Without a paid leave policy, the U.S. maintains its position as the only industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee this aid to its citizens. Nearly 80% of U.S. workers do not receive paid leave through their employer, leaving them, when having children, to choose between earning a paycheck or bonding with their newborns. According to developmental psychologists such as NYU Steinhardt Assistant Professor Natalie Brito, the lack of paid leave has profound consequences for both new mothers and their babies. To explore this impact, Brito studied a diverse sample of NYC families to examine links between paid leave and electrical activity in infant brains at the age of three months. She and her co-authors found that infants with increased activity of higher-frequency brain waves were 7.39 times more likely to have mothers with paid leave. Their findings, "Paid Maternal Leave is Associated with Infant Brain Function at 3-Months of Age," are published in Child Development. NYU News spoke with Brito about the state of maternity in the U.S., the benefits of paid leave, and the adverse impacts faced by those without it. Why are the first several months of an infant's life such an important period for brain development? One of the key features of the brain is its plasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental experiences, and the brain is highly plastic during infancy. The first few months of life are so important for brain development because neural connections in the infant brain are emerging in the context of warm, predictable, and responsive social interactions between the parent and infant. This brain plasticity makes it easier for infants to learn about the world around them, but this plasticity also makes the brain much more susceptible to negative experiences like parental stress. The first couple months after childbirth are also a stressful time for parents, and mothers, in particular, often find themselves facing post-birth complications, lactation difficulties, and sleep deprivation. Although daily stressors are common for parents, high levels of chronic stress can disrupt a parent's ability to respond to their infant's cues in a sensitive and timely manner. So parents have an enormous impact on the socioemotional and cognitive development of their infants, but need both time and resources to support this development. Which populations in the U.S. currently are the least likely to have paid maternity leave? How do their experiences differ from those who do? Currently, only 23% of all employed workers in the U.S. have access to paid parental leave through their employers. Nine states and the District of Columbia currently offer some form of paid leave, via state-run programs or temporary disability insurance, that allows parents to have partially-paid time off work to care for a new child. But in reality, these policies are very inconsistent in how much paid time parents are able to receive and the amount of wage replacement during leave. Black mothers, single mothers, and mothers with lower levels of education have significantly less access to both paid and unpaid leave. Parents who do not have access to paid leave are more likely to return to work too early after childbirthone report estimated that almost a quarter of mothers who did not have access to paid leave returned to work within 10 days of giving birth. Mothers who took paid leave were less likely to be re-hospitalized after discharge, less likely to have postpartum depression, and more likely to breastfeed their infant. Infants of mothers who took paid leave were also less likely to be re-hospitalized after discharge, more likely to attend baby well-visits and receive vaccinations, and more likely to have better language and socioemotional skills during toddlerhood. Our lab's newest study suggests that compared to mothers with unpaid leave after childbirth, mothers with paid leave had less physiological stress, were more sensitive and responsive with their infants, and their infants demonstrated a brain activity profile that may reflect a more mature pattern of brain function. What would an effective maternity paid leave policy in the U.S. look like? Is there research to support the benefits of paternity leave as well? Paid leave needs to be granted on a national level to every working caregiver, regardless of the type of employment or full-time versus part-time status. The key is to provide enough wage compensation for that family to be economically stable during this important transition. Mothers need to be able to physically and mentally recover or persevere through the many postpartum challenges during this time. As many challenges start prenatally, having flexibility built into paid leave programs to begin during pregnancy would be an even greater benefit for mothers. And although most of the research has examined benefits of paid maternal leave, paid leave policies need to be directed towards caregivers in general, not just mothers. Paternity leave has also been shown to positively impact relationships within families, and that increased time between fathers and infants may help attune fathers to the needs of their infants and partners. More information: Natalie H. Brito et al, Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months of age, Child Development (2022). Journal information: Child Development Natalie H. Brito et al, Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months of age,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13765 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A person's risk of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes or breast cancer may be influenced by thousands of genetic differences. Looking at a single DNA difference that has a small effect on risk may not be clinically useful, but when hundreds or thousands of these small risks are added up into a single score, often called a polygenic risk score (PRS), they might offer clinically meaningful information about a person's disease risk. In a new paper published in Nature Medicine, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System, and Harvard Medical School developed and validated polygenic risk scores for six common diseases. The team also developed informational resources for each disease to help physicians and patients discuss how to incorporate PRS when making medical decisions about screening and prevention. "As a primary care physician myself, I knew that busy physicians were not going to have time to take an entire course on polygenic risk scores," said corresponding author Jason Vassy, MD, MPH, of the Brigham's Division of General Internal Medicine & Primary Care, the Brigham's Precision Population Health at Ariadne Labs and VA Boston. "Instead, we wanted to design a lab report and informational resources that succinctly told the doctor and patient what they need to know to make a decision about using a polygenic risk score result in their health care." Vassy and colleagues developed the risk scores as part of the Genomic Medicine at VA (GenoVA) Study, a randomized clinical trial of PRS testing among generally healthy adults. The study team developed and validated a laboratory test at the Mass General Brigham Laboratory for Molecular Medicine (LMM) for polygenic risk scores for atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer. The GenoVA Study is currently enrolling patients at the VA Boston Healthcare System, and the investigators reported the results from the first 227 patients, among whom 11 percent were found to have a high polygenic risk score for atrial fibrillation, 7 percent for coronary artery disease, 8 percent for type 2 diabetes, and 6 percent for colorectal cancer. Among men, 15 percent had a high score for prostate cancer, while 13 percent of women had a high score for breast cancer. The GenoVA Study will ultimately enroll more than 1,000 patients and follow them for two years to observe how they and their primary care providers use the polygenic risk scores in clinical care. For example, high-risk patients might choose to undergo screening tests more frequently or take preventive medications that can lower their risk. The researchers had to address many challenges in implementing a clinical laboratory PRS test. Most importantly, their own observations confirmed a problem that was already known about these scores: they are less accurate in individuals of non-European descent. Most genomic research to date has been conducted in European populations, thus the scores resulting from this research have a weaker ability to predict disease risk among non-European populations. Implementing a polygenic risk score into clinical care that is only accurate for people of European descent would exacerbate existing health disparities. To address this important limitation, the researchers applied additional statistical methods to enable PRS calculation across multiple racial groups. "Researchers must continue working to increase the diversity of patients participating in genomics research," said Matthew Lebo, Ph.D., Chief Laboratory Director at the LMM. "In the meantime, we were heartened to see that we could generate and implement valid genetic scores for patients of diverse backgrounds." To date, 52 percent of GenoVA Study enrollees report non-white race and/or Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity. Another key challenge in bringing polygenic risk score to clinical medicine is that physicians and patients will need support to understand them and use them to make medical decisions. Clinical guidelines do not yet exist to help a physician know whether and how they should treat a patient with a high-risk score differently than an average-risk patient, but the study provides physician- and patient-oriented educational materials to help them incorporate the results. In addition, patients and primary care physicians can seek support from a genetic counselor in the study. The researchers hope that this first report from the GenoVA Study will be a useful guide for other laboratories and health care systems looking to implement polygenic risk score testing in patient care. "It's still very early days for precision prevention," says Vassy, "but we have shown it is feasible to overcome some of the first barriers to bringing polygenic risk scores into the clinic." More information: Jason Vassy, Development of a clinical polygenic risk score assay and reporting workflow, Nature Medicine (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01767-6 Journal information: Nature Medicine Jason Vassy, Development of a clinical polygenic risk score assay and reporting workflow,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01767-6 School segregation may sound like a relic from the past, but it has actually been increasing in the United States for years. Now a new study shows that has come with health consequences for Black children. Researchers found that in school districts with greater segregation, Black students tended to have more behavioral issues and were more likely to drink alcohol, versus their peers in more integrated districts. The studypublished online April 18 in the journal Pediatricspoints to some of the potential fallout from "resegregation," the rollback of gains made in integrating U.S. public schools decades ago. Back in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in schools unconstitutional. Over the next few decades, school districts under court-ordered desegregation became substantially more integrated. But in the early 1990s, a series of Supreme Court rulings made it easier for districts to request release from that judicial oversight. The court said that desegregation orders were intended to be temporary, explained Dr. Rita Hamad, senior researcher on the new study. Since then, hundreds of school districts that had been under court-ordered desegregation have been released from oversightabout 600 of 1,000, according to Hamad, an associate professor in residence at the University of California, San Francisco. Over that same period, the United States saw a resurgence in highly segregated schools: The percentage of schools with few white students10% or lessmore than tripled, from about 6% of schools to nearly 19% in recent years. But little has been known about the potential impact of resegregation on Black students' well-being, Hamad said. So her team looked at data on more than 1,200 Black children and teenagers in school districts that, in 1991, were still under court-ordered desegregation. The children lived in those districts between 1991 and 2014, allowing researchers to examine the effects of a "natural experiment," in which school district segregation increased over time. Overall, the researchers found, alcohol experimentation was fairly common among study participants ages 12 and older: 37% said they'd ever had alcohol, while 18% drank at least monthly. Those odds were higher, however, in districts with greater segregationparticularly among Black girls. The researchers measured segregation using the "dissimilarity index," which represents the proportion of Black or white students who would have to switch schools to achieve a more racially integrated school district. The index ranges from 0 to 1, with a higher value meaning more segregation. Hamad's team found that for every 0.2 increase in that index, there was a 62% spike in the likelihood of student drinking. It also translated to a 32% increase in the odds of student behavioral issues, including hyperactivity and conflicts with peers. Hamad noted there are various reasons increased segregation could feed those problems. For one, she said, schools with a large proportion of Black students are often underfunded, with fewer resources, higher teacher turnover and more crowded classroomsall of which could contribute to kids' behavioral difficulties. The findings add to evidence that segregated schools are one aspect of structural racism that can damage Black children's health, said Dmitry Tumin, of East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C. Tumin, who wrote an editorial published with the findings, said they are a reminder that school segregation lives on, and has effects "beyond the schoolhouse walls." Of course, children in highly segregated school districts likely live in segregated neighborhoodswhich themselves are linked to health inequities. But, Tumin said, the study design allowed a focused look at schools. "When school segregation increases suddenly and due to an external factor," he said, "this creates an opportunity to estimate how school segregation is associated with health outcomes, net of the impact of other factors." What it all means for Black students' long-term well-being is unclear. One question for future studies, Hamad said, is whether the problems linked to school segregation persist as kids grow older. Then there's the even bigger question: "What do we do about this?" Hamad said. "Could, for example, increased funding for segregated school districts help?" She also noted parents' role in the resegregation of schools over the years. "A lot of the requests for release from judicial oversight came from parents in these school districts," Hamad said. The current findings, she added, highlight some of the consequences for Black students. More information: Boston Children's Hospital has more on Journal information: Pediatrics Boston Children's Hospital has more on racism and child health Copyright 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Americans who are over 60 should get a second COVID-19 booster shot, the White House's new COVID-19 response coordinator recommended Sunday. Dr. Ashish Jha noted that data from Israel has found significantly reduced rates of infection and death among older individuals who received a fourth dose of a COVID vaccine. "The data out of Israel is pretty compelling for people over 60," Jha said on "Fox News Sunday." "When people got that second booster shot four months after their first booster, what we saw was a substantial reduction, not just in infections, but in deaths. So, I think people over 60 should be getting it." Jha, who joined the White House last month, also appeared on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," where he said that the second booster for Americans aged 50 to 59 "is a much closer call," suggesting people in that age range consult with their doctors before getting that fourth shot. Those who are 50 to 59 are eligible, he said, but the need depends on the risk profile. The data from Israel did not include information on people in that younger age category. In January, Israel authorized a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine for those 60 and up. "But for me, based on the data, 60 and above, I think it's very reasonable," Jha said. "This is what I've recommended to my elderly parents, and that's what I think people should do." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on March 29 for anyone 50 and older, an effort to bolster waning immunity as BA.2, a more contagious subvariant of the Omicron variant became dominant in the country. Whether BA.2 would cause more severe disease than earlier variants is not yet known, Jha said. While case number grow, hospitalizations "are at the lowest level of the pandemic," Jha said on "Meet the Press." "The good news is our vaccines are holding up really well against BA.2, against all of the Omicron variants, especially if you've been boosted," he said. "So, the key here is you've got to have the initial two shots, and you've got to have a booster. That's what's really protecting people at this moment." Explore further Israeli data shows 2nd COVID booster shields against Omicron More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19 vaccines and boosters Copyright 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Fake Hollywood cowboys have translated into piles of very real cash for western Montana. A single season of the hit television series Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner and filmed in and around Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley, brought in over $70 million in additional spending to Montana. Thats according to a study conducted by the University of Montanas Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The series filmed its first three seasons mostly in Utah, but the Paramount Network decided in 2020 to move the shows filming to Montana to take advantage of a new $10 million film tax credit made available by the Montana Legislature. According to the study, during five months of filming in western Montana, the production added 527 permanent jobs in the state, not including the 624 Montana residents who found jobs as extras on set and made a combined total of about $300,000. Last week, the show put out a call for extras for the filming of another season in and around Missoula. The production activities of Yellowstone season four in Montana supported jobs and income well in excess of its own economic footprint, making Montanas economy larger and more prosperous than it otherwise would have been, said Patrick Barkey, the director of the Bureau. The high-paying nature of the production-related jobs, and the considerable demand for locally produced goods and services, are the main reasons why the economic impacts were so sizable. The economic impact included $25.3 million in annual personal income for Montana households and $85.8 million in additional gross receipts for Montana businesses and organizations. The state governments revenue was $10.6 million higher than it would have been without the show, Barkey said. He said his researchers had access to an extraordinary amount of financial documentation from Paramount. He noted that many tourists visited Montana specifically because they'd seen the show. "The numbers are pretty astonishing," he said. "It's a fairly sizable impact. The implication is this level of economic output would continue as long as the production continues in Montana." The 116 Montana residents who worked on the show, not including extras, made a combined $3.1 million in wages. Those jobs paid an average of about $66 per hour, but they were not year-round jobs. The study was paid for by the MEDIA Coalition of Montana and the Paramount Network, both organizations that have a vested interest in seeing states offer higher tax credits for the film industry. We felt it was important to have accurate data as to the impacts of the media industry in Montana, said Steve Grover, CEO of Montana Studios and co-founder of the MEDIA Coalition of Montana. More than 30 states, including Montana, currently offer some form of tax credit to studios in return for locating activities within their states. Montana's Legislature raised the cap from $10 million to $12 million in 2021, but film industry proponents had wanted the cap raised to as much as $250 million. A representative from Paramount Network told state lawmakers on Monday that "Yellowstone" has utilized about $16 million worth of the state's film tax credits, spread out over several years. About 122 productions were filmed in Montana in 2019, and some of those films qualified for a tax credit. A company called ShadowCast Partners, LLC had intended to build a $20 million film production facility in Missoula in a county-owned industrial park in 2021. The company bought the land but halted construction of the studio after the Montana Legislature shot down a bill that would have removed the cap on film tax credits in the state. House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, a Democrat from Helena, was against raising the credit because she said she believed that the film industry was forcing states to compete against each other. Other state lawmakers thought the tax credit would have been a good financial investment. Emily Brock, Missoula County's director of economic and land development, said ShadowCast has now leased part of their property to a company that operates long-haul electric trucks. "ShadowCast was going to build a film production studio, but when the Legislature decided not to expand the tax credits, their investors and partners walked away from the deal," Brock said. "We thought the film studio would have been a good fit for Missoula's arts culture." In Missoula, all kinds of businesses have benefited from "Yellowstone" filming here, from local restaurants to glass companies to the city. Lynn-Wood Fields, owner of the Montana Media Center, said Paramount spent lots of money on everything from lodging to rental cars to veterinary and animal services. The business we got from Yellowstone really helped our bottom line, Fields said. Almost every region in Montana has experienced a significant increase in housing prices since the start of the pandemic. The report did not touch on the direct impact the show had on the desire for out-of-state residents to purchase homes here, but the report's authors did mention that the show put Montana in the spotlight. "A second kind of indirect impact comes from the public relations value of having a television series distributed to a global audience that uses Montana as an integral part of the story," the report states. "The imagery, the culture, and the characters of the show feature Montana and add to its desirability as a visitor destination." "A no-Yellowstone scenario for the state economy removes that potentially important messaging. We do not attempt to quantify or incorporate this impact in the analysis." To read the full report visit online at bber.umt.edu. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. For years now we have heard Jon Tester and Steve Daines declare themselves coal state senators whenever they so willingly vote against measures to reduce or tax the use of coal and its planet-killing pollution. But as recently released data show, the state and local tax revenue and number of jobs created by Montanas legalization of recreational and medical marijuana now outpace coal a trend that is expected to continue. While medicinal marijuana has been legal in Montana since the voter approved passage of I-148 in 2004, adult recreational use only became legal in January of 2022. In a 2020 study titled An Assessment of the Market and Tax Revenue Potential of Recreational Cannabis in Montana, the University of Montanas Bureau of Business and Economic Research predicted total sales of recreational pot would be a whopping $217 million this year, producing $43.4 million in state and local tax revenues. That number was predicted to rise to $259.8 million in sales and $52 million in tax revenues by 2026. As reported in a recent article, the Montana Department of Revenue posted sales data showing total medicinal and recreational cannabis sales hit $72.9 million in the first three months of this year. Recreational sales outpace medicinal and with the tourist season upon us and an expected 10 million or more visitors to the Big Sky State those numbers are only expected to increase. Its fair to say the sun is shining on the marijuana industry in Montana while coal continues its precipitous decline. According to a report from the Governors Office of Budget and Program Planning, coal tax revenues last year came in at $45 million and are predicted to fall to $36 million by 2025 due to continued decline in domestic demand. Indeed, if one could say the future of the coal industry in Montana is black, very black. When The Marijuana Opportunity and Expungement Act passed the House earlier this month, Montanas Congressman Matt Rosendale voted against it even though 37 states, including Montana, now have legal medicinal and/or recreational marijuana. Despite his title, apparently Rosendale doesnt think he has to actually represent Montanas voters. So now the measure goes to the Senate and Republican Daines has already told Politico: I oppose it. Really Senator Daines? And why would you do that given that more Montanans voted to legalize pot than voted for you in the last election? Democrat Jon Tester should answer the same question since, as also reported by Politico: Sen. Jon Tester of Montana was similarly unenthusiastic about ending federal marijuana penalties. Legalization would cause more problems than it solves, Tester said. Disgusting, isnt it, how these politicians can laud themselves as representing a coal state and sweep the known and disastrous problems caused by coal under the rug but are willing to happily vote against the overwhelming wishes of Montanans based solely on their personal opinions. Montana is nowhere near a coal state and never was. Given Montanas indisputable vote to support legal pot, its clearly time for Daines, Tester and Rosendale to leave their phony anti-environment coal state excuses behind, admit Montana is now a legal pot state, and start representing their constituents priorities in Congress. George Ochenski writes from Helena. His column appears each Monday on the Missoulian's opinion page. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 10 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 " " Many countries have gone away with laborious tax filing systems in favor of return-free systems. But not the United States. mariusFM77/Getty Images Doing taxes in the U.S. is notoriously complicated and costly. And it gets even worse when there are delays and backlogs, making it especially hard to reach the Internal Revenue Service for assistance. But to me this raises an important question: Why should taxpayers have to navigate the tedious, costly tax filing system at all? Advertisement The Case for a 'Simple Return' In 1985, President Ronald Reagan promised a "return-free" tax system in which half of all Americans would never fill out a tax return again. Under the framework, taxpayers with simple returns would automatically receive a refund or a letter detailing any tax owed. Taxpayers with more complicated returns would use the system in place today. In 2006, President Barack Obama's chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, suggested a "simple return," in which taxpayers would receive already completed tax forms for their review or correction. Goolsbee estimated his system would save taxpayers more than $2 billion a year in tax preparation fees. Though never implemented, the two proposals illustrate what we all know: No one enjoys filling out tax forms. So why do we have to? As an expert on the U.S. tax system, I see America's costly and time-consuming tax reporting system as a consequence of its relationship with the commercial tax preparation industry, which lobbies Congress to maintain the status quo. Advertisement A Costly and Time-consuming System Return-free filing is not difficult. At least 36 countries permit return-free filing, including Denmark, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, 95 percent of American taxpayers receive at least one of more than 30 types of information returns that let the government know their exact income. These information returns give the government everything it needs to fill out most taxpayers' returns. The U.S. system is 10 times more expensive than tax systems in 36 other countries with robust economies. But those costs vanish in a return-free system, as would the 2.6 billion hours Americans spend on tax preparation each year. Maybe you're wondering whether Congress is just behind the times, unaware that it can release us from tax preparation? Not true. Advertisement Commercial Tax Preparation About two decades ago, Congress directed the IRS to provide low-income taxpayers with free tax preparation. The agency responded in 2002 with "Free File," a public-private partnership between the government and the tax-preparation industry. As part of the deal, the IRS agreed not to compete with the private sector in the free tax preparation market. In 2007, the House of Representatives rejected legislation to provide free government tax preparation for all taxpayers. And in 2019, Congress tried to legally bar the IRS from ever providing free online tax preparation services. Only a public outcry turned the tide. The public part of Free File consists of the IRS herding taxpayers to commercial tax-preparation websites. The private part consists of those commercial entities diverting taxpayers toward costly alternatives. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which oversees IRS activities, private partners use computer code to hide the free websites and take unsuspecting taxpayers to paid sites. Should a taxpayer discover a free preparation alternative, the private preparers impose various restrictions such as income or the use of various forms as an excuse to kick taxpayers back to paid preparation. Consequently, of the more than 100 million taxpayers eligible for free help, 35 percent end up paying for tax preparation and 60 percent never even visit the free websites. Instead of 70 percent of Americans receiving free tax preparation, commercial companies whittled that percentage down to 3 percent. Advertisement Tax Savings and Evasion Perhaps you are guessing that there are valid policy justifications for avoiding government and empowering the private sector. Judge those arguments yourself. One argument from commercial tax preparers is that taxpayers will miss out on valuable tax savings if they rely on free government preparation. In fact, the government software would reflect the same laws used by the paid preparers with the same access to tax saving deductions or credits. Further, tax preparers like H&R Block promise to pay all taxes and interest resulting from a failed audit. As a result, these services have every incentive to take conservative, pro-government tax positions. A second argument is that government-prepared tax returns encourage tax evasion. In a no-return system, the government reveals its knowledge of the taxpayer's income before the taxpayer files. Thus, the argument goes, the taxpayer knows if the government has missed something and has reason to let the mistake stand. But taxpayers already know what information forms the government has because they receive duplicates of those forms. The incentive to lie does not increase because the taxpayer avoids weeks of tax preparation. Advertisement Bolstering the Anti-taxers Finally, there is the anti-tax argument for onerous tax preparation: Keep tax preparation unpleasant to fuel anti-tax sentiment. In the past, Republicans argued against high taxes. But after decades of tax cuts, Americans are no longer swayed by that argument. Exasperating tax preparation, according to this argument, helps keep the anti-tax fever high. And that fuels public hate for government and the tax system. Unfortunately, the anti-tax contingent's desire to force Americans to spend time and money on tax preparation dovetails with the tax preparation industry's desire to collect billions of dollars in fees. Tax preparation companies lobby Congress to keep tax preparation costly and complicated. Indeed, Intuit, maker of the tax preparation software TurboTax, has listed government tax preparation as a threat to its business model. ProPublica reported in 2019 on the company's 20-year fight to prevent the government from making tax filing simple and free for most citizens. One example of that complexity is the earned income tax credit, a government program for low-income people. The credit is so complicated that 20 percent of the people who are eligible never file, thus missing out on thousands of dollars in savings. If the government prepared everyone's tax returns, I believe more of that 20 percent would receive government support. Nonetheless, H&R Block reportedly lobbied lawmakers to make the credit more complicated, thereby driving more taxpayers to paid preparation services. I believe only public outcry can change the system. Beverly Moran is Professor Emerita of law at Vanderbilt University where she teaches about federal income taxation. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here. It is an updated version of an article originally published on March 22, 2021. This article was corrected to clarify how tax preparation companies have lobbied Congress. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the states so-called Dont Say Gay bill into law, the bill which threw The Walt Disney Co. into chaos earlier this month, after employees demanded the company speak out against the bill. On Monday, Disney condemned the signing in a statement. More from The Hollywood Reporter Floridas HB 1557, also known as the Dont Say Gay bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law, a Disney spokesperson said. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country. Officially titled the Parental Rights in Education bill, it limits open discussion of sexuality and gender identity in schools, with provisions allowing parents to sue if they allege schools or instructors have been in violation. The vague nature of the bill also opened the door to concerns that it could have a chilling effect beyond schools. Disney had originally remained silent on the bill, with CEO Bob Chapek saying in a memo that corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds. Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame. He added that the company had tried to work to water down or oppose the bill behind the scenes, but that it was unable to bring about changes through that strategy. After hearing pushback from employees, Chapek apologized to employees, telling them, It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights. You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry. Story continues Chapek added that the company would pause political donations in Florida, and would fight legislation in other states. Disney employees would go on to hold a walkout on March 22 in solidarity with their colleagues in Florida. Click here to read the full article. RICHMOND, Ind. A Richmond man has already served a large portion of the prison sentence he recently received after pleading guilty to rape. Justin Caine Croucher, 31, pleaded guilty to Level 3 felony rape after reaching a plea agreement with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office days before his scheduled trial. Judge Charles Todd Jr. later sentenced Croucher to nine years with three suspended to probation, according to the judge's sentencing order. The plea agreement dismissed charges of domestic battery and interference with reporting a crime from the rape case plus a case charging Croucher with dealing marijuana and maintaining a common nuisance. Richmond: Beat the Heat meeting provides new ideas for city's management strategy Commissioners: Charter Communications plans Wayne County broadband installation Business: Vandor asks Richmond Common Council for tax relief on $6.4 million in planned investments Croucher remains in the Wayne County Jail awaiting his transfer to the Indiana Department of Correction. He has been jailed since Nov. 4, 2018, and at his sentencing, he received credit for 1,227 days served and 409 good-time days. With the maximum good-time credit, Croucher would serve 4 of the six years of incarceration. He has already served more than three years and three months of that time. Nine years is the Indiana legislature's advisory sentence for a Level 3 felony, which has a sentencing range of three to 16 years. STAY INFORMED AND SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Subscribe today using the link at the top of this page. Croucher was arrested after Richmond Police Department officers responded to a battery call and found a woman with bruises on her arms and wrists, a large bruise above her left eye, marks behind her left ear and on the left side of her neck, a large purple mark on her right shoulder and marks on her outer thighs, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The woman escaped when he "passed out" and called for assistance. In Wayne County, Croucher has a previous felony conviction for battery, according to court records, and misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana, conversion, battery, public intoxication and visiting a common nuisance. This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Richmond man receives 6 years of incarceration for rape conviction By Trend First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Arzybek Kozhoshev met with Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov, Trend reports citing Kabar. The meeting, held on the margins of the Eurasian Economic Commission Council meeting, discussed the issue of idle trucks heading from the territory of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan and Russia. Arzybek Kozhoshev emphasized that agreements reached during the virtual meeting at the end of March of this year are not fully implemented. "We agreed that if accompanying documents are not in order or are missing at all, the Kazakh side will return such vehicles back. In fact, the queue of trucks is getting bigger every day," said the deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet. He added that if agreements are not fulfilled by one of the parties, it damages bilateral relations. After a detailed discussion of the issue, it was decided to hold a meeting with the Kazakh side on April 19 via videoconference with the participation of all involved government agencies of the two countries to take concrete measures to address the issue of the idling of trucks at the Kyrgyz-Kazakh state border. A Burke County foster community and child advocacy organization is celebrating the opening of its 11th Childrens Advocacy Center in North Carolina. The Ashe County CAC began operating in March and currently operates as a satellite office of the Blue Ridge CAC in Boone. It joins centers that service Burke, McDowell and 12 other rural counties. A Childrens Advocacy Center is a coordinated child abuse response that brings multiple agencies together under one roof to provide abuse victims with the legal, medical and therapeutic support they need. Southmountain Children and Family Services has been a fixture in Burke County for more than 85 years. Originally founded in 1913 as the Shortoff School, the organization was a specialized school for children ages 5 to 25 who didnt have any other access to schooling. After the influenza pandemic of 1918, the school began expanding to include group home services for children who needed a place to live. By the 1930s, it had become a group home and relocated to its present location in Burke County. For the next six decades, South Mountain operated as a group home. It was very dorm-style, cafeteria-style, very institutional, Beth Willard-Patton, community engagement specialist for Southmountain, said. They were housed in a way that was very typical at that time. The children would dig rocks from the local river, they did laundry, they did dishes and they cut fabric squares for the furniture industry. They learned but they also worked. According to Patton, there was a significant push to improve the living environment at Southmountain in the 90s. This began the transition from a group home to a foster community. The new community opened in 2003. It is eight houses around the corner from the old rock building, Patton said. We have professional parents now who live in those houses. They have kids that live in the houses with them. Its 24/7 care. Patton called the foster community a hybrid between a traditional group setting and a foster care setting, saying that it offered children the best of both models. This model is really cool in that you get the benefits of a true foster family children in a home with two parents, Beth Bruder Dagenhart, childrens advocacy center program director for Southmountain, said. You get that benefit, but you get all the support and the parts that come with group care like the therapy and all the other supports that come with it. Patton added that another benefit of the hybrid model is that siblings get to stay together, which does not always happen in a foster care setting. The foster community consisted of eight single-family homes in a neighborhood-style setting with adjacent state-of-the-art facilities, including a gymnasium, alpine climbing tower, indoor pool, playground and miles of hiking trails. According to Patton, one of the highlights of the program for children who live at Southmountain is the facilitys recreation program. We have an amazing rec program, she said. The activities that the kids are exposed to there are so unique and so beneficial and really speak to the dedication to children that our organization has. Patton said as part of the recreation program, children travel out into the community for fun outings as well as to participate in community service projects. That helps children who have experienced trauma to know they are still able to give back to the community, despite their adverse circumstances. Your situation might be dire, but that doesnt mean youre in this alone or that other people arent experiencing hard times, too, she said. Ultimately, Patton said the goal of the program is to provide the best possible care for children until they return to their biological parents or are adopted. We call this Journeys Home, she said. The goal is to get these kids back with their biological parents or adopted. At Southmountain, Journeys Home involves three components: reunification, adoption and independence. When possible, Southmountain works to reunify children with their biological parents. In situations where reunification is not possible, the agency supports adoption, helping to match adoptive parents with children and working with and supporting families during and after the adoption process. In either one of those cases, there is ongoing therapy that happens, either with the child and the adoptive family or with the child and their biological family to ensure that transition is supportive, positive and long lasting, Patton said. Some children transition into adulthood while living at Southmountain. For these children, Southmountain works to prepare them for life as an independent adult. In 1998, Southmountain added a child advocacy arm to its operations. A Childrens Advocacy Center is a comprehensive center that works with the Department of Social Services and law enforcement, providing legal, therapeutic and other forms of support to children who have been victims of abuse. Patton said the advocacy center was a natural outgrowth of the organizations work with children in the foster care system. The care provided at the foster community shed light on the severe abuse and neglect children in Burke County were experiencing, she said. The Childrens Advocacy Center expanded the work of the organization beyond foster care. In recent years Southmountain has opened CACs in counties across North Carolina. Across the state we saw a need in other communities and had that expertise and were willing to take that on, Patton said. For information on Southmountain Children and Family Services or Childrens Advocacy Centers, visit southmountain.org. Two people have been charged in connection with a fatal shooting at Sunny Valley Apartments in Hickory in March. Davon Lavell Williams, 23, of Claremont, was charged with murder. Whitney Janae Gatewood, 34, of Hickory, was charged with accessory after the fact. Ontorio Nymier Metts, 23, of Hickory died from multiple gunshot wounds March 20 at the apartment complex. Investigators believe Williams and Metts had a confrontation prior to the shooting at Sunny Valley Apartments. Gatewood helped Williams leave the scene after the shooting, a news release from the Hickory Police Department says. Williams was taken into custody and is being held in Orange County, North Carolina. Gatewood appeared in Catawba County District Court on Monday. She was appointed an attorney, and her next court date is May 9. Police are asking for anyone with information about this case to please contact the department at 828-328-5551, or contact Investigator Richard Helderman at rhelderman@hickorync.gov or 828-261-2621. Even the experts have given up trying to predict what twists the pandemic will take next. But regardless, travelers can maximize their chances of summer travel success with a few simple steps. A federal judge in Florida has voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in the coronavirus pandemic. Here's that and more of today's COVID news. Voters in Butte School District 1 will vote on a school levy and decide between seven candidates for two elementary school trustee positions in this years mail-in school election. The district is asking voters to consider an increase in taxes so that $97,377.25, which is roughly 1.51 mills, will go toward the elementary general fund. The general fund is used for things like salaries and benefits for teachers, school utilities and maintenance of the building, supplies and operation costs, according to Kevin Patrick, the business manager for the district. The passing of the levy will result in a $2.04 tax increase on a home with a market value of $100,000 and a $4.08 tax increase on a home with a $200,000 market value, according to a draft ballot provided by Patrick. Patrick said the levy is needed so the district can use 100% of the maximum budget allowed by the state. If we didnt run the levy, wed be at less than the maximum the state would allow, he said. Butte School District Superintendent Judy Jonart said although the school does have funds left over from Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief funds because of COVID-19, those funds can only be used in response to the pandemic. When it comes to things unrelated to COVID, like paying for a snow plow to remove snow from school parking lots and walkways, that money must come from the general fund, she said. The elementary school trustee elections in Ramsay, Divide and Melrose school districts scheduled for May 3 are canceled because the trustees ran uncontested and won automatically. In Ramsay School District 3, Kristin Chiamulera will serve a three-year term as trustee and Linda Musick Rosin will serve a one-year term. In Divide School District 4, Stephen B. Salusso will serve a three year term. In Melrose School District 5, Holly Carpenter will serve a three-year term and Loreal Tabita will serve a one-year term. The next school trustee election will be in May 2023. The appropriate ballots will be mailed to all registered voters in Butte-Silver Bow on April 18, Patrick said. Anyone wishing to vote in the Butte School District 1 election who is not registered must appear in person at the Clerk and Recorders Office, where they will receive a certificate of late registration so they can get a ballot, according to a news release sent out by the Butte-Silver Bow Clerk and Recorder. All ballots must be turned into the School District office by 8 p.m. May 3 in order to be counted, according to Patrick. For more information, contact Clerk & Recorder Linda Sajor-Joyce at 497-6342 or the appropriate school district. Trustees on the Butte Ballot ROSE GRINER Rose Griner (formerly Rose Henn) has never been on a school board or in a public-facing position before, but has been on the other side of meetings as a parent. She currently works as a waitress at Oasis Casino and has four kids in the Butte School District; one will graduate this year. A military brat, she was born in Washington but attended Head Start in Butte, as well as East Middle School, Butte High School and Butte Academy of Beauty Culture. She earned her cosmetology license in 2007. If elected, Griner wants there to be more parent and community involvement in the school board and thinks there should be a question and answer session at each meeting. Parents get a chance to speak at the school board meetings and even though they hear us I don't think they actually listen, Griner said. The school board is supposed to represent the community and the students. As a board member, I will listen to the community so I can represent them. KELLY J. LEE Kelly J. Lee has served as a trustee in Butte School District for three years, and he has two sons who are attending Butte High School and East Middle School. He attended Butte School District and was born and raised in Butte. Hes worked for the Butte Fire Department since 2008 and was recently promoted to assistant fire chief and fire marshal. He is serving his 14th year on the Butte Civic Center Board, has been a board member for Montana State Firemens Association and was formerly a president and board member for Mile High Little League. I feel that a quality public education is the cornerstone of our community and I want to continue to use my place on the board to ensure that it stays that way, Lee said. Schools are continually asked to do more for our students. In addition to providing education, they have been asked to supplement mental health services and facilitate assistance programs, such as nutritional services. Because of this, I think it is very important that schools are provided with the staff and resources they need to perform these tasks. SHANE MARTIN Shane Martin has never ran for any elected office before, but he has two young children in elementary school. He works for the US Forest Service as the assistant fire management officer for the Butte Ranger District. If elected, Martin would like to see elementary students have a physical education class every day, and see that all students have the opportunity to take music and art classes. Our schools are doing a great job on the core classes, but we need to take care of the whole student so that we are producing good citizens that will add to our community, he said. He also said he wants to make sure every parent is heard at school board meetings. We may not agree, but parents need to know they are being listened to, he said. I want to ensure that Butte public schools continue to produce high quality students that make a difference in our community. KATHY MILODRAGOVICH Kathy Milodragovich hasnt served on a school board before, but taught in the Butte School District for 25 years. Now that shes retired, she feels she has time to be an active school board member. Both her children and grandchildren went through the Montana public school system. Shes worked seasonally for the U.S. Forest Service and worked for two sessions with the Legislative Council in Helena. In retirement, she was involved in administering National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is data used to produce the nations report card. She graduated from the University of Montana with a liberal arts degree that included an emphasis in history and anthropology. She later earned a K-8 certification, and then added a special education endorsement. My goal is to help focus on policies that improve student achievement and quality instruction, Milodragovich said. It is important for board members to work collaboratively with each other to consider policies that advance student learning. Staff and the community have a share in making student achievement successful. MATT MOORE Matt Moore has never served on a school board or in a public-facing position, but has a child attending Whittier Elementary and has worked in public service. He was formerly an engineer for the Butte- Silver Bow public works department. He serves on several volunteer boards including the Urban Forest Board and the Wolfe Tones Hurling Club Board. He currently works at his own engineering firm, Moore Engineering and Inspection, and has a bachelors degree in civil engineering from Montana Technological University and a Masters of business administration from Western Governors University. If elected, Moore wants to make sure Butte School Districts children and teachers are safe and supported, and that Buttes Public Schools continue to provide high-quality education. I am running to protect our public schools from being manipulated by outside influences, he said. I am disturbed by the trend of vilifying our teachers and administrators. Biographies and headshots of Karen M. Bartle and Conrad Dane Peeples were unavailable at the time of publishing. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 6 The house is ablaze in the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, and those who should have prevented the fire sit idle, playing the blame game and taking no accountability. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) tried to avoid pulling CMS funding of the State Psychiatric Hospital at Warm Springs. CMS was slow as molasses in doing anything to address the State Hospital's shortfalls, but at some point, even they couldn't continue to turn a blind eye. The initial complaint that led to a CMS investigation was lodged in August 2021, and it still took eight months for CMS to pull the plug on DPHHS. Despite its professed role in ensuring quality healthcare is delivered in CMS-funded facilities, CMS's reticence to act was so profound that it wouldn't even investigate until the Montana press exposed the unaddressed problems. And remember, folks, Montanans who are involuntarily committed to the hospital are dying under the state's care. Dying. In an extraordinary display of the proverbial pot calling the kettle black, the Montana Democrat Party's executive director, Sheila Hogan, proclaimed: "This goes far beyond politics this is a crisis of leadership." She's right; however, she fails to mention that she Shelia Hogan was the director of DPHHS under then-Gov. Bullock when the fire at DPHHS and Warm Springs started. She did nothing during her tenure to quell the blaze. In fact, in 2017, CMS issued an "immediate jeopardy" notice to the State Hospital for virtually the same reasons CMS pulled funding from the hospital this week. By all accounts, nothing changed. Hogan also had oversight of the foster care system in Montana, which is now the proud owner of the moniker "worst in the nation." The only bright spot that comes from choosing Hogan as leader of the Democrat Party is an assurance that the Republican red streak will continue into the foreseeable future. Not to be outdone by Hogan, between August and this week, our current Gov. Greg Gianforte and his director, Adam Meier, haven't done squat to remedy the patient neglect problems, instead choosing to wait for "more data." Yet the relevant data revealed itself months ago: $7 million (now $14 million) in the red, four dead patients, 40% staff vacancy, and one brutal patient assault. Judging by his recent press releases, Gianforte is distracted, focusing on recruiting Minnesota business owners to compete with Montana employers for employees and housing. It's now clear Gianforte's Montana Comeback Plan has been trashed in favor of a Minnesota Comeback Plan. Our character as Montanans manifests in our treatment of our most vulnerable. The crisis at Warm Springs exposes a fundamental lack of leadership from both political parties. Prioritizing politics and "comeback" gimmicks over the needs of Montanans foretells a bleak future where our nickname Last Best Place is replaced with Last Place You Want to Live. Tammi Fisher is an attorney, former mayor of Kalispell and the host of the Montana Values Podcast. Love 4 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 0 ARCHIVED - Cooler temperatures return to Spain: weather forecast April 18-21 The thermometers are expected to plummet 10C this week as the rains return to Spain Most of Spain basked in a summer atmosphere of clear skies and soaring temperatures this Easter weekend and while it doesnt look like the county will return to the torrential rain of recent weeks, the next few days are set to be generally unsettled across the Peninsula. Despite the record temperatures experienced over the weekend, with the mercury in Sevilla , Madrid and Girona climbing up to a sweltering 11C higher than normal, the cooler weather will return from Monday, bringing widespread rain as the week goes on. Monday April 18 A weak Atlantic front will enter the north of Spain on Monday, binging increased cloud cover and rainfall in Galicia and Cantabria. Most of the country will remain overcast, although it will still be generally warm, with the Canary Islands expected to reach highs of 30C in some areas. Galicia is on yellow alert for strong waves. Tuesday April 19 The real change will arrive on Tuesday with temperatures dropping by as much as 10C in a matter of hours. In the couth of the county the mercury will remain more stable, and Malaga and Murcia are still expected to hit highs of between 22C and 23C. Cloudy skies and widespread rainfall will prevail, with the exception of the extreme south. As the day goes on, however, the rain will spread to the south and east and storms havent been ruled out in the Balearic Islands. Andalucia and Galicia are on yellow alert for strong waves while there is also a yellow warning in place in Aragon and Castilla-La Mancha for rain. Wednesday April 20 The rain will continue into Wednesday, especially persistent in the north and east of the country, although there are currently no weather warnings in place. The temperatures will drop across Spain, with maximum daytime values of 21C expected in the Canary Islands. Storms could rise in Castellon, Tarragona and eastern Aragon and havent been entirely ruled out in Murcia and Alicante Thursday April 21 Cloudy skies and showers are once again forecast on Thursday, which may be intense and persistent during the earlier part of the day. A new Atlantic storm will begin to approach the Galician coast, so weak rains are likely in Galicia in the last few hours, and may spread to nearby areas. However, daytime temperatures will generally tend to rise, with highs of 22C and 23C forecast for Alicante, Malaga and Murcia. Images: Aemet ARCHIVED - Electricity prices in Spain hit lowest level of the year Electricity in Spain will cost an average of 103.24 euros/MWh on Monday April 18 Fuelled by the invasion of Ukraine, electricity has reached record highs in recent months but there is some very good news on Monday April 18 as the price of energy will drop to its lowest level so far this year. According to data from the Iberian Energy Market Operator (OMIE), the cost of electricity will be 103.24 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), 7% less than on Sunday and the lowest since December 27 2021. Despite this welcome drop, it will still cost 60% more this Monday to power our homes and businesses in Spain than it did a year ago. See also: Electricity prices drop to their lowest point since the start of the Ukraine war The most expensive time to run household appliances will be between 9pm and 10pm when each megawatt will cost a hefty 219.69 euros. The cheapest time is from 2pm and 3pm, when the cost will fall to just 45 euros/MWh. To ease the burden on customers, the government approved a new national plan on March 29 which extends the tax reduction on electricity bills until the end of June, in addition to offering the electricity social voucher to an additional 1.9 million vulnerable households. Another measure which should substantially reduce bills is the proposal by the Spanish and Portuguese governments to establish a reference price for gas of 30 euros per MWh, which would have a knock-on effect on the cost of electricity. You might also like: 230 filling stations sanctioned in Spain for ramping up prices Image: Wikimedia Commons ARCHIVED - Netflix and Cartagena sign historic deal in Spain The streaming company aims to develop the audiovisual sector in the Murcia Region Cartagena has made TV history in Spain by becoming the first city council to sign a contract with Netflix to promote the audiovisual sector in the city. To this end, the streaming service will commit to the training of audiovisual professionals during 2022 and 2023 in addition to taking part in the Cartagena Film Festival. Finally, Netflix will launch a new short film competition aimed at students in the Region. Announcing the historic collaboration, mayor Noelia Arroyo assured that the deal signifies an agreement through which we support our creators, our Film Festival and take advantage of Netflixs knowledge to improve the training of future professionals in the audiovisual world. See also: How to access the secret back catalogue on Netflix and watch hidden series and films The Region is no stranger to the silver screen; in the past, Cartagena has been the setting for filming of national and international productions and several episodes of Netflixs Sky Rojo drama series were filmed in Cabo de Palos. For us it means opening a direct communication channel with Netflix to have the help and advice of a large company in our projects to develop Cartagena's capabilities throughout the audiovisual production chain, Ms Arroyo stressed, adding that the municipality is home to a Polytechnic University and technology is increasingly important in audiovisual production. To this end, the First Strategic Tourism Plan 2021-2025 has invested 4.1 million euros in the development and promotion of Cartagena as a destination for audiovisual productions. The director of Public Policies for Spain and Portugal expressed her excitement at producing good stories in the Region, adding that the company hopes to showcase the diversity, the geographical diversity, the cultural diversity of our country and not limit ourselves to certain places. This agreement is a reflection of that goal. You might also like: Infamous Netflix Squid Game inspired by Alicante property Image: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena By Trend Azerbaijan to create legal framework for recalculation of pension of deceased worker, Chairman of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) Committee on Labor and Social Policy Musa Guliyev told Trend. He said that, in this regard, amendments are made to the law "On labor pensions". Guliyev said that this would allow recalculating the unused pension capital accumulated by the deceased after retirement and increasing the size of the survivor's pension for the family. WAPELLO Completion of the update to Louisa Countys comprehensive plan is one step closer after Zack James, planning director of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission (SEIRPC), and Kansha Tiwari, regional planner, met Tuesday with the Louisa County Board of Supervisors and summarized the draft report of Comprehensive Plan 2040. The SEIRPC has been updating the countys former long-range plan since November 2020 and on April 5 presented the draft report to the Louisa County Planning and Zoning Commission. James said the draft was broken into four main parts; Our Second Century; County Elements: County Themes Goals and Objectives; and Future Land Use, with appendices making up a fifth part. James said Part 1 included a description of what a comprehensive plan was; vision statement and overview; and a county history. Part 2 provided demographic information; current land use; housing, economic development and education data; transportation, quality of life, location of county facilities, utility and infrastructure, natural environment and agriculture; and hazard mitigation resource facts. James urged the board to look through the entire plan, but said Part 3 - County Themes was the most important. It covered 16 goals involving economic prosperity; embracing community; resilient infrastructure and services; quality housing; and quality of life. Part 4 focused on future land use, which James stressed was not a recommendation of what a property will be used for, but rather what planners felt was its potentially highest value use or best use. James also provided a timeline to the plans eventual adoption. The planning and zoning commission will provide comments in May and then hold a June 9 public hearing and provide the supervisors with a recommendation. The supervisors would then hold one or two public hearings on June 14 and possibly June 21 before taking any final action. View the report at: seirpc.com/community-development. In other action, the supervisors: Held a public hearing and later approved a resolution assigning several tax sale deeds to the Oakville Volunteer Foundation. Held a public hearing on a planned timber sale at Virginia Grove Recreation Area and later approved a contract with Geode Forestry, Imc. to administer the sale. Approved the recorders third quarter report. Approved plans and specifications for a drainage improvement project on County Road X61 and 162nd Street. The board also agreed to appoint Joellen Schantz to a vacant seat on the conservation board. Two other candidates, County Auditor Sandi Sturgell and local resident Sue Vogeler submitted applications, which because of gender balance rules required a woman be appointed. Schantz will serve out the remainder of Teresa Colemans term, which expires on Dec. 31, 2023. Schantz currently serves on the county board of health and is employed by Louisa County as the secondary roads departments office manager. She also is employed by the Louisa Regional Solid Waste Agency as its secretary and as the manager of the Wapello Transfer Station. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russias offensive to take control of eastern Ukraine is in full swing. Now we can already state that the Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time, he announced Monday in a video address. He said a significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. He vowed: No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day. MyBroadband Insights Q1 2022 test results showed that many more neighbourhoods in the Durban area featured in the top 10 best mobile and fixed broadband neighbourhoods of South Africa. Musgrave, Durban North, Bulwer, and La Lucia joined Umhlanga Ridge on the list of South Africas neighbourhoods with the fastest broadband speeds. These results are based on 323,160 mobile speed tests and 443,318 speed tests done on fixed broadband connections over the first quarter of 2022. It should be noted that the tests were conducted before the recent flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, which severely damaged mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure in Durban. Last week, MTN reported that the flooding caused 500 sites to go offline due to widespread infrastructure damage and power outages. Similarly, Vodacom announced that 400 of its sites were down due to the floods. Another interesting trend is that the average download speeds among the top ten neighbourhoods increased. At the end of December, the lowest average mobile broadband download speed in the top ten belonged to Table View in Cape Town 48.37 Mbps. La Lucia was ranked tenth by end-March, with an average mobile download speed of 78.15 Mbps. Average downloads for the tenth-place fixed broadband contender also increased, albeit only from 47.82 Mbps to 49.30 Mbps. MyBroadbands test results showed that for Q1 2022, Sandown in Johannesburg was the neighbourhood with the fastest average mobile data speed. Brackenhurst in Alberton had the fastest average fixed broadband speed. These two neighbourhoods ousted Bryanston as the top neighbourhood for fixed and mobile broadband speeds in Q4 2021. Sandton is one of the main business and financial districts in South Africa and is also known as Africas Richest Square Mile, so it makes sense that it would be a leading area in terms of mobile connectivity. Cape Town lost all but one of its representatives in both top ten lists, while Durban gained four. The other loser was Pretoria, which lost two representatives across both lists. MyBroadbands speed test servers are hosted in Teracos vendor-neutral data centres, ensuring a neutral testing environment for consumers to test their connections. When compiling and processing this data, areas where too few individual users have done tests are excluded to ensure it is comparable for different neighbourhoods. The table below shows the South African neighbourhoods with the highest average mobile and fixed broadband speeds during the first quarter of 2022. BMIT and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) recently released reports about the countrys information and communications technology industry, with some interesting differences in their overall statistics. BMIT reported total revenue growth of 3.7% across the ICT industry in 2021, while Icasas figures showed an increase in income of 0.03% or R640 million. Icasa reported that the total revenue generated by the ICT industry was R243.6 billion in 2021, compared to R243 billion in 2020. Notably, Icasa includes the IT, broadcasting, and postal sectors, while BMITs report is specific to only the IT sector. Therefore, it appears that the broadcasting and postal services sectors pull down the overall revenue figures in Icasas report. BMIT reported a slight increase of 1.2% in revenue generated in the telecoms sector in 2021. It emphasised that the figure was pulled into the positive by significant growth in the residential broadband market. It attributed the growth to the substantial work from home demand in 2021, adding that the overall telecoms market would have declined had it not been for such demand. Icasa, on the other hand, reported a 0.5% decrease in overall revenue generated by the telecoms market in 2021. The authority uses questionnaires customised for each sector, including broadcasting and postal services to solicit data from licensees on the ICT market in South Africa. BMIT also uses questionnaires but only sends them to South African IT service providers. It also collects information from annual reports published by IT service providers and other relevant information in the public domain. The reports also differ because Icasa conducts its surveys yearly, while BMIT sends out questionnaires on an annual and quarterly basis. Icasas report also provided a breakdown of the revenue generated by fixed-line and mobile telecommunications services. It revealed that South Africas mobile network operators generate around 74% more revenue than fixed-line service providers and that data services tend to dominate the telecommunications industry. South Africas mobile network providers received R114 billion in revenue during 2021, with revenue from data services making up almost 50%. On the other hand, fixed-line providers generated R30 billion, 78% of which was income from data services. Icasas report showed that revenue generated by mobile service providers is on the up, having risen by approximately R13 billion since 2018. Regarding fixed-line data services, revenue has dropped, with income generated in 2019 reaching around R27 billion. This figure fell by about 12.3% to R23.5 billion in 2021. Icasas report also showed that fixed-line provioders broadband data services grew in 2021, generating R13 billion, or 56.5% of fixed-line data revenue. Now read: Seacom buying Network Solutions and Hymax for R145 million The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has said that its out-of-court settlement with Telkom showed there must be attempts to balance commercial interests with the public good. Icasa and Telkom told the Sunday Times that the deal was a victory for the sector. The paper also quoted Telkoms head of regulatory affairs and government relations, Siyabonga Mahlangu, saying that there was a lot of trust and goodwill by the end of the protracted battle. This came after the pair announced last Friday that they had reached a settlement days before hearings in Telkoms case against Icasa were to start. The fight was over precious radio frequency spectrum raw network capacity operators use to communicate between cellular towers and mobile devices. South Africas mobile network operators have been begging for years that Icasa must release additional spectrum, promising that it would improve network quality and bring down prices. Icasa had initially hoped to auction off the sought-after spectrum by March last year. However, litigation from Telkom and E-tv blocked it from going ahead. In September 2021, Icasa consented to an order setting the auction aside. It hoped to clear a path to hold the auction by January. Icasa announced its new plan for the spectrum auction in December, and scheduled the auction for March 2022. Telkom was unimpressed, saying that Icasa had made several of the same mistakes as the last time, and re-launched its litigation. Its objections to Icasas auction were manifold, including that the regulator had not adequately considered how the auction would affect South Africas competitive landscape. Telkom also complained that the spectrum it needed was unavailable because TV broadcasters were still using it. A critical issue with Icasas new auction rules was that it had placed an upper limit on how much spectrum each mobile network in South Africa was allowed to own. Essentially, Icasa tallied up all the spectrum currently assigned and added all the frequencies it planned to auction. It divided this by the number of operators who had thrown their hats in the ring for a chance at getting more spectrum Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain, and Liquid. Telkom took issue with how this maximum was calculated, saying it did not correctly consider Rains complete spectrum holdings. This is because Telkom went into the auction with more spectrum than Vodacom and MTN combined. South Africas two largest operators would be able to buy over 100Mhz of spectrum each, whereas Telkom was limited to much less. Telkom believed this was unfair as it did not have any lower frequency spectrum below 1 gigahertz (GHz) whereas Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C did. In the end, Vodacom bought 110MHz for R5.3 billion, and MTN got 100MHz for R5.1 billion. Telkom bid R2.1 billion on 42MHz of the spectrum, of which 20MHz was in a sub-1GHz band. Sub-1GHz spectrum is attractive because it can produce a larger coverage area per cell than higher frequencies, and offers better signal penetration through walls. Total spectrum lots acquired per bidder and associated financial commitment Bidder 700 800 2600 3500 TOTAL (ZAR) Telkom 20 22 R2,113,615,407.10 Liquid Telecom 4 R111,000,000.00 Cell C 10 R288,200,000.00 Rain 20 20 R1,431,374,105.50 MTN 20 40 40 R5,152,100,000.00 Vodacom 20 80 10 R5,381,600,000.00 Unsold 20 Total Revenue Generated R14,477,889,512.60 Telkoms settlement with Icasa addresses its grievance over spectrum caps. Icasa committed to start licensing spectrum that remains unassigned from the auction no later than 30 June 2022. The regulator must conclude this within its current financial year. One lot of sub-1GHz spectrum was unsold by the end of the auction. Icasa also undertook to consider the auctions outcomes in licensing this unassigned spectrum in the 800 MHz band. In addition, the regulator agreed to conduct an inquiry on the impact of a potential secondary market for spectrum on competition and, if necessary, provide an adequate and enabling regulatory framework. US First Lady meets with Slovak President North Korea urges citizens to strictly adhere to antiviral measures in connection with COVID-19 Javelin manufacturer to double production of anti-tank missile systems Sri Lankan Prime Minister submits his resignation to the President Marukyan: There should have been half million people on streets now if people really wanted change of power in Armenia Russia envoy to Armenia: Everyone should avoid steps that could aggravate situation Oil prices drop in Saudi Arabia after COVID-19 outbreak in China Armenia army general staff ex-deputy chief: I will say its a lie if someone says it was possible to win 44-day war Georgia condemns presidential elections in South Ossetia ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party official says authorities plan to divide Armenian diaspora Azerbaijan continues attempts to appropriate Armenian Dadivank Monastery Bitcoin is trading at a low since the summer of 2021 Armenia ambassador-at-large: Whoever says 'they want Artsakh to be part of Azerbaijan' probably wants it Turkeys Erdogan to attend Teknofest in Azerbaijan System Of a Down members welcome opposition Resistance Movement actions in Armenia (PHOTOS) Journalist attacked in Baku 19 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia in past 5 days Novak: Russia has already started selling oil to a number of new buyers Putin: NATO countries did not want to hear Russia Two Chinese ships enter Japanese territorial waters China assures Australia of peaceful intentions in cooperation with Solomon Islands Holy Etchmiadzin clergy visit Victory Park memorial in Yerevan Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: Let us live for new victories Armenia ex-defense minister: Wedding at Mountains ideologically impossible after change of power NATO Secretary General urges Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine Karabakh negotiation process did not fail under Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan, says Seyran Ohanyan Armenia ex-defense minister: Resistance Movements breakthrough moment already passed Karabakh President visits Stepanakert Memorial on May 9 anniversaries Armenia Investigative Committee chief on including PM Pashinyan as defendant: We have just accepted proceedings Heavy snowfall recorded in Armenia rural community, in May! Karabakh President: Shushi is in captivity again, Artsakh must always be Armenian and impregnable Armenias Pashinyan to Russias Putin: Memory of great past obliges us to strengthen our inherited friendly ties Armenia PM arrives at Victory Park accompanied by enhanced security Armenia ex-President Serzh Sargsyan: For stateless servile creatures, cost of peace is homage paid to enemy Azerbaijanis desecrate Armenian church in occupied Togh village of Artsakh (VIDEO) Armenia PM: Blood of our martyrs who gave their lives to Motherland should not be forgotten Armenia premier, president, others are at Victory Park Armenia marks May 9 Armenia PM visits Yerevan military pantheon Zelenskyy and German Parliament Speaker discuss heavy weapons supply to Ukraine Bloomberg: Hungary continues to block EU oil sanctions against Russia Israel to abolish mandatory PCR testing at airport as of 20 May US and G7 countries introduce new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus Syrian President visits Iran Canada PM visits city of Irpin in Ukraine Armenia's ex-president Serzh Sargsyan is on France Square Ukrainian media report on US First Lady's visit to Uzhhorod, Ukraine Marine Le Pen still hopes to defeat Macron in parliamentary elections German Parliament Speaker arrives in Kiev German media reports Russian hacker attack on German government website Resistance Movement rally in Gyumri ends: next rally will take place tomorrow in France Square Armenia Ombudsman's Office to monitor rallies also in Gyumri Media: IS militants fire seven rockets at Tajik Armed Forces Rally of Resistance Movement in Gyumri Germany registers steepest rise in diesel prices among EU countries since February Minute of silence declared in Artsakh on 9 May in memory of those killed fighting for homeland Bloomberg: G7 leaders to discuss possible new sanctions against Russia Ex-security chief John Lee named new leader of Hong Kong Xi Jinping Delivers a Keynote Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 Resistance movement heads to Gyumri with car march Andy Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe breaks all records at auction in New York Ancient Roman 2,000-year-old relic bought in US for $35 Ferrari bans Justin Bieber from buying its sports cars St. Kirakos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir reopened seven years later NATO chief warns of further escalation of Ukraine situation in coming weeks Azerbaijan intensely firing toward Armenias Sotk gold mine, 1 wounded Iran FM discusses nuclear talks in Vienna with UN Secretary General Yerevan.Today: Azerbaijani journalists are in Armenia Candidate with Turkish citizenship and served in Turkey army is nominated for US Senate Opposition Yerevan rally participant remanded in custody Armenia Investigative Committee comments on cases of blocking streets with trucks Resistance Movement holding rally in Vanadzor US accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Syria Women kick off march in downtown Yerevan Man found dead under Yerevan bridge Armenia Judge Boris Bakhshiyan released from custody Armenia President meets with Security Council secretary Biden demands to stop leaks of US intel sharing with Ukraine At least 22 dead in explosion at 5-star hotel in Cuba Newspaper: Armenia PM had arrangement with ruling political teams parliament faction The need to leverage AI and automation, best practices for balancing cost and customer experience and insights on crafting driver-centric logistics processes were some key discussion points at the virtual Logistics Tech Summit. The first-ever mega virtual Logistics Tech Summit on April 6 saw the participation of more than 500 supply chain executives from across the world, including the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and Europe, and multiple industry stalwarts as speakers from marquee organisations like Emirates Post, Jumia Group, Myntra, DTDC Express, Zepto, Meesho, Wellness Forever and more. "Competition in the on-demand delivery market in the Middle East is escalating, and so is the race to become the delivery partner of choice. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses need to focus on using automation, AI, ML, predictive analytics, and more to build agile, resilient, and profitable delivery operations," said Soham Chokshi, Co-founder and CEO, Shipsy, while inaugurating the summit. Transforming logistics Talking about the need for logistics transformation to address growing global delivery demands, Apoorva Kumar, Senior Vice President Logistics Services, Jumia Group, highlighted the importance of "disaggregating" logistics operations to identify areas that can be optimised. "We have been managing customer clearance using logistics partners. But recently, we started working with country-specific postal authorities to clear customs, and they are doing an incredible job. Once we started disaggregating our logistics operations, we realised that postal makes a lot of sense for us," said Kumar. Deploying AI-powered tools Inaccurate address is a critical challenge in the Middle East that advanced technologies can help address. A report highlights that Last-mile delivery failure rates range from 15% in the UAE to 40% in Saudi Arabia leading to poor customer satisfaction and lost revenue. This means that more than $7.42 billion in e-commerce revenue in the Middle East could be affected by inaccurate addresses. "Businesses can buy off-the-shelf technologies that enable route optimisation, help manage volume bounces easily, and get that extra 2-3% logistics efficiency while keeping customer experience intact," said Steve Stanton, Chief Business Officer Parcels & Express, Emirates Post. He added that modern logistics management tools like "dynamic routing" can be used to crack the inaccurate address problem, a challenge that has the "biggest cost impact." Leveraging the power of data science According to a recent report, data analytics is the top priority for 45% of global supply chain professionals. Businesses across the Middle East and South Asia are increasingly using data science to optimise logistics costs and boost competitiveness. Abhishek Chakraborty, Executive Director DTDC Express, highlighted the significance of "data science" when it comes to accurately understanding "where to establish hubs," "what kind of capacity to envision," and "what kind of trucks best suit a job." He highlighted that today 65-70% of decisions they take for their supply chain network and fleet are powered by data science. He also pointed out that even as the cost of operations gradually increases, data science has been enabling DTDC to stay highly competitive. While talking about balancing cost and customer experience, Sourabh Pandey, CXO Fulfilment & Experience, Meesho, highlighted the importance of bringing down the cost of logistics inefficiencies. "Cutting down investments in customer experience to boost profitability is not a solution. Bringing down the cost of inefficiency is key. To achieve this, the industry needs to find ways to bring together customers and last-mile agents and create more actionable data in the ecosystem," said Pandey. Building driver centric logistics strategy Delivery executives play a critical role in shaping customer experience and ensuring delivery success. Hence it's imperative to ensure their well-being. Commenting on this vital aspect of modern logistics, Vikas Sharma, Senior Vice President Operations, Zepto, said that to eliminate chances of riders hassling across the lengths and breaths of a city, they are building capabilities to assign them "dedicated service location." "We provide insurance for our riders and their families. We have doctors on call for them in case of emergencies and have an efficient credit facility for them," Sharma added. Scaling on demand deliveries Ensuring scale and agility to meet fast delivery expectations is an area that many businesses in the Middle East are grappling with. Haarshal Thakker, Head Omni Channel & Hyperlocal Business, Wellness Forever Medicare, spoke about how understanding the quick service restaurant model helped him scale. "To enhance delivery agility, we have to set up dark stores closer to customers. We have taken inspiration from QSRs on how they manage to scale and keep their fixed costs low. They are generalists who taught us how to use LSPs to scale during peak hours efficiently," said Thakker. -- TradeArabia News Service What is happening before and after the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [in the fall of 2020] is happening because of these anti-state, destructive authorities. Eduard Sharmazanov, National Assembly ex-deputy speaker as well as vice-chairman and spokesperson of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am. "In one part they say, 'What genocide?' In another part they say, 'What Artsakh status?' They say we must lower the bar on the matter of the status of Artsakh. Who is the 'international community?' Are Turkey and Azerbaijan the 'international community?' The international community stands with those who keep their homeland," Sharmazanov said. According to him, Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not learn about the negotiation process from the former presidents, but from his "constructive" colleague: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. "This man [i.e., Pashinyan] has put forward theories in 3-4 years that even the Azerbaijani propaganda has not put forward. Or what does it matter who left what negotiation legacy? (). During [preceding Armenian President and RPA chairman] Serzh Sargsyan's talks, Aliyev was saying, 'Behind closed doors, they are forcing us to recognize Artsakh's independence.' But now Pashinyan is saying that the international community is forcing us to lower the [Artsakh] status bar," he said. As per Sharmazanov, all former Armenian leaders should put aside their differences, come together, and make a decision because Armenia is facing very serious challenges, and the question of its existence is put. "Armenian blood is shed on every square [meter] in Artsakh. I say again: this is not only an Artsakh issue, this is a matter of the dignity of the Armenian people. The movement in [19]88 was not only for the people of Artsakh; this is a pan-Armenian issue. After the [Armenian] Genocide, the Artsakh issue is our national awakening," Eduard Sharmazanov added. The Ukraine crisis could plunge more than one fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger, according to the UN Secretary-General, Asian News International reported. "We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades," Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Czech Seznam Zpravy publication, published on Sunday. Ukraine and Russia account for 30 percent of world production of wheat and barley, a fifth of all corn and more than half of all sunflower oil, Guterres said, specifying that Russia and Ukraine account for over a third of the wheat imported to the 45 least developed countries. The UN Secretary-General said that the Ukraine crisis is blocking grain exports and disrupting supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket. Since the start of 2022, wheat and corn prices have gone up by 30 percent, Brent crude oil prices have risen by more than 60 percent, while natural gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled. Russia is one of the leading exporters of natural gas and one of the largest exporters of oil. The authorities of the Republic of Cyprus on Monday cancel the categorization of countries on an epidemic basis and cancel the CyprusFlightPass form, which was previously mandatory for all air passengers arriving on the island, which contained detailed information about vaccination or covid disease. This decision was made on April 7 by the cabinet of ministers of the island state as part of the program to ease restrictive measures, the first stage of which was put into effect on April 11, and the second is being introduced today. According to the new protocol for travelers, which came into effect at midnight, there are no longer categories of countries depending on the degree of spread of coronavirus infection in them. This means that for non-coronavirus-infected guests from many countries of the former gray zone, the need for self-isolation disappears. For passengers flying to Cyprus, it is enough to have certificates of either having had a covid or confirming vaccination with AstraZeneca (Vaxzervia, COVISHIELD, SKBio), Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson&Johnson/Janssen, Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac), Sinopharm (BBIBPCOVID-19), Sinovac (CoronaVac), Covaxin, Novavax Nuvaxovid COVID-19, CovaVax and Sputnik Light, the last of these vaccines being recognized by the Cypriot authorities only as a booster to basic vaccination. Fully vaccinated are those air passengers 18 years of age and older who have not exceeded 270 days (9 months) after being vaccinated with a second dose of a two-component vaccine and a single dose of a single-component vaccine. Otherwise, they will need a booster dose - either a third or a second, depending on the number of components of the original antiviral drug. Unvaccinated travelers will have to undergo a diagnostic test in the country of departure, and this can be either a molecular PCR test valid for 72 hours or a rapid antigen test with a 24-hour validity period. From Monday, Cyprus also opens free access to all shopping areas, that is, residents and guests of the island can now visit any stores and shopping centers without having to present the SafePass form with QR codes to the controllers at the entrance. As reported earlier, Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia, on Sunday announced the start of protestsand with no term or endat Freedom Square in Downtown Yerevan. "The night passed quietly, there were no problems. The conditions are actually difficult, they [i.e., the police] do not allow that there be heaters, tents. But we know what we are doing, where we have come from, and how long we will stay [here]," Vanetsyan told reporters at Freedom Square Monday morning. And asked why the police did not allow them to set up tents at Freedom Square, Vanetsyan responded: "With their fear. They are just afraid that the movement will gain momentum faster. (). Later, Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan announced an indefinite hunger strike. As reported earlier, Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan, two participants of the 44-day Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020 who on Sunday announced a hunger strike, have come to Freedom Square Monday morning. Most various events will be held, during which there will be a great dialogue with the citizens. Arsen Babayan, a member of the political board of the opposition Homeland party of Armenia, on Monday told reporters about this at Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. "The recording of the results of that dialogue will be the achieving of our ultimate success. We see that a considerable part of the society does not analyze the situation in depthand that is objective. So, we have a need to inform the citizens about what is happening in Armenia," Babayan said. "I assure [you] that all the previous actions carried out [by the countrys opposition] have yielded results, and we will have the recording of those results through these very actions which will take place these days," Arsen Babayan stated. But did not say what actions they plan to carry out. Also, Babayan called on Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan, two participants of the 44-day Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020, to end their hunger strike. Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly and chairman of the opposition Homeland party of Armenia, on Sunday announced the start of protestsand with no term or endat Freedom Square in Downtown Yerevan. Sometime thereafter, 44-day war participants Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan announced a hunger strike, and they came to Freedom Square Monday morning. Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the course of the Russian special operation in Ukraine in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin press service reported following the conversation. "Various aspects of the development of the situation around the conduct of a special military operation to protect Donbass were discussed," the press service said in a statement. The Russian leader also informed his interlocutor about the course of negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives. In addition, the leaders gave a positive assessment to "the results of the recent talks between the Foreign Ministers in Antalya and Moscow." In turn, Erdogan thanked the Russian Federation for assistance in the evacuation of Turkish citizens from Ukraine. In the conversation, special emphasis was placed on the humanitarian component. Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his gratitude for assistance in the evacuation of Turkish citizens from the territory of Ukraine, as well as in the safe exit of ships with Turkish cargo from Russian ports in the Sea of Azov, the Kremlin noted. The press service also said that Putin and Erdogan are determined to develop cooperation between the Russian Federation and Turkey, including in the energy sector. Issues on the bilateral agenda have been considered in detail. The mood was expressed for the further development of mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation, including the implementation of strategic projects in the energy sector, the Kremlin said in a statement. Following a telephone conversation, the presidents of the two countries agreed to continue contacts at various levels. Dubai Chambers has rebranded and unveiled its new corporate identity enabling it to implement a specialised approach to promoting Dubai as a global business hub. Reflecting the organisations restructuring, which was earlier announced by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, three chambers of commerce will operate under Dubai Chambers, namely Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Dubai International Chamber and Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy each of which have their own individual brands, strategies and specialised approach. The announcement came after Dubai Chambers adopted its 2022-2024 strategy earlier this year, which expands its role as the important organisation supporting the growth of Dubais economy. The strategy aims to better serve Chamber members, deliver added value and future proof the Dubais economy in line with the emirates new vision and strategic goals. Interests of businesses in Dubai Dubai Chamber of Commerce is playing a crucial role in representing, supporting and protecting the interests of businesses in Dubai, while exploring new ways to meet the changing needs of Dubais fast-growing and dynamic business community. Dubai International Chamber is supporting Dubais vision to expand to new global markets, forge new economic partnerships and support local companies in achieving global success, while also attracting promising talent and investors from across the world. The Chamber will cover 30 international markets that are considered important markets for Dubai through promotional projects. Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy will work to build the worlds best digital infrastructure and transform Dubai into an international technology hub and support the interests of technology companies and advancing the role of the digital economy in the emirate. Driving economic growth Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of Dubai Chambers, said the new brand identity strengthens the Dubai Chambers and enables the organisation to implement a more effective approach to promoting Dubai as a global business hub, driving economic growth and expanding the emirates trade ties with promising markets around the world. Hamad Buamim, President & CEO of Dubai Chambers, noted that Dubai Chambers explained that Dubai Chambers is among the first chambers in the world to adopt a three-chamber model, adding that he is confident that the new direction will lead the chamber to reach new milestones and elevate Dubais position in the global arena.-- TradeArabia News Service YEREVAN. Foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia on Monday received the US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Andrew Schofer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The interlocutors exchanged views on starting negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on reaching a comprehensive peace agreement. In this context, FM Mirzoyan emphasized the mediating role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The implementation of agreements on the establishment of a commission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation and border security was highlighted, too. Also, Ararat Mirzoyan briefed Andrew Schofer on the present-day situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The parties discussed in detail the humanitarian issues that have arisen as a result of the 44-day Artsakh war in the fall of 2020in particular, the immediate release and returning of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees in Azerbaijan, and the preservation of Armenian cultural and religious heritage in areas that are now under Azerbaijani control. It is possible to prevent the loss of the rest of the homeland; nothing is impossible. Valeri Osipyan, Former Chief of Police of Armenia, told reporters this Monday at Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. "We well remember how these authorities came to power in 2018; so, nothing is impossible and nothing is lost," he said. Referring to PM Nikol Pashinyan's statement that the Armenian side could have prevented the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020 and the situation would have been the same, but without the casualties, and asked whether such a statement should have been followed by a legal process, Osipyan said: "A serious approach is already needed here, lawyers must realize that, including parents who have lost a [soldier] child should take this into account about future legal steps. Speaking about the use of force by the police against the protesters at Freedom Square Sunday and the restriction of free movement, the ex-Police chief said: "I consider it inadmissible to restrict the free movement of MPs, and citizens in general. I call on my former colleagues to be guided only by the law, and to keep in mind that those who carry out wrong orders will answer [for it] sooner or later. As for his formerly joining the team that came to power in 2018, Valeri Osipyan said: "Everyone has the right to make mistakes; maybe I made a mistake, too." Former chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia, Davit Ananyan, also visited Monday Freedom Square where Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly, is on a sit-in, and two young men who fought in the 44-day Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020 are on a hunger strike. "It's no surprise I'm here. I came to salute my friends and go," Ananyan told reporters. Asked whetherformer National Security Service chiefArtur Vanetsyan is his friend, Ananyan responded: "Of course. He is my good friendfrom work. If my greeting did not have an element of support, I could have [just] called over the phone and say hello. I have never been involved in active politics; consider this as my civic duty. I came, greeted my friends, now I am going to work." Ananyan added, however, that he is naturally concerned about the situation in Armenia. According to the former SRC chief, there are probably no words in the human lexicon that will accurately describe the situation in the country. "The situation is not good, to put it mildly," he said. And to the question whether he demands a change of power in Armenia and whether that will be the beginning of saving the country, Davit Ananyan answered: "The change of power should have been willingly, on the morning of November 10 [2020]. This is my position which I do not renounce until now as well." Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia, on Sunday announced the start of protestsand with no term or endat Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. Sometime thereafter, Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan, two participants of the 44-day Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, announced a hunger strike, and they came to Freedom Square Monday morning. YEREVAN. Secretary Armen Grigoryan of the Security Council of Armenia on Monday received US Co-Chair Andrew Schofer of the OSCE Minsk Group, the office of the Security Council informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. During the meeting, Grigoryan presented the current situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) as a result of the recent invasion of the Azerbaijani armed forces. Also, the Security Council chief reaffirmed the readiness of the Armenian side to support the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs efforts for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Co-Chair Schofer, in turn, stressed that the US remains committed to its mandate within the OSCE Minsk Group. The interlocutors exchanged views also on establishing peace in the region, and security issues. We must work to increase the number of participants in the fight against the incumbent authorities. Azerbaijani Studies expert Armine Adibekyan of Armenia told this to a press conference Monday. According to the analyst, the increase of the "critical mass" will enable to achieve real and quality results. "What surprised me [this time]? I have participated in many [protest] actions during the last 30 years. But for the first time I saw hatred on the faces of the police; it was manifested both in their eyes and in their behavior. I had an absolutely logical question: Guys, who do you hate so much? The people you are obligated to protect based on your position? We are the citizens of this country, and we have rights. We have needs, and we have the right to convey our position to the public. We have the right to hold a protestand it is enshrined in the Constitution," Adibekyan said. I have no relations with the authorities. Former chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia, Davit Ananyan, on Monday told this to reporters at Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. "The relations I have with certain people in power are professional and practical. I am fit, with my abilities, at any time and for any person. If anyone needs advice, anyone can contact me," he said. To the question whether he might join the opposition fight at Freedom Square at some point, Ananyan answered: "If, as an ordinary citizen, I find that the time has come and my participation is very decisive, of course, I will be here. If I have to decide where my place is, my place is here. And as for the remark that these political uprisings harm the revival of Armenias economy and the development of tourism, the former SRC chief noted: "The political situation has been like this for a long time; that is, it is unstable. I do not think these political uprisings will create any additional obstacles." A number of Arab states have sharply criticized right-wing extremists for the act of burning the Koran in Sweden, TASS reports citing Sky News Arabia The Saudi leadership noted that supporters of leader of the Danish right-wing extremist party Hard Deal Rasmus Paludan deliberately provoke Muslims and desecrate their sacred symbols. Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that these actions are contrary to freedom of religion and belief, and also violate the principles of peaceful coexistence of peoples. He called on the international community to join forces to combat the ideas of extremism and intolerance and to prevent insults on religious grounds. In turn, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of Sweden in Baghdad and strongly protested to the Swedish diplomat about the desecration of the Koran. The Iraqi authorities said that this problem entails serious consequences for relations between Sweden and the Arab-Muslim world. On Thursday, riots broke out in a number of Swedish cities after it became known that Paludan intended to hold anti-Islamic demonstrations in them - a public burning of the Koran. The relatives of the fallen servicemen of the D20 artillery division of the Tsor military unit in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) are in front of the Prosecutor Generals Office of Armenia. Anahit Manasyan, a relative of one of these fallen soldiers, Hayk Melikyan, said that they are here to submit a report on a crime. "On April 13, 2022, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan uttered such wording in the National Assembly, which give us grounds to consider it confirmed that the large-scale war operations unleashed by Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic on September 27, 2020 began at Nikol Pashinyan's instigation as well as as a result of abusing his official powers, "Manasyan read as she read an excerpt from the aforesaid crime report to be submitted to the Prosecutor Generals Office. She quoted Pashinyan's aforementioned statement on April 13: "They say to me, 'Could you have prevented the [Artsakh] war [in 2020]?' Yes, we could have prevented the war, as a result of which we would have had this same situationof course without the casualties. "We expect the case to be processed and people to be punished. Nikol Pashinyan's statement made in the National Assembly was already a self-confessed testimony about a crime, by not processing of which we do wrong to our [fallen] children. We will do everything so that this petition is processes. We expect to see Nikol Pashinyan punished in accordance with the law," one of these fallen servicemens parent told the reporters. The parents added that they will take part in any movement that will be able to hold Pashinyan accountable. About 60 parents have joined the initiative. The Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (Admaf) has announced the application deadlines for its four Admaf awards totalling AED90,000 ($24,503). We continue our long-standing commitment to rewarding excellence among our nations youth in their passionate pursuit of creativity and innovation in the arts. The emerging generation of young talents plays a crucial role in the UAEs cultural and artistic development, and the Admaf Awards continue our mission to encourage young creatives in reaching their full potential. The awards celebrate and recognise the rising talents who are navigating the nations dynamic art scene and support them as they become an integral part of the creative ecosystem of the future, said Huda I. AlKhamis-Kanoo, Founder of Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, Founder and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival. Increasing awareness Awarded in partnership with LECOLE, School of Jewellery Arts supported by Van Cleef and Arpels, the Admaf Design Fund aims to increase awareness of the diversity of topics and approaches to jewellery, from prehistoric to contemporary, and showcase jewellery expertise to the world. The application deadline is set for May 18, 2022, with the winner of the AED50,000 award to be announced on May 30, 2022. The winner will travel to Paris for a week-long programme with LECOLE. Founded in 1996, The Gulf Capital - Admaf Creativity Award celebrates outstanding young national talents in the visual and performing arts. Admaf announced the application deadline for the award for 18 May, 2022, while the winner of the AED20,000 award will be announced on 20 June. The 2022 Award is dedicated to the Performing Arts category, inviting submissions in the genres of music, dance and theatre. Admaf also set the application deadline for the Gulf Capital - Visual Arts Award for May 31, 2022, and the winner of the AED10,000 award is to be announced upon the Jury Committee meeting on September 15, 2022. Original artwork Applicants aged 18-35 years old are encouraged to produce an original artwork, whether real-life or animation video, photography, or visual arts like painting, sculpting, or installation, among others. "We are delighted to partner with Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation and Abu Dhabi Festival on both the Creativity and Visual Arts awards aiming to inspire young Emirati talents to contribute to the local art and culture scene," said Dr Karim El Solh, co-founder and CEO of Gulf Capital. "Our long-standing partnership with Admaf focuses on supporting and empowering Emirati youth to unlock their full talents and potential, tell their stories, and take part in the wider art and culture scene in the region. Since their launch, the awards have helped several up-and-coming talents to establish a distinguished presence through their artwork. Gulf Capital is very focused on nurturing Emirati talent and fostering a culture of creativity and excellence in the UAE," El Solh added. TotalEnergies Design Commission Award recognises outstanding innovation and achievement by young Emiratis in the fields of design and architecture. Under the 2022 theme of Applied Arts, the Award will continue to nurture and encourage creative practices by providing a launch-pad for emerging designers and architects across the UAE. The deadline for applications is set for May 25, 2022 with the winner of the AED10,000 to be announced in June 2022.-- TradeArabia News Service Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Andrew Schofer, the press service of the Prime Minister reported. The Prime Minister noted the important role of the United States as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and welcomed the visit of Andrew Schofer, which will provide an opportunity to discuss the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the ongoing processes in this context. The sides stressed the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Humanitarian issues were touched upon, as well as the possibility of starting negotiations with Azerbaijan on a peace agreement. In this regard, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia stressed the mediating role of the co-chairing and co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group. India and Iran may soon begin exploratory talks to resume bilateral trade in crude oil and fertilizers, which have been under US sanctions since 2019, as Iran and the US try to speed up talks to restart the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Hindu Business Line reported, citing sources. A high-ranking delegation from Iran is scheduled to visit New Delhi for talks with Indian officials. It is hoped that the sanctions against Iran will be lifted as progress was reported in the negotiations between the US and Iran in Vienna. An Iranian group of senior officials will soon visit India to discuss how to restart trade in commodities such as oil and fertilizers, the source said. The talks in Vienna have so far been suspended at the suggestion of the EU foreign minister, and the negotiators have returned to their capitals for political consultations. Iran says that Washington has not shown in practice any determination to lift sanctions on Tehran in order to revive the JCPOA and return to full compliance with it. The Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the US State Department on Twitter touched upon the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The United States welcomes Prime Minister Pashinyan's latest statements on peace talks with Azerbaijan, the recent telephone conversation between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, and the commitment of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the peace talks. The publication adds that Assistant Secretary of State is sending senior adviser for Caucasus negotiations Andrew Schofer to the region this week to discuss how the US can best support this process. The Catalan leader has accused the Spanish government of spying on its citizens after a human rights group said his phone and dozens of phones belonging to Catalan independence fighters were infected with spyware, Reuters reports. Digital rights group Citizen Lab has found that more than 60 people associated with the Catalan movement, including several members of the European Parliament, as well as other politicians, lawyers and activists, have been victims of Pegasus spyware created by the Israeli NSO Group. Its an unjustifiable disgrace, Catalan leader Pere Aragones tweeted. An extremely serious attack on fundamental rights and democracy.Nearly all infections occurred between 2017 and 2020, following Catalonia's failed bid for independence, which plunged Spain into its worst political crisis in years, according to Citizen Lab. Citizen Lab said it could not definitively attribute the espionage operations to a specific organization, but noted that strong circumstantial evidence suggests an association with the Spanish authorities. Citizen Lab began its investigation in 2020 after researchers working with WhatsApp alerted several Catalan lawmakers, including Parliament Speaker Roger Torrent, to have their phones hacked. At the time, Interior Minister Fernando Marlaska denied any involvement of the Spanish government or its intelligence agencies. The El Pais newspaper subsequently reported that the Spanish intelligence agency CNI did have access to the software. Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 18.04.22: Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss Tuesday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan the implementation of the agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kremlin press service reports. The parties plan to discuss topical issues of further development of Russian-Armenian relations of strategic partnership and alliance. Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue a series of economic meetings this week and will discuss the situation in metallurgy, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will pay an official visit to Moscow, Kremlin spokesman said during the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program. According to Dmitry Peskov, in the current international situation, this is an event of special significance. As PM Pashinyans press service noted, on April 20, Nikol Pashinyan will also meet with Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin and other high-ranking officials. The prime minister's visit to Nizhny Novgorod is also planned. Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the "With Honor" Faction of Armenian parliament, on Sunday announced the start of protests at Freedom Square in Downtown Yerevan. People are protesting PM Nikol Pashinyans statement that the international community is pressing Armenia to lower its bar on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh a little. PM also noted that they could have prevented the war, as a result of which we would have had this same situationof course without the casualties. Meanwhile, Nver Kirakosyan and Artur Avagyan, two veterans of the 44-Day Artsakh War in 2020 have also started an indefinite hunger strike in Yerevans Freedom Square on Sunday. And the relatives of the fallen soldiers came to the Prosecutor Generals Office of Armenia as they expect to see Nikol Pashinyan punished in accordance with the law. The parents added that they will take part in any movement that will be able to hold Pashinyan accountable. About 60 parents have joined the initiative. American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Andrew Schofer visited Armenia to discuss how the US can help support Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal process. Schofer has already held meetings with Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. The sides exchanged views on starting talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders on reaching a comprehensive peace agreement. In this context, FM Mirzoyan highlighted the mediating role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels for rare talks mediated by the European Council President Charles Michel. The meeting came after a flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 25 that allegedly saw Azerbaijan capture a strategic village in the area under the Russian peacekeepers responsibility, killing three Armenian troops. During the meeting, the two leaders ordered foreign ministers to begin preparatory work for peace talks between the two countries, the foreign ministry in Yerevan said in a statement. "This year in Greece we remember the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Our thoughts are with the Armenians living in our homeland and around the world. Expanding the geography of international recognition of the Genocide is a duty of humanity," Dendias wrote on social media. He posted a photo of himself taken in October 2020 during a visit to Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, where the minister laid a wreath at the memorial to the victims of the Genocide. Seven people were killed and 11 injured after Russia launched at least four missile strikes on Lviv, regional military governor Maksym Kozytskyy said. At least one strike hit a tire repair shop, forcing civilians to flee their homes. The toll could rise further as rescue efforts continue, Kozytskyy said. The mayor of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said previously that the city had been hit by "five aimed missile hits." Strikes were also reported in Dnipro, injuring two people and destroying railway infrastructure. Both Ukrainian officials and the Russian Ministry of Defense have reported widespread military action and a ratcheting up in fighting in the east over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian officials say forces have used fired mortars, artillery, and multiple rocket launchers, while Russia said its forces had used precision air-launched missiles. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they are continuing to resist Russian attacks in the besieged southeastern city after rejecting a deadline to surrender. Russian forces have been bombarding the Azovstal steel plant, a bastion of the Ukrainian defense, said Petro Andriushchenko, a mayoral adviser. The Ukrainian president said on Saturday that the final document on ending the war with Russia may consist of two separate treaties a treaty on security guarantees and a bilateral treaty between Kyiv and Moscow. "I believe that these (peace documents) can be two different documents (a treaty on) security guarantees from countries that are ready to provide these security guarantees and a separate document with Russia," Volodymyr Zelenskyy told various media outlets. However, Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia wants to literally finish off and destroy Donbas in eastern Ukraine and accused Russian forces of committing humanitarian violations including use of "torture chambers," "blackmail" and "starvation" in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The Ukrainian President told CNN the country is not willing to give up territory in the eastern part of the country to end the war with Russia, and Ukraine's military is prepared to fight Moscow's military in the Donbas region in a battle he says could influence the course of the entire war. Around 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs in the Russian capital following foreign companies leaving the country after Russia started military operation in Ukraine Authorities will continue to implement plans in order to support workers at risk of being unemployed, setting aside 3.36 billion rubles ($41 million) for these plans, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a blog post Monday. The employment assistance plan includes personnel training, employment in temporary and public works and incentives for organizations and firms who employ these workers, he added. Since 2009, Miami Herbert alumnus Gabriel Diaz has been helping to pioneer ocean fish farming in his native Panama. His company, Open Blue Sea Farms, Inc., cultivates cobia, a tropical whitefish, in its natural Caribbean habitat through facilities seven miles off the coast of Costa Arriba. With 22 pens and 1,200 tons of fish harvested annually, the company operates the worlds largest open-ocean farm. Diaz considers the venture an investment in helping to maintain integral ocean life while producing food through sustainable practices. We do this work with a purpose to do good for the world and society, he says. We want people to have food for the next generations through cleaner, best practices. According to InnovaSea, a designer of aquatic solutions, Open Blues copper alloy mesh enclosures pose a minimal impact on the environment and enable the flow of natural water currents. Our fish dont breathe the same water twice, Diaz points out. The natural habitat allows Open Blue to supply the market with fish that have been raised in their natural habitat. In essence, they are raised in the wild. Benefits extend to the sustainability but also a clean buttery taste that is second to none. The farming location several miles into the sea signifies no competitive threat to the independent fishermen who make a living from their catch closer to land. Moreover, ocean farming removes the negative effects of other forms of fishing such as trawling, in which nets indiscriminately scoop up marine life beyond the target species and often cause damage to reefs and other elements of the oceans ecosystem. Responsible agriculture represents the best way to feed the world, he says. We are showing that one can invest and make a profit while being respectful of the environment and the community. Diaz initiated his career after graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with his undergraduate degree. Upon returning to Panama, he first entered banking and later joined the wealth management business. In 2012, he co-founded his own financial services company and began investing in initiatives for ocean preservation, including taking an ownership stake in Pristine Oceans S.A., a startup with the goal of launching an offshore fish farm. Meanwhile, leadership at Open Blue, an ocean farming startup in Puerto Rico at the time, had been considering Panama as an ideal location. A merger seemed natural, and the two companies came together in 2009. They had the experience and we had the installations and the fish in the water, Diaz explains. It was a simple merger and it made sense. The following year, Diaz enrolled in Miami Herberts dual MSPM/MBA program, attaining a Master of Science in Professional Management in 2011 and an MBA in 2012. The program, designed for executives and professionals in Latin America, allowed him the flexibility to attend school without needing to relocate. He attended classes on campus in two-week intervals every two months and a half, enabling him to return to his work and home in Panama and maintain his schedule as a business owner. In this program, I always kept working. I always had fresh information to apply to my day-to-day business, he says. He recalls presenting Open Blue as the subject of his final project for his MBA Global Entrepreneurship class, taught by Professor of Professional Practice Joseph Ganitsky. The project gave him an opportunity to envision the next phase of the company by preparing financial and marketing plans. He also highlights the value of faculty and speakers with real-life experiences in the field. It was much more than just reading a textbook, he says. Listening to other peoples examples and experiences from their businesses helped me understand that we need to work in an integrated way with the community and with our employees. The ocean conservationist calls Open Blue the most important project that I have been involved in from a sustainability standpoint. Today, the company continues to grow as a leader in the industry, serving as the largest supplier of cobia to the United States. Heavy emphasis on research and developmentOpen Blue has a long-standing relationship with Dr. Daniel Benetti and his aquaculture group at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at UMallows for continued innovation in areas such as optimized feeds for the fish, sustainable packaging, and new products like the recently launched cobia burger. For Diaz, efforts come down to raising a healthy fish in a responsible, sustainable way. Among the principles that he lives by, dont only focus on whether you make money or not, he advises. You have to feel a connection to the business beyond the bottom line and you want that connection to consist of knowing that you are doing something that is meaningful. Diaz also cites work-life balance as a critical element of true success. Among quality time with his wife and children, 4 and 1, and a third on the way, he enjoys getaways to the beach, where he can again be in contact with his passion for the ocean. Fire Protection Publications director Craig Hannan elected NAC Chairman Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Manager, CEAT Marketing and Communications | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu The Election of Officers for the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) National Advisory Committee (NAC) was held in Washington, D.C., on April 8. Fire Protection Publications (FPP) Director Craig Hannan was elected NAC chairman, effective immediately. This will be a one-year term, and can serve up to a maximum of two consecutive terms. Previously, Hannan served as the vice chair of the NAC for two consecutive one-year terms beginning in 2020. Craig Hannan, director of Fire Protection Publications, was recently elected NAC Chairman. Established in 1989, CFSI is designed to educate members of Congress about the needs and challenges of our nations fire and emergency services to help them understand how the federal government can support the needs of local first responders. Composed of 38 trade groups, issue organizations and professional associations including the leading fire service organizations in the country, the NAC provides a forum where the national fire organizations conduct discussions and develop consensus on important national fire and emergency services issues. CFSI is an outstanding organization that works tirelessly for the betterment of the fire service, Hannan said. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to support CFSI and its mission. Hannan received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1998, and his Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma State University in 2005. Hannan started his career at FPP in 1998 as an accountant. In 2003, he became a project coordinator and in 2005 became the chief operating officer/controller. In 2009, Hannan became the director of FPP. FPP is an extension unit in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU, and is the worlds leading publisher of training materials for the fire and emergency services. FPP serves as the headquarters for the International Fire Service Training Association. IFSTA is an association of fire service personnel who are dedicated to upgrading fire fighting techniques and safety through the development of high-quality, peer-validated training materials. "Craig continues to have a significant impact on our national fire service," said Ed Kirtley, assistant dean of Engineering Extension. "His experience at OSU, and his broad perspective of the fire service from his work at Fire Protection Publications, will serve him well in this position. We are proud that a member of the OSU family is in a leadership role at this national level." Health authorities on Monday reported 613 new Covid-19 infections, a further drop from the day before.It is also the fourth straight day that the city has logged fewer than 1,000 new cases.Of the new infections, 316 were detected by PCR tests, and 297 were reported by those who took self-tests.13 of the cases were imported, including one picked up at a community testing centre 12 days after the patients arrival.The Centre for Health Protections Albert Au said he believes the infection involving a 10-year-old girl is a re-positive case as she had a low viral load, and her family members had tested negative for the virus.Asked whether there is a need to extend the seven-day quarantine period for incoming travellers to 14 days, Au said he believes the current arrangement is safe as most imported infections are picked up shortly after their arrival.Separately, officials said they are banning flights from Istanbul to Hong Kong operated by Turkish Airlines for one week until April 25, after four passengers on a flight tested positive for Covid on arrival.They said Malaysia Airlines would also be barred from operating flights from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong for a week, as four passengers on a flight did not comply with infection control rules.Meanwhile, health authorities reported 20 more deaths of people with Covid, including 17 patients who passed away in public hospitals in the past 24 hours.In all, the fifth wave has seen more than 1.18 million infections and 8,946 deaths.Officials said while the daily infection figures have been falling slowly, there is a chance that the virus situation may rebound slightly after the Easter holidays.______________________________General Covid-19 situation: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/ Covid-19 testing: https://www.communitytest.gov.hk/en/ Community testing notice: https://bit.ly/3ivX2Ce Community Clinics for Covid-19 patients: https://bit.ly/3q3tz6G RAT reporting platform: https://www.chp.gov.hk/ratp/ Vaccination programme: https://www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/sen/ Vaccination pass scheme: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/vaccine-pass.html Hotline for Covid-positive patients: 1836 115 Six sentenced to death in Pakistan for mob killing A total of 88 people were convicted of the slaying, and detained at the Kot Lakhpat prison, on the outskirts of Lahore. Photo: AP A Pakistan court on Monday sentenced six men to death and dozens more to jail terms ranging from two years to life for the brutal mob slaying of a Sri Lankan factory manager accused of blasphemy. The vigilante attack in Sialkot last December 3 caused outrage, with then prime minister Imran Khan calling it a "day of shame for Pakistan". Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests and incite lynchings. On Monday, prosecutors said 88 of 89 people on trial for the murder of Priyantha Diyawadana had been convicted, with six sentenced to death, seven to life in prison and the rest jail terms ranging from two to five years. "The prosecution team worked very hard to present its case to the court and to reach this judgement," said Abdul Rauf Wattoo, the lead public prosecutor. "We are satisfied with the outcome." The trial was overseen by a special anti-terror court, established to speed up justice in high profile cases that can otherwise spend years being processed. At the time of the killing, local police officials said rumours had spread that Diyawadana had torn down a religious poster and thrown it in the dustbin. Several gruesome video clips shared on social media showed a mob beating the prone victim while chanting slogans against blasphemy. Other clips showed Diyawadana's body set ablaze. Many in the mob made no attempt to hide their identity and some took selfies in front of the burning corpse. Rights groups say accusations of blasphemy can often be wielded to settle personal vendettas, with minorities largely the target. In April 2017 an angry mob lynched university student Mashal Khan when he was accused of posting blasphemous content online. A Christian couple was lynched and their remains burnt in a kiln in Punjab in 2014 after being falsely accused of desecrating the Koran. (AFP) The UAEs latest policies supporting local industry are already creating significant value within the manufacturing ecosystem, according to Eng Jamal Salem Al Dhaheri, Chairman of Ducab. The company is one of the UAE-based companies championing Made in the Emirates industrial products on the global stagenow serving 45 markets worldwide. Al Dhaheris comments come close on the heels of the recent remark by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, that the UAE will focus on growing its industrial sector and achieve a larger degree of self-sufficiency in the next 10 years. Sheikh Mansours vision was presented during the World Government Summit and complements the Operation 300bn industrial strategy announced in 2021. Vital contribution Today, the UAEs industrial sector makes a vital contribution to the countrys economic growth and diversification. But as seen in the initiatives put forward by senior government leadership this week, we are a country that never stands still, says Al Dhaheri. Recent industrial strategies continue to be supported through progressive policies on everything from local entrepreneurship to product certifications, materials sourcing, and local skills training. Cooperation between government entities and national industrial champions will remain a decisive factor in the accelerated development of the UAEs industrial landscape, adds Al Dhaheri. Each day we must look at ways to emphasise product innovation, the application of advanced technology, and upholding the highest safety and quality standards. These must remain the hallmarks of Made in the Emirates industrial products and be upheld consistently across the industrial landscape. Value creation This approach will not just lead to economic benefits, but value creation in other areas too. In addition to being a more economically diverse nation, UAE industrial leaders are putting forward innovative ideas that generate positive social and environmental impact in their fields. These investments include a transformation in the way that we use, recycle, and repurpose materials to reduce our climate impact and build a more sustainable tomorrow, Al Dhaheri says. Many fear that the deep polarisation cultivated by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan could prove deeply destabilising for the country, pushing it into greater political turmoil that the new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is known more for his skills as an administrator than a charismatic leader, might be unable to contain, The Guardian reported. In recent days, the inflammatory rallying cry of Khan, who has gone back on the campaign trail with gusto, has been "ghaddari" traitors with anyone opposing him, be it his political parties, the media, activists, intellectuals and the judiciary being tarnished as part of a "foreign conspiracy" to oust him. Pervez Hoodbhoy, an analyst who has extensively written on Khan, called the former PM "a true populist". "Khan has polarised Pakistan to an extreme level. The coming days will be chaotic as his insatiable lust for power makes him truly dangerous for this country," said Hoodbhoy. Evoking popular anti-western sentiment that he has played on for the past four years in office, Khan has continued to push the narrative that the no-confidence vote which ousted him was a "foreign conspiracy" by the west, citing diplomatic correspondence with the US to prove it. On the streets of cities and towns across Pakistan, the narrative that Khan was victim of a western conspiracy has been powerful and pervasive, and thousands have continued to come out in protest in support of him, The Guardian reported. Reema Omer, a lawyer who was victim to a lengthy online trolling campaign by Khan's supporters, said Khan is creating a wave of public anger that could prove difficult to control. "This narrative is based on no evidence whatsoever and has repeatedly been debunked. However, Imran Khan is following Goebbels' playbook, using convenient lies' that evoke strong emotions and spew hatred and contempt, not caring about how dangerous the effects can be for the society," said Omer. With Khan expected to contest the next general election, which is likely to be called before the end of the year, many are predicting a volatile time ahead for Pakistan. "I wasn't dangerous when I was in government. But I will be now," Khan said on Wednesday while addressing a rally. --IANS san/arm ( 386 Words) 2022-04-18-20:42:16 (IANS) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 18 (ANI/BusinessWire India): upGrad, Asia's higher EdTech major with a strong presence across the APAC doubles down on the Vietnam region to address the strong local demand for digital-first education, as the country heads towards Industry 4.0. The Edtech major has recently appointed Ex-OYO Dushyant Dwibedy as the Vietnam Country Head with a mandate to build a strong local team, initiate corporate and university partnerships, and also to build long-lasting learning outcomes for the Vietnamese workforce. "Ambition levels in Vietnam are soaring and we want to be at the heart of making career-changing courses as also being the LifeLongLearning partner for students and working professionals. Outside of our offerings in certification, diplomas, degrees, and doctorates, we also see a large market for our upGrad Abroad initiative as Vietnam is one of the larger markets for aspiring locals looking to go overseas for higher education," clarifies Dushyant Dwibedy. Vietnam has over 1.5 million people joining the workforce every year, adding to its attractive market size for Lifelong Learners and those requiring in-depth subject knowledge and cutting-edge skill sets for all the careers of tomorrow. Commenting on the same, Zubin Gandevia, CEO - APAC, upGrad said, "We are assembling an advisory board here in Vietnam, forging strong partnerships with universities, and working on making all that we do very affordable, accessible, and career-changing for our learners. Vietnam offers very interesting opportunities and hence, our local and targeted focus will yield great results." "For upGrad, more than 35% of our revenues will come from the International markets and therefore, our country-wise local focus is the way to go forward, as we contribute to the overall 1.3 billion global knowledge workers looking to fast forward their careers in this decade," concluded Mayank Kumar co-founder & MD upGrad while commenting on the all-encompassing growth plan to penetrate deeper into the region. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 18 (ANI/ NewsVoir): Showering their gratitude and devotion towards Lord Shri Kashi Vishwanath at Varanasi, the TNT Chettiar family members from Kuliparai Village, in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu, offered a five-headed Nagabharanam (serpent ornament, where the Shiva Linga will be placed between the coil of the five-headed serpent) as a humble donation to the temple. Weighing 15 KGS and 12 GMS, this handcrafted intrinsic and artistic sculpture of serpent ornament is created out of pure silver metal and will adorn the Shiva Linga at Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, beginning Chitra Pournami (the full moon day), on April 16, 2022. Speaking on the divine offering, the TNT Chettiar family said, "When the officials of the Kashi Vishwanath temple approached us through Nattukottai Nagarathar Trust for replacement of the earlier donated Nagabharanam, our happiness knew no bounds. We were truly overwhelmed with the divine call and felt blessed. We commissioned this divine project to Purnima Silver Wares, Mylapore, Chennai, the experts in the field, who, with their highly skilled craftsmanship and precision in work delivered a classic antique silver Nagabharanam. In all humility and gratitude, we handed over this silver Nagabharanam to the temple management on April 16, 2022, on the auspicious occasion of Chitra Pournami, for the temple priests to begin the customary evening pooja and bhog aarathi for the Shiva Linga, adorned with flowers and the new silver Nagabharana." Expressing his delight on being offered this artful project, Alagu Chidambaram Muthiah of Purnima Silver Wares said, "Since it is not a regular project, but a once-in-a-lifetime divine commission, our skilled team of craftsmen took extra care all through the process of creating the Silver Nagabharana for the World-renowned Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple. A two-member team initially visited the temple at Varanasi to take exact measurements at the temple's sanctum sanctorum, and with all the specifications and details on hand, began work in right earnest. It took us 4 months to create the replica of the Nagabharanam in pure silver metal. Today, we are extremely happy and blessed about the outcome of our craftsmanship and eventually our client's satisfaction. We hope this is the beginning of many more such divine and soulful projects for us." This story is provided by News Voir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) New Delhi [India], April 18 (ANI/PNN): The beauty and wellness industry shall witness a revolution with Power-Couple Amit Agarwal and Dimple Agarwal's latest offering to the country! The power-couple's beauty and wellness brand Wellness Language is all set to disrupt the Indian markets with its first product. Wellness Language's 10,000 mg Collagen drink is one of a kind! The beauty super-drink is enriched with the most powerful variant of Collagen i.e. 10,000 mg & a unique blend of ingredients, which cannot be found currently in the Indian marketplaces. The Agarwal power-couple figured out the need-gap of the consumers through extensive research, paving the way for the unique product. On the formulation, Amit Agarwal, founder, of Wellness Language, adds, "Firstly, we are duly committed to providing world-class products to the Indian masses. After extensive research, we realised that our countrymen are deprived of a powerful super-drink that can enhance their body functions and appearance which encouraged us to bring this formulation to the country. Daily consumption of our Collagen drink for 90 days shall doubly enhance skin texture, reduce wrinkles, and improve joint muscles, helps in reducing unwanted fat and much more!" Dimple Agarwal, the Co-Founder of Wellness Language, adds, "Wellness Language comes with a tagline of 'redefining beauty.' In today's times, wherein people have realised the eminence of skincare, fitness, weight management, they want the best for themselves and their families. Our Collagen super-drink is one of its kinds and the first-ever 10,000 mg formulation shall definitely be a boon for beauty and fitness enthusiasts." Wellness Language's 10,000 mg Collagen drink is here to benefit the Indian masses. With the launch of the same, the brand is all set to become a pioneer of world-class beauty and wellness products in the Indian diaspora. Headquartered in Hyderabad, Wellness Language is already a go-to brand for top dermatologists and nutritionists in the country. Wellness Language's Collagen drink along with all their products is formulated after extensive research, is skin-friendly and is FSSAI approved. Amit Agarwal and Dimple Agarwal are dedicated to their commitment to providing best-in-class products to their countrymen and have an array of products that shall be launched in the near future. One can easily follow their account @wellnesslanguage on Instagram & website www.wellnesslanguage.com to stay updated with the best in the beauty and wellness industry. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 18 (ANI/NewsVoir): WEConnect International hosted a forum that included US Ambassador Kelly Keiderling, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka from the US Department of State's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), delegates from the US Embassy to India multinational business leaders and roughly 200 women-owned businesses across South Asia. The event provided a platform to discuss opportunities for women-owned businesses to gain greater access to markets and finance. The forum was part of WEConnect International's "Women's Empowerment Through Economic Inclusion" project funded by the US SCA. The 3-year project focuses on generating long-term opportunities for women-owned businesses to connect and conduct business with large buyers, including local and multinational corporations, government agencies, and non-profit and non-governmental organizations in India, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. "When a woman participates in the economy her community develops and health and education improve, too," said Ambassador Keiderling. "Private companies play a crucial role in advancing women's economic empowerment." "We recognize that an investment in women and girls is an investment in our future prosperity," said Drew Schufletowski, Minister Counselor for Economics, Energy, Science andTechnology (EEST), U.S Embassy-Delhi, India. "As an Indo-Pacific nation ourselves, the United States wants to be your partner in empowering women and women owned businesses, achieving inclusive growth, and creating sufficient opportunities for all our citizens to prosper." Recently, Ten of WEConnect International member organizations have collectively committed to source at least USD 22.4 billion in goods and services by 2025 from companies with diverse ownership, with a focus on women-owned firms. Representing some of the largest companies in the world, the member buyers - Diageo, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Kyndryl, Logitech, Moody's, P&G, Sanofi and Unilever - each specifically noted the importance of buying from women-owned businesses to drive business growth, as well as the value of working with WEConnect International to identify suppliers that are verified women-owned businesses. "It was exciting to see women-owned businesses at the forum learn how to conduct business with large corporations, understand the procurement process and relevant opportunities, and connect with banking institution offering access to finance for growth," said Elizabeth A. Vazquez, CEO and Co-founder of WEConnect International. "Providing an opportunity for women business owners to network with WEConnect International member buyers is a unique experience that helps fuel business success." Forum participants included global business leaders from IBM and Unilever, who provided insights on how women-owned businesses can best work with their respective markets. Additionally, executives from India's Standard Chartered Bank, City Bank and Hatton National Bank led breakout sessions to discuss access to finance. Some of the local women-owned businesses that participated in the forum included K-Nomics Techno Solutions Private Limited, Babies Bloom Store, Astu Eco, and FiveS Digital. WEConnect International is a global non-profit that helps women-owned businesses compete in the global marketplace through capacity development and connections to large buyers seeking women suppliers. This story is provided by News Voir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 18 (ANI/NewsVoir): Network for People of Construction, CLUBNPC, the non-profit organisation of Construction, Real estate and infrastructure industry organised its first annual conference, AAGAAZ 2022 in Pune. The Conference highlighted the issues of the industry and articulated the views and concerns of the industry. CLUBNPC is an initiative to bring all the key stakeholders of the construction industry on a single platform ranging from architects, interior designers, engineers, builders, and contractors. 'CLUBNPC' is the focal point and platform for the Construction industry professionals to network, communicate and support each other on the issues that impact the businesses. It has grown in strength and credibility as a reliable entity with over 3500+ professionals across the country and is growing strength to strength. It has a strong presence in all four zones of the country. CLUBNPC has also emerged as a huge knowledge-sharing platform and organised more than 100 workshops for professionals to build new relationships and establish connections with like-minded professionals. Speaking on the occasion, Yogesh Jagatramka, President CLUBNPC said, "It is a moment of great pride for us to organise our first event. We would like to make CLUBNPC to be voice of India's construction industry. From influencing policy to encouraging debate, engaging with policy makers, CLUBNPC would articulate the views and concerns of industry. Its key purpose is to build a strong relationship with members of construction fraternity." Renowned Architect Ravi Gadre was the Chief Guest during the occasion. In his address, he highlighted that architects should build according to the need of the customers. The event was attended by construction industry luminaries including Ar. Pradeep Giri, Er. Sameer Deodhar, Er. Rohan Karkare, Ar. Omkar Samudra, Dr. Yogesh Kumar, ID Rajni Shinde, NPC Club President - ID Yogesh Jagatramka, Vice President - Ar. Karan Arora, Secretary - ID Amit Shah, Ar. Rohit Jain Mohammad Parvez, Ashish Bughra, ID Ritu Marwah, Mayur Mangal and others were present on the occasion. The experts from across the country including builders, architects, interior designers, PMC engineers, contractors, suppliers and manufacturers attended the event. The winners of the design competition held across the cities were also awarded at the occasion. The event witnessed the signing of no of MoUs (Memorandum of understanding) along with panel discussions, experts' sessions, cultural events and followed by the oath to make CLUBNPC as the industry's voice and build it as a strong fraternity. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) As per data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), India exported sugar to 121 countries across the world during the financial year ended March 2022. Sugar export has increased by 291 per cent since Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government came into power in 2014. In 2013-14, sugar exports stood at $1.17 billion. This rose to $4.6 billion in 2021-22, which is 291 per cent higher when compared with the exports during 2013-14. During 2021-22, sugar exports surged by 64.90 per cent year-on-year despite logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic in the form of high freight rates and container shortages, among others. India is the world's second-largest sugar producer after Brazil. Since 2010-11, India has consistently produced surplus sugar, comfortably exceeding the domestic requirements. The record exports would enable the sugar producers to reduce their stocks and would also benefit the sugarcane farmers, as the increased demand for Indian sugar is likely to improve their realisations, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement. In 2021-22 (April-February), India exported sugar worth of $769 million to Indonesia, followed by Bangladesh ($561 million), Sudan ($530 million) and UAE ($270 million). Somalia, Saudi Arab, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nepal, China, USA, Singapore, Oman, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Germany, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Israel, Russia and Egypt were the major importers of Indian sugar during the year. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka account for nearly 80 per cent of the total sugar production in the country. The other major sugarcane-producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana, and Punjab. (ANI) On a special request of the Haryana government, the Delhi fire services sent its firefighters for the operation. "We are having some trouble with water, will solve this problem. Fire fighting operation is underway," Delhi Fire Service official Om Prakash Kataria said. Kataria further informed that since it was a Sunday, there was no one at the factory. "Locals told us that due to Sunday no one was present at the factory," he said. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Further details are awaited. (ANI) Delhi Police has arrested a total of 21 people and apprehended 2 juveniles in case of a communal violence that erupted during a Shobha Yatra procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in the national capital, officials said on Sunday. The accused were identified as Salim alias Chikna (36), Zahid (20), Anshar (35), Shahjad (33), Mukhtyaar Ali (28), Mohd. Ali (18), Amir (19), Aksar (26), Noor Alam (28), Md. Aslam (21), Zakir (22), Akram (22), Imtyaz (29), Mohd. Ali (27), Ahir (37), Sheikh Saurabh (42), Suraj (21), Neeraj (19), Suken (45), Suresh (43) and Sujeet Sarkar (38), all residents of Jahangirpuri. Apart from them, two juveniles were also apprehended. Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said three firearms and five swords have also been recovered from the possession of the arrested persons. The accused were booked under sections 147 (Punishment for rioting), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon),149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 436 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.), 307 (Attempt to murder), 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 27 of the Arms Act. The clashes broke out between the two groups of people when the Shobha Yatra procession was passing through the road just next to Kusal Cinema Hall, on the opposite side of which is a mosque. As per several videos of the procession accessed by IANS, people can be seen wielding swords and chanting religious slogans just before the clashes broke out. According to the FIR lodged at the Jahangirpuri police station, the Shobha Yatra procession was passing off peacefully, but at around 6 p.m., when it reached outside a mosque, the accused Anshar came there with his 4-5 associates and started arguing with the participants of Shobha Yatra. The argument soon turned violent and both the sides started pelting stones at each other. "I, Inspector Rajiv Ranjan Singh, tried to pacify the situation and separated the two groups, however, within some time, they again started pelting stones after which I informed the Police Control Room about the development," read the FIR. Soon after this, more police force reached the spot along with senior officials, however, by that time the mob had turned completely violent. The mob pelted stones on the police force and also fired shots at them. At least 8 policemen were injured.To contain the situation and disperse the crowd, the police fired 40-50 tear gas shells. Amid the pandemonium, one scooty was torched and 5-6 cars were vandalised. The police normalised the situation with the help of paramilitary forces and at around 8 p.m. in the evening the situation was under control, yet tense. Later, the area became the epicentre of the heavy police deployment, with the road, where the violent clashes took place, extensively barricaded from all sides. On Sunday, the situation was under control and an adequate number of police force was deployed there to avert any untoward incident. The police said that area domination, foot patrolling and deep deployment has been ensured to assure people and to maintain law and order in the area. Special Commissioner of Police, Dependra Pathak, said that the Police in Delhi is currently on the top level of alertness. "Our priority is to curtail rumours," the senior police officer said while speaking to reporters. Meanwhile, the personnel of Delhi Police carried out preventive patrolling and area domination throughout the night in the backdrop of violent clashes. Delhi Police is also in talks with the members of the Aman committee. During the meeting, all the members were asked to appeal to the public in their areas to maintain peace, harmony and tranquility. "They were also requested to counter any rumour or misinformation, be vigilant towards the activities of any mischievous and anti-social elements, to keep in touch with police and to ensure immediate reporting of any thing suspicious that comes into their notice," a senior official said. --IANS uj/pgh ( 731 Words) 2022-04-17-23:02:02 (IANS) As per the data shared by Chief Executive Officer of Assam State Disaster Management Authority GD Tripathi, in the last three days (i.e. from April 14, 2022) 22 districts have reported storm and lightning incidents in 80 Revenue Circles spanning over 1,410 villages impacting 95,239 people. "Total of 20 deaths have been reported during this season due to storms and lightning, of which 19 deaths were reported in April (till April 17) and one in the last week of March. Notably, an ex-gratia payment to the next of kin of deceased persons has been initiated and it will be completed soon. Reportedly, 3,011 houses are fully damaged (Katcha= 2,974; Pacca=37) and 19,256 houses (Katcha=17,713; Pacca=1,543) have been partially damaged till April 16. A further detailed assessment is underway on in many storm-affected Revenue Circles. So far, a total of 1,333 hectares of crop area damage has also been reported from the districts. Circle level task forces constituted by the Government for damage assessment have started a detailed damage assessment process and verification for speedy disbursement of financial assistance. Further, under the Scheme for Training of Community Volunteers in Disaster Response (Aapda Mitra) community volunteers have been deputed for the distribution of tarpaulin and gratuitous relief items in order to help local circle level administration. Teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and fire and ES were also deputed for clearance of Road communication and storm debris in the affected localities with close support from the forest department. Power has been delegated to all Deputy Commissioners by the Government for speedy sanction and disbursement of Rehabilitation grants etc. to the affected populations and beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), without referring to the government for approval. Tripathi held a virtual review meeting with the Deputy Commissioners on Sunday. (ANI) Indias Jet Airways is gearing up to take to Indian skies by October 2022, Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was quoted as saying by Indian media. The Jalan-Kalrock consortium, the winning bidder for bankrupt Jet Airways, led by Dubai-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan, is also planning two-class facilities for flyers, reported India Today, citing media reports. There will be business class under which flyers will be offered free meals and other premium services. The resumption of services will come after a hiatus of more than three years, the report said, noting that Jet Airways stopped services in April 2019 after being caught up in financial trouble. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai sounded the poll bugle for the 2023 Assembly elections on Sunday and said that the party will seek a positive mandate from farmers, women and weaker sections for the good governance provided by the state government. Addressing the convention Bommai called Vijayanagar a holy land and said the BJP has declared a democratic war based on the principles of justice and positive democratic values. "Let us march ahead under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his welfare programmes. Let us march together, victory will be ours," he said. "We will seek a positive mandate from farmers, women and weaker sections for our good governance, enforcing law and order, maintaining unity and integrity of the State and nation. We will go to the people with our performance report card and win the hearts of the people. Let us make Lotus bloom in the hearts of the people and the third floor of V2023 polls.," Bommai added. Terming Modi's leadership as a great strength for the party, Bommai said, the entire world has accepted him as a great leader and we are marching ahead under his leadership to script a glorious future for the State and the country. Launching a scathing attack on Congress, Bommai said that the grand old party had no moral right to talk about Corruption. "The earlier Congress government at the Centre had attained notoriety by perpetrating 2G, 3G, Defence and Coal scams. The Congress government compromised with even the security of the country by indulging in scams in defence purchases too," Bommai said while adding that Congress worried only about power and vote bank. The Chief Minister in an attack on Congress said that the party is worried only about power and vote bank politics causing communal tension in the state. "They had lost control of the administration when in power encouraging the anti-national elements. They remained mute spectators when rioters attacked DJ Halli police station and burnt down the residence of their own party MLA," he said. "They do not want peace and harmony in society. Their vote bank politics has further emboldened the disruptive elements, Bommai said and questioned the silence of Congress leaders about the attack on the police station in Hubballi and their stand on the Hijab issue," he added. Assembly Elections in the state will be held in 2023. (ANI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday called for a change in people's mindset towards the Divyangjan community (differently-abled) and asserted that it is the responsibility of the government and society at large to prevent any kind of discrimination against them. He stressed the need for creating an environment for them to thrive and excel. "They do not need our sympathy, they rightfully deserve every opportunity to develop to their full potential", he added. The Vice President was speaking at the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEPID) in Hyderabad during his visit to the institute. Naidu appreciated NIEPID for its work in empowering persons with intellectual disabilities and their families. Underlining that accessibility is an important area of intervention for the differently-abled, Naidu noted the positive impact of the "Accessible India" campaign and called for more interventions in the areas of environment, transport, information and communication systems. Emphasising the need to make public spaces, transport and private buildings more accessible, Naidu said that it was also important to sensitise teachers and non-teaching staff in schools to the needs of the differently-abled children. Suggesting that it was important "to ensure that technology does not exclude differently-abled people", he urged national institutions and universities in India to accelerate their work relating to accessible smart technology. Naidu called for all-round efforts to make the Divyangjan people financially independent by identifying and honing their skills from a young age. Reminding that the core values of India are those of 'Sarvejana Sukhino Bhavantu' and 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', he called upon everyone - including the government, private sector, civil society and families to take initiatives to empower the differently-abled and fulfil their duty or 'dharma'. The Vice President stressed the importance of early detection and identification of children at risk for disability conditions and called for opening up more such centres such as the newly established Cross-Disability Early Intervention Service Center (CDEISC) in all states. He also suggested to NIEPID to have a tie-up with institutions like the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology for early detection of disability risk among children. He underlined the need for counselling parents in case of early detection of the risk for disabilities among children. Naidu suggested more collaboration between organisations such as NIEPID and the Centre For Cellular And Molecular Biology (CCMB) for the early detection and prevention of genetic disorders. On this occasion, Naidu expressed his appreciation for the parents of differently-abled children who motivate and provide emotional support to them. "I salute you for nurturing these special children to develop their potential to the maximum extent. You all are true embodiments of hope and unconditional love", he said. Naidu appreciated the staff and management of NIEPID and said that people working in the field of rehabilitation should do their duty as a 'mission'. He also distributed aids and appliances to a few beneficiaries. Prior to the event, the Vice President visited the Cross Disability Early Intervention Centre, and the Special Education Centre at NIEPID and also visited stalls of various organisations working in the field of disability. Rajeev Sharma, Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, B V Ram Kumar, Director, NIEPID, faculty and students of NIEPID, parents and others were present during the event. (ANI) Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Sunday late night visited a sub-inspector's residence who sustained a bullet injury during the violence in Jahangirpuri, and assured him of full support from the department. Sub-Inspector Meda Lal of Jahangirpuri Police Station had suffered the injury during the violent clashes that took place between two communities during a religious procession on April 16 evening. Asthana enquired about Lal's well-being and said that the entire Force is proud of his courage displayed at the site of violence. "CP Delhi visited Sub-Inspector Meda Lal of Police Station Jahangirpuri at his residence and enquired about his well being. CP, Delhi informed SI Meda Lal that the entire Force is proud of his courage and sense of duty, which helped in quickly controlling the unruly mob," said a statement by the Delhi police. "He assured him of all possible support and assistance from the Department during these testing times," added the statement. One more accused has been arrested in connection with clashes that broke out in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests so far to 21. Two juveniles have also been apprehended in the connection with the incident that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and a civilian. "One more accused has been arrested in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case. He is found to be previously involved in a robbery and an attempt to murder case under Jahangirpuri Police station," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North-West, Usha Rangnani. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the district police are jointly probing the incident, said Ravindra Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. Of the 20 accused persons in the case, 14 were produced before the Rohini court on Sunday, which sent two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to police custody for one day. The remaining 12 were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. (ANI) A letter petition has been filed before the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana urging him to take suo motu cognizance of the Jahangirpuri violence in Delhi. Advocate Amritpal Singh Khalsa asked the Supreme Court to exercise its epistolary jurisdiction and constitute a committee headed by a sitting judge of the top court, to conduct an impartial probe into the violence. "With this letter I beseech your lordship's attention in exercising epistolary jurisdiction, thereby constituting a committee headed by a sitting judge of this Court, to conduct an impartial probe into Jahangirpuri violence. At least, the scar as the instant one is somewhat remedied," the lawyer stated in the letter. The letter stated that the "Delhi Police investigation so far, has been partial, communal and directly shielding perpetrators of the violence." The lawyer added that the role of the Delhi Police in the 2020 riots has belittled them and has weakened the faith of the people in them. The letter stated, "This court admonished Delhi Police in their failure to stop violence in 2020." This is the second time that riots have erupted in Delhi in two years, and on both occasions, members of the minority community are only to be blamed, he added. Clashes broke out between two groups after stone-pelting incidents were reported in the Jahangirpuri area on Saturday evening. Delhi Police has registered a case and started the investigation of the incident. Of the 20 accused persons arrested in the case, 14 were produced before the Rohini court on Sunday, which sent two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to police custody for one day. The remaining 12 were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. (ANI) Kerala Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan on Sunday slammed the state intelligence department over the political murders in Palakkad and alleged that there was an intelligence failure to report the conspiracy behind the two murders. "Attempts are being made in Kerala for communal polarization. The victims are ordinary people and the conspirators are laughing. The intelligence system in Kerala has failed miserably," Satheesan told the mediapersons in Kochi. "It is a premeditated conspiracy to commit murder. Their very existence depends on the violence perpetrated by the other side," he added. Satheesan further said that the state government has not been able to contain the communal forces. He also said that the government and the home department have failed miserably in this regard. The current conflict is being deliberately created by the communal forces to create polarization in the political and social life of Kerala, he added The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are mutually hostile enemies. The survival of both groups lies in the violence that ensues, he further said. "The mainstream political parties and the Kerala public should take these political murders very seriously. All this is based on the communal appeasement policies pursued by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the name of social engineering," he alleged. "The police are unable to take strong action against them. The police are not prepared to take any action, including detention, against those who declare murder against each other. Even those who are led by communal organizations cannot escape responsibility for the killings. They are also partners in the conspiracy," he further alleged. Earlier on Saturday, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker was hacked to death in Palakkad, informed the officials. The deceased was identified as Sreenivasan, a former Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh. Sreenivasan was hacked at a shop by a group of people. The Bharatiya Janata Party accused PFI of the murder. Earlier, a Popular Front of India (PFI) worker Subair (43) was hacked to death in Palakkad on Friday. PFI had blamed the RSS for the murder. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted to the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and directed him to surrender within a week. A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana set aside the Allahabad High Court which granted bail to Ashish Mishra. The top court held that the Allahabad High Court order is not sustainable. The top court also observed that victims were not heard while considering the bail plea of Ashish Mishra in Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court remanded the matter back to the Allahabad High Court to hear the issue afresh. Earlier, on April 4, a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana had reserved the order after hearing all the parties. Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government had said that it is a grave offence but accused Ashish Mishra is not a flight risk. He further submitted that it is a serious case as five people have died. "It is a matter of trial," he said. The apex court was hearing a plea seeking the cancellation of bail of Ashish Mishra, who is the son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, granted by the Allahabad High Court on February 10. The SC-appointed committee has recommended preferring the appeal to cancel the bail of Ashish Mishra. During the hearing, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for petitioners, had urged the Supreme Court should set aside the order of the Allahabad High Court granting bail to Mishra. Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Ashish Mishra, justified the Allahabad High Court order. Senior Advocate Jethmalani had submitted that all witnesses are under police protection and there is no possibility of witness tampering. He had also apprised the Court that the state has vehemently opposed the bail plea of Ashish Mishra in Allahabad High Court. Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for petitioners, had submitted that the order of Allahabad HC suffered from complete non-application of mind. Earlier, in an affidavit, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court that the state has taken all efforts to protect the witnesses and families of victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. The state government had told the Supreme Court that all the witnesses are regularly contacted by the police for appraisal of their security conditions. The submission of Uttar Pradesh came in an affidavit, replying to the petition seeking to cancel bail to Ashish Mishra. Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court it had opposed the bail plea of Ashish Mishra in the Allahabad High Court and the submission of the petition that the State did not effectively oppose the bail application of the accused Ashish Mishra is completely untrue. In the earlier hearing advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said that one of the prime protected witnesses was brutally attacked, a few days after bail was granted to Ashish Mishra. Family members of the victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order, which granted bail to Ashish Mishra. In the Special Leave Petition, family members of the deceased challenged the Allahabad High Court order dated February 10, 2022, wherein Ashish Mishra was granted regular bail. The petitioner said that the Allahabad HC order is unsustainable in law. They also said that they have approached the Apex Court as the State of Uttar Pradesh has failed to prefer any appeal against the impugned order. Ashish Mishra was released from jail in February followed by Allahabad High Court granting him bail. Eight people, including four farmers, died in violence on October 3, 2020, in Lakhimpur Kheri. Earlier, the Supreme Court had appointed a committee headed by retired Punjab and Haryana high court judge Rakesh Kumar Jain to monitor the probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. (ANI) Amid the demands for the Cabinet expansion ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections next year, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said that a meeting on the matter will be held in New Delhi in which the party high command will take the decision. Speaking to the reporters, Bommai said, "The BJP president JP Nadda has stated that a meeting will be held in Delhi. The party high command will take a call on Cabinet expansion or reshuffle." Earlier on Sunday, during his two-day visit to the state, Nadda held a meeting with the state core committee of the party in the presence of the Chief Minister and discussed organisational issues. Recently, Bommai during his two-day visit to the national capital had met the party's top brass, including the national president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The cabinet expansion of the eight-month-old government has been stated to have been the top agenda during the meeting. Upon his return from New Delhi, the Chief Minister had termed his visit "successful". Notably, Bommai, who also belongs to the politically influential Lingayat community, was sworn in as the Chief Minister on July 28 last year after his predecessor BS Yediyurappa stepped down from the post. Karnataka is scheduled to go to the polls next year, for which Bommai has blown the bugle in the Vijayanagar convention on Sunday. "We will seek a positive mandate from farmers, women and weaker sections for our good governance, enforcing law and order, and nationalist agenda. We will go to the people with our performance report card," Bommai said. (ANI) Hailing the Supreme Court's ruling to cancel the bail granted to Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday said that he has faith in the judiciary and hoped that farmers will soon get justice. Speaking to ANI in Muzaffarnagar, Tikait said, "The Supreme Court felt that the facts were not presented by the Uttar Pradesh government, hence cancelled the bail plea. We have trust in the judiciary and hope that in coming times farmers will get justice." BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has assured a fair trial in the case. "The court had granted him bail and today the court has cancelled it. Judiciary works independently. Uttar Pradesh CM has assured a fair trial in this case," said Yadav. Kin of a farmer who died in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence thanked the Supreme Court for taking the 'right decision' and expressed full faith in the judiciary, hoping that the culprits shall be punished. Jagdeep Singh, son of a deceased farmer said, "I'm thankful to the court for taking the right decision. We've full trust in the judiciary as it will punish culprits no matter if anyone is a Union minister's son or not." "I thank SC for giving justice. I also thank the lawyers for putting the case strongly. Our trust in the judiciary has been further increased," said Pawan Kashyap, Brother of deceased journalist Raman Kashyap while lauding the court's decision. The apex court today cancelled the bail granted to the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and directed him to surrender within a week. A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana set aside the Allahabad High Court which granted bail to Ashish Mishra. The top court held that the Allahabad High Court order is not sustainable. The top court also observed that victims were not heard while considering the bail plea of Ashish Mishra in Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court remanded the matter back to the Allahabad High Court to hear the issue afresh. Eight people, including four farmers, died in violence on October 3, 2020, in Lakhimpur Kheri, in which Ashish Mishra is a prime accused. (ANI) Amid a steep rise in fuel prices, members of auto, taxi and cab drivers' associations went on a two-day strike against the CNG price hike, starting from Monday and demanded the government to hold a meeting with them in the next two hours failing which they would launch an indefinite strike. Speaking to ANI, General Secretary of Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh, Rajendra Soni said due to the price hike in CNG, people are paying extra from their pockets. "Delhi's Transport Minister did not call us in the conversation. We even wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on March 30 but there is no response. CNG has become costlier and touched Rs 72 today. People have to pay Rs 350 when they used to pay Rs 100-150 for travelling some kilometres distance," Soni said. "We are sorry for the inconvenience to passengers but we are also compelled. If the government holds a meeting in the next two hours, we will withdraw the strike," he noted. Inderjit Singh, President, Capital Transport Panchayat said, "We pay an extra Rs 450 for CNG every day which is more than 12 thousand in a month. Who will compensate for this?" he raised the question to the government. Pradeep, auto driver, "We are going on strike from April 18 to 19. If the government does not listen to us, then we will sit on strike indefinitely." Sandeep Kumar, a taxi driver said CNG rates are increasing. In a month around Rs 30-32 per Kg has been increased. "The price of CNG is increasing every day for the past 18-20 days. There has been an increase of about 30 rupees in a month itself. The government is pushing Ola and Uber people forward, but no one is listening to us," Kumar said. "We are going on strike under compulsion, if the government wants to talk today, we can withdraw the strike," he added. (ANI) Following the violence that erupted in the Bhagwanpur area of Haridwar during a religious procession on Saturday, a police official said that 11 people have been arrested so far while also asserting that the situation is now peaceful. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Yogendra Singh, told ANI that sufficient force has been deployed in the village. "Eleven people have been arrested. Sufficient force is present in the village. Meetings are being held with the people. The situation is peaceful," he said. Meanwhile, the procession in the village was being conducted on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti when the incident reportedly occurred in the late-night hours leaving numerous people injured. "Stones were pelted by unknown persons and the search operations have begun to arrest the miscreants. Yes, injuries have been reported but no police personnel was injured in the incident. Over 60 police personnel have been deployed in the area," said the SSP on Sunday. (ANI) Australian Ambassador visits projects in northwest Vietnam Delegation from the Australian Embassy in Vietnam visited Son La and Dien Bien provinces from April 12 to 15 to meet with local government leaders and farmers and businesses who are benefiting from Australian-supported projects. Ambassador Mudie meets Son La PPC's Vice Chairman Dang Ngoc Hau and Dien Bien PPC's Vice Chairman Pham Duc Toan During the mission, H.E. Ms. Robyn Mudie, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam met with small businesses in the region, including those run by ethnic minority women, to learn how Australian investments are improving livelihoods and economic opportunities. The visit reaffirmed Australias commitment to socio-economic development in the northwestern provinces as a part of its long-term partnership with Vietnam through the Gender Responsive Equitable Agriculture and Tourism (GREAT) program, an Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) project implemented by CARE International in Vietnam, and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The GREAT program is Australias most significant gender investment in Vietnam, totaling A$33.7 million. The program works with business, NGOs, and government partners to build more inclusive business and market systems within the agriculture and tourism sectors in Son La and Lao Cai provinces, to ensure that local women and ethnic minorities actively participate in and benefit from related economic activities and growth. The visit to GREATs partners included a tour of Xuan Nha Clean Bamboo Shoot Cooperative in Xuan Nha Commune, Van Ho District, and dinner with local women homestay owners in Vat Village, Moc Chau District. The delegation heard how the program has connected local community-based tourism businesses and groups to high-value markets. Despite the impact of COVID-19, the GREAT program has supported Vat Village to grow from 2 to 17 homestay businesses and become a thriving tourism destination. The program has led to increased incomes for over 6,500 women and attracted nearly A$4 million in private sector investment. Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Ms Robyn Mudie, plants young bamboo at Xuan Nha Bamboo Shoot Production and Processing Cooperative. The delegation also visited the Technologically Enhanced Agricultural Livelihoods (TEAL) project in Mai Son District, which is being implemented by CARE International in Vietnam to support ethnic minority women in remote areas to produce specialty coffee, connect with high-end markets, and achieve broad women's economic empowerment outcomes. Since 1993, ACIAR has invested around A$32 million through 20 international collaborative research projects in northwest Vietnam to develop sustainable farming systems on sloping lands, diversify agricultural products, protect natural resources, and improve farmers income. During this visit, Ambassador Mudie and the delegation met with farmers and local authorities from Dien Bien Province who have supported and participated in an ACIAR project led by the National Institute of Animal Sciences (NIAS) to develop beef cattle production. With support from the project, farmers have adopted new and effective intensification techniques to increase income and start new community-based business to improve performance in the value chains. To date, around 400 smallholder families have benefited from the projects capacity building initiatives, market linkage improvement, and more intensive production activities. By joining the collaborative projects funded by ACIAR, Dien Biens Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has improved its capacity in research, management, and leadership, which has in turn resulted in the successful development of a five-year strategy and a budget of VND 29 billion (A$1.7 million) for a market-oriented livestock development program for the province. Over the past ten years, ACIAR has invested more than A$10.5 million into agricultural research projects in Dien Bien Province to develop beef cattle production and agroforestry systems that improve the livelihoods and equity of local smallholder farmers, especially those from the ethnic minority communities. In meetings with Son La and Dien Bien Peoples Committees, the Australian Ambassador noted the multifaceted partnerships between Australia and the northwest region, discussed Australian investments, and canvassed opportunities to further strengthen ties. The partnership between Australia and the north-western provinces of Vietnam is deep and enduring. We share long-term development goals and strong people to people links, said Ambassador Mudie. Australia is committed to working in partnership, to share expertise with the region for inclusive and sustainable growth. There is anger among Muslims who said they are being wrongly accused of starting the violence. Nikita Jain | TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles NEW DELHI Situation remained tense in northwest Delhis Jahangirpuri area following communal clashes in the area in which nine people, including police personnel and one civilian, have been injured. A curfew has been imposed in the area with heavy police deployment. Residents were not allowed to move in and out. As per reports, police have arrested twenty-four accused so farall Muslim. The case is investigated by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, an official said today. On Sunday, members of right-wing groups chanted slogans like Jai Shri Ram and Pakistan Jao (Go to Pakistan) in front of the women who had assembled outside the Jahangirpuri police station to enquire about their family members who were earlier picked up by the police. Noor (name changed) had been sitting outside the same police station since morning. Her husband Zaheer was picked up by the police Saturday night. My husband was picked up from outside his shop on Saturday night. He was taken forcefully. We got a call from the police telling me that he was picked up. He has done nothing wrong. The violence didnt even take place near our home. We live in G Block, while the incident happened in C Block, she told TwoCircles.net. She alleged that the police beat them up. The police harassed us, she added. Only Muslim men named in the FIR Many Muslim men were picked up for questioning by the Delhi Police. In the first information report (FIR) filed at Jahangirpuri police station, 14 peopleall Muslimhave been named as accused. However, TwoCircles.net confirmed that 4 to 5 more men were picked up on Sunday. 60-year-old Mansuris son was picked up by the police Sunday afternoon. We do not know what to do. He was outside a restaurant at that time. The police suddenly came and picked him up. He did not do anything. This is injustice. What is the government trying to do with us? she asked. She said the family has no information about the whereabouts of their son. According to locals in the area, violence erupted on Saturday after a Shoba Yatra played songs loudly and men waved swords and pistols outside the mosque. It was in the evening that a procession was taken outside the mosque. Some people requested them to move as the prayers were about to start but they didnt budge. They had swords and pistols in their hands and they threw stones at us. Are we supposed to not do anything when they are doing this? Zohra Khan, a resident of Jahangirpuri C Block said. Another resident Aslam said that Shobha Yatra has been taking place for years but this is the first time we saw such a level of violence. Men were carrying swords, axes and pistols. I dont know when this started happening, Aslam, another resident said. Sana (name changed on request) was on her way to pick up her son from tuition when she saw the mob. I was so scared and witnessed everything in front of me. Why is this happening? How can they enter our mosques and try to wave saffron flags there? They had swords and when they were asked to leave they turned violent, she said. Meanwhile, Hindu organizations outside the Jahangirpuri Police Station claimed that it was the Muslims who started the violence. They are Rohingya Muslims living here, illegally selling drugs and doing all kinds of illegal businesses in the area. They made a mosque here. Who has given them that right? These Muslims need to be removed from here and our Hindus need to come together, a man called Guru, from a right-wing organization said. When TwoCircles.net asked police about how they are trying to handle the situation., We are waiting for orders from our superiors, an officer on duty said. There is anger among people who said that they are being wrongly accused of starting the violence. Nobody is showing the truth. We just want peace and nothing else. Everyone has the right to follow their faith. Then why are we being beaten up and harassed for following ours? Fatima, a resident, asked. Nikita Jain is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. She tweets at @nikita_jain15 On April 17, police received a specific input regarding the presence of recently joined LeT, The Resistance Front (TRF) terrorists in the orchards of Lawaypora in Bandipora. Acting on this information, a joint Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) was launched by Bandipora police including 14 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and 3 Battalion Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The LeT terrorist was identified as Amir Tariq khan, the police said. The said youth's photograph regarding joining of TRF terrorist outfit had gone viral on social media on April 13. In this regard, cognizance was taken in police station Bandipora under the relevant section of the law and further investigation was taken up, the Police added. (ANI) With India set to establish WHO Global Centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region has called it a "game-changer." Traditional medicines, she said have been around for millennia and pointed out that nearly 80 per cent of people, in 170 of 194 WHO member countries use them. "Despite their widespread use, traditional medicine lack robust evidence, data and a standard framework preventing their integration into the mainstream healthcare delivery system," Dr Singh said in an exclusive interview with ANI. "WHOs Global Centre for traditional medicine could be a game-changer by focusing on evidence and learning, data and analytics, sustainability and equity, innovation and technology to help harness the ancient wisdom and power of traditional medicine, and to advance the SDG 3 target of ensuring health and promoting wellbeing for all of all ages," she added. Dr Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus and expressed India's keenness in establishing and hosting the GCTM in India so as to harness the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through modern science and technology to improve the health of people and the planet. The Government of India last month signed the 'Host Country Agreement' with WHO for establishing WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India at Jamnagar, Gujarat, with its interim office at the Institute of Training and Research in Ayurveda in Gujarat. "Indian Government has generously agreed to support the setting up of the GCTM and its activities for the first ten years," Dr Singh said. Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic is stretching and impacting the health systems across the world, Dr Singh pointed out many countries felt the need to mobilize all available resources to recover from the pandemic and accelerate progress towards SDG 3 goals. "The emerging burden of NCDs and mental illnesses have also created a demand for integrating evidence-based traditional medicine into the healthcare delivery system to promote health and wellbeing," she said. Highlighting the objectives and mission of the global centre, she said that it will concentrate on building a solid evidence base for policies and standards on traditional medicine practices and products which will help countries integrate it as appropriate into their health systems and regulate its quality and safety for optimal and sustainable impact. "It will focus on four main strategic areas - evidence and learning; data and analytics; sustainability and equity; and innovation and technology to optimize the contribution of traditional medicine to global health and sustainable development," Dr Singh said. Noting that such a centre is first of its kind, Dr Singh said that it will focus on gathering evidence and data to inform policies, standards and regulatory frameworks for safe, cost-effective and equitable use, evidence and learning, data and analytics, build on sustainability and equity and use innovation and technology to promote cooperation and synergy between traditional medicine and modern allopathic medicine. "It will promote cooperation and synergy between traditional medicine and modern allopathic medicine so that allopathic and traditional medicines can work together integrating best features of each system, to achieve universal health care and the triple billion targets to achieve measurable impacts on people's health," she said. However, Dr Singh said that at present, there is no proposal to start any more such centres. (ANI) The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday declared Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo as an individual 'terrorist' under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as he is currently engaged in a Pakistan controlled campaign to orchestrate terror in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ministry made the announcement through a gazette notification, mentioning that Nengroo (35), a resident of Pulwama in Kashmir, has been involved in the infiltration of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir. After running a terror syndicate in Kashmir, the MHA notification states, Nengroo is now engaged in a perilous campaign to orchestrate terror in Jammu and Kashmir, remote-controlled from Pakistan. Nengroo, who is called by many aliases as Ashag Hussain Nengroo and Ashaq Moulvi, has been responsible for inflicting various terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. Nengroo had been involved in the cases related to the killing of one police personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in 2013, the killing of one civilian in 2020, and terror funding and illegal supply of weapons to terrorists. "The Jaish commander, Nengroo, poses to the security of India, and in order to deter him from perpetrating terrorism not limited to India, he shall be designated as a terrorist under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967." "And whereas, the Central Government believes that Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo is involved in terrorism and he is to be notified as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967," mentions the notification. (ANI) One more accused has been arrested in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case, said police. The total number of arrests in the case is now 22 while two juveniles have also been apprehended. "During the probe of the Jahangirpuri violence case, one more accused namely a 36-year-old Sheikh Hameed has been arrested. He is a scrap dealer. During interrogation, he disclosed that he had supplied bottles that were used for pelting during the incident," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North-West, Usha Rangnani. A total of seven accused were produced in the Rohini court on Monday. As many as 14 accused were produced before the court on Sunday. The court then sent two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - to police custody for one day. The remaining 12 were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana, while addressing a press conference on Monday, assured that action will be taken against those found guilty irrespective of their class, creed, community and religion. He also said that a close watch is being kept on social media platforms to tackle the spread of misinformation and those involved will face legal action. Talking about the investigation into the incident, Asthana said the police are doing an analysis of the CCTV footage of the incident and digital media. Three firearms and five swords have been recovered from the possession of the accused persons, said police. Speaking to ANI, Delhi's top cop said, "As of now, three firearms recovered. A forensic examination will be done on the recovery. Restrictions in the Jahangirpuri area were imposed to create a sense of safety. The police deployment will be decreased after the situation gets better." An altercation between two groups erupted during a religious procession in Delhi's Jahangirpuri on April 16 that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and one civilian. (ANI) He was received by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and State Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel at the airport. "The Prime Minister landed in Ahmedabad a short while ago. He was received by Governor @ADevvrat, CM @Bhupendrapbjp and other dignitaries," tweeted PMO India today. Prime Minister will visit the Command and Control Centre for Schools in Gandhinagar today. On April 19, at around 9:40 AM, he will dedicate to the nation and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects at Banas Dairy Sankul in Diyodar, Banaskantha. Subsequently, at around 3:30 PM, he will lay the foundation stone of WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar. On April 20, at around 10:30 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Gandhinagar. Thereafter, at around 3:30 PM, he will attend the Adijati Maha Sammelan in Dahod and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects. (ANI) Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister of Kerala, Ramesh Chennithala, alleged that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is himself putting the sword in the hands of both the communal forces. He reacted on the alleged political murders of PFI and RSS workers that happened in the Palakkad district. "Kerala has become a land of bloodshed. There have been more than 50 political murders since the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan government came to power. Murders in Palakkad are similar to the murders that happened in Alappuzha earlier. The Kerala Police is not ready to learn a lesson from any of this, "he said. 'Both communalism must be avoided. Minority communalism and majority communalism are equally dangerous. The position is that we should oppose both by seeing them as one. The CPIM adopts an approach that promotes both forms of communalism," the Congress leader said. Slamming the CPIM government in Kerala further, the Congress leader further said, "The CPIM has a history of alternately promoting both communalisms. The Chief Minister is himself putting the sword in the hands of both the communal forces. That is the reason for the increase in murders in Kerala today." "Widespread killings and violence are taking place. When you wake up in the morning, Kerala is turning into a place where you can see blood in the yard. Is the government not responsible for any of this? Not police? Not the Home Department? A passive home department is proving to be the cause of all this," he said. On April 15, a PFI leader was killed in a village near Palakkad. He was allegedly hacked to death at Elappully in the district while he was returning home after offering prayers in a mosque on Friday afternoon. A day later, on April 16, another man was hacked to death by a gang in Palakkad. He was allegedly an RSS worker who was attacked by a group of assailants at his shop in Palakkad. (ANI) AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday spoke on the Jahangirpuri clash that occurred in the national capital and said that under the rule of the Centre, as many as four clashes have taken place in the national capital. He raised questions over allegedly taking weapons during a religious procession in the national capital's Jahangirpuri area. Addressing a press conference today, Owaisi said, "Delhi is a Union Territory that is directly under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Under the current Central government's regime, however, four clashes have been carried out in the national capital. These are lawyers' protest in 2020 outside Tis Hazari court, North-East Delhi Violence in 2020, Republic Day protests by farmer unions and now, Jahangirpuri clash." Coming to prime accused Ansar's defence, Owaisi claimed that 'selective action' was being undertaken by the Delhi Police. "Ansar has been made as the made accused in the probe. That kid Ansar is being arrested. It is a selective arrest and action. I am saying this openly. Delhi police are carrying out a selective action. Ansar is not the accused, he has controlled the mob. Media channels are showing selective things," Owaisi said. The Delhi Police has claimed to have arrested Ansar, one of the conspirators of the Jahangirpuri violence in Delhi that broke out between two groups during a religious procession on Saturday evening, and 13 other suspects. According to the police, Ansar was found to be previously involved in two cases of assault. Owaisi today further claimed that the Delhi Police has arrested 14 people from the Muslim community and two have been apprehended as they are juveniles. "It is crystal clear that the government wanted violence in the national capital. Communal violence cannot take place without the government's support. Communal violence is mostly taken out from religious processions. The Centre should be held responsible for the Jahangirpuri clash. Further, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Arvind Kejriwal is busy blaming Muslims in the area. Delhi CM is double-faced. He will try to please Hindus whenever he likes," he said. Today afternoon, bricks were allegedly thrown at the Delhi Police Crime Branch team, who were probing the Jahangirpuri violence case in the area. One person has been detained in the incident. Further, on Monday morning, Delhi Commissioner of Police of North West Delhi, Usha Rangnani, informed that during the probe of the Jahangirpuri violence case, one more accused, namely a 36-year-old Sheikh Hameed, has been arrested. "He is a scrap dealer. During interrogation, he disclosed that he had supplied bottles that were used for pelting during the incident, " the police said. With this fresh arrest, 23 accused have been arrested till now in the violence case. Nine people, including police personnel and one civilian, have received injuries during the incident. The case of communal clashes in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri are being investigated by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police, an official said on Monday. (ANI) The three day 'Chintan Shivir' of Congress is likely to be held in Rajasthan's Jaipur on May 14, 15 and 16, said sources on Monday. Around 400 Congress leaders from across the country are expected to gather in the 'Chintan Shivir', in which Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, All India Congress Committee (AICC) office-bearers, former Union Ministers, State Presidents and Legislature Party leaders will be invited. Congress top leaders from across the country will discuss the reasons for the defeat of the party in the recently concluded elections as well as the upcoming strategies will be brainstormed. This 'Shivir' is very important for the future of Congress as a new Congress President is likely to be elected in a few months. However, it is not yet decided whether Rahul Gandhi will take over the reins of the party or not. At the same time, G-23, a group of dissatisfied leaders within the party, is demanding major changes in Congress and some of these leaders have questioned Rahul Gandhi's methods and his decisions. It has to be seen whether any picture is clear about the future Congress President in Jaipur Chintan Shivir or not. It is an interesting coincidence that Congress's last Chintan Shivir was held in Jaipur in 2013 in which Rahul Gandhi was made the party vice-president. Meanwhile, election strategist Prashant Kishor is planning a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in collaboration with the Congress leadership. Prashant Kishor has given Congress a roadmap to focus on about 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It is possible that the roadmap of Prashant Kishor will also be discussed in Jaipur Chintan Shivir. Assembly elections are also due in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year where the Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP. But in these states, Congress is challenged by the rising graph of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) along with the BJP. 'Chinta Shivir' is going to be organized after the defeat of the Congress in the recently concluded five state elections, the decision to organize a Chintan Shivir was taken in the CWC meeting in March. In the CWC meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had proposed a Chintan Shivir so that discussions could be held on a larger platform. Earlier there was a plan to organize this camp in the middle of April itself but now it is going to be organized with a delay of about a month. (ANI) One railway police official has been killed and two others sustained injuries in the terrorist attack in Pulwama on Monday evening, the Jammu and Kashmir Police informed. The area has been cordoned off. "#Terrorists fired upon RPF personnel at Kakapora, #Pulwama. In this #terror incident, 02 RPF personnel sustained bullet injuries and were evacuated to hospital, where 01 RPF personnel succumbed and attained #martyrdom. The area was cordoned off. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice," tweeted the Kashmir Zone Police today. Earlier in the day, the police informed that two Railway Police officials were injured in the terrorist attack in the Kakapora area of South Kashmir's Pulwama district. Further details are awaited. (ANI) The Prime Minister will also release a postage stamp and a coin on the occasion. Reddy further said that PM Modi will participate in the closing ceremony of the samagam event to recognize the sacrifice of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in the 400th Parkash Purab of Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur on April 21 at Red Fort. PM will also release a postage stamp, and a coin on the occasion," said Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. On the auspicious occasion of the 400th Prakash Gurupurab of the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, a grand event will be organized by the Government of India on April 20 and 21 in the Red Fort premises as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. On April 20, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will participate in the event. On the first day of the event a light show, and 'Kirtan' have been organised. As many as four hundred 'ragis' will perform in a 'Shabad Kirtan' to mark the auspicious occasion. The programme will be organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Guru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth Guru (April 1, 1621-November 11, 1675) of the Sikh religion. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Gujarat on Monday for his three-day visit, will inaugurate WHO Global Centre for traditional medicine at Jamnagar tomorrow. The Ministry of Ayush and the Government of Gujarat on Monday organized a curtain-raiser press conference to discuss two pertinent developments in the field of traditional medicine in India- the groundbreaking event of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) and the convening of the Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit (GAIIS). Both the events are being held in Gujarat and will be graced by the presence of PM Modi, Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth and the Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the Ministry of Ayush in an official statement. The WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, the first of its kind in the world, will be inaugurated on April 19 in Jamnagar. The Centre aims to channel the potential of traditional medicine, by integrating it with technological advancements and evidence-based research. While Jamnagar will serve as the base, the new Centre aims to engage and benefit the world. The GCTM shall focus on four main strategic areas: evidence and learning; data and analytics; sustainability and equity; and innovation and technology to optimize the contribution of traditional medicine to global health. The Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit will be held from April 20 to April 22 in Gandhinagar. The Summit aims to increase investments and showcase innovations in the field of traditional medicine. It is a unique attempt to foster long-lasting partnerships, boost exports and nurture a sustainable ecosystem. Commenting on the upcoming events, Sarbananda Sonawal, Union Minister for Ayush said, "Both the events will mark a milestone for India's Ayush industry. The Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit presents an opportunity for India to create a global market for Ayurvedic and herbal products. We are standing at the doors of a golden era, where we can capitalize on our traditional knowledge, and use it to serve the world." He added, "Global Centre for Traditional Medicine represents WHO's and India's outstanding commitment to global health. Standing at the juncture of advanced technology and ancient wisdom, the only way ahead of us is upwards." At the press conference in Rajkot, guests such as Sarbananda Sonawal, Union Minister for Ayush; Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai Kalubhai, Minister of State for Ayush; and Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, introduced the WHO Global Centre of Traditional Medicine and Global Ayush Innovation and Investment Summit (GAIIS). They discussed the key highlights of the partnership between the Ministry of Ayush and the WHO, and emphasized the importance of investment and innovations in the field of traditional medicine in the post-COVID world. The conference was also attended by Manoj Agrawal, Additional Chief Secretary, from the Health Department of the Government of Gujarat. The GCTM seeks to set policies and standards on traditional medicine products and help countries create a comprehensive, safe, and high-quality health system. Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit is an initiative to strategize India's efforts in becoming a global hub of traditional products, practices, and related services. (ANI) The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to set aside the order passed by the trial court dismissing the mutual divorce petition filed within one year of marriage. The petitioners had moved the trial court for divorce on the ground of denial of conjugal relationship by both the parties. The High court rejected the submissions of the parties that the denial of conjugal relations is such that it causes "exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity" to either or both of them. The division bench of acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh observed in the order, "We are of the view, that though denial of conjugal relationship is a ground for divorce, and tantamount to cruelty, the same cannot be said to amount to "exceptional hardship." The bench further observed, "The exception of "exceptional hardship" or "exceptional depravity" would be attracted in extenuating circumstances, and is not intended to mean, or be treated, on the same line as cruelty simpliciter." The appellant/petitioner (wife) had challenged the order passed by the family court. The marriage between the appellant and the respondent was solemnised on 4 April 2021 as per the Hindu rites and ceremonies at Ram Nagar, Uttarakhand. The appellant started living separately on April 14, 2021, in the same matrimonial home after marital differences cropped up between the couple. On July 29, 2021, the appellant left her matrimonial home and went to her parental house. "Once the Parliament, in its wisdom, has legislated that denial of cohabitation/conjugal relationship over a period of one year, or more, would be tantamount to cruelty, it cannot be said that denial of sex simpliciter within the period of one year, would be a case an exceptional hardship. Thus we reject the submission of the appellant that the denial of conjugal relation by both parties is such, that it causes "exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity" to either, or both of them," the judgment reads. The bench said, "We reject this appeal and uphold the order of the family court rejecting the application of parties filed under the proviso to Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. We reserve the right of the parties to move to the appropriate court independently, after the expiry of one year of separation." The High Court said, "The intent behind the framing of Section 13, 13B and Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act was to protect both- the individuals, as also the marriage. What the legislature has sought to address by way of divorce on the ground of cruelty, cannot be categorised as exceptional hardship or depravity so as to by-pass the well-established procedure." The family court on October 16, 2021, had dismissed the divorce petition filed by the husband and wife under Section 13B (divorce by mutual consent) for dissolution of marriage. The family court had dismissed the application under Section 14 and the petition filed under Hindu Marriage Act as it was filed before the expiry of one year from the date of marriage. (ANI) Former Assam Congress president Ripun Bora, who has joined Trinamool Congress, has said that the Congress has been witnessing infighting and only TMC can fight the BJP. "I was associated with the Congress party for nearly 40 years. I have no grievance against the Congress and its leaders. I resigned on a few policy and ideological matters," Bora told ANI. "The way BJP has grown has threatened the social fabric of the country. Congress being the grand old party should have fought the BJP but there was a lot of fighting within the party. I am convinced only TMC can fight BJP," he said. Bora resigned from Congress on Sunday and joined the TMC. He had lost the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Assam. In his resignation letter also, Bora, who was with the Congress since 1976, had pointed to infighting within the party claiming that it paved way for BJP to grow and had "demoralized" Congress workers. Bora said that instead of fighting against BJP, a section of senior leaders of Assam Congress has been maintaining a "secret understanding with BJP government mainly with the Chief Minister." He alleged that the party's "interest and ideology" are being compromised in favour of the BJP "for some vested interests of a few leaders". Bora is the second senior leader from Congress in Assam to join the Trinamool Congress in the past eight months. Former Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev joined the Congress in August last year. Congress has witnessed resignation of senior leaders in other states also. (ANI) The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Government of NCT Delhi and the Director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) to file a compliance report regarding the recruitment of doctors at IHBAS Hospital, which was allegedly facing acute shortage of 76 doctors. The bench of Justice Subramoniam Prasad on Monday after taking note of the submission said, the court understands the difficulty but in any case vacancies of doctors must be filled at the earliest. Court posted the matter for May 31, 2022, for the next date of hearing. A contempt petition was moved in Delhi High Court for initiating the contempt of proceedings against the Officers of Central/Delhi Government and Director of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) alleging for not wilfully complying with the court's directions to tackle the shortage of doctors at IHBAS. The plea was filed by lawyer and social activist Amit Sahni alleging that the order passed by Delhi High Court on September 2, 2020, asking to fill pending vacancies at IHBAS, is not being adhered to by the concerned authorities. He said in the Plea, "IHBAS, the premier mental health and neurosciences institute of the country has been suffering from an acute shortage of doctors as it is functioning with 27 doctors against the sanctioned strength of 103." The plea further stated, "The division bench had on September 2, 2020, directed the concerned respondent authorities to treat this writ petition as a representation and to look into the grievances ventilated by the petitioner in this petition in accordance with the law, rules regulations and government policies applicable to the facts of the case. Court had also said that we expect that the concerned respondent authorities shall fill up the vacancies as early as possible and practicable." The petition stated that even the Faculty Association of IHBAS (FAI) also took note of the situation on January 29, 2021, in its minutes of the meeting. They brought the grievance regarding the shortage of doctors at 23 per cent which is leading to over-burdening the existing faculty members. FAI also noted that even pursuant to the directions of the Delhi High Court to fill vacancies as early as possible, nothing has happened to date, the plea said. The National Medical Commission considering the assessment report dated August 31, 2020, declined to recommend the recognition of the DM (Neurology) Course of the Institute due to deficiencies of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, the plea said. (ANI) Four-five miscreants first threw chilli powder on the eyes of the guard, staff present in the van and held them hostage at gunpoint and looted Rs 1 crore. "As per the primary information, the employees of S&IB Company went to collect cash from a Maruti showroom on Sohna Road near Subhash Chowk when four-five miscreants came and threw chilli powder on their eyes and looted the cash at gunpoint. Further investigation is underway," said Virendra Vij, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP East), Gurugram. In the initial investigation, it was also revealed that the robbers were chasing this cash collection vehicle. Vipin, the cash collection Agent, said that they had collected the money from 10 10 such business establishments and companies since morning and over Rs 1 crore was in the van. Police said they are examining the CCTV footage obtained from the crime spot. Police said that the matter is being investigated. (ANI) The Centre on Monday asked the Kerala government to update the COVID-19 data daily. Earlier, it used to report figures after a gap of five days which impacted and skewed the status of India's key pandemic monitoring indicators like cases, deaths and positivity rate. Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal in a letter to Kerala's Principal Secretary of Health, Rajan N Khobragade, said that there is a need for continued intensive monitoring at the State and District levels to detect emerging challenges and undertake suitable steps for preparedness and management of Covid-19. "We need to continue maintaining an effective watch and take pre-emptive action to contain any imminent surge," the ministry said. "It has been observed that Kerala has reported its State-level COVID-19 data after a gap of five days (since 13 April). This has impacted and skewed the status of India's key monitoring indicators like cases, deaths, and positivity. India has reported a 90 per cent increase in new cases and a 165 per cent increase in positivity in a single day," Agarwal added. He said the Centre has regularly emphasized the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring state-wise cases and deaths on daily basis. Since the start of the pandemic, the government has been receiving relevant data daily which has helped in proactive analysis and strategy building at the national level. Agarwal in a letter said that daily and diligent reporting of data is critical, to arrive at a meaningful understanding of pandemic in the districts, state and national levels and ensure that any anomalies, surges or emerging trends can be captured in a timely manner. "This is especially relevant as it is a highly infectious disease and also has an associated risk of emergence of new variants. Quick and continuous update of data will assist in India's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and will help not only in tracking and monitoring but will also help in defining the strategies and plans at the Centre, State and District level," he said. "You are, accordingly, requested to ensure that daily updation of required details is undertaken by the state to Union Ministry of Health," he added. Agarwal further said that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will continue to provide requisite support to the States or UTs in this ongoing and collective efforts. (ANI) Delhi Police on Monday arrested a 28-year-old man who allegedly opened fire during the Jahangirpuri violence in Delhi on April 16. A video that the police said is circulating on social media shows a man in a blue kurta opening fire during the incident. "The 28-year-old man in the blue kurta, Sonu alias Imam alias Yunus, whose video was being circulated on April 17 on social media for opening fire during the violence in the Jahangirpuri area, Delhi, on April 16, has been nabbed," police said. Earlier in the day, a team of police personnel had gone to Sonu's house for search and examination. "A video was being circulated on April 17 on social media showing a man (in blue kurta) opening fire during the violence in Jahangirpuri area on April 16. A police team had gone to his house in CD Park road in his search and for examination of his family members," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) North-West, Usha Rangnani. A total of 23 people have been arrested and two juveniles apprehended so far in connection with the incident in which nine people, including eight police personnel and a civilian, were injured. Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana, while addressing a press conference on Monday, assured that action will be taken against those found guilty irrespective of their class, creed, community and religion. Two prime accused - Ansar and Aslam - were sent to police custody till Wednesday by a Delhi Court today. Four other fresh accused of the incident were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. A day ago, during submission before the court, Delhi Police alleged that the main accused - Ansar and Aslam - got to know about the 'Shobha Yatra' on April 15 and then they built up this "conspiracy." Delhi Police also said, "We have to go through the CCTV footage, and identify others involved in this case." A total of 14 accused in the case were produced before the Rohini court on Sunday. Of these, two were Ansar and Aslam while the remaining 12 accused, produced before the court, were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Earlier, an altercation between two groups erupted during a religious procession in Delhi's Jahangirpuri on April 16 that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and a civilian. (ANI) Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister S. Duriamurugan on Monday said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin would decide on whether the state should accept the supervisory committee till the National Dam Safety Authority becomes functional. Responding to a calling attention motion in the assembly, he said that it would take another year for the Dam Safety Authority to come into force. "Our Chief Secretary and their (Kerala) Chief Secretary are in the supervisory committee. The question is whether we are accepting the proposal to give the powers of the Dam Safety Authority to the supervisory committee. Our lawyers are saying that there is no other way. I request the Chief Minister to convene a meeting with the opposition and take a decision," he said. The calling attention motion was moved by the Deputy Leader of Opposition, O. Panneerselvam, and other party leaders. The former Chief Minister while speaking called upon the Chief Minister to use his friendship with the Kerala Chief Minister to raise the height of the dam to 152 feet. A division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Abhay S. Oka, and C.T. Ravikumar had ordered strengthening of the Mulleperiyar Dam supervisory committee and called upon both Kerala and Tamil Nadu states to provide all necessary assistance to the committee. --IANS aal/vd ( 227 Words) 2022-04-18-19:20:03 (IANS) Concerned with the party's dismal performance in the recently-held concluded bypolls for a Lok Sabha and an Assembly constituency in West Bengal, BJP national President J.P. Nadda has sought a report detailing the reasons for this from the state unit, party leaders said on Monday. BJP's state President Sukanta Majumdar said that an office bearer of the party's state committee is leaving for New Delhi on Monday night only with two separate reports - one on the Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll and the other on the Ballygunge Assembly bypoll. In both these constituencies, where polling was held on April 12 and results declared on April 16, the BJP not only witnessed a humiliating defeat but also witnessed a major deletion in the vote share compared to previous elections. In Asansol, the defeat was even more humiliating against the backdrop of the fact that in 2019, the BJP won from this constituency by a massive margin of 1.97 lakh votes. But in the by-polls, Trinamool Congress candidate Shatrughan Sinha defeated the BJP candidate, Agnimitra Paul by an even more massive margin of over three lakh votes. BJP's state General Secretary, Organisation), Amitava Chakraborty will present the two reports to Nadda and the party's central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya. Meanwhile, a member of the BJP's newly-appointed state committee, told IANS on strict condition of anonymity, that initial findings hint that some kind of internal sabotage might have some role to play in case of the disaster in Asansol. "Many of the party's old-timers became totally inactive before the bypolls in Asansol. There were also some differences between the state committee and West Burdwan district committee over the candidate selection. Whatever it might be. An in-depth introspection is required now before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," he said. The fact that the decline of the vote share is a matter of concern for BJP was indirectly accepted by Agnimitra Paul immediately after her humiliating defeat from Asansol "Just two years are left from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The party leadership should introspect the reasons behind this disaster and work accordingly. I do not want to give any excuse for my defeat and accept the people's verdict," said Paul, who is already a sitting BJP legislator from Asansol (South) assembly constituency. Saumitra Khan, the BJP MP from Bishnupur Lok Sabha in Bankura, said that the "immature approach" of the saffron leadership in West Bengal led to such a disaster. --IANS src/vd ( 421 Words) 2022-04-18-20:33:45 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has rejected a plea by a couple who mutually sought divorce before the mandated one-year cooling-off period, observing that though denial of conjugal relationship is a ground for divorce, and tantamounts to cruelty, it cannot be "exceptional hardship". A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh was dealing with the appeal filed by the couple challenging an order of a family court that dismissed their application under Section 14 of the Hindu Marriage Act as it was filed before the one year time. "Once the Parliament, in its wisdom, has legislated that denial of cohabitation/ conjugal relationship over a period of one year, or more, would tantamount to cruelty, it cannot be said that denial of sex simpliciter within the period of one year, would be a case of exceptional hardship. Thus we reject the submission of the appellant that the denial of conjugal relations by both parties is such, that it causes 'exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity' to either or both of them," said the order which was reserved on April 13 and delivered on Monday. During the course of the hearing, various judgments have been referred including the Punjab & Haryana High Court verdict in Shivani Yadav vs Amit Yadav case which had stated: "Since the couple had stayed together only for two days, this is the sufficient ground to allow their application filed under Section 14 of the Act for waiving off the mandatory period of one year." Another case of Ratheesh M. vs Dhanya K.V. in the Kerala High Court was also referred, in which the court had noted that there is a denial of sex from the part of the petitioner and it would amount to cruelty falling under section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act. While dismissing the arguments, the Delhi High Court said: "We reserve the right of the parties to move the appropriate court independently, after the expiry of one year of separation." As per the plea, the marriage of the couple was solemnised on April 4, 2021, as per the Hindu rites and ceremonies at Ram Nagar, Uttarakhand. The bride after marriage shifted to the matrimonial home in Faridabad, Haryana. Soon after the marriage, marital differences cropped up between the parties, and from April 14, 2021, onwards, they started living separately in the same house. On July 29, 2021, the appellant left her matrimonial home and went to her parental house at Rohini, Delhi. The couple hardly lived together as husband and wife, and no child has been born out of the wedlock. --IANS jw/vd ( 451 Words) 2022-04-18-20:38:11 (IANS) Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has told the Supreme Court that the Indian government is bound by its assurance given to the Portugal government during the extradition of gangster Abu Salem, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, but the question of honouring it will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire. On March 8, the Supreme Court asked the Union Home Secretary to file an affidavit, on whether the Centre is committed to adhere to the assurance given by the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to Portuguese authorities of not incarcerating gangster Abu Salem for more than 25 years while seeking his extradition. Bhalla filed a written response to the court's query on Abu Salem's plea questioning life imprisonment imposed on him by the TADA court on September 7, 2017 in the serial blasts case. In an affidavit, he said: "The government of India gave an assurance vide letter dated December 17, 2002, to the government of Portugal. This assurance is an executive assurance given by one country to other in the exercise of their executive functions." "The period of 25 years which is mentioned in the assurance will be abided by the Union of India at an appropriate time subject to the remedies which may be available. The question of the Union of India honouring its assurance dated December 17, 2002, will arise only when the period of 25 years is to expire. This date is November 10, 2030." The affidavit said before this date, the convict cannot raise any arguments based on the assurance, therefore the contention of the petitioner about non-compliance of assurance is premature and based on hypothetical surmises and can never be raised in present proceedings. "The government of India will abide by the said assurance.... subject to the rights which may be available at that stage. The attempt of convict-appellant to club that assurance with merits of the present case is legally untenable as the appeals need to be decided in accordance with Section 19 of the TADA read with other provisions governing criminal procedure," it said. The Home Secretary added that having carefully examined the matter and the ramifications which the stand of Union of India will have, it is the respectful submission of the Central government that the top court may decide the appeal on merits. The Home Secretary pointed out that with regard to the set off period of sentence, the prosecuting agency has already filed a reply and made submission before the top court on that issue. "Therefore, there is no question of the convict-appellant arguing anything at this stage based upon the said assurance while arguing the present appeal on merits of the case which can be argued only based upon the investigation papers, evidence collected (both oral and documentary) and the findings of the designated court," said the affidavit. On April 12, the top court asked the Central government to file its response by April 18 and scheduled the matter for further hearing on April 21. Asking the Centre to make its stand clear, the top court had said that not abiding by the assurance made to the Portugal authorities, could have wider ramifications and it may create problems while seeking extradition of fugitives from other countries. The CBI, in its affidavit, has told the top court that an Indian court is not bound by the assurance given in 2002 by the then Deputy Prime Minister to Portugal that gangster would not be imprisoned beyond 25 years after his extradition to India. The top court said it is not happy with the CBI's reply in the matter and sought a response from the Home Secretary. Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing Abu Salem, had argued that as per the principle of reciprocity in Portugal, the courts cannot award a sentence for more than 25 years. He contended that based on the principle of reciprocity, India had given a solemn sovereign assurance to the Portugal courts that in case Abu Salem is permitted to be extradited back to India, he will not be given punishment for more than 25 years. --IANS ss/vd ( 708 Words) 2022-04-18-20:50:03 (IANS) The organisation said that Maan should express regret over the recent meeting. Dhesi had met Mann along with newly-elected Rajya Sabha member and AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Sunday. "Tanmanjeet Dhesi's views on Khalistan are there in public domain. He also believes that Kashmir is a disputed territory and India had no right to abrogate Article 370," Amit Raina, spokesperson of 'Roots in Kashmir', said. Speaking to IANS, Raina said that Dhesi has been quite vocal on conducting plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, a line very similar to the one taken by 'his benefactors' in Pakistan. "His stand on Kashmir is a direct attack on the integrity and sovereignty of this nation and should not be acceptable to any Indian, irrespective political ideology," he said. Raina added that is is very disturbing to see the Chief Minister of an Indian state entertaining a well-known supporter of Pakistan on the issues of Kashmir and Khalistan. The Kashmiri Pandit's body alleged that Dhesi attended several anti-India conferences on Kashmir, including last year's 'Kashmir Solidarity Conference' organized by the Tehreek-e-Kashmir, United Kingdom. The organisation also demanded that the government of India should revoke Dhesi's OCI card and deport him immediately. ---IANS avr/arm ( 250 Words) 2022-04-18-21:06:05 (IANS) "A small plane crashed at Tikkakoski Airport in Jyvaskyla. The pilot of the plane was found dead," the rescuers said in a statement cited by Sputnik News Agency on Sunday. As per the news agency, the plane's distress signal was received by emergency authorities at around 20:34 (17:34) on Sunday. Apart from the pilot, there were no other people on board. An investigation is underway. (ANI) In a statement on Sunday, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) said that it has conducted numerous systematic tests to resume commercial flights on the Boeing model. Last month, a China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Flight MU5735, with 132 people aboard, was enroute from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it plunged from cruising altitude and crashed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had announced that a team of US investigators had departed for China to probe the causes of an airliner crash that killed all 132 people on a Boeing 737-800 operated by China Eastern Airlines on March 21, "NTSB team has departed for China to participate in CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China's) B-737 accident investigation," Sputnik reported citing NTSB's statement. The US investigators will limit interactions with those outside of investigation similar to the safety protocols at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games earlier this year, the NTSB said. (ANI) New York [US], April 18 (ANI/Sputnik): The Ukraine crisis could plunge more than one fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades," Guterres said in an interview with the Czech Seznam Zpravy publication, published on Sunday. Ukraine and Russia account for 30 per cent of world production of wheat and barley, a fifth of all corn and more than half of all sunflower oil, Guterres said, specifying that Russia and Ukraine account for over a third of the wheat imported to the 45 least developed countries. The UN Secretary-General said that the Ukraine crisis is blocking grain exports and disrupting supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket. Since the start of 2022, wheat and corn prices have gone up by 30 per cent, Brent crude oil prices have risen by more than 60 per cent, while gas and fertilizer prices have more than doubled. Guterres called for global reforms that would change the world's financial system "that makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer." International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday that the Ukraine conflict will downgrade forecasts for 143 economies this year, which collectively make up 86 per cent of the world's GDP. The chiefs of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling for urgent, coordinated action to address food security amid the fallout of the Ukraine crisis, which is adding to the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (ANI/Sputnik) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud allegedly handed a written decree to Hadi on the sidelines of the talks in Riyadh, which set out provisions for the delegation of powers to the presidential council, the newspaper said on Sunday citing Saudi and Yemeni officials. Prince Mohammed told Hadi that other Yemeni leaders had agreed that it was time for him to relinquish power, according to the officials. Saudi officials pressured Hadi to step down and threatened to release evidence of his alleged corrupt activities, The Wall Street Journal said. One Saudi official told the newspaper that Saudi authorities have largely confined Hadi to his home in Riyadh and restricted communications with him. These claims were nonetheless refuted by some other officials. Earlier this month, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi stepped down after seven years of war in the country and handed over his power to the newly created presidential council, which consists of eight political leaders, including the separatist South Yemeni Transitional Council governing in the south, but excluding the Houthis. The council's formation was announced following inter-Yemeni consultations in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh, where the Saudi leadership called on the council to initiate talks with the Houthis to establish peace in Yemen, which had been torn by violent conflict for years. (ANI/Sputnik) Pope Francis has made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace around the world pointing to a "senseless" war in Ukraine, reconciliation for Myanmar, where violence still persists and for Afghanistan which is gripped by a humanitarian crisis, including food shortages after Taliban takeover. During his solemn speech on the problem of international conflicts, he called peace efforts "everyone's primary responsibility." He prayed that God grant "reconciliation for Myanmar, where a dramatic scenario of hatred and violence persists," and for Afghanistan, which is gripped by a humanitarian crisis, including food shortages, The Hill reported. "May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged," Francis said, speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square, as per The Hill. Is further reported that applause erupted from many of the crowd, estimated by the Vatican to number 100,000 in the square and on a nearby avenue, when he mentioned Ukraine. "Please, please, let us not get used to war," Francis pleaded, after denouncing "the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. "May the conflict in Europe also make us more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow, situations that affect all too many areas of our world, situations that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget," Francis said. Two days after Palestinians and Israeli police clashed in Jerusalem, Francis prayed that "Israelis, Palestinians and all the inhabitants of the Holy City, together with pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, of living in brotherhood and of accessing Holy Places" in reciprocal respect. He also called for peace and reconciliation for the peoples of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Libya. (ANI) Earlier this month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that global air travel posted a strong rebound in February 2022 compared to January 2022, as Omicron-related impacts moderated outside of Asia. IATA which was founded in 1945 represents some 290 airlines in 120 countries, carrying 83 per cent of the world's air traffic. In Southeast Asia, as more and more countries reopen their borders to quarantine-free leisure visits, though with varying degrees of COVID testing requirements, Indians are forming a significant number of those travelling to the region. IATA on April 6 reported that overall air traffic in February 2022, including both international and domestic flights (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs), was up 115.9 per cent compared to February 2021. That is an improvement from January 2022, which was up 83.1 per cent compared to January 2021. This was as the health risk posed by the COVID-19 Omicron strain began to recede in many countries. Compared to pre-COVID February 2019, however, traffic was down 45.5 per cent. Domestic air travel saw a more significant upswing than international travel. In February 2022, domestic traffic was up 60.7 per cent compared to the year-ago period, building on a 42.6 per cent increase in January 2022 compared to January 2021. Domestic traffic in February was 21.8 per cent below the volumes of February 2019. There was wide variation in the domestic markets tracked by IATA. The United States market is growing strongly and just 6.6 per cent shy of where it was in February 2019 measured in RPK terms. Russia is up 15 per cent, Japan is down 64.8 per cent and China lower by35.3 per cent. Australia is 53.8 per cent below where it was in February 2019 but with the country relaxing its COVID measures, this is expected to improve. China, which is still clinging onto its zero COVID strategy and experiencing significant lockdowns in its major cities including Shanghai, is expected to see deterioration in its domestic air travel market in March. Similarly, Russia which has seen air travel grow sharply up till February, is expected to see a decline in air traffic for a different reason - the war in Ukraine. The war which began on February 24, did not have a major impact on traffic levels for the period under review. As for international air travel, it is still down 59.6 per cent in February 2022 compared with the same month in 2019. However, when compared with recent months and with a year ago, the figures showed a marked uptrend. International RPKs rose 256.8 per cent versus February 2021 and improved from a 165.5 per cent year-over-year increase in January 2022 versus the year-earlier period. All regions improved their performance compared to the prior month. Asia-Pacific airlines had a 144.4 per cent rise in February international traffic compared to February 2021, higher than the 125.8 per cent increase registered in January 2022 versus January 2021. Although capacity rose 60.8 per cent and the load factor was up 16.1 percentage points to 47 per cent, this is the lowest among regions. The main reason is the patchy border reopening in the region and in particular, China and Japan which are two of the largest travel markets in Asia. It is well-known that with Omicron raging through the country, China is still hanging onto its zero COVID policy, and the country is largely shut from the outside world. Although Japan recently increased the number of foreigners permitted to enter the country a day from 7,000 to 10,000, it only allows students and business travellers in. It is still not open to tourists. With most of North Asia still closed, Southeast Asian countries are leading the way in regional cross-border travel. A Reuters story quoting travel firm ForwardKeys said that international airline bookings to Southeast Asia reached 38percent of pre-pandemic levels by late March. It was just 10 per cent of 2019 levels at the start of the year. As expected, the countries which have opened with the most relaxed COVID visitation rules, Singapore and the Philippines, have seen the largest uptick in bookings. The ForwardKeys data showed Singapore and Philippines bookings were at 72percent and 65percent of 2019 levels, respectively. Thailand which was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region pre-COVID still requires an on-arrival PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test and for visitors to isolate in an approved hotel while waiting for test results. In addition, it requires visitors to take an Antigen Rapid Test on day 5. Unsurprisingly, it is only at 24 per cent of booking levels experienced before COVID. Tourism analysts say that on-arrival testing turns off visitors because it adds a layer of uncertainty as travellers may find themselves spending their holiday isolated in a government facility if tested positive. The latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) revealed that Singapore had 67,760 arrivals in February 2022, 18.5 per cent higher than the previous month. It is more than three times higher when compared to 2021 but still far below the 1.69 million recorded in January 2020, the last full month before the COVID shutdown international travel in Singapore. Indians represent the largest group of travellers to Singapore in January and February this year with over 27,000 visitors arriving. Indonesians and Malaysians from the next largest groups during the first two months of the year, with 12,750 and 9,670 arrivals respectively. Singapore had a total of 124,930 visitors during this period. Air travel in Asia is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until China, the largest source of tourists in the region completely reopens to overseas travel. IATA expect air traffic within the Asia Pacific this year to only reach 68percent of 2019 levels and hit pre-pandemic traffic in 2025, a year behind the rest of the world. "The recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of the world lift travel restrictions. States that persist in attempting to lock out the disease, rather than managing it, as we do with other diseases, risk missing out on the enormous economic and societal benefits that restoration of international connectivity will bring," said Willie Walsh, IATA's Director-General. (ANI) Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mette Knudsen, in his meeting with Chairman of Afghan Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar pressed for representative governance, the need for dialogue at all levels, and access to education for girls and boys in Afghanistan. Knudsen also held discussion with Muslimyar over the role of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Taking to Twitter, UNAMA said that the UN envoy affirmed continued UN commitment to work in support of the people of Afghanistan. "I had an official meeting with Mette Knudsen in this meeting. We discussed the effective role of @UNAMA in Afghanistan, Girls and boys education, recent @UNGeneva conference on the humanitarian assistance to Afghans and many other important Afghan inclusion issues," Muslimyar tweeted. During the meeting with Muslimyar, UNAMA's deputy head discussed representative governance and the need for dialogue at all levels. Earlier, during a briefing of the Diplomatic Corps on April 6, Knudsen highlighted that the Taliban's decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools has negatively impacted the attitude of the global community towards them. The Taliban have issued a decree banning female students above grade six from attending their classes in schools. 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 to condemn the Taliban's decision to deny Afghan girls the opportunity to go back to schools. Meanwhile, the envoys and representatives of the European Union, US, and the European countries in a joint statement have also said that the international aid to Kabul will depend on Afghanistan's ability to ensure access to education for girls at all levels, said a media report. In the joint statement, the envoys and the representatives have said that the type and scope of "international donor assistance will depend, among other things, on the right and ability of girls to attend equal education at all levels," reported TOLOnews.The joint statement further stressed that the progress towards normalized relations between the Taliban and the international community will depend mostly on Kabul's actions and delivery on commitments and obligations to the Afghan people and to the international community. (ANI) Last Friday's clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and the Israeli Police in Al-Aqsa mosque in the old city of Jerusalem were an accident (or rather an explosion) waiting to happen, following three weeks of serious violence in Israel and the West Bank, in the wake of the terrorist killing of 14 Israelis in four different attacks and the fact that, Ramadan, Passover, and Easter, three major holidays of Islam, Judaism and Christianity are occurring at the same time this year. More than 150 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli riot police on 15 March at the compound of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is the third holiest site in Islam and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, when hundreds of Palestinians hurled stones and firecrackers at the nearby Jewish prayer area of the Western Wall. Police arrested 470 persons, the majority of which were released over the weekend. According to the Red Crescent, 152 Palestinians were struck by sponge-tipped bullets and suffered tear-gas inhalation. Two are in serious condition. The incident was repeated on a smaller scale on Sunday when Palestinians, trying to block visitors from entering the Temple Mount, threw stones on buses carrying Jewish worshippers in an effort to block them from entering the compound. According to a police statement, "hundreds of youths, some masked, began collecting and stockpiling stones in the Mount's passageways in an effort to create disorder and block visitor pathways by means of stones and other improvised barriers." In a joint statement, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, which has custodianship over the holy site said that Israel was responsible for "a dangerous and condemnable escalation that threatens to explode the situation." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday urged all leaders on all sides "to help calm the situation, end provocations and uphold the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem." In a statement, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said: "We call on all sides to exercise restraint and avoid provocative actions and rhetoric." The Foreign Ministers of France, Spain and Italy also called the two sides to refrain from engaging in violence. It was expected that there would be clashes as some far-right Jewish groups announced that they would storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Passover and offer animal sacrifices in the compound's courtyards, something that would certainly enrage Palestinian worshippers who gather there for Friday's prayers. On Saturday the Izzat al-Rishq, the leader of the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement that governs the Gaza Strip, said that Hamas had sent messages to mediators that "Hamas does not seek a new war in Gaza but Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are a red line and that any provocation will be met with confrontation." It should be noted that the holy site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, has often been the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian strife, and that clashes at Al-Aqsa last year sparked an 11-day war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The escalation of tension in Jerusalem triggered the worst round of violence in years in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 260 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. In the past two weeks, twenty Palestinians were killed by the Israeli security forces. According to the Israeli government, most of them were armed individuals who perpetrated terrorist attacks or were involved in exchanges of gunfire with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to press reports, at least 25 Palestinians have been killed so far, including an unarmed woman and a lawyer who was a bystander. It should be noted that the Israeli far-right has been consistently fanning the flames of confrontation with the Arabs, as in the past month Jewish extremists were involved in revenge attacks in 60 incidents of stone-throwing and destruction of Palestinian property in many areas of the West Bank. The Israeli far-right was incensed over the vandalism by Palestinians of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus on the West Bank, which is a holy site for Jews. On 9 April, Palestinian rioters, after clashes with the IDF, set fire to the site, which caused damage to the gravestone of Joseph's Tomb. The site had been vandalized by Palestinian rioters in 2015 and 2022. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz described the destruction caused to Joseph's Tomb as "extremely serious" and added that he sent a "sharp message" to the Palestinian Authority about it. The immediate reaction of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to reprimand the security units in Nablus and to order the restoration of the site. Although the coalition government currently ruling Israel does not want to follow the heavy-handed way Palestinians were treated by the former right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Benny Ganz has given instructions to security forces and avoid arbitrary arrests and unnecessary military operations, there is a real danger that extremists from both sides may embark on new serious revenge attacks. The situation can then escalate into a military confrontation with Hamas, with hundreds of victims and widespread destruction. On the one hand, the Israeli Army must show to the Israeli public that it acts decisively to combat violence and on the other avoid taking harsh measures that could lead to an explosion of violence and the outbreak of a new intifada (uprising). As Israeli journalist Amos Harel points out, the Israeli army is ensuring that "its moves resonate publicly, with the aim of persuading the Israeli public that it's acting with determination. But the sheer presence of soldiers in the villages and the refugee camps stimulate friction by itself and leads to Palestinian casualties, which in turn heightens the desire for revenge and prolongs the wave of violence." (ANI) Maldives Police Service (MPS) said that they received information of the assault with a sharp weapon inside a restaurant in Hulhumale, on Saturday evening. The attacker has been identified as the restaurant's chef, 26-year-old Mohamed Abid. The victim was stabbed multiple times using a sharp object. The victim was taken to Hulhumale Hospital but had already succumbed to his injuries, reported Avas Online. A team of police officers was dispatched to the area shortly after the report was received. However, by that time, the attacker had already fled the scene. So far the Pakistani attacker has not been located and the police are conducting a search operation. The police have also alerted the people not to engage with the suspect if sighted and to instead alert the police of his whereabouts. The police have classified the attacker as a dangerous person, as per the online web-based platform. (ANI) Activist from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Shabir Choudhry, said that former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan labels everyone who raises a voice against atrocities as a traitor. The PoK activist stressed that the ones who speak up actually change the nation and make it better. Shabir said that people who raise their voices or express their concerns over the issues that prevail in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) or Gilgit-Baltistan are treated as agents working for someone else. He highlighted that Pakistan is carrying out atrocities against innocent civilians living in the region and suppressing their voices and rights. Touching upon the current political developments in Pakistan's Punjab Assembly, the activist again stressed that the country is plagued with disputes at the top levels. Sharing details of his encounter with an Indian Air Force Officer back in 2007, Shabir shared that the officer also felt that the Pakistani people do not deserve the kind of treatment they are been subjected to by the government. The officer told Shabir, "If anything, I feel sorry for Pakistani Muslims. They don't deserve this." He also expressed how the Pakistani people praise India. "One man asked me where I am from and I said Kashmir. In reply, he said, Alhamdulillah India. He praised India before I could respond to him, and quickly walked away," he continued. He also pointed out how the Pakistani media propagated hatred for India on their channels. In his message from Masjid e Nabvi, the activist said that the situation in Pakistan is getting from bad to worse. (ANI) A number of women in Kabul have urged the Taliban to reopen schools for girls above grade six, local media reported. The call was made at a protest held by the Junbish Khodjosh Zanan Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported. "Here a generation is deprived of its basic human rights. A generation of women is deprived of rights to education, work and social activities," said Monsia Mubariz, a women's rights activist, according to TOLOnews. "The closing of girls' schools shows the Taliban's lack of commitment to their promise," said Zakia Zahat, another activist. This comes as the Ministry of Education said it is optimistic about efforts to reopen schools for girls in grades 7-12. Aziz Ahmad Riyan, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, said that the leadership of the Islamic Emirate has shown the green light for the reopening of girls' schools, TOLOnews reported. Meanwhile, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mette Knudsen, in a meeting with Chairman of Afghan Senate Fazal Hadi Muslimyar pressed for representative governance, the need for dialogue at all levels, and access to education for girls and boys in Afghanistan. Knudsen also held a discussion with Muslimyar over the role of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). During the meeting with Muslimyar, UNAMA's deputy head discussed representative governance and the need for dialogue at all levels. Earlier, during a briefing of the Diplomatic Corps on April 6, Knudsen highlighted that the Taliban's decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools has negatively impacted the attitude of the global community towards them. The Taliban have issued a decree banning female students above grade six from attending their classes in schools. 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 to condemn the Taliban's decision to deny Afghan girls the opportunity to go back to schools. Meanwhile, the envoys and representatives of the European Union, US, and the European countries in a joint statement have also said that the international aid to Kabul will depend on Afghanistan's ability to ensure access to education for girls at all levels, said a media report. In the joint statement, the envoys and the representatives have said that the type and scope of "international donor assistance will depend, among other things, on the right and ability of girls to attend equal education at all levels," reported TOLOnews. The joint statement further stressed that the progress towards normalized relations between the Taliban and the international community will depend mostly on Kabul's actions and delivery on commitments and obligations to the Afghan people and to the international community. (ANI) On the night of April 15, Pakistani aircraft launched airstrikes into Afghan territory killing more than 40 civilians. Following the incident, the Taliban summoned Pakistan's ambassador Manssor Ahmad Khan to convey concerns to the Pakistan government over the incident. A protester said, "Pakistan army has killed more than 100 Afghan civilians - they were children, they were women, they were elderly people - they were not terrorists." The protesters called Pakistan a terrorist state and shouted slogans like "We want justice from the United Nations" and urged the international community to hold Islamabad responsible for genocide in Afghanistan. The demonstration organized by All Afghan Protection CIC also raised the issue of the inhumane treatment of Afghan refugees by Iran. The protesters gathered at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Knightsbridge, before marching to demonstrate outside the High Commission for Pakistan, where they demanded an end to Pakistan's interference and killing of Afghan civilians. Similar demonstrations were also held in Paris, France. (ANI) Grand welcome for the Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, who arrived in India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been planned at the Rajkot airport in Gujarat. He will be arriving at Rajkot at 4'o clock on Monday. The Mauritius PM will participate in the ground-breaking ceremony of the WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat on Tuesday. "The Prime Minister of Mauritius will be accorded a grand welcome at Rajkot Airport. There will be a cultural show and sword dance as well. Besides this, there will be a two-kilometre-long roadshow where NGOs and institutions will welcome the Mauritius PM" said Rajkot district magistrate Arun Mahesh Babu. He also stated that ambassadors of more than 40 countries will be arriving in Rajkot, besides 140 foreign delegates as well. The Mauritius PM will also pay a visit to Varanasi apart from his official engagements in Gujarat and New Delhi. "India and Mauritius enjoy uniquely close ties, bound by shared history, culture, and heritage. The upcoming visit will further strengthen the vibrant bilateral ties," the Ministry of External Affairs said. Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Secretary to the Cabinet of Mauritius NK Ballah in New Delhi and said the bilateral cooperation between the two countries was "progressing from strength to strength". Earlier in January, PM Modi and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth had jointly inaugurated the India-assisted social housing units project in Mauritius virtually. They also launched the Civil Service College and 8 MW Solar PV Farm project in Mauritius that is being undertaken under India's development support. (ANI) Renowned intellectual Tanveer Zamaan Khan in an interview with activist Shabir Choudhry said that Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's policy of intolerance and hatred will further divide Pakistani society and lead to violence. Speaking on the current political developments in Pakistan, Zamaan Khan said, "Imran Khan is creating a horrifying situation for the country. During his Jalsas he is giving statements contrary to the military. He is pushing society towards violence. Politics aside Imran Khan on a fundamental level is causing hatred among the people of Pakistan." He also termed the US conspiracy cited by Imran Khan as absolutely farcical. "The whole episode was farcical," he said. In response to a question on the condition of Pakistan's politics, Zamaan Khan said that many unprecedented developments are taking place in the country. "The ruckus in the Punjab Assembly is a blot on Pakistan's politics. People of Pakistan are watching this ruckus play out on their TVs." He also termed the 'injury' of PML-Q leader and Punjab Assembly speaker, Pervaiz Elahi, as drama. He called it a political narrative and said that all those who created nuisance in the assembly are actors. Reacting to the massive rallies held by Imran Khan, Zamaan Khan said that this is something that was done by Pakistan Democratic Movement earlier and it is just a part of Pakistani Politics. Shabir Choudhry also said that Imran Khan presents lies as truths to fool the people of the country. "He set the narrative of NRO. Many people who Imran used to bash are now with him," he stated. This statement comes in the context of Imran Khan's comments where he said that the Opposition is seeking to bring National Reconciliation Ordinance 2 to get away with their corrupt practices. Pakistan's politics is witnessing rapid changes with numerous appointments and resignations. Shehbaz Sharif, President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former leader of the Opposition, was elected the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly of the country. After his appointment, Sharif removed Punjab province's Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader refused to administer the oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz Sharif. On Saturday, When PTI leader Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari arrived in the Punjab Assembly hall to preside over the session, he was attacked by government members. Dost Mohammad Mazari was slapped by government members and his hair was pulled out. Security staff and members of the opposition rescued the deputy speaker from government members, after which he returned to his office. (ANI) "Today, with the strengthening of the SUS, the largest vaccination campaign in our history, and with the improvement of the epidemiological scenario, we are able to announce the end of the Public Health Emergency of National Importance - ESPIN," Queiroga said on Twitter on Sunday. In the past 24 hours, Brazil registered 19 coronavirus-related deaths. Its total COVID-19 death toll stands at 662,011. Brazil is second in terms of coronavirus-related fatalities (US is first), and third in terms of the total number of registered cases (surpassed only by the US and India). Brazil declared a state of emergency to fight coronavirus in March, 2020. (ANI/Sputnik) An explosion has been heard in the Beyoglu district in Istanbul and residents have been urged to evacuate a building, Sputnik reported on Monday. An explosion occurred in underground cable structures. There is no information about the victims yet, the Russian News Agency reported citing the Turkish media. Further details are awaited. (ANI) Turkish defense ministry announced early morning that the country has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in a video posted on the ministry's website said that the Turkish jets and artillery struck targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, and commando troops, supported by helicopters and drones. He also said that after the offensive they crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters. According to the defense minister, the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots, and headquarters belonging to the PKK. As per Arab News, the group maintains bases in northern Iraq and has used the territory for attacks on Turkey. Over the past decades, Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK. "Our operation is continuing successfully, as planned. The targets that were set for the first phase have been achieved," Akar said. "We are determined to save our noble nation from the terror misfortune that has plagued our country for 40 years," he said adding, "Our struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized." There was no immediate statement from the Kurdish militant group. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, began an insurgency in Turkey's majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984, reported Arab News. (ANI) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has begun consultation with legal experts and mulling over legal options in regards to the delay in the administration of the oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz from Governor Punjab Omar Sarfraz Cheema. "Administering oath to chief minister is a constitutional obligation and should be performed," the PML-N leaders were quoted as saying by sources. The sources also said that any step for ensuring the oath to the chief minister would be taken after consultation with legal experts, reported ARY News. This comes after the announcement by the federal government to remove PTI leader and Governor Punjab Omar Sarfraz Cheema from his office after refusing to administer the oath to Hamza Shehbaz. "This power rests with the President. Only he can remove me from the office," Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema said while addressing a press conference. The Governor said that the Prime Minister was not authorized to remove him from his office. "When the prime minister will send the summary to the President and he will denotify, I will remain Governor," he added, as per the news channel. On Saturday, When PTI leader and Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari arrived in the Punjab Assembly hall to preside over the session, he was attacked by government members. Dost Mohammad Mazari was slapped by government members and his hair was pulled out. Security staff and members of the opposition rescued the deputy speaker from government members, after which he returned to his office. (ANI) "A man set himself on fire in Dehmazang Square in the west of Kabul on Monday morning. Eyewitnesses said the man was hospitalized after the incident. It is claimed that he was struggling with economic challenges," TOLOnews reported. The situation in Afghanistan has worsened since the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's return to power in August last year. According to UN figures, 23 million people in Afghanistan are currently starving and 95 per cent of Afghans do not have enough food to eat three times in 24 hours. The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban caused not only a political crisis in the country but also uncertainty in business and unemployment. The private sectors were "hit hard" as the businesses were halted and put to uncertainty, according to the latest survey conducted by the World Bank, reported Khaama Press. Due to a shortage in sales, private companies have laid off more than half of their employees on average, rising concern about the unemployment rate in the country. (ANI) "On Sunday, April 17, 2022, at 8:43 p.m. [03:43 GMT Monday], officers from the East Precinct were dispatched to a report of a shooting in the 500 block of Southeast 162nd Avenue. When officers arrived they located a male who was deceased and three juvenile males who had also been shot," the police said in a statement released on Sunday evening. The three injured individuals were taken to the nearest hospitals, one of them in a life-threatening condition, the statement added. The police are investigating other details of the shooting. (ANI/Sputnik) In his letter, the principal secretary said that no power was vested in the Governor under the Constitution or any law to set aside the election under any circumstances. "The Punjab Assembly secretary had in all probability rendered himself liable to contempt proceedings for a completely illegal report that smacks of mala fide," read the letter. The CM-elect Hamza Shahbaz was to take the oath of his office on Sunday but PTI's Omar Sarfraz Cheema abruptly postponed the oath-taking ceremony, reported The News International. The PA secretary had already been suspended by the Deputy Speaker and he has been barred from entering the House, the letter added. On Sunday, Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema had "postponed" the oath-taking ceremony of CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz as he ruled his election controversial due to the ruckus that took place in the Assembly. "I believe if Hamza Shehbaz had enough votes, then he should not have made the election controversial like this," said Cheema. (ANI) The western city of Lviv in Ukraine was hit by five powerful missile strikes this morning, killing six civilians as heavy smoke billowed through the air, reported Russian media outlet The Kyiv Independent. According to Lviv Mayor, Andriy Sadovy, the Russian military fired five missiles at Lviv on the morning of April 18. The damages are still being clarified, said the news outlet in a statement. The count of the injured remains at eight whereas the death toll continues to rise. The residents of the Lviv region are asked to remain in shelters as air raid warning is still in place, reported the local media. The city of Lviv received the largest number of refugees in Ukraine when Russia first invaded the country. Many people from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson and other places came to the city with their families to save their lives. Explosions were reported for the first time on March 13 in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv after the Russian forces struck the city without any extensive details. On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves. Russia has been facing immense pressure from the international community to stop its military operations in Ukraine which has created an immense humanitarian crisis with thousands of refugees from Ukraine fleeing to the neighbouring countries to the West. (ANI) Pakistan is trying to justify the massacre of Bangladeshi residents by its military during the 1971 Bangladesh war, denying the extent of the military oppression and blaming the whole incident on Bangladesh for the separation. Pakistani scholars jointly agree on sabotaging the Bangladesi uprising in 1971, accusing the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, of recasting the killings of non-Bengalis as a struggle conducted by the Awami League and of implementing it against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), reported by Global Strat View, an independent media group. Pakistan believes the mock trials of war criminals to be absurd and deems that "those accused of attacking, killing and raping members of their community will never be brought to justice. In official memory, as institutionalized by the Bangladeshi state, only crimes against Bengalis are remembered." Pakistan even lends its support to war groups like the Khalistan movement, fighting against the Indian state. Pakistan also claims that Bangladeshi Hindu professors spread secessionist sentiments amongst its students, reported Global Strat View, an independent media group. Aggressive think tanks cover the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan with a certain biasedness, highlighting only those issues that comply with the official policy while ignoring anything that violates the guidelines. The Pakistani authorities oppose Bangladesh's efforts to deliver justice to the victims who suffered in the Pakistani war crimes, criticizing the execution of two convicted war criminals, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, leader of BNP, and Ali Ahsan Mohammad, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami. Also, countries like China and The United States suppressed the genocide reports as well, provoking both activists and academics. Thus, in turn, the Bangladeshi uprising of 1971 has been reduced to a civic-political demand. Recognition of the brutal massacre and the qualitative widening of the current legal understanding of genocide during the Liberation Struggle of Bangladesh is ethically demanded. (ANI) The recent airstrikes by the Pakistan military in the Khost and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan, that killed a number of civilians, have escalated the already simmering tensions between the two countries, said a media report. According to the local officials on Sunday, the death toll from the airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday morning rose to at least 45 people and left several others injured, reported The New York Times. While sporadic cross-border shelling has killed Afghan civilians for years, the casualties due to the strikes mark a significant exacerbation in violence and the use of military force by Pakistani authorities as the strikes drew immediate criticism from Taliban officials, who said that Pakistani military aircraft carried out the airstrikes. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns Pakistan's attacks on refugees in Khost and Kunar. IEA calls on the Pakistani side not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues and not repeat the same mistake again otherwise it will have bad consequences," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Twitter. Mujahid added that the problems between the two countries should be resolved through political means. According to a statement from Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Taliban on Saturday also summoned Pakistan's ambassador in Kabul to express their disapproval of the attacks and give him a diplomatic demarche to deliver to Islamabad. However, Pakistani officials have not yet confirmed the strikes and instead urged the Taliban to curb increasing cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on their security forces. "Pakistan has repeatedly requested Afghan Government in last few months to secure Pak-Afghan border region. Terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan," the media outlet quoted Pakistan's foreign office as saying in a statement on Sunday. Notably, since the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan last year, the country's eastern border with Pakistan has been a source of increasing tension between the two countries as Pakistani officials have claimed frequent attacks in Pakistan by militants harbored on Afghan soil. However, Taliban officials have refuted such reports of sheltering militants. The porous border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been a stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban, a banned militant group in Pakistan, for decades. The group has carried out various terrorist attacks in Pakistan and the officials in the country have claimed that the members of the group found shelter in neighbouring Afghanistan. However, the former Western-backed governments in Afghanistan have accused Pakistan of nurturing the Afghan Taliban insurgency and sheltering its leaders. After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August last year, the Pakistani authorities worked with the Afghan Taliban to broker a monthlong ceasefire with the Pakistani Taliban, according to Pakistani officials. However, the ceasefire was not renewed and after it expired, the Pakistani Taliban again stepped up attacks on Pakistan's soil. Notably, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's North Waziristan on Thursday, which the country's foreign office claimed was done by militants operating from Afghanistan. The pre-dawn airstrikes in Afghanistan seem to have been carried out as retaliation to that attack as according to locals, most of the people killed in the airstrikes had been displaced from North Waziristan, reported the media outlet. However, the airstrikes seem to have emboldened the Pakistani Taliban that challenged the Pakistan army to fight them on the battlefield instead of bombing innocent refugees. "We want to tell the Pakistani army that every war has a principle and Pakistan has violated every principle of war up to date. We challenge the Pakistan army to fight us in the battlefield instead of bombing oppressed people and refugee camps," the media quoted Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani as saying on Saturday. (ANI) Amidst the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, a string of protests marked the island nation as the citizens demanded the immediate resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his inability to curb the crisis. Sri Lankan citizens staged a protest outside the President's house which was aggravated further when Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared all the protesters as extremists, arresting many of them, reported NUS, a flagship university. Students, farmers, and judiciary members all joined the protest against Rajapaksa and his family and voiced the slogan of "No more Rajapaksas". Upon the spread of the protest on social media, the regime took down the internet, infuriating the protesters even more for suppressing their democratic rights, resulting in the use of virtual private networks to access the same. Fearing the people's uprising, some of the family members of Rajapaksa and their financiers have even fled the country. Citizens demand Rajapaksa to step down as the President, calling for an election process to be conducted, not complying to which will lead to complete anarchy. The flagship university NUS reported the resignation of Cabinet Ministers. But the demand from the protestors for a new leadership made the newly elected Finance Minister Ali Sabry to resign as well. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka has befallen into a dire economic crisis due to debt troubles, liquidity problems, and minimum foreign reserves leading to long power outages, and scarcity of fuel impacting manufacturing industries and the middle class. (ANI) The Islamabad High Court has dismissed a petition seeking to prevent the expected issuance of a diplomatic passport to former premier and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, reported local media. The petition, filed on April 15 with Nawaz Sharif, interior secretary and foreign secretary named as respondents, stated that the government plans to issue a diplomatic passport to Nawaz Sharif, a convict, and an absconder and requested the court to restrain the government from doing so, reported Samaa TV. However, the petitioner could not produce any order, direction or notification issued by the federal government. At a hearing on Monday, the petition was thus rejected for the lack of any evidence to the petitioner's claims. "It is noted that no evidentiary value was attached to the press reports and no reliance can be placed on it when a person claims a legal right on its basis. It was settled law that courts will not decide cases on the basis of press reports," the media outlet quoted Chief Justice Athar Minallah as saying. The judge further said that the court had no reason to doubt that the government would act or pass an order which may be in derogation to the principles and law. Noting that the petition was based on unreliable material, the court declared the application as frivolous and asked the petitioner to pay a fine of Pakistani rupees 5,000, reported the media outlet. The developments come following the election of Nawaz Sharif's younger brother Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister as the media reports said that the Ministry of Interior has been directed to renew the passports of Nawaz Sharif and his brother-in-law Ishaq Dar. Further, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry on Wednesday said that Nawaz Sharif is expected to return to Pakistan "before the next elections". Nawaz Sharif, who is convicted in a corruption case, has been living in London on the "pretext of ill health" since November 2019, when the Lahore High Court had allowed him to leave the country for four weeks for medical treatment. Shehbaz Sharif had given an undertaking at the time that the senior Sharif would return within the stipulated time. Later, Nawaz Sharif sought extensions to prolong his stay in London on medical grounds. In August last year, Nawaz Sharif had filed an appeal with the British Immigration Tribunal after the Home Department refused to extend his stay in the country on "medical grounds" any further. Nawaz Sharif can legally remain in the UK till the tribunal issues its decision on his plea for his stay in the country. His passport had expired in February 2021. (ANI) Pakistan's left-wing party Sindh Taraqi-Pasand Party (STP) on Sunday held Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) responsible for the Sindhi nation's decline and urged nationalist forces to form a parliamentary front in Sindh against the party, local media reported. STP's Chairman Qadir Magsi made these statements during the Sindh Qaumi Conference on Sunday and said, "People voted the party to power but it always played an anti-Sindh role and enslaved the province. The youth should vote for rights of their province to challenge 'feudal aggression' in the shape of PPP," Dawn newspaper reported. The conference was called for a new parliamentary front against PPP and reminded Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) about Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's (MQM-P) alleged role in the terrorism acts. Speaking at the conference, Magsi claimed that PPP's Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and its co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari had harmed Sindh politically, economically, culturally and psychologically, reported Dawn. Magsi regretted the fact that for the first time in Sindh's history, a chief secretary had been posted "on racial lines", STP's Chairman alleged Asif Zardari of being involved in the conspiracy that aimed at dividing the Sindh province. He further said that after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, Asif introduced a dual Local Government system to establish the foundation of Sindh's division. In the conference, Magsi described PPP, PML-N and MQM-P as enemies of Sindh and said that STP is working on a joint parliamentary alliance against PPP to counter these federalist parties, reported Dawn. Sindh United Party (SUP) president Syed Zain Shah in the conference noted that the points of agreements signed by PPP, PML-N and MQM-P have made the assemblies irrelevant, therefore, and said, "It's a question of the existence of nations." Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) president Ayaz Latif Palijo said that Sindh was not on the agenda of the federal government. "Therefore, Sindhi people don't have any hopes in Shehbaz Sharif, who has perhaps not read [his party's] agreement with MQM-P," he added. He reminded the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that it was under the PML-N government that the MQM headquarter, 'Nine Zero' was raided to seize record of anti-Pakistan plots, and now that the same party [PML-N] had signed an agreement with MQM-P. He further said that they need an explanation, as per reported by Dawn. (ANI) Mahinda Rajapaksa made this move taking into consideration the demand for a government that is accountable to the people. The proposed constitutional amendment would include changes to the executive, legislature, and the judiciary, Xinhua reported citing the prime minister's media unit said. One of the demands of recent anti-government protests has also been the constitutional amendment that reduces the power of the executive. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday sworn in 17 new cabinet ministers after a wave of protests that swept the country earlier this month. Mass protests over economic mismanagement escalated in early April, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency on April 1. On April 3, the entire Sri Lankan cabinet decided to resign in the wake of the large-scale protests. The only exception was Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who remained in office. On the same day, Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed key ministers to an interim cabinet. Sri Lanka has been gripped by an economic crisis considered the worst since the country gained independence in 1948. Due to energy shortages, some parts of Sri Lanka have rolling blackouts. Sri Lanka's foreign debt is estimated at USD 51 billion. (ANI) The Pakistani local police and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel opened fire in the air on Sunday to disperse a group of protesters who were objecting to the shutting down of the Wana Bazaar and Angoor Adda border crossing point with Afghanistan. Traders and workers, belonging to several political parties, gathered at the Scout Camp in Wana and resolved to opt for a sit-in protest insisting on reopening the bazaar and the crossing point, reported Dawn newspaper. Even after opening fire in the air, the mob of protesters refused to comply and continued with the agitation until the bazaar was forced to open after a settlement between the administration officials and the local elders was reached. The markets and shops in the Wana town were closed after a water tanker of FC was struck by a mechanized explosive device. An ambush on a security post on Tuesday had killed a soldier that had forced the closure of Angoor Adda crossing point. Section 144 was imposed in the Wana subdivision on Saturday by the district administration. Internet facilities have also been cancelled, according to Dawn newspaper. Meantime, a jirga, comprising leaders of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, is instructed to attend a discussion on Monday, pertaining to the existing uncertainty in Wana and the shutdown of the Angoor Adda border point. (ANI) This comes after the recent incident at the Pakistan-Afghan border area that left seven Pakistani soldiers dead. This incident has added to the already widening rift between the two neighbours. In response to this attack which was reportedly carried out from across the border from Afghanistan, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kunar and Khost provinces. "In the last few days, incidents along the Pak-Afghan Border have significantly increased, wherein Pakistani security forces were targeted from across the border," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement. Islamabad stressed that it had repeatedly requested the Afghan government in the last few months to secure the border region since terrorists were using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan. The Taliban-led government later summoned Pakistan's Ambassador over the strikes and warned of serious consequences if such attacks did not stop. The UN mission in Afghanistan expressed deep concern over the reports of civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes in the Khost and Kunar provinces. "UNAMA is deeply concerned by reports of civilian casualties, incl. women and children, as a result of airstrikes in Khost and Kunar provinces last night. Civilians are never a target. UNAMA is working to establish facts on the ground and verify the extent of losses. #Afghanistan," the UN mission tweeted. (ANI) Maldives Foreign Ministry, in a statement, said the MoUs were signed by the Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid and Indian High Commissioner, Munu Mahawar, and the respective implementing agencies. The ceremony was attended by respective Members of Parliament, Island Councils, senior officials from the Government of the Maldives and the High Commission of India. Speaking at the ceremony today, Maldives Foreign Minister Shahid noted that the projects launched under the MoUs will strengthen the Government's efforts in fostering socio-economic development in local communities by promoting health and wellbeing, empowerment of youth and preservation and protection of culture and heritage. Shahid also expressed his profound gratitude to the Government of India for the key role India plays in promoting the socio-economic development of Maldives. The projects launched under the MoUs signed today are worth a total grant of 26.8 million Rufiya (equivalent to approximately USD 1.7 million). The projects include establishing a mental health centre at Addu Equatorial Hospital, a speech a therapy unit at Kulhudhufushi Regional Hospital, prosthetics and orthotics manufacturing workshop at Hulhumale' Hospital, preservation of cultural places in Noonu Landhoo Maabudhuge and Thaa Dhiyamigili Ganduvaru, development of a multi-sports complex in Noonu Manadhoo and developing youth centres in Gaafu Alif Gemanafushi and Alif Dhaalu Dhigurah. The overarching Memorandum of Understanding on Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of High Impact Community Development Projects through local bodies, was initially signed between the Governments of the Maldives and India on March 17, 2019, for a total grant of 85 million Rufiya and renewed with an increment up to 155 million Rufiya (equivalent to approximately 10 million USD), on July 23, 2021. The announcement to undertake seven new projects for implementation under this scheme, was made during the official visit of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Addu City last month. Apart from the projects launched today, eighteen projects are currently underway under this grant scheme. (ANI) Pakistan police will likely arrest the lawmakers involved in a brawl that broke out in the Punjab Assembly on Saturday within the next 24 hours, reported local media. The arrests will be made based on the CCTV records of the assembly seized by the Punjab police to identify the rioters, reported Geo News. Notably, the police had earlier requested the Punjab assembly secretary for the CCTV footage of the incident, however, the secretary refused to release the video recordings. According to the recordings, women lawmakers were also involved in attacking police personnel in the assembly, while the others identified through the video comprise several Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers including Fayyaz Chohan, Umer Tanveer, Rana Shahbaz, Khayal Ahmad Kastro, Mahinder Pall Singh, Wasiq Qayum Abbasi, Nawabzada Waseem, Abida Bibi, Momina Waheed, Zainab Umar, Shahida Ahmad, and Asia Amjad, according to the media outlet. Further, the video recording clearly shows Punjab assembly staff allowing the PTI lawmakers to bring "lotas" (water pots) into the hall before the session began on Saturday. Notably, violence broke out in the Punjab Assembly that gathered for the election of the Chief Minister on Saturday. Chaos ensued in the Assembly after the PTI and PML-Q lawmakers threw "lotas" at Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari as he arrived to chair the session. These lawmakers reportedly threw the plastic lotas at Mazari, while some of them dragged him by his hair and even thrashed him, following which, he was taken back to his chamber by the Assembly guards. When police officials entered the assembly halls to tackle the situation, many then turned toward the cops and attacked them, reported Geo News. Besides the police investigating the incident, Mazari has also constituted a nine-member committee to probe the incident separately, however, the assembly officials have refused to accept the committee's jurisdiction by terming it "unconstitutional". (ANI) Pakistan struck the Afghan provinces of Khost and Kunar on Saturday, leaving more than 45 dead. Islamabad said it was in response to attacks emanating from Afghan soil. Pakistani airstrikes prompted a series of protests across the country. Protestors and authorities in Afghanistan said these strikes were in violation of the country's sovereignty. A large number of people in Kandahar province staged protests on Monday in response to rocket attacks on Khost and Kunar provinces. People held anti-Pakistan banners and chanted slogans against the country, TOLO News reported. "Pakistan's illegal attacks on our soil must be stopped," said Samiullah Mukhlis, a protester. Another protester, Gulab Shah, said: "No one is taking action. We want the Islamic Emirate to give a tooth-breaking response to Pakistan." Similar protests were witnessed in Nangarhar on Sunday against Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan soil. Taliban led Defense Ministry called the attack tyrannical and warned that no country should provoke Afghanistan. "No country should test the Afghans. Should not make the Afghans take a similar step. Throughout history, Afghans proved that they never stay without response towards any aggression," Defense Ministry spokesperson Inayatullah Khwarazimi was quoted as saying by TOLO News. Officials in Afghanistan also summoned the Pakistani envoy to Kabul over the attacks in Khost and Kunar provinces. "Along with the IEA Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, the session also included Deputy Defense Minister Alhaj Mullah Shirin Akhund where the Afghan side condemned the recent attacks," the ministry said in a statement. (ANI) Former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Monday said that the economic crisis can only be solved when both the government and the public accept the uniform solution. "Government has to realise that they have to resolve the crisis and it will be only possible if the government accepts the resolution which is also acceptable to the country," former PM Wickremesinghe told ANI. Referring to the deadlock situation between the government and protesters, Wickremesinghe said that the situation has become serious. He said, "The protesters are demanding the resignation of the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa while the President has already given the signal that he is not going to step down from his post and on other hand, the Members of Parliament (MPs) from the ruling side are demanding Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign." He further said that the pressure that protesters have created on President has resulted in a government crisis or political instability in the country. On the issue of not going to the International Monetary Fund in 2021 for relief in connection with the ongoing economic crisis, Wickremesinghe slammed the incumbent government for not making timely interventions. He also said that amid the economic crisis, the ruling government went to the IMF for financial assistance but this time IMF asked for the exchange rate to be adjusted gradually and also within 24 hours, which was not possible. Regarding the food crisis in the country, the former PM said that their new policy of not allowing the fertiliser rather than organic fertiliser has brought the food production down. He further said that now the government have no money to buy the food from abroad. "India has provided one and half billion of credit for fuel and food. India's credit line for fuel will run out by the first week of May and there be another crisis. Sri Lanka government requested India to give an extension to credit line but there are also issues as Sri Lanka government has declared itself bank corrupt," Wickremesinghe said. Responding to the statement that the Sri Lanka government they have handed over everything to China, the former prime minister said, "China has some projects in Sri Lanka but the country has not been handed over to China or anyone else." Looking at the situation in the island nation, Wickremesinghe said that there won't be a civil war in the country but the shortage of food can lead to a semi-violent reaction. He further said, "Government has to listen to the protesters if they continue to protest for weeks." Dismissing the allegations of the PM that the previous government is responsible for the present crisis, the former Pm said, "I reject the allegations." He further said that if they also go for the blame game then the crisis won't be solved and asked the government to look at IMF's proposals. Wickremesinghe urged the friendly neighbouring countries to support the island nation with food and medicine. He also said that he is in conversation with ambassadors of different countries to help the country in this situation. (ANI) Two UK citizens captured by Russian forces during the war in Ukraine, have turned to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a request to facilitate their exchange for detained Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk who is regarded as Russian President Vladimir Putin's main ally. Shaun Pinner, one of those captured, said on the Russian state media that he and Aiden Aslin, the second captured, would like to be exchanged for Medvedchuk, Sputnik reported. They added that they would be grateful for Johnson's help in this matter. Pinner noted that he is treated well and understands what position he is in. Aslin, added he considers it important that Johnson heed the call of Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, to exchange them for her husband. Last week, the celebrity wife of Putin's main ally in Ukraine accused Ukrainian authorities of "persecuting" her husband for political reasons and pleaded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to immediately release him from captivity. Oksana Marchenko who is a former TV star and hosted "X-Factor Ukraine" first posted a direct appeal on Wednesday, the day after her husband, longtime Putin pal Viktor Medvedchuk, was held in Kyiv for treason, reported New York Post. In a video, she appealed to Zelenskyy saying, "President Zelensky, I ask you to take all necessary actions for the immediate release of my husband." Medvedchuk who is listed by Forbes last year as Ukraine's 12th-richest person, worth USD 620 million was put under house arrest last May, charged with "high treason." However, according to Ukrainian police, he fled house arrest a few days after Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy announced Viktor's arrest, showing him downcast and in cuffs and sparking widespread celebrations. "There is no doubt that my husband is being persecuted for political reasons, contrary to the laws of Ukraine and international law," she insisted of the 67-year-old oligarch and former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party. In yet another appeal on Friday, she pleaded for her husband's release and called him a "political prisoner." Marchenko at the press conference, without offering proof, said, "I have no doubt that my husband was beaten within hours after his capture." "I call for help to stop the physical and mental torture," she said. She said she had "unfortunately" not heard from Zelenskyy and conceded that she was not expecting to, either. "He doesn't answer such questions, he is his own law," Marchenko added, according to Russia's TASS news agency, reported NY Post. (ANI) Biotechnology company Ocugen and Bharat Biotech (BBIL), on Monday, announced that they have entered into an amendment to their Co-development, Supply and Commercialization Agreement to expand Ocugen's exclusive territory to include commercialization of COVAXIN in Mexico. This gives Ocugen COVAXIN commercialization rights for all of North America, the company said in a press statement. "We're excited to commercialize COVAXIN in Mexico, as authorities there have made conquering this pandemic a major priority. After meeting with Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, in Delhi, we are encouraged by the role COVAXIN can play in Mexico's continuing efforts to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. COVAXIN is currently under review by COFEPRIS (Comision Federal para la Proteccion contra Riesgos Sanitarios) for emergency use among children between 2 and 18 years of age, and Ocugen is prepared to collaborate with the public health community to help their efforts. We also thank Bharat Biotech for helping make this opportunity a reality," said Dr Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Ocugen, Inc. COVAXIN can be an ideal vaccination option for Mexico at this stage of the pandemic. As a whole virion, inactivated vaccine, it elicits robust cellular immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 and Variants of Concern. It offers logistical advantages that could support vaccine access in hard-to-reach communities. "We are delighted to announce our partnership with Ocugen for Mexico, along with the United States and Canada. COVAXIN is a safe and efficacious inactivated vaccine for all age groups as evident from its data from global introduction. We are fully supportive of team Ocugen in our endeavor to expedite technology transfer activities towards commercial-scale manufacturing of COVAXIN in North America," said Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech. The license extension between Ocugen and Bharat Biotech with respect to commercialization in Mexico includes the same profit share structure as in the United States. (ANI) Taking to Twitter, O'Farrell said Australia looks forward to working closely with Lieutenant General Pande to progress an already strong defence partnership with India. "Congratulations to Lieutenant General Manoj Pande on his appointment as India's 29th Chief of the Army Staff. Australia looks forward to working closely with you to progress our already strong defence partnership and our shared interests in the Indo Pacific," O'Farrell tweeted. The Central Government on Monday appointed Indian Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of the Indian Army and he will take over his new office on May 1. The 29th Army chief will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff succeeding General Manoj Mukund Naravane who is scheduled to complete his 28 month-tenure on April 30. "Government has decided to appoint Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff," the Defence officials told ANI. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. Lieutenant General Pande commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Operation Parakram, the large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western border, followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. In his 39-year military career, Lt General Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along LoC, a mountain division in the Ladakh sector and a corps in the northeast. He was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command before he took charge of the Eastern Command. (ANI) Amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the ambassador of Poland to India Adam Burakowski on Monday said that the world stands united against Moscow, which is killing innocent Ukrainian civilians in the guise of the war. On the 54th day of Ukraine-Russia war, the Ukraine embassy in New Delhi organized a picture exhibition to show Russia's "barbaric" acts in Ukraine. Burakowski, who was visiting the exhibition, in an exclusive interview with ANI, said that Russia's only aim is to cause maximum destruction in Ukraine and the whole world stands united against this aggression. "We can see that Russia's goal is that they want to kill as many civilians as possible, to destroy as many buildings as possible, and to spread fear, terror, death and lies. The whole world is threatened by Russian aggression," he said. "We, together with our allies, NATO and European Union, are united against Russia and trying to stop Russia by imposing sanctions," he added expressing hope that the European Union will impose more sanctions against Russia. Speaking on Poland's contribution to helping Ukraine, the envoy said that Poland stands with Ukraine against Russia's barbaric aggression and has been helping Ukraine in all possible ways. "Poland was the first country to help Ukraine. Around 3 million refugees from Ukraine came to Poland. We provide them with shelter, Polish families take them home. We are also providing Ukraine with humanitarian aid," he stated. Meanwhile, Vikas Javle, an eyewitness to the war said that the situation in Ukraine is far worse than the pictures in the exhibition could represent. Javle, who belongs to Maharashtra, had been working in Sumy city of Ukraine for 11 years and was evacuated from the war-torn country on March 11 under the Indian government's Operation Ganga. Speaking on the situation in Ukraine, Javle said, "The situation was very scary. It was unexpected as nobody could think that in the 21st century, such a war could happen. We could regularly hear the sounds of bombardment. There was no electricity and water." "Sumy is located on the eastern side of Ukraine. So we were one of the last batches of people to be evacuated by the Indian government. While we were waiting for the government to evacuate us, we were panicked, however, the Ukrainian people really helped us," he added. On February 24, Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine, which the West has termed an unprovoked war. As a result of this, the Western countries have imposed several crippling sanctions on Moscow. (ANI) The Mauritius Premier is arriving in India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Glad to receive Honourable PM of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth at Rajkot. Extended heartiest welcome for his visit to Gujarat where he will be taking part in important programmes that will further strengthen ties between maritime neighbours," Minister of AYUSH, Sarbananda Sonowal, said in a tweet. Tomorrow, Jugnauth will participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Jugnauth will also participate in the Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, along with PM Modi. The Mauritius PM will also pay a visit to Varanasi apart from his official engagements in Gujarat and New Delhi. "India and Mauritius enjoy uniquely close ties, bound by shared history, culture, and heritage. The upcoming visit will further strengthen the vibrant bilateral ties," MEA said. Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Secretary to the Cabinet of Mauritius NK Ballah in New Delhi and said the bilateral cooperation between the two countries was "progressing from strength to strength". Earlier in January, PM Modi and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth had jointly inaugurated the India-assisted social housing units project in Mauritius virtually. They also launched the Civil Service College and 8 MW Solar PV Farm project in Mauritius that is being undertaken under India's development support. (ANI) With the consistent arbitrary arrests of journalists by the Taliban, the media in Afghanistan faces ever-increasing restrictions, reported local media. In the latest incident of such arbitrary detention, an Afghan TV host and presenter Moheb Jalili had been abducted and tortured by the Taliban members in Kabul city on Saturday, Khaama Press reported citing sources. Confirming his detention in an interview with Hasht-e-Subh, Jalili said that he is not sure of the crime for which the Taliban detained and tortured him. In another similar incident, a local journalist Sharif Hassanyar said that his co-worker has been "badly beaten", adding that Afghan media practitioners are "paying the price of freedom of expression." Further, the manager of Rasa TV Jamshi Ahamad Ahmadi was shot wounded by unidentified people in Kabul, reported the media outlet citing the sources. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year, it rolled back women's rights advances and media freedom revoking the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country. Earlier on March 17, the Taliban detained at least three employees of TOLOnews, Afghanistan's largest television station, over violation of the latest policies where broadcasting foreign drama series was banned. Following the arrests, the Taliban's secret service, in a statement, warned that it would not violation of "Islamic principles" or any threat to the "mental and psychological security" of the Afghan people, reported the media outlet. Further on March 28, the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence raided at least four radio stations in the southern province of Kandahar for violating the recent ban on music, detaining six media practitioners, reported the Afghan new agency. According to sources, a number of journalists have reported they have been harassed, beaten, and detained by the Taliban without a clear objection to their practices. The ever-increasing restrictions against media in Afghanistan have also drawn widespread criticism globally with the United Nations (UN) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decrying the arrests, demanding the Taliban stop harassing local journalists and stifling freedom of speech through continued detentions and threats. While the United Nations Assistant Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has also expressed concern over the situation of media in the country, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have written to Richard Bennett, the UN's new special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, calling for urgent action to defend journalists and press freedom in Afghanistan, where arbitrary arrests are on the rise and a climate of fear has taken hold in all media outlets. (ANI) With Pakistan launching an "unprovoked airstrike" against Afghanistan, killing innocent civilians under the guise of taking out the terrorist group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it seems that Pakistan is inspired by its new friend Russia in exploiting the weakness of its neighbouring countries, said a media report. Getting inspiration from new friend Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Army is exploiting the Taliban regime's military weakness and over-dependence on Pakistan to launch airstrikes against civilian targets with impunity, writes Kaliph Anaz. Drawing similarities between Ukraine and Afghanistan, Anaz opines that like Ukraine, the Taliban neither has the military power nor resources to counter the Pakistan Army and despite deep suspicion about the Taliban regime, the international community cannot allow Pakistan to target the civilian population in Afghanistan. Notably, more people have been killed in Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan than in Ukraine by Russians in a day as local news and social media claim the figure of civilians killed in the air attacks to be more than a hundred while the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations has confirmed over 40 casualties. The airstrikes, which are being considered Pakistan's retaliation to TTP, which has attacked Pakistan army installations and personnel in recent months, have raised an uproar in Afghanistan where anger is rising in the streets of various provinces, reported Asian Lite. A big public rally was held on Saturday evening by the residents of Khost where they chanted anti-Pakistan slogans and the angry residents also gathered on Sunday to protest attacks by the Pakistani military in Khost and Kunar provinces. Journalists and analysts in Afghanistan have accused Pakistan of direct interference and violation of Afghan sovereignty. While Pakistan seems to be justifying the unprovoked attacks as a non-military counterattack against terrorist groups, the increasing death toll of innocent children and women in the attacks tells that the real objective seems to be compelling the Taliban regime to accept Pakistan's supremacy. This can be inferred as though Pakistan has been a key instrument in helping the Taliban to capture Kabul, the new regime has since refused to play Pakistani tunes which can be demonstrated by its inaction against TTP. The attack could also be part of Pakistan army chief General Qamar Bajwa's desperate need to assert the army's authority post the Imran Khan episode, reported the media oultet. While the attack may be justified by the Pakistani army trying to reaffirm its power and spite Imran Khan, who had been sympathetic towards the Taliban regime, the killing of innocent women and children is a clear violation of international conventions and the sovereignty of a neighbouring country. Thus, the attacks, targetting innocent civilians, can be seen as Pakistan's exploitation of the Taliban regime's military weakness. A long drawn-out conflict in a poverty-stricken country would only bring misery to the helpless people whose dire situation find little space in the global media, according to the media outlet. (ANI) Stockholm [Sweden], April 19 (ANI/Sputnik): Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has condemned the unrest that has engulfed several cities across the country following anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rallies organized by Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, Swedish media reported on Monday. Last Thursday, Paludan and his anti-immigration political party scheduled a demonstration that included burning a copy of the Muslim holy book in the Swedish city of Linkoping with the permission of local authorities. The police had to intervene as Muslim counter-protesters stepped in, attacking officers and setting police cars ablaze. According to Andersson, in Linkoping and several other cities, where similar clashes occurred, a total of 44 people have been arrested. "I will make it very clear, those attacking the Swedish police, attack the Swedish democratic society. The perpetrators must be arrested, prosecuted and serve a sentence in prison," Andersson said to Aftonbladet newspaper in a letter. She claimed being disgusted by Paludan's hateful views, but stressed that it was "unacceptable, irresponsible and illegal" to respond to them with violence. "Over the last few days, we witnessed terrible sights in many cities of Sweden. The police officers who wished to celebrate Easter with their families in a peaceful atmosphere were forced to protect laws and freedom of speech, while risking their lives," Andersson added. The police have the evidence to assume that the unrest was organized by criminal groups, she said, adding that the demonstrations were joined by local Muslim communities. Paludan has the record of spurring massive discontent by publicly burning Quran as a manifestation of his anti-Muslim views. He calls for banning Islam in Denmark and deporting all people of non-Western origin who received shelter in the country. (ANI/Sputnik) WORCESTER, MA Worcester voters in November elected five new residents to sit on the school committee and city council, which political watchers at the time hailed as a big shakeup in local politics. Those five candidates school committee members Jermaine Johnson, Sue Mailman and Jermoh Kamara; plus District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and At-Large Councilor Thu Nguyen reached the 100-day mark on April 13 after an inauguration ceremony on Jan. 3. Worcester Patch spoke to each of the newly elected candidates about the first 100 days to find out what challenges and successes they've experienced so far. Jermaine Johnson Johnson made history in November when he became the first Black man to win a seat on the Worcester School Committee. One area he wanted to focus on was the social and emotional wellbeing of students following long remote learning periods during the pandemic. Johnson reported a pretty good experience 100 days in, but noted a learning curve for new members. He's had to learn how to navigate parliamentary rules, and discovered that the school system doesn't always move as quickly as he'd like. For example, he asked for data on student mental health in January, but it took until April for him to get it. "Sometimes it's just a slow process, and it feels like we're spinning our wheels and not getting the answers we want. I know it just takes time," he said. Worcester School Committee member Jermaine Johnson. (Courtesy Jermaine Johnson) The lifting of a district mask mandate and the superintendent search have been two of the biggest issues before the school committee in 2022. Johnson is not on the superintendent search committee, but he did vote to repeal the mask mandate. He said the decision was tough because constituents were split on the issue. He felt it was the right move based on data available in early March. As far as the next superintendent, Johnson said he wants someone who is "open, honest and transparent," and focused on working on diversity and inclusion issues in the district. He's also looking forward to working on other projects, like the district's takeover of the bus system, and meeting with principals and other school building leaders. Story continues "I'm just trying to learn and listen to people, to get a grasp on what's going on and what's needed in the district," he said. Jermoh Kamara Kamara's bid for school committee in 2021 was her second after she fell short in 2019. She made a splash in August when she released a statement saying Superintendent Maureen Binienda's contract should not be renewed. A few days later, the school committee voted to do just that, kicking off the superintendent search process. Kamara joined the committee searching for the new school district leader after she took office. Kamara said one surprise so far is the amount of time she's devoted to the elected position, on top of her full-time job, since taking office. "To really want to do this job perfectly, you have to give up so much of yourself," she said of the time committment. "I like to feel like Im putting my all in and also maintaining work-life balance." Worcester School Committee member Jermoh Kamara. (Courtesy Jermoh Kamara) She's also been frustrated reaching goals. Kamara had wanted to work on broadband accessibility issues for students, with about one-third of households in Worcester lacking broadband internet access, according to the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. But she's had trouble even getting appointed to committees in city government dealing with that issue. "Is it fair as a new person, I can't sit on the committee because someone else on school committee already does?" she said. But Kamara also said she feels like she's making an impact. She highlighted multiple meetings with school leaders, parent-teacher organizations and community groups as occasions when she's been able to be an advocate for the people she represents. "I feel like I am doing my best if I'm protecting people who are vulnerable, the kids who can't speak for themselves and the people who aren't in the public sphere," she said. Sue Mailman Although Mailman won an election for the first time in November, she's well known in Worcester as owner of Coghlin Electrical Contractors, a board member at the United Way of Central Massachusetts and a member of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. Even with that experience, Mailman agreed with Johnson that there's a steep learning curve coming into office. It's especially notable on the school committee, where three of the six members (minus Mayor Joseph Petty) are brand new in 2022. "That creates a ton of people who don't fully get the process, but the better side of it is you have engaged people who really want to do the job they ran to do," she said. Worcester School Committee member Sue Mailman. (Courtesy Sue Mailman) But Mailman also said all three new members realized that issues like the superintendent search, coronavirus and the upcoming fiscal year 2023 budget process would dominate at least the first six months of 2022. The new members have also had plenty more to do, from sorting out ESSER coronavirus relief funding to staying on top of school maintenance issues. One item that could change is two-year terms. Both city council and school committee members serve the same term lengths. "These are big roles that take a long time to learn the ins and outs of," she said. "It's too bad that we don't give people an opportunity to really do that before they're running again." Etel Haxhiaj Dating back to the 2021 campaign, Haxhiaj has been a target of right wing attacks, which escalated after she took office. Haxhiaj says the attacks are part of a wider trend of harassment against women, people of color and members of LGBTQ community who have been elected in recent years. New Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, for example, has been the target of racist attacks in 2022. About a week after Haxhiaj won her District 5 seat, a hacker seized her Facebook account and began posting obscene images, and pictures of the ISIS flag which may be due to Haxhiaj being the first Muslim-American elected to city council, she said. Haxhiaj has regularly been called antisemitic, and was mocked as "extreme Etel" by her opponent in the 2021 race. During her first 100 days, Haxhiaj attempted to reinstitute an eviction moratorium because of the omicron surge, and spoke in favor of a zoning ban on new gas stations. Those efforts were scuttled in a series of procedural moves, and so Haxhiaj has refocused on forging relationships with councilors who have been around longer , she said. "After having a couple of those experiences with items I was putting forward, I reached out to a few of the councilors to try to understand a little better where I can be supportive of them," she said. Haxhiaj is looking forward to upcoming debates in city council around a possible new inclusionary zoning effort that could help housing affordability in swiftly gentrifying Worcester. In the near term, she's also looking forward to discussing a new proposal by Worcester police to begin using drones, and the search for a new city manager. She also hopes to start doing more public events, including neighborhood walks with constituents. Right wing groups around Worcester are still targeting Haxhiaj on social media. But as she continues through her first term, she hopes the problems she's faced will highlight larger inequities in Worcester political culture that need fixing. "Comfort isn't the goal. Equity and full community engagement is," she said. Thu Nguyen Nguyen is the third person along with Haxhiaj and Kamara elected in November born outside the U.S. Nguyen is also the first elected official in Massachusetts who identifies as nonbinary, which means they do not describe themselves as either male or female. Nguyen did not respond to requests for an interview, but after the recent resignation of Stephanie Williams, Worcester's most recent chief diversity officer, Nguyen gave a glimpse at some of the adversity theyve faced in office. "I have also been misgendered many times by city staff. During orientation, someone from HR sat across from me and said, 'Im glad there are more women getting in these positions,'" they said. Nguyen went on to say that Worcester still has a lot of work to do around equity, diversity and inclusion. Nguyen has become one of the more outspoken councilors, siding with the gas station ban proposal, supporting women who came forward to report sexual abuse at the St. John's food pantry and pumping the brakes on Petty's plan to replace outgoing City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. Near their 100-day mark last week, Nguyen posted a message on Facebook asking for feedback. "Hitting that 100 days mark! Checking in my friends! Please drop some feedback! How am I doing as your councilor? Here to serve ya!" they wrote. "You're doing exactly what you promised: representing the community and leading with heart. It's obvious you do your homework and recognize implications that many others want to ignore," Worcester political activist Deb Powers responded. This article originally appeared on the Worcester Patch Eleven people were killed in the past week across the Kansas City region, including a middle schooler who was stabbed to death. All but two of the killings occurred in Kansas City. So far this year, the metro has suffered 75 homicides, including 46 in Kansas City, according to data tracked by The Star. Last year, Kansas City saw its second-deadliest year on record, with 157 killings. In 2020, 182 people were slain, making it the worst year on record. Homicides have generally risen over the past 20 years as community leaders grapple with solutions. Since 2000, Kansas City has recorded only five years that did not exceed 100 lives lost. We cant keep having violence like this, let it be episodic in some ways, like we saw yesterday, and then just move on like it didnt happen, Lucas said Tuesday, following four homicides reported within 24 hours in Kansas City. He is looking for ways to use federal funds for violence prevention. Here is a timeline of the violence over the past week across the metro area. Homicides The week started off with five killings in less than 24 hours across the Kansas City metro. Manuel Guzman was found stabbed inside a bathroom at Northeast Middle School just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, police said. Guzman, who was 14, was taken to the hospital where he died a few hours later. Another male student was charged with first-degree murder in Jackson County Juvenile Court. Later that day, Ashley Speer, 38, was found shot on the side of the road. Officers found Speer at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of 12th Street and Hardesty Avenue, where she was declared dead. A couple hours later, police responded to a shooting at about 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of a Family Dollar near 39th Street and Indiana Avenue. There, officers found 44-year-old Alfred Brown suffering from gunshot wounds inside a vehicle. He died less than an hour after arriving at the hospital. At 10:30 p.m., across the river in Kansas City, Kansas, police responded to a shooting in the 3700 block of Plaza Drive. They transported Lisa McKeehan, 35, who was found suffering from gunshot wounds, to the hospital where she later died. Story continues The next day, on Wednesday, 36-year-old Keith Gorham was one of three shooting victims discovered by police at about 3:15 a.m. in the area of East 38th Street and Wabash Avenue. While the other two victims lived, Gorham did not. Police determined the gunfire came from a nearby home where a house party was taking place. At about 11 a.m. Thursday in Independence, shots were fired in the area of the 13800 block of East 35th Street South. Arriving officers found a man suffering from a gunshot wound inside a car in the Cargo Largo parking lot. Another man found with the victim told police that the shooting occurred at an apartment complex across the street. On Friday afternoon, at about 5 p.m., officers found a man suffering from gunshot wounds near the 3800 block of East Gregory. The victim, who has not yet been publicly identified, was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he was later pronounced dead. Two hours later, police were called to the 1500 block of Campbell Street. When they arrived, they found a man suffering from unknown injuries. The victim was taken to the hospital where he died. His death was ruled a homicide on Saturday. Three people died from gunshot wounds they sustained on Saturday. The first shooting happened when gunshots were fired at about 3:15 a.m. in the 8600 block of Newton Avenue. A man was found there, suffering from fatal gunshot wounds. One person of interest was taken into custody. Then, officers were called just after 10:30pm to the 7900 block of Longview Road on a reported shooting. There, they found a man suffering from gunshot wounds inside a home. He died at the hospital a short time later. About 15 minutes earlier, officers were called at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday to a shooting in the 4300 block of Hardesty Avenue. There they found a man inside a home suffering from gunshot wounds, police said. The man was taken to the hospital with critical injuries. He died the next morning. The Daily Beast Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Carabinieri MIlano/FindMadeline.comJust a few days shy of what would be Madeleine McCanns 19th birthday, a break in the case points to everyones worst fears: that the young Briton was abducted, sold and killed by a pedophile sex ring that worked in and around the Portuguese resort town where she disappeared 15 years ago.Thousands of tips and hundreds of sightings over the years led to dead ends until Christian Bruckner was officially named a CHICAGO The congregation gathered for Easter Sunday at a neighborhood funeral home. Some have been members of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church for more than 30 years. Others were inspired to join for the first time. All came to hear the message of resurrection. We are Antioch strong this morning, lead Pastor Gerald M. Dew said to more than 200 congregants at Calahan Funeral Home in Englewood, after a fire on Good Friday tore through their church. It was accidentally set ablaze by workers using a propane torch, Chicago Fire Department officials said. No injuries were reported, but the roof caved in and the building, at 6248 S. Stewart Ave., was significantly damaged. Dew began his sermon by acknowledging the devastation felt on Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was a dark Friday, it was a devastating Friday, hearts were broken on that Friday, tears were flowing on that Friday, and hopes were damaged on that Friday, Dew said. These are the emotions that we are so familiar with because we just experienced an awful Friday. We like Jesus are faced with stones, Dew said. But Easter and resurrection transcends the resurrection of Jesus and points to the obvious opportunity and possibility of our resurrection. Anthony Nichols, 63, has been going to Antioch Missionary Baptist Church every Sunday for the past three years. The pastor is a great pastor, a great teacher, a great leader, and what happened on Good Friday is not going to destroy the faith of Gods children, Nichols said. On Good Friday the church burned down, but we still rise. Antioch has a special place in Nichols heart because it is where he met his wife, Lorea Lewis 56 , who has been a member of Antioch for more than 25 years. When I first came to Antioch, I was part of another church, but then I met my wife and started going (to Antioch) every Sunday, he said. The couple met in February 2019 and within six months of dating, Nichols proposed to Lewis in the church. Story continues Nichols said he finds comfort that he can still feel the spiritual guidance of the church community although the church family cannot meet at the physical location. My hope is that we can rebuild, Nichols said. God knows when youre trying to do the right thing, and Antioch teaches us to keep striving to be the best. Erston Harris , 58, said he joined the church as a member in 2012 but has been involved with the Antioch community for more than 30 years through family celebrations and mentorship programs. This is a tight-knit family, Harris said. We have to do the work of the Lord no matter what we do through the ups and the downs. Yvonne Reese, 68, said she had often passed by Antioch when going for a stroll to the store but had not attended a service there until Sunday. When I heard there was a fire, I ran down there but was told that we couldnt go near it, Reese said. " I came here today to support and will make sure to visit. Shirley Calahan, one of the owners of the funeral home where the Easter service was held, is not a member of Antioch but is one of the churchs biggest supporters. They are our neighbors in the community as well as our partners so we found it to be the right thing to do especially on this Resurrection Sunday, she said. Calahan said she hopes the funeral home and Antioch can continue their relationship to the next level. Were not sure what that next level looks like but whatever they need us to be or do, well be there to support, Calahan said. The sun will shine again in the light of the Antioch Church family, and they shall rise again. ATHENS, Greece (AP) Two Turkish men who apparently flew right across the Aegean Sea in an ultralight aircraft to seek asylum in the European Union have been rescued after they ran out of fuel and ditched their small plane off the Greek island of Evia, officials said Monday. The men, ages 32 and 31, were helped out of the water by local fishermen Saturday, and taken for first aid to a health center on Evia, just off the central Greek mainland. Greek media said the men identified themselves as political dissidents in Turkey and were planning to seek asylum. They were arrested for illegal entry. A coast guard statement said they told authorities they had set off from near the coastal city of Izmir in western Turkey about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from where they crashed for Athens, from where they had planned to travel on to some other European country. Also Monday, the coast guard said in a statement that 28 asylum-seekers were found off the southeastern Aegean Sea island of Rhodes after an air and sea search and rescue operation triggered by a distress call Sunday. EU-member Greece is a major entry point for people fleeing conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Most attempt the dangerous crossing by sea from Turkey to Greece's eastern Aegean islands, in unseaworthy boats provided by migrant-smuggling rings. Greek police said Sunday that a migrant was killed by gunfire at the Greece-Turkey land border while she and several others attempted to cross a river separating the two countries. It was unclear from which side of the border the fatal shot came, or who fired it. ___ Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration Aberdeen has received $51.3 million in state financing to go toward $56 million in improvements at the city's water reclamation plant. Aberdeen was one of several communities and rural water systems to receive a combination of loans and grants for water or wastewater system improvements from the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources. The financing included a $32.4 Clean Water State Revolving Loan and a nearly $18.9 million grant through the American Rescue Plan, according to a news release form the state. In November, the Aberdeen City Council heard about the need for $56.3 million in improvements at the city's water reclamation plant. That work would help expand treatment capacity from 8 million gallons per day to 12 million gallons per day. More: Aberdeen City Council hears $56.3 million expansion plan for water reclamation plant In applying to the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources for financing, the City Council also agreed to put $5 million of the city's American Rescue Plan funding toward the project. During city council discussion, City Manager Joe Gaa said the state was expected to match the city's contribution and could award another 30% in grant funding. Public Works Director Robin Bobzien said the grant funding will definitely help reduce the city's overall cost for the project, which is expected to be bid later this year. Bobzien said design work is still being completed. More: Aberdeen City Council approves spending $5M in stimulus funds for water plant improvements Key areas identified for expansion at the water reclamation plant include: Expansion of the headworks building, which is where pre-treatment and initial screening of sewage happens. Primary clarifiers tanks with a third four-million-gallon tank. The final clarifier system with a third tank. Expanding the aeration basin area from four cells to 10. Other regional projects getting help from the state follow. WEB Water Development Association received a $6.52 million grant to upgrade its raw water intake pipe size from 30 inches to 48 inches in anticipation of a much larger drinking water regionalization project. Story continues Webster received three funding awards, according to the release: A $3.338 million loan and a $4 million grant to replace cracked sanitary sewer pipe and 15 sewer manholes. A $353,000 loan to address areas with no storm water collection by removing damaged pavement and installing storm sewer drains. A $1.856 million loan and a $2.422 million grant for a project to replace components of the city's aging drinking water system. Britton received a $911,862 loan and a $504,968 grant to expand a lift station that operates at or over capacity and install sewer lines on South Main Street. Grant-Roberts Rural Water System received a $4.36 million loan and a $2.433 million grant to install 24 miles of pipeline to add capacity so each reservoir can be filled during times of high-water use. Work also includes pipeline loops and parallel lines to improve system reliability and provide a bulk water connection to Corona. BDM Rural Water System received an $8 million loan with $507,867 in principal forgiveness and a $3.5 million grant to construct a new water diversion system and treatment system for additional water supplies. In addition, 18 miles of pipe will be added to expand the system to add redundancy and stabilize pressure. Lastly, 382 water meters will be replaced. Bowdle received a $1.583 million loan and a $762,176 grant to make wastewater system improvements. The Mina Lake Sanitary District received a $246,400 loan and a $105,600 grant to upgrade its water meters and transmitters to monitor its water system more effectively. The Pickerel Lake Sanitary District received a $805,000 loan and a $2.158 million grant to replace or rehabilitate 13 lift stations within the collection system that are at the end of their useful life. This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Aberdeen receives loan, grant for water reclamation plant expansion When it comes to spring cleaning, it can be challenging to get yourself motivated for the task. Its time-consuming and can be labor-intensive, but there is no better feeling than completing the job. If youre like us and spend way too much time on TikTok (guilty as charged), you can actually use the apps forces for good and get yourself excited about cleaning. Just find your way to CleanTok, a selection of the best cleaning and organization videos the platform has to offer. Once youve made it there, youll be able to browse hundreds of oh-so-satisfying videos where disorganized or dirty spaces become immaculate in less than 60 seconds. CleanTok creators use the app to reveal all of their must-know cleaning and organization tips. Whether its a special blend to remove a tough laundry stain or the most efficient way to clean your dust boards, you really can find it all. To get you excited about your upcoming home projects, we tapped eight of CleanToks most popular creators to share their go-to tricks for a spotless home. Read on to find out their secrets to a successful spring-cleaning and the cleaning products that help them get the job done. Who? Brianna is a Sacramento, Californiabased TikToker who has been creating home organization content since March of 2020. Her videos show the entire process of organizing. Its not about a completed, perfectly organized cabinet, she says. Its about a journey, [bringing] something that is unorganized to organized. #1 Tip: Label, Label, Label A big part of spring-cleaning is concealing clutter and placing items in bins, baskets, and drawers. But, because you cant see whats inside, it can be hard to find what youre looking for when you need it most. To solve this problem, Brianna advises placing similar items together and adding labels to the bins. To keep things tidy throughout usage, I love to add labels, she shares, Its so much easier on the eye when items are grouped into categories. Story continues Talented Kitchen Minimalistic Labels $14.00, Amazon Who? Jessica joined TikTok in May of 2020. Her content is focused on giving anyone who feels like theyre disorganized the tools and tricks they need to organize their home and make changes that work with their daily routine. #1 Tip: Contain Your Cords The right containers can take a dreadful space and make it beautiful and functional in minutes, she explains. If youre storing cords loosely in drawers, she recommends neatly storing any loose cords in a cord organizer. Just take five minutes to gather all of them up and place them inside. This quick and affordable solution will change the [organization] game, she says, and keep cords from floating around your space. Novelinks Box Organizer $30.00, Amazon Who? In October 2019, Miyaeva began creating ASMR-style cleaning and organization videos on TikTok. This style of video creates calm energy, she says: It relaxes me and others, and I think I love that part the most. #1 Tip: Take Drawer Organization Up a Notch If youre someone who hides clutter inside your drawers, were right there with you. To mitigate this issue, Miyaeve recommends using plastic drawer organizers to give everything a special place. When things have a certain place, it makes it easier to just put it back instead of somewhere else, she explains. SMARTAKE 22-Piece Drawer Organizer $28.00, Amazon Who? Danielle is a Canadian TikToker who uses the app to express her cleaning creativity. Her cleaning content runs the gamutfrom laundry hacks to the best ways to sanitize your kitchen sink. You can find it all on Danielles TikTok page. #1 Tip: Dont Forget About Your Walls When youre spring-cleaning, areas like the bathroom, bedroom, or kitchen tend to take up most of your time. All of these spaces have one thing in common: walls! According to Danielle, spring-cleaning is the perfect time to give them a thorough cleaning. All you have to do is get out your favorite mophers is the O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mopwring it out well and, as she says, go to town. To clean her walls, she says powdered Tide is the secret ingredient. O-Cedar Easywring Microfiber Spin Mop $43.00, Amazon Kaeli McEwen @kaelimaee (8.1M followers) Who? Kaeli is based in San Diego and began creating TikTok videos in May of 2020. What I love about using TikTok to share my cleaning and organizational tips would be the influence and motivation it gives my audience, she says. The fact Im able to inspire so many people is amazing! #1 Tip: Divide Your Dresser Drawers I know how easy it is for drawers to get messy fast, Kaeli says. To keep them nice and tidy, she recommends using drawer dividers to keep all your clothes in their place. Not only do they prevent you from overfilling your drawers, but they also provide a much cleaner and sleek look, she says. Adjustable Bamboo Clothing Drawer Organizers $20.00, Amazon Who? Catherine is a Kentucky-based TikToker and a self-proclaimed cleaning addict. Her TikTok page is all about connecting with others all around the world and helping viewers see their space in a positive way. #1 Tip: Use Airtight Containers to Preserve Food If youre someone who feels like your food is always going bad, Catherine recommends utilizing airtight storage containers in your fridge and pantry to preserve your products. Theyre great for creating uniformity in your space and giving each item a designated place. OXO Good Grips 3-Piece POP Cereal Dispenser Set $55.00, Amazon Who? Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Ashley began posting content on TikTok in March of 2021 to give viewers tips on creating what she calls the beautiful home and spaces we deserve. Her content is designed to inspire viewers and help them get started on their organization process. #1 Tip: Take Inventory When it comes to tackling disorganized spaces, the key is understanding what exactly is taking up so much room. Take inventory of what you have, Ashley advises. Once you have everything laid out in front of you, group and label each category and place them neatly inside a bin or stackable drawers. STORi Audrey Stackable Cosmetic Organizer Drawers $24.00, Amazon Who? Brogan creates TikTok content that focuses on what she describes as the correlation between mental health and cleaning. Since November of 2021, her videos have given viewers the tools they need for a clean space and a clear mind. #1 Tip: Buy Fun Cleaning Supplies Youll be more excited about cleaning if you use products that make the process fun and easy. Brogans go-to is the Scrub Mommy sponge from ScrubDaddy. Not only are they adorable, but they make cleaning so much easier, she explains. They last forever and can be sanitized in the dishwasher and reused over and over again! Scrub Mommy $9.00, Amazon Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest Reuters French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he was in favour of a new type of "political European community" that would allow countries outside the European Union, including Ukraine and Britain, to join the "European core values." Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Macron called his re-election last month a signal that the French had wanted more Europe. But he made clear that Ukraine's desire to join the bloc would take several years and as a result needed to be given some hope in the short-term. Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr. speaks during a swearing in-ceremony outside the County Courthouse in Gainesville in 2021. When Police Benevolent Association Chapter President Jody Branaman accused Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr. of unfair labor practices and not negotiating in good faith, I found it very hard to believe. The opinion piece did not contain any specific grievances. Watson is a true advocate for law enforcement. He started as a patrol officer over 30 years ago. He has held every job as a police officer ending as assistant police chief for the city of Alachua. He then became the city manager, where he led at the city with over 120 employees, including its police department, while creating a new and solid tax base for the city through his leadership skills. So, with skepticism, I decided to research what actual offers made in negotiating with the union. News story: PBA alleges unfair labor practices by Alachua County sheriff The union wanted a 2.5% raise. In response, Watson increased salaries by 3%. The package included two extra paid holidays and a $2,000 educational allowance. It appears the only real disagreement was Watsons new policy of requiring new deputies to live in Alachua County if they wanted to drive their service vehicles home. Over the past three years, police agencies across the country have lost a record number of officers. Many factors outside of local control have caused this, including protests against the police, the COVID pandemic and a surge of retirement of police officers who started in the 1990s. As for the crime rate, it actually dropped 3.3% here in Alachua County, and violent crime is down across the country. To say that the public safety has been threatened is flatly false. Watson took over a demoralized police agency when he was overwhelmingly elected sheriff just 15 months ago. Positive changes can be seen throughout the department, especially in the high morale of our fine deputy sheriffs. This has not only benefited the sheriffs department, but all of Alachua County. Robert A. Rush is a Gainesville attorney. His son is general counsel for the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. Story continues Join the conversation Send a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines. Journalism matters. Your support matters. Get a digital subscription to the Gainesville Sun. Includes must-see content on Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com, breaking news and updates on all your devices, and access to the eEdition. Visit www.gainesville.com/subscribenow to sign up. This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Robert A. Rush: Sheriff Watson is an advocate for law enforcement The settlement looked big when announced in early April by the district attorneys of six Northern California counties where huge wildfires caused by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. did more than $700 million worth of damage last year and in 2019. Its another example of a penalty that looks severe but has very little actual import. For one thing, none of the $55 million PG&E will pay goes to homeowners or merchants from places like the Gold Rush era town of Greenville, completely incinerated in last summers Dixie Fire, which burned for more than three months across several counties. There was hope the prosecution, which lodged criminal charges against PG&E for the 2019 Kincade fire in Sonoma County, might send some utility executives to prison for the first time over the fatally flawed decisions they made, which led to both the Kincade and Dixie fires and 31 others over the last few years. Like executives of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric after their firms caused huge recent fires, PG&E bosses once again escape responsibility, In fact, new PG&E chief executive Patti Poppe collected almost as much in stock options and salary last year as the company will pay in the new settlement. Whats more, the PG&E admits no guilt. Its the newest part of a longtime pattern which sees utilities completely unpunished for misspending $65 billion in customer payments earmarked between 1955 and 2005 for maintenance. That money went to executive bonuses and other goodies. Using it properly might have seen newer power lines rise up and old trees and other vegetation cut back in areas where they started recent fires. Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch, who talked tough while filing charges against PG&E last year, now says she got her constituents and folks in nearby counties a great deal. Instead of $55 million, she said in hailing the settlement as a great achievement, a criminal conviction for PG&E which would have been another in a series dating back to the 2010 San Bruno gas line explosion that killed eight would have produced a $9.6 million fine at most. The money, she noted, would have gone to the state treasury rather than to local non-profits and county departments that will share in the new payout over the next five years. Story continues But whats $11 million a year spread across six counties compared to real justice, which might have seen some actual people do some real prison time for misdeeds they perpetrated on their jobs? To PG&E, its peanuts, a little spilled milk for which no tears will ever be shed. Not when corporate income is already certain to rise more than $974 million this year from an interim rate increase it received in February, with much more to follow later this year, when the companys routine rate increase case is decided by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The new settlement is much like a $125 million fine the PUC assessed against PG&E, also in February, for its negligence in the Kincade blaze. Much of that alleged penalty will go for maintenance work, like undergrounding or updating some power lines, cutting back vegetation and inspecting facilities all things that should have been done regularly over many years with the money collected from customers, but left mostly undone for decades. The questions about the newest settlement are simple: Is a few million dollars in reimbursements to fire departments and other local agencies really worth more than a criminal conviction, or several of those? Especially if those convictions might have involved a real criminal or several, not merely their corporation? And is a huge utility company once again using its legal firepower to outwit local officials and get off essentially scot-free? For sure, PG&E will barely notice the $11 million per year it will have to pay between now and 2027. Executives responsible for all the bad decisions that led to many fires and the more than 100 deaths they caused will continue in their jobs as if nothing happened, while the victims lives and their families have been decimated. If thats not a mockery of justice, its hard to see what would be. Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Another meaningless big bucks utility payout Good morning, Minneapolis! Here are your top stories for Tuesday. First, today's weather: Some sun, then clouds; cold. High: 43 Low: 40. Here are the top 5 stories today in Minneapolis: 1. An assault and carjacking were reported Sunday night near the University of Minnesota campus, according to KARE11. The University Department of Public Safety issued an alert to students and staff following the incident at the intersection of Washington and University avenues. Three carjackings were reported in the area in March. (KARE11) 2. A 10-year-old boy was shot and killed Friday night in a Minneapolis apartment, police said. He and another child were home alone in the 300 block of Hennepin Avenue when police responded to the scene. His name has not been released. (Patch) 3. COVID-19 cases are increasing in Minnesota, with cases now doubling about every 18 days, according to Metropolitan Council data. Thankfully we're not seeing a corresponding rise in hospitalizations, said Kathy Como-Sabetti with the Minnesota Department of Health. (Paid source: Star Tribune) 4. The City of Minneapolis is looking to redesign the intersection where George Floyd was killed in 2020. Open sessions will be held April 23 and April 26 for residents to provide feedback on the project at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. (Patch) 5. The Wild clinched a playoff spot Sunday with an overtime victory against the San Jose Sharks. Play-off game information will be released after the regular season ends April 29. (FOX) From our sponsor: Todays newsletter is brought to you in part by Ring, a Patch Brand Partner. Getting some spring cleaning tasks done? Why not refresh your home's security, too. Secure windows, doors, and more with up to $80 off on select Alarm Pro Kits. Dont wait, offers end May 1 at 9 p.m. PST. Today in Minneapolis: Zipps Liquors is Bells Brewerys featured brewery of the month. (10 a.m.) The Minnesota Orchestra performs a sensory-friendly concert. (11 a.m.) See Romeo & Juliet for free at The Market at Malcolm Yards. (6:30 p.m.) Story continues From my notebook: An Uptown Chipotle is going viral online for its flooded parking lot being dubbed one of Minnesotas 10,000 lakes. ( KARE11 ) The Hennepin County Public Library will host a virtual event tonight with Debbie Reese , author of An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States for Young People. ( Library ) Minneapolis pastry chef Zoe Francois helped raise more than $30,000 for World Central Kitchens efforts in Ukraine. (Zoe Bakes) Loving the Minneapolis Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved: Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe Get your local business listed in front of readers Send me a news tip or suggestion at georgi.presecky@patch.com That's all for Tuesday! See you tomorrow for more local stories. Georgi Presecky About me: Georgi is a Chicago-based newsletter writer and partner content curator. She spent five years on the entertainment beat for FF2 Media covering film festivals across the U.S. Her feature articles have been recognized with awards from the Illinois Women's Press Association and National Federation of Press Women. As editor-in-chief of the Lewis University newspaper, she and her staff earned honors from the Associated Collegiate Press and American Scholastic Press Associations. She began working for Patch in 2019. This article originally appeared on the Minneapolis Patch Protest against police brutality in Grand Rapids following police shooting Protestersincluding one whose sign references the idea of "Michigan Nice"march for Patrick Lyoya, a Black man who was fatally shot by a police officer, in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., April 16, 2022. Credit - Mustafa Hussain/AFPGetty Images The streets of Grand Rapids, Mich., have been the scenes of protest over the last week, since police last Wednesday released video that showed a white officer shooting a Black man in the back of the head after a traffic stop. The incident and the communitys expression of unhappiness are one more chapter in the story of recent protest that began when a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck in 2020. But experts on Grand Rapids history note that for Michigans second largest citywhich is about two-thirds white and 20% Blackthis story is much more than two years old. Like many Midwestern cities, Grand Rapids boasts a progressive image that has obscured deep-seated problems for Black residents. People joke sometimes, calling it Bland Rapids because of its similarity to all the other cities, says Randal Maurice Jelks, author of African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids. And people have the saying Grand Rapids nice, which means that people, on the surface, appear courteous, and on the back end, are quite exclusionary. Read more: George Floyds Death and the Long History of Racism in Minneapolis Progressive imagery permitted racism to hide in plain sight for decades, Todd Robinson, historian and author of A City within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told TIME in an email. In 1949, Grand Rapids received the first of three (1960 and 1981) National Civic League All American City awards while maintaining a thoroughly racialized landscape through redlining, discriminatory lending policies, and racial steering. These practices further widened the wealth, housing, educational, and social gap between white and Black residents. Story continues Robinson argues that segregation created a city within a city in Grand Rapids, in which over-policing [of] predominantly Black enclaves was used to preserve the whiteness of other areas. As the citys Black population grew after World War II, with new residents heading to work for companies like General Motors, so did police presence in their communities. Many Black people left the South because of the changing agricultural economy, as cotton picking went automated, looking for better wagesand those wages were thought to be in factories and auto industries, says Jelks. And one way of dealing with Black communities [for the cities in which they arrived] was to heavily police them, and that became a problem. Read more: The Forgotten Girls Who Left the South and Changed History That problematic relationship has erupted into protest before. In fact, it was a traffic stop incident that jolted the city more than 50 years ago. The summer of 1967 earned the nickname the long, hot summer for violent upheaval that took place in many American cities triggered by continued racial injustice. A three-day protest erupted in the Grand Rapids in July 1967 after police used excessive force against an African American youth at a traffic stop. The Vietnam War contributed to heightened tensions. After fighting in two wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the citys Black Americanslike many across the country and the worldpointed out the irony of being sent to supposedly defend freedom abroad while they still had to fight for freedom in the U.S. Theyre not up for being bossed around and being told what to do by the police, because they too had in essence the same training as many police officers had by being veterans, says Jelks. Read more: Black Vietnam Veterans Recall the Real Injustices They Faced During and After the War Nearly 180 African Americans were arrested during that 1967 uprising, and no major policy change resulted. As Robinson explains of the fallout, The arrests did nothing to address African Americans concerns regarding the entangled histories of race, poverty, and segregation. It did, however, further the over-policing of Black neighborhoods and deepened systemic inequities and implicit biases within the local white community. To Robinson, the tensions and protests of this month are in many ways an outgrowth of the constant neglect of that history of discrimination. We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, BuzzFeed may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication. As someone who menstruates, Ill be the first to admit that menstrual cups carry a sort of stigma when it comes to managing your period that tampons and pads do not. But those products come with some drawbacks, including cost and sustainability, that menstrual cups could help avoid. Americans use around 19 billion single-use menstrual products each year, and over 80% end up in landfills where the plastic components can take up to 500 years to break down, according to the Life Cycle Initiative, a resource for information on global sustainability hosted by the UN Environment Program. When theyre disposed of incorrectly, such as being flushed down the toilet, they can block sewers, cause flooding, and pollute marine environments. They also cost the average person around $160 per year. So why dont more people use menstrual cups? It might be due to a lack of familiarity, concern about cleanliness and the need to wash them, or not knowing how to insert and remove them properly. Thats where we come in. Heres everything you need to know about menstrual cups as well as the best ones on the market if youre thinking about making the switch. What is a menstrual cup? A menstrual cup is a flexible disc or funnel-shaped product that you insert into the vagina to collect period blood. They come at a range of prices, with most falling in the $20 to $40 range, which would pay for enough tampons to get you through about three cycles or so (less if you use both tampons and pads or pantyliners). I actually think [using menstrual cups] is a fantastic alternative when you think about how many tampons or pads a woman will go through in any given year, especially if you have a heavy period, said Dr. Wendie Trubow, an OB-GYN at a functional medicine and wellness company in Massachusetts. Story continues Trubow specifically recommended looking for one made from high-quality silicone, which would include most of the popular products on the market. She also said that every vagina is a little bit different, and you want to honor that when selecting your cup. That means choosing the right size and shape for your body, and paying attention to whether its intended for those who have or have not given birth. Why you should consider using a menstrual cup Trubow also noted that menstrual cups have a positive impact on the environment overall because you use fewer tampons and pads. Whats more, they can benefit septic systems, which can get clogged with cotton tampons. There are other options that allow you to buy fewer tampons and pads, including reusable pads and period underwear, but menstrual cups are likely the sustainable winners with less than 1% of the impacts of the single-use options over a year of use. Basically, after using a cup for two to three months (what could equate to roughly 40 to 60 tampons), you would break even when it comes to your environmental footprint in terms of the resources it takes to produce menstrual products like tampons and pads. Period underwear and reusable pads still require significant water to launder, said Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, an Oregon-based obstetrician and author of Let's Talk About Down There. She agreed that menstrual cups are likely the most environmentally friendly period product on the market. Despite the fact that menstrual cups are eco-conscious, proven to be safe and cost-effective with a low frequency of adverse side effects as well as having similar or lower leakage as compared to disposable pads or tampons, findings from The Lancet Public Health indicated that awareness of menstrual cups is quite low, with only 30% of websites intended for menstruation education including any information about them. How to use a menstrual cup If you're not sure how to insert a menstrual cup, the flexible silicone material allows you to fold the rim of the cup in order to place it in your vagina. The cups rim then expands to take its original shape, with a large enough opening to catch any period fluid. Your specific cup should have instructions including how long it should last, the maximum time the manufacturer suggests keeping it in, and any other pertinent guidelines, Lincoln said. They are considered to be very safe. Since they can hold more blood than other options, menstrual cups can be worn for up to 12 hours depending on your flow. I know it seems kind of weird to think that you can leave a cup in for 8 or 12 hours because were all taught with tampons, you have to take it out or youre at risk for toxic shock syndrome, she said. When used as directed, theyre both extremely low risk for that. You can also keep using your cup until you start to notice any sort of cracking or material breakdown, unless otherwise noted. Keeping it clean is also important, so you may want to do a more thorough disinfection after each cycle. (You can disinfect a menstrual cup by washing it with soap and hot water, soaking it in boiling water, or using a specified cleanser that many menstrual cup brands also sell.) Though it may seem obvious, Trubow also said you should absolutely not share your cup under any circumstances, and that it will not serve as birth control. (Athough some do say they can stay in during sex, they should still not be used to block sperm.) Whether you prefer a funnel shape with a narrow extension at the bottom or the disc versions that you reach in and pinch to pull out, they should be fairly straightforward to remove. Since youll need to empty the cup and rinse it before reinserting, Trubow also advised being aware of your bathroom situation. If you have to empty the cup in public, you should aim for private or single stalls if possible as opposed to a shared sink situation. It might not be as messy as you think, particularly if you use it on days when your flow isnt that heavy. Who shouldnt use a menstrual cup? Both experts noted that menstrual cups are not recommended if you have an intrauterine device. The removal process can create some suction, particularly with the funnel-shaped options, that may cause your IUD to dislodge. However, Lincoln said that if you have an IUD and still want to try a menstrual cup, you can have your doctor clip the IUD strings so that theyre flush with the cervix. You could also use a disc-type cup since theyre less likely to have a suction effect, but definitely discuss with your doctor. (Menstrual cups are safe to use with contraceptive rings, although you have to be careful to not remove the ring when you are taking the cup out.) Because menstrual cups are new for a lot of people, you should know that it may take some patience and effort to get the hang of using them. Lincoln urges people to not give up too soon. She suggested practicing the insertion when youre not on your period so you can try one without worrying about leakage. Extra lubrication with water or a water-based lubricant can help insertion. (Dont use silicone- or oil-based lubricants because they can damage the silicone material of a menstrual cup.) Lincoln suggests talking to your healthcare provider if youre having trouble so that they can walk you through the process. DivaCup was the first menstrual cup I ever heard about, and remains the most recognizable brand name in this product category. The company now has a variety of size options, with Model 0 intended for ages 18 and younger, Model 1 (this one) for anyone ages 19 to 30 with an average or medium flow who has not given birth vaginally, and Model 2 for ages 30+ and/or heavier flows. Theyre all made from 100% medical-grade silicone with no chemicals, plastic, or dyes. They also come with a little fabric pouch to keep them clean and safe when not in use, and an instructional booklet to help guide you through the use process. Promising review: Ive used tampons for years, and this thing is a game changer. I work construction so its hard to use the bathroom sometimes and the porta potty isnt ideal. This thing works wonders for me, I can keep it in all day, no leaks, and it is very comfortable. I highly recommend this product. It has saved me money by not having to buy a box of tampons for $10 once a month as well. If you're contemplating the diva cup I say go all in!!! Chelsea Peck What else to consider: If you get the wrong size, it likely wont feel comfortable or work as intended, so make sure to consult with your doctor if you need help figuring out which is best for you. Best for: those who feel more comfortable trying out a menstrual cup from a trusted brand with name recognition and over 23,000 reviews. You can buy the DivaCup on Amazon for around $33. If youre into aesthetics in any product category, Lena may be the most initially intriguing menstrual cup. Not only is the packaging lovely, but the actual shape of the cup resembles the blooming flowers depicted on the box. It comes in four different colors and two sizes, the small for first-time cup users with light to heavy flow and this one (large) for experienced cup users with a very heavy flow. Its also made from safe and sturdy medical-grade silicone and can be worn for up to 12 hours regardless of activity level or reproductive history. Lena says that with proper care and use, one cup can be used for many years. Promising review: Alright people with a menstrual cycle, this little cup is AMAZING. If youre like me and have an extremely heavy flow (Im talking ultra tampon every hour) this is for you. I sat through 4.5 hours (!!!) of meetings without a single leak. Im used to my monthly visit being messy and anxiety inducing. I will say I still had anxiety and checked in regularly, but I could go 6 hours without having to touch it. Now that my week is coming to an end, I can go 12 hours in between changes. Putting it in and taking it out requires some finesse. Im also very thankful for a private bathroom at work. But overall this cup has made usually a horrible week so much easier and cleaner. If youre hesitant to buy it, just go for it! You wont regret it! Mackenzie Hoag What else to consider: Some reviewers noted difficulty removing Lena cups because of how rounded they are at the bottom, but most felt confident that theyd get the hang of it with some practice. Best for: those with a heavier flow, particularly if you havent given birth vaginally but still need the extra storage space. You can buy the Lena Reusable Menstrual Cup from Amazon for around $25. The shape of the Saalt menstrual cup is a bit of a hybrid between the DivaCup and Lena the bottom is narrow, but it expands into more of a bulb shape. Its made from a similarly high-quality hypoallergenic, chemical, and toxin-free silicone and comes in several colors as well as small and large sizes. This small size has the capacity of two to three tampons, making it appropriate for light to medium flow days, and can stay in for up to 12 hours. The company also promises that the cup can last for 10 years, which means its particularly cost-effective if you think about how many tampons or pads youd buy in that timeframe. Saalt also donates 2% of every purchase for period care to areas with the most need. Promising review: Since I first got my period I have been using tampons, however changing to the Saalt cup has changed my life! It is so simple and eco-friendly which I appreciate :) Making the transition from tampons to the cup was definitely a learning curve, but once I figure out the methods to put it in and take it out that work for me I have absolutely no complaints. It is so comfortable, holds the liquid effectively without leakage, and you can keep the cup in for much longer than a tampon. Overall, could not recommend this product and brand more! Natalie via Target What else to consider: Some reviewers noted that the small cup was bigger than they were expecting, so it may not be best if you have a lighter flow and want a cup thats as little as possible. Best for: anyone interested in investing in a cute cup from a brand that gives back a little extra. You can buy the Saalt Menstrual Cup from Target for around $30. One thing that Trubow mentioned was that, although she had a good experience with her menstrual cup, she ended up trimming the stem so that she couldnt feel it while it was in. The menstrual discs solve that problem without any trimming for those who dont like the stemmed design. The Cora cup is one-size-fits-most, so you shouldnt have to worry about choosing the right size or shape for your body and flow. It has a high capacity, claiming to hold the equivalent of five to seven tampons, and the company says that you can keep it in during sex while on your period for a less messy experience. It also shouldnt create the same suction as the funnel-shaped cups, so it may be a safer option if you have an IUD or just find that suction sensation uncomfortable. Promising review: I was a cup user for a few years, I was hesitant to try a disc as it seems more intimidating..I was wrong, this disc is fantastic and way easier then a cup. Tricky to learn how to remove without a mess but got the hang of it after a few days!! Highly recommend trying!!! Ashley What else to consider: You may want to check with your doctor to make sure this shape will be right for you, as reviewers noted that it was nearly impossible to remove with a tilted cervix (you may not know if you have one, but your doctor can tell you). It also has a groove about the size of your finger that should help you grip it enough to pull out without a stem. Best for: people with an IUD or who had issues with the suction or stems of traditionally shaped menstrual cups and are interested in another option with similar functionality. You can buy the Cora Disc from Amazon for around $30. The Ziggy Cup from Intimina is another popular flat-fit menstrual cup option. Its also supposed to be wearable for up to 12 hours, including during sex, and is made from BPA-free silicone. The company describes the body as petal-thin with a thicker, leak-proof double rim for maximum comfort and durability. The insertion is the same, using your thumb and forefinger to squeeze the rim and place correctly against your cervix, and then you hook your finger in the groove to gently pull it out. Promising review: Ive only used this cup for one cycle, but I love it! Its much easier to insert than a traditional shaped menstrual cup and much easier to remove than I thought it would be. Ive had no leakages so far and because its shaped like a disc there isnt that uncomfortable feeling of the handle or grip of a menstrual cup digging into you from the inside. Im an experienced cup user so this was different and definitely better. Emily_Oz95 via CVS What else to consider: This version of the Intimina cup also comes in only one size and it does not specifically say what the capacity is, so you may want to check it frequently at first to make sure the shape and size work for you. Best for: experienced cup users looking for a flat-fit option for extra comfort and wearability. You can buy the Intimina Ziggy Cup from CVS for around $40. If youre looking to try a menstrual cup but youre most worried about removal, the Flex is probably the best entry point. Its made from 100% medical-grade soft silicone thats hypoallergenic and free of phthalates, BPA, and latex. It should also last for years with proper use and care. Flex uses a unique pull-tab design that makes it as easy to remove as a tampon. Its inserted the same as the others by simply pinching the rim, but the looped stem allows you to hook a finger for removal so that you never have to worry about it getting stuck. Both sizes have this same stem, so you can feel comfortable whether you think you need the smaller or larger capacity. This starter kit also comes with two of the classic Flex menstrual discs to try out if you so choose once you get the hang of the cup. Promising review: So very happy with my purchase!! Fits comfortably! Easy to insert and remove just takes some getting used to. Save money on pads and tampons! Very very very happy with this purchase. Evie What else to consider: Since some users already had issues with the classic stem, its likely that the pull-tab design means youll be able to feel the presence of this cup more than others. However, it could still be a good starter cup to get the hang of insertion and removal. Best for: menstrual cup beginners who are most comfortable with tampons and want to make sure theyll be able to remove it without issue. You can buy the Flex Cup Starter Kit from Amazon for around $35. Lunette makes one of the more affordable menstrual cups on the market without sacrificing any quality. They come in three colors and two models, one for light to moderate flow and another for heavier periods. Its made from a sturdy, bell-shaped medical-grade silicone with ridges on the bottom to help facilitate removal. This model (Model 1) also uses a softer silicone, which may be more comfortable for lighter days, while Model 2 is more firm to effectively collect more blood without any leakage. You can also wear either for up to 12 hours, and they should last for several years. Promising review: I always struggled to get my Diva cup to open when inserted but this one pops right open! Its definitely dependent on your personal anatomy but I cant recommend trying this one enough. I have very little leakage even on days 1/2. Samantha What else to consider: A few reviewers experienced some leakage, but they still liked Lunette and felt that this could be remedied with a larger cup. Others noted that its on the firmer side as far as materials for menstrual cups go, which wont be the most comfortable for every body. Best for: more experienced cup users who had issues with leakage, proper placement, or ease of opening with other brands. You can buy the Lunette Reusable Menstrual Cup from Amazon for around $22. More on this A baby plays with bubbles at a Servicios de la Raza event. A service agency with a half-century of experience helping people in Denver is expanding to Pueblo to offer behavioral health services for the public and reentry services for parolees. The new Pueblo office of Servicio de la Raza, or Services for the People, will be located at 805 W. Fourth St., and is set to celebrate its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 30. The event, dubbed Dio de las Ninos, or Day of the Children, will feature an Indigenous prayer to honor the location and the community, along with food, family fun activities, Mariachi music, dancing, a ribbon-cutting, health screenings and COVID-19 vaccinations. It will all be free to the community, and we are really excited to start building up that space in Pueblo and offer those services to the community, said Danielle Nachowitz, communications coordinator for Servicio de la Raza. More: 'Caramel,' the child care RV, is coming to Pueblo The agency recently received funding to expand its services to Pueblo. The office staff will help local residents access behavioral health services and also set them up with virtual assistance for medical case management or health care enrollment. When it comes to reentry services for parolees, who often struggle with day-to-day survival after being released from prison, the agency serves those coming out of the state prison system, not just local prisons. The services, offered in both Spanish and English, include peer mentoring as well as therapy for substance abuse and for individuals, obtaining medical benefits and family reunification. The reentry program also offers parolees assistance in finding jobs, locating housing, taking vocational and job training programs, obtaining identification cards, acquiring clothing or gear necessary for work, and transportation assistance. If they need work boots or certain tools for work, we can provide them with help getting those for free or through one of our grants, Nachowitz said. We also do flagger and forklift certifications. Story continues Volunteers help with a Servicios de la Raza food distribution event. Servicios de La Raza was formed in 1972 as a bilingual human services organization to serve Denvers low-income Latinx Spanish-speaking populations but has since expanded to help other underserved and marginalized communities across the state. In Pueblo, the agency will serve anyone who walks through our door anyone needing emotional and mental support in order to thrive and live a healthy life, Nachowitz said. As Servicio De La Raza puts down roots in Pueblo, it will employ a staff of five, "but we are continually looking for additional funding to grow our services in Pueblo," Nachowitz explained. To find out more, go to serviciosdelaraza.org. Trending: Disappearing ink: Pueblo business bids 'Good Riddance' to unwanted tattoos Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps. This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Bilingual service agency Servicio de la Raza opens new Pueblo office Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court, a hybrid court of local and foreign magistrates charged with trying war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 2003, opens its first trial Tuesday, seven years after its formation. In CAR, the rule of law is threadbare, eroded by decades of civil wars, the last of which began nine years ago and is ongoing. With some two-thirds of the country in militia hands as recently as a year ago, the tribunal has had to overcome a litany of obstacles. Nothing can be taken for granted for the court which is struggling to assert its authority against executive power. President Faustin Archange Touadera is accused by the UN, EU and France of cosying up to Moscow and the Russian private security company Wagner, and of exploiting his country's vast mineral wealth in exchange for its protection against rebels. While the court has been praised by some as a model of justice prime for exportation to other countries blighted by civil war, others doubt its actual effectiveness. The chief criticism is that it has been slow in opening its first trial of three alleged war criminals. The court was created in 2015 with the backing of the United Nations and is made up of national and international judges and prosecutors from France, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Tuesday it will hear its first trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in May 2019. The defendants are members of one of the most powerful armed groups that have terrorised the population for years, the 3R. They are accused of massacring 46 civilians in villages in the northwest of the country. The trial, which has not been publicised by the government despite international NGOs and foreign jurists hailing it as "historic", comes exactly five months after officers from the SCC arrested former rebel chief Hassan Bouba at his ministry in Bangui. - Plagued by challenges - The Sentry, a US-based NGO that monitors money laundering, said Bouba was directly responsible for an attack on a camp for displaced people in November 2018 that left at least 112 villagers dead, including 19 children. Story continues Days later, he was freed by gendarmes before returning to his ministry, a stone's throw from the court -- and was even decorated by the head of state with the National Order of Merit. "The SCC is facing obstacles put in place by the authorities, perfectly illustrated by the Hassan Bouba affair," said Nicolas Tiangaye, a lawyer and spokesman for the opposition Coalition of 2020, which groups almost all the unarmed opposition parties. Critics say the SCC cannot even count on the support of the 14,000 UN peacekeepers in the country (MINUSCA), despite the fact that the UN is the main donor. The CSS has an annual budget of 12 million euros ($13 million), mainly from the UN, the EU and the US. "The judges' decisions must be applied by other entities. There are at least 25 arrest warrants, but neither MINUSCA nor the CAR authorities execute them even though that is part of their mandate," said Alice Banens, legal advisor for Amnesty International. "The real question now is whether our warrants, including those for big fish, will be carried out," said Michel Landry Louanga, president of the SCC. The court has also been plagued by logistical challenges that have not helped its standing -- the last two foreign judges took up their posts in February and "key positions at the SCC remained vacant and difficult to fill," Human Rights Watch said in a recent report. "The situation of the court is special, it is a functioning court while there are still clashes and our detractors forget that," Louanga said. "Despite everything, we manage to set up war crimes proceedings and that doesn't happen anywhere else, there are no comparisons in the world." bdl-gir/dyg/jhd/gw/spm Retreat rights render Cal State administrators unfireable, even for serious misconduct. In 2016, California State University's Humboldt campus fired a dean after determining he groped and tried to forcibly kiss two female colleagues. Back-to-back investigations found evidence of four such incidents, one of which was corroborated by an eyewitness. The dean, John Lee, denied the allegations but lost his appeal. His office was emptied. But that was not the end of Lee's time at the nation's largest public university system. Less than six months after his firing, Humboldt leaders reinstated Lee as a tenured professor making the maximum salary in the college he once led, in a predominantly female department, as part of the same faculty as the women he was found to have groped. Lee's career was salvaged, a USA TODAY investigation found, by a clause in his contract known as "retreat rights" that guaranteed him a parachute should he violate university rules. John Lee, a former dean and current professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, was found responsible in a 2015-16 Title IX investigation for sexually harassing two female colleagues. Retreat rights are supposed to provide a safety net for professors who leave tenured jobs for "at-will" administration posts, such as dean and provost. Administrators who have them can return to the faculty at any time if a new president cleans house or the role is a bad fit. CSU leaders have liberally awarded retreat rights to high- and low-ranking administrators for years, including as a job perk to recruit executives. They are so common that a longtime former Humboldt dean, Ken Ayoob, told USA TODAY only an "idiot" would take a CSU dean job without negotiating retreat rights into the contract. Because the clauses were written with no caveats for bad behavior, even administrators found responsible for sexual harassment can stay employed. At Humboldt, Lee served a three-month paid leave before returning to the classroom. He earns $154,000 a year. "Absolutely nothing has happened," one of the women who said Lee groped her told USA TODAY. It is the news organization's policy not to publish the names of people who allege sexual harassment or assault without their permission. Story continues "Retreat rights is not designed to be a Get Out of Jail Free card," she said, "but that's exactly how it's being used." USA TODAY spent two months investigating Lee's case and the role retreat rights played in its outcome. The news organization interviewed 23 current and former Humboldt employees who worked with Lee and eight experts on contract and labor law and Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in education, which turns 50 this year. It reviewed contracts, correspondence among employees who complained about Lee and 169 pages of investigation records provided to USA TODAY by the woman who filed the Title IX complaint against him. Humboldt officials have yet to release the investigation records in response to a public records request filed by USA TODAY on Feb. 8, saying they expected to finish redacting them by the end of May. The reporting reveals a university system whose leaders knew about the apparent legal loophole for years but did little or nothing to fix it after Lee's case. Instead, they let CSU campuses, including Humboldt, continue granting retreat rights to new administrator hires with no strings attached. Humboldt said it started adding caveats to administrator contracts with retreat rights after John Lee's case, but USA TODAY found at least two contracts since 2017 with no such caveats. Humboldt spokesperson Grant Scott-Goforth told USA TODAY the school "revised its practices" on retreat rights in 2017, after Lee's case, so all administrator contracts explicitly state those rights "can be dismissed if the person has violated campus conduct policies." USA TODAY obtained copies of two administrator contracts dated November 2017 and August 2018 that contain no such caveats. Any changes at Humboldt did not translate to CSU's other 22 campuses. Each campus manages retreat rights "locally," said Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesperson for the CSU chancellor's office. For that reason, CSU leaders do not know how many administrators across the system hold retreat rights, he said, "or if any of their specific offer letters contained language related to misconduct." University officials again did not act to rein in retreat rights after a strikingly similar case played out at another CSU campus four years after Lee's case. In 2020, Fresno State found its vice president of student affairs, Frank Lamas, responsible for sexual harassment and abusive workplace conduct. To prevent Lamas from retreating to the faculty like Lee, then-President Joseph Castro and CSU attorney Darryl Hamm offered him $260,000, a clean record and a letter of recommendation from Castro to retire. A USA TODAY investigation published in February revealed the settlement and Castro's mishandling of at least a dozen sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation complaints against Lamas over a six-year span. Castro, who had become chancellor of the entire 23-campus CSU in January 2021, resigned two weeks after the USA TODAY report amid mounting public pressure. He maintains his own retreat rights to a tenured professor job at CSU's flagship campus, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Only after USA TODAY's investigation this year exposed how retreat rights factored into Lamas' settlement did CSU officials finally address it. Trustees for the university system announced in March they would develop a systemwide policy prohibiting administrators found at fault for serious misconduct from exercising retreat rights. Future administrator contracts with retreat rights will include caveat language for bad behavior. "The Lee and the other recent case have led the system to conclude that the time has come to formally qualify retreat rights on a systemwide basis," Uhlenkamp said in response to questions from USA TODAY. Uhlenkamp declined to say whether the policy will apply retroactively. He did not say what steps, if any, CSU officials have taken to revise the contracts of existing administrators. "The great majority of CSU employees who retreat to the faculty are dedicated and talented individuals who are passionate about teaching and have decided to return to the classroom after a stint as a university administrator," Uhlenkamp said. "There are rare exceptions; occasionally, an administrator retreats to the faculty after having been found to have violated university policy. The case of John Lee at Cal Poly Humboldt is one example." Lee declined to comment for this story. In the 2015-16 Title IX case, he told investigators he may have greeted the women with a hug or a European kiss on the cheek but denied touching their breasts or kissing them forcibly, case records show. He cited cordial emails and text messages with one of the women as evidence of his innocence. The women who said Lee groped them told USA TODAY they feel unsafe while he's on campus. They said they complained to CSU attorneys, Humboldt President Tom Jackson and Provost Jenn Capps and were told the case is resolved and nothing can be done. "He didn't just ruin my administrative career, but he also has ruined my entire time at Humboldt," said one of the women, who has worked at the school for more than two decades. "Humboldt is so beloved to me, and it makes me so angry that he's wrecked it. That I have to try to avoid him on campus. That I have to think about him potentially molesting, harassing and bullying other people just because administrators wouldn't stand up and do their job." Humboldt ignored complaints of abusive behavior Cal Poly Humboldt sits tucked on a redwood-studded hillside in the state's northwest corner, overlooking Arcata and Humboldt Bay. With 5,700 students enrolled, it is the second-smallest of the 23 CSU campuses. Robert Snyder, a former provost and vice president of academic affairs at Cal Poly Humboldt, received multiple complaints about John Lee's "management style" during Lee's first four years. Lee was hired in March 2010 to act as a "change agent" for the College of Professional Studies, whose previous dean did not provide enough direction for the departments, Robert Snyder, Humboldt's then-provost and vice president of academic affairs, said in his statements to Title IX investigators in 2016. Lee brought two decades of experience from four universities, including the previous three years as dean of the education school at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington. As part of his offer to join Humboldt, Lee was granted retreat rights to a "permanent, tenured" position as a professor in the education school, his appointment letter shows. Lee oversaw the college's eight schools and departments, including education, business, nursing and psychology, and more than 270 faculty members and 500 student assistants. Over the four years they worked together, Snyder heard a number of complaints about Lee's "management style," according to Snyder's statements. Among them: Lee was overly critical toward colleagues, particularly with department chairs; he strictly adhered to the chain of command; he was not flexible; and he gave unclear directions. None of those complaints, according to Snyder's statements, rose to the level of a hostile work environment. But a dozen current and former professors and administrators told USA TODAY they witnessed or experienced behavior from Lee that crossed a line into bullying or abuse. Three said they complained directly to Snyder. At least two explicitly complained of a "hostile work environment" in letters they submitted to administrators. John Lee's offer letter promised him a job as a tenured professor if he ever left his post as dean. The letter contained no caveats saying what would happen to his retreat rights in the event he violated school policies. Lee "used to routinely scream at me in my office," said Martha Libster, who was hired at the same time as Lee to chair Humboldt's nursing program. Lee "threatened" Libster's job and berated her over work issues that he claimed would cause her "demise" and "ruin" her career, she wrote then-President Rollin Richmond in a November 2010 letter she shared with USA TODAY. Libster asked Snyder to mediate a meeting between the two of them, but Snyder declined, she told Richmond. She cited Lee's and others' "hostility and accusations" toward her in her resignation letter to Richmond that month. Another employee told Snyder in late 2012 that a heavily intoxicated Lee verbally abused two colleagues during a holiday party at Lee's home. Tasha Souza, who now works at Boise State University, said Lee confronted her in his living room, got in her face and insulted her, telling her she was not "special" and repeatedly yelling, "You suck!" Lee berated a male professor at the same party, calling him "the pretty boy of the college" and hurling expletives, the professor told Title IX investigators. People at the party told USA TODAY they saw Lee pounding two fingers into the professors chest. The professor did not know what prompted the outburst, he said in his statements to investigators. A few days after the party, Lee came to the professor's office to discuss the incident but did not apologize, the professor's statements show. Lee invoked his Chicago roots, saying to "mess with each other" is the "Chicago way." Cal Poly Humboldt is the second-smallest of the 23 CSU campuses. Cal Poly Humboldt has 5,700 students. Around the same time, the chair of Humboldt's education school submitted a 12-page memo to a human resources official that described a pattern of "disturbing interactions" she and other department chairs had with Lee over two-and-a-half years that she perceived as hostile, erratic or retaliatory, according to a copy of the memo obtained by USA TODAY. USA TODAY contacted the retired chair, who confirmed the accuracy of the memo but declined to comment on the record. Her statements to Title IX investigators matched her account in the memo, in which she sought help filing a formal HR complaint and stated her refusal to meet with Lee one-on-one or in chair meetings going forward. Dean Lee has created a climate of fear and intimidation resulting in a serious morale problem in the College of Professional Studies, the Nov. 17, 2012, memo said. It is impossible to have a successful collegial relationship with an administrator who seeks to control through intimidation, threats, fear, and demands. The degree of abusiveness he has exhibited to me is unacceptable. A week later, David Bugbee, Humboldt's then-HR director, wrote back, saying HR would not investigate her concerns because they "do not constitute discrimination or harassment within the meaning of Title IX or the discrimination grievance procedures set forth" in CSU's collective bargaining agreement with the faculty union, a copy of the letter she shared with USA TODAY shows. Bugbee referred her concerns to Snyder, who told the chair he would investigate them but not fire Lee, according to her statements to Title IX investigators. Snyder, she said, gave her an ultimatum: Continue meeting with Lee or resign as department chair and from the three search committees she chaired. The chair believed Snyder was retaliating against her for blowing the whistle about Lee, her statements to investigators show. "Feeling even more vulnerable and demoralized," she told investigators, she resigned from all her chair positions. She retired from Humboldt early in spring 2013, leaving four years of salary on the table to avoid Lee. She said she felt administrators would not protect her from him. Snyder retired one year later. In one of his last acts as provost, he added a five-sentence addendum to Lee's appointment letter, according to a copy obtained by USA TODAY through a public records request. After receiving multiple complaints about John Lee, Humboldt Provost Robert Snyder amended Lee's contract in 2014 to specify he would receive the maximum salary if he chose to retreat to the faculty. Dated March 2014, the addendum said Lees original offer letter had "neglected to specify your salary rate should you choose to exercise your retreat rights voluntarily, or be asked to leave your position as Dean." "To clarify," Snyder wrote, "your salary would be adjusted to correspond to the maximum level salary for Instructional Faculty ... at the rank of Professor in effect at that time." Your boss just grabbed me Complaints that Lee mistreated colleagues continued hitting the desks of administrators, including Jenny Zorn, Humboldts interim provost who succeeded Snyder, investigation records show. One such complaint came from Lees associate dean, who accused him of sexual harassment. The associate dean in May 2015 handed Zorn her resignation letter, which stated she "cannot work effectively for the university under" Lee, a copy of the letter she shared with USA TODAY shows. The letter cited Lees "aggressive" interactions with colleagues that she said "sabotage" the colleges goals. She stated her intent to retreat to her tenured faculty position. Zorn convinced her not to resign and to instead file an HR complaint, the associate dean told Title IX investigators and USA TODAY. That June, investigation records show, the associate dean met with then-senior associate vice president and HR director Colleen Mullery and disclosed that Lee had sexually harassed her and a female professor a year-and-a-half earlier. The incidents took place on a Friday night in December 2013 during a work party at the associate dean's home, case records show. About 70 Humboldt faculty, staff and acquaintances attended, including Lee, who drank so heavily he struggled to stand upright, three people who attended the party told investigators and USA TODAY. Early in the party, the professor was conversing with other faculty members in the living room when an intoxicated Lee got close to her and put his hand on her back and shoulder. According to her statements to investigators and USA TODAY, Lee pulled her toward him, slid his hand down her side, grabbed her breast and tried to kiss her. The professor pulled away and immediately told the associate dean what happened. The associate dean described her as "visibly upset, shaking" and "furious." "Your boss just grabbed me!" the professor said. The associate dean was mortified, she said, but busy hosting. About two hours later, the associate dean walked in the garage, which had been converted into a dance floor, lit only by Christmas lights and a disco ball. People were dancing. Loud music was playing. She sat down in a bank of folding chairs against the wall. Lee sat next to her, put his arm around her shoulder, pulled her close and tried to kiss her, she told investigators and USA TODAY. Lee ran his hand over her breast, she said, and across her waist and buttocks. The associate dean pulled away, she told investigators and USA TODAY, but struggled to free herself from Lees grip. When she managed to get up, Lee pulled her back down using both hands, she said, and continued trying to kiss her. The whole time, she said, Lee fondled her while repeating, "I really like you," and "You are really great." When she pushed Lee off her, the associate dean left the garage and described what had happened to her husband, who was "extremely upset," according to her statements to investigators. They decided not to boot Lee from the party, she said, because he was her boss and they did not want him to cause a scene. The associate dean never discussed the incidents with Lee, who acted as if they never happened, she said. For months, she was content to do the same. Cal Poly Humboldt's College of Professional Studies, where John Lee served as dean and now teaches classes, is housed inside Arthur S. Gist Hall. Cal Poly Humboldt's College of Professional Studies, where John Lee served as dean and now teaches classes, is housed inside Arthur S. Gist Hall. Her career in university administration was in Lee's hands, she told investigators and USA TODAY. She was Lees interim associate dean at the time and needed to stay in his good graces for a shot at the permanent position, for which she was applying. Opportunities in administration were rare, she said, and she aspired to be a provost or president. Lee awarded her the permanent job in March 2014. But his repeated acts of abusiveness and retaliation threats toward her and other colleagues, she said, prompted her to write her resignation letter to Zorn a year later. The HR complaint she filed at Zorns encouragement was at least the fifth Humboldt administrators had received describing hostile and bullying conduct by Lee toward colleagues, USA TODAY found. According to the associate dean, Mullery who also served as Humboldt's Title IX coordinator seemed willing to investigate only Lees groping. Realizing Title IX was probably her only recourse, the associate dean filed a formal sexual harassment complaint against Lee in July 2015, case records show. That set the university's investigation procedures in motion. Mullery conducted the initial inquiry. CSU later hired an outside investigator, Thomas Hauser, to reinvestigate after Lee accused Mullery of bias. Both investigations found Lee responsible for violating the university's Title IX policy. No one witnessed Lees alleged sexual harassment of the associate dean in the garage, investigation records show. But the professor confirmed to investigators that Lee groped her at the same party and tried to forcibly kiss her on three occasions twice at the party and again five months later, at a retirement party for Snyder in May 2014. The professors husband told Title IX investigators and USA TODAY he witnessed one of the incidents and had to shove Lee off his wife. Alexander Enyedi, who is now president of State University of New York at Plattsburgh, started as Humboldt provost during the Title IX investigation into John Lee. Mullery and Hauser interviewed at least 10 other current and former Humboldt employees, several of whom said they had seen Lee drink heavily during social events or bully or verbally abuse colleagues, their statements to investigators show. Lee "mounted an extensive and vigorous defense which attacks the credibility of the evidence offered by" the women, then-CSU system-wide Title IX officer Pamela Thomason wrote in her June 2016 denial of Lees appeal that cemented the findings. "The evidence offered by Lee does not compel a different credibility determination. The campuss findings are supported by the evidence." Alexander Enyedi, who started as Humboldts provost midway through the Title IX investigation, removed Lee as dean in July 2016 and placed him on paid administrative leave for three months, according to the nonretention letter he sent Lee, which USA TODAY obtained through a public records request. The July 11, 2016, letter informed Lee of his "right to retreat to the faculty as a tenured Professor" in the school of education. Enyedi gave Lee two weeks to decide if he would exercise those rights. "If you elect to exercise retreat rights," Enyedi's letter said, "your assignment for the next three months is to prepare for your return to teaching on January 11, 2017." In this July 2016 letter, Humboldt Provost Alexander Enyedi removed John Lee as dean after the Title IX case, placed him on paid leave for three months and allowed him to retreat to his faculty position the following semester. Retreat rights raise claim of double jeopardy Faculty members who knew about the Title IX case said they were stunned when Lee returned from administrative leave and began teaching classes for aspiring K-12 educators. "It's bad enough that they're not protecting adult women on this campus, but you're putting students in direct fire," Julie Alderson, a Humboldt art history professor, told USA TODAY. "It is not acceptable. It is actually absurd." In response to questions from USA TODAY, Scott-Goforth, Humboldt's spokesperson, said the school has received no additional "substantiated complaints" against Lee since his return to the faculty. He declined to say if the school received complaints about Lee that it did not investigate or substantiate. Chris Aberson, a Humboldt psychology professor, said the school shouldnt need to wait for another incident to take action. "These are fireable offenses," Aberson said. "It's horrible. Is he still engaging in these behaviors?" State law Education Code 89535 says any permanent university employee can be fired for "immoral conduct" or "unprofessional conduct," among other things. But because of Lees retreat rights, CSU attorneys believed completely severing ties with him would be an improper form of "double jeopardy," because they would have to fire him once as an administrator, then again as a faculty member, Scott-Goforth, Uhlenkamp and Hamm told USA TODAY. Those officials also blamed CSUs collective bargaining agreement with California Faculty Association, the union representing faculty members. According to the officials, CFAs interpretation of the contract prevents the university from disciplining faculty members for conduct that occurred before they joined the faculty. "Shouldn't the university be free to take action to appropriately mitigate, if not eliminate, the risk? We believe so, but we are also mindful of the likelihood that the arbitrators who hear CSU faculty discipline cases or courts may disagree and order reinstatement and back pay to a faculty member who is dismissed or denied the right to retreat because of conduct they engaged in as an administrator," Uhlenkamp told USA TODAY. "It's complicated, and we dont like our options in these rare but difficult situations, which is precisely why we are placing conditions on retreat rights going forward." Charles Toombs, president of California Faculty Association, said CSU should stop giving retreat rights to administrators as an executive perk. Retreat rights are a CSU problem, not a CFA problem, CFA President and San Diego State professor Charles Toombs told USA TODAY. The university has disciplined faculty for pre-employment conduct, Toombs said, and he was unaware of any instances in which CFA was put in a position to defend a faculty member facing discipline for misconduct as an administrator. The university, Toombs said, needs to stop awarding retreat rights to administrators who never held a CSU faculty job, including Lee, Lamas and Castro, who was granted a tenured faculty job at Fresno State in 2013 when he became campus president. "CSU administrators would rather shift blame to absolve themselves of wrongdoing and harm that their actions cause than hold bad actors accountable," Toombs said. "Management has shown that it is willing to protect abusers, failing survivors of sexual and gender violence. We, as faculty, have nothing to do with retreat rights, and CSU executives deflect so they can wash their hands clean of their own mess." After Lee's return to the faculty, the women he was found to have groped met with Humboldt's campus attorney to determine what the school could do to protect them from Lee, they told USA TODAY. In sexual harassment cases under Title IX, schools can restrict credibly accused perpetrators access to certain areas of campus and events, order them to undergo counseling and additional training and issue no-contact orders, among other things. According to the women, the university offered them none of those options. Pressed by USA TODAY, Scott-Goforth did not name a single measure Humboldt took to protect women on campus from Lee, other than making him complete the same Title IX training course required for all Humboldt employees. Scott-Goforth declined to answer why Snyder amended Lee's contract in 2014 to ensure he would receive the maximum salary upon retreating and why Lee received a $30,000 pay bump in 2016, the same year the Title IX investigation found him at fault. Lee made more than $195,000 that year, payroll records show. Humboldt's current administration is not privy to the details of how Enyedi, Snyder, Mullery and other former Humboldt administrators handled complaints against Lee, Scott-Goforth said. USA TODAY attempted to contact Snyder by email but got no response. After this story published, Synder reached out to USA TODAY to say he no longer checks that email account and did not receive the messages. He declined to comment. Mullery and Enyedi, who left Humboldt in 2020 to become president of State University of New Yorks Plattsburgh campus, declined to comment. Two weeks after he removed Lee as dean, Enyedi appointed the associate dean who filed the Title IX complaint as his interim vice provost. After her one-year appointment finished, she informed him she wished to retreat to her tenured faculty job, a letter she shared with USA TODAY shows. Enyedi asked her to apply to be interim dean of the College of Professional Studies in January 2019, emails she shared with USA TODAY show. After initially expressing interest, she declined Enyedi's offer two days later, saying she would be "reliving that trauma every single day of my life" if she became dean. "I realize now that I can't apply," she wrote, "and that John Lee wins." Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY. Email him at kjacoby@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @kennyjacoby. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cal State admins can retreat to teaching jobs after serious misconduct Shaun Pinner, left, and Aiden Aslin had fought with their unit in defence of Mariupol from the beginning of the war Two British citizens captured by Russian forces in Ukraine have been paraded on Russian state television appealing to Boris Johnson to exchange them for a close friend of Vladimir Putin held in Ukraine. Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who are members of Ukraines 36th Marine brigade, asked Mr Johnson to arrange for them to be swapped for Viktor Medvedchuk in a report broadcast on Russias lunchtime news programme. Shaun Pinner Aiden Aslin The videos were released at the same time as the SBU, Ukraines security service, released a video of Mr Medvedchuk appealing to Vladimir Putin to exchange him for soldiers and civilians in Mariupol. It was not clear how freely the men were able to speak. They spoke hesitantly and when prompted, and at least one of them was in handcuffs. The two men were filmed separately being shown a video appeal by Oksana Marchenko, Mr Medvedchuks wife, addressed to Boris Johnson. Ms Marchenko, speaking in English, claims her husband was illegally detained and demands Mr Johnson pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to exchange him for the British prisoners if you are not indifferent to the fate of your subjects. 'Id love to see my wife again' In the first video, Andrei Rudenko, a Donetsk-based reporter with the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, stands over a seated Mr Pinner and says: See this video pleasewhat do you think about this video?" Mr Pinner, a former soldier in the Royal Anglian regiment, replies: Obviously Im unaware of a lot of situations that have happened because Ive been in Mariupol but yes, I understand the situation very much. The interviewer then switches to Russian and asks Mr Pinner if he would like to address the British Government. Mr Pinner says in English: Yes, Id like to appeal to the Government to send me back home. Id love to see my wife again. Hi, Mr Boris Johnson. Obviously Im Shaun Pinner. A lot has been going on the past five-six weeks Im not fully aware of. Obviously I understand Mr Medvedchuk has been detained. And we look to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin for Mr Medvedchuk. Story continues Obviously Id really appreciate your help in this matter and pushing this agenda. Myself, Ive been treated well, fully understand the situation that Im in. Weve been fed, watered and I say I beg on my behalf and on Aiden Aslins behalf for an exchange for Mr Medvedchuk. Viktor Medvedchuk in handcuffs after being recaptured by the Ukrainian security service - Ukrainian Presidential Press Office Mr Rudenko was then seen showing the same video to Mr Aslin, who was handcuffed. Mr Aslin says when prompted: I think Boris needs to listen to what Oksana has said. I remember seeing in the news when Victor Medvedchuk was arrested for his political affiliations. If Boris Johnson really does care like he says he does about British citizens, then he would help pressure Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families. Andrei Rudenko and Shaun Pinner Mr Medvedchuk is a close friend of Putin, who is godfather to his daughter. He led the most prominent pro-Russian political coalition, Opposition Platform For Life until he was arrested and charged with treason in May 2021. The charges relate to alleged sale of military secrets to Russia and exploitation of the natural resources of occupied Crimea. He denies the charges and maintains the arrest was politically motivated. He was under house arrest in Ukraine when Russia invaded on February 24, but escaped and disappeared soon afterwards. He was recaptured by Ukraines security service on April 12, and Mr Zelensky immediately suggested exchanging him for Ukrainian prisoners. In a video posted by the SBU at around the same time as Russia broadcast the statements from Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin, Mr Medvedchuk said: I want to appeal to the president of the Russian federation, Vladimir Putin, and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelesnky, with a request for the Ukrainian side to exchange me for defenders of Mariupol and civilians who are there now and do not have the possibility to safely leave via a humanitarian corridor." It was not immediately clear whether Russia or Ukraine released the respective video appeals first. Mr Pinner, who served in Bosnia and Northern Ireland with the British Army, and Mr Aslin, who previously fought against Islamic State with the YPG, fought with their unit in defence of Mariupol from the beginning of the war. They were among several hundred soldiers who surrendered last week, saying they had run out of ammunition and food following more than six weeks of siege. Russian television has falsely described them as British mercenaries. Both men are enlisted regular members of the Ukrainian armed forces who joined before the current war and are entitled to treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva convention. 'Quick resolution' Mr Pinners family said in a statement released by the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office that they wanted to make clear he was not a mercenary and called for a quick resolution so he could return to them. They said: Shaun was a well-respected soldier within the British Army serving in the Royal Anglian Regiment for many years. He served in many tours including Northern Ireland and with the United Nations in Bosnia. He progressed into the Ukrainian Marines as a proud member of his unit. At the end of 2022, his three-year contract is due to end and he was planning to enter a humanitarian role within Ukraine. Our family is working with the Foreign Office along with the family of Aiden Aslin to ensure their rights as prisoners of war are upheld according to the Geneva Convention." They added: "Shaun is a funny, much-loved, well-intentioned husband, son, father, brother and friend to many. Our hearts go out to all those caught up in this horrific conflict. The FO has been in contact with the families of both soldiers to support them but has declined to comment on the case. A Whitehall source said the Government condemned the exploitation of prisoners of war for political purposes and called on the Kremlin to treat all POWs humanely. Leer en espanol Casino executive and former state lawmaker John Keeler pleaded guilty in federal court Monday morning to one count of filing a false tax return in connection with a scheme to secretly funnel casino cash to a Marion County Republican Party PAC. The guilty plea came just one hour before Keeler's federal trial was scheduled to begin and a week after his co-defendant, former state Sen. Brent Waltz, pleaded guilty. Prosecutors agreed to drop five other counts against Keeler as part of a plea agreement. He faces up to three years in prison, but will likely receive less under the deal. He will be required to pay restitution of $14,350, which equates to the tax losses. John Keeler, general counsel for Spectacle Entertainment, talks about his company's desire to move two of their casino licenses during discussion about gaming in the House Public Policy Committee, Indiana Statehouse, Indianapolis, Wednesday, March 20, 2019. His sentencing has not been scheduled yet. Keeler admits to tax fraud The guilty plea is the latest develop in multi-year federal public corruption investigation involving New Centaur LLC, which owned Indiana's only horse track-casinos in Anderson and Shelbyville until 2018. Keeler was the company's vice president and general counsel. As part of his plea deal, Keeler admitted to working with an out-of-state political consultant to funnel $25,000 to the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee, a political action committee associated with the Marion County Republican Party. Casino-investor ties led Speaker Bosma to skip gaming bill vote. Heres why questions linger. At the time, in 2016, the party was struggling financially, according to the plea deal. Keeler wanted to help, but believed Indiana law prohibited casino company contributions. To hide the source of the funds, he and Maryland political consultant Kelley Rogers agreed that one of Roger's company's would send a fake invoice to New Centaur. Rogers would then contribute most of the money to the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee. On April 15, 2016, Rogers sent an invoice to Keeler purportedly for services related to New Centaur's horse racing business. Keeler authorized a $41,000 payment. He then passed the Republican finance committee's account information to Rogers and told Marion County party officials the money was on the way. Story continues Over the next week, Rogers wired contributions totaling $25,000 to the Republican finance committee. The contributions were funded with the money from New Centaur, according to the plea agreement. When New Centaur filed its taxes, it claimed the $41,000 payment as a business expense, even though it was actually an expense related to supporting candidates for public office, which is not deductible. Casino executive's trial starts today: What will we learn about influence peddling in Indiana? What's next Keeler also had been accused of a similar scheme to funnel more than $40,000 in casino money to Waltz's failed U.S. House bid in 2015, but those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal. Those allegations again involved fake contracts between New Centaur and companies controlled by Rogers. Rogers and Waltz then recruited and paid so called "straw donors" to contribute to Waltz's campaign in their own names. Former Indiana state Sen. Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood. Waltz pleaded guilty last week to two counts related to that alleged scheme: making and receiving conduit contributions and making false statements to the FBI. Waltz faces up to 10 years in prison, but like Keeler he will probably receive a much lighter sentence under the plea deal he struck with prosecutors. His sentencing has not been scheduled yet. The convictions against Waltz and Keeler bring to a close all pending cases in the investigation, but it's not clear whether other prosecutions might be in the wings. During a pre-trial hearing on Thursday, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's public integrity section referred to Keeler's boss, former New Centaur CEO Rod Ratcliff, as a co-conspirator. Rod Ratcliff, currently chairman and CEO of Spectacle Entertainment, is seen when he was CEO of Centaur Gaming. Ratcliff, who has not been publicly charged with any crime, is one of the most influential figures in Indiana politics and has been a significant contributor to former President Donald Trump and other Republicans. The Indiana Gaming Commission stripped gaming license and banned him from Indiana's gambling industry last year. Last week, he criticized prosecutors for calling him a co-conspirator. In a statement from his spokesman, Ratcliff said he had been "falsely accused" and noted he has not been advised that he is a target of any grand jury investigation. Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or tony.cook@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @IndyStarTony. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Casino exec admits funneling cash to Indianapolis GOP, pleads guilty The country has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against the virus. Andy Wong/AP Chinese workers are being asked to live in their offices if they cannot work from home, reports say. China has implemented tighter COVID-19 measures in pursuit of the country's zero-tolerance policy. Shanghai residents clashed with police and begged to be let in their homes used as quarantine sites. Some Chinese employees are being encouraged to live in their offices as the country pursues a zero-COVID-19 strategy. Sky News and other outlets reported the story. China has implemented tighter COVID-19 measures as Shanghai faced an outbreak that prompted mass lockdowns in the city for weeks. The measures prompted residents to clash with police officers on April 14 as they couldn't go home due to authorities co-opting their buildings to use as COVID-19 quarantine sites. Some residents in Xian, a city southwest of Beijing, have been encouraged to live at their workplaces, Sky News reported. The directive comes amid orders to avoid unnecessary trips. Those with asymptomatic or very mild symptoms must go to quarantine facilities. Xian authorities did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours. Quartz recently reported that manufacturers in the southern Chinese tech hub Shenzhen put in place similar arrangements for workers to live at factories in the hope of reducing the lockdown's economic toll. GE Healthcare, a medical tech company, has set up temporary beds to let workers live in their factories, according to Chinese financial video producer Yicai. While the country has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against the virus, families have been separated and people are asking for more food. This is despite the government offering to deliver food to those in isolation, per the news report. The lockdown has left many workers facing difficult conditions. A truck driver who delivers vegetables and fruit from Shandong Province has been stranded in Shanghai, The New York Times reported. Story continues Authorities identified him as a close contact of a person with COVID-19 and ordered him to be immediately quarantined. The Times reported that he stopped near a highway three weeks ago and has been waiting ever since. He told the newspaper: "We can't get off the highway, every exit is guarded. We just want to go home. I couldn't get enough food the other day, and my body can't take it anymore." In a news release on Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics of China said that in the first quarter, the momentum of recovery continued. The bureau added, however, "we must be aware that with the domestic and international environment becoming increasingly complicated and uncertain, the economic development is facing significant difficulties and challenges." Read the original article on Business Insider TAUNTON The barbecue is spinning at Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton. Two weeks ago, the new rotisserie barbecue grill arrived at Real Brazil, and chef Andreia Mourao was ready and waiting to add real Brazilian barbecue, also called churrasco in Portuguese, to the menu. Right now, the barbecue, its new to the store. When I first opened we didnt have the machine, but thats iconic in Brazil, said Real Brazil owner Alan Martins, pointing out the new piece of equipment slow roasting a variety of meats on rotating skewers. Brazilian restaurants are all about barbecue, which we didnt have before. So, two weeks ago I started serving the Brazilian barbecue. So, thats whats new, and seems to be making people excited about the food we have here. Owner and chef Andreia Mourao shows off linguica and steak coming off the barbecue for the lunch hour at Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. Stop in, fix a plate The Brazilian barbecue is offered as part of a buffet which includes a wide variety of side dishes, including rice, red and black beans, fruits and vegetables and other Brazilian specialties and mainstays. Its got Brazil written all over it, Martins said. The rice and beans are the foundations of our plates, and then we add the meats, which are very special recipes from Brazil. Every Brazilian place has gotta have rice and beans. Thats the basic foundation of a real Brazilian plate. Brazilian barbecue cooks at Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. The buffet table at Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton is full of authentic dishes on Thursday, April 14, 2022. And then we add the Brazilian barbecue, which you can see right here, pointing to the barbecue, always spinning at a steady pace, juices bubbling. Steak, chicken, pork, linguica those are the basic meats that we have on the Brazilian barbecue cooking on the rotating skewer. Brazilian barbecue, appetizers, desserts and groceries in one stop While the barbecue offering is new in recent weeks, the store has been in operation since May of last year. In addition to the home cooked meals and barbecue, Real Brazil has a stash of Brazilian appetizers, pastries, desserts and Brazilian rolls baked fresh every day. And the market side of Real Brazil also carries a stock of grocery items Martins says are familiar to native Brazilians, almost all of it imported from Brazil. Story continues Boon for developers or help for renters?: Why Taunton is shrinking lot sizes over Planning Board's objections Martins says he moved to the United States 21 years ago, then to Taunton three years ago, relocating from Brockton. He worked as a project manager for a commercial flooring company prior to opening the store. The buffet table at Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton is full of fresh fruit and vegetables on Thursday, April 14, 2022. Id been contemplating opening my business for a few years and finally the time came. And we started with this Brazilian store, market, restaurant idea. He says its a lot of work, with the shop open six days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. But he hopes to open on Sundays, too, once he can get the staffing right. 'Would you want to drink that water?': How much of these 'forever chemicals' is in the water in your Taunton-area town? He says the local, growing Brazilian population in the Taunton area has been supportive since opening. The Brazilian community here, its growing. Ive been in Taunton for about three years, coming from Brockton. I got to know the Brazilian community here for a few years, and its tripled since Ive lived here. Owners Andreia Mourao and Alan Martins stand outside Real Brazil Restaurant and Market on Tremont Street in Taunton on Thursday, April 14, 2022. And word about the new barbecue offering is spreading beyond the Brazilian community and new customers seem to be coming in all the time. Well, people are liking it so much, Martins said of the barbecue and buffet. They say its a huge step up for the restaurant. Its been two weeks since we implemented the Brazilian barbecue and people are liking it. It is the homemade aspect of the food. The way she cooks the food is the way we cook at home. Dont take it from me, take it from the customers. Everybody who tries the food says I taste home in it. Thats whats unique about it, its real Brazilian food. Real Brazil Restaurant and Market is located at 17 Tremont St. in Taunton, and easy to spot with the exterior decorated in blue, green and yellow, the colors of Brazil. Taunton Daily Gazette staff writer Jon Haglof can be reached at jhaglof@tauntongazette.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Taunton Daily Gazette today. This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton: Real Brazil restaurant and market cooks up churrasco barbecue Offroad enthusiasts race across the Imperial Sand Dunes at sunset. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) A 29-year-old student cinematographer was killed Friday when an off-road vehicle carrying a group of young filmmakers rolled over in Imperial Valley, authorities said. The group, which included the Chapman University cinematographer and three USC film students, was taking pictures on a large sand dune in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said Monday. Officer Arturo Platero said the students' off-road vehicle had climbed the dune to the crest when it either rolled back or went over the crest and rolled over. "All of those on board were wearing their safety harness apart from the deceased," Platero said. "The individual suffered fatal injuries in the rollover." The deceased student, a Walnut resident, had been serving as a cinematographer on a production with USC School of Cinematic Arts students, Elizabeth Daley, dean of the school, said in a statement Monday. Daley did not provide more details about what the students were doing on the sand dunes. "Our deepest sympathy is with the family members of the deceased student on this tragic loss," Daley said. "We also send condolences to the Chapman University community." The Chapman student, Peng Wang, was a third-year graduate student from China commonly known by his colleagues as Aaron, said Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. Wang participated in several film shorts that were recognized by film festivals and worked on the Los Angeles Film Awards best drama short "Daemon." "We have extraordinarily strict safety protocols, but in this case, we had a student who volunteered on an independent project and we have no control over those," Galloway said. "I cannot imagine anything worse than a terrifically talented, brilliant young cinematographer dying on a production, and I'm outraged that strict safety measures were not in place on this." Story continues In a later statement Monday night, Daley said the USC film school has "very strict safety policies that all students are trained in and expected to follow at all times," and that "the school does not tolerate violations of safety protocols. We are still gathering information about how this tragic accident occurred. The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles has been in contact with Wang's family "to offer our deepest condolences for their loss," said spokesman Gao Fei. "The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles will provide all necessary assistance to the family in the handling of the aftermath." Bureau of Land Management public affairs officer Kate Miyamoto said the incident occurred near the Osborne Overlook, an area of dunes popular with off-roaders. She said BLM officials went to the scene to assist. BLM issues film permits, but it was unclear whether the students were shooting at the time of the death or whether they had permits. Although it is unclear what the group had been doing and whether the excursion was part of a film production, the death raises questions about whether safety protocols were breached. The fatality comes six months after the high-profile killing of another cinematographer on the set of a low-budget western in New Mexico. Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old graduate of the American Film Institute, was killed when actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun during rehearsals for the movie "Rust." The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation into how a live round ended up in the chamber. The "Rust" shooting roiled Hollywood and heightened concerns about safety lapses on film sets. The Hutchins family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the producers of the movie. The shooting also injured director Joel Souza. The industry has been dogged by a series of fatal injuries in recent years. A Los Angeles Times review of U.S. government data and published reports shows that at least 19 fatal injuries took place on film sets nationwide from 2010 to 2019, the last year for which data were available. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. (Bloomberg) -- The former chief financial officer of a Brazilian reinsurer was charged with fraud for allegedly spreading false stories that Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had bought a stake in the company. Most Read from Bloomberg A federal judge in Iowa on Monday unsealed an indictment against Fernando Passos, former CFO of IRB Brasil Resseguros S.A., saying he knowingly promoted the fake story in the press to push up the companys stock price. Passos was also sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in New York on Monday. According to prosecutors, Passos planted false stories in the press, created phony documents and fabricated an an email exchange with a Berkshire executive to back up his claim that Buffetts company was an IRB investor. In a text to a colleague, Passos allegedly said Berkshire had significantly increased its shares in IRB, adding that this info is confidential, but if we could send to a journalist we trust in the economic area who would publish without citing IRB as the source [that] would be excellent. Berkshire Denial Passos, 39, lives in Brazil and isnt in U.S. custody, the Justice Department said. A lawyer for the former executive couldnt immediately be identified. Press reports that Berkshire owned a stake in IRB and was considering expanding its holdings prompted Buffetts company to issue a statement in March 2020 denying any investment in the Brazilian company. IRB shares promptly tumbled more than 41%. When Passos learned of Berkshires denial from IRBs director of investor relations, he responded Damn! and Were [expletive]! according to prosecutors. Story continues Passos and the companys chief executive officer, Jose Carlos Cardoso, resigned shortly after Berkshire issued its denial. IRB Chairman Ivan Monteiro had already stepped down a few days earlier. Neither Monteiro nor Cardoso have been accused of wrongdoing. An assistant to Buffett didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the cases against Passos. Short-Seller Questions Passo began spreading the fake story after a short-seller publicly questioned the companys financial results, causing the stock to drop, according to the government. The stock rose 6% on the reported Berkshire stake. Passos faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the criminal charges. The SEC wants to bar Passos from acting as an officer or director of a public company and is seeking unspecified money penalties. The criminal case is U.S. v. Passos, 21-cr-00028, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa. The SEC case is U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Passos, 22-cv-03156, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). (Updates with detail from indictment.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Planning to interview members of the Class of 2022 for job openings? They may be the ones asking the tough questions, not you. Make sure youve prepared your companys equity and inclusion resume. Practice your elevator pitch so you can describe what your organization is specifically doing to mitigate inequities and injustices in the workplace. You should also be ready to discuss solutions to rectify systemic racism, the gender wage gap, underrepresentation of people of color in C-suites, hiring practices that disadvantage trans and nonbinary applicants, and other workplace inequities. To successfully recruit and more important, retain new graduates, employers must demonstrate programs and support systems that promote workplace equity and foster the long-term success of students who come to work for them. Todays students who are preparing to enter the workforce wont accept anything less, and employers risk losing a generation of talented workers by being unaware of changing times. A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) spotlighted Equity & Inclusion as one of eight competencies employers are most actively searching for in candidates. In our career development efforts at Suffolk University, we are working to foster the skills of equity and inclusion with the same intensity as skills like building a professional network, writing a solid resume or preparing for an interview. All first-year students now take for-credit career readiness classes, where one of the first exercises asks students to evaluate how their own identities will impact their careers, and how they can create more equity and opportunity for people who have been historically marginalized. What's your commitment to diversity? Questions of equity are infused in our one-on-one advising conversations, our events and workshops, and throughout the Suffolk curriculum. In addition to researching companies based on the salaries they are offering, our students are also looking at those organizations commitment to promoting, supporting and retaining diverse candidates. The class of 2022, and those that follow, will enter the workforce with a new perspective on work, one that has the potential to transform workplaces and industries. Story continues Teens are missing out on jobs. And your state could be to blame. Early-adopting workplaces are getting in line. A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) spotlighted Equity & Inclusion as one of eight competencies employers are most actively searching for in candidates. Increasingly, we are hearing from recruiters and potential employers looking for resources to help them improve their processes for recruiting, hiring and supporting a diverse candidate pool. But far too many employers have given it too little thought, and they are the ones in danger of falling flat on their face in those job interviews with todays graduates. Grads are prepared. Is your company? A sampling of the questions we ask prospective recruiters: Have you considered whether your job description and application process are biased? Do you have equitable promotion tracks and leadership opportunities? Is there salary transparency? Are your employee affinity groups accessible and diverse? Is the day-to-day language you use to communicate with your employees inclusive? Columnist Rex Huppke: Elon Musk should take over Twitter, shut it down and fire the social media giant into space To help employers successfully recruit and retain new college graduates, we created an Employer Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Toolkit that helps organizations assess and implement best practices in recruiting, hiring, retaining and growing diverse talent. Our ultimate goal is to prepare our students to succeed in meaningful careers with employers who value equity, diversity and lifelong learning. Will your company be one of them? Dave Merry is associate provost and executive director of Suffolk Universitys Center for Career Equity, Development & Success. You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Job openings: College grads may question your equity and inclusion Community members of Vancouvers Chinatown came together on Saturday to restore the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea mural that was defaced last month by graffiti taggers. Artists and volunteers lined up on East Georgia Street on Saturday afternoon with paint brushes in hand to cover up the over five-feet-high black letters graffitied across the mural. Meticulously painted onto the side of a two-story building of the Liang You Bookstore, the mural was meant to represent the diversity of people throughout Chinatowns history and to promote cultural redress. The painting was based on a Chinese folktale about eight immortals who use their unique powers to cross the East Sea. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BAGUA ARTIST ASSOCIATION (@baguabagua) The vandalism left mural artists Sean Cao and Katharine Yi of the Bagua Artist Association heartbroken. They organized the murals repair as a way to gather people through art and build a sense of community. Seeing this is very touching and people are so supportive, Cao told Global News. It just means that all of us are standing together to make this community better, and to treasure our public cultural assets, Yi said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BAGUA ARTIST ASSOCIATION (@baguabagua) Terry Hunter, a volunteer who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, told CBC News, When it's damaged we all feel hurt, we all feel the pain and to be here today to heal the mural is really important. What we need is a sustained, coordinated effort to change the whole attitude about this neighborhood and what can and cannot be done here. There is a sense of ownership, and so thats where the community effort comes in, a volunteer identified as June told Global News. We need to turn it into not just being angry. Its about action. Story continues View this post on Instagram A post shared by BAGUA ARTIST ASSOCIATION (@baguabagua) The social event was supported by the City of Vancouvers Chinatown Transformation Team, who is working to revitalize the community and combat anti-Asian racism. City councilors including Sarah Kirby-Yung, Pete Fry and Lisa Dominato also attended the event. The city has said it will provide more funding to restore murals in Chinatown. In the future when people walk by, they can probably say, Oh hey I contributed to that, Yi told Global News. It becomes everyones, not just to the artists. Its the communitys. Featured Image via @baguabagua Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Queens City Council Member Peter Koo Assaulted and Robbed, Believes It Wasn't 'Racially Motivated' Thailand Sparks Outrage after Pornhub Ban NYPD search for woman who targeted a teen in an anti-Asian hate crime Nathan Chen Becomes the First Man to Win 5 Consecutive Championships in 60 Years A sleeping 14-year-old girl awoke to the sound of an intruder and grabbed a pair of steak knives to confront him, scaring him away, according to police in Massachusetts. The courageous teen is credited with leading to the arrest of who police call a career criminal whos accused of breaking into her house, Middleborough police said in a news release. They noted the man is well-known to authorities. When the girl heard boots walking around her home early in the morning on April 15, she soon realized it wasnt her mother, WCVB reported. So she headed to the kitchen for the two knives and approached the man. I got him out of the house. I scared him, the teen is heard tearfully telling 911 in an audio recording released by police. I was screaming at the top of my lungs to get out of my house, get out, she told WCVB. After the man, who was later identified as 58-year-old Joseph Ridge, of Bourne, ran out of the home, the girl followed him outside and started recording a video, police said. I took a video of his truck leaving so I have his license plate number, she told the 911 dispatcher during the call. She shared the footage showing a 2010 Chevrolet Silverado and license plate with police, and state authorities eventually caught him as he drove over the Bourne Bridge, according to Middleborough police. He was promptly arrested. The girls mother said she didnt realize that (her daughter) had it in her to stay so calm under fire, in an interview with CBS Boston. Even in the midst of an extremely scary event, her bravery assisted us in identifying the man believed to be responsible for breaking into her home, Chief Joseph Perkins said in a statement. The suspect in this case is a career criminal who was arrested after terrorizing a 14-year-old girl in her own home. The girls mother said shes blessed to have her as a daughter but ultimately doesnt recommend chasing off intruders with knives, WCVB reported. Call the police before you do anything, she told the outlet. Story continues Ridge was charged with aggravated breaking and entering during the daytime, trespassing and disorderly conduct, Middleborough police said. Middleborough is roughly 40 miles south of Boston. Man posing as nurse is shot to death after breaking into Texas home, cops say Officer fires at prowler sexually assaulting woman inside her home, California cops say Math homework left in car cracks home invasion slaying case, Las Vegas cops say Mom calls 911 about fake intruder after her son kills his wife, South Carolina cops say Good morning, Chicago. Quention Curtis said hes tired of talking about race and the Chicago Fire Department. Its no secret that Black firefighters have lagged far behind their white counterparts for decades. What the veteran fire lieutenant-emergency medical technician would like to focus on is how more training could increase the number of Black candidates applying for firefighting jobs, leading to more Black people in the ranks. I tell people I dont want to talk about racism it was here before I got here; itll be here when Im gone, Curtis said recently at the Black Fire Brigades South Side firehouse on South Wabash Avenue, one of two it owns. Lets talk about change. What are we going to do to change it? A clause in a collective bargaining agreement from the early 1980s requires the department to strive for as close to 45% minority representation as possible in all ranks. The department of nearly 4,800 uniformed members currently has 721 Black employees, which represents 15%. Curtis said he believes problems with Black hiring will end when the city makes it a priority. William Lee Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day. COVID-19 tracker | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Daily horoscope | Ask Amy | Todays eNewspaper edition The effort to reform the Chicago Police Department was never supposed to happen quickly, with experts seeing the potential for a nearly decadelong, laborious process for a court to call it complete. But three years into the work, criticism continues to grow around the departments ability to grasp a fundamental tenet of any police reform effort: engaging with the public in a way that fosters meaningful and sustained trust and cooperation. Story continues By the Fourth of July, Illinois drivers likely will be greeted at the gas pump by 4-by-8-inch signs informing them that as they fill their tanks, theyre actually saving money, courtesy of their elected leaders in Springfield. Legislation pushed through in the closing hours of the General Assemblys truncated spring session this month freezes a scheduled hike in the states gas tax for six months. The measure, now awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzkers signature, includes a stipulation that every gas station in the state post a notice informing drivers about the gas-tax freeze. That requirement, laid out in a single paragraph in the Democrats 923-page election-year tax relief plan, has gas station owners grumbling and Republicans howling. Jaya Beemon should have been able to go to the store for snacks after returning home from a date at the Shedd Aquarium, said her mother, Nyisha Beemon. Instead, a trio of shooters, including a 15-year-old boy who was later charged in her daughters slaying, blindly opened fire into a convenience store, killing Jaya and injuring four others. In late March, Beemon started the process of obtaining properties through the Cook County Tax Scavenger Sale, she said. The properties Beemon rounded up are all in the area of 79th Street and Avalon Avenue where her daughter was killed. She even set her sights on the store on East 79th Street where her daughter was slain, shuttered since Jayas death, but it wasnt available through a mortgage. Beemon has put off purchasing the building for now, instead buying empty lots nearby where she plans to create resource gardens, she said. The Bulls erased a 16-point first-half deficit in Game 1 of the opening round of the NBA playoffs in Milwaukee, but a fourth quarter devoid of DeMar DeRozans magic allowed the Bucks to escape with a 93-86 win. DeRozan finished with 18 points on 6-of-25 shooting, and the Bulls as a team shot 32.3% from the field in an ugly night of bludgeoning basketball. The Cubano sandwich at TriBeccas Sandwich Shop in Avondale can silence all conversation, Tribune critic Nick Kindelsperger writes: How is one supposed to pay attention to anything else while in the presence of such a jaw-droppingly gorgeous creation? One bite was all it took for our critic to fall for its charms. Turns out, thats true for everyone else involved. Inside a hotel housing displaced families in western Ukraine, a cleaner swept away shattered glass between washing machines and drying racks after a Russian missile hit a nearby garage during breakfast. Five "powerful" Russian missiles hit the western city of Lviv on Monday, killing seven people and wounding eight more, local officials say. Next to the hotel, at least one missile hit a car repair shop overlooking the train tracks on the western edge of the city. In the guest house's backyard, snowflakes fell on a glistening sea of glass shards below gaping windows. A woman who appeared in her seventies said she had arrived just weeks ago at the hotel after being evacuated from the eastern region of Lugansk. "We had just finished eating and wanted to go back to our rooms, when we heard an explosion," she said, without giving her name. Lviv has largely been spared the Russian bombardment that has rained down on other parts of the country since Russia invaded on February 24. The city and its surroundings have instead become a relatively safe haven for those seeking to escape the fighting further east. On the first floor of the hotel, women and children in warm coats shifted their bags from one room to the next as they waited to hear if they should move location. Their belongings included a cat carrier and scratching post. - No 'safe places' - In the hallway, a bank employee who gave her name as Natalia said she was looking into finding 20 new rooms somewhere else for families she had helped evacuate from the embattled east of the country. "Our people were lucky that they were in the breakfast room," she said, dressed in a light blue coat. She said she and other volunteers had thought Lviv was a safe location to shelter those escaping war. "Today we understood clearly that we don't have any safe places in Ukraine. It's very dangerous," she said, before rushing off to the next room. Story continues Iryna, the hotel's manager, said no one had been wounded in the hotel but she was still alarmed. "We had many guests at the hotel from other cities of Ukraine," she said, without giving her second name. When the air raid siren had rung out shortly before 0800 am, she said, some had ignored the siren because they thought warnings in Lviv were not as serious as in the regions they fled. - 'Happened so fast' - Hundreds of metres away, next to the smouldering tyre shop, firemen stood near the skeletons of scorched cars, peering into a crater in the road above the train track. Municipal workers in orange jackets worked to clear white debris scattered all over the grassy slopes on either side of the railway. Shortly after the end of a second air raid warning, a train slowly passed under the wreckage. Passengers, including a young child, peered up the grassy knoll at all the journalists gathered opposite the strike site. Across the road, policeman Orest Mazin waited for colleagues to come and inspect his family's silver Mercedes. He had been driving to work along the railway when the missile suddenly came flying through the trees, he said. "It flew right in front of me," he said, still feeling a little shell-shocked. "It happened so fast, I didn't even hear the explosion." He pointed to a hole in his windscreen, where a flying shard of metal had crashed through. On the floor of the passenger seat still sat his packed lunch of potato stew and chicken breast. ah/ach A large multifaceted storm is brewing for the nation's midsection once again, AccuWeather meteorologists say. The latest projections from the company's team of forecasters indicate another round of severe weather is likely for parts of the Plains and Midwest, while the colder side of the storm could generate the third snowstorm in 10 days for parts of Montana and the Dakotas. April has been a busy month not only in terms of severe thunderstorms but wintry conditions as well. The clash of winter and spring will continue again one week after a historic blizzard buried the northern Plains in feet of snow while a multiday severe weather threat roiled in the central and southern United States. On Tuesday, April 12, the same storm that delivered blizzard conditions to portions of North Dakota also triggered a swath of severe weather from Kansas to Wisconsin. About a dozen tornadoes were reported along with nearly 200 incidents of large hail. This image of the northern Pacific Ocean that was taken early Tuesday morning on April 19, 2022, shows a weak storm moving inland over the northwestern United States (right) and a large storm extending from Alaska's Aleutian Islands (upper left) to several hundred miles west of the California coast (center). (NOAA/Goes-West) This past weekend, another storm hit the northern Plains with several inches to a foot of snow and produced stiff winds that caused extensive blowing and drifting over a large part of North Dakota, northeastern Montana and northern Minnesota. This incoming late-week storm for the Central states was located over the northern Pacific near Alaska's Aleutian Islands as of Monday and is expected to roll into the Northwest later Wednesday, according to AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno. The storm will re-organize over the Plains after crossing the interior West as warm air surges northward over much of the middle and eastern part of the nation. Story continues The atmospheric setup on Friday and Saturday could spark severe storms from parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin to areas farther south including Kansas, Oklahoma and central and western Texas. All facets of severe weather will be possible with the storms including high winds and large hail to localized flash flooding and tornadoes. However, the setup that produced last week's major storm versus this week's is a bit different in that there is no evidence of a strong disturbance in the jet stream over the southern Plains. "Storms over the southern Plains could be very isolated in nature as they erupt along a push of dry air from the deserts," AccuWeather Lead Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said. That southern disturbance from last Tuesday sparked a great deal of severe weather from Texas to Louisiana and Arkansas. Those violent storms resulted in multiple injuries, at least one fatality and significant damage. With no strong southern disturbance competing for moisture this week, the door could be opened for severe thunderstorms to erupt farther to the north. A greater concentration of severe weather is more likely over parts of the northern Plains and the Upper Midwest from Friday to Saturday, where developing thunderstorms are more likely to encounter surging moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. The severe weather risk will tend to shift from southwest to northeast across the Central states as the storm system strengthens near the Canada border and forces a strong cold front to spiral eastward. Once the storm system moves onshore over the Northwest at midweek, where more meteorological data is available, a very good picture of the scope, area and timing of severe weather should become available, Rayno explained. At this early stage, it appears that portions of Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin could again be in the crosshairs of severe weather from late Friday to Saturday. The greatest chance of a couple of tornadoes during late Friday and Friday evening may extend from parts of South Dakota to Iowa. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP On the anticipated storm's cold side, heavy snow and strong winds are forecast for the end of the week as well. The exact track and strength of the storm will determine where the swath of heaviest snow and potential blizzard conditions unfold. While winter savvy folks over the northern Plains can deal with the worst Mother Nature has in store, Old Man Winter has dished out more than 10 times the normal amount of snow for the first 17 days of April in the central and western part of North Dakota. Minot, North Dakota, has received nearly 42 inches of snow so far this month compared to a normal of 3.2 inches through Sunday, or 13 times that of average. Initially, AccuWeather meteorologists expect the combination of snow and strong winds to extend over parts of central Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, Canada, this weekend. There is the potential for 1-2 feet (15-30 cm) of snow to fall in parts of this area, including the city of Regina, Saskatchewan. Western portions of North Dakota, eastern Montana and perhaps as far to the south as northern Wyoming and northwestern South Dakota could also be hit with significant snow and wind from the storm from Friday to Saturday. A foot or more of snow could pile up in areas where all or mostly snow falls instead of rain or a rain and snow mix. Motorists with travel plans through these areas should be prepared for major delays and road closures. Interstate 94 could be affected, as well as U.S. Routes 2, 12 and 85, and Canada Highways 1 and 16, forecasters say. For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform. House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff are refusing to upload the contents of Hunter Bidens recovered laptop in a searchable format into the congressional record, according to a new report. Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) first moved to enter the laptop which the younger Biden allegedly left with a Delaware repair shop during a March 29 hearing. Though the committee chairman, Representative Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), initially planned to object to the request, he allowed the laptop to be entered into the record. Now, staffers appointed by Nadler are saying they cannot upload the laptop due to technological limitations, the Daily Caller reported. They say Gaetzs office must print hard copies and PDF-form documents of pages to be uploaded into the record, even though Gaetzs office offered to provide the equipment needed for the digital transfer, a Republican staffer told the outlet. Democrats in the majority used multiple excuses to avoid handling the Hunter Biden laptop in any fashion other than accepting the hard drive via hand delivery, the Republican staffer told the Daily Caller. Democrats and majority staff are actively obstructing the American people from being able to see the laptop in the public record. They have all the resources they need to enter Hunters laptop into the record theyre purposefully delaying the process. Its their responsibility as majority staff to enter materials into the record granted by unanimous consent like Hunter Bidens laptop. The American people should be asking, Why arent Democrat majority staff doing their jobs? and What will happen if they continue to obstruct official business of Congress? While House rules require committee staff to upload record entries, the staffers refusal to digitally upload the contents of the laptop has required Gaetzs office to use its own resources in creating copies. The Hunter Biden laptop story has seen a resurgence in recent months, after some of the contents of the laptops were initially reported by the New York Post in October 2020, just before the presidential election. At the time the story broke, much of the mainstream media dismissed the story as Russian disinformation. Story continues The New York Times has since authenticated key files from the laptop, as has the Washington Post. Other outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, have reported that a federal tax probe into the younger Biden is gaining momentum, with prosecutors reportedly investigating his sources of foreign income. One infamous email purportedly detailed a business arrangement between a Chinese company and the Biden family. Tony Bobulinski, who is listed as a recipient of the email first published by the New York Post, offered further detail last year in a statement to Fox News on the correspondence in October 2020, which references a proposed equity split: 20 for H and 10 held by H for the big guy? The reference to the Big Guy in the much-publicized May 13, 2017, email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden, said Bobulinski, who says he was brought on as CEO of Sinohawk Holdings by Hunter Biden and James Gilliar, the sender of the email. Sinohawk was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family, he said. More from National Review UPDATE @ 3:05 p.m.: Deputies are investigating a shooting at a Washington Twp. apartment complex as accidental, according to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office. >>PHOTOS: Post-Easter snow blankets parts of the Miami Valley Deputies and medics were called to an apartment building on Finger Lakes, which is near Yankee Street, around 11:15 a.m. on reports of a person shot. A 911 caller, who identified themselves as the wife of the victim, reported the man shot himself in his upper leg inside their home, according to the 911 call obtained in a public records request by News Center 7. My husband accidently shot himself in the leg. I need an ambulance here immediately, please. He shot himself in the leg. Ive tried to tie it off with my jacket. I need somebody here immediately please, the caller said. The man was taken to an area hospital for treatment and is listed in stable condition, deputies said in a media release Monday afternoon. Additional details were not released. Well continue to update this story as we learn more. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, is condemning the global community for staying focused on the war in Ukraine while neglecting other areas of conflict. Specifically pointing to the conflict in his native country, Ethiopia, Ghebreyesus said Black people in war-torn places receive far less compassion than white residents facing turmoil in other parts of the world. I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way, he said, according to the Associated Press. Some are more equal than others. Ghebreyesus said there is unspeakable tragedy happening in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, an area which has been under attack for more than two years as the federal government continues to engage in a battle with an opposing political party. According to the WHO director, there is nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat than Tigray. As we speak, people are dying of starvation, he said. This is one of the longest and worst sieges by both Eritrean and Ethiopian forces in modern history. Ghebreyesus slammed the media for failing to bring attention to the atrocity in Tigray. I dont even know if that was taken seriously by the media. he said. The government of Ethiopia sent a letter to the World Health Organization earlier this year and accused Ghebreyesus of misconduct. According to the letter, Ghebreyesus has been using his office to advance his political interest at the expense of Ethiopia. The government also said the WHO director is an active member of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, the opposing party. Greg Antonelle never travels to Disney World without a portable phone charger. Greg Antonelle/MickeyTravels/VADISH ZAINER/Shutterstock Greg Antonelle has helped book thousands of Disney trips with his company MickeyTravels. When he's not planning vacations for others, he's spending the day at Walt Disney World. Antonelle told Insider he never goes to Disney World without two portable phone chargers. Greg Antonelle is the founder of MickeyTravels, a Disney travel agency. He works with a team of 250 travel agents to help book Disney trips for everyone from budget travelers to celebrity clients and estimates he's been to the parks more than a thousand times. When he packs for a Disney trip, there's one item he never forgets to bring. Well, technically it's more than one: portable phone chargers, and he always packs two. That's because much of Disney is accessed through your phone, Antonelle said. And while a portable charger used to be helpful years ago; today, he said it's a necessity. Here's why. From accessing fast passes to mobile dining, visitors need a fully charged phone General views of the Walt Disney at Magic Kingdom on April 03, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. General views of the Walt Disney at Magic Kingdom.AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Antonelle said one of the biggest mistakes travelers make when visiting Disney is that they don't realize how much they're going to need their cell phones. In fact, Antonelle said it's nearly impossible right now to visit Disney without a phone and the My Disney Experience app. On the app, guests can purchase Disney tickets, reserve a spot at a park through the company's new Park Pass reservation system, order mobile dining, see wait times for rides, and book fast passes. Even things like your resort room key can now be accessed via your phone, he said. Beyond needing a phone for the Disney app, Antonelle said you'll likely take pictures and post on social media throughout the day. And if you have kids, phone games are a great way to keep them distracted while waiting in long Disney lines. All of this can quickly drain your phone's battery, Antonelle said. So he recommends packing a portable charger, and if you have enough room, pack two to be on the safe side, he said. Antonelle's favorite is the Anker Power Bank, which holds can recharge a phone 10 times and costs $140, but Antonelle said you can find other options for less. Story continues "If your cell phone is not charged, you're in trouble," he said. Disney does portable chargers, but Antonelle said it's better to have your own A FuelRods' power station kiosk at Walt Disney World. A FuelRods' power-station kiosk at Walt Disney World.Joni Hanebutt/Shutterstock At Disney parks and resorts, guests can access "FuelRods stations," which are kiosks where visitors can purchase a charging kit to bring home for $30 that comes with a portable charger and cords, according to Disney's website. From experience, Antonelle said "the life on the FuelRods is really short" compared to some of the portable chargers he's used. Antonelle said if your phone dies in the morning, you might need to use multiple FuelRods throughout the day. Not only will this cost more money, but it also takes up time waiting in lines and finding a kiosk, Antonelle said. The easiest solution? Pack your own. "You always want to bring a charger," he said. "Your cell phone is basically everything." Read the original article on Insider Dong Hoi Airport to upgrade with more international flights The Government has given the central province of Quang Binh the go-ahead to upgrade Dong Hoi Airport if it gets more international flights. The Dong Hoi Airport in central Quang Binh province. (Photo: vietnamairport.vn) Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has asked the province to call on airlines to operate more international flights to the airport. In Document No 2343 issued on April 4, Thanh agreed with the Ministry of Transports report on the planning of the Dong Hoi Airport. Last December, the ministry submitted the proposal to upgrade the airport from domestic to international level. The Dong Hoi Airport, which was established in April 2008, is designed to handle Airbus A320, A321 and other smaller aircraft, with the capacity of two flights at the same time. There are five domestic airlines operating at the airport at three domestic routes: Dong Hoi-Hanoi, Dong Hoi-Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Hoi-Hai Phong. There is also a regular international flight to Chiang Mai (Thailand). According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, under the master plan for developing the national airport system in 2021-2030, the Dong Hoi Airport is qualified to welcome more international flights. When the frequency of international flights has increased to between three to five flights per week, the ministry will report to the Government for an official decision. In February, the ministry approved a plan to build a terminal at the airport to increase the capacity to 3 million passengers. The project has total investment capital of more than 1.2 trillion VND on an area of 1.1 hectares. Quang Binh, famed for its complex cave system and beautiful beaches, has targeted welcoming about 10,000 international tourists this year./. El Paso police on Tuesday continued the search for a man who sparked a large law enforcement mobilization Monday after robbing the Wells Fargo Bank in Downtown. An investigation continued through the night following the afternoon robbery, which caused several streets near the bank to be blocked. About 1:15 p.m., the unidentified man entered the bank and demanded money. The robber fled on foot and was last seen headed west on Texas Avenue toward Mesa Street, police said. A law enforcement officer gears up as officers respond to a bank robbery in Downtown El Paso on Monday. Police officials described the robber as a heavy-set man about 6 feet tall, who was wearing a blue face covering, a black hooded sweater, light-colored jeans and a dark-colored jacket. Following the robbery, police searched parking garages and other nearby structures, with officers blocking several streets around the iconic high-rise bank at 221 N. Kansas St. Mesa Street near San Jacinto Plaza was blocked off for hours Monday, with a pair of armored police vehicles and a SWAT team set up in the area. Stanton Street also was closed between Texas Street to Mills Avenue. El Paso police released a security camera image of an unidentified man suspected of robbing the Wells Fargo Bank in Downtown on Monday. More local news: Motorcyclist falls off overpass in high-speed crash in South El Paso More: El Paso police arrest man in Cincinnati District shooting during brawl outside bars FBI agents in tactical vests were at the scene along with dozens of police patrol officers, detectives and officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics team. During the search for the robber, heavily-armed SWAT officers wearing desert-colored camouflage uniforms at one point could be seen entering a roof door at a white high-rise building at Texas Avenue and Mesa Street. An El Paso Police Department patrol car blocks the corner of Stanton Street and Texas Avenue on Monday as officers search for a bank robber who struck at the Wells Fargo Bank in Downtown. The scene was cleared early Monday evening, though the investigation by the police Crimes Against Persons Unit and the search for the robber continue. Bank robberies are uncommon in El Paso and have become increasingly rare in recent years. The previous El Paso bank robbery was at the WestStar Bank on Viscount Boulevard in February 2020, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an FBI spokeswoman said. Story continues FBI agents are working with police detectives to identify and locate the Wells Fargo bank robber. Anyone with information on the bank robbery may call police at 915-832-4400 and may anonymously call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at 915-566-8477 (TIPS). Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Wells Fargo El Paso bank robber eludes police dragnet in Downtown Japanese food company Kirin has teamed up with researchers from Meiji University and Yoshinori Miyashita Laboratory of the Department of Advanced Media Science to develop electric chopsticks that can artificially stimulate the taste of salt in food. The device, which works by sending a mild electric current directly into the food, enables users to taste saltiness in dishes that are low in sodium. The researchers first figured out the exact electrical waveform that affects the ions that make food taste salty. By applying electrical currents, the device not only enhances the saltiness of the dish but also triggers the ions in its monosodium glutamate (MSG) content, improving its umami flavor. In their experiments, the scientists had participants consume a gel with a set salt content and then rate how salty it tasted. The subjects then consumed a gel with the salt content reduced by 30%, which they then rated accurately in their test scores of perceived saltiness. The final test involved subjects eating the same reduced salt content gel using the electric chopsticks. There was a 50% increase in participants perceived saltiness scores, showing that the reduced salt content gel was thought to be saltier than the first batch. Further tests that involved feeding subjects a low-salt miso soup yielded similar promising results. In addition to enhancing the saltiness of the food, the electric chopsticks also improved the soups umami and overall flavor. In its press release, researchers touted the possible health benefits of the technology as it allows people to enjoy low-salt dishes while still experiencing the taste of higher sodium content. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), high sodium consumption and insufficient potassium intake contribute to high blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Lowering salt intake to just less than 5 grams per day for adults will already help reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart attack. Many Japanese social media users expressed amazement at the technology though few also expressed doubt as to whether it would really make a difference in making people eat healthier. Feature Image via NEWS Story continues Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Those Are My Homies: Gwen Stefani Shuts Appropriation Claims Over Harajuku Girls Era Conservative TV Host Calls Parasite Cast 'The Destruction of America' After Oscar Win Second Suspect Arrested in DoorDash Carjacking and Child Abduction Case in SF 30 Miss Thailand Pageant Contestants Fall Into a Pond as Bridge Collapses An ex-con sprung from prison a month ago attacked five people with a knife, a bottle and his fists during a meth-fueled rampage through Manhattan Monday morning. The attacker, Lavon Davis, 32, stabbed one stranger in the back, bashed a man and woman with a bottle and punched out two men, including a 65-year-old who suffered a serious head injury, police said. Davis, who has facial tattoos covering the right side of his forehead, didnt say a word to his victims, cops said. He had crystal methamphetamine on him when he was arrested after his last victim, a 22-year-old doing work for NYCHA, pointed him out to a nearby cop, police said. The spree played out between 8:04 a.m. and 8:32 a.m. in four separate attacks on the Upper East Side and in East Harlem. The most seriously injured victim appears to be Evans Bouchand, 65, who was knocked out at E. 96th St. and Second Ave. and hit his head on the ground. Medics rushed him to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was treated for serious head injuries. I really dont know what happened. I have quite a few stitches in my head, and my (left) eye is closed. Ive never seen him before, Bouchand said. Regulars on the block know the victim as Dancing Man Evans, and Eric, a harmless panhandler who lives with his mother and dances on the street. Dancing man Evans? Number one dancing machine, said Jack Parker, 34, a barista at the Perk Kafe. He usually has the same routine every day. Hes out here early dancing away, in his own little world, not hurting anybody. It seemed like a really unnecessary act of violence. The punch left Bouchand bleeding from the head, and briefly knocked him unconscious. I was sitting right here on the corner looking his way, said Mike Johnson, 42, who knows the victim and witnessed the attack. And I seen the guy standing next to him. Next thing you know the guy hit him. Boom! Im like What the f--- is going on? Then the guy walked away. Story continues A group of people rushed to the victims aid. When the police came he woke up. He didnt even know. They asked him, You know somebody punched you, right? He said Nobody punched me. The attacker headed north after that, confronting a 66-year-old woman as she exited her parked car at E. 99th St. and Second Ave. The attacker struck her in the head with a bottle, police said. A 37-year-old homeless man walking by told police he was also hit with the bottle when he tried to intervene. Video shows he did not come to the womans aid as he claimed but was nonetheless randomly attacked, police said. He was cut above his right eye and on the back of his head and was taken to Metropolitan Hospital. The woman was taken to Harlem Hospital with a cut on her head. The attacker headed back to the Upper East Side, confronting his next victim, a 45-year-old man walking to his car at E. 91st St. and York Ave. The assailant allegedly slashed the victim on the right side of his neck and plunged a knife into his back, the blade breaking off. The victim managed to keep his wits, get in his car and drive to Metropolitan Hospital with the knife still in his back. He is expected to recover. The rampage ended a few minutes later when the suspect punched a 22-year-old man affiliated with NYCHA. By then officers were on the lookout for the suspect, whom the last victim pointed out. Bouchand, who wore a homemade New York Mets uniform with a jacket over it as his mother stood by his side Monday night, said he was shocked to learn about Davis record. Right now, Im feeling pretty bad. Four people besides me? Obviously theres something very wrong with him. Its terrible, absolutely terrible. Hes just out of jail and going right back, and he should be. He should be incarcerated, he said. Bouchand didnt even get the chance to start his daily dance routine before the attack, he said. My son is bi-polar. He suffers from depression, his mom, Sylvia Bouchand, 92, said. He cant lie in bed 20 hours a day, so he dances. She added, Its awful. This guy must have struck before. Davis, who lives in the Bronx, faces multiple assault charges, as well as strangulation and drug possession charges. Once in custody, police linked him to several domestic violence crimes against his girlfriend, and an attack Saturday in the lobby of a Harlem apartment building where he used a kitchen knife to stab a 51-year-old man he was acquainted with before taking $4,000, two cell phones and a backpack, cops said. He faces attempted murder and robbery charges in that incident. Police said he has 27 arrests on his record, included nine that are sealed and two that were voided. He served two stints in prison, public records show. He served more than five years for selling drugs near a Manhattan school and was paroled in July 2018, records show. After a criminal contempt conviction, also in Manhattan, he was sentenced to up to three years in prison but was conditionally released March 14. The suspect has Alisha tattooed on his left cheek. The full name of another woman is tattooed on the right side of his forehead. Ukrayinska Pravda Iryna Balachuk - Monday, 9 May 2022, 08:50 In an attempt to avoid taking part in hostilities in Zaporizhzhia Region, Russian soldiers have shelled 20 of their own vehicles. Source: Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration on Telegram Quote from Zaporizhzhia Military Administration: "According to local residents, Russian troops have shelled 20 of their own vehicles in Polohy in order to avoid going to the front line; they blamed the shelling on [Ukrainian] resistance fighters in the temporar A federal judge in Florida issued an order on Monday voiding the national mask mandate covering airports, planes and other public travel. In a 59-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle concluded that the masking regulation enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February 2021 exceeded the CDC's statutory authority, and that its mandate was arbitrary and capricious. The decision effectively vacates the temporary federal requirement for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains, buses and other forms of public transportation. A sign at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) A White House official said in an emailed statement that federal agencies were reviewing the decision, but added that, "TSA will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time." United Airlines and Alaska Airlines both issued statements saying mask wearing is now optional. Last week, the CDC extended the mask mandate through May 3, saying it needed more time to gather data on the BA.2 Omicron subvariant of COVID-19, which has led to a recent surge in cases across the country. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called it a "disappointing" decision and said the CDC was still reviewing the ruling while encouraging Americans to continue wearing masks while traveling. When pressed on whether travelers were currently required to wear masks, Psaki said they were waiting for guidance from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The ruling was welcomed by some conservative Republicans. Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate, tweeted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis following the ruling. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end. The suit was filed last July against President Biden, the CDC and various administration officials by a legal group known as Health Freedom Defense Fund and airline passengers, including Ana Daza, who said she has anxiety aggravated by wearing masks. Story continues In her ruling, Mizelle said the CDC had failed to prove its argument that it put the mask requirement in place for the purpose of sanitation. Wearing a mask cleans nothing, Mizelle wrote. At most, it traps virus droplets. But it neither sanitizes the person wearing the mask nor sanitizes the conveyance. It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of COVID-19, Mizelle added. In pursuit of that end, the CDC issued the mask mandate. But the mandate exceeded the CDC statutory authority. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. (U.S. Federal Government) Mizelle was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed to a lifetime appointment by the Senate on Nov. 18, 2020, along a party-line vote, with 49 Republicans voting in favor and 41 Democrats voting against. At 33, she became the youngest judge to be nominated by Trump, just eight years after graduating from law school at the University of Florida. At the time of her nomination, the American Bar Association wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee and said that a substantial majority of the groups standing committee which evaluates candidates integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament found Mizelle to be not qualified for the position, citing her lack of trial experience. Since her admission to the bar Ms. Mizelle has not tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel, wrote Randall Noel, the standing committees chairman, concluding, Ms. Mizelle has a very keen intellect, a strong work ethic and an impressive resume. She presents as a delightful person and she has many friends who support her nomination. Her integrity and demeanor are not in question. These attributes, however, simply do not compensate for the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience. Prior to her appointment, Mizelle clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife was involved in attempts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, including attending the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally. Mizelle then worked in private practice for Jones Day, the firm that represented the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2020, although it later tried to distance itself from the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Mizelle is also a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian legal group whose members currently hold a majority of Supreme Court seats. Her husband, Chad Mizelle, served as a counsel for the Trump White House, and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Sherri Papini of Redding officially pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to lying to the FBI and defrauding federal, state and local officials out of more than $150,000 following her 2016 fake kidnapping. Monday's federal court hearing in Sacramento was just the latest chapter in a strange saga that began with her disappearance Nov. 2, 2016, while out jogging near her home north of Redding. During the virtual court proceeding, she pleaded guilty to the two counts before U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb in Sacramento. Prior to accepting Papini's guilty pleas, Shubb asked her numerous questions about her background, her mental state, whether she has been treated for mental health issues, if she has taken medication for mental health and whether she understood the ramifications of pleading guilty. "So how do you feel today?" the judge asked her. "I feel very sad, your honor. I feel very sad," Papini said, beginning to cry. "Do you feel your mental condition is such that you are able to proceed with these proceedings this morning?" Shubb asked. "Yes, your honor," she said. Under the terms of the plea agreement, she will be required to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to various government agencies. The court proceedings mark an about-face in Papini's story, which began when her husband, Keith Papini reported her missing Nov. 2, 2016. The 39-year-old mother of two children turned up Thanksgiving morning, 22 days later, bound in chains and wandering alone along Interstate 5 north of Sacramento. She told law enforcement two Hispanic women kidnapped her at gunpoint while she was jogging. She made up an elaborate story that the two women kept her confined, abused her, cut her hair and branded her. Instead of being held captive by two women, she was holed up in a house in Orange County while law enforcement, family, friends and community members conducted a nationwide search to find her. Story continues FILE - Sherri Papini of Redding leaves the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, right, in Sacramento, Calif., April 13, 2022. During a virtual hearing Papini accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty, Monday, April 18, 2022, to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements. She will be sentenced on July 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) Even after the FBI confronted her with the evidence that she concocted the kidnapping scheme, she continued to lie to them, officials said in court documents. But last week she admitted it was all a hoax. As part of her admission, she signed an agreement to plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI about the kidnapping. She also admitted she lied to receive disability payments from the U.S. Social Security Administration. She also said received money from the California Victims Compensation Board under false pretenses. She released a statement last week through her lawyer, William Portanova of Sacramento, expressing remorse for her actions. "I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me," Papini said in her statement. "I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done." Read more: What experts say about Sherri Papini's 'bizarre' case and its five-year investigation FILE - Sherri Papini of Redding leaves the federal courthouse after her arraignment in Sacramento, Calif., April 13, 2022. During a virtual hearing Papini accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty, Monday, April 18, 2022, to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements. She will be sentenced on July 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) The restitution breakdown includes repaying $30,694 to the California Victims Compensation board. She used a large chunk of that money to pay for therapy sessions to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety stemming from the "kidnapping," according to court documents. FILE - Sherri Papini of Redding leaves the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, right, in Sacramento, Calif., April 13, 2022. During a virtual hearing Papini accepted a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty, Monday, April 18, 2022, to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements. She will be sentenced on July 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) She received $127,567 in Social Security benefits that she will have to repay. She will also have to repay $148,866 to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office for some of the costs of investigating her abduction. She will also be required to pay $2,558 in restitution to the FBI. The $49,000 her family and friends raised through a GoFundMe account was not included in the restitution amounts. Read more: 'Painful consequences' for Latinas linger after Papini's 2016 kidnapping tale She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 for making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer. She faces a maximum statutory penalty of 25 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 for the count of mail fraud, federal officials said. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence on the low end of the sentencing range, estimated to be between eight and 14 months in custody for the two charges. Sentencing was set for 9 a.m. July 11 in federal district court in Sacramento. Read the plea deal: Sherri Papini Plea_agreement by West Hub on Scribd Dig deeper: Papini Information by West Hub Damon Arthur is the Record Searchlights resources and environment reporter. He is part of a team of journalists who investigate wrongdoing and find the unheard voices to tell the stories of the North State. He welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834 by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today! This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Sherri Papini pleads guilty in sensational 2016 kidnapping hoax jetcityimage / Getty Images After inquiries from WEAR ABC 3 News about SNAP benefits being delayed, the Florida Department of Children and Families says that it has recently experienced challenges in hiring staff. See: SNAP Benefits Available in Your State in 2022 Find: 10 Things Most Americans Dont Know About SNAP The Department continues to leverage internal resources to prioritize processing benefit applications, including using volunteers from other program areas to assist, DCF said in a statement to Channel 3 on April 15. We have recruited more than 200 new employees since December 2021 to assist with eligibility determinations. We are also offering overtime to compensate the tireless efforts of our existing team in ensuring that individuals receive their benefits timely, the Department added. Dede Flounlacker, the executive director of Manna Food Pantries, told Channel 3 that Floridians having challenges with food are probably having challenges with many other things as well. Flounlacker also said that theyve seen an increase in people calling for help over the past six to eight weeks. The Department has employed all available policy solutions as allowed by federal regulations to streamline processes, the DCF says, according to Channel 3. The Department continues to work with federal partners to determine if there are additional flexibilities that can be implemented expeditiously to assist customers who are in need now. POLL: How Much Do You Expect Your Tax Refund To Be This Year? The DCF has implemented strategies over the past two months to improve processing times and/or the customer experience. Since Nov. 2021, the DCF has increased applications processed by more than 37% with 23.4 days being the average time to process approved applications. Outbound calls are also being made to customers to assist with locating food assistance and economic stabilization services, Channel 3 added. The DCF is also prioritizing interviews for SNAP benefits, currently over 8,200 interviews daily, and has seen a 22% increase since December. The current wait time to complete an interview is under four minutes. Story continues More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Florida DCF To Hire 200 People After SNAP Benefit Delays Floridas Department of Education has rejected more than 50 math textbooks for the upcoming school year, claiming that instructional materials incorporated critical race theory and the unsolicited addition of social-emotional learning concepts. The department said that 54 out of 132 of submitted textbooks, or roughly 41 per cent, were impermissible with state standards or contained prohibited topics such as critical race theory, a high-level academic framework that addresses systemic racism in institutions. Twenty-eight math textbooks were not included on the adopted list because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including [critical race theory], while 14 books did not properly align to state standards and included prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, according to Floridas Education Department. Most of the rejected texts (71 per cent) were for kindergarten through fifth grade levels. The Independent has requested the titles of the textbooks and the reasons why the agency rejected them. There is no evidence that critical race theory is taught in Florida grade schools, though the phrase has become a catch-all term invoked by conservative activists aided by dozens of local and national groups, conservative think tanks, law firms and GOP officials that encompasses teachings on the history of slavery, racism and civil rights movements, among other topics, with legislation broadly aimed at censoring classroom lessons. Conservative officials argue that such concepts or teaching materials are not directly discussing the theory but are derived from it. The Education Department also rejected books that it says contain Common Core concepts, national standardised academic targets in reading and math that Florida rejected in 2020. Those targets were replaced with Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, standards. Joining a nationwide effort taking aim at divisive lessons in classrooms, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican state legislators have sought to censor classroom discussion and materials, limiting teachings on race and racism as well as LGBT+ history, events and people. Story continues In June, the Florida State Board of Education approved a rule to ban critical race theory from state schools, claiming that the theory distorts historical events and is inconsistent with the state boards approved standards. Last month, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act, or Stop WOKE Act, into law, prohibiting classroom discussion that suggests someone is responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex or national origin, which critics argue could censor lessons on historic atrocities, from slavery to the Holocaust. It also requires classroom materials as well as professional development materials in the workplace be consistent with principles of individual freedom and allows residents to sue schools and workplaces over perceived violations. The governor and Florida legislators also approved a measure that requires school districts to involve parents on committees that make recommendations to school boards about the ranking, eliminating or selecting of instructional materials. Republican officials have also increasingly targeted social emotional learning concepts, which seek to help students manage their emotions, develop positive relationships and make good decisions from learning how to ask for help to how to identify whether someone is having a bad day. We dont want things like math to have, you know, some of these other concepts introduced. Its not been proven to be effective, and quite frankly, it takes our eye off the ball, the governor said during a news conference on 18 April. In a statement, he claimed that textbooks included indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students. Floridas Lt Governor Jeanette Nunez claimed without evidence that the state has seen a systematic attempt by these publishers to infiltrate our childrens education by embedding topics such as critical race theory. Democratic state Rep Carlos Smith said the governor is hysterically pulling math books from the state. This isnt just crazy right-wing pandering next theyll spend MILLIONS of tax dollars forcing schools to buy math books from GOP campaign donors, he said. I get it. The goal of math is to solve problems which the Republican Party of Florida doesnt like to do, said Democratic state Rep Anna Eskamani. A former Mississippi Department of Corrections probation officer pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of embezzlement for taking more than $4,000 from people between February 2020 and June 2021. Dendrick Hurd was indicted by a grand jury in September on two of the charges and December on two additional charges. The 28-year-old's trial was set to begin Tuesday. According to State Auditor Shad White's office, Hurd told probationers under his supervision to purchase money orders and leave them blank, using them for his own benefit. Mississippi crime: Former Franciscan friar convicted of 1990s child sex abuse His victims contacted the state auditor's office to report the funds were not credited to their accounts. Hurd told Forrest County Circuit Judge Bob Helfrich he was guilty of the crimes for which he was charged in an open plea to the court. An open plea means there was no agreement made with the district attorney's office. Hurd faces up to 80 years in prison 20 years for each charge or $20,000 in fines. Hurd's sentence will be determined following a pre-sentence investigation and a sentencing date will be set after the report is complete. Helfrich ordered Hurd taken into custody until sentencing. Retail renaissance: Innovation and improvements are part of downtown Hattiesburg's success Although Hurd was indicted for embezzling $4,150 from people attempting to pay court-ordered fines and fees, White's office said in a December news release that special agents working with the auditor's office issued a demand for Hurd to repay $8,667.50, which includes interest and investigative expenses. We are committed to uncovering all fraud, including in cases where the perpetrator thought the victim would have no one to defend their interests, White said in the release. A spokesman for White's office said Monday a statement will be issued once Hurd is sentenced. Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge. This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Dendrick Hurd, former MS corrections probation officer pleads guilty A former Kay County corrections officer faces up to 10 years in prison after a federal jury in Oklahoma City convicted him of excessive force and placing Black detainees in harms way by moving them into the same cell row as white supremacist inmates. Matthew Ware, 53, was found guilty of willfully depriving two pretrial detainees of their right to be free from a corrections officers deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm, and of willfully depriving a third pretrial detainee of the right to be free from a corrections officers use of excessive force. Prosecutors said while Ware was serving as lieutenant at the Kay County Detention Center in Newkirk on May 18, 2017, he ordered lower-ranking corrections officers to move DAngelo Wilson and Marcus Miller to a cell row housing white supremacist inmates whom Ware knew posed a danger to Wilson and Miller. More: Oklahoma Corrections Department workers get pay bump, including 30% for corrections officers Ware later ordered the officers to unlock the jail cells of Wilson and Miller and the white supremacist inmates at the same time the following morning, prosecutors said. When the cells were unlocked, the white supremacist inmates attacked Wilson and Miller, causing injuries to both, including a facial laceration to Wilson that required seven stitches, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that on Jan. 31, 2018, while Ware served as the acting captain of the jail, he ordered a lower-ranking corrections officer to restrain another pretrial detainee, Christopher Davis, in a stretched-out position, with Davis left wrist restrained to the far-left side of a bench and his right wrist restrained to the far-right side of the bench. More: In 2019, more than 400 convicts were released in one day. Half have been re-arrested This was in retaliation for Davis sending Ware a note that criticized how Ware ran the jail, prosecutors said. Davis was left restrained in the position for 90 minutes, resulting in physical injury, prosecutors said. Story continues This high-ranking corrections official had a duty to ensure that the civil rights of pretrial detainees in his custody were not violated, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said in a news release. The defendant abused his power and authority by ordering subordinate corrections officers to violate the constitutional rights of several pretrial detainees. The Civil Rights Division will continue to hold corrections officials accountable when they violate the civil rights of detainees and inmates. Sentencing will take place in 90 days. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma jail officer convicted of allowing attack on Black detainees SNY Mets first baseman Pete Alonso says since the "book's out" on him, he's had to adjust and have a more disciplined approach at the plate in his fourth season. KYIV (Reuters) - Four civilians were shot dead while trying to flee by car from the town of Kreminna in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region during a Russian attack, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a post on messaging app Telegram on Monday. A fourth person was seriously injured, he said. Reuters could not independently verify the information. (Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Toby Chopra) Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded barbs Monday as they returned to campaigning for the French presidency ahead of a prime-time debate that is likely to prove decisive for next weekend's second-round run-off vote. The two rivals held low-key events after a brief Easter pause before Wednesday's face-off, when the centrist Macron will defend his record over the past five years against his combative far-right rival. It will be a rematch of their debate in 2017, when the same two finalists clashed at the same stage of the campaign. Analysts say that match was handily won by Macron, who was making his first-ever run for public office. Le Pen, making her third attempt for the presidency, insists she is better prepared this time around. "I'm very confident, and I think I'm going to win," the National Rally candidate said while posing for selfies with well-wishers at the sunlit village square in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge in Normandy, northern France. "I hope this debate is carried out calmly... I hope it won't be what I've been hearing for the past week, a series of insults, fake news and excesses," she said. Opinion polls have suggested for weeks that Macron has the edge. On Monday, an Ipsos-Sopra Steria survey of voter intentions had him winning by 56 percent. Ifop had him winning with 54.5 percent. But allowing for margins of error, Macron knows there is no room for complacency. Polls have underestimated the results of far-right candidates in the past -- most notably in 2002, when Le Pen's father Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the presidential run-off against Jacques Chirac. Macron's supporters -- and Macron himself -- were at pains to stress that nothing was in the bag. In an interview with France 5 television Monday evening, Macron recalled the shock results that saw Donald Trump win the US presidency and Britain's exit from the European Union approved. "So if you want to avoid the unthinkable or something that repulses you, choose for yourself," he said. Story continues - 'Reassure everybody' - Macron took aim at Le Pen's proposal to hold constitutional referendums on tougher immigration laws; on her plan for "national priority" for French citizens for jobs and welfare benefits; and her backing for citizens' initiatives to propose and vote on legislation. "She is implying that once elected, she believes she's above the Constitution since she can decide not to respect it by changing the rules," he told France Culture radio in an interview broadcast Monday. But instead of focusing on immigration and the threat of Islamist extremism, Le Pen has insisted mainly on her plans to tackle rising prices, a key element of her strategy of presenting a more moderate face to voters. Her team has played down in particular a proposed ban on the Islamic headscarf in public places, Le Pen acknowledging that it was a "complex problem" that would require parliamentary debate, and that "I'm not obstinate." Le Pen also hit back at a report that the European Union's anti-corruption body OLAF had accused her and senior colleagues of embezzling more than 600,000 euros ($650,000) of EU funds during their time as euro-deputies. "Low blows from the European Union, just a few days from the second round, I know all about them and I think the French aren't stupid," she said, adding that "I absolutely deny these allegations, which I wasn't even aware of." - 'Russian roulette' - Polls suggest that up to a quarter of the French electorate might not vote at all on Sunday, and much will also depend on the decisions of the millions of leftwing supporters of Jean-Luc Melenchon, who finished in a close third place in the first round on April 10. The results of a survey published on Sunday carried out by Melenchon's France Unbowed party suggested that only a third of those who voted for him will back Macron to block a far-right presidency under Le Pen. The rest preferred to return a blank or spoiled ballot, or simply to stay home on voting day next Sunday. Melenchon is poised to loom large on the left ahead of parliamentary elections in June in which Macron is hoping to renew a majority if re-elected. He has pointedly refused to urge voters to back Macron, saying only that "not a single vote" should go to Le Pen. Christophe Castaner, the leader of Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) group in parliament, attempted to play down the significance of the survey. But he also warned: "Not to choose, is to accept you are playing Russian roulette." vm/jj/rlp A Georgia familys Easter gathering turned deadly over the weekend when a convicted felon shot a 19-year-old father during an argument over the victims child, authorities said. Reginald Manual, the victim, was attending an Easter gathering with his girlfriend and her family in the 200 block of Valley Hill Road in Riverdale late Saturday, Clayton County police said. GEORGIA MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER ALLEGEDLY LEAVING GRANDMOTHER TO DIE IN FREEZER During the gathering, a heated argument broke out between Manual and his girlfriends mother after he stated that he wanted to remove his child from the home, police said. Manual walked out of the home after the verbal altercation and was shot, according to authorities. Officers responded just after midnight on Sunday to the home for a call of a person shot and found Manual in the driveway with a gunshot wound, police said. As officers provided first aid, police said Manual was able to tell them who shot him before being rushed to a hospital, where he died. Investigators used what they learned from Manual and the multiple witnesses they spoke with to identify Jaswan Burroughs, the mothers boyfriend, as the suspect, police said. Police released video of officers leading a handcuffed Burroughs into a squad car after his arrest. Burroughs faces charges of malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. BERLIN (AP) Germany's employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying such a move would lead to factory shutdowns and the loss of jobs in the bloc's largest economy. A rapid gas embargo would lead to loss of production, shutdowns, a further de-industrialization and the long-term loss of work positions in Germany, said Rainer Dulger, chairman of the BDA employer's group, and Reiner Hoffmann, chairman of the DGB trade union confederation, in a joint statement Monday on Germany's dpa news agency. The statement comes as European leaders are discussing possible new energy sanctions against Russian oil, following a decision April 7 to ban Russian coal imports beginning in August. Ukraine's leaders say revenues from Russia's energy exports are financing Moscow's destructive war on Ukraine and must be ended. That won't be easy to do. The EU's 27 nations get around 40% of their natural gas from Russia and around 25% of their oil. Natural gas would be the most difficult do without, energy analysts say, since most of it comes by pipeline from Russia and supplies of liquefied gas, which can be ordered by ship, are limited amid strong demand worldwide. Germany, a major manufacturing hub and an importer of Russian gas, has so far resisted an immediate shutoff and said it plans to instead phase out Russian oil by the end of the year and most Russian gas imports by mid-2024. The EU's executive commission has outlined steps to cut the consumption of Russian gas by two-thirds by year's end through using more pipeline gas from Norway and Azerbaijan, importing more liqueifed gas, accelerating the deployment of wind and solar projects and intensifying conservation efforts. German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said in an interview with the Funke media group that an immediate gas embargo would endanger social peace in Germany. Story continues Despite widespread economic sanctions against Russian banks and individuals, the EU continues to send around $850 million per day to Russia for oil and gas, even as EU governments condemn the war in Ukraine. Gas-intensive companies include producers of glass, metals, ceramics and chemicals. Industry officials say natural gas would be difficult or impossible to replace in the short run. Analysts say Russian crude oil would be easier to replace than gas but that a boycott would still lead to higher energy prices that would hit consumers who are already facing record EU inflation of 7.5%. ___ Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., speaks during the Problem Solvers Caucus press conference in the Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) GOP Rep. Fred Upton told "Meet the Press" he received death threats related to bipartisan votes. "[W]hen they threaten your spouse or your kids or whatever, that's what really makes it frightening," Upton said. "It's going to be a detriment getting good people to run," the congressman predicted. Fred Upton, Michigan's retiring GOP congressman, told "Meet the Press" on Sunday that death threats will be "a detriment getting good people to run" in future elections. "Well, death threats. I mean, they never were like we had this last year, but it was pretty crazy," Upton told host Chuck Todd, discussing threats he'd received for voting in favor of the bipartisan infrastructure bill last November. In one such threat, which Upton publicly released a recording of, someone left a voicemail calling the congressman a traitor and said "I hope you die. I hope everybody in your fucking family dies." "It's going to be a detriment getting good people to run. It really will be, because I've got a school board member who lives on my street, I think he got death threats to just over the mask mandate," Upton added. The Michigan Rep. announced his retirement earlier this month, withdrawing from a competitive primary challenge from Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga. Upton, who voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol insurrection, said the increasing threats made it easier to step away from his role in Congress. "You know, it puts you at risk, particularly when they threaten not only you and I like to think I'm pretty fast but when they threaten your spouse or your kids or whatever, that's what really makes it frightening," Upton told Meet the Press. Read the original article on Business Insider LONDON (AP) Harrison Birtwistle, the creator of daringly experimental modern music who was recognized as one of Britains greatest contemporary composers, has died at 87. Birtwistles publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, said he died Monday at his home in Mere, southwest England. No cause of death was given. Birtwistles compositions, which ranged from chamber pieces to large-scale opera, were given prominent performances in venues including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, the BBC Proms in London and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His unapologetically challenging work sometimes tried the patience of listeners, but the composer was unperturbed. The question of accessibility, Birtwistle once said, is not my problem. I have an idea. I express it as clearly as I can. Criticism is someone elses problem, he added. Martyn Brabbins, music director of the English National Opera, said Birtwistle was a much-loved collaborator and mentor whose work has inspired generations of musicians. The Royal Philharmonic Society said on Twitter that he was a true musical colossus whose music shook the earth. Short on conventional harmony and heavy on complex rhythms, Birtwistles music was often described as having an abrasive quality. In 1995, his piece Panic had a high-profile premiere on live television as part of the hugely popular Last Night of the Proms concert. The BBC was inundated with complaints. Was somebody strangling a cat? one viewer asked. It wasnt only ordinary musical audiences who winced at his work. Benjamin Britten, among Britains greatest 20th-century composers, reportedly left at the intermission of the 1968 premiere of Birtwistles chamber opera Punch and Judy at Brittens own Aldeburgh Festival. Birtwistle said audiences often had trouble with dissonance because it was unfamiliar. Its to do with memory in music, he told The Sunday Times newspaper in 2019. For instance, if you have a Picasso, it can sit on the wall and become part of your memory, even if you only subliminally see it. In music, time is really ephemeral. Modern music is not heard for long enough for it to become familiar. Youre not getting anywhere near being familiar with it. Story continues Born in Accrington in northwest England on July 15, 1934, Birtwistle studied clarinet and composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his contemporaries included composer Peter Maxwell Davies and the late pianist John Ogdon. In 1965, Birtwistle sold his clarinets and devoted all his time to composition. His works include The Mask of Orpheus, staged by the English National Opera in 1986; Exody, which the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered under Daniel Barenboim in 1998; Gawain, which premiered in 1991 at the Royal Opera House; and The Minotaur, which debuted in the same venue in 2008. Press Association, the British news agency, said Gawain was avant garde and has no trace of a tune. But Rodney Milnes, editor of Opera magazine, said the opera gripped the imagination pretty remorselessly. Reviewing The Minotaur, critic Anna Picard wrote in The Independent: Long on ugliness, short of redemptive beauty, rich with the rough, pungent poetry of David Harsents libretto, Birtwistles score is as violent as its subject. But in the Evening Standard, Fiona Maddocks described it as music of coruscating, storming beauty. The music flowed from a unique perspective. I dream in the abstract can you imagine that? he told the BBC in 2002. Can you imagine sort of cogs, wooden cogs that are meant to fit, but dont. And then you try to put them in another way and they dont, and its like sort of difficult to describe, but its a sort of abstraction. In 1987, Birtwistle won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Award for Composition from the University of Louisville in the United States for his opera The Mask of Orpheus. He was made a Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres by France in 1986, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 and was elevated in 2001 to a Companion of Honor, a British distinction limited to 65 living people. Birtwistle, the subject of so much criticism, memorably dished it out to pop musicians in 2006 when he accepted an Ivor Novello award. Why is your music so (expletive) loud? he said. You must all be brain dead. Maybe you are. I didnt know so many cliches existed until the last half-hour. Have fun. Goodbye. Birtwistles wife Sheila died in 2012. He is survived by their three sons. ___ The late Associated Press Writer Robert Barr contributed to this story before his death. The U.S. General Services Administration, which procures and investigates tech for things like government websites and online services, is making a two-pronged push for accessibility in its recently released Equity Action Plan. Websites must be made accessible beyond the bare minimum, it said, and bias in facial recognition systems means the feds will be avoiding it wherever possible. The Action Plan is the result of a bit of introspection at the GSA, which "conducted equity assessments and identified a set of actions for three high-impact focus areas," one of which is "federal technology design & delivery." "Those who most need government services will often have the most difficulty accessing them," reads the memo's intro. "We are dedicated to actions that prioritize equitable user experience as a core design principle, mitigate algorithmic bias, improve digital accessibility, and modernize the delivery of government services to the American people." To that end the GSA identified two major problems with the recent approach to providing those services. One is an under-commitment to accessibility, or perhaps it is better stated as a firm commitment to bare compliance and not meeting the community's needs. "Often government applications and websites have minimal language accessibility, confusing navigation, and poor design practices resulting in user mistrust and frustration," the GSA assessment reads. In particular it noted that the habits of visually impaired users who rely on screen readers differ from the assumptions made in designing government sites. Basic tasks like logins and account checks may not respect these common choices or may require tools (such as cursor use) that are often unavailable to users. To improve this, the GSA says it will expand usability testing with communities that have been underrepresented in the design process. (As accessibility advocates have told me over and over again, these communities need to be involved from the start or the outcome will be exactly what the agency described above.) Story continues It will also work on making sites perform better on old computers, phones and devices with limited bandwidth. The second problem is that facial recognition services are racially biased. This likely will not come as a surprise to readers of this website, but government procurement and deployment processes are slow and weird, so it's not entirely surprising that the feds will only now be catching up with what the tech community has been warning of for years. "Through our own testing, GSA learned that major commercial implementations of facial matching had disproportionately high 'False Rejection Rates' for African Americans," the memo reads, noting at least that this is consistent with the larger body of research in this domain. Its approach here: Address discrimination in emerging technologies and data sovereignty. To provide an equitable remote identity-verification experience for a diverse population, GSAs Login.gov team will perform research studies on equity and bias in facial matching services. Further, GSA will apply an equity lens to the user guides it publishes, which influences governmentwide and industry best practices. Frustratingly vague, but a broad response can indicate systemic change as well as lip service. Further research on bias in facial recognition services will almost certainly lag academic and industry research by years, but the GSA probably wants to be able to cite itself as a disinterested party. The "equity lens" may or may not be helpful, but one hopes that, as in so many companies and industries, there are some people who have been flagging problems along these lines for years and can't get anyone to listen. Perhaps this is an opportunity for those voices to be given the attention they deserve. The GSA also lists plenty more ways it can improve accessibility and equity in the full document, which you can download here or view below. View this document on Scribd JK Rowling at the "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" World Premiere in March 2022. Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images JK Rowling has been excluded from a 70-strong book list designed to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The "Harry Potter" author's first book in the series was rejected in favor of a less well known work, a judge said. Rowling has faced accusations of transphobia in recent years. A "Harry Potter" title was dropped from a list of books to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. It came amid an increasingly fraught public debate over trans rights in which author JK Rowling has been accused of transphobia. The Big Jubilee Read features 70 books from Commonwealth authors to mark the Queen's 70-year reign 10 from every decade from 1952 to 2022. The list was compiled by BBC Arts and The Reading Agency and includes works by renowned authors and less famous writers. Rowling, however, did not make the cut. Rowling was on the long-list chosen by the public The first of her novels, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," was included in a 153-book long-list for the Big Jubilee Read, based on a public vote. (The book was released in the US with the title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.") The title was dropped when a panel of industry experts cut the list of 153 down to 70, The Times of London reported. "There was a big discussion about JK Rowling," Susheila Nasta, one of the competition judges and emeritus professor of modern literature at Queen Mary University of London, told the newspaper. "A space was cleared for someone equally as good but whose work was not as well-known," Nasta said. "There were some very tricky decisions." Nasta did not mention the criticism of Rowling's views, which have made her a polarizing figure in the UK. BBC Arts said that excluding Rowling from the reading list was not related to her views, the Telegraph reported. Rowling has faced accusations of transphobia for years In June 2020, the author mocked an article referring to "people who menstruate" on Twitter and she has defended herself against accusations of transphobia. Story continues She has been called a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) after appearing to say that transgender activism was "erasing the concept of sex," which she argued is harmful for women and lesbians, as Kat Tenbarge reported for Insider. Rowling's comments have prompted some "Harry Potter" film actors to distance themselves from her, as reported by Insider's Palmer Haasch. Daniel Radcliffe, for example, wrote an essay for The Trevor Project saying that "trans women are women" and that he felt "compelled to say something." Read the original article on Insider A March violation in water turbidity was the result of the Topeka Water Department seeing a sharp influx of sand and salt runoff from roads after the winter, as well as an increase in dust from drought conditions across much of Kansas. On the first of April, the city issued a release stating that water was cloudier in March than allowed. Official said the water remained safe to drink, however, and attributed the murkiness to higher-than-average rainfall during that month. This prompts the question: How does water get from the Kansas River to the faucet of the 170,000 customers Topeka Water Department serves? The answer is a multistep process that begins at Topeka's water treatment facility just off of Interstate 70. Topeka water treatment cliff's notes The water is first pumped out of the river. It is sent to three large basins, where a polymer is introduced twice to encourage bonding between negatively charged particles. Pure chlorine is added next as the initial disinfectant. Ammonia is added to make chloramine, and then a flocculant is introduced to encourage clumping. Braxton Copley explains the data on several computers at the Topeka Water Department. The room monitors everything at the treatment facility, from water pressure being sent to customers to daily intake from the Kansas River. "I want to start these, this chemical reaction where I've got charged particles colliding with each other," said Braxton Copley, director of public works at Topeka. "When they finally get enough weight, they're going to settle out." Heavy things sink, and these clumps of lime will ultimately sink to the bottom of the basin, allowing the water to progress to the filters. Again the power of gravity is at work, with the water settles through a sand/anthracite coal filter that catches any remaining particles. More: 'Great day for tourism in Topeka' $6.75 million will go to Topeka Zoo and Constitution Hall From there, it is sent to clear wells, the distribution system and eventually your faucet. All of these steps are designed to work in tandem, but none are a 100% solution to treating water. "No one of these processes is sufficient," Copley said. "You have to have all of them in concert, to be able to meet all of the drinking water qualities to have safe drinking water." Cloudy water can still impact system, in spite of processes A water basin with lime added to water at the Topeka treatment facility. The lime causes particles to clump together and sink to the bottom. The clean water overflows into the streams and moves on to the next step. There are a significant number of regulations around delivering safe drinking water to residents. The U.S. established minimum standards for safe drinking water with the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. This allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to set and enforce those regulations. Story continues One of those regulations is in regard to turbidity of the water going out to customers. "The EPA regs says you're only allowed to exceed point three NTU 5% of the time," Copley said. "If you exceed one NTU that's going to be in Tier 1 violation has to be reported immediately." March's turbidity level was above the allowed limit but was a Tier 2 violation. The water remained safe to drink, but Topeka was obligated to report the violation to KDHE. As for the cause in the rise of turbidity, Copley said, "There are a couple of things going on." "You have the reservoirs that have had a lot of organic matter sitting in those for months," he said. "Then you're also going to have runoff in terms of salt, sand, everything that was deposited on those roads, it's been washed off by the rain." More: Topeka City Council bans bicycles on NOTO sidewalks and establishes business district During rainfall, the reservoirs increase their discharge dramatically compared to the winter months. Sand and salt runs off roads and into the system. Due to the drought in parts of Kansas, dust can also find its way into the process. That adds another particulate that must be filtered out. Copley said the treatment facility normally can counteract that but said this year was different due to how hard the treatment facility was hit in the initial rainfall event. He said Topeka Water was "just overwhelmed in terms of what we can do." "We can only slow down the system so much," he said. "It's a matter of adding chemical but it's also a matter of time." The water department has to balance demand with pressure during these events. If demand is high, but the system has been slowed down too much, the treatment process may not work as intended. This could result in a boil water order being issued. Copley proud of work done, would drink cloudy water from March Braxton Copley stands in front of a machine used to extract water from lime. The lime is compressed, releasing water and results in a chalky material being left over. The cloudy water residents may have experienced was a violation of regulations, KDHE only considered it a minor one. The city was in violation for about 13 hours, and is only the second time it has been out of compliance. Copley said he was never concerned with the safety of the water being sent to the system. "I take great pride in what we're doing here," he said. "There was never a point that I was concerned about the quality of this water for anyone to be going to be able to drink." 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: After violation in March, a look at how water is treated in Topeka Former President Trumps hold on the Republican Party will be under close examination in the coming weeks after his leap into key Senate GOP primary contests, including his endorsement of J.D. Vance in Ohio late last week. Senate races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Alabama all feature high-profile candidates who support the presidents agenda. Nevertheless, Trump has made like Kenny Rogers and wagered his lot on the likes of Mehmet Oz, Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Vance, with potential endorsements still to come in Missouri and Arizona, in a bid to further cement his title as the uncontested kingmaker in Republican politics. The Hills Alexander Bolton reports the former presidents endorsement of Vance is perhaps the riskiest bet if Trump is seeking to crown winners. Unlike Budd, who leads the North Carolina primary, and Oz, who is neck-and-neck with David McCormick in Pennsylvania, Vance has struggled to take off in the Buckeye State, though he has made headway in recent weeks. Before Trumps announcement, former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel led with 28 percent to Vances 23 percent, according to a Trafalger Group survey. Businessman Mike Gibbons and state Sen. Matt Dolan followed with 14 and 12 percent, respectively. Mandels supporters made a last-minute and unsuccessful effort to discourage Trumps thumbs-up for Vance. Nevertheless, the former president is rolling the dice with Vance. I think hes taking a pretty big risk, one Ohio GOP operative told the Morning Report, pointing to a recent internal poll that showed Vance trailing Mandel by 13 points (24 percent to 11 percent) and that 30 percent of the primary electorate is undecided. Trump is betting that he can move almost half the undecided vote to put Vance over the top. And many people, especially in southern Ohio, feel like Vance is a fraud. It all seems like a steep climb to me, but somehow, the president decided to do it. This could be the beginning of the end for the Trump endorsement magic, the operative added. Story continues The New York Times: Mar-a-Lago machine: Trump as a modern-day party boss. Max Greenwood, The Hill: GOP shadow primary gains steam ahead of 2024. The Washington Post: Sarah Palin (also Trump-endorsed) is running for Congress. Many Alaskans say they are skeptical. Can Trump pick winners when not on the ballot? How his choices turn out will gauge his own standing with GOP primary voters who could determine whether Trump should be the partys nominee for a third time. It would signal that Trump doesnt have an open door to the nomination in 2024 if that nomination has to run through Ohio, Matt Dole, an Ohio-based GOP political consultant, told The Hill of the possibility the Hillbilly Elegy author does not win the primary. Before most votes are even cast, Trump has already shown a willingness to cut loose a candidate he deems to be not up to snuff as he remains ever-mindful of his successes and failures in wading into these races. In recent months, the ex-president has already been burned by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who he unendorsed last month after a lackluster performance in polling, and Sean Parnell in Pennsylvania. Parnell, who has since endorsed McCormick, dropped out of the Keystone States Senate contest amid a custody battle. Dates to remember: Ohio GOP primary on May 3; Pennsylvania and North Carolina GOP primaries on May 17; Alabama and Georgia primaries on May 24. Reid Wilson, The Hill: Republican governors sprint right, eyeing reelection and 2024. The Associated Press: Wisconsin Democrats aim to beat Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), but how? Niall Stanage: The Memo: RNCs break on debates nudges nation toward factionalism. The Hill: Democrats prepare to take second run at Biden spending plan. Good Monday morning! The Hills Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are co-creators of the Morning Report. SIGN-UP is here! Subscribe to The Hills latest newsletters: NotedDC, The Hills insider take on the heartbeat of politics and policy. Plus, Evening Report, The Hills roundup of major news from morning, noon and night! LEADING THE DAY UKRAINE CRISIS: The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine is on the verge of falling to Russian forces after weeks of war, while the western city of Lviv saw six people killed and at least 11 injured today after a rare Russian missile strike on the outskirts of a train complex, which appeared to also hit Ukrainian military infrastructure (The New York Times). Reuters: Russia today claimed massive strikes overnight against Ukrainian military targets. Capturing Mariupol would be a significant advance for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has labored since February to control Ukraines southeastern coast, complete a land bridge to occupied Crimea and refocus more Russian forces toward a pivotal battle in the east (The New York Times). Russia warned on Sunday that Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol would be eliminated if they do not first surrender. On Sunday, the citys remaining inhabitants refused (The Associated Press). In Kharkiv on Sunday, Russian forces fired on civilian areas for the second day. The wounded included four people working for the chef Jose Andress World Central Kitchen, which provides humanitarian meals in and around Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, interviewed by CNN and the BBC, said the situation in Mariupol is inhuman and that additional Russian war crimes would make negotiations impossible. Russias use of nuclear weapons is not out of the question and Ukraine and its allies must be prepared, Zelensky said, adding that his countrys military casualties total at least 3,000 so far (The Hill). During a Sunday night address, Zelensky warned that Russians in southern Ukraine abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities, and use torture and terror as weapons of war in violation of international norms. The president urged allied nations to tighten punishments against Moscow aimed at its energy industry, AP reported. All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions, he said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba predicted during a CBS interview on Sunday that his country would likely see intensification of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, in Donbas, [a] large-scale offensive of Russia in that part of Ukraine and also desperate attempts of the Russian forces to finish with Mariupol at any cost. And of course, missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine. Russias military announced that Mariupol today will be closed for entry and exit, warning that men remaining in the city would be filtered out, according to Mariupols mayor. The Associated Press: Mariupol teeters as Ukrainians defy surrender-or-die demand. The Wall Street Journal: Russia has started a new phase of war against Ukraine. President Biden returned to the White House Sunday from Camp David encouraged by some in Ukraine and elsewhere to travel to Ukraine, which has eagerly welcomed a collection of world leaders in-person, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (The Hill). The White House has been weighing for days whether to send a senior administration official to Ukraine, and, if so, whom it should be. Reuters: Ukraine asks the Group of Seven most developed nations to provide $50 billion to help staunch Ukraines red ink. The country is running a $5 billion deficit per month, according to its prime minister (The Washington Post). Reuters: Zelensky said Sunday he spoke with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva about Ukraines financial stability and the countrys post-war reconstruction. The Hills Rebecca Beitsch and Axios report why Finland and Sweden suddenly want to join NATO. IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES CORONAVIRUS: The White House and Democrats are using the congressional spring break to publicly pressure GOP lawmakers to return to Washington after April 25 ready to holster partisan disagreements over approving more federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and pandemic readiness at a time when infections are spiking again in some regions. Ashish Jha, the new White House coronavirus coordinator, used his Sunday talk show appearances to spread that message (The Hill). Biden ally Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) did the same, arguing that millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses will expire without federal funding (The Hill). The rift between the parties is over whether to approve new funds that enlarge the deficit or reprogram previously appropriated but unspent dollars. Biden initially asked lawmakers for another $22.5 billion, which did not pass muster with Senate Republicans. A counter proposal for $15.6 billion to be included in the omnibus spending bill was cut out before the measure passed, leaving the issue up in the air. I think we should treat this as emergency spending. But frankly, well negotiate what we have to in order to secure a chance to move forward and not waste the vital vaccines America has already purchased, Coons told CBSs Face the Nation. Mask mandates are back on college and university campuses and today a mask requirement returns to Philadelphia (The Hill), although a new lawsuit filed on Saturday by businesses and residents seeks to overturn it in the City of Brotherly Love (The Associated Press). The masking message in other U.S. cities is all about individual choice and risk tolerance (The Wall Street Journal). International: In Shanghai, the first signs of easing a weeks-long lockdown are expected on Wednesday as officials seek to halt the spread COVID-19 outside of quarantined areas with infected Chinese citizens. A local Communist Party official said in a speech over the weekend that coronavirus testing must be accelerated. The Chinese lockdown has frustrated people in a city of 26 million residents. Most are confined to their homes and have been challenged for weeks to obtain food and prescriptions. Only in recent days have some supermarkets and mass transit stations reopened (Reuters). Those in quarantine and disease containment centers in Shanghai centers describe prison-like conditions where lights are never off and hot showers are hard to come by (The Associated Press). Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University: 988,618. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 399, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. OPINION Chinas zero covid has become Xi Jinpings nemesis, by Niall Ferguson, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3vpkx5R Disney didnt leave the GOP behind culture did, by Derek Robertson, opinion contributor, Politico Magazine. https://politi.co/3JR9ibF WHERE AND WHEN The House meets for a pro forma session at 1 p.m. Votes are not scheduled until after April 26. The Senate convenes for a pro forma session at 4 p.m. Senators are in recess until April 25. The president, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will participate during the White House Easter Egg Roll at 10:15 a.m. Biden will receive the Presidents Daily Brief at 1:45 p.m. The vice president and Emhoff will fly to California to visit Vandenberg Space Force base this afternoon. Harris will get briefed at the Combined Space Operations Center on the base at 3:15 p.m. PDT and meet with service members and their families at 4:30 p.m. PDT. The vice president will deliver remarks at 5:15 p.m. about establishing norms for space, then depart Vandenberg for Los Angeles. Harris will address a fundraiser hosted by the Democratic National Committee in L.A. at 8:10 p.m. PDT and remain overnight in California. Secretary of State Antony Blinken willmeet at 3:30 p.m. with Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu in Washington. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank convene their annual meeting in Washington, which ends on April 24. Schedule is HERE. The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 4 p.m. Hill.TVs Rising program features news and interviews at http://thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the Rising podcast here. ELSEWHERE ABORTION: The Hills John Kruzel looks ahead at three big cases dealing with immigration, policing and prayer in schools as the Supreme Court wraps up oral arguments this term. State courts arethe battleground in the abortion access fight (The Hill). The Hills Hanna Trudo explores whether Democratic candidates in November could be politically rescued if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer. INTERNATIONAL: North Korea test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon designed to boost its nuclear fighting capability, state media reported Sunday, a day before its chief rivals the United States and South Korea begin annual drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal (The Associated Press). The 13th weapons test this year came amid concerns that North Korea may soon conduct an even larger provocation. That may include a nuclear test in an effort to expand the countrys arsenal and increase pressure on Washington and Seoul while denuclearization talks remain stalled. TECH: Elon Musk, fresh off his purchase of 9 percent of Twitter, argued over the weekend that the economic interests of the companys board are not aligned with shareholders following the companys move to fight off his takeover attempt. The billionaires comments came in response to a tweet about board members stock holdings, noting that Jack Dorseys departure means the board collectively owns almost no shares (Bloomberg News). ADMINISTRATION: IRS: Most Americans have until midnight tonight to file their 2021 tax returns (USA Today). Advocates interested in banning all new uses of asbestos say the Environmental Protection Agencys limits on asbestos are not enough and still pose a legacy human hazard (The Hill). Associated Press / Patrick Sison | Tax filing day. THE CLOSER And finally Today, the White House Easter Egg Roll is back after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus that sidelined the popular South Lawn tradition. The holiday gathering of some 30,000 adults and children would not be possible without help from egg-spert volunteers, who hail from various states, according to recent reporting. Lending both hands to get the whole affair organized is Caleb Hicks, the communications director for the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, who arrived in Washington on Thursday. To be on the South Lawn of the White House and at a historic event that has been happening since 1879 with President Rutherford B. Hayes, its really really cool, Hicks said, showing off his PR skills (WTOK). North Carolina pros enlisted by the White House needed two days of preparation to hard-boil 18,000 eggs, then five days of dyeing and decorating 14,000 of them (4,000 are left undyed so children can decorate them), according to Andrew McMillan, executive chef with Winston-Salem company Stocked Pot Fun Culinary Events, which partnered with the states Braswell Family Farms, donor of the eggs (Fox8). Visitors will not be required to be vaccinated or wear a mask during todays event; the White House will provide masks when requested and hopes anyone who feels sick will remain at home. The White House has information about todays ticketed event HERE (the lottery for tickets ended March 31), and the White House Historical Association offers background info and virtual games and activities tied to the event HERE. The association, which raises money to help preserve the White House and its furnishings, also sells a commemorative 2022 wooden Easter egg HERE. The Washington Post: Biden may hug the Easter Bunny. Morning Report journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver can be reached at asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. Send us a message and/or SUBSCRIBE! For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Apr. 18The developer who is building the Tollhouse Farms subdivision recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Lebanon over the type of material that is used to backfill sewer trenches and the refusal to approve development plans and issue construction permits. Campbell Berling Development Company, LLC, and CB Lebanon, LLC, both based in Fort Wright, Ky., filed suit against the city and Lebanon City Council on March 25 in Warren County Common Pleas Court. The developer is seeking declaratory judgment to force the city to acknowledge its subdivision regulations and accept sewer trench backfill consisting of natural soil as defined in a Ohio Department of Transportation regulation. The developer is also claiming the city's action constitutes a partial regulatory taking because the city is imposing an inflexible granular fill requirement for sewer trenches under roadways. The developer said the city's interpretation of its own regulations and insistence on the use of granular sewer trench backfill would impose severe economic consequences because the granular fill is significantly more costly. City Council approved the hiring of Isaac Wiles & Burkholder LLC to represent the city and council in the lawsuit. In its resolution to hire the Columbus-based law firm, city officials said the requirement to use granular fill instead of natural fill for sewer trench backfills beneath roadways was adopted by council in July 2006. The resolution said City Council believes it is in the best interest of residents to "require developers to construct quality road surfaces that do not require subsequent major repairs and reconstruction at taxpayer expense..." The new subdivision is on a parcel located at the southwest corner of Neil Armstrong Way and Franklin Road, a little over a mile northwest of downtown Lebanon. Tollhouse Farms is a mixed-use development of 9.14-acres that will have 22 attached single-family buildings on 44 lots. The acreage being developed will Include 2.3 acres of open space and and a detention pond. The residential buildings will be one- and two-story structures. Plans also include a 30-foot buffer along Neil Armstrong Way and a 10-foot minimum buffer to adjacent existing residential homes. The proposed subdivision is near the Bowman Elementary School campus and Traditions of Lebanon, a retirement community. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., expressed outrage over a video of Christians singing on a plane, leading many Republicans to attack her for what they suggested was anti-Christian bigotry. Omar shared a video Saturday evening in which a worship leader with a guitar sings Christian worship music on an airplane. "I think my family and I should have a prayer session next time I am on a plane," Omar, who is Muslim, wrote with the video. "How do you think it will end?" ILHAN OMAR'S HUSBAND'S FIRM QUIETLY RAKING IN PAYMENTS AGAIN FROM COMMITTEE LINKED TO SQUAD MEMBER Many Republican candidates responded, suggesting that Omar had expressed hatred or bigotry against Christians. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks during an event outside the U.S. Capitol on April 30, 2019. Olivier Douliery/Abacapress.com "Why do you hate Christians, Ilhan?" Vernon Jones, a Black pro-Trump former Democrat who is running to represent Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives, asked. "If the freedom of religion we enjoy here in America disturbs you, feel free to pack your bags and head back to Somalia, Sudan, or wherever youre from. Take your brother with you." "In America, Muslims can & do pray in public," Jose Castillo, a Republican candidate running for Congress in Florida's 9th Congressional District, tweeted. "If she wants a country where Christians arent allowed to do the same [Omar] should go back to her own country," he added, presumably referring to Somalia, where she was born. (Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen.) "Qatar - a country youre very familiar with - plays Islamic prayers on the intercom before takeoff on their planes," Cicely Davis, a candidate in the GOP primary in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, which Omar represents, tweeted in response to her opponent. "They have a designated prayer area & coordinates for Mecca are posted on the screens. Its no problem. The issue is you hate Christians & Jews & lots of Muslims." Video: German church opened doors to Muslim worshippers during pandemic Story continues Royce White, another candidate in the GOP primary for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, also chimed in. "Im coming for your seat," White tweeted in response to Omar. "Dont disrespect Christianity! Youre a globalist fraud. You cant pray in Pelosis office! The Democrats you serve dont believe in God. Their platform is openly anti-God. Minneapolis will not become Mogadishu. We will not bend the knee." The original context for the video remains unclear. Omar took it from the Twitter account @davenewworld_2, which has the name "Fifty Shades of Whey." Reports claim the video had been shot by Jack Jensz Jr., who leads a group called Kingdom Realm Ministries. The original posting appears to have been deleted, however. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019. (Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images) Neither Omar's campaign office nor her spokesman immediately responded to an after-hours media request from Fox News Digital, but Omar did retweet Deadspin sportswriter Chuck Modi, who shot back at the responses Omar received on social media. "Ilhan Omar: Makes very valid point," Modi wrote. "Right-wingers who hate Ilhan Omar: You are attacking Christianity because I am stupid or dishonest or just pandering to my bigoted base." Jermaine Dupri is getting roasted on the internet after social media users found footage of the rapper skating on roller blades in Atlanta. Dupri can be seen sweating profusely in the clip, holding onto the shoulder of a friend and gliding along in the rink. Its the beads of sweat on his head thats killing meeee, one person wrote on Instagram. Others said Dupri is expected to know how to skate like all other Atlanta natives. Everybody from Atlanta are born knowing how to skate, an Instagram user said. The jokes kept coming as the video went viral. He look like something and I have yet to figure it out, one person said. Its giving caretaker vibes, another added. People also noticed how the rapper was barely holding onto the other person with a few fingers. LMFAOOAOAOA yall captions really be sending me not his lil fingers holdin on, an Instagram user wrote. Still, some people also gave the rapper his flowers for showing off some moves. Ayyyeeehe gettin it tho, one fan said. JD showing off his ATL skills, another commenter added. According to HipHopDX, the video was recorded at Cascade Skating in Atlanta. Dupri recently headlined the inaugural R&B Soul Picnic Festival in Atlanta. The event promoted mental health and provided exposure to some of the top DJs in the country. Weve all had a bad couple of years surviving this pandemic, Dupri said in a statement, according to HipHopDX. We lost loved ones and hope in the process. Our souls need some healing, what better way to heal our souls than some good ole R&B music, I mean music, period. The trial for Johnny Depps defamation lawsuit against former wife, Amber Heard, has adjourned until Monday after a third day of testimony in Virginia. On Thursday, witness Gina Deuters, a friend of Depp, had her testimony struck from the record and was dismissed after admitting she had seen clips of the trial online. Instead video evidence from Dr David Kipper, who treated the actor for addiction, was played. Earlier, recorded depositions were shown from Heards former assistant Kate James, and the couples marriage counsellor Dr Laurel Anderson who detailed their mutual abuse. Depp claims a 2018 article about domestic violence towards women, written by Heard, implied he was an abuser during their relationship. Although she did not name him, lawyers claim her allegations have made it difficult for the actor to land movie roles. He is asking for $50million (38.2m) in damages during the trial in Fairfax Countys district courthouse. Heard has filed a counterclaim against Depp for nuisance. Depp has previously lost a defamation case in the UK againstThe Sun newspaper over the same article by Heard. Key points Marriage counsellor describes mutual abuse between Depp and Heard Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of defamation trial In pictures: Thursday in court in the Depp v Heard trial Court shown plans of Depp and Heards extravagant five-home penthouse Depps tearful friend pleads for couple to go heal at Amber Heard trial Depps sister says family was devastated with the marriage 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat and that the actors family was devastated at his marriage to her. Christi Dembrowski made the claims as she took the stand as the first witness in the multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia, in which Depp claims that a 2018 article on domestic violence she wrote for The Washington Post implied he was an abuser. Story continues She told the court that while she had seen Ms Heard be nice to her brother, she had also seen her be not nice and gave details of one such confrontation. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat ICYMI: Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Monday 18 April 2022 00:30 , Oliver O'Connell Explosive new allegations have been made by Amber Heard about her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, during the opening arguments of his $50m defamation trial. Ms Heards attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Mr Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Mr Depp was visibly skeptical as Ms Bredehoft made the claims, and shook his head no after her comments. Graig Graziosi reports. Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Opening statement: Amber Heard called compulsive liar by Depp team Sunday 17 April 2022 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell The legal team representing Johnny Depp in the defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard has made their opening statements, with Mr Depps attorneys painting Ms Heard as a compulsive and chronic liar who used the allegations she made against the actor as a means to advance her own career. They claimed she wanted to portray herself as a heroic survivor of abuse. The attorneys also noted Mr Depps drug and alcohol use, but argued that a substance abuse problem does not prove that he ever hurt Ms Heard. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar Amber Heard supporter barred from court Sunday 17 April 2022 21:02 Eve Barlow, Amber Heards friend and supporter, has been banned from the courtroom for the remainder of the trial. She was asked to leave the courtroom in an order by Judge Penney Azcarate. As @Angenette5 reported yesterday, Barlow was asked to leave the courtroom after using her cell phone. Cell phones are not allowed inside. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 15, 2022 Opening statement: Johnny Depp is out to destroy Amber Heard, lawyer says Sunday 17 April 2022 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards defence attorney claimed Johnny Depp would try to turn the defamation cause against his ex-wife into a soap opera, but warned that it was a distraction. Ben Rottenborn, Heards lawyer, said the case was about her First Amendment rights to discuss her experiences, and argued that context matters and asked the jury to read the entire article she wrote for The Washington Post which led to the lawsuit and not just the parts highlighted by Depp. He then read the article to the jury and asked why Depp did not sue The Washington Post as well as Heard, claiming he wanted to ruin her life, to destroy her. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp is out to destroy Amber Heard, lawyer says in opening statement Depps sister reveals their abusive mother called him one eye Sunday 17 April 2022 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell During her testimony, Christi Dembrowski told the court about the siblings early lives and growing up in Kentucky with an abusive mother described as angry and high strung. She said her mother would hit them and their father, and called them names. She claimed her mother called Mr Depp one-eye because he wore an eyepatch to correct a lazy eye when he was a child. Maanya Sachdeva reports. Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Sunday 17 April 2022 16:30 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Why are Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in court in Virginia? Sunday 17 April 2022 14:30 , Oliver O'Connell Heres all the background you need for the trial: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case ICYMI: Depp smirks as court hears hes apparently obsessed with Elon Musk Sunday 17 April 2022 12:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp smirked in a Virginia courtroom when a lawyer for Amber Heard suggested that the Hollywood star was obsessed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The billionaire tech entrepreneur has been listed as a possible witness by Ms Heard, along with Spider-Man actor James Franco, Paul Bettany and Ellen Barkin. During the 2020 libel case between Ms Heard and Mr Depp, the actors lawyer claimed that Ms Heard had an affair with Mr Musk. Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Depps sister reveals their abusive mother called him one eye Sunday 17 April 2022 10:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps $50m defamation trial against Amber Heard began with explosive opening arguments and the witness testimony of his sister on Tuesday (11 April). Heres what she said about growing up with her brother and his relationship with Heard. Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Sunday 17 April 2022 22:08 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. Louis Chilton reports. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Heards former assistant asked about Depps texts Sunday 17 April 2022 08:30 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia. She was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to James in August 2016, reading, according to the transcript introduced as evidence: Thank you, sweetheart... Im disgusted that I ever f***** touched that scum... Back on Tuesday!!! And then... Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll... Come over for a spot of purple and well fix her flabby a**, nice and good!!! Loveth... J. Read more: Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court ICYMI - The whole thing is insane says emotional friend in testimony Sunday 17 April 2022 06:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Isaac Baruch, who first met Depp as a teenager in Florida and became his longtime friend, lived in one of the five penthouse lofts at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles owned by the actor. At one point on Wednesday, he was asked by Heards lawyer Elaine Bredehoft if he was angry with her client given all that unfolded as the couple broke up and allegations were made against Depp. Heres what he said: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Sunday 17 April 2022 04:30 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star ICYMI: Depps friend insists actor and wife were loving couple Sunday 17 April 2022 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp testified as a witness on day three of the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Isaac Baruch was called to testify on Wednedsay (13 April) in Fairfax, Virginia. He took the stand after cross-examination wrapped up for Mr Depps sister Christi Dembrowski. Mr Baruch said he first got to know Mr Depp when both were teenagers in Florida, playing in bands. He testified for a couple of hours, giving colorful testimony that at times drew smiles and laughs from others in the courthouse including Mr Depp and Ms Heard themselves. Depp friend insists actor and wife were loving couple as hes grilled over bruises Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Sunday 17 April 2022 00:30 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Couples former marriage counselor says pair engaged in mutual abuse Saturday 16 April 2022 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Asked whether Heard had ever reported any physical violence by Depp to her, Dr Anderson said yes. Asked whether she had seen photos, she said she had but doesnt remember when. Asked whether there was violence from Mr Depp toward Amber, she said: Yes, youre right. He had been well controlled for, I dont know 20, 30 years, and both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades, she added. And then with Ms Heard he was triggered and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse ICYMI: Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of defamation trial Saturday 16 April 2022 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. She answered questions about Depps drugs and alcohol use, telling the court she had seen him use weed and cocaine occasionally, and that she had seen him drink alcohol. Deuters testified that she had never seen Depp be violent or angry after using any substances or drinking alcohol. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial ICYMI: Court shown plans of Depp and Heards five-home penthouse Saturday 16 April 2022 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why the condo development is important to the trial. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Depp & Heard: A timeline of their relationship, allegations, and court battles Saturday 16 April 2022 16:22 , Oliver O'Connell The trial in Johnny Depps defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has adjourned for the weekend, with proceedings scheduled to restart at 10am on Monday. Heres how the pair ended up in court in Fairfax County, Virginia. A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Everything we learned during first week of trial Saturday 16 April 2022 13:15 , Louise Boyle US Culture Writer Clemence Michallon recaps the first week of proceedings at the defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia. Everything we learned during first week of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards trieal Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Depp supreme narcissists amid trial Saturday 16 April 2022 09:00 , Maanya Sachdeva Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narcissists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. In an opinion column for the New York Post, Morgan wrote: I can honestly say that the number of f***s I give about this shamelessly deluded and self-obsessed pair of whiny wastrels could be written on the back of Mycoplasma genitalium, the planets smallest living organism. He also compared Depp and Heard to exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle over custody of their children since they divorced in 2016. The divisive ex-Good Morning Britain host Morgan accused the pair of playing the victim at a time when there are millions of real victims suffering from war, a killer virus, and crippling rises in the cost of living. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Saturday 16 April 2022 07:30 , Maanya Sachdeva Katherine Kate James recounted the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard during her testimony in the defamation trial. Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. In the video, James explained that her job duties included too many to mention and that Heard paid her very poorly. She paid me $25 an hour to start off with and she finally agreed after screaming abuse at me that she would pay me $50,000 a year once I went to full time. The Independents Inga Parkel has the full story here: Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Amber Heards defence: What is anti-SLAPP provision? Saturday 16 April 2022 05:55 , Maanya Sachdeva Amber Heard is likely to argue that The Washington Post op-ed over which ex Johnny Depp is suing her is a matter of public interest during their ongoing trial at Fairfax County Circuit Court. Judge Penney Azcarate ruled in a preliminary hearing in Virginia in March that Ms Heards legal team was entitled to use a defence known as an anti-SLAPP Provision, which stands for a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. According to the provision, Heard is free to argue before a jury that she should be protected from a libel lawsuit given that the article in question addressed a matter of public interest and safety. Depp is suing Heard for $50m for defamation over the 2018 article in which she alluded that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor assaulted her. Where did the relationship go wrong? Saturday 16 April 2022 02:00 , Megan Sheets At the heart of the defamation trial is the question of what - or who - caused Depp and Heards relationship to fall apart. The Independents Clemence Michallon explains the case pitting these former lovers on opposite sides: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Everything to know about Depp and Heards relationship Saturday 16 April 2022 01:00 , Megan Sheets Depp and Heard are believed to have started dating in 2012, after Depp split from his longtime partner, French actor Vanessa Paradis. They got engaged in 2014 before tying the knot a year later. By May 2016, they were in court seeking a divorce. The Independents Clemence Michallon recaps the relationship: A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault for the first time Saturday 16 April 2022 00:15 , Megan Sheets Most of the allegations made in Tuesdays opening statements had been aired before - except one from Heards legal team. Her attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Upon hearing this claim, Depp appeared to shake his head in disbelief. Later, his attorney questioned why shed never made it before. The Independents Graig Graziosi reports: Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Depps sister reveals their mothers abuse Friday 15 April 2022 23:30 , Megan Sheets Depps older sister Christi Dembrowski, who is also the president of his production company Infinitum Nihil, took the stand on Tuesday and told the court about the siblings early lives and growing up in Kentucky with an abusive mother described as angry and high strung. She said her mother would hit them and their father, and called them names. She claimed her mother called Mr Depp one-eye because he wore an eyepatch to correct a lazy eye when he was a child. Did Johnny respond? Mr Depps attorney Benjamin Chew asked Ms Dembrowski. Those names were just a way of life. We got used to them, she replied. The Independents Maanya Sachdeva reports: Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Depp smirks in court Friday 15 April 2022 22:45 , Megan Sheets One of Depps most expressive moments in court this week came during the opening statement from Heards lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, who told the jury: Johnny Depp is obsessed with Elon Musk. A smirk erupted on the actors face in response - possibly due to his previous claims that Heard had an affair with Musk. The Independents Graeme Massie describes the moment: Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Voices: A courthouse infiltrated by fame Friday 15 April 2022 22:00 , Megan Sheets Our reporter, Clemence Michallon, has been covering the defamation trial from inside the Fairfax County courthouse throughout this week. Here, she shares her insights on the proceedings: From hardcore Johnny Depp fans to inappropriate texts: At the courthouse in Virginia In pictures: Outside the courtroom Friday 15 April 2022 21:30 , Megan Sheets Johnny Depp smiles as he leaves the Fairfax County courthouse on 13 April (AFP via Getty Images) Amber Heard arrives for the second day of testimony on 13 April (AFP via Getty Images) A supporter of Johnny Depp sits outside the courthouse with a placard on 12 April (REUTERS) Heard speaks out Friday 15 April 2022 21:00 , Megan Sheets Before the defamation trial got underway in Virginia this week, Heard shared a public message about facing her ex-husband in court. The actress told her Instagram followers: Im going to go offline for the next several weeks. As you may know, Ill be in Virginia where I face my ex-husband Johnny Depp in court. She continued: Johnny is suing me for an op-ed I wrote in The Washington Post, in which I recounted my experience of violence and domestic abuse. I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking against men in power. I continue to pay that price, but hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the word. Former marriage counselor tells all Friday 15 April 2022 20:30 , Megan Sheets The professional who counseled Depp and Heard through marital issues took centre stage in the courtroom on Thursday as she told the jury how she believed they engaged in mutual abuse. Asked whether Heard had ever reported any physical violence by Depp to her, Dr Laurel Anderson said yes. Asked whether she had seen photos, she said she had but doesnt remember when. Asked whether there was violence from Mr Depp toward Amber, she said: Yes, youre right. He had been well controlled for, I dont know 20, 30 years, and both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades, she added. And then with Ms Heard he was triggered and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse. The Independents Clemence Michallon reports: Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Inside Depp and Heards five-home penthouse Friday 15 April 2022 20:00 , Megan Sheets The art deco building where Heard and Depp made a home together was put before the jury during the second day of testimony on Friday as the propertys general manager took the witness stand. The Independents Oliver OConnell reports: Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Depps friend ejected as a witness Friday 15 April 2022 19:30 , Megan Sheets The testimony of Depps friend, Gina Deuters, was struck from the record after she admitted to watching clips of the trial online prior to taking the stand. Ms Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, testified on Thursday about his drug and alcohol use, telling the court she had seen him use weed and cocaine occasionally, and that she had seen him drink alcohol. She said she had never seen Depp be violent or angry after using any substances or drinking alcohol. Her testimony was halted when Heards legal team approached the bench, after which the judge asked Ms Deuters: Have you been watching the trial this past week? She replied: Ive seen clips of it online, yes. The Independents Clemence Michallon explains the ordeal: Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Everything we learned at the trial this week Friday 15 April 2022 19:00 , Megan Sheets The Independents Clemence Michallon, who has been covering the defamation trial from the Fairfax County court this week, explains the biggest revelations thus far: Everything we learned during first week of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards trieal Depps legal team calls Heard a compulsive liar' Friday 15 April 2022 18:30 , Megan Sheets Depps lawyers launched their case against Heard by calling her a compulsive liar in opening statements on Tuesday. They sought to poke holes in the timeline of Heards allegations in a bid to convince jurors that she made the claims up to further her own acting career. In Mr Depps 58 years, not a single woman has ever accused him of violence, and nobody in Hollywood or the world had any reason to believe he was an abuser until Ms Heard publicly accused him, lawyer Camille Vasquez said. The Independents Graig Graziosi recaps the opening statement: Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar The whole thing is insane: Depps friend breaks down on the stand Friday 15 April 2022 18:00 , Megan Sheets Depps longtime friend, Isaac Baruch, was overcome by emotion during his testimony on Wednesday as he described how Heards abuse allegations affected everyone around the couple. Asked about the end of his friendship with Heard in 2016, he said: Am I angry anymore? What I am is tired. I want this all to end. For her to go heal, him to go heal. He continued: Its so many people have been affected by this malicious lie that she started and she created, and its gone out the door and around the world, and so I cant even paint anymore. Ive stopped painting for the last how many years. Im not angry at anybody. I want the best for her, for her to take her responsibility, heal and move on. Move on, and for Johnny his family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff and its not its not fair its not right. The Independents Oliver OConnell reports: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Depps shocking text exposed at trial Friday 15 April 2022 17:30 , Megan Sheets One of the most jarring moments of the trial thus far came on Wednesday, when the jury was shown a text message in which Depp called Heard a c*nt and a rotting corpse. Depp had sent the message to a friend, Isaac Baruch, who was grilled on the witness stand by Heards attorney Elaine Bredehoft. Do you recall Mr Depp ever telling you that he hoped that Amber Heards rotting corpse is decomposing in the f*****g trunk of a Honda Civic? Ms Bredehoft asked. Mr Baruch pointed to a monitor on which the message was displayed and said: Yeah. Well, I say yeah Im seeing it here, so obviously, yeah, it was said. It was written. The Independents Clemence Michallon reports: Shocking Johnny Depp texts about Amber Heard revealed in court In pictures: The first week of testimony Friday 15 April 2022 17:00 , Megan Sheets Here are some of the scenes inside the courtroom this week: Amber Heard leans in to hear her legal team in court on 14 April (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Johnny Depp expressively addresses his lawyers in court on 14 April (AP) A packed courtroom listens intently to testimony at the Fairfax County Circuit Court (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Johnny Depps friend Gina Deuters laughs on the stand (REUTERS) Isaac Baruch pleads for Depp and Heard to go heal from the witness stand (AP) Which A-listers could take the stand? Friday 15 April 2022 16:30 , Megan Sheets Before the trial kicked off, Depp and Heard each published a list of witnesses their teams may wish to call upon. The lists feature a number of very well-known names, including James Franco, Elon Musk, Paul Bettany - and the actors themselves. Clemence Michallon takes a look at who could be called to testify and why: From James Franco to Elon Musk, who could testify at Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial? Heards former assistant, Depps sister and the couples marriage counselor: Witnesses so far Friday 15 April 2022 16:00 , Megan Sheets Over the first three days of testimony, the court listened to a string of witnesses describing Depp and Heards fraught relationship. They included: Dr Laurel Anderson - the couples former marriage counselor who said they engaged in mutual abuse Katherine Kate James - Heards former personal assistant who spoke of the extreme work conditions she endured and said she was very poorly paid Christi Dembrowski - Depps sister who revealed abuse by their mother Isaac Baruch - Depps friend who begged the couple to go heal RECAP: Why is Depp suing Heard? Friday 15 April 2022 15:30 , Megan Sheets If youre just joining The Independents coverage of the trial opposing Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, heres what you need to know: Depp filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard in March 2019, alleging that she defamed him in an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post. The op-ed, which ran in December of that year, is titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. Depp isnt mentioned by name in the op-ed, but his legal team has argued that it contains a clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser, which it says is categorically and demonstrably false. Clemence Michallon explains: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Court not in session today Friday 15 April 2022 15:00 , Megan Sheets There will be no testimony heard today in Fairfax Countys district courthouse, with the trial set to resume for a fourth day on Monday. In announcing the hiatus on Thursday afternoon, Judge Penney Azcarate gave an extensive reminder to the jury that they cannot research, read, or speak about the trial in any way over their three-day weekend. She also reminded Depp and Heard not to give interviews or post on social media regarding the trial. Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Friday 15 April 2022 14:40 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Heards former personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Friday 15 April 2022 14:20 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Gina Deuters: Depp friend dismissed as witness Friday 15 April 2022 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. However, the evidence she submitted is no longer admissable. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Friday 15 April 2022 13:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Clemence Michallon reports. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Testimony: Kate James, Heards former assistant Friday 15 April 2022 13:00 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia. She was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to James in August 201. Clemence Michallon reports on what it said. Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court Depp and Heards penthouse lifestyle Friday 15 April 2022 12:15 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why their luxury home plays such an important part in the case. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse ICYMI: The whole thing is insane Friday 15 April 2022 11:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Isaac Baruch, who first met Depp as a teenager in Florida and became his longtime friend, lived in one of the five penthouse lofts at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles owned by the actor. At one point on Wednesday, he was asked by Heards lawyer Elaine Bredehoft if he was angry with her client given all that unfolded as the couple broke up and allegations were made against Depp. Heres what he said: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Heard lawyers zero in on Depp's drug and alcohol use Friday 15 April 2022 10:45 , Oliver O'Connell Attorneys for Amber Heard, the ex-wife of Johnny Depp, zeroed in on the movie stars drug and alcohol use Wednesday as they defended her from Depps allegations that she falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser. Heard lawyer J. Benjamin Rottenborn resumed his cross-examination of Depps older sister, Christi Dembrowski, focusing on a February 2014 text exchange between Heard and Dembrowski. Heard lawyers zero in on Depp's drug and alcohol use ICYMI: Depps friend grilled over bruises on Heards face Friday 15 April 2022 10:00 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp testified as a witness on day three of the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Isaac Baruch was called to testify on Wednedsay (13 April) in Fairfax, Virginia. He took the stand after cross-examination wrapped up for Mr Depps sister Christi Dembrowski. Mr Baruch said he first got to know Mr Depp when both were teenagers in Florida, playing in bands. He testified for a couple of hours, giving colorful testimony that at times drew smiles and laughs from others in the courthouse including Mr Depp and Ms Heard themselves. Depp friend insists actor and wife were loving couple as hes grilled over bruises How we got here: Depp and Heard - a timeline of their relationship Friday 15 April 2022 09:15 , Oliver O'Connell As Depps $50m defamation lawsuit gets underway in Virginia, Clemence Michallon looks at the former couples history, together and apart. A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Friday 15 April 2022 08:30 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. In an opinion column for the New York Post, Morgan wrote: I can honestly say that the number of f***s I give about this shamelessly deluded and self-obsessed pair of whiny wastrels could be written on the back of Mycoplasma genitalium, the planets smallest living organism. Louis Chilton has the story. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Depps sister says family was devastated with the marriage Friday 15 April 2022 07:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat and that the actors family was devastated at his marriage to her. Christi Dembrowski made the claims as she took the stand as the first witness in the multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Friday 15 April 2022 06:15 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp smirked in a Virginia courtroom when a lawyer for Amber Heard suggested that the Hollywood star was obsessed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The actor appeared to stifle a laugh during opening statements in the case, when Ms Heards lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, told the civil jury of 11 people that Johny Depp is obsessed with Elon Musk. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Opening statement: Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Friday 15 April 2022 05:30 , Oliver O'Connell Explosive new allegations have been made by Amber Heard about her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, during the opening arguments of his $50m defamation trial. Ms Heards attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Mr Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Mr Depp was visibly skeptical as Ms Bredehoft made the claims, and shook his head no after her comments. Graig Graziosi reports. Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Opening statement: Depp team says Heard is compulsive liar Friday 15 April 2022 04:45 , Oliver O'Connell The legal team representing Johnny Depp in the defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard has made their opening statements, with Mr Depps attorneys painting Ms Heard as a compulsive and chronic liar who used the allegations she made against the actor as a means to advance her own career. They claimed she wanted to portray herself as a heroic survivor of abuse. The attorneys also noted Mr Depps drug and alcohol use, but argued that a substance abuse problem does not prove that he ever hurt Ms Heard. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar ICYMI: Fans, stars, and a flurry of questions as trial opens in Virginia Friday 15 April 2022 04:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were both present for the first day of the defamation case opposing them in Virginia, Clemence Michallon reports from Fairfax. Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial opens in Virginia with fans, stars, and questions The Viper Room: End of an era Friday 15 April 2022 03:15 , Oliver O'Connell As Johnny Depp appeared in court in Virginia this week, The Viper Room, his former nightclub where Tom Petty played, the Pussycat Dolls were born, and River Phoenix died, is soon to be demolished. Kevin E G Perry takes a look at the infamous venues storied past. Drugs, Dolls & Johnny Depp: The Viper Rooms demolition is the end of a Hollywood era Depp and Heard: How we got here Friday 15 April 2022 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Friday 15 April 2022 01:45 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia and was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to her in August 2016. Clemence Michallon reports on what was said about Heard. Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court The penthouse life: Why the couples home in Downtown LA was important this week Friday 15 April 2022 01:00 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why the building is an important setting for the case. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse The whole thing is insane Friday 15 April 2022 00:15 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Franco? Musk? Who else will testify at the trial? Thursday 14 April 2022 23:30 , Oliver O'Connell Ahead of the trial, Depp and Heard have each published a list of witnesses their teams may wish to call upon. Clemence Michallon looks at some of those who might appear before the Virginia court. From James Franco to Elon Musk, who could testify at Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial? Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness Thursday 14 April 2022 23:15 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. However, the evidence she submitted is no longer admissable. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Heards former personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Thursday 14 April 2022 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Couples former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Thursday 14 April 2022 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Clemence Michallon reports. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Court adjourned until Monday Thursday 14 April 2022 22:08 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Penney Azcarate gives an extensive reminder to the jury that they cannot research, read, or speak about the trial in any way over their three-day weekend break. She also reminds Depp and Heard not to give interviews or post on social media regarding the trial. Court is adjourned until Monday. Judge Penney Azcarate confers with lawyers representing Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) In pictures: Today in court Thursday 14 April 2022 21:59 , Oliver O'Connell Depp in court with his legal team this morning (EPA) Amber Heard, right, and attorney Elaine Bredehoft, watch video testimony of Heard's former personal assistant Kate James (AP) Gina Deuters, friend of Johnny Depp. Her testimony was struck from the record and she was dismissed after admitting to watching clips of the trial online (EPA) Amber Heard confers with her legal team (REUTERS) Thursday 14 April 2022 21:52 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Kipper describes the March 2015 incident in Australia in which Depp lost the top of his finger. The actor texted him to tell him what happened. When he arrived at the property he says Depp was coherent, but the house was a mess and the couple had been fighting. He adds that Heard was also coherent in the aftermath. Thursday 14 April 2022 21:31 , Oliver O'Connell As Dr Kipper treated Depp, several times the actor fired him and wanted to stop taking all medications prescribed to treat his addictions. He would grow angry at Heard for insisting he take his medication. Dr Kippers nurse once found Depp with bloody knuckles after hitting a wall in frustration or anger. On another occasion he kicked in a trailer door on a movie set. Thursday 14 April 2022 20:46 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Kipper talks about his notes from meetin with Depp who he says was trying to detox from multiple drugs. These include: alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, and cocaine. Kipper notes Depp was trying to detox from multiple drugs, including alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines and cocaine. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/x0LxGs2t27 Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 New witness: Dr David Kipper Thursday 14 April 2022 20:32 , Oliver O'Connell The next witness is Dr David Kipper who has been practicing medicine since 1977 and provides concierge healthcare wealthy patients pay an annual fee for 24/7 access to a doctor. Dr Kipper works in addiction and published a book, The Addiction Solution. He appears by pre-recorded video deposition. Dr David Kipper testifies at the defamation trial of Amber Heard (Law & Crime) Thursday 14 April 2022 20:28 , Oliver O'Connell The jury is brought back in and told to disregard all of Gina Deuters testimony. Thursday 14 April 2022 20:22 , Oliver O'Connell The court has reconvened after a conference at the bench with Judge Azcarate involving six attorneys. The jury has not been brought back in yet. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:56 , Oliver O'Connell The jury is asked to step out and Ms Deuters is asked if she has watched any of the trial this week. She admits to having seen clips online and Judge Azcarate excuses her and strikes her testimony from record. WATCH: #AmberHeard's team huddles looking at something on a phone. Sidebar. Judge then sends jury out. Judge asks Deuters if she has been watching the trial, she said yes, "clips" online. HER ENTIRE TESTIMONY IS STRUCK. #JohnnyDepp @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/OqidFlIa3e Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 14, 2022 The court is now in its afternoon recess. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:53 , Oliver O'Connell Asked about the Depp-Heard wedding, Ms Deuters says it was predominantly her friends and family as a lot of his couldnt make it due to the relatively short notice. She also shares that she took MDMA with Ambers friends at the wedding. After the wedding they all flew to Australia to work on Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:46 , Oliver O'Connell Ms Deuters says she doesnt believe in her interactions with Heard that she was wearing make-up, being naturally beautiful. She says she considers herself a make-up expert having suffered from hormonal acne when younger, believing she could tell if someone is wearing foundation or concealer. Ms Deuters is also asked about Arnica cream, the anti-bruise cream heard so much about yesterday (but oftern mispronounced). She knows what the cream is, and has used it herself. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:34 , Oliver O'Connell Ms Deuters recalls happy times with Depp and his former partner Vanessa Paradis and their children on holidays with her husband while on down time from movie productions. Depp smiles as she speaks about these times. She is then quizzed about Depps use of alcohol and drugs and says she has seen him use weed and cocaine, the latter she guess approximately 20 times over 17 years of knowing him. She says she noticed nothing out of the ordinary about Depps behaviour when he used drugs and he would be jovial when drinking alcohol. New witness: Gina Deuters Thursday 14 April 2022 19:23 , Oliver O'Connell The jury has returned from lunch and the next witness is in the stand: Georgina Diane Deuters (Gina). Ms Deuters is a freelancer who creates images for social media. She was previously in special effects for movies from 2002 to 2016 and worked on Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. She says she is a good friend of Depp and met him after the premier of a movie. Deuters says she is a good friend of Depp's. They met in 2005 at the premiere of Depp's movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Her husband has worked for Depp for 18 years, she says.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/RVoV1vVVin Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager Thursday 14 April 2022 18:50 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Court shown plans of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards semi-communal five-home penthouse Thursday 14 April 2022 18:27 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Thursday 14 April 2022 18:07 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Azcarate calls for a lunch break. Court resumes at 2.15pm. Thursday 14 April 2022 18:06 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson reiterates that Heard initiated fights and often fought as hard as Depp. She says that he also tried to deescalate situations. Dr Anderson recalls multiple small bruises on Heard's face Thursday 14 April 2022 18:03 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson says Heard not only showed her photos of injuries shortly after an alleged abuse event, but also showed her bruising on her face at an in-person meeting. She later says there were multiple small bruises on Heards face. (On Heard's abuse that she witnessed in person) Anderson: What I recall was not purple, green, blue [bruises]. But a darkening. Sort of a gray/blue. Anderson indicates with her fingers that the bruise(s) were about one inch wide.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/tOlIMeJLJL Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Thursday 14 April 2022 17:50 , Oliver O'Connell Marriage counsellor says couple were mutually abusive in recorded deposition at Amber Heards defamation trial. Dr Anderson describes mutual abuse between Depp and Heard Thursday 14 April 2022 17:24 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson describes Heards style of talking as jackhammer and rapid fire and that Depp was overwhelmed during the sessions as he had trouble keeping up. Heard reported physical violence to Dr Anderson and says she was shown photos of Heard with bruises (she believes around her eyes). Dr Anderson never saw any abuse in person. She describes mutual abuse between the two and that Heard had initiated incidents to stop Depp leaving on more than one occasion. Abandonment was her worst nightmare. Dr Anderson said she was less sure of when Depp might have initiated confrontations. It was a point of pride to [Heard] if she felt disrespected to initiate a fight .... If he was going to leave her to deescalate [a] fight, she would strike him to keep him there. She would rather be in a fight to keep him there, says Dr Anderson. Court resumes with deposition from Depp and Heards counsellor Thursday 14 April 2022 17:08 , Oliver O'Connell The court is now hearing video deposition from Depp and Heards marriage counsellor, Dr Laurel Anderson. Based in Los Angeles, Dr Anderson saw the pair separately in early October 2015, before moving to joint sessions, some of which saw one of the couple walk out. In her ledger they are referred to as Anne Henry and Joey Davis. Anderson says she saw Depp and Heard for four sessions. During one session, one of the two walked out. Anderson says she doesn't recall for certain which person walked out, as both had threatened to.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/VUuf697ZBe Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Voices: From hardcore Johnny Depp fans with flowers to jurors inappropriate texts Thursday 14 April 2022 16:57 , Oliver O'Connell Clemence Michallon reports from outside the courthouse in Virginia. From hardcore Johnny Depp fans to inappropriate texts: At the courthouse in Virginia Thursday 14 April 2022 16:42 , Oliver O'Connell Judge calls morning recess. Court resumes at 12pm. James talks about Heards alleged drug and alcohol use Thursday 14 April 2022 16:41 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James says there was lots of heavy drinking by Heard and that she also used magic mushrooms, ecstasy, and cocaine. She says Heard often appeared intoxicated. Heard also used prescription medication including Accutrane to treat acne that doctors advise should not be taken with alcohol. Amber Heard listening to testimony from her former assistant about Heard's alleged illegal drug use. #JohnnyDepp v. #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/xiDOEzyBkN Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 14, 2022 James describes abuse by Heard Thursday 14 April 2022 16:35 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James says Heard would scream at her over the phone and once in person as well as sending abusive text messages at all times of day and night which she describes as lashing out and not making sense. She alleges Heard once spit in her face, when she asked for a raise. Ms James also says a handyman in the building was present for the fight and was so ashamed to hear her speaking to me like that. James comments further on Depp-Heard relationship Thursday 14 April 2022 16:32 , Oliver O'Connell Further describing the relationship between Depp and Heard, Ms James says former employer told her she didnt enjoy hanging out with her husbands friends because it was boring and they were old men playing guitars which didnt interest her. Depp smiles at this point. She adds that she would sometimes get the evil eye from Heard if she was seen speaking with Depp. James: It did not seem like a perfect relationship to me, based on a lot of insecurity on her part ... When Amber saw me speaking to him, she would give me the evil eye and I would quickly walk away.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/30Z3IQS6vI Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 James asked about make-up and evidence of fights Thursday 14 April 2022 16:11 , Oliver O'Connell In testimony that corresponds to that given by Mr Baruch on Wednesday, Ms James is asked about Heards make-up habits. She says that Heard usually never wore make-up unless going to a special event and id she did put make-up on herself it would be light with the addition of lashes. Pressed about if she has ever seen Heard with a black eye, broken nose, bumps, bruises or swelling, she replies no and never. She does say she would see her cry because she was a pretty dramatic person. James is asked about a text from Depp Thursday 14 April 2022 15:52 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James is asked about a text from Johnny Depp in June 2016. It reads: Thank you, sweetheart... Im disgusted that I ever f***in touched that scum... Back on Tuesday!!! And then... Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll... Come over for a spot of purple and well fix her flabby ass, nice and good!!! Loveth... J She says she did meet with Depp, but that they did not drink red wine [purple]. She says she does not recall details saying, Its too long ago, Mr. Rottenborn. I dont recall. Former assistant says she never saw evidence of abuse Thursday 14 April 2022 15:47 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015 and they have not communicated in the past five years. She describes her employment as running Heards life every day and that each day was different. Seemingly bitter about her time in Heards employ, which she describes as insulting, she recalls being paid $25/hour and when it was raised to $50,000 she had abuse screamed at her. Describing her former boss as a very dramatic person she would often placate her by asking if she was OK. Asked if she has any real care about Heards wellbeing, she said No. WATCH: #AmberHeard's former assistant's video deposition is being played. Kate James: Is this relevant? She goes on to explain everything she did for #AmberHeard (with a bit of an attitude) You were paid for that work, correct? James: Very poorly. (laughter in the courtroom) pic.twitter.com/xRbCXwk7tj Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 14, 2022 She also describes Heard as complaining or crying due to insecurities in the relationship but never told her anything about Johnny Depp being abusive. On the abuse allegation she says there was never any evidence of it at all, adding she was there almost daily and never saw anything, further claiming she would have seen damage even if not present. Amber Heards ex-assistant Kate James appeared in recorded testimony in the defamation trial against her former employer (Law & Crime) Background on Kate James, Amber Heards ex-assistant Thursday 14 April 2022 15:28 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former personal assistant has accused the actress of having stolen her story of being violently raped in evidence given in Johnny Depps libel claim against The Sun. Kate James accused Heard of twisting her own account of the machete-point rape in Brazil almost three decades ago for her own use. Amber Heards former personal assistant accuses actress of stealing rape story Heards former assistant is testifying in a pre-recorded video Thursday 14 April 2022 15:13 , Oliver O'Connell Jurors are now hearing the video deposition of Katherine "Kate" James, the former assistant of Amber Heard.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/SLZeBEXSQn Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Click here to read the full blog on The Independent's website The trial for Johnny Depps defamation lawsuit against former wife, Amber Heard, is set to resume today after the third day of testimony in Virginia. On Thursday (14 April), witness Gina Deuters, a friend of Depp, had her testimony struck from the record and was dismissed after admitting she had seen clips of the trial online. Instead video evidence from Dr David Kipper, who treated the actor for addiction, was played. Earlier, recorded depositions were shown from Heards former assistant Kate James, and the couples marriage counsellor Dr Laurel Anderson who detailed their mutual abuse. Depp claims a 2018 article about domestic violence towards women, written by Heard, implied he was an abuser during their relationship. Although she did not name him, lawyers claim her allegations have made it difficult for the actor to land movie roles. He is asking for $50million (38.2m) in damages during the trial in Fairfax Countys district courthouse. Heard has filed a counterclaim against Depp for nuisance. Depp has previously lost a defamation case in the UK against The Sun newspaper over the same article by Heard. Key points Marriage counsellor describes mutual abuse between Depp and Heard Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of defamation trial In pictures: Thursday in court in the Depp v Heard trial Court shown plans of Depp and Heards extravagant five-home penthouse Depps tearful friend pleads for couple to go heal at Amber Heard trial ICYMI - The whole thing is insane says emotional friend in testimony 08:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Isaac Baruch, who first met Depp as a teenager in Florida and became his longtime friend, lived in one of the five penthouse lofts at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles owned by the actor. Story continues At one point on Wednesday, he was asked by Heards lawyer Elaine Bredehoft if he was angry with her client given all that unfolded as the couple broke up and allegations were made against Depp. Heres what he said: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Voices: From hardcore Johnny Depp fans with flowers to jurors inappropriate texts 06:30 , Oliver O'Connell ICYMI: Clemence Michallon reports from the courthouse in Virginia. From hardcore Johnny Depp fans to inappropriate texts: At the courthouse in Virginia Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk 04:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp smirked in a Virginia courtroom when a lawyer for Amber Heard suggested that the Hollywood star was obsessed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Depps sister says family was devastated with the marriage 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat and that the actors family was devastated at his marriage to her. Christi Dembrowski made the claims as she took the stand as the first witness in the multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia, in which Depp claims that a 2018 article on domestic violence she wrote for The Washington Post implied he was an abuser. She told the court that while she had seen Ms Heard be nice to her brother, she had also seen her be not nice and gave details of one such confrontation. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat ICYMI: Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Monday 18 April 2022 00:30 , Oliver O'Connell Explosive new allegations have been made by Amber Heard about her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, during the opening arguments of his $50m defamation trial. Ms Heards attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Mr Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Mr Depp was visibly skeptical as Ms Bredehoft made the claims, and shook his head no after her comments. Graig Graziosi reports. Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Opening statement: Amber Heard called compulsive liar by Depp team Sunday 17 April 2022 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell The legal team representing Johnny Depp in the defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard has made their opening statements, with Mr Depps attorneys painting Ms Heard as a compulsive and chronic liar who used the allegations she made against the actor as a means to advance her own career. They claimed she wanted to portray herself as a heroic survivor of abuse. The attorneys also noted Mr Depps drug and alcohol use, but argued that a substance abuse problem does not prove that he ever hurt Ms Heard. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar Amber Heard supporter barred from court Sunday 17 April 2022 21:02 Eve Barlow, Amber Heards friend and supporter, has been banned from the courtroom for the remainder of the trial. She was asked to leave the courtroom in an order by Judge Penney Azcarate. As @Angenette5 reported yesterday, Barlow was asked to leave the courtroom after using her cell phone. Cell phones are not allowed inside. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 15, 2022 Opening statement: Johnny Depp is out to destroy Amber Heard, lawyer says Sunday 17 April 2022 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards defence attorney claimed Johnny Depp would try to turn the defamation cause against his ex-wife into a soap opera, but warned that it was a distraction. Ben Rottenborn, Heards lawyer, said the case was about her First Amendment rights to discuss her experiences, and argued that context matters and asked the jury to read the entire article she wrote for The Washington Post which led to the lawsuit and not just the parts highlighted by Depp. He then read the article to the jury and asked why Depp did not sue The Washington Post as well as Heard, claiming he wanted to ruin her life, to destroy her. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp is out to destroy Amber Heard, lawyer says in opening statement Depps sister reveals their abusive mother called him one eye Sunday 17 April 2022 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell During her testimony, Christi Dembrowski told the court about the siblings early lives and growing up in Kentucky with an abusive mother described as angry and high strung. She said her mother would hit them and their father, and called them names. She claimed her mother called Mr Depp one-eye because he wore an eyepatch to correct a lazy eye when he was a child. Maanya Sachdeva reports. Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Sunday 17 April 2022 16:30 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Why are Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in court in Virginia? Sunday 17 April 2022 14:30 , Oliver O'Connell Heres all the background you need for the trial: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case ICYMI: Depp smirks as court hears hes apparently obsessed with Elon Musk Sunday 17 April 2022 12:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp smirked in a Virginia courtroom when a lawyer for Amber Heard suggested that the Hollywood star was obsessed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The billionaire tech entrepreneur has been listed as a possible witness by Ms Heard, along with Spider-Man actor James Franco, Paul Bettany and Ellen Barkin. During the 2020 libel case between Ms Heard and Mr Depp, the actors lawyer claimed that Ms Heard had an affair with Mr Musk. Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Depps sister reveals their abusive mother called him one eye Sunday 17 April 2022 10:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps $50m defamation trial against Amber Heard began with explosive opening arguments and the witness testimony of his sister on Tuesday (11 April). Heres what she said about growing up with her brother and his relationship with Heard. Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Sunday 17 April 2022 22:08 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. Louis Chilton reports. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Heards former assistant asked about Depps texts Sunday 17 April 2022 08:30 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia. She was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to James in August 2016, reading, according to the transcript introduced as evidence: Thank you, sweetheart... Im disgusted that I ever f***** touched that scum... Back on Tuesday!!! And then... Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll... Come over for a spot of purple and well fix her flabby a**, nice and good!!! Loveth... J. Read more: Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court ICYMI - The whole thing is insane says emotional friend in testimony Sunday 17 April 2022 06:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Isaac Baruch, who first met Depp as a teenager in Florida and became his longtime friend, lived in one of the five penthouse lofts at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles owned by the actor. At one point on Wednesday, he was asked by Heards lawyer Elaine Bredehoft if he was angry with her client given all that unfolded as the couple broke up and allegations were made against Depp. Heres what he said: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Sunday 17 April 2022 04:30 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star ICYMI: Depps friend insists actor and wife were loving couple Sunday 17 April 2022 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp testified as a witness on day three of the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Isaac Baruch was called to testify on Wednedsay (13 April) in Fairfax, Virginia. He took the stand after cross-examination wrapped up for Mr Depps sister Christi Dembrowski. Mr Baruch said he first got to know Mr Depp when both were teenagers in Florida, playing in bands. He testified for a couple of hours, giving colorful testimony that at times drew smiles and laughs from others in the courthouse including Mr Depp and Ms Heard themselves. Depp friend insists actor and wife were loving couple as hes grilled over bruises Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Sunday 17 April 2022 00:30 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Couples former marriage counselor says pair engaged in mutual abuse Saturday 16 April 2022 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Asked whether Heard had ever reported any physical violence by Depp to her, Dr Anderson said yes. Asked whether she had seen photos, she said she had but doesnt remember when. Asked whether there was violence from Mr Depp toward Amber, she said: Yes, youre right. He had been well controlled for, I dont know 20, 30 years, and both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades, she added. And then with Ms Heard he was triggered and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse ICYMI: Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of defamation trial Saturday 16 April 2022 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. She answered questions about Depps drugs and alcohol use, telling the court she had seen him use weed and cocaine occasionally, and that she had seen him drink alcohol. Deuters testified that she had never seen Depp be violent or angry after using any substances or drinking alcohol. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial ICYMI: Court shown plans of Depp and Heards five-home penthouse Saturday 16 April 2022 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why the condo development is important to the trial. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Depp & Heard: A timeline of their relationship, allegations, and court battles Saturday 16 April 2022 16:22 , Oliver O'Connell The trial in Johnny Depps defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has adjourned for the weekend, with proceedings scheduled to restart at 10am on Monday. Heres how the pair ended up in court in Fairfax County, Virginia. A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Everything we learned during first week of trial Saturday 16 April 2022 13:15 , Louise Boyle US Culture Writer Clemence Michallon recaps the first week of proceedings at the defamation trial in Fairfax, Virginia. Everything we learned during first week of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards trieal Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Depp supreme narcissists amid trial Saturday 16 April 2022 09:00 , Maanya Sachdeva Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narcissists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. In an opinion column for the New York Post, Morgan wrote: I can honestly say that the number of f***s I give about this shamelessly deluded and self-obsessed pair of whiny wastrels could be written on the back of Mycoplasma genitalium, the planets smallest living organism. He also compared Depp and Heard to exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle over custody of their children since they divorced in 2016. The divisive ex-Good Morning Britain host Morgan accused the pair of playing the victim at a time when there are millions of real victims suffering from war, a killer virus, and crippling rises in the cost of living. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Saturday 16 April 2022 07:30 , Maanya Sachdeva Katherine Kate James recounted the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard during her testimony in the defamation trial. Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. In the video, James explained that her job duties included too many to mention and that Heard paid her very poorly. She paid me $25 an hour to start off with and she finally agreed after screaming abuse at me that she would pay me $50,000 a year once I went to full time. The Independents Inga Parkel has the full story here: Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Amber Heards defence: What is anti-SLAPP provision? Saturday 16 April 2022 05:55 , Maanya Sachdeva Amber Heard is likely to argue that The Washington Post op-ed over which ex Johnny Depp is suing her is a matter of public interest during their ongoing trial at Fairfax County Circuit Court. Judge Penney Azcarate ruled in a preliminary hearing in Virginia in March that Ms Heards legal team was entitled to use a defence known as an anti-SLAPP Provision, which stands for a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. According to the provision, Heard is free to argue before a jury that she should be protected from a libel lawsuit given that the article in question addressed a matter of public interest and safety. Depp is suing Heard for $50m for defamation over the 2018 article in which she alluded that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor assaulted her. Where did the relationship go wrong? Saturday 16 April 2022 02:00 , Megan Sheets At the heart of the defamation trial is the question of what - or who - caused Depp and Heards relationship to fall apart. The Independents Clemence Michallon explains the case pitting these former lovers on opposite sides: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Everything to know about Depp and Heards relationship Saturday 16 April 2022 01:00 , Megan Sheets Depp and Heard are believed to have started dating in 2012, after Depp split from his longtime partner, French actor Vanessa Paradis. They got engaged in 2014 before tying the knot a year later. By May 2016, they were in court seeking a divorce. The Independents Clemence Michallon recaps the relationship: A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault for the first time Saturday 16 April 2022 00:15 , Megan Sheets Most of the allegations made in Tuesdays opening statements had been aired before - except one from Heards legal team. Her attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Upon hearing this claim, Depp appeared to shake his head in disbelief. Later, his attorney questioned why shed never made it before. The Independents Graig Graziosi reports: Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Depps sister reveals their mothers abuse Friday 15 April 2022 23:30 , Megan Sheets Depps older sister Christi Dembrowski, who is also the president of his production company Infinitum Nihil, took the stand on Tuesday and told the court about the siblings early lives and growing up in Kentucky with an abusive mother described as angry and high strung. She said her mother would hit them and their father, and called them names. She claimed her mother called Mr Depp one-eye because he wore an eyepatch to correct a lazy eye when he was a child. Did Johnny respond? Mr Depps attorney Benjamin Chew asked Ms Dembrowski. Those names were just a way of life. We got used to them, she replied. The Independents Maanya Sachdeva reports: Johnny Depps sister reveals their abusive mother used to call him one eye Depp smirks in court Friday 15 April 2022 22:45 , Megan Sheets One of Depps most expressive moments in court this week came during the opening statement from Heards lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, who told the jury: Johnny Depp is obsessed with Elon Musk. A smirk erupted on the actors face in response - possibly due to his previous claims that Heard had an affair with Musk. The Independents Graeme Massie describes the moment: Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Voices: A courthouse infiltrated by fame Friday 15 April 2022 22:00 , Megan Sheets Our reporter, Clemence Michallon, has been covering the defamation trial from inside the Fairfax County courthouse throughout this week. Here, she shares her insights on the proceedings: From hardcore Johnny Depp fans to inappropriate texts: At the courthouse in Virginia In pictures: Outside the courtroom Friday 15 April 2022 21:30 , Megan Sheets Johnny Depp smiles as he leaves the Fairfax County courthouse on 13 April (AFP via Getty Images) Amber Heard arrives for the second day of testimony on 13 April (AFP via Getty Images) A supporter of Johnny Depp sits outside the courthouse with a placard on 12 April (REUTERS) Heard speaks out Friday 15 April 2022 21:00 , Megan Sheets Before the defamation trial got underway in Virginia this week, Heard shared a public message about facing her ex-husband in court. The actress told her Instagram followers: Im going to go offline for the next several weeks. As you may know, Ill be in Virginia where I face my ex-husband Johnny Depp in court. She continued: Johnny is suing me for an op-ed I wrote in The Washington Post, in which I recounted my experience of violence and domestic abuse. I never named him, rather I wrote about the price women pay for speaking against men in power. I continue to pay that price, but hopefully when this case concludes, I can move on and so can Johnny. I have always maintained a love for Johnny and it brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the word. Former marriage counselor tells all Friday 15 April 2022 20:30 , Megan Sheets The professional who counseled Depp and Heard through marital issues took centre stage in the courtroom on Thursday as she told the jury how she believed they engaged in mutual abuse. Asked whether Heard had ever reported any physical violence by Depp to her, Dr Laurel Anderson said yes. Asked whether she had seen photos, she said she had but doesnt remember when. Asked whether there was violence from Mr Depp toward Amber, she said: Yes, youre right. He had been well controlled for, I dont know 20, 30 years, and both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades, she added. And then with Ms Heard he was triggered and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse. The Independents Clemence Michallon reports: Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Inside Depp and Heards five-home penthouse Friday 15 April 2022 20:00 , Megan Sheets The art deco building where Heard and Depp made a home together was put before the jury during the second day of testimony on Friday as the propertys general manager took the witness stand. The Independents Oliver OConnell reports: Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Depps friend ejected as a witness Friday 15 April 2022 19:30 , Megan Sheets The testimony of Depps friend, Gina Deuters, was struck from the record after she admitted to watching clips of the trial online prior to taking the stand. Ms Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, testified on Thursday about his drug and alcohol use, telling the court she had seen him use weed and cocaine occasionally, and that she had seen him drink alcohol. She said she had never seen Depp be violent or angry after using any substances or drinking alcohol. Her testimony was halted when Heards legal team approached the bench, after which the judge asked Ms Deuters: Have you been watching the trial this past week? She replied: Ive seen clips of it online, yes. The Independents Clemence Michallon explains the ordeal: Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Everything we learned at the trial this week Friday 15 April 2022 19:00 , Megan Sheets The Independents Clemence Michallon, who has been covering the defamation trial from the Fairfax County court this week, explains the biggest revelations thus far: Everything we learned during first week of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards trieal Depps legal team calls Heard a compulsive liar' Friday 15 April 2022 18:30 , Megan Sheets Depps lawyers launched their case against Heard by calling her a compulsive liar in opening statements on Tuesday. They sought to poke holes in the timeline of Heards allegations in a bid to convince jurors that she made the claims up to further her own acting career. In Mr Depps 58 years, not a single woman has ever accused him of violence, and nobody in Hollywood or the world had any reason to believe he was an abuser until Ms Heard publicly accused him, lawyer Camille Vasquez said. The Independents Graig Graziosi recaps the opening statement: Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar The whole thing is insane: Depps friend breaks down on the stand Friday 15 April 2022 18:00 , Megan Sheets Depps longtime friend, Isaac Baruch, was overcome by emotion during his testimony on Wednesday as he described how Heards abuse allegations affected everyone around the couple. Asked about the end of his friendship with Heard in 2016, he said: Am I angry anymore? What I am is tired. I want this all to end. For her to go heal, him to go heal. He continued: Its so many people have been affected by this malicious lie that she started and she created, and its gone out the door and around the world, and so I cant even paint anymore. Ive stopped painting for the last how many years. Im not angry at anybody. I want the best for her, for her to take her responsibility, heal and move on. Move on, and for Johnny his family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff and its not its not fair its not right. The Independents Oliver OConnell reports: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Depps shocking text exposed at trial Friday 15 April 2022 17:30 , Megan Sheets One of the most jarring moments of the trial thus far came on Wednesday, when the jury was shown a text message in which Depp called Heard a c*nt and a rotting corpse. Depp had sent the message to a friend, Isaac Baruch, who was grilled on the witness stand by Heards attorney Elaine Bredehoft. Do you recall Mr Depp ever telling you that he hoped that Amber Heards rotting corpse is decomposing in the f*****g trunk of a Honda Civic? Ms Bredehoft asked. Mr Baruch pointed to a monitor on which the message was displayed and said: Yeah. Well, I say yeah Im seeing it here, so obviously, yeah, it was said. It was written. The Independents Clemence Michallon reports: Shocking Johnny Depp texts about Amber Heard revealed in court In pictures: The first week of testimony Friday 15 April 2022 17:00 , Megan Sheets Here are some of the scenes inside the courtroom this week: Amber Heard leans in to hear her legal team in court on 14 April (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Johnny Depp expressively addresses his lawyers in court on 14 April (AP) A packed courtroom listens intently to testimony at the Fairfax County Circuit Court (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Johnny Depps friend Gina Deuters laughs on the stand (REUTERS) Isaac Baruch pleads for Depp and Heard to go heal from the witness stand (AP) Which A-listers could take the stand? Friday 15 April 2022 16:30 , Megan Sheets Before the trial kicked off, Depp and Heard each published a list of witnesses their teams may wish to call upon. The lists feature a number of very well-known names, including James Franco, Elon Musk, Paul Bettany - and the actors themselves. Clemence Michallon takes a look at who could be called to testify and why: From James Franco to Elon Musk, who could testify at Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial? Heards former assistant, Depps sister and the couples marriage counselor: Witnesses so far Friday 15 April 2022 16:00 , Megan Sheets Over the first three days of testimony, the court listened to a string of witnesses describing Depp and Heards fraught relationship. They included: Dr Laurel Anderson - the couples former marriage counselor who said they engaged in mutual abuse Katherine Kate James - Heards former personal assistant who spoke of the extreme work conditions she endured and said she was very poorly paid Christi Dembrowski - Depps sister who revealed abuse by their mother Isaac Baruch - Depps friend who begged the couple to go heal RECAP: Why is Depp suing Heard? Friday 15 April 2022 15:30 , Megan Sheets If youre just joining The Independents coverage of the trial opposing Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, heres what you need to know: Depp filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard in March 2019, alleging that she defamed him in an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post. The op-ed, which ran in December of that year, is titled: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our cultures wrath. That has to change. Depp isnt mentioned by name in the op-ed, but his legal team has argued that it contains a clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser, which it says is categorically and demonstrably false. Clemence Michallon explains: Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Court not in session today Friday 15 April 2022 15:00 , Megan Sheets There will be no testimony heard today in Fairfax Countys district courthouse, with the trial set to resume for a fourth day on Monday. In announcing the hiatus on Thursday afternoon, Judge Penney Azcarate gave an extensive reminder to the jury that they cannot research, read, or speak about the trial in any way over their three-day weekend. She also reminded Depp and Heard not to give interviews or post on social media regarding the trial. Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Friday 15 April 2022 14:40 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Heards former personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Friday 15 April 2022 14:20 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Gina Deuters: Depp friend dismissed as witness Friday 15 April 2022 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. However, the evidence she submitted is no longer admissable. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Friday 15 April 2022 13:30 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Clemence Michallon reports. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Testimony: Kate James, Heards former assistant Friday 15 April 2022 13:00 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia. She was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to James in August 201. Clemence Michallon reports on what it said. Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court Depp and Heards penthouse lifestyle Friday 15 April 2022 12:15 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why their luxury home plays such an important part in the case. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse ICYMI: The whole thing is insane Friday 15 April 2022 11:30 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Isaac Baruch, who first met Depp as a teenager in Florida and became his longtime friend, lived in one of the five penthouse lofts at the Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles owned by the actor. At one point on Wednesday, he was asked by Heards lawyer Elaine Bredehoft if he was angry with her client given all that unfolded as the couple broke up and allegations were made against Depp. Heres what he said: Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Heard lawyers zero in on Depp's drug and alcohol use Friday 15 April 2022 10:45 , Oliver O'Connell Attorneys for Amber Heard, the ex-wife of Johnny Depp, zeroed in on the movie stars drug and alcohol use Wednesday as they defended her from Depps allegations that she falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser. Heard lawyer J. Benjamin Rottenborn resumed his cross-examination of Depps older sister, Christi Dembrowski, focusing on a February 2014 text exchange between Heard and Dembrowski. Heard lawyers zero in on Depp's drug and alcohol use ICYMI: Depps friend grilled over bruises on Heards face Friday 15 April 2022 10:00 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp testified as a witness on day three of the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Isaac Baruch was called to testify on Wednedsay (13 April) in Fairfax, Virginia. He took the stand after cross-examination wrapped up for Mr Depps sister Christi Dembrowski. Mr Baruch said he first got to know Mr Depp when both were teenagers in Florida, playing in bands. He testified for a couple of hours, giving colorful testimony that at times drew smiles and laughs from others in the courthouse including Mr Depp and Ms Heard themselves. Depp friend insists actor and wife were loving couple as hes grilled over bruises How we got here: Depp and Heard - a timeline of their relationship Friday 15 April 2022 09:15 , Oliver O'Connell As Depps $50m defamation lawsuit gets underway in Virginia, Clemence Michallon looks at the former couples history, together and apart. A timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards relationship and court battles Piers Morgan calls Heard and Depp supreme narcissists Friday 15 April 2022 08:30 , Oliver O'Connell Piers Morgan has described Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as supreme narccicists amid the couples ongoing high-profile legal battle. In an opinion column for the New York Post, Morgan wrote: I can honestly say that the number of f***s I give about this shamelessly deluded and self-obsessed pair of whiny wastrels could be written on the back of Mycoplasma genitalium, the planets smallest living organism. Louis Chilton has the story. Piers Morgan calls Amber Heard and Johnny Depp supreme narcissists Depps sister says family was devastated with the marriage Friday 15 April 2022 07:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat and that the actors family was devastated at his marriage to her. Christi Dembrowski made the claims as she took the stand as the first witness in the multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depps sister says Amber Heard called him old and fat Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Friday 15 April 2022 06:15 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp smirked in a Virginia courtroom when a lawyer for Amber Heard suggested that the Hollywood star was obsessed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The actor appeared to stifle a laugh during opening statements in the case, when Ms Heards lawyer, Elaine Bredehoft, told the civil jury of 11 people that Johny Depp is obsessed with Elon Musk. Graeme Massie reports. Johnny Depp smirks as court hears hes obsessed with Elon Musk Opening statement: Heard accuses Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Friday 15 April 2022 05:30 , Oliver O'Connell Explosive new allegations have been made by Amber Heard about her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, during the opening arguments of his $50m defamation trial. Ms Heards attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, claimed that Mr Depp sexually assaulted Heard using a liquor bottle during a black-out drunk episode. Mr Depp was visibly skeptical as Ms Bredehoft made the claims, and shook his head no after her comments. Graig Graziosi reports. Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of sexual assault with liquor bottle Opening statement: Depp team says Heard is compulsive liar Friday 15 April 2022 04:45 , Oliver O'Connell The legal team representing Johnny Depp in the defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard has made their opening statements, with Mr Depps attorneys painting Ms Heard as a compulsive and chronic liar who used the allegations she made against the actor as a means to advance her own career. They claimed she wanted to portray herself as a heroic survivor of abuse. The attorneys also noted Mr Depps drug and alcohol use, but argued that a substance abuse problem does not prove that he ever hurt Ms Heard. Graig Graziosi reports. Johnny Depp to testify as lawyers claim Amber Heard is a compulsive liar ICYMI: Fans, stars, and a flurry of questions as trial opens in Virginia Friday 15 April 2022 04:00 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were both present for the first day of the defamation case opposing them in Virginia, Clemence Michallon reports from Fairfax. Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial opens in Virginia with fans, stars, and questions The Viper Room: End of an era Friday 15 April 2022 03:15 , Oliver O'Connell As Johnny Depp appeared in court in Virginia this week, The Viper Room, his former nightclub where Tom Petty played, the Pussycat Dolls were born, and River Phoenix died, is soon to be demolished. Kevin E G Perry takes a look at the infamous venues storied past. Drugs, Dolls & Johnny Depp: The Viper Rooms demolition is the end of a Hollywood era Depp and Heard: How we got here Friday 15 April 2022 02:30 , Oliver O'Connell Everything we know about Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case Friday 15 April 2022 01:45 , Oliver O'Connell Amber Heards former assistant Kate James testified on Thursday (14 April) in the defamation case opposing Johnny Depp and Heard in Virginia and was asked about a text allegedly sent by Depp to her in August 2016. Clemence Michallon reports on what was said about Heard. Amber Heards former assistant asked about shocking text in court The penthouse life: Why the couples home in Downtown LA was important this week Friday 15 April 2022 01:00 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Heres why the building is an important setting for the case. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse The whole thing is insane Friday 15 April 2022 00:15 , Oliver O'Connell In the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, a former neighbour of the couple became emotional during extensive testimony about his friendship with the pair. Johnny Depps friend pleads for couple to go heal in emotional testimony Franco? Musk? Who else will testify at the trial? Thursday 14 April 2022 23:30 , Oliver O'Connell Ahead of the trial, Depp and Heard have each published a list of witnesses their teams may wish to call upon. Clemence Michallon looks at some of those who might appear before the Virginia court. From James Franco to Elon Musk, who could testify at Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial? Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness Thursday 14 April 2022 23:15 , Oliver O'Connell A friend of Johnny Depp was ejected as a witness while testifying in the defamation trial opposing Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. Gina Deuters, who is married to a member of Depps staff and is herself a close friend of the actors, gave testimony on Thursday (14 April) at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. However, the evidence she submitted is no longer admissable. Clemence Michallon reports on what happened next. Johnny Depps friend ejected as witness as she admits watching clips of trial Heards former personal assistant says she was paid very poorly Thursday 14 April 2022 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell Katherine Kate James has addressed the extreme working conditions she allegedly endured as a former personal assistant to Amber Heard. During Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife on Thursday (14 April), Heards personal assistant answered questions in a pre-recorded video deposition completed in February regarding her past employment with the film star, which she said lasted from 2012 to 2015. Inga Parkel reports. Amber Heards personal assistant says she was paid very poorly by film star Couples former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Thursday 14 April 2022 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell Johnny Depp and Amber Heards former marriage counselor told a courtroom the couple engaged in what she saw as mutual abuse. Dr Laurel Anderson was called as a witness on Thursday (14 April) as part of the defamation trial opposing Depp and Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. She was asked about some of her past sessions with the pair. Clemence Michallon reports. Depp and Heards former marriage counselor says couple engaged in mutual abuse Court adjourned until Monday Thursday 14 April 2022 22:08 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Penney Azcarate gives an extensive reminder to the jury that they cannot research, read, or speak about the trial in any way over their three-day weekend break. She also reminds Depp and Heard not to give interviews or post on social media regarding the trial. Court is adjourned until Monday. Judge Penney Azcarate confers with lawyers representing Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) In pictures: Today in court Thursday 14 April 2022 21:59 , Oliver O'Connell Depp in court with his legal team this morning (EPA) Amber Heard, right, and attorney Elaine Bredehoft, watch video testimony of Heard's former personal assistant Kate James (AP) Gina Deuters, friend of Johnny Depp. Her testimony was struck from the record and she was dismissed after admitting to watching clips of the trial online (EPA) Amber Heard confers with her legal team (REUTERS) Thursday 14 April 2022 21:52 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Kipper describes the March 2015 incident in Australia in which Depp lost the top of his finger. The actor texted him to tell him what happened. When he arrived at the property he says Depp was coherent, but the house was a mess and the couple had been fighting. He adds that Heard was also coherent in the aftermath. Thursday 14 April 2022 21:31 , Oliver O'Connell As Dr Kipper treated Depp, several times the actor fired him and wanted to stop taking all medications prescribed to treat his addictions. He would grow angry at Heard for insisting he take his medication. Dr Kippers nurse once found Depp with bloody knuckles after hitting a wall in frustration or anger. On another occasion he kicked in a trailer door on a movie set. Thursday 14 April 2022 20:46 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Kipper talks about his notes from meetin with Depp who he says was trying to detox from multiple drugs. These include: alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, and cocaine. Kipper notes Depp was trying to detox from multiple drugs, including alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines and cocaine. #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/x0LxGs2t27 Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 New witness: Dr David Kipper Thursday 14 April 2022 20:32 , Oliver O'Connell The next witness is Dr David Kipper who has been practicing medicine since 1977 and provides concierge healthcare wealthy patients pay an annual fee for 24/7 access to a doctor. Dr Kipper works in addiction and published a book, The Addiction Solution. He appears by pre-recorded video deposition. Dr David Kipper testifies at the defamation trial of Amber Heard (Law & Crime) Thursday 14 April 2022 20:28 , Oliver O'Connell The jury is brought back in and told to disregard all of Gina Deuters testimony. Thursday 14 April 2022 20:22 , Oliver O'Connell The court has reconvened after a conference at the bench with Judge Azcarate involving six attorneys. The jury has not been brought back in yet. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:56 , Oliver O'Connell The jury is asked to step out and Ms Deuters is asked if she has watched any of the trial this week. She admits to having seen clips online and Judge Azcarate excuses her and strikes her testimony from record. WATCH: #AmberHeard's team huddles looking at something on a phone. Sidebar. Judge then sends jury out. Judge asks Deuters if she has been watching the trial, she said yes, "clips" online. HER ENTIRE TESTIMONY IS STRUCK. #JohnnyDepp @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/OqidFlIa3e Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 14, 2022 The court is now in its afternoon recess. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:53 , Oliver O'Connell Asked about the Depp-Heard wedding, Ms Deuters says it was predominantly her friends and family as a lot of his couldnt make it due to the relatively short notice. She also shares that she took MDMA with Ambers friends at the wedding. After the wedding they all flew to Australia to work on Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:46 , Oliver O'Connell Ms Deuters says she doesnt believe in her interactions with Heard that she was wearing make-up, being naturally beautiful. She says she considers herself a make-up expert having suffered from hormonal acne when younger, believing she could tell if someone is wearing foundation or concealer. Ms Deuters is also asked about Arnica cream, the anti-bruise cream heard so much about yesterday (but oftern mispronounced). She knows what the cream is, and has used it herself. Thursday 14 April 2022 19:34 , Oliver O'Connell Ms Deuters recalls happy times with Depp and his former partner Vanessa Paradis and their children on holidays with her husband while on down time from movie productions. Depp smiles as she speaks about these times. She is then quizzed about Depps use of alcohol and drugs and says she has seen him use weed and cocaine, the latter she guess approximately 20 times over 17 years of knowing him. She says she noticed nothing out of the ordinary about Depps behaviour when he used drugs and he would be jovial when drinking alcohol. New witness: Gina Deuters Thursday 14 April 2022 19:23 , Oliver O'Connell The jury has returned from lunch and the next witness is in the stand: Georgina Diane Deuters (Gina). Ms Deuters is a freelancer who creates images for social media. She was previously in special effects for movies from 2002 to 2016 and worked on Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. She says she is a good friend of Depp and met him after the premier of a movie. Deuters says she is a good friend of Depp's. They met in 2005 at the premiere of Depp's movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Her husband has worked for Depp for 18 years, she says.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/RVoV1vVVin Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Voices: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager Thursday 14 April 2022 18:50 , Oliver O'Connell Im sure Im not alone in having previously worshipped a now-problematic star it seems as if all of our idols fall short eventually, although some in more controversial and damaging ways than others, writes Harriet Williamson. Opinion: I was Johnny Depps biggest fan as a teenager but Id never admit that now Court shown plans of Johnny Depp and Amber Heards semi-communal five-home penthouse Thursday 14 April 2022 18:27 , Oliver O'Connell During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived. Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles. Testifying on Wednesday were Depps longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson. Court shown Johnny Depp and Amber Heards elaborate semi-communal penthouse Thursday 14 April 2022 18:07 , Oliver O'Connell Judge Azcarate calls for a lunch break. Court resumes at 2.15pm. Thursday 14 April 2022 18:06 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson reiterates that Heard initiated fights and often fought as hard as Depp. She says that he also tried to deescalate situations. Dr Anderson recalls multiple small bruises on Heard's face Thursday 14 April 2022 18:03 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson says Heard not only showed her photos of injuries shortly after an alleged abuse event, but also showed her bruising on her face at an in-person meeting. She later says there were multiple small bruises on Heards face. (On Heard's abuse that she witnessed in person) Anderson: What I recall was not purple, green, blue [bruises]. But a darkening. Sort of a gray/blue. Anderson indicates with her fingers that the bruise(s) were about one inch wide.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/tOlIMeJLJL Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Thursday 14 April 2022 17:50 , Oliver O'Connell Marriage counsellor says couple were mutually abusive in recorded deposition at Amber Heards defamation trial. Dr Anderson describes mutual abuse between Depp and Heard Thursday 14 April 2022 17:24 , Oliver O'Connell Dr Anderson describes Heards style of talking as jackhammer and rapid fire and that Depp was overwhelmed during the sessions as he had trouble keeping up. Heard reported physical violence to Dr Anderson and says she was shown photos of Heard with bruises (she believes around her eyes). Dr Anderson never saw any abuse in person. She describes mutual abuse between the two and that Heard had initiated incidents to stop Depp leaving on more than one occasion. Abandonment was her worst nightmare. Dr Anderson said she was less sure of when Depp might have initiated confrontations. It was a point of pride to [Heard] if she felt disrespected to initiate a fight .... If he was going to leave her to deescalate [a] fight, she would strike him to keep him there. She would rather be in a fight to keep him there, says Dr Anderson. Court resumes with deposition from Depp and Heards counsellor Thursday 14 April 2022 17:08 , Oliver O'Connell The court is now hearing video deposition from Depp and Heards marriage counsellor, Dr Laurel Anderson. Based in Los Angeles, Dr Anderson saw the pair separately in early October 2015, before moving to joint sessions, some of which saw one of the couple walk out. In her ledger they are referred to as Anne Henry and Joey Davis. Anderson says she saw Depp and Heard for four sessions. During one session, one of the two walked out. Anderson says she doesn't recall for certain which person walked out, as both had threatened to.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/VUuf697ZBe Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 Voices: From hardcore Johnny Depp fans with flowers to jurors inappropriate texts Thursday 14 April 2022 16:57 , Oliver O'Connell Clemence Michallon reports from outside the courthouse in Virginia. From hardcore Johnny Depp fans to inappropriate texts: At the courthouse in Virginia Thursday 14 April 2022 16:42 , Oliver O'Connell Judge calls morning recess. Court resumes at 12pm. James talks about Heards alleged drug and alcohol use Thursday 14 April 2022 16:41 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James says there was lots of heavy drinking by Heard and that she also used magic mushrooms, ecstasy, and cocaine. She says Heard often appeared intoxicated. Heard also used prescription medication including Accutrane to treat acne that doctors advise should not be taken with alcohol. Amber Heard listening to testimony from her former assistant about Heard's alleged illegal drug use. #JohnnyDepp v. #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/xiDOEzyBkN Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) April 14, 2022 James describes abuse by Heard Thursday 14 April 2022 16:35 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James says Heard would scream at her over the phone and once in person as well as sending abusive text messages at all times of day and night which she describes as lashing out and not making sense. She alleges Heard once spit in her face, when she asked for a raise. Ms James also says a handyman in the building was present for the fight and was so ashamed to hear her speaking to me like that. James comments further on Depp-Heard relationship Thursday 14 April 2022 16:32 , Oliver O'Connell Further describing the relationship between Depp and Heard, Ms James says former employer told her she didnt enjoy hanging out with her husbands friends because it was boring and they were old men playing guitars which didnt interest her. Depp smiles at this point. She adds that she would sometimes get the evil eye from Heard if she was seen speaking with Depp. James: It did not seem like a perfect relationship to me, based on a lot of insecurity on her part ... When Amber saw me speaking to him, she would give me the evil eye and I would quickly walk away.#JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/30Z3IQS6vI Sierra Gillespie (@sierragillespie) April 14, 2022 James asked about make-up and evidence of fights Thursday 14 April 2022 16:11 , Oliver O'Connell In testimony that corresponds to that given by Mr Baruch on Wednesday, Ms James is asked about Heards make-up habits. She says that Heard usually never wore make-up unless going to a special event and id she did put make-up on herself it would be light with the addition of lashes. Pressed about if she has ever seen Heard with a black eye, broken nose, bumps, bruises or swelling, she replies no and never. She does say she would see her cry because she was a pretty dramatic person. James is asked about a text from Depp Thursday 14 April 2022 15:52 , Oliver O'Connell Ms James is asked about a text from Johnny Depp in June 2016. It reads: Thank you, sweetheart... Im disgusted that I ever f***in touched that scum... Back on Tuesday!!! And then... Court!!! Will hit you when I get back, doll... Come over for a spot of purple and well fix her flabby ass, nice and good!!! Loveth... J She says she did meet with Depp, but that they did not drink red wine [purple]. She says she does not recall details saying, Its too long ago, Mr. Rottenborn. I dont recall. Click here to read the full blog on The Independent's website About 100 Northeast Middle School students walked out of class on Monday and protested at the edge of school property, joining family who stood across the street in pleading for justice for 14-year-old Manuel Guzman, who was fatally stabbed at the school last week. Family members wept as they pleaded for answers. Friends and relatives, many carrying signs or wearing T-shirts with pictures of Guzman, demanded an explanation from administration about how the stabbing could have happened at the school with metal detectors, security and a policy requiring clear backpacks. Police and extra security remained outside near the crowds on Monday. The students were required to stand behind barricades and were not allowed to join Guzmans friends and family on the sidewalk. But the two groups often chanted in unison, yelling Justice for Manny, School should be closed and Long live Manny. Manuel Guzmans uncle Juan Guzman questioned security at Northeast Middle School as he shouted at officials on Monday. The LLM on his sign stands for Long Live Manny. Why was he taken so early away from his mother? his uncle Juan Guzman asked, shouting from the crowd. The best nephew I ever had taken away from me. You know why? Because the school doesnt have enough security. The school has extra security now. Where the f*** were you at when my nephew was getting murdered? His life was taken away from him so early. Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell said last week that officials are investigating the stabbing, including what led up to it, as well as reviewing security protocols. Guzman was found April 12 suffering from critical stab wounds inside a school bathroom. He died after he was transported to a hospital. Another male student was charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in Jackson County Juvenile Court. His identity has so far not been made public because he is a juvenile. Vicenta Guzman, mother of Manuel Guzman, from right, hugs her friend Gabriela Garcia during a protest Monday as Manuels grandmother Maria Guzman, seated, reacts. Family and friends held a rally for justice for the 14-year-old Northeast Middle School student who was fatally stabbed April 12. At one point about 100 students joined them from behind barriers at the school at 4904 Independence Ave. Students returned for classes last Wednesday, met with additional security and support from counselors. A district spokeswoman on Monday told The Star, As there is an active police investigation, KCPS will not be able to share additional information at this time. Story continues Officials have so far not said how Guzman was found or what led up to the incident. It is also unclear whether any weapon bypassed the schools metal detectors. His mother, Vicenta Guzman, told The Star last week that she believes there were warning signs ahead of the stabbing, alleging that her son and the other student had previous issues, including a fight about one month ago outside of school. Several others on Monday said they also were aware of the earlier altercation, and they argued that more could have been done to prevent the troubles from escalating. Family and friends on Monday created a memorial for Manuel Guzman, who was stabbed to death at Northeast Middle School. It just hurts me and hurts his friends, his family and the school to know that he lost his life in school, said Monica Juarez, a Northeast eighth grader who said she was friends with Guzman. She said that she missed school on Monday to participate in the rally. She was frustrated that students were not allowed to join the family in protesting on the sidewalk. Theyre not letting no students out. The whole school needs to come out and speak up for Manny, she said. I want them to shut the school down. And I want the principal to come out and apologize to this family. They have not said nothing. Theyre over there protecting the kids inside. Now they want to do something. Theres security out here now. Why wasnt there security when Manny was in there getting hurt? As family and friends of Manuel Guzman held a rally for justice outside Northeast Middle School, students joined them but were required to stand behind barricades. Bedell told The Star last week that school officials were speaking with parents about the incident and that he was scheduling a time to meet with Guzmans family. Tomas Munoz, father of an eighth grader at the school, said he has thought about pulling his son out of classes as he worries for his safety. We worry about my son because right now were still scared. We dont know if this school is safe or not, he said. We dont have answers. They have security, they have clear bags. So how did this happen? So the security doesnt do the work. We want to make it better. Thats what were fighting for here today. Family described Manuel Guzman as a sweet kid who loved football and skating. His cousin Rodrigo Morales said Guzman was always funny. He would never take anything seriously. He could always make something funny, he said. He was just a light. If there was dark in a room and hed come in, hed bring light. DJ Kay Slay (Getty Images) Keith Grayson, professionally known as his DJ Kay Slay has died at the age 55 after living with Covid for four months. The death of the iconic New York City emcee was announced by his family in an official statement on Twitter, who said that Grayson died on Easter Sunday (17 April). Our hearts are broken by the passing of Keith Grayson, professionally known as DJ Kay Slay, they wrote. A dominant figure in hip-hop culture with millions of fans worldwide, DJ Kay Slay will be remembered for his passion and excellence with a legacy that will transcend generations. Our family wishes to thank all of his friends, fans, and supporters for their prayers and well wishes during this difficult time, they added. In January, when Grayson was admitted to the hospital with Covid, his brother had originally told HipHopDX that he was definitely not going to die. However, in the days before his death, music manager Wack 100 had shared on Instagram that Grayson was still fighting and that hes been off the #ECMO machine for couple weeks now. Lets continue our prayers as our brother continues to fight. The trailblazing DJ was born in New York City and started his career as a graffiti artist. In his spare time, he performed hip-hop, during which he was featured in the 1983 hip-hop documentary Style Wars. An official statement from The Grayson Family on the passing of Keith Grayson aka DJ Kay Slay: pic.twitter.com/nUZn55k3yh HOT 97 (@HOT97) April 18, 2022 While Grayson told Forbes in 2019 that he hadnt intended to become a DJ, it all changed when he released his debut album The Streetsweeper, Vol 1. He would go on to produce five additional albums over the course of his career. In January, Grayson shared his final Instagram post promoting his single In My Soul, which was in collaboration with artists AZ, Papoose, and Tre Williams. In My Soul was released in 2021 and is available to stream. The U.S. saw multiple mass shootings over the Easter weekend, leaving two teenagers dead and at least 31 people injured. Two of the shootings occurred in South Carolina, while another happened Pittsburgh, Penn. The incidents follow the mass shooting on a Brooklyn subway train on Tuesday that left 29 injured. New York authorities arrested and charged 62-year-old Frank R. James as the lone suspect in the incident. Heres what to know about the Easter weekend shootings: Pittsburgh shooting In a statement on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Police Department (PPD) said two teenagers were killed in a mass shooting at a residential home being rented out as an Airbnb. Authorities responded to a call about multiple gunshots at the property early Sunday morning, arriving as several teenagers and minors fled the scene on foot and by vehicle. The initial investigation reveals a large party was being held at the short-term rental property, with as many as 200 people in attendance, many of them underage, PPD said in a statement. As many as 50 rounds were fired inside, prompting some party-goers to jump out the windows, sustaining injuries such as broken bones and lacerations. Several more shots were fired outside the home. Two males who were suffering gunshot wounds at the scene were transferred to nearby medical facilities, where they were pronounced dead. Police reported a total of 10 gunshot victims at the scene, and said they are interviewing witnesses and reviewing video footage. No arrests had been made in the incident as of Sunday evening. South Carolina mall shooting At least 14 people were injured in a shootout at a mall in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday, according to the city police department. At a news conference, Columbia Police Department police chief William Holbrook said officers responded to reports of gunshots at the Columbiana Centre shopping mall. Those injured ranged from 15 to 73 years old, and no fatalities were reported. Story continues Holbrook added at the news conference that authorities do not believe the shooting was a random incident, but said its too early to say whether it was gang-related. We believe that [the] individuals that were armed knew each other, and there was some type of conflict that occurred that resulted in gunfire, Holbrook said. On Sunday, authorities arrested 22-year-old Jewayne M. Price in connection to the shooting. He was one of the three persons of interest taken in by authorities after the shooting; the other two were reportedly released. Price, who had prior run-ins with law enforcement, was jailed on a $25,000 bond. South Carolina nightclub shooting At least nine people were wounded in a shooting at a nightclub in Furman, South Carolina, on Saturday night, though no fatalities were reported, according to Nexstar affiliate WCBD. South Carolinas Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said on Sunday it is investigating the shooting at Caras Lounge in Hampton County, about 50 miles north of Savannah. SLED added the shooting resulted from an altercation at the nightclub. The agency noted the Hampton County Sheriffs Office asked it to investigate the incident. The Hill has reached out to SLED for comment on its investigation, and whether any arrests have been made. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Brooklyn Nets guard spoke following Sundays Game 1 against the Celtics about the hostility hes faced from the Boston crowd and his responses to the fans. Video Transcript - It looked like there were a couple of times where you gave the fans a finger. I'm curious, was there anything that you thought crossed the line today, and are you the kind of guy that you, kind of, use that internally as something to fire you up? KYRIE IRVING: Look, I mean, I'm just-- where I'm from, you know, I'm used to all these antics and people being close nearby. You know, it's nothing new when I come into this building, what it's going to be like. But it's the same energy they have for me. And I'm going to have the same energy for them. And it's not every fan. I don't want to attack every fan, every Boston fan. But, you know, when people start yelling [BLEEP] and all this stuff, it's just so much you can take as a competitor. And, you know, we're the ones expected to be docile and be humble, and take a humble approach. Not [BLEEP] that's the playoffs. It is what it is. You know, I know what to expect in here and it's the same energy I'm giving back to them. It is what it is. I'm not really focused on it. It's fun, you know what I'm saying? Like-- like, again, where I'm from, I've dealt with so much. So coming in here, you relish it as a competitor. And, you know, I'm gonna keep repeating myself when I say again, but this isn't my first time at TD Garden. So what you guys saw and what you guys think is entertainment or the fans think is entertainment, all is fair in competition. You know, so if somebody is going to call me out of my name, I'm going to look at them straight in the eye and see if they really about it. Most of the time, they're not. - Do you feel like the hostility that you get-- KYRIE IRVING: There's no hostility, bro. It's basketball. - Well, you were flicking some people off. I'd say that's some hostility. KYRIE IRVING: From what? What point? Are you guessing that there's hostility or, like-- Hostility for me is like growing up. Story continues - We've never seen that from you this season, where you are running down the floor flicking people off. KYRIE IRVING: It's the first time you actually caught it because it's a big time game. I respond in different ways, you know what I'm saying? I'm not trying to focus on that. If you want to ask me questions about the fans, go ask them. Go on the street and ask them questions, all right? - So I'm asking from your perspective, from basketball perspective, do you feel like the hostility that you get-- KYRIE IRVING: It's not hostility, bro. - Do you feel like the energy you get from fans in this building-- KYRIE IRVING: Embrace it. - --best from you. KYRIE IRVING: Embrace it, embrace it. It's the dark side. Embrace it. - I know you said you wanted the Celtics fans to move forward. Do you feel as if that could ever happen? KYRIE IRVING: I Don't care at this point. Let's just get to the series and talk about our possessions and how we can get better. I'm not going to focus on the past with Boston. I'm the Brooklyn Nets and happy to be with my teammates and competing out there. The Education Department plans to help millions of people budge closer to getting their student loan debts wiped out after unveiling a slate of new measures Tuesday intended to fix a federal program for low-income student borrowers. The announcement also includes immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers under a student loan forgiveness program for public servants. This comes as the White House faces increased pressure to alleviate the nation's ballooning student debt, worth about $1.75 trillion. The heads of the House and Senate education committees are urging the Education Department to overhaul the "broken" system of income-driven repayment plans, which were first introduced by Congress in the 1990s and allow borrowers to pay back their federal student loans based on their income and family size. In addition, borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment are eligible to have their remaining loans canceled if they make the required amount of payments for either 20 or 25 years. To address "historical failures" with federal student loan programs, the Education Department said it will focus on revising several aspects of the income-driven repayment program, including the use of forbearance. Federal loan servicers will allow struggling student borrowers to pause or reduce their payments temporarily under forbearance arrangements. But such a practice has been widely criticized by state attorneys general, who say borrowers are only driven further into debt because their loans still continue to accrue interest even while they aren't paying. The Education Department said it will remedy the situation by changing its policy. It said it will now count forbearances of more than 12 consecutive months and more than 36 cumulative months toward student loan forgiveness under income-driven repayment programs as well as another program known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which launched in 2007 to help teachers, health care workers, military members and others earn debt relief on their federal loans. Story continues The Education Department said it will also better track the payments of borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans and conduct a one-time revision of their payments to address past inaccuracies. If the agency determines a person should be credited and qualifies for student loan forgiveness, they will receive it automatically. While more than 9 million borrowers are enrolled in income-driven repayment programs, over 3.6 million of them are able to move closer to debt forgiveness under the changes and are expected to receive at least three years of new credit toward cancellation, said James Kvaal, the undersecretary of the Education Department. "We wanted to act as quickly as possible to address these problems, but expect these figures to only grow as we continue to implement and analyze the situation," Kvaal told reporters Tuesday. President Joe Biden is facing mounting demands from members of his own party to overhaul income-driven repayment plans as the White House tackles the larger issue of student debt. His administration this month announced yet another extension of the payment pause on federal student loans this time, through Aug. 31 as concerns about inflation and rising gas prices roil the country. A March report by the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank, examined income-driven repayment and highlighted several lingering problems: Many borrowers who would benefit from the program are never told about it; they face "bureaucratic, technical, or legal difficulties" when they have to recertify their incomes; and some borrowers ultimately "do not make payments large enough to cover the accruing interest, so they see their balances grow over time." Student borrower groups also point to what they say are other failures of the programs. Since 2016, only 32 borrowers have had their remaining loans canceled as permitted under the programs a tiny fraction compared to the 2 million borrowers who have been in repayment for 20 years or longer, advocacy groups have found. An NPR investigation this month also reported that some federal student loan servicers weren't counting how many payments borrowers were making under their income-driven repayment plans, as required, and failed to proactively notify borrowers when they qualified for loan cancellation. In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the chairs of the Senate and House education committees, asked him to extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments until 2023 and use the time to simplify the income-driven repayment process and "reduce borrower confusion and administrative complexity." The lawmakers also made several suggestions of their own, including making the program available to all federal student loan borrowers, including parent and graduate borrowers, and protecting borrowers' income equal to at least 250 percent of the federal poverty line so they can prioritize basic needs. "The Department of Education should repair the broken safety net for low-income borrowers by addressing past failures and establishing a new income-driven repayment plan that keeps payments affordable, prevents debts from ballooning over time, and provides a reliable pathway out of perpetual repayment," Murray and Scott wrote in their letter shared Monday with NBC News. The letter was written in anticipation of the Education Department releasing proposed changes beyond what was announced Tuesday to how income-driven repayment plans would be administered. The top-ranking Republicans in the House and Senate education committees did not respond to requests for comment about how they believe income-driven repayment plans could be overhauled. Murray said Tuesday that she's encouraged by the Education Department's announced changes because they expand debt relief, but she hopes it goes further by finalizing a "more generous" income-driven repayment plan for all borrowers. "It's an urgently needed step in the right direction," she said, adding, "We've got to fix the income-driven repayment system once and for all." BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The Louisiana Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments about a little-known rule that canceled the conviction of a white man who killed himself shortly after the start of his life sentence for killing a Black man. Arguments recently filed by Kenneth Gleasons lawyer contend that the Legislature is the proper body to decide whether to keep or reject the rule, which requires courts to set aside a conviction if a defendant dies while appeals are pending, The Advocate reported. If it is to be changed, it should be changed by the Legislature so that companion legislation recognizing the competing constitutional rights of both the defendants and the victims can be enacted, wrote Katherine Franks, who is Gleasons appellate attorney. Prosecutors' court papers say the Louisiana Supreme Court can change the rule, as high courts in other states have done. Justices have scheduled arguments for May 10. Gleason, 27, of Baton Rouge, was found hanging in his cell in September, state prison officials said. A formal declaration of suicide has not been made, according to East Baton Rouge Assistant District Attorney Dylan Alge. Gleason was convicted in April 2021 of first-degree murder of Donald Smart, who was shot on Sept. 14, 2017, as he walked to his overnight shift at Louies Cafe. The charge can be brought when there are multiple killings. In this case, prosecutors brought up the death of another Black man, Bruce Cofield, at a bus stop on Sept. 12, 2017. Gleason was not charged with Cofield's murder. Gleason also was accused of firing into the home of the only Black family on his street. The state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge threw out Gleasons conviction based on a doctrine called abatement ab initio Latin for abatement from the beginning. It essentially erases the entire court record. The East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorneys Office has asked the court to reinstate the conviction, arguing the doctrine is outdated and hurts victims. The number of states that use it is dwindling, Alge wrote. Story continues He wants the high court to call for a note in such cases stating that conviction removed a defendants presumption of innocence, but was appealed and was still in court when the defendant died. He said a number of states have adopted this procedure, called the Alabama rule. Massachusetts' high court used the Alabama rule in 2019 to reinstate the murder conviction of former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez was convicted of killing semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd in 2013 and then killed himself in 2015 after being acquitted of most charges in a separate double-murder case. A district judge threw out Hernandez's earlier conviction in 2017, saying precedent compelled her to do so. The rule under which she acted is outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said. The Tennessee Supreme Court made a similar ruling in 2019. Alge has argued there has been a seismic shift in how society treats crime victims in the 46 years since the Louisiana Supreme Court found abatement ab initio valid. Franks countered: A trend in other jurisdictions ... should not form the basis for the change in the absence of any action by the Legislature." The three-time Grammy winner will receive an honorary Bachelor of Science in Music Management from the college he attended in the 1990s. Ludacris will receive an honorary degree from Georgia State University (GSU). The school announced the three-time Grammy-winning rapper/actor will receive it at the spring 2022 commencement ceremony. The Stand Up rapper is receiving the honorary Bachelor of Science in Music Management for his support of Georgia States creative media arts and law programs, his substantial commitment to the metro Atlanta community, and his nationwide philanthropic endeavors, according to the schools official statement. Ludacris at the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy) This is a dream come true for me, said Ludacris in a statement. Georgia State helped me get my start and I am so honored and excited to share this milestone with the world. Ludacris has long-running ties with GSU. He attended the college as an undergrad in the 1990s before landing a recording contract with Def Jam Records and becoming a rap superstar. Although he didnt graduate, he has maintained ties to the university. He began mentoring students at GSUs Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) and College of Law after becoming an artist-in-residence in 2019. His first five solo albums on Def Jam are certified platinum or more by the RIAA. Hes had 29 Top 10 singles on Billboards R&B/Hip-Hop chart as a solo and a guest artist, and starred in numerous films, including the 2004 Oscar-winning Crash, and six installments of the Fast & Furious franchise. GSU President M. Brian Blake says hes excited to honor [Ludacris] as a member of the Panther family, citing his commitment to the students as well as his charity work in Atlanta. The Roll Out MC founded The Ludacris Foundation in 2001, as a way to serve youth and families in urban communities. LAS VEGAS, NV SEPTEMBER 21: Ludacris performs onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena on September 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia) We are proud that Chris Bridges got his start at Georgia State, Blake said in a statement. He has gone on to become a cultural and philanthropic icon, representing Atlanta and giving back in many ways. Story continues The spring 2022 commencement for GSU will take place on May 4 at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta. The ceremony will be open to the public as well as live-streamed on GSUs website. TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post Ludacris to receive honorary degree from Georgia State University appeared first on TheGrio. Oxygen Single mother Kelli Underwood survived brain tumors, divorce, and depression, but an ill-fated love triangle would be the death of her. Underwood was born and raised in Mesquite, Texas, just east of Dallas. She married young but it wouldnt last, nor would her second marriage. As a single mother of three, she struggled to balance work and family. When it came down to it she was always a very positive person. Anybody that met her said that her smile would light up a room. Thats just the type of HCA Florida Ocala Hospital recognized Healthgrades has given HCA Florida Ocala Hospital a 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Award. The new logo for the former Ocala Regional Medical Center "This distinction places HCA Florida Ocala Hospital among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading marketplace connecting patients and providers," the hospital said in a news release. Legal beat: Surviving family member of crash that killed 2 sues Ocala bar for serving alcohol to driver $9 million fine: Florida sanctions Sunshine Health for incorrect Medicaid claim denials Previous biz briefs: Ocala hemp company signs as a vendor with NASCAR 55 and older and need a job? Check here The nonprofit Senior Resource Foundation of Ocala announces a new program: Seniors At Work. "This program is looking for anyone 55 and older who is interested in applying for part- time employment. The SRFofOcala will be posting up-to-date job openings on both our website (www.SRFofOcala.org/projects) and social media every week," the group said in a news release. "SRFofOcala is also seeking companies looking for older individuals who demonstrate attributes including dependability, loyalty, adaptability, leadership and a broad knowledge base," the release says. UF vet school appoints two associate deans with Marion County duties The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine has appointed two new associate deans for clinical services, and both will have Marion County responsibilities, according to a college news release. Dr. Michael Mison and Dr.Chris Sanchez Michael Mison, D.V.M., associate dean for clinical services for small animal operations, will be responsible for the UF Pet Emergency Treatment Services in Ocala, among other areas. Chris Sanchez, D.V.M., Ph.D., will become associate dean for clinical services for large animal operations, with duties including the UF Veterinary Hospital at the World Equestrian Center. HCA Florida Ocala Hospital names Isaiah Zirkle as COO HCA Florida Ocala Hospital has named Isaiah Zirkle as its chief operating officer. Story continues Isaiah Zirkle He most recently served in that same capacity at HCA Healthcares West Hills Hospital & Medical Center in West Hills, California, according to an HCA news release. Ocala-based HDG Hotels expands its reach Ocala-based HDG Hotels has expanded its third-party hotel management operation to South Carolina, where it now manages four properties. "Third party management now represents one-third of HDGs portfolio, and subscription to its a la carte consultative and comprehensive services continues to gain momentum," HDG said in a news release. HDG is intentional about our growth and partnerships. The addition of these four hotels in the South Carolina market speaks volumes of our readiness and confidence in executing our standards of excellence at hotels in which we have ownership and also on behalf of hotels we are entrusted to manage, Azim Saju, CEO and president of HDG Hotels, said in prepared remarks. Jasmine Jacobs promoted at The Villages Insurance Partners At The Villages Insurance Partners, Jasmine Jacobs has been promoted to personal lines risk consultant, according to an agency news release. "Jacobs began her insurance career with TVIP as a receptionist in December 2019, later receiving her 2-20 Personal Lines insurance license leading her to the Client Relations Analyst role and, finally, her newest role as Risk Consultant," the release says. New Rider Up in the Executive Director Post!https://t.co/znCQTJcV7x pic.twitter.com/K7xckirZ6c Horse Farms Forever (@HorseFarms4Ever) April 5, 2022 Emily Holmes is new leader of Horse Farms Forever Emily Holmes has been named the new executive director of Horse Farms Forever, effective May 1. She currently serves as events coordinator and director of events at the Florida Horse Park. A horse in northwest Marion County. "The purpose of Horse Farms Forever is to be watchful of government and others in actions pertaining to the character and culture that horses and the Farmland Preservation Area make unique to Marion County," the organization says on its website. "That includes strategies to preserve horse farms and pastureland, especially in the Farmland Preservation Area, for future generations." Duke grant will help STEM efforts in Marion County The Duke Energy Foundation and Duke Energy Florida have announced a $15,700 grant to the Public Education Foundation of Marion County to support the STEM OUT program, according to a Duke news release. Duke Energy The program engages students in STEM education, "using interactive hands-on activities 'stemming' from the Silver River Science Museum, Educational Center and Science Lab," the release says. HCA Florida Healthcare now offers statewide Consult-A-Nurse line "By calling the free 24/7 line, consumers will speak with nurses ready to provide quick, convenient expert care advice and support," HCA said in a news release. "When dialing (844) 70-NURSE (6-8773), consumers, including those recently discharged from the hospital, can ask questions or speak with a nurse about any symptoms or illnesses they or someone in their family may be experiencing. From burns, rashes, sprains, GI concerns and migraines to neurology and heart conditions, nurses can address a wide range of adult and pediatric issues," the release says. Youth job fair set for April 28 CareerSource Citrus Levy Marion and Marion County Public Schools will host a Youth Job Fair from 3:30 to 6 p.m. April 28 at the Hilton Ocala, 3600 SW 36th Ave., Ocala. A job fair for teens and young adults will be held April 28. "Exclusively for 16- to 24-year-olds, the in-person job fair is ideal for older youth/young adults seeking full or part-time employment, whether permanent, temporary, or just for the summer," CareerSource CLM said in a news release. "There is no charge to attend, but participants are asked to register in advance at tinyurl.com/16to24." Send items to calendar@starbanner.com This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: HCA Florida Ocala Hospital honored: Business news in Marion County Few places in the Rochester area tug at the nostalgic heartstrings like Sibley's. The prestigious department store was a landmark in downtown Rochester from the time it opened just after the Civil War until it closed in 1990. The enormous building at 228 E. Main St. is now called Sibley Square, and is a mixed-use site, with retail, work space and nearly 300 units of mixed-income housing. Sibley's had everything you could want from the bargain basement to the sixth-floor Tower Restaurant. In between were entire floors devoted to women's clothing, children's wear, and home furnishings, as well as men's clothes, jewelry, china, rugs, sporting goods and much, much more. Sibley's had a grocery and a butcher shop, an art gallery and a portrait studio, a bridal bureau and a Toyland adorned at Christmastime with the popular Magic Corridor. Sibley's was Rochester's version of Macy's in New York City or Marshall Field's in Chicago. As one longtime employee said in a 1990 Democrat and Chronicle story, "It was like walking into elegance." There was more to Sibley's than its trademark quality merchandise and outstanding service. Sibley's hosted an annual scholastic art exhibition for nearly a half-century and events like Christmas pageants and the yearly "Gift of Love" gala, which benefited the Kidney Foundation. The store introduced Rochester to elevators in 1936 and aluminum "Charga-Plates" precursors to plastic credit cards years later. The place was innovative. "Before Wegmans was Wegmans, Sibley's was Wegmans," Mark Hare wrote in a 2006 Democrat and Chronicle column comparing the Rochester institutions. And of course, there was the four-sided clock hung from the ceiling of the first floor, a gathering spot for generations that gave rise to the saying, "Meet me under the clock." Take the quiz: How well do you know Sibley's? More: Sibley's Toyland was 'like stepping into a wonderland' during Christmas season in Rochester Story continues Shoppers flock to Sibley's to take advantage of 50% markdowns during the downtown store's going-out-of-business sale in 1990. The business started in 1868 as Sibley, Lindsay & Curr at 73 Main St. Groundbreaking for the Granite Building was in 1891; when Sibley's moved in two years later, it was the largest department store between Chicago and New York City. Fire destroyed the building in 1904, and Sibley's new building the one still standing on Main Street opened the following year. The bakery opened in 1910, and the grocery debuted in 1926, the same decade that "The Magic Corridor" started delighting kids and the young-at-heart during the Christmas holiday season. The first branch store was in 1955 at Eastway Plaza in Penfield. Eventually, Sibley's had 15 stores, including in Buffalo and Rochester. The downtown Rochester flagship store remained the chain's grand dame. Its Tower Restaurant, originally known as the Tea Room, had "marble columns, intricate ornamental molding, plaster wreaths and medallions" and an elevated bandstand with circular buffet, and enormous chandeliers of authentic Waterford crystal, wrote Karen Deyle in the book Rochester Eats: 75 Years of Classic Faves & Craves. A throng of shoppers sit at Sibley's lunch counter. Sibley's had wonderful window displays and elaborate Christmas decorations, miles of pneumatic tubes to send along transactions, sculpted relief murals above the first-floor elevators and a stylish ladies lounge. Sibley's even produced a children's publication, The Juvenile Magazine, which promoted its products alongside games and stories. Behind its familiar brick facade:Sibley Square is well on its way to a stunning transformation Sibley's: When celebrities visited Sibleys downtown "The Sibley's of old wasn't merely a commercial establishment; it was almost a social institution," one longtime shopper wrote in a 1989 "Speaking Out" piece in the Democrat and Chronicle. That began to change in the 1980s. Sibley's vacated its entire fifth floor in 1980 and rented it to the Rochester Products Division of General Motors. The bakery closed the same year, and the grocery followed in 1981. The Sibley Building, at Clinton Avenue and East Main Street, circa 1955. The May Department Stores chain acquired Sibley's in 1986, and two years later, the shopping area of the downtown store was reduced to three floors. Customers began complaining about the merchandise and service for which Sibley's had become known. In early 1990, Sibley's closed for good. The May Co. consolidated the Sibley's chain with its Kaufmann's department stores. That wasn't the case for the flagship downtown store, though. Monroe Community College has occupied much of the Sibley's building for years but is now eyeing a move to an Eastman Kodak property on State Street. WinnDevelopment, which owns the building, is in the midst of transforming it into a mixed-use "urban center" that will include residential apartments. Memories of Sibley's remain strong here. Joseph Eddy, vice president of WinnDevelopment, said he has heard from lots of people planning to attend the reunion. Sibley's reboot: Memories of store still echo as future dawns "The enthusiasm for the Sibley reunion has been amazing and really shows how beloved this building is by the community," he said via email. "We're excited to host so many former employees and give them the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, share stories and see firsthand the progress being made with our redevelopment." Whether it was modern or a misfit, the Downtowner surely made its mark in downtown Rochester. Whatever Happened to ? is a feature about Rochesters haunts of yesteryear and is based on our archives. Morrell is a Rochester-based freelance writer. Editor's note: This story was originally published in July 2014. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Sibley's was a prestigious department store in Rochester NY Apr. 18SHANNON There's no other company in the country doing anything quite like what Blue Delta Jeans is doing. But for the small team at the 10-year-old, Shannon-based clothing manufacturer, creating a custom-fitted pair of blue jeans is about as American as it gets. "The blue jean is an American invention by Levi Strauss," Johnson Benjamin, chief design officer for Blue Delta, said. "He started the design back in the 1800s, so it is a purely American design. Blue jeans are America." The company got its start in 2012 with Nick Weaver and Josh West at the helm. According to Benjamin, West saw the wealth of talented sewing machine operators in the area and wanted to tap into that talent pool to create something unique, but also built to last. "He really wanted to start something that wouldn't go away," Benjamin said. "Nick and Josh put their heads together and ended up picking blue jeans as their craft." A decade later, the jeans created at Blue Delta are in the closets of some of the world's biggest stars, including actor Morgan Freeman and singer/songwriter Thomas Rhett. Benjamin joined the company shortly after Blue Delta's establishment. He said it didn't take him long to see the quality of the work they were doing. "I was in the design and sewing world and had a family background in it," he said. "I became aware of the company and was really intrigued by it. I spoke to the owners and bought a pair of the jeans, and in that timeframe, I realized they probably needed help in the design world." Although Benjamin had never personally crafted a pair of jeans, he knew he could learn the skills it required. By 2015, Blue Delta was continuously growing, prompting Benjamin to leave his other work and become a partner in the company. "Since then, we've just been growing Blue Delta along the way." The aim of Blue Delta is to create custom, tailor-made blue jeans for every customer. Story continues "We actually call ourselves a bespoke jean company," Benjamin said. "Which is to say that, in the fancy tailor world, we are taking your measurements and making a jean for your body." Each Blue Delta client has about 30 measurements taken waist, hips, seat, thigh, mid-thigh, low-thigh, knee and calf and some depth measurements along the way. After the tailoring process is complete, designers at Blue Delta draft a pattern that is specific to the body's measurements. Clients select if they want high-rise, mid-rise or low-rise jeans and flare leg, skinny or cropped styles. For the Chief Design Officer, seeing Blue Delta develop as a progressive fashion company in Mississippi has been a full circle experience. "Along the way, Mississippi, and all of the South really, was known for their sewing and garment production. Now in modern times, a lot of garment production is unfortunately overseas," Benjamin said. Many of Blue Delta's employees came from backgrounds in garment manufacturing men and women who lost their jobs when the companies for which they worked moved their operations overseas. "We were able to tap into a bunch of talent," Benjamin said. "While Mississippi isn't known for fashion, this is actually a product that fits perfectly here in the Tupelo area." Even though Benjamin has been with the company for nearly a decade, his favorite part of the job remains unchanging. "I love being able to get people in jeans that are specific to them," he said. "I see their eyes light up when it fits perfectly." BROOKE BULLOCK BURLESON is a digital producer for the Daily Journal. Contact her at brooke.burleson@djournal.com. A boys body was discovered by a hunter in a wooded area in Indiana, and now police are attempting to identify the child. Indiana State Police say the boys body was discovered around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 16. A resident who was mushroom hunting spotted the child near a roadway in a heavily wooded area of eastern Washington County, according to state police. The hunter called 911 and troopers from Sellersburg were called to investigate. State police said it is unclear who the boy is. He is described as a young, Black male likely between the ages of 5 and 8 years old. He is about 4 feet tall and has a slim build with a short haircut. A coroner will determine the boys cause of death. Investigators believe he died sometime in the previous week. Anyone with information into the identification of the boy is asked to contact Indiana State Police Det. Matt Busick at 812-248-4374. Indiana State Police also established a dedicated tip line, which can be reached at 1-888-437-6432. Sellersburg is in Southern Indiana about 12 miles north of downtown Louisville. Man working on plumbing finds body under girlfriends home, Pennsylvania police say Mom, boyfriend charged after boys body found in home with abandoned kids, TX cops say 9-year-old selling candy was killed 62 years ago. DNA cracks the case, WA cops say As the Democratic primary for Florida governor heats up, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist announced an endorsement Monday from one of the most notable, and controversial, names in national politics House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. From his tireless work in Congress to his commitment to Floridians across the state, Charlie Crist has an impenetrable record of fighting for the people of the Sunshine State and delivering results that matter, Pelosi said in a statement. Crist has served three terms in Congress representing Floridas 13th District. He was previously Florida governor, as a Republican, from 2007-2011. Crist is running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary against Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami, his former running mate in 2014. All are vying to replace Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Crist said in a statement that the endorsement was an honor and that Pelosis leadership uplifts the voices of all Floridians that are ready to put divisive, inflammatory rhetoric behind us and truly get to work for the people. In 2018, Crist backed Pelosi in her run for House speaker. Crist has led the pack among Democrats when it comes to fundraising, but trails far behind DeSantis and his available campaign funds. The action committee Friends of Ron DeSantis has more than $136 million available as of April. Crist has raised just over $8 million. While Pelosi is one of the largest figureheads in the Democratic Party, shes frequently attacked by the right, and the endorsement could give conservatives reason to be skeptical of Crist. Space is important to us and thats why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. --- The four astronauts slated to fly NASA and SpaceX's next crewed mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Monday, kicking off a series of preparations ahead of liftoff this weekend. NASA's Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti touched down at the former Shuttle Landing Facility just after lunchtime in a NASA-owned private jet. Their next ride will be a Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket scheduled to take flight at 5:26 a.m. EDT Saturday, April 23. "It's an amazing time to be a part of human spaceflight," Lindgren, Crew-4's mission commander, told reporters during a post-landing briefing. "As we were coming in for landing, we had the opportunity to take a look at (pad 39A) and right next to our pad, the Space Launch System rocket is sitting there," he said of NASA's new moon rocket on the pad for testing. Lindgren also recounted the recent launch of Axiom-1 and its fully private mission to the ISS, which is slated for splashdown off the Florida coast no earlier than 7:19 a.m. EDT Wednesday, April 20. NASA officials said this weekend's Crew-4 launch is contingent on a safe and successful Axiom return. "We've been training for many, many months and we're starting to see all those boxes getting checked off. It's very exciting now to have this box checked off," Lindgren said. More: SpaceX Inspiration4 commander Jared Isaacman speaks in Daytona More: Record-breaking NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonauts return to Earth After liftoff from pad 39A on a northeastern trajectory, Crew-4's Falcon 9 previously flown booster will target a drone ship landing in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Their Crew Dragon capsule is brand new and named "Freedom." Story continues The crew is expected to spend about six months in orbit aboard the ISS conducting science experiments, maintaining the station, and more. Lindgren and Cristoforetti have flown on Russian Soyuz capsules before, but Crew-4 will mark the first spaceflight for Hines and Watkins. Before launch day, however, the week is full of activities: sleep-shifting to adjust to the early launch time; running through a full-scale rehearsal of the trek from their quarters to pad 39A; conducting a mock countdown in Crew Dragon; and, as is tradition, spending time with family and friends in KSC's famous "Astronaut Beach House." SpaceX is taking the four-person crew under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, established to replace the space shuttle's ability to take U.S. astronauts to and from the ISS. Including Saturday's launch, the company will have flown five crewed missions to the ISS and seven overall. Boeing and its Starliner capsule were selected for the program, too. The next uncrewed test flight of the capsule is targeting no earlier than May 19. Crew-4 also includes Cristoforetti, an ESA astronaut from Italy who previously flew to the ISS via Russia's Soyuz capsule. She told reporters Monday one of her last luxuries before Saturday's early flight will be pretty simple: a shower. "Among the things that depend on gravity, I would count a shower among those," she said. "Just like I did last time, I plan to take a very long, luxurious shower on that last day before launch." Before Crew-4's flight to the ISS, however, SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are hoping to squeeze in one Starlink launch on Thursday. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch the company's 43rd internet mission from Launch Complex 40 at 11:16 a.m. ET. It will include a drone ship landing. For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule. Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Launch Thursday, April 21 Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Mission: 43rd Starlink mission Launch Time: 11:16 a.m. ET Launch Complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Trajectory: Northeast Landing: Drone ship Liftoff Weather: 70% "go" Landing Weather: Low-risk Visit floridatoday.com/space at 10 a.m. ET Thursday, April 21, for real-time updates and video. Launch Saturday, April 23 Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Mission: Crew-4 flight to ISS Astronauts: NASA's Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti Launch Time: 5:26 a.m. ET Launch Pad: 39A at Kennedy Space Center Trajectory: Northeast Landing: Drone ship Liftoff Weather: Forecast expected Wednesday Landing Weather: Forecast expected Wednesday Visit floridatoday.com/space at 2 a.m. ET Saturday, April 23, for real-time updates and video. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA Crew-4 astronauts arrive at KSC for SpaceX's next ISS launch Natasha Lyonne has said that she and Fred Armisen broke up over a swimming pool. The Russian Doll star first began dating Saturday Night Live alum Armisen in 2014, with the couple living together in Los Angeles during the pandemic. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lyonne confirmed that she and the comedian had recently split for an unusual reason. I honestly think we broke up because I wanted a swimming pool, she said. We love each other just about as much as two people can love each other and were still talking all the time, but Freddy doesnt like a swimming pool. The actor continued: It might seem like a mundane reason for a breakup, but during that pandemic, youve got to get your laps Im like Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer. So, I got myself a house with a pool out in Los Angeles. So thats the real scandal. Lyonne, who is also known for her roles in But Im a Cheerleader and Orange Is the New Black, will next appear in the second season of Netflixs dark time-loop comedy Russian Doll. Armisen and Lyonne in 2020 (Getty Images) The new run of episodes pick up four years after season one aired in 2019. Schitts Creek star Annie Murphy will be joining the cast in the forthcoming season, in addition to Sharlto Copley (Powers). Russian Doll season two comes to Netflix on Wednesday 20 April. The New York Times KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine The solicitation to commit treason came to Oleksandr Vilkul on the second day of the war, in a phone call from an old colleague. Vilkul, the scion of a powerful political family in southeastern Ukraine that was long seen as harboring pro-Russian views, took the call as Russian troops were advancing to within a few miles of his hometown, Kryvyi Rih. He said, Oleksandr Yurivich, you are looking at the map, you see the situation is predetermined, Vilkul said, recalling the Apr. 18Ohio's PBS stations are working with the Ohio Department of Education to provide afterschool and summer programs serving underserved youth with additional materials to address learning loss this summer. PBS will provide the afterschool and summer programs with materials like curriculums and materials, virtual field trips, interactive video programs, community events and others, to help student learning and address learning loss. ODE paid $5 million from federal COVID-19 relief funding for Ohio Learns 360, which targets kindergarten through fifth graders, according to Ohio PBS. "Ohio's PBS stations have been wonderful partners in prioritizing additional education opportunities to support Ohio's students since the beginning of the pandemic," ODE interim superintendent of public instruction Stephanie Siddens said. "The Ohio Learns 360 initiative will give families an additional pathway to support student learning beyond the school day." According to Ohio's PBS stations, students in out-of-school-time programs will be able to do hands-on STEM activities with characters such as Cat in the Hat or go on a virtual field trip to one of Ohio's leading science museums. Students at home will also be able to participate in virtual after-school programs that feature a well-known PBS Kids character. Parents can learn how to support their child's learning through Parent Power webinars, and families will be able to attend community events offered by their local PBS station. PBS station Public Media Connect in Cincinnati and Dayton is leading the effort. For students in communities of color and in poorer neighborhoods, the summer has been a time when students can forget what they learned the previous school year, especially compared to their white, wealthier peers. That is because wealthier families can afford camps and daycare that provide educational services to kids. While camps serving poorer families exist, they are rarer and typically need outside funding. Story continues During the beginning of the pandemic, when many schools switched to virtual schooling, poor and minority students, as well as students who had a hard time in school, fell even further behind. According to an Ohio State University study published in 2021 using 2021 spring testing data, students across the state had achievement gaps compared to previous years. But learning declines were larger for lower-achieving, economically disadvantaged, and minority student subgroups and among districts that spent most of the year in fully remote instruction. Lacey Snoke, spokeswoman for ODE, said the Department is using federal funding to launch more than 60 new initiatives designed to help students recover from the effects of the pandemic. The Ohio Learns 360 program is just one of those. Snoke said in-person initiatives are a priority. ODE is putting more than $88 million in funding for summer and afterschool learning and $20 million to support tutoring, she said. "However, other types of learning experiences can be complementary to those efforts and can at times be more accessible and flexible for students and their families," she said. The Ohio Supreme Court accepted the resignation of Edd K. Wright of New Philadelphia from the practice of law while disciplinary action was pending against him. The court released its decision on Monday. More: Attorney Edd K. Wright found guilty of stealing from three estates Wright, 83, is scheduled to be sentenced May 3 in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court for stealing from the estates of three clients. He pleaded no contest in March to two counts of aggravated theft and one count of theft. Judge Michael Ernest found him guilty. Wright and defense attorney David Hipp have said all the money has been repaid. One aggravated theft charge said Wright took $228,437 in proceeds from the estate of a man between March 1, 2018 and April 30, 2021. The second aggravated theft charge said he took $164,000 in proceeds from another man's estate between June 1, 2012 and July 31, 2021. The theft charge said the defendant took $1,829 from the proceeds of a woman's estate between April 1, 2019 and April 30, 2019. The maximum penalty for aggravated theft is three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The maximum penalty for theft is a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. Carroll County Prosecutor Steven Barnett is serving as special prosecutor on the case. Wright formerly had a law office at 134 Fourth St. NW, New Philadelphia. This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: New Phila attorney resigns from practice of law after theft conviction If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. The endless array of Pixel 6 problems continues this week as users have found yet another baffling bug on Googles latest flagship. Last Friday, a Pixel 6 Pro owner took to Reddit to issue a complaint. The user said that their Pixel 6 Pro seems to decline calls on my behalf without my knowing. Someone would call them, the phone would not ring, and there wouldnt be a missed call notification afterward. They said that this was happening at least four times a week. Today's Top Deals Dont Miss: Our guide on How to block spam texts on your iPhone Pixel 6 bug auto-rejects incoming calls The user said that the phone was rejecting calls from saved contacts and unknown numbers alike. They typically leave their phone face-up on the desk, which means the screen wouldnt even light up for incoming calls. Instead, the Pixel 6 Pro was arbitrarily rejecting calls as soon as they came in. The only evidence was a declined call in the call log. The user checked every setting they could possibly think of on their Pixel 6 Pro: I have filter spam calls turned off. I have WiFi calling turned off. I have [Flip to Shhh] turned off. DND is turned off. Ive reset my network settings and always have a full signal. I made sure the contacts arent set to go straight to voicemail. None of these settings were responsible for the Pixel 6 bug. Furthermore, the users phone service provider said it wasnt an issue on their end. The only step the user did not take was running it in safe mode, but that would be a long, likely fruitless process. Worst of all, this doesnt appear to be an isolated issue. Its unclear how widespread it really is, but there are currently 76 comments on the Reddit thread as of Monday afternoon, many of which come from Pixel 6 owners experiencing the same bug. Story continues Other problems with the latest Pixel Without any doubt, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are the two most exciting phones that Google has launched in years. They feature a unique, modern design, they are powered by Googles Tensor system on a chip, and their cameras are among the best on the market. The biggest problem is that the phones cant seem to get out of their own way. Shortly after the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro went on sale, issues started cropping up. Back in November, Google acknowledged the flickering display bug that was irritating some early adopters. Pixel 6 owners have also complained about slow fingerprint sensors, lost signals, touch-input issues, WiFi signal issues, auto-rotate issues, and more. At this rate, its unclear when or if the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will ever be completely bug-free. More Pixel coverage: For more Pixel news, visit our Pixel 6 guide. Click here to read the full article. See the original version of this article on BGR.com Dayton police say they are looking for a male accused of assaulting an RTA worker. Police said the reported assault happened at the RTA Hub in the Westown Shopping Center on the evening of April 1. >> WPAFB downgrades health protection level; What it means Surveillance photos from the scene showed the male in a blue jean jacket with roses on the sleeves and a tiger patch on the back. He also had a beanie hat on with an Ohio patch on it. Anyone with information about the incident or the suspect are asked to call Dayton Police at (937)-333-2677 or Miami Valley Crime Stoppers at (937)-222-7867. >> Police: Security guard shoots, kills armed robbery suspect at Dayton AutoZone Apr. 17A Manchester man turned himself into Portsmouth police on an arrest warrant for assault charges, police said. On April 8, police were dispatched around 11:30 p.m. to the Press Room, 77 Daniel St., for a report of a woman being struck in the face with a glass by a man, according to a news release. The man was identified as Michael Rohan, 29, of Manchester. He turned himself into police after an arrest warrant was issued on two counts of simple assault and reckless conduct. Rohan fled the scene and efforts to locate him were unsuccessful, the release said. The victim was transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital. The victim's name and possible injuries were not disclosed. Rohan was booked without incident. He was released on personal recognizance by a bail commissioner. He is scheduled to be arraigned on June 13 in the Portsmouth District Court. Anyone with additional information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the investigating officer, Officer C. Rohde 603-610-7545. The Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party is revoking its endorsement of a U.S. House candidate due to donations she accepted from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In a statement on Sunday, the caucus said it will no longer support North Carolina state Sen. Valerie Foushee in her bid for the House because she accepted donations from AIPAC, which has endorsed Republican candidates who objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. The caucus said it contacted Foushees campaign and encouraged the candidate to reject AIPACs support, but the candidate refused, saying the campaigns commitment to the group is strong and unyielding. As a result, the caucus said it is pulling its support. We stand by our progressive American values of democracy and human rights for all. AIPACs support of insurrectionists and Senator Foushees strong embrace of AIPAC runs contrary to our values, the group wrote in a statement. Because of the actions of AIPAC and Senator Foushees refusal to reject their support, the Progressive Caucus leadership voted and overwhelmingly decided to withdraw our support of Senator Foushees candidacy for Congress, the group added. The caucus said it came to its decision despite Foushee having a sterling reputation and years of service. No American candidate should be accepting funds from an organization that provides financial support for those seeking to destroy our democracy, the group wrote, calling AIPAC a single-issue organization that sees nothing wrong with supporting insurrectionists in the US as long as those insurrectionists continue to align their Congressional votes with AIPAC goals. AIPAC came under scrutiny in March, according to The Times of Israel, when its new political action committee released an initial 120 endorsements for congressional races 37 of whom were Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election results. Story continues AIPAC defended its endorsements, writing that the pro-Israel movement should not become selective about its friends, according to The Times of Israel. The Progressive Caucus said AIPAC made significant donations to Foushees campaign, with the funds making up more than half of the campaigns entire quarterly fundraising. AIPAC appears multiple times on the Foushee campaigns April 2022 quarterly filing. AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told The Hill in a statement on Monday that the groups active participation in the democratic process will not be deterred by ideological groups with highly partisan agendas. We are a bipartisan organization exclusively focused on advancing the US-Israel relationship and support candidates from both parties who are committed to that goal, he added. Wittmann also reiterated AIPACs support for Foushee. Our activists proudly support Valerie Foushee a progressive Democrat who solidly supports the US-Israel relationship in stark contrast to her opponent. It is entirely consistent with progressive values to stand with our democratic ally, Israel, he wrote. Foushee is running to represent North Carolinas 4th Congressional District in the House. Rep. David Price (D), who currently holds the seat, will not seek reelection this year. Former American Idol star Clay Aiken and Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam the first Muslim-American woman ever elected to public office in the Tar Heel State are also running for the Democratic nomination. The Foushee campaign touted the state senators background and track record in a statement to The Hill on Monday, noting that she will unify, not divide in Washington. Senator Foushee is a woman of deep faith and moral character, as anyone who knows her will attest. Her 25 years of elected service to her community speaks to her deep commitment to progressive values like voting rights, womens rights, healthcare, education, and climate action, the campaign said. She has a track record of delivering for her constituents and the insinuation that she could be bought by any interest group or donor is outrageous and offensive. Senator Foushee is going to Washington to unify, not divide, as she has always done, the campaign added. Updated at 11:55 a.m. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The launch of what Russian President Vladimir Putin said was Russia's new nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile, March 1, 2018. RU-RTR Russian Television/AP As the US works to reenter to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, critics have objected to Russia's involvement. Moscow's ancillary role in the deal is a small price to pay to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the authors. Today, Russia is wielding nuclear threats to help perpetrate an illegal, unjustified, and immoral war against Ukraine. At the same time, Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than it has ever been before, largely due to former President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US must ensure that Iran does not join Russia as a nuclear-capable power able to bully its neighbors. A renewed Iran nuclear deal is the best way to avert that disaster. Thanks to the Biden administration's painstaking diplomacy, a resuscitated agreement to once again limit Iran's nuclear program is within sight. However, opponents of the deal have raised a new objection: that somehow the deal is illegitimate because it involves Russia. This is absurd. Russia's ancillary role in the deal is a small price to pay to ensure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. Iranians in northern Tehran celebrate the Iranian nuclear deal, April 2, 2015. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi The original agreement involved China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, the EU, the US, and Iran. Its multilateralism was key to its effectiveness: It blocked Iran's path to a nuclear weapon largely because the international community faced Iran with a united front. But now, that advantage of the deal is being characterized as a liability. In the last few weeks, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, lashed out, saying "Mr. President, you are the only one in America doing business with the Russians. Stop doing business with the Russians. Don't have them negotiating for us." Fox News' Brian Kilmeade raised the same point in an interview, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) made similar comments, saying "It's insane to have the Russians be the intermediary." Story continues It would be insane if it were true. But it simply is not. The true intermediary between the US and Iran is not Russia. It's the Europeans. They have worked tirelessly both to keep the deal on life support during the Trump administration and to facilitate a US re-entry to it under the Biden administration. To undermine their contributions is not just disrespectful to them as US allies it is a sop to Russia that misrepresents reality. The reactor building at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran. MAJID ASGARIPOUR/AFP/Getty Images With so many misrepresenting Russia's role in the negotiations to re-enter the JCPOA, it is important to clarify Russia's role in the JCPOA itself. The goal of the agreement was to ensure Iran could not build a nuclear weapon. As such, any deal would require removing Iran's stockpile of excess uranium and relocating it to another country. With the US and European parties to the 2015 deal unwilling or unable to take the radioactive material, Russia volunteered. The argument that shipping excess Iranian uranium to Russia directly enriches the Russian nuclear program is unfounded. As the country with the most nuclear weapons in the world, Russia has no need to expand its nuclear arsenal. As of 2020, Russia, with an estimated 747 tons of highly-enriched uranium, has nothing to benefit from Iran's .036 tons, a drop in the bucket for Russia. Currently, Russia is not producing fissile materials for weapons. Additionally, the New START Treaty restricts Russia from building new strategic weapons and we know that Russia is in compliance with that treaty. Therefore, there is virtually no proliferation risk in letting Russia handle the excess uranium removed from Iran. Moreover, should the deal be revived, the JCPOA would restore the most rigorous monitoring mechanism that exists on any nuclear program anywhere in the world. 18 of Iran's nuclear facilities and nine other facilities would be under strict IAEA safeguards. If Russia tried to divert this uranium back to Iran for some nefarious purpose, we can be confident that the world would know. Parties to the Iran nuclear deal meet in Vienna, December 17, 2021. EU Vienna Delegation/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Furthermore, US leadership is the only reason the original deal, or any resuscitated version of it, was possible. It was the threat of US military action, the cost of US economic sanctions, and the dogged diplomacy of US diplomats that got Iran to the negotiating table in the first place, during the Obama administration. Despite the diplomatic cost of withdrawal of the deal, the US is still the lead driver of the transatlantic alliance that is within striking distance of ensuring, once again, that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Putin's Russia is unquestionably a nefarious and toxic actor. However, arresting Iran's nuclear progress is unquestionably in the United States' interest. As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) has stated, Russia does not have to be the destination country for Iran's uranium. But there is nothing in and of itself disqualifying about Russia being that destination country. A renewed nuclear deal will not help Russia at the expense of the US. It would simply help the US by ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Akshai Vikram is the nuclear policy advisor at Foreign Policy for America, an organization dedicated to principled American engagement in the world. He previously worked on nuclear issues as a Roger Hale Fellow at Ploughshares Fund and was a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' 2021 Nuclear Scholars Initiative. Samuel M. Hickey is a research analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, where his work portfolio includes the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, nuclear security, and missile defense. He is also a term member on the advisory board of the International Nuclear Security Forum. Read the original article on Business Insider The Queen kept her James Bond Olympics skit a secret from her family. Queen Elizabeth II starred opposite Daniel Craig in a funny sketch that aired during the London 2012 Summer Olympics. On a recent episode of BBC Radio Fours show The Reunion, host Kirsty Wark spoke with members of the production team behind the events opening ceremony, which featured the sketch. The skit sees Craigs 007 escoting the Queen to the London Olympic Stadium. The queen never told her family she was doing it. That was one of the stipulations when she agreed to be part of it, production stage manager Sam Hunter told Wark. So if you actually see when she comes and she takes her seat, you can see her family go, Ah, nice one. The production team also had to keep the secret from some members of the government. What was hard was that you didnt really want to say much to the cabinet because you didnt know how secure they were, said executive-producer Stephen Daldry. Earlier this year, Craig opened up the details of their meeting during an appearance on The Late Show. The actor specifically recalled a very funny joke that the royal cracked at his expense. (Reuters) - Russian air forces carried out air strikes at a logistics centre of the Ukrainian army near the city of Lviv and destroyed a large number of foreign-made weapons stored there, TASS news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying on Monday. The Russian forces have also destroyed a repair centre for Tochka U ballistic missiles in the city of Dnipro, the ministry said, according to TASS. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Charred buildings and destroyed cars in Mariupol on April 13, 2022. Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine, has seen the fiercest fighting of the Russian invasion. Troops there have been surrounded and outnumbered, fighting in hellish conditions. On Monday, UK officials said Russian leaders would be upset that the city was still unconquered. Russian commanders will be unhappy with their troops' inability to conquer the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine, British intelligence said Monday morning. Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) April 18, 2022 In a daily update on the fighting in Ukraine, officials wrote: "Russian commanders will be concerned by the time it is taking to subdue Mariupol. Concerted Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and materiel, slowing Russia's advance elsewhere." (Materiel is a catch-all term for military supplies.) Mariupol, a port city on Ukraine's southern coast, has been the scene of intense fighting for almost the entire duration of the 54-day invasion. Before and after satellite imagery showing residential damage to Mariupol in the course of Russia's invasion. Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies. It has been surrounded for weeks, hit continuously by shelling and slowly advancing ground troops. Survivors who made it out of the city have repeatedly described it as a "hell on earth," deprived of food, water, and heating. Its mayor said 21,000 people there had been killed and that their bodies were "carpeted through the streets." Ukrainian fighters in the city have held out for weeks. Reports from the Associated Press and Financial Times described a last stand by soldiers from Ukraine's marine corps and its right-wing Azov Battalion paramilitary. It said they were resisting from inside a bomb-outed Soviet steelworks and a series of tunnels. Some fighters there surrendered in recent days. These included Aiden Aslin, a British man serving as a marine, who featured in a Russian propaganda broadcast and appeared to speak under duress. Captured soldier Aiden Aslin, a British man who joined the Ukrainian army in 2018, appeared to speak under duress during an interview with Russian state TV. IZ.RU Ukraine's prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, told ABC's "This Week" that the troops in Mariupol "will fight until the end." Story continues Russian leaders have given no public statements of frustration with their progress in Mariupol. But analysts and intelligence officials have said Russia's President Vladimir Putin would have been enraged by a war effort that fell short of his apparent expectations of a swift victory. After an unsuccessful advance on northern Ukraine and its capital of Kyiv, Russia announced a pivot in its strategy to focus its forces on the eastern Donbas region, which includes Mariupol. Read the original article on Business Insider COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of a second man in connection with Saturday's shootout inside a busy shopping mall in South Carolina's capital, one of two mass shootings that rocked the state over the Easter holiday weekend. Marquise Love Robinson, 20, was taken into custody overnight and authorities are also seeking a third suspect, Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith, Columbia Police Chief W.H. Skip Holbrook said during a news conference. Both men face charges of attempted murder and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery. Nine people were shot and another six injured in the rush to exit Columbiana Centre in Columbia, authorities said, with no fatalities reported. Holbrook said one person remained in the intensive care unit Monday. Police said they did not believe the shooting was a random attack and that the three identified suspects knew each other. Holbrook said the men brought guns into the mall, with police seizing two handguns believed to be used in the shootout. Emotions took over, you had firearms that were introduced into the dispute, gunfire was exchanged and innocent people got injured in the crossfire, Holbrook said. The first person arrested in the shooting, 22-year-old Jewayne M. Price, was one of three people initially detained by law enforcement as a person of interest. Prices attorney, Todd Rutherford, told news outlets Sunday that his client fired a gun at the mall, but in self-defense. Rutherford said Price faces a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol because he legally owned his gun but did not have a permit to carry a weapon. Price now also faces an attempted murder charge and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery, police said. He was in the Lexington County jail as of Monday. Columbia police previously said on Twitter that a judge agreed Sunday to let Price leave jail on a $25,000 surety bond if he remained on house arrest with an ankle monitor. Robinson is scheduled for a bond hearing Tuesday morning, according to police. Authorities have asked the public for help locating Smith, 21, of Columbia, who is also facing a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol. Story continues This is not an indictment on gun ownership, Holbrook said. This is an indictment on the availability of firearms on the street for people that have illegal intentions, nefarious intentions to use those firearms against others. Three mass shootings in the U.S. over the Easter holiday weekend two in South Carolina and one in Pennsylvania capped a monthlong spate of gun violence across the nation. In South Carolina, at least nine people were shot early Sunday at Cara's Lounge in Hampton County, according to South Carolinas State Law Enforcement Division. No one was reported killed in the violence at the nightclub. A group of Democratic lawmakers including four senators and a House member will travel to Poland, India, Germany and the United Arab Emirates on a nine-day trip to rally support for Ukraine. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) announced the trip in an email Sunday evening, but said additional details on the schedule could not be released due to security concerns. Other senators making the trip with Kelly are Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-MA), along with Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), the lone House member. This strong congressional delegation will have the opportunity to meet with U.S. military leadership and troops in Poland in order to learn how the U.S. can continue to support Ukraine and our NATO allies against Russias unprovoked and unwarranted war, the lawmakers said in a joint statement. In addition, the delegation will meet with a number of key foreign leaders in Poland, UAE, India, Nepal, and Germany to strengthen ties during this period of heightened global tension. Apart from Poland, the major countries on the itinerary have been notable for their lack of cooperation with U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia, as its war on Ukraine stretched past 50 days. India, the worlds largest democracy, has continued to import Russian oil and has remained neutral in United Nations votes on human rights atrocities carried out in Ukraine. The oil-rich Gulf countries have resisted calls by the U.S. to increase their oil supply in the global market to bring down prices that have risen amid efforts to sanction and curb Russian oil and gas exports. And Germany has voiced opposition to joining calls by the U.S. and other countries in Europe to further squeeze Russias war chest by cutting off global Russian oil and gas imports, which bring in about $1 billion per day. Germany continues to rely on Russian natural gas delivery, through a Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and its top officials have warned that turning off the spigot is not an option for Europes most populated country. Story continues Poland, due to its geographic proximity to Ukraine, has been a key part of the international response, working with nonprofits to house and feed the vast majority of the millions of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the start of the war. During a trip to Poland last month, President Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin cant remain in power, a comment the White House quickly tried to walk back. He also committed to taking in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and touted an agreement with E.U. leaders to start weaning the region off Russian energy. Nepal is among the few Asian countries that have condemned Russias invasion of Ukraine, deviating from its policy of international neutrality. The group of lawmakers is the latest of multiple U.S. congressional delegations who have travelled mostly to Europe since the start of the war. A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) visited Poland earlier this month. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. UPDATE: A 15-year-old accused of setting the fire that killed their 10-year-old sister early Sunday has been charged with felony murder and malice murder, Gwinnett County police confirmed. Additional charges of first-degree arson are possible but would come from the county fire department, officials said. No further details have been released. Original story continues below. A fire that killed a 10-year-old Georgia girl was deliberately set by one of her siblings, police and fire department officials say. The fatal fire broke out just before 5 a.m. on Easter Sunday at a home in the 4400 block of Beaver Road in Loganville, according to Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services. Firefighters arrived to find the front of the home engulfed in flames with reports of two kids trapped inside. The 10-year-old, who hasnt been publicly identified, was found dead in a bedroom without window access, authorities said in a news release. Two cats also died in the fire. Active Investigation: Homicide. Early this morning @GwinnettFire was called to a residential fire. A 10 year old girl was killed. The investigation later determined that the fire was intentionally set. Our detectives will continue to investigate. pic.twitter.com/W2Psm78wcT Gwinnett County Police (@GwinnettPd) April 17, 2022 A 15-year-old male thought to also be trapped was found safe around 9 a.m. at a different location outside the home, fire officials said. The girls death is being treated as a homicide after investigators determined the fire was set intentionally by a sibling of the deceased victim, according to Gwinnett County police. Authorities did not provide the age or any other details about the sibling accused of setting the fire. A total of seven people lived at the home, but only one adult and four children were inside when the fire started, according to the fire department. A family member said there were smoke alarms installed, but they didnt go off. Story continues The father of the 10-year-old was at work with one of his daughters when he got word that his house was on fire, according to WAGA. I went over to (a co-worker), and she told me I had to go home, there was a fire, he recalled, according to the news station. I tried to get a hold of my wife and she answered the phone and said, come home. Authorities said the fire remains under investigation. Loganville is about 40 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. Man torches estranged wifes home with 3 children inside, Arizona police say A hero. 66 year-old dies after saving relatives, trying to save pets from VA fire Charging laptop sparks blaze that burns through Maine home, firefighters say The primary suspect in the Saturday South Carolina mall shooting that left 14 people wounded was released after posting a $25,000 bail on Monday. Jewayne Price, 22, has been released under house arrest and will be required to wear an ankle monitor as a bond condition. He will be allowed to travel from home to work certain times of the day, the Columbia police department confirmed. At least nine patrons were injured by gunfire at the mall on Saturday, while five others were trampled in a stampede to the exits. No fatalities had been reported as of late Sunday, although a 73-year-old is still being treated at a local hospital. Investigators believe a gunfight erupted between people who knew one another at the mall. At least three suspects displayed firearms, two of which were believed to have been used, the statement indicates. The victims range between 15 and 73 years old, Chief Holbrook said. Police arrested Price on suspicion of unlawful carrying of a pistol. He could face additional charges as more evidence is uncovered. Prices attorney, South Carolina state Representative Todd Rutherford, said that his client open-fired in self-defense in an armed altercation with other shooters. It was unprovoked by him. He called the police, turned himself in, turned over the firearm that was used in this, and gave a statement to the Columbia Police Department, Rutherford said after the bond hearing, according to WIS. That is why he got a $25,000 bond. Over the weekend, police detained Price and two others as people of interest for questioning, Columbia Police Chief W. H. Skip Holbrook said Saturday at a press conference. They determined that the other two werent involved and released them, police said in a subsequent statement. Price was arrested in June 2018 and charged with accessory before the fact in the killing of 17-year-old Amon Rice in Hopkins, S.C. We catch people, they serve a little bit of time, they get out and they get right back doing what they normally do and thats commit crimes, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a recent press conference. The criminal justice system needs to do better. Story continues Prices arrest comes amid a charged debate on rising crime in cities nationwide and the relaxed law enforcement policies, spearheaded by progressive prosecutors, that many Republicans claim are fueling it. In California, for instance, many Los Angeles district attorneys have supported the recall of certain rogue prosecutors whose soft-on-crime approach has emboldened criminals. More from National Review Activists and residents of public housing developments want to see $5 million of the funds Norfolk will receive from the American Rescue Plan spent on updating and refurbishing public housing in the city. Last week, they held a protest outside City Hall organized by the New Virginia Majority. The tenants are absolutely being ignored, said Monet Johnson, lead housing organizer for NVM. Originally, the group sought to get $15 million out of the $154 million in ARPA funds the city will receive to be slated for the improvements and top establish a maintenance system to ensure the continued quality of housing into the future, she said. But as the city planned for where the ARPA money would go, Johnson said, it became blatantly obvious housing was not a priority. It seems like its going to make nice communities even nicer and leave all the communities that are struggling to fend for themselves, she said. The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is in the process of redeveloping the public housing in the St. Pauls neighborhood. That plan has come under scrutiny from advocates who worry the public-housing residents in those areas will be moved out to make way for higher-income housing without any option to stay in their communities. Several residents of Norfolk public housing developments told The Virginian-Pilot last week about such worries and how hard it would be to find nearby affordable housing to stay in their community if they are forced to leave their current dwelling. Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer said its not a matter of whether funding for public housing renovations and upkeep is warranted and necessary, because funding is going there. But the city is opting to use the ARPA funds elsewhere because of the rules on where the money can be spent compared with other federal dollars that must be spent on more specific needs, such as repairs, renovation and upkeep of public housing, according to Filer. This flexibility gives the city room to spend the $154 million on projects it would potentially otherwise not be able to access any federal funds to complete or start, he said. Story continues Filer has proposed to council the city spend the $154 million in five major areas $64 million for cash-funded capital projects for the Army Corps. downtown flood wall and other projects, $48 million for city services, $23 million for neighborhood capital projects such as park improvements, $13 million for nonprofit assistance and $6 million for broadband expansion, according to city documents provided to the Virginian-Pilot. The $13 million for nonprofits is for expanding and enhancing their efforts to reduce gun violence, food deserts hunger and homelessness and will be a three-year long program where the groups will also get guidance on how to further scale up their efforts, according to Filer. He said public housing in the city has many different sources for funding while the projects slated for use in ARPA do not have such potential supports for growth or development. I firmly believe we have federal funds from [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] expressly given to the housing authority to take care of maintenance needs in public housing and if thats not happening, we need to have that conversation with the NRHA, he said. Filer also committed the city, with support from council, to taking a strong approach to making housing more available in the area through methods the city has not used in the past. We are going to pursue a program where affordability is tied to the city in the development of projects, he said. This means if a developer needs city-owned land or a subsidy, the city will demand actual affordability in those developments and pressure developers to create affordable two and three bedroom units, according to Filer. The Virginian-Pilot spoke with over a dozen tenants at three NRHA developments this week and most of them said they wanted to see more affordable housing and investment in schools than renovations and upkeep to current units. Several of them spoke about the need for more affordable housing units with more than one or two bedrooms as families are struggling to find places they can afford to live with enough room for their children. Filer also spoke about the mismatch of available units how the city has too many studio and small apartments compared to the need for units that can house a family. On Tuesday, the NRHA and the city will break ground for the construction of two blocks of new housing choice voucher and market price apartments at Tidewater Gardens, according to NRHA staff. Johnson said funding $5 million in improvements and upkeep for public housing is not about taking money from those who need it. Instead, it is about prioritizing peoples needs over projects that are not truly needed, she said. One example is the $5 million that is listed for the possible renovation and expansion of Azalea Baseball Complex in the $23 million proposed by staff the for neighborhood capital projects. The once-in-a-generation funding from ARPA should go towards the problems in public housing that no annual budget can fix and to the people who were overlooked in the last generation, according to Johnson. I think we have to keep applying pressure because right now it seems like the city manager is just ignoring, not just ours, but a lot of groups calls for help, she said. DETROIT (AP) A group of Tesla shareholders suing CEO Elon Musk over some 2018 tweets about taking the company private is asking a federal judge to order Musk to stop commenting on the case. Lawyers for stockholders of the Austin, Texas-based company also say in court documents that the judge in the case has ruled that Musks tweets about having funding secured to take Tesla private were false, and that his comments also violate a 2018 court settlement with U.S. securities regulators in which Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million fines. Musk, during an interview Thursday at the TED 2022 conference, said he had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. He called the Securities and Exchange Commission a profane name and said he only settled because bankers told him they would stop providing capital if he didnt, and Tesla would go bankrupt. The interview and court action came just days after Musk, the worlds richest person, made a controversial offer to take over Twitter and turn it into a private company with a $43 billion offer that equals $54.20 per share. Twitters board on Friday adopted a poison pill strategy that would make it prohibitively expensive for Musk to buy the shares. In court documents filed Friday, lawyers for the Tesla shareholders alleged that Musk is trying to influence potential jurors in the lawsuit. They contend that Musks 2018 tweets about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share were written to maniuplate the stock price, costing shareholders money. Now, lawyers say Musk is campaigning to influence possible jurors as the case gets closer to trial. Musks comments risk confusing potential jurors with the false narrative that he did not knowingly make misrepresentations with his Aug. 7, 2018 tweets, the lawyers wrote. His present statements on that issue, an unsubtle attempt to absolve himself in the court of public opinion, will only have a predjudicial influence on a jury. Story continues The lawyers asked Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco to restrain Musk from making further public comments on the issue until after the trial. Chen gave Musks lawyers until Wednesday to respond. Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Musk, wrote in an email Sunday that the plaintiffs lawyers are seeking a big payout. Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have, he wrote. All thats left some half-decade later is random plaintiffs lawyers trying to make a buck and others trying to block that truth from coming to light, all to the detriment of free speech. But the shareholders lawyers wrote that Chen already ruled that Musks tweets were false and misleading, and that no reasonable juror could conclude otherwise. Judge Chens order, issued April 1, was not in the public court file as of Sunday. Adam Apton, a lawyer for the shareholders, said it was sealed because it has evidence that Musk and Tesla say is confidential. It will stay sealed until the parties agree if anything should remain sealed, he wrote in an email. Our motion for TRO (temporary restraining order) accurately desribes the issues decided by the court, Apton wrote. After Musks 2018 tweets, the SEC filed a complaint against him alleging securities law violations. Musk then agreed to the fine and signed the court agreement. Part of the agreement says that Musk will not take any action or make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis. If Musk violates the agreement, the SEC may ask the court to scrap it and restore the securities fraud complaint, the agreement says. A message was left Sunday seeking comment from the SEC. Spiro, on behalf of Musk, already has asked a Manhattan federal court to throw out the agreement. He contends the SEC is using the pact and near limitless resources to chill Musks speech. Court documents filed by Spiro say Musk signed the agreement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized its financing. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. DETROIT A group of Tesla shareholders suing CEO Elon Musk over some 2018 tweets about taking the company private is asking a federal judge to order Musk to stop commenting on the case. Lawyers for stockholders of the Austin, Texas-based company also say in court documents that the judge in the case has ruled that Musks tweets about having funding secured to take Tesla private were false, and that his comments also violate a 2018 court settlement with U.S. securities regulators in which Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million fines. Musk, during an interview Thursday at the TED 2022 conference, said he had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. He called the Securities and Exchange Commission a profane name and said he only settled because bankers told him they would stop providing capital if he didnt, and Tesla would go bankrupt. The interview and court action came just days after Musk, the worlds richest person, made a controversial offer to take over Twitter and turn it into a private company with a $43 billion offer that equals $54.20 per share. Twitters board on Friday adopted a poison pill strategy that would make it prohibitively expensive for Musk to buy the shares. In court documents filed Friday, lawyers for the Tesla shareholders alleged that Musk is trying to influence potential jurors in the lawsuit. They contend that Musks 2018 tweets about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share were written to maniuplate the stock price, costing shareholders money. Now, lawyers say Musk is campaigning to influence possible jurors as the case gets closer to trial. Musks comments risk confusing potential jurors with the false narrative that he did not knowingly make misrepresentations with his Aug. 7, 2018 tweets, the lawyers wrote. His present statements on that issue, an unsubtle attempt to absolve himself in the court of public opinion, will only have a predjudicial influence on a jury. Story continues The lawyers asked Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco to restrain Musk from making further public comments on the issue until after the trial. Chen gave Musks lawyers until Wednesday to respond. Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Musk, wrote in an email Sunday that the plaintiffs lawyers are seeking a big payout. Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have, he wrote. All thats left some half-decade later is random plaintiffs lawyers trying to make a buck and others trying to block that truth from coming to light, all to the detriment of free speech. But the shareholders lawyers wrote that Chen already ruled that Musks tweets were false and misleading, and that no reasonable juror could conclude otherwise. Judge Chens order, issued April 1, was not in the public court file as of Sunday. Adam Apton, a lawyer for the shareholders, said it was sealed because it has evidence that Musk and Tesla say is confidential. It will stay sealed until the parties agree if anything should remain sealed, he wrote in an email. Our motion for TRO (temporary restraining order) accurately desribes the issues decided by the court, Apton wrote. After Musks 2018 tweets, the SEC filed a complaint against him alleging securities law violations. Musk then agreed to the fine and signed the court agreement. Part of the agreement says that Musk will not take any action or make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis. If Musk violates the agreement, the SEC may ask the court to scrap it and restore the securities fraud complaint, the agreement says. A message was left Sunday seeking comment from the SEC. Spiro, on behalf of Musk, already has asked a Manhattan federal court to throw out the agreement. He contends the SEC is using the pact and near limitless resources to chill Musks speech. Court documents filed by Spiro say Musk signed the agreement when Tesla was a less mature company and SEC action jeopardized its financing. In The Know by Yahoo An American living in Paris is going viral after clearing up a major cultural misunderstanding. The breakdown comes thanks to a TikToker named @thrivinginparis, who frequently posts about her experience living abroad. In a recent video, she responded to a comment about why Americans sometimes perceive French people as being rude. 7 realistic tips on how to save more money each month (even if you don't make a lot) Her video is the latest entry in a massive trend on TikTok, in which users post insights theyve gained after moving to a new country. In one video, a New Zealander shared her big hangup with American taxes. In another, an American shared her surprise over the way British people greet one another. And, in a hilarious entry, a TikToker living in France showed how one grocery store perceives American cuisine. In @thrivinginpariss video, the TikToker began by observing that, in her experience, French people are actually obsessed with being polite. In my opinion, she went on, this perception of French rudeness is actually rooted in a lack of understanding or awareness of the savoir vivre (the knowledge of customs and manners associated with living elegantly and fashionable society) or the codes of conduct that dictate French behavior. Some of these codes of conduct are completely invisible to outsiders, @thrivinginparis says. As a result, Americans might actually be violating these customs without knowing. You may be surprised to hear that maybe you were the rude one, she adds. For example, @thrivinginparis says, if youre lost in Paris and you approach a French person saying, Excuse me? or, Can I ask you a question? you may come off as disrespectful. Because you forgot the magic word, which is bonjour (good day), or bonsoir (good evening), if its after 6 p.m., she says. Riverdale' actress Shannon Purser secures the bag during designer shopping outing: In America, its common practice to start a conversation with something like Excuse me? But in France, that one greeting could make all the difference. Story continues TikTok users were fascinated by @thrivinginpariss explanation. Many agreed that when traveling to a foreign country, its all about being informed. Not one person in Paris was rude to us, one user wrote. We learned some very basic etiquette and a few French phrases on the plane over. You get what you give. Some French wont even respond if you dont say bonjour, another user agreed. Some will repeat bonjour until you get the hint. I spent eight days in Paris several years ago with my two young children, and the only rude people I encountered were other Americans, another wrote. Shop all of Chloe Baileys vibrant looks from her In The Know cover shoot: The post TikToker living in Paris explains why some Americans think French people are rude appeared first on In The Know. Travelers at O'Hare airport in Chicago on July 2. Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo A federal judge on Monday struck down the CDC's mask mandate for planes and trains. The judge was appointed by President Donald Trump. The Biden administration said TSA would stop enforcing the mandate immediately. A federal judge on Monday struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's face-mask mandate for airplanes and other modes of public transit. Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle wrote in her decision that the CDC exceeded its statutory authority with the order. "Our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends," she wrote, acknowledging that the CDC imposed the mandate to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In response, the Biden administration said the Transportation Security Administration would stop enforcing the mandate but that "CDC recommends that people continue to wear masks in indoor public transportation settings." It was not immediately clear whether the Justice Department would appeal the ruling. "We're reviewing the decision and going to decline to comment any further," Danielle Blevins, spokeswoman for the agency, told Insider. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during her weekly press conference that the decision was "disappointing" and that CDC and the Department of Homeland Security were reviewing the ruling. The DOJ would determine next steps, she said. Kimball Mizelle was appointed by President Donald Trump, and when she was nominated to the bench in 2020, she received a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association because she'd practiced law for only eight years rather than the ABA's recommended 12 and hadn't tried a case as lead attorney or cocounsel. The anti-mask mandate lawsuit was filed in July by a nonprofit called Health Freedom Defense Fund, an organization that has sued to block other COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. Two people in Tampa, Florida, were also listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They were Ana Daza, who said wearing a mask worsened her anxiety, and Sarah Pope, who said mask-wearing exacerbated her panic attacks. Story continues In explaining her decision, Kimball Mizelle wrote in her 59-page opinion that the mask mandate was akin to "detention and quarantine," an authority the CDC typically invokes only for people entering the US from other countries. The mandate also doesn't take into account whether someone is infected with COVID-19, she wrote. "They are forcibly removed from their airplane seats, denied boarding at the bus steps, and turned away at the train station doors all on the suspicion that they will spread a disease," she wrote of maskless passengers. Mask use has been one of the most debated topics of the pandemic. A total of 21 states, led by Florida, had also sued to end the mask mandate. "Every US citizen should have the right to fly unmasked," Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Republican, said in a statement accompanying a state lawsuit filed on March 29. "It is well past time to get rid of this unnecessary mandate and get back to normal life." On Monday, DeSantis praised the judge's ruling in a statement that he also posted on Twitter. "It's great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate," he said. "Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end." The CDC didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. The Biden administration has largely encouraged businesses and schools to return to normal and for people to mask indoors if they choose. Despite this change, the CDC extended the mask mandate for public transit through May 3. The Northeast is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases because of the BA.2 Omicron subvariant. The mandate applied to buses, trains, and airplanes. United, Delta, American, Southwest, JetBlue, and Alaska Airlines all said after the TSA announcement that masks for passengers would now be optional on their planes. In a Washington Post Live event Monday ahead of the ruling, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said he hoped to soon see mask mandates end on flights. "We're all hoping coming May 3 the mandate expires and the government puts it on individuals," Bastian said. "In other sectors of the economy, there are no masks. It just doesn't make sense." The ruling comes as airlines have faced a surge in unruly customers. Read the original article on Business Insider Former President Trump on Monday called for an end to the violence in Ukraine weeks after Moscow launched its unprovoked military attack. It doesnt make sense that Russia and Ukraine arent sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement, Trump, who initially praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as smart over the invasion before later denouncing the move as genocide, said in a statement. If they dont do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage, he added. This is a war that never should have happened, but it did. The solution can never be as good as it would have been before the shooting started, but there is a solution, and it should be figured out nownot laterwhen everyone will be DEAD! the former president also said. Trump had drawn bipartisan criticism for remarks made in the early days of Russias invasion. They asked me if Putin is smart. Yes, Putin was smart, he said at a rally last month. Thats a hell of a way to negotiate, put 200,000 troops on the border, Trump added at the time. That was a big mistake, but it looked like a great negotiation. That didnt work out too well for him. After Putin recognized two eastern regions in Ukraine as independent just ahead of Moscows invasion, Trump also called the authoritarian leader very savvy. He has appeared to walk back those remarks and has condemned the invasion as a holocaust. Now, weeks into the war, millions of Ukrainians have fled the country and almost 2,000 civilians have been killed in the attack, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. However, the office noted that the actual figure regarding the death toll is likely considerably higher. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to hit the campaign train for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, days after former President Trump endorsed the Hillbilly Elegy author. An adviser to Trump Jr. confirmed to The Hill on Monday that the former presidents son will campaign for Vance this week. He is set to appear at a forum similar to a town hall with Vance in Independence, Ohio. NBC News first reported on Trump Jr.s plans to campaign with Vance. In a statement to the network, Trump Jr. threw his support behind the candidate and said he looks forward to stumping for him. Im proud to join my father in supporting my friend and America First champion J.D. Vance for U.S. Senate, Trump Jr. told NBC News in an emailed statement. J.D. is the right choice for Ohio, and I am looking forward to joining him on the campaign trail this week, he added. News of Trump Jr. backing Vance comes after the former president endorsed the author on Friday. Trump said Vance was the most qualified candidate among the several GOP individuals vying for the partys nomination. Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades. He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race, the elder Trump wrote. Vance released a statewide advertisement on Monday that promoted the former presidents endorsement. The video is part of a $500,000 purchase for advertisements running on broadcast and cable outlets throughout the state. Days before announcing his endorsement, Trumps leadership PAC Save America announced that the former president would rally supporters in the Buckeye State on April 23. Trump Jr. had shown support to Vance prior to his or his fathers official endorsement. Last month, the younger Trump wrote on Twitter that he was getting tired of other candidates running dishonest ads that called Vance a never-Trumper. Its BS. A lot of conservatives were skeptical of [Trump] in 2016 & got won over when they saw him in action. JD is 100% America First, he added in a tweet. Trump Jr., however, noted in a separate tweet that the social media post was not an endorsement. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Former President Donald Trump sent out special Easter messages to radical Left maniacs and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he described as a failed gubernatorial candidate and racist. Continuing the holiday theme, Mr Trump was lampooned in the cold open of Saturday Night Live along with other notable figures. Meanwhile, on Sunday, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy denied that Republicans are being over-confident about Novembers midterms and the prospects of retaking the lower chamber of Congress. Americans want, need and deserve [a] clear, common sense alternative, he said on Fox News Sunday. GOP congressman Fred Upton said on NBC he believes the popularity of the more extreme members of the party puts it in troubled waters a sentiment echoed by Mitch McConnell and other more moderate figures in the party who want to have broader appeal. Mr Trump recently endorsed controversial Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist JD Vance in the Ohio GOP Senate Primary on Friday evening. We cannot play games, he said. It is all about winning! Key Points Trump sends out special Easter message to Radical Left Maniacs and New York AG SNL skewers Trump with Easter cold open sketch Trump endorses JD Vance in Ohio GOP Senate primary Recap: Stephen Miller questioned by Jan 6 committee Trumps Truth Social panned as hilariously bad as Melanias account goes silent Tucker Carlsons new doc on testosterone levels mocked for homoeroticism and testicle tanning segment 18:41 , John Bowden Fox News host Tucker Carlson is raising eyebrows with a segment on his new documentary which examines testosterone levels in men that describes a process known as testicle tanning. In the segement, Mr Carlson interviews a fitness professional who advocates for testicle tanning, in which the full body is treated with red light therapy to allegedly raise testosterone levels. Read more from The Independents Johanna Chisholm: Story continues Tucker Carlson film promo mocked for homoeroticism, segment on testicular tanning Trump nodded after Roger Stone called Ron DeSantis a piece of s***' 17:35 , John Bowden Longer video has just been surfaced of Roger Stones reunion with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. Mr Stone originally posted a clip of the meeting on Saturday. In it, he is seen telling the former president that Floridas Trump-endorsed governor, Ron DeSantis, is a piece of s***. Full Clip: Trump nodded after Roger Stone said, Ron DeSantis is a piece of shit at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. pic.twitter.com/05YMBVIJ1N PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) April 18, 2022 Watch the clip above, and read more in The Independent: Roger Stone tells Trump that DeSantis is a piece of s*** at Mar-a-Lago reunion Trump doubles down, attacks racist Letitia James 17:19 , John Bowden Donald Trump doubled down on Monday after using his Easter greetings to attack the New York attorney general for a fraud investigation her office launched into his businesses. In a statement released through a spokeswoman, Mr Trump accused Ms James of being a racist, apparently inferring that her office was investigating him because he is white. NEW! President Donald J. Trump: With the horrible Subway Shootings and Violent Crime in New York being at an all-time high, where people are afraid to walk the streets, the racist and highly partisan Attorney General of New York State, failed Gubernatorial candidate... pic.twitter.com/VJs3i0owgl Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 18, 2022 Read more in The Independent: Trump lashes out at tax probe, says NY AG should focus on street crime instead Biden releases tax returns after Trump went four years without doing so 15:45 , John Bowden Joe Biden released his tax returns on Friday, marking both the traditional federal income tax filing deadline and a significant change of pace for the White House after four years of Donald Trumps refusal to do so. Mr Trump, a millionaire and longtime real estate developer, came under pressure first in 2015 to release his tax returns and at the time claimed he would do so when a supposed federal audit concluded. He never did; in late 2020, just over a month before voters decided not to reelect him, The New York Times finally obtained a copy mailed anonymously. Read more from The Independents Andrew Feinberg: Biden tax returns reveal how much money the president and first lady made last year ICYMI: Trump jokes about his weight loss at event 15:09 , John Bowden Donald Trump joked to his supporters last week that he doesnt have time to lose weight after Dr Mehmet Oz, his favoured candidate in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, suggested he do so years ago on his show. Can you believe I weigh 208? the former president told his laughing supporters. Now maybe a little more. Dr Oz has said you should lose weight. I told him, I dont have time to lose weight, he said. Dr Oz has leaned into the endorsement from the former president, who remains banned from Twitter and Facebook due to his conspiracies about the 2020 election and the violence that resulted from those claims on January 6. Trump complains about weight gain: I dont have time to lose it Trumps attempted coup to be in focus in US House hearings, says Raskin 14:30 , Stuti Mishra Donald Trumps attempted coup on 6 January 2021 will be the centrepiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Mr Trumps second impeachment. This was a coup organised by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Mr Raskin said in an interview with Reuters, National Public Radio and The Guardian newspaper when asked what he has learned so far from the committees probe. Were going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by Mike Pences refusal to go along with that plan, said Mr Raskin, a member of the House special committee. It was unclear whether Mr Raskin, during the interview, was expressing only his thoughts or the thinking also of fellow lawmakers serving on the special committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Democrat and 6 January committee member Jamie Raskin (C-Span) Historian says only a successful criminal prosecution can deflate Trumps personality cult' 13:45 , Stuti Mishra Election defeats alone cannot stop Donald Trump; a successful criminal prosecution is the sure way to deflate the power of his personality cult, a historian has said. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is an expert on authoritarian leaders and has written Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present told Politico in a lengthy interview over the weekend that Mr Trump checks all the boxes for historys authoritarians. It takes prosecution and conviction to deflate their personality cults, Ms Ben-Ghiat said. Thats what it takes. I just predicted that he [Trump] wouldnt leave in a quiet manner after he lost the election, said Ms Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. Hes an authoritarian, and they cant leave office. They dont have good endings and they dont leave properly. She said Mr Trumps lies over election results maintains him as their [his supporters] hero, as their winner, as the invincible Trump but also as the wronged Trump, the victim. Victimhood is extremely important for all autocrats, she noted. They always have to be the biggest victim. (Screengrab) Trump endorses longshot Republican JD Vance 13:00 , Stuti Mishra Former president Donald Trump endorsed author JD Vance for the Republican nomination in Ohios Senate race, which the best-selling author and venture capitalist hopes could revive his lagging Senate campaign. Mr Vance seeks to replace the retiring Senator Rob Portman, who won re-election and outran Mr Trump in the Buckeye State in 2016. Previously a swing state, Ohio has moved hard right in recent years and the winner of the primary will be the favourite to win the general election come November. Eric Garcia has more details below: Trump endorses longshot Republican JD Vance despite concerns from GOP allies Marjorie Taylor Greene sees first fundraising loss 12:15 , Stuti Mishra The campaign committee for Marjorie Taylor Greene has reported its first net loss since she was elected, according to its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Oliver OConnell has more details: Marjorie Taylor Greene sees first fundraising loss Wisconsin Democrats aim to beat Ron Johnson, but how? 11:30 , Stuti Mishra A crowded field of Democrats is trying to figure out a winning strategy to unseat Republican Senator Ron Johnson, one of Donald Trumps most vocal and to his opponents, most loathsome supporters, in Wisconsin in November. Read more: Wisconsin Democrats aim to beat Sen. Ron Johnson, but how? The truth about Hunter Biden and the charges he faces 10:45 , Stuti Mishra Heres a brief explainer from Andrew Feinberg on who is Hunter Biden, what Republicans have accused him of, and what accusations may be real. The truth about Hunter Biden and the charges he faces SNL skewers Trump with Easter cold open sketch 10:00 , Stuti Mishra The Easter special episode of Saturday Night Live opened with the Easter Bunny and some special guests, including Donald Trump, to pass on special holiday messages. Mr Trump, played by actor James Austin Johnson, began the act by complaining about his omission, claiming that it was another example of how whites are being treated horribly in this country. He went on to give a rambling, discursive monologue about Capn Crunch, Seabiscuit and Little Caesar. Easter is time for basket, its time for bunny and frankly, bonnet, the character of the former president said. And lets not forget egg. The sketch showed Mr Trump admitting that he did say Covid would be over by Easter. I just didnt say which one, okay? he said. So say it with me, everyone! Happy Easter! A special Easter wish from Trump pic.twitter.com/QXVYa8Xzhk Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) April 17, 2022 Trump wishes Easter to radical left maniacs 09:15 , Stuti Mishra Former President Donald Trump sent out special Easter messages on Sunday to radical Left maniacs and New York attorney general Letitia James, whom he described as a failed gubernatorial candidate and racist. Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country. May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well! he wrote in one message. NEW! President Donald J. Trump: Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country. May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well! pic.twitter.com/Q6tJf0nThl Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 17, 2022 Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James. May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York! he wrote in another. NEW! President Donald J. Trump: Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James. May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and pic.twitter.com/X22xhcDdEX Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 17, 2022 Mr Trumps bizarre greetings left many on the internet stunned as people compared his messages targeting his opponents on the holiday with that of President Biden, who called to reflect today on Christs Resurrection. As we reflect today on Christs Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love even death can be defeated. From our family to yours, we wish you hope, health, joy, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Happy Easter and may God bless and keep you. President Biden (@POTUS) April 17, 2022 The two party leaders today Trump: Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James Biden: As we reflect today on Christs Resurrection, we are reminded that with faith, hope, and love even death can be defeated Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 17, 2022 Bidens throw first White House party since Covid 08:30 , Stuti Mishra President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will welcome families back to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll on Monday in what will be the first big party at the residence since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bidens announced the event earlier this month alongside the Easter Bunny, and the first lady tweeted on Friday: As a teacher, my heart is always in the classroom. Joe and I look forward to welcoming thousands of families to join us for this years White House Easter EGGucation Roll! My colleague John Bowden has more details on the celebrations: Bidens host first party since Covid at White House for Easter Egg roll Roger Stone describes Governor DeSantis as a piece of s*** 07:45 , Stuti Mishra Donald Trump reunited with his longtime confidante and Republican operative Roger Stone at Mar-a-Lago this weekend - who wasted no time in getting into grievances. Mr Stone posted a video on Rumble, a conservative social media site, and other platforms on Saturday showing him embracing the former president at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. In the video, Mr Trump is seen recognising Mr Stone and embracing him before Mr Stone describes Ron DeSantis as a piece of s*** My colleague John Bowden has the full story here: Roger Stone tells Trump that DeSantis is a piece of s*** at Mar-a-Lago reunion Voices: Dianne Feinsteins decline is heartbreaking and difficult to discuss but we cant avoid it 06:30 , Stuti Mishra The Senator is an institution in California, and she risks having an impressive legacy overshadowed by her refusal to walk away, writes Eric Garcia. Dianne Feinsteins decline is heartbreaking but we need to talk about it Happy Tax Day 05:45 , Stuti Mishra President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Friday marked the traditional 15 April deadline for Americans to file their federal income tax returns by releasing a copy of their own though this year Tax Day falls on Monday 18 April. With this release, the President has shared a total of 24 years of tax returns with the American public, once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people about the finances of the commander in chief, the White House said in a statement. The release of the Bidens tax returns marked the second year in a row that the president and First Lady have put their tax documents in the public record since moving into the White House, returning to a practice dating back to the post-Watergate era which lapsed under Mr Bidens predecessor, Donald Trump, who never released a single year of tax returns during his four years in office while falsely claiming he could not because they were under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Mr Biden, whose presidential salary is $400,000 per year, and Ms Biden, who works as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, reported a total of $610,702 in gross income on their joint tax return, $150,439 of which was returned to Mr Bidens employer in the form of tax payments. Andrew Feinberg reports. Biden tax returns reveal how much money the president and first lady made last year Eric Garcia: We have to talk about Diane Feinstein Thursday 14 April 2022 20:45 , John Bowden A report detailing concerns of colleagues that Sen Diane Feinstein is mentally unfit to serve in the Senate needs to be discussed seriously by the US national media, The Independents Eric Garcia. [S]hying away from doing so would be an unforgiveable error, he writes. Read more from Eric about the senior California senator: Dianne Feinsteins decline is heartbreaking but we need to talk about it Trump-backed candidate in Nebraska accused of groping women Thursday 14 April 2022 20:13 , John Bowden A Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska endorsed by Donald Trump was accused by multiple women of unwanted groping in an article published on Thursday in a local newspaper. Charles Herbster, a frontrunner in the Republican primary for governor, has denied the allegations from eight women in the Nebraska Examiner. Women said the incidents occurred while Mr Herbster was a beauty padgeant judge as well as during his campaign for governor. Read more: Charles Herbster accused of groping several women, including Nebraska senator: Report Scrutiny on Democratic senator after home state newspaper questions if shes mentally unfit to serve' Thursday 14 April 2022 19:55 , John Bowden One of the Senates oldest members, Diane Feinstein, was the subject of debate on Twitter on Thursday as users discussed a San Francisco Chronicle article that cited the senior state senators own Democratic colleagues questioning whether her mental faculties were slipping. A Demcoratic member of the House from her home state even described having to reintroduce himself to the senator multiple times in one conversation. She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and thats why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that, they said. Read more at the Chronicle: Trump is planning to endorse JD Vance in Ohios tight Senate race: NBC News Thursday 14 April 2022 19:16 , John Bowden NBC News reported on Thursday citing multiple Republican sources close to Donald Trump that the former president plans to endorse author JD Vance in Ohios tight Senate race. Polls have shown Mr Vance trailing others in the race including Josh Mandel, another right-wing conservative who has vied for Mr Trumps blessing. And Mr Mandels campaign reportedly did not take the news well, according to NBC. "The Mandel people hit the roof," one Republican source told the network. Read more: ICYMI: GOP pollster says party mocks Trump in private Thursday 14 April 2022 18:15 , John Bowden Veteran pollster Frank Luntz said in an interview with The Daily Beast that New Hampshire Gov Chris Sununus roast of Donald Trump at the DC-based Gridiron Dinner was a symptom of a larger phenomenon within the GOP: the tendency of its members to privately mock the bombastic Trump behind the scenes. They wont say it [in public], but behind his back they think hes a child. Theyre laughing at him. Thats what made [Sununus comments] significant, he said. Read more from The Independents Graeme Massie: GOP pollster says party mocks child Trump in private Tennessee Republican cites Hitler in argument that homeless should aspire to a productive life Thursday 14 April 2022 17:56 , John Bowden A Tennessee state legislator justified his support for a bill targeting homeless camps on public property by citing the example of the genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler. In a shocking set of remarks to his fellow lawmakers on the state Senate floor, he justified his support for a bill meant to drive homeless encampments away from highways and other state property by decribing the suppsedly inspiring tale of the German Nazi dictator who was responsible for the murder of millions. For two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books, Senator Frank Nicely exclaimed. Read more in The Independent from Andrew Feinberg: GOP senator cites Hitler in argument homeless should aspire to productive life ICYMI: Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Foxs DC HQ Thursday 14 April 2022 17:10 , John Bowden Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going forward with his plan to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC despite concerns from most legal experts regarding his total lack of authority to do so. The Texas Republicans administration oversaw the first arrival of a busload of undocumented migrants to the nations capital on Wednesday; the bus arrived at the headquarters of right-leaning network Fox News. Read more from The Independent: Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Foxs DC HQ Trump aide Stephen Miller reverses and agrees to cooperate with Capitol riot committee Thursday 14 April 2022 16:04 , John Bowden Stephen Miller, a former top aide in the Trump White House, will testify before the Jan 6 committee today. Its a huge reversal for Mr Miller, who has sought to keep lawmakers on the committee from obtaining his phone records, and shows how even some of Donald Trumps fiercest allies fear the wrath of the Justice Department. Read more from The Independent: Trump aide Stephen Miller agrees to cooperate with Capitol riot committee Trump told Barr: Get impeached Thursday 14 April 2022 15:37 , John Bowden Former President Donald Trump turned to Fox News to excoriate his former attorney general over a wide range of issues, and shared some advice he gave the former head of the US Justice Department. I said: Look, get impeached. I went up a lot in the polls when I got impeached. You have to get impeached, maybe. But he was so afraid of being impeached that he refused to do his job, Trump said on Fox News. Read more from Business Insider: Elon Musk shocks Twitter, offers to buy platform Thursday 14 April 2022 15:09 , John Bowden Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an offer to buy Twitter on Thursday. His potential purchase of the site is seen by some as an effort to push for weaker content moderation across social media. Doing so could allow or encourage former President Donald Trump to return to the site. Read more from The Independents Andrew Feindberg Trump allys latest stab at congressional districts would disenfranchise Black Democratic lawmaker Thursday 14 April 2022 14:18 , John Bowden A top ally of Donald Trump in the GOP is leading up his states redistricting proccess. The partisan battle is likely to have at least one casualty: Democratic Rep Al Lawson, who could see his seat split up. Mr Lawsons seat is one of many oddly-shaped districts thanks to past gerrymandering in the US, and currently he represents a 200-mile-long stretch of the state. We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based on the color of their skin. That is wrong, claimed Floridas governor, Ron DeSantis. Read more from the Associated Press: DeSantis congressional map tears up Black rep's district UPenn professor tells Tucker Carlson Blacks resent Western peoples and India is a s***hole Thursday 14 April 2022 13:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar A Pennsylvania professor is facing a fierce backlash after she made a series of comments attacking non-white Americans in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Read the full story here: UPenn professor tells Tucker Carlson Blacks resent Western peoples ICYMI: Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgias Republican governor Thursday 14 April 2022 12:15 , Maroosha Muzaffar Former presidents fundraising eclipses both major parties. Read the full story here: Trump flexes massive fundraising haul to oust Georgias GOP governor Trump PAC gives $500,000 to attack Georgia's Brian Kemp Thursday 14 April 2022 11:55 , Maroosha Muzaffar Former President Donald Trumps political action committee has given $500,000 to a group that is running attack ads in Georgia against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Read the full story here: Trump PAC gives $500,000 to attack Georgia's Brian Kemp ICYMI: Trump returning to Ohio for GOP rally ahead of May 3 primary Thursday 14 April 2022 09:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar Former President Donald Trump is returning to Ohio to try to boost Republican candidates and turnout ahead of the 3 May primary. Mr Trump will headline an evening rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, north of Columbus, on 23 April certainly to stump for US House candidate Max Miller, his pick for the 7th Congressional District, and perhaps for US Senate or governor choices he is yet to make, the Associated Press reported. Read the full story here: Trump returning to Ohio for GOP rally ahead of May 3 primary ICYMI: Trump says he probably wouldnt have any interest in returning to Twitter Thursday 14 April 2022 07:45 , Maroosha Muzaffar Donald Trump has said that he wouldnt go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party. Read the full story here: Trump says he probably wouldnt have any interest in returning to Twitter Trump White House chief of staff stripped from North Carolina voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud Thursday 14 April 2022 07:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar A top White House aide who was part of the effort to overturn the 2020 election is now himself under investigation for voter fraud and was stripped from the voter rolls in his home state of North Carolina this week. Read the full story here: Trump chief of staff purged from NC voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgias Republican governor Thursday 14 April 2022 06:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar Former President Donald Trump appears to be making good on his promise to force disloyal GOP politicians to face the might of his fundraising juggernaught, writes John Bowden. Read the full piece here: Trump flexes massive fundraising haul to oust Georgias GOP governor Trumps former chief of staff says The Rock could win GOP 2024 nomination Thursday 14 April 2022 05:40 , Johanna Chisholm What do Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott all have in common? If you find yourself drawing a blank, dont beat yourself up. Mick Mulvaney, perhaps the only person who could manage to sandwich these figures into the same thought, will have surprised some Politico readers on Wednesday when the former Trump chief of staff listed those three as the only nominees capable of upsetting the former presidents run at re-election in 2024. DeSantis could give him a run for his money. Tim Scott can give him a run for his money. Dwayne The Rock Johnson could give him a run for his money, Mr Mulvaney, now a pundit for CBS, told Politicos Playbook. Read more: Trumps former chief of staff says The Rock could win GOP 2024 nomination GOP pollster says party mocks child Trump in private Thursday 14 April 2022 05:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar A Republican pollster says that the party mocks Donald Trump as a child in private and is laughing at the one-term president. Frank Luntz made the comment in the wake of New Hampshire s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, telling the annual Gridiron Club dinner that Mr Trump is f***ing crazy. Read the full story here: GOP pollster says party mocks child Trump in private Trump says he probably wouldnt have any interest in returning to Twitter Thursday 14 April 2022 04:30 , Gustaf Kilander Donald Trump has said that he wouldnt go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party. Mr Trump also told SiriusXMs Americano Media people would be very happy about his plans for the 2024 election, which he said would be made public after the midterms in the fall. Ill tell you this: I think a lot of people are going to be happy. Ill announce it after the midterms, but a lot of people are going to be very happy, Mr Trump told La Politica. He also claimed credit for Hispanic support for the GOP in the interview obtained by Fox News Digital. I think we really have a relationship I think I started it and did very well in 2016. We did much better in almost every way as you know I got 12 million more votes in the second election in 2020. But we did really well with the Hispanics, he said. Read more: Trump says he probably wouldnt have any interest in returning to Twitter Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Foxs DC HQ Thursday 14 April 2022 03:15 , John Bowden Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going forward with his plan to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC despite concerns from most legal experts regarding his total lack of authority to do so. The Texas Republicans administration oversaw the first arrival of a busload of undocumented migrants to the nations capital on Wednesday; the bus arrived at the headquarters of right-leaning network Fox News, which was the first to report on the scene and had a story published within minutes of their arrival. The building also houses C-SPAN and NBC Newss offices, but Foxs coverage touted news of the event as an exclusive while NBC did not publish an article on the subject until after noon on Wednesday. The White House has blasted Mr Abbotts efforts as a publicity stunt. State officials do not have legal authority outside of their own jurisdiction, and its not clear if the group of migrants that arrived on Wednesday did so with the cooperation, consent or knowledge of Washington DC city officials. The Biden administration recently announced that the CDC would rescind the Title 42 authority granted under the Trump administration to turn away asylum-seekers at the border, a move which Republicans argue is going to further drive illegal migration and asylum claims, which are legal but require a person to be physically present at the US border or inside the country for claims to be processed. Read more: Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Foxs DC HQ Idea that Trump is invincible among Republicans is far from proven, political science professor says Thursday 14 April 2022 02:02 , Gustaf Kilander Political science professor Jonathan Bernstein wrote in an opinion piece for Bloomberg that the idea that Donald Trump is invincible among Republicans is far from proven. Dr Bernstein went on to note that Mr Trumps 2016 nomination was narrow and that it was aided by all sorts of odd events and a fair amount of luck. He also has an electoral record now, and its not exactly an impressive one; after all, he lost re-election, and Republicans lost the House (in 2018) and the Senate (in 2020) while he was in office, the professor wrote. His tantrum over losing the presidency and his false claims about fraud have widely been credited for the loss of two Senate seats in Georgia. Republicans may trust Trump more on policy than they once did, but they should have even less confidence that hell be a team player now, he added. This could all mean more opposition from party actors in 2024 compared to previous races. None of this is to say that Trump wont be the nominee, Dr Bernstein concluded. Its just a case for uncertainty. Trump supporters trick airport workers to page fake passengers at airports Thursday 14 April 2022 00:45 , Gustaf Kilander Trump supporters are tricking airport workers to page fake passengers at airports, according to The Daily Beast. The new trend comes after years of conservatives fighting mask mandates on planes and involves tricking airport staff into paging fake passengers with names that sound like right-wing memes, such as Lets go Brandon, which is code for f**k Joe Biden. Daily Beast political reporter Will Sommer said the trend is a sign of the prankishness of the American right right now. He added that one of the more well-known pranksters does it and has his little snicker at the Cinnabon. These videos rack up tens of thousands of views, he said. Ingraham says Trump and Hannity endorsing Dr Oz was a mistake' Wednesday 13 April 2022 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander Fox News host Laura Ingraham has said that she thinks that fellow Fox Anchor Sean Hannity and Donald Trump endorsing Mehmet Oz for senate in Pennsylvania was a mistake. On Tuesday night, Ms Ingraham said she couldnt support Dr Oz because of his previous statements on guns and abortion. She ran a short clip on her programme showing the celebrity doctor questioning that a fetus has a heartbeat at the age of six weeks. Alongside former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, they said that Dr Oz has never rejected his previous comments. He has said that hes pro-life. A Trump endorsement, and waving the Trump flag, doesnt make you Donald Trump, Ms Conway said. Mr Trump did something I dont see Oz doing on the issue of abortion hes had a conversion, she added. Hannity, I believe, endorsed Oz I think it was a mistake. Im not afraid to say it. It was a mistake to endorse Oz, Ms Ingraham said. Trump to host Ohio rally as race to replace retiring senator heats up Wednesday 13 April 2022 22:12 , Gustaf Kilander Donald Trump will hold a rally in Ohio as the race to replace retiring GOP Senator Rob Portman is intensifying. The rally will be held on 23 April in Delaware, a town north of the state capital of Columbus. The GOP candidates are competing for Mr Trumps endorsement in the race. Fighting for his support are the author and venture capitalist JD Vance, businessman Mike Gibbons, the previous state Treasurer Josh Mandel as well as the former Ohio Republican Chair Jane Timken. Most polls have shown a tight race so far. Democrats have largely stepped in line behind Representative Tim Ryan, one of many Democrats who ran for president in 2020. Trump PAC throws money on Georgia governors race Wednesday 13 April 2022 21:02 , Gustaf Kilander The political action committee of Donald Trump, Save America PAC, has transferred half a million dollars to a PAC aiming to unseat Georgia GOP Governor Brian Kemp. Its Mr Trumps first large financial stake in a midterm race, according to Politico. People close to Mr Trump say its an initial cash boost as the campaign nears the 24 May primary between Mr Kemp and former Senator David Perdue, who has been endorsed by Mr Trump. Mr Trumps PAC has more than $110m on hand, meaning its one of the wealthiest political organisations. Book reveals Trump put McConnell in tight spot as GOP leader scrambled to win Georgia senate runoffs Wednesday 13 April 2022 20:35 , Gustaf Kilander After the 2020 election, Donald Trump was sure he could overturn the results, telling then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he had been speaking to officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan, states that Joe Biden won, who told him that they would be able to keep Mr Trump in the White House. Ive been calling folks in those states and theyre with us, Mr Trump said, according to a new book by New York Times political reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. A CNN excerpt details how Mr Trumps false claims put Mr McConnell in a tight spot while he was trying to focus on the two Senate runoffs in Georgia, both of which were later won by Democrats. Mr McConnell stayed quiet about Mr Trumps lies to try to stop him from ruining the GOPs chances in Georgia, the book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for Americas Future states. Weve got to stay focused on Georgia, Mr McConnell told colleagues after getting off the phone with Mr Trump. What it looks to me like hes doing is setting this up so he can blame the governor and the secretary of state if we lose, Mr McConnell told the reporters. Hes always setting up somebody to blame it on. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk claims higher buildings leads to more liberal voters Wednesday 13 April 2022 20:01 , Gustaf Kilander Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has claimed that living in higher buildings leads to people becoming more liberal voters. We have a huge housing crisis in our country, the likes of which we have not seen in a long period of time, Mr Kirk said during an event hosted by Turning Point USA Mr Kirks organisation pushing conservative ideas on high school and university campuses. I believe that we need to build horizontally, not vertically. Its one of my speeches developers dont like it when I say this, but its true, he added. The higher the building, the more liberal the voter. It just is. The closer to the ground you are, the more conservative you are. We should encourage people to spread horizontally and not vertically. Look at Denver. The higher the high rises has Denver become less free, or more free? Its become a dystopian nightmare, he claimed. Now, you might say, Charlie, its a correlation with causation. Think about it. If youre on the 32nd floor, renting not owning, if youre not in the weeds and in the yard and understanding what it takes to grow food and to maintain the land are you gonna be more or less likely to actually be a conservative? he asked. Charlie Kirk asserts that tall buildings make people liberal: "The higher the building, the more liberal the voter. It just is. The closer to the ground you are, the more conservative you are" pic.twitter.com/ar5TlJYgWh Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 13, 2022 The higher the building, every single study shows, they become more liberal over time, he said. Its happening in Phoenix, its happened in Denver, happened in Atlanta, happened in Dallas, happened in Chicago everywhere, and yet few people actually say that out loud. While its unclear what studies Mr Kirk was referring to, The Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson wrote in September 2019 that its conceivable that living in a city might naturally promote ideologies that correspond with the modern Democratic Party. The modern city brings its residents into constant interaction with the fact of, and necessity for, state intervention. Urban residents trade cars for public transit, live in neighborhoods with local trash codes, and deal with planning commissions about shadows, ocean views, and parking rights, he added. Mr Thompson noted that those who live in cities are exquisitely sensitive to the consequences of individual behavior in a dense place where one mans action is another mans nuisance. As a result, residents of dense cities tend to reject libertarianism as unacceptable chaos and instead agitate for wiser governance related to health care, housing policy, and climate change. Obama appears to take shot at Trump over birther conspiracy Wednesday 13 April 2022 19:29 , Gustaf Kilander Former President Barack Obama appeared to take a shot at Donald Trump over his past false claims that his predecessor in the White House wasnt born in the US. Mr Obama appeared on NBCs Today programme to promote his Netflix show Our Great National Parks. Together with host Al Roker, Mr Obama led a group of kids on a scavenger hunt in the Great Falls National Park in Virginia. Were taking a look at @alrokers exclusive interview with President Obama where they discuss his new nature series, being an empty nester and more! pic.twitter.com/xwkQUNEjYE TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 13, 2022 Mr Obama at one point remembered seeing whales migrating in Hawaii and one of the kids noted that he was born in the island state. I was born in Hawaii, yeah Honolulu. See, you know more than some people know about where I was born, he said. After providing his long-form birth certificate, Mr Obama joked at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner that no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. Thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like: Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac? he added. Trump says he wouldnt go back to Twitter if he was allowed Wednesday 13 April 2022 19:02 , Gustaf Kilander Donald Trump has told SiriusXMs Americano Media that he wouldnt go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party. Mr Trump also said people would be very happy about his plans for the 2024 election, which he said would be made public after the midterms in the fall. Ill tell you this: I think a lot of people are going to be happy. Ill announce it after the midterms, but a lot of people are going to be very happy, Mr Trump told La Politica. He also claimed credit for Hispanic support for the GOP in the interview obtained by Fox News Digital. I think we really have a relationship I think I started it and did very well in 2016. We did much better in almost every way as you know I got 12 million more votes in the second election in 2020. But we did really well with the Hispanics, he said. I did great with the Hispanics. And you know why? Because theyre very incredible people with great energy, and theyre very entrepreneurial. And they also understood the border. You know, they understand the border better than anybody else. And they want security at the border, he added. In the summer of 2015 when Mr Trump announced his 2016 bid for the White House, he said: When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending the best. Theyre not sending you, theyre sending people that have lots of problems and theyre bringing those problems. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and theyre telling us what were getting, he added at the time. Concerning Twitter, Mr Trump said in the interview set to air on Wednesday night that he probably wouldnt have any interest in going back. You know, Twitter has become very boring. Theyve gotten rid of a lot of their good voices a lot of their conservative voices, he added. Ex-Trump chief of staff says The Rock could could give him a run for his money in 2024 Wednesday 13 April 2022 18:29 , Gustaf Kilander Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has said that actor Dwayne The Rock Johnson could give the former president a run for his money in the 2024 presidential election. Mr Mulvaney told Politico on Tuesday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could give him a run for his money, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott can give him a run for his money and The Rock could give him a run for his money. Its a short list, he added. By the way, theres one other person who could beat him, which is himself, he added. Mr Mulvaney resigned from his position as special envoy to Northern Ireland after the 6 January insurrection. Donald Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy when it comes to campaigning, Mr Mulvaney said. Kid at Trump rally says on TV that hes excited to see Joe Biden Wednesday 13 April 2022 17:58 , Gustaf Kilander A video of a kid at a Trump rally in North Carolina has gone viral after he said he was excited to see Joe Biden and quickly being corrected by his parents. Lawyer Ron Filipkowski shared the clip from the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), best known for its live streams of Trump events on its YouTube channel after its founding in 2015. The video, filmed ahead of the rally on Saturday, had received around 2.7 million views as of Wednesday morning. In the footage, the RSBN reporter asks the parents how excited they were when they found out there was going to be a rally in Selma, southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina. Just as excited as he was, the mother said, nodding towards the father. Hes the one who told me about it. Kid at Trump rally says on TV that hes excited to see Joe Biden Ex-White House chief removed from NC voter roll as he's investigated for 2020 voter fraud Wednesday 13 April 2022 17:23 , Gustaf Kilander Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been removed from the North Carolina voter roll as hes investigated for possibly committing voter fraud in the 2020 election. North Carolina State Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon said in a statement that on 11 April, officials in Macon County administratively removed the voter registration of Mark Meadows after documentation indicated he lived in Virginia and last voted in the 2021 election there. John Bowden has the story: Trump chief of staff purged from NC voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud GOP pollster Frank Luntz says Republicans are mocking Trump behind his back, think hes a child' Wednesday 13 April 2022 16:55 , Gustaf Kilander Republican pollster Frank Luntz has alleged that GOP lawmakers are laughing at Donald Trump behind his back and are mocking him because they think hes a child. After New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu said during the Gridiron Dinner in Washington, DC that Mr Trump is f***ing crazy, Mr Luntz told The Daily Beast that I dont know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said. The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And Ill say it this way: I dont think hes so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he aint getting out! Mr Sununu said. Mr Luntz said Mr Sununu said what Republicans are already thinking. They wont say it [in public], but behind his back, they think hes a child. Theyre laughing at him. Thats what made [Sununus comments] significant, Mr Luntz told The Daily Beast. Trump isnt the same man he was a year ago, the pollster added. Even many Republicans are tired of going back and rehashing the 2020 election. Everybody else has moved on, and in Washington, everyone believes he lost the election. Questions from Trumps first impeachment remain unanswered Wednesday 13 April 2022 16:20 , Gustaf Kilander Questions from Donald Trumps first impeachment remain unanswered as the war in Ukraine enters a new phase. In 2019, Mr Trump secretly withheld military aid to Ukraine before asking President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into then-candidate Joe Biden and his family. Lawmakers and witnesses from the following impeachment say the scandal is directly connected to the current conflict, Politico reports. The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, told the outlet that Mr Trumps actions absolutely negatively affected Ukraines preparedness to fight Russia and made them unsure of the commitment of the US to their security. Remember, this was the guy who tried to extort political favours from President Zelenskyy for his own personal political gain, Mr Warner said. But the fact is we need to continue to get all the aid we can, as quickly as possible. Democrats continue to insist that Trump bears some of the responsibility for the current crisis in Ukraine. The former presidents willingness to condition support on political investigations, Democrats say, signaled to Putin that the west wouldnt be united behind Ukraine. Politico Former Roger Stone aide urged Trump supporters to descend on the Capitol week before insurrection Wednesday 13 April 2022 15:55 , Gustaf Kilander A former aide to Republican political operative Roger Stone urged Trump supporters to descend on the Capitol a week before the insurrection on 6 January 2021. According to The New York Times, Right-wing communications advisor Jason Sullivan, a promoter of QAnon conspiracy theories, said during a conference call on 30 December 2020 that the election had been stolen and told Trump supporters to go to Washington, DC and make congressional representatives sweat before they certified President Joe Bidens election victory. If we make the people inside that building sweat, and they understand that they may not be able to walk in the streets any longer if they do the wrong thing, then maybe theyll do the right thing, The Times quoted Mr Sullivan as saying. A lawyer for Mr Sullivan told the paper that he wasnt condoning any violence. Trump struggling to get evangelicals to support bid to oust Georgia governor Wednesday 13 April 2022 15:20 , Gustaf Kilander Donald Trump is struggling to get evangelical Christians to support his bid to oust Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp. Mr Trump deemed Mr Kemp to be insufficiently supportive of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. While evangelicals support Mr Trump and like his preferred candidate for the governorship, former US Senator David Perdue, they also support Mr Kemp. Mr Perdue and Mr Kemp will face off in the Republican primary on 24 May. Evangelical voters make up a third of Republican voters in the state and half of GOP primary voters. Mr Trump is backing candidates across the country who support his false 2020 election claims, but voters are concerned about other issues, Bloomberg noted. Evangelicals in the state say they like Mr Kemp for pushing a bill that bans abortion when a heartbeat is found, for not closing churches during the pandemic, and for his opposition to mask mandates. The executive director of the conservative Christian group Faith and Freedom Coalition, Tim Head, told Bloomberg that most evangelicals do feel strongly that Brian Kemp has delivered very well. Pence claims he stood toe to toe with Putin Wednesday 13 April 2022 14:45 , Andrew Naughtie As Donald Trump makes a haphazard effort to walk back his long history of remarks praising Vladimir Putins strength and supposed strategic brilliance, former vice president Mike Pence claimed yesterday that he had told Mr Putin some hard truths when encountering him during his own time in office. Pence: Ive also met Vladimir Putin. I stood toe to toe with him and told him things he didnt want to hear pic.twitter.com/Nm87SJKzuJ Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2022 Lauren Boebert gets a primary challenger Wednesday 13 April 2022 14:10 , Andrew Naughtie Far-right Colorado representative and gun-themed restaurant owner Lauren Boebert, who infamously tweeted the words This is 1776 on the day of the Capitol riot, has attracted a Republican primary challenger. Longtime state legislator Don Coram says on his campaign website that When the fringe leaders of both political spectrums have taken all the oxygen in the room and act more like out-of-touch celebrities than members of Congress, we have a problem a judgment shared by many less outre Republicans than Ms Boebert, but not by Donald Trump, who has endorsed her for re-election. A new trailer for Tucker Carlsons documentary series began circulating online over the weekend, and with it came a wave of mockery from the Fox News hosts critics who panned an episode which focuses on declining testosterone levels in men as being homoerotic. In the teaser for the episode The End of Men, which has now received more than 6.6 million views on Twitter, Nikki McCann Ramirez, an associate research director at Media Matters, shares the video clip alongside the caption, I promise you are not prepared for Tuckers latest montage. The 49-second clip showcases a montage of shirtless men wrestling, chopping wood, drinking beer, shooting guns and even a shot that includes a fully nude man standing in what appears to be a field with his arms outstretched in a style evocative of Leonardo Da Vincis Vitruvian Man but whose genitals remain strategically covered by what some online commentators joked was a Tesla charging station. And as all these images are diced into the clip, a voice begins to narrate, Once a society collapses then, youre in hard times, while the heart-pumping musical theme most commonly associated with 1968s 2001: A Space Odyssey begins to reach a crescendo. Well, hard iron sharpens iron as they say, and those hard times inevitably produce men who are tough, men who are resourceful, men who are strong enough to survive, the narrators voice continues. They go on to re-establish order, and so the cycle begins again. I promise you are not prepared for Tucker's latest montage pic.twitter.com/8tdvYTW2cn nikki mccann ramirez (@NikkiMcR) April 16, 2022 Have you seen the trailer for the #TuckerCarlson doc? It. Does. Not. Seem. Real. Is he punking us? Don't think he capable of satire. So...https://t.co/Fyq8C1VG5B Timothy Caulfield (@CaulfieldTim) April 17, 2022 The content of the episode, which is part of the Fox hosts second season of the documentary series, was described by Carlson in a separate promo as addressing one of the biggest stories of our lifetimes the total collapse of testosterone levels in American men. Story continues We think it is a huge deal. So we want to know whats causing it and what you can do about it, he said. One of the purported suggestions that the Fox News host included in this documentary episode, which has separately been mocked by rivals online, is a segment in which he interviews a fitness professional who advocates for testicle tanning, in which the full body is treated with red light therapy to allegedly raise testosterone levels. So obviously, half the viewers are now like, what? Testicle tanning? Thats crazy, Carlson interjects after Andrew McGovern, the interviewee, explains the controversial therapy. But my view is, okay, testosterone levels [have crashed] and nobody says anything about it. Thats crazy. So why is it crazy to seek solutions? In his new special on how to raise testosterone levels in men, Tucker Carlsons guest suggests testicle tanning using infrared light as a bromeopathic therapy. pic.twitter.com/PirerBMRyr Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 17, 2022 Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, a frequent critic of the Fox News host who last month declared he would never appear on his program after describing it as being full of Russian propaganda and not news, saw the clip as an opportunity to again take Carlson to task over his pro-Putin sentiments. This is actually real. Evidently, he likes men without shirts, which may explain the Putin obsession, the Illinois Republican wrote Sunday. This is actually real. Evidently he likes men without shirts, which may explain the Putin obsession. https://t.co/tBl2FPq2nT Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) April 17, 2022 Others used the steamy video with what they viewed as being homoerotic in nature as an opportunity to call out recent laws passed in right-leaning states, namely Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay bill, which prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom for primary grade levels. Tucker would get arrested if he showed this video in a Florida classroom, wrote The Daily Beast writer Justin Baragona. Tucker would get arrested if he showed this video in a Florida classroom. https://t.co/nNjOhzvIFj Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 16, 2022 Is this real? The theme music should be Its Raining Men. Please dont let this be the coming out video for @TuckerCarlson. This video will be banned in Florida. https://t.co/YOmaLu71Jt Robert McNamara (@romc) April 16, 2022 remember, kids, dont say gay! now please enjoy something we made that couldnt be gayer if it were dancing to YMCA in a rainbow thong https://t.co/TFmq79nfdc shauna (@goldengateblond) April 16, 2022 Star Trek actor George Takei, who is among some of the celebrities who have spoken out against Floridas controversial Parents Rights in Education bill, which was signed into law on 28 March, commented on the viral teaser, captioning his response with a short and simple: This is so gay. This is so gay. https://t.co/KPNCog3y9I George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) April 16, 2022 Red light therapy (RLT) has been reported to help in treating wrinkles, redness, acne scars and other signs of ageing, said the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit academic medical centre that is considered a leader in research, education and health information. But the experts the centre spoke with were cautious about the promises that have been made in preliminary studies, noting that they dont know yet if RLT is effective for all its claimed uses. Most [experts] say that the studies published so far show some potential for certain conditions, but that more studies need to be conducted. Red light therapy is still an emerging treatment thats generating growing interest. But at this point in time, theres not enough evidence to support most uses, the clinic concluded. Apr. 17Oklahoma Turnpike Authority officials will hold a public meeting Tuesday with residents to discuss its plans to build two toll roads in Norman. The OTA announced in February it would construct the toll roads one in east Norman, west of Lake Thunderbird as an extension of the Kickapoo Turnpike from Interstate 40 south toward Purcell and a second along Indian Hills Road to connect Norman, Moore and Oklahoma City. The meeting will include public input following a presentation at 5:30 p.m. at the Norman Central Library, a release states. OTA spokesperson James Poling said following an introduction, specialists will man breakout tables to address specific questions about the proposed turnpikes. "Specific questions will have specific tailored answers," he said. "Someone could say, 'Hey I live in this area, what can you tell me, what do you know now, what timelines do you have [for the project]?' We obviously don't know who lives where, but they can provide their address and we can discuss what's happening in that area, per se." Poling said information from residents could be useful, such as whether a property floods following rainfall or other types of information that are not public record. "It's an opportunity for us to answer outstanding questions and concerns and hear input," Poling said. "We know people are upset and, as long they're respectful, we're there to hear whatever feedback they have." Poling said Dr. Amy Cerato's information about geological formations in the area have been "constructive" to the department. Cerato is a civil engineer and professor of civil engineering at the University of Oklahoma who has warned the toll road will threaten rose rocks, a geological formation unique to Norman. "That was constructive information that we will work with her on gathering information on that," he said. "We want as much information as we can to make it a better route and a more efficient and less impactful route." Additional meetings will be held 6-8 p.m. Monday at the Newcastle Public School administration building from 6 to 8 p.m. and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 21 at the Moore library. Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420. Twitter is expected to decline Elon Musks bid to purchase the company in the coming days, unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal. Twitter expects to announce its rejection of the Tesla and SpaceX CEOs offer on April 28, when it reports its earnings, sources told the Journal. According to the report, Twitter may accept an offer from private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LP, backed up by Apollo Global Management. Musk was reported to be in talks with Apollo, which owns Yahoo, and another private-equity firm, Silver Lake, to finance a deal for the company, possibly at a higher price per share than his current offer. Such an offer could overvalue the company, between $60 and $65 per share, Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald told Seeking Alpha. At the close of trading on Monday, Twitters share price was $48.45, gaining 7.5 percent on the news that Twitter is unlikely to take Musks offer. Last Thursday, Musk filed an offer with the Securities and Exchange Commission to purchase 100 percent of Twitters stock at $54.20 per share. The offer was tantamount to a hostile takeover, with Musk claiming that he would reconsider my position as a shareholder if the offer was rejected a threat to sell his existing stock, thereby tanking Twitters value. Musk is currently Twitters largest shareholder and owns 9 percent of the company. Musk had claimed that his decision was motivated by free-speech concerns, stating, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. Twitters board had received Musks decision unfavorably and activated a poison pill plan to prevent the acquisition. The provision they activated stipulates that once an individual or entity acquires 15% of stock or more, Twitter will offer other shareholders more stock at a discount thereby reducing Musks voting power. Separately, Saudi investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, another significant shareholder in Twitter, who owns 5.2 percent of its stock, stated he would vote to reject Musks bid. Story continues At a conference in Vancouver on Friday, Musk claimed that he had a Plan B in the event of a poison pill activation. So far, he has not announced it. More from National Review DAYTON, Ohio The first Air Force general officer to stand trial in military court has opted to persuade a judge of his innocence rather than face a jury of fellow high-ranking officers. On Monday, the first day of his court-martial here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Maj. Gen. Bill Cooley pleaded not guilty to a three-part charge of kissing and groping a woman against her will in August 2018. Cooley commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at the time; his accuser is a civilian. Air Force Times does not publish the names of alleged sexual assault victims without their permission in order to protect their privacy. Fired two-star research lab commander charged with sexual assault His case marks not only the Air Forces first time beginning court-martial proceedings against a general, but also the first time sexual assault charges have led to criminal prosecution for someone so high up in the chain of command. The decision to avoid a jury trial signals the defenses hope for a speedy court-martial and a reflection of the difficulty the court may have had in choosing an unbiased panel. Its difficult to pick a jury from a pool of officers whose career progression depends on the approval of a Senate that expends significant energy excoriating them about sexual assault on an annual basis, military criminal defense attorney Daniel Conway told reporters. Jury selection alone could have taken longer than the trial itself, which is expected to continue less than a week, added Conway, who is Cooleys civilian counsel. The defense team also believes a single arbiter could more appropriately handle a complicated case with tangled interpersonal relationships, he said. Two-star to be court-martialed for sex assault Cooley entered active duty service in 1990 and has worked in a variety of military space, missile defense, research and other positions. At one point, his lawyer said, the two-star was a frontrunner to lead the Space Force when it was created in December 2019. Story continues Cooley was off duty in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the time of the incident, which he says was consensual. Parties involved in the dispute later asked Cooley for a written apology and to pay for the cost of counseling after the alleged assault, but those attempts at closure fell short. He was removed from his post in January 2020 amid an Office of Special Investigations inquiry and charged with violating Article 120 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, which forbids sexual assault. The OSI report will not be used as evidence in the court case, Conway said. Cooley now serves as an assistant to Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold Bunch, promoting the services science and technology plans. Air Force delays court-martial of two-star general charged with sexual assault Prosecutors on Monday provided as evidence several email threads spanning more than a year after the alleged incident, plus bank records and a curriculum vitae. The case is slated to begin in earnest Tuesday with opening statements and more details on the submitted documents. Lawyers for Cooleys accuser declined to comment on the case Monday. Had the defense chosen to move forward with a jury trial, the court would have sought a panel of eight commissioned officers from the Air Forces highest echelon. To be considered as a juror, candidates would have had to become a major general before July 2018 or currently hold the rank of lieutenant general or general. Two-star head of Air Force Research Laboratory fired, under OSI investigation Sixty-eight of those top airmen were initially eligible for jury selection, and 29 were sent to Bunch for consideration, Air Force spokesperson Derek Kaufman said. Sixteen were tapped as potential jurors; the court would have halved that pool for trial. To be found guilty, at least three-fourths of the jurors would have had to vote that way in a secret ballot. Instead, those decisions will be left up to military judge Col. Christina Jimenez. Jimenez is a no-nonsense judge, said Steve Lepper, a retired major general who served as the Air Forces deputy judge advocate general from 2010 to 2014. Chief master sergeant demoted, jailed for sending explicit photos, other misconduct She will decide whether the two-star will be jailed or allowed to retire with benefits. Cooley could face up to 21 years behind bars seven years for each specification of the charge against him: sexual contact without consent. There is no minimum sentence. Cooley could also lose his pay alongside dismissal from the Air Force, Kaufman said, and a guilty verdict could land him in the national sex offender database as well. He may also win the case and avoid punishment altogether. A few decades ago, most judge-only trials ended in convictions. But thats no longer the case, especially in the Air Force, according to Don Christensen, a former Air Force chief prosecutor. Air Force judges seem to be very open to acquitting an accused now and do so at a rate on par with court members, said Christensen, who serves as president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sexual assault victims, which has worked on the case. For sex assault and rape cases, whether before members or a judge alone, the accused is found not guilty in the Air Force about 80% of the time. Senior NCO convicted of sex crime will be allowed to retire at a lower rank The court-martial comes as the Pentagon prepares to overhaul how it handles sexual misconduct allegations by shrinking the role of an accusers chain of command in that process. Some observers, including Christensen, argue that Cooleys case would not have gone to trial if not for the #MeToo movement that took off on social media in 2017, aiming to hold accountable those involved in sexual misconduct and those who cover it up. But Conway disagrees. I dont think thats true at all, he said. I think that convening authorities have historically been very conscientious about which cases they choose to send forward to trial and which ones that they dont. One other case serves as partial precedent for this weeks proceedings. In the early 1990s, then-Maj. Gen. Donald Kaufman was arraigned as part of a court-martial in a war trophies case, but the criminal lawsuit was dismissed and never went to a jury, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said. He was demoted to the rank of colonel and retired. Were really testing the limits of the Air Force to be able to try a general officer here, and to try one fairly, Conway said. Its a significant case. By David Shepardson (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday it had dropped its "Do Not Travel" COVID-19 recommendations for about 90 international destinations. Last week, the CDC said it was revising its travel recommendations and said it would its reserve Level 4 travel health notices "for special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts." The countries and other regions dropped to "Level 3: High," which still discourages travel by unvaccinated Americans, include the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Turkey, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Russia. Also being lowered are Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central African Republic, Chile, Czech Republic, Jordan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Somalia, Uruguay and Vietnam. The CDC currently lists no countries at "Level 4" that it has renamed "Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel." The U.S. State Department said last week it was also sharply cutting back on "Do Not Travel" advisories for international destinations. Out of about 215 countries and territories that it rates, the department currently lists nearly 120 at "Level Four: Do Not Travel", including much of Europe, Japan, Israel and Russia. The department last week said its update due later on Monday "will leave approximately 10% of all travel advisories at Level 4 " including all risk factors, not just COVID. "We believe the updated framework will help U.S. citizens make better informed decisions about the safety of international travel," it said in a statement. Airlines and other travel groups have been pressing the Biden administration to lift the pre-departure COVID negative test requirements for international travelers, as many other countries have done. They also argued the Do Not Travel advisories were unnecessary and discouraged travel. Administration officials say the issue has been under review but health officials have announced no changes. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Sonoma, California; Editing by Nick Macfie) Reuters European Union governments moved closer on Sunday to agreeing to tough sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but scheduled more talks for Monday to work out how to ensure countries most dependent on Russian energy can cope. Landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which all depend heavily on Russian crude delivered via Soviet-era pipelines face a challenge to secure alternative sources and have asked for a derogation from the ban. The most accurate COVID-19 test often takes 24 hours or longer to return results from a lab. At-home test kits offer results in minutes but are far less accurate. UF Health researchers, however, have helped to develop a device that provides a highly accurate, 30-second coronavirus test. The motherboard of a COVID-19 rapid testing device that UF Health researchers helped develop can return a coronavirus test result as accurately and sensitively as the gold standard of testing, a PCR test, in 30 seconds. UF Health researchers are working with scientists at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. The device, researchers said, could transform public health officials ability to quickly detect and respond to the coronavirus or the next pandemic. And, UF has entered into a licensing agreement with a New Jersey company, Houndstoothe Analytics, in hopes of ultimately manufacturing and selling the device, not just to medical professionals but also to consumers, according to a news release from UF Health Communications. COVID-19: Florida's hospitalizations hit pandemic low again as BA.2 cases rise Business: Controversial development project planned for Suburban Heights area Crime: Man arrested for threatening email to Gainesville mayor, warns of 'deadly consequences' Like the PCR test, the device is 90% accurate, researchers said. There is nothing available like it, said Josephine Esquivel-Upshaw, a professor in the UF College of Dentistrys department of restorative dental sciences and member of the research team that developed the device. Its true point of care. Its access to care. We think it will revolutionize diagnostics. The device is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. First, researchers said, they have to ensure that test results are not thrown off by cross-contamination with other pathogens that might be found in the mouth and saliva such as other coronaviruses, staph infections, the flu, pneumonia and 20 other pathogens. Story continues The hand-held apparatus is powered by a 9-volt battery and uses an inexpensive test strip, similar to those used in blood glucose meters, with coronavirus antibodies attached to a gold-plated film at its tip. The strip is placed on the tongue to collect a tiny saliva sample. The strip is then inserted into a reader connected to a circuit board with the brains of the device. The research team also is studying its ability to detect specific proteins that could be used to diagnose other illnesses, including cancer, a heart attack and immune health. Fan Ren, Ph.D., a distinguished professor in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineerings department of chemical engineering, and his team had been developing semiconductor-based sensor devices long before COVID-19 for non-medical purposes. Ren came up with the idea of separating transistor from sample, like blood glucose meters that use test strips to collect a drop of blood after a lancet pierces a finger. This innovation, Ren said, makes the UF device unique, affordable and easy to use. And, it can be used for venues with large crowds, such as concerts, sporting events, classrooms, in addition to medical settings. Researchers say the unit also would provide access to accurate, inexpensive testing in rural areas or in developing nations. "Whether you are infected or not infected, you get the answer right away," Ren said. This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF Health develops rapid COVID-19 test similar to PCR test At least seven people have been killed and 11 others were injured in Lviv, Ukraine, Monday morning, after Russias military launched several missiles into the city, officials said. Smoke rose over the Western city after four missiles hit three warehouses and also struck a civilian car tire service garage, where people were working, a Ukraine military spokesperson said. The explosions severely injured three adults and a child suffered minor injuries. UKRAINE PUSHES RUSSIA BACK FROM KHARKIV; SOLDIERS IN MARIUPOL RESIST KREMLIN ULTIMATUM LVIV, UKRAINE - APRIL 18: Smoke rises after five aimed missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on April 18, 2022. Photo by Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images West Air Command confirmed the missile attack, which also reportedly damaged infrastructure along train rails. The missiles were believed to be intended for a train station, the Ukrainian military spokesperson said. Local authorities are still attempting to extinguish the flames and clear the rubble. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the attack further proves that there are no safe places for civilians in Ukraine. MARIUPOL WARNS RUSSIA IS PREPARING TO SHUT DOWN CITY TO FILTER ALL MEN FOR FORCED SERVICE, LABOR Across the country, Ukraine has vowed to "fight absolutely to the end" to keep Russia from capturing the port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. Last week, Russia's military started a seemingly relentless siege of the city, which, if it falls, would be Russia's biggest victory of the war. A few thousand Ukrainian fighters reportedly remain in the city. Capturing Mariupol would provide Russia direct access to the Sea of Azov, giving it routes to resupply and reignite its offensive strategy in Ukraine, specifically in the eastern Donbas region. It would also provide Russia a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, an area it seized from Ukraine in 2014. During a nightly address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his administration and military were "doing everything to ensure the defense" of his country. Fox News' James Levinson, Matt Finn, Jeff Paul and the Associated Press contributed to this report. By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) -A Ukrainian mayor described hours of "hard" interrogations when held for almost a week by Russian forces last month and said he had appealed to the pope for help to stop a war that had wrecked swathes of his city in southern Ukraine. "It was a dangerous six days because I understood that for Russians my life and the lives of civilians were worth zero," Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol which is now under Russian control, said in Rome on Sunday, a month after his release. Ukraine said Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol, which lies west of the besieged city of Mariupol in a southern region that Russia seeks to control. Kyiv announced Fedorov's release in a prisoner exchange on March 16. Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation", has made no comment about the mayor's detention or the prisoner swap reported by Ukraine. Fedorov, who met Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Saturday before attending an Easter eve service, said he had asked the Vatican to intercede with Russian President Vladimir Putin to guarantee humanitarian corridors for Mariupol, which has faced devastating bombardment. Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade which is still fighting in Mariupol, also appealed to the pope for help in a letter posted on Telegram on Monday. "I don't have much time to describe all the horrors that I see here every day. Women with children and babies live in bunkers ... Every day the wounded die because there are no medications. No water, no food," he wrote. "Help save them." Describing his detention by Russian forces in Melitopol's police department, Fedorov said in an interview: "They came to me at night with five or seven soldiers and spoke for about four or five hours, hard dialogue." 'HALF MY CITY IS WRECKED' Story continues "They wanted to make an example of me about what would happen if we did not agree to what the Russians wanted," the mayor told Reuters and the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, saying he had faced "psychological" but not physical torture. "Russian soldiers assumed that they would be welcomed but they were not ... and that is why the Russians were very, very angry," he said. "There is no food in my city. There is no pharmacy. Half of my city is wrecked. More than 200 people have been kidnapped. It is not safe to walk the streets," he said. Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, saying Kyiv has staged them to undermine peace talks. Moscow says it launched its military action almost two months ago to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. Seizing Melitopol, Mariupol and the southern coast would give Russian forces a land link between pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine and the Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Russia has said it almost has full control of Mariupol. Fedorov, who said he remained in regular contact with the people of Melitopol, said he had invited the pope to visit Ukraine because "maybe he can stop this war". Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also invited the pope, promising to guarantee his security. Pope Francis has implicitly criticised Russia, calling for an end to a war that involved unjustified aggression and invasion. Addressing Fedorov and other Ukrainians in the Easter eve service, the pope said: "Have courage, we accompany you". (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Edmund Blair) KYIV (Reuters) - Russia appears to have started its anticipated new offensive in the east of Ukraine, Ukraine's top security official said on Monday. "This morning, along almost the entire front line of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, the occupiers attempted to break through our defences," Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in televised comments. "They began their attempt to start the active phase this morning," he said. (Reporting by Max Hunder; Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) Ukrainian officials are appealing to the U.S. and other Group of Seven nations for a $50 billion aid package to cover the countrys widening budget deficit, a top economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday. Oleg Ustenko said a delegation of Ukrainian officials, including finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, will present the plan to policymakers from the worlds biggest economies in Washington this week, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings. Ustenko said in an interview that the financial assistance would help Ukraine offset a budget shortfall that is projected to reach $8 billion per month for at least the next six months, as the Russian invasion batters Ukraine's economy. By comparison, officials projected before the war that the government's deficit would total about $7 billion for the entire year, or roughly 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product. Without the ability to raise cash from private markets, Ustenko said Ukraine could soon be forced to dramatically shrink expenditures, including paychecks to soldiers and aid payments to its citizens. Its next to impossible, he said. You have to understand, the $50 billion for us is crucial for keeping our lives going. Ukraines economy relies heavily on exports of grain and metals that can no longer be shipped via the Black Sea, and roughly half the countrys businesses remain closed amid intense fighting, Ustenko said. That has sent budget revenue plunging. Ukrainian officials are already in technical discussions about the aid plan with the U.S. Treasury, Ustenko said, as well as with officials from Germany, which chairs the G-7 this year. Asked whether Treasury would support such a plan, a department spokesperson said Secretary Janet Yellen is committed to working with our partners and allies to support Ukraines economic needs in the short and long term, and will use her meetings this week to galvanize support. Story continues The Ukrainians are proposing an initial tranche of about $10 billion, half of which Ustenko proposed could be covered by the U.S., which he sees as leading the global effort to provide support. That would be followed by subsequent payments on an agreed-upon schedule. This is something which is needed to be resolved almost immediately, he said. Its not like we have time to wait. Ustenko said the money would ideally be provided as grants that wouldn't have to be repaid but said he expects at least some of the assistance could come in other forms, such as loans or loan guarantees. The U.S. provided several similar loan guarantees for Ukraine after Russias 2014 invasion of Crimea, which enabled the country to borrow on international markets. Ukraine has already cut back spending on most everything but the military and safety net, Ustenko said. As more Ukrainian refugees have begun returning to the country from parts of Europe, safety net spending could begin to rise over the coming months, adding to the red ink, he added. The EU should be motivated to support us because our people are coming back, he said. Meanwhile, Russia escalated its attacks after Ukrainian missiles sunk its flagship, Moskva, and has launched a major new offensive to take control of the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. Lvivs mayor told Fox News Monday that the western Ukrainian city "must be ready" for further attacks from the Russian military after a series of fresh airstrikes there reportedly left at least 7 people dead. The deaths are the first to occur inside the city since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, Andriy Sadovyi also said. "We must be ready [for a] new Russian attack. And together we must maximum protect our country," Sadovyi told Fox News. "It is a very special moment in our life. We have only one country, we have only one land. I believe in our victory, never give up. Only victory." RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES At least seven people have been killed and 11 others were injured in Lviv Monday morning after Russias military launched several missiles into the city, officials said. Smoke rose over the city after four missiles hit three warehouses and struck a civilian car tire service garage where people were working, according to a Ukraine military spokesperson. Three of the four targets that were hit were non-military locations, Ukrainian officials also said. The explosions severely injured three adults and a child suffered minor injuries. Smoke rises after five missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine on Monday. (Photo by Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Photo by Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Reports that a train station in the city was among the targets were unfounded. Fox News Jeff Paul, Lawrence Richard and Matt Finn contributed to this report. Rich Miller The Illinois Senate adjourned its session April 9 just after 3 oclock in the morning. The House adjourned about three hours later, as the sun was coming up. This wasnt the first time that the chambers worked into the wee smalls to finish their work, including a budget, and it probably wont be the last, but its getting to be a bit much. Senate President Don Harmon told me afterward that, in the future, he would like to avoid adjourning session that late. Harmon claimed that because of the remarkably collaborative and cordial working relationship among Democrats in the Statehouse, the willingness to accommodate each other and to try to make late adjustments to deal with ideas that came from this part of one caucus or that part of another caucus, all led to a very long night. In the old days, Harmon said, a prior Speaker might have said Noon on Thursday and we're done. This time, we were trying to work and adjust and adapt and add and subtract things at the request of the caucuses. And it did lead to a schedule challenge at the end. I can understand that explanation, but it was still severe for a whole lot of folks. Start earlier. OK, lets talk about that state budget. Im going to throw some numbers at you, but Ill try to make this as simple as I possibly can. If you want an idea of how crazy this fiscal year has been, just check the projected revenues when the Fiscal Year 2022 budget was enacted last year and compare them to where they are now. Last spring, budget-makers settled on a $44.4 billion total revenue projection for FY22. As of last week, that number had risen to a whopping $49.2 billion an increase of more than $4.8 billion, or almost 11 percent. The unanticipated new money didnt come directly from the federal government. But it was no doubt a result of the federal economic stimulus programs. The only debt paydown appropriation in the original FY22 plan last year was $928 million to repay interfund borrowing, and no tax breaks were included. Story continues But, now, because of that new revenue, additional debt payoffs, a larger rainy day fund and mostly one-time tax breaks will total $5.3 billion this fiscal year, a $4.4 billion increase above the originally enacted spending plan (not including the payoff of federal covid-related loans). The end of year surplus had been projected to be $1 billion, but that money was rolled into the overall spending plan by the new supplemental FY22 appropriation, and the state will now end this fiscal year in June with just $68 million cash, but with $1 billion in its heretofore empty rainy day fund instead of the $600 million initially proposed. The new fiscal year, which begins July 1, will see its projected revenues drop by $2.6 billion, or about 5.4 percent from the latest estimate for this fiscal year. But thats still a 5 percent ($2.175 billion) increase over the FY22 estimate the budget-makers relied on last year. Debt paydown and tax relief will fall from a high of $6.37 billion (including about $1 billion to pay off federal covid-related loans) this fiscal year to just $640 million next fiscal year, a difference of $5.73 billion. Non-discretionary spending will fall by $51 million net, but most of those spending top-lines will see increases. That can happen because, as noted above, the states remaining $1 billion in covid-related debt will be paid off by the end of this fiscal year. Pension payments and transfers-out will each rise by about $300 million, and group health insurance payments will increase by about $400 million. Discretionary spending - apart from debt payoffs and tax relief will increase by about $2.6 billion ($22.289 billion this fiscal year compared to $24.867 billion next fiscal year). The increases include P-12 education ($550 million), higher education ($240 million), human services ($1.2 billion), public safety ($300 million) and general services ($225 million). The end of the coming fiscal year may be tight on paper. General Fund revenues are projected to be just $2 million higher than total spending next year. Yes, the state will have $1 billion in its rainy day fund just in case, and the states bill payment cycle can easily be expanded well beyond its current two weeks. But a worse than expected economic downturn could still cause some fiscal pain, although not nearly as much as in the days when the state had no cushion at all (or even no budget). Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, This article originally appeared on The McDonough County Voice: Unusual fiscal year leads to surplus, but tough times still hurt One day after the Regional Transit Service (RTS) announced they would no longer require customers and employees to wear face masks, the transit authority reversed course. Following conversations yesterday with the office of New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, it was made clear that the mask requirement on public transit in New York remains in effect for now, pursuant to a March 2, 2022, determination by the New York State Department of Health, RTS officials said Wednesday morning in a news release. More: Hochul: NY's mask mandate for public transit remains in place despite federal court ruling So after a brief pause on the policy on Tuesday, masks are again required on all RTS buses and within all RTS facilities, effective immediately. According to a news release from the company, RTS will continue making masks available at the company's facilities, including the RTS Transit Center. The new comes one day after the TSA announced that face masks are now optional at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport, as of Tuesday. Airline carriers, however, reserve the right to require masks aboard their planes, according to airport officials. Monroe County averaging nearly 600 new COVID cases per day On Monday afternoon, the Monroe County Department of Public Health reported another 31% spike in new COVID-19 cases in the county in the past week. In all, 4,173 new COVID-19 cases were reported since April 11, bumping the 7-day rolling average to 596 new cases per day. Both figures are twice as many as were reported two weeks earlier, on April 4 Also since last Monday, there has been a 10% increase in hospitalizations, however fewer of the people hospitalized remain in the intensive care unit, which is where the most serious cases are directed. The latest data shows 183 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, an increase from the 166 patients on April 11. Seventeen of the hospitalized patients are in the ICU, which is a 19% decrease over the April 11 data. Story continues Six new deaths were reported in that same timeframe, bringing the total of COVID-19 related deaths to 1,829. UR reinstates indoor masking due to COVID spike University of Rochester officials last week announced that indoor masking has been reinstated on all UR campuses and properties. The move, announced on Friday, is in response to the current spike in COVID-19 infections and applies to all students, staff, faculty and visitors, including those who are fully vaccinated, according to a news release from the university. UR officials said they hope by masking, it "will bring down the number of positive cases and prevent an unmanageable surge in infections." The indoor mask mandate is in effect until further notice, UR officials said. According to UR, face masks are required indoors at all university locations, including Eastman School of Music, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and other properties. All medical center tan locations, including the School of Nursing, School of Medicine and Dentistry and administrative areas like Corporate Woods and Rochester Tech Park, will also require masks. Face masks will not be required at the Memorial Art Gallery. "We know this isnt welcome news, but were not alone: many of the Universitys peer institutions in the northeast have reinstated their indoor masking requirements given the relatively high current COVID numbers, especially compared to other parts of the U.S.," the news release read. Free disposable masks are available on campus. As of Friday, Monroe County's 7-day-rolling average for new COVID-19 cases was 583, according to the Monroe County Department of Public Health. Wayne County COVID risk level upgraded to high The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week elevated Wayne County's community risk level from low to high. "The CDC's community risk level is a measure of the impact of COVID-19 illness on health and healthcare systems," said Diane Devlin, Wayne County Director of Public Health. "It is important we protect our most vulnerable at high levels of community transmission. Some people and communities, such as our oldest citizens, people who are immunocompromised and people with disabilities, are at a higher risk for serious illness to wear a mask in public places to reduce their risk of exposure and risk for serious illness from COVID-19." Wayne County Public Health is asking everyone at high risk for serious illness to wear a mask in public places to reduce their risk of exposure and risk for serious illness from COVID-19. The county health department has also said the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 doubled over the last week, from 4 to 8 people. COVID cases in New York New coronavirus cases leaped in New York in the week ending Sunday, rising 12.7% as 36,180 cases were reported. The previous week had 32,114 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. New York ranked fourth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 10% from the week before, with 225,931 cases reported. With 5.84% of the country's population, New York had 16.01% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 31 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. COVID cases in Rochester NY region Monroe County reported 1,690 cases and three deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 1,436 cases and three deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 154,859 cases and 1,556 deaths. Ontario County reported 238 cases and one death in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 193 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 20,361 cases and 176 deaths. Wayne County reported 158 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 167 cases and two deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 17,543 cases and 173 deaths. Livingston County reported 82 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 91 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 11,778 cases and 115 deaths. Orleans County reported 55 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 33 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 8,691 cases and 113 deaths. Genesee County reported 64 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 55 cases and one death. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 13,761 cases and 185 deaths. COVID outbreaks in New York Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Oswego County with 400 cases per 100,000 per week; Onondaga County with 349; and Oneida County with 342. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Adding the most new cases overall were New York County, with 4,846 cases; Kings County, with 4,461 cases; and Nassau County, with 2,949. Weekly case counts rose in 42 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Kings, Erie and Suffolk counties. New York ranked 6th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 89.9% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.3%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart. In the week ending Sunday, New York reported administering another 245,669 vaccine doses, including 28,283 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 228,560 vaccine doses, including 27,016 first doses. In all, New York reported it has administered 38,894,514 total doses. Across New York, cases fell in 20 counties, with the best declines in Westchester County, with 1,754 cases from 1,895 a week earlier; in Oswego County, with 468 cases from 577; and in Cayuga County, with 185 cases from 265. In New York, 59 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 61 people were reported dead. A total of 5,074,112 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 68,114 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 80,632,301 people have tested positive and 988,618 people have died. New York's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, April 17. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state: Last week: 2,637 The week before that: 2,332 Four weeks ago: 1,974 Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation: Last week: 38,545 The week before that: 37,371 Four weeks ago: 41,914 Hospitals in 22 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 15 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 32 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows. Contributor: Mike Stucka, USA Today Network Contact Victoria Freile at vfreile@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @vfreile and Instagram @vfreile. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: NY mask mandate for public transit remains in place The United States on Monday voiced alarm over a potential security deal between China and the Solomon Islands, as top US diplomats headed to the South Pacific to curb Beijing's inroads. Kurt Campbell and Daniel Kritenbrink, the top officials on Asia at the National Security Council and State Department respectively, will lead the delegation traveling this week to the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. A leaked draft of a security agreement between the Solomon Islands and China sparked fear in the United States and Australia that Beijing will gain a military foothold in the South Pacific, including naval deployments. Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has since said that the Solomon Islands does not intend to allow China to build a military base. "Despite the Solomon Islands government's comments, the broad nature of the security agreement leaves open the door for the deployment of PRC military forces to the Solomon Islands," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, referring to the People's Republic of China. "We believe that signing such an agreement could increase destabilization within the Solomon Islands and will set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region," Price said. He said that the Solomon Islands were already served by its security relationship with Australia, which rushed forces to the archipelago last year following riots. A senior Australian official paid a similar visit last week and asked Sogavare not to sign the agreement with Beijing. The United States said it was seeking to show its support for the Solomon Islands, a nation of 800,000 people that has been beset by unrest and poverty. Earlier this year the United States announced during a regional trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that it would re-establish an embassy in the former British protectorate's capital, Honiara. A National Security Council statement said the US delegation will use the stops in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to "meet with senior government officials to ensure our partnerships deliver prosperity, security, and peace across the Pacific Islands and the Indo-Pacific." Story continues The United States and its Asian allies have voiced growing concern about China's assertiveness on the seas, especially in the dispute-rife waters near it. The Solomon Islands, a World War II battlefront, recognized China only in 2019 after switching from ties with Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims. The US delegation will also travel to Hawaii to meet senior US military officials and regional partners at US Indo-Pacific Command. sms-sct/sw By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More countries are expected to announce contributions to help war-torn Ukraine maintain its government through the World Bank's multi-donor trust fund and parallel funds this week, World Bank President David Malpass said on Monday. Malpass said the World Bank was working during spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to put together a $3 billion package of aid to help Ukraine maintain essential government services. The situation was "rapidly evolving," he said and predicted more bilateral announcements on humanitarian assistance and other aid this week, without providing further details. Malpass said the bank had quickly disbursed about $600 million of an initial $1 billion in aid promised for Ukraine, and was now working to raise another $1.5 billion in bank funds that still needed to be approved by its board. "There will be other components making up the $3 billion that we originally announced six weeks ago or so," Malpass told reporters, noting that the bank's International Finance Corp was also providing working capital and trade finance for companies doing business in Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month that the United States would provide $500 million in direct budgetary assistance. Malpass said members would also discuss the next phase of financing for Ukraine's reconstruction efforts this week. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Sunday confirmed that he and other top Ukrainian finance officials will visit Washington to seek more financial assistance. Reuters reported on Friday that they would participate in a roundtable on Ukraine to be hosted by the World Bank this coming Thursday. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Howard Goller) In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia has started a new offensive in Donbas. Zelenskyy said Russian troops have "been preparing for a long time" to fully take control of the eastern region. Last week, Ukrainian officials said an all-out battle in the region could resemble World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russian forces have started a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. Speaking from Kyiv, Zelenskyy said in an address that Ukraine will continue to fight and defend itself against a Russian attack. "The Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time. A significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive," Zelenskyy said in his speech. "No matter how many soldiers are drawn there, we will defend ourselves. We will fight. We will not give up anything Ukrainian," he added. "And I am grateful to all our fighters, to all our heroic cities in Donbas, to Mariupol, and also to the cities of the Kharkiv region which are holding on, defending the fate of the whole state, repelling the forces of invaders. Rubizhne, Popasna, Zolote, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Kramatorsk, and all others that have been with Ukraine all these years and forever." Ukraine's Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov confirmed in a statement that Russian forces launched a new assault on the region. "This morning, an active phase of the Russian offensive set off almost along the entire front line, the occupiers tried to break through our defenses," Danilov tweeted on Monday. "Our military is defending, we are not surrendering our territories." Ukrainian and Western officials had warned that a new Russian offensive in the Donbas region was imminent after Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces failed to capture the capital city Kyiv and withdrew from the country's northern areas. Story continues Over 21,000 people have been killed in the southeastern city of Mariupol, Ukraine, leaving the city on the brink of surrender after a Russian commander issued an ultimatum for the Ukrainian troops to "surrender or die" last week. According to the Associated Press, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby echoed Zelenskyy's warnings in a press briefing on Monday, saying that Russia had set the stage for an advance in the region "by putting in more forces, putting in more enablers, putting in more command and control capability for operations yet to come." Last week, Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba issued a stark warning for the fate of the eastern region, if Ukraine did not receive the air defense systems, artillery and jets that Ukraine asked NATO members for. "The battle for Donbas will remind you of the second world war," Kuleba told NATO members on Friday. On Friday morning, more than 50 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a train station in Kramatorsk, a town in Donetsk, which is located in the Donbas region. In an interview with BILD after the train station attack, Zelenskyy maintained that Ukraine would defend its territory. "It could be a big war in Donbas like the world has not seen in hundreds of years," he told BILD reporter Paul Ronzheimer. Read the original article on Business Insider For most, a trip to the library entails checking out materials, accessing computers, or just taking a break from the business of life to focus. But for the Campbell County Public Library System, some visits provide residents of the county with the ability to develop lifelong reading and writing skills, while still enjoying the services of a regular library. Were it, when it comes to this type of organization, Liza Saunders, the director of the Literacy Volunteers program for the Campbell County Library System, said about the lack of similar programs in the immediate region. The program, founded in 1988, aims to serve the needs of low-literacy and limited-English-speaking adult students through a volunteer-driven literacy program. The literacy volunteers program is accessible through all four branches of the Campbell library system Rustburg, Altavista, Brookneal and Timbrook and provides a private meeting space for volunteer tutors and students to meet once per week. Saunders, who took over as director in 2021, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, is focusing on returning the program to the heights of its pre-pandemic days while still facing the challenges of providing tutoring in a socially distanced society. A graduate of Lynchburg College and an educator before directing the program, Saunders worked part time with the literacy volunteers when her aunt, Lynne Wheeler, was the director for more than 15 years just before her. More than just an educational program, its a family program for Saunders now. Despite running the program alone for nearly six months to start, she said she overcame the hurdles until November when tutors started coming back to work in person. She also credits the addition of her program coordinator, Kathy Brandt, as a major boost to the program in recent months. Brandt initially joined the program in 2011 as an English as a Second Language tutor after reading a newspaper ad about the program, but joined as the program coordinator in November. I really enjoy helping people from other countries learn about our culture and our English language, Brandt told The News & Advance in a letter, and this was on my to-do list when I retired. Even with fast growth in the last few months, the program still has a little ways to go before reaching its pre-pandemic numbers. Saunders told The News & Advance that, at its peak in 2018, they had about 90 students in the program. Now, the program has about 40 people enrolled. The numbers are down, according to Saunders, for two reasons. One, the tepidness of people returning to normal after the pandemic. That problem is starting to fade, as she said they were at 10 people in the midst of COVID-19, and have already built their base up to almost half of what it was in 2018. Also, Saunders said that the program wants to let people know were here, whether that be for tutors or students alike, as they are always looking to grow. I want to expand our program, but first, people need to know about us, the director said, I think were kind of like a hidden gem and a lot of people dont know were here, they dont know our services, what we can provide, and what we can help them with. With the efforts theyve made in the last few months to get from 10 to 40 people, Saunders hopes it wont be long till they are back up and running at their usual numbers or even higher. Additionally, even as people return to in-person tutoring, Saunders is trying to find new ways to integrate new technology into the program, specifically an app for adult literacy, Cell-Ed, which allows students to do work even when they arent with their tutors, at no cost to the students themselves. Its personalized tutoring ... that allows them to download it on their phone or tablet and its three-minute lessons they could do on their lunch break or at home, which has been one of the really good things thats helped with remote learning for us. The librarys literacy program traditionally runs once a week for six months, although some are in the program longer than that, especially students learning English as their second language. Students are assigned a one-on-one tutor, although some people decide to partake in the program with a family member or friend. According to Saunders, most in the program are 40 or older, although the full age range of the students goes from 19 to a 79-year-old student whose main goal is to pursue her GED upon completion. She wants to get her GED at 79 years old, and she needs help with reading so were going to help her get her reading level up so she can attend the GED classes, Saunders said. That is just one example of the many lives changed by the literacy volunteers program. And for the volunteers, its all about seeing the students achieve what they want, no matter what the end goal may be. The most rewarding part for Saunders? I love to see the progress in our students, and the smiles on their faces when they come back and say, Hey, I can go to the grocery store and ask one of the cashiers for help and I can speak English and do that now, she said. The program is open to Campbell County and the surrounding areas, according to Saunders. With few similar programs in the area, she is hoping to be the go-to spot for Central Virginians looking to tutor or learn in the program. Information on how to volunteer to become a tutor, or to join the program as a student, is available on the countys library website, CampbellCountyLibraries.org/literacy. Saunders also said she is trying to host more events at the Timbrook Library location in hopes of educating the community about the program and potentially signing up more tutors. The library will host a bilingual night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, July 11 at the Timbrook location, open to all prospective tutors or students. To feel like were at the same pace as pre-COVID, wed like to get to somewhere around 100 people. For tutors, probably the same. Wed like to see 50 more tutors in the next year or two, Saunders said. I know the students are out there and I know the volunteers are out there; weve just got to make sure people know were here. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Virginia Department of Education provided more information to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, as ordered by a judge on April 8. The department had the option of appealing the order from substitute Richmond District Court Judge Jennifer Rosen or complying by providing more information, and the department sent an email Friday with the information. A Times-Dispatch reporter filed a petition in court against the department after the department's FOIA officer refused to comply with a provision of the law that requires public bodies - when they withhold records under a discretionary exemption - to "identify with reasonable particularity the volume and subject matter of withheld records." The department said it was withholding five emails from the newspaper as working papers of the governor's office, but wouldn't specify the subject matter. The judge heard the case and ordered the department to provide the newspaper with the date of the withheld emails and the individuals included on the emails. The FOIA request had asked for correspondence between certain Department of Education officials and people at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., called American Enterprise Institute. Records showed that the department was receiving assistance from a research fellow there, but the relationship is murky. Jillian Balow, the new state superintendent of public instruction under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, has declined to be interviewed about it. The five emails the department opted not to turn over came on Jan. 25. Included on each of the emails was: Balow; Dicky Shanor, Balow's chief of staff; Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Schultz; Education Secretary Aimee Guidera; Deputy Education Secretary Sarah Spota; and Max Eden, the research fellow at American Enterprise Institute who has assisted the department. Youngkin and Balow are reversing K-12 diversity and equity policies that were promoted under James Lane, the superintendent of public instruction for Youngkins predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. More than a dozen media organizations are suing Youngkin over his withholding of emails sent to a "tipline" to which he encouraged people to report so-called "divisive" topics in K-12 schools. (804) 649-6061 Judge orders Va. Department of Education to provide more detail in FOIA request A judge in Richmond on Friday ordered the Virginia Department of Education to provide more specific information to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in response to a FOIA request the newspaper made for communications between state officials and a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Legislature passes bill to close off many police records to the public and press Despite a lack of any unintended consequences, the General Assembly passed a bill Saturday to largely undo a 2021 law opening up more police records to the public and press. Tokyos initial ban on tourists came in response to the first wave of COVID-19 infections in early 2020 and at a time when the Japanese travel industry was booming. Following the loosening of visa rules under then prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan witnessed inbound tourism growth for eight consecutive years, with overseas visitors peaking at 32 million arrivals in 2019. Some 40 million visitors were predicted for 2020, the year the Tokyo Olympics were initially scheduled to take place, while the government set a target of 60 million visitors by 2030. International visitors economic contribution increased year on year over the period, with 4.81 trillion yen ($3.8bn) spent in 2019 alone. There was hope in travel circles that borders might reopen after most of the population was vaccinated 80 percent have received at least two shots a surge of the Omicron variant subsided, and border controls came down in neighbours such as South Korea and Malaysia. A post on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website earlier this month appeared to herald an end to the protocols, stating: The following 106 countries will not be subject to denial of permission to enter Japan from 0:00 am (JST) on April 8, 2022. But those hopes were soon dashed when the government confirmed the changes only applied to returning residents and family members with extenuating circumstances, students enrolled in Japan-based study programs, and work permit holders, all of whom will be subject to reduced self-isolation periods if they fulfil the necessary criteria. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has confirmed no schedule has been decided for fully reopening the borders, though members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party have discussed a potential relaxation of border measures. Further complicating Japans reopening prospects is a steadily rising number of COVID-19 cases, as well as the recent discovery of the Omicron XE hybrid variant in a traveller who arrived at Narita Airport from the United States. Tokyo has responded to rising infection rates and new variants with more stringent restrictions in the past, raising fears that tourist-friendly border policies could still be some way off. In a December poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japans largest daily newspaper, almost 90 percent of respondents said they were in favour of tough border controls. Some pundits have drawn parallels between the pandemic years and the Sakoku era, a period of more than 200 years during which Japan cut itself off from the outside world. A panel of experts at Japan's health ministry approved Monday the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the U.S. biotechnology firm Novavax Inc. The ministry plans to give the green light at an early date for the use of what will be the fourth COVID-19 vaccine available in Japan. It will be produced and distributed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. The government has agreed to purchase 150 million doses of the vaccine from the Japanese pharmaceutical company, which filed with the ministry for its approval in December. Tuesdays through May 24 Gifford Farm will host Open to the Public Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Generally, most days a reservation is required to visit the farm. Each Tuesday has a different theme and admission is $5 and intended for those age 2 and older. A complete list of the themes can be found online on the Gifford Farm Facebook events page. Through April 30 Sickies Garage Burgers & Brews, known for offering diners a choice of supercharged burgers and a revved up list of brews, is offering free beer to those who give back via Toast Our Troops, in its second year. Diners can donate new items from the care package list found at sickiesburgers.com/toast-our-troops and receive a complimentary 16-ounce tap beer from Shiner Beer. Donated items include everything from personal care items like high quality socks, sunscreen, and lip balm to recreation with puzzles, playing cards, and board games. Items from the Food and Snacks category include hot sauce, beef jerky, protein bars, and other munchies. Items collected will be distributed to service members and veterans through local military bases and operations at the end of the donation period. Donors must be age 21 and older to receive the free beer. Offer good for one complimentary beer per guest, per visit. Sickies Garage and Shiner Beers remind you to drink responsibly. Sickies Garage Burgers & Brews, 1203 Cornhusker Road, is open daily at 11 a.m. Friday, May 22 Green Bellevue invites the community to enjoy the last day of Sarpy County Earth Month at Washington Park, 1908 Hancock St. for a community picnic. Sarpy County Earth Day Picnic attendees are encouraged to come self-contained with their own food, drink, utensils, etc., and in keeping with the occasion, have no disposables. Program Agenda: Noon Picnic starts, social time, can eat. 12:30 p.m. Welcome from Michelle Foss, Green Bellevue president. 1 p.m. Environmental Champion awards. 1:15 p.m. Green Bellevue news projects, local green interest items. 1:30 p.m. Park clean-up. 2 p.m. Picnic ends, social time. Attendees are encouraged to wear masks when not eating. This is subject to change based on CDC guidance of county-level COVID risk for Sarpy County. Tuesday, June 14 Thursday, June 16 Gifford Farm will host a Through Nature Camp from June 14 to June 16 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. for kids ages 11- to 15 years old. The price is $80 per camper. Participants will build social-emotional skills as they learn and explore Nebraskas ecosystem. Those interested can register via a link on the Gifford Farm Facebook event page. July 11-15 and July 18-22 Gifford Farm will be hosting a Little Farmers and Farm Summer Day camps from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Little Farmers camp is intended for children ages 4- to 6 years old and the Farm Camp is intended for those ages 6 to 12. The cost is $130 per camper or $120 per sibling. Attendees can expect to experience what it takes to be a farmer. Each day of the camps is a different theme. Some of the activities include feeding, socializing and grooming animals, collecting eggs and crafts and storytime. Those interested can register via a link on the Gifford Farm Facebook event page. July 25-29 Gifford Farm will be offering an Adventure Camp for children ages 6 to 12 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The cost is $130 per camper or $120 per sibling. Each day of the camp has a different theme. Activities include a hike in the woods, teamwork activities, experience pioneer life and explore space. Gifford Farm will also be hosting a Summer Little Saplings Camp on the same dates from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for children ages 4 to 6. Attendees can expect to explore the woods and learn about nature, go on hikes and learn about the ecosystem of a forest, discover and play in the outdoor nature classroom and several other activities. Those interested can register via a link on the Gifford Farm Facebook event page. If you have an event or announcement for Looking Ahead email details to austin.plourde@bellevueleader.com There is no cost. The deadline to submit items is 5 p.m. on the Friday before the Wednesday publication. As with all submissions, the Leader staff reserves the right to prioritize items. If you have an event or announcement for Looking Ahead email details to austin.plourde@bellevueleader.com There is no cost. The deadline to submit items is 5 p.m. on the Friday before the Wednesday publication. As with all submissions, the Leader staff reserves the right to prioritize items. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on April 12 to approve the Secondary Roads departments $18.5 million budget for fiscal year 2023, including nearly $2 million for bridge repair and replacement. Out of the countys more than 300 bridges, approximately 44 are considered structurally deficient, or poor, which means that the bridges while safe to cross have weight limits less than those prescribed by law due to deterioration or damage. As part of the countys five-year plan, 16 of the structurally deficient bridges will either be repaired or replaced by the end of fiscal year 2027. At one time a third of our bridges were structurally deficient, County Engineer John Rasmussen said. Were well below that, were probably about 15% now, so as that comes down funding allocation also comes down. Pottawattamie County had 96 structurally deficient bridges in 2012, which the Secondary Roads department was able to get down to 58 in 2018. Bridges are inspected every two years and graded on a scale of Good, Fair or Poor, based on their condition the Federal Highway Administration discontinued the use of structurally deficient in 2017 in favor of the new rating system, but the Iowa Department of Transportation continues to use the term. Rasmussen would like to schedule more bridges for replacement, but he cant spend money the department doesnt have. The reward for doing a good job on bridges seems to be less funding, Rasmussen said. Funding for bridges is needs based; weve lost almost $200,000 in bridge funding based on need, so were getting ahead, but were also kind of slowing down a little bit at the same time. Rasmussen says that constantly trying to figure out how much the next round of funding is going to be, let alone where its going to come from, is frustrating. Some of the funds for the five-year plan are going to come from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed into law late last year, though Rasmussen is unsure just how much money the county will be receiving. Two of the 16 bridges scheduled for repair in the five-year plan, however, will be paid for with federal funds that have already been allocated. One recently replaced bridge measuring 110 square feet near Loveland cost about $200,000 and took six weeks to complete. Six of the 16 bridges scheduled for repair or replacement over the next five years are about the same size and cost, and will be built using county funds and day labor. The other 10 are larger projects that will require federal aid, such as grants from the Rural Innovation Stronger Economy, or RISE, program, which is governed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to a report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, in 2021, Iowa ranked second in the country in percentage of bridges that are classified as structurally deficient, behind only West Virginia. In total number of structurally deficient bridges, Iowa ranked number one, coming in ahead of Pennsylvania by about 1,300 bridges. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Tunisias Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui said Sunday the North African country will demand compensation for intervention operations after Xelo tanker sank in the Gulf of Gabes, with 750 tons of diesel fuel in its tanks. Xelo, navigating with Equatorial Guinea flag and hailing from the Egyptian port of Damietta to Malta, sank Saturday morning in the Gulf of Gabes after entering into Tunisian territorial waters due to bad weather. The tanker according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com is 58 meters long and nine meters wide. The crew, Georgian captain, four Turks and two Azerbaijanis, were briefly hospitalized for checks and were now in a hotel, Tunisian officials noted. Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui indicated during a press conference on Sunday that there was no major oil spill, only some oils spilled into the sea. The Defense, Interior, Transport and Customs ministries were working to avoid a marine environmental disaster in the region and limit its impact, she added. Authorities have opened an investigation into the incident. Italy has two patrol vessels to assist in controlling potential diesel spills that might occur. Minister of Transport Rabii Mjidi who was participating in the news conference confirmed that no leakage of fuel has been reported so far from Xelo tanker. He said the ships tanks were closed as crew members said and as shown by diving operations conducted by a navy team to inspect the hull of the ship. Divers are working on maneuvering the ship using tugs in a bid to refloat it. Fuel will be pumped from tanks, a complex and delicate operation that requires know-how. A package of measures was taken to cut down pollution risks; anti-pollution barriers were put in place in the cargo area, said the minister. The minor leaks observed come from the engine. Authorities have opened an investigation into the incident. Italy has two patrol vessels to assist in controlling potential diesel spills that might occur. The ship was docked at the port of Sfax on April 4-8 to change the crew and make minor repairs. Diving operations started Sunday to inspect the ship. The London-based Al-Arab newspaper has decried Algeria for having obstructed at the United Nations the adoption of a statement on the Palestinian cause presented by the Arab group to satisfy its relentless resentment against Morocco. Algerias obstructive attitude on a vital issue for the Arab world has raised real concerns and apprehensions within the Arab Group about the inclination of Algiers to sacrifice the Palestinian issue so as to satisfy its relentless resentment against Morocco and its institutions, stated Al-Arab newspaper. The popular pan-Arab newspaper recalled that Algerias representation to the United Nations obstructed the adoption of a statement issued by the Arab Group in New York, related to the recent Israeli attack on the holy sites in Al-Quds, because the text refers to the role of the Al-Quds Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is chaired by King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Actually, the draft Arab statement, which was distributed in New York for adoption, condemned the Israeli attack on the Holy City and recognized the important role of the Al-Quds Committee, chaired by King Mohammed VI, in defending the Holy City and preserving its identity. The paper added that the Moroccan delegation strongly supported this draft, as did all member states of the Arab Group, with the exception of the Algerian ambassador, who objected to the reference to the Al-Quds Committee, and tried to include a reference to the Algerian Presidents support to the Palestinian cause. The newspaper noted that the Algerian objection is a new episode in the escalation that the eastern neighbor has been pursuing for months against Morocco, after it failed to reach a consensus among Palestinian factions when it hosted the Palestino-Palestinian dialogue last January. The author of the article recalled that the Moroccan permanent representative to the United Nations foiled the Algerian ambassadors desperate attempt to include a reference to the Algerian presidents support for the Palestinian cause in the draft statement, since the text concerned the particular situation in Al-Quds Asharif, where Algeria brings no contribution, unlike the role of King of Morocco as chairman of Al Quds Committee and the role of the King of Jordan in the framework of the Hashemite Guardianship over the Islamic and Christian holy places in Al-Quds. The media also recalled that Morocco finances more than 86% of Bayt Mal Al Quds funds, while Algeria does not contribute a penny to the agency, stressing that Morocco has strongly condemned the Israeli attacks in Al-Quds, and that King Mohammed VI has instructed the Foreign Ministry to inform Israel of its strong condemnation of the bloody incursions of the police and settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is to be recalled that as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, King Mohammed VI works tirelessly on the diplomatic and political levels and on the ground to defend the Holy City and preserve its religious, cultural, legal and historical status, while improving the living conditions and resilience of its population through its executive arm, Bayt Mal Al-Quds. The attitude of Algeria, the Arab Summits next president, is a harbinger of difficult days and enormous challenges for the Palestinian issue and all Arab causes, as this country unfortunately puts its own anti-Moroccan political calculations before all the vital interests of the Arab world. In another development, the Palestinian ambassador to Rabat, Jamal Choubki, has commended Moroccos stance regarding the latest Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, underlining that the Moroccan position expresses the Kingdoms rejection of any Israeli measure that may impose a new situation in Al-Quds in order to change the religious and civilizational status of the holy city. Moroccos denunciation of the latest Israeli aggressions against Palestinian worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and against the Palestinian people in various regions of the country is in line with the Arab and Muslim position, said the Palestinian diplomat, stressing that the statement issued by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs set the record straight regarding the Moroccan stance which was officially notified to the Israeli side. Mauritania has given Algeria a very cold shower by rejecting the propaganda of the morally bankrupt military junta in Algiers which desperately seeks to stoke tension in the region and with Morocco in particular. In recent days, the Algerian military junta that rules behind a civilian curtain attempted to use Mauritania twice to serve Algiers agenda. The first reference came when puppet President Abdelmedjid Tebboune told Anthony Blenken that Morocco was an expansionist state that has eyes on Mauritania and the second took place recently when an official statement by the Algerian foreign ministry accused Morocco of hitting Mauritanian citizens. The spokesman for the Mauritanian government said the incident does not even merit a statement from Nouakchotts foreign affairs! Thus reducing Algerian media fanfare to mere uncorroborated brouhaha. This blow comes after similar positions indicating that Mauritania is not budging from its new found strict neutrality in the Sahara conflict in which Algeria incurred a series of setbacks recently. Analysts see that Algerian presidency and foreign affairs have disrespected Mauritanias sovereignty and independence by referring to the country in meetings with the US and in a statement without prior agreement or consultation. In a recent interview, Amar Belani, chief propagandist at the Algerian foreign ministry in charge of the Maghreb and ironically Sahara envoy, showed the state of disarray and despair of the bankrupt regime in Algiers saying that Moroccos actions in the region aim at undermining trade between Mauritania and Algeria! The question is what can Algeria export to Mauritania? Algeria whose former and current presidents never paid a visit to a Sub-Saharan African country tend to see African markets as undeveloped consumers ignoring that the competitiveness of some African markets outperforms Algerias by far. The only thing that Algeria managed to export to its African entourage in recent years was terrorism and terrorist groups. From another angle, the unpaved road between Algeria and Mauritania could take up to 7 days of traffic from Tindouf to Nouakchott at least compared to less than 10 hours from the paved road between Dakhla and Nouakchott. For years, the few trucks that venture the risky unpaved road linking Algeria to Mauritania took the direct border post without crossing the Moroccan Sahara, east of the security defense wall. Now, that the Polisario and its mentor Algeria claim that the area east of the berm is a war zone, suddenly Algerian civilian truckers started opting for this route? The area east of the berm is strictly forbidden for civilians and is monitored as a buffer zone by the UN. This explains why no country has backed Algerias version of events in November when it claimed the death of three truck drivers in what it described as Moroccan drone attacks. Mauritanias cold response to Algeria and its wise reaction in which the spokesman clearly said that Mauritania was not targeted by the alleged attack, show that Nouakchott has made the win-win choice of maintaining closer ties with Morocco while keeping strict neutrality on the Sahara conflict, much to the disappointment of the isolated regime in Algiers. King Mohammed VI and King Abdullah II of Jordan discussed this Monday in a phone talk the situation in the city of Al Quds and the Al Aqsa Mosque following the incursions by Israeli forces in sacred shrines and attacks on worshippers. The Royal Office said in a statement that King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al Quds Committee and King Abdullah, who serves as custodian of holy Islamic and Christian places in Jerusalem, discussed the developments and events in the city of Al Quds and the Al Aqsa Mosque following the incursions into sacred places and attacks on worshippers. The two Sovereigns deemed that this escalation is likely to stir up feelings of resentment, hatred and extremism and to destroy the chances of relaunching the peace process in the region, the Royal Office said. During the phone call, King Mohammed VI got informed on the health condition of the Jordanian Sovereign after the surgery he underwent recently. King Mohammed VI had sent a message of congratulations to King Abdullah II following the success of the surgery, wishing him a speedy recovery, and praying the Almighty to grant him good health and long life. On Sunday, Morocco had strongly condemned the raid of Israeli occupation forces on Al Aqsa Mosque, the closing of its gates and the attack against unarmed worshipers in the mosque compound, leaving many injured. This blatant aggression and methodical provocation during the holy month of Ramadan against the sanctity of the mosque and its place in the heart of the Islamic Ummah will only fuel feelings of hatred and extremism and destroy the chances of reviving the peace process in the region, said Moroccan Foreign ministry in a statement. Morocco called on the United Nations and the international community to intervene urgently to put an end to these violations and assaults against the defenseless Palestinian people and its sacred values, said the statement, adding that upon the Sovereigns instructions, Moroccos condemnation and denunciation were communicated directly to the head of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat. Jordan has also condemned the Israeli raids and called on Israel to respect the historical and legal situation in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to stop its illegal and provocative measures. Photo: Shutterstock/Shutterstock I did not enter with high hopes, but I was still surprised by how quickly my interview with James OKeefe went downhill. Youre a former prosecutor, right? the founder of Project Veritas asked just a few minutes after we began. Why should I have any reason to believe that youre gonna be fair here? The question might have been reasonable were it not for the fact that it was Project Veritas that had reached out to me to do a story about the organization and its legal troubles. They are the subject of a federal criminal investigation into the possible theft during the 2020 election of a diary that belongs to Joe Bidens adult daughter Ashley. The group obtained the diary that September after she left it at a home in Florida and considered running a story about its contents but ultimately did not. After Joe Biden won in November, Project Veritas gave the diary to police in Florida along with other belongings of hers that they had obtained. A couple of weeks prior to our interview, a representative for the group had called me out of the blue to suggest that I write a piece criticizing the Justice Departments use of a search warrant to Microsoft in order to obtain emails from within the organization. They were evidently keen to stir up some media coverage that would be critical of the governments investigation, and I told them that I might be interested in writing about the matter if I could speak to OKeefe directly about the investigation. As a fact-gathering exercise, the discussion turned out to be a deeply frustrating experience; OKeefe was evasive and demonstrably unreliable. As a window into his methodology as a political and media operator a combination of deflection, self-aggrandizement, and self-aggrievement, depending on what is most useful in the moment it was an illuminating encounter if nevertheless rather annoying to endure and strangely pathetic to witness. At one point, OKeefe described the investigation as the biggest and most egregious abridgment of freedom of the press in the history of the United States of America. Later, he advised me, Youve never met an adversary like me, my friend. (I told him that I did not regard him as an adversary.) He told me that he had been incarcerated, and when I asked him about this surprising claim, he said said that he was referring to when he was arrested in 2010 with three other men after they went into the New Orleans office of Senator Mary Landrieu for a sting operation. (OKeefe and the others subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of entering a federal building under false pretenses.) He tried to unilaterally put information off the record after disclosing it and was taken aback when I told him that I would not agree. By the time we were done I finally had to hang up on him and his handlers after repeatedly suggesting that we cordially end the discussion he had threatened to sue me like all the other people Ive sued and repeatedly called me a disgrace. Exactly how Project Veritas came to acquire Ashley Bidens diary in the fall of 2020, during the home stretch of the presidential campaign, remains the subject of considerable debate and speculation. That is in part because the governments investigation is ongoing, and in part because Project Veritas has offered the appearance but not the reality of transparency on the subject. After OKeefes home was searched and federal investigators seized two cell phones, the organization objected in court, and media observers and advocates started questioning the basis for the search and the potential chilling effect on news outlets. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement denouncing the groups disgraceful deceptions but expressed concern that the precedent set in this case could have serious consequences for press freedom in the absence of good reason to believe that Project Veritas employees were directly involved in the criminal theft of the diary. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press joined Project Veritas in petitioning the presiding judges to unseal the governments search-warrant application and the supporting affidavit requests that were promptly denied, because even the targets of a criminal investigation cannot usually obtain copies of these documents unless they are indicted, which has not happened. Project Veritas did win a request over the governments objection to have the court appoint a special master in light of potential First Amendment concerns to review the material obtained by the government before investigators can access it themselves. Even hypocrites with a history of bias and bumbling are entitled to the protections of the First Amendment, but the irony of it all was still hard to ignore: Around the same time, Project Veritas was seeking a court order to prevent the New York Times from reporting on legal advice that the group had received, and as part of its legal challenge in the wake of the governments search of OKeefes home, the group asked the court to order the government to investigate whether someone had leaked news of the search to the Times another legally baseless request that was summarily denied and, like the effort to secure a prior restraint, not exactly consistent with deeply principled advocacy for freedom of the press. OKeefe and Project Veritas have denied engaging in criminal conduct, arguing that the group was not involved in any theft of property and that all of Project Veritass information on how the confidential sources found the property came from the sources themselves. This has the appearance of a blanket denial, and many people have interpreted it that way, but a close reading of the their own court filings suggests some meaningful ambiguity on this point. According to OKeefe and Project Veritass lawyers, in early September 2020, a tipster reached out to them and indicated that a new occupant had moved into a place where Ashley Biden had previously been staying in Delray Beach, Florida. The tipster had found her abandoned diary and other abandoned items, including an overnight bag with the B. Biden Foundation logo and miscellaneous personal items, such as mail, photographs, and other property naming Ashley Biden that would corroborate that the diary was hers. The sources purportedly offered to bring the diary and belongings to Project Veritas in New York, and about a week later, they did so. Later in September, according to the lawyers, the sources gave additional Ashley Biden belongings to a Project Veritas journalist in Florida. The lawyers have also written that Project Veritas undercover journalists attempted to contact Ashley Biden by reaching out to her known acquaintances and that in early October 2020, one of those acquaintances called a Project Veritas undercover journalist and conferenced into the call a person identifying herself as Ashley Biden, who responded that the belongings were hers and asked that they be delivered to a friend who lived in Delray Beach. They have claimed that there was compelling evidence of the diarys authenticity but that OKeefe and Project Veritas ultimately found that the evidence of authenticity did not rise to a level sufficient to satisfy their journalistic ethical standards for news publishing, which OKeefe explained in an internal email on October 12, 2020 that the group has quoted in its court filings. It is worth lingering over just this version of events precisely because it is Project Veritass own. For one thing, why would anyone ever believe that someone had abandoned a diary, particularly along with other personal effects like an overnight bag, mail, and photographs? The word abandoned is a loaded one because it implies that the owner has made a deliberate decision to relinquish her ownership interest in the property, but a diary is an object whose value depends almost entirely on the idea that it would never be abandoned like a wallet, a purse, or a valid passport. If you happen to come across objects like these, you usually try (or at least should try) to find the owner. And if someone did want to abandon a diary, they would probably dispose of it by throwing it away particularly if it contained embarrassing or salacious material rather than just leaving it at a friends place. The point seems minor, but it is potentially a legally crucial one. If the people involved believed that Biden had left the possessions behind to store them temporarily and had not actually abandoned them in the sense that she no longer wanted them or intended to retrieve them then the removal of Bidens belongings and their transportation to New York in consultation with Project Veritas may, as the government suggested in its warrant to search OKeefes home, have violated various federal criminal statutes, including: conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines, conspiracy to possess stolen goods, and interstate transportation of stolen property. It would be important to establish what OKeefe and others at Project Veritas knew on this point, which is likely at least part of the reason that investigators have been acquiring the groups internal communications. The fact pattern potentially gets worse at the point at which the group, as they have put it, obtained additional Ashley Biden belongings from the home later in September, depending on who was involved in gathering those items. When I asked OKeefe what led Project Veritas to believe that Bidens belongings had been abandoned, I expected him to tell me that this was the sources specific claim. That probably would not relieve OKeefe or the group from criminal liability if they knew that the claim was false, but it would form the basis for a decent defense. Instead, OKeefe refused to answer me with any specifics claiming, incorrectly, that you have all the facts at your disposal. Someone can provide information to me a third party and I have a First Amendment right to publish that, he told me. Period. Well, question mark. If a news organization actively participates in stealing material, neither the group nor the people involved are immune from criminal investigation or from criminal liability. Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota and the former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, has expressed concerns about the governments investigation. But, as she told me, the First Amendment is not a get-out-of-jail free card. As one court has put it in a line that prosecutors prominently quoted in one of their court filings there is a significant legal distinction between stealing documents and disclosing documents that someone else had stolen previously. The Times has reported what many people might suspect even just reading Project Veritass version of events that Ashley Biden had not, in fact, abandoned anything. According to the paper, she had been staying with a friend, but in June 2020, she headed to the Philadelphia area, planning to return to the Delray home in the fall before the lease expired in November, and she decided to leave some of her belongings behind. This sounds much more like storing items than abandoning them. Per the Times, the friend who had been hosting Ms. Biden in the house allowed an ex-girlfriend named Aimee Harris and her two children to move in, and it was Harris who first found the diary. When I tried in vain to get some specifics from OKeefe about why Project Veritas believed that Bidens belongings had been abandoned, he attempted to persuade me that the public record was sufficiently clear (even though it most definitely is not) and at one point asked, What are the underlying facts? Because the New York Times the Pulitzer Prizewinning team at the New York Times has reported that apparently this diary was abandoned, according to them. It is hard to say what is most interesting about this claim the fact that OKeefe seemed to be opportunistically praising a pair of reporters that he has repeatedly tried to mock and embarrass when doing so is useful to him, that he might have believed that he could simply attribute a claim to the Times that it did not make, or the possibility that he might actually believe that the Times reporting supports his theory that Biden abandoned her diary, in which case it is not particularly hard to understand why his conduct has attracted the attention of federal investigators who may not share his or his lawyers definition of the word. I also asked OKeefe to confirm or deny a separate and, if accurate, possibly damning claim from the Times: A Project Veritas operative had in fact asked the sources whether they could retrieve more items from the home that could help show that the diary belonged to Ms. Biden. This is not exactly inconsistent with the claim from OKeefe and Project Veritass lawyers, who have said that the sources gave additional Ashley Biden belongings to a Project Veritas journalist in Florida. But it suggests more active involvement in potential criminal conduct. OKeefe repeatedly refused to tell me whether the Times reporting on this point was accurate. The Times reporting also substantially clouds other claims by OKeefe and his organization. After OKeefes internal email on October 12, 2020 in which he purportedly concluded that the group would not publish a story on the diary they reversed course several days later and tried to get Joe Biden to agree to an interview about the diary, which they purchased for $40,000 from the sources. Eventually, a lawyer for Ashley Biden told a Project Veritas lawyer that she intended to refer the matter to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The fact that Project Veritas was at this point on notice that a federal criminal investigation might begin a fact that they have recently acknowledged in court papers may also be relevant to the ostensible conclusion of the affair. In early November 2020, according to their lawyers, the group arranged for the delivery of the diary and other abandoned belongings to the Delray Beach, Florida, police department. The Times has reported that this did not happen until the day after Biden had been declared the winner of the presidential election, that the person who dropped off the material was a lawyer who declined to reveal the identity of his client to the police, and that, according to a police report, the lawyer told the police that the belongings were possibly stolen and that his client had got it from an unknown person at a hotel. If this account of the return of Ashley Bidens belongings is accurate, a skeptic might regard it as a very clumsy effort to get out ahead of a criminal investigation that Project Veritas knew might be headed their way. When I spoke with OKeefe, he asked me why I was not outraged by the groups disclosure that the government had obtained Project Veritas emails from Microsoft even before the search of OKeefes home, and that prosecutors tried to prevent Microsoft from disclosing this to Project Veritas even after the raid. It was during that discussion that OKeefe unilaterally told me that he was giving me information off the record, which I did not agree to take off the record: Microsoft wasnt the only one. Theres more coming other vendors. We know that. I have the documents. And thats coming. And thats off the record. I wont share with you which ones yet. (He was evidently saving this tidbit to roll out on Megyn Kellys show about a week later.) By itself, the disclosure about the Microsoft emails generated more media coverage and more concerned statements, but as I told OKeefe, it is hard to make any confident judgment about whether the government has engaged in investigative overreach without knowing much more, as a member of the public, than we do now. It is not hard to posit possible reasons for the governments approach. Even though OKeefe and Project Veritas were clearly aware of the governments investigation by the time his home was raided, the government would still have an interest in trying to prevent them from knowing which sources of evidence were separately available to them. People often try and fail to delete emails from their personal devices that may still reside on email servers, such as Microsofts, and the governments interest in OKeefes phones may also have been premised on the use of messaging applications, like Signal or Telegram, that the government cannot access without the users own devices, as well as other locally saved information. The judicial machinations and calls for public outrage are not likely to end anytime soon, since OKeefe and Project Veritas appear to have settled on a fairly straightforward strategy to present themselves as aggrieved and principled journalists who are being politically persecuted by the Biden administration. Kirtley, for instance, remains concerned about the governments actions but also observed that Project Veritas has been quite adept at manipulating the narrative here to make themselves look like First Amendment martyrs. Much of OKeefe and Project Veritass defense, at least when I spoke to him, depends on the specious claim that there is no evidence of criminal conduct because it is not possible for an onlooker to affirmatively detail exactly what happened or to fill in the conspicuous gaps in Project Veritass own account. Of course, it is true that everyone is legally innocent of criminal conduct until proven guilty in a court of law. This is also a useful decision-making heuristic in public life even though we are not bound by it. (If you believe that O.J. Simpson murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, then you have recognized this distinction yourself.) But even in criminal cases, judges routinely tell jurors that they can weigh circumstantial evidence just as heavily as direct evidence, and that they should use their common sense when interpreting evidence and rendering a verdict. (For instance: Is it credible for people who discover a diary and other belongings to claim that they thought these items were abandoned?) This is precisely what we do in our everyday lives when we are not sitting on a jury, in much the way that we typically do not extend the benefit of the doubt to people with a history of being unreliable who are trying to marshal our support in a situation where the facts are far from clear. At the moment, it very much remains to be seen whether the government will obtain sufficient evidence to criminally charge anyone at Project Veritas, including OKeefe. That day may never come, in which case the calls for an accounting of the governments investigation will justifiably grow louder, but until then, a considered agnosticism on the matter would be prudent. As Kirtley correctly observed, Project Veritas appears to have become quite adept at getting close to the bounds of the law without violating it, but it is possible that the group has finally crossed that line. Correction: This article has been updated to clarify which episode OKeefe was referring to when he said had been incarcerated.